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Today, Tasteless casted League of Legends for GOMTV. Feeling betrayed (and probably insecure), the SC2 community reacted negatively. What will follow is predictable: Casters will come to Tasteless' defense and start scolding the community and SCReddit. They'll say to support SC2, ignore games you don't like, and most importantly never hold it against a caster if he tries to branch out to other games. In fact, I'll go so far as to predict some of the people who will come out in support: DOA, DJWheat, and Moletrap.
Whether they're right or not is not something I want to tackle. I just want to give the following warning to the community: If something benefits a person, more likely than not they'll ferociously argue that that thing is unequivocally 'Right,' without spending a single moment actually asking themselves whether it is. This is as true in ESPORTS as it is in the real world.
Destiny is a sparkling example. In FXOBoSs' blog about the community push to "Save HOTS" he said, "Everyone has their own agenda on why changes should be made. I.E Destiny’s entire livelyhood depends purely on the casual gamer. Thus he wants the game to cater more to the casuals." Destiny might be right that HOTS needs saving, but I think FXOBoSs' comment is accurate. I also think that Destiny's fierce defense of free speech and the attention he gets for calling Protoss players "faggots" is no coincidence.
Catz quickly agreed with Destiny, and there are important similarities between the two. Both Destiny and Catz pulled huge stream numbers because casual players enjoyed their banter and singing, and now their audiences have been dwindled because there are less people watching and serious players have the choice of watching streamers who are better at SC2.
When JP worked at MLG he would swear up and down that he could be unbiased in his coverage of the tournament scene despite it, now he pokes fun at the fact that he doesn't have to dissect each MLG group in painstaking detail. Slasher used to argue that being journalist with conflicts in the ESPORTS community was probably inevitable, and not all that bad, now I can see how earnestly joyful (gleeful?) he is when he reports on a story he couldn't have before.
Are these people bad? No. Are these people wrong? Not necessarily. What they are is human.
So when important ESPORTS figures (who, coincidentally I'm sure, have the mobility to move between SC2, LoL, DOTA, CoD, and Halo 4) mock the community for overreacting towards Tasteless, make up your own mind.
Edit: After writing this, I just noticed DOA posted about the situation. I did not read or hear of his blog before posting my own.
 
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its like when artosis releases his opinion of HOTS on his blog. you want to hear what he is saying because he has so much rts experience but in the back of my head i keep thinking that he has to support this game in order to continue to make a living off of it. im not saying its a bad thing or wrong, just have to take everything with a grain of salt.
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Good blog, someone needed to say it, mainly in regards to catz and destiny.
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Who reacted negatively? Reddit? It seems like there's a huge contingent of people on Reddit and now TL who have taken it upon themselves to alternately bemoan or gleefully pronounce the death of SC2. These people need to be told to shut the fuck up or leave.
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As much as Catz and Destiny might "rely" on casual gamers and that's why they're making that argument, the actual arguments they've been using aren't inaccurate. To sustain our hobby, we need viewers.
BW toiled in the west because it was a small community. That's not to say it was negative, but the ability to stay at our current level hinges on attracting more players, and viewers, and people that form an attachment with the game and pro players.
To see whether HotS changes anything remains to be seen.
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Here's the situation. You got Tasteless's back or you don't. It's that simple.
Edit: Same with the other guys.
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10387 Posts
On October 22 2012 10:48 divito wrote:
As much as Catz and Destiny might "rely" on casual gamers and that's why they're making that argument, the actual arguments they've been using aren't inaccurate. To sustain our hobby, we need viewers.
BW toiled in the west because it was a small community. That's not to say it was negative, but the ability to stay at our current level hinges on attracting more players, and viewers, and people that form an attachment with the game and pro players.
To see whether HotS changes anything remains to be seen.
you guys care too much ESPORTS, rather than just enjoying the game.
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As if I took Tasteless seriously at all anymore. His knowledge of sc2 has deteriorated to the pits. And now he's casting lol? Good for him. Hope this piece of shit gets fired from Gom and moves on. It's what he wants. Looks like he's terrible at casting lol too. Just following the money.
User was warned for this post
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now i want to see Tasteless cast LoL.
Also I dont understand any of the hate. LoL is the esport that is growing atm and not declining, inside and outside of korea.
(im not going into the whole THE SKY IS FALLING shit that is going rampant right now tho)
But from a numbers stand-point, LoL is increasing in viewer counts weekly, while SC2 loses, so it only makes sense for Tasteless to take the opportunity and run with it. Especially with the GIANT burst of LoL in South Korea currently.
I am a giant Tasteless fanboy, but its not exactly hidden that Tasteless does not hold Sc2 in the same regards as he held Sc:Bw.
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If he can commentate and earn $ doing LoL - why not? He doesn't owe it to "SC community" (whatever that fictional term means) to stick to SC commentary. It's his career and he'll take it where he very well pleases.
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Agendas exist in everything in life. The only problem is people do not seem to be so accepting or have foresight to predict what is going to happen vs what is happening because of their agenda.
Destiny and everyone else who has stated their opinion on how to fix sc2, had extremely valid or "right" arguments. It just wasn't presented correctly and created a shit storm that made many people uncomfortable, myself included.
Now that things have calmed down a little bit, stuff can get done.
I have heard rumours that blizzard has approached the korean community to talk about resolving issues within the game for HOTS. Catz is apparently leading a foreigner panel to resolve some issues as well. So things will hopefully get done.
I think we can let this 'case' rest. It doesn't really need to be dragged up again as something is at least looking like it will get done.
As I have said, and Destiny and others have said it all comes down to the social aspect, pro or casual, that will help grow the game and spread the word. Right now there is little/no social aspect to the game. Game balance has almost nothing to do with the current lack of viewership.
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When I first heard Tasteless was going to commentate LoL, did I feel betrayed? A little, but that's not exactly the right word for it. Do I understand? Yes. It's just that we connect Caster 1 to Game 1, and so on. Yes, Tasteless has been casting SC for a long time, and that's what we're so used to. So I can see why people got up in a rage about it. But branching out is a good thing right? It's not like Tasteless will exclusively commentate LoL (that I know of), and even if he does, we should support him, because it's not like he'll ditch the SC community forever (and if he does, well...  ). You just have to remember, he doesn't work as a SC2 commentator, he works for GOM as a commentator, and as a job, he'll do what they ask. And as a fan, I'll support him and other casters with what they wish to do.
But on a different note, if he gets excited about a worker scouting an army on the horizon, and living to tell the tale, I can only imagine how much he'll shout during a team fight when people get out with 50 hp. Hahahahaha.
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Nick paid his dues and deserves the right to do whatever the hell he wants. As long as he's excited and happy about what he's doing (assuming he is), then he's right where he should be.
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On October 24 2012 05:25 duncan.mc wrote:
Nick paid his dues and deserves the right to do whatever the hell he wants. As long as he's excited and happy about what he's doing (assuming he is), then he's right where he should be.
Agreed. Nick does not owe this community anything. If anything, he is helping GOM out, since I doubt they have an english caster out there for LoL that is as skilled as Nick.
People need to understand that for Esports to make it, people need to make a living at it. That means wearing a few hats and being a team player. Catz and Destiny may be community figures, but they are not out there taking the risks or put in as much work a lot of people like Nick, Artosis, Wheat and Slasher did to get where they are.
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I dont know if I'd ever want to commentate league or DOTA simply because of the amount of champions and abilities there are to learn. It's almost too much. Props to tasteless.
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My initial feeling was a sense of betrayal as well. But his career title is "caster" not "SC2-only Caster". Can't blame him for trying out something new. Plus money is money, Tasteless will always be remembered as the first SC caster and the one of the pioneers in eSports.
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EPT
