I can understand why streamers would prefer running showmatches to tournaments. Both provide an event they can hype up, but showmatches are less of a commitment in just about every way to run. In terms of administration, logistics/scheduling, prizepool, time spent actually casting the games, etc. showmatches are just easier to host. And bigger names bring more viewership, which is how we end up with the same small pool of players playing seemingly every showmatch.
I don't follow other esports, so I'm curious, does this dynamic exist in others? It seems to me that none of the factors I listed above are specific to aoe, and yet I'd never heard of showmatches before aoe (though admittedly, as I said before, I don't really follow any others games, so I might just have missed it.) Are they as prevalent in SC2/CS:GO/LoL/etc.? If not, I'm very curious why.
Also, this is definitely not a new thing in the community, I remember Edie's thread from a couple of years ago, where many of the points raised were the same as today.
I don't follow other esports, so I'm curious, does this dynamic exist in others? It seems to me that none of the factors I listed above are specific to aoe, and yet I'd never heard of showmatches before aoe (though admittedly, as I said before, I don't really follow any others games, so I might just have missed it.) Are they as prevalent in SC2/CS:GO/LoL/etc.? If not, I'm very curious why.
Also, this is definitely not a new thing in the community, I remember Edie's thread from a couple of years ago, where many of the points raised were the same as today.