When I became a voluntary admin at ESL about a year ago, it was mainly because I was wondering what had happened to the organization that once provided such great action for the game I love: Jay & Joe, the dynamic duo, covering all the great products Turtle Entertainment offered: ENC, IEM and EMS. And I learned rather quickly what the problem was: Turtle Entertainment does not throw money at something that does not pay back. I also learned there are two important things where TE and the QL community clash.

One, business wants professionals who generate income and are generally … uhm … professional. This is important not only for clans and sponsors but also for league organizations. frs summed it up quite well (in an entertainingly offensive way): http://www.esreality.com/post/2227998/#pid2227998
It’s not all about skill. It’s about organizations wanting reliable, active teams/players. Activity matters!

Two, Turtle Entertainment wants page views and page activity to create income through their ads. For a Quaker who grew up using IRC this is a real problem. For players of other (newer) games, it’s the most normal thing in the world to do all communications through a website, webchat or products like Versus or Wire. To the company, it’s not about how good games are or how many overall players there are, it’s all about activity on their page. Activity matters!!

So I talked to one of the guys at TE who plans and divides money for EMS titles and asked whether it might be possible to get EMS back for QL TDM 4v4. The requirements he named were simple: activity with cups, leagues and page views over a longer period of time, with not too many drop-outs.
Being one of very few motivated voluntary ESL admins left for QL, this leaves me with a pretty simple question: Is this community broken beyond repair or can we buck up and make something happen?  Can we make activity matter and get the good times back?

Therefor I would like to propose to you today, my last attempt to make things work (again) in ESL. The ESL Activity Matters Cup Series:

- Four weeks, four one-night cups with up to two divisions with 16 teams each.
- Point ranking: Each team gets points for attending a cup and additional points for their placement in each cup.
- After four cups, the top eight teams in the ranking play a final one-day cup with double elimination best of three (overall final best of five). Teams 9-16 in the ranking play a division 2 final cup.
- Pool: Dreadful Place, Purgatory, Hidden Fortress, Grim Dungeons, Deep Inside
- Schedule: AMC # 1 -- 4: Every Tuesday at 20 CET, starting April 3rd. Finals Sunday April 29th at 16 CET.

What we offer:
- A cleaned up ESL website: http://www.esl.eu/eu/quakelive/
- Guides that help you get things done on the site.
- A helping hand in IRC for all problems you run across on the site
- Communication with coverage partners (Yes, I will ask Jay and Joe if they can cover the finals. lvl^ will stream all cups!)
- A chance to get the good times back, to prove that we deserve EMS 4v4 or ENC.

What we need from you:
- Activity, Participation
- A bit of your good will
- Comments on how I can modify this proposal to create the best possible experience for you!

If you can help out by covering games, please comment, pm or query me. The more the better!
If you want to help get this on the way, we’re always looking for new admins, but one-night voluntary work could help a lot already! (For example, if you think you can make better seedings than me)