PCGamer interviewed Dustin Browder to discuss the hardships of race balance in Heart of the Swarm and the most contrasting differences between Wings of Liberty and HOTS multiplayer.
When asked about eSports, Dustin Browder says it is growing.
From your perspective, what is killing eSports?
Browder: [Laughs] I thought I was killing eSports. I thought that was my title. I have the crown! That’s what Twitter keeps saying.
That’s the silliest question, because nothing is killing eSports. It’s growing at logarithmic rates. Did you ever think we would be here, in this, place, two and a half years later? We’re just swimming in pros, and so many events you can’t even keep track of them all. Like, we used to talk about timing patches relative to major eSports events. Now there’s no way.
There is no way for us to patch Wings of Liberty without it hitting an eSport event. We went live with our beta in the US, because we thought that was going to be enough to give us testing. And we have had nothing but feedback from all over the world that’s, “So, when can I run my tournament? I want to run a [Heart of the Swarm] tournament. I’m in Korea, or I’m in Europe. When can I run a HotS tournament?”
It’s just constant. The amount of constant input coming into this studio, “More! More! This! That!” It’s just insane. So, the idea that anything is killing eSports is nuts. eSports is growing out of control. It’s alive and breathing and flying away. I have no idea when it’s going to stop.
And I think the StarCraft community should take some pride and joy in that. They should take some ownership of that, and say, “We did that. We helped build this. We are ground-floor, core contributors to what makes any eSport going forward.” They should, in their minds and hearts, claim some of that. Because they’ve absolutely earned it. They were on the ground floor. They were here when it really started to happen.
