Hey guys, its been around 8 or so months since I last made a blog post so figured it would be a good time to post one. Just gonna cover some things that has been happening with the team etc.
2015 hasn’t been the kindest of years for us. We had a sponsorship deal fall through in the 11th hour and a few players move on from Starcraft 2 leaving us much weaker then we have been in a long time. Safe to say its not gone to plan so far.
One thing that HAS gone to plan is our Academy. Since the new year, we have made three additions to the squad that has really bolstered the amount of talent we have coming through the ranks. Though they aren’t quite ready for the next step yet, they are showing signs that have made me very comfortable that we are still in good stead to becoming one of the strongest teams in the scene. Its just a matter of being able to continue supporting the team, which is where sponsors come in, something that we are somewhat lacking.
Katana Gaming Systems have been sponsoring us for a year now, and throughout that year they have supported us so much, allowing us to send players to lans, host our own lan event and even make Ecko Esports Computers! But unfortunately our contract ended at the end of April. We have begun talks again to extend that term but its a hard pitch to sale with how small our scene really is. Not just the scene but Starcraft 2 in general.
Players in the team could be doing really well, winning weeklies and getting far in WCS Qualifiers, but WCS is really our only International stage to perform on. What makes sponsoring us attracting to companies then? This makes it even harder for us to attract other sponsors as well. You can organise streams and events but realistically most of the viewership is our scene that already knows the players and the companies that sponsor us. One option could be to further expand your team; go into other titles that have larger viewership and more tournaments on a global scale to enter, but even then you are just stretching yourself even thinner in terms of actually supporting those sides.
Anyway enough blabbering on sponsors. A while ago we promised an Ecko Esports Summer LAN. Its now almost Winter. Unfortunately at the time we were trying to organise it, ARENA Internet Cafe where going through a busy period of their own as they were expanding, opening up a new shop in China Town. Now that things have seemed to settle down again for both, we are going to retry to host another LAN, this time sticking with the Winter theme like we did last year. Hopefully more details on that will be available soon.
As we are nearly half way through the year, I thought it would be nice to try and show you what the plan/goals for Ecko Esports are for the rest of 2015.
- Get http://www.eckoesports.com fixed/up and running
- Finally get them team shirts that we have been trying to get for the past year
- Attempt to host one extra LAN this year around November/December
- Get more content out there for our fans and viewers, whether this be fun events, in house tournaments, clan wars or just good old streaming
- Send at least 4 players to a LAN event (Major or Minor)
- Sign 2 new sponsors in addition to resigning Katana Gaming Systems (http://www.katanagamingsystems.com.au/)
- 4 Players in the OSC Finals
- An ACL Finalist (no pressure guys)
I think that just about covers everything right now. Sorry its a bit messy, I just did it in some spare time and haven’t had the time to edit through it (something I’ll make sure to do the next time I do this). Thanks for reading guys! Much love.
– Jordan “Zenabi” Fighera
http://www.facebook.com/EckoEsports
http://www.twitter.com/EckoEsports
My Alter Ego Zenabi 