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The Armchair Athleticism critical series is an opinion-base article series regarding the issues and sociocultural deficiencies of the E-Sports and StarCraft scene. All articles are perceptive-base and revolving around my own experiences and understanding of the subculture.
+ Show Spoiler [summary introduction] +The Solo Trail – Unbeaten - Posted on October 20th, 2012Short version of credentials: - Manager of 5 progaming teams (50+ professional players)
- Writer for 11 E-sports websites (5 team sites + 4 organizations: 150+ docs/articles)
- Organizer or Contributor of 11 community events (74,000 viewers/attendants)
- Some video-editing for one or two organizations, nothing big, just twitch.tv highlight-editing, presentational writing, etc.
Why are you starting your own space? I was listening to the suggestions of several friends and I finally started this space after I hit a dead-end in my endeavours in E-Sports. I’m at a point where I am not really affiliated with anyone and now’s a better time than ever to do some opinion topics. Doing my own content meant I would be alone and would work around my own initiative, drive and interest. However, it also meant that I may do something that requires more work than I thought and I would be on my own. It meant that the community reception can be more direct and harsh towards me personally and my views as I would not be backed by some credible organization as when I was writer for some. In the end, this series that took me about a month of writing, editing, verification and re-writing will really be everything I’ve learned, observed and felt throughout my time. I started out with three pieces and ended up going to ten. All of them delve into inspecting the five perspectives of the scene: teams, tournaments, players, spectators and contributors. Ultimately, it aims to really take a strong look into the many issues that inhibit the StarCraft community and E-Sports culture.
What Blizzard's World Championship Series Means & Entails - Posted on April 3, 2013
With the announcement of the StarCraft II World Championship Series (2013) made public, many questions and excitement have arose around the scene. Teams, fans and organizers are both delighted with what’s been planned, but also anxious to see how it’ll further the reach of the idea of E-Sports. We called for the idea back in November, 2012 under the article name: Splitting the Scene for Regional Champions with hope that something similar to WCS would be pushed forward to help all scenes and their players prosper and rank amongst one another:
“But at the same time, there is definitely a lack of outlets for foreign players to shine and rank themselves amongst one another with a monetary prize-finish at the end. The suggestion of regional-prized tournaments ranging from different levels helps alleviate the frustrations for many players and connect them back with challengers they can build off from one another.
[…] A good mix of region-based leagues and international tournaments creates a balanced and constant cycling of both aspiring professional players and levels of champions from local to national to international. With a more gradual spread of tournaments, there should be a result of less emphasis on having a Korean (currently the best players) on your team and more demand for foreigners to improve instead of becoming the marketing extremity. This will also add more stable grounds for smaller teams to compete rather than rely on mercenaries to compensate (Team Legion, Check-Six, Alt-Tab) for roster inadequacies.”
This World Championship Series from Blizzard is definitely in the right step, but also has various drawbacks. Their reasons to create this season World Championship Series is a dilemma readers and fans are probably already familiar with:
“First, while the abundance of tournaments spawned tons of lively competition, it also made it difficult for players and teams to avoid scheduling conflicts. More importantly, for spectators, there was nothing tying the events together to create a unified storyline, and it was hard to identify who the best players were from week to week.”
[we wrote the same things in The Lack of Storytelling in E-Sports’ Events (Dec. 2012) and The Overabundance of Tournaments & Branching Problems (Nov. 2012)]
Indeed, as explained in the 2013 WCS overview, this system not only creates a proper boundary schedule for any person’s career (between April and November), it also allows for tournament organizations to properly line up their event for equal distribution of fan-interest as well as high-player attendance (both from the reputable players to the aspiring ones).
In 2010 and 2011, Blizzard was in the background, delegating power and rights to various groups to establish a base of major tournaments and organizations. 2012 and 2013, they shifted away from a background position to being the forefront and captain of the E-Sports boat. Their semi-RIOT LCS (League of Legends) and FGC EVO (fighting games) system enables a consistent format for spectators to comprehend. It streamlines importance for all events of all regions equally and events within WCS (ESL, MLG, GSL, OGN/OSL and Proleague) grant seedings to WCS Season Finals. Here are some of the positives that WCS entails: - Creates an even schedule of multiple seasons, allowing for proper budgetary planning and scheduling for players and teams (I expect contracts to be drawn up less annually and more every two seasons, especially with newer recruits).
- It creates regional champions and helps teams earn reputation and reward for their players (see: Minor Tournaments – A Progamer’s Resume [Jan. 2013])
- Limits power struggles between organizations and the need to “one-up” one another through amount of prize-pool (to thus attract popular progamers) and other tactics.
- Easy system to rank players regionally and worldwide to know who really is the best not through number of achievements, but through consistent performance and ranked points.
- Allows the possibility of new champions rising and recycles those who longer are ahead of the curve.
The drawbacks to this system are evident, but were also inevitable as the scene expanded beyond its capability and reached. What people called “oversaturation” was merely a race to be relevant and a staple to the E-Sport. MLG, ESL and OGN/GSL are clearly the winners here and while Blizzard’s point-system can also be attributed to non-WCS events, it also means the following: - NASL (NA), DreamHack (EU) and Proleague (KeSPA) [KR] will likely be part of the scoop of points attributed to WCS rankings and seeds, it also means they are considered second-class events due to their less impactful effect on a WCS season.
- This point-system also means that any other tournament organizations looking to get involved in StarCraft II will have a steeper climb to reach relevancy.
- Minor tournaments will likely see even less activity and participation as WCS online components of participation will attract many aspiring players (since it is more likely to attract a major team’s attention: see; Minor Tournaments – A Progamer’s Resume [Jan. 2013])
- Events that are not associated with WCS nor receiving points to attribute to WCS seedings will have to fit their events within the championship series (and also create a reason why people should watch it).
As stated, the drawbacks are minor given the downward slope in terms of number of new tournaments and competitions being created. The online portion of WCS will also attract cheaters and potential hackers, but that is something that is both inevitable and small in exchange for convenience and widening the ability to attract as many new competitors as possible.
The truth of it all is that Blizzard’s World Championship Series is a step in the right direction, few disagree, many don’t agree with some of the smaller issues such as the pseudo-region lock. Such as ways to bypass the system in which Koreans will be in North American system knowing they are not up to snuff to prevail in the GSL/OSL and Proleague. The point system can also be trouble if improperly balanced where we may see another Pool Play issue (players who have not been succeeding, continue to maintain seedings and points due to their achievement many months ago). In short, the faults and issues with the World Championship Series are both minor and hastening the process that was occurring already, the upside to it all is that the prize-money is elevated, the opportunity to compete is less costly and stories are created. With Blizzard’s WCS, the foundation of competition is elevated and the next step for StarCraft II has begun!
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Good overview for people who missed it. I think you nailed the whole analysis!
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Great write up. 
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I think you would do yourself a favor by spreading your text out - as it stands, it is too dense. Hard to read and easy to skip. Thanks for your effort in any case!
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The points ranking system could really ruin the whole thing if they don't get it right. For example if say Stephano, Nerchio, Huk, Scarlett, Grubby etc... completely dominate their regions they could theoretically end up with more points than any Koreans just off dominating their regionals even if they bomb out of the end of season Globals, just because the Korean scene is likely to be a lot more fluid in terms of winners/successful players than the foreign scenes.
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Good write-up
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I think you should have waited to post this. When I woke up this morning, I was eager to be blown away by the news but it was underwhelming. There is very little details regarding the intricacies of the system and though it is in spirit a step in the right direction, I wonder if it's going to work as well as planned. Nevertheless I think the subject warrants a deeper analysis down the road - which I'm eagerly awaiting to read because right now I have little opinion on the matter.
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On April 04 2013 05:18 Aeroplaneoverthesea wrote:
The points ranking system could really ruin the whole thing if they don't get it right. For example if say Stephano, Nerchio, Huk, Scarlett, Grubby etc... completely dominate their regions they could theoretically end up with more points than any Koreans just off dominating their regionals even if they bomb out of the end of season Globals, just because the Korean scene is likely to be a lot more fluid in terms of winners/successful players than the foreign scenes.
I am sure Blizzard will get it right. Point systems in leagues have always been part of playing the "game" of competing and strategic decisions on which events to attend is part of that game. I think it is good that some Korean players will have to look at their ranking and say "damn, I need to go to Dream Hack/NASL to make sure I qualify for WCS this season."(Assuming the points can be applied to any region).
It is part of the fun and part of being a competitor. Do you practice and focus on the next event or do you make travel time to go to another event to secure WCS points? Which is better. Do you double down and try to place highly, or spread yourself a bit thinner?
It is part of a complex league is playing the system within the league. As long as the system is fair and all events have appropriate weight, it will be a blast to watch and speculate about.
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Great GREAT move by Blizzard. SC2 has been at each others throats for a while I feel like, with so many tournaments and diminishing market share, it's awesome to see Blizzard really attempting to put together a viable, long term structure that while not perfect (cmon we should know that by now), is built to last a very long time.
Blizzard could have easily raked in profits, sat back, and slowly developed LotV, but instead, shows incredible passion to develop a huge, worldwide event structure.
Bravo.
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Good write-up, I think you nailed the case spot on. I'm personally greatly looking forward to this new, cleaner system of competitive Starcraft 2.
One thing though:
Indeed, as explained in the 2013 WCS overview, this system not only creates a proper bordoundary schedule for any person’s career (between April and November), it also allows for tournament organizations to properly line up their event for equal distribution of fan-interest as well as high-player attendance (both from the reputable players to the aspiring ones).
What does this word mean, I can't find it on any translator! Is it a typo for border?
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I will have to see if MLG/ESL are winners in this case. They will have to hire some extra/new employees to handle all that content and it being online... i dont think it will draw a lot of viewers but i dont know if Blizzard will pay for the production as well etc so will see.
NASL is basically screwed but i think Dreamhack only wins from this hole situation if you get some WCS points at their events, in that case they only gain something without having to invest anything and they loose nothing.
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Thank you! This is great!
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Very good write-up. I remember what iNcontroL said yesterday in Lo3 this move is just not "good" but it is freaking awesome (or something to that effect). It is indeed a move in the right direction and even if there are valid concerns about the finer details of WCS, I am sure Blizz will do something to address those.
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Thanks guys (: I could use the feedback! checkout my other articles for interesting content
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Limits power struggles between organizations and the need to “one-up” one another through amount of prize-pool (to thus attract popular progamers) and other tactics.
That's neutral. It has drawbacks in itself because competition is healthy for business and even though Blizzard increased their prize pool by just over double who's to say organizers and sponsors won't feel that need to put more into it.
Easy system to rank players regionally and worldwide to know who really is the best not through number of achievements, but through consistent performance and ranked points.
The system isn't that easy. Have to wait and see how they split the points and I don't like the idea of points being awarded for Team Leagues. I think those results should be separate because it makes the system more complicated than need be. The WCS should stand on it's own and the points for premiere tournaments should be minimal.
Allows the possibility of new champions rising and recycles those who longer are ahead of the curve.
That was never an issue to begin with. As we've seen with the short SC2 history. Champions change all the frigging time. Eras are relatively short but some names make themselves relevant like MC. That's where you have to consider how many more tournaments he plays in though at the same time. Sort of helps when you are the ambassador for SK in SC2.
The drawbacks to this system are evident, but were also inevitable as the scene expanded beyond its capability and reached. What people called “oversaturation” was merely a race to be relevant and a staple to the E-Sport. MLG, ESL and OGN/GSL are clearly the winners here and while Blizzard’s point-system can also be attributed to non-WCS events, it also means the following:
- NASL (NA), DreamHack (EU) and Proleague (KeSPA) [KR] will likely be part of the scoop of points attributed to WCS rankings and seeds, it also means they are considered second-class events due to their less impactful effect on a WCS season.
This doesn't address the saturation problem. Yes premiere tournaments reward you with points but the WCS is still another tournament. Instead of one season. We now have three. I would not consider the tournaments you described as 2nd class tournaments. They stand alone on themselves just like Iron Squid and look at how well they did. I'm sure tournaments like the Iron Squid will find a good time slot for the players who make it to the final.
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The main thing I am confused about is the system for qualification to later seasons... How does the qualification system into the WCS regional seasons work? How will a new player, or a player that failed to qualify previously be able to make it into the season matches?
Basic questions -
How many players can play in each region per season?
How are these players decided?
What do players outside of the WCS seasons do while they are unable to gain points through the season they are missing?
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/kwkQa.png)
![[image loading]](http://tortedelini.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/wcs-schedule.jpg?w=584&h=328)
