Curated skins will be funding ESL CoH

I too think that Relic should run a charity.

They're not. Neither are Valve, Blizzard, or Riot, yet they all know that cultivating a competitive scene and treating it with respect are good for their bottom lines. Holding a tournament that is in almost all ways inferior to OCF, an entirely community-run event, isn't exactly a show of respect or confidence in the game's competitive scene. You can run an event that is effective marketing while also showing you have confidence in your community. This ESL event is marketing, no doubt, but it's not exactly a confidence-builder when the developers of a game can't match and exceed community offerings.

When I heard about OCF, I went "Shit, I wish I was into CoH2 because this is an amazing idea, an amazing event, and it's being executed really damn well." When I heard about the ESL league, I went "Wait, this has a smaller prize pool, a shittier format, and nobody behind it with any experience running CoH tournaments. How can Relic, the developer of the game with more stake in its success than anyone else, not top a community-run and -funded event?" It's disappointing how badly they've wasted this opportunity.

While I welcome the news that money from the skins will be used to fund the ESL events I still feel that the Go4 is quite small in scope and ambition compared to community run events we've already experienced.

With their finances and reputation on the line I'd have hoped they would put on something a bit grander than what we've seen in the past.

As it stands this Go4 feels like a box ticking exercise to please a portion of the fan base and cross off an element on the infamous road map.

While I welcome the news that money from the skins will be used to fund the ESL events I still feel that the Go4 is quite small in scope and ambition compared to community run events we've already experienced.

With their finances and reputation on the line I'd have hopped they would put on something a bit grander than what we've seen in the past.

As it stands this Go4 feels like a box ticking exercise to please a portion of the fan base and cross off an element on the infamous road map.

Because it absolutely is. What does it say about their confidence in the viability of the competitive scene when they aren't even willing to invest more than their own community invested in the most recent high-profile event?

From a business standpoint I'm surprised it took relic as long as it did to tap into selling user generated skins. TF2, CS:GO, DOTA2, even warthunder have been doing it for a while now so it's certainly a proven business model. Hopefully it helps ensure that relic will stay committed to their support of CoH2. It certainly looks like relic wants to make CoH2 self sustaining through microtransactions at least.

Also, F2P incoming? Selling user generated content is a cornerstone of the most successful F2P games. I could definitely see relic go that direction if the curated skins are a success and sales of the base game begin to lag behind.

I suspect the ESL angle is just to drum up interest and sales of the game. Relic hasn't shown a willingness to put much of their own money towards ESL so committing a small percentage of user skin income to ESL is their way of getting the publicity they desire while only spending what is effectively "free" income and ensuring they'll never take a net loss for doing so.

this contest sounds cool but it's only open for ~~20 days which is not very long to make skins for up to 18 (lol, no one is going to do USF skins and a lot will do british) different vehicles, even if they share the same pattern. the pattern is the easy part, making it look good is where it gets hard. i also don't have access to my desktop or tablet so i can't actually do anything for it.

edit: the guy who made the announcement used to work at THQ lol, that's why this is happening.

It'd be a bit annoyed if Relic got more than the creators but I think this is fine. The ESL funding is.... interesting. Possibly would of rather seen it be a bit more shared towards the content creators 50% going to them and Relic using their money to fund E-Sports but of course that wouldn't benefit them directly.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKlnjwzT1IruAZFb0EA-5pQ

This is the sort of cosmetic DLC is what I like to see.

While I welcome the news that money from the skins will be used to fund the ESL events I still feel that the Go4 is quite small in scope and ambition compared to community run events we've already experienced.

With their finances and reputation on the line I'd have hoped they would put on something a bit grander than what we've seen in the past.

As it stands this Go4 feels like a box ticking exercise to please a portion of the fan base and cross off an element on the infamous road map.

We'll probably get a few more 1v1 cups (maybe 1-2 teamgames), but after that it will be over. Watching the same guys playing finals for the 36727754th time is boring, especially when newcommers don't stand a chance vs the absolute BS this game has (also enabling all commanders is the biggest idiocy in the world, how the hell a new guy could stand a chance against those who own all commanders?).

This whole ESL thing will be off by the 2nd part of the year. Just my 2cents.