d.Apollo on e-Sports and Korea (TL mentioned)

I am going to start this post by introducing myself for the readers that don't know who I am. My name is Shaun 'd.Apollo' Clark member of team-dignitas and loyal member and poster at this site for many years through many different games. I am mostly known through my victorious win in the 2007 World Cyber Games for Tiberium Wars followed by my European Cyber Games win early 2008.

I am intrigued by the word "e-sports," I remember the time when I didn't even know that online multiplayer gaming existed. This is surprising because this is how I lived, its what I breathed and admired every single day through my progaming career and still do to this day. I believe that e-sports is the future of online gaming and that it will only increase in popularity if given the correct opportunity through game companies, game developers, communities and of course, sponsors.

I have personal experience that e-sports is growing because before I had won any major tournaments and was just playing behind closed doors, I was afraid to express my opinion outside of the internet for my love towards gaming, I did not know how people would react because of the standard stereotypical nerd image that has been created by the media. That was back in 2003/2004, now in 2009 I am more than proud to talk about e-sports confidently to the media, to friends, to the public and have been playing down the stereotype that was given to us so long ago. Gaming has hit the mainstream and is only going to get bigger.

I have visited many different countries through e-sports and have witnessed how each country has their own believes and understanding of e-sports. America has its widely known Major League Gaming (MLG) for console gaming, Europe has Electronic Sports League (ESL) and Asia has the infamous proleagues, Ongamenet Star League (OSL) and MBC starleague. Theses are the worldwide known leagues, not taking anything away from lower populated leagues as they are just as important. Though these different parts of the globe accommodate different aspects of gaming, where America is dominated by console gaming, Europe being console/FPS and Asia being mainly RTS bread and we all share one love, e-sports!

I am currently living in Seoul, Korea. It is my first visit to this country and wow, I have seen an explosion, the country, the public, actually embrace computer gaming more than any other country I have visited before. I first realized this when I was getting a bus from the airport to the apartment I am staying at, for every one stone you throw, you will find two internet gaming cafes. Once I had finally got back to the apartment, I turned the television on, flicked through some channels and found stations dedicated to the proleagues! Players here are treated like superstars, they walk through the street and people recognize them, ask for autographs and pictures to be taken, its fantastic. I signed up to use the gym here, my first time in the gym, I look across the running machines and 1 in every 10 people are watching StarCraft.

I actually took myself to a local LAN cafe recently and spent few hours in there playing StarCraft, each player that plays in there are sufficiently better than the average non-Korean gamer, I know I got my ass handed to me!
We have spent a few nights in where we just drink beer, take it in turn to play random iCCup games, watch each other play, laugh and just generally have a good time. E-sports has become apart of the majority's life in Seoul and I hope that it can spread worldwide.

"Korea is a state of microcosm" - Nick "Tasteless" Plott

On the other hand I have been speaking to lilsusie from teamliquid.net who has direct contact to some progamers here in Korea and I want to bring something here into discussion that we have talked about to each other. Many people in here in Korea are split over the future of e-sports in terms of StarCraft 2 because the whole community, progamers, fans and public players are actually split over the release of StarCraft 2, half are excited and the other half are actually content with playing BroodWar for the rest of their career. I personally believe that Starcraft 2 will bring all communities together outside of Korea, and I think that Korea will accept StarCraft 2 as their main game over Broodwar, BUT the question remains: will Korea interact with the rest of the world?

With the beta of StarCraft on the very near horizon, the entire RTS world is buzzing in anticipation, players from all games are currently starting to play StarCraft for the first time and older StarCraft players are starting to play again, this already shows me that the date that StarCraft is released is the time 80% of RTS gamers say goodbye to their social life! I do believe that non-Koreans have a good chance to make it good in the game if they are motivated, determined and eager for success.

Now that we have the game about to release, the players that are willing to play, we now need the correct support from mainstream industries to provide the opportunity for everything we all want, the evolution of e-sports. The assistance already provided by companies is fantastic and I believe that it will rise because gaming is no longer stereotyped as a dark and gloomy activity for friendless unsocial individuals, everyone I know enjoys gaming, from a social perspective or a competitive one. Check out these ballers.





I have been in Korea for two weeks now and have another six weeks remaining. I can actually say that Korea is the country that I have enjoyed the most out of all the others.