Someone posted a poll looking at how many people support each team after the X Games, and these are the results (from almost 500 people):

Optic Gaming: 75% Team Kaliber: 8% Evil Geniuses: 6% Envy: 6% The remaining 10 teams: 0-1%

Disclaimer: I realise the % of Optic fans will be higher than usual because they won the X Games, but I think my points stand regardless.

Am I the only person who thinks this is hindering the scene from growing to it's full potential?

Rivalries within any sport are an important factor in creating entertainment value. While this always exists between players, it is missing a lot of the time between fans, when three quarters of people support the same team.

It's also frustrating to see how many casual players teams like Optic have converted into competitive fans, and then wonder how large our scene would have been if other organisations and players had done the same.

With more people involved, we'll be taken more seriously as an eSport, have better tournament atmospheres, larger prize pools, and more dedicated players.

From those results, it seems that winning events actually does very little to improve a teams popularity. Instead, people want to support a team whose players they can relate to, with regular and enjoyable content to watch.

Concepts like the House of Envy or the AMA that Evil Geniuses posted to their channel are great ideas, but we need more from those organisations. Players need to be more aware of their social media presence, and the way they behave. Rosters need to stay together for longer periods of time, so that fans can get a chance to know them, and become emotionally invested in the team.

As of now, most people seem to only consider how to succeed in the present, without thinking about how it impacts their future. We need players to not complain about their stream earnings compared to someone like Nadeshot, but instead wonder how they can achieve the same.

These are just my thoughts, what do you guys think?