Time: 14:42:49 CET 05:42:49 PST 08:42:49 EST 22:42:49 Seoul 21:42:49 Beijing
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WoW is an esport.
Love it, hate it or couldn't care less about it, WoW is surely ready to be welcomed into the esports fold after this weekend. The Zechs Files is here to tell you why.
By Michael 'Zechs' Radford
Nov 25, 2008 17:06
Love it, hate it or couldn't care less about it, WoW is surely ready to be welcomed into the esports fold after this weekend. The Zechs Files is here to tell you why.The EM Continental Finals in America had everything: upsets, nail-biters, fallen champions and underdog victors. To say this game isn't on par with the likes of CS is little short of a joke after the two day event, where the two tournaments were polar opposites.
Boring CS Tournament
In CS we had mibr, predicted to come first, demolishing all before them. They romped through group play practically untouched, dropping just 20 rounds across three games. The play-offs were equally farcical, as the Brazilians cut through Gravitas and MoB like a hot knife through butter. The final was more of a contest, but only because cogu's team took their foot off the pedal. With a 12-3 half time score, the result was never seriously in doubt.
Compare that to the WoW tournament running alongside it and the contrast is like night and day. The favourites (Fnatic) went out in the relegation phase, in a tightly-contested 2-3 game against Gravitas. The other game in relegation also ended 3-2, by the way.
The newcomers' flash
Trade Chat All Stars, a completely new team narrowly scraped through the first stage. They were then sent straight to the lower bracket by GotGame East in yet another 2-3 defeat. But the newcomers went on to see off veteran teams such as Evil Geniuses and Gravitas Gaming on their way to the final and earn a chance at redemption.
The WoW final was everything that the CS final was not. It was close, tense and exciting. With TCAS having to win two best-of-five series, it was an uphill struggle for the EM virgins. But a 3-0 whitewash in the first set threw the form book out of the window and it was Happyminti's team who were feeling the pinch.
Excitement
But the first set wasn't without incident. With cross-kill after cross-kill, the second game featured one of the most nerve-wracking situations in WoW's short history. TCAS's mage was left in a one-on-one with Happyminti, the Rogue of GotGame East. Both players were painfully cautious but eventually it was the GG player who opened up and, as is so often the case, paid for his eagerness. TCAS took the win and a 2-0 lead that GG were unable to recuperate.
The second set was much closer. TCAS took the lead on map one, but GG came back to level the score. In typical penalty shootout style, the teams traded points but with a best-of-five format, the winner of the first map was always in the ascendancy. TCAS had claimed victory from the lower bracket in a nail-biting 3-2 victory.
Now I'll grant you that WoW still has a long way to go to be perfect. The spectator mode is still difficult to watch, and without the good work of Zalmah and 2GD I would be tempted to side with those who say WoW doesn't belong with CS and WC3. However, two things WoW clearly doesn't lack are excitement and passion. These are features that any sport needs and WoW proved this weekend that is has them, and in abundance too.
The world's first and only weekly esports column returns next Tuesday.
Boring CS Tournament
In CS we had mibr, predicted to come first, demolishing all before them. They romped through group play practically untouched, dropping just 20 rounds across three games. The play-offs were equally farcical, as the Brazilians cut through Gravitas and MoB like a hot knife through butter. The final was more of a contest, but only because cogu's team took their foot off the pedal. With a 12-3 half time score, the result was never seriously in doubt.
Compare that to the WoW tournament running alongside it and the contrast is like night and day. The favourites (Fnatic) went out in the relegation phase, in a tightly-contested 2-3 game against Gravitas. The other game in relegation also ended 3-2, by the way.
The newcomers' flash
Trade Chat All Stars, a completely new team narrowly scraped through the first stage. They were then sent straight to the lower bracket by GotGame East in yet another 2-3 defeat. But the newcomers went on to see off veteran teams such as Evil Geniuses and Gravitas Gaming on their way to the final and earn a chance at redemption.
The WoW final was everything that the CS final was not. It was close, tense and exciting. With TCAS having to win two best-of-five series, it was an uphill struggle for the EM virgins. But a 3-0 whitewash in the first set threw the form book out of the window and it was Happyminti's team who were feeling the pinch.
Excitement
But the first set wasn't without incident. With cross-kill after cross-kill, the second game featured one of the most nerve-wracking situations in WoW's short history. TCAS's mage was left in a one-on-one with Happyminti, the Rogue of GotGame East. Both players were painfully cautious but eventually it was the GG player who opened up and, as is so often the case, paid for his eagerness. TCAS took the win and a 2-0 lead that GG were unable to recuperate.
The second set was much closer. TCAS took the lead on map one, but GG came back to level the score. In typical penalty shootout style, the teams traded points but with a best-of-five format, the winner of the first map was always in the ascendancy. TCAS had claimed victory from the lower bracket in a nail-biting 3-2 victory.
Now I'll grant you that WoW still has a long way to go to be perfect. The spectator mode is still difficult to watch, and without the good work of Zalmah and 2GD I would be tempted to side with those who say WoW doesn't belong with CS and WC3. However, two things WoW clearly doesn't lack are excitement and passion. These are features that any sport needs and WoW proved this weekend that is has them, and in abundance too.
The world's first and only weekly esports column returns next Tuesday.
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No one can really say destro lock and Feral druid had a good time pre-wotlk >:)
I do enjoy watching a few arena games from time to time but I usually never stick it out until the end of a match because it just becomes boring and repetitive to watch after a while.
WoW has had about a year of arena, a format that most players will agree still feels a little bit tacked onto the rest of the game.
Now the two are almost in competition as esports? THIS SHOULD TELL YOU SOMETHING.
From my viewpoint, CS - while undeniably skilled - suffers from a general problem in that ALL the situations end up revolving around 'this guy shot that guy and then those other 3 guys' in spectacular fashion. WoW's different abilities and coordinated use thereof (theoretically) makes for very diverse plays and/or ways to screw up. And it's just nice that something other than running and shooting is happening from time to time.
Also for the endless comments about RNG - watch a real sport. The ball doesn't always bounce the way you want it to, nor the referee call the play correctly. RNG is *very* sporting, and a little randomness certainly doesn't make it *less* interesting to watch.
TL;DR: WoW is potentially more interesting because decision making on when and how to use stuff with limited availablity beats positioning and aiming well.
an esport should require hardwork, not level up-work.
like golf isn't a proper sport wow isn't a proper e sport
mark says:
gd way of putting it
Mike says:
but try telling a golfer that!
mark says:
rofl
mark says:
they'll rage
Mike says:
they go wild in the brain
mark says:
yes!
mark says:
so you could say wow players also go wild in the brain
Mike says:
yep
Yes it's true that you can't fully tell what's going on in a wow match if you don't play wow, and even then if the match consists of classes you don't know then it may be difficult to follow, but the same principle is there that when someone reaches low hp then they die and the other team wins.
The main arguments against wow as an e-sport is
- RNG, yes rng is a little bit worse in wow but they are fixing it, the main culprits being rng misses such as hit cap and other abilities based around hitting and missing, another big factor is critical strikes but this seems to be an accepted concept of the game and no one really complains about it that much even though honestly it would make nearly as much difference as missing. However wc3 is almost identical with the rng issues and cs is almost as bad, eg. where the bullets are hitting in your crosshair.
- Spectators can't tell what's going on, yes this is an issue for popularity but imo this is what makes the game good lol. Learning alot of information about classes and then adapting new strategies to deal with stuff. I actually prefer playing cs myself, but without an easily accessible competetive ladder to enter, like wow arena, I have been playing wow alot lately and you can't deny there are alot more cooldowns to manage and stuff to think about in arena. When I'm playing cs it's cool how I can shoot people, and it looks realistic, but there's honestly not that much to think about, besides ammo, grenades and reloading, which can be a little bland for some people.
- It's fantasy, with magic spells and dragons, might seem too nerdy. I don't really give a fuck about this tbh, I've talked to girls about games, for the most part they think all games are just as bad as eachother, giving guys an excuse to not put them at #1 priority, but girls would be more likely to relate to a guy about wow, as more girls play that.
- Counter classes, well yes it is kind of a problem, but in the upcoming MLG anaheim, there will be all 4 different types of healers almost every class except warrior, (but a warrior team won blizzcon) and only 3/8 teams will be rmp. So this obviously isn't too much of a problem. And live servers is even more balanced with honestly all classes at around 10% which is almost perfect balance.
So pretty much I prefer cs, but wow has alot more things to think about while playing and an easily accessible ranking system on live servers, almost 15 million people playing the game behind it, (at the launch of wotlk, probably lower by now)
Saying it's not an e-sport is retarded, comparing single tournaments is retarded and they should easily be able to co exist on the competetive gaming scene.
RMP vs RMP mostly rogues die first then its over those 2 guys can't do shit if they don't have some other player on really low and if it gets to a 2on2 its even more stupid because then we can see 4 top players looking at eachother running around what the hell is that for the spectator? RMP vs PHD/beastcleave/any other thing made up to counter RMP -> RMP tries to survive the cds and then kills something or one of them gets raped like nothing and so on you know what I'm talking about. I've gained some faith in WoW when I saw BB win this one and sk.eu 2nd beastcleave 3rd. But when I see someone like x6 5-0 rmps and then lose to a beastcleave 3-0 3-1 it sickens me out.
The most entartaining esport to watch if you have proper commentary for me is Starcraft:brood war cause they're the biggest professionals you have in esports and Counter strike because its exciting and its a pleasure to watch the skill of those guys