Korean teams withdraw from NASL - Page 49

On August 12 2011 10:20 Shalaiyn wrote:


Difference being...

if you are a korean and you are going with 3 other koreans to NASL, you know you're gonna end up in the Ro4 if you dont get cocky and you will make over 10k and you lose 5 days of your time.

If you are a foreigner, you will most likely get stomped by Koreans, made no money, and waste a lot of time, for the possibilty of 1.5k

On August 12 2011 09:31 D.Devil wrote:
This whole story is really interesting – it has so many thought-provoking aspects to it. My initial thoughts:

1. Do Korean teams have the right approach towards marketing?
It's no news to me that the Korean teams aren't superior to Western ones in terms of business and marketing. However, this whole event says more about their future potential than about their current stance. It should seem natural to everyone that, with SC2's huge global audience, you should aim to present and market your players globally instead of relying only on Korean exposure. Of course, this isn't an easy task for the SC:BW-like Korean teams, but if they haven't yet realized that they need to take on this challenge if they want to stay competitive – then there's something seriously going wrong.

Now, please don't get me wrong: I'm aware that the NASL is only one event of many and it has some issues that make it less attractive to Koreans – I wouldn't even argue if one of the Korean team managers claimed that the audience numbers don't justify backing the NASL. However, Koreans are also pretty rarely seen at other non-Korean events – basically, it's mostly only invited players who show up, with few exceptions. Therefore, I must assume that this observation is true regardless of what exactly happened here.

2. Are the Korean teams good enough at earning money?
Sure, SC2 is having a hard time in South Korea, but nonetheless it simply seems that there is a huge gap between the audience numbers/popularity/success the Korean teams generate and their team budgets. Guess what's going to happen if they fail at securing "appropriate" sponsorships (especially if they negate the importance of the global audience, as mentioned in point 1)? Well, I can assure you none of the top players are going to wear tags like oGs, IM or TSL if that happens (doesn't matter how great their team house practise conditions are).

3. How much influence does the GSL have over the Korean teams?
This being said: We can agree that this whole story sounds kind of weird when being told from NASL's perspective. It makes quite a lot of sense that GOM TV is opposed to the NASL – not only as a direct competitor, but also due to the partnership with MLG. It's also neededless to say that GOM TV has quite a good involvement in the SC2Con and is in a position to influence the teams' decisions strongly. It's not just interesting to see what this means for NASL, but also what it means for other event organizers or the global SC2 structure in general.

4. Is SlayerS going to surpass all other Korean teams soon?
SlayerS is the only Korean team that pays a lot of attention to the global scene and has people working for it who particularly focus on the stuff outside of Korea. It's neither part of the SC2Con and thereby isn't bound to its decisions. This means two things: 1. SlayerS has a lot of potential. 2. There might be a lot of tension between SC2Con and SlayerS, and who knows what consequences that might have.

5. Is this what happens if you're not one of the big players?
The NASL (deservedly) got quite some flack for focusing on the prize money so much instead of building up structures first. Is this already the proof that NASL was too careless? Maybe, I don't know. Let's just point out that neither MLG, nor IEM or DreamHack seem to face similar problems. Could this have been avoided through better correspondance and Korea-targeted business development endeavors? I don't know either. I just know that if I now want to create some huge event which I need to work with Korean teams for, I'd be more than careful. Anyway, it will be really interesting to see what the future holds for NASL. I won't make any predictions at this point, but this could turn out to be really interesting.

6. What role do teams play in SC2 anyway?
In esports' past, teams used to be financially strong market participants which contributed to the esports environment in various ways – and it was pretty much mandatory to be part of a professional team if you wanted to be a successful pro-gamer. Lately, the teams' importance seems to dwindle: There are almost only 1on1 events, the teams usually don't play a huge role, and often the travel expenses are paid for by the organizers anyway. We might be at a crossroads: Either, the teams gather speed and grow to a point at which they are mainly responsible for a player's well-being (and get more attention) – or the events will be forced to work with the players more closely if they want to make sure that the level of competition stays high. This might result in bad things such as league-exclusive contracts though, and in general I'm much more of a fan of the strong-teams model because the more diversified the market is, the better.

On August 12 2011 10:21 Everize wrote:
This is just ridiculous considering that Korean players have a chance to win 50,000$ which is way easier to win than GSL, and they still ask for "free travel" and accommodations? That is totally absurd, if you don't like the league and the rules, then don't participate in it, simple as that.

On August 12 2011 10:21 dAPhREAk wrote:
honestly, screw the teams. use a MLG exchange type program. you bring over 2-5 good koreans and you will get just as much views as if there were 5-6 teams of koreans. given the trend in tournaments, those 2-5 good koreans will make it to the end anyways and your viewership will soar. you can easily increase the stipend on a few players to make up for the alleged financial issues.

i still feel this is unfair to players in europe, asia, etc. I hope you will do the same for people like Sen and White-Ra because in my mind they are worth ten koreans as far as entertainment value.

On August 12 2011 10:18 silentrealm wrote:
Terrible terrible terrible....
Oh wait...who cares?
This tournament is the North American Starleague. It was never about the Koreans, it was about a foreigner tournament becoming as prominent as the GSL
It can still do that despite the stubbornness of the Korean teams.

On August 12 2011 10:21 Everize wrote:
This is just ridiculous considering that Korean players have a chance to win 50,000$ which is way easier to win than GSL, and they still ask for "free travel" and accommodations? That is totally absurd, if you don't like the league and the rules, then don't participate in it, simple as that.

On August 12 2011 10:00 Naughty wrote:
Cant say I blame any side for this, the Korean teams cant afford to send there players over seas, And NASL should not be forced to give them special treatment because of that.

Only thing I disagree with is SCCon seemingly taking the choice away from individual teams, even if the teams themselves don't want to it should be up to them no one else.