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No new War Chests or Co-op Commanders going forward - Oct…

Forum Index > SC2 General
214 CommentsPost a Reply
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We understand that this kind of news can be upsetting to the TL and SC2 community. However, we encourage everyone to voice their opinion on the matter without doing any of the following:

- Posting "daed gaem" comments
- Posting low content meme comments
- Posting about violence and/or death upon Activision Blizzard and their people
- Insulting and/or flaming each other because of differing views on what this announcement means for the future of SC2

TL has always prided itself on the fact that it doesn't function like other gaming forums. We don't resort to snide comments induced by rage and anger. We hold mature and level-headed discussions because we hold ourselves to a higher standard than the average teenager-level social media post. Let's all keep that in mind so that this thread doesn't devolve into a shit-fest.
lechatnoir
Profile Joined November 2016
392 Posts
October 16 2020 04:51 GMT
#61
The only thing that counts is GSL and the Pro Tour.
jpg06051992
Profile Joined July 2015
United States580 Posts
October 16 2020 05:00 GMT
#62
Would be awesome if community tournaments could flourish again, maybe SC2 will have a renaissance of sorts in the post Blizzard era.
"SO MANY BANELINGS!"
yht9657
Profile Joined December 2016
1810 Posts
October 16 2020 05:05 GMT
#63
Well now Mike Morhaine's new studio can buy the Starcraft IP and make SC3.

A man can dream.
ThunderJunk
Profile Joined December 2015
United States738 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-10-16 05:12:39
October 16 2020 05:11 GMT
#64
I'm hopeful in a sense because not having balance patches designed around warchest sales could lead to substantially more thoughtful and better balance patches. (The rationale behind the voidray buffs were definitely ... questionable. But hey I got a SICK banner lol). Of course, I'm also worried. If it's going into pure maintenance mode, balance updates might not be very substantial. Time will tell on that front.

In the winter of last year, I was worried the scene was on life support and was dying. Now we still have 2 more years guaranteed from ESL, so that's excellent.

I wonder if there will ever be talks of loosening up the IP restrictions so that independent businesses can more easily utilize Starcraft 2 to create profitable content without the looming threat of legal action. As it is right now I struggle to see how any Esports ventures actually make any money on their own... And I don't think you need to be an expert to see that the extreme looming threat of legal action, and lack of ownership rights more generally discourages a lot of would-be independent content creators from spreading the popularity of the game even further.
I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
Bluejava
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
Sweden135 Posts
October 16 2020 05:16 GMT
#65
I think making Sc2 free to play and adding skins and voice packs and so on was bad from the begining.
This was gonna happen sooner or later anyway. To be honest, in the begining they probably saw a steady income from this. But now they probably dont earn anything at all.

They say that they gonna keep promoting the franchise, which they must cuz it has huge value for them. As they can sell it to Microsoft ......

I think this is non news

"I've learned one thing for sure: Life is random and chaotic. Trying to put things into a pattern will only temporarily solve the problem. Once you embrace the madness, it will stop feeling overwhelming."
Morbidius
Profile Joined November 2010
Brazil3449 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-10-16 05:32:24
October 16 2020 05:30 GMT
#66
Tbh we got quite far, their management of this game was terrible all around, it killed the BW scene in Korea and gave its infrastructure to LoL as a parting gift. We knew proleague was dead the moment we saw the 2013 winner break up the next morning. They made almost every single bad decision they could for years. Free to play, Warchests and Coop could have made this game into something else if they didn't take 5 years to figure that out.
Has foreign StarCraft hit rock bottom?
Shuffleblade
Profile Joined February 2012
Sweden1903 Posts
October 16 2020 06:42 GMT
#67
Well we all knew it was coming, the decline of Blizzard support. I don't even know if this is bad news, no new content to buy isn't that horrible what kind of support has Blizzard given that we will miss?

I guess the true repercussions of this will not be known until Apollo releases the full plan for next year. How GSL will be effected is a big one and much more important to me than co-op commanders and skins.
Maru, Bomber, TY, Dear, Classic, DeParture and Rogue!
Morbidius
Profile Joined November 2010
Brazil3449 Posts
October 16 2020 06:48 GMT
#68
On October 16 2020 15:42 Shuffleblade wrote:
Well we all knew it was coming, the decline of Blizzard support. I don't even know if this is bad news, no new content to buy isn't that horrible what kind of support has Blizzard given that we will miss?

I guess the true repercussions of this will not be known until Apollo releases the full plan for next year. How GSL will be effected is a big one and much more important to me than co-op commanders and skins.

Does ESL have any say in GSL? I thought it was all Afreeca, if ESL had any say in GSL i think we would already have foreigners seeded into RO4.
Has foreign StarCraft hit rock bottom?
col_jung
Profile Joined October 2017
139 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-10-16 06:50:38
October 16 2020 06:50 GMT
#69
Open question to everyone.
With no more big overhauls or redesigns coming, what do you think of the current state of the game? We're probably now stuck with it forever. Fingers crossed this final design will have a lot of longevity.
Are there any previous annual iterations you preferred?
Did you prefer a previous of the Raven, Cyclone etc.?
StasisField
Profile Joined August 2013
United States1086 Posts
October 16 2020 07:03 GMT
#70
On October 16 2020 14:16 IvorYchef wrote:
I think making Sc2 free to play and adding skins and voice packs and so on was bad from the begining.
This was gonna happen sooner or later anyway. To be honest, in the begining they probably saw a steady income from this. But now they probably dont earn anything at all.

They say that they gonna keep promoting the franchise, which they must cuz it has huge value for them. As they can sell it to Microsoft ......

I think this is non news


This comment is so out of touch with the modern video game monetization model. Microtransaction sales give companies a reason to keep investing after a product's launch and it boosted the number of players. Microtransactions like skins, announcers, etc give casual players an incentive to keep playing and help keep a game's playerbase healthy. This is bad for Starcraft and certainly not "non news".
What do you mean Immortals can't shoot up?
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20335 Posts
October 16 2020 07:04 GMT
#71
After all the drama about closing EU offices in the last couple days.. RIP SC2
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
Ziggy
Profile Blog Joined June 2013
South Korea2106 Posts
October 16 2020 07:15 GMT
#72
i guess this pretty much confirms they don't have sc3 in the works at all then
WriterDefeating a sandwich only makes it tastier. @imjustziggy
Shuffleblade
Profile Joined February 2012
Sweden1903 Posts
October 16 2020 07:19 GMT
#73
On October 16 2020 15:48 Morbidius wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 16 2020 15:42 Shuffleblade wrote:
Well we all knew it was coming, the decline of Blizzard support. I don't even know if this is bad news, no new content to buy isn't that horrible what kind of support has Blizzard given that we will miss?

I guess the true repercussions of this will not be known until Apollo releases the full plan for next year. How GSL will be effected is a big one and much more important to me than co-op commanders and skins.

Does ESL have any say in GSL? I thought it was all Afreeca, if ESL had any say in GSL i think we would already have foreigners seeded into RO4.

What do you mean if they have any say? I do know ESL lays the plans for the global starcraft 2 circuit and the rules for how that competition works. This means ESL also has a plan for how GSL fits into the starcraft 2 professional circuit, if GSL disappears ESL will know.
Maru, Bomber, TY, Dear, Classic, DeParture and Rogue!
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12129 Posts
October 16 2020 07:23 GMT
#74
On October 16 2020 10:17 Vindicare605 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 16 2020 08:07 deacon.frost wrote:
On October 16 2020 07:59 eviltomahawk wrote:
It has been a fun decade of SC2 and its content updates. Sad to see it finally ending, especially with nothing new on the horizon in regards to RTS games.

Wasn't AoE 4 announced?

Considering how Microsoft handled the AoE II remaster and how Blizzard handled WC3 remaster, I am sadly glad that Blizzard has nothing in works(at least publically) and MS has. Alas it will require Win10 which I don't use currently and certainly won't in the near future, so screw me anyway.

I would love some new commanders or fancy updates to the coop though, it's a fun part of the game. Also increasing the tourney budged via warchests seems cool to me, sad they stopped with this.

But hey, there will be other games and they will leave the ladder on, hopefully... (this is the most worrysome thing)

On October 16 2020 08:05 CatheadSC2 wrote:
This just means SC2 can finally enter the glorious post-Blizzard era, so they can stop screwing the meta up and things can actually develop.

I know they're still saying "don't worry we'll do balance patches" but I hope they just stop. We wouldn't have half the story lines we do in BW if they had continued patching based on competitive results.

Blizzard has the power over the ladder/matchmaking and the map pool. Just saying that the no touch policy would mean ladder without new maps


There will be new maps and balance tweaks, but there won't be massive overhauls and unit redesigns like we had in the past.

Blizzard's method for adding new maps to the game has relied on community development for a long time already. The only thing they really do there is simply pick and choose which ones to add in. They can keep doing that.

Heroes of the Storm has been in maintenence mode for a long time and they still get pretty regular hero balances and reworks even if their map pool is still pretty much stuck. SC2 can keep getting new maps, it takes Blizz almost no effort to retune the map pool.

Notice what i was reacting too, the person required literal no touch policy from Blizzard.
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
MockHamill
Profile Joined March 2010
Sweden1798 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-10-16 07:24:31
October 16 2020 07:24 GMT
#75
I doubt this will change much. Number of games played per day is still much higher than it was before free to play and the pro scene will still go on for a couple of years at least. I will still be playing SC2 5 years from now provided there is no better RTS around then, which I doubt.

SC2 has the perfect mix of macro and micro.
Age of Empires is a fantastic game but too slow and macro focused.
Warcraft III is not even a RTS, it is 95% micro which I find boring.

SC2 is the best game ever made in my opinion. And I haved played computer games since the early 80s.


dbRic1203
Profile Joined July 2019
Germany2655 Posts
October 16 2020 07:42 GMT
#76
Rip
So is there any way Blizzard can still get money from SC2 now?
MaxPax
sneakyfox
Profile Joined January 2017
8216 Posts
October 16 2020 07:42 GMT
#77
On October 16 2020 09:07 Wintex wrote:
I think GSL is dead and that's the hidden information mr Apollo was refraining from sharing when he tweeted this:


Well, hope we get AS2L in Korea then, save us Afreeca.


Afreeca and Blizzard signed a multi-year deal for all the blizzard games. Afaik they didn't say how many years, but it's obviously more than one. Likewise, the blizzard-ESL deal is for three years.

So this announcement means nothing for SC2 esports short-term. The question is what happens after the current contracts expire.


On October 16 2020 16:19 Shuffleblade wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 16 2020 15:48 Morbidius wrote:
On October 16 2020 15:42 Shuffleblade wrote:
Well we all knew it was coming, the decline of Blizzard support. I don't even know if this is bad news, no new content to buy isn't that horrible what kind of support has Blizzard given that we will miss?

I guess the true repercussions of this will not be known until Apollo releases the full plan for next year. How GSL will be effected is a big one and much more important to me than co-op commanders and skins.

Does ESL have any say in GSL? I thought it was all Afreeca, if ESL had any say in GSL i think we would already have foreigners seeded into RO4.

What do you mean if they have any say? I do know ESL lays the plans for the global starcraft 2 circuit and the rules for how that competition works. This means ESL also has a plan for how GSL fits into the starcraft 2 professional circuit, if GSL disappears ESL will know.


No, ESL doesn't have any say in the GSL. Afreeca has their own contract with Blizzard and organise their own tournament

(some more coordination between the two organisers would be nice though. Hopefully we get that in 2021)
"I saw what sneakyfox wrote on TL.net and it made me furious" - PartinG
Edpayasugo
Profile Joined April 2013
United Kingdom2218 Posts
October 16 2020 07:44 GMT
#78
Was thinking along these lines yesterday, hopefully competitive SC2 continues to flourish
FlaSh MMA INnoVation FanTaSy MKP TY Ryung | soO Dark Rogue | HuK PartinG Stork State
Elentos
Profile Blog Joined February 2015
55581 Posts
Last Edited: 2020-10-16 08:01:13
October 16 2020 07:46 GMT
#79
Ultimately expected that they want to downsize the team they have working on SC2 to the minimum. Main competitions run by ESL/Afreeca aren't gonna suffer much short-term I imagine. But War Chests have funded a lot of cool extra stuff over the years. NationWars, the War Chest team league that everyone loved and everyone involved was hoping to do again (which is now pretty unfeasible), even Shoutcraft Kings back in the day got its funding upped by War Chest sales.
Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes.
JustPassingBy
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
10776 Posts
October 16 2020 07:49 GMT
#80
RIP Starcraft as we know it from 2023 onwards. :-/

The game and community will most likely continue to exist well beyond that, but without cash from Blizzard I expect a massive downscaling in the competitive scene which will have riple effects in other facets of Starcraft (e.g. streaming). The community will most likely soften the blow by crowdfunding their own events, but I don't think they will be able to replace Blizzard in this capacity.
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