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As a forward, this is a bit of a depressing blog here. Sorry, don't mean to be a mood kill. It's also going to take a while to actually get going on this. Bear with me.
It feels like a piece of me died today.
MSL is all but confirmed as being done. Another nail in the ever closing coffin of the Korean Brood War scene, and this saddens me. As much as I enjoy SC2 and GSL and all of the foreign tournaments and the booming scene, they don't hold a candle to the trifecta of the OSL, MSL and PL.
Something about the longer lasting and more established tournaments, the unmatched skill of the players - it all just feels like it's worth more. I dunno, maybe this is just rampant BW elitism. Something about waking up at 3 AM to hijack a restream of a restream to watch the Koreans go at it, with only Korean commentary - the casters screaming in elation at something like a plague happening for the billionth time in a ZvT. The intense micro.
MSL was my favorite of the Korean leagues. Something about the decisive group stages, the elaborate group selection ceremony with all of the shit-talking. The entire tournament just felt like it appealed to me more than the OSL.
Arena MSL was my first full MSL I watched, and it was incredible. I still say, the most entertaining series I have ever watched was Kal vs. fOrGG in the Round of 8 of that tournament. I was on the edge of my seat the entire series, and the games on Colosseum especially were something else. fOrGG's run in general was impressive.
That tournament is famous for being the one where fOrGG upset his teammate, but I remember it as one of the most exciting tournaments I've watched in all of Brood War. I honestly don't remember a dull series. Even the 3-0 finals, it was incredible because it was pretty much unexpected.
After that I dove headfirst into Brood War, following games constantly. As time wore on, I got burnt out and slowly started to remove myself from it. But one thing always stuck with me - following the MSL. I continued to stay up to watch MSL games regularly, whether my favorite player (Iris) was playing or not.
Even when I fully removed myself from the pro-gaming scene and following tournaments, I still snuck in and checked MSL results often, keeping tabs on how the CJ players were doing, and on how Taek-Bang-Lee-Ssang were faring.
So to hear today that MSL is no more, that I didn't actually get to watch the last MSL... it breaks my heart. It's like I never got to say goodbye to a close friend that was suddenly ripped from my life. I know this probably seems overly dramatic about a tournament, but I just feel like a piece of me is missing suddenly.
I'm really bad at closing things, so I'll just go with the best way I know to sum up how I'm feeling right now...
BW for life.
 
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I really hate the fact that I was never here when BW was in its prime. I hear all of these nostalgia blogs, and everyone who is so passionate about the game, and I want that. This blog just makes me hurt, for you especially. I really wish I could empathize with you, man. I admire your passion.
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as bw slowly slips away and I realize there is little to nothing I can do to prevent it I find myself simply appreciating the time I did spend during broodwar.
The hours I spent watching streams, hell from even before there were streams to watch, following live report threads. Reading battle reports. Following players, Iris was also literally my FAVORITE player to follow in 2007-2008. his osl finals vs ggplay, omfg, msl ro8 vs bisu in 2009 sometime, one of the most amazing bo5's I remember in broodwar period. The excitement and hype leading up to matches in general was epic. There wasn't a whole ton of stuff going on for broodwar, some matches were hyped days or weeks in advance and was all anyone was talking about. Especially with foreign events. For the last couple years of broodwar wcg was one of the only major events to play in (other than an occasional TSL or IEM or other tournament) this lead to big hype and excitement for matches. Even specific matches within tournaments such as Nony vs Idra in TSL2 were hyped beyond belief with rekrul running a huge betting game for LITERALLY ONE MATCH OF ONE TOURNAMENT. sc2 has so much going on there isn't even time for anything like that anymore. By the time you've hyped one tournament the next one is starting. By the time players have flown home from MLG they need to fly to the next one.
Sure you can never have too much of a good thing, but I think something that broodwar sort of fed off of especially for the years I was around, were storylines, hype, which built excitement and literally added to the matches. You weren't just sitting down to watch a game of broodwar, you were sitting down to see history made because you knew everyone the next day was going to be talking about this.
I'm not sad, I'm happy that bw existed and provided so many years of quality entertainment. for those that missed bw, there are vods everywhere, there are plenty of people that still frequent TL that were around to tell these stories. Appreciate it, enjoy it. Broodwar is and always will be a wonderful game. And while times have changed and broodwar is slowly beginning to phase out completely, we have quite a damn fine game in starcraft 2 to build new memories and create new traditions.
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Msl will always be in our hearts . Bw for life .
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FREEAGLELAND26781 Posts
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The true tragedy would be the day there is no need for the "BW Tourneys" sub-forum here. That would be the final nail in the coffin. For now there seems to be no end to BW activities and tourneys even if they arent korean so its not all bad. You guys better keep doing what you're doing and dont stop on account of happenings in Korea. Ur the last hope as it seems to be that the Korean scene already has one foot in the grave.
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BW forever. Even if SC2 moves on. We will never forget.
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I would like to make a suggestion here. I think that in our signatures we should put "BW for life" somewhere. I'm happy for the time I've spent and will spend with BW. BW for life!
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I hated Arena MSL XD.
But yeah, otherwise, agreed.
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Well said. I'm incredibly sad too.
MSL FOREVER
edit :
Wow, I just read that blog, that was posted even before SC2 beta release, we were all afraid that the SC2 would be meh and destroy our scene. Damn accurate.
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MSL was like yin to the yang.
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I thought it was the coolest thing ever when I was a kid living in Korea to see a game on TV. A game that I played, and seeing these idiots using vultures (CAN'T SHOOT AIR) instead of mnm against toss! It grew on me, and when I came home I immediately looked up "korea starcraft" on youtube and came to find nevake and jon747.
It's been an incredible journey. I do not want to see it end so soon!
MSL 2052. MSL forever. BW4Lyfe.
!!!
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Sad day indeed..
BW FOREVER! god damned SC2 had to ruin everything. I can't express how fucking pissed i am. Just the fact that you have the best RTS ever with highest imaginable skillcap and some douchebag gets to completely fuck it with MBS, smartcast and fucking balls of units on a square foot so retarded kids can play it too (no offense) and then call it fucking E-SPORT....I mean it is not bad, but it will never be near comparable to bw. Maybe it is just time to move on, but i will be missing bw when it is gone.
Give us the Proleague ASAP!!!
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This certainly falls under the category of "first world problems"
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On November 03 2011 14:57 vx70GTOJudgexv wrote:
As a forward, this is a bit of a depressing blog here. Sorry, don't mean to be a mood kill. It's also going to take a while to actually get going on this. Bear with me.
It feels like a piece of me died today.
after reading this i knew i'd be in for a show
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On November 03 2011 19:53 Deja Thoris wrote:
This certainly falls under the category of "first world problems"
What? As far as i know, this was always a brood war site and that is why we actually discuss brood war here. Your comment is absolutely off-beam.
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it was pretty funny tho
as for BW, im not able to watch streams anymore so im not flowing with the scene in any fashion, i take consolation that there are millions of vods for me and english casters will continue to cast for the next 50 years at least 
(but i do really really miss being a devoted current fan, that bisu fanart was so beautiful)
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Wowow, Arena MSL was actually the first ever finals I ever watched, and coincidentally fully introduced me into the Korean proscene. I wouldn't watch another MSL final until Lost Saga I believe, but watching forGG vs Jaedong made TvZ my all time favorite matchup. And also made me a Terran fanboy.
I don't quite feel all your pain, as I was really more of an OSL guy, but my god, it's still hard for me to believe it's gone. Maybe all late comers like me feel like that?
BW4LIFE
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On November 03 2011 23:13 chaosTheory_14cc wrote:
Wowow, Arena MSL was actually the first ever finals I ever watched, and coincidentally fully introduced me into the Korean proscene. I wouldn't watch another MSL final until Lost Saga I believe, but watching forGG vs Jaedong made TvZ my all time favorite matchup. And also made me a Terran fanboy.
I don't quite feel all your pain, as I was really more of an OSL guy, but my god, it's still hard for me to believe it's gone. Maybe all late comers like me feel like that?
BW4LIFE
I was actually quite dissatisfied that the thought of msl being abolished because of k-pop in the beginning stages however I have come to accept it . Although I want to be optimistic that there is potential of msl being run by osl and so and I want to think it's possible . It isn't done until mbc gives the final word's.
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EPT
