Hello everyone! Today’s article is a bit special as it is not in-game oriented. The time has finally come to reveal what have been going on with the name of the team, the sponsor that will support it and what is the aim of the project I am going to describe. Goodbye to Flipmouztic or to Quantsidouz, and welcome to SIGMA E-sport !

As you probably know already, the majority of the players in the competitive scene have been around for quite some time now, few years at least. Their conditions have evolved, that makes no doubt, DotA 2 and e-sport are taking the right path, but there is still a very long way to go. Before I get into further details, I strongly recommend a book written by T.L Taylor, Associate Professor of Comparative Media Studies at MIT : “Raising the Stakes: E-sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming”.

Throughout my career in e-sport (DotA 2), and although it’s far from over, I’ve already had many bad experiences. Do not get me wrong, the DotA 2 community is probably the best one when it comes to sportsmanship, fair-play and solidarity, this is by the way the main motivation behind the Sigma project. But the truth is that players, but not only them, news writers, staff workers, content producers and to a certain extent fans, deserve way better than what is offered to them today.

This observation is obviously general and shared by the large majority of the DotA 2 community. A lot of great people work hard, every day, to make everyone’s life better and to help the DotA 2 community to become even greater than what it is right now. All the initiatives from ValvE, the innovations from tournament organizers, the actions taken by e-sport celebrities (casters, professional players, graphic designers, interviewers etc…) represent a huge step forward, but unfortunately it feels like there is still a lot of work to do.

I’ll share here several facts, very representative of what’s going on backstage, to help everybody understand why we have been working on Sigma with so much dedication and commitment.

To think that professional players have very consequent incomes is completely wrong. Indeed, even though the cash prizes look huge (great figures are marketed: $25,000, $80,000, etc), in reality, being a professional player is really tough. You basically have two options: win or die. Very successful teams, top 1-2 get decent salaries and good amount of the cash prize, as sponsors always take a very consequent cut.

For the others, it’s a whole different story. The salaries are in average of €350 a month, which force player to work / study aside. If you consider the number of hours of official matches, the practice, the interviews, the events, a pro player get maybe between 1 & 2 euro per hour ‘worked’ (because this is indeed a work), which is absolutely ridiculous.

I don’t want to go into much details, but just a few facts so everybody can have a quick look at the reality of competitive DotA 2 currently : unpaid cash prizes after 6 to 8 months of negotiation, extremely low salary, pressure of result, no control of the personal image and communication, very restrictive contract clauses etc etc… Everything is changing, thanks to all the great people that are aware of what’s truly going on. Sigma want to be, and will be an actor of this change.

So today we announce finally what is SIGMA E-sport. The aim of this new company is basically to offer the players the opportunity to finance themselves directly. Here are the most important values of our company :

Because a sponsoring structure is worth nothing without the players and those who support them, SIGMA will work on developing and multiplying the interactions between fans and players. The web offers many different opportunities in that regard; innovative ideas are currently being developed. For once, the sponsor’s growth will directly impact the player’s future and conditions. Moreover, it is needless to say that since the success of Sigma will depend of the community’s support, thus, the team’s development will only be decided by its own supporters. I really want to emphasize the fact that this project is different from others in the sense that this is not only business, this is also sport.

There will be two divisions, the International one, and the French one. The international team will of course represent Sigma in all the major events, online or lan, while the French team should be seen as the ‘academy’ team.

Sharing knowledge, experience and motivation will allow both teams to boost each other’s and meet their expectations. We want to be involved in the change, want to help the community to grow and to preserve its values and what makes it so special.

Like every company (organization) Sigma has to run its business in a profitable way to secure the sustainability of the sponsor’s activity. One can achieve that without selling his soul to the devil, and with the total preservation and respect of its own values. I really want to emphasize that point as a shareholder of the company I will be involved in Sigma’s management and will actively participate in every decision that will be made. In that sense, Sigma is new because it is run by the players themselves.

“This new company is founded by a private investor, which is also a Dota fan and an occasional player. He is fully supporting the E-sport value I described above “

The expectations are very high and consequently there is a lot of work to do. Thanks again for the support; it has always meant a lot to us.

Because we love E-sport, because we love DotA 2, please join me in welcoming SIGMA Σ-sport and its teams.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sigmadota2

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sigma.esport