EPTBasically, we're seeing an awful lot of tournaments popping up in SC2, and while we've got the big ones coming up (the GOM thing in Korea, that cologne tourney that idra/artosis have flown over for), I'm thinking more in terms of smaller events. Why does it seem that most tournaments just divide the entire prize pool in terms of just results?
If we look at something like the UFC, which, like e-sports, is relatively young and still in the stage of learning how to try to gain recognition as a serious sport, for each of their events they have special prizes for things like fight of the night, knockout/submission of the night, which for most events have a prize fund that is far in excess of what anyone on the undercard will get for actually winning, and is comparable to anything that someone who isn't headlining will win. Some chess tournaments have small prizes for the outstanding game, best novelty etc.
So why isn't it the same in Starcraft 2? Look at the upcoming Cologne event. Would it really be that hard to split off $750 from the prize pool and give $250 each to the players in the game of the tournament, and $250 to someone with, say, the most innovative strategy?
The point I'm trying to make is that if e-sports is wanting to become more mainstream, it needs to become viewer friendly, and I think that the structure of payouts ought to at least try to encourage players to do something out of the ordinary and entertain. If I'm spending my time watching an event, I want to be entertained, and I don't know if it's just me, but watching players just execute orthodox strategies really well, while it's technically excellent, isn't that interesting.
If I look at the current power rankings, I think I can see maybe two or three players that I would go out of my way to watch because they actually play INTERESTING Starcraft. I like Effort because he's often really aggressive, I like free because he'll occasionally do random bm stuff. But for the most part, everyone else on there just relies on very solid execution of mundane play, and while it'll get you wins, and is good to watch just for technical quality, I'd rather watch Leta do some two port wraith shit, Zero throw about some queens, Horang2 being Horang2, Kwanro just going all-in all the time, Hiya pulling some sort of 3-port nuke thing out of nowhere.
Tell me that I'm not the only one that, if you set aside a few dollars in tournaments to allow people to be creative, thinks that it'd make for a better spectacle. Maybe, if someone who might not have a chance to win a tournament tries something that they wouldn't otherwise do and it works, it can help develop what's still a young game more quickly.
