- This video is uploading right now, will probably be processing or just finishing up as you guys are reading this.
I was actually looking forward to this year's WCS. My main reason was I was hoping to be at WCS China or WCS Taiwan casting the event in person. Now, not so much. I really wanted to be the English caster for the WCS Taiwan and China. People in both of these regions generally know who I am as a caster, and a Chinese learner. I am disappointed to the point that I no longer feel any hate, any anger, or anything else in between. I would have made the ideal candidate to do this.
Maybe this is a wake up call? Maybe this just says I'm not supposed to have a job in eSports.
But let us also not forget about Oceania, South America and any other country in between that I might have failed to mention. They too have strong talent, PiG and Killer (formerly known as DignitasKiller).
That is not to say, however, that players from these regions will not have chances to compete, but I think it is absolutely absurd that audiences will have to tolerate watching members of Gamabears, TTESports, Invictus Gaming, World Elite, as well as many an Australian fighting the incredibly stacked odds of the Korean Code S players of the GSL.
Is there something wrong with holding a BWC all over again, and then allowing each country to have X number of representatives like last year? Blizzard is burning bridges with this. And China and Taiwan are not exceptions.
-BreAKer, out.
EDIT: I will gather thoughts from casting personalities and players from both the Chinese and Taiwanese regions and see what they think in the up and coming 24 hours. I will give everyone both the raw untranslated interviews and my own translations (The former will be to ensure that the most accurate translations will be provided from other TL.net members whose Chinese skills are better than my own.)
Adding insult to injury, it would seem that HoTS hasn't even been released in China yet. Way to go Blizzard!
This is what XiaoSe had to say to me over Weixin just now: + Show Spoiler +
Forenote: XiaoSe is the Day[9] of China. Many of you don't have a clue who he is because you don't speak Chinese. He is a master's rank 1 random player on the Korean server and a huge casting figure. He was the Chinese caster for the NSL, and I want to say that he casted the BWC 2012 in Chinese.
Translation: I originally asked him "XiaoSe, I'm gathering information and doing interviews. This year's WCS excludes Taiwanese and Chinese events. We all know that Chinese and Taiwanese competitors still have a chance. What do you think their chances are like? What do you think of this new system? Do you have any concerns in particular that you want our western friends to know?"
He replied: They have no chance. WCS in Asia just means Koreans playing. I don't understand why Blizzard would give up on the Chinese market and exert all their strength on the Korean market. All of Asia's market is equal to that of China as a whole, does this mean that Blizzard is Blind?".
SoBadRush, The Father of Taiwan's Starcraft 2 pro scene gives his opinion. + Show Spoiler +
Translation: I think [this] WCS system is a very good system, but just dividing [the tournament] into Europe, Asia, And America for three districts is controlling the flow of talent and making a huge gap, and to the extent that other regions' competitors will have no chance to show their might (this is because they are not at the tournaments administrative countries.)
Personal reflection. I can see how SoBadRush empathizes with blizzard for making this decision, but at the same time he makes the same complaint that I do: pro players from these regions basically have no chance to make it to this year's BWC.
Unless they make major tournaments in the China/Taiwan region worth a lot of WCS points, I totally agree with you. "Oh but the players could just play in NA/EU online tournament from Taiwan/China/SEA". Yeah but Koreans might as well (and probably will) do the same.
On April 04 2013 16:12 ETisME wrote: I thought you had quite a number of wake up calls already from a few of your blogs....
Pretty much this.
Read most of your other blogs and you were complaining in a lot of them. Last one I recall, I think it was about lack of pay or something especially when considering how limited esports is and will likely stay that way so it never sounded to me like you were doing this out of passion tbh. Also, why is it absurd? These players can still compete in the NA one or the other regions as they wish. Yes, I'm aware of the lag but this is what Blizzard decided on. They said they may add more regions in the future if I recall correctly so who knows.
Yes this is absurd. If we look how much talent China has I think its stupid not to try to expand market for sc2 over there, they are like the best players in the world for RTS.
Btw Enders, do you follow Chinese scene? Did you heard anything about Chinese wc3 players switching to sc2 soon? I mean WE team and players like Sky,infi,Fly100%,TeD and others.
I think the problem is that there are going to be people playing Starcraft pretty much everywhere, but it isn't really logical for Blizzard to be able to host WCS qualifying events on every corner of the planet. The line has to be drawn somewhere, and while it's understandably unfortunate that China/Taiwan/SEA are not included, I still feel that the regions that were decided on in the end have a Starcraft presence that is multiple orders of magnitude above any other. There are alternative (while difficult) ways for players from anywhere to still be able to compete in WCS (partially thanks to global play, which is great). All in all, something is always going to be sacrificed no matter what Blizzard chooses. In this instance, I stand behind them in full support.
On April 04 2013 21:06 Scarecrow wrote: They're going to have to beat Koreans at some point. No point coddling these scenes.
And teams in the Champion's League are going to have to beat Barcelona at some point, but that doesn't stop us from having teams from Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland attempt to qualify.
If you set-up the structure properly, you can have excitement at all levels for everyone involved. This allows new scenes to develop, allows people to see games between people of equal skill at all stages (that the skill isn't the highest won't be as important, two equally skilled players can always produce exciting games), and still maintains the very high-quality games we're used to seeing as the tournament progresses to more serious stages. You won't get everyone in eSports watching every single stage of the tournment; some will follow all the qualifiers, some only their own countries, some only the main tournament or bigger qualifiers, but it will grow the scene better than what Blizzard has come up with, which basically amounts to monopolising the current scene instead of growing it.
Blizzard needs to take a look at what's probably the most popular sport on the planet and learn some lessons.
On April 04 2013 21:05 ZeRoX-45 wrote: Yes this is absurd. If we look how much talent China has I think its stupid not to try to expand market for sc2 over there, they are like the best players in the world for RTS.
Btw Enders, do you follow Chinese scene? Did you heard anything about Chinese wc3 players switching to sc2 soon? I mean WE team and players like Sky,infi,Fly100%,TeD and others.
I was the English caster for the NSL. I'll be at home in a few minutes, where I will post a link to a thread that I made on neotv.cn regarding this.
On April 04 2013 21:06 Scarecrow wrote: They're going to have to beat Koreans at some point. No point coddling these scenes.
And teams in the Champion's League are going to have to beat Barcelona at some point, but that doesn't stop us from having teams from Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland attempt to qualify.
If you set-up the structure properly, you can have excitement at all levels for everyone involved. This allows new scenes to develop, allows people to see games between people of equal skill at all stages (that the skill isn't the highest won't be as important, two equally skilled players can always produce exciting games), and still maintains the very high-quality games we're used to seeing as the tournament progresses to more serious stages. You won't get everyone in eSports watching every single stage of the tournment; some will follow all the qualifiers, some only their own countries, some only the main tournament or bigger qualifiers, but it will grow the scene better than what Blizzard has come up with, which basically amounts to monopolising the current scene instead of growing it.
Blizzard needs to take a look at what's probably the most popular sport on the planet and learn some lessons.
Soccer (as you Brits named it) is the most popular sport in the world because it requires nothing more than a ball. Hell, I've seen kids roll socks into a ball and play. It's not popular because of tournaments and marketing.
AFAIK no one is stopping anyone from South America, Africa, SEA or China from competing in ANY of the WCS regions (just competing in more than one).
On April 04 2013 21:06 Scarecrow wrote: They're going to have to beat Koreans at some point. No point coddling these scenes.
And teams in the Champion's League are going to have to beat Barcelona at some point, but that doesn't stop us from having teams from Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland attempt to qualify.
If you set-up the structure properly, you can have excitement at all levels for everyone involved. This allows new scenes to develop, allows people to see games between people of equal skill at all stages (that the skill isn't the highest won't be as important, two equally skilled players can always produce exciting games), and still maintains the very high-quality games we're used to seeing as the tournament progresses to more serious stages. You won't get everyone in eSports watching every single stage of the tournment; some will follow all the qualifiers, some only their own countries, some only the main tournament or bigger qualifiers, but it will grow the scene better than what Blizzard has come up with, which basically amounts to monopolising the current scene instead of growing it.
Blizzard needs to take a look at what's probably the most popular sport on the planet and learn some lessons.
This isn't like club football at all. WCS is not a team league, this is a solo event. All of these players can compete in the WCS, all of these markets can. I'm sure blizzard has a plan for China, after all China made WC3 what it is today. As for SEA, this is a solo event, they are going to have to play koreans eventually. There is no point in making these scenes able to sustain people who cannot compete at higher levels, the pro scene won't grow nearly as quickly. Also, the scene is obviously not growing bigger and better than what blizz has come up with, it came out literally a couple days ago. If you have watched LCS from Riot than you'd realize how much of a better system this is.
On April 04 2013 21:06 Scarecrow wrote: They're going to have to beat Koreans at some point. No point coddling these scenes.
And teams in the Champion's League are going to have to beat Barcelona at some point, but that doesn't stop us from having teams from Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland attempt to qualify.
If you set-up the structure properly, you can have excitement at all levels for everyone involved. This allows new scenes to develop, allows people to see games between people of equal skill at all stages (that the skill isn't the highest won't be as important, two equally skilled players can always produce exciting games), and still maintains the very high-quality games we're used to seeing as the tournament progresses to more serious stages. You won't get everyone in eSports watching every single stage of the tournment; some will follow all the qualifiers, some only their own countries, some only the main tournament or bigger qualifiers, but it will grow the scene better than what Blizzard has come up with, which basically amounts to monopolising the current scene instead of growing it.
Blizzard needs to take a look at what's probably the most popular sport on the planet and learn some lessons.
This isn't like club football at all. WCS is not a team league, this is a solo event. All of these players can compete in the WCS, all of these markets can. I'm sure blizzard has a plan for China, after all China made WC3 what it is today. As for SEA, this is a solo event, they are going to have to play koreans eventually. There is no point in making these scenes able to sustain people who cannot compete at higher levels, the pro scene won't grow nearly as quickly. Also, the scene is obviously not growing bigger and better than what blizz has come up with, it came out literally a couple days ago. If you have watched LCS from Riot than you'd realize how much of a better system this is.
Docvoc, the biggest problem is that this smothers any chance that talent from China, Taiwan or Australia may have to actually get in on this years BWC. I mean, forget the fact that Sen basically slaughters any opponents he faces internally in Taiwan, he is a symbol of pride to anyone who speaks Chinese and plays Starcraft 2. SpiderComm, although he only made it to the round of 32, still represented National Chinese Pride with the fact that he had a chance at the BWC, that he was the player who actually represented China, and he would be facing the world's finest.
Now, I think it is increasingly less likely that we will see anyone who speaks Chinese as their mother-tongue (Except for maybe Suppy, who moreover represents America) that will make it to this year's BWC.
Yeah, it's surprising that Blizzard doesn't recognize Chinese esport scene That's a significant amount of people that will probably have no chances of qualifying to world championship then. Yes, you may say that "oh, qualify through Korean league", but is it fair? No, it's fundamentally wrong. Europe, NA, and Korea; two continents, and suddenly a single country. It seems like Koreans are more superior and require their own league, while other people living in Asia are less important. Either change Korea to Asia, or give China and Sea their own qualifiers. South - America shouldn't be treated differently as well.
On April 04 2013 23:17 Chaggi wrote: I mean, so what? Just compete with the Koreans like it seems like what the other regions are going to have to do.
Yes, but this is taking all hope to Chinese, Taiwanese, and Australians to absolutely zero.
Imagine, for a minute, that there was a tournament for, I donno, DFO (Dungeon Fighter Online), and it excluded everyone from the North American server because translating is too much trouble or airfare is too expensive, or quality can't be assured, etc.
I know DFO is not that popular in the USA, but come on. SC2 is the second most popular competitive game in Taiwan, and there are a few others in mainland China that supercede SC2 as well.
EDIT: Input from Chinese casting legend XiaoSe has just been added to the OP.
Ive always preferred fan favorites, storylines, and personality to just watching the highest possible level of play. The idea that we can have the best people from each region representing their countries is a lot more exciting to watch than just a bunch of Koreans..its a true shame whats happening to China this year...hopefully we get sen, pig, moonglade, jim etc from sea/china.
On April 04 2013 21:06 Scarecrow wrote: They're going to have to beat Koreans at some point. No point coddling these scenes.
And teams in the Champion's League are going to have to beat Barcelona at some point, but that doesn't stop us from having teams from Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland attempt to qualify.
If you set-up the structure properly, you can have excitement at all levels for everyone involved. This allows new scenes to develop, allows people to see games between people of equal skill at all stages (that the skill isn't the highest won't be as important, two equally skilled players can always produce exciting games), and still maintains the very high-quality games we're used to seeing as the tournament progresses to more serious stages. You won't get everyone in eSports watching every single stage of the tournment; some will follow all the qualifiers, some only their own countries, some only the main tournament or bigger qualifiers, but it will grow the scene better than what Blizzard has come up with, which basically amounts to monopolising the current scene instead of growing it.
Blizzard needs to take a look at what's probably the most popular sport on the planet and learn some lessons.
Soccer (as you Brits named it) is the most popular sport in the world because it requires nothing more than a ball. Hell, I've seen kids roll socks into a ball and play. It's not popular because of tournaments and marketing.
AFAIK no one is stopping anyone from South America, Africa, SEA or China from competing in ANY of the WCS regions (just competing in more than one).
First of all, we call it football here. It is Americans who call it soccer.
Anyway, people from regions other than EU, NA and KR playing isn't really my issue with the new format. My issue is that it doesn't really support grass-roots eSports. If anything, it does more to destroy grass-roots eSports than it does to foster it, which will lead to less players in the future and a stagnation of the scene over time. You only have to look at the stink KR pro-players have kicked up to realise that the current format isn't thought to be sustainable in KR, yet alone in the rest of the world.
What we need is a format that is region-locked so that people can't just move around to easier tournaments to pick up points, that involves national-level tournaments so that eSports can grow beyond its current scope, and a structure that allows non-established eSports nations to compete with each other prior to the entry of bigger nations so that growth is fostered even further.
Only Blizzard really have the power to organise something on this kind of global scale.
On April 04 2013 21:06 Scarecrow wrote: They're going to have to beat Koreans at some point. No point coddling these scenes.
And teams in the Champion's League are going to have to beat Barcelona at some point, but that doesn't stop us from having teams from Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland attempt to qualify.
If you set-up the structure properly, you can have excitement at all levels for everyone involved. This allows new scenes to develop, allows people to see games between people of equal skill at all stages (that the skill isn't the highest won't be as important, two equally skilled players can always produce exciting games), and still maintains the very high-quality games we're used to seeing as the tournament progresses to more serious stages. You won't get everyone in eSports watching every single stage of the tournment; some will follow all the qualifiers, some only their own countries, some only the main tournament or bigger qualifiers, but it will grow the scene better than what Blizzard has come up with, which basically amounts to monopolising the current scene instead of growing it.
Blizzard needs to take a look at what's probably the most popular sport on the planet and learn some lessons.
This isn't like club football at all. WCS is not a team league, this is a solo event. All of these players can compete in the WCS, all of these markets can. I'm sure blizzard has a plan for China, after all China made WC3 what it is today. As for SEA, this is a solo event, they are going to have to play koreans eventually. There is no point in making these scenes able to sustain people who cannot compete at higher levels, the pro scene won't grow nearly as quickly. Also, the scene is obviously not growing bigger and better than what blizz has come up with, it came out literally a couple days ago. If you have watched LCS from Riot than you'd realize how much of a better system this is.
Replace football clubs with individual players and it's the same. The point of enabling sustainability across a wider scope is that it will draw in more fans who are interested in following not only the best play, but also the best storylines. There is a reason why WCS Europe was so amazingly good last year - because it allowed people from a wide-range of nations to follow their players through national qualifiers, the national finals and the European finals. Not because it contained the absolute highest level of play.
So you're bitching and moaning because in the FIRST time Blizzard try something like this, they don't want to overcommit and instead include the three regions that will garner the most viewers and attention. You're just being overly dramatic, let's wait for more than one season of this league and see whether or not the SEAsians and China are included then. EDIT: The worst part is you're not upset because we don't get to see the potentially great play from the Chinese, you're upset because you have nothing to cast.
WCS![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/pIz5lbU.jpg)
