Intel Sponsoring Video Game Players

from the video-games-move-towards-professional-sports dept

As video games get bigger and bigger, they’re going to become increasingly similar to professional sports. And, of course, one way athletes make money is through sponsorships and endorsements. In the video gaming world, Intel has now jumped into this market by agreeing to a sponsorship deal with an 18-year-old video gaming champ. The guy has apparently won international competitions in Unreal Tournament, and Intel will expect him to use and promote Intel-based equipment at competitions over the next year. The real turning point will be when a non-technology, consumer products company decides to sponsor a video game champion.


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Comments on “Intel Sponsoring Video Game Players”

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19 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

No Subject Given

Seems like Pepsi would be a natural sponsor. “Need to frag a few thousand foes,,, you need the Fiend in Caffiene, Have a dew and Do them all and let god sort them out”

Or maybe a gun company ? Friends at school got you pissed off ? Is your life shit ? After 8 hours of Unreal an our semi-automatic M24, they’ll be sorry. Oh yeah, so sorry.

OPs_CaRBiNE says:

I am sponsored for Ghost Recon… its nothing big cuz the game isnt to popularized yet but so far we’ve (as a team) won 600$ and are in a couple other pending tourneys. Depending on what you play (console or PC) and what games, im sure it will be different on ways of finding a sponsorship. Our sponsor isnt some HUGE company its a website run by the people we (ghost recon players) have been playing with since day 1. Well the only advice i can think of is finding sites that have ladders for you so you can get i competitions and then after youre good enough start e-mailing companies. Ironically i found this site looking for a sponsor!! (OPs play Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the 360, any interest check out our site listed below)

http://www.wwg4me.com

http://www.gr3.wwgusa.com

http://www.ops.wwgteams.com

Fae says:

Sponsorship - The Facts

There are only a handful of titles played at a professional level, they are…

FPS Titles

Call of Duty
Counterstrike
Day of Defeat
Halo
Quake
Team Fortress 2
Unreal Tournament

RTS Titles

Starcraft 1 & 2
Warcraft 3
Defense of the Ancients (Custom game for Warcraft 3)

MMO Title

World of Warcraft

If you play any of those titles, and think you’re at a professional level… Bubble burst, you’re probably not. Unless you’ve won consecutive real-money tournaments for one of the above titles you have a long ways to go before reaching sponsorship. Even then, sponsorship is as much knowing how to promote yourself as it is winning the games. You can be the best player in the world, but if you are not a marketable image, no company is going to sponsor you.

I’m at a semi-pro level in Starcraft, I’ve played in several tournaments, and won many. I’m a platinum league player in the Starcraft 2 beta. Despite all this, in comparison to an actual professional level Starcraft player, the difference in skill level is worlds apart.

If you are truly serious about going for sponsorship, you need to find the top community sites for your game, connect with other players after the same thing, and most of all… Recognize the kind of commitment you need to put into it to even have a remote chance. There is nothing worse than being dragged down by a team-mate who wasn’t serious.

You can google around to find the various sites, that will also likely offer a lot of information on the games for you learn from.

Starcraft – Teamliquid.net
World of Warcraft – http://www.arenajunkies.com/

And a general site that may, or may not have useful information for your game…

http://www.gotfrag.com/

You can read about the various professional and semi-professional gaming leagues here…

http://wiki.gotfrag.com/index.php?title=ESports

Hope that provides some insight / information to everyone, and doesn’t crush too many dreams.

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