So after much planning and anticipation the day finally came. It was the day we would go to the GOMTV station to watch people play Starcraft competitively at the GOM TV station.
For those who are unfamiliar with how nerdy I am, Starcraft is an online Real Time Strategy game where you work to build an army and pit it against your opponent. The game has been nothing short of a national sport (I’m exaggerating) and there are prize pools of about $60,000 every tournament.
Koreans have mastered the game and constantly win in worldwide competitions.
I was lucky enough to be here to have a chance to check out one night of the qualifiers.
The studio is actually located in a high school and is free to attend. The game is casted in both Korean and English but you have to give them your ID for an English head set to listen.
I’ve been playing Starcraft since I was in 4th grade and I’ve been playing more intensely since Starcraft 2 came out 2 years ago. I have to say that it was a blast seeing the production, the live audience and the casters do their thing.
What was most surprising was that one of the players EG_JD had groupies in the audience call out his name and cheer for him.
The matches lasted about 3 hours with 5 players trying to get into the top 2 spots for Code S. Unfortunately, there were no protoss players so it was mostly ZvZ and TvZ games.
I was a little disappointed that we didn’t arrive into Seoul one day early because Huk and Nestea were playing the night before. Many of the matches were great and exciting to watch.
Overall it was a great time and I would recommend any Starcraft fan to check it out if they make it out to seoul. The next time I’m here, I’ll be one of the competitors…
