TLR We need drama back in this community, professionalism is something that we can never truly achieve in a scene as small as ours and have it grow. Maybe one day when the game becomes much larger we can aim for that but for now we need to drop the ******* PR bullshit and bring things back to how they where.
Also since I'm writing most of this from memory a few things may be slightly inaccurate but I think the general point is still pretty clear (and I ramble a bit skim reading at times might be necessary)
I guess I should start where I'm coming from, as far as history goes I came into the scene pretty late (around early 2012 if I remember rightly). But automatically I was drawn to the community and the people involved, like everyone else I had heard of Teamliquid far before SC2SEA but it lacked something for me. For a long time I couldnt pinpoint it but now with confidence I can easily say that Teamliquid lacked personality for me, the scale was too large and names didnt mean shit the only people you remembered where Mods and Trolls. But SC2SEA was different here was this home grown community site that felt really ******* organic, there was more circle jerking then a ******* gay bukkake and status meant everything. I meant lets be honest now if some random diamond made a detailed post pointing out how >insert pro player here was actually just a one trick pony or something people would hear him out. I mean of course a few of us would tell him that he ******* knows nothing and should shut up but more then half of the people who would respond would post some PR friendly bullshit like "Some decent points are made/Good write up" or "Come on guys hes just expressing his opinion give him a fair chance". Compared to back when I first came into the scene if someone made a post like that they would be ******* torn to shreds SC2SEA was a hierarchy and had more cliques then High school but that was what made it so ******* amazing.
I lurked for a long time before even attempting to post anything, I read all the old threads and learnt all the in jokes (shoutout to my school for giving me a laptop and not blocking SC2SEA or Twitch). But that was great, it was like this website was some shitty slice of life anime that you had to know a bit about before you could jump into it. Everyone had such defined personalities I mean one of the first people who's name I really started to notice was Spook and I mean how couldn't you. Here was this ******* dude who would shit talk anyone and everyone one of the first streamed matches from SC2SEA I watched was Spook verse Centrelink in a BO3 because one of them started shit talking the other and you know what this was better then most pro matches I have watched. I mean they where both really ******* bad but the hype leading up to it was amazing, here was two people you recognized who genuinely and openly disliked each other playing for nothing but pride and shit talking rights. It was personal and it was organic, this wasn't organized by a third party this was a challenge issued on an open forum and that is what made it great. None of this was uncommon either I mean there used to be ******* weekly blogs calling out people for a BO3 RvR, Mafia tried to revive the SEA ladder by basically challenging anyone to beat him and who could forget the ******* epic series that where played and loser had to change his name to something stupid for a week. These always meant more to me as a viewer then any prizepool because it wasnt just a game of Starcraft it was infused with personality, it was more then just a game where the players are literally interchangable and no one gives a **** about (COUGH EVERY KOREAN TOURNAMENT IN THE LAST TWO YEARS COUGH). These where two people you where genuinely interested in and as a result this spilled over into lans and caused them to be even more interested ACL and local tournaments where so hype because of the storylines that existed beforehand.
Just as a footnote to that I would like to say it wasnt exclusive to players, there was massive rivalries between clans and that made things even better. Everyone in this scene knows everyone and because of that you hated other clans, I was in TCP and hated SR with a passion because I though Grim was a snide twat and generally disliked a lot of there players. So any form of Clanwar against them was so exciting for me and I wanted to win more then I ever have in any form of professional tournament. But in a sense clans where a lot like people so I wont write another massive paragraph that basically states the same thing.
Finally I just wanna talk about why this website is dying and face it, it is there is no where near as many people and threads as there used to be and at times chatbox is totally dead which is something that never used to happen. We've had moments where things looked like they might change I mean **** I would say in the last year the times when things looked like they might be on the rise where caused by the likes of old IXL, Frustration calling large amounts of people out (I still have no idea half the time if you are trolling or not but **** dude its more entertaining then most of the shit people usual spew), Troy ******* over that dude from Europe and AV ******* everyone over. Moments when no matter how hard people tried they couldnt keep up the PR facade for a brief moment we had the drama and rivalries back and we had what made me fall in love with the SC2 community back. But it died it was killed because now all we want to aim for is "Professionalism" well **** that you assholes wanna bring back the golden age then do something about it. BE INTERESTING, someone does something you really hate and you know is total bullshit call them out, bring back the troll posts and the ******* stupid meme threads, hell half of these problems could probable be solved by bring back people like Tgunn or Light etc who literally embodied the spirit of this scene. We have come to an crossroad and what we do from here is basically how we decide if this website becomes a hotspot of activity that causes the SEA scene to grow larger then ever with the release of Legacy of the Void or we all **** off back to league of legends and let that shitty ******* game grow even more.
I think I worded the site dying part really poorly what I meant was the interaction within the site is much much different, I used to come here daily to read the new blogs, new threads and just all the drama I might of missed. Now we might see one new blog a week minus the recent influx because of the whole New Year thing and we just see the same threads at the top week after week. Sure we have more tournaments and I would say an even larger international crowd then ever before with SEA events getting as many views as mid range NA tournaments which is pretty ******* impressive. I think because I sunk so much time into this game and I love the community so much is why I think a lot of these things, I dont want SC2SEA to just become a hub for tournaments and local news I want it to be a hub for the entire SC2 community to use as they please and inject the personality that we all love so much back into it.
Ah ok, yeah that makes more sense. A lot of things like blogs, clan wars, etc are up to the individuals initiative. I personally can't see clan wars becoming a huge type event again, with all the top tier/big names in teams, and they'd be up against legit tournaments. Plus everyone is busy competing, cashing those $'s and glory.
I love reading blogs, definitely want to see more.
As for bm, trolling etc, if it's done intelligently or in good spirits, it's all good, but if it's not, obviously that's when the mods will have to step in. Some of that sort of 'shit stirring' and bm, etc is best served for skype chats, or rants with mates, not on a public forum. The drama side of things doesn't help with long term development of sc2, or this site.
Yeah Eddie, I think that having a problem with someone and challenging them or calling them bad or w/e is fine. What isn't fine is the MezjE/Malice le epik style of edgy trolling where you're just a massive douchebag to everyone and talking shit that isn't even related to SC2.
___________________________________ The Transformer Zerg, Jadron Burgerman @Soundwave
Ah ok, yeah that makes more sense. A lot of things like blogs, clan wars, etc are up to the individuals initiative. I personally can't see clan wars becoming a huge type event again, with all the top tier/big names in teams, and they'd be up against legit tournaments. Plus everyone is busy competing, cashing those $'s and glory.
I love reading blogs, definitely want to see more.
As for bm, trolling etc, if it's done intelligently or in good spirits, it's all good, but if it's not, obviously that's when the mods will have to step in. Some of that sort of 'shit stirring' and bm, etc is best served for skype chats, or rants with mates, not on a public forum. The drama side of things doesn't help with long term development of sc2, or this site.
I agree man it is up to the individual which is why I want people to take a step in the right direction, I think we just need to find the spark again and once that is lit this could really explode again and we can take a more mature approach and make sure things dont burn out this time so quick. But I think we need to find balance between professionalism and bm,smack talk etc. The best example I could possibly give is Smash Brothers Melee that community was probable just as small as we are at times maybe even smaller. What kept that game alive wasnt outside money or massive tournaments or even a new expansion (If anything Brawl made things worse). What kept it alive was the pure competitive nature of the people playing, every top pro had such a strong personality and such a unique play style that all the games where super hype and exciting towards a spectator. Players in that game hated each other and would go onto forums purely to shit talk each other, while that was a nightmare for mods and admins it made every single match they played important and more exciting then the last. If we ever want to succeed on a larger scale then right now we need to emulate that community, I mean as far as things go we are far far better equipped then them and we have all the right tools all we need is the right players.
We need some sort of interaction for forum users such as the reputation system, but not in an abuse-able way. People want their input it feel like it matters, and their interaction on the website rewarded apart from differing portraits. I wasn't around during the TA REP TRAIN days but although the system was flawed in some circlejerky ways I still think implementing something of the sort will make the website "funner" and bring more life to the community.
Sometimes it does feel like a bland community website when you see forum posts with just 'WOW this looks amazing' or 'best of luck to everyone involved', even when the later is meant to be satire, its still boring and generic. Not implying at all the the moderators haven't gone in a wrong direction at all with the website (except paperclip denying my numerous name changes i will have my day and name change mark my works) but that there's no 'flavour' or anything to draw in AND keep newcomers to the scene. I mean look at the members list there's hundreds and hundreds of people who have signed up for the site but nobody is partaking in the forums, just signing up for tournaments. Though I realise most have moved on from the game which is natural progression, but still it feels like because we know each other so well its difficult to let newcomers into the scene.
Good blog Eros friend this needs to be put out there and discussed also I read the whole blog in your voice now that I've met you i come back soon
"and we'll invest more on Bots, as our first Trial bot, the 'NemBotElie' was a huge success, organising tournaments and being part of the Council of mGG. But there are a few bugs in which the bot cannot go past the skill level of a Platinum Protoss." - PaRAnorMaL
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