EPT+ Show Spoiler [Probs & Joys of StarCraft II] +
+ Show Spoiler [About the "Probs and Joys"…] +
A lot is going on in the scene!
Small sentence, big meaning.
I'd like to share my thoughts on some things with you, dear readers, to enable a sort-of meta discussion about the state of the game we all enjoy so much.
So, as it is usual, people tend to forget about the good things and remember the bad things way more easily. That is why I will be starting off with the bad things, so you can all leave the blog with a good feeling because of all the great news that you will read.
Why I am writing this? Oh hell, I am doing this because currently, those blog posts are my only way to enrich the scene. If I get a shitload of criticism, I will try to raise the blog's quality to a way higher level, so please leave a feedback after reading, wether it be positive or negative, but please construcive.
+ Show Spoiler [Disclaimer] +
I will try to provide sources for every fact I mention. Also, I will try to provide proof, be it logical thoughts or be it a written something from someone, to whatever I am stating. If you think I am oversimplifying thinks, please let me know, but also I'd like you to take into account that I am not as deep in the scene as I would like to be.
I am trying to share my thought process with you, so don't be confused if my initial thesis on some things may or may not change during my explanations. I love being the Advocatus Diaboli!
Last, but not least: I differentiate heavily between StarCraft II and StarCraft: Brood War, not so much between WoL and HotS. Please consider that I am mostly talking about Starcraft II, not that much (and maybe even not at all) about Brood War.
Please, everyone, enrich this blog with your thought on things! I would love to have people joining the discussion.
This time, ladies and gentlemen, I will rant on the beautiful work that SC2HL is doing for the scene. While a lot of stuff that is currently happening is about bad news such as ZvZ being a stalemate for Swarm Hosts, I think it is time to honor some stuff that is actually a great addition in terms of information, hype, and in general entertainment for us all.
I just stumbled upon that awesome video:
Please watch it, if you haven't yet. I did watch it already (as many you have already, too), but it is always worth to invest 15 minutes into such a great piece of work. As I am sitting here (just having my wisdom teeth removed and being on some painkillers), I got to watch that video - and all I could think of was "Didn't we have a great 2013?!"
Going through the video, more and more things came to my mind. Bomber winning Season II of WCS 2013, live at GamesCom Cologne. I was sitting in the audience back then, and I was disappointed because he did not show any sign of real joy. I was actually so pissed that when I had a smoke a short time after that and saw Apollo standing outside, I got up to him and asked him (along with "please can you sign whatever I have with me I love you") about that korean awkwardness.
Seeing that video now actually made me think of how great of an even that was overall. Seeing all those Dreamhack highlights, seeing those players win (or lose), that incredible Naniwa vs. Hyun Game 5, or even the players at the very beginning of the video: STX_Innovation, WJS_Soulkey, WJS_sOs, STX_Dear - it almost made me sad knowing that times changed, those teams are dead, and those great players continue their respective ways on different teams, with various achievements - or, in case of Dear, even falling off the radar completely.
I'd like to thank SC2HL for the work they put in those videos, for the great memories that can be re-lived due to the effort they put into it. Having some awesome moments covered is one thing, being live there or at least on stream to see it is awesome, but stumbling across these moments in a random moment of procrastination is a thing that really makes the hype come back to the current moment. "Epic" stuff is what we all love, there are only a few among us that don't care for those moments, only a few, that might only be interested in the sick mechanics, the display of skill that programers show in their games.
But for the majority of us, StarCraft II will always come down to highlights such als StarDust vs. Jaedong at Dreamhack, such as Bomber overcoming his law, such as Naniwa being not that sound proof at all, such als Polt being "Sir Polt of Terran", and so on.
SC2HL recreates those moments for us, and even hypes them up with epic music and different/better editing. That way, we all can watch Scarlett vs. Bomber and relive what we all felt in that moment: we were astonished and shocked. We can actually stop the video to try to see Scarlett's banes actually burrowing (holy cow, I still don't manage to see it!).
This game is all about #passion. And for us, the audience, we do not just see dry players going full standard until one guy is not as good as the other. We want to see the upsets. We want to see the fluff. We want to have Tastosis going full funny commentary instead of doing hardcore analysis. We want to see WCS EU people wear some funny shoes.
And in case we miss something - we'll, there's always SC2HL.
Thank you, guys!
