I'm not at all slandering you or your organization, and I want to see this happen just as much as you do. My post explicitly says that I am keeping an open mind to what you plan to do. I have also not read what the others have been saying about you or your organization. And I do not plan to read them.
My point is that “Vision” and “Plan” isn’t one and the same. You have good vision as to what and where you want eSports to be in Malaysia, but your plan just is not rock solid. (Heck even the Spotgamers website isn’t even up!)
You raise fine points, Rinie. And it's nice of you to play for your country like the way you did in WCG, when it was still relevant. (And by the way, I'm not Malaysian, I'm a Filipino living and working here in Malaysia, and I love being here.)
I mentioned only FXO's Open Tournament. It was for community participation, and the total prizes were less than 2000RM, if I remember correctly. I did not mention FXO's further involvement or where they currently are. What I wanted to drive across when I mentioned FXO's Open Tournament was that it was a FREE, OFFLINE tournament held in a computer shop where over a hundred people were there watching other players play and meeting new friends and such. It was a tournament that had been announced months prior to it being held and when it was held everything went very smoothly.
Now, here we have Spotgamers announcing an SC2 tournament on 7 July and will be played tomorrow and/or Sunday, but all you have on you’re the tournament page is "Best of 3 Single Elimination - Standard Rules". What are those “standard” rules? What are the maps? What about disconnects? To tell you the truth, there are no standard rules in SC2 tournament play, you have to write them up. Just like MLG’s tourney rules are different from Dreamhack’s, or Homestory’s, or GSL’s, or OSL’s, or NASL’s, or AHGL’s.
Another problem I see is that your other tournaments for the other games will be held during these same 2 days. Who manages each?
And, like I mentioned, content! Where’s the stream? Since you have 5 games happening, will those people who can’t join at least have a stream to watch the games?
Do you really think eSports is just about the players? How can you feature the players when you don’t bring content to the spectators? More importantly, just like I mentioned in my earlier post, how do you get sponsors when there is no way for them to be featured?
I wouldn't mind parting with 10RM for an e-sports event. Heck, I wouldn't mind at all paying a prize myself (which I already did for an Filipino SC2 BSG tournament a couple of years back). Let's say you do get 100 players, heck how about 1000 players to every tourney you make? I wouldn't at all care about your profit. A supporter of eSports, what I care about is content.
Check these threads out to see what I mean:
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2844460 - The Stashden Vengeance Cup Qualifier – No entry fee, online tournament, with a stream by this forum’s own Duskbin.Marksman.
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2810292 - The first ever LYN Barcraft – 10RM cover charge with amazing giveaways and the result was great community participation (joes playing against pros and former pros, now that's a wow!).
Yes. Content.
Finally, eSports promotion is a business, no matter how you put it. A business requires a solid business model (a “Plan”) to help it to achieve its goals (“Vision”). Without both, it will have no choice but to fold.
The Malaysian eSports scene needs a really good kick to get it going, and even though I’m Filipino, my support goes out to you. I’m not doubting you or your organization at all. I guess the community just at the very least wants to see a promotion with an air of confidence, that it knows what it’s doing. And having a website that’s still under construction, receiving payments via personal bank accounts, not providing content for viewers, and not having a clear-cut rulebook does not sit well, at least for me. No, this is not doubting you one bit. But challenging you that you can do better.
You can choose to ignore my gripes, rants and criticisms (or whatever you may want to call them), and, again, I want to see this happen as much as you do. The decision is in your hands. All the luck, Rinie.