Well, competitions and prizes attracts more and new players, so that isnt a bad thing. But I must admit it was more entertaining to follow sc2 tournaments in late beta and just when the game came out.

The more you get the less excited your are for each one. It's even how i felt when quake tournaments suddenly changed from one or two big major tournaments a year to one every second month.

So basicly popularity can kill a game? Sounds weird, but it make sence

No, if the amount of leagues is sustainable then SC2 will flourish into the biggest eSports in history (excluding BW in Korea). It's just that there's less incentive to follow every single tournament as a spectator because there are so many.

For me a lot depends on the quality and availability of the content the tournaments produce. That being said I wouldn't buy a ticket for any event (had ESLTV premium for some time but it was a reasonable price and also had quake) because I'd rather buy an NBA league pass if I wanted to pay for streams.

GSL - don't follow it, won't pay for the ticket, last time I checked the free stream almost gave me eye cancer and AFAIK VODs arent free

NASL - online tournament, I'm not too fond of Gretorp's and iNcontrol's casting, stream lagged like shit last time I checked

TSL - good quality live stream with quality content for free, must watch IMO

MLG, DH, IEM or almost any other live event - good quality streams with quality content for free + ESL has a reasonable price for premium streams

every other online cup or one day cup I don't follow, got better stuff to do than to watch starcraft for 2-3 hours per day.

- gsl code s when I wake up in time and got time :P
- nasl but only interesting games.
- tsl
- Sometimes rottiuni (seeing carmac raging is priceless :D:D:D:D) and taketv.

and then the big tournaments.

I don't watch cups but imo they aren't bad as more and more players can take a year or two off and focus only on gaming.
I wish quake had the same popularity as the world elite would get tighter :(

I think the game needs some time as big tournaments need to establish themselfs on the market. Right now there is no tournament except the gsl which has the same status as iem does for quake and cs.

I don't agree that tournaments need more time to establish themselves, MLG/GSL/DH/TSL/IEM are already established tournaments, maybe ESL would like the IEM to be more important than it is but then they'd probably have to change the concept a bit.

Obviously nothing has the prestige that the GSL has but to me it seems that most good western players will stay in the west and try to pick up some price money at the numerous LANs in the west rather then try to qualify for GSL and most likely pickup only little in Korea. I think the MLG and DH and TSL events already have a lot of prestige.

Does kinda make you regret you didnt start playing sc back in the day instead of qw/q3

NO

well you live in a country where having a viable connection for q3 by definition makes u rich so i understand

you are retarded even if the statement was true

wouldnt i want to play less ping Dependant games then, like sc ?

think young man, its not a crime yet :>

No u are retarded to bounce back ure own words

U wouldnt want to play a less fun game just for money when u can easily afford to play a better one

what? rofl....

You aren't making sense.

He never does.

I only follow LAN events such as iSeries (Which is like 3 times a year, shoutcasted by TB) or the MLG LANs and a few online ones like IPL or NASL and definitely the TSL whenever it's on.

why would you put yourself through the torture of listening to tb?

I actually prefer him over most shout-casters, and he's northern<3.

it's a good thing but too many games can result in players not trying nearly as hard and thus boring games (see NBA).

I agree that too many games in a single league would probably be counterproductive but I think that a lot of these one day cups are just practice for the top players just like a lot of athletes attend minor tournaments or competitions as practice in real sports.

Yeah there is just too much going on to follow everything and if you want to see it all (leagues, daily tournaments, big tournaments, lan, vods) you'd have waste half a day everyday. On top of that SC2 gets so boring if you watch it too much, at some point it's a good sleeping material.

Now I watch only GSL code S and some LAN events, true story.

MLG has stupid timing and vods are for $$$ so pff, and their production looks like it's done by amateurs. I prolly gonna watch LAN finals tho.

IGN spoiled the whole tournament outcome, so I knew Idra would win in the end - no need to watch :D

MLG is good to get drunk at night and watch how they can't handle the stream, some good games too.

I was disappointed about TSL, I read somewhere that it's going to be from ro16 LAN in their headquarters in US, but they're still playing online = not so prestigious.

I'm just a bit jealous that Quake doesn't even get 1/6 of what SC2 gets now. I have to admit though that Quake online is kinda boring (1v1) , Zotac is so boring and dull as fuck that I even don't know how those ~500 people can watch it without felling a sleep.

TDM is awesome to watch.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=218463
I'm sorry but fuck me that's a lot of competition for 15 days.

i still wish it was the same way with quake :<

Don't we all? :(

only watched DH invitational and code S + team leagues lately

rest seems boring

visit teamliquid, watch recommended games = profit

http://sc2ratings.com/ seems nice aswell

nice!

It's an issue of too many 'tournaments'. There should be build-up, like any pro-sport does. You have a regular season, followed by playoffs and championships. When every day is the World Cup, the value is lost.

There are a number of sports that don't have a regular season and playoffs but many major and minor tournaments also no SC2 tournament claims to be the World Cup AFAIK. Your analogy is shite especially since most of the American leagues that follow the regular season + playoff scheme claim to be world championships when there are normal world championships organized by the international federations of the respective sport, if everyone did that we'd have a soccer world cup every other day...

if only we could go back 10 or so years when it was about winning and respect and prestige and not about money.

money has been the downfall of this hobby for many years. its never going to be mainstream so enjoy it for what it is!

Could you please elaborate on how money has ruined eSports? Especially when IIRC the prize money in 2001 has been the same if not higher than today?

It was much higher.

Yeah and how much of it got payed out and how many tournaments are still here from back then ;)

Like ESL pays...

Yes ESL pays all prizes, however they are mostly delayed for 6 month+

after first hype I started my interest with sc2, all im seeing are collosi siege tanks bio balls and muta/baneling or roach hydra, snipes, rushes and drops, watching another duel on ztn for me is more appealing atm, when I compare games from like 2007/8 and games from like last iem I feel that there are still some matches in next events that will kick my ass, and on sc2 Im starting to feel that I saw everything already : some boxer shenenigans, solid macro plays with third bases within first 10 minutes of the map, some one base all ins by all races, and a shitload of standard games with some occasional drops and harassment, UGC gave me more nerd chills than all gsl matches in 2011 combined, but still like to tune in to just listen to tastosis ;)

With some more gameplay and mappool changes I think that there are more interesting things to come in quake than in sc2, maybe im wrong but this is how I feel right now, even if playerbase is few times smaller comparing to sc.

I suppose that if this pro gaming thing were to survive over time there would eventually be a system like european football or NBA/NHL.

uhh yes, and what do people say about football today?

way too many matches, every match labeled as match of the year/decade/century, boring, overkill, bla bla etc.

(I'm sure american sports are even worse in this regard, with their ridiculous amount of games per season)

Well, I still watch as many of Roma's games as I can.

I only watch code s...Otherwise i wouldnt even have time to play the game (school 38 hours per week)

They just need to make FEW REALLY BIG events with crazy amount of cash and hype coming in while keeping a lot of small events too to keep activity high, thats how they roll in real sports in order to make it intresting.