How StarCraft Changed An Entire Country

starcraft will never die since its release in 1998 it has been played non-stop in south korea in fact you would be very very hard-pressed to find a month where starcraft was not in the top 10 most played games in pc banks aka internet cafes across the country that's 24 years of starcraft being played consistently day after day month after month year over year by 2007 starcraft had sold 9.5 million copies worldwide and 4.5 million of those sales belonged to south korea a country with a population of 48.6 million at the time the game fueled the massive expansion of pc bungs spawned an entire esports industry gave rise to rock stars and packed venues and beaches with thousands of screaming fans billboards clothing dedicated esports tv channels big time sponsors team houses it all started with starcraft and it's why the game is immortal [Applause] [Music] pcbongs had already been operating for a few years in south korea since 1994 and were a spot for coffee checking email or playing a few games like go but as pc gaming became more popular there was a shift in their operations specifically around 1996 when diablo and battle.net were released pcbongs started buying more and more pcs to accommodate the demand to play games many homes in south korea at the time either didn't have a pc or weren't internet capable driving even more of the younger populous to pc banks to hang out it was the perfect storm the rise of the internet coupled with pc bangs created a hot spot for people to gather with friends so once starcraft hit in 1998 everything went into overdrive instead of heading to a billiards room after school students would hit up their local pc bang to play starcraft the influx of demand meant more and more pcs were needed and to this day there are over 20 000 pc bangs across south korea the best players drew an audience around their pc while they competed against the best online to climb the rankings owners of pc bonds saw what was happening and they started hosting small tournaments in their venue and sponsoring players a foundational move for starcraft esports in 1998 a player named shinju young who would typically play for up to 15 hours a day became the first recognized pro gamer in korea at the same time two small esports leagues were competing with one another the korean pro gamers league founded in 1997 and net club but is when a player named samjong won the 1999 brood war ladder tournament that starcraft started creating superstars with that win samjong began appearing in commercials for cornet an internet provider in 2000 a few key things happened first the korean esports association or kespa was created to manage esports athletes as part of the korean ministry of culture in order to safeguard players standardize the industry and run the esports side of things second the world's first dedicated esports tv channel on gamenet or ogn was launched which included the soon to be massively successful starcraft league known as star league and finally in october of the same year samsung partnered with the ministry of culture sports and tourism to put on the first world cyber games in 2002 korea recognized pro gamer as an official job title one of many kids cited as what they wanted to be when they grew up four short years that's all it took for the foundation of esports to be cemented one game one country thousands of pcbongs millions of players but this was just the beginning of starcraft's rise to immortality but scarlett on the regroup is oh my god he's going for it he's going on top of the glasses he needs to keep it back sos his life depends on this maybe it doesn't anyways beyond is just too good with his control this is it tasteless sos is done yeah oh my god beyond teamless beyond is the gsl codex champion the game was nothing without the players the first star league winner in 2000 was actually a canadian named ger but from then on starcraft was considered south korea's bread and butter starcraft bruvedor received a balance patch in may of 2001 and wouldn't receive any more updates until september of 2008 with no further adjustments to units and gameplay in sight players were able to truly master the game try this this is one of the hardest things for to do with you're going so sick legends began to emerge from the starcraft scene and titles started being applied to special achievements boxer for example was the first to not only win back-to-back star leagues in 2001 but also walked the royal road winning his first star league the first time he participated [Music] protoss player garmido stopped boxer from three-peating starlight creating the curse legend of the fall a prediction that a protoss player will win the fall season of star league another pro jaws player of reach contributed to this legend when he also stopped boxer from winning star league in the fall of 2002 these players and more were gods at starcraft becoming known for unique strats and play styles but they also became niche celebrities in korean culture with players being recognized on the street and tiny rural hometowns being recognized because a starcraft player was from there [Music] [Music] there are four particular players that cemented their place in the pantheon of starcraft history two protoss players bisu and stork a terran player named flash and a zerg player named jaedong they are more commonly known as tek bangli sang a combination of their names from 2007 to 2012 these players met and feuded leading to historic moments like flash beating stork in 2008 to become starlight's youngest champion at 15 years old [Applause] each of them pioneered gameplay strategies that rippled throughout the scene influencing the gamers who watched them to adopt their favorite pro players style of play causing discussions across message boards and in pc bonds about new ways to tackle match-ups many tournaments during these players reign ended up in the semi-finals or grand finals between some combination of those four players they represented the essence of what it meant to be a pro-starcraft player and were indomitable in their craft only a few other players past and present can live up to the fame those four earned but there was a lot of room in starcraft for special players moments and other tournaments a terran player by the name of firebat hero was famous or infamous depending on who you were for his over-the-top post-game celebrations his most notable pop-off came in 2008 on the beaches of busan after giving his team a 3-1 lead in the spl finals in front of countless thousands firebat heroes stripped down to his bathing suit and took a dip in the waters of busan [Music] [Music] starcraft didn't just have an impact on south korea either while the west lack things like accessible and affordable pc bangs our own community emerged in the form of team liquid in tl.net new world opened up to me that's something i had no idea existed and it captivated my attention from the very beginning in 2002 tl.net launched as a gateway for non-korean fans of starcraft to connect and learn about the most recent matches new strategies for each race or just talk about the game team liquid founder victor hosens told us what made tl.net special teamliquid.net's point of difference was this unique blend of a love of high-level starcraft set to a backdrop of being a home for some of the world's best players when i say some of the world's best it was liquid and non-liquid players alike choosing to spend their time on the site the culture of the site was such that there was a deep appreciation for those who were demonstrably very skilled and i think that default level of respect afforded to great players made it easy for them to find a home with us one of the aspects that truly set apart a site like tl was the vod database that holds matches dating back to october of 1999 without a way to access ogn overseas tl.net was an informational conduit for starcraft fans worldwide western vans could watch the latest starcraft matches anywhere in the world thanks to the website without its creation western fandom and adoption likely would have lagged behind in 2010 blizzard released starcraft 2. it was a welcome refresh to the starcraft scene that hadn't seen an update since 2001 hell it's about time while the sequel was well received by most and pros from the brood war era of starcraft competed in starcraft 2 many returned to brood war even with blizzard pumping up the sc2 scene with big prize pools and the creation of the starcraft world championship series a year-long circuit that culminated at blizzcon the wcs was its own beast creating its own magical moments from watching sos becoming a two-time champ to beyond winning gsl codes without a team and then wcs to seeing serol become the first non-korean to win the wcs and break the 20-year stranglehold of korean dominance in 2018 it had its own storylines and superstars but droodwar was still king and still being played in pc bangs and on tv blizzard attempted to shut down the brood war scene in 2010 when starcraft 2 was released but the fans went out korean broadcasters were able to strike a deal with blizzard allowing them to continue to run and televise brood war then blizzard released starcraft remastered in 2018 when they celebrated the 20th anniversary of the starcraft franchise with it they announced that starcraft 2 would go free to play and they also announced an official brood war league 20 years after the game's release the korean starcraft league would be the main tournament scene for korean brood war players and it had full blizzard support the fans asked and blizzard delivered starcraft remastered was also unique in the way it was created throughout its development process blizzard consulted with players flash stork bisu and jaedong to figure out what they should update and what they shouldn't as they rebuild starcraft players wanted largely the same game unique bugs and all and blizzard listened and left them in to preserve the gameplay this choice from blizzard went a long way to helping the broodwar scene continue to thrive in 2020 blizzard took its hands off the reigns of this beloved franchise blizzard handed starcraft back to the people who were most passionate about it who helped build up and maintain it as an esport when blizzard was focused on one of their other ips starcraft was back in the hands of the people and because of that starcraft continues on not budging from the top 10 of pcbongs despite the fact that brood war is 24 years old looking back at the legacy of the starcraft franchise the foundations it created the bridges it built the memories it's produced and the careers it's shaped it's no wonder the game is immortal [Music]

Channel: IGN

Views: 213,570

Keywords: Feature, IGN, bisu, blizzard, blizzard starcraft, brood war, broodwar, byun, esports, flash, jaedong, protoss, sc brood war, south korea, starcraft, starcraft 2, starcraft brood war, starcraft esports, starcraft remastered, starcraft south korea, starleague, stork, team liquid, terran, wcs, zerg

Id: XdlSvr_4FXI

Length: 12min 12sec (732 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 30 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/WillStayNoob]

I still remember the days where we used to play broodwar, stay up late even though there's school the next day. Good times.

Broodwar. GG.

[u/BiPolarBear24]

Warms my heart , this was nice to see <3

GLHF<3

[u/phsidefender]

Thank you for sharing this.

[u/Elamir_85]

Nice!

[u/Exceed_SC2]

This was a really well made video, I'm happy to see IGN at least celebrating Starcraft's anniversary

[u/Old_Slip_5588]

Starcraft is like chess, it will generate or lose interest and it will just become a cycle. But one thing is certain, it will never die.