TL interviews MLG's Lee Chen

Q: It's been a while since we last talked to you! How are things going at MLG and how are things going for you personally?

What’s up TL! Things at MLG have been incredibly exciting over the past few months—there’s a lot of news coming in the next few weeks before MLG Columbus. So things have been more than a little busy. :D

Q: First, this is great news for Korean and International tournament cooperation. How did this whole thing get set up?

I think it’s pretty exciting, and some of the details haven’t even been announced yet. There’s a great deal more collaboration going on behind the scenes which we’ll get to talk about in the coming weeks.

How did it get set up… well, guys like @Slasher and @MLGBen have been doing a lot of relationship building with the guys over at GSL (like @torchgaming). On top of that, the folks on the Blizzard eSports team made some introductions between me, @MLGSundance and the senior eSports folks on the GOMTV side, Mr. Oh and Mr. Chae specifically. There’s been a lot of mutual respect, and once we got to talking, it was clear that we had some common objectives—namely to grow eSports globally.

Q: What are short term goals for this partnership? What do you think MLG and GSL gain from this arrangement?

I think both leagues get a tremendous amount out of the relationship, short term or long term. In the near term, we both get to provide something that we think the global community has wanted to see for a long time, regular competitions between Korean GSL Pro’s and the top players represented at MLG.

It’s also a tremendous opportunity for us both to give a little back to the players. Travelling internationally isn’t cheap, and the League Exchange Program gives both of us a formal program with which to provide some players with travel, accommodations and expenses.

Q: How did you guys decide on the format and details? Did you have a sit down with GSL leadership? Who is on the team of people working on this within MLG?

There were multiple sit downs between GSL and MLG. I have to call out John Nelson, the MLG League Commissioner and his counterparts at GSL. Managing our own rulesets and juggling all the variables in our (cough) complex system is hard enough—tying that to another league’s rules and rankings while still trying to keep it as fair as possible to our own players is a herculean task. My brain was ready to explode on day 1 of our discussions, but John, with some guidance from MLG_Adam, figured it out was really the architect to most of the format.

That said, I want to clear the air on a couple of things here—this program is in its nascent stages. There are definitely a few things that we’re still trying to dial in, and I have no doubt there are some circumstances that neither GSL nor us have even thought of yet. But the fundamental principle is that it’s a League Exchange.

By definition, this means that each League recognizes the rankings, standings and qualifiers of the other league. It also means that the point is to foster relationships between the players and the communities as well as the Leagues themselves.

Q: How did you decide which players to invite? Why Bomber, Losira, MMA, and Moon?

A lot of this decision was based on availability. Because we couldn’t talk to players about who was able to come until the program was finalized and because GSL was mid-season while we working out the details, there was a very short time to make our invitations.

That said, we’re only looking at top tier players and I couldn’t be more happy that Bomber, Losira, MMA and Moon are able to make it to the inaugural event for this program. All four of them are outstanding players and the competition promises to be intense.

Q: Do you feel it's fair to seed these guys directly into the pools? How hard was it to decide on these format changes?

To answer this, I’ve got to refer you back to what I said earlier. I think if you’re going to have a true League Exchange Program, the underlying principle has to be that each League has to recognize the standings/rankings and qualifiers of the other League. So if GSL grants MLG players a direct seed into Code S/Code A bypassing their qualification system, that privilege should and is reciprocated by placing players directly into the MLG Championship Pool.

John Nelson had to do some “serious thunkin’” to figure out the format changes. There were so many things to balance: Where do we seed these players? How do we seed them? What does that do to the format? The schedule? How does this impact rank points? How does this look at the National Championships? And on and on. John’s done a great job of laying these out (see: http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/news/starcraft-2-pro-circuit-competition-format-changes ), but it’s pretty complex, so we’re going to be evaluating this over time. I think the foundation has been laid for a great exchange program.

It’s also worth pointing out that to accommodate the program GSL is also changing their format. Mr. Chae (@WoWnStarcraft or Parapa here on TL) tweeted that they would be making some announcements about this in the coming week.

Q: You guys chose some top performers who aren't necessarily the biggest names. Are there any plans to bring MC or NesTea or BoxeR or NaDa over in the future?

Yes. Nuff said. :D

Q: Is MLG worried that the Koreans will come over and roll through the competition like Ace did at IEM? Let's be honest, it'd be nice if Naniwa or Jinro or Huk or Idra or any former MLG champ took out a few Koreans, right?

I think I’d punt that question to the players and the community. MLG runs a league. We want our top players to be the best in the world. The format is designed so that ANYONE can take first place. It’s harder if you come out of the open bracket, but the point is: The player with the best performance at a tournament should win.

But personally? Yea. Hell yea, I want to see Naniwa or Huk or Idra or someone out of the open win out. More so, I’m from Taiwan, so I’d LOVE to see Sen take the whole thing. :D

Q: Do you feel the "exchange program" will have some issues of foreign players declining Code A invites? It's not an easy thing to move to Korea and play for a month.

I think that depends on who you ask. The biggest hurdle to spending a month in Korea is a financial one. This program takes that burden away. I think the chance to live in the “Foreigner House” and compete for a month in Korea, all expenses paid, is an unparalleled opportunity. The experience itself and what you could learn is something that I think is hard to pass up.

Some leading NA pro’s have already had this opportunity thanks to the support of their teams and sponsors (or the GSL). But there are a lot of players who haven’t had this opportunity yet.

Q: What are the long term visions for this partnership? Will we see more cooperative efforts in the future?

There are many things in store with this partnership that I can’t talk about yet. But the short answer is, Yes. You’ll see more cooperation soon and some things that won’t be announced for a while yet. There’s also a lot of behind the scenes action going on—one of the most important things is that GSL is going to be making schedule adjustments to accommodate players coming to MLG and we’ll be talking closely as the 2012 season schedule develops to coordinate more closely.

Q: MLG and GSL are very different events but both aspire to high standards of production and quality. What do you think MLG can learn from GSL and what do you think GSL can learn from MLG?

That’s way too big a question to answer here :D – I think the most important things to learn are in the differences of how each league operates. Both have strengths and there’s a lot to learn there. I plan on making a visit to GSL at some point this year to see their productions first hand.

Q: Ever since Dallas which was plagued with stream issues, MLG has been rolling out cool announcement after cool announcement. How much pressure are you guys feel for Columbus?

Dallas was rough. I slept in the venue 2 nights in a row. Both at a personal and professional level, I was pretty disappointed. As Sundance has said, we’ve taken a lot of steps to mitigate and prevent the issues we had there. Most of our “cool announcements” aren’t so much about being cool, but more about letting the community know the things we’re doing to address the issues we had and improve our events dramatically in the process.

But there are also many things we’re doing which are about growing eSports and specifically Starcraft II in North America and globally.

As one of the leading leagues in the world, and certainly in the leading live event in North America, the pressure and focus is always on us. But that’s how it should be and we also appreciate all the fans and the community as a whole supporting us.

Q: We hear two special casters from Korea might be coming. Can you comment on this at all?

Nope.

Q: We can't wait for Columbus, and I'm sure you guys are working super hard right now. Any last words or shout outs to those that make all this stuff possible?

Thanks much! I’m really excited to be able to share all the things that MLG has been working on finally. MLG Columbus is going to be awesome.

Shout outs should definitely go to some folks I might not have mentioned previously… The MLG Content team, Kyle and Lish (@MLGLish), for all the late nights prepping these announcements; John Nelson (because he’s absolutely the MAN), @Killa_KC (for map and rules testing) @ryuzilla (head SC2 admin), and @MLGStephen (who is responsible for integrating all these crazy formats into our tournament management system);

And of course, our new partners at GOMTV & GSL, Mr. Jooyang Oh and Mr. Jungwon Chae (@Wownstarcraft).

@MLGSundance gets a big one for giving us all an opportunity to grow eSports globally.

Most importantly, to the community and the fans, thanks for reading this wall of text and supporting MLG.

Hope to see everyone at MLG Columbus.