Recently posted in "The Korean Times" over the past few years many StarCraft has been going downhill popularity wise all over Korea. Sources say that although TV Ratings for e-Sports is still relatively steady, but that StarCraft ratings are actually going down.

Hanbit Soft, the owner of the "Hanbit Stars" recently had discussions on selling the team because of financial reasons. This took everyone by suprise as well as added worry to the e-Sports industry because not only was Hanbit Soft the owner of the "Hanbit Stars" but Hanbit was also one of the founding members of KeSPA, as well as helped in the distribution of Live StarCraft over OnGameNet and MBCGame (Two 24/7 StarCraft dedicated TV channels in Korea). Along with this huge hit on the e-Sports industry, the CEO of Hanbit Soft, Mr.Kim is about to resign from his position and that Hanbit Soft will be bought out by T3 Entertainment. Finally, a note from T3 was that they were thinking of disbanding "Hanbit Stars" and not partaking in the Proleagues any more. You can't help but worry what harm this will do to StarCraft.

On top of the already frightening news, once Boxer and his crew from Air Force Ace finish serving their military duty, Air Force Ace will stop recruiting players and put a halt to participation in the upcoming Proleague seasons. 1 bad news, 2 bad news, 3rd times the charm? Korea e-Sports is on rough ground now that these two events have occured, but the worse is yet to come. Korean e-Sports may end up taking a huge hit when Blizzard releases their sequel to StarCraft (StarCraft 2), and it could make or break the e-Sports industry for all we know. Lets just hope that it makes it, because without Korean StarCraft it wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is now all over the world.

Source: HERE