Blizzard Reportedly Radically Overhauling WCS - Page 38

On December 14 2015 21:29 Vindicare605 wrote:


I care about 3 sports. NBA Basketball, Tennis and NHL Hockey.

None have region lock outs.

NBA players are the best in the world and they come from all over the world, that's what makes it so much fun to watch. The fact that the vast majority of them are American is just due to the fact the game originated here and is so engrained in our inner city youth culture. BTW two of my favorite active players Pau Gasol and Dirk Nowitski are Spanish and German respectively while one of my favorites of all time, Steve Nash is Canadian.

Not to mention that the NHL, and Major League Baseball don't have region limits either. The best players are scouted and drafted from all around the world.

So your argument has absolutely no meaning to me. If the main sports I watch can go on without region lockouts of any kind and be massively successful then I see no reason whatsoever why Starcraft should be different.

On December 16 2015 08:45 JimmyJRaynor wrote:


German Hockey League only allows 2 Canadians per team. This allows German players to get better. The KHL limits foriegn participation. If I dig around I can find at least 10 more leagues with region locks. Don Cherry wants the CHL to put the clamps down on non-Canadians participating in the WHL OHL QMJHL and lays down a good case for it.

There is lots of region locking in hockey. The only league that does not have it is the best league in the world. The primary purpose of that league is entertainment and money making. The purpose of region locking in Hockey is to make weaker country's local players better

The purpose of region locking in Germany and other places is to grow and develop local talent. My uncle broke 5,000 scoring records in the German league and they kept him as a coach after he retired. The Germans recognized that he understood more about hockey than most of their native coaches. Over the past 10 years he has helped develop the weaker German players. They are getting better and region locking is working.

if there were no region lock in german hockey leagues more than half the players would be canadian because of the money you can make there and less german players would be on the roster.

Region locking works in hockey and if a similar model is adopted in competitive SC2 leagues that are a notch below the top level of the game it'll work as well.

On December 16 2015 06:50 WrathSCII wrote:


CatZ
TLO
Apollo

Missing anyone?

On December 15 2015 19:13 tch wrote:
Long time reader, first time poster. I'm an avid watcher of Starcraft since BroodWar but not an active player.

I like to watch top tier Korean players but also seeing the best foreigners face off against them. Snute vs. Flash, Showtime vs. Parting, Serral vs. Hydra/Parting/Innovation. I think SC2 needs both. NationWars is a very interesting concept. A solution could be to add nation-based online qualifiers for the WCS tournaments so Korea has only a limited amount of spots.

In regard to make the game more active the multiplayer part needs to be F2P, there is no other way to make the game more active.

Also I dislike that vods of SC2 are relatively hard to find compared to most other games. Subbing several organisations to watch SC2 is not good. I'd love to be able to buy a single (more expensive) sub and watch all relevant tournaments spoiler-free. Ideally an ad-financed YouTube channel would exist, providing spoiler-free (not single matches but wholes series / proleague runs) vods. This would help to get viewers in. With the option to download the F2P multiplayer to start playing after being excited by top tier players.

In my opinion SC2 is the best esports game (one could argue about BW) but the way it's presented and accessible is hindering it's success. The argument of only people playing the game being interested is not correct if you look at other sports like the football world cup.

On December 16 2015 09:56 showstealer1829 wrote:


To which I'd counter "When was the last time Germany won a medal in Hockey?" (And yes I know the answer)

On December 16 2015 16:55 The_Red_Viper wrote:

You could leak what "soon" means

On December 16 2015 17:04 lichter wrote:
nah definitely not soonTM

On December 16 2015 16:43 WrathSCII wrote:
@Brutaxilos.

We need "something" to foster the foreign talent. Some "foreign KeSPA" or teams actually start work as teams not sponsors only. There should be "Team House" and coaches to advice and supervise the players and training schedule. Other than that, the result won't change.

P.S. You will have to change your quote about CJ herO as he won't be able to play on IEM anymore

On December 16 2015 15:34 Brutaxilos wrote:
So this thread is slowly falling back to the question of why are Koreans good at the game. Koreans aren't naturally better at the game. But the Korean players are.
What Korea does best is that it fosters an environment where it can find the talent and foster it. Considering at one point probably 99% of Korean boys played Starcraft 1 regularly, it's incredibly easy to find those prodigies (and Kespa is pretty much filled with only these prodigies, all the only decent players don't make it that far). In other parts of the world, maybe only 5-10% of males have even played Starcraft, even less so competitively. How many people who would've been the next great player never even played the game?

This same reasoning explains why Canadians dominate hockey, or why Americans don't do well in soccer. Canadians at a young age play hockey and all the talented youths are discovered and trained. In America, all the skilled youths find themselves practicing American football instead.

I don't want to say that talent is what makes players good or anything. 99% of it is hard work, but at the pro-level when everyone is working their butts off that 1% of talent is the difference between the Bonjwas and regular players. Players like Stephano (who I would truly say has talent) are lucky to have found a game that they are naturally good at AND enjoy (so he can put in that 99% of hard work). Region locking isn't going to make TLO, Lilbow, Nerchio etc. suddenly start playing at the levels of Koreans. What we need to do is find a way to foster new players and develop a player base. An American team won the last Dota 2 champion, so clearly foreigners do have the potential to be good.

Now I don't know what the solution here is, but I don't believe region locking would make any difference.

On December 16 2015 18:58 infii wrote:


Is it really so hard to put 1 and 1 together? We need to find a way to foster new players you say? Let’s do this step by step:

1. The present:
   • Great Infrastructure in south korea -> Fosters good players -> Good players get interest of viewers -> Many viewers accumulate money -> Fosters good players -> Growing community
     
   • Measly infrastructure in the rest of the world -> Good players come and go on a random basis -> Lack of consistency of good players for viewers -> Less interest -> Less money -> Shrinking community
   
   
2. What do we have to do to break the cycle and grow the community instead?
   • Generate interest of players -> The more players participate, the more it is likely to foster talent
     
   • Generate interest of viewers -> Viewers keep the system going by accumulating money
   
   
3. How do we achieve that?
   • Create an incentive for new players to start a sc2 pro-gaming career. How? For example by region locking tournaments. More players would be able to win prize money in foreign countries -> More players could make a living of pro-gaming -> Teams would grow and help find new talent
     
   • Create and sustain a competitive player base in foreign communites. Due to bigger teams and more talent in foreign communities (because of region lock), foreigners could compete again with koreans -> Viewer interest will rise -> Many viewers accumulate money -> Fosters good players -> Growing community
   
   
4. With enough time foreign communities will get self-sustaining like in korea and things like region locks will get redundant
   

Foreign communities failed to build an infrastructure that fosters good players through sheer interest like south korea. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t do it at all.
The goal is to create competitive communities which are able to bring out players who are able to play on korean level.
Of course this is unfair and sounds like welfare for bad players right now. That’s because it IS unfair. But without actions like region locking the foreign communities will dry out and diminish to a very small circle of elitists and hardcore enthusiasts.

Keep in mind that region locking will help the community only over a long period of time and that is what most people here fail to realize. It’s not an instant problem solver but more so a first step in the right direction.