EPTProgaming is held by fanboyism, whether you agree with me or not, it's hard to argue that nobody wants to watch mediocre players upsetting your favorite players who go on to fail in the next round/stage/upcoming games. KWANNROLL in the MSL finals was a perfect example of how a MSL final could somehow possess the same amount of excitement as a Minor League Bogus vs Lucifer match. I couldn't care less about the victor, let alone stay up late to watch the match live. In fact, I didn't even watch the vods, and only checked the results a week later.
Consider the following hypothetical match between OZ and CJ:
(T)HiyA - (Z)sAviOr
(Z)Jaedong - (T)sKyHigh
(P)PerfectMan - EffOrt
(Z)Killer - Movie
Out of the 8 players, only Jaedong and Savior have fan bases of respectable size. If both Savior and Jaedong were to lose to Hiya and Skyhigh respectively, then it'll be a big blow to the "progaming lifeline". Fanboys will cry, lose faith in their favorite player even further, and inevitably, lose faith in them and stop caring. I know I don't follow the OSL anymore because Bisu got knocked out by Shine. On the other hand, if Jaedong and Savior both took their matches, fanboys, especially those of Savior, would leap in joy and nerdgasm hardcore, feel satisfied, regain faith in their favorite players, and continue to follow their next matches with a keen interest. So It's a good thing when favorites win, a good thing when favorites lose to new raising stars who then become more loved and the new favorites, but a bad thing when favorites lose to scrubs who then go on to fail against other scrubs.
For any competition to be entertaining, it has to be balanced to the point where no one or few players complete dominate, but it also has to have a certain amount of star power. Sadly, professional starcraft in Korea is losing that aspect of the game, where the skill level has become so high that most players have reached the upper limits of starcraft training. Eventually, we'll see more of a shift of win/loss rates with pretty much EVERY progamer having 50% winrate. Of course it wouldn't happen so fast and dramatically, but you get my point.
So I hope for the sake of the continuation of professional broodwar compeition, that talented players can rise above their peers and start to win games in dominating fashions again. The ONLY player currently with that "aura of invincibility" around him that makes him exciting to watch even in TVT is of course, Flash. Not mentioning the previous era bonjwas, Bisu lost his aura, Fantasy never quite got his, Stork/Janbi/Kal/Dragons lost theirs, and even Jaedong's is swaying dangerously these days. I hate TVT with a passion but I watch Flash's TVT games, simply because, it's Flash and he has the aura.
Current favorites need to win a lot more often, or we need some new raising players would could consistently win and become the new favorites and not fail against other scrubs after a short win streak. Please no more Shines in starcraft, plzkthnx.
