A Starcraft2 Summer

So unfortunately I slacked off on my duties as esports blogger but I'm back at it! It's been a while so this post will also include some small recaps of NASL season 1 finals, MLG Anahiem, and the recent MLG Raliegh. 

There will only be a few pictures here but you can check the entire album(s) out on my facebook (facebook.com/thundertoss). 

So let's start with the most recent! This past weekend I headed over to Raliegh, North Carolina to battle a hurricane and watch some of the best Starcraft 2 players the world has to see duke it out. While Irene didn't show up with her A game (which was fine with me), MLG did not disappoint. Although not quite as intense an experience as Anahiem, the game play was phenomenal. Considering the location and the conditions I was again impressed by the amazing number of fans who showed up, and as a result, the enormous lack of chairs. If you didn't happen to trek out to NC (or even if you did) make sure you check out the full set of VOD's from the event over at MLG's website: http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/news/watch-all-vod-from-mlg-raleigh/

There are so many great games that don't get enough recognition simply because it would be impossible to fit them all into the time period with only the 2 streams. Ascend and I might try to go and cast some of the better games from the open bracket and pool play if we get the chance but since they are in VOD format we'll have to find a good way to do that first. 

I know Sundance was responding to some r/starcraft posts about maybe adding a 3rd stream or something to fix the down time (crowd watching) and to give some airtime to open bracket players so maybe we'll get lucky and he'll ask Ascend and I to help out with that (one can only hope ^_^). 

In any case, we saw once again the Korean dominance at Raliegh with the top 6 spots all going to Koreans, similar to the results we saw in Anahiem. The recent addition to Slayers, Coca (formerly of zenex) managed to make it all the way to the finals, playing a great series vs StarTale Bomber. The only non korean to make it from the open bracket was Complexity's Trimaster who beat a myriad of notable players although his performance may have slightly been overshadowed by his ability to make Idra rage hard enough to lose his F4 key as I'm sure most of you saw on reddit. 

Here's the list of the top 32 from Raliegh (thanks to TL wiki)

1.   Bomber
2.   CoCa
3.   DongRaeGu
4.   NaDa
5.   PuMa
6.   HerO
7.   HuK
8.   SjoW
9.   Noblesse
10.   KiWiKaKi
11.   SeleCT
12.   NaNiwa
13.   Rain
14.   DeMusliM
15.   SLush
16.   TriMaster
17.   TricKsteR
18.   Machine
19.   Sheth
20.   IdrA
21.   HayprO
22.   iNcontroL
23.   Ret
24.   mOoNan
25.   TLO
26.   Orly
27.   Drewbie
28.   Tyler
29.   HwangSin
30.   KawaiiRice
31.   ostojiy
32.   PainUser

Mirroring Greatness (Slayers boxer and Slayers MMA) 

From MLG Anahiem

The start of MLG Raliegh 2011

Another packed house for the SC2 area

Fans enjoying the games on main stage

A shot from NASL in SoCal

As I mentioned earlier, I missed posting after both NASL and MLG Anahiem but to put it simply, both events blew me away. Anahiem was probably my favorite event to date. The interactions with players, fans, and esports personalities was great. The after parties were awesome (especially since I picked the venue ; p ) and everyone had a great time. The most memorable experience was getting to meet Slayers Boxer and the rest of the Slayers team and getting my jersey signed. It was a surreal moment. 

I'm going to end this post here but I'll be sure to be on top of my reporting for the next event so that I can do a proper in-depth write up. Hopefully I'll see some of you readers at the next few MLG's this year!

WhiteRa VS Sheth

Today I had the great honor of being able to cast WhiteRa (in person) in his Bo7 show match vs Sheth sponsored by TTesports. It was an AMAZING series that I think you all should check out. There's also some interviews at the end done by yours truly ; )

Check out the thread with pictures *thanks to primadog* over on TL:

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=247596

Watch live video from DuckloadWhiteRa on Justin.tv

Watch live video from DuckloadWhiteRa on Justin.tv


Second video is some short post game analysis of the last game of the series. Interview starts around 2:35.

More Korean News

A small new post about some recent news in the SCII world. Lot of Korean pros being added to foreign teams and a few important merges you should be aware of.



MC and Nada get bought by SK for foreign performances. This means that SK will send them to international tournaments and they will compete under the SK name outside of Korea.

Dignitas picks up korean player TanDongHo (formerly ZeNEX)

EG adds TSL Puma To their team. Previously lacking strong terrans, good practice for all now that they are settling into their team house

GGLastShadow who played in the KOTH last night headed to Korea to compete for Code A spot.


Merges: FOU -> FXO = FXO Korea //// COL + MVP = COL/MVP


Complexity partners with MVP. DongRaeGU and Genius will now compete representing both MVP and COL in korea and internationally (with DRG making an appearance at MLG Anaheim next week).

Fou gets absorbed into FXO and the two combined become FXOKorea.
Sheth leaves FXO.
QXC all kills team IM in GSTL final performance for FXO.


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic



Koreans attending MLG Anaheim: MVP DongRaeGu, IM MVP, Slayers Boxer, Slayers MMA, Slayers Alicia, Slayers Ganzi, FXOKorea Choya.

Also the last 3 replay packs from TOP200KOTH are now available for download. Hope to see how well all the winners do at next week's MLG. See you all there!

NASL + MLG + GSL!?!?!?!!?!

So I had planned to do a nice write up of NASL's amazing finish to season 1 today after getting a good night's sleep after the weekend's excitement and as I'm going through my usual business of checking teamliquid and r/starcraft I see this: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=243062. My mind is still blown. Here I was thinking it was amazing that I get to experience the NASL finals and then follow it up in 2 weeks with MLG Anaheim but now Socal is also going to be host of the GSL FINALS. I'm at a lack of a proper analogy for how awesome that is for both ESPORTS in North America and for me as a fan hailing from Socal.

On the second day of NASL, I was sitting next to some of the gosu's of the epsorts community; Megumi, Ret, Select, and Squirtle just thinking to myself how awesome it was to be watching some of the most amazing games ever to take place on American soil with some of the greatest Starcraft II players on the planet when SLAYERS FUCKING BOXER strolls out of the players area and sits behind us to watch the rest of the game. I didn't even know what to say to him, the man is a legend and pretty much invented ESPORTS. Luckily, before I could start drooling or something foolish he noticed I was wearing my Slayers jersey (reppin like a BAUS), chuckled and told me I had a nice shirt. I shook his hand and calmly went back to watching the game (giddy as hell though). Later as I was tweeting that I could now 'check one off the ESPORTS' bucket list I had a quick thought of some of the other major things I want to do that would go on said list. Topping that list currently are to attend a GSL event and to get to cast a major event in EU or KR. So yet again it looks like Starcraft is moving even faster than my lofty hopes and dreams can keep up with.

So back to NASL. I'll be honest here: Day 1 was a disaster. I love NASL and despite all the ups and down of the season etc., I believe in and appreciate what they are doing for the scene in NA. Being at the event generally allows you to be blissfully ignorant of any issues that might be happening on stream (ie. mlg dallas) but even at the venue the experience was a rocky one. The projectors had gotten messed up, they were using the smart pan/ ai observer for much of the first day, and audio issues were popping up all over the place. It was hard to watch and it was sad that I couldn't just dismiss all the rage posts on reddit as typical internet over reaction. However, that being said, day 2 and 3 were a fantastic turnaround. The entire staff worked incredibly hard to fix most of the issues that had crippled day 1. The next rounds they had GunRun (mad props) do a lot of the observing, fixed a bunch of sound issues, and readjusted the projectors. The fan experience was "excellent" ; ) there was fantastic gameplay, surprising upsets, and awesome performances by TempoStarcraft. The crowd was also fantastic; when MC was hunting down Puma's medivacs in the finals you could feel the tension and suspense pressing down on you as hundreds and hundreds of nerds held their breath just waiting to see if MC would blink or feedback in time... and when he did... they ERRUUPPPTTEEDDD. I was blown away by how enthusiastic the crowd was and so were the Koreans.

In summary, both MLG and NASL are just going to keep on getting better as they improve on their past performances and as we esports fans continue to do the important job of spreading the world and drawing more awesome people into our wonderful community. I met a lot of people who said that NASL was their first major SC2 event and that they were going to try to come to MLG as well because of how much fun they had so I expect to see even more new, happy, nerd faces (and the familiar ones) this upcoming MLG (July 29th-31st), NASL season 2 (starting in August), and GSL + Blizzcon (October). So take notes: this isn't just a North American Starcraft/ESPORTS bandwagon... it's a god damn BATTLECRUISER.