[ABC] Brood War On All Fronts (Vol 2)

Hello and welcome to the second edition of our Amateur Brood War Coverage.

This update should have been released before Gambit Cup's week 2, but due to the sheer amount of content and collaboration needed between various people, we missed the deadline. As an organizer of this coverage, I'm sorry and we’ll try to do better from now on. I'd also like to extend our call to arms from last write-up; if you want to help us be on time with our coverage, send me a PM.

Before I start going into the contents of today's write-up, I need to make a short but important note for tournament organisers. While I was browsing through the Brood War Tourneys forum looking for all the tournaments and leagues that are currently running, I noticed the lack of consistency between them. I'm well aware that we are a small, amateur scene and that people who are already involved in organization have their hands full, but I think there should be some certain things that every organizer should fulfill to make their tournament more appealing. The most important thing is that the main thread of a tournament or, better yet, its Liquipedia page, is kept up to date so that everyone can quickly catch up with the tournament if they haven't been following it from the start. Another thing that should be a standard for all tournaments is making the VODs (and possibly replays) of all games available in a timely fashion.

With that out of the way, you can proceed now on to the reading of our first regular write-up. We have a lot of goodies for you today, so make sure you're comfortable before reading and have a cup of something nourishing in reach. I had a hard time figuring out exactly how to format our coverage, as well as deciding what to include and what to leave out. My main focus has been to make this as a place where everyone can quickly catch up on every tournament in the foreign BW scene. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much stuff we have going on in our little community, so it was important to format the news in a way it wont feel overwhelming for the reader.

Following this logic, we have a dedicated article for Gambit Cup Season 3 updates by Shimy and the ever so fun Torenhire StarLeague write-up by our very own SirJolt, who has also been casting the league. After catching up on those two tournaments, we bring you the results of pretty much everything else that has been happening in the last two weeks or so. To breakaway from posting just results, we bring you a battle report of an epic game between TerrOr and Karate and a recommended five games for you to peruse at your leisure.

After that, we're continuing our series of interviews with people from the community where Pholon sat down with HaFnium and asked him questions about the mysterious Chinese BW scene. We’ve rounded out our write-up with a preview of tournaments starting soon. You won’t want to miss those!


Gambit's Cup Season 3 officially began this past Sunday, August 12th with nothing short of amazing matches. All eight teams competed in a Winner's League format that left some of us with our mouths wide open. Being that Gambit's Cup has taken over as the most prestigious team league in the foreign scene, many watched as surprising upsets and crazy long TvT's took place on what is known as "Statement Sunday". Some teams set the pace and standard for the league while others watched with the despair on their faces.



We start off with the first match of the day where reps), the well known Russian team, takes on the mysterious and somewhat unknown China team. Both teams started the match off with a protoss player. reps)Dewalt, one of the top foreign protoss player, takes on the anchor of the China team: Heroes.
Heroes began to show the might of the China team by taking out Dewalt and Defi with ease. Being that the China team is mostly consisted of protoss players, PvP was far and beyond their best matchup. But reps) wasn't going down without a fight. They threw in another protoss, this time by the name of Tama.
Tama fought hard for a win and gave a small hope to his team after a devastating 0-2 start. Unfortunately for Tama and his team, that small glimmer of hope was quickly extinguished when the TheWk stormed in taking out Tama and ultimately Plumbum for the China win! China definitely showed that their talent is deep and the opposing teams are going to have to put in a lot of effort in order to compete with them.





Moving on to what seemed to be a less anticipated match, but quickly exceeded all of our expectations. iFU vs LRM) looked to many like an LRM) taking a walk in the park, but hold your horses. iFU had a few tricks up their sleeves. The match started off with LRM)'s Polish zerg player, Pike, while iFU with their Russian protoss - Must. It was a hard fought battle for Must who ended up giving his team a 1-0 lead, while LRM) had to continue with uneasy feeling in their stomach. They knew they had to start sending out the big guns, and that's exactly what they did. trutaCz came in and took out Must, tying the series at 1-1. iFU couldn't have that, so they sent out CryoC to give them the lead once more. It was then up to LRM)'s long time member and esteemed manager, Game, to give them the edge. Game began firing back. He took out CryoC, then iFU's mighty Octzerg. Everything was going great and LRM) was looking to take the series when spx showed up. Now, no offense to anyone on iFU, but I personally have not heard a lot about spx in my years following the foreign BW scene, but iFU knew what they were doing. Spx made somewhat of an upset taking out Game and tying the series at 3-3. It was up to TechnicS to finish the job. The battle was tough, but LRM) pulled off the victory with TechnicS' insanely gosu zerg play. iFU's message of "We're to be taken seriously" did not go unnoticed though.





That brings us to our third match! Sas vs SiR was another match that seemed like one team had the extreme upper hand with their star players Sziky, Michael, Cute, Bizzy and DraW. *gulp*. With that being said, SiR (formally known as iwl) has some very talented players as well, good enough to take games off of any of those guys. So as they start the match, Zaraki comes out for sas. and Executer for SiR. The crazy 45 minute game left Zaraki speechless as Executer took the 1-0 lead for his team. Sas then continued the match with Skzlime who took down protoss from SiR. Skzlime then had to take on Artanis, a fairly unknown player in the scene. Artanis showed everyone how imbalanced 12nex is and took down Skzlime putting SiR up 2-1. Sas. said "No more of this" and called for Sziky. Sziky, as he usually does, owned. His play tore through Artanis, then fapman, and finally democrat taking the 4-2 win for his team! Sziky doesn't have to prove how good he is, but he did. Easily taking down the remainder of SiR and showing how strong sas really is.






And that finally leaves us with match number four. Fox vs SJ. Probably my favorite match. Not only because of its epicness, but because I'm a Fox member myself. SJ are clear frontrunners of this league. They have one of the only lineups that could take down all of sas's players easily. Fox on the other hand does not. Fox was a team formed by NoisE, EleGant, and myself. Our hope was to show people that these mid rankers can play with the big dogs and compete in the Gambit's Cup. So with that little back story, the match started off with Fox.Quirinus and SJ.Southpark. Southpark took off with the game and a 1-0 lead for his team. Fox needed to take down this 9pooler without taking too much damage, so they sent out one of the best protosses on the team - Fold. Unfortunately, Fold fell to Southpark's aggressive play, but he weakened him and stalled long enough for what was going to be the greatest moment in Fox's short history. Karate had just arrived and had heard about the 0-2 score. He would have none of it. He easily took down Southpark giving Fox some life. Then he had to face Napoleon. He ended up taking that game as well, tying up the series! We all wondered "Can Fox do it?" "Can Karate take out two more?". Karate was then matched up against the ex-retired Mazur. Mazur fought hard, but fell to the unstoppable Karate, who gave his team a lead! Karate was fatigued, but had to do it for his team! SJ put up the only person that would give Karate the hardest challenge - TerrOr. In what was probably the best game of foreign BW I've seen in a LONG time, Karate fought hard in a back and forth TvT.
When all the yamatoes were done firing, behind the smoke stood Karate. Taking the series and all-killing one of the best teams in Gambit's Cup! I think he made the biggest statement of them all...





This week saw the exciting^{[citation needed]} conclusion of the group stages of the Torenhire StarLeague, which has seen some of TeamLiquid’s better known (as well as some unknown contenders and mystery knights) compete in what has been a hard fought and only occasionally ridiculous series of groups. The round of 32 has passed us by in a blaze of mine-drags, perfect storms, scouts, and mass wraiths.

Now that the group stages are over, we enter the knockout stage of the tournament. The remaining competitors are split between those who cared enough to practice for their matchups, and those whose raw, natural talent, and years in the game have proven sufficient to see them this far into the tournament.





For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the groups as they’ve happened, we’ve seen a number of upsets, including, but not limited to, the elimination of staunch favourite HotBid, and the gradual unravelling of what will, without doubt, be remembered by many as The Mondragon Conspiracy. The stage has been set for a dazzling round of sixteen, with titans like Rekrul and Liquid`Drone facing off against more unpredictable elements like BioboyAT and the mercurial Trozz.

The trash talk has already begun, with 2Pacalypse- vowing revenge on tournament caster Kiante for his repeated bashing of his play in both this league and Trozz’s Gem League:




Whether preparation and sagacity can beat those ingrained mechanics and years of intimate game knowledge remains to be seen, but, if nothing else, the ThSL has taught us that no one is untouchable. The road to the round of sixteen has been paved with the eliminations of fan favourites and minor celebrities (to say nothing of bugged replays); this is still very much anyone’s tournament. For those of you who haven’t yet taken the opportunity; you can check out all of the VODs for the ThSL in the first post of the ThSL thread, courtesy of HawaiianPig.

Hopefully we’ll have even more of you joining us for the next stage of the tournament. In what many have come to see as Brood War’s twilight, thirty-two TL users signed up to fight for what might be their last chance to win a tournament of this size.

To the victor will go the spoils, the glory, the pride, bragging rights enough to end any flame war, and the vinyl stickers of the TL horse.



There's a lot more tournaments and leagues going on in the scene than Gambit Cup and ThSL. I wish we could dedicate each of them a special article, but unfortunately that would take too much space. So this article will serve a purpose to get you up to speed with all the other competitions happening in our scene. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to format this article so the information is presented to you in a visually pleasing way, so hopefully you won't get lost by reading it.



First up, we have a Team League that is specific to D rank players. For long time, beginning players felt excluded from the scene for their inability to participate in any competitive tournaments. No more! Season 3 of a popular league is well underway, bringing those players a sense of belonging and igniting their competitive drive. The league is currently at sixth week, but due to the absence of the person in charge, the results remain scattered around his thread. I hope he remedies this as soon as possible.

Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=349433



A twin tournament of DRTL is its individual spin-off, D Ranks Individual Tournament. There have never been more incentive for beginner players to play an awesome game that Brood War is. While team league is good for building team spirit and making friendships, an individual league is where players go to really prove themselves. D Ranks Individual Tournament is perfect for giving players a motivation to improve.
The tournament is currently at its semi-finals stage with competition looking as fierce as ever. Below you can see the full bracket.




Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=353816




TheShimmy came up with an idea to organize a tournament for all college players. Of all ranks. An interesting experiment where we saw 32 players registering and showing us a variety of games. The tournament is currently at Round of 8 stage where, interestingly enough, we don't have a single mirror matchup!
Below you can see the full bracket.




Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=354318




Few weeks ago a Teamliquid member, Caihead, brought us news of Chinese imitation of an OSL. Everyone was excited since our regular OSL has concluded and we desperately needed something to follow where the skill level of the games is as close as possible to the Korean scene. The excitement was greater because the Chinese scene is secluded from the rest of the world and very few people had any idea about it at all. But thanks to the various Teamliquid members, who brought us this wondrous new scene a bit closer, we can now enjoy the games from a newly discovered scene. The one downside of this scene, much like our very own scene, is the distribution of the races. Even in China, protoss and zerg seems to be fan favorite while fans of the mechanic race suffers.
Alas, the league is currently at the Round of 8 stage where we have five protoss and three zerg players battling for their chance at glory. Below you can see the VODs of first two games in Round of 8, casted by TheShimmy.



Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=361244




This is the first showmatch from the series of showmatches brought by Eywa. We had a pleasure to watch the finalist of Altitude's International Starleague going against the zerg player, reps)Defi. Even though we were guaranteed to see some entertaining games, the main attraction of the tournament, however, were the unusual maps that were used. reps)Defi, who's actually more known as a 2v2 player, took down SJ.dOTY with a convincing result of 3-1. You can watch VOD of the whole thing down below.




VOD: http://www.twitch.tv/hacklebeast/b/327660179

Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=358542




The second showmatch in the same series was supposed to be between LRM)Choosy and reps)Plumbum on the same maps as the first one. But when everything was settled, Plumbum had some problems and had to back out of the showmatch. Fortunately for viewers, the hero sas.Zaraki jumped in and showed some amazing games, much to the delight of everyone watching. Unfortunately for our hero, the showmatch didn't go in his favor, but he still left a winner.




VOD: http://www.twitch.tv/hacklebeast/b/328144451

Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=358746




Defiler Tours are one of the longest running weekly tournaments in BW scene, ever. Unfortunately, lately they ran into some problems in organization and they've been less periodic, but hopefully they return soon in their full glory. Last of its kind was played at August 5th, where Russian protoss player reps)Dewalt came victorious against a Bulgarian zerg, LRM)TechnicS.
Below you can see the full bracket.



Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=356944



And lastly, we have Mini Tour, edition 13. Following its big brother's, Defiler Tour, footsteps, Mini Tour also aims to be as regular as possible. The difference though is that Mini Tour has a very unique map pool, to say the least. In the latest edition only one map was played, Chain Reaction. In the finals we saw a ZvZ mirror matchup, where iFu.eonzerg defeated sas.Michael 2-0.
Below you can see the full bracket.



Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=360418








HaFnium may be known to some as one of the leaders of the Asia Pacfic team that played in the Altitude Nation Wars and, more recently, one of the captains of the Chinese Team playing in the Gambit's Cup 3. ABC had the pleasure of sitting him down for an interview last week, where we try to find out a bit more about him.











The NoisE Amateur StarLeague is starting up again and ready for action! This time, the league’s organizers have managed to gather a $600 prize pool! EleGant and Hacklebeast will cast the event in its entirety, with lots of great content to get excited about along the way. The league is for C-rankers everywhere and is currently in signup mode! Be sure to check out the thread for more information, and contact Shimy @ TL.net for more info. If you're not sure if you should follow this league, here's an awesome hype video made by Stratos to show you what you might've missed in the last season:



In other upcoming events, we’ve got the Yellow StarLeague - another tournament for C-rank players. Sporting a prize of $250 US, it's guaranteed to show us some fierce competition. If you're only hearing about this tournament now and would like to participate, make sure you hurry; the ladder stage is already under the way, and will continue until August 25th.

In the less competitive side of the community, there’s the Pucca Free For All tournament, that will use one of the lesser known StarCraft gaming modes: Capture the Flag. If you're not sure exactly what does that means, here's a sample video of a CTF game, casted by BWalma, one of the organisers of this tournament. It's a lot of fun!

If all of that isn’t enough, we’ve got the crazy Smurf tournament. Just another generic sixteen-man invitational? Nope, here’s the kicker – all of the players will play under a smurf ID. So if you're one of those players who crack under the pressure playing the games while a lot of people are watching you, this is a perfect tournament for you. You get to play as badly as you want while no one will have the slightest clue who you are. So just relax, and have some fun!