Happy Starcrafting – GSL3, PolarfluKe: XMAS & More

GSL3 Round of 32 – Day 3

The third play day of the GSL Season 3 Round of 32 has been completed with the fourth day coming up tomorrow. As usual a bunch of games were played and a couple of big names have dropped out. This week we say goodbye to Sen, Genius and Ret. You can obviously find all those that made it through and the full results below, enjoy!

GSL Ro32 – MyM

[GSL] S3 Ro32 Day 3 – TeamLiquid

You can also read below about a few rumors that are going around which I, for the record, don’t believe. A fan thinks that GOMTV is supporting BoxeR by placing him, mostly at least, against terran players. Now, this fan thinks that, and may or may not be right, that BoxeR’s strongest matchup is in fact TvT. He points out that he is not hating or dissing, he just finds it a little funny.

One thing that is funny is that GOMtv has actually directly responded to this fans doubts and provided us all with an explanation, and some peace of mind. They say that they put top 4 players from last season in each bracket, then tried to split each race evenly into each bracket. And if they follow this method strictly all the brackets would look the same or be balanced at least. So right now apparently each bracket has 6~8 zergs, 5~7 terrans and 3 protoss. Interesting. You can read more about all this drama below, enjoy!

GomTV protecting Boxer – TeamLiquid

GSL accused of rigging BoxeR fixtures – MyM

Starcraft II Top 200 Lists

The Top 200 lists have been updated once more. See the full lists below. Enjoy!

EU – StarCraft II: Top 200

US – StarCraft II: Top 200

SEA – StarCraft II Top 200

Beeline’s All-Russian StarCraft II Tournament!

Russian telecommunications company Beeline has invited all Russian gamers to take part in the first all-Russian StarCraft II tournament! Those taking part will compete against the best Russian StarCraft II players for the chance to win some fantastic prizes including a first prize of 500,000 rubles, a free year of Beelin broadband and a powerful gaming PC. Impressive stuff indeed. For more information about how to get involved please check Beeline’s official tournament website.

On December 12 the winners from the eight preliminaries, which are held biweekly, will then clash in the Grand Finals. Held in Moscow, these final matches will determine the grand champion and you can follow the action live via video stream on the official website. Enjoy!

Beeline’s first all-Russian StarCraft II tournament! – Starcraft II Official Site

PolarfluKe: XMAS – A Reminder!

Don’t forget that we have PolarfluKe: XMAS coming at us this weekend! I guess if you are interested in a bit of Starcraft II goodness and a chance at a couple of no doubt amazing prizes, you don’t want to miss it! If you have not registered, do it now! You can find all the details of the competition below.PolarfluKe – Fueled Up And Ready To Go!

BratOK Wins Go4SC2 Cup #59

BratOK has managed yet another Go4SC2 win. He took down the zerg player Aristeo in the finals with a pretty descisive 3 to 0.

Go4SC2 Cup #59 – MyM

Go4SC2 Monthly Final

Tomorrow is the big day for all those doing well in this months Go4SC2 Cups, the monthly finals! All those who love TvT are in for a treat, too, as six Terran, one Zerg and one Protoss will fight it out for the 500€ prize money. Read more about that below!

Go4SC2 monthly final – MyM

Satiini Wins ZOTAC Cup #33

Satiini took the 33rd ZOTAC Cup this past Sunday. He faced off against and defeated relative unknown Funkyy in the finals with a score of 3 to 1.

ZOTAC Cup #33 – MyM

Naama Interview – Live On 3

With Dreamhack over, the Starcraft II tournament concluded and the players getting back to their normal routines it seems like there is one last bit of crazy to entertain us. The guys from over at Live on 3, who brought us the rather adult after show from MLG Dallas are at it again. They have a talk to Naama about his experience at Dreamhack, participating and winning the event. After that they have their ‘Pro-gaming without the fluff’  segment too. They touch on many, many subjects and well, as I said, it gets a bit ugly at times. Worth a watch, or listen rather, check it out below!

Lo3 and the DH Winner – GosuGamers

Liquid Weekly #18

Another week, another Liquid Weekly! Liquid Weekly #18 is packed full of GSL3 goodness. They have a look at the latest playdays in the GSL3 round of 32 aswell as interview their players that made it that far, Ret and Jinro. So if you are interested, you know where to look!

Lidquid Weekly #18 – TeamLiquid

DIMAGA Interview

TheEconomist over at PolarfluKe.co.za has a pretty to-the-point interview up with big name Russian zerg player DIMAGA. So if you want to read about DIMAGA’s gaming history, the people he himself looks up to and his experiences, thus far at least, in Starcraft II, you’d better check that out over at PolarfluKe!

The Unburrowing: Dimaga Emerges – PolarfluKe

Naniwa Joins Empire

Power Gaming recently announced Naniwa as their new player and that’s good and all, but apparently the notification was a little hasty. The Swedish Starcraft II pro decided to join Team Empire instead. You can read more about the move and the drama behind it, along with Naniwa’s thoughts on the matter, below.

Naniwa teams up with Empire – MyM

Replay Packs

Dreamhack Winter 2010 Replaypack – SC2Win

StarCraft II Go4SC2 Cup #59 Replaypack – SC2Win

ZOTAC StarCraft II Cup #33 Replaypack – SC2Win

GomTV All-star Tournament Replaypack – SC2Win

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Happy Starcrafting – Protoss Is Weak, Dreamhack & GSL

Protoss Are Weak

An interesting thread popped up on the SEA Starcraft II forums recently. I think the only thing that really makes it interesting and different from the others, of which there have been many, is that a blue poster actually replied to it. The thread was titled ‘Is Protoss the Weakest Race?’ and the player was seeking answers to the question. Blizzard deemed it worthy of a reply and hopped into the fray. They mention that the GSL was not the reason that zerg was buffed and that they always, absolutely always take multi-pronged approaches and never nerf or buff on whim. The most interesting line in the entire reply, though, has to be the following:

Some players have been reporting that the race feels a little ‘weak’, and that matches our in-house experience

Yes, you heard it here, protoss is weak. I know, I know, I am taking it totally out of context, but that is what us in the news industry do!  If you want to read the full reply from Blizzard about their eternal struggle to balance the game, check it out below!

I want to clarify that this is not the reason why zerg was adjusted. While we pay close attention to feedback from pro players and it is extremely valuable, one of the great flaws in pro player feedback is that they are usually so heavily focused on the experience that they have playing one race that they may not be evenhanded in their feedback.

Any alteration to StarCraft II balance is the result of a multi-pronged approach, including internal testing, statistical analysis of all leagues, modeling, player feedback (including shoutcasters, pro players, developers and of course, ladder players), etc. There’s a lot that goes into these decisions and they aren’t made lightly.

Protoss are a prime example. Some players have been reporting that the race feels a little ‘weak’, and that matches our in-house experience. Conversely, protoss is performing pretty well on the ladder. From yet another perspective, protoss players did not make a good showing in GSL 2, for example. This is painting a complex picture, and we’re approaching the situation cautiously.

Any adjustments we plan for the future will be very carefully considered, and will not be the result of feedback from a single source.
Daxxarri, Blizzard Entertainment (Source)

Blizzard Interview – South Korea, KeSPA & GOMTV

Bob Colayco, the Blizzard Public Relations Manager, was interviewed by Games.On.Net to talk about the success and challenges of getting Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty into South Korean territory. With Bob was Chris Davey, the Senior Brand Manager for Blizzard in the Australia & New Zealand region. As I actually mentioned a week or two ago here, it has not all been peaches and cream. Blizzard are struggling a little to get the Koreans to fully embrace Starcraft II. I can imagine that it would be a little hard to beat the 11 good years they had with Starcraft 1. So if you want to read about Blizzard wherein they actually talk a little bit about KeSPA, GOMTV, the lack of LAN mode for Starcraft II and their various other endeavours in South Korea you can find the full interview below. Enjoy!

Stratagems: Exclusive StarCraft 2 Uber-Interview – Games.On.Net

Various Tricks In Starcraft II

A posted called TheRabidDeer on the TeamLiquid forums has set up a nice little post about some of the interesting tricks you can pull off in Starcraft II. Some of them are pretty useless, but some may well come in handy, in some absurdly obscure situations, I guess. Cloak dodging, pathing exploits and my personal favourite, the colossus skywalking. You can watch a nice video by HDStarcraft, which I have embedded above, that covers that last one. So if you want to know all the little intricacies and tricks in Starcraft II I guess this post is for you. The real great part about it is probably that the guys replying to the post are also adding their own interesting and fun tricks, check it out!

Various “tricks” in SC2 – TeamLiquid

Dreamhack 2010 – Naama Wins!

One of the bigger Starcraft II Tournaments or events of the year, Dreamhack, has been completed. The event on the whole seemed like incredible fun and I wish I could just have sat here all weekend long to watch the streams. Day[9] and his casting partners were, obviously, amazing to watch. There was a bit of drama concerning the group stages being best of 1, but, those problems faded fast as the players started to concentrate fully on their games. oh, but wait, we are here to talk about the winner of Dreamhack!

In a pretty dramatic and incredibly exciting final series,  Naama was able to win the first two maps relatively easy. But  MaNa didn’t give up. He fought back, resisted the urge to just give up and took the following two maps. It came down to a final set, which the Finnish terran player Naama managed to win. So yes, 3 to 2, after an incredible weekend of Starcraft II, Naama walks away with over 10,000 Euro in prize money. MaNa pockets around 3,000 Euro for his second place and Fenix 2,000 for his third. Below you can find various sites coverage of the event and all the details you could possible want concerning Naama’s route to the finals.

DH: Naama wins 3:2 – MyM

Dreamhack 2010 Brackets – Dreamhack

Caster & Player Interviews

There are a few extras to be seen, too. GosuGamers have a great bunch of interviews up with the casters of the event and many of the players, definitely worth a watch! There’s also, as there always seems to be, a great recap thread up on the TeamLiquid forums covering pretty much all of it. Enjoy!

VIDEO INTERVIEWS: DreamHack Winter 2010 – GosuGamers

Dreamhack Winter 2010 Coverage – TeamLiquid

GSL3 Ro32 – Day 1

The Round of 32 in the GSL3 has started with the first play-day already completed. MakaPrime, NesTea, ST_Squirtle and Rain have all won their games and progressed to the next round. There are a bunch of big names playing in the next couple of Round of 32 days and I am confident that those will be games you won’t want to miss. The next play day is on Monday, November 29. Read more about the going ons of the Global Starcraft II League Season 3 below, enjoy!

RESULTS: GOMTV StarCraft 2 Open Season 3 – Round of 32 – GosuGamers

[GSL] S3 Ro32 Day 1 – TeamLiquid

GSL3 Round of 32 – MyM

SjoW Wins EPS Nordic

SjoW won the EPS Nordic after taking a pretty clear and decisive 2 to 0 win over MaDFroG in the finals that were held at this past weekends Dreamhack LAN. That means the terran playing SjoW walks away with a nice 2,000 Euro and MaDFroG with a decent 1,000. You can read more about the event and the final playoffs below, courtesy of MyM.

SjoW wins EPS Nordic – MyM

Nerchio Wins First TeamSpeak TL Open

The first TeamSpeak TeamLiquid Open was won, this past weekend, by relative unknown, Nerchio. The random player took down the terran playing Fuzer in the finals to score $100. The next TeamSpeak TeamLiquid Open is set to happen on the 4th of December on the US Battle.net servers. Read more about all of that below!

TeamSpeak TL SC2 Open Series – TeamLiquid

TeamSpeak TL SC2 Open (EU Server) – TeamLiquid

ProLeague Round 1 Recap

TeamLiquid has a brilliant and incredible in-depth recap of the first round of the Starcraft: Brood War Pro-league up on their site. I won’t pretend to know anything about it at all, so if you feel you still need to follow the Brood War scene or if you just want a healthy dose of nostalgia, you can check that out below. There are some cool photos, a lot of information and a bunch of results, too.

[PL] Round One Recap – TeamLiquid

ZeeRaX Wins Craft Cup Lite #16

The terran player ZeeRax took the 16th Craft Cup Lite last week by taking down the zerg playing Akki in the finals with a relatively close 2 to 1.

Craft Cup Lite #16 – Craft Cup

Splendour Wins Craft Cup Lite #17

Protoss player Splendour took the latest Craft Cup Lite, #17. He faced off against the zerg player Eizcaj and took him down, pretty cleanly, with a score of 2 to 0.

Craft Cup Lite #17 – Craft Cup

sLDeathAngel Wins Craft Cup #20

DeathAngel won the 20th Craft Cup this past Friday. He, or she, played zerg and took down the protoss playing joe in the finals with a score of 3 to 2.

Craft Cup #20 – Craft Cup

Team Liquid – Pony Tales #1

Disciple and IntoTheWow from over at TeamLiquid bring us the first monthly issue of Pony Tales. Pony Tales is a very interesting and pretty amusing magazine covering, well, TeamLiquid and their various endeavours in the community over the past month. It is brilliantly put together and looks like a real, should-be-printed magazine. So if you want to read something slightly more lighthearted, then you’d best check that out below!

Pony Tales #1 – TeamLiquid

Naniwa Joins Power Gaming

The British based organisation and gaming clan Power Gaming has announced the addition of former MeetYourMakers player Naniwa. He joins their current member and fellow protoss player elfittaja. You can read more about the transfer below!

Power Gaming signs Naniwa – MyM

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Happy Starcrafting – Power Overwhelming

Next Round Of J!NX Competition

The first round of the J!NX War Reporter Contest is over and the winners have been announced! With the first round down we have now been presented with the theme of our second round. So if you’ve got a clever idea for the new theme “Power Overwhelming” you had better get cracking on it! See the official post and entry page below!

J!NX War Reporter Contest: winners and new theme
J!NX War Reporter Contest: Entry Page

Merz takes Craft Cup #7

The Terran player Merz faced off against another Terran player Fuzer in the finals of this past Friday’s Craft Cup #7. Fuzer was apparently no match for Merz and lost with a score of 0 to 3.

Craft Cup Official Site

Naama Wins Viking Cup #12

The Terran player Naama took the Zerg lalush down in the finals of the 12th Viking Cup this past week with a comfortable 3 to 1. 

Terran dominates yet another edition of the Viking Cup

SjoW Takes HuK Down To Become New KOTH

After 3 weeks on top HuK has finally been dethroned by none other than the Terran SjoW. He managed to make it look easy with by racking up a score of 4 to 0 against the Protoss player. Below you can find a full interview with SjoW along with VOD’s of the games.

NVIDIA GosuGamers KOTH #3: Winner Interview
NVIDIA GosuGamers KOTH: HuK vs. SjoW – VODs

SK Gaming – Starcraft II Champions Trophy

SK Gaming is bringing us the ‘Champions Trophy’ in Starcraft II, a monthly tournament series with both cash and hardware prizes. The very first event is scheduled for Saturday, 2nd of October, 14:00 CET, and will feature 16 players chosen from the list of sign ups. With only 16 slots this is obviously a slightly more exclusive event but it sounds good nonetheless. You can read more about all of that below!

Starcraft II ‘Champions Trophy’ 2nd of October – SK Gaming

IEM American At ComicCon New York

In just under two weeks, on the 8th of October, the American Championships for IEM will take place at the ComicCon Expo in New York. ESL have released the official groups for the event and the top two from each group will move through to a single elimination bracket. See the groups and read more about the event below!

Group A
MurDeR
HuK
drewbie
suggy

Group B
qxc
CauthonLuck
KiWiKaKi
Fenix

Apparently there will also be a live stream by ESL TV all weekend!

SC2 Groups set for NY ComicCon IEM – TeamLiquid 

Recent (1.1) Replay Packs

StarCraft II CraftCup #7 Replaypack
StarCraft II Viking Cup #12 Replaypack
StarCraft II Go4SC2 Cup #40 Replaypack

Player And Clan News

As usual there is no shortage of drama in the international Starcraft II Community. There are transfers, rants and interviews. Read about everything that’s been happening right here!

Idra Talks About Patch 1.1

The Zerg Starcraft II Pro IdrA shared his feelings on the state of Starcraft II before and after Patch 1.1. He mentions how he thinks the patch won’t change enough in terms of balance and that Blizzard are overlooking too many obvious problems. See the full interview below.

IdrA Speaks On: Patch 1.1 – MyEG

 HuK To Liquid – HuK To Korea

The highly successful big name Protoss player HuK has left the clan of Millenium and moved to Liquid. Not just for any reason though, he is also, like so many others, making the move to Korea to pursue his Starcraft II Pro Gaming Carreer. There is obviously a lot to be learnt there for Starcraft II players or any gamers for that matter. That much is evident after seeing all the foreigners being knocked out of the GS2L. You can read an interview with HuK about the matter and see the full details below or over at TeamLiquid.

HuK to Liquid – TeamLiquid

Fruitseller Drama

Cool, (aka Fruiseller, aka Fruitdealer) has been causing quite a stir. He was caught totally out of character, totally uncool, recently when asked about Starcraft II’s first balance patch, 1.1. He said quite a few incredibly hateful things and seemed on the verge of a breakdown. Luckily, a couple of hours later he changed his tune and said that he was alright with the new changes and was definitely coping. You should all do yourselves the favour of reading the translated quotes in the link below. Enjoy!

 Fruitdealer not sold on new patch – SK Gaming

Fruitdealer happier with 1.1.0 Idra not so much – SK Gaming

More Transfers via MyM

There were, obviously, a lot more transfers and players recruited over the past week and MyM has us totally covered with their latest summary post. You can read more about all the slightly less ‘famous’ transfers below.  

A Couple More Transfers

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