EPT
Yesterday I blogged about how important the OSL was, and what it meant. In response to Kim Carrier's comments (and diehard E-Sports fans), 12000 people showed up to yesterday's OSLs. There was only 7000 seats, people were standing up to watch this as OGN had to scramble to get more seats up.
For the longest time I've defended KeSPA, OGN, and MBC for what they're doing. I thought they did okay, even though there was some technical difficulties, everything turned out fine. And then I started reading some stuff on Fomos and I'm just appalled by how badly the fans were treated. I'm just disgusted at how OGN handled things last night.
I'm just going to translate this post on Fomos.
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Who is E-Sports really for?
![[image loading]](http://www.fomos.kr/gnuboard4/data/file/mania/750795878_nMFq10VH_100521.Ongamenet.B5B9BEC6BFC2_B5DEB4E3C8AD.E20.480p.QAM.Xvid-kirno.avi_001920381.jpg)
In our E-Sports... are our fans the root or the fruit?
It's 12:47 AM at Kimpo Airport at the 2nd gate. It's been quite some time since the subway stopped running, and an hour after struggling and realizing that there are no buses that I can take to go home, I call up a cab. Leaving behind the girls that are crying trying to figure out how they're going to get home, I'm trying to organize my thoughts and feelings.
I left home at 1 PM. This was a decision I made after hearing that VIP ticket holders should have entered by 3 PM and considering how far away my home is from the airport. VIP is supposed to mean Very Important Person. And they're asking these VIPs to wait at least three hours. What are we supposed to do for those 3 hours?
After transferring from a few subways, I arrived at 2:30 PM. After arriving at the last stop, it took about 3 minutes to take the shuttle and go from the headquarters to the Hangar. There were many people like me already there, and there were many people gathering in groups of 3~5 trying to spend time while being rained upon. This was understandable. I have never attended a concert or an important match before. Hearing from the people who came with me, waiting this much is expected. Some of them told me they once had to wait more than 5 hours before so they were used to things like this.
Flash's Golden Mouse, Effort's Miracle, Kim Carrier's Request... it was a grand spectacle as everyone had a different story for being there, and the matches that were played out in response to the fans were very very dramatic. While there was a solemn moment during 1st game's regame situation and thoughts that if this would be another Heater incident (T/N: MSL's power outage incident), but the games ended successfully, not only in the eyes of the media but also to the eyes of the crowd.
The problem however, came after. It took a long time for the ten thousand fans there to be able to leave. In that big hangar, there was only one exit, and we were forced to wait in 3 or 4 lines and be forced on the shuttle by the safety workers. The matches ended around 10:15 but by the time I managed to get on the shuttle it was already 11:30. It took an hour and fifteen minutes to travel that short distance that took me only 5 minutes when I entered. This was the situation immediately after game 5 had ended, and so for the fans who waited for the interviews and the ceremony, I have no idea how much more they had to wait.
During that 75 minutes I overheard many people swearing, people who were just so frustrated, and people falling due to the pressure from the masses of people behind. There was resentment as many stated that they would never come to these events again... In the backyard of the ceremony, outside of the eyes of the media and staff, the situation was filled with frustration.
Sadly this wasn't the first time I've felt this. I thought the same thing during last year Christmas's during the round of 8s on Ever. Did you know that it is the management staff of the fan cafes that choose your seats for you in Yongsan E-Sports stadium and not anyone else? I was in Yong San around 8, and wrote down a number and my name on a A4 sized paper, and many of the fancafe management were already in line more than one hour before the matches started. And those people who don't know this and arrive 2~3 hours before the game (who would be considered "late"), they don't even get to put down their number and be forced into a giant crowd who is just looking for an opportunity to enter. The crowd was endless but those who are supposed to be managing this crowd were not professionals so they couldn't handle it, and so people vent their frustration, and those who hear people venting also get frustrated.... and so me and my party was simply left in that sea of frustration.
I'll throw the question back at the management. Who is E-Sports really for? In last episode's Back Talk, commentator Uhm JaeGyung told a story that touched the hearts of many many fans. "Are our fans the root or the fruit?" Whether or not they are the root or the fruit, the important thing is that it is recognition that the fans play an important role for this tree of E-Sports. I could have been happy when I read articles about how the fans are keeping E-Sports alive, but what I felt today was so contrary that I did not feel that. "Fans are just decoration that makes things look better". This was a common feeling amongst many of the people who had attended and saw the culmination of an incredible drama.
Who is E-Sports really for? If you can really say it's for the fans then provide an environment that will please the fans. We were the fans that who had to starve during dinner time and filled our stomachs with snacks and drinks in order to passionately cheer for the players. We had to arrive at least 4 hours earlier at the latest to even get in and at this rate it'll be a 4 hours for us to exit. Actually, even if it's not for the fans, please, at the very least provide us the basics. I hope that you will not just cool down the incredible passion of the fans. If these things are not guaranteed, the majority of the people including me who have filled this hangar today will never, ever, come to another event again.
Source
+ Show Spoiler +
http://www.fomos.kr/gnuboard4/bbs/board.php?bo_table=mania&wr_id=62916
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The comments are just people just mentioning more things about that. How people just struggled to get home, leave the place, and how it was almost one o clock and people were just standing in front of the station...
It's just incredible how little thought went into this entire thing. Not even the basics? It's 6 o clock, why couldn't they provide food? (hello, you have Korean Air as your sponsor, why couldn't you get them to provide you with those airline food?) Why was there so much technical difficulties, why weren't things like the monitor just tasted before?
It was OGN's idea to hold the finals in the Hangar, so why couldn't they provide the perfect environment? I feel so bad for the commentators, who cried and pleaded to get fans to come to show support for E-Sports only to have incompetence slap the fans in the face again.
It's just absolutely incredible how incompetent this all is. I'm just disgusted at OGN right now.
