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//: StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty |OT4| Everyone Else Would Beat Catspajamas

S

Snowman

Member
Corran Horn said:
Just central. All other streams lower but you got to imagine people watching others probably have the central one up too.
Click to expand...

Maybe, I know my internet is a bit dodgy and can't handle multiple streams sometimes, plus it's obviously nice to just have just one stream up big, especially if you're watching on a smaller screen.

Edit: Some people aren't gonna be watching every single minute, obviously.
 
P

Pancakes

hot, steaming, as melted butter slips into the cracks, drizzled with sticky sweet syrup OH GOD
Destiny wrote stuff!

Him talking about the Kespa MLG deal.

On May 11th, 2012, Kespa and MLG announced “an exclusive multi-year global partnership” with one another. This agreement allows Kespa owned players (some popular names being Flash, Jaedong and Bisu, among others) to “compete in MLG events.”

On the surface, it kind of seems like a cool deal. When you start to analyze all of the possible implications that a deal like this could lead to, however, several red flags should be raised. A personal belief of mine is that one should always take any contract that has been signed to its legal extremes. If you’re signing a contract, you should always assume that both parties could carry out any and all terms of said contract, no matter how “mean” or “cold” it may be. This seems like an incredibly simple point, but time and time again this issue comes up where people need to be reminded that contracts are serious business. It’s not so bad concerning individual pro gamers, or even teams, because the fallout of a bad contract is relatively limited (only affecting said team or player). This deal, however, between Kespa and MLG, has the potential to dramatically shape the tournament scene for SC2 in a way that’s bad for spectators, teams, players and tournaments.

How are the spectators and fans of Starcraft 2 affected?

Regardless of how you feel about different economic systems, it’s a widely accepted fact that healthy competition between businesses generally breeds a better product for consumers. Remember the NASL sound guy? Or the “For Auir” clappers? NASL was considered a laughing stock during its first season (and for a healthy amount of season 2), but no one is saying the same now. With entertaining “fluff” content and much better production over-all (offering a higher resolution free stream starting in season 2 compared to even the GSL) for their actual tournament, NASL season 3 has been a much more well-received tournament.

Why did the NASL improve on the quality of their tournament so much? Is it just because they were lazy in the first season? Were they new or inexperienced?

I think it’s reasonable to point out that the other major tournament at the time, IPL, had a decent impact on how NASL conducted itself in later seasons. NASL had an enormous amount of funding behind it, boasting a season 1 prize pool of $100,000 USD. IPL Season 1 prize pool was only a measly $5,000 USD, yet it was universally hailed to be a superior tournament in almost every way to the NASL. People enjoyed the casting (Catspajamas vs Gretorp) and the production far more (IPL custom graphics/overlays vs NASL constantly being plagued by problems) than it’s financially superior counterpart.

I’m not trying to rag on NASL. Quite the contrary, Season 3 has displayed amazing, marked improvement. I think we can universally agree that the pressure exerted by other successful tournaments helped to push along the NASL into the final product we’ve gotten today.

Imagine, for a moment, that things started off a bit differently. Imagine if NASL had signed an exclusivity agreement with EG and Liquid. When IPL rolled around and smashed people’s faces with their quality, NASL had only 1 option: improve the quality of their production in order to compete with IPL. If they had signed these exclusivity agreements beforehand, though, could they not have simply precluded EG and Liquid from participating in the IPL? While this may seem dubious, it’s entirely plausable. The amount of money that the NASL would have to spend on new equipment and new personel could amount to less than the amount of money they would simply have to pay EG and Liquid not to participate in other tournaments. In this kind of a setting, NASL could continue to be an inferior tournament, but the viewer would be left with no choice but to endorse them if they wanted to see their favorite players in action. There is nothing stopping MLG from doing this if either Dreamhack, IPL or NASL continues to be successful and threatens to steal market share from MLG. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the investors behind MLG demanded such action to be taken, in order to ensure a return on their investment.

How does this affect teams?

Lucifron had a very impressive showing recently, taking out Thorzain 4-0 in the SCAN invitational. A lot of people are suddenly turning their eyes to a player they’d never noticed before, and Mouz had even tweeted that they were interested in picking him up. What if Mouz wanted to easily secure more funding for their team to send their players to events, or just to pay their players a higher salary in general? With the precedent possibly already established by Kespa-MLG, there would be nothing keeping Mouz from signing Lucifron, and then approaching another major tournament (IPL or NASL) in the hopes of signing another exclusive agreement. The team has the incentive of earning more cash for doing nothing while the tournament secures “fan-favorite” and entertaining players, ensuring their survival in the tournament world. Is this at all possible, or does it seem too slippery slope? I’m not entirely sure, to be honest, but I don’t see anything preventing these kinds of deals from happening. In fact, if Kespa-MLG announces that their players will not be competing in any other tournaments, I would expect other tournaments to be contracting teams in fear of losing those potential players showing up at their tournaments.

What about the players?

Players joining teams now have a lot more to think about. There’s a risk that joining any said team could limit their ability to compete and earn prize money. They could also be limiting the chance they have for any break-out success. Imagine if EG approached Scarlett with an amazing offer, more money than anyone else had approached her with, but they’d signed an exclusivity agreement with MLG? Now Scarlett has to choose between accepting a beefy contract with decent money behind it, or participating in “easier” tournaments that won’t be guaranteed to have top-tier Brood War professionals playing in them. If tournaments and teams began signing exclusivity deals, things would become incredibly more complicated for players. The implications of said exclusivity agreements would make things incredibly complicated for young gamers to navigate through.

How will tournaments react? How should they react?

This is a complete unknown to me, and the part I’m most interested in. In my honest opinion, if I was a major financial backer of any large tournament, I would be making moves ASAP to contract Liquid, EG, IM or Startale. Having those teams under your belt gives you incredible financial leverage in the industry and ensures that you will always have some sort of star power attending your tournaments. It also gives you the ability to bargain for other players participating in your tournaments; ie: “If you won’t have the Kespa players playing in my tournament, I will keep EG/Liquid/IM/Startale out of your tournament!” If you don’t think deals like these happen in the real world, check out how the iPhone affected AT&T’s stock.

There’s also the off-chance that everything will simply carry on as usual, and the MLG-Kespa partnership will affect nothing. It’s hard for me to say, as I don’t manage or run any large-scale tournaments myself. My only worry is that if serious money becomes involved in the industry and exclusivity deals such as these are signed, the precedents set for the industry could take us to very bad and unhealthy places. The only thing I see positive coming out of this deal is short-term financial gain for Kespa and MLG, with possible long-lasting damage on the Starcraft 2 tournament scene.
Click to expand...

FXOBoss' response.

Whilst your article is a very good one. I think you missed the point of this MLG KESPA deal, the point that most e-sports organisations like to create.. Hype.

As far as I am aware, unless some miracle happens, it won't be an overly long relationship. There are a few reason why, but lets just say that business in e-sports has to be win win. No one is prepared to lose for the good of the industry. So right now, KESPA gets to display its players in a controlled environment (the one they like) and MLG gets to reap the benefits of ticket sales/hype/potential sponsorships.

When the KESPA pros actually get to a higher level, there is more in it for MLG than KESPA and unless something new is offered, I doubt that a re-signing will occur given the past.

I think the issue should be raised that most local e-sports organisations are flip flopping on their priorities for short term gain rather than thinking that tournaments will buy teams. I have been preaching localisation for a while now, and this MLG-KESPA thing is a very strong reason why the NA scene needs to develop itself properly with team houses (that are actually team houses not a lan party) and strong practice schedules. Until then, expect to see nothing but Koreans, which although provides a short term gain, hurts the industry long term from my perspective.

I hope this helps.
Click to expand...
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
I'm confused, what is that image supposed to say, outside of stream numbers for various non-MLG streams?

I didn't pay; too busy with Diablo 3. I'll just watch the vods next week, or whenever they're posted
 
Yoshichan

Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Snowman said:
Got early upgrades for his vikings, and kept upgrading them, making colossus really easy to deal with, then just got a lot of ghosts and just kept winning fights, didn't look like he was having much trouble against late game toss at all.
Click to expand...
Ans what if the protoss just decided to completely skip colossi and goes mass HT, archon and chargelots? You still need perfect ghost control :(

edit: Corran, my man... I haven't been able to watch your YT videos for a while (frikkin' Diablo 3), but how many more weeks until FFVII?
 
P

Pandaman

Everything is moe to me
SEA is so weird.

all the gm's im facing play straight up but everyone else is the dirtiest cheeser imaginable.

like they have one build and forget that you literally just played them.
 
D

Deadman

Member
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=339200

Long interviews with Coach Park, Bisu, Jaedong about sc2.

Most important part:

Is there a player you like?

Jaedong:

Yes. Stephano. I really like him.

Watching his games, he execute the plays that I would like to do. The kind of plays that I've drawn up in my mind, he uses them a lot in his games.

Also, he's a foreigner, and that was also very impressive. To think that someone who's not Korean could play like that was fascinating, and I thought it was very attractive.
Click to expand...

And bisu likes hero.
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
Makes sense, Jaedong was basically going for Stephano's three base Roach. If not for a dumb counter attack he might have beaten that 6 Gate/Robo

Yesterday I wondered who the BW pros, specifically the zergs, were studying. Good to hear they're looking at Stephano's play
 
C

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
53776.png

Dear GOMTV.net users,

We are happy to announce that the GOMTV.net VOD service is now also available on popular Home Theater PC device BOXEE!

If you are user of BOXEE, simply look for the GOMTV.net app under Apps -> Gaming. With BOXEE you can conveniently watch GSL and GSTL on TV from your sofa.

53777.jpg


53778.jpg


In order to access content via BOXEE a GOMTV.net ticket is required. For 2011 content a season ticket is required, for 2012 content a premium or higher ticket is required for access. Please note that in case of a Premium Subscription you will lose access if your ticket expires.

If you select a VOD you will be asked to login. You'll only have to do this once since BOXEE will save your login information as a cookie.


53781.png



Important notice for users of an SNS-connected account (login via Facebook/Twitter): In order to use the BOXEE service you first need to specify a password for use with external services on GOMTV.net. To do so login to GOMTV.net and visit the change e-mail/PW tab in your profile settings.

More information on BOXEE is available on: http://www.boxee.tv
For information on our 2012 ticket system, please visit: http://www.gomtv.net/ticket

Thank you.
GOMTV.net
Click to expand...


Pretty cool for people with a Boxee, now they need this app to get on more stuff. Like Samsung Smart TV with built in app and can easily watch stuff off TV without needing to hook up my PC to one.
 
C

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
HolyCheck said:
Err.. So like the $80 bluray drive I bought last week?
Click to expand...

Ya but with alot more 'channels' to pick from than the few a bluray player will give you.


I have a WD device that is similar, I use it mostly with a HDD plugged into it and store my DVD backups to it.
 
H

HolyCheck

I want a tag give me a tag
Corran Horn said:
Ya but with alot more 'channels' to pick from than the few a bluray player will give you.


I have a WD device that is similar, I use it mostly with a HDD plugged into it and store my DVD backups to it.
Click to expand...
Mine has all the australian channels digital offerings and any other digital offerings we have available to us!


So about 8 things :(
 
C

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
HolyCheck said:
Mine has all the australian channels digital offerings and any other digital offerings we have available to us!


So about 8 things :(
Click to expand...

When I was in the UK, I was all like "ill just watch some netflix to entertain me for awhile" then came to the sudden truth of how it sucks to watch digital stuff outside of America. :/
 
H

HolyCheck

I want a tag give me a tag
Corran Horn said:
When I was in the UK, I was all like "ill just watch some netflix to entertain me for awhile" then came to the sudden truth of how it sucks to watch digital stuff outside of America. :/
Click to expand...

Yar.

There was an article on a mainstream aus news site yesterday about how we all pirate game of thrones and no one cares, about how everyone is currently so open about it because we have no other choice.

I've also seen articles on such main stream media on how to set up vpn's for free to get access to netflix/hulu and how by aus law it is legal lolol.
 
T

Ty4on

Member
Corran Horn said:
Its a streaming box. Like a roku or media functions of ps3/360. Basically a wifi box to access apps (netflix hulu etc) for your TV but no disc drive. Also plays video files off HDDs.
Click to expand...

The name makes it really easy to remember, Boxee Box.
Especially when it's boxy...
boxee-box1.jpg
 
?

(._.)

Banned
I wonder how EG gets so much money. They're a top team but I feel like there are several other teams with much better players that don't get nearly as much money as EG does.
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
(._.) said:
I wonder how EG gets so much money. They're a top team but I feel like there are several other teams with much better players that don't get nearly as much money as EG does.
Click to expand...

They're enormous and cover so many different games/genres. Also they have very good sponsors who appreciate the marketing value of esports. Having popular players at tournaments using your product=money
 
O

OrangeYouGlad

Banned
PhoenixDark said:
They're enormous and cover so many different games/genres. Also they have very good sponsors who appreciate the marketing value of esports. Having popular players at tournaments using your product=money
Click to expand...

This. I knew what EG was before playing SC2 because I used to watch SF4 tournaments all the time. Even before then I had heard mention of their team.

Half decent to good players, but their strongest commodity has to be their ability to market themselves.
 
S

Snowman

Member
Deadman said:
Stephano to EG rumour has now been crushed by like 5 different sources lol
Click to expand...

We'll see, the way everyone is joking about it and not coming right out and saying he isn't joining makes me wonder.

I was watching incontrol's stream when he accidentally let slip stephano was gonna be staying with them, so I'm not convinced.
 
S

Spl1nter

Member
EG markets themselves ten-fold in comparision to the next esports team. Benifits sponsors as they can say a product is EG tested etc to help sell their products.
 
T

Ty4on

Member
Snowman said:
We'll see, the way everyone is joking about it and not coming right out and saying he isn't joining makes me wonder.

I was watching incontrol's stream when he accidentally let slip stephano was gonna be staying with them, so I'm not convinced.
Click to expand...

They're probably going to have him join an event or something. Wouldn't really make any sense to come out later and they have been joking with everything else lately.
 
A

Aylinato

Member
So, instead of adding that stupid new unit for protoss(which would be a different version of a cattlebruiser) I think they should just add 1 armor to carriers.

Or nerf marine damage by 1, either way works
 
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