Following yesterday's controversy, OGN and ESL attempted to address the concerns of the Korean StarCraft 2 community at their pre-IEM Gyeonggi press conference: attending were ESL Senior Producer William "Chobra" Cho and OGN Director Taeju Lim. What was shared at the conference, however, only seems to have worsened the situation.

According to FOMOS' Yong Woo Kim, OGN-ESL's decision to treat not only the SC2 Ro16 but also the Ro8 as a preliminary was due to the event's last minute addition of Overwatch. Cho explained: "We believed IEM would not be a top eSports tournament without including Overwatch. Having to run three events caused scheduling problems. We did want to show all SC2 games, as we've invited the best SC2 players, but the on-site broadcasting schedule took priority."

What particularly aggravated the fans was Lim's words, however. According to Daily eSports, Lim stated: "We're not neglecting SC2 - we're doing it a massive favor. People who know just how much it takes to produce these events will understand. ESL desperately needs ticket revenue, and it's skeptical that any SC2 event in Korea will draw a crowd. We have to fill the stands with fans of other games. It's an objective fact that we're doing SC2 a favor."

Many fans have professed their outrage at Lim, pointing out that recent Korean SC2 events' grand finals turnouts suggest the exact opposite of what Lim claimed.

Cover photo credit: ESL/IEM