Recently Essendon bought a team.  Adelaide have a team.

The AFL wants to play:   http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-12-21/understanding-esports-how-the-afl-is-involved

And today Pies and Cats have started looking at getting involved.  http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/collingwood-and-geelong-exploring-esports-plans-for-etihad-stadium-facility-20171222-h094nb.html

Excuse the cynicism but my eyebrows raised when I read:  " Bastion Live – the owners of Avant Gaming – are a branch of Bastion Collective, a diverse communications firm whose board members include former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou. Former Western Bulldogs player Simon Garlick is CEO of Bastion's sponsorship arm while Hamish McLachlan, brother of AFL CEO Gillon, is a key shareholder in the business". 

Incestuous? Feathering nests?  Boy's Club?

I'm not a follower of esport but can see it could change the face of sponsorship and attendances (and $$$) of 'sport' as we know it.  It could be really good for clubs (who know what they are getting into).  But I really wouldn't like to see AFL/Club involvement to be 'controlled' by associated parties.  Not good governance.

1 hour ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Recently Essendon bought a team.  Adelaide have a team.

The AFL wants to play:   http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-12-21/understanding-esports-how-the-afl-is-involved

And today Pies and Cats have started looking at getting involved.  http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/collingwood-and-geelong-exploring-esports-plans-for-etihad-stadium-facility-20171222-h094nb.html

Excuse the cynicism but my eyebrows raised when I read:  " Bastion Live – the owners of Avant Gaming – are a branch of Bastion Collective, a diverse communications firm whose board members include former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou. Former Western Bulldogs player Simon Garlick is CEO of Bastion's sponsorship arm while Hamish McLachlan, brother of AFL CEO Gillon, is a key shareholder in the business". 

Incestuous? Feathering nests?  Boy's Club?

I'm not a follower of esport but can see it could change the face of sponsorship and attendances (and $$$) of 'sport' as we know it.  It could be really good for clubs (who know what they are getting into).  But I really wouldn't like to see AFL/Club involvement to be 'controlled' by associated parties.  Not good governance.

Just like all major sports worldwide, I expect this will end up being set up by, and for the current controlling interests of our game, to benefit themselves.

The McLachlans will be the cabal that actually end up "owning" our game,by licencing everything to their own.

The AFL stopped being a sport long ago, and the people in charge when the music stopped not only got to sit in the available chairs, but they then gifted the chair factory to their own families.

We're going to buy a Sega Master System team.

48 minutes ago, Supermercado said:

We're going to buy a Sega Master System team.

Sega Mega Drive.....

 

Bloody millennials......

11 minutes ago, faultydet said:

Sega Mega Drive.....

 

Bloody millenials......

I don't think we're ready for 16bit gaming yet.

Anyone want to explain, in as simple terms as possible, what eSports are? 

1 minute ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Anyone want to explain, in as simple terms as possible, what eSports are? 

Competition video games.

4 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Anyone want to explain, in as simple terms as possible, what eSports are? 

From Wikipedia...

Most commonly, eSports take the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players. The most common video game genres associated with eSports are real-time strategy, fighting, first-person shooter (FPS), and multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA). Tournaments such as The International, the League of Legends World Championship, the Evolution Championship Series and the Intel Extreme Masters provide live broadcasts of the competition, and prize money to competitors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESports

The global eSports market generated US$325 million of revenue in 2015 and is expected to make $493 million in 2016; the global eSports audience in 2015 was 226 million people.

27 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Anyone want to explain, in as simple terms as possible, what eSports are? 

People pay to go to stadiums to watch other people play video games on a big screen. 

Lots of fan fare and noise and pizazz!  Exciting to some but meh to others.  Mainly watched by under 35's.  Others watch on their computers/apps.  So it is, a mega version of watching your mates play X-box games.

Lots and lots of scope for sponsors to put up big money to get exposure - hence the allure to the AFL and AFL clubs.  Essendon will put their team in red and black and call them 'The Bombers'.  Lots of leverage.  Mega attractive to their sponsors.  Essendon is swimming in $$ so they can afford the investment.  So can other cashed up clubs like Coll. Geelong and Adelaide.

AFL also keen as they can use Ethiad as the venue to host esport games and sell tickets for those events.

For mine - I'll just stick to watching Aussie Rules.

 

Kids are into it. 

We need kids....

Thanks guys, I kind of thought that's what it was but thought it was just FIFA etc didn't realise it was stuff like COD too.

I must be getting old cos it sounds really stupid to me but then people are making a killing online unwrapping toys so I guess I shouldn't be surprised 

I thought you misspelt escorts. Anyway, I was wrong. 

Continue on...

1 hour ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

People pay to go to stadiums to watch other people play video games on a big screen. 

Lots of fan fare and noise and pizazz!  Exciting to some but meh to others.  Mainly watched by under 35's.  Others watch on their computers/apps.  So it is, a mega version of watching your mates play X-box games.

Lots and lots of scope for sponsors to put up big money to get exposure - hence the allure to the AFL and AFL clubs.  Essendon will put their team in red and black and call them 'The Bombers'.  Lots of leverage.  Mega attractive to their sponsors.  Essendon is swimming in $$ so they can afford the investment.  So can other cashed up clubs like Coll. Geelong and Adelaide.

AFL also keen as they can use Ethiad as the venue to host esport games and sell tickets for those events.

For mine - I'll just stick to watching Aussie Rules.

 

Run that past me again please Luci.

Are you saying people go to a stadium to watch a computer game?

1 minute ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

Run that past me again please Luci.

Are you saying people go to a stadium to watch a computer game?

why not... they had a good crowd for the darts except it ended a little abruptly when the big brawl started.

In reality they would probably be at the stadium watching it on their phones.

4 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

why not... they had a good crowd for the darts except it ended a little abruptly when the big brawl started.

In reality they would probably be at the stadium watching it on their phones.

so, you download this esports app which turns your phone into a bot, steals all your passwords and banking details then assumes your identity......then what? 

3 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

so, you download this esports app which turns your phone into a bot, steals all your passwords and banking details then assumes your identity......then what? 

you post a selfie of yourself at the event of course....

No selfie...you were never there !

In Asia at present ... went to Star Wars movie last week. The pre movie ads featured two long ads for phones both highlighting their selfie taking ability not to mention the ability to photo shop your selfie.

Nothing about whether it worked as a phone !!

Must admit when I saw the heading of this thread I thought it said “escorts” and was interested until I started reading and realised my mistake.  Bugger. 

2 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Thanks guys, I kind of thought that's what it was but thought it was just FIFA etc didn't realise it was stuff like COD too.

I must be getting old cos it sounds really stupid to me but then people are making a killing online unwrapping toys so I guess I shouldn't be surprised 

There is a 6 year old "you tuber" reportedly making $15 million a year reviewing toys.

The little one keeps asking me to put "Ryan's toy review" on and when I finally had a look to see what it's all about I couldn't believe what I was reading. 

This kid barely reviews a toy before his attention turns to unwrapping another one. Insanity!

My other boy thinks he's a red hot sniper in COD and keeps asking me to enter competitions.

I realise esports is increasingly popular but how much time will a kid need to spend sitting on their backside to get good at this? 

 

46 minutes ago, Demon77 said:

I realise esports is increasingly popular but how much time will a kid need to spend sitting on their backside to get good at this? 

Probably about the same amount of time it takes sitting on your backside to learn a musical instrument.

Probably similar to the time we spent watching the tele growing up.

Maybe the same amount of time wasted on forums and facebook...

The world moves on for better or worse...somethings are better, somethings are worse.

1 hour ago, Demon77 said:

I realise esports is increasingly popular but how much time will a kid need to spend sitting on their backside to get good at this? 

The professionals practice probably about 10 hours a day for years to get to the top level. To put it into perspective for people who have no idea about this kind of stuff, the game I follow (Dota 2) has several big tournaments throughout the year with the biggest one having a total prize pool of 24.5 million. Here's an interesting link to the top ever earning Esports players of all time, only including tournament winnings.

https://www.esportsearnings.com/players

2 hours ago, Demon77 said:

There is a 6 year old "you tuber" reportedly making $15 million a year reviewing toys.

The little one keeps asking me to put "Ryan's toy review" on and when I finally had a look to see what it's all about I couldn't believe what I was reading. 

This kid barely reviews a toy before his attention turns to unwrapping another one. Insanity!

My other boy thinks he's a red hot sniper in COD and keeps asking me to enter competitions.

I realise esports is increasingly popular but how much time will a kid need to spend sitting on their backside to get good at this? 

 

Kids have been spending plenty of time sitting on their arses getting good at video games for a couple of decades now, that hasn't changed. What baffles me is it is now a spectator sport ?

And yeah my 4yo son likes watching YouTube vids of kids reviewing/building Lego sets. A lot of the time I just tell him it's not working but when he gets old enough to figure out I'm bullshitting him it's gonna be an issue haha

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Kids have been spending plenty of time sitting on their arses getting good at video games for a couple of decades now, that hasn't changed. What baffles me is it is now a spectator sport ?

And yeah my 4yo son likes watching YouTube vids of kids reviewing/building Lego sets. A lot of the time I just tell him it's not working but when he gets old enough to figure out I'm bullshitting him it's gonna be an issue haha

My son who is now 26, still hasn't let me forget when he was younger and he wanted to go on one of those rides at the shopping centres where they would move and play music, i would say that it was broken and that maybe next time he could have a turn? Well a couple of years ago a women had her son and the kid wanted to go one of these rides and i said she should tell it's broken, my son's reply was wait so they weren't broken? 

So as long as you can bull#*&% your way out of it, i say go for it just don't tell him you were when his an adult.

10 hours ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

Run that past me again please Luci.

Are you saying people go to a stadium to watch a computer game?

Exactly!  And, they pay for the privilege.

Check this out -

Just like Etihad with the roof closed.

Spectators wear their team colours, buy merchandise etc.  Great for sponsors, especially those with international brands (ie most AFL clubs, MFC one of the exceptions)

Adelaide crows and myself are in talks in signing us up as a team to represent them in a new game coming out early next year. One of the players on my squad already plays in their ‘counter strike’ team. We’re signing a contract in the coming month.

Pretty much it’ll just be from a funding perspective . We don’t play under the crows name or do anything except tweet things like we fly as one and the sponsorship announcements. What people don’t realise is esports in Australia isn’t what it’s like overseas. You can’t just jump on a train and attend a major competition in just a few hours, or have NBN speeds to play against any country. We’re so isolated that we are miles behind the Europe and Asian scene in all aspects of esports. It’s not sustainable in Australia. 

 

16 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Kids are into it. 

We need kids....

actually the primary demographic is on the 18-35 range.