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Commentator UJG "Danger? Or a Chance to Look Back"

Forum Index > BW General
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Kalent
Profile Joined March 2011
Canada253 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-31 22:04:04
August 31 2011 21:51 GMT
#1
Translated this article interviewing the commentator Um Jae Gyung who has been commentating ever since the BroodWar scene started. He now commentates for Ongamenet, but he started in Tooniverse. He is one of the most influential figures in the BW scene and one of the people who care the most about eSports.

I'm not really good at translating so forgive me for some of the errors in grammar and in translating. I also posted this in the "SCBW in Korea: Headlines" thread but was advised to make a new thread about it (Thanks).

[image loading]
Commentator Um Jae Gyung has given some advice regarding the apparent danger esports (BW) is in.

Commentator Um, in a telephone interview with DES on the 29th said "Instead of looking at the scene negatively because of the apparent danger it is in and blaming others for it, we should try harder to make a more fun league, and a more fun esports for the future."

4 days ago, Commentator Um posed this on Twitter "The eSports scene started with nothing." He tweeted "Depressing news is all over the eSports scene but I don't worry too much. That choice is in the buyers, aka tha fans so there's no reason to blame anyone" He said as he started to talk about the early days of eSports

Um started commentating even before Ongamenet was created in a kid's cartoon channel named tooniverse that was brodcasting starcraft leagues. "There were no game channels at first. We just took a ping-pong table that was rolling around somewhere inside the tooniverse company building and put a black cloth over it to use for stage setup and had a very small prize pool. It was just for fun, a small, weird event" He reminisced.

So he explained that the current situation is not a danger through comparing. "In the eyes of a person who started with 0 won, I don't want to even say cheer up to the people who are depressed and saying it's dead from the scene falling from 10,000,000 won (T/N: $10,000 aprox.) to 9,000,000 won ($T/N $9,000 aprox.)" He tweeted.

In the telephone interview with DailyESports, Um explained "A team may disband because of many reasons from the sponsors. The important things are the coaching staff and the players that make up a game team. These guys are able to be players thanks to the system that allows them to be absorbed into other teams easily like the Estro situation."

If there is a disappointing point, it is the fact that one of the sponsors that is pulling away from their teams is the gaming cable channel MBCGame. "It is important culturally and industrially to have cable channels broadcast gaming content. The broadcast is a power mechanism as we are able to showcase our player's games to more places and people, therefore hardcore fans, people interested in the content and the people around them are able to take interest in it."

He also analysed the reason danger has appeared to us. One of the reasons that game teams lost their attractiveness to sponsors is because of the match-fixing with the illegal betting sites, and the other is the dispute between Kespa and Blizzard Ent about the broadcasting rights. The clean image that sponsors wanted was destroyed by the match-fixing in the world of competition and the disputes were taken all the way to court so the chances for synergy (T/N Not sure about my translations here) was reduced.

Commentator Um confessed his wishes to see leagues and eSports programs that people want to see. When Starcraft leagues were first being made, "Nobody predicted that the industry would grow, but it achieved a dream bigger than a dream (T/N: That's how he said it). He said, "When you talk of success in most industries, especially content-based industries, success is not just capturing the niche, hardcore fans but it has to have the ability to attract people that are just passing by."

It was possible for sponsors to create teams because there were not only fans that watched, but because that scene had the ability to attract people who watched occasionally. Creating more leagues and more content is important, but it's crucial to care about the quality of the games, history between players, and to create contents that give viewers a sense of enjoyment while watching.

Commentator Um says "I would be lying if I said I'm not disappointed about the sponsors pulling away from their game teams, but isn't it better than the times when we would have tournaments on top of a ping pong table with a black cloth on it? When danger is upon us, we need to analyse why carefullly and then we need to use this as a chance to capture that eyes of mainstream viewers."

[DailyeSports Reporter Nam Yoon Sung thenam@dailyesports.com]

From: http://esports.dailygame.co.kr/news/read.php?id=49364
Korean-Canadian who spends way too much time on Afreeca
legaton
Profile Joined December 2010
France1763 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-31 22:00:10
August 31 2011 21:55 GMT
#2
Inspiring words from Commentator Um. As long as we keep loving it and playing it, Broodwar will live. Maybe this will push Kespa to try even more to reach the chinese community, and maybe even us.
No GG, No Skill - Jaedong <3
Kalent
Profile Joined March 2011
Canada253 Posts
August 31 2011 21:57 GMT
#3
Yeah, what he is saying is right. We should care more about what to do next and how to make it better instead of of blaming others or being depressed.
Korean-Canadian who spends way too much time on Afreeca
Xiphos
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Canada7507 Posts
August 31 2011 22:08 GMT
#4
Think of this as a way to give us closer games. Like no 4-0 sweeps anymore, no more one sided SPL matches. Every game would be interesting and high caliber players duking it out. Most of my friends are turned away when I told em to watch this over the stream with me but some of them got disappointed because of the lack of high quality games. This could be another generation. Then, more people would attend at SPL games for better games = increase in ratings and sponsors will eventually pick it up again.
Although I think SPL's format need to be changed so that the managers can change the players to be played on the map on the fly to adjust strategies. Not predetermined.
2014 - ᕙ( •̀ل͜•́) ϡ Raise your bows brood warriors! ᕙ( •̀ل͜•́) ϡ
bearbuddy
Profile Blog Joined February 2009
3442 Posts
August 31 2011 22:09 GMT
#5
Putting things in perspective from the guy who's been in the scene the entire time.

Still kinda strange that there were quite a number of poor teams pre-2007, yet the decently salaried teams are disbanding now. Gone are the farm teams that raised great players... now they just play on B-teams until they're ready to be inserted to a regular line-up. Is there some barrier of entry preventing very small teams from putting up a lineup and joining the league as a team? Or is it a shifting perspective where professional gaming is a job and it's better to join an established team or not at all?

Anyway, thanks for the translation.
Manifesto7
Profile Blog Joined November 2002
Osaka27143 Posts
August 31 2011 22:10 GMT
#6
Thanks a lot for the article. He is a really amazing guy, and his comments help give perspective to what is happening.

If I were Blizzard, I would see this as a golden opportunity. Sponsoring one of the teams in trouble (or merging two of them) would be incredibly beneficial.
- Repair relationships with kespa
- Become a savior in the eyes of the Korean fan base (no pun intended)
- Provide a great marketing and advertising platform for reasonable cost

Just leave the existing management in place to increase trust, and boom, ultimate goodwill presence in an important market.
ModeratorGodfather
amazingoopah
Profile Joined January 2010
United States1925 Posts
August 31 2011 22:15 GMT
#7
totally agree with Manifesto's idea. For a relatively small amount of money, they could really give themselves a huge amount of buzz and goodwill (talking about Blizzard here ofc)

commentator Um fighting!
Ryo
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
8787 Posts
August 31 2011 22:16 GMT
#8
On September 01 2011 07:10 Manifesto7 wrote:
Thanks a lot for the article. He is a really amazing guy, and his comments help give perspective to what is happening.

If I were Blizzard, I would see this as a golden opportunity. Sponsoring one of the teams in trouble (or merging two of them) would be incredibly beneficial.
- Repair relationships with kespa
- Become a savior in the eyes of the Korean fan base (no pun intended)
- Provide a great marketing and advertising platform for reasonable cost

Just leave the existing management in place to increase trust, and boom, ultimate goodwill presence in an important market.

Blizzard HERO. What better PR.
영원히 엠비씨게임 히어로 팬.
cristo1122
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Australia505 Posts
August 31 2011 22:25 GMT
#9


[image loading]


Commentator Um says "I would be lying if I said I'm not disappointed about the sponsors pulling away from their game teams, but isn't it better than the times when we would have tournaments on top of a ping pong table with a black cloth on it? When danger is upon us, we need to analyse why carefullly and then we need to use this as a chance to capture that eyes of mainstream viewers."

[DailyeSports Reporter Nam Yoon Sung thenam@dailyesports.com]

From: http://esports.dailygame.co.kr/news/read.php?id=49364


really puts in it perspective and gives me hope for the future
ZvP imbalanced blizzards solution nerf terran
Ikonn
Profile Joined October 2009
Netherlands1958 Posts
August 31 2011 22:40 GMT
#10
Thanks for the translation, I like his optimism
nodnod
Profile Joined April 2011
New Zealand172 Posts
August 31 2011 22:43 GMT
#11
What a fantastic interview and thanks for the translation. The one word that stood out for me was 'culture' - something that's so intangible yet important for the governing body and fans to cultivate.

Perhaps KESPA could look into possible sponsors to BW outside Korea and expand their markets to more internationally orientated merchandise etc? I know they're already doing this by moving the OSL and SPL finals to China, but perhaps some kind of 'shareholder meeting' and 'strategic planning' need to be in place and made public so the fans can have more input.

In the wise words of Sir Churchill: Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
Grettin
Profile Joined April 2010
42381 Posts
August 31 2011 22:52 GMT
#12
Manifesto's idea is really great imo, but sadly i don't think it will never happen.

Anyway, fantastic interview and thanks for translating it. What he is saying is totally right.
"If I had force-fields in Brood War, I'd never lose." -Bisu
Zona
Profile Blog Joined May 2007
40426 Posts
August 31 2011 23:03 GMT
#13
Hmm, there seems to be another danger that's not being mentioned...the decline in the number of fans and viewers.

I really wish I knew enough Korean to dig around for the viewership ratings, but one thing I noticed is that in the "most popular games played in PC bangs" surveys, Brood War has dropped off the top-10 list entirely. Back when SC2 was introduced, BW was still more popular than SC2 among players at netcafes, but now it's not there anymore. (Mind you, SC2 hasn't really displaced it - it's just even more free MMO's on top now, with SC2 seemingly around the same place it was before.)
"If you try responding to those absurd posts every day, you become more damaged. So I pay no attention to them at all." Jung Myung Hoon (aka Fantasy), as translated by Kimoleon
Xiphos
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
Canada7507 Posts
August 31 2011 23:05 GMT
#14
On September 01 2011 08:03 Zona wrote:
Hmm, there seems to be another danger that's not being mentioned...the decline in the number of fans and viewers.

I really wish I knew enough Korean to dig around for the viewership ratings, but one thing I noticed is that in the "most popular games played in PC bangs" surveys, Brood War has dropped off the top-10 list entirely. Back when SC2 was introduced, BW was still more popular than SC2 among players at netcafes, but now it's not there anymore. (Mind you, SC2 hasn't really displaced it - it's just even more free MMO's on top now, with SC2 seemingly around the same place it was before.)


What do you suggest? Destroy Nexon???!?!?! Because I am in!
2014 - ᕙ( •̀ل͜•́) ϡ Raise your bows brood warriors! ᕙ( •̀ل͜•́) ϡ
Rodiel3
Profile Joined March 2011
France1158 Posts
August 31 2011 23:07 GMT
#15
This guy know what he talk about, long live SCBW !
http://www.youtube.com/user/rodiel3 SCBW FPVOD
Chef
Profile Blog Joined August 2005
10810 Posts
August 31 2011 23:15 GMT
#16
Thank you for this, it means a lot
LEGEND!! LEGEND!!
chaosTheory_14cc
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Canada1270 Posts
August 31 2011 23:18 GMT
#17
Thanks for translating. What an amazing perspective coming from someone who has been around since the beginning. That man speaks the truth.
ZeroChrome
Profile Joined September 2010
Canada1001 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-08-31 23:22:28
August 31 2011 23:21 GMT
#18
On September 01 2011 08:03 Zona wrote:
Hmm, there seems to be another danger that's not being mentioned...the decline in the number of fans and viewers.

I really wish I knew enough Korean to dig around for the viewership ratings, but one thing I noticed is that in the "most popular games played in PC bangs" surveys, Brood War has dropped off the top-10 list entirely. Back when SC2 was introduced, BW was still more popular than SC2 among players at netcafes, but now it's not there anymore. (Mind you, SC2 hasn't really displaced it - it's just even more free MMO's on top now, with SC2 seemingly around the same place it was before.)


The rankings on gametrics puts BW at 4th. Which is actually slightly higher than earlier this year.
Forward
agarangu
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Chile274 Posts
August 31 2011 23:41 GMT
#19
Thanks a lot! I didn't know that, and it certainly gave me hope. May BW live forever!
What's a quote anyway?
Elroi
Profile Joined August 2009
Sweden5595 Posts
August 31 2011 23:42 GMT
#20
This is very inspiring and well worth a thread. It shows the difference between how BW became an e-sport and how the SCII was created too. I cannot help but think that there are big risks for the survival of e-sports when you promote a new game like that. It steals attention from the old game in favor of a new game that might not be ready or sufficiently developed for the attention it gets.
"To all eSports fans, I want to be remembered as a progamer who can make something out of nothing, and someone who always does his best. I think that is the right way of living, and I'm always doing my best to follow that." - Jaedong. /watch?v=jfghAzJqAp0
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