Photo by: Fomos.kr
These loud and alluring words stand as title of an article on the Korean site Media.daum.net, which talks about the implementation of StarCraft 2 in the next season of the SK Planet's ProLeague.
Translation by: Passenger
That SPL will eventually pick-up StarCraft 2 is no news of itself. For some time, there were rumors circulating the media that BroodWar teams were preparing for the switch but things were given direction last month when Blizzard Entertainment's CEO Mike Morheim visited South Korea, attended the SK Planet ProLeague playoffs as well as games at the GomTV studio, and talked to OnGameNet regarding the launch of a StarCraft 2 tournament in 2012.
"This visit is to meet with all the parties involved with us and to improve relations with Korea. A lot of things are going to happen in Korea this year," said Morheim, optimistic that all negotiations will go well and that an SPL SC2 tournament shall open in 2012.
According to the source, although the copyright issue was resolved last year, there still remained the fact that GomTV had exclusive rights over StarCraft 2 leagues in Korea until May 2013. However, by arbitration of Blizzard, GomTV have conceded to KeSPA and an SC2 SPL tournament will become a fact one year earlier, possibly starting this May.
Although details on the format are still in consideration, a few rules already exist. KeSPA players will have to play both StarCraft 2 and BroodWar and sticking to just one game will not be an option. Additionally, KeSPA teams will not be able to approach players of current SC2 teams within a period of one year.
Head coach of Progaming team A said: "There is some consensus among KeSPA teams about getting the chance to compete in StarCraft 2 but there will also be many players who will retire."
Head coach of Progaming team B said: "It would be hard to see good games in the early stages of the league but with players' ability to learn, we could see high quality action in Round 2".
Finally, there are some things to consider. If there are, in fact, no good games as the SC2 tournament launches, the current fans might very well choose not to follow the scene. Since this community still evaluates SC2 as less fun than SC1, KeSPA and the KeSPA affiliated teams will have to consider ways to overcome this problem.
"The most important thing is a stable transition to SC2 with minimum objection from the fans," said a person with relations to the eSports scene in Korea and for the time being, this indeed seems like the hardest thing for KeSPA to do.
Source: media.daum.net
