Tournament Spotlight: Community Funded Events (2023 Pre-Season)
by Wax
The StarCraft II scene is reeling from the drastic reductions in the 2023/24 prize pool, with around $1 million lost across the EPT and GSL. While that amount can't be made up with crowdfunding, the community has still rallied to help out progamers however they can. Several crowdfunded events popped up in the wake of the news, and it seems as if these community-driven events will continue to be important throughout the 2023/24 season.
Here are three key crowdfunded events to look out for during the pre-season before the EPT and GSL start back up in earnest.
Note: TL.net does not directly endorse the crowdfunding of these events. Users may seek crowdfunding information and support these events at their own discretion.
The donors seem like they'll be getting their money's worth, as the player line-up for PiGFest is absolutely stacked. It features almost the entire top 12 from IEM Katowice, including World Champion Oliveira.
Key info
Bracket:
Schedule: March 15 - 19 - [08:00 GMT (+00:00) start]
March 15: Maru vs SKillous, Solar vs Oliveira, Winner vs Winner (RO8)
March 16: ByuN vs ShoWTimE, Reynor vs Cure, Winner vs Winner (RO8)
March 17: Serral vs Creator, Dark vs Clem, Winner vs Winner (RO8)
March 18: herO vs GuMiho, MaxPax vs RagnaroK, Winner vs Winner (RO8)
March 19: RO4 and Grand Finals
Prize pool: $10,000 total prize pool. First place wins $3,500.
The WardiTV Korean Royale focuses specifically on supporting the Korean region, which was hit hardest by the budget cuts in the 2023/24 season. The tournament has the same living-in-Korea requirement as the GSL, and not surprisingly, many of the familiar faces from Code S have qualified.
Technically, this edition of the Korean Royal isn't really crowdfunded. The first season is something of a proof-of-concept, with WardiTV putting up the $10,000 in prize money. At the same time, crowdfunding toward future seasons is already open, and the community will decide whether or not this specific tournament series lasts.
Key info
Players & Format
Group stage: The players are split into two groups of eight. Each group plays out a full round-robin. The top five players from each group advance to the playoffs.
Playoffs: Ten players are seeded into two 'gauntlet'-style brackets depending on their group stage results. The surviving players from each gauntlet bracket face off in the grand finals.
Schedule: March 21 - April 9
March 21, 22, 25: Group stage matches [12:00 GMT (+00:00)]
March 26, April 1, 2, 4: Group stage matches [11:00 GMT (+00:00)]
April 8-9: Playoffs [11:00 GMT (+00:00)]
Prize pool: $10,000 total prize pool. First place wins $2,500.
The final crowd-funded tournament of note is very different from the others: it's a weekly cup.
The Korean StarCraft League (KSL) is effectively a second ESL Open Korean cup held every week, only it takes place on Thursday (Friday in Korea) and doesn't award EPT points. The baseline prize money is equal to the ESL Open Cups at $400 per cup, but is potentially even greater depending on crowdfunding. For instance, week #1's total prize money was $632.
Interestingly enough, the first KSL drew a stronger group of players than the ESL Open Cup during the same week, and concluded in a thrilling Maru vs ByuN finals. It remains to be seen if the strength of competition will hold up in the coming weeks, but it was an encouraging start to the series.
Key info
Format: Weekly, single-elimination cup.
Schedule: Every Thursday (Friday in Korea) at 15:00 GMT (+00:00)
Prize pool: Variable, but currently crowdfunded to at least $400 per cup. Cups 1 & 2 were funded into the $600 range.
Just for some reflection, think about how blizzard killed a FULLY organic and self-sustaning esports scene in Broodwar. Two dedicated television channels. Multiple sponsored teams, with full time, live-in player training houses.
The esports scene of today (see Faze collapse) would be envious of what was curated in Korea from 2002 - 2010, and Blizzard literally destroyed it for SC2 ... and now, we finally see the rug pulled out from under that.
I hate to be Debbie-Downer but, what we had was super special and I really feel like it needs recognition as a true lighting strike in the history of gaming. I am proud to have witnessed and enjoyed it while it was thriving.
edit: it just goes to prove that it IS possible, and entirely without blizzards help, in fact - it's better off without.
Hey, quick question: Anyone knows what happened to SoO and TY? Just went through the different qualifiers and Stats seems to be the only one, who's back, who even tried. Seems odd. Did I miss something? Please don't tell me they threw in the towel after the bad news.
On March 17 2023 10:15 Booze wrote: Hey, quick question: Anyone knows what happened to SoO and TY? Just went through the different qualifiers and Stats seems to be the only one, who's back, who even tried. Seems odd. Did I miss something? Please don't tell me they threw in the towel after the bad news.
TY and a couple more are playing broodwar, i saw them in the qualis
On March 20 2023 17:29 Booze wrote: Ah, alright. I thought TY was trying for both. Really seems like the prize-cut announcement took the wind out of his sail. Damn...
They played some SC2 showmatches since returning I belive So I gues, they are not focusing on SC2 exclusivly, but might atend at events every now and then
On March 17 2023 06:12 CursOr wrote: Just for some reflection, think about how blizzard killed a FULLY organic and self-sustaning esports scene in Broodwar. Two dedicated television channels. Multiple sponsored teams, with full time, live-in player training houses.
The esports scene of today (see Faze collapse) would be envious of what was curated in Korea from 2002 - 2010, and Blizzard literally destroyed it for SC2 ... and now, we finally see the rug pulled out from under that.
I hate to be Debbie-Downer but, what we had was super special and I really feel like it needs recognition as a true lighting strike in the history of gaming. I am proud to have witnessed and enjoyed it while it was thriving.
edit: it just goes to prove that it IS possible, and entirely without blizzards help, in fact - it's better off without.
Tbh kespa was just as toxic as blizzard, the level of competition in bw and entretainment value of the pro scene Doesn’t justify the explotation of the players, specially kids.
On March 17 2023 06:12 CursOr wrote: Just for some reflection, think about how blizzard killed a FULLY organic and self-sustaning esports scene in Broodwar. Two dedicated television channels. Multiple sponsored teams, with full time, live-in player training houses.
The esports scene of today (see Faze collapse) would be envious of what was curated in Korea from 2002 - 2010, and Blizzard literally destroyed it for SC2 ... and now, we finally see the rug pulled out from under that.
I hate to be Debbie-Downer but, what we had was super special and I really feel like it needs recognition as a true lighting strike in the history of gaming. I am proud to have witnessed and enjoyed it while it was thriving.
edit: it just goes to prove that it IS possible, and entirely without blizzards help, in fact - it's better off without.
I don't want to be rude, but how much more can you idolize these time? Yes, it was magical in some way, but there was also a lot of abuse and the payment wasn't that high either. Modern Esports in general dwarves everything Kespa did by a landscape. With LoL, we have a fully functional, nearly global competition. Valorant is doing the same. And while Counterstrike is a mess, it still is SO much better developed and organized than BW back in the day. Kespa worked because it was a micro-cosmos, only focused on one country, that continued to play an otherwise dead game nobody really cared about (no offense BW fans!).
And you honestly want to tell me "the esports scene of today would be envious"? Today a player like dev1ce can take a medical leave for six months or more to recover his mental health. Back in the day, that would just be called "career ending"
Proud of this community, there is usually 1.5K to 3K viewers watching streams, if even half of those people watching gave 20 a month (2 1/2 cups of Starbucks coffee) that's 3 grand minimum and obviously 6 grand if hypothetically everyone gave.
Personally I think Starbucks sucks and Starcraft is the best so I'll be donating monthly from now on. Does anyone have any links to any of the Patreons or whatever crowd funding site these organizers are using? Apologies if I missed it somewhere obvious and thanks in advance.
On March 22 2023 01:08 Beelzebub1 wrote: Proud of this community, there is usually 1.5K to 3K viewers watching streams, if even half of those people watching gave 20 a month (2 1/2 cups of Starbucks coffee) that's 3 grand minimum and obviously 6 grand if hypothetically everyone gave.
Personally I think Starbucks sucks and Starcraft is the best so I'll be donating monthly from now on. Does anyone have any links to any of the Patreons or whatever crowd funding site these organizers are using? Apologies if I missed it somewhere obvious and thanks in advance.
The crowdfunding for Pig Festival #4 is currently on hold and will continue shortly before the actual event the crowdfunding links for the Wardi event and the Kprean Weekly are both in their respected TLnet anouncements
EPT![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/misc/spotlight/pigfest3_bracket_1.png)
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/misc/spotlight/wardiKR1format2.png)
