The Australian arm of the Electronic Sports League, one of the longest running organisers of esports tournaments in gaming, is running a survey today on the viability of what they’re calling a “mega event”. It’s basically designed to see whether people would turn out for a world class event in Australia.
ESL Australia hasn’t announced any plans to bring international teams down under for 2016, but it’s not the first time they’ve managed to attract foreign talent for an event. The Crown Invitational last year became a highlight on the local CS:GO calendar thanks to the attendance of Virtus.Pro and Cloud9 from Europe and North America respectively, and Australia’s fighting game scene has had success in attracting foreign competitors for events like Battle Arena Melbourne and Shadowloo Showdown over the years.
“We define a ‘Mega Event’ as an international event with a selection of popular World Class teams and talent from all around the world and an attendance with more than 2000-3000 patrons,” the survey says.
The questions quizzes respondents on what games and players they like to watch, their level of interest in esports, their willingness to attend a live event, what factors would encourage or hinder them from doing so, what regions respondents are most interested in seeing live (teams from China versus South East Asia, Eastern Europe, the United States and so on), what games they would want to see live and what ancillary activities they would want at such an event.
The minimum ticket price in the survey is $35 to $45 a day, with the most expensive being up to $500 for “an ultimate VIP experience”. The minimum is more than ticket prices for general sporting events, such as an A-League or an average NRL round match but not occasions such as a T20 match against Australia and India.
I’ve reached out to ESL for clarification on the survey and their plans, and I’ll update the post if they provide any comment or extra information.
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