Protoss Units and Pro Association

With Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty eclipsing its 1-year anniversary and with already hundreds of professional games behind us, it would be fun to play an association game. The task at hand is to associate a specific unit to a top player.

Probe- Huk, see the MLG Dallas game versus his teammate TLO, where TLO 6-pools him and Huk is going with a FFE and scouts super late, gosu probe micro, and known of course for his harassing probe ever since the beta.

Zealot- Adelscott, 3 Base, 1 gas Pvt style?!?

Stalker- Liquid Nazgul, knew that Blink Stalkers were really really good before everyone else

Sentry- MC, Obama toss throws them down like no other

Dark Templar- Inca, a more sad association though, his games versus Nestea in the GSL finals : (

High Templar- Socke, pre KA nerf and even after the patch : )

Archons- All Protoss Players after Patch 1.3

Observer- Mana, watch his PvTs, when they get sniped he ques one up with the robo even if it means on skipping out on the Collossus

Collossus- Naniwa, in all games he builds them, he is always microing them in the big fights and he is known for sticking with them in PvP

Immortals- Nexsickness

Warp Prism- White-Ra, Special Tactics since 1998, or 1999

Void Ray- Genius, 3 Gate Voids since the game release.

Phoenix- Hero, a newer association but he makes them religiously in PvT and PvZ.

Carrier- Hongun (See GSL season 3, his game between JSL)

Mothership- Kiwikaki, no gimmicks here, he used it every PvZ for a 3-4 months period

Photon Cannon- Wannabecool, NA Protoss player and a Notorious cannonner in all 3 matchups, poor Mana did not know about this

July's style of zerg

From Teamliquid.net

Pro Predictions at MLG Raleigh

Check out this video of Pro-player predictions at MLG Raleigh.

I just gotta say, Gretorp (His part is around the 4:18 mark) you are one funny and charismatic man. Keep on entertaining ^_^

Inspirational WhiteRa

The Charm of The Emperor

Question: How does the most influential figure in E-sports go after a girl he likes?

Answer: By Nuking in game 3 times in a Starcraft: Brood War showmatch.

Only Boxer, only Boxer...

The Money of E-Sports

The Money of E-sports

If anyone is still negligent to the fact that there is no money in playing video games, show them the site Sc2earnings.com. On this site, the creators make a global database on the top earners of Starcraft II. It is important to remember that prize money for most players is just icing on the cake, as salaries, lessons, or streaming tend to be more of steady and reliable source of income for players. With such a young game, and plenty of players already making 6 digit of money solely on prize money, it really is astonishing what the future will hold.

Some interesting notes

* While the top earners are obviously Koreans who have excelled in the GSL, Ukraine's White-Ra leads the foreigner the pack in prize money, passing Huk through his IPL Season 2 Title.

* Nestea has shown that he doesn't need to travel (...MC) to international events to get the money, rather just focusing on GSL and producing amazing results. But still, MC has won (No pun intended) everywhere (Denmark, USA, China, etc.)

* Puma, who has not even qualified for a GSL, holds the 8th spot, showing his fellow countrymen that even if you struggle through the gauntlet that is the GSL qualifiers, there is still way to hone your hours of practice on the alarming amount of international events.

* Online cup warrior Kas is remarkably ranked 50th, with his biggest cash only being 3,000 dollars, those small cup victories do tend to add up

July to Round of 16

ST_July has been having poor results lately in South Korea.

After getting 2nd in GSL March, he was knocked out in the first round of the last two GSL tournaments, and hasn't performed well in the GSLTL either. He placed high (4th) in both the NASL and Dreamhack, but there seemed to be limits to his play when he reached the highest levels and he couldn't seem to get any further.

This was something July himself seemed to realize when he was interviewed during the GSL Code S selection, where he was placed in a group with LosirA, Genius and Ensnare.

I was obviously nervous, that once again July would fall in the first round and that he might even get knocked down to the dreaded Up and Down matches, which look more and more like a postapocalyptic movie where everyone is trying to eat and kill each other. July's group was the last of the Round of 32 and looked to be a bit uncertain. The preview from Team Liquid was as follows:

LoSirA returns to the stage for another run at the championship. Will he be thwarted again? Certainly not by anyone in this group. Both LoSirA and July have been to the promised land of a GSL Code S final but July hasn't gotten anywhere close again. In fact, his performances have been slipping steadily and he narrowly avoided the Up / Down matches last season.

Ensnare had the misfortune of meeting NesTea in the Ro16 last season and had his run cut short, while Genius met the same fate at the hands of another ZvP terror in CoCa. Thankfully for both, July hasn't been at that level lately. That leaves the door wide open for second place in the group.

Form suggests that it won't be July. Looking at the stats, a gambling man would put his dollars Genius as he hasn't been bested in a TvP since he lost to NaDa back in May.

The prediction was that July would be 0-2 in the group and get knocked down to the Up and Down matches.

Such did not happen though, as this strange group turned schizophrenic in terms of results. LosirA, the gamer that almost everyone thought would make it through with no problems (after just finishing 2nd place in the previous GSL). He however ended up 0-2 and will go straight to the Up and Down matches. Ensnare and Genius fought over 2nd place, with Genius making it through. July, through a mixture of balls of steel and poor play made it through 2-0.

In his match against Genius on Bel-Shir Beach, July gave up his clear map advantage and instead chose to baneling bust his opponent who had forge expanded. Even though Genius had scouted the gas, he responded too late and was crushed with a volley of banelings and zerglings. It was a bold movie, July perhaps playing a mind game on Genius and taking advantage of his expectation that July would use his map advantage to play a longer safer game.

Later against Ensnare, July fought back a bunker rush, which had in the previous game set back LosirA eventually helping Ensnare win his game against him on Terminus. Clearly behind, Ensnare muscled up his forces for an all-in with Marines and Helions. July had droned heavily in the meantime, but had some defenses (banelings and spine crawlers). By the time Ensnare attacked he had a large enough force to possibly destroy July. But due to some nervousness and meekness from the Terran player he fumbled his potential advantage, and July destroyed his push.

ST_July mumumu! His next opponent in the Round of 16 is HungunPrime.We!

T v T

My favorite moment from MLG Anaheim had to be the following. It wasn't any of the matchups, but rather this statement.

Mr. Bitter says to Husky while casting a game.

"I just looked up at the other screen to see what everyone was yelling about, and it's a T v T, and I'm so glad that we aren't casting it."

Mungga Ma Sangan

Korean Teams Withdraw from NASL

I'll still be watching the NASL, but without the Korea teams participating, some of my favorite players won't be there. I hope that for Season 3, they can work something out so that the Korean players can return.

GSL July Lessons

Farewell to Code-S July: Lessons Learned

By: Fionn

from TeamLiquid.net

Another GSL is over and what a surprise, it ended in a 4-0 stomping. Luckily for us, the games were good, but it marks the third straight final where one player couldn't win a single game. Now, with the tournament behind us, it's time to look back on the things that we've learned from this GSL:

1. First and foremost, Nestea is the best player in the world.
2. Code-S is becoming a really even competition. All of the "upsets" this season weren't so much about the underdogs getting lucky; it's just that the gap between the underdogs and favorites has closed significantly. Except Nestea, he's still 500x better than everyone.
3. If you pick Clide into your group expecting to beat him, you'll end up getting knocked down to Code A while he makes it out of the group stages.
   
4. Immediately after getting out of the group and looking great doing it, Clide will then fall apart and never make the quarterfinals.
   
5. Wolf and qxc are the best Code A tandem GOM has put together so far. Many houses have been burned in their wake.
   
6. MarineKing can not only get 2nd place in countless GSL's, but he also can go 0-2 in the Round of 32 as well.
   
7. Putting makeup on kids who play video games for a living wasn't the greatest idea in the world.
   
8. It doesn't matter if he never wins a GSL title, Nada will always be a champion to me.
   
9. Real ESPORTS fans care.
   
10. sC's decision to pick MVP first in his group can be summed up in one word: oops
    
11. Optimus is beatable in TvP, just don't fall for his tricks.
    
12. It doesn't matter if Huk is Korean, American or Canadian. All I know is that he's a really good Starcraft 2 player.
    
13. Foreign pro-gamers clearly don't watch enough GSL, as their horrifying deaths to unexpected blue-flame hellions at MLG shows.
    
14. Foreign fans clearly don't watch enough GSL, as their surprise at the horrifying deaths of foreign pro-gamers at the hands of blue-flame hellions at MLG shows.
    
15. Despite all the gloom and doom at MLG, Sheth, Jinro, and Huk showed that success is not TOO far away.
    
16. Zenio can't actually win a match when he's half asleep.
    
17. If you bribe your player with a puppy as a reward, he will more than likely make the semifinals of a GSL.
    
18. It doesn't matter how long a PvP series is. In the end, 90% of the games will come down to 4gate.
    
19. Leenock is still the unluckiest player in the entire universe.
    
20. Puzzle has a bright future ahead of himself and will be a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming Code S season.
    
21. HongUn has a guardian angel following him around.
    
22. Any time Artosis starts saying you're the best at something, and your name isn't Nestea, you will more than likely get eliminated right after.
    
23. It doesn't matter how much you hype up a GSL final because it will always end up 0-4 or being a terrible series. It is known.
    
24. While sC looks foolish for picking MVP with his first choice and getting knocked back to Code A, Losira looks like a genius for picking MarineKing, beating him, and ending up in the finals.
    
25. Did I mention that Nestea is the best player in the world?

Nada is at Assembly

From Anna:

Rain v. Boxer

I can't wait to see the VOD for this game.

This is Starcraft

SC2 at MLG from Nerd-Girl