[OSL] RO16 Day 1 WCS Korea Season 2 2013 - Page 104

On July 02 2013 21:48 ReDeYe wrote:


"Newcomers" - Interesting terminology to explain someone who has spent the best part of 11 years in esports at the highest level. Newcomer to StarCraft? Relatively I guess, although I've been on the fringes of SC since 2005. I'm also well aware of the history of OSL having worked with OGN since 2005 on a regular basis too, but that's not the argument here, so let me qualify some of it, which obviously can't be understood or explained properly in 140 charachters.

The WCS is a global competition run by partners in each region. I understand the OSL and GSL have history and I don't want to disrespect that history, but WCS is what the entire competition is now. My issues are around wanting StarCraft to appeal to as wide an audience as possible as I fully believe those who are exposed to it, will love the players, the game and the incredible community, ultimately leading to an even larger community.

To capture those however, there are many things that have to happen in order to help improve the entry for casual viewers. The key ingredients to successful esports and tournaments over the last 11 years of watching them are format and consistency.

If we establish that the basic thought behind the WCS is to bring all leagues, all players and fans together under one umbrella and (despite reservations over this) we accept this as the premise, it becomes a priority to ensure that no matter who runs each region, the map pools, the rules, the format and the nomenclature used is consistent. This is the essence of the argument.

Right now, the rules are inconsistent, the map pools different and the way it all plays out is intrinsically different in each region. I totally get OSL and GSL have history and I don't want to remove that, but it's time to move on. This is WCS and it's not the same as GSL (although mirrors this more closely perhaps) and it's not OSL.

Not only the casual viewer is unsure about it all on a global scale right now, but it seems a lot of people who have followed SC for a long time are confused about it too and it's not surprising.

Keeping heritage in esports is super important, you won't hear any argument from me on that. WCS is very special and should be given the prestige it deserves for the time, effort and money being put in by a lot of people to raise the bar for SC.