EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/z7TmXmE.jpg)
by Nick "WreN" Dawes and Ian "TheUrsaMajor" O'Connor
Photos by Joey "Leafeator" Thimian
On June 28th college students from universities across the continent converged upon the Anaheim Convention Center in southern California. Their purpose: to compete in StarCraft II and League of Legends during MLG’s Spring Championship weekend.
FROM THE FLOOR
StarCraft II’s 128-player bracket contained 14 collegiate players, and Team Salad Bar -- now Aware Gaming -- arrived to compete in MLG’s League tournament for a shot at the LCS qualifier. The list of SC2 players ran the gamut from international powerhouses like EG’s Conan “Suppy” Liu from UC Berkeley to players like Anton “Sleet” Birchoff-Frederick from San Jose State and Infinity Seven’s Timothy “Tbeezy” Gandionco from UC Davis. A table of player performance with a link to MLG’s official bracket are provided below and live tweets are available by searching #CSLatMLG.
Player Winner's Round Opponent (Score) Loser's Round Opponent (Score)
Tbeezy R2 Moonglade (0-2) R3 Golden (0-2)
Massan R2 HerO (0-2) R4 Moonglade (0-2)
Kawaii R3 Sage (0-2) R5 Bubbles (0-2)
Binski R2 Sage (0-2) R2 Dragon (1-2)
Abstinence R1 Tbeezy (0-2) R2 Succeed (0-2)
Pengwin R1 HwangSin (0-2) R2 Golden (0-2)
m3wtw0 R1 Heart (1-2) R1 Dragon (1-2)
Sleet R1 Cham (0-2) R1 Flo (0-2)
Suppy R4 Polt (1-2) R6 Stats (0-2)
Xenocider R3 Polt (0-2) R4 TheOgnis (0-2)
Hendralisk R2 Tilea (1-2) R3 Grubby (1-2)
Spanishiwa R3 Phog (0-2) R4 Sasquatch (1-2)
Hellokitty R1 LovE (0-2) R2 DesRow (0-2)
Ostojiy R2 LzGamer (1-2) R4 Xenocider (0-2)
Source
Not all successful college players are part of the CSL. Over the weekend we met Jesse “LovE” Rich from SoCal E-Sports (SCES). He attends CSU San Bernardino, which currently lacks a CSL team. Despite the lack of on-campus practice partners, he managed to best Zifeng "Hellokitty" Wang from UT Austin 2-0 in the first round. In Round 2 he played Michael “Spanishiwa” Yabut from UC Davis. Spanishiwa knocked LovE to the lower bracket with a 2-0 score. LovE’s run concluded in the third round of the lower bracket, where he fell to Theognis 0-2. Theognis went on to end Xenocider’s tournament run as well in the following round. But if LovE’s run is any indication, CSL players should be on the lookout should CSUSB register a team in the coming seasons!
A lot of CSL players fell to big names this weekend. CSL players repeatedly came up against professionals like Moonglade, Sage, Golden and Polt at this event. And even then it took some of the best talent at this event to defeat players like Suppy, Xenocider, Hendralisk, Massan, m3wtw0 and Binski. Suppy had the misfortune of running into Polt in round 4, but he fought well and took the series to game 3. Massan, Spanishiwa, Xenocider, and Ostojiy all made it halfway through the lower bracket, with Kawaii and Suppy getting even farther than that. All-in-all the CSL had a very strong showing in the SC2 portion of this event, but SC2 was not the only game that CSL players were competing in.
Two CSL players were also competing in the League of Legends bracket at MLG. One of these two players, SJSU sophomore David “ArcZslash” Pham, stopped to talk to us about how his weekend was going, “I used to play DotA back in 2006 in WarCraft … I never thought then that I would be playing competitively. This weekend has been so surreal.” When asked if it was his intention to pursue a progaming career, Pham said, “If we get in to the LCS qualifier, then maybe. We’ll see.” Unfortunately Complexity dashed their hopes of reaching the qualifier on Saturday when they beat Aware Gaming 2-0. Complexity went on to play FXO in the finals for an LCS qualifier spot. FXO took the series 2-1.
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Quantic MaSsan playing a set in the player's pit. EG's Xenocider calm and collected mid-game.LOOKING BACK
On the event floor the energy ran high. There were more spectators than chairs, and I shouted my voice hoarse cheering and shouting with the crowd, especially on Championship Sunday. MLG stated they had 21,000 people attend this year’s event. But despite the record-breaking number of people I noticed a significant difference between fans at this MLG and the last two MLG events in Anaheim. Normally when a player or personality leaves the safety of the player pit or lounge, or when casters leave the production area and enter any location that spectators can reach, they end up mobbed by people wanting handshakes, hugs, autographs, or just to chat. But this year there seemed to be a sort of nonchalance about the affair. Several times I noticed Jaedong, HuK, DeMusliM, Suppy, and Grubby out-and-about among the audience without the typical ring of spectators forming around them. Are we maturing as a scene in regards to our pros, giving them the space they want or need at events, or are we merely no longer awed by their presence?
That isn’t to say that excitement on the floor was low. Each game played in the pit had a crowd of people around it. There were times where I couldn’t even see the games being played for all the people anxious to watch Suppy, Hellokitty, KawaiiRice, or any other of their favorites play. There were time I had to ask Ghostclaw or Leafeator to check scores for me as they were taking pictures in the pit. Fans had signs that were more intricate than ever, including cutouts of players names and portraits of Polt and Hyun that must have taken hours.
The games themselves were incredible. So many of these series on days two and three all came down to one decision deciding the games. While many were 2-0, that doesn’t truly paint the picture of how exciting they really were. Take, for example, KawaiiRice’s games against Thorzain. Though listed as a 2-0 for Kawaii, those numbers don’t tell you about the hoard of players and spectators gathered around the two computers at 11PM, watching with bated breath as one player goes bio viking as the other has Battlecruisers and ghosts. It doesn’t tell you about the security guards trying to usher folks away so a path can be cleared for people to get through the mob that has formed. In the case of CSL players vs other CSL players, such as Abstinence of Berkeley against recent UC Davis grad TBeezy, I normally find myself unsure of who I should root for. The games themselves were what I became a fan of. I almost didn’t care who won as long as what was unfolding in front of me continued. The number of times CSL players met up in the bracket was unfortunate, but it also stands as a testament to the quality of players the league produces. A lot of players had long runs in the tournament, making to Loser’s Rounds four, five, or six, and I couldn’t be more proud to see them there.
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EG's Suppy from UC Berkeley chatting with his opponent before a game. Quantic's Ostojiy focusing intently on his game.MOVING FORWARD
With MLG Dallas to come, WCS America kicking off this week, and CSL Regional LANs coming soon TM, there’s A LOT of CSL Starcraft to be looking forward to. Suppy will playing in WCS America’s Premier League Group H, and Hellokitty and Tilea have already solidified their places in Challenger League, and when brackets are posted we’ll be sure to update you more. MasSan made a deep run in the first Challenger League Qualifier for the upcoming season finally falling to BboongBboong, with several more of our players fighting for their spots as well. The rest of the qualifiers are being played throughout this week, so keep an eye out for your favorites!
If you enjoyed this piece, you can check out other articles at the CSL website, and you can follow these authors at
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/d85mhcx.png)
@The_UrsaMajor and @CSLWreN.The photographer can be found on Twitter as well
@Leafeator.
I did ask Tbeezy about his game vs Abstinence though! He said he was really happy he won, because last year he got knocked out in the first round and didn't want that to happen again. I was glad to see him make it as far as he did. Just a shame he ran into Moonglade so early, he's so good!
my school didn't have a team last year though T_T 
