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MLG Unveils $16,700 Prize Pool for Mortal Kombat at Winter Championships

Cool, but I think I'm still just gonna watch Starcraft. Would be more entertaining than watching CoD during the breaks though. Would have preferred MvC3 Ultimate to be honest.
 

Aaron

Member
While I like playing the game, I find the new MK boring as hell to watch. I wonder if this is going to have a decent sized audience.
 

@MUWANdo

Banned
Hasn't MK candidly outsold every other "major" fighting game released this gen?

If you adjust for re-releases and the like then yeah, it's done pretty damn well.

(numbers off the top of the head from when I last looked 'em up a couple months back, feel free to correct me nerds)

The combined worldwide sales of SF4 - that is, SF4, SSF4 and AE on 360, PS3, PC, 3DS and iOS - come to around 6.5m. About half of these were for vanilla SF4; SSF4 did almost 2m on its first run and another 1m on 3DS, AE and the iOS games make up the rest.

Combined worldwide sales for MvC3/UMvC3 would probably be at around 3.5m; vanilla MvC3 did about 2.5m, UMvC3 did a little over 500k, and I'm guessing UMvC3 Vita did similar numbers (I'm sure it'll push a lot higher over time, of course).

Combined worldwide sales for Tekken 6 are at around 3.5m, although I don't know the spread between 360, PS3 and PSP. It started very slowly, but it seems to have had a long tail life.

MK9 has sold over 3.5m since release in April of last year, and that's without a Japanese release (or an Australian release, ahah). The upcoming Vita version and the GOTY console rerelease are sure to do well, too.


EDIT: just to put that all into context, SF4 came out in early 2009, T6 came out in late 2009, MvC3 came out about a year ago, MK came out about ten months ago.
 

Road

Member
Combined worldwide sales for MvC3/UMvC3 would probably be at around 3.5m; vanilla MvC3 did about 2.5m, UMvC3 did a little over 500k, and I'm guessing UMvC3 Vita did similar numbers (I'm sure it'll push a lot higher over time, of course).
Sound math.
 
SRK comment:
Overlaps with NCR 10

Let's pretend MLG completely obliterates NCR out of existence (it won't but bear with me). That would effectively replace a lower-paying event with a higher-paying event on the same day. Isn't that...progress? Trading up?
 
I think EVO 1st place got close to 10K but not really sure since they don't put the #'s out there.

I can't remember but somewhere fuudo said he spent 2k getting there and the number he gave for 1st was surprisingly low, maybe it was 10k. The payouts for a lot of these tourneys are really bad though.
 

CyReN

Member
I read somewhere that Halo has had a steep falloff in viewer numbers, but can't remember where so maybe that's not true.

Halo number did take a hit last year, Halo Reach wasn't a good competitive game (or game overall) compared to the previous big 3 titles. There are many factors like bloom, maps, and even gametypes that played a part in the dip. Since 343i took over the Halo series they finally game the Halo community: No Bloom for the main weapon, gave us 5 GOOD maps, and 343i/Frankie sent MLG codes to use for the tourney with the new maps. Columbus could possibly be the last Halo Reach tourney at MLG. With the recent changes and the community actually coming together things look bright.
 
QWgVG.jpg
 
Really hard for a console game to get that kinda prize money. PC has all that hardware to sell. Unless they get some kinda spectator deal they basically depend on entry fee's, publishers and stick makers.
 

Mairu

Member
Really hard for a console game to get that kinda prize money. PC has all that hardware to sell. Unless they get some kinda spectator deal they basically depend on entry fee's, publishers and stick makers.

Its hard when you make it your mission as a community to prevent yourselves from getting any bigger
 
Good on the MK community for getting their game into MLG.

Will probably be watching for League of Legends rather than that, however.

Hopefully Capcom makes things happen for their community at some point as well. I can't help but think the growth of the LoL scene has been greatly helped by how active Riot has been in promoting events and seeding prize money all over the place.

Edit: Nevermind, looks like no LoL at this MLG. That's disappointing :(
 

Kadey

Mrs. Harvey
As far as being in tuned with the community itself, Capcom well is behind Netherrealm and Namco. It's unfortunate since far more Capcom players love to travel to tournaments than any other.
 
As far as being in tuned with the community itself, Capcom well is behind Netherrealm and Namco. It's unfortunate since far more Capcom players love to travel to tournaments than any other.

How so? Capcom has a large presence at every major tourney and host a shit load of free events for their fans(fight club etc).
 

Kadey

Mrs. Harvey
How so? Capcom has a large presence at every major tourney and host a shit load of free events for their fans(fight club etc).

All companies do that standard. And what you're referring to is COA. Try getting COJ to listen and be more in tune with the community because they aren't. COA and COJ do not see eye to eye.
 
How so? Capcom has a large presence at every major tourney and host a shit load of free events for their fans(fight club etc).

Well, they may send S.Kill to tournaments a lot, but they really don't actively sponsor in a meaningful way (read: money, prizes) in the same way the other companies do. The only tournament that I've seen Capcom actually sponsor is EVO.
 

Anth0ny

Member
Well, they may send S.Kill to tournaments a lot, but they really don't actively sponsor in a meaningful way (read: money, prizes) in the same way the other companies do. The only tournament that I've seen Capcom actually sponsor is EVO.

Even still, I don't think they actually contribute to the pot at Evo. I know Namco Bandai does.
 

El Sloth

Banned
I bet the MK community is hyped. Congrats to them.



$550 for 8th is not bad at all (for a fighting game tournament). Good shit.
 

number386

Member
MK9 is at mlg only because netherrealm is paying them, mark my words when netherrealm stops giving MLG money they are going to dump mk9 like they dumped tekken. Capcom is smart to stay away.

Look at what they are doing with starcraft 2, they're having a pay per view $20 event this weekend. LOL, I'll be watching assembly instead. The starcraft scene is still growing but mlg is trying to cash in now, if ipl, nasl, iem, etc... all decided to cash in and go ppv the scene would be dead. Needless to say the starcraft community is not happy.

MLG is not looking to grow "esports" (god, I hate that term) they're looking to cash in from it.
 
Get up at me when they get VF Money.

FINAL SHOWDOWN BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

In all seriousness, good for MK and its fans/players.
 

Road

Member
I'm not in a position to find a source for exact UMvC3 Vita numbers at the moment - if you are, link 'em.
There aren't any shipment numbers yet (only Japanese sales, which are in the order of 10k~20k). The problem was only your MVC3 number, which is available. They shipped 2m of it (and 0.6m of UMVC3 for PS360, being more precise). We'll have to wait for the Vita version, but I don't think it'll perform anywhere near the home console edition. (I'm not sure we'll even have any numbers for it.)
 

Haunted

Member
The other two MLG events for comparison:
Code:
StarCraft 2 – Prizes
$76,000 total

1st Place: $25,000
2nd Place: $15,000
3rd Place: $9,000
4th Place: $5,500
5th/6th Place: $3,500 each
7th/8th Place: $2,250 each
9th- 12th Place: $1,500 each
13th-16th Place: $1,000 each


Halo: Reach – Prizes

$56,000 total

1st = $20,000
2nd = $12,000
3rd = $8,000
4th = $5,600
5th/6th = $3,400
7th/8th = $1,800


And when we go outside MLG with Dota 2 tournaments or SC2's NASL/IPL prize pools, these seem pretty small compared to that.

Tons of money in e-sports, fighting games need to step it up, tbh.
 
Street Fighter 4 is still the most popular fighting game with the international community. Unless SFxT can convincingly knock it off from that place, I'd still love to see SF4 be apart of one of these leagues. As it is right now, there is still only 1 US tournament that is worth it for a non-American to pay his own way to get to that would make it worth it if he won the entire thing. That's changing a little with tournaments like Season's Beatings making a bigger push to have the biggest games like Marvel and SF4 have a $20 buy in.

I'm happy for MK, but it's not a game I care for. I know about SFxT and IPL and I'm pretty excited about that. I'll definitely support it in whatever way I can even if all that means is stream monstering the event. But this will be the one that will pave the way for other Capcom games to become apart of these E-Sport leagues and I hope the community supports it.
 

Venfayth

Member
MK9 is at mlg only because netherrealm is paying them, mark my words when netherrealm stops giving MLG money they are going to dump mk9 like they dumped tekken. Capcom is smart to stay away.

Look at what they are doing with starcraft 2, they're having a pay per view $20 event this weekend. LOL, I'll be watching assembly instead. The starcraft scene is still growing but mlg is trying to cash in now, if ipl, nasl, iem, etc... all decided to cash in and go ppv the scene would be dead. Needless to say the starcraft community is not happy.

MLG is not looking to grow "esports" (god, I hate that term) they're looking to cash in from it.

This is probably the stupidest thing I've heard today.
 
How do these things work? It this self sustaining?

Like they put all this money, but they have set expectations on how many people will show up to these things, then at the end of the season they look at the numbers and calculate if they number of people who showed, or watched the stream justified the prize money?

Why did they drop Tekken again?
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
That's a nice pick up for 1st place. With Halo, that 20k is split amongst 4 players. I don't have MK9 so have no interest in watching the stream. Still hoping for SF to get in there.
 
Did they reveal how much the winners of MVC3 and SSF4AE got at EVO 2011?

No, but there is always math

SF4: 91 pools x 16 players = 1456 players x 10 = $14,560

MVC3: 67 pools x 16 players = 1072 players x 10 = $10,720

Now those numbers aren't exact, it's just a estimate. I'm pretty sure the numbers for both are less than what I have estimated. So with that said, if 1st place got 60%(just a guess) then Fuudo got $8736 and Viscant got $6432. But it has been stated(I don't have the source) that there was a bonus added to the SF4 and MVC3 pot. I don't know how much, I just remember reading that at SRK, I think Mr. Wizard divulged that himself. And we do have Fuudo on the record stating that he won $10,000.

Besides EVO, the FG tourney(and I mean grass root tourneys) with the best pay out has been Revelations from last year which had a total of $20,000 for SF4 with 10k going to the winner which was Daigo. And that's because it had sponsors which added to the pot. This is something that practically every other grass root tourney seems to lack(and I mean a substantial amount), including EVO. If grass root tourneys can't continue to grow outside of adding more players who in turn add more money to the pot, then I really hope Capcom titles can be added to leagues so we can have more tournaments to watch with really good pay outs for the participants. That way not only will it help players, but I do think it will help the grass root tourneys as well because it will help give the community more exposure and so on. But as long as there isn't intentional overlap. I know about the overlap coming up, but sometimes it can't be helped. Lets be honest, during the EVO tourney season, there is a major going on like every 2 weeks from March to June. That's almost asking too much when Spring is practically flooded with majors.
 

number386

Member
Like they put all this money, but they have set expectations on how many people will show up to these things, then at the end of the season they look at the numbers and calculate if they number of people who showed, or watched the stream justified the prize money?

Why did they drop Tekken again?

Bingo, you answered your own tekken question. If they're not going to make money from you they drop you. MLG has basically no interest in growing esports, they want to profit off of it. Essentially the community does all the work growing the scene, MLG comes in tries to profit, if they don't make enough money they bail.

This is probably the stupidest thing I've heard today.

Great post! And by great post I mean absolutely useless. If you have issues with what I said articulate.
 

Kikujiro

Member
Hasn't MK candidly outsold every other "major" fighting game released this gen?

And having massive support "only" in the biggest market ain't bad

I'm pretty sure Mortal Kombat vs DC outsold a lot of other fighting games too. But it's not like you see people play it at tourneys.
 
Wasn't the Mortal Kombat PDP tournament $100k or did I dream that?
$10k. and the competition was pretty stale that i heard justin wong split the pot with some of his other top8 buddies. perfect legend got "robbed" which was pretty funny, though he was forced to play on a pdp stick when he uses pad normally.
 
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