Eclypsia's taste of Bonfire

This is an editorial opinion piece and the author's opinion does not necessarily represent the opinion of GosuGamers or the opinion of any affiliates.

From Quantic to Eclypsia to No-Mans-Land. Five Danes have experienced a roller coaster of emotions these days. It's their own fault, and everybody's disaster. A comment.

Former Eclypsia roster:

Mikkel 'miGGel' Berg

Martin 'AngeL' Olsen

Amel 'PlaymatE' Barudzija

Brian 'Mania' Strandby

Christoffer 'Ryze' Winther

Gaëlle 'MystresS' Pavillon (Man.) Mikkel 'miGGel' BergMartin 'AngeL' OlsenAmel 'PlaymatE' BarudzijaBrian 'Mania' StrandbyChristoffer 'Ryze' WintherGaëlle 'MystresS' Pavillon (Man.)

Christoph “malnor” Helbig Malnor is former Editor-in-chief of GosuGamers.net, now a guest editor for Dota 2 and general eSports topics.

Why did it have to get so far? Why did MystresS, AngeL, miGGel, Mania, Ryze and PlaymatE leave Eclypsia? Why did they announce their move to Eclypsia before signing the contracts? How come they even agreed on paying the transfer fee by themselves? How could they evolve from a respected SK Gaming team, by a well-performing Quantic, to a readily-deceived Ex-Eclypsia?The top of the five Danes' reputation was probably the Defense final against Na'Vi. Some might have caught the thought that the SK to Quantic move was just because of SK being unwilling to pay the demanded sum. The Quantic-Eclypsia move, however, shows that SK was just not interested in Dota 2 in early 2012.It was only with the move to Eclypsia that the Danish team got megalomaniacal and careless. They accepted an offer from an unreliable source. They decided to pull out of Quantic and to make it public even before seeing a contract, not speaking of signing at all. They decided to join an organization which calls their previous contracts illegal. They even decided to pay Quantic for releasing them. The question occurs: Who hired who? Was the French CEO of Eclypsia, Julien Thierry, searching for a Dota 2 team, or were the Danes searching for finally an option to make money fast?Getting information about team Eclypsia, however, is not an easy task. MystresS and the players accepted an offer from a team not listing responsible people, not giving an address, only giving a simple contact page for inquiries. Aggravating, the information given by MystresS about a collaboration between Eclypsia and Dota2-Europe.com doesn't help at all. The only difference in contact information for Eclypsia and Dota2-Europe is that D2E is not using a contact page, but instead a dummy mail.The scary part of this failed attempt from the Danes is the wide dimension. Who is going to be the loser now? Who wants to have a Dota 2 team which grabs the next best chance and buys itself out of contract at the next best opportunity?Which other teams would have accepted the generous offer of team Eclypsia without hesitating? Who can call his Dota team stable if even a notable clan like Quantic can lose its team within days?It's important that Dota 2 teams take this SK-Quantic-Eclypsia disaster team as a bad example. You have to ask yourself, why is somebody going to buy my playing power? eSport has grown out of being a hobby for 16-year old pubescent boys. It's a business. It's a fast evolving business, some people have evanescent business models; and yes, sometimes you can grab money, if you're making clever decisions. But if you really think about making eSport your living in a dependent position, think twice how the other person is trying to get his money back. He's not going to spend it voluntarily.If you combine one and another of what MystresS explained in case of Eclypsia, the business model gets a contour. Eclypsia is most likely run by someone who adopted the idea of livestreaming in eSport. In his mind, eSport players are content suppliers for his Dailymotion streams. The obvious dominance of Dailymotion streams on both Eclypsia and Dota 2 Europe is either a consequence of being French-based (unproblematic version), or the platforms are even used to spread Dailymotion internationally (ugly version). Other than Dailymotion, Eclypsia has almost no advert space. This means, the organisation is heavily relying on streams as an income source.Problem is: A team's involvement in a players' streaming is very limited. If a team really can afford to hire players mainly because of their streaming, the players should be able to generate a suitable income by streaming themselves, even without committing to the team.MystresS and the five Danes have most likely gambled away their chance for a steady progression with team Quantic. Other teams still have that chance and future talented players will get that opportunity of growing into success. Skipping steps within days doesn't help here. Be determined, but be careful. Keep in mind: You're playing with careers.