After the April 3rd announcement of the new WCS system, TeamLiquid had an opportunity to conduct an interview with Mike Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard entertainment. We were also joined by Itzik Ben-Bassat, executive VP of global publishing, who was also present for the announcement in Korea.
Transcription by Antoine.
Waxangel, TeamLiquid.net: You made a lot of changes since last year. How do you rate WCS 2012 and what about it was satisfactory, and what about it was unsatisfactory that caused you to make so many changes this year?
Mike Morhaime: That's a really good question. Let's start with the things we liked about it. I think that WCS 2012 did a great job of giving visibility into local heroes that you might not otherwise have known about. We did a process towards the end, leading into the BWC where we partnered with the casters around the world, and basically they did all these interviews with all of the people attending the BWC, and there's some really awesome content that came out of that. You really got to know the people that were attending BWC if you took the trouble to watch those interviews.
I think there were some great events that came out of it. I think maybe one of the downsides though, is it was separate from everything else that was going on within the StarCraft 2 ecosystem. So we didn't leverage the effort that was already going in to making StarCraft 2 esports awesome. Instead of creating a single story line, we created an additional story line that was in parallel to everything else, but it wasn't the definitive story line for 2012. So as a spectator, trying to look and see who are the best players, and what's happening, I think we just gave you another narrative.
That's not really what we were intending to do. I think we wanted - what we want to do is leverage all the great stuff that's going on in the ecosystem and have it tell a story that somebody can follow throughout the year, and so you know how the best players, and your favorite players are doing throughout the year. You know what they need to do to get to the global finals. And at the end of the year, everybody winds up knowing who the best player in StarCraft 2 is.
"...what we want to do is leverage all the great stuff that's going on in the ecosystem and have it tell a story that somebody can follow throughout the year, and so you know how the best players, and your favorite players are doing throughout the year. You know what they need to do to get to the global finals. And at the end of the year, everybody winds up knowing who the best player in StarCraft 2 is. "
It seemed that there was a focus last year though, to make WCS very grassroots. As many regions as possible, as many online qualifiers as possible, you're trying to get as many people as possible interested in playing StarCraft 2. That seemed to be a very big focus of last year's plan. This year, it seems to be more of a focus on getting people to watch StarCraft 2 as an eSport. Is that a correct assessment?
MM: Not really. I don't necessarily agree with that. I'm not sure that the structure of the tournament last year really got more people - I mean, I know I love playing StarCraft 2, but I'm never going to enter one of these tournaments. The people that were entering those tournaments weren't playing StarCraft 2 because of WCS. I think that having open qualification was a really important part of WCS and it continues to be so now, so we will have open qualifications for our regional leagues.
But I think that right now, without the new WCS structure, I think that the foreign players are at a big disadvantage to the Koreans. They're traveling a lot, they don't necessarily have the same level of competition on a daily basis without coming to Korea, and so you'll see a lot of foreign players coming to Korea to really train and be with some of the top players. It's very disciplined out here. And the Korean players don't travel, with a few exceptions, don't travel as much as the foreign players. So we wanted to create an environment that gave North American, well, American and European players an ecosystem that provided some amount of stability. So we're gonna have equal point distribution in all 3 leagues, equal prize distribution in all 3 leagues, and so it'll be viable for pro-players to be in any region.
Itzik Ben-Bassat: I also think that you're right, that in 2013 we're trying to create an easier viewership experience. We're trying to create an easier story line, and through our partnership with Twitch, we're trying to create an easier viewership experience. So it's absolutely true that the focus was also on making it easy to watch, easy to follow, easy to understand.
MM: Yeah, actually that's a really good point. I think that accessibility of viewership is a theme. That it was one of our goals, with new WCS. There are some very important things that we're doing differently here in Korea: StarCraft 2 will be on television 5 days a week now. Internationally there are some very important things. I think that there will be free live stream in hi-def on Twitch for all WCS tournaments. You know, if you look back at 2012, there were a lot of tournaments going on, but some of them really required a subscription in order to view a decent feed. Some of them were free but the quality was not always there, and so now we have a regularly scheduled, accessible hi-def feed, and allow people to view that for free. And then if you want 1080p, okay, maybe then you pay a little bit more.
"That's the reason we didn't restrict any of the regions. We want to see that transformation of players between different regions, or the transfer of players between the regions. And we want to see the players improving each other."
You said it would add stability for players in the European and American regions. But on the other hand, there's players like Naniwa, Scarlett, or Huk, who had the option to play in GSL and live in Korea, and also go around the world and play in all the big tournaments as well.
Now they're left in some sort of difficult position where their career opportunities are a little bit more difficult. They want to be in Korea to practice, but at the same time, they're in a weird spot where Naniwa would probably prefer to play in WCS Europe for his chances of qualifying for the regional finals and world finals. So in that aspect, do you think it's become more difficult for players to go to Korea now that they feel like "I have to stay in my region to practice now"?
MM: Hopefully what will happen is, it will actually take away some of the necessity for coming to Korea for practice.
IBB: Yeah. I think it's speculation at this point. I would say the exact opposite picture. What if some of the Korean players will decide they have better chances to win WCS Europe, and decide to play in Europe, and they go, and they practice in Europe with European players, and the competition there is becoming better. We hope that we would see that transformation of players. That's the reason we didn't restrict any of the regions. We want to see that transformation of players between different regions, or the transfer of players between the regions. And we want to see the players improving each other.
You're accurately describing the situation today. Very high level of gameplay in Korea, not good enough gameplay in Europe, and some of the things that we're doing is, we're trying to increase that level of play in Europe and in the US. You'll see that the leagues are equal. The European league, the American league, and the Korean league are equal in terms of prizes, and we hope that it will create a better distribution of quality of players between the different regions.
Well along that line again, there's a lot of players who feel the reason it's best to be in Korea to practice is because the best players are here, and it's the region that has the best ladder. And it's those games you play on ladder and in practice that help you improve, not necessarily the games you play during the tournament that help you improve. So it may just be that Korean players play their league games in NA, and then they wipe the Americans, and Americans, they're not getting better by losing to them in those games. They would still maybe need to go to Korea and practice there to get better. What are your thoughts on that?
MM: I'm not an expert on the practice, or the training regimen that the Koreans have, but I think that my understanding is that a lot of their training is actually playing against each other even more so than playing against the ladder, because they're guarding their strategies so much. I don't think that they're gonna wanna necessarily play with their best strategies against other people on the ladder.
I'm sure you heard this when you were at WCS Global Finals in China, but another concern is that a lot of the representatives from regions like South America, they said WCS was kind of a godsend for their scene. It was something that really helped revive a scene that was kind of dying off. It created interest, it created reason for their best players to start playing seriously again. And I'm sure it's not just there, it's like South East Asia, there are some regions that are probably being left out. Are there any plans to cater to these regions?
MM: You know, hopefully what you'll see is, you'll see local-grown tournaments springing up. I think that there are still groups like World Cyber Games that does tournaments in a lot of different places. I think that these players will have opportunity to participate in WCS. South American players can enter the American league. We really thought a lot about what we should call this league, and we ultimately decided on American, not because it's a US league, but because we want it to represent North and South America.
IBB: And I think we should also, you know if we look at other sports, let's say that I'm a really good tennis player. And I play really well in the local Brazilian league. At some point, when I want to play in the top, the highest levels, I need to start traveling outside of Brazil, and play in different tournaments around the world. So I think that in the same way, you have it here. If someone is playing in Brazil, and they're getting into a really good level, wouldn't they want to play in the US league - or in the America league, or in the European league and try to compete against players that are better? I think that would happen.
"...I think Sen is a really particular case. So I think that we would need to understand that a little bit better to understand where he wants to compete, and to try and accommodate that...."
Actually I think this is a question for you. I think you tweeted that in the case of a player like Sen, or especially good players who don't really fall into a particular region, there might be some considerations or some way for them to get into the WCS system easier. Any details on that?
IBB: I think Sen is a really particular case. So I think that we would need to understand that a little bit better to understand where he wants to compete, and to try and accommodate that. We're coming to it very open, with the hope that we can solve particular special cases like Sen's. Maybe he decided to compete in Taiwan for the league, but to participate in tournaments outside of Taiwan. Or maybe he decides to try his luck in the Korean league. We would need to understand it from him first.
So this is a considerable investment, of just like time, money, effort. I guess the question here is, what's the goal in a business sense? Of course everyone from a pride point of view would like their game to be a popular esport, to be known worldwide. But from a business point of view, what's the gain?
MM: Well, I think there is a benefit of exposure. I think that esports has the potential to expose more people to StarCraft and educate more people about multiplayer StarCraft and hopefully we attract more players. I think that certainly there's been an impact when you look at Brood War, and how long and how healthy that community was for many many years, and you can't separate that from esports. Esports played a huge role in that, and hopefully StarCraft 2 will have just as long and healthy a life.
So the season finals, you're going to have 3 before the global finals. There's going to be 1 in each region. Has it been determined who's going to do the production, the operations for each of those?
IBB: The grand slams? Yeah, the grand slams are - so, MLG is going to do the Grand Slams in the US, and ESL will do that in Europe, and here in Korea I believe it's OGN.
MM: It's OGN this year, next year they'll each run one.
Are you concerned about - even now, the players who are lucky enough to be on well-funded teams get to go to more events. And now, even though the WCS events will probably have more points, if you allow points to be earned in IEMs, Dreamhacks, et cetera, are you afraid of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer in those terms? Like a player like MC will almost certainly qualify for an event if he keeps going on this pace earning points everywhere.
MM: Yeah, so, we don't want to get too much into the points system today. But we will have to announce that very soon. And one of the things we've been talking about is having a cap at how many points you can earn in a year, because... I don't know what the cap is going to be, I think we will have to. We're still talking about that internally, but we do want the players that are doing really well in the league to do really well. We want people to be encouraged to go to some of these events, but I think like you say, it's not about going around to all of these events and not doing well in WCS. If you do that, it's probably not going to get you as far as you'd want.
"We have every intention to continue working with them [DreamHack], and continue partnering to create great events like the ones that they create. They're one of the best esports organizations in the world."
Last year, a lot of people would say Dreamhack ran the best WCS tournament out of everything, and this year they're notably missing. What's the reason behind that, and is there any chance that perhaps they'd get involved down the line, like producing a one-off event, et cetera?
IBB: So first of all, I think if you ask us for our personal opinion, we loved the way that they ran WCS Europe finals. It was awesome. It was unbelievable. We have a lot of respect for DreamHack. They're an important partner to Blizzard and they will continue being an important partner with Blizzard. The reality is that we had to choose one partner that fits all the different criteria that we had for who's gonna be the best partner in that region.
MM: For the league.
IBB: For the league. And it includes a lot of different things, like, having a studio or other criteria that I can get into. So eventually we decided that ESL is more suitable for what we were looking for in 2013, but it doesn't say that we're not going to continue working with DreamHack. We have every intention to continue working with them, and continue partnering to create great events like the ones that they create. They're one of the best esports organizations in the world.
It's been shown, that online events do not have the pull of live events, yet America and Europe will be held online mostly. During the planning phase, were you thinking about, "is there a way to hold this live?" Are you thinking about how you can hold this live further down the line? And what are your concerns regarding holding it online?
IBB: I think that our goal is to have as many offline events as well. We think they're awesome. We would love to have a studio with access to live audience, like GOM has here in Korea, like OGN has here in Korea. We still don't have that in North America and Europe. It's something that we would be looking into to see how we can do that with our partners, MLG and ESL. But we had to start somewhere, and to create all these matches in offline events would basically mean a lot of traveling for players. And that was impossible for 2013. In Korea, specifically, everyone lives in Seoul, everyone competes in Seoul, so it's really easy to do it. But just imagine how we'd do something like this in America, it's a little bit more complicated. So we are aware that offline events are awesome and they generate a lot of audience excitement, we love those events, we go to these events ourselves. But at least for 2013 we would need to do some of these matches online.
Last year, you held the finals in China, which was an interesting decision. This year you're going back to BlizzCon. How have your views changed on the Chinese market regarding not just StarCraft 2, or other games in general? What made you go back to BlizzCon?
MM: Well, it was always our intention to hold the Global Finals at BlizzCon. We took the decision last year, we kind of had an opportunity - every year, there's all these requests to hold BlizzCon outside of North America, and we've been wanting to hold an event in China for a long time, and so we thought that that was just a really good opportunity. The timing lined up so that we had an opportunity to hold an event in China, to hold a BlizzCon outside of California is just really difficult.
If you've ever been to BlizzCon you know that the entire Blizzard development team across all of our products basically is there. We put on all these panels, and so to call something BlizzCon and not have that level of Blizzard Support, there's an expectation mismatch I think that we would feel we weren't providing. And so, you know, we knew that it was sort of a one-time event, that it was gonna be esports focused, last year, and now we're all ready for another BlizzCon. We're really excited about it, and you know, hopefully our future finals will occur at BlizzCons and we won't skip any more years. I can't predict the future, but we love BlizzCon.
So this is a plan until 2014. So 2014 you might said there be some things coming up regarding how the team leagues might play into this. Going even further, could you see regions expanding beyond the three continents and encompassing more things?
MM: It's something that we would love to see. I think we're going to just see how the various markets evolve. If we start seeing that other regions develop an esports ecosystem that can produce enough top-level players to justify having a standalone WCS league running there.
Alright I'll wrap since we're running out of time. I'll give you a player question: Give me your shoutouts to whoever you need to, and thank whoever you want.
MM: Well I want to thank TL for coming out to Korea, and it's really great having you guys here. I've been following your live tweets when I have a chance, and I think you've been doing a really good job clarifying matters and answering people's questions. We feel very lucky that we have so many great partners around the world, and are really excited about esports in 2013.
IBB: Yeah, just echoing Mike, it's been great to work with six different companies. This is a seven entity cooperation around the world, and it's that the one thing you notice throughout the discussion is that everyone has the same goal, which is to make StarCraft II esports successful. And that's what made this happen. So I want to thank KeSPA, OGN, Gom here in Korea, ESL, MLG, and Twitch, who I think are doing a great job not just with professional esports, but also with community esports. We just feel very lucky that we have the opportunity to be a part of this, to and we enjoy being a part of this community.
Was really hoping to see something more for China. I think it's a bad business move to allow Valve and Riot free reign to gain more ground in the Chinese market.
On April 10 2013 07:07 Fionn wrote: So their goal is to make Koreans move to America/Europe, so then the Americans/Europeans become better by practicing with the transplanted Koreans.
And they don't see any way this could potentially backfire for the American/European local scenes?
Really well put together! I hope Sen and MGlade get things worked out and can play WCS this year! Also I hope GOMTV is still doing production alongside OGN for the Season finals in Korea >_> OR that GOMTV does the Global Finals at BlizzCon :D
I had problems reading it though since it was formatted in a strange way: The color layout of the interview where the TL.Net interviewer was blue and the Blizzard staff was white. Normally the blizzard staff is in blue (from the forums) and the outsider is in white. So I had some struggle regarding that, had to think if I was reading the TL.Net staff or from the Blizzard staff.
I also had problems with the shortenings of the Blizzard staff's name. You used Mike Morhaime and Itzik Ben-Bassat real names in the first part but then shortened it, it got me confused as well, would have been easier to read if you used their entire names throughout the interview, and why did you do
On April 10 2013 07:07 Fionn wrote: So their goal is to make Koreans move to America/Europe, so then the Americans/Europeans become better by practicing with the transplanted Koreans.
I really hope Blizzard's plan works out in the long run. I still have my doubts on whether the "exposure" strat works for a game behind a (considerable) pay wall with a very steep learning curve, but if anyone can pull it off, it's Blizzard.
Here's what i find interesting: They admit/see that it is the practice, with each other, which is what makes the koreans so good and because of this they (blizzard) expect the level of play in the other regions to increase since koreans will be encouraged to go there (with an equal distribution of money and points across regions). However, they give zero, none, nil incentive to go to the region and practice with the players in that region (as wax correctly points out).
W T F.
As we all can, safely, assume, many korean players (b-teamers and up) will be playing in the other regions and simply fly over for a weekend (in NA s1 ro8 is what is offline and is on a weekend) to collect their points and check and fly back. This is just like any other int'l tournament except this one you are already in ro8 and only need top5.
In the future, yes it may be ro16 that is offline and more than just a weekend (maybe a week or all of premier). However, is that enough incentive to practice with the players in that region, or for the larger organizations to start teamhouses in another region and invest in that region/players? I doubt it, especially when a lot of the players at the top could be fellow koreans.
And this doesn't even touch on the horrendously top heavy prize distribution, which, again, gives no incentive for NA/EU players to dedicate their time to be on the lvl of koreans.
Great to see more cohesion of one story being attempted and leagues working together. But for something this large, why rush it so much? why not iron out the details and announce it when it's actually a good, finished, product? it would have just been 2 seasons instead of 3..
The plan of skill equalization would work if everything was offline and people actually would have to move over here + start up team houses and such.
But currently the offline part is a silly two weekend affair so most will just play online from korea... add that to the insanely top heavy prize pool + the gigantic nerf of GSL price pool, this first year probably will do more harm than good to the NA scene.
On April 10 2013 07:07 Fionn wrote: So their goal is to make Koreans move to America/Europe, so then the Americans/Europeans become better by practicing with the transplanted Koreans.
So that we can all USAUSAUSA the Koreans now, such an evil genius plan.
Anyways, seems like this year the seasonal cross-continental finals will be in the following regions:
Season 1 in WCS America region, hosted by Major League Gaming Season 2 in WCS Korea region, hosted by OnGameNet Season 3 in WCS Europe region, hosted by Turtle Entertainment (ESL)
That's also what Artosis hinted at on State of the Game.
sweet interview. i really hope they can start evening out the professional skill level somewhat (i have no idea if this new wcs will fix it, but its good that they are doing something at least). i wonder if its just me reading too much into their words or if they are hiding their secret awesome plan with MLG to build an american esports 'hub' with enough incentive to bring all the pro players to one city/area and set up a studio/esports arena.
Interesting read. I wish they addressed the league lock issue in Korea where they had originally said you could switch after the first "season" but then there was rumors you couldn't.
On April 10 2013 07:07 Fionn wrote: So their goal is to make Koreans move to America/Europe, so then the Americans/Europeans become better by practicing with the transplanted Koreans.
People are going to bitch, mightily, about this happening at first - they want to see foreigners do well.
But honestly, I think Blizzard have the right idea here - There's no future in a Korean dominated scene, but for as long as we have EU and NA tournaments that aren't viable for every korean to participate in, the pro players who aren't Naniwa, Stephano or Scarlett, aren't going to get better at the same rate as the Koreans, because they feel seperate.
I say bring it on, and maybe NA pros will find a reason to really step up their games.
On April 10 2013 07:27 Proseat wrote: Thanks for this. But why was it released so late?
Anyways, seems like this year the seasonal cross-continental finals will be:
Season 1: in WCS America region, hosted by Major League Gaming Season 2: in WCS Korea region, hosted by OnGameNet Season 3: in WCS Europe region, hosted by Turtle Entertainment (ESL)
That's also what Artosis hinted at on State of the Game.
Artosis said he knew Season 1 would be in Korea.
Great questions, Wax, although they didn't really want to answer them all. All that talk about creating an ecosystem for every region that provides stability really rubs me the wrong way if the ESFI-released prize money distribution was correct.
One of the Blizz community managers tweeted they hadn't officially announced anything about the prize pool, but that doesn't mean it's not true.
On April 10 2013 07:10 Romitelli wrote: I really hope Blizzard's plan works out in the long run. I still have my doubts on whether the "exposure" strat works for a game behind a (considerable) pay wall with a very steep learning curve, but if anyone can pull it off, it's Blizzard.
That's what happened with Broodwar, they just hope it's gonna work this time too.
On April 10 2013 07:07 Fionn wrote: So their goal is to make Koreans move to America/Europe, so then the Americans/Europeans become better by practicing with the transplanted Koreans.
I love how they don't understand how practice works, why korean ladder is best ladder, and they are obviously clueless as to how things will turn out in terms of which players will participate in which wcs.
Still nice interview, and in general love that they are finally getting involved, and wcs 2013 will be awesome for sure, I just wish they would have contacted some people who actually understand every single detail of esports/starcraft esports to make them a system, instead of creating their own.
On April 10 2013 07:18 Hider wrote: Don't think I ever read an interview with Mike Morhaimme where he didn't use the term "ecosystem".
Haha, that is so true.
Thanks for the interview, it's interesting to hear Blizzards motivation behind the system. Work in progress seems to be what they are sticking to, I think that is as good as we can get it.
I think this only could work if they created "hubs" where the teams and the WCS is for every region (like seoul and korean offline leagues are, ie california for NA, etc...). This year is going to be a mess, but i think it's positive the willing to improve it.
So. In order to make NA/EU players better they're going to swamp them in Koreans? You want to make an ecosystem that will support the players, but make it inherently dangerous and non-supportive. You don't get better by getting stomped to death in a WCS online qualifier. Especially when the goddamned pro Koreans don't even have to play their games on the American ladder. They're going to play their games amongst themselves and the Korean ladder, log on to the NA account they only use for WCS NA, and stomp.
Where is the growth in that?
I like how he completely dodged the "...but hte Koreans are just going to stomp" question by making some nonsensical "They play among their teammates" answer.
I understand that they want to make every player better, but this way makes no sense at all. NA hasn't been bad because we haven't been playing with Koreans, we do that EVERY MLG, IPL, and NASL. NA is bad because we don't have an ecosystem that will support us. That's something every NA league owner has admitted and promised us since the MLG SC2 tourney.
Blizzard acknowledged it word for word in the damn interview, but failed to understand that this isn't an ecosystem that will encourage growth. It'll encourage trying to avoid the Koreans, who you only see for online play. How're we supposed to get better with that?
On April 10 2013 07:07 Fionn wrote: So their goal is to make Koreans move to America/Europe, so then the Americans/Europeans become better by practicing with the transplanted Koreans.
People are going to bitch, mightily, about this happening at first - they want to see foreigners do well.
But honestly, I think Blizzard have the right idea here - There's no future in a Korean dominated scene, but for as long as we have EU and NA tournaments that aren't viable for every korean to participate in, the pro players who aren't Naniwa, Stephano or Scarlett, aren't going to get better at the same rate as the Koreans, because they feel seperate.
I say bring it on, and maybe NA pros will find a reason to really step up their games.
People are really eating this up? Apparently there needs to be a SC history book. Maybe it can include a chapter on the Korean regimen for Morhaime to read, too. All you have to do is look at BW. There was absolutely no one that was anywhere near the top of their country that wasn't playing on Korean servers. And, if they played on iccup and they were good, guess what? The players they were facing were Koreans, 99% of the time. Yet, we still had foreigner only tournaments because only a handful of people could even beat Korean B teamers. It wasn't a matter of being content.
At least the good thing about Blizzard being behind these tournaments is they can afford to put way more money into tournaments than anyone else, from having a bigger bankroll standpoint and a logical standpoint. While they can make money off exposure (more people getting their game) and AD money, others can only spend in relation to what they can get off sponsorships.
On the other hand, it makes it harder for other tournaments to compete. For instance, I think IPL was crying over game developers running their own tournaments. If you brought the best soccer (football) players to America, how long would it be until the scene is at that level? Even if you took the plan at face value and thought it was a good one, you might not even be involved in esports by the time the scenes were truly close to equal.
just a tip, reading white font on black background for a long period of time totally rapes your eyes. just a very very very basic graphic design tip lol.
I'm guessing you weren't allowed to just straight up ask them why they announced everything way too late, putting a lot of unnecessary strain on players and teams. Everlasting struggle between the questions you want to ask and get to ask.
On April 10 2013 08:06 Martijn wrote: I'm guessing you weren't allowed to just straight up ask them why they announced everything way too late, putting a lot of unnecessary strain on players and teams. Everlasting struggle between the questions you want to ask and get to ask.
The interview happened april 3rd before the uproar about a lack of info happened.
On April 10 2013 08:06 Martijn wrote: I'm guessing you weren't allowed to just straight up ask them why they announced everything way too late, putting a lot of unnecessary strain on players and teams.
So frustrated with so many things, I really expected more.
Well last month they released this thing...called Heart of the Swarm. Turns out that a perfectly executed, simultaneous, world wide release with a 24 live stream is pretty difficult to pull off. From most people understanding they were pretty much tied up with that. So they had to put off creating a world wide league, where one of the largest networks in Korea agrees to work with their long time rivals and create or bring 4 leagues under one banner, for like...a month or so.
On April 10 2013 08:03 WhiteSatin wrote: just a tip, reading white font on black background for a long period of time totally rapes your eyes. just a very very very basic graphic design tip lol.
yes, its a good thing i can read faster than 2 words per hour, or you might actually have a point on your hands...
i love how so many people are complaining that this doesnt fix the korean ladder being more difficult than the others... as if pro players just ladder 24/7...
On April 10 2013 08:03 WhiteSatin wrote: just a tip, reading white font on black background for a long period of time totally rapes your eyes. just a very very very basic graphic design tip lol.
You know I've been trying to get this message across for some time yet we keep seeing white font on whatever. It's like every other news. Please switch it guys and avoid the yellows and whites. D:
On April 10 2013 07:10 Romitelli wrote: I really hope Blizzard's plan works out in the long run. I still have my doubts on whether the "exposure" strat works for a game behind a (considerable) pay wall with a very steep learning curve, but if anyone can pull it off, it's Blizzard.
That's what happened with Broodwar, they just hope it's gonna work this time too.
The biggest difference is that, with BW, you could get one CD key and install it multiple times across different computers and play the game on LAN. I guess the starter edition sort of covers that now, I'm not too familiar with its limitations to be honest. I just fear the moment has passed, and that SC2 is destined to become a niche --- albeit strong --- title.
I really hope GOM and OGN will somehow be dishing out some prize money of their own. If the Korean domestic scene sees a decease in prize money while simultaneously many of their players decide to lock themselves in WCS NA and EU because of easier competition, I fear a decrease in skill level will eventually occur.
Players who do not get to compete in WCS Season 1 locally or abroad will have little chance of reaching the global finals, and if their team is also unable or unwilling to send them to other NA and EU tournaments they will not make any money if they do not have a salary.
Those Korean players who decide to play in WCS NA or EU may have less incentive to practice if they do not participate in any team leagues and feel confident against their opposition. This may happen in WCS KR too, if the best players split themselves between the three regions.
On April 10 2013 09:48 philliechease wrote: Why cant they just give us a straight up answer instea of trying to bullshit their way through every single interview? Pissing me off...
On April 10 2013 09:48 philliechease wrote: Why cant they just give us a straight up answer instea of trying to bullshit their way through every single interview? Pissing me off...
standard PR
Yes, telling people everything is generally bad in an interview. Better to put it out in writing, so it can be reviewed, consulted and clarified later.
On April 10 2013 08:06 Martijn wrote: I'm guessing you weren't allowed to just straight up ask them why they announced everything way too late, putting a lot of unnecessary strain on players and teams. Everlasting struggle between the questions you want to ask and get to ask.
that is why this was not a "live video" interview.
all the TL.Net, PCGamer.com and GameSpot.com interviews related to the "big announcement" were text only.
these kinds of text-only interviews are the most choreographed you can get where a very controlled and political stream of information is provided.
On April 10 2013 08:03 WhiteSatin wrote: just a tip, reading white font on black background for a long period of time totally rapes your eyes. just a very very very basic graphic design tip lol.
You know I've been trying to get this message across for some time yet we keep seeing white font on whatever. It's like every other news. Please switch it guys and avoid the yellows and whites. D:
ahah that's interesting and yeah I know. TL is awesome and I'm aware it's not run by pro graphic designers or anything, but the rule of avoiding white+black is basic enough that I would have hoped they'd follow it.
On April 10 2013 07:07 Fionn wrote: So their goal is to make Koreans move to America/Europe, so then the Americans/Europeans become better by practicing with the transplanted Koreans.
Yeah... Totally ignoring the geographical proximity and infrastructure that has been built in Korea which allows them to excel. It's completely ignorant to expect the Koreans to make any difference to European and American play standards. They are not some super-human, master race. At most all this move will achieve is a slightly more even competition world wide at the cost of the dilution of the best competition in the world (GSL). I for one am not interested in watching that. At worst (from a Blizzard perspective) Korean teams maintain their base in Korea and fly players/teams out to the WCS events and dominate them, causing even less exposure to foreign players than there already was.
here are some of my thoughts on the "koreans-stomping-the-foreigners-in-na/eu-wcs-problem"
the participants in season 1 in NA and EU will be 24 invites + 8 qualifier spots,there will be only a few if any koreans in the first seaon outside of korea i suppose. i dont know what will happen in season 2 and 3 but as artosis stated in stotg, koreans that are on korean teams have korean sponsors that want their players to compete in korea. plus they wont get travel support from korea to na/eu, only from within na/eu to the specific ro16 and ro8-finals, so i dont think there will be too many koreans participating in na/eu. so i dont see it happening that koreans will be flooding the NA/EU WCS unless they are on a foreign team and/or are willing to relocate to the us or europe/germany.
i think its great that blizzards is getting more involved in e-sports, but as i stated in another thread and many of you stated before in this thread, it feels like they are rushing in to this without having thought through the details. in my opinion they should have worked every single exact detail, before making an announcement like that with the huge impact on the whole scene which it does.
so i hope u can follow my thoughts, i dont use my english writing skills too often ^^
Awesome interview. I'm a little confused if they intended for players to be region-hopping, just how the "American" and "European" scenes are actually American and European, aside from what server they're played on. Particularly since (unless I misread that?) the matches will be held online.
good interview. Glad to see that Blizzard is well aware of possible problems that could occur with the new WCS system, but they have their thoughts behind this. Clarifies pretty much all for me.
On April 10 2013 08:03 WhiteSatin wrote: just a tip, reading white font on black background for a long period of time totally rapes your eyes. just a very very very basic graphic design tip lol.
Consider that many operating systems use a light on dark colour scheme for their "accessiblity" options. Don't refer to your personal preferences as "very very very basic graphic design" -- It makes you look silly.
It is true that dark text on light backgrounds is generally better for readability overall, but there are times where you can use light on dark to great effect. Perhaps when you're posting some news to a Starcraft website and you'd like it to appear as a change of pace from a regular post.
That being said, direct all design choices for this particular post at Waxangel.
I still think that the biggest problem is that for many people from outside of Korea, North America, and Europe, it is killing the dream of anyone getting in on the tournament itself. Basically committing genocide on the dreams of many people who want to get in on the WCS as players and are placed somewhere between pro / amateur North Americans in skill and Pro Koreans
On April 10 2013 08:03 WhiteSatin wrote: just a tip, reading white font on black background for a long period of time totally rapes your eyes. just a very very very basic graphic design tip lol.
Consider that many operating systems use a light on dark colour scheme for their "accessiblity" options. Don't refer to your personal preferences as "very very very basic graphic design" -- It makes you look silly.
It is true that dark text on light backgrounds is generally better for readability overall, but there are times where you can use light on dark to great effect. Perhaps when you're posting some news to a Starcraft website and you'd like it to appear as a change of pace from a regular post.
That being said, direct all design choices for this particular post at Waxangel.
Direct all design complaints to our design consulting firm, Eleanor, Hashim and Sons, LLC.
If we had done this from early Sc2 i would not have worried so much, now the flood of B team Koreans that will smack down any up and coming EU/NA player and take the spots worries me somewhat. This might serieusly slow down the groth of foreign starcraft players instead of making it grow. We will see i guess.
Surprised that the CEO of blizz came across so informed. I thought this would be farmed out to an underling (to some degree) but he spoke with a pretty solid understanding of the dynamics.
Very nice interview, great questions and good answers. Keep it up!
On April 10 2013 15:16 Lysanias wrote: If we had done this from early Sc2 i would not have worried so much, now the flood of B team Koreans that will smack down any up and coming EU/NA player and take the spots worries me somewhat. This might serieusly slow down the groth of foreign starcraft players instead of making it grow. We will see i guess.
To be honest, I don't think that that will be the case. Actually, what I think is that Koreans coming to the US/EU are lowering their skill, not improving the one of the Foreigners, I just had the feeling like that. Looking at Teamstory cup, where ForGG and Hyun have problems beating some Foreigners. Hyun lost 2(or was it 3?) times to the Lucifron. Not taking anything from Lucifron, he is really good, but Hyun was GSL finalist, and his play those games was far from amazing.
But we will definitely see, I hope that I am wrong.
On April 10 2013 07:10 Prplppleatr wrote: Great interview Wax, love the questions
Here's what i find interesting: They admit/see that it is the practice, with each other, which is what makes the koreans so good and because of this they (blizzard) expect the level of play in the other regions to increase since koreans will be encouraged to go there (with an equal distribution of money and points across regions). However, they give zero, none, nil incentive to go to the region and practice with the players in that region (as wax correctly points out).
W T F.
As we all can, safely, assume, many korean players (b-teamers and up) will be playing in the other regions and simply fly over for a weekend (in NA s1 ro8 is what is offline and is on a weekend) to collect their points and check and fly back. This is just like any other int'l tournament except this one you are already in ro8 and only need top5.
In the future, yes it may be ro16 that is offline and more than just a weekend (maybe a week or all of premier). However, is that enough incentive to practice with the players in that region, or for the larger organizations to start teamhouses in another region and invest in that region/players? I doubt it, especially when a lot of the players at the top could be fellow koreans.
And this doesn't even touch on the horrendously top heavy prize distribution, which, again, gives no incentive for NA/EU players to dedicate their time to be on the lvl of koreans.
Great to see more cohesion of one story being attempted and leagues working together. But for something this large, why rush it so much? why not iron out the details and announce it when it's actually a good, finished, product? it would have just been 2 seasons instead of 3..
Interesting to read. Yet many people still generate a negative vibe around this. Especially the 'Koreans to US/EU' question. Perhaps it is time to stop worrying about what the Koreans do, and step up your game and learn to properly train. You won't get the best in the world by complaining.
On April 10 2013 08:03 WhiteSatin wrote: just a tip, reading white font on black background for a long period of time totally rapes your eyes. just a very very very basic graphic design tip lol.
Consider that many operating systems use a light on dark colour scheme for their "accessiblity" options. Don't refer to your personal preferences as "very very very basic graphic design" -- It makes you look silly.
It is true that dark text on light backgrounds is generally better for readability overall, but there are times where you can use light on dark to great effect. Perhaps when you're posting some news to a Starcraft website and you'd like it to appear as a change of pace from a regular post.
That being said, direct all design choices for this particular post at Waxangel.
Black on white is fine for print media. White on black, or green on black is absolutely fine for walls of text on a computer screen. There's a reason terminal consoles were white on black...
On April 10 2013 07:10 Prplppleatr wrote: Great interview Wax, love the questions
Here's what i find interesting: They admit/see that it is the practice, with each other, which is what makes the koreans so good and because of this they (blizzard) expect the level of play in the other regions to increase since koreans will be encouraged to go there (with an equal distribution of money and points across regions). However, they give zero, none, nil incentive to go to the region and practice with the players in that region (as wax correctly points out).
W T F.
As we all can, safely, assume, many korean players (b-teamers and up) will be playing in the other regions and simply fly over for a weekend (in NA s1 ro8 is what is offline and is on a weekend) to collect their points and check and fly back. This is just like any other int'l tournament except this one you are already in ro8 and only need top5.
In the future, yes it may be ro16 that is offline and more than just a weekend (maybe a week or all of premier). However, is that enough incentive to practice with the players in that region, or for the larger organizations to start teamhouses in another region and invest in that region/players? I doubt it, especially when a lot of the players at the top could be fellow koreans.
And this doesn't even touch on the horrendously top heavy prize distribution, which, again, gives no incentive for NA/EU players to dedicate their time to be on the lvl of koreans.
Great to see more cohesion of one story being attempted and leagues working together. But for something this large, why rush it so much? why not iron out the details and announce it when it's actually a good, finished, product? it would have just been 2 seasons instead of 3..
I specifically said it was NA who's offline portion was only the ro8 and a weekend. And if you read the rest of the bolded portion i mention that it may be expanded to a week or the entire premier division being offline has been mentioned...but, again as i mention, I doubt that this will be enough for koreans who are in NA or EU to practice with players in that region (which is blizzards intent)
On April 10 2013 08:03 WhiteSatin wrote: just a tip, reading white font on black background for a long period of time totally rapes your eyes. just a very very very basic graphic design tip lol.
Hah. I wanted to read this article and had to force myself. I split it in thirds anyway. Started reading yesterday and finished today because of it.
On April 10 2013 07:10 Prplppleatr wrote: Great interview Wax, love the questions
Here's what i find interesting: They admit/see that it is the practice, with each other, which is what makes the koreans so good and because of this they (blizzard) expect the level of play in the other regions to increase since koreans will be encouraged to go there (with an equal distribution of money and points across regions). However, they give zero, none, nil incentive to go to the region and practice with the players in that region (as wax correctly points out).
W T F.
As we all can, safely, assume, many korean players (b-teamers and up) will be playing in the other regions and simply fly over for a weekend (in NA s1 ro8 is what is offline and is on a weekend) to collect their points and check and fly back. This is just like any other int'l tournament except this one you are already in ro8 and only need top5.
In the future, yes it may be ro16 that is offline and more than just a weekend (maybe a week or all of premier). However, is that enough incentive to practice with the players in that region, or for the larger organizations to start teamhouses in another region and invest in that region/players? I doubt it, especially when a lot of the players at the top could be fellow koreans.
And this doesn't even touch on the horrendously top heavy prize distribution, which, again, gives no incentive for NA/EU players to dedicate their time to be on the lvl of koreans.
Great to see more cohesion of one story being attempted and leagues working together. But for something this large, why rush it so much? why not iron out the details and announce it when it's actually a good, finished, product? it would have just been 2 seasons instead of 3..
I specifically said it was NA who's offline portion was only the ro8 and a weekend. And if you read the rest of the bolded portion i mention that it may be expanded to a week or the entire premier division being offline has been mentioned...but, again as i mention, I doubt that this will be enough for koreans who are in NA or EU to practice with players in that region (which is blizzards intent)
Actually ro16 onwards will be played in-studio in both NY and Cologne.
On April 10 2013 23:08 TAMinator wrote: So basically they're nerfing Koreans and buffing foreigners... gg. Good interview
Um wut? How does that make sense.
In fact they are nerfing foreigners and buffing Koreans since now Koreans can simply play an online tournament to take a spot from a foreigner in the Global WCS Grand Finals. Foreigners have less of a chance to be seen in a global tournament now then they did last year.
So yea GG to your terrible logic and lack of understanding.
On April 10 2013 17:03 Aelonius wrote: Interesting to read. Yet many people still generate a negative vibe around this. Especially the 'Koreans to US/EU' question. Perhaps it is time to stop worrying about what the Koreans do, and step up your game and learn to properly train. You won't get the best in the world by complaining.
I'm not trying to qualify for WCS, I'm trying to enjoy the highest level of GLOBAL competition there is. This format does not allow for that since players from the separate regions are going to fall to mercenary Koreans who simply signed up for that region because its easier to qualify than going through GSL and the other Korean players.
We are going to see a nearly all Korean WCS Grand Finals, and that to me is a travesty since the whole idea of the tournament is to get players from all over the globe to compete in a tournament. Given the state of the scene right now, the only foreigners who stand a chance of qualifying given the Koreans going to each region are Mana, Stephano, Nani/Sase (if they leave KR), and Scarlett. Whats really funny is Nani, Sase and Scarlett are all in Korea right now to train and reach their best. Yet Blizzard wants to think that training in NA or EU will be just as good because there will be 20 Koreans in the ladder now? I mean... come on, all it takes is a little bit of thinking for maybe 30 seconds and you'll realize this is flawed logic. The Koreans who come to NA or EU to train won't be training with people from that region, they will only be training with their teammates that came to NA or EU with them...
Just another example of how out-of-touch Blizzard is with the whole global eSports scene. Good job fucking over the last 4 years of the NA and EU scene trying to get on par with the Koreans. Good fucking job Blizz.
On April 10 2013 23:08 TAMinator wrote: So basically they're nerfing Koreans and buffing foreigners... gg. Good interview
Um wut? How does that make sense.
In fact they are nerfing foreigners and buffing Koreans since now Koreans can simply play an online tournament to take a spot from a foreigner in the Global WCS Grand Finals. Foreigners have less of a chance to be seen in a global tournament now then they did last year.
So yea GG to your terrible logic and lack of understanding.
Dont be so harsh man.
You can wonder if foreigners really have less chance of being seen in global tournaments. There are still other tournamens around. For all we know Blizzard only added tournaments for extra exposure. Tournaments where forgeiners still have a great chance of playing in.
The only tournament that is really gone is last years WCS, which was only one tournament.
On April 10 2013 23:08 TAMinator wrote: So basically they're nerfing Koreans and buffing foreigners... gg. Good interview
Um wut? How does that make sense.
In fact they are nerfing foreigners and buffing Koreans since now Koreans can simply play an online tournament to take a spot from a foreigner in the Global WCS Grand Finals. Foreigners have less of a chance to be seen in a global tournament now then they did last year.
So yea GG to your terrible logic and lack of understanding.
Dont be so harsh man.
You can wonder if foreigners really have less chance of being seen in global tournaments. There are still other tournamens around. For all we know Blizzard only added tournaments for extra exposure. Tournaments where forgeiners still have a great chance of playing in.
The only tournament that is really gone is last years WCS, which was only one tournament.
But hey, you are the guy with logic
How many other global tournaments can you name? Please let me know.
Oh, and then let me know how many foreigners vs how many Koreans have done well. Now lets compare how many Koreans were invited compared to how many placed well. Then lets do the same for foreigners.
"For all we know Blizzard only added tournaments for extra exposure. Tournaments where forgeiners still have a great chance of playing in." I think this is your english, I don't understand what you are trying to say here. Blizzard REPLACED the old WCS with the new WCS. This tournament series wasn't 'added' it was a replacement for the previous one. And the argument I'm making is that this new format doesn't give foreigners nearly as much hope to qualify as last year's format did.
On April 10 2013 23:08 TAMinator wrote: So basically they're nerfing Koreans and buffing foreigners... gg. Good interview
Um wut? How does that make sense.
In fact they are nerfing foreigners and buffing Koreans since now Koreans can simply play an online tournament to take a spot from a foreigner in the Global WCS Grand Finals. Foreigners have less of a chance to be seen in a global tournament now then they did last year.
So yea GG to your terrible logic and lack of understanding.
Dont be so harsh man.
You can wonder if foreigners really have less chance of being seen in global tournaments. There are still other tournamens around. For all we know Blizzard only added tournaments for extra exposure. Tournaments where forgeiners still have a great chance of playing in.
The only tournament that is really gone is last years WCS, which was only one tournament.
But hey, you are the guy with logic
How many other global tournaments can you name? Please let me know.
your logical argument is that foreigners have less chance to play in a global tournament than last year. But MLG, Dreamhack, and probably IEM are still around. The same tournaments that were here last year. So the foreigners have the same chance of playing in these tournaments as they had last year.
But wait, there are now three (2) more tournaments. And by the looks of it, even the NA players will have at least 12 players in them.
The point its that its hard to have less chance of playing in a global tournament when there are only tournaments added this year.
Truly global? WCS in a way I guess... TLS had several qualifiers per region meh... not really a big enough sample for my liking. GSL is supposed to be global but it doesn't really live up to that namesake because 1. you have to be in Korea 2. you have to be actually good enough to compete with them and as we can see very few foreigners are even capable of taking a few series in a row against them.
MLG had decent diversity. DH is sort of staged based on invites/sign-up first mentality. Plus you sort of have to get there but there's diversity and way fewer Koreans in any tournament in Europe (really makes you wonder why more Koreans didn't choose Europe as their destination because everyone knew a lot of guys would pick NA for various reasons including some of those teams are based out of NA). I don't know man. Hard to really pick tournaments that are truly global because all the formats have their quirks off the top of my head.
The point its that its hard to have less chance of playing in a global tournament when there are only tournaments added this year.
Indeed. Less money in the Korean market though while NA/EU gets a stimulus package. Korea will have to repackage more tournaments in the downtime to bring it up. NA/EU/KR are technically competing for players to play there when it's offline and I'm all for centralization or at the very least an actual World Tour Circuit. Screw the Series; give us the Circuit!
On April 10 2013 08:03 WhiteSatin wrote: just a tip, reading white font on black background for a long period of time totally rapes your eyes. just a very very very basic graphic design tip lol.
Consider that many operating systems use a light on dark colour scheme for their "accessiblity" options. Don't refer to your personal preferences as "very very very basic graphic design" -- It makes you look silly.
It is true that dark text on light backgrounds is generally better for readability overall, but there are times where you can use light on dark to great effect. Perhaps when you're posting some news to a Starcraft website and you'd like it to appear as a change of pace from a regular post.
That being said, direct all design choices for this particular post at Waxangel.
Direct all design complaints to our design consulting firm, Eleanor, Hashim and Sons, LLC.
lol Wax how do you feel about bright yellow being used on light blue? o-O One of your boys did that very recently! o;
On April 10 2013 23:08 TAMinator wrote: So basically they're nerfing Koreans and buffing foreigners... gg. Good interview
Um wut? How does that make sense.
In fact they are nerfing foreigners and buffing Koreans since now Koreans can simply play an online tournament to take a spot from a foreigner in the Global WCS Grand Finals. Foreigners have less of a chance to be seen in a global tournament now then they did last year.
So yea GG to your terrible logic and lack of understanding.
I meant in terms of skill level. If you read the article, it talks about foreigners never being at korean level simply because they have to go to Korea in order to practice with them. With this change, Koreans will no longer have their closeknit training since they'll play a variety of skill levels, whereas foreigners benefit from this because they can now practice with Koreans without being in Korea or suffering high latency. GG to your terrible logic and lack of understand.
On April 10 2013 17:03 Aelonius wrote: Interesting to read. Yet many people still generate a negative vibe around this. Especially the 'Koreans to US/EU' question. Perhaps it is time to stop worrying about what the Koreans do, and step up your game and learn to properly train. You won't get the best in the world by complaining.
I'm not trying to qualify for WCS, I'm trying to enjoy the highest level of GLOBAL competition there is. This format does not allow for that since players from the separate regions are going to fall to mercenary Koreans who simply signed up for that region because its easier to qualify than going through GSL and the other Korean players.
We are going to see a nearly all Korean WCS Grand Finals, and that to me is a travesty since the whole idea of the tournament is to get players from all over the globe to compete in a tournament. Given the state of the scene right now, the only foreigners who stand a chance of qualifying given the Koreans going to each region are Mana, Stephano, Nani/Sase (if they leave KR), and Scarlett. Whats really funny is Nani, Sase and Scarlett are all in Korea right now to train and reach their best. Yet Blizzard wants to think that training in NA or EU will be just as good because there will be 20 Koreans in the ladder now? I mean... come on, all it takes is a little bit of thinking for maybe 30 seconds and you'll realize this is flawed logic. The Koreans who come to NA or EU to train won't be training with people from that region, they will only be training with their teammates that came to NA or EU with them...
Just another example of how out-of-touch Blizzard is with the whole global eSports scene. Good job fucking over the last 4 years of the NA and EU scene trying to get on par with the Koreans. Good fucking job Blizz.
Alright,
First off I'd like to make clear that my initial statement, which you quoted, was ment for any player who desires to be at the top level of Starcraft 2 and wishes to be a professional gamer. I believe that no matter howmuch stimulation we put into the scene on a tournament level, if there's no desire with the gamers to become better and work harder, then we will not get anywhere. The Koreans know this, and they work their butt off to get better. But a lot of them also know that a lot of foreigners are fairly lazy in comparison, which results in better gameplay from the Koreans.
Why do I say this? Because I honestly believe that Korea is only going to be the top country as long as the foreign scene remains lazy and complacent, aiming for a quick buck rather than being really good. The moment that we start building a proper environment in NA / EU that's similar to the Korean environment, we will begin to grow towards them. It is a choice.
Yet Blizzard wants to think that training in NA or EU will be just as good because there will be 20 Koreans in the ladder now?
Yes, I agree with Blizzard that having the Koreans in these regions will eventually benefit the scene more. Why do you ask? Very simple, by having them in the scene the overal level of play at the top will rise and those who desire to play at WCS Worldwide Final levels, will be putting that effort in to reach it. If you are too lazy to do that, you should not be in the top tier of WCS anyways.
Right now, there's the news that EG and possibly ROOT are moving towards the San Francisco area, right near the Blizzard offices. This is promising to me, as it seems to point towards a focus on localizing the eSports events in that region for NA. It may not happen in the first year, but that's not what I expect. In the long run, I envision multiple teams setting up houses properly around the EG house, and create an active scene which is similar to the Korean scene overall.
But this requires the most important thing that a vast majority does not accept or think about :
Patience
Yes, mistakes were made. That happens, and surely wasn't handled right. But instead of poisoning our own scene, we should be more patient and supportive even if it makes things a little more difficult right now.
Truly global? WCS in a way I guess... TLS had several qualifiers per region meh... not really a big enough sample for my liking. GSL is supposed to be global but it doesn't really live up to that namesake because 1. you have to be in Korea 2. you have to be actually good enough to compete with them and as we can see very few foreigners are even capable of taking a few series in a row against them.
MLG had decent diversity. DH is sort of staged based on invites/sign-up first mentality. Plus you sort of have to get there but there's diversity and way fewer Koreans in any tournament in Europe (really makes you wonder why more Koreans didn't choose Europe as their destination because everyone knew a lot of guys would pick NA for various reasons including some of those teams are based out of NA). I don't know man. Hard to really pick tournaments that are truly global because all the formats have their quirks off the top of my head.
The point its that its hard to have less chance of playing in a global tournament when there are only tournaments added this year.
Indeed. Less money in the Korean market though while NA/EU gets a stimulus package. Korea will have to repackage more tournaments in the downtime to bring it up. NA/EU/KR are technically competing for players to play there when it's offline and I'm all for centralization or at the very least an actual World Tour Circuit. Screw the Series; give us the Circuit!
I think while the current setup allows for less money in the Korean market, it should be more easy to do the online cups as we have in the foreign scene. GOM could easily put that money up and make a few smaller tournaments for smaller prizes in between events. It's not that they can't do it, but they never seemed to want it.
I don't think it's realistic to expect Korean players to move out of their home.
I think it's unfair to restrict them from playing in different region's leagues because they are the big guns of SC2 and it'd be a shame to let the hardest working gamers be restricted in any way.
On April 14 2013 08:23 Jeka wrote: I don't think it's realistic to expect Korean players to move out of their home.
I think it's unfair to restrict them from playing in different region's leagues because they are the big guns of SC2 and it'd be a shame to let the hardest working gamers be restricted in any way.
So just because player X in basketball is playing in the NBA, means they instantly get a free ticket to go wherever they want, and we should just ignore the laws, customs and alike? That's basicly what you are saying.
EPT
