It finally happened. A bona fide “white dude” has taken home the trophy.
Since the advent of the GSL-MLG Exchange Program we have mourned the collective death of the foreigner on American soil. Slasher felt their demise so imminent he, now famously, bet his curly locks on it.
In Anaheim we saw what you might say was a total rout; the fabled Koreans swooped in and left with the championship, the dignity, and the winnings. In Raleigh, the scores saw some improvement as the results, once filled with quick 2-0 sweeps, became populated with 2-1 endings and long tense games.
Of course, even through times of difficulty and drought, when Korea-based teams showed their dominance, the fans at MLG remained proud. They were known for being loud, energetic, and passionate. Brood War legends like NaDa, BoxeR, and July were quick to point out the similarities between what they experienced abroad and the thunderous applause they received during their prime in Korea.
Now, we stand here today, going into the national championship at Providence with a man born-and-raised in North America as the reigning champion.
If we thought things were crazy in the events leading here, they were certainly off the charts when MC tapped out in the final game, falling short of the title but still capturing Code-S status.
Didn't catch all the games? No problem! Having scoured all the matches thoroughly we have come up with a complex algorithm that has given us the ability to share with you some of the most exciting games. Or maybe me and Ares[Effort] just hand selected them based on what we all remembered being fun. Either way, here are some games you may want to look at.
You can browse through them with MLG's VOD player. They are in no particular order.
What's to Love: The story of this game is that as the players are showing their build orders, cross position on Metalopolis, Day[9] spends a good deal of time discussing how PvP has advanced to a level where interesting things happen besides 4-gate battles. Both players then 4-gate, only to end up in a base trade scenario that comes down to the last pylon. Tense all the way through.
What's to Love: PuMa does some usual Terran 3 command center build going for a quick third on cross position Metalopolis, and Sheth keeps him on his toes with good multi-pronged attacks and strong drop defense. Game that is all over the map and very close.
What's to Love: MarineKingPrime shows his usual quirky self and floats to the gold immediately on Metalopolis. Then he makes marines, lots and lots of marines, like tends to do. It's pretty incredible in general, watching marines come from as many barracks as he makes. Very enjoyable.
What's to Love: Another game where MarineKing makes marines? Sign me up. This is basically the game Reddit paid to see happen at MLG, IdrA taking on MKP on a nice big map where they get to both micro forever, and marines stream in from all over. Highly recommend the entire series.
What's to Love: Bomber shows an awesome TvT where he proxies both his factory and starport, leading to some fun banshee harass. The game extends into a drawn out marine-tank affair with players slugging it out.
What's to Love: Incredible TvZ. Two of the strongest players at the tournament butting heads in the top six, a long back and forth slugfest that mines out the majority of the map and has several highly contest battles for expansion spots. Unbelievably even all game, the winner completely undecided until the final moments. Entire series is great.
What's to Love: MC makes a strong attack after a typical 1 gate nexus build, only to be stopped cold at PuMa's natural. PuMa then gets to 3/3 and dances around the front of MC's base, tempting fate on a razor's edge for several minutes. The ensuing battle sees unupgraded Protoss units do their best to take on a fully armored Terran army. Very tense.
What's to Love: Both players show some incredible TvT positioning and game sense with a drawn out macro game on Tal'Darim. This entire series is also great, very tight games with the lead swinging back and forth several times – PuMa in particular shows some of the best tactical decisions he has made recently.
What's to Love: Remember that awesome game from IEM Guangzhou on Shakuras Plateau? Where Elfi took down IdrA with a goofy warp prism drop into the main with sentries and zealots? It's becoming more popular, with SaSe using it at MLG while Gatored used it at IEM at the same time. It's awesome every time.
Of course that isn't by any means an exhaustive list. There are other notables including Sheth vs Bomber, TLO vs BoxeR, KiWiKaKi vs SaSe, and of course IdrA vs Boxer. Phew, looks like this MLG produced more interesting games than any other MLG this year by far.
The simplest way to write this would be to say that Huk won and everybody else lost, but here we like to get all metaphysical and talk about what it means. Because in Starcraft, there is a lot more at stake than simply some best-of-threes.
Winners
Aiur Who cares if PvP makes for the most boring finals ever? Zeratul would be proud of Huk and MC, who made for a 1-2 Protoss finish during an era in which Protoss are rare in the top 8. Huk beat two Korean Terrans out of groups to make the finals, while MC beat 4 Terrans and 2 Zergs out of his group to make it there himself.
Did they solve Protoss' well-documented woes? No, but they did prove that when you play at a level higher than your opponents, SC2's balance issues aren't as severe. So never fret, Sad Protoss Fan Club; just play with Top 3 control, and you can beat Terran, too!
Starcraft Reddit and MKP Reddit has got to feel great for what they did, even if MKP didn't achieve his customary second place. He showed some fantastic games, stealing IdrA's place at the top of the group in a dramatic 2-1 match on the main stage. He only lost to Huk and MC, the two finalists, and... well, Drewbie, which is counter-intuitive but still pretty awesome for Drewbie. He made a nifty heart sign for the crowd and provided plenty of image macro fodder for the passionate Redditors. A great story, and it's encouraged MKP to come back for MLG Providence.
Evil Geniuses EG had to split their forces going into this tournament. First, Axslav and Strifecro opted to play in IEM NY instead of MLG, and then Demuslim got deported back to the UK for visa issues.
But when you look at the top 8 finishers, EG took 1st, 4th, and 7th, thanks to Huk, Idra, and Puma, respectively. If you consider that IdrA was one game away from playing theSTC for a spot in the finals, EG was pretty darn close to going 1-2. Sir Scoots has to come away from this tournament feeling really good about his top three players.
oGs.MC This was a fantastic tournament for MC. Not only did his candidacy for President of Korea in 2040 gain traction, but he won back a Code S spot that I personally never thought he'd regain. He had to earn it through a foreign tournament, a foreign tournament on a busy weekend... a foreign tournament, on a busy weekend, through what practical circus of PvP play. The Kratoss Protoss isn't just 'back in Code S', he has ripped his Code S spot from a world that did everything to deny him it. He didn't play another Protoss until the finals (which he lost), but he had to win four close 2-1 series in a row against Puma, Marineking, Idra, and theSTC to earn his spot. Best part of all? The suicidetoss had no opportunity to pick MVP or Nestea into his GSL group this week, because they got to pick first.
SlayerS`BoxeR Don't ever count this guy out of the scene, because every time you do, he comes to an MLG and gives some of the most dramatic, inspiring games you've ever seen. Never mind--I take that back. Continue to count this guy out, because I want to see more of his awesome games. His extended series with IdrA was the most exciting match of the entire tournament, much like his series against Rain and MMA in previous MLG's. Even when he doesn't win, he inspires us. And then he stays late at night to practice, after all the other players have left, and inspires us even more. The consummate eSports pro. I'm proud that he plays the same game that I do.
Losers
Polt Polt played really well at MLG Orlando. He fought through the hellish open bracket, losing a single close series to Goswser, and then in the Championship Bracket he trounced five foreigners in a row before Puma bounced him out. So if he did so well, how is he a loser?
Firstly, he only got to prove himself against a single other Korean player, and that guy was Puma. Sure, he should have taken care of business with Goswser, but it's tough to emerge from the Open Bracket unscathed. More importantly, MLG didn't show a single one of Polt's matches. What did Polt even gain from this tournament without any opportunity to earn foreign fans? Something like $50 in winnings for three days of nerd-stomping? More importantly, what was Fionn up to all weekend without being able to watch Polt? Crying cold tears as he feverishly rewrote the SC2 Power Rankings?
It's hard to blame MLG for not showing his games with the tight scheduling and the large amount of premier players. But Polt definitely came out of this MLG with a loss.
North America The North Americans seeded into group play: Drewbie, Incontrol, Sheth, Slush, Kiwikaki, Machine, Tyler, IdrA, and Huk. Two of these things are not like the others, amirite?
Non-EG-bromance North Americans went a combined 6-29 in pool play, and none of them placed in the top 16. Those six wins were against MarineKing, Kiwikaki, Incontrol, Incontrol again, Slush, and Rain. So even with two North Americans placing top 4, we thoroughly embarrassed ourselves in pool play, the only flashes of brilliance being against MarineKing and Rain, and depending on your semantics, Rain is just another North American player.
Everyone cannot wait for the pools to be reset for next year under whatever new Frankenstein format MLG is brewing, because these players are being consistently blown out. There is an enormous gap between Idra, Huk, and everyone else in NA, and it becomes more glaringly obvious every event.
The MLG format The pool play format has obvious, fundamental flaws that were only exacerbated by the mid-year invitation of GSL Code S winners. The extended series rule has not only wrecked certain players, but entire podcasts and discussion forums. But the real thing that keeps killing MLG is their awful finals. By the time you get someone to match up with your winner's bracket champion, all the truly dramatic matches have been played, because everybody knows that whoever wins the winner's bracket wins the tournament. Throw in the extended series rule, and it's basically a clincher.
It's awesome that Huk was the first foreigner to win an MLG post-Korean-injection. But it would've been more awesome if his final games weren't a foregone conclusion because of the format. I know it's double-elimination and all, but MLG should look long and hard at why all of their Finals have been boring and predictable.
The Barcraft Experience
By: Pholon
If you have been to a Barcraft last weekend you're probably shaking your head upon reading this title. The experience that is a Barcraft can't be summarized in a few words and some pictures. It's not a series of events that involves driving to a bar, having some beers, watching some matches and returning home. The overall sense of attending your local geek-outs is much more grand.
The pure zest of this community never seizes to amaze. Although Starcraft is still growing at a steady rate, you more and more feel a tendency toward unity. Not only do all the players know, respect and befriend one another, the fanbase show much of the same behaviour. Reddit's community effort of sending MarineKingPrime to MLG is a true beacon attesting to what a group of individuals with a goal in mind can accomplish.
And now there's Barcraft. Although they didn't premier the concept last weekend, MLG Orlando marks the beginning of a new facet of the Starcraft culture. Sure there were a handful of Barcrafts before Orlando, but it almost feels like Orlando officialized it. If you look at the Community Forum it's actually difficult to find a topic that isn't Barcraft related. The MLG crew acknowledged worldwide barcrafting with mentiond, shoutouts, and even some live footage. In the aftermath, it's impossible to scroll to the bottom of #Barcraft, and there are already plans in the works for Providence and Kiev Barcrafts.
When you are at a Barcraft you will experience all the good parts. There'll be great games to watch, excitement when everyone cheers at good play, people to talk to who actually play and love the game and not that awkward searching for justification when mentioning StarCraft to your non-nerdy girlfriend/parents/friends. Above all though, there is room for a sense of pride at what this amazing community can achieve. When you reach that point, realise that although your Barcraft feels unique it really isn't. Become aware that at that very moment, people all over the world are just like you. BarCraft has in almost no time at all become a world-wide phenomenon. Barcraft is here to stay. And I'll drink to that
Hot_Bid shared some of his thoughts on watching this tournament in a blog that I highly suggest reading. I thought it would be appropriate to share a similar story, to expand on something briefly touched on there. This was originally intended to open to a larger story on who Huk is, and why he is so uniquely positioned as a gamer, but it never came to fruition. It's an amusing story on its own, in the very least.
A Chance Encounter
By: Heyoka
Tonight is a cool evening in October, the leaves have just finished turning golden brown and scarlet hues. A typical fall night, there is a slight bite to the air. The kind that is more refreshing than annoying, early in the season.
I'm in the Team Liquid Office, my first trip to New York and I'm doing it solely to watch video games. Rich arrived yesterday, his room is already a mess of pc cables and connectors. His video card has visible bite marks, he is not pleased with TSA's search dogs.
Currently we are looking for Huk, his plane was scheduled to land nearly 2 hours earlier. He is unreachable.
"I don't want to have to call Nazgul to tell him we lost his player"
In a rare moment of vulnerability HotBid seems worried. Rich looks unconcerned, concentrating on finding out why his second monitor isn't working. TheMango and I are leaning out the window to survey a stopped cab outside. It did not contain a gamer. A middle-aged man is standing on the sidewalk screaming at his mother 5 stories above.
Time passes as the situation becomes more perplexing. Huk has no cell phone or laptop, contact is impossible. No one knows what flight he was supposed to be on but no planes have been delayed.
"Do we order him food or a funeral service?"
We decide on Thai food. Claiming he doesn't like spicy food, Rich has never had it before. None is ordered for our absent team member, our search party takes a break to eat.
As we finish up, HotBid receives a call from an unknown number. His face relaxes instantly when he hears the other end, signaling Liquid's recruit has found a pay phone. Apparently he had to change flights, his trip now involves a taxi ride from New Jersey.
90 minutes later he finally arrives, keyboard and mouse in tow. As we circle the block searching both parties turn a corner at the same time and meet face to face.
"The girls in Paris are way hotter than this city"
A curious greeting. In time it made sense, for we learned Huk is not a normal gamer.
We would like to give specials thanks to Nokarot for helping us take pictures in Orlando. Especially because Forbes stole his photo without crediting! What jerks!
You can also check out iSzemotion's incredible photos in her blog from this event and IPL and IEM.
MLG Orlando was so much fun. I loved being there and watching all the games. Though its more relaxing to watch a tournament from the comfort of your home there's nothing quite like experiencing it live with 2000+ other people.
If it comes back next year I'm gonna attend again. But next time I hope they bring more chairs!
I really think all bars hosting BarCraft's should invest in the HQ stream. I went to the BarCraft at Legend's in NYC and they were just using the free stream! It looks pretty terrible on bigger screens. It was still a blast though!
Awesome write-up, a little sad TheStC basically gets no mention outside of being involved in a good game and people having to overcome him. His run through MLG was one of the biggest stories in my books, from the open bracket all the way to top of his group then beating Bomber and earning top 3. All into no love ;(. Even Polt gets more love than TheStC
I didn't quite fully understand the Huk story, but what did you had as food? SaSe was another loser in this tournament for me though, getting the short end of a three-way tie after beating bomber.
Good Article, but to be honest: lets w8 for the real impact that SC2 needs. If a foreigner takes a major Tournament after the actual _real_ heavyweights have switched and are in their best shape, we can all stop bitching around about our own "maybe" little Savior, and get ready for the real shit dudes. I mean, this is like talking about ...hmm... Ironhide beating some no-name Decepticon (dont get me wrong, I dont wanna blame a good player. All I want is to get my point clear..), its pretty cool to see and all are cheering. But wtf is Ironhide when Megatronus Prime/Fallen hits the Scene?
Post-Korean Injection.. lets be real: we nipped from the drink, got drunk and are all like "woa"...but in not too far future, we have to kill the rest of our Death-Cocktail and get real.
Huk vs Hero game one was hilarious, both due to the in game banter and poor day 9 trying to salvage some thread of commentary once both players opted to 4gate into base race. MKP vs Haypro could be a rivalry for the ages, at least of it's continuation in ESWC is anything to go by. They both need to go to DH winter and be seeded into the same pool for guaranteed good times.
Awesome read as per usual! I love all TLs article writers. Great work!!
I haven't paid much attention to the MLG finals being terrible. But now that you guys mentioned it I cannot help but to agree. The MLG format has some huge flaws but I still think the biggest flaw isn't the extended series rule, it's the schedule. There needs to be more matches on Friday and Saturday and less on Championship Sunday. Having watched every MLG out there I got to say that the players look extremely tired on Sunday, especially those who are placed in the first round of the loser bracket on Championship Sunday.
Surely the MLG events would be more smooth if the championship bracket started its play on Saturday instead of Sunday.
Why is Idra vs Bomber such an overrated series? First game IdrA was 80 supply ahead at one point.. it didn't seem close at all, just IdrA's playstyle means he stretches the game out for ages. Second series was pretty much over when the mass marine didn't work early on.
You can complain about extended series and the finals but it makes sense, shouldnt the person the won the winners side get rewarded for that? And shouldnt you get rewarded for beating someone earlier? You still have to win 2 games to win extended series (if you're the winner), and the players have to get the same amount of wins against each other. Would you remove extended series and winners bracket advantage completely? or how would you change it?
On October 29 2011 08:43 StatikKhaos wrote: You can complain about extended series and the finals but it makes sense, shouldnt the person the won the winners side get rewarded for that? And shouldnt you get rewarded for beating someone earlier? You still have to win 2 games to win extended series (if you're the winner), and the players have to get the same amount of wins against each other. Would you remove extended series and winners bracket advantage completely? or how would you change it?
The problem with extended series imo, is completely different when talking about finals, and all the rest of the matches:
a) About regular matches: In many situations it's stupid. For starters, pool play shouldn't mean any advantage if those 2 players meet again, this makes for some truly bad scenarios in the brackets. Then, on later stages, the advantage is so huge it barely makes any sense to even play the games. Only players like boxer have made any extended series exciting.
b) About finals: The player who has the extended series advantage has such an obscene advantage that, even if it makes sense, it makes the finals predictable and terrible. In the closest example I can think of, the real finals in Orlando imo, was the series between MC and StC for the Code S spot. HuK was evidently the winner way before that, and the finals was made really boring because of that.
In 99% of scenarios, extended series degrades from the viewer experience, it's just plain bad, EVEN in the cases it makes perfect sense.
tbh, orlando was only fun cuz of MC.... and idra's game against bomber, and slayersboxer...i mean how can you be the champion of this mlg without even vsing the hardest opponent, bomber.... huk manages to avoid bomber twice, at dreamhack and at MLG. He won both of them... but what if he vsed bomber in both? he would only have his homestory cup trophy to really show off....
Really I just do not understand, why is boxer so interesting to watch? (Day9 make an analysis pl0x?) Haha. What if people played with boxer's genius but with MVP's macro. Bonjwa yea? Maybe it's just cus he takes such epic, calculated risks.
Small correction, forbes stole the photo and then took it down after I called them out on it Now they stole a photo from myeg.net, but at least they learned their lesson and credited.
Cool writeup, but what about the games between MC and Rain where MC stopped the 1/1/1 2 games in a row? And also, sad for Polt that his games didn't get showed at all. T_T
he went 4-1 in group stage as well as PuMa, unfortunately he ended up 3rd place in the group as he lost one more map as PuMa and went down to the Losers Bracket
He has a chinstrap beard and gaming glasses (from the looks of it) so I assume he's a progamer, but I can't say I've ever seen his face before
This is Lzgamer from EG with his girlfriend.
Edit; ofc he has to be on EG with dat chinstrap beard. ;D
Jinro has a chinstrap now and Huk apparently can't grow one, so the lines are somewhat blurred now 3 months ago I would agree with your verdict, though!
90 minutes later he finally arrives, keyboard and mouse in tow. As we circle the block searching both parties turn a corner at the same time and meet face to face.
"The girls in Paris are way hotter than this city"
A curious greeting. In time it made sense, for we learned Huk is not a normal gamer.
Nice article, but not a cool statement by Huk. I'll take my NYC ladies any day over Parisian ones. Brooklyn for life
On October 29 2011 10:14 Fionn wrote: The article is wrong. Polt played Alive (a Code S Korean) and destroyed him 2-0. ~_~
Should have contacted me, the Polt Expert.
Unsurprisingly, Fionn is correct. Polt did beat Alive in the loser's bracket finals, meaning that he fared even better than I suggested.
And while I poke fun at Fionn's fanboyism toward Polt, remember that Fionn was the first person to hype Polt at all, and that was before his amazing run through the Super Tournament. (Which Fionn predicted.)
Also, it's true that MLG did show at least one Polt match on stream -- but that was on one of their beta streams, and considering how far Polt got in the tournament, it would have been nearly impossible for the beta streams to not show a Polt match. And that still wouldn't have reached nearly as many people as a main stage match, so the point holds.
I wonder how large the skill gap between Korea and the rest of the world truly is. This past month we saw foreigners victorious at IEM Guangzhou, IPL 3, MLG, and Gatored upsetting DRG and Top (3-0 victory at that) at IEM NYC. I would really like to see another GSL world championship tournament. What I found was interesting was that the Korea vs the World team match went to the ace match, where Nestea beat out Dimaga. Of course, foreigners played much more poorly in the individual tournaments. I wonder how the results would turn out next time.
This was impressive, but the true test is going to be at Providence.
Probably the 2 best Koreans will be there. Nestea+Mvp will serve as the "final boss" I feel. If they can take those 2 down, then foreigners will have proved they are on a very close level to Korea.
Great write up! Polt is still a beast no matter what happened. HuK definitely stole my heart though :o gotta love him for somehow pulling that victory out with easily the hardest competition ever seen at an MLG to date!!
ok it's monday night just after midnight, where are the replays??? it's been two weeks and i want to see the whitera games mlg couldn't be bothered to cast, an the Huk games that weren't cast, ect, ect, ect... any time now before blizzard breaks them with another patch
This MLG was great in true KoT, wacksteven style: We made a memory. Its was good to see all the players come out again, new faces and old faces alike. It seems MLG Finals loves to attract Mirror match ups; Boring or not I believe that the players themselves bring the entertainment and skill to the table, not their race.
I distinctively remember some terran floating to the gold on Antiga Shipyard then expanding to the other gold, anyone knows which game? I was sure it was MKP vs HayprO but that was Metalopolis.
I really like TL tournament write ups, i really do. I just wish they would come out somewhere near the same time that the tournament they are for, was. write up for the tournament is 15 days after the tournament ended, and Providence is 13 days away.
wish there was a way to get them up faster without people freaking out about spoiler alerts.
EPT![[image loading]](/staff/HawaiianPig/ellyicon.png)
![[image loading]](/images/forum/wiki_icon.png)
MLG Orlando on![[image loading]](/tlpd/images/flags/ca.png)
HuK![[image loading]](/tlpd/images/flags/ks.png)
TheStC![[image loading]](/tlpd/images/flags/us.png)
IdrA![[image loading]](/tlpd/images/flags/nl.png)
![[image loading]](/staff/heyoka/sc2tourn/Orlando/RedditMKP.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/heyoka/sc2tourn/Orlando/BoxerOrlando.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Nokarot/Orlando_Saturday2/IMG_1762.jpg)
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Nice pics and nailed the suggested games.
. Great write-up!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wyjLI.jpg)
