If you had told me a year ago that by the summer I would a regular e-sports watcher, I’d have called you crazy. But here I am, Wednesday-Sunday evenings, planted in front of the laptop watching Starcraft 2, and all giddy about the North American Star League finals in a few weeks. Let this be a lesson, a lot can change in a year!
Starcraft Nerd
Anyway, you may ask, "Lisa, there are so many great pro Starcraft gamers, how do you ever decide who to cheer for?" Good question, reader! It can be complicated, especially when you’re new to watching e-sports and don’t know all the players. Fortunately, I made this handy guide for how I decide who to cheer for in a Starcraft 2 match…
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| From Blogger Pictures |
I love everything about this chart.
<_ <
I always cheer for Purple.
😀
It’s a little more complicated, really, as a grumpy zerg might win my favor over Protoss even if he’s not using purple, but eh, the flowchart didn’t need to be THAT complicated.
Hello everyone, this is H to the usky HUSKY!
THAT’s who i’m cheering for! 😀
..also for “TheLittleOne” since he’s one of the few Germans in the game. So i guess i would fall under “cheer for the foreigner from your home country” XD
TLO was in the NASL, but he didn’t make it into the playoffs 🙁 There are a few other Germans in there, though. Hasuobs, and I think Socke is German? Maybe not, I can’t keep track 🙂
My favorite is Ret, he’s an amazing zerg player and he’s SO happy and cheerful and friendly sounding when he wins.
Also, I saw Husky at E3! He was playing Skyward Sword in the Nintendo booth.
I’m sorry, but the idea of “professional” Starcraft players makes me roll my eyes.
Why so disdainful? Maybe you’re not into e-sports, but that’s no reason to belittle them. I might think curling is silly, but I don’t roll my eyes at professional curlers.
And they are professional, because they get paid to play it. That’s all that “professional” anything means. They don’t make as much as football players, of course, but some of them make more than my yearly salary in the course of a few months of tournaments.
Also, you do know that Starcraft is the National sport of Korea, right?
Well that’s just silly.
Why do you think it’s silly? Seriously, I think it’s amazing and wonderful that a video game has such a mainstream place somewhere that it’s enjoyed by the entire nation to that degree.
Part of it is jealousy, I guess. I’m good at video games, but nobody pays me to play them. How do they decide who’s a “pro” gamer, anyway? Do these guys have to apply for sponsorship or something? IDFK.
They do, actually, usually the teams are sponsored or sometimes individual players will get a sponsor.
I imagine to get on a team you have to try out, just like any other professional sport.
Also, I think you can enter tournaments without a team, and if you do well, you might get offers from teams or sponsors. I’m not sure exactly how it works, but I know like anyone can sign up to compete in MLG or whatever, and even the NASL has an open tournament for a spot in the grand finals.
After checking with someone more knowledgable than I, yes, individuals get sponsors, and most of the top players are on teams. Teams usually recruit from tournaments from people who enter and do well. Sponsors pay for stuff like tournament fees and such, and make it so you can actually play professionally (these guys practice nonstop) but I think they also take a cut of the winnings.
And if you are jealous about it, and are upset that no one’s paying you to play games, then maybe you should seek to become a professional gamer! You do realize, though, that’s like being a hobbyist soccer player and getting mad because professional soccer players get paid to play.
RTS’s aren’t the only games with an esports presence – Many FPS and fighting games also have professional players.