EPTESL Pro Tour replaces WCS on a 3-year deal - Page 12
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vyzion
308 Posts
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vyzion
308 Posts
On January 08 2020 18:45 maikacat wrote: Time to build Vietnamese scene for real Yes please! FOR THE MOTHERLAND!! | ||
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vyzion
308 Posts
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TheDougler
Canada8300 Posts
IEM Katowice, starting in 2021, will serve as the “replacement” for BlizzCon, crowning the StarCraft II world champion. No more SC2 at Blizzcon (if I'm understanding that correctly) is a real bummer. That being said, that video was hype as fuck, I loved that. | ||
hexhaven
Finland892 Posts
On January 09 2020 04:33 TheDougler wrote: I have mixed feelings about this. This part in particular: No more SC2 at Blizzcon (if I'm understanding that correctly) is a real bummer. That being said, that video was hype as fuck, I loved that. There's going to be some SC2 at Blizzcon, whether it's a tournament or a showmatch. Just won't be the world championship finals. e: Having a relatively simple weekender there makes more sense than having the WCS Playoffs and Finals. Katowice is better in pretty much every way. | ||
Olli
Austria24416 Posts
On January 09 2020 04:33 TheDougler wrote: I have mixed feelings about this. This part in particular: No more SC2 at Blizzcon (if I'm understanding that correctly) is a real bummer. That being said, that video was hype as fuck, I loved that. I've edited that bit now for a bit more clarity. Blizzard's announcement does suggest there will be some kind of SCII event at BlizzCon, but it won't be like the Global Finals of WCS. That season finale will be IEM Katowice. | ||
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Elentos
55456 Posts
On January 09 2020 04:43 Olli wrote: I've edited that bit now for a bit more clarity. Blizzard's announcement does suggest there will be some kind of SCII event at BlizzCon, but it won't be like the Global Finals of WCS. That season finale will be IEM Katowice. Really it's less of a suggestion and more of an outright confirmation. They're just not coming out with what exactly they're planning yet, but they will have something. | ||
BisuDagger
Bisutopia19137 Posts
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Jealous
10076 Posts
On January 09 2020 12:42 BisuDagger wrote: This is great, but ESL has failed to explain what their acronym is or who/what the heck they are. Can someone fill me in please? English Second Language, it is all a cover-up to bring Koreans back into foreign tournaments and teach them better English. | ||
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Xain0n
Italy3963 Posts
On January 09 2020 12:42 BisuDagger wrote: This is great, but ESL has failed to explain what their acronym is or who/what the heck they are. Can someone fill me in please? Electronic Sports League is the one you are looking for! | ||
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yoshi245
United States2969 Posts
I do wonder about who or what will be hosting the korean side of things though. I hope Afreeca and ESL work out a reasonable agreement and keep as many GSL events as possible. | ||
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Nakajin
Canada8984 Posts
On January 09 2020 12:42 Jealous wrote: English Second Language, it is all a cover-up to bring Koreans back into foreign tournaments and teach them better English. hahaha | ||
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ZigguratOfUr
Iraq16955 Posts
On January 09 2020 12:42 Jealous wrote: English Second Language, it is all a cover-up to bring Koreans back into foreign tournaments and teach them better English. Solar would be the main beneficiary of replacing region-lock with an English proficiency test. | ||
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Fango
United Kingdom8974 Posts
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Shuffleblade
Sweden1903 Posts
On January 09 2020 00:44 Xain0n wrote: Having a financial return from tournaments or the mere hope of being capable of is more important than offline experience by itself when it comes to the survival of the scene. Your point does not explain why the various Chance, Spear or Rookie haven't gone as far as Reynor, Goblin or even Krystianer, despite Korea having arguably a more competitive ladder(except when we are speaking of Zerg or vZ matchups). The problem with koreans back in the days weren't mainly the MMA or MC stopping Vortix from getting a WCS title, but the lower tier ones suppressing the growth of the foreign scenes; KeSpa trained players, capable of competing with top foreigners and nomatch young/weaker ones, escaping from Korea where they wouldn't have been good(or weren't anymore) to win, and grabbing ro8/ro16 money from promising foreign players: your average Apocalypse, Crank or TheEstc(no hate for those players intended). Region lock occurred in 2016 and in the span of one foreign prospects who were(mostly) WCS Challenger/ro32 material stepped up: uThermal, Harstem, Elazer, not to mention Neeb. We would never know if Serral's ascent would have happened regardless of region lock, but his(and Reynor's) tyrannical grip over WCS made everyone forget it only started in 2018(and 2019): they are monopolizing the top spots in WCS but they are actually "new" players, having replaced older top Zerg like Nerchio and Snute(bringing their dominance to a whole new level). There is a promising rising tide of players born after 2000 starting to make deeper and deeper runs in WCS: time will tell if they will be strong enough to replace the current top players, but they are almost there and are growing at a promising rate. This wouldn't have happened without region lock, which was highly successful if we speak of the growth and the competitiveness of the foreign scene. In any of case, what was happening in 2013-2014 would not happen again if we were to remove region lock in 2021: returning and upcoming(the closest to which are semi unkwnown SKT b teamers Zoun and Dynamite) korean players do not have the strenght and, more importantly, the numbers to hinder any further growth of the foreign scene. At worst, we might have Serral and Reynor tier players winning half or 1/3 of the overall Masters and the top8 of the WCS pushed towards the ro16, but with a more even prize distribution I don't think Goblin or Hellraiser would see them doomed and abandon Starcraft entirely knowing they have to face Super for a ro32 spot. Generally well written and explained points but I don't agree with you entirely. For one thing thing just because the foreign scene in general had explosive improvement after regionlock that does not automatically mean that it was eniterely due to regionlock. Blizzard har tried a lot of things throughout the years, when a change coincides with a positive result you cannot simply use that fact to prove that the change caused the result. You argue I can't explain who the korean lower tier players haven't become as successful players as Reynor or Serral, no I can't and just because you can make up an explanation that you believe in that in itself is not an argument as to if you are right or not. I would argue EU is and have been for quite a while the region in the world were SC2 is the most popular (at least double the amount of players as korea) and even if SC2 is almost as popular in America and China those regions have significantly less pro players. Sure korea has historically due to proleague, teamhouses and BW progamings in general had an edge at the top level isn't it expected that if korea has close to one third the amount of players as EU would overtime improve up to or past the korean level? One very important question as to the health of a pro scene in my opinion is how many full time players there are, EU has a lot, perhaps not as many as korea but still. I am not saying regionlock did not serve a purpose or didn't contribute but maybe it wasn't the only reason, maybe you are wrong and if regionlock didn't happen EU would still catch up to korea. We actually don't know. Edit: In regards to Blizzcon and what kind of SC2 content will be there I really hope it will be some kind of tournament, weekender or so but I doubt it. It feels to me like Blizzard doesn't want to bother putting so much energy into SC2 in blizzcon and a weekender isn't really that much easier than a RO8. They will probably take the easy way out here even though I hope they won't. | ||
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deacon.frost
Czech Republic12125 Posts
On January 08 2020 23:21 Wombat_NI wrote: How do you get good in the first place? You don’t go out and fight the final boss right away, you progress more gradually. Serral and Reynor are pretty pertinent examples as they improved over quite a period of time until they were capable of regularly beating S class Koreans. Contrasted with the last Korean player to really break through to that tier which is, nobody last I checked. ESL are making prize pools less top-heavy, presumably for that exact reason. I don’t think the current system is at all close to perfect mind and something needs built to serve Korea in the post eSF/Kespa era for sure. My point was that the experience is useless, you need monies to git gut. IF you don't get monies because most of the monies gets into top8 which is stale for years now(it's not about Reynor and Serral, it's about top7 players being all the time the same people). Flattening the prize pools helps a little but this is the issue. Region lock doesn't change this(mostly because players needs them monies to travel, the biggest excuse about foreigners vs GSL while foreigner house exists but at the same time the same people don't include this when they support the lock  ) | ||
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Harris1st
Germany6617 Posts
On January 09 2020 18:49 Shuffleblade wrote: Edit: In regards to Blizzcon and what kind of SC2 content will be there I really hope it will be some kind of tournament, weekender or so but I doubt it. It feels to me like Blizzard doesn't want to bother putting so much energy into SC2 in blizzcon and a weekender isn't really that much easier than a RO8. They will probably take the easy way out here even though I hope they won't. I'm guessing some sort of exhibitions matches or maybe some invited top 8 players (1-2 from each region) flavored with some new skins and coop commanders and stuff | ||
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Jockmcplop
United Kingdom9142 Posts
With Blizzard no longer in full control of the brand, Apollo confirmed that ESL and DreamHack would have greater creative freedom, citing IEM Katowice as an example of how talent at Pro Tour events might be given greater license to "mess around and have fun". Does this mean we get more tournaments like ROG 2012?? RIP Geoff. That tournament is my number 1 SC2 memory. The community will be less stale when everyone is allowed to have fun and let go. I couldn't be more excited for this. "Yeah, I'm scared of Taeja, he's the best terran right now and I'm only top 100 protoss. I'm so troubled, no skill only luck." MC More player interviews like this from now on please. | ||
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WombaT
Northern Ireland23095 Posts
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Harris1st
Germany6617 Posts
On January 09 2020 22:55 Wombat_NI wrote: Hm, GomTV’s YouTube has sprung into activity after years of nothing, rather intriguing given the proximity to this announcement GomTvT? The Return of the Terranwalker I wouldn't read too much into that tbh. | ||
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The rest was said by Elentos 
Not my words. But they lost a spot.
