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The Baby Elephants in the RoomAn unsung story of MLG Anaheim![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fGPye.jpg)
We all know about the elephant in the room. Like clockwork, Korean pros invade North America for weekends at a time, sweep through open brackets and pools, and then – with pockets full of cash – disappear into thin-air. By now, the Korean versus Korean Championship Final is a trademarked feature of MLG. Throw eight elephants from the Brood War era into the equation, and never has it been more obvious that the Korean elephant will outgrow our convention centers before long.
But what North America doesn’t know is that – yes, we have our own baby elephants.
Meet EifeR. Unbranded. Unheard of. Sporting a grey t-shirt in the player pit (polo, because he is a freshman from Yale University). Crowds are gathering around IdrA versus KawaiiRice when a murmur ripples through and a strange excitement fills the air: some guy named I-for is at an advantage against a top Korean pro.
Eifer turns the advantage into a win. Against Evil Geniuses JYP.
Now meet xSixSuppy from UC Berkeley. Nineteen years old, 4.0 GPA, scholarship student. Pre-med.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/vE3SA.jpg) And also MLG Breakout Player in Spring Championships 2012.
Suppy's one month of training after the end of the semester makes all the difference: 2-1 iNcontroL, 2-0 TAiLS, 2-1 dde, 1-2 into extended series of 4-3 against SeleCT, 2-0 Sasquatch, 2-1 Killer, and 2-1 Bling.
Fitzyhere from the University of Cincinnati 2-0's Liquid`Zenio. University of Houston's SniXSniPe takes an early lead on Sheth, earning Sheth's fear and admiration. Gerbil takes out EGMachine in a 2-0 series despite a prolonged hiatus from StarCraft II. AreaKitty forces TAiLS to the brink in two knife-edge games. Rutgers' EDEdDNEdDYFaN (pronounced by the MLG announcer as E-D-E-D-long pause-Neddy Fan) proves a challenge to dDoro in a close 1-2 series.
Think about it for a minute. They’re not Korean. They don’t even look like North American pros with chinstraps. Sometimes there’s no branding on their backs. They play in their free time because they love the game, and they’re good at it.
Imagine them full-time. Sponsored. Ready to practice all day because they’re young, they’re fast, and they dream bigger. It's a new generation of gamers – and this isn't even counting the high school students who had a field day in the open bracket (Sanddbox knocking out EGDemuslim AND LzGaMeR 2-0, Pokebunny, and Xenocider).
This past MLG Spring Championship has been a proving grounds for CSL. The stories in the player pit often go unheard, but the sheer dominance of collegiate players in Anaheim last weekend means only one thing: that there is remarkable and untapped talent in collegiate StarCraft II players. If these players can balance five courses and StarCraft II while taking out professional gamers, imagine what they could do with a little more support – scholarships, sponsorships, the chance to join a pro-gaming team as a natural progression from CSL, for example.
Let's stop looking towards the east for the Korean threat. Take a look at our home-grown heroes: the EifeRs and Suppys of North America.
![[image loading]](http://www.cstarleague.com/sites/default/files/MLG Anaheim CSL.jpg)
A herd of baby elephants from the CSL @ MLG Anaheim meetup. Future GSL/MLG/IPL champions in the making, you heard it now.
Welcome to the future of SCII.
CSL @ MLG Anaheim 2012 Hall of Fame
OLR1
LuckyFool (Alumnus: George Mason University)
UCDTbeezy (University of California Davis)
OLR2
EGiNcontroL (Alumnus: Oregon State University)
Mekhami (University of North Texas)
noobeater5 (University of Texas Austin)
SniXSniPe (University of Houston)
OLR3
Gret0rp (Alumnus: The College of New Jersey)
GerbilLighT (University of Waterloo)
goswser (Miami University)
OLR4
Eifer (Yale University)
xSixMystik (CSU Fullerton)
OLR5
qxc (Alumnus: Harvey Mudd College)
binskiLighT (University of North Texas)
CaliberLighT (University of Washington)
HeavensLighT (University of Houston)
YaTaFTW (Rochester Institute of Technology)
xSixVer (University of North Texas)
OLR6
KawaiiRiceLighT (University of Washington)
Tri_Master (University of Houston)
OLR7
Fitzyhere (University of Cincinnati)
ostojiy (University of Western Ontario)
Championship Round 2
xSixSuppy (University of California Berkeley)
hazelynut is an aspiring, CSL-biased ESPORTS journalist and brood mother of collegiate StarCraft players. She dabbles in collegiate ESPORTS journalism and specializes in collegiate ESPORTS administration.
Cross posted from www.cstarleague.com
 
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Hazelynut you are amazing! :D Thanks for taking the time to write up and help show case some of the top tier players that aren't as well known! There defiantly needs to be more spotlight on these players.
Hopefully the podcast that I'm setting up will help a little bit with this. But in reality only time will tell how much support we show these players!
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Was unaware Gretorp went to my school, this makes tons of sense now.
5/5 for the hopeful future of the NA scene, and also teaching me something new :D
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Last time i played ostojiy (first and only time i played a GM player) he BM'd me and my team (was 4v4)
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Badass writeup is badass.
Nice work. Suppy's run was absolutely crazy this weekend.
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On June 16 2012 04:21 kanada wrote:
Last time i played ostojiy (first and only time i played a GM player) he BM'd me and my team (was 4v4)
sorry to hear that  i'll have a word with him for sure
thanks for the support <3! will try to get more of these writeups and do some coverage of uncovered stories :D
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On June 16 2012 04:40 hazelynut wrote:Show nested quote +On June 16 2012 04:21 kanada wrote:
Last time i played ostojiy (first and only time i played a GM player) he BM'd me and my team (was 4v4) sorry to hear that i'll have a word with him for sure thanks for the support <3! will try to get more of these writeups and do some coverage of uncovered stories :D
on MajOr (juan)'s stream a bit ago after CSL ostojiy was smurfing and sniped Major bmed the fuck out of major and major calmly beat him a bunch of games in a row and said stop being bm, you suck and you cant back up your shit talk.
Ostojiy is a douche online, basically idra except idra doesnt stream snipe.
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I like the article a lot, but I draw a different conclusion than you. I think funnytoss has a very valid point in his blog on a lower skill ceiling in sc2 vs BW which is why we see randoms competing at the level they do, where they wouldn't have had a chance in BW. Maybe this is a good thing, or maybe the game just hasn't had the time to reach that point.
To sum: SC2 sees a lot of randoms with breakout performances, and will continue to have said breakouts appear, bc of its low mechanical ceiling, not bc of talent suddenly appearing in the form of X college student.
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On June 16 2012 05:04 Risen wrote:
I like the article a lot, but I draw a different conclusion than you. I think funnytoss has a very valid point in his blog on a lower skill ceiling in sc2 vs BW which is why we see randoms competing at the level they do, where they wouldn't have had a chance in BW. Maybe this is a good thing, or maybe the game just hasn't had the time to reach that point.
To sum: SC2 sees a lot of randoms with breakout performances, and will continue to have said breakouts appear, bc of its low mechanical ceiling, not bc of talent suddenly appearing in the form of X college student.
looking at it objectively, this guy draws a conclusion just as valid as the ops
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Wow I thought the CSL would do wonders for out national competitiveness in sc2 but I had no idea it'd be that good.
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On June 16 2012 05:09 Rulker wrote:Show nested quote +On June 16 2012 05:04 Risen wrote:
I like the article a lot, but I draw a different conclusion than you. I think funnytoss has a very valid point in his blog on a lower skill ceiling in sc2 vs BW which is why we see randoms competing at the level they do, where they wouldn't have had a chance in BW. Maybe this is a good thing, or maybe the game just hasn't had the time to reach that point.
To sum: SC2 sees a lot of randoms with breakout performances, and will continue to have said breakouts appear, bc of its low mechanical ceiling, not bc of talent suddenly appearing in the form of X college student. looking at it objectively, this guy draws a conclusion just as valid as the ops
And this is why I always thought that the elephant was was a lie. Somebody random figures out how to analyze this "chess-game" better and then come out of nowhere to compete at a high level because the amount of practice required to execute what you've analyzed is WAY TOO LOW.
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On June 16 2012 05:16 jpak wrote:Show nested quote +On June 16 2012 05:09 Rulker wrote:On June 16 2012 05:04 Risen wrote:
I like the article a lot, but I draw a different conclusion than you. I think funnytoss has a very valid point in his blog on a lower skill ceiling in sc2 vs BW which is why we see randoms competing at the level they do, where they wouldn't have had a chance in BW. Maybe this is a good thing, or maybe the game just hasn't had the time to reach that point.
To sum: SC2 sees a lot of randoms with breakout performances, and will continue to have said breakouts appear, bc of its low mechanical ceiling, not bc of talent suddenly appearing in the form of X college student. looking at it objectively, this guy draws a conclusion just as valid as the ops And this is why I always thought that the elephant was was a lie. Somebody random figures out how to analyze this "chess-game" better and then come out of nowhere to compete at a high level because the amount of practice required to execute what you've analyzed is WAY TOO LOW.
chess isn't chess boxing 
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Suppy definitely won my admiration this MLG.
To be able to knock out such high Calibre players while only playing part time and maintaining a perfect GPA should by all means, be heavily applauded.
Imagine what this kid could do without school in the equation?
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Go Eifer! Go even more if you're in Calhoun!
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add me to that list too mona ;; iPSethN/EDEdDNEdDYFaN.
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On June 16 2012 05:33 Ingenol wrote:
Go Eifer! Go even more if you're in Calhoun!
Morse. But are you in Calhoun???
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Dawwwwwww 5/5 for warming my heart! NORTH AMERICANS HWAITING!!~
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hehehehe baby elephants. dumbo of ESPORTS is coming~~
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On June 16 2012 05:49 TylerThaCreator wrote:
add me to that list too mona ;; iPSethN/EDEdDNEdDYFaN.
your ID is seriously a monstrosity lol ...
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EPT
