Some of you may have noticed before that i kept you posted about PGL before here, now the event starts and I am in Beijing right now, will leave for PGL which is in Chengdu on 5th.
Here is my intro video for the MYM coverage:
You can find the full Coverage and more information here:
When I went outside to do this i run into Tasteless who was walking totally planless around, jet lag ftw! You can also see his back in the video at the end
Interview with him to come up on Friday or Saturday I guess.
Thousands of Euros are invested into StarCraft teams and players year by year. But in fact we don't see many tournaments that make it possible to win huge amounts of prize money. The players outside Korea are also not that famous or even superstars like Boxer and others are. Now mTw wants to run up to the StarCraft hil while investing in a new team.
But where is the sense for teams like Excello, RoX or MYM to have a StarCraft team? Those teams are in fact companies that have to make money with what they do. Time to take a look into that question with an article called:
StarCraft Teams - Point of Existence in 2008?
Read it here and give me feedback in the comments please"
As many of you may be aware by now, myMYM’s crew members Wind and The1Crow (yea thats me)are currently on an exciting expedition in China to bring you first-hand coverage of the scene and daily happenings here.
The last weeks we recorded a hell of videos and interviews. Since most of them are in Chinese it needs some time to translate them, please hold on.
But right now, before Wind and Crow will visit Shanghai, Crow decided to take some holidays on Hainan, a tropical paradise island in the very south of China. Here is his video blog!
As I said before in a blog here, I am in China those months. Here is a further blog:
The second day of the tournament here in Wuhan is over already. It is now almost 1 o'clock in the night and just on the other laptop there are sitting Wind and SeCdi translating a Chinese interview into English.
Normally something like that should go quick and without any problems. But even though Wind has a very proper Chinese (and perfect English) it is hard for him to translate a talk that is mainly about strategies and stuff like that. So it takes them like two or three hours to translate a 10 minutes interview where like 7 minutes consist only of talking about matches. Despite of that every video also needs some editing and rendering to make it look nice for you in the end. Well, and of course we also need to upload it. As you may have noticed, we upload normally all videos on Blib TV since the quality there is pretty good, but unfortunately that site is blocked for any reason in China. That forces us to upload on YouTube and stick with a lower quality for now. It always takes hours to get one video up, since all the rumours about the bad connection in China are true. Also the upload just often stops and the file needs to be re hosted, quite annoying.
I am these days in China to attend a couple of different events. Yeah, mostly WC3 events, but I just got 2 blogs up, that incl Videos, Pics and a text from China that should be interesting for everyone.
I posted this as a reaction to this news "Team Tournament, Ready for Launch!"
Well, it looks fine, but actually you would have been able to get a sponsors for this. I am sure someone would have been interested to support this. And I think everyone agrees that it makes a tournament much more attractive if there is a sponsor
No offense, but this is just a general issue in the current BW scene, it lacks of professionalism. And due to that we don't have many tournaments or events that have huge prize money or any prize money at all. Yes I know that is not the only reason. Of coz it is also great to fight for glory and honour but on the other hand it doesn't help the scene in general. I am sure if there would be more price money in current BW events/tournaments/etc it would also attract more people. They would see that BW is still alive and that you can make something out of it. I am sure - even if some ppl may deny it - we are all the same humans in the end, and we all wanna make as much profit as we can in our lifes. I mean the best example to proof this is the development that many former SC players switch to Poker. And they actually dont mind to say "yes i can make money with Poker but not with SC". Isn't it bad for the sc scene that we loose manye great old players? Wouldn't those players stay and keep sc more attractive if there would be more money involved in SC? And well, in the end the scene hardly lacks of new young talented players. The old ones leave or switch to Poker and it is hard to attract new young players - also teams are come to dead (CDS, etc). Sure, also the game is old etc, but maybe, if there would be more money involved in it, pages like broodwar.de won't be dead and the op ger-a channel would be always full like it was 1 or 2 years ago all day. And well, I think the reason why Korea is that big in SC is not only cause they have the best players. (ok that sentence might be discussed a lot hehe)
And yes, I think it is also cause people in the SC community sometimes just arrange tournaments, but don't care about sponsors or sth like that. No offense Xeris, I respect you, you do a great work and you are a cool guy, but it is just the another tournament that could have an sponsor but is has known for the reasons above.
I mean another thing is that more and more teams joined multigaming organisations during the last months or past 1-2 years. It is obvious why they do this. Money, and because there are professionals, they have a management that knows how to attract sponsors and how to support a team with money and hardware.
Well, I hope you guys give me a chance and try to understand what I mean. I just noticed those happenings during the last months and wanted to share my thoughts with you. Feel free to discuss it and give me feedback... I am also willing to change my mind if I should be totally wrong. I just ask you to really read my post 1 or 2 times and think about it for some minutes before you post an answer And finally: You all know I am working for MYM... but don't consider this. I wrote this comment independet, and would it also write in a MYM news comment.
And finally: I hope this tournament becomes a success, it is important to have such things and people that put effort in it. Gl all!
I am back from China. Well, almost! At the moment I am sitting in Amsterdam at the airport and waiting for my plane that will leave in about two hours to Stuttgart, Germany. Again I have to spend some more time in the plane. The flight from Beijing to Amsterdam was about nine hours and though I slept for a while, I still feel tired as hell. This is the jet lag.
I remember the times when I have been a little kid and dreamt of every day flights. But I took a while and the only thing that kept my dreams alive where some postcards my Dad collect for me in the aircrafts and brought them home to me. Even today I still have them and watch them from time to time. But I am no longer the guy that dreams to fly. I mean sure, it is great to sit in a plane that is flying somewhere in the nowhere in the sky. You are above the clouds… the horizon seems to be endless, and the end of the world seems to be painted in the strongest and depths blue that is ever possible. Ok that is the good part, but the less attracting issue is that going by plane takes time. You think you are very fast? You fly fast but it stills needs so much time to get to the airport, pass the security control, exchange money, wait for your plane and things like this. A lot of time where you just sitting or standing around and doing nothing.
And if you followed my live a little bit, during the last three weeks I have been on three different continents: All the way from America to Germany and to China. This is crazy, isn’t it? But I think this also shows how eSports is growing and what is possible here. Actually it also shows how big MYM and Regroup ESport are – and this is just the beginning. I don’t want to sound like an idiot, but I don’t know other Esports organization that sent a guy around the world within a few months like it happened to me this year. It shows that MYM can be an example for what is possible in eSports also for the next months and years. Editors become Journalists that travel the world and report with videos and interviews and pictures from any event. I mean look at TV stations like BBC or CCN etc, they have their reporters that travel the world to bring the back content home to their country. And yes, eSports is on a good way… I am sure in maybe one year we will see a lot of changes here and a lot of great journalists traveling the world.
You may ask know why I told you before about this thing that flying ain’t no longer that extraordinary for me. Well, sure it is great to fly and have all the service and the things I described above. But it is also arduous. The time differences are hard. And it takes at least one or two days to get over the jet lag. Days you lose… days where you do nothing… days where you feel like a ghost. Days, lost in translation.
And I also felt the feeling of lost sometimes in China. The one thing is the things I wrote in my previous blog about the players and eSports. But on the other hand Beijing is unbelievable huge. Not only huge, also loud. The people talking louder then hear I think and even in restaurants the noise level is high. It is hard to relax in the public. There are no green parks where you can sit down and have a rest and forget the day for some minutes. There are people everywhere and the people are always and ever in a hurry. Running around, talking… they even cannot enjoy their food relaxed. And the traffic… wow! I thought the traffic in Los Angeles was crazy, but Beijing is unbelievable. So many cars, and no one seems to respect the traffic rules. I mean in Germany no one would cross the street if the lights are red. But Beijing seems to have its own rules. When I was sitting in the taxi, it was not only one time when I had the feeling I would die now cause an accident will happen. But it works… there are no crashes.
Traveling by taxi is fine. It is so cheap. You can drive about 30mins and you pay just 4 Euros or so. You can enjoy the view out of the window and you see advertisements everywhere: blue, red, green – light everywhere. And skyscrapers – everywhere! It seems like whole Beijing is build only of very high houses. It is crazy! But in fact many people are quite poor. And they think Europeans are rich. Maybe they are right, cause things where so cheap for me there: food, taxi, drinks, everything! And some of the Chinese ppl never saw European guys before. They ask for pictures and photos, this happened especially when we visited the forbidden city.
And well, when you are sitting in the taxi, breathing in that very very bad air and you ask yourself: If you would ask a Chinese guy which color has the sky, the citizens might answer it is gray! …smog! Well… you feel lost in someway.
And then there was this one night… we went to a club with all the MYM players, had free drinks and stuff like that! When Moon arrived there some fans gave him fanarts, one girl gave him a big teddy... after that she cried... wow! It was great. Actually I played a showmatch too since some of our SC players came too late. But hey, I am a noob! Anyways, after that people wanted autographs and photos with me. Crazy! And there was one girl, who asked me to take a picture of herself and me. Later I invited her for a drink… That was the beginning of a great night and a great day on the next day… and I saw tears when I had to leave home… breaking hearts is so bad… I feel bad… lost in translation!
Take care.
Give me two days to get fine again and to get over this.
Cya soon and I am looking forward to meeting some of you guys at the WC3L Finals next month.
But hey, I am happy!
Ppl on the pic:
Advokate, Crow, Blackman, Moon, a girl, White-Ra, the owner of the pub, a guy, Michelle, Maik, Ryan
iest Why I did so less interviews here and why eSports is still so small in Europe
Well, already both group stages are finished already and as expected all the players which are live neither in China nor in Korea are out already. I mean everyone who thinks straight was able to predict this before. All the the former non Korean top players are more or less inactive or found a new hobby, mostlikely it is Poker, since you can earn a lot more money there. They lost their passion for StarCraft and don't care if they win or loose here. It is more like a free trip to China for them, holidays, fun! Same feeling I got when I have been on the WCG! Only three players I noticed were special: White-Ra, Draco and Dreiven. They realy cared about their loses.
But let's continue with IEST: That is proofed by the fact that some of them got drunk not only once. And it is also proofed by the fact that some of them refuse to give interviews. And - I quote now - "why do you want to take a picture of me? I don't want to see my face in the public so often." No more explanations!
I mean when you are supposed to be a "progamer" in some way, you also agree that you are a public person. Everyone who refuses to give Videointerviews or photos, didn't understood the business of eSports. I mean why are the Korean players so famous and so big? Why are they advertising icons? Why do sponsors invest money in them and place their names on their shirts? Because those players could be seen everywhere! In the TV, in magazines, on webpages and they promote products. You may say now, wtf Crow, we are not Korea, we are just the small ordinary Europe. But hey, do we want to linger in that situation? Of course not!
We want to contribute to push eSports to a next, further and more professional level. We want to see bigger events, we want to see thousands of people cheering and observing games - via broadcasting and also in offline events. But how can we reach this goals? Only when we make eSports attractive for a load of people, when we show them something special. Only with money, money that sponsors pay. And for that, we need stars, stars like Savior, Boxer and Moon. Guys that give as much interviews as they can, and guys that try to get their face on as many pictures as possible. Because only then the sponsors will also notice, oh wow, that guy is always with a photo on any page, this guy is always up for an interview and cares about his fans - and it doesn't matter if you win every tournament. Only then you create fans, only then fans will stick with you and support you. And yes, only then fans will see what build orders you use and copy them - further they will check with which mouse you play and they gonna buy the same sooner or later. Well you realised what my conclusion is: Only then sponsors will invest in you and will pay you money, and only then great teams will invite you.
And I repeat it again: This is our chance to push eSports, when we create stars and idols that appear everywhere. They need their fans to cheer them, they need the support. And yes, they need the money!
Well, and I give your even one more example that just happened while I was writing this. I am sitting here in the press room. Two computers away from me Moon, who is watching replays. I wanted him to sign a flag that I will give later away here on MYM for free. No discussions, he just did it. Then the Korean guys came in, Calm and SheIs. They speak no English, but I give them just the pen and they sign it. Just when they were finished a European WC3 player - one of the most famous ones - comes into the room and takes a look at the Koreans. I ask him to sign the flag. And he says "why? no one is interested in me, who cares about this flag?". I try to explain that there are fans that might be interested in seeing also his name on the flag, next to the Korean progamers. After a 10 minutes talk he agrees. Finally! Well, this is the difference! And I am still sure that we reach maybe not the Korean eSports level but at least we can reach a lot more.
This is also the reason why you see less Videointerviews here from me. I interviewed everyone who agreed and speeks English. Two guys, how sad! And yes, I feel bad cause i failed and did a bad job here.
By the way: Right now there is sitting this crazy Korean pro gamer next to me and watching his pictures on FighterForum.com And he is wearing his STX cloths. His last game was hours ago. Think about it...!
It feels good.
More about the event and China during the upcoming days.
For now I only know that Hwasin will win the final tomorrow, all the games I saw from him here were just insane. Same about Moon.
![[image loading]](http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/4746/iest97groupcg0.jpg)
