Video games in general and RTS games in particular are big business in Korea. The government of South Korea recognizes gaming competitions as professional sports, and matches between high-level competitors and teams are shown on national television stations. These competitions have become known as eSports with significant payouts for winners and there are individuals who actually make a living off of playing games. Sounds like a good deal, doesn’t’t it?
The most popular of the games played at a professional level is, not surprisingly, StarCraft. Even 11 years after its release, there are still entire teams (which include a coach and training regimen), which play StarCraft on a regular basis for prize money. In our imaginations, these coaches also give inspirational speeches between matches and the training undertaken by players likely happens by way of a montage.
Regardless, though, these teams are intense. Most are exclusively Korean, though some have a bilingual coach. During the peak of the original StarCraft’s popularity, there were also several “Hexatrons” which were teams comprised entirely of foreign players, but these are the exception, obviously.
In an interview with “Artosis”, an American StarCraft player who made quite a name for himself in the eSports community with his dedication to Terrans and innovative strategies, he talked about Korean as a haven for gamers, both because of the government recognition, and the fact that almost every person in the entire country plays StarCraft. We can only imagine two doting Korean grandmothers exchanging expletives over a bile-filled match of StarCraft: Brood War.
StarCraft, in addition to being a massively popular pastime and the gold standard for RTS games in terms of balance and “replayability”, has also managed to transition into a form of sport as well, and one that pays out if you’re really, really good it. But to clarify here, this isn’t’t the sort of “good” you get by playing in your parents’ basement every night. This kind of talent comes from years of practice and getting on a good team with a great coach. According to Artosis, who now works for an international eSports company and does commentary on live StarCraft matches, foreign teams who begin playing StarCraft II when it arrives will initially have an advantage over Korean-only teams as many of them will not transfer over to the new game right away. In the long haul, however, he believes the Korean (and Chinese – it’s quite popular there, as well) work ethic will overtake the initial burst of talent from North American competitors. At high levels, StarCraft isn’t’t about fun. It’s work.
So we can thank the Korean community in large part for keeping StarCraft alive, and we can also look to them for odd linguistic phraseology which shows up in other Blizzard games. According to legend, the original StarCraft did not fully support Korean translation and characters in its chat functions, and the closest approximation that Korean players could make to the sound of laughter using these restrictions was to type “kek”. Kek? Yeah…kek. Not sure why is, but we’ll take their word for it.
This has now shown up in other Blizzard games as homage to Korean players, most notably in World or Warcraft, where when a player of the Horde faction says “lol”, those on the Alliance nearby will often see it displayed as “kek”. Blizzard is nothing if not supportive of its own oddities.
While StarCraft II will inevitably take its place among the other eSports currently being played in Korea, where it will stand in priority is still up for debate. The top competitors in the StarCraft universe can perform between 250-450 actions per minute, be that clicking or units, moving them, or ordering new production. There are concerns that the new StarCraft will not support as many APM as the original, leading to a different style of gaming less suited for competitive play. StarCraft, in part because of its clunky interface (designed in 1999, people – give it a break), requires an intensive use of both the keyboard and mouse together to produce any hope of high-level victory.
In conclusion, we’re pretty sure that an eSports injury would involve Carpal Tunnel. Or your hands simply falling off.
