FnaticRaidCall is sad to announce that Yoan "ToD" Merlo will be leaving our Starcraft 2 team. Though ToD has been with us for a long time, both sides felt like it was time to move on. Fnatic has helped ToD grow as a player in Starcraft 2 and both sides are amicable as they move in different directions.
ToD was a hero in Warcraft 3, and his transition to Starcraft 2 has seen many jerseys worn. He joined Fnatic in September and has represented the team in tournaments across the globe. Though ToD has spent some recent months training in the Fnatic Gaming House in Korea and has seen slightly improved results of late, the team and ToD felt that parting ways was in the best interest for both parties.
Statement from Yoan "ToD" Merlo:
Me and Fnatic have mutually agreed on parting ways, I will still keep playing Starcraft 2 and probably be teamless for a while, I plan on streaming often you can follow me on twitter or facebook if you want to know when I do.
Statement from Elroy "Noname" Pinto(General Manager of FnaticRC):
Today we part ways with our team Captain and French Protoss Yoan Merlo, the decision was mutual. Yoan began his journey in Fnatic little less than a year back and during his time the co-operation worked well, he helped us at a time when Fnatic was restructuring and he saw us through a difficult phase. I am sad to lose him but I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for the time spent and look forward to seeing his career unfold in the coming months. Best of luck, Yoan!
hope ToD gets on a good team, I want to see more of his games! One of the reasons why I was happy Fnatic played in GSTL was to see ToD vs top koreans hopefully this will become a good opportunity for him
It's weird how the best wc3 players (Tod, grubby, moon, infi) kind of failed to transfer their skills in sc2 meanwhile the average ones (naniwa, sase, thorzain, kas) are now some of the best foreigners.
gl ToDoNte
edit :
On July 16 2012 04:29 Boyo wrote: "Me and Fnatic have mutually agreed on PartinGways", What could this mean...
Why do they keep spelling with capital letters to make it resemble some other pro players? like HerO and PartinG. Other than for shits and giggles i dont know why?
was expected, he didn't really improve that much after 9 months in Korea and wasn't really that impressive in any other match-up than the mirror matchup.
Oh, that sucks. I wonder when Nightend will get the boot? What happened with NightEnd btw? Like 2 months ago or something he went to korea, he streamed alot and then just stopped. Played one game in GSTL I believe and I can't remember any other coverage on him during that time and Homestory cup. Did he even tryout for Code A?
Anyway, Fnatic going the path FXO did when they picked up the koreans, sacking the foreigners one by one. Can't blame them tho. gl
On July 16 2012 05:11 namste wrote: I foresee Nightend leaving soon as well sadly. Good luck to ToD on whatever team he ends up in! Great player!
I don't think ToD left Fnatic though, I think they didn't resign with him after his contract ended because they thought he wasn't playing on the level he should be playing at. NightEnd on the other hand is actually really really good, and has brought in good results. And I dont think he will leave, he bascially had no interaction with the team back when Xeris was manager and he still stayed with them. I think he will stay, I've also heard he's helping Harstem out a lot.
Anyway, Fnatic going the path FXO did when they picked up the koreans, sacking the foreigners one by one. Can't blame them tho. gl
Was just gonna bring this up. It's a shame, but I guess the result tend to speak for themselves :/
FXO did not really do that. While qxc and Sheth moved onto other teams when they picked up the Koreans, they still support Strelok, LoWeLy and a bunch of other great foreigners. To be honest, back when FXO entered the GSTL, their only real talent was qxc and Sheth and other teams wanted both of them.
Haha, this is funny because i predicted this like 1 week ago and asked ToD on twitter. He denied it and called me an idiot. On topic: Probably a good buisness choice from Fnatic. ToD didn't really win that much, even after lots of practice in Korea. Since he's a big name, I'm guessing he had quite a nice salary.
On July 16 2012 05:29 The Final Boss wrote: FXO did not really do that. While qxc and Sheth moved onto other teams when they picked up the Koreans, they still support Strelok, LoWeLy and a bunch of other great foreigners. To be honest, back when FXO entered the GSTL, their only real talent was qxc and Sheth and other teams wanted both of them.
The east Europeans is sponsored by a different branch of FXOpen.
On July 16 2012 04:31 Jaaaaasper wrote: GL tod. I just hope that fanatic doesn't start jettisoning its foreigners like fxo did.
Last i checked FXO has two teams, one of them having quite a few foreigners and still signing new ones. I dont get why people say FXO is a korean team only
On July 16 2012 05:26 Champloo wrote: Wow, Fnatic's roster looks so boring.
Alive ^_^
Sucks for Tod, progaming is so incredibly flaky. I wouldn't be surprised to see a team like esahara grab him, they seem to be picking up lots of the war3 guys.
On July 16 2012 05:26 Champloo wrote: Wow, Fnatic's roster looks so boring.
Alive ^_^
Sucks for Tod, progaming is so incredibly flaky. I wouldn't be surprised to see a team like esahara grab him, they seem to be picking up lots of the war3 guys.
Plus AL just lost BabyKnight to FXO, so maybe they'll pick up ToD to keep a Protoss player. But I doubt that will happen, it's probably more likely that AL's SC2 division just slowly falls apart.
On July 16 2012 04:59 Gosi wrote: Anyway, Fnatic going the path FXO did when they picked up the koreans, sacking the foreigners one by one. Can't blame them tho. gl
On July 16 2012 05:49 illsick wrote: nightend last foreigner on the team
he's probably next to leave :o
I think they actually extended his contract. He joined Fnatic over a year ago and most contracts run for a year. Having said that I doubt they'll extend his contract when it's due to expire.
So Fnatic is like fxo. Being at first a foreign team. Buying koreans--> moving to korea and then fully transition into korean gsl team. I dont think nightend will be much longer in fnatic tbh
He was a cool person but as far as I've seen not really on the same level of play as his teammates. I think it's the right call to make for both parties while still leaving behind a thight but strong lineup of players. Would be curious to see if they will add more players and if so who that would be. Nonetheless for now they still have a sick pool of players to use for team leagues, good luck to fnatic in the future!
On July 16 2012 05:29 Dexington wrote: Tod isn't really a top foreigner imo, not surprised that he was let go.
But, he will always be one of those players that gets super hyped up by Warcraft fans, much like Nony gets hyped up by Broodwar fans.
Can I have what you're smoking, please?
Good reply, thanks for that.
What was the last major tournament he did well at?
He was probably the best "foreign" player outside of China, although he lived there for years.
That's a different game, friend. You're just proving my point.
I was never referring to SC2. You said he gets hyped by WC fans. He has earned every bit of it.
And it has not transferred to SC2, which is my point. We are not arguing about the same thing.
Agreed. Still better than Nony though
ToD is a legend, like july in scbw, their prime/peak time are gone, nevertheless they earn some respect/hype. ToD was one of the top3 "foreign" player from 2004 until he retired 2009. Anyway, scbw and wc3 are/were 10000000 times better than sc2.
On July 16 2012 05:29 Dexington wrote: Tod isn't really a top foreigner imo, not surprised that he was let go.
But, he will always be one of those players that gets super hyped up by Warcraft fans, much like Nony gets hyped up by Broodwar fans.
Can I have what you're smoking, please?
Good reply, thanks for that.
What was the last major tournament he did well at?
He was probably the best "foreign" player outside of China, although he lived there for years.
That's a different game, friend. You're just proving my point.
I was never referring to SC2. You said he gets hyped by WC fans. He has earned every bit of it.
And it has not transferred to SC2, which is my point. We are not arguing about the same thing.
Agreed. Still better than Nony though
ToD is a legend, like july in scbw, their prime/peak time are gone, nevertheless they earn some respect/hype. ToD was one of the top3 "foreign" player from 2004 until he retired 2009. Anyway, scbw and wc3 are/were 10000000 times better than sc2.
Maybe in a few years SC2 will have a more appealing gameplay. The game is balanced but its not as fun to play as BW or W3 yet.
On July 16 2012 05:29 Dexington wrote: Tod isn't really a top foreigner imo, not surprised that he was let go.
But, he will always be one of those players that gets super hyped up by Warcraft fans, much like Nony gets hyped up by Broodwar fans.
Can I have what you're smoking, please?
Good reply, thanks for that.
What was the last major tournament he did well at?
He was probably the best "foreign" player outside of China, although he lived there for years.
That's a different game, friend. You're just proving my point.
I was never referring to SC2. You said he gets hyped by WC fans. He has earned every bit of it.
And it has not transferred to SC2, which is my point. We are not arguing about the same thing.
Agreed. Still better than Nony though
ToD is a legend, like july in scbw, their prime/peak time are gone, nevertheless they earn some respect/hype. ToD was one of the top3 "foreign" player from 2004 until he retired 2009. Anyway, scbw and wc3 are/were 10000000 times better than sc2.
Maybe in a few years SC2 will have a more appealing gameplay. The game is balanced but its not as fun to play as BW or W3 yet.
WarCraft 3 is still the most fun to play and watch. StarCraft is great but nothing would excite me more then seeing Blizzard announce WarCraft 4. And SC2's balance is still a bit shaky plus Heart of the Swarm looks like it's going to mean a long while of balance patches before we get back to a more balanced spot.
On July 16 2012 04:29 Lukeeze[zR] wrote: It's weird how the best wc3 players (Tod, grubby, moon, infi) kind of failed to transfer their skills in sc2 meanwhile the average ones (naniwa, sase, thorzain, kas) are now some of the best foreigners.
On July 16 2012 04:29 Boyo wrote: "Me and Fnatic have mutually agreed on PartinGways", What could this mean...
good catch, didn't even notice :O
its not weird at all. if you look at the circumstances surrounding each player you would realise why they werent break out stars at the beginning of the game. for starters most of them werent even playing the game seriously untill a year after the game came out. you figure out the rest.
On July 16 2012 06:53 The Final Boss wrote: WarCraft 3 is still the most fun to play and watch. StarCraft is great but nothing would excite me more then seeing Blizzard announce WarCraft 4. And SC2's balance is still a bit shaky plus Heart of the Swarm looks like it's going to mean a long while of balance patches before we get back to a more balanced spot.
I agree that WC3 is an amazing spectator game and it's still better to watch than SC2 (apart from the graphics being bad of course). But I don't want WC4 right now, it would just tear the community apart. I think it's awesome that the SC:BW and WC3 communities have basically merged together and I love how SC2 is so big right now.
Sorry for being massively offtopic :/ Sad to see Tod leave, I hope he'll do well in the future. I like fnatic, hopefully they'll be able to get some more top level foreigners in the future and continue to do well in GSTL.
On July 16 2012 04:29 Lukeeze[zR] wrote: It's weird how the best wc3 players (Tod, grubby, moon, infi) kind of failed to transfer their skills in sc2 meanwhile the average ones (naniwa, sase, thorzain, kas) are now some of the best foreigners.
Forgot Stephano there he was a practice partner of Grubby's back then, now one of the very best
On July 16 2012 08:06 AnachronisticAnarchy wrote: Didn't ToD just recently see some success in tournaments? He probably won't be teamless for long if that is the case.
No he didn't. (Knocked out in the first groupstage in HSC 5 and knocked out in the second groupstage at Dreamhack Summer by two semi-tier swedes.) For someone that practiced in Korea for over 9 months in a progaminghouse environment as well, he should'nt really be losing like that to mid-tier europeans who don't even play the game fulltime (Mini and Seiplo).
On July 16 2012 04:29 Lukeeze[zR] wrote: It's weird how the best wc3 players (Tod, grubby, moon, infi) kind of failed to transfer their skills in sc2 meanwhile the average ones (naniwa, sase, thorzain, kas) are now some of the best foreigners.
Forgot Stephano there he was a practice partner of Grubby's back then, now one of the very best
I don' think Grubby is an average sc2 player, you shouldn't compare with his wc3 accomplishes. Only Naniwa and Sase are better than him in sc2.
For me, he is the best EU/NA Protoss (Naniwa, HuK and Sase doesnt count for me because they live in KR)
What was the last major tournament he did well at?
He was probably the best "foreign" player outside of China, although he lived there for years.
That's a different game, friend. You're just proving my point.
I was never referring to SC2. You said he gets hyped by WC fans. He has earned every bit of it.
And it has not transferred to SC2, which is my point. We are not arguing about the same thing.
Agreed. Still better than Nony though
ToD is a legend, like july in scbw, their prime/peak time are gone, nevertheless they earn some respect/hype. ToD was one of the top3 "foreign" player from 2004 until he retired 2009. Anyway, scbw and wc3 are/were 10000000 times better than sc2.
Maybe in a few years SC2 will have a more appealing gameplay. The game is balanced but its not as fun to play as BW or W3 yet.
WarCraft 3 is still the most fun to play and watch. StarCraft is great but nothing would excite me more then seeing Blizzard announce WarCraft 4. And SC2's balance is still a bit shaky plus Heart of the Swarm looks like it's going to mean a long while of balance patches before we get back to a more balanced spot.
as much as I agree about wc3, It would only make me sad if they announced wc4. After d3 and sc2, I have learned blizzard is not the same blizzard they once were, so I am not going to continue to pay for their games based on the expectations from bw and wc3 anymore :/
On July 16 2012 04:29 Lukeeze[zR] wrote: It's weird how the best wc3 players (Tod, grubby, moon, infi) kind of failed to transfer their skills in sc2 meanwhile the average ones (naniwa, sase, thorzain, kas) are now some of the best foreigners.
Forgot Stephano there he was a practice partner of Grubby's back then, now one of the very best
I don' think Grubby is an average sc2 player, you shouldn't compare with his wc3 accomplishes. Only Naniwa and Sase are better than him in sc2.
For me, he is the best EU/NA Protoss (Naniwa, HuK and Sase doesnt count for me because they live in KR)
There's Mana but i kind of agree, Grubby is one of the best european player, just not top world. He seems to struggle like all the other protosses.these times.
On July 16 2012 04:29 Lukeeze[zR] wrote: It's weird how the best wc3 players (Tod, grubby, moon, infi) kind of failed to transfer their skills in sc2 meanwhile the average ones (naniwa, sase, thorzain, kas) are now some of the best foreigners.
Forgot Stephano there he was a practice partner of Grubby's back then, now one of the very best
I don' think Grubby is an average sc2 player, you shouldn't compare with his wc3 accomplishes. Only Naniwa and Sase are better than him in sc2.
For me, he is the best EU/NA Protoss (Naniwa, HuK and Sase doesnt count for me because they live in KR)
Mana is better then Grubby, but Grubby and White-Ra are probably the next two best.
Ahhh damn. I still remember his interview from one of the early mlgs when he beat Alicia and had so much hope for the future.. Shame to see him out of Korea cos I think fnatic is where he needed to be to truly become great again
On July 16 2012 04:29 Lukeeze[zR] wrote: It's weird how the best wc3 players (Tod, grubby, moon, infi) kind of failed to transfer their skills in sc2 meanwhile the average ones (naniwa, sase, thorzain, kas) are now some of the best foreigners.
What was the last major tournament he did well at?
He was probably the best "foreign" player outside of China, although he lived there for years.
That's a different game, friend. You're just proving my point.
I was never referring to SC2. You said he gets hyped by WC fans. He has earned every bit of it.
And it has not transferred to SC2, which is my point. We are not arguing about the same thing.
Agreed. Still better than Nony though
ToD is a legend, like july in scbw, their prime/peak time are gone, nevertheless they earn some respect/hype. ToD was one of the top3 "foreign" player from 2004 until he retired 2009. Anyway, scbw and wc3 are/were 10000000 times better than sc2.
Maybe in a few years SC2 will have a more appealing gameplay. The game is balanced but its not as fun to play as BW or W3 yet.
WarCraft 3 is still the most fun to play and watch. StarCraft is great but nothing would excite me more then seeing Blizzard announce WarCraft 4. And SC2's balance is still a bit shaky plus Heart of the Swarm looks like it's going to mean a long while of balance patches before we get back to a more balanced spot.
since wc3 was the best game of all time in my opinion, if warcraft 4 would be released today i would never ever play sc2 again, of course if wc4 can be half as fun as wc3 i would never go back to sc2.
EPT
ByuL
Rain 
Oz
useless agressivity at its best, yummy
