WCG Ultimate Gamer’s season finale. Many were left speechless, frustrated, irritated, angry, and confused. You see, the people expected to win did not win. The person least expected to win won the matches. Mark won the title WCG Ultimate Gamer for Season 1, winning $100,000 and he will be hosting WCG’s events throughout the year. Let’s take a look at the bigger picture…the one most people miss.

What Really Happened, the Big Picture

Disclaimer: The thoughts I am about express are based on what these people said THEY wanted to accomplish as goals. Not what “I” want or hoped for them. Just needed to make that real clear…

I often say that I am not blinded by money and that people who are blinded by money usually end up missing their goals because the money takes them down the wrong path. Winning $100K would have been nice but what would the title WCG’s Ultimate Gamer, based on a TV show, really mean to people like Rob, Jamal and Swoozie? They are favorites in the community, and is that what they really wanted?

No…at least not according to them.

When I hear them talk (particularly Rob and Jamal), this is what it seems like they want. They want the cred, the wins and more important the respect that TriForce has earned over the years. Could they achieve that having the title of WCG Ultimate Gamer from a TV show geared more for entertainment than gaming? No…it is not the same because the gaming community does not respect the title. But they do respect WCG’s competitions, and that is where cross-genre props will come from. Filling up walls with wins in multiple genres consistently over a long period of time. As far as the money, if they handle the business side of their career with the same care they place in the gaming side, they have the potential to make a nice income being professional gamers (even if that means focusing on one genre or game).

In the end it boils down to what I talked about in my last article…wanting something and wanting something bad enough to put in the work and sacrifice to achieve it are two different things.

The Benefit of Mark Winning

I am a strong believer in taking gaming to the next level. I had a large gaming community. I have my battle scars trying to make gaming more mainstream. One of the drawbacks to the gaming community is that egos run rampant, the focus on games and gaming communities prevail and although the knowledge is there that gaming needs to become more mainstream to support professional gaming, nothing is really done on a consistent level to promote and educate gaming outside of the community.

Mark’s win made it clear that the underdog can win and that is great for the genre. Put the work in, you can even beat the favorites. Again, I applaud Mark’s win but honestly, that leaves Jamal, Swoozie and Rob free to do their thing without the confines of WCG’s hosting commitments or whatever else they have in store for Mark. I haven’t been to a gaming event in a while but to me it is similar to hosting a party. To be a good hostess I have to make sure everything is flowing good, people are enjoying themselves, the food and drinks are top notch, etc. Rarely can I be the hostess and the person chilling at the party. A get together with friends, sure – that’s chill mode. A party with 100+ people, that’s work. To me that is what Mark would be faced with. If he wants to be a pro gamer he’ll have to wear two hats at these events. The pro gamer winning competitions and the host that ensures everyone has a good time.

Mark has a tough road ahead of him. He’s going to have to work on being accepted in the position he now holds and learn how to get people pumped and excited. He has a title from a TV show that no one takes seriously. Mark will have to work hard to be that person people say “Ohh…wow, I want to meet him!” at upcoming events.

Ultimate Gamer, Taking Gaming to the Next Level….Really?

I hear that a lot. “I want to take gaming to the next level!” but really, what does that mean? What are they really doing to help achieve that goal? For pro gaming to sustain itself there has to be a profit. To consistently achieve profits the business side of gaming needs to be taken care of, from all angles. The companies holding the events need to ensure the funds to pay prizes, host events, etc. The gamers need to ensure funds so they can take the time necessary to compete, sustain and promote themselves. The companies investing in the gaming community (sponsors) need to recoup their funds so they will invest again. Gamers have classically dropped the ball on handling the business side of their careers. Let’s look at an example:

Rob is a favorite, well known gamer. He has a MySpace page with less than 2800 friends (at the time I’m writing this). I have no idea how many friends he had prior to the show but that is an extremely low number considering he was a favorite on a show that hundreds of thousands (who knows, maybe millions?) of people were watching each week. The cast are mostly on MySpace, the network that is in trouble and realizes they’ve lost to Facebook as the top social networking site (that’s not news – who doesn’t know that?):

Jon did not bring in Owen because he wants MySpace to be Facebook. “Big web brands can coexist and that’s going to happen,” says one source. Another says Jon knows “the social network game is over” and that “Facebook has won.”

To my knowledge, Rob doesn’t have a web site. I know my audience understands the importance of managing a brand but gamers don’t think like that. They’ll hype up a third party site instead of their own. It’s time to open their eyes and really see the opportunities ahead of them and realize they might take different paths to achieve their goals. What if MySpace decides to close their account for some reason? What if MySpace goes out of business? Pro gamers need followers other than gamers to sustain. They need the non-gaming people to take interest in them as people, support what they do, support their sponsors so that the circle is complete. For pro gaming to succeed everyone has to benefit: the gamers, the companies holding the competitions/promoting gaming and the sponsors.

Things Happened the Way They Should

And that is why it is good Mark won last night. He can host events and be the underdog that won. He is an inspiration to some gamers. It keeps the dream alive that they too can have opportunities like that. His story will hopefully open up gaming and draw more people to it.

That leaves the guys free to, if they dare, take things to next level. Show the kids that will eventually take their place how it is done. Lock their brands down, give the sponsors a reason to back them other than “I can play games”. Give their audience a reason to take interest in them and tell their friends about this cool gamer they found.

There is no excuse for these gamers not to have a basic site with general information like their upcoming competitions, what they specialize in, their press, and if they really want to slam dunk it – interact with their audience. Take the followers they have on third party social sites like MySpace or even XBL and convert them to fans that are excited to hear and interact with them on their own sites. If MySpace dies, their site will still be standing. Understand how social networking and marketing work so that they don’t say and do things that places them in a negative light, without the knowledge on how to spin it into a positive. When I search for Swoozie I should get the one, the only sWooZie, not a store. If someone doesn’t know Jamal’s gamer tag they’ll never find him. Rob…he’s a fun one to find if you don’t know exactly how. Do a search for his name and you’ll get this. I dare you to do a search for prodigy. I know, you’re thinking who would be searching, right? Sponsors when they try to gauge how much reach these gamers have. What are the odds of them making any money back? Fans that want to follow them because they saw them on a TV show but can’t…because they have no individual presence on the net. These gamers seem like good people that don’t “get” the opportunities they are missing. As with everything, we all learn our lessons in our own time.

Let me be clear, having a site isn’t the golden key to success. It takes work to have a “good” web site just like it takes work to be a good gamer. It’s a start. They will begin to be in control of their brand. Their career. Their destiny.

Congrats to Mark for winning and to all the cast for participating in the show. Each one played their part to make the show a success. The first season is done.

It’s time to move on.

Why are comments closed? Because what happened on that show really isn’t important and these are points we haven’t discussed before. We have more important things to talk about moving forward.