The growth of this league, and eSports in general, depends so much on you, the managers AND the players, so please, please, forward this to all your teammates, post it on your team website, Facebook, and any other means possible.
I want to start off by making a promise. We at SC2Clans will run this league to the best of our ability, be as fair as possible, and will always put the best interest of the community before anything else. That being said, we can only do so much. We can setup the matches and schedule the times, make judgments when needed, setup casters, etc., but at the end of the day, it will only work if the teams cooperate, communicate, and follow the rules.
I know a lot you have participated and/or are currently participating in other leagues. Some have failed, some have finished rather poorly, never to have a 2nd season, and still others have been decent and even successful. Our intentions at SC2Clans.org are not to replace those failed leagues, nor to be competition to other leagues. I started this all for one main reason: there is a vital gap missing in eSports between amateur and professional teams. I want to help fill this gap. I want your team to have the means necessary to climb to the top of the ranks and move on to bigger leagues like the NASTL, IPL TAC, and even the GSTL. I want to be the Minor League Gaming to the MLG. I want a team like EG to see the MVP at the end of the season and say, "Hey, we need to think about getting that guy a spot on our team."
Is any of this possible? Absolutely. But not overnight, and not without the help of everyone in the community, and help from sponsors. If you are just looking for a fun league to play in, that's fine and we accept you. But if you want something more than that, something really special that can help take your team to the top, then we need your help. We all have to come together and build the infrastructure needed to reach that level. I've spoken with several different prominent companies, and smaller ones, while trying to obtain sponsors for the league, and a common reply has been something like this: We love what you are doing and we believe that more of this is needed to help the eSports community grow. We would very much like to see your community grow. Keep up the good work!
Now I'm not sure how the rest of you perceive that, but to me it says "Hey, show us some good numbers and we may sponsor you." Realistically its about the best we could hope for after only 2 months of existence. That's why you are so important. Its up to you to make the community grow. I can provide you with all the tools and materials needed, but ultimately its up to you to decide if you want to build something with it. No one can just come along and say "Alright I got a league for you guys and its sponsored by Awesome Mouse Company and Kick Ass Monitor Makers," and expect anything to come of it in the long run. We are going to have to fight, scratch, kick, and claw ourselves into the spotlight and demand respect.
That's why we need not just the team managers reading this, but the entire teams. We need EVERYONE talking about the STL on ALL the forums (including our own). We need to keep the thread on TeamLiquid alive and thriving. We need EVERYONE Tweeting about the STL. We need as many people as possible following the Twitch channel and watching our live matches. We need even more people watching the VODs on YouTube. We want to be on the Featured Event/Stream list on TeamLiquid. We need to make it impossible for the SC2 community to ignore us. And when those new visitors (and potential sponsors) visit SC2Clans.org to see what all the fuss is about, they need to see a vibrant community that makes them want to stay there.
There is power in numbers, and in Starcraft 2 eSports, that statement couldn't be more true. The vast majority of SC2 players (aka 'customers' to sponsors) are non-professionals. We need those people to look at us and say "Hey, that looks cool, I want to be a part of that." Only then will I be able to go to someone like SteelSeries and say "Look at these numbers we produced over the summer." Only then will all of the teams and players start to get the recognition and opportunities they deserve.
Lead by example. Go tell everyone on your team join SC2Clans.org, Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and follow our Twitch channel. Do the same for our Casters! With just every participating team's roster signing up, we could have over 400 members/followers! Then go tell your family to follow us. Tell your friends at school or university or work to follow us. Tell every person you know that you are apart of something special in the making and that your are helping pave the way for eSports in America.
Some ideas for those of you really passionate people who want to do more: If you like writing, consider writing previews and postmortems of matches for your team in the 'Admin Alley' portion of the site. Many teams already do this on their own sites, just copy and paste on SC2Clans, then copy and paste on TL. I've also noticed that many teams advertise their clan wars on the TL Tournament Forums, and most of the time they include some nice graphics. Perhaps you would like to help out the STL by creating some fancy artwork to be showcased across our website and streams.
If you have anything else you can bring to the league or the site, please let me know. I believe alone we can be good, but together we can be great.
I will be sending out a final email with anything and everything else you might need to know once the brackets are finalized.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to an exciting and successful season with everyone!
--WarEagle