[GSTL] 2012 Season 1 Grand Finals - Page 474

On April 08 2012 15:00 LF9 wrote:
You shouldn't comment on this if you didn't see the actual game . . . no amount of outrage generated by this would surprise me short of the internet exploding.

I'm 100% neutral when it comes to MKP, Prime, Startale, etc. and I only watch SC2 to learn about the game and enjoy high level SC2, but the general consensus is that Parting won the deciding battle against MKP and the only thing left for Marineking to do was type "gg". I happen to agree with this consensus, simply because I watched the match and I play SC2 myself. You can argue almost anything you want, but to say Parting could have lost it is insane. It's not his fault that the drop happened and that Blizzard did not include LAN into SC2, nor is it the fault of Prime, Startale, or Parting. It just happened to occur right after Parting won a game deciding battle. LAN or the ability to re-load a game would help, but people are overlooking something, I think; this occurrence foiled Startales entire strategy for winning the finals.

It is clear to see what ST intended to do: send out a solid, versatile player who is a known specialist in PvT yet good enough to win against players that aren't ace-level, so Prime would be forced to send out Marineking and Parting could snipe him. They had the lineup prepared very carefully, and it was insanely obvious that Parting was specifically prepared to take on MKP by the way the game played out, and that the other ST players were not. If they could get an early lead and snipe MKP without using Curious, Bomber, etc. they would demoralize Prime like crazy as well as giving every player in their lineup a match vs a player that have at LEAST a 50% chance to win against. MKP could all-kill ST and they knew it, so they picked one player to train up to eliminate him so the rest of the series would play out; it's easier to train just Parting because he's one player, PvT is one matchup, and he's already a PvT expert. This was their secret weapon, basically. And when the drop happened and the decision was made, Parting was almost certainly demoralized; he had done his job, and now he had to try to RE-SNIPE the ace player AFTER revealing his hand. He had to beat MKP twice, a tall order no doubt. Once the re-game was called, the series was decided. ST was outraged, they did not make a secret about it.

When this backfired and MKP beat Parting's build in round two after getting a 26 minute feel for it, the entire team of ST was demoralized; angry, upset, defeated, DEMORALIZED. They had been cheated, and they knew it. Marineking knew it. Anyone watching could see it in his face after round 2. He knew he had just won a game that never should have been played. Startale was left to throw unprepared knight after knight at the dragon they had already slain. The demoralizing happenings were as much of an effect as the fact that their strategy backfired because instead of sniping Prime's ace, they had drawn him out and had no way to take him back down. That's just how it played out. Had the drop and subsequent poor decision never taken place, Parting might have lost the next game, but the rest of the team would be prepared for their matches and not over-matched. But it was not to be.

Whoever made the decision is just as responsible as Blizzard, perhaps more so, for the tainted final, the giant bold asterisk next to it, and the resulting explosion of anger and outrage from the community. No one will remember this for anything other than the Parting/MKP fiasco, ever. But more unfortunate than Prime's tainted image is MKP's lack of sportsmanship, in my opinion. As I said, I am not a fan of anyone or any team in particular, but Marineking seems like a nice kid. He obviously knew he lost, and had a very guilty look on his face after the rematch. But if he had great sportsmanship, he could have easily circumvented the "impossible" decision made by who-knows-what-morons; a simple SCV rush (re: naniwa) or the like would have righted the wrong, given Parting the much deserved win, and been an ENORMOUS display of good sportsmanship. It most likely would have drawn a standing ovation, and it certainly would have drawn intense respect from anyone intelligent on the internet. The GSTL trophy is tainted, and Prime is tainted for having it. Marineking should have forfeited round two, recognizing his loss and showing great sportsmanship. It didn't HAVE to be this way. However, I have a low opinion of MKP now due to his failure to stand up and refuse to be bound by morally wrong decisions and, probably the fault of Prime, a hunger for victory that overpowers a respect for sportsmanship, the game, and one's fellow players. `He is a great player, but Prime has many very talented players and would have been QUITE capable of going on and defeating ST had Parting's win counted.

I now have a deep skepticism of Prime and Marineking's sportsmanship, and extreme apprehension toward GOMTV, both as an organization, and especially the people at GOMTV themselves who make the decisions. I saw their morals on full display in Las Vegas, and I didn't like what I saw. I didn't like seeing e-sports being disrespected and competitive SC2 be not only made a mockery of, but also upstaged by controversy created by the game's lack of a feature (LAN) which it's predecessor had when it was released in early 1998. I wouldn't want to be in GOM's or Blizzard's shoes right now, and I look forward to a swift emergence by a competitor to GOM (even if it is KeSPA) in Korea. As for Blizzard, they saw the same shitstorm we all did, and also tasted it because about half of it smacked them right in the face, and apparently no amount of public outrage is going to sway their decision on LAN. They know HotS will be bought anyway. They know gamers vote with their wallets while expressing their real opinions via the internet, and that they can get away with selling you a car without an engine for the price of a normal car by telling you it "is hundreds of pounds lighter than the leading model".

As esports becomes bigger (or doesn't), it's important to remember that you, as a consumer, have a right to accountability for issues with the game or with organizations, and to use money as your endorsement. If you are displeased by an event, refuse to purchase a single pass to anything it hosts until it corrects the issue or goes bankrupt. If you are displeased with a game, refuse to purchase any expansions released by the company. While they both speak at events and praise viewers and fans for loving esports and professing to love esports themselves, money is the only language they truly understand and respond to. A 20% drop in sales is worth more than twenty million upset emails. I hope more events are sportsmanlike and fair in the future and avoid making GOM's mistake, and I also hope that Blizzard somehow, someday gets the message and realizes that if they want to market a game which by happenstance has a giant esports market that this type of thing will happen more often with every mistake they make, their brand will be stamped on every public fiasco, and that it is monetarily beneficial to implement any feature that will make it more esports friendly and prevent huge issues at events viewed by people all over the world. They continue to see things happen that could directly be prevented by LAN and I hope that whoever makes THIS decision starts to understand before it's too late.