Sponsoring Your Team

What is a sponsorship?

A sponsorship is when you sign with a particular company and get benefits from displaying their items in some way. For example, say you own a ScufGaming controller and you also live stream yourself playing Call of Duty everyday and get 100's of viewers a night. On your stream you also talk about how great your Scuf is and you tell people to buy the product. Now when you sign the agreement to advertise their product they will give you a discount code that people can use to get a little off on their product. At the end of lets say a month they tally up how much money they received from people using your code and in return pay you a portion of what you are owned. This is because 1. you advertise their product, letting it get known to the people out there. 2. In doing so, many people are buying their new product and publicity is growing for them. 3. You get some free product from them or even money buy just telling people about the product.

What this does is helps companies grow. It helps companies advertise their products to the communities they think will help them grow because they have people in those communities that already have fans for just being themselves. Advertisement through sponsorship is seen all over the world, including in sports, video games, popular activities, etc. They all have the same reasoning though, because people like what they watch with that particular event and will believe what people tell them about a product that helps them.

For instance, look at Nike and athleticism. They pay athletes to do a commercial for them so people think, "Wow this amazing player uses this product. So I have to use this product to get better!" Then the product is sold a higher rates than it has ever been and a revenue is made for the company. It is the same exact case for professional gamers.

How do you get these sponsorships?

Well the short and simple way to say it, is you have to be good at gaming or popular in the gaming world or both. The in depth story to it though starts with particular gamers as an example. Look at OpTic Nadeshot (a.k.a Matt Haag). He gets a steady live stream every night of anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000, sometimes more of viewers every day that he goes live. Companies like Scuf Gaming, Astro Gaming, BenQ will see this and think that by sponsoring him they will get their product out there like I have mentioned before. Because of the amount of viewers he gains every day it helps that company grow. So he has those people he can advertise the product to. He also is a veteran Call of Duty player and has been a professional gamer for 6 years now. So not only does he advertise their product through his casual gaming on his livestream, he also goes to competitions with their products and wins with them. Proving that the product he is using is worth it. Making the companies look reliable and sales soar even more.

To gain these sponsorships you have to make a name for yourself and prove to them that you won’t be a waste of their time. Constantly stream online on twitch.tv. People will notice you and you will grow because word in the competitive world does spread quickly. Also get a team together and compete. Grow as a team and get better as a team with strategies and compete. All that can happen is that you will get better. If you show up to major events and beat professional teams and get recognized, companies are going to look to sponsor you and you will become “famous” in the eSport realm.  

Pool Play For CoD Champs

Groups for pool play for the Call of Duty Championship were announced

Group A:

Strictly Business (US) 

Sublime (EU)

Vitality Returns (EU) 

Team RiZe (South America)

Group B:

CompLexity Gaming (US)

Allstars (EU)

VexX.Revenge (CAN)

Team Orbit.UK (EU)

Group C:

Team Kaliber (US)

Lightning Pandas (EU)

WiLD Gaming (CAN)

Reign Mix (EU)

Group D:

FaZe (US)

SK Gaming (EU)

Trident T1 Dotters (AUS/NZ)

Aztek Gaming (MEX)

Group E:

Team EnVyUs (US)

TEC.Intensity (EU)

Immunity (AUS/NZ)

Klarity (United Arab Emirates)

Group F:

Rise Nation (US)

Vitality Rises (EU)

Wizards.EU (EU)

Brazil 5 Stars (BR)

Group G:

OpTic Gaming (US)

Epsilon eSports (EU)

NSP (SK)

SSOF Gaming (BR)

Group H:

Xfinity (US)

TCM Gaming (EU)

Killerfish (EU)

Echelon (SING)

These are all the teams that are in the Call of Duty Championship. 32 teams that were all grouped into 7 different pool play sections. Of these 32 teams there are 19 different countries participating. Including, Brazil, United States, Canada, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Countries in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, South America, and South Korea. Of these teams many of them have appeared in a Call of Duty Championship before, others, are new on the block and “fresh meat” for the veteran champions that will be attending. Its amazing to see a phenomenal amount of talent come from all over the world for one video game. The growth of Call of Duty is just like Star Craft 2, Dota and other games. But, it is indeed getting to grow to the same level of popularity of those games and may take the lead!

How To Get Started With Competitive Call of Duty

Competitive gaming is very accessible when it comes to the realm of competitive sports. This is because of availability such as Xbox Live or PSN. You can break into being a professional gamer a lot easier than you can a professional baseball player, or football player, or soccer player. All much harder than trying to become a professional gamer. In order to get better at playing you have to play against people who are better or just as good as you are. Around the clock on MLG's site majorleaguegaming.gamebattles.com you can play these players anytime you want on any competitive game you want from your own home. But in order to compete and practice with these pro gamers, you I assume, have your favorite game and console. So say you play Call of Duty Ghosts on the Xbox One and are in your opinion very good at it. Then stick with that game and console and continue to practice on it. Now you have to learn the rules. On MLG, they made their own custom rule sets to reward players on their true skill when competing. Just like how basketball isn't just throwing a ball in a hoop, you have to know the rules in order to be able to play. With practice comes your ability and effectiveness when playing the game. When playing Call of Duty, you can't just be proficient at it, but you have to be proficient at the way it is played within the competitive ranks.

Practice
With your practice you have to play against excellent competition. Xbox Live is an essential tool for this because you will need the service in order to hone your gaming skills and find competition. Each time you play online against your foes, look at it as every time it being a tryout. Every time you play and impress them, they will turn into your allies and friend requests will start flying your way.

Starting out is the hardest part and online is how you begin it. On MLG go to the MLG Customs Forums and there will be thousands of other gamers who want to begin their road to fame, and maybe do it with you. Take the initiative and send our friend requests.

Forming a Team and Training
Once you know how to play online, you have to find a team. Within this team you need very good chemistry and coordination to be able to advance among the ranks. Whether you are alone or have a partially formed team, you can go on MLG's Online Tournament Recruitment Forum. Make a post and meet up with other players looking for a complete roster. Keep practicing with a bunch of different people and finally form your team that you feel has the best chemistry and coordination. Once you form your team go on the Practices and Scrimmages forums to have friendly matches against other teams that are looking to get better. With this practice, sharpen the skills of your team close to perfection. Then you will be able to compete against the best players the world has to offer with Online Tournaments on MLG's site. In order to be the best, you have to beat the best and to beat the best you have to play in these tournaments against people who are looking to win those prizes.

Pro Circuit
The Pro Circuit is where you compete against the people who are better than those online. You have to tune your skills and pickup strategies that can counter any strategy the other team has. In order to do this, and learn you can watch the top pros perform in action. Go on the Video On Demand archives and watch the videos of all the pros in there. Your skills can only be cemented when you go to a Pro Circuit Live Event on LAN. These events are hosted all over the United States throughout the year. At these events is where you will learn the areas you need to get better at and improve on. Keep practicing online and go to these events and eventually when the skill is fine tuned, you will reach the top prizes and fame just like the top pros.

I HOPED THIS HELPED!

Championship Regional US Qualifiers March 8th - 9th 2014

What an eventful weekend at Full Sail University for Call of Duty fans and players. Once again Full Sail has pulled together another amazing event with Major League Gaming and Activision to create an event that displays to all its fans of who will make it to Call of Duty Championships again this year. With 16 teams making it to the qualifiers, only 8 of them were going to make it to the Championships hosted in Los Angeles California. The way the event worked was if you won 2 match ups before you lost 2 match ups you made it. But if you lost 2 series match ups before you won 2, you were out and had no chance to make it to the Champs. This was causing a lot of pressure for all the pros who made it to the event last year because what kind of pro are you if you can't make it to the world championships again? 

With first round match ups underway there weren't many upsets except for a few. Strictly Business (sB) beat FaZe competitive in a best of 5 with 3 straight map wins to knock them in to the losers bracket. It wasn't expected for sB to beat FaZe so easily. The biggest upset in the first round matches was Curse LV losing to a team that has shown up to their first tournament. LV lost to Rise Nation in the first round with a map count of 3-2 going down to a nail biter in the final map. The common teams moved out of first round with ease though, with OpTic Gaming, Team Kaliber, Vexx, Justus, Complexity and EnVy winning all of their first rounds with little to no competition. 

Second round matches were where many things happened that no one expected. Rise Nation moved on to round 3 with a a 3 -1 win over former 3rd place winners Justus knocking them into the losers bracket. Another upset was on the reigning world champions compLexity when they got a complete 3 - 0 sweep made on them by sB that no one saw coming. It was a phenomenal win for sB but championship teams have been knocked into the losers bracket before and made their way out. So everyone still had hopes for complexity to make it to the world championships. EnVy, the boys in blue made a miraculous appearance against OpTic Gaming, beating them 3-1 knocking them, also into the losers bracket. And with Team Kaliber beating Vexx 3-0 moving onto round 3 too. With EnVy, Rise Nation, Team Kaliber, and Strictly Business already all qualified for CoD Champs, the tension in the complex went to who was going to make it through the losers bracket and qualify. 

With 5 teams in the losers bracket who have been to the previous CoD Champs. No one knew who was going to make it. OpTic is the only team to have made it to the past 2 out of 2 CoD Champs and everyone wanted them to make it to their third. With FaZe, compLexity, OpTic, and Curse LV, and Justus all needing only one match to knock them out of the qualifiers and saying goodbye to their chances of being champions. A couple of the teams held on with their first round in the losers bracket. FaZe sweeping Final Boss with a 3-0 victory means they only needed one more win to make them able to play in champs. Curse LV had the most upsetting moment of the night though, with them going to a final map final round count on Octane Search and Destroy, everyone knew that whoever won this round, deserved to continue. They played Curse NY and lost with the upset of the former world champions of Parasite, MiRx and Killa not having the chance to make it to champs. 

Round 2 of the losers bracket was where it all got everyone eager to know who will make it and who won't. Everyone shaking with the possibility that compLexity, OpTic and FaZe might not make it. The performances were very please. FaZe moved on to beat Vexx 3-0 securing their position in CoD Champs with ease. OpTic Gaming with a win they will never forget and the closest one in round 2 losers bracket. They played against Curse NY who were on their momentum from beating Curse LV and they showed OpTic the matches of their lives. Going to final map with Curse, OpTic was showing strength. They played them on Freight Search and Destroy and Matt "Nadeshot" Haag made the fans jump out of their seats. With OpTics full team pulling through, Nadeshot showed up in the final map with an impressive 12 kills and 4 deaths winning the SnD 6-1 and eliminating Curse NY, moving OpTic into CoD Champs safe and sound. 

The 8 teams who qualified for Call of Duty Championships to compete against the 24 other teams (19 different countries) are, Strictly Business who lead on the Sunday to win the US Finals over compLexity. Who indeed fought through the losers bracket. Team Kaliber, Rise Nation, and EnVy Us made it with ease on day one giving them high seeds for CoD Champs. OpTic Gaming, FaZe, compLexity and XFinity Gaming all made it on day one with their fight through the losers bracket. 

New Generation Consoles and Call of Duty Ghosts

Teams are changing with rosters. But now, rosters are done being changed and there is a new change in the MLG Competitive scene.

With Ghosts being a game many teams are still getting used to, it is starting to have a great outlook on the next generation consoles. Call of Duty Regional Championships were played on the Xbox One and many pro players say that it is a better game then when they played it on the Xbox 360. Which brings to the conclusion that Infinity Ward did indeed make Ghosts to be better handled on the new generation Xbox One and PlayStation 4. With both systems being built better than their 8 year old counterparts, the new games are all gonna be built based on how the new consoles run. So when ghosts first came out, it was built for the Xbox One, but everyone could only play it on the Xbox 360 because the One wasn't even out yet. So what were the common things said about the game buy pros and little people alike?
"This game is bad."
 "This game was built by people who don't know how to make games."
Pro players and other competitive players didn't think that the game would be able to make it the full year that it will be out before the next game comes to light. But with everyone now realizing that the game was made for pretty much a different console, and have played it on that console. The game is starting to succeed on the competitive circuit as we like to see games do. The game is as enjoyable for everyone who loves watching Call of Duty as it always has been and growing.

What are the downfalls of this though? The downfalls are, with a game that is mediocre on the 360 compared to when it is played on the One, but the One is very expensive for some people to be able to buy. It makes it hard for those competitive players to be able to just go to any event they want to and play the game they wanna go pro in. So it creates a struggle for the majority of the population that plays Call of Duty. Everyone wants to play the better version of the game, but only some can. Those who are able to get the next generation console. Those who can't, are stuck sort of in the past with the mediocre version of Ghosts not being able to experience the game that they bought.