Professional guild Method is "worried and disappointed" about Blizzard's eSports actions

The WoW guild Method found the BlizzCon to be a fiasco. This is due to Blizzard’s unclear language and exploitation of the community at the expense of esports.

Although BlizzCon 2019 was overall a nice event with many new announcements, there is still some criticism, especially regarding the esports of World of Warcraft. Now even the professional guild Method has expressed its opinion. They are “worried and disappointed” and believe that the “trust between Blizzard and the players has been broken.”

Who says that? Shanna “Darrie” Roberts, the General Manager at the guild Method, has shared her opinion on behalf of many players of the professional guild regarding BlizzCon and the esports of World of Warcraft. Through Twitlonger , she has issued a lengthy statement summarizing what has disturbed her and the players in 2019. It’s about the exploitation of the community, the poor treatment of esports participants, and general dissatisfaction with how Blizzard handles WoW esports.

What are the problems? Darrie names several issues that stood out this year. These include the prize pool of the tournaments MDI (Mythic Dungeon International) and AWC (Arena World Championship) – these are the two major esports tournaments for WoW. But the treatment of the esports players was poor and fans were disappointed due to the lack of streams.

Prize pool much smaller than expected: The first problem is the prize pool for the two major WoW tournaments. The money for it was completely raised through crowdfunding by selling in-game toys. Many players – whether esports players or regular players – are very disappointed about this. In the announcement of the sale, it sounded for the players as if the revenue from the sale would additionally increase the prize pool and not be based entirely on it. Then WoW would have had a prize pool of 1.1 million dollars this year – but only reached about 660,000 dollars.

Or to put it in Darrie’s words:

I was incredibly worried and disappointed when the WoW esports announced that the prize pool for AWC and MDI at BlizzCon was entirely provided by players and that no portion came from Blizzard. (…) The trust between Blizzard and the players/the community has been abused.

In other major esports games, revenues from such sales are usually additional and are added to the regular prize pool. That was not the case.

Players are particularly angry about this. Because the big esports players had advertised the toys and fans had hoped to really support their stars with it. Now both sides feel cheated.

Poor treatment of the professionals: But there was also criticism from players during the preparation for BlizzCon. They felt poorly treated and had many points of criticism regarding their accommodation. Darrie names the following points:

Although they were flown in on Sunday, there was only one day of access to the practice rooms (the tournaments started on Thursday)
There were no meals provided for players in the first days, they had to take care of that themselves
Players had to travel to internet cafes to train with their team. Some teams had to share internet cafes, making tactical discussions almost impossible.
The comfort in the actual practice halls was poor: the chairs were extremely uncomfortable, and there were hardly any snacks or drinks. Anyone with special dietary needs (due to allergies or a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle) had no options for meals.
The available meals were distributed via time-based vouchers. If a player or caster missed the timing due to their work, they received nothing.

Half of the event was not streamed: The last point was a thorn in the side of many fans. The first rounds of the tournament were not broadcast via live stream, but were held in a very tight offline setting. All teams had to play their preliminary rounds in close quarters and the audience could not see that.

This would also have consequences for the players who finance themselves through sponsor contracts. If these players are shown on fewer days, it negatively impacts the sponsor contracts that may then not go through.

In summary, for Darrie, WoW esports at BlizzCon 2019 was a fiasco, even though she emphasizes that Method as a guild had a very successful year with 2 major “World First” streams. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of room for improvement, especially in the area of WoW esports.

What do you think? Do you understand Method’s criticisms? Or do you see it differently?