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One partnership just occurred to me that not many have mentioned is that Jaedong joins Axiom as a mercenary? The reason why I think this might work out well:
1) Remember how Impact mentioned how Jaedong has always been his idol in 'State of Play'? I can't think of a better practice partner to help Impact's development as a player apart from perhaps Soulkey, and well he's SKT1 so completely unavailable.
2) KeSPA would fucking love to have Jaedong back in Proleague
3) Jaedong would definitely improve in competing in Proleague - it was good for him in 2013 but he dropped off this year - so it would benefit EG in this way to have their ace back on top form.
4) Axiom only have five players. You need at least six in Proleague to be able to field a full roster. A second Zerg is what would balance the team most.
5) Jaedong has a lot of foreign supporters so that would help Axiom and EG in that they would get a boost in foreign viewers for their foreign sponsors.
6) Jaedong still has a big Korean fan base from his Brood War days so it the team would be supported in Korea too.
7) Flash vs Jaedong
I reckon a line-up of Impact, Jaedong, Ryung, Heat, Alicia and CranK would be play-off contenders.
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Only one team with the best foreigners is good, because you would get to cheer for your foreign team favorite players. But one of the main reasons why people watch proleague is because it's by far the highest level team league, and adding more than one foreign team could ruin that.
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Why nobody are thinking about the mYinsanity's koreans? Imho mYiAcer could be better than EGTL
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I'd rather have separate PL's for EU and NA, but of course I'd like to see Ax/TL/mYi in Korea.
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I don't know how well KeSPA has contacts with Chinese teams and organisation but I think they'd be mad to not tap into the Chinese scene. Proleague is on at a very good time in China because I think China is only one hour ahead of Korea. The Chinese stream for the Proleague finals peaked at 132,000 viewers and averaged . I think an official Chinese stream of Proleague on NeoTV (perhaps even with in-studio Chinese casters) and a Chinese team (iG? Zenith of Origin? Or an alliance of the two?) would send the good Chinese viewership in China through the roof.
Not sure how KeSPA capitalises on having a massive Chinese audience though so maybe it's more trouble than it's worth. And Chinese players and teams have their own scene so maybe wouldn't even want to participate anyway. I just think that if KeSPA is looking to expand Proleague beyond Korea then a scene which had 132,000 viewers for their final is not to be scoffed at.
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On August 19 2014 16:53 Sakkreth wrote:
Axiom-Acer
EG-TL
Axiom-Acer:
INnovation +++
MMA ++
Scarlett ++
Nerchio +
Bly
Paranoid
Alicia ++
Crank ++
Heart ++
Ryung ++
Impact ++
EG-TL:
Jaedong +++
HuK +
Suppy
Xenocider
Demuslim
TaeJa +++
HerO +++
Bunny ++
Snute ++
TLO +
MaNa +
Ret +
One plus: Capable of winning some maps
Two pluses: Capable of being in the lineup successfully constantly winning 50%+ matches
Three pluses: Capable to be among top ranked players in proleague.
Both teams would be capable to compete, EGTL are more top heavy, but Axiom-Acer is more balanced, Axiom alone brings pretty muc hviable lineup, acer adds Ace in InNoVation and few other capable players, but mostly substitutes except for MMA. EGTL would have 3 monster players and 2 arguably best foreigners at this point who are more than capable of taking some maps in proleague making it scary 5 player lineup. This is way way way too optimistic. You're giving both teams at least 5 players capable of constantly playing and holding a 50% winrate. Looking at the 2014 season statistics, the only team that good is SKT. KT and JAGW have 4, CJ, SGK, MVP have 2, IM has 1, Prime has no players with a 50%+ winrate. A team as good as you're making EG-TL and AXA to be would get top 2 in the regular season by necessity. Take one plus from everyone, and the result will be far more accurate.
I dont think there's a single combination of non-Kespa players that could get into the top 5 of a Proleague season. But when it comes to a realistic chance to get 6th place, using Axiom's Korean infrastructure and reinforcing the team with some Code S/A players (such as Innovation) and some WCS AM/KR players that would return to GSL (such as Jaedong) would be the best plan. I think the best way to attract attention is an underdog team that has a chance.
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On August 19 2014 19:49 Nine Gates wrote:Show nested quote +On August 19 2014 16:53 Sakkreth wrote:
Axiom-Acer
EG-TL
Axiom-Acer:
INnovation +++
MMA ++
Scarlett ++
Nerchio +
Bly
Paranoid
Alicia ++
Crank ++
Heart ++
Ryung ++
Impact ++
EG-TL:
Jaedong +++
HuK +
Suppy
Xenocider
Demuslim
TaeJa +++
HerO +++
Bunny ++
Snute ++
TLO +
MaNa +
Ret +
One plus: Capable of winning some maps
Two pluses: Capable of being in the lineup successfully constantly winning 50%+ matches
Three pluses: Capable to be among top ranked players in proleague.
Both teams would be capable to compete, EGTL are more top heavy, but Axiom-Acer is more balanced, Axiom alone brings pretty muc hviable lineup, acer adds Ace in InNoVation and few other capable players, but mostly substitutes except for MMA. EGTL would have 3 monster players and 2 arguably best foreigners at this point who are more than capable of taking some maps in proleague making it scary 5 player lineup. This is way way way too optimistic. You're giving both teams at least 5 players capable of constantly playing and holding a 50% winrate. Looking at the 2014 season statistics, the only team that good is SKT. KT and JAGW have 4, CJ, SGK, MVP have 2, IM has 1, Prime has no players with a 50%+ winrate. A team as good as you're making EG-TL and AXA to be would get top 2 in the regular season by necessity. Take one plus from everyone, and the result will be far more accurate. I dont think there's a single combination of non-Kespa players that could get into the top 5 of a Proleague season. But when it comes to a realistic chance to get 6th place, using Axiom's Korean infrastructure and reinforcing the team with some Code S/A players (such as Innovation) and some WCS AM/KR players that would return to GSL (such as Jaedong) would be the best plan. I think the best way to attract attention is an underdog team that has a chance.
Note that he says "capable" of winning 50% of matches. These players are all capable of winning at least half their matches, doesn't mean they all will. Everyone on KT Rolster is capable of winning half their matches, and this also applies to CJ Entus, Jin Air and Samsung Galaxy as well. When you are using the word 'capable' you are assessing a player on paper. Of course real actual performance does not and will not always reflect this objective assessment because form comes into it. Some players exceed expectations and some players fall short of them. Doesn't mean his assessment is incorrect. I think all of those players that he mentioned are indeed capable of winning half their matches.
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Sure, I feel that teams like Acer, Axiom,, MyInsanity and Teamliquid, potentially some team could partner up with EG.
I think that proleague should stay away from the "lesser" teams like Mousesports, Vega squadron, root and such. We still want the very best players!
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I would love to see foreign teams participate, but probably in a merged fashion. I don't know if there are any strong enough on their own besides Axiom but they only have 5 players and it'd be sad to never see them in foreign tournaments because they couldn't spare anyone during the week. So something like AxiomAcer again would be pretty sweet.
I'd also love to see Chinese and Taiwanese players like Xigua and Sen participate! But like everyone else mentioned, it would be pretty tough unless there was a dedicated teamhouse and coach grounded in Korea. The team synergy is important... and also players would have to split their time practicing (between individual tournaments and Proleague). I think there are plenty of foreign players who can compete with Kespa teams but without the "proper" environment they probably won't perform as well.
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Lorning
Belgica34432 Posts
As long as Prime is in it, I don't care
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I would want to see full foreign teams, not like EG/TL mixed, KT etc. don't do that you have to play with eveyone on your roster. i think it would lower the over all competition, but would rise the viewership.
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Imo 3 possibilitys.
Axiom+ Acer
Axoim provide a solid ground and sprinkled with Innovation, Scarlett and MMA I think they provide some decent competition.
Axiom+TL
I don't see Taeja doing this since he does not seem very motivated. But Hero seems motivated and Snute and Bunny is good enough however it would be very though on them to move to korea etc...
The last possibility.
With all the reconstruction of teams currently there are a bunch of good free agents that could spice things up.
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Russian Federation604 Posts
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TeamLiquid, EG, ROOT, Acer
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Well, having a couple of "foreign" teams competing against Kespa teams offline would be awesome indeed, not sure how they would arrange that, qualifiers for each region outside Korea maybe? Anyways, I like it, make it happen!
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how will it be any different if the "foreign" teams only send their korean players because their "foreign" players can't compete on the same level...
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South Korea2106 Posts
In my opinion SPL should stay strictly Korean and strictly KeSPA. The entirety of the Korean scene is meant to be top notch players, isn't it? I'm not saying foreign players are bad, by any means, but let's take a look at GSL for example: it is open to anyone, still only Koreans manage to qualify. Since SPL is a KeSPA event, which means it is a Korean event, I'd say only Korean based teams should be able to participate.
Having already stated my opinion, I'd also like to add something about how eSports in Korea have sort of 'loosened up' in the past few years, haven't they? No OSL since last august's finals, KeSPA opening up to all teams, back in the days of BW it seemed a bit more strict and more well organized. And the rise of the all-present League and moba genre...
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foreign teams might consider if we have a 1 million USD for the grand finals champion, 100k USD for every round champions, living subsidy for foreigners, free "entrance fee" for foreign teams, best foreign team/player award and regular 2 kespa cups every year wherein top ace foreigners of each team are baised-seeded into round of 32
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The question for me is what's the incentive for non-kespa teams to compete? Money? Prestige? Perhaps Kespa has some plans. It sure would boost viewership, but not as much as you would think.
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EPT
