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Netherlands6142 Posts
I have, by comparison, not been with this community for a very long time. However, the couple of times that I've been asked "What should I watch?" by new players, I always recommend the GOMTV Star Invitational.
This tournament was the first tournament I watched. Me and some friends gathered around the pc Sunday mornings to watch it. It was the first Korean tournament that had English commentary by the now infamous Tasteless. I can't give enough praise to this man and I will always see the GOMTV Star Invitational as his best work. His commentary was both energetic, knowledgeable, funny and noob friendly. Dude, you pretty much single-handedly taught me StarCraft. I remember one of Iris/Berzeker's games on Blue Storm in particular, whose sheer amount of Vultures made me think "I didn't even know you could do that!" and motivated me to start playing the game.
I have sort of always had it in the back of my head to rewatch this tournament some day. Today was that day. I got posed the question again - "What's a good SC:BW game to watch?". "GOMTV Invitational, all of it". I went and found the link for him and decided then and there: I am going to revisit this milestone in my eSports "carreer".
I'm taking it one step further though - I am going to blog about it. Not only will, hopefully, people who enjoyed this tournament the first time be joining me. There has also been a good number of people who picked up SC2, and are now becoming interested in seeing what BW was all about. I hope I can also entice these people in to checking out my journey. Again, and I must stress this, Tasteless does an absolutely superb job at making this game accessible for newcomers. On top of that, I today watched the 6 games from Group A and they are fucking exciting.
So, a brief introduction. In Februari of 2008, 16 of the finest StarCraft BroodWar players were invited to a tournament hosted by GomTV, broadcasted online to the foreign community with Tasteless as commentator. The 16 players were divided into four groups of four, playing a round robin with the top 2 advancing. I will introduce the players and groups as I watch them. I'll start off with Group A and I'll post updates as I watch the tournament, providing some background info and of course link the VODs as I go along.
Group A
Players in this group
 sAviOr - As you have been able to read in Ver's God of the Battlefield, Savior had just come out of an era of supreme dominance. In the beginning of 2008 he'd ended up in a slump. This tournament would be the perfect way to redeem himself.
 Anytime - Royal Roader in 2005, playing this tournament just before going to the army.
 Flash - Up and coming young Terran. Entered the tournament at the age of 15. Disliked for his cheese builds that knocked fan favourite Bisu out of the Daum OSL
Mind - WeMade Terran known mainly for being, at the time, the youngest Starleague winner ever.
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I'll be right on that! About 15 minutes ago I've made a blog post about how I've been watching many of the Season 2 games. The invite tour was just before I started watching BW and I have therefore not watched all games. Thanks for this post.
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I remember how blown away I was that Tasteless was actually commentating a Korean Starcraft league. Savior vs. Flash was an amazing game.
Although I don't think it will ever happen, I'd like to see Korean BW branch out to foreigners. It really does bring new fans.
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I must watch these.
Reminds me of the epic "send Tasteless to Korea" necro a little while back.
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On June 01 2011 07:49 Umbrella wrote:
I remember how blown away I was that Tasteless was actually commentating a Korean Starcraft league. Savior vs. Flash was an amazing game.
Although I don't think it will ever happen, I'd like to see Korean BW branch out to foreigners. It really does bring new fans.
fomos begs to differ
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great blog pholon. these vods are some of tasteless' sexiest work and some incredible games to boot. i'm working my way through all of them, and so should everyone reading this. 5 stars ^^
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sAviOr vs FlaSh on Blue Storm was the first pro game I ever watched... will never forget it. Flash fan for life.
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Awesome blog. The GOMTV Star Invitational was the first Starcraft tournament for me too and since then I always wanted to rewatch it but never managed to do so besides the finals between Flash and Stork which I've watched several times already. (The opening for the finals is really really amazing.)
I was very lucky that I found out about Starcraft progaming right before this event took place since it was definitely the perfect entrance into the great world of esports and especially korean progaming.
Now you have motivated me to finally watch it again. Thank you 
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This was my first adventure into pro starcraft as well. Tasteless does such a good job with this series. Thanks for reminding me about it Pholon I'll watch these games again!
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Netherlands6142 Posts
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Thank you very much for this review. I watched group A yesterday and it was totally worth it. Also Tasteless comentary is super.
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I was 100% sure I had watched the whole tourney at least 3 or 4 times.
But I watched savior vs flash anyway, and I had absolutely no memory of that match. And this was a pretty interesting match =) Thank you for this thread
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Netherlands6142 Posts
Group C
The Players
Stork - The current "champion of the world", having won 2007's World Cyber Games. Stork was, and still is, among the top 3 Protoss players in the world. Another claim to fame is having won, what is to many people, the best game of all time
Iris - Also known as Berzerker, known for his series vs teammate Savior, which is still considered one of the best Bo5s of all time. Top ranked Terran at the time, playing with a very aggressive style.
Hwasin - "The Red Sniper" is another top ranked Terran. Known for precise timing pushes and TvZ micro, but also the ability to lose handfuls of MnM to random Lurkers. Fangirl favourite thanks to his good looks ~_~
free - Was invited to the tournament after having racked up the most wins in the Round of of 2007-2008's Proleague. No big claims to fame, but still considered one of the http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/Six_Dragons - albeit the weakest one.
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Didn't Iris also play at Blizzcon in 08 or 07 (not entirely sure). Idk which one came first but either GSI or blizzcon with nal_ra and iris is the one I saw competitive BW first time.
Thanks to Tasteless I also got into BW. He is the most funniest commentator I had experienced so far. So energetic knowledgable and funny :$
But the GSI was definitely an event of awesomeness for me :x I remember only something from Flash doing some kind of double armory build and at the time Tasteless said something that it was quite unique or something to go that many goliaths / tanks and vultures. Because of that and Flash I became instant fan of KTF MagicNs :D That name was just baller with the team shirt :x White with some orange and green color :D
Definitely nice of you to write about the GSI :D I'll definitely watch some vods again today after I'm done with my 2 papers LOL.
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Netherlands6142 Posts
I have to say I'm not 100% sure on all of the player descriptions. If course I know some history, but this being my first event I wasn't around for the preshow. So in the end I'm jsut trying to hype everyone a bit, even though I might forget things or not be 100% accurate
I briefly considered giving the games stars or grades so people can watch selectively, but after Day 1 I already gave up on that cause all the games were so awesome xD
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Norway1530 Posts
Nice Do you know how they determined the invites? I guess it was top kespa, tournament winners + boxer and nada
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Smix
United States4549 Posts
This was how I got into the progaming world too!! hi5 pholon~
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the Dagon Knight4010 Posts
I wish that there were a way I could star a blog post to return to on TL, because this is exactly the kind of thing I know I'll want to be able to find in a week's time on a rainy afternoon. Great stuff
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Pholon you,re aweseme ^^~ Thx for reminding me of this. First Korean tournament that I followed entirely. Before that I would watch random proleague/msl/osl games but Tasteless' comentary is certainly waht got me staying up until 2 am every Thursday.
Random thought. I remember a battle report of yours, from a very VERY long time ago. Mid 2008 maybe? A grudgematch in BW PvZ, on python, and a lot of cannons involved; I just remember it being hillarious 
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On June 01 2011 07:49 Umbrella wrote:
Savior vs. Flash was an amazing game.
Haha, yeah, still remember it vividly. Really liked the tournament at that time, they should do something like this more often.
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Yuck. Still a nice job by Tasteless in hindsight. He really plowed the field, and solo at that. But sAviOr and Flash, that game didn't look so nice. YellOw has more modern looking games from 2007. Props to Flash for not losing his composure during crises, something he still handles well.
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Netherlands6142 Posts
On June 04 2011 05:57 Cr4zyH0r5e wrote:Random thought. I remember a battle report of yours, from a very VERY long time ago. Mid 2008 maybe? A grudgematch in BW PvZ, on python, and a lot of cannons involved; I just remember it being hillarious
Been thinking hard but can't remember anything like that. I've been playing Terran for the longest of times so it might have been a one-off but doubt it. Probably have me confused with someone else :o
New post coming up soon, MLG keeping me a bit busy at the mo heh.
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EPT
GOMTV Star Invitational
