Intel® Extreme Masters will join forces with the Korean eSports Association (KeSPA) to host the StarCraft® II Proleague outside of Korea for the first time in history. ESL, the world’s largest esports company, will produce the event for IEM Shanghai as KeSPA brings the top Korean players to compete in a best of seven Grand Final for Round 3 of the Proleague.
"We are excited to work with ESL to bring Proleague to China Joy,” said Secretary General of KeSPA, Man Soo Cho. “It will be a historic event and we hope the top Korean teams will be able to put on some great matches for such a passionate audience."
“KeSPA has been a part of the StarCraft esports scene in Korea for more than ten years,” said Michal Blicharz, head of IEM. “We are extremely honored that they have chosen IEM Shanghai to host their first event ever outside of Korea. I expect we will see some intense competition in the Grand Finals.”
This historic match will take place on July 31 at the Intel Extreme Masters tournament stage inside the ChinaJoy trade show, located in the Shanghai New International Expo Center.
This will be pretty sick! Maybe KeSPA players will play in IEM as well?
I am just hoping nothing goes wrong here, Chinese lans cause chaos but with ESL at the helm all should run smoothly i hope. Hoping for a good Jin Air victory in China
Hm, I was kind of looking forward to seeing what the live turnout was going to be like in Korea, since we have seen a bit of growth in Korean SC2. I guess you go where more viewers are. Cool, though.
I don't understand this move. This is gonna piss off the Korean fans who enjoyed the possibility off watching their most prestigious event live. Are the Koreans so uninterested in Proleague that Kespa brought the Grand Finals to China for a bigger audience?
This is obviously great news for China and for IEM, and for international fans who expect a better production. But it worries me because I can't see why Kespa would let go of something so traditional to them.
I don't understand why people are excited about this. It is not a global event, they are playing the final of proleague in the same location as a foreign event...
For me, this is very rude for Korean players and korean viewers Korean players are flying to IEM but they can't play in the tournament Korean viewers won't be able to attend the final of proleague (I don't know how Visa work there but usually it takes a long time to be able to go to china so I think there will be 0 korean viewers there)
On July 01 2016 00:26 FireCake wrote: I don't understand why people are excited about this. It is not a global event, they are playing the final of proleague in the same location as a foreign event...
For me, this is very rude for Korean players and korean viewers Korean players are flying to IEM but they can't play in the tournament Korean viewers won't be able to attend the final of proleague (I don't know how Visa work there but usually it takes a long time to be able to go to china so I think there will be 0 korean viewers there)
On July 01 2016 00:26 FireCake wrote: I don't understand why people are excited about this. It is not a global event, they are playing the final of proleague in the same location as a foreign event...
For me, this is very rude for Korean players and korean viewers Korean players are flying to IEM but they can't play in the tournament Korean viewers won't be able to attend the final of proleague (I don't know how Visa work there but usually it takes a long time to be able to go to china so I think there will be 0 korean viewers there)
Sadly I have to agree with this. It just seems so wrong that Korean players can't compete at IEM despite being there for Proleague.
If this is good for KeSPA and the chinese scene, okay, but I am not super hyped. Overall it does not change anything for me.
I just want a global event before BlizzCon.
On June 30 2016 23:22 geokilla wrote: Maybe KeSPA players will play in IEM as well?
No, that's what makes this so weird. All the players have been announced and it's a standard region locked WCS event.
EPT![[image loading]](http://cdn2.esl.tv/uploads/pics/kespa2.png)
