Special Trolling Tactics

Great Vid of two Carmac and White-Ra tricking people at Blizzcon that the ESL's games manager is the legendary Ukranian Zerg Dimaga. They kind of look similar, from the forehead up.

Inspirational WhiteRa

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

The Rise of Streams

I often myself awake in the middle of night not playing, but watching people play through their point of views. This concept started off in the late Brood War days and when the SC2 beta came out, the trend continued. To see the players gracefully execute their actions and see their thought process on what they see and how to react accordingly is so educational. My 2 favorite streams happen to be from my 2 favorite players, Sen and White-Ra. White-Ra commentates in games in English (Alternating with Russian as he is from Ukraine) and tells his viewers about his "special tactics." He is so well mannered and hilarous to boot, priceless entertainment. Sen on the other hand is just a beast and tonight I watched him rip through the North America ladder like it is nothing. His infestor play is just awe dropping, and to quote him in the chat, "Infested Terrans are the Z FFs." ^_^

White-Ra's Stream (Become a Follower!)

Sen's Stream (Become a Follower!)

The Dreamhack Invitational

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of watching the most well run and highest quality tournament on a stream, the Dreamhack Invitational. The games (Invited players include MC, Jinro, White-Ra, Huk, Idra, TLO, Sjow and Morrow), commentators (Demuslim and D'Apollo, forever now know as the English Archon ^^), and production values were all top notch. Watch the VODs here at their Justin.TV site. Thanks you you nerds in Sweden, for showing everyone how to put on an E-sports event.

A Protoss vs Terran Clinic by AtN Socke

White-Ra or The IEM (Intel Extreme Masters) European finals were held in the city of Kiev 2 weekends ago. The participants were players who traversed through their own national qualifiers, and while all 10 players are worthy participants, the racial distribution was rather embarrassing. 8 Terrans and 2 Protosses qualified. The two heroes that hail from Aiur are

Socke, a German player who’s creativity has no limits, especially in the Protoss vs Terran Match up. Socke’s style has had the tendency to create epic games, for reference watch (Jinro vs Socke) (Socke vs Drewbie, cast is in German but the game is still sick) (Socke vs Sen).

There are no better two players to represent the Protoss race in a field of Terrans in Europe (Except for Naniwa) However sparring off with Terran players such as:

Sjow- a flawless Terran player from Sweden, has shown incredible tactics and multitasking in his gameplay

Kas- A macro monster terran, has shown his solid play by steamrolling opponents in the 1^st TSL Open Qualifier (Team Liquid StarLeague)

Naama- Winner of Dreamhack Sweden who showed his Tank heavy TvP in that same tourney

The other players like Tarson, Predy, Goody, Demuslim, Sarens are all beasts in their own rights as well.

A game that was played though that I found comforting as a Protoss player was Socke vs Sjow on Xelnaga Cavern. Socke played a beautiful game to say the least, using the Protoss arsenal to its fullest and making Sjow fight on Socke’s terms. Things to watch out for in the VOD

- Sockes Map Control is brilliant, using Void Rays to keep Sjow in his own base while securing his own expansion

- A smooth transition into Collosus play, but once the Terran gets that critical mass of Vikings, changes aptly into other tech. Also Socke’s micro and unit positioning is phenomenal, and all Protoss players should take notes.

- A Dark Templar transition after the 3^rd is secured, creating a constant threat and making the Swedish Terran player waste valuable scans to end the cloaked assassins.

- His High Templar usage on harassing Sjow’s expos late game decimated the Terran’s economy

While Socke’s play is nothing revolutionary, it is just that his execution and decision making are amazing. This was Sjow’s only loss in the tournament before the finals (He played more than 15 games).

Thanks to the Casters of the linked games, Blizshouter , HDHomerj, ExoStarcraft, and Eonshikeno.