IGN Pro League is thrilled to be able to bring you another unique StarCraft II tournament! This one is called Tournament of Champions, and is a 16-man, double elimination tournament for a $12,000 prize pool! Each team from the IPL Team Arena Challenge was asked to pick one player from their roster to represent them in this global tournament, that will span the month of March. The WINNER of the Tournament of Champions will receive a spot in our live, open qualifier at IPL4 at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Official Home of the IPL as well as an all expenses paid flight and hotel stay for the event!
When
IPL ToC will begin on March 13th and will showcase two best of 5 matches each Tuesday through Friday night until the Grand Final! The Grand Final is currently scheduled for Thursday, April 5th, the day before IPL4 kicks off from the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Official Home of the IPL!
The Champions
ThorZaIN - Mousesports
Apocalypse - Quantic
PuMa - Evil Geniuses**
SuperNova - oGs
Jjakji - NSHoSeo
SeleCT - Dignitas
GuMiho - FXO
Rain - Fnatic*
NaDa - compLexity MVP
HerO - Liquid
Creator - Prime
Kas - Empire
Squirtle - StarTale
Life - ZeNEX
Polt - TSL**
Artist - ReIGN
*Note: Fnatic replaces Vile due to scheduling conflicts. **Note 2: If a player wins who already has a free trip to IPL4, that portion of the prize will be given to their team to decide on another player they would like to give the free trip to IPL4 to.
LET'S GO SQUIRTLE!!! This is your tournament (as long as you practice only PvT)!! Squirtle is seriously due for a breakout performance really soon, the guy is mad good.
Be nice if Artist gets it after Reign fell apart but I really doubt he will...
No idea who to pick as the winner, there is no ONE player there who is so, so, so far ahead in TvT, many are all equally competent while all the non-Terrans are also good.
On March 07 2012 09:45 Angelbelow wrote: Haha imagine if ST and Prime went with Bomber and MKP instead.
Hmm, MarineKing and Bomber are already qualified for IPL4 so I guess they want to give other players on their team a chance. Puma's already qualified too, but he's participating in this so I don't know actually.
Welcome to the Tournament of Terrans. For we will enjoy our TvTs and 40 minute games.
Also, awesome concept and just another amazing player that will be in the Open Bracket come IPL. It's going to be hell for any non-Koreans to make it out. With the two GSTL teams plus the ToC player in the mix, it'll be a miracle for a foreigner to make it out.
On March 07 2012 09:45 Angelbelow wrote: Haha imagine if ST and Prime went with Bomber and MKP instead.
Hmm, MarineKing and Bomber are already qualified for IPL4 so I guess they want to give other players on their team a chance. Puma's already qualified too, but he's participating in this so I don't know actually.
Korean Terrans though...
Well, if Puma or Polt win, they get to have a teammate of theirs come to IPL4. They're essentially playing solely for one of their teammates to go to Las Vegas with them. But I already expect most of EG to be in the Open Bracket to begin with, but if Polt wins, he let's someone like Symbol get to go to Vegas with him.
So they just custom crafted a tournament for Creator to rape a bunch of Terrans in? lolol
Best tournament ever.
HerO also has a decent draw here. Can definitely beat Artist. And if Creator and Life manage to win out... oh man. Doesn't have to face Polt/Jjakji/Gumiho until the winners final.
I initally skipped the player list and then saw the first few comments, had to scroll back up and was like.... Mother of God! That is really crazy. A really interesting view on teams and who they consider strong representatives.
Very disappointed in the heavy terrans and will probably not watch a majority of this tournament (to many tvt's for my liking ><). Will watch Life though.
On March 07 2012 14:34 Hall0wed wrote: Tough first opponent for Squirtle. I love Polt but Squirtle should take this if he plays his best.
Nah, I think Polt will murder him. Against any other opponent in that lineup Squirtle would have a fair chance.
You haven't watched enough of Squirtle. =/
I thought that's what people said when they wanted to remind everyone how bad Squirtle is.TLPD isn't the end all - be all of arguments, but STSquirtle has lost 18 of his last 24 games against Terran and he is going up against one of the best PvT players in the world. I'd be surprised if he took a game off Polt.
On March 07 2012 14:26 CosmicSpiral wrote: I like high-level TvT. This promises to be fun.
Same.. I still find TvT to be the one of the better matchups in this game. So long as it doesnt devolve into an uber turtlefast, but I actually haven't seen that many really bad ones.
On March 07 2012 14:34 Hall0wed wrote: Tough first opponent for Squirtle. I love Polt but Squirtle should take this if he plays his best.
Nah, I think Polt will murder him. Against any other opponent in that lineup Squirtle would have a fair chance.
You haven't watched enough of Squirtle. =/
I thought that's what people said when they wanted to remind everyone how bad Squirtle is.TLPD isn't the end all - be all of arguments, but STSquirtle has lost 18 of his last 24 games against Terran and he is going up against one of the best PvT players in the world. I'd be surprised if he took a game off Polt.
Squirtle has some of the best mechanics and decision making that I have seen from a SC2 player. He isn't my favorite player for just any crazy reason, it is because I watch a galactic shit ton of starcraft and when I watched Squirtle's play it was just a thing of beauty and I was literally shocked at how impressive he was. If you need convincing just pull up some VoDs from his stream, or maybe I will pull some up sometime.
On March 07 2012 14:26 CosmicSpiral wrote: I like high-level TvT. This promises to be fun.
Same.. I still find TvT to be the one of the better matchups in this game. So long as it doesnt devolve into an uber turtlefast, but I actually haven't seen that many really bad ones.
Marine-tank TvT is the most interesting matchup just in terms of map movement.
I don't play dirty Terran ( ) but I do love TvT, it rocks, so if any race had to be over represented, Terran is easily the best. I'm predicting Creator to take it all despite this, though I would love a T-Zain upset over all the Koreans.
Looks amazing, but I have one minor issue... unless Nani/Sase are already invited to IPL 4 (which I can't recall) why would they choose Apocalypse? (no offense <3)
On March 08 2012 06:42 Coal wrote: Looks amazing, but I have one minor issue... unless Nani/Sase are already invited to IPL 4 (which I can't recall) why would they choose Apocalypse? (no offense <3)
On March 08 2012 06:42 Coal wrote: Looks amazing, but I have one minor issue... unless Nani/Sase are already invited to IPL 4 (which I can't recall) why would they choose Apocalypse? (no offense <3)
They will be at the Red Bull LAN.
Thanks for your reply ^_ ^ But isn't the Red Bull Lan only for practice ? = (
Edit : Just noticed that the Red Bull Lan takes place on the 16-18th of Mars, and IPL 4 isn't until 6 of April... suddenly your statement makes less sense, it's online right? Couldn't they play from the LAN?
On March 07 2012 12:33 Bagration wrote: Hmm, I see Artist is representing the disbanded Reign team. Hope he does well.
"Each team from the IPL Team Arena Challenge was asked to pick one player from their roster to represent them in this global tournament, that will span the month of March."
It appears that his placement and team label are due to the population requirements of the tournament. What is interesting is the fact that Puma is playing for EG and Polt for TSL, even though they already have earned a spot through the qualifiers. If either one of them were to win the tournament then his spot would be given to someone else on the team. This could be viewed as an indication of confidence of the other members on the two player's teams, or just a coincidence that the teams insist on their aces carrying.
**Note 2: If a player wins who already has a free trip to IPL4, that portion of the prize will be given to their team to decide on another player they would like to give the free trip to IPL4 to.
"Each team from the IPL Team Arena Challenge was asked to pick one player from their roster to represent them in this global tournament, that will span the month of March."
It appears that his placement and team label are due to the population requirements of the tournament. What is interesting is the fact that Puma is playing for EG and Polt for TSL, even though they already have earned a spot through the qualifiers. If either one of them were to win the tournament then his spot would be given to someone else on the team. This could be viewed as an indication of confidence of the other members on the two player's teams, or just a coincidence that the teams insist on their aces carrying.
**Note 2: If a player wins who already has a free trip to IPL4, that portion of the prize will be given to their team to decide on another player they would like to give the free trip to IPL4 to.
A shame they didn't submit other players because those players were already qualified, just for the sake of racial diversity. JYP and Symbol could've fixed the racial balance a slight bit xD
Neat idea, but needs a bit of tweaking for the next time T.T Maybe request 2 or 3 players from each team (different races of course) and then pick from them.
On March 13 2012 09:26 Castrophy wrote: I love all the things IGN does. I think I can go as far to say they are the best thing to ever happen to Starcraft 2 and E-sports.
The name of the tournament is a bit misleading. Perhaps Tournament of Aces? They are the team aces after all.
Really cool concept though, I can't wait to tune in. IPL always produces awesome content during the downtimes between premiere events (their own included, of course). Also, anything that can get more of NaDa into foreign tournaments is always welcome.
I was wondering about the team seems a bit silly to call it tournament of champions :S Good idea though, as it's every team basically fighting it out for another paid spot in IPL4 and also some prize money for the comeptitiors! I love the way all the teams choose a Terran though So funnys
Great tournament (wrong name ; awesome players and alllll the teams to add a bit more blood to it! GG GL
IPL/IGN you are a fantastic organisation for eSports but I bet you, just like I were very disappointed by the submissions for this event...way way too many Terrans and lack of Zerg/Toss means I may watch the odd match but overall will likely miss the majority of this content.
In future I would try to balance the starting players across the three races as much as possible when getting your roster together. Terran was the race of choice amongst those with the highest apm for much of 2011 and although Blizzard has been making balancing adjustments, most Pro Players have invested so much time in their race they wont be changing (would be madness to do so). Maybe HotS will see some top talent swap race or failing that the rest of the BW community will join and hopefully not all pick Terran like many of their Korean predecessors.
On March 13 2012 21:51 Champloo wrote: How is the winner supposed to get to Las Vegas if the tournament finishes 1 day before IPL4 starts?
Or are the games prerecorded and casted from replays?
Bar IPL 'LAN' events ALL their content is prerecorded. It was something that turned me off IPL to start with but their output is now so excellent I am fine with it...thoiugh of course still prefer live events wherever possible I understand scheduling players to be around at same time makes that extremely difficult unless the purrse is 5k+
On March 13 2012 21:06 Ireniicus wrote: IPL/IGN you are a fantastic organisation for eSports but I bet you, just like I were very disappointed by the submissions for this event...way way too many Terrans and lack of Zerg/Toss means I may watch the odd match but overall will likely miss the majority of this content.
In future I would try to balance the starting players across the three races as much as possible when getting your roster together. Terran was the race of choice amongst those with the highest apm for much of 2011 and although Blizzard has been making balancing adjustments, most Pro Players have invested so much time in their race they wont be changing (would be madness to do so). Maybe HotS will see some top talent swap race or failing that the rest of the BW community will join and hopefully not all pick Terran like many of their Korean predecessors.
Its not really their fault that pretty much every team sent a terran to do this. It was up to the teams them self who they were going to use......
On March 13 2012 21:06 Ireniicus wrote: IPL/IGN you are a fantastic organisation for eSports but I bet you, just like I were very disappointed by the submissions for this event...way way too many Terrans and lack of Zerg/Toss means I may watch the odd match but overall will likely miss the majority of this content.
In future I would try to balance the starting players across the three races as much as possible when getting your roster together. Terran was the race of choice amongst those with the highest apm for much of 2011 and although Blizzard has been making balancing adjustments, most Pro Players have invested so much time in their race they wont be changing (would be madness to do so). Maybe HotS will see some top talent swap race or failing that the rest of the BW community will join and hopefully not all pick Terran like many of their Korean predecessors.
Its not really their fault that pretty much every team sent a terran to do this. It was up to the teams them self who they were going to use......
Sure but as tourney organiser you want it to be as 'viewer friendly' as possible and Starcraft has 3 races and if that means somehow influencing things to ensure we get somewhat more even race distribution so be it...thats my opinion...I guess Terrans are in for a treat of course
On March 13 2012 21:06 Ireniicus wrote: IPL/IGN you are a fantastic organisation for eSports but I bet you, just like I were very disappointed by the submissions for this event...way way too many Terrans and lack of Zerg/Toss means I may watch the odd match but overall will likely miss the majority of this content.
In future I would try to balance the starting players across the three races as much as possible when getting your roster together. Terran was the race of choice amongst those with the highest apm for much of 2011 and although Blizzard has been making balancing adjustments, most Pro Players have invested so much time in their race they wont be changing (would be madness to do so). Maybe HotS will see some top talent swap race or failing that the rest of the BW community will join and hopefully not all pick Terran like many of their Korean predecessors.
Its not really their fault that pretty much every team sent a terran to do this. It was up to the teams them self who they were going to use......
Sure but as tourney organiser you want it to be as 'viewer friendly' as possible and Starcraft has 3 races and if that means somehow influencing things to ensure we get somewhat more even race distribution so be it...thats my opinion...I guess Terrans are in for a treat of course
Its suppose to be their top players playing. Most teams(Specialy the korean ones) have their best player in form of a terran. It would be more sad if you forced teams to send weaker players just so the viewers wouldnt see this many terrans
The player line-up is pretty sweet, but I don't think it'll be too fun to watch TvT over and over and over again :s. I tend to dislike mirror match-ups, both playing and watching them..
Hey I've watched a lot of games from IPL. Just want to say I think Catspajamas and Doa are awesome and I really enjoy watching the IPL stream. Thanks to everyone involved.
next tournament to be "The Extreme Contest" aka IPL TEC? Or "Team Intelligence Competition" aka IPC TIC? just asking , you know, would fit perfectly... IPL TIC, TAC, TOC...
On March 17 2012 18:42 Heimatloser wrote: next tournament to be "The Extreme Contest" aka IPL TEC? Or "Team Intelligence Competition" aka IPC TIC? just asking , you know, would fit perfectly... IPL TIC, TAC, TOC...
IPL Tournament for Interntional Competition actually, but you were close
Awesome, at least Hero gets a ton of PvT practice for this which will serve him well in GSL. Shame it's so Terran-filled but not as if that's IGN's fault
IGN could have avoided that if they added some rules. For example since it was from a previous tournament, they could seed the teams for their final league result, with their picks to achieve a balanced race distribuition, IF the first 6 teams choosed terran, then terran players wouldn't be allowed to be picked anymore and so on. The teams that placed worse would be left to pick a player of the least picked race. Considering the teams that were in and their rosters, I believe the tournament would still be high level of skill and alot more fun to spectators, i'm Terran, but this much TvT .... it hurts everybody, starting by viewers.
On a second thought, looking at the list of the best players of the league, it could be directly atributed to the players that had more kills during the tournament, it would end up by 5T, 6P, 5Z by liquipedia stats. (edit: 1 by team ofc)
So, it could be avoided? Offcourse yes, just think first.
On March 22 2012 09:25 murtas wrote: IGN could have avoided that if they added some rules. For example since it was from a previous tournament, they could seed the teams for their final league result, with their picks to achieve a balanced race distribuition, IF the first 6 teams choosed terran, then terran players wouldn't be allowed to be picked anymore and so on. The teams that placed worse would be left to pick a player of the least picked race. Considering the teams that were in and their rosters, I believe the tournament would still be high level of skill and alot more fun to spectators, i'm Terran, but this much TvT .... it hurts everybody, starting by viewers.
On a second thought, looking at the list of the best players of the league, it could be directly atributed to the players that had more kills during the tournament, it would end up by 5T, 6P, 5Z by liquipedia stats. (edit: 1 by team ofc)
So, it could be avoided? Offcourse yes, just think first.
That would just have been stupid. This tournement is suppose to be a tournement of "Champions"(Aka their best players). Just because they are terrans dont mean we should force the teams to pick their 2. best player instead
EPT
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yRfNe.png)
ThorZaIN - Mousesports
HerO - Liquid
Life - ZeNEX![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/AiAgN.png)
Facebook![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/xBVkG.png)
Twitter![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/x6Xnq.png)
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unlucky picks IPL
) but I do love TvT, it rocks, so if any race had to be over represented, Terran is easily the best. I'm predicting Creator to take it all despite this, though I would love a T-Zain upset over all the Koreans.
