So, since I just read this article, I figured I'd post something here. Mostly because I don't want to create a new account over there, and mostly because this does involve IC2 in a way...
Should Minecraft become an eSport? Personally, I don' think so. There isn't a whole lot in Minecraft that can make the game 'competitive' on any scale, beyond artificial time constrains and map redesigning. Yeah, the Vech maps and FTB challenge maps can be fun, but are they competition worthy? That's very hard to say. I would guess you could gain some humorous comical value from the events as people die in unfortunate circumstances by mobs and environmental effects. Still, if the players are going to compete on a competitive level, I don't think these incidents are going to be the norm. Or at least, frequent enough to make Minecraft a fast paced 'clutch' game. I'm sure the market is there for this, but I'm not sure it would be a great move in terms of the direction that Minecraft in general is going.
It also raises more of the issue of 'mod rights' and 'update schedules'. We know about how long it's taking Redpower to update. We know that IC2 isn't "officially" updated to 1.5.1 beyond Jenkins builds. Sure, we can ignore most of the whiny bickering from people about updating to new Minecraft versions as mod authors fight and reign in the code to preform correctly. But now, there are forces at work to put eSports teams on the line for mod updates when Minecraft changes versions. This is highly problematic. For one, no one who mods gets direct income for their hobby (outside of donations afaik, and I could be wrong about this). Secondly, Minecraft isn't kept up by a business like Valve, Blizzard, or Riot, who maintains their infrastructure for the competitive scene. Asking community members who code for fun and create content on their own time to match MLG time table sounds highly impractical, at least from an unpaid standpoint. The fact that there were arguments over Redpower not being up-to-date (which most were unnecessarily fueled and truncated by you know who) is enough to be of concern that expecting people who code for a hobby to be up-to-date for MLG Seasons. It's not practical. At least not with the current situation where mod authors are reliant on the generous donations of the fan base.
A solution, of course, would be to pay mod authors for their time and talents if they are included in MLG events. Which would be great, if Mojang was more clear in their legal terminology to allow that. This is the current catch 22 about modding: you really can't sell mods, outside of ad revenue, because of Mojang. We don't have a Mod API. We don't have much official support from Mojang in terms of code, or legality, or anything for that matter. And now people want to make modded Minecraft part of the competitive MLG business model? To me, there seems to be various logistical hick-ups that will probably kill this move. Unless there is a way to pay mod authors for their time and talents, I think its really unfair to put this kind of pressure on them. How do they expect unpaid individuals to match the corporate decided tournament time-tables, which generate tons of revenue on their own? Also, what if Mojang sees such an action and decides that it's "not in their interest" to pursue it? Since they own the Minecraft franchise, they have a right to pull the plug on this. Not saying that they will, of course, but it is a looming possibility.
tl;dr: This seem like a very impractical move, at least on Slowpoke's part, to bring modded Minecraft to eSports. Sure, I think people may like it, but there are alot of issues that need to be worked upon before attempting something this bold and this competitively demanding.
