National Geographic's Korean progaming documentary

[Burzum]

Here's a link for those who want to see what it really means to be a progamer in Korea. It was shot at last year's World Cyber Games and focuses on a couple of StarCraft pros. It's mainly meant for people who have no idea what Starcraft is, hence the silly game mechanics descriptions. A huge mistake was probably also not mentioning Lim Yo Hwan aka Slayers_Boxer, the most prominent of the progamers, and the one who is solely responsible for making Starcraft the hype it is in Korea. Even after more than 6 years or organized professional gaming, the game just seems to grow rather than lose it's fans.

teamliquid.net's torrent tracker link

I would appreciate if the forum admins didn't mindlessly remove the torrent link, it's a perfectly legal way to watch a documentary that was shown only in a few countries and is basically impossible to get anywhere else.

Snatch the torrent while it still has seeders, it's as rare as a golden elephant.

[ÆNIMA]

I would appreciate if the forum admins didn't mindlessly remove the torrent link, it's a perfectly legal way to watch a documentary that was shown only in a few countries and is basically impossible to get anywhere else.

Snatch the torrent while it still has seeders, it's as rare as a golden elephant.

I beg to differ concerning the legality. National Geographic sells its programs just like most other channels. http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/gateway/128/105.html

EDIT: However, the documentary in question is not available as of yet apparently.

[Burzum]

I can't believe not a single one of you read my thread. A thread called "mountain bike" by someone i don't even know has 227 views, the ugly and abominable Mel Gibson had his own thread with 117 views so far. Hell, a thread called "pet peeves" (what the shining fuck is that anyway?) had about 900 views. And not a single view for a homage to the guy who's making tens of millions of dollars just playing games. I give up.

[Sufficient]

I can't believe not a single one of you read my thread. A thread called "mountain bike" by someone i don't even know has 227 views, the ugly and abominable Mel Gibson had his own thread with 117 views so far. Hell, a thread called "pet peeves" (what the shining fuck is that anyway?) had about 900 views. And not a single view for a homage to the guy who's making tens of millions of dollars just playing games. I give up.

I liked it. It was a bit short, and I wish they would go into more depth about being a pro gamer and some of the details ... but entertaining nonetheless.

[Izor]

well umm, when you play games competitively (pro level) its a whole new playing field that people like me dont even care for. I remember being the best player there was at local halo 1 tournaments, and then when i went to some regional there were a bunch of nerds using timers and shit. I personally didnt find it very entertaining to see a bunch of faggots clustered on the overshield respawn 3 seconds before it came back. And I surely didnt find the aimed grenade pulls on weapons any better. Especially the sniper rifle on hang em high. RTS is even less interesting to watch. A bunch of skilless asians memorizing what motions they need to go through. Might as well play rock paper scissors, honestly.

[Burzum]

It gets interesting after you get to know the game mechanics a little better. You start caring about build orders, about microing the units, about macro (unit production), and you most certainly want to use the advantages of your race (3 races in Starcraft, as you might already know).Sure, it's mostly repetitive gameplay, especially if you're a pro and do the same shit over and over again, but to be able to win even the shittiest of the local 100$ tournaments you must have a really good strategic way of thinking. You won't get far producing only a shitload of zerglings versus a later-game Terran, same as only marines won't cut it versus a psistorm-heavy Protoss force. In between the inhuman amount of mouse clicks and key presses needed to j ust keep the production needed you have to 1) decide which units to build 2) where to deploy them 3) where and whether to expand 4) should you build dropships and attack the enemy from behind? 5) go for a tech-build (more expensive units, but less of those), or more basic units coupled with a good positioning 7) keep macroing (producing units) even while in the middle of a huge fight where you also have to constantly keep an eye on your army by microing (moving the damaged units away from the front), decide whether to split your army and go for a surprise attack on the enemy supply line while also battling his entire army, or should you just try and keep him back as long as possible in order to get air units? Then there's the scouting factor (you always have to know what the enemy is doing, either by using the Terran satellite scanner or by just ordering a couple of units around the map to look for hidden buildings/armies/whatever). Last but not least, there are very special units with devastating area-of-effect spells, like the Plague, Psi Storm, the Protoss Stasis Field and Maelstrom and a bunch of others, which have to be used very precisely over a preferrably large area in just a fraction of a second.

Those are just a couple of reasons why playing and/or watching a Starcraft game is far more enjoyable than watching a DD/JD or a BD where it's mostly only about, well, 99% about sharks timing and 1% of burst luck. Often when I played Starcraft for a few hours and then came back to SS, the game seemed unbelievably slow.
Of course, if you never played Starcraft, not even the best of replays/replay videos would make sense and be entertaining to you.

[ÆNIMA]

well umm, when you play games competitively (pro level) its a whole new playing field that people like me dont even care for. I remember being the best player there was at local halo 1 tournaments, and then when i went to some regional there were a bunch of nerds using timers and shit. I personally didnt find it very entertaining to see a bunch of faggots clustered on the overshield respawn 3 seconds before it came back. And I surely didnt find the aimed grenade pulls on weapons any better. Especially the sniper rifle on hang em high. RTS is even less interesting to watch. A bunch of skilless asians memorizing what motions they need to go through. Might as well play rock paper scissors, honestly.

That reminded me of this one time back in the day when my friends and I were weekly to monthly lasertaggers. We were having a good time bullying around the other locals in Richmond, VA and kind of learning the arena and all. Then one night an "IronMan" night is scheduled...6 hours through the night of nothing but lasertag. We were expecting to be locked up for 6 hours in this place camping out and roasting marshmellows with our guns poised...waiting for the red, flashing lights to appear.

So we show up to get one game in before the night started. And there was this one bugger who would dance around and move his whole body and look like a snake and we COULDN'T SHOOT HIM. He rarely got hit, and when he did...he'd just follow you around until his gun came back. So the game ended...whatever, good times. Then the Ironman starts up...turns out it's a bunch of little games stuffed into the evening instead of the 6 hour deathmatch as we had perceived. And the people started showing up...the types that are quite typically attired and recognized as gamers. You know...a grey shirt covered by a short-sleeved button-up flannel shirt that's NOT BUTTONED UP, khakis, tennis shoes...and hair that needs cutting. All of these guys, when the game started, were dancing around and covering their sensors and really moving around a lot more than you'd expect even a boxer to move around. We really got pretty mad at these guys and nearly clocked a few of them. We couldn't shoot them...it wasn't enjoyable.

I agree with Izor completely...there's a point where there's a rift between those who are just having fun...and those who want more. I'm not saying it's a bad thing...it's just a different life-style, one that many aren't going to accept.

We ended up leaving early because a member of our party had some pressing issue to resolve. Just before we left, the guy who was running the show hooked someone in our group up through the guise of a random raffle. It was a backpack with speakers and some candy and stuff. All in all, it was an eye-opener.

[Eric is God]

..

[Burzum]

The Americans have fata1ity, and FPS are generally the shit in America today. In Korea they don't give a fuck about them, they just watch and play Starcraft for unbelievable amounts of time in pc bangs or at home or wherever. If you want a good overview of the korean pro scene i suggest visiting teamliquid.net frequently and getting their torrents of all the current league games. It's from koreans who rip those shows directly off of one of their 3 24/7 starcraft TV channels.

[Eric is God]

..

[Fidel Castro]

Re: Burzum

Burn any churches lately?

[Necromotic]

interesting. i wonder whats all the button pushin for tho, guess he musta hotkeyed the buildings too. been playin sc for couple years now, but never got ot that level

[Burzum]

Those are hotkeys indeed, usually for a mediocre or above-average player (which mostly means 150 apm or more) the hotkeys represent about 30-50% of the total apm. Depending on your preferences and race you will have units or groups on keys 1-5 and buildings, spellcasters, dropships or add-ons on keys 6-0. It lets you build faster, micro better, keep control of unit production and so on. There's also been a huge and mainly pointless frenzy about a program called 1a2a3a (might even google that one), where you would have to press the key sequence of 1a2a3a4a5a6a7a8a9a0a (or any other self-assigned sequence) as fast as possible, somewhat training you for what you would do when you have a huge army and need to move all those groups to a certain point on the map as fast as possible (by selecting unit 1, pressing attack-move ("a") and left clicking on the map, then repeating the process for up to 9 other groups). Of course other key sequences are also important, such as 5sz6sz7sz8sz or 4sd5sd6sh7sh8sz for zerg and 5z6z7z8d9d for protoss. It's mostly pointless key bashing though, as many people would just smash those hotkeys over and over in-game as to get their apm as high as possible (in case you didn't know, you can check your APM with a nifty program called BWChart.exe). Incidentally, concentrating too much on APM and not enough on the game itself, your play will often suffer from trying to be too fast for your own good, as both unit production and micromanagement will stall for the time you're bashing the keys senseless - it's the "real" or "effective" APM that counts in the end, a feature easily determined by using a Russian program called BWRepInfo.

[Burzum]

yes that post was too fucking long as no one will read it anyway

[Sufficient]

Don't players just use custom keypads?