-----
Every single wellknown community figure talks about growing eSports. During an average event we're asked to follow, tweet, like, tell our friends about a hundred times - a multiple of that number if Tasteless is at the event ;D - so that there are more and more viewers, to get more and more sponsors, to get more and more events and players funded etc.
Accordingly the famous "you're hurting eSports" is only the short form of "you're hurting the growth of eSports". And how could anyone want that? Big prizepools and top-notch production values make the tournaments so much more enjoyable, and we tend to forget that not long ago it was nothing short of a miracle if a player could attend more than one international even per year.
Now don't get me wrong, I advertised eSports and more specifically Starcraft quite a bit. Turning latent semi-nerds into fulltime nerds cheering at players is great, because it's awesome to be able to share your hobby with friends, and it's cool to see your favorite game trending on twitter.
But looking at the scene now I come to think about every now and then that... this is enough. And I'm not talking about a new eSports bubble that some people are afraid about (maybe rightly so). It's just that I already see some negative implications of that growth. Maybe you could call it overcommercialization. I don't like the trend that teams value streaming as much as high tournament placements (as stated by NaNiwa). I don't like the trend that players are asked to choose PR-events over competetive events (as seen recently with iNcontroL - I have a lot of respect for that guy and I know there are rational arguments for that choice. If I'd been at PAX and able to play against him in the Kingston booth I probably would have enjoyed that EGs sponsors make that possible. But after all... I just don't like it.).
Now to the reason why I write this blog now. The following part is a) speculative and b) may sound elitist. I just want to point out in advance that generally speaking I want everyone to enjoy this hobby in his or her way.
I've played the shit out of starcraft over 14 years (which is the majority of my life... that sounds fucking weird :D) and I've been following the korean BW scene for many years as well. While I enjoy stuff like monobattles quite a bit and once in a while like to watch streams of players like Grubby, who besides having huge talent is not at the top right now, when it comes to big international tournaments I want to see the highest play possible. Which is why I can't even wrap my head around thread titles like "The Korean dominance in recent events. What to do?". It's just mind-boggling to me (hence my one-liner in that thread^^). For me it's just about the entertainment through quality of games, which in my opinion will always produce the best stories as well. I get the excitement of an underdog story, but that should be earned through upsetting results. Of course it's not like I want only Koreans in a tournament, that's the point. Players like Huk and IdrA (and more recently Scarlett <3 :D) are a worthy addition to any tournament.
Now if somebody new to the game does not have the deep understanding of the game to value the biggest of big plays he has to clinch to something else to find who he wants to root for, and most of the time that is a story. In some cases that might be the eternal second fighting against his curse or the zerghero or whatever, but apparently more often than not it will simply be the one of his nationality or at least "the foreigner". I kind of get that when there are only "generic korean terrans" left, as I like to call them, with no (known) story behind them at all... but I hate it.
Already GOM tries to force foreigners into the most prestigous tournament of the world, because they know that's where their biggest viewer numbers come from. What if those numbers are declining and a tournament like MLG has to think about denying Koreans entry into their competition (maybe fanfavorites like MC, MMA etc. aside)? That would be the moment where I'd turn away disgustedly and wish back the good old days and only watch GSL.
Additionally, I made one really unpleasent experience at gamescom last year, which I will post in spoilers as this is already a wall of text... sorry :p
+ Show Spoiler +
On August 21 2011 06:39 chocopaw wrote:
I was there today and enjoyed the good games. What I did not enjoy was the following. I'm not sure if the incident has been mentioned before.
If you watched the stream you probably saw how enthusiastically Socke was greeted by the fans. The crowd got heated up by Take even more.
Don't get me wrong, while I wouldn't call myself a fan I have nothing against Socke, I enjoyed quite a few games of him. But as an anti-nationalist I don't see why I should root for him because of where he was born.
When Puma entered the stage there were quite a few "boo"-shouters. I don't know if they did it because of the EG "scandal", because he is Korean or simply because he was Sockes opponent and they would have done it against anyone else.
When I cheered for Puma after good actions by him, showcasing his superior play, I in fact earned angry reactions. Just because I was for the wrong player. Again, this might have been anti-EG, it might have been anti-Socke's opponent, but the point is, it doesn't really matter.
I don't know if the following was on the stream:
In the commercial break between the second and third match Take entered the stage to announce that there had been attempts of glaring Puma with a laser pointer while the second match was going on. Take said that if they were continued they would send everyone away and let the players end the series backstage to assure the matches could be played under fair conditions. They actually had an IEM guy stand in front of Puma in the third match to prevent further incidents.
Now, while I am a political person, I usually try to not let that interfere with my hobby. If people have to root for a player because of his home country I let them have their fun, as long as they don't hop on the "No Koreans at MLG!"-bandwagon or shit like that. But today a line was crossed for me when I experienced hostility because I rooted for the "wrong" player. The laser pointer act might have been executed by a stupid troll, but it might as well have been a overzealous Socke fan.
My point is: I am disgusted by even the possibility of this being a trend in the esports community. What if that weren't just a few stupid individuals? I hope that every esports fan who witnesses behavious similar to what I described in this post distances him- or herself from it and feels ashamed if people not related to esports see them as representatives of our hobby and scene. Please do everything to keep esports positive, international and open to everybody, and first of all: keep it revolving around the fun!
I was there today and enjoyed the good games. What I did not enjoy was the following. I'm not sure if the incident has been mentioned before.
If you watched the stream you probably saw how enthusiastically Socke was greeted by the fans. The crowd got heated up by Take even more.
Don't get me wrong, while I wouldn't call myself a fan I have nothing against Socke, I enjoyed quite a few games of him. But as an anti-nationalist I don't see why I should root for him because of where he was born.
When Puma entered the stage there were quite a few "boo"-shouters. I don't know if they did it because of the EG "scandal", because he is Korean or simply because he was Sockes opponent and they would have done it against anyone else.
When I cheered for Puma after good actions by him, showcasing his superior play, I in fact earned angry reactions. Just because I was for the wrong player. Again, this might have been anti-EG, it might have been anti-Socke's opponent, but the point is, it doesn't really matter.
I don't know if the following was on the stream:
In the commercial break between the second and third match Take entered the stage to announce that there had been attempts of glaring Puma with a laser pointer while the second match was going on. Take said that if they were continued they would send everyone away and let the players end the series backstage to assure the matches could be played under fair conditions. They actually had an IEM guy stand in front of Puma in the third match to prevent further incidents.
Now, while I am a political person, I usually try to not let that interfere with my hobby. If people have to root for a player because of his home country I let them have their fun, as long as they don't hop on the "No Koreans at MLG!"-bandwagon or shit like that. But today a line was crossed for me when I experienced hostility because I rooted for the "wrong" player. The laser pointer act might have been executed by a stupid troll, but it might as well have been a overzealous Socke fan.
My point is: I am disgusted by even the possibility of this being a trend in the esports community. What if that weren't just a few stupid individuals? I hope that every esports fan who witnesses behavious similar to what I described in this post distances him- or herself from it and feels ashamed if people not related to esports see them as representatives of our hobby and scene. Please do everything to keep esports positive, international and open to everybody, and first of all: keep it revolving around the fun!
tl;dr: I know money has to be made to keep this awesome hobby going, but maybe it's good to stand back once in a while and reflect on negative ramifications of the growth of eSports.