EPT
Rookie League is run in two stages, the first of which is basically the same as the old Courage tournament with open signups and a number of single elimination brackets. The winners of each bracket then qualify as a semi-pro gamer and are eligible to be drafted to a pro team. They are also invited to participate in the second stage of the Rookie League where semi-pro players are separated into round robin groups where they compete for a small cash and hardware prize pool. Then based on their finishing position and overall set win percentage the players are awarded points. For the half yearing rankings, an average is taken of the players' points based on the number of rounds that they participated in.
+ Show Spoiler [Further information from Ryo] +
The current Starcraft Rookie League (there’s one for Special Force too) system is a merger of the previous Courage tournament and the Rookie Evaluation tournament that is held twice a season before each rookie draft.
Under the old system, winners of Courage, the Elite School League and any other existing semi-pros who fit Kespa criteria, were allowed to participate in the Rookie Evaluation tournament held a few weeks before each draft. Under this tournament format, semi-pros were divided into several groups and played two cycles of Bo3 round-robin matches. The scores from both cycles would then be tallied and the semi-pros would be ranked according to their overall win-loss ratio. The last Rookie Evaluation tournament was held in March 2011 and was won by former MBCGame progamer Check. His teammate wOw came in second. Based on the rankings at the Rookie Evaluation, Kespa determined the cut-off point for the number of players eligible for the April draft. The top 3 players also received cash prizes.
http://www.e-sports.or.kr/news/notice_view.kea?m_code=news_20&seq=1482&where=||&query=&where_term=&PageNo=1
In June 2011, Kespa changed the rookie tournaments system. Courage and the Evaluation tournament were instead combined and renamed “Rookie League”. Under this new system, the evaluation tournament is now held about 10 times (with the exception of the months of the drafts), instead of twice a season.
The first stage of the Rookie League system is identical to the old Courage system, which was a bracket elimination tournament. The second stage is open to semi-pros only. This stage used to consist of 진출전 and 본선. But they've since scraped the 진출전. The 본선 consists of a 1st division and a 2nd division. New semi-pros who register to participate are placed into the lowest division (either 2nd division or 진출전). If there are not enough players to make up a 2nd division, then all players will compete in the 1st division, which is why some months' Rookie League 본선 has only 1 division.
Within each division, players are further divided into groups and play Bo3 round robin matches. The 1st division has a maxium of 2 groups while the 2nd division has a maximum of 4 groups. Players are awarded points based on each match win. After each month's tournament, the scores are tallied up and the bottom ranked players in each group in the 1st division will be demoted to the 2nd division while the top 2 players in each group in the 2nd division will be promoted to the 1st division. If there are not enough players to make up two divisions for the following month's tournament, no players will be demoted.
Semi-pros have to register every month to participate in the 본선 tournaments, even those who participated in the previous month’s tournament. If you register for this month's tournament and don’t turn up to compete, you will not be eligible to play in next month’s tournament.
Results from the RL tournaments are be used to determine the ranking of the semi-pros eligible for the rookie draft conducted twice a season. But eligible players still have to register for the draft to indicate their intention to attend it.
Under the old system, winners of Courage, the Elite School League and any other existing semi-pros who fit Kespa criteria, were allowed to participate in the Rookie Evaluation tournament held a few weeks before each draft. Under this tournament format, semi-pros were divided into several groups and played two cycles of Bo3 round-robin matches. The scores from both cycles would then be tallied and the semi-pros would be ranked according to their overall win-loss ratio. The last Rookie Evaluation tournament was held in March 2011 and was won by former MBCGame progamer Check. His teammate wOw came in second. Based on the rankings at the Rookie Evaluation, Kespa determined the cut-off point for the number of players eligible for the April draft. The top 3 players also received cash prizes.
http://www.e-sports.or.kr/news/notice_view.kea?m_code=news_20&seq=1482&where=||&query=&where_term=&PageNo=1
In June 2011, Kespa changed the rookie tournaments system. Courage and the Evaluation tournament were instead combined and renamed “Rookie League”. Under this new system, the evaluation tournament is now held about 10 times (with the exception of the months of the drafts), instead of twice a season.
The first stage of the Rookie League system is identical to the old Courage system, which was a bracket elimination tournament. The second stage is open to semi-pros only. This stage used to consist of 진출전 and 본선. But they've since scraped the 진출전. The 본선 consists of a 1st division and a 2nd division. New semi-pros who register to participate are placed into the lowest division (either 2nd division or 진출전). If there are not enough players to make up a 2nd division, then all players will compete in the 1st division, which is why some months' Rookie League 본선 has only 1 division.
Within each division, players are further divided into groups and play Bo3 round robin matches. The 1st division has a maxium of 2 groups while the 2nd division has a maximum of 4 groups. Players are awarded points based on each match win. After each month's tournament, the scores are tallied up and the bottom ranked players in each group in the 1st division will be demoted to the 2nd division while the top 2 players in each group in the 2nd division will be promoted to the 1st division. If there are not enough players to make up two divisions for the following month's tournament, no players will be demoted.
Semi-pros have to register every month to participate in the 본선 tournaments, even those who participated in the previous month’s tournament. If you register for this month's tournament and don’t turn up to compete, you will not be eligible to play in next month’s tournament.
Results from the RL tournaments are be used to determine the ranking of the semi-pros eligible for the rookie draft conducted twice a season. But eligible players still have to register for the draft to indicate their intention to attend it.
The draft will be held on the 12th of April, below are the rankings of the 34 eligible players.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/HV0uK.png)
Taken from the KeSPA notice here.
I've tried to collect some information and VODs/replays of the top ten players from this season, most of the VODs are from clanwars with their West or Fish clans but there also a few ladder reps mixed in. I've also included the VODs of the players who played in the My Starleague final round at Yongsan but they're only hosted on Daum or OGN. OGN typically loads faster but you need to open it in Internet Explorer and let the plugin install, Daum can take as much as an hour to load one 20 minute game depending on where you live so using OGN is advisable.
Keep in mind while watching the VODs and replays that these aren't progamers and as such their play isn't always impeccable. Also, some players were very hard to find VODs for so you may find games included for them that are not particularly close or exciting.
By.Yourosia - Terran, SKT trainee since late 2011.
Yourosia qualified as a semi-pro in the third Rookie League in August 2011, he was also taken on as an SKT trainee sometime late in 2011 although I'm not sure exactly when. He has been utterly dominant in recent rounds of Rookie League, topping his finals group with a >70% set winrate in round five, six and eight. Although from what I can tell he has been a member of By for some time, I can't find a single VOD or mention of him participating in a clan war. As such, VODs and replays of Yourosia are not particularly easy to find, the best I could get was a series he played on Fish versus sAviOr sometime in 2011.
TvZ versus sAviOr rep pack
neo.g_pigbaby - Protoss, Team 8 trainee since late 2011.Pigbaby has actually been around for a long time, when I was searching for reps on ygosu I found three games of his from 2008, including a rep of him PvTing versus then OZ progamer LosirA (then known as thunder[fOu]). He has been slightly up and down over the course of the last six months, he started off finishing equal first in round four but then dropped off and only managed a 50% set winrate in rounds seven and eight. The most recent round saw a resurgence and he ended up second in his group only to overall standings leader, Yourosia.
VODs were pretty easy to come by for pigbaby as he has been a mainstay of neo.g clanwar lineups for some time now. He was also given a spot in last year's MST prelims as a result of his Rookie League results.
PvZ versus ex-KHAN progamer g1[kaL]
PvP versus KT.MGW)Pro888
PvZ versus Force[Name]
By.ReQuiem aka Crazy[KaL] - Protoss, SKT trainee since early 2012.
ReQuiem joined SKT as a trainee in February, having won his license in Rookie League 4 in October 2011. He has topped his finals group twice, in rounds four and six but more recently has been finishing midtable. Until some time last year he was a member of Kal and all of the VODs I could find of him were from clanwars he played for them.
PvP versus minsu[jOin]
PvT versus Silver[jOin]
PvZ versus mawan_sam
Beach_Lt aka Art[KaL] - Protoss, former(?) STX trainee.
Another former Kal member, Beach has always been just behind pigbaby and ReQuiem, finishing runner up in his finals group three times since qualifying as a semi-pro in Rookie League 4. I'm not actually sure if he's still an STX trainee, the LoteM news board isn't open to guest users so I've had to rely on other sites to try and get information. Also included is a replay of a game he played versus HiyA from a replay pack posted on TL by zimp (<3 zimp).
PvP versus EveR)P(Pianist
PvZ versus 9bal[Shield]
PvT versus Mong[Name]
PvT replay versus HiyA
By.BigTiger - Terran, unattached, My Starleague participant.BigTiger is one of the more well known players from this group, having participated in last year's My Starleague tournament where he lost in the final round to Actually. Like Beach and ReQuiem, he was until recently a member of Kal and was a fixture of their clanwar lineups until his switch to By early this year. He has also participated in several amateur tournaments, most recently the SonicTV Starleague 6 where he finished third in his Ro32 group where he beat Minus)eagle 2-0 before being eliminated by eventual champion Sky[kaL].
Although he has been known as a top amateur player for at least a year, BigTiger only qualified as a semi-pro recently, in Rookie League 6. It didn't take BigTiger long to make a mark on the finals round of Rookie League, finishing first in his group in the round seven, ahead of the likes of Yourosia, maru and pigbaby.
TvP versus EveR)P(Pianist
TvP versus mini
TvT versus former STX progamer nOregret
My Starleague TvP versus Actually Game 1 Daum OGN, Game 2 Daum, Game 3 Daum, Game 2 & 3 OGN
By.PenguiN aka KT.MGW)ZergTOP or BBoBBo[ScM] - Zerg, KHAN Trainee since early 2012.
PenguiN is another of the top ranked players who is a recent addition for By, having formerly been a member of KT.MGW. He was also formerly a trainee with STX before switching to KHAN in March. PenguiN won his license in Rookie League 6 in March and since then his best result has been third in his group with a handful of midtable finishes in other rounds. He's in the top 10 mainly by way of his consistancy and attendance but his acceptance as a KHAN trainee and recruitment to By suggests he's highly regarded. PenguiN is also one of the youngest player of this current group, having just recently turned 16.
ZvZ versus 6ixsense[jOin]
ZvT versus former KHAN progamer minam
Jy_Lt - Terran, unattached, My Starleague participant.Jy is the second Terran in the top ten to have won a place in the Jin Air OSL prelims by competing in My Starleague where his final round opponent, Minus)terrOr, appeared to be about 11 years old. Jy has been the main Terran for LoteM in clanwars for some time which made it very easy to find VODs of his games. He's also had some decent results in amateur tournaments, including a run to the Hodduk Starleague Ro8 that featured wins versus Anytime and beast[kaL].
Jy qualified for semi-pro status in January, going on to top his divison two group in round seven and his division one group in round eight. His results so far suggest that he would likely be higher in the overall rankings if he had been able to participate in more rounds of Rookie League.
Five kill versus Minus in BBulsori Super Clan League Season 1 TvZ versus Minus)Gw TvT versus Minus)ggoma TvP versus Minus)eagle TvP versus SKT progamer Minus)Julie TvP versus Minus)Vip
Hodduk Starleague Ro32 series TvP versus Anytime Game 1, Game 2, Game 3
My Starleague TvZ versus Minus)terrOr Game 1 Daum OGN, Game 2 Daum OGN
There are also a few replays of Jy playing Terror in the 1a2a3a replay pack posted by zimp.
By.Maru - Protoss, unattached, My Starleague participant.
Maru is the last My Starleague participant in the top ten, making it to the final round where he lost to now SKT progamer hudadak. He has been a member of By for some time but due to the infrequency with which By play clan leagues I couldn't find a single VOD of him anywhere. Luckily Maru was relatively known on ICCup back in the day and so there's a decent collection of replays from that period plus a few more recent ones including games versus Terror, Dove and Backho. Credit again to Zimp for the replay versus Backho, it's another from one of the replay packs he shared.
My Starleague PvT versus hudadak Game 1 Daum, Game 2 Daum, Game 3 Daum. Game 1, 2 & 3 OGN
By.Maru replays
Terran_Lt aka precious_Lt - Terran (obviously), KT Rolster(?) trainee.
Terran_Lt is the newest player out of all the top ten to make it to the finals stage of Rookie League, having made it for the first time in round eight. He was very briefly a WeMade trainee before their disbandment last year and is now a KT trainee. A LoteM news post in March stated that he'd entered the KT team house along with his teammate doraemon_Lt. Terran hasn't exactly been a mainstay of LoteM clanwar lineups but he has made some decent showings for them in the last six months, most notably with a 3 kill vs Shield in August of last year.
Three kill versus Shield TvP versus RD[Shield] TvZ versus humble[Shield] TvP versus SanTa[Shield]
TvT versus EveR)T(SONE
TvP versus Slayer[S.G]
MyuNgSiK[WHITE] - Protoss, Woongjin trainee.
MyuNgSiK first appeared in the finals stage of Rookie League in round five where he topped his group ahead of ReQuiem and Beach, since then his results have been a little less exciting although he did finish second in his group to Jy in round eight. MyuNgSiK participated in the Hodduk and SonicTV 6 Starleagues but failed to make it past the Ro32 in either. MyuNgSiK is a regular for WHITE in clanwars although he has a great deal of competition from fellow semi-pro Protoss teammates 4buntaja and Stussy.
Hodduk Starleague Ro32 PvP versus his clanmate BackHo Game 1, Game 2, Game 3
PvP versus WIYEON[saM]
PvZ versus Jinsik[saM]
Other known pro team trainees:
SKT - 4buntaja[WHITE]
Team 8 - By.wiN
Woongjin - By.Bunny, Shout[ScM]
KHAN - BBatta_Lt
STX - By.comet
CJ - technicaL_Lt
If you have any replays, VODs or general information about one of the players who are on this list or otherwise eligible for the upcoming draft please post it and I'll add it to the OP. Also, if there's any incorrectly labeled replays or VODs or just any wrong information in general please let me know.
