Starcraft In Korea

according to the latest updated news, KeSPA is considering to include sc2 in proleague. well for those who do not know what is going on, here's some introduction to you.

Follow up:

kespa stands for korean e-sports association, and is the governing body which manages e-sports in korea, as the name states.

currently, in korea, e-sports is still a major thing, with its peak comparable to their most popular sport, baseball. however, in recent times, there had been signs that people are starting to lose interests in it. don't get me wrong, there are many people, including me myself, who are still a huge fan of e-sports. whenever we talk about e-sports in korea, starcraft: broodwar naturally comes to mind. why? because it is the most popular.

why did the people lose interest? one thing is due to the fact that there are too many matches being broadcasted each week. the people are unable to follow all the matches. koreans, you know, spend quite a lot of time working. the players themselves are being forced to play with not much training for each game since there are so many games around, and in the end the games they played are quite generic. of course, there are times when entertaining and interesting matches are being played too.

well brood war(bw) has been out since 1998, if memory still serves this aging brain of mine. and yes, more than a decade had passed and it is still a hot thing. perhaps one of the more devastating blow to the bw scene is the introduction of starcraft 2. boasting a higher graphics as well as easier controls, it took some fans away.

reactions regarding sc2 are mixed. sc2 fans felt that brood war is old, and a thing of the past. bw fans felt that this older version is very well-balanced, having fine tuned over a decade. it is also known to be more micro-intensive, having a maximum selection of only 12 units at any one time. in short, they felt that it is more balanced, and requires more skill to play compared to sc2. one more thing, i guess, is that bw has been with them for so many years, it is hard to change. if you ask me, my heart still belongs to bw 100%.

savior and his gang had been banned, other notable players like boxer and nada has switched to sc2, but the bw scene still retains many of the really good players like flash, fantasy, bisu, stork, jangbi, leta..etc. as of now 3 teams has been disbanded, and among the players 2 of them were my favorite - jaedong and baby. come back jaedong, you are my favorite. what is bw without you?

what happens now is that not only has bw started to lose its momentum, the loss of such popular and skilled (admit it baby is skilled and he is a big potential, just that the time is not yet right and well i admit he is not popular now but he sure is gaining popularity) players has dealt the community a huge blow.

what can be seen now is that if this is allowed to continue, e-sports surely will meet its demise sooner or later. by bringing sc2 into proleague, we can hope for a better future in e-sports. of course, bw is still running, alongside with sc2. this serves to capture a larger fanbase, encompassing fans from both sides.

internal restructuring within kespa and talks of changing formats of games from Bo5 (best of five) to Bo7 to allow more chances for rookies to perform are also in progress. so far, the bw scene in korea looks bleak, with the disbanding of 3 teams, 1 tv station abandoning the games channel for k-pop. personally i hope bw can still retain the glamour it once had. the times of boxer, of yellow, nada, july, kwanro and many others are solely missed by many. while it is not sure if the current generation of players like flash and other players mentioned above can bring it back to its high, they certainly has kept e-sports in korea a major thing. my only hope now is that i can still see jaedong and baby the next season. should they be forced to retire, the whole of bw community will surely feel the pain.

as the bw community in korea is undergoing a rest period now, and flash having done a surgery for his wrist, hopefully, kespa do something, and with a little luck and effort from the people involved, perhaps we can look forward to an exciting year to come. starcraft may not last forever, but it has come and gave many people, including me, our entertainment, our de-stressing escape of the real world, our thrills, our joys when our favorite players (for me, jaedong, baby and kwanro) win, and sadness when they lost. and as long as it stays, i hope it will continue to bring entertainment to its fans.

warcraft may be famous, counter-strike may be popular, dota may be addictive, but to many of us, starcraft is the one which rocks, and we love starcraft. at least for me, i love starcraft.

so let's hope for a new and shining future for starcraft, not only next year, but for many years to come.

i love starcraft: brood war, the gamers, and the people who make it work.