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On March 31 2020 17:50 konadora wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2020 17:36 Ziggy wrote:Worth mentioning there was another piece of news released today: https://starcraft.com/ko-kr/articles/23369563TLDR; Blizzard and Afreeca have signed a new deal to broadcast a number of Blizzard esports on Korean cable (SBS-Afreeca), which includes the ASL, the GSL, something for Overwatch, Hearthstone, Call of Duty, WC3, and WoW Arena + Mythic Dungeons. While it doesn't necessarily mean the KSL will come back, I think it being cancelled is likely due to a 'temporary' (?) shift in priorities.
Translation: SBS-AfreecaTV Stacraft: Remastered Multi-year deal announcementStarCraft has been the backbone of esports in Korea for over 20 years. With the release of StarCraft: Remastered in 2017, a new chapter has opened on this historic stage. We are delighted to announce that StarCraft: Remastered and several other Blizzard esports programs will be a long time fixture on SBS-AfreecaTV. SBS-AfreecaTV, a joint venture between Seoul Broadcasting Station SBS and Seoul-based streaming platform AfreecaTV, will broadcast several Activision Blizzard esports global competitions in a new multi-year contract, as well as several Blizzard-sanctioned esports tournaments that will be held in South Korea. As such, the AfreecaTV StarCraft League (ASL) and the Global StarCraft II League (GSL) will continue. ASL is currently in its ninth season and is played every Sunday and Tuesday at 7:00 PM (KST/GMT+9). Information on ASL and GSL can be found on the AfreecaTV website. In addition to the new contract, SBS-AfreecaTV will also broadcast several other Blizzard esports shows in South Korea, including Warcraft III: Reforged, Overwatch Contenders Korea, Overwatch League, Call of Duty League (CDL), Hearthstone Grandmasters, Hearthstone Masters Tour, World of Warcraft Arena World Championship and Mythic Dungeon International on its cable TV network.
My guess is that they didn't see the need to expend resources on both KSL and ASL when this new arrangement will be streamed on Afreeca anyway, so we can take it that KSL is not coming back for good, and ASL will be the sole SC:R tournament.
https://starcraft.com/ko-kr/articles/23369563
https://starcraft.com/ko-kr/articles/23369564
"KSL Termination Notice
A day ago | Blizzard Entertainment
At the end of the 4th season of 2019, KSL will no longer be held. We would like to thank the players who have shown many outstanding matches over the past two years, the relay team, staff and fans who have given generous love. StarCraft: Remaster eSports will continue to be the AfreecaTV StarCraft League for Afreeca TV, although it will be difficult to see you again with KSL.
You can watch KSL last season's matches on StarCraft YouTube ( link ):
Thank you!"
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ALLEYCAT BLUES50586 Posts
thats not an indefinite cancellation, thats a permanent cancellation.
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ALLEYCAT BLUES50586 Posts
no pretty sure its dead in the water.
https://starcraft.com/ko-kr/articles/23369563
the article states Blizzard and Afreeca have an exclusive deal to broadcast all blizzard esports, makes no sense for afreeca to run 2 different individual leagues on their own for BW.
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konadora
Singapore66357 Posts
that sounds pretty permanent...
also African TV lul
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South Korea2105 Posts
Worth mentioning there was another piece of news released today:
https://starcraft.com/ko-kr/articles/23369563
TLDR; Blizzard and Afreeca have signed a new deal to broadcast a number of Blizzard esports on Korean cable (SBS-Afreeca), which includes the ASL, the GSL, something for Overwatch, Hearthstone, Call of Duty, WC3, and WoW Arena + Mythic Dungeons.
While it doesn't necessarily mean the KSL will come back, I think it being cancelled is likely due to a 'temporary' (?) shift in priorities.
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Guess we never gonna see FlaSh lifting KSL trophy, what a shame but expected as you can always expect this kind of thing from Blizzard.
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konadora
Singapore66357 Posts
On March 31 2020 17:36 Ziggy wrote:Worth mentioning there was another piece of news released today: https://starcraft.com/ko-kr/articles/23369563TLDR; Blizzard and Afreeca have signed a new deal to broadcast a number of Blizzard esports on Korean cable (SBS-Afreeca), which includes the ASL, the GSL, something for Overwatch, Hearthstone, Call of Duty, WC3, and WoW Arena + Mythic Dungeons. While it doesn't necessarily mean the KSL will come back, I think it being cancelled is likely due to a 'temporary' (?) shift in priorities.
Translation:
SBS-AfreecaTV Stacraft: Remastered Multi-year deal announcement
StarCraft has been the backbone of esports in Korea for over 20 years. With the release of StarCraft: Remastered in 2017, a new chapter has opened on this historic stage. We are delighted to announce that StarCraft: Remastered and several other Blizzard esports programs will be a long time fixture on SBS-AfreecaTV.
SBS-AfreecaTV, a joint venture between Seoul Broadcasting Station SBS and Seoul-based streaming platform AfreecaTV, will broadcast several Activision Blizzard esports global competitions in a new multi-year contract, as well as several Blizzard-sanctioned esports tournaments that will be held in South Korea.
As such, the AfreecaTV StarCraft League (ASL) and the Global StarCraft II League (GSL) will continue. ASL is currently in its ninth season and is played every Sunday and Tuesday at 7:00 PM (KST/GMT+9). Information on ASL and GSL can be found on the AfreecaTV website.
In addition to the new contract, SBS-AfreecaTV will also broadcast several other Blizzard esports shows in South Korea, including Warcraft III: Reforged, Overwatch Contenders Korea, Overwatch League, Call of Duty League (CDL), Hearthstone Grandmasters, Hearthstone Masters Tour, World of Warcraft Arena World Championship and Mythic Dungeon International on its cable TV network.
My guess is that they didn't see the need to expend resources on both KSL and ASL when this new arrangement will be streamed on Afreeca anyway, so we can take it that KSL is not coming back for good, and ASL will be the sole SC:R tournament.
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Does it have to do with coronavirus and lack of audience or it's completely seperate?
Maybe they could do some kind of fake-team league then, than will be played on LAN...
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konadora
Singapore66357 Posts
On March 31 2020 17:52 Jendi wrote:
Does it have to do with coronavirus and lack of audience or it's completely seperate?
Maybe they could do some kind of fake-team league then, than will be played on LAN...
think it's kind of a separate thing, as I explained in an earlier post above.
there are plenty of community-run events however, such as KCM Race Survival and "Casters Inc." Tournaments
KCM: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2ja61Zku_rw3ZBfDZi8cuQ
Casters Inc: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNymqCXr3sxL8dnmO_jScuA
And I'm sure there are many other tournaments too. These two are the most updated and accessible on Youtube.
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Sad to see KSL cancelled. To be fair their planing etc was pretty bad. They had to many games on to short of a time which exhausted the casters and the audience. I can't wait to see what African TV has to offer!
African TV Pro League inc?
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United Kingdom12023 Posts
On March 31 2020 17:50 konadora wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2020 17:36 Ziggy wrote:Worth mentioning there was another piece of news released today: https://starcraft.com/ko-kr/articles/23369563TLDR; Blizzard and Afreeca have signed a new deal to broadcast a number of Blizzard esports on Korean cable (SBS-Afreeca), which includes the ASL, the GSL, something for Overwatch, Hearthstone, Call of Duty, WC3, and WoW Arena + Mythic Dungeons. While it doesn't necessarily mean the KSL will come back, I think it being cancelled is likely due to a 'temporary' (?) shift in priorities.
Translation: SBS-AfreecaTV Stacraft: Remastered Multi-year deal announcementStarCraft has been the backbone of esports in Korea for over 20 years. With the release of StarCraft: Remastered in 2017, a new chapter has opened on this historic stage. We are delighted to announce that StarCraft: Remastered and several other Blizzard esports programs will be a long time fixture on SBS-AfreecaTV. SBS-AfreecaTV, a joint venture between Seoul Broadcasting Station SBS and Seoul-based streaming platform AfreecaTV, will broadcast several Activision Blizzard esports global competitions in a new multi-year contract, as well as several Blizzard-sanctioned esports tournaments that will be held in South Korea. As such, the AfreecaTV StarCraft League (ASL) and the Global StarCraft II League (GSL) will continue. ASL is currently in its ninth season and is played every Sunday and Tuesday at 7:00 PM (KST/GMT+9). Information on ASL and GSL can be found on the AfreecaTV website. In addition to the new contract, SBS-AfreecaTV will also broadcast several other Blizzard esports shows in South Korea, including Warcraft III: Reforged, Overwatch Contenders Korea, Overwatch League, Call of Duty League (CDL), Hearthstone Grandmasters, Hearthstone Masters Tour, World of Warcraft Arena World Championship and Mythic Dungeon International on its cable TV network.
My guess is that they didn't see the need to expend resources on both KSL and ASL when this new arrangement will be streamed on Afreeca anyway, so we can take it that KSL is not coming back for good, and ASL will be the sole SC:R tournament.
Hopefully it means we'll get Afreeca Team Battle back if (I assume) this means they won't have to pay a fee.
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51500 Posts
this also means we won't see that dumb rotation of ksl/asl every season that we had before (ergo, more asl seasons per year).
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On March 31 2020 17:39 outscar wrote:
Guess we never gonna see FlaSh lifting KSL trophy, what a shame but expected as you can always expect this kind of thing from Blizzard.
What kind of thing, operating their business?
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United States33492 Posts
So, there's some vaguely reported "exclusivity" around the Blizzard-AfreecaTV deal where I'm not entirely sure which IP's fall in, but it seems safe to say Brood War and StarCraft II are in the bucket.
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ALLEYCAT BLUES50586 Posts
Short Version:
GSL viewers, no more English Twitch Stream
ASL viewers, nothing's changed.
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Bisutopia19299 Posts
On March 31 2020 18:31 BLinD-RawR wrote:
Short Version:
GSL viewers, no more English Twitch Stream
ASL viewers, nothing's changed.
Tasteless and Artosis talked about this in their cast. They were pretty upset all that work for the GSL channel is essentially being tossed out the window now. It would have been nice if they could have had more time to notify and transition people to their other channels.
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wait.. so we are going to see 4th KSL and then it will be cancelled, or is this cancelled already and no 4th tournament?
KSL was pretty cool, damn shame that we will no longer enjoy this many bo5's and bo7's..
if Bli$$ard signed a new agreement with Afreeca TV then maybe there is a chance for a BW team league of some kind.. That would be amazing
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Not too surprising, Blizzard had definitely been cutting costs to their non overwatch league esports departments. KSL been on twitch unfortunately loses many of the korean viewers, and with the coming economic difficulties in the US its not surprising they are discontinuing KSL. Fortunately the castersmuse league kinda already takes its place, hopefully they can get a couple of english commentators.
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@Meta
I found KSL quite lackluster actually. Felt too rushed, felt like less of a competitive drive, felt like there was less interest from all parties involved.
Now, I'm not saying it wasnt entertaining, I am saying ASL is way superior to KSL and having ASL and KSL running was ultimately a detriment to the SC:BW scene due to oversaturation, possibly making people less interested in the game as a whole over time.
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Does this mean AfreecaTV can revive their team league Blizz made them cancel?
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Hopefully this means Afreeca comes up with another tournament in addition to ASL.
A tournament every 4 months is quite lame.
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I agree that KSL seemed worst and less prestigious than ASL but it was still fine. I would not want to double the number of games/tournaments of ASL but have the LAN teamleague, with English Cast of course, or any other type of tournament.
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On March 31 2020 19:14 RowdierBob wrote:
Does this mean AfreecaTV can revive their team league Blizz made them cancel?
most likely
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Yes this is likely good news for watchers in the overall scheme of things
KSL was cool as an alternative starleague but it was clear the players didn't prioritize it as much as ASL and this frees up Afreeca to pursue new types of BW content. The demand will probably be there
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So basically it changes nothing, there will be more seasons of ASL in a year rather than running two similar tournaments. I'm up for that.
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On March 31 2020 19:54 Disregard wrote:
So basically it changes nothing, there will be more seasons of ASL in a year rather than running two similar tournaments. I'm up for that.
It's always been 2 ASL's per year, even prior to KSL. They might be able to squeeze a 3rd one in if they wanted to but odds are that they're gonna run a team league in between ASL's. I'm expecting 2 team leagues and 2 ASL's per year.
I actually like the ASL/team league yearly format (this is still speculation tho, we saw this in 2017) and we'll probably see other tourneys pop up in Korea. Not having KSL means no BW tourneys on Twitch which sucks for foreign scene exposure tho.
Would be nice if Afreeca and Blizz came to an agreement to allow ASL broadcasts on Twitch.. Sadly ASL broadcasts are probably gonna be on Youtube for foreign fans (like it currently is) cus Twitch is a competitor. No more chat memes for us, tough life.
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If they can organize something along the Proleague or Winner's League series, I would be giddy fanboy. Obviously without full sponsored teams like the old days, doubt that would be possible now.
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On March 31 2020 20:06 TT1 wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2020 19:54 Disregard wrote:
So basically it changes nothing, there will be more seasons of ASL in a year rather than running two similar tournaments. I'm up for that. Would be nice if Afreeca and Blizz came to an agreement to allow ASL broadcasts on Twitch...
Or allow all English casts on Twitch.
However, imagine Twitch will not feature those streams no matter what.
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On March 31 2020 18:25 Ej_ wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2020 17:39 outscar wrote:
Guess we never gonna see FlaSh lifting KSL trophy, what a shame but expected as you can always expect this kind of thing from Blizzard. What kind of thing, operating their business?
there is multiple ways to operate your business. Blizzard has always been on the greedy side of it.
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Within a year：3ASL＞2ASL+2KSL
I hope there will be ACS before every ASL
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ALLEYCAT BLUES50586 Posts
On March 31 2020 20:27 oxKnu wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2020 20:06 TT1 wrote:On March 31 2020 19:54 Disregard wrote:
So basically it changes nothing, there will be more seasons of ASL in a year rather than running two similar tournaments. I'm up for that. Would be nice if Afreeca and Blizz came to an agreement to allow ASL broadcasts on Twitch... Or allow all English casts on Twitch. However, imagine Twitch will not feature those streams no matter what.
unlikely it will happen as twitch is afreeca's biggest competitor locally
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On March 31 2020 20:30 juvenal wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2020 18:25 Ej_ wrote:On March 31 2020 17:39 outscar wrote:
Guess we never gonna see FlaSh lifting KSL trophy, what a shame but expected as you can always expect this kind of thing from Blizzard. What kind of thing, operating their business? there is multiple ways to operate your business. Blizzard has always been on the greedy side of it.
Is it greedy to focus on a partnership with Afreeca over running their own tournament series out of their pockets?
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What a bummer, I really loved that KSL streamed the qualifiers for hours on end ^^
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Maybe this means that Blizz will finally allow Afreeca to run a BW teamleague
Sucks that we are down to only 1 individual league again, but KSL was so half assed it was only a matter of time before they cut it.
On March 31 2020 21:23 Ej_ wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2020 20:30 juvenal wrote:On March 31 2020 18:25 Ej_ wrote:On March 31 2020 17:39 outscar wrote:
Guess we never gonna see FlaSh lifting KSL trophy, what a shame but expected as you can always expect this kind of thing from Blizzard. What kind of thing, operating their business? there is multiple ways to operate your business. Blizzard has always been on the greedy side of it. Is it greedy to focus on a partnership with Afreeca over running their own tournament series out of their pockets?
It is when the only reason you had to run your own tournament is that neither OGN nor SPOTV wanted to pay your ridiculous fees.
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So there is a multi-year deal for both ASL and GSL, and also the GSL will be broadcast on cable going forward? Seems like great news.
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Was kinda expecting it after what they did with KSL 4. It's weird to say, but I prefer no additional tournament over a poorly executed one. Hopefully we'll get the return of a team based league or tournament. Also more things could be streamed on YouTube. AfreecaTV streams don't hold up for me sadly :,(
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Kinda sucks but at the same time it's nice to know AfreecaTV will broadcast BW for several more years. Hopefully with more content to replace the KSL.
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Sad but sort of expected, I know KSL has a different format from ASL but it never really stood up to the latter imo.
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Did anyone really expect a new season?
Blizzard has cut so much in it's tournaments.
And KSL was a much inferior tournament than ASL. I find most ASL seasons memorable thanks to the tournament format, the map pool, and that Flash is playing in it. I can't remember any specific KSL season, or even any specific set of games.
We're still really lucky to have English casters for Brood War tournaments, although there's zero revenu generated by foreign viewers watching this.
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Hope ASL fills in the void somehow. Either a second tournament, more frequent tournaments, or just a bigger prize pool.
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Croatia9522 Posts
Wasn't KSL organized by Blizzard themselves (or at least overseen)?
Seems to me like this is just a way for Blizzard to outsource tournament organization to 3rd parties, as they don't want to waste resources on doing it themselves anymore.
Hopefully the trend continues.
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Does this mean KSL prizepool will be put into funding more ASLs?
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On April 01 2020 03:25 Mettis wrote:
Does this mean KSL prizepool will be put into funding more ASLs?
More likely goes into funding more Blizzard executives' pockets.
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That ksl won't continue is not really surprising, but at least now we know for sure. Would be great if the deal means that afreeca doesn't have to spend as mich money on blizzard fees and can increase the prizepool or make more tournaments
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Its fine to have other events like the CasterMuse and others but it would be cool if there could be and arragement so that someone would live cast them with english commentary and then have VODs, i think that way the community events would reach a wider audience, the people who watch only ksl and asl and we would not have only ASL now
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On April 01 2020 07:01 derty555 wrote:
Its fine to have other events like the CasterMuse and others but it would be cool if there could be and arragement so that someone would live cast them with english commentary and then have VODs, i think that way the community events would reach a wider audience, the people who watch only ksl and asl and we would not have only ASL now
Could do it like in the late 2000s with Diggity, Moletrap et al. where they just casted directly on top of the Korean commentary
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If no KSL means more ASL / or other Afreeca run sc:r matches, this is good news!
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On April 01 2020 07:57 sM.Zik wrote:
If no KSL means more ASL / or other Afreeca run sc:r matches, this is good news!
Well, it means there's more possibility of ASL. We don't know if they'll make more tournaments or not.
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Lots of people in this thread think that AfreekaTV is African or something?
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On April 01 2020 13:11 door44 wrote:
Lots of people in this thread think that AfreekaTV is African or something?
They either can't read our have a strange sense of humour.
Since players and casters said that KSL wasn't very well run it's probably for the better.
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On April 01 2020 13:11 door44 wrote:
Lots of people in this thread think that AfreekaTV is African or something?
The article said African TV instead of AfreecaTV before they modified it.
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Get this is expected as it never really felt Blizzard put that much effort into making KSL a great tournament.
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On April 01 2020 20:04 A.Alm wrote:Show nested quote +On April 01 2020 13:11 door44 wrote:
Lots of people in this thread think that AfreekaTV is African or something? The article said African TV instead of AfreecaTV before they modified it.
google translate, wanted to keep it authentic
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On March 31 2020 20:13 Disregard wrote:
If they can organize something along the Proleague or Winner's League series, I would be giddy fanboy. Obviously without full sponsored teams like the old days, doubt that would be possible now.
Team league is a dream. But the most valuable one for the game being. Can't happen without a huge community demand on this. Only great effort and cooperation between sponsors, companies, community and players can make this run again, IMHO.
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I guess this is a good thing in a way, let's not lose hope like TT1 said and keep fighting forward. Things are crazy right now, it will look up in some time as it always has.
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On March 31 2020 18:31 BLinD-RawR wrote:no more English Twitch Stream
Hooray!!! Now we don't have to use that awful website.
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On March 31 2020 18:31 BLinD-RawR wrote:
Short Version:
GSL viewers, no more English Twitch Stream
ASL viewers, nothing's changed.
omg at first I read that as "No More English Stream" and then nobody on the thread was talking about it. Hadn't been that sad in awhile. phew..!
Still thankful we have English GSL and ASL streams. Advertisers are NOT paying for English viewers because we don't buy KR products. Without Tastosis casts I'd eventually stop watching SC2 entirely.
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On March 31 2020 21:16 BLinD-RawR wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2020 20:27 oxKnu wrote:On March 31 2020 20:06 TT1 wrote:On March 31 2020 19:54 Disregard wrote:
So basically it changes nothing, there will be more seasons of ASL in a year rather than running two similar tournaments. I'm up for that. Would be nice if Afreeca and Blizz came to an agreement to allow ASL broadcasts on Twitch... Or allow all English casts on Twitch. However, imagine Twitch will not feature those streams no matter what. unlikely it will happen as twitch is afreeca's biggest competitor locally
Well the biggest thing is that none of Blizzard's esports stuff is on Twitch anymore because they're all on YouTube now.
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United States33492 Posts
On April 09 2020 12:29 mechzdeus wrote:Show nested quote +On March 31 2020 21:16 BLinD-RawR wrote:On March 31 2020 20:27 oxKnu wrote:On March 31 2020 20:06 TT1 wrote:On March 31 2020 19:54 Disregard wrote:
So basically it changes nothing, there will be more seasons of ASL in a year rather than running two similar tournaments. I'm up for that. Would be nice if Afreeca and Blizz came to an agreement to allow ASL broadcasts on Twitch... Or allow all English casts on Twitch. However, imagine Twitch will not feature those streams no matter what. unlikely it will happen as twitch is afreeca's biggest competitor locally Well the biggest thing is that none of Blizzard's esports stuff is on Twitch anymore because they're all on YouTube now.
Not necessarily—ESL operated War3 and SC2 are on Twitch.
My understanding from the news reports and actual events is Overwatch and HearthStone are the only ones locked into YouTube through the Blizz-Google deal. SC2 and War3 are free to stream wherever depending on the specific tournament organizer. Korean SC2 and BW are now off Twitch because of the specific, separate deal between Blizz and AfreecaTV regarding the StarCraft franchise in Korea.
But whatever, these are just technical details for ppl who care about the $$$ESPORTS INDUSTRY$$$. For BW fans, all that matters is no Korean BW on Twitch for a while.
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On March 31 2020 18:22 GTR wrote:
this also means we won't see that dumb rotation of ksl/asl every season that we had before (ergo, more asl seasons per year).
Hmmmm, yeah if that’s the case then this news isn’t as grim as it felt to me at first. I always kind of preferred ASL over KSL, so if the end result of this is more ASL then I’m happy.
Does anyone know the actual duration of the “multi-year“ deal? It would be somewhat of a relief to know that there will definitely be Korean BW continuing on for a minimum of 3+ years.
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Will we be getting more ASL tournaments to make up for the loss of the KSL? Right now it sounds like we aren't, so far less BW overall which sucks. Lots of speculation right now that we'll get an extra asl season or a team league, but this is still just speculation.
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On April 09 2020 12:37 Waxangel wrote:
no Korean BW on Twitch for a while.
Say it isn't so
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EPT
