Starcraft: the Revolution of eSports

The lights of the metropolis shine brightly on the clear summer night. Down on the bay, a crowd gathers around a giant outdoor screen. Spotlights flood the area as the audience,now exceeding 50,000 people, work themselves into a fever pitch. The two teams come out on stage to deafening cheers. Teenage girls scream as one idol from each team is chosen for the first round of combat. They each enter a booth. The music swells, and the video game begins.

“It sounds like a science fiction story from the future. But this event actually happened in the past, in a place where such things have been commonplace for over ten years. This was the 2006 Proleague finals held in Seoul, South Korea. The game being played was StarCraft.” – The Dawn of Starcraft, eSports comes to the world stage, by Jeremy Reimer, arstechnica.

_Starcraft _was released in March 1998, closely followed by several expansions with the third and final release in November 1998. Together, they would become an all-time best-selling game for the PC, with 11 million copies sold worldwide. The game is a sci-fi real-time strategy game, with three distinct races that can be played. It is said to have revolutionized the standards for RTS games, perhaps due to the insane skills required to compete at the top level. It triggered the creation of the world’s first major eSports (electronic-sports) tournaments starting in 2002 in South Korea, and spreading throughout the world today.

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is the long-awaited sequel, released on July 10th 2010. It follows the same lore as its predecessor, seeing major changes in only the outdated graphics and speed. Certain units were removed, added, or altered drastically, but the mechanics of the game remain untouched.

There are over 30 tournaments a year; the largest ones offer a prize pot of up to $120,000

There are several elements of the game to master; conceptually simple, but extraordinarily difficult to do all at once. Like most RTS games, players build armies and fight to kill their opponent – but the resources the players are required to gather are spread about the map, and you can’t see what your opponent is doing unless you scout them out.

Economic balance is vital. You need enough workers to maintain a high income, and the gathered resources must all be intelligently spent. Decision-making is the most crucial part of the game –choose what buildings to invest in to produce the right army composition to engage at the best time in the most advantageous way.

All the above is referred to as “macro” – anything that involves considering the overall game and maintaining a good play. Its counterpart is “micro”, which focuses on the intense second-by-second unfurling of game-changing battles. There is a lot to do in any one battle: certain units have abilities toggled by hotkey and must be cast in the right place at the right time, target-firing powerful units to minimize damage taken, and splitting groups of units to avoid splash attack damage.

So far, you might be asking the question, why is it different to any other RTS? Well, there are three main elements to this. The first is its fully integrated multiplayer ladder system. All players are given a rank in a league, and winning games in multiplayer allows you to climb the ladder and eventually be promoted. There are seven leagues from bronze to Grand Masters – GM being the top 200 in a region.

The second is the game’s ongoing development. Starcraft is constantly being tested and developed, with changes made following the evolution of the metagame. Patches are brought in to maintain the “balance”, making sure no single strategy is too “overpowered”.

The third is the satisfaction received from Starcraft 2 as a spectator sport. At eSports tournaments, hundreds of professional players pit themselves against each other in a thrilling battle of wits, pushing their skills to the limit. The matches are shown live, with audiences hundreds of thousands strong, all over the world, watching the game unfold. Accompanying this is play-by-play commentary by knowledgeable and entertaining casters, who expertly blend enthusiasm and comedy into every event. There are over 30 tournaments a year; the largest ones offer a prize pot of up to $120,000.

In the games, there are countless preparations a player can make in order to surprise their opponent. Usually, this makes the player more vulnerable to attack. There is a high-pressure excitement generated from knowing something the players don’t – in your head, you scream “Attack NOW, before his advantage kicks in, now is your ONLY opportunity!” Every moment is packed with dramatic tension, because any moment could decide the game.

The other factor is the strategic brilliance of the players. In the game, intelligence and preparation are by far the most important attributes of the players. High-level play is full of mind games. Professional competitors will study their rivals’ play styles months in advance in order to find and exploit the smallest of weaknesses. The “wow” factor is in the stunning decision-making and outsmarting of your opponent, with each player having a unique approach to the game.

To celebrate this wonderful world of Starcraft, Imperial’s own Starcraft Society was formed earlier this year as a sub-society of Gaming. We have held six tournament and screening events so far, each incredibly entertaining and successful. The most fantastic aspect is just having a community, being able to discuss and participate in a game you love, with others who share that feeling. Furthermore, there exists a Collegiate Star League where universities all over Europe compete on Starcraft. An Imperial team was formed at the start of this academic year, by Ben Thomas, a first-year Physicist. We placed third this season, out of 22 teams including Oxbridge and University of London.

So, if you feel you wanna get involved in an awesome game with an awesome society, join our Facebook group “Imperial Starcraft Society”, and come along to our next event, a live screening of a pro-tournament, MLG Spring Arena 2! Hosted by ICU Cinema Society, we will be in the Union Concert Hall this weekend from 5.00pm Saturday and 5.30pm Sunday. The tournament is hosted in America, so they will go on until the early hours of morning, pop by whenever to catch a glimpse of the eSports phenomenon!