where was this discussion BEFORE the event? Yeah right. Stop putting stuff like that after the fact like you knew it all along and would've obviously done it better, lmao.
I have just watched a bit until the Semi-Finals, which particular player do you mean?Honestly like I get that there's a legit concern buried in here somewhere, but I feel like noone would be making a big deal about this if it wasn't this particular player who ended up losing the set.
It's a money maker, that simple. Just do the math on it, and you'll quickly understand why preserving the gimmick (and in turn massive viewership numbers) are far more important than making this the most competitive, or fair tournament possible.It seems to me that T90 and co. want this to be both a fun gimmicky event AND a prestigious tournament but the reality is it cannot be both. Between the aforementioned home map issue, the random seeding, and the server situation (playing sets on the wrong server in a $90k tournament just to conceal the opponent's identity, really?) it's hard to think of HC in the same way as KOTD or NAC. I personally wish this was a $5k tournament and T90 would host some other big 1v1 tournament, but that's just me.
as if everyone reads the rules.. you need to see it play out and it there was a complaint after previous HC, too.where was this discussion BEFORE the event? Yeah right. Stop putting stuff like that after the fact like you knew it all along and would've obviously done it better, lmao.
Surely the tournament organisers have the responsibility to read the rules more closely than viewers?where was this discussion BEFORE the event? Yeah right. Stop putting stuff like that after the fact like you knew it all along and would've obviously done it better, lmao.
Exactly right... well thought out comment that is right on the money (no pun intended). T90 did try to drive the prizepool up by getting people to sub, however it wasn't hard to see this as a blatant money grab. If people wanted to contribute to the prizepool then donate 100% of it to the prizepool, so the players get all the money (instead of T90 pocketing most of it). Having followed T90 for over 4 years now, I was honestly very disappointed by the way he conducted himself around the subs and prizepool, and it is for this reason that I no longer sub to him and haven't for a year now. Yes Hidden Cup is a fantastic event and very entertaining, and undoubtedly the biggest event on the aoe2 calendar, however KOTD is still the premier event and Hidden Cup is unfortunately become a bit of a shameless cash grab (in my personal opinion).It's a money maker, that simple. Just do the math on it, and you'll quickly understand why preserving the gimmick (and in turn massive viewership numbers) are far more important than making this the most competitive, or fair tournament possible.
T90 ends today with 25,241 subs, per twitchtracker.com. That puts him #17 on *all* of Twitch (which is awesome, and he's sure put in a hell of a lot of hard work to get there). He's donating $1 per sub that came in during March (I think, maybe overall, somebody can clarify maybe) to the prize pool. Even if that's $1 of every sub he has, and he's only getting $2.5 per sub (it's my understanding that the top content creators on Twitch get a higher cut, but I can't confirm that), he's still hauling in $37,861.5 this month on the subs alone after kicking in the dollar a sub, and that's not counting the donations, recurring Youtube revenue, whatever. And the best part? Microsoft puts up the remainder of the prize pool, and $15k of it is taken out to pay the rest of the tournament staff. So as you can see, this is an extremely lucrative event for the streamer, far more so than any of the players involved.
From my quick analysis of the Twitch numbers, this is t90's biggest revenue driver of the year - it's like Black Friday for retail stores in the US. It's also very good for the AOE2 community as a whole, because the gimmick sucks in a lot of casuals that are less interested in game play, and more interested in being surprised and the grand reveal. Microsoft is also winning huge, as it brings new people into the game. To be quite honest, at this point, it doesn't even matter if the players know who they're playing, and I'm not even sure why they try to hard to keep it a secret from the players. It really just matters that the viewing public doesn't know to keep the show working!
There is a lot of money in streaming AOE2 these days, way more than in playing the game at a competitive level. For a player like Viper, he's less concerned with the $X,xxx he missed out on by not winning the tournament, and more concerned about the new viewers / subs he's missing out on by not winning. The money is in the streaming! It's just like pro sports - the TV networks broadcasting the games make far more money than any individual player.
Hidden Cup and NAC used to break the viewer records each time they happened, so I think the big viewer numbers aren't because of the gimmick but just because the whole scene grew and with T90 having one of the biggest AOE2 streams on Twitch, every tourney he casts (in a way like HC) would blow up. So I don't think it has to be a Hidden Cup to bring in the money, it could also be... normal Cup 11 Maybe I'm wrong with that take.It's a money maker, that simple. Just do the math on it, and you'll quickly understand why preserving the gimmick (and in turn massive viewership numbers) are far more important than making this the most competitive, or fair tournament possible.
T90 ends today with 25,241 subs, per twitchtracker.com. That puts him #17 on *all* of Twitch (which is awesome, and he's sure put in a hell of a lot of hard work to get there). He's donating $1 per sub that came in during March (I think, maybe overall, somebody can clarify maybe) to the prize pool. Even if that's $1 of every sub he has, and he's only getting $2.5 per sub (it's my understanding that the top content creators on Twitch get a higher cut, but I can't confirm that), he's still hauling in $37,861.5 this month on the subs alone after kicking in the dollar a sub, and that's not counting the donations, recurring Youtube revenue, whatever. And the best part? Microsoft puts up the remainder of the prize pool, and $15k of it is taken out to pay the rest of the tournament staff. So as you can see, this is an extremely lucrative event for the streamer, far more so than any of the players involved.
From my quick analysis of the Twitch numbers, this is t90's biggest revenue driver of the year - it's like Black Friday for retail stores in the US. It's also very good for the AOE2 community as a whole, because the gimmick sucks in a lot of casuals that are less interested in game play, and more interested in being surprised and the grand reveal. Microsoft is also winning huge, as it brings new people into the game. To be quite honest, at this point, it doesn't even matter if the players know who they're playing, and I'm not even sure why they try to hard to keep it a secret from the players. It really just matters that the viewing public doesn't know to keep the show working!
I agree. HC was meant to be a hype-oriented, gimmicky and entertaining event, which T90 and his team absolutely delivered.Hidden Cup wasn't invented to become the most competetive tournament. The purpose of this tourney is to entertain biewers and grow host's channel.
What? 11Honestly, I feel sometimes people forget the "meme" settings of this tournament, this is a show for the viewers and these settings are fine for it. But I wouldn't conclude about who is the better (general) player because of it.
To win this you have to be the best and the most prepared.
Twitch subs only give you like 2.5 or 3 usd per sub, and then after income tax it may well be under 2$. So split it half for the player, half for the host is fair imo.Exactly right... well thought out comment that is right on the money (no pun intended). T90 did try to drive the prizepool up by getting people to sub, however it wasn't hard to see this as a blatant money grab. If people wanted to contribute to the prizepool then donate 100% of it to the prizepool, so the players get all the money (instead of T90 pocketing most of it). Having followed T90 for over 4 years now, I was honestly very disappointed by the way he conducted himself around the subs and prizepool, and it is for this reason that I no longer sub to him and haven't for a year now. Yes Hidden Cup is a fantastic event and very entertaining, and undoubtedly the biggest event on the aoe2 calendar, however KOTD is still the premier event and Hidden Cup is unfortunately become a bit of a shameless cash grab (in my personal opinion).
At the end of the day, I am happy for it to continue as it is a fantastic chance for the players to get well compensated for all their hard work (dogao $3k+ and he didn't win a game or have to qualify). Just don't make it sound like people are subbing to support the prize pool when in reality, they are subbing to fill your own pockets - because so many people have very little idea of how twitch works.
it's not about the viewers, but if you sign up to a tourney and don't read the rules it's on you. If you read the rules and you don't say anything it's on you.Surely the tournament organisers have the responsibility to read the rules more closely than viewers?
I didn't say that a player doesn't have to be good to win with these settings, so I totally agree with you here. And yes, a tournament should show for the moment, if its settings are designed around competitive play (less randomness, fair brackets and settings, etc.), who is the best player within the corresponding circumstances/settings (or the best in adapting to these settings). Also this year indeed I haven't had the feeling, that players were meming around too much to obscure their own identity. So I didn't say anything against "the best player within these settings won".What? 11
Sure it's a show for the viewers (isn't that the goal of any tournament anyway?) but I think the amount of preparation the players obviously put in, the level of play in the games and how impressively high the overall level of the top 16 speaks volumes for the quality of the competition. To win this you have to be the best and the most prepared.
Exactly right... well thought out comment that is right on the money (no pun intended). T90 did try to drive the prizepool up by getting people to sub, however it wasn't hard to see this as a blatant money grab. If people wanted to contribute to the prizepool then donate 100% of it to the prizepool, so the players get all the money (instead of T90 pocketing most of it). Having followed T90 for over 4 years now, I was honestly very disappointed by the way he conducted himself around the subs and prizepool, and it is for this reason that I no longer sub to him and haven't for a year now. Yes Hidden Cup is a fantastic event and very entertaining, and undoubtedly the biggest event on the aoe2 calendar, however KOTD is still the premier event and Hidden Cup is unfortunately become a bit of a shameless cash grab (in my personal opinion).
At the end of the day, I am happy for it to continue as it is a fantastic chance for the players to get well compensated for all their hard work
The way you wrote this put me off initially, you just sound unnecessarily pompous and dramatic. But I do agree with what you are saying, it's so frustrating that something that is so obviously unfair, albeit probably not that extremely impactful, was decided on. Kind of unbelievable really.