Korean pro-gaming team Startale has announced that they will part ways with their NSL1 champion Dota2 team and reduce the size of their StarCraft 2 team going forward.
According to Startale, "We are aggressively remodelling to match the current market and to increase efficiency."
Startale's StarCraft 2 team will be reduced in size, and move the team house from Incheon to Seoul. Head coach Kim Gwang Bok (aka 815, coach for over 2 years) and Yoon Hee Won (former ZeNEX head coach, and Startale coach for over a year) will leave the team, and the team will continue with its remaining StarCraft 2 players.
The Inven article also revealed that key player Avenge had also retired.
이와 함께 NSL 시즌 1 우승 상금은 넥슨과의 협의를 통해 선수들에게 전액 지급할 계획이다.
This says dota team will get all of their NSL winnings. (apparently they had to negotiate with Nexon for this to happen or whatever)
And Jeffery (I assume it's the bald dude, don't know anything about korean doto but he looks like a leader material) intends on keeping the team together in preparation for future leagues.
So this is basically fxo turning into fou, everyone can relax now.
Even StarTale is feeling the pressure, and everyone expected them to be immune cause of RedBull money. Wish the best for everyone on StarTale former or current.
On January 08 2014 12:03 BalsamaceouS wrote: And here I thought Redbull was giving them a lot of money. Seems like that wasn't exactly true.
well bomber was really their only player worth marketing and he's left so no reason for redbull to really keep the partnership I guess.
Forgot about life but he's a little young for redbull to really go all in on him I think. My bad
other than life though there's Curious who's definately not marketable and then their next best player is hack who hasn't done enough and certainly isn't going to inspire faith in redbull marketing teams
Bomber should go to KT. I'd like for there to be one SPL team that just throws down a gauntlet of Terrans every week to help break up the PvP monotony.
On January 08 2014 12:08 forsooth wrote: Bomber should go to KT. I'd like for there to be just one SPL team that throws down a gauntlet of Terrans every week to help break up the PvP monotony.
Bomber's going to compete in WCS America, there's no reason for him to join a KeSPA team.
And you saw Terran's undefeated track record this week, and protoss' 1 - 12 streak this week. Everyone is probably going to field more terrans next week.
that's rough. I guess that's where the other TL member read that avenge was retiring. Best of luck to them! I don't give the team much more time before they disband. Life is their only noteworthy player or at least the only ones that comes to mind :/
Wait so are there any ESF teams left? This pretty much means Startale is done as a SC2 team. Even if they don't dissolve now, they'll dissolve in a couple months like fOu and SOUL I think.
Damn it. I hate seeing teams have to downsize. Startale held out longer than many of the other teams though. I hope these decisions help in the long run with keeping the team together.
Makes sense though. When there's no GSTL, why would you keep so many players. Startale has always been a bit of an oversized organization, it's not necessarily a bad thing that they are downsizing, if it means that the remaining organization is more efficient and stable.
Hell Axiom-Acer won GSTL with 7 players, you don't really need such a massive roster.
Damn, this really sucks. Makes you miss the old days of Bomber, Squirtle, PartinG, and Curious.
It'll be interesting to see where they go from here. Maybe pick up one or two of the free agents that are around? Bomber's departure probably opened up some good salary money.
On January 08 2014 14:05 negativedge wrote: so basically startale is now life, curious and hack with no coaches or support whatsoever. sounds like a great team. at least prime still has gerrard
Also Pet and Panic. They both played in GSTL a lot; Panic actually looked pretty good (Pet not as much). I hope there's at least some limited GSTL like was suggested a few days ago so we see some of them in a team league again.
On January 08 2014 14:07 peanutsfan1995 wrote: It'll be interesting to see where they go from here. Maybe pick up one or two of the free agents that are around? Bomber's departure probably opened up some good salary money.
I doubt "downsizing" the team is very compatible with picking up free agents. Sad to see Avenge go, he had been around for a long time and was just now really starting to make a mark.
On January 08 2014 14:31 Champi wrote: ugh. this is bad, hurry up and join kespa please ST. would rather root for you guys in proleague than see you slowly die off on the side T_T
There won't be ST in PL. ST will be dissected apart from Kespa vultures hoping to pick up players.
On January 08 2014 14:31 Champi wrote: ugh. this is bad, hurry up and join kespa please ST. would rather root for you guys in proleague than see you slowly die off on the side T_T
There won't be ST in PL. ST will be dissected apart from Kespa vultures hoping to pick up players.
History of Kespa Vultures: Airforce Ace Team 8
Oh you have a MBCGame tag, why don't you just call it SKT vultures instead >_>
Looks like Dota is not happening in Korea after all. Big name dropping dota squad will discourage new players who want to become pro a lot imo. That's unfortunate.
On January 08 2014 17:21 Big J wrote: Fuck you Kespa for destroying the Korean scene. Was there nothing left to kill in broodwar, or why did you have to switch?
Yeah let's blame Kespa, the guys running a SC2 Proleague despite it not being financially smart, for very small numbers of Korean fans(and our) enjoyment. You should blame GOM for their lack of support for eSF and eSF teams. Back when it was just GOM player they never released viewer numbers to the teams to give to potential sponsors, making it difficult for them. FXO management talked about this multiple times.
omg today's news are terrible. read that in class and had to fight with tears. can't even imagine startale without a big sc2 roaster, such a great team. also poor avenge gl hf whatever you will do now!
On January 08 2014 19:05 NovaMB wrote: Azubu will survive them all and dance on their corpses.
On January 08 2014 18:38 JohnChoi wrote: I was watching Kwanro's stream and he talked about meeting with Iris and a couple others. He mentioned Iris said Azubu team will disband and Iris might take up streaming on afreeca. Nothing 100% at the moment but it seems to be a likely possibility. We may see Iris streaming on afreeca in the future :D
So Bomber took the Redbull moneyz? Well that sucks. I hope ST and Azubu can stick around long enough to play in next seasons proleague and/or teamup with somebody else to still get into the current season.
I think they only stayed in GSTL in hope of winning it to get more money to sustain the team, gladly though a nice brit and a taiwanese sponsor decided to sent in a combination of two well funded teams to grab that money. I guess if they had known that they'd do so poorly in GSTL they might have joined kespa right away like IM/Prime/MVP, but maybe Redbull had something to say about that. Either way we'll never know let's just hope that ST can stick around with a smaller rooster/staff.
Noooo StarTale Squirtle, Parting, Life, Bomber, July, Fruitdealer... they've had so many excellent players... If I'd won new years lottery I would buy back all former Startale players and also Naniwa and then win Proleague
On January 08 2014 21:55 LakseWim wrote: Noooo StarTale Squirtle, Parting, Life, Bomber, July, Fruitdealer... they've had so many excellent players... If I'd won new years lottery I would buy back all former Startale players and also Naniwa and then win Proleague
I can give you a couple of euros to actually buy a lottery ticket... who knows... Just imagine the newspaper headlines: "LakseWim wins 15 mio euros and... buys e-Sports?!"
Well fuck, Startale was one of those teams that I saw living forever, they had a formidable roster and stars of every race, capable of winning championships (except team leagues), and then this happens... Damn, I'm in shock and pain now, I hope they don't disband.
On January 08 2014 22:14 Destructicon wrote: Well fuck, Startale was one of those teams that I saw living forever, they had a formidable roster and stars of every race, capable of winning championships (except team leagues), and then this happens... Damn, I'm in shock and pain now, I hope they don't disband.
Unfortunately we haven't had a star of every race for almost a year now.
Also, I would note that before Red Bull was in love with Bomber, they were in love with Life, even tweeting about his championships on their main (not-eSports) twitter. So don't be so surprised if he gets a big enough salary to stick around.
On January 08 2014 22:14 Destructicon wrote: Well fuck, Startale was one of those teams that I saw living forever, they had a formidable roster and stars of every race, capable of winning championships (except team leagues), and then this happens... Damn, I'm in shock and pain now, I hope they don't disband.
Unfortunately we haven't had a star of every race for almost a year now.
Also, I would note that before Red Bull was in love with Bomber, they were in love with Life, even tweeting about his championships on their main (not-eSports) twitter. So don't be so surprised if he gets a big enough salary to stick around.
Yes I know they technically haven't had a star from each race since PartinG and Squirtle left, but back in 2012 with them, Bomber, Life and Curious I could never see them doing as bad as now. Hell it was even looking like Avenge would be a suitable replacement for PartinG and Squirtle given enough time, but now he is gone as well... I'm hoping this is the last bit of bad news and that the scene stabilizes soon, I'm not sure I can take more bad news like this.
On January 08 2014 22:14 Destructicon wrote: Well fuck, Startale was one of those teams that I saw living forever, they had a formidable roster and stars of every race, capable of winning championships (except team leagues), and then this happens... Damn, I'm in shock and pain now, I hope they don't disband.
That's what I thought about Slayers and oGs as well. With iconic members like Boxer and Nada, and fan favorites like MC and MMA, how could these teams possibly collapse?
But if Startale wants to survive, they needed to reduce their roster. Too many players when they don't compete in a teamleague, it's simply unnecessary.
On January 08 2014 22:14 Destructicon wrote: Well fuck, Startale was one of those teams that I saw living forever, they had a formidable roster and stars of every race, capable of winning championships (except team leagues), and then this happens... Damn, I'm in shock and pain now, I hope they don't disband.
That's what I thought about Slayers and oGs as well. With iconic members like Boxer and Nada, and fan favorites like MC and MMA, how could these teams possibly collapse?
But if Startale wants to survive, they needed to reduce their roster. Too many players when they don't compete in a teamleague, it's simply unnecessary.
Thats not how you "survive". It seems that Startale's management simply doesnt have the vision to develop and sustain the team. Their LoL squad disbanded, dota2 disbanded and soon will the sc2 one. Meanwhile look at Prime & IM, after steering through hardship, they compete in SPL, own 2 LoL teams and are exposed to more potential sponsorship (the very first reason Gerrard wanted to join KeSPA). I expect the team to go kaputt in a few months.
Red Bull Stars to join Proleague in the second round and still somehow make the playoffs and take the championship. The money buys back Naniwa, Squirtle, PartinG and Bomber.
On January 09 2014 00:26 Darkdwarf wrote: Red Bull Stars to join Proleague in the second round and still somehow make the playoffs and take the championship. The money buys back Naniwa, Squirtle, PartinG and Bomber.
One can dream.
The team barely manages to get into the all-kill sections of Proleague, after hard victories over great teams like IM, Prime, and MVP.
Now, to win the championship, all StarTale must do is win the all kill. Life, on his seventeenth birthday, decides that he's bored of screwing around and it's time to play seriously. He proceeds to singlehandedly defeat the entirety of the Korean scene over the course of two weeks.
StarTale is reinvigorated, and SKT players begin to defect to ST for a better contract. All is right with the world.
dont know but it kind of feels a bit like blizzard was by far to laid back with their starcraft 2 release/setup of the game to build enough following to be really competative with all the "new" games. now they opening up the arcade and all that for free at a point in time where it feels kind of too late.
all the rest, the team problems and all that just follows from that and i fear it will get worse
On January 08 2014 22:14 Destructicon wrote: Well fuck, Startale was one of those teams that I saw living forever, they had a formidable roster and stars of every race, capable of winning championships (except team leagues), and then this happens... Damn, I'm in shock and pain now, I hope they don't disband.
Unfortunately we haven't had a star of every race for almost a year now.
Also, I would note that before Red Bull was in love with Bomber, they were in love with Life, even tweeting about his championships on their main (not-eSports) twitter. So don't be so surprised if he gets a big enough salary to stick around.
Why sponsor Life through Startale when they could just sponsor Life, especially now that being on startale has no benefits.
EPT
Avenge had also retired.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/GSL/fionn/FruitDealer2.jpg)
