IEM Katowice was a fun tournament, albeit with a slightly disappointing ending (how great would it have been for Snute to win after making his way through such a difficult bracket?). Snute shared the struggles of the other Zergs who faced Polt beforehand (I hadn't posted odds of a Polt/Snute match in my previous posts, but I ran it before it happened and Aligulac favoured the Korean (71%)). Oddly, neither player had to face a Protoss opponent on their march to the final (with Polt enjoying a much easier route). Overall the games were very entertaining, including some painful moments, such as watching Dayshi choke away the first game in his series against Polt, and MarineLorD throw away the final game against viOLet (parasitic bombed). It was interesting to see both Hydra and viOLet knocked out in ZvZs against the same foreigner (Snute), mirroring what happened at DreamHack (via Bly).
In terms of predictions, I finished 22-9, with Aligulac at 20-11. The biggest upsets (via the odds) were Serral losing to FireCake, Bunny losing to Has, MarineLord losing to viOLet, and Lilbow falling to Sortof (all but one were R32 matches).
How about viewership? Compared to both the most recent IEM (Gamescom in August) and the last IEM Katowice in 2015:
Clearly no one cared about IEM GamesCom (INnoVation beat soO in the final); as for Katowice, the 2015 version was shorter (which I think helps), but we see a bit of a bump this year (Snute being in the final helped a lot). It's an overall improvement (particularly given how early in the morning it started for NA/SA fans). How did it compare to DreamHack Leipzig?
A bit of a side note: it was funny seeing ReDeYe back covering WCS for ESL after admitting how much he disliked the current system on The Late Game a month ago. His career has taken a strange path over the past year--leaving Gfinity in February after less than a year (he left ESL in March)--from his comments, it seems he needed months away from hosting before realising hosting is what he wanted to do.
In WCS Shanghai news KingKong was disqualified due to the same passport restriction that prevented Polt and viOLet from participating in the NA qualifier. It's clear the error rests on the admins (eg NXZ and Pengwin), the player, and his team. While I feel for KingKong, the rules were written on the Challonge site (not exactly hard to find), and MaSa went through the same thing back in January (he subsequently got an exception). The change doesn't mean he can't qualify, he simply has to do so via the open bracket.
MaNa gave an interview in anticipation of WCS Winter and said the following:
I think this is the first time when making it to BlizzCon is actually very realistic. I always wanted to visit BlizzCon and I did in 2015 but just as a guest. In 2016, making it as a player would fulfill yet another of my esport dreams.
For all the whinging you see about the current system (which isn't perfect, but a definite improvement), this is one of the major goals WCS should have always had: give players in all regions a realistic chance to compete at BlizzCon. MaNa is a realist and won't expect to beat the Kespa Koreans, but to have that moment where he can give it his all and hope for a run is powerfully motivating.
Incidentally, in the "unofficial" episode of Unfiltered last week the above sentiment was echoed and it was implied that the increased regional restrictions were a result of community feedback rather than Blizzard's original plan. The implication is that the majority wanted a full passport lock.
Blizzard should be thanking Nathanias for how much he has pushed co-op mode on his stream--opening every session with a game or two of it. I have to believe he's responsible for getting more people interested in playing the mode.
This is just an observation about how difficult it is to judge balance by what pros (or streamers) will tell you: watch a Terran stream and PvT is incredibly Protoss favoured; watch a Protoss stream and TvP is incredibly Terran favoured; etc. It has to make Blizzard incredibly reluctant to listen to individuals about balance and favour statistical data--understandably preferring Korean data.
Polt's personal sponsorship from Coolermaster has ended, which isn't particularly surprising, but the reasoning could be interesting. The most obvious conclusion would be that CM wants to be done with SC2, but I wonder if they've guessed that Koreans will be passport blocked next year (with Polt disappearing into the GSL meat grinder). SC2 is no more "dead" than it was in HOTS and so long as Polt was winning he's still fronting their brand in a positive light (it's clear from Polt's comments at IEM that the change wasn't his choice), so you'd think they could have kept up their support. It will be interesting to see who he picks up as a sponsor.
Given that no one else seems to do it anymore, I thought I'd include the top streamers since my previous post about it. Numbers are all via Fuzic; streamers in green have seen a significant increase, those in red a significant decrease (50+); those in blue were not on the last list. The period covered are weeks 7-9, with the usual minimum 10 hours streamed (excluding known viewbotters and with a few noted judgement calls--keep in mind IEM interfered with a lot of top streamers, and I've noted them in brackets below)):
1. Destiny 2.6k
(Nathanias 1.1k)
2. NaNiwa 1.1k
3. Hui 642
4. Avilo 449
5. Lowko 425
14. Protech 218
This is just an observation about how difficult it is to judge balance by what pros (or streamers) will tell you: watch a Terran stream and PvT is incredibly Protoss favoured; watch a Protoss stream and TvP is incredibly Terran favoured; etc. It has to make Blizzard incredibly reluctant to listen to individuals about balance and favour statistical data--understandably preferring Korean data.
Polt's personal sponsorship from Coolermaster has ended, which isn't particularly surprising, but the reasoning could be interesting. The most obvious conclusion would be that CM wants to be done with SC2, but I wonder if they've guessed that Koreans will be passport blocked next year (with Polt disappearing into the GSL meat grinder). SC2 is no more "dead" than it was in HOTS and so long as Polt was winning he's still fronting their brand in a positive light (it's clear from Polt's comments at IEM that the change wasn't his choice), so you'd think they could have kept up their support. It will be interesting to see who he picks up as a sponsor.
1. Destiny 2.6k
(Nathanias 1.1k)
2. NaNiwa 1.1k
3. Hui 642
4. Avilo 449
5. Lowko 425
6. ForGG 418
7. Dragon 393
8. Catz 304
9. Neuro 282
10. MCanning 269
11. HTOMario 246 (short on hours in week 7)
12. MorroW 221
13. CranK 220
(Bly 210*)
(PiG 191)
15. ViBE 161
16. RuFF 156
17. TOP 121 (short on hours week 7)
(JimRising 117 - didn't stream week 7)
18. Temp0 110
(desRow 107 - didn't stream week 9)
19. mOOnGLaDe 105
* in week eight Bly's streaming numbers were split between "acerbly" and "bly", so I've combined them here
Top-streamers from the last list who are missing: MaximusBlack barely streamed, but when he did his decline continued; the story is the same for MC; Fenner's numbers are normal, but he hasn't streamed enough to be included, which is the same story for all the others who don't appear here. Destiny would have been at the top of the other list if he'd streamed more SC2 earlier in the year--he is the undisputed king of streamers for the game.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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