Gretorp joins It's Gosu as Team Coach - Page 6

On December 08 2011 02:43 -_- wrote:
I wonder why itsgosu thinks it needs the publicity. I suppose it has failed to break into the upper echelon of teams, but I still can't put my finger on why they think now is the time to make the push.

I'm also interested in whether Gretorp will actually do any coaching. Probably not, but it would be neat to see a team try to use one of their promoters for something else.

On December 08 2011 05:05 -_- wrote:


Reading this post again, it sound more negative than I meant it to be. That said, I think the Starcraft 2 community is very interested in the idea of coaches. If Gretorp is actually a coach, they should create a ton of video content where Gretorp is coaching members of the team. What would that even look like? I'd be interested.

If they don't, everyone in the Starcraft 2 community is savvy enough to realize that it was a publicity stunt.

On December 08 2011 05:18 rapidtransit247 wrote:
Dude, it's gonna be WeRRa all over again...

Wonder if this is going to impact his time spent practicing his casting skills for the NASL. Also, I've always felt that haveing a caster who's on one of the teams is a little like having chobopeon do unbiased reporting on EG. It creates a conflict of interest.

On December 07 2011 23:27 gruff wrote:
Nice, hope it works out for all. Will he continue casting or is this his full time job now?

On December 08 2011 05:08 Xeris wrote:


What does this even mean? Also, I struggle to find posts from you that aren't negative.

On December 08 2011 05:21 DoomsVille wrote:

Meh... most castors have some sort of conflict of interest.

Ex: Artosis was a member of Sixjax for a point in time. Tasteless was a member of EG. It happens and I don't think it's that big a deal. Everyone's biased in some respect.

On December 08 2011 05:43 -_- wrote:


Sometimes organizations try to affiliate themselves with a caster for publicity. For example, according to different members of sixjax, when Artosis became a member of that team, he didn't actually do much. Sixjax simply wanted Artosis as a member to raise its profile. If you've followed the scene, you've likely noticed a rash of casters being hired by teams without any set duties or any evidence that they do any work.

As for what I said about being a coach, if you read Reddit or Teamliquid.net, I'm sure you've seen several posts asking why foreign teams don't have coaches. Without a doubt people are interested. However, at different times players and managers of prominent teams like TL and EG have said that coaches would not mesh well with Western Esports teams (as opposed to Korean Teams).

A few points those people brought up include:

1) The coach would not be respected. In Korea, if a legend like Boxer with championships and lots of experience gives you advice, the players would listen. Outside of Korea, however, the few legendary players have retired and moved on to other things (with the notable exception of Mondragon). Why should a player listen Gretorp if A) he's a better SC2 player than him now, and B) he was a better BW or WC3 player than him in the past? What can he offer? Or rather, what would the player think he could offer?

2) Culturally, as a general matter, Koreans have proven to be better at submitting to authority than Americans and Europeans, at least in an esports context. Certainly, everyone has obeyed a coach at some point in their life, but Koreans have experience listening to Esports coaches. If a Coach told, for example, Stephano to switch away from a mass ling infestor style would he simply shut up and listen to him?

3) Finally, for a coach to be effective, he would have to dedicate quite a bit of time. Can teams afford to pay a coach enough money for him to focus long enough on coaching for the investment to be worth it?

Considering those difficulties, I would be extremely interested in watching Gretorp coach. And I doubt I'd be alone. That's what I meant by my previous post.