With this being the last Brood War OSL, a lot of people are getting sentimental these days.... for those of you that didn't know me until SC2, I casted Brood War and followed the Korean progaming scene for 3-4 years before SC2. When I watch the OSL intro video or Nuke's hype video and think about the drama and the legends that have come and gone over more than a decade of OSL, I have to admit that I get a bit teary eyed thinking about the end of an era.
I wanted to get the thoughts of the two finalists on both the end of Brood War and the finals themselves so I talked to them at the Proleague match Tuesday between SKT and Khan. They didn't have very much time to spare, but thanks to them for agreeing to talk to me for a few minutes. Big apologies for all the background noise in the interviews.. we didn't really have anywhere good to conduct the interviews and I can't afford a nice camera or microphone right now. Thanks to Supernovamaniac for translating!
The Finalists
JangBi had won 4 major tournament silver medals, and finally got first place in the Jin Air OSL Finals last season, almost a year ago, beating Fantasy 3-2 getting revenge for his teammate Stork whom Fantasy had beaten in the previous season's finals (Bacchus 2010). He is currently #3 in Kespa rankings, and beat #2 Flash in this OSL's group stage.
Jangbi: "I want to go 3-0 to secure the win, but for the fans I want it to be 3-2 with great games."
Fantasy has a silver mouse (my term for 3 OSL second places) and one OSL first place. He has won 28 of the 32 Brood War games since he played Jangbi last season, and hasn't lost in BW to a Protoss since those finals almost a year ago. He is currently #1 in Kespa rankings, and beat #2 Flash 3-0 in the semifinals. He has not lost a single game yet this OSL.
Fantasy: "I want revenge for last season... I will win 3-0."
Fantasy is currently up 7-6 against JangBi over their careers, unless you count offline preliminaries in which case JangBi is up 8-7.
I have talked to the OGN producers about the OSL finals a few times in the last couple months... talking about foreign fans that have been watching OSL for years online and how many are happy that OGN is starting to make their shows more available to the "foreign" audience. OGN is excited about its foreign fans, and wants to do something to give back to the foreign community who has followed Brood War from afar, so we decided to do an English stream for the finals. TorcH and I will be casting live from Jamsil Student Gymnasium in Seoul, with Supernovamaniac alongside to translate the opening and closing ceremonies/interviews. Due to logistics, it will just be English audio over the Korean video stream, but it will be streamed at:
http://www.twitch.tv/ogn_star2
It's a dream come true to have gone from discovering the OSL online 5 years ago and being amazed at this crazy mystical world across the sea where nerds are kings, to being here in Korea working at OGN. I'm super excited to finally be able to officially cast a major Brood War finals once before there aren't any more. I've got nerd chills, as well as nerd tears welling up in my eyes... but I do believe Brood War's time has come, and I hope we can enjoy an epic finale together and think of it as the beginning of a new era as well.
Thanks for the interviews. I guess it's nice to see OGN FINALLY reaching out to foreign fans, just too bad they didn't try to do this a few year ago when it could have really helped support the foreign scene when there was still time to grow. At this point the only people watching BW probably don't want english casting lol
On August 03 2012 17:11 Ideas wrote: Thanks for the interviews. I guess it's nice to see OGN FINALLY reaching out to foreign fans, just too bad they didn't try to do this a few year ago when it could have really helped support the foreign scene when there was still time to grow. At this point the only people watching BW probably don't want english casting lol
Yeah, imagine for example Tasteless plugging him casting the OSL at Blizzcon. How many viewers could have been raked in?! It's insane that they never reached out to us!
On August 03 2012 17:11 Ideas wrote: At this point the only people watching BW probably don't want english casting lol
I guess it's more for the SC2 people who want to watch the last BW OSL.
To be honest, I generally watch SC2 over BW. But I imagine the quality between English SC2 casting and English BW casting is substantial, so I'd stick with watching the Korean VODs for BW. Plus, the Koreans always really get into it and show their excitement.
Also Jangbi is such a great guy. I do hope it goes 3-2 for the fans I find Fantasy sort of annoying, last BW OSL finals and all he can think about is going 3-0 as revenge.
On August 04 2012 09:14 Eukarya wrote: Can this get put on the front page or something? There's going to be an English stream for the biggest Starcraft tournament in the world!
Also Moletrap and Torch, you guys better yell a lot just like the Koreans
Prob tune in a bit for some Moletrap action. I love me the authentic Korean casting, but also feel more than a bit of nostalgia from the old days of Moletrap doing various solo/dual/triple commentaries over Korean audio, lol, just like it'll be tonight.
EPT
I hope at least you will let Sayle do his own casting, he is the only BW caster for me.
I find Fantasy sort of annoying, last BW OSL finals and all he can think about is going 3-0 as revenge.
