Middlecott

This whole "esports fans don't buy merch" discourse is so stupid. Almost no-one actually buys merch for anything. You're looking at low single digit conversion pretty much across the board. You can't run an org on that.

We're already asking the revenue question in regards to how esports currently operates. Hence sustainability comes from stripping back all of the affectations that have been attached to esports in an attempt to accelerate it's path to profitability. 1. Enforced amateur status for all competitive staff: The competitive experience is still desirable outside of any sort of compensation; people like playing in a 5v5, or developing a deeper understanding of the game from a coach/analyst perspective. Especially at Tier 2, winning is too often directly proportional to the amount of money you're willing to throw at the problem with no expectation of a return. This creates an environment where the financial bar to compete gets higher and higher, which would be fine if there was any money coming in. In turn killing the sport. Good people get forced out of this industry because it demands more of their time or money than they can afford to give. 2. Refocusing of the competitive landscape towards small scale, local events Its very difficult to get people to actually connect with teams/players in a meaningful way over the Internet. There is a distance that, even if bridged, results in a parasocial relationship where there is no real accountability between fans, teams and players. Fans can never feel truly seen or represented, so they dont spend moneybto support the team. You'll get a greater return from 1 person buying a ticket to a live event than from thousands of people watching a stream. And that 1 person will feel the community they are a part of so much more intensely; meeting the players, cheering (properly cheering) for their team and getting a real human connection with everyone else in the room. It's an addictive, intoxicating feeling that may convince them to bring along a couple of mates next time. Watching a sport on TV is one thing, but ask any fan and the vast majority of the time they'd prefer to be in the stadium surrounded by their people. We don't need it to be stadiums yet, the basement of a gaming bar will do. As long as the people are there. 3. Shift the role of broadcasting to be recreational/developing skills for use in related sectors *I'll add to this a bit later today, currently working on a boat and gonna need to start my shift soon.

Esports doesnt need money. It needs to operate sustainably without compromising the integrity of the industry. If that means downsizing then so be it. We can't just keep taking money from whoever hands it to us.