MLG looks poised to take the spot of big fish in America. This weekend was host to their second event, an open 64 player Starcraft bonanza. Already they are breaking records at TL, breaking the 10,000 active mark on Saturday and generating one of the largest live report topics we have seen all year.
You can also find photos from the ever present JoshSuth in his blog. As with last time, you can voice any opinions you have about the event to JP himself.
Day 1
MLG DC began as open events do -- with seeded players beating up on lesser known entrants for several rounds. The players who made it through the first day with 3-0 records were Tyler, IdrA, drewbie, qxc, HuK and Kiwikaki. No surprises there, all accomplished players who were expected to show good games. Aside from IdrA and Tyler, each of them had a long weekend of play at IEM Comic Con only a few days prior, ensuring top form.
Machine continued his rotten day 1 luck, this time having to face Liquid`Ret in the opening round. After having to start Raleigh by playing teammate Incontrol, he is hopefully considering switching to a new deity.
Early on, LastShadow nearly created an interesting upset with his match against IdrA. After losing the first game, he tied the series with a thor drop taking the zerg natural at Lost Temple. JWD commented he had "never seen a terran so happy to win a game on LT". He prepared some trickery for the third set, hiding 2 barracks on Scrap Station for an early all-in. For the briefest of moments it looked as though it would end in his favor, until IdrA scouted it with just enough time to prepare a defense.
The second standout match of the day was White-Ra vs Kiwikaki, game 1. Kiwi began by making early DTs, opting to suicide them into the nexus. The gambit didn't pay off immediately, White-Ra got an observer out in time and killed the DTs leaving his nexus with an astonishing 27hp. Ra came back into the game, only to have DTs warped into the back of his base (thanks to a pylon and hallucinated phoenix to gain vision) to finish it off. The resulting last stand at Kiwi's main was by far one of the most memorable moments of the entire event.
Day 2
As expected, IdrA plowed through the bracket on day 2 as well. Qxc and Kiwikaki gave him difficult fights, with interesting build orders and incredibly multitasking play. In the end, EG's recruit turned out to be too much and he advanced to the grand finals where he would await a challenger for the throne.
Calm, collected. Badass.
IdrA took down defending champion HuK in two one sided games as well. When asked about it afterwards, all HuK had to say was "I want to play him again right now".
Knocked to the loser's bracket the previous day, Select became a bit of a dark horse (odd because he was somehow a dark horse of Raleigh too). He started by beating LzGamer, then moved on to TT1, Qxc, and Slush. He played Tyler a second time, avenging his earlier loss and knocking out the American. He beat Kiwikaki convincingly, then challenged HuK for the right to face IdrA in the grand finals.
Every once in a great while a game happens in a tournament that transcends the bounds of the tournament itself. A game so unique that its reach is larger than what our community hits. It was during this matchup that one of those games happened. I have friends who don't pay attention to Starcraft who asked me about this game.
The crowd cheered when it popped out. HuK difused the situation quickly.
In game 2 of the finals in the loser's bracket, the game deciding who would advance to the grand finals the crowd began chanting. HuK decided he would try a fast mothership, repeating a build he used against drewbie at IEM (and lost with). The crowd at MLG is a much more rowdy bunch, and at several points in the game they erupted in laughter, applause, and cheering. You can see some video of it here.
Never one to turn down a chance for showmanship, Huk used every opportunity to show his personality. Much of the game was spent with jovial chatting, not so much back and forth banter as a protoss monologue. In the end, it was nowhere near enough and Select outmaneuvered the slow flying fortress with ease, moving on to face IdrA. A series lost, but legions of fans gained.
Other players can make jokes, too.
After such an exciting (maybe "entertaining" is a more fitting description) game, the finals were almost a letdown. Select, now on his 8th (!) best of 3 series of the afternoon didn't have the energy to keep up with the zerg master. An early gas steal in game 1 gave IdrA a small tempo advantage he never gave back, and a muta opening in game 2 that kept Select trapped in his base gave him enough victories to walk away with the title.
A valiant effort, but sometimes you just can't battle a monster and win.
Well played by all, and overall a well coordinated and extremely fun event. With Dallas just around the corner, MLG is shaping up to be an awesome organization and a most welcome addition to the SC2 tournament scene. The National Championship event is November 5-7, so get ready to see HuK and IdrA defend their titles.
This makes me so so sad I can't belive I decided to move from the living room computer to the laptop in bed right then in the break between game 1 and 2, HuK vs Select, and of curse, things took longer then expected and I got back into the stream just as the Mothership came crashing down. One great SC2 live moment lost forever
Oh well, at least I got ++ points from the girlfreind by not sitting alone in the livingroom all night infront of the computer, instead sitting awake in bed with my laptop all night while se soundly feel asleep next to me, hehe.
Concratz to IdrA for getting a deserving win in a premium event, and good luck in the GSL2. Also, I'm impressed by Selects consistensy and stamina during this event, and HuK's showmanship. Also I would love to see more of Tyler, TL need at least two Protoss heros. Great tornement all of you!
Select gets very little attention despite winning TL Open twice and doing really well at both MLG events. Its incredible how awesome he played on Saturday, game after game after game.
The prize money is a joke though, how come the USA is so far behind compared to Korea? I know it will never be in the same league, but come on, over 10x as little as the GSL. Why would players even bother?
On October 19 2010 17:54 Beany wrote: The prize money is a joke though, how come the USA is so far behind compared to Korea? I know it will never be in the same league, but come on, over 10x as little as the GSL. Why would players even bother?
your joking.. right.. right? anyways, even more importantly than the prize money from this event, is the points, MLG has always worked this way, you play in the 4-5 season tournaments and collect points, these points seed you in to the championship which is worth a lot more $ than the regular season events.. MLG Dallas should be a lot of $, I think 17,500
USA is so far behind Korea because Korea GOM TV have 3 seasons of experience running a starcraft league and had the backing of blizzard and intel. They knew what kind of numbers BW brought in Korea, and had faith SC2 would be huge so their sponsors kicked in the prize money..
MLG is just starting out its SC career, and if they followed BW trends in NA they should be giving less $!!!, thankfully they took a leap of faith, and next year the prize pool should grow, it's just part of the expansion of esports in NA.. MLG will show the sponsors the #s from attendance and the streams, etc.. and they will kick in.
I doubt it will ever be 80,000.. at least not next year... hopefully they make it like 30k, then nobody shows up cause they have your mentality, and I auto win the tournament!!!
in your terms, nobody should play SC in a tournament unless 180,000 is on the line.. so there is no possible chance for NA SC and EU SC to grow. since we will just not attend any events that are worth less than the GSL
DC WAS AWESOME <3 everyone that i met, really it was too bad that kiwikaki / qxc lost 1-2 to idra.... was so close, but gj to idra you deserved the win, ROOT will get you next time ^_^ i was really hoping to be matched vs idra ;; tt;;
Well, to be perfectly honest, Idra showed that he can be beaten. And quite easy. The drop inside his base, showed how much he's open inside of his main.
On October 19 2010 19:07 SkyBlade wrote: Well, to be perfectly honest, Idra showed that he can be beaten. And quite easy. The drop inside his base, showed how much he's open inside of his main.
Wait, you're telling me that he doesn't win 100% of the time? Damn, I'm shocked!
On October 19 2010 20:59 luke1304 wrote: What did Idra mean with "other ppl are smart, they don't play zerg" ?
IdrA was saying that Select has no zerg to practice with because if people are smart, they will choose either Protoss or Terran since IdrA believes zerg to be the weakest race.
Really nice Rap up, TL! I really enjoy reading your articles! I'm still in the process of watching all the replays. If anyone is interested, there are 280+ replays of the MLG DC Tournament here:
On October 19 2010 19:07 SkyBlade wrote: Well, to be perfectly honest, Idra showed that he can be beaten. And quite easy. The drop inside his base, showed how much he's open inside of his main.
lol, so, you'd rather him keep all his units at his main? And then he'd never lose? Ugh, your post just unsettles me in so many ways.
This was the first sc2 tournament where Idra impressed me. He did really, really well. He was also the best at the tourney, so I'm glad he won.
On October 19 2010 19:44 SkyBlade wrote: I'm just trying to figure out, why he's so arrogant.
He is arrogant because he has a ton of Brood War experience. He practices 8-10 hours a day. He moved to Korea and was on a Korean SC team. He does extremely well on the Korean Ladder with a 65% win rate. He qualified for GSL 2 times in a row. I suspect there are very few NA players that can beat him consistently.
But his bad manner is often overhyped because he raged in big public tournaments when he was younger...but he's become very professional. There are FAR FAR worse ragers out there. Just check out destiny's stream when it's up (Steven Bonnell II).
Idra is actually a really chill guy. He is pretty far from arrogant and most of his statements make perfect sense to me. And everyone thinks the race they play is the weakest.
I had an absolute BLAST in DC! Well worth the 15 hour drive from Florida. Great times meeting some big names in the community such as TheGunRun from GLHF, Ipp from RageQuit, iCCUP Diamond, JP, DJ Wheat, Day9, and of course the players themselves! All of EG were nice, talkative guys, but I didn't really get a chance to talk to anyone besides them sadly. However I did manage to get a ton of pics with almost all the big name players. Good times, good times.
On October 19 2010 19:07 SkyBlade wrote: Well, to be perfectly honest, Idra showed that he can be beaten. And quite easy. The drop inside his base, showed how much he's open inside of his main.
I wouldn't call it "easy", Kiwi's micro was incredible. If the warping in zealots didn't block the 2nd immortal it could have ended very differently.
On October 19 2010 19:44 SkyBlade wrote: I'm just trying to figure out, why he's so arrogant.
He is arrogant because he has a ton of Brood War experience. He practices 8-10 hours a day. He moved to Korea and was on a Korean SC team. He does extremely well on the Korean Ladder with a 65% win rate. He qualified for GSL 2 times in a row. I suspect there are very few NA players that can beat him consistently.
But his bad manner is often overhyped because he raged in big public tournaments when he was younger...but he's become very professional. There are FAR FAR worse ragers out there. Just check out destiny's stream when it's up (Steven Bonnell II).
Or Naniwa.
I'm glad to see that IdrA's practice is showing results and, as always, his witty remarks during games are refreshing.
Thanks to all the TLers that showed up to the event. I got jammed up with all the tech issues on Friday so really didn't get a chance to come around and introduce myself, if any of you are coming to Dallas, please come find me. I lurk these forums all the time and would love to meet up with you guys. Might try to make it to the TL gathering at Blizzcon. If not, will see you at Dallas!
On October 20 2010 01:46 MLG_Lee wrote: Great wrap up!
Thanks to all the TLers that showed up to the event. I got jammed up with all the tech issues on Friday so really didn't get a chance to come around and introduce myself, if any of you are coming to Dallas, please come find me. I lurk these forums all the time and would love to meet up with you guys. Might try to make it to the TL gathering at Blizzcon. If not, will see you at Dallas!
Lee
So you're going to Blizzcon? Is MLG doing a 'sitdown' with Blizzard to petition for a LAN-enabled version of the SC2 client :-)
j/k. Had a blast watching DC and looking forward to being in Dallas to watch the championships!
Great event, and I like how I correctly predicted 1st-3rd places. I knew Select was going deep. Anyways, thanks for the write-up. Can't wait for Dallas, not only for the tournament itself, but also to see what ridiculous shirt nony has to wear, haha.
Despite the Mothership, my Protoss hero is KiwiKaki ! His play was just pure class. Cheers also for Select for that amazing loosing brackets run that he had. I was cheering for him at the end, even thou I knew Idra wouldn't underestimate him.
On October 19 2010 19:07 SkyBlade wrote: Well, to be perfectly honest, Idra showed that he can be beaten. And quite easy. The drop inside his base, showed how much he's open inside of his main.
Wait, you're telling me that he doesn't win 100% of the time? Damn, I'm shocked!
On top of that, you're telling me Zerg players have a hard time against an early Thor drop? On LOST TEMPLE? Stop the presses!!!
On October 19 2010 23:54 PainUser wrote: Idra is actually a really chill guy. He is pretty far from arrogant and most of his statements make perfect sense to me. And everyone thinks the race they play is the weakest.
and he's not naive (or willingly ignorant, i dunno) to assume a game this complex is going to be perfectly balanced in 6 non mirror matchups barely 3 months after its release. Hence he can call out balance problems, which makes retarded people go "WTF??? HES NOT TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS LOSSES AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"
I am one of SeleCT's fans now, seeing him play from Loser brackets and play 6 hours straight to play in the Grand Finals was the best playing I have seen personally happen.
DC was so much fun! thanks to all the root and EG sc2 players for being gracious about nerdstomper interviews, drewbie, qxc, idra, inca, nadagast, catz & the rest! Big tys. I was there mostly for wow and was primarily more into vanilla sc, even through bw, so thanks for your patience ^_^ check out the idra interview http://www.nerdstomper.com/app/video/view/638781712001 there, the other interviews should be up soon.
oh man huk. i dont follow the SC2 scene at all. just heard a few names from TL dinners. So I saw this guy wearing a TL shirt when a bunch of people went to lunch. I asked him who he was and he replies "how do you not know me? I'm on Team Liquid" so i said "well I post there too, who are you? lol" and he said "no i'm on the team liquid". I didn't know huk got invited. all i knew was ret, nony, jinro, twisted, etc... so i had no idea who he was. he's a little arrogant, but i guess after all of the attention it can get to people. lol. And apparently he's pretty good.
it was cool going there. i slept all through saturdays events so didn't show up then. but it was cool meeting ret, idra, and white-ra who i had been fans of in BW. cool to see them do well in SC2 as well. as well as meeting Select, and seeing slog again. they're really cool guys.
I had an awesome time at MLG. Playing in this tourney definitely boosted my confidence + motivation to catch up to the level of these guys. My damn full time job makes it hard, but I'll try I had a great time and it was a pleasure getting pwned by Nadagast and incontrol.
On October 20 2010 04:56 CaucasianAsian wrote: oh man huk. i dont follow the SC2 scene at all. just heard a few names from TL dinners. So I saw this guy wearing a TL shirt when a bunch of people went to lunch. I asked him who he was and he replies "how do you not know me? I'm on Team Liquid" so i said "well I post there too, who are you? lol" and he said "no i'm on the team liquid". I didn't know huk got invited. all i knew was ret, nony, jinro, twisted, etc... so i had no idea who he was. he's a little arrogant, but i guess after all of the attention it can get to people. lol. And apparently he's pretty good.
To be honest, I wouldn't call that arrogance. I mean, I'm positive HuK is arrogant, but I'd also be blown away if you claimed to be a TL poster but didn't know anything about HuK. How is that even possible?
On October 20 2010 04:56 CaucasianAsian wrote: oh man huk. i dont follow the SC2 scene at all. just heard a few names from TL dinners. So I saw this guy wearing a TL shirt when a bunch of people went to lunch. I asked him who he was and he replies "how do you not know me? I'm on Team Liquid" so i said "well I post there too, who are you? lol" and he said "no i'm on the team liquid". I didn't know huk got invited. all i knew was ret, nony, jinro, twisted, etc... so i had no idea who he was. he's a little arrogant, but i guess after all of the attention it can get to people. lol. And apparently he's pretty good.
To be honest, I wouldn't call that arrogance. I mean, I'm positive HuK is arrogant, but I'd also be blown away if you claimed to be a TL poster but didn't know anything about HuK. How is that even possible?
i dont follow SC2. he is relatively new (i've been lurking/posting since early 04) compared to me, and havent read the SC2 section since the day it was created before beta was released.
On October 20 2010 04:56 CaucasianAsian wrote: oh man huk. i dont follow the SC2 scene at all. just heard a few names from TL dinners. So I saw this guy wearing a TL shirt when a bunch of people went to lunch. I asked him who he was and he replies "how do you not know me? I'm on Team Liquid" so i said "well I post there too, who are you? lol" and he said "no i'm on the team liquid". I didn't know huk got invited. all i knew was ret, nony, jinro, twisted, etc... so i had no idea who he was. he's a little arrogant, but i guess after all of the attention it can get to people. lol. And apparently he's pretty good.
To be honest, I wouldn't call that arrogance. I mean, I'm positive HuK is arrogant, but I'd also be blown away if you claimed to be a TL poster but didn't know anything about HuK. How is that even possible?
i dont follow SC2. he is relatively new (i've been lurking/posting since early 04) compared to me, and havent read the SC2 section since the day it was created before beta was released.
All of this was pretty clear from your post. It doesn't really change anything, man... HuK is a big deal on this site.
On October 20 2010 04:56 CaucasianAsian wrote: oh man huk. i dont follow the SC2 scene at all. just heard a few names from TL dinners. So I saw this guy wearing a TL shirt when a bunch of people went to lunch. I asked him who he was and he replies "how do you not know me? I'm on Team Liquid" so i said "well I post there too, who are you? lol" and he said "no i'm on the team liquid". I didn't know huk got invited. all i knew was ret, nony, jinro, twisted, etc... so i had no idea who he was. he's a little arrogant, but i guess after all of the attention it can get to people. lol. And apparently he's pretty good.
To be honest, I wouldn't call that arrogance. I mean, I'm positive HuK is arrogant, but I'd also be blown away if you claimed to be a TL poster but didn't know anything about HuK. How is that even possible?
i dont follow SC2. he is relatively new (i've been lurking/posting since early 04) compared to me, and havent read the SC2 section since the day it was created before beta was released.
All of this was pretty clear from your post. It doesn't really change anything, man... HuK is a big deal on this site.
On October 19 2010 23:54 PainUser wrote: Idra is actually a really chill guy. He is pretty far from arrogant and most of his statements make perfect sense to me. And everyone thinks the race they play is the weakest.
This.
Everyone may or may not think they are the best, but at the bare minimum everyone there is expecting to win. Doesn't really make sense to imply that someone is arrogant in that regard.
I'm sure when we will see the true legends playing SC2 then we will all see what those arrogant stars are made of.
Personally, thats why i love Boxer. If he wins or loses, he actually do spend a couple of seconds to press the hand of the winner/loser, to show him that we all playing a game, and he do respect his opponents.
On October 20 2010 04:56 CaucasianAsian wrote: oh man huk. i dont follow the SC2 scene at all. just heard a few names from TL dinners. So I saw this guy wearing a TL shirt when a bunch of people went to lunch. I asked him who he was and he replies "how do you not know me? I'm on Team Liquid" so i said "well I post there too, who are you? lol" and he said "no i'm on the team liquid". I didn't know huk got invited. all i knew was ret, nony, jinro, twisted, etc... so i had no idea who he was. he's a little arrogant, but i guess after all of the attention it can get to people. lol. And apparently he's pretty good.
To be honest, I wouldn't call that arrogance. I mean, I'm positive HuK is arrogant, but I'd also be blown away if you claimed to be a TL poster but didn't know anything about HuK. How is that even possible?
i dont follow SC2. he is relatively new (i've been lurking/posting since early 04) compared to me, and havent read the SC2 section since the day it was created before beta was released.
You don't have to follow SC2 to read the front page articles....
i dont care who you are, treat me with respect, and i'll do the same. if you act as if its unheard of to not be recognized instantly, and gawk in how ignorant someone is in a 4 month old game, i consider that to be ill mannered. I don't follow Starcraft 2. I don't follow every tiny tournament about this game, so why should I know who some kid is wearing a TeamLiquid shirt. There were many people wearing TL shirts, myself included, and I have no problem introducing myself to anyone. I don't think everyone should know who I am because I have X amount of posts, or I was a practice partner for X pro gamer.
TorcH on the other hand, I recognized him from an interview he had during WCG, and he was very modest, and a real chill guy. Much respect for him.
On October 20 2010 08:10 TemplarCo. wrote: It was an awesome event but it would've been more awewsome to posiblly watch IdrA rage!! still great games by IdrA
(I wasn't there, saw some of it online)
I just enjoyed watching IdrA's games because I was figuring out how to defend my econ build against the early harrass (Kiwi games anyone?). Still haven't have a chance to analyze IdrA's ZvT yet. Atleast his current ZvT.
On October 20 2010 16:21 CaucasianAsian wrote: if im not interested in it, why would i read it?
i dont care who you are, treat me with respect, and i'll do the same. if you act as if its unheard of to not be recognized instantly, and gawk in how ignorant someone is in a 4 month old game, i consider that to be ill mannered. I don't follow Starcraft 2. I don't follow every tiny tournament about this game, so why should I know who some kid is wearing a TeamLiquid shirt. There were many people wearing TL shirts, myself included, and I have no problem introducing myself to anyone. I don't think everyone should know who I am because I have X amount of posts, or I was a practice partner for X pro gamer.
TorcH on the other hand, I recognized him from an interview he had during WCG, and he was very modest, and a real chill guy. Much respect for him.
All of the experiences I had with HuK made him seem like an awesome guy at MLG. He offered to let me warm up on his computer when we still had another hour to practice, etc. He probably expected you to know who he was since u were at a SC2 event... I mean, he is kind of a big deal in SC2. Sounds like a simple little misunderstanding.
Want to see some awesome late game ZvZ, IdrA vs Fruit or something like that... well, im sure we will see some when there will be more zergs in the brackets of tourneys, but these games were awesome too, the few i saw...
Good event. I was kinda expecting him to win though simply because his fundamentals, especially in big tournaments, are above and beyond most NA/EU players simply because of his past experience with the game. I am glad that such fundamentals ultimately won him the championship. GJ idra!
On October 20 2010 16:21 CaucasianAsian wrote: if im not interested in it, why would i read it?
i dont care who you are, treat me with respect, and i'll do the same. if you act as if its unheard of to not be recognized instantly, and gawk in how ignorant someone is in a 4 month old game, i consider that to be ill mannered. I don't follow Starcraft 2. I don't follow every tiny tournament about this game, so why should I know who some kid is wearing a TeamLiquid shirt. There were many people wearing TL shirts, myself included, and I have no problem introducing myself to anyone. I don't think everyone should know who I am because I have X amount of posts, or I was a practice partner for X pro gamer.
TorcH on the other hand, I recognized him from an interview he had during WCG, and he was very modest, and a real chill guy. Much respect for him.
i don't really think it's arrogant to assume that TL posters would know the people on the actual team, but thats just my opinion.
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Xxio/MLG/MLG_DC_Banner2.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4GYqL.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yirzx.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/heyoka/iem/idra.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/heyoka/iem/mothership.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/heyoka/iem/loldra.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/Zicon_small.png)
IdrA![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/Ticon_small.png)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/Picon_small.png)
I can't belive I decided to move from the living room computer to the laptop in bed right then in the break between game 1 and 2, HuK vs Select, and of curse, things took longer then expected and I got back into the stream just as the Mothership came crashing down. One great SC2 live moment lost forever 
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/heyoka/iem/mothership.jpg)
Great times meeting some big names in the community such as TheGunRun from GLHF, Ipp from RageQuit, iCCUP Diamond, JP, DJ Wheat, Day9, and of course the players themselves! All of EG were nice, talkative guys, but I didn't really get a chance to talk to anyone besides them sadly. However I did manage to get a ton of pics with almost all the big name players. Good times, good times.
