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Many people have tweeted and written about this already but I absolutely must do the same. My mind wouldn’t be at peace otherwise since I’ve been a main component of WCS from the very beginning way back in 2012.
There’s many things I need to establish before I go on this relatively peaceful and thought out harangue. The first of which is, I understand that there are once again many arguments for either side and it really depends on personal opinion – which is exactly what I’m about to describe, my opinion. Hopefully though you take my words on board as I try convince you that we’re in a good place when it comes to WCS for 2016.
I already briefly covered this on Twitter, but the second part is any mentions of an agenda on my side in regards to backing up others is just unfounded. I say what I say because I mean it from my mind, not from anyone else’s. You can see that in my interview from back in 2014, where my opinions of the WCS system were not in line with the system back then http://teamacer.com/en/btsw_kaelaris.htm. If I were just a yes man, this would be different.
It just also happens to be that I’m a very positive person. I have zero time for negativity in my life. When I’m casting and you hear me excited, you better believe I’m damn excited. You don’t have to be edgy to be honest in your opinions, or to be perceived as honest.
OK! Down to business! Let us start by taking a look at DreamHack Leipzig and how things went. I think for the most part, the StarCraft community is not giving foreigners the credit they deserve when it comes to their level of play. Yes there are mistakes, even Koreans make them and admittedly foreigners make them more so. However, It’s a known fact that the human mind is selective, and I believe that may be happening here. When players like Hydra lost to Lilbow in WCS S3 last year, the community exploded. When Lilbow went even further and won the whole thing, the community exploded. When Hydra loses to Bly at DreamHack in a great series, is he not also worthy of recognition in his ability? viOLet hasn’t looked that good since 2013. He went 13-0 during the beginning of his tournament run and didn’t break a sweat, metaphorically. viOLet even mentioned in an interview after one of the victories that he practiced a lot on the Korean server, and that the foreigners don’t know how to respond to his play. Bly then defeats him 3-0 and then goes on to lose in the final 4-1 to Ptitdrogo who showed in that series just how much of a beast he is. His control and hold for the longest time on Prion Terraces with limited stalkers on either side of the Zerg army was nothing short of what you would see in Korean leagues.
After talking to a lot of the pros at DreamHack, the general consensus from them was that their fire (no Bly pun intended) for passion and competition has been reignited not only by LotV, but also WCS 2016.
Traditional sports have followed a pretty set way of doing things for a long time, and for very good reason. From national to continental to global. Steps here exist for a reason, and as you go along, the competition gets more and more vicious. The Global finals should be the equivalent to the Olympics. The best players who have proved themselves in their regions come together and battle for the crown of world champion. This is exactly what 2016 gives. And you know what? A lot of people are criticising the Western world for potentially getting crushed at BlizzCon. Well, yes probably! And there is actually nothing wrong with that at all! The USA in the Olympics, along with other nations like the Soviet Union, come away with the majority of the gold medals and crush the other countries. Does that make the thrill of global competition any less exciting? If you have global competition every other week, it’s no longer special. StarCraft is in a position where the hardcore fanbase has been very spoiled in this regard, to the point where I think some may never accept change, but that doesn’t mean to say we shouldn’t also try and draw new people in or give the larger, equally as important, casual audience a good gate to greet them when they arrive or have already taken the first steps in.
I used to do fencing (stabbing wildly at people with a stick), and I wasn’t bad at it. My ambition and passion for it came in steps and they were achievable. If there wasn’t a clear way up, and suddenly I were to attend tournaments bi-weekly where the world champion or players of his caliber were there, would I still feel the same drive? Would that be a healthy environment to allow a scene to expand or motivate others to get involved? Probably not! But if I were to work my way up, and then at the world championship meet those players, but then get dominated, that is understandable. Some may argue that there is a clear way up in the previous systems, Online Cups, Challenger, Premier, World Championship. However, each and every one of those stages had you completing on a global level. National pride was only really rekindled when Lilbow and the French players started something at the end of 2015, but even that was lightning in a bottle. 2016 gives national and continental pride back for the most part.
I feel it’s very easy for people from other scenes to look in on StarCraft’s WCS and criticise. League of Legends for example only ever has Foreigner vs Korean actually happen perhaps 2 or 3 times a year max? Usually resulting in the Korean team taking the victory unless in very strange circumstances (I’m thinking WE taking out the Korean favourites at IEM Katowice last year). Then looking at Counter-Strike, Asian regions have never supported the game quite like Korea took to StarCraft, and even when they do seldom peer into the world of FPS, they navigate quickly to counterparts like CrossFire. The success of both these games has relied a lot on personality more than skill, which is no secret. And when skill has been the determining factor, players from regions that are more personable have been at the top because they haven’t had to compete with regions that have had 10 years of experience over them. Do you believe people would have gone as crazy about their esports endeavours if you didn’t have someone like Ocelote screaming his lungs out back in the day? Or if a team responded to xPeke’s backdoor with a quiet demeanor? These kinds of moments are filled with empathy from the spectator, so much so that even I know about them without admittedly followed League very closely. Emotion like this, and it’s especially something that LCS has done well in their feature pieces, has been something that StarCraft has been deprived of because of some of the points I’ve explained above, such as the discouragement felt by up-and-comers.
At DreamHack Leipzig we got a little bit of that back. Look at how Bly and Ptitdrogo reacted to their victories towards the end of the tournament. These kinds of reactions in CS:GO and LoL are emphasized and amplified even more because of the team based atmosphere, the camaraderie (some French in there for ToD) of human interaction and the embrace of one-another’s emotions after a clutch play or well fought victory. StarCraft hasn’t had that properly for a long time until recently. StarCraft and any other game out there are completely different beasts in nature because of how ingrained the practice regiment is in Koreans and their culture over what is almost 15 years of refinement. The Western scene never had this properly.
For me while casting WCS, yes commentating Koreans playing picture perfect is fantastic, but also commentating on relatively equally matched foreigners is also extremely entertaining. Much like many forms of entertainment, you don’t have to have the very best players in a game for the combat between one-another to be exciting. Why would people be fans of the lower divisions of football if they didn’t have a place? Why do many people support their local club in traditional sports? Of all places the one exception could be the Premier League as it’s the most beloved league in the world, but I’m willing to bet that the number of people that support their closer clubs parallels it, if not surpasses. To me, with 2016 WCS, we are restoring normality, not making radical and sensational change for the worse.
I will still always say that WCS 2012 EU finals for me was one of the greatest experiences of my StarCraft career, and I get the impression that many spectators feel the same way. It was brought up by many people during community feedback sessions that this feel was magical. Sure the production may not have been as crisp or clean as tournaments can be today, but it captured something very special. A continents champions coming together to qualify for the truly global stage. A distinct progression milestone in a circuit. Giving western talent the opportunity to once again find that kind of will and determination to get up and be the champion of their region.
What is the most famous picture of Stephano you can think of? For me, it’s this.
StarCraft is unique in that, yes we technically can have global competition all year round, but just because we can, and have done for a few years now, doesn’t mean we should.
I thoroughly enjoy watching Korean StarCraft as much as the next person, and if you’re a complete die-hard, truly hardcore fan, then yes, wanting to watch the very best of the best day in, day out is what will appease you. Proleague is yet to start, this will help you sate that thirst, and it’s a huge component which people need to consider. But if you want StarCraft to grow and continue to be successful, you need to nurture players that are relatable, and give more casual fans someone to cheer for on a more personal level. Your fellow countrymen provide that.
While thinking about what I wanted to write in this, other thoughts came to light and I have to agree with Dario in that, Korea’s structure is too top heavy in regards to prize pool. From what I know though, and I may be wrong, but that’s just how Korea has always been. A change would definitely help there if people are concerned about Korea. But just as people are concerned about Korea and are calling for change, you cannot dismiss that concern for emerging talent and local scenes in the Western hemisphere was not warranted when changes were proposed and implemented.
Korea will always have the highest skill level, and yes they deserve to be world champions, and probably always will be.
Change is scary, but do not fear the change, it’s sometimes necessary.
A continued thank you to Blizzard for making the most beautiful games on the planet. I’m still utterly rubbish at StarCraft, but I adore it all the same, and probably always will.
I don’t expect to convert from this, and I certainly don’t expect everyone to agree. But I would ask people to give this system a chance.
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Great read, thank you Kaelaris. I agree with you and like the changes to the foreign scene a lot, I'm just missing some global events tbh. Foreigners vs Koreans always brings the extra hype, Snute beating Rain and Classic was a highlight of 2015 to me!
I think it's important to see that people can be happy with the changes to the foreign scene, while being unhappy about the situation in Korea. So not everyone that is complaining, is against the WCS changes to the foreign scene, only against the changes in the Korean scene.
I will copy paste my reddit post that I wrote in response to HuK here:
"First of all, this is a well written and thought out post and I agree with a lot of what HuK says. Regional scenes are important and I loved the interviews we got with the local heroes, especially HuK, uthermal and Bly. I think we'll see great stories and higher level games, between foreigners, than ever this year!
But I think there are a few assumptions that HuK and others that are very happy with the new system make, which need to be adressed. First of all, most people are well aware that Korea gets more money than before and the number of games in Korea is down, not up, even if the seasons are more drawn out.
Now to the biggest point, many or most people that voiced concerns these days are actually part of group 3.
Group 3: Happy with the changes to the foreign scene, understand that the region lock is needed and good for the game, no longer wanted to see Hyun and Co. farm those events anyway. But unhappy with the changes to the korean scene and concerned with the lack of new players in the land of StarCraft.
So as I said this group is fine or even happy with the changes to the foreign scene, but considers this game a global sport and can't just block out the situation in Korea. Yes, it is true that they get more money than before and the prize money for a low finish is also bigger now. But the problem is that all that money is in 4 events, 2 are already running so there are only 2 more qualifiers left for Korean players to participate in for the whole year!
If a player didn't qualify for SSL, lost in code A or the GSL qualifier and is not in a Proleague team, then he has a huge problem. As it stands right now, he doesn't have anything big to play in for half a year. This player, quite frankly, is fucked. And yes, we will see sOs in Proleague and the guy made enough money anyway, but Proleauge players are not the ones we worry about.
We worry about the Code B level and unknown players that are needed since we need fresh blood in Korea. For those players, there is no incentive to play and that's a problem. If a foreigner fails in the DH qualifer he can play the IEM qualifer a month later. A korean non-proleague player has to wait 6 months instead. That's what it comes down to and that's what makes us wonder if we will see a new Life/Maru with a system like this.
That's all what stuchiu's article was saying and I think we should all worry about it, even if we are happy with the changes to the foreign scene. If Korea had gotten 1 more GSL/SSL instead of less and had 8 qualifers instead of 4 this year, the situation would already look way better (same amount of money, just spread out over 8 instead of 4 events).
Thankfully Canata and GSL are working hard to solve the problem, but since it's all part of WCS, I wished Blizzard had done something to help. Apart from the extra money, which will just go to the Lifes/Innos/Zests that already make enough money anyway, they just took events aways from the Korean scene without giving them any in return.
Tl;dr: We (group 3) are happy for the foreign scene, but can't just pretend that Korea is fine. We would've wished that both scenes would be in a better situation this year and not just one. Korea needs more tournaments, 4 qualifiers a year is not enough. Non-proleague, code-B level players in Korea are fucked.
I'm still excited for this year and hope there are a lot of KeSPA cups and some global events in the making, which would already make me sleep a lot better  ."
Thanks again for your point of view Kaelaris and I'm also very excited for the foreign scene. If you took the time to read my post about the situation in Korea, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it .
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Very good points. I do agree on most of them. The WCS system for the international scene seems good to me. I had a great time at Dreamhack Leipzig, and I definitely felt the sparks of magic you talked about. I hope we can reignite the storylines focusing on the people playing and their relationships instead of only their results. I'd like to have both.
I've replied to Musicus on reddit with this suggestion on Korea. + Show Spoiler +My suggestion would be to rebuild the Code A tournament and then go from there. So right now Code A doesn't actually exist. It's just a qualification match for Code S. There used to be a real tournament (Code A August 2011), where the winners would get a seed in the next Code S, I'd like to see that return. So for example everyone who loses in the Code S qualification match can automatically participate in the Code A tournament. In addition to that we would have a separate Code A qualification tournament, that seeds you directly into Code A (16-32 more players, who didn't compete for a Code S spot, or maybe the players who came third in the qualifiers). And give it a reasonable prize pool, so that players get payed. IMO this could even just be an online format, to save production costs.
TL;DR: I'd like to see Code A come back.
I stand by the statement that more opportunities for low/mid-Tier Korean players is needed, but I'm not sure that we really are in a position to judge that. Do the Koreans want this insanely cutthroat system? Do they like if the leagues are very few? From translated posts I've seen the answer seems to be yes, and it does increase the prestige of winning a GSL, since you'll be one out of only two to do so each year, in comparison to the old GSL's when we had up to 8 in 2011 (insert the nobody-remembers-Sniper meme).
Korea has historically always tried to do their own thing, going against what Blizzard wanted multiple times (almost always?), and it did work out great for them in Broodwar (w/ basically just MSL-OSL-Proleague). So maybe the Koreans should focus on their region, on their own, without us interfering.
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Saw your post, the old Code A was awesome indeed.
About just letting Korea be, I think it's not the same situation as in the BW days, since they are a part of WCS now. So I think Blizzard should have a hand in it and if they give them hundreds of thousands dollars to run tournaments, they should make sure the tournament structure gives enough players opportunites, more than twice a year.
Well let's see what Canata is working on!
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See, Kaelaris, you are telling us why WCS is awesome for foreigners, and we already know that. We don't need to be convinced, defenders and critics alike agree that the new WCS is gonna be good for the foreign scene.
(Except the nay-sayers of course. But they are the -although very vocal- minority. I don't think you should even waste time addressing those people, because they're not gonna change their opinion no matter what you or the players say, or viewership numbers, or anything.)
What I'd like to hear and be convinced of is that Korea is fine too (primary concern) and treated with fairness (secondary). All I hear about these two topics is in the lines of denying ("Korea is fine" - lol) or leaving it up to the Koreans themselves to fix it ("why must Blizzard help them? they have the infrastructure" - guess what? the infrastructure wasn't gifted to them, they built it on years of hard work).
Can we please stop for a while talking about how awesome WCS is for foreigners and talk about how to solve the Korean scene shrinking?
Also what Musicus said
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No the quality level was bad because a LOL commentator said so, and he said casters should talk about it.
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I guess thats's what happens when the viewership of the game is so low, you have to replace competition with charity and gameplay with interviews.
Unless global events are going to be a lot more common than I thought, 2016 probably going to be a shit Starcraft year for me, which is a shame because the game itself is more fun than ever.
I'm just looking at it from a purely selfish perspective. I don't give a fuck about the health of the foreign scene, I just want to watch the players I like.
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Thanks for the write-up. I agree, we need to stay positive, all the negativity about the scene getting worse IS making the scene worse. It turns me off even coming here when every 10th post is "WCS Welfare I'm never watching again etc" while it's hardly Blizzards fault the korean scene/interest is shrinking. I wholeheartedly enjoyed DH Leipzig.
People bring up the argument of supporting korean up and comers/B-teamers, and how they have less chances now. But it was hardly these players who qualified for an IEM anyway. It was always the top dogs ( IEM Korea qualifier was always super brutal). So the 2016 WCS does not change much for the second tier of korean players. Yes it is a big problem that there is so little tournaments if you drop out early in KR, and I really hope this gets improved, but I do not think it is the fault of the new WCS system. GSL has become smaller and lower budget for years.
And what about the foreign ' A-players' who couldn't even play fulltime because the prospect of earning any money was so low? Look at Showtime last year who did well, then failed to qualify for a season of WCS and dropped off the map for a while. At least they are helped now with the new system, there's already been loads of players who said they are dedicating more time now because there is actually a chance in the local tournaments. I really believe this will shrink the skill gap towards KR in the end. Both finalists in DH Leipzig are practice beasts. They got there on their own merit and outplayed every other opponent. Would they have beaten sOs or Innovation of Life? Probably not. Not yet. Lets see in a year. I believe
If we get 8 Lilbow-vs-Life's at blizzcon I'll admit defeat
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If a lot more Global Tournaments were on the cards, and the Korean scene didn't scale back to 4SSL/GSL, then everything would be fine. As it stands though, Korea seems to loose a lot, and all because it's good at the game.
What happens if France or some other country becomes super dominant? We eliminate France to? What if EU takes 100% of the wins and Americans get nothing? Where will it end?
Having competitions for the World minus one country is just wrong in so many ways.
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If a lot more Global Tournaments were on the cards, and the Korean scene didn't scale back to 4SSL/GSL, then everything would be fine. As it stands though, Korea seems to loose a lot, and all because it's good at the game.
What happens if France or some other country becomes super dominant? We eliminate France to? What if EU takes 100% of the wins and Americans get nothing? Where will it end?
Yes but as you point out, the problem here isn't region lock. Its that the korean scene only has a few tournaments and is veyr top heavy.
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Even tho I don't like the region lock at all (I'd like to see the highest level of gameplay possible but I guess this is only my opinion), why was region locking only about banning koreans from this event ?
If we follow this logic, since the Dreamhack happens in Europe, why all north and south american players are allowed to play at dreamhack, or even Nice (who is from Taiwan) and Probe (from Australia).
I don't feel confortable invoking "Region Lock" when the reality is "Ban koreans" for some odd reasons.
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Thank you for the post, you bring up great points and your comparisions are on point. I hope more people accept the new wcs system and i hope we see more constructive posts like yours.
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On January 27 2016 02:43 Hider wrote:Show nested quote +If a lot more Global Tournaments were on the cards, and the Korean scene didn't scale back to 4SSL/GSL, then everything would be fine. As it stands though, Korea seems to loose a lot, and all because it's good at the game.
What happens if France or some other country becomes super dominant? We eliminate France to? What if EU takes 100% of the wins and Americans get nothing? Where will it end?
Yes but as you point out, the problem here isn't region lock. Its that the korean scene only has a few tournaments and is veyr top heavy.
But thats not our problem. We are not responsible for the korean scene. We gave them enough time to adapt. It took blizzard 2 years to region lock. Also a scene should be able to sustain it-self without help from outside. Imagine it as an eco system which tries to reach equilibrium. Every disturbance from outside would only extend the inevitable.
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On January 27 2016 03:09 todespolka wrote:Show nested quote +On January 27 2016 02:43 Hider wrote:If a lot more Global Tournaments were on the cards, and the Korean scene didn't scale back to 4SSL/GSL, then everything would be fine. As it stands though, Korea seems to loose a lot, and all because it's good at the game.
What happens if France or some other country becomes super dominant? We eliminate France to? What if EU takes 100% of the wins and Americans get nothing? Where will it end?
Yes but as you point out, the problem here isn't region lock. Its that the korean scene only has a few tournaments and is veyr top heavy. But thats not our problem. We are not responsible for the korean scene. We gave them enough time to adapt. It took blizzard 2 years to region lock. Also a scene should be able to sustain it-self without help from outside. Imagine it as an eco system which tries to reach equilibrium. Every disturbance from outside would only extend the inevitable.
Lol this was actually a very sudden change, a region lock for WCS alone would probably not have mattered to the Koreans, the problem for them is that the foreign events got locked and that on very short notice (apparently even at Blizzcon Blizzard wanted to just have a locked WCS so this was like a last minute change)
On the overall thing, I pretty much aggree with everything Musicus said, I personally don't watch foreigner only tournaments (don't have the time to watch everything), but I aggree that something had to be done, and eventhough I liked the 2015 change more I'm not angry or anything about it.
However I am really concerned with the Korean scene and how that develops, who knows, maybe those changes Nathanias and Rotterdam and Apollo mentioned will be awesome, but given the current track record of what community heads have described as awesome, it will most likely be more cool stuff for the foreign scene and not super cool stuff for the Koreans which kinda sucks :/
There just doesn't really seem to be an incentive to do global events
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On January 27 2016 02:43 Hider wrote:Show nested quote +If a lot more Global Tournaments were on the cards, and the Korean scene didn't scale back to 4SSL/GSL, then everything would be fine. As it stands though, Korea seems to loose a lot, and all because it's good at the game.
What happens if France or some other country becomes super dominant? We eliminate France to? What if EU takes 100% of the wins and Americans get nothing? Where will it end?
Yes but as you point out, the problem here isn't region lock. Its that the korean scene only has a few tournaments and is veyr top heavy.
yes lets screw all other countries because of that. not that i care anymore since SC2 in portugal doesnt exist anymore.
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I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Maybe there will be some invitational in the future, where foreigners will clash against top korean? Who knows.
This would be good for all the people who don´t want to rely on Blizzcon where foreigners get slaughtered.
Looking forward.
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On January 26 2016 23:55 Musicus wrote:
Great read, thank you Kaelaris. I agree with you and like the changes to the foreign scene a lot, I'm just missing some global events tbh. Foreigners vs Koreans always brings the extra hype, Snute beating Rain and Classic was a highlight of 2015 to me!
I think it's important to see that people can be happy with the changes to the foreign scene, while being unhappy about the situation in Korea. So not everyone that is complaining, is against the WCS changes to the foreign scene, only against the changes in the Korean scene.
It seems most people who are talking about the changes are missing this point and it's increasingly frustrating.
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If people see an intense passion on a player's face the audience will become more passionate in turn. We need the cheers and fist pumps in the air after a match to match the raining confetti.
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On January 27 2016 03:26 GizmoPT wrote:Show nested quote +On January 27 2016 02:43 Hider wrote:If a lot more Global Tournaments were on the cards, and the Korean scene didn't scale back to 4SSL/GSL, then everything would be fine. As it stands though, Korea seems to loose a lot, and all because it's good at the game.
What happens if France or some other country becomes super dominant? We eliminate France to? What if EU takes 100% of the wins and Americans get nothing? Where will it end?
Yes but as you point out, the problem here isn't region lock. Its that the korean scene only has a few tournaments and is veyr top heavy. yes lets screw all other countries because of that. not that i care anymore since SC2 in portugal doesnt exist anymore.
Yeh I don't think you understand the point. Your confusing apples with oranges here.
But thats not our problem. We are not responsible for the korean scene. We gave them enough time to adapt. It took blizzard 2 years to region lock. Also a scene should be able to sustain it-self without help from outside. Imagine it as an eco system which tries to reach equilibrium. Every disturbance from outside would only extend the inevitable.
Sure but there are just tons of people complaining how the reason we don't see koreans battle it out is due to the region lock, which is - for the most part - not true.
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On January 26 2016 23:55 Musicus wrote:
Group 3: Happy with the changes to the foreign scene, understand that the region lock is needed and good for the game, no longer wanted to see Hyun and Co. farm those events anyway. But unhappy with the changes to the korean scene and concerned with the lack of new players in the land of StarCraft.
I am also in this group. If WCS 2016 had have 3 seasons in KR, even with the same price pool, we would be reasonably happy.
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EPT![[image loading]](https://kaelaris.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/stephano-retires.jpg?w=650&h=433)
