On December 27 2022 14:22 Falling wrote: I mean at this point, who the heck knows. Like Kwark said the automated system didn't detect anything, which is the first thing I checked as the posts have all the hallmarks of a sock puppet account. However, without proof, a charitable interpretation could be a friend of Breaker that decided to jump on TL or a long time TL lurker also happened to be a Breaker Stan. Or just someone trolling for kicks and giggles.
Still super suspicious posting however you look at it.
This thread has been some wild ride, I will say.
or an enemy of Breaker trying to make it appear he is using alt accounts. who knows.
Didn't you have your own run-in with a suspected alt account?
Perhaps that enemy is you and this post is your way of deflecting suspicion.
Am I misunderstanding what you are saying? I have better things to do than bump my own blog.
I'm on mobile right now and a question for Flashftw: I didn't follow starcraft at that time and the last time I played anything Blizzard made was 2017, so forgive my lack of familiarity for this question: did you cast in-studio? or was it all run-from-home?
The best days that I had in professional gaming / streaming were unpaid (or at least paid very little) compared to the days I was making money. I might make another blog at another time about how things went for me when I was streaming and not trying to do casting.
On January 01 2023 05:38 FlaShFTW wrote: I'm late to this, but I felt something similar to what I've read in this thread: some form of resentment, maybe jealousy, and no real acknowledgement of the fact that the esports casting industry, especially for a niche game now like Starcraft, is hellish and has almost no room for new casters.
I casted BW. Did some work for AfreecaTV when they held their first couple ASLs when Tastosis came back and took over. Basically held the seat warm for them until Brood War was back to being sustainable. Yeah, took it like a punch in the gut. Got no recognition for my work either which sucked, neither did anyone from Teamliquid who worked hard to keep the foreign BW scene alive (Bisudagger especially). Tried to keep a 2nd stream open to allow me to continue to cast, but it wouldn't be paid and my hours casting from the USA were already so fucked, so I gave up. So yeah, at first I was bitter and angry, felt like Tastosis only did this for the payout instead of passion. Stewed on those thoughts for about a year, realized that no matter what angle you looked at, Afreeca went after the best possible casters for them. They had the following, would generate the most views, and although they were rusty on their game knowledge coming back, they picked it back up pretty quickly. I had to acknowledge all of that, it was a tough pill to swallow.
Niche industries in general are a matter of grinding so so hard, and then realizing that you also need a ton of luck to actually get a foothold in the business. Reminds me of a Bo Burnham segment with Conan about how people should just give up on trying to get into the industry because everyone at the top of those niches are survivorship bias. They all got lucky to be there. There's always another 100 people along with you that are working just as hard as you, and won't get anywhere either. It's not personal, it's just a lot of luck, and probably a lot of nepotism too. And that's that. We realize that our dreams are just that, dreams, and ultimately we find a new profession and career that is actually sustainable and doesn't need that luck to be successful in.
GL in the future though, yeah, it sucks we can't cast professionally and follow those dreams but ultimately, it's just for the best.
And then you got 3-0'd by a washed-up not-even-has-been foreign Protoss. StarCraft is brutal like that, I'm proud of you for moving on and coming out better for it 😂
Yeah you made me quit Brood War. I hope you're happy with yourself.
On December 27 2022 14:22 Falling wrote: I mean at this point, who the heck knows. Like Kwark said the automated system didn't detect anything, which is the first thing I checked as the posts have all the hallmarks of a sock puppet account. However, without proof, a charitable interpretation could be a friend of Breaker that decided to jump on TL or a long time TL lurker also happened to be a Breaker Stan. Or just someone trolling for kicks and giggles.
Still super suspicious posting however you look at it.
This thread has been some wild ride, I will say.
or an enemy of Breaker trying to make it appear he is using alt accounts. who knows.
Didn't you have your own run-in with a suspected alt account?
Perhaps that enemy is you and this post is your way of deflecting suspicion.
Am I misunderstanding what you are saying? I have better things to do than bump my own blog.
I'm on mobile right now and a question for Flashftw: I didn't follow starcraft at that time and the last time I played anything Blizzard made was 2017, so forgive my lack of familiarity for this question: did you cast in-studio? or was it all run-from-home?
The best days that I had in professional gaming / streaming were unpaid (or at least paid very little) compared to the days I was making money. I might make another blog at another time about how things went for me when I was streaming and not trying to do casting.
I was working from home in California with co-casters. I had a paid contract with Afreeca for ASL from the end of 2016 to the end of 2017 (so ASL 2-4, plus the ASL Team Battle in 2017).
On January 01 2023 05:38 FlaShFTW wrote: I'm late to this, but I felt something similar to what I've read in this thread: some form of resentment, maybe jealousy, and no real acknowledgement of the fact that the esports casting industry, especially for a niche game now like Starcraft, is hellish and has almost no room for new casters.
I casted BW. Did some work for AfreecaTV when they held their first couple ASLs when Tastosis came back and took over. Basically held the seat warm for them until Brood War was back to being sustainable. Yeah, took it like a punch in the gut. Got no recognition for my work either which sucked, neither did anyone from Teamliquid who worked hard to keep the foreign BW scene alive (Bisudagger especially). Tried to keep a 2nd stream open to allow me to continue to cast, but it wouldn't be paid and my hours casting from the USA were already so fucked, so I gave up. So yeah, at first I was bitter and angry, felt like Tastosis only did this for the payout instead of passion. Stewed on those thoughts for about a year, realized that no matter what angle you looked at, Afreeca went after the best possible casters for them. They had the following, would generate the most views, and although they were rusty on their game knowledge coming back, they picked it back up pretty quickly. I had to acknowledge all of that, it was a tough pill to swallow.
Niche industries in general are a matter of grinding so so hard, and then realizing that you also need a ton of luck to actually get a foothold in the business. Reminds me of a Bo Burnham segment with Conan about how people should just give up on trying to get into the industry because everyone at the top of those niches are survivorship bias. They all got lucky to be there. There's always another 100 people along with you that are working just as hard as you, and won't get anywhere either. It's not personal, it's just a lot of luck, and probably a lot of nepotism too. And that's that. We realize that our dreams are just that, dreams, and ultimately we find a new profession and career that is actually sustainable and doesn't need that luck to be successful in.
GL in the future though, yeah, it sucks we can't cast professionally and follow those dreams but ultimately, it's just for the best.
And then you got 3-0'd by a washed-up not-even-has-been foreign Protoss. StarCraft is brutal like that, I'm proud of you for moving on and coming out better for it 😂
Yeah you made me quit Brood War. I hope you're happy with yourself.
*adding "Literally killed a man's career" to my eSports resume*
On January 01 2023 05:38 FlaShFTW wrote: I'm late to this, but I felt something similar to what I've read in this thread: some form of resentment, maybe jealousy, and no real acknowledgement of the fact that the esports casting industry, especially for a niche game now like Starcraft, is hellish and has almost no room for new casters.
I casted BW. Did some work for AfreecaTV when they held their first couple ASLs when Tastosis came back and took over. Basically held the seat warm for them until Brood War was back to being sustainable. Yeah, took it like a punch in the gut. Got no recognition for my work either which sucked, neither did anyone from Teamliquid who worked hard to keep the foreign BW scene alive (Bisudagger especially). Tried to keep a 2nd stream open to allow me to continue to cast, but it wouldn't be paid and my hours casting from the USA were already so fucked, so I gave up. So yeah, at first I was bitter and angry, felt like Tastosis only did this for the payout instead of passion. Stewed on those thoughts for about a year, realized that no matter what angle you looked at, Afreeca went after the best possible casters for them. They had the following, would generate the most views, and although they were rusty on their game knowledge coming back, they picked it back up pretty quickly. I had to acknowledge all of that, it was a tough pill to swallow.
Niche industries in general are a matter of grinding so so hard, and then realizing that you also need a ton of luck to actually get a foothold in the business. Reminds me of a Bo Burnham segment with Conan about how people should just give up on trying to get into the industry because everyone at the top of those niches are survivorship bias. They all got lucky to be there. There's always another 100 people along with you that are working just as hard as you, and won't get anywhere either. It's not personal, it's just a lot of luck, and probably a lot of nepotism too. And that's that. We realize that our dreams are just that, dreams, and ultimately we find a new profession and career that is actually sustainable and doesn't need that luck to be successful in.
GL in the future though, yeah, it sucks we can't cast professionally and follow those dreams but ultimately, it's just for the best.
I read OP and decided I was probably not the right guy to respond, exactly because of efforts you and others put in to keep the seat warm BW alive were not recognized enough. While OP may give shit Tastosis they don't deserve, they don't deserve praise either simply because they're big fish.
When Tastosis came back to BW they definitely were rusty on their game knowledge, I mean they didn't even know units' names anymore (really wtf?) and I have to disagree with that they picked their game knowledge back up pretty quickly,
Your casting was bomb btw, much more passionate than Tastosis even now. It took a lot of coaching sessions from Scan before Artosis was a decent caster again, i.e. he wasn't talking out of his ass and misreading the game for the majority of the cast. He was basically faking it till he made it, which I find incredibly not passionate. Professionally wise however, yes. I could say something similar about Tasteless, but unlike Artosis - I learned - his role was not to give the audience great insight, but rather be a good entertaining addition to Artosis. I miss your casting and I'm glad Nyoken & Scan ended up filling the void you left that Tastosis couldn't (for me).
@OP: Most imprortant things were already mentioned. As you can read I'm not a big fan of Tastosis. Ever since they switched to SC2 pretty much, because I just don't care about that game. It actually felt like they abandoned BW completely, which I can't blame 'em for as it was in their interest to make a living casting. But when they came back to BW it felt undeserved, because there were plenty great casters already there, longer too. It's like the 2 fat kids in school jumping the queue for lunch, and thus bullying the small kids, simply because they're bigger. That's just fucking life. I'm sorry that your dream got crushed regardless of whose doing that is.
On January 02 2023 07:05 Peeano wrote: @OP: Most imprortant things were already mentioned. As you can read I'm not a big fan of Tastosis. Ever since they switched to SC2 pretty much, because I just don't care about that game. It actually felt like they abandoned BW completely, which I can't blame 'em for as it was in their interest to make a living casting. But when they came back to BW it felt undeserved, because there were plenty great casters already there, longer too. It's like the 2 fat kids in school jumping the queue for lunch, and thus bullying the small kids simply because they're bigger. That's just fucking life. I'm sorry that your dream got crushed regardless of who's doing that is.
Yeah, so I waited for the longest time, for this to reach a significant amount of irrelevance for more than one reason. Tumba emailed TESL telling them he was consulting with a lawyer (I'm not sure if this was Tawian or America, or both, or even if this was true at all) to see what he could do to salvage his situation or threaten me.
Once again, I'm posting while drunk. As the saying goes, "Drunk words are sober thoughts." and as I metnioned in the (now edited) op there is so much stuff that happend while I was in Korea for the final semester of my unviersity studies I couldn't mention all of it.
I DM'd a couple of people in this blog as opposed to posting here because I didn't want to bump the thread. I can certainly have sympathy with Flashftw here because he clearly loved BW more than tasteosis did.
I can proudly say that when I think back to the days of Starcraft II in taiwan, I recall with a tear in my eye because although I worked at my dream for 2 years to make 1 year of paid work, everything that happened in Taiwan's starcraft II scene made it worth the time I spent to make it happen. A part of me wonders instead, "What would have happened if I had just decided to stay in Taiwan and study there for the final 2 years of my university studies?" I suppose you could say that this is the path not taken. I remember seeing people in Taiwan holding parties over the Heart of The Swarm Launch party, but it made me sad that I couldn't be a part of it and I just had to settle for picking up a retail copy of the game in 2013, nothing more nothing less.
On top of paid work vs. unpaid work... I can totally understand your frustration. I casted 14 hours one day and only made about 5 USD in Twitch ad revenue at the time.
The worst part about working in this industry is that when people move on to another game or just forget about your game completely - almost nobody remembers the work that you did because all you did was add commentary to the game where your favorite player rekt another player's face.
On December 27 2022 14:22 Falling wrote: I mean at this point, who the heck knows. Like Kwark said the automated system didn't detect anything, which is the first thing I checked as the posts have all the hallmarks of a sock puppet account. However, without proof, a charitable interpretation could be a friend of Breaker that decided to jump on TL or a long time TL lurker also happened to be a Breaker Stan. Or just someone trolling for kicks and giggles.
Still super suspicious posting however you look at it.
This thread has been some wild ride, I will say.
or an enemy of Breaker trying to make it appear he is using alt accounts. who knows.
Didn't you have your own run-in with a suspected alt account?
Perhaps that enemy is you and this post is your way of deflecting suspicion.
KelianQatar's account was restored. I have no idea who this BreakerTV person is. If you'd like to waste some time finding some kind of connection between us... good luck.
On December 27 2022 14:22 Falling wrote: I mean at this point, who the heck knows. Like Kwark said the automated system didn't detect anything, which is the first thing I checked as the posts have all the hallmarks of a sock puppet account. However, without proof, a charitable interpretation could be a friend of Breaker that decided to jump on TL or a long time TL lurker also happened to be a Breaker Stan. Or just someone trolling for kicks and giggles.
Still super suspicious posting however you look at it.
This thread has been some wild ride, I will say.
or an enemy of Breaker trying to make it appear he is using alt accounts. who knows.
Didn't you have your own run-in with a suspected alt account?
Perhaps that enemy is you and this post is your way of deflecting suspicion.
KelianQatar's account was restored. I have no idea who this BreakerTV person is. If you'd like to waste some time finding some kind of connection between us... good luck.
Ah okay no reason to get so defensive I'm just asking questions.
The plot thickens below.
What does it all mean if we put the pieces together?
On December 27 2022 14:22 Falling wrote: I mean at this point, who the heck knows. Like Kwark said the automated system didn't detect anything, which is the first thing I checked as the posts have all the hallmarks of a sock puppet account. However, without proof, a charitable interpretation could be a friend of Breaker that decided to jump on TL or a long time TL lurker also happened to be a Breaker Stan. Or just someone trolling for kicks and giggles.
Still super suspicious posting however you look at it.
This thread has been some wild ride, I will say.
or an enemy of Breaker trying to make it appear he is using alt accounts. who knows.
Didn't you have your own run-in with a suspected alt account?
Perhaps that enemy is you and this post is your way of deflecting suspicion.
KelianQatar's account was restored. I have no idea who this BreakerTV person is. If you'd like to waste some time finding some kind of connection between us... good luck.
Ah okay no reason to get so defensive I'm just asking questions.
The plot thickens below.
What does it all mean if we put the pieces together?
😂
That you are a big fan of mine.
Though honestly I probably have a quote of his in my profile, or a quote of someone roasting him more likely.
On December 27 2022 14:22 Falling wrote: I mean at this point, who the heck knows. Like Kwark said the automated system didn't detect anything, which is the first thing I checked as the posts have all the hallmarks of a sock puppet account. However, without proof, a charitable interpretation could be a friend of Breaker that decided to jump on TL or a long time TL lurker also happened to be a Breaker Stan. Or just someone trolling for kicks and giggles.
Still super suspicious posting however you look at it.
This thread has been some wild ride, I will say.
or an enemy of Breaker trying to make it appear he is using alt accounts. who knows.
Didn't you have your own run-in with a suspected alt account?
Perhaps that enemy is you and this post is your way of deflecting suspicion.
KelianQatar's account was restored. I have no idea who this BreakerTV person is. If you'd like to waste some time finding some kind of connection between us... good luck.
Ah okay no reason to get so defensive I'm just asking questions.
The plot thickens below.
What does it all mean if we put the pieces together?
😂
That you are a big fan of mine.
Though honestly I probably have a quote of his in my profile, or a quote of someone roasting him more likely.
Actually true (the second part). Incidentally, I hadn't noticed until now, but that's quite the collection of roasts and self-owns that you've compiled in your profile over the years.
On January 02 2023 07:05 Peeano wrote: @OP: Most imprortant things were already mentioned. As you can read I'm not a big fan of Tastosis. Ever since they switched to SC2 pretty much, because I just don't care about that game. It actually felt like they abandoned BW completely, which I can't blame 'em for as it was in their interest to make a living casting. But when they came back to BW it felt undeserved, because there were plenty great casters already there, longer too. It's like the 2 fat kids in school jumping the queue for lunch, and thus bullying the small kids simply because they're bigger. That's just fucking life. I'm sorry that your dream got crushed regardless of who's doing that is.
I DM'd a couple of people in this blog as opposed to posting here because I didn't want to bump the thread. I can certainly have sympathy with Flashftw here because he clearly loved BW more than tasteosis did.
I can proudly say that when I think back to the days of Starcraft II in taiwan, I recall with a tear in my eye because although I worked at my dream for 2 years to make 1 year of paid work, everything that happened in Taiwan's starcraft II scene made it worth the time I spent to make it happen. A part of me wonders instead, "What would have happened if I had just decided to stay in Taiwan and study there for the final 2 years of my university studies?" I suppose you could say that this is the path not taken. I remember seeing people in Taiwan holding parties over the Heart of The Swarm Launch party, but it made me sad that I couldn't be a part of it and I just had to settle for picking up a retail copy of the game in 2013, nothing more nothing less.
On top of paid work vs. unpaid work... I can totally understand your frustration. I casted 14 hours one day and only made about 5 USD in Twitch ad revenue at the time.
The worst part about working in this industry is that when people move on to another game or just forget about your game completely - almost nobody remembers the work that you did because all you did was add commentary to the game where your favorite player rekt another player's face.
I wouldn't say that I love BW more than Tastosis, who literally moved to Korea with no job security to make their dreams come true. I can certainly say that at that exact moment, I was doing more work to contribute to the BW scene than Tastosis were when they returned. But that gets overshadowed very quickly when their English stream can easily pull thousands while mine was sitting anywhere from 80-500 viewers depending on popularity of the match.
As for the whole unpaid vs paid work, yeah it sucks that we work in a niche industry that "pays in exposure" as Tank would always harp on. But sadly that's the nature of it especially when the spots are already taken and they don't have anymore spots to give.
I hope that you didn't regret your time in the scene, because ultimately I did do my casting because I absolutely loved the game and loved talking about it all the time. Casting was my love letter to the game, to unload my feelings and love for the game onto the viewers. I still do love the game and do hope I can return to just casually casting for fun instead of trying so hard to get recognition/make a living. I don't regret my decisions, and I hope you don't either.
On January 02 2023 07:05 Peeano wrote: @OP: Most imprortant things were already mentioned. As you can read I'm not a big fan of Tastosis. Ever since they switched to SC2 pretty much, because I just don't care about that game. It actually felt like they abandoned BW completely, which I can't blame 'em for as it was in their interest to make a living casting. But when they came back to BW it felt undeserved, because there were plenty great casters already there, longer too. It's like the 2 fat kids in school jumping the queue for lunch, and thus bullying the small kids simply because they're bigger. That's just fucking life. I'm sorry that your dream got crushed regardless of who's doing that is.
I DM'd a couple of people in this blog as opposed to posting here because I didn't want to bump the thread. I can certainly have sympathy with Flashftw here because he clearly loved BW more than tasteosis did.
I can proudly say that when I think back to the days of Starcraft II in taiwan, I recall with a tear in my eye because although I worked at my dream for 2 years to make 1 year of paid work, everything that happened in Taiwan's starcraft II scene made it worth the time I spent to make it happen. A part of me wonders instead, "What would have happened if I had just decided to stay in Taiwan and study there for the final 2 years of my university studies?" I suppose you could say that this is the path not taken. I remember seeing people in Taiwan holding parties over the Heart of The Swarm Launch party, but it made me sad that I couldn't be a part of it and I just had to settle for picking up a retail copy of the game in 2013, nothing more nothing less.
On top of paid work vs. unpaid work... I can totally understand your frustration. I casted 14 hours one day and only made about 5 USD in Twitch ad revenue at the time.
The worst part about working in this industry is that when people move on to another game or just forget about your game completely - almost nobody remembers the work that you did because all you did was add commentary to the game where your favorite player rekt another player's face.
I wouldn't say that I love BW more than Tastosis, who literally moved to Korea with no job security to make their dreams come true. I can certainly say that at that exact moment, I was doing more work to contribute to the BW scene than Tastosis were when they returned. But that gets overshadowed very quickly when their English stream can easily pull thousands while mine was sitting anywhere from 80-500 viewers depending on popularity of the match.
As for the whole unpaid vs paid work, yeah it sucks that we work in a niche industry that "pays in exposure" as Tank would always harp on. But sadly that's the nature of it especially when the spots are already taken and they don't have anymore spots to give.
I hope that you didn't regret your time in the scene, because ultimately I did do my casting because I absolutely loved the game and loved talking about it all the time. Casting was my love letter to the game, to unload my feelings and love for the game onto the viewers. I still do love the game and do hope I can return to just casually casting for fun instead of trying so hard to get recognition/make a living. I don't regret my decisions, and I hope you don't either.
Well, I had two spend two very bad years to make one half-way decent year for myself followed by about 3 more bad years and last year, financially, things started to look up for me and now they're pretty ok. It's just that we all thought we'd see Starcraft II become the next big game, it turned justin.tv into twitch.tv, and we all know the rest when League of Legends displaced us.
I don't fully regret my time in the space. Steve Jobs (I know not many people like him, I don't personally hate him) said, "You can never connect the dots looking forward. You can only do it looking back." and I connected the dots like 5 or 6 years after 2015.
On December 27 2022 14:22 Falling wrote: I mean at this point, who the heck knows. Like Kwark said the automated system didn't detect anything, which is the first thing I checked as the posts have all the hallmarks of a sock puppet account. However, without proof, a charitable interpretation could be a friend of Breaker that decided to jump on TL or a long time TL lurker also happened to be a Breaker Stan. Or just someone trolling for kicks and giggles.
Still super suspicious posting however you look at it.
This thread has been some wild ride, I will say.
or an enemy of Breaker trying to make it appear he is using alt accounts. who knows.
Didn't you have your own run-in with a suspected alt account?
Perhaps that enemy is you and this post is your way of deflecting suspicion.
KelianQatar's account was restored. I have no idea who this BreakerTV person is. If you'd like to waste some time finding some kind of connection between us... good luck.
Ah okay no reason to get so defensive I'm just asking questions.
The plot thickens below.
What does it all mean if we put the pieces together?
😂
That you are a big fan of mine.
Though honestly I probably have a quote of his in my profile, or a quote of someone roasting him more likely.
Actually true (the second part). Incidentally, I hadn't noticed until now, but that's quite the collection of roasts and self-owns that you've compiled in your profile over the years.
Thanks friend Lots of laughs on TL throughout the years, this thread included.
On January 04 2023 16:15 BreAKerTV wrote: I don't fully regret my time in the space. Steve Jobs (I know not many people like him, I don't personally hate him) said, "You can never connect the dots looking forward. You can only do it looking back." and I connected the dots like 5 or 6 years after 2015.
Steve Jobs was a bully as a child... he used to bully Jack Garbarino and other fat kids in his school.
On January 04 2023 00:51 oBlade wrote: Ah okay no reason to get so defensive I'm just asking questions.
it took me a week to respond and you responded in minutes. so um ya. also,
On January 04 2023 00:51 oBlade wrote: Perhaps that enemy is you and this post is your way of deflecting suspicion.
is not "just asking questions". Fire a shot... expect return fire.
From the childhood friendship with Steve Jobs that inspired him, to his touching mentorship of a jungle child named Dende, this self-help novel will make you laugh, cry, and think. And it might even help you lose a few pounds, too.
I have zero opinion on Steve Jobs. I have no idea if he bullied any one. When I was a kid I did some bullying.. and I also got bullied as well. meh, to me ... its just a natural part of childhood.
On December 22 2022 21:57 Chill wrote: Hope you can move past this and wish you all the best.
All your blog posts, especially this one, come across as extremely self-entitled. In the interest of self growth, you might want to reflect on that and and revist these situations though others' viewpoint. This blog post makes me side with everyone you've interacted with over you, despite you trying to paint them with negativity. I see you bothering everyone for connections and opportunities while bringing very little to the table. You talk about what others "could" have done for you, but it's always out of the kindness of their hearts. Why would they introduce you to other organizations? What's the benefit to them risking their reputation for you? I personally would have done exactly what everyone did to you - be friendly and polite and keep you at arm's length.
Yeah its bizarre right? This whole thing seems symptomatic of everything that happened post SC2 launch. The over-exaggerated hype. 100 casters. 10 planned documentaries. People turning up everywhere asking for donations to play/cast. When of course the existing and trusted long term western BW scene (and even more so the entrenched Asian scenes) had already been involved for a long time. From the outside it was really sad to see the opportunism.
If you want to do something these days you have to do it yourself for example Sonic reviving the post-KeSPA BW scene or Zero currently running BSL for the Foreign BW scene. The SC2 scene has been a total 'me me me' thing for the start. There's ENDLESS content and even the BEST content is of arguable quality in the first place! Whos the audiences once the casuals die off? Because of this particular brand of eSports narcissism it ends up being hardcore wanting to watch the hardcore, after the initial fight for the casual viewers/players ends when they inevitably get bored of the content.
Where's all the enthusiasm now the sponsor money and the casual viewer has moved on? There's plenty of interest still in SC (look at the viewer counts right on the sidebar here). Building the sport in your own region is probably a lot of sacrifice and hard work nobodies going to gift anything to anyone. I'd love Starcraft to take off again in the UK (you'd think we would be an appropriate country for it, interest in Chess and hobbies like Warhammer and PC games is very high, it all connects very well). But it never has done. It needs the right person to sacrifice and build the scene themselves.
Also it was kinda sad to see Artosis/Tasteless back doing the ASL when it's not their full priority. Maybe they should reconsider that now. Anyone really into the game would watch Scan and Nyoken. Having the game explained over and over again in every new cast is insane, we are surely far past that point.
If you are really into casting you can make content and keep going until it works. Right now my main watched content is 'Joe's Starcraft Casty Cast' on youtube, he casts fastest games mostly and knows his stuff. I believe the main caster in the AoE2 scene simply casted games until he was the main guy - it really can happen. Just find high level replays and cast them. In Joes case the Fastest scene is actually a very large niche within SC itself. I'd love it if we had a serious Hunters or BGH caster as well - there is viewers for it, i'm certain of it!
edit: sorry i don't want to sound as if i'm picking on the OP. The SC2 launch and how shameless the whole push was revealed a lot of what to expect in the future, behaviour from Blizzard and behaviour of streamers/bandwagon jumpers.
I don't believe Starcraft 2 is even an appropriate game to plan a long term eSports scene around (it just got a new patch? the whole thing confuses me!). How can we know the historical context of older games if they patch the game endlessly. If i go back and watch old BW OSL/MSL finals the games are still relevant today as they were then. But SC2 how can i understand the context of old games?
I don't feel as though your picking on me. And after everything I saw in 2013 to 2015 that replayed in my head, for years after, I won't touch anything made by Activision Blizzard again. I'm already making way more money now than I was back then by leaving esports behind. There was a short stint of about a year where I was doing pretty good as a pubG streamer and had a collaboration with MSI, but that's a blog for another time. I've kind of been waiting for this blog to die down so that I can post it without, figuratively speaking, "hogging" the entire blog section of team liquid. I think professional gaming as a whole was a bubble, With some exceptions.
EDIT: Looks like this thread has died down. If the mods find anyone "bumping" this thread, feel free to lock it if you find it suits your needs. I just want to write some conclusions here, and there are far too many for me to highlight to put in the OP.
- After everything you've read so far, I will own up that I was dumb for believing everything I was told, but does that absolve every single person of every single thing that I was told to do, did, and got little or nothing in return? - In 2012 I wanted to be a caster for pretty much everything and anything starcraft with Chinese speaking players. I loved all of it. - If you go to missingmoney.com and you search for Tumba's real name, you'll see evidence of financial disputes between him and some companies or another. This is not evidence of any criminal behavior, but leads me to think that if he can take advantage of people or companies with zero liability to himself (basically getting "freebies"), he'll do it. - Another person I know of, without a contract in place with him, had a problem with Tumba in the hearthstone scene. - In 2016 I was tempted by the idea of suing Tumba. I called a lawyer based in Florida to look into the situation, this lawyer told me there was a legal dispute between GEM and someone else previously. - Every time I felt like giving up, something would happen to keep me going just a bit longer. - I gave up guaranteed hourly minimum wage working at simple jobs to chase what I thought could (and only slightly) became real. I've seen blogs - I was told to "keep doing what I'm doing" by tumba in 2012. - I was in a skype call with tumba in March 2013 where he told me I would be introduced to tasteless and artosis when I arrived in Korea. At the time I had no clue what this meant. I didn't know what this meant until September 2014 after a coworker went out to drink with them and they told this coworker that Brendan Valdez got the job just because they gave him the job. - There was no professional hiring process, no application process. Combine this with tumba telling me "GSL needs a caster." "Pro League will be hiring." and the fact that he is an agent in the esports industry hat has those kinds of contacts. - I contacted everyone you can imagine and their mother to find a contact window to pro league in Korea. Other casters who said they got asked if they wanted to cast Pro league (up to and including: Axeltoss, Axslav, Khalaeris, pro league social media (twitter, facebook) and Ghost, the guy who posted here about Pro league at the end of 2013 to advertise it). - About 2 weeks after I arrived in Korea, all I got from Tumba was "It looks like they're not gonna do it." and every time I asked for more info on skype, he almost never responded. Why did he do this? To absolve him of legal liability? Did you know that if I tell you to do action A and you will get result B in some states that is illegal depending on how far it goes? This is known as a verbal contract, and with enough documentation it holds weight as evidence in civil court. - When gaming companies put messages like these and they entice people to spend their time, their money, and their education on chasing their dreams, they need to add a disclaimer that says, "We are not responsible for any amount of time, effort, financial losses, or psychological trauma you may endure with our intellectual properties. If you try to get a job in this industry and you get hurt, it's your fault, not ours." - And to Tumba, especially, if you ever read this message, I want to thank you for emailing Taiwan Esports League in 2014 and embellishing a story about me making a reddit thread to smear your reputation when you did this to yourself. It brought me closer to them. Oh, and remember - this was your fault, not mine. I donno why you would email my employers for something that you did and I had insider info on. Oh and lawyers in Florida, don't prosecute cases in Taiwan. - I also want to thank Tumba for being a man of his word, right? That worked out with Sons of Starcraft, his personal interactions with people (I've talked to other people who worked in professional gaming who had problems with him) show how trustworthy he is. I'm sure the NFT and cryptocurrencies that he is selling people are 100% legit. Right? - Speaking of lawyers, I consulted with a few about everything Tumba told me, and one told me I had a "skeleton" of a case, while another based in California told me I he seemed most culpable, and a lawyer in Florida was willing to entertain taking this to court, but I didn't have finances to do this and he wasn't willing to work Pro-bono, which might give you an idea of my chances (not that high). - At one point I was working for Thermaltake / TT ESPORTS. That job made me miserable. Imagine Amazon moving it's HQ to Taipei, and maintaining its toxic work culture and then you get Thermaltake. It was all very awkward because, at the time, Tobias had close connections to my supervisor at the time, who left three months or so after I joined. Another problem that I had with working at Thermaltake was I lost over 2000 USD in potential casting fees for three different events that I could have casted, "because those tournaments are sponsored by competing companies." in the words of my boss. But do you guys remember Artosis winning the 2013 Hearthstone tournament at Blizzcon while he was sponsored by Thermaltake? How about casting that year's WCS world championships while he was sponsored by TT ESPORTS and that year's tournament was sponsored by Steelseries? Talk about double standards...
I hate to say this but as a viewer, having seen your cast and Brendan Valdes', I'd say he was the better caster. Do you think when they were deciding the casters they compared his cast to yours and found his better?
Casting is really an art imo. Having some kind of radio/voice training would help a lot. For example, I used to not be able to stand Wardi's casting, but this past year I found his casting dramatically improved due to how he changed his phrasing, speaking, and intonation (basically he sounded like PiG a lot more, which I really enjoy).
Also it might help to improve your social cue reading and "empathy" because it not only helps to get along with people but it's also a good strategy to put yourself in someone else's shoe when you're engaging them because it helps to predict how they might respond differently depending on how you approach them. There's a classic book called "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie that I recommend reading.
EPT
I'm just asking questions.![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/sEszo6X.png)
