But EU Toss do stream a ton. You're watching a Toss who is very well known for being a micro-oriented player. If you watch Grubby or MaNa's stream (I actually watch MaNa's time to time to keep up with Toss builds) you'll see a different style of play. I know a few Terrans I really enjoy watching their stream but I take it for pure entertainment and not to learn from because if I try their stuff I just lose. I really try not to take much out of Demuslim's stream in terms of build and execution I just watch for his thought process. Same deal with QXC. But if I tune into Bomber or Taeja I try to learn from their actual execution since they have different styles.
StarCraft 2
- Thread starter Stosh
- Start date
Zaphid
Trakanon Raider
- 5,862
- 294
I made it a personal rule to play more than watch streams, I end up wasting too much time otherwise.
I think progaming being acceptable career choice is a western myth, how many pros are there in SK ? 100-200 ? Out of 10M ? They only broke into mainstream when they were marketed along their boyband celebrities.
I only watch streams when I'm at work. Though I still have issues finding the motivation to play the game when I'm tiered or had a rough day at work.
Consolation bracket announced for MLG. Pretty much fulfills the desire to see a bunch of foreigners.
Feast to ro4? Wtf he is going to get murdered by hero 3-0. Feast is a bottom rung foreigner even.
Tenksradomus gives his predictions:
MKP > Seed
Huk > BabyK
State > Vibe
Suppy > Bly
Creator > Minigun
Stephano > Thorzain
Goswser > SaSe
Hero > Feast
MKP > Huk
Suppy > State
Creator > Stephano
Hero > Goswser
MKP > Suppy
Hero > Creator
Hero > MKP
Hero wins
Tenksradomus gives his predictions:
MKP > Seed
Huk > BabyK
State > Vibe
Suppy > Bly
Creator > Minigun
Stephano > Thorzain
Goswser > SaSe
Hero > Feast
MKP > Huk
Suppy > State
Creator > Stephano
Hero > Goswser
MKP > Suppy
Hero > Creator
Hero > MKP
Hero wins
Quineloe
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 6,978
- 4,464
Where exactly do you think Germany is?
So it boils down to korean truancy officers being much worse at their job? I'm not buying it. There's no way a 14 year old drops out of school to go pro in a video game if the parents oppose it.
Sidian
Lord Nagafen Raider
- 1,279
- 7
Shitty part about foreigners is that the US / Europe is so huge and spread out compared to everything happening right in South Korea. South Korea is the size of (time to google this) Indiana or Kentucky in total size. Shit, living in Michigan I either can go to MLG Columbus once a year or Dallas once a year or New York once a year or (insert city far away) Let's also assume if I wanted to start a Team up and trying to relocated a group of players from all over the US to a certain area is really tough for people. I'd relocated almost anywhere in Michigan (minus Flint or Detroit lol) but trying to get me to say relocate to California or Texas is going to be a lot tougher. Not only is it a completely different area but you're a long distance from your friends and family.
The spread-out ness is certainly a factor for larger countries like the States. But smaller European countries could pull it off.
BTW as of right now (3:15 EST) they're restreaming Seed vs MKP
BTW as of right now (3:15 EST) they're restreaming Seed vs MKP
Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
- 44,428
- 53,880
What, you mean you don't like the way they did it in Warcraft, Warcraft 2, Warcraft 3, and Starcraft?
Anyway having finally had a chance to play through it, I really don't get some of the complaints about the HOTS campaign. It's too easy? Since when were these games difficult? When you were new to the genre? I remember having some trouble with Starcraft and especially Brood Wars because I hadn't played a whole lot of other RTS games yet. In fact, I never could beat the last Zerg mission for Brood Wars. I played through them again shortly before SC2 came out and I just steamrolled through everything, even that last Zerg mission that had given me so much trouble in the past. In Warcraft 3 and TFT, only a couple of missions gave me trouble on hard, I steamrolled everything else. If you're a veteran of the RTS genre, you will rarely ever find much of a challenge in a single player campaign.
I do agree that they did a much better job introducing the new units like the Lurker and Corsair in Brood Wars. WoL wasn't quite so bad about it, but HotS really did seem like nearly every mission was pretty much just about using your new unlocked unit. The whole thing seem really phoned in. What I really hated was that most of the missions with a gimmick were just blatant fucking ripoffs of the same gimmick in WoL, like feeding the ancient being a direct copy of the WoL mission where you collected the fancy gas for Tosh. I also disliked how it seemed that 75% of the fucking campaign was timed missions.
Also could have done without the War3 shtick of having Kerrigan in every single fucking mission, since she's so absurdly powerful. The 'hero' missions in this one also sucked a lot of fucking ass compared to how fun they were in WoL, especially the mission to set charges in the worm tubes on Char. Also I hated the fact that Raynor changes his mind and shows up to help in the last mission. I actually liked how he was completely horrified that she had re-zergified and basically said 'get the fuck away from me', but then he's all like you know what fuck it.
I dunno, I've got super low expectations for the Protoss expansion. Probably gonna be more of the exact same, starting with Zeratul being judged by the rest of the Protoss for helping Kerrigan and then a campaign focused entirely around your unit unlocks, 90% timed missions, one or two gimmick missions that are a complete copy of gimmick missions from WoL/HotS, and then a final mission where Zeratul, Artanis, Valerian, Raynor, and Kerrigan all hold hands and dance in a circle around Amon to defeat him.
Quineloe
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 6,978
- 4,464
They did what in Warcraft 3? Campaign 1, Here, those are priests, they heal. Now move it.
Units were added one by one, but they weren't given a glorious entry into the game, which was exceptionally silly since most of us had played with them for 3 years now in multiplayer.
Europe? Not sure what you're getting after. Is Germany a hotbed for NFL talent?
Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
- 38,640
- 16,689
Chris
Potato del Grande
- 19,985
- -10,409
I've always been intrigued by just who the Starcraft 1 player characters are.
I'm guessing Matthew Horner is the Terran one? Could Abathur be Kerrigan's guardian Cerebrate (he looks like a modified one)?
We'll get clues to the Protoss one next game and I think the entire Earth fleet was wiped out so the UED character will be dead?
I'm guessing Matthew Horner is the Terran one? Could Abathur be Kerrigan's guardian Cerebrate (he looks like a modified one)?
We'll get clues to the Protoss one next game and I think the entire Earth fleet was wiped out so the UED character will be dead?
Quineloe
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 6,978
- 4,464
Not to derail this, but there are Germans playing in the NFL right now despite not having had any access to the structure you have in the US (there's really no big football scene here, last first league game I went was ?3 entry fee and there were around 50 spectators only - and it was on an open field in a park)
So the whole "we don't have the infrastructure to raise #1 players here" is just a lame excuse, especially since it's very easy for a starcraft 2 player in NA / EU to train against other top players including koreans than it is for someone here to play against top football players due to the fact it's a physical sport. If they can pull it off, so can our "Pro" gamers.
Xequecal
Trump's Staff
- 11,559
- -2,388
IMHO, pro gaming is so attractive in South Korea is because unlike any other country, when a young person seriously weighs the pros and cons of attempting to become a pro gamer vs. going to school, the pro gaming track doesn't actually look that bad. Even if it's a long shot, that long shot can look pretty damn attractive compared to the SK high school experience. That means they start getting real pro gaming experience in at like age 14-16, way earlier than anywhere else. When they finally hit their prime they've got years of experience backing them up. If you start at like 18, 19, 20 years old, you won't have enough experience until you're too old and your reflexes aren't good enough to compete anymore.
South Korean high schools are, at least to Americans and Europeans, an incomprehensible nightmarish hell. South Korean society is very regimented. Leaving/getting fired/switching jobs is a pretty serious taboo, you can't build up experience in one job and then try to apply it to another one like Americans do. If you leave your job, noone else will hire you. This means your university entrance exam scores and consequently what university you end up going to determine what job you will get, and chances are you will be stuck at that job for life. The top companies only hire graduates from select top universities, so if you want to work at a good job you have to score high enough on the university entrance exam. Nothing else really matters.
Because the exam is so important, SK high school basically consists of 14 hours of studying a day, 7 days a week, for 5 years straight. This is not an exaggeration. That exam determines the track of your whole life. For males, this studying hell is followed by university studying hell, followed by conscription into the Army which is probably even worse, as the SK military is about as hardcore as it gets amongst first world nations. Also, SK has the same degree saturation problem as the US, which means even if you finally GET that degree from a top school, you still might not get a job.
If you become a pro gamer, you get to skip ALL of that. Yes, you still get conscripted, but you'll get real easy duty of playing on the Army's proteam (yes, they have one) rather that, you know, the hell of actual combat training.
Why do parents get on board? Well, since "the exam score determines your whole life" is true for almost everyone, even that 14 hours a day effort will not net you a competitive score on the university entrance exams unless you are exceptionally bright. Parents must therefore send their kids to $20,000/year private cram schools to help them study even harder. So yes, a lot of parents will be receptive to their kids trying to become a pro gamer. It'll save them $100,000. They know it's a long shot as well, but they also know they could spend $100,000 just to have the kid choke on the test and have it all be wasted as well.
South Korean high schools are, at least to Americans and Europeans, an incomprehensible nightmarish hell. South Korean society is very regimented. Leaving/getting fired/switching jobs is a pretty serious taboo, you can't build up experience in one job and then try to apply it to another one like Americans do. If you leave your job, noone else will hire you. This means your university entrance exam scores and consequently what university you end up going to determine what job you will get, and chances are you will be stuck at that job for life. The top companies only hire graduates from select top universities, so if you want to work at a good job you have to score high enough on the university entrance exam. Nothing else really matters.
Because the exam is so important, SK high school basically consists of 14 hours of studying a day, 7 days a week, for 5 years straight. This is not an exaggeration. That exam determines the track of your whole life. For males, this studying hell is followed by university studying hell, followed by conscription into the Army which is probably even worse, as the SK military is about as hardcore as it gets amongst first world nations. Also, SK has the same degree saturation problem as the US, which means even if you finally GET that degree from a top school, you still might not get a job.
If you become a pro gamer, you get to skip ALL of that. Yes, you still get conscripted, but you'll get real easy duty of playing on the Army's proteam (yes, they have one) rather that, you know, the hell of actual combat training.
Why do parents get on board? Well, since "the exam score determines your whole life" is true for almost everyone, even that 14 hours a day effort will not net you a competitive score on the university entrance exams unless you are exceptionally bright. Parents must therefore send their kids to $20,000/year private cram schools to help them study even harder. So yes, a lot of parents will be receptive to their kids trying to become a pro gamer. It'll save them $100,000. They know it's a long shot as well, but they also know they could spend $100,000 just to have the kid choke on the test and have it all be wasted as well.