Volamel
2017-04-30 03:46:25
With the announcement and return of the Blizzard’s Overwatch World Cup, I began to wonder how people may take the results as solid conclusions for strong and stout regions. This is just a dive into some of my own thoughts with support from others idea’s as well. I mean no harm and only wish to create a constructive arena for people to talk about the topics at hand.
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“The only relevant test of the validity of a hypothesis is comparison of prediction with experience.” - Milton Friedman
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A Faulty Comparison is a logical fallacy. It is described as “comparing one thing to another that is really not related, in order to make one thing look more or less desirable than it really is.” Some of the easiest narratives to write about are comparisons between two things — I’m guilty as charged. Unfortunately, when we talk about the West v. Korea or even when we compare the North American scene to Europe, it inherently undervalues some of the quirks, nuances, and interesting natures of their respective regions.
Outside of anecdotal evidence from western teams that have been to Korea, we don’t have solid evidence that Korea is “dominating us”, at least not yet. Until Korean’s play in more international competition and until more Western teams are equally measured, the comparisons should stay as loose as possible. Pundits are on the fence these days, some say that the Korean’s are infinitely strong, while others say they are “overrated.” Due to the nature of their culture and history within gaming, Korea will — for the foreseeable future — always be a contentious point within esports.
You cannot deny Korea’s incredible history within esports. As a region, they have completely dominated in games like Starcraft (I and II) and League of Legends. They have the cards in their favor, but can we say for sure if the team’s never play each other? We can talk until the cows come home about Korea compared to the West but, how can we compare them if they never play consistently? If we had a World Championship where every region could send their best teams, that would give us a consistent measurement of the global ecosystem. Until then, not much can be derived from the comparisons between East and West. Other than compelling storylines and narratives, they are completely separate.
Why do we impulsively compare the West to Korea? Can we not just live off our own merits and create a thriving community? I believe the reason lies within the storylines. The story of “David versus Goliath” is something that has stood the test of time. The quintessential underdog story is a narrative that is spun even within traditional sports. Who doesn’t love an amazing underdog story? Outside of these stories people start to cherry-pick their own facts and start to come to odd assertions. Look at the stories of Meta Athena and Rogue, for example. Both teams go on complete tears though their respective regions, amassing huge winning streaks and generating tons of excitement, but to say that either of these teams could go to the others region and metaphorically start to “crack some skulls” is unjust.
Team Korea after winning the World Cup in 2016
Creating stories based upon some lose comparisons is one thing. It is incredible fun and sexy to let our minds wander into the realm of speculations and “what ifs”. The consistent comparison to the East is a double edge sword for the overall plot line of Overwatch. While unjust, the plot of “who can topple the Korean overlords” it is the most endearing global topic. It would be like trying to take Superman and comparing him to Megaman — it’s thought provoking and an entertaining idea, but it busters out because, they're from two different things entirely.
Overwatch is in such a volatile space currently where one simple patch change causes a snowball effect that can ruin the landscape for some teams. You could even question APEX Season 1 winners, Team Envyus. Do they win in such a dominant fashion without the D.va patch allowing Mickey to find his wheelhouse and have a huge performance? Is that to say that they did not deserve to win? Absolutely not. Team Envyus played extremely well, but that title will always hold an asterisk over its head.
Even with APEX being our best measuring stick, it even falls short. This brings to light another issue with comparing two completely different regions to one another is the overall format of the tournaments in that region. We could look at IEM compared to APEX or other longer, league style formats. IEM is a quick weekend tournament, all best of three series but, it is more a determinant of who is better on that given three day span. Contrasting that longform league style formats celebrates conditioning and adaptation. If you’re career is grown on IEM-style tournaments and you go to Korea for APEX, you potentially could have a dip in play. We don’t live in a world where every tournament uses the same format, nor am I advocating it. In that same vein, it’s difficult to truly know overall strength without variables remaining constant or at least similar.
When we look at two entirely different regions, it is very clear there are teams are that similar. Perhaps they might favor more of an Dive composition or maybe they like to run Triple tank in a majority of their games. Even with those teams falling into their archetypes, we can boil that down even further to their styles. Maybe the team that favors the Dive composition is more aggressive than a majority of their counter parts. This key factor changes a flat and drab archetype into a more color and stylistic specialization. When we take these factors into consideration, is it too folly an idea to say that certain teams in other regions may have specific styles that may counter current powerhouses? If the teams in question never get to face off against the best in the world, can we truly know what region is the best?
Overwatch is young enough that western teams have the capability to match and even surpass Korea in this game. No one has drawn a line in the sand and claimed their stake — yet. In the West, currently we have have organizations that do have quite a bit invested in infrastructure based around their team. Look at Lazer Kittenz, they have multiple coaches and support staff. Look at Immortals, they are cutting some practice time to meditate and practice mindfulness. Rogue just added Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka to their roster as an analyst during their OGN APEX Season 3 run [1]. The list is huge and, to be frank, when Overwatch League rolls out later this year we will see more teams investing in the team’s infrastructure.
Korea has had this investment early on in games like Starcraft and League of Legends. Those games have paved the way for the West to start to foster and breed some amazing talent. Now, within Overwatch, this could be the first time for Korea and the West to meet on the field and, possibly, for the mold to be broken. This could possibly be the first time the West starts to pull away, as long as everything continues with investment and player growth.
One of my biggest interviews ever was with NRG’s Alex "Ajax" Jackson. When I asked him how he thought the west could compare to Korea, he shot me this sharp but profound answer: “I actually think the Koreans are really overrated. Don’t get me wrong, I think the Koreans are good, but everyone seems to think that Koreans are invincible and just can’t be stopped.” [2] In a way, I slightly agree with Ajax. Koreans in a way, are somewhat “overvalued”.
Now, let’s stop for a minute and think about this rationally. Is Korea incredibly strong? Yes. Are they historically the better region? Yes. Will the region hold a certain mystique over esports? Yes.
The over romanticization within Western fans over the Korean esports scene is where my point lies. Overwatch is just too young to say that one region is completely and wholeheartedly better than another. Team’s, however, are a different story. Do you want to say that Selfless Gaming could beat Flash Lux? Completely reasonable. We can’t make bold claims without any basis. It is completely fine and reasonable to judge a team on their merits; however, there just is not enough data or evidence to draw comparisons to entire regions.
When I sat down with LG Evil’s Matthew "super" DeLisi, he shared the same optimistic sentiment: “I think there needs to be an international LAN with the best teams from every major region to truly determine who is better than who though before I make any definitive statements.” [3] How can we truly look at a comparisons on a region by region basis if we don’t have anything to base them on?
In one of my latest interviews, I sat down with Rise’s Mike "Midnight" Ryan and pick his brain and collected his thoughts on maps and the general state of the game. When I interview professional players, it is interesting to me how they view Korea and the constant debate on who is better. And honestly, I feel like Midnight said it best: “I definitely think Korea as a region is stronger than the West, I will admit that outright. But, to say that they are dominant when we have had I think 2 International LANs outside of Apex seems a little ridiculous to me. As I have said, I don’t think the Koreans are overrated; they are definitely really good. I think the issue is that [North America] is underrated.” [4]
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“People often say that video games made by Western developers are somehow different in terms of taste for the players, in comparison with Japanese games. I think that means that the Western developers and Japanese developers, they are good at different fields.” - Shigeru Miyamoto
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This quote from the Nintendo legend himself, Shigeru Miyamoto, rings as true within game design as it does in comparisons in esports. Both the West and the East have their pros and their cons. Neither one needs to escape the other’s hold or escape the other’s orbit, they both “are good at different fields.” It’s fine to talk about stories and venture into the realm of speculation, but to measure two regions with no true evidence to compare them on is to give the layman a murder case and expect them to come to a fair conclusion.
To orbit something is to be trapped within an object’s gravitational pull. Korea’s figurative gravitational pull in the esports ecosystem is gigantic. We are always drawn into its orbit and are forever interested in measuring up to Korea’s massive scale. It’s fine to create wondrous and fantastical storylines to better explain the landscape and scene. It’s time to set up shop and full colonises our little rock within Korea’s sphere of influence. We may one day rival them in terms of sheer scale, but until then — let’s just enjoy this, shall we?
Written by: @Volamel
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment (header) and Blizzard Entertainment/David Chen
https://twitter.com/GoingRogueGG/status/856976772247769088 [1]
