EPTOn October 13 2011 08:46 InsanityUK wrote:
Also, touching on what they said earlier, I have to agree that some of the hate shown to League of Legends and people who enjoy playing and watching it was disgraceful, people saying it's not a legitimate esport.
The SC2 community normally pride themselves for helping to further esports and really push it into the mainstream. Then some people (probably a vocal minority) act like this and make the whole community look bad.
Also, touching on what they said earlier, I have to agree that some of the hate shown to League of Legends and people who enjoy playing and watching it was disgraceful, people saying it's not a legitimate esport.
The SC2 community normally pride themselves for helping to further esports and really push it into the mainstream. Then some people (probably a vocal minority) act like this and make the whole community look bad.
I agree with a different point that was brought up related to that - organizers shouldn't try to shove other games down people's throats just because they have an "e-sports" label. There needs to be a separation of some sort.
When something that you really don't care about is forced on you and it lasts for hours, it's going to produce negative feelings towards the stuff that gets in the way even if there were none initially. Remember when the World of Warcraft fans were pissed off during the Bnet Invitational because they got to watch Starcraft all day? It wasn't so bad for us because we only had to endure brief stints of Arena PvP every now and then (and they had Soe <3), but it was still somewhat bothersome. The point is, it's almost always bad for everyone to have these things happen.
I missed the finals of IPL because of this. I just couldn't stay awake any more. It's normal to be upset about that, and it's even more expected from people that attend the event who have been around all day and probably tired as fuck.
Maybe booing is not the classiest of ways to express the dissatisfaction, and Wheat (I think it was him) was right when he said that a stronger message would be delivered if people just left the room. Either way, the organization and scheduling of the event led to that situation - I think the incident (which for the record I didn't witness because I collapsed -_-) made the organization look bad more than it made the community look bad.
There is something that needs to be said about the "legitimacy" of e-sport you brought up. Now I don't really care about the whole mainstream e-sport movement ideology... thing. All the stuff that happens around the game itself is cute but ultimately irrelevant to me.
However, from my neutral observer standpoint it looks to me like Starcraft dominates live events both in terms of fans and the way progamers are perceived. When Nada or Boxer were on stage at MLG, they were stars, and everyone could feel it. There are lines of people waiting for autographs, fangirls screaming and all that nonsense. That really isn't the impression I get from other games to be honest.
I'm not saying it makes them less worthy, in fact I envy other games that are still more community-driven than a professional sport. But from the live event standpoint, interrupting the flow and narrative of a Starcraft tournament that has reached boiling point to show another game which probably only a minority of the present audience cares about is bound to generate disgruntlement. It is what it is.
