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Aotearoa39261 Posts
On February 14 2010 20:16 Vasoline73 wrote:
I know I can't be the only one who kind of feels like Boxer's interviews are a bit annoying nowadays. It feels like because esports aren't going the way HE thinks they should that they must obviously be going the wrong way. I agree that there's some things that could be different, like player personalities and attitudes about what's important, but the games themselves (imo) keep getting more and more interesting/deeper and with Jaedong and Flash playing at such a high level it seems strange to say (edit: imply) esports is in trouble.
In this interview he was more tame in his message, but his last one irked me a bit. He is the emperor, but at the same time he's pretty much exclusively a player coach there for experience and moral. I don't think he should tell players who are at the top of the scene that they aren't as great as he was at his peak just because they have different priorities and grew up in a different esports culture (one much more established and controlled than the one Boxer grew up in.)
Not trying to disrespect Boxer, I'm just giving my two cents about his esports opinion.
I somewhat agree. I feel like he is somewhat hypocritical in his criticism of Flash/Jaedong. He is still the leader in esports and thus could probably be doing more from where he is sitting about furthering esports rather than just complaining about the situation in many interviews - that strategy clearly hasn't gotten through to those at the top. Perhaps that because they grew up in a world without an esports icon as the #1 player they don't know how to act like champions, I don't know. But Boxer's concerns are definitely valid imo.
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Boxer's not saying anything about Flash and JD not being as great as he was at his peak. He's talking about their commitment towards really going out there and spreading the SC scene. I mean, when Boxer was on top he didn't become so incredibly famous for no reason whatsoever. Of course the times were different then in many ways but he still put himself out there a whole lot. Can guys like Flash and JD say the same thing?
"We need to put more sense of duty for the rank 1 player. Rather than people simply saying “I want to play as well as him”, there needs to be someone who can act as a role model for progamers and life, but it’s a problem that I’m still in that spot. It’s a good thing to be acting as a role-model for people, but there can’t only be 1. More people with different styles should represent e-sports, and that way, e-sports will become more in depth."
Wisdom. It really is worrying that Boxer still gets called up all the time for these things. Why isn't e.g. JD asked instead? Maybe it's not really JD's fault, but you've gotta wonder if there's some lack of effort there..? I dunno...I suppose a big part of the problem is that the schedule for the gamers is way too packed right now so they just don't have time. Kespa really should do something to change the schedule.
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rofl at the pictures
Made them look like two retirees 
Next thing BoXer and TossGirl are talking about diseases and medications, reading newspaper and complaining about kids making too much noise in their early thirties :p
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Gets called up for what exactly? Being the old man of a game is like being an elder statesmen in politics. You get that treatment because you're a veteran. People aren't asking JD or Flash or anyone else because they're still in their prime, being progamers and doing their time.
Also, JD and Flash recently did that ultra long interview and I've seen interviews with Stork and Bisu when they were walking around those shops/market. The top gamers do take time out of their busy schedule to promote themselves and by the same token, the scene.
Boxer did alot of promotion for esports but also for himself. Not everyone is as extroverted and a showman as he is sure. But partly it's because he's the oldest current progamer and he's still playing the game - sc and the game of being a spokesman.
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Boxer just said what I had been thinking! The top players like Flash Jaedong and Bisu etc need to help spread ans grow e-sports. Boxer did so much for e-sports while he was #1 but the new guys just play their games and don't think much beyond that. The fact that they can live that lifestyle is largely thanks to Boxer and they need to do the same for others, including themselves.
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On February 14 2010 21:49 ViruX wrote:
Boxer just said what I had been thinking! The top players like Flash Jaedong and Bisu etc need to help spread ans grow e-sports. Boxer did so much for e-sports while he was #1 but the new guys just play their games and don't think much beyond that. The fact that they can live that lifestyle is largely thanks to Boxer and they need to do the same for others, including themselves.
lol how. Bisu is practically a sociophobe and Flash/Jaedong are basically any other teenager interested in progaming. You can't tell any random guy to become the president of his country when he's got no charisma to begin with.
Realtalk here. The guy doing the best job right now is probably Stork as his interviews, while show that he's basically a nerd like the rest of them, are a whole lot more interesting and personal. Flash's and Jaedong's interviews (and hell gameplay) seem to have an aura of pretence and its probably due to the standards their fans expect from them.
Jaedong or Flash can't say "Kwanro is so shit that he can only all in like a noob" or similar stuff that makes the whole scene more interesting because they'll simply be ripped apart by the fans; even smaller (IMO) things like Flash choosing to cheese Jaedong instead of fighting a long macro game produced an amazing amount of venom from not only the Korean scene but the foreign scene.
These kids don't do anything because they really can't.
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Awesome interview! Thanks for the translation.
My impression is that the crowd at the grand finals has been getting smaller over the last few years, which could be a sign that E-Sport is declining. Just by watching the videos of the grand finals from maybe 5 years ago and this year, we can see that the crowd is significantly bigger in the past.
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Nice interview, I can't wait to see Boxer playing SC2.
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People who want to spend their life playing a video game are either short-sighted idiots or asocial weirdos, and there's nothing Boxer can do about that.
It's like people criticizing Idra for being a nerd's parody, but then again, who would accept to quit high school/college to spend his youth playing Starcraft as a B teamer in a country where he can't understand any word of what people are saying around him.
It's not a mistery if Nony, Ret, Draco ran away after a while, it's because they're pretty normal.
And Boxer is not an exception to the rule, he is now older and stopped playing as seriously as before, but I'm pretty sure that when he was a kid playing at the CyberCafe all day, he wasn't the kind of guy thinking at "promoting E-Sports" through TV shows.
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On February 14 2010 23:11 TeWy wrote:
People who want to spend their life playing a video game are either short-sighted idiots or asocial weirdos, and there's nothing Boxer can do about that.
It's like people criticizing Idra for being a nerd's parody, but then again, who would accept to quit high school/college to spend his youth playing Starcraft as a B teamer in a country where he can't understand any word of what people are saying around him.
It's not a mistery if Nony, Ret, Draco ran away after a while, it's because they're pretty normal.
And Boxer is not an exception to the rule, he is now older and stopped playing as seriously as before, but I'm pretty sure that when he was a kid playing at the CyberCafe all day, he wasn't the kind of guy thinking at "promoting E-Sports" through TV shows.
Normal? Normal by Western standards maybe.
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On February 14 2010 23:11 TeWy wrote:
And Boxer is not an exception to the rule, he is now older and stopped playing as seriously as before, but I'm pretty sure that when he was a kid playing at the CyberCafe all day, he wasn't the kind of guy thinking at "promoting E-Sports" through TV shows.
You should know your Boxer history ...
Also Tossgirl & Boxer would make a cute couple @_@
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I nominate Stork for Nerdy E-Sports Promoter in Chief. Who's with me?
Also, I find it kind of odd that the interviewee and Boxer keep talking about how he's so much weaker now, and he's aging, when he's only thirty years old. I mean, he's hardly an "old man" yet, by any standards, yet everyone seems to think and talk about as if he were one. It's crazy.
As for Tossgirl, all I can say is: concerning Korean netizens who criticize her personal appearance, call her fat, etc, I think I speak for foreign fans everywhere when I say...
BURN THEM! 
*ahem*
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
1st off, great contribution and translation;
2nd off, I don't think a lot of people who made negative comments about Boxer, really understand what he is trying to say because you may not know the real significance of what is behind it.
In many respects, e-sports phenomia in Korea had peaked by about 2002 in terms of mainstream society excitement, of course e-sports has become more professional (by a huge magin), player well managed, better paid, more professional coverage, but it has also become stagnent as well.
When you say 'e-sports' in Korea, its really a bullshit term, cause all it really means is 'Starcraft'; because while the TV stations try to fill up the airtime with other games like 'Sudden strike', it has no comparison it terms of viewership and money than Starcraft.
It's like, whatever e-sports could have meant, never really hit its potential, instead the managers all sold out on their long term investments on their teams and the corporate sponsors got a very loyal and clear target market group for their products. Whenever there is a foreign interview for e-sports, its gonna be boxer who they still contact and then with some further investigation, maybe Yellow (but he old too), and even older Koreans, they do still think Boxer is #1, because the mainstream interest has completely faded, EVEN THOUGH, its at its strongest position in terms of stablity, professional standard, play and money.
Whatever reasons for it, the failure or sabotage of WC3 progaming in Korea, or that no other game was comparable to SC for its competitiveness, playability and spectatorship, SC was like World Cup football and Olymipic short track; something that would grip the entire country, but it hasn't been like that for a long time now.
It's like Korea has been waiting for SC2 forever and forever, and we all have gotten lazy, putting all the future potential of e-sports on SC2, but otherwise being really happy with SC which is like how old now (like 12?). Boxer ain't saying, I'm the best, and the current guys should be like me, he wasn't an extroverted guy when he was young, but he took on the responsbility and became the face of SC, he practiced like no one else's business first and STILL DID up until recently (just cause age has caught up to him) but he practiced like a mofo. At that time, there weren't big bonus for winning streaks or stable salaries, but now that there is, it's like growing e-sports is more about ensuring that there are professional regulations/policies in place as well as ensure teams perform well and are incentived appropriately, which is nothing wrong, except that it is missing the big picture of what 'e-sports' still can be. wah wah, thats life right? but seriously, SC and the term e-sports once was so important it was the agenda for the minsitry of culture and tourism on a daily basis.
I reckon, that Boxer, he is waiting to see what kind of effect SC2 has on Korea, will it grip Korea like SC did,will there be the potential of national heros who will play international world matches aside for from the predictable outcome of WCG with real international contenders like how Giyom was back in the day?
I dont' think that Boxer even knows what he expects SC2 to bring or what e-sports will become, but as someone who was a part of the industry when Battle Top was running regional qualifiers and WCG just launched, I remember the craziness and the thrill of that time and also what we envisioned what e-sports was going to be end of being; I don't think we concluded it would be just SC and ensure that players could live a professional career. Of course, its really really amazing how far we've come in Korea, but I'm sure in Boxer's mind and mine as well, I think it was meant to be something more than just this and it would be nice if the top players nowadays could hope for that too.
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Boxer: It’s starting to annoy me (laughs). The fact that I’m 31 years old makes people question that more. Honestly, my family pressures me a lot more than the public. However, marriage in midst of being a player doesn’t really cut through for me. For a person who plays games while his eyes are open until his eyes are shut, is there a luxury of marriage? I don’t think so. Even when SC2 comes out, I plan to be a player, so due to my greed of being a player, I think it’s right to push back my marriage.
The Greatest.
It is not Flash and JDs responsibility to drive esports. They are talent, its up to the administration and promoters to take it to the next step. It's not like they are avoiding everything to practice, its just that the promotional ideas are bad. The crowds were probably bigger than because esports was new and exciting. A combination of losing some pizazz through time and play evolving to favor the mechanically strong player has certainly eroded some of the marketing opportunities. Notice how I said marketing opportunities and not boring game play.
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Russian Federation1381 Posts
Aw, such a nice couple, they should marry. Judging from the interviews and pictures, Tossgirl won't mind it.
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Cute read, I like all the emperor/empress references
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On February 15 2010 00:19 MightyAtom wrote:
1st off, great contribution and translation;
2nd off, I don't think a lot of people who made negative comments about Boxer, really understand what he is trying to say because you may not know the real significance of what is behind it.
In many respects, e-sports phenomia in Korea had peaked by about 2002 in terms of mainstream society excitement, of course e-sports has become more professional (by a huge magin), player well managed, better paid, more professional coverage, but it has also become stagnent as well.
When you say 'e-sports' in Korea, its really a bullshit term, cause all it really means is 'Starcraft'; because while the TV stations try to fill up the airtime with other games like 'Sudden strike', it has no comparison it terms of viewership and money than Starcraft.
It's like, whatever e-sports could have meant, never really hit its potential, instead the managers all sold out on their long term investments on their teams and the corporate sponsors got a very loyal and clear target market group for their products. Whenever there is a foreign interview for e-sports, its gonna be boxer who they still contact and then with some further investigation, maybe Yellow (but he old too), and even older Koreans, they do still think Boxer is #1, because the mainstream interest has completely faded, EVEN THOUGH, its at its strongest position in terms of stablity, professional standard, play and money.
Whatever reasons for it, the failure or sabotage of WC3 progaming in Korea, or that no other game was comparable to SC for its competitiveness, playability and spectatorship, SC was like World Cup football and Olymipic short track; something that would grip the entire country, but it hasn't been like that for a long time now.
It's like Korea has been waiting for SC2 forever and forever, and we all have gotten lazy, putting all the future potential of e-sports on SC2, but otherwise being really happy with SC which is like how old now (like 12?). Boxer ain't saying, I'm the best, and the current guys should be like me, he wasn't an extroverted guy when he was young, but he took on the responsbility and became the face of SC, he practiced like no one else's business first and STILL DID up until recently (just cause age has caught up to him) but he practiced like a mofo. At that time, there weren't big bonus for winning streaks or stable salaries, but now that there is, it's like growing e-sports is more about ensuring that there are professional regulations/policies in place as well as ensure teams perform well and are incentived appropriately, which is nothing wrong, except that it is missing the big picture of what 'e-sports' still can be. wah wah, thats life right? but seriously, SC and the term e-sports once was so important it was the agenda for the minsitry of culture and tourism on a daily basis.
I reckon, that Boxer, he is waiting to see what kind of effect SC2 has on Korea, will it grip Korea like SC did,will there be the potential of national heros who will play international world matches aside for from the predictable outcome of WCG with real international contenders like how Giyom was back in the day?
I dont' think that Boxer even knows what he expects SC2 to bring or what e-sports will become, but as someone who was a part of the industry when Battle Top was running regional qualifiers and WCG just launched, I remember the craziness and the thrill of that time and also what we envisioned what e-sports was going to be end of being; I don't think we concluded it would be just SC and ensure that players could live a professional career. Of course, its really really amazing how far we've come in Korea, but I'm sure in Boxer's mind and mine as well, I think it was meant to be something more than just this and it would be nice if the top players nowadays could hope for that too.
2002? You think the FIFA World Cup might have something to do with it?
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this is so lovely! they seem really nice people.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://www.wfbrood.com/Article/UploadFiles/200703/20070317194254789.jpg)
