Are unfair match-ups, heated rivalries and epic streaks just the features you're looking for? Well, look no further, because SHOUTcraft Kings is back with its first instalment in 2017—and even higher stakes than before!

The greatest aspects of the tournament have been left unchanged since last year: The best players in the world will compete in a King of the Hill, Best of 1 format. The winner claims the throne and the loser eats dust—just to be replaced by another mysterious competitor chosen by TotalBiscuit. With only the most devious and entertaining consequences in mind, of course.

And here’s where it gets even better than 2016: Every map win is now worth a total of 350 US-Dollars by default—one hundred more than last year! However, there is also the new feature of the Kings Bounty. For every map a king can claim, the bounty on his head grows by 25 US-Dollars. Say, a player wins ten maps and then gets finally taken down; suddenly this win isn’t only worth 350 USD—the new king collects 600 USD instead.

Happy bounty hunting, ladies and gentlemen, disintegrations are explicitly welcome!

SHOUTcraft Kings December - Recap

Before we revel in the new age of SHOUTcraft Kings, however, let us take a short look back at what happened in the final Kings edition of 2016—after all, reigning Queen (Z)

Scarlett claimed her present title back then.

In case you don’t remember, (Z)

Solar had come out as the victor of the special November edition at BlizzCon, and he really clung to his crown in the following month, making up for his rather disappointing showing at the WCS Global Finals themselves. The Zerg put together a streak of five victories, before he was finally taken down by TY in a great ZvT battle on Whirlwind. Altogether, this was quite good showing under the new banner of Splyce for the former SAMSUNG player.

Since Solar had already defeated dangerous enemies in (T)

KeeN,

ShoWTimE,

soO,

Dream and

Classic, we thought (T)

TY might be able to create a long streak for himself, but as it often happens in SHOUTcraft Kings, he ran into an unlikely obstacle: (Z)

TRUE cut TY’s triumph short in typical fashion—before feeling the wrath of TY’s former team mate (P)

Zest. The Protoss went on to take out a top foreigner in (Z)

Elazer and a promising up and comer in the Chinese Terran (T)

TIME, but karma struck back rather quickly in limiting his own time as the King.

SHOUTcraft Kings veteran and holder of the longest streak to date, (T)

INnoVation, was activated to compute and conquer—and so he did. Taking out poor (T)

jjakji along the way—who had suffered repeatedly at the hands of INnoVation that December—, the Machine went on to shatter more foreign hopes in (Z)

Nerchio and (T)

MarineLorD, finally gaining revenge for that pesky defeat to the Frenchman at Nation Wars III in January 2016, which had haunted him for the entirety of the year. With that debt paid, INnoVation’s reign was at its end already, as (Z)

Dark wrestled the crown from his former colleague in another display of excellent ZvT skills.

His ZvP, although formidable, did not prove to be enough against the next competitor called into service by TB, however, as (P)

Stats took him out immediately. You’d think at this point TB would’ve run out of household names to send out, but nope: With (P)

Neeb and

Snute two elite foreigners had their try against the former KT Protoss, but both had to concede to the Korean. Same for the Towel Terran (T)

GuMiho. There was one last hope though: (Z)

Scarlett entered the battlefield with fanfare, and showed the kind of performance that got her into the Round of 32 of GSL Code S as the first foreigner in four years. She disposed of Stats, stole the throne and reigned as the true Queen of Blades… to his very day, at least.

VODs for SHOUTcraft can be found on TB’s youtube channel:
Games 1-5
Games 6-10
Games 11-15
Games 16-20

SHOUTcraft Kings January - Preview

Let's take a look at some of the stars that have been announced for SHOUTcraft Kings January then, along with another special surprise annoucement...

The Queen in her Castle — Scarlett

Stopping the rampage of Stats last year earned her the title; now Scarlett has a big target painted on her back—basically business as usual for her. The Canadian Zerg has had some amazing showings in the last weeks, among them qualifying for GSL Code S and leading Canada into the top 4 at Nation Wars IV. Yet, it seems that shortly before reaching the next step of achievement, the highest level of glory, Scarlett seems to stumble: Canada did not, in the end, advance into the finals of NW4, nor was Scarlett able to reach the Round of 16 of GSL.

Although her performances on all these occasions were impressive, they must leave her with a certain amount of dissatisfaction and hunger. Here, the pieces are already set up in a different way, however, as Scarlett starts out as the Queen, holder of the throne. This time, she’s not the one chasing after some goal—she’s the hunted. And there's the small issue of a certain player licking his lips at the thought of continuing his win streak...

Korea’s Greatest Win Machine — INnoVation

The good thing about SHOUTcraft Kings is that the many enemies one makes through recent machinations, will definitely be back to bite one in any way possible—game master Total Biscuit will make certain of that. INnoVation indeed has made himself many an enemy in the last days and weeks by sheer virtue of being almost unbeatable. He easily advanced out of his group in GSL, he dominated in several online competitions—be it the qualifiers for IEM Katowice, an Olimoleague Final, or GSLTV’s “The Loser Strikes Back”—and provided the necessary muscle for Team Korea to win Nation Wars IV.

No matter where you look on planet Earth, you’ll find someone who has a score to settle with INnoVation. After having cleared up some old grudges himself through SHOUTcraft Kings recently, it’ll be interesting to see INnoVation on the other side of the story.

One Zerg’s Ambition — Dark

When talking about people capable of eliminating INnoVation—or just about anyone, really—from this tournament, Dark certainly stands out. It was he who ended INnoVation’s last run, and he likewise dominated his group in GSL Code S to advance without a map loss. Despite being famous for his excellent ZvT, he did face some tough competition in that match-up recently, however: INnoVation avenged himself at IEM Gyeonggi with a narrow 3-2 victory, and aLive repeatedly thwarted Dark’s online ambitions.

With Dark being a notoriously ambitious person, it’s easy to imagine how his goals for this edition of SHOUTcraft Kings look: Regain dominance, crush resistance, establish himself as the best once more. Daily routine, really.

Fighting the Hiccup — ByuN

Regaining dominance is something ByuN would really like to do as well. After his shocking elimination from GSL, which left fans worldwide stunned, many are hoping for a sign of quick recovery from the world champion. And indeed, wouldn’t a record breaking streak in this competition be just the right recipe to silence all the doubters and stabilize his own confidence?

ByuN is someone who seems to take losses hard on a very personal level, so quickly building up confidence in himself again should be a priority. Everyone can have a bad day, even the best. It becomes dangerous when every day seems to become a bad one, and ByuN’s history delivers a dangerous precedent for exactly this scenario. One setback shouldn’t disturb him so much, seeing as his win rates are still over 70% across the board, which is a staggering amount for any professional player.

Road to Redemption — Leenock

The Leenocktopus has had some rough months, but 2017 has already shown signs of improvement for the Zerg veteran: He was able to advance out of his GSL group in second place against some tough Terran competition, showing that his old parade match-up still is a force to be reckoned with. After months of losses, the frustration in Leenock must certainly have reached a boiling point, so tasting victory once more must be very relieving for the former champion. The road to redemption does not only lead through GSL, though: SHOUTcraft Kings offers just what Leenock needs right now to buff himself up and prepare his psyche for the next round of GSL—merciless battles against all odds.

Rookie Round-Out — NightMare & DRGLing

SHOUTcraft Kings does not only provide a stage for the world’s elite players, but also lets lesser known competitors test their mettle under the spotlight. This time, NightMare and DRGLing will have the opportunity to show what they’re capable of. Both of them recently were quite unlucky in their GSL groups, with DRGling running into Terran giants Ryung and ByuN, while NightMare was able to take out GuMiho, before being eliminated by herO.

Will they just be cannon fodder in one of TB’s devious plans to weaken a strong Queen or King, or can they prove themselves worthy enough to become the centrepiece of the show themselves by staging an upset?

Time until SHOUTcraft Kings January

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