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http://www.gosugamers.net/starcraft/news/8783-item-mania-rejected-kespa-might-take-over-hanbit-stars
+ Show Spoiler +GosuGamers reported five days ago that Hanbitsoft would sell their Hanbit Stars contracts to Item-Mania. Everything seemed to be going well for the team, having the back-up and support, but there was one major detail: The Korean eSports Association (KeSPA) needs to approve each team's head sponsors.
And today, KeSPA had a meeting with about the matter, and they suggest Hanbit Soft to reconsider the contract with Item-Mania and instead hand over the management to KeSPA until the start of the next ProLeague season. But Hanbit Stars did not fully agree with all the details.
KeSPA suggested to Hanbitsoft that they would pay all the current running costs of Hanbit Stars and try to find a new sponsor until the end of September which is when the new season starts. Should KeSPA not be able to find a new sponsor - Hanbit Stars will dissolve. Dissolving the team would result in all the players being drafted to one of the other 10 teams (ACE not included) in order to continue their progaming careers. The head coach is in a tougher predicament, as there is no team for him to jump over to.
A sweet deal, one might think, but Hanbit Stars did not fully agree. The players and the head coach wants the same salary from KeSPA as they would have received from Item-Mania. This is something KeSPA needs to reconsider, and the discussion will continue in the upcoming days.
KeSPA did not accept Item-Mania as sponsors for Hanbit Stars due to Item-Mania's main business, which is dealing with and being the middle-man for items and gear selling in online games. KeSPA says that it is not good for eSports because the general target of eSports is the younger generation.
A professional gaming team needs to be accepted by KeSPA in order to play any tournaments where KeSPA is involved, for instance OnGameNet and MBCGame StarLeague and the ProLeague.
Damn KeSPA
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well it kind of makes sense though based on what kind of business itemmania is
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Agreed with anotak, e-sports wants games that are based on skill and entertainment value for the fans.
Item-Mania's business model seems like it should want games that have a large element of grinding / item-collection.
The two clearly have incentives to be at odds, so it's best to just stop it before it happens.
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I actually sorta agree with kespa, when I heard who stars was gonna get sponsored by i was like wtf
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United States7488 Posts
That's unfortunate. Hopefully Hanbit will be able to find a new sponsor rather than have to dissolve and spread its players to other teams. Some of the B team players might have a difficult time getting onto another team besides.
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God Kespa! Always denying stuff those days... Oh well, good luk hanbit I hope you dont disband
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I agree with KeSPA here, I'm sure they'll find a new sponsor from somewhere, SC should be rising currently so even one of the worst teams should be worth a lot.
Item-Mania seems so shady, isn't it nearly illegal to sell items for real money in some games? :\
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United States12607 Posts
KeSPA is really oppressive.
a) Hanbit stars (or whatever they are now, how about KeSPA's Bitches) need the money.
b) Attacking Item-Mania for profiting from gaming is somewhat...um...hypocritical? Making money from videogames is the only reason KeSPA exists in the first place.
c) So what if Item-Mania sells items? Who cares? The argument that the "younger generation" will somehow be either dissuaded from Starcraft or their love of videogames simply because there exists a way to buy good items in some MMOs is nonsensical.
To anotak and Polemarch: how does Item-Mania's business model interfere with "games that are based on skill and entertainment value?" Noobs that lay down real money for items won't ever hit the eSports scene, and I'm sure that game creators won't start designing games simply to play into Item-Mania's business model ("Oh yeah, let's help another company make money off of our product" doesn't sound too smart, does it?). Bottom line, gamer preference will put crappy games that are solely about grinding out of business and out of eSports.
Even IF there was an argument that Item-Mania somehow degraded eSports, that still doesn't mean it would be right for KeSPA to block the sponsorship. Hanbit needs the money, and the Proleague in general is kind of always in need of sponsors so it's really shocking to see KeSPA shooting itself in the foot like this.
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United States12607 Posts
Edit: this assumes that Item-Mania is a legitimate company which doesn't do illegal business. My limited investigation yields nothing that would make Item-Mania seem illegal or shady in any way.
(can't edit my post due to proxy settings)
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I really think KESPA is being a bit harsh here. It's one thing to disprove of a companies' aqusition of the Hanbit Stars team, but it's another to risk the complete disbanding of that team on something which to me seems so trivial. As others have posted, unless this company is involved in illegal activities, I don't really see much of a problem.
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
meh honestly i dont think it has anything to do with "games w/ skill", simply b/c itemmania is a new institution in a VERY new area of making money that isnt as "classy" or "traditional / well-respected" etc which will cause image problems for kespa and esports.
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United States22883 Posts
On August 06 2008 05:52 jwd241224 wrote:
c) So what if Item-Mania sells items? Who cares?
Blizzard cares. Very much.
I think they matter in the world of SC.
EDIT: I'm assuming Item Mania caters to WoW, or else they probably wouldn't make much money anyways. NCSoft is also against selling goods, so the two big Korean MMOs are out.
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Thank god. Good move KeSPA.
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51696 Posts
if i were part of kespa i wouldn't want some mmo selling website owning a once lucrative pro team.
p.s this is more than being a sponsor of a team, this is them buying the team outright.
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how is item mania a bad sponsor because esports targets the younger audience? Item mania targets the younger audience too, ffs. They could bring in a lot of mmo people to sc, and vise versa. Besides, a sponsor is a sponsor, you only deny it if its an embarrassments or unreliable, which item is neither. Kespa is just using this as an excuse to get more control over sc. Fucking assholes.
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Hungary11305 Posts
If there is any critique about Item-Mania's business, it should certainly not be related to being linked with "having a large element of grinding / item-collection.". What kind of game Item-Mania is associated with is secondary.
The factor to consider is the shady existence of in-between dealers at MMORPGs or regular RPGs. They basically deal with virtual value for real money and while the creator of the game cannot do much against them, they are often unwanted guests (I mostly know this from WoW, as these traders often employ farming bots and spam the ingame chats with advertisements). This semi-legal status and the connection to bot usage marks such companies as questionable.
And the final point is, if e-sports is to be furthered, simply buying something that usually takes time and skill to achieve is bad propaganda. E-Sports means practicing hard and working on yourself in order to gain achievements, not simply to punch your credit card number into their side and get the achievements delivered to your doorstep.
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
On August 06 2008 06:26 Dazed_Spy wrote:
how is item mania a bad sponsor because esports targets the younger audience? Item mania targets the younger audience too, ffs. They could bring in a lot of mmo people to sc, and vise versa. Besides, a sponsor is a sponsor, you only deny it if its an embarrassments or unreliable, which item is neither. Kespa is just using this as an excuse to get more control over sc. Fucking assholes.
ya it defintiely has nothing to do with "younger audience" etc.
It has everything to do with what others have mentioned here, the shadiness of transactions involving virtual objects and virtual currency and making a business out of it.
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United States22883 Posts
It's not even semi-legal. It's illegal. Blizzard won their lawsuit against bot developers and they shut down farmers all the time. So not only are item/gold sellers part of the black market (oooh black market of video games!) but they are also unreliable because at any moment they could lose millions in gold due to accounts being shut down. Blizzard has done several purges where they ban tens of thousands of accounts at a time.
And I do think the game type is important. MMOs hurt SC and vice versa. Both require large amounts of time and MMOs tend to suck up even casuals, whereas you can be a casual SC fan without devoting your life to it. The MMO crowd is not a good market for esports.
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Hungary11305 Posts
On August 06 2008 06:38 Jibba wrote:
It's not even semi-legal. It's illegal. Blizzard won their lawsuit against bot developers and they shut down farmers all the time. So not only are item/gold sellers part of the black market (oooh black market of video games!) but they are also unreliable because at any moment they could lose millions in gold due to accounts being shut down. Blizzard has done several purges where they ban tens of thousands of accounts at a time. I have no idea about the exact status of legality. My intuition would tell me that the method used for gathering gold and selling it (using bots to farm and spam) is illegal, but that the sale itself (selling ingame gold / items for real life cash) is dubitable but not really illegal. The clause is usually that the deal is not for the ingame items (as those belong to the company running the MMORPG) but for the time spent to acquire them, thus paying the work and not the items / gold.
On August 06 2008 06:38 Jibba wrote:
And I do think the game type is important. MMOs hurt SC and vice versa. Both require large amounts of time and MMOs tend to suck up even casuals, whereas you can be a casual SC fan without devoting your life to it. The MMO crowd is not a good market for esports.
I am not sure if MMOs hurt RTS. WoW for example picked up LOTS of players who never touched a single computer game before. And if those watch WWI by chance and stumble across an entertaining E-Sport like Starcraft - why couldn't people appreciate both things at a time (playing several sports is hard; watching several is easy)?
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What Jibba said.
Imo a good move by KeSPA
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EPT
