Hello TeamLiquid readers! My name is Kim Cheolmin. Many of you may know me as the loud Korean caster from MSL broadcasts. As you can see from the picture above, I am always shouting.
I hope that you have been enjoying the weekly KCM Legend Matches that have been going on for the last few months.
To fund these matches, I relied on donations from Korean fans and short-term sponsorship deals. At times, I even paid for the matches out of my own pocket.
I would like to continue holding these weekly matches, but I have recently run out of funds to keep them going. As a temporary measure, I have started a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.
For every 1000 dollars raised, I can keep the KCM Legend Matches going for another week. The immediate goal is to fund the matches for another two weeks.
However, I also have a longer term goal that is far more important. Right now, the viewership levels for Brood War are very high in Korea. The KCM Legend Match often gets almost 100,000 views each week with up to 10,000 people connecting simultaneously. However, despite those numbers, finding a respectable sponsor is not easy because Starcraft is often perceived negatively in corporate board rooms.
If this crowdfunding campaign succeeds, then I will have a powerful story to tell potential sponsors in Korea. For better or for worse, many Korean corporations highly value the validation that comes from being recognized internationally. By contributing to this campaign, you have a chance to give Brood War this kind of validation in the eyes of potential sponsors in Korea. In other words, your contributions may have a snowballing effect of sorts that keeps competitive Brood War going.
To add an interesting wrinkle, I have added a somewhat expensive option (called a "perk" on Indiegogo) for you to purchase the right to nominate a player to take part in a KCM Legend Match. For example, perhaps one of you would like to see Sziky or Fengzi. If you are willing to fund the prize pool for one week, we can make that a reality as long as lag is not a significant hindrance. Of course, you can also just choose a specific Korean player you like instead.
It's okay if you are unable to make such a huge commitment. Any amount, even $1, that you can contribute would be very appreciated! If you can't contribute, I hope that you will share information about the campaign on social media and encourage others to contribute. Convincing a friend to contribute requires a lot of passion. From scanning this site, I can see that foreign Brood War fans are just as passionate as Korean fans if not more so. It makes me hopeful.
Thank you so much. Long live Brood War!
Meanwhile, please check out my YouTube channel, where the KCM Legend Matches are uploaded weekly.
Note: Hat tip to lemmata, who translated this message for me.
I want to make a short note here about a question that will surely be asked.
It seems that getting Bisu to participate will be difficult because of various reasons outside of KCM's control.
Flash recently said on his AfreecaTV stream that he is interested in "eventually" participating in the KCM Legend Matches. KCM cannot guarantee that Flash will participate but when Flash feels that he is ready, I think that it is likely that he will talk to KCM.
Also, KCM understands that other league formats might be more attractive to viewers, but the KCM Legend Match format was chosen for practical reasons. Unless the prize pool is absolutely huge (and sometimes even when it is), players often flake out on league commitments for various reasons, which is something KCM wants to avoid at all costs to make sure that he can keep any promises made to potential sponsors. For now, the KCM Legend Match format allows him enough lineup flexibility week-to-week that he never has to worry about that.
If he can attract a large sponsorship deal, then he might be able to use other formats, but KCM is very cautious about not making any promises he might break.
Even before his small sponsorship deal ran out, KCM was taking money out of his own pocket to pay the players for achieving win streaks. Right now, he is taking a long-term view of accepting some short-term losses because he believes that Brood War still has a future in Korea.
...how about getting some (korean or otherwise) amateurs to play in these KCM series?
I understand getting only former pros is the main appeal of these "Legend" matches, but if you really want to talk about propping up and sustaining the BW scene, there needs to be new blood, new names for people to cheer on and support. "Starcraft is often perceived negatively in corporate board rooms.", why support a scene that does not support and nurture new players (no long term future)?
If you rope amateurs in these showmatches as well, it will be a great way to give them competitive experience and provide incentive for them to improve and play well. you have these weekly race series, just get 1 amateur for each race. quite a bunch of amateurs obtained S rank in the last fish ladder (like BishOp), it would be great for development if players like him get the chances to play in these series
On April 06 2016 11:32 Bakuryu wrote: Does the nominated Player has to play in 1 of those 2 weeks or can he play later?.... and by how much later?
I will ask KCM and get back to you, but I think that you could nominate the player to participate later if there are more KLMs scheduled for later. So the short answer is: Until the last of the currently scheduled KLMs.
On April 06 2016 12:01 Probemicro wrote: ...how about getting some (korean or otherwise) amateurs to play in these KCM series?
I understand getting only former pros is the main appeal of these "Legend" matches, but if you really want to talk about propping up and sustaining the BW scene, there needs to be new blood, new names for people to cheer on and support. "Starcraft is often perceived negatively in corporate board rooms.", why support a scene that does not support and nurture new players (no long term future)?
If you rope amateurs in these showmatches as well, it will be a great way to give them competitive experience and provide incentive for them to improve and play well. you have these weekly race series, just get 1 amateur for each race. quite a bunch of amateurs obtained S rank in the last fish ladder (like BishOp), it would be great for development if players like him get the chances to play in these series
Amateurs were mentioned when I talked to KCM. Of course, he would like to have amateurs, too. Unfortunately, it's just not practical at the moment because there isn't enough money.
There's almost no one willing to put up significant money to have amateurs compete against pros. The viewers' interest is also low. Since KCM is not rich (and even has some debt) he needs to rely on external funding. It's hard enough to get corporate sponsors for matches between pros. For what it's worth, I think the negative image has quite a lot more to do with the past match-fixing (and, to a lesser extent, people like...let me redact that) than it does with the absence of new blood.
However, the Sbenu and Vant Starleagues gave chances to amateurs and the upcoming Afreeca Starleague will likely do so as well. Big sponsorship deals like those are needed if you want to give opportunities to amateurs. As KCM said, succeeding with this crowdfunding could help him get a bigger sponsorship in the future, which might be big enough to help infuse new blood into the scene.
KCM agrees with you that new blood is needed, it's just not feasible at this exact instant. He's thinking about it though for sure.
On April 06 2016 13:23 lemmata wrote: For what it's worth, I think the negative image has quite a lot more to do with the past match-fixing (and, to a lesser extent, people like...let me redact that) than it does with the absence of new blood.
maybe in the past but i highly doubt its the major factor anymore (it was overblown in the first place anyway). matchfixing has also happened in sc2 and that has not stopped afreeca from adopting the GSL and sponsoring an sc2 team. hard to reject blizzard's $$$ anyway also "redact" has quit streaming and stopped playing. Unsavory things has also happened in other esports like LoL but i don't see people quit playing LoL in korea anytime soon.
anyway, at least its good to see that KCM has taken amateurs into consideration, I will chip in and wish him the best in his endeavours to keep the BW scene alive
On another note, what about the testing and using of new map, The legends match series does have a reputation of having players pick some wacky maps like zero picking fastest map possible against last a few weeks ago and a number of older island maps from a couple of weeks ago, but how about maps that are being made or still worked on today, Kim Carry did a few tests of these maps on his stream with players like Mind, BeSt and ZerO a few weeks ago.
On April 06 2016 11:32 Bakuryu wrote: Does the nominated Player has to play in 1 of those 2 weeks or can he play later?.... and by how much later?
When the crowdfunding campaign ends in 30 days, you can nominate the player to play in ANY subsequent KCM Legend Match. There is no restriction.
Note from lemmata: KCM read this thread with my English-to-Korean translation and asked me to post some replies from his account with my Korean-to-English translations of his responses. He apologizes if there are long delays between your posts and his replies. I am in a different time zone from KCM and have a fairly demanding job, so it's hard for us to coordinate.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/WBpXgg1.jpg)
Sziky or ![[image loading]](http://stimg.afreecatv.com/STATION/4/14201664/%C0%AF%C6%A9%BA%EA.jpg)
also "redact" has quit streaming and stopped playing. Unsavory things has also happened in other esports like LoL but i don't see people quit playing LoL in korea anytime soon. 
