Anyone who has been hanging out with me in the last couple months has probably had me bring up the Starcraft 2 competitive scene, something I've been following rather closely for many weeks now. Indeed, I'm not alone in this; although places such have South Korea have commonly had video games streamed live to audiences of hundreds of thousands, it is only recently becoming more popular in the Western scene. With that said, now that it's catching on, it's growing incredibly rapidly: for instance, MLG Columbus' 3 day tournament had a 16,000 member live audience and served over 1.3 petabytes of livestream data. Impressive numbers, and they only seem to be growing.
When I first started seriously watching the games and began getting really into it, I figured it was another kind of phase; I would get really into it for a few weeks, and then I would lose interest and move onto another hobby. However, here I find myself almost 6 months later still firmly entrenched in this world, and even watching a game while I'm typing this.
I had never really considered myself as someone into sports; I'll watch the Super Bowl, and the rare sports game when it's on TV and others are watching, but in general I couldn't name most sports team or major athletes, and I would never go out of my way to watch a game, especially alone. Despite this, I find myself staying up regularly till 4am to watch GSL and devoting many hours to watch VoDs and Youtube videos from major tournaments. Because of this sudden shift, I began wondering what makes the SC2 competitive scene different than any traditional sports scene that most of my other peers are fascinated with.
Playing the game
My initial impression was perhaps I enjoyed watching these games because I've gotten fairly decent the game myself-- thus, I have a better understanding of the tactics/playstyles, can better appreciate the effort it takes to pull off certain movies, and so on and so forth. It makes a certain amount of sense, as for instance I've been told I would probably enjoy watching soccer more if I understood the plays and tactics behind the movement of the players on the field.
However, the counter-argument would be the case that I play Ultimate and understand the game very well. And while I do enjoy watching other people play Ultimate, I've never gone out of my way to watch games, even when I've seen links to live tournaments and similar things. And on a non-personal note, there is apparently a surprisingly large population that watches SC2 tournaments but doesn't own a copy of the game. So the fact I play the game is probably not the reason.
Ease of Watching
A nice bonus for SC2 is the fact it's streamed on the internet, and since I'm on my computer a lot it doesn't require having something like cable or satellite TV to watch, and instead I can just watch something I'm using all the time anyway. The cost is also very low, since almost every livestream is free to watch, many casters and tournaments put up free VoDs, and tournaments that do charge for some things, like the GSL, have an incredibly low cost when you consider hours of entertainment per dollar spent (for instance, standard GSL is 24 nights of around 4 hours each for $10, which ends up being around 10¢ per hour).
However, there's lot of free content on the web now and lots of things to watch (just look at some of my more recent reviews) yet I often find myself watching a Youtube replay over the next episode in the anime I'm watching. So while the ease is probably a helpful factor, it is not the primary reason I watch.
Asymmetry of Knowledge
One post I read somewhere suggested that the key reason SC2 is so fun to watch is the asymmetry of information; in a major tournament, you as a viewer can see both players' perspectives, can see major events forming before they happen, and everything else that goes with it. This creates a sense of tension, kind of like watching a horror film and being unable to tell a future victim the bad guy is about to stab him.
I think it's a compelling argument, and has a lot in its favor, but the problem is it isn't perfect. The key counter-argument is I've spent many hours watching 1st-person streams such as Destiny, and watching these games does not present any kind of asymmetry of information. To be sure, watching Destiny is not the same as watching a major tournament, but they're obviously mostly similar, so this aspect is probably also not the key figure I enjoy watching SC2.
Personality of Players
SC2 boasts a large number of players & casters, and many of them have very outspoken personalities, whether it's Idra's BM, Huk's goofy trollishness, or Tastosis' amazing commentary synergy. In general this helps a lot, because it makes these people more than just players who are known for certain styles or whatever, but also are very real, recognizable people, and celebrities to a certain extent.
For instance, I think MC is an amazing player and his abilities are something I can only aspire to as a fellow Protoss player, but I wouldn't love him quite as much if it wasn't for his total "boss" attitude and ridiculously large amount of confidence. It adds another layer to the scene, and although this sometimes results in unnecessary amount of drama of /r/starcraft, in general I think it's a great thing and adds a lot of fun in following players.
But again, there's lots of cool people, and I'm sure famous athletes offer the same thing to a certain extent, so while the personalities of SC2 offer a lot, I don't think it's the primary factor.
Balanced Field and Intense Tactics
I really like esports in general because of one thing traditional sports are never going to offer, and that's a completely level playing field. My stalker in SC2 is always going to have the same speed, damage, armor, etc as your stalker in SC2, no matter how much I play. However, I can't make myself taller for something like Ultimate, and it's just a fact of life that there will probably people who will always be able to out-jump me no matter how hard I worked out or trained; physical limitations exist.
Thus, even though there are clearly "better" players in the e-sports scene, almost universally they are better because of the training and dedication they have put into the game, rather than honing an already impressive advantage. I'm sure there are exceptions, since perhaps there are genetic predispositions to things like multi-tasking and I'm just not aware of it, but in general this seemingly small difference makes a big deal to me. If I see some pro player pull off an amazing strategy, there is literally no reason I couldn't also pull it off if I put enough time and thought into it.
This comes across on the tactics side of things as well. In games like Ultimate, we've relied in past on things like "we can do x strat because our player y is definitively faster than his opponent."It's very clear in games like basketball as well, where one all-star player can make all the different in winning games.
However, because of the balanced playing field & units, you can't rely on your units being better than the other persons (ignoring all cries of imbalance and overpoweredness, this is true in mirror matches if nothing else). Thus, strategy and tactics become paramount, and as you become more knowledgeable about a game it becomes more acutely obvious how big a difference a seemingly small choice can make. Of course micromanagement of units can make a big difference as well, but if you don't have a solid macro core and an idea of what you're doing behind it, all of the micro in the world isn't going to help you.
I think it's the above reasons that really have drawn me into and kept me watching the SC2 competitive scene. Every game is a guaranteed "fair fight" in a certain sense, and the tactics and strategies are fascinating to watch and learn as they continue to evolve in the metagame.
Conclusion
I do think the final point is the real reason that I love watching SC2 so much, even to points where some days I watch more than I play. The other listed factors definitely contribute as well, but I think they add to rather than be the basis of my retention.
I think traditional and e-sports to obviously have a lot in common, but this last thing makes a big difference in how I'm willing to approach it, and the amount of time I put into it and enjoy watching. I will definitely be keeping an eye on it not just for entertainment value, but also as it continues to grow to see how it affects the general population and traditional sports coverage. I don't think America is suddenly going to turn into South Korea, but it'll still be interesting to see what happens.
-HTMC
On the physical limitations end of things, a Starcraft player could potentially have lost a finger or have small hands, which could potentially be an issue analogous to not being as tall as the next player.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that there are actually certain traits (mostly mental) that have a pretty big impact on whether or not somebody has what it takes to be a pro Starcraft player. Obviously, though, these things are much harder to quantify than height, etc.
ReplyDelete@BearMetal: I would put losing a finger to analogous to losing a leg; it's more of an issue of not being able to play, not a level of competence. The hands thing is potential, although I'm not really sure if it makes that much of a difference, since a keyboard isn't that large and most pros have set-ups where they don't have to move their hand (they just use the left side). Maybe, though.
ReplyDelete@Stormshrug: I agree, there is probably some innate level of ability that we're not able to quantify at the current time. If nothing else, the ability to think ahead, stick to a plan, micromanage, and play strategically definitely come to some people more naturally than others.
However, at it currently stands, the best players are from South Korea. This isn't because Koreans have better genes, but because they have the training environment where players train like "real" athletes, playing for hours a day and spending the rest of the time analyzing games, discussing strategy, etc. So what makes the Koreans currently better is a matter of dedication & commitment, not innate skill. Is that innate skill still a part of it? Probably, but it seems like determination overcomes that to some degree. In the future I'm sure we'll be able to say more definitively (hey maybe that's what I can use my Psych degree for) but for now, from my perspective, it's a pretty even playing field, at least more-so than traditional sports.
I think there's also the fact that unlike conventional sports, a game of Starcraft actually has a buildup of tension during a game, and there's always a climactic scene you can point to and say "this point,*right here* is where Fruitdealer lost." I think that's a large part of the reason for my increased tolerance for watching Starcraft over watching, say, football or Ultimate Frisbee-- because of course, in any game that's won off the accumulation of points, any point is just as valuable as any other.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I'm saying is: A single daring, swashbuckling-type maneuver can win a point in football, but it can win a *game* in Starcraft.