|
First Glimpse: 2012 Battle.Net World Championship
January 26th, 2012 05:17 GMT
Overall StructureOverall Structure
Four Tier system with World Championships at the top
Tier 3: Five continental championships
Tier 2: 15-16 national championships
Tier 1: Grassroots national qualifiers
Each tier feeds directly into the one above it
World ChampionshipWorld Championship
32 players, doubled from last year
Held in Asia at the end of the year
Crowns official StarCraft II World Champion for 2012
Want to increase content, way more matches - heard feedback loud and clear from BlizzCon 2011
Continental ChampionshipsContinental Championships
Five regions: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, "rest of the world"
Each has its own live event, in front of a live audience
Aiming for the same kind of atmosphere and vibe as the EU invitational in Warsaw last year
Each championship will be casted in English, possible options for local languages, too
National ChampionshipsNational Championships
Crowns national champion for each country involved
Want to create local heroes for national communities
Trying to grow local markets, especially ones seen as underrepresented
15 or 16 countries currently being looked at, based off StarCraft-playing population. Aim to increase for 2013
Qualifiers for NationalsQualifiers for Nationals
Not run directly by Blizzard, rather in cooperation with existing eSports organizations
Will talk with interested parties to assign invite spots from existing events
Hoping some organizations will create new programs specifically to qualify people for the national championships
MiscellaneaMiscellanea
Same ballpark of prizes from last year's continental championships, not a step back in that area.
Will be held exclusively on Wings of Liberty regardless of possible Heart of the Swarm release
Want to expand the sport, making as many people interested. Trying to be inclusive and aspirational, with transparency.
Open to working with existing eSports organizations
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/blizzcon/battlenet2012worldchampionsq.jpg)
First, a question that will be on a lot of peoples' minds. What kind of prize money are you committing to your 2012 plan? Ilja RotelliRight now we are still debating the final figures. We need to clarify that we do not believe this program revolves around the prize pool. We believe this is an exercise in delivering high quality events that are up to Blizzard standards, and in having great competition that involves countries that are not typically involved in the general industry of eSports.
We feel that the eSports industry is taking care of the prize money side of the equation to some extent, and that our job is to focus on developing a true 'World Cup,' if you will, for StarCraft II.So the main incentive isn't the prize money, instead it would be the prestige of the Blizzard name and of competing in a tournament on such a large scale? Ilja RotelliYes.There was a very respectable prize purse at the Battle.net continental invitationals in 2011. Will the prize pools for that tier of competition be comparable at least? Ilja RotelliWe are surely going to be in that ballpark; we're not taking steps back. We just didn't want to create an impression that because we're investing way more in eSports in 2012 that the prize pool would be dramatically increased.When will the first events in this qualification process begin? Ilja RotelliRight now we are engaging in conversations with our eSports partners to finalize the details. We're hoping to be able to disclose those details soon, but right now we don't have precise dates. I can say that I would be surprised if the program wasn't underway by 2nd quarter this year.Blizzard received a lot of complaints last year during the BlizzCon 2011 StarCraft II Invitationals regarding the number of games that were being streamed, and the selection of the games that did happen to be streamed. Have you taken steps to ensure a better viewing experience for the 2012 season? Ilja RotelliAbsolutely, we heard the feedback loud and clear, and it's one of the first priorities we took up with our event team regarding the way we will be proceeding this year. I'm certain that you guys will be pleasantly surprised by the amount of content we'll be able to provide.You've decided to hold the finals in Asia this year. Any particular reason for picking that region? Ilja RotelliHonestly we think this program is going to be extremely global in nature. The five continental championships will play a major role, not to speak of the individual national championships. In terms of looking holistically at the plan, this is a true global program without a focus on a specific region. But the kind of excitement that exists for eSports in Asia, and especially in recent times in China made us choose Asia this year. This doesn't mean we'll be holding the finals in Asia every year, as we said the program is global in philosophy and scope.At the national qualifier level, do you hope to hold some tournaments that are completely open to anyone who wants to compete? Ilja RotelliThat is precisely one of the design philosophies we originally adopted. The idea is that we want to make a more aspirational and participatory eSports environment for StarCraft. The idea that there are superstars that seem so far away, that one can't hope to become; this makes eSports very restrictive.
Blizzard has a slightly different goal from eSports companies. If you think very frankly about the business goal for Blizzard as a company, we gain when more people play the game, and a strategy that makes sense to achieve that goal is to go grassroots. We don't have plans in place yet, but in my dreams, this is the beginning, where we go as grassroots as we can for the first year. Then, in 2013, we would love to add an additional layer to the bottom of the structure, to be even more grassroots than now. This is just a philosophy, not a practical plan that we have in place, but certainly that is one of the design principles we have been using so far.In terms of delivering content – be it through streams or holding live events – have you been looking into partnerships with streaming platforms, large tournaments, or other existing eSports organizations? Ilja RotelliWe are open to conversation in both those directions right now. I can only tell you about the design principles so far. Clearly we want maximize the amount of viewership we can generate out of this program, so the general philosophy is not going to be to protect and contain the content, but rather multiply the number of platforms it gets distributed through. But in terms of tangible plans, we don't have details right now.A large number of eSports organizations popped up in 2011 and the market has become somewhat congested. With Blizzard adding a further layer of complexity to the market, do you plan to act as a regulator or take on some other similar role? Ilja RotelliNot at this time. We love what eSports organizations have been doing so far. As a matter of fact, we want to work with all these eSports organizations to execute our plan. We don't imagine we will implement all these programs and events directly, and we will be working with organizations to create these plans. We certainly hope that eSports organizations will want to focus a lot of effort on these programs we are bringing to the table, because they will have a mutually beneficial impact.
Right now, we don't have immediate plans to provide any form of regulation of the sport across different organizations. Different regional realities are delicate to "mess with" if you will, and we don't want to break something that is working well in Korea, North America, or Europe with their different organizations. Certainly we would love to facilitate conversations between the organizations, and we hope that by providing a model of how we do things, we might provide some level of standardization in the formats, quality of competition, streaming and so forth. We want to be leading by example, instead of telling people what to do.The Battle.net ladder has become relatively stagnant as a form of competition between top players. Are there plans to make it play a deeper role at the regional qualifier level? Ilja RotelliWe never stopped considering the ladder as we built this program, and certainly we brought that conversation up. But for the time being, I don't have anything to offer immediately about how we are going to be able to use the ladder for competition purposes.Your competitors, Riot and Valve, took an approach to eSports that involved injecting a considerable amount of prize money. How do you think your philosophies differ? Ilja RotelliWell, what I would like to say is that there is one approach to eSports that relies a lot on what I would call "stunts," in what you are trying to achieve is a lot of media attention while asserting yourself in the industry. And then, we are treating eSports as a sport. We have the notion of building an organic, creative plan that really is global in nature and creates an aspirational infrastructure for all the countries we are operating in. That probably is the bulk of the difference between what we're trying to do here and what other competitors might be interested in doing.
We feel that for example we might have a lot of grassroots level competition that maybe differentiates us from other opportunities out there. We are still working from the top down and putting together an infrastructure that starts with the World Championships, so it's not like we don't understand the value of making a statement. But for us, this is an 'excuse,' if you will, to go all the way down to the grassroots level, because it's just easier to build this kind of pyramid from the top down than it is from the ground up.How would the release of Heart of the Swarm in the middle of the year affect the competition? Ilja RotelliWe had that conversation and we had to decide. Obviously we don't have a release date announced yet for Heart of the Swarm, and we had to decide how eSports would behave in 2012 for StarCraft II. We felt that any form of switch whenever the date would be, from Wings of Liberty to Heart of the Swarm, would betray the nature of the sport. I can't tell a bunch of professional players because of marketing that "You know, you need to promote Heart of the Swarm, could you show up next month and switch the game you're playing?" So the entire 2012 season is going to be played with Wings of Liberty, regardless of when we launch Heart of the Swarm.Will the process for qualifying for the World Championships be completely void of invitations? Will everyone have to go through the same process? Ilja RotelliEverybody goes through the same process. Basically, we're trying to move away from the notion of invitationals that we used in 2011, and move into a transparent infrastructure that allows people from the outside to look in and say "Okay, if I want to go to World Championships, there's a path in front of me that allows me to qualify." It won't be Blizzard just picking people who are good for marketing purposes; it's really a sport.You are in a peculiar situation where a lot of eSports organizations are competing to be the 'best' in the world, and now you have entered the picture as well. Are you trying to compete with these organizations and become the so-called best as well? Ilja RotelliAs far as I'm concerned, I want everybody to be the best, I want every organization to be able to deliver amazing eSports experiences to our audience. Blizzard wins if everybody wins, and we're certainly not competing with eSports organizations. If anything, we're trying to find new and engaging ways to support them and make them financially viable, and make sure they have long term financial stability. This program is actually done in cooperation with all these eSports organizations. We're definitely not competing face to face.
We need this program because there are aspects of eSports that the current business model of eSports cannot naturally take care of. For example, if I were an eSports organizer my goal would be to create the best possible content, so that I can monetize it through sponsorships and advertisements. So I would just need the best players in the world regardless of where they were and I wouldn't have specific market growth needs.
Blizzard has a very different mission, so we felt that this program was needed to let eSports emerge in markets that might not be so attractive for the regular industries in eSports, but are important for the overall health of the system.
Thanks to Kennigit and Blizzard's Bob Colayco for making this feature possible.
|
This is pretty cool news! I think this is the next step in seeing SC2 become a cultural icon across the world.
|
Amazing. Hopefully a new player will emerge and wreck the scene. And I'm glad Blozzard isn't in charge of this tourney as in Blozzcon, thu did horrible in terms of map pool. With experienced leagues like GSL, Dreamhack, and IEM, the regional tournies will be great.
|
This looks absolutely amazing, looking forward to it. Thanks Kennigit! I can't wait, it seems they're really trying to participate in esports unlike usual.
|
Starcraft II World Cup.... mother of god this wll be good
|
I'm so bummed Blizzcon isn't going to be in Anaheim this year  The first one Blizzcon I was looking forward to attending too! Oh well, til next time!
|
Would be cool to see some upsets in the National Championships, really sweet idea overall as well.
|
THIS LOOKS FUCKING AMAZING
|
Kennigit
Canada19447 Posts
On January 26 2012 14:21 mrKamiya wrote:
This looks absolutely amazing, looking forward to it. Thanks Kennigit! I can't wait, it seems they're really trying to participate in esports unlike usual.
All i did was reply to an email. Waxangel is the true interview hero.
|
Coollllllzz.
though i am a bit worried on national champion.
Our national champiion in america: Idra (or huk depending on how u look at it)
Is in korea.
And sweden's: naniwa or sase. is in korea too?
How do those work?
|
Wait.... the entire thing is going to be played on WoL?
That seems like a terrible idea to be honest, unless they're alluding to the fact that HotS isn't coming out until late in the year or something.
|
This sounds pretty cool but I'm really disappointed that the finals won't be in Blizzcon but they'll be in China. Chance of me being able to go there in person is pretty nonexistent
Hopefully the continental championship for NA will be held somewhere on the west coast
|
While I am always quick to draw the criticism nuke and launch at Blizzard for anything they do, I gotta say that they seem to have the right mindset and direction to help grow e-sports. This looks freaking amazing and awesome.
And also, you guys (teamliquid staff) are freaking amazing and awesome for doing this interview!
|
On January 26 2012 14:31 Skwid1g wrote:
Wait.... the entire thing is going to be played on WoL?
That seems like a terrible idea to be honest, unless they're alluding to the fact that HotS isn't coming out until late in the year or something.
well it's pretty obvious that hots will be late in the year love that there deciding to use WOL
|
I'm really glad that gives anybody with a dream of getting into the SC2 pro scene a fair shot!
|
Amazing, thank you BLizzard!!!!
|
This actually looks really cool. Rest assured though that when HotS hits in like October and the finals is in Nov/December, everyone is going to hate Blizzard and the tournament will be considered a joke.
|
Absolutely EPIC! The HOTS/WOL statement though scars me a bit... Will people practice just for this in WOL if the rest of the competitive world has already switched to HOTS?
|
Wow, this is so incredibly cool, I think all of the Blizzard haters just got served XD
Also ty to Waxangle (forever misspelled) for getting this interview done! Great work!
|
its sounds absolutely amazing in my head- i know it will be b/c they are working closely with local organization already in place. Blizzard championships are of the highest prestige!
EDIT: I really think even if they release HoTS this year- they wont sell tournament licenses this year just to keep everyone on the same page.
|
|
|
wow awesome <3 <3 gogo blizzard!
|
South America shouldn't have a region. Nothing against them, just is a bit imbalanced
|
Awesome, sounds pretty epic.
|
On January 26 2012 14:27 Kennigit wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2012 14:21 mrKamiya wrote:
This looks absolutely amazing, looking forward to it. Thanks Kennigit! I can't wait, it seems they're really trying to participate in esports unlike usual. All i did was reply to an email. Waxangel is the true interview hero.
take the credit you selfless angel.
|
Great news for the scene, definitely kicks ass for Blizzard to start participating like they are saying they're going to!
|
I hope its better than blizzcon.I just think China will get the shaft if it has to compete with SK.
|
shouldnt the "continents" be NA, EU. Korea, Asia, Rest of the World ?
|
This is fantastic, I love how blizzard has really stepped up to help Starcraft, and it really shows that they are taking this seriously. Cancelling Blizzcon is a big deal, think of how many years it has been going, and then are putting it on hold for this tournament. I feel like they are still haunted by last year and want to redeem them selves.
|
iNcontroL
USA29055 Posts
can't wait 
|
This is awesome, I am really looking forward to this. I cannot express the amount of pride I feel right now being a part of this :D
Can't wait!!!
|
So is SEA, more Australia and New Zealand, in Asia or rest of the world.
|
I'm actually really excited about this, however I was very disappointed there wasn't a question regarding the process of selecting the map pool.
|
On January 26 2012 14:53 UncleTomNZ wrote:
So is SEA, more Australia and New Zealand, in Asia or rest of the world.
I would also like to know the answer to this.
|
wooooow.
gods, please stop stealing my dreams and implementing them without my knowledge!
|
the fact that it going to be on WoL means HotS will either come out like a week before or after this!!!!!!!
|
We never stopped considering the ladder as we built this program, and certainly we brought that conversation up. But for the time being, I don't have anything to offer immediately about how we are going to be able to use the ladder for competition purposes. This is so disappointing.
And the last answer is such a load of kumbaya bs that isn't going to last. How convenient to forget the kespa vs gom fiasco a few years ago.
|
On January 26 2012 14:28 dnld12 wrote:
Coollllllzz.
though i am a bit worried on national champion.
Our national champiion in america: Idra (or huk depending on how u look at it)
Is in korea.
And sweden's: naniwa or sase. is in korea too?
How do those work?
I would hope it is done like how WCG does it. Idra was the American rep, Huk was invited as a Canadian (because he qualified as American, but something happened and...I don't really know). I'd assume they would use the players "official" country of origin.
|
This sounds wicked sweet large!
|
This really doesn't tell us anything new. Way too vague. I was hoping WCG would do something like this but I guess its time for BLIZZARD to take the reigns.
|
Oh my god no invitations? Unless I mis read its all qualifiers. Fucking finally. I really hope more big tournament organizers do stuff lilke this. The invite only tournaments are so hard to break into when there is only 1-2 qualifying spots in a 16+ man tournament lol.
|
I really love that there are open qualifiers. I really love underdog success stories such as Thorzains TSL3 run. And this way, every night I can dream and imagine myself winning everything
|
I think they should play HoTS. WoL has pretty much crappy gamebalance and consider the fact the sc1 was pretty much bummed out till BW started to balance things out. Also who's gonna be still playing WoL with HoTS out o_O?
|
I think this is really great. I love the stance they have taken... I'm guessing they for sure want to avoid any bitching, like they had with BW and KeSPA
Playing WoL is good to maintain the same game throughout the league. It's like showing up to a tennis match halfway though the season and realize everyone is playing badminton. Sure, both use rackets, nets, etc.etc., but it's not fair to judge 1/2 of the season on tennis and 1/2 on badminton
|
To be honest, I don't particularly care about the prize pool as a viewer, although I understand that the pros will. I was more interested to know what maps they will be using, and whether they are open to the "grassroots" or "nationals" having eSports centered maps rather than ladder maps.
But this is cool nonetheless. Even if it is a disaster, which I highly doubt it would be, or just boring anyway I think it is a good sign from Blizzard.
|
A fascinating idea, that esports can be organized in the same nature as a sport. Obviously those pp with teams to train and sponsors to support them have the best chances, but the "open" system leaves so much hope for everyone else and will likely create the kind of "Cinderella" stories that national media loves to cover. This will be an extremely healthy thing for the community and I'll be super excited to watch [how much will that cost is the question... Thoughts anybody?]
|
Blizzard is helping e-sports! Yay! Sounds epic!
So... can we have LAN? 
|
sounds pretty cool 
but its going to take such a long time
this is the ultimate tournament
cant wait to see this !
|
sounds great
|
On January 26 2012 15:11 DYEAlabaster wrote:
I think this is really great. I love the stance they have taken... I'm guessing they for sure want to avoid any bitching, like they had with BW and KeSPA
Playing WoL is good to maintain the same game throughout the league. It's like showing up to a tennis match halfway though the season and realize everyone is playing badminton. Sure, both use rackets, nets, etc.etc., but it's not fair to judge 1/2 of the season on tennis and 1/2 on badminton
But what if halfway through the season every other big tennis tournament has switched to badminton because they have shorter seasons and now the pros who are all playing badminton anyways must still practice tennis just for this one tournament. How much time will they devote to it?
|
oh babey!
It keeps getting better every year!
|
Call me skeptical, but I don't believe Blizzard when they say that "streaming will be fine". I've heard reassurance from Blizzard all the time when I played WoW and all what we got was disappointments. Also the feedback we gave after the regional qualifiers didn't influence Blizzcon itself.
I'm not bashing on Blizzard, I'm just not getting my hopes up and preparing to be disappointed again.
|
This was interesting to read, and heartening in large part concerning Blizz's interaction with the community on specific issues and on their overall plan to grow SC2 as an eSport.
That being said, its also troubling that if this blizzard cup will be as big as they are trying to make it, the pro scene will be retarded for at least a few months if not longer concerning the release of heart of the swarm. Or so it seems. I love Wings of Liberty, but I sure wont mind when HotS comes, and I hope to see WoL SC2 eSports to transition well. With this tournament, it seems more difficult for this to happen. I hope otherwise, but I maintain my fear.
|
Cannot wait for this this to start. 2012 is getting better and better.
|
I think Blizzard will definitely manage to grow esports by doing this.
|
Shit just got real! Blizzard joined the e-SPORTS horse!! a real world championship is just... amazing
|
I hope they follow a gsl map pool or something similar, cause it definantly could bring inspiration for new map makers to make awesome maps.
|
Looks great! Very exciting news.
|
"Want to create local heroes for national communities" Now that, sounds awesome.
|
WOW the prize pool statement is a HUGE letdown, if you compare yourself to the World Cup, at least have equivalent prizes. Think about how much FIFA puts into their world championships. Riot and Valve are not pulling "stunts" when they offer big prize pools, they are showing their dedication and commitment to their product. repeating "grassroots" in hopes of someone else coming along to foot the bill is a gigantic cop-out. Especially coming from a multi-billion dollar company.
|
It seems to me that the only thing meaningful I really got out of this is the fact that HotS will almost assuredly be released in 2013. Although the tournament will be great as well, I'm sure. I'm down for a tournament on (maybe even larger than) the scale of the Blizzard Cup, but run by foreigners instead.
|
I'm super glad that Blizzard decided to keep it to Wings of Liberty for the entire year. Can you imagine the extremely sad finals if it were HotS and the balance would potentially be crap? Sure, it will be hard for people to play both games to be good in this tournament, but the sanctity of balance is way more important, in my opinion.
|
On January 26 2012 15:49 heartlxp wrote:
WOW the prize pool statement is a HUGE letdown, if you compare yourself to the World Cup, at least have equivalent prizes. Think about how much FIFA puts into their world championships. Riot and Valve are not pulling "stunts" when they offer big prize pools, they are showing their dedication and commitment to their product. repeating "grassroots" in hopes of someone else coming along to foot the bill is a gigantic cop-out. Especially coming from a multi-billion dollar company.
Well, what I would like to say is that there is one approach to eSports business that relies a lot on what I would call "stunts" "milking", in what you are trying to achieve is a lot of media attention minimal effort while asserting yourself in the industry. And then, we are treating eSports as a sport. We have the notion of building already built an organic, creative plan platform with Steamworks that really is global in nature and creates an aspirational infrastructure for all the countries we are operating in. That probably is the bulk of the difference between what we're trying to do here and what other competitors might be interested in doing.
|
So the entire 2012 season is going to be played with Wings of Liberty, regardless of when we launch Heart of the Swarm.
I think this will create a lot of problems if HoTS is released in mid 2012. The players will either have to practice two different games, or just decide what tournaments matter more. Hopefully they just have a long beta phase, getting any glaring imbalances/bugs/glitches out, then release it just after the end of all this.
|
Will the process for qualifying for the World Championships be completely void of invitations? Will everyone have to go through the same process?
Ilja Rotelli: Everybody goes through the same process. Basically, we're trying to move away from the notion of invitationals that we used in 2011, and move into a transparent infrastructure that allows people from the outside to look in and say "Okay, if I want to go to World Championships, there's a path in front of me that allows me to qualify." It won't be Blizzard just picking people who are good for marketing purposes; it's really a sport.
Does Blizzard read TL?!
This is the best news I've heard for SC2 this year. way to go blizzard
|
I assume some regions get more spots in the world championships, because, and I'm not starting a flame war here, South-America is probably the worst region and Asia the best so I think Asia will have 10 players (most likely all Koreans) and South-America will have 4 and Europe 8, North-America 6, and the rest of the world also 4.
|
On January 26 2012 16:03 iKill wrote:Will the process for qualifying for the World Championships be completely void of invitations? Will everyone have to go through the same process? Ilja Rotelli: Everybody goes through the same process. Basically, we're trying to move away from the notion of invitationals that we used in 2011, and move into a transparent infrastructure that allows people from the outside to look in and say "Okay, if I want to go to World Championships, there's a path in front of me that allows me to qualify." It won't be Blizzard just picking people who are good for marketing purposes; it's really a sport. Does Blizzard read TL?! This is the best news I've heard for SC2 this year. way to go blizzard
I don't know, the rape tournament style was pretty fun as well though...
|
After some thought, I would have been hoping for a team tourny as well though the prospect of the 'World Cup' is exciting nonetheless
On January 26 2012 15:49 heartlxp wrote:
WOW the prize pool statement is a HUGE letdown, if you compare yourself to the World Cup, at least have equivalent prizes. Think about how much FIFA puts into their world championships. Riot and Valve are not pulling "stunts" when they offer big prize pools, they are showing their dedication and commitment to their product. repeating "grassroots" in hopes of someone else coming along to foot the bill is a gigantic cop-out. Especially coming from a multi-billion dollar company.
You're misinterpreting the statement there. They are pulling stunts because a large part of pulling "stunts" is about the attraction, which was one of the main purposes of the massive prizepools. They announced a gigantic amount of money to win (note that Riot announced the $2mil prize not long after Valve announced the $1mil prize for DOTA2) to give those scenes a big massive kickstart in terms of e-sports infrastructure. Of course they were going to succeed anyway however it would have been much longer before they reach the level that SC2 has in terms of global e-sports coverage.
Up until that, neither games have anything that competes with what SC2 has, MLG, IEM, DH and GSL.
That said I can agree with the sentiment, having a large prize-pool should be a main criteria for hosting a SC2 'World Cup'. It doesn't need to be as frivolous as $1mil but something considerable.
|
|
|
wow, its like wcg, but just for sc2 and much bigger!
|
|
|
If Blizzard keeps it's word about what they said in the interview, than it should be pretty great.
|
Thanks all that made this interview possible. I am extremely excited for this. I want a true world championship. This will finally be it.
|
Germany1510 Posts
On January 26 2012 14:40 GhandiEAGLE wrote:
Wow, this is so incredibly cool, I think all of the Blizzard haters just got served XD
No, they didn't.
|
I'm really intrigued at this idea of as many lower level tournaments as possible leading into higher ones. Like, Next year there could be a New England tournament, and the winners of the regionals would go to the nationals.
It's a really cool idea, to build these local scenes.
|
Thank you Waxangel for the information and a amazing interview 2012 esport is going to be epic.
|
I really hope there is an Irish qualifier although i doubt there will be
|
This post is blowing my mind right now. This is so incredible I wish my roommate or someone I knew was awake so I could tell them!
I love that they'll be qualifiers and not invitationals
so much awesomeness!
|
Poland3748 Posts
I don't like it. in my opinion they should maybe support wcg 2012 instead of directly competing with it. Because while some organizations may be happy about this, i don't see wcg smiling. they could stick to battle.net invitational format and expand wcg which is already established.with national qualifiers.
Nothing really to be excited.about.
|
On January 26 2012 17:04 nimdil wrote:
I don't like it. in my opinion they should maybe support wcg 2012 instead of directly competing with it. Because while some organizations may be happy about this, i don't see wcg smiling. they could stick to battle.net invitational format and expand wcg which is already established.with national qualifiers.
Nothing really to be excited.about.
By competing, it forces both organizations to try harder. Why have NASL and IPL? They should just work together.
|
China really is the magnet. After seeing crowds at wcg 2009 cant really blame them.
|
Zurich15325 Posts
Next time ask them to embed ESPORTS event streams into the client please, so we can correct these ridiculous LoL numbers.
|
On January 26 2012 16:06 Dakkas wrote:After some thought, I would have been hoping for a team tourny as well though the prospect of the 'World Cup' is exciting nonetheless Show nested quote +On January 26 2012 15:49 heartlxp wrote:
WOW the prize pool statement is a HUGE letdown, if you compare yourself to the World Cup, at least have equivalent prizes. Think about how much FIFA puts into their world championships. Riot and Valve are not pulling "stunts" when they offer big prize pools, they are showing their dedication and commitment to their product. repeating "grassroots" in hopes of someone else coming along to foot the bill is a gigantic cop-out. Especially coming from a multi-billion dollar company. You're misinterpreting the statement there. They are pulling stunts because a large part of pulling "stunts" is about the attraction, which was one of the main purposes of the massive prizepools. They announced a gigantic amount of money to win (note that Riot announced the $2mil prize not long after Valve announced the $1mil prize for DOTA2) to give those scenes a big massive kickstart in terms of e-sports infrastructure. Of course they were going to succeed anyway however it would have been much longer before they reach the level that SC2 has in terms of global e-sports coverage. Up until that, neither games have anything that competes with what SC2 has, MLG, IEM, DH and GSL. That said I can agree with the sentiment, having a large prize-pool should be a main criteria for hosting a SC2 'World Cup'. It doesn't need to be as frivolous as $1mil but something considerable.
Yeah LoL doesn't have MLG, IEM, DH, and GSL, they have to settle for MLG, IEM, DH, and OGN...
|
It's really dissapointing they won't have a blizzcon. I went to blizzcon this year - my 2 best friends and I were going to see a friend a CA, and thought why not go to blizzcon while we met up in San Diego anyways. $175 was well worth the ticket price (i actually sold off enough stuff to get back triple the amount of the ticket, seeing as I dont' have much money I had to sell the stuff I wish I could've kept, to have been able to go, and I didn't sell anything special that no one else didn't have access to either).
I would've much preferred blizzcon to just another tournament. How is this going to be better than just another month of GSL?
|
National championship for Sweden please :D
|
Great interview, thank you!
|
This looks really awesome! But I do hope that people who do not belong to the 15-16 countries are not excluded from their continental championship in any way. I'd hate to see Sweden being the only Nordic country allowed to send a player to the continental championship, for instance. At the very least, if they don't go for every nation being able to send someone, they should allow nearby countries to compete with each other. So that for instance, all Nordic players would be able to compete in Stockholm or whereever.
Personally, the format I would love to see was that every country would have a spot if they managed to meet some requirements. Like for instance that Blizzard would only accept their representative if he was the winner of a qualifier being held through a serious national eSports site or organization, and that the qualifiers should be completely open and announced x weeks in advance. That way, even small countries would be able to compete.
There could also, possibly, be some arbitrary requirement about the size of the qualifiers, say, at least 128 or 256 players. It does sound like a lot for some small countries, but it doesn't need to be 256 GM/Master players, but instead, with the spirit of the thing, 256 players of any calibre. That means that the national eSports site could write something along the lines of "OK, people, we need 256 players to play in this qualifier in order to get our national champion to the finals. Come on, you Bronze players, support eSports!". This would have three positive effects: One, low-level players would feel that they help their local hero along by joining in, even though they're virtually chanceless to win themselves. Two, it would stay true to the grassroot idea, getting more people to compete and possibly getting them interested in doing it seriously. And three, it would determine just how serious the eSport site/organization would be. If they can't even rally 256 players of any calibre in order to support their local hero, they're not doing it right. Exceptions could be made for really small countries, like Andorra etc.
Finally, Blizzard should have an official page listing all the sites that have the responsibility of picking their national hero. If there's just no site for a given country and there's someone from that country who really wishes to compete, they could send an application directly to Blizzard and Blizzard would set up a fitting tournament in order to crown the champion, or, in cooperation with some nearby country, assign him to compete in his neighbouring country.
Those are my 2 cents.
|
Hope map pool isn't awful.
|
Blizzard takes the second huge step forward in regards to promote eSports on a global level (the first huge step was to build a game completely for the purpose of being an eSports). This is HUGE, my mind is blown O.O
|
This is amazing news. I think most people don't realize how much it will mean to a lot of players to be called "National Champion." I believe the guys had a discussion about this sort of thing on SOTG when blizzard first announced the battle.net invitational.
Go team amurrrica :p
|
The things they will do this year.... will make BlizzCup 2011 seem like a basement event. They really steped up their pase.
Really looking forward....judging by articles ive seen this year should be atleast double in quality compared to last year!
Thumbs up are up
|
Blizzard seems to really have a huge plan for transitioning SC2 into an eSports game this year. Hope they really act on pro feedback faster. Especially with HotS coming soon.
|
This does really sound incredible awesome. I dreamed of the event last night and it was COOL. Altough it was kinda wacky in my dream xD.
The fact that Blizzard is cooperating with other companies gives me good feeling the map pool is gonna be a good one this time.
Man really looking forward to this :D
|
On January 26 2012 18:13 pdd wrote:
Blizzard seems to really have a huge plan for transitioning SC2 into an eSports game this year. Hope they really act on pro feedback faster. Especially with HotS coming soon.
What do u mean..it's already the bigest e-sport game atm (considered a true blood esport and accnowledged by everyone who watches it even once..compared to other games that still have image problems when it comes down to e-sports, not being aknowledged by everyone - ex: LoL) ...considering other games began slowly dieing a long time ago O.o No need for transitioning lol..maybe growing it EVEN MOAR!...and yea..HoTS :S can't wait for it!
|
On January 26 2012 18:19 ReboundEU wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2012 18:13 pdd wrote:
Blizzard seems to really have a huge plan for transitioning SC2 into an eSports game this year. Hope they really act on pro feedback faster. Especially with HotS coming soon. What do u mean..it's already the bigest e-sport game atm (considered a true blood esport and accnowledged by everyone who watches it even once..compared to other games that still have image problems when it comes down to e-sports) ...considering other games began slowly dieing a long time ago O.o No need for transitioning lol..maybe growing it EVEN MOAR!...and yea..HoTS :S can't wait for it!
I think LoL is the becoming the biggest esport game at the moment. Sad but true. For a long time Blizzard ignored a lot of the complains that people had regarding balance, the map pool, and in general support to organizers (besides Gretech). That's why we had the travesty of the Blizzcon SC2 tournament.
This interview, makes it sound like they're really trying to increase their support for it to really cater less towards casuals and more towards pro-players.
|
Ah....from that point of view yea i understand what u ment....they are starting to take their own game seriously now :D
Regarding LoL... well.... sadly no comment. Next big thing Soliter Online..because 9 million secretaries all over the world cheer for it.
|
On January 26 2012 14:40 GhandiEAGLE wrote:
Wow, this is so incredibly cool, I think all of the Blizzard haters just got served XD
although im not a blizzard hater... why exactly do you think so?
i didnt read anything surprisingly awesome. the plan (being the producer of the game) to make a world championship is not really that surprising. Having continental qualifiers? happened before (even for blizzcon). pre-pre-qualifiers? yep, happened before. (wcg etc)
they didnt announce anything unthinkable^^
Furthermore... I'm not sure about the HotS thing. Does that mean that HotS is probably not released in mid/fall 2012? cuz i cant really believe that they would wanna play it out in WoL, if HotS was released several months earlier and everybody is already practicing 100% HotS.
|
On January 26 2012 17:32 Blennd wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2012 16:06 Dakkas wrote:After some thought, I would have been hoping for a team tourny as well though the prospect of the 'World Cup' is exciting nonetheless On January 26 2012 15:49 heartlxp wrote:
WOW the prize pool statement is a HUGE letdown, if you compare yourself to the World Cup, at least have equivalent prizes. Think about how much FIFA puts into their world championships. Riot and Valve are not pulling "stunts" when they offer big prize pools, they are showing their dedication and commitment to their product. repeating "grassroots" in hopes of someone else coming along to foot the bill is a gigantic cop-out. Especially coming from a multi-billion dollar company. You're misinterpreting the statement there. They are pulling stunts because a large part of pulling "stunts" is about the attraction, which was one of the main purposes of the massive prizepools. They announced a gigantic amount of money to win (note that Riot announced the $2mil prize not long after Valve announced the $1mil prize for DOTA2) to give those scenes a big massive kickstart in terms of e-sports infrastructure. Of course they were going to succeed anyway however it would have been much longer before they reach the level that SC2 has in terms of global e-sports coverage. Up until that, neither games have anything that competes with what SC2 has, MLG, IEM, DH and GSL. That said I can agree with the sentiment, having a large prize-pool should be a main criteria for hosting a SC2 'World Cup'. It doesn't need to be as frivolous as $1mil but something considerable. Yeah LoL doesn't have MLG, IEM, DH, and GSL, they have to settle for MLG, IEM, DH, and OGN...
Yes I should have corrected that. More appropriately, SC2 currently has more major tournaments though LoL is only recently starting to catch up. For those venues, SC2 was being used them long before LoL was (barring OGN) which leads me back to my point of the first place. Riot do have a game that will get bigger however that isn't purely because of the game itself being an excellent e-sport, but also to do with the amount of advertising they've also been doing and the prize-money they announced reflects that.
|
On January 26 2012 17:04 nimdil wrote:
I don't like it. in my opinion they should maybe support wcg 2012 instead of directly competing with it. Because while some organizations may be happy about this, i don't see wcg smiling. they could stick to battle.net invitational format and expand wcg which is already established.with national qualifiers.
Nothing really to be excited.about.
I don't think WCG has done a good job with the national qualifiers. Sure, for some countries it was cool; Germany and Russia for example. But for many of the smaller countries there really wasn't much to speak of.
Very excited for this. And i'm also very happy blizzard decided to make this 100% open for everyone. Instead of the Battle.net Invitational where players we're just picked by Blizzard. In my opinion it's events like this that is good for the scene; random ladder gosu #126 will maybe be inspired to practice alot and make a name for himself through this.
This is why i think ESL with the IEM is awesome. Because of their system players like Pomi, Feast, Titan and FXOTarga got a shot at playing with the celebrities. Mad love to Blizzard for doing something like this. Im sure it will be one of the coolest tournaments in 2012!
|
Obviously Blizz aren't planning to release HOTS mid 2012, because as already pointed out, it will be a bit of a mess. I like the fact that the game will have considerable amount of time to be polished. HOTS can't afford to screw up, so a longer beta phase would be great. I really hope they will succeed in this project.
|
I really like what Blizzard is doing than Valve and Riot that just throwing money at each other.
|
|
|
this will be intresting.. gonna wait and see if it turns out good
|
I guess this is cool. Its not so different to a lot of events atm so I cant see why people are wetting themselves about the concept of a national champion
|
Sounds pretty damn amazing and like they've put quite some thought into it. I like it. Hope it turns out to be as cool as it sounds.
|
Seems interesting, but gief HotS!
|
On January 26 2012 18:23 pdd wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2012 18:19 ReboundEU wrote:On January 26 2012 18:13 pdd wrote:
Blizzard seems to really have a huge plan for transitioning SC2 into an eSports game this year. Hope they really act on pro feedback faster. Especially with HotS coming soon. What do u mean..it's already the bigest e-sport game atm (considered a true blood esport and accnowledged by everyone who watches it even once..compared to other games that still have image problems when it comes down to e-sports) ...considering other games began slowly dieing a long time ago O.o No need for transitioning lol..maybe growing it EVEN MOAR!...and yea..HoTS :S can't wait for it! I think LoL is the becoming the biggest esport game at the moment. Sad but true. For a long time Blizzard ignored a lot of the complains that people had regarding balance, the map pool, and in general support to organizers (besides Gretech). That's why we had the travesty of the Blizzcon SC2 tournament. This interview, makes it sound like they're really trying to increase their support for it to really cater less towards casuals and more towards pro-players.
Stop bringing LoL up all the time. I don't care about it. Apples and oranges. Dota games are absolutely pointless and boring to me, but if they get to be a successful E-Sport game I say good for them! It has absolutely nothing to do with Starcraft. I don't care for who has the biggest or longest.
I do agree with your view upon Blizzard's lack of support for their game and Battle.net compared to others. Then again I don't instantly fall asleep when watching SC2, they did at least something right.
This is good news. 2012 might shape up to be an ever better year for SC2.
|
Their approach to eSports and competition is the correct way to go about it for me. Yes, you can throw millions at the competition, but you need that structure and organisation that will help grow the industry in the coming years. Glad to hear they listened to all the negative feedback at Blizzcon too. I can't see Heart of the Swarm coming out before the World Championship though.
|
Poland3748 Posts
On January 26 2012 17:05 how wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2012 17:04 nimdil wrote:
I don't like it. in my opinion they should maybe support wcg 2012 instead of directly competing with it. Because while some organizations may be happy about this, i don't see wcg smiling. they could stick to battle.net invitational format and expand wcg which is already established.with national qualifiers.
Nothing really to be excited.about. By competing, it forces both organizations to try harder. Why have NASL and IPL? They should just work together.
NASL and IPL can compete.
But how can you compete with Blizzard? It's their game. It's their battle.net. Competing against Blizzard is competing against someone who has huge advantage.
While I agree WCG could do better job, I don't think Blizzard should just throw super-global-tournament. It's really hard to tell whether it will stimulate the pro scene for SC2 or eclipse everything else (and make everything else worse).
|
Hopefully this is the beginning of Blizzard giving more than half an ass about SC2 as an eSport, based on the interview. In a world where Riot have supported LoL so much (not just with money, but also with integration between the playing experience and the competitive world), Blizzard have seemed to be slacking. There's so much they could do in their position, and I hope they realise this.
|
On January 26 2012 20:14 nimdil wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2012 17:05 how wrote:On January 26 2012 17:04 nimdil wrote:
I don't like it. in my opinion they should maybe support wcg 2012 instead of directly competing with it. Because while some organizations may be happy about this, i don't see wcg smiling. they could stick to battle.net invitational format and expand wcg which is already established.with national qualifiers.
Nothing really to be excited.about. By competing, it forces both organizations to try harder. Why have NASL and IPL? They should just work together. NASL and IPL can compete. But how can you compete with Blizzard? It's their game. It's their battle.net. Competing against Blizzard is competing against someone who has huge advantage. While I agree WCG could do better job, I don't think Blizzard should just throw super-global-tournament. It's really hard to tell whether it will stimulate the pro scene for SC2 or eclipse everything else (and make everything else worse).
Competition is always good for the international scene. You know that they say, "The more the merrier."
The only thing to worry about is scheduling these events so they don't conflict each other. Nobody loses that way IMO.
|
On January 26 2012 14:17 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote:
How would the release of Heart of the Swarm in the middle of the year affect the competition?
Ilja Rotelli: We had that conversation and we had to decide. Obviously we don't have a release date announced yet for Heart of the Swarm, and we had to decide how eSports would behave in 2012 for StarCraft II. We felt that any form of switch whenever the date would be, from Wings of Liberty to Heart of the Swarm, would betray the nature of the sport. I can't tell a bunch of professional players because of marketing that "You know, you need to promote Heart of the Swarm, could you show up next month and switch the game you're playing?" So the entire 2012 season is going to be played with Wings of Liberty, regardless of when we launch Heart of the Swarm.
This sounds to me like something that could very well backfire. If other tournaments switch to HotS immediately, and Blizzard isn't using HotS at all, then players would have to practice two separate [albeit similar] games, and if some switch and some stay, can Blizzard really say that whoever wins the championship is the best SC2 player in the world, and not just the best WoL player?
Or worse, other teams might be considering switching to HotS, but once they see that Blizzard isn't doing it, they'll scrap their plans of using it and HotS wouldn't be played at all. This is assuming Blizzard isn't flexible in their plans, but considering that in most other answers they said that they were flexible/discussing the issue and in this one they state clearly that HotS will not be used, I have a bad feeling that they may not be flexible at all.
|
This sounds really amazing.
I always liked the concept of WCG as a global championship and i'm glad that this returns in some way.
This approach from Blizard has IMO a great potential to be the most important Tournament, or at least the most prestigious one, out there.
|
Well, Korean national championship will be a world cup into a world cup in terms of level of playing. (Sweden one also in a way.)
|
On January 26 2012 20:50 Serimek wrote:
Well, Korean national championship will be a world cup into a world cup in terms of level of playing. (Sweden one also in a way.) You never know. Can't beat back the Koreans with that mentality, that's for sure tho!
|
I'm really really worried about the map pool ]: someone tell them before it's too late.... no abyssal caverns please
|
This looks.....really....really....neato
|
great idea.. and i really love the fact that they name it World championship..
To all the LOL lovers , dont compare LOL with Starcraft ... LOL is an easy and free game , aimed for the 12-18 year old, SC2 is more mature and the skill level is so so so so high compared to moba games. Everyone can play moba games without much problems , as for viewership , while the kids are interested you get 200k viewers and things like that but its not eternal , Moba games are boring to watch...
SC2 will have new maps , new expansions and new players... Also SC2 actually requires pro players to devote their lives to it, like normal sports so when we see MVP play we already know that is impossible for us to play like him .
P.S : im in for Steppes of War or zelnaga caverns again !
|
Incredibly cool news! <3 Blizzard. Thank you for caring about your game!
|
Just amazing.
But even more interesting for me: HotS in 2012 baby
|
On January 26 2012 14:27 Kennigit wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2012 14:21 mrKamiya wrote:
This looks absolutely amazing, looking forward to it. Thanks Kennigit! I can't wait, it seems they're really trying to participate in esports unlike usual. All i did was reply to an email. Waxangel is the true interview hero.
Ah that makes sense. ^^ Awesome interview Waxangel, thanks for sharing Kennegit. Super awesome read, I kind of like another group (the developers of course) just stepping into the market like "yo bitches. sup?" (I know they aren't completely new to eSports tournaments, but just roll with me). The bar will be set higher and higher xD.
|
I just hope that Blizzard is considering Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia for this project. They already have a lot of solid fanbases here.
|
This is indeed great news, i was thinking some time ago about a sc2 world championship and i love the structure that they going for.
As for Hots is better to be left aside,because all game will shift and become like in sc2 in beginning now sc2 is really mature and in a good spot for this kind of tournament. Next ....... Release DIABLO 3 T_T
|
This looks sooooooooo awesome. Can't wait!
|
Quite surprised about the HotS part... We'll see how it turns out, but if Blizzard itself does not fully support its own game when it's released and considering the complaints of many pros about what they've seen of this first expansion pack so far, I wouldn't be surprised if tournaments around the world sticked to WoL for quite a while.
|
Can be really cool. I like those formats which give every unkown player the possibility to become the new thorzain.
The HotS part is the only thing i slightly worrie about, i think they could potentially damage their own game if the competition is forced to stay on wol.
|
This sounds very promising. It's good that they are reaching out to local grassroots organizations, let's just hope we don't have another AZK fiasco. This is also great for unsigned individuals and ladder gosus, as they have a chance to qualify even if they are not on a team.
|
Poland3748 Posts
On January 26 2012 20:21 ZenDeX wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2012 20:14 nimdil wrote:On January 26 2012 17:05 how wrote:On January 26 2012 17:04 nimdil wrote:
I don't like it. in my opinion they should maybe support wcg 2012 instead of directly competing with it. Because while some organizations may be happy about this, i don't see wcg smiling. they could stick to battle.net invitational format and expand wcg which is already established.with national qualifiers.
Nothing really to be excited.about. By competing, it forces both organizations to try harder. Why have NASL and IPL? They should just work together. NASL and IPL can compete. But how can you compete with Blizzard? It's their game. It's their battle.net. Competing against Blizzard is competing against someone who has huge advantage. While I agree WCG could do better job, I don't think Blizzard should just throw super-global-tournament. It's really hard to tell whether it will stimulate the pro scene for SC2 or eclipse everything else (and make everything else worse). Competition is always good for the international scene. You know that they say, "The more the merrier." The only thing to worry about is scheduling these events so they don't conflict each other. Nobody loses that way IMO.
I really hope you are right.
|
I just really hope that the national qualifier system wont be limiting for countries with more than the usual amout of exceptional players. And that Blizzard will use the prize pools smartly to get people's attention.
|
On January 26 2012 20:21 ZenDeX wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2012 20:14 nimdil wrote:On January 26 2012 17:05 how wrote:On January 26 2012 17:04 nimdil wrote:
I don't like it. in my opinion they should maybe support wcg 2012 instead of directly competing with it. Because while some organizations may be happy about this, i don't see wcg smiling. they could stick to battle.net invitational format and expand wcg which is already established.with national qualifiers.
Nothing really to be excited.about. By competing, it forces both organizations to try harder. Why have NASL and IPL? They should just work together. NASL and IPL can compete. But how can you compete with Blizzard? It's their game. It's their battle.net. Competing against Blizzard is competing against someone who has huge advantage. While I agree WCG could do better job, I don't think Blizzard should just throw super-global-tournament. It's really hard to tell whether it will stimulate the pro scene for SC2 or eclipse everything else (and make everything else worse). Competition is always good for the international scene. You know that they say, "The more the merrier." The only thing to worry about is scheduling these events so they don't conflict each other. Nobody loses that way IMO.
Scheduleing is the main problem with so many large tournaments (that and maybe time or payments). Like we have already seem this with the MLG and IEM schedule conflicts. Last year's blizzard cup went off without a hitch partly due to the fact is was basiclly the last event of the year. This tournament could really throw a wrench into the plans of the other major tournaments if blizzard does not plan correctly.
Also i'm pretty sure quite a few people would prefer blizzard running a global event instead of the current WCG team.
|
On January 26 2012 20:42 marcelluspye wrote:Show nested quote +On January 26 2012 14:17 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote:
How would the release of Heart of the Swarm in the middle of the year affect the competition?
Ilja Rotelli: We had that conversation and we had to decide. Obviously we don't have a release date announced yet for Heart of the Swarm, and we had to decide how eSports would behave in 2012 for StarCraft II. We felt that any form of switch whenever the date would be, from Wings of Liberty to Heart of the Swarm, would betray the nature of the sport. I can't tell a bunch of professional players because of marketing that "You know, you need to promote Heart of the Swarm, could you show up next month and switch the game you're playing?" So the entire 2012 season is going to be played with Wings of Liberty, regardless of when we launch Heart of the Swarm. This sounds to me like something that could very well backfire. If other tournaments switch to HotS immediately, and Blizzard isn't using HotS at all, then players would have to practice two separate [albeit similar] games, and if some switch and some stay, can Blizzard really say that whoever wins the championship is the best SC2 player in the world, and not just the best WoL player? Or worse, other teams might be considering switching to HotS, but once they see that Blizzard isn't doing it, they'll scrap their plans of using it and HotS wouldn't be played at all. This is assuming Blizzard isn't flexible in their plans, but considering that in most other answers they said that they were flexible/discussing the issue and in this one they state clearly that HotS will not be used, I have a bad feeling that they may not be flexible at all.
If anything should be considered stupid it would be to go and completely change the game being played in the middle of a season. A few leagues, like MLG and IEM, have long seasons and would make absolutely no sense to have a qualifier tournament played with WoL and then have the main event with HotS. If these companies have even considered doing that (which I doubt) this will only make them think twice about it and hopefully reconsider.
In any case I don't even think the game will be released much before december this year, possibly not until Q1 2013. It would make sense if tournaments didn't start hosting HotS events untill next year, after most organizers have a break during the winter.
|
Nice attitute to say that the prize pool isnt everything.
I hate this kind of "uhhh we got 5mio." "we have a 1.6mio tournament"...
They tournament itself is what is important!
|
Awwwww yyeeeaaaahhhhhhhh.
This is awesome. A great idea, a lot like the WCG, I guess.
I look forward to it. 
|
That's amazing news. I'm really looking forward to the national events. I also think, that using only WoL is a very good idea. It really helps aknowledge sc2 as a sport, which leaves monetary interests in the backround.
|
I like the fact that it will be played on WoL, also the champion of this tournament, probably can be qualified as one of the worlds if not the worlds best player. I hope it's some underdog who takes it all, some one unknown that hasn't entered the scene yet.
|
Whoa, didn't see this coming.
|
This is so awesome.
Time to 6-pool to the World Championships. B)
|
Implent embedded streams to the big tournaments @ the loginscreen and Blizzard will smash and conquer the entire world.
Seriously, I respect the huge viewernumbers League of Legends achieve. But to be fair, they for sure have an advantage when the company itself is trying to turn the game into eSport. Blizzard Entertainment themselves have just up until now practically let the audience run the show.
I did like the "we are treating eSports as a sport." part for sure though.
|
On January 26 2012 14:31 Skwid1g wrote:
Wait.... the entire thing is going to be played on WoL?
That seems like a terrible idea to be honest, unless they're alluding to the fact that HotS isn't coming out until late in the year or something.
HOTS Christmas 2012 sounds about right.
|
I guess its interesting...but I can't see anything radically changing just because there is an announcement of a new global tournament. There are so many tournaments already, it seems like the SC2 pro-gaming scene is congested already. There are, to the best of my knowledge, already a number of smaller tournaments for people who want to make a name for themselves (the grassroots level).
And while it might be fun for people in regions to attempt to make it to the world stage, its kind of guaranteed that the non-committed pro-gamers will be swept aside by the committed ones and you'll end up with more or less the same group in the upper echelons of the tournament each year. Not to mention, there isn't very much interest in watching "no-name" players compete against each other online (as far as I know).
Its nice that Blizzard wants to make SC2 more appealing to people...but I don't see another tournament as adding anything meaningful. Maybe they should work on the laddering system instead, perhaps create a mode where your rank doesn't matter and you just play for fun. If they could somehow get rid of the anxiety surrounding SC2, and the associated stress, you could attract new players who might decide to play more seriously?
|
hopefully it makes up for the lack of games last Bli(ZvZ)con
|
Okay. Now i have to brake up with my girlfriend, and try to be so freakin good that i can go to this tournament. jk
I will watch every Match, its gonna be awesome!
|
So...what does a grassroots eSports organization have to do to convince Blizzard into letting them host a regional qualifier?
|
Sounds amazing. Just wish it didn't have to come at the expense of BlizzCon :/
Oh well, hopefully it'll pay off, especially if it guarantees release of HotS & more importantly D3 this year.
|
Sounds absolutely amazing, I just hope it doesn't keep the same poor standards we've seen from other blizzard events.
|
Sounds like they're doing things right. Good job Blizzard.
Looks like 2012 is the last we'll see of WoL in tournaments, 2013 for HoTS.
Hope the map pool turns out nice, and not just shoving ladder maps in our faces.
|
|
|
On January 26 2012 14:28 dnld12 wrote:
Coollllllzz.
though i am a bit worried on national champion.
Our national champiion in america: Idra (or huk depending on how u look at it)
Is in korea.
And sweden's: naniwa or sase. is in korea too?
How do those work?
they have teams dont they? they have tons of money in their pockets, just buy a plane ticket if they wanna join.
its not like they are busy in korea. (playing ladder and waiting for next code a quallifiers doesnt count)
and if teams wont send their best players to the biggest tournament this year, well thats their loss.
|
Hmm, kinda sound like what WCG was trying to do... but better.
I like it. Quite a lot.
CANADA FIGHTING!
|
That sounds really awesome. I am so looking forward to it and I am pretty sure that I am going to enjoy it.
|
Sounds absolutely amazing can't wait to see more info
|
Wow! That means that we'll see the real potential of Korea too instead of seeing the same few guys over and over?! My mind is blown... GREAT job, Blizzard!
And of course, I hope that Belgium's national hero does well. Feast fighting!!!!!
|
Sick!!!! I was bummed at first about the Blizzcon being cancelled, but this makes it all better : )
|
|
|
teamliquid reasserting itself as THE go to place for esports sc/sc2 news. awesome read.
|
YES! This is what I was waiting for Blizz to do. They are not obligated to do this; but as the creator, they really should make a big step towards promoting competitive gaming as it will greatly benefit their own starcraft franchise.
I'm going to guess this is non-invitational (at least for national) and anyone can play? Which is awesome.
The cooperative management is the best choice they can make. GOM and MLG (though we don't know who they're co are so much more experienced and
I hope they would have some insane prize pools.
|
about time someone figures out how to properly grow eSports. Less about media blitz and entertainment and more about competition and growing it from the ground up! Well done!
|
now if only MLG could follow suite instead of 'inviting' what they see as the top 139 players. Let shit play out.. its about competition and that is the ONLY way we will truly build a sustainable esports model that will last after the media hype crashes.
|
Anyone have any information on who or how to contact Blizzard regarding the opportunity for other organizations to run their online qualifiers?
|
Cool, but the entire thing will be a waste if Blizzard can't get their shit together with the map pool.
|
Thanks Kennigit and Waxangel, this is amazing.
|
Sounds really cool. Hopefully, it will all go smoothly.
For ESPORTS!
|
Finally. A tournament that WILL crown a WORLD CHAMPION of sc2 !
|
Holy mother of god World Championship of SC O.O
cant wait already for them to start!
|
I am very glad to hear that Blizzard is at least working on something eSports related. I was getting worried with the things Riot games was doing (pumping millions into tournament winnings). But, I like Bliaazrd's approach and idea to make Starcraft a legitamate sport. Now, we will have to wait and see if it really works. but, I believe they have the means to make it work. Hopefully their team has the right mindste and pulls it out well.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to more news about the grassroots tier and other events and formats they are going to do.
|
This looks cool! It will definitely expand eSports more on a global scale. I am glad Blizzard puts forth effort in the development of this community, as it is a very new (in terms of the grand scheme of things) to the world.
|
If Blizzard is committed to WoL competition for the rest of the year, what if all the other major tournaments did the same thing? This way pros could continue to compete in WoL at a high level while building up their skill in HotS so that they're ready for the eventual switch.
I know pros aren't likely to practice two different games at once, but the main thing I'm worried about for an instant HOTS switch is how rough the metagame's going to be at first. Delaying the professional switch until 2013 will certainly mitigate that, I think.
|
I hope blizzard and associates would put effort into a stable, non-laggy streaming host. With free LQ stream only, and paid subscrption HQ stream+vods. And I hope the organizer gets some attention from big sponsors for future tournaments. They make such a huge difference for the prize pool and tournament size (matches, and player count).
|
Good to see Blizzard getting involved. I was kind of worrried about how quiet things were on the blizzard side of SC2.
|
On January 27 2012 03:16 zarepath wrote:
If Blizzard is committed to WoL competition for the rest of the year, what if all the other major tournaments did the same thing? This way pros could continue to compete in WoL at a high level while building up their skill in HotS so that they're ready for the eventual switch.
I know pros aren't likely to practice two different games at once, but the main thing I'm worried about for an instant HOTS switch is how rough the metagame's going to be at first. Delaying the professional switch until 2013 will certainly mitigate that, I think.
How much of a difference will there really be? It's just a few units being added. I could be completely wrong but I can see most srats being the same with a few of the new units sprinkled in till things kind of get figured out a bit more. It's not like we are going to see some crazy strat with new units only.
Things will definatley change but the game isn't going to be flipped around and completely different.
|
Woooooooooooooooooow...... (e^pi*i)+(1) SICKNESS!
Obviously there will be some hassles and minor problems here and there since there will be many parties involved... But WOW this is really cool! *__*
I hope for an incredible SICKO' Final in asia with an enormous prize trophy!
|
Looks like they're taking over the gap that WCG created (by crashing and burning, that is).
Kudos.
On January 27 2012 03:21 magnaflow wrote:Show nested quote +On January 27 2012 03:16 zarepath wrote:
If Blizzard is committed to WoL competition for the rest of the year, what if all the other major tournaments did the same thing? This way pros could continue to compete in WoL at a high level while building up their skill in HotS so that they're ready for the eventual switch.
I know pros aren't likely to practice two different games at once, but the main thing I'm worried about for an instant HOTS switch is how rough the metagame's going to be at first. Delaying the professional switch until 2013 will certainly mitigate that, I think. How much of a difference will there really be? It's just a few units being added. I could be completely wrong but I can see most srats being the same with a few of the new units sprinkled in till things kind of get figured out a bit more. It's not like we are going to see some crazy strat with new units only. Things will definatley change but the game isn't going to be flipped around and completely different.
Uhh, lol..
|
But the kind of excitement that exists for eSports in Asia, and especially in recent times in China made us choose Asia this year.
I have a feeling there is much more to it than that. I know Blizzard had massive troubles introducing the Pandaren race in WoW due to Pandas being copyrighted by the Chinese Government. No one is allowed to market Pandas there without the consent of the ruling party. I suppose now they are beginning to show what price they payed for getting a panda license (promoting China).
|
This is great can't wait report growing everyday
|
lol.. "the prize pool isn't important, working with someone as prestigious as blizzard is what is" what a joke, blizzard is so conceited to think that just because their name is on something it improves the value of it. In fact, seeing the name "battle.net" on a tournament just reminds me how much of a joke and a devolution their current system is compared to WC3 and BWs... fucking blizzard, stop wasting your money on this bullshit and make a battlenet 3.0 that is at least comparable to iccup or fish.. or steam... or battlelog.....
edit RAGE TYPOS!!!!
|
This seems really interesting!
|
On January 27 2012 05:19 Paladia wrote:
But the kind of excitement that exists for eSports in Asia, and especially in recent times in China made us choose Asia this year.
I have a feeling there is much more to it than that. I know Blizzard had massive troubles introducing the Pandaren race in WoW due to Pandas being copyrighted by the Chinese Government. No one is allowed to market Pandas there without the consent of the ruling party. I suppose now they are beginning to show what price they payed for getting a panda license (promoting China).
This was all rumors and was proven to not be the case in multiple blizz interviews.
|
On January 27 2012 06:59 Odal wrote:Show nested quote +On January 27 2012 05:19 Paladia wrote:
But the kind of excitement that exists for eSports in Asia, and especially in recent times in China made us choose Asia this year.
I have a feeling there is much more to it than that. I know Blizzard had massive troubles introducing the Pandaren race in WoW due to Pandas being copyrighted by the Chinese Government. No one is allowed to market Pandas there without the consent of the ruling party. I suppose now they are beginning to show what price they payed for getting a panda license (promoting China). This was all rumors and was proven to not be the case in multiple blizz interviews.
Are you saying anyone is allowed to use Pandas in China? Could you provide some links to those interviews?
|
Grassroots is EXACTLY what we need to grow. I wholeheartedly agree that "stunts" like million dollar prize pools won't help the scene. They are too transient. While I usually disagree with most of Blizzard's philosophy's I like this one. I just hope that they practice it the same way they speak of it.
|
On January 27 2012 07:01 Paladia wrote:Show nested quote +On January 27 2012 06:59 Odal wrote:On January 27 2012 05:19 Paladia wrote:
But the kind of excitement that exists for eSports in Asia, and especially in recent times in China made us choose Asia this year.
I have a feeling there is much more to it than that. I know Blizzard had massive troubles introducing the Pandaren race in WoW due to Pandas being copyrighted by the Chinese Government. No one is allowed to market Pandas there without the consent of the ruling party. I suppose now they are beginning to show what price they payed for getting a panda license (promoting China). This was all rumors and was proven to not be the case in multiple blizz interviews. Are you saying anyone is allowed to use Pandas in China? Could you provide some links to those interviews?
Panda is not the portrait of Chairman Mao, I have no idea why Chinese government would overreact to this.
|
On January 26 2012 15:10 phame21 wrote:
I think they should play HoTS. WoL has pretty much crappy gamebalance and consider the fact the sc1 was pretty much bummed out till BW started to balance things out. Also who's gonna be still playing WoL with HoTS out o_O?
You are talking about taking a game that's pretty balanced and switching it with a brand new game which will be very imbalanced when it's released. Ridiculous
|
On January 26 2012 18:29 ReboundEU wrote:
Ah....from that point of view yea i understand what u ment....they are starting to take their own game seriously now :D
Regarding LoL... well.... sadly no comment. Next big thing Soliter Online..because 9 million secretaries all over the world cheer for it.
that's why eSports in general can't have good things, eSports =/= SC2 or LoL, eSports is all competitive games altogether. yes you can be sad that LoL is bigger than SC2 atm, but no suggest that it is bad.
enjoy and support SC2 so it can be the biggest without being elitist, because both require a different set of skills
+ Show Spoiler +
|
holy shit this looks fucking awesome
|
holy wow, how have I not seen this before
|
|
|
Will the process for qualifying for the World Championships be completely void of invitations? Will everyone have to go through the same process?
Ilja RotelliEverybody goes through the same process. Basically, we're trying to move away from the notion of invitationals that we used in 2011, and move into a transparent infrastructure that allows people from the outside to look in and say "Okay, if I want to go to World Championships, there's a path in front of me that allows me to qualify." It won't be Blizzard just picking people who are good for marketing purposes; it's really a sport.
this is the most promising side of this event. Now every major western tournament is invitational based tournament, result in 90% of same group of ppl playing each other again and again. You wont even notice if they switch the name of the tournament, coz they are all the same. New blood need to be brought to this industry if Blizzard really want to make it a 'sport'. It's true that invited players could attract a significant amount of viewers, but as time goes, fewer and fewer would stay. At the ends, without new blood, SC2 would die as the same way as Warcraft 3.
|
I will be very very happy with this approach, if blizzard commits and follows through, that is. But really, it sounds similar to what I wanted and was hoping for around the time of the Nasl announcement. Grass Roots "Sports" instead of "Reddit-ish Market Appeal". Call me a a purist, but there is ALOT of fucking uninterested talent out there, and I hope that this helps show some of it off, or at least helps it grow. Shit like this is where you are going to get your foreigner heroes, ect.
|
Well it looks to me that Blizzard made the right choice to have this tournament rather than BlizzCon!
|
so basically hots is not coming for at least the better part of the year?
|
Oh my goodness, this sounds HUGE.
Blizzard supporting eSports!
|
|
|
"Open to working with exsisting eSport organizations" Uncharacteristic and yet fucking crazy potential..........
|
This TOTALLY makes up for no blizzcon in 2012
|
When the question was raised about there being no direction for how they want to make the ladder competitive again, I think they could do something great by bringing back the old Warcraft 3 Auto-Tournaments. Those were fun, low maintenance, and competitive. Sure they were only worth ladder icons, but it was something different from the same-old kind of "oh i got stream-sniped, I'm playing the same guy for the 6th time in a row" kind of thing.
|
|
|
Why are so many people so bummed out that HotS won’t be the tournament game? WoL, while still not perfect, is as balanced as it’s ever been. Holding a tournament of this scale for a game that people would’ve only had a few months at best to prepare for is ridiculous, combined with the fact that it’ll probably be incredibly imbalanced when it’s released. Even after a year long beta and some 10+ patches prior to release just look at how much WoL 1.0 differs from WoL 1.4.2.
Also I think it’s very possible that the top tier WoL pros are likely to stay on for a long as they can (a-la Broodwar pros at the moment) before finally switching to HotS. Only the lower tier/”rising star” pros will make the switch to HotS as soon as it’s available.
|
I'm glad Blizz understands the importance of having a sustainable business structure. I hate how DotA players keep trashing about how DotA is the biggest esport because Valve splashed out 1 mil for one of their tours.
|
On January 27 2012 13:37 LastDance wrote:
I'm glad Blizz understands the importance of having a sustainable business structure. I hate how DotA players keep trashing about how DotA is the biggest esport because Valve splashed out 1 mil for one of their tours.
This is true. I think it`s WRONG for game companies to just splash money at their games to artificially inject a scene that would never be able to live up to what the company is shelling out. You only need to ask the fighting game community for what happens when the game companies stop the support. The scene can not sustain the level it was before and it`s almost impossible to revert to how things used to be because all your grassroot tournaments died in the process as well.
The competitive scene needs to be able to stand on it`s own even without the support of the game developer. They need to be independent of each other. A lot of things in eSports needs to go this way. Such as independent unbiased journalism and being less dependent for sponsors to run events.
Also people place too much emphasis on prize money. Right now it's nothing but padding their own e-peen. How many people watch the World Cup and think to themselves how much is winning team getting?( bet most people don't realize they have a prize pool) Same thing for NFL, NHL, or NBA championships. The fame and glory is all the matters to the players. And the spectacular conclusion of the rigorous tournament to the viewers.
|
Having the tournaments be not about the prize pool is honorable and all...but having a huge prize pool could make for some interesting results/stories. It is amazing what people are capable of overcoming, for a huge sum of money. Especially when they are making a living for their destitute/sick families--even overcoming a Jaedong-esque player. Fruitdealer and MVP's stories come to mind---There's a tv movie in there somewhere. The underdog defeating a behemoth. But 25K for 1st prize is not bad..not bad a all. maybe next year, it could be bigger.
|
This is great! Really pleased with the fact that they are sticking to WoL troughout the year. This sets precedence for other tourneys so the continue with the more balanced game (unless HoTS is balanced immediately upon release). If Blizzard somehow adapts decent map making to their "treating eSports as a sport and aspirational infrastructure", i will jump from joy. I somehow doubt it, and we'll have to see our favorite players battle it out on shitty imbalanced map. I dont wanna see ZvX close pos on LT in a world championship.
|
Japan2800 Posts
YESSSSSSSSS
OMG I can't wait
|
from the looks of it
i think it will be an exciting tournament
|
I feel like this could be good, but anyone going as far as to say that injecting 1 mil into Sc2 would be a bad thing is completely kidding themselves.
|
Shall we just give it to MMA or MVP now then? Save a lot of money :D
(Rubbish) Jokes aside, this is gunna be sick
|
This has the potential to be an AMAZING championship. I wish they worked more closely with WCG though and brought it back to prominence :/
|
I'd also like to know where Australia and NZ fit into this... for the purposes of this tournament are we 'Asia' or are we 'Rest of the World'?
I hope that qualifiers are able to be held somewhere that Aus and NZ players can actually get to without travel costs becoming prohibitive.
|
I was about to say... australia is kinda missing! also while SEA is considered Asia, we've always really been closer to the SC2 community in Australia and NZ... are we the "rest of the world"? Lol, moonglade, champion of the "rest of the world"
Also, what's cool about this is that not necessarily pro names dominate battle.net. Progamers tend to practice strategies through custom games and mechanics on battle.net, building specific build orders so that they are prepared for a long series of games against a single opponent. Battle.net, on the other hand is more like the team league - one off games where u can pull anything against anyone and have a chance of succeeding. So IMMVP might be the best player in tournaments, but its overall solid play and constant thinking on the feet for National Battle.net Champs.
SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it!
|
I miss the WC3 b-net tournaments...
Where Blizzard would just announce a format ex. "1on1 Lost Temple" "1on1 orc only Plunder Isle" or similar... then a best of 8 games was played between all who entered and then a ro.16 would be held...
In this way it would be easy to make tournaments for all levels of gamers. "Bronze league tournament tonight at 20:00, map is Metalopolis" Rewards could just be more icons, or just ladder points....
Something like that... It could be incorporated sooo easily!
I just thought of this as I saw the world tourney sc2... :D
|
I will miss Blizzcon! BUT, I am excited about the fact that there is going to be a tournament out there that lays a crown down for the winner. Having the backing of blizzard will be establish the first legends of Starcraft 2.
|
We're approaching that 2nd quarter pretty soon. I'd love to hear any new details about this tournament. I heard Sundance talking about MLG and his plans for it being a premier league and being a competition to decide "best in world"and what not, and I realized I've largely forgotten Blizzard's tournament.
|
I can see it in my dreams now.
Blizzard hosts this event in South Korea
Shortly after the event ends we see a HUGE AMOUNT of top players switch over from Brood War to Starcraft II!
^_^
I really really hope wherever Blizzard decides to host this event they pull out all the stops and promote the shit out of it so that maybe, maybe Korea will understand ESPORTS MATTERS?
|
Yeeeeeeeeeehaw baby! this is big news
|
This is great news, although the "best" player changes so often in SC2, it will be so hard to crown a real winner.
|
really excited about WCS quick question though. why do stephano, socke, levin, fenix, killer and comm get direct seeds to the world finals after winning their nationals wheras players who won their nationals in other countries do not get a direct seed? i.e. UK, sweden and poland have arguably better sc2 players than france. yet the french national winner got a direct seed instead of having to participate in the continental finals
one other thing, if stephano has a direct seed after winning the french nationals, why does he even attend the european continental tournament?
thanks very much
|
On July 16 2012 06:59 DrBeansy wrote:really excited about WCS quick question though. why do stephano, socke, levin, fenix, killer and comm get direct seeds to the world finals after winning their nationals wheras players who won their nationals in other countries do not get a direct seed? i.e. UK, sweden and poland have arguably better sc2 players than france. yet the french national winner got a direct seed instead of having to participate in the continental finals one other thing, if stephano has a direct seed after winning the french nationals, why does he even attend the european continental tournament? thanks very much
I'm also wondering this and can't find any information. I'm going to get tickets to the European finals here in Stockholm and I've heard they will be released tomorrow. I guess Stephano would attend for the prize money? I don't know how the seed system works. Seems a bit odd that some countries gets direct seeds to world finals while Sweden with quite a few top-tier players didn't get any.
|
Where are all the big name Korean players? Can someone send me the link to the Korean games. When I click on Asia it's mostly players from non Korean countries. Where are MC, MVP, DRG, etc.?
|
On August 25 2012 12:54 whetherby wrote:
Where are all the big name Korean players? Can someone send me the link to the Korean games. When I click on Asia it's mostly players from non Korean countries. Where are MC, MVP, DRG, etc.?
they didn't manage to qualify through the koreans nationals
mvp and mc dropped out of the qualifiers because they forfeited after losing their winners round match to attend IEM cologne
a really interesting question would be: why in hell does NA get 7 seeds and europe/asia only 6?
that makes like now sense at all tbh...
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
