Two years ago, KombatNetwork’s original purpose was intended to be a hub that would bring together the handful of fracture leading MK sites and forums where competition is a common theme, along with the the goals of working together, expanding the community, running and promoting events, providing information about gameplay and giving players a place to talk strategy and get to know each other at the same time.
These plans didn’t go exactly as planned but after some restructuring, KombatNetwork’s purpose still continued through streaming MK events at Majors, VSM at Gamer’s Edge, RBR at YesterCades and at times other games in the FGC as well, working hand in hand with TYM, the KN website, helping run events for locals, etc. Essentially, with the idea floating around, KN was then destined to become a reincarnation and refocusing of UltimateMK.com.
As many of you know, KombatNetwork ran a sponsorship program in 2012 to help promote the brand, gain exposure for MK and build an overall following in the FGC to supplement the stream and events KN supports and runs. This program was basically an extension of the sporadic sponsorships through UMK for players such as Tim Static, Konqrr, and Juggernaut at various UMK3 majors in 2010. These can be considered more as favors for friends in the community.
About a year and a half ago, right before CD Jr and REO were sponsored by vVv, I discussed with Summoning the possibility of sponsoring players. We came up with a reasonable budget, and the first grandiose plan we came up with was to sponsor all three CD brothers, Crazy Dominican, Maxter, and CD Jr for several tournaments, while following their experience with a dedicated camera man. The idea was to be a documentary of sorts. This would have been a spectacular venture, but it would have cost us about $10,000.
UltraSpec Cables is a benevolent supporter of the FGC, beyond what many people know, including supplying and selling cables, projectors, and other equipment to various TOs to get their events running without a hitch, or at least, as few hitches as possible, not to mention that the North East scene thrives on support from UltraSpec courtesy of legendary MK player Summoning. Even with this, a $10K proposal was a bit steep to dive into so we decided to see how simply sponsoring a few players most of the way there would do, and in my opinion, it went very well.
Our first choice was Crazy Dominican, because we’ve known him personally for about 5 years, he is a veteran fighting game player, has a deep love of fighting games in general, well known and respected. He seemed the perfect fit for a model sponsee. It had absolutely nothing to do with him being a part of VSM, which some players thought seemed a little questionable. We approached him about the idea at Winter Brawl 2012, ironed out the details and got him on board shortly after.
CD participated as a KN sponored player at MLG: Columbus, EVO, MLG: Raleigh and MLG: Dallas, achieving top 16 to top 6 in all these events. It was our pleasure and honor to have such a consummate professional on the KN team this year. Much respect.
The next choice was DetroitBalln. This actually came after spotting a partial sponsorship to him at Final Round XV to cover the remainder of the cost of his ticket when the sponsorship he won only covered half. I heard the tournament was for a free ride and when I found out he wasn’t going to make it we decided to start the sponsorship program then and there. DetroitBalln is a fresh, up and coming player in the FGC with much experience in the scene already. In many ways, a contrast to CD but none the less, another perfect candidate for sponsorship.
DB represented as a KN sponored player at Final Round XV (unsigned), MLG: Anaheim, EVO, MLG: Raleigh and just confirmed tonight, SCR will be the final KN sponsored tournament for @DetroitBalln. He achieved impressive, top 16 or better placements in all tournaments thus far, including a huge 1st place victory at MLG Anaheim. He also represented KN at other tournaments of his own volition. Here’s to DB winning SCR!
Last, but not certainly least, @Perfect Legend was picked up for a couple “per tournament” sponsorships similar to the UMK3 events in 2010, as an unsigned KN representative. He did OK. Oh yeah..he won that little tournament called “EVO” under KN sponsorship! Not bad? I think that was his 2nd, I’ll have to google that. He also placed a respectable 5th at MLG: Raleigh. Always a controversial player who does what he says he’ll do, PL definitely made the golden achievement for the KN sponsorship program in 2012. Credit as the clincher for getting PL on board to Claude “TriForce” VonStroke.
I wasn’t at any of the events where KN players represented, so the only negative thing I encountered was when stream producers failed to use the KN tags, and confused tags, like EVO for example when I had to text STORMS to get that done! You could hear him on the broadcast talking to Sp00ky, where he actually not only corrected PL’s name, but everyone’s.
We left the contract for sponsorship wide open with as much of it being “for the players” as possible. The contract was for 4 specific tournaments throughout the year (March 2012 through February 2013 basically) but if the players received an option from someone else at a better deal, they were welcome to take that and hold off on our offer for a future event.
Due to the limited number of events allowed, we only asked that they represent KN at tournaments we paid for and were extremely lenient on arrangements or rescheduling. Fortunately we never ran into any issues although a few payouts were too close to the event in my opinion.
We did our best to cover the entire flight/travel, venue, and entry fees. Essentially about 70% of their cost. In the future, if we run some online tournaments for one time only sponsorships, I would like to raise some cash and get those numbers to cover hotel rooms for 2 nights as well. Our overall payout for the program was $4500 spread across 12 months, 3 players, and 11 total tournaments (not unique events but with overlapping).
We are currently not planning to renew any contracts (never say never) or start new ones for 2013, however we will focus personal investments on improving the stream and getting more systems for events. We will attempt to raise some funds through streaming and pushing purchases through UltraSpec.us . Anything you buy from US, put “kombatnetwork” in the comments for the order, and 100% of your purchase will go towards the MK FGC. New and better stream equipment, game systems, possible new sponsorships. I’ve spent 11 years in the FGC and it gets more enjoyable every year.
Thank you to the players who helped us this year and more to come. Mission complete.