[Peleus]

Warning: Long and I'm sorry I haven't had time to proof read everything, I'll try and go back and fix any errors tonight.

Introduction

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Almost everyone on this site is an eSports fan. We’ve come together with a common goal, and that’s to share our passion for SC2. I think it would also be fair to say that almost everyone shares in the interest and benefits that are gained by SC2 becoming a larger eSport within the SEA sphere, be it through increased tournaments, sponsorship and prizes, more active people on the SEA server leading to higher skill levels overall. It’s also worth mentioning that countless people (i.e. Nivarna, Benji, Dox, so many others) are working extremely hard at making this into a reality. I’m posting this thread not as a complaint about any particular direction that the community is going in, but in the hopes of generating a robust discussion in how the community sees the eSports scene growing, some of the different philosophies out there currently, and what we all want from the future.

I’ll do my best to remain unbiased and present some pro’s and con’s of different thinking, but as with everything my opinions will probably come through in what I’m saying. This isn’t to say I’m right and everyone else is wrong, it’s a launching pad for further discussion about the topic. Let’s look at some of the important things.

Player Pool

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If we want growth, it must be fuelled from a source. I can think of a few different area’s, these include –

a) People within the SEA sphere who currently do not play SC2 at all
b) People within the SEA sphere who currently play SC2, but do so on alternate ladders (i.e. NA / KR) for whatever reasons
c) People external to the SEA sphere who currently play SC2

If participation, growth, etc is to improve, almost inevitably it must come from one of these sources. Our goal then should be how best can we attract these people? I’ll deal with each one in turn.

People within the SEA sphere who currently do not play SC2 at all.

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Believe it or not, I don’t see this category of people as a huge source of growth, or more to the point, one that we can control as much as the other two. The reasoning for this is getting exposure to the market. Blizzard, a company with millions of dollars in marketing potential is actively trying to get people to play SC2, resources that we obviously do not have. In terms of appealing to this demographic, I doubt we could put anywhere near as much of a dent as what Blizzard can. Alternatively, several of our main abilities to convey the message of sc2sea.com such as streaming, tournaments, etc is only likely to appeal to the demographic that is already playing SC2.

What we can do however is within our own personal lives use word of mouth to talk about SC2, and encourage friends and family to give it a go, share out trial keys, show people the starter edition etc.

Summary: Perhaps not a large area for growth as some may think, can be improved through word of mouth, starter edition awareness etc.

People within the SEA sphere who currently play SC2, but do so on alternate ladders for whatever reason

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In my opinion this is one of the bigger areas for growth within our own community. Residing in the SEA sphere means that latency should not be as much of a problem and they have the opportunity with their account to play here if they wish. From this, we must examine why they are playing on these different ladders. I can personally think of three reasons, but I’d be interested to hear from the community their thoughts. Firstly it comes down to there is more people playing, particularly on NA, and therefore quicker to find games and be matched against new people. I don’t see a huge way we can influence this, as it’s a bit of a chicken / egg scenario, with players not coming back until more play, but more won’t play until they come back etc. It’s interesting to note however that if we get more playing on SEA through some influences (more on this later) it may continue to exponentially grow through increased popularity.

The second reason I can think of, or have been exposed to, is the statement of wanting to play with better players, or at higher skill levels. I’m not completely convinced there is merit to this until you’re high GM, as blizzard will match you against appropriate opponents regardless of your skill, but never the less that is a common reason I see, particularly for KR ladder. In the SEA community I think we can attract more people by raising the perceived skill level of our ladder, and sc2sea.com definitely has the ability to do this. A perhaps controversial position which I know has been discussed in the past (and most likely again here) is the attraction of pro’s to our tournaments, to see our best competing with the likes of Korean professionals, or international ‘stars’ as we saw in the Dox Cup. I think this gives a huge boost to the perceived skill level of our community, especially when ‘our’ best are holding their own against foreigners.

Thirdly I see ‘eFame’ coming into play with some sections of the community. The western SC2 culture currently largely resides around NA (to a slightly lesser extend EU) and many of the American pro players. A lot of individuals enjoy the idea that they are playing on the same ladder as these top players, and aspire to be matched against them at some point (completely separate from how realistic it is). Ideally to combat this we would wish to develop our own big names, which “we’ve” (as in they did all the work) done with tgun and moonglade. Once more my opinion in how we can get more great players like this is to have the most competitive environment we can on the SEA server. If we don’t wish to take ourselves as seriously as possible with our competitions, then I don’t think the rest of the SC2 world will take us seriously either.

Summary: I think the best way to attract SC2 players currently on other ladders would be to increase the perceived skill level of our ladder, both through having big names compete here, and also through developing our own stars. Once more in my opinion the best way to do that is to create the most competitive environment available on SEA. Looking at KR, I think it’s fair to say that great players come out of very competitive environments.

People external to the SEA sphere who currently play SC2

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Similar to the first playing group, I don’t think there is a huge potential for growth here, but there is definitely some. If we can foster a community with great, well run tournaments to attract players there is every chance that new friendships will be formed, and people will wish to play here more often. Down the track if we can manage to create more big name players and SEA server awareness we may draw people in, however honestly I think it’s an uphill battle. I don’t have much to say on this demographic myself, but I’d be interested in what the community thinks about how we can draw more people in.

Summary: I can’t see a huge amount of growth here, but I’m interested in what ideas the community has in how we can attract more people from external servers. I think a vibrant eSports scene here may do it, but it’s more of a long term goal than immediate changes we can make.

Money / Tournaments

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Most likely the area that’s going to cause the most discussion, and where I see the most split opinions in our community at the moment. Prize money, sponsors and tournaments have arguably been one of the cornerstones that sc2sea.com is centred on, with it being the hub of all the events going on in the SEA server. I know I personally came across the site looking for tournament information, and discovered the community and future clan there. Currently though we’ve seen two main trains of thought about tournament eligibility, prize money and what’s best for the SEA eSports scene. In the first section I’ll try and detail both sides as fairly as possible before offering my opinion on the situation. It can be largely broken up into “Keep it in the SEA community” and “Let anyone who wants to join, join”.

Keep it in the SEA community

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Probably the most predominate train of thought in sc2sea at the moment is to by and large keep the majority of tournaments centred on a SEA resident / SEA licence eligibility requirement. The advantages are that this allows SEA players to fight it out amongst our own community with the best SEA player winning and taking home the prize. Top SEA players gain some monetary support through tournament winnings, and increased standing within our own community. For example many of the xGKing members, moonglade, tgun, etc have high regard, not only due to their ladder performance but also due to their tournament success. Arguably it can also motivate these players to enter into tournaments and compete more often, as there is not a dramatic step between our top players vs some KR pro’s who have also entered, where you need to beat a Startales member to receive prize money.

Let anyone who wants to join, join

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(Disclaimer: I mainly subscribe to this view, bias may come through) An alternative put forward by a lot of players is let almost anyone who wants to play join with our tournaments, and let the best man win. Arguably we can gain increased exposure to the SEA sphere through having bigger names within the external community join and play with us, and also it looks even better on the world stage when our top players can take on and defeat these established names.

Opinion

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The advantages were put forward for both options, but there are definite disadvantages also. Keeping it in the SEA community can truly mean that we’re not going to be considered world class, and in my opinion that means we’re not going to have as much potential for growth in the future, especially when considering the player pool discussions put forward earlier. On the flip side letting anyone join can lead to an increase in “hit and runs” where a top pro simply comes in, takes the prize money and leaves only to be seen again at the next tournament.

In my opinion, we can do a few different things that may result in a type of compromise, and I want to discuss a few of the perceived advantages of the “Keep it in the SEA community” train of thought. Often I see the idea thrown around that letting our pro’s win money encourages them to play and grows eSports in SEA. I personally don’t see how it actually does anything other than a nice boost to the bank account of those players. That’s no disrespect to them, I’m not saying that they have ill intentions by winning or anything of the sought; I’m simply saying I don’t believe it grows eSports either. The sums of money we’re talking about aren’t enough to consistently send players off overseas, and live off the income to peruse SC2 careers. They are largely very generously given but relatively small amounts that say congratulations you get an awesome prize for being the best person on the day. If you truly want to support our top players then I think sponsorship directly to them is infinitely more effective, and the prizes are simply something we can all have fun playing for, not necessarily a driver for growth. I’m unaware of any SEA player who makes the majority of their income of sc2sea.com tournaments and peruses an SC2 career from it, although I’m happy to be corrected.

As a result, I think the idea of “Keeping it in the community” is a nice thought, and I’m glad to see SEA players capable of getting prizes, but I don’t think it has a huge growth effect either way. Along the same lines, many people have said that it’s a disincentive to play if KR pro’s are also playing, because you’re suddenly forced to beat a member of Startales (or whoever else joins) to gain some prize money. Yes, I can see how that is perceived as a negative, however don’t forget that 85% - 90% of players who join a tournament, realistically, do not have a significant chance of taking it down. Most people join for the competitive spirit, the ability to practice and play against the best, and the small chance of coming out on top. I can assure you that I, and many others, have as much chance of beating moonglade as I do of beating some KR pro, that is to say very little. That doesn’t mean I don’t wish to participate in a tournament, because the money isn’t, and I don’t think should be the motivator. It’s simply a bonus at the end if we’re lucky enough. What we’re talking about honestly is a difference in outcomes for a small percentage of high level players in the community who commonly win tournaments not winning as much any more.

So what do we get out of this? Even if its only a small percentage of high level SEA players affected, why shouldn’t it still go to them rather than KR pro’s? Well, to answer that I think we go back to the beginning, and what we need to do with our player pool to grow the SEA server. Once more it’s my opinion but we need to be competing with these people to grow the SEA eSports scene. We need to demonstrate to a world audience that the SEA scene is capable of hosting top level competition. Arguably (and I imagine a little controversially) I’d almost say that if KR pro’s came over, and played in tournaments while being watched by thousands of people (and being part of what attracted them) then it’s almost worth the prize money for the sake of growth. With growth being the primary concern, more money and more sponsors will come, giving even more opportunities for SEA only side tournaments in the future if that’s what’s wished.

Compromise

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Realistically though I don’t think either hardline approach would be successful, so perhaps we need to look as a community at idea’s we may be able to come up with to satisfy both. For example we could have more clearly tagged foreigner / SEA only listings on a master list of tournaments somewhere. We could have prize money allocated as 1st / 2nd / 3rd and top placing SEA player, allowing the best of both worlds with a great competition being held, but the top SEA players still get a share. I think we could definitely come up with many options if we all sat down and discussed it, which hopefully this thread would allow. As I’ve discussed before whatever the decision however I think there needs to be clear yes / no eligibility criteria that anyone can find out about and determine if they are allowed to join without asking anyone.

Realistically I also know there is an X-factor in this discussion. The bulk of sc2sea’s prize money comes from sponsors, so what they desire will have a large impact on the formats and eligibility of each tournament. Although we may not be able to directly control their decisions, having a clear community consensus about what we desire could certainly go a long way in pointing them in the right direction.

Conclusion

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A lot of people will read this, and think it’s pretty much full of crap. No worries, all I ask is instead of attacking any opinions put forward your own in a constructive way, and if we disagree we’ll talk about it. I believe growth should be the main focus of the SEA community if we wish to improve eSports here. This may lead to more tournaments, more prize money, more sponsorship and benefits to the community. Looking at avenue for growth I think the most realistic path is to attract more high profile events and players to the SEA server, and sc2sea.com’s best role in that would be through hosting higher level competitions to increase our exposure. I also believe that a constant “SEA Only” approach may strengthen the bonds within the SEA community, but doesn’t necessarily do much in terms of growing it.

Sorry for the long post, but I truly want to contribute to this community which I think is fantastic and I want to see eSports in SEA grow. I think having honest and open discussions amongst the community is the best way to facilitate this.

So here are my challenges to everyone reading this;

• How do you think eSports in SEA can grow?
• What role do you see sc2sea.com playing in this development?
• How can we attract more players to the server?
• Should our tournaments include foreign players?
• What do you think we should change, if anything?

The most important thing to take away though is that we need to discuss as a community how we want to go about growing eSports. It's a hundred times more effective to have a clear goal and a plan to achieve it, rather than simply having the goal itself. How are we going to grow eSports?

Quick Comments

	FSBenAD:
	breadfan:	Kudos to the effort you put into this
	ToRXypha:	Great write up
	freaky_beeky:	Interesting read and interesting analysis
	asdfSchnitzel:
	:	VERY well written! Good job!
	Zepph:	good read :)
	Gnemest:
	TCPKiaSu:
	mGGSouth: