Road to BlizzCon 2019: ShoWTimE (#8 WCS Circuit)

Not a Hype Piece

by Wax

For the first half of ShoWTimE's career, it felt as if his story was being scripted by Blizzard for a "path-to-pro" video promoting their glamorous and meritocratic esports ecosystem.

Play ladder! Improve your skills! Take a shot at the open, online qualifiers for our second-tier esports tournament! Climb your way up to first-tier in our totally fair promotion system! Once you get there, you could instantly become a star by upsetting a legendary champion.

It's not just about competing on the biggest stages—we're sure you'd love to keep in touch with the local scene by continuing to hone your skills in domestic competitions.

By the way, it would be great if you could throw in a shocking fall-from-grace in there somewhere. You know, for dramatic purposes. But don't worry: you'll bounce back as an even stronger player to achieve that ultimate goal: winning a championship.

Wait a second, that IS the plot to a promotional video from Blizzard! ShoWTimE's 2012-2016 career arc is basically that of the much-mocked "Krusher99" video from the official Overwatch League launch, except that it actually happened (also, Serena Williams probably isn't a ShoWTimE fan).


Of course, such a video would leave out the part where the esports system isn't exactly a perfect meritocracy, with Blizzard quarantining Korean players in their own domestic leagues to the immense benefit of players like ShoWTimE. ShoWTimE's career-defining championship mentioned above was WCS Spring 2016, where he became the second non-Korean player to win a major WCS Circuit title under the auspices of the region-lock (Lilbow had won Season 3 in 2015). 2016 also happened to be the year where the region-lock was expanded to the WCS Global Finals, reorganizing the competition to include 8 players from Korea and 8 players from the Circuit (instead of the previous 16 top point-earners overall).

Naturally, this change was criticized by certain fans as undermining the competitive integrity of WCS (as it turns out, Blizzard's maxim of "Think Globally" has many different repercussions). But if Lilbow had given ammo to the critics in 2015 with his blink-and-you'll-miss-it loss to Life at the Global Finals, ShoWTimE ended up being one of the Circuit players who vindicated the controversial system.

Whether one thought ShoWTimE had earned his 2016 Global Finals opportunity fairly or not, no one could argue with the quality of his gameplay once it was time to play. He defeated Dear and eventual champion ByuN during the group stages, joining Neeb and Elazer as the first non-Korean players to ever advance to the quarterfinals in the modern WCS system. While he was later defeated by Elazer in the quarterfinals, ShoWTimE had already done his part. Blizzard had been tweaking the WCS system since 2012, looking for the fabled 'local heroes' to lead StarCraft II esports. Now, they had three.



There's a reason the aforementioned Overwatch League video and other hype videos of that ilk don't care to answer the question of "what happens after you become a star?"

As it turns out, the WCS system can make local heroes, but it doesn't maintain them. Championship-less since 2016, ShoWTimE's experiences have become a harsh parable about how quickly new heroes will emerge to try and devour the old.

We remember 2017 as the year of Neeb, with the American Protoss winning three out of four Circuit events. And while Neeb did eliminate ShoWTimE from WCS Austin, Brazil's rising star Kelazhur also came from out of nowhere to eliminate ShoWTimE at two events. ShoWTimE would end up missing out on the Global Finals after his historic performance in the previous year.

2018 saw ShoWTimE get off to a strong start on the year, reaching the finals of WCS Leipzig in his home country. Unfortunately, his finals opponent turned out to be Serral, who would go on to one-up Neeb's 3-of-4 to achieve a perfect Circuit Grand Slam. Now, in 2019, we've seen Reynor dive into the fray, splitting Circuit titles with Serral and generally making life awful for any competitor over the age of 21.

Indeed, the second half of ShoWTimE's journey hasn't been quite as blessed as the first.

The thing is, that's what's supposed to happen. The current Korean StarCraft II scene is in an unusual situation where there are no newcomers to challenge the old guard. It's obviously touching when another player wins their first Code S title after nearly a decade in the struggle, but it's become bizarrely normal. Just think: back in Brood War, it was considered a herculean effort when Boxer reached Starleague finals at the age of 25 and in the fifth year of his career. Hell, we don't even have to go as far back as Brood War for example. MMA was everyone's sentimental favorite at BlizzCon 2014, valiantly trying to overcome a near ten-year age gap against an ascendant Life.

Strangely, even as teenagers continue to enter the foreigner/Circuit scene, it feels like we've been slow to extend much courtesy to our old soldiers. Perhaps we still haven't seen enough of our favorites have their bones picked clean by the next generation. Or perhaps the time-frame of foreigner relevancy has been so short that we're still taking our great players for granted.

Looking back at 2018, the fact that ShoWTimE finished as the #2 seed in a year when Serral was at the absolute peak of his powers might have been downright heroic. Unfortunately, this year, ShoWTimE heads into the Global Finals as the #8 seed. It's an unremarkable result in the larger context of his career, and it pegs him as the unofficial weakest player at BlizzCon (a single top four finish at WCS Summer was his best result). But if we take a step back, and look at it in the scope of StarCraft II esports and careers as a whole, ShoWTimE clawing his way across the finish line to another Global Finals appearance in year seven of his career is more than worthy of our admiration.



If the title didn't make it clear already, this isn't a hype piece. Road to BlizzCon articles for the #8 Circuit seed never really have been, regardless of whatever narrative masks they wear.

Usually, this is where I'm supposed to bring up the cliches about variance and the unpredictable nature of StarCraft II. I'd have to point out that 2019 saw Rogue, Stats and Maru all suffer Ro32 elimination in Code S, that Serral was forced to cede his seemingly unassailable Circuit throne, and that even star-crossed soO reached his dream of winning a major championship. And finally, I'd retell the tale of SpeCial, the #8 seed at the 2017 Global Finals, who went on to reach the top four in a feat that everyone previously thought was impossible.

And sure, all of the above factors are worth keeping in mind. But if you're going to be hyped for ShoWTimE, it shouldn't be for just those reasons. You should be hyped because he gave us another year on the Circuit. You should be hyped because he's going to give it his all at the Global Finals. And, most of all, you should be hyped because he's still here.