StarCraft Tournament Finals Watch Party

StarCraft. The beautiful game. Since the dawn of time people have played StarCraft. Throughout history people have asked "but who can play StarCraft the best?" The Oxford English Dictionary defines "best" as the player that wins a one versus one seven game series.

StarCraft is the 1998 or 1999 computer game that gives the player control of the military and industry of a genocidal science fiction trope species. In the one versus one competition format each player starts with a few resource collecting and construction units in one section of a symmetrical map. They must build up their economies and armies and find and destroy their opponent's over the course of about twenty minutes. The game is old and janky with little automation and is seemingly mostly designed around throwing cool stuff together. This actually makes it a good game for competition as the need to play fast, prioritize correctly, and know tricks and tactics create a high skill ceiling while the ability to make new maps helps with balance. It has been a spectator sport in Korea for most of it's existence - having been on broadcast TV before Internet video streams were around.

SOOP is the Internet video steaming service of choice in Korea and the company also puts on the most prominent individual tournament about twice a year. The final match of the latest installment is scheduled to happen May 25. I will not be watching it live. Instead I will download and bring the video to Nashua's library's theater to watch on May 31 at 1:10 PM.

There is English commentary available that is geared toward enthusiasts. I could give a more beginner focused explanation if that's what the people want. There is also the Korean commentary.

There is a city parking lot immediately East of the library that is free on weekends. The StarCraft will be in the theater which is underneath the front door.

A professional level game of StarCraft can last anywhere from about five minutes to about an hour. With up to seven games in the match anything could happen and I won't know in advance if it did. The library lets me book two and a half hours but I can probably get away with going over? I will be skipping past the interviews and other stuff they put in the show. Most games take fifteen to twenty five minutes (made up numbers). It will probably be fine.

This event is listed on a trail Meetup account which gives a maximum ten person limit that I don't care about. It's not listed in the library's rules but I think I can't deny anyone anyway. The actual limit is the 75 people the room is rated for.

This event is NOT SANCTIONED by Blizzard Entertainment, SOOP Company, or Nashua Public Library.