The former team captain for Quantic Gaming, the Swedish Protoss Kim "SaSe" Hammar, has (temporarily) joined up with Taiwan's premier gaming association, Gama Bears, home to the one and only Zerg King, Sen.
The Taiwan eSports League (TeSL) is a televized league featuring three games: Kart Rider (Racing), Special Forces (Team-based FPS) and StarCraft II. It is probably more popular than other people think it is. Gama Bears have 80,000 fans on Facebook. Wayi Spider have 90,000. Pretty significant considering a team such as Evil Geniuses have half that amount. Players live in team houses, and teams often have corporate sponsors, giving a very healthy impression of the Taiwanese eSport scene.
TeSL has an exchange programme in place, whereby teams are allowed to bring in foreign players to play for them for a set amount of time. In the past, Wayi Spider had brought in MVP's Galaxy to play for them, whilst Thermaltake Apollos had Prime's ByuN.
As clarified through his tweet, SaSe will be staying in the Gamania team house for three weeks, whereby he will have the opportunity to play five televized matches.
Gama Bears roster: Leaf (Coach) Sen Slam Apro Gow YoyO SaSe Luway (Female player, not listed on the league website, so I'm not sure if she's a pro)
@HelloSaSe to make it clear i did not join GB. i will go to taiwan to live with them for 2-3 weeks to play TeSL.looking forward to speak some chinese^^
@HelloSaSe to make it clear i did not join GB. i will go to taiwan to live with them for 2-3 weeks to play TeSL.looking forward to speak some chinese^^
On December 13 2012 18:47 dabom88 wrote: Interesting. But I thought the teams in the Taiwan E-sports League followed a draft format? How was he able to get recruited without entering a draft?
They have some sort of procedure/policy on foreign players. Galaxy was playing for Wayi Spider, and apparently ByuN played for Thermaltake Titan.
Nice Sase! Got himself some mercenary work, that's pretty cool as a foreigner, since they have a huge variety of cheap korean players they could've chosen .
Foreign Protoss player Sase has registered with Gaba Bears' Starcraft II roster, and will play for Gama Bears starting from their game vs YoeIronmen on December 22nd, till Wayi Spider vs Gama Bears on January 6th, 2013, which means 3 weeks and 5 official televised matches, marking him the foreign player to play for the longest time in TeSL.
Proably you want to change the title to something like - Sase playing for Gama bears, rented to them or whatever, since he isn't going to be official part of the team
On December 13 2012 18:47 dabom88 wrote: Interesting. But I thought the teams in the Taiwan E-sports League followed a draft format? How was he able to get recruited without entering a draft?
They have some sort of procedure/policy on foreign players. Galaxy was playing for Wayi Spider, and apparently ByuN played for Thermaltake Titan.
Sase is cool, GB are cool. We don't hear much news about Sase, we don't hear much news about GB. Seems like a good fit!
Seriously though, sounds like a neat arrangement, and it's always nice when there's a little contact with the Taiwanese scene from the outside. Hope he has a fun run there!
This is the best move ever, he's gonna get so many Taiwanese/Chinese fans, just by being the only European there. Also better ZvP practice for Sen, all good
I've never heard of anything like 'renting' a player. Seems like a weird concept for Sase to join GB just to play for a few weeks, knowing that he won't be a part of their team.
Should be interesting though, I'll be watching his games.
On December 13 2012 22:32 Z.Aether wrote: This is wrong sase is not joinning GB he is just going with them for 2-3 weeks to play the TeSL. He is not joinning, u can check that in his twitter.
On December 13 2012 22:32 Z.Aether wrote: This is wrong sase is not joinning GB he is just going with them for 2-3 weeks to play the TeSL. He is not joinning, u can check that in his twitter.
Yeah, that's what it says in title and OP.
People probably just read the first sentence of the op which can misinterpreted.
On December 13 2012 22:32 Z.Aether wrote: This is wrong sase is not joinning GB he is just going with them for 2-3 weeks to play the TeSL. He is not joinning, u can check that in his twitter.
Yeah, that's what it says in title and OP.
People probably just read the first sentence of the op which can misinterpreted.
On December 13 2012 22:32 Z.Aether wrote: This is wrong sase is not joinning GB he is just going with them for 2-3 weeks to play the TeSL. He is not joinning, u can check that in his twitter.
Yeah, that's what it says in title and OP.
People probably just read the first sentence of the op which can misinterpreted.
fixed!
Lol. I think people are just going to read what they want to read haha
I'm glad he didn't actually join the team, we would never see him again. I'm not even sure if there's a way for us to watch this tournament he's going to play in.
On December 13 2012 23:05 Dodgin wrote: I'm glad he didn't actually join the team, we would never see him again. I'm not even sure if there's a way for us to watch this tournament he's going to play in.
Either way GL Sase.
If I am not wrong, there's a twitch stream haha. I think it's in Chinese though. It's also broadcasted on TV in Taiwan
Looking forward to seeing how Sase does in the TeSL. I've had some contact with the league in the past and I'll see if I can get replays for casting purposes.
I am surprised that so many people are complaining about the word "join". To me it doesn't seem totally wrong to say that, even if it's only for 3 weeks.
On December 13 2012 23:05 Dodgin wrote: I'm glad he didn't actually join the team, we would never see him again. I'm not even sure if there's a way for us to watch this tournament he's going to play in.
On December 13 2012 23:05 Dodgin wrote: I'm glad he didn't actually join the team, we would never see him again. I'm not even sure if there's a way for us to watch this tournament he's going to play in.
Either way GL Sase.
Just like we never see Sen??
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic but, Sen has only been to WCS Asia and BWC as far as foreign events go in all of 2012. He was seeded into Code S in 2012 S1 but lost and then forfeited his Code A spot instead of returning for the next season.
On December 13 2012 23:05 Dodgin wrote: I'm glad he didn't actually join the team, we would never see him again. I'm not even sure if there's a way for us to watch this tournament he's going to play in.
Either way GL Sase.
Just like we never see Sen??
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic but, Sen has only been to WCS Asia and BWC as far as foreign events go in all of 2012. He was seeded into Code S in 2012 S1 but lost and then forfeited his Code A spot instead of returning for the next season.
So yes, like we never see Sen.
Please check your sarcastic radar >.< that was pretty obvious, especially the double question mark...
On December 13 2012 23:05 Dodgin wrote: I'm glad he didn't actually join the team, we would never see him again. I'm not even sure if there's a way for us to watch this tournament he's going to play in.
Either way GL Sase.
Just like we never see Sen??
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic but, Sen has only been to WCS Asia and BWC as far as foreign events go in all of 2012. He was seeded into Code S in 2012 S1 but lost and then forfeited his Code A spot instead of returning for the next season.
On December 13 2012 23:05 Dodgin wrote: I'm glad he didn't actually join the team, we would never see him again. I'm not even sure if there's a way for us to watch this tournament he's going to play in.
Either way GL Sase.
Just like we never see Sen??
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic but, Sen has only been to WCS Asia and BWC as far as foreign events go in all of 2012. He was seeded into Code S in 2012 S1 but lost and then forfeited his Code A spot instead of returning for the next season.
So yes, like we never see Sen.
He also played in the last NASL.
Also he entered a TON of qualifiers, just didn't do very well. It's certainly not because they were holding back or something.
Not that shocking, rather interesting. But then again, SaSe has lived in China with ToD during WC3 times, and hes prolly well accustomed to the chinese language and culture.
On December 14 2012 05:47 Lysanias wrote: The Taiwanese scene could get a bit of foreign love <3 These guys are pasionate about Pro gaming like no other.
The question is... is SaSe gonna get the sick face tattoo they put on everyone? If so, there better be lots screenshots.
^ so you speak Chinese and English... which put you in a group of... a few hundred million people. Seriously... (BTW, your Chinese signature is not in proper grammar, and absolutely no Chinese speaker would ever form the sentence like that)
On December 14 2012 06:07 ragz_gt wrote: The question is... is SaSe gonna get the sick face tattoo they put on everyone? If so, there better be lots screenshots.
^ so you speak Chinese and English... which put you in a group of... a few hundred million people. Seriously... (BTW, your Chinese signature is not in proper grammar, and absolutely no Chinese speaker would ever form the sentence like that)
Then how many of those english/chinese speakers also speak swedish and are younger than 30?
If you find some, those will mostly not be european origin, because we seem to have a hard time learning chinese...
...so being able to talk in mandarin after 2 years is quite fine for an european.
(We've got people in our country that cannot speak the countries language after 30 years...)
On December 13 2012 21:28 herMan wrote: Haven't heard anything from Sase in a long time. Hasn't he been absent from about all of the premier tournaments in eu/na for like six months?
Cool move by Gamabears, sase repping foreign talent in Asia outside of Korea.
He won a tournament in China and $10k, not too shabby.
EDIT: Best of luck SaSe, you have so much to show!
Hopefully Sase will get to do some streaming as he was always my 2nd favorite and I love how he streams for like 16 hours each session. Coming off that Tournament win should give him the confidence to shine with Gamma Bears.
On December 14 2012 09:23 SigmaoctanusIV wrote: Hopefully Sase will get to do some streaming as he was always my 2nd favorite and I love how he streams for like 16 hours each session. Coming off that Tournament win should give him the confidence to shine with Gamma Bears.
He is really fun to watch, can't help but wonder if he is just going to commute for the matches or if Gamma Bears have something set up for him in TW.
Sase and Sen are two of my most favorite players! I guess I officially have a favorite team. I wish RATZDeezer would join GammaBears. Deezer is my hero.
Sen and Sase are probably gonna have to carry the team however But I have no idea what the Taiwan scene is like so someone could easily shut me up on that :X
On December 14 2012 10:44 Cocoba wrote: What a twist!
Sen and Sase are probably gonna have to carry the team however But I have no idea what the Taiwan scene is like so someone could easily shut me up on that :X
As far as I can tell beyond Sen no other Gamma Bears players actually leave TW, and Sen is kind of the undisputed king of TW SC2 last I heard. GB should be even more dominant in the scene now.
Makes a lot of sense, I think SaSe is one of the few Europeans to really stick around in China for ages in WC3, and has a bigger fanbase there than many of his contemporaries for doing so.
On December 14 2012 10:44 Cocoba wrote: What a twist!
Sen and Sase are probably gonna have to carry the team however But I have no idea what the Taiwan scene is like so someone could easily shut me up on that :X
As far as I can tell beyond Sen no other Gamma Bears players actually leave TW, and Sen is kind of the undisputed king of TW SC2 last I heard. GB should be even more dominant in the scene now.
Yep, Sen is still dominant. His record this season in the TeSL is 26-3, with a 18-0 record vZ. The next best winrate is Wayi Spider's Fly (also Zerg), who is 18-9.
On December 14 2012 10:44 Cocoba wrote: What a twist!
Sen and Sase are probably gonna have to carry the team however But I have no idea what the Taiwan scene is like so someone could easily shut me up on that :X
As far as I can tell beyond Sen no other Gamma Bears players actually leave TW, and Sen is kind of the undisputed king of TW SC2 last I heard. GB should be even more dominant in the scene now.
Yep, Sen is still dominant. His record this season in the TeSL is 26-3, with a 18-0 record vZ. The next best winrate is Wayi Spider's Fly (also Zerg), who is 18-9.
I wish they would push these more to the foreign community, offer some English casting.
On December 14 2012 09:23 SigmaoctanusIV wrote: Hopefully Sase will get to do some streaming as he was always my 2nd favorite and I love how he streams for like 16 hours each session. Coming off that Tournament win should give him the confidence to shine with Gamma Bears.
He is really fun to watch, can't help but wonder if he is just going to commute for the matches or if Gamma Bears have something set up for him in TW.
It's just 5 games over 3 weeks I'm sure they'd be able to provide some accomodation for him
GamaBear's just wasting money, since Sen still dominate the TW scene. So far Tesl's Ironman has not hire a Merc, perhaps that team doesn't have the money to. That league really should force the front-runner teams to spend some money on weaker teams.
I watched some Taiwan streams in the past, like they had lots of viewers so they showed up high on Twitch tv :D They look quite good but not at the top of the top :p
the taiwan/china scenes are huge, (as seen from wcs) although isolated. as much as we think korea and foreigners are seperate, they are closer then well.. anyone else.. to the chinese/taiwan scene.
if those scenes start to merge into the main stream foreigner/korean scene, we could see a huge surge in the global sc2 scene. especially if the chinese/taiwanese viewers start tuning into mlg/dh/gsl more.. that would be an incredible jump for sc2 esports.
This is cool , besides sen i haven't seen too much of the TW sc2 players i really wonder how skilled they are / how SaSe will do :3 here's to hoping he smashes some nerdlets
SaSe should be winning almost every game he plays. I watched TeSL a lot when I vacationed there in Taiwan and their skill level really isn't up to the rest of the world, even foreigners. Sen is definitely the best player in Taiwan. I think he sported a 60 or 70% win ratio
On December 29 2012 17:04 GenesisX wrote: SaSe should be winning almost every game he plays. I watched TeSL a lot when I vacationed there in Taiwan and their skill level really isn't up to the rest of the world, even foreigners. Sen is definitely the best player in Taiwan. I think he sported a 60 or 70% win ratio
Sen has been for almost a decade. It's quite the feat really and says a lot about him.
EPT
Quantic Gaming, the Swedish Protoss Kim "
SaSe" Hammar, has (temporarily) joined up with Taiwan's premier gaming association, 
Sen.
ByuN. 
.
![[image loading]](http://www.esports.com.tw/userfile/news/2012-12/28/9916oXL4BT20121228235220UDFuRsXKHQ.jpg)
