The Chairman's Office

Goin’ Back to Cali?

What’s up MLG fans? Everyone getting psyched up for Anaheim? I know I am. It’s getting dark and cold in New York City and I’m looking forward to some LA sun right now. I know the pros are practicing like mad and the tension is pretty crazy amongst the top six teams heading into this last regular season event before our open-registration National Championship.



So getting to the point (you know I always try to tell it straight in my blog) – we haven’t spent a lot of time on the West Coast, but we always try to make sure we get at least one event a year in Cali. We take a lot of heat from West Coast gamers and MLG fans for not showing enough love to our West Coast community. Well, West Coast MLG fans – it’s time to put up or shut up.



Let me give you some perspective: Over the last two years, for every event, our Halo team passes have sold out in about 5 minutes or less - except for on the West Coast, that is. Every Open Bracket pass, sold out. In minutes. Every city from Dallas to Orlando, up to our hometown event at the Meadowlands. Every time, in 5 minutes or less, the passes are gone!



Last week, we opened sales for Anaheim. There was the typical rush to grab a pass. Then things cooled off and unbelievably; there are still passes available! So what’s up west coast? I’m calling you out.



We put a lot of time and effort into choosing the cities and venues where we can put on the best show and where our community is asking us to make a stand – we’re planning out next season right now. I have to say, the West Coast is looking weak.
If you’re a West Coast MLG community member it’s time to rally. Now is the time to show us what you got. Get the word out, get your friends fired up, fill up these spots. LA is like a second home to me, and I would hate to see it drop off the MLG season next year.



You can still buy your Halo 3 Team Passes here



You can still buy your Gears of War 2 Team Passes here



If you’re not playing, but you’re still coming to check out the action, buy your spectator passes here



If our West Coast community can’t show up, then MLG won’t be goin back to Cali.



Don’t let that happen West Coast!



-Sepso

Ok, had to take the night off to watch Lebron triple double. Hope most of you caught that game. Amazing.

Anyway, a few questions I’ve seen come up multiple times are:



1. Why can’t we air MLG on ESPN360.com and on MLGpro.com?

2. Why is MLG ****ing on net neutrality?

3. Why are you such a condescending jack*** and what is your join date anyway?

There are more, but I think those three are the ones I’ve seen most often in the 20 or so pages I just read through.



First though, thank you to all of the fans who took the time to post a positive message in this thread. Whether you’re mad about this or not, even if you posted some flame originally in reply to the first news item, your support and your willingness to take the time to voice your support here means a lot to me personally. So thank you.



Ok, onto the topics in question…


1-

We can’t broadcast Friday Night Kickoff in two places for the same reason the NBA couldn’t broadcast last night’s playoff game on ESPN, NBC and Fox concurrently. Networks – the companies that broadcast content through TV and the net (NBC, ABC/ESPN, Fox, etc.) pay content companies (MLG, NBA, Nascar, Sony, etc.) for the exclusive rights to broadcast their content. The important thing for the network is exclusivity so that they can aggregate the entire audience that wants to watch the content. So that’s the reason. If we want ESPN360.com to broadcast our content, we can’t compete with their broadcast at the same time. The irony is not lost on me that they can’t aggregate our audience because many of us don’t have access to the service, but that’s the world of big media my friends. At the end of the day, ESPN is spending a ton of money to make this happen with limited capability to make money off of it. It’s a big investment for them to get a sense of how the ESPN audience will respond to MLG. This is a big deal for both MLG and ESPN. If you do have access to ESPN360.com, PLEASE tune in. If you know someone that does, PLEASE make them tune in! We need to prove that competitive gaming is a big spectator sport. This is our first big test.



2-

Net neutrality is a big issue and one that I generally support. BUT - what everyone who’s posting about it seems to have missed the point on is that net neutrality is a movement to stop ISPs from restricting certain kinds of content getting to their customers. Net neutrality is about keeping ISPs honest about giving customers access to the entire internet in exchange for their monthly subscription.


I support this movement. Restricting content at the ISP level is wrong when the ISP doesn’t tell you about it when you buy the service. If they tell you, then you should absolutely pick a different ISP. You have that right and you should exercise it.


I think what you guys are missing is that what ESPN360.com is doing is EXACTLY OPPOSITE of this. ESPN is a content company, not an ISP. ESPN is requiring that ISPs PAY THEM for access to their premium content (which ESPN has to pay for the rights to broadcast).


I guess you could argue in some fantasy world, that if any network or content provider makes content then they should be obligated to provide that content for free to everyone on the internet, but I don't want to live in whatever bizarro world that principle makes sense. That’s like saying if you make hotdogs for a living, the act of making them means you are obligated to feed the world. Who would ever make hotdogs? Even if you really love hot dogs (like I love MLG) it would be impossible to ever make one, because making one means you owe one, for free, to the entire world.


It is incredibly expensive to make and distribute content – whether on TV or the internet. It is incredibly difficult to make the money you invest back, let alone make a profit on it. ESPN is simply trying to find a way to provide a premium online broadcast service by using the same business model they use with television. Time Warner Cable pays ESPN a monthly fee for every cable subscriber they have for the right to provide ESPN’s TV channels to TWC’s customers. ESPN is now simply asking for the same consideration in exchange for the rights to its very high quality broadband service. What’s the problem here? Net neutrality guys: if I’m wrong here, educate me. No offense to you and believe me, I truly respect and support you being politically active in support of your beliefs, but I think you made an error on this one.

3-

I admit it. I’m a cocky ***hole sometimes. I think you kind of have to be to be an entrepreneur, but it’s not an excuse for coming off as condescending. I think there was probably a little confusion where I was making an attempt at subtle humor. That whole join date thing was a joke on all the forum guys that say that all the time. Sorry if you didn’t get it. I think most of you did. (And by the way, please stop doing that, it’s lame – my join date is Oct 2002, no seriously, but I had a different username :P )


All that said, the bottom line is I’m proud of this company and all that we have accomplished. I’m most proud of the fact that we did it all and beat out a lot of heavily backed competitors along the way by staying true to our roots, always putting the integrity of the sport above short term business goals and staying closely in touch with our community of players and fans. I know you don’t all agree that we’re doing that at the moment, but I firmly believe that we are.



One last thing – this really is a big opportunity for the MLG community. If we ever want to hold more events on the Pro Circuit, to extend and increase the quality of our coverage and to one day put competitive gaming on the map with other pro sports – we need to extend our audience to a big body of fans, many of whom will not be competitive gamers themselves. This has already started to happen in a big way. It’s up to all of us to make that happen.

The comment feature for this article has been disabled. If you'd like to comment, please do so in this forum post.

Hello again, MLG fans. Sepso here with a follow up on our announcement about the Friday Night Kickoff broadcast on ESPN360.com.



There has been both a lot of positive and negative feedback from the community on this one. Frankly, both are pretty obvious – of course people are excited to see ESPN pick up real event coverage of the Pro Circuit – who wouldn’t be? Also obvious – if you don’t have access to ESPN 360, you can’t watch the two Friday Night Kickoff matches live, which completely sucks.

First, let me say this: MLG will rebroadcast the Friday Night Kickoff matches in their entirety following the Saturday night matches. You won’t miss them and this shouldn’t spoil your weekend. Also, this may have not been clear in the original news item, but if you are on a college campus or military base that has a .edu or .mil domain, ESPN360.com should be available to you.

Also, we are working with ESPN to ensure that we will be able to stream the matches for our fans that are outside of the US. I am confident that we will be able to address this before match time.

So if you are on the forums trashing MLG, saying we are forgetting our community or – my favorite—accusing me of ignoring the community while “smoking cigars and wiping my a** with $100 dollar bills,” it’s all because you will have to wait 24 hours to watch two out of 21 Halo matches so that we can expose a small part of the Pro Circuit to ESPN’s enormous fan base. Please respect the decisions we make, even if you don’t always agree with them.

As promised when I originally launched The Chairman’s Office blog series, I want to fill in the community on our decision making process – basically what’s the business reason for this. Anytime we do something that has a negative impact on some portion of our community, the immediate reaction is to accuse MLG of losing touch with its community, chasing dollars, sacrificing the people that got us here, etc…

As most of you who have been fans for a while know, that has never been the case. Every sports league, every business, has to make decisions that will help it grow and many times that decision to grow is at odds with some of the people who have been its most hardcore supporters. There’s no way around it. Those are the kinds of decisions you have to make whether you’re running MLG or the NBA.

Each and every time we’re presented with a great opportunity to expand MLG’s audience or revenue or impact on the world, we evaluate carefully what effect it will have on our existing community. I think you would have a tough time finding another company or league that puts as much emphasis on this as we do. Many times we make big decisions that hurt our financial performance, or keep us from signing on new sponsors or partners, because we determine that it’s too damaging to our community. For instance, way back when we switched from Halo CE to Halo 2 – which not coincidentally is how a lot of you guys trashing me in the forums got here in the first place. Guess what – the Halo CE players thought we were “abandoning the community by switching to a noob game.” Or one of my favorites – does it seem strange that we don’t have a TV sponsor for the Pro Circuit? We turn them down regularly because we won’t force our players to play on a 52” plasma, or whatever happens to be hot that week.

As for this decision – clearly MLG has enjoyed a great relationship with ESPN that is helping us to grow and reach new audiences all the time. The next logical step in the relationship was to do some kind of test to determine whether ESPN’s audience will be interested in live Pro Circuit coverage. We picked the Friday Night Kickoff broadcast because these are first round matches and there are only two of them knowing that many of our community would not be able to see them. Clearly ESPN would rather have the Championship Sunday matches for their exclusive broadcast but both they and we know that that would be an undue burden on our community. And as I’ve already mentioned, we will rebroadcast the Friday night matches on Saturday night following our regular live broadcast. None of you will miss anything; you just might not see two matches out of the 21 we will stream live.

So, there you have it. We need to grow MLG’s audience substantially – that is our job. ESPN is continuing to help us do that and the Friday Night Kickoff on ESPN360.com is the next logical, least intrusive, way to do it.

If you don’t understand the reasoning behind it, please post in the thread linked below and I’ll try to respond to your questions. If you’re one of the forum guys who’s just continually looking for reasons to call us out for abandoning the community – show me your join date. I bet mine’s older. As long as Sundance and I are here, we will always make balanced, informed and logical decisions about opportunities to grow MLG’s audience.

See you all live from Columbus. It’s going to be amazing!

-Sepso

Spectator Pass Sales Extended Due to High Demand

Say it with me – ONE WEEK UNTIL MEADOWLANDS!



The energy level here at MLG’s headquarters is pretty intense. I'm already having trouble sleeping because I’m so amped up for the season to start.



I’m sure you are too.

ARE YOU IN OR ARE YOU OUT?

Today I’m here with one final reminder for you – if you are coming to Meadowlands as a spectator, buy your ticket online! I can’t stress this enough.



The demand to get in to this event, with all of the FFAs, the new sponsor activities, the upgraded Main Stage seating, the sheer insanity of it all – it’s overwhelming! You don’t want to be waiting in line when you could be inside playing in the FFA, checking out the early rounds, chillin’ with Pros, and loading up on brand new MLG merch.

DEADLINE EXTENDED!

In order to make sure everyone who wants one can get a spectator pass – we have EXTENDED THE PASS SALES THROUGH WEDNESDAY APRIL 1ST!



So the choice is yours, MLG Fans – buy your ticket now for $15 dollars and zip right into the venue along with Pros and VIPs, or stand in line and pay $20 at the door. Here’s a friendly reminder of what the lines are like at Meadowlands…

So if I was you, I would head over to the MLG store to buy your tickets right now!

The 2009 Spectator Experience

Today’s topic – the spectator experience at 2009 Pro Circuit events.



Since MLG started as a grass roots organization of competitive gamers, our focus has always been on improving and expanding the amateur, semi-pro, and pro players’ experience at Pro Circuit competitions. The heart and soul of any sport is competition, and since day one our League Operations team has tirelessly pursued perfecting the art of running the best damn video game tournaments in the world.

We have certainly achieved that feat, but as we all know, the live sports experience isn’t just about competition. It’s also about the thrill of ‘being there’, either by interacting with the community in person or watching the live broadcast. In the process of becoming the leader in video game competition, MLG’s spectator growth has also caught on fire. As most of you already know, over 500,000 spectators tuned in to watch the live stream of the 2008 Dallas Playoffs. What you may not know, however, is how many people came out to watch the competition in person. Based on the number of spectator wristbands given out, our estimate is that over 10,000 people came through the doors in Dallas over the course of the weekend. Since only about 1,500 of those people were actually competing, it’s easy to see just how many people came to watch.

MLG’s growth over the past year has put a spotlight on what was lacking in our spectator experience, so we have spent a ton of time during the off-season picking up our game. Spectators at this year’s Pro Circuit events can expect a significantly improved experience over previous seasons. From Free-For-Alls that will get you noticed, to tricked out sponsor attractions, to a new and improved Main Stage arena, this year’s Pro Circuit is an entirely different animal. Below is a quick rundown of some of the new features and attractions, but much more is in store. Check out the Pro Circuit pages now and be sure to check back over the next few weeks for more info and updates.

Here are the initial highlights:

Halo 3 FFA (formerly $10, now included free with Spectator Pass)

• Play as often as time permits
• 6 rounds per hour at each of 4 dedicated FFA stations
• 192 total rounds run throughout the weekend
• Runs throughout Friday and Saturday
• Top finisher will win $500, but more importantly, they will be featured on mlgpro.com where top players and teams may take notice

Gears of War 2 Wingman Tournament

• Play as often as time permits
• 2v2v2v2 tournament running Friday and Saturday
• 4 dedicated stations
• 16 rounds per hour for 96 total rounds
• Top finisher will win $500 ($250 to each player), but more importantly, they will be featured on mlgpro.com where top players and teams may take notice

Main Stage Upgrade

• More seats
• Closer to the action
• Pro matches ALL WEEKEND LONG

See all the details here.



Since we are investing a lot in this new spectator experience, we will also be charging spectators for the first time. There will be a modest charge to get a spectator pass for the weekend (more on that in a minute), but most importantly, passes will be offered first to our community online and at a 25% discount. We are also launching a huge and exciting program to reward our most active community members.



How to Buy Tickets

Spectator Passes will be available all weekend at Pro Circuit events – beginning Friday afternoon through Sunday. Tickets purchased at the door will be $20 (you can pay with cash or credit card) for anyone who wants to come in and watch the action live and in person. These passes are good for the entire duration of the competition. However, for all community members, Spectator Passes are on sale today through March 27th for only $15 online. If you are planning to attend the Meadowlands event, I strongly suggest you purchase your pass as soon as possible. They are limited in number and we may run out!



MLG High Rollers

As an additional incentive for our community to get behind bringing more spectators into the MLG experience, I am happy to introduce a new program – the MLG High Rollers. MLG has always grown through word of mouth – you tell your friends, they tell their friends, and the next thing you know, 500,000 people are watching. We need to fire up that effort to drive more people to come to events as spectators, so to incentivize you to help us, here are the details of the MLG High Rollers program:



In our Spectator Pass online purchasing system (located in the MLG Store) you may buy passes for up to 20 people at a time. Each time a pass is purchased, there is a field to fill in that says “who referred you?” Every time someone puts in your name, you receive one referral. Everyone who purchases either a Spectator Pass or is a registered player at the Meadowlands is eligible to win.



The TOP FIVE (5) community members who have referred the most spectators to buy tickets by March 27 will be MY VIP GUESTS AT THE MEADOWLANDS EVENT.



So what does it really mean to be an MLG High Roller? It means a friggin lot.



If you are in the top 5, you will be named an MLG High Roller and get:

1. A VIP pass for the entire Meadowlands event - which means you can hang out with the pros in the Pro Lounge and have access to everything in the venue ALL WEEKEND.
2. A pass that allows you to go directly to the head of every FFA line (Halo or GoW), no matter how big the line is, AT THE START OF EVERY HOUR.
3. A private, winners-only group meeting with me to discuss the future of MLG on Saturday night before the ESPN Saturday Night broadcast.
4. A private backstage tour of the entire event and a behind-the-scenes look at MLG’s live broadcast studio with Sundance.
5. On Saturday night during the ESPN Saturday Night broadcast, you will join me in the Owner’s Box above the Main Stage to watch a complete match and meet Chris Puckett, Faruq, and the MLG broadcast team.

No one – not pros, sponsors, not even my mom, gets anything like this level of access – but I really want this to be a huge success, so I hope many of you will take the challenge and get out there ASAP!



Let’s face it: the VIP pass and the ability to skip to the front of every FFA line are enough of a reward on their own; but you can have that plus these other once-in-a-lifetime opportunities just by being a top 5 referrer by March 27th.



So get out there and get your friends, your family, and everyone you know online to buy a ticket and make sure they write in your MLG user name in the referral field! Please make sure that the people you refer use the same name you use when you purchase your Spectator Pass or the gamer tag you use when you register for the event as a player! We need to make sure we know who you are and how to contact you!



I will be making periodic updates to let you know how many referrals the current top five referrers have as we go. Good luck to all of you!



Oh, and one last thing: I know that some of our community will complain about having to pay to get in to events as a spectator this year. I know it’s always a huge pain in the ass to have to pay for something that you have come to expect is going to be free, but hopefully you will agree that the added spectator benefits are worth the $15 for three full days of MLG. We have worked hard to keep the cost down and I think most people who have been to an event before will agree that the experience is worth a hell of a lot more than $15.



-Sepso



PS – Remember, if you are trying to be one of my MLG High Rollers, you need to make sure everyone you refer writes in your MLG or GB username in the appropriate field. There’s a username search function if they only know your real name. Good luck! I hope to be welcoming you to Meadowlands personally.

Responding to the Community

First off, I had actually meant to start off this first blog of the year by talking about MLG’s plans for 2009… Then we rolled out the new rankings system and tournament structure and the sh*t hit the fan as they say…

If you are reading this blog, then you should already know that I, along with everyone on the MLG team, take our community’s opinion extremely seriously. I know why MLG has been successful while other leagues have not – we grew out of our community and have stayed intimately close with it as we have grown. That fact is indelibly intertwined with the corporate culture at MLG. It is our history and our future.

So onto the new rankings system and tournament structure… “Why fix something that’s not broken?” is a sentiment I’ve seen a lot in the now over 100 pages of forum posts on the topic. What I would like to do with this blog is explain what it is we are trying to achieve for the league through these changes. We have also taken all the feedback to heart and made significant adjustments to the 2009 plan that you can read through in the Commissioner’s Statement.

Was the system broken last year? No. Could it be improved upon? Absolutely. If we at MLG don’t continue trying to improve the league, we will fail. In fact, all of the success we’ve had to date is because we have taken risks and sometimes made unpopular decisions that in the end have been great for the league, the players, and the sport.

There is one core dilemma that we always have to struggle with and that is to balance the need of the league to have stable pro teams with a need for there to always be a clear path for amateurs to make it through to the pro level. In this way, MLG is different than any other pro sport and it’s a difference we are absolutely committed to keeping. However, it requires constant monitoring, adjusting, and tweaking to keep the balance right as the league grows.

In the 2009 plan we have tried to adjust that balance to put the league in a better position to continue to grow its audience. However, it’s clear from the community feedback that much of the community feels we went too far. To be completely transparent, it was and continues to be a topic of big debate among our staff.

I would like to accomplish two things with this installment of my blog:

First is to tell you, the MLG community, that we hear your feedback, we take it seriously, and in response we have put aggressive and dedicated effort into adjusting the new system. In essence, we have “dialed it back” to make it much less difficult for Amateur Teams to advance, but we have also kept many of the elements of the new system that achieve some of the goals we need to expand our audience. Again, please review the Commissioner’s Statement for the specific rule changes. The 2009 Pro Circuit pages will be updated shortly with these new rules as well.

The second is to lay out exactly what our goals are so that you understand why we have implemented the new system. MLG as a league is constantly evolving and it always has been a dialogue with our community that drives that evolution. Today is no different.

So here, very clearly, are the goals we laid out for ourselves when designing the new system:

1. Stability at the top.

We need the league to grow through top pro players and teams. Creating a large fan base worthy of the next major American sports league will not happen without some stability in the top teams – both in terms of the teams that have pro status and the players on those teams. A lot of team changes by players along with constantly changing teams in the top 16 makes it very difficult for any more than the top three teams to get any notice outside of the hardcore fan base. If teams are going to have a shot at big sponsors, meaningful press coverage, and long-term careers in MLG the top teams and the players on these teams NEED to be more stable. However, it’s impossible to make the top more stable without making it a little harder for amateur teams to break through – this is a critical balance that I think we have achieved by incorporating your feedback into this rules update.

2. Improve the spectator experience with meaningful Pro Team matches throughout the tournament.

Everyone in the MLG community wants the fan base of the league to grow. We all do. It’s good for everyone. One way we identified to do that is to have the top pro teams play throughout the weekend. This is critical to improving both the live and video spectator experiences. Again though, it forces us to balance the capability of amateur teams to break through with changing the bracket structure for a Friday night start of pro matches.

That is the background on how we got to the new system as clearly as I can state it. Of course we recognize that this does still make it more difficult than last year for amateur teams to achieve pro status and to receive the benefits that go along with pro status – both the financial and promotional benefits.

In order to balance this, we have also devised new financial and promotional programs to counter some of the negative attributes of Rolling Rank Points and the new bracket structure on amateur teams. There are many efforts that will go on throughout the season; however, the key programs are as follows:

Financial:

We recognize that the expense of competing in MLG tournaments for amateur and semi-pro teams is heavy and that a key benefit of pro status is the removal of entry fees for those teams. So, because we have made it more difficult to reach pro status, if a team finishes within the Top 16 at a tournament, we will cover their entry into our next tournament – whether or not they achieve pro status.

To be clear – every team that finishes Top 16 at any MLG Pro Circuit event this year will be given free entry into the next 2009 Pro Circuit stop.

Promotional:

Our content and production teams have been working feverishly on new programs for the upcoming season and many of them have a strong focus on promoting up and coming amateur teams and players. In previous seasons we have not had the time or resources to do this in any meaningful way; however, under the new system, we feel it is critical to shine the spotlight on breakout amateur teams. This is a key benefit of achieving pro status, and now it will be a benefit for those teams who show real potential through performance.

The new promotional content programs are as follows:

Prior to Live Competitions

• An additional preview feature before each Live Competition, focused on up and comers to watch out for, and highlighting teams that have performed well online or done well at previous tournaments.

During Live Competitions

• During tournaments, there will be editorial coverage for the most successful amateur teams as they reach the Championship Bracket.

Following Live Competitions

• Post-Tournament interviews with amateur teams that make a major showing.

• Special edition of the “Pro-Am Showcase” following each tournament that will feature the amateur players from the previous tournament who made the best showing. Read more about the Pro-Am Showcase here.

• Following each Live Competition, we will make two team profile pages that will remain active until the next Pro Circuit Competition. One will be for the Amateur or Semi-Pro Team that placed highest at the previous Live Competition. One will be for the Pro Team ranked 9-16 that placed the highest at the previous Live Competition.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I hope that it has given you a clearer understanding of our decision making process and increased confidence that the people in charge of Major League Gaming take everything that our community says very seriously. I hope you also have a renewed sense of excitement about the new season. I believe that what we have now is an excellent balance in the system that will allow new teams to achieve pro status and also bring a larger audience to the entire league.

Please provide follow up comments to me in the thread linked below. I will not respond to each of them individually; however, I, along with the entire league staff, will continue to read them all and take your opinion to heart. Again, we all want the same thing – for MLG to grow, for our community to expand, and for the league to maintain the key community-driven strengths we built it on.

I wish you all the best of luck on the 2009 MLG Pro Circuit!

-Sepso

PS: Please read the official Commissioner’s Statement before posting comments.

Welcome back to my office…

First of all, I just want to thank everyone who read my first blog and especially everyone who left a comment or question. Please keep them coming!

Of course I can’t answer every question individually, but I’ll try to at least touch on every subject raised across all the questions. I also will be calling out my favorite comments from every installment just to give a shout out to the poster that strikes me with the most originality, insight or just plain old pandering to my ego! And the winners for Episode 1 of TCO:

Fade7oBlacK, tocom and -Ender-

I literally LOL’d at each of your posts, so thank you!

And a special shout out to my boy Skins Man! See you in San Diego bro!

Ok - full disclosure - all of those posts were pure ego boosters, but there were a lot of great questions too and I will try to get to them all over the next few weeks.

The key topic of the day is the 2008 Pro Circuit Season Opener at the Meadowlands! For me, for the past five years, the season opener has been like opening day at Yankee Stadium – every year there is so much excitement, build-up and nervous energy around the start of the season. I’m sure many of you feel the same way. These days I actually get more excited seeing top MLG pros walk onto the Mainstage than I do seeing Jeter and Mariano running onto the field.

Today though, I want to clue you all in to what happens at MLG Headquarters (as well as our satellites in Ohio, Seattle, Phoenix, Long Island and France) and behind the scenes look at what it takes to create a Pro Circuit event.

Let me just summarize by saying I started MLG (and I watched poor Clap lug TVs around for two years in the early days) but I’m completely and totally overwhelmed by the herculean effort our management team, staff and partners put forth to get the Pro Circuit off the ground every year.

By my rough estimation the Meadowlands event will be the result of about 15,000 man-hours of work by over 100 people and all-in will cost well over $1,000,000 to produce. Multiply that by the number of Pro Circuit events each year and you start to get a picture of how big MLG has become.

Why so much work? We break it down into a few key groups: physical production (the actual event production), content production (live and archival coverage, broadcast and editorial and media relations) and league operations (the actual tournament operation).

The people sitting on top of the bulk of this effort are the League Ops group Catherine Cory (MadCat), EVP League Operations and Production; Adam Apicella (Clap), VP League Operations and John Nelson (Anakin), League Commissioner. Again, there are still over 100 other people involved in all the moving parts of running the Pro Circuit and they all work their asses off, but these three are the keystones of the operation and if you’re at Meadowlands having a great time, please give these three a high-five.

There are 40 people working in the League Ops group this weekend, from referees to on-air talent. They coordinate with our online content team (25 people) and sponsor management (8 people) to make sure coverage, media and sponsors are all taken care of, set-up and supporter for almost 5 full days.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that throughout all this, the MLG pro players need to be in the right place at the right times for sponsor obligations, interviews, fan sessions and… oh yeah… to play in the tournament! And there’s one, very unique individual who I believe is the only person in the world who could pull that off – Mr. Ray Lau (MLG Sparrow), director of player relations – who can do everything, even use chopsticks (although I had to personally teach him that last year).

For a quick sneak peak behind the scenes, here’s a little video blog for ya’ll. Adam Contini, one of our camera/editor geniuses followed me around during Thursday set-up to give you a first hand look! Check it out.



League Ops also oversees all live event production (another 20 people plus venue laborers and 10 security detail) and the live broadcasts – ESPN Saturday Night and MLG Championship Sunday (10 person TV crew and talent).

The live broadcasts and full-time event VOD require not only a lot of equipment and some advanced technology (if you get a chance, take a look at the VT-5 that powers the live broadcasts) but they also require a rare expertise driven by an unparalleled passion to broadcast everything at MLG. The guy that possesses those traits is the one and only Ryan Thompson (Synide), director of video content. I’d tell you to high-five Ryan, but you won’t see him and if you do he’ll be running from one place to another with two headsets and 3 mics on so he won’t hear you. But rest assured, Ryan is helping MLG completely disrupt the media establishment by making a history-making live online broadcast possible.

Which brings me to a truly exciting topic… This year, we are actually pulling something off that Sundance and I have been dying to do for five years. We’re broadcasting the premier matches live, using the same production team that delivered our breakthrough series on USA Network in 2006. That was a HUGE first for pro gaming and MLG, but I believe the live broadcasts this year are an even bigger breakthrough and here’s why:

1. Sports coverage is traditionally live – that’s what makes it exciting to watch.
2. ESPN – the worldwide leader in sports – has determined that our live Pro Circuit broadcasts are important enough that they need to cover them as they would any other live sports event.
3. The world, but most importantly, our audience of 16-34 year old men, has stopped watching TV the way most people do – instead we use the Internet as our primary video consumption platform.
4. The Internet provides properties (like pro sports leagues) the ability to control their own production and distribution and, basically, keep it real for the fans by serving it up to fans directly. (I recommend everyone check out the recent moves the NHL has made as well as MLB to provide on-demand games all the time to anyone through their websites).
5. Direct-to-fans live coverage over the web is the future of pro sports in America and MLG wants to lead the way.

I couldn’t be prouder of what we’re doing with these live broadcasts. If you are a fan of MLG and you will not be at Meadowlands, YOU MUST WATCH HISTORY BEING MADE!!! And please, please, please, tell your friends, your family, hell, make your little sister watch. I promise you will love it and so will they!

Sundance and I are planning to attend the final game this year at Yankee Stadium to witness the final game in the “house that Ruth built” before the team moves across the street to the new, bright, shiny stadium. That will be sports history– the end of an 85-year era in professional sports – this weekend will usher in a new era in sports history – LIVE FROM THE MEADOWLANDS!

This post will be the first of a new series of blogs on mlgpro.com. The point of "The Chairman's Office" is for me to provide the MLG community with a background on the business side of MLG - how things really work on the inside, my take on MLG in the news, where things are headed and occasionally, to answer questions from the community about almost anything.

Let me start by making sure everyone knows who I really am! I'm Mike Sepso - Sundance and I are the co-founders of MLG. We started the company in 2002 and have been here ever since working and watching as this cool idea from way back started to materialize into what MLG is today.

Most of you know what Sundance does because you get to see his great work on our TV and online video (and if you're old school, you know I can kick his ass at Halo:CE). My end of things is the more nuts-and-bolts part of the business. Officially, I'm the Chairman of MLG Inc. and basically that makes me responsible to our Board of Directors for turning this big crazy ass thing we call MLG into a successful business.

Enough background - let's get to the point of the first installment of The Chairman's Office: "Basic Business Facts of MLG Inc."

I see a lot of confusion on our forums about how MLG actually works as a business. For most pro sports leagues, this wouldn't really be an issue because their fans don't care. However MLG's got a crazy, passionate, opinionated community and I'm really proud of that.

Unfortunately without a good understanding of the way things really work, sometimes our biggest fans get it twisted. So here's a start at explaining some of the biggest points. Feel free to hit me up with questions and comments below and I'll try to answer them in the next installment.

Q.: How does MLG make money?

I get this one a lot and I see it misunderstood everywhere.

MLG makes most of its money from advertising. Our Sponsors are advertisers that commit a year or more of advertising across everything we do - events, the website, TV, player or team endorsement deals and anything else. Sponsors typically come on at the beginning of a new season and stay with us for several years (like GameStop). This year we've added some great ones like Dr. Pepper, Stride Gum, Old Spice, Panasonic and HP. In exchange for their big commitment, we agree not to allow any of their competitors to advertise within MLG. These are the best relationships because these companies really dig in and get to understand our community and support MLG's growth (so please continue to support them!).

Some advertisers are shorter term and only buy advertising on MLG's websites. Lately as our websites have started to get very large and we have started to hire a full team of online sales specialists, there are more and more online-only advertisers (such as the Army and Navy).

The rest - a pretty small portion - comes from licensing (selling the rights to our brand or media - like the Astro Headsets or ESPN distribution of MLG content) and selling things directly to the community (everything including event registrations, online tournament fees, t-shirts and whatever else we can think of). That's it.

Q.: Does MLG make money or lose a ton on Pro Circuit events?

Pro Circuit events are not profitable on their own - and they're not really meant to be. Registration fees don't even come close to covering the prize money we pay out, let alone the millions of dollars in production staffing (there are now over 100 people working at MLG Pro Circuit Events), etc. However, without live competitions, there is no league. So we have to create as much media as possible out of the Pro Circuit and use them to make sure the top MLG Pros get as much exposure as possible.

Q.: Why doesn't prize money go up a lot every year? Who pays the prize money?

Prize money is just like any other expense at MLG. As much as we want to keep increasing prize money, we can't always do that, just like we can't keep buying Sundance gold-lined, purple velour track suits every month. More than anything else, we are focused on running MLG like the successful business it is to ensure that we will be around for many years. Unfortunately that means we have to make tough decisions about where and what and how much to spend on different things and prize money is one of those.

Q.: I heard MLG got investors, how does that work and when does that money have to be paid back?

In 2006, MLG took investment money from two venture capital firms - once in January and once in October. We received a total investment of $35 million. This money was an investment in the company, not a loan, so it doesn't have to be paid back. The firms bought a piece of the company in exchange for the investment, so they will only make money when at some point in the future MLG is sold to a bigger company or goes public.

The basic idea for a company like MLG is that you need to invest a lot of money up front to build something very big before you can start making money. We're just starting to get to that tipping point. The good news is we have put together a great team of people and the company is run extremely well. A lot of other companies have tried to compete with MLG over the years, but none have had the capital, the history, the strong community or the team we have here, so they're all pretty much gone at this point, or on their way out.

Many of these companies still owe prize money - unfortunately when other leagues get desperate, they stop paying prize money first. This is one of the reasons it is so important to me and everyone at MLG that we run the company with serious financial discipline so that we grow over time and don't make bad decisions that would make us flame out and hurt the entire community.

Q.: How much do MLG Pros make? Does MLG pay MLG Pros a salary?

The very top earning MLG Pros make over six figures annually when you count prize money, endorsements, sponsors and appearance fees. MLG does not pay a salary. In some cases, we act as manager to top Pros and guarantee them a base amount of money from sponsors over time and we sometimes pay the pros promotional fees for the time they spend blogging, doing appearances, etc. for the league.

The amount pros earn goes up slowly every year and we work very hard to get as many of our Pros as possible into the top ranks of earners. Our objective from the very beginning was to make MLG a league where the very best could become rich doing what they love. We believe that to do that, we must have a financially strong and stable league and focus on developing long, stable careers for our MLG Pro Players. More on MLG management in future installments.

That's it for now. I'll be back with another installment right before the Meadowlands. Until then, play hard!

-Sepso