This is slasher. Thanks everyone for reading my translations! This is my first original post, discussing the history of chat ban in StarCraft leagues in South Korea and giving my opinion.
On May 13, at the round of 36 for OSL, GoRush was disqualified in his second game against BackHo and did not proceed further (the player to win two games proceeds, and BackHo won the first game). The reason was that he accidentally typed "a" on the chatting line - a violation of StarCraft leagues rules in South Korea (the ban on chatting during game), as you can see at 2:06 of this video:
At Fomos and other StarCraft forums, a huge debate ensued. Some argue that the rules are too tight, while others maintain that rules are rules and every gamer should follow it.
The origin of the chat ban goes back to 2005. At the Daum Direct OnGameNet Dual Tournament, the emperor Boxer (OSL record of 84 wins and 52 losses then) played against a new player Junitoss (OSL record of 1 win and 2 losses then). The map was Forte which has a small main base. In the middle of the game, Boxer went for a hidden Factory and typed what is translated into English as "no space :[" on the chatting line in an attempt to trick Junitoss into thinking that he had no space to build additional Factories due to the small main base, as you can see at 8:34 of this video:
Junitoss lost the match. Whether he was tricked or not, Boxer's message was likely to disturb the new player who is not used to the psychological aspects of StarCraft. After this match, a debate ensued, some arguing Boxer's action was a valid strategy while some arguing that it was not fair. Later, the chat ban was implemented.
In discussing the issue of the chat ban, it is important to recognize if any aspect of StarCraft gives an extra advantage to a player, in addition to what has been essentially incorporated into the game (like in general Protoss is strong against Terran; Terran against Zerg; Zerg against Protoss; Valkyrie is strong against Mutal; and so forth). Allied Mine - where a player allies an opponent while the opponent's units are on a field of Mines (thus the Mines are not exploded) and unallies at the most opportune time - is not allowed, presumably because it gives an extra advantage to a Terran player (can you think of equivalent examples to Protoss or Zerg? Maybe Stop Lurker, but you can do that without allying).
How about chatting? Does that give an extra advantage to a player? Can only some groups of players use chatting while others cannot, as is the case with Allied Mines (only Terrans can use this strategy)?
Either player can use chatting to his advantage. What if Junitoss was a more experienced player and typed "haha I saw the factory!" when he did not?
Chatting is something that does not give an extra advantage to any players. All the players can use it, and therefore it should be allowed.
Junghan Yi, a Fomos reporter, concluded his article on this debate with the following: "Fans don't want the interruptions of games due to tight rules, and players don't want to be adversely affected by the rules. It's time to listen to the cry of fans - 'don't interrupt our passion!'"
Junghan Yi, a Fomos reporter, concluded his article on this debate with the following: "Fans don't want the interruptions of games due to tight rules, and players don't want to be adversely affected by the rules. It's time to listen to the cry of fans - 'don't interrupt our passion!'"
Finally. From what I've read up to this point, pretty much every official fomos interview/whatever has pretty much sided with kespa and tried to downplay the controversies
chating is ok spam is not i guess. the psychology play a big aspect in the world of sc i think chatting is effective but not all the time it can be backfire?
- mis-type like gorush did shouldnt be banned - typing somthg with the purpose of disturbing ur opponents concentration should be banned. any chat during the game should be banned. - "gg"/"ww" or w/e as accepting the game as a loss is fine.
Essentially, I feel that the referees should be given more leeway on what the decision should be. I see the main problems as twofold:
1) The rules themselves are not open to interpretation. The refs are basically forced to execute them every time, whether it's something that's actually the player's fault [Backho's premature ziziyo] or something that is absolutely ridiculous [Ruby and GoRush surrendering in Korean]
2) The punishment for virtually everything is disqualification. I see no reason why minor infractions such as GoRush's "a" should not simply receive a warning. And even then, there is the untried option of simply regaming. Though it might be more controversial than allowing the players to game on, it's certainly better than denying the fans any enjoyment whatsoever.
The on-site referees seem to be talking heads that have no independent functional ability. I'd like to see this changed.
ok i can understand that chatting can mess up someone, but typing "a"? when they clearly know typing is AGAINST the rules? obviously it was a mistake..why else would he type it, knowing that he would be dqed?
I can understand the need for rules and regulations in an e-sport as competitive as starcraft in Korea. These rules in some ways legitimize the competition. The enforcement of these rules follow naturally, since that legitimizes the rules. The chat ban, the rule on pausing games, and allied mines are all rules created with intention of making the competition better, of this we have no doubt. I actually didn't know the background history behind the chat ban, but after having read it I believe it's the correct decision. It's obvious that you can gain unfair advantages from chatting, especially in a series where the psychological state of the player plays a huge part in the result. Pausing creates a similar effect. There's a reason why in basketball coaches call time outs right after the first freethrow of two a player has, especially if this is an important freethrow. It makes the player have to ponder over it for the duration of the time out. With starcraft, random unexpected pauses in the game will throw an opponent off. It's hard to get back into the pace of the game coming back from a pause. Allied mines, well that was just abusing an aspect of the game that wasn't part of the game mechanics.
Anyways, having said all that, the incidences that the rules end up having effect on are mostly accidents. Nal_Ra's accidental f10 p instead of f10 o, Gorush typing out an a, etc. The decision to DQ Nal_Ra I can understand, it was necessary. There was no way of affirming that it was an accident. In the case of Gorush, however, I think it's fairly obvious that it wasn't intentional. There needs to be some form of case to case judgment by the judges in such cases. I would like to see Kespa make some minor changes to their rules allowing for a greater degree of flexibility. You can soothe the fans while still upholding an image of sound structure and legitimacy.
On May 17 2009 07:45 mmdmmd wrote: ok, I understand he accidentally pressed a.
But press enter after that? His mind is obviously somewhere else during that moment. IMO the ban is justified.
In game, when you type something, the only way to get rid of is enter. So yes, you could delete and then enter, but just enter is quicker and Gorush probably thought nothing was going to happen.
Hm...so my final point of the post was...typing to disturb should be allowed...you can do it, so can your opponent...it's a legitimate strategy that BOTH players can use...if typing to disturb shouldn't be allowed, should microing back and forth with Mutals to disturb not allowed too?
Is there somekind different system korean keyboard? I mean I can press ESC key everytime i want to cancel whatever I type. Who wants to erase text and then press enter again?
On May 17 2009 07:59 sky_slasher wrote: Hm...so my final point of the post was...typing to disturb should be allowed...you can do it, so can your opponent...it's a legitimate strategy that BOTH players can use...if typing to disturb shouldn't be allowed, should microing back and forth with Mutals to disturb not allowed too?
this i disagree with. its gonna turn into a constant form of spamming, and not very appealing to audience members.
In every sport the rules are open to a referee's interpretation based on his discernment of the intent of a player. I don't see why this should be so different and set in stone. It should be immediately obvious that a single mistyped letter is not some attempt at psychological warfare and is just that: a typo. That GoRush was disqualified for it is ludicrous.
I agree. The referee should interpret the rules, using common sense. In this case it was just a mistake, and should have had no effect on the match.
As far as allowing chat to mess with the opponent, I don't think it is a good idea, and if you want to play mind games you can do it before the match starts.
I can see why the chat ban was implemented, since it could potentially affect players negatively. Though I have yet to see where it came from; in the Boxer vs Junitoss game, where the ban is said to originate from, there is little to imply that Junitoss was in anyway affected by what Boxer said. He didn't start acting foolishly, doing weird things or anything like that - rather, he was just a bad player that had a huge negative score even before the match with Boxer. Off course, this particular game might have created a debate as to whether or not chatting could create disturbances to players, which is valid, but the stricter the ban is enforced, the less enjoyable it becomes to watch the game. The atmosphere back then was much more relaxed, and it was fun seeing the progamers having fun as well. They really should be more lax with issues like these. And when they're at it, allow ceremonies again, so there's some more fun involved.
On May 17 2009 07:45 mmdmmd wrote: ok, I understand he accidentally pressed a.
But press enter after that? His mind is obviously somewhere else during that moment. IMO the ban is justified.
In game, when you type something, the only way to get rid of is enter. So yes, you could delete and then enter, but just enter is quicker and Gorush probably thought nothing was going to happen.
totally not against gorush, but u can press ESC instead of enter lol
On May 17 2009 08:37 konadora wrote: Maybe they should set the chat for 'To Allies'? If the players aren't allied to the referee, then it wouldn't be any more of a problem, will it?
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.fomos.kr/board/issue/1242233085_1.jpg)
