Only four TLCs have been played so far yet we've borne witness to some amazing games and upsets and have seen various strong contenders battle it out for the TLC champion title. Overall, Scan, a player of Korean descent who was allowed to participate in TLC did not end up disappointing his supporters as he beat trutaCz in both TLC1 and TLC2, eOnzErG in TLC3 and ifu.spx in TLC4 finals on his way to 4 first place finishes. He had several clean runs and ended up with an overall record of 12-2 in the finals, only dropping 2 games to trutaCz after he offraced in TLC1.
Despite his good form and strong gameplay, Scan had quite a few scares along the way. In TLC1, he met noname on Paranoid Android, a map that was replaced with Destination in TLC2 due to mining imbalances. In a bizarre but exhilarating match, Scan fought back and won against noname who matched his every move and even took a small advantage at one point. In TLC2, Scan had another scare against Dandy, a Peruvian terran who placed third in TLC1 after beating Julia. On Destination, Dandy decided to play protoss and failed his proxy 2 gates strategy after it was scouted and destroyed. However, he rallied back and with a bulldog strategy caused massive damage at Scan's natural with Scan barely surviving by the skin of his teeth to take the game later on.
Several other players also distinguished themselves through their gameplay. Trutacz was pretty dominant against the competition, only dropping a single game to Dandy in TLC1 and had a clean run in TLC2 before he met Scan in both finals. He was upset in TLC3 by Vanatir who won after opening with a cannon rush at trutaCz's choke on Tau Cross (trutaCz learned from his loss, and in TLC4, he blocked his choke with a drone). Vanatir went on to make it to the semifinals where he forfeited his game with Scan citing lag complaints and forfeited his third place match giving the win to dsaqwe.
Trutacz was also upset in the semifinals of TLC4 by ifu.spx, a terran player, and ended up 5 pooling twice for a quick 2-0 win against Brain[Pain] in the third place match. It turned out that Brain[Pain] was afk for a long time because he was watching the stream, while trutaCz just wanted to go to bed after waiting for over an hour for the third place match.
Other notables include:
Sero: A promising terran player (see interview below) who used bio in TvP to beat LancerX on Tau Cross.
Drone: A previous Norweigen champion who showed some impressive games against Julia in TLC1 but suffered from some connection problems later on.
Adelscott: A previous protoss SCII player who had strong goon micro and beat Terror using a proxy goon build as well as Dandy before losing to Scan in the semifinals of TLC4.
dsaqwe: A Croatian protoss player who played the longest PvZ games in TLC history killing both casters and viewers in the process.
eOnzErG: A Spanish Zerg player who placed Top 3 in both TLC2 and TLC3.
ToT)Naugrim: It's hard not to get excited by seeing that awesome ToT) clan tag. Naugrim is an old school player that has been getting eliminated in ZvZs so far, but definitely someone to keep an eye on.
If all of that didn't excite you enough about the TLCs, here's a video made by Stratos, which features some of the most interesting moments from our casts.
Player Spotlight
One of the main reasons why we're organizing these weekly tournaments is to get players excited to play and compete in BW. However, unless you're one of the top players, it can become a bit frustrating at times trying your hardest only to fall somewhere in the middle of rankings. Some people find this extremely motivating though, when they see how much more there is to improve themselves. But in any case, it's very hard to step into the spotlight unless you're one of the best.
That's why in our TLC write-ups, we'll try to shine a light at some of the players who might not otherwise be noticeable and in a small way, try to show our appreciation for their participation. Invitational tournaments with only the best players have their place, but tournaments like these, which are open to all colors of the ICCup ladder rankings, are special. Here, an average Joe, with his freshly acquired bright yellow icon on ICCup, can play with best of the best and get crushed in the process. This can be highly inspiring for our average Joe, or utterly demoralizing; the choice is his.
The first player we're featuring in our spotlight, is none other than Sero! Hardly an average Joe, but with only 3 years of playing BW under his belt and not missing a single TLC yet, we just had to get to know this up-and-comer more closely.
Hello Sero. Would you mind introducing yourself to the people who might not know you.
Hi, I'm a terran player from California. I stream BW on Twitch and am a regular in TL community tournaments.
How long have you been playing BW and how did your skill progression go?
I've been playing BW for 3 years now - since the end of SC2 WoL. Progressing from D to B ranks happened quickly, but after a certain point it's difficult to improve by playing on iCCup, so things have remained fairly static since then.
What is your opinion on the current foreign BW scene and why do you still play BW?
The high level foreigner scene has been inactive lately, but it's easy to find games at lower ranks, and there's plenty of people streaming and watching BW on Twitch. I play because I love the game itself, competing in tournaments, and being a part of the foreigner/TL community.
Do you play/practice BW regularly? Do you have a system that you use for practicing or are you just playing for fun and hope for the best?
When I'm active I play almost every day. Most of the time I just mess around on ladder, but I think studying pro replays and grinding games on Fish is the best way to improve, so I'll be doing that soon.
What do you think of our TLC series? Do you have any suggestions/criticism?
The TLCs are awesome - more tournaments are always welcome, especially with the hype that comes from being backed by TL and cast by Sayle.
I would suggest changing the early rounds from Bo1 to Bo3 since it sucks for anyone to be knocked out after a single game, and to screen replays beforehand so that the best games are chosen to be cast on stream.
You've played in all four of the TLCs so far. Are you planning on playing in the rest of them and do you have any kind of a personal goal you wish to achieve in them?
I don't plan on missing a single TLC. Right now my goal is to make it to a finals, but I'll be happy as long as I'm back in shape soon with everyone becoming active again.
Will you play in the TLS Championship qualifiers that will start after TLC?
Of course! I'm looking forward to it.
We've seen a lot of drama in forums about Scan's situation. Today we're announcing that we're revoking Scan's permission to participate in further TLCs. What is your opinion on the whole thing?
Although I think Scan qualifies to play, I agree with the decision to exclude him since the tournaments were very predictable. Unfortunately his participation made it less exciting for both players and viewers.
Do you have any final words / shout-outs?
Shout out to my clanmates in iNs, the noob clan eMg, Defiler.ru, Twitch BW streamers, Rus_Brain, and the casters and organizers. <3
Scan
Since our initial announcement of the TeamLiquid Legacy Cup series, we have maintained that the primary purpose of the series is to strengthen the activity and support of the foreign BW scene. We've continued with that goal, and everything that has been done so far has been done in the hope of fostering a more active foreign scene.
Community members who have been following TLC news will undoubtedly know about the controversy caused by the decision to allow Scan to play. This decision was made on the premise that even though Scan might not be a "foreigner" in the traditional sense of the word, he has been a part of the foreign BW community for so long that it would be wrong to leave him out. This was also true for other Korean players like Pro7ecT, Michael, Bizzy etc. At the same time, we also wanted to allow non-Korean players who are currently residing in Korea. And thus, we made an addendum to our eligibility rule by stating that exceptions could be made on case-by-case basis.
When we first discussed Scan's case, it seemed obvious to us that he should be allowed to play because he has been a part of the foreign BW community for so long. We knew about the skill difference between Scan and other players, but not allowing a member of our community to play because he was simply too good seemed slipshod at best. Also, at the time, we thought that having Scan in the tournament might even prove beneficial for the scene in the long run; encouraging players to practice and push their limits.
However, with the lengthy discussion that followed in the forums, we realize that we may have been overly optimistic and naive when thinking about our long-term plans. There is a good chance that having Scan in the TLCs might be detrimental to the goal of increasing the activity of the foreign BW scene at the moment. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen, but given the very real chance of it being true and having the goal of TLC in mind, we have no option but to take that chance. That is why we have decided to revoke Scan's permission to participate in further TLCs.
This is one of the hardest decisions we have had to make. Scan is a contributing member of our community and we wish nothing more but to see the situation in foreign BW scene improve to the point where this wouldn't have been an issue in the first place. We'll be monitoring the progress of the TLCs very closely to see if our decision has a positive impact. We also maintain the right to review our decision at a future time.
A word from Scan himself:
Good luck to the people who are going to participate in the future TLCs, and I hope everyone to practice hard, perform great games for the audiences, and show good sportsmanship. I also hope that people should not be talking like they know about my life and saying like "Scan is a no life user" because that's a totally disrespectful tone, and it can go against to any Korean users including players who want to become pros and are currently ex-pros. I probably will join Korean StarCraft sponsor team soon(Just like Olympus and Sharp join Sbenu) and that probably will affect me for disqualifying to participate foreign BW tournaments. I won't forget TeamLiquid, and I will continue to support giving news about Korean scene. Thanks!
See you next time!
That about wraps it up for our first write-up on TLCs so far. We're planning on giving you an update after each four cups along with the updates on TLS, so stay tuned! Until then, be sure to tune in each Saturday at 19:00 GMT (+00:00) for exhilarating cast of some BW action.
Players. It's your time to shine! Registration is open for TLC #5
Talking with many gamers on Defiler, we have thought that up-down double elimination bracket may be better for the beginner/intermediate players as it will give them a chance to play someone of their level and enjoy the tournament more. Playing against Scan, Trutacz, Eon, etc in the first round can really put a downer on your Saturday afternoon.
Edit: Won't have to worry about Scan now, but in the previous tours. Also agree with Sero about the replay cast selection. (Includes good games, vs time restraint, etc)
On August 20 2015 05:36 dRaW wrote: Talking with many gamers on Defiler, we have thought that up-down double elimination bracket may be better for the beginner/intermediate players as it will give them a chance to play someone of their level and enjoy the tournament more. Playing against Scan, Trutacz, Eon, etc in the first round can really put a downer on your Saturday afternoon.
This was actually the original plan, but the TL tournament system doesn't support double elimination so we went with single for now. Might give a double elimination another thought, but that would change quite a few things (length of tournament, would need to reschedule cast so there's more times to choose reps, maybe even split it in two days).
On August 20 2015 05:36 dRaW wrote: Edit: Won't have to worry about Scan now, but in the previous tours. Also agree with Sero about the replay cast selection. (Includes good games, vs time restraint, etc)
We do try our best to do this; but time constraints are too big as of now. Cast starts 2 hours after the tournament, which puts a lot of pressure to watch all of the reps and find good games; all while not knowing when exactly will semis/3rd place match/finals start and how much time they will take.
I'm sorry for Scan but its not fair for the rest. I'm really looking forward to see whos going to be in the finals from now on. I hope that all the bad comments and bad manners we have had these days turn into positive and good ones, with people wanting to play, watch and enjoy the competition. Thanks for make this happen TL
Thanks for clearing the situation up and making this a better event for viewers and players.
Also ..
A word from Scan himself:
I probably will join Korean StarCraft sponsor team soon(Just like Olympus and Sharp join Sbenu) and that probably will affect me for disqualifying to participate foreign BW tournaments.
First of all - great video. Stratos allways on top o_o/
Second, i wonder now how many of you who talked alot and feard Scan are actually going to play. Lets see if number of players are going to increase. Honestly i doubt.
No offence to all of you. But...
I wold rather watch Scan bashing good players in a "pro" way then watching inactive players haveing problems with executing build orders.
Also curious what julia is going to whine about if get bashed in second round of tourny. No Scan. <trollface>
Good news imo, and im also happy to hear scan is looking to join a sponsored team - probably to play in the new proleague? GL scan if thats the case, I look forward to your games.
I second the opinion that a double elimination bracket would be great - I really liked the defiler system with double elimination and instantly accessible replays but I rarely played because the timezone difference was terrible for me.
Thanks to the TL staff for the review and revision and listening to community feedback, much appreciated. Im definitely excited to participate in as many of the remaining TLCs as I can and the TLS final. I dont have much time to practice atm but hoping to become fully active again at some point before the championship and give it a good shot
Well, there is nothing that we can really say now, the TL staff showed that they care about us and what's left is to show up and get those good games going. Also gl to Scan!
# to Double Elimination, though tank will prolly run in soon and scream at me for it. Single Elimination with Bo1s to infinity seems like an overkill and a waste of opportunity. I get that TL.net wants to promote their platform, but well...
On August 20 2015 05:36 dRaW wrote: Edit: Won't have to worry about Scan now, but in the previous tours. Also agree with Sero about the replay cast selection. (Includes good games, vs time restraint, etc)
We do try our best to do this; but time constraints are too big as of now. Cast starts 2 hours after the tournament, which puts a lot of pressure to watch all of the reps and find good games; all while not knowing when exactly will semis/3rd place match/finals start and how much time they will take.
I never got your obsession with pre-selecting the games in the first place, and with/or not delaying the cast. Just pick some matches and cast live, only get back to replays if there are some. Doesn't matter if we get to see some boring stuff along the way. It worked well enough for the Defiler Tours, I don't see a reason why it shouldn't for you. If there are outstanding games you missed, you can still schedule a bi-weekly (or so) second cast. Or have something to write a battle report about.
On August 20 2015 06:36 GeckoXp wrote: # to Double Elimination, though tank will prolly run in soon and scream at me for it. Single Elimination with Bo1s to infinity seems like an overkill and a waste of opportunity. I get that TL.net wants to promote their platform, but well...
On August 20 2015 05:36 dRaW wrote: Edit: Won't have to worry about Scan now, but in the previous tours. Also agree with Sero about the replay cast selection. (Includes good games, vs time restraint, etc)
We do try our best to do this; but time constraints are too big as of now. Cast starts 2 hours after the tournament, which puts a lot of pressure to watch all of the reps and find good games; all while not knowing when exactly will semis/3rd place match/finals start and how much time they will take.
I never got your obsession with pre-selecting the games in the first place, and with/or not delaying the cast. Just pick some matches and cast live, only get back to replays if there are some. Doesn't matter if we get to see some boring stuff along the way. It worked well enough for the Defiler Tours, I don't see a reason why it shouldn't for you. If there are outstanding games you missed, you can still schedule a bi-weekly (or so) second cast. Or have something to write a battle report about.
It's not really that we use TL's system to promote our platform (our tournament platform isn't even opened to public), but rather because we think we'll get the most players signed up this way. Making the player sign up on a 3rd party website just so he could register to the tournament would probably hurt our numbers. ICCup is another platform that we thought of using for tournament bracket, since players need to have an ICCup account anyways, but ICCup's tournament platform doesn't support double elimination either ^^.
As for the picking games go; I'm not really sure that's the best option. Besides the potential lagg issues and downtime between games, I think the cast is much more entertaining with at least semi-good games, instead of a 10 minute hydra bust. It worked for defiler, and I guess it could work here if we only choose to cast live games from known, top players, as those would be interesting for players themselves. But we really also want to promote other, not so notable players in the tournament, so if they play some entertaining games, we can cast them.
I probably will join Korean StarCraft sponsor team soon(Just like Olympus and Sharp join Sbenu) and that probably will affect me for disqualifying to participate foreign BW tournaments.
....No comment.
Is there any news on Sbenu getting BW players? I don't really follow BW much but thought that was really cool that kespa teams would pick up BW players again.
On August 20 2015 05:49 GGzerG wrote: Thanks for clearing the situation up and making this a better event for viewers and players.
Also ..
A word from Scan himself:
I probably will join Korean StarCraft sponsor team soon(Just like Olympus and Sharp join Sbenu) and that probably will affect me for disqualifying to participate foreign BW tournaments.
....No comment.
Is there any news on Sbenu getting BW players? I don't really follow BW much but thought that was really cool that kespa teams would pick up BW players again.
I hope the people causing all the Scan-too-good-commotion can now calm down and focus more on showing us good games. Good decision by TL staff, but I can't help but feel sad that this action is needed.
It's a shame that Scan can't participate, but it is true that it hinders the foreigner scene if Scan wins all 15. I'd personally ask him to refrain from playing Terran as the top players seem to be able to beat Scan's offraces occassionally, but whatever
About the time restraint, is it possible to move the tour a bit sooner? ICC-CL was 2 hours prior to this and didn't seem to be a problem (Although North American West would be a bit troublesome but I think the majority of the players are in Europe).
Another thing was that you guys happen to interview Sero, if you are all about introducing new players you can maybe pick an interesting game between unknown C to B players that might be entertaining and give some potential look into what's to come. (i.e if you found a Wands/Sero character now then by TLS Championships they may be a competitor and viewers will know them).
On August 20 2015 10:51 Joedaddy wrote: I'm confused~~~~
Scan has dominate this tourney? And now he is not allowed to play in it?
The idea is to make players try harder to improve themselves, which is the goal of these TLCs. If Scan just destroys everyone, instead of people trying harder, they will get demotivated getting smashed by Scan. It also doesn't look good to have one winner just win everything without breaking a sweat.
I hope this decision was the best, and I hope everyone will remain extremely sportsmanlike and act with class the rest of the way.
Think a middle ground solution would have been best regarding the scan fiasco. Maybe prevent the winner from last week's cup from entering the next week?
On August 20 2015 17:50 c3rberUs wrote: Didn't notice the video at first. But LOL
"OMG he killed the pandabearguy?!?? OMG WHY did he do that???"
I suggested we ban Scan from the tours for that but maybe we're not ready for that yet. But if we want to make progress as a community, the violence against innocent critters has to stop.
On August 20 2015 17:50 c3rberUs wrote: Didn't notice the video at first. But LOL
"OMG he killed the pandabearguy?!?? OMG WHY did he do that???"
I suggested we ban Scan from the tours for that but maybe we're not ready for that yet. But if we want to make progress as a community, the violence against innocent critters has to stop.
Justice for Pandabearguy!
Yes this crime must not go unpunished, props to the TLC admins for dispensing justice.
On August 20 2015 17:50 c3rberUs wrote: Didn't notice the video at first. But LOL
"OMG he killed the pandabearguy?!?? OMG WHY did he do that???"
I suggested we ban Scan from the tours for that but maybe we're not ready for that yet. But if we want to make progress as a community, the violence against innocent critters has to stop.
Justice for Pandabearguy!
Yes this crime must not go unpunished, props to the TLC admins for dispensing justice.
I havent seen Justlce playing in a while. However, Julia vs. Justlce chat wars should be a blast.
Why not place scan immediately into the finals as a "final boss" and the foreigners can duke it out between each other to find out who will be sent off against scan.
Stratos deserves more props than I could possibly ever muster. Great, great video that sums up the more posertive side of TLC so far. Great competition, some great games, a bit too much whinning but thanks for the entertainment all involved.
I have to say that I am very, very, VERY disappointed. I am new to the TL community, although I have been following BW since the beginning. I am a bit disappointed that the TL staff would cater to the ridiculous requests of the community....but the real disappoint is to you guys (TL community/players). The ones who complain and whine all the time about "Scan is too good". Banning a player for being better is possibly the dumbest thing in the world. Why should he be penalized for being better than the rest? If people are tired of him winning, then they should get better and stop complaining. I, for one, love watching him play in these tournaments. I never know if someone will be able to somehow defeat him, or even how he will win. Will he cheese? Will he macro? etc. I think there is a personal dislike for Scan and that's not fair to make it personal. And if you think it's not personal, then consider this: in previous tournaments Sziky won everything. He literally did what Scan did.....to everyone except Scan. I didn't hear any crying about banning Sziky.....not even once. How is that not personal? Because one is Hungarian and one is Korean? I guess that's not racist right? Why shouldn't we ban Sziky too? Then maybe if Trutacz wins the rest, we should ban him too. I hope no one playing/watching improves to a great level, as they will likely be banned. It seems all it takes is a few sore losers to band together and for TL to listen. What a joke.
On August 23 2015 02:11 Suryoyo1986 wrote: I have to say that I am very, very, VERY disappointed. I am new to the TL community, although I have been following BW since the beginning. I am a bit disappointed that the TL staff would cater to the ridiculous requests of the community....but the real disappoint is to you guys (TL community/players). The ones who complain and whine all the time about "Scan is too good". Banning a player for being better is possibly the dumbest thing in the world. Why should he be penalized for being better than the rest? If people are tired of him winning, then they should get better and stop complaining. I, for one, love watching him play in these tournaments. I never know if someone will be able to somehow defeat him, or even how he will win. Will he cheese? Will he macro? etc. I think there is a personal dislike for Scan and that's not fair to make it personal. And if you think it's not personal, then consider this: in previous tournaments Sziky won everything. He literally did what Scan did.....to everyone except Scan. I didn't hear any crying about banning Sziky.....not even once. How is that not personal? Because one is Hungarian and one is Korean? I guess that's not racist right? Why shouldn't we ban Sziky too? Then maybe if Trutacz wins the rest, we should ban him too. I hope no one playing/watching improves to a great level, as they will likely be banned. It seems all it takes is a few sore losers to band together and for TL to listen. What a joke.
The only joke is you, this is a foreign tourny, scan is a korean living in korea. There's lots of gosu koreans that would play this tourny, but they can't, it's simple as that.
I agree it is very disappointing to not have Scan in the tournament; I hope the decision to remove him from future events will be reverted. Clearly based on the poll that was done earlier in regards to his participation the majority wanted him to play so the decision to remove him based on a few people complaining makes no sense. Players just need to man up and get better.
On August 23 2015 02:44 mauwee wrote: I agree it is very disappointing to not have Scan in the tournament; I hope the decision to remove him from future events will be reverted. Clearly based on the poll that was done earlier in regards to his participation the majority wanted him to play so the decision to remove him based on a few people complaining makes no sense. Players just need to man up and get better.
When you are playing in this tournament, then you can speak freely about people needing to just " Man up and get better " vs a Korean in a Foreigner tournament.
On August 23 2015 02:11 Suryoyo1986 wrote: I have to say that I am very, very, VERY disappointed. I am new to the TL community, although I have been following BW since the beginning. I am a bit disappointed that the TL staff would cater to the ridiculous requests of the community....but the real disappoint is to you guys (TL community/players). The ones who complain and whine all the time about "Scan is too good". Banning a player for being better is possibly the dumbest thing in the world. Why should he be penalized for being better than the rest? If people are tired of him winning, then they should get better and stop complaining. I, for one, love watching him play in these tournaments. I never know if someone will be able to somehow defeat him, or even how he will win. Will he cheese? Will he macro? etc. I think there is a personal dislike for Scan and that's not fair to make it personal. And if you think it's not personal, then consider this: in previous tournaments Sziky won everything. He literally did what Scan did.....to everyone except Scan. I didn't hear any crying about banning Sziky.....not even once. How is that not personal? Because one is Hungarian and one is Korean? I guess that's not racist right? Why shouldn't we ban Sziky too? Then maybe if Trutacz wins the rest, we should ban him too. I hope no one playing/watching improves to a great level, as they will likely be banned. It seems all it takes is a few sore losers to band together and for TL to listen. What a joke.
Szisky is Bulgarian, Scan is Korean. This is a Foreign tournament, Scan is Korean. People shouldn't have to try to follow a foolish ideology of "Get better, play better, so you can win", please keep in mind that there is a DIRECT CORRELATION between the people saying "Practice harder, train harder, play better" and the people who do not play BW, do not follow BW, and would never in there right mind even try to compete in this, let alone "Practice and train harder" in order to beat scan.
To every single person saying " Practice harder so you can win vs scan " , please prove that you are at least D+ / C- on iCCup otherwise this opinion is just void.
EPT
Legacy Cup, for full results, VODs and replays.
