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Recently Kespa announced that it would be considering adding SC2 to the Proleague. While most people feel that this move would greatly benefit SC2, I see myself taking a wait and see approach. In my opinion, such a move would greatly benefit SC2 in Korea, but its effects on the greater SC2 scene remains to be seen.
Currently, BW is still much more popular in Korea than SC2, and the OSL and Proleague still enjoy much higher viewership and larger fanbases than GomTv's GSL. Kespa's move to SC2 is still very speculative, and there are still looming legal disputes with Blizzard over broadcasting rights. But the trend towards SC2 is clear: Even the pro-BW teams are beginning to practice SC2. But if Kespa does begin to broadcast SC2, whether in the Proleague or another format, it would certainly increase the Korean fanbase, which is a good thing for SC2.
However, Kespa (Korean E-Sports Players Association) is still a Korean organization with Korean esports as its top priority. My personal concern is that Kespa may ignore the large foreign fanbase that SC2 and focus only on Korea. Professional BW certainly had its merits, but the fact that the competition and scene was located almost exclusively in Korea was not one of them.
Compared to Kespa, GomTv's GSL has been much more global-minded. Every single GSL to date has had foreigners competing, and the GSL has also reached out to the foreign fanbase by providing English casters, creating tournaments such as the World Championships for greater foreign participation, partnering with foreign tournaments such as MLG, and giving GSL seeds to foreigners. While the GSL is still heavily dominated by Koreans, this has less to do with GSL's policies than the strength of the Korean players in comparison to their foreign counterparts. With the recent GSL finals held in California, and the Blizzard Cup giving invites to the winners of many foreign tournaments, one can safely say that GSL is interested in growing the international Esports scene.
But Kespa is still a larger and more powerful organization in Korea. My fear is that if Kespa were to begin broadcasting SC2, the competition may marginalize the GSL. At the same time, Kespa may remain fixated on Korea, and impose regulations that limit Korean-foreign scene interaction. Over time, the skill gap between the scene would increase, and the foreign SC2 scene would end up becoming not much more than a mere imitation of the Korean scene. Kespa may also reverse many of the steps that the GSL took to integrate the Korean and foreign scenes.
This has happened in the past. In 2008, GomTv created their own Starleague for BW, and even had English casters such as Tasteless. However, Kespa gradually persuaded the BW pro-teams to pull out, and GomTv's Starleague collapsed, and Kespa's control over the BW scene continued.
Please do not misinterpret my concerns about Kespa however. Kespa is still a huge force in the Esports world, capable of bringing in high viewership and strong financial sponsorship. Having Kespa as a force to promote SC2 would be a huge boon to the SC2 scene. Nevertheless, Kespa has shown through its past actions that it wants to maintain its control over the Esports scene and may limit the SC2 scene to Korea. I do not necessarily oppose stronger regulation over the SC2 scene, but any governing organization for SC2 must be one with a global perspective and one that works to promote SC2 globally.
TL;DR Kespa's broadcasting of SC2 may marginalize the GSL and undo many of the steps the GSL took to expand SC2 globally, especially if Kespa retains its Korea-only focus in SC2.
Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on the matter. At this time, I now open the floor to the community. Please share your thoughts, ideas, comments concerns, etc. Thank you.
Edit: I just realized that another member of the community had already posted a blog regarding this matter. I also realize now that this blog was redundant. My apologies for clogging up the forum.
 
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Well, we can only speculate what might happen, but I'm not that concerned until it actually happens. It's like trying to fix something that is not broken. Many things may change before KeSPA broadcasts SC2 games.
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I think that they are bound to implement a new, popular RTS if the channel wants to survive in the future. Either that or they put all the apples in one basket. If SCII doesnt work out they can just drop it and continue buisness as usual. I for one hope that they can co-exist.
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while I see your concerns I feel that the non korean fan base is far too large for kespa to ignore this time around, and if they do then will it be as successful as the GSL? perhaps wait and see is the best approach for this, while a move from kespa will of course raise the skill ceiling of sc2 with more organized practice it might serve to sever the connection between the Korean and non-Korean scenes
well damn i just talked myself into indecision... 
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at this point i would be comfortable with gomtv commanding the entire Korean e-sports world. They have shown to value players and foreigners, and aren't afraid to spend money to make it more comfortable/accessible for players. (Plane tickets, GomHouse, Seeding, etc). If Kespa takes over, no doubt Gomtv will be marginalized. They will become like NASL to the Korean MLG. Best case scenario is both parties cooperate and Kespa buys-out Gom, letting Gomtv employees run things while having access to Kespa players.
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By the time KeSPA was both developed and had any real pull, the foreign BW scene had already died. Early on in BW, there were quite a few foreign players in Korea, and WCG was a big deal and less of a one-sided joke put on by shady organizers.
IF KeSPA picks up SC2, they'll probably focus on developing a Proleague, which means it'll be difficult to get more direct foreign involvement.
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Where did this "Kespa pressured teams not to play in Gom" thing come from? People always repeat it like it is fact, is it?
8 of 12 teams participated in the last Intel Classic or whatever they called them. Even the concept of teams being forced not to do things by kespa, when Kespa is made up of the teams, makes no sense to me. Either they decide to participate or they don't. Maybe those teams thought their players had too much on the plate for what was a league with much lower ratings and prestige. Maybe they wanted to focus more on proleague than another individual league. Everyone who followed BW knows there are times when star players are completely overworked. Another league just adds to that.
This whole Kespa forcing teams not to play thing doesn't make much sense to me. I mean if they wanted to stop players from participating, they could have easily done so before it even started instead of let it go on for 3 seasons + the few other random gom events.
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My answer to all the fearmongering about kespa - KeSPA's power in BW comes from controlling the money. There is enough money from the foreign scene in sc2 that this will never be the case.
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On October 31 2011 08:24 floor exercise wrote:
Where did this "Kespa pressured teams not to play in Gom" thing come from? People always repeat it like it is fact, is it?
8 of 12 teams participated in the last Intel Classic or whatever they called them. Even the concept of teams being forced not to do things by kespa, when Kespa is made up of the teams, makes no sense to me. Either they decide to participate or they don't. Maybe those teams thought their players had too much on the plate for what was a league with much lower ratings and prestige. Maybe they wanted to focus more on proleague than another individual league. Everyone who followed BW knows there are times when star players are completely overworked. Another league just adds to that.
This whole Kespa forcing teams not to play thing doesn't make much sense to me. I mean if they wanted to stop players from participating, they could have easily done so before it even started instead of let it go on for 3 seasons + the few other random gom events.
I do not know the details, but gradually the teams pulled out of the league. The possibilities that you give are also equally possible and valid. But ultimately the result was the same: The smaller league hosted by GomTv was marginalized and died out. This is what I do not want to see happening to the GSL or any other major tournament.
With the recent pullout of the Koreans from NASL 2, I have concerns about NASL and I truly hope that NASL manages to pull through and eventually thrive. But I do see many similarities between the two cases and it is troubling.
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I hope KeSPA stays away from SC2.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
On October 31 2011 08:34 Bagration wrote:Show nested quote +On October 31 2011 08:24 floor exercise wrote:
Where did this "Kespa pressured teams not to play in Gom" thing come from? People always repeat it like it is fact, is it?
8 of 12 teams participated in the last Intel Classic or whatever they called them. Even the concept of teams being forced not to do things by kespa, when Kespa is made up of the teams, makes no sense to me. Either they decide to participate or they don't. Maybe those teams thought their players had too much on the plate for what was a league with much lower ratings and prestige. Maybe they wanted to focus more on proleague than another individual league. Everyone who followed BW knows there are times when star players are completely overworked. Another league just adds to that.
This whole Kespa forcing teams not to play thing doesn't make much sense to me. I mean if they wanted to stop players from participating, they could have easily done so before it even started instead of let it go on for 3 seasons + the few other random gom events. I do not know the details, but gradually the teams pulled out of the league. The possibilities that you give are also equally possible and valid. But ultimately the result was the same: The smaller league hosted by GomTv was marginalized and died out. This is what I do not want to see happening to the GSL or any other major tournament. With the recent pullout of the Koreans from NASL 2, I have concerns about NASL and I truly hope that NASL manages to pull through and eventually thrive. But I do see many similarities between the two cases and it is troubling. They didn't gradually pull out... I mean at one point SKT made their players decide to either play in MSL or OSL because they felt their performance was lacking. The teams that didn't play in GOM were:
- MBC; rival corp
- OGN; rival corp
- eSTRO; owned by IEG, owned rights to proleague, rival corp
- SKT; when they pulled out their manager was head of kespa
Thats what GOM gets for not trying to work within the framework of kespa tbh =/
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On October 31 2011 08:48 Plexa wrote:Show nested quote +On October 31 2011 08:34 Bagration wrote:On October 31 2011 08:24 floor exercise wrote:
Where did this "Kespa pressured teams not to play in Gom" thing come from? People always repeat it like it is fact, is it?
8 of 12 teams participated in the last Intel Classic or whatever they called them. Even the concept of teams being forced not to do things by kespa, when Kespa is made up of the teams, makes no sense to me. Either they decide to participate or they don't. Maybe those teams thought their players had too much on the plate for what was a league with much lower ratings and prestige. Maybe they wanted to focus more on proleague than another individual league. Everyone who followed BW knows there are times when star players are completely overworked. Another league just adds to that.
This whole Kespa forcing teams not to play thing doesn't make much sense to me. I mean if they wanted to stop players from participating, they could have easily done so before it even started instead of let it go on for 3 seasons + the few other random gom events. I do not know the details, but gradually the teams pulled out of the league. The possibilities that you give are also equally possible and valid. But ultimately the result was the same: The smaller league hosted by GomTv was marginalized and died out. This is what I do not want to see happening to the GSL or any other major tournament. With the recent pullout of the Koreans from NASL 2, I have concerns about NASL and I truly hope that NASL manages to pull through and eventually thrive. But I do see many similarities between the two cases and it is troubling. They didn't gradually pull out... I mean at one point SKT made their players decide to either play in MSL or OSL because they felt their performance was lacking. The teams that didn't play in GOM were: - MBC; rival corp - OGN; rival corp - eSTRO; owned by IEG, owned rights to proleague, rival corp - SKT; when they pulled out their manager was head of kespa Thats what GOM gets for not trying to work within the framework of kespa tbh =/
Thanks for the information and for clearing up many questions. Just out of curiousity, what is your take on the issue?
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EPT
