Joined: 5/2/2006
Posts: 1020
Location: Boulder, CO
It occurred to me that most of my computer time these days is filled with watching pro matches of WC3, and watching TASes. I guess I like watching people play game more then I like playing them myself, and I was wondering if anyone else finds watching pro-gaming appealing, and if so, what games do you most prefer?
*Please hold all "likes to watch" jokes for the end*
Joined: 4/25/2004
Posts: 615
Location: The Netherlands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberathlete_Professional_League
I still think there's money to be made in a website that streams coverage of people playing games. Much like TASses or SDA runs but more like a TV station.
Have a CPL match of CS, watch somebody crush C&C, an LP marathon of Doom3, whatever. I've somehow always been fascinated with looking at people playing games. Face it, that's why we're all here :p
i love to watch progamers and their scene ;) mostly WC3-tft
(i will join the german esl pro series finals in december too)
also i like to see CS wars from all the big clans
or myself joining big unrealtournament events :D
Joined: 4/25/2004
Posts: 615
Location: The Netherlands
CPL is like any boardsport, many can get good enough to compete but only a few can actually make a living of it. In tournaments you can usually win prizes, in CPL those rewards can go up rather fast.
I like watching Red Alert 3 and C&C 3 replays. While it's usually a tank rush, occasionally someone uses their head and comes up with a different (and nearly always extremely effective) strategy. One match comes to mind where one player took reversed his opponent's effective-but-risky strategy, took control of his superweapon (which was part of the strategy), and used it against his opponent immediately.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
I'm quite into (watching) competitive gaming, mostly for enjoyment but occasionally for tips. I watch a fair amount of Starcraft and vs. fighter stuff (ST and Darkstalkers mainly)
Speedrunning and competitive gaming are just as impressive to me.
Although CPL is dead for now (and so is TGS), I follow Counter-Strike, StarCraft, some Marvel vs Capcom, and CoD4*.
* Pretty much anything #gamefire decides to cover, which is mostly CoD4 now. :/ RIP TsN
Joined: 5/2/2006
Posts: 1020
Location: Boulder, CO
I almost didn't realize how unwatchable WC3 is if you never played the game. A friend of mine wanted to watch some replays, so I gave him links of what were in my opinion the best couple of matches played this season, but he had nothing to say but "meh".
This fact alone makes me surprised that ESL WC3L doesn't go under, but I glad its still around. There is something amazing watching the top few players in the world play it out, the things they can pull off are almost unbelievable.
Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil
I like playing better than watching.
"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself.
It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the
kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional
functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success."
- Onkar Ghate
Bisqwit wrote:
Joined: 5/2/2006
Posts: 1020
Location: Boulder, CO
ZeXr0 wrote:
Where do you watch those games ?
http://www.esl.eu/eu/wc3l/
is the main site for what is (arguably) the most prestigious league. The replay files they offer require a fully patched copy of warcraft 3 to view, but I find the matches enjoyable.
I really wouldn't mind a link to a good source of starcraft replays, I don't really find which leagues are active, and what the update schedule is like, as most of the site are in Korean.
I almost didn't realize how unwatchable WC3 is if you never played the game. A friend of mine wanted to watch some replays, so I gave him links of what were in my opinion the best couple of matches played this season, but he had nothing to say but "meh".
This fact alone makes me surprised that ESL WC3L doesn't go under, but I glad its still around. There is something amazing watching the top few players in the world play it out, the things they can pull off are almost unbelievable.
WC3 is at least better then WoW. In WC3, with some knowledge of RTS-games, you can generally understand what's happening. In WoW, it's... lots of sparks and shines and then someone dies for some reason.
I'm very interested in professional gaming as such, just.. not in the majority of genres or games being played professionally. The FPS-genre's brutal hold on most of the worlds attention for pro-gaming is quite a waste in my eyes. I'm a big fan of fighting games, so I'm very interested in EVO and SBO. MLG had SSBM for a while, but I heard they switched that for WoW, so...
Joined: 5/2/2006
Posts: 1020
Location: Boulder, CO
I played a lot of WoW over the last few years, but I eventually quit because of how stupid PVP gets at the endgame.
I can't believe anyone would watch that, its not really suited for competitive play for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is how severely luck can impact a match. Even though I could follow arena matches in wow, I don't for the simple reason that most matches can come down to a lucky crit or proc. The "skill" in playing that game has more to do with putting in the time to get gear; actually playing a character at 70 was about as difficult as driving on the highway. The kind of thing that some people find a way to suck at, but only takes basic skill to get to the point everyone else is.
