MDI/AWC Prizepool

[StillMcfuu]

With the recent news just a day before Blizzcon, Blizzard has announced that they will not be adding any money to the prize pool which was generated by the sale of the Transmorpher Beacon/Fireworks Toys. The below quote is taken directly from the Toys announcement - in your opinion, did the below quote mean Blizzard will provide a base pool of $500k which players will contribute to by buying the toy, or does it mean that if the Toy sales go above $500k, the pool will consist solely of the Toy-generated cash?



source: https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/ne...r-toy-purchase

Blizzard's withdrawal of the $500k was announced by several currently competing players at MDI/AWC.

I agree with you, Blizzard was definitely vague about the prize pool and the way the money from the sales would be used. The main ambiguous parts I'll highlight.

25% of the proceeds will contribute toward the year’s finals LAN event prize pool

Saying that 25% of the proceeds is "contributing" means that there is already a prize pool that is being added to.

guaranteed minimum

Insinuating that $500k is set in stone, before "contributing" sales.

prize pool to the next level.

Implying that purchasers are adding to the "guaranteed minimum" prize pool making it bigger.

It was definitely a scummy ploy by whoever approved this. But in their defense, they never say Blizz is contributing to the prize pool at all. It's as close to false advertising as you can get, without likely it going through in court against you.

[Einsz]

Man, you know your life has meaning when your part of a billion dollar companies forum defense force on a website. Which you can play the lawyer spin on the wording the whole thing against the spirit of what was being done. I bought one of those things to give to a prize pool. I could care less about the item. Sure, I would have zero issue with Blizzard recouping money spent designing it and skimming a bit off the top but they straight up took most of it and bounced.

Let the lesson be learned its just another shop item with a bullshit marketing spin on top of it. Won't bother with it again. I encourage others to do the same if they feel burned.

There is no lawyer spin on the wording, you just can't read deal with that fact.

Insinuating that $500k is set in stone, before "contributing" sales.

The only thing it states is that $500k will be MINIMUM, and no it doesnt say before contributing sales that's just your assumption /facepalm

[Nnyco]

You should learn to read.

[Velerios]

I wonder why people are upset about it: this was already clear when blizzard wrote it: because of this i was already back then against this crap since the more people pay for the crap, the less blizzard needs to pay for the price pool and double dip. Seems they reached their goal.

Ok, triple dip: not only they need to put in 0 $ for the price-pool, down from 500k, they also only gave 25% of the money into the price pool, and for the triple they also get a crapload of money from the ad revenue.

ACTIVI$ION, the vision how to make moneymoneymoneymoneymoney.....

[Dystemper]

Its another PR shit storm for blizzard, this on top of Losing Mitzubishi as a sponsor . Its a scummy move that just reinforces peoples perception that Blizzard activision are shit people and a shit company. They lost 3 big name devs and kept it quiet for months, The Hong Kong fiasco , Losing a big sponsor, having yoru company named and dragged through the mud by Both parties in congress..now this. They need to fire J. Allen Brack in the worst way. Oh and the number of Blizzard shills and apologists on this site is laughable

[keelr]

Blizzard did what they announced? oo bad blizzard booboo

Srsly this is just another thing people want to cry for.

[Dystemper]

Blizzard did what they announced? oo bad blizzard booboo

Srsly this is just another thing people want to cry for.

Whos sock puppet account is this?

[Dziubla]

It should have a base prize pool. That's the problem. Now both players and competitors feel cheated.

It's greedy AF because people who bought it expected to add up to the prize, NOT fund it.

They messed this up biiiiiig time. DotA compendium for instance adds up and it's huge success is partially because of that, after this shame no one is gonna buy these things from Blizz trying to help anymore.

If it was popular, it probably would. Comparing it to Dota/LoL/even Smite is kinda pointless, since WoW was never about esport, and has barely a fraction of those other games viewership. Also, I could bet you 100million gold that 80%+ people who bought the toy just wanted the toy, and either didn't know, or didn't care about any kind of esports prize pools. Now they're just fake virtue signaling and jumping on the lastest Evil Blizzard Bandwagon.

I agree with you, Blizzard was definitely vague about the prize pool and the way the money from the sales would be used. The main ambiguous parts I'll highlight.


Saying that 25% of the proceeds is "contributing" means that there is already a prize pool that is being added to.


Insinuating that $500k is set in stone, before "contributing" sales.


Implying that purchasers are adding to the "guaranteed minimum" prize pool making it bigger.

It was definitely a scummy ploy by whoever approved this. But in their defense, they never say Blizz is contributing to the prize pool at all. It's as close to false advertising as you can get, without likely it going through in court against you.

yeeeeah, literally EVERY assumption you made is not just wrong, but outright laughable, sorry

[GreenJesus]

So basically the players contributed 2.6 million, but only $160k actually went to the tournament since the $500k was already guaranteed. Blizzard is a piece of trash.

[Big Thanks]

Blizzard did exactly what they said they would do. 25% of the proceeds are going to the prize pool. They guaranteed a minimum prize pool of $500k (in the event that sales proceeds alone did not reach $500k). The prize pool is above the minimum $500k guaranteed.

Nowhere does it state that Blizzard is adding $500k to the prize pool raised from the toy sales. Anyone who interpreted their statement that way has reading comprehension issues, straight up. There is no spin involved. It's written in plain text for everyone to see.

What does ability to read have to do with "loyalty to a corporation"? If you just read what was said, and didn't make unfounded assumptions yourself, you would know how it was supposed to work, and you wouldn't be outraged now. People talking about "confusing wording" are either looking for things to be outraged about VERY hard, or they are just simply stupid. Well...I guess those two are pretty much the same thing.

Could both of you explain this part then?

"Your support will help take the WoW esports prize pool to the next level."

What exactly does the "to the next level" mean?
WHEN last year the prize pool was 280k for the Arena Torunament.

Again, last year the prize pool was 280k...now the pool will be 330k...SO what does "to the next level" mean here?

To the next level means...50k dollars? LOOL

[Nerovar]

When you expect to donate to esports players but end up donating to a multi billion dollar company.

The memes keep on coming.

[StillMcfuu]

There is no lawyer spin on the wording, you just can't read deal with that fact.



The only thing it states is that $500k will be MINIMUM, and no it doesnt say before contributing sales /facepalm

No...

It states the minimum prize pool is $500k and explicitly states that the 25% contributes to that prize pool. It doesn't say that the prize pool is based on the sales or that 25% of the sales will be the prize pool with a minimum amount of $500k being guarenteed.

It states that 25% of sales is contributing to the prize pool, and then goes on to state that the guarenteed minimum is $500k without stating where that money is coming from, and then states that the purchasers will "help take the prize pool to the next level".

It's deliberately misleading without actually outright lying.

[kyo wolfsfang]

Are there seriously people in this thread defending blizzard for this?

[Gasparde]

I also wonder where has this 2.5 million USD meme surfaced from.

It's the interpretation that the 660k pool is like ~25% and thus the total sales would equal to like 2.5m. And then there's that one guy tweeting that he's been personally told Blizz have earned 2.5m and don't want to give anything at all. But it just all sounds so weird.

[StillMcfuu]

If it was popular, it probably would. Comparing it to Dota/LoL/even Smite is kinda pointless, since WoW was never about esport, and has barely a fraction of those other games viewership. Also, I could bet you 100million gold that 80%+ people who bought the toy just wanted the toy, and either didn't know, or didn't care about any kind of esports prize pools. Now they're just fake virtue signaling and jumping on the lastest Evil Blizzard Bandwagon.



yeeeeah, literally EVERY assumption you made is not just wrong, but outright laughable, sorry

Defense force out strong without any actual critical thinking or rebuttals to back themselves up, must be another Wednesday.

[rohoz]

Shouldve just subbed to their twitch streams, yo.

[Dziubla]

Could both of you explain this part then?

"Your support will help take the WoW esports prize pool to the next level."

What exactly does the "to the next level" mean?

It's basic marketing meant to encourage people to buy it in the hopes of making the prize as high as possible. Not that hard to figure out. If you take marketing talk at face value, you kinda deserve to be ripped off (not that you were).

[Frolk]

Asmon talking with Snutz who has insight on this ordeal.

[Kathranis]

It states the minimum prize pool is $500k and explicitly states that the 25% contributes to that prize pool.

Contribute means "help achieve" not "add to."

The literal wording they used means that 25% of proceeds will contribute to (help achieve) a minimum prize pool of $500k.

It could have been worded better, I suppose, but I don't see anything misleading about it if you know what words mean.

[Dystemper]

Are there seriously people in this thread defending blizzard for this?

paid shills, blizzard apologists, possibly Chinese Government trolls