So lets say a Korean wants to collect some easy money, how hard is it to get a greencard? I feel like Blizzard should help more with VISA issues. I want to see Violet again.

NovemberstOrm

Canada16217 Posts

November 21 2013 01:00 GMT

#245

most positive thread since destiny reached GM thread HEH.

ForLethr

80 Posts

November 21 2013 01:00 GMT

#246

This means no season final?

NovemberstOrm

Canada16217 Posts

November 21 2013 01:03 GMT

#247

On November 21 2013 10:00 ForLethr wrote:
This means no season final?

correct, no season finals.

thirtyapm

521 Posts

November 21 2013 01:04 GMT

#248

good changes, great work guys

Greendotz

United Kingdom2053 Posts

November 21 2013 01:06 GMT

#249

Having read the whole post and taken the time to let it sink in I think this is generally positive all across the board. Pretty much every major criticism has been addressed and a change has been made for the better.

Dingobloo

Australia1903 Posts

November 21 2013 01:07 GMT

#250

While this new schedule MIGHT open things up for the return of OSL, I would not hold my breath, the audience wasn't there either on TV or in person, OGN simply has no incentive to run it and with no WCS money going into it you're unlikely to see SC2 on Korean TV again which will contribute to it's further decline.

This is decent news for GSL and some players in the short term as it means a greater focus, but I fear it's going to be a struggle long term.

schaf

Germany1326 Posts

November 21 2013 01:07 GMT

#251

Thats a big finger in the face of OGN for not putting up the quality desired by the viewers... will be interesting if OSL comes back in the old format?

Beakyboo

United States485 Posts

November 21 2013 01:08 GMT

#252

The way they're distributing all the reserved slots in NA seems weird to me. Just group all the regions you want to reserve slots for together for 18 slots and do 6 wildcard matches, like in EU. No reason to reserve special slots to guarantee representatives from specific regions.

NA feels too restrictive on Koreans too. I think it's lame making WCS arbitrarily more difficult for the best players. A compromise is fine, but it's overboard imo. It's just going to drive players into quitting. And no, as much as people would love for it to happen, it's not going to raise the level of the foreign scene. I think we can be pretty damn certain at this point that that's just never going to happen.

Killmouse

Austria5700 Posts

November 21 2013 01:10 GMT

#253

this applies to wcs am eu and gsl?? so way less gsl in 2014??

+ Show Spoiler +

Q. In 2013 there was a lot of broadcasted WCS content within very compressed time periods. Some in the community felt the volume of WCS content squeezed out opportunities for third-party tournaments to take place. How will the 2014 system fix this?
We plan to focus primary attention on broadcasting Premier League content and keeping those broadcasts to two days a week during each season. That leaves three weekdays open plus the weekends during WCS Premier League play for other third-party competitions to take place. Also, with more time over the year to stretch out three seasons of WCS, there will be multi-week-long breaks between Premier League play where other competitions to take place. And without any Season Finals events, more weekends are open over the course of the year for additional partner tournaments.

Sub40APM

6336 Posts

November 21 2013 01:14 GMT

#254

On November 21 2013 10:00 Bowzar wrote:
So lets say a Korean wants to collect some easy money, how hard is it to get a greencard? I feel like Blizzard should help more with VISA issues. I want to see Violet again.

its pretty hard...

Boucot

France15997 Posts

November 21 2013 01:14 GMT

#255

I really hope they do RO32 offline. Players have to commit in the regions they chose.

pretensile

135 Posts

November 21 2013 01:15 GMT

#256

There is some rampant PR gimmickry and fudged numbers at work here, which won't be obvious to anyone who doesn't investigate more deeply.

The biggest PR move is the claim that the prize pool for WCS Korea is greater than ever. Yet let us look back on GSLs of the past and compare:

For GSL Season 1 of 2013, the combined prize pool for Code S/A was 172.8 million won.

For WCS Season 1/3 of 2013, the combined prize pool was around 151 million won.

For every season of GSL after the first year (2011-2012), the combined prize pool has been 172.8 million won.

In the first year of the GSL (GSL open season 1-3 of 2010), the prize pool was nearly 200 million won for each of the three tourneys.

For 2014, each of the three GSLs will feature an "expanded" prize pool of 177 million won. So yes, technically WCS Korea now features a whopping 4.2 million won ($4,000 USD) over previous Code S/A seasons, or 26 million won ($24,600) over past WCS seasons.

However --
1) There are no longer any season finals for Koreans to compete in.
2) The very existence of OSL, and possibly even Proleague, may be in jeopardy.
3) Koreans are now technically region-locked out of other regions.
4) Three entire tourneys for the whole region is a drastic step down since the very first year of the GSL (new game, and also compensated a bit with the largest prize pools). 2011 had a grand total of seven GSLs and one super tourney. 2012 had five GSLs and one OSL. 2013 had one GSL and three WCS Koreas (two GSL, one OSL).

Anyone looking at these facts can easily see that, barring an explosion of foreigner events in 2014 (which only the most privileged Korean progamers can attend anyway), the opportunities and total prize pool for Korean gamers are actually reduced in the coming year. The only thing that's changed is that GSL is pretty much the only game in town now, and has reverted to its previous prize pool (only $4k more than previous GSLs), but far more heavily weighted at the top for the sake of appearances and publicity (70 million won for first place compared to 50 million won in the past).

If Ongamenet decided to throw a bunch of OSLs and Proleague seasons, this would change the picture dramatically, but why would they? They have their hands full with a very successful League of their own (they filled out stadiums just with the opening day of this season of Champions) and have no incentive now that they are no longer a WCS partner.

purakushi

United States3301 Posts

November 21 2013 01:20 GMT

#257

OGN has rights to run both StarCraft and StarCraft II tournaments alongside WCS and will be able to run WCS global events that offer WCS points.

Omg, OGN should totally do BW tournaments ><. They would probably get more of an audience in Korea, anyway.

Having said this, the WCS format changes seem overall good.

Now, Blizzard, release or PTR patch 2.1 already.

Plansix

United States60190 Posts

November 21 2013 01:22 GMT

#258

On November 21 2013 10:15 pretensile wrote:
There is some rampant PR gimmickry and fudged numbers at work here, which won't be obvious to anyone who doesn't investigate more deeply.

The biggest PR move is the claim that the prize pool for WCS Korea is greater than ever. Yet let us look back on GSLs of the past and compare:

For GSL Season 1 of 2013, the combined prize pool for Code S/A was 172.8 million won.

For WCS Season 1/3 of 2013, the combined prize pool was around 151 million won.

For every season of GSL after the first year (2011-2012), the combined prize pool has been 172.8 million won.

In the first year of the GSL (GSL open season 1-3 of 2010), the prize pool was nearly 200 million won for each of the three tourneys.

For 2014, each of the three GSLs will feature an "expanded" prize pool of 177 million won. So yes, technically WCS Korea now features a whopping 4.2 million won ($4,000 USD) over previous Code S/A seasons, or 26 million won ($24,600) over past WCS seasons.

However --
1) There are no longer any season finals for Koreans to compete in.
2) The very existence of OSL, and possibly even Proleague, may be in jeopardy.
3) Koreans are now technically region-locked out of other regions.
4) Three entire tourneys for the whole region is a drastic step down since the very first year of the GSL (new game, and also compensated a bit with the largest prize pools). 2011 had a grand total of seven GSLs and one super tourney. 2012 had five GSLs and one OSL. 2013 had one GSL and three WCS Koreas (two GSL, one OSL).

Anyone looking at these facts can easily see that, barring an explosion of foreigner events in 2014 (which only the most privileged Korean progamers can attend anyway), the opportunities and total prize pool for Korean gamers are actually reduced in the coming year. The only thing that's changed is that GSL is pretty much the only game in town now, and has reverted to its previous prize pool (only $4k more than previous GSLs), but far more heavily weighted at the top for the sake of appearances and publicity (70 million won for first place compared to 50 million won in the past).

If Ongamenet decided to throw a bunch of OSLs and Proleague seasons, this would change the picture dramatically, but why would they? They have their hands full with a very successful League of their own (they filled out stadiums just with the opening day of this season of Champions) and have no incentive now that they are no longer a WCS partner.

I see the light now. This man has shown me the truth of Blizzards lies. Going to burn all my hearthstone cards right after I finish uninstalling Lost Viking.

bo1b

Australia12814 Posts

November 21 2013 01:23 GMT

#259

I'm liking the look of this :D

Bowzar

Sweden741 Posts

November 21 2013 01:25 GMT

#260

On November 21 2013 10:07 Dingobloo wrote:
While this new schedule MIGHT open things up for the return of OSL, I would not hold my breath, the audience wasn't there either on TV or in person, OGN simply has no incentive to run it and with no WCS money going into it you're unlikely to see SC2 on Korean TV again which will contribute to it's further decline.

This is decent news for GSL and some players in the short term as it means a greater focus, but I fear it's going to be a struggle long term.

Montecristo (OGN caster) said that they wanted to do OSLs but they didnt want to be controlled by Blizzard.