About BarCraft. Part 1: Past.

In the Fall of 2011, the BarCraft movement became a phenomenon. Starting with four BarCrafts tuning in to the inaugural NASL Finals in early July, "eSports in a bar" quickly blossomed into a a metropolis with over 100 cities mere four months later. BarCraft is now a mainstay of StarCraft 2 viewing experience.

Multitude of factors coincided to sweep the StarCraft eSports community in such a frenzy about BarCraft - development of high-production TV-ready tournaments, a barrage of seemingly incidental eSports and mainstream media coverage, and the rise of a new crop of community leaders. BarCraft has changed the way we, and the outside world, think about eSports.

MarkO/aZoX. BarCraft Montreal. Club 1234.

Let Us Start from the Beginning

"BarCraft: A story of eSports, Reddit, and Booze". Primadog. July 20, 2011.

One day in the cold spring of Seattle, a StarCraft fan named Glen Bowers had an epiphany, "I love StarCraft, and I love alcohol. How can I combine the two?" Thus r/BarCraft was born, or so the legend goes.

No. The story of BarCraft actually precede the NASL finals. In fact, it precede even Glen "Oskar" Bowers. Before BarCraft was known as "BarCraft," before StarCraft 2 was the game, a group of friend down in San Diego has gathered regularly at Joe's Pizza for a little Brood War and Booze:

Of course, the group was led none other than our very own Diggity. Even now, years since those early days, San Diego BarCraft still meets weekly to hang out, play Domination, and change the channel for a little StarCraft action.

However, BarCraft didn't take off then. It would be years until "eSports with booze" developed beyond that small circle of friends in San Diego. StarCraft fandom was simply too small, geographically too spread out, for this sort of regular meet-up to be even warranted. Remember, back then TeamLiquid.net was not the Juggernaut of the industry now. There was no such thing as an industry at all, instead TL served as the last refuge of BW ESPORTS in the non-Korean world. But those was beyond my time, all these mere stories passed down.

The First Steps

Things became brighter when, after years of anticipation and delays, StarCraft 2 was released. The fanbase ballooned from thousands to hundreds-of-thousands, and they all want to watch StarCraft! Together! Somewhere! It still developed slowly in the early months of 2011. Regardless, more cities finally start to form regular watch groups beyond mere San Diego - first in Toronto, then Seattle, DC, and San Francisco.

"The BarCraft Manifesto." Blurami, Primadog. September 3rd, 2011.

However, something was missing, and the live-watch scene for StarCraft 2 remained stagnant.

It was Glen "o_Oskar" Bowers who struck upon the magical formula - the addition of sweet, sweet beer - and with other regular patrons coined the term "BarCraft."

One vital point glazed over while drafting of the "Manifesto" was, even after Oskar coined "BarCraft" & BarCraft Seattle was featured on Capital Seattle back April, nothing really happened with BarCraft. There was no movement. Beyond the individual heroics of the original organizers like Diggity, Oskar, Chromate, and Muffins, the larger StarCraft world largely ignored this "radical" concept.

It's easy to forget now, but for much of StarCraft 2's development, there was no booze. When you mentioned how BarCraft works to a fellow fan, the response was much more "Really?" than "Awesome!"

"Why watch at a bar and pay a tab when I can watch at home?"
"How will you convince bar owners to tune in to StarCraft"
"We are still having trouble getting on TV, how would it work?"
"You'll not even get twenty people out of their desk."

and so on and so on, naysayers are everywhere. Nobody wants to try new ideas. For such a cutting edge sport, the community has always been surprisingly conservative, and the establishment cool to every new idea.

NASL Finals Happened

I wasn't kidding when I offered the "Sugar Daddy of the BarCrafts" title to (P)

iNcontroL. To give some idea on how big NASL was to BarCraft:

July 9th, 2011: r/BarCraft has 27 subscribers.
July 11th, 2011: r/BarCraft ballooned past 850 subscribers.

The NASL Finals shout-out changed the game and made BarCraft into a movement. Not only did it exposed the concept for the first time to the StarCraft masses, but mobilized the first-crop of would-be organizers in make BarCraft happen in their city.

The four BarCrafts that tune-in to NASL Finals consisted of two bars (San Francisco and Seattle), a restaurant (Toronto), and an apartment (DC). A shabby, loose collective by any measure. With that iNcontroL boost, in less than a month DC has their own bar, and ten other cities rose up. Since then, it was all vertical growth.

How the F**k did all that Happened?

I want to apologize - for so long I been stringing you along, never explaining my role in this whole ordeal. I even planted "seemingly incidental coverage" at the starting paragraph of this expose without diving to the details. I was often asked what do i do for BarCraft. I am not even an organizer of any particular BarCraft now, as I passed of Los Angeles duties to trusted individuals. After a few poor initial attempts, my answer become concisely:

I serve as the common point of contact between all BarCrafts. I also help shape the media messages.

One way of looking at the BarCraft movement is that it is the greatest viral marketing campaign eSports has ever seen. It is highly effective: in about three months, attendance ballooned from dozens to thousands, venues from a handful to a hundred; BarCraft received coverage on every eSports site (including thrice on TL News), and published in dozens of local newspapers, including StarCraft's first piece on the WSJ. Everyone in StarCraft now knows BarCraft.

In a sense, I am the campaign's designer. But unless you look carefully, you probably never noticed me. For one, marketing is a behind-the-scene game. It never serves to show my hand. Second, it is not a traditional campaign - this is not to sell a car, or movie ticket, or new team acquisition - this is selling an idea. BarCraft is a great concept, you just need to shove it down people's throat until they realize it.

To be sure, I am not a marketer by trade. My real life involves international business in the Stone industry - marble and granite, countertops and flooring - you may dimly remember a strange sponsor for Day9's KotB call HY Stone Depot. My virtual life has been an on-and-off relationship flirting with various gaming communities, so I was never hired by any party to create a campaign for BarCraft. I came across the idea like anyone else, a brief reddit post from Oskar and a locked thread on TL in April of 2011. It's such a simple yet brilliant idea - watch StarCraft, with friends, and booze - but nobody listened. To my disappointment, nothing BarCraft happened in following months.

I was at the right place at the right time, and lucked in to several useful positions: my TL writer application was accepted, and NASL add me as one of their chat mods. From the NASL staff chat, I became familiar with not only the staffs there, but also fellow chat mods Alystair and Muffins, whom turned out to be important members of the Toronto and DC BarCraft communities. These associations eventually developed into an opportunity to hand iNcontroL a list of BarCrafts and beg for shout-outs during the NASL Finals. iNcontroL bit in the best way possible. Just as importantly, Alystair snuck this photo into the broadcast while trying to police the unruly NASL chat:

Alystair. BarCraft Toronto. Victory Cafe.

In its aftermath, I was looking for my first piece as a TL writer, and somehow got the "testimony of BarCraft" pitch accepted (Failed pitches "Meet the NASL staffs" "Are the Booths too small?" "Interview with NASL Boss Russ, Redux"). From there I got in touch with BarCraft founder Oskar, and the four of us formed the nexus of the "BarCraft Organizer Chat" that layout the movement's future.

Common Cause

If you're one of the Pre-Raleigh BarCraft organizers, you're eventually inducted into that Skype chat. It's informal, nobody's boss, but we got shit done. We share everything BarCraft - How to throw the best pitch? What equipments do we need? Can someone make a flyer? How does BBCode work? - and many of the BarCraft nomenclature, theory, and standards were formulated then.

We also start receiving quite a bit of media attention, and I end up becoming the go-to guy for answers. For BarCraft to go anywhere, a positive, clear message of what the movement has to be provided to the media, consistently. The BarCraft philosophy was distilled into "grassroots", "community-driven," "decentralized," the BarCraft message crystalized into "eSports in a Bar," and always, a reminder of its humble beginnings with Oskar as founder and Seattle's Chao Bistro the original BarCraft.

My biggest contribution remains introducing Day9's quote as our unofficial mantra. At the start of 2011, Day9 made a brief and often forgotten "State of the Union" to the Community in the D9D #232 pre-show. One line that caught my attention,

"Stop asking for permission, go f**king do it"

The mantra that remains my motivation thoroughout my eSports work, and its adoption solves the remaining obstacle for BarCraft - how to get people out there and knocking doors. Who better than Day9 for motivating StarCraft fans into action?

To this day, I have yet to ask Day9 how he felt about that.

The Rest Was History

Is the BarCraft movement manufactured? Possibly. Without those persistent work, careful planning, and clever timings in the early July days - chasing shout-outs and media coverages, pushing hard to motivate new BarCrafts - BarCraft probably will not become the mainstay that it is now. At the minimum, it won't happen so quickly, without a few lucky breaks.

At the same time, the reasons that BarCraft is successful was not manufactured. The fanbase was there before BarCraft, and would-be organizers and attendees amongst them. Most importantly, the tournaments our industry produced have finally become TV-ready. The powder loaded, the match set. Once BarCraft start rolling, its success rests completely on the organizers, attendees, and community veterans that gave it their blessings.

kozism. BarCraft Austin. Frank's.

I didn't sell you BarCraft, I simply reminded you that hobbies are better shared.

End of Part 1: Past

About BarCraft. Part 1: Past.

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