"Yeah but if we have a perfectly balanced game for e-sports we'll get millions of viewers and everything will be awesome"
Not sure why millions of people are going to want to watch a game that isn't fun or accessible for them to play, maybe I should try hyperventilating into a bag full of paint whilst chanting 'ESPORTS' to myself whilst banging my head against the wall until it does
Define "accessible"?
Is AoE accessible?
Is SC2 accessible?
Is C&C accessible?
Grey goo certainly is accessible and pretty balanced if you ask me.
The three before it? Well, C&C isn't rocket science either, but AoE and SC2 aren't that accessible.
SC2 most certainly isn't accessible, yet millions play it and its balanced around the 1% top players and its quite e-sporty.
CoH2 doesn't have economical macro management, you don't have to count and manage army of workers, you don't have constant base expanding or ever going unit production. It doesn't have unavoidable abilities that obliterate whole armies, doesn't have dozens of units you need to constantly watch over and micro, doesn't require 300+ APM to be competitive, most of coh2 top players do not even use control groups.
I'd say coh2 is one of the most accessible RTS games out there, it becomes hard when you want to get into actual mechanics, but other then that its pretty logical, you won't kill a tank with rifle, you won't cap a point with vehicles.
CoH2 is also one of the most entertaining RTS games to watch, because its nature means you'll never know who wins, situations that result in GG in all other RTS games, in coh2 you can pull a comeback, that keeps people interested.
CoH2 is one of the most accessible RTS games out there, it doesn't even take that much to master it, you don't have to be tactical genius, or korean clicker to be good at it. Just look at Quentin, he isn't brightest bulb when it comes to understanding the game or its balance, yet he is one of the top players.
But there is one more completely mandatory thing that relic completely ignores.
Marketing.
No game will become "accessible" or "e-sporty" if you do NOT actively engage with the community, organize tournaments, advertise the game-show to people that you've made this game and show them that you want them to play and have fun with them.