I caught some of the ESportventure Cup today (a 1,000 Euro mini-tourney organised by TaKe), and it got me thinking about the value of these kinds of tournaments. In terms of the community and the players they are obviously a win--players earn money and get exposure, while fans get to see their favourites. As competitions however, I think they lack something. Today's Cup was invite-only and the calibre of players included is a mixed bag. As much as we all love White-Ra, he hasn't had a significant result since early 2012 and it would be nice if TaKe had chosen to include younger players who could use the exposure. The inclusion of Ret is almost as out of place, as the Dutch Zerg has fallen off considerably over the last year. I would have preferred if he, Socke and MaNa (players unable to make it into challenger league) were replaced with lesser known players. Other than HeroMarine the entire tourney seems like older European pros having a LAN party. That being said, overall this is good for the game and community, but it doesn't attract my attention like tournaments that are focused on having the best play the best (or as exposure to up and comers, ala Shoutcraft America).
My second thought is about Starbow. For those who haven't heard about it, Starbow is a merging of StarCraft: Brood War and Heart of the Swarm. The effort seems borne out of frustration with balance and strikes me as extremely gimmicky (like Husky's IMBA league, albeit with a very different background). While there's a very small, hardcore fanbase of BW outside Korea, it doesn't strike me as anything other than a sideline to the competitive SC2 scene--a place for mid-tier pros who are unable to break into the WCS. While it doesn't interest me at all, it's certainly there for those who want to see something like BW with much better graphics.
I'll have thoughts on the newly released WCS challenger bracket soon.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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