What is eSports "Coming Soon Page" Launched!

The splash page for the development of "What is eSports" has launched! Trying to gather support and get the word out while development continues on.

Check it out!

Preliminary Survey Responses

I'm interested to see how the survey responses change as they continue to grow in responses. For now, here's a look at the summarized data from 38 survey responses. I'd like to have at least 200 total responses before I use the data for "What is eSports."

Demographics

 Sex

Male 30 79% Female 8 21% Undisclosed 0 0%

Age
	Under 18 1 3% 18-21 11 29% 22-30 12 32% 31-40 5 13% 41-59 2 5% 60+ 0 0%

Martial Status
	Single 25 66% Married 5 13% Divorced / Separated 0 0% Widowed 0 0% Undisclosed 1 3%

Location
	North America 30 79% Europe 6 16% Asia 1 3% Oceania 0 0% Africa 0 0% Middle East 0 0% Latin & Southern America 1 3% Other 0 0%

Highest level of education
	Less than high school 0 0% High school / GED 2 5% Some college 16 42% 2-Year School Degree (Associates) 0 0% 4-Year School Degree (BA,BS) 9 24% Masters Degree 3 8% Doctoral Degree 0 0% Professional Degree (MD,JD) 1 3%

How often do you use the Internet?
	0-6 (less than an hour a day) 1 3% 7-14 (an hour or two a day) 1 3% 15-26 (around three hours per day) 6 16% 27+ (four hours or more per day) 30 79%

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Gaming Background

Are you a gamer?
	I personally do not play games 1 3% I play very few games or consider myself a "casual gamer" 15 39% I play games regularly (weekly or more) 4 11% I am a "hardcore" gamer (play daily for multiple hours) 8 21% I am an e-sports professional or industry figure 7 18% Other 3 8%

Do you check any gaming websites?

I read gaming reviews online 21 68% I watch YouTube videos of walkthroughs, gameplay, etc. 20 65% I am a member of a gaming discusssion forum 21 68% I am a member of a gaming community (play / voice chat with other gamers) 21 68% I read a gaming blog or news site 21 68% I am an avid follower of the gaming industry (generally well-rounded and "up to date") 17 55% People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.

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E-Sports

Do you know what e-sports is?
	Yes 28 74% No 8 21% I know of it, but not really sure what the "big deal" is 2 5%

If someone told you were they a professional gamer, what would be your first reaction?

What is a professional gamer? 4 11% Can you consider gaming to be an actual profession? 7 18% Not a big deal, you know a lot of pro gamers 10 26% Other 17 45%

How often do you do the following... - Watch tournament coverage from a LAN?
	1 - Never 18 47% 2 - Every few months 10 26% 3 - Monthly 5 13% 4 - Weekly 4 11% 5 - Daily 1 3%

How often do you do the following... - Watch live e-sports outside of LAN coverage?
	1 - Never 18 47% 2 - Every few months 5 13% 3 - Monthly 3 8% 4 - Weekly 7 18% 5 - Daily 5 13%

How often do you do the following... - Watch a pro players live stream?
	1 - Never 17 45% 2 - Every few months 6 16% 3 - Monthly 3 8% 4 - Weekly 7 18% 5 - Daily 5 13%

How often do you do the following... - Read news about e-sports
	1 - Never 12 32% 2 - Every few months 7 18% 3 - Monthly 0 0% 4 - Weekly 7 18% 5 - Daily 12 32%

How often do you do the following... - Comment or use discussion forums about e-sports?
	1 - Never 15 39% 2 - Every few months 5 13% 3 - Monthly 3 8% 4 - Weekly 4 11% 5 - Daily 11 29%

How often do you do the following... - Talk about or watch e-sports with "offline" friends?
	1 - Never 16 42% 2 - Every few months 9 24% 3 - Monthly 2 5% 4 - Weekly 6 16% 5 - Daily 5 13%

How relevant do you consider the e-sports industry?
	It's a fad, will pass with time. No real future. 0 0% It's a niche and will never grow beyond this. Only relevant to a small % of total gamers 4 11% Still niche but is becoming more mainstream. 18 47% Already reaching a mainstream audience, and is become more and more relevant each day 5 13% I have no opinion on the matter. 4 11% Other 7 18%

What are some sort of questions you'd like answered?

How big is the e-sports industry? 21 60% Who broadcasts e-sports events and tournaments? 8 23% Where can I learn more about e-sports? 7 20% What makes a particular video game an e-sports? 18 51% Can video games justifiably be called a "sport"? 14 40% Is e-sports culturally relevant? Will it ever become relevant? 15 43% People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.

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Website Features

Site Features - A 5-minute tour that gives a brief overview of the entire industry
	1 - Not important 2 5% 2 1 3% 3 - Somewhat important 7 18% 4 14 37% 5 - Very important 11 29%

Site Features - A collection of videos that highlights key, memorable moments within the industry
	1 - Not important 2 5% 2 3 8% 3 - Somewhat important 9 24% 4 10 26% 5 - Very important 11 29%

Site Features - Short essays written by e-sports figures that answer what e-sports is and why it matters
	1 - Not important 4 11% 2 10 26% 3 - Somewhat important 5 13% 4 10 26% 5 - Very important 6 16%

Site Features - Photo galleries and photoblogs that show what it's like to be at e-sports events
	1 - Not important 3 8% 2 3 8% 3 - Somewhat important 6 16% 4 13 34% 5 - Very important 10 26%

Site Features - Links to e-sports resources such as news sites, broadcasters, communities, and more.
	1 - Not important 1 3% 2 2 5% 3 - Somewhat important 10 26% 4 5 13% 5 - Very important 16 42%

Site Features - A summary of the important games, leagues, and communites that make up the e-sports community
	1 - Not important 2 5% 2 4 11% 3 - Somewhat important 5 13% 4 8 21% 5 - Very important 15 39%

Site Features - A brief, one-sentence answer to the question of "what is e-sports?"
	1 - Not important 3 8% 2 8 21% 3 - Somewhat important 6 16% 4 4 11% 5 - Very important 14 37%

What, in your mind, is most important?
	Defining what e-sports is in a straightfoward, brief, and concise manner. 14 37% Describing and making an argument why e-sports is growing and become more culturally relevant to gamers & the mainstream media 8 21% Showing stories and videos that show the emotional and dramatic appeal of e-sports 12 32% Other

That's it! I'm still getting responses daily, but there's been a noticable drop-off. I'm going to re-focus my efforts to get people to fill out the survey. IF you're interested in participating or viewing the survey, you can view the survey here.

Fun fact: My 5th grade teacher filled out a survey. Unexpected, to say the least!

PREVIEW: Website Launch

Will be launching the full "coming soon" website later this week, for now here is a quick snapshop of the design!

Preview of the "coming soon" version of the WHAT IS ESPORTS website

Current schedule:
1. Launch "coming soon" website, gather support & feedback (tomorrow)
2. Launch beta of "final" website, start creating content (one week from today)
3. Launch "public beta" of website, with basic content and framework in place (2-3 weeks)

Audience Survey
The survey has been online for the past few days, check it out here. This will help determine what questions our audience has, what they are curious about, and the best way to communicate this information to them.

And now for something completely different: being a professional

This week, while I still worked on my capstone project "What is E-Sports", the focus was professional development, and my brand identity.

Professional Image

I have a fairly established brand under the alias "Mattc0m." I choose to even use this alias on my business card or other places where a brand logo may appear. For professional reasons, however, I've left the alias "Mattc0m" absent from my resume.

• Personal website: www.mattc0m.com (currently re-designing, but is a big step up from the previous site)
• Resume: PDF Download (designed / finalized this weekend)
• MyCeeVee: Online (online resume)
• Twitter: twitter.com/mattc0m (new background / theme)
• Business Card: Coming Soon

I worked on this essentially the entire weekend (the resume and work experience). Took a good amount of work, but I'm happy with my results none-the-less. 

Fun fact: There is over 34,000 search results for "Mattc0m" on Google... all of which are me! Sometimes using the same alias for everything has unknown repercussions. Thus, it's always important to look like a young professional no matter what the setting is -- Google will find it!

What is E-Sports Progress

This week I focused on some contacting previous partners, discussing the idea, and discussing it with them.  Things were largely discussion-based at this point, but support is slowly getting garnered.

The big progress was the creation of a survey I intend to send out to fellow gamers, peers from school, to my Facebook and Twitter friends, e-mail to family, and more. My goal is to get over 100 responses. I'm hoping for 200 responses total.

However, the challenge is not in sending out a survey, but the creation of one. Originally, I thought creating a survey would be easy and the challenge would lie in getting responses. However, in order to get the results I'm looking for, I have to be very careful in how I construct the questions, setup demographics, and essentially find useful information in the process.

This type of information gathering is a completely new step for me, but I'm enjoying the challenge. I've done some research and reading into how to create a successful survey.

READING

• "Survey Design"
  http://www.surveysystem.com/sdesign.htm
• "Smart Survey Design" by Survey Monkey
  http://s3.amazonaws.com/SurveyMonkeyFiles/SmartSurvey.pdf
• "Creating Good Interview and Survey Questions"
  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/559/06/

Currently, the survey is in pre-testing. I am still not completely satisfied with it. Suggestions would be more than welcome.

I've also created a simplistic Gantt chart of the project's estimated progress. You can view it online.

The Proposal: What is eSports?

This is the first draft of an e-mail message I plan on constructing and sending to vital figures within the eSports industry. It is still a work in progress.

I want to be frank, there's a problem with e-sports and it needs to be addressed. This is why I'm asking for your support, critique, and input into a new project that has already begun.

The problem is: there exists an entry barrier into the world of e-sports. Newcomers have a hard time understanding the scene, and looking in from outside the "world" of e-sports can be an ordeal. The competitive gaming scene is not a very well organized. And even though I hate to say it, we’re really self-centered. It’s hard for newcomers to get a grasp on what is going on.

This needs to end. We can provide a solution, a resource where newcomers can gather the basis of knowledge needed to really understand what e-sports is all about. I want to make eSports more approachable and entertaining for newcomers, but mainly I would like a destination to make it simply understandable. Give the basics, define the vocabulary, show off the games, have a few videos, and then link them to the “real world” for further exploration of the scene.

And instead of telling people about the appeal of e-sports, part of our goal is to show what makes e-sports appealing. By showcasing some of the best stories, events, videos, interviews, and more—we can paint a picture of what makes the eSports scene so interesting.

We hope that other e-sports sites integrate the content, as well. We're looking for contributors, partners, and essentially avenues to ensure this is a success. We would release all the content under Creative Commons, so it’d be free and open to all.

Hopefully you’ll join us on our journey to create a simple, effective resource for eSports newcomers.

Signed,
Matt "Mattc0m" Richards

In other news...
Project Milestones Reached

• Domain name registered
• Shared with with initial partners
• Sent out feelers to my existing network of e-sports industry figures

Looking Forward: Senior Capstone Objectives

The New Project

Potential new logo for the project

The project is still tentative, yet this encompassed many learning objectives and also be a unique, new resource that has the unique position of becoming a key part of the emerging eSports industry. Titled "What is eSports?", it is a new website that provides an introduction to the esports scene.

Objectives

• Web Design
  A personal strength, this will allow me to communicate vast amounts of information in as clear and concise manner as possible.
  
• Web DevelopmentBy launching on a stable platform that allows for collaboration, updates, and expansion into the future, we'll remain a viable resource for years to come.
• Content Partnerships
  By finding key eSports experts and advocates, we hope to create a universal and agreed-on introduction that is inclusive, comprehensive, and not opinionated.
• Establishing Key Partners
  We need to not only make a name for ourselves, but attach ourselves to the success of other popular eSports ventures. By offering a unique service (an easy to use, step-by-step resource for newcomers), we hope that the eSports community will eagerly accept our
• New Media Marketing
  From social media to low-cost advertising to guerrilla marketing, we'll employ multiple tactics to create a positive buzz and strong word-of-mouth for our launch.

The ultimate goal is not only to become a usable, functional website; but to become the industry-recognized resource for an introduction to e-sports. 

This project will combine my past experience with Games Cast TV, Quake Live TV, and other esports ventures, and is a great new opportunity to focus on a content-driven website. A major focus will be our partnerships. We must partner with key figures in the industry, popular communities, and industry-leading websites in order to become the definitive resource as an introduction to eSports.

Why the change?

Originally, my plan was to finally launch the often-delayed Games Cast TV as a final product, create a formalized business plan, create a new marketing drive, and finally push the entire project out the door. However, there is a few problems with Games Cast TV.

First, I did a large amount of work for the WV Business Plan Competition, where the plan succeeded into the semifinalist round as a competitor for $10,000. However, I ran into a large amount of difficult when it came to defining what eSports was and why it mattered.

Second, the Games Cast TV development relies largely on the shoulder of my partner, Steve "GreasedScotsman" Huff. However, he's recently become a father, which means he's largely dedicated to actually being a good dad. And it's hardly fair to ask for a big time commitment when there is something far more important going on in his life.

Third, this change is something that fits very well into the original theme of my Capstone project, anyway. For my Capstone on Games Cast TV, I had a third (if not more) of my resources going into defining what eSports was, how big the industry was, and how it was growing. However, it failed to answer why eSports matters.

By changing my focus 100% onto the industry, I can still highlight my experiences with QLTV and GCTV, while really creating a new story about what eSports is, and in a way that's easily communicable. It's not just about defining eSports, but about how the scene is growing, changing, and become something culturally relevant in the US and around the world.

I, for one, am excited for the change and hopefully my director will agree with the new path this project has taken.