2011 in Review - TL Awards - Page 24

On January 02 2012 11:04 IdrA wrote:
its team of the year, not most accomplished team of the year. mouz is a successful team with a lot of good players, but they dont really do anything otherwise. tl and eg are both out there interacting with the community and creating content and interest both for fans and to bring in new people to esports, mouz isnt, or they arent successful at it. tl and eg do a million times more for esports than mouz does. theres not a very clear winner in terms of whos won the most, but mouz clearly loses on the other stuff. (and eg wins but tl bias obv)

On January 02 2012 06:45 tree.hugger wrote:
Antiga got on the list because it's the most balanced map statistically in the pool. For the players we spoke to, balance was a split between Daybreak and Antiga. Terminus is not a balanced map, and there are so many versions of it, with important changes it's impossible to pick one. Calm Before the Storm is too new to really qualify. Crevasse is an awful map, you must be joking. Katrina hasn't been played in a single major tournament and it's a remake of a BW map. Cloud Kingdom might be the map of 2012, who knows!


We viewed FXO as a Korean team because of it's participation in the GSTL and KSL, and it's merger with fOu. Teams that weren't GSTL regulars, nor made exclusively of Koreans (Team aLive, for example) were considered for the international award. We took teamleagues into account for the international award, but came to the conclusion that the foreign scene really lacks a teamleague that is up to the GSTL standard.

I can't speak for anyone else on this, but personally, I think eight teams is far too few for a teamleague, and that scheduling conflicts played too large a role in each teamleague to make the results too meaningful. Of course, however, I was cheering hard for Mousesports in the IPL TAC, and there's no denying that Liquid's defeat in that tournament was bad or that EG's absence in that event doesn't do them favors. But hopefully in 2012, we're going to have more team competition to factor into the equation.

Moreover, the award was called 'Team of the Year' and not 'Best Team at the End of the Year' or 'Best Team in Team Events'. Otherwise, FXO or SlayerS would've won the Korean award. No, I feel Team of the Year recognizes that teams do a lot more than just playing teamleagues. Teams play a big role in individual leagues as well, and in all kinds of extra curricular stuff. I think 'Team of the Year' is a much more broad designation than most people seem to feel it is.

And I didn't want to give Honorable Mentions at all, but obviously I didn't win that argument...


The point was really to single out players who people wouldn't look at normally. I think everyone is going to be watching forGG, but it wouldn't have been so good of an article if I said; "Players to Watch For: forGG, MVP, MMA, GuMiHo, Bomber"

On January 02 2012 09:36 bruteMax wrote:
Whaa? Thorzain isn't as big a surprise as Leenock winning MLG, then coming in 2nd at GSL. TSL3 isn't nearly as big an event as either of the other two, so biggest breakout is defined in part by the grandeur of the event as well.

On January 02 2012 15:06 Takezou wrote:



Anyone who had watched Leenock play in GSL would have seen that he was incredibly talented with decent results. It was only time before those decent results turned into something bigger. Him breaking out would not really be a surprise to many.

On January 02 2012 03:40 Kennigit wrote:

They have Swedish mercenaries picked up right before major title wins ;o

On January 02 2012 13:43 DueSs wrote:

I don't think people have their panties in a wad because Mouz didn't win. I think they do because Mouz wasn't mentioned.

You said, "mouz is a successful team with a lot of good players"--isn't that AT LEAST good enough to be......... . ... .. .. mentioned?

On January 02 2012 16:29 IdrA wrote:

not really. winning, even a team league, is still largely individual. you practice with your team and receive some support from them, but honestly that comes into play more in individual leagues more than team leagues. team leagues are all online, you're not there together talking and giving each other advice (unless you're eg cuz we're the best) you're all sitting at home playing your own individual matches and winning or losing on your own. and even the practice, most people are more likely to practice with friends and regular practice partners, whether theyre on their team or not.
its the extraneous stuff that really defines a team, particularly outside of korea.

On January 02 2012 15:08 -orb- wrote:


Anyone who watches the korean weekly saw him as well. He certainly didn't come out of nowhere except to people not in tune with the korean scene