Thursday, March 24, 2011

Taiwan

Taiwan the Mekkah of Starcraft 2?
Posted by Patrik "Raistlin" Hellstrand 16 minutes ago
Gosugamers.net

Asia. Five professional teams with StarCraft 2 competition on live television. Monthly salaries for players and team houses. Thinking of Korea? Think again, as Taiwan attempts to become the new mekkah of StarCraft 2.

If you thought the boom of StarCraft 2 had only reached North America and Europe, you were wrong. There are nations that truly has taken StarCraft 2 to heart. So much that they can boast with having the first league in the world that gets shown on live television.

The Taiwan eSports League is in its fourth season, and StarCraft 2 was brought in as one of the disciples as of October 2010.

It was in an NASL application video from FnaticMSI player Chia Cheng 'SEn' Yang that viewers got to see a round tour of the venue as well as a couple of minutes with the front man of the Taiwan eSports League. In the video clip, he explains the league system and its player support.
"We are also the first StarCraft 2 league where all players have a base salary," says 'SoBad', game shoutcaster. He added, "Every player of the 5 teams has a steady monthly salary."

The league consists of 5 teams that take turns playing on live TV on weekends: Xpec Ironmen, Gama Bears, Wayi Spider, Tt Apollos and Tao Yuan Jets.

According to an FAQ by 'BanelingMalt', players earn between $700 and $1,000 USD.

While the Taiwanese superstar "Sen" is not a part of any team due to alleged sponsor conflicts with his home team FnaticMSI, there are other bright shining stars such as the Terran player Jen-Yu “SoftBall” Chan (picture) who was seen playing at BlizzCon 2010.

"Our goal is to help all of our players get to the point where they are better than Sen. Of course currently we still have a long way to reach that goal, but I believe that you will be able to see Taiwanese players in the GSL and the NASL, so everyone keep an eye out for us," said SoBad.

The organization is considering allowing non-Taiwanese to join any of the five teams at the start of next season, but no details of it has been announced.


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