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Up until last year, Blizzard wasn't in the e-sport business. Since WCS last year, that has clearly changed. Exactly why that is, I don't know and Blizzard certainly won't tell us the real reason, but I imagine that it's a control thing: since SC2 is going to be played as an e-sport, they want to have a voice in how it's used. If nothing else, WCS 2013 has given them a voice in the running of almost every major league in the world.
I've just watched Cloaken's appearance on SotG and my native cynicism won't let me accept that what he said is the full story. I don't believe Cloaken was being dishonest; in fact, I think he was telling as much of the truth or even slightly more than he should have. While there were undoubtedly things he was not allowed to say, I don't think that was the problem either. My belief is that what was unsaid was left unsaid because it were not possible to maintain the existing (fragile?) network of relationships behind WCS if all these things were said.
Now, this is just my imagination, but here is what I feel like Blizzard would say to TB if they pulled him up by his shirt, held him up against the corner and said "If you ever publish this, I'll flay you alive, but here is how it is..."
1: We just got Kespa and GOM to work together, to the same shared plan. Do you have any idea how &(*#^$&()*&#$ hard that was? Those guys hate each other (probably with good reason) and quite likely hate us as well now, but we were able to leverage the fact that we have what they need into a combined plan to set up the tentative beginning of a unified world SC2 series. Seriously, there hasn't been a bigger diplomatic turnaround since the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg.
2: While all this was in the air, we couldn't go off and do our own thing. We had plans, but they were on hold. Now that everyone has signed, we need to kick this thing off *yesterday*, partly because we need to get it running to stop those slippery bastards looking for a loophole, but mainly because if it is going to happen this year, it's already behind schedule.
3: One day, we'll probably manage all this ourselves, but we don't have production for it yet. Given that, we'll hand off the production to organisations with year-round facilities and hope there aren't too many teething problems.
4: Shit! That was a lot of teething problems. Shouldn't have been that many. Partly our fault for enforcing the short lead time, partly our fault for not spending more time on oversight with MLG, partly their fault for screwing a things up, partly in the "shit happens" category. Problems are noted and won't recur, at least not in quite the same way.
5: We're sorry to all the NA players who can't qualify for their own event. This is a problem, but it's also a problem without a perfect solution. Eventually, we'll do it all offline, but we can't until the leagues have achieved some stability otherwise the SEA and China (sorry!!!) players would be even more screwed than they currently are.
6: Just wait until we get the chance to do this with time for planning.
So, let's see what happens here. I, for one, will be looking forward to seeing how WCS turns out in 2014. With luck, this might just be the WCS equivalent of the GSL open seasons.
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Or short ... Cloaken gets it just like Sundance gets it.
He would have easily qualified for the next dodgeball world championship with this performance on last SotG.
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1: We just got Kespa and GOM to work together, to the same shared plan. Do you have any idea how &(*#^$&()*&#$ hard that was? Those guys hate each other (probably with good reason) and quite likely hate us as well now, but we were able to leverage the fact that we have what they need into a combined plan to set up the tentative beginning of a unified world SC2 series. Seriously, there hasn't been a bigger diplomatic turnaround since the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg.
I don't see it that way at all. Blizzard took the Korean scene hostage in my eyes and they have the audacity to talk about creating a central hub one day. *Raises eyebrow*
These guys need to be grilled.
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On April 26 2013 20:18 Kuni wrote:
He would have easily qualified for the next dodgeball world championship with this performance on last SotG.
Couldnt say it any better
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On April 26 2013 23:14 StarStruck wrote:Show nested quote +1: We just got Kespa and GOM to work together, to the same shared plan. Do you have any idea how &(*#^$&()*&#$ hard that was? Those guys hate each other (probably with good reason) and quite likely hate us as well now, but we were able to leverage the fact that we have what they need into a combined plan to set up the tentative beginning of a unified world SC2 series. Seriously, there hasn't been a bigger diplomatic turnaround since the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg. I don't see it that way at all. Blizzard took the Korean scene hostage in my eyes and they have the audacity to talk about creating a central hub one day. *Raises eyebrow* These guys need to be grilled.
Blizzard needed to assert it self in Korea for several reasons beyond wanting to “control” SC2. Allowing BW to be played on TV in Korea without attempting to protect their copy right for some many years required them to sue Kespa when SC2 was going to be released, regardless of what either side wanted. Part of copy right law(in most countries) is that you have to “protect” your copy right. Failing to do so means that the holder can lose aspects of their copy right and what is lost has to be fleshed out in public, which means Court(you can’t really have a topic secret copy right). If they wanted to sell SC2, they needed to make sure the Kespa, OGN and others did not have any rights to anything they created for SC2 by proxy of showing BW for all those years on TV.
There are tons of other reasons why Blizzard did what they did in Korea over SC2, but one was to establish their ownership of SC2 and the title of Star Craft. That issue was only going to be settled in Court, in public before they could sell SC2 in Korea(case had to be filed, not resolved).
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Complaining about Cloaken dodging is like complaining that your politicians don't campaign on: "We're all screwed; we either need to raise taxes or cut spending to the point that we don't have roads any more and we both know that you won't let us do either of those, so let's just pretend those options don't exist." The penalty for giving people the honesty that they think they want is too great.
The point is not to complain about what he doesn't say, but to try and use what he *does* say to work out what he (and Blizzard) are really thinking.
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EPT
