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eSports: A Short History of Nearly Everything - Page 16

Forum Index > SC2 General
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vitruvia
Profile Joined June 2009
Canada235 Posts
August 02 2011 05:11 GMT
#301
no, thank you.
what quote?
meegrean
Profile Joined May 2008
Thailand7699 Posts
August 02 2011 05:56 GMT
#302
14 years suddenly seems like a very long time
Brood War loyalist
DND_Enkil
Profile Joined September 2010
Sweden598 Posts
August 02 2011 07:43 GMT
#303
On August 02 2011 09:13 Micket wrote:
Wow, didn't realize so many games were so big. However, I gotta ask, were these people actually proper pro gamers, to the extent of sc bw pros. I know about fatal1ty and all, but I've also heard statements such as "true progaming doesn't exist outside of Korea." from the sound of this history lesson, this wasn't true at all. But I want to ask anyway.

Also, I've been brainwashed by the casting of artosis and tasteless about how starcraft is the most difficult and has the best players in general in gaming and how the mastery reached by players like flash and jaedong is beyond anything of another player of another esport. I want to know whether these other games were just as hard as starcraft and how much dedication each person actually had. Were people in training houses practicing 14 hours a day?


There where and still are full-time pro gamers for other games than starcraft. As far as dedication i belive they rival that of Korean BW pros when they practise as most, might argue that BW scene has held together longer but you would need someone with a real insight into the top top CS scene to answer that.

As for most difficult game that has always made me cringe a bit, like when a F1 rally commentator says that F1 is the most difficult sport there is. It begs the question: Based on what?

SC:BW is increadibly demanding from a APM standpoint, while in CS you talk about aim instead. Completely different skillsets. And one is a shooter and a teamgame, other is RTS and 1v1.
"If you write about a sewing needle there is always some one-eyed bastard that gets offended" - Fritiof The Pirate Nilsson
bokchoi
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Korea (South)9498 Posts
August 02 2011 08:06 GMT
#304
Oh the memories. I was around for/aware of most of this when it happened... O_O...
D.Devil
Profile Joined August 2010
Germany227 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-02 12:40:18
August 02 2011 08:24 GMT
#305
This text isn't supposed to be a 100% complete history of esports. Instead, its objective is to educate new SC2 fans about the backgrounds of what they see today. This is why I specifically left out many things that have no relevance to today (NiP, ClanBase, NGL ONE, ...) – almost everything I mentioned somehow gives more insight into today's esports (this is also why the guy who asked for a SC- and SC2-only history missed the point). This being said, the Korean SC:BW scene has been really constant. This is great for Korea, but gives me little to write about (I could have mentioned bonjwas and revolutions in strategy, but decided against it; if you know which OSL final was the biggest in terms of spectators, let me know and I'll add it). The same applies to fighting games and other communities.


On August 01 2011 22:42 hellgoat wrote:
Nice read. I remember you from the W:ET community where you had a short stint. If I recall correctly you were sporting a ukrainian flag back then.

Would've loved some mention of that game. Quakecon has had a couple of pretty big tournaments featuring the game, as well as RtCW. Though I guess coming from that community myself bias can't be ruled out :p

Oh man, Enemy Territory used to be so great, haha. It's how I got introduced to competitive gaming. Yes, I've had an Ukrainian citizenship until I turned 18 (even played for the Ukrainian ET national team, lol). Well yeah, as much as I enjoyed ET, I don't feel there's anything I can write about it. QuakeCon games were great, but all I could mention is their outcome, and as you can see I tried to avoid just listing tournament results.


On August 02 2011 02:11 Synapze wrote:
How inflated was the wc3 salaries? I played a lot of wc3 but I never really looked into stuff like that.. was WC3 really that big?

Of course, the WC3 salary story was more complex than it might seem at a first glance. Organizations weren't blindly throwing too much money at WC3, but there were several relevant factors. First of all, many WC3 tournaments especially in China became limited to a small amount of invited players and the ones that weren't regularly invited to such events were screwed. This was also the time when WC3 started to become smaller instead of growing further (also linked to the fact that SC2 would eventually replace it), and of course the financial crisis contributed to it strongly. In August 2008, Michal 'Carmac' Blicharz, full-time writer for SK Gaming at that time, wrote an article about it. Excerpt: "The monthly wages that players want to receive are between $500 for players that never win anything and above $5,000 for the good ones. If you want to have the absolute superstar team, then you need to be prepared to pay over $15,000 each month. Or closer to $30,000 if you are willing to believe the crazier rumours that go around."

On August 02 2011 09:13 Micket wrote:
Wow, didn't realize so many games were so big. However, I gotta ask, were these people actually proper pro gamers, to the extent of sc bw pros. I know about fatal1ty and all, but I've also heard statements such as "true progaming doesn't exist outside of Korea." from the sound of this history lesson, this wasn't true at all. But I want to ask anyway.

Also, I've been brainwashed by the casting of artosis and tasteless about how starcraft is the most difficult and has the best players in general in gaming and how the mastery reached by players like flash and jaedong is beyond anything of another player of another esport. I want to know whether these other games were just as hard as starcraft and how much dedication each person actually had. Were people in training houses practicing 14 hours a day?

People who say that true pro-gaming only exists in South Korea have pretty high standards for what they consider progaming. Of course, South Korea is leading in terms of professionalism, esports is part of its culture and everything – and the rigid training schedules of SC:BW pro-teams are unmatched. But it's less ahead than many people say, and interestingly, not only hardcore SC:BW fans, but also Western fans who were taught it from PR-focused interviews and articles (noone ever gets tired of mentioning how big esports is in South Korea).

Yes, there were and are plenty of full-time players outside of Korea. The thing is just, most of them don't make a big deal about it, so there's no real list or anything. Some teams also consist of both full-time players and students – actually, quite many top players officially go to university but only invest very little time into their studies. But yeah, SK, fnatic, Na`Vi, mTw, etc. all make a living off Counter-Strike just like Grubby, ToD, HoT and others used to play WC3 full-time. Quake was also played by full-time players other than Fatal1ty.

As in regards of mastery, this is really hard to compare. For instance, some people say SC2 will never be mastered in the same way as SC:BW was because the game requires less mechanics. Anyway, I think most people will agree that the level of competition is insanely high in Western esports, as well.


Also if this is in fact the real Lindsey Sporrer (which I have no reason to believe), this is now the sexiest thread on all of TL.
@larisyrota on Twitter
Crushgroove
Profile Joined July 2010
United States793 Posts
August 02 2011 08:52 GMT
#306
LOL at the "NASL invited players to offline finals.............

I know what you meant, but with this being such a fantastically big issue of contention between blizz and the esports community you could have chosen a different term.
[In Korea on Vaca] "Why would I go to the park and climb a mountain? There are video games on f*cking TV!" - Kazuke
Samp
Profile Joined September 2010
Canada783 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-02 08:58:40
August 02 2011 08:57 GMT
#307
Great read! I stopped following esport from 2008-2010, quite a lot happened during these years.
I remember that time when 3D went with CGS....ehhh..
Banelings, "They're cute, they live in a nest". -Artosis
LAN-f34r
Profile Joined December 2010
New Zealand2099 Posts
August 02 2011 10:19 GMT
#308
No sir.

Thank you.
The only barrier to truth is the presumption that you already have it. It's through our pane (pain) we window (win though).
monx
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Canada1400 Posts
August 02 2011 11:39 GMT
#309
Thank you good man for writing this. Best read since i am on TL.

I remember first hearing about E-sports when Guillaume "Grrrr..." Patry won the OSL. Well i just remember that i saw it on TV and was amazed you could get paid to play video games. I am just sad it didn't push to follow the SC:BW scene at that time. I lurked on TL a few years later but never registered until last year. Shame on me.

Anyway, hope you make a longer version out of this.
@ggmonx
goaga
Profile Joined April 2010
Romania36 Posts
August 02 2011 12:44 GMT
#310
Nice article! Thank you!
TheRidd
Profile Joined January 2011
713 Posts
August 02 2011 14:26 GMT
#311
Cool memories
Zoler
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Sweden6339 Posts
August 02 2011 14:43 GMT
#312
I'm dissapointed you didn't mention Ken "SephirothKen" Hoang.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Hoang

The guy earned a total of ~46755 dollars.
Lim Yo Hwan forever!
MCDayC
Profile Joined March 2011
United Kingdom14464 Posts
August 02 2011 14:47 GMT
#313
Very informative, I had basically no idea about the finer details involved in all the old events.
VERY FRAGILE, LIKE A BABY PANDA EGG
Micket
Profile Joined April 2011
United Kingdom2163 Posts
August 02 2011 14:53 GMT
#314
He didn't mention Smash at all, and tbh, since MLG dropped melee and recently dropped Brawl too, it is hard to take it seriously. As technically demanding Melee is as a game, the community is still childish to me. Recently at Genesis 2 (the most recent major international tourney), a member of the clan that organised the event thought it would be really cool to steal the $6000 prize money and then lied about stealing it and all that. A major before that, no prize money was given out at all due to poor organisation. At venues, there are plenty of thieves and immature adults. Basically, things that happen in that community are 'hurting esports', but it matters less because it isn't mainstream anymore (no teams, no sponsors, community based,).

MLG even dropped Brawl mainly because they were forced to DQ the top 2 seeds for match fixing (they chose to split the prize money, and so didn't play serious). You talk about Ken Hoang but did you know his brother organised a huge tournament, took all the attendance fees and ran off with the money? Ken isn't condemned for this act, but no one knows whether he was part of it or not. Basically, a general lack of professionalism. (the current best player at melee is banned on smashboards and this isn't even like Idra ban)
Spitfire
Profile Joined September 2009
South Africa442 Posts
August 02 2011 15:45 GMT
#315
Great article

I am one of those guilty of acting like western E-sports has only been around since SC II came out.

I've always loved gaming, but competitive gaming seemed some far off thing. All I knew about it was that the Koreans owned everybody and counter-strike was involved.

Then in 2009 I started following Pro Brood War in Korea, but I still had no idea about the western e-sports scene.

So its good to have it all laid out in an article like this. Excellent work.
Nonnar
Profile Joined September 2010
Sweden50 Posts
August 02 2011 15:51 GMT
#316
Thanks for sharing, I definitly learned a lot
sVnteen
Profile Joined January 2011
Germany2238 Posts
August 02 2011 15:52 GMT
#317
best thread ive ever read
especially since i am relatively new to the e-sports community


big ♥ for writing this
MY LIFE STARTS NOW ♥
Anchen
Profile Joined January 2010
United States31 Posts
August 02 2011 16:24 GMT
#318
Might want to mention some stuff from the Brood War History threads, I think they are still around on TL. Mainly that the Blizzard ladder tournies used to be the biggest "pro" tournies, until PGL/CPL/Various korean leagues popped up. Not sure how much you would want to get into details, but it is the PGL and blizzard tournies that started Grrr toward Korea and going pro.
D.Devil
Profile Joined August 2010
Germany227 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-02 17:02:39
August 02 2011 16:54 GMT
#319
On August 02 2011 23:43 Zoler wrote:
I'm dissapointed you didn't mention Ken "SephirothKen" Hoang.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Hoang

The guy earned a total of ~46755 dollars.

That's not even that much; quite a few professional CS, WC3 and Quake players have winnings in the six-digit $ area throughout their careers.

On August 03 2011 01:24 Anchen wrote:
Might want to mention some stuff from the Brood War History threads, I think they are still around on TL. Mainly that the Blizzard ladder tournies used to be the biggest "pro" tournies, until PGL/CPL/Various korean leagues popped up. Not sure how much you would want to get into details, but it is the PGL and blizzard tournies that started Grrr toward Korea and going pro.

I consider adding more stuff about SC:BW in Korea, but rather about its prime, not its beginnings.
@larisyrota on Twitter
tofucake
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Hyrule19151 Posts
August 02 2011 16:58 GMT
#320
too long, read anyway

Nice writeup ^^
Liquipediaasante sana squash banana
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