AMD Loses QuakeCon To Intel

The Inquirer has a report that AMD has lost sponsorship of the QuakeCon event to Intel. From the article: "As the official CPU and title sponsor of QuakeCon 2005, Intel will be providing its Extreme Edition tournament systems and servers to host the tournament and bring your own computer (BYOC) games. As AMD news site AMDzone.com says, with such close competition between Intel and AMD when it comes to high performance gaming, this could be bad news for AMD and tip the scales in Intel's favour. Intel is clearly trying to get a leg up on the eSports front, having sponsored other big events such as Bloodline and successful gaming team 4kings, it seems that Intel wants to have its name associated with all things e-Sports. "

Comments

AMD missing strategy

[superpulpsicle]

When AMD had the #2 product, no problem. Intel won every deal.

Now that AMD clearly have a better product, why are they not winning?! They loose events after events, OEMs after OEMs. Apple, Dell, Quakecon for starters. They can't just rely on enthusiasts.

Re:AMD missing strategy

[bersl2]

That's a funny statement, "They can't just rely on enthusiasts." The ones I talk to are absolutely smitten with them at the moment. It is common knowledge (well, everywhere except the known Intel-whoring sites) that the Athlon64 beats the Pentium 4, hands down, in everything but multimedia encoding. And their (single core) processors are better priced than Intel's, and they overclock better than Intel's too. I don't think I have to mention the thermal parameters either.

Re:AMD missing strategy

[elasticwings]

I for one don't really care if AMD is the fastest or not. They have always had better pricing value for good performance. And since Intel likes to things like this. I don't think I will be supporting them with my money. Also, learn the freaking difference between lose and loose.

Why can there only be ONE sponsor?

[WidescreenFreak]

I don't get this. When you watch NASCAR (I don't, thankfully), you see cars that have more visible sponsor logos than visible paint. Dozens and dozens of sponsors per car - not just one sponsor.

When you watch a show on commercial TV or you listen to a commercial radio station, you hear various commercials for several companies - not just one company.

What is so flipping special about QuakeCon that they can only have either AMD or Intel as a sponsor? Why is there apparently some kind of shame in letting both companies sponsor it? Oh, look! There are other names besides Intel that are sponsoring QuakeCon! Why is AMD not allowed to be one of them?

This militant, extremist attitude that there can only be either Intel or AMD - but, heaven forbid, not both - is ridiculous. And, frankly, you can't tell me that Intel won because they're better at gaming. Sorry, I don't believe that and the numbers normally side with AMD from what I've read; however, that does not mean that one party should be excluded. They're willing to pay up. Let them. Then let Intel's and AMD's PR fight among themselves.

If anything, it means that the gamers lose. With paid sponsorship by AMD now verboten, the prize packages are smaller than they otherwise might have been. Who knows? With AMD's support the prizes could have totalled $250,000 instead of the current $150,000.

Ridiculous and sad (in a pathetic way) at the same time.

Re:Why can there only be ONE sponsor?

[Tanmi-Daiow]

Its not that there has to be one sponsor. Its rather an image thing. AMD and Intel are competing companies. Would they really want to share the limelight with their competitor? All the companies on the NASCAR cars are NOT competing products. In fact they have little to nothing to do with each other, and often are owned by the same company. That is why both AMD and Intel can't sponsor it.

Re:Why can there only be ONE sponsor?

[supabeast!]

Because Intel is willing to spend more money to be the ONLY sponsor than AMD can pony up for it to have multiple sponsors.

Re:Ok, Let's stop this right now.

[KingJackaL]

Sports, by definition, require physical exertion

They do? While a dictionary would support that view on first glance, it's interesting to note how dictionaries note the relationship between a game and a sport.

I'd define a sport as any game taken seriously (competitively). Which would include things such as poker tournaments, chess tournaments and golf - none of which require physical exertion. (*pokes golfers*)

Silly article slant

[HunterZ]

I thought TFA was being a bit melodramatic by suggesting that gamers would actually care who is sponsoring an event like that. Everyone on the block knows that AMD's 64-bit CPUs are the hot item for gaming PCs these days, and for at least several years now AMD has enjoyed a reputation for providing the most bang for your buck with cheaper, more easily overclockable processors.

Really the only holds Intel has over the gaming PC sub-market are old-school brand loyalty -- they have a reputation for releasing the most stable CPUs, combined with a now false stigma of leading the way with the CPU technology -- and a now crumbling monopoly on pre-built systems.

For one simple reason.

[Inoshiro]

Domain. When you see a car go by advertising McDonald's and Home Depot, you know that they're not competing.

I have yet to see a car with Ford and Toyota on it, or a Microsoft/Sony co-branding. I don't see how this is any different.

Re:Ok, Let's stop this right now.

[Sparr0]

So is DDR a sport? (thats the arcade game where you have to 'dance' on arrows on the floor in time to the video/music)

What about golf? Or darts? Shuffleboard?