But while international representation remains the biggest honour in football – and most other team sports – esports players tend not to take it too seriously. For a long time Sweden totally refused to play in Clanbase’s Nations Cup and many countries have had to field under-strength teams. I can speak about this fairly knowledgeably as a Brit, having seen Team-UK play without the 4k players so very often in the past.
And even when Mangiacapra or Akujii did make an appearance they rarely played at their best. When Team-UK managed to win the cup against Sweden it was with a mix team and nobody really cared. I interviewed Kardy for GotFrag a few days after the game and even he confirmed what the feelings of a whole community: “…as everyone will tell you it [Nations Cup] doesn’t mean THAT much.”
"Yes, give us one team to represent our country’s hopes but don’t make it be a ragtag mix team."
He was right. Esports players have never been particularly bothered by the Nations Cup and the ENC. If they don’t care, why should the fans? Oh, that’s right – they don’t!
But why not? When Portugal play the Czechs tomorrow both nations' fans will be glued to their televisions and their players will be trying their hearts out. But if they met in the ENC (ESL Nations Championship), not even all the CS fans from those countries would tune-in. Why not?
The first thing that springs to my mind when I think about this situation is that these players already play against each other anyway. Take CS for example: the best players from every country generally wind up in the same two or three teams anyway. It becomes less of a Sweden-vs-Poland and more of a SK/Fnatic mix-vs-MYM mix.
If you want to watch a game where the best aimers win, great! But why not go and watch TDM instead? CS tactics – apart from the absolute basics – go out of the window in what is essentially a mix cup, albeit one with better players than your typical IRC affair.
Nothing about a Nations cup is interesting. Not only do we see these players going at it all guns blazing already but we see them with their team-mates, playing elsewhere with tactics and strategy.
"CS tactics – apart from the absolute basics – go out of the window in what is essentially a mix cup..."
In football the situation is different. We only get to see our favourite players on the pitch together once every couple of months and they only play in an important tournament together every couple of years (or less if you’re unlucky enough to be British). When we see them together under a national flag it’s new, it’s different and it’s exciting.
National pride is fit and healthy in the esports, but it is misinterpreted by Clanbase and the ESL. The best teams from each country already represent their nation against the rest of the world. When SK play MYM don’t the vast majority of Swedes (maybe not the Fnatic fans) want the former to win? To take it a step further, when HoT goes to China or Korea to play Warcraft, nearly all the European WC3 fans want him to win. He doesn’t need to tag up as EU.HoT and play CN.Sky or KR.Moon, they just want him to win.
If you really want to develop a tournament in a nation-vs-nation format take a leaf out of the ESWC’s book or the WCG’s book. Yes, give us one team to represent our country’s hopes but don’t make it be a ragtag mix team. Let it be the best our nation has to offer because the chances are they already play together anyway.
Oh, and while you’re at it, do it on LAN!
indeed he's one sexy motherfucker
Also nothing more lame than players playing for their country and fake nicking...
The other side of the story is the fact that you need the players and the community to care about the tournament. I don't know how you can do it, but there needs to be some extra incentive to win. More than just money. Eventually it will get better but we are just not there yet.
ESL and CB have to go on with those competitions. With time they will grow more important.
Some people like myself, want to win the WCG, just because its the WCG it doesn't matter what the prize money is. Just because of the title. It all depends on personal goals I think. And since eSports is a "global" phenom it doesn't matter a lot to people (myself included) about national pride.
once again, nice column Zechs :)
I don't believe the one nationality approach is all that feasible and actively goes against what eSports and the internet is trying to promote. With the exception of Counter Strike, almost every other game has mixed nationality lineups because they're not bound by the big tournaments entrance requirements.
Personally I've no interest in nationality based competitions in eSports, and I'd rather watch Manchester United play than England. There's a reason why the likes of Scholes and Shearer retired from international competition early.
As for your shearer and scholes comment - maybe that's because England are a bunch of egotistical under-achievers?
I guess, if the players had high salaries and could very easily live without the cashpraize, yeah they might be interested in winning for national pride..
I was trying to point that out (: but compare ENC cashprize( wich would be shared bewteen all the players on the team, so 10-12 i think), against the cashprize for a big event like ESWC,WCG,Dreamhack and its normal players are more interested in winning these invents (and soforth preparing for them instead of doing praccs with the ENC team), so if the ENC was not at the same time as other events( meaning on LAN, and not 1-2 matches/Week) then the players, not having anything better to do would rather play it and do praccs for it ;)
Seems i'm misunderstood :/
sadly :(
http://www.warcraft3france.com/uploads/pics/acon4-07.jpg
(aT-Deco for the youngsters)