INTRO

There’s been a lot of discussion recently about all sorts of topics - WCS, decreasing talent pool in Korea, even casting in general. What I want to address in this article is a foundation to these arguments that I think is very important to understand where a lot of people are coming from and what their arguments suggest.

I’m going to attempt to split the SC2 community in two categories: those mainly looking for fun and those interested in the highest level competition. For the sake of this argument, consider the extreme forms of these two categories mutually exclusive. Keep in mind that I’m not going to argue for or against either side in this article. This argument can be applied to every sport and esport, as Richard Lewis for example talked about in a recent article (article here). This will be about the SC2 community only, however. I will NOT be taking into consideration issues such as marketing and monetarization of SC2, whether or not different systems are sustainable, etc. These are separate issues that don’t necessarily factor into the division I’m talking about. I'm purely talking about the different types of viewers in these conflicts.

To start, I’ll explain how I define these two categories.

THE ARCHETYPES

1) The fun-oriented spectator:

The way I see it, the “mainstream” audience largely falls into this category. This is the category I would put viewers in who are primarily entertained by things such as flashy production, funny interviews and commentary, local heroes winning, trashtalk, that sort of thing. I think you can catch my train of thought on this. This category is what is commonly and perhaps a bit unfairly referred to as the “casual” community.

2) The competition-oriented spectator:

This, to me, is the part of the community that finds entertainment in watching the best players in the world play the game at the highest level, regardless of their likability outside the game. This is the part of the community that is interested in absolute, sometimes rigorous fairness, pure skill, the highest level of play, informative commentary tailored to specifically analyse the game at a high level. Commonly referred to as the “hardcore” community.

Again, these are very rough images of two general approaches I’ve perceived in the community. Don’t take these as literal definitions, let them instead give you an overall feeling of the two different "archetypes" of spectators I’m basing this entire argument on.

THE CONFLICT

The reason why I think this distinction is important is because everyone arguing about these topics I named above can generally be categorized this way and the arguments made are almost entirely based on their answers to this simple question: “Why do you follow SC2?”
You will generally get only two types of answers - fun and competition.

This entire recent conflict in our community can be reduced to this. These are the two main parties in these debates, if you will.
I am not an expert on this subject, so correct me if I’m wrong, but the following is how I feel this alienation came about. Throughout the history of SC2 and even BW before it, a large part of the community, especially on TeamLiquid, grew around the Korean scene. Following its players, becoming fans of different high-level playstyles, etc. Through this, they also became fans of players - they bridged the gap in language and culture as they originally followed players not for their personality, but their skill or playstyle at a high level.

Since then however, esports and with it SC2 have reached a broader, more mainstream audience. This happened when international tournaments were already taking place. Koreans as well as foreigners participated there. This part of the community did not grow up with the Korean scene. It did not have that time to closely follow the Korean scene and get to know its players despite the cultural barriers. Naturally, this more “casual” audience was more interested in players they could immediately identify with - local heroes, foreigners who spoke their language. But not just that, “fun” personalities like MC and PartinG who made an effort to interact with a foreign audience were also welcomed with open arms.

And this is exactly where I think the conflict began.

APPLIED TO WCS

Now, keep in mind what I’ve established so far. We now have two general “movements” that are looking for two different things - in one community. The reason why this discussion is happening now of all times should be clear as day then. WCS 2016 has introduced changes that massively cater to one of these categories as opposed to the other. By essentially banning Korean players from international tournaments, Blizzard caters to the part of the community that’s interested in the former - fun, local heroes, all that. Reminder: I am not arguing for or against this.

The Korean landscape on the other hand has two fewer tournaments, making the scene extremely unforgiving. Two bad days and a player can be sidelined from individual competition for essentially half a year. This has already happened to Blizzcon champion sOs, for example. It’s about to happen to either Maru or Zest, as those two face each other in Code A and have been eliminated from SSL. Looking at the international scene, it’s nowhere near as rough. International events happen in more regular intervals and prize money is spread more than it used to be. The same is the case in Korea by the way, but the Korean scene also has less tournaments and more top end players competing for prize money.
Surely you can see where the frustration of competition-oriented spectators is coming from, whether you agree with it or not.

This exact same division also causes arguments about casting quite frequently. There are those that would like nothing more than having every match cast by two professional players of the races involved. And then there are others that enjoy a more free-flowing, entertaining cast that incorporates jokes, memes and a generally more fun approach. Both are perfectly fine and have their own value. What’s causing these arguments recently however is that WCS, casting in general, show production, all these things, are beginning to lean more and more towards the “casual”, fun oriented part of the community.

A recent example is the cast for this match:



A lot of people loved the cast for this match. A lot of people absolutely hated it. The casting was really funny, fast paced, exciting. It was however, not at all informative. And a lot of people I’ve talked to about it while doing research for this article told me that in a deciding game 5, especially a game that’s as unique and incredible as this one, they would much rather have had a serious, informative cast to properly understand what was going on in such a wild game.
Both arguments are perfectly fine and I am absolutely not writing this to tell anyone what they should or shouldn’t be entertained by. But this example again shows how difficult it is to satisfy both of these spectator categories.

BLIZZCON AND PUNDITS

I think going forward, this is going to be the biggest issue to figure out for event organizers, casters and personalities. What do “the fans” want, considering there’s two essentially opposing archetypes of spectators? Who is it you’re catering to? What is my tournament supposed to be?
It cannot be a solution to claim that BlizzCon crowns the best player in the world, when we all know that the player pool would look entirely different if everyone in the world was given the same chances. You’re roping in both categories of people with that promotion, which means you’re bound to disappoint one of the two “divisions” of the community.

It cannot be a solution to present BlizzCon as the epitome of SC2 as a competitive sport, and then have pundits on a couch that aren’t aware of the players’ achievements over the year - the exact achievements that qualified them for BlizzCon. I was extremely disappointed when I was told that Classic was “not a top tier protoss” and that “he didn’t do as well as others” by casters at BlizzCon, when all it takes to refute that statement is a quick look at his Liquipedia page. This would have been perfectly ignorable in a less “professional” setting, but on a stage that supposedly epitomizes and celebrates the game’s highest level competition? I’m not cool with that. If you’re building BlizzCon up to be SC2’s World Cup Final the way it’s held in “real” sports - which is the feeling I got from the way it was built up and promoted by Blizzard - then do it that way. But I have to say that in a real World Cup final, poorly informed pundits would not be tolerated for a second. That’s not their job in that setting. Their job is to inform.

OUTLOOK

Now, don’t take all this as me shoving my opinions down your throat - I'm not trying to and I apologize if you feel that way. I’ve been vocal about not liking WCS in its current format, and most of you who know me will know quite clearly that I’m part of the category that enjoys high level play more than anything else. I am merely trying to put these recent conflicts into perspective and hoping that both fans and tournament organizers, as well as casters, personalities, etc. can keep this in mind when participating in arguments. This is where it all comes from, this is what it’s all fundamentally based on. Neither side is in the right or wrong here - but understanding the core of these discussions may ultimately prove key in solving them.

The ideal goal now is to find a way to walk the fine line and keep both sub-communities happy. This is what made HomestoryCup so great. It was a casual, friendly, extremely fun tournament and gave an alternative to hardcore competition. But imagine - if every tournament were like HSC, a lot of people would be unhappy about the lack of tough, "professional" tournaments. There's a place for both in our community, and it's of the utmost importance that we cater not only to one crowd. If we lean too far in either direction, large parts of our community will feel alienated.

So the solution, however difficult, should be to accommodate both. I am not an expert on how to do this, however fascinating this area may be, it's not my field of work. This is where organizers, casters, the community itself comes into play and has to take initiative to improve and figure out how to reach this common goal. But one thing is clear - we're not doing enough right now.


Writer: Olli - Olli on Twitter
Gfx: shiroiusagi - shiroiusagi on Twitter
Art Credit: Blizzard
Editor: Olli