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What if Brood War pro’s switch to LoL instead of SC2?
Note - I'd recommend watching Storm vs CLG. That game inspired this post. The VOD is available free at ognlol.com.
Foreword
I’d like to start this post by making it 100% clear that this is pure speculation based on my interpretation of the current state of esports in Korea. This is not meant to start a flame war, I just want to get some views from TL’s posters who play both LoL and SC2 and also find this topic interesting.
According to recent data, LoL has become the most played game in PC Bangs in Korea, even overtaking the immensely popular and also FTP Aion; in comparison, SC2 is barely played, not even ranking in the top 10 played games. SC2 earnings pale in comparison to that of BW pro’s, and its widely accepted that even exceptionally talented Code S/A/B SC2 players struggle to earn a decent wage. With the announcement that Proleague is going to introduce SC2 in the next season, and rumours that many A team BW pros are considering switching to SC2 (FXOBoss has spoken about this on several occasions), I think it’s safe to assume (for the purpose of the discussion at least) that at some point in the next year, BW pros are going to either switch to SC2 or do something else entirely. Yellow and Fruitdealer have already switched; although they aren’t playing the game, they are coaching Xenics Storm and the Startale LoL team respectively.
What if they switch to BW?
After watching Xenics Storm (Yellows team) vs CLG, I started wondering what would happen to LoL’s competitive scene if BW pros (and even SC2 pros) decided that switching to LoL would be more profitable in the long run. It’s fairly clear that LoL is becoming a huge game in Korea (and elsewhere) for a variety of reasons, so if BW pros can’t see a sustainable future in SC2, or simply don’t want to play the game, do you think we could realistically see an influx of BW B teamers (and possibly A teamers) into the LoL scene? Considering these players have played probably the most mechanically demanding e-sport at a professional level, I believe that with good coaching they could become an insane force in the LoL scene. Obviously there are a number of things this depends on; I think OGNLoL is an important test of the appetite for pro LoL amongst Korean consumers, and overall LoL prize money is still quite a lot smaller than SC2; but if OGN’s LoL tournament is successful, we could theoretically see a massive increase in the number of televised, high prize money tournaments for League of Legends. Couple this with the fact that IPL and IEM are pushing the LoL brand extremely hard (We all saw the IEM LoL stream break 120K compared to SC2’s 40-50k), and you can really see the appeal for Starcraft players to consider switching.
Why wouldn’t it happen?
The most obvious point is that LoL is a completely different game to BW and SC2; LoL’s mechanical skill ceiling is comparatively low, with decision making and team work playing a 95% role in the outcome of most games (pure speculation here, I pulled that number out of thin air to illustrate a point but I’m sure you understand what I’m getting at). Where as BW pro’s can switch to SC2, import over their mechanical skill and become high level player in a short period of time (forgg for example), learning LoL at a professional level would take quite a large amount of time before they could become competitive. We’ve already seen what happens when an SC2 ‘pro’ tries to play LoL in Destiny, who actually has a lower ELO than most of the LoL players on Teamliquid, including myself; maybe the skill set just doesn’t translate well at all.
Would it be good for the scene?
In my opinion, yes. Time and time again, Korean pro gamers have proven that if you want a games strategy’s to be pushed forward, and the overall skill level to be raised, they are the ones to do it. Higher level play (in my opinion) can only be a good thing, and it would really encourage me to watch more tournaments.
Teamliquid’s opinions
So guys, what do you think? Do you think it’s possible? As I said at the start of this post, this is PURE speculation. I had a think and decided I’d make a post because I’m genuinely interested in what the TL community think of this. Thanks for reading.
Disclaimer
I have posted this in the LoL sub-form for a reason. I do not want to start a flame war. I do not care if you think LoL is easy, or a bad e-sport, and no one else here does either. This is a discussion about whether BW pro’s may consider a switch if the climate is right, and what effects this would have the competitive scene.
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It would mean that Locodoco would be out of a job. And as TL, we are locodoco fanbois. Therefore, we don't want to BW pros to switch to LoL. And we don't want locodoco to end up on the streets because he didn't go to college. STAY IN SCHOOL KIDS!!!! BW PROS always ruin your chances of going pro. Look at SCII and BW. Oh wait, I don't need to tell TL this.
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Stork said in an OGN Interview Special that he'd rather switch to LoL than SC2 so there's that. At the end of the day, progamers need to eat and pay rent. So they'll logically move to what gives them a more secure future. What that might be, who knows. It might be LoL, it may be a regular job, it may be something else all together.
I'll write more after a night of sleep. So tired~
EDIT: Wow Numbers, so emo lol
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LoL isn't the same as SC2... work ethic works in both places but the BW skill barely translates into LoL skill... its a lot different in gameplay (compared to say WC3 to SC2 even).
If they join LoL, great. If they don't, that makes a lot of sense.
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On March 30 2012 12:34 Chiharu Harukaze wrote:
Stork said in an OGN Interview Special that he'd rather switch to LoL than SC2 so there's that. At the end of the day, progamers need to eat and pay rent. So they'll logically move to what gives them a more secure future. What that might be, who knows. It might be LoL, it may be a regular job, it may be something else all together.
I'll write more after a night of sleep. So tired~
EDIT: Wow Numbers, so emo lol
Thanks for the response, this is the kind of thing I was looking for. Do you have a link to the interview? When you've slept of course! I'd be really interested to see it.
Cerise - Yes, I did note that. I think it would be fairly hard to gauge whether a Starcraft pro could have an impact on the LoL scene before one of them actually did it. That being said, BW obviously still requires a huge amount of high level decision making, so they might not be as different as they seem.
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On March 30 2012 12:35 Trowa127 wrote:Show nested quote +On March 30 2012 12:34 Chiharu Harukaze wrote:
Stork said in an OGN Interview Special that he'd rather switch to LoL than SC2 so there's that. At the end of the day, progamers need to eat and pay rent. So they'll logically move to what gives them a more secure future. What that might be, who knows. It might be LoL, it may be a regular job, it may be something else all together.
I'll write more after a night of sleep. So tired~
EDIT: Wow Numbers, so emo lol Thanks for the response, this is the kind of thing I was looking for. Do you have a link to the interview? When you've slept of course! I'd be really interested to see it.
Even better, several people on TL subbed the OGN episode! Can't remember the exact time when he said it though. But it's worth watching the whole thing anyway if you like Stork, hehe.
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The real question is, why would they switch to LoL, when they could switch to Dota II. Obv the more popular and better MOBA. Dota II takes more skill and has a huger fanbase throughout the world. Korean ip is banned from the Dota II beta because they want to give the rest of the world a fair head start before the koreans dominate the scene.
+ Show Spoiler +trolololol in case people didn't get it.
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Even if the skills needed are completly different and don't translate from one game to the other, i think bw pros would dominate the scene anyways. The work ethic they bring, the ability to non stop practice diligently will make them stomp curent top level teams with "questionable" work methods (ie: all of them lol).
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On March 30 2012 12:40 SagaZ wrote:
Even if the skills needed are completly different and don't translate from one game to the other, i think bw pros would dominate the scene anyways. The work ethic they bring, the ability to non stop practice diligently will make them stomp curent top level teams with "questionable" work methods (ie: all of them lol).
good point, 100% agree.
but i dont think it will happen, bw/sc2 pros are playing solo, dont wanna play in a team^^
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Don't know why people are bringing up that interview so frequently. As a Korean, the statement was very likely a joke.
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On March 30 2012 12:45 Trowa127 wrote:Show nested quote +On March 30 2012 12:42 Acer1791 wrote:On March 30 2012 12:40 SagaZ wrote:
Even if the skills needed are completly different and don't translate from one game to the other, i think bw pros would dominate the scene anyways. The work ethic they bring, the ability to non stop practice diligently will make them stomp curent top level teams with "questionable" work methods (ie: all of them lol). good point, 100% agree. but i dont think it will happen, bw/sc2 pros are playing solo, dont wanna play in a team^^ I'd also noticed this. I see a lot of LoL pro's streaming and just playing around in solo Q, trolling etc. Watching Storm beat CLG quite handily seemed to reinforce this point as well.
It's really hard to get 5 people who have lives and go to school in the U.S. to practice together. The funds needed for a teamhouse are really high, and not everyone can commit to a full time LoL scrimming life. Even those who do live in a team house have a hard time finding the motivation to play. The system for E-sports in the U.S. is not as established as in Korea. People in the U.S. don't even have coaches who will whip their lazy asses to play seriously.
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On March 30 2012 12:40 SagaZ wrote:
Even if the skills needed are completly different and don't translate from one game to the other, i think bw pros would dominate the scene anyways. The work ethic they bring, the ability to non stop practice diligently will make them stomp curent top level teams with "questionable" work methods (ie: all of them lol).
I work pretty hard. 
In line with discussion, I think a good gamer will probably excel at a variety of games. I think that just the culture in Korea is really good to making some really good players with skills beyond just BW ones. They'd probably do pretty well.
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On March 30 2012 12:42 Acer1791 wrote:Show nested quote +On March 30 2012 12:40 SagaZ wrote:
Even if the skills needed are completly different and don't translate from one game to the other, i think bw pros would dominate the scene anyways. The work ethic they bring, the ability to non stop practice diligently will make them stomp curent top level teams with "questionable" work methods (ie: all of them lol). good point, 100% agree. but i dont think it will happen, bw/sc2 pros are playing solo, dont wanna play in a team^^
I'd also noticed this. I see a lot of LoL pro's streaming and just playing around in solo Q, trolling etc. Watching Storm beat CLG quite handily seemed to reinforce this point as well.
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Why does my team always suck? AFK
-Jaedong
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lol players will shit on sc2 players for atleast half an year and than it'll all depend on whos praticing the most efficiently and which team has the most talent and teamwork
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Vancouver14381 Posts
On March 30 2012 17:11 cascades wrote:
Why does my team always suck? AFK
-Jaedong
![[image loading]](http://i39.tinypic.com/dey6id.jpg)
You mean this?
On March 30 2012 17:17 locodoco wrote:
lol players will shit on sc2 players for atleast half an year and than it'll all depend on whos praticing the most efficiently and which team has the most talent and teamwork
I agree with this. A BW --> LoL transition is nothing like The Elephant in the Room because there isn't a direct translation of skill learned from BW into skills for playing LoL (unlike SC2). They will lag behind at first until they practice enough that they're on par with the "veteran" players.
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Flash would never be able to practice cause he'd be 3k elo with 12 hour q times.
But do remember that 2v2 actually was in the pro scene of BW for quite some time until they finally deemed 2v2 as imbalanced and got rid of it. 
I don't think all bw/sc2 pros would do well in LoL but some could transition well i'm sure. They have a good work ethic, know how to properly practice, and actually listen. I remember watching a few documentaries of korean BW gaming houses where the entire house were working together to improve one another as a team. So i actually see a team game like LoL working well for them.
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Learing LoL would take them longer than learning SC2, because the skills needed are different.
No doubt some of them would be on the top again, though.
Especially if whole teams switch. If Stars started to play LoL, the current infrastructure with team-house, coach etc. would help greatly.
But that's not because of how skilled they are at BW or anything like that, it's just simple work ethics.
It's just kind of a long shot to guess who is gonna do well, after all, actual ingame teamwork is needed. Personally, I'd mesh a team from the old 2v2-ers and see what happens.
Flash might actually be a comlete Hotshot and just farm and never help team. Stork could crush mid in lane but fall apart in teamfights. The games are to different to be sure that BW top players -> LoL top players. If I was a BW pro, I'd stick to SC2, where I know I can crush those nerds.
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I have 10000% faith if 5 S class BW players switched to LoL they would be the greatest team of all time, forever, until they switched.
Like honestly, imagine Flash, Jaedong, Bisu, Fantasy, Stork vs CLG white boys and fasians (fake asians, new slang just created it)
LOL.
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I don't think that the skillsets are perfectly comparable...
They might have 300-400 APM but they couldn't utilize most of it. They could get every single lasthit but people get close to that anyway. Only a handful of the top BW players are actually strategic masterminds, many of the midtier and even semi-top tier pros are mostly mechanical and the strategy is very basic and nothing special.
This basically means that, in my opinion, if they were to switch and dominate it would mainly be because of their work ethic and knowledge on how to improve. (Not talking about Flash/JD and co. who are geniuses)
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EPT
