MDI/AWC Prizepool

[Flurryfang]

Why do you care so much about them getting paid? I can assure you these players are not going to die because Blizzard isn't paying them millions in prize money.

Besides, speaking of competitive/esport PC games, WoW is a much smaller game in comparison to microtransaction giants like Fortnite or League hence they are more likely to offer higher prize pools. Ironically, Candy Crush is much more profitable game than WoW for Activision Blizzard in terms of microtransactions.

The problem is not that players are getting payed. Its that Blizzard were not clear about what money actually went to the players. Blizzard sold an in-game item, advertising that 25% of the cost would go to the price pool for WoW E-sports. Instead of that, Blizzard used the 25% to replace their own price pool, so instead of them having to pay for players in the next competion, they had made players cash out 100% of the entire price pool.

Edit: So normally Blizzard would be paying for the price pool, which was 250+k dollars last year, but this year, they instead got the players to pay for it, completly. Blizzard is giving 0 dollars to the competative scene at this years Blizzcon. That is pretty scammy.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Not sure what the issue is here.

If the sales were too low, they will put the rest in.
They weren't.
The sales were much higher, and that's a good thing.

What's the issue here?

You wanted Blizzard to match the sales or something?

[Donald Hellscream]

Not sure what the issue is here.

If the sales were too low, they will put the rest in.
They weren't.
The sales were much higher, and that's a good thing.

What's the issue here?

You wanted Blizzard to match the sales or something?

The problem I assume is that people misunderstood what Blizzard initially said and assumed that the starting point would be 500k and then whatever the sales amounted on top of that.

Which of course was not at all what was promised.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Couldnt agree more with Bellular! Now we get to shift the conversation to hating on youtubers more than likely. But hey, it just means the truth is in the face of it all of which they shift away from.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

The problem I assume is that people misunderstood what Blizzard initially said and assumed that the starting point would be 500k and then whatever the sales amounted on top of that.

Which of course was not at all what was promised.

Right, just a misunderstanding in the end.

Its still their money, which is the confusing part.
Whether they used the money from these items or money from elsewhere, you still are getting even higher prize pool than expected.

From my perspective, the only way to be upset about this is if you are confused or looking for drama.

[Flurryfang]

Right, just a misunderstanding in the end.

Its still their money, which is the confusing part.
Whether they used the money from these items or money from elsewhere, you still are getting even higher prize pool than expected.

From my perspective, the only way to be upset about this is if you are confused or looking for drama.

Its about misleading promotion.

Blizzard seemingly advertised, that 25% of sales would go to "Increase" the prize pool for WoW E-sports. Instead, the 25% of sales "replaced" the prize pool, if it got over 500k in sales. People are upset, because Blizzard have removed their own cost from the event, adding nothing to the event, while having the players pay for the Entire reward pool.

Instead of adding towards a bigger price and a bigger event, players have just payed Blizzards bill for giving a reward to competiters.

[keelr]

The problem is not that players are getting payed. Its that Blizzard were not clear about what money actually went to the players. Blizzard sold an in-game item, advertising that 25% of the cost would go to the price pool for WoW E-sports. Instead of that, Blizzard used the 25% to replace their own price pool, so instead of them having to pay for players in the next competion, they had made players cash out 100% of the entire price pool.

They replaced the money they earned from players with money they earned from players? Woah

[Barzotti]

Not sure what the issue is here.

If the sales were too low, they will put the rest in.
They weren't.
The sales were much higher, and that's a good thing.

What's the issue here?

You wanted Blizzard to match the sales or something?

The issue is that people want to get mad at Blizzard for any reason. The Blizzard statement was clear and understandable. It's just people reaching and grasping at straws, as usual on mmoc.

Its about misleading promotion.

Blizzard seemingly advertised, that 25% of sales would go to "Increase" the prize pool for WoW E-sports. Instead, the 25% of sales "replaced" the prize pool, if it got over 500k in sales. People are upset, because Blizzard have removed their own cost from the event, adding nothing to the event, while having the players pay for the Entire reward pool.

No. Blizzard guaranteed 500k in case of bad sales. The sales have been better than that so they don't have to guarantee anything anymore.

Instead of adding towards a bigger price and a bigger event, players have just payed Blizzards bill for giving a reward to competiters.

Blizzard is funded by the players contributions no matter what they do, so I don't see what the point is here?

[Flurryfang]

They replaced the money they earned from players with money they earned from players? Woah

There is a big difference between taking money from your overall reveneu to pay competitors, to having a "charity event" where you promote, that 25% of sales will go directly to pay competitors.

In the last example, people are given the idea, that their purchase does something else, than just adding to Blizzard profits, which nearly always pushes sales to be higher than normal.

[Dziubla]

Its about misleading promotion.

Blizzard seemingly advertised, that 25% of sales would go to "Increase" the prize pool for WoW E-sports. Instead, the 25% of sales "replaced" the prize pool, if it got over 500k in sales. People are upset, because Blizzard have removed their own cost from the event, adding nothing to the event, while having the players pay for the Entire reward pool.

Instead of adding towards a bigger price and a bigger event, players have just payed Blizzards bill for giving a reward to competiters.

Did you bother to read the actual text of the actual toy announcement yourself, or are you just basing your outrage on misinformation spread over the internet?

Question to everyone who is outraged - If the wording was so misleading and confusing, why did a lot of people manage to understand it perfectly? Maybe you just saw something that you wanted to see? Made assumptions that you shouldn't have made, that were based on nothing substantial? Just a thought.

[keelr]

There is a big difference between taking money from your overall reveneu to pay competitors, to having a "charity event" where you promote, that 25% of sales will go directly to pay competitors.

In the last example, people are given the idea, that their purchase does something else, than just adding to Blizzard profits, which nearly always pushes sales to be higher than normal.

I explained earlier that both the prize pool money AND blizzard profited from this.
As many ppl before me stated: The rules were given with the announcement, if u misunderstood it that's not Blizzard fault.

[Flurryfang]

The issue is that people want to get mad at Blizzard for any reason. The Blizzard statement was clear and understandable. It's just people reaching and grasping at straws, as usual on mmoc.



No. Blizzard guaranteed 500k in case of bad sales. The sales have been better than that so they don't have to guarantee anything anymore.



Blizzard is funded by the players contributions, so I don't see what the point is here?

That is some people argue. But Blizzard did clearly not state it transparently when they announced the event. Many people thought, that their purchase would add to a prize pool, which started at 500k, going up with every purchase.

We can talk all day about if the statement from Blizzard is clear about what happens to the money, but the statement by Blizzard clearly did not communicate it well enough for people to not misunderstand it, which is clear by this reception.

The "crowdfunding" is also just horrible as it is, no matter if they communicated it clear enough or not. Blizzard literally said to its community, that they would love for them to pay their bill at the next Blizzcon event when it comes to prize pool. There was no "good faith" in the event, nothing about actually supporting players. It was all about removing the cost for Blizzard to pay out a price pool for their WoW E-sports department.

[rhorle]

advertising that 25% of the cost would go to the price pool for WoW E-sports. Instead of that, Blizzard used the 25% to replace their own price pool, so instead of them having to pay for players in the next competion, they had made players cash out 100% of the entire price pool.

Nope. The sale of the items said 25% of the proceeds would go towards the prize pool with a guarenteed minimum of a combined 500k. It wasn't 25% of cost. It wasn't 25% of revenue. Proceeds can mean either gross or net (total versus after-expenses). They never said they would be contributing an amount on top of what is generated. Players always pay for the prize pool because Blizzard needs to get that money from somewhere. This was just a direct pay scheme rather then taking money from loot boxes, subscriptions, merchandise etc.

Blizzard was clear about what would happen. You and others just assumed something else other then what was written.

[Teddyfish]

Its about misleading promotion.

Blizzard seemingly advertised, that 25% of sales would go to "Increase" the prize pool for WoW E-sports. Instead, the 25% of sales "replaced" the prize pool, if it got over 500k in sales. People are upset, because Blizzard have removed their own cost from the event, adding nothing to the event, while having the players pay for the Entire reward pool.

Instead of adding towards a bigger price and a bigger event, players have just payed Blizzards bill for giving a reward to competiters.

Where has is it been misleading though?

with a guaranteed minimum prize pool of $500,000 USD ($250,000 USD for each event.)

minimum prize pool

minimum

$500,000 is the minimum the prize pool will be, if the %25 of sales do not meet $500,000 then they will top up the rest.
And it's all their money, the toys are their product. The %25 of those sales is theirs.

Alternatively they could have just set a $500,000.
Kept 100% from the toys sales(You think the majority baught these goods because of the prize pool????), and actually have earned more.

This is actually commanly practice in most Esport esq games, Valve has done it for years with DOTA2, HiRez do it with Smite.


But lets be honest. As usual youtubers need their click bait views, and streamers like asmongold who need constant news since they spend over 12 hours a day trying to constantly entertain his plebs. Need their outrage news, constantly spewing how bad everything is yet at the same time do nothing but moan about it untill the next outrage news pops up.
All so they can keep people watching long enough to get funded by ads of the companies they despise so much....

[Flurryfang]

I explained earlier that both the prize pool money AND blizzard profited from this.
As many ppl before me stated: The rules were given with the announcement, if u misunderstood it that's not Blizzard fault.

Yeah, both Blizzard and the prize pool profited, but not as it was seemingly promised by Blizzard. Instead of it being 25% of toy price, it is only 25% of toy price aslong as it goes above 500k sales. If the sales did not go above 500k, Blizzard would have pocketed 100% of the money, with nothing additional being added to pool, aside from the normal price pool, which they have every year.

Blizzard is a big company, which has an entire communication department, which job is to communicate clearly to players. If they fail to be clear in their statement, so that people begin to misunderstand their message, they are 100% at fault. Don't just put the fault on the players, for not doing their homework, because the text itself is not very clear.

[rhorle]

The "crowdfunding" is also just horrible as it is, no matter if they communicated it clear enough or not. Blizzard literally said to its community, that they would love for them to pay their bill at the next Blizzcon event when it comes to prize pool. There was no "good faith" in the event, nothing about actually supporting players. It was all about removing the cost for Blizzard to pay out a price pool for their WoW E-sports department.

Do you think Blizzard can print money? Every prize they give out is crowd funded by people that pay them money for various things. This is no different then any other prize given in the past. It is just a direct pay instead of not knowing the source of the prize pool.

[Barzotti]

Yeah, both Blizzard and the prize pool profited, but not as it was seemingly promised by Blizzard. Instead of it being 25% of toy price, it is only 25% of toy price aslong as it goes above 500k sales. If the sales did not go above 500k, Blizzard would have pocketed 100% of the money, with nothing additional being added to pool, aside from the normal price pool, which they have every year.

So... instead of being 25% of the toy price, it has become 25% of the toy price?

[Dystemper]

As Bellular stated, It comes down to the word "HELP" , the wording lets the buyers of the toys believe that the purchase was going help towards the prize pool. Blizzard made it so that All of the money came from the purchase of the toys, and Blizzard didnt even bother putting in any of the Prize money FOR THEIR OWN Tournament. DOTA and LOL who have much larger prize pools are Free games. WOW you have to pay a sub on top of paying for the initial game and expansion . DOTA and LOL have prize pools in the 35 million dollar range .

So while this was not illegal, it was misleading and a scumbag move. If they were going to fund this differently from the Industry standard they should have told every one .It is still very bad optics and a bad PR move on their part, one that will hurt them in the future when they try to do this again.

[aceperson]

i think the key word in the quote is contribute. when i hear contribute, it means i'm adding to something. if there was no base pool to begin with, i don't think i'm contributing to something. but i'm not a lawyer. what i do know, this is sickening that the blizz ceos aren't willing to skip out on one pay check just so they could avoid bad pr.

[rhorle]

Yeah, both Blizzard and the prize pool profited, but not as it was seemingly promised by Blizzard. Instead of it being 25% of toy price, it is only 25% of toy price aslong as it goes above 500k sales. If the sales did not go above 500k, Blizzard would have pocketed 100% of the money, with nothing additional being added to pool, aside from the normal price pool, which they have every year.

You still misunderstand. Blizzard said it would be 25% of proceeds with a minimum amount of 500k for the prize pool. That means that if sales did not reach the minimum amount Blizzard would be covering the amount from somewhere else. Because they are guaranteeing 500k no matter what. So if only one person bought a toy then they would still have a prize pool of 500k.

They never said it would be 25% on top of 500k. This shows that it isn't a problem Blizzard can solve. Because you are not even reading their words correctly and instead keep choosing to misunderstand.