[s]starcraft[/s]
A private ladder that catered initially to the money map community and then to non money map players, has closed down permanently due to inactivity. The significance of VGT, for the community as a whole, has been for the most part ignored and they have had little or no support from all the major sites in the Starcraft community.
VGT just closed down apparently permanently. Spartan wrote "Sad too.. VGT was actually doing something good for the fastest community, a lot of people thought it was the greatest thing to ever happen. I believed that too, It brought a lot of players together from all over USWest, USEast, and Europe." just before VGT shut down its doors to money map and fastest players.
VGT initially started out as a ladder exclusively for this group but a few months ago they made an attempt to include regular melee "low" money map players. This was in part of the vacuum that PGTour left when it closed down and because some of its members started requesting this change. They did their best and had their ladder open for everyone which worked for a while. Unfortunately we all know what happens sooner or later when a money map player and a non money map player get together.
As usual soon after many futile and pointless arguments between money map gamers and non money map gamers started. In responce, VGT changed it policy and closed down the "High" community involvement. This is how money map classify the two communities: "High" and "Low." Before the change they had a Poll that indicated that most wanted the money maps and fastest maps to continue. Spartan, who is VGT basically, decided to ignore the poll and go ahead and shut down the "High" community leaving it open only for "Low" gamers. He could not have chosen a worse time. Once PGTour was opened, given their new policy they were doomed.
So was VGT a failure? No in my opinion. In my eyes it was one of the most successful project ever, but not as a ladder. VGT has done more for melee gaming than any site out there, it did what no community has done before. It put the money map community and non money map community in close contact. VGT in essence showed many money map players that there was something else out there, something better. The effects will last far longer than you might guess.
Is there no future of VGT? I would venture to guess that the ladder was already doomed from the start when it relied on one single person for its existence, Spartan. No one can keep a ladder running successfully on his own. It is simply too much work. Nevertheless I still think, should he recruit some help, they could survive in the long run simply by staying open. That is the true measure of success in any server community, permanence. If not ask the lads at Starcraft.org.ru, they have been around for ever, in good times and bad times; but then again they are down too ;)
Links
Nk.ssxh.net - VGT News Section
