Various contributions to electronic sport
E-Book, Englisch, 544 Seiten
ISBN: 978-3-347-93049-0
Verlag: tredition
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Dr. Timo Schöber holds a degree in business administration (FH) with a focus on human resources and health management. He has been working in HR since 2011 and was employed at Krones AG and mienjung GmbH, among others, at times as Head of HR. He is currently Head of HR Projects and Innovations at Stadtwerke Flensburg GmbH. He is also co-founder of the start-up lvlup!HR, which won an award at the Schleswig-Holstein Ideas Competition. Timo Schöber has been active in e-sports since 1998, including as a former player. He has published several books on e-sports, for example with Meyer & Meyer Verlag, Flying Kiwi Media and Heel Verlag. In 2018, he published Bildschirm-Athleten, the first comprehensive book on e-sports in German, which has been widely cited as a standard work on e-sports. In September 2022, he received his doctorate from the European University Viadrina with the grade summa cum laude. He has been a lecturer at Viadrina, HdM Stuttgart, SRH Berlin and FH Westküste. He heads the e-sports, gameful design and HR departments at the Berlin Institute for Ludology as well as the think tank Esportionary. He has written textbooks for the Euro-FH European Distance Learning University Hamburg and the IU International University of Applied Sciences. He has written an expert report on e-sports for the German Society for International Cooperation.
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10 South Korea: Pioneer and world market leader in eSports (published on eSports.com) South Korea is considered by many eSports enthusiasts to be the Mecca of their sport. Especially in certain genres, the country has dominated the scene for decades, particularly in the field of real-time strategy games (RTS) and their subgenres. Why is this so? What can we learn from South Korea? In the following, this article will take a closer look at South Korea and show why the country should serve as a role model for the West. But not all that glitters is gold, even in the land of countries when it comes to eSports. Therefore, this article will also shed some light on some of the problems of South Korean eSports. The beginnings What is still unthinkable in Germany became standard in South Korea more than twenty years ago: the nationwide and state-subsidised expansion of broadband internet. The network infrastructure that is so important for professional and sustainable eSports has therefore existed in South Korea for a very long time - and at a level that is worldleading. As a result, so-called PC Bangs, LAN and internet cafés with well-equipped computers and a stable internet connection, were already established throughout the country at the end of the 1??0s. This gave gamers of all income levels the opportunity to play video games over the internet. Since people like to compete with each other, the first national competitions emerged shortly afterwards, which laid a solid foundation for the current South Korean esports in terms of players, infrastructure and organisation. In the early days, the Asian mentality was also partly responsible for the resounding success of eSports in the country. Anyone who has ever been to China, Japan or South Korea knows with what discipline, ambition and will Asian athletes work towards their goals. They don't just want to be the best in their own region, state or country, but to be in first place worldwide. All other aspects of life are often subordinated to this goal. On the one hand, this means that such players with sufficient talent will sooner or later achieve outstanding success. On the other hand, however, this should also be seen critically, because those players without the foundation of talent will fail accordingly and find themselves without a plan B. Besides the cultural aspect of wanting to be the best, the often high affinity of Asian countries for technology is also of immense importance for eSports. If you look at the history of eSports, it is always accompanied by new technical developments due to its nature as an electronic sport. This creates synergy effects and mutual impulses. The more technologically advanced and innovative a country is, the higher the probability that eSports will also set new standards in that country. For many years, South Korea has been considered the most advanced country in the world when it comes to technology and new developments. It is therefore hardly surprising that the country has also been of particular relevance in eSports history. Korean e-Sports Association - The Association of Associations Of immense importance for the success of South Korea was the game StarCraft by the game manufacturer Blizzard Entertainment. The game and its expansion were released in 1??8 and after a short time an entire industry was formed around the game in South Korea, including its own television channels, professional teams and magazines. In 2000, the Korean e- Sports Association (KeSPA) was founded, i.e. the South Korean umbrella organisation for eSports as a whole. Political contacts were involved from the very beginning, which can be seen not least in the fact that the South Korean Ministry of Sport gave its blessing to the founding of KeSPA. Since then, the KeSPA has bundled competences, created official structures and set new standards in competitions on several occasions. Moreover, it is not least thanks to the KeSPA that South Korean eSports have been an official sport in the country for a long time. In addition, long-standing cooperations with publishers have been established, for example, to regulate the rights to eSports broadcasts. The KeSPA has made several representations to its negotiating partners. This resulted, however, in certain publishers temporarily ceasing to cooperate with the association. Nevertheless, it can be said that KeSPA showed the world for the first time how organised eSports should function on many levels. Fixed salaries were defined, which were regulated very heterogeneously depending on the quality of the individual player, but were unique worldwide in their reliability. At the same time, the recognition of eSports as a sport opened up completely new possibilities for competition organisers, players and clans. Not only could sports visas be issued, but there was also a significant easing of the taxation of prize money and extensive possibilities for the creation of an even better infrastructure, for example through the founding of eSports academies. The Intermediate Era The middle period of modern eSports is the years from 2000 to 200?. In South Korea, this period was dominated by two titles that unsurprisingly both came from the RTS genre. On the one hand, Starcraft was able to maintain its dominant role, and on the other, Warcraft ?, the game's unofficial successor, appeared in 2002. The success and partial dominance of the country in both disciplines can best be seen in the results of the World Cyber Games (WCG). In their time, the WCG had the reputation of being the most important tournament in the world and at the same time an internationally recognised world championship. Many also considered them to be the equivalent of the Olympic Games. In StarCraft, all ten WCG wins of the Intermediate Era went to South Korean players, as did six Silver and three Bronze medals. StarCraft is a comparatively macromanagement-heavy game, so it's mainly about using resources correctly and building your own base. Micromanagement is also important in StarCraft, but it is even more important in Warcraft ?. Here, you not only have simple units, but also heroes with certain abilities and usable items. In addition, the battles in the game are much slower in many places, but the survival of each unit is of greater importance than in StarCraft. Due to the different way of playing Warcraft ?, the dominance of the South Koreans was not as great as in StarCraft. With the Dutchman Manuel "Grubby" Schenk-Huizen and the Chinese player Li "Sky" Xiaofeng, there were international top players in Warcraft ? who did not come from South Korea. Nevertheless, players from South Korea made it onto the WCG podium four times in the period from 2000 to 200?, albeit without winning a gold medal. Towards the end of the intermediary era, players from the country also put their first exclamation marks outside of the RTS games at particularly important games. With the eSTRO clan, a Counter-Strike team took third place at the WCG in 2008. The country has already excelled in smaller eSports titles, such as the football simulation FIFA, where it won four gold medals. The breakthrough of the MOBA genre Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) video games have existed for a long time, especially as a modification for Warcraft ?, but it was not until League of Legends (LoL) appeared in 200? that they achieved a worldwide breakthrough. MOBAs are a sub-genre of RTS games and are mostly played in ?-against-? mode. MOBAs have significantly pushed back the classic RTS genre. Whereas RTS games and tactical shooters were previously the dominant genre in eSports, MOBAs should henceforth work their way up to become the clear number one. A look at the current situation in the MOBA genre is very exciting to show that South Korea has optimally implemented the change from the RTS genre as a reference to MOBAs. But South Korea also clearly holds the top position in the world in the field of classic real-time strategy. StarCraft 2 is currently the most important RTS title and among the most successful 2? players in the world in terms of prize money won are 1? South Koreans. Only the Finn Joona "Serral" Sotala is able to steal some of the thunder from the South Koreans. But now to the MOBA genre. In terms of marketing and events, LoL is the most important title. There are still 1? South Koreans in the top 2?, and at the same time the best nine players are all South Korean athletes. With Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, the superstar of the scene also comes from South Korea. In terms of prize money, however, no other game can beat the MOBA Dota 2. This is mainly due to the tournament "The International" (TI), which broke the ?0,000,000 US$ barrier in the prize money pool at this year's edition alone. In Dota 2, there is a change in the game mechanics compared to LoL. While in LoL fixed positions and the skill of the individual are very important, in Dota 2 you play more as a cohesive unit. There is not a single South Korean among the Top 2? in Dota 2, but this is also due to the fact that LoL is much more popular among South Koreans than Dota 2. However, it shows that even a South Korean cannot dominate everything in strategy games. Personal experience At this point, allow me to share a few brief insights into my personal experiences. South Korea is a very modern country with a high degree of hospitality and a deep respect for each other. Above all, the prevailing politeness and helpfulness of the people always touches me when I have...
