EPTThe reason the community keeps dying is that it doesn't embrace what actually makes StarCraft (and all such endeavors) great, which is the thrill of getting better through doing hard stuff.
The whole point of the "Banelings" story is that Kurt is upset that he has to keep changing his tactics just to win "fairly" against Husky. Switching races is portrayed as a psychological setback instead of an evolution in strategic understanding (defeating a Terran army with banelings is not as straightforward as it looks). Husky is understandably happy that he DCF'd into a win, but there's no acknowledgement that this was a learning experience for him as well. It just looks like losing at StarCraft is humiliating no matter what, and that's not really a fun experience over the long term unless you really understand how you're improving.
By contrast, the Smash parody "Up-B" provides a much healthier approach to competitive gaming culture.
Peanut's version (I sing it better than the original): https://64.media.tumblr.com/acc26ed4f24dd3c5dc93c8429ca9274c/7cf256e31cf524e0-3f/5d765912f04ce1e65c1e8ade901be5febc9d31b4.mp3
The emotions are still there, and there's still a lot of saltiness at missed inputs and losing, but there's a sense of friendship and empathy ("you know the level 9 computer is surprisingly tough") that permeates the vibe. The players do everything they can to destroy each other in-game, but they have to stay on reasonable terms since they'll probably play each other again. It's basically iterated Prisoner's Dilemma but applied to competitive community dynamics; the optimal answer is still the same.
If StarCraft were more like this, the player community would be more active, which would be a solid foundation for the rest of the scene. It probably still is like this in some pockets, especially in Korea since Koreans are obsessed with improving themselves through pain. But if it were a more global culture like in Smash, the scene would come back.
