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Players such as Jinro, HuK, and Adelscott did not apply for this tour, so don't ask why they aren't on this list. DIMAGA, Kas, and LaLush turned applications in late so they will not appear either. Please take some time to learn who exactly applied. Please inform yourself about who applied and who didn't. |
Enjoy~~
North American Star League – The Players
We hope that this will shed some light to the community about our application and selection process. On February 1st I contacted as many teams as I could and allowed them to begin preparing. These are the people/teams that fell under the category of “direct approach.” When we opened the application process, I contacted those teams again to allow them to officially submit their players. Anyone whose team manager was not directly contacted was part of the “public application” pool.
Because we were running at a fairly tight deadline, we had to close the application period at March 16th – we were not able to consider all the “public applications” received after this time. This applies to players such as DIMAGA, Kas, and LaLuSh, for example. Now, to clarify: the “application” is not just the video. The application is complete when the contract has been signed. The process for a public application was for them to send their application video along with manager contact information to apply@nasl.tv . After receiving their info, I would then send the contracts out to be signed. LaLuSh, DIMAGA, and Kas did not follow this application process.
Why does this bureaucracy matter?
We have deadlines. The contracts needed to be received before we could officially count any player in the league, and we needed time to do that. We needed to confirm every one of the 50 players before our website launched, to prepare content, and before the league starts, to ensure that it runs smoothly. Furthermore, because we need to run a broadcast schedule five days a week every week, we had quite a bit of concern over players who were unable to quickly follow these guidelines.
Now that that’s out of the way…
We had a grand total of 104 applications. We immediately eliminated 30 applicants who either: a) didn’t have a video with their application, or b) posted a video on youtube without actually applying. This left us with 74 players on our board. Next, we separated the 74 players by region: Asia, Europe, and North America. After separating the players by region, we went down the list and selected players who: a) were considered “top” players and b) were fan favorites, starting in North America (KiWiKaKi, SeleCT, and IdrA for example), followed by Europe (MorroW, White-Ra, and TLO for example), and Asia (July, MC, and Boxer for example). After this first round we had: 9 North Americans, 8 Europeans, and 6 Koreans.
Before the second round, we went backwards through the list, eliminating the lowest skilled/fame in a group of amazing players: (Cezanne, KenZy, Antimage for example). Then we went back through the regions to select the “second tier” list of admitted players, again based on results and popularity. Players in this list included (some examples: KawaiiRice, Axslav, Haypro, HasuObs, and Ace). This left us with 42 total invites, and 8 remaining spots for the third round of selection.
At this point, we had a two day debate about the remaining players, in which we went to the poll and the application videos to help make our selections. Players who made the final cut included MoMaN and Dde for example. This left us with the North American Star League’s 50 players.
How did we group the players?
The first thing we did is separate teammates – we put all teammates in different groups. The next thing we did was to look at fun and exciting rivals and try to pair them: I.E. IdrA vs Tyler, Zenio… and Grubby vs Moon. After this, we attempted to create an equal balance between races and regions. Two Koreans were placed in each group, and each group has a balance of 4-3-3 (races). We also used our selection process to help the grouping, separating those selected in the first round in different groups, etc.
Overall, we chose 3-4 players (Artosis, Grubby, MoMaN) who were designated as “fan favorites” and 3-4 players (ViBe, CrunCher, DarkforcE) who may be considered “underdogs.” The rest of the players were chosen based on their results and skill level.
Why we picked them
Stalife: Stalife took 2nd place in the EG Masters Cup, multiple ESL Go4SC2 victories (including 1st in the Monthly final), and over $3,500 in prizes won, Stalife has shown to be one of the most underrated players in NA.
ViBe: Nearly qualified for the TSL and had an impressive showing at MLG Dallas 2010, proving that he is one of those up and comers we want to see in this event.
CrunCher: He validated our pick by defeating IdrA in the TSL, but his qualification was impressive as well, taking down top players in an official setting.
Dde: Similar to ViBe, Dde is another player whose results in online cups consistently puts him in the top3 and leads us to believe that he has the potential to surprise many people in the North American Star League.
Grubby: One of the most legendary RTS players of all time – he’s shown some good games at the
Assembly LAN and the FXOpen Invitational. He is one person that we’re sure everyone would love to see succeed.
MoMaN: He’s played pretty well in online cups, and we were really as impressed with his application video, which was one of the most popular we received. He was an easy “fan favorite” choice for us.
Artosis: Artosis posted some good results in the beta stages when he was active, qualifying for the first GSL. Now that he will be active again, we believe he can surprise many people, and of course was one of our fan choices!
Why we didn’t pick them
DeMusliM: He was wearing a cast in his application video, standing outside of a hospital saying that he just had another procedure done, we can't really choose a player who hasn't played in months and have him work his way back into shape in the actual league.
Kas: Despite being late, he actually applied correctly. However, Ukraine does not have a VISA waiver program with the US, and we only wanted players who have demonstrated travel to the US before – having a “high risk” player is something we didn’t want (I.E. we don’t want a situation where visa problems would stop a player like Kas from showing up to the finals).
*Note: players such as White-Ra have demonstrated on numerous occasions that he can travel to the US without problem, and we officially verified that BRAT_OK has a B1 VISA that allows him to travel to the US.
NightEnD: Same reason as Kas. He assured us that he could get a VISA, but we only accepted players who actually have a copy of a VISA that they could show us.
Minigun: This was a difficult pick, however, due to our attempt to balance by race and region, we only had room for one more Protoss. We essentially made a judgment call between two very very good players; and chose Cruncher over Minigun.
FruitDealer: Incomplete application forced us to remove him from consideration
Who didn’t apply
DIMAGA: Application video past the deadline, neither him or his manager contacted me, so they were never sent contracts.
Jinro: Did not sign contract, probably to focus on GSL
HuK: Did not sign contract, probably to focus on GSL
IM: Nobody from team IM applied
Prime: Only asked about applying after the application process was over
Final Remarks
Unfortunately, in a tournament with 50 players, it is impossible to create a list that will satisfy everyone. We tried our best to make the most objective list we could. Remember, we have 16 spots next season that will be up for grabs. We encourage everyone to sign up for the Open Tournament and Seasonal Qualifier – especially those that we unfortunately couldn’t select to be in the league this season.
We hope that you all will enjoy the league and know that this process was lengthy and no decision was made hastily or without a great deal of thought.
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On March 30 2011 05:10 TicketoHELL wrote:
didn't xeris promise us the explanation for the invites on tuesday? where are them?
It's 1:11 PST, have some patience
edit: lol... woops nevermind
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On March 30 2011 05:06 Insanious wrote:
In the NORTH AMERICAN STAR LEAGUE there are 20 NA players and 30 Other.
The EU almost out number the NA players, there is enough diveristy in the NORTH AMERICAN STAR LEAGUE
You're far too hung up about the title of the league.
I mean, have fun with a league consisting purely out of 50 NA-players.
Might aswell call it Go4SC2US.
The whole thing has been constructed as an international league from day1, names or titles are just hollow words.
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On March 30 2011 05:06 Insanious wrote:Show nested quote +On March 30 2011 05:02 dtz wrote:On March 30 2011 04:59 Insanious wrote:On March 30 2011 04:53 Snoyarc wrote:On March 30 2011 04:43 mengsk83 wrote:
If the reason for not chosing Demuslim ist that there are already 5 EG members invited then that is pretty retarded, seeing as players like Incontrol and Machine are in who are not even close to the level and results of Demuslim. whats funny is they(NASL) Claimed to have removed the 5 per team rule, Yet They(NASL) didn't invite more than 5 players per team. There are only 3 teams in NA/EU with more than 5 players, Liquid has 2 players in korea that didn't want to participate, and they only invited 11 Koreans. This means only EG and ROOT lost out in NA/EU teams. (ONE and VT have more than 5 players, but not 5 players worthy of getting into NASL) Out of korean teams, only oGs and ST lost out. So really, there were only 4 teams and personally... EG could of had Demuslim ROOT could of had Minigun oGs / ST could of had anyone... but really, these like 4 players missing out adds a little more diversity to the player pool... it sucks, but its not like it really left any gosu gosu players out. Actually , there are no UK players in the list afaik so adding DeMuslim would have increased the diversity. Its the NASL... and there are: 16 europeans 11 koreans 20 NA 2 LA In the NORTH AMERICAN STAR LEAGUE there are 20 NA players and 30 Other. The EU almost out number the NA players, there is enough diveristy in the NORTH AMERICAN STAR LEAGUE
Since when did they say nationality matters? DeMusliM is considered by many the best Terran in Europe or atleast top 3. God knows why he didn't get invited but I'm not gonna complain. It's their league and they can invite whoever they want.
Edit: Okay got the answer about DeMusliM, understandable but I don't agree with it 
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They really wanted group 5 to be stacked huh
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Why we picked them
is missing incontrol
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Interesting to see that lack of practice excludes Demuslim who has done well in tournaments, but because Artosis is a fan fav. he gets invited even though he hasn't done anything in months and recently switched races.
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I feel sorry for Minigun. But on the whole I think very good picks. I would have like to see oGsSupernova and Bomber too.
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On March 30 2011 05:16 butch wrote:Why we picked them is missing incontrol
And "why we didn't pick them" is missing Thorzain.
Although, I guess he was still kinda unknown in the US until his TSL game.
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On March 30 2011 05:12 Mattes wrote:Show nested quote +On March 30 2011 05:06 Insanious wrote:
In the NORTH AMERICAN STAR LEAGUE there are 20 NA players and 30 Other.
The EU almost out number the NA players, there is enough diveristy in the NORTH AMERICAN STAR LEAGUE You're far too hung up about the title of the league. I mean, have fun with a league consisting purely out of 50 NA-players. Might aswell call it Go4SC2US. The whole thing has been constructed as an international league from day1, names or titles are just hollow words.
You're far too hung up on not reading.
He was making a statement that the diversity was excellent.
Great post from Xeris. I still disagree with some of the selections, but you can't please everyone. I would have loved to see an explanation about InControl, though I think he falls into a similar boat as Artosis in that he's a fan favorite. I guess that's fine with me and I think the final list is for the most part excellent. I feel bad for Minigun and Thorzain though, one of the Prae guys should have definitely been accepted.
I'm still not overly excited for this considering all of the unnecessary and fake drama, but I'm sure I'll end up watching anyway considering the pool of players they compiled--which should have been the main drawing point in the first place, not some false hype. I checked this list every few days to see who was added, but I certainly didn't hold my breath waiting.
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I absolutely love that Moman was chosen thanks to his great video! Maybe not the best player, but his video made him a fan favorite for sure!
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On March 30 2011 05:12 Mattes wrote:Show nested quote +On March 30 2011 05:06 Insanious wrote:
In the NORTH AMERICAN STAR LEAGUE there are 20 NA players and 30 Other.
The EU almost out number the NA players, there is enough diveristy in the NORTH AMERICAN STAR LEAGUE You're far too hung up about the title of the league. I mean, have fun with a league consisting purely out of 50 NA-players. Might aswell call it Go4SC2US. The whole thing has been constructed as an international league from day1, names or titles are just hollow words.
I was responding to the guy who recommended removing a NA player for an EU player for diversity. I was showing that the player pool is diverse enough.
Wasn't really about NA, just saying that well.. its named the NASL, and would be a pretty ironic name if there were almost no NA players in it.
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I'm disappointed that Ddoro isn't in. I guess being underrated isn't a good thing for NASL. Play in more events Ddoro and get your name out there!!!
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Thanks for a thorough explanation, given i was skeptical at first, your process seemed well thought through and overall the players will make up for interesting games!
On another note!! Man gonna have to watch so much sc2!!!
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''NightEnD: Same reason as Kas. He assured us that he could get a VISA, but we only accepted players who actually have a copy of a VISA that they could show us.''
As i said im sick of how i get threated .. i can take visa like NO PROBLEM , u didnt even bother to ask me or tell me about the visa , u only told me about the visa after i asked if im invited .. thats just pathetic and desgusting , when i have apply for the NASL u could have told me about the visa and by now i would already have had apply for it and take it . Romania is part of the european nations and so i would have not even 1 problem in taking the visa . Very profesional tho very... and the answer is even more profesional ..
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On March 30 2011 05:18 Bagi wrote:And "why we didn't pick them" is missing Thorzain. Although, I guess he was still kinda unknown in the US until his TSL game.
which is BS, cause Cruncher has been chosen cause of his win vs Idra...
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DAMN this tournament will be killer! specially group 2 with player that can eliminate any1=))))
WHITE-RA!
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The people in this tournament are almost exactly how I would want them...sad day for Dimaga though  Other than him though, this tournament is going to be SICK !
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What a list of top Tier players from all over the world. this league is going to not only produce legends but also great games. Im really excited to see who ends up taking it all. Maybe we will see Tyler and MC play against each other :-P
I also like thats its not American dominated with players just because of where its hosted. Love the amount of diversity in the players and cultures they bring with them. Going to be very exciting tournament and i only hope it reaches the "standards" that GSL has apparently of the BEST players in the world only participating in.
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EPT
