StarCraft in esports

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (September 2015)

The real time strategy (RTS) computer game StarCraft had an active professional competition circuit, particularly in South Korea. The two major game channels in South Korea, Ongamenet and MBCGame, each ran a Starleague (Ongamenet Starleague, MBCgame Starleague), viewed by millions of fans.

Starting in about 2003, pro-gamers started to become organized into teams, sponsored by large South Korean companies like Samsung, SK Telecom and KT. StarCraft is also the most popular computer game competition during the annual World Cyber Games thanks to its Korean fanbase, and it is overall one of the world's largest computer and video game competitions in terms of prize money, global coverage and participants.^[1][2]

Over US$4,000,000 in prize money has been awarded in total, the vast majority of which comes from tournaments in South Korea.^{[citation needed]} For several years after the release of StarCraft II, competitive StarCraft: Brood War was no longer televised. However, in early 2015, the game returned to Ongamenet's televised lineup.^{[citation needed]}

The game's professional competition has remained largely separate from that of StarCraft II, though both games' current largest Korean competitions, the Afreeca StarCraft League (ASL) and Global StarCraft II League (GSL), are organized by Afreeca TV. Players have transitioned between the two throughout the years, but outside of the transitional 2012 season of Proleague, none have competed professionally in both at the same time.