The official site is now up. Matches start the 7th!
Thursday, January 31, 2013
A New Addition
I would like to introduce the newest member of the the team here at e-Sports (The Rise), Myself.
I am Preston "Tripped" Orr, avid e-Sports viewer, commentator and player. After years of being influenced by personalities such as Day9, Tastosis, and TobiWan I am ready to start taking a more active role in the e-Sports community. My primary focus will be on Starcraft 2 with a smattering of insight into the Dota2 community; and some good natured trash talk towards League of Legends.
With introductions out of the way I want to bring attention to the most important event in International SC2 e-Sports; which happens to be occurring in just over 6 hours. EG.Stephano [RC], the foreign hope, will be making his GSL Code S debut.
For those of you who are not familiar with the Starcraft2 e-Sports community this game is hugely popular in South Korea, and the programmer scene is dominated by Koreans. Therefore anyone who is not Korean is considered a "foreigner". With a prize pool of over $160,000 USD GSL Code S is largest Starcraft 2 tournament in the world. If Starcraft was Soccer, the GSL would be England, and Code S would be the Barclays Premier League.
EG.Stephano [RC] is regarded by many as the best foreign progammer of all time. Teamliquid posts "Already the best non-Korean to play the game, success in Code S would make Stephano one of the greatest[progammers], period." The hopes and dreams of foreign SC2 fans across the world rest on Stephano's shoulders, directly under his ridiculous hair.
Tune in tonight at 1:10 AM PST at GOMTV.net and support Stephano, The GSL, and the e-Sports community.
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| Image Via Team Liquid |
IEM Sao Pualo - Ranking the Production
Currently watching the IEM Sao Pualo. The commentary has changed to English so I can understand it now. Going to be writing down notes on a few areas of rating production value of each tournament.
Commentary
Fluidity
Insight
Entertainment
Schedule
Games starting on time
Down time in between matches
Advertising
Visibility
Advertisers being seen and heard?
Viewership
Max
Min
Mean
I will try to collect as much data as I can. Taking notes as we go.
Wish me luck. If you have any suggestions on what to look for in productions let me know.
Commentary
Fluidity
Insight
Entertainment
Schedule
Games starting on time
Down time in between matches
Advertising
Visibility
Advertisers being seen and heard?
Viewership
Max
Min
Mean
I will try to collect as much data as I can. Taking notes as we go.
Wish me luck. If you have any suggestions on what to look for in productions let me know.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Recognition by the Mainstream
Today I saw the second post from ESPN on League of Legends so I wanted to share with everyone.
http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/tech/post/_/id/3979/league-of-legends-mimics-regular-sports
There is a great video in this article. It interviews teams qualifying to be a salaried teams in season 3. These players are competing for a year long salary. This will allow players to dedicate their lives like any other professional to their sport.
The article does a great job at showing how dedicated these players are to their profession. Also how the industry of e-Sports has grown with "viewership that trumps the NHL" . This fact, while not quantified in the article, is pretty amusing. That a "fake sport" has more viewership than a "real" sport.
Another really cool part of this article is this
We’re hoping to build a Monday Night Football-type experience where you can see an exciting, high-production-value show. With this structure we are setting up, fans will be able to tune in Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and see their favorite teams play. We created a studio in Los Angeles and hired producers with backgrounds from the NFL and the Olympics in order to do that type of storytelling that they do so well in pro sports.”
You can see the similarities when the commentators are running play by plays similar to an ESPN Sportcenter episode. Yes there is actual strategy and break down that sometimes is the chaos of a video game. You just need to learn how to see it. Just like in football there is misdirection and a lot of chaos in the trenches. While in football everyone really just focus who has the ball in e-Sports every player has the ball which can make it difficult but that much more exciting s you never now who will make a big play.
See Jatt breaking down a late game play during the North American Qualifiers.
There is a misconceptions about gamers and gaming teams that the article reinforces that I would like to point out.
" I can already envision the bottles of Mountain Dew littering the floor."
One thing all the professional teams have learned quickly is that to compete at this level they have to be mentally and physically sound. Most professional teams especially in Korea maintain a strict eating and exercise diet. The stereotype of gamers surrounded by junk food may have some credibility to the average gamer should not be cast on to these professionals. While many still take energy drinks during tournaments, gone are endless packages of junk food for these pros.
The best is this final quote
There have been eSports events in Korea with over 100,000 attendants, and we see that as something in our near-term horizon. For us, it’s go big or go home.
Korea has been the mecca for e-Sports the past ten years. My dream is that the North American scene can be come as big as Korea. So far we filled the USC stadium at the World Championship Series. Who knows what next years World Championships will hold for us.
World Championship Series in the Fall in the USC sports arena. Wish I was there.
Remember the first rule in League of Legends: Don't Die.
http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/tech/post/_/id/3979/league-of-legends-mimics-regular-sports
There is a great video in this article. It interviews teams qualifying to be a salaried teams in season 3. These players are competing for a year long salary. This will allow players to dedicate their lives like any other professional to their sport.
The article does a great job at showing how dedicated these players are to their profession. Also how the industry of e-Sports has grown with "viewership that trumps the NHL" . This fact, while not quantified in the article, is pretty amusing. That a "fake sport" has more viewership than a "real" sport.
Another really cool part of this article is this
We’re hoping to build a Monday Night Football-type experience where you can see an exciting, high-production-value show. With this structure we are setting up, fans will be able to tune in Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and see their favorite teams play. We created a studio in Los Angeles and hired producers with backgrounds from the NFL and the Olympics in order to do that type of storytelling that they do so well in pro sports.”
You can see the similarities when the commentators are running play by plays similar to an ESPN Sportcenter episode. Yes there is actual strategy and break down that sometimes is the chaos of a video game. You just need to learn how to see it. Just like in football there is misdirection and a lot of chaos in the trenches. While in football everyone really just focus who has the ball in e-Sports every player has the ball which can make it difficult but that much more exciting s you never now who will make a big play.
See Jatt breaking down a late game play during the North American Qualifiers.
There is a misconceptions about gamers and gaming teams that the article reinforces that I would like to point out.
" I can already envision the bottles of Mountain Dew littering the floor."
One thing all the professional teams have learned quickly is that to compete at this level they have to be mentally and physically sound. Most professional teams especially in Korea maintain a strict eating and exercise diet. The stereotype of gamers surrounded by junk food may have some credibility to the average gamer should not be cast on to these professionals. While many still take energy drinks during tournaments, gone are endless packages of junk food for these pros.
The best is this final quote
There have been eSports events in Korea with over 100,000 attendants, and we see that as something in our near-term horizon. For us, it’s go big or go home.
Korea has been the mecca for e-Sports the past ten years. My dream is that the North American scene can be come as big as Korea. So far we filled the USC stadium at the World Championship Series. Who knows what next years World Championships will hold for us.
Remember the first rule in League of Legends: Don't Die.
The Beginning
So today starts my first blog about e-Sports and my journey to help promote and make this community my job. To explain where this passion came from we must travel back two years and half years.
The year is 2010 and I am introduced to a game League of Legends. My friends from high school were playing the game and I wanted to play with them. So I would casually play only when they were online. I still preferred console games at the time. Once I finally hit level 30 I was hooked. I began playing daily in solo-que.
By the end of 2011 I was not only playing League daily but I was now watching professionals play. This was just after Team Solo Mid had won IPL 4 with their new top laner Dyrus. I begin to watch The Oddone constantly. I now see why I prefer a support jungler role. As I watched The General (Oddone's nickname) destroy in games I began my journey with e-Sports. Not only did I tune in for his streams but any organized competition I could find.
Fast forward to August of 2012. I have just hit the road for my time as a consultant for Delta Tau Delta. I found I have a lot of time on my hands alone. League of Legends and e-Sports become even more my passion. During matches of SC2 and LOL I find my self on edge and yelling at my computer like any sports fan would. During the World Championships I was crushed when my team TSM (Baylife) were knocked out. However like any sports fan I stayed true to my team. This tournament was when I knew I wanted to work in e-Sports and help this community grow.
So here is one step. I will blog to help educate the masses about this growing community and I hope you all enjoy reading my journey to not only attend live events but help to create these events.
As I write this blog I am watching one of the coolest new leagues.. Rising Stars Invitational. A great league of teams that are just about to become professional. This is similar to European soccer leagues. that have top leagues and then minor league teams that sometimes pop up to the top league. http://www.twitch.tv/mlglol
The year is 2010 and I am introduced to a game League of Legends. My friends from high school were playing the game and I wanted to play with them. So I would casually play only when they were online. I still preferred console games at the time. Once I finally hit level 30 I was hooked. I began playing daily in solo-que.
By the end of 2011 I was not only playing League daily but I was now watching professionals play. This was just after Team Solo Mid had won IPL 4 with their new top laner Dyrus. I begin to watch The Oddone constantly. I now see why I prefer a support jungler role. As I watched The General (Oddone's nickname) destroy in games I began my journey with e-Sports. Not only did I tune in for his streams but any organized competition I could find.
Fast forward to August of 2012. I have just hit the road for my time as a consultant for Delta Tau Delta. I found I have a lot of time on my hands alone. League of Legends and e-Sports become even more my passion. During matches of SC2 and LOL I find my self on edge and yelling at my computer like any sports fan would. During the World Championships I was crushed when my team TSM (Baylife) were knocked out. However like any sports fan I stayed true to my team. This tournament was when I knew I wanted to work in e-Sports and help this community grow.
So here is one step. I will blog to help educate the masses about this growing community and I hope you all enjoy reading my journey to not only attend live events but help to create these events.
As I write this blog I am watching one of the coolest new leagues.. Rising Stars Invitational. A great league of teams that are just about to become professional. This is similar to European soccer leagues. that have top leagues and then minor league teams that sometimes pop up to the top league. http://www.twitch.tv/mlglol
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