How dya do it?
More than likely the strategy/typical answer is “go to a big tournament and do really well in it”…
But really, who has money for plane tickets? Moreover how do people even do this? The tournament money… Is it even significant enough to pay for the trip back and still have some left? I don’t even know what evo pays out.
Are there any big ones in say, North Carolina? This place seems like a fg deadzone. I doubt going to Lucky’s or whatever and winning nabs a sponsorship.
Well, playing a fighting game is a hobby.
There is no way your tournament winnings can cover your daily expenditure.
If you think of it that way, the travel, expenses, etc. are all part of the hobby. It isn’t cheap, and isn’t quite at all respected by the public at large.
Those top players flying out to majors out of their area cover their flight with a regular job, not previous winnings. Sponsored players have *some *coverage depending on the sponsor. The prize money from majors generally covers the winner, and perhaps second and third if the prize pool is big enough. Sponsored players have been a new thing very recently, so you’re right in assuming the ‘do well in tournaments’.
Regional threads if you want to look for something close by you.
Agreed with azproc. I’m sorry to say it, but you’ll probably have to try finding some kind of tournament nearby and just do really well in it. If you don’t already have the money to just throw at a plane ticket, hotel, and tournament registration, plus food and other expenses, you’re gonna have to find something nearby.
Doesn’t Justin Wong have a day job as a tester or something? He works for some gaming company out in California.
If you actually want to make money doing this hobby, you’re gonna have to spend money. And its quite pricey.
Granted, its not guaranteed, you’ll ever actually earn it back. Unless obviously, you’re really good. And if you’re aiming for some kind of sponsorship, you better be damn good and winning/placing consistently at majors. Its all about getting your name out there, making it stick, and prove you’re worth their investment.
Ideally, I believe thats how it works.
I can’t speak for experience, but this is how I see it (and I think its probably pretty accurate). Sponsors are a business, of course. Ultimately, you need to be seen as a good investment of time and resources for them to begin and continue sponsoring you. Essentially, as a sponsored player, you’re goal to to get out there and promote your sponsor(s). Winning is obviously the easiest way to do it. But just getting on streamed events and such would likely go a long way toward that goal of exposure.
Of course, if you’re not good enough, that sponsor isn’t going to get that exposure and drop you, but that’s business. I think most of us would love to be sponsored so we could get to every major tournament possible, but the odds of actually landing that sponsorship are slim to none. Unless you have some sort of connection or are a top player, of course.
Taste tester lol
live in socal
Know quite a few people that dabbled in the area of sponsorships, most of them don’t really end that well to be honest.
First dude basically is sponsered right now but it’s very loose in terms of actual promotions. He just says he’s with them and places, and they pay for hotel or some other minor expenses such as badges. He got the hook up only because he knew people and it wasn’t even relavent to his skill at all in games, but this was before he actually started placing in tournaments for MvC3.
Second dude actually was placed with a company that was testing the waters back during MLG time for Tekken 6 since they normally sponsor FPS and RTS players. They basically paid for everything for him, including room/board, flights, badges, food, and even extra spending money for recreational use. Contract terminated when the season was over though.
Third dude basically signed up locally and was screwed over many times because he doesn’t have the ability to read a contract and his expectations for what exactly should be found in a sponsorship is a little bit high end. Trips, rooms, and badges for half paid for and there were many arguments between him and the sponsor about financing his trips during the MLG Tekken 6 season. He ended up disbanding with them and going to another group but still has those lofty expectations of what should be paid for.
So yeah, I mean it’s a start but I wouldn’t expect the whole concept of sponsored fighting game players to really kick off until the idea has some more time in the cooker.
For most Real Time Strategy and First Person Shooter gamers they place in the Top Three in several tournaments close by, cutting down travel expenses.
For Versus Fighting games that is just hard at the moment since there are less tournaments for it worldwide.
The frequency of tournaments also needs to be higher.
The how, could be contacting the brands that you could be playing with and prove you have placed in the Top Three in for example ten events the past year. You could say things like that you would like to represent their products in the top segment of your sport.
Would be harder to do that for Versus Fighting games, unless Razer, SteelSeries and the like, releases amazing joy sticks for consoles. Hori and Mad Catz do have teams now though.
Versus Fighting game players can not say that they would like to represent Kingston or Corsair memory in their console (You can but I hope you know what I mean.).
So the sponsor pool is much more limited, you could try clothing brands.
Not all sponsor in cash, some only in equipment like mice and keyboards.
Travel expenses I paid myself or prize money, if any.
It was like that for me in 1998-2003.
Or just be an hot girl or something.
Sadly, like Winchester says some you see out there are not chosen for their skill.
Like the hot girls for Product Placement.
Just look at ThermalTake, at several events they come up with an all girl team just for that event.
The thing sponsors look for is your performance and the skills on how you play in any game. Also they will give you a contract on what they will pay/give you for free that others won’t, for example, Delta Red Squad is sponsored by Shadaloo.Eu for getting free shirts/accessories.
Most of the people in DMG don’t place high in tournaments. Noel was sponsored before MVC3, and he wasn’t exactly ripping through the tournament scene. Sometimes popularity has a lot to do with sponsorship as well, even more so than placing.