How can Valve support events?

As a follow-up to my previous article explaining why Counter-Strike: Global Offensive needs major events, here's a few suggestions on how one could be arranged.

At this point in my opinion it's a given organizers like ESL, ESWC or DreamHack aren't going to host a massive +$100,000 tournament, unless they receive backing from someone else.

As people working for these organizations have pointed out countless times, you receive more exposure from year long small tournaments and online leagues than one massive event.

In 2013 large scale eSports tournaments are no longer only funded through large corporate sponsorships, as things used to be in the old days of CPLs, ESWCs or IEM seasons.

The times have changed 

Ever since Riot started funding tournaments for League of Legends, more and more publishers have started pouring money into games, and now games such as World of Tanks are popular largely thanks to it.

Who would be in a position to chip in enough financial support to make a major CS:GO event a reality then? The answer is obviously Valve, whether you choose to accept it or not.

No one else has as much to gain as Valve, who could make the game free-to-play and draw massive attention through a major event, even if it's only one twenty-eighth the size of TI3.

 

Free-to-play?

Why would Valve make CS:GO free-to-play, when they can just continue racking up money through sales of the game that is less than a year old at the time of writing?

Because they could make considerably more money through a micropayment model similar to that of LoL and Dota 2 than through regular Steam game sales this long after release.

I won't even pretend to have an idea of how much Valve has made through CS:GO sales so far, but I also don't think it's very relevant. A micropayment model has proven to be the way to go.

CS:GO's biggest problem has been its inability to attract new gamers, and what could be a better way of doing it than by making the game free-to-play so anyone could try it out for free?

Here's a customer for a Polish police skin 

I'd even venture a guess that Valve would make more money if proper items were being sold in the in-game store, and they wouldn't even have to alter the gameplay.

You could sell custom player skins with NiP or Na`Vi jerseys, or even old jerseys for the likes of mTw and SK, which would surely still sell well. Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas even said he'd want a Polish police uniform.

Naturally you should also sell custom weapon skins. While it probably wouldn't be as popular, I'm sure there's a couple of people out there who would make their Desert Eagle resemble James Bond's golden gun, if possible.

You could also buy the option of selecting a permanent skin of Valve's standard player models, as so far it hasn't been possible in CS:GO and in previous versions you could take your pick.

There's definitely people who would pay real money to be able to spray logos after kill sequences, just like in CS 1.6. You could pay a dollar to get a badge on your player model for your status in matchmaking.

Vintage Na`Vi jerseys, anyone? 

Maybe you could pay Valve to get access to 128 tickrate high quality matchmaking servers? A "premium/VIP" status of some sort in CS, giving you access to games above regular users?

Full player profiles for said users, so you keep track of all their games and statistics? Weekly cups hosted by Valve's automatic system on their matchmaking servers? Very possible.

Finally, you could make some custom servers where you could buy custom weapons, such as a bazooka. You could even beta test new weapons or changes to pre-existing weapons there before rolling them out in CS:GO.

I might not buy custom skins myself, but I would go blow some people up with a bazooka. I believe there is something for everyone, as long as the people in charge of the store are creative.

What would Valve gain?

The player numbers, which have been growing at a very slow rate, would without a doubt rapidly soar to numbers we have only dreamed of since the release of CS:GO in August last year.

Ideally we'd have Valve fix up the game a little prior to making the game free-to-play so the players who have tried it in its beta stage and didn't like it might change their minds, but it's not a must.

In my opinion simply the good press Valve would get from giving back to the community for once would likely be worth it. The scene is dying for Valve to do something for them.

How many times have you seen NiP players all but beg Valve employees to host something for CS:GO on Twitter? Or start hashtags hoping to make them trend? Too many.

friberg should compete in CS:GO at TI4 and he knows it 

Valve would get tons of players, could make millions through micropayments, receive a lot of good press prior to their Steam Box release - something that you can't put a price tag on.

The fact they've neglected the community for so long would also on its own make this a huge deal. It would show for once that Valve does care, and boost everyone's morale.

Furthermore, going free-to-play and supporting the scene through a tournament of some kind would have another huge bonus - Valve would get endless amounts of good PR.

Imagine the forum posts and tweets from happy fans about Valve having listened to them. Valve backing a tournament would be worth probably ten times the money they put in, in terms of PR.

To go a tiny bit further, Valve could send some coders to events again to talk to professional players and try to get feedback and ideas on how to improve the game. Their presence would also be a news item of its own.

Operation payback netted mapmakers over $150,000 

Finally, it would at least whet Valve's appetite towards possibly including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive at a future The International event, possibly TI4 next year.

If Operation Payback was able to raise $150,000, there is little doubt in my mind that not only would people spend much more money through micropayments, but they'd likely also donate for a tourney, similar to Dota 2 and TI3.

Would Valve be more likely to include CS:GO in TI4 if they were making bank through the game's micropayment system? Of course. Then they would be incentivized to make it more popular.

Call of Duty games certainly gained a ton through the $1M tournaments, or Activision wouldn't have kept running them. You have to spend money to make money, and Valve must realize that.

The downside?

According to feedback I've stumbled on most often the main reason Valve can't host a major event or back another tournament is because they wouldn't gain anything from it.

They also argue Valve can't make CS:GO free-to-play because then it would be filled with cheaters, and customers who already paid the low price of the game wouldn't be happy.

Luckily number one is not true for the reasons I've already mentioned in the previous section, and number two could very easily be solved, although I don't think it's a problem to begin with.

If ESEA can provide an anti-cheat that is next to impossible to cheat on without getting caught, so can Valve. Surely you'd have to pay someone to do it, but it'd be well worth the money.

No one will have to face palm over this

Valve already made Team Fortress 2 free-to-play after thousands of people had paid for the game, and while there might have been some outcry, it certainly wasn't a massive issue.

However, there's a way for Valve to better things. How about giving everyone who has bought CS:GO a couple of free tickets in the new in-game store for custom items?

Not only would players be happy to get some of the new swag in-game, but it would also make sure some is instantly in circulation, and would therefore attract more people to buy items.

As one of my favorite TV character Bob Kelso said, nothing worth having in life comes easy, and the same applies here. These things are worth having; someone just has to put in work and money to make them happen.

 

Who says no?

What would be the cheapest way of organizing a major tournament? It certainly wouldn't be Valve doing it on their own and paying for the actual tournament itself, but luckily there are other options.

If I was Valve and I wanted to spend as little as possible for a maximum return on investment, I would pay IEM something like $80,000 to host a $100,000 CS:GO tournament.

Why IEM then? Because if it was hosted at their World Championship event to be held at Katowice, it would have the money and prestige necessary for a tournament to become a major.

Number two option for me would be ESWC, which used to be even bigger than IEM, and can certainly put on a nice show in Paris with a little financial help from Bellevue.

$80,000 to return to these stages? Where can Valve sign? 

Third option is giving DreamHack something like $70,000 to get to a nice round number, and if they say no (which none of these organizers would), you tell Inferno Online they're getting $90,000 to host a tournament.

Even if some of these organizers have lost their minds and aren't willing to put in a little money for massive exposure, others would take up that offer in a heartbeat, and it would cost Valve next to nothing.

Not only do they pay out millions in prize money for The International, but renting out the venue, flying players in and putting them in hotels isn't cheap either. This is how you avoid all of that.

For as little as $70,000 you could realistically have CS:GO's first major, and a ridiculous amount of potential and hope. The scene could certainly use some of the latter.

 

What next?

It's time for Valve to suck it up and start actively doing something to help the Counter-Strike community if they wish for CS:GO to remain relevant in the realm of eSports.

Adding the silencer is a start, though over a year late, and mostly just adds insult to injury for anyone who follows eSports as a whole, as it's nothing compared to what Dota 2 gets.

That's because Valve still make money through Dota 2 you say? Well, maybe they should make CS:GO free-to-play with a micropayment model then and give themselves some incentives.

I know it'd benefit the scene as a whole, likely make Valve even richer than they already are, and probably help them sell more copies of a future Counter-Strike game somewhere down the line.

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