A couple of days before the WCS Finals at BlizzCon, a Korean ProGamer messaged me to ask for career advice going into 2017. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to give him much of an answer. But to be fair to myself, not many other people could have either.
At BlizzCon, the only thing more conspicuously missing than Diablo 4 was an announcement about the plan for StarCraft esports in 2017. While this might be an inconvenience for fans, it’s absolutely crippling for Korean ProGamer.
With Proleague coming to a close and several KeSPA teams disbanding, the majority of Korean pros have been left to wonder how exactly they’re going to make a living playing StarCraft II.
Yet, many crucial questions regarding WCS 2017 remain unanswered. How many premier level tournaments will be guaranteed next year? WCS Korea’s total prize money went up in 2016, but will it stay at the same level? Will region lock remain the same, or will there be some relaxing of the policy?
Yes, some pros have committed to 2017 without a team or a plan – a testament to their faith in Blizzard, or in their own ability at the game. However, most pros are mired in uncertainty. Uncertainty makes people seek safety, and this case, safety is likely to be the fulfilment of mandatory military service. It may be more arduous than ProGaming, but at least it has a guaranteed, tangible benefit.
(Non-Korean pros have been left in dark as well, but the situation isn’t quite as dire as in Korea where a huge chunk of pros have lost their teams. In fact, with the exception of ByuN and Patience, six of the eight WCS Korea players at BlizzCon have been left without a team.)
The lack of information hinders employers as well. The market for Korean pros on international teams may have dried up since the heyday of StarCraft II, but it’s not gone entirely. Yet, without any idea of what kind of eSports landscape they’d be investing into, teams don’t even have a starting point when looking at Korean players.
Blizzard’s eSports department is certainly aware of this situation, and will be rushing to finalise their plans for 2017. While I hate to trivialise the difficulty of planning the competitive circuit for an entire year, Blizzard need to act faster. If their timing is too delayed, they risk running into a wall of retirements.
The specific details of WCS 2017 matter a great deal, but the most important thing for Blizzard to do is ward off uncertainty. If a full plan can’t be presented, a solid stance on a handful of important details would help immensely. Even if it’s bad news, any degree of certainty would be preferable to the limbo we’re in.
The day after that one pro messaged me for advice, news broke that MC had retired and accepted a coaching position on a League of Legends team. He had decided he couldn’t afford to wait.
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