For the first year since the release of Starcraft 2 the Assembly Winter 2013 will not feature a bigger eSports tournament. The Head of eSports and main organizer of ASUS ROG tournaments, Petri Hämälä, told fragster that there will be no major tournament at the known LAN in Helsinki this February. He adds that the reason for that step is missing motivation for eSports at the moment. "There is no possibility to get a full time job with eSport in Finland", Hämälä told fragster. He had been in eSports-business for more then ten years till now and found no legit way to get employed as an organizer. After several years it's time to take a break for the Finnish organizer.
Apart from Hämälä there are no persons involved into eSports who could organize a tournament as big as the ASUS ROG tournaments. The organizers of Assembly LAN themselves are not in shape to organize an event at own cost. This means moreover that there will be no eSports tournament at Assembly Winter this year. For the summer edition this may change. Hämälä told fragster that he is kind of bored without eSports at the moment. A comeback in later 2013 may be possible. But this does not mean that there will be an event in summer again. This is just speculation at the moment, Hämälä complemented.
In the last years the ASUS ROG events have made themselves a huge name in eSports. The tournaments startet in early 2011 at the winter edition of Assembly. The first event was named "SteelSeries Starcraft 2 Challenge" and found a winner in Jos 'Ret' de Kroon. It was followed by the ASUS ROG Summer 2011 as well as the Stars Invite in the same year. In 2012 another three events of the series took place.
Apart from Hämälä there are no persons involved into eSports who could organize a tournament as big as the ASUS ROG tournaments. The organizers of Assembly LAN themselves are not in shape to organize an event at own cost. This means moreover that there will be no eSports tournament at Assembly Winter this year. For the summer edition this may change. Hämälä told fragster that he is kind of bored without eSports at the moment. A comeback in later 2013 may be possible. But this does not mean that there will be an event in summer again. This is just speculation at the moment, Hämälä complemented.
In the last years the ASUS ROG events have made themselves a huge name in eSports. The tournaments startet in early 2011 at the winter edition of Assembly. The first event was named "SteelSeries Starcraft 2 Challenge" and found a winner in Jos 'Ret' de Kroon. It was followed by the ASUS ROG Summer 2011 as well as the Stars Invite in the same year. In 2012 another three events of the series took place.
+ Show Spoiler [Rakaka Translation] +
Trasnlated from: http://rakaka.se/?newsID=20478
There will be no StarCraft II ASUS ROG-Tournament at Assembly Winter in Helsinki, Finland in February Petri Hämälä (Head Manager of the ASUS ROG-sponsored tournaments) revelad on the German e-sports site Fragster.de on January 8th, 2013. The main reason why is his lack of motivation and that he cannot receive a fully-paid salary within the e-sports industry.
Fragster.de (The source they got it from) also wrote that he says there is no one else that can replace his position at Assembly, and that they themselves (Assembly) can't organize such a big tournament by themselves without him.
On a separate note, Aseembly Winter won't be the only LAN organization that are moving away from e-sports. The Gathering (A lan party hosted in Norway) also released earlier in December that they would not host any e-sports events during 2013.
Even though Petri Hämälä has stated he won't organize any tournament, nothing is 100% official as ASUS is still the main sponsor for Assembly. According to their website (that is regularly updated), they say that more information regarding the e-sports tournaments will be released soon.
Fragster.de (The source they got it from) also wrote that he says there is no one else that can replace his position at Assembly, and that they themselves (Assembly) can't organize such a big tournament by themselves without him.
On a separate note, Aseembly Winter won't be the only LAN organization that are moving away from e-sports. The Gathering (A lan party hosted in Norway) also released earlier in December that they would not host any e-sports events during 2013.
Even though Petri Hämälä has stated he won't organize any tournament, nothing is 100% official as ASUS is still the main sponsor for Assembly. According to their website (that is regularly updated), they say that more information regarding the e-sports tournaments will be released soon.
Personal opinion: Though the article was kind of awkward to read (as they say that there is deff 100% no chance there will be a ASUS ROG Tournament at Assembly in the beginning, and then towards the end they hint that it might not be the end), this really sucks! It's honestly these type of events that keep e-sports and StarCraft II alive and keep the passion going in the community. Very sad to see it go though. But maybe it's due to the over saturated e-sports market that we experienced this later half of 2012? Idk. What do you guys think?
Edit: Fixed grammar mistakes.
UPDATE:
There will be a tournament at Assembly for SC2. However, it's not that of the magnitude ASUS ROG was.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=393159