The event has started! You can find vods here and standings/replays here (click on the "vs." for each game then under the media tab on whichever round for the replay, then download). Thanks to Xxio for finding those!
Starcraft II: Exploding
Introduction
ESL? IEM? Whats with these acronyms? WTF?
For those who are unfamiliar, the Electronic Sports League is one of the largest eSports organizations in Europe. As you may suspect by now, they are throwing their hats into the ring for our cherished game Starcraft 2. They seem pretty excited, enough so that they run a tournament every night of the week.
They're serious guys with serious ambitions. But they're not just waltzing on the scene with some weeklies, they are also charging into our hearts with a little event called the Intel Extreme Masters. Just how big is this event? Well with a prize pool of $15,000 - its big.
How It Works
You see, dear friends, IEM is not just a single event. As the plural in the name implies, it is actually a series. As of this moment, there are two. The newer of the two is the IEM North America tour which recently started up, having their opening qualifier the first weekend in August. Relevant information on that side can be found here.
This is not about that, however, this is to discuss what is in our immediate future. On August 18-22, at Gamescom 2010, 16 of the top European Starcraft 2 players will battle it out for a chunk of the $15,000 purse. Dubbed the Cologne Global Challenge tournament, it will be the prelude to the 5th season of the IEM and the first truly major live SC2 event. ESL has pledged its very best efforts to deliver as many games live as possible for you to enjoy.
eSports legend, Michal "Carmac" Blicharz, is heading up IEM for ESL and gave an excellent overview of the tournament here.
The nuts and bolts of IEM
The Tournament
The actual games kick off very soon. Everyone is very excited to see what the first large tournament since the game’s release will bring, and which players will stake an early claim to being the best in the world. The bracket is packed with more than enough big names to sate your nerdy appetites and make the tournament one to remember. All eyes are on Cologne.
* Brat_OK will no longer be participating since he was denied a visa. Preliminary reports indicate he will be replaced by Morrow. This post will be updated once an official announcement has been made. MorroW has been confirmed as his replacement.
Group A
Group b
Group C
Group D
White-Ra
HuK
Dimaga
DeMusliM
Liquid`TLO
Tarson
LucifroN7
IdrA
MaDFroG
BratOK
HasuObs
Strelok
ClouD
Artosis
Sarens
Naniwa
What a line up. Each and every player has proven their skills through the beta and through recent tournaments. The exception being MaDFroG, who's only recently broken out in SC2, but is a massive name in Warcraft 3 (check out his Liquipedia page if you have no idea who he is!). MaDFroG has already caused a stir with his show match against TLO and IEM is the perfect venue for him to cause yet another stir.
He'll have a tough time in Group A, but realistically he's got very good chances. White-Ra hasn't been posting the results like he did in early beta, and we dare say he's having this first slump of SC2. He's going to have a tough time against Cloud's aggressive play and TLO's creative play as his recent results against the two would indicate. TLO is quite a variable in this group, since if his creative play gets the better of him it's possible he could drop a game to Cloud. Our guess is that he pulls through, and TLO and MaDFroG will advance from Group A.
This could be MaDFroG's breakout moment
If you haven't seen Brat_OK's bionic TvP play, then you are missing out on one of the most beautiful things in SC2. Go look up his game against White-Ra on Lost Temple or Dlovan also on Lost Temple just to see how amazing it is. While lacking tournament results, Brat_OK is a force to be reckoned with. Expect Brat_OK to top his group with ease. The question then becomes who is going to finish runner up. Tarson has shown some unstable TvP recently as can be seen in his two recent series against Socke, so HuK has a pretty good shot at taking him out. It comes down to what Artosis has been doing over in Korea. We have a feeling HuK will edge out Artosis, but really it could go either way. Thus, Brat_OK and HuK should advance.
EDIT: Brat_OK will not be participating since he was denied a visa. Should Morrow take his place in this group, then Morrow will probably make it out of here - but the group becomes a lot tighter.
Group C looks like the weakest of the four groups. While Hasuobs and Lucifron are both very good players, their names haven't been popping up in the podium finishes for tournaments very much recently. The notable exception is Lucifron's third place in Go4SC which earned him his seat in the tournament. Sarens has been quietly sitting away doing reasonably well in tournaments, but hasn't managed to score any major wins yet. Dimaga should be pretty happy with this group and should come out the victor. We're a huge sucker for Hasuobs' Blink-Stalker play and Lucifron's aggressive Terran play - but in all likelihood it will be Sarens who makes it through to the next round. EDIT: Lucifron just placed 2nd in Zotac 18, so there is a fighting chance for him in this group!
IdrA is the hot favourite for Group D - and for good reason. The recently crowned King of the Beta, and arguably the best Zerg on Earth (maybe the only Zerg soon...), shouldn't have any problems overcoming his Terran adversaries and Nani (who's been playing around with Terran recently as well). Nani looks to be the solid candidate for #2 here. His 3warp/chargelot/robo style has been demolishing Terrans left, right and center - and is the reason he won Go4SC #25. I would be pretty confident in Idra/Nani coming out of here.
This is the first major event for SC2 and with so much hype and momentum around StarCraft 2 (not to mention the prize pools) this is the players chance to prove themselves, to make fans, rivals, and perhaps the beginnings of a career as a progamer. The world will be watching as young hopefuls battle eSports titans for a chance at glory, for certainly, years from now when people look back this tournament will undeniably be known as a defining moment in eSports, a time of new beginnings and an unprecedented opportunity to achieve greatness. A taste of what’s to come.
An Interview with Day9
Before the event, we had a fantastic opportunity to get some thoughts from one of the most prominant members of the SC2 world.
TeamLiquid.net: What do you think of all the new big leagues? Will they last? Day9: I think there will be a few breeds of tournaments.
There's going to be the obvious sort of 'oh my god, it's StarCraft! Let's jump on the bandwagon!' They won't know the game or the community or how to run tournaments and those will rise and fall quickly. They're typical of any game, those types of leagues always exist.
For really well-run leagues - ESL, MLG, GSL - I'm certain they'll last. People have an insatiable appetite for games with good players. It's one thing to play StarCraft 2 - that can be exhausting - but watching can be done on a phone, at work, at school. Such a huge hunger from the fans, it's great.
One problem people will have is just that there's a shortage of players. There's only one TLO. He's everywhere.
He's so popular. I just got done watching a TLO video interview before we started talking. Me too. Scary.
Q: So what's your plan, when are you going over to Europe for the IEM Gamescom tournament? Once you get there, do you have any plans outside of the tournament or is all business? A: All business? You make it sound like I'll show up with a briefcase.
You're going to show up in a suit and a tie, it'll be nice. I just better not show up looking homeless. I'm going to leave Monday the 16th and come back the 23rd. That's a nice long time and at least 1 day will be to travel.
My number one goal is to make sure I do a great tournament. It'd be terrible if I stayed out one night partying and showed up and did poorly ... Listen to me, acting like I party. What will happen is I'll say, "Hey, Germans, you play German-style board games too, right?" and I'll have a late game of Settlers of Catan.
I'm really excited to meet the German gamers, like TLO. (Writer's note: he's so popular)
Q: Out of the players going, who are the favorites? A: Even though Lucifron hasn't done amazing stuff super recently, that's one of the first names that draws my eye. Plus I love saying his name.
My immediate gut reaction is Idra. I think he's really spectacular, boils my mind how good that guy is.
Huk. I thought he was a good player in beta but now that it's come out, he's the highest rated player anywhere. That's the sort of player that, if he keeps up steam, he'll be the best period. He went 0-3 in the King of the Beta but still took games. That was impressive but I knew he wasn't pleased. So many players would have given up and say 'this sucks'. The fact that that drove him into super-overdrive is very impressive.
Also, MadFrog. The thing that impresses me most with him is that his play doesn't look constricted. I get the sense that a lot of Zergs feel constricted, like they don't have opening options and even if they play safe they'll lose to aggression. MadFrog doesn't seem that way. He's a trooper.
Q: Do you agree with the list of invites? A: Looks pretty damn good to me. It mildly bothers me that there is a lack of Zergs - 4 Zergs. It doesn't terrify me though. That can happen when people are still figuring stuff out.
It bothers me less because of talk of imbalance but more because - well, coming out of beta Zerg was clearly the race that didn't have a lot of openings. People pretty much did 14 pool, Hatch, gas, Queens, Larvae, Zergling speed, Lair or Roaches and Hydras and it was dry. Terrans were Banshee rushing or Reaper pushing, Thor dropping, all this craziness. Poor Zerg buddies.
Suddenly, Zerg players are more creative. I've been experimenting with not getting a Queen. Holy shit I can get Muta/Roach fast 'cause there's no sinkhole Queen! Extra Larvae is an instant boner, I will never claim otherwise, but if you're constantly churning out nine drones, you only have enough money to make those drones. People should experiment! They'll say 'whoa, fast Lair!"
So I'm 20 % bothered because I want to see more cool openings. But 80% bothered because MadFrog is just awesome, very intimidating. It's very scary to see how good he is. I want more scary Zergs.
Q: What do you think of Blizzard's plan to invest such a large amount of money in GSL? A: Sounds great to me. When I hear that sort of thing, it's obviously a good thing.
When I hear that sort of large investment, the first thing I think about is Wizards of the Coast with Magic the Gathering. Magic has just such a fundamentally sound pro-tour. Everything has this amazing synergy to it.
'When will we have this tournament?' 'When a new deck comes out.' What I'm thinking of is the 2003 WCG when the tournament was in Reign of Chaos but The Frozen Throne had already been out. It was awkward. If Blizzard runs that, that doesn't happen.
The fact that they're involved on that scale bodes well.
How do I watch?
Yeah, we know, all you really care about is how you can watch your favourite gamers battle it out for the championship. ESL will be providing a stream in their usual fashion. That means you're going to need to grab the Octoshape plugin if you want to watch things live. Generally a direct link to the stream page will be posted in the appropriate TeamLiquid Tournament thread when the event starts, so your best bet is to hunt around the SC2 Tournaments section for the Live Report thread and grab the link there.
ESL is endeavouring to bring you as many games live as possible. I'm sure Carmac and the team will be on hand to share the necessary information about the alternate streams for the non-mainstage games. Again, keep your eyes on the SC2 Tournament forum for all the necessary details. ESL also have a twitter and facebook prompt so you'll get the latest information about where the streams are as soon as it happens. You can find the information for that in this thread.
And if you miss the games, don't worry. They should be uploaded on ESL's Youtube at some point. Here is the broadcast schedule for the event:
14:45 CEST: Group B: Brat_OK vs Huk 16:00 CEST: Group A: White-Ra vs TLO 18:00 CEST: Group A: TLO vs MaDFroG
Thursday 19th
14:25 CEST: Group C: Hasuobs vs Dimaga 16:00 CEST: Group C: Lucifron vs Dimaga 18:40 CEST: Group C: Hasuobs vs Lucifron 19:50 CEST: Group D: DeMuslim vs Idra
15:10 CEST: SC2 Semi Final 1 16:40 CEST: SC2 Semi Final 2
Sunday 22nd
12:45 CEST: SC2 Bronze Final 15:10 CEST: SC2 Final
TL Meetup
If you happen to be attending IEM this week then check out the TL Meetup while you're there. Get to know your fellow posters and mix and mingle with the community. Everyone is getting together for a dinner and if you want to attend that you're going to have to reply very quickly!
Is there any conformation from Eurosport as to the nature of these episodes? Cause if that is really happening I can finally justify every channel in my TV package.
Who else thought at first Carmac was our own TL-mod Carnac?
And can somebody please tell me what the situations is with the IEM and Eurosport? Are they indeed getting aired on Eurosport and if yes when? / Where can I find more information about this?
On August 16 2010 22:23 Senx wrote: So will Liquibet add options where you can bet on how many times a player will be dropped from a game due to b.net 2.0 lag?
I would really appreciate it
Dropped due to b.net 2.0 lag? What server are you playing on? Because EU sure as hell isn't dropping people at random..at least not anymore.
tournament will be awesome, really looking forward to it since 2 weeks :D nice article btw, but i have to disagree with some of the assumptions who will advance into the quarterfinals. don't underestimate demuslim, white-ra and eventually hasuobs
On August 16 2010 22:23 Senx wrote: So will Liquibet add options where you can bet on how many times a player will be dropped from a game due to b.net 2.0 lag?
I would really appreciate it
Dropped due to b.net 2.0 lag? What server are you playing on? Because EU sure as hell isn't dropping people at random..at least not anymore.
Oh you a blizzard employee? Its nice to hear such comforting words from a credible source such as yourself.
in short, german consul demanded to redo some invitation docs first (cause arrival and departure times mentioned there differed by 1 day from the real ones) and after he got the corrected version from germany (this time rox-team payed for the dhl deliverance) those doc's notarization (which costs pretty damn much) was requested. Rox suggested to pay the price needed for that notarization but it wasn't much time left and ESL chief officer got tired of trying to get through to the german embassy and trying to solve the problem... And so on and so on.
whatever, still hoping to see nice from all the players on this tourney =)
On August 16 2010 22:15 Golden Ghost wrote: Who else thought at first Carmac was our own TL-mod Carnac?
And can somebody please tell me what the situations is with the IEM and Eurosport? Are they indeed getting aired on Eurosport and if yes when? / Where can I find more information about this?
Eurosport is not doing live broadcasting from this. They are producing a series of short documentaries about pro gaming, Intel Extreme Masters and the top esports superstars. Six of them to be exact.
Some of them will be about StarCraft II, some of them about Quake Live and some about Counter-Strike 1.6.
IEM is fantastic and we would all be smart to support this series! GL to all. Was supposed to go cast with Day [9] but I couldn't get the time off. Next time Sean!
Eurosport is not doing live broadcasting from this. They are producing a series of short documentaries about pro gaming, Intel Extreme Masters and the top esports superstars. Six of them to be exact.
Some of them will be about StarCraft II, some of them about Quake Live and some about Counter-Strike 1.6.
Well thats a shame. They definitely should make a documentary about SC2 as well. National Geographic did a nice documentary already about BW pro gaming in South Korea (the plot was in WCG 2004) and it was awesome.
On topic, I am eager to watch this whole tournament. Its going to be epic, and this is just the begining...
Oh crap, would have been great with you there casting alongside Day. Oh well, going to be an awesome series regardless, all my fanboyism is channeled towards TLO! :$
Jezus Christ. What a bullshit this mess the Germans made for not letting Brat in. I never heard before that those sort of documents need to be notarized. Is that a common thing in these sort of cases? Really sad anyway.
Any other Zerg players see Day[9]'s random "No queen/fast lair" zerg opening and start thinking if that could possibly work. I've never seen it tried nor have I ever tried it. I might get a BO tester and try it out. Sounds intriguing.
On August 16 2010 23:21 djWHEAT wrote: IEM is fantastic and we would all be smart to support this series! GL to all. Was supposed to go cast with Day [9] but I couldn't get the time off. Next time Sean!
Bratok was denied a visa? Hideous!! (don't know anything about this).
Dimaga is allowed to play in a huuge tourney even though he was a TSL abuser?? Fucking heinous!!
I am exceedingly excited for this tourney, but I cannot take anything with a cheater in it seriously. Why has that fuck been so accepted as soon as he switched to SC2. He's a fucking abuser. I understand the argument for second chances but this still too soon IMO. Even if an event isn't TL affiliated people should recognize that they are allowing an disreputable fuck to have a shot at their prize pool.
Give the cheaters a second chance, but first give them a punishment. It hasn't been long enough at all. I feel that because it is a new game does not give someone an excuse for misconduct so overt and major.
I was a Dimaga fan before his transgressions. I have been so very tempted to like him since his SC2 debut. We all just have to realize that despite how much we like a player, despite how skilled he is, he is a fucker who cannot be trusted and he should not be allowed into major events for a good long period of time. Let the fucker stew.
EDIT: I may seem overly zealous but it is simply amazing to me that people are letting this dude cruise. He was a cheater in one of the biggest foreign community events of all time. Why did people forget that?
i'm rooting for lucifron. ever since that boy showed up at the blizzcon invitational and sweeped up games from grubby. The guy's a monster. To the people who say that starcraft 2 has no micro I think we should be looking towards lucifron and madfrog, the boys from warcraft 3, to show us how micro can be used in starcraft.
As an aside: people are obsessing how its just 4 zergs in the tourney, well its also 4 protoss, I think its not a huge problem since terran is the easiest race to get into (zerg have larva which makes it different, and terran is just so safe defending against super early pressure so its good for learning, until baneling busts).
Excellent OP. Good spoilers and not mid-bogglingly long. Perfect.
Go Go IdrA... and Zerg in general. Though- as IdrA said- you almost don't want them to do good because it would give more evidence that the game is "balanced" when it really needs a good bit of work.
man i love madfrog haha. i'm glad that carmac is behind this event. i really enjoyed his interviews for SK-Gaming, and was kinda sad to see him leave SK.
On August 16 2010 22:23 Senx wrote: So will Liquibet add options where you can bet on how many times a player will be dropped from a game due to b.net 2.0 lag?
I would really appreciate it
Dropped due to b.net 2.0 lag? What server are you playing on? Because EU sure as hell isn't dropping people at random..at least not anymore.
Oh you a blizzard employee? Its nice to hear such comforting words from a credible source such as yourself.
Haven't dropped a game in over 500 played, stop trolling, its probably your ISP.
They should really have Tasteless to come cast with his brother! Specially since Dj_Wheat could not make it. Artosis and Idra are going, and he is just gonna stay in Korea??
Anybody know anything more about the briefly mentioned Intel Extreme Masters American Championship in New York City in early October this year??
I would really love to be able to attend, I work for the Delta Airlines and get free flights so I just need to know when and where as early as possible so I can get work off.
On August 17 2010 06:18 heyoka wrote: I think Madfrog has more tricks up his sleeve than people give him credit for. He was pretty impressive in his showmatch vs TLO.
He's a great player, but I just hope he's been working on his macro since that showmatch 'cause it was pretty horrendous in that series :[
Super excited. The streaming news is actually great. It's very, very rare that we get to see all or nearly-all the games, no matter the game or tournament organiser. Rooting for The Swarm as always
I like how he brought up WotC and MTG. They do have good pro tour program that gives top players a lot of money, just to show up to tournaments. Even though, the skill gap isn't as wide in MTG as it is in SC2/BW... I feel that Blizzard could give more incentives so that it gets the scene bigger, and overall help their game.
On August 16 2010 22:23 Senx wrote: So will Liquibet add options where you can bet on how many times a player will be dropped from a game due to b.net 2.0 lag?
I would really appreciate it
Dropped due to b.net 2.0 lag? What server are you playing on? Because EU sure as hell isn't dropping people at random..at least not anymore.
Oh you a blizzard employee? Its nice to hear such comforting words from a credible source such as yourself.
You're the first person I've seen so far who has had this problem... I'm not a Blizzard employee, but I frequent a lot of gaming forums quite a bit, and I have yet to see anyone complain about being dropped.
It's your ISP or something on your end. Or Blizzard just doesn't like you.
Group is A is the group of death by far, I hope TLO and White Ra make it out, but I would also like to see Cloud.I'm def not on Madfrogs bandwagon hes the one person I don't want to see make it out of group A, maybe if he was in any of the other groups I would want him to advance. Pretty much whoever makes it out of group A is who I want to win the whole thing.
All of these tournements seem to be missing sen. Well maybe not this one litteraly, but one name popped into my head at the words "scary scary zerg."
Duckload and TLO are going to have a ton of fun in group A. I'm excited to see more Huk Dimaga and demuslim as there have been so many mixxed reviews of those three and I have no idea how "good" all of them are relatively.
07:45 EST: Group B: Brat_OK vs Huk 09:00 EST: Group A: White-Ra vs TLO 11:00 EST: Group A: TLO vs MaDFroG
Thursday 19th
07:25 EST: Group C: Hasuobs vs Dimaga 09:00 EST: Group C: Lucifron vs Dimaga 11:40 EST: Group C: Hasuobs vs Lucifron 12:50 CEST: Group D: DeMuslim vs Idra
Friday 20th
02:50 EST: SC2 Quarter Finals 1 & 2 05:05 EST: SC2 Quarter Finals 3 & 4
Saturday 21st
08:10 EST: SC2 Semi Final 1 09:40 EST: SC2 Semi Final 2
This sounds like a fantastic tournament to kick-off the release of StarCraft 2! It seems to be very well organized, and the venue itself that Carmac showed looks pretty sick. StarCraft 2 really is hitting the big time with prize pools like this, MLG, and GomTV, and I'm really excited to be here at the start of it all.
Aside from the race disparity that a few people have already pointed out, I think that the tournament is going to be very exciting with a lot of really big names and some great match-ups. Personally, I agree with a lot of others that IdrA is likely going to win the whole event. His mechanics are just flawless and he has a lot more experience than most of the others playing at live events. I'd really like to see TLAF-Liquid'TLO win the whole thing though too, simply because he's such a fan favorite and really deserves to win (for his first time?). I've never had so many "wow" moments with any other player as TLO, and I hope for the best. Otherwise, I'm really excited to see ClouD, Naniwa, and LucifroN7 play, as I haven't seen anything by them before.
Overall, this sounds like a great tournament, and I'm really excited to see how the birth of StarCraft 2's tournament life goes. Good luck to everyone involved!
Yeah Group D with Strelok and DeMusliM and there isn't even a friggin mention of it? Nani is a bad bad player that always 1 bases those 2 will easily kill him if he doesn't somehow pull out an all in win.
Yeah Group D with Strelok and DeMusliM and there isn't even a friggin mention of it? Nani is a bad bad player that always 1 bases those 2 will easily kill him if he doesn't somehow pull out an all in win.
Can't wait cant wait
Nani hasn't been playing his 1base all in crap for a while now, he's a legit player and his style is sexy~
On August 17 2010 10:46 Sabu113 wrote: All of these tournements seem to be missing sen. Well maybe not this one litteraly, but one name popped into my head at the words "scary scary zerg."
Duckload and TLO are going to have a ton of fun in group A. I'm excited to see more Huk Dimaga and demuslim as there have been so many mixxed reviews of those three and I have no idea how "good" all of them are relatively.
Definitely agree about missing Sen. Haven't seen him on a tournament ever. His series against TLO and White-RA where impressive. With the shortage of zerg players, this guy should be on this list.
Tell you what though, this makes me freakin' SUPER excited for the GSL, I don't really like the splitting up of SC2 players into koreans and non-koreans, so when the GSL happens we will actually be able to compare people a bit better
Dimaga is still one of the top favorites to take it down even despite the state of the zerg. He is one of the most clutch and experienced players in this field, and has still maintained a solid ZvT record even post release. He seems to have issues with ZvP, however he has extensive winnign record against two of the protosses- Huk and WhiteRa. And of course his ZvZ is probably the best outside of korea.
Yeah, stream lagged out for me just as Morrow pushed w/ his SCVs. I assume he won because they said they're going into game 2, but I don't know because it looks like it's dead now
wow, ESL really has to realize that they can make much more money when they use HD free streams and play in advertisements once in a while; I mean cmon, having to watch 30sec or sth. of advertisement prior to such a game could pay off big time?
It's pretty damn awesome though to see these guys on the stage being interviewed infront of the camera and what not. And a little jarring to say the least.... Morrow and Huk look like they're 16 yet they're so very scary at sc2.
Replays (click on the "vs." for each game then under the media tab on whichever round for the replay, then download!)
Am I missing something or are not all games on that page? Day9 said something about a game between TLO and Cloud that happened at the same time as the game between Huk and Morrow but I can't find any VODs for it. Was that game casted by someone else?
Replays (click on the "vs." for each game then under the media tab on whichever round for the replay, then download!)
Am I missing something or are not all games on that page? Day9 said something about a game between TLO and Cloud that happened at the same time as the game between Huk and Morrow but I can't find any VODs for it. Was that game casted by someone else?
It wasnt casted by day9 or the glhf team dunno why,werent that good anyway
On August 20 2010 00:39 petitdragon wrote: One thing bothers me, how comes the player do not hear the shoutcasts while they appear to be in the same room as the public ?
they appear to be wearing massive soundproof headsets
Anyone else find watching VODs on ESL's page nearly impossible? My 30Mb connection sits and loads every 30 seconds. It's only their site so I have to think it's a problem on their end. Anyone else having this issue.. or better yet have a different site to catch the VODs form this morning on?
I feel like I'm missing half the VOD's of this tournament. I'm a bit dissapointed that the results from previous matches are occasionally spoiled by the commentators.
On August 20 2010 04:43 Psionith wrote: Anyone else find watching VODs on ESL's page nearly impossible? My 30Mb connection sits and loads every 30 seconds. It's only their site so I have to think it's a problem on their end. Anyone else having this issue.. or better yet have a different site to catch the VODs form this morning on?
Same issue here. It was totally fine for day 1, but now their server seems to be messing up.
If an alternative source for IEM VODS exists some one please post.
Are these re-upped anywhere? I mean ESL has the worst video service I've ever seen. I just waited 3 hours (3 hours!) for all of today's VODs to buffer and in the middle my browser crashes.
I was really looking forward to this event, but the posting of the replays leaves much to be desired. I would love for there to be a place with links to all of the SC2 replays. Maybe someone has posted in the thread but I don't dare read through due to all of the spoilers (thanks guys). If there could be a link in the OP it would be ideal. The link in it's present form brings me to some page with replays of multiple games (WOW, SC2, WC3, quake...) with some IEM games interspersed. Is it all of the games? I don't know! It doesn't look like it, but how could I tell.
I'd even be happy to pay for HQ VOD access, but there's no way I'm paying if I can't even find the replays I want. I'm getting so frustrated wasting my limited time that I'll soon have to give up. I'm totally bummed. How can you have a $15k prize pool and a totally inept IT team?
edit: I still can't believe such a high profile tourny has such horribly crappy webcasts/web organization. If I were Razer or Intel I would put my money with some people who are a bit more professional and take things more seriously.
On August 17 2010 06:18 heyoka wrote: I think Madfrog has more tricks up his sleeve than people give him credit for. He was pretty impressive in his showmatch vs TLO.
He's a great player, but I just hope he's been working on his macro since that showmatch 'cause it was pretty horrendous in that series :[
Yeah, he said himself that his APM is around 100 at the moment and that he probably needs to get up to the 200-300 range to be competitive with the best. Right know he seems to live off his better understanding of overall gameplay as well as his superior psyche in tournament conditions. Since he has been playing both SC1 and WC3 competetively he's probably the tournaments most experienced player in this respect.
To sum up, MadFrog is a little rusty after being retired for over 4 years. Him having a full-time job also means he's not able to practice as much as the others. But considering all this, I'm very impressed with his play so far.
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/pachi/banner/10eslgamescom_banner.jpg)
Intel Extreme Masters. Just how big is this event? Well with a prize pool of $15,000 - its big.![[image loading]](/staff/heyoka/sc2tourn/NutsBoltsbig.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/Picon_small.png)
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