Match-Fixing Scandal Hits South Korean Video Games
from the where-there-is-money-to-be-made... dept
Online gaming is massively popular in South Korea, so much so that its popularity among teens -- and their propensity to stay up all night playing them -- is seen as serious social problem. But the country's professional gaming leagues have been hit by a match-fixing scandal in which players and officials have allegedly taken bribes (via the BBC) from gamblers to throw games of StarCraft. The incredible popularity of StarCraft, and other online games, in Korea has created enough interest to fuel illegal gambling sites that bet on the outcome of matches between the country's 12 pro teams. The maker of StarCraft, Blizzard, has been trying to take a cut of the TV revenues generated from the matches, a move that wasn't well received in Korea. It looks like that spat might get precluded by the crumbling of the pro league.
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Filed Under: gambling, online gaming, south korea, starcraft
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Pro video gaming has a market, and it's a profitable business, which is why it exists. Which is exactly the same for any pro entertainment.
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Watching a pro team compete in a game is as stupid as watching a pro team compete in a game.
Professional players are stupid, and no one takes them seriously.
As you say, the Super Bowl is a waste. Hockey is dumb. Chess is ignored by businesses world wide! People don't enjoy watching competition. It's boring. Tiger Woods, who cares? Tennis what? Starcraft is so lame.
Nascar is the only worth while competition.
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Stupid
It's frail egos that need to associate themselves with something larger and greater than themselves so that they feel better about themselves when "their" team wins... even though they have absolutely no influence on the outcome.
It's like saying... "Yah... my sun beat your moon because it's daytime!"
Think of the countless wasted hours that could be used doing SOMETHING productive.... finding a cure for cancer, writing a symphony, helping the homeless... spending time with your wife or kids....
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"Yes. I know you are the lead for our cancer cure team, and you are so close to finding the cure, but we are going to have to let you go."
"Wha...why??"
"We have learned that you play fantasy football. You cannot possibly be part of the team that will cure cancer."
"Oh why oh why did I have to throw away my life with stupid fantasy football!!!?? Now millions will die because of my selfish choices!"
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Re: Stupid
Amateur car racing is stupid. You have no control over what draw you get from race to race.
Skydiving is stupid. You have no control over gravity.
Knitting circles are stupid. That old bitty Gerta is always picking the wrong color thread and you have no control over it.
Now excuse me while I go end world hunger. I'm pretty sure I have total control over that.
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There is also SOME skill in it. I have a friend who's quite good at it and always places quite well across multiple years. It's a statistically small sample, but it's just as valid as claiming there's no skill in it.
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But seriously, a youtube search on "starcraft tournament" or does yield a Korean TV program plus various starcraft games with voice-over commentary.
I'm guessing this sort of thing seems to appeal to practitioners only-- which suggests that there are alot of practitioners in Korea...
Now if they can bring in some elements of reality TV into this (players personalities, reactions, etc), they really might have something...
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What?
Or maybe a story about a player being found at the bottom of a lake with his thumbs encased in cement (cement gloves instead of cement shoes).
Or maybe a Pulp Fiction conversation:
"Now I want to say, 'My ass goes down in the thrid against the Zerg.'"
"My ass goes down in the third against the Zerg."
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It's like posting a link to Fox only if Fox also posted British Page 3 girls. They also take AP articles and mark them as KT originals. At least they've stopped posting Weekly World News articles as their own.
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