BW Programers switching to SC2, or playing

Movie is ready for anything

An impressive list from Teamliquid.net reports a large amount of current BW programers in Korea playing SC2 during the offseason. Some notable names include:

Hydra (He is blind in one eye and still won a Starleague)

Leta (Banshees were made for him)

Horang2 (I want to see what strats this man can come up with for SC2)

Snow (Your PvT is needed in this game!)

Movie (Warp Prism!)

Best (How will his beast macro translate into this game)

Bisu (Don't have to say anything really)

n_dieSoo (The zerg SKT needed)

Fantasy (Will his bio still suck?)

Flash (Or Lucifer, they have the same name)

Hyvaa (Any top zerg switchers will be so scary)

Shuttle (Go show that imposter on NSHoseo who the real boss is)

Midas (He cannot even remember when he 1st became a BW progamer)

Baby (Scary good)

For Korean accounts, you need to use your Korean identity number to register for B.net, so the sudden influx of Korean streamers have "outed" a lot of players. It is no secret though as it has been reported that these teams (the majority of them are from STX, SKT, and CJ) have upgraded their PCs (Causing speculation of the "switching"). What will the upcoming months entail for the scene? Will the recent foreigner resurgence be stifled when the big boys come to play? Will the Korean scene close once again when KESPA/Proleague starts switching over? A lot of questions that we are all waiting anxiously for the answers.

New Units in Heart of the Swarm!

With Blizzcon taking place over the weekend, they revealed some of the new units and abilities in the upcoming expansion for Starcraft II, Heart of the Swarm. Here's a nice video done by HunterStarcraft on Youtube, showcasing what has been visually revealed. Remember this is only the beta versions, and expect a lot of changes before the final release.

Fruitdealer at IEM New York

Carmac, the man behind the ESL/IEM tours, set up a 2v2 show match among the Koreans invitees for their New York event, (DRG, Killer, Fruitdealer, and TOP). In the pre-game smack talk, Fruitdealer uses his husky deep voice and rather impressive English skills to elegantly voice his thoughts.

MarineKing Prime at MLG Orlando- A Feel Good Story

One of the biggest storylines at MLG Orlando was the Reddit community bringing over the MarineKing Prime, raising 4,000 dollars to pay for his ticket and hotel commodities in Florida. While this speaks volumes at the amount of foreign fans the King of Silver has, we were all waiting on how he will perform? Will he try hard to entertain and drop a series to an unknown, or will he forget to cater to the audience that used their own money to fly him out here and just win (Ask Sase who got 1/1/1 by him in 3 straight games in the CPL, a tournament in China a couple of months ago).

After the 1st two days of the event, MKP showed that he really cared about his fans, and it showed in his play. Through the open bracket, he cruised through all his foes, and ended up in Group A, the group with Idra, Haypro, Boxer, Drewbie, and TLO. Here he played with style and flair, doing entertaining strats like the beginning lift to the gold Metalopolis (Haypro), nuking his own army (Drewbie), and other fun strats. Of course, when he brought his A-game (which is making Marines, and this joke never gets old because really, that is what he does best) he made Idra's TvZ look shaky, a feat which a lot of terrans have not done recently. The fans at Reddit must have gotten more than they bargained for.

This story is so heartwarming, and it shows the growth of Starcraft as a sport. Will it be a truely cinderella story? Will the silver miner finally be able to claim that gold? Watch Championship Sunday to watch his tale unfold.

IPL Player's Panel

One of the best moments in the IPL this weekend was the panels, the best one no doubt was with Incontrol, MC, Select, and Stephano. Check it out!

One Sample Question:

Question: What do you guys do for fun in SC2?

Stephano: I play Terran and make only marines with stimpack

Select: I play Protoss and Cheese, 4 Gate is fun.

MC: Beat Idra

GSTL Finals- MVP vs Prime

With all the hype this weekend about the IGN Proleague tournament taking place in Atlantic City, the GSTL finals happening Saturday night (Korea Time) should not be missed. It’s MVP vs Prime, two teams who have stories worthy of a potential E-sports movie.

Prime came out swinging in these playoffs, relying on two of their “lesser” known players, Creator and Annyung to slay 4 members of Startale. By the time it came for Bomber to come and play, MarineKing was their waiting, fully prepared to snipe the deadly Startale Terran.

In their match against TSL, the theme of this series was “down but not out.” Sorry MarineKing, you need to give your title of the “Comeback Kid” to your teammate Creator, who ran through gauntlet of TSL’s Terran lineup and Revival to 4-kill the seemingly undefeatable TSL. Prime wins and goes to the finals.

MVP’s tale starts off with a “David vs Goliath” theme, as they take on Incredible Miracle, a team that has someone relegated to trophy cleaning duties in their house. All hope looked lost when players not named DRG could not even beat IM’s starter terran, Happy, but thanks DRG and their new protoss hero Tails, they edge out a dramatic victory against the legendary IM team.

Waiting for them in the semi-finals was New Star Ho-seo, a team who took the whole league by storm by showing dominant results in the regular season with many players not known by the scene. However, MVP is a team that just beat IM, and they were not intimated by the new kids on the block. In this series, the MVP team rode the wave on a seemingly in-form Genius, who showed brilliant play in all 3 matchups, including an exciting post 1.4 patch PvP in his final game.

Storyline of the playoffs so far? It’s the Protoss man, Genius, Creator and Tails were all the star performers in the 4 sets of matches. Even though they don’t have any representation in the main GSL tournament, at least they reppin’ in the team league -_-

Predictions-

Prime’s strength nowadays comes from their zerg lineup, BboongBboong, Annyung, and Check. Also the coach of the team has a lot of faith with these players as he had no qualms in sending them in the TSL match (but only god knows why he was feeding them to JYP, the zerg killer). Their old stars of Maka, Anypro, and Hongun are not the main players anymore, but will serve more as a sniper role. Their ace is still of course MarineKing, but Creator has shown that he has the tenacity to win against the best players in the world.

While MVP might be called a “one-man team” by many, this is far from the truth though. DRG is the ace, but he has the support to help them lead to a victory. Genius looks to be in form, Keen is a solid terran, Guinea Pig and Tails have shown promising play but their consistency can be questioned. Look for Monster and Noblesse to make a special appearance in this match, as Monster is a mini-DRG and Noblesse is Code S material.

The Clash-

It’s a tough match to call as both of these teams are so evenly matched. In the battle of the aces, MarineKing just gave DRG a smackdown in the Arena of Legends. Also the ZvT god just lost a hearbreak series against Supernova in the GSL, people might have found a chink in his armor so to speak. For MVP to win, they need someone to take down the Prime’s Zergs and for Prime to win, they need to shut down DRG’s support, Genius or Keen, and they’ll claim the championship.

Mock Bo9 series

Check vs Vampire

Keen vs Check

Creator vs Keen

Creator vs Monster

DRG vs Creator

MarineKing vs DRG

Genius vs Marineking

Genius vs Annyung

Genius vs BboongBbong

MVP takes it 5-4, yeah I’m rooting for them but realistically speaking, I think they have a small edge over Prime. Cheers for a great set of games!

Dimaga: The Muscle Zerg

A great highlight video of Dmytro "Dimaga" Filipchuk, the beast zerg from Ukraine. A player who's excitement for the game is only matched by his skill, cheers Dima!