StarCraft II – The e-Sports So Far...Part II
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StarCraft II – The e-Sports So Far...Part II »
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Written by: SoFool 27/06/2011 14:12:45
The Past
Before there was SC2, it was Brood War of SC1. The BW e-Sports phenomenon only existed in the Land of South Korea, where progamers who made it big are treated like Hollywood superstars, those geeks have their own fan clubs, fan girls screamed with orgasm everytime their favourite player does something spectacular, they have mascots and thousands of fans turn up for a final, with cheerleaders and team flags.
I kidd you not.
While they have been doing this for a decade, we foreign gamers kind of envied them for having such culture that non-gamers can never understand. BW tournaments are in foreign countries are small, unnoticed sometimes, lack of sponsorship, only held in LAN parties, prizes are nothing compared to the salaries of the likes of elite Korean progamers.
Why couldn't BW be successful in foreign countries like it is in S.Korea? Well in my experience, these are the factors that can come into consideration.
But all that have changed, all thanks to SC2.
The Present
When Blizzard announced a SC2 league which is the Global SC2 League that is currently running today, the first place had a five digit number in it, and it was in USD. The biggest proze pool money ever offered in a tournament, this has attracted many new and old gamers to participate. Also as the tournament name suggested, anyone above age 12 can join the tournament, this means that foreigners have a shot of their progaming career.
Although the prize pool is huge, there was a problem. It was the only SC2 tournament available, in the BW scene Kespa (an association for handling BW tournaments in S.Korea) have multiple tournaments throughout the years, therefore progamers were not that worried of doing it for a living as they do have salaries. With only the GSL available, it's a win or die for SC2 progamers.
Then something happened, SC2 scene started to hit mainstream in the West as well.
Wee~~
(Credits to Teamliquid)
DreamHack
DreamHack, is a LAN party tournament that is held at least twice a year in Sweden. What's interesting about it is not only it has added SC2 but its prize money was even bigger than the World Cyber Games for BW, as time went by DreamHack also startled to invite Korean players and its first prize was also increasing. An attractive offer for all progamers around, even for the S.Korean progamers want to join as many foreign tournaments as possible, according to God of War, July also wishes to join as many tournaments because SC2 is not entirely established so there is no salary yet.
Maybe that's why the North American Star League (NASL) was introduced as well with three seasons to be held in a year. The player who wins all three seasons will get $400,000, that's even more than what GSL is offering now. And a well known gaming website IGN also started their own SC2 league which is the IGN Pro League (IPL), it's quite obvious that the SC2 scene is growing rapidly and faster than S.Korea.
As America is starting to recognize SC2 as a potential e-Sports platform, in fact I dare say that SC2 is the reason that actually brought the Major League Gaming (MLG) back to live. The tournament was kind of sloppy at first for SC2, but it got better as time goes by. Especially with the recent MLG, there were a lot of dramas and moments that are to be remembered. The scene is becoming more like BW in S.Korea, with fans cheering and going wild something that is rarely seen in the GSL.
Day9's face - Priceless
These are the comments that TeamLiquid has collected from S.Korea who watched the recent MLG.
It's funny because we used to look at the Koreans are say those stuff, now the role is reversed.
The Proleague of SC2
In BW the Proleague was the heart of e-Sports, teams compete each other to determine who is the best BW team. Fans get crazy whenever their favour team player delivers an all-kill victory (4-0 in a row), like Brazilians and football, they pour out their support with all their heart and soul.
Fact - More girls watch BW than SC2 (lol)
It was something that GSL lacked at first, this is where the GSTL came in. At first, it was only a four days tournament because there only so few SC2 teams. It was a good first step, finals were incredibly entertaining with two 5-4 results in the best of 9 over the 3 seasons, watching unknown players getting known like Bomber and MMA, and also watching new team rivaries such as SlayerS and MVP as BoxeR's team clinched their seond GSTL title. However there was one problem, the tournament was too short. And I kind of lost the hype during the second season of GSTL.
And thank goodness that GSTL has extended their tournament time line from a week to five months. And what's even better now is that foreign teams are also allowed to join the tournament, with FXO from Australia mixed with players from different nationalities, and other players such as NaNiwa, ThorZaIN and Fenix joining F.United (branched from WeMadeFox, for not having enough members to particpate) as "mercenaries". GSTL is sure going to be a joy ride for fans and spectators, and I hope to see more foreign teams competing in GSTL in the future facing off with the Koreans. It will be a thrill.
Talking about foreigners face off with the Koreans...
GSL World Championship
Noohhh...HE DIDN'T!
As I mentioned in my previous post of the e-Sports So Far, the only thing that is keeping fans watching SC2 is because we're still waiting for foreigner to win a GSL title. There is no doubt that Koreans have been dominating foreign competitions left and right (with the exception of Huk in the recent DreamHack), so when GSL World Championship was up it was the world's best international players against the best Koreans players. Wow.
In two sets of the best of 7 and 9, the foreigners showed the Koreans that they are not pushovers. First result was a 4-2, then they lost to them in a close fight of 7-8. Boy was it entertaining...but in the end it was the Korea Team that won overall in the round of 16 after that. And I hope to see more of it in the future.
Clearly, Artosis has learned something from MC.
The Future
With that said, we can see that the world that was once baffled by the popularity of BW in S.Korea, is now slowly recognizing this e-Sports phenomenon as a culture. Fans welcoming a player back in an airport is something that a gamer never dream of, or getting interviewed on national TV and featured on Eurosports news? Heck even Taiwan is opening their own SC2 league, and the Philippines too. And I'm sure I'm not the only one, as an avid fan who constantly wonders whether will there ever be an official SC2 league in our own country.
And as of the balancing state of the game, I can't say much because the metagame is still changing, but I guess it's safe to say that the metagame won't be settled until the next 2-3 years with the coming expansions. And previous champions always get owned by another contender, even I admit that most of the time GSL finals are too one sided except the second season of Nestea vs MKP. Maybe Blizzard shouldn't have patched the game so much until people figure out how to counter this and that like in the BW days (the last patch was in 2001, and there were only two patches), why can't they do that?
But at least Blizzard is doing a good job of promoting SC2 as an e-Sports platform. 2011 is an important year for SC2, but can it last until 2012 and the year after that with its plan expansions? I don't know and I hope so, so as of now enjoy it while you still can. Glhf.
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Comments
Nice writeup. From what we can see from a perspective of the players the growth of SC2 and the increasing number of tournaments with support from Blizzard will only help to promote the growth of the industry, the size of the market (players) and the increasing advertising/marketing opportunities will further help the overall growth of E-sports with SC2 leading the way.
Some people criticize that E-sports is just a bubble. I'd say it's a revolution of entertainment for the new generation.
Hey, nice article ! :D
thx ^^
HI SoFool! Got play SC2BW ah? goood memories last time.... Now Garena kosong already. Must find me in msn jiexian07 at gmail
yoyo~ haha no oh the mod is still kinda broken especially that siege mode damage omg lol, yaloh garena msia sc room is ghost town liao. anyway added you liao ;D