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Posts Tagged ‘e-sports’

Starcraft II becomes an official e-Sports event of KESPA

May 2nd, 2012

Starcraft II e-Sports Transition Celebration was held at COEX Intercontinental hotel in Seoul on the 2^nd of May. Paul Sams, COO of Blizzard Entertainment, joined the event with people from KESPA(Korean e-Sports Association), Gretech(GomTV), Ongamenet. Progamers from Starcraft 1,2 and staffs were there, too.

KESPA(Korean e-Sports Association) acquired the right to host team based Starcraft II league while Ongamenet ) acquired the right to host individual Starcraft II league and broadcast it. Starcraft II becomes one of KESPA’s official events after it released a year and half ago.

As a result, there will be 4 Starcraft II leagues – two for Team based and other two for Individual.

Paul Sams, Blizzard COO, said “Blizzard will devote to the future of Korean e-Sports. Korea is a leader of pro-gaming business. We are pleasure to watch matches among Korean gamers.”

The detail about the team league and the individual league from KESPA and Ongamenet will be announced sometimes in the future.

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Posted in Korean Games Industry

Tags: Blizzard Entertainment e-sports gomtv gretech kespa Korean e-Sports Association ongamenet Starcraft 2

International e-Sports Federation for the disabled is established

April 30th, 2012

After IeSMOD(International e-Sports Meets of the Disabled) 2011 World Championship, participants from all over the world felt sympathy for the needs of the vision for e-Sports for the disabled and discussed about the establishment of International federation.

During the event, participating nations such as Korea, USA, China, Germany, Poland, Indonesia etc signed on the establishment of International e-Sports Federation for the disabled and becoming a member. The total of 12 countries joined to the federation.

The federation received the permission for establishment from MCST(Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) on the 28^th of March, 2012 and finished its registration on 19^th of April.

The federation will develop a business for promoting e-Sports for the disabled.

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Posted in Korean Games Industry

Tags: e-sports IeSMOD International e-Sports Federation for the disabled MCST

Blizzard to Hold Korean e-Sports in Las Vegas

March 5th, 2012

Final match of 2011 Sony Ericsson GSL Season 6 took place in Blizzcon last year

Blizzard Entertainment and its Korean e-Sports broadcasting partner GomTV are going to hold a final match of 2012 Global <Starcraft 2> Team League(GSTL) season 1 on stage of IGN Pro League(IPL) 4 taking place in Las Vegas, the U.S. on the 7th of April.

IGN has asked GomTV to produce a <Starcraft 2> program for the IPL 4 and hold the final match of 2012 GSTL season 1 at the site. This would be the second time for Korean e-Sports holding the final match abroad following Sony Ericsson GSL season 6 took place in Blizzcon last year.

“It’s honor to land GomTV’s technology and GSTL in Las Vegas where is a mecca of global sports. We will do our best to uphold the name of home of e-Sports,” said InSik Bae the CEO of GomTV.

All the GSTL matches are available at GSL official homepage and GomTV channel.

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Posted in Korean Games Industry, US

Tags: Blizzard e-sports gomtv GSL gstl ign ign pro league insik bae ipl las vegas Starcraft 2

League of Legends to Hit 200,000 CCU Soon

February 17th, 2012

Riot Games’ <League of Legends> is about to hit 200,000 concurrent use(CCU) in Korea after three months of the local service.

According to a game ranking website Gametrics the AOS game has hit top 20 online games last December and is recording 8.98% market share of internet cafe following FPS game <Sudden Attack> and MMORPG <Aion>.

Once an e-Sports league ‘LoL Invitational’ hosted by OnGameNet kicked off on the 21st of January, the internet cafe has revved up even more.

A graph of internet cafe ranking(yellow&right) and playtime(blue&left) of League of Legends

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Posted in Korean Games Industry, US

Tags: 200000 Aion aos ccu chaos dota e-sports FIFA Online Gametrics kespa League of Legends regular league Riot Games Sudden Attack

League of Legends to Invade 2012 Korean E-sports

December 29th, 2011

Riot Games’ <League of Legends>(<LoL>) is getting spotlighted from Korean e-sports industry.

The Korean e-sports industry actually went through hard times this year. It failed to make <Starcraft 2> a new driver for further growth after the legal battle against Blizzard Entertainment. Moreover, as one of only two gaming broadcasters, MBC Game, abandoned its gaming channel it has formed unilateral regime with OnGameNet. Professional game teams of MBC Game and WeMade are also disbanded.

Amid such situation, <LoL> surfaced as new prospective growth engine for Korean e-sports industry. Riot Games has likewise expressed high interest in the e-sports market for a long time and has aggressively entered the Korean market in order to establish a solid foothold in home of the e-sports. OnGameNet would also likely to launch a <LoL> league next year in earnest since they are hesitating over <Starcraft 2> league today.

Riot Games is striving to refine the game to befit today’s e-sports environment by updating the observer mode and kicking off a small tournament among internet cafes in Korea.

Startale, a professional <Starcraft 2> team, already founded a <LoL> team consisted of named players of <Chaos>, another <DotA> like game in Korea, while other <Starcraft> teams show their high interests in founding one and <Starcraft 2> teams who often play abroad consider it as an opportunity to pioneer the global market.

Therefore the year 2012 seems to be an important for Riot Games who challenges the Korean e-sports market. Led by OnGameNet, many internet based broadcasters including NiceGameTV are taking an aggressive attitude. Thus successfully held first season would eventually trigger a rush on founding <LoL> pro-game teams in Korea.

Yet all is not as good as above. <LoL> has to overcome a characteristic entry barrier that all AOS genre games have and the difficulty in broadcasting compared to which of RTS games. Better broadcasting system and entertaining manpower with understandable expertise are essential so as to approach fresh gamers.

Despite number of obstacles not a few industry experts view that <LoL> would play a significant axis of the e-sports sooner or later. <Starcraft> is on the decline and <Starcraft 2: Heart of Swarm> needs more time till its release. In other words, it might be the best time for <LoL> to get into the Korean e-sports market.

Hope, as a gamer and a big fan of e-sports, the Korean e-sports prosper next year with <LoL> as well as others.