ROOT Gaming's New Recruit: 'Princess'

ROOT Gaming

A potential source of more ESPORTS drama, ROOT Gaming's latest addition to it's lineup is already causing quite a stir; both on the ladder and in the community.

Known as GosI[Terran] in Broodwar, Juan 'Princess' Tena has already reached the top of the North American ladder with only 3 weeks of playing Starcraft 2. Coming from his background in Broodwar? It's not really that surprising, as he was ranked A on ICCup and was a online practice partner for Hite Sparkyz. 

However, the community is currently abuzz over ROOT's newest member's background, as GosI/Princess has quite the reputation as a map hacker and clan jumper. 

Improve Your Game: General Starcraft 2 Tips

If you're looking for ways to improve your game in Starcraft 2, you're in luck. I stumbled upon a list of useful tips to help you do just that. 

For more information head on to Team Liquid for the strategy discussion.

 

General Starcraft 2 Tips

• Playing with HP Bars makes micro way easier.
• Hitting Ctrl+F1 instantly selects all Idle Workers.
• You can hold down a hotkey instead of pressing it over and over (IE: Hold down F and click everywhere you want multiple fungal growths with multiple Infestors). This stands true for practically everything, across every race.
• You can add new units to an existing control group by holding Shift and setting them to the group you want.
• Transferring some harvesters to a new expansion is better for your economy than simply saturating from scratch.
• MULEs can be spotted dropping by everybody, even in fog of war.

A piece of Starcraft history: Footage of Artosis, Day9 and Tasteless at WCG USA 2005

WCG 2005

Though twitter is abuzz with news from the Intel Extreme Masters tournament, given the limited time I have (ugh IRL), I thought I'd feature this instead. 

This video was posted this morning (GMT+8) on reddit, and contains footage of Artosis, Day9, and Tasteless at WCG back in 2005.

Here we get a rare chance to look into the past, to see some of the icons of the current Starcraft 2 scene during their Broodwar days. 

If you've seen Day9 Daily #100, you should know that a lot of amazing things happened during this WCG; things that would help shape the Starcraft scene into what it is today. 

Mad props to BrianJKim for the video. More information and the actual video after the jump.

A tournament to rival the GSL? FXOpen e-Sports Announcements

FXOpen e-Sports

FXOBoss of FXOpen e-Sports has released some information on what could be the biggest Starcraft 2 tournament to date.

In a recent post on Team Liquid,  FXOBoss has made a list of announcements with regards to the team's next steps, and most notable of which is the mention of a Kuala Lumpur-based tourney whose prize money "will be that of GSL or higher". 

While not much information has been given at this time, it has been noted that sponsorships have been secured, and the tournament is basically a go. As mentioned in the post, they are currently looking at  a October-November schedule for the tournament. 

For additional information, read the rest of the entry on Team Liquid.

Note: I'm from SEA, and this totally went underneath my radar. Please don't revoke my Starcraft 2 fan license.

List of TSL 3 Players

 

With the conclusion of the final TSL Open, we now have the semi-final list of players for the TSL 3. 

In terms of race distribution, it's fairly equal with 11 Protoss, 11 Terran, 9 Zerg, and 1 Random (go TLO). It is also notable that a tie-breaker will have to take place, as Strelok and SelecT are tied at the 8th spot.

 

Protoss

Name	Player ID	Nationality	Team name		Attending from
Jung Min Soo	MvP_Genius	Korea	MVP		Invite
Jang Min Chul	oGsMC	Korea	Old Generations		Invite
Chris Loranger	TLAF-Liquid`Huk	Canada	Liquid		Invite
Tyler Wasieleski	TLAF-Liquid`Tyler	United States	Liquid		First place TSL2
Johan Lucchesi	dignitas.NaNiwa	Sweden	Dignitas		TSL qualifier #2
Abdulaziz Abed	coL.CrunCher	United States	Complexity Gaming		TSL qualifier #3
Oleksiy Krupnyk	Duckload.White-Ra	Ukraine	Duckload Gaming		TSL qualifier #4
Lazar Silviu	Prae.NightEnd	Romania	Praetoriani		TSL qualifier #7
Benoît Strypsteen	Mill.Adelscott	France	Millenium		Points #5
Georgi Marinov	ZeeRax	Bulgaria	None		Points #7
Dennis Schneider	mouz.HasuObs	Germany	Mousesports		TSL qualifier #8

Terran

Name	Player ID	Nationality	Team name		Attending from
Lee Yoon Yeol	oGsNaDa	Korea	Old Generations		Invite
Lim Yo Hwan	SlayerS_BoxeR	Korea	SlayerS		Invite
Jeong Jong Hyeon	IMMVP	Korea	Incredible Miracle		Invite
Dai Yi	LonerPrime.WE	China	Prime, World Elite		Invite
Jonathan Walsh	TLAF-Liquid`Jinro	Sweden	Liquid		Invite
Mihaylo Hayda	Empire.Kas	Ukraine	Empire		TSL qualifier #1
Marcus Eklöf	Prae.ThorZaIN	Sweden	Praetoriani		TSL qualifier #5
Kevin Riley	ROOT.qxc	United States	Root Gaming		TSL qualifier #6
Sascha Lupp	ESC.GoOdy	Germany	ESC Gaming		Points #4
Jian Carlo Morayra Alejo	FnaticMSI.Fenix	Peru	FnaticMSI		Points #6

Zerg

Name	Player ID	Nationality	Team name		Attending from
Kim Won Gi	TSL_FruitDealer	Korea	Team SCV Life		Invite
Lim Jae Duk	IMNesTea	Korea	Incredible Miracle		Invite
Greg Fields	EG.IdrA	United States	Evil Geniuses		Invite
Hayder Hussein	TLAF-Liquid`HayprO	Sweden	Liquid		Invite
Joseph de Kroon	TLAF-Liquid`Ret	Netherlands	Liquid		Invite
Christoph Semke	MYM.Mondragon	Germany	Meet Your Makers		Second place TSL2
Yang Chia Cheng	FnaticMSI.Sen	Taiwan	FnaticMSI		Third place TSL2
René Krag	ieS-Ciara	Denmark	ieS Virtual Gaming		Points #2
Stefan Andersson	mouz.MorroW	Sweden	Mousesports		Points #3

Random

Name	Player ID	Nationality	Team name		Attending from
Dario Wünsch	TLAF-Liquid`TLO	Germany	Liquid		Points #1

Tiebreakers

Name	Player ID	Race	Nationality	Team name
Eugin Oparyshev	mouz.Strelok	Terran	Ukraine	Mousesports
Ryoo Kyung Hyun	Dignitas.SeleCt	Terran	United States	Team Dignitas

For more information about the TSL visit TeamLiquid. Source: original table posted by CDRnotDVD on reddit. 

ESPORTS Drama: KellyMilkies, NASL, and iNcontroL

A lot of things happened in the world of western ESPORTS (requires capitalization, always) this past week. Lots of drama revolving around Kelly, the new Code A caster for GSL; the production value of the recent Jinro versus IdrA show match, and the NASL; and most recently, iNcontroL.  

KellyMilkies

Kelly. If you've been anywhere near TeamLiquid of SCReddit  this past week then you probably know the exact issue. If not, basically, people are unhappy with her casting. The usual complaints are about her accent and how unintelligible she is at times, or her general shortage in in-game knowledge to deliver meaningful commentary. 

As the internet does, some are more calm about it and say she at least deserves as chance; some openly bring on the hate. I dropped by her blog to find hateful comments, and in the most recent State of the Game, iNcontroL mentioned that she has also been getting death threats.

North American Star League Confirmed

NASL.tv

The North American Star League (or NASL, not to be confused with the North American Soccer League) has been confirmed, and it's shaping up to be the biggest Starcraft 2 tournament outside of Korea and the GSL. 

The revelation was made earlier today (GMT +8 represent), after a BO7 hype / show match between Liquid`Jinro and EG.IdrA, with the former walking with $1500 after a 4 - 2 victory. 
 
There's still much we don't know about the league at this time, but these are what we have so far:

• $400,000 prize pool split across 3 seasons (100k, 100k, 200k)
• Main casters: iNcontroL, Gretorp (with occasional guest casters / commentators)
• Will feature 50 of the best Starcraft 2 players split across 10 divisions
• Will not be in Team League format
• 5 players per team, players will be spread across the divisions to avoid team kills
• It will be Season 1 will starting on April 5, 2011 and will last 13 weeks
• Games will be broadcast/streamed on weeknights, with 5 games per night 
• Regular (free) and premium streams (estimated $20 - $25) are available
• Premium members will also receive bonus content, but not much has been revealed at this time

 For more information about the NASL, do check out the interview with iNcontroL at G4TV.

Hype Machine: New Team League with 100k prize pool?

More updates from Twitter. Just few hours ago, Geoff "iNcontroL" Robinson has posted a hype video revealing more clues about his upcoming announcement. 

There's already been much speculation about a possible NA-based team league, but with the release of this video, it's pretty much confirmed (rumored name being NASL).

Now we just have to wait to find out if the mentioned 100k prize in the video is a.) the overall prize pool, or b.) the prize for the eventual champion. Either way, that's a lot of money, and is the biggest prize money in the west for Starcraft 2 so far. 

Source: Twitter

TeamLiquid Announces TSL 3 Terran Invites

Yours truly with the ee han timing on this one. TeamLiquid has just announced on it's Twitter the remaining invites for the coming TSL.  

IMMvp. Considered as the strongest player in the world, and the most recent addition to GSLs lineup of champions during Season 4. At his current skill level, I think he is favored to take the whole tournament (sorry, Tyler). 

LonerPrime.WE. I am not very familiar with Loner so I can't speak much of his skills a-la Haypro. He took 2nd place at Blizzcon 2010, and is considered as a top Chinese Starcraft 2 player, still a force to be reckoned with.

TLAF-Liquid`Jinro. After his amazing semi-final runs in the past 2 GSLs,  it's no surprise to see the Gorilla Terran on this list. With the addition of Jinro, now has their entire Korea-side players in the tournament.

oGsNada and SlayerS_BoxeR. I do not have the words to individually describe how amazing that these 2 are in the TSL. In their first match against each other in the GSL, they brought down GOM's streams left and right. I have this feeling we'll get a repeat of that.

With the revelation of the last round of invites, the TSL 3's confirmed participants are (exclusive of those who qualify through the TL Opens): The Blizzcon 2010 Tournament champion. The best Starcraft 2 player from China. The top foreign Zerg (and bad boy). Everyone's favorite boys in blue. 4 GSL champions. 2 Bonjwas. 

TSL 3 makes history right here. 

Source: TeamLiquid 

TeamLiquid Announces TSL 3 Zerg Invites

It's finally here, gents. In addition to it's initial 3 Protoss invites, TeamLiquid has just announced its 5 Korean invites for the coming TSL 3. Joining the ranks of NsP.Genius, TLAF-Liquid`HuK, and oGsMC are:

EG.IdrA. The bad boy of Starcraft 2, Greg 'The Gracken' Fields. Regarded as the top foreigner Zerg, it is no surprise that IdrA is on this list. 

TLAF-Liquid`Haypro. A 'sleeping' member of TeamLiquid. I will admit that this is mostly because I haven't followed him much. He got invited into TSL 3, and I think that definitely says something about his skills.  

TLAF-Liquid`Ret. Of all the members of TeamLiquid I've always had this hope that he's the 'chosen one' to take a GSL (just give him time). I am expecting a great performance from Ret for TSL. MLG champ to double GSL semifinalist a-la Jinro, anyone? 

TSL_FruitDealer. These invites are insane. Another GSL champion joins the fray - the first GSL champion. The player who proved that you can win with Zerg. I am looking forward to lots of Baneling carpet-bombs.

IMNesTea. Yep, the swarm is definitely coming at full force for TSL with this invite. IMNesTea is the GSL Season 2 champion, and is also considered as the best Zerg player in Code S. 

Get hyped, everyone, as there is still another round of invites coming,  5 Terrans (MarineKing, please?). This TSL is definitely STACKED.  

Source: TeamLiquid.net

Welcome to Destiny Cloud Fist

The name. Destiny Cloud Fist is a standard build used by Terrans in Starcraft 2 which involves creating 1 Barracks, 1 Factory, and 1 Starport, pumping out units and rolling your opponent from there. 

HuskyStarcraft came up with the name while casting one of his games, as he was tired of saying 1/1/1 every time he saw it being used. 

The blog. I decided to start this blog to aggregate various Starcraft 2 related content that I find interesting. It started with the realization that I spend way too much time on the internet, and a major percentage of that time is spent on something Starcraft related. 

Do note the italicized portion of the above text. I can't say that I'm here with something new and revolutionary, but who knows, maybe I'll save a bro a few minutes in trying to find that video of Artosis denying IdrA a high-five. 

The author. Don't mind me, I'm just a Starcraft fan with way too much time on his hands.