With more Warcraft 3 divisions being shut down from their organizations, myMYM.com's Marcus 'Wind' Ho goes behind the scene to find out more about the organization's team budgets, salaries and the most important of all - the reason to release their WC3 teams.

Over the years, competitive Warcraft 3 has proven to be a lucrative competition across South Korea, China and even Europe. Every new season of WC3L is getting tougher, and the number of Warcraft tournaments seems to proliferate year after year. More players rise to stardom, and more people begin to watch the game.

However, competitive Warcraft apparently does not just appeal to RTS fans. It is also attracting the attention of wealthy investors, who are presumably today’s sponsors of various professional gaming teams.

On the face of it, this looks like good business.

A myriad of fans turned up to catch their favorite WC3 stars in action at ROTK in Wuhan

Top-flight teams such as SK-Gaming have a monthly budget projected at more than $19,000, while MeetYourMakers boasts an estimate monthly budget of more than $45,000 for their Warcraft III team alone, with the inclusion of their salaries, flights and hotels.

This bulk of money comes mainly from the investors and sponsors behind the organization to endorse and promote their name, products and various brands.

Yet big budgets do not equal large profits.

SK, WE and MYM - How did they survive all these while?

In order to stay competitive, organizations have to spend efforts and resources through media sales (advertisements), team merchandises and micro-payments (i.e. SK Insider, Club MYM, etc.)

The latter half of 2008 has already seen the release of several teams from their respective organizations, one of which that will always remain as THE legendary squad in professional gaming’s history – 4Kings.

But how did these teams possibly fall apart?

Wicked e-Sports

According to mart1n, former manager of wicked e-Sports, pro-gaming is still at its roots, and has a long way to go.

“We worked assiduously to successfully rally a team of both Asians and Europeans. I think we became a very successful team,” mart1n said.

“But unfortunately, not everything turns out as expected from the cooperation, and the people whom you have to rely on. This often happens in cybersports.

“Money was the main reason why the WC3 squad was released. It coincided with the moment we should have gone to the WC3L, when the players had to renew their contracts. But a very small raise were offered to us; much less than the promised ones.

SouthSea and SocceR - One's a lone ranger, while the other had the back-up of MYM

“Unfortunately, none of the players agreed to sign since the players have to earn their money from playing games, and most of them are already adults. It is their job. We like each other, but we needed support. A monthly budget about $3,000 was simply not enough to keep the team, and it’s a pity we had to part ways.”

It may also be disbelieve to many, but both Sky and Infi were also linked with the German-based organization, which is presently funded by a private investor.

Mart1n added: “We offered many humans, but to keep our high level we wanted to get one with a great name, and Sky/Infi are for sure great players.

“The CEO promised a budget big enough to keep all the players including Sky and Infi at that time.”

Beijing E-Sports Team

Speculations have always mounted over the sponsors behind the team that harbored one of the most coveted and talented players in the world. Many have suggested that BET was financially supported by the Beijing government due to its namesake.

They were close though, but not exactly right.

Tobi “quiZZ” Stahmer, formerly the manager of BET, says that the squad was part of a consulting company called Munne International Holdings (MHI for short), founded by a popular diplomatic figure, Munne.

“She is very well known in Asia for creating big events in the past like WEG, and being in diplomatic issues between China and Korea. Furthermore, she is able to speak fluently in Korean, Chinese and Japanese, which makes it pretty easy to talk to new partners and that’s why she is the important key-part of the company behind BET.”

In early April however, Warcraft fans woke up to the news that one of the strongest teams were beginning to fall apart as the players began to leave one after another with no apparent reason.

BET's old roster (From left to right): WinNers, Fov, whO, Jini

quiZZ continued: “Of course every expensive project like building a top-team in WarCraft is related with big costs and small profits.

“Especially the Korean players, who have very high expectations concerning their salaries. BET took this risk with the rear cover of a sponsor, but that’s just a very temporary state. Because who likes spending money without receiving something in return?

“Maybe some preparations should have been taken before the team was announced. For example, they should have first prepared a homepage, a structure and then the investments.

“From my point of view, there were just some problems in the communication part and the specific projects to develop the BET brand were not taken too seriously and couldn’t be finished. The sponsors were never brought up in public because there was never a homepage.

“There is no relation between the success of the team and the fans or community. In the case of BET, we had investors who weren’t interested in presenting themselves in public. Nevertheless, for every development in e-sports or for making money, a homepage is necessary as a first step and that was missing. They told me, that the homepage is in progress, but nothing happened until now.”

However, quiZZ was also quick to rebuff to suggestions claiming that BET’s Warcraft 3 project was a failure. Despite MHI’s predicament, he believes that the situation can be salvaged, and the squad will make a return to the scene soon enough.

“WC3 is still a growing market in China. Munne and Erica (current owners of BET) are very well known and experienced and as they said, a reconstruction is already planned for the future.

“Maybe it was just a failure to invest all the money in such high paid top-stars like Fov and Sweet. Perhaps they should have just tried to create something step by step and be little more careful with the budgets.”

Hoorai

Hoorai’s budgets however, pale in comparison to the other dominant teams. According to insider sources, an approximate monthly budget of $1,600 was simply way too much for an underperforming team that hit rock-bottom of the WC3L before failing to qualify for the following season and facing relegation to NGL-TWO.

Yet, sources believe that the players from hoorai felt that they deserve parity with other professional players, with a higher demand in their monthly wages

The official press release from hoorai’s website read:

Does the final statement imply that the organization will re-assemble a new team? If so, who will it consists of?

Is it really worth it?

If history has taught us anything, an organization either comprising or nurturing a team of ‘talented’ players will eventually carry the risk of paying unbelievably high amounts of salaries. A prime example would be none other than Jae Ho “Moon” Jang, when MeetYourMakers decided to pick him up during his slump in early 2006.

The 22-year-old Night elf player is one of today’s top-earning professional players, having earned close to half a million US dollars in prize money throughout his entire career, and is rumored to be receiving a monthly salary of $10,000.

MYM]Moon - The world's top-earning WC3 player

But nonetheless, despite having strong financial back-ups of sponsors and investors, the question remains – is it really worth it?