This morning started out wonderfully. My class seemed to understand my math lesson quite well, and I got through the material even faster than I expected, so I decided to end class early (one of the benefits of teaching at the university level, rather than in secondary school).
As I was packing up all of my belongings, the students started filing out of my classroom. There was a group of four stragglers, all chatting about something. Then I overheard "SK Telecom T1".
My ears immediately perked up, and I got curious as to how they were familiar with the Starcraft pro scene without recognizing my White-Ra laptop wallpaper that was constantly projected on the overhead, and not making the connection when I wish them "good luck, have fun" any time they take a quiz or exam.
I waited for another few seconds, and I heard them mention the Korean team again. It was unmistakable. They were close by, and I was looking forward to having a casual discussion about Starcraft. They were near me, so I chose to speak up: "It's really too bad that Rain and Parting both got knocked out of WCS."
My heart sank. I'm trying to educate these college kids, and they're wasting their time watching LoL instead of wasting their time watching Starcraft? How absurd! Kids these days play the worst games...
So we chatted for a bit about e-sports, and one of the students admitted "I don't have the APM to play Starcraft". Since he had clearly admitted that LoL was an inferior game to Starcraft, I told them that I wouldn't fail them for playing LoL. They thanked me graciously and we went our separate ways for the day.
I have a good rapport with my students, and they thought it was cool that I play Starcraft and Diablo. It ended up being a nice conversation where none of us was uncomfortable. And I was clearly joking about LoL being a terrible game.
I saw the thumbnail for a Youtube video called CJ Entus Leblanc pentakill.
My heart sank. How the mighty have fallen, is what I thought. I feel your pain.
Korea used to be about StarCraft: Brood War and King Of Fighters. Now it's about grindy MMORPGS and moba games.
Edit: Also, what an "old man" moment that was. The kids were talking about games, you tried to join in, but they were talking about a new and shitty game, while you thought they were talking about an old one.
2nd edit: I know, I know - they're not "kids" because they're going to university. They are young adults. But still.
And who can blame them, SKT completely wreck in League and are the new generation of superstars. That's just the way things move on in the world I guess. Not everyone can have a knowledge of the glorious BW history unfortunately. :I
However it's nice to see these organizations expand their fanbases beyond the ol' BW fans.
5/5 and 4/5 to your students. Just need to learn about some history and they're set.
I would expect people to at least do a little research on the history of such a venerable team throughout e-Sports, regardless of whether they "can't play SC2". Guess this is just the way things progress, the legends of the past are now just legends which don't resonate with the newer generation of e-Sports.
Great blog, but the spoilers almost caused me to drop it ahaha.
On October 09 2013 02:36 PhoenixVoid wrote: I would expect people to at least do a little research on the history of such a venerable team throughout e-Sports, regardless of whether they "can't play SC2". Guess this is just the way things progress, the legends of the past are now just legends which don't resonate with the newer generation of e-Sports.
Ah come on now, how are they going to know of this in the first place though? Do you automatically research every team that wins a tournament for their history from 10 years ago from a game that isn't even being played anymore professionally? (no disrespect to SOSPA ) To them it's probably just another Korean team that wrecks white guys.
I wonder how many SC2 EG fans could name their 2009 CS lineup. Just sayin'.
EPT
) To them it's probably just another Korean team that wrecks white guys.
