May 2013
1 post
Trying to create transparency in high return...
Since leaving FXOpen in any official capacity (I still talk to and help out if asked but its not my job and I have no obligation) I have started exploring the world for Options of transparent investments.
Having some spare cash to play with I took a look at term deposits. The fact that in the fine print the return range is from 0-5% to me is like saying we will market 5% to you but you could get...
March 2013
1 post
Looking at recent stats posted on TL re: Prize...
Greetings earthlings and honorable humans.
Quickly whats going on. I have accepted a position as a trainee bond trader at an investment bank, the trainee side of it is only for 2 months. Basically if I fuck it up I go back to my regular FX biz, if I succeed I will most likely have to shut down my twitter (I can tell a few people are happy about that) . My mother had a heart attack recently, so...
January 2013
1 post
A brief look at Korea 2013
Greetings, and happy new year everyone.
2013 is going to be an exciting one for me, and I hope it is the same for everyone in e-sports.
I have been taking notes on some patterns I am seeing in Korea at the moment, and am now looking to analyse and potentially predict the future of Korean SC2.
Before I start, I want to give a shout out to Mr Alex Garfield, from Evil Geniuses. He probably has...
December 2012
1 post
The world is changing, and so is the world as I...
Dear e-Sports fanatics/special people in my life,
Regardless of the good times and the bad times in e-sports, I consider all of you my family. It doesn’t matter if you love or hate me, and if you say you don’t want to be related to me, I once said that to some of my family too, but you’ll get over it :)
A time has come in my life where I have reached a fork in the road...
October 2012
3 posts
Mega RANT - time to clean shit up
This is a rant, not a blog. So if you expected a somewhat structured (albeit poorly) blog, this isn’t that. Its just a big rant.
Ok, so like many others in this space, I’m starting to get a little bit fed up.
This week has been like the bi-polar topsy turvey e-sports week. Its completely retarded and as an investor I feel relatively ill to be a part of whats going on by any means.
...
Blaming the community
Well…. I am a little bored at the moment. So what better thing to do than write a little blog based on the reddit thread re: chanmanv’s show climbing the ladder and Mrs Biscuits new team.
First things first as usual, I commend all parties involved in attempting to create nice conditions in e-sports. Its good to see someone do something about it, rather than just sit and whine.
But...
Are the KESPA salaries an illusion?
This blog may ruffle a few feathers. So to be clear, I am merely questioning and not stating whether or not the KESPA salaries are a PR illusion.
Its not lie that Starcraft broodwar was enormous in Korea. There were so many people playing the game, it defies what we believe today about catching the gaming audience, and it most certainly will probably be labelled the biggest game of all time, at...
September 2012
5 posts
My top 10 pieces of advice to Mr and Mrs Biscuit...
Hello everyone!
Time to blog something constructive. So much crap has been filling our reddit/tl/vg threads I figured this could be something constructive.
To be frank, I know this wasn’t asked of me. And I am in no way being derogatory or insulting or even doubting the capabilities or Mr and Mrs Biscuit. So here goes.
#1 - Get a team house before paying salaries Team house environment...
GOSUTRADING is here!!
In the next 2-3 days, I will be launching my new website directed at teaching e-sports participants how to trade financial markets. With FOREX being the demonstrated market.
A little bit of a backstory.
My mother is a school teacher, she teaches kindergarten and year 1 at a country school in NSW Australia. I have always admired her for what she does, usually because the feedback from the...
A new e-sports director has joined the ranks of...
I have stepped away from e-sports slightly and moved into a more advisory role since the FOREX world needs me.
It is now up to you SC2 world, to welcome Mr Ilya, to the team.
To add fuel to the fire. He plays league of legends. And I hear he rages out of games frequently. But its ok, we will turn him into an sc2 legend sometime in the future.
To show your support please send him an email...
Why the changes in HOTS are good for sc2
Put your whine glasses down. Its time to get serious.
HOTS beta is out today, and its a damn good thing for SC2. Not because of the new units, not because it “should” lure new viewership, but because Blizzard have paid attention to what makes people play computer games on a casual level.
All these new features that have been developed for the newbie are GOOD for the game.
WHY?
...
ITS TIME FOR HYPE
Yep, thats right. Its time for hype.
I have been a huge pessimist in the e-sports business models for a long time. And I feel that it was right of me to be like that. I am thankful for those who debate my views, and I even have love for those people who troll me constantly. The reason for this is, as a community we are all different. We have different races, different languages, different ideas,...
August 2012
8 posts
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.....
Its Merdeka day today in Malaysia. Basically a nationality holiday to celebrate the nation? At least thats how I interpret it.
I am thinking/have been thinking. How do we bring more people to starcraft 2?
The non stop churning of the same viewers seems to be making things look a little interesting lately.
I am now looking at possible ways to bring more people into the viewership market, and my...
Today is a good day....
I finally did it. I finally went to bed before midnight for the first time in 3 years.
Why, you ask? Well…… because I have to get my stupid ass healthy. And I tell you now, I am so unhealthy I want to kick my own ass.
But this isn’t the only reason why its a good day.
Its a good day today, because both OSL and GSL are on today. My dearest brother Gumiho is playing in the...
Thank f.ing god, IDRA IS BACK
For a while I have been keeping a disgusting thought to myself, that NA starcraft 2 is dead.
I had written off every single player in NA, including my ‘friends’ and I had written off the organisations who are servicing the NA stars.
All I can say now is THANK GOD Idra is performing now. Actually, the minute I saw that picture of him smiling, I knew something was about to happen.
...
Sharpen the pitchforks, light the torches. KESPA...
So…. Welcome to KESPA guys.
People were bitching at me about my reasoning behind why the Federation was formed. Because KESPA may create the end of foreigners in Korea bla bla… Well, guess what, perhaps you’ll believe it now.
I don’t think I have seen this much douchebaggery in 48 hours in my life and I work in Finance.
So heres my TLDR version of what I THINK...
The Art of growing up
This is not really an e-sports blog… But its something I am experiencing right now.
Being only 25 years old, I am in a position that I was extremely lucky to get. Actually, to be in the same position as me generally you are required to be around 40.
With this comes self destructive behaviour, burdening responsibility, obligations that do not make sense, extreme lack of personal life and...
A positive note
No matter what happens in the future. Seeing Jaedong in a GOM booth was inspiring.
I hope all these KESPA players try out for code A! I am sure some of them will qualify!
e-Sports IRON CHEF
One can define being a man, as someone who is entirely self reliant. Someone who doesn’t require anyone elses help to achieve the simple things in life.
Over the last 2 months, I had promised myself to get back into cooking my own food. I admit I am failed (you can scream loser at your monitor now, because it is actually how I feel). But for 2 months now, I haven’t eaten anything home...
A Demographic look at FXOpen e-Sports
Its not often that I post something that isn’t in reference to something else. But youtube has such a brilliant back-office, I thought I would release some statistics we have for our streams and programs so far.
Lets start with the Gender of our viewership.
As of today, our viewership has 94.9% male viewership. With of course, the remaining 5.1% being female.
The top 10 countries of...
July 2012
6 posts
GSTL Finals - The Korea trip Part 2
One of the things that has always amazed me about Korea (in comparison to Australia and Malaysia) is the efficiency of the public transport system.
Who’d have thought it was quicker to take a train to Busan than to drive.
Choya, gumiho, tear, lucky, supreme, leenock, thebest all piled into a Kia minivan to drive to Busan, which took 5 hours.
The rest of us (the awesome crew as I like to...
GSTL Finals - The Korea trip Part 1
I am now sitting at Jamba juice in Incheon airport, waiting for my boarding time. I decided I’d write this blog from Incheon before work gets in the way and I lose my memory (it happens).
It all started one fine day in Cold wintery Sydney.
I had just flown into Sydney for an Investors Expo and FXOjafar and I had settled down after a long day talking to business people and investors to...
Money money money money... MONEY
Hi guys,
I am currently in Canberra, Australia. Visiting my family and recharging the batteries before going back into the battlefield that is business.
I recently stumbled upon the following reddit post: http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/wywqq/major_tournament_organizers_need_to_hiretrain/
Now forgive me for being blunt, but I believe reddit was one of the main communities against PPV...
Business to Business (B2B) in e-Sports
Welcome to the unscripted unedited version of my blog. Thats right, this blog is not going to be edited and I am going to try to let my bi-polar thoughts flow through my keyboard.
Fine print -> this is an observation based blog based on the last 2 years of FXOpen e-sports.
The reason for this blog is to hopefully bring forward a more stable business side of e-sports when negotiating with...
SEA breaking my heart
Something has been weighing heavily on my mind for some time. But I haven’t really had the chance to express it. However there have been some things happen recently that I just can’t ignore. I come from Australia and am very interested in the SEA scene, I was once a patriotic supporter and gave SEA chances at every opportunity supporting the local scene here in Malaysia with tournaments and...
FXOpen e-Sports recent changes
Ref: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=347978
TLDR: Read until the line. Then go to the bottom of the page and read the point explanation of why youtube is best for FXOpen e-sports
FXOpen e-sports recently has changed its method of capturing the audience for its exposure.
Its nothing special, just that we have managed to consolidate everything at youtube.
However, I am...
June 2012
1 post
To those who missed it
I recently wrote this article on our team website.
http://fxopenesports.com/starcraft-ii-and-advertising/
Take a look and let me know what you think!!
Ciao
FXOBoSs
May 2012
6 posts
Reader question: Response
hello BoSs,
you talk a lot about Kespas power abuse. If i remember correctly there was a preinterview with Kespa-staff , where all the good players and almost everybody notable of esports was. The meeting where they first announced BW-SC2 hybrid i think. Kespa said in this interview that they would now concentrate more on the foreign scene than they have before. The first step is done with the...
FIS .. FXOPEN INVITATIONAL SERIES
FXOpen will be announcing its next FIS event next week. It will have a prize pool of $5000.
We are going to be doing things a little bit different this time, and have qualifiers for the event as well as invitations. We will be changing some of our graphics up, and also will potentially be changing the way we stream games.
The qualifiers will be live, and the actual event will most probably be...
Stork on KESPA. Player conditions
For reference, here is the interview (thanks Jinro for tweeting it) http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=339466
The teams in Korea who are not part of KESPA have rallied together to negotiate with KESPA about conditions for players and teams in the KESPA run tournaments.
For those of you who are not in the know, there are many reasons why. But I am going to focus on the...
Analysis of the starcraft 2 market
A long while ago I had claimed an e-sports bubble, so now I am going to do a follow-up analysis of my own observations in the Starcraft 2 market.
Stream viewership.
When the bubble was growing, stream viewership was boarderline insane. Every man and his dog had approximately 1k viewers and personalities were reaping the financial rewards of the ad revenue.
Now we have users struggling to reach...
A few things to know about the FXOpen e-sports...
As you all should know by now, Haksu aka, Oz has been transferred to Fnatic.
To avoid unwarranted speculation in teamliquid threads, I felt it might help put to light some things regarding how our team is run, and why things happen as they do.
FXO provides budget for a certain number of events per year, plus additional extras based on tournament results.
Over the last year, FXOLeenock, FXOz,...
Destiny Drama is Boring
Yep, its happened again. Some guy who is sensitive to the internet decided to make a post on TL to hate on Destiny.
Little does he know his little whining fit just increased Destiny’s viewership by 1000 people and will keep him ‘in the game’ for a whole lot longer.
There is a reason why people like Destiny (albeit, in real life he is a cool person and his online persona does...
April 2012
2 posts
But Maaa... The cow is empty.
This blog goes out to @laxxsc2 and @matthew_hi11 as it was their suggestions that created the train of thought.
Laxx wanted me to blog about social media and e-sports, and Matthew wanted me to blog about the over hyping thats going on (mostly in starcraft 2). So I thought i’d join them together since social media is the means of over hyping.
Of course I cannot include specifics, but to...
Free 2 Play is the new way
Maybe I am stating the obvious, and forgive me if that is so. But free to play game models are the only way to go.
See what I did there?
I don’t really keep up with game developer news. I am one of those guys who finds what he likes and sticks with it until its dead. Which would explain why I am alone like a dog, but hey, thats what I like. But today I found out that DOTA 2 is infact...
March 2012
8 posts
KESPA and Korea
OK OK OK I give in.. I will blog again.
Why did I stop? Well, people keep whining at me because the truth hurts them. And they whine in a way that can potentially effect my organisation. However!
The current topic will effect the future of starcraft 2. I don’t care who you are, or what you do, but if you are a foreigner in sc2 you should start to think about the future…properly.
...
Reply to a news article - Banker gets fired,...
For reference, here is the article http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/departing-goldman-banker-slams-ripoff-culture-20120315-1v42s.html
So, this comes down to a fair few emails I have gotten about being the root cause of the financial crisis.
Ummmmm ? LOL
Sorry, but I am a currency trader. It has nothing to do with you’re debt products and the collapse of the debt market...
Freemium for Korea
A nice little chap named Goro Shigeno (@goro87) requested I blog about the Korean Freemium streams.
Truth be known that I don’t actually have a strong opinion on this situation, I think its because I just really don’t care. But I would like to go over a few things.
Firstly, its my understanding that many people are complaining behind the scenes about fill rates (still) by certain...
Holy brainwashing batman....
Today I’m in a pisser of a mood. And its for a magnitude of reasons. And then, someone decided to post on facebook saying that the KONY 2012 thing is CIA conspiracy.
My immediate response was just “lol”.. Actually that was my comment specifically.
He then rambled on about something with the CIA and I posted “The CIA has some pretty good videographers LOL”.
His...
Spreading the word of e-Sports..
Today I was thinking (wait wait…. hear me out) about how the word of ‘e-sports’ has been spread.
Other than a few appearances here and there in mainstream media, and a few biased persons speaking on behalf of the community, there really isn’t that much external community outreach in the industry.
Lets look at religions as an extreme example.
Religion has spread its...
Thought of the last 24 hours
You must walk your 10000 steps per day so that you can run a mile
Today I started my walk 10 000 steps per day program. According to doctors, 10,000 steps is the total amount required for a human to be healthy. So today, I took 10,000 steps towards good health. Perhaps you will join me?
It actually made me feel really good. But exercise does that doesn’t it?
<3 FXOBoSs
...
Playing league of legends as an SC2 fan
Dear beloved starcraft 2 fans.
It has come that point in my personal gaming time, where I feel the need to have variety in the games I play. Perhaps you are in the same situation right now.
I have played approximately 3000 games of starcraft since Beta on all servers. I have played every race thoroughly and at the same time have learned as much as I could from professional gamers.
So my game of...
The Art of being yourself.......
Sometimes we get lost in the world of expectations. A place where people, culture, religion or even ego can cause people to change who they are and turn them into something they are not.
After my trip to New York, I returned to Malaysia fresh, alive and most of all happy. I really love New York you see, because the people in New York are as real as they get. No one there pretends to be something...
A wise man once said...
When two whales fight, its the shrimp who are the ones who get hurt….
You may be wondering what relevance this has.
Its the new war thats starting between GOMTV and MLG.
As far as I can see, its not an intentional war, but evidence has shown that GOMTV are now less willing to alter schedules to allow players to play in both. This has been shown by the last minute flight change for...
February 2012
17 posts
A few quick facts about why Starcraft 2 has...
Its 4:44 am in Narita Hilton. I am jet lagged as hell, bored, and managed to fix my DNS settings so I can log into the internet.
A lovely gentleman by the name of @nycfurby messaged me about my blog and transparency. It got me thinking about some mistakes people have made in the starcraft 2 industry which are being fixed by some. Here are a list of what I think some of them are.
- Those who...
Au Revior New York City
What can I say. You all saw it. MLG Arena was a complete success.
Such a success that I actually believe that the competition model is more appropriate than the championship model.
Sure, you don’t get the thousands of fans in the one spot, but you also get a more efficiently run event with only a few unavoidable issues.
Now perhaps you are a fan of the players and are ready to beat me up...
My trip to MLG Arena NYC - Final day
Its been a relatively eventful trip so far.
Yesterday morning I went to breakfast/lunch with Nestea DRG Losira Leenock and MVP. DRG paid (I tried but he wouldn’t let me) and I ate vegetarian dumplings. Unfortunately, I didn’t realise these dumplings would be the bane of my existance.
Anyway, soon after the breakfast/lunch, Leenock and I did a little sight seeing. First we went to...
MLG Arena - The first event day
I arrived at JFK at 6pm. The weather was miserable, but not so cold thankfully as I forgot to bring any winter clothes. I quickly jumped in a cab with a nigerian cab driver and took the 1.5 hour journey through traffic to my hotel at 88 Madison avenue.
Upon arriving at the hotel, I am greeted by a cheerful African American concierge who proceeds to help me in everyway, I check into my hotel,...
Ooops
I tried to edit my last blog to fix a punctuation mistake. And it deleted half of it :(
I will try to fix it when I get to USA
My trip to MLG Arena New York City - Part 2......
Some would say I am fortunate enough to be able to not think of money before comfort. I appreciate that completely. So after arriving in Narita Airport I went straight to the day bed place and booked one for 6 hours of undisturbed shut eye.
Oh yes, the shut eye sustains me.
So for the 6 hours of shut eye, I paid 180 US dollars. I didn’t do the conversion until it was too late to think...
