On July 23 2011 10:35 Waxangel wrote: DRG FIGHTING!!!!!!
Oh, here's a semi article I had written up before I stopped trying to make it any good:
Did the EG's pursuit of TSL's Puma close the gates for many Koreans? As much as EG's Alex Garfield espoused the the need for Korea to open itself up to the international way of ESPORTS business, he may very well have become a detriment to his own cause.
Following the the news of Puma's enticement by a foreign team, Korea's two major SC II media sites PlayXP and ThisIsGame wasted no time publishing editorials calling for the hasty implementation of protectionary measures from the Starcraft II Conference (S2Con) of Korea. In fact, ThisIsGame reported that GomTV and S2Con had already felt the need the create protectionary measures before the EG-TSL ordeal went down. If that were not enough, S2Con's own columnist also chipped in with his opinion, brutally criticizing his own organization for their failure to protect the interests of Korean teams and players in this regard.
That's not to say that we won't see more deals like that between MVP and Complexity or oGs and SK. In those deals, the original Korean team retains effective 'ownership' of the player while the foreign company is merely subsidizing his overseas activities.
But the line seems to be drawn at Korean players making complete moves to foreign teams, and it may soon become a very difficult one to cross.
I think a great deal of this comes down to mere speculation, I expect with a sudden jump to stricter contracts a great deal of players are going to take a long, careful look at their options when it comes to playing Starcraft 2 professionally. This could probably go one of three ways.
1. The players and teams agree, perhaps totally or on a vast majority of terms when it comes to the adoption of new, tighter contracts. (this seems rather unlikely, considering that teams and players rarely get along so swimmingly, as evidenced by the genesis of KESPA in Sc1.)
2. The players decide to consolidate and agree to meet with team ownership and decide on rules that take into account the interests of both sides, as opposed to this strange view that team management is somehow the authority on all player considerations. (This seems likely, especially considering the already established players association headed by Junwi)
3. High profile players, ones who have the ability to make money anywhere, will scoff at tighter restrictions, potentially stagnant salaries and lockdows and seek out teams willing to shell out bigger bucks, more travel, etc. (Who knows? I could definitely see players with explosive recent developments of talent, see the entire HoSeo team haha, decide to strike out on their own so to speak.)
In the end, I really think it does the scene a disservice to be so explicitly negative about everything, AG acted as an American business should, the Koreans are reacting in an appropriate manner, and in the end these conflicts will boil down to mere growing pains as the Sc2 scene truly becomes global.
True, I may be being too negative. But I do need to point out that Korean progamers have proven to be one the weakest, poorly organized groups in the history of labor :o
As in, they're poor teenagers who haven't had much time to pursue interests outside of gaming. They're pretty much tailor-made to be exploited by people with money.
The arrangement is believed to be a first of its kind and will witness joint promotions and cooperation on a global level.
definitely not the first of it's kind, they need to learn some sc2 history. Fou and FXO merger? and that ogs merger for when ogs MC and nada go abroad. Anyways, I'm excited that DRG got picked up by coL, which means we will see him a lot more.
It's very similar to other deals, for sure. However, the way it's structured is pretty unique. I *believe* it's the first of its kind but I could be wrong. Props and respect to those who have already done similar things.
Isn't this exactly the same as the SK-OGS deal?
MC and Nada stay OGS in Korea, SK pays for their flights accomodation etc to international tournements where they will be wearing a SK outfit.
sk players cant go to korea to train
Maybe they could if they had players.
Maybe they'd have players if they didn't drop them all in favor of Nada/MC
This is a perfect partnering. The western Col members can go to korea to practice for a month or two when they have time (look how much better QXC is after a couple months in korea) and the MVP players have an avenue to play and have support outside korea.
I would actually love if this expanded in the future to become a name representation in events too, strictly for Complexity's Starcraft 2 brand. I doubt it would happen but it would be really cool.
I think about the sound of MarineKingPrime.WE and I feel like the .WE gives the Prime name a nice ring, it wouldn't work for all teams but it could for Complexity first, MVP last. With a coLMinigun.MVP, coLCatz.MVP, coLDrewbie.MVP, coLCruncher.MVP it has a nice ring to it, and on the MVP side, MVPGenius.coL, MVPDongRaeGu.coL.
Hopefully this goes beyond two players in the future, but baby steps are fine by me.
I feel like i'm the only one annoyed over news like this. I'm all for KR + the world, don't get me wrong, but I feel like this is just turning into the Yankees and just bringing in strong players to make a team.. It lacks that home-grown, built-themselves-up kind of feel.
Really awesome news and it sounds like both sides are going to win in this situation. The biggest winners of all of this though are the viewers. Seriously, getting to see more of Genius and DRG in foreign tournaments, YES PLEASE!
Really excited to see this happen, congrats to both organizations on this arrangement!
On July 23 2011 11:01 BionicSC wrote: Fnatic/IM next? =)
Fnatic recently got Rain, they have their token Korean. Mousesports still need theirs, so perhaps IM-Mouz?
IM and Startale have bunch of sponsors. Don't think they need a partnership.
HoSeo, though, now THAT's a team where a foreign team should want to partner with. Whatever that coach is doing, he has a team full of amazing players with great potential.
On July 23 2011 11:01 BionicSC wrote: Fnatic/IM next? =)
Fnatic recently got Rain, they have their token Korean. Mousesports still need theirs, so perhaps IM-Mouz?
IM and Startale have bunch of sponsors. Don't think they need a partnership.
HoSeo, though, now THAT's a team where a foreign team should want to partner with. Whatever that coach is doing, he has a team full of amazing players with great potential.
That's true, but I think alot of the value in a partnership is outside of things like $$$, its stuff like being able to communicate easily with the foreign scene, schedule things, get invited to events, and so on.
On July 23 2011 11:06 DuckS wrote: I feel like i'm the only one annoyed over news like this. I'm all for KR + the world, don't get me wrong, but I feel like this is just turning into the Yankees and just bringing in strong players to make a team.. It lacks that home-grown, built-themselves-up kind of feel.
Maybe i'm just a freak.
The thing is there is no foreign talent...all the new talent is in korea. 99% of the foreign pro scene are former bw/wc3 pros. Compared to korea where u have like 10 new gosus no ones ever heard of pop up every other week. Obviously u have to go where the talent is -_-
EPT
