[IEM] Day 1 - Page 232

On March 02 2011 05:17 Vei wrote:
lol
solid coverage, no clear vods... people want eSports to take off yet this shit is handled like a geocities event, fuck that. this is why the GSL is the only thing people take seriously.

On March 02 2011 04:56 FrostShadow wrote:


It's not a fairy tale. When you see 2 great Koreans (TOP and InCa) at dreamhack perform less than stellar and 2 foreigners in the ro8 in GSL you realize it's not too big a skill difference. sc2 is really random right now, just look at this GSL. I'm sick of these incredibly shortsighted people make giant assumptions based on a tiny bit of data.

On March 02 2011 05:22 Shinobi1982 wrote:

And what does it say when countless foreigners who are considered to be "amongst the top" are not managing to qualify for GSL?
Pretty much only tournaments who have a decent balance of Korean and Westerner players is FXOpen.
See whats happening there http://challonge.com/fxopenis1
I'll go even as far as to say this. If Jinro or HuK do not win GSL within 2 seasons no foreigner ever will (unless someone gets the privilege to join a Korean pro team and live/train with them, not to mention the language barrier). It's just a pipe dream to believe that someone who plays SC2 as a hobby can be as good as someone who dedicates his whole life to SC2.

On March 02 2011 05:22 nihlon wrote:


I read the first 20 pages of this thread full of people whining about the streaming issues and how gsl was sooo much better. Then I started reading the last pages of the gsl thread for today and surprise surprise it was filled with people complaining about how crappy the gsl stream is, raging like mad. I don't know any tournament that have done a perfect job not even the gsl.

On March 02 2011 05:22 Shinobi1982 wrote:


And what does it say when countless foreigners who are considered to be "amongst the top" are not managing to qualify for GSL?
Pretty much only tournaments who have a decent balance of Korean and Westerner players is FXOpen.
See whats happening there http://challonge.com/fxopenis1
I'll go even as far as to say this. If Jinro or HuK do not win GSL within 2 seasons no foreigner ever will (unless someone gets the privilege to join a Korean pro team and live/train with them, not to mention the language barrier). It's just a pipe dream to believe that someone who plays SC2 as a hobby can be as good as someone who dedicates his whole life to SC2.

On March 02 2011 04:56 FrostShadow wrote:


When you see 2 great Koreans (TOP and InCa) at dreamhack perform less than stellar and 2 foreigners in the ro8 in GSL you realize it's not too big a skill difference.

I'm sick of these incredibly shortsighted people make giant assumptions based on a tiny bit of data.

On March 02 2011 05:27 Vei wrote:

last night yeah, the gsl didn't work, technical issues are excusable when out of every time i've watched the GSL live last night was the only time i couldn't -- i'll accept that, i am reasonable despite how fucking turned off i am by the IEM.

last night the IEM was delayed by 1 hour (first it said 12:00, then 12:30, then 12:45, then 1:00 and i was like ok fuck it). today there isn't a fucking clean page with spoiler-free VODs; how can you possibly want esports to grow when you forget the fucking BASICS? have fun having a eurocentric crowd if all you have is delayed 1 am PST coverage and no VODs available.

like, come on... but yeah I'm sure ridiculous people were flaming the fuck out of GSL for it being unavailable for ONE night.

On March 02 2011 05:30 Asha` wrote:


Then you say:



Dreamhack is a tiny bit of data lol, there have been far more instances of the results being the other way around *shrug*

Kaspersky saw 4 Korean based players invited to play 4 of the very top european players at the time (who were determined by group play). After the first round of knockout matches, it was only the Korean players left.

There have been 2 FXOpens that saw Korean players invited, both were won fairly comfortably by a Korean player.

Despite the prodigious foreign talent that has tried out for Code A, only one player has won a match in 5 attempts.

Today saw a Korean invite absolutely romp through a group containing some of the best Western players without even dropping a map.

Idra and Jinro are certainly proof that foreign players can compete at the top levels, I don't think anyone will argue that. It may be that despite todays domination a Western player does come out on top of the this tournament too. The point in general is that there are simply many Korean players capable of playing at that kind of level, while it seems increasingly clear there aren't that many Western players who can do so at the current point in time. Given differences in mentality, dedication to training, and concentration of quality practice partners, it subsequently seems likely that any divide will continue to expand rather than close.

On March 02 2011 05:22 Shinobi1982 wrote:

And what does it say when countless foreigners who are considered to be "amongst the top" are not managing to qualify for GSL?
Pretty much only tournaments who have a decent balance of Korean and Westerner players is FXOpen.
See whats happening there http://challonge.com/fxopenis1
I'll go even as far as to say this. If Jinro or HuK do not win GSL within 2 seasons no foreigner ever will (unless someone gets the privilege to join a Korean pro team and live/train with them, not to mention the language barrier). It's just a pipe dream to believe that someone who plays SC2 as a hobby can be as good as someone who dedicates his whole life to SC2.

On March 02 2011 05:37 hifriend wrote:

I would doubt that. Sc2 isn't doing too well in korea and with nasl and other leagues or tournaments with huge prize pools popping up, there'll be more incentive than ever for foreign players and teams to start treating the game the way koreans do. We're probably going to see a team house in sweden within a couple of months and it wouldn't surprise me if certain teams would try to set up team houses for the nasl as well.

On March 02 2011 05:27 Vei wrote:

last night yeah, the gsl didn't work, technical issues are excusable when out of every time i've watched the GSL live last night was the only time i couldn't -- i'll accept that, i am reasonable despite how fucking turned off i am by the IEM.

last night the IEM was delayed by 1 hour (first it said 12:00, then 12:30, then 12:45, then 1:00 and i was like ok fuck it). today there isn't a fucking clean page with spoiler-free VODs; how can you possibly want esports to grow when you forget the fucking BASICS? have fun having a eurocentric crowd if all you have is delayed 1 am PST coverage and no VODs available.

like, come on... but yeah I'm sure ridiculous people were flaming the fuck out of GSL for it being unavailable for ONE night.