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MLG scraps Starcraft 2?
- Thread starter Majine
- Start date
They were all over them last year as well.
Gotta make room for all those shooters i suppose.
I don't think it's too surprising at all.
SC2 is being overshadowed by other esports at the moment, namely LoL and Dota2, and Blizzard's mishandling of WCS is making it hard for folks like MLG to run major tournaments of their own.
I imagine that other organisations will drop the game over the next year, too.
Yep SC2 is a dying "esport". MOBAs (ie. LoL) dominating viewership, more sponsorships, probably cheaper to run accomodating way less overall players at say the Spring Championship. Then Blizzard mishandling WCS and not supporting events enough
Edit: Wow, beaten and even used the same word to describe Blizzard and WCS.
Edit: Wow, beaten and even used the same word to describe Blizzard and WCS.
AdventureRacing
Member
Viewership has dropped and isn't near the MOBA games but it isn't but enough to be dropped completely. I'd say this has more to do with blizzards bungling of the WCS system. It puts a strangle hold over the entire market making it incredibly hard to actually run your own tournament.
To be honest i'm surprised that Gom and Kespa are putting up with the situation they have been put in as well. When SC2 was booming these sort of considerations made sense but now that there are games like LoL dominating the viewership there is no reason for these tournaments to put up with it.
To be honest i'm surprised that Gom and Kespa are putting up with the situation they have been put in as well. When SC2 was booming these sort of considerations made sense but now that there are games like LoL dominating the viewership there is no reason for these tournaments to put up with it.
That's a shame, if true. Starcraft II is great to watch as a spectator.
Passive Assassin
Member
that sucks.
AdventureRacing
Member
Difference is Riot is a competent organization when it comes to running esports.
How is the viewership for SC2 tournaments these days? Back in the first year i remember the peak seemed to be 60k for MLG's big games and Dreamhack, i know the game has seen decline in viewership but that HotS gave it somewhat of a kick, though i can imagine that number is already declining.
Interfectum
Member
Agreed. Seems fitting to see SC2 marginalized across the board.
AdventureRacing
Member
Usually gets over 100K for the big tournaments. It's nowhere near what LoL or Dota2 can get but it's certainly not bad. I really don't think that is the reason the game is getting dropped.
It helps when the game is like 50x more popular to play of course. The primary viewership of esports are probably people who play(ed) the games and really like them.
Ecto311
Member
Right after day9 retweets dota2? I love starcraft 2 more than any other game I have played and played it daily for 3 years or more. Recently tried dota and not a huge fan since the learning curve is so high but damn if you are into spectating it is like going HD from black and white tv that blizzard provides.
AdventureRacing
Member
True enough. Blizzard aren't exactly helping there though, They completely abandoned team games and the arcade is a clusterfuck. The BW population never survived because of competitive 1v1, it was all the other stuff that kept the player base active. In SC2 they made it competitive 1v1 ladder or bust. Now they have improved it a bit (not enough) but it's all too late.
That plus it's incredibly hard to compete against the F2P model. I think it's something blizzard should have looked into earlier but i guess i don't know enough about their financials to know if it's viable.
Edit: Blizzard missed a massive opportunity with their own MOBA. It could have been big itself and they could have used it to strengthen their other brands. Had they actually got their hand into that market i think it would have put them in a good position being able to run tournaments involving both games. As is it's just one more big oppurtunity lost for blizzard.
As far as I know, Starcraft 2 viewership figures haven't fallen by much at all. They're still around 100k~ for the big finals.
The problem is, the game is being massively overshadowed by Dota 2 and LoL's viewing figures. Yesterday, I saw 300,000 people watching The International on twitch. I imagine that figure isn't close to what it peaked at yesterday. And then Riot is claiming that 8 million+ people tuned in to watch the finals of one of the more recent LoL tournaments.
SC2 simply can't compete with those kinds of viewer numbers.
Clearly you have never played SC2 or weren't a fan of SC1 because it's easily one of the best sequels and stands toe-toe with the original.
lol failure. Take your trolls elsewhere.
Felix Lighter
Member
So unfortunate that Blizzard never handled the esports aspect of SC2 well. It is a really great game to spectate.
Boo at this news!
He has probably played it more than 99% of gaf but yoshi is gonna yoshi i suppose.
GalacticSushiman
Member
LOL
Yoshichan
And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Please refrain from failing and take a minute to browse how active I am, and have been for years, in the SC-community.
I've been a diehard StarCraft fan since 1998 and I put over 1,000 hours into SC2 since 2010 (easily).
I've been saying this for well over a year, that DOTA 2 and LoL would knock SC2 almost completely out of eSports, but everyone just said "Wait for HOTS".
LOL, HOTS releases and five months later MLG drops SC2, yup. It's partially Blizzard's fault, partially trends. Blizzard could have done so much more to prop SC2 up as an eSport, but they were too little, too late
I've been saying this for well over a year, that DOTA 2 and LoL would knock SC2 almost completely out of eSports, but everyone just said "Wait for HOTS".
LOL, HOTS releases and five months later MLG drops SC2, yup. It's partially Blizzard's fault, partially trends. Blizzard could have done so much more to prop SC2 up as an eSport, but they were too little, too late
AdventureRacing
Member
What can they really say, there is nothing they can do about it now. Hopefully they take notice of exactly what impact they are having on the scene and do something about it.
Felix Lighter
Member
He speaks only in hyperbole, he's either in full on ultra hype mode or full on hate mode. There is no middle ground.
Imp the Dimp
Member
Is it that much of a trainwreck? Never really heard much about what SC1 veterans had to say about it.
It's just Yoshichan. His rages ahould not be taken seriously.
Jack Random
Member
Watching SC2 at MLG showed me that i could enjoy watching someone playing a video game competitively. Sad to see it go.
I like Yoshichan, a lot, but SC2 is not a failure of a game by almost any metric other than how much people enjoy watching its competitive gameplay compared to games in a completely different genre. Ridiculous hyperbole.
Felix Lighter
Member
I'd say this is less a result of the quality of the game and more of a result of the MOBA trend, the game not being free to play and general Blizzard mismanaging it as an esport.
Yeah, I don't have a problem with him, seems like a nice guy, I just think it's good to read his posts from the right perspective.
Imp the Dimp
Member
I see. Thank you. Dota 2 is the best game in existence though. No shame getting replaced by it.
AdventureRacing
Member
HOTS saw viewership rise by quite a lot compared to the end of WOL. I really feel like WCS just talk all of the wind out of the sales of the game, i know it certainly affected my enjoyment of the scene. It could have been great but it was just mis-timed and poorly managed. For the first time in a long time there was a lot of positivity around the scene and blizzard managed to kill it.
demosthenes
Member
Yea, to play LoL or Dota 2 you go download it.
To play SC2 you have to spend upwards of $80 now to play HOTS. Completely different. When HOTS came out I thought they would make WoL F2P.