Following his relegation match against fox at the IEM IV World Championship Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski gave an interview to SK Gaming. As well as talking about his dominant performance against the Swede av3k addressed the controversy regarding Cooller's restarts at DreamHack and the IEM European Finals, his own at the latter event and also his comments about ESR users getting their cell phones and shoes taken by Polish youths which caused so much uproar. av3k explains his side of the stories and how he feels about Cooller and those ESR users.
After a two month hiatus away from the Starcraft Weekly show, Artosis made his return last week with episode 27, and just posted #28 yesterday.
The MBC StarLeague (MSL) grand final was recently held, where Flash attempted to claim back to back titles against his longtime nemesis, Jaedong.
In this weeks episode, Artosis covers such things as the TeamLiquid StarLeague, ESL, team RoX leaving all team league events, Ret's third Courage video which is his last video in Korea and his Zerg micro video, information on how Korean Starcraft teams run their squads, more NonY drama, Broodwar Clan Liga, the MSL debacle, and a lot more.
Not too long ago, the latest foreigner in Korea, Ret, moved into the eSTRO pro team house, where he became the second foreigner to currently live in Korea playing Starcraft.
After a week of practice within the team house, Ret made his first attempt at the Courage tournament, where he tried to win the whole thing and earn his pro gaming license, which can only be achieved by either winning a Courage tournament or by a pro team giving you one of the few free passes they are allowed each year.
The first and only time we saw video footage from a Courage tournament was when NonY was in Korea practicing with the eSTRO team and made it all the way to the finals on his first try, you can see that video.
Hello folks, the Starcraft Weekly show returns after a long week at IEF and taking care of the foreign Starcraft players who attended the event. Videos from the IEF event can be seen here.
During episode 26, Artosis covers such things as the recent IEF Suwon 2009 finals, ESL Major Series, SC For Life lan, TeamLiquid’s Premonition, recent Korean ownage, Stork and his recent happenings, as well as Pro League.
The glorious event that was IEF Suwon 2009 is now complete, with day 3 wrapping up the event which had a slew of award ceremonies, most importantly the Starcraft portion with Stork, Terror, and IdrA accepting the medals and flowers.
Complete coverage of the IEF Suwon 2009 event can be found below, featuring various videos, pictures, and results.
With less than 5 days to go, the IEF Suwon 2009 event is turning out to be the greatest event for foreign Starcraft players that has ever been seen before, with 9 different countries taking part for just the Starcraft portion alone.
Some past greats make their triumphant return during IEF Suwon 2009, most notably Assem (former pro gamer in Korea on the former Hexatron, now eSTRO, team), Rekrul (also a former pro gamer on Hexatron, Midian (United Kingdom’s best player of all time), as well as SEn (Starcraft prodigy from Taiwan, which is a country that was never known for its large pool of players).
Some more recognizable faces to the 2009 competitive scene are IdrA, Ret, White_Ra, Strelok, Fenix, iNcontroL, Artosis, G5, iNfeRnaL, Chill, DIMAGA, Gretorp, and MACHINE are all mentally prepared to win the coveted title this year.
Bisu, Stork, Effort, Boxer, and an amateur player will make up team Korea this year, pretty much giving themselves the 99% chance to walk away with 1st place, especially when having the home field advantage.
As for the overall IEF event itself, it will truly be an amazing event that has been organized by many dedicated people who strive to bring not only Asia, but the world a spectacular tournament and show. Hints of importance for this event can be seen when you look at the Korean government stepping in to work alongside one of many eSports events, the interest and need for foreign gamers to be enlisted in the tournaments, as well as the concerts that will take place by some of the biggest Korean artists that are out to date.
Korea: Bisu, Stork, Effort, Boxer, and an amateur Korean player.
World: Idra, Ret, White-Ra, Strelok, Fenix, iNcontroL, Artosis, G5, Rekrul, Midian, Assem, SEn, iNfeRnaL, Chill, DIMAGA, Gretorp, MACHINE, Slog4. Countries Participating: South Korea, USA, Ukraine, Netherlands, Peru, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Germany, and Canada.
Back for its 25th episode, the Starcraft Weekly brings you a ton of information this week on both the Korean and non-Korean scene.
Artosis officially released the IEF Suwon 2009 player list for Starcraft, which is not posted anywhere else, he talks about the WCG grand final groups that were recently released, Nal_rA’s interview by lilsusie, Justin.TV Starcraft Invitational, Rets first day in Korea, Pro League, OSL, MSL, a battle report of UpMagic vs. Iris, Starcraft 2 Battle Report 4, and more.
One of the two most famous non-Koreans of the year, Ret, landed in South Korea just shy of one week ago. Artosis and company were there to greet the newest addition to the pro gaming scene.
In the first 4 minutes of the video, you’ll see the Nerd Pack wait and at the airport and meet up with Ret, followed by a 13+ minute video of Artosis facing Ret, which was his first official game in Korea.
An interview will be conducted with Dutchman before he heads to IEF in a couple weeks, so look out for that.
Also, for those who have slow internet connections, we’ll be uploading Rets coverage in Korea to our YouTube channel a couple days after each video is officially released, so watch out for that.
Alright folks, it’s currently the day before Ret arrives in Korea, time to get excited!
Artosis brings you the Starcraft Weekly show, Episode 24 and focuses on the Justin.TV Invitational, Ansadi StarLeague 2, Nostalgia tournament, Fnatic tournament, Rets trip to Korea, recent ICCUP news, IEF information, Bisu and the OSL, Fantasy and the MSL, Leta and Pro League, Nal_Ra and his job transfer, Nal_Keke retires, and more.
Starcraft Weekly returns with Episode 23 - Wrath of the bad props behind the camera
This week Artosis focuses on a lot of WCG coverage from various countries, IEF in Korea that many foreigners will be attending, Kwanro and his recent move, the start of Pro League, MSL, OSL, and last but not least, the biggest announcement of the year which is Ret is coming to Korea.
Over the past months, two people have been dominating the non-Korean Starcraft scene, mainly IdrA and Ret.
IdrA has been a pro gamer in South Korea for the past 1.5 years, while Ret has always stayed in his home country of the Netherlands. Now, the Dutchman will take a chance and head to the mecca of pro gaming and test his skills on the eSTRO pro team.
Artosis - When did you start thinking about going to Korea for Starcraft, and
what finally made you decide to take the leap?
Ret - I’ve always wanted to be a pro gamer for Starcraft, and go to Korea.
When I was younger, perhaps the more appropriate age, there were less
foreigners in Korea and contacting pro teams managers was a lot harder
than now. I had never expected that I would still get the chance to go
to Korea, but when the opportunity arose I realized that it was still
my dream and that I wanted to give it my best shot.
Artosis - What are your goals in going to Korea? How long do you intend to stay?
Ret - The immediate goal for Starcraft would be to win the courage
tournament and then perhaps play a Pro League match. But we’ll have to
see what happens when SC2 comes out and how that changes things. I
really don’t know how long I’ll stay, but I intend to stay in
pro gaming for SC2, so it could be a long time.
Artosis - Winning the courage tournament is something that only 1 foreigner
has ever done before (Assem), even though NonY came very close, losing
the finals 1-2 on his first try. Supposedly they have even made it a
much harder tournament now. What time frame do you think you can win
this event in?
Ret - I think my ZvZ will be the only problem with winning Courage. So if
I can get that matchup up to par quickly, I should be a pretty strong
contender. If that happens reasonably quick, I think I could possibly
win it on my first try. But of course to win any tournament with a
strong field of players, you’ll also need some luck.
What will be his last weekly show in New Hampshire, before he heads to New York for the WCG finals and then back to Korea, Artosis fills your palate with more juicy news and gossip from the past week and a half.
This week he focuses on some topics such as WCG Poland finals, ICCUP tournaments, Ansadi StarLeague 2, update on the 2 factory video tutorial, Brent and Kenny show with special guest star djWHEAT, DreamHack qualifiers, Zotac Cup, North East Lan information, WCG USA, GomTV drama, Frozean and his recent dilemma, Pro League All Stars, the start to the upcoming OSL/MSL/Pro League season, eSTRO workshop information, and much more.
The 2009 USA World Cyber Games national finals will start tomorrow, with 150 players coming in from various parts of the country, but this news is just for the 10 important ones.
We see 8 of the 10 players as returning competitors in the national finals, while only two of them are new additions, one coming by way of qualifying by himself, KawaiiRice, and the other being iNkA, who was given his spot by a player who dropped out.
* Friday, September 25th from 1:00PM - 7:00PM
* Saturday, September 26th from 10:00AM - 7:00PM
* Sunday, September 27th from 10:00AM - 5:00PM
WCG USA will be taking place alongside The New York Anime Festival at the Jacob K. Javits Center.
Edited by PuertoRican at 21:19 CDT, 24 September 2009 - 4814 Hits
Artosis returns with another Starcraft tutorial, this time focusing on the Terran vs. Protoss match up while doing a 2 factory build.
RoX.Fenix is the opponent of choice, who recently just won the WCG Pan-American 2009 event against EG.iNcontroL in the finals. The game is played out on Python.
Poker Star and former Starcraft pro gamer Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier was stopped in customs. And his money was confiscated, due to the police thinking he was a drug dealer.
Frenchman Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier is the most successful poker player ever in the European Tour (EPT). He flew from Barcelona recently, where he played in the EPT tournament. He was then stopped at customs, and it apparently was not the first time.
Anything over $10,000 dollars will usually get you stopped by customs agents, as in many countries you have to fill out a form that says you are limited to whatever amount of money they say you can bring into their country.
The problem was that the customs police did not believe ElkY when he said he was a poker pro. When they found all the money they thought he was a drug dealer.
He then showed the customs police a lot of links to poker articles and pictures of him as a poker player, but that didn’t seem to work either. The money was sent off to Madrid and he must prove that he won it at the casino to get it back.
Artosis is back with Episode 21 of the Starcraft Weekly show, still airing from the wild jungle that he calls home, aka New Hampshire.
This week he talks about a lot of events that are going on in the foreign Starcraft scene, such as the WGT Titan League final, For Love of the Game tournament, Nostalgia tournament, Collegiate Star League, WCG Mexico finals, WCG Pan-America, North East lan, Strategic Q&A, Terran tutorials, Ansadi Star League 2, Ultimate Pro League, All Star match, Nal_Ra’s new job, Starcraft 2 updates, Razer and Blizzard partnership, future eSTRO workshop 2009 videos, and a lot more.
Its that time once again, time for all pro gaming teams to head away to their workshops.
Around this time every year, 11 of the 12 pro gaming teams head out across South Korea, or even to different countries, for their team workshop. A workshop is a 3 day event where a team comes closer together by building a stronger friendship with its teammates and coaches, as well as discussing the past and upcoming season, and obviously to just have a vacation from their normal life of being on the computer most of the day.
As we’ve seen already, Woongjin Stars, SK Telecom T1, and the Hite Sparkyz are among a few teams who have already left for their workshop, while teams like KT Rolster and eSTRO left today to Taebaek and will return on the 11th.
CJ Entus will depart to Incheon, where they will spend two days and three nights going over strategies and having fun all together. You can watch the 2008 workshop video that was filmed while on location in Pocheon, Korea (pictures here). They went white water rafting, had paint pall tournaments, stayed in a big house, and cooked some nice barbecue, among other things. Savior, IdrA, Xellos, Iris, DarkElf, and more.
Artosis brings you the first, hopefully of many, video tutorials. Since he’s currently in USA, he doesn’t have his good mic with him, so please forgive the static.
This first tutorial is played out on Blue Storm, against a popular online commentator that goes by the name of Ahzz. The game itself is a Terran vs. Zerg, and the length is about 23 minutes.
Well hello everybody, welcome back to the Starcraft Weekly show with Artosis. It’s been about a month since the last show, and many people were wondering if we were scrapping the whole idea or what, well the answer is NO, we’ve just been busy with different things and continue to think up new and fresh ideas for the upcoming months.
During this weeks show, Artosis talks about the past happens in the foreign and Korean Starcraft scene, which include IEF, OSL, MSL, GomTV, Pro League, IdrA, Ret, BlizzCon, multiple WCG events, PJ’s interview, people retiring, Jaedong, Fantasy, and more.
iNcontroL, the WCG USA 2007 champion and Iefnaij, the 2008 champion after his performance in TSL and other online tournaments will battle against Suny[gm] and NsP_Fancy, two Terran players from the eSTRO pro team in two separate 1vs1 matches on the same day.
Iefnaij will take on Suny in a best of three on Heartbreak Ridge, Outsider, and Destination, while iNcontroL will be facing Fancy in a best of three on Destination, Colosseum 2, and Heartbreak Ridge.
Ret has been on vacation and just recently left to BlizzCon, he’ll return to his show matches after he arrives back in his home country.
Korean Date - Saturday, August 29th at 3pm KST
European Date - Saturday, August 29th at 8am CET
New York - Saturday, August 29th at 2am EST
California – Friday, August 28th at 11pm PST
Where to Watch - Justin.tv/SCForAll
Earlier this month, the eSTRO pro gaming team welcomed a new face to their home, it was none other than Qoo)Max, the once most dominant and feared 2vs2 player alongside his teammate FanTastic_NamoO, back when the Pro League still offered 2vs2 in the lineup.
With his favorite style of competing being taken away, his former teammate leaving to the military, and his itch to take on another task in eSports, Max spoke with the eSTRO coaching staff and eventually joined their ranks and now completes the three man lineup.
Not mainly known as a 1vs1 player, Max did display his skill to the eSTRO B team when he first entered the house, as he beat many of them. He states that "the skill level within his new team house is very high, and he see’s a lot of potential in the young gamers, and he will do his best to help them excel even further in the upcoming Pro League season as well as the single leagues".
A video interview with Max will be conducted in upcoming weeks, and we’ll get his feedback about many things relating to the eSTRO team.
So I don't have to make a new thread, here's a copy paste:
The Clash of the Titans show match is now over, with a 3-0 going to one of the players.
While we had issues streaming the match this past weekend, we do have the Replays available for you to watch. The games were played on Longinus, Dire Straits, and Lost Temple.
Please do not download the replays and host them at your own community website, thanks.
Since the very beginning, there has always been good and evil, there simply cannot be one without the other. This also means there is no light without dark, which also leads to there being no Artosis without Rekrul...
The year was 2002, Artosis made his first appearance at the 2002 WCG USA finals and played his heart out, but failed to qualify to the grand finals that year. Rekrul on the other hand, had appeared in the 2003 WCG USA and took 1st place over Artosis’s long time friend, Assem.
After being recognized as the best player from USA in 2003, Rekrul moved to Korea where he played on the Hexatron team alongside his former competitor turned teammate, Assem. While his pro gaming career didn’t last long, he left an impression on the foreign scene as a strong Protoss player turned internet personality, which he still lives up to this day.
Since his first appearance at the WCG USA finals in 2002, Artosis has qualified a total of 7 times for the national finals and represented USA twice at the grand finals. He returns to his national final this year where he attempts a third appearance at the grand finals, which will be held in Chengdu, China, in November.
Rekrul enters this match as he’s entered every other match in the past, full of energy and has his trash talk-o-meter turned up to 11. This is what he had to say in a blog at TeamLiquid:
“We all know that foreigners suck really bad at Starcraft, especially the ones that still play.
We all also know that Artosis was never ever good at Starcraft, in fact, he really really fucking sucks to be honest.
I haven’t played Starcraft in 6 months, he lives and breathes this game.
I bet him 100 dollars that I will beat him in a best of 5. I then also bet him 100 more that I’ll win 3-0.
Old school maps though, newest school out of the maps is Longinus but we won’t even get to that game. This takes place in 1 week, expect SCForAll video interviews, good luck young nerdling.”
Artosis on the other hand has been a man of much less words and more action, unless we’re talking about dark templars, which then is the complete opposite.
All that he replies with when asked how he thinks he will do against Rekrul is “I will crush him.”
Korean Date - Saturday, August 15th at 3pm KST
European Date - Saturday, August 15th at 8am CET
New York - Saturday, August 15th at 2am EST
California - Friday, August 14th at 11pm PST
Place to watch - Justin.tv/SCForAll
Edited by PuertoRican at 23:17 CDT, 16 August 2009 - 10485 Hits
Not to long ago, we conducted a very interesting video interview with one of the most famous faces in the Warcraft 3 pro gaming scene, Fly100%.
The main factor for why this interview was interesting was obviously the fact that the questions were asked in Korean, then translated to Chinese, then back to Korean and finally into English for the subtitles...
Fly speaks about his performance in the e-Stars Seoul event, current feelings about Warcraft 3, imbalance in Warcraft 3, thoughts about the future release of Starcraft 2 and where he see’s himself and others from China after its release, who he thinks will be the best country to play the game, and much more.
Original news post & video interview at SCForAll.com
The Shinhan Bank Pro League 08-09 season is now over, and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know who won already.
The two day final was pretty exciting, with performances by Girls Generation and other music artists, beautiful weather (my sun burn is proof of that), and exciting matches by both teams, this was definitely a better final than the previous year.
Jaedong faced some hardships, Lomo and Killer excited the crowd, Best continued his failure, and Fantasy proved to be the ultimate nerd. The SKT1 head coach kept a large grin on his face the entire time with squinted eyes that were covered by large expensive shades, while the Hwaseung coach held his head at a lower than normal position and looked like he was being punched in the gut after every match on the first day.
Bisu vs. PerfectMan on Heartbreak Ridge VOD Hyuk vs. Jaedong on Outsider VOD Canata vs. BackHo on Destination VOD TheZerg vs. Killer on Gods Garden VOD Fantasy vs. Hiya on Sin Harmony VOD Best vs. Lomo on Shades of Twilight VOD Fantasy vs. Jaedong on Neo Medusa VOD
The first portion of the Avalon MSL 2009 Quarterfinals Day 3 was pretty epic, as Bisu faced Iris once again after losing the first match to him last week. The series went all the way up to game 5, with some nice back and forth action, but I wont spoil it for you...
Zero vs. Kwanro was pretty average to say the least, about as much as you can expect from a ZvZ, not much else to say.
The next MSL match will take place on August 13th, as Jaedong faces Calm, another ZvZ, more like zZzZzZz. They’ll be playing on the maps Carthage 3, Byzantium 3, Outsider, Heartbreak Ridge, and Carthage 3.
With the postponement of the ToT)ret( vs. Suny[gm] match that was supposed to be played last Saturday, and the Pro League finals that will be happening this Friday and Saturday, we wanted to give you an early treat and have Ret take on if.Classic instead. Suny will play at a later date.
Ret faces if.Classic in a best of 3 set, on Destination, Heartbreak Ridge, and Outsider. This strong Terran player is one of the newer recruits to eSTRO, and was thought to be the #1 draft pick in the eyes of all of the head coaches who participated in the last pro gamer draft.
Korean Date (foreign date/time below) - Saturday, August 6th at 1pm KST
European Date - Saturday, August 6th at 6am CET
New York - Saturday, August 6th at 12:01am EST
California - Friday, August 5th at 9:00pm PST
Edited by PuertoRican at 21:05 CDT, 3 August 2009 - 1514 Hits
The Shinhan Bank Pro League 08-09 season is almost at an end, with the semi finals being played just yesterday, where Hwaseung Oz took on CJ Entus in two very close matches.
The winning team will now face SK Telecom T1 at the grand finals in Busan, South Korea, on the 7th and 8th of August. The lineups aren't available yet, but the rosters for each team are posted, which you can find below.
Runner-Up: 2009 Shinhan Bank Winners League
Winner: 2007 Shinhan Pro League Grand Final
Winner: 2007 Shinhan Bank Pro League Round 2
Runner-Up: 2007 Shinhan Bank Pro League Round 1
Third: 2006 SKY Pro League Round 2
Third: 2008 Shinhan Bank Pro League
Runner-Up: 2006 SKY Pro League Grand Final
Winner: 2006 SKY Pro League Round 1
Winner: 2005 SKY Pro League Grand Final
Winner: 2005 SKY Pro League Round 2
Winner: 2005 SKY Pro League Round 1
Runner-Up: 2004 SKY Pro League Round 1
Winner: 2003 OnGameNet KTF EVERCup Pro League
Edited by PuertoRican at 12:50 CDT, 2 August 2009 - 4259 Hits
SK|Lyn & WhO, two famous Warcraft 3 professionals from Korea were interviewed last week after the Warcraft 3 community at WCReplays.com gave their feedback on the questions they wanted answered.
The interview is conducted in a Korean restaurant, where everything is more relaxed and not so uptight like in most interviews.
The first minutes of the video feature both Artosis and Tasteless eating and practicing random games for the eStars event they commentated at.
SK|Lyn & WhO video interview and more info at SCForAll.com
Edited by PuertoRican at 01:41 CDT, 30 July 2009 - 3285 Hits
Due to schedule issues, this match has been pushed back to the following weekend, sorry for the wait.
The foreigner vs. pro gamer show match series returns this Saturday after a short break, partly due to all pro gaming teams not still in Pro League going on vacation and also the eStars event. This also marks the first eSTRO Terran player being used in this series.
This week, ToT)ret( takes on the fastest player in the Gangnam region of Seoul, South Korea. Ret’s opponent is none other than Suny[gm], a macro style Terran player who has displayed his skill before in the Shinhan Bank Pro League, when he faced off against Shine, Pusan, and Free, where he won those matches.
You can use SCForAll.com as a source to watch the matches, or also head on over to the main Justin.tv channel and you’ll be able to login and chat with other people.
Korean Date (foreign date/time below) - Saturday, August 1st at 3pm KST
European Date - Saturday, August 1st at 8am CET
New York - Saturday, August 1st at 2am EST
California - Friday, July 31st at 11:00pm PST
Edited by PuertoRican at 05:24 CDT, 31 July 2009 - 2353 Hits
Scheduled: 00:00 CDT, 1 August 2009 to 02:00 CDT, 2 August 2009 Schedule: Passed
The winner of these two matches will move on to the Shinhan Bank Pro League 08-09 finals where they will play against SK Telecom T1 in Busan, South Korea, on August 8th.
Game 1. Lomo vs sKyHigh on Destination
Game 2. Jaedong vs EffOrt on Neo Medusa
Game 3. HiyA vs Movie on Colosseum 2
Game 4. PerfectMan vs Iris on Shades of Twilight
Game 5. BackHo vs Snow on Heartbreak Ridge
Game 6. Killer vs Kwanro on Gods Garden
Game 7. Neo Harmony
Game 1. HiyA vs sKyHigh on Destination
Game 2. Young vs Movie on Colosseum 2
Game 3. Lomo vs Iris on Shades of Twilight
Game 4. Jaedong vs Orion on Gods Garden
Game 5. ggaemo vs EffOrt on Neo Medusa
Game 6. BackHo vs Kwanro on Heartbreak Ridge
Game 7. Neo Harmony
Super duper Ace matches will be played on Neo Medusa!
Sorry for the delay of 1 day everyone, there were internet issues that got in the way, everything is fixed on day 2 and we have the first set of videos for you here~
Grubby interview day 1
Lucifron interview day 1
e-Stars Seoul 2009 intro video
Day 1 video list, higher quality videos will be available from the videos I do later today: SCForAll.com
Avalon MSL 2009 quarter finals day 1 - The swarm strikes back!
July 23rd, 2009 schedule
Group A: Jaedong vs. Canata on Outsider
Group B: EffOrt vs. Calm on Outsider
Group C: Bisu vs. Iris on Byzantium 3
Group D: ZerO vs. Kwanro on Heartbreak Ridge
Anyway, this week Artosis talked about such things as the MSL, OSL, Pro League playoffs, Arew and his new team, e-Stars Seoul 2009, GomTV Season 3 semi finals, Ret vs. eSTRO, Starcraft 2, the Highlander tournament, Valor, and WCG Germany.
We recently took a trip to the WeMade FOX professional gaming team house, located in Seoul, South Korea. While there, interviews of Starcraft players Nada and Pure were done, an interview with the Warcraft 3 star Spirit_Moon was done, as well as a tour of the inner WeMade FOX team house.
Moon & Pure talk about why they chose their current game, the possibility of more Warcraft 3 players on WeMade FOX in the future, who they train with, favorite Starcraft players, current thoughts on the state of Warcraft 3 on a global scale, the meaning behind their ID, units they hate the most, their current rivals, the good thing about being on WeMade FOX, future goals, and a shout out to their foreign fans around the world!
Scheduled: 05:00 CDT, 11 July 2009 to 06:00 CDT, 11 July 2009 Schedule: Passed
Last week was a glorious day, as we saw ToT)ret( take on KT.MGW)Grape in a very close best of 3 series. Due to the previous votes by the community being so close between Grape and his teammate Say[Join], we wanted to use the latter in this weeks match.
Say[Join] is known as one of the older members on the team, having started his pro gaming career a bit late, similar to Much[gm]. But don’t let the age fool you, he’s a highly skilled player and looks to defend his teams reputation this weekend. The match will take place at 01:00 CDT, 11 July 2009.
You can use This Thread as a source to watch the matches, or also head on over to the main Justin.tv channel and you’ll be able to login and chat with other people.
Just yesterday, one of the top 3 foreigners in the world, ToT)ret(, took on KT.MGW)Grape, a Korean pro gamer from the eSTRO team. The series was a success, as we hit a peak of 863 viewers in our live stream channel at Justin.tv
Everyone who was watching the matches said that game 3 was extremely exciting and a very worthy match to end the series on, there wasn't a clear winner until the end.
Ret will be facing another eSTRO member later this week, most likely on Saturday again. Information will be released as we get closer to that date.
ToT)ret( (Z) vs. KT.MGW)Grape (P) on Destination [VOD]
ToT)ret( (Z) vs. KT.MGW)Grape (P) on Neo Medusa [VOD]
ToT)ret( (Z) vs. KT.MGW)Grape (P) on Colosseum 2 [VOD]
Edited by PuertoRican at 09:42 CDT, 5 July 2009 - 5768 Hits
The Starcraft Weekly show is back and on time this week, even a couple hours earlier than usual, that’s due to Artosis leaving on a trip somewhere, which you’ll find out about in today’s episode.
Artosis goes into detail and covers things like the recent ESI League winner, recent SC2GG Star League winner, the Valor tournament and some recent drama in that, Tip of the Week, Starcraft 2 and all those updates, Pro League, as well as what we’ll be showing next week.
Scheduled: 01:00 CDT, 4 July 2009 to 02:30 CDT, 4 July 2009 Schedule: Passed
The long waiting battle between ToT)ret( and KT.MGW)Grape is finally going to take place!
This Saturday, the foreign Zerg master battles an up and coming Protoss player from Korea. The first map will be destination, the second map is Neo Medusa, and the third will be Colosseum 2.
You can use This Thread as a source to watch the matches, or also head on over to the main Justin.tv channel and you’ll be able to login and chat with other people.
Korean Date (foreign date/time below) - Saturday, July 4th at 3pm KST
European Date - Saturday, July 4th at 8am CET
New York - Saturday, July 4th at 2am EST
California - Friday, July 3rd at 11:00pm PST
Edited by xou at 01:24 CDT, 2 July 2009 - 10312 Hits
As mentioned last week in the Starcraft Weekly show, hosted by Artosis, we would be going to the WeMade FOX house where we would then do a video tour of the building, get an interview with NaDa, Pure, and Moon from Warcraft 3. We did all of this, and here is the first part of the adventure!
NaDa opens up and tells us some things that aren't usually heard in normal interviews, one has to think that it might be due to his age and him being around for a long time, when compared to younger gamers who seem more shy and give similar answers to one another.
The video interview and extended information can be found at: SCForAll.com
Edited by xou at 11:24 CDT, 30 June 2009 - 6451 Hits
A couple weeks ago, I started to release Micro Maps that were originally only available to mainly pro gamers. The first map was a single player Mutalisk Micro Map, which teaches you how to properly "stack" your muta's so that units can't target them one by one, as well as learning how to micro vs. scourge the right way, since not all units respond the same.
Stop Massive Attack is the latest addition to the list, it's a team based micro map, you need at least two people in the game for it to work. The game is simple to start, you just move your civilian to a beacon and then move the zergling up to trigger the computer. From there just micro your butt off and have fun.
Boy what an exciting week it was in Starcraft, not only did we see a new foreign Starcraft professional team formed, but we also saw it disbanded a day later.
This weeks show focuses on SK-Gaming and some recent issues, ESL Major Series, WCG Germany, ToT clans newest member, Titan League, ESI League, Tip of the Week, Starcraft 2 drama, former pro gamer Kingdom found a new job, Pro League updates, Tasteless response video to what’s happening at SK-Gaming, another micro map released, ToT)ret( vs. KT.MGW)Grape show match, and what we’ll be doing next week.
After mainly MSN/AIM/ICQ and a few email/forum votes, the communities decision had been narrowed down to two eSTRO members for ToT)ret( to face this Saturday, they were Say[Join] and KT.MGW)Grape.
We decided to first go with Grape, as he is the weaker of the two players, and is the person we’re more looking for at the moment. The reason we chose Grape was because this series is for a top foreigner to work his way up, and play the worst to the best players on a pro team, but all of you, The Starcraft Community, helped us make this decision, and we shall eventually see Ret vs. Say[Join] in the near future.
The map list will determined tomorrow, and you will find out on the day of the event what they will be. We’re trying to keep it as balanced as possible, while using Pro League maps.
Korean Date (foreign date/time below) - Saturday, June 27nd at 4pm KST
European Date - Saturday, June 27th at 9am CET
New York - Saturday, June 27th at 3am EST
California - Saturday, June 27th at 00:01am PST
Fresh off an unlucky defeat, ToT)ret( is back once again to prove himself to his fans around the world, this time taking on an eSTRO Protoss player. But who could it be? That is for you to decide.
We decided we want to see him play a Protoss to change things up a bit. We don’t want you to obviously pick the best Protoss in the world, rather who you think would be best against ret in a show match.
From the first series, we know that ret is weak on Neo Medusa when he spawns at the 11 o`clock position vs. Zerg, and we know that he ZvP’s, so list down 3 maps you think he would do good on that are used in Pro League, and we can use your feedback when making our choice.
Korean Date (foreign date/time below) - Saturday, June 27nd at 4pm KST
European Date - Saturday, June 27th at 9am CET
New York - Saturday, June 27th at 3am EST
California - Saturday, June 27th at 00:01am PST
Please leave your feedback on the ToT)ret( vs. eSTRO Protoss match up and maps. To watch ret's match last week against Hwata[saM], check on scforall.com.
Edited by xou at 15:03 CDT, 22 June 2009 - 1923 Hits
We’re back once again in the real studio where we have better lighting and that awesome blue background that you’ve all grown to love.
This week we dig deep into DreamHack and the recent winner, ToT)ret( and his upcoming series vs. eSTRO, Canada’s latest Starcraft lan, SC2GG StarLeague, Zotac Cup and its special Korean guest player, WCG USA, random people throwing the word "talent" around, Starcraft 2 beta, Tip of the Week, Pro League, GomTV Season 3, the recent Starcraft 2 discussion by Artosis & Tasteless, as well as the latest Mutalisk Micro Map we released.
ToT)ret( just finished taking 1st place at the 2009 DreamHack Summer event in Sweden, with a 3-1 victory over DIMAGA from Ukraine in the final match.
Ret is now up for another challenge, this time taking on pro gamers in a series of foreigner vs. pro matches that will be ongoing at SCForAll.
First up to face Ret is a player from the eSTRO pro team, who will be announced at a later date. While it’s still a mystery who he’ll play, he will definitely have his hands full, as I’m sure both NonY and IdrA can tell you from their experience from being on the team themselves.
The format will be a best of 3, and the maps will be released when the player is announced, but the good thing is that Artosis will be doing live commentary on the matches. Don’t worry if you can’t watch the games live, they will all be available in VOD format shortly after.
If you have any suggestions on who you would like to see go up against Ret, feel free to share your opinion on scforall.com.
Edited by xou at 07:02 CDT, 19 June 2009 - 2960 Hits
Artosis is finally back with the Starcraft 2 discussions. The last time we had one was three months ago in March, it featured Artosis and IdrA, this time Tasteless joining in,
They both go into detail about their recent thoughts about the games updates, patches, and how it might be once the beta and eventually full game is released. They also talk about top players from other RTS games and what disadvantages they might face right away when switching to a higher skilled game.
There’s much covered in this 29 minute video, you can view it on scforall.com.
Edited by xou at 07:10 CDT, 16 June 2009 - 8523 Hits
Unfortunately, we had to do the low-tech show again this week, due to some time constraints, but we’ll back into the real studio next week.
This week we cover the ESL, GOL Invitational, Ansadi StarLeague recap, Valor tournament, SC2GG StarLeague, DreamHack, ICCUP, Liquipedia, Starcraft 2, OSL, MSL, Pro League, Samsung Khan vs. SK Telecom T1 match, Leta and his recent happenings, and the tip of the week.
The 2009 World Cyber Game (WCG) online and offline qualifiers have now begun for multiple countries around the world, now its South Korea’s turn.
People will have a total of 3 chances to qualify for the national finals, the first two qualifiers will be online ladders scheduled as followed:
1. June 5th to June 9th (13 people advance to the offline stage)
2. June 12th to June 16th (13 people advance to the offline stage)
The third qualifier will be team battle (5vs5 single elimination), scheduled for June 18th to June 22nd, in which 1 team (5 people), advance to the offline stage.
How this works is, a team/clan will get 5 people, you send out 1 person and have them 1vs1 until they lose, and the first team to 3 wins will win. Whichever team wins the team battle qualifier, will advance to the national finals and be split up once they get there.
A small problem many people might see is that 1 or 2 people can play in all of the team battles while there can be a couple people who get a "free ride" to the finals.
"But there’s still 1 spot left", that is correct. The 27th spot from the online qualifiers will be given to the person with the most points from the first and second tournaments combined. This increases the player activity in both events. So just because you got 14th place in the first ladder and barely missed qualifying, you should play in the second event and you might gain your spot that way.
The first ladder registration end on June 3rd, while the second ladder registration ends on June 10th. The team battle registration ends on June 13th.
Starcraft players who are listed under the official Korean eSports Association (KeSPA) list as a pro gamer, cannot participate in the online portion of WCG Korea, they instead have to compete at the offline event.
The top 4 players from the offline event will advance to the National Final, where they will compete against 24 pro gamers in a chance to make it to Chengu, China, and be one of the 3 people to represent South Korea in the 2009 World Cyber Games (WCG) grand final.
The top 24 pro gamers are decided as so: Luxury and Stork get free spots due to their result last year, and the other 22 spots will be given to the top 22 players in the KeSPA ranking for July.
Edited by xou at 07:18 CDT, 8 June 2009 - 7609 Hits
We’re back on schedule with this weeks episode of Starcraft Weekly, and we’re also back in the studio to give you that epic blue background that you missed in last weeks episode.
This week we focus on Dreamhack, ICCUP, ToT clan invites and losses, Valor tournament, WCG, Zotac Cup, Tip of the week, Sea.Really vs. Bisu, June’s KeSPA ranking, KTF name change, GomTV, and much more.
Artosis talks to IdrA right after doing the Tasteless interview which you can find below.
IdrA answers some very important things like who the best foreign Zerg player is, the best foreign Protoss player, the best foreign Terran player, thoughts on Advokate and Strelok, best in each race for Chinese players, thoughts on who the best overall foreigner is, a little on SC2GG StarLeague, Ansadi StarLeague, Valor tournament, and the GOL tournament.
Artosis takes Tasteless out for a cup of coffee and talks to him about what’s going on lately in the Starcraft eSports scene.
Some of the things covered are season 3 of GomTV, Daniel "SuperDanielMan" Lee, Valor tournament, upcoming show match between Strelok and TossGirl, ESWC, female pro gaming, Starcraft 2, BlizzCon, update on his life in Korea, new store on his website TastelessGaming.com, thoughts about finishing school, new projects in the future, and much more.
Note: Due to various reasons, we weren’t able to use the studio this week for the show, so it was filmed with the camcorder we use for our special videos.
Last Week
We covered the Ansadi StarLeague, Casy and Roro’s match, GameOutLoud StarLeague, ICCUP and their recent happenings, IdrA and his recent Minor League performance, KeSPA and their weird decisions, WCG USA, WGTour, SC2GG StarLeague, and much more.
This Week
The latest information on BioBoyAT, WCG USA, WGT Clan League, Titan League, GOL invitational, GosuCup, DreamHack, Zotac Cup, State/Province League, ShutterCross job opening, Pro League, OSL, MSL, latest KeSPA news, Starcraft 2, and more.
Originally posted a couple days ago, Artosis went backstage at the 6h Minor League event, where he focused on getting coverage of eSTRO_Suny and CJ_IdrA.
The first video focused on Suny's 40+ minute game, which displayed his 400+ apm (actions per minute). You can read more about this match in the original ESReality news posted on May 26th.
And now, the second part of the Minor League backstage video coverage is now available.
It features IdrA and his match against the new Samsung Khan Zerg player, Rarity. The video ends with a short interview with IdrA and Artosis.
For the first time ever, Artosis takes you deep into the Minor League event in South Korea, where stars are born and dreams are crushed.
Part 1 of this special video coverage focuses on showing you the different teams and players who compete at this seasons Minor League event, as well as a long video recorded game of eSTRO_Suny, one of the fastest pro gamers around today, with over 400 actions per minute (APM).
Part 2 of this video will feature IdrA and his match against the new Samsung Khan Zerg player. The video will be released within the next couple of days, so check back for that one soon.
The famous Eastern European tournament named ASUS, had it’s 2009 spring event this weekend in Moscow, Russia. The complete event is split up into two parts, the first event being played on May 23rd and 24th, while the second part will be on the following weekend on May 30th and the 31st.
StarCraft: BroodWar received 25,000 rubles in total prizes, with 32 players competing in the event.
CyberFight.ru, the organizers of the ASUS events recently announced the addition of new online events that will take place during the summer, spring, winter, and autumn.
The top players from the online events will earn free tickets to the ASUS lan events later that year, as well as various prizes from sponsors. The Starcraft online portion will consist of 64 players.
NOTE: We updated the original video server host that the show is hosted on, so now you can watch the video in full and won't have to wait for the 3 part YouTube videos that take longer to upload, but don't worry, we'll still upload the shows to YouTube, but we still have to split them up because of the 10 minute time limit they give.
Hey hey hey, welcome back to the Starcraft Weekly show, hosted by everyone’s favorite nerd, Artosis.
After a successful ESWC Asia Masters event, we come back to you with a lot of new and exciting stuff to talk about. This weeks show covers more of what we missed out on for awhile, while next weeks show will go back to adding in-game clips with commentary.
With all of the weird going on lately with the scene, Artosis decided to switch up his show a bit to make him feel more at ease. This is an all new Artosis, edgy as can be, but still 100% real.
In this weeks episode we cover the Ansadi StarLeague, Casy and Roro’s match, GameOutLoud StarLeague, ICCUP and their recent happenings, IdrA and his recent Minor League performance, KeSPA and their weird decisions, WCG USA, WGTour, SC2GG StarLeague, and much more.
The grand final match of the Starcraft even is about to take place. So far at the ESWC Asia Masters event, we've seen TossGirl take out Super, White-Ra take out IdrA, TossGirl take out Super, White-Ra take out TossGirl, and IdrA take out TossGirl.
Update: The final match was just played. IdrA faced White-Ra in the grand final match. The maps were Medusa, Destination, and Sin Harmony.
Game 1 - IdrA spawned at the 10 o`clock position while White-Ra spawned at 6 o`clock on Medusa. IdrA moved away from his normal strategy and made a 2 factory build to throw his opponent off. This was basically a one shot deal as IdrA made 3 tanks and kept pump-sending speed vultures with spider mines and micro`ed his units to easily with the game.
Game 2 - White-Ra landed the 12 o`clock position while IdrA got the 6 o`clock position on Destination. White-Ra tried to bust IdrA early on with a handful of dragoons and a shuttle filled with a reaver and a couple zealots. The attack did a great deal of damage to the Terran player but more importantly slowed him down so that White-Ra could take his second expansion. From here, IdrA came out with a small group of units to contain White-Ra, forcing him to use the longer route when wanting to leave his base, this also let IdrA know what he was doing at all time. After many attempts of escaping, White-Ra wasn't able to get anything done and Idra's economy just kept getting bigger and bigger.
Game 3 - White-Ra spawned at the 2 o`clock position while IdrA spawned at 4 o`clock position on Sin Harmony. White-Ra opened up with a 1 gateway tech build into a dark templar drop, his mistake was not keeping his second dragoon on the ramp while his first one was out scouting the map, this let IdrA sneak his scv inside the Protoss base and scout everything that was going on, IdrA quickly built the right units and buildings for the counter and just waited for the attack since his opponent was already committed to it. After demolishing the Protoss attack, IdrA pumped units off of his 6 gateways and called it a day, not even the arbiters from White-Ra were able to save him as he didn't have any units left.
3-1 for Idra, the one loss came from him fighting back from the loser bracket.
All links contain the original + YouTube links to keep it more organized. If you have any request for videos, post them below, for Starcraft and Warcraft 3.
Last video: IdrA/White-Ra/TossGirl on stage Award Ceremony
Eleventh video: View of IdrA + White-Ra in press room interview Press Room Interview
The ESWC Asia Masters 2009 final will be held this weekend from May 2nd to May 5th in the city of Cheonan.
A total of 4 Starcraft players will be competing for the $9,000 prize pool. White-Ra, Super, IdrA and TossGirl will be in attendance to help celebrate the first ever ESWC Asia Masters event and also to represent Starcraft as a whole, since this is the first time ever that its been in an ESWC event.
May 4th and 5th will be the Starcraft play day's, while other games and events will be held during the complete event. Yours truly, (me), will be on the scene during May 1st until the 6th, to get as many interviews and random crazy stuff that I can share with all of you. Artosis will also be there as a commentator.
If you want to see how White-Ra, Super and IdrA qualified for the finals of this event, you can watch the videos from their final matches below.
After a month or so of waiting, the full World Cyber Games list of game titles is now available for your viewing pleasure
Returning once against to the WCG game list are Starcraft and FIFA, the only two original titles since the tournaments conception in 2000, when it was under the name of WCGC.
Crowd favorites like Counter Strike 1.6, Warcraft 3, Virtua Figher, and Guitar Hero, will also be in. The massive communities for the games Red Stone, Carom 3D, Asphalt 4, and Wise Star 2 are in luck this year, as their favorite game will grace the stage in Chengdu, China, later this year.
"The new titles include all-time favorite PC titles FIFA Soccer 09, TrackMania Nations Forever, Carom3D and Red Stone as the Official Game Title for WCG. They will join the previously announced five Official Game Titles – including Counter-Strike 1.6 (PC), Starcraft: Brood War (PC), WarCraft III The Frozen Throne (PC), Guitar Hero: World Tour (Xbox 360) and Virtua Fighter 5 (Xbox 360) – to ensure that this year’s competition features a wide variety of games that appeal to all different types of gamers around the world."
After a few days away, we’re bringing you this week’s episode a couple days late. First we get into the Starcraft 2 news, followed by the ESWC, ESL, Liquibition, SC2GG StarLeague, Day[9] podcast, WCG Ultimate Gamer show, Ansadi StarLeague, TG Sambo-Intel Classic 3 match, MSL final recap, Winners League recap, OSL recap, recent trades in the past week, followed by the KeSPA Rookie Draft news.
Friday, April 3rd
This has been one crazy week, so much has gone on, mainly with the ESWC Asia Masters. In this episode, we cover the ESWC Asia Masters, ESL Major Series, Ansadi StarLeague, North American Starcraft Clan League, Idra’s latest matches in MSL and GOM, Jaedong and his recent happenings, SkyHigh and his recent Winners League results, Jaedong and Fantasy’s upcoming OSL match, Starcraft 2, and what we’re showing next week.
Today’s match looks to favor the Protoss race as Bisu, Stork, JangBi, and Best take on Flash, Leta, Nada, and Hwasin in the OnGameNet All Star Race Battle.
First up at 04:00 CDT, we have Stork versus Flash on Tau Cross. This will most likely be a tough match for Flash, as Stork is extremely experienced on this map and has been doing very well this year in PvT matches. Flash on the other hand has been struggling to keep an even TvP record this year, and the map isn’t in his favor.
Since the winner of each round gets to pick his next opponent, Stork would probably pick Leta to go up against, as Leta showed in his last game on Destination that he isn’t able to take on a player such as JangBi on that map, let alone Stork. If Flash wins, he would have a hard time picking any of the other players, as they are all very good on this map.
Game 1 - Stork vs. Flash on Tau Cross
Game 2 - Destination
Game 3 - Andromeda
Game 4 - Colosseum 2
Game 5 - Return of the King
Game 6 - Sin Harmony
Game 7 - Sin Chupung Ryeong
Click this link to download Daum Pot Player. After you install it, the program will automatically show the latest program that is airing. Look for the one that says 18:00, which is the All Star match.
Edited by spyteman at 04:49 CDT, 30 March 2009 - 8566 Hits
We kick things off with the foreigner scene. SC2GG and its StarLeague are covered first, followed by the ESL Major Series, NonY vs. F91 in Liquibition, latest news about PGL, WCG Ultimate Gamer stuff, ESWC Asia Masters, Starcraft 2, WeMade FOX loses a Protoss player, KTF MagicNs gain a new Terran player, a lot of Winners League, MSL, and OSL coverage, followed by what we’ll be showing next week.
Friday, March 27th
After a few days away, we’re bringing you this week’s episode a couple days late. First we get into the Starcraft 2 news, followed by the ESWC, ESL, Liquibition, SC2GG StarLeague, Day[9] podcast, WCG Ultimate Gamer show, Ansadi StarLeague, TG Sambo-Intel Classic 3 match, MSL final recap, Winners League recap, OSL recap, recent trades in the past week, followed by the KeSPA Rookie Draft news.
The World Cyber Games (WCG) and OnGameNet (OGN) TV channel continue their relationship for an extended period of time
Just recently, the CEO of the WCG, Kim Hyung Suk, signed an extension for the OGN TV channel to globally broadcast its event until the year 2010. This brings great hope for everyone who has been talking about the possibility of the WCG folding, due to lack of sponsorship.
OGN has been the broadcasting company of choice for the WCG since 2006, where the grand final was held in Italy. Though many say it was the worst grand final ever, in terms of location, OGN did its very best to bring the world high quality videos, which is why they will be under contract for a minimum of 5 years in total.
This also brings great news to the Starcraft community, especially on a global level, as the WCG is basically the only offline event that is left, and it has greatly helped thousands of gamers come close to one another over the years, and given many people the chance to see the world by playing video games, when they might not have had the chance otherwise.
Edited by PuertoRican at 20:34 CDT, 23 March 2009 - 4025 Hits
After a week away from doing the Starcraft Weekly show due to ESWC Asia Masters planning, we’re back with some new fresh stuff, you can read what we cover here: ESWC Asia Masters and all that jazz, PJ and his recent ICCUP rank, multiple Liquibition stuff, a new Starcraft section inside a PC gaming magazine, Winners League updates, KTF and SKT1’s match this Sunday, a ton of MSL coverage, OSL as well, and what we’ll be covering next week.
Friday, March 20th
We kick things off with the foreigner scene. SC2GG and its StarLeague are covered first, followed by the ESL Major Series, NonY vs. F91 in Liquibition, latest news about PGL, WCG Ultimate Gamer stuff, ESWC Asia Masters, Starcraft 2, WeMade FOX loses a Protoss player, KTF MagicNs gain a new Terran player, a lot of Winners League, MSL, and OSL coverage, followed by what we’ll be showing next week.
The Cheonan 2009 eSports Cultural Festival presents ESWC Asia Masters – Starcraft
For the first time, Starcraft will be in an ESWC event. 4 players from around the world will fly to Cheonan City, South Korea to participate in the ESWC Masters. Here's all the information that you’ll need in the qualification process:
There are 2 ways to play in a regional qualifying event. Each regional qualifying event will have a total of 16 players. 14 of these players will be invited to the tournament. The other 2 players will be qualified through an open tournament system.
Rules for the ESWC Asia Masters regional qualifying events
- All players must show up at the designated time for the tournament in the ESWC ICCup server channel.
- All players must use the LAN Latency setting as well as the Anti-Hack ICCup Launcher.
- All other 3rd party programs, including but not limited to, map hacks, BWCoach, and disconnection hacks are prohibited. Any illegal use of 3rd party programs will result in immediate disqualification from the tournament.
- Use of allied mines / allied lurkers, or any yet to be discovered bugs is prohibited.
- All players must maintain good manner and fair play.
- All players must save the replay file of every game and give them to tournament administrators.
The tournaments are Best of 3 games, double elimination. The Grand Final match of each qualifier is Best of 5 games, with the winner's bracket winner starting up 1-0 and choosing map 1. The first map in all other rounds will be preset by tournament administrators. The loser of each game will choose the map used in the next game. No map may be used twice in any match. The map pool is as follows:
Note: Players from Africa must play in the European Open Tournaments. Players from Australia and New Zealand may choose between the Asia and Americas Open Tournaments, but may not play in both.
Edited by PuertoRican at 20:38 CDT, 15 March 2009 - 11779 Hits
We touched on Starcraft 2 right away and the mechanics of the game, MasterOfChaos and his new program, ICCUP’s new season, the result of Idra vs. F91 in Liquibition, Lecaf aka Hwaseung Oz and the real reason why they switched names, Leta vs. Flash in MSL recap, Bisu and his dominance, Hyvaa and his tears, Piano and his recent status, Sea[Shield] and his return to the top, the poor decisions SKT1 made, Savior and his match against Zero, Nada and JangBi’s upcoming match, next week’s video tour inside the STX Soul practice room and also 3 new interviews with their players, and of course more talk about the upcoming Starcraft 2 discussion video.
Friday, March 13th
After a week away from doing the Starcraft Weekly show due to ESWC Asia Masters planning, we’re back with some new fresh stuff, you can read what we cover here: ESWC Asia Masters and all that jazz, PJ and his recent ICCUP rank, multiple Liquibition stuff, a new Starcraft section inside a PC gaming magazine, Winners League updates, KTF and SKT1’s match this Sunday, a ton of MSL coverage, OSL as well, and what we’ll be covering next week. Enjoy~
UPDATE(11 March 2009): Registration for this even is now OPEN!
ESWC Masters will be held in Asia for the first time, in the city of Cheonan.
Together, ESWC and Cheonan City will host the ESWC Asia Masters in Cheonan.
From May 2nd 2009 to May 5th 2009, ESWC Masters will be held within the "2009 Cheonan International e-Sports Culture Festival" for the first time in Asia.
Counter Strike 1.6, Warcraft 3, Special Force, Fifa Online 2, Starcraft Brood War. 5 games with a total prize money of approximately $100,000.
ESWC Asia will be held in the city of Cheonan, Korea, for the first time ever.
On March 5th, at the "2009 Cheonan International e-Sports Culture Festival Media-Day", Cheonan and ESWC will make an official announcement that "ESWC Asia Masters of Cheonan will be held in Asia for the first time ever".
The 2009 Cheonan International e-Sports Culture Festival is the event that will be held from May 2nd to 5th at the Yu Gwanun Gymnasium and Cheonan Sports Complex. It's the biggest Asian event ever. There are going to be many events along with ESWC Asia Masters such as, the Korean Career Fair, International Digital Contents Conference, Game IT Contents Show, Culture Festival, and many other events.
At ESWC Asia, there will be 550 gamers from 15 countries. It will become the biggest festival ever that represents Asia's greatest event.
ESWC Asia will have Counter Strike 1.6, Warcraft 3, Special Force, StarCraft, and Fifa Online 2 for the competition.
For Counter Strike 1.6, Warcraft 3, teams and players will be selected by the ESWC Organizing Committee according to criteria like other ESWC Masters events. 12 international teams and 4 Korean teams will make up 16 teams, split into 4 groups. For Starcraft, there will be continental qualifications for 3 continents (Asia, North and South America, and Europe). The 1st place finishers from Counter Strike 1.6 and Warcraft 3 will achieve round trip plane tickets to the ESWC 2009 Grand Finals with a seed. 2nd and 3rd place will receive seeds at the ESWC 2009 Grand Finals.
- Title of the Event: 2009 ESWC Asia Masters of Cheonan
- Host: ESWC & Cheonan City
- Organizer: CTIA, IEG
- Dates: May 2nd (Sat) - May 5th (Tue) 2009 - for 4 days
- Location: Yu Gwansun Gymnasium and Cheonan Sports Complex
- Games: Counter Strike 1.6 ($30,000USD)
Warcraft 3 TFT ($15,000USD)
Special Force ($30,000USD)
Fifa On-line 2 ($12,000USD)
Starcraft ($9,000USD)
(date of Dollar Rate : Jan. 30th 2009)
- Counter Strike 1.6 best of 16 (12 international teams, 4 Korean teams)
- 12 international teams (through candidate application)
- 4 Korean teams (TOP 4 from ESWC Korea ranking on 2nd and 3rd)
- Warcraft 3 and Fifa On-line 2 in same format
- For Special Force, the publisher from other countries will decide
- Qualification information will be announced soon through the ESWC Asia Masters website.
- Continental qualification
- 1 from Asia vs. 1 from North and South America vs. 1 from Europe vs. 1 from Korea
- Qualification information will be announced soon.
- Special Prize: 1st place for WC3 and CS 1.6 will receive seeds and the plane ticket to Paris for 2009 ESWC Grand Final. All participants will be provided with meals, hotels, and partial financial support for the plane ticket to Korea.
About the 2009 Cheonan International e-Sports Culture Festival]
- Title of the Event: 2009 Cheonan International e-Sports Culture Festival
- Host: The City of Cheonan
- Organizer: CTIA
- Dates: 2nd of May (Sat) 2009 ~ 5th of May (Tue) - 4 days
- Place: Yu Gwansun Gymnasium and Cheonan Sports Complex
- Supporters: The Ministry of Physical Culture and Tourism, South Choongcheong Province, CTIA, KeSPA, Future Fusion Contents Industry association
- Contents for event: 1. ESWC Asia Masters of Cheonan
2. Korean Career Fair
3. International Digital Contents Conference
4. Game IT Contents Show
5. Culture Festival
ESWC was first started in France in 2003. It has been biggest the tournament, similar to WCG for e-sports and gamers. ESWC has 6 months of national qualifications and a 3 day Grand Final. 53 countries and 1,250,000 gamers have participated in the national qualifications, and 2,500 gamers have competed against each other at the Grand Final up to 2008. ESWC is also well known for the 500 women pro-gamers who have attended the tournament. During 2006 ESWC Grand Final, 22,500 people paid and watched the games. It is a well known event throughout the world, with 696,027 people visiting ESWC.com frequently.
Edited by Nicky at 05:28 CDT, 11 March 2009 - 9842 Hits
A StarCraft 2 discussion led by Artosis and IdrA. New units, theory on high-level competitive play, differences in the races from StarCraft 1, and MBS Pros/Cons are amongst what is discussed.
Artosis will be looking for any responses in this thread from people who are interested in discussing a certain topic in the next episode, similar to the Blizzard.com response thread for each new sc2 batch that is released.
About Artosis:
Artosis is a 6 time WCG USA finalist and 2 time grand finalist who has since turned his direction toward commentating, where he does so every week in South Korea.
About IdrA:
IdrA is the only foreign professional StarCraft player in South Korea. He practices many hours each day alongside the world’s best gamers in the CJ Entus pro team.
If you have any trouble with the original link, you can watch the discussion through Youtube in a 3 part series: Part 1 of 3, Part 2 of 3, Part 3 of 3.
Edited by PuertoRican at 04:17 CST, 2 March 2009 - 7432 Hits
Episode 5 has been put together much faster for you, so go and watch it now!
Last week the show focused on a few less topics but went more into depth about the ones that were addressed. Right away we got into foreign news and talked about the new "foreign pro gamer" in Korea, former MYM Starcraft team finds a new sponsor with ESC gaming, Idra vs. F91 in Liquibition, BlizzCon 2009 announcement, Starcraft 2 patch and art update, Bisu vs. Jaedong special GomTV match, CJ Entus winning streak finally ends, Hyvaa’s big break into Pro League, Sea[Shield] returns as a winner instead of loser, Guemchi and his victory over Bisu, go.go and Jaedong go head to head, Flash and his match against UpMagic, and more.
This week we touched on Starcraft 2 right away and the mechanics of the game, MasterOfChaos and his new program, ICCUP's new season, the result of Idra vs. F91 in Liquibition, Lecaf aka Hwaseung Oz and the real reason why they switched names, Leta vs. Flash in MSL recap, Bisu and his all kill, Hyvaa and his tears, Piano and his amazing win, Sea[Shield] and his return to the top, the poor decision SKT1 made against CJ Entus in the Winners League, Savior and his match against Zero, Nada and JangBi's upcoming match, next week's video tour inside the STX Soul practice room and also 3 new interviews with their players, and of course more talk about the upcoming Starcraft 2 discussion video.
Late last week there was the Starcraft 2 Q&A batch 49 that was released. Shortly after the release, there was an extremely long list of questions that the community was able to ask both Karune and Cydra about the games development so far.
All of the questions and answers are shown below in their original form, so take your time and enjoy the questions answered.
Episode 4 of Starcraft Weekly is now ready and waiting for you to watch
Last week we talked about clan Light and team Expertise joining forces, Iefnaij finally goes down in Liquibition, a new WCG 2008 highlight video at SK-Gaming.com, NonY leaves eSTRO and heads back home, eSTRO still wants more foreigners with talks of one already invited, Flash vs. UpMagic game on Sin Chupung Ryeong that was a must see, go.go takes out WeMade FOX by himself, Savior continues to dominate Pro League, Bisu still reigns supreme as the best Protoss of all time after claiming his 4th single title, Jaedong 4-0’s Air Force ACE, Hwasin attempts an all kill vs. KTF until Flash plays him and wins with ease and follows it up with 2 more wins against STX players, rumors of the Starcraft 2 beta and a new Starcraft 2 talk video, behind the scenes at MSL, and so on.
This week the show focuses on a few less topics but goes more into depth about the ones we address. Right away we get into foreign news and talk about the new "foreign pro gamer" in Korea, former MYM Starcraft team finds a new sponsor with ESC gaming, Idra vs. F91 in Liquibition, BlizzCon 2009 announcement, Starcraft 2 patch and art update, Bisu vs. Jaedong special GomTV match, CJ Entus winning streak finally ends, Hyvaa’s big break into Pro League, Sea[Shield] returns as a winner instead of loser, Guemchi and his victory over Bisu, go.go and Jaedong go head to head, Flash and his match against UpMagic, and more.
You can view Episode 4 on scforall.com. If you're unable to view it from the original source, you may view also watch it through YouTube.
Edited by xou at 05:00 CST, 20 February 2009 - 4125 Hits
What is “Starcraft Weekly”? Starcraft Weekly is an eSports show that revolves around the Starcraft 1 and Starcraft 2 scene, which is hosted by Artosis.
As some of you might know already, Artosis is a top Starcraft player from USA who's since turned his direction toward commentating, where he does so every week in South Korea. You may have also seen his work at BlizzCon 2008 with Tasteless.
Starcraft Weekly covers things going on in the competitive foreign scene, Chinese scene, Korean scene, Starcraft 1 stuff, and Starcraft 2 updates. Every major event going on every week will be covered within this show.
The show airs every Friday on Korean Standard Time (KST), and is still new, so you will see small changes every week as requested by the viewers, so if you see something you don’t like, you think should be changed or added, feel free to post below or at the YouTube page and/or main site for the videos.
We’re back with Episode 3 and a fresh batch of news to share with everyone.
What was covered last week? Starcraft class at Berkeley, WCG China, Saddles update, Mondragon interview, Savior’s return to the top of Pro League, Winners League update, GomTV chatter, Luxury vs. Jaedong’s amazing match, Hwasin’s way out of his MSL group, Mumyung’s move to SKT1 as the Zerg coach, future video of a tour inside the [Name] clan house, and Starcraft 2 talk.
What is covered this week? Clan Light and team Expertise join forces, Iefnaij finally goes down in Liquibition, a new WCG 2008 highlight video at SK-Gaming.com, NonY leaves eSTRO and heads back home, eSTRO still wants more foreigners with talks of one already invited, Flash vs. UpMagic game on Sin Chupung Ryeong that was a must see, go.go takes out WeMade FOX by himself, Savior continues to dominate Pro League, Bisu still reigns supreme as the best Protoss of all time after claiming his 4th single title, Jaedong 4-0’s Air Force ACE, Hwasin attempts an all kill vs. KTF until Flash plays him and wins with ease and follows it up with 2 more wins against STX players, rumors of the Starcraft 2 beta and a new Starcraft 2 talk video, behind the scenes at MSL, and more.
In Episode 2, Artosis covers the foreign and Korean scene and touches on subjects such as the Starcraft class at Berkeley, WCG China, Saddles update, Mondragon interview, Savior's return to the top of Pro League, Winners League update, GomTV chatter, Luxury vs. Jaedong's amazing match, Hwasin's way out of his MSL group, Mumyung's move to SKT1 as the Zerg coach, future video of a tour inside the [Name] clan house, Starcraft 2 talk, and more.
In Episode 1, The monster Terran player from USA has comeback again with another fresh idea for everyone. This time he brings us a weekly video show that revolves around what’s recently happened in the Starcraft eSports scene, what’s currently going on, and what will be happening in the near future.
This week focuses on the Stamina tournament, the ESL pro series, MYM’s loss of their Starcraft squad, Saddles return to the competitive scene, OSL coverage, and much more.
An in depth discussion on Starcraft 2 was held at a local coffee shop by the resident gosu’s here in Korea, Artosis, Tasteless, and NonY.
The actual video is 25 minutes long and covers many different things that people have been talking about, are worried about, and think might happen when the game is released.
eSports is also another major thing covered in the video as all three of them are in the middle of eSports here in Korea, so this will be the first time people actually get a more hands on advice from a non-Korean on what the potentially Starcraft 2 eSports scene will look like.
Artosis is a 6 time WCG USA finalist and 2 time grand finalist, he currently lives in Korea and commentates Starcraft, you can see his work at SCForAll.com.
Tasteless is a past WCG USA finalist and currently lives in Korea commentating on Starcraft, you can see his work at GomTV.net.
NonY is a past WCG finalist and the 2008 WCG USA champion, he currently lives in Korea as only 1 of 2 foreigners on a professional Starcraft team.
As revealed on scforall.com, over 200 gamers from 10 countries will attend an ESWC Masters held in Cheonan City between the 2nd and 5th of May.
The South Korean players will have to get through a qualification tournament to participate in this Masters while all the others will get invitations. The invitations announcement should be released during April.
Starcraft, Warcraft 3, Counter-Strike 1.6 and two unannounced Korean titles will be the themes of the tournaments, making it the first of many times you will see Starcraft, the greatest PC game ever, at an ESWC event.
Aside from the competitions, a festival will include an IT exhibition, international digital conferences and more.
A little less than 1 week after the Stamina 1 finals took place, we are proud to announce the results of the top 4, but before we get to that, thanks go out to the 300+ people who participated in this open tournament. It was a long month for some, but I’m sure it was well worth it.
Thanks go out to Fnatic.Ash for helping players during the event when there were lag issues, thanks go to ICCUP for of course letting us hold the event on their server, thanks to PsyonicReaver and MoleTrap for casting some of the VODs, and last but not least, thanks to Artosis for not only running this event but casting most of the VODs himself.
The complete VOD list looks like this (There are spoilers within this list of games. Some of the matches only lasted for 2 games instead of 3, so you will find that in some of the matches there will a fake 3rd game listed so you don't know the results right away.):
Out of the 40+ people who submitted their entry to this contest, there were only 2 people who came close to guessing correctly. Most people had F91 in their top 3. Unfortunately, there is no winner for this contest as nobody guessed correctly.
What happens to the $50? The money will be added to the next Stamina tournament contest where you will be able to guess the top 3 from that event, which means the contest prize is being raised to $100.
Going into the first round of the Lost Saga MSL 2009 season, Savior was a heavy underdog in his first match, which was against his arch nemesis Bisu.
Bisu had a 5-1 record going into the match against Savior, and was also the reigning 3 time MSL champion. This didn't worry the Zerg king at all as he was well prepared to face anyone.
Savior was able to defeat Bisu by heavily damaging his economy to slow him down and put him behind, followed up by mass hydralisk drops into the main base and expansions of his opponent. The game ended with Savior dropping hydralisks in the final Protoss expansion and blocking the ramp with a morphing lurker egg to keep any units from getting in. While Bisu still had a sizable army left, Savior had destroyed the very last pylon to end the game and force a GG from Bisu.
January 8th was the MBC Star League (MSL) group drawing for the top 32 players who either qualified in the MBC Survivor Tournament (MST) or were seeded from the last MSL event.
This season is sponsored by Lost Saga, a new video game in Korea.
Last night was very action packed as the gamers were brought out one by one and entertained their fans with special walk-in intros like UpMagic's list of MSL players that he lit on fire and made it sparkle, Bisu's dance imitation of the Korean singer Bi Rain, Magma's bull dog face, Bul_T's version of the latest Wonder Girls dance, Nada's call to the camera as he threw a 1-2-3 boxing combo into it, Hwasin's dark sunglasses to imitate Bi Rain, and FireBatHero's partially seductive striptease as he turned his back to the crowd and took off his jacket to show the screaming female fans the top of his back that had no shirt on.
The man of the night was originally supposed to be the three time MSL winner Kim Taek Yong aka Bisu, but that was short lived as eSTRO's Magma shocked the crowd by calling out all of the "6 dragons", aka the top 6 Protoss players in Korea right now Bisu, Stork, Kal, Free, JangBi, Best), saying he isn't afraid to play any of them and that he usually calls them the "6 raptors" at home, since they're so small in size when compared to dragons.
Nada, Stork, Kal, were among many of the people who were moving Magma's name on the group stage board back and forth into their group, hoping to get a piece of this monster Zerg player, but in the end it was Bisu who had the last chance to move around players names and he stuck Magma in his group to make it Bisu (P), Savior (Z), Magma (Z), and Zero (Z) in group A.
Many fans and critics laughed at Bisu for putting Magma in his group, as he said the reason for doing it is that he wanted to make things interesting, but many people know that he likes to give himself an easy group to improve his chances later on. (Protoss vs. Zerg is Bisu's best match up and the best Zerg vs. Protoss player in the group Savior, has a 1-5 record vs. Bisu)
Park Moon Gi aka eSTRO_Magma recently gave a memorable performance at the 2009 Lost Saga MSL group drawings. He will forever be remembered as challenging all "6 dragons" and never backing down from anyone.
After the award ceremony started he quickly learned that he had won the highest honor of the night for having the most spirit, his prize was a new Samsung mini laptop.
An interview was conducted with Magma right after he got home from the MSL event where he answers some juicy questions that have to do with the MSL group drawing, you can view it by clicking here.
The 2009 Lost Saga MSL top 32 and groups look like this:
Round 1 - Bisu (P) vs. Savior (Z) on Sin Harmony
Round 2 - Magma (Z) vs. Zero (Z) on Carthage
Winners - Byzantium 2
Losers - Byzantium 2
Final - Destination
Group B - TBA
Round 1 - Kal (P) vs. Luxury (Z) on Carthage
Round 2 - Leta (T) vs. Hyuk (Z) on Byzantium 2
Winners - Destination
Losers - Destination
Final - Sin Harmony
Group C - TBA
Round 1 - JangBi (P) vs. Iris (T) on Byzantium 2
Round 2 - Tempest (P) vs. Fantasy (T) on Destination
Winners - Sin Harmony
Losers - Sin Harmony
Final - Carthage
Group D - TBA
Round 1 - Free (P) vs. Doctor.K/Bul_T (P) on Destination
Round 2 - Horang2 (P) vs. Kwanro (Z) on Sin Harmony
Winners - Carthage
Losers - Carthage
Final - Byzantium 2
Group E - TBA
Round 1 - Yellow[Arnc] (Z) vs. UpMagic (T) on Sin Harmony
Round 2 - Much (P) vs. By.Hero (Z) on Carthage
Winners - Byzantium 2
Losers - Byzantium 2
Final - Destination
Group F - TBA
Round 1 - FireBatHero (T) vs. Flash (T) on Carthage
Round 2 - Hwasin (T) vs. Jaedong (Z) on Byzantium 2
Winners - Destination
Losers - Destination
Final - Sin Harmony
Group G - TBA
Round 1 - Nada (T) vs. Frozean (T) on Byzantium 2
Round 2 - Ruby (T) vs. Canata (T) on Destination
Winners - Sin Harmony
Losers - Sin Harmony
Final - Carthage
Group H - TBA
Round 1 - Stork (P) vs. ForGG (T) on Destination
Round 2 - Sea (T) vs. go.go (T) on Sin Harmony
Winners - Carthage
Losers - Carthage
Final - Byzantium 2
Edited by PuertoRican at 04:13 CST, 9 January 2009 - 9575 Hits
The Stamina 1 ladder is now over and the top 32 participants have been decided. While running for 2.5 weeks, the ladder portion of the event showed a lot of people really going back and forth for the 28 out of 32 spots available, the other 4 spots being invitees from the previous tournament held.
Starting Sunday the 11th, the best of 3, single elimination round will take place and right off the bat we see famous names like MYM.DinOt and MYM.Dreiven going head to head as they’re both fighting for the first place prize of $300.
If you’re familiar with the WCG, or the latest Blizzard invitational event in California, you might have heard of [flag=US]Artosis, he’s a well known commentator from the states as well as being a 6 time WCG USA finalist and 2 time grand finalist. He will be casting all of the top 32 matches, which will be available after the tournament is over in a VOD format.
[hide=Introduction to the Stamina 1 event] What is Stamina? Stamina is a new tournament with cash prizes open to any players outside of Korea. The tournament will start out with an 18 day ladder based on ICCup. At the end of 18 days, the top 28 ranked players in the ladder will be qualified for the final tournament to fight it out for $500 in cash prizes. Throughout the event there will be in-depth coverage as well as VODs of the best games released.
Stamina also marks the start of a new ranking system for players of SCForAll.com events. A side ladder will be kept to keep track of player¡¯s finishes in the soon to be frequent events on the site. These rankings will help to determine invites and special events in the future.
As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated. We hope to start bringing many events to the non-Korean community, and any input you have to make these events better in any way will be greatly appreciated!
Stamina 1 schedule:
Stamina - how to play:
1) Get an ICCup ladder account (www.iccup.com) with no games played on it. Make sure that you also have an account at www.SCForAll.com with the same ID/name.
2) Request to join this team: http://www.iccup.com/teams/5605.html
3) After December 19th, 12:05am KST (December 18th, 11:05am EST, 5:05pm CET), start playing on the ladder.
4) Make sure you actively watch for updates on the tournament and to check for messages from admin¡¯s on ICCup.com and SCForAll.com.
5) Ladder ends on January 5th KST. At this time the top 28 players from the ladder will be seeded into the final 32 man tournament. The last 4 seeds will be the top 4 players from the Spirit tournament¡¯s top 16 who are not already qualified for the final Stamina 1 tournament.
6) On January 11th at 17CET the final tournament of 32 will begin. Any players who do not show up at this time will be replaced by the highest ranked Stamina 1 ladder player who shows up to the final tournament. Rounds of 32, 16, and 8 will be played in a BO3 format using map1: Destination, map2: Medusa, map3: Colosseum II. In the following week the top 4 will be played with a BO5 for the grand finals. The entire tournament is single elimination.
7) Prizes are distributed as followed:
1st: $300 2nd: $150 3rd: $50 4th: a pat on the back (to be redeemed upon visiting South Korea).
Stamina rules:
`70; Stamina is open to any player outside of Korea. `70; Final tournament maps will be Destination 1.1, Medusa 1.1, Colosseum II, and Shin Chupung-Ryeong. Any maps may be played during the ladder stage. `70; No smurfing allowed. You must use the ID which you are most known by. If you break this rule you will be banned from the event. `70; All games must use the Anti Hack launcher. `70; All replays must be saved. Keep the Auto Replay function on. Any replays requested by admins must be sent promptly. `70; The account you join the ICCup ladder team with must be D rank with 0 games played. After requesting to join, you may start playing immediately (as long as the ladder stage has already started); you don¡¯t have to wait to be accepted. `70; You may play anyone on ICCup. You are not limited to playing other players participating in Stamina. `70; You may not transfer stats or play in ICCup tournaments or you will be kicked. `70; Sharing accounts will result in ban. `70; Hacking/cheating/abusing is strictly forbidden. If you participate unfairly in any way you will be banned from Stamina. Abuse includes but is not limited to: - Win trading - Complaint stacking - Spam botting - Disconnecting - Mass winning the same opponent - Playing your friends with an off-race
Don¡¯t do anything that could be seen as abuse at all. Admins have the right to ban or reset you at any time.
`70; It is your responsibility to have a stable and fast internet connection. If you are the cause of lag against your opponent, you can be disqualified from the event at the administrators discretion. `70; You must promptly respond to any announcements, instructions, or requests which are messaged to you or posted about on SCForAll.com. `70; If you have any questions/comments/complaints/suggestions please contact ArtosisSTAMINA on the ICCup website or ask in this thread. `70; Rules are subject to change based upon user feedback and unforseen events.[/hide]
[hide=List of the top 32 players]
[avatar=SC_Zerg][flag=CN]Fnatic.F91
[avatar=SC_Terran][flag=CN]Fnatic.Never
[avatar=SC_Protoss][flag=CN]Fnatic.JayStar
[avatar=SC_Zerg][flag=CN]Fnatic.lbh
[avatar=SC_Terran][flag=CN]Fnatic.Phoenix
[avatar=SC_Protoss][flag=PL]MYM.Yayba
[avatar=SC_Zerg][flag=CL]MYM.Dinot
[avatar=SC_Protoss][flag=PL]MYM.Dreiven
[avatar=SC_Protoss][flag=CA]MYM.Iefnaij
[avatar=SC_Zerg][flag=CA]ToT)Xiaozi(
[avatar=SC_Zerg][flag=SE]ToT)Naugrim(
[avatar=SC_Zerg][flag=NL]ToT)ret(
[avatar=SC_Terran][flag=PE]LG)Handy
[avatar=SC_Zerg][flag=PE]Castro
[avatar=SC_Protoss][flag=SE]datoby
[avatar=SC_Protoss][flag=CA]BW-Tidy
[avatar=SC_Zerg][flag=SK]Maix
[avatar=SC_Terran][flag=PE]Smacker
[avatar=SC_Protoss][flag=RU]fusion.Rondo
[avatar=SC_Protoss][flag=IT]ClouD
[avatar=SC_Zerg][flag=US]Machine[Light]
[avatar=SC_Zerg][flag=MK]NrG)OctZerg
[avatar=SC_Terran][flag=SE]NaW-merz
[avatar=SC_Protoss][flag=SE]Get.Shauni
[avatar=SC_Zerg][flag=CA]Target
[avatar=SC_Protoss][flag=PL]LogNetMed.Mana
[avatar=SC_Protoss][flag=DE]Power.Goody.GO
[avatar=SC_Zerg][flag=US]LzGamer
[avatar=SC_Zerg][flag=US]Chosen
[avatar=SC_Terran][flag=US]AccordV6
[avatar=SC_Terran][flag=DE]mTw.HoRRoR
[avatar=SC_Protoss][flag=PE]Fenix[/hide]
[hide=Brackets]You can view the brackets by going here and clicking the Schedule (there's a drop down menu for groups A, B, and top 16)[/hide]
[hide=Replacement player list] MYM.Arew
TagoMago
AyGj.cn
KawaiiRice
ToT)SquaLL(
Oystein
Ahzz
Stalife
mTw.aCe
NaW-tOsKy
[7x]narayan
LRM)Sawyer
LeviyNick
GoGnA
Eucerin
DakkoN
Undergrounder
Enivid[/hide]
[hide=Times and dates of the first 3 rounds]
January 11th @ 17 CET
January 11th @ 11 EST
January 12th @ 1 KST[/hide]
[hide=Maps and location]ICCUP server in channel Stamina1
Maps are Destination, Medusa, and Colosseum 2[/hide]
[hide=Prize distribution]1st - $300
2nd - $150
3rd - $50[/hide]
[hide=Country distribution] China - 5
Sweden - 4
USA - 4
Canada - 4
Peru - 4
Poland - 3
Germany - 2
Chile - 1
Russia - 1
Italy - 1
Macedonia - 1
Slovakia - 1
Netherlands - 1[/hide]
[hide=Race distribution]Terran – 6
Zerg – 13
Protoss - 13[/hide]
[hide=Team distribution] Fnatic - 5
MYM. - 4
ToT) – 3 [/hide]
There’s a “Guess the top 3” contest that goes along with this event, all you need to do is go here and post who you think will place in the top 3 spots and in what order. When the tournament is finished, the winner will receive $50 for guessing correctly.
If there are multiple people with the same predictions, there will be a small tournament for those people, the winner will receive the money.
Edited by PuertoRican at 07:01 CST, 7 January 2009 - 13173 Hits
What is Stamina? Stamina is a new Starcraft tournament with cash prizes open to any players outside of Korea. The tournament will start out with an 18 day ladder based on ICCup. At the end of 18 days, the top 28 ranked players in the ladder will be qualified for the final tournament to fight it out for $500 in cash prizes. Throughout the event there will be in-depth coverage as well as VODs of the best games released.
Stamina also marks the start of a new ranking system for players of SCForAll.com events. A side ladder will be kept to keep track of player's finishes in the soon to be frequent events on the site. These rankings will help to determine invites and special events in the future.
As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated. We hope to start bringing many events to the non-Korean community, and any input you have to make these events better in any way will be greatly appreciated!
1) Get an ICCup ladder account (www.iccup.com) with no games played on it. Make sure that you also have an account at www.SCForAll.com with the same ID/name.
3) After December 19th, 12:05am KST (December 18th, 11:05am EST, 5:05pm CET), start playing on the ladder.
4) Make sure you actively watch for updates on the tournament and to check for messages from admin’s on ICCup.com and SCForAll.com.
5) Ladder ends on January 5th KST. At this time the top 28 players from the ladder will be seeded into the final 32 man tournament. The last 4 seeds will be the top 4 players from the Spirit tournament's top 16 who are not already qualified for the final Stamina 1 tournament.
6) On 14:00 CST, 11 January 2009 the final tournament of 32 will begin. Any players who do not show up at this time will be replaced by the highest ranked Stamina 1 ladder player who shows up to the final tournament. Rounds of 32, 16, and 8 will be played in a BO3 format using map1: Destination, map2: Medusa, map3: Colosseum II. In the following week the top 4 will be played with a BO5 for the grand finals. The entire tournament is single elimination.
7) Prizes are distributed as followed: 1st: $300 2nd: $150 3rd: $50 4th: a pat on the back (to be redeemed upon visiting South Korea).
• Stamina is open to any player outside of Korea.
• Final tournament maps will be Destination 1.1, Medusa 1.1, Colosseum II, and Shin Chupung-Ryeong. Any maps may be played during the ladder stage.
• No smurfing allowed. You must use the ID which you are most known by. If you break this rule you will be banned from the event.
• All games must use the Anti Hack launcher.
• All replays must be saved. Keep the Auto Replay function on. Any replays requested by admins must be sent promptly.
• The account you join the ICCup ladder team with must be D rank with 0 games played. After requesting to join, you may start playing immediately (as long as the ladder stage has already started); you don’t have to wait to be accepted.
• You may play anyone on ICCup. You are not limited to playing other players participating in Stamina.
• You may not transfer stats or play in ICCup tournaments or you will be kicked.
• Sharing accounts will result in ban.
• Hacking/cheating/abusing is strictly forbidden. If you participate unfairly in any way you will be banned from Stamina. Abuse includes but is not limited to:
- Win trading
- Complaint stacking
- Spam botting
- Disconnecting
- Mass winning the same opponent
- Playing your friends with an off-race Don't do anything that could be seen as abuse at all. Admins have the right to ban or reset you at any time.
• It is your responsibility to have a stable and fast internet connection. If you are the cause of lag against your opponent, you can be disqualified from the event at the administrators discretion.
• You must promptly respond to any announcements, instructions, or requests which are messaged to you or posted about on SCForAll.com.
• If you have any questions/comments/complaints/suggestions please contact ArtosisSTAMINA on the ICCup website or ask in this thread
• Rules are subject to change based upon user feedback and unforeseen events.
The Spirit event draws closer to the end as ClouD and NonY find themselves in the finals against each other. At least one of these guys will be going to Korea to play on a pro team.
Two of the top 5 non-Koreans, two players using the best race possible in the game, two very dedicated gamers who want to go to Korea to live out their dream as a pro gamer, these are just some of the things I can say about them both while there are a bunch of other great things that would take too long to list.
These two guys pushed themselves to the PvP limit by forcing all 5 games in what is the best and most important best of 5 Protoss vs. Protoss match of 2008, I suggest you get some snacks before watching the games.
Team Excello, known to many around the world as one of the best foreign teams, currently the best team, is taking on one of the 12 Korean pro gaming teams this Saturday, and the team is none other than team eSTRO.
Excello had a somewhat easier time getting to the finals than originally expected, as they went 3-0 in their group beating LRM, Media, Rox, and also arguably the best foreign team at the time, Meet Your Makers, in a 4-1 victory, and the 5th win coming by way of a forfeit, since MYM was short one player that day.
It is not known yet who is coming from team eSTRO on Saturday, but I am pretty sure we can expect some of the same players that we have seen in the Korean Minor League events, like Soyeon.
All the Information you need for this Saturday
Where - ICCUP server, channel sc2gg
When - Saturday the 28th, at 1pm KST, which is 6am CET on Saturday and 9pm PST on Friday (for Americans)
Who - Excello vs. eSTRO (Excello is bringing Nony, Yoon, Oldy, Iefnaij, and Chosen - Castro as a replacement)
Live video stream - If you live in USA then click THIS stream. If you live outside of USA then click THIS stream and add it into a media player like PPlive
Casting - Diggity will be shout casting this event, and GameFire.com will be doing the live video feed
Replays - Every single replay from all clan wars will be released in the final news post after the match is completed on Saturday
VODs - All of the live matches you have seen on our live stream can be found at GameFire.com in the OnDemand section
If you're new to the Multi Site Tour(MST), it's easy to explain.
The purpose of the event was to have the 8 best foreign Starcraft teams compete in a tournament to find the current top team, and that team takes on a Korean pro team in the finals.
Small prizes are given out to the top two foreign teams, and also an additional prize if the best foreign team can beat eSTRO.
More Starcraft live video streams coming your way with teams MYM, Excello, and eSTRO battling it out.
This Saturday, June 21st, at 21:00 CET, team Meet Your Makers will take on team Excello on the Multi Site Tour (MST) finals, where they will play a Korean style clan war event to determine who will face the eSTRO pro team the following Saturday.
The MST event took the top 8 foreign teams from around the world, put them in two group stages to find the best from each group and then have them battle it out at the end to see who is the current best foreign team outside of Korea, then that team will face a Korean pro team in the grand final event.
MYM had a tough time in their group, advancing from it by a slim one point over team ToT in the final match, but also beating team 50CaL and F2F along the way.
Excello seemed to have it easier as they played and beat teams RoX, Micro Media, and LRM).
As for the live video casting, Diggity from SC2GG.com will be doing the shout casting for these matches, and GameFire.com returns to host the live video stream that is viewable to anyone around the world.
For all of the Europeans out there, some lag issues might come up or the video might now show at GameFire.com, so enter this URL into a media player like PPlive and you will be able to view the stream with no problem, all other people can just access the stream from the regular location which can be found here.
The original news source, full results, and VODs can be found here
![shaftwhores only by [EXE]dann](/files/avatars/2007/51852-shaftwhore.gif "shaftwhores only by [EXE]dann"){kind=small}
fox at the IEM IV World Championship 
Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski gave an interview to SK Gaming. As well as talking about his dominant performance against the Swede av3k addressed the controversy regarding Cooller's restarts at DreamHack and the IEM European Finals, his own at the latter event and also his comments about ESR users getting their cell phones and shoes taken by Polish youths which caused so much uproar. av3k explains his side of the stories and how he feels about Cooller and those ESR users.
Artosis made his return last week with episode 27, and just posted #28 yesterday.
Jaedong.
NonY drama, Broodwar Clan Liga, the MSL debacle, and a lot more.
Grubby, 
Soccer, 
TH000, 
TeD, 
Starcraft players that has ever been seen before, with 9 different countries taking part for just the Starcraft portion alone.
Arew and his new team, e-Stars Seoul 2009, GomTV Season 3 semi finals, 
Starcraft 2 discussions. The last time we had one was three months ago in March, it featured Artosis and 
Starcraft interview, this time it’s with 
World Cyber Game (WCG) online and offline qualifiers have now begun for multiple countries around the world, now its 
Starcraft players who are listed under the official Korean eSports Association (KeSPA) list as a pro gamer, cannot participate in the online portion of WCG Korea, they instead have to compete at the offline event.
ESWC, female pro gaming, 
1st - 10,000 rubles - RoX/Advokate
2nd - 7,000 rubles - RoX/BRAT_OK
3rd - 4,000 rubles - DIMAGA
Counter Strike 1.6, 
Warcraft 3, Special Force, 
Fifa Online 2, 
Starcraft, 
Warcraft 3, 
