Updated: 9th Sonic StarLeague sponsored by Sonic. more here: Sonic's message
This is interesting: Blizzard will help by promoting SSL9 through their official homepage and SNS. "~SSL9 afreeca broadcasts will reach the entire world and are also a hot issue in the world's most famous foreign community TeamLiquid.^^"
Commentary for SSL9: Kim Carry + Lee Seung Won (doesn't actually state Sonic as a commentator, but I doubt he wouldn't)
SSL8 Finals - Kim Carry, Sonic & Lee Seung Won, photo by Kimbilly
Other details: Some kind of HD support for SSL9 will be provided by Afreeca. Ro32 onwards will be offline, free admissions for viewers in the studio. There will be 2 "interview girls" at the offline, Sonic's version of stargirls. A lot else will be different from SSL8 (like these item giveaways at the studio).
Final message: "StarCraft: Brood War is still a loved game. As the famous foreign baseball player Yogi Berra said "The game isn't over until it's over." - in that spirit, the StarCraft transmision did not stop although it was only through online means. I believe the transmition can continue until the very end.
I think Brood War's competition and popularity will be alive after 10 years as well. The tradition of Korean Brood War can still stand strong. I will do my best to make it happen. [Sonic refers to BW as similar to Baduk/Go, a board game that is very famous in Korea.]
We look forward to seeing you all at the offline group selection ceremony. Please cheer on us heartily and come visit the studio. Thank you."
Schedule - not final Group Selection Ceremony 2014 1/4 - location TBD - 300~400 seats
Round of 32 1/10 Ro32 Group A - 1/11 Ro32 Group B 1/17 Ro32 Group C - 1/18 Ro32 Group D 1/24 Ro32 Group E - 1/25 Ro32 Group F 1/31 Ro32 Group G - 2/01 Ro32 Group H
Round of 16 2/07 Ro16 Group A - 2/08 Ro16 Group B 2/14 Ro16 Group C - 2/15 Ro16 Group D
Round of 8 2/21 Ro8 Groups A, B - 2/22 Ro8 Groups C, D
Live casts from SonicTV Studio at 7PM KST Friday/Saturday. That's 2 hours earlier than the currently ongoing Sonic ProLeague casts. Player FPVs will probably only be available on 50 inch screens at the studio.
This is event is made from love to the game it is so amazing and all this atmosphere remembers OSL and MSL so much I just can not describe how good this event is. This event just has everything that a StarCraft fan needs - the true StarCraft atmosphere which made me watch korean StarCraft nonstop, korean commentators whose passion makes me forget all my problems and insanely talanted players who train so hard and just can not live without StarCraft which make a fan of EVERY players unlike other sports.
Love Blizzard or hate it, I think it's nice from them.
It's like with this grumpy uncle that you hate, but once you see him after a long time and he's nice and brings presents then everithing's cool and you get along.
This is great news. It truly is a testament to all the hard work Sonic has done. Thank you Blizzard for recognizing it as this is the sort of support they can provide (besides fixing the port-forwarding issues.) Long live BW!
On December 15 2013 03:54 zerious wrote: Blizzard slowly realizing that SC2 is a lost cause in Korea
Supporting multiple games isn't mutually exclusive you know.
So sick. Glad to see Blizzard beginning to support BroodWar. It would be really cool if BroodWar and Starcraft 2 someday had a joint league where the games were run side by side.
On December 15 2013 04:13 looknohands119 wrote: So sick. Glad to see Blizzard beginning to support BroodWar. It would be really cool if BroodWar and Starcraft 2 someday had a joint league where the games were run side by side.
On December 15 2013 04:13 looknohands119 wrote: So sick. Glad to see Blizzard beginning to support BroodWar. It would be really cool if BroodWar and Starcraft 2 someday had a joint league where the games were run side by side.
We had that. Let's never go back to that shithole again.
On December 15 2013 04:13 looknohands119 wrote: So sick. Glad to see Blizzard beginning to support BroodWar. It would be really cool if BroodWar and Starcraft 2 someday had a joint league where the games were run side by side.
no.nonononono.
we already had that and it was awful.
I dunno, I actually enjoyed the hybrid proleague season. With a few changes I think it could have been successful - most importantly ditching the rule that players alternate between games, and maybe alternating the ace matches between the games. Could have had actual quality SC2 and Broodwar side by side.
Regardless, it's really cool to see such passion coming together to support Broodwar.
On December 15 2013 04:13 looknohands119 wrote: So sick. Glad to see Blizzard beginning to support BroodWar. It would be really cool if BroodWar and Starcraft 2 someday had a joint league where the games were run side by side.
no.nonononono.
we already had that and it was awful.
I dunno, I actually enjoyed the hybrid proleague season. With a few changes I think it could have been successful - most importantly ditching the rule that players alternate between games, and maybe alternating the ace matches between the games. Could have had actual quality SC2 and Broodwar side by side.
Or better yet, they could just split the hybrid proleague season into two separate proleagues that do not have conflicting time slots. I do not believe hybrid format brings nothing advantageous to the table unfortunately.
On December 15 2013 04:49 Disregard wrote: Not enough strong Terran these days
What are you talking about? If anything, it's zerg lol. (Light didnt even enter this either btw)
Great rarely plays, Kwanro just says ssibal a lot on stream, I think s2 might be inactive cause havent seen him lately after he used to play all day beforehand. All the other zergs bar Killer will lose to first terran that they meet.
Zero has also been incredibly disappointing and depressing. People expecting him to do well based off name value are sorely deluded. His ZvP is still decent but losing to someone who splits playtime between LoL and BW doesn't help matters. (Brave) Zero is also fucked if he meets another zerg ie getting stomped 3-0 by Hero's mediocre zvz. (that loses to sziky)
So, it's basically just Killer (and hoping he gets over recent zvp issues and starts to really practice and not take more random breaks) and maybe hoping that Zero gets a lucky string of Protoss but then he'd lose to Killer. Stylistically, Zero seems to match up better to Bisu though. However, Killer did finally beat Bisu in a bo3 the other day. (after losing 0-2 to pure and going 1-1 vs Jaehoon.)
Jesus thats a pretty stacked lineup, this looks amazing. I bet it triples sc2 for live attendance as well. I can't wait. Will Sayle do a English version for those who prefer that kind of thing?
On December 15 2013 04:13 looknohands119 wrote: So sick. Glad to see Blizzard beginning to support BroodWar. It would be really cool if BroodWar and Starcraft 2 someday had a joint league where the games were run side by side.
oh god no.... Did you actually not see how much players suffered?
On December 15 2013 04:13 looknohands119 wrote: So sick. Glad to see Blizzard beginning to support BroodWar. It would be really cool if BroodWar and Starcraft 2 someday had a joint league where the games were run side by side.
no.nonononono.
we already had that and it was awful.
I dunno, I actually enjoyed the hybrid proleague season. With a few changes I think it could have been successful - most importantly ditching the rule that players alternate between games, and maybe alternating the ace matches between the games. Could have had actual quality SC2 and Broodwar side by side.
Regardless, it's really cool to see such passion coming together to support Broodwar.
While I agree that hybrid Proleague was kind of neat, that isn't really what I meant. Half the match being SC2 and half of it being BW seems like an inelegant solution. What I meant was a team league (or individual) that runs both a professional SC2 tournament and a professional BW tournament separately but side by side.
On December 15 2013 04:13 looknohands119 wrote: So sick. Glad to see Blizzard beginning to support BroodWar. It would be really cool if BroodWar and Starcraft 2 someday had a joint league where the games were run side by side.
oh god no.... Did you actually not see how much players suffered?
I'd love to see an SSL final at Blizzcon, though. Even if it was just the undercard for the WCS Finals, it'd be a huge benefit.
Did not expect blizzard support at all. Great! I'm looking forward to this :D
On the sc2 and bw tournaments organized together: sure, as long as time slots don't conflict and the two games have seperate league. I don't want hybrid proleague TT
On December 15 2013 04:49 Disregard wrote: Not enough strong Terran these days
Kwanro just says ssibal a lot
hahahahaha, that's an incredibly accurate summary of Kwanro's stream. Btw does anyone know where I can find recent vods of Midas/ is he any good right now?
On December 15 2013 04:49 Disregard wrote: Not enough strong Terran these days
What are you talking about? If anything, it's zerg lol. (Light didnt even enter this either btw)
Great rarely plays, Kwanro just says ssibal a lot on stream, I think s2 might be inactive cause havent seen him lately after he used to play all day beforehand. All the other zergs bar Killer will lose to first terran that they meet.
Zero has also been incredibly disappointing and depressing. People expecting him to do well based off name value are sorely deluded. His ZvP is still decent but losing to someone who splits playtime between LoL and BW doesn't help matters. (Brave) Zero is also fucked if he meets another zerg ie getting stomped 3-0 by Hero's mediocre zvz. (that loses to sziky)
So, it's basically just Killer (and hoping he gets over recent zvp issues and starts to really practice and not take more random breaks) and maybe hoping that Zero gets a lucky string of Protoss but then he'd lose to Killer. Stylistically, Zero seems to match up better to Bisu though. However, Killer did finally beat Bisu in a bo3 the other day. (after losing 0-2 to pure and going 1-1 vs Jaehoon.)
This is probably asking the impossible, but is there a place where someone is keeping a record of all matches/scores between players on Afreeca?
But now we have yet to see what is the extent of Blizzard's so-called "support" of the event and how well they hype in terms of writing. The range of this "support" is too large to speculate.
On December 15 2013 03:10 Stratos wrote: Final message: [i]"StarCraft: Brood War is still a loved game. As the famous foreign baseball player Yogi Berra said "The game's isn't over until it's over." - in that spirit, the StarCraft transmision did not stop although it was only through online means. I believe the transmition can continue until the very end.
On December 15 2013 03:10 Stratos wrote: Final message: [i]"StarCraft: Brood War is still a loved game. As the famous foreign baseball player Yogi Berra said "The game's isn't over until it's over." - in that spirit, the StarCraft transmision did not stop although it was only through online means. I believe the transmition can continue until the very end.
On December 15 2013 04:13 looknohands119 wrote: So sick. Glad to see Blizzard beginning to support BroodWar. It would be really cool if BroodWar and Starcraft 2 someday had a joint league where the games were run side by side.
On December 15 2013 04:13 looknohands119 wrote: So sick. Glad to see Blizzard beginning to support BroodWar. It would be really cool if BroodWar and Starcraft 2 someday had a joint league where the games were run side by side.
no.nonononono.
we already had that and it was awful.
I agree, it was a nightmare. Never again plz.
I completely agree with the above: Never again do I want to see these awesome BW players turn rusty from practicing 2 games and only going for 3 h hydra ZvP etc.
The thing I'm the most happy about is the casters.People like Kim Carry and GoRush's voice that I just adore. So amazing that they're both casting it and TheMarine going to be casting Sonic proleague is like a dream come true <333
Amazing. Can't believe how successful this BW resurgence has become. I wonder whether we might start to see sponsorships of individual players or even a team sponsorship in the next while?
On December 16 2013 05:01 tarpman wrote: Amazing. Can't believe how successful this BW resurgence has become. I wonder whether we might start to see sponsorships of individual players or even a team sponsorship in the next while?
On December 16 2013 05:01 tarpman wrote: Amazing. Can't believe how successful this BW resurgence has become. I wonder whether we might start to see sponsorships of individual players or even a team sponsorship in the next while?
And individual player sponsorship has already been here probably way before we got interested in Sonic StarLeagues. Many players still have their own sponsors' banners on pages/streams
I'm so fricking happy. Blizzard should just give up sc2 in korea and bring more power to bw. Koreans dont find sc2 anywhere exciting as bw.. PERIOD. lets just hope someone like shinhan bank sponsors them next then kespa will most likely drop sc2 and try to brung back bw.... When this happens sonic should say f u and just borrow their resources and power to make bw more enormous
Tournament sponsors, team sponsors and fresh blood. All signs of a strengthening Broodwar scene. I hope this trend continues and that the foreign community is able to overcome the impending Snipealot leaving Korea problem and get good coverage of the games some how.
it is clever for them to invite fengzi.. he can help attract tons of chinese watching the event(although i guess without his presence there will still be tons of chinese watching too...)
So there was too much disagreement over the terms of the contract. Fair enough, but what I don't understand is, doesn't this mean that the contract between Sonic and Monkey3 wasn't finalized before the announcement of the sponsorship? I'm no businessman so correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems like an incredibly amateur mistake. I support Sonic in standing up to the company and not agreeing to w/e it was that he didn't want, but it hurts to get this announcement after all the anticipation, and on Christmas Eve and all.
after monkey3 was announced they revised the contract several times and at one point monkey3 demanded things sonic and carry coulnd agree with. seems monkey3 tricked them...
Sponsorship news SSL9 will be sponsored by Sonic himself rather than Monkey3. The contract was constantly revised by Sonic & Carry and the sponsor and both sides just couldn't come to a conclusion. SSL9 is still happening, not sure if any details like prizepool will change, we'll have to wait for some kind of an official announcement on that.
On December 24 2013 23:53 ZeroChrome wrote: So there was too much disagreement over the terms of the contract. Fair enough, but what I don't understand is, doesn't this mean that the contract between Sonic and Monkey3 wasn't finalized before the announcement of the sponsorship? I'm no businessman so correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems like an incredibly amateur mistake. I support Sonic in standing up to the company and not agreeing to w/e it was that he didn't want, but it hurts to get this announcement after all the anticipation, and on Christmas Eve and all.
Considering Sonic already made his viewers go pickup some kind of monkey3 tickets for the site and shit like this it's clear both sides were working on that together.
*i.e. Sonic getting screwed over by Monkey3 that then backed out of the deal.
On December 24 2013 23:53 ZeroChrome wrote: So there was too much disagreement over the terms of the contract. Fair enough, but what I don't understand is, doesn't this mean that the contract between Sonic and Monkey3 wasn't finalized before the announcement of the sponsorship? I'm no businessman so correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems like an incredibly amateur mistake. I support Sonic in standing up to the company and not agreeing to w/e it was that he didn't want, but it hurts to get this announcement after all the anticipation, and on Christmas Eve and all.
From what I heard on SonicTV, it sounds like they had a handshake agreement in place and Monkey3 was the party that kept trying to change the terms. I would speculate that Monkey3 probably saw an opportunity to renegotiate with greater bargaining power once Sonic had committed himself by sinking some costs. It's not an uncommon abuse for firms with more power.
While not waiting for the ink to dry on the contract seems careless in retrospect, it also isn't that unreasonable for Sonic to have proceeded given the short turnaround. It's not how I would do business, but it is also the way that many people do business---based mostly on trust. There's a risk-reward trade-off there that is somewhat subjective.
It looks like Sonic will have to be our lone hero once again, which is unfair to him.
On December 25 2013 00:07 sukila wrote: stratos you should be careful with statements like this....you really think sonic would screw his viewer for few peanuts? dont think so....
I think he means that the two parties were working on the sponsorship together, so the announcement was not based on unilateral wishful thinking by Sonic. I don't think he meant that Sonic screwed the viewers, because he actually loses from this.
On December 24 2013 23:53 ZeroChrome wrote: So there was too much disagreement over the terms of the contract. Fair enough, but what I don't understand is, doesn't this mean that the contract between Sonic and Monkey3 wasn't finalized before the announcement of the sponsorship? I'm no businessman so correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems like an incredibly amateur mistake. I support Sonic in standing up to the company and not agreeing to w/e it was that he didn't want, but it hurts to get this announcement after all the anticipation, and on Christmas Eve and all.
Considering Sonic already made his viewers go pickup some kind of monkey3 tickets for the site and shit like this it's clear both sides were working on that together.
ye it was clearly stated that the changes of terms were requested by monkey3. i dont get why stratos is posting so much bullshit not even understanding korean and posting stuff he heard 3rd hand. sometimes if u dont have any clue u just have to stfu...thanks
On December 24 2013 23:53 ZeroChrome wrote: So there was too much disagreement over the terms of the contract. Fair enough, but what I don't understand is, doesn't this mean that the contract between Sonic and Monkey3 wasn't finalized before the announcement of the sponsorship? I'm no businessman so correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems like an incredibly amateur mistake. I support Sonic in standing up to the company and not agreeing to w/e it was that he didn't want, but it hurts to get this announcement after all the anticipation, and on Christmas Eve and all.
Considering Sonic already made his viewers go pickup some kind of monkey3 tickets for the site and shit like this it's clear both sides were working on that together.
ye it was clearly stated that the changes of terms were requested by monkey3. i dont get why stratos is posting so much bullshit not even understanding korean and posting stuff he heard 3rd hand. sometimes if u dont have any clue u just have to stfu...thanks
I'm pretty sure Stratos does understand Korean, and is giving us the best, most up-to-date info he can. Your last comment was very caustic and offensive to someone who's doing his best, and whom you have misinterpreted. Do you really find it that hard to apologise that you have to go right in the other direction and be even ruder? Come on now.
On December 25 2013 00:57 sukila wrote: ye maybe i misunderstood this part....but hes also saying that the changes of terms came from sonics side which is not true
"The contract was constantly revised by Sonic & Carry and the sponsor and both sides just couldn't come to a conclusion." That's along the lines of what Horangnabi translated for us in the chat and from what I get it neutrally states that either side (probably Monkey3 in this case) suggests a change that is then either accepted or revised by the other side.
In my other statement, I was merely saying that it wasn't like Sonic arbitrarily decided to announce the sponsorship before it was a deal but since there was a cooperation present on other levels it was rather Sonic (and his viewers) getting screwed over by Monkey3 who then backed out of the deal - certainly not the other way around. I'm sorry if that was unclear.