Course:ASIA150/Esports in South Korea

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Introduction to Korean e-sports

In South Korea, Online gaming has become an online phenomena where games are broadcast on television, professional gamers re treated as celebrities, and online gaming has become an integral part of youth culture. South Korea’s online gaming, or e-sport, scene not only dominates the local market but has left a mark on the global market. Despite South Korea not being the geological birthplace of esports, it is certain that South Korea is known as the “capital of esports (Yu, 2015), a mecca of esports ("Seoul Is a Mecca," 2019) by both national and international media and game players.

History of e-sports

  • Jin, Dal Yong. "Historiography of Korean Esports: Perspectives on Spectatorship." International journal of communication [Online], June 2020, pp. 3727+. Gale Literature Resource Center. Peer-reviewed academic article describing how the esports has developed from late 1990s and what factors played a major role in developing Korea’s esports scene. It mentions that factors such as the developments in accessibility of high speed internet and PC cafes in the late 1990’s have had a huge impact on the developing esports scene. Furthermore, collective cultural aspects such as how Koreans prefer to interact and socialize in bunches rather than acting individual has played a key role for the Korean esports as well. Available in 46 languages. 19 page report in PDF format. Able to highlight and make notes as well as export to different file formats. link.gale.com/apps/doc/A632441958/LitRC?u=ubcolumbia&sid=summon&xid=a4833cda.

Games played in Korea

  • Most Played Esports Games In Korea. Static page that includes graph and numbers of most played esports games in Korea and prize money won; broken down by professional teams and individual players. The most played game by professional teams was Overwatch while the most played game by individual players was League of Legends. Page only in English. By choosing the flags on top, most played esports games in other countries are shown. However, the date of when it was last updated is not shown, which makes the numbers unreliable. https://esportsflag.com/korea

Growth of Impact on Society

Cultural Impacts

Gaming culture in South Korea
  • Kil, Jiho. & Yoo, YoungMok. “Study on the Accessibility of eSports in South Korea.” [PDF], 2017. 21 pages. This open access article examines how Korea has displayed overwhelming popularity and dominance in terms of eSports. The authors came to the conclusion through qualitative and quantitative analysis that, unlike other regions, South Korea provides differentiated accessibility to fans through a variety of unique factors. This article includes number of responses from the interview that the author has conducted with esports users, fans, parents, and others. PDF file only in English. The research is conducted through Yonsei University and the article is accessible through their website. https://uic.yonsei.ac.kr/main/downloadfile.asp?gid=46&mid=m03%5F05%5F05&cmid=m03%5F05%5F05
  • Shagrath, The rise and rise of Korean e-sports, South Korea. Written 14 years ago-somewhat outdated, but gives a valuable insight on how esports has grown since then. The website describes the technology and cultural impact on the progressive growth of e-sports in South Korea. It includes how e-sports differs in South Korea from other East Asian countries like Japan and China. The site is available in English. The website includes several social media accounts such as Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook. https://www.sk-gaming.com/content/17792-the_rise_and_rise_of_korean_esports
  • Get Hyped Sports, Why Does South Korea Dominate Esports? Last updated on February 18, 2022. The post discusses how the gaming culture, availability for scrimmage and tournament play, and the number of available resources altogether makes it possible for South Korea to dominate the Esports landscape. https://gethypedsports.com/why-does-south-korea-dominate-esports/
Change in view of esports in media and society
  • John, Esports Organizations in Korea - A Complete overview for 2021. Page only in English. A post that provides list of Esports organizations in Korea along with pictures of their logos. Suggests the need of established governing body for esports outside of Korea. Can access other posts made by the same author(John) and his email is provided if anyone wants to further learn about the post. https://seoulz.com/esports-organizations-in-korea-a-complete-overview-for-2021/
  • Jin, Dal Yong. “Global esports: Transformation of Cultural Perceptions of Competitive Gaming.” New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. Bloomsbury Collections. In this peer-reviewed academic article, the author discusses the reasons and history to why esports has become a global phenomenon. He explores the surge of esports in the global scene as well as the history and institutionalization of esports to grasp a better understanding of its implication in culture, digital economy, and people's understanding of this spectacle. The study addresses the reasons why professional mobile gaming may become a dominant form of esports occurring in specific subsets of global youth. The remaining focus of the study identifies major platforms used to enjoy and access esports, such as, broadcasting and smartphones. This analysis sheds light on current debates about the growth of esports. Study only in English. 13 page study in PDF format. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781501368745.
E-sports school
  • Moghe, Divyesh. A South Korean High School Has An Esports Department And Government Issued Textbooks. 2021. An article that describes how South Korean High School has created official textbooks which cover the history of esports, definitions and applications of different types of games in esports, and how students may prepare to enter a career in esports. As high schools and other educational institutions begin to include esports in their curriculum, this is an indicator of the influence esports is beginning to have on society at large. Page in English only. https://www.talkesport.com/news/a-south-korean-high-school-has-an-esports-department-and-government-issued-textbooks/
  • Inside Look: Korea’s Gaming School. 2021. Youtube video that shows how the professional esports academies are operated and includes interviews with students and parents to show their insights on gaming school and why they would choose to study in the gaming school. It is new to many parents since only recently the career path for esports has opened and has been growing, but they fully support and encourage their children. Students practice 12 hours a day in hopes to become part of professional team one day. Subtitles in English, and audio in Korean and English. ;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5etLKsNgc2k&ab_channel=KOREANOW
  • 게임 부스 설치된 요즘 고등학교 근황. SBSUSUNEWS. Eunpyeong Meditech High School. Youtube Video introducing Eunpyeong Meditech High School that is designed to learn esports. Explains how there are gaming booths installed within school and have professional coaching programs available to help students efficiently learn different games, including League of Legends, Overwatch, and etc. Subtitles offered by Youtube available in 16 different languages, and audio is in Korean. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qko2aft_0zg&ab_channel=%EC%8A%A4%EB%B8%8C%EC%8A%A4%EB%89%B4%EC%8A%A4SUBUSUNEWS

Internet Cultural Impacts

Fan pages and open discussion of esports in online communities
  • 프로게이머 덕질 팬덤이 점점 더 커지는 이유. A discussion post created by one of esports fans who discusses about the reason why fandoms of professional gamers are growing in South Korea. Photos of events organized by fans, fan meetings, and gifts/bromides offered in the events are provided, and describes how there are more contents available to fangirl/fanboy the gamers. Created in 2017-it may be outdated as there are bigger fandoms and more events created for esports and professional gamers nowadays. Anyone who has created an account for the website can leave comments anonymously. 7,467 views and 25 comments were made. Page only in Korean. https://theqoo.net/square/426074155
E-sports stars becoming celebrities “Fourth national treasure”
  • Lawler, Richard. "Now 'League of Legends' Star Faker is a Part-Owner of His Esports Team." ProQuest, Feb 17, 2020. In the article, the author mentions how E-sports star Faker is now receiving company equity as a part of his contract with recent contract negotiations and the announcement of his continued stay at T1. A unique characteristic which is becoming more prominent in e-sports are players receiving equity and part ownership of teams as a part of their contract, which is a rare occurrence for other competitive sports in the contracting process. The article provides the direct link to T1’s twitter post announcing Fakers continued stay, users with an account with engadget.com have commenting privileges. https://www.proquest.com/blogs-podcasts-websites/now-league-legends-star-faker-is-part-owner-his/docview/2357040340/se-2?accountid=14656.
  • Andrew, McNicol. "Meet the Faker: an 'Unkillable Demon King' star". South China Morning Post. 2022. In the article, Faker is described as the undisputed champions and face of e-sports for League of Legends. The article recites Faker, Lee San-Hyeok’s, career in E-sports and how he has been referenced as the michael jordan of his field. The article also expands onto how Faker is entering his 10th year in e-sports yet still performs as if he was in his prime, an outlying characteristic which e-sports has over competitive sports is the performance lifespan of its athletes. The article from this website is formatted as if it were like a transcript and due to the heavy use of quotes from different sources it may seem as if users are reading an interview transcript. advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:654M-H051-DYRW-R3P8-00000-00&context=1516831
The popularity of streaming e-sports
  • How Professional Korean Gamers Interact With Fans. Ziemba, Holley. 2021. The article describes how professional Korean gamers interact with their fans other than from the gaming stage or high fiving the fans after getting off stage-livestreaming. Discusses how different streaming platforms are offered in South Korea, such as Twitch, Youtube, and Afreeca TV, and introduces professional Korean Gamers who livestream in South Korea. The biggest advantage of livestreaming is that players can directly communicate with the fans rather than through media. Fans can donate money or communicate through chat function in the platform, and a huge upside is the fact that fans can choose which player to watch while esport competitions mostly focus on an entire team. Page only in English. There was 585 views of this article. https://www.kworldnow.com/how-professional-korean-gamers-interact-with-fans/
  • Anastasopoulos, Angelos. How Does East Asia Watch Its Esports? 2017. The article compares and contrasts streaming of esports in Japan, South Korea, China. Gives an overview of how Asian esports fans watch the games. In China, most western social media or streaming platforms including Twitch are banned, so Douyu TV, Panda TV, and Huya.com are used to watch livestreaming videos and live betting during streaming is a necessity in order to succeed in China. In Japan, Twitch is mostly used as a streaming platform. In Korea, their own platform is preferred so Afreeca TV is often used even though it is not a gaming dedicated platform. The author mentions that there are dedicated television channels to broadcast video gaming content throughout the day, but I believe this information is outdated as Koreans who consume livestreaming has significantly increased during covid and more professional players have joined to livestream while they play games. Page only in English. https://archive.esportsobserver.com/how-does-asia-watch-esports/
  • [인포그래픽] ‘보는 게임'의 시대, 게임 방송의 성장, ACKIS. 2020. The blog post describes the reasons why Korean watch livestreaming videos using infographics. It mentions that 87.4% of teenagers in their 10s use online livestreaming platforms, and out of them, 60.7% watch gaming livestream videos. In fact, the time they watch gaming livestreaming videos is almost equal to the time they spend playing games. In conclusion, the main reasons why users watch gaming videos was to watch players who are good at games, to interact with the professional games, to get information about play style, tips on how to play better, and to become better at gaming. Page only in Korean. Leaving comments is available only when logged in to ask questions.  https://blog.naver.com/policydb/222016851372

Financial Impacts

Attendance rates in competitions online and in-person (sold out stadiums) & Prize money

  • List of top the total amount of prize money earned by the top 100 esports players from South Korea. Faker, the top 1 player in Korea has earned $1,342,521 in total while the top 100 player Seung Tae Choi earned $267,371 in total. One bad thing about this particular resource is that it does not show the last date updated. Since it is a list of top 100 players, it is important for the website to keep track of all data so it is relevant to the users. https://www.esportsearnings.com/countries/kr

Advertisements of esports with top celebrities

  • Tuting, Kristine. K-pop queens Twice brandish virtual weapons in commercial for DX: War of the New Century. 2019. The article introduces Twice as the celebrity endorsers for the online game Dragon Xeneration(DX). Includes advertisement Youtube video of Twice members holding different weapons that users can find in-game. https://www.oneesports.gg/gaming/k-pop-queens-twice-wield-weapons-in-commercial-for-dx-war-of-the-new-century/
  • Lee, Yoonhee. Blackpink X PUBG Collaboration: Blackpink in Your Battlegrounds. 2021. The post describes how there are various Blackpink attributes available in PUBG, such as Blackpink Decals, Airplane Tail, supply crate and smoke, and so on. Mentions that special event will be held for players to complete different quests to gain Blackpink themed rewards. Direct link to Twitter and the announcements are available as well as advertisement video. Page only in English. https://www.kpoppost.com/blackpink-pubg-collaboration-blackpink-in-your-battlegrounds/

Internet Cafes and Gaming

  • PC Bang: A Guide to Korean Internet Cafes. 2021. Discusses what PC bang(internet cafe) is, how it works, and how much it cost to go to a PC bang. Also gives recommendation of PC bangs in seoul. It also distinguishes between Korean and western internet cafes, mentioning how there are new forms of PC hotels and PC bang food deliveries made available in Korea as well. Page in English only. https://senet.cloud/en/blog/pc-bang-guide
  • Lee, Jihyun. Spending A Day At PC Bang & The Gaming Culture In Korea. The blog post contains pictures to show what PC bang looks like, how Koreans spend a day in PC bang as it offers an affordable and wide range of food and dessert, high-performance equipments, and special PC bang benefits granted by gaming companies for playing their games. Discusses how PC bang is one of the reasons why Korea is one of the countries with the fastest internet in the world and how PC bangs helped Korea dominate e-sports industry. Page available in 6 different languages including English, Chinese, and Vietnamese, etc. https://www.creatrip.com/en/blog/10680
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