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First of all I want to make it clear that this is completely speculative and based on personal opinions, AKA a blog.
With that out of the way, I was watching the latest SOTG podcast a few hours ago, I was really pumped. Idra, Incontrol, JP, everyone in the room basically had the impression that ESPORTS was about to take off in the west, as if it were about to explode and that its popularity is growing.
While it certainly has shown a massive increase in popularity over the past few months after SC2's release, I cant help but feel that this massive growth and developement might not be as big as it is hyped up to be.
Just on a personal level, I can say that I am virtually the only person that I know personally that still plays SC2, and one of 3 or 4 that still follow the tournaments. Most of the people I know that bought the game (around 15) stopped playing a long time ago. Most never even played ladder, and just played the campaign, did some placement matches, played custom games for a few weeks, and quit.
Sure, Esports may be doing much better than it was before. But at the same time, just looking at the view counts between the first GSL and the last, its often several thousand views short.
So heres the thing. Its great that esports is doing good. Im excited for all the new players we're getting, and all the events. But at the same time, I cant help but feel cautious when buying into the hype that people seem to be bringing.
Its just that, looking at trends on sites like Xfire, Alexa, even Youtube and GOM, none of them reflect a constant growth as claimed.
I really want incontrols big project to succeed. It would be absolutely incredible. But just look at the CGS, something that was supposed to be the thing that brought competitive gaming to the west. After a few seasons, the hype was over and the whole thing was shut down. Many would call this another example of a premature developement.
But anyways, maybe I'm just being a pessimist. I really really really want to see esports succeed, I really really really like starcraft, and I really really really hope that I'm completely wrong on every count.
 
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Your GSL viewership metric is bad, I think. I'm pretty sure the VODs have gotten views much much more quickly this past season than in previous seasons. The old seasons may have more views due to accumulating them over a length of time.
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I also stopped playing and following long ago but the stream veiwer numbers make it seem like there will be as many as 10 000 people watching at a time.
Really optomistic liars attempting to inspire people about the sucsess of esports is what got it bigger and is the only thing that can make it continue to grow. Unless theres someone telling people to give a shit about pro sc2 I think many people would just instead watch something else.
If esports is to be as big as other sports it would require viewers that dont actually play the games which is something I think would be very hard to obtain for videogames, especially strategic ones. Atleast a person who doesnt play football can be wowed by the skill of some significant football players but for video games and especially strategy games this is much more difficult.
Only people who play rts can be impressed by the mechanics and the strategic abillity of an rts player. Sc2 is lacking in terms of mechnics so its more enjoyable to view a good player in terms of their strategic prowess. Of course the only people who ever advently watch strategy games are people who advently or have at one point advently played that same strategy game. What casual gamer follows pro chess?
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I don't remember any claims about 'popularity', but I do remember lots of hype for players in the existing scene having more and more opportunities to play and make money/make a name for themselves outside of Korea.
Mite B Cool.
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Sometimes you just have to believe its going to succeed. While it may not grow to as big as football or basketball, people in e-sports community are still going to try to make it as big as it can
All games initially have a inflated user count. It's just how it is, people get bored and leave the game alone for a bit. I also have a lot of friends who quit a week or 2 after launch. I still have some friends left that play and I talk to them so much more now about strats and build orders.
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The reason why they say esports is finally taking off in the west is because the link between players and spectators is finally being severed. Traditional esports like cs and quake are only followed by other competitive players and not by casuals or people that play "pub". Whereas Sc2 by the miracle of social media, cheap streaming and youtube has lots of viewers that cant even play the game.
Whether an investment into esports at this time will be profitable or not is a different argument. But right now you could comfortably say that viewer-ship and activity for pro-gaming has been at its highest for a few years. But its not that hard considering some tournaments and teams have died in that time and that there hasn't really been any new scenes worth competing in.
I gave you one star.
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What ever e-sport structure there will be in the West, it won't be what it is in Korea overnight.
I think there has been some misunderstanding in communication between fans and people who are trying to create e-sport scene in the West.
When people like iNcontroL say "It will be huge for e-sport scene!" I don' think he means "It's gonna be how its like in Korea right here right now!"
Rather, it's more like "we're making steps to get there."
But to be honest, I do feel like some of these things were hyped up more than they deserved which left sort of an empty feeling and disappointment afterwards.
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I agree with the OP and I agree with all the comments in the thread. My feeling is that Eports will never be like as big in the west as it is in korea. However I do think it will be able to maintain some level of popularity, I don't know if sc2 will be the game with that lasting effect but at some point I think there will be a game that creates a "scene" in the west and while it'll never be as big as it is in korea it may be something like pro soccer in america, somewhat followed and known about but not generally acknowledged.
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I personally believe Esports is starting to take off here. Previous to the release of Starcraft II I would be the only nerd at my school walking around thinking of ways I can improve my timings and other stuff like that at in starcraft I. now after the release every so often I'll hear one person mention an ultralisk or a ghost and it will bring a smile to my face everytime
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Can't use CGS as an example because it was a joke from the start. They didn't include even one legit competitve game in their whole roster and several of their games didn't even have amateur competition scenes.
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EPT
