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I hate to make a blog about this, but just thank God I'm not posting this in SC2 general for those of you as tired of the topic as I am. And yes, this is somewhat of a "response" to a certain topic, but I've been thinking about it for a while and it just wouldn't go away. Also, I'll try to divert away from certain points that make this blog as redundant as some other posts/topics of the past.
It's died down a bit, but it still comes up and there's always discussions on why Korean players are so good. Some guy will make some sort of tangent on the korean mindset and make some sort of elaborate post as to why foreigners just can't keep up and how they need to move to korea and train 8 hours a day.
Ok, yes that would help, but aren't we all overlooking something very obvious and probably the most glaring reason of all? If Halo 3 were to suddenly become popular in Korea would it really be a surprise that they wouldn't be able to compete with some of the top teams right now? SC1 has been immensely popular in Korea for literally over 10 years. It's THE game to try at least once in your lifetime, and the fact that it gets aired on TV spurs so many kids to at least attempt to reach pro status.
Then here comes starcraft 2, a new game, a fresh start, and a lot of potential. You're also left with a bunch of amateurs and B team pro sc1 players who want to continue their dreams, and have already spent an immense amount of effort into a similar and much more difficult game. Some korean sc1 pro players were actually relatively successful in such a difficult scene while others failed but worked hard but they were still miles ahead of any non korean in regards to sc1 skill. The foreign scene is made up of purely amateurs or ex wc3 pros, of course they're not going to do as well as someone with years of experience. No single notable korean pro has not put in at least 5+ years into sc1. Yes I've heard of Tyler, I've heard of Greg Fields, but for every Idra there are 10x as many Koreans who were just as good at sc1 or better playing sc2 right now.
It's not just the hours put in currently, but it's also the initial player pool that transitioned into sc2.
Now, to cap things, here are a list of players that you may not have known were on a profesionally sc1 team. You've heard of names like MC, Nestea, MVP, July, etc., but the list doesn't end there.
Puzzle
Bomber
Losira
Squirtle
TheSTC
MMA
MarineKing
Cezanne
Revival
Clide
Killer
Tester
Choya
Supernova
Ace
Junwi
I probably haven't even graced the tip of the iceberg, but it's very apparent that many players have already had high level experience, and many others have played at a semi-pro/amateur level and have just recently put in the hours. I can only think of a giant elephant whenever there is even a discussion or an elaborate explanation on why koreans are doing so well.
  
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It's really not that surprising or that secret. Korean pros practice so much, it's really hard to call foreigners "pros". There are a few foreigners that legitimately put in the time and effort, but we know about them and they are doing as well as expected, for the most part.
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So I don't know what point you are trying to make... That since there are BW semi-pro/pros that switched over to SC2 and have played high level BW that is the reason why they are doing so good? Or because Koreans have grown up on BW and want to become pros?
I think it is just due to the infrastructure, SK is packed into a little shell with a ton of people there. All the best players are within a reasonable distance of each other. Europe and America are spread out with decent sized cities all over the place compared to a super city like Seoul.
From the wikipedia: Seoul is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world.
Not to mention the amount of people in the U.S. who still think playing video games is a waste of time and of life. America doesn't have their own SlayerSBoxer to look up to, and gaming is just now starting to become more mainstream as generations of people who grew up on games are finally getting older.
I think there are a ton of variables that actually go into the reason why Koreans have been dominate as of late, but the there are some easy, glaring points that stand out from the rest.
On September 07 2011 17:19 Emporio wrote:
It's really not that surprising or that secret. Korean pros practice so much, it's really hard to call foreigners "pros". There are a few foreigners that legitimately put in the time and effort, but we know about them and they are doing as well as expected, for the most part.
You can say that they practice so much, but I am doubting that if someone just practiced only on their own ladder (even if it was KR) that they would have that great of a chance to become pro. Practice and quality practice are two different things, and as I mentioned earlier in this post...the networking and infrastructure in KR starcraft scene is just superior for now. People talking starcraft over breakfast lunch and dinner and practicing for 8-10 hours a day in a team environment is better than someone sitting on a ladder practicing 20 hours a day.
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Its just that they take it more seriously. I remember in Old Boy, Midas mentioned that Kang Min needs to practice at least 8-10 hrs a day to even have a chance, because how can he expect to beat people who practice that much when hes not putting in the same amount of effort. The same sort of thing applies here, how many "foreign Pros" put in the time/effort that is equivalent to Korean pros? Almost none, and as such results reflect that. Of course, as a scene there is a lack of those players who want to improve and play as hard as the Koreans, which is why it sort of makes it necessary to move to Korea to achieve this.
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I'm saying that infrastructure isn't the main reason at all. In general korea had a head start even at the amateur and casual level. Practice will make you into a great player, but there were just many more good players in korea to begin with that made it that much easier to have more top players.
SC2 didn't start at an even footing. I've heard people say that they hoped sc2 wouldn't become like BW where it was segregated in skill level, but the misconception is that it ever wasn't to begin with.
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On September 07 2011 17:28 Itsmedudeman wrote:
I'm saying that infrastructure isn't the main reason at all. In general korea had a head start even at the amateur and casual level. Practice will make you into a great player, but there were just many more good players in korea to begin with that made it that much easier to have more top players.
SC2 didn't start at an even footing. I've heard people say that they hoped sc2 wouldn't become like BW where it was segregated in skill level, but the misconception was that it wasn't from the beginning.
How can you deny infrastructure though?
KR vs US
High speed internet all over vs high speed internet for some places (some places = no internet)
A giant mega-city where all the pros are vs people spread across many states
Team houses with coaches vs teams with players from different states and regions
Starcraft BW being popular and established vs a bunch of amateur players in BW
The difference is night and day, and on geography alone I think it is an uphill battle (unless there is some mega-hub where all SC2 players decide to live in one city in the US). U.S. and Europe are both still setting up the infrastructure necessary to even start catching up, while it has already been in place for many years in KR.
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there is no secret, discipline to put the hours needed and good practice environment/partners
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Again, yes, practice will help, but there's still a giant 10 year gap of BW experience that will be missing. Even if you put in equal amount of hours since the launch of sc2, you didn't start from the same line. Although koreans may not be innately gifted at sc2 from birth, they were innately better since the birth of sc2.
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The biggest misconception is that koreans are somehow born with an RTS gene. All other reasons for Korean domination are at least somewhat valid,
More dedication, more experience with RTS since BW, more closed off environment, gaming is taken more seriously all around, different mindset, some (a lot in fact) of the current korean SC2 pros grew up watching BW. There are so many reasons.
Now consider the fact that most (most, mind you) foreigners live in their own homes and have no practice schedule/coach to whip their ass into shape, and as you said a lot of them weren't doing RTS before, they certainly weren't seeing BW on TV growing up.
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this reminds me of the Blog "Elephant in the Room".
it's definitely not the genes, it's the fact that since sc:bw is so big in korea, any young person in the country knows about it, and the scene. there are much more poeple willing to try, and the people with the biggest amount of talent do the best and become progamers. in the western world, things are taken more lax and with the low density of competitive players (and no stable career path as a gamer) people won't be as good.
i bet if sc2 wouldn't be so volatile we would have more people dominating over other pros.
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in no way does it matter what nationality you are from.
The fact is, in korea they have probbaly the 2 biggest/most prestigious tournaments - being code s and super tournament?
any NA/EU pro could play for as long as the koreans do and get as good as them, and if they had the GSL over here for expample there'd be more motivation to play
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They also play against better players on a daily basis, so it is better practice and (most likely) easier to improve at a faster rate.
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EPT
