Starcraft 2 and China. What happened?

Ive always had a fascination for the "Dark Horse". China fit the role very well in the early days of SC2, With promising players that looked deadly but we still only got to see a few matches. When XiaoT made a small splash on the scene as one of the most promising protoss players in the world, i was so excited, but then he retired, and seemingly the entire Chinese SC2 scene with him.

China is the highest populated nation in the world. Surely, there most be a huge pool of talent.

What happened? did the game die out in china or do they have a huge pool of great players that simply dont get to prove themselves on the international scene?

does anyone know whats going on over there?

Last edit: 2012-08-12 22:50:55

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Lyter United Kingdom. August 12 2012 02:54. Posts 1926

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sc2 isn't very big in china, i'm not sure if its even bigger than wc3 over there,
but dota definitely dwarfs it

silent_owl Philippines. August 12 2012 02:55. Posts 3097

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Same thoughts here.

DOTA is just too big there right now.

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Xiphos Canada. August 12 2012 02:56. Posts 5732

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Age of Empire 3 is even bigger than SC2 there.

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Zzoram Canada. August 12 2012 02:57. Posts 6758

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I think SC2 is too expensive in China and not available to many people so it has a limited player base.

Hypemeup Sweden. August 12 2012 02:58. Posts 2630

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On August 12 2012 02:54 Lyter wrote:
sc2 isn't very big in china, i'm not sure if its even bigger than wc3 over there,
but dota definitely dwarfs it

WC3 was huge in China though.

SiNKami United States. August 12 2012 02:59. Posts 1757

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between wc3, dota, and LoL... im not surprised that its not that big in china.

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Arceus Vietnam. August 12 2012 02:59. Posts 4687

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On August 12 2012 02:56 Xiphos wrote:
Age of Empire 3 is even bigger than SC2 there.

more like AoE 2 lol
afaik games like sc2 will never took off in China cuz it cannot be pirated. gg

eleaf August 12 2012 03:02. Posts 430

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The game is still popular. But many 'big names' are no longer being active right now.

To be honest, Chinese was scene never near Korea level and fell behind further and further in the long run. Those 'promising' players turns out to be not so promising in the end.

SomeONEx Sweden. August 12 2012 03:09. Posts 630

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From what I understand you have to pay per month to play Starcraft 2 on Chinese server, like WoW, and I'm sure that puts a hurting on it.

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bubblegumbo Taiwan. August 12 2012 03:18. Posts 1293

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Game popularity due to system requirements/price/learning curve and the lack of big Chinese companies willing to invest in esport teams.
You can buy the game in full and not worry about the monthly price. It will take something pivotal like a Chinese player winning a big international tournament(like Sky did for WC3) to make interests pick up.

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chrisgreg Canada. August 12 2012 03:18. Posts 60

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China has a scene that isn't as televised as the rest of the world :/

When my brother was over there for military work he said the bars were packed with locals watching sc2 and he seen it a lot on the streets. Mind you he doesn't play the game so I knew he wasn't biased...

And as far as I know the G-League is a huge success in China

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PhoenixVoid Canada. August 12 2012 03:20. Posts 8619

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My guess is that DoTA and LoL eclipse SC2 in popularity because they are free and easier to play.

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Vindicare605 United States. August 12 2012 03:21. Posts 6487

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On August 12 2012 02:59 Arceus wrote:

Show nested quote +

more like AoE 2 lol
afaik games like sc2 will never took off in China cuz it cannot be pirated. gg

Pretty much lol.

WC3 was the most pirated game in history for a while, doesn't take a genius to figure out where most of the people pirating it were from.

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Rescawen Finland. August 12 2012 03:23. Posts 457

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well iv seen neotv in shanghai lan events, seems quite ok to international events but as chinese events not so good, sc2 wont be successful if micro transaction doesnt work in sc2. Sc2 arcade is going towards that direction so we can only hope.

canikizu August 12 2012 03:24. Posts 2024

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SC1 wasn't even that big in China compared to WC3, AOE, dota, a bunch of MMOs. There're no reasons for SC2 to be popular in China.
Don't get me wrong, they still can produce great players and everything, but the game itself remain not as popular as others.

iky43210 United States. August 12 2012 03:29. Posts 1951

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a copy of starcraft 2 is very expensive for the average Chinese gamers. Pretty much almost all games are free to play or go home when talking about penetrating the Asia market.

Also RTS being a semi-dead genre with more people today prefer teams/objective games didn't help either

Last edit: 2012-08-12 03:30:43

Integra Sweden. August 12 2012 03:38. Posts 4915

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On August 12 2012 03:09 SomeONEx wrote:
From what I understand you have to pay per month to play Starcraft 2 on Chinese server, like WoW, and I'm sure that puts a hurting on it.

No you don't have to. SC2 full retail with the same price range as in USA or EU, can be bought in china
for a one time fee just like everywhere else. however They have an alternative price model in China which
lets people buy a subscription based version of SC2. this version costs you a monthly fee only to pay but its very low,
like 5 bucks a month or something. The subscription based version can at any time be upgraded to full retail.

EDIT: And what everyone else already are pointing out, in China the more pirated the game is the more people play it

Last edit: 2012-08-12 03:40:05

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Dingodile August 12 2012 03:41. Posts 427

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On August 12 2012 03:24 canikizu wrote:
SC1 wasn't even that big in China compared to WC3, AOE, dota, a bunch of MMOs. There're no reasons for SC2 to be popular in China.
Don't get me wrong, they still can produce great players and everything, but the game itself remain not as popular as others.

Exactly.
An example is WCG 2009, 7.000.000 chinese people watched something at the venue. Wc3 had the most viewer at WCG 2009.

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babylon August 12 2012 03:42. Posts 6231

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On August 12 2012 03:18 chrisgreg wrote:
China has a scene that isn't as televised as the rest of the world :/

When my brother was over there for military work he said the bars were packed with locals watching sc2 and he seen it a lot on the streets. Mind you he doesn't play the game so I knew he wasn't biased...

And as far as I know the G-League is a huge success in China

Yeah, G-League's strong, but G-League also features DotA(!!!!) and War3, which count for most of its success. It's pretty much the last big mainly-RTS tournament in China. Everything else is MOBA.

Basically, SC2 can't be pirated and is fairly expensive. Why waste time with SC2 when you can play free (or pirated) games like LoL, DotA, War3, and like ... a veritable horde of other games? Even War3 only started getting really big when Sky broke into the scene and people started caring.

Most of the SC2 pros in China are halfhearted War3 pros, ex-War3 pros, or ex-BW pros. There's really not that much new blood, and they're not really fostering much new blood either.

Last edit: 2012-08-12 03:43:15

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