Professional StarCraft II competition features professional gamers competing in Blizzard Entertainment's real-time strategy game StarCraft II. Professional play began following the game's initial release in 2010, as the game was the long-awaited sequel to StarCraft, considered one of the first esports and the foundation of South Korea's interest and success in competitive gaming.[1] Current competition is centered around the Global StarCraft II League in Korea and the World Championship Series Circuit everywhere else, with all Blizzard-sanctioned events being under the StarCraft II World Championship Series banner.
Well...
I've admittedly always felt that laziness, ego, and greed destroyed SC2. Almost every video game that was ever made was typically just a 'fad' for a certain period of time when you really look at each's individual timeline. If you think about what a fad actually is, it explains for itself why the next fad that follows gains the most attention and can even explain the progression of developments in video games since the beginning. Furthermore, it also points to why people always found the drive to find new and better ways to allow oneself to step further into a world that they made a reality. In the end, the next best thing, or the newest technology is what ends up getting the most attention. Improvements can hardly ever be shunned, as growing and becoming better is a rewarding process to partake in, but when the uproar is over the attention and money ends up elsewhere. Typically, that also means moving on to new things that can make even more money, which can be attributed to the ego and desire for more or better, but in the end a lot of video games get the attention for a very short time.
Starcraft II had a good run compared to the vast majority of most video games ever made, and still is being played pretty widely, despite the feeling of despair for the health of the game overall. The pro scene in Starcraft II surely made a lot of people happy, and also a lot of people disappointed. It made a lot of people money, and also made some lose it. Whether you're up or your down, it is very easy to forget that the reality of a 'professional scene' is a huge blessing for any game video game, and quite a wonderful reality that was created, by people just like us, that invested their passion, love, and wealth to create what truly brought everyone together. It undoubtedly shouldn't be taken for granted.
SC:BW forever live in the history of video games and eSports in general. South Korea respected Brood War as if it was almost one of their own children, and kept it alive. It fed it even when it meant not feeding itself. It groomed it and had patience to let it grow into what it wanted to be. Being a parent is something that I know many of you have now grown to understand and respect, and if you further imagine BW as a child in Korea from the paren'ts point of view, you'd realize that there were just as many of the bad times as the good times behind the scenes, as anything with a life in duality, and giving love to something that seems to scorn the history of care you provided it is never an easy situation to deal with. Children grow up, and sometimes they go away. But you're still their loving parent until the end, and you'll never lose the memories that you made.
You can attribute turning your back on duties to laziness, and myself being an American, I've seen the masses around me simply drop a game they said that they loved in a heart beat for the next best thing. And then that's all they talk about. I was victim to this when I got World Of Warcraft for a month because that's what people were talking about in American life. It's similar with any popular culture topic or item. There's good and bad sides to everything, and SC2 was released over a decade after the initial game with a lot of up to the times graphics and game play, but 2010 was knee-deep in the social media internet era, and a lot of crappy games got marketed pretty hard at the same time. Some of those games eventually stood out, but again, also some ended up with a short lived lifespan when everyone moved on to the next. These same games stabbed SC2 in the dark per-say, and I was there to witness it transpire, but you can also blame the player base who gave up the SC2 dream for an easier and more social game, that most of their friends were playing also. Those games were targeted at the masses, who wanted easy games that wouldn't cost them money and would give a lot of reward for little effort. Neither StarCraft game has been super easy to learn and become experienced with. There's heartbreak and anger for everyone, but sadly that means less people feel the rewards of hard effort these days. That's turns into an entirely different discussion, though.
Again, ego, laziness, and greed. Social pressures, boredom, and 'free'.
With all that being said, not many other video games have had a history like the StarCraft franchise, and you can thank all of your fellow TL members and everyone around the world for keeping it alive. We all have mixed feelings about the remaster, because change is never easily accepted by the consensus of people, but the fact it's getting the attention that Blizzard stopped giving in the early 2000's is a blessing in itself.
Because of SC:BW and the remaster, I truly feel that SC2 will always have a life line, and may even grow up and take the reigns back later with a patch or decision that might make everything 'click', or maybe even some small changes or accidents that get untouched and exploited, similar to it's older sibling BW. The intricacies and randomization that occur with BW is part of the reason it's been such an exciting game to compete with all of these years. Many games over mankind's history have involved some sort of chance factor, or luck, and when you add chance one will experience a sensation of the highest highs, and sometimes the lowest of lows, similar to the sensation when one gambles. Some would shun gambling altogether, but it explains the drive to try again, and again. SC2 may simply be waiting, similar to a seed that knows that when the time is right, it will germinate into something beautiful--and that could mean that it could be short lived as well, similar to flowers that bloom once and die, but still beautiful nonetheless.
There are many, many features besides 1:1 game play that can be explored more fully in SC2, and the amount of customization the map making software provides is still a vastly unexplored frontier. Team play has never quite had the same feel to me as it did in BW, but due to SC2's various chat interfaces in game and outside, another huge complaint has always been a lack of society or comradery, and weak communication features. I would also add to the masses about how difficult it is to look at the mini map and really tell what's going on in a 2:2 or 3:3 compared to playing a 2:2 Python on BW or 3:3 Hunters, etc. Either way, I still have hope for the game.
D.O.T.A. became one of the most popular games worldwide (also predecessor to League of Legends), and it was originally just a custom map made for WarCraft III.
It's up to us to keep the StarCraft universe alive.
Highest governing body | Blizzard Entertainment |
---|---|
First played | 2010 |
Characteristics | |
Type | Video game, eSports |
Equipment | Computer, mouse, keyboard, headphones |
- 1History
- 2International competition
History[edit]
Pre-release expectations[edit]
Prior to StarCraft II's release, StarCraft: Brood War had been called the most successful esport, featuring its own ranking system, and it had been referred to as the national pastime in South Korea, where there were two television channels dedicated to broadcasting professional StarCraft matches.[2] The series' history with professional competition had brought about the creation of the Korean e-Sports Association (KeSPA) and the professional team league it administered, StarCraft Proleague. As such, the original was considered the founding esport of the country's successful infrastructure and scene.[3] This led to high expectations for the sequel's success as an esport, but also a conflict between KeSPA and Blizzard Entertainment, sparking a three-year long legal battle between them.[4] This meant KeSPA would not be transitioning to StarCraft II upon its release.
The first large StarCraft II tournaments occurred during the beta testing phase in the months prior to release, the most notable being the HDH Invitational[5][6] and esports player Sean 'Day[9]' Plott's King of the Beta.[7] The success of both viewership and sponsorship of these early events cemented high expectations for professional play of the title going into its July 2010 release.
Early success[edit]
Following its launch, StarCraft II quickly turned into a successful esport, becoming the main feature of many leagues and circuits of ongoing tournaments with some of the largest prize pools in professional gaming.[8] Among these, the first large professional events for the game were organized by Major League Gaming and Intel Extreme Masters in the months following the game's release, with IEM Season V - Global Challenge Cologne and 2010 MLG Pro Circuit Raleigh.[9][10] Soon after, the game's first professional league was formed in Korea, the Global StarCraft II League (GSL) organized by GOMTV. The game also became a primary fixture of Dreamhack starting with a November showing in 2010 and Assembly that same year.[11][12] The title's early popularity led to the creation of multiple StarCraft II-only competitions outside of Korea as well, with the return of StarCraft mainstay TeamLiquid's own event, the Team Liquid StarCraft League (TSL),[13] and the creation of the North American Star League (NASL).[14]
Blizzard and GOMTV signed an agreement on May 26, 2010, allowing the latter to create and broadcast the GSL starting with a series of three open tournaments, each with a US$170,000 prize pool, in South Korea.[15] This agreement followed the decision from Blizzard to cease negotiations with KeSPA, and it confirmed that Blizzard had decided to work with a different partner to promote StarCraft II as an esport in South Korea.[4] The non-profit public interest group Public Knowledge made the following statement regarding the issue: 'The Battle.net Terms of Use state that it is a violation of the agreement—and an infringement of Blizzard's copyright in the underlying game—to 'use the Service for any 'e-sports' or group competition sponsored, promoted or facilitated by any commercial or non-profit entity without Blizzard's prior written consent.'[4] Following the GSL's transition into a regular league format in 2011 with two tiers of play, Code S and Code A, the first professional Korean team league for StarCraft II was started by GOMTV, the Global StarCraft II Team League (GSTL). Alongside it, the e-Sports Federation (eSF) was founded to represent the teams participating in the team league.
KeSPA transition and peak[edit]
Late 2011 and 2012 constituted the peak of StarCraft II as the largest esport in the world, with the transition of KeSPA and associated tournaments StarCraft Proleague (SPL) and Ongamenet Starleague (OSL) to StarCraft II.[3] 2012 saw the founding of the Blizzard-sanctioned and organized World Championship Series (WCS). StarCraft II remained the most viewed, sponsored, and active esport in the world and, for the first time since its release, clearly took over StarCraft's position in South Korea as all professional teams and both leagues transitioned to it.
Years after negotiations had ended, Blizzard and KeSPA once again renewed conversation which resulted in KeSPA receiving a license from Blizzard in 2012 and Ongamenet announcing StarCraft II competitions starting in the summer of 2012.[16] This brought them into direct competition with the GSL and GSTL and led to a team league split which had eSF teams playing in GSTL and KeSPA teams playing in SPL. The WCS featured over 30 LAN events and culminated in the largest StarCraft II event until then in China as part of the Battle.net World Championship Series Global Finals.[17]
Decline and end of Proleague[edit]
Starting with the release of Heart of the Swarm in early 2013, the WCS transitioned into a league format as Blizzard strengthened its hold on professional StarCraft II competition with the introduction of WCS points that decided who would qualify for the year's biggest tournament, the WCS Global Finals. This led to fewer non-WCS events yearly as 2014 marked Major League Gaming's last StarCraft II event, the second large blow to the North American scene following the last NASL event in late 2012. Non-Korean competition quickly became focused almost exclusively on WCS events, unlike the largely decentralized competitive circuits of the years prior.[3]
In Korea with the peak of the eSF and KeSPA rivalry, KeSPA came out on top for team competition as the GSTL ended its second season of 2013 and its last ever. Teams that remained from the eSF after the end of GSTL transitioned to Proleague through the 2014 and 2015 seasons. However, the KeSPA-backed individual league OSL folded in 2013 following its second overall StarCraft II season and its only one that year.[3] The only individual league that remained for 2014 was the GSL. Throughout the following years the GSL was joined by the StarCraft II StarLeague (SSL), while Proleague folded following its first and only Legacy of the Void season in 2016 following a matchfixing scandal that saw one of the game's most successful players, Lee 'Life' Seung-Hyun, permanently banned from competing. The end of team competition in Korea marked the low point of the game's scene in the country and was accompanied by a resurgence in interest in StarCraft: Brood Warprofessional competition.[1]
Resurgence[edit]
In late 2017 the StarCraft II Warchest was introduced, featuring cosmetic rewards and an unlocking system to accompany them.[18] For each purchase 25% of sales went to funding StarCraft II esports, and the funding target for BlizzCon 2017, a crowdfunding of $200,000, was reached within the first of three stages of the crowdfunding. The rest of the funds gained went into funding other events throughout the following months and year.[1] New War Chests were released for both the IEM World Championship 2018, raising the prize pool by the targeted $150,000 within the first stage again, and BlizzCon 2018, raising the prize pool by the targeted $200,000 within the first stage once more.[19]
During BlizzCon 2017, Blizzard Entertainment announced that StarCraft II would become free-to-play starting November 14, 2017. This included the Wings of Liberty campaign, full Legacy of the Void multiplayer and co-op access, and the custom games section called the Arcade, for everyone.[20] This led to a large resurgence in interest and player base as StarCraft II viewership surged in 2018, with many events showing great improvements, some over double their 2017 viewership.[1] This included the GSL vs. the World 2018 tournament, the first GSL event to be won by a non-Korean, Finnish player Joona 'Serral' Sotala. It became the highest-viewed Korean tournament outside of Korea for StarCraft II.[21] Television network viewership has not been available for domestic comparison.
StarCraft II also saw growth and recognition as an international competitive sport, as it was featured at an exhibition tournament prior to the 2018 Winter Olympics at the Intel-sponsored IEM PyeongChang, which was won by Canada's Sasha 'Scarlett' Hostyn, and the game was also featured as part of the 2018 Asian Games esports exhibition, an event won by South Korea's Cho 'Maru' Seong-ju.[22]
International competition[edit]
Asian Games[edit]
Starcraft II was part of an electronic sports demonstration event during the Asian Games 2018 held in Indonesia. Eight countries participated after qualifying from their respective regions with Indonesia automatically qualifying as host. [23]
Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
StarCraft II details |
Cho Seong-ju South Korea |
Huang Yu-hsiang Chinese Taipei |
Trần Hồng Phúc Vietnam |
Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games[edit]
Starcraft II has been part of the electronic sports event at the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games since 2013. The 2017 event in Turkmenistan was boycotted by some countries including the previous winner South Korea. Electronic sports in the 2017 event were also no longer recognized as an official sport and became a demonstration sport instead, to accompany electronic sports' status at the Asian Games.[24][25]
Year (Version) | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|
2013 (Heart of the Swarm) | Kim Yoo-jin South Korea |
Lee Young-ho South Korea |
Li Junfeng China |
2017 (Legacy of the Void) | Zhou Hang China |
Wang Lei China |
Bataagiin Ononbat Mongolia |
References[edit]
- ^ abcdPartin, Will (13 July 2018). ''StarCraft II': How Blizzard Brought the King of Esports Back From the Dead'.
- ^Bellos, Alex (29 June 2007). 'Rise of the e-sports superstars'. BBC. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
- ^ abcd'A Brief History of Starcraft, Part 1'. www.teamliquid.net.
- ^ abc'Blizzard: StarCraft II tournaments are copyright infringement'. Public Knowledge. Retrieved 2011-01-29.
- ^Pennycook, Jeremy (29 July 2010). 'Video Games And Their Evolution Into A New Breed Of Spectator Sport'. NPR. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
- ^Droniac (29 May 2010). 'HDH Invitational Concludes With a Shocker Finale'. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
- ^JDMojo (16 July 2010). 'Who Will Be Crowned King?'. StarCraft II Tournaments. Archived from the original on 27 August 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
- ^supernovamaniac. 'GOM TV/Blizzard Sign Exclusive Broadcast Agreement'. Team Liquid. Retrieved 2011-10-13.
- ^'StarCraft 2 Added to 2010 MLG Pro Circuit'.
- ^ESL. 'Intel Extreme Masters'. en.intelextrememasters.com.
- ^'StarCraft II'. Dreamhack. Retrieved 2011-10-13.
- ^'ASSEMBLY Winter: SteelSeries Challenge'. Assembly. Archived from the original on 2011-08-23. Retrieved 2011-10-13.
- ^'TeamLiquid StarCraft League'. Retrieved 2011-10-13.
- ^'North American Star League'. North American Star League. Retrieved 2011-10-13.
- ^'GOM TV/Blizzard Sign Exclusive Broadcast Agreement'. Team Liquid. 26 May 2010. Retrieved 2011-01-29.
- ^'StarCraft II eSports Transition Conference'. Teamliquid.net. 2012-05-02. Retrieved 2014-02-06.
- ^Gaudiosi, John (June 21, 2012). 'Blizzard Entertainment Expands StarCraft II World Championship Series With Electronic Sports League'. Forbes. Retrieved Dec 26, 2012.
- ^'Blizzard's War Chest to crowdfund 'StarCraft II' world championship prize pool'. 18 July 2017.
- ^'Blizzard is celebrating StarCraft II's eighth birthday with cake and double XP'.
- ^Haywald, Justin (2017-11-04). 'Starcraft 2 Dev On The Effects Of Going Free-To-Play'. Gamespot. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
- ^Partin, Will (3 August 2018). 'Inside the Battle to Take 'StarCraft II' Back From Its Korean Overlords'.
- ^Allen, Eric Van. 'Scarlett Is Currently Dominating StarCraft, One Match At A Time'.
- ^'AESF Game Result'(PDF). Asian Electronic Sports Federation. 11 July 2018. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
- ^Ashton, Graham (14 June 2017). 'Australia Is the Latest Country to Back Out of the 2017 AIMAG Esports Event'. The eSport Oberver. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
- ^'The second day of the AIMAG 2017 eSports event review'. The 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. 26 September 2017. Retrieved 28 September 2017.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=StarCraft_II_in_esports&oldid=899813298'
I don't think I have seen a competitive scene evaporate as quickly as Starcraft II. Now I don't expect games to be popular forever both in terms in competitive and casual play. But a few years back Starcraft II was the crown jewel of competitive gaming. It was the headline for many tournaments. Blizzard supported these tournaments. Starcraft II was always near the top for viewers on Twitch. There were plenty of youtube channels making Starcraft II content. People were making names for themselves doing Starcraft commentary.
But then everything just seemed to die almost overnight. I understand that the rise of League of Legends and DOTA II took a lot o the audience.I'm not surprised that Starcraft II isn't so popular today. But I didn't expect SC II to die as quickly as it did. It even felt like Blizzard gave up on it. Legacy of the Void kind came and went. It just seems weird that after all the years of waiting, the lengthy beta, all the hype, and the record breaking sales, Starcaft II died off so quickly.
But then everything just seemed to die almost overnight. I understand that the rise of League of Legends and DOTA II took a lot o the audience.I'm not surprised that Starcraft II isn't so popular today. But I didn't expect SC II to die as quickly as it did. It even felt like Blizzard gave up on it. Legacy of the Void kind came and went. It just seems weird that after all the years of waiting, the lengthy beta, all the hype, and the record breaking sales, Starcaft II died off so quickly.
I don't think I have seen a competitive scene evaporate as quickly as Starcraft II. Now I don't expect games to be popular forever both in terms in competitive and casual play. But a few years back Starcraft II was the crown jewel of competitive gaming. It was the headline for many tournaments. Blizzard supported these tournaments. Starcraft II was always near the top for viewers on Twitch. There were plenty of youtube channels making Starcraft II content. People were making names for themselves doing Starcraft commentary.
But then everything just seemed to die almost overnight. I understand that the rise of League of Legends and DOTA II took a lot o the audience.I'm not surprised that Starcraft II isn't so popular today. But I didn't expect SC II to die as quickly as it did. It even felt like Blizzard gave up on it. Legacy of the Void kind came and went. It just seems weird that after all the years of waiting, the lengthy beta, all the hype, and the record breaking sales, Starcaft II died off so quickly.
But then everything just seemed to die almost overnight. I understand that the rise of League of Legends and DOTA II took a lot o the audience.I'm not surprised that Starcraft II isn't so popular today. But I didn't expect SC II to die as quickly as it did. It even felt like Blizzard gave up on it. Legacy of the Void kind came and went. It just seems weird that after all the years of waiting, the lengthy beta, all the hype, and the record breaking sales, Starcaft II died off so quickly.
![Starcraft Starcraft](/uploads/1/2/3/7/123706261/355330296.jpg)
When the history books of esports are written, they will refer with reverence to the Roman Empire of gaming that was StarCraft. Released in 1998, the original StarCraft developed an unprecedented following in South Korea, where, for over a decade, complex leagues with ever-burgeoning prize pools increased the game’s profile and popularity. Poised to capitalize on that momentum and usher in a new era of competitive real-time strategy, StarCraft II launched in 2010 to universal critical acclaim. As the successor to the then most cherished competitive field of all time, SC2 had big shoes to fill - and, for a while, it did.
Noble Beginnings
StarCraft and its expansion Brood War arrived in Korea at a time where the infrastructure development required to catapult online gaming to mainstream success was blossoming. While there were growing pains and lessons learned along the way, Korea’s adoption of the first ‘Orcs in Space’ was ultimately the first step in their incredible international success in competitive gaming.
StarCraft II seemed to have all the ingredients to improve upon the original StarCraft: A new engine, state-of-the-art physics, updated graphics, and an all-star overhaul of the game’s balance and design. Blizzard also came to the table this go around with a deeper understanding of the emergent competitive scene, and aimed to build it out aggressively in the earliest years of StarCraft II, with the hope of expanding beyond Korea to become a true global esports phenomenon.
Timing Is (Almost) Everything
StarCraft II debuted in June 2010. Sales were excellent, and thanks to a better supported professional scene there was more prize money awarded in SC2 tournaments in six months than Brood War had in all but its absolute peak years.
It would reign supreme in prize money for years - in fact, although it would ultimately be eclipsed by massive events like The International or the League of Legends World Championship, StarCraft II was for years the best-paying esport of all time.
Alongside its popularity and financial success, SC2 also helped elevate the profile of a little-known video streaming platform called Twitch.tv. Twitch officially launched in June of 2011, and the service relied heavily on StarCraft II to gain an audience. As the most popular game and esport in the world by almost all metrics, Twitch took off by allowing fans to watch pro players any time the wanted, and by giving pros another revenue stream. Blizzard enjoyed seeing their games atop Twitch’s most-watched list, and would formally partner with them for the newly minted World Championship Series (WCS) in 2013. By 2014, Twitch would represent the fourth-largest source of peak internet traffic in the United States, thanks in part to the popularity of StarCraft II.
Build Orders
In a world where it enjoyed unparalleled success as a game, stream entertainment, and a spectator sport, it seems hard to imagine that anything could go wrong for Blizzard’s platinum child of a product. It was events behind-the-scenes that would ultimately limit StarCraft II’s potential.
Blizzard could well have used a ‘build order’ - the term for the sequencing of which units to build in a game of StarCraft - of their own when StarCraft II was approaching release. The thriving Brood War leagues in Korea were actually overseen by the Korean Government - the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s new branch, the Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA). It was revealed in the lead-up to Wings of Liberty coming out in 2010 that Blizzard had exited negotiations with KeSPA as their partner in Korea, which presented serious challenges and risks to both the existing operation of competitive Brood War, as well as the future potential for StarCraft II esports in Korea.
Three years of negotiation regarding KeSPA’s operation of Brood War (and, in theory, the future operation of StarCraft II) in Korea had come to a halt due to concerns about broadcast rights and intellectual property expectations. While it is unclear exactly how these negotiations transpired, KeSPA did make several releases and plan press conferences to address the ongoing risk that their operations would be fundamentally shuttered by Blizzard’s demands.
Peaks and (Cactus) Valleys
Despite some setbacks, the StarCraft scene appeared to be comfortably on the rise well into 2012 and 2013. Viewership numbers on major events weren’t enormous, but average and peak viewer counts continued climbing reliably. Total prize money awarded crested the $4 million dollar mark in 2012. But 2012 was also the year that the tide began to turn in favour of other games and genres, most notably the rise of MOBAs.
League of Legends had long left SC2 a distant second in stream viewership. By March of 2012, it had surpassed Wings of Liberty as the most-played game in Korea. Data from the now-defunct Xfire would corroborate that story in the Western world months later, when their July report showed that League of Legends had nearly double the raw gameplay hours of any other game tracked on their platform (across over 21 million users).
While the Korean StarCraft scene struggled through years of limited clarity in how leagues would be run, the players there still overwhelmingly dominated all international tournaments and events. Nearly 70% of all the prize money ever awarded in StarCraft II up to present day has been taken home by Korean pro players. Outside of Korea, the game languished at a pro level, and struggled to compete for audience or player base against an increasing number of more accessible titles - only further exacerbating the growing divide between StarCraft and its rapidly growing competitors.
GG NO RE
Much is made of the slow - but high-profile - decline that StarCraft II has experienced as an esport. This game, and indeed the entire genre, are the foundation upon which every contemporary esports experience we now have were predicated. Still, StarCraft II has retained a spot among the top five esports by prize money every year, and its popularity as a day-to-day title to stream (and generally speaking, a top 10 ranking on Twitch is pretty good!) isn’t indicative of much of anything.
Starcraft 2 Download Free
StarCraft II is as much a victim of changing global tastes as it is a victim of any single decision made by Blizzard - the traditional RTS genre simply isn't as popular any more.. After over a decade of innovation and noteworthy releases from the mid-90’s to mid-2000’s, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void (LotV) is the only significant multiplayer RTS left (and certainly the only esport title among them), and StarCraft II as a whole the only really impactful entrant in the genre in nearly a decade now.
It doesn’t help that professional StarCraft has also found itself plagued by controversy over the years, with a series of matchfixing indictments (2010, 2015, 2016, among others). While the game’s overall engagement hasn’t suffered specifically because of these scandals, the negative light that they can paint the legitimacy of the competitions in has done damage over time.
Where Do We Go Now?
Despite the various adversities it has had to overcome, StarCraft’s future still has plenty of potential. There are quibbles about the structural changes that Blizzard has made to its WCS residency requirements, and no doubt ongoing balance tweaks required to keep LotV fresh and fair as the game matures, but conversations are both ongoing and important.
There are some takeaways from the successes of other top esports titles that Blizzard could emulate to once again grow SC2 - larger prize pools, crowdfunding opportunities, a more formalized league structure (especially if they introduced a Blizzard-managed Western Proleague!), and more. But a number of games would kill to be in the position SC2 is in. Any Fighting Game Community game would absolutely love to have SC2’s tournament variety and prize pools.
Is Starcraft 2 Still Popular
StarCraft has endured a great deal and remains a premier competitive scene in spite of its trials. If Blizzard continues to invest heavily in its esports offerings, StarCraft may yet experience a sustained level of success as it enters an era where esports as a whole are primed for enormous growth.
Starcraft 2 Is Jim Raynor Dead
Kevin Hovdestad is a freelance journalist with an emphasis on eSports. You can find him on Twitter at @lackofrealism.