A referee of KeSPA(Korea e-Sports Association) chants “Fairness” in salute before participating in the game. We are now realizing that “Fairness” has become the most important value of Korean e-sports by developing this further and responsibility of “Fairness” keeps passing on. At first, people used to think Jason Lee, manager of KeSPA, insists it justbecause of ROTC spirit (ROTC: Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) when people should chant “Fairness” in salute.A team for operating competitions of KeSPA is training lots of referees and helping run competitions well. Referees of e-sports play a role as helping audiences feel the joy of real esports and providing a pleasant environment for both players and audiences while referees of other sports only make a fair judgment. That’s why Jason Lee defines a referee of e-sports as an e-sports operator.A referee is a person who should be there in the center of a controversial situation to make a right decision. Jason Lee always thinks that a referee plays the key role in operating competitions even referees are sometimes blamed for judging disputatious situation from players and fans showing their complaints on the game.
Reporter: KeSPA is now hiring many referees as the number of sporting eventsincrease. Are there any special requirements?;
Jason Lee: Officially, Both men and women over 19 are eligible to apply for a referee. Anapplicant could be a grade 3 of referee by taking a certain education course and by passing aqualifying examination.
Reporter: What qualifications are required to be a professional referee of e-sports?;
Jason Lee: It is important to have an interest in e-sports and understand the sporting events.We need a person who can make a clear distinction between what’s private and public. A referee should be able to have a cool-headed and accurate assessment of the situation andbe decisive because a referee is necessary to be in a very ambiguous situation. A refereeshould interpret the rules reasonably and lead competitions to be played well.
Reporter: Permanence of e-sports is desperately needed to make more professionalreferees as an official job. How about your opinion?;
Jason Lee: No one knows which sports rule over the whole world in 2100. E-sports could bea major sport as popularity of sports like soccer, baseball and basketball decreases. Whenplaying baseball, soccer and basketball, people need tools and places to play. You can’t play asoccer match without a ball, even there is a place to play.Based on IT, however, e-sports is totally different. It is accessible without a time limit and acertain space. As young generation now in 20~30s get older and become mainstreammembers in the society, the viewpoints toward e-sports would be changed and e-sports can bean official sports everyone enjoys, even it is a little unfamiliar to the old.
Reporter: A referee has a huge effect on the competition. I think learning or systemshould be required to improve competence of referees.
Jason Lee: We’ve been always trying to make our referees have distinguished operating ability.Every referee should write his or her report about the game that they take part in and then weshare all materials including situations and special cases that happened during the game. It’s likeevery doctor share his or her opinions or skills to treat patients well at the regular conference.Additionally, we are helping our referees increase their competence by conducting regularcourtesy trainings and workshops
Reporter: Referees could easily figure out a necessity of amending and deleting rules tooperate the games well with players before anyone else.
Jason Lee: Right. To help operate the game well and bring the greatest joy of watching games foraudience, it is very important to have well-made rules. Well-made rules are to prevent ambiguoussituations and help make a quick judgment when it comes to lots of problems. Referees are veryactive to modify the rules since they could experience various cases and acquire hands-onexperiences by running games. They don’t change the rules on their own but they could askKeSPA to change.
Reporter: These two parts ‘Operating games’ and ‘Referees’ are the most distinguishedresults of globalizing e-sports.
Jason Lee: Only e-sports in Korea is holding a week-round competition and operating proleaguesand amateur leagues separately. We have a broadcasting company specializing in gameand online game companies are actively participating in the leagues. We have been accumulatingknow-how regarding referees and operating games based on our great infrastructure.We are not forcing others to do as Korean do but providing know-how for developing countrieswhich need certain rules, operating systems and referee systems with IeSF(International e-SportsFederation). We strongly believe once e-sports in Korea could cooperate all over the world, wecan develop ourselves more than ever.
Reporter: As we heard, game companies provide basic rules to KeSPA, a team for operatingcompetitions control it.
Jason Lee: The more people are more interested in e-sports, the more experts of e-sports arecultivated, game companies become increasingly specialized in e-sports. But, game companiesthemselves have less experience than KeSPA in running competitions.As we are in the best position to advise many game companies to make rules, we are helpingthem to make the competitions more exciting with practical experiences for years from refereesand know-how from operating competitions. One more thing, referees can tell their opinions onrules freely but don’t make the rules itself. Rules are made by KeSPA following the association’sformal procedures and referees apply rules fairly in accordance with this.
