EPT
The video is basically an audio podcast. There's some mostly irrelevant gameplay in the background. My writing skills leave a lot to be desired, so I thought I would express the vast majority of my rambling thoughts via video rather write them down. However I still have a lot to say, and there's a lot that I think the community would like to discuss as well.
Columbus 2011
I'm starting here because this event is extremely special to me, and probably to the rest of the community as well. This was the first MLG that brought in Korean players and it was a big deal at the time. Before this event the only time you got to see Korean players compete was in the GSL and nobody was quite sure what to expect from them.
The main reason the event is special to me is because I actually attended it, which gives me a very unique perspective on the current state of affairs for sc2. I drove along with a friend for 40 hours straight, taking in around 5000km of scenery to make it on time. We were both exhausted when we made it but we were ready to witness history. We decided to make the trip on a lunch break at work, and we had no idea what we were getting into. Worth every painful, sleepless second getting there though, an amazing trip.
For those of you that are not familar with the setup at MLG Columbus 2011 Starcraft 2 was not on the main stage at that time. Halo Reach was the #1 game in MLG for participation and viewship, with CoD being the second game. The previous MLG didn't even fill the open bracket registration for SC2. Things change, and they change extremely quickly.
Getting a seat for the SC2 games was nearly impossible, yet there was tons of seating readily available to watch Halo and you could get a front row seat for CoD. People started to come over and see what all the fuss was about as the crowd roared for each and every epic maneuver by the players on the main stage. Fans of the other games stopped watching Halo and CoD and started to ask questions about SC2 and it didn't take very long for them to "get it".
The event ended with SC2 on all three stages and the crowd chanting MMA over and over. The world of ESports was making itself known with that particular event drawing numbers that major sporting events would have been envious to get in terms of viewership. The sponsors and teams started to listen more and more to the idea that maybe, just maybe SC2 was the game to invest in. That's not to say that Esports was raking it in after that, or that sponsors were lining up to sign teams but people were starting to listen.
Next month at Anaheim. Slayers and Brue Frame Herrions!
The Start of 2012
The year 2012 was supposed to be the absolute biggest in SC2 history. This was our year. People like Day9 were making Forbes lists and prize pools were getting larger all over the place. Blizzard announced Blizzcon would be canceled to make room for an even bigger SC2 tournament. This was our year.
Dota2 was just the name of a game in Beta with some big promises and League of Legends had only just come out in Korea. The vast majority of SC2 fans looked at League of Legends and saw a game that had an immature stupid community that played an equally simple and easy to master game. I should know, I was one of them. I spent a lot of time telling my friends how stupid they were for playing that game, while I toiled away trying to maximise the efficiency of my builds in SC2.
Twitch.tv actually removed SC2 from it's frontpage, that's how big Starcraft was man. Twitch made a statement that it was unfair to other games to have SC2 easily accessible as a game on it's front page because it was so far ahead of everything else in terms of viewers.
This was our year man. Coca-Cola sponsorships were going to be coming into the big name teams anytime now. The players were going to be making tons of cash and prize pools were going to skyrocket. This year we'd see a ton of new players dominate as more and more talents were discovered and our infrastructure to support them kept getting better.
The Middle of 2012
Prize pools started to stagnate and the big sponsors weren't coming. Another game was starting to show promise as an esport, and their community was getting behind them. Day9 only had 8000 viewers when he streamed instead of the usual 20k. The builds players were using and struggling against were basically the same as they were 6 months ago.
You could watch a high level pro game of SC2 and know exactly how it was going to pan out after the players opened, with some rare exceptions (TvT excluded of course). 75% of the games played had no combat at all for the first 10 minutes of the game, and of those another large batch would end in a single fight instead of sustained action.
League of Legends was starting to garner bigger crowds than SC2 at events where both games were showcased. I didn't want to admit it at first, but the fans from League were drowning out fans of my beloved Starcraft 2. Cheers from the roam over would filter into the microphones of the SC2 audience.
Starcraft2 was appearing to peak and it was no longer growing. Twitch would show you SC2 again on their frontpage, and on some days it would still be the #1 watched game. There were very few big breakout players in either Korea or the North American scene. Especially when you compare it to how many people made a name for themselves in 2011.
The end of 2012
Slayers is no more, some of their players sticking with SC2 and a few swapping over to LoL. Twitch.tv has more people watching WoW than Starcraft 2 and LoL typically has 4x as many viewers as Starcraft 2 does.
HoTS has very little hype surrounding it, with the early passion subsiding considerable as Blizzard doesn't seem to listen to their communities wishes and most people now feeling defeated and relegated to just waiting for the release date so they can go pick it up and see how it is. Instead of people clamoring for a midnight release and wanting to preinstall it so they can play the entire week they took off work, it will probably get picked up on the way home from work for most people.
It's only October right now, but the new talent is just old talent from Brood War. Guess what, MVP's in another October GSL finals too. This is probably the first GSL finals that will pass me by without much interest, I'll probably watch the vods like a lot of people though.
What is going to happen in November or December? Does anybody here actually think the year 2013 is going to be our year with HoTS coming out then. Or is it too late, is SC2 going to stay stagnant and eventually fade?
The Crisis
I gave you plenty of background on what's been going on with SC2. What can be done to change the games fate? Where do things have to go. More importantly does Blizzard have it in them to bring the game back to the forefront?
League of Legends is changing the entire game for Season 3, right after coming off one of the most successful years for any company in gaming period. Riot has already seen problems with the current meta-game, and aspects that are not exciting to play or watch are being changed. The game could be left as is and probably have another great year... but Riot is looking forward trying to make the experience of playing League as good as it possibly can be.
Valve and Dota2 can't change the game. Dota is Dota, you can't try to copy LoL and add in tons of new Heros and items. What you can do though is create the best interface in competitive gaming. You can help teams fund themselves by letting people basically give the team itself money from within the game itself. You provide in game logo's so teams can showoff their sponsors. You provide deep stat tracking, and a great replay system. You let people create clans and teams and you set the gold standard for how things should be done in game.
Name Change Coming Soon
The discussion
At this point I want to open the floor to you guys. Do you think Starcraft 2 is heading in the right direction? Can Starcraft 2 even compete with the free to play model? Where will Starcraft 2 be in 5 years?
I know there's been a lot of doom and gloom lately, but I fucking love Starcraft 2. I have a ton of great memories from events, and games myself. I think Starcraft 2 has the potential to be the best game on the market by far for the competitive gamer, and the casual. The people talking about it with doom and gloom love the game man, we just want it to be the best it can, that's all.
