Ender's Game Film Producers Sponsor StarCraft II Tournament

[roseofbattle]

Ender's Game Film Producers Sponsor StarCraft II Tournament

Lionsgate and OddLot Entertainment plan to plug the upcoming Blu-Ray and DVD release of Ender's Game by sponsoring a StarCraft II tournament.

The producers of the Ender's Game film believe there's some overlap in esports and the film's titular character training in Battle School. As such, Lionsgate and OddLot Entertainment have decided to sponsor a StarCraft II competition. This makes it the first time a movie studio has sponsored an e-sports event.

The tournament will be broadcast on Twitch and MLG.TV from Feb. 5 to Feb. 22 with 32 participants in the US. Titled "The Ender's Game on Blu-Ray Tournament," the sponsorship is for drumming up interest in buying Ender's Game on DVD and Blu-Ray, set to release on Feb. 11.

Two qualifying matches will each feature 16 players and will run Feb. 5-9 on Twitch and Feb. 11-16 on MLG.TV. Viewers can vote [http://gameon.gg/ ] for the final 4 of 16 competing in the MLG leg between today and Feb. 5. MLG invited 12 of the 16 players for its round: Scarlett, InControl, Kane, State, desRow, Major, Nony, Hendralisk, Vibe, Masa, Hitman, and Avilo. Twitch will reach out to "key StarCraft communities" for its round. Top qualifiers receive cash prizes and move onto the Feb. 22 championship round, which will be broadcast on Twitch. The grand prize is $10,000.

Ender's Game is a film adaptation of the book by Orson Scott Card and is a military science fiction story in which children are trained to fight a predicted third invasion by an insectoid alien species. The main character, Ender, is revealed to be a tactical genius and becomes a battle leader at Battle School.

"The skills used to develop battle leaders in Ender's Game are drawn from real world gaming, especially the types of skills used by premier tournament-level players," Anne Parducchi, Lionsgate executive vice president of marketing, said in a statement.

Source: Polygon [http://www.pcgamesn.com/starcraft/mlg-starcraft-ii-tournament-being-sponsored-enders-game-blu-ray-all-things]


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[Tanis]

I guess it does 'fit' within the scene.

Orson Scott Card is a homophobic bigot.
Anons in online games love homophobic rants.

It's a match made in bigoted slur heaven.

 

[Lightspeaker]

I guess it does 'fit' within the scene.

Orson Scott Card is a homophobic bigot.
Anons in online games love homophobic rants.

It's a match made in bigoted slur heaven.

You really don't know the SC2 competitive scene. The vocal side of it is most definitely not like you say. Abusive language that is racist, or homophobic, or whatever tends to very quickly result in personalities in the scene either having to make sincere apologies and/or losing their sponsorship and job. The vocal side of the viewership tends to lash out at it and takes a very dim view of it.

One of the more recent incidents was when a caster made what were viewed as sexist and transphobic comments directed at a particular player whilst drunk; he took a hell of a battering from the community over it, most of whom were absolutely disgusted.

 

[Gali]

snip

Can you please explain this further? I have no idea how you can place a link between the Starcraft (eSport-)community and these guys. Do you mean random douchebags you meet on the ladder? Well guess what they are part of every online game. Though I'd say in Starcraft you don't encounter them as often, since it's mainly a 1on1 game. The majority of people who follow/work in the eSports side of Starcraft don't tolerate homophobic or racist behaviour.

 

[AldUK]

Scarlett will win this. There's no real competition for her in that line-up. Maybe Desy and Major at their very best, but you'd be a fool to bet against Scarlett running away with it.

 

[heroicbob]

i like that this game has been out for years and they are still using alpha footage for the screen shot

Scarlett is pretty unstoppable at the moment so i expect she will win this

 

[Parnage]

This makes it the first time a movie studio has sponsored an e-sports event.

I guess no one noticed the OGN Winter championship being sponsored by the new robocop film.. or does South Korea not count? Perhaps Riot's LCS and Pacific Rim..? first time eh?