Every once in a while, someone in the eSports community cooks up an epic idea and makes it a reality.
GSL Open Season 1 birthed the scene as we know it – a mythical, grueling 64 player open tournament with a $170,000 prize pool based in the mecca of eSports – Seoul, South Korea.
The DOTA2 compendium changed the way we perceive how a tournament prize pool can grow – members of the community directly influenced the pool’s expansion while being rewarded awesome benefits that enhanced their viewing experience with The International 3.
WCS – well… let’s not talk about WCS right now.
Starcraft 2 Survivors is a passion project created by Mark Stermer & Graham Rogers in association with BaseTradeTV & Quantic Gaming – while the tournament isn’t close to the scale of the GSL or WCS, the dedication of every participant and the support of it’s fans reaches a whole new level of epic in and of itself.
10 players, 9 weeks, and a $250 prize pool – on that premise alone, we gathered members of the eSports community & professional gamers to interact together in a social setting and compete in a series of reward & immunity challenges to determine one sole Starcraft 2 “Survivor”.
We didn’t really know how the show was going to turn out at first, or if it itself would even survive past the first few weeks alone. All we knew was that we had 10 compelling characters, 2 production days a week to let them be themselves, and a front row seat to watch the magic unfold before our eyes.
Since week 1 we’ve seen 4 players voted off the island – upsets & blindsides have occurred, alliances have been forged & broken, and every remaining survivor has felt the depth of both deception and competition in this game.
Why should this compel you to watch the show? For one, you’ve got a unique opportunity to see our Survivors in a different light than you normally would on their individual streams or in a strict tournament atmosphere. The content is original & never been done before, their responses & interactions are unscripted, and the confessions they give grant you the chance to peer into their thoughts and emotions while navigating their way through the strategic elements of this game.
While competitions based out of the Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm client is the core focus of every challenge, there is a complex social underpinning being woven by each individual participant, every hour of the day, on and off the camera.
Airing these intricate strategies could be devastating for our survivors, so we’ve come up with a unique way to both give the fans this in-depth behind the scenes entertainment and grow the prize pool that is 100% distributed to the top 4 finishers.
Donating as little as five dollars gets you access to behind the scenes content for a select week of the show. Take that a step further to twenty dollars and you get access to every week’s bonus footage. Really love the show? Fifty dollars gets you all of that and your name in the credits as a contributor to the show.
Amazingly, this reward structure has doubled the prize pool in four weeks time. If you think the show is epic and you want to support the participants that make it all happen, hop on over to the donation page and see for yourself the list of passionate fans who have helped grow this show into what it is today.
Still not convinced? See what others have to say about the show on the Teamliquid.net thread.
And if you haven’t watched the show, what are you waiting for? We’re taking this week off to allow our participants to compete in other major tournaments, but you can catch up on every VOD playlist here on SC2Links: Starcraft 2 Survivors Season 1
As always, hit me up on twitter if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for the show. Below is a video of the participants and their twitter accounts:
Temp0 – https://twitter.com/teamtemp0
kaitlyn – https://twitter.com/kaitly_n
MaSsan – https://twitter.com/MaSsanSC
YuMe – https://twitter.com/FiNYuMe
Sasquatch – https://twitter.com/coL_Sasquatch
QueenE – https://twitter.com/mYiQueenE
Suppy – https://twitter.com/EGSuppy
Brent – https://twitter.com/brentstarcraft
puCK – https://twitter.com/ROOTpuCK
Tubbythefat – https://twitter.com/iSTubby_