Super sad and frustrating.

You can say that it makes sense from a business perspective but i’d argue that that’s short sighted logic. To use a business analogy, does it make sense for Google, which owns the Android OS, to release their apps like Gmail and Chrome on iPhones? Same arguments apply here - on the surface the answer is no because why would they encourage competing platforms? But the reality is simple - there is a huge number of iPhone users and nothing Google does with Android will change that, so they have to embrace that reality.

AfreecaTV will not beat Twitch in the non-korean market. Period. Even if their product miraculously became on par with twitch, the first mover advantage is way too big. Not to mention they are competing with one of the biggest companies in the world that owns a mind blowing amount of the internet’s infrastructure. So why not embrace that? What’s the harm in even trying? They had 10 seasons to try and monetize and grow their foreign audience but they did absolutely nothing.

And where is blizzard in all of this? Last I heard they were supporting ASL monetarily, they even supported the foreign BSL tournament. If I’m wrong and they are still charging money for licensing a starcraft 1 tournament that’s the biggest joke I’ve heard all year.

This is basically gonna kill foreign interest in korean brood war. I’ve watched nearly every ASL game, and almost no ASTL games because of the lack of english casts. I’m sure there are many like me.

BinarySecond

2 Posts

March 03 2021 08:48 GMT

#163

This is the worst thing ever.

MM-yingxiong

Serbia30 Posts

March 03 2021 08:53 GMT

#164

??..

kogeT

Poland2042 Posts

March 03 2021 08:53 GMT

#165

Would be amazing to understand a wider context behind that decision, e.g is it just the cost of hiring them, or no revenue from ads running on foreign stream, or...? AfreecaTV, please give us some insights, I am sure that foreigners scene can fix that easily.

sixfour

England11062 Posts

March 03 2021 08:55 GMT

#166

Honestly guys? I first heard about something happening with ASL through reading Ret's tweet, and like a lot of you, he was acting like the tournament was cancelled, come on now

On March 03 2021 12:44 Ikirouta wrote:

Show nested quote +

Oh come on, this is just dumb.

I remember having to use VLC to watch a laggy stream of some korean pointing a camera at his TV just to be able to watch the game live in 144p. Boycott is not the answer. Its literally the opposite, if there were 250k foreigners watching the games, they would obviously put more effort into the international broadcast. If you truly love BW you will watch the games and support whatever tournament, doesn't matter who is casting.

It's this. It sucks for Artosis and Tasteless on a personal level, but:

a) the way to show to Afreeca that there is foreign interest is not to reduce foreign viewership
b) without Afreeca there wouldn't be an ASL in the first place, and it's pretty doubtful that we have a Korean BW scene to the extent we have right now
c) this is not the end of the world, if you're interested in BW you'll either watch in Korean, or through someone else restreaming in English. This is still way, way better from the Justin.tv days or earlier like the guy in the quote mentions, where if you got a stream at all, it was Korean, and if you wanted English you waited for Moletrap or someone to dub it afterwards.

Neneu

Norway492 Posts

March 03 2021 08:56 GMT

#167

Guess this means I'll go back to not watching any brood war. Too bad because I really loved watching the ASL (my favourite tournament stream) and were looking forward to the next season. No interest of watching when I can't understand the commentary, on a laggy platform.

Honestly guys? I first heard about something happening with ASL through reading Ret's tweet, and like a lot of you, he was acting like the tournament was cancelled, come on now

Technically for me as a viewer, it is basically cancelled. It's not strange why people in my situation are upset.

JustPassingBy

10776 Posts

March 03 2021 08:56 GMT

#168

Well, this sucks. Let's hope that there will be some community streams at least.

M3t4PhYzX

Poland4267 Posts

March 03 2021 09:07 GMT

#169

Awful.

Absolutely awful.

I will watch the korean cast, but.. yeah.. idk why would you do this? I thought it got good numbers? Damn shame.

Szinkler

Hungary394 Posts

March 03 2021 09:13 GMT

#170

This is so so sad. I've been waiting for the next season with english cast so much! ASL has been the best thing.

I'd be willing to pay to watch the cast and I think many others. I wonder if there is any chance that if community collects money we could change afreeca's mind.

Timebon3s

Norway772 Posts

March 03 2021 09:18 GMT

#171

I fucking hate this fuckfuvkfuck why even live?
This is so stupid we could easily pay for this if they put up some paywall or whatever

bovienchien

Vietnam1152 Posts

March 03 2021 09:21 GMT

#172

I hope Arto will stream on every weekend.

Qikz

United Kingdom12043 Posts

March 03 2021 09:23 GMT

#173

I'll still be watching ASL becuase I watch it for the games, but it is really sad. Afreeca are not big enough that they can afford to spam servers everywhere like Twitch can which means there'll always be lag problems for a lot of people outside of Korea, but they're still supporting the game I love and yes it's sad there'll be no English cast, I watched Broodwar for years in 240p without English casting and it never bothered me before.

There's no revenue for them to be gained by spending money for foreign casters. I'm sure there's plenty of people who would like to cast, you just need to cast on Afreeca. Heck, I'm not a twitch partner and I'd probably cast if I wasn't working.

heynes

Germany201 Posts

March 03 2021 09:25 GMT

#174

It´s really sad. I´ve been watching since Gom TV days.
Thank you for all the fun times and good memories @ Tastosis.

psyCrowe

Scotland197 Posts

March 03 2021 09:38 GMT

#175

Wow this is bad. Afreeca have made this really difficult now with a poor English website and less inclusive by dropping Tastosis. Like others, would be good to know the rationale behind the decision as the community is willing to help, we just need to know the problem :/

The alternative imo is to create such a massive bottleneck during their live cast that it crashes the stream and they have no choice but to improve infrastructure to foreign community!

KameZerg

Sweden1772 Posts

March 03 2021 09:40 GMT

#176

On March 03 2021 11:11 AfreecaTVGlobal wrote:
Dear Fans,

It’s unfortunate for us today to announce that the ASL will no longer be supported in English.

It has been the most exciting adventure for us to share the ASL with fans all over the world.
We thank you for all of your love and support over the years.

The ASL will continue and can be watched at afreecatv.com/afstar1.

Communities and English casters are still allowed, and encouraged, to broadcast the ASL to their own fans through our clean feed on their AfreecaTV Channels.
If you are interested, please contact us here!

Thank you,
AfreecaTV

I have a request, is it possible to please make a ASL stream with no commentary just game sound, thanks.

Ziggy

South Korea2106 Posts

March 03 2021 09:42 GMT

#177

On March 03 2021 17:53 kogeT wrote:
Would be amazing to understand a wider context behind that decision, e.g is it just the cost of hiring them, or no revenue from ads running on foreign stream, or...? AfreecaTV, please give us some insights, I am sure that foreigners scene can fix that easily.

same reason no respectable teams have a bw roster

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