Starcraft 2 a failure in PCBangs - Page 17

On August 05 2010 03:00 ckw wrote:
Also, saying "Big money sponsors" only come from Korea is stupid. Maybe for BW but even in BETA US and EU had 3000$ tournaments bro, thats BETA! Just give it another half year and well have even bigger sponsors and Korea and BW will be left in the dust. Ah I can't wait to call Koreans the true "foreigners".

+ Show Spoiler +

On August 05 2010 03:07 UniversalSnip wrote:


lol, $3,000 dollars 'big money' :/

On August 04 2010 23:52 MightyAtom wrote:


I wish that will be the case and it would be great if that happened.
It would be great if the national banks of the US or EU became sponsors;
Celebrities like Tom Cruise and Justin Timberlake were having a break playing SC2,
if NBC and ABC made sub-stations broadcasting E-sports all day long,
if you could impress a lot of hot random chicks or guys that you play SC2 and are Diamond,
if the sports newspaper reported daily on the team trades and scandals between team managers,
if there could be permanent e-sports stadiums in the major cities,
and you got paid 60 to 100k a year by your sponsors.

A lot of you don't get this one point. What is popular in your view, may not be mainstream society popular. Its a big difference. In America or the west, do you really think that playing SC2 will make you cool or add to your nerdiness (sorry to be blunt like that) while in Korea or in Asia, it may not be the case. Even China tries to follow the Korea E-sports model and they are probably the only other example except for Taiwan or Singapore which would have a chance to launch e-sports as something mainstream. Without the mainstream aspect you can't get the long term and high levels of sponsorship.

No doubt that in the West SC2 will be huge and maybe once a year it will be the major papers for a huge tournament, maybe even 5 times a years and maybe this will last for the next 3 years, but after that without the mainstream support, its a bunch of nerds running around begging for sponsorship from video card companies (again sorry to be blunt). E-sports in Korea was always on a knife's edge in terms of sponsorship until about 5 years ago, before then only a few teams out of the whole had consistent sponsorship. It was extremely tough to establish in Korea. Now many people can look to the subcultures that are huge in the west like comic con, but again, its the level of what you consider to be e-sports and the sustainability (12 freaking years). I was with wcg when it first began in 2000 and 2001 and I worked with BattleTop in Korea, I helped established the first PC bang franchise in Canada and I worked with one of the biggest PC bang franchises in Korea and I've seen Giyom and Elky and Rekrul througout their entire career. I love to play, but I've always been on the industry side of things, and I'll tell you, I would love it if every country in the world had the potential to support a professional e-sports community, but, as a precedent only Korea has been proven to do so. I just got back from a trip to Taipei and met with Aztec marketing for their SC2 plans, and what they have is great, their entire set-up, in this gov't support youth center with a broadcasting studio, established leagues and 400 internet cafes supporting them and they are like less than 2% of what Korea is.

What your definition of e-sports is and what e-sports in Korea is totally different on the scale; so I complete hope that you are right, but regardless of social aspect that because we're all considered nerds in the west to be devoted to this kind of game, my main point is: infrastructure is what allows e-sports to be what it is, otherwise, its just a bunch of amateur leagues and one off tournaments, nothing to make a real career out of.

Now, I do have some insider information that there are some very major plans to provide this infrastructure for the west, and if can get by the social aspect of it, then great. But, I hope you get my point how tough it is. You guys shouldn't say, we don't need Korea. Even if it is popularized in the west and some how stabilized, where do you think the big money for the initial sponsorship is still going to be at, where the banks and major corporations have been shelling out millions of USD each year? Where is the west going to get all the data of how much return on e-sports will bring to their company? Korea. And if they say, 'well if its such a great sponsorship, why isn't Korea sponsoring SC2 now? ' What the hell you gonna say? Please people. You better get on your knees now an pray that Korea loves SC2 more than SCBW cause at least some of you guys could experience some of the most beautiful women on the world look at you with adoring eyes, at the very least. 'omg, you protoss player? I love you....' (sorry to be blunt ^^ I don't mean to use nerd in a negative way)

On August 05 2010 02:56 cHaNg-sTa wrote:
Korea doesn't really jump on the hype bandwagon.

On August 05 2010 03:16 UniversalSnip wrote:


This post was a little lacking in context, so let me explain:

A) 3,000 bucks aint shit. It's absolutely nothing on the scale we're talking about.
B) "Tournaments with money" doesn't mean a thing if those tournaments aren't accompanied by an infrastructure, and more importantly, a culture of competitive gaming. Magic: The Gathering has a pro scene with several major tournaments each year, each of which has at minimum a 230,000 dollar prize pool. There are literally thousands and thousands of smaller tournaments each year and dozens of online tournaments every day. Where do you think all this would go if Wizards of the Coasts went out of business tomorrow? To the bottom. Just because there's money in the system doesn't mean it can support itself on the strength of it's mainstream fanbase.

On August 04 2010 23:52 MightyAtom wrote:


I wish that will be the case and it would be great if that happened.
It would be great if the national banks of the US or EU became sponsors;
Celebrities like Tom Cruise and Justin Timberlake were having a break playing SC2,
if NBC and ABC made sub-stations broadcasting E-sports all day long,
if you could impress a lot of hot random chicks or guys that you play SC2 and are Diamond,
if the sports newspaper reported daily on the team trades and scandals between team managers,
if there could be permanent e-sports stadiums in the major cities,
and you got paid 60 to 100k a year by your sponsors.

A lot of you don't get this one point. What is popular in your view, may not be mainstream society popular. Its a big difference. In America or the west, do you really think that playing SC2 will make you cool or add to your nerdiness (sorry to be blunt like that) while in Korea or in Asia, it may not be the case. Even China tries to follow the Korea E-sports model and they are probably the only other example except for Taiwan or Singapore which would have a chance to launch e-sports as something mainstream. Without the mainstream aspect you can't get the long term and high levels of sponsorship.

No doubt that in the West SC2 will be huge and maybe once a year it will be the major papers for a huge tournament, maybe even 5 times a years and maybe this will last for the next 3 years, but after that without the mainstream support, its a bunch of nerds running around begging for sponsorship from video card companies (again sorry to be blunt). E-sports in Korea was always on a knife's edge in terms of sponsorship until about 5 years ago, before then only a few teams out of the whole had consistent sponsorship. It was extremely tough to establish in Korea. Now many people can look to the subcultures that are huge in the west like comic con, but again, its the level of what you consider to be e-sports and the sustainability (12 freaking years). I was with wcg when it first began in 2000 and 2001 and I worked with BattleTop in Korea, I helped established the first PC bang franchise in Canada and I worked with one of the biggest PC bang franchises in Korea and I've seen Giyom and Elky and Rekrul througout their entire career. I love to play, but I've always been on the industry side of things, and I'll tell you, I would love it if every country in the world had the potential to support a professional e-sports community, but, as a precedent only Korea has been proven to do so. I just got back from a trip to Taipei and met with Aztec marketing for their SC2 plans, and what they have is great, their entire set-up, in this gov't support youth center with a broadcasting studio, established leagues and 400 internet cafes supporting them and they are like less than 2% of what Korea is.

What your definition of e-sports is and what e-sports in Korea is totally different on the scale; so I complete hope that you are right, but regardless of social aspect that because we're all considered nerds in the west to be devoted to this kind of game, my main point is: infrastructure is what allows e-sports to be what it is, otherwise, its just a bunch of amateur leagues and one off tournaments, nothing to make a real career out of.

Now, I do have some insider information that there are some very major plans to provide this infrastructure for the west, and if can get by the social aspect of it, then great. But, I hope you get my point how tough it is. You guys shouldn't say, we don't need Korea. Even if it is popularized in the west and some how stabilized, where do you think the big money for the initial sponsorship is still going to be at, where the banks and major corporations have been shelling out millions of USD each year? Where is the west going to get all the data of how much return on e-sports will bring to their company? Korea. And if they say, 'well if its such a great sponsorship, why isn't Korea sponsoring SC2 now? ' What the hell you gonna say? Please people. You better get on your knees now an pray that Korea loves SC2 more than SCBW cause at least some of you guys could experience some of the most beautiful women on the world look at you with adoring eyes, at the very least. 'omg, you protoss player? I love you....' (sorry to be blunt ^^ I don't mean to use nerd in a negative way)

On August 05 2010 03:21 travis wrote:


comparing mtg to computer games doesn't make any sense at all

wizards of the coast makes more money by selling more cards, so it's in their interest to create more desire to buy more cards. they make money with bigger prize pools.

mtg is just in a different department than computer games, financially. why would you even bother making this comparison. how much money does a good mtg deck cost? how much money does sc2 cost? how much money does your new deck 6 months later cost? how much money does your sc2 expansion 18 months later cost?

"Tournaments with money" doesn't mean a thing if those tournaments aren't accompanied by an infrastructure, and more importantly, a culture of competitive gaming. Just because there's money in the system doesn't mean it can support itself on the strength of it's mainstream fanbase.

On August 05 2010 03:27 UniversalSnip wrote:


You're ignoring my point. Hint: I know sc isn't a card game.

Here's the core of the post:

Is SC2 being popular in Korea a sign of its popularity everywhere else? Like you stated, of course not. However, the greatest chance of SC2 becoming a big-time E-Sport will probably be Korea because of the stigmas attached to competitive gaming.