The Space Whales Showdown

Emails will be sent to accepted applicants this afternoon.
Emails will be sent to not-accepted applicants this week.
Working on a nice video for this announcement today

I am very excited about these contributions, and will be working on production all throughout MLG weekend to ensure this
SWS is far beyond the previous ones.

A video conveying this announcement will be released within 24 hours

-Adobe CS5 Acquired for content production!!! (!!!)
-Xsplit 3-month License Acquired; allows for more scenes and playing of pre-produced video content during the tournament!
-$50 added to the SWSS, for a total of $150 prize!

GoSu.dde:
Selection Justification:
As he is one of the best Terran players on NA, any player who faces him has a chance to make a statement; should they survive his relentless aggression and top level speed/mechanics.
Tournament Result:
Place: 3rd/4th
Round 1: Win: 2-0 vs sWs
Round 2: Loss: 1-2 vs vVvGlon
Earned Backup position for SWSS

sWs:
Selection Justification:
This #1 master Protoss is a college student looking to make some money, and a name for himself.
Tournament Result:
Place: 5th-8th
Round 1: Loss: 0-2 vs GoSu.dde

vVv.glon:
Selection Justification:
A great Zerg player with recent online success is seeded in by random selection. Around 80% of applicants
were Zerg, and they were also the most skilled on average. I am honored to have such a great selection and look forward to vVv.glon's performance in the SWS2, and hope the others who couldn't fitit into the bracket will join us for the SWS3!
Tournament Result:
Place: 3rd/4th
Round 1: Win: 2-1 vs Mme.Alkresh
Round 2: Win: 2-1 vs GoSu.dde
Finals: Loss: 0-3 vs d.KiLLeR
Earned seed into bracket for SWSS!

SCSXenocider:
Selection Justification:
A 14 year old Terran player who shows strong ladder play on EU (but is from NA). He wishes to gain online tournament experience/exposure before attending LANs.
Tournament Result:
Did not identify the chat channel from the selection email sent to accepted players. Missed his match and was replaced by Mme.Alkresh.
Mme.Alkresh:
Selection Justification:
An ambitious GM Zerg who has yet to be exposed to the tournament scene.
Tournament Result:
Place: 5th-8th
Round 1: Loss: 1-2 vs vVvGlon

Trogdor:
Selection Justification:
An upper masters Zerg player and member of the Harvard CSL team who will be attending on-location. He is joining Ivanovsky for the drive up to Canada. He is a long time practice partner of mine, and received his bracket seed because we have become good friends on SC2 and he is actually playing from the point of production. He has won a playhem midnight madness tournament, taking games off of GM players. He shows inconsistency in his performance, often from rage or balance frustration, but has the ability to defeat strong players when his game comes together. Although the Zerg selection was massive and high-skilled, I reserve the right to honor a friendship and allocate SWS3 seeds towards the other zerg great players.
Tournament Result:
Place: 3rd/4th
Round 1: Win: 2-1 vs AltOptimus
Round 2: Loss: 0-2 vs d.KiLLeR
Earned Backup position for SWSS

Cygnus:
Selection Justification:
A backup player from SWS1 who fulfilled his role thus was allocated seeding into the SWS2. He is a Terran player who utilizes a strong game-sense and decision making to control the overarching flow of his matches.
Tournament Result:
Cygnus did not show up, nor did he contact me implying he would not be attending. He was replaced by AltOptimus!
Alt.Optimus:
Selection Justification:
An applicant from the first wave who requested to play around early June. He is a high masters Terran!
Tournament Result:
Place: 5th-8th
Round 1: Loss: 1-2 vs Trogdor

d.KiLLeR:
Selection Justification:
This beastly Zerg is near the top of the NA server, and joins Gosu.dde as the well established pro players in the SWS2. I have personally always found his fast paced play-style entertaining, and am excited to provide viewers a chance to witness his skill.
Tournament Result:
Place: 3rd/4th
Round 1: Win: 2-0 vs CoL.Ryze
Round 2: Win: 2-0 vs Trogdor
Finals: Win: 3-0 vs vVvGlon
Flawless Victory
Earned $100 and seed into bracket for SWSS!

Sweetness:
Selection Justification:
A backup player from SWS1 who fulfilled his role thus was allocated seeding into the SWS2. A mid-upper masters toss who requested the chance to play a GM zerg opponent. He feels that he has the potential to defeat a strong opponent and is confident that he will not be walked over by the apparent favorite.
Tournament Result:
Had to work and contacted me; thus he will participate in SWS 3 or 4, and was replaced by OpTiK.Nemesis.
OpTiK.Nemesis:
Selection Justification:
Rank #1 Masters Protoss with a strong macro style.
Tournament Result:
Similar to Cygnus; did not show up or inform me of absence, and was replaced by CoL.Ryze (recruited on b.net).
CoL.Ryze:
Selection Justification:
Sick player who happened to be online and willing to play!
Tournament Result:
Place: 5th-8th
Round 1: Loss: 0-2 vs d.KiLLeR
Thanks to CoL.Ryze for taking the bracket spot when no other backups were available. I will hopefully be able to
repay him in the near future

There were two instances of random selection for a seed; due to a vast increase in talent and application quantity. Although some of these players exceed a few of the currently seeded players in talent/rank (due to backup seeds
from SWS1 being honored); I hope the following backups take the opportunity to be seeded into the SWS3; as they
are all ideal candidates who I wish could be playing in the SWS2

Mme.Alkresh:
Placed into main bracket!
OpTiK.Nemesis:
Placed into main bracket!
Then did not show up
vVv.Daisuki:
Did not show up
Although, his ranking is high enough that he was likely upset not to receive a seed. I attempted to articulate the scenario as best as possible; perhaps we can talk again for the future tournaments.
Alt.Optimus:
Placed into main bracket!

Every backup who showed up (2/4) ended up playing in the tournament; thus there are no seeds committed to backup players for the SWS3!

Team Stoic
Selection Justification:
Has a strong production quality and provide great analysis.
Their ZvX analysis series is evidence that strong players can still learn from their casting.
Tournament Result:
Unfortunately these casters did not realize they were to cast one of the semi-finals; this was overall not too much of a hiccup in production, but it would have been nice to have their analysis. They cast vVvGlon vs Mme Alkresh, and CoL.Ryze vs d.KiLLeR; two high level ZvZ's with the perspective of a GM zerg caster would be a great learning experience for Zerg players. I feel like the low quantity of viewers may have been discouraging to this pair, as it was a contrast in regards to the quality of the players being cast. The Red Bull LAN being scheduled over us really hurt the chances of giving these guys the viewership they deserved.

The Casting Engineers
Selection Justification:
This pair has some youtube VOD experience, and have cast Harvard / MiT CSL matches on occasion. I have befriended them over Bnet when I purchased the game, and now that we are all free they will join us for the SWS2. Ivanovsky is a member of intel's AHGL team, and will be making the drive from Oregon, whereas MiTKlystron joins us over skype. I will be joining them for a few casts as an honorary member
Tournament Result:
Some sound quality issues (game sounds too high and Klystron too loud, whilst Ivanovsky and I were too quiet). ZvZ was not my specialty but these guys (especially Ivanovsky) provided a lot of energy. Overall casting with this pair was enjoyable, but I wish it would have been easier to organize a practice session in which we test sound levels and general interaction. Such errors will be negated in the future by not tolerating the lack of a pre-production trial run involving the casters. Yeah; fuck Diablo 3 and LoL... consuming the souls of gamers everywhere.

The featured maps were chosen by me based on discussions with ESV and TPW map making team members.
ESV Afterglow Thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=325304
Tournament Result:
2 games were played on this map, a ZvZ and TvZ.
The layout facilitated entertaining play, and some great tactical maneuvers in the middle of the map!
Replays will soon be sent to the creators

TPW Peaks of Alamar Thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=327869
A TvZ occurred here; wonderful aesthetics led to a pleasurable casting a viewing experience, although the game was quite short.

There were many cool maps that I was interested in including, so I will do a vote for which community maps are
featured in the SWS3, and which maps are rotated out.

Standard map changes from SWS1 to SWS2:
+ Show Spoiler +

You have been seeded into the bracket for the SWS2. :D

Reminder that the tournament is:
Sunday May 27th, 2pm PT / 5pm ET

Bracket: http://i.imgur.com/XHO3M.jpg
Stream Schedule: http://i.imgur.com/khlBx.jpg
Map Pool: http://i.imgur.com/ChgvR.jpg

As your first round match is at 2:00 PT / 5:00 ET,
You must join the chat channel SpaceWhalesShowdown by 1:45 PT / 4:45 ET.
If you have not checked in within 10 minutes of your match's start time,
it is likely that a backup will be prepared to take your spot.

Thanks again for applying; please respond to this email
as comfirmation of message reception.

-----Alternate system required displaying the stream such that no overlay accidents or name plat accidents occur
-----2 Stream mods, and a mod for assistance in real time tournament administration/organization now recruited
-----Stream quality tests: Can facilitate Ultra Graphics on 480p, or High Graphics on 720p (minimal response time lag)
-----------------------------------: Working on having a friend capable of 1080p Ultra log in to my xsplit for the tourney stream
-----Microphones made us sound like we had sinus colds; going to use my drum mics from now on
-----Check-in time for players will be adjusted to 30 minutes, because 15 minutes caused some stress
-----No in-house barcraft with (as many of) my dumb drunk friends to cause problems before/during casting
-----Adobe Premier Pro and Photoshop have been installed for production purposes (videos/graphics/overlays)
-----Xsplit overlays to facilitate twitch chat interaction and privatize subjectively administrative interaction

Max Concurrent Viewers:
Goal: 50
Result: 46
This is due to many production errors which understandably resulted in not maintaining a viewer's interest (1,014 total views). Such errors and feeble production will be corrected for the next SWS.
The goal of 50 viewers still remains for the SWS2.
The VOD is gone unfortunately, which is delaying my production of the SWS1 recap video.

7 Casters
2 Professional Players
3 GM Players
6 Players in Top 8 Masters
7 Players In Top 25 Masters or below (I realize points are a more meaningful statistic)
0 Maps

PixelCatRH: This upper masters Terran was a great help to my development as a player. We often analyze build orders and work together to become better Terrans. He was directly invited to participate in the SWS1 as a thanks for his help.
PixelCat often utilizes crisp timings and solid mechanics to adapt his own personal discoveries to standard styles.
PLACED: 2nd
STATUS: Has earned seed into SWSS

TheHH: TheHH is a Zerg player ranked #1 in his master league division. I have played against him only once and after seemingly devastating his economy I was subsequently obliterated by a flawlessly macro'd wave of counter aggression.
His macro and strong mechanics allow him to frequently take games off of professional players on the ladder.
PLACED: 5th-8th
STATUS: Eliminated from SWS1

StaLight: A previously active pro player who wishes to return from his studies to tournament dominance.
PLACED: 5th-8th
STATUS: Eliminated from SWS1

OkShOoTeR: This high master's Protoss player wishes to use the SWS as a proving ground for his capability to step up his game in a competitive atmosphere and take games off of pro players. His match vs StaLight is a great opportunity to validate such an attribute.
PLACED: 3rd-4th
STATUS: Has earned backup seed into SWSS

QXC: QXC was the first player to apply to the SWS. I was initially stunned that my tournament had attracted a player of his skill/accomplishments. I was concerned with the potential for this top NA Terran to be uncontested, but feel that it would be a disservice to the community to not only deprive players of the chance to prove themselves against a strong foreigner pro, but also deprive viewers from the potential symphony of Terran aggression QXC is able to orchestrate.
Will anyone be able to stop him?
PLACED: 1st
STATUS: $100 Earned, and seed into SWSS.

ALTZWebz: This high masters Zerg looks to make a name for himself, and although having victories over an array of recognized NA players, is clearly the underdog in his first round match vs QXC.
PLACED: 5th-8th
STATUS: Eliminated from SWS1

Fuzzy: This GM Zerg wants to make a living from SC2. It is my hope that the SWS provides Fuzzy with some experience and exposure to help him reach his goal.
PLACED: Disqualified
STATUS: Did not show up or contact me in regards to absence, did not reply to confirmation and was replaced by a zerg backup. edit: Fuzzy has contacted me about his absence so his ban has been lifted.

Behemoth: An upper masters Protoss who is returning from some relative inactivity to display his unique style and intricate macro strategies. Previously capable of taking out GM players, Behemoth will discover if his recent training has elevated him to a new level.
PLACED: 3rd-4th
STATUS: Has earned backup seed into SWSS

Backups:
+ Show Spoiler +
Players and Casters who were not chosen will be contacted during this week about potential participation in the future SWS's. If I have not contacted you by Saturday the 19th, please message me, as I have made a mistake.