From tomorrow, we are proud to announce that Teamliquid will offer an English cast of the Sonic Starleague with commentary provided by our very own Sayle. For those of you who haven't been keeping tabs on the current Brood War scene, the Sonic Starleague (better known as the SSL) is a Korean amateur league that has grown out of an enduring love for Brood War, headed up by Sonic. It's a product that has already been going for a few years, but when professional BW ended SSL rose to the occasion, growing to fill the gap left behind by the OSL and MSL. Indeed, if you take a look at some of the players participating in the SSL, one could easily mistake it for the lineup a tournament run during the heady days of professional Brood War. Production quality has skyrocketed over the course of the last few SSL tournaments, which should come as no surprise given that it's being sponsored by itemBay.
SSL, along with other SOSPA events, is keeping the competitive scene BW alive in Korea. Together with TLS, it aims to satisfy that deep-seated craving we have for Brood War, hopefully for as long as there are players and audiences to cheer for them. In the past, the barrier between Korean and foreigner scenes was monumental, and we could only catch glimpses of the Korean scene through proxies. Now, times have changed; we are happy to say that we spoke with Sonic directly, and he was good enough to grant permission to cast his league in English for foreign fans.
Tomorrow, we enter the Round of Eight stage of the eighth iteration of SSL. With it, we’ll bring you a live English cast of it on our own TeamLiquid twitch account. To read our preview on tomorrow's games, check out our awesome write-up by kjwcj and Hyde. It looks like it's gonna be a real treat, so you better tune in at 10:00 GMT (+00:00).
A Message from Nazgul
It's been fifteen years since Brood War was released, and our staff is still accomplishing things that make me proud. There is no question that Brood War is the game of my life, and it played a large part in making me who I am today. For as long as the members of the TeamLiquid community are willing to support Brood War and carry these projects such as this, TeamLiquid will keep supporting them.
Seeing the success of SSL and TLS this past year has been incredible. In my opinion, these two tournaments can continue to carry Brood War for a long time, and they are the foundations for establishing a stable, competitive scene. With TLS in the west and SSL in the Korea, I feel good about Brood War's future, even though the Brood War OSL and MSL are gone.
With that in mind, working together with Sonic is the logical next step. We're glad that TeamLiquid can be a part of making SSL a success, and we're grateful to Sonic for giving us a chance to cooperate. 2Pacalypse and the rest of our Brood War staff have outdone themselves once again by putting an exceptional caster in Sayle on the mic with live broadcasts of the SSL. I hope this leads to further partnership between SSL and TeamLiquid, so that we can continue to bring you awesome content.
A Message from Sayle
Waking up early on a Saturday. Restreaming a restream of a stream. Casting in my underwear. It's like Proleague all over again! Well, except maybe the underwear part as I've been told to keep it PG-13 on the TL stream. Either way, what an amazing opportunity this is to showcase the best of the current BW scene. Way back when I did my English PL rebroadcasts, my main goal was to bring BW to as wide an audience as possible and show them just how awesome this game is. When the professional scene ended, I didn't think I'd get another chance to share my passion with so many people.
Thankfully, the TLS proved me wrong and now TL is supporting our scene yet again with this partnership with Sonic. I really hope everyone tunes in and gives this event a shot, whether you're a BW convert from the TLS, an old fan from my PL days, or even a new follower of the scene curious where many of the 'retired' progamers end up. Given that almost everyone left in this SSL is an ex-progamer, I can promise you that the games will be good and I'll do my best to bring back that old 4am PL magic!
On April 27 2013 08:18 Birdie wrote: Sounds cool. Is it just going to be a restream or will Sonic provide a stream minus his commentating for uber professional stuff?
It sounds like an english provided stream and not english commentary over the original korean.
On April 27 2013 08:18 Birdie wrote: Sounds cool. Is it just going to be a restream or will Sonic provide a stream minus his commentating for uber professional stuff?
It sounds like an english provided stream and not english commentary over the original korean.
Actually, it's english commentary over snipealot's stream for now. But Sonic is looking into setting up an official stream on twitch as well.
Loving it, been looking forward to it for some time. Few things beat Sayle's giggles when he sees something he likes and his outrage when he's not satisfied with the gameplay.
Official English commentary, and with one of the best casters the foreign scene has ever seen, hell yes! Please ensure there are VODs for those of us in unfortunate time zones.
This looks absolutely awesome. Will be sure to tune in even though I haven't watched BW in a LOOONG time. This is shaping up to be a pretty sick tourney.
It isn't BW unless I'm watching it at 3:00 AM, I'm glad that I'll be able to relive those awesome moments at least once more. Thanks for casting Sayle.
On April 27 2013 08:18 Birdie wrote: Sounds cool. Is it just going to be a restream or will Sonic provide a stream minus his commentating for uber professional stuff?
It sounds like an english provided stream and not english commentary over the original korean.
Actually, it's english commentary over snipealot's stream for now. But Sonic is looking into setting up an official stream on twitch as well.
really cool, I agree a bit with bisudagger, we need more people to do some casts and rise up so they can help out sayle for when he's busy. Also, as a community we need to support those people.
EPT
Waking up early on a Saturday. Restreaming a restream of a stream. Casting in my underwear. It's like Proleague all over again! Well, except maybe the underwear part as I've been told to keep it PG-13 on the TL stream. Either way, what an amazing opportunity this is to showcase the best of the current BW scene. Way back when I did my English PL rebroadcasts, my main goal was to bring BW to as wide an audience as possible and show them just how awesome this game is. When the professional scene ended, I didn't think I'd get another chance to share my passion with so many people.
((((((
