EPTSo I’ve been putting the writing of this off for a while now because i wanted to observe a few things before i made this post. I guess this blog is mostly a bunch of commentary on observations I’ve seen over the last 3 years here on TL. Anyways, here it goes:
1. The SC2 Scene: This is pretty broad, so I’m just going to divide this in subsections.
A. Tournaments.
I’ve watched a few SC2 tournaments lately (MLG, Dreamhack) and I want to say that despite the highly entertaining games that come out of these, the feel of the tournaments just doesn’t feel right to me. It may be that I’m very acclimated to the BW-style tournaments, but I feel that the major SC2 tournaments are just too showy. I mean this in the sense that it’s all about being the bigger image in SC2 tournaments, whether it be a bigger prize pool, or more famous casters, or even who has a larger audience. Even some things that these tournaments do feel like publicity stunts just to attract viewers (ie. the KeSPA invitational, which in essence felt like a ploy to grab the attention of the die-hard BW fans). Though I don’t really think about these things while I watch the games, it sits there in the back of my mind and detracts from the game slightly. I guess GSL/GSTL is an exception to this, since it feels a lot more like the BW tourneys, but still has its differences.
B. VODs
Before I followed the BW scene religiously, before I started watching matches live, I stumbled across VODs of these players that piqued my interest initially. This interest eventually led me to TL, which itself lead me to discover the whole shebang. From what I’ve noticed in the SC2 scene, there is a limit to which VODs I can watch due to the addition of PPV and whatnot for GSL and the addition of HQ streams to MLG and “season passes.” I know I can still watch low-quality streams, but honestly, I like on the east coast, so the time I can watch these streams can be unforgiving, and I would much rather watch the VODs during the day than staying up till 3 in the morning to watch these VODs. The point I’m trying to get across here is that by limiting the ability to view these games, and limiting the ability to re-watch amazing games at my own leisure is kind of alienating to me and most other BW-fans who had the ability to do the previously mentioned things. Unless the PPV is a lot more lenient in the future (ex. free LQ VODs) I honestly don’t find myself getting into the scene any quicker than I already am. One direct consequence from this (for me at least) is that I don’t feel as much enjoyment out of the game if I can’t enjoy the professional scene.
C. Professionalism in the scene (alt title: An Incontrol rant)
Now I may be sounding harsh, but if the E-sports scene hopes to flourish and become something big, there’s a lot of expectations it has to meet, professionalism being one of those expectations. After watching Dreamhack, I noticed that Incontrol lacks professionalism by my standards. I may very well be over-reacting, but i was not fond of his behavior. It wasn’t so much the cursing during his casting which bothered me (though I really would like it if he casted without cursing), but on some interview thing that I don’t remember the name of (it was with him, DJ Wheat, d.Apollo, and some other guy with a G and D in his name). he was saying very vulgar things, flung the f-bomb around loosely, but most importantly, he was talking shit about a youtube celebrity. Yeah I know that nay be the way Incontrol acts around people, but for someone who says that he did debate in highschool, he should at least have some knowledge as to what is decent and what isn’t decent to say at particular times. I wouldn’t normally rant about this, but he said after he retires as a player, he wants to play more of a caster/coaching role in the community. Now if he wants to do that, he won’t be held at the same standards as he was while he was a player, but he will most likely be viewed as a representative of EG. If that is the case, he has to start acting like the role more than he already is, because if he acts like that as a caster/coach, it won’t look good for the reputation of EG. Essentially, all I’m saying is that Incontrol needs to start acting more mature to fit his ambitions.
Aside from Incontrol, I’m going to be holding most vital figures in e-sports (or those developing into vital figures) to these standards, because these are most likely the standards that the outside communities will hold e-sports to. If I can assume anything here, it’s that most people who don’t understand the gaming culture are not willing to accept it if the key figures are not professional.
D. The SC2 vs. BW debate
I’m gonna keep this short. To all die-hard BW and SC2 fans: keep your polarizing opinions out of the other game’s business. By saying things like “BW is dead, move on” or “SC2 is a stupid game, stop playing it,” not only do you look like a jackass who deserves the incoming ban, you misrepresent a good portion of your fanbase. Why should you listen to this advice? Because I’m someone who’s been here for a good part of the BW and SC2 eras and understands that by pushing your bias onto other people, not only do you misrep the fanbase of your game, but you turn off other people from the scene, thus doing the opposite of what your statement was intended to do. You may not like the other game, but other people do, so stop being narrow-minded and let them be. If they are meant to try the other game out, then they will, if not, then whatever. (Honestly, I don’t know how many other ways I can say it. It irritates me that there are people who blatantly disregard this.)
E. Balance Discussion
I know this is not my particular realm to discuss since I don’t play SC2 often, but the following should be said anyways. First off, if you’re claiming that a particular race or strategy is imbalanced: stop. You’re probably angry that you don’t know how to stop it, or you’ve given up trying to adapt to that particular race/strategy. The beauty of BW was that even during times of perceived imbalance, the game was balanced through a shift in strategy or execution of a build order, not through a patch. Yes patches are still being released for SC2, and it may appear for a while that the game has shifted in favor of a race because of a patch, but honestly, just give the players time to adapt to the patches and come up with new strategies, because the beauty of SC2 should be that the game evolves through strategies and not through patches. If there does exist an imbalance that can’t be solved through strategy, then that’s when a patch should take over and fix the game. So the next time you’re about to make a bold (and possibly angry) claim that protoss/zerg/terran is “imba,” take some time and think about what you’re about to say. Chances are you’re reasoning is solved through what I said above.
Oh and one more thing: Even if SC2 is imbalanced as it is, the game is still relatively young, so you can’t expect the game to balanced right off the bat. With constantly evolving strategies and whatnot, it’s hard to balance a game quickly.
2. My experience with TL
I guess this is where the “2k post reflection” comes in. I’ve been here since early 2009, and I’ve seen this site grow tremendously, from a few thousand users to tens of thousands and still increasing. This site and community has done a lot for me, whether it be provided me with all the news and VODs for BW, giving me help as I tried to improve at BW/SC2 (however unsuccessful that has been ^^), or even listening to my rants or giving me feedback on my blog posts. All round, this community has been wonderful to me, and I don’t want to take that for granted. I tried giving back to the community in various ways, whether it be trying to keep the small vod thread in tact when moktira was absent or helping new BW players improve at the game or even doing reviews of Proleague series with SNM (which was humorously cut short...hah...), but I never felt that it was adequate for what the community has done for me. For a while now I wanted to do something more consistent, but since I went to college, I never quite had the time between classes, hitting the gym, and doing extracurriculars, which something I kind of regret (but it’s not really within my power to fix =\). At any rate, I guess the one thing I can do now is try to improve at SC2 and play in CSL to entertain the collegiate portion of the TL. So in order to do that, I’m gonna force myself to play SC2 and get good at it this summer, so I can take the scene by storm next year. (Hah, I wish =P)
Yeah, so there are my thoughts for the past 2 months, I hope you weren’t too bored by my ramblings that you read this far (that would make me happy ^^).
So time for some obligatory shoutouts:
SNM: just cause we go way back, and you’re going to teach me how to play protoss in SC2 this summer (this isn’t me asking btw ;P).
Synapse: for trolling my blogs
Animostas: because I plan on asking you to teach me how to SC2 if snm refuses (that is if you’re not too busy ^^; ]
The TL staff: For continuously coming up with amazing content on this site
TL mods/admins: For keeping out the trolls/those who don’t belong here.
The lesser-known people who create the necessary threads (ie LR threads and whatnot): just cause they’re needed and someone has to make them, so kudos to you for making/maintaining them
er....idk if i’m forgetting anyone, but if I am, i’ll ninja-edit you in. :3
So yeah, thanks for reading and Hooray for 2k! I’m a DT now. :3
