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This Saturday at 10am PDT, the Collegiate Starleague will be streaming the Sakura Tournament, a spring feature tournament held in Tokyo, Japan. E-Sports Square, the only e-sports cafe of its kind in the country, is the host this LAN alongside the CSL.
Watch the stream HERE!
The StarCraft community in Japan has always been a topic of interest, as it stands mysteriously disconnected from the rest of the worldwide e-sports community. With that in mind, the aim of the tournament is to bring the two communities closer together, foster e-sports in Japan, and have a lot of fun most of all!
As you might be aware, Japan has a very small StarCraft 2 scene, largely in part due to the emphasis on console gaming there (i.e. fighting games). There has also a negative attitude towards PC gamers in Japanese culture, as many feel that it is part of NEET (not employed or in education or training) culture - but this is starting to change. Join us in the Sakura Tournament to promote e-sports in Japan!
Brackets
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VfO0AlI.jpg)
Players
Ichi
TMJP2
うるたら
breek
Endeavor
Roku
Shichi
Nano
Kyu
はほソん
Ash
minato
HOUKOU
vickmeta
Jyuugo
Jyuuroku
Jyuushichi
zerocalorie
nemuke
YMDYuki
Map Pool:
GSL Daybreak
Star Station
Graystone Ravine
GSL Bel'shir Vestige SE
KeSPA Neo Planet S
+ Show Spoiler [Original Post] +Spring is here and with it comes renewed life, natural beauty, and Heart of the Swarm! The Collegiate Starleague is proud to announce the Sakura Tournament, a spring feature tournament in Tokyo, Japan. E-Sports Square, the only e-sports cafe of its kind in the country, is hosting this LAN alongside the CSL. We invite all StarCraft fans in the Tokyo area to attend, and hope you enjoy what promises to be an exciting event. The StarCraft community in Japan has always been a topic of interest, as it stands mysteriously disconnected from the rest of the worldwide e-sports community. With that in mind, the aim of the tournament is to bring the two communities closer together, foster e-sports in Japan, and have a lot of fun most of all!
Tournament Logistics
A 16-man single elimination bracket. Depending on the number of participants, the tournament may increase to a 32-man bracket. All matches are best-of-3 until the semifinals. The semi-finals, 3rd place decider match, and finals are Bo5. Each round starts with a predetermined map, and loser picks the next map. The tournament will be cast live in Japanese, and CSL will separately broadcast the tournament later at an agreeable time for European and American audiences on the CSL stream. Stream: http://ja.twitch.tv/esportssquareParticipation Fee: Free! If you can make it, you can play! Prize Pool: 1st Place - ¥15,000 + food right*
2nd Place - ¥9,000
3rd Place - ¥6,000
* CSL is covering a substantial portion of the dinner, up to ¥12,000.
The champion gets to choose where we go or what sort of food to have. Map Pool Date & Time* GSL Daybreak April 20th, 2013
Star Station Check-in – 11:30am
Graystone Ravine 1st Round (GSL Daybreak) – 12pm
GSL Bel'shir Vestige SE 2nd Round (Star Station) – 1:30pm
KeSPA Neo Planet S 3rd Round (Graystone Ravine) – 3pm
3rd Place Match (GSL Bel'shire Vestige SE) – 4:30pm
Finals (KeSPA Neo Planet S) – 6pm * - All times are in JST, Japan Standard TimeLocation: e-sports SQUARE ( website) 〒272-0034 Chiba-ken, Ichikawa-shi, Ichikawa 1-6-6 Moriyasu Building, 2nd Floor TEL: 047-314-8687
Registration
Direct link to registration form is HERE. Anyone who wants to register can go straight to the thread on e-sports SQUARE and register by clicking on the Google form marked by こちら. Fill in your username, character code, race, and real name. Once you hit submit you'll be entered in the Sakura Tournament. Thread: https://e-sports-square.com/info/420-collegiate-starleague様協力-オンライン大会/Alternate Link: https://e-sports-square.com/communities/topic/84(In the alternate link you have to copy/paste the shortened URL near the top of the post)
Rules
- This tournament will be played in Heart of the Swarm
- All players should play from their own HoTS account. A guest account is available if necessary.
- Walk-in signups are allowed if there are openings in the bracket. Event spectators are most welcome, please come and give your support!
- No spectators, other than casters, are allowed in the game lobby.
- Native English and Japanese speakers will be on-site.
- Excessive BM will not be tolerated.
Connectivity/Lag Guidelines- If Battle.net mass-disconnects before the finals, all games in progress will be resumed from replays.
- If Battle.net disconnects during the finals, the games will be continued at the discretion of the host.
- If lag makes the game unplayable on your computer, pause the game and ask an employee to check the state of your network connection.
- Games may be replayed if the lag is caused by the network.
- Games will NOT be replayed if the player lags because they set the graphics to ultra.
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Japanese cosplay contest entries will be OP
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United States2822 Posts
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I find it weird how CSL is hosting a tournament outside of the collegiate boundary, outside of the commonly seen esport boundary. Finding new market perhaps? Nevertheless it is great to have one in japan, I wonder how they gona react seeing something outside of fighting games though. I dont know much about the japanese culture but arent PC gamers are tagged as otaku in japan society and often are rejected?
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The Japanese are good with giant robots, right? Maybe they've got some tricky thor & hellbat micro!
I'm curious to watch the event on-stream. We've seen Chinese and Taiwanese players like XiGua and Sen compete in GSL. But I wonder how good Japanese players are.
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On April 11 2013 05:22 NB wrote:
I find it weird how CSL is hosting a tournament outside of the collegiate boundary, outside of the commonly seen esport boundary. Finding new market perhaps? Nevertheless it is great to have one in japan, I wonder how they gona react seeing something outside of fighting games though. I dont know much about the japanese culture but arent PC gamers are tagged as otaku in japan society and often are rejected?
From what I understand, a large portion of the clientele of this cafe are college students. Should be like a regular CSL LAN without much trying. I like the open bracket approach though, because it could encourage more SC2 players to make connections in Japan overall.
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It's really encouraging to see the Japan scene getting more interest. I move to Japan in the fall so I'm excited that I'll have tournaments to play in =D
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I think it's great that CSL is doing what it can to promote e-sports wherever it can
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Ya, the majority of the Japanese players are University students. We are hoping to attract some more, and I know there are some TL'ers who are studying / living in Japan. Make sure to come out  !!
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United States23455 Posts
Isn't Happy in Japan? He should just show up and win some free food.
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interesting move, Good to see Japan getting some more events that dont involve fighting games. Hope it works out for the japanese scene to grow and become a bit more visible, I know they have a few solid players that play in stuff but dont get much recognition.
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Looks like the Japanese promotion went up a few days before. This is the list of currently registered participants in Japan:
TMjpg
StyleK
Hahorin
t1
byeight
breek
YMDYuki
zer0cal0rie
Does anyone know anything about them?
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Pretty cool, I wish I was in Japan right now.
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On April 11 2013 08:32 Niten wrote:
Looks like the Japanese promotion went up a few days before. This is the list of currently registered participants in Japan:
TMjpg
StyleK
Hahorin
t1
byeight
breek
YMDYuki
zer0cal0rie
Does anyone know anything about them?
 breek is one of the few Japanese players with an actual LP page.
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楽しそう！来年だったら出られるけど、今の俺はまだアメリカにいるんだ。日本語のキャストを見るのが面白そうだな。Cool that CSL's doing something like this - what brought this idea out there?
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On April 11 2013 08:32 Niten wrote:
Looks like the Japanese promotion went up a few days before. This is the list of currently registered participants in Japan:
TMjpg
StyleK
Hahorin
t1
byeight
breek
YMDYuki
zer0cal0rie
Does anyone know anything about them?
If its the same jpg, I remember him playing in MLG once. Plays on NA a fair amount, good Terran. Thats the only one I'm familiar with D:
Really hope this is a continuing thing for when I move later this year :D
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i shall represent the silver league!
it's damn far though t_t
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On April 11 2013 10:09 freakhill wrote:
i shall represent the silver league!
it's damn far though t_t
I'll be there but not sure if I'm playing or just watching. Looking forward to meeting you!
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On April 11 2013 10:58 Niten wrote:Show nested quote +On April 11 2013 10:09 freakhill wrote:
i shall represent the silver league!
it's damn far though t_t I'll be there but not sure if I'm playing or just watching. Looking forward to meeting you!
yoroshiku~ oノ
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Ya'll should totes come! :D It'll be a lot of fun, and plus CSL is buying everyone dinner <3!
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On April 11 2013 09:31 ShiroKaisen wrote:
楽しそう！来年だったら出られるけど、今の俺はまだアメリカにいるんだ。日本語のキャストを見るのが面白そうだな。Cool that CSL's doing something like this - what brought this idea out there?
One of CSL is in Japan on business and was trying to play StarCraft and went on the Japanese forums and learned about this place. After seeing it, and learning that it's the first e-sports dedicated place in Japan, it seemed to make sense to try to do something out here ~ to bring like-minded gamers together, help foster the e-sports scene here, and make it as enjoyable for all as possible. CSL had one team from Japan last season, a figure we can hopefully increase in the future!
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that kuroa guy would probably win everything if he heard about this lol
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Is Manifesto still in Japan? Will he be going?
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On April 11 2013 12:47 Gamegene wrote:
that kuroa guy would probably win everything if he heard about this lol
kurOa will probably participate and will probably make top 4.
I really hope that list gets better though. The prize pool is so bad... Having to travel to Tokyou just for the chance to win $150... Japanese tournaments really need to start throwing out bigger prize pools.
They already have pretty decent popularity. Time to upgrade, otherwise the Japanese scene is going to die out before it ever gets popular.
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and who the hell would sponsor a tournament for an unknown fringe game not even sold in the country?
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On April 11 2013 13:47 freakhill wrote:
and who the hell would sponsor a tournament for an unknown fringe game not even sold in the country?
Anyone who wants exposure? Do you know how sponsorship works?
Idk if you've been around long enough, but before there were huge companies with huge sponsorships, we gathered small sponsorships and maintained small yet stable and worthwhile tournaments and leagues. If poor countries have always been able to find sponsorship, Japan can also find sponsorship.
There is a lot that can be done in Japan, but only so much that's actually being done due to the people in charge being mostly hobby based rather than actually promoting it as an eSport.
There are a few people that I know that are trying, but it hasn't been enough yet.
Also, it's not such a fringe game in Japan. It's being held at most important game competitions, it's just that eSports has not been spread in Japan. You can still play it at a lot of PC cafes, and it's not difficult to get a copy of SC2 when you're living in Japan.
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On April 11 2013 07:05 Fionn wrote:
Isn't Happy in Japan? He should just show up and win some free food.
Whoa, that would be an unexpected joy to see him there!
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In Japan at the moment, not around for this though  . I'm finding it hilarious that this is called the Sakura tournament :D
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I can't believe I've never heard of this esports cafe! I couldn't even find a non internet cafe that wasn't just an average netcafe oO
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The driving force behind this event is one of our awesome CSL staff, Niten (he's playing it cool). We all want to see more ESPORTS everywhere, and CSL especially wants to see more Japanese participation in the collegiate scene. Niten, who's over in Japan for business, is organizing this event to let people in Japan have fun together in the name of StarCraft II
It's not all about prize pools and exposure right now - it's about throwing an exciting event.
That being said, tell all your friends who might be interested! We know there have to be some StarCraft players who are studying abroad.
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Absolutely. It's all about throwing an awesome event. If it goes well, prize pool and exposure will come later I think
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I wasn't trying to say that CSL needs to dump all their money into building Japan, but moreso that Japan needs to find more money. People have already quit their lives for SC2 and failed and then quit SC2 to continue their lives, and there are only so many times things like that can happen before its too late to jump into the scene competitively.
Trying to look at Japan in previous games, there have always been the gamers there who want to dedicate their lives to it, but never do or fail doing it because of the lack of money.
What CSL is doing is a great step in the right direction and could possibly lead to future, actual significant developments.
There seem to be many small things like this going on in Japan throughout 2012, and I'm hoping that 2013 and 2014 can be used to really start developing the scene so that by 2015/16 there is something that people can actually look at.
All in all I'm very hyped for this! Regardless of anything, it's just always good to have tournaments.
Edit: typo
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On April 13 2013 07:14 Shinta) wrote:
I wasn't trying to say that CSL needs to dump all their money into building Japan, but moreso that Japan needs to find more money. People have already quit their lives for SC2 and failed and then quit SC2 to continue their lives, and there are only so many times things like that can happen before its too late to jump into the scene competitively.
Trying to look at Japan in previous games, there have always been the gamers there who want to dedicate their lives to it, but never do or fail doing it because of the lack of money.
What CSL is doing is a great step in the right direction and could possibly lead to future, actual significant developments.
There seem to be many small things like this going on in Japan throughout 2012, and I'm hoping that 2013 and 2014 can be used to really start developing the scene so that by 2015/16 there is something that people can actually look at.
All in all I'm very hyped for this! Regardless of anything, it's just always good to have tournaments.
Edit: typo
I really agree with what your point here ~ Japan needs to find more money. The real strength of having CSL involved here is the exposure CSL can offer to e-sports SQUARE and Japanese players. Everyone is agreed, I think, that a stronger Japanese scene is something everyone would like to see.
This is also a general reminder to register! Check the OP and register if you're coming to watch or play. I am just as excited to see Japanese SC2 players as I am to meet as many Tokyo-area SC2 nerd-ballers!
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This tournament is happening soon! Please tell your friends in Japan
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I know Nemuke is going, and Breek will be there. The competition looks to be strong going into the tournament ~ please come and cheer, meet, play and have fun!
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Good news ~ We're at 20ish people for registration! I hope you'll come if you can to participate or watch!
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Updated the main post with the stream link: http://ja.twitch.tv/esportssquare Please be sure you tune in! Saw some Master's level players play earlier! Looking ofrward to seeing more of these Japanese players' skill.
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Such an amazing event! There's a CJ Entus former manager here, and some semi-pros doing really well. Super long series between Nemuke and Zerocalorie now!!
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is there some sort of results page i can see o:
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Just a reminder that we're streaming the Sakura tournament today, in 30 minutes! Whooo get excited,
がんばって、日本！
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On May 05 2013 01:35 CollegiateStarleague wrote:
Just a reminder that we're streaming the Sakura tournament today, in 30 minutes! Whooo get excited,
がんばって、日本！
So this is the second Sakura tournament? The first one was won by WhiteWhale right?
Keep us update, its awesome! :D
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This is the first Sakura tournament, we are casting the games!
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Is there supposed to be a 2v2 since Graystone Ravine is in the map pool?
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Yeah... I was working all day so I didn't get to watch. Any VODs/Results page?
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i42.tinypic.com/34ir1xd.jpg)
