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Mute City2363 Posts
Note: This article was in part inspired by a lengthy discussion between TL Writers concerning our Awards piece for 2015, and in particular Life’s eligibility for certain awards. Please note that the piece below is wholly my own, and does not represent that of the staff or TL in general. We hope to release our finished Awards for 2015 soon.
The twin match-fixing scandals over the past three months have cast a shadow over Korean StarCraft. There have been whispers of further suspects, while bitter fans lash out at the players and teams involved. There’s been name-smearing and player-bashing and endless drama surrounding this spectre that’s returned once again to the game we love. In the wake of this, there have been discussions about where the accused players stand in the history of the game. In the case of Prime, their poor performance for years guaranteed that when they finally shut their doors, the general groundswell of emotions manifested itself purely as anger at the damage done to the scene. In the case of Life though, it was somewhat different.
He is, after all, undoubtedly one of the best players to ever touch the game. Whatever your opinion of him as a person, and however much you might detest the actions for which he is currently accused, that much is inarguable. In his case, while many were certainly and justifiably angry at yet another scandal bringing disrepute to the Korean scene, there was an overwhelming sense of loss. Loss of a player at his peak; loss of the memories that he had created for a generation of fans; loss of a bright future potentially thrown away. For many people, the mere fact that he had been accused tainted his entire four year history in the game.
In all walks of life, there’s a tendency to equate achievements with the individual. It’s only natural to an extent—they are the sportsmen we love, or the artists we admire, and we want to believe that in addition to the superhuman feats they pull off, or the art they produce, they’re also worthy of the hero worship they attract. We want to believe that these people into whom we invest hundreds of hours of our time are fundamentally good people.
But that’s not always the case. Look at Jamie Vardy, the cult hero of the Premier League this season, and also a man caught on camera spewing racist epithets at an Asian man while drunk. Look at Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, recent participants in one of the most high profile boxing matches of the decade, yet both with histories of beating up various girlfriends and homophobia respectively. Look at Roman Polanski, director of some of the most acclaimed films in cinema history, yet a man who has been on the run from US law for nearly forty years following accusations of sexual assault of a minor.
These are all extreme examples, but they’re all examples of people who remain respected in their chosen fields, and if I wanted this piece to stretch on for ten thousand words I could probably find a whole heap of other candidates. Sometimes, the people capable of creating art we enjoy are racist, or criminals, or simply deeply unpleasant; sometimes, they’re match-fixers. Should the fact that I fundamentally abhor their views or actions mean that I’m forced to dismiss the art they produce? It’s a difficult question.
In an idealistic world, we might want to render them pariahs, undeserving of any praise whatsoever after their crimes and wiped from the record, but the world we live in isn’t black and white. It might be the gut reaction to bind achievements and the individual together, but as the raw wound heals, it should be possible to separate the two. If Life is convicted of match-fixing, it will undoubtedly affect your opinion of his character, but regardless of the outcome of his current predicament, his achievements throughout StarCraft 2 will always be extraordinary.
Even as a StarCraft fan who was never fully besmitten with Life in his prime, I will mourn his absence should it continue. But to let your knowledge of his crimes retrospectively detract from your opinion of his achievements and the joy he brought is to deny yourself of something you used to love. I'm not going to let that happen.
  
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Great piece thank you and I agree with the sentiments.
We shouldn't have to erase the extraordinary games he produced from our memories because he made a few mistakes. At Life's peak I believe his skill level is still unmatched by anyone else so far in starcraft 2.
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Whether the match-fixing should affect Life's prior achievements depends, I would think, on whether the match-fixing was in his favor or to his detriment. Based on what I saw of his performance over 2015, I would guess the latter, but I don't have all the facts (including, of course, whether he is actually guilty of the alleged misdeeds).
So I personally am going to wait until more facts are in evidence before making this particular call.
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Saying Manny Pacquiao is a homophobe is a bit of a stretch, and more like liberal bullshit. He is against same-sex marriage. Doens't make one a homophobe. I am against abortion, doens't make me a misogynist. Or if it does, then it doesn't distinguish me from some one who holds more extreme views. Saying Pacquiao is a homophobe lumps him with people that hate gay people. Unless that was your intent...
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France13011 Posts
What if you think he wasn't that good but got carried?
I didn't follow much HotS and WoL was full of patchzergs whereas on LotV he was quickly absent so I'm more affected by BboongBBoong who was fun with his pizzas and stuff, and angry that MKP got witch-hunted whereas Life was "innocent till proven" even when it was obvious the allegations were true.
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Mute City2363 Posts
On April 22 2016 17:41 Gen.Rolly wrote:
Saying Manny Pacquiao is a homophobe is a bit of a stretch, and more like liberal bullshit. He is against same-sex marriage. Doens't make one a homophobe. I am against abortion, doens't make me a misogynist. Or if it does, then it doesn't distinguish me from some one who holds more extreme views. Saying Pacquiao is a homophobe lumps him with people that hate gay people. Unless that was your intent...
“It’s common sense,” the eight-times world champion, who later apologised, said. “Do you see animals mating with the same sex? Animals are better because they can distinguish male from female. If men mate with men and women mate with women they are worse than animals.”
I mean, that's pretty clear cut to me
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I hate your usage of the word we when representing your own opinion. I have a friend who does this and it drives me nuts because it's always something I don't think myself.
You'll find a lot of literature on this conundrum related to Wagner's music and Wagner the person. Somewhat more tangentially related, cruel human experiments that yielded useful data, and the ethical dilemma of whether we can use that data (tangential, because in this case the crime lead directly to the value, where the crime of Life has little to do with the value output, but more to do with the value output than Wagner's music has to do with him being a huge jerk).
I think specifically in this case, because the crime and the value are so closely associated by the medium both were done in, there is nothing you can do to unmarry those things. I am not able to watch old Savior games without thinking what a jackass he was, nor do I want to revisit UpMagic's games even though I liked his strategies. It just feels gross watching their games, you can't really undo that damage especially since neither really redeemed themselves, at least not that I have been exposed to.
I think it's also a clear message to other players if you don't celebrate even the honest achievements of an excellent player, that being an excellent player can't overcome being a matchfixer. You can't ride your reputation, you're not above fair play, etc.
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EPT
