From August 20 to 25, an ad hoc bull pen of “yellow cows” gathered across the street from Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, and daily ticket prices fluctuated according to the specifics of the tournament-specifically, if Chinese teams were advancing through the double-elimination bracket. ![]() In a flurry of CTRL+V’ed credit card numbers and frantic F5’ing, the tickets sold out in less than five minutes and immediately began circulating in secondhand marketplaces like Viagogo and Taobao for $2200. ![]() on May 25, 2019, tickets for The International Dota 2 Championship went on sale for $440 1 each-some of the most expensive seats in the history of esports (see fig. When the metagame of ticketing transgresses the boundaries of the magic circle of the esports stadium, the illusion of meritocracy falls away to reveal money games all the way down.Īt 6:00 a.m. Working with Tara Fickle’s concept of “ludo-Orientalism” and Marcella Szablewicz’s notion of “patriotic leisure,” this essay moves from the competition between pro gamers and esports commentary to the political spectacle produced by the metagame of ticket arbitrage. Although these types of games also occur alongside sold-out concerts, maximum-capacity sporting events, and bustling fan conventions, the life of this particular ticket brings together Valve’s unique history financializing esports and gamifying money with the political and economic realities of an American company holding an event in Shanghai the summer of 2019. ![]() From USD and RMB to online and offline tickets to wristbands and black-light stamps, blind boxes and swag bags, loot drops and virtual cosmetics, and back to money, a ticket does not simply grant entrance to watch a game but constitutes a metagame in and of itself. This essay begins with a simple object-a ticket to The International, Valve Corporation’s annual Dota 2 Championship-and traces its life cycle to show how something seemingly straightforward like admission to an esports tournament in China can reveal a series of interleaved microeconomies that index the performances of professional players inside the stadium, instigate a host of informal money games played outside the stadium, and even intersect with contemporary geopolitics.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |