• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 21:05
CEST 03:05
KST 10:05
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments0[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence9Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon9[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent10Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview12
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups4WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments1SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia8Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues29LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments3
StarCraft 2
General
#1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy SpeCial on The Tasteless Podcast Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments
Tourneys
Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 491 Night Drive Mutation # 490 Masters of Midnight Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion [ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence ASL20 General Discussion Diplomacy, Cosmonarchy Edition BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro16 Group D [ASL20] Ro16 Group C [Megathread] Daily Proleagues SC4ALL $1,500 Open Bracket LAN
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Path of Exile Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread General RTS Discussion Thread Nintendo Switch Thread Borderlands 3
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion LiquidDota to reintegrate into TL.net
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Big Programming Thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
BarCraft in Tokyo Japan for ASL Season5 Final The Automated Ban List
Blogs
The Personality of a Spender…
TrAiDoS
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2218 users

A non-players view of Starcraft 2

Blogs > Enzyme
Post a Reply
Enzyme
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Australia183 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-06-17 23:40:26
June 17 2011 23:33 GMT
#1
The Starcraft 2 community is growing fast, and with it there are a number of people that do not even play video games that just enjoy watching and enjoying the experience. To me, Starcraft 2 is my sport. I do not need to play it in order to obsessively watch games, to read about tactics and strategies, or to enjoy many of the aspects the community and game provides. I could write pages on why I find Starcraft 2 more enjoyable than any "real sport", however I won't bore you with that.

I believe the influx of people like me is what is causing many of the problems in the Starcraft 2 community, and in our defense, I think we are needed as much as everyone else.

Famous comments by IdrA have expressed concerns that casters and players with personality (He mentioned Destiny at this point I believe) have more fans than the actual players themselves. I believe this is merely a result of many people not being able to appreciate the game at a level that IdrA does. Unless he expects every fan to spend 8+ hours a day practicing like he used to in Korea, the average fan will generally be entirely ignorant about the game.

Watching Destiny's stream when he is teaching students, even players in Platinum/Diamond/Low Masters, seem to have very little true game understanding. I believe DJ Wheet said something to the effect that he realized that the reason he had hit a skill cap was merely due to the fact he doesn't think like the progamers do. As more people enter the community, the average skill level is dropping, and expecting the fans to appreciate the game based on pure skill is unrealistic.

I bring this back to why I appreciate who is casting more than the players at times. This is because the casters are my gateway to Starcraft 2. They feed me insight into the game, they help me to understand and appreciate the players. If I just watched replays by myself of Losira or Nestea I wouldn't understand what makes them so good. It is the casters that not only bring energy and enthusiasm to the game, adding hype, but they inform and educate which lets me enjoy my sport even more.

This also ties into player personalities. When a player is entertaining off stage as well as when they are playing, it humanizes them and makes them someone you can connect with. Nestea vs SC would not have been nearly amazing to me if I had never seen Nestea or SC play even if I had the same level of SC2 awareness. It was my fan spirit for Nestea that had me on the edge of my seat during that last game, and I will never forget it. I appreciate Nestea for his skill, but I also like other players just because they are people. I want to see people like Destiny and Incontrol win because they interact with the community, they are people to me, there is a bond that forms between them outside of the realm of their gaming skill.

Non-players are swayed by more than just good game play, but this is exactly what is required to lift Starcraft 2 into being a true sport for spectators. Imagine football if only people that played football could consider themselves "true fans". Imagine if only pro-football players could argue about what players are good. I hope perhaps that non-player communities develop where I can argue with others about games and players from a purely fan point of view, like in any other sport. There is a level of ignorance that comes with not playing at the highest level and you cannot really expect fans to actually have much depth in their knowledge in something with so much finesse and nuance as Starcraft 2. I am sure every sports star in the world hates the fact their fans have no real appreciation of how hard what they do is, but this appreciation gap is what separates the pros from the fans.

To close off and summarize, non-players are going to become a bigger and bigger portion of the esports viewership if there is any hope that the scene grows to the size everyone wants it to. With this, game "ignorance" is a fact of life, and players and the community need to understand this. I think there is also an important pressure on non-players to not get carried away when arguing with people that clearly have a better understanding of the game from a personal level. I hope that Stracraft 2 only gets more popular, and that there is plenty more amazing content for me to enjoy.

***
DyEnasTy
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States3714 Posts
June 18 2011 00:00 GMT
#2
4/5 good read
Much better to die an awesome Terran than to live as a magic wielding fairy or a mindless sac of biological goop. -Manifesto7
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
PiGosaur Monday
00:00
#49
SteadfastSC139
davetesta46
EnkiAlexander 42
Liquipedia
OSC
23:00
OSC Elite Rising Star #16
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Nina 180
SteadfastSC 139
RuFF_SC2 96
Vindicta 28
trigger 21
ROOTCatZ 18
StarCraft: Brood War
Artosis 756
Backho 129
NaDa 16
Dota 2
monkeys_forever555
Super Smash Bros
C9.Mang0296
Mew2King22
Other Games
summit1g9238
shahzam985
Day[9].tv680
Maynarde138
NeuroSwarm117
ViBE117
XaKoH 72
Trikslyr66
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick688
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• OhrlRock 1
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota22033
Other Games
• Scarra1119
• Day9tv680
Upcoming Events
LiuLi Cup
9h 55m
OSC
17h 55m
RSL Revival
1d 8h
Maru vs Reynor
Cure vs TriGGeR
The PondCast
1d 11h
RSL Revival
2 days
Zoun vs Classic
Korean StarCraft League
3 days
BSL Open LAN 2025 - War…
3 days
RSL Revival
3 days
BSL Open LAN 2025 - War…
4 days
RSL Revival
4 days
[ Show More ]
Online Event
4 days
Wardi Open
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-09-10
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
HCC Europe

Ongoing

BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL World Championship of Poland 2025
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL Season 21
SC4ALL: Brood War
BSL 21 Team A
Stellar Fest
SC4ALL: StarCraft II
EC S1
ESL Impact League Season 8
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.