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[Opinion/IPL4] Much Ado About Nothing - Page 6

Forum Index > News
223 CommentsPost a Reply
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TheDougler
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada8304 Posts
April 20 2012 14:10 GMT
#101
Fantastic write up! I was too busy following HuK and Scarlet to notice Illusion's run, good for him.
I root for Euro Zergs, NA Protoss* and Korean Terrans. (Any North American who has beat a Korean Pro as Protoss counts as NA Toss)
An2quamaraN
Profile Joined March 2011
Poland379 Posts
April 20 2012 14:12 GMT
#102
On April 20 2012 20:19 Micket wrote:
Personally, I don't think that a few Bo3 upsets count towards foreigners doing passibly well. If we have sunk down to that level, then it is bad prospects indeed.


That's actually a good point...
colingrad
Profile Joined March 2008
United States210 Posts
April 20 2012 14:13 GMT
#103
On April 20 2012 21:39 LunaSea wrote:
Am I on the MLG Business / PR section ?

Ok, IPL did some mistakes with the stream and so but it certainly doesn't deserve this :
Show nested quote +
"What's truly behind this Korean 'domination' is a rather a silly tournament structure, terrible streaming, short-sighted choice of invites, and simple math."


I know that MLG begins in a few hours but still ...
Btw, still no DreamHack thread !
More bias plz !


the reason there is no dreamhack live report thread yet is it doesnt start until tomorrow and the threads arent made by TL staff they're made by people who are dedicated enough to keep them updated
For the Emperor!
Irre
Profile Joined August 2010
United States646 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-04-20 14:16:45
April 20 2012 14:15 GMT
#104
Because people aren't really enthusiastic about cheering on their own country in the olympics or anything, right? Local doesn't have to mean down the street from you, and you don't need to personally meet the competitors to still be excited about them. Most people will have seen their favourite sports teams maybe once a year, and even then it will be in a large city that is on average an hour or two away from them. They'll almost certainly never meet any of the players. Its really not so different.



This isn't really the same. The olympics are an event based around national pride and is a special event once every 2/4 years. This would be similar to the GSL world championship that they had, or even the blizzard events. A big open tournament that is on a global scale doesn't really fit that mold. And its not even a matter of most people cheering on from their own country, its more like everyone but people from korea vs people from korea.

This goes both ways....people that say "I ONLY want to see koreans" are just as harmful as people that get ridiculous over "foreigner scene". There are some truly good players out there from all over the world AT TIMES play code S level. but this whole idea of keeping track of series and results of tournaments based on how many sets a white guy took off a korean is just dumb. Sc2 is a Global sport.
TheDougler
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada8304 Posts
April 20 2012 14:16 GMT
#105
On April 20 2012 21:39 LunaSea wrote:
Am I on the MLG Business / PR section ?

Ok, IPL did some mistakes with the stream and so but it certainly doesn't deserve this :
Show nested quote +
"What's truly behind this Korean 'domination' is a rather a silly tournament structure, terrible streaming, short-sighted choice of invites, and simple math."


I know that MLG begins in a few hours but still ...
Btw, still no DreamHack thread !
More bias plz !


Yeah I thought they were a little harsh on IPL. It was a fantastic tournament.

Also "Silly Tournament Structure?"

Compared to EVERY MLG last year the tournament structure was just fine.

With that out of the way, I'm looking forward to MLG.
I root for Euro Zergs, NA Protoss* and Korean Terrans. (Any North American who has beat a Korean Pro as Protoss counts as NA Toss)
Warpish
Profile Joined June 2011
834 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-04-20 14:34:08
April 20 2012 14:31 GMT
#106
I have nothing against Koreans, on the contrary, I love them. However, IPL4 and MLG's had too many Koreans. If I wanted to see top Koreans fight each other i would watch GSL. Would anyone like to watch GSL with 40 Americans or Swedes? Would we even call it GSL?

Have you noticed that most top foreign teams now have Koreans in their rosters? Whether you want to believe it or not, Koreans taking all prize moneys from the foreginer tournaments hurts the foreign scene because programers can't pay their bills with good will.
Liquid`Jinro
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
Sweden33719 Posts
April 20 2012 14:35 GMT
#107
On April 20 2012 19:45 mrtomjones wrote:
Would be interesting to see if Illusion has a bad ass future ahead of him..

If Illusion isn't widely regarded as... top 5 foreigner within a year, I would be pretty surprised.
Moderatortell the guy that interplanatar interaction is pivotal to terrans variety of optionitudals in the pre-midgame preperatories as well as the protosstinal deterriggation of elite zergling strikes - Stimey n | Formerly FrozenArbiter
Sphen5117
Profile Joined September 2011
United States413 Posts
April 20 2012 14:37 GMT
#108
I loved this event. I say this with my favorite player being iNcontroL and while wearing an EG jersey at my cubicle-job on a casual Friday. (point being that both are a foreginer team/player)

Becuase first and foremost I love Starcraft 2. I love playing it and I love watching it.

There are things that go into making SC2 exceptional when watching. Sometimes it's storylines, but more often than not, and always of higher priority, is the skill displayed within the actual game. For this reason it's hard to sometimes see the intense disparity between fans liking foreigners and fans liking koreans. I understand that foreign fans have more of a connection to players from their countries, or that they have things in common with, but do they not also love the game of Starcraft 2 first and foremost?

I was super excited during the finals, because to me it represented Alive, someone who I felt was incredibly underrated given his ridiculously good performance in GSL 2012 Season 1 (seriously, don't just look at the results, watch the games), and Squirtle, who also represented someone who has had hype before and I've known to have the potential to be ballin'. I knew that no matter who won, an underrated, super-talented player would get a trophy they deserved (holy shit, did you see the path Squirtle had to take?)

So I guess, you can look at numbers of representation at these events and lament the foreigners, listing off players like Naniwa, etc who weren't in attendance, but who are clearly top foreigners, but can that also not be said about the Koreans? I could start naming some Code S monsters who weren't there as well.

The point being, it will always seem that Koreans have better representation even when participation numbers are equal, because odds are drastically in favor of any given korean pro being better than any given foreigner pro. I can see the ill feelings this might put in the gut of some foreigners, but I feel it skews our perspective to the point of trying to make excuses for foreigner showings in these tournaments.

What should we do? Well, I recall an interview with HuK from Dreamhack where he stated approximately (not word for word) that foreigners were lazier and less disciplined than Koreans, and that this lesser degree of dedication is at the heart of the skill gap with Koreans. I can understand how having foreigner champions on occasion might be better for tournaments as they are more popular and bring in more fans, but if anything I'm ashamed that such a thing is even a fact. As fans, we need to be more in love with the game and amazing play. If we as fans show that we love this entertainment as a display of skill (As well as a stage for our most beloved personalities), then these tournaments will benefit simply from having the best players win, rather than having the most popular win.

Besides, wouldn't such a shift in where the popularity and demand lie, if anything, be even more motivation to foreigner pros?

I say all these things with full knowledge that I'm not involved in the pro scene, and if anyone who is rebukes me, so be it, they will be more knowledgable, but it saddens me as a fan of the sport to see tournaments like this with amazing play go off and have incredible storylines not always involving foreigners (Nestea fighting anyone?) get negative treatment just because our beloved foreigners didn't claim the crown. I lament everytime my favorite foreigner pros don't do well, but I still know how to praise the game and performance of other players and love exciting, high tier play.

TL;DR: Can't we all just get along?
KungFuGhost
Profile Joined February 2012
19 Posts
April 20 2012 14:46 GMT
#109
I'm from the US and I actually cheer for Koreans and connect to them more then I do for foreigners. I just want to see the best players in the world compete, and it doesn't matter to me what country they are from. With the excellent Korean Starcraft 2 coverage we have on GOMTV now, many of our favorite players are Korean instead of foreigners. If foreign players step up and compete then great, but I personally think that at IPL and big tournaments, they should just try to get the best players period and not worry about if they are foreign or not. Patriotism is prejudice, and I generally root for my favorite Terran (MKP) over any foreigner he might face, and I would drive to Vegas to watch MKP, but I can't think of one foreign Terran that really excites me to go see in person. Is that bad? I don't think so.
laguu
Profile Joined October 2009
Finland278 Posts
April 20 2012 14:52 GMT
#110
On April 20 2012 21:44 Liquid`Nazgul wrote:
This is such a brilliant article. I hope IPL and other tournaments read it and learn from it, because there is so much valuable info in here.

We're going to try and do more opinion articles in the future. It might be there will be some disagreement over the content occasionally, but regardless we consider it a positive development to put articles like this out there.


This sounds great. I like these opinion pieces even if I didn't agree with them.
Arguing with a fool proves there are two.
FesteringJester
Profile Joined April 2012
United States3 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-04-20 14:57:46
April 20 2012 14:54 GMT
#111
I didn't read all comments before posting, so forgive me if this has been said, but wasn't Machine's run through the loser's bracket pretty solid? Took out Mvp, NonY, and DIMAGA, before falling to Ryung. Seems fairly impressive to me.
Edit: Also, this is my first post on TL (squeeeee)
I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts...
Arbee
Profile Joined September 2010
United States58 Posts
April 20 2012 14:55 GMT
#112
EXCELLENT article, and pretty much reverberates everything I have felt about IPL4. I love what IPL has been doing, but this time it basically seemed like they were doing a LoL event and a GSL event. And while I love watching some great LIVE Korean play, the way IPL4 turned out has made me question whether or not I want to send any players to IPL5.

huehuehuehue
Profile Blog Joined August 2011
Estonia455 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-04-20 15:05:09
April 20 2012 15:04 GMT
#113
I feel that VileIlusion kind of got overshadowed by Scarlett. Anyway kid is really good, beating 3 Code S players (as Terran!). Foreigner Terrans seem weaker than their Protoss and Zerg counterparts so it's nice to see him doing well.

@FesteringJester win over Mvp was a walkover win as Mvp didn't go.
Turboteckel
Profile Joined October 2011
Netherlands37 Posts
April 20 2012 15:05 GMT
#114
Can't say I mind seeing the top koreans take it all. If foreigners want to take the money home they need to play better. Simple as that.
Dodgin
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
Canada39254 Posts
April 20 2012 15:06 GMT
#115
On April 20 2012 23:54 FesteringJester wrote:
I didn't read all comments before posting, so forgive me if this has been said, but wasn't Machine's run through the loser's bracket pretty solid? Took out Mvp, NonY, and DIMAGA, before falling to Ryung. Seems fairly impressive to me.
Edit: Also, this is my first post on TL (squeeeee)


Mvp didn't attend the tournament so any wins over him in the bracket were BYE's.

So if you think beating Nony and Dimaga was a good run then yes, but taking Mvp out of there It's not that impressive.
Avalain
Profile Joined July 2010
Canada308 Posts
April 20 2012 15:08 GMT
#116
On April 20 2012 23:15 Irre wrote:
Show nested quote +
Because people aren't really enthusiastic about cheering on their own country in the olympics or anything, right? Local doesn't have to mean down the street from you, and you don't need to personally meet the competitors to still be excited about them. Most people will have seen their favourite sports teams maybe once a year, and even then it will be in a large city that is on average an hour or two away from them. They'll almost certainly never meet any of the players. Its really not so different.



This isn't really the same. The olympics are an event based around national pride and is a special event once every 2/4 years. This would be similar to the GSL world championship that they had, or even the blizzard events. A big open tournament that is on a global scale doesn't really fit that mold. And its not even a matter of most people cheering on from their own country, its more like everyone but people from korea vs people from korea.

This goes both ways....people that say "I ONLY want to see koreans" are just as harmful as people that get ridiculous over "foreigner scene". There are some truly good players out there from all over the world AT TIMES play code S level. but this whole idea of keeping track of series and results of tournaments based on how many sets a white guy took off a korean is just dumb. Sc2 is a Global sport.


Well, it is perhaps more similar to a sport like figure skating where the individual participants are representing their country. There are a bunch of tournaments every year around the world and people generally cheer for the people who represent their country. At the same time, I'm sure there are many who cheer for particularly strong competitors and really are there to see good figure skating. This is basically where starcraft needs to get to. It's not healthy for the scene to be dominated so much by one country. An example of this is curling in Canada. It's very important for other countries to do well for the sport to be considered legitimate.

Yes, SC2 is a global sport. The worry for many is keeping it this way. Foreigners need to be competitive simply because their success fuels interest from fans. Technically there aren't any people who want to only see Koreans. There are two kinds of fans: those that just want to see the best of the best play really good games, and those that want to see their local heroes succeed (and by local, I can mean someone from their country, continent, or even just foreigners in general). If, say, Sweden started their own GSLesque tournament where Swedish players dominated everyone including top Code S Koreans, then the people who want "only Koreans" would suddenly want "only Swedes". Both the obvious and most difficult solution is for foreign players to somehow pull up their games to stay competitive.
You know what unit really has balance problems? Colossi. Why, they look like they could be blown over in a stiff wind!
FesteringJester
Profile Joined April 2012
United States3 Posts
April 20 2012 15:16 GMT
#117
On April 21 2012 00:06 Dodgin wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 20 2012 23:54 FesteringJester wrote:
I didn't read all comments before posting, so forgive me if this has been said, but wasn't Machine's run through the loser's bracket pretty solid? Took out Mvp, NonY, and DIMAGA, before falling to Ryung. Seems fairly impressive to me.
Edit: Also, this is my first post on TL (squeeeee)


Mvp didn't attend the tournament so any wins over him in the bracket were BYE's.

So if you think beating Nony and Dimaga was a good run then yes, but taking Mvp out of there It's not that impressive.

I was not aware of that, so thanks.
I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts...
FuzzyJAM
Profile Joined July 2010
Scotland9300 Posts
April 20 2012 15:24 GMT
#118
It's pretty ridiculous to say "Think of all the foreigners who didn't show up to the event, that explains it!!" when at best 1/5th of the top Koreans showed up. Furthermore, if the best foreigners can cling to is "Yeah, well, we totally managed to win a couple series!" and pretend some foreigners had a successful event without even getting into the top 16 then you know there's a fucking huge gap.

Koreans are far superior to foreigners and the joke hype surrounding IPL3 "foreigner resurgence" was made up of hope and little else. It's not too bad, Naniwa is doing well in GSL and Stephano is still showing he can compete, but it's not like anyone can seriously pretend the foreigner scene isn't mid-Masters on average compared to the "GM" Korean scene. Get used to having only one or two foreigners who can seriously compete with Koreans for tournament success (i.e. not a couple bo3 wins) at any one time, it's not going to change (except maybe for the worse) until the entire foreign scene does and going into denial doesn't help anyone.


That said, I do enjoy opinion pieces even if I don't agree, so keep it up. :D
Did you ever say Yes to a single joy?
The_Darkness
Profile Joined December 2011
United States910 Posts
April 20 2012 15:25 GMT
#119
This article was very well written. If you have the data (and it wouldn't be a total chore to put together), it would also be interesting to see what foreigners' average Elo scores were at IPL4 and to compare that against their Elo's at other major tournaments. (The data exist, since you have the data base, but I'm guessing it would be a lot of work to put together.)
To be is to be the value of a bound variable.
The_Darkness
Profile Joined December 2011
United States910 Posts
April 20 2012 15:27 GMT
#120
On April 20 2012 20:16 DidYuhim wrote:
[image loading]

Foreigners winning against Koreans.


This had me cracking up -- Why is Bob Sapp wearing jean shorts, lol? (I think those were Japanese men by the way.)
To be is to be the value of a bound variable.
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