In Artosis' videos from the gslhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBJ79UHXbns&feature=channel Torch qualifed along with Artosis IdrA TLO and no other foreigners. apart from Artosis' assertion that Torch was once a kingpin in the illustrious world of cell phone gaming and that his scarlet hair comes from him ascending in power levels, little is known about torch. Early in the beta, he apparently conceived a build that by current balance settings was unstoppable. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=113005
He apparently has been backpacking across Korea trying to learning starcraft through a connection with all thing in life and meditation. From the tallest mountain in Korea he saw with his falcon like eyes a billboard advertising the GSL. Having been in reclusion since mid beta and just then realizing that Starcraft 2 had been released he decided to enter the tournament. This was a tough decision as he would have to leave behind the tribal woman who he had enamored during his months of seeking self actualization. But alas despite his regret for having to abandon his family , he knew he would need to fulfill a higher calling. He breezed through his qualifying games only allowing them to go on as long as he did so he could warm up, for he had not played the game in months. Any one know anything else about the mysterious figure?
Edit: IdrA's weird capitalization made some paragraphs
JunkkaGom Korea (South). August 29 2010 19:30. Posts 2 PM Profile Quote # Translation of Trevor Housten(TorcH)'s interview
Here's a blue eyed warrior who came to Korea all by himself to fight in GSL
Trevor Housten had his late interview on 29th after making it to top 64 in TG Sambo-Intel preliminaries at Intel e-stadium located on 7th floor of TechnoMart Sindorim
Trevor Housten has come to Korea all by himself and has made it to top 64 on 28th. He is a Terran user and his nick name is 'TorcH' . The following is the interview with Trevor Housten
- How do you feel now that you have made it to Ro 64? > It hasn't sunk in yet, but I feel great. On the other hand, I'm concerned about many events that will follow.
- What made you decide to enter GSL? > I've always had big interest in Korean Starcraf league, which is the best in the world. Also, the fact GomTV is hosting the match made me want to enter the tournament. At first, I wasn't quite sure how I was going to go all the way to Korea, but GomTV has helped me a lot through Twitter and mail, making it possible.
- Were you confident about the preliminaries? > I was confident but also very nervous. My hands were shaking during the match(laugh)
- How do you feel about competing against top Korean players? > I have played against professionals before, so they don't make me any more nervous than normal players.
- Were you familiar with other foreign players in the tournament? > Not the guys in this competition, but I got to know them yesterday, and they have been very supportive. They are all very nice guys.
What's your goal in GSL? > My primary goal was Ro16, but I wish to make it further up, even the first place.
- As a foreigner, what do you think about GSL? > I think it's just amazing. The prize poll is great and it's a huge competiton sponsored by major companies. However, many foreigners found it so sudden and I think it's shame that many of them weren't able to come
- Do you plan to enter in future GSL competitons? > Definately, as long as I don't have problem with time and money.
- Do you have any comment for Korean starcraft fans watching GSL? > This is my first visit to Korea. The GSL staff from GomTV and Blizzard have been very supportive. I feel greatful for their hospitality and I wish to be able to contribute to Korea.
In other weird news I was watching LiveOnThree where it was also revealed that Seltzer and Torch are dating. It seems obvious looking at their twitters though, but anyway I thought that was like a "whoa small world" moment, I had never heard of Torch until I saw Artosis video then all of a sudden a tie to Lo3 & then the WCG UG
Hes practicing on the Korean server atm I assume but back on US server he would practice with VT members and prob some people from root/other top players
It'll be interesting to see how much of his qualification was skill and how much of it was luck in the groups. Since we don't know much about his exact skill level compared to top players, only time will tell. Still, foreigners hwaiting!
Seems like a nice enough fellow, I heard that he had to face two no-shows though early on in the bracket but he seems to know what he's doing anyway. The more foreigners the merrier I say .
Is he really "Torch", because of the fire-colored hair?
Also, I found him in the Hello, Goodbye Tournament. He 2-0'd JessicaJung, but then got eliminated by IdrA with 1-2. Eventually, IdrA won the whole event.
TorcH is exactly the type of foreigner we need representing us in Korea. As far from Korean as you can get. Pale, red-haired and blue eyed. He seemed a well-mannered and easy going bloke. Best of luck to him.
On August 30 2010 16:13 figq wrote: Is he really "Torch", because of the fire-colored hair?
Also, I found him in the Hello, Goodbye Tournament. He 2-0'd JessicaJung, but then got eliminated by IdrA with 1-2. Eventually, IdrA won the whole event.
this dude seems to be pretty good. i'll cross fingers for him to do good in gsl ^-^ TORCH HWAITING !
He not only qualified but he dominated the competition. He got buys his first two rounds but easily swept all 4 matches in the semi-finals and finals of his bracket. I'm a bit biased since I practiced with him the day before the event and he kicked the shit out of me...but I was really impressed with his play. I'd definitely keep your eyes out for this guy...he has the potential to do quite well in this tournament. Not to mention he's a kickass, down-to-earth guy as well.
On August 30 2010 19:31 Melancholia wrote: Was going to say that he was in Bronze, but was mistaking him for Flame. Who's 19th in the world? http://sc2ranks.com/ranks/all/all/1
I hear SC2ranks is more accurate than blizzard's rankings.. that's awesome.
On August 30 2010 15:03 okuraku wrote: In other weird news I was watching LiveOnThree where it was also revealed that Seltzer and Torch are dating. It seems obvious looking at their twitters though, but anyway I thought that was like a "whoa small world" moment, I had never heard of Torch until I saw Artosis video then all of a sudden a tie to Lo3 & then the WCG UG
I love his play, hope he joins Liquid (so Tyler has somebody to practice with) :D
I doupt its him... cause I have a winning record vs this dude... and it's pretty freaking rare that I beat a terran. Lets say that I beat them 20% of the time.
TorcH is a mediocre diamond player who all-ins a lot. He is a part of vT gaming and goes to RPI (college). He got insanely lucky with his qualification draws.
On August 31 2010 00:40 Saracen wrote: TorcH is a mediocre diamond player who all-ins a lot. He is a part of vT gaming and goes to RPI (college). He got insanely lucky with his qualification draws.
I saw him play in the VT root clan war and he got spanked by Slush, I think he must have had an easy route to the round of 64. But that said, that was a while ago, and I wish him all the best in the tourny!
On August 31 2010 00:40 Saracen wrote: TorcH is a mediocre diamond player who all-ins a lot. He is a part of vT gaming and goes to RPI (college). He got insanely lucky with his qualification draws.
Don't think this was necessary, dude. He's representing foreigners out there so he deserves our respect and shows us that it's not only the koreans that can compete.
Gl to him but I don't think he can get far the two times he won vs me was with gimmicky stuff. I wouldn't call him a better player then me and I still got some work to do till I reach the best.
On August 31 2010 00:40 Saracen wrote: TorcH is a mediocre diamond player who all-ins a lot. He is a part of vT gaming and goes to RPI (college). He got insanely lucky with his qualification draws.
On August 31 2010 00:40 Saracen wrote: TorcH is a mediocre diamond player who all-ins a lot. He is a part of vT gaming and goes to RPI (college). He got insanely lucky with his qualification draws.
Saracen might have put it blunt but he's not wrong. Torch did get very lucky, in addition to getting 2 byes the best player he faced was a 600 point 50% win rate Korean diamond player. Congrats to him for having the guts to go out there and try but he did get through primarily on luck.
On February 20 2010 17:00 mOnion wrote: quick question: who are you? because you play amazingly well but me and my friend have know idea who you are but are very fanboy already O.O
You don't know me yet, but you will ;-). Before SC2, I just played a bit of RTS for fun/competition, but never spent the time to make it big. I have every intention of becoming a professional in SC2 for as long as I can maintain it (yes I have A LOT of work to do, but I'm prepared to put it in). I'll be trying to get a stream going as soon as I can figure out all the requisite programs and show people some unorthodox, out of the box builds as the patches make them available. Until then, you can follow me on twitter @TorcHGaming or friend me for some games on SC2: TorcH.gaming .
Because there were 2000 entries of various skill--and because a lot of those 2k players didn't show up--many people in the top 64 had easy paths (and some had very hard paths). Artosis's path wasn't really more difficult. IdrA and TLO had pretty easy paths too.
Who cares whether or not he's a good player. In the videos he even says that he combines GSL with a trip to Korea and he doesn't sound like he's trying to grab for Nr.1 or anything.
Calling someone who's in the top 200 in the US(based in hidden MMR and not less meaningful visible ranking) mediocre seems a bit ridiculous to me. If favouring a one base all in style means you're not good, most protoss players and most koreans would apparently be bad.
Best of luck to TorcH. Teach those koreans we can click buttons just as good as them!
TorcH played WC3 as well. At a high level? I don't think a Grubby level, but it's not like he picked up a copy of StarCraft 2 and decided to goto GSL. In the few exchanges I've had with him, I could always tell he's serious about his gaming. If anyone had the mental fortitude to get better and qualify in Korea... it'd be Trevor.
On August 31 2010 04:58 Kage wrote: Tasteless has competition in the hawt girlfriend area. This is his girlfriend I believe? Guy on the left is an elf btw. And not real.
why is artosis being so condescending and elitist to anyone who isn't "known" in the starcraft community. HuK now torch.. Get off your high horse, imo.
Thanks for the video update and the info. It was actually quite fascinating to watch the video. I am so accustomed to watching replays and streams that it is sort of weird watching a video of a match that is via camera.
But yeah, I didn't even know about torcH, so pretty interesting.
On August 31 2010 08:35 bakedace wrote: why is artosis being so condescending and elitist to anyone who isn't "known" in the starcraft community. HuK now torch.. Get off your high horse, imo.
I used to play Team Fortress 2 with Torch (soldier/demoman) and Seltzer (medic, girl in that WCG show). Really cool guy, very calm, charming and quiet (at least from what I remember). I saw him play in the beta and I was amazed he was pretty decent at it. From an outsider's perspective he may not seem amazing but I have faith he'll get far in this game.
Still can't believe he has his own calling card though.
I'd never heard of Torch before that GSL vid. I'm an instant fan; he's quite well spoken, and managed to present himself as intelligent and well mannered.
On August 31 2010 09:13 Fantistic wrote: Haven't seen any of his games but the fact that he's come out of nowhere and qualified, where players like Jinro failed, is impressive.
Jinro had to play a top 10 Korean (rank wise) in the 2nd round. Torch had 2 byes and played the leader of the Werra team (who isn't that great) to qualify.
On August 30 2010 15:29 Kishkumen wrote: It'll be interesting to see how much of his qualification was skill and how much of it was luck in the groups. Since we don't know much about his exact skill level compared to top players, only time will tell. Still, foreigners hwaiting!
If he's the TorcH i played on the NA server then his TvT is pretty weak. Maybe he got some TvZ groupings or something. I was very surprised to see his name on the list.
This is a pretty awesome story. Some semi random qualifies in Korea, who also has a cute gf on wcg ultimate gamer and goes to RPI. i was under the impression there were no good sc players at rpi, I was here and never met them! pretty cool. goodlucky torch
- 비용이나 숙소 문제 등은 어떻게 해결했나 ▲ 록히드 마틴이라는 곳에서 소프트웨어 엔지니어로 일하면서 비행기 비용을 벌었고, 숙소는 곰TV 측에서 제공해주고 있다.
- How did you take care of expenses and residence issues? ▲ I earned my airfare by working as software engineer on Rockheed Martin, and GomTV is providing me with the place of residence.
ROFL most of netizen comments are about how TorcH are imba even in his real life due to company he work for.
He seems like the kind of player that experiments with new possibilities a lot. I'm sure anyone would have a better WL ratio if they picked one or two strong builds per matchup and only ever did those.
On August 31 2010 06:43 djWHEAT wrote: TorcH played WC3 as well. At a high level? I don't think a Grubby level, but it's not like he picked up a copy of StarCraft 2 and decided to goto GSL. In the few exchanges I've had with him, I could always tell he's serious about his gaming. If anyone had the mental fortitude to get better and qualify in Korea... it'd be Trevor.
Well said.
On August 31 2010 08:52 Vz0 wrote: why does everyone gets so hyped up about a new player?
The people at the GSL offline were pretty damm bad, even TLO & Idra said themselves it was a piece of cake. Jinro was unlucky.
Torch is ranked 200 in blizzard's top200 list. With a not the best WL (if it matters to anyone reading).
They had very easy brackets. I watched a hell of a lot of games while there (and got my ass kicked in another bracket) and would beg to differ. That's why the likes of Gilliam Patry, Nazgul, and Jinro didn't make it through (just to name a few).
On August 31 2010 16:54 {88}iNcontroL wrote: he looks a LOT like a red idra tbh ^_^
If Idra had better lookin hair and wasnt so scrawny, yeah I wish Idra would go back to the look he was sportin around the time he lost to Trap I think?
On August 31 2010 06:43 djWHEAT wrote: TorcH played WC3 as well. At a high level? I don't think a Grubby level, but it's not like he picked up a copy of StarCraft 2 and decided to goto GSL. In the few exchanges I've had with him, I could always tell he's serious about his gaming. If anyone had the mental fortitude to get better and qualify in Korea... it'd be Trevor.
On August 31 2010 08:52 Vz0 wrote: why does everyone gets so hyped up about a new player?
The people at the GSL offline were pretty damm bad, even TLO & Idra said themselves it was a piece of cake. Jinro was unlucky.
Torch is ranked 200 in blizzard's top200 list. With a not the best WL (if it matters to anyone reading).
They had very easy brackets. I watched a hell of a lot of games while there (and got my ass kicked in another bracket) and would beg to differ. That's why the likes of Gilliam Patry, Nazgul, and Jinro didn't make it through (just to name a few).
Were the qualifying stages single elimination brackets or more of a round robin group stage? Seems kind of silly to have brackets in the qualifying stage.
On August 31 2010 06:43 djWHEAT wrote: TorcH played WC3 as well. At a high level? I don't think a Grubby level, but it's not like he picked up a copy of StarCraft 2 and decided to goto GSL. In the few exchanges I've had with him, I could always tell he's serious about his gaming. If anyone had the mental fortitude to get better and qualify in Korea... it'd be Trevor.
Well said.
On August 31 2010 08:52 Vz0 wrote: why does everyone gets so hyped up about a new player?
The people at the GSL offline were pretty damm bad, even TLO & Idra said themselves it was a piece of cake. Jinro was unlucky.
Torch is ranked 200 in blizzard's top200 list. With a not the best WL (if it matters to anyone reading).
They had very easy brackets. I watched a hell of a lot of games while there (and got my ass kicked in another bracket) and would beg to differ. That's why the likes of Gilliam Patry, Nazgul, and Jinro didn't make it through (just to name a few).
Were the qualifying stages single elimination brackets or more of a round robin group stage? Seems kind of silly to have brackets in the qualifying stage.
Before going I was told it was pool play...but it ended up being single elimination Bo3 brackets.
On August 31 2010 16:54 {88}iNcontroL wrote: he looks a LOT like a red idra tbh ^_^
If Idra had better lookin hair and wasnt so scrawny, yeah I wish Idra would go back to the look he was sportin around the time he lost to Trap I think?
On August 31 2010 07:59 Whiplash wrote: Sleight thats Torch's girlfriend who is also a professional TF2 player
A) I thought pro TF2 was a dying breed since the Sniper nerf infy ago.
B) She is way too hot to sit in front of a computer.
C) See B).
D) Y'all need to stop hating on Torch. The man played fine, I am sure there are better and worse players in the GSL. Jinro is still likely only middle to upper middle of the field, so really, what is the difference. Just cause he doesn't make it his life, doesn't mean he has no chops. Clearly, some chops are necessary to bag a hot Medic.
i think he achieved an amazing thing there, just getting there by himself (what he says) and trying at the tournament and even qualifying. I think thats a great thing.. wish i had tried too
On September 01 2010 13:25 monx wrote: could TorcH be Grrr ?
..no?
lol im loving this that everytime someone new comes and kicks ass its like completely unacceptable because we TLers know each and every progamer on the planet and if we don't know ur name you must be an aka.
On September 01 2010 13:25 monx wrote: could TorcH be Grrr ?
..no?
lol im loving this that everytime someone new comes and kicks ass its like completely unacceptable because we TLers know each and every progamer on the planet and if we don't know ur name you must be an aka.
what a great attitude we got here.
yeah that's pretty funny. especially since more foreigners doing well in korea would be like the greatest thing ever for international sc2 e-sports
On September 01 2010 18:11 kirkybaby wrote: did anyone else laugh @ Rockheed Martin? It's Lockheed Martin, easily mistranslated since the L and R come from the same Korean character ㄹ
I guess that's probably only funny to us in the defense industry :p
Oh no it's funny to me too. The ㄹ is a real nightmare over here...but produces plenty of laughs.
if i wont see it in the next few days i will have this feeling like i had with quake4... more of a wrestling show thing - less a serious sport. its like having someone playing on the soccer world cup without having a club to play in. its ridiculous.
cmon!!!. seems sponsors dont have the balls torch has!!!! he is sc2 arnold schwarzenegger ffs. so if this guy will not get proper support i wont care about the pro scene anymore. (well that wont matter if i care or not because im a shit noob. sad... i know..)
EPT![[image loading]](http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8940/torchtraining.jpg)
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![[image loading]](http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/8048/torchsgirl.jpg)
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