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IPL4 Pacific Qualifiers: The Aftermath

Blogs > SpeaKEaSY
Post a Reply
SpeaKEaSY
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States1070 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-11-08 14:07:18
November 08 2011 14:03 GMT
#1
sorry if this is tl;dr I'm gonna spoiler the backstory to get to the important part.

+ Show Spoiler +
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.


After all the drama and negativity surrounding the PPSL, I feel people aren't really getting the praise they deserve. Like most of us, I'm a nobody, and my opinion might not really matter by itself, but somebody needs to thank these people. So I figure I'll say it here.

Thanks to all the players who had to deal with all the nonsense and yet still managed to put out some entertaining matches.

Thank you IGN, as an organization, for continuing to support the tournament despite the horrific disappointment that the organizers presented you with. These guys could have easily justified wiping their hands clean of the whole affair, pulled out to cut their losses, and left the blame at the feet of Team AZK, but they went through with it understanding they had a responsibility to finish their business there in order to not further disappoint the people who for whatever reason decided to keep watching. I've been really impressed with the effort that the IPL staff puts into their events and into the community, and I look forward to their future events.

Rachel and GunRun [edit: and Allyn, and the BeeDuck sisters] especially, thank you for everything you were doing to to calm down the anger and confusion in the streamchat. These guys dealt with so much bullshit in that chat, including the angry lynchmob out to get Gus/Team AZK, the racism directed towards Filipinos, the racism directed towards anyone in the chat not speaking English (seriously guys, are you gonna complain about people not speaking English at an event held in Asia?), the huge fight between Taiwanese and Chinese fans over Taiwan independence during Sen's matches, balance whining, among other stupidity that was constantly being piled on by the thousands of people in chat. These guys not only dealt with all of those problems, but stuck around to answer questions and entertain/converse with the people in chat, all while fulfilling their other duties to the tournament. These guys (and all the other people working their asses off that weren't so visible) really deserve our gratitude for trying to make the PPSL at least somewhat watchable.

Tastosis, thank you for taking time away from the more "prestigious" GSL in order to cast an event in a largely untapped market. Thank you for trying to help grow the SC2 scene in SEA/The Philippines. Thank you for staying incredibly professional and being super charitable to how the event was being run despite all the problems and difficulties. Because I know I would not have been able to say "It's been a real treat to be able to cast this event" with a straight face after everything that had happened.

Thank you to everyone, who despite the utter disappointment we were served with this event, decided to still tune in and give your support to all the people who were doing their best to provide a passable tournament. To the SEA SC2 community, chin up. Despite all the doom and gloom people have been predicting, you guys can and will recover from this, and I hope you guys will take this as a learning experience for future events. There was a lot of surprising play from the "unknown" players, and I'd like more and better opportunities to see how SEA players measure up to the best in the world. Filipinos especially, stop your self loathing. You guys have done well in other esports (congrats to the Filipino Duskbin team in HoN for the victory in WCG); there's no reason why you won't be able to do the same for SC2. I'm sure you'll forget about this when Pacquiao wins this weekend ;P

And to Team AZK and Gus... I really hope the best for you. I doubt AZK as an organization will be able to be a respectable team ever again, nor do I believe anyone will trust them with a large event in the future. But many of the people with grievances during the event specifically mentioned that most of the AZK guys were great people, which is the impression I've gotten as well. I hope you guys can still contribute to SC2 somehow. And Gus, your apology at the end of PPSL was a start. It'd be great to finally hear your side of the story, as well as fully own up to the controversy and undelivered promises. Despite the damage that's been done, I don't feel you deserve the death threats that some people were giving you. Most of the community may never forgive you, and you may not ever have credibility in esports ever again, but I know if an adequate apology is given, I know you will find forgiveness and closure at some level.

Thanks to everyone who read this far, hope we can all learn and grow and move on from all of this.

***
Aim for perfection, settle for mediocrity - KawaiiRice 2014
TheLOLas
Profile Joined May 2011
United States646 Posts
November 08 2011 14:15 GMT
#2
While this is very well written and a very interesting viewpoint I don't believe that the good outweighs the bad. Supposedly AZK stole money from IPL? And put it in their own pockets? They also screwed over all the Hon players. And there was rumblings that the organizers were favoring their players in the brackets and making it so that their rival teams couldn't participate.
AZK is probably dead. Or close to it. They will never be allowed to host a tournament and I'm sure that their players are going to be harassed constantly. If they are really sorry for what ocurred then they may find themselves back in the scene however I doubt it. If they volunteered to host such and event they should do it the best they can, considering it was under the name of IPL.
dormer
Profile Joined October 2010
United States1314 Posts
November 08 2011 14:17 GMT
#3
Amen, amen.

The problems that came to light obviously need to be dealt with, but you're right, there were a lot of people that put in a wonderful effort to continue the event and try to keep things smooth. I can't imagine how hard it must be to stay cool with all the technical and organizational issues on top of the drama.

Listening on the stream, the fans at the venue sounded really enthusiastic and excited about the games, and someone just posted in another thread about how they got a picture and signed mousepad from their favorite player. The stream also had what, around 8k viewers at the one point I checked it. Despite all the scandal and drama, you guys still managed to bring us some great games and make a lot of fans happy.

Thank you <3
Artosis: "You need to hold my hand." Tasteless: "I'm very good at that."
SpeaKEaSY
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
United States1070 Posts
November 08 2011 14:25 GMT
#4
On November 08 2011 23:15 TheLOLas wrote:
While this is very well written and a very interesting viewpoint I don't believe that the good outweighs the bad. Supposedly AZK stole money from IPL? And put it in their own pockets? They also screwed over all the Hon players. And there was rumblings that the organizers were favoring their players in the brackets and making it so that their rival teams couldn't participate.
AZK is probably dead. Or close to it. They will never be allowed to host a tournament and I'm sure that their players are going to be harassed constantly. If they are really sorry for what ocurred then they may find themselves back in the scene however I doubt it. If they volunteered to host such and event they should do it the best they can, considering it was under the name of IPL.


Thanks for taking the time to read my writing.

I absolutely agree. Like I said, it's akin to pouring sugar on top of shit. There is no getting around the fact that the PPSL was a debacle. But I felt that given the circumstances, the people who were putting an effort to salvage the event need to be commended, if not for the improvements shown in the second day, then at least for showing that they are committed to trying to "save eSports" instead of just abandoning a seemingly lost cause. It shows that there is potential for a great event, as long as the organizers (hopefully someone else next time) get their act together, make sure the necessary equipment and infrastructure is in place, and have a plan in case things go wrong.
Aim for perfection, settle for mediocrity - KawaiiRice 2014
rebdomine
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
6040 Posts
November 08 2011 14:44 GMT
#5
Day 2 was a much, much better experience overall. It was worth it going on leave from work to catch Day 2.

Kudos to all the staff there who managed to turn things around and make it an incredible event. I can't thank you guys enough for all the effort you put in.

The energy from the crowd during the latter stages of the tournament was incredible! I personally couldn't hold back my excitement and found myself fist pumping at times lol.

And I did get quite a lot of signatures on my copy of sc2, as well as quite a lot of pictures with all the players there. (I had more than 1 taken with some of my favorite ones)
"Just because you are correct doesn't mean you are right!"
Ciryandor
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States3735 Posts
November 08 2011 15:36 GMT
#6
I got Tastosis sigs on my Keyboard and an MKP sig beside it as well. Now makes me want to get this auctioned out or something. :p

Just kidding, I'll probably batter this keyboard to death before putting it somewhere safe.

As I was saying earlier, don't blame the staff on the ground for the screw-ups, pressure the people who have the power to screw things up then either expose them or let them at least try to make up for it.
에일리 and 아이유 <3 - O Captain 박재혁 ・゚✧*:・*゚+..。✧・゚:*・..。 ✧・゚ :・゚* ゜・*:・ ✧・゚:・゚:.。 ✧・゚ SPARKULING ・゜・:・゚✧*:・゚✧。*゚+..。 ✧・゚: ✧・゚:*・゜・:・゚✧*::
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