Killer and Brave retire - Page 6

On May 18 2012 04:16 SonZHi wrote:
They're not stating the actual reason because they're just trying to be polite and do not wish to hamper the future developments of OGN's Proleague for their team members. Starcraft Broodwar progamers did not choose their career solely due to money or fame. If you've been around long enough to know the history of Starcraft progaming, then you'd have remembered how the progamers were all practically dirt poor at some point, relying on ₩230 instant foods as daily meals, and just starting to transition into living in puny teamhouses with cheap computers (which, thankfully, could run SCBW perfectly due to the low requirements: P1 90MHZ, 16MB RAM, 640x480 display) to practice SCBW every day. If they actually wanted money, they'd have chosen a different career path like medicine or engineering.

They chose Starcraft progaming because they loved the game, believed they had the exceptional skills to entertain the audiences with, and wished to make a career out of it. Unfortunately, they were forced to switch to the game-which-cannot-be-named, had several months to try it out, and decided that they could not apply their skills and find the enjoyment in a game that's more user-friendly and based on coin-flip ball battles. Blizzard does not have the same developers, designers and composers that they had back in 1998, which is why they cannot mimic similar gameplay mechanics and graphics from SCBW. It's an entirely different game, future retirements from current progamers are inevitable, and the situation can't be helped.

On May 18 2012 04:55 Zona wrote:

Yes, I definitely expect more of this to happen. We have a set of players who are relatively well paid compared to the average SC2 progamer, and many who may or may not turn out to be superior SC2 players, so salaries will likely fall. Especially when the reason for the switch is a lack of sponsors and funding in general. I don't know what Kespa is banking on to increase their revenue - new sponsors due to SC2, or premium international streaming? Especially when you consider that by submitting to Blizzard they can no longer charge OGN a league/broadcast fee. Still, the players who have joined team 8 are probably players who likely wish to continue with SC2, so there are some, at least, who won't be retiring because of the switch.

One thing I'm really surprised is that Kespa is not really using whatever mapmakers it has access to. When you consider Kespa and SC2, Kespa can only bring 3 advantages to the table. The first, is the star power of its players. The second, is the map creation expertise that they have access to, but now don't seem to be using. The third, is the strong coaching and training environments...but this advantage is kind of negated by the late start for their progamers, especially when they are preparing both games for the upcoming months.

I do think that Kespa might face a slow collapse if the switch isn't able to bring in new funding. Teams will want to shed costs, in salary and team upkeep. (I suspect this might be part of the reason why SKT is dropping an adult coach in favor of player-age coaches, but who knows.)

If more retired BW pros consider taking up streaming, like Hiya, perhaps a new, smaller grassroots scene will be reborn. Some low-budget, small-scale tournaments...just maybe I'm dreaming?

On May 18 2012 04:59 Ryo wrote:

No you're not dreaming. I just wish Afreeca streams were more accessible to people with foreign IPs.