MYM - StarCraft Teams - Point of Existence in 2008?

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22nd July 2008, 19:45

StarCraft Teams - Point of Existence in 2008?

Earth spins around like a giant tornado in slow motion ever since it came to existence, dogs like to chew your favorite shoes and have done so countless times by now, just like that there is one story I would like to share with you that was written and told long before I even thought of writing this:

With a surreptitious glance at her boyfriend, she unrolls the poster. Letters painted with a felt-tip pen and decorated with hearts, it reads "Lim Yo Hwan - Marry Me!" Next to her - her boyfriend laughs. "I do not really mind", he says. "I like him a lot too. He is aggressive, he knows how to push."

After the match, a victorious Lim Yo Hwan claims that "military discipline" has made him an even better player. And he adds: "I carry passion in what I do, and I can't stand to lose more fans. I have higher expectations and with them comes a great responsibility towards winning." He said that just a few days ago in an interview.

No, that is not a fairy tale, that is reality and it happened like that - not in Europe, in Korea, of course in Korea. And just to make one thing clear from the start, you can never compare the StarCraft scene in Korea with the one outside Korea, it is two different worlds, something like Popeye and Powerpuf girls, you just can't put those two in the same picture.

The one who is printed on the poster that millions of girls enroll in their rooms is better known to us as Boxer. Boxer means StarCraft and StarCraft means Boxer, it is simple as that. Without him trying to kill opponents using four Marines and two Medics and of course a Dropship - which was ignored by many because of its slow speed, to promote the "entertainment of watching" to the fans of StarCraft - this game most certainly wouldn't be the same. He revolutionized the way we see StarCraft and he inspired an incredible amount of progamers; for this he deserves our utmost respect, that is the least we can do after all that he has given to us. A while ago he wrote his own autobiography, which made him even more untouchable. He filled it up with wise sentences about eSports, the 'player' profession and reviews of his own life.

Having Boxer in your team is something unique, pretty much like that bad guy in Mortal Combat who's greatest strength was having souls of thousands of warriors trapped inside his body, only in this case it's thousands of hardcore fans dying to watch Boxer perform live, glance at them or god forbid give an autograph. People don't care if he plays for SK Telecom or ACE, they care about him, the 'hope of Terran'. And sponsors don't mainly care about the team as well, since they know that fans will buy products as long as "Boxer" is written on it. Once Boxer wrote: "Simply holding onto the aid of the prize money would not increase the size of the playing field. Of course, there must be a coach and players to practice with, but I felt that a sponsor should be first." And they started to compete in Korea so hard about every single player. Imagine having Boxer cookies, Boxer underwear, Boxer tattoos, Boxer T-Shirts, Boxer everywhere - Boxer in life size all over the TV, all over the online press, all over the print press. Promoted like the super sport stars in America and Europe. Boxer the brand - the marketing brand! A brand like Apple, Google, Beckham, Madonna or Britney Spears. Whatever those companies or people create, their fans will love it - if it is bad or good. But the name itself sells. Even right now when Boxer is losing shape due to this army, he is still one of the best earning players in Korea, since his name sells everything. Boxer could stop playing StarCraft and he would still earn and earn, and with him a lot of companies. Bringing Boxer to an offline match guarantees you that the venue will be sold out.

If we move outside Asia (let us leave China out of this discussion) and take a look at Europe we have right now two major problems: The first thing is that the RTS community lacks, compared to the FPS community, a strong and large fan base. Games like Counter-Strike always had much more fans. More and more people were interested to buy the gear and mousepads their idols used. Would have companies like SteelSeries or Razer been able to become what they are and invest those huge amounts of money in eSports without FPS games? I am not sure! I won't say that RTS is not an interesting genre for the sponsors, but if you can attract a possible audience of 65 000 people on Steam that play Counter-Strike 1.6 at the same time and 'only' 20 000 people that play StarCraft at the same time on Battle.net, the teams of which game would you choose to sponsor?

The only real and true StarCraft community left out there is TeamLiquid for me, which is a community in all aspects and the role model for the word 'community'.

When I asked Maik Brodowski, the Sales and Media Manager of ESNation, the company that owns a couple of eSports pages and also the team MYM, why teams outside Korea still have a StarCraft team, he couldn't give me a straight answer. For him one major aspect if he wants to attract a new sponsor is to show the offline performance of the players he wants to 'sell'. At offline events pictures and videos are taken, at offline events the big prize money is given out, but where are the offline events for StarCraft outside Korea? Next to WCG National Qualifiers and the finals there is maybe no other event that really is interesting to the sponsors and that really attracts the big players and visitors from all over the world. Having a StarCraft team to present it at only one or two events?

Perhaps you are wondering why have I told you a lot about Korea and Boxer up there at the top of this article? Among other things, also to show you what Korea has and we don't: Superstars! In Counter-Strike we have legends like Neo, Spawn or element. It is the same with them as it is with Boxer, the team is just a kind of helper that makes them to be able to play at all. In general everyone cares only about those individuals. StarCraft in Europe has no real superstars anymore. Draco retired and puts himself in a wrong light when he denies an invite from Blizzard to the WWI 2008 by saying it would be only holidays for him. A message that must be totally disappointing for all the hardcore fans of StarCraft. Mondragon, the man who lost the interest in the game since he noticed he can make more money with playing other games and may also retire sooner or later. Where are all those heroes like Elky, Grrr and co. that made people like me and you to buy StarCraft. Without them you won't attract sponsors, without them you won't make new people start playing StarCraft, without them you cannot get people to your community page, without them you can't make people read StarCraft news, without them it doesn't make sense to create merchandise. What would football be if you put all the Ronaldos, Beckhams and Ballacks away? It would be like in StarCraft, the hardcore fans watch it, but the huge audience cannot be attrackted.

So all in all, where is the sense for teams like Excello, RoX or MYM to have a StarCraft team? Those teams are in fact companies that have to make money with what they do.

A team that costs money every month. For teams like Excello and RoX I assume a monthly budget of about 500 Euros, for MYM rumors say it is even way more. They cannot make money with their players as a brand since they all lack of that superstar status. None of those teams can attract daily waves of people to click their webpages and create page impressions since we are in lack of such community in StarCraft. There are no big StarCraft offline events (and I do not consider Dreamhack or ASUS Cups as big enough to count in here) where they can present themselves or their sponsors.

Then there is StarCraft 2, coming up sooner or later. News portals are getting ready for it (readmore.de just started to cover StarCraft, SK Gaming has done the same), and same applies for those teams, is that the reason why they still invest money in that and keep their SC teams?

A proof to support such theory is around the corner as one of many current multigaming organizations will open a new StarCraft squad soon. German players from ToT, ScT, MYM and other teams will join up that team, all will be contracted until the release of StarCraft 2. The budget for that new StarCraft squad will be even higher than the one of MYM. Rumors say that mTw will be that team. The reason they give is to be ready for StarCraft 2. But who gurantees them that those players will be also good in StarCraft II like they are in StarCraft I. A big risk!

When we asked Tomahawk, owner of team Excello, as to why Excello invests money in a StarCraft team, he gave an answer that is not that easy to understand from the buisness point of view:

"I would say it is because the community is big, there are a lot of competitions and a good fanbase. The only contra of the scene is that, for some reason, they see 'sponsors' as something bad, and that is basically what prevented SC in the foreign scene to ever make a step forward - other than exceptions that prove the rule, like Razer TSL."

Furthermore he adds: "Seeing as we have the team since before SCII was even supposed to happen, you can also add that it was not because of being in the verge of SCII coming up, but due to SC itself."

But team manager MaX from MYM sees different reasons:

"Right now to have a StarCraft team is to get ready for StarCraft 2. Not to forget that it is an image thing, StarCraft is still the best game in the world."

Having a StarCraft team in 2008 to be ready for StarCraft 2, or to have it because you are in love with the game, no matter if you can make profit out of it buisness wise?

Comments (45)

Page :

(4 weeks ago) #1 saGatOSs-XxV

Starcraft = life

(4 weeks ago) #2 MYM\|MaX

probably tough to quit sc if you were involved in it for quite some time. sc is tradition : )

(4 weeks ago) #3 Dendra

sc is the best game by far, its only problem is that it is too hard for people to become good at it, so they pick games that are like walk in a park compared to sc. best example is Zeus in Croatia, guy who chickened out and went to wc3 because he could become someone with 10% of effort he'd need to become someone in nonkorean sc world, and him becoming top10 in world, aka being good among koreans in sc - wouldnt happen not in ten life times, unlike wc3 where he was very good on the highest level of competitive gaming. i mean why spend years training to become good at sc when you can earn cash in other games easily, as even if you are good in sc you still wont earn much due to the game not being popular among nonkoreans who care much more about the fun aspect of games, rather than the challenge - and thats what sc is, a never-ending challenge. same goes for true sportsmen, they dont do it for the money, they do it for the challenge, it takes years to become good, hell it takes years just to become mediocre - name me one game besides sc that takes more than a few months or a year to become at least mediocre at...if a game takes ages to learn then it aint fun and if it doesnt focus on neat graphics and having fun then it is a complete disaster for the nonkorean market, luckily in korea sc is recognized for its real values so its no wonder that other games are just a side show compared to sc. the mentality due to which kids decide to chew food and sit at home is the one that prevents them from being good at olympic sports, sadly same mentality feeds games that are easy to master with large fan bases, youngsters and adolescents getting a chance to be ackowledged as athletes in cyber world - what a joke, but apparently that's how this modern layer of our society works, fortunatelly sports are still alive and people still do care about them, as for the clowns and wannabes - they can have fun in the sand of pc games, but they'll never earn respect like an athlete can until they start to think and act accordingly. as for the article - i agree, we lack heroes, because people dont value anything else to the same extent If force won't work, use greater force.

(4 weeks ago) #4 Musli

Nice Art ! GJ Jonas :) Last edited by Musli at 22.07.2008, 23:36

(4 weeks ago) #5 vsrooks

Going to agree with Dendra, well written comment. GJ on the article as well. Last edited by vsrooks at 22.07.2008, 23:48 www.entropy-gaming.com

(4 weeks ago) #6 TeddyBearPL

I have my own theory about FPS games being much more popular than RTS games. This is my opinion and some of you may not agree with it:
- FPS games are the most fast paced games, situation is changing in blink-eye, adrenaline is pumping,
- In RTS games, most of the time, players gather resources, build some stuff, create units, explore etc. They fight for a short time and after a moment of that fight you can tell who will turn out to be victorious. There is no next round, there is no possibility to correct your mistakes.

- FPS games are easy to play and follow. All you need to know for start is what buttons do you move and shoot. Some might say that those games are too simple. In CS we have a money factor which adds some complexity though. But buying and killing are things that you never do at the same time.
- IN RTS games there are too many things you need to control at the same time. Instead of getting fun I'am getting confused.

I also believe that Koreans like to play SC because they like to own. In the rest of the world it's more about challenge.

That's all, I'am not commenting on other issues said in this article.

Last edited by TeddyBearPL at 23.07.2008, 00:18

(4 weeks ago) #7 Dendra

trust me.in sc it isnt over until the very end, things change after every battle, action is all over the place so its hard to follow it unless you understand the game, unlike in fps where you know shooting someone is the no1 purpose of the match :D as for rts being predictable - i only watched wc3 games besides sc and i completely agree, in most cases the guy who loses hero first has lost the game due to havig lower level hero and so on, gets predictable If force won't work, use greater force.

(4 weeks ago) #23 LML

"They fight for a short time and after a moment of that fight you can tell who will turn out to be victorious. There is no next round, there is no possibility to correct your mistakes." did you ever play an RTS for real? In SC you loss so many fights, where you loss your whole army and you still can win the game, it is about how fast you get new units and etc,etc. There are alot of factors that can win you the game not just if you win one of those fights. Not to mention that you often don't see the winner of the fight till the very end when there are only 2 units alive, and not short time after the start of the fight. Imo in an FPS your mistake is directly a lost point, moving mouse wrong in the shock of opponent appearing: Your fault, he kills you and you gave a point away. "There is no next round," In RTS there is still the next round, matches which are bo3, bo5 or bo7 always have the next round. You have to win the most matches, not just one (unless it is bo1 ofc).

(4 weeks ago) #8 sunR

amazing write-up Today is that tomorrow you were worried about yesterday /x

(4 weeks ago) #9 XATMO8G

Will wc3 be like that once SC2 comes out? Will there only be tournaments in China until wc4 comes out? Assuming blizzard does not end the RTS genre of Warcraft with that stupid RPG.

(4 weeks ago) #10 kellyMILKIES

Great emotional write :) ku kub kubski ''>o</

(4 weeks ago) #11 jdrc07

W3 is just as hard to play as SC. Also, Counter-Strike has just as high of a potential for skilled play as SC/W3, with more emphasis on team play, and more emphasis on reflex and what not.

Stop being such a fucking elitist, SC isn't even that hard to play, It's just fucking like W3 without heros, limited use of micro, and a bit more emphasis on macro.

(4 weeks ago) #18 Dendra

not really but i wont go into that discussion, wc3 is a very limited game and doesnt offer that many choices to a player as sc does, simple as that.

If force won't work, use greater force.

(4 weeks ago) #24 LML

yea, dendra is right, SC is way harder to play than WC3, not only because of the BY FAR easier macro management in WC3 since you can hotkey your whole army and your whole buildings due to the low amount of units/buildings you are in need of.
Try to hotkey 5groups of units in SC and then also 12gateways.. impossible. Also you can select several buildings at once..

When I went on Bnet with WC3 (I've never played it serious, but I knew basic units you can make with each race, tho not exact tech which is told anyways) and checked 2-3 gosu replays from GG.net, I immediately knew how to play and got easily a few wins on bnet.
It is for me so much easier than SC, but also too boring to play it that much.

(4 weeks ago) #25 Dendra

well basically wc3 is hard and all but the thing i find irritating is the lack of liberty, i cannot choose if i will go for a heavy macro or heavy micro strategy, or perhaps something third. number of cheese strategies is also very low in wc3, fake builds, etc. i also dislike static rules of wc3, whereas in sc rules are made by gamers, a ling can cut down 10cannons and a nexus, whereas 300lings can do nothing, every little thing is important if used properly. wc3 forces much more rules on the player, game must spin around heavy micro and must spin around heroes, map control isnt demanding as in sc because expansions arent made that aggressively and expansions arent taken down that easily, you cant do guerilla strategies, miniature drops, fake attacks etc., basically there are tons of details. wc3 is by far the greatest 3D rts, it is very good and it has one thing that sc doesnt have to the same extent - doing tons of actions at one spot, because sc is focused much more on doing variety of actions at many places and prioritizing them, basically it takes alot of time just to master build orders and learn them etc., whereas in wc3 after playing 2games i already knew 2common build orders for night elf and timing of my buildings was almost identical to the one moon or someone else has - because wc3 doesnt make the difference between the players in that aspect, whereas in sc every little aspect of the game is important and trully makes a difference. thing i like the most is that in sc you play the man more than the game, you create strategies based on mind games, whereas in wc3 you have to play much more the game, it's almost as if the game plays you, creativity relies on blizzard adding new heroes and items because you just cant be that creative simply because of lack of freedom, wc3 has mind games as well but as i said, its not the gamers fault, the game simply has some rules you cannot bend, unlike in sc which represents complete freedom, perhaps even too much of it as people are often lost and dont know what to do - game hasnt changed one bit over 10+ years and still you see new players completely change the way the game is played, how many patches and heroes/items have been implemented in wc3 just to keep it interesting? Last edited by Dendra at 23.07.2008, 17:03 If force won't work, use greater force.

(4 weeks ago) #12 IamLurker

BW might be a little bit late for the foreigners but come SCII, I believe it will be the next big thing. Hell sure Europe might catch up or even get better if only the sequel would offer the same game play or way better. If you can't stand for something, you'll fall for everything

(4 weeks ago) #13 proAJune91

I hate you crow =(( you ruined my eyes T__T lol j.k...really nice written :P. you rock :D - My dream is to come into being such a sunlight -

(4 weeks ago) #14 hellstar

Nice... imba Korean's SC ..even old man and women played it... that country is land of e-sport...rofl the Crow's pic Euro and Asian audience :] ...First paragraph <3 Last edited by hellstar at 23.07.2008, 09:08 DOTA COLA !!!

(4 weeks ago) #15 hellstar

..........double post and I cannot delete :| ...anyways, they sell boxer's underwear? :o

Last edited by hellstar at 23.07.2008, 09:21

DOTA COLA !!!

(4 weeks ago) #20 sexyfats

just what i was thinking.. boxer boxers? :D

(4 weeks ago) #16 ToTGohaN

SC was based more on competition than on other reasons like making money for example. Still, many people play that game and thats what matters. Now imagine when SCII gonna come up ;)

(4 weeks ago) #17 Stealer_

SC is da besssstttt No pain no gain, No game no fame!

(4 weeks ago) #19 Dendra

sc2 will be huge as it will take majority of wc3 stars so the game will be popular just because of that, as if that isnt enough sc2 will offer tons of fun hours meaning even more users, add to that thousands of sc gamers hungry for glory and tons of gamers from other games wanting to play an extremely addicting new 3D rts on the market....sc takes your whole life to master and as such i will respect it and play it till i grow old, but sc2 will be special, not to mention an inevitable expansion that will probably perfect it just like it was with sc vanilla.

If force won't work, use greater force.

(4 weeks ago) #21 sexyfats

ok ok so you like starcraft.. i would say there's no need for you to shoot down other people just because they have a different opinion about games.

but i guess you tried to keep your posts semi-polite here, though i remember you being a real elitist about it before. just my thoughts.

(4 weeks ago) #27 Dendra

basically because i focus on bad things more than the good ones, i mean i wont say you need godlike skills to control 3 heroes at same time, not to mention 2groups of units and you gotta keep alive every one of them - it's hard, hell it's impossible :D nobody denies it, i just dont mention stuff like that and perhaps then my opinion looks rough :) btw thanks for sharing your thoughts, nothing bad in it nor to be avoided, i've always supported open communication and honesty above all, might get me in trouble often but at least you know that what i write is also what i actually think Last edited by Dendra at 23.07.2008, 17:21 If force won't work, use greater force.

(4 weeks ago) #22 MYM\|White-Ra

Stracraft its more than just game !!!

(4 weeks ago) #26 lycan

true, its an old game with ugly graphics :-)

I have to admit it has very good gameplay and you need lots of skills o be pro. But the same is for wc3. in wc3 you have less control because of recources are more limited and you produce less units. for me it doesnt make a game more fun because its harder to control like grouping your buildings etc. It also doesnt make it more spectaculair for an audience. It does make it harder to macro, but with no functional purpose.

i have the same as Teddybear that playing an rts makes me more agitated then having fun, because i dont want to be a builder. i only like the action.

thats why i skip the first 5-6 minutes or more of every sc and wc3 replay.

(4 weeks ago) #28 Dendra

i believe thats what wc3 wanted to solve, to be first rts entirely based on action and minimum macro aspect. from the very start of the game you see action, your hero kills creeps, etc.,you have to watch hp of your units so it takes alot of attention, then you spend entire game chasing around each other's army, basically whole game is based on controlling your units and i believe thats why people find it so fun compared to a more classical rts title which is focused more on macro or something like that.

If force won't work, use greater force.

(4 weeks ago) #29 G-Dy

Yes, I still remember the first versions of WarCraft 3: no bases, only one hero which has "command points" (you get some by leveling him up) which determines how big your army can be. Well, they changed it (thanks!:p ) To another point: I don't think that StarCraft itself is harder to learn, because of the freedom you have (I started it last month and have much fun since then :p ). You basically can play and learn from your mistakes, while in WarCraft it's at least for beginners more about learning some text-book strategies / build orders. If you don't do that, you'll have a disadvantage to people who knows them (at least it feels like it - as I said started only last month with StarCraft). Of course there are handy Build Orders in StarCraft too, but they can cover only the beginning of a match and especially they're maybe of no use if your mousespeed is not as fast as of pro gamers. The thing which makes it maybe harder to learn is that everyone seems already experienced and you'll have to find a training partner first, unlike the AMS of WarCraft 3 where you'll find someone automatically after a few loss-games (or at least a bot who tells you how to win :p ). Last edited by G-Dy at 24.07.2008, 07:21

(4 weeks ago) #30 daarkside

sc is worth it.

(4 weeks ago) #31