GSL 2023: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
The Good
The Games: Let's start off with what we always knew GSL was capable of, incredible games. Even with the shrunken prize pool, downsizing of Code S spots, and relegation to an online broadcast, GSL still produces some of the best Starcraft 2 competition there is. Games like the final set between DRG and Byun are the perfect example of that.
Terran opened with 2 barracks Reaper for the 3rd game in a row, and in an uncharacteristic moment, DRG lost a Queen to the first attack. After that though the game was all DRG, picking off the remaining Reapers out on the map, and taking a 3rd base, Zerg was gearing up for a macro game. With a huge Queen count, DRG easily pushed away the Marine ball of Byun, taking little to no damage. In what seemed like a do or die moment, Byun started his first big push of the game, sieging up tanks outside the 4th base of Zerg, with only 2 bases back at home, and no 3rd on the way. With a huge surround though DRG was able to swallow the tanks and chase the bio army all the way back home. From there Zerg took a commanding position in the game, up 5 bases to the 2 of Terran. Byun, taking some efficient trades off of creep, was able to gain a toehold on Zerg territory, outside his 4th. DRG, knowing he had a huge economic lead, sacrificed the base, refusing to take the terrible trades he would have to in order to save the base.
DRG was eventually able to clean up the Terran army, though not with the most cost effective trades. With DongRaeGu up, 4 bases to the 2 of Terran, doubling the mineral income of Byun, one would think the game was essentially over from there. The player with the huge income advantage can afford to take a bad fight, remax, and then win from there, tale as old as time, right? Wrong. Byun knowing he was on the ropes, kept his foot slammed down on the gas pedal, and sent one push after the other at his Zerg opponent. Hitting him with little counter attacks, picking off drones, and gaining huge cost advantages with incredible micro. Having mined out his main base, Byun floated his CC to the 3rd base position and made true the expression, “the best defense is good offense”. Keeping DRG occupied with endless attacks, Byun was able to mine off a largely undefended 3rd base, and when the odd attack came his way, he simply pulled back to the heavily fortified entrance to his natural, repelling every blow.
The game went on like this for the next 5 consecutive minutes, until Byun miraculously, and meticulously pulled the Zerg apart. The first big swing in Terran’s favor came when Byun was able to push both the 4th and 5th bases simultaneously, eliminating the latter. This was the beginning of the end for DRG, who lost almost his entire army, as he had no real answer to the Liberator’s of Byun. Zerg intelligently switched into Hydra production, and looked as though he could still take the game, but in the end the relentless assaults of Byun proved to be too much. In one of the most back and forth matches I’ve ever seen, Byun pulled off a miracle comeback.
13 years later, and GSL matches like this still give me “THE SICKEST NERD CHILLS TASTELESS”.
GSL Crowdfunding: There isn’t a lot to say here other than, this is the answer to my prayers. To watch competitors, of this level of skill and tenacity, compete for proverbial chicklets, is nothing short of depressing. The SC2 community has already started to do its thing, with over $30,000 a year ($2536 a month at the time of writing) added to the GSL prize pool, via Patreon, within 4 hours of announcement. We will see this number continue to skyrocket I presume, but this is an amazing start for sure! In addition viewers can also donate with Balloons on AfreecaTV, so I’ll be very curious to see how much is being generated on that front.
The Casting: I was as sad as anyone to not see the familiar faces of Nick and Dan next to each other when the first GSL Broadcast of 2023 went live. With Tasteless still in Korea though, and State joining him on the cast, we still have some amazing talent onboard. State has excellent game knowledge, a clear, strong voice, and great chemistry with Tasteless. Nick is still as funny as ever, and while I do sorely miss Artosis’ distinct laughter in response to Tasteless' endless barrage of silly jokes, State is a more than worthy replacement.
The Bad
The Downsizing: The clear elephant in the room here are the changes going into this year of GSL. The reduced prize pool is really the least of it in my opinion. The reduction to 16 players means that Code S Mainstays like: TY, RagnaroK, soO, Armani, Scarlett, SpeCial, and more won’t even make a GSL appearance until Season 2, if even then. Even worse, up and comers like Percival and Jinioh may never get their time to shine in GSL. The new format also sort of cheapens the feel of the event to me. Advancing to the Ro8 after winning 2 series really takes away from the prestige of the event. Top 8 in GSL used to be a huge achievement, now though a couple risky builds and some luck can get you there. The cherry on top of the mud pie though, is the move to an online broadcast. While the casting was still in person, the players weren’t, and it really changed the feel of the tournament. Byun’s victory was amazing, but what wasn’t was the echoing audio, and unwatchable camera quality during his interviews. I’m sure bugs will be ironed out as the production team learns how to manage this new frontier for them, but this first day showcased a dramatic drop in production quality.
The Ugly
The Neutering of GSL on Youtube: I understand that Afreeca wants to promote their own platform, and that makes perfect sense to me, but torching the quality of the YouTube stream is not a great way to do so. Filling ⅓ of the screen space with an unnecessary border that says “For the best viewing experience please go to AfreecaTV” is pretty infuriating to many viewers. Aside from the fact that the AfreecaTV site isn’t really well optimized for foreign viewers, many people (like myself) consume GSL through a Smart TV, or an Apple TV, where the Afreeca app isn’t supported. Not to mention the fact that you can’t rewind the stream on Afreeca as you can with YouTube, one of the most celebrated features of YT over even Twitch. Forcing people to consume your content by making an existing platform worse is a strange choice, in my humble opinion.
Conclusion
You’ll notice that “The Good” has more points than “The Bad”, or “The Ugly”, and that’s the truth of the matter. No matter what issues, or complaints I may have made in this article, the fact that we still have GSL, in any capacity, is nothing short of incredible. Some Esports scenes don’t last 13 months, and here we are at 13 years. We’ve been blessed to have been part of this community for as long as we have, and personally, I’ll be here until they turn the lights out on me. Thank you all for making this community what it is, my life simply wouldn’t be the same without it.
