Two very different thoughts...

e-Sports vs. Traditional Sports

Gangnam Style

These are the two very different thoughts that I'd like to briefly jot down some thoughts about while I should be going to bed. I never get as much time as I would like to treat my subjects with due diligence, so I figured I'd just blog it to get it out there and hopefully the community can help flesh them out into something more ripe.

I love the idea of e-Sports. I probably wouldn't be blogging on this website right now if I didn't. As with many people on this website -- though probably not the majority at this point in time -- I came to know about e-Sports through Broodwar.

I just finished watching the NukeTheStars cast of the "final" OSL finals. I put that in quotes as I still hold onto hope that one day the Broodwar scene will reignite and continue on as it feels like the stories that were made in the almost certainly completed lifetime of the game were slain before their prime. But if it *is* over, it was a damn good time. And I will miss it greatly.

But it does seem to leave something unsatisfying knowing that this is the end. The saying goes "all good things come to an end", and that may certainly be true... but it seems like 14 years, though great is a little short for something as epic as Broodwar was, or even, still is.

And that got me to thinking about the differences between e-Sports and Traditional sports, and how Broodwar seems to paint the foresee-able model for e-Sports, which, in some ways is quite bleak.

I know this subject of e-Sports vs. Traditional has been touched on in other posts, but I was particularly thinking about how thus far traditional sports just seem to have a certain sustainability to them. Sure many of the modern professional sports have only been around for the past century or so, but you have certain sports such as those in the olympic games that have been around for millenia. In many cases, all you need to play is your own body, sometimes a ball or a stick. People can just jump right in and have a good ol' time, or get really competitive, or something in between.

Even Traditional games (yes this is slightly tangential) like chess, go, checkers, have very simple requirements and can be very competitive. In some way, the simplicity of getting people into the game / sport is what helps drive it to become great, broad reaching, long lasting, have high level competition, storied histories, etc.

(Please forgive the stream of consciousness this is turning into -- it is only a blog, I didn't come here to argue a point.

)

e-Sports as a whole has many hurdles it is facing. Unlike traditional sports, it relies on high technology. Sure high end sports equipment can get very expensive for some sports, but you don't *need* thousand dollar pads to get good at your slap shot, or a multimillion dollar stadium to hit a 500 ft home run. Though technology costs drop all the time and the quality of the technology gets better, you can't play Broodwar out in a field. You need computers, you need network infrastructure. You cannot play SC2 competitively in a nuclear winter, but you can still kick a goal (assuming the ball's radioactivity doesn't disintegrate your foot).

Another aspect that is related to the requirement of high technology is that as technology gets better, so can the ideas for games get "better". I think most people who've come through BW to WoL understand why I put that in quotes. But regardless, it illustrates the point that you can do more with better, faster, leaner technology. And so games can and so far do evolve at a much faster pace than traditional sports... so much so that they become entirely different games altogether. Does Baseball stop being Baseball after you add another division and wildcard post season? Does Hockey stop being Hockey when you change the area where the goalie can move? Broodwar changes quite a bit when you make isometric grid, MBS, macro mechanics, etc. In other words, the longevity of any particular game to be graced with the ability and popularity to be an e-Sport has only as long as it's successor arrival since it follows the trend of technology to improve and replace.

I hope one day there will be an e-Sport that will see a one hundred year lifespan. 86 years to go Broodwar!

So, I just saw the Gangnam Style music video tonight as well. I've been hearing about, it seeing it mentioned in posts here... someone was joking about it briefly on the -LivInPink- stream the other day. Obviously, the word before "Gangnam Style" in the song is not English, and I'm not sure exactly what it means at the time of this posting, but it sounds so very much like the English word "open". Even if it is no more than having its 15 minutes, it has already had a cultural impact. Even within the TeamLiquid community, we have topics like Gangnam Style GSL Live Performance? which goes to show that it has a chance to reach the sort of TL immortality that things such as "u gotta skate" have reached.

What if... there was a community effort to do so? What if... we were to pull together and create the new "Destiny Cloudfist build", but instead "open Gangnam Style"? I can't quite get the image out of my head of Tastetosis exclaiming in a GSL game, "Oh no, it looks like he's opening Gangnam Style against proxy reapers!"

The only question left in my mind, is what does "Opening Gangnam Style" look like? What race, can do so? What does it entail? Is it cheese? Is it a technique? Is it a strategy? A unit preference?

Or are we just waiting for the next up and coming progammer to assume the handle "Gangnam" and have a fairly predictable but particular macro build?

All I know is, as soon as it exists, I wanna Open Gangnam Style.

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Incze Romania. August 11 2012 00:37. Posts 951

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A Gangnam Style opening should definitely include horses. Or something like horses.
Maybe hellions? speedlings?

Religion: Buckethead

SoraLimit Canada. August 11 2012 01:23. Posts 543

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I don't see "Gangnam style" being a term for starcraft. By now, it's a song that almost everyone has heard. Any context would just sound weird.

And it's "Oppan Gangnam Style".

HypertonicHydroponic August 11 2012 02:29. Posts 409

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@ SoraLimit -- Thank you for confirming that the word before "Gangnam Style" in the song is both not English and sounds like "open". You could have been a little less of a kill joy with your reply, though...

This was obviously not a serious proposition, or else I would have posted it in Starcraft 2 general. This was more of a funny musing I wanted to share -- I thought from the context that was obvious.

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SoraLimit Canada. August 11 2012 05:25. Posts 543

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Sorry if it sounded harsh. I was just never a fan of using nicknames, since it always causes confusion, at least for me anyways.

As for the Broodwar thing. I can definitely see the comparison with Chess, and other sports. But the one thing people forget is that Chess and other traditional sports had its predecessors as well. The one common thing about them is that they stem from simple things, such as a ball for most sports, to the very idea of Turn-based games, as seen in Chess. This is why they can be refined so easily in history, since they never required technology, or at least "technology" in the 21 century sense.

Broodwar, on the other hand, was born at the turn of the century, when computers were just becoming popular, as it was definitely first of its kind that got it right. However, it wasn't perfect. As technology changes, I think the concept like Starcraft needs to be able to be up to date, with the current technological advances, especially if it going to be a major Spectator sport.

Those are my thoughts on that subject, I hope it doesn't come across as "Broodwar-Hate".

Last edit: 2012-08-11 05:26:45

eviltomahawk United States. August 11 2012 05:59. Posts 8879

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Gangnam Style should be when you open with a Royal Stove, transition into the Bisu Build, and end with Sair Reaver, preferably against a late-game variation of the Tasteless build. Then do a dance to kpop while crossdressing. That last step is especially important. Don't forget it; it's an important part of the technique.

<3 <3 IU Ailee Minzi Gain <3 <3 ㅇㅅㅌㅅ

ArcticRaven France. August 11 2012 07:12. Posts 1163

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Hey, why not apply it to mapping ? How about a Gangnam style middle, nat setup or watchtower ?

-eureka-

Brb, making Cloud Kingdom 2.0

[EatThePath] I call assassins as my faction. Please tell me we can all agree that in the version of history, Steppes of War will be Jerusalem.

HypertonicHydroponic August 12 2012 16:43. Posts 409

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@ SoraLimit -- Sure, but part of the difference regarding the predecessors to something like baseball is that they were either bad game or are still around as a separate legit sport -- like cricket (call me racist, but I'm leaving that one intentionally ambiguous XD XD XD). Broodwar is not a bad game regardless of its lack of current technological scope, so having it phased out doesn't make as much sense. Even if its successors are better (which I hestitate to categorize WoL as even though I have enjoyed both playing and watching it immensely), the reason it is being phased out is simply because its last major bastion of professional level play is signing its death certificate. I'm not saying that I don't think the RTS genre should evlove to perfection, I was out there screaming "YES" at my computer screen when I saw the reveal for WoL at Blizzcon as much as the next guy (who wasn't actually at that Blizzcon), but what I am saying is that it is sad that something that has really made it as an e-Sport is having to pay the price of extinction as a professionally viable activity so that its successors can be so. As many people have argued, though it is related, its a different game -- I just think there should still be a place for it.

@ eviltomahawk -- That sounds like one of the fun show matches where the BW pros play a 3v3 on The Hunters. I think your team there is gogo, hiya, and firebathero all off-racing as Protoss.

@ ArticRaven -- hahahaha I can't wait to play on that map, but I'd probably lose every time 'cuz I'd just keep hitting replay. You could start a mapping revolution where it would be hard to get a map into a tournament if it didn't have a Gangnam Style feature set. XD XD XD

You know, that gives me an idea -- don't ask me how my mind got here from mapping

-- there should definately be an official TeamLiquid Gangnam Style music video replacing all the real horses with the TL logo.

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