https://www.cybersport.ru/other/articles/zakrytaya-superliga-pochemu-eto-rabotaet-v-kibersporte-no-ne-v-futbole

What happened?

To begin with, I will try to tell as briefly as possible what exactly happened, for those who are completely far from football and have not heard of such clubs as Manchester City and Milan, and also have no idea who Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are.

On the night of April 19, 12 European clubs announced the creation of the European Super League and announced their readiness to leave all competitions under the auspices of FIFA and UEFA. According to rumors, three more teams will join these teams in the near future. In total, 20 clubs will participate in the tournament, which will be held annually. Moreover, every season five slots will be played in qualifiers. It is not yet known how exactly the qualifications will be arranged, but the organizers promise to resolve this issue by the start of the league in the summer of 2023.

Thus, all Super League teams are guaranteed to refuse to play in the Champions League and Europa League, and, most likely, will also leave the national championships. In addition, FIFA representatives made an official statement that all participants in the new tournament will be suspended from their national teams’ matches. Given such changes, world football will inevitably split into “top” and “lower” divisions, the last of which will include all the clubs remaining outside the Super League, except for the five lucky ones.

Author, what does esports have to do with it?

Of course, comparing traditional sports and e-sports is somewhat inappropriate, but this story in world football itself brings up obvious parallels. I propose to drop all the names of clubs, tournaments and everything else and just look at the dry facts. Football will now have an annual tournament, the right to participate in which is automatically assigned to 15 teams out of 20. Regardless of the results. Regardless of line-up changes. No matter what. Doesn’t it look like anything?

In recent years, BLAST has been one of the largest tournament operators on the CS: GO scene. Before the pandemic, the company held events all over the world, constantly gathering full arenas of fans. Now, in the face of the fight against COVID-19, BLAST is focused on online tournaments, where it continues to lead. In February, for example, following the results BLAST Premier: Global Final 2023 the tournament operator paid the winner Natus Vincere $ 600 thousand, which was the second largest amount in history paid to a CS: GO team in one championship.

In a word, BLAST are big, big fellows and in general they do everything very cool. However, there is one very important but: to participate in the starting tournaments (BLAST Premier: Groups) under the auspices of the Danish company, where teams have the opportunity to qualify for the final championships with large prize money, only partner clubs that have bought slots in the BLAST league are allowed. These, of course, include the 12 largest organizations from around the world (G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere, Astralis other). Why is this and who benefits from it?

Business> Sports

In such stories, there are winners and losers, and you don’t need to be in a tight spot to figure out who is who. This trend towards the creation of closed leagues is completely satisfactory for all participants in these “elite” competitions for two main reasons.

First and, if you will allow me, most importantly, from a financial point of view, such projects are real diamonds. Each match of such a championship is doomed to success, because in the Super League, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kevin de Bruyne will play against each other on a weekly basis, and in the esports analogue, spectators will be delighted with face-to-face confrontations with enviable frequency Alexandra s1mple Kostyleva, Mathieu ZywOo Herbaud and Nicholas device of Ridtz, since we have taken BLAST as an example. Interest in confrontations of this level will never fall, because sparks always fly in these games. This means that the broadcasts of these matches will never be deprived of the interest of the fans, which means that the organizers will not be deprived of the attention of sponsors.

Secondly, the teams – members of the closed leagues feel incredibly safe. In football, for example, a team must (or no longer should) spend the entire season in the national championship at a good level and take a high place in the final standings in order to qualify for the Champions League in order to be eligible to fight the best teams in Europe next year. Sounds logical and fair? Forget it. Under the new rules of football, a team can lose a thousand matches out of a thousand in a season, but still retain a slot in the largest competition.

In fact, the same thing happens at the CS: GO championships under the BLAST auspices. However, in open esports ecosystems, several closed leagues coexist without any problems. Despite the presence of BLAST Premier, the same NAVI and Astralis act as partners and ESL Pro League… Judging by the statements of FIFA, UEFA and the teams themselves, big football is not yet ready for this.

What will happen to all the other teams?

It seems that with the winners in this story, everything is more or less clear. But what about the losers? What should all the teams do now that have not been invited to the “company of cool guys”? At first glance, these clubs are now in a very unenviable position.

The situation here is, in fact, absolutely mirrored. Judging by the first information about the European Super League, its matches will be held in the middle of the week, which means that they will inevitably overlap with the Champions League games. Something tells me that about 99% of spectators will choose Manchester United vs. Real instead of Valencia vs. West Brom – with all due respect to these teams, the choice is obvious.

In esports, the situation is somewhat different: shortly before the announcement of the Super League, the BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2023, during the matches of which not a single tournament with the participation of teams from the top 30 of the world ranking was broadcast. Major competitions clearly divide the periods of the leagues – however, the rest remain in the shadows. And sponsors love exactly warm places in the sun, that is, during prime time.

In the current conditions, while the world football giants will earn tens of hundreds of thousands of millions, everyone else will greedily eat up the crumbs from the common table. Some will receive the most comfortable conditions and all the sponsorship money, while the rest, together with free sports competition, were actually sold for the amusement of the viewers, who were more likely to win in this situation.

What about us?

In conclusion, I would like to see football as a sport without fans and sponsors. Initially, outside of professional clubs and leagues, football, like CS: GO, is an ordinary game, the main principle of which is that the strongest wins. Not the richest, not the most popular, but the strongest. With the creation of such competitions as the Super League or BLAST Premier, the organizers of these championships are killing healthy competition in sports.

It is obvious that the level of play of “elite” teams will grow from year to year, given the constant competition between the best and the best. But everyone else literally remained at a broken trough and now are forced to develop new development strategies for themselves. Of course, both the Superleague and BLAST Premier are formally open to anyone – win qualifications and welcome to the list of participants, but next year, please confirm your status again or go to play in a lower league.

At the same time, the creation of such competitions is an incredible gift for fans, who get the opportunity to watch the battles of the best teams against each other more than a couple of times a year. These leagues will develop and get better and better, skillfully using huge cash flows in their hands, but, apparently, the concept of healthy competition in football can be forgotten for now.