fnatic announce WCG boycott

17-7-2010 18:47

fnatic have announced the reasons why they have opted against attending the WCG Nordic qualifier.

The WCG Nordic organisation announced earlier today that fnatic had been disqualified from the qualifier after refusing to participate in a second event.

fnatic had earned the right to attend the WCG Nordic finals after winning the Swedish qualifier last month at DreamHack Summer.

Although all six teams involved in the WCG Nordic finals have been assured of a spot at the WCG finals in Los Angeles, only the winner will have their expenses covered by the organisation.

fnatic see no reason to be involved in a second qualifier after coming out on top of the Swedish national event, taking into consideration the competition will aggravate a very busy summer schedule.

"A limited (one) spot offered by the WCG for all Nordic countries. This is the biggest market for CounterStrike 1.6 and takes away in our opinion the whole spirit and concept of regional qualifiers," a fnatic statement read.

"The fact teams have already qualified in Sweden and now another qualifier is instigated, making it two qualifiers for Swedish teams."

The Swedish giants, who will attend GameGune next week, added that there are several other reasons why they feel the WCG is becoming less appealing to professional teams.

fnatic added: "No official team apparel or wear (player shirts) allowed. Therefore no ability promote our sponsors, this poses a huge issue to the future of professional gaming, if we are not allowed have our own sponsor logos, we do not provide value to our sponsors, we can't pay players, and cannot use any of the footage of us at these events with other media. Without professional players there IS NO ECOSYSTEM in which esports can thrive. Prizemoney will not drive esports, it will simply be taken out of esports. Organisations, teams help build the ecosystem by driving more money back into esports and bringing money in that wasnt previously there.

"Requirement to wear WCG provided shirts, removing the organisations promotion of their brand and sponsors, but also potentially promoting conflicting brands.

"License fees being charged if teams pay to go themselves.

"The insistence of paying prize money directly to players rather than the organisation - this is bad for esports as it is standard practise that teams manage prize-money and sending money directly to players can result in breaking of the contractual obligations between players and organisations. It should be the players and teams perogative who receives the prize-money AND most importantly fills in all the paper work and required documentation.

"The lack of respect or understanding for team managers by prohibiting them to stand behind their respective team. (Only a coach from the national team gets this right!)"

lol.. fnatic :(

2010-07-17 18:47

4 replies

This is actually a VERY courageous move by fnatic. The WCG's decision to only pay the expenses of one team for the entire Nordic area will mostly hurt the smaller teams, those who are on tight budgets and don't necessarily have the money to actually send their team there (how many times have we seen teams forfeit an event because of lack of resources to get there?). With one spot per country they had more chances of reaching a paid spot. And the organizations that have barely enough money to send a team usually consider it an investment because even if their team is not likely to win prize money, at least they can show their sponsors they provided exposure for them. Here, like fnatic pointed out, it's not even the case. The problem here is that if those smaller teams boycott the WCG, it won't have much of an impact (or at least not the impact the boycott by bigger teams would have). This is therefore exactly the kind of boycott that would be perfectly suited for the G7, since chances are that a collective boycott by the G7 (to underline the bad direction the WCG has taken with paying expenses for only one team in the entire Nordic area) would work much better. I have a feeling that fnatic is probably the only team with the balls to actually do it though. To me it's pretty impressive since we all know fnatic would have had good chances of placing in the top 3 at the global finals, if not first, and the principal teams which have an interest in the boycott to change the current situation are like I said the smaller teams, not the likes of fnatic. So my respect goes to fnatic for having the guts to do this boycott, good job!

2010-07-17 21:03

1 reply

+1 on the guts thing... Wcg is being real stupid in preventing of teams' own sponsor promotion ! but yeah in the end the game looses a good team and so do we... i'll miss fnatic's challenge... they were real exciting last year and the new [and same] line-up just promised so much !

2010-07-19 19:31

i see that ur reading hell fast, less than 1 minute... nice dude.

2010-07-17 21:49

G7 must be the end of this. Anyways, we are with you fnatic!

2010-07-17 23:26

nice :D

2010-07-17 18:50

omg.

2010-07-17 18:48

pro fnatic,wcg rulles are fucking stupid

2010-07-17 18:52

i think fnatic is right

they are doing the right thing if you ask me

2010-07-17 18:51

Nice points raised by fnatic. These are all valid issues if all the teams think so. As a team they have to create value for their sponsors.

Maybe people will get the point now why we are doing this.

7 replies

maybe :P

its all about the money :). they prolly tryin 2 save a few bucks by only payin for 1 scandinavian team. nothin more 2 it i blv. with u guys luck in future

2010-07-17 19:00

It's a perfect desition, i hope the others org. support your desition and won't attend the WCG.

2010-07-17 19:39

omg I didn't know rules have changed so much since last year :S

2010-07-17 19:57

All valid points and I have to say I agree with you. The ability to promote your sponsors is the core of all e-sports teams. Especially the part about if you wear the WCG official shirts, you might be promoting the conflicting brands of your own sponsor, that's a huge deal seeing as if you are sponsored by coca-cola and drink for example pepsi, you'd get your sweet ass sued the shit out of it.

2010-07-17 20:17

do you expect WCG to let you play after this? It isn't the World Cyber Games without fnatic :P

2010-07-17 21:00

totally agree, do u know if any other G7 teams are going to follow suit (and do the same) ?

2010-07-18 14:33

lol:P

fnatic's are right!

Ok forget the bullshit the truth is fnatic are just 2 cheap???

2010-07-17 18:55

3 replies

lol they are willing to pay of what SK didn't to GuX and they are cheap?

2010-07-18 09:29

WCG is cheap.

2010-07-19 00:44

ur a moron

2010-09-28 08:38

this time they have a point

2010-07-17 18:56

Yes fnatic is right...hope more teams will do this.

lol :/

I agree with them.

2010-07-17 18:57

some valid points, but fnatic creating so much e-drama atm.. anyway why is there no news about poonhandlers?

2 replies

Whats wrong about having drama? Something different instead of regular quite booring e-sport news. SpawN Retires, back in the scene!, retires!, back in the scene!

2010-07-17 19:59

lol:D

2010-07-18 12:16

oh!

2010-07-17 18:58

its kind of stupid by wcg why n1 team in the world must play 2-3 quals to get paid spot for finals ...

Hope some other teams will join fnatic. Giving 1 slot paid for sweden, norway and finland combined is just ridiculous. Only in sweden there are 4 teams able to fight for the highest places on wcg.

More teams should follow that approach :-)

2010-07-17 19:01

think of it from wcgs perspective, they need people to wear their shirts to promote their sponsors.. you can still make photos and videos outside of playing if the players care so much about it.. and it's been like that for a while now, never complained before or withdrew until there was only 1 paid slot

The last straw that broke the camel's back

2010-07-18 17:30

hahahaha

2010-07-17 19:02

fnatic is right, someone must take the initiative! this is (or should be) why G7 exists! the organizations should cooperate and dont allow (or simply try to change) this requests. i mean, counter strike would be nothing without sponsors, and if they cannot earn with cs (ex: promove there logos), why would they keep investing? well done, fnatic!

they got a good point there. It's not like it is some kind of a national team that gets paid by the government to go there and win, its a e-sport club. they need money. hope that wcg will listen to what they have to say and do something about it.

Another top event without fnatic, great..

2010-07-17 19:03

healthy point of view IMHO. fnatic organisation has a "weight" for such a statements, so it's bad for WCG. But overall it's a good thought for esport. This is not the same when national basketball or football teams are sponsored by their country government. Here in cs 1.6 world everything stands on sponsors shoulders, so WCG should reconsider their rules for later tournaments. And ofc they need to reconsider giving only one guaranteed spot for scandinavians. Prove me wrong, but i think there are a lot more competent teams than only ONE in scandinavia(especially sweden) and those teams really could bring more action for every spectator than a regular mid skilled european or other continent team. And therefore more spectators = more sponsors, more attention and more glory :)

2010-07-17 19:04

everybody should boycott this non-sense tournament..

2010-07-17 19:05

All great points, stupid rules.

2010-07-17 19:07

Yeah some things def. need changing and mby some other teams join fnatic.

You can always count on WCG to create retarded rules. Remember last month when they said Roman and cyx can't play in the WCG qualifiers because they weren't playing the first day? LOL Then in WCG 2007 they decided to ban crouch hopping, and subsequently got KF3 booted out of MYM.

2010-07-17 19:14

Imo fnatic's thinking is bad. WCG = eSport Olympic Game. Did you ever see logo of sponsor on athlete national sportswear? No! It is one event where players are fighting for their COUNTRY! It cound't be put on a commercial basis! If teams have problem with money, maybe they need to talk with national ministry of sport? It is time, to make esport involved with national sport.

2010-07-17 19:18

5 replies

every athlete can have sponsor. Look closely for NIKE, ADIDAS and so on :)

2010-07-17 19:22

Olympic athletes don't need to wear sponsors since Olmympics itself are a huge international event with millions of viewers. This isnt the case of the world of video games. Don't compare video games to the real Olympics for fuck sake, the two are different in every single aspect except for the spirit of competition.

2010-07-17 19:23

"Requirement to wear WCG provided shirts, removing the organisations promotion of their brand and sponsors, but also potentially promoting conflicting brands." Second part of this get_right statement don't fit your points, but I kinda get it. There is one question: is WCG really a 'national cup'? Why "fnatic", not "Sweden"? Why "MiBR" not "Brasil"? Looks like ESL ENC is more national than WCG. If they are making quali for TEAMS, which got their sponsors, agreements and deals they need to respect that.

2010-07-17 19:33

Yes, WCG is really a national cup. For e.g in Mous can't play Gob b, cuz he hasn't got German citizenship.

2010-07-17 20:00

and I think in the past, there's time when they played using the country tag, not the org. tag. forgot which year though.

2010-07-19 09:13

good move fnatic! hope everyteam does the same and wcg goes down if they don't change this stuff.

2010-07-17 19:19

i agree with fnatic

2010-07-17 19:20

fnatic is 100% right.

2010-07-17 19:25

this I agree with

2010-07-17 19:26

Well played fnatiC hope some other teams joins them so wcg changes the rulez !

2010-07-17 19:27

+1, WCG must think over this qualifying after qualifying. This is just bullshit!

2010-07-17 19:31

fnatic can speak as well :O was it the OVERtIME in China that caused them to release such statements :D

2010-07-17 19:45

Well shoot me but I don't believe that fnatic cares about Scandinavian cs teams simply because if they really cared so much the whole drama with Gux would have never occured in first place. Such organisations breed new pro players, give opportunities to prove themselves but in the end the true aim is to make more money. However, I do agree that not allowing players to wear their organisation's t-shirts is complete bs. Teams like fnatic, SK, et cetera have many sponsors but in order to get something from them they need to fullfill the agreement which is ,more or less, promoting them (thirts with logos, mice, headphones and yada yada yada). Inability to do so would lead to a loss of sponsor and winning prizemoney(and you can't always win it) is simply not enough for organisations like fnatic and SK to pay salaries for their players. As for prizemoney being paid directly to the players rather than the organisation- I guess it comes down to the agreement between players and organisation. If both are unhappy, I guess players could ask they're prizemoney being paid directly to the organisation (I doubt WCG would mind). Finally, some of the managers have earned the right to be disrespected rather than to be respected. But in any case, what's the big deal with this? It's not like the manager could help the team to win. Or is it just to keep the players constantly reminded that they will not get salaries if they lose?

cant wear sponsor t-shirts and wear wcg shirts? are they gonna pay players for this? retarded rules what happened with eswc a year back must happen with wcg

2010-07-17 20:10

11 years of cs and not official federation

2010-07-17 20:11

agree with fnatic statement about the sponsor wear. it's just the same story if no sponsor t-shirt is allowed in world cup. this bs rule should be boycotted.

2010-07-17 20:21

fnatic totally right.

2010-07-17 20:23

olympic games also doesn't allow athletes and sportsmen/women to wear any symbolics of sponsors... so i guess wcg is just like cyber-olympic games, what's so big deal about it... In my opinion they(fnatic) just trying to use their prestige and gain a buck with it as someone above me also mentioned. FUCK fnatic wcg is great tournament, doesn't matter if one swedish team, no matter how good it is, boycotts it GO MTW! :D

2010-07-17 20:27

I agree 100% with fnatic. Of course eSport organisations have to promote their sponsors as much as possible. Just as it is idiotic to only send one nordic team to WCG, they crew behind WCG have to stop with theese weird decesions, like that year when they only took Source in the program, its like they get a blackout every other year. Respect to fnatic for their decesion

2010-07-17 20:39

Poor guy f0rest. He wanted to win WCG so badly this year, lol.

2010-07-17 20:57

Its right from fnatic to do this but I think they would want WCG under their win list still, thats what f0rest said at least after they lost to Pentagram last time

2010-07-17 21:25

Got the agree that not letting teams use their own shirts to promote their own sponsors will only kill esports in the long run.

2010-07-17 21:32

EH I do not really agree about the marketing/sponsorship argument since WCG really is not about that at all. It would be unfortunate that fnatic might not be at the Grand Finals but if not O well no big deal.

2010-07-17 21:39

FUCK WCG RULLS ! DAMN <3 FNATIC

2010-07-17 21:58

They are taking e-sports down like this. Fnatic made well doing this!

2010-07-17 21:59

WCG needs to stop banning team shirts, that really is bollocks :/

2010-07-17 22:02

WCG needs to die due to their games policy

2010-07-18 05:28

G7 needs to jump on top of this NOW

2010-07-17 22:06

sad to see an major event like WCG doing all this crap

2010-07-17 22:12

the only team acting professional :s

2010-07-18 00:28

I agree with fnatic.

2010-07-18 02:17

f0rest disobey your manager. play for your country.

2010-07-18 02:47

I understand that, besides other things, fnatic wants their sponsors to be respected/promoted but do fnatic understand that WCG sponsorship has to be respected too? What would that sponsorship think if they see the teams, as stated in fnatic's statement, 'potentially promoting conflicting brands'? In the end I think the only solution is an agreement which will not be easy as sponsorship differs even from one team to another one.

2010-07-18 03:01

for ENC I could understand the shirt thing like in soccer sneijder will not be allowed to wear his inter shirt. but imagine if the Champeons league started handing out their own shirts? this is a similar situation.

2010-07-18 14:05

ENC isn't a good example, honestly, as most of the competition is played online and only 4 teams show up offline. If I, or anyone, knew the solution I would obviously said it but, as said, the agreement will not be easy. Remember for example that a number of spectators was expelled from a World Cup match just for being dressed in orange due to the competition officials understanding it was a undercover merchandise from a beer company different from the one sponsoring the event. In the same way, each time the team Real Madrid has played in France the shirt did not feature the team's sponsor (a betting company) as betting is not allowed to be advertised by law. As said, a tricky agreement....

2010-07-18 23:59

you have a point in the madrid shirts, but it isnt a matter of law in this case and I do think WCG not allowing teams to wear their own jerseys helps WCG as an organisation, but not the teams and their sponsors, which will hold teams back (be it only slightly, as there are plenty other events where the gear can be worn) in attracting sponsors/keeping them satisfied. In due time, this is bad for e-sports/CS scene imo. perhaps in the field of other games aswell but WCG is without a doubt one of the most important events to CS(with eswc, and now probably arbalet aswell), so that is where organisations/sponsors want to see their emblems/name carried out

2010-07-19 18:58

In the last part of your message is where the problem resides I think, the clash between event sponsors and team sponsors. And as without the former there would be no event it seems that therefore all this time they had the upper hand. Sure, what would happen to the event if no noticeable teams attend which is why spectators/visitors would attend a given event which is what event sponsors are paying for? As said, not an easy task.

2010-07-19 21:59

for sure! lets wait and see what happens, wcg without all the topteams wouldnt be great :{

2010-07-19 22:17

one single protest from fnatic is not going to change that situation. it just give out the chance to LA to another team which is also powerful enough for WCG to attractive the attentions of audiences. it just doesnt hurt WCG enough. i just think there must be some other much important reasons for fnatic to make that decision. theres no point that SangSumg give up the right to allow teams to wear their own Tshirt after paying out all the money to make the WCG the most important esport even in the world. otherwise the WCG will not even exist in the first place. FNATIC's decision is just a joke. compare to all of the efforts that SANSUMG had put for the WCG its just to silly to give up their chance to attend WCG just because u think urself is powerful enough to change the world. not even fnatic can change it. i dont think the so called G7 can change it. cuz the whole CS things is not important to WCG. silly fnatic!

2010-07-18 03:06

Seems like Robert Kotick owns WCG now

2010-07-18 07:14

Its just a qualifier to get a free trip and lodging, I think Fnactic has the money to do it on their own. The qualifier should be optional imho.

2010-07-18 07:21

lol

2010-07-18 10:04

agree with Fnatic...

2010-07-18 12:18

i can smell :)

2010-07-18 14:16

FNATIC is right. BTW Na'Vi thinking about not to participate in WCG Grand Finals too. As ceh9 said, they're waiting for another teams, and if a few teams won't go to WCG GF Na'Vi won't take part in WCG too. I hope you understand what I mean, because my English is bad :(

2010-07-18 17:00

2010-07-18 20:37

your english is actually pretty good, grammar isn't up to scratch but spelling etc. impresses me. or did you run it through a spell checker first? :D nevertheless, I'm sure everybody understands.

2010-07-19 19:00

*ROFL*

2010-07-19 00:46

I agree, one team from Scandinavia is not enough

2010-07-19 11:23

wyzywamy was

2010-08-12 15:02

respect fnatic...you got balls

2010-08-12 16:03

fnatic u r right dont represnt ur country in WCG it will save ur sponsors :) go go go !!

2010-09-07 21:19

Sponsors do matter for fnatic Rather than there own country n GIANT FAN LIST fnatic.ftw :)

2010-09-07 21:22

Pffff the most stupid e-sport event rules 2k10, wcg should regret ._.

2010-09-23 13:48

Totally agree with fnatic. Also, that "no official team apparel or wear allowed" it's nonsense. Sponsors make teams and events happen, enough said. GL on the next events fnatic :p

2010-09-26 17:36