E-sports have been selected for the Asian Games, can you get rich overnight?
Under the bombardment of hot searches one after another, passers-by who do not care about esports can also know that there are major events happening in the esports industry recently.
Uzi is back.
Uzi came back to win for the first time.
Just a few days ago, EDG Esports Club officially announced that Jane was proud of Uzi joining EDG.
If there are people outside the esports circle who don't understand what it means for UZI to join EDG, it's mostly a cross-circle analogy from netizens:
Just like Lei Jun joined Huawei, Curry joined the Lakers, Luo Ji entered the trisolaran camp, Guan Yu joined Cao Ying (in the heart is also in the version), Thanos joined the Avengers, GAI joined the Red Flower Club after the finals of "China Has Hip Hop", Yi Yangqianxi joined EXO two or three years after the four-leaf clover vs. planet dinner...
On the same day, the entry "EDG officially announced the signing of Uzi" directly topped the hot search, and many related terms such as "Uzi", "Uzi and Meiko re-partnered" and "LPL006 player Uzi reconnect" also topped the hot search.
Two days before the official announcement, the entry "Uzi EDG" brought by the insiders broke the news in advance also rushed to the top of Weibo's hot search.
In addition to the fact that this incident itself is very explosive, in addition to Uzi's legendary status in the esports industry, a fact that cannot be ignored is that e-sports is really on fire, and the fire is out of the circle.
2023 KPL Spring Finals/Source: Weibo
1. E-sports stars out of the circle
If you often see a string of unfamiliar English IDs on hot searches, it is likely to be the hot search of e-sports players. The "niche circles" that were once accustomed to silence continue to enter the public eye.
E-sports stars can come out of the circle in various postures, when a passerby pulls out the star card in his school bag, and the card is not a popular idol, but a young and handsome king glory professional player.
On Weibo night two months ago, some e-sports players stood on the same stage as film and television traffic and sports stars.
KPL (King of Glory Pro League) player Yinuo won the "Weibo Favorite Person of the Year" award, EDG's Meiko, TES's Rookie and JackeyLove and other e-sports players took home the "Weibo Annual Influential E-sports Event" trophy on behalf of LPL (League of Legends Pro League).
In 2019, when the Weibo Night awards still need to be voted, Uzi (Jane Proud) can beat Wang Yibo, Xiao Zhan and other popular students who were popular because of the hit drama at that time, and TheShy (Jiang Chengzi) and Clearlove (Mingkai) appeared in the top ten of the list.
Whether it is voting or criticizing, e-sports fans have given enough e-sports players, and the top e-sports stars seem to have the appeal and influence of the top in the entertainment industry.
Although e-sports stars are a little restrained under the long guns and short guns of the red carpet media on Weibo night, although they may not equate themselves with glamorous stars in their self-perception, the daily life of e-sports fans is almost the same as chasing stars:
Construction Chaotalk;
Control and evaluation rankings;
"lick the screen" at the daily photos or meal pictures of your favorite e-sports stars;
complained about the unequal distribution of treatment among team members under the squad officer;
In the hands of scalpers, 7,000 yuan to collect the original price of 1688 yuan KPL spring finals tickets...
In this era where traffic can be monetized, there are more and more supporters, and the value of esports stars is naturally rising. Professional players in popular games such as League of Legends, Dota 2, and Honor of Kings can be worth millions or even tens of millions, and three years ago, Gu Yu data gave Uzi platoon 50 million.
Worth is naturally not equal to the annual salary, what is the annual salary of e-sports stars who step into the entertainment industry with half a foot?
Not long ago, netizens quarreled around the post of "foreign media broke the news that Knight's annual salary is 45 million".
"LPL people are stupid and have a lot of money", "Knight is not worth the price", "Worthless professionals do not understand better than you", "XX so much money, then XXX must not be hundreds of millions" ... Say everything.
Some insiders said that there are almost 5 LPL with an annual salary of more than 30 million, and at least 15 with an annual salary of more than 10 million.
However, the tens of millions of annual salaries here include the income of all channels that the club gives to players, so what exactly do e-sports stars rely on to earn this million annual salary?
Tens of millions of net worth with competition
Broadly speaking, as long as the concepts of "video game" and "competition" are met, it is "e-sports". Since it has reached the competitive level, the performance of the competition can be almost equal to the income.
The most direct source of income is the prize money of major events.
According to the global e-sports bonus data of foreign media statistics, the total prize pool of popular events such as Dota 2 reached 320 million US dollars, and the domestic more popular LOL (League of Legends) bonus pool also had 100 million US dollars.
Taking the just-concluded 2023 LPL Spring Tournament as an example, JDG, who defeated BLG with a 3:1 score, can directly get 2 million RMB (before tax) as the champion team.
As for how much the starters can get, it depends on the meaning of the club, and it stands to reason that the club can take a part of it for daily operations. The year iG won the S8 Global Finals, it was rumored that Wang Sicong left all the $2.42 million in prize money to the team and coaching staff, and also gave each champion a separate reward of 1 million yuan.
In the 2022 League of Legends Global Pro Player Prize Chart, he has accumulated a number of bonuses such as the LPL Spring Tournament Champion, the LPL Summer Championship, and the S Tournament Final Four, as well as JDG veteran captain YaGao (Zeng Qi), who received the BLG transfer fee, ranked first in the LPL division and sixth in the global prize money list with $117,415.64.
RNG fielder Wei (Yan Yangwei), who won the LPL Spring Championship, MSI Championship, S Tournament Quarterfinals, and German Cup Finals, became the second in the LPL division in 2022 and seventh in the world.
League of Legends Global Pro Player Prize List 2022
But not to mention whether you can get a place, not all club players can enter the team's starting list, and the only thing that can eat the bonus meal is the head of the head.
In addition, there are more games such as PUBG and crossfire that are not as popular as League of Legends, and naturally they can't get so many bonuses from League of Legends, and if they encounter club arrears again, it is tantamount to making things worse.
Therefore, the base salary is also important for esports players.
If you simply talk about salary, you can refer to the salary cap salary system implemented by the LPL in 2022 following the example of other sports.
The salary cap is a well-known NBA wage limit that sets the maximum salary a player can earn. Players will be divided into S, A, B, C and other levels.
The players who won the League of Legends world-class event (MSI or S series) this year are rated as S-class, which means that there are only 5 S-class players in 2022, Bin, Xiaohu, Wei, Gala, and Ming, and their basic salary does not exceed 15 million (except commercial salary).
In this way, Scout (Li Xiaochan), Knight (Zhuo Ding) and others are all considered A-grade, and the basic salary does not exceed 10 million (except commercial salary).
The original intention of the NBA to set up the salary cap is only to balance the ecological balance within the NBA system and avoid the chaos of the industry caused by the "rich and poor gap", and the same is true for esports.
The salary cap only limits the base salary. On the LPL side, as long as the club wants, it can use business money to subsidize players (this part is not counted in the salary cap). The KPL Esports League also emphasizes that the salary cap is only one of the mechanisms to maintain the healthy and sustainable development of the league, in addition to salary players, there are also endorsements, bonuses, live broadcasts and other income.
But is it really reliable for e-sports stars to run business?
Esports stars make money, performance or traffic?
According to the live broadcast revenue of Douyu Huya in April, DOINB (Kim Tae-sang) broadcast 300 hours in a month, with a revenue of nearly 540,000 yuan.
But live streaming is not a multi-effort event, not the longer the live broadcast, the higher the revenue.
For example, Kanavi, who ranked second, made 170,000 revenue in just 27 hours, an average of more than 6,000 per hour;
KPL on the other hand, according to the live broadcast flow from January to September 2022, Wuhan eStar's flower sea revenue can be more than 8,000 at the time, and even exceeded 10,000 in October last year, while the same 40-hour broadcast may only earn 56,000 a month.
It is a bit far-fetched to say that the quality of live streaming revenue can reflect popularity, after all, different e-sports players have different live broadcast styles and live broadcast habits, and sometimes players simply use live broadcast time to relax rather than aiming for income.
Live streaming is a personal choice, and most business events are arranged by the team.
Most of the endorsements of e-sports players are team group endorsements, and there are not many e-sports stars whose commercial value can really support personal commercial endorsements.
However, the miscellaneous business of esports stars is indeed more visible to the naked eye.
After e-sports becomes an event that can win glory for the country, e-sports stars with a good image can get public welfare promotion on various platforms.
Tencent's two-season King Glory Competitive Variety Show "Battle to the Top" also has active players participating;
Not long ago, King Glory players Nine Tails and Qingqing, League of Legends players Baolan, icon, etc. also "brushed their faces" in the national variety show "Let's Run".
Business activities can indeed play a role in attracting fans for themselves, the team and even the league, and players can also get a part of the foreign affairs share.
But the point that esports is higher than video games is that competitive sports are not sports that can be successful purely by talent, a large amount of pre-competition training and experience summary are essential, and continuous business activities will inevitably crowd out the training time of e-sports stars.
Esports is brutal.
The peak of the player is concentrated at the age of 20-23, and by the age of 25, he is considered a veteran. One day without practicing yourself clearly, three days without practicing the audience in the audience is clear. Sacrificing training, running business during rest time, what you lose and what you gain, you may only know when you get to the arena.
But this generation of esports players who were born at the right time is lucky.
A team like WBG that is "empty, has no strength, concentrates on marketing, and does not repeat the training of the competition" will be called an "Internet celebrity team", but if e-sports stars frequently run business, most people will not accuse players of "valuing traffic and despising the competition", but only blame the team for squeezing star players.
#Distressed XXX# The "so-and-so" in such a hot search entry may not be a traffic star, nor a film and television drama character, but an e-sports player who lost in a competition.
On the evening of June 14, along with a series of Uzi's first victory related entries, there were also terms such as #XXX handsome#.
The previous generation of esports people did not have such an environment, and they had to rely on themselves after retiring. Sky (Li Xiaofeng), known as the "first person in Chinese competition", founded "Titanium Technology" after retiring, and former Dota professional player Wu Sheng opened a Taobao store, did commentary, and created a third-party e-commerce service platform...
Today's top esports players enjoy the extraordinary attention of the public, which means that whether it is flowers and applause, or rumors and scandals, esports stars can only accept everything.
"At the end of 2021 Demacia Cup, 369 (Bai Jiahao) played for the JDG team for the first time, riding the excitement, but only won four consecutive group defeats", "On the night of the disastrous defeat of the German Cup, the official documentary "No Breaking, Not Standing" was launched, and the relevant clips triggered a storm of public opinion against 369 (Bai Jiahao), and he seemed to be suddenly involved in a confrontation with the world."
Taken from the 2022 LPL official documentary "This Zhi Wushuang"
This is also a world that requires strength to speak.
The esports circle in 2022 has been silent for a long time because of successive losses in international competitions.
In the next stage, whether there are e-sports stars to lead the Chinese team to raise their eyebrows, the answer is near, after all, the 2023 Asian Games are there.
Resources:
Sports business: 45 million top salary into swan song! The LPL will introduce a salary cap system
Migu Esports: Esports salaries are at the bottom! Worth tens of millions, what level is it?
Lazy Bear Sports: Talk about LPL and KPL fares
Gu Yu Data-Tencent News: A game with tens of millions of prizes, can you get rich overnight by playing e-sports?
Flower Street Reference: Read about e-sports culture on Weibo