Dedication pays off in South Korea

Visitors try out the latest version of Starcraft II at the Gamescom fair in Cologne, western Germany on Aug 7 last year. [Photo/Agencies]

It is not hard to spot why some of the best StarCraft players come from South Korea, a country far smaller in terms of population than China or the United States.

In the most recent StarCraft II World Championship, a yearlong series of e-Sports tournaments organized by Blizzard Entertainment with a prize pool of $2 million, three of the eight players who made it to the quarterfinals hailed from South Korea.

The rest of the players who reached this round of the popular computer strategy game came from Canada, Poland, Denmark and France.

"The reason you see so many strong South Korean gamers out there is because of the amount of time dedicated in practicing and honing skills," says Kim Yoo-jin, a South Korean StarCraft II professional gamer who goes by the gaming name sOs.

"Compared to people from other countries, South Korean gamers (spend) an incomparable amount of time on practicing and practicing," says Kim, a player for professional team Jin Air Green Wings.

The experiences of pro-gamers in South Korea provide a good case study of the opportunities and challenges this new competitive environment can generate.

Kim was born in 1993 and played his first official StarCraft II match during the hybrid 2011-2012 Proleague Season 2. He is seen as one of the world's best players of this particular game.

Other leading players in South Korea include Jang "MC" Min-chul. Since 2010, Jang has participated in about 80 tournaments and has won more than $500,000 in prize money, according to e-Sports Earnings.

Another top South Korean StarCraft II player is Lee Jae-dong, whose nicknames include Tyrant and the Legend Killer.

Lee earned these monikers after winning three OnGameNet Starleague championships, two MBCGame StarCraft League championships and one first-place finish at the World Cyber Games.

In recent years, Lee has won around $600,000 playing eSports competitively.