It appears as if some CEOs think Koreans teenagers may need a change of diet, because for the second time in a row the MBCGame Starleague is being sponsored by Pringles.
Savior, the defending champion, thinking about new ways to make ZvP look imbalanced at the group drawing ceremony
The first Pringles MSL edition ended with Savior winning 3-1 over Nal_rA, whose count of major titles is now 2! It was the third Zerg championship title in a row, which may sound a bit surprising, because except for Nal_rA winning once, all the previous KPGA and MSL titles had been claimed by Terrans. After all it is here that the two legendary Terrans NaDa and iloveoov made their biggest impact.
Let me introduce you to everything you need to know about this upcoming MSL. The system itself has not changed since last season, so you may look it up in one of TLnet's earlier newsposts.
From left to right, top row: BoxeR, Midas, Kingdom, Chojja, Jju, Shark, NaDa, Terato bottom row: Silver, Nal_rA, Savior, XellOs, DaezanG, YellOw[Name], Pusan, Bifrost
The Players
The four best players of last season were automatically qualified (they are also seeded each into one group):
1st - Savior (Z)
2nd - Nal_rA (P)
3rd - Midas (T)
4th - Kingdom (P)
The other 12 players had to fight their way through the Survivor League, the following made it:
BoxeR (T)
Chojja (Z)
NaDa (T)
XellOs (T)
JJu (Z)
SiLvEr (Z)
TerAtO (P)
PuSan (P)
YellOw[Name] (Z)
DaezanG (P)
Bifrost (T)
Shark (Z)
As one can see the result is a pretty even race distribution witch five Terran, five Protoss and six Zerg players. Lets just hope the racial balance lives up to its expectations for once. The team distribution looks like this:
SKTelecom T1: 3
OGN Sparkyz: 3
MBC Hero: 2
KTF MagicNs: 2
CJ Entus: 2
Pantech Ex: 2
Samsun KHAN: 1
Hanbit Stars: 1
Lecaf Oz: 0
STX-SouL: 0
eNature Top: 0
I'm a happy Zergling, kekeke ^_^
The Groups Like always, MBCGame held a group selection ceremony, for pictures of it, look here:
The groups were drawn and then some players were switched around following a system, which Live2win explained last season in this WGT news post.
This is what the final groups look like:
Group A: Savior vs. Terato, Yellow[name] vs. Bifrost
Group B: Nal_rA vs. Boxer, Silver vs. Pusan
Group C: Midas vs. Jju, Daezang vs. Chojja
Group D: Kingdom vs. Nada, Xellos vs. Shark
'Oh God, I need to get out of here'
The Maps
As usual the map pool consists of a mix of maps from previous seasons, as well as new maps.
We know Arcadia alread, since it has been used last season. Blitz and Longinus are completely new maps and the fourth map - New Peaks of Beakdu - is on loan from OGN, where it's former version was used last season.
Arcadia 2.00
Blitz 1.00
Longinus 1.01
New Peaks of Beakdu 2.2
The map pack, with Melee versions, Observer versions and Training versions, as well as the pictures can be downloaded here.
The Opening Matches - Week 1 and 2
Week 1 - August 24th
Savior (Z/CJ) vs. Terato (P/OGN) @ Longinus
Yellow[Name] (Z/OGN) vs. Bifrost (T/OGN) @ New Peaks of Baekdu
Nal_rA (P/KTF) vs. BoxeR (T/SKT) @ Blitz
Silver (Z/Pantech) vs. Pusan (P/MBCgame) @ Arcadia
Week 2 - August 31st
Midas (T/SKT) vs. Jju (Z/Samsung) @ New Peaks of Baekdu
Daezang (P/Hanbit) vs. Chojja (Z/KTF) @ Blitz
Kingdom (P/SKT) vs. NaDa (T/Pantech) @ Arcadia
XellOs (T/CJ) vs. Shark (Z/MBCgame) @ Longinus
XellOs shoing an emotion? I don't believe it!
Personal notes of mine
In no more than two days we will now witness what may become the start of Boxer's last Starleague ever. As everyone should know by now, he will start his mandatory service in the Korean army in September and since he has not been able to qualify for the OSL, MSL is all that is left. I really, really hope he can display something special. The
What's also interesting to see, is that iloveoov for the first time ever did not qualify for the MSL. But not only that, he also failed to get into OSL, while NaDa, who was absent for so long over there, is now back.
Looking at the first round matches I must say that I am very exited. Much more exited than I could possibly be about the upcoming OSL. It's just the beginning and so many classics -know ones, as well as potential ones- are already coming up: Boxer vs. Nal_rA, the duel of the strategic masterminds, NaDa vs. Kingdom, Midas vs. Jju, two extremely hungry players, XellOs vs. Shark, wow. And it goes on. This will be interesting.
Credits
Thanks to Live2win, HonestTea and many more for the original input.
On August 22 2006 12:58 Carnac wrote: <b>Personal notes of mine</b>
In no more than two days we will now witness what may become the start of Boxer's last Starleague ever. As everyone should know by now, <b>he</b> will start his mandatory service in the Korean army in September and since he has not been able to qualify for the OSL, MSL is all that is left. I really, really hope he can display something special. The
What's also interesting to see,[...]
Hey buddy, you forgot to finish some thoughts. I would like to know what you personally think that left off at THE...
Good write up as usual and yeah... Xellos is becoming more and more human as time passes... and even his play is becoming more and more human and less perfection ~_~ but still.. Xellos Fighting!! It's been awhile since he's lived up to his name. This MSL looks good for it.
Haha, dunno what I was thinking about when I was writing there. I usually jump forward and back within the post when I am writing it. Let me think of something to add there
On August 22 2006 13:07 Carnac wrote: yeah... -.- Maybe I was thinking of another sad 1-3 from the Protoss perspective... Reach 1-3 July in Gillette OSL.
Arcadia seems better, although 5 and 7's nats are still 3 miles away from the main base... i wonder why they didnt use the ramp converter like in 815's 7 start location? O_O
it was explained at a thread somewhere... jungle is the only tileset that has this special kind of wall (the one that is now around the mains) and you can have vision at the other side of it.
I guess it's an attempt to discourage cheesing and help the poor honest terran siege tanks do their work
how do you know which one is the live MSL game that starts in 2 hours and 15 minutes? i dont want to miss it! theres like 20+ sc games going on right now and its not even time yet.
I wonder how other progamers feel like ? Knowing that eliminateing Boxer will bring the hate of so much people upon them . With this pressure on their shoulders they will play at their best against him ? Will wait and see .
EPT
This tournament is shaping up to be the most entertaining of all the new ones. 
![[image loading]](http://image.fighterforum.com/showImage.asp?realFile=FFPHOT20060818012031003.JPG)
