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If professional Starcraft 2 players want to be considered one of the best in the game, then it’s important that they go to Korea and compete in the GSL. Starcraft pros should want to go to Korea to compete and test their skills with the best in the world. Without experiencing and participating in the GSL, the pros will just be good, but never the crème of the top.
Let’s face it. The GSL is the peak, the pinnacle, and the top of Starcraft 2 tournaments. There is nothing that comes close to it. Whether, it’s the competition, the prize money, or the production value, GSL is where one truly makes their name. Sure Jinro won MLG Dallas, which brought him recognition. However, his accomplishments in the GSL bolted him to elite and revered status. It made him an icon in the Starcraft 2 world and arguably in e-sports.
Those who aspire to be at the elite level of Starcraft, but do not go to Korea will never be considered the best. They will never reach the status of being an iconoclastic figure, nor will they truly be great. They’ll just be good. If you don’t want to be just good, then go to Korea for the GSL.
Not only do professional players need to go to Korea for the GSL, the Starcraft teams need to step up and provide the necessary support to send them to the GSL. Sending them for a couple days, doesn’t count. Teams need to invest and make sure that their players have the opportunity to train, practice, and compete in Korea for a long haul.
Some teams have the foresight and vision to send their players to the best tournament in the world. It shows that they understand what it takes to be the preeminent teams in the world. I would like to give shoutout to these particular teams who have sent players to the GSL.
Team Liquid- They have sent 5 players (TLO, Huk, Jinro, Ret, and Haypro) to compete in the GSL. Moreover, they have partnered with oGs to have a team house. Is it coincidence that Team Liquid is revered and considered the best team in the world?
EG- They have Idra and have stated that they plan to have a team house in Korea sometime around February. EG and its player understand how it’s important to have a strong presence in the GSL.
VTGaming- Not only do they have Torch, but they also sent their manager and VTSpades to live and compete in the GSL.
FXOpen- The team has sent Moonglade to live in the foreigner and compete in the GSL. They have stated that more are on the way in the future.
The other Starcraft 2 teams need to step up. They need to be willing to provide the support and opportunity to their players to compete in the GSL. The teams need to be in it for the long-haul. If the teams aren’t competing in the GSL, you’ll just be considered good, but never great.
There are some teams (the big ones that can afford to spend money) that seem to have no interest in sending their players to the GSL and compete. It is a shame and a travesty. I urge the players to lobby their managers and team owners to send them to Korea and compete. If the teams do not support you, I suggest you switch teams that are more willing to be great and not just good.
If you have the desire to be one of the best, move to Korea and compete for the GSL.
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A lot of foreigners value money more than fame or "legendary status", and would prefer to live in their own countries and make more playing regional/Western tournaments without giving up everything they have and going to Korea.
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It's mainly because of the high prize pool GSL offered.
If a regular tourney series in Europe/America offered 85000$ while there wasn't anything comparable in Korea for SC2 people would aim to play there. It's all about the money.
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as GSL is probably the most advertised of any sc2 tournys, the best of the best go because of the huge prize pool. Wouldn't even be a code A if the prize was like 200$. But yea, if teams want to really get their name out there and win some money in front of thousands of e-viewers, Seoul Korea is the place to be.
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I think your counting chicks before they hatch. Just because Koreans dominated Sc1 doesn't mean they will dominate Sc2. Using Wc3 as an example Grubby was considered the best in europe and Moon was considered the best in korea and even tho for much of 2004-2007 they didn't compete in eachothers leagues they were both still considered "the best". That aside, there is still a very huge room for improvement as far as sponsorships and financing so far as NA esports is concerned. But it definately as improved by a huge amount with several NA pro teams and MLG.
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Team Liquid is the best team in the world..? They're good but.. I wouldn't say best in the world..
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On February 01 2011 03:23 rift wrote:
A lot of foreigners value money more than fame or "legendary status", and would prefer to live in their own countries and make more playing regional/Western tournaments without giving up everything they have and going to Korea.
gsl is most money than any other tournament 1st place is winning middle class yearly pay in america like 50grand ppl work 8 hours a day all year to make that much :l
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I think White-Ra put it nicely in his recent interview after winning the TSL qualifier.
GSL is just one tournament, if you put your time and money to go there for one tournament, yes GSL is very good but you lost too much time and investment. You can't play EU online leagues, Black Dragon, and many others. Also I make commitment to all these leagues and I can't just turn my back and refuse. There are many tournament in USA and Europe too, like MLG, IEM, Dreamhack, Assembly, and England too. If you live in Korea you just play one.
GSL is only big because of the money. If it were anywhere other than Korea, it would be much more popular.
On February 01 2011 03:29 Xeleron wrote:Show nested quote +On February 01 2011 03:23 rift wrote:
A lot of foreigners value money more than fame or "legendary status", and would prefer to live in their own countries and make more playing regional/Western tournaments without giving up everything they have and going to Korea. gsl is most money than any other tournament 1st place is winning middle class yearly pay in america like 50grand ppl work 8 hours a day all year to make that much :l
Only one person wins first place though. More tournaments = more chances to win. One GSL = Putting all your eggs into one basket.
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I wonder if there will be Jaedong vs. Flash type rivalry in SC2 anytime soon. It certainly would bring much more interest to the scene.
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honestly, enjoy watching the MLG games than the GSL games. I find that the skill in the MLG games tends to better or at least more closely matched, providing more entertaining games. This could be because the GSL casts every single game whereas, MLG selects a few to cast. I'm just not sure if I'd count GSL as THE sc2 tourney just yet. Yes the prize money is there, but it's too early to say if the skill there is dominant over every other tourney.
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I don't think it was ever really argued that GSL has the best players, but your reasoning behind it seems so generic. You can't say that the best foreigners NEED to go to Korea for by not doing so, they are only hurting themselves because its not true.
Sjow could probably do great in the GSL, but it would take 2 months just to have the CHANCE to move up to code S, and another month and a half to see any sort of payout. Optimistically he could get top 8 in code S which would net maybe 5k USD. That amount in the time taken is quite minuscule in the grand scheme when we're seeing how much players like him and Whitera have been able to make playing in foreigner tournaments.
Another example is Huk, who has now been in Korea for 3 months or so and not netted anything due to the inability to play in foreign tournaments. If he had been able to do so he'd have made a lot more, but now he's finally getting his chance to play in Code A and we'll hope the best out of him.
Don't shit on the foreigners and foreign teams for not sending their players over. There is a gain to doing so but in the end the risk reward actually balances out to the point where keeping foreigners in Europe or NA will be more beneficial.
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It's very true but also a big problem.
It's holding Esports back.
Not only do you have to excel in SC2, you also have to leave everything behind and go live in a foreign country if you want to be the best.
It's funny, since 1 of the great things about Esports is that it allows you to play from your home vs anyone everywhere.
Blizzard already ruined that aspect by not allowing you to play on other servers, but the fact that so many great players cannot compete in the biggest league, because they want to live with their friends and family, is not good.
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Calgary25980 Posts
Why?
Simple risk/reward analysis says you shouldn't move to Korea if you want to make money.
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I think top teams like Dignitas and Empire should work to see if they can create a true progamer atmosphere outside of Korea. That seems to be what's missing and what keeps the EU and NA scenes from being as refined and skilled as the Korean one. I think that certainly the talent is there.
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iem finals will have a very high prize pool. Probably around 30k Euro for the first place.
If you play for the money Korea is probably not the best choice with all those online tournaments and leagues.
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Uh heres for most of the good foriengers
Korea
.0001% chance to win 50k every month
EU/NA/SEA
50% chance to win a few thousand each month
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It's more than money for a lot of the players. It's an experience you can't really put a price on while playing a game you love for the chance to win money for all your hard work.
I'd never do it, but if I had the chance I wouldn't pass it up.
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On February 01 2011 03:35 Chill wrote:
Why?
Simple risk/reward analysis says you shouldn't move to Korea if you want to make money.
If you just want to make money, then sure you can compete in the smaller tournaments. But, you'll never be considered great compared to a foreigner competing in the GSL.
Take Grrr for example. Even after all these years, he's still revered for winning a star league. Player's like Nony who competed in Korea is revered and has legendary status. I don't think people who don't go to korea will ever achieve anything similar.
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I consider MVP to be the best player on the planet currently and GSL to be the best measure of the strongest players.
However I believe we will eventually have international events like WCG where the best foreign players can prove themselves against the top GSL players.
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If teams do care about money than they wouldn't really wanna go to gsl. Now you have to make top 8 of code A JUST to have a chance of making it to code S, where you start making money. But thats a long and difficult task. Look how long it took jinro. Torch qualified once and he's been there from the start. White ra made more money last 2 weeks than any1 in code A
Edit: white ra is also revered and he's not in Korea for sc2
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EPT
