Korea
When a strategy game became television. OGN and MBCGame as broadcast channels, the PC bang boom, KeSPA and the team houses, arena finals with real crowds, and the harder parts: the training regimen, the 2010 match-fixing scandal, the licensing war with Blizzard, and Proleague ending in 2016.
Part of StarCraft
40 moments in this segment.
- - A Seoul PC bang, 2001. Customers playing StarCraft on rows of PCs in a South Korean internet café (PC bang) in 2001. One of very few genuinely period photographs of the PC-bang boom on Commons.
- - Inside a PC bang, Seoul 2001. The interior of a South Korean PC bang photographed in July 2001, at the height of the StarCraft-driven internet café boom.
- - A Friday night in a Seoul PC bang. Young people gaming in a Seoul PC bang in 2006. The photographer notes this was standard evening entertainment for many in the city. Accepted at 800px.
- - StarCraft on Korean television, 2006. A televised StarCraft match in South Korea photographed in 2006, showing the broadcast production of the Korean pro scene.
- - StarCraft II on a Korean Air 747. A StarCraft II advertising livery on a Korean Air Boeing 747 at Seoul Incheon International Airport in 2010, marking the game's commercial reach in South Korea.
- - The English booth at the GOMTV studio. Artosis and Tasteless casting the English stream from the GOMTV studio in South Korea, where StarCraft matches were both televised in Korean and streamed in English.
- - GSL All-Star Match, 2011. The 2011 Global StarCraft II League All-Star Match in South Korea. Accepted at 640px as scarce Korean-league primary material.
- - Yongsan e-Sports Stadium. The Yongsan e-Sports Stadium in Seoul, the purpose-built venue that hosted Korean StarCraft league finals, photographed in September 2012.
- - Hall of fame, Yongsan e-Sports Stadium. The hall of fame at Yongsan e-Sports Stadium in Seoul, categorised under the OnGameNet Starleague, the flagship Korean StarCraft competition.
- - Yongsan stadium in the electronics district. Yongsan e-Sports Stadium within the Yongsan Electronics Shopping Area in Seoul, photographed in 2012.
- - GSL Season 5 finals, 2012. The Global StarCraft II League Season 5 finals in South Korea, December 2012.
- - GSL World Championship, 2012. The 2012 Global StarCraft II League World Championship, photographed for Team Liquid.
- - GSL commentary desk. Korean GSL commentators Ahn Jun-yeong, Park Sang-hyeon and Che Jeong-won at the StarCraft II Global StarCraft League broadcast desk.
- - KT Rolster champions interview, 2014. Flash (Lee Young-ho) at the joint interview for KT Rolster, the 2014 StarCraft Proleague champions. Accepted at 536px as scarce Korean league material.
- - The dark side of non-stop gaming. VICE report on the human cost of competitive gaming in Korea, part of a five-part esports series.
- - Rehab for Korea's gaming addicts. SBS Dateline report on the state-run digital rehabilitation camps set up in response to Korea's gaming culture.
- - StarCraft II StarLeague finals, Seoul 2016. Photo sketch from the StarCraft II StarLeague 2016 Season 2 grand final in South Korea.
- - Proleague, the longest-running esports league, is discontinued. IGN news report on KeSPA's announcement ending Proleague in 2016.
- - KeSPA announces the end of StarCraft Proleague. The announcement clip marking the close of the league that had run since 2003.
- - YTN: Proleague abolished, teams disbanded. Korean national news report on the collapse of Proleague, opening with the 100,000-strong Gwangalli beach final of 2004.
- - ProGamer, feature documentary. Feature documentary following two StarCraft II professionals through the tournament circuit, with Naniwa, WhiteRa and InControl.
- - What is a PC bang?. History of the Korean internet café, the venue that carried StarCraft into mass culture after the 1997 financial crisis.
- - Inside the relentless training of professional gaming stars. CBS News report on the training regimen of Korean esports professionals and its physical cost.
- - Flash on contracts and incentives. The highest-paid Brood War player explains how contracts and performance bonuses actually worked.
- - What StarCraft professionals were actually paid. A former pro breaks down salaries from zero won upward and describes life as a team trainee.
- - The Gamer: the history of Korean gamers. The esports KBS posting of the same special documentary on the history of Korean professional gaming.
- - A modern PC bang, 2020. A South Korean PC bang photographed in March 2020, showing how the internet café format persisted decades after the StarCraft boom.
- - Ten years of GSL, with Tastesless and Artosis. Anniversary retrospective marking the Global StarCraft League's first decade.
- - The past and present of Korean StarCraft. Long-form Korean video essay on the arc from the OSL era to the streaming-era revival.
- - T1 Base Camp PC bang, Hongdae. The interior of the T1 Base Camp PC bang in Hongdae, Seoul, showing rows of gaming PCs and T1-branded chairs. T1 is the successor of the SK Telecom T1 StarCraft team.
- - Thorin on esports business, Blizzard versus KeSPA and Serval's legacy. Long interview with esports journalist Thorin covering the business history behind Korean StarCraft.
- - What really goes on in Korean pro team houses. Tasteless, resident in Korea since the OGN years, describes the team-house system from the inside.
- - YTN: twenty-six years of StarCraft in Korea. News feature on why StarCraft still holds a mass audience in Korea, tracing it back to the IMF years.
- - The battle to own Korean StarCraft: Blizzard vs KeSPA. Explainer on the licensing war between Blizzard and the Korean e-Sports Association that nearly ended the sport.
- - Myeongga: twenty years of T1. Nearly three-hour official documentary on T1, the team built around BoxeR that became the defining institution of Korean esports.
- - Artosis on the GOAT debate and Blizzard's esports retreat. The long-resident caster on Brood War versus StarCraft II and Blizzard's handling of the scene.
- - Stork and FanTaSy on match-fixing, salaries and the team house. Two former Proleague professionals talk frankly about pay, dormitory life, welfare and the match-fixing years.
- - Maddox on growing up with Brood War in Korea. A fan's-eye history of Korean StarCraft, from watching Proleague in a barbershop to working as a translator.
- - The Blizzard-KeSPA dispute, told by an ex-OGN producer. A former OnGameNet producer recounts the licensing dispute from the broadcaster's side.
- - How Korea invented professional esports. Short overview of the structures Korea built around competitive gaming and what they cost.
