[ESLSEA]

Hi all!

Happy New Year in 2012!

Sixcube here. For those not in the loop or might not know who I am, I am the National/Regional Head at ESL for South-East Asia and Oceania Regions at the moment. The ESL SEA team has been running a series of online cups and qualifiers for months now, and has always received huge support from everyone here, from whether it was casting, spectating or even participating in some of them.

I would like to give my thanks to everyone who has been involved with us since 29th May 2011 when the first Go4Sc2 cup started, and also the Season 5 IEM Qualifiers back in early 2011. From seeing some of our fellow residents in these regions going to the global stage has always been one of my proudest moments, and giving them the rights and meeting them (iaguz and PiG back then in Guangzhou), was one of my favourite esports moments in my life .

In the year 2012, there are a few more IEM qualifiers, mainly being IEM Kiev from 19 January - 22 January 2012, IEM Sau Paulo from 9 February - 12 February, and the CeBIT World Championship in March at Hanover, Germany. Qualifiers for IEM Kiev are already over, and we are moving on to IEM Sau Paulo right now.

As a guideline to running IEM Sau Paulo this time around, I would like to get a general consensus from everyone involved in participating in events in SEA, whether it will be viable for anyone to attend the event as I don't wish to waste anyone's time of running this qualifier.

In the process of doing so, we hope that most of our representatives can attend the events but usually due to budget considerations, we do face a general opinion of not being able to attend the events due to high costs.

I have went through some research for most of the countries in SEA and Oceanic Regions regarding the cost of the tickets and accomodations, and would like to know if you still have interest in going for this event if you win a qualifier organised by the ESL SEA team.

Australia to Sau Paulo : $3050 USD/AUD minimum
Singapore to Sau Paulo : $2500 - $2600 USD minimum
New Zealand to Sau Paulo : $3100 USD/AUD minimum
Thailand to Sau Paulo : $3000 USD minimum
Philippines to Sau Paulo : $3000 USD minimum
Indonesia to Sau Paulo : $3000 USD Minimum
Malaysia to Sau Paulo : $2800 USD minimum

Most of the countries that have players participating in sc2 events are listed above as a rough gauge, and the costs above does not include accomodations or transport costs. If you think the price involved in travelling to Sau Paulo is too high, please help to vote in the poll, so that a decision can be made to the IEM team whether we (SEA and Oceanic Regions) would like to participate in the upcoming IEM Sau Paulo event. If the majority is agreeable with it, there will be a qualifier held. If not, the qualifier will not be held for the slot reserved for Asia participants.

I hope to get everyone's opinions on this, and at the moment, we are hoping to work out something with our sponsors to get you guys covered for the next season of IEM qualifiers and events so that you guys can attend it.

Lastly, if you have any suggestions or opinions or information you might require or have, about ESL events, you can always pm me or contact me on Skype (Jasper.Mah) and I will do my best to answer your inquiries, comments or questions you might have.

As my role usually means I work in the background most of the time, I hope to get to know more about what you guys would like to expect from ESL SEA in this coming 2012 so that we can serve you better, and create better cups and community events for the SEA community.

Best Regards,
Sixcube (Jasper)