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The Almighty Buck Games

StarCraft Cheating Scandal Rocks Korea 471

dotarray writes with this snippet: "The largest scandal in e-sports history is currently unfolding in Korea, with revelations that a number of current pro gamers are involved with match setups and illegal betting. While the gamers are unnamed at this point, the story is said to touch many A-list StarCraft celebrities, including sAviOr, Ja Mae Yoon, one of the best-known and most successful players of all time."
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StarCraft Cheating Scandal Rocks Korea

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  • by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @01:34AM (#31827700) Journal

    It is nice to be part of a demographic that couldn't give a rat's ass about the whole thing, including MMOs and the surrounding scene.

  • by Kitkoan ( 1719118 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @01:40AM (#31827736)
    Some people will do anything to get even more money. Its also possible that some of the Starcraft players are seeing a dead end of their time playing gaming professionally. As in they might not be that great at most RTS games, but amazing at Starcraft. And with Starcraft 2 coming along closer and closer, it might be the writing on the wall for Starcraft 1's viability. Cash out while they can and all?
  • Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Fluffeh ( 1273756 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @01:40AM (#31827740)
    Actually, if I was betting on the outcome of a contest between two people, I would sure as hell care if they were fixing the outcome and I wouldn't say I am stupid.

    Oh, I get it, you just wanted a first post and had nothing better to post than racism. Guess who looks stupid now?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @01:45AM (#31827764)

    "You can't know criminals' names in Korea? Kind of weird."

    It has it's positives i.e. vigilante justice and not getting ones life ruined if accused of a heinus crime (pedophelia, sexual assault, etc).

    In america I find the fact they publish the names of sex offenders grotesque because rehabilitation and re-entering society to lead a normal life is impossible, this vigalante mob justice has never sat well with me.

  • by rebot777 ( 765163 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @01:52AM (#31827828)
    It's most likely you can't know alleged criminals names for their protection. A concern I have with current US society is the media's influence on our views of 'alleged criminals'. If you're in a high profile case and it turns out you're not guilty the inertia of public opinion against you for being accused can haunt you for the rest of your life. I believe these laws are in response to such situations.
  • Re:A-list? What? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @01:54AM (#31827836)

    Probably because his name is typically written in Hangul?

  • by Dalambertian ( 963810 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @01:59AM (#31827872)
    I started following Starcraft a couple years ago, mostly through YouTube commentaries like diggity, klazart, moletrap, and their ilk. Anyone following the scene knows this is seriously bad news for our fledgling sport, and for e-sports in general. Perhaps it's a sign of maturity, or maybe it's just in time for new blood - for StarCraft 2 to take root. Still, it's very disheartening to hear.
  • Re:A-list? What? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by mwvdlee ( 775178 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @01:59AM (#31827876) Homepage

    Speaking as a non-American... who the f**k is Lebron James???

  • Re:A-list? What? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dalambertian ( 963810 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @02:00AM (#31827884)
    For starters, try googling it in Korean?
  • by Decollete ( 1637235 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @02:01AM (#31827898)
    Koreans will react the same way if this was American Football and teams were fixing matches to screw over betting.
  • Re:A-list? What? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @02:02AM (#31827900)

    Hello, and welcome to the world! Despite what the crappy Disney ride says, the world is a big place, where many people speak any languages and, shockingly, use different characters for writing.

  • by Dalambertian ( 963810 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @02:04AM (#31827918)
    Funny, that's exactly what I thought when I heard about Tiger Woods.
  • by Cimexus ( 1355033 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @02:25AM (#31828056)

    It's a similar principle as in the West, where you generally can't release the names of suspected offenders (or victims) who are minors (or at least that's how it is here in Australia ... you often hear 'the offender's identity cannot be revealed because s/he was under 18 at the time of the crime). This applies to both those merely accused and awaiting trial, as well as those convicted (or for that matter, exonerated).

    The Korean law just goes a step further and extends this protection to all people involved in criminal matters.

    I kinda like the idea actually, although there are some obvious caveats. The general public certainly has no right to demonise someone accused of a crime before it's been proved. And even once they are convicted, it is not really the general public's business to know criminals' names, other than obviously those connected with the crime (victims/families etc). They will pay a penalty under the law (a fine, community service, jail time etc) ... but once that debt is paid they have a right to move back into society without being discriminated against for the rest of their lives. And keeping their name out of the media is one way to do that.

    The counter-argument is made that people have a right to know if they are living near/employing/otherwise engaging with people who have been found guilty of serious crime (particularly sex offenders or murderers). And it's a good counter-argument. Perhaps we can draw a line and say "people convicted of the most serious crimes or those with no hope of rehabilitation can have their identities revealed, but for minor to moderate crimes, the criminals should remain anonymous". Either that or we toughen up sentencing so that serious criminals don't GET reintroduced into society in the first place ... then the whole argument becomes moot.

  • by Abcd1234 ( 188840 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @02:33AM (#31828104) Homepage

    Is Chess a sport? What about Go?

    If you said yes to both of those questions, why not any other game of strategy/tactics?

  • by Cimexus ( 1355033 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @02:33AM (#31828106)

    I doubt they have an equivalent. Even in other ~Western~ countries there is often no equivalent of such a registry. It's one of those things I always found a bit odd about America actually.

    Where I live, you either don't release a serious criminal who is going to have a tendency to re-offend, or tabs are kept on them in other ways (house confinement, surveillance, radio bracelets etc.). I mean sure, the people who live nearby to the to-be-released sex offender will be notified and have a right to object to/block the offender moving into that area. But that doesn't extend to the whole world being able to punch in a random address and see who's around.

    I'm not American so I may have misinterpreted what the Registry actually does. If so I apologise. But my impression was that ~anyone~ can search for nearby offenders ~anywhere~, even if that location has nothing to do with them.

  • Re:A-list? What? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @02:34AM (#31828110)

    As an American, I have no idea who that is either. Bad example, perhaps.

  • Re:Who cares? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @02:56AM (#31828234)

    Actually, if I was betting on the outcome of a contest between two people, I would sure as hell care if they were fixing the outcome and I wouldn't say I am stupid.

    If you were betting on the outcome of a contest, I'd say that you were stupid.

  • Re:Who cares? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by blackraven14250 ( 902843 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @02:57AM (#31828238)
    If you were betting on the outcome of a football game, I'd say that you were stupid.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @03:22AM (#31828332)

    "Personally, if I have small kids and I move into a new neighborhood, the lists are invaluable."

    No you feel like they are invaluable. It lets you find bad people who have been caught, not bad people.

    It only leads to a false sense of safety.

  • by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @03:23AM (#31828340) Journal

    Me, too. I really can't be assed about a multi-million-earning sportsman, regardless of the sport. Golf, soccer, football, basketball... none of these guys are any role model (eccept on how to rake in the dough). Fuck 'em. Together with the dumb celebrities of all kind. Fuck 'em all.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @03:55AM (#31828476)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Re:A-list? What? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by AMindLost ( 967567 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @05:24AM (#31828902) Homepage
    In the UK, we call it netball and it's played by girls. Basketball here is ranked below dominos in popularity.
  • by delinear ( 991444 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @05:29AM (#31828926)
    You're confusing the concept of "news for nerds" with the concept of "news which is personally interesting to me". Nerds cover a wide spectrum of interests and nationalities. The development of these competitive tournaments in the field of gaming are certainly interesting to me on one level, even though I'm neither Korean nor into Starcraft - it's interesting to see where this is headed, and similarly interesting to see the parallels with sports (in terms of the fame of the players and even match fixing scandals now). I don't follow this too closely, I'm mildly interested, but other people follow this passionately, for that particular group of nerds, this is definitely "stuff that matters".
  • Re:A-list? What? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mestar ( 121800 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @05:31AM (#31828934)

    In my book, game shattering is even bigger than revolutionary.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @05:31AM (#31828942)
    Really? You really can't see how a story about the biggest professional sport, that revolves around playing a video game, is news for nerds?

    Someone will be by to collect your nerd badge.
  • by rts008 ( 812749 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @06:02AM (#31829112) Journal

    Seriously, if you don't know who Lebron is you either don't know what the fuck basketball is, are just making shit up, or are a borderline retard.

    Despite your grossly misplaced arrogance, you left out the most popular option: D: none of the above.
    You are making some erroneous assumptions with that proclamation:

    I/we actually give a rat's ass about basketball, USA sports, or any sports....NOT!!!
    (BTW, I know what basketball is-I even used to play a lot of it-but have NEVER watched it, but I did not know who/what a 'Lebron' was. I was also wondering what Michael Jackson [MJ] had to do with basketball!)

    Maybe I am 'just making shit up, but if by not knowing who Lebron Whoever is makes me a borderline retard, I can assuredly take comfort in the fact that you are truly over the line, and outstanding in that field.

    BTW, who(or what) is a 'Beckham'? Another basketball player?

    This thread is getting more confusing than getting struck on the head with a football bat.

  • by delinear ( 991444 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @06:15AM (#31829182)
    It kind of depends on how narrowly you interpret the term. The narrow definition seems to be a physical activity in which athletes participate, which would suggest that both chess and computer games are not sports. The very wide definition seems to be any recreational or fun activity, in which case they would be sports. I guess the truth is somewhere in between (playing Wii, for instance, is more strenuous than playing snooker), but actually it's just a lot easier to say "sport" than "competitive computer gaming", so I suspect the usage will stick.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @06:16AM (#31829192)

    It has nothing to do with SC2. "The drama all started several years ago – in 2006 – and exploded properly in 2008". At that time the development of SC2 was just announced(May 2007).

    One of the biggest questions is if Savior's loose to Bisu in their epic MSL final was because of bets. It was a 0:3 loose to a noname in the final of the second rated league.

    And it's very interesting who else was involved because all current stars including Jaedong and Flash were already on the scene at that time.

    Savior achievements:
    http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/players/135_sAviOr/ [teamliquid.net]

  • by jo_ham ( 604554 ) <joham999@gmaSTRAWil.com minus berry> on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @09:34AM (#31830762)

    Why is it any different than the "sport" of running into someone as hard as possible so another guy can throw a ball that is not even round for another guy to catch?

    Any game that features a competitive element can be raised to the level of a sport if it attracts enough spectators that become interested in the outcome.

    Blizzard worked very hard to tune the original SC (with help from players in Korea) to balance the 3 sides to enable it to be a stable enough base for a competitive sport (ie, there's no argument that the Terrans are better than the Zerg or the Protoss etc - they are evenly balanced). Some might say it's even more evenly balanced than a sport where the team with the most money can buy the championship (or at least make a very good go of it).

    I realise your AC post was nothing but a troll, but I thought it was worth saying. I've never followed competitive Starcraft, but I can fully understand how people could.

  • Re:A-list? What? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by silentcoder ( 1241496 ) on Tuesday April 13, 2010 @10:56AM (#31831930)

    >Capitalization and punctuation don't vary that much across languages

    WTF ?!?!?! Seriously dude... WTF ?!?!??!

    Let's just look at the small sampling of languages I can read (to a lesser or greater extent). And keep in mind three of these are all languages that share a COMMON Origin (Ancient West Germanic) and one is essentially a dialect of the another split of a mere 300 years ago. That makes this a pretty skewed sample. Choose any two languages randomly and the differences will get MUCH bigger.

    German: All nouns are capitalized.
    English: Capitals are used only for the names of Deities, Persons and the first word of a sentence.
    Afrikaans: Similar to English... oh unless the sentence starts with the non-specific article... then the SECOND word starts with a capital.
    Dutch: Same as English (the Afrikaans exception does not exist in Dutch).
    Portuguese: Fucked if I know... after several years, I STILL don't understand all of it.

    How about the Apostrophe:
    Dutch: Apostrophe is used to indicate missing letters.
    German: Same as Dutch.
    Afrikaans: Apostrophe indicates missing letters - but it's only allowed to be used for this when those letters are deliberately left out for an EXCEPTIONAL reason (such as accenting a quote or poetic freedom) and in the spelling of the Afrikaans word 'n (yes the word is an apostrophe and an small n but pronounced "uh" - derived from the Dutch word for "one").
    Portuguese: There is no apostrophe as we think of it, thoug the ' symbols is used in the spelling of some words.
    English: Used to indicate missing letters in (specifically in contractions) and to indicate possession. Moreover the rules on how it does both the above get very convoluted (especially where the uses overlap, as in a posessive contraction) and leads to continuous confusion among English speakers about the fact that it's, its and its' are three completely different words with exactly the same pronunciation (apparently we can easily tell them apart from context when LISTENING but when reading we have to create a stupid cosmetic difference to see which is which).

    Now those are small differences between languages of relatively common origins... if I start telling you how it works in African languages (I speak two) you simply wouldn't BELIEVE me, it has the following in common with the above: Sweet blue fuck all.
    That's despite the fact that no African language has a written language of their own and adopted a modified version of the English alphabet and punctuation to be able to write -they still had to change almost every rule just to make sense because their entire gramatical structure is radically different.
    It gets even more bizarre when you consider languages that have a history of writing, but radically different origins from English, such as the Slavic and Asian languages.
    In English a word with no vowels is unpronouncable. In Russian... that's about 3/4 of the dictionary. In Polish, it's more like 4/5...

    See... I'm actually a non-native English speaker, who has a degree in English literature. I can read Shakespeare with ease and joy, and both speak and write English quite a bit better than most Britons (let alone Americans) and I had Linguistics as a second major.
    And if there is one thing you learn very quickly when you study multiple languages on a professional level - it's that languages are as radically different as the cultures that produce them, reflect those cultures and become an extension of those cultures.
    What you say smacks back to the so-called romantic theory of linguistics. Which was a very Platonic theory that believed there is some perfect language we're all born with, and all human languages are imperfect attempts to implement it.
    The romantic theory is interesting in that it was the very first theory to ever exist in Linguistics... but it's also not actually been considered to have any basis in fact or reality for over 200 years now... hell even the Russian Orthodox theory of Linguistics have at least SOME provable reality to it and THAT came from 1916.
    Current linguistic theory as it applies to your statement can be summarized as follows: you're an idiot.

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