South Korean esports tournaments are recently facing the crisis of untimely shutdowns under the whims of the management. In a country where esports is considered most people’s first choice, the scenario comes as quite a shock. Fortunately for South Korea, Dong-Su Yoo, a congressman of the Democratic Party of Korea, has proposed a bill to stop such activities. This move by Dong-Su Yoo has received public support and appreciation widely across Korea. Before this, the stakeholders and companies running these esports tournaments would unilaterally shut down the leagues. They wouldn’t even inform the associated media, teams, and participants. As a result, the participants and teams would find themselves in jeopardy with nowhere else to go. This move by Dong-Su Yoo is primarily to prevent that from happening.
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Why Will, The Organizers, Keep Shutting Down The Leagues?
There can be various reasons behind the whimsical attitude of the stakeholders and the organizers. Once a company feels they are not earning enough from the tournament viewership or sponsorship, it can drop altogether. With this, the tournament participants will suffer mainly. The companies never bother to inform the participants or the teams involved in these esports leagues. Not only the participants but the fans as well get disappointed owing to such events. After all, South Korea is the birthplace of esports. Such an attitude towards the esports leagues in the country, irrespective of the profit margin, is not supported by many.
The organizers are mostly business houses that only expect profit in their ventures. So naturally, without any return value, they find it not worthwhile to keep running the event. Many have expressed their grievance regarding the matter. But before this, no one has come up with any formidable solution. Thus this protest from the veteran congressman comes as a ray of hope for all those esports enthusiasts and participants.
What Did Dong-Su Yoo Say About The Issue?
Dong-Su Yoo was quite protective of the esports leagues in Korea when he voiced his protest against the ongoing injustice. He clearly stated that he does not support such decisions from the organizing companies. The veteran congressman made it clear through his proposal that he wants the esports leagues to keep running. Dong-Su Yoo came up with a bill to put forward in the parliament against such activities. He said, “If a game company decides to no longer support the competitive league of a game title, they are capable of shutting it down, even during the middle of it all. There are instances where the rights of the related businesses, esports pro players, and viewers’ rights are being violated through unilateral changes to the ruleset and even unannounced shutdown of the league.”
Dong-Su Yoo went on to add, “While we cannot force anyone to donate their game as public goods, we need to prevent all related personnel involved in the game title’s export from facing damages due to the developers’ arbitrary decisions.” The congressman was particularly serious about the emotions of all the esports players involved in these leagues. He added that since most esports professionals start playing the game at a very young age, there should be proper law to protect them from such situations. This proposal by the congressman is a positive step towards securing the future of South Korean esports leagues.
The Heroes Of The Storm Law
The proposal to protect the South Korean Esports leagues put forward by congressman Dong-Su Yoo is called The Heroes of the Storm Law. The law is inspired by certain events which took place in December of 2018. Popular Games publisher Blizzard Entertainment had shut down the Heroes Global Championship and Heroes of the Storm game. Blizzard President J. Allen Brack infuriated several esports organizations, teams, and players by announcing this decision. One of South Korea’s team, Gen.G Esports, was league leaders of the game. They were one of the best Heroes of the Storm teams around, and the decision came as a blow to their careers. The team and its staff were left without any jobs owing to the shutdown of the league. Their main grievance was that they were not even informed regarding the decision beforehand.
Thus to prevent any such mishaps from happening again, Yoo proposed this law in the parliament. The law prevents the game owner or the league organizers from unilaterally making any decisions. If they need to shut down the esports league, they would require to inform the league’s participants and teams several months before the termination. Any such plans need to be discussed with the participating teams and players first. In this way, even if the league is shutting down, the players and teams can have enough time to regroup and look for options.
