Stephano to retire from SC2 in August to return to studies…

On May 14 2013 10:41 M.theory wrote:
I knew this day was coming, but I'm still sad about it lol. Stephano is not only one of the best players in SC2, but he is also one of the best personalities. The dude is hilarious. Some people give him shit for being unprofessional or liking to party. Who gives a shit? He's literally in the infant years of young adulthood. Who didn't act like a jackass every now and again at that age?

GL Ilyes! It was awesome watching you!

On May 14 2013 11:14 boxturtle wrote:


I'm pretty sure having their live audiences shrunken by 90% and their TV viewers dwindling counts as suffering. E-sports is making less and paying out less in Korea.

There's a reason why MBC shut down, there's a reason why Ace shut down, there's a reason why countless high-funding teams got shut down. There's absolutely no reason to open a new well funded team in Korea. Who's going to watch someone go out there and play stupid video games? There's just so much to be doing in Korea nowadays that only "losers" will go play video games.

To illustrate how badly e-sports is doing in Korea, they seated 5,000 people for the biggest event last year, the LoL finals. That's 1/4th the amount of people at MLG Anaheim. That's not even a drop in the bucket compared to the old OSLs.

Koreans are also much more social than Americans in general to begin with. PCbaangs have also changed. The majority of them are horrible and shitty, with extremely old computers. They used to be very nice for most of thing you wanted to do back in the day (some still are, but these are high end). PCbaangs aren't a place to socialize at anymore, it's a place where part-time culture or unemployed bums sleep while playing video games and ordering cheap noodles.

It's stupid as hell to assume that e-sports is a viable career path for a young un unless they actually make what flash did. Heck even nada and boxer are broke. Even the best at any given e-sport will only be looking at a 6 figure salary for a couple years then retirement with little to no vocational skills and little education.

Compare a run of the mill doctor or an engineer to the best progamer. Making even $350,000 for 3 years then making $15,000 a year is a lot worse than making $70-100k a year to begin with, then steadily rising even higher than $350,000 a year if you're actually good enough. Staying in e-sports for the long haul is a bad idea unless you're a businessman.

On May 14 2013 11:16 LeeDawg wrote:
he will be missed. does anyone know what he will be studying?

On May 14 2013 11:35 BigFan wrote:

he said math or engineering on stream. Guess wait and see what he decides? lol