[CSL+] Powering Up to Playoffs

After a grueling seven weeks of round robin in eight different divisions, sixteen schools can officially claim eternal glory and bragging rights as the 16 best Starcraft teams in North America.



Mark your calendars. The next three weeks separate the men from the scrubs, the 5 hatches from 5 pools, the Jaedongs from the Killers. Will the University of Texas make the finals, ready to redeem their second place finish from last season? Will UCSD live up to its promise to take down Duke in the finals? Will Canadian powerhouses edge out American universities in one – or both – Conferences?

If you haven’t been following CSL up until this point, now is better than never and ever. Tune into livestream. Witness the trash talk first hand. Cheer on your favorite college, your favorite region, or your favorite country. Don’t like UVic? Cheer on every single one of their opponents in the top 16.

And if you haven’t been following CSL, get ready to see what you’ve been missing out on.

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January 21: Princeton discovers a rival in nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and promptly prepares for pelvic ceremonies.


February 13: Chicago and THE Ohio State University celebrate the first season with an exhibition match.

February 14: Rice and Emory skip out on Valentine’s Day to play some SC.

February 21: It begins. Twenty six schools, six weeks of Swiss, and a top eight in the making.

February 22: Princeton takes on Rice in Round 1 + Show Spoiler +

April 6: The top 8 emerge.

April 7: And then there were four.

April 24: Texas expresses its fear of vespene geyser tricks and Asians.

April 26: The Finale. Berkeley snags the win with a solid 3-0, ending the season with a flash of insurmountable dominance.

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The summer is quiet, and CSL disappears under the radar for three months of backstage planning. The administration, gathered in a Maryland suburban kitchen and munching on home-baked pizzas, pulls out the projector and starts making plans for the new season. There are vague references to profits and revenues, and there are doubts. The original vision, and the original dream for CSL, doesn’t quite make it onto the kitchen table.

September 1: CSL opens its $5 per player registration and drama ensues.

This drama llama, unlike other domesticated drama llamas, was raised on the robust mountain grass of green eSports dollars. The CSL administration proceeded to split at the seams: one faction against another.

It was unclear, in these crucial 24 hours between September 1st and 2nd, whether CSL would continue on time, or even continue at all…

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It was then, that a message of hope arrived.



One nation, two Collegiate Starleagues. Would CSL, Inc. and CSL+ become the MSL and OSL? Could CSL survive the break in management?

On one hand, there was CSL, Inc.:

And then, there was CSL+:

And game on we did.






Does anyone remember a week in September, when teams gathered far and wide, huddling together in the Teamliquid Blog section and figuring out how to meet in real life for the first time?

Here’s a reminder:

Georgia Tech role call: CSL players needed
Calling UNC Chapel Hill students for CSL
MCCC CSL+ Team – Calling All Players!
The University of Texas at Austin [CSL]
[CSL] Cornell Team
CSL Ohio State University
[CSL+] UIUC University of Illinois interest?
UofT CSL Team
CSL Michigan Team
[Rutgers]ICCup/CSL+ Team!
Uof Houston CSL Team
Duke CSL (nsfw)
Texas A&M CSL Team
Auburn CSL+ etc
[CSL] Johns Hopkins University
[CSL] UC Merced
[CSL] UF (Gatornation!)
[CSL] UWO
[CSL] MIT
[CSL] NIU
Wabash College CSL

These were uncertain days. Out of the schools that rallied the depths of the Internet to find recruits, UF, Wabash College, UC Merced, MCCC, and UNCC would disappear into the sad reality of academics and student populations far too small to find those interested in Starcraft. Here, let us take a moment to remember their absence, honor their efforts, and mourn their defeats – and, above all, let us hope to one day meet them on the battlefield.



September 5: CSL+ forges ahead with its planned All-Star Match.

September 6: Teams, in the meantime, concentrate on more important aspects of CSL.








Poll: Best handle?
(Vote): Poly.theism
(Vote): eU.reka
(Vote): [CU]cumber
(Vote): Xeris_Xeris
(Vote): [RUTGERS]penis
(Vote): [NU]m_num_num

September 13: After 12 furious days of coding, CSL+ Launches!



October 10: Round 1 begins with a face-to-face confrontation between New Jersey’s finest.






October 18: Two hundred viewers tune in for UToronto v UC Berkeley, casted by Diggity and PsyonicReaver.

October 20: Round 2 is full of curb-stomps and nail-biters.

November 5: It’s November, and it’s CSL+’s Midpoint.



November 8: We find out who, exactly, owns the South. Is it…

Georgia Tech?


Or is it…

Duke?


November 14: We find out who, exactly, has less sexual frustration between Caltech and MIT.






November 21: Jalstar uses a little eSports science to conduct some Bracketology.

November 23: The Top 16 emerge.

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March 19: The Crimson

April 2: The Prince

April 12: The New York Times

August 30: St. Cloud State University

November 11: Chicago Weekly

November 15: And a little blip in The Times of Trenton





We’ve come a long way. It’s been nearly two years, and it’s far too difficult to explain what CSL really is. In some ways, you just have to be in it. Play in it. Practice with the team; be disappointed with the team; BM with the team.

The players and teams make CSL what it really is.

From players making up interview questions on Facebook statuses


To coordinators coercing roommates into playing for the team…



To interviews and photoshoots…

[Photos/Interviews] Duke University vs. New River

[Interview/Photoshoot] S'all About the Duke Hype



[Interview/Translation] UCSD CSL+ Team!



To priceless quotes like these:





It goes to show that CSL comes from the people, and the very strange circumstances that being in an intercollegiate Starcraft league can put you through.

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Are we the Collegiate Starleague, a league for competition, or are we the Collegiate Funleague, something that reaches out to all college students in the name of fun? Can we be both?

In our infancy as CSL, we have to come to grips with these problems. Nothing comes without controversy, really, and Season 2 brought up fundamental questions about our purpose.

Free agents would let everyone participate in a Collegiate Funleague, but then, where would the "Collegiate" part of Collegiate Starleague go? Princeton, with its own lost puppy mercenary, ended up incorporating [pu]Magneus as one of their own. Magneus came to practices, hosted BBQs, and exchanged terrible jokes with us. He also happened to say this:

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That brings us to today.

The Western Playoffs

A Western: Fall of the Titan

Last year the CSL was dominated by the West – with Berkeley reigning supreme, lording over all other teams with an iron fist. UCLA displayed a high level, matched only by Berkeley, losing to them in the final of the UCPL. This year? Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Berkeley lost one of its most integral members Lore, and their superstar Yosh. UCLA’s lineup was little changed, but due to unknown reasons failed to live up to the hype.

New Stars Rising

UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UVic … all relatively unknown teams rose from obscurity to become the talk of the west. Most notable is UC Santa Barbara, who didn’t even have a team in last year’s UCPL but played the season showing quite a bit of kill. UVic has CSL’s most deadly player, the shadowy baechigi, who went 9-1 in the regular season.

UC San Diego has Xeris, the second most handsome admin beside Artosis and a few other strong players too, who have generated some noise.

Intense Matches

Two of the divisions ended rather tensely – West Division 2 saw UC Irvine and UC Riverside battle it out in the final week for the second playoff spot, with UC San Diego having already secured a berth. In a highly anticipated match, UC Irvine surprised many (but not me) and ended with a 3-1 victory over Riverside to end up taking 1st in the Division due to a tiebreak with UCSD.

In West Division 3, the University of Arizona was able to advance with the 2nd spot due to having a tiebreak win over Rice.

Preparing for the playoffs

This coming weekend will be the first round of the playoffs –eight lucky teams will have the chance to battle it out to possibly lose against Duke! Who will it be? Odds are, it’s anyone’s guess, as the West seems to be pretty evenly distributed with talent. Let’s take a look at the bracket:

It is likely that UCSD and UVic are favored to meet in the finals, but UCSB and UCI both have the potential to score some surprising upsets. Will one of the West’s Cinderella stories end up as the CSL champions? Time will tell.



This past week in CSL+...

The Northeastern Theater

In East Division 4, MIT and Tufts dueled for the right to the second playoff spot. High expectations were placed on MIT due to their solid performance last season, but a surprise upset by Harvard dampened their chances for a playoff spot. On the other hand, the newcomers of Tufts University have had a strong showing, with their only loss so far to the undefeated McGill.

Spirits were high, and the matches were intense. Tufts set the tone of the match in the first set with their Terran, William Lee, breaking the temples on Neo Medusa and decimating the base of MIT veteran Haitao Mao. MIT responded with the strength of their Protoss players with early Arbiters in set 2's PvT on Heartbreak Ridge, and a surprising one-base carrier rush in set 3's PvP. MIT's 4-0 Zerg, Thomas Roxlo cleaned up in set 4 and MIT emerged victorious, in the second playoff position of East Division 4.

Result: Tufts 1 < 3 MiT


Chaos in the Center

East Division 2 featured not one, but TWO interrelated matches that will determine the playoff participants. In the final week, there was University of Western Ontario vs. University of Toronto on one hand and University of Waterloo vs. Ohio State University on the other. Toronto is currently leading the division at 5-0, while Ontario and OSU are at 4-1, and Waterloo at 3-2.

The end result could have been a mess with the second playoff spot to be determined by tiebreakers between three 4-2 schools... or even worse, BOTH playoff spots remaining in contention between three 5-1 teams. According to division administrator DarthThienan, "East 2 [was] a craphole of complication".

While Waterloo versus OSU was a definitive 3-0 victory for Waterloo, Toronto versus Western Ontario was closer than previously believed. Sets were traded back and forth as substitutes were slotted in for missing players. Set 4 featured a surprising upset by the substitute Ontario player, Kevin Kang, as he defeated substitute Iefnaij. Not to take defeat so easily, the pair found themselves in a rematch on Destination on the ACE match, resulting in a Toronto victory.

Results: Toronto 3 > 2 Western Ontario; Waterloo 3 > 2 Ohio State


Sweet Sixteen

The playoffs start at the end of this week. As a man of the East Coast and Princeton fanboy, of course I'm cheering for a Princeton upset of Duke, however unlikely that appears to be. More likely, however, is a Duke v Toronto showdown in the Ro8, where both universities will pull out all the stops. Could we see a potential Iefnaij vs. Nony match?

Time will tell which other teams will emerge victorious, though I also expect Georgia Tech and McGill to pull out ahead, having both been Ro8 contenders in the previous season of CSL. An Eastern conference finals between McGill and Duke would be quite epic indeed, though perhaps not as much as a rematch between Duke and Georgia Tech.

COMING TO YOU THIS WEEKEND, NOVEMBER 28-29!!!

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If you’ve read this far (or just scrolled through it all for the pictures), congratulations! Thanks for reading, thanks for participating, and thanks for supporting CSL+. We stand for Starcraft, Starcraft baked goods, KPop, and all things good and wonderful.

WATCH THE PLAYOFFS. GO PRINCETON!

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