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This is going to be a pretty whiny and possibly even not constructive post, which is why it's a blog and not in the thread devoted to a related topic in the SC2 general forum. That thread is located here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=197516
The past few weeks have had a lot of upsets for SC2. The only thing I'm "upset" about, though, is people's attitudes toward the players. I feel that there's a pretty dramatic deficit of critical thought being put into people's fandom of one player or another.
I feel that, in many cases, people will latch on to a player for one reason or another. Sometimes this is because the player played an extremely good game. Sometimes this is because they did a crazy strategy. Sometimes it's because they're not Korean. Sometimes it's even because they won a tournament at some point.
But my problem is that people don't seem to want to make room for other people. Ret versus Jjob happened, and the big story of the night was either that Ret lost or that TvZ is ridic. What we didn't see is a lot of fans for Jjob springing up. Why? He's possibly the best player on SlayerS. He played extremely well. So did Ganzi in his series against Haypro, although luckily Ganzi has gotten some attention due to Huk hyping him up. We've rarely seen the kind of multitasking that we saw out of those players.
Zenio vs Byun? Amazing game. That was recognized. Two amazing players. That wasn't, not nearly as much. Zenio and Byun have both been out there playing genuinely good and interesting Starcraft for a little while now(Byun less so, since we only saw his Terran switch in January), and I don't feel they've been recognized for being as good as they are. Zenio is technically one of the most consistent players in GSL. Byun played great games in Code A last season, definitely one of the few genuinely impressive players in that tournament.
We're giving a lot of attention to SanZenith because people thought he was terrible. Personally, while I was surprised by his great performance, I felt that he did receive an unfair amount of shit since that GSL2 ro32 game where he choked pretty hard. Say what you want, go back and watch those games; those were obviously not mistakes a GSL participant makes on a regular basis, even in season 2. Something was up. That's neither here nor there, however; while San is clearly a worthy player, I want to emphasize that he's not the only previously unrecognized one with some serious skills in this tournament.
And a word on watching foreigners in GSL: There's nothing wrong with rooting for dudes from your country, or even your hemisphere. Even though I thought Moonglade, Ret, and Haypro would lose(no disrespect, they lost to tough players), I was cheering for them. But if you only want to see foreigners play, I honestly don't feel that GSL is for you. This is not and has never been a tournament for watching white dudes tear it up. Idra has had moderate success. Jinro actually has torn it up, which makes GSL a tournament for watching a white dude tear it up. I think many of these viewers are better suited for the many foreign tournaments featuring their favorite players, such as GCPL.
On foreign tournaments in general, I'm not so sure those are looked at fairly, either, although possibly I think that people are more level-headed than they are about GSL.
I don't see attention for players such as Sase, Cloud, or NightEnd. I rarely see attention for Nerchio or Syz. Why not? These are clearly excellent players, and in my mind, they are all underrated.
From my perspective, SC2 fans need to see their scene with more open and more critical minds.
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it's the same thing as someone's favorite sports team losing
all the watcher cares about is how crappy their team played, how the ref was bad, or how the other team cheated
it's never about how the other team played well or was better
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i agree
except i would say that idra tore it up! He made RO32 / RO16 / RO8 in 3 GSLs!
that is no small feat!
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MURICA15980 Posts
People root for the white dudes in the GSL more passionately than in the GCPL is because the GSL is considered the highest level of competition. Korean soccer fans cheer for Park Ji Sung at Manchester United because they want to show that Asian players do indeed have some game in soccer. Sure, they could just watch the K-League stars tear it up at home if they wanted to watch Korean stars, but it isn't the same as one of your own doing well in what is regarded as the highest level of competition in the world.
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On March 02 2011 07:48 italiangymnast wrote:
i agree
except i would say that idra tore it up! He made RO32 / RO16 / RO8 in 3 GSLs!
that is no small feat!
Surely. I do have a lot of respect for Idra, I just think that the GSL hasn't exactly been a bastion of foreigner dominance and I am befuddled when people are suddenly thinking of this GSL as a disappointment because foreigners lost.
On March 02 2011 08:23 Klogon wrote:
People root for the white dudes in the GSL more passionately than in the GCPL is because the GSL is considered the highest level of competition. Korean soccer fans cheer for Park Ji Sung at Manchester United because they want to show that Asian players do indeed have some game in soccer. Sure, they could just watch the K-League stars tear it up at home if they wanted to watch Korean stars, but it isn't the same as one of your own doing well in what is regarded as the highest level of competition in the world.
But, especially as players ourselves, isn't it a little silly to suddenly not watch the highest level of competition in the world just because a white guy isn't playing? I've seen a lot of posts talking about not watching much of the rest of it because now it's just not worth it. The fact is that there are a lot of people who only watch GSL for Jinro, and only watch Jinro for GSL - there's something off about that, I think.
edit: Hell yeah 5 star blog *fist pump*
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MURICA15980 Posts
I agree and I think that you'll find that many people will continue to watch GSL. Those who say they will stop are much fewer than you'd probably expect.
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well with the NASL comin up, we will all have plenty to watch in terms of white guys AND world class gaming.
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I sure hope so. I feel that the US and EU scenes are dramatically behind KR right now, although not to the same degree as each other, and not to the same degree as in BW. It's very noticeable, though, and I'm hoping that the existence of all these really big leagues and more to come will drive the non-Korean servers to new heights.
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idk if the server in general will increase - but the top levels of play definatly will!
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Excellent play, I agree wholeheartedly. I'm not too worried about people stopping following GSL. Of course it's always just a niche group, but true fans of any sport will usually watch the highest quality of games, whoever is playing. (just look at the foreign fanbase for BW)
Anyway hopefully there'll be no need to worry about that because Jinro will win ^^
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EPT
