New Age of StarCraft Begins As Brood War Is Phased Out

Written by: Jarrett Robertson (@_Caltu_) | May 4, 2012 12:00 pm

11 Comments

The end of an era.

The StarCraft: Brood War eSports scene is coming to a close.

After years of glory in South Korea as one of the founding fathers of eSports, Brood War is on the path towards its demise.

The biggest names in Korean eSports: OnGameNet, KeSPA, Blizzard and GOMtv hosted a press conference regarding the future of StarCraft 2 in Korea a few hours ago.

This conference was to confirm one thing: the expansion of SC2 in Korea and the end of BW.

Both KeSPA and OGN will be hosting their respective versions of SC2 tournaments, the prestigious proleague and OSLs will be set to begin later this year.

But with SC2 making its move onto the KeSPA and OGN scenes, this means that the day for BW to be phased out is quickly approaching.

The next proleague has been confirmed to be the rumoured hybrid SC2/BW event, that will be the last time BW is featured at KeSPA, as the following event will be 100% SC2. The SC2 OSL will begin as soon as July, although the current OSL might not be BW’s finally event

This is amazing news for the SC2 scene, with the biggest names in eSports finally able to get their hands on the younger fitter version of StarCraft.

The BW professional players are coming, as the golden age of BW comes to an end.

New Age of StarCraft Begins As Brood War Is Phased Out

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Comment

http://twitter.com/Deilwynna Johan Bärtzner

imo, KeSPA and OGN and Blizzard and GOMTV should have started working together earlier, maybe already when they saw old BW-pros like Boxer and and those switch to SC2
http://www.facebook.com/people/Feed-Teh-Trolls/100002937185113 Feed Teh Trolls

it pains me to see this news reported by these mmo nerds who know nothing about the SC/esports scene.

please stick to your mmos please, stop reporting esports news, thats what TL is for.
- Jado Cast
  
  Troll Much?
http://twitter.com/BillMcD Alan

I was wondering what was taking so long. SC2 just LOOKS so much better. I’m talking from a spectator perspective, not a gameplay perspective. I just don’t see BW being able to have as many spectators as SC2 now.
http://twitter.com/Slayerqt Bradley

You do not seem to informed about why the switch to sc2 didn’t occur and it has very little to do with how good BW is. It mostly has to do with legal dispute between Blizzard and Kespa and then gom getting the exclusive license for sc2 in Korea….
- http://twitter.com/_Caltu_ Callum Lawrence
  
  I must say I have to disagree I obviously know about the previous KeSPA Blizzard disputes and the GOMtv sole rights but down to the wire BW was still big when SC2 was new
  
  People didnt know if it could fill the pretty big shoes and now we know it has
http://www.facebook.com/malek.toumi1 Malek Toumi

took them only 2 years rofl
http://profiles.google.com/hvikane94 Øystein Vikane

People will still play BW but all the tournaments are gonna be much more popular with SCII;WOL since its newer, it looks better, alot of the younger generation knows more about it and so on, so this will not only benefit the E-Sport community but also the younger generations and upcoming gamers.
http://www.facebook.com/oneniisama Bear Powell

BW > SC2 for the majority of KR players.
This is the e-sport environment forcing the players to play SC2 when they do not prefer it.
If you look at the PC stats for KR you’ll see BW in the Top 3 most played and SC2 barely making it into the Top 20. SC2 hasn’t even broken into the Top 10 since launch. This is a waste of money and effort, but the Pros will still cash the checks playing an inferior product.
- http://twitter.com/_Caltu_ Callum Lawrence
  
  I was just looking at these stats and I 100% agree that Korea is still a powerhouse for BW
  
  But I think that is because it is still on their TV, as soon as OGN broadcasts SC2 Id expect them to change
  
  Either that or they really hate the fact you can A move and win with 1 control group as Protoss [Can you tell I had a bad ladder evening vs P?]
http://www.facebook.com/malek.toumi1 Malek Toumi

SC2 inferior to SC1? no way.
All this talk about BW being oh so skillful is flawed, BW is hard because its UI is primitive and downright caveman compared to SC2, if you wanted to build 5 raxes you had to individually pick 5 SCVs and assign one rax each, then click each individual rax to produce marines, a large part of becoming a better player is learning to select things as quickly as possible, and don’t get me started on casters and abilities like siege mode and burrow.
I think having a better UI and reducing the skill cap of base management is an improvement, because the creative player won’t have as much of a disadvantage against the guy who can click his SCVs the fastest.