EPT(I'm not endorsing his comments, which I actually have trouble understanding, I just think that a team owner's viewpoint is relavent enough to mention)
http://fxoboss.tumblr.com/post/23658060768/stork-on-kespa-player-conditions
For reference, here is the interview (thanks Jinro for tweeting it) http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=339466
The teams in Korea who are not part of KESPA have rallied together to negotiate with KESPA about conditions for players and teams in the KESPA run tournaments.
For those of you who are not in the know, there are many reasons why. But I am going to focus on the interview with STORK.
The poor guy has felt the need to stand up and voice his feelings to the public on behalf of the other gamers who are ‘suffering’ for lack of a better word, within the KESPA organisation.
Whilst some sort of organisational control is necessary in e-sports, KESPA has been very abusive of their power.
STORK is the first person to recently voice legitimate complaints about KESPA with legitimate reasoning behind it since SC2 came out (AFAIK). During his interview he was pretty much crying, and talking about his distress dealing with the transition.
The issue that STORK has raised regarding the BW maps is the biggest concern for me. The fact map versions were not finalised well in advance is a clear indication of mis-management by KESPA and then to force people to play on those maps is just stupid. These guys practice as hard as they possibly can analyzing every single thing about a map before playing. Then to have a brand new map (even if its just a map edit) out of the blue is very hard on the emotions.
He also emphasizes on how KESPA appears to be focusing purely on sc2 and forgetting about brood war. I am not sure on the reasoning behind why KESPA would be so stupid, but its entirely up to them as its their organisation. If they are focusing purely on SC2 they should have just made it all SC2, instead of damaging the players emotionally. Also if they did that I am sure they would have seen far better games than were shown in SC2 so far.
Regardless of the past, STORK has shown us that KESPA is a company full of abuse of power. Which is something the current sc2 pro teams have tried to emphasize to the community via the association.
But there is another side to the story. I was going to blog about this yesterday, but today seems to be a better opportunity.
Considering what STAR players in brood war are being paid, some form of power is inevitable. Its the same in any sport, and even finance. I am going to compare things to finance, as thats pretty much all I know.
When you finish school and enter the work force, you are given two choices in the world of finance. You can settle on a small wage and live your life as average Joe for the rest of your life. Or you can take a risk and aim for the riches.
There are two types of wealthy finance people. There are the ones who went to harvard, and basically kissed their dads friends ass to get a job which they are not very good at OR there are those who enter the work force and take a job unpaid for a year then work on a commission/bonus only basis and work their ass off and make good money. The former, are the ones everyone aspires to be, as they never get treated badly, they do almost nothing and in the end they make good scratch. The others, they are the ones who get whipped so badly they go home and cry at night, they starve themselves as they cant afford food, they sleep on a friends couch and they basically go through hell just to achieve their goal. In e-sports we are now slowly starting to separate the two groups, slowly. There are players who just got in because they are in. And there are players who have worked their ass off to get where they are. There is also a 3rd category of naturally talented people however there aren’t that many of them so I will just push that category aside.
The Korean scene right now is starting to separate also. Those who want to be the best, vs those who want to sit back relax and have people fan them with Palm leaves. Its understandable, when you see someone who does virtually nothing get more money and fame than you and at the same time you beat them 3-0 all the time, you are bound to start to get a bit emotional and even mad at how things work out. Then you will start to hunt for what they have. Right, makes sense.
Now let me go back to our two categories before in finance. Those rich, comfortable, lazy guys, do you know their name? I mean, we all know of them that they exist, and thats what we want to be. But do you know their name?
Hows about, I don’t know….. Warren Buffett, do you know his name? Well, he didn’t exactly cry at night, but he wasn’t handed his wealth on a platter. And guess what? He kicks the ass of every lazy rich finance person out there.
George Soros? How about him?
He was part of the holocaust. I don’t really need to go on about anything else with him, other than he bankrupted the bank of England.
Now to Starcraft.
Flash? When he first started he wasn’t very good. Now he is known as “God”… He went through hell (caused by KESPA) and is now the greatest brood war player ever (arguably).
Jaedong? Bisu? Kal? Boxer? even Stork.
These players are great because of the shit they went through to get to the top. They had the will power and staying power to make it work. They didn’t demand foot massages every day and a private jet. They just did what they set out to do, be the best regardless of what stood in their way.
Whilst I don’t agree with what KESPA does entirely, there is a reason it is done. The same reason that I control my staff, and the CEO of any company controls their staff. Because you believe you know whats best to get people to their full potential.
Truth be known, giving someone everything is counter-productive and prevents proper growth. Rewarding them for hard work is generally the way to go. $300k a yr is not a bad reward (re:flash).
My respect goes out to all the gamers out there who struggle to get to their goal but regardless of their struggle they keep trying.
<fine print> I am not a writer. You are welcome to criticize my writing however, I do not have time to go to writing classes. Perhaps when I do have time I will go to those classes.
I hope your day is full of rainbows and butterflies.
<3 FXOBoSs
The teams in Korea who are not part of KESPA have rallied together to negotiate with KESPA about conditions for players and teams in the KESPA run tournaments.
For those of you who are not in the know, there are many reasons why. But I am going to focus on the interview with STORK.
The poor guy has felt the need to stand up and voice his feelings to the public on behalf of the other gamers who are ‘suffering’ for lack of a better word, within the KESPA organisation.
Whilst some sort of organisational control is necessary in e-sports, KESPA has been very abusive of their power.
STORK is the first person to recently voice legitimate complaints about KESPA with legitimate reasoning behind it since SC2 came out (AFAIK). During his interview he was pretty much crying, and talking about his distress dealing with the transition.
The issue that STORK has raised regarding the BW maps is the biggest concern for me. The fact map versions were not finalised well in advance is a clear indication of mis-management by KESPA and then to force people to play on those maps is just stupid. These guys practice as hard as they possibly can analyzing every single thing about a map before playing. Then to have a brand new map (even if its just a map edit) out of the blue is very hard on the emotions.
He also emphasizes on how KESPA appears to be focusing purely on sc2 and forgetting about brood war. I am not sure on the reasoning behind why KESPA would be so stupid, but its entirely up to them as its their organisation. If they are focusing purely on SC2 they should have just made it all SC2, instead of damaging the players emotionally. Also if they did that I am sure they would have seen far better games than were shown in SC2 so far.
Regardless of the past, STORK has shown us that KESPA is a company full of abuse of power. Which is something the current sc2 pro teams have tried to emphasize to the community via the association.
But there is another side to the story. I was going to blog about this yesterday, but today seems to be a better opportunity.
Considering what STAR players in brood war are being paid, some form of power is inevitable. Its the same in any sport, and even finance. I am going to compare things to finance, as thats pretty much all I know.
When you finish school and enter the work force, you are given two choices in the world of finance. You can settle on a small wage and live your life as average Joe for the rest of your life. Or you can take a risk and aim for the riches.
There are two types of wealthy finance people. There are the ones who went to harvard, and basically kissed their dads friends ass to get a job which they are not very good at OR there are those who enter the work force and take a job unpaid for a year then work on a commission/bonus only basis and work their ass off and make good money. The former, are the ones everyone aspires to be, as they never get treated badly, they do almost nothing and in the end they make good scratch. The others, they are the ones who get whipped so badly they go home and cry at night, they starve themselves as they cant afford food, they sleep on a friends couch and they basically go through hell just to achieve their goal. In e-sports we are now slowly starting to separate the two groups, slowly. There are players who just got in because they are in. And there are players who have worked their ass off to get where they are. There is also a 3rd category of naturally talented people however there aren’t that many of them so I will just push that category aside.
The Korean scene right now is starting to separate also. Those who want to be the best, vs those who want to sit back relax and have people fan them with Palm leaves. Its understandable, when you see someone who does virtually nothing get more money and fame than you and at the same time you beat them 3-0 all the time, you are bound to start to get a bit emotional and even mad at how things work out. Then you will start to hunt for what they have. Right, makes sense.
Now let me go back to our two categories before in finance. Those rich, comfortable, lazy guys, do you know their name? I mean, we all know of them that they exist, and thats what we want to be. But do you know their name?
Hows about, I don’t know….. Warren Buffett, do you know his name? Well, he didn’t exactly cry at night, but he wasn’t handed his wealth on a platter. And guess what? He kicks the ass of every lazy rich finance person out there.
George Soros? How about him?
He was part of the holocaust. I don’t really need to go on about anything else with him, other than he bankrupted the bank of England.
Now to Starcraft.
Flash? When he first started he wasn’t very good. Now he is known as “God”… He went through hell (caused by KESPA) and is now the greatest brood war player ever (arguably).
Jaedong? Bisu? Kal? Boxer? even Stork.
These players are great because of the shit they went through to get to the top. They had the will power and staying power to make it work. They didn’t demand foot massages every day and a private jet. They just did what they set out to do, be the best regardless of what stood in their way.
Whilst I don’t agree with what KESPA does entirely, there is a reason it is done. The same reason that I control my staff, and the CEO of any company controls their staff. Because you believe you know whats best to get people to their full potential.
Truth be known, giving someone everything is counter-productive and prevents proper growth. Rewarding them for hard work is generally the way to go. $300k a yr is not a bad reward (re:flash).
My respect goes out to all the gamers out there who struggle to get to their goal but regardless of their struggle they keep trying.
<fine print> I am not a writer. You are welcome to criticize my writing however, I do not have time to go to writing classes. Perhaps when I do have time I will go to those classes.
I hope your day is full of rainbows and butterflies.
<3 FXOBoSs
