Here, we have TY and Stats conclude the interview series with discussing of what's in it for future of Korean SC2, the cause of decline, and worries about looming future of Korean scene
They also talk about how TY was able to become a trophy winner when he couldn't reach finals beforehand.
this is part 3 of 4 part interview series. Previous 3 videos are here:
Part 1: (GSL, Practicing, Difference between BW vs SC2) + Show Spoiler +
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWYrIhVyjes
Part 2: (SC2 vs BW, Region lock, foreigner vs korea) + Show Spoiler +
On August 27 2020 09:32 SamirDuran wrote: thanks for you hard work! Rain is really a genius isn't it?
Yup. Success at everything he touches.
Success in SC2, success in Brood War as soon as he joined, and now, success in variety/IRL streaming.
Success in BW before he went to SC2 too, PL rookie of the year award including an all kill over OZ including Jaedong! Very sad he left RTS, but can't blame a brain that big for getting bored with only the hardest video game in the world
Incredible set of interviews, thanks for translating!
Yes Blizzard is definitely 50% responsible for killing the korean scene. I hate it (as a foreigner I loved watching all kor tournaments cause you know its the best in the world, foreigners had objectively worse mechanics and game sense), but its understandable. Hell ITTF changed the ping pong rules and world rankings just to prevent all chinese finishes. It's necessary in some sense to foster the growth of the sport. And it's evident with the new up and coming foreigners and the fact that these formerly no name foreigners in WoL (yes, serral included) are competing with top koreans.
The other 50% as they address, is the high barrier to entry and the fact that 1v1 games will never be as compelling as team games. This is true in conventional sports too; compare tennis viewership to literally any team sport (basketball, football, soccer). In tennis the top 5 players live lucratively and the rest have to take part time jobs. This is hard to address; it would take a complete redesign of sc to make it an actual RTS team game, and current players probably won't like it.
It's always going to be niche. SC2 is chess which only the tactical and the astute appreciate, then you have things like Fortnite/PubG/whatever that appeal to the brainless masses.
On August 27 2020 15:25 luxon wrote: Incredible set of interviews, thanks for translating!
Yes Blizzard is definitely 50% responsible for killing the korean scene. I hate it (as a foreigner I loved watching all kor tournaments cause you know its the best in the world, foreigners had objectively worse mechanics and game sense), but its understandable. Hell ITTF changed the ping pong rules and world rankings just to prevent all chinese finishes. It's necessary in some sense to foster the growth of the sport. And it's evident with the new up and coming foreigners and the fact that these formerly no name foreigners in WoL (yes, serral included) are competing with top koreans.
Well an even bigger impact was the fall of pro league and the disbanding of the Team house environment they talked about. Wich has nothing to do with blizzard, but more so with the match fixing scandal. I completly agree on your analogy to traditional sports, though. Team sports generally speaking attract more viewers for sure.
On August 27 2020 15:25 luxon wrote: Incredible set of interviews, thanks for translating!
Yes Blizzard is definitely 50% responsible for killing the korean scene. I hate it (as a foreigner I loved watching all kor tournaments cause you know its the best in the world, foreigners had objectively worse mechanics and game sense), but its understandable. Hell ITTF changed the ping pong rules and world rankings just to prevent all chinese finishes. It's necessary in some sense to foster the growth of the sport. And it's evident with the new up and coming foreigners and the fact that these formerly no name foreigners in WoL (yes, serral included) are competing with top koreans.
Well an even bigger impact was the fall of pro league and the disbanding of the Team house environment they talked about. Wich has nothing to do with blizzard, but more so with the match fixing scandal. I completly agree on your analogy to traditional sports, though. Team sports generally speaking attract more viewers for sure.
yeah, they also stated that Life and the matchfixing scandal contributed a lot on the decline of KR SC2. What KR scene needs right now is a lot of new blood. And as TY stated, he is not worried about the future of SC2 as a whole, he is worried on Korean Starcraft scene as a whole and the word Starcraft will not be synonymous to South Korea anymore.
But good thing is they are positive towards ESL making KR SC2 great again...
On August 27 2020 15:25 luxon wrote: Incredible set of interviews, thanks for translating!
Yes Blizzard is definitely 50% responsible for killing the korean scene. I hate it (as a foreigner I loved watching all kor tournaments cause you know its the best in the world, foreigners had objectively worse mechanics and game sense), but its understandable. Hell ITTF changed the ping pong rules and world rankings just to prevent all chinese finishes. It's necessary in some sense to foster the growth of the sport. And it's evident with the new up and coming foreigners and the fact that these formerly no name foreigners in WoL (yes, serral included) are competing with top koreans.
The other 50% as they address, is the high barrier to entry and the fact that 1v1 games will never be as compelling as team games. This is true in conventional sports too; compare tennis viewership to literally any team sport (basketball, football, soccer). In tennis the top 5 players live lucratively and the rest have to take part time jobs. This is hard to address; it would take a complete redesign of sc to make it an actual RTS team game, and current players probably won't like it.
I think you‘re strongly underestimating the popularity of Tennis. It is among the top 5 most viewed sports in the world. Together with Pong Pong (quite surprising to me :o Is it that popular in Asia?) and Golf there are 3 individual sports being among the top 10. and far more than the top 5 Tennis players live lucratively. Team athletes are on the rise right now in terms of income and they have been for some time, but there are still quite a lot of individual athletes that do insanely well money- and popularity-wise.
On August 27 2020 15:25 luxon wrote: Incredible set of interviews, thanks for translating!
Yes Blizzard is definitely 50% responsible for killing the korean scene. I hate it (as a foreigner I loved watching all kor tournaments cause you know its the best in the world, foreigners had objectively worse mechanics and game sense), but its understandable. Hell ITTF changed the ping pong rules and world rankings just to prevent all chinese finishes. It's necessary in some sense to foster the growth of the sport. And it's evident with the new up and coming foreigners and the fact that these formerly no name foreigners in WoL (yes, serral included) are competing with top koreans.
The other 50% as they address, is the high barrier to entry and the fact that 1v1 games will never be as compelling as team games. This is true in conventional sports too; compare tennis viewership to literally any team sport (basketball, football, soccer). In tennis the top 5 players live lucratively and the rest have to take part time jobs. This is hard to address; it would take a complete redesign of sc to make it an actual RTS team game, and current players probably won't like it.
Weeell, yeah, but in the ping pong nobody in China disbanded the infrastructure, while the Koreans no longer have it. Anyway, doesn't matter anymore, damage has been dealt already.
On August 27 2020 15:25 luxon wrote: Incredible set of interviews, thanks for translating!
Yes Blizzard is definitely 50% responsible for killing the korean scene. I hate it (as a foreigner I loved watching all kor tournaments cause you know its the best in the world, foreigners had objectively worse mechanics and game sense), but its understandable. Hell ITTF changed the ping pong rules and world rankings just to prevent all chinese finishes. It's necessary in some sense to foster the growth of the sport. And it's evident with the new up and coming foreigners and the fact that these formerly no name foreigners in WoL (yes, serral included) are competing with top koreans.
The other 50% as they address, is the high barrier to entry and the fact that 1v1 games will never be as compelling as team games. This is true in conventional sports too; compare tennis viewership to literally any team sport (basketball, football, soccer). In tennis the top 5 players live lucratively and the rest have to take part time jobs. This is hard to address; it would take a complete redesign of sc to make it an actual RTS team game, and current players probably won't like it.
Tennis is incredibly lucrative compared to most regular jobs, even quite low down. There’s still an appetite for 1v1 games, I mean look at the box office for Mayweather v McGregor for one.
Team activities do tend to be more popular though, although I think that’s partly due to being able to support a team in perpetuity. Even Roger Federer has a sell by date, but Manchester United existed long before I was alive and will probably greatly outlive me. Plus a bit of the tribal element.
eSports is a little different because not just is a higher proportion of the viewership active players, but they’re playing in the same ecosystem as even the top pros are. So I think both the social aspect as well as the less stress (for most) sees more playing team games and thus watching them.
That said I think Starcraft (or some other RTS) loses some of its particular unique selling points if it’s made into a team game. It’s a game of raw mechanics, brains and gambits and I wonder if that’s just diluted if it’s converted, even into a very good game.
Players have their own personalities and stories and very identifiable styles, from Has level cheddar to Stats level standard and everything in between.
I mean some people, myself included prefer the mano o mano nature of a 1v1 game too, both to play and observe. I find it a lot easier to follow the flow of a 1v1 game and the important actions than a 5v5 one.
Perhaps 1v1 combat is doomed to be an increasing niche, but it could remain a pretty chunky niche to fill. There’s no guarantee that changing things to a team game doesn’t just lose your core niche audience for no appreciable gain or even a decline.
I've come to accept why a region lock was needed years and years ago.
No one has ever answered me why region lock was left in place for 2019 and now 2020. And then as icing on the cake, Apollo will tell you, "we are considering the possibility of removing region lock for 2021". How is it a possibility... Should be 100% final and approved already.
Shame on blizzard and now ESL. You cannot boast everyone else by continuing to choke hold kr.
EPT
