The premise seems interesting, but the shows they mentioned sound horrible, in my opinion. But it's great that people are gravitating towards this type of thing.
Personally, I watch StarCraft 2 games from the GSL which is a Korean SC2 tournament. That's pretty much replaced television for me, and I view it as a sport.
It's amazing how things are changing. If nothing less, at least the future of these things will definitely be interesting.
I used to play quite a bit of StarCraft (v1.04-1.16) back in the day. There were hardly any competitions back than. It's amazing to see how big/professional/commercial the gaming industry is becoming though.
Good Read. StarCraft and the expansion set (Brood War) had huge influenced on my student days (they way of thinking, overview of strategies vs tactics, economy, resources). To some extent it helped me to find passion and inspired me to be the me today (still benefit from the stuff I learned over the years playing SC when designing UI, Operational Workflows, software engineering, Architecture of IT infrastructure), and will definitely go further.
I was very excited to see Blizzard make StarCraft Remastered and purchased when it was made available, played with some passionate friends from time to time, unfortunately, it's so hard to find people with similar level of skills (intermediate) nowadays to have a good game (also, it takes time for a single game, which we don't have nowadays).
BTW: Grrr..., Slayers_Boxer, remember the names? StarCraft helped to shape up eSports industry and created 1 of the greatest pro gamers in history. Look at the eSports industry today, phenomenal and incredible. Cannot imagine taking a pro gaming career back then, parents would have beaten the shit of that dreaming boy.
That's an interesting comment. I loved Starcraft as a kid. Played many hours every day. I'm now 33 and never got into Starcraft 2. Nowadays the idea is utterly unappealing. I just play the occasional Call of Duty Warzone (similar to Fortnite) and it's fun.
I think a lot of people were playing sports, or practicing an instrument, or learning how to deal with the opposite sex (or maybe even the same sex), or reading. . . all of them, to me, more viable activities than Starcraft, at least at the level I played.
Starcraft II was really the only esport I ever cared about or watched. I think it is also widely considered the first esport. Make of that what you will.
Yep Broodwar is the only non athletic sport I've ever followed. I used to barely play broodwar but I watched it all the time with my friends. All the excitement and commentary and so on was fun. Then blizzard came out with starcraft 2 and it was all over. The minute they announced it had no LAN play, I knew I wouldn't buy it. And don't get me started on all the other things wrong with sc2 including pre-annouced 3 game money grab, the barely visible on the map creatures, etc.
I feel the same. Starcraft used to be what I would consider a 'light' game. As a teen I got big into the grognard strategy wargames, the kind with over 1000 units and >300 page rule books and very detailed simulation of everything. That and 4X games like Civilization and Alpha Centauri. So much planning and managing and problem-solving through epically long and large games.
Nowadays, in my 40s, it's things like Fortnite (my current favorite), Subnautica, and European/American Truck Simulator. Games where I can just relax and play and not have to do much thinking.
StarCraft was only ever big in Korea, StarCraft 2 is more so the opposite but that didn't come out until 2010. Counter Strike died in the mid 2000s and only in the last 2-3 years has made a big comeback.
eSports historically has gone through bubbles and we are currently in the 3rd one. No eSports has ever been dominant for a long period of time.
It really is like watching a very fast-paced sport match, except without all the constant in-your-face product branding. Like I remember college basketball used to be, except more cerebral.
I'd not played SC or SC2 much but I bought a (replacement - long story) copy last night.
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