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This is a response to The Korean Online Invasion. The blog title is, yes, intentionally inflammatory.
There are two kinds of tournaments: global and local.
There are three ways to play in a tournament: qualify, be invited, or (occasionally) just show up. Most tournaments rely on the first, with occasional use of the second (mainly for hype purposes). Some tournaments (most LANS, most notably MLG) use mainly the third.
I am all in favor of global tournaments, although perhaps they should be conducted less frequently - as all-star events, on the level of WCG.
Many tournaments will have to make a decision: to remain local, or go global (although in fact most tournaments actually have the reverse problem: remain global or go local).
I believe the majority of regular leagues should be local. There are several reasons for this.
The first is simply a question of logistics. For in-person leagues, it is completely impractical to fly between continents on a regular basis. Online play eliminates some of the difficulty, but it is plagues by lag (and more importantly, complaints of lag), scheduling difficulties, and casting issues (most importantly, a public dislike of replay casting, although we are getting used to it).
The second is the issue of qualification. Assume for a minute that you are a grandmaster player and show up to your local LAN, only to find that Liquid`Tyler is there. Sure, he might get cheesed out by a lucky opponent, but anyone else's odds of winning the tournament have drastically dropped. Now magnify that: you are an NA pro, and register for the NASL... and face MC and Bomber in a group. (I'm picking on NASL because with a name like that they ought to be a local league.) This is equivalent to a Japanese or Korean league team finding out that the New York Yankees will be playing in their league for the season.
Once again, I repeat: I have nothing against global leagues, as long as they are recognized as such: but I feel that they should probably be the minority.
The third is stability and development. While MLG's exchange program with the GSL makes sense from a hype standpoint, and MLG is clearly a global league, it seems to me that there is a necessity for leagues in which the local players can play "safely", that is, without the 80% chance that they show up to play only to lose to Naniwa or MMA.
Unfortunately, the current SC2 picture is not favorable to the development of local leagues (outside of Korea, which has always been local; any team playing in GOM's league is asked to "be Korean", at least for the season). Many if not most teams are international (Liquid is a great example), and in that atmosphere there is next to no pressure to develop locally, especially given that most of the big non-Korean leagues are either online (IPL, NASL, TSL) or rare LAN events which can be worked into a schedule and budget (MLG events, Dreamhack).
The IPL is taking a good step in this direction by limiting participants to "local" players. The next step is for more leagues to do this.
But in the end, if we want local leagues, we need local teams. If teams continue to be international and play across the world, there is very little point to local leagues because they do not represent the game as a whole. I have argued before that local leagues are a necessity for the lasting success of esports. I stand by that: but in order for local leagues to be plausible, local teams are a necessity. Like I said in that article, the most stable league outside of Korea - excepting possibly MLG - is the CSL. Why? Because CSL teams are, by necessity, local.
You want Koreans out of your leagues? Have a local organization. Without the barriers that localization inherently creates, from perception to actual difficulty (and once again I direct your attention to the attrition rate of foreigners who have played in Korea), there is neither practical possibility or good reason to prevent outside players from competing.
 
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Comes down to:
- Keep Koreans out; potentially win some money; maintain lower skill level
- Allow Koreans in; potentially win money; gain experience to grow skill set
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The best will want to play on the biggest stage. The biggest stage is international. Sure, it would be cool if there were local teams, and might encourage growth, but I don't see it realistically happening by itself.
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has being isolated ever been good for anything?
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I believe the main general difference between koreans and foreigners is their work ethic and team practice atmosphere. Where koreans have the upper hand it seems.
The debate of whether or not to keep koreans out of NA tournaments is silly.
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this should be closed. You don't want to play with the best on a regular basis? well then welcome to era of Korean Dominance 2.0.
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this is stupid, the tournaments dont care about players crying because they cant beat koreans. The fact is, if big korean names like MC and losira are playing in a tournament more people will watch and tell their friends, and the company that runs the tournament ultimately needs to make money and having koreans is the easiest way to do so.
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1019 Posts
The hostility against korean players as well as desire from some in the SC2 community to separate leagues specifically between koreans and "foreigners" just makes it look like people here carry an inferiority complex.
skill knows no borders and if non-koreans want to create a legitimate atmosphere for progaming in SC2, they just need to work harder because it all comes down to the work ethic and effort, which the koreans seem to have more than the foreigners. Creating an artificial environment so that lower skilled players can win tournaments by babying them is just pathetic.
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IMO isolation, could offer some growth some temporary growth. But not as much as Korean competition would bring. @OP I respect your views, but in this situation I believe that growth should be achieved by harsh competition and some losing.
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On June 26 2011 09:54 white_horse wrote:
The hostility against korean players as well as desire from some in the SC2 community to separate leagues specifically between koreans and "foreigners" just makes it look like people here carry an inferiority complex.
skill knows no borders and if non-koreans want to create a legitimate atmosphere for progaming in SC2, they just need to work harder because it all comes down to the work ethic and effort, which the koreans seem to have more than the foreigners. Creating an artificial environment so that lower skilled players can win tournaments by babying them is just pathetic.
Yeah I feel this comment a lot. Not letting in the Koreans is like saying "LOL YOU ALL TOO GOOD STOP BEING GOOD AND YOU CAN GET MONEY K?" It doesn't make any sense... if foreigners want to beat Koreans then they should get better, not exclude them from tournaments.
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On June 26 2011 09:37 Itsmedudeman wrote:
has being isolated ever been good for anything?
Yeah, isolation's been pretty good for Korean BW scene.
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In Brood War, we all loved to see the foreigners getting chances to play Koreans. WCG was awesome because it was one of the only chances for some of the best foreigners to take a stand against some of the best Koreans. And now that the foreigners as a whole have a much better shot with Starcraft 2, we want to distance ourselves from them?
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Pretty sure everyone who isn't Korean will remain a "foreigner" forever if we try to split the scenes. Anyways, given the fact that the majority of the big sponsors will want the big exposure, the big tournaments will stay international.
Segregation will just hurt the competition.
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Anyone who supports this has lost my respect, the whole point of Starcraft is to be the best of the best, not to be the best (of my x by x region). That's why in BW going to Korea was such a big deal, not because you got paid to play, but because you were playing with the best of the best. That's why so many people are upset that western "pro-gamers" are coming back to the west to play in less-skilled competitions just for the money, it goes against why we all play Starcraft in the first place.It really is "selling out," as much as I hate that term, they're giving up what made them who they are just to get more money. It's pathetic. Koreans, continue to bop all of the NA newbies, because when they ban you from tournaments you'll have the last laugh.
Which is also why the region separation is retarded, it isolates the best of NA and EU from the best of Kor, which makes us all worse off as players.
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Northern Ireland2557 Posts
we should be trying to unite the scenes. The reason koreans were excluded from foreign events in BW was because for all intents and purposes every player outside of China and Korea were amateurs and Koreans (and Chinese to an extent) were the only professionals since they could sustain a career.
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1019 Posts
On June 26 2011 10:10 InRaged wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2011 09:37 Itsmedudeman wrote:
has being isolated ever been good for anything? Yeah, isolation's been pretty good for Korean BW scene.
You are either trolling or know nothing about the history of BW. Let me tell you: the brood war industry in korea started because of a rise in popularity in internet cafes in korea (late 1990s) at a time when brood war was introduced to the korean market. BW ended up becoming very popular and that is how progaming started there. I don't think any other country at the time had the necessary environment for brood war to grow. Even if there was one, the interest in brood war wasn't as strong or fervent as it was in korea. It is unfair to compare brood war to SC2 the way you are. The idea of progaming in western countries didn't really catch on until later when the skill gap became too high and so they ended up turning their attention to SC2.
This OP and whoever supports it are total idiots and need to pull their heads out of their asses.
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Want to know how to keep Koreans out of foreign tournaments - Foreign scene improves.
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These threads make me sick. How can you not be ashamed?
They also make me respect NaNiwa, ThorZaIN, Fenix and FXO even more for being true competitors.
If you aren't good enough to compete, enjoy yourself, get better, or don't enter a tournament that is going to upset your sensibility to losing.
Here is a tip by the way, an American winning a single tournament, no matter the prize pool, does absolutely nothing to grow a god damn thing other than their personal bank account and whomever is skimming their winnings.
HuK won Dreamhack, where do you think that 15k is going? Back to Canada to start a tournament or a LAN center or buy advertising?
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I cant believe theres such a shitstorm over koreans participating in online cups. If the entry states that they only require a NA account then let them come. Nobody ever complains that theres europeans playing in so called NA cups like zotac or tlopen. The double standards are ridiculous.
Its like broodwar fostered some kind of deranged protectionism in some players under the belief that because TSL did not allow Koreans it must have been for the good of the community. In reality it is more like even if a professional player wanted to play tsl, kespa would probably smite him. Not even the lure of a giant prize pool was able to net gom the bw players it needed to run a league.
The difference now is that Teamliquid openly embraces an international community for sc2 and the koreans that come with it and as should all other tournaments that want to sell themselves as being international. International doesn not equal europe + na only. Players are just going to have to deal with more korean, chinese and south american players at international events.
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If you mix the scenes, the foreigners will pull themselves up by their bootstraps, ameriCAN style 
If you stay isolated it miht temporarily grow, but will deflate when the skill differential is realized.
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EPT
