KeSPA and Blizzard near an agreement.

On May 10 2011 06:44 Krogan wrote:
Obviously BW is 100% dead outside of Korea and it really does look like its just a matter of time even there.

On May 10 2011 11:06 aimaimaim wrote:


Tell me how is KeSPA iron gripping now? Progamers are free to come and go. Granted that they have their own flaws, they aren't saints., but you cant undermine them by just focusing on the areas they lack.

On May 10 2011 11:25 aimaimaim wrote:


Some people spew shit they dont even have idea on. Sure, I hate what they did to JD among other things but that doesn't warrant blind hate like they didn't have something to do with the idea that we all probably love.

E-Sport

Sure, they stole it from broadcasting companies but none here could say that some of what they did wasn't for the betterment of the scene.

On May 10 2011 14:05 konadora wrote:
lmao blizzard dogs, finally realising they can't survive in korea without harmony between them and kespa.

On May 10 2011 17:50 infinity2k9 wrote:


BW can't benefit from SC2 in any way though. It's a closed source game being deliberately neglected in favour of the sequel. I disagree that SC2 is even better designed for eSports at all. Just because they keep mentioning it's for eSports doesn't mean it's actually appropriate for it... after all they are trying to balance the game for all skill levels, that immediately is at odds with the highest level of competitive. I'd say their total lack of improvement upon Bnet 2.0 shows their intentions for eSports perfectly.

On May 10 2011 18:42 aupstar wrote:


BW/KeSPA cannot benefit from any lessons on the developments made by SC2/Blizz as it's actually SC2/Blizz that has taken so much from Kespa/BW. The whole format, the cubicles, the proleague style teams..everything..

There was a ladder for BW back then and there is still one now.

BW has LAN..and don't you forget it..It is what allowed competitive gaming to occur in Cyber Cafe and Tournaments.

Sure the community chipped in a lot to improve the experience with servers/anti hacks/maps when blizzard started neglecting it and moved on to War3 and other inferior projects (lol WoW). But is that really possible with sc2?.....nO!

BW will survive because the viewing experience is magic and not boring like sc2. That is fact and will not change. Better luck next time Blizzard, keep trying because even if sc2 is on tv, it won't change how boring it is to watch.

On May 10 2011 16:47 BreakerD wrote:
Too bad this couldnt happen sooner. Maybe it would've saved estro and hite from disbanding maybe not.

As for people saying Kespa might get involved in sc2 I highly doubt that. Creating a sc2 PL is too much work and it involves money. The only corporation I see strong enough to sponsor a team in sc2 are skt, kt, and cj (maybe MBC but they gave up light to woojin so who knows). Even sponsor of GSL doesnt have the money to create a Proleague or it would've been done.

On May 10 2011 12:53 Milkis wrote:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=221362

"Q: On SC2, are you starting to see a ramp up in interest in Korea as more of the professional players shift toward the newer version, give us an update on the professional market there.
Michael Morhaime: The Korean E-Sports ... our partner, GOMTV, is running GSL, it continues to be very popular ... but we are seeing that SC1 has maintained popularity, and so the transition to SC2 has been slower than we anticipated."

Haha.

On May 10 2011 21:18 infinity2k9 wrote:


What lessons can they benefit from then? I don't really understand what you're trying to say here. KeSPA isn't a game developer, they can't modify the game in any way, so that means you're just trying to imply they can learn from the eSports side of things (yet you talk about ladder and matchmaking and the visuals, which is unrelated to KeSPA).

In terms of eSports Gretech is simply taking its cue 100% from KeSPA, and Blizzard is simply paying lip service to eSports now and then and not actually making good on promises to improve it. So really no KeSPA can't learn anything from SC2, nothing you say they even have control of in BW.

By the way the UI is not streamlined for competitive experience, it's streamlined for beginners and non-competitive players. It's totally the opposite. There's no point in getting into a UI debate if it's good or bad changes but it's not in any way related to competitive play, i'm not sure how you can try and imply this. It makes it easier to be to competitive sure, but that's a total matter of opinion if it's good or bad.



Seriously what are you even talking about. Point by point here:

- KeSPA, the KOREAN ESPORTS association, doesn't have to do anything globally. They organize tournaments for BW which has no global appeal, so it would be a terrible decision to do anything globally. They've allowed restreams of their content and hosted an OSL in China i think that's about as globally appealing as it's going to get.

BW isn't going to magically gain interest outside of Korea again. You know this so i don't know why you are even saying it. This applies to both the first and second point.

- The prize pools are big enough already because BW players have decent salaries at the A-team level. Players DO NOT live off prize pools, that is precisely what a stable eSports scene isn't suppose to have. Why would you force players to win to be able to live from playing the game? Incase you hadn't noticed only a single (bad) A-team player switched to SC2, and 1 other switched then came back. So clearly this point is invalid in the first place. If anything it's SC2 which needs to learn this, but as there's no central organization to try and push in that direction anyway other than Blizzard.

Besides anyone who follows BW is aware that there's no room for another tournament. Players already suffer in ability trying to practice being in 2/3 events. And you can't raise the frequency because they are already running basically all the time.. so that doesn't make sense either.

- Your last point is not a lesson from SC2 at all. But let's just entertain the notion anyway; Already old games are broadcast regularly on OGN/MBC, and i don't think there's many fans who are not aware of the history. If you're implying educating people outside of Korea about the history, well there was to actually be interest in the game first for people to do that. Of course some kind of english content or show that showed things from the past would be nice, but is there any point?

And why would that be a lesson from SC2? I don't see the SC2 scene making any effort at all to convey any history of Starcraft.

To sum it up i don't think you are up to date with the BW scene. In terms of just Korea, BW is healthy. They don't need to change to survive like you're trying to imply, not yet anyway. There's no mass exodus of fans, sponsors or players to SC2 which would necessitate the need to change.

Personally i get the feeling the negative attitude of some in this thread is just annoyed people who wish the resources BW has was infact diverted to SC2. Well sorry it's not happening.

On May 11 2011 10:31 Pleiades wrote:
SC2 was made to be an e-sport, but to replace BW, that's merely speculation. There has been no official word on that and only rumors.

BW is doing fine in South Korea, but mainly only in South Korea. SC2 on the other hand is booming, but there is so much growth everywhere that all the tournaments and leagues are not in an unified body. I'm not sure if that's what the SC2 progaming players/teams even want, but SC2 still has more potential for growth than BW nowadays.

For BW to get bigger, if the organizers want to, it's going to be a very interesting and challenging hurdle to capture audiences with more competitors.

On May 12 2011 02:15 ffreakk wrote:
@Torpedo.Vegas

If i were to be Kespa.. I certainly wouldnt expend my time n effort expanding into the foreign market, which is notorious for their high frequency of game-switching.. (Look how many ppl jumped at the newest toy (SC2), and claim it to be the e-Sport thing..).

FYI, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne was once "the e-Sport thing" in the West too.. You had Grubby, Tod4k, etc too. It lasted for some years, but look where it is now. SC2 is the new toy, so its enjoying all these popularity.. But personally i dont see it to be any different from the others, and dont believe that spending extra effort to embrace such audience is worthwhile, considering the amount of resources that would likely cost.

And in case you want to question the quality of WC3:TFT, it was immensely entertaining, with many interesting and innovative features like heroes, item, etc.. Cant say the same for some other game that i know.