StarCraft is All About Chess & Teenage Girls

[Jason]

[ Article ]

Edge Magazine presents a two part article on the state of professional StarCraft gaming in Korea on the eve of StarCraft 2's release.

Professional StarCraft is much like chess. Grandmaster chess players memorise the starting moves and save their formidable brain power for the true contest – the middle game. It’s the same in StarCraft. “For the first half of the game, all of the players know the timing – of building a base and units – and how to play,” Mind says. “So you try to optimise it for the second half, when you cannot predict how the game will go on.” Just as in chess, the centre of the map is critical – he who controls the centre controls the flow of the game. It is quickest to go from the centre to anywhere else in the map, and speed is of the essence. “I play by dominating the map,” he says, blinking slowly. “If you dominate the centre, you will win. I am proud of that.”

Reading on reveals one of the reasons why so many Korean boys play StarCraft instead of chess.

After a 3-1 victory over Woongjin, the players are allowed outside, where their personal fans swamp them in droves. Nearly all of the fans are female, teenage or in their 20s, and they praise their favourite player while offering him a gift of a tasty snack. There’s a definite flirtatiousness about the whole affair, and it’s not uncommon for a player to date a fan. One of the followers says that she organises fan meetings when a player wins. What do they do there? “We usually ask him some questions, but usually about fun stuff,” she laughs. “We ask what he did to win, and then we ask him to dance for us.” Dance? Do they really dance? “Yes. They dance,” she says, giggling.

Guys, you're probably doing something wrong if you're dancing for the girls instead of the other way around. I suggest you read Hammer of the Gods to find out how this groupie thing is supposed to work.

Spotted @ Edge

[Yeesh]

[J1M]

Real question is why there are no pro female players of note. Supposedly women have faster reaction times or something and the sponsor money + fandom is there. With opportunity men don't have to vault into other media.
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[Kraszu]

[MetalCraze]

Watch how women hold mouse and see why nobody gives them grenades at war.
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卐 THIS IS THE NEW SHIT 卐:

[1eyedking]

[Azira]

Female team of counter strike players, although I see they have male stand-ins. Weak.

[Konjad]

3 of them look like trannies, so there are probably just 2 girls in the team
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[commie]

[relootz]

[Kraszu]

[relootz]

[Kraszu]

[Zomg]

Wonder why there isn't anything that teenagers play in the US or general west that has a combo of intellectualism and the spectator-friendliness and masculine competitiveness that can get a teenage girl lathered up. I think girls would be into watching deadly serious nerds at war, there's just no venue for such.

(Chess and chesslike games are brutally spectator unfriendly, no one that's not within a few levels of play of the people in the game can even follow the thinking)

We have this pussy-drying Michael Cena stereotype of guys that can read books and think when Michael Cena stereotype guys get run over just as badly in chess (and Starcraft) tournaments as they do playing football.

[SoupNazi]

[relootz]

[Kraszu]

TL gather stats from Korean pro games, where do you get your stats from? 27.94% win ratio is horrid anyway.

[hoodoo]

a gift of a tasty snack
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HOW HONOURABLE IT IS TO BE AZHIMAN THE GREAT