Even though I don't follow it anymore from time to time I check the TL forums for SC2 related news, and one thing I've kept noticing in each visit is that I barely know any players or what's going on anymore. The last time I watched SC2 keenly was MLG Dallas where JD,Flash,Bisu and Stork came to the tournament, so it's been quite some time.
Even though I stopped following the competitive scene, I loved shows like State of the Game or Inside the Game. But as far as I can see, those shows are pretty much gone as well. I know that Idra and many other players retired from the scene but has it really changed that much for someone like me to not really recognize what's going on? I check Day9's Youtube channel and there are barely any dailies, it's mostly about other games and Hearthstone. JP doesnt do anything SC2 related it seems, and I'm not sure when was the last time I saw DjWheat.
It really feels like a totally different scene to me right now, filled with many unknown Korean players and very few foreigners it feels like. I would like to hear opinions from people who have been following the scene on this issue.
yeah dude I totally agree. Without the EG team house, state of the game, etc, this scene just isn't the same. I hardly ever even recognize more than 1 or 2 streamers at any time anymore.
Swarm hosts were the nail in the coffin for me. They're not imbalanced, just time consuming to beat and the games weren't enjoyable. I still watch a bit of sc but stick to playing dota these days.
The fact that the game has become so random that every season there is a new best player of the world doesn't really help the scene. People need player personalities to identify with, like Jaedong or Mvp.
There are still good shows out there: desRow and HuK are hosting "Remax", Lycan and Destiny are hosting "The late game". Of course the whole scene has changed, mostly because many of the old fan favourites have retired and most of the old tournament series are gone.
But there are still lots of good and likeable EU pros out there, e.g. Snute, Bunny, Harstem, Serral, Showtime, etc. As for NA pros, Kane and Huk are playing pretty well atm. Sadly, the US scene seems to be in a sad state. Most US players are playing part-time, and most "old boys" have disappeared. The big community stars like Day9 and Husky are also basically gone. (I don't miss them, but it's still sad to see.)
The koreans aren't as "faceless" as they used to be anymore. Many korean pros have spent time in foreign teams, which is why their English has vastly improved. (Polt, Stardust, Jaedong, the "EU Koreans" like MC, jjakji or MMA) With the new WCS system, most Koreans have returned to their homeland, which makes Korean competition much harder and more interesting (imho). With Life, Maru and Zest each race has its star player, but behind those three there are TONS of amazing players. 2011 is a joke in comparison to the sheer amount of skilled players.
The game itself is in a good, but difficult state. Let me put it this way: Until the late game, the matchups are pretty much okay. But in the latest stages of the game, dumb shit can occur. Swarm host turtling vs. mech or protoss air surely is the most prominent game design flaw SC2 suffers from. This won't be a problem in LotV anymore, but of course, nobody knows which other problems may arise.
@Superfranz: What about Life? He's been the most consistent player in the last 2 years, he only had about six or seven weaker months in the first half of 2014. Innovation, Maru and herO are also pretty consistent.
On February 23 2015 08:47 Paljas wrote: the scene did indeed change a lot
protip: become a maru fan
Ignore his tip. Instead here is a better protip: become a Life fan
The scene did change, and a lot of young players are climbing through the ranks.
Better protip : be both a Life and a Maru fan :D
Now for what changed : -In Korea eSF disappeared. MVP, Prime, StarTale and IM (which died a bit later) survived. The main teamleague is KeSPA's ProLeague, with SKT1, KT Rolster, JinAir GreenWings, CJ Entus, StarTale-YoeFlashWolves, MVP, Prime and Samsung Khan playing in it. While some pre-KeSPA switch pro Koreans are still displaying a good level of play (MMA, MC, Life, Maru, Leenock,...) most of the top Koreans right now are historical KeSPA players. The two big players of 2014 were SKT1_soO and KT_Zest, and currently the world top 3 is probably along the lines of KT_Life, SKT1_INnoVation and JAGW_Maru. Koreans also dominate foreign tournaments and won every single WCS season in 2013 and 2014.
-The foreign scene has changed too and has known quite a few structural changes as well. About the teams, the old Liquid-EG rivalry is pretty much dead now, and the best foreign teams are Liquid and mYinsanity (swiss team). About the players, players like Thorzain, Stephano, NaNiwa, HuK, etc, the old foreign hopes, are either retired or show results worthy of mid-tier foreign players (HuK did show good results in last year's WCS AM though). The best foreign Zerg is undoubtly Liquid'Snute, the best foreign Terran Liquid'Bunny and the best foreign Protoss title is pretty much up in the air, probably Welmu, Mill.Lilbow, Alternate_ShoWTimE or maybe Liquid'MaNa.
In 2012 the World Championship Series system was created by Blizzard, with a system of national WCS -> continental WCS -> worldwide WCS (WCS EU was won by Stephano) that was abandoned in 2013 and 2014 in favour of a regional WCS tournament (three regions : Korea, EU, AM), with three seasons per year, and points awarded to players. These points were then used to seed players into the 16-man BlizzCon tournament at the end of the year (won by JAGW_sOs in 2013 and KT_Life (who was then StarTale_Life). Since the WCS tournaments were not region-locked, Koreans won all six seasons of WCS in every region and there were 15 Koreans at BlizzCon 2013 and 16 at BlizzCon 2014.
In 2015 Blizzard has decided to change things up a bit ; WCS AM and WCS EU are united into a single WCS tournament (three seasons per year too) that is region-locked via visa requirements (so only a few Korean players can play in it ; this season they are CMStorm_Polt, Mill.ForGG, Envy.viOLet and ROOT.Hydra ; they will probably be joined by Axiom.Heart, StarDust and EG.Jaedong next season). Korea has two WCS-equivalents that award WCS points : GOMTV's GSL and SpoTV's NSSL. As far as we know BlizzCon this year will work the same way as last year, that is the 16 players who have the most points qualify. Foreign tournaments like DreamHack and Intel Extreme Masters still exist as well, and award WCS points too.
IMO it's mostly that the NA scene that has changed. Not sure how much the WCS region locks have to do with it (or lack of region locks last year..). Harthstone and Heros of the Storm have attracted streamer attention as well.
EU (IMO - or cause I've followed it through change) doesn't feel too different from 3 years go albeit somewhat smaller.
KR is probably at the highest point it's been in the past 3 years...
Globally there are considerably fewer big tournaments (especially this time of year) but the overall hype with WCS/Blizzcon have played out well - just doesn't feel that way until fall.
On February 23 2015 08:47 Paljas wrote: the scene did indeed change a lot
protip: become a maru fan
Ignore his tip. Instead here is a better protip: become a Life fan
The scene did change, and a lot of young players are climbing through the ranks.
Better protip : be both a Life and a Maru fan :D
Now for what changed : -In Korea eSF disappeared. MVP, Prime, StarTale and IM (which died a bit later) survived. The main teamleague is KeSPA's ProLeague, with SKT1, KT Rolster, JinAir GreenWings, CJ Entus, StarTale-YoeFlashWolves, MVP, Prime and Samsung Khan playing in it. While some pre-KeSPA switch pro Koreans are still displaying a good level of play (MMA, MC, Life, Maru, Leenock,...) most of the top Koreans right now are historical KeSPA players. The two big players of 2014 were SKT1_soO and KT_Zest, and currently the world top 3 is probably along the lines of KT_Life, SKT1_INnoVation and JAGW_Maru. Koreans also dominate foreign tournaments and won every single WCS season in 2013 and 2014.
-The foreign scene has changed too and has known quite a few structural changes as well. About the teams, the old Liquid-EG rivalry is pretty much dead now, and the best foreign teams are Liquid and mYinsanity (swiss team). About the players, players like Thorzain, Stephano, NaNiwa, HuK, etc, the old foreign hopes, are either retired or show results worthy of mid-tier foreign players (HuK did show good results in last year's WCS AM though). The best foreign Zerg is undoubtly Liquid'Snute, the best foreign Terran Liquid'Bunny and the best foreign Protoss title is pretty much up in the air, probably Welmu, Mill.Lilbow, Alternate_ShoWTimE or maybe Liquid'MaNa.
In 2012 the World Championship Series system was created by Blizzard, with a system of national WCS -> continental WCS -> worldwide WCS (WCS EU was won by Stephano) that was abandoned in 2013 and 2014 in favour of a regional WCS tournament (three regions : Korea, EU, AM), with three seasons per year, and points awarded to players. These points were then used to seed players into the 16-man BlizzCon tournament at the end of the year (won by JAGW_sOs in 2013 and KT_Life (who was then StarTale_Life). Since the WCS tournaments were not region-locked, Koreans won all six seasons of WCS in every region and there were 15 Koreans at BlizzCon 2013 and 16 at BlizzCon 2014.
In 2015 Blizzard has decided to change things up a bit ; WCS AM and WCS EU are united into a single WCS tournament (three seasons per year too) that is region-locked via visa requirements (so only a few Korean players can play in it ; this season they are CMStorm_Polt, Mill.ForGG, Envy.viOLet and ROOT.Hydra ; they will probably be joined by Axiom.Heart, StarDust and EG.Jaedong next season). Korea has two WCS-equivalents that award WCS points : GOMTV's GSL and SpoTV's NSSL. As far as we know BlizzCon this year will work the same way as last year, that is the 16 players who have the most points qualify. Foreign tournaments like DreamHack and Intel Extreme Masters still exist as well, and award WCS points too.
OtherWorld summed it up pretty nicely, except for his "be a fan of both Maru and Life" tip.
Just be a Life fan. He is a bad ass zerg player that will get his lings in your base no matter how many depot walls you have, or sentries guarding the gap between your pylons.
Thanks for all the responses. It seems sad that I don't recognize any of it, it feels so alien to me. But I will never forget the beautiful days between July 2010 and 2012, where every weekend there was some cool tournament. It was a large, lively scene with many interesting personalities, (mostly) fun games and tournaments and shows like SotG and ItG. I really loved cheering for Idra,WhiteRa, Sen and all others I loved watching. I used to wake up in the middle of the night for MLG broadcasts, because I live in Europe the timezone was terrible, but that did not keep me from following my love for the game. Koreans seemed alien, mystical and out of reach with their crisp and methodical gameplay, and foreigners was the hope against them!
I really don't know when it all changed for me, perhaps it was when I realized I was stressing out a lot and playing the game was not worth it. And after I stopped playing, I pretty much lost interest in following it as well I suppose. No matter what happens, whether SC2 ceases to exist after LotV or witnesses a resurgence of popularity, I will remember until the end of my life those happy days when a game truly became my passion, almost close to a hobby.
EPT
That or his StarCraft dailies weren't pulling in as many viewers. 
