Hello everyone! IGN Pro League is thrilled to announce our newest tournament! The Ye Olde Map Tournament features some of the most amazing maps ever created by Blizzard and has a lineup of some of the best players in all of North America! This tournament is meant to be a fun throwback to the early days of StarCraft II and may serve as a way for us to see how far the strategy and skill have progressed since the first time players set foot on Scrap Station or Kulas Ravine. If you're a fan of nostalgia, not-so-balanced maps, and some fun StarCraft games, you better not miss this! Oh, and these games will be played LIVE for your entertainment. =)
Ye Olde Map Tournament, or YOMT, is a single-elimination bracket with each round being best of 5. Each player can veto one map OTHER than the starting map for each round. The loser of each game will pick the next map. Bracket to come after IPL4.
As always, our live casts will begin at 5 p.m. PDT, or 00:00 GMT (+00:00) each day and broadcasts will begin on Tuesday, April 17th! Ye Olde Map Tournament will be LIVE, every Tuesday and Wednesday until it wraps up on Wednesday, May 9th!
There will be a European rebroadcast each day following the first broadcast at 18:30 CEST (16:30 GMT (+00:00))
Ye Olde Map Pool Steppes of War Kulas Ravine Desert Oasis Jungle Basin Lost Temple Blistering Sands Scrap Station Incineration Zone
Casters Every game will be commentated by our in-house IGN Pro League casting team of Kevin Knocke and Doa!
Stay up to date with IPL4, IPL TV, IPL Fight Club, and IPL Team Arena by checking our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch.TV!
Zergs used to actually take some games on Steppes of War, Kulas, Jungle, Lost Temple, just because no one knew how to play. I predict a 0% winrate on these maps lol. Please don't April Fool me tho
I know it's April Fool's Day, so I hope this is an funny announcement of a fun looking tournament rather than a fake announcement of a fake tournament. -.-
I think the idea of this is awesome, and easy to get enamoured with, but if it wasn't a joke, everyone would get pumped up about it, stream views would start at 50k or something, and then plunge sharply to a few hundred by the 5th game or so...
as an April 1st announcement, 5/5.
On April 02 2012 04:54 coL.drewbie wrote: this tournament is real :D wish i couldve played in it but will be moving ~! all my favorite maps ! LOL
I wanted to see a tournament like this, just to see how players approach it given the (perceived) imbalances and so on that existed at the time.
I always wanted to see something similar on contemporary maps with a really old patch too or something, think that would have been fun (but I don't think you could do that unless you custom built the maps to adjust the units or blizzard hooked you up)
If this was April 1st, and they actually went through with the tournament, it would still be an April Fool´s joke. The tournament itself, is an April Fool´s joke.
I don't think it's a joke. IGN posted something about this some weeks ago, didn't they?
Gonna be awesome. Player lineup is cool too, finally a "bigger" tournament for NA scene only! Would be cool if IGN tries to establish something like the German EPS for NA after this tournament. Although I would've rather see that lineup in a tournament with a normal mappool. This tournament should be full with pro players that played during beta etc and are now retired or not prolevel anymore :D
Soo, this is the tournament that DoA conceived of eh? Pretty sure we won't see a Zerg winning, but hey, will be a fun deviation from the normal tournament style.
The tourney will get boring if Zerg tries to all in every game (which is probably the best strategy). The most glorious part of watching old sc2 was seeing a Zerg win a macro game of Steppes of war. EGIdrA vs IMMvp GSL open season3 game 2? Chills.
Before we all start weeping for the swarm let's not forget that the game has been patched many times since these old maps were in circulation. The results may not be as one sided as you may expect.
On April 02 2012 07:35 red4ce wrote: Before we all start weeping for the swarm let's not forget that the game has been patched many times since these old maps were in circulation. The results may not be as one sided as you may expect.
Patches were made in view of current maps and such. Kulas ravine still sucks regardless
I remember an IPL cast where catsPJs and doa (I think) thought of this and were very adamant about making it happen.
Also the time stamp on TL says april 2nd so it's not allowed to be an april fools joke, they're officially bound to make this happen as far as im concerned.
i've actually wanted to see kulas ravine make a comeback but with cross pos only. I mean, it's not that bad of a map, it's quite large and you have access to 3 bases once you kill your rocks. biggest issue with that map was reapers but this was a map that existed when reapers built faster and could get speed before factory.
I actually PM'd this idea to TotalBiscuit after his Pro Team Monobattles tournament because it was really wacky and fun and seemed like something he could pull off, now 3 weeks later IPL announces this tournament! I am so pumped, going to be so much fun to watch and see how games play out on these maps almost 2 years later.
Hopefully not a joke because I actually thought this would be hilarious. CatsPajamas and DOA were talking about hosting a tournament like this, I believe. Yeah?
On April 02 2012 12:46 Diamond wrote: CatZ so needs to be invited to this. If there is anyone that can abuse the ever living shit out of every one of these maps, it's that man.
Glad the response has been so positive! Can't blame us for wanting to mess with people a bit by announcing on 4/1!
I'm actually really psyched that this thing is becoming a reality! Hardcore, ultra high-level tournaments are great, but I feel like we should never forget that the main purpose of Starcraft is to have fun! :D
I really like what IGN did and does with tournaments, yet I find this a waste of money. I don't think those maps will make for entertaining games.. or at least not very high-class games. Poor choice to spend 2000$, but thats obviously my opinion. From someone who likes to watch Koreans and the very best foreign players on the latest maps.
Still I guess it will be very funny/entertaining in some aspects. So I'll tune in and leave the stream open just to support IGN for what they do even though I think it will be disappointing given the maps.
On April 02 2012 16:14 Type|NarutO wrote: I really like what IGN did and does with tournaments, yet I find this a waste of money. I don't think those maps will make for entertaining games.. or at least not very high-class games. Poor choice to spend 2000$, but thats obviously my opinion. From someone who likes to watch Koreans and the very best foreign players on the latest maps.
Still I guess it will be very funny/entertaining in some aspects. So I'll tune in and leave the stream open just to support IGN for what they do even though I think it will be disappointing given the maps.
Think TB's Pro mono-batles tournament. Sadly i don't think "BM should be encourage" would work for IPL. I would love to see player ingame chat about the maps while they play.
Its a perfect tournament to have some laughs. We all know terran will win... But then again no more 5rax reapers so anything is possible.
On April 02 2012 16:14 Type|NarutO wrote: I really like what IGN did and does with tournaments, yet I find this a waste of money. I don't think those maps will make for entertaining games.. or at least not very high-class games. Poor choice to spend 2000$, but thats obviously my opinion. From someone who likes to watch Koreans and the very best foreign players on the latest maps.
Still I guess it will be very funny/entertaining in some aspects. So I'll tune in and leave the stream open just to support IGN for what they do even though I think it will be disappointing given the maps.
Its a perfect tournament to have some laughs. We all know terran will win... But then again no more 5rax reapers so anything is possible.
For added awesomeness, the games should be played with balance as it was at release. Just create custom maps with updated units stats. Time to giggle at 5-rax reaper, warp-in-storm, range 3 roaches and a bunker build-time that is ... different.
I personally think its going to be awesome. They aren't trying to make it serious and are having fun with it. Not to mention it'll be pretty awesome to see games on these maps having the game having evolved since that time. It'll be fun to watch for sure!
On April 02 2012 04:38 YoiChiBow wrote: wow Terrans gunna go to town on these maps Lol...
Zergs used to actually take some games on Steppes of War, Kulas, Jungle, Lost Temple, just because no one knew how to play. I predict a 0% winrate on these maps lol. Please don't April Fool me tho
Modern day Terran macro builds look soooooo unbeatable on maps like Jungle Basin. It's like Antiga except Zerg can't get a 3rd instead of a 4th and Terran establishes total map dominance by taking a third lol.
Great Idea Thinking about those maps makes me realize that it's been more than 2 years now... But to this today I still regret the fact the Blizzard tried to fix Desert Oasis but removed it like 3 days later. I loved this map, I had so many epic games on it. Also the first GSL game ever was on Desert Oasis ^^
On April 02 2012 16:14 Type|NarutO wrote: I really like what IGN did and does with tournaments, yet I find this a waste of money. I don't think those maps will make for entertaining games.. or at least not very high-class games. Poor choice to spend 2000$, but thats obviously my opinion. From someone who likes to watch Koreans and the very best foreign players on the latest maps.
Still I guess it will be very funny/entertaining in some aspects. So I'll tune in and leave the stream open just to support IGN for what they do even though I think it will be disappointing given the maps.
Its a perfect tournament to have some laughs. We all know terran will win... But then again no more 5rax reapers so anything is possible.
For added awesomeness, the games should be played with balance as it was at release. Just create custom maps with updated units stats. Time to giggle at 5-rax reaper, warp-in-storm, range 3 roaches and a bunker build-time that is ... different.
If u want to watch that, you should watch the good ol' vods. I think it's more fun with today's patch. I mean look if we use the old patches nothing new will happen, there was a time where they were regular, and you can watch them via vods. However, if we try to play with today's balance on those maps it can bring fun strategies and other funny things. I can only hope that IPL will do it as I said, and won't use older patches.
I have to say that at the time, Desert Oasis was my favourite map But I was bronze and only required one base for my 4gate, which could hit from two different sides!
On April 02 2012 22:20 GGzerG wrote: I'm pretty sure a Terran will win this lol. GL all players! Hoping for viOLet to win :D
I actually think Terran won't be dominating as many are thinking. Terran early timings have been nerfed several times even after these maps were played. The maps are bad and cheese-friendly, but more balanced than before.
On April 02 2012 22:20 GGzerG wrote: I'm pretty sure a Terran will win this lol. GL all players! Hoping for viOLet to win :D
I actually think Terran won't be dominating as many are thinking. Terran early timings have been nerfed several times even after these maps were played. The maps are bad and cheese-friendly, but more balanced than before.
Yeah but I would say Terran macro play is even more scary than cheese/timings on maps like Jungle Basin and Steppes. Even something like Protoss FFE on steppes will be very difficult to beat. Its not like you can do anything to keep up economically with Protoss.
Since its about old maps: Are you going with the newest versions of the map or the older ones that were used more? Like rocks at the ramps on desert oasis, 1 more base on Jungle Basin, etc
But awesome idea. I cant wait for it. Especially Incineration Zone. That map seemed to be the first Map ever to bebanned from the ladder :D
On April 02 2012 22:20 GGzerG wrote: I'm pretty sure a Terran will win this lol. GL all players! Hoping for viOLet to win :D
I actually think Terran won't be dominating as many are thinking. Terran early timings have been nerfed several times even after these maps were played. The maps are bad and cheese-friendly, but more balanced than before.
Yeah but I would say Terran macro play is even more scary than cheese/timings on maps like Jungle Basin and Steppes. Even something like Protoss FFE on steppes will be very difficult to beat. Its not like you can do anything to keep up economically with Protoss.
You underestimate roach rushes on that distance.
Though I think Terran should be favored, the metagame on those maps is fairly unexplored, some of them have extremly gamebreaking features and therefore I wouldnt be surprised to see some very wild games. Also dont underestimate the experience of Ps (from PvP) when it comes to expansionless play.
On April 02 2012 04:38 YoiChiBow wrote: wow Terrans gunna go to town on these maps Lol...
Zergs used to actually take some games on Steppes of War, Kulas, Jungle, Lost Temple, just because no one knew how to play. I predict a 0% winrate on these maps lol. Please don't April Fool me tho
I can see CatZ winning games on those maps
I'm looking forward to seeing people do fun things like the old spinecrawler pushes on steppes.
With a bit of thought and contemporary trends I'm definitely expecting a couple of surprises on some maps.
At least the most skilled player here is a Zerg. That's probably the only way to get a balanced tourney on these maps, Korean Zergs versus foreigners. Anyway it's going to be very interesting to see players try to get away with 2012 timings on 2010 maps.
Imagine that tourney producing amazing matches and everbody urging to play on these maps again and then the game becoming stable for such maps as well. Just imagine a world with superactionpacked small maps, that are balanced.
The standard macro ZvT and ZvP play generally revolves around the T and P trying to deny the Zerg's third base and the Zerg player trying to defend without taking too much damage.
I think it will be interesting too see games being played on these really old maps considering how much the metagame has changed, they will still be pretty imba but it will be interesting XD
Dont think terran will be that imba on these maps I mean from the time when these maps used to be on played on there have been a few nerfs to the early terran timings i.e bunker, stim, barracks build time. Also roaches are a lot better than they used to be and great early game rushes.
Wouldn't it be funny if Zerg won this :D Perhaps Dustie would go "Hey, you know what? We're gonna bring these maps back, they were balanced after all!"
This is awesome. Especiall looking forward to Desert Oasis games. No matter how much people complained about that map, it resulted in a lot of epic games.
I think making that tournament Random V Random was a bit too much! I think this format is much better and will at least produce some much more intriguing games! Doa wished Blizzard would fix these old maps and I hope he really makes this tournament that much more hilarious!
On April 11 2012 15:12 Surgical_Strike wrote: You guys should get Rotterdam in on this for sure! he stated at IPL4 on stream that he would like to participate. would be awsome.
Quoting so this get's seen maybe hopefully possibly, love me some rotterdam.
On April 20 2012 06:59 Sunrunner wrote: This tournament has been awesome so far. And a must watch for anyone who doubts that maps are a critical component of balance.
EPT
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