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.

Booze

7 Posts

March 17 2023 01:15 GMT

#13

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.

remeka

19 Posts

March 19 2023 05:59 GMT

#14

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

Booze

7 Posts

March 20 2023 08:29 GMT

#15

Ah, alright. I thought TY was trying for both. Really seems like the prize-cut announcement took the wind out of his sail.
Damn...

dbRic1203

Germany2655 Posts

March 20 2023 09:47 GMT

#16

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

XenOsky

Chile2270 Posts

March 21 2023 14:37 GMT

#17

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.

Balnazza

Germany1175 Posts

March 21 2023 15:03 GMT

#18

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"

Beelzebub1

1004 Posts

March 21 2023 16:08 GMT

#19

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.

dbRic1203

Germany2655 Posts

March 21 2023 16:54 GMT

#20

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

CranKy Ducklings

444 Posts

April 02 2023 17:42 GMT

#21

We were very happy to see so many initiatives successfully starting soon after the announcements. Since the Korean scene received a lot of attention with KSL and the WardiTV Korean Royale, we were able to focus more on the smaller regions and we also announced 3 biweekly crowdfunded tournaments:

- Sparkling Tuna Cup - Thursdays, 7 PM KST, open to everyone,
- Grand Platypus Open - Saturdays, 5 PM KST, open to EPT Asia region (SEA, OCE, RoA, TWHK, China),
- Tenacious Turtle Tussle - Sundays, 8 AM KST, open to EPT Americas and EPT Asia regions.

We are also one of the channels covering the NA Apprentice, another tournament coming back from a hiatus, dedicated to NA players.