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Honor history behind the most instrumental esport of all time (Now is the best time to do it)

DreXxiN 2020-05-08 05:09:44
  There’s several reasons to watch StarCraft: Remastered and honor the history behind the most instrumental esport of all time.  The fact that we’re not looking at any large LAN events anytime soon for major esports means it’s the perfect time to dabble in the beautiful history of StarCraft. That said, I want to preface early and very clearly that I do not expect an RTS game—or any 1v1 game, really—to break into the modern “meta” of esports fads. I’m optimistic, but not unrealistic. Team games are king, as metrics are wont to demonstrate.  I won’t claim the opposite, either. Sure, games like StarCraft 1 & 2, fighting games, and other such titles don’t boast crazy high viewership interest (with the notable exception of certain S-tier Super Smash Bros. events), but they are a far cry from what many a “ded gaem” meme would illustrate. That said, with a lot of esports on-hold and most of us locked in with nothing but time on our hands, let’s dive into the esport that started at all*, and the broadcast I hope can be replicated. After all, I’ve never ran into a person who’s tried watching StarCraft who told me they ended up not enjoying it. StarCraft Remastered didn’t have the cleanest of launches. The bumpy start caused a lot of players to retreat to older versions of the game client in order to have smooth, faithful Brood War experiences. However, these issues were quickly mended and they weren’t anywhere near the degree of “problematic” that WC3:R’s release state was While StarCraft Remastered had a bumpy start for players, causing them to retreat to older versions of the game client in order to have a smooth, faithful Brood War experience, it mended those problems relatively quickly and still created lots of clamour over a potential SC1 renaissance. The global appeal of SC:R was the renewed campaign for players and the esports renaissance for Koreans, which has succeeded massively with Afreeca StarLeague  and the recently retired Korea StarCraft League. (Remember, this game has been out for over two decades!) Artosis put it best on stream when he said “StarCraft 2 in the west is more popular than StarCraft 2 in Korea, but StarCraft 1 in Korea is more popular than StarCraft 2 in the entire world.” I’d like to use the semi-recent SKT vs. KT Proleague Rematch from The Esports Night  as my primary example for this piece.  While the VODS on the English channel didn’t get a ton of viewership, it’s the perfect template of the event I’m pitching for several more of, with the famous "casting archon" highlighting the fun facts and tidbits from past eras. Something that is a huge piece of esports history that is replicated in this particular broadcast is the “Telecom Wars”.  I wouldn’t blame most esports newcomers for assuming this legendary rivalry started with League of Legends. The reality is that it is the single longest standing rivalry between two esports organizations. SKT started when Terran revolutionist Lim “SlayerS_`BoxeR` “ Yo-Hwan started his own team, Orion, out of his own pocket. The team was then picked up by SK Telecom, who operated like the esports equivalent of the New York Yankees, buying out top talent. KT Rolster (formerly KTFm then KT MagicNs) had a similar strategy in the infantile days of Brood War esports, but eventually faced a steady decline.
Related: Brood War Terran: A curiously fitting representation of human evolution
As a result, SKT had always been a little bit stronger as a whole than KT; however, eventually, KT acquired the greatest esports competitor to exist to this day, Lee “Flash” Young-Ho. This was a fantastic boon for the org. As mentioned in this interview, Flash was a player that screwed up interviews forever because interviewers could no longer ask players if they thought they were going to win.  Flash, to this day, has the highest winrate in all T matchups, has top ladder accounts with all races, and has beaten top pros with other races in convincing macro games. Flash even losing a game is an upset.  

Flash's Terran was considered the "4th race". His mastery set an unreachable standard.

Even though StarCraft is a 1v1 esport, it still had the “rival org” hype due to the nature of team leagues. Much like modern esports, it had underdog stories, but was largely dominated by the “rich orgs” like SKT, KT, and CJ Entus. Players under two different banners would face off against each other, with the winner staying, and with no player being submitted twice in the first four sets. If the set ended in a tie, one player from each org would be chosen to play an “Ace Match” to determine who would advance. If one player defeated every sent player from another org, it was considered an “all kill.” Going back to The Esports Night broadcast, perhaps the most entertaining part was that it served as a history lesson even to those who haven’t had any investment into the StarCraft scene.  It’s fun to explore how fundamentally different things were in the past, but how much of Korean esports culture you can see clearly rooted from the early Brood War days. 

Sick spacesuit gamer.

  The game has such a rich history that I still feel has not been replicated to this day. Competition was stiff, as work ethic was unprecedented in Brood War’s peak.  Amateurs would practice endless hours just to acquire a pro or semi-pro license from KeSPA. You’d have to train unbelievably hard to win a Courage tournament, or if you were really lucky, you could be gifted with a license from a pro team to become a semi-pro. Even after you’d accomplished all of that, your grind had just begun.  The next step was  to spend 1-2 years trying to become part of an org’s A-team.  You see, only A-team players are considered actual progamers and can play in the sanctioned, televised KeSPA leagues. B-team members were glorified practice partners for the A-team players. So finally, you’ve made it as an A-team, certified progamer! Except there’s no room for complacency in this era, so you better maintain peak form. On a monthly basis, coaches would shift teammates between A and B teams based on performance and in-house tournaments. All of this, for the most difficult game in the world.    ---   If all that’s not enough to excite you, I’ll maybe concede that Brood War isn’t the spectator experience for you. For me, providing all of this context is a reminder and refresher of why the game and its scene is so exciting, even as a currently inactive player. Knowing so much effort was required for even a chance to play on the big stage, with the stakes nearly as high as the skill ceiling — it gives me chills going through the annals of Brood War history. So much of esports history in general stems from Brood War, making it fun even if you don’t particularly care. Brood War players have gone on to be accomplished poker stars, personal trainers, and seasoned coaches of other esports titles such as League of Legends and Overwatch. Unfortunately, I realize there’s (probably) not a whole lot of financial incentive in trying to do this frequently, but I do believe in the value of it being done more often. It’s also pretty hard to dig up very old VODs, but the MedryBW Twitch channel is an excellent resource for catching up on historical games without reading about them. Otherwise, if you’re lucky, you can find torrents of old VODs lying around. It’s all very important history, and very inaccessible to the layman, which exacerbates the importance of historical broadcasts and “showmatch” events with a historical context. Wishful thinking, but maybe due to the decline in viewership in Overwatch League, Blizzard might consider bolstering its roots competitively.  Since that probably won’t happen, make sure to watch the VODs I've linked and catch the next season of ASL where Flash is deciding to go all Random, HELLO? You won't regret it.
Michale 'Drexxin' Lalor is the Editor-in-Chief at EsportsHeaven. You can find him on Twitter.
 

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