SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

#saveSEA
 

I only became a part of this community last year. While I had known that the scene existed for a while I had never really attempted to become a part of it and had no idea what it was really like. So come the start of 2015 I decided to start playing in events. I came to sc2sea, which I had heard mentioned a few times as the place to go for Oceanic/SEA players. I started playing in tournaments and just generally interacting with people and very quickly felt like a part of the community.

This community felt so inviting and easy to become a part of for a number of reasons:

1. The first thing I saw on sc2sea was the chatbox - a quick and easy way to interact with people and see what was happening in the community
2. There were obvious things to take part in no matter what my skill level was from bronze to gm.
3. Every day there was a new tournament sign up page posted or blog posted which made the community feel like it actually had people in it.

These are all attributes I feel that sc2online is sorely lacking. While the website provides an excellent place for semi-competitive and competitive players from all across the world it completely lacks anything for the community the scene is build around.

Why exactly is this a problem though, doesn't sc2sea still provide all the community aspects?
While it is true that sc2sea remains that same website it was a year ago there is a significant difference this year: there is very little activity on the website. For the competitive players there
is very little reason to actually come to sc2sea anymore. This creates a divide between the casual players/community members and the competitive players.

Let's imagine you are a new casual player trying to become part of the scene in 2015. You go to sc2sea, maybe you post on the introduction thread, start talking a bit in chatbox, participating in some of the more casual events.

Now let's imagine the same situation in 2016. You go to sc2sea, but there aren't really any players there. Now you try sc2online where you are greeted with a list of events clearly made for competitive players. You see announcements and a ranking system all designed for competitive players.

In 2016 it is now significantly harder for the casual player to become a part of this community than it was a year ago. A community with few if any new players joining is clearly unsustainable.

What can we do?
In my opinion there are two possible paths to take. Either:

• redesign sc2online to become a website that helps build a community rather than just being a place competitive players check for short amounts of time to see upcoming events.

OR

• Use sc2sea again like it was used in 2015 as the go to place for sea players for information about all SEA events.

I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this issue.

Casual players: Do you agree that the 2016 system is too unapproachable for the casual player? I know a lot of you have stopped playing in tournaments/at all and want to hear why.

Competitive players: Do you feel like you miss the community aspect of sc2sea or does sc2online provide everything you would want with its ease of access for tournaments?

OSC admins: How do you feel the changes have affected OSC and the SEA scene and how feasible/necessary do you think changes would be to provide more community interaction again?

My hope is that this post can begin a discussion on what everyone's thoughts are.
If anyone has any ideas for possible solutions to this issue or why you do/don't think this is an issue feel free to share.