Professional Competition
StarCraft: Brood War has been called the most successful e-sport in the world that includes its own ranking system, and it has been referred to as the national pastime in South Korea, where there are two television channels dedicated to broadcasting professional StarCraft matches. Since its launch, StarCraft II has become a successful e-Sport with many leagues of ongoing tournaments with prize-pools up to US$170,000. There have been many tournaments with players from around the world; GomTV SC2 Global League, TeamLiquid StarCraft League, Major League Gaming, ESL and the North American Star League. StarCraft II has also become the main title in major LANs throughout the world like Assembly and Dreamhack.
The first large StarCraft II tournaments occurred during the beta testing phase, the most notable being the HDH Invitational and Day's King of the Beta. Currently the largest professional tournament is the GSL (GomTV Star League) which is a monthly tournament held in South Korea. The tournament enjoys major corporate sponsorships and prize pools of over $100,000. A new North American StarCraft League was announced on February 21, 2011 and is scheduled for an initial run of three seasons offering $400,000 in prize money. The first season of the North American Star League started on April 12, 2011, with 50 players divided into 5 divisions. It ended on July 10, 2011, and the total prize pool was US$100,000. The North American Star League has since run for an additional season, with a fifth starting in early 2013. On May 2, 2012, OnGameNet and KeSPA announced a formal switch in StarCraft competition from Brood War to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Starleague will transition over to StarCraft II by late 2012.
After three years of negotiations, Blizzard decided that the Korean e-Sports Players Association (KeSPA) was unwilling to cooperate with them in regards to the sharing of profits from competitive StarCraft multiplayer games. This breakdown led to an uncertain future of KeSPA's legal ability to broadcast Blizzard's intellectual property of both StarCraft and StarCraft II without paying royalties. MBC Television agreed to Blizzard's new terms in June 2010; KeSPA received a license from Blizzard and Ongamenet will host StarCraft II competitions starting in the summer of 2012.
Blizzard and GomTV signed an agreement on May 26, 2010, allowing the latter to create and broadcast the GomTV SC2 Global League, a series of tournaments, each with a US$170,000 prize pool, in South Korea. This agreement followed the decision from Blizzard to cease the negotiation with KeSPA, and it confirmed that Blizzard had decided to take another route to promote StarCraft II as an e-Sport in South Korea. The non-profit public interest group Public Knowledge made the following statement regarding the issue: "The Battle.net Terms of Use state that it is a violation of the agreement—and an infringement of Blizzard's copyright in the underlying game—to "use the Service for any 'e-sports' or group competition sponsored, promoted or facilitated by any commercial or non-profit entity without Blizzard's prior written consent."
Read more about this topic: Star Craft II: Wings Of Liberty
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