The topic I am interested in exploring is esports in Korea. Primarily the game League of Legends, but also Starcraft II and Valorant. This topic relates to Korea because in Starcraft I and II Koreans have dominated the competitive scene for decades. In League of Legends Korean teams are almost always the favorites, and Korean players are often superstars on other foreign teams. For Valorant, despite not dominating global events, Korean teams are still very competitive. Overall, Korea demonstrates dominance across three games in three different genres, and they have the most developed esports infrastructure in the world. In a presentation I would like to look at the history of Korean esports, and understand how the industry became so much larger than in the US, despite the games originating in the US. Along with this I would like to look at some of the most impressive Korean players and teams.
Starcraft may be the focus of the whole presentation simply because it has the most extensive history as an esport. Starcraft birthed the modern genre as competitive video games moved from being an arcade tournament to a televised product with sponsors, clubs, and salaried players. During my preliminary research I found a televised game from 2000, and some more interesting clips of classic Starcraft games with huge crowds and cash prizes back in the early 2000s. I would like to make a change over time presentation, that demonstrates who Korea has had a massive head start, and also demonstrates how large the scene is over there.
As esports is an internet phenomenon, there is a long list of Korean slang and abbreviations used in games.
The most important one for me in Korea was 한국어를 못해요 (I don’t speak Korean)
For the 5 roles in League of Legends these abbreviations are used
ㅌ - Top
ㅈㄱ - Jungle
ㅁㄷ - Mid
ㅇㄷ - AD Carry
ㅅㅍ - Support
For the most part the game specific language is actually just a Korean transcription of an English word.
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