"Cinderella Story" at IEM Katowice 2023 attracts thousands of StarCraft 2 fans
StarCraft II IEM Katowice 2023 ended in Poland on February 12, marking the end of the ESL Pro Tour 2022/2023 season. Esports Charts sums up the results of the final tournament, which surpassed the previous season's finals by viewership. Fans can breathe a sigh of relief as the StarCraft II esports scene is still alive and astonishing.
The format of ESL Pro Tour 2022/2023 didn't change much from last season. Throughout the year, players still earned EPT ranking points in various leagues and tournaments to qualify for the Katowice season’s finals. However, the organizers did make a few changes.
Last year, ESL Pro Tour featured seasonal DreamHack tournaments (Winter, Fall, Summer), but they were replaced by local tournaments DH SC2 Masters Valencia and DH SC2 Masters Atlanta at the last ESL Pro Tour. In addition, the EPT rating system was also implemented in the HomeStory Cup series tournaments by TakeTV Studios.
Otherwise, everything remains the same as before. The winners of the biggest season's tournaments and the best ranked players from each region got the opportunity to play at IEM Katowice 2023.
Most Popular Regional Leagues
DH SC2 Masters Valencia and DH SC2 Masters Atlanta became the most popular tournaments in the ESL Pro Tour 2022/2023 series. The championship in Valencia was watched by almost 38K Peak Viewers, and in Atlanta it was 26.5K. The audience reach of these tournaments is quite comparable to the DreamHack events of the previous season. The number of viewers did not change virtually. As for the HomeStory Cup tournaments, they attracted more viewers than the previously held TeamLiquid StarLeague championships.
It is important to note that almost all ESL Pro Tour tournaments in the 2021 season were held online (except for the GSL leagues in Korea and IEM Katowice 2022 itself). But ESL Pro Tour in 2022/2023 featured several LAN tournaments at once. The return of the season to the previous format has clearly boosted viewer interest in tournaments.
Unexpected IEM Katowice 2023 Champion
IEM Katowice 2023 was the final tournament of the season. In Poland, the top 36 players of ESL Pro Tour 2022/2023 first played a series of matches in the Group Stage, where the seeding in the playoff bracket was determined. The four strongest players from each group made it straight to the quarterfinals. Eight more players entered the playoffs from the first round of the bracket.
In general, the IEM Katowice 2023 Group Stage passed without any major surprises, except that Bunny from Korea disappointed the fans by ending up in last place in Group D (although he made it to the Top 8 at the last tournament in Katowice). In the playoff, the one who stood out the most was TIME from China, who played under the nickname Oliveira. His last championship wasn't very successful (he finished 17-20th), but at the 2023 tournament, he was unstoppable. In the first two rounds of the playoff, Oliveira beat HeRoMaRinE and Reynor from Europe. But in the semifinals and finals, the Chinese player defeated two South Korean representatives, HerO and Maru. Oliveira got $150.6K for his victory in the tournament — the biggest win of his career.
Many journalists in the media called Oliveira's victory a "Cinderella story". Before the start of the tournament, the Chinese player was considered an underdog — he had no victories at major tournaments and no one expected high results from him in Poland. Nevertheless, the esports player was incredibly successful at the tournament, beating some of the strongest representatives of all three game races on his way to the trophy. During the post-match interview, Oliveira couldn't hold back tears:
"Everyone told me to retire. Everyone told me to give up. But... look at me now!"
Viewership Statistics of IEM Katowice 2023 (SC2)
IEM Katowice 2023 matches accumulated 1.6 million Hours Watched. The Average Viewers number at broadcasts was 30.5K, and the Peak Viewers number reached 73.1K at the finals between Maru and Oliveira. The latter also became the leader Hours Watched (300.2K), but herO became the leader AV number at the matches (51.5K).
English became the main language of IEM Katowice 2023 — it reached 71.7% of the total Hours Watched and had 54.3 PV. Korean (6.5%) and French (5.7%) are also in the Top 3 most popular languages.
Comparison with Past IEM Katowice Tournaments
IEM Katowice 2023 surpassed IEM Katowice 2022 by viewership. The tournament accumulated more Hours Watched, the Average Viewers number increased by 12%, and Peak Viewers number increased by as much as 45%. The unexpected success of Oliveira played a role here — many viewers were excited to see how the underdog from China defeated the best StarCrafters of the world, including the multiple GSL champion.
In recent years, StarCraft II has become a "niche" esports discipline that's difficult for young players to compete in. The community says that the StarCraft II tournament audience is slowly decreasing. IEM Katowice 2023 showed that this is only partially true.
"The golden age" of StarCraft II is truly a thing of the past, which is not surprising for a game that was released more than a decade ago. However, major tournaments like IEM Katowice 2023 can still draw a large audience. Especially when a little-known player beats the best StarCrafters from South Korea.
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