



Introduction.



Interview with Comm is up, due to the statement from iG.Edison we will refrain from interviewing other iG players.During the recent 2013 WCS Season 1 America Chinese players and teams came into the spot light following several allegations of incompetence and mismanagement on the part of MLG. However the center of attention quickly shifted away from understanding of the Chinese SC2 scene and what this event meant for the players and teams affected to misinformation and irrational bashing of MLG / Blizzard. This is what prompted this article as I do not believe that the international audience understands quite enough about the Chinese SC2 scene to adequately judge the situation. This article will also contain responses and interviews with the players and teams affected by the recent WCS NA Premier league Qualifiers in addendum to providing a clear time line of what has happened from the Chinese players/teams’ perspective.

A historical retrospective.

The 2012 surge







The leap from BW to SC2 in China was met with probably the utmost resistance outside of the Korean community, with netizens, fans, players, and community organizers and hubs alike all decrying the situation leading up to the eventual cancellation of professional BW broadcasting and leagues in South Korea. As financial interests and sponsors withdrew from BW in South Korea, the same occurred with in China, as most former professional players find themselves without a team, without sponsors, and without any reliable sources of income. While fortunately Chinese BW continues to thrive to this day by immense efforts from non-profit and fan or player promoted / organized tournaments and leagues in very similar fashion to the current state of South Korean organized league play; Chinese SC2 had a much higher difficulty getting off the ground in comparison with South Korea due to many environmental factors.The Chinese academic and student extra-curricular environment is extremely competitive due to the population density and traditional societal values, the vast majority of parents and students themselves often regard gaming as a waste of time at best, and illegitimate or even undesirable at worst. This combined with the central government’s historical stance on internet control, standardized educational testing and evaluation, and the illegitimacy of video games as a hobby or art form makes it almost impossible to convince parents to allow their children to participate or commit in esports. Chinese BW has also gone through the same sordid history of struggling against stereotype, and survives as the majority of old legends and former pros are in their thirties or late twenties and are capable of making personal decisions about their own livelihoods. However both communities are still struggling to find new blood with in the scene.The founding of the first mainland Chinese SC2 professional teams and leagues was up to the whims of individual investors and external forces in Blizzard Entertainment and the Chinese government’s policy on esports. Invictus Gaming , the most prominent team in terms of finance and player base was founded as the result of Wanda Enterprise director Wang Sicong acquiring Catastrophic Cruel Memory , originally famous for achievements in Dota) on August 2nd, 2011, with the majority of its Roster then converting over to SC2 including xiaOt , and XiGua . The majority of currently active teams ( World Elite Tyloo ) follow similar stories, expanding from former Dota or League of Legends teams as most BW veterans and communities were reluctant to transfer over. The only major exception being team Dream which was formed initially as a clan by former BW pros LoveTT and F91 which has since been reformed as PhoenixTeam The Taiwanese scene fared better with more open policies and the economical luxury for students and families to consider esports as a viable (albeit temporary) occupation. Wayi Spider and Gama Bears being the two most notable teams with SC2 divisions created in recent years. Many mainland players would choose to team hop over to Taiwan as alternatives to affording traveling to international events, the most notable success of Taiwanese players beingOn the business and broadcasting end, multiple companies competed over the ability to rebroadcast and host their own coverage of SC2 tournaments in Wings of Liberty. Due to the fact that community sites were exploring new territory, the historical phenonmenon of community hub segregation (think defiler.ru vs. teamliquid.net level of segregation in the same community except without the language barrier), and fierce competition; each time coverage rights exchanged hands in between the major competitors (plu.cn, sc2.cn, gamefy.cn, neotv.cn just to name a few) it was often met with community animosity and caster bashing or complaints of broadcasting quality.With all of this in mind, the initial release of Wings of Liberty through 2011 was not a great success, not as many copies were sold as the game was available as a monthly subscription basis at 20 RMB a month with a Chinese ID requirement and restrictive server regulation (which also limited global play to not be release in China). Interest in SC2 seemed to pale in terms of the stable niche fan base in BW and even Warcraft III and Dota.With all of these problems, as well as the stagnant practice pool due to lack of playing with player pools outside of China, and consistent lag issues. Particular players have had significant success in Wings of Liberty despite the inability to travel overseas to Western tournaments or compete offline in South Korea due to expenses or Visa issues. Loner in particular came in second place at the BlizzCon 2010 and reached the round of 16 in GSL Season 2, while XiGua also made it all the way to the Grand finals in the WCG 2011 tournament only to lose against Mvp . Domestic leagues such as the G-league, the Neo Star League, and Starswar eventually started taking off, paving the way for the eventual surge in 2012.After an extremely popular WCG 2012 in Kunshan, with SC2 being one of the most watched events, Blizzard finally took notice to announce that China was hosting multiple Championships, the 2012 BWC Championship , the 2012 WCS China Nationals , and the 2012 WCS Asia Finals . All of these premier events along with domestic iterations of StarWars 7 and Neo Star League 2012 (both of which invited international player pools) marked a great surge in interest and support for the Chinese scene. Things were finally looking up and up for the Chinese players and fans, many expressing hopes for the future and further financial or organizational support from Blizzard entertainment themselves. And perhaps even more importantly, Chinese players demonstrated that not only could they play with international players, but that they were capable of beating the best of the best, with MacSed and Sen taking 1st and 2nd place over MMA and Grubby in the StarsWar 7

Hots release, lack of global play, and cancellation of WCS China / WCS Taiwan

The release of Heart of the Swarm was a moment of mostly jubilation and excitement for the majority of the world, with South Korean fans finally seeing ESF and Kespa teams being able to compete on relatively equal terms, new and exciting strategies in an otherwise stagnant “figured out” meta game, and the introduction of global play and announcement of huge Blizzard backing for multiple World Championship Series’ in North America and Europe. However Chinese teams and fans were flabbergasted by a series of decisions which apparently ignored the Chinese scene entirely. Without a Domestic championship for China in sight, the offline requirement for WCS Korea, and imminent lag issues connecting to other servers and incompatibilities with the lack of global play in China, the choices for Chinese teams and players were becoming extremely slim.However in an unprecedented advancement from the central government in early 2013, College level professional esports competitions were finally made official under State government and even made it on the central news agencies. Culminating in the State General Administration of Sports announcing the creation of a 17-man national esports team to attend the 4th Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games, even apologizing for previous inflammatory remarks made against esports. Few selected players with the financial luxury also chose to sign up for WCS, with XiGua attending WCS Europe, iG.Zoo.Courage, MacSed , andZoo.Top attending WCS North America. Many people hung on the hope of these players qualifying and setting the example not only for fans or sponsors, but for future players and national attention in the development of Chinese esports.

The WCS NA Premier League Qualifiers fiasco

With the help of Chinese affiliates and BreAKer (Enders116), here’s the series of events as recounted by Chinese players and teams (to be updated).Time line of events:

1.

The 24 invited players' list is released, in which none of the Chinese players were listed. iG.Edison confirms talking with Blizzard China regarding securing spots but it didn't go through.

2.

registered

iG.Zoo.Courage, MacSed , andZoo.Topfor WCS NA before the deadline. Jim and XY on the 15th, MacSed on the 12th. Alot of Koreans registered after the 16th.

3.

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Check-in confirmation is made by iG's manager (Edison) on behalf of the iG players ( Jim , and MacSed ) with Wiggin, a MLG admin / moderator over SC2 at 10:17 to 10:19 PM. The phrasing is "They are all checked in and good to go.". Edison further asks upon inspection of the bracket and the players not being present whether the brackets are final, to which he was replied "no its not", which he took as confirmation that the brackets will be updated to include the iG players and that there's nothing to worry about.At this point, no one knew about the system of reservation, Blizzard staff had not contacted the teams about it, with Blizzard China simply telling them to register.

4.

When the brackets are finally released, only MacSed is in the Bracket along withZoo.Top and an amateur player Fruitsbasket. As only the first 512 people got in, with no regard for player skill. Despite Korean players registering later than Chinese players, almost all of them got a spot in the qualifiers while Chinese players were ignored.

5.

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The day plays out as normal for MacSed andZoo.Top. However Fruitbasket evidently gave his spot to Comm (the WCS China champion) to play in his place, which Comm maintains that he has told his opponents about and has always played on the account.

6.

Comm is disqualified after making it to the losers finals after losing in the winners finals against Apocalypse gains a walk over. MacSed andZoo.Top also fall 1:2 to aLive and Heart respectively in the loser's finals in their respective groups.

7.

MLG issues an apology with no mention of Chinese players or the disqualification of

The Aftermath

With all that has transpired, what’s done is done and there is no use unfairly hate-mongering against an organization such as MLG that has invested so much into esports. Much more importantly the issue is what this series of events actually mean for Chinese players and teams. So what does this actually mean?Netizens, fans, former pros, and player bases who are even relatively aware of the SC2 scene (including those in BW and other fields) are basically decrying the situation as a failure. Irrationality is running high in some cases, but understandably as they've just been subjected to the cancellation of global play and WCS China. Some are even decrying racism and stereotyping against Chinese players, which while obviously lacking evidence was not helped by the fact that MLG's apology failed to make mention of Chinese players.Coming off a great deal of enthusiasm due to the central government's relaxing of esports coverage and organization, alot of websites and sponsors were potentially considering covering these events in detail (I'm talking Television broadcasts similar to South Korea). With this event it not only devalues the financial investment potential for Chinese players, it also devalues esports as an industry in the eyes of the mainstream media and investors.This is the kind of thing that ends careers, training for months and months following the pause of WoL tournaments for the only major Hots tournament that Chinese pro-players can participate in, then being shunned and barred from even competing is genuinely the sort of thing that makes people reconsider career decisions. Especially with a demographic of players as volatile and as pressured as Chinese players.Courage)

Interviews

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Can you summarize your take on the situation involving the WCS NA qualifiers?



At this point, Edison showed us the e-mail he sent to Blizzard regarding the situation:

Hello everyone, I'm Edison, coach and manager of Invictus Gaming's Starcraft II division. I want to show you the unfair treatment by Major League Gaming to Chinese Starcraft II progamers in WCS North America qualifiers.



1. All Chinese progamers registered into WCS NA well before 15th April, while a lot of Koreans register after 16th, well after the 512 player limit, yet almost all the Koreans get their spot in the qualifier, while famous Chinese players like iG.Jim (WCG 2012 China Nationals 3rd place), Comm (WCS 2012 China Nationals champion), iGXY (ESWC 2012 Chinese qualifier winner) and Infi (Warcraft III legend) didn't receive their spot despite they have superior results and notability. The rules of MLG states that the first 512 players to register are eligible to play in the qualifier and did not specify the reserved spots, if the matter is about late registration, the Koreans will not be able to play as well.



2. The Chinese players did ask the in-game MLG admin about a confirmation on bracket to see whether they are in, and received a "you are good to go" after providing corresponding MLG ids. Later the brackets were changed 3 times before the actual qualifier begins, which Chinese players questioned the admin again, who responded by saying this is not the final bracket. After the Chinese players found their absence in the bracket, they only get apologies from the admins, no reason was given. Other players questioned about this in the official MLG channel as well, but the MLG admins started kicking these people out for asking.



3. Severe lack of honesty in rule enforcement: First of all, the entire registration and check-in procedure is not reasonable, there were no gates like GSL Code A qualifers in which spots are reserved for progamers, players in Master and Grandmaster leagues and then rest players. This "openness" results in a lot of amateur and even low level players to participate in, and a lot of walkovers due to no-shows, which is greatly wasting resources. What's even worse is that there were even hackers as encountered by ROOTCatZ and other players, no explanation and actions were given.

The eligibility of participants is also in chao. WCS Korea Season 1 GSL Code S participant QuanticHyuN, who is not eligible to play in Premier Division qualifier in WCS Season 1, played in the WCS NA qualifier. MLG DQed him after he knocked out 3 players, but after a shortwhile he returned to play in the loser's bracket, knocking out another 2 players before DQed for the second time. No further actions were taken, nor explanations were given to the players knocked out by HyuN.

WCS 2012 China Nationals winner Comm was not able to get his qualifier spot due to the forementioned situation, and a amateur Chinese player gave his MLG id for him to play, this was a situation acknowledged by MLG admins, Comm's opponents and casters, no actions were given till Comm is about to play his final qualification match, which he was disqualified due to violation of rules. But Korean players AxCrank stated him advancing to WCS NA defeating Chinese player ZooTOP on his Twitter, and was confirmed by his team, which is also a direct violation of rules, but he is not disqualified because of this.



Did you try to talk to MLG beforehand to reserve spots? And were you in contact with MLG at all before the qualifiers?



I did talk with Blizzard China about securing spots in WCS NA, but it looks like they didn't pull it off.



It was my fault that JIm and XY didn't register until 15th. I misread the MLG GameBattle's system, thinking their "team" registration means we have to register as a team. I registered 'Invictus Gaming' on 12th when registering for MacSed, but didn't find our team later in their team system, I thought there might be update delays, so I waited 2 more days after that



Did you know MLG had reserved slots for players? Did you try contacting MLG beforehand about these spots or just through Blizzard China?



I don't know about the reserved spots since it was not on the rules, and I wasn't told by Blizzard staff about this either. At my first meeting with Blizzard China, I did mention about securing qualifier spots. They told us to register ourselves and they'll see what they can help with.



By the way, when XiGua was playing in WCS EU qualifier, despite the massive latency, ESL was actively talking with us to see what they could do about it. On this part, I think MLG is way behind ESL.



How helpful was Blizzard China throughout this whole ordeal?



They helped a lot. I went to a meeting with them about tough things like travel and visa if our Chinese players actually made it through to see if they could offer any help. After the problems surfaced at WCS NA, I went to Blizzard China offices again. They are actively helping us submitting complaints to the esports department at the US headquarters.



If the two players who were barred from the qualifier (Jim and XY) were allowed to play, what do you think their chances of qualifying would be?



I can't say they are guaranteed to qualify, but as long there are a slim chance, we'll fight for it as hard as possible. Jim is currently top 20 in Korean GM, and XY is in top 100.



What do you think about the WCS 2013 system with AM/EU/KR regions, but not one that specifically includes China?



I was initially unhappy, even angry about the absence of WCS China. But after I calmed down, I realized it's not entirely Blizzard's fault that they don't have a WCS CN. First of all, HotS is not yet released in China. Secondly, we don't have a long-term stable league like MLG, IEM or GSL/SPL. But even though this is true, our Chinese players are looking forward to play in these tournaments all the time and we don't complain about latency or time difference. But even under these circumstances, we still took unfair treatment because of the lack of honestly of MLG. And because Sundance's apology didn't even mention a single word about Chinese players, we are truly hurt.



What would it mean for your team and also the Chinese scene as a whole if Chinese players couldn't compete in WCS?



Starcraft II in China is far from ideal. Like I previously said, there are no stable leagues to play in, and because of the early promotion and subscription model problem, we don't have a large player base. Because of this, there are not a lot of new players stepping it up and we are still relying on the old players. We need more Chinese progamers to play in major tournaments like WCS abroad to attract more attention. If we can't even play in WCS, a Blizzard official tournament, things are going to become harder and harder for us. There is one thing you need to know: last year we had 8 teams playing in a team league; now we are reduced to only 3 pro teams. And since a lot of Chinese players are students who play on campus networks, they prefer team games that can be played together like DotA or LoL.



Are there any lessons you can take away from this whole situation?



First of all, I need to improve my English. Also, never put your hope on others. No matter how busy you are, you have to confirm everything yourself to make sure everything is right in place. Though we have been trying out best to play in as many tournaments as we can, we are still troubled by things like visas. After this, we'll prepare better against this kind of situation and let the world know Chinese players are even more hard-working than Koreans. Our performance will show the results of our efforts.



Is there anything else you want to say to the foreign scene or foreign fans?



I want to thank all foreign fans for supporting us on Teamliquid, r/starcraft, and twitch chat after all these unhappy things happened. Because of your support, we will show you more great games to prove our skills and effort. This interview is not to bash MLG; we hope all tournaments could be more professional and mature, less frustrated by bias, whether economical or emotional, because fair play is the core element of e-sports. I just hope everyone will continue to support us and help us claim our deserved tournament rights. Thank all of you very much, we love you.

At this point, Edison showed us the e-mail he sent to Blizzard regarding the situation:I did talk with Blizzard China about securing spots in WCS NA, but it looks like they didn't pull it off.It was my fault that JIm and XY didn't register until 15th. I misread the MLG GameBattle's system, thinking their "team" registration means we have to register as a team. I registered 'Invictus Gaming' on 12th when registering for MacSed, but didn't find our team later in their team system, I thought there might be update delays, so I waited 2 more days after thatI don't know about the reserved spots since it was not on the rules, and I wasn't told by Blizzard staff about this either. At my first meeting with Blizzard China, I did mention about securing qualifier spots. They told us to register ourselves and they'll see what they can help with.By the way, when XiGua was playing in WCS EU qualifier, despite the massive latency, ESL was actively talking with us to see what they could do about it. On this part, I think MLG is way behind ESL.They helped a lot. I went to a meeting with them about tough things like travel and visa if our Chinese players actually made it through to see if they could offer any help. After the problems surfaced at WCS NA, I went to Blizzard China offices again. They are actively helping us submitting complaints to the esports department at the US headquarters.I can't say they are guaranteed to qualify, but as long there are a slim chance, we'll fight for it as hard as possible. Jim is currently top 20 in Korean GM, and XY is in top 100.I was initially unhappy, even angry about the absence of WCS China. But after I calmed down, I realized it's not entirely Blizzard's fault that they don't have a WCS CN. First of all, HotS is not yet released in China. Secondly, we don't have a long-term stable league like MLG, IEM or GSL/SPL. But even though this is true, our Chinese players are looking forward to play in these tournaments all the time and we don't complain about latency or time difference. But even under these circumstances, we still took unfair treatment because of the lack of honestly of MLG. And because Sundance's apology didn't even mention a single word about Chinese players, we are truly hurt.Starcraft II in China is far from ideal. Like I previously said, there are no stable leagues to play in, and because of the early promotion and subscription model problem, we don't have a large player base. Because of this, there are not a lot of new players stepping it up and we are still relying on the old players. We need more Chinese progamers to play in major tournaments like WCS abroad to attract more attention. If we can't even play in WCS, a Blizzard official tournament, things are going to become harder and harder for us. There is one thing you need to know: last year we had 8 teams playing in a team league; now we are reduced to only 3 pro teams. And since a lot of Chinese players are students who play on campus networks, they prefer team games that can be played together like DotA or LoL.First of all, I need to improve my English. Also, never put your hope on others. No matter how busy you are, you have to confirm everything yourself to make sure everything is right in place. Though we have been trying out best to play in as many tournaments as we can, we are still troubled by things like visas. After this, we'll prepare better against this kind of situation and let the world know Chinese players are even more hard-working than Koreans. Our performance will show the results of our efforts.I want to thank all foreign fans for supporting us on Teamliquid, r/starcraft, and twitch chat after all these unhappy things happened. Because of your support, we will show you more great games to prove our skills and effort. This interview is not to bash MLG; we hope all tournaments could be more professional and mature, less frustrated by bias, whether economical or emotional, because fair play is the core element of e-sports. I just hope everyone will continue to support us and help us claim our deserved tournament rights. Thank all of you very much, we love you.

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courtesy of Monk / Digmouse.A: It should have been around August 2010, back then I joined one of the oldest Chinese clubs (teams) called Nv (Nirvana) and was on the same team with some Chinese pros such as Xigua, MacSed, and XiaoT.A: Just twice, both in last year with the WCS China and the BWC A(sia).A: No, back then iG was trying out for GSL and we sent two players, MacSed and Xigua. So I didn’t go.A: Yes, he went there back in 2010 with WE (World Elite) to the GSL for the first time.A: Regarding this, I did register for the event but didn’t get in. Fruitbasket messaged me and told me that he did get in and offered his account to me. I should probably have contacted the tournament organizations before any matches started, to tell them that I was using this “smurf” account. In all of this I did make a lot of actions which broke the rules, specifically in not telling them (MLG) before the matches started. But I do feel like being DQ’ed in that situation, might have been a bit overkill in some extent.A: I felt that, maybe it was because I signed (registered) too late? But when that happened I also saw that there were players who registered even later than we did and they got into the tournament. So we felt pretty bad and aggravated. After all, I did prepare a lot, trying to correct my sleep schedule for the time zone shift, getting myself in the best condition for the tournament. When I saw that I didn’t make it into the tournament I felt pretty depressed.A: Yes.A: No, I haven’t received any penalties or warnings from other tournaments, WCS NA is the first time.A: I feel that I should at least be able to receive a Code A (Challenger league) spot so I can participate in the official tournament. Because regardless of what you say, all the WCS Champions received invitations (seeds) (into the premier league), but WCS China Champion did not receive anything. And I felt that this time I had a lot of chances to make it into the Code S, but ended up getting DQ’ed. It’s very hard for me to accept that.A: I think that there isn’t much of a chance, after all there is already WCS Korea, NA, and Europe. Europe is a very hard area for China because the latency is too high to where we just can’t compete. If we want to play in Korea, we have to play through the preliminaries (Code A) and even just making it into the Code S is going to take a long time. And you have to stay in Korea for a long time to do that. Chinese player’s best hope is still playing in North America in MLG. But this preliminary we haven’t had any players make it directly into Code S. And even if we did, the Visa problem is still going to be a very big hurdle.A: Right now people like MacSed and others who have been confirmed to participate in the tournament (Challenger league) on the 27th such as Jim, Xy, Infi… I think have very good chances. As long as they get a bit lucky with the group selection, I think they have a good possibility of qualifying into Code S.A: After this event there was definitely a hit on my motivation for SC2, but it won’t affect me fundamentally. After all I am someone who really loves SC2. And I feel that I really love Blizzard games. So even if I had to choose to switch games, I wouldn’t choose to switch over to other (non-Blizzard) games such as League of Legends. Because I feel that (Blizzard) create games that are very fun.

In conclusion:

, what is right to do with in the power of western audiences is to let MLG know exactly what it means for the Chinese players when something like this happens. What the Chinese players and fans want the most is not to fight with Blizzard or MLG or any tournament host, but to grow esports domestically and show great games for the fans, whether they are in China or overseas. To make esports mainstream in China so that parents don't scold their children and that passers-by and athletes don't snob them publicly for doing something they love. So that esports might become a bridge in which Chinese players and fans can meet international players and fans and grow a friendship when there is so much prejudice and hatred due to politics that we can not control.So please, discuss like rational people and think about the actual people that this is affecting the most. Don't throw the interests of the players under a bus because of your personal grudges with an organization or a country. I will try my best to bring you the news and thoughts of Chinese players and fans once I can.Thank you for reading.Related MLG threadsChinese BW:Chinese SC2: