EPT
ProGaming needs more personality, the bigger the better. It needs less robot players and cookie-cutter interview answers. How exciting would matches be if they all had the energy and subplots of Savior calling out the entire OGN team, or when TT threw his headphones off and stormed out of the room after go.go used the c-bug? Nobody gets excited about Ever)P(TT and random ugly Terran go.go, but how much would you love to watch that rematch? The quality of a crazy emotional game doesn’t matter at all. We want to see TT get his revenge, or angrily explode after a loss. That’s even better than a great game of BW.
That’s why my favorite players are Chalrenge and Savior, and my least favorite are Midas and Bifrost. Never mind that pressure and big situations bring the best out of the first two and the last two are world-class choke artists. Chalrenge and Savior have personality. They give interesting answers, they are confident, they are guys you’d want to go out and get a drink with. Who would want to hang out with Midas other than to have him do your math homework, teach you a TvP build order, or cook you dinner? In fact, Bifrost should call Midas up, as he undoubtedly has consumed all editable materials in the OGN house. Judging by his growing waistline, it’s like he’s trying to apply his gaming strategy to real life—his diet is literally the BW equivalent of triple cc’ing.
But I digress. What I really want to talk is an increasing trend: player ceremonies. Before, we’d get a fist pump, or a neck roll, or something equally discreet, but now we have NaDa pointing to a ghost fourth badge or Boxer doing this:
Just when you thought he couldn’t be more pimp, Boxer cleverly uses a prop and a pun.
We even have ProGamers responding to each other with ceremonies after feeling disrespected. Savior’s JJu-neckroll was the only the start, check out the back and forth between Chalrenge and Midas.
Chalrenge looks smooth and badass after an MSL Survivor win.
Midas awkwardly attempts to respond by duplicating the ceremony.
Note that Midas is not alive in either Starleague. Yes, I realize that has nothing to do with the vid.
Will these ceremonies escalate? Can we expect to see even more bravado, creativity, and personality in the upcoming StarLeagues? More Chalrengish, less socially challenged ProGamers would attract a ton more fans and hype. Here are my suggestions of how to make player ceremonies even more badass.
- The Costume
ProGamers should embrace their IDs and nicknames and become self promoters. I had suggested before that Shark should come out with a big cardboard fin on his head, and just start uncontrollably biting people to the “Jaws” music. Imagine after a win, Savior dresses up like Jesus and screams “THOU SHALT NOT BEAT MA JAE!!!” or Boxer punches his opponent in the face. Imagine iloveoov coming out in a gorilla suit and throwing bananas everywhere. Or a Much/Foru 2v2 team that after a victory always yells "TOO MUCH... FOR U!?!" Or even crazier, imagine July dying his hair red and dressing up like a giant watermelon—oh wait. - The Prophecy Shirt
Brood originally suggested this idea. A player, after a win, would rip off their uniform to reveal a message written on a t-shirt underneath. Imagine, after Bisu’s remarkable win versus Savior in the GomTV MSL Finals, if he ripped of his HERO uniform and underneath was a shirt that said “3-0’d NOOB”? Bisu would be a king for an entire generation. Taking this a step further, ProGamers can reveal “REAVER DROP” or “MY PROXY” or "UR 4 POOL SUXOR" on their shirts after successfully executing or defeating a strategy. - The Gloat Charades
Okay picture a Terran player who is about to wraith rush. His first two wraiths pop out, and as they arrive at his opponent’s unprepared base, HE also arrives at his opponents computer, with perfect timing, his arms spread out like an airplane. He makes little guns with his hands and says “pew pew!!!” as his wraiths slaughter workers. Other examples include throwing a large black blanket over someone as his cloaked wraiths kill carriers, or handcuffing someone to their seat as his BC’s are being locked down, or even throwing radioactive waste at someone as his units are irradiated. How can any StarCraft player successfully respond to that sort of psychological warfare? It’s not only entertaining, it’s a foolproof strategy. - The Kill Bill Taunt
If there’s sufficient hate between players, they should take the taunting one step further. Anything is fair game here, team, family, etc. Imagine in Bisu and Savior’s rematch, after Savior gets revenge, he throws his computer monitor through the booth, into the crowd, knocking Bisu’s father unconscious. Savior calls it the “Generational Hydra Rush.” Or even better, instead of just happily accepting his trophy over GoodFriend at the end of EVER2 OSL, July wades into the stands and physically consumes GoodFriend’s sister, much like a defiler would. Who wouldn’t watch that?
Edit: Amazingly, two of the ceremonies I've described have actually happened after I wrote this:
Upmagic's Fire Palm
Samsung KHAN's 2v2 shirts
Edit2: From now on, I urge everyone to never actually write "Chalrenge". Instead, use this gif:
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hot_Bid/chalrenge.gif)
