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Week 12 [13-19.06.2016] E-sports education in South Korea

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E-sports education in South Korea
We had some interesting presentations about Video game competitions before, and I saw that it’s pretty interesting topic for You. That’s why I decided to write about E-sport education in South Korea.
The rise of gaming in South Korea is thanks to the Asian financial crisis in the '90s. Korean government made a big push in telecom and internet infrastructure, result of this move was simple- people had computers in their homes and good enough internet to play online games.

The Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA) is a South Korean organisation established in 2000 to manage e-sports in their country. It’s official goal is to make e-Sports an official sporting event, to achieve it KeSPA is responsible for broadcasting, organizing e-sports events and even regulates the conditions in which progamers work. In 2012, it was the managing body for gaming competitions, including games like Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void, League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
In my opinion they have done really great work during this 16 years. Nowadays In South Korea, e-sport is  becoming as big of a sport as soccer, according to an article published by Paul Mozur (source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/technology/league-of-legends-south-korea-epicenter-esports.html). There's even a television channel dedicated to e-sports, called OnGameNet(OGN).

Every person that is somehow connected to E-sport community, knows that South Korea players dominates games such as League of Legends or StarCraft2. I asked myself how is it possible, that almost every top team in games I mentioned before, comes from Korea? The answer is simple. If you think about Basketball, the first thing that comes to your mind is United States. When you grow up in the U.S, it’s nearly impossible to avoid a basketball court. Even if you’re not interested in game, you are surrounded by the game. Similarly to how kids in America can't go a mile without running into a basketball hoop, it would be difficult to find someone in South Korea who hasn't been to a PC bang. Since 2000’s the youth living in South Korea have been in a world where playing video games in large stadiums on television is on the agenda. The best players from StarCraft 2 were treated as sex symbols, dressed up in stylish outfits in advertisements to bring in a strong female audience.

I’m looking forward to see how Polish goverment will treat E-sport when it’s gonna be really popular in our Country. I like the fact that „Polsat”, television channel that is avaliable in Poland, started to stream e-sports events like Dreamhack. Maybe in the future we are going to have our own Polish „KeSPA” or even PGN(PolishGameNet)?

Questions:

-What do you think about Korean e-sport education?

-If you were fascinated gamer, would you like to grow up in South Korea?

-What do you think about television channels dedicated to e-sport?

-Do you like the fact that television channels avaliable in Poland, slowly but surely are interested in streaming gaming events?

Sources:
http://espn.go.com/esports/story/_/id/14628446/south-korean-esports-lifestyle
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/technology/league-of-legends-south-korea-epicenter-esports.html
http://gizmodo.com/south-korean-university-now-accepts-gamers-as-student-a-1547111361



Comments

Cezary Góralski said…
To me it does not sound interesting. It’s a waste of time, as watching how someone is playing do not bring anything positive to me. I can imagine that people involved in gaming like watching it and being educated about it. I didn’t know that polish television channels are interested in streaming such gaming events, but surely I will not watch it, because it is not interesting at all for me. As I said I don’t like it and I don’t find it interesting/entertaining so I don’t like the idea of television channels dedicated to e-sport.
13 June 2016 at 21:44
Marcin Konarski said…
I think that eSport has nothing in common with real sport. When I hear sport I mean physical activity, lose weight and healthy lifestyle. I would be devastated if e-sport education would be introduces in Poland, but it is rather not possible at all. I think that television channels dedicated to e-sport will be popular among people who are interested in that. In general I don’t think that people especially in our age watch television at all, but in other countries it is possible that they will succeed. If they were available in Poland I would not watch them.
13 June 2016 at 21:45
Unknown said…
I have to admit that I treat any sport not related to physical activity a bit inferior to "normal" sports (even chess, but let me explain, before lynching). My attitude is greatly influenced by way I study and work. As IT student and software developer my whole life is about sitting in fron of computer and thinking. Thats why (even though that I admire professional chessmasters strategy instinct, and professional players time of reaction and decision uptaking) I do not spend much time on sports not related to physicall activity. However, I still look forward for Poland to jump on eSport hype-train, because I believe that any kind of competition can improve some particular skills, and it is much better for one to be professional player than just sitting and watching tv, or mindlessly playing just to kill time.
16 June 2016 at 18:56
Unknown said…
I feel like I just had to commented on the same topic recently. To be honest I don't even like typical sport events, channels... anything really. And even though I enjoy playing computer games myself I'm not a fan of any sport events both normal sports and esports. I would love it if our society would spend more money on space travel or some interesting research instead.
18 June 2016 at 19:53
Unknown said…
I'm not too interested in e-sport as a whole, although I enjoy video games. Still, it seems that there's a huge audience (with the female part growing bigger and bigger, as you've mentioned) for e-sports in Poland. A lot of my students watch YouTubers religiously, even though they themselves don't play. It's a natural development of mainstream culture. So I guess, if the trend continues, in some 5 years, they might be a good target for an e-sport TV channel, especialy if it includes their favourite e-celebrities. I daresay such casual fans might constitute as much as 50% of the audience.
19 June 2016 at 00:25
Maciej Spychała said…
I don't care about TV too much, so for me they can air paint drying 24/7. I don't mind e-sports, I'm not a huge fan, but I don't see anything wrong with it and I'm sure it will become more popular as long as there will be people interested in it. Apart from that, if you like e-sport, you should hope that our government won't be involved in it in any way. It will be for the better.
19 June 2016 at 00:45
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
19 June 2016 at 12:40
Unknown said…
I don't know a lot of e-sport platforms and TV e-sport channels because I don't like play computer games like Counter Strike or League of Legends. For me it's not interesting topic but I think that Korean e-sport education is nice initiative. It may contribute to increase integration between people from around the world. I appreciate such educational ideas beacause it develops skills of society. I think that government of South Korea should be proud of his players which are well-known all around the world. Very good idea is also television live streams for players because of posibility to improving skills. I heard that television e-sport chanenels are available in Poland and gaming events become increasingly popular. In my opinion it's good opportunity for the Polish players to self-develop skills and to shine on European e-sport stage.

19 June 2016 at 12:42
Unknown said…
Ok, I'm a gamer but I'm so not into e-sports. I like playing on my own or with my friends, that's it. So I don't really care how the government treats it, couldn't care less if it ceased to exist. Of course let people compete if they want to, I don't mind. TV channels with video game streaming sounds kind of weird. But there is some logic to this, after all there's a lot of gaming channels on YouTube, streams on Twitch and so on, and they usually have massive amounts of views, so perhaps TV channels are trying to use the trend to their advantage.
19 June 2016 at 15:56
Unknown said…
Hello, and thank you for your comment. I can understand that some people won't find e-sport interesting/entertaining. I'm not sure if I would rather be you. I'm interested in e-sports, I like it, but it's pretty time-consuming hobby.
19 June 2016 at 16:40
Unknown said…
Hello. I can understand your point of view. But think a bit Marcin. People are more and more tolerant to some new definitions of basic activities. People are fighting for equality etc. So when you are gonna be ready to change this "basic definitions" you will see common characteristics for sport and e-sport.
19 June 2016 at 16:46
Unknown said…
I can understand You. Even if im huge fan of gaming and e-sports, after 8 hours of working next to the monitor and of course thinking, sometimes it's really hard to enjoy e-sport. But when I feel exhausted I go to the gym, or for a walk with my friends. And then I think to myself "Tomorrow will be a better day for playing computer" :D
19 June 2016 at 16:52
Unknown said…
I'm unhappy that I didn't hit the topic. I hope that You will enjoy my second article :)
19 June 2016 at 16:57
Unknown said…
I'm also not big fan of TV, nowadays It's a waste of time. But still for me it's better to develop e-sport channels than developing polish cabarets :D That statement about goverment laughed me so hard :D Nowadays you can be right! :)
19 June 2016 at 17:00
Unknown said…
It's not only good opportunity to self-develop skills of Polish players. I hope that We will have more e-sports events. Because our country has huge potential, that noone is using.
19 June 2016 at 17:04
Unknown said…
I think they should get real education and then continue their esports careers. I think this is something simillar to NFL. 99% of NFL players are broke after their contracts end, mainly because they dont have any other valuable skills. Its good for them to play and earn money while doing what they love, but they dont tend to think longterm when it comes to income
19 June 2016 at 19:00
Unknown said…
I think nobody really care about news in e-sports in South Korea, but I can be wrong. I don't like computer games so that is not my topic to comment on for sure. I'm not interested in this at all.
19 June 2016 at 21:04
Unknown said…
It's still a long way for e-Sport to gain the full potential and to reach status it has in Korea. I would rather not wait for government to invest into e-Sport, it's too exotic and fluid as it is now. If there is going to be a organisation like KeSPA here in Europe, it's going to be initiative taken by the gamers themselves. But it's still long way. Right now e-Sport is considered something interesting but strange and little weird. Although maybe in 10-20 years it would be normal to see e-Sport events in national TV and newspapers. It's only up to people and what they want to watch.
19 June 2016 at 21:49
Unknown said…
Damn that sick, now you have to pay a lot of money to be taught to play some free-to-play games you can download on Steam?)
I know there is a lot of money in e-sport nowadays, but why everyone wants to be the guy who plays PC all day long instead of being the guy who gets the 90% of all money from those fellas? Go study some modern business or IT sciences.
19 June 2016 at 22:23
Moode said…
It’s a very interesting article. I like to watch someone playing depending on what’s he/her playing. I knew about these Polish channels, I was on one of the famous event ”IEM”, and it was awesome.
19 June 2016 at 23:43
Unknown said…
-What do you think about Korean e-sport education?

I didn't know anything before, but i think it is quite interesting and very new!

-If you were fascinated gamer, would you like to grow up in South Korea?

Defenitely!

-What do you think about television channels dedicated to e-sport?

Well if the gamers and e-sports followers would like it i think it would be cool :)

-Do you like the fact that television channels avaliable in Poland, slowly but surely are interested in streaming gaming events?

It's cool, not my cup of tea, but it is really good to see that our TV stations somehow care about that group of people :)
19 June 2016 at 23:51
Unknown said…
It' definitely not the reason I would like to live in Korea but I dont see e-sports as a bad thing. It' a nice change that kids good at video games can feel appreciated, and their parents can see that there' a future in that. Here we still push kids out to play football while playing video games still creates the you should go outside and play some actual sports reaction.
20 June 2016 at 03:05
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19 December 2016 at 08:35
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