|
Ars Technica Article (4/1/2011)
It feels like the international professional StarCraft scene is happening organically, just like it did in Korea all those years ago. Local tournaments are being played every day for prize pools anywhere from $100 to $2,500, giving new players a chance to make a name for themselves before working their way up to larger tournaments, then challenge themselves to qualify for the big prizes. These big prizes are getting very large indeed: $34,500 in total for the TSL3, a rumored $150,000 for the IGN league, and a whopping $400,000 for NASL. Teams are forming. Sponsors are being found. Stories of future legends are being written. The only difference is that in Korea it happened in the local PC bangs, whereas now it's happening over the Internet so that the entire world can join in.
And join in they are. At the recent TSL3, viewership broke all previous records as over 50,000 people tuned in at once to watch the matches in the round of 32. They may not have all been in one stadium, but they were cheering just as hard as if they were.
The article speaks for itself. This is a mainstream tech blog that a lot of people subscribe to. Thought I'd share it.
The article highlights the transition from SC:BW to SC2 and some of the controversy involved.
The most interesting aspect of the article comes at the end where the author highlights the surge in foreigner activity and league creation. I think it is buzz like this about the emerging scene we've all contributed to that makes this article strike the right chord for me.
The foreign scene has reached the point where a curious role reversal has happened: Korean professional players are entering foreign tournaments, and not necessarily expecting to win easily as they did with StarCraft 1 at WCG. The TSL3, an online tournament created by Teamliquid.net and sponsored by PokerStrategy.com, is being broadcasted in English by popular names like Blake "Chill" Muzar, Marcus "DjWHEAT" Graham, Sean "Day[9]" Plott, and Mike Husky. It is also being rebroadcasted in Korean by GOM TV. The time zone inequity now works the other way around: it is Korean fans who are getting up at 3 in the morning to watch a StarCraft tournament. "It's what you guys do for us, right?" said a representative from GOM TV when discussing the matter with a TeamLiquid administrator. "Maybe it's our turn."
Also, I think the author hit the nail on the head when he mentioned the scene is growing organically, and because of the prominence of internet culture and connectivity, the scene is quite global. All in all, this is exciting publicity for the game and competitive scene we know has potential.
|
Cool article, but this is going to get closed because you put 0 effort into the OP. Maybe edit in some more content to keep it alive.
|
You should quote some part of the interview at least or explain what the article is about. It's a read-worthy article but I also can see his getting closed with this mysterious OP
Now it looks much better  Thanks ^^
|
They may not have all been in one stadium, but they were cheering just as hard as if they were.
Cool quote. Just imagining every person that was watching TSL 3 being in a stadium results in a fierce mental picture of ESPORTS awesomeness.
|
I gotta agree about the viewership. I was floored when I watched the Ro32 TSL3 stream and saw it sky rocket ABOVE 50,000 viewers! This was on the HQ stream only!
|
Now it looks much better Thanks ^
I just selfishly wanted the get the topic out there as fast as possible, my happiness and shock got the best of me seeing my beloved game in a mainstream tech blog.
|
Freakin awesome article. Ars is such a great site. I'm really happy they wrote an article like this to spread the word on how awesome E-sports is. The more people that know the better.
|
How about we focus less on what constitutes an ideal post and focus more on how awesome it is to find such a well written writeup on a well known site.
Here at tl, we know how awesome starcraft 2 is. Seeing the game get mainstream attention is exciting.
|
Great article!
Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
|
Here's to the hope that TSL3 finals hits 100,000 viewers on the stream.
|
On April 01 2011 14:29 Insouciant wrote:
How about we focus less on what constitutes an ideal post and focus more on how awesome it is to find such a well written writeup on a well known site.
Here at tl, we know how awesome starcraft 2 is. Seeing the game get mainstream attention is exciting.
They weren't really being mean about it. It was good advice and a weak OP would've been closed.
|
Good news.
On April 01 2011 14:07 jester- wrote:
I gotta agree about the viewership. I was floored when I watched the Ro32 TSL3 stream and saw it sky rocket ABOVE 50,000 viewers! This was on the HQ stream only!
... and I thought 20k viewers in HLTV back in the golden days of CS was huge.
|
This is exciting indeed!!!!
|
This is actually a really well written article. I enjoyed reading it.
|
i'm only hoping that jae, flash, stork, stats, bisu, fanta switch to sc2 in near future
|
Thanks for the post, so far really worth while article!
|
I've always loved Ars. I actually have Ars to thank for finding the Starcraft community, when SC2 was released there was an article about Husky, after watching about 400 Husky videos I found TL and Day[9]. I went from a one base Battle Cruiser nub to not that good in no time
|
Wow this is amazing, very excellent article!
Everyone like this on FB, spread it to your friends!
If there is one persuasive article to bring light to Starcraft, it's this!
(and if there's one impressive video, it would be National Geographic's "World Cyber Games" aka Starcraft World Championships xD)
|
The 50k viewers did only calculate the connections hooked up to the stream, the real number should be bigger. At least I was watching it with three friends.
|
On April 01 2011 14:37 Zzoram wrote:
Here's to the hope that TSL3 finals hits 100,000 viewers on the stream.
If that happens, you could say the TSL3 finals has better ratings then most digital cable/satalite channel tv shows....
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
