iGware - anyone know his story?

On March 11 2011 03:57 IPA wrote:
I'm in a division with many solid players, among them ppgBubbles, CombatEX, NrGMalice, REQchbeUBC, and iGware. Recently, iGware has skyrocketed to the top of our division and, checking sc2rankscom, he is now in the top 5 globally for points.

Looking over the other members of the global top 20 club, I recognize literally every other player except for iGware. His win percentage is sick (62%) and he appears to be a total beast; but I have no idea who he is. No major tourneys attended (to my knowledge), no presence on TL, etc.

Can anyone shed any light on this talented player?

On March 11 2011 04:01 chenchen wrote:


He's a recent graduate of Berkeley who's working for a start up in the Bay Area.

Recently at a tournament, he 2-0'd LGPainuser AND EGAxslav (easily top 5 terran and top 5 protoss respectively in NA) . . playing as random 0_0 using godly well crafted, well timed, and well executed unorthodox builds, before finally edging out to LGKangWook. The kid is a genius, he can get DTs out before the 6 minute mark.

He likes to keep a low profile and doesn't like playing for money.

That's all I got.

On March 11 2011 04:00 Nizzy wrote:
No idea but I'm pretty sure "i" is a gaming team. I met iDrone who I believe is a 3800 zerg at a LAN last month who was pretty cool. Maybe they are former BW players? Not sure.

On March 11 2011 04:08 IPA wrote:


Awesome man, thank you. Hope he attends MLG -- maybe he can get voted into NASL. I was looking through his recent games and he beat Ret twice, among other gods. Very impressive.

On March 11 2011 04:00 m3rciless wrote:
Probably a known player smurfing. Remember when everyone went crazy about meatyowllegs?

edit: After googling him, hes in some youtube vod of a 2v2, so apparently not a smurf. I guess its just a new, good player.

On March 11 2011 04:16 NrG.NeverExpo wrote:
Hes mostly cheesy player. Dont think hes gunna be anything special once people learn his stuff.

On March 11 2011 04:16 NrG.NeverExpo wrote:
Hes mostly cheesy player. Dont think hes gunna be anything special once people learn his stuff.

On March 11 2011 04:16 NrG.NeverExpo wrote:
Hes mostly cheesy player. Dont think hes gunna be anything special once people learn his stuff.

On March 11 2011 04:01 chenchen wrote:


He's a recent graduate of Berkeley who's working for a start up in the Bay Area.

Recently at a tournament, he 2-0'd LGPainuser AND EGAxslav (easily top 5 terran and top 5 protoss respectively in NA) . . playing as random 0_0 using godly well crafted, well timed, and well executed unorthodox builds, before finally edging out to LGKangWook. The kid is a genius, he can get DTs out before the 6 minute mark.

He likes to keep a low profile and doesn't like playing for money.

That's all I got.

On March 11 2011 04:07 LesPhoques wrote:
CombatEx is not a solid player... all he does is cannon rush

On March 11 2011 04:23 Anihc wrote:


I played him 4 times and he did 2 K4Gs, a 12 gate 4 gate, and a 2 rax rine/scv all in. I don't doubt that he's a good player but I haven't seen anything special from him yet.

Also nothing against PainUser and Axslav but they are no where near top 5 of their races in NA... well you might be able to make an argument for Axslav but he's not "easily" top 5.

On March 11 2011 04:40 uSnAmplified wrote:
Just another cheesy ladder player, i have yet to see him do anything impressive.

On March 11 2011 04:49 GhostMachine wrote:
Are ppgBubbles and BrokenRythem the same person?

On March 11 2011 04:54 PowerDes wrote:
Watch this replay and what he does with his dropship to avoid the hellion seeing it, without seeing the hellion itself: http://replayfu.com/r/MZKTDm

His timing with the scv to block the landing, and sending his entire army to scout an expo and his account on a hacking site: www.d3scene.com/forum/members/igware.html The registering date on the site actually corresponds the time that igware started to mass solo games.

The attempts to hide the maphacking is kind of funny though. namhcir outplayed him though, attacking from 2 angles to get the blue flame drop in.

On March 11 2011 05:03 IPA wrote:
Hmmm...seems like there is some controversy here? Or is this baseless?

On March 11 2011 05:00 Skyze wrote:


There are actually MORE replays, from his 2v2 team with Sorcery.. although I was under the impression it was Sorcery who was the one hacking (as he's had replays that were sketchy even since October)

afew days ago, Protech was spamming in channels, his replays vs Sorcery/igware that he said was pretty obvious... but I cant seem to find them =[

On March 11 2011 04:54 PowerDes wrote:
Watch this replay and what he does with his dropship to avoid the hellion seeing it, without seeing the hellion itself: http://replayfu.com/r/MZKTDm

His timing with the scv to block the landing, and sending his entire army to scout an expo and his account on a hacking site: www.d3scene.com/forum/members/igware.html The registering date on the site actually corresponds the time that igware started to mass solo games.

The attempts to hide the maphacking is kind of funny though. namhcir outplayed him though, attacking from 2 angles to get the blue flame drop in.

On March 11 2011 05:10 Holcan wrote:



i doubt its baseless if he doesnt like playing for money

On March 11 2011 05:13 PinkPrincess wrote:

There have been calls of Sorcery hacking for a long time. I haven't seen anything that actually proves it (Protech being a poor loser doesn't prove it, and we've dropped games against Protech in 2v2s against strats that we played totally wrong against - I find it hard to believe if he were hacking he would've played the way he did in some of those games), or else I'd stop being his ally personally.


I can't watch the replay from work, so I'll watch it later. The problem with calling hack on things like you mentioned is that they are all things that can happen by chance.

Doesn't Blizzard catch and ban hackers? It seems that using a hack and getting caught with it would be kind of dumb, right? I'll ask him later when I see him about why he's registered on that hack site though O_O.


What does not playing for money have to do with it? If anything, playing for money is a powerful motivator to start cheating - see all the cheaters in previous TSLs.

On March 11 2011 05:19 Holcan wrote:


Since you're under a microscope when playing for money, also most money is circulated around LANs. Even though sc2 is an anomoly and doesnt give any respect to LAN tournaments, they are the gives away if a player cheats or not.

On March 11 2011 04:14 Saechiis wrote:
Cool, I hope some replays of his pop up, maybe I can learn something.

And btw, DT's before the 6 min mark isn't more genius than a 6-pool.

On March 11 2011 05:43 trNimitz wrote:

It actually is because lots of people including myself have tried finding a build that would get DTs out as fast as that for different reasons (I was hoping as a 4 gate counter), and so far I haven't seen or heard of anyone who can get a DT on the field before about 6:30. Which is why I find it hard to believe what some people say here...

On March 11 2011 05:39 asdfTT123 wrote:
The guy's not on a team... He was on the Berkeley CSL team, but kicked out. If you check his facebook his account is the name of a software company he works for.

On March 11 2011 04:54 PowerDes wrote:
Watch this replay and what he does with his dropship to avoid the hellion seeing it, without seeing the hellion itself: http://replayfu.com/r/MZKTDm

His timing with the scv to block the landing, and sending his entire army to scout an expo and his account on a hacking site: www.d3scene.com/forum/members/igware.html The registering date on the site actually corresponds the time that igware started to mass solo games.

The attempts to hide the maphacking is kind of funny though. namhcir outplayed him though, attacking from 2 angles to get the blue flame drop in.

On March 11 2011 05:47 PinkPrincess wrote:

To be clear, the reason he got kicked out of the Berkeley CSL team is because he's a recent alum (within last 3 months or so I think?) and no other reason so far as I'm aware (i.e., not related to the discussions about him as a potential hacker).

I find it doubtful that the rest of the team was all completely ignorant and got suckered into believing he was really a student - it sounds like the sort of thing where they were happy while he was winning for them, but when he got caught they all pled innocence about how "oh no no no, we didn't know".


Anyway, I agree that it was not the right thing to do

using godly well crafted, well timed, and well executed unorthodox builds

his account on a hacking site: www.d3scene.com/forum/members/igware.html The registering date on the site actually corresponds the time that igware started to mass solo games

his account on a hacking site: www.d3scene.com/forum/members/igware.html The registering date on the site actually corresponds the time that igware started to mass solo games.

On March 11 2011 05:10 Holcan wrote:



i doubt its baseless if he doesnt like playing for money

On March 11 2011 05:13 PinkPrincess wrote:

There have been calls of Sorcery hacking for a long time. I haven't seen anything that actually proves it (Protech being a poor loser doesn't prove it, and we've dropped games against Protech in 2v2s against strats that we played totally wrong against - I find it hard to believe if he were hacking he would've played the way he did in some of those games), or else I'd stop being his ally personally.


I can't watch the replay from work, so I'll watch it later. The problem with calling hack on things like you mentioned is that they are all things that can happen by chance.

Doesn't Blizzard catch and ban hackers? It seems that using a hack and getting caught with it would be kind of dumb, right? I'll ask him later when I see him about why he's registered on that hack site though O_O.


What does not playing for money have to do with it? If anything, playing for money is a powerful motivator to start cheating - see all the cheaters in previous TSLs.

On March 11 2011 05:10 Holcan wrote:



i doubt its baseless if he doesnt like playing for money

On March 11 2011 09:28 ProTech wrote:
iGware is NOT David Zhu ( at least in the 1v1 ladder ) the real story here is that iGware shares his account to Sorcery ( his main ally ) This is why back whenever that big tournament was in LA they could not attend the LAN because Josh Price could not show up on David Zhu's account, they would be disqualified.

On March 11 2011 09:54 rauk wrote:


i don't understand this part does "josh price" not have his own account?

On March 11 2011 09:38 ProTech wrote:



You're an idiot. I had both of those clown on friends list I know the story. 1#) Doesnt like playing for money? Why in the fuck would you not like playing for money if you're top 5 in the world? That's like wiping my ass before I shit, it makes no sense.

2#) Almost every replay that I have playing against igware / sorcery they always do extremely fishy shit. They are the ONLY people that I accuse of cheating. looking through the fow / mad hard countering with out scouting, etc etc.

And to answer your question about losing to shit that's obvious, don't you think if you were hacking you would want to cover it up from time to time? Like that game vs namchir, blindly going raven, moving his dropship to avoid being seen by the hellion, sending whole army to bottom bases.

The bottom line is, he has the production tab hack, so he doesn't need to look into the FoW, this means that if he is not paying attention to the map he isn't always going to notice what's going on. that's why he can hard counter everything, and rape everybody. Skills+Hacks in this game is a whole different story than BW.

This kind of reminds me of when TT1 got caught hacking on icCup

On March 11 2011 04:07 LesPhoques wrote:
CombatEx is not a solid player... all he does is cannon rush

On March 11 2011 10:12 legaton wrote:
Internet detectives at their worst. I don't know that player and i don't really care , but with-hunts are quite distasteful. Jesus, it seems that winning a game on the ladder with a cheesy all-in is basis enough to start accusations of hacking.