IPL4 Pacific Qualifiers: The Aftermath

I first heard about Team AZK while browsing TeamLiquid forums. Interestingly enough, there was already controversy when a thread about viOlet leaving MVP for Team AZK was filled with questions about why he would leave an established Korean team for an unknown Filipino team. Someone mentioned that they talked to viOlet in skype and he had no idea what the thread was about, so the thread was closed and the issue was dismissed as a hoax. I had also read online posts about how some members on AZK were lowskilled and very BM. I rolled my eyes and figured it was just a no name team starting rumors in order to get attention. However, when I attended IPL3, I saw a Korean guy talking to ThorZaiN, wearing a Team AZK jacket. I spoke to him and realized that it was viOlet. I also ran into an AZK member in the bathroom and spoke with him brief but friendly conversation. I realized perhaps I had judged Team AZK too quickly.

After IPL3, I got a friend request from Gus "witchdoc" Ledesma. I hadn't met him in person at IPL3, but as the the AZK members that I did meet were kind enough, I figured what the heck. I read more about Team AZK and it seemed like they were a big player in the Philippine eSports scene. Gus himself was very friendly to me online and he seemed like a competent manager. And as I was reading the headlines about his team's acquisitions on his page and on TL, my doubts concerning Team AZK's credibility disappeared.

So when I first heard about the how Team AZK was hosting the PPSL and its partnership with IPL, I was pretty excited. I've been a fan of Starcraft for maybe 6 or 7 years now, and while I enjoyed and continue to enjoy the Korean Broodwar scene, I recognize there is something really special going on in eSports with how SC2 has transcended the Korean scene and is spreading internationally. The feeling I've gotten is that the SEA server has a reputation as the weakest server on battle.net, but there's a lot of hidden potential that's worthy of a closer look by international fans. It was really cool to see SC2 finally being embraced in an area dominated by other games such as DotA and HoN. Though it was a surprise to see that a large tournament (with backing by major corporate sponsors and IGN) would be hosted in the Philippines over, say, a wealthier country like Australia or Singapore, I didn't think much of it. After all, it was being run by a team of cool dudes that was making waves in the SEA SC2 scene that seemed competent enough.

Fast forward to Monday. I wrote a post on Gus's wall wishing him luck with the tournament and a word of thanks for growing SC2 in SEA. But when I tuned into the stream, the troubles began. I noticed at first the video quality was quite poor, but I had attributed it to the fact that the stream was being run at 360p and not at 480p or higher, like I was used to seeing from featured streams on TeamLiquid. I shrugged this off, reasoning that GOMTV free test stream was worse in quality, and since this was free as well I shouldn't complain.

But the more I watched, the worse it got. I noticed how poorly lit the venue appeared on camera, which was odd to me as someone who has been to a couple of malls in the Philippines. I thought that Philippines has (or had?) some of the largest and nicest malls in the world, so I was puzzled as to why the mall looked so drab and unappealing. I realized it was because there seemed to be no real lighting setup visible (or if there was, it was rather ineffective). But, I excused this because I supposed perhaps the mall would not allow them to set up lights so they were just making do with what they had. Then, when Tasteless and Artosis came on, I noticed they were holding microphones rather than wearing headsets or having mic stands. I thought that was pretty ridiculous that arguably the most famous SC2 casters were being made to hold up mics while having to observe and commentate the game.

And then there were the drops, the delays, the awkward dead air, the lag, and overall poor production quality and organization of the event. Everyone in chat was extremely disappointed with what they were seeing. The excuse of "This is the first major SC2 event in the Philippines" could only carry so far... I started feeling bad for everyone involved. I cringed whenever Tastosis would try to hype up the crowd and were met with silence, or a few token cheers or claps. To say this was the ghetto version of IPL3 was an understatement.

When I woke up, I logged into Facebook and offered Gus some sympathy over how the event was going and gave my wishes that they'd have more luck the next day. However, when I checked out TL that morning, I found out it was WAY, WAY, worse than I had previously thought. I read about how some players were forced to wait 8 hours before they could play. I read about how the venue's internet capabilities could not have possibly hoped to meet the bandwidth requirements of a SC2 qualifier. I read about how some of the computers didn't even have enough RAM to run SC2 at an adequate performance level. Later that night the stream got bumped up to 480p, but it was the equivalent of sprinkling sugar on a pile of shit. And then I read about the scandal and dishonesty of Team AZK and witchdoc. The more I read, the worse it got. The HoN tourney that never was. Promises that went undelivered. I couldn't believe how bad things were. What looked at first like a fledgling tourney that was having teething issues turned out to be a absolute travesty. Actually, that's putting it kindly. The PPSL was a fucking utter cesspool of corruption and deceit. It got to the point where I was just laughing at what a poor excuse for a tournament this whole thing was.

But after seeing what matches were coming up, and since it was my off day, I figured I'd tune in to the stream. After all, it was my day off and after that completely embarrassment the day before, it wasn't like they could do any worse. At first things were still pretty much rock bottom, but I could tell the staff was trying their best to salvage the poor excuse for a tourney known as PPSL. And despite all the problems, I noticed 3,000+, then 5000+ and eventually (over?) ~9000 people had tuned into the stream for the final. And while the chat was filled with anger and frustration, as well as general mockery of the event, the quality of the product being put forward on Tuesday was actually somewhat close to what I was expecting from the PPSL.