Korean Scene and Foreign Scene now = Global Scene?
E-sports on a Global Scale? That is certainly the dream is it not?
During the Starcraft Broodwar days, the thought of E-sports being global was quite slim. The Koreans had their proleagues and all the best players were in Korea, there was no doubt about it.
Now Starcraft 2 has been released for a bout a year now (the retail). We have seen recently that there have been an increase in Korean players and teams partnering up with Foreign teams.
Foreigners and Koreans teaming up (from my memory) so far:
Team Liquid with Old Generations Starcrafters (oGs). FXOpen E-Sports acquiring For Our Utopia (fOu). Complexity Gaming teaming up with MVP team. SK-gaming and oGs agreement on NaDa and MC.
Instances where Korean Players have moved to Foreign Team:
TSL_Rain leaves to join FnaticMSI. PuMa leaving The SCV Life (TSL) to join Evil Geniuses (EG) TanDongHo (formlery Zenex) joins Team Dignitas. TwilightfOu (Oz) joins FXOpen E-Sports Hwangsin (formerly MVP) joins It's Gosu PhoenixWerra joins Reign.
With all of this occurring quite recently, can we finally say that Starcraft 2 has become Global? is the Starcraft scene no longer isolated just in Korea?
I believe so, I think Starcraft 2 will continue to grow. Over the past year we have seen so many tournaments not in Korea come out, the prize money being handed out is quite staggering, we have some major Tournaments that hand out $50k like NASL or $90k like the GSL. We also have small tournaments that offer small prizes such as $50 (all USD). So we have tournaments with a wide range of skill and prize pool which is great, this is what is needed for E-Sports to grow.
The future does look bright for Starcraft 2 and E-Sports. This is certainly exciting times and count yourself lucky to be a part of it, playing games and writing games for a living? That would have never been the case several years ago. Korea is no longer the only place where a Pro-Gamer can make a comfortable living. Now, it is viable to be a pro in Taiwan, Europe and the United States.
What about the SEA Scene?
I am from the SEA area, there are tournaments out there weekly and team leagues but none of it rivals the prize pools of tournaments in Korea, NA, and Europe. But it is a start, FXO does have plans to hold a major tournament in Malaysia, so perhaps that will be the start, for that reason I want to give props to FXO.Boss for making all of this possible.
Fanmade Video Tribute to Starcraft 2 over the past year. A great video... check it out! (If you have not already) Its by LaxxSC so props to him also
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tandongho isn't really a good example imo since he is moving to go to university; rain also to a lesser extent (his father lives in NYC and he wanted to go overseas).
Starcraft 2 will definitely grow but I don't know how much longer it can; I would expect that in 4-5 years it will die down. I just don't see the game maintaining such large prize pools. Yes, it will probably always have a larger fan base than brood war ever did (at least outside korea) but when we get to the 15, 20th, etc MLG and 10, 11th, 12th etc dreamhack, I just don't think people will follow it as passionately.
On July 24 2011 03:03 Clbull wrote: I think the global scene can only really be split into five major regional sectors at the moment.
European scene (i.e. IPL, Dreamhack)
North American scene (i.e. NASL, IPL, MLG)
Korean scene (i.e. GSL)
Chinese scene (i.e. StarsWar, G-League)
Taiwanese scene (i.e. TeSL)
Your right there, I think what is missing now is SEA, but i agree.
On July 24 2011 03:36 N.geNuity wrote: tandongho isn't really a good example imo since he is moving to go to university; rain also to a lesser extent (his father lives in NYC and he wanted to go overseas).
Starcraft 2 will definitely grow but I don't know how much longer it can; I would expect that in 4-5 years it will die down. I just don't see the game maintaining such large prize pools. Yes, it will probably always have a larger fan base than brood war ever did (at least outside korea) but when we get to the 15, 20th, etc MLG and 10, 11th, 12th etc dreamhack, I just don't think people will follow it as passionately.
Hmm, you might be right in the sense that this period might be the adrenaline rushing in part, and that once that rush is over the excitement will be less? Well I see Starcraft being an e-sport, much like any sport.
One sport I would relate it too would probably be Tennis. the ATP does not have a regular season, juts a lot of tournaments around the year with a short break. I can't see Starcraft not being the same, having tonnes of tournaments etc. Tennis is still a popular sport even though its been out for... forever, so in that sense I can still see people cheering for their favorite players and teams for a long long time. Korea's BW scene lasted for quite a while also still with a strong fan base. Keep in mind we still got 2 more expansions for SC2 so there are still lots of learning to be done with the game, hopefully E-Sports and SC2 will stick around cause the world will only become more digital and techy.
As for Rain and TanDonHo, both had their personal reasons but at least now the pros are willing to go out of Korea, it is a start.
Korean BW scene is still alive and kicking, was #1 on IPTV ratings just yesterday.
as for SC2, the novelty is wearing off for alot of people, you can tell by the severe decrease in players on SC2 across the seasons, the question is if they will stay for the spectating part(alot, if not the majority watch the games rather then play it though).
At this point I am more worried about the SC2 Korean scene itself rather then the foreign scene. If SC2 really doesn't take off in Korea after HOTS hits then I fear for the global starcraft scene, simply because Korea has all that infrastructure, for every ''foreign'' gamer(except for the chinese,taiwanese maybe, I don't know much of their scene) there are hundreds of korean progamers , and if SC2 doesn't take off in Korea then what is left for the foreign scene?
Hmm to be completely honest, I do think SC2 will be successful in Korea, the transition from Starcraft BW to SC2 will be slow as the fan base is still following the old game, but as that game begins to slow down and people start to notice SC2 more it will be fine.
I think that after Kespa cleared the issues between Blizzard, this should allow the game to grow much much faster instead of just having GOMtv have the SC2 rights, and GOMtv isn't necessarily the largest company in Korea so hopefully once the license to GOMtv is up, there will be more tournaments around Korea which should attract more attention.
You are right, the novelty might be wearing out on a lot of people, but that is because there are a lot of casual gamers who play a wide range of games, nowadays there are so many new games coming up I cannot blame them for not always playing SC2.
Even if the Korean scene does not take off, I still think SC2 will grow because it has shown to be a good investment around the world, it is another source for major Companies to advertise and get more exposure and ultimate make more money so I can still see them investing in tournaments and sponsoring teams. Starcraft 1 had its growing pains I am sure we are going through the same thing in SC2.
If a Flash, Bisu, or Jaedong can come over to SC2, I think that would instantly increase the fan-base many many folds. But hats If and when that happens...
Some other Korean instances of Korean players joining foreign teams that you left out:
Oz/Twilight joining FXO (kinda redundant seeing as how they acquired fOu anyway, but I think it was one of the first Korean players to join a foreign team?)
Phoenix joining Reign (looked it up to verify, and noticed that he left shortly thereafter because of contracting disagreement - whoa, when did that happen)
Yes it is a global scene now, but don't forget that there have been many 'pro' players in the west, although the majority did not play starcraft at all~
On July 24 2011 12:58 LlamaNamedOsama wrote: Some other Korean instances of Korean players joining foreign teams that you left out:
Oz/Twilight joining FXO (kinda redundant seeing as how they acquired fOu anyway, but I think it was one of the first Korean players to join a foreign team?)
Phoenix joining Reign (looked it up to verify, and noticed that he left shortly thereafter because of contracting disagreement - whoa, when did that happen)
HwangSin joining It's Gosu
Ah thanks, I completely over looked those. I'll edit them in now hehe better late than never.
EPT
