EPTI have had it confirmed by three sources, all of which were adamant that they go unnamed, that MLG Columbus would have participants from South Korea. Each of the sources were either close to or affiliated with the Major League Gaming organization. While details are still scarce, I have been told that official news from MLG about who in particular will be attending will be released by the end of this weekend.
The Major League Gaming circuit was already considered by many to be America’s shining star when it came to ‘offline’ Starcraft events. It would seem that now, with the South Korean attendees confirmed, that the international community realizes its merit as a first class competition. While I’m almost certain Korean players would have always loved to participate in the MLG events, Columbus marks the first time that they actually have. This means that the MLG tournaments are now considered either lucrative or prestigious enough by the South Korean teams to warrant the travel expenses from overseas. While that might not seem like a big admission, I assure you it is. I know that American teams currently spend between $800 and $1,000 per player to get them to the larger domestic tournaments; I can only imagine it would be at least two or three times that per player that comes from Korea.
Major League Gaming CEO Sundance DiGiovanni has stated on numerous occasions that he thought 2011 would be a standout year for the company, and it would seem like he is a man of his word. This is significant news. Korean players participating in the tournaments is a big step forward for both the company and the competitive scene. Often the community asks how the Americans, Europeans, and Koreans stack up against one another, and now we’ll have a event every two months that we can cite in our region-to-skill based arguments.
It will be interesting to see what this does to the MLG Bracket. If one takes a second and reflects on the IEM World Finals in Hanover from earlier this year, we might be inclined to think that the Koreans will blow through the foreign competition without a problem. After all, at IEM we saw two relatively unknown Korean players do work against some of the most well known and respected foreigners in the world. Then again, the Koreans didn’t do as well as I was expecting them to do in the TSL. Thorzain even managed to drop oGsMC when they both played from the same region.
As details come in, I’ll be sure to post updates. I’ve had a difficult time trying to get confirmations on the players that will be in attendance, but it’s something that I’m working on.
The Major League Gaming circuit was already considered by many to be America’s shining star when it came to ‘offline’ Starcraft events. It would seem that now, with the South Korean attendees confirmed, that the international community realizes its merit as a first class competition. While I’m almost certain Korean players would have always loved to participate in the MLG events, Columbus marks the first time that they actually have. This means that the MLG tournaments are now considered either lucrative or prestigious enough by the South Korean teams to warrant the travel expenses from overseas. While that might not seem like a big admission, I assure you it is. I know that American teams currently spend between $800 and $1,000 per player to get them to the larger domestic tournaments; I can only imagine it would be at least two or three times that per player that comes from Korea.
Major League Gaming CEO Sundance DiGiovanni has stated on numerous occasions that he thought 2011 would be a standout year for the company, and it would seem like he is a man of his word. This is significant news. Korean players participating in the tournaments is a big step forward for both the company and the competitive scene. Often the community asks how the Americans, Europeans, and Koreans stack up against one another, and now we’ll have a event every two months that we can cite in our region-to-skill based arguments.
It will be interesting to see what this does to the MLG Bracket. If one takes a second and reflects on the IEM World Finals in Hanover from earlier this year, we might be inclined to think that the Koreans will blow through the foreign competition without a problem. After all, at IEM we saw two relatively unknown Korean players do work against some of the most well known and respected foreigners in the world. Then again, the Koreans didn’t do as well as I was expecting them to do in the TSL. Thorzain even managed to drop oGsMC when they both played from the same region.
As details come in, I’ll be sure to post updates. I’ve had a difficult time trying to get confirmations on the players that will be in attendance, but it’s something that I’m working on.
Source: http://www.sixjaxgaming.com/wp/scii/2011/05/12/mlg-columbus-to-feature-korean-participants/
Soo stoked for Columbus!
EDIT:
![[image loading]](http://imageshack.us/m/854/7086/streamu.jpg)
