Sonic's Legacy: SSL's Lasting Impact - Page 2
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riptide
5673 Posts
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Jealous
10087 Posts
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BigFan
TLADT24920 Posts
This article specifically focused on SSL which is his legacy but I also want to note that Sonic put a lot of effort into many of his other tournaments and leagues. Anyone who remembers SRTs would remember they had their own storylines, especially considering that he ran a total of 18 SRTs! Sea upsetting sSak 4-0 in the finals and coming back in quite the crazy questionable game, the Sea vs Killer rivalry (equivalent to FvJ at the time) where they met in 4 straight finals with Sea dominating are just some of the storylines there. That doesn't even look into him trying to revive PL and running race wars and super matches as well. Basically, Sonic poured a lot of time and money into his other leagues and tournaments as well but most of them were laid to rest as SSL became his main focus especially considering its size and scope. I believe what Sonic tried to do was bring BW back to the masses and mimic the way things were all on his own. It's a pretty amazing feat that he managed to bring BW so far. It's just too bad that things feel apart for one reason or another considering how well received SSL was. On April 03 2017 02:33 Aylear wrote: This was really, really damn good BigFan. Good writing. I didn't follow SSL at all, so this was a great retrospective on what it was and what it meant. If the SSL is why Brood War is alive to the extent that it is today, I owe it a gratitude I didn't even know was due. My only criticism is that you twice mentioned Sonic's "poor business etiquette", even concluding with "Months later, details are revealed about Sonic's financial situation and business dealings," but there was no real elaboration. I feel like if you mention it, you shouldn't then also brush it under the rug. Great read. Thanks for being a SC/BW writer. <3 To TwiggyWan and L_Master as well: I decided not to elaborate on it because the story itself is somewhat complex and there is a lot of finger pointing. From my understanding, Sonic owed money to the factory owners and spent a lot on advertising etc... He claimed that the middle man took some of the money that they were owed and seeing as Sbenu got too big, the factory owners decided to work directly with Sbenu to avoid the middle men. If Sbenu failed, they would have a lot to lose. Of course, there are other fishy things going on such as the clearance shoes that Sbenu sold to clearance stores but then sold at full price or something in their own store? Last I heard, Sonic lost control of the company or something along those lines and he stated that this whole thing was purposely done against him to take the company? Again, not 100% clear on the details or if the statements made were true. This is what I picked up from reading the different TL threads and some news articles. On April 03 2017 01:56 Lorch wrote: Great article. I only really followed the last few SSL seasons that were on OGN, so it was a great way to read up on some of the stuff that I missed. This got me excited about the possibility of Killer returning to the scene. I really hope BW will find it's way onto OGN again, but what sonic did is truly astonishing. One mans love for BW was enough to carry it all the way. I think he more then deserves to have a place within the grand history of BW as the guy who kept things going when things were at their worst. I also heard that Kim Carrie left the scene, can anyone shine some light on that? To me he is one of the most passionate people within BW ever, I mean crying on TV over the end of OSL says it all. Would really love to see him cast again, I don't understand Korean but it was always clear how much he loved the game. I'm not really sure what's going with the Kim Carrier bit. Afaik, he got into an argument with someone in the scene (must be someone of importance) and left the scene in anger. Hopefully, one of our KR fellows on here will be able to add more on this. It's disappointing news to me because he is really passionate about BW. On April 03 2017 03:03 TwiggyWan wrote: How is sonic doing these days after the issues of his company? btw i had no idea about that "sonic becomes a coach series', thanks for that! Sorry to disappoint, I think Stratos translated only the first two episodes and there were a total of 6 episodes or close to that. It's a fun series to watch though so enjoy what's translated On April 03 2017 07:50 lestye wrote: I think this piece was a bit too positive on Sonic's legacy and effect on the scene. Didn't some players like intotherainbow get completely fucked over because they invested their family's life savings into his fraud? Not to mention the scene's professional scene shrinking from 2015 and 2016. Granted, there was still a tremendeous amount of good that came out of his grassroots events, I just felt it should have been more balanced. The article was mostly positive because it was intended to focus specifically on SSL, basically a celebration for what it stood for and its vital importance to revitalizing the BW scene. It's unfortunate that other people including intotherainbow were hurt by the end results and it's definitely saddening. | ||
Chris_Havoc
United States589 Posts
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L_Master
United States8017 Posts
On April 03 2017 11:10 Jealous wrote: Long live Sonic. I had him as a facebook thread and would occassionally send him messages saying thanks and that he was the man. He always responded. Controversy be damned; he is the main reason we have all of those amazing games/tours above. Can't beat that. Haha I remember doing the same, and yea he did! That part was cool. | ||
Antisocialmunky
United States5912 Posts
On April 03 2017 05:27 TheFoReveRwaR wrote: I know this isn't what this thread is really about but since people were asking here's a link detailing the financial situation and downfall of sonic's company. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20160119000971 From Article: One of the suppliers on Dec. 15 raided the headquarters in Seoul while naked, and then hurt himself and threatened the workers to pay him 2.8 billion won the company allegedly owes. But Sbenu’s cash reserves fell to 8.4 million won at one point. I totally forgot about that part... | ||
Xeln4g4
Italy1197 Posts
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Sabu113
United States11035 Posts
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Hushfieldx
Belgium64 Posts
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ortseam
996 Posts
I don't see how him fucking up with his business has anything to do with what he did for BW though , yeah it's sad and obviously other people got hurt too , that's what happens in these cases. | ||
c3rberUs
Japan11285 Posts
He proved that despite the lack of corporate funding, BW events can run Finals in a stadium and even make a team however brief. He proved that mere 'fans' who mess up dropships on casts can in fact make a difference. PS I'm not even biased in saying this (got to watch BW in OGN in person, SSL 10 effing yeah) | ||
Marou
Germany1371 Posts
Regardless of he was directly or not involved with ruining peoples lives, as CEO he bears full responsibility for what happened. The quality of the product he was selling was disastrous (there was a lot of reports of people who bought SBENU shoes showing how poorly manufactured they were), it was a scam not only for his business partners but also for his customers. Overall im not so sure if the man should be celebrated as a hero. | ||
lestye
United States4135 Posts
On April 03 2017 20:15 c3rberUs wrote: He proved that despite the lack of corporate funding, BW events can run Finals in a stadium and even make a team however brief. He proved that mere 'fans' who mess up dropships on casts can in fact make a difference. Wait how did he do that? He got the corporate funding from his own company. On April 03 2017 11:51 BigFan wrote: The article was mostly positive because it was intended to focus specifically on SSL, basically a celebration for what it stood for and its vital importance to revitalizing the BW scene. It's unfortunate that other people including intotherainbow were hurt by the end results and it's definitely saddening. Thanks for addressing my criticism. I do still disagree overall, it doesnt seem really fair to give him too much credit when he did bring a lot of negative press and hurt a lot of people through his actions. Maybe thats too far outside the realm of Starcraft but it just means too favorable to him. | ||
neptunusfisk
2286 Posts
On April 03 2017 23:52 lestye wrote: Wait how did he do that? He got the corporate funding from his own company. Thanks for addressing my criticism. I do still disagree overall, it doesnt seem really fair to give him too much credit when he did bring a lot of negative press and hurt a lot of people through his actions. Maybe thats too far outside the realm of Starcraft but it just means too favorable to him. His end brought negative press to something that wouldn't have existed or had any press at all if he hadn't done anything. The amount of positive press and money he gathered was enough to have a base that Kongdoo, Afreeca and OGN could build on. Then he damaged it and vanished, but the others were already building. | ||
sabas123
Netherlands3122 Posts
I guess it shows that things aren't that black and white within the scene. | ||
lestye
United States4135 Posts
On April 04 2017 00:52 neptunusfisk wrote: His end brought negative press to something that wouldn't have existed or had any press at all if he hadn't done anything. The amount of positive press and money he gathered was enough to have a base that Kongdoo, Afreeca and OGN could build on. Then he damaged it and vanished, but the others were already building. Eh, I want to argue it was inevitable, but thats true, a lot of the grass roots competition was a huge backbone to the scene.Maybe I'm being too critical, but I think we're kinda sweeping the misdeeds and fraud under the rug when wer'e talking about someone's "legacy". On second glance, yeah I'm probably in the wrong. There's only a few lines that make Sonic look really good, the vast majority of it was about the leagues itself | ||
HalcyonRain
United States124 Posts
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BigFan
TLADT24920 Posts
On April 03 2017 23:52 lestye wrote: Wait how did he do that? He got the corporate funding from his own company. Thanks for addressing my criticism. I do still disagree overall, it doesnt seem really fair to give him too much credit when he did bring a lot of negative press and hurt a lot of people through his actions. Maybe thats too far outside the realm of Starcraft but it just means too favorable to him. Part of me wonders just how much of it was really money mismanagement. His business was doing well from my understanding so SSL was prospering. I think that it was only much later, after SBENU got introduced that things got out of hand. You also have to wonder just how much of the allegations are fully true. If anyone can post a link that give new information about how things are atm, that would be appreciated! In the end, Sonic helped the scene out quite a bit and for that, he is commended. I'm not sure if I can call him a hero or not, that's debatable and I see both sides. From a purely BW perspective though, he is a hero and the kind that BW needed. | ||
lestye
United States4135 Posts
On April 04 2017 06:51 BigFan wrote: Part of me wonders just how much of it was really money mismanagement. His business was doing well from my understanding so SSL was prospering. I think that it was only much later, after SBENU got introduced that things got out of hand. You also have to wonder just how much of the allegations are fully true. If anyone can post a link that give new information about how things are atm, that would be appreciated! In the end, Sonic helped the scene out quite a bit and for that, he is commended. I'm not sure if I can call him a hero or not, that's debatable and I see both sides. From a purely BW perspective though, he is a hero and the kind that BW needed. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/500441-sonic-sued-for-fraud-update-jan-11?page=9#166 it's not recent but i think this explains stuff OK. Regardless of how well his business was doing at the time, the fact he couldnt get a trademark probably destroyed any possibility of him doing decently. | ||
BigFan
TLADT24920 Posts
On April 04 2017 07:16 lestye wrote: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/500441-sonic-sued-for-fraud-update-jan-11?page=9#166 it's not recent but i think this explains stuff OK. Regardless of how well his business was doing at the time, the fact he couldnt get a trademark probably destroyed any possibility of him doing decently. Ya, I've read this before. I meant one that's recent, as in 2017 to know what happened by then. Good point. What I meant was that I think there wasn't as much money mismanagement until SBENU was introduced. | ||
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