Im not trolling and i dont know how you got that notion. I may be exaggerating and this is because this subject is really bugging me. I have no idea how you come to think that without the region lock there wouldnt be any events at all. You cannot deliver proof for such a statement and therefor its just speculative bullshit. Besides that i didnt watch IEM, Dreamhack etc this year since i wasnt interested in these. So from my limited perspective there were no such events this year.
It´s been said and hinted at several occasions. The most recent and perhaps most freely spoken by Incontrol just a couple of days ago at . Start listening at ~59 minutes. Or I can write his exact words here:
"Alot of the partners of event went to Blizzard in 2015 and 2016 and said; If you dont change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore."
I don´t how you can get a clearer message than that.
On September 08 2016 04:12 Thouhastmail wrote: We`ll see - maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe foreigners have improved their skills, just like uThermal said.
Improvement would mean they can consistently have good games against code A / low code S Koreans. Being matched against super-elite Koreans once in a blue moon won't tell much, although should be a lot of fun to watch.
They already do that. Just look at foreigners in online cups like douyu cup, corsair cup, and the Olimoleague. There are Koreans in all of those cups, but there is no guarantee that they will win. As people have already pointed out, Neeb won an Olimoleague against high Code S level players.
Guru, Scarlett, Neeb, and Nerchio have consistently good games in online cups against not just Code A/Low Code S players but also fairly high level Code S players.
Online cups are an entirely different world from offline competition though.
On September 08 2016 04:12 Thouhastmail wrote: We`ll see - maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe foreigners have improved their skills, just like uThermal said.
Improvement would mean they can consistently have good games against code A / low code S Koreans. Being matched against super-elite Koreans once in a blue moon won't tell much, although should be a lot of fun to watch.
They already do that. Just look at foreigners in online cups like douyu cup, corsair cup, and the Olimoleague. There are Koreans in all of those cups, but there is no guarantee that they will win. As people have already pointed out, Neeb won an Olimoleague against high Code S level players.
Guru, Scarlett, Neeb, and Nerchio have consistently good games in online cups against not just Code A/Low Code S players but also fairly high level Code S players.
online tournaments have always been like that though, and then offline tournaments show a completely different story
Im not trolling and i dont know how you got that notion. I may be exaggerating and this is because this subject is really bugging me. I have no idea how you come to think that without the region lock there wouldnt be any events at all. You cannot deliver proof for such a statement and therefor its just speculative bullshit. Besides that i didnt watch IEM, Dreamhack etc this year since i wasnt interested in these. So from my limited perspective there were no such events this year.
It´s been said and hinted at several occasions. The most recent and perhaps most freely spoken by Incontrol just a couple of days ago at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAN8qUY67ns. Start listening at ~59 minutes. Or I can write his exact words here:
"Alot of the partners of event went to Blizzard in 2015 and 2016 and said; If you dont change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore."
I don´t how you can get a clearer message than that.
Sorry, but "If you dont change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore." could be related to balance, to patches, to prize money, to some other conditions / incentives or even to racism.
If I was an IEM manager responsible for the next season, I would be going to Blizzard and tell them: "If you don't change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore to run a region locked event with mediocre players."
Im not trolling and i dont know how you got that notion. I may be exaggerating and this is because this subject is really bugging me. I have no idea how you come to think that without the region lock there wouldnt be any events at all. You cannot deliver proof for such a statement and therefor its just speculative bullshit. Besides that i didnt watch IEM, Dreamhack etc this year since i wasnt interested in these. So from my limited perspective there were no such events this year.
It´s been said and hinted at several occasions. The most recent and perhaps most freely spoken by Incontrol just a couple of days ago at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAN8qUY67ns. Start listening at ~59 minutes. Or I can write his exact words here:
"Alot of the partners of event went to Blizzard in 2015 and 2016 and said; If you dont change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore."
I don´t how you can get a clearer message than that.
Sorry, but "If you dont change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore." could be related to balance, to patches, to prize money, to some other conditions / incentives or even to racism.
If I was an IEM manager responsible for the next season, I would be going to Blizzard and tell them: "If you don't change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore to run a region locked event with mediocre players."
IEM wants games with a global scene and a strong Western presence. That's where the money is. The large, global advertisers don't care about tiny sports that are only big in one country. If Starcraft has any hope of ever achieving that, it needs to build the foreign scene. You can't build the foreign scene when a handful of Korean players come in and hover up all the money and hog the spotlight. I know you short sighted lot are never going to see that, but Starcraft can't survive as a major esport in just Korea. Korea is a saturated market for SC. There is no growth there.
Im not trolling and i dont know how you got that notion. I may be exaggerating and this is because this subject is really bugging me. I have no idea how you come to think that without the region lock there wouldnt be any events at all. You cannot deliver proof for such a statement and therefor its just speculative bullshit. Besides that i didnt watch IEM, Dreamhack etc this year since i wasnt interested in these. So from my limited perspective there were no such events this year.
It´s been said and hinted at several occasions. The most recent and perhaps most freely spoken by Incontrol just a couple of days ago at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAN8qUY67ns. Start listening at ~59 minutes. Or I can write his exact words here:
"Alot of the partners of event went to Blizzard in 2015 and 2016 and said; If you dont change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore."
I don´t how you can get a clearer message than that.
Sorry, but "If you dont change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore." could be related to balance, to patches, to prize money, to some other conditions / incentives or even to racism.
If I was an IEM manager responsible for the next season, I would be going to Blizzard and tell them: "If you don't change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore to run a region locked event with mediocre players."
IEM wants games with a global scene and a strong Western presence. That's where the money is. The large, global advertisers don't care about tiny sports that are only big in one country. If Starcraft has any hope of ever achieving that, it needs to build the foreign scene. You can't build the foreign scene when a handful of Korean players come in and hover up all the money and hog the spotlight. I know you short sighted lot are never going to see that, but Starcraft can't survive as a major esport in just Korea. Korea is a saturated market for SC. There is no growth there.
OK, I see. So you finished your day job cleaning toilets in the London underground and then you came to TL to write for 150th time some old theory that hundreds of WCS 2016 supporters have written before you without a single proof.
My answer before was to one guy, who claimed finally to have a proof that actually turned out not to be a proof, but being another "mystical theory". But you, the short sighted lot will catch to it and say: "It is the proof!!! Somebody said that something is not working well and needs to be changed! This means, it must be changed in the way, that we think is correct!"
Well, that is not a proof.
And to be honest, I do not think, that Nerchio winning it all, would help the global popularity of SC2. Does this mean, all Polish players will be banned? Because 40 millions Polish people do not have a sufficient economic power to be interesting for global advertisers? What about banning all players worldwide except let's say USA, Canada, Germany, China and France?
On September 08 2016 04:12 Thouhastmail wrote: We`ll see - maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe foreigners have improved their skills, just like uThermal said.
Improvement would mean they can consistently have good games against code A / low code S Koreans. Being matched against super-elite Koreans once in a blue moon won't tell much, although should be a lot of fun to watch.
They already do that. Just look at foreigners in online cups like douyu cup, corsair cup, and the Olimoleague. There are Koreans in all of those cups, but there is no guarantee that they will win. As people have already pointed out, Neeb won an Olimoleague against high Code S level players.
Guru, Scarlett, Neeb, and Nerchio have consistently good games in online cups against not just Code A/Low Code S players but also fairly high level Code S players.
online tournaments have always been like that though, and then offline tournaments show a completely different story
Actually they haven't. The cups in question have long been dominated by Koreans. 2014-2015 I think there was like 2 foreigner wins aside from Neeb. But now there are a lot more foreigners winning online than before. I looked at Nerchio, Guru, and Scarlett, and Scarlett was a bit of an anomaly because there is no 2015 online record. Scarlett won a bunch in 2014 and then went silent in 2015 and then started winning again in 2016.
But for Nerchio and Guru, they both definitely performed better overall in 2016 than in 2014/2015.
Also, Neeb won an Olimoleague in 2015/2016 but got 2nd once in 2016.
So perhaps the change isn't the huge, but it is definitely there, and I think that it is unwise to ignore this shift, however small. It is true that online performances do not always translate to offline victories, but look at Byun. He played in tons of online cups; and now he's one of the best players in the world.
My answer before was to one guy, who claimed finally to have a proof that actually turned out not to be a proof, but being another "mystical theory". But you, the short sighted lot will catch to it and say: "It is the proof!!! Somebody said that something is not working well and needs to be changed! This means, it must be changed in the way, that we think is correct!"
My mistake for not transcribing the whole segment, since you obviously didn´t listen to the interview. Incontrol was specifically talking about how koreans were dominating the western tournaments and that was the reason event partners wanted WCS to change. Im not even saying that this is the right or wrong path to take.
It's true that tournament organizers complained about Koreans dominating everything essentially killing growth in the foreign scene outside of the small group of hardcore fans. Tournament organizers wanted to grow the foreign scene because there is no money in supporting a scene dominated by one country. esports isn't centralized in Korea anymore. The only way to be financially viable is to cater to the biggest audience possible. And that isn't in Korea, obviously.
This is not some "mystical theory". It's the truth.
Im not trolling and i dont know how you got that notion. I may be exaggerating and this is because this subject is really bugging me. I have no idea how you come to think that without the region lock there wouldnt be any events at all. You cannot deliver proof for such a statement and therefor its just speculative bullshit. Besides that i didnt watch IEM, Dreamhack etc this year since i wasnt interested in these. So from my limited perspective there were no such events this year.
It´s been said and hinted at several occasions. The most recent and perhaps most freely spoken by Incontrol just a couple of days ago at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAN8qUY67ns. Start listening at ~59 minutes. Or I can write his exact words here:
"Alot of the partners of event went to Blizzard in 2015 and 2016 and said; If you dont change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore."
I don´t how you can get a clearer message than that.
Well then that basically means it's the death of the foreigner Starcraft scene because let's not kid ourselves, outside of Korea this was a shit, uninteresting year for Starcraft, at least for me personally. I'm not really bothered to watch Polt beat foreigners, or watch Polt lose to himself when he plays against foreigners. It's not interesting.
Obscure foreigners whose face I can't even picture (is that the definition of faceless?) are winning tournaments which I'm not even bothering to watch in the first place. If I want to know what Nerchio, Neeb or Showtime look like, I need to google it. I'm mostly familiar with the Korean players who are all around PL, GSL, ASL and S2L. I recognize more readily the faces of players like Organ, Shuttle, Sharp, etc. as well.
Sounds harsh, but that's how it is. Berate me all you want, but the only Starcraft I'm ever going to bother allocating my limited free time to watching is the kind being played at the highest level of cutting edge. I'm going to watch Brood War VODs and enjoy them (mostly due to the infectious enthusiasm from Tastosis).
Nope. That's how I see it.
Realistically speaking, there should have been regional events from the get-go. A mix of regional events for every region and some international events as well. That way foreigners could have had their "growth", which is basically them practicing the game 4 hours a day, sucking at it, but still winning things because everyone sucks. I don't know how some fans would identify to that, but if they do, well whatever.
Im not trolling and i dont know how you got that notion. I may be exaggerating and this is because this subject is really bugging me. I have no idea how you come to think that without the region lock there wouldnt be any events at all. You cannot deliver proof for such a statement and therefor its just speculative bullshit. Besides that i didnt watch IEM, Dreamhack etc this year since i wasnt interested in these. So from my limited perspective there were no such events this year.
It´s been said and hinted at several occasions. The most recent and perhaps most freely spoken by Incontrol just a couple of days ago at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAN8qUY67ns. Start listening at ~59 minutes. Or I can write his exact words here:
"Alot of the partners of event went to Blizzard in 2015 and 2016 and said; If you dont change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore."
I don´t how you can get a clearer message than that.
Well then that basically means it's the death of the foreigner Starcraft scene because let's not kid ourselves, outside of Korea this was a shit, uninteresting year for Starcraft, at least for me personally. I'm not really bothered to watch Polt beat foreigners, or watch Polt lose to himself when he plays against foreigners. It's not interesting.
Obscure foreigners whose face I can't even picture (is that the definition of faceless?) are winning tournaments which I'm not even bothering to watch in the first place. If I want to know what Nerchio, Neeb or Showtime look like, I need to google it. I'm mostly familiar with the Korean players who are all around PL, GSL, ASL and S2L. I recognize more readily the faces of players like Organ, Shuttle, Sharp, etc. as well.
Sounds harsh, but that's how it is. Berate me all you want, but the only Starcraft I'm ever going to bother allocating my limited free time to watching is the kind being played at the highest level of cutting edge. I'm going to watch Brood War VODs and enjoy them (mostly due to the infectious enthusiasm from Tastosis).
Nope. That's how I see it.
Realistically speaking, there should have been regional events from the get-go. A mix of regional events for every region and some international events as well. That way foreigners could have had their "growth", which is basically them practicing the game 4 hours a day, sucking at it, but still winning things because everyone sucks. I don't know how some fans would identify to that, but if they do, well whatever.
What about Tastosis-casted foreigner games like at DH Montreal? Surely their infectious enthusiasum can get you into that. I mean, foreigner games are still very interesting dude.
Not to me, they aren't. I tried to watch, my interest just wasn't there. It's not uninteresting but then you get the itch of "I have better things to do"
This is me personally, obviously not everyone is going to watch Starcraft like I do. However I'm looking at the stance of ESL and Dreamhack, and comparing it to my own.
I think that overall, the entire problem boils down to foreigners just sucking at the game.
On September 08 2016 17:09 Incognoto wrote: Not to me, they aren't. I tried to watch, my interest just wasn't there. It's not uninteresting but then you get the itch of "I have better things to do"
This is me personally, obviously not everyone is going to watch Starcraft like I do. However I'm looking at the stance of ESL and Dreamhack, and comparing it to my own.
I think that overall, the entire problem boils down to foreigners just sucking at the game.
The last sentence actually sums it up very well. If foreigners were good at starcraft there would be no budget problems and no discussions every year.
Im not trolling and i dont know how you got that notion. I may be exaggerating and this is because this subject is really bugging me. I have no idea how you come to think that without the region lock there wouldnt be any events at all. You cannot deliver proof for such a statement and therefor its just speculative bullshit. Besides that i didnt watch IEM, Dreamhack etc this year since i wasnt interested in these. So from my limited perspective there were no such events this year.
It´s been said and hinted at several occasions. The most recent and perhaps most freely spoken by Incontrol just a couple of days ago at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAN8qUY67ns. Start listening at ~59 minutes. Or I can write his exact words here:
"Alot of the partners of event went to Blizzard in 2015 and 2016 and said; If you dont change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore."
I don´t how you can get a clearer message than that.
Well then that basically means it's the death of the foreigner Starcraft scene because let's not kid ourselves, outside of Korea this was a shit, uninteresting year for Starcraft, at least for me personally. I'm not really bothered to watch Polt beat foreigners, or watch Polt lose to himself when he plays against foreigners. It's not interesting.
Obscure foreigners whose face I can't even picture (is that the definition of faceless?) are winning tournaments which I'm not even bothering to watch in the first place. If I want to know what Nerchio, Neeb or Showtime look like, I need to google it. I'm mostly familiar with the Korean players who are all around PL, GSL, ASL and S2L. I recognize more readily the faces of players like Organ, Shuttle, Sharp, etc. as well.
Sounds harsh, but that's how it is. Berate me all you want, but the only Starcraft I'm ever going to bother allocating my limited free time to watching is the kind being played at the highest level of cutting edge. I'm going to watch Brood War VODs and enjoy them (mostly due to the infectious enthusiasm from Tastosis).
Nope. That's how I see it.
Realistically speaking, there should have been regional events from the get-go. A mix of regional events for every region and some international events as well. That way foreigners could have had their "growth", which is basically them practicing the game 4 hours a day, sucking at it, but still winning things because everyone sucks. I don't know how some fans would identify to that, but if they do, well whatever.
I don't know. I watched a Nerchio vs Neeb bo5 in some foreign tournament which was way more high level than a proleague ZvP between two decent KR players. Like after watching Nerchio vs Neeb I thought this korean ZvP was too shitty to watch, I even felt like the zerg was matchfixing seeing how painfully bad it was.
Maybe you just don't have a clue about what is high level starcraft and what is not, so you just watch korean starcraft because on average it's better, but you miss out quite a lot doing that.
On September 08 2016 17:09 Incognoto wrote: Not to me, they aren't. I tried to watch, my interest just wasn't there. It's not uninteresting but then you get the itch of "I have better things to do"
This is me personally, obviously not everyone is going to watch Starcraft like I do. However I'm looking at the stance of ESL and Dreamhack, and comparing it to my own.
I think that overall, the entire problem boils down to foreigners just sucking at the game.
The last sentence actually sums it up very well. If foreigners were good at starcraft there would be no budget problems and no discussions every year.
Yeah and that goal can be achieved best by bitching about it on forums.
On one hand, I am pissed that I don't have the same selection of tournaments as in 2014 and I generally consider the whole concept of countries outdated and ugly and thus 2016 WCS doesn't really speak to me very well. On the other hand, what you say, is the paramount of ignorance. Giving foreigners a chance to actually get better was a big motivation for the region lock in the first place. Unless you are a prodigy like Stephano or Polt, you need to train full time to be even remotely good - and to do that you need money and you won't get that money if noone is willing to fund tournaments where you have some chance of doing well.
Don't get me wrong, I would definitely preffer in Blizzard manned up and poured even more money into the scene so that we can have everything, but I can't really blame a for-profit company for not doing that.
Im not trolling and i dont know how you got that notion. I may be exaggerating and this is because this subject is really bugging me. I have no idea how you come to think that without the region lock there wouldnt be any events at all. You cannot deliver proof for such a statement and therefor its just speculative bullshit. Besides that i didnt watch IEM, Dreamhack etc this year since i wasnt interested in these. So from my limited perspective there were no such events this year.
It´s been said and hinted at several occasions. The most recent and perhaps most freely spoken by Incontrol just a couple of days ago at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAN8qUY67ns. Start listening at ~59 minutes. Or I can write his exact words here:
"Alot of the partners of event went to Blizzard in 2015 and 2016 and said; If you dont change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore."
I don´t how you can get a clearer message than that.
Well then that basically means it's the death of the foreigner Starcraft scene because let's not kid ourselves, outside of Korea this was a shit, uninteresting year for Starcraft, at least for me personally. I'm not really bothered to watch Polt beat foreigners, or watch Polt lose to himself when he plays against foreigners. It's not interesting.
Obscure foreigners whose face I can't even picture (is that the definition of faceless?) are winning tournaments which I'm not even bothering to watch in the first place. If I want to know what Nerchio, Neeb or Showtime look like, I need to google it. I'm mostly familiar with the Korean players who are all around PL, GSL, ASL and S2L. I recognize more readily the faces of players like Organ, Shuttle, Sharp, etc. as well.
Sounds harsh, but that's how it is. Berate me all you want, but the only Starcraft I'm ever going to bother allocating my limited free time to watching is the kind being played at the highest level of cutting edge. I'm going to watch Brood War VODs and enjoy them (mostly due to the infectious enthusiasm from Tastosis).
Nope. That's how I see it.
Realistically speaking, there should have been regional events from the get-go. A mix of regional events for every region and some international events as well. That way foreigners could have had their "growth", which is basically them practicing the game 4 hours a day, sucking at it, but still winning things because everyone sucks. I don't know how some fans would identify to that, but if they do, well whatever.
I don't know. I watched a Nerchio vs Neeb bo5 in some foreign tournament which was way more high level than a proleague ZvP between two decent KR players. Like after watching Nerchio vs Neeb I thought this korean ZvP was too shitty to watch, I even felt like the zerg was matchfixing seeing how painfully bad it was.
Maybe you just don't have a clue about what is high level starcraft and what is not, so you just watch korean starcraft because on average it's better, but you miss out quite a lot doing that.
To be quite frank, I'm sure that top foreigners are legitimately good at the game. I'd say that the best foreigners are probably close to Code S level.
That said, maybe you're confusing "high level" and "close match". I don't know, but I'm not really going to assume that the foreigner scene is worth a damn until we get foreigners doing well. The foreigner scene is a giant meme to me, with Lilbow holding the meme conch until his successor appears next Blizzcon. When we get foreigners who take Koreans to town at their own game, let's talk. In the mean time it's objectively true that ESL and Dreamhack cried to Blizzard about region-locking Koreans because foreigners are too crappy at the game (and they even say as much, amirite uthermal) to play with the big boys.
If foreigner Starcraft really is worth a damn then we wouldn't need to block out only Koreans from playing the game at international, open events.
Proleague is something special, it's something else in its own. It's downright entertaining, not only because of the games, but because it's fun to cheer for a team (rather than just a player). I'm a Jinair fanboy because I love my boy Maru, but I'm still cheering for Jinair players whenever they play.
Also, for sure the Korean scene gets its share of shitty games. Look at Zest's most recent PL match. I still don't get it and this is the current GSL champion we're talking about here. Was that high level play? Fuck no. In fact many, many Korean games are bops. They're shitty games which end in less than 5 minutes because one player fucked up. Why is that, you ask?
Most likely because Koreans win to play the game, foreigners play to not lose. So you get cutting edge matches out of Koreans, down to the wire because they're doing everything they can to cinch a win. When I watch a foreigner game (granted, I haven't seen any in a while) I don't get the same vibes at all.
In the mean time, I'm not going to get vibes or nerd chills watching foreign Starcraft if I know that right off the bat, tournaments are hosted in a way to keep out of overall best players in the world. Are you telling me I'm supposed to get excited for tournaments which have been explicitly watered down to protect foreigners from Koreans? Maybe YOU can get excited for that and maybe YOU can tell yourself that you're watching amazing Starcraft. Me? I can't.
These are my views and remarks. I hope tournament organizers read this and think things over. There's nothing wrong with regional tournaments, on the contrary, that's a good idea. However having ONLY regional tournaments is stupid as fuck, you'd want still at least 2 or 3 international, open events. Of which this year we're going to get 2, I believe. Homestory Cup and Kespa Cup. One got cock-blocked by Blizzard in that it can't give WCS points, the other interferes with Copa America (whatever it's called, also why the fuck are Euros playing in it??) so that it's not a realistically good tournament for foreigners to attend.
There's no IEM Global event or Dreamhack Open and I will rightfully lament that.
On September 08 2016 18:15 opisska wrote:Unless you are a prodigy like Stephano or Polt, you need to train full time to be even remotely good
Are you telling me that Team Liquid is NOT paying for airline tickets and NOT allowing their players to practice full time? Are TL players required to work part-time sewing TL t-shirts to be allowed to practice? Does Millenium ask that players specifically limit the amount of practice they get, so as to save money on internet bills? Does Euronics not pay players their rent?
Serious question: are players salaried at all? Korean or foreigner?
I don't know. I think it's a bit cheap to say that foreigners don't have the same opportunities to practice as Koreans. Especially when LOTV came out and a kind of soft-reset took place.
On September 08 2016 18:15 opisska wrote:Unless you are a prodigy like Stephano or Polt, you need to train full time to be even remotely good
Are you telling me that Team Liquid is NOT paying for airline tickets and NOT allowing their players to practice full time? Are TL players required to work part-time sewing TL t-shirts to be allowed to practice? Does Millenium ask that players specifically limit the amount of practice they get, so as to save money on internet bills? Does Euronics not pay players their rent?
Serious question: are players salaried at all? Korean or foreigner?
I don't know. I think it's a bit cheap to say that foreigners don't have the same opportunities to practice as Koreans. Especially when LOTV came out and a kind of soft-reset took place.
From what information I have seen pertaining to WCS2016, it seems to me that there won't be many reasons to pay any airline tickets in the first place, if Blizzard didn't make arrangements with tournament organizers so that these tourneys actually happen. A part of these arrangement is Blizzard pouring money into it, another part is the region lock.
Do you really think that the teams are paying the players just out of sheer love? TL maybe, but even they need to get money somewhere and sponsors aren't going to give you anything if there is no exposure.
This is what you constantly fail to address: it's what tournament organizers wanted. What esport would there be without tournaments?
Im not trolling and i dont know how you got that notion. I may be exaggerating and this is because this subject is really bugging me. I have no idea how you come to think that without the region lock there wouldnt be any events at all. You cannot deliver proof for such a statement and therefor its just speculative bullshit. Besides that i didnt watch IEM, Dreamhack etc this year since i wasnt interested in these. So from my limited perspective there were no such events this year.
It´s been said and hinted at several occasions. The most recent and perhaps most freely spoken by Incontrol just a couple of days ago at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAN8qUY67ns. Start listening at ~59 minutes. Or I can write his exact words here:
"Alot of the partners of event went to Blizzard in 2015 and 2016 and said; If you dont change how things are going we´re not gonna run Starcraft. Its not worth it for us anymore."
I don´t how you can get a clearer message than that.
Yes the partners of the events forced blizzard to change things because with the low vievership it wouldn't be worth it anymore to run sc2. However the approach of locking out foreigners failed. Viewership didn't get higher at all. So there's no reason not to remove the regionlock. Tournament organizers don't care one bit if it's Nerchio winning an event or Cure all they care for is the money that the tournament is generating.
On the other hand things like the shoutcraft event prove that it's in fact the koreans that bring the viewership.
EPT
