EPT
One week. That's all the time left until the finals of the 2012 Red Bull International Starcraft Championship kicks off in Reykjavík, Iceland. No one is sure of the winner, but one thing is certain. There is no more epic way to end the greatest year of starcraft ever played.
What a year it's been. It's hard to nail down exactly why 2012 was so incredible, but perhaps it can be best summed up with one word: cooperation. In this day and age, with technology that can send messages around the world in the blink of an eye, the tools were always there for global cooperation in esports. But the unity and vision that developed this year was unprecedented in scale and ambition.
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Not the 2012 I have in mind
I guess we have Activision-Blizzard to thank for it all. Of course, I don't mean they were instrumental in bringing together the different parties to present a global vision for esports. I mean if Heart of the Swarm's beta hadn't been so appalling, if the changes they proposed hadn't been so anti-competitive and anti-community, then it's hard to imagine the global starcraft community rallying together like they did to force the entire track of game development to change. Less than a year ago, the community was in uproar over autonomous creep spread, the automatic unit formation command, and the mineral over-saturation fixer. But with the community's surprisingly constructive input, these changes gave way to the return of the defender's advantage, dynamic unit movement, and 360-firing arc stalkers. That the momentum from that protest finally brought the long awaited cross-server play, LAN support for major tournaments, and a shareholder revolt against Bobby Kotick showed just what the community could accomplish.
Suddenly, so many doors opened up. For the first time in many years there was a sense that the community had complete ownership of the game. The results, as they say, are history. But before they become more distant memories, perhaps this is the proper time to look back and see what worked to get us here, and how 2012 has changed how we view our game.
The first real concrete step was the cooperation by the Nordic LANs. The creation of the Great Northern Cup was a really visionary initiative that both strengthened what were already awesome tournaments, as well as took the first step towards consolidating 2011's extremely packed and confusing schedule. Suddenly, instead of being separate and often competing events, the collaboration of Assembly Winter, The Gathering, Copenhagen Games, and Dreamhack Summer created the most dramatic moment of the year. There is little doubt that after winning the previous three LANs, Liquid`Ret's run in Dreamhack Summer was the most closely watched event in the game's history. But the fashion in which he had the grand slam snatched away from him; barely losing to Grubby's desperate carrier transition in the Dreamhack Summer semi-finals, counts among the most monumental moments ever created in esports. It might be said that that series alone, which will probably be considered among the greatest ever played, was what secured EuroSport's coverage of the upcoming Red Bull IGC Reykjavík.
MLG and IEM played a large part as well. The two giants of the competitive scene did the esports community proud when they brought ESPN on board in January. At first, streaming MLG Minneapolis live on ESPN3 was a thrill enough, but after media coverage of the overwhelming success of the community group Barcraft International, and the famous Sportscenter interview with Gordon Hayward, ESPN eventually decided to replace their coverage of random trick-shot pool championships with MLG Cincinnati and IEM Vancouver. I don't think I need to mention how much of a success these events were, if the ratings are any indication, you—and your whole extended family—watched them yourself! And of course, ESPN now has the American broadcasting rights for Reykjavík.
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Hell, it's about time that we all cooperate with each other.
I'm not sure why Korea took quite so long to get on board, but when they did, you have to give them credit for doing it so quickly. The sponsorship and merger of Hwaseung Oz, Wemade FOX, and MBC Game in the fall of 2011 was definitely a huge influence. With another tremendous season of brood war secured, the situation was stable enough for GOM and KeSPA to come to their long overdue agreement. In putting aside their different games and working to jointly promote the growth of esports, the two organizations probably saved the future of both games in Korea for the forseeable future. Seeing BW on GOM and Sc2 on OGN every other night has certainly took some getting used to, but it's for the best.
Changing the GSL season into one large seeded tournament that takes place three times a year was another bold step, and one that could only happen after GOM became confident in their future. Sure it cut down slightly on the amount of games that were shown, but I doubt few would argue that the games didn't get much better, especially the finals. Removing the division between Code S and Code A gave us one of the most heart warming stories in 2012, as IMTentaizu—formerly ggaemo, of course—left the airforce, switched to Sc2, and walked the GSL royal road with a 4-3 win in the finals against TSL_Clide. The tradition that he began of Airforce ACE veterans switching to Sc2 has been one of the most positive developments for Sc2 in Korea, as the antics of HellionHeroPrime (T), SlayerS_Stone (P), and Canata (T) injected new life into the GSL scene. The battle between old and new, probably best exemplified when OSL champion EffOrt and GSL champion ggaemo presented jointly at the Seoul Gayo Daesang awards.
Any review of the past year should probably take a moment to acknowledge that cooperation has led to some consolidation of leagues. But the acquisition of the NASL by IGN shouldn't be viewed at all as a downside. The merging of the caster and production teams created the online behemoth that draws such impressive numbers every weekly night. The recent announcement that the IPL Season 8 finals were the most purchased video on Amazon this August was yet another indication that esports has arrived. The new IPL was also large and well-financed enough to address the biggest hole in foreign esports up until that point; the lack of a serious teamleague. Team Liquid proved to be the ideal partner for this effort, with the continued generous support of TSL4 sponsor Twitter, the Twitter International Proleague was born. With eight invited teams and eight teams qualifying through open events, the first season had all the dynamism and excitement that previous smaller teamleagues had failed to generate. Unexpected qualifier Gamersleague made waves early in the season with some big upset wins, but it was the surprising run by Acer, and their line-up of seven zergs and one protoss that proved the storyline of the event. In exciting fashion, they were beaten by runner-up Mousesports after reaching the semi-finals, but their fanbase exploded, especially on Reddit, which once featured a front page entirely with links about Mondragon's body.
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See you in Reykjavík
Which brings us to ISC Reykjavík. It seems pretty silly now, that with all of this incredible progress in creating the best possible Starcraft 2 scene that it never occurred to anyone that a true world championship would be in order. Ironically, the negotiated offseason was really the catalyst for the event. With all of these incredible events, it became obvious that the scene needed an offseason where the players, fans, and staff could rest and recoup. The stretch from September to mid-October where BW had traditionally been on break was the preferred choice, but it seemed like there was a void that was yet to be filled.
That's when Reykjavík mayor Jón Gnarr proposed a showmatch between GSTL Fall winners oGs, and TIPL champions TLAF-Liquid`. It was oddly fitting; for some reason no country in the world has become so bizarrely obsessed with Starcraft 2 this year than tiny Iceland. Some readers might not be aware that Iceland holds the record for largest barcraft event (1,015 people) and that an estimated 36% of Icelandic television sets watched the final day of Dreamhack Summer. As the only nordic country without a major LAN, and the most fanatic, it seemed appropriate that the Icelandic capital host this battle between the world's best teams. But why stop there? Why not invite the champions of the the Great Northern Cup, the individual MLG and IEM winners, the three GSL victors, and the online kings of IPL and TSL4? After a year of unprecedented growth and success, should we not crown a world champion?
Well indeed, why not?.
