So, we have all seen the recent Facebook post, or heard of it through our beautiful Seeker, but apparently there is more. Quoting from an article by D-eSports.com:
Although the article only says Squirtle is looking for a new team, according to James Banks, EU manager for StarTale, Squirtle specifically intends to join a KeSPA Team.
"It is very sad to see Squirtle leaving the team. We tried negotiations with Squirtle but were unable to match what he wanted. He will now be looking for a new team which is most likely to be a kespa team. Having spent a lot of time with Squirtle both in Korea and ESWC last year I have to say he is a great player and was a devoted member of StarTale from the start, I wish him all the best."
So, what are your thoughts? I'm hoping he ends up on T1 with PartinG, but I'm a fanboy (of both the players and the team). Let's see, hmm?
I really thought Squirtle would try for a foreigner team, but KESPA seems to be the main attraction in Korea with all the money that the teams can offer.
Yeah I think he will go to KT since they lost out on Parting. But It would be so much better if some of the bad teams would pick up a solid player like this.
On January 15 2013 06:51 Nuclease wrote: So, what are your thoughts? I'm hoping he ends up on T1 with PartinG, but I'm a fanboy (of both the players and the team). Let's see, hmm?
He can't end in SKT unless they are the only ones who are willing to pay whatever salary Kespa will negotiate with him.
I guess he will have much lower salary then Parting, so also "not-so-rich" teams may be able to bid on him. I would say STX, WJS and CJ (in that order) need to strengthen their protoss line the most.
On January 15 2013 07:04 Makelius wrote: KTSquirtle would be nice.
Chances are pretty good that this will be the case. Although, Squirtle's salary may be lower than Parting's so perhaps more teams will join the bid this time.
Yeah I think he will go to KT since they lost out on Parting. But It would be so much better if some of the bad teams would pick up a solid player like this.
I've had a feeling Squirtle would pick KeSPA over foreign teams. His past with MBC Hero makes him a lot more comfortable with KeSPA, and he knows the players and coaches well.
Yeah I think he will go to KT since they lost out on Parting. But It would be so much better if some of the bad teams would pick up a solid player like this.
wow didnt know kespa teams had that much money
Considering the main sponsors? It should come as no surprise. They always were in control when it came to the BW scene and now they're increasing the wages so to speak because of the growth.
On January 15 2013 07:22 PhoenixVoid wrote: I've had a feeling Squirtle would pick KeSPA over foreign teams. His past with MBC Hero makes him a lot more comfortable with KeSPA, and he knows the players and coaches well.
On January 15 2013 07:15 Odoakar wrote: RIP eSF teams. And GSTL. I can see more and more players going this route.
While I can see more players going this direction, I don't think that we can start saying RIP eSF quite yet. Startale has been fairly unstable lately, with a sort of slow stagnation. I think, even with their success, they just haven't been pulling the results their players want. We need to wait and see for more players from more teams to start leaving before we can call it.
On January 15 2013 07:22 PhoenixVoid wrote: I've had a feeling Squirtle would pick KeSPA over foreign teams. His past with MBC Hero makes him a lot more comfortable with KeSPA, and he knows the players and coaches well.
He was on WeMadeFOX, not MBC.
STX.Soul Squirtle would be fine.
I was mad at STX for not entering the Parting lottery. I would feel further betrayed if they then went for Squirtle.
Unfortunate reality where money > everything and you can't blame individuals for their choices.. But you can blame the establishment that has the firm grip on money. Only way to stop this exodus is for existing eSF teams to gain strong sponsorships that are more or less equal to Kespa teams in funding.
Yeah I think he will go to KT since they lost out on Parting. But It would be so much better if some of the bad teams would pick up a solid player like this.
wow didnt know kespa teams had that much money
SKT and KT are the two largest Telecom companies in South Korea, and you obviously know who Samsung is... I think these 3 have the top budget of them all.
On January 15 2013 07:38 usethis2 wrote: Unfortunate reality where money > everything and you can't blame individuals for their choices.. But you can blame the establishment that has the firm grip on money. Only way to stop this exodus is for existing eSF teams to gain strong sponsorships that are more or less equal to Kespa teams in funding.
For now, eSF is safe for their contracted players. There is currently a ban on eSF teams sending their players to KeSPA teams while they are still under contract. The only way it is possible to switch over is to let your contract expire, which is difficult to do seeing as it's taking a risk, and a very large one; you have to be good enough to guarantee yourself a spot on another team, which is hard to do. Unless you enter negotiations before your contract expires (shady, to say the least, against the rules maybe), it's a big risk to let your contract end. The main problem for eSF right now is losing their best to the KeSPA teams.
On January 15 2013 06:51 Nuclease wrote: So, we have all seen the recent Facebook post, or heard of it through our beautiful Seeker, but apparently there is more. Quoting from an article by D-eSports.com:
On January 15 2013 07:49 MrSexington wrote: Sidenote:
Has there ever been a former Kespa player that has joined a GOM team? Or is the talent just moving in one direction?
I'm a little confused. The answer to your question depends largely on semantics. If you count MC, Mvp, Squirtle himself, and many many of the other long-time Korean players, then yes, there have been many KeSPA players who joined a GOM team. At the start of SC2, when KeSPA wasn't interested, many of these players went straight from their KeSPA teams to their GOM teams. HyuN, for example, did that even after the very start of SC2 I believe (could be wrong).
On January 15 2013 06:51 Nuclease wrote: So, we have all seen the recent Facebook post, or heard of it through our beautiful Seeker, but apparently there is more. Quoting from an article by D-eSports.com:
So now I'm beautiful? *blushes*
Your translating certainly is you majestic linguist, you.
On January 15 2013 06:51 Nuclease wrote: So, we have all seen the recent Facebook post, or heard of it through our beautiful Seeker, but apparently there is more. Quoting from an article by D-eSports.com:
This looks bad for the GOM teams, all their top talent is deserting either to foreign teams or kespa teams. If GOM can't pay competitive wages, they're going to fold up shop and die. Looks like kespa wins in the end. So sad. Truly the end of an era.
On January 15 2013 08:21 nmetasch wrote: Oh my the world is imploding and starcraft is dying! Run! (-_-)
starcraft isn't dying, its just the teams with bad business models that can't sustain themselves are. the ESF is going to fold. that is all. the market itself is oversaturated, which indicates that sc2 has probably reached the apex of its popularity a while ago (2011) and is now on the decline. it will likely be a marginal game in the next few years that will bring in enough cash to support a handful of teams. since its core fan base tend to have more money than say LOL viewers, it should still sustain itself for a while.
Yeah I think he will go to KT since they lost out on Parting. But It would be so much better if some of the bad teams would pick up a solid player like this.
wow didnt know kespa teams had that much money
SKT and KT are the two largest Telecom companies in South Korea, and you obviously know who Samsung is... I think these 3 have the top budget of them all.
Not samsung, the team samsung Khan is one of the poor team in proleague.
On January 15 2013 07:06 DifuntO wrote: So in a year from now there won't be any Korean teams other than those in Proleague.
i really hope that isnt true, i love gom and the GSL still trumps the OSL for skill IMO
Of course we hope this won't be true, but from whats been happening so far this really seems like the trend that will happen
Maybe the lucky ones will get what they want but what about the rest? Eventually the teams will have to dissolve because of lack of interest? hope not but this is what happens from a mass migration
Yeah I think he will go to KT since they lost out on Parting. But It would be so much better if some of the bad teams would pick up a solid player like this.
wow didnt know kespa teams had that much money
SKT and KT are the two largest Telecom companies in South Korea, and you obviously know who Samsung is... I think these 3 have the top budget of them all.
Not samsung, the team samsung Khan is one of the poor team in proleague.
if kt and sk were the only ones to offer a bid for parting, does this mean kt is most likely to snatch squirtle? since other teams werent going after parting (i assume), i'd imagine they wouldnt go for squirtle either.
On January 15 2013 09:26 jinorazi wrote: if kt and sk were the only ones to offer a bid for parting, does this mean kt is most likely to snatch squirtle? since other teams werent going after parting (i assume), i'd imagine they wouldnt go for squirtle either.
I don't think Squirtle can ask for nearly as much money as Parting, the last time Squirtle got a good result was WCS KR way back in August.
I'm not saying kespa should give money to gom of ESF teams. Neither i'm saying ESF players shouldn't go there for a better salary or atleast some salary.
What i think is that it's like having 2 federations of the same sport with the same rules in the same country.
It's kinda lame and pointless and will always put them under stress and against each other since they are more then rivals, they will always try and starve each other.
Anyways gl to them, I still prefer and root for ESF players and especially gomTV!
On January 15 2013 09:49 shell wrote: I'm not saying kespa should give money to gom of ESF teams. Neither i'm saying ESF players shouldn't go there for a better salary or atleast some salary.
What i think is that it's like having 2 federations of the same sport with the same rules in the same country.
It's kinda lame and pointless and will always put them under stress and against each other since they are more then rivals, they will always try and starve each other.
Anyways gl to them, I still prefer and root for ESF players and especially gomTV!
i'm just the opposite...only because i grew up watching bw. i'm rooting for kespa teams and players XD
and kespa isnt doing anything. squirtle and parting shows interest in joining kespa team, for money mainly i guess, but is kespa suppose to say "no, you belong in esf"???
On January 15 2013 09:40 shell wrote: So sad, it's really lame what kespa is doing.
Instead of trying to create a bigger scene and unify both leagues, they will try and starve the ESF teams and gomtv
if this trend continues I won't renew my PL subscription!
they are trying to get a bigger scene. proleague/the chaebols that own proleague teams are much bigger than gsl ever would be and the teams hope to revive what BW had (except for LG being the only gsl chaebol).
also all those chaebols picked up LoL teams which is gigantically huge right now (CJ, KT has 2 teams, SKT, LG) and the proleague teams had/have special forces teams (where LoL and special forces are #1 and #2 in pc bang rankings)
don't know how you can get bigger than the leading chaebols that give players 100,000,000 KRW salaries.
edit: those 21% of high school males (age 16-19) that watched the 2011 proleague grand finals in south korea are only 1.5 years older. Whats going to win out/"get bigger", brand new gsl teams or Samsung/CJ/SKT/KT name recognition (especially as those kids all play LoL now probably). Kespa has the money and wants to reel them back.
Yeah I think he will go to KT since they lost out on Parting. But It would be so much better if some of the bad teams would pick up a solid player like this.
wow didnt know kespa teams had that much money
SKT and KT are the two largest Telecom companies in South Korea, and you obviously know who Samsung is... I think these 3 have the top budget of them all.
CJ and Woongjin are pretty rich too... they could afford Squirtle easily I think. Same goes with STX SouL.
Yeah I think he will go to KT since they lost out on Parting. But It would be so much better if some of the bad teams would pick up a solid player like this.
wow didnt know kespa teams had that much money
SKT and KT are the two largest Telecom companies in South Korea, and you obviously know who Samsung is... I think these 3 have the top budget of them all.
CJ and Woongjin are pretty rich too... they could afford Squirtle easily I think. Same goes with STX SouL.
Kespa teams has tons of dough to splash except Team 8 whereas eSF teams on the other hand doesn't have that luxury to do that. Only LG-IM has the dough and the only eSF team to pay a proper salary to the each of it's player.
Prime is struggling with money problems and SlayerS/TSL has disbanded.
Sooner or later,Kespa will take control of the better players since they got the money. Money is everything in the business world.
On January 15 2013 09:40 shell wrote: So sad, it's really lame what kespa is doing.
Instead of trying to create a bigger scene and unify both leagues, they will try and starve the ESF teams and gomtv
if this trend continues I won't renew my PL subscription!
So what is Kespa supposed to do then? It's not their fault that they are rich and players want to play for them. I mean, if outstanding programmers want to join Google because it pays well, can we blame Google for it? Rather than bashing Kespa, ESF teams should get a more savvy and sustainable business model, as suggested by TotalBiscuit in his Axiom Teamhouse thread post.
for me it looks like the way Parting and Squirtle switch(ed) from an eSF team to a KeSPA team, is by shipping around the "no transfer aggrement" between the two organisations. And to make it even worse, it seems most likely they must have had some informations about what awaits them after they leave startale. Maybe a Kespa or Kespateam representative reached out to them (inofficialy) and was just talking about their possibilities in a KeSPA team. Of course this is all speculation, but it seems most logical to me. aaaand I dont like it.
It's not surprising that eSF players want to join KeSPA teams. KeSPA teams and their players are mythic entities for progamers, have a much bigger fanbase and much bigger sponsors. I think eSF won't survive too long if they remain in competition with KeSPA
Yeah I think he will go to KT since they lost out on Parting. But It would be so much better if some of the bad teams would pick up a solid player like this.
wow didnt know kespa teams had that much money
SKT and KT are the two largest Telecom companies in South Korea, and you obviously know who Samsung is... I think these 3 have the top budget of them all.
CJ and Woongjin are pretty rich too... they could afford Squirtle easily I think. Same goes with STX SouL.
It's not really the size of the chaebol, it's how much they are willing to sponsor. I think SKT and KTF have always put more money into their teams than the other companies, even though Samsung, as a company, is by far the richest.
This bubble will come to an end just like everything, dragging everyone else down with it. There will be a few lucky/smarter ones who will have sucked as much up and have left by then. And chances are those smart-asses will have wasted everything they've cheated anyway.
EPT
