EPTAn Opinion Piece #14
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Gather 'round children while uncle Chef rambles to himself
Gather 'round children while uncle Chef rambles to himself
Warning: Melodrama Incoming
What is Passion?
Everyday the artist is in a constant struggle with a society that determines success through dollar bills and popularity. Everyday it becomes harder and harder to stay true to your craft and your aspirations. Passion is tested. The environment is never quite right, people never quite see what it is you're trying to do, the basic needs of life are challenged and take so much time from your craft that you wonder if it's worth it to spend the time leftover when it might not be enough.
Whether you're growing up and need real work, need the respect of your peers and your parents, or you need to support a dependent, eventually your passion dwindles and you make more and more trades for what is reasonable and acceptable, for what puts food on the table and money in the bank, the only measures of effort and hard work to a person who doesn't understand.
Time has been reset
But passion and technology haven't. If the OSL started on a Ping Pong table, SOSPA taking place in a little office space over the internet is at least on par. For every organizer and participant related to SOSPA, the goal is not money. The prize money isn't bad, but it's not a living. I don't know what they make from being Broadcast Jockies, but it's probably meagre. You have to be smart to be really good at StarCraft. Especially someone like Pusan, who isn't 20 anymore, doesn't need to be playing StarCraft to make money. The only reason to do any of this is passion.
I love that it is StarCraft, but that is not why it's so inspirational to me. To me it is the rejection of societal pressures and values so that you can achieve something you know is meaningful in your heart, not just meaningful according to others. It is so hard to make something like this work. Even with the glare on the office window, the technical hiccups, the recording of physical FP monitors and not their feeds, it is all coming together and creating something incredible.
Many people all over the world play hours of Chess or Go just because they like the game. Many play music by themselves just because they like the sounds. This is a passion for doing something just because. It's the same with Brood War. The pro scene is gone? Blizzard is known to sue for IP rights? A fourteen year old game doesn't sell gamer gear? It doesn't matter. Passion for Brood War isn't driven by any of these things, and Sonic's league is proof of it. Could Sonic get bigger? Even if he did, how would he deal with Blizzard? Passion is knowing these questions and still pushing forward. StarCraft isn't as big as LoL or DotA? It doesn't matter at all.
I thought I would be done
When the OSL ended I was pretty sure that was it for me. I thought I'd never see the passion I'd seen in the pro circuit again. Hours and hours of practice, coaching staff, financial support and a decade of history behind every player. It wasn't going to make 99% of them rich, but they were going to pour their youth into it anyway. That was beautiful thing and it ended in a crushing way. Not out of a lack of passion, but out of corporate greed. How can that make money? We can make more money this way? Why would we do anything else? What other point is there to life?
Maybe it's juvenile, but it felt like a huge slap in the face. Even when people had sacrificed so much, still there was another obstacle, another person to say "no you can't" because of their petty ideas. I felt like so much of my own energy had been sapped. That this might have been proof passion for anything but money and friends could not survive in this world.
SOSPA is the phoenix that rose from the ashes. It is the passion and flame that never died, and only saw a new beginning even in the face of adversity. The games are superb. The players are devoted. Maybe it is a different level of play, but it is not a bad level of play. An environment is never perfect for a true artist. They can't practice 10 hours a day in the sterile environment of a pro house, but they can practice at home as much as they can between life's responsibilities. It is not a joke like the hybrid league. It is real StarCraft, and anyone who still loves this game needs to watch it.
Passion doesn't always make money. Passion doesn't always gain respect. Passion doesn't always attract attention. Passion is only fulfilment of your own desires. It isn't easy, but the people who manage to keep their passions against the flow are truly incredible.
