Money definitely matters because in order to throw a bunch of events, you have to be willing to take a loss. You're more than likely going to be losing money for years entering into any business. A business like battle rap, one thing you have to do is constantly throw events. At least 5 events a year (bare minimum) to even be in the game as a serious league. That takes serious chicken to do.
I do agree the passion has to be there, along with the money, connections and also the understanding of how battle rap works. A lot of leagues had 1 or even 2 of the ingredients but never all four except URL.
I think Remy has a better chance to succeed than Floyd, because like you said, she has a passion, and she has some know how of what goes into throwing an event. The thing is, is she willing to go all in like Smack has, and make her entire brand battle rap? I think it remains to be seen, but it's going to take something like that to get her where she wants to be. Remy has a large social media following mostly from Love and Hip Hop. Her base is probably like 85% women. Not sure how it'll work if she tries to turn her whole page into mostly battle rap content.
I have no clue how passionate Floyd is about battle rap, I have a feeling his execution is going to be terrible. He has the Zeus network (I believe he is partial owner) and I know they're always looking for content, so I can see him using as a way to draw more eyes to his network and get subscribers.