Probably everyone here knows the final of Korean Air OSL season 2 will take place at Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai this Saturday. OGN guys must be amazed by thousands of spectators at WCG finals last year in China. As a Chinese, I was excited to hear the news a while back. After following the progaming scene for nearly a decade, I really want to attend a live Starleague final, cheering for my favorite players. I thought the chance was there.
Sorry, not really. First of all, Taek-Bang were out (j/k). When I was told there are only 300 seats for local audiences (plus 200 reserved seats for Koreans and officials related) at this OSL final, I was astonished. This is ridiculous. How does this happen? Will it be the least watched Starleague final ever? Even less than Nate MSL with the stupid virtual studio thing?
Let's first look at the final "venue", which is not really a venue. In front from the tower, there is this tiny ground. Apparently it is not big enough for any spectator sport. But Koreans love it because the marvelous tower and wonderful view of The Bund and Huangpu River behind it could be the best stage for show-off, according to PLU, a domestic partner of this event.
Rumor said there were 2,000 seats planned originally, at the same venue. But it would be "dangerous" to have thousands of young people gathered in the downtown during the World Expo. The government has to make sure the "harmonious society" cannot be jeopardized. What if someone brings a "Free Tibet" banner to the event and show up on TV? So forget about cheerfuls, posters and banners, all are banned from this OSL final by request. You don't believe this? How about I’m telling you every vehicle entering Shanghai from other provinces is asked to go through security inspections, every non-hospitalized psychopath is under surveillance of community cadres (even cops) and anyone who wants to buy a kitchen knife has to leave his name and ID number. All happens in Shanghai since the World Expo begins. I don't know how they compromise at 500 eventually. It is just SAD. And 300 more security guards will accompany audiences to watch another Lee-Ssang final.
Do I complain too much? Still 300 tickets out there, right? Let’s fight for one! Who has tickets? SiTV and PLU, partners of this final. Some tickets are given to media and their inner people. They are also giving out a few tickets randomly to their users. One can win a ticket by sending text messages or posting on certain forums. Some really luck guys are selling tickets they won at RMB500 (USD75) or higher for each. Or one can buy an evening pass of the tower at RMB100 (USD15), watching Flash plays against Jaedong from the air.
I am disappointed. A spectator sport is for spectators. There are tens of thousands of e-sports fans would love to attend the event here. It is ruined (well, partially) by the wrong time (9/11 + World Expo) and wrong place (not a big venue, just a site good for showoff + advertising).
Tidbit: which one is the most watched Starleague final? It is NHN OSL final back in 2003, which was broadcasted through the China’s national sports TV channel before video game was banned from TV. Millions of Chinese viewers watched Nal_rA accomplished his dream, so do thousands of spectators at the scene.
Wow only 300 spectator seats? For an event like this that's just outrageous. I guess everyone will just be tuning in through their TV. I thought the purpose of moving the finals to China was to get an idea of the e-sports scene there and how many people they could pull for a finals game, but when they limit the seats to 300 it'd be hard to get an accurate representation of the Chinese fanbase...
OGN/Korean Air is stupid anyways for wanting it at such a sensitive place. PLU/SiTV proposed a lot of huge venues, all were shot down cause they insisted on the tower -__-
It's a shame it ended up like this, I mean they went to all the trouble to set all this up and you'd think they would be doing this to draw a massive crowd from China but then you hear about the 300 seats and the 700 spots for standing or something and you wonder what the point of this was.
I lol'ed at the "too close and too many" picture, must be an awkward feeling in the booth hahaha
Any half-witted PR nubcake worth half his 500 won a month could have drawn 10k people to these finals, but nooooooooooo lets worship a (totally random???) tower and bend over for a paranoid government...
nooooo.... so it's indeed taking place where they usually make the concerts, but how come there are only 500 seats ? :'( omg I took so many risks to be back in Shanghai on 11th... My plane arrives on 11th at noon...Don't tell me I won't be able to see JvF.....
But it would be "dangerous" to have thousands of young people gathered in the downtown during the World Expo. The government has to make sure the "harmonious society" cannot be jeopardized. What if someone brings a "Free Tibet" banner to the event and show up on TV?
This argument doesn't make any sense. They always make huge concerts and broacasted stuffs below the Oriental Pearl Tower. Even the Live Earth concert with thousands of people, organized by fucking Al Gore was held there.
Are there any official sources from OGN ? Because I feel there are a lot of rumors, I am not sure that I have found any reliable source about this.
On September 08 2010 01:46 endy wrote: nooooo.... so it's indeed taking place where they usually make the concerts, but how come there are only 500 seats ? :'( omg I took so many risks to be back in Shanghai on 11th... My plane arrives on 11th at noon...Don't tell me I won't be able to see JvF.....
But it would be "dangerous" to have thousands of young people gathered in the downtown during the World Expo. The government has to make sure the "harmonious society" cannot be jeopardized. What if someone brings a "Free Tibet" banner to the event and show up on TV?
This argument doesn't make any sense. They always make huge concerts and broacasted stuffs below the Oriental Pearl Tower. Even the Live Earth concert with thousands of people, organized by fucking Al Gore was held there.
Are there any official sources from OGN ? Because I feel there are a lot of rumors, I am not sure that I have found any reliable source about this.
OGN's never gonna admit they were retarded about their choice of venue -_-
And think about it from the organizer's/security's perspective: Some random foreign company wants to host an "e-sports" tournament at the oriental pearl, involving planes and shit on 9/11 (fuck you SKT1). It's a miracle they even managed to get it at all >_>
Bah...this is another sign that OGN's spouting of "for the fans" is bullshit. Just like how the casters made an emotional appeal for fans to show up the last OSL finals in the aftermath of the match fixing scandal and then didn't accommodate the extra thousands of fans that showed up. I'm not impressed at all.
Lol@ Sheep still blaming SKT for the day of the event. You honestly think that forcing the OSL group selection to change date (for the good of the players and the teams involved) directly led to the finals taking place on 9/11 which is somehow a significant date outside of America so much that security arrangements are totally different? You're really stretching things.
But it would be "dangerous" to have thousands of young people gathered in the downtown during the World Expo. The government has to make sure the "harmonious society" cannot be jeopardized. What if someone brings a "Free Tibet" banner to the event and show up on TV?
This argument doesn't make any sense. They always make huge concerts and broacasted stuffs below the Oriental Pearl Tower. Even the Live Earth concert with thousands of people, organized by fucking Al Gore was held there.
On September 08 2010 01:46 endy wrote: nooooo.... so it's indeed taking place where they usually make the concerts, but how come there are only 500 seats ? :'( omg I took so many risks to be back in Shanghai on 11th... My plane arrives on 11th at noon...Don't tell me I won't be able to see JvF.....
But it would be "dangerous" to have thousands of young people gathered in the downtown during the World Expo. The government has to make sure the "harmonious society" cannot be jeopardized. What if someone brings a "Free Tibet" banner to the event and show up on TV?
This argument doesn't make any sense. They always make huge concerts and broacasted stuffs below the Oriental Pearl Tower. Even the Live Earth concert with thousands of people, organized by fucking Al Gore was held there.
Are there any official sources from OGN ? Because I feel there are a lot of rumors, I am not sure that I have found any reliable source about this.
OGN's never gonna admit they were retarded about their choice of venue -_-
And think about it from the organizer's/security's perspective: Some random foreign company wants to host an "e-sports" tournament at the oriental pearl, involving planes and shit on 9/11 (fuck you SKT1). It's a miracle they even managed to get it at all >_>
I only meant an official statement with the amount of seats available and an official reseller for the tickets.
I don't think anyone in China / Korea gives a shit that it's taking place on 9/11 and that the sponsor is an airline company. If organizers were aware it could really be an issue, they would just have postponed it to 9/18.
And about the event itself, as I said there have been many concerts or others events organized by foreigners before. Especially the Live Earth event concert was streamed by MSN and was watched by hundreds of thousand people online...
But yeah, Emlary gave a good example with the MSL's virtual studio. TV channels often make retarded decisions. I am so disappointed that I'm looking rational reason to explain OGN's decisions but I don't find any. FML. T_T
But it would be "dangerous" to have thousands of young people gathered in the downtown during the World Expo. The government has to make sure the "harmonious society" cannot be jeopardized. What if someone brings a "Free Tibet" banner to the event and show up on TV?
This argument doesn't make any sense. They always make huge concerts and broacasted stuffs below the Oriental Pearl Tower. Even the Live Earth concert with thousands of people, organized by fucking Al Gore was held there.
It's video game, it's during World Expo....
The Expo doesn't really matter imo. But the fact it's a video game makes sense indeed. I know that the chinese government is trying to avoid to mediatize video games. As you mentioned, they banned video games from TV in 2003. But in that case, why would they even allow online channels like SiTV ? And what about WCG finals held in China. Even 2010 China national finals in Shanghai were packed with thousands of fans. Chinese government is as retarded as OGN Oh god I'm so disappointed I wanna cry.
EPT
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