We can write pages of facts why Escape does not receive what they deserved, but all these facts falls under the same fundamental issue:
EscapeAOE built its entire business model based on where the game should stand as a professional e-sport, instead of where it actually is.
AOE, at this moment, is a semi-professional game, where people enjoy the personal relationships, as much if not more than the competition itself. This is why for instance, personal moments with MbL and Nili, DauT being DauT, Memb-Jordan casting in NAC2 was extremely interesting for the community, as they reflected exactly where the community stands.
I respect the vision and the resilience Escape showed towards making AOE a complete professional e-sport. But, every start-up who acts "visionary" and can not adress what the market needs in the present time, should be prepared to suffer the consequences. What Escape chose to follow is a high risk-high reward path, as they built their business model on where the community will be in years to come. This automatically implies that they chose to follow a path, where there will be significant period of incubation, for which they should be prepared for.
It is unacceptable to hear that they are unsure of seeing the end of the year, as this implies they could not analyze the situation and their strategy was extremely miscalculated from the very beginning and doomed to failure under any circumstances.
I want to believe Escape will survive this and dares to face the real ironic problem they will have in the future. When the day comes and AOE becomes a true e-sport as Escape wants and acts it to be, how will they compete against those who, at the moment, capitalizes extensively by properly adressing the current situation of the community. For sure, they will adapt for what is to come, as they do it today.
Escape Gaming is very important for AOE. But it is time for them to become "flexible", "adaptable" and "semi-professional".
EscapeAOE built its entire business model based on where the game should stand as a professional e-sport, instead of where it actually is.
AOE, at this moment, is a semi-professional game, where people enjoy the personal relationships, as much if not more than the competition itself. This is why for instance, personal moments with MbL and Nili, DauT being DauT, Memb-Jordan casting in NAC2 was extremely interesting for the community, as they reflected exactly where the community stands.
I respect the vision and the resilience Escape showed towards making AOE a complete professional e-sport. But, every start-up who acts "visionary" and can not adress what the market needs in the present time, should be prepared to suffer the consequences. What Escape chose to follow is a high risk-high reward path, as they built their business model on where the community will be in years to come. This automatically implies that they chose to follow a path, where there will be significant period of incubation, for which they should be prepared for.
It is unacceptable to hear that they are unsure of seeing the end of the year, as this implies they could not analyze the situation and their strategy was extremely miscalculated from the very beginning and doomed to failure under any circumstances.
I want to believe Escape will survive this and dares to face the real ironic problem they will have in the future. When the day comes and AOE becomes a true e-sport as Escape wants and acts it to be, how will they compete against those who, at the moment, capitalizes extensively by properly adressing the current situation of the community. For sure, they will adapt for what is to come, as they do it today.
Escape Gaming is very important for AOE. But it is time for them to become "flexible", "adaptable" and "semi-professional".