<3 TLO I knew he'd be on the logical side of things.
Catz and Huk are both full of shit as I figured they would be. They benefit from these changes and are doing everything they can to make it sound as though we should be supportive of that. They don't care about the scene anymore than any of the rest of us do, they're just picking the side that has a better chance of rewarding them money. Which makes sense in its own way.
I for one can definitely tell the difference between Foreigner and Korean level play, hell I can even tell the difference between European and North American play styles. Anyone that follows the scene closely enough can.
To piG's point on players playing on local ladders. That's actually why the Koreans are even choosing to play predominantly in North America as it is.
North America to Korea latency isn't that bad, most North American pros I know practice a ton on the Korean ladder because they find it's more helpful to them to play there instead of on the North American ladder. Koreans living in Korea choose to play and win in the North American qualifiers because the latency is low enough they don't suffer for it.
Europe on the other hand has an insane latency between it and Korea which is why Koreans have never been able to dominate that region quite like they have in North America.
This region lock doesn't change any of that from WCS America's perspective. Any North American player, Korean or otherwise is still going to get a lot of their practice in on the Korean server, it's simply not competitive to only practice on the NA ladder when the Korean ladder is available. Comparing NA to EU in this regard is simply not feasible.
On September 10 2014 06:45 Heyoka wrote: I agree with Scarlett's assessment.
You should have seen Wax raging on Twitter for not getting replies fast enough. These articles require way too much paitence xD
It's a shame more don't give proper responses. It's good for them to voice their opinions on such matters, fans like to read about it, and it doesn't exactly take much effort. Win win.
it's pretty fair if it takes me forever to get the article up :D
If you think about it, if there are 0 Koreans in the NA region, the 3 NA champions (maybe even 1 or 2 if Scarlet wins more than once) will basically be guaranteed a spot at Blizzcon. It'll force more Koreans to go to international tournaments where they'll dominate foreigners so that they don't even get any points for playing (everyone gets destroyed before ro16). Yes, there will be 3 people from NA at Blizzcon, but I highly doubt they'll even win a game.
Oh, and about not being able to tell the difference between foreigners playing and Koreans playing, I think it'd be pretty easy to tell if you look at their play style. An example would be HerO multi tasking. You don't see any foreigners pulling that stuff out. You won't see the insane marine splitting against zerg or late game ability against a Protoss with foreign Terran players. Foreigners typically don't have the macro to keep up with Koreans imo. And you won't see awesome tricks like this:
On September 10 2014 05:50 sharkie wrote: pretty much no pro cried about the "horrible" region lock ^^
This might be because very few of the players interviewed are going to be hurt by this change. Do you think Kane, TLO or Bunny will be upset? Do you think soO will care about four more players he can stomp all over in GSL? Of course not.
This. Both this time and when the Acer article came out I was hoping to get the mid-tier/Code A players reactions. Foreigners will be obviously happy that their region can possibly develop better, and top-tier Koreans don't care if more mid-tier Koreans join the party...they will slay them just as the rest of Code A.
But I understand getting answers from Koreans in general is hard so good job as usual TL
On September 10 2014 05:50 sharkie wrote: pretty much no pro cried about the "horrible" region lock ^^
This might be because very few of the players interviewed are going to be hurt by this change. Do you think Kane, TLO or Bunny will be upset? Do you think soO will care about four more players he can stomp all over in GSL? Of course not.
It's more players that can potentially give him more second place finishes :D.
Allow me to explain: a lot of Koreans in Taiwan are capable of applying for visitor visas to compete in the TeSL circuit, but they are not capable of applying for resident visas to compete in the TeSL circuit. What is the difference?
In 2014, if a non-Taiwanese player wanted to compete in the WCS 2014 Taiwan / Hong Kong / Macao qualifiers, they would have to have a resident visa. And before anyone says anything about Sase, I must tell you all he was living a visa-free existence in Taiwan by leaving this country once every 90 days.
The players who are not a citizen of Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau must send a scanned copy of their Residency Visa to tw-tournaments@blizzard.com for an evaluation of the residency status.
Unfortunately, the government of Taiwan does not recognize any form of eSports as legitimate enough to grant resident visas. Blizzard Taiwan explicitly stated that if a player wanted to compete in WCS Taiwan / Hong Kong / Macao qualifiers, the said player would have to have a resident visa to be eligible. So, I am an English teacher in Taiwan and I now hold a resident visa. That means I can enter the WCS America: Taiwan / Macao / Hong Kong qualifiers when they happen for next year.
And find no recourse in China either. I have asked Netease if it would be possible for even a Canadian-born Chinese player with Chinese Permanent Residence (aka equivalent to Chinese green card) to compete in that region, and they said no. Bottom line? Citizenship requirement for mainland China, and Legitimate Raison d'etre in Taiwan.
I'm glad that several of the players have brought up certain things that the community (and apparently some teams, tournaments) often overlook - the legalities of the profession. Things like taking taxes into consideration with prize pools, highlighting the requirements for visas (look, technically pros are working at tournaments - this requires them to have certain visas from the country in which the tournament takes place according to the local immigration laws) - these are areas where the entire community needs to tighten up as it becomes more visible and regulatory bodies become more interested.
Loved the #nofilter Taeja. Catz and TLO with some excellent thoughts as well. And Soojwa seems to be alone in equating the regions - although Catz makes good points.
soO said it well - all WCS can have the same amount of points, win is a win, but the conditions should be also the same, meaning more tournaments in Korea (and maybe points from Proleague). That would really help the situation.
On September 10 2014 09:11 Starecat wrote: Gosh a lot of top KeSPA players want a piece of Taeja o.o
Btw it would be awesome if he return after the military service.
Relatively rare for players to come back from military service and attain the same level of success - even back when Airforce Ace existed for pretty much that purpose.
Europe on the other hand has an insane latency between it and Korea which is why Koreans have never been able to dominate that region quite like they have in North America.
EPT
