This Saturday at 5pm KST, something very special is happening. The greatest Protoss of all time is taking on the second best Zerg of all time. In the finals. In StarCraft 1.



Tasteless and I recently were able to cast one of the semi-finals of this league on Monday, a Zerg vs Zerg between EffOrt and Zero, and oh man was it fun. While StarCraft 2 has been going strong for about 6 years now, the focus on StarCraft: Brood War has really fallen off. Despite this, a scene has somehow remained intact in Korea, and has even grown in the past couple of years. As soon as Tasteless and I found out about AfreecaTV taking over the GSL as well as purchasing GOMTV’s old studio, we immediately began to lobby to be able to cast some good-old Brood War. Finally, Afreeca gave us the chance, and I think that it went really well. With OVER 9000 concurrent viewers, and what felt like lots of hype from SC1 and SC2 fans alike, it was a reception to English SC1 coverage that hasn’t really been seen before.



Arguments have been had countless times on which game is better, but those arguments are stupid. Both games are wonderful, beautiful games. They are easily the best 2 games ever made (and really, the only worth while RTS games in an eSports sense), and grading them against each other does a disservice to both.



Tasteless, IdrA, White-Ra, iNcontroL, Sen, myself, and so many others grew up on SC1, playing it nonstop, training all day every day as any modern progamer does, but with no realistic opportunity to do anything with it in sight. Luckily for us, SC2 came out and all the years of dedication paid off in terms of careers, but even if it hadn’t, I wouldn’t have rated those 12 years of SC1 as wasted. I can honestly say that SC1 shaped me into who I am today. My friendships, my personality, my work ethic, my passion.



In an ideal world, I would love to see SC1 and SC2 co-exist side by side in the eSports world. Tasteless said something really profound to me the other day. It was to the effect of “Tosis, my son,….” oh wait, not that, he said something like “What if there was a deep, strategic game that everyone loved a thousand years ago. And what if no one knew how to play that game anymore? Wouldn’t that suck?”. Yes, it would suck.



Without SC1, eSports would not exist as it is today. Come and watch the most mechanically challenging game of all time. Bring your friends and enjoy this look into RTS history. Come and see what it looks like when an eSport is nearing 18 years old, and is being played by an absolute legend like Bisu. I promise that you will enjoy it, even if you have never seen or played a game in your life. If this is the last time that Nick I ever get to cast the game that has impacted us more than any other ever could, I for one would like to show as many people it’s beauty as possible.



