I liked those days, the teams where amazing! Everybody had their thing going on for them, their ups and downs, their story lines, their personalities.
Early days (2010-2011): Liquid had their household names, HayprO, NonY, Jinro, TLO, Ret, and HuK. Some of them had been one of the greatest in BW, the others were up and comers showing great potential. They had experience and wisdom in one hand, and youngsters and raw ability in the other. What's not to like. Hard to root against.
Evil Geniuses had their respectable squad, with iNcontroL, Machine, and IdrA as their notables. They also had others players, such as Axslav, StrifeCro, and DeMusliM, who was pretty much unknown by most people back then. Everybody respected iNcontroL and Machine as the great players they were, but everybody knew IdrA was their player to beat.
Mousesports was one of the better teams at the moment, not drawing as much attention as EG and Liquid, but beating them equally, and every other team pretty much. Their lineup was rock solid and deadly, with MorroW, HasuObs, MaNa, and a little bit later on, ThorZaIN. No weak link really.
ROOT was around the block, with their american lineup of qxc, KiWiKaKi, Drewbie, SLush, and CatZ, and so was Fnatic, with their international lineup of TT1, Fenix, and Sen.
Prime days (2012-2013): Liquid had major roster changes, and for most teams that's normal, the bread of everyday, but for Liquid was like saying goodbye to family members. HayprO, NonY, and Jinro, went into either retirement or inactivity, and HuK, which was their most valuable player at the moment due to its amazing results, was signed by EG. Against adversity, Liquid signed four new players, three Koreans and one american: Taeja, HerO, Zenio,& Sheth. These were excitement news because foreign teams started picking up Koreans, but people were wondering why Liquid chose to sign THOSE Koreans, who were no-names by the bast majority. Liquid saw in them potential and passion, and as fate would've hoped, they went from zero to hero. Now Liquid had a roster made of four strong solid zergs in TLO, Ret, Sheth, and Zenio, and two super weapons, in HerO and Taeja.
Evil Geniuses had a radical transformation of its own. IdrA was on a decline, and they couldn't depend just on their remaining players. They had money, so they used it. EG signed HuK, which was probably the biggest pickup ever due to its context. They also picked up Suppy, a talented american zerg player. But that wasn't enough, they also brought the big guns, signing the Koreans PuMa and JYP. PuMa really made a living during his time in EG, winning most of the tournaments he entered. EG, instead of settling, they went out for more, and signed the superstar of Stephano, the amazing spoon terran ThorZaIn, and a few months later, the Koreans Revival and Jaedong, the tyrant. Finally, they also signed aLive and Oz, more Koreans. So at one point, EG's roster consisted of HuK, Stephano, ThorZaIN, JYP, Jaedong, Revival, aLive, and Oz (PuMa wasn't on EG anymore when aLive and Oz were signed). This wasn't even fair for the other foreign teams. EG was scary.
Mousesports still had an amazing core in MaNa, HasuObs, and HeRoMaRinE, who was a talented up and comer terran german players, but they needed more, so they brought in the Duran spanish brothers, VortiX and LucifroN, who quickly became two of the best foreigners at the time. Not wanting to stay behind the competition, they also signed one of the hottest names in Korea, Dear. Nobody wanted to face Mouz in a team league. Mouz was looking good.
Fnatic also revamped their roster big time, releasing all their previous players, and signing NightEnD, ToD, Harstem, and SaSe as their international players, and Rain (terran), Moon, ByuL, aLive, and Oz (before EG signed them) as their Korean squad. Everybody wanted to compete at the highest level.
A team that came out of nowhere, but came to stay, was Team Acer. They boasted the superb lineup of Scarlett, Nerchio, Bly, MMA, and INnoVation. Contrary to some teams that are composed of great house names but never really perform (could be argued for EG), Team Acer destroyed most of the team leagues they entered, and their players solo careers did not disappoint.
Millenium was a threat of its own with ForGG, Feast, Dayshi, MarineLorD, and Goswser, and ROOT as always, with amazing players such as ViBE, puCK, Minigun, YuGiOh, State, and SuperNova, to name some of their huge lineup of players.
Modern era (2014-Now): Slowly but surely, the scene has shrank, with only few teams left, such as Liquid and ROOT, and pretty much no team leagues whatsoever. So yeah, that makes me a little sad. But I just wanted to reflect on what the scene used to look like. Exciting days. Hoping for the best. Lets just wait and see, what comes next for SC2.
Disclaimer: Do not take too seriously the dates or years utilized, they are not exact.
All of this is my point of view, and this is around the time I just learned about the scene.
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