StarCraft II returns to Helsinki as ASUS ROG proudly presents a $25,000 USD tournament with WCS points on August 1-3, 2019, taking place at Assembly Summer.
This August, ASUS ROG Summer 2019 StarCraft II Tournament brings the highly competitive real-time strategy game back to one of its former hometowns. From 2011 to 2015 Helsinki hosted seven prominent international SC2 events in the form of ASUS ROG Tournament, gathering the best in the world to display their skills and inspire the audience and players. And now, it just happens that one of those young aspiring players from Helsinki has risen to the top of the World. What a great time to gather the crowds once again in to Helsinki and let them see for themselves, in a proper arena, what hard work and dedication in a proper environment can achieve. On August 1-3, 2019, we welcome all of you to Finland, the birthplace of a StarCraft II World Champion, Joona "Serral" Sotala!
The 3-day tournament includes 32 professional players from the WCS Circuit who will compete for a prize pool of $25,000 USD and 3200 WCS Circuit points. Eight players will be directly invited for the spectacle while 24 spots will be awarded through online qualifiers in early July. More details to follow!
Inside the event hall, ASUS ROG Summer 2019 is hosted on its own stage with plenty of room in the audience stands. The best place to view the action is live, right at the venue, but in case you can't make it, a stream with English commentary through all the phases of the tournament is naturally provided.
Let's give StarCraft II a warm welcome home!
Info
Dates: Thu-Sat, 1-3 August, 2019 Place: Helsinki Exhibition and Convention Centre, Helsinki, Finland Players: 32 Prize pool: $25,000 USD + 2,800 WCS Circuit points Format: 2 group stages and playoffs Participation: Invites (8 players) and online qualifiers (24 players), no region lock Results: tournaments.assembly.org/summer19 Twitter: @ROGtournament Home page: asusrogtournament.com Stream: twitch.tv/ROGTournament
Update July 30: Unfortunately Kaelaris had to cancel his role as the desk host due to illness. RotterdaM will take over the desk duties while Grant was added to strenghten the commentator lineup.
Community streams If you wish to broadcast the show, we're open for community streams. English streams are welcome to join the group play on Thursday and Friday, while other languages can cover the playoffs as well. Apply here.
The tournament will be played in two double-elimination group stages followed by a single-elimination playoff stage. In the group stages, 32 contestants will be divided into groups consisting of 4 players each. The top two players in each group will proceed to the next stage.
All the group stage matches are best-of-3 and playoffs matches best-of-5 except for the final which is a best-of-7 match.
Participation
The tournament is open to all players eligible to enter WCS events. While this event offers WCS Circuit points, players from all regions of the WCS will be eligible to compete. Only players from the Circuit will be eligible to earn the points. Check out the eligibility requirements from the WCS 2019 Rule Book.
There are two ways to gain one of the 32 spots in the tournament — either by receiving a direct invite or through an online qualification tournament. In order to receive an invite, players must first request it by filling out an application form. Details about the online qualifications will be released shotly. However, everyone is encouraged to request an invite first, and then participate in the qualifiers later if need be.
Invited and qualified players should cover all their travel and accommodation expenses themselves. Participation in the tournament itself is free and includes an all access pass to the event.
Qualifiers
All the qualifiers are open for everyone, no matter their home region, as long as they have reached the Master or Grandmaster league in any server.
Republic of Gamers is a gaming sub-brand of ASUS that is comprised of cutting edge hardware tailored for serious gamers. The product branches include; motherboards, graphics cards, LCD monitors, gaming peripherals, desktops and laptops. This ASUS ROG Tournament will be solely powered by ASUS and ROG hardware.
ASUS, the world's top 3 consumer notebook vendor and the maker of the world's best-selling and most award winning motherboards, is a leading enterprise in the new digital era. ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today's digital home, office and person, with a broad portfolio that includes motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, displays, desktops, SFF PCs and all-in-one PCs, notebooks, hybrid devices, tablet devices, servers, multimedia and wireless solutions, networking devices, and mobile phones. With a global staff of more than 13,600 and a world-class R&D team of 4,500 engineers.
This is gonna be good. Great to see Blizzard awarding WCS points to these kinds of events! With no region lock, I'm hoping for some HSC type of action in a more formal setting.
On June 19 2019 01:22 Azhrak wrote: This is gonna be good. Great to see Blizzard awarding WCS points to these kinds of events! With no region lock, I'm hoping for some HSC type of action in a more formal setting.
On June 19 2019 01:22 Azhrak wrote: This is gonna be good. Great to see Blizzard awarding WCS points to these kinds of events! With no region lock, I'm hoping for some HSC type of action in a more formal setting.
I think it's WCS Circuit event? IE no koreans
no region lock, Koreans can play, but not earn any points
Participation: Invites (8 players) and online qualifiers (24 players), no region lock ... Participation
The tournament is open to all players eligible to enter WCS events. While this event offers WCS Circuit points, players from all regions of the WCS will be eligible to compete. Only players from the Circuit will be eligible to earn the points. Check out the eligibility requirements from the WCS 2019 Rule Book.
With HSC, Assembly and GSL vs The World we will finally have tons of kr vs foreigner matches soon
Speaking of Koreans I still remember an Asus Rog where Apocalipse, BboongBboong and Keen made it to the round of 8 over like Snute, Bunny and the rest of the foreing "elite". How as the time changed.
On June 19 2019 01:22 Azhrak wrote: This is gonna be good. Great to see Blizzard awarding WCS points to these kinds of events! With no region lock, I'm hoping for some HSC type of action in a more formal setting.
I think it's WCS Circuit event? IE no koreans
no region lock, Koreans can play, but not earn any points
That seems like a such a strange ruling. Is it really a lot of effort to just add any points they win to the KR standings?
They haven't said how qualifiers or invites will work either so there's a chance not many koreans will end up at the event.
Edit: I wonder when GSL vs The World will be announced as well, the date for it on liquipedia overlaps with this event.
On June 19 2019 01:22 Azhrak wrote: This is gonna be good. Great to see Blizzard awarding WCS points to these kinds of events! With no region lock, I'm hoping for some HSC type of action in a more formal setting.
I think it's WCS Circuit event? IE no koreans
no region lock, Koreans can play, but not earn any points
That seems like a such a strange ruling. Is it really a lot of effort to just add any points they win to the KR standings?
They haven't said how qualifiers or invites will work either so there's a chance not many koreans will end up at the event.
Edit: I wonder when GSL vs The World will be announced as well, the date for it on liquipedia overlaps with this event.
Very nice to see ASUS ROG hosting a SC2 tournament. Feeling like Serral being the monster he is is a big part of why since it's a tournament in Finnland.
The last ASUS ROG SC2 was in 2015 when PtitDrogo made it to the playoffs as the sole foreigner, but managed to get to the final beating Apocalypse and HyuN in the process. In the final he lost against Losira but it was an unexpected result and a very successful tournament overall. ASUS ROG Summer 2015
On June 19 2019 01:22 Azhrak wrote: This is gonna be good. Great to see Blizzard awarding WCS points to these kinds of events! With no region lock, I'm hoping for some HSC type of action in a more formal setting.
I think it's WCS Circuit event? IE no koreans
no region lock, Koreans can play, but not earn any points
That seems like a such a strange ruling. Is it really a lot of effort to just add any points they win to the KR standings?
They haven't said how qualifiers or invites will work either so there's a chance not many koreans will end up at the event.
Edit: I wonder when GSL vs The World will be announced as well, the date for it on liquipedia overlaps with this event.
Qualifiers are online. It's a Circuit event without region lock, I guess you could at least appreciate the fact koreans are allowed in the tournament! Maybe they feared too many koreans would try to participate if GSL points were given while the intent of a WCS stop is to assign points for Circuit only. Actually, how does this work? Are the points won by a non WCS player not assigned or given to the first eligible WCS player?
Nice! Love to see 3rd party orgs get back into the scene. Fond memories of having 7 community streams open at once for the Assembly/ASUS ROG group stages :o
Having WCS points attached to this makes it objectively bad for the game unless they are going to throw around huge amounts of money to pay for flights for qualified players. I'm not sure what flights will cost exactly, but I imagine a player from outside of Europe would need to make the top 8 or even top 4 to break even. That being the case, it would be questionable for anyone but Neeb and SpeCial to attend. That's a big deal since TIME, Masa, and Scarlett are all in contention for a WCS Global Finals bid.
There is no reason a Korean player should attend unless they are given a paid flight.
On June 19 2019 02:55 Boggyb wrote: Having WCS points attached to this makes it objectively bad for the game unless they are going to throw around huge amounts of money to pay for flights for qualified players. I'm not sure what flights will cost exactly, but I imagine a player from outside of Europe would need to make the top 8 or even top 4 to break even. That being the case, it would be questionable for anyone but Neeb and SpeCial to attend. That's a big deal since TIME, Masa, and Scarlett are all in contention for a WCS Global Finals bid.
There is no reason a Korean player should attend unless they are given a paid flight.
I guess teams pay for flights? Korean players who are already qualified for BlizzCon(or very close to) could easily decide to go, or even those who realistically have few chanches.
On June 19 2019 02:55 Boggyb wrote: Having WCS points attached to this makes it objectively bad for the game unless they are going to throw around huge amounts of money to pay for flights for qualified players. I'm not sure what flights will cost exactly, but I imagine a player from outside of Europe would need to make the top 8 or even top 4 to break even. That being the case, it would be questionable for anyone but Neeb and SpeCial to attend. That's a big deal since TIME, Masa, and Scarlett are all in contention for a WCS Global Finals bid.
There is no reason a Korean player should attend unless they are given a paid flight.
I guess teams pay for flights? Korean players who are already qualified for BlizzCon(or very close to) could easily decide to go, or even those who realistically have few chanches.
If teams didn't pay for flights for an event with a $100,000 prize pool in WCS Spring, I can't imagine why they'd do so for this event.
Prize money is a bit on the low side, might not attract many Koreans to come.
By the way, if a Korean won 1st, and a non-Korean won 2nd, does the 2nd place get 600, or 1000 WCS point since Koreans don't get WCS points in this event?
On June 19 2019 02:55 Boggyb wrote: Having WCS points attached to this makes it objectively bad for the game unless they are going to throw around huge amounts of money to pay for flights for qualified players. I'm not sure what flights will cost exactly, but I imagine a player from outside of Europe would need to make the top 8 or even top 4 to break even. That being the case, it would be questionable for anyone but Neeb and SpeCial to attend. That's a big deal since TIME, Masa, and Scarlett are all in contention for a WCS Global Finals bid.
There is no reason a Korean player should attend unless they are given a paid flight.
I guess teams pay for flights? Korean players who are already qualified for BlizzCon(or very close to) could easily decide to go, or even those who realistically have few chanches.
If teams didn't pay for flights for an event with a $100,000 prize pool in WCS Spring, I can't imagine why they'd do so for this event.
Didn't know they don't, it seems weird to me but w/e. This tournament is first and foremost meant as a WCS stop, evidently; if koreans will come, we'll be happier(not sure if WCS players would be).
On June 19 2019 02:55 Boggyb wrote: Having WCS points attached to this makes it objectively bad for the game unless they are going to throw around huge amounts of money to pay for flights for qualified players. I'm not sure what flights will cost exactly, but I imagine a player from outside of Europe would need to make the top 8 or even top 4 to break even. That being the case, it would be questionable for anyone but Neeb and SpeCial to attend. That's a big deal since TIME, Masa, and Scarlett are all in contention for a WCS Global Finals bid.
There is no reason a Korean player should attend unless they are given a paid flight.
It's basically how the Tier 2-3 tournaments operated back in the 2014~2015 phase of WCS. It will actually be interesting to see how much travel support the players get from the current crop of teams, now that the 'premier' esports organizations have mostly left SC2 (and yes, I agree that there are inherent inequities in returning to this system).
On June 19 2019 02:55 Boggyb wrote: Having WCS points attached to this makes it objectively bad for the game unless they are going to throw around huge amounts of money to pay for flights for qualified players. I'm not sure what flights will cost exactly, but I imagine a player from outside of Europe would need to make the top 8 or even top 4 to break even. That being the case, it would be questionable for anyone but Neeb and SpeCial to attend. That's a big deal since TIME, Masa, and Scarlett are all in contention for a WCS Global Finals bid.
There is no reason a Korean player should attend unless they are given a paid flight.
I guess teams pay for flights? Korean players who are already qualified for BlizzCon(or very close to) could easily decide to go, or even those who realistically have few chanches.
If teams didn't pay for flights for an event with a $100,000 prize pool in WCS Spring, I can't imagine why they'd do so for this event.
Didn't know they don't, it seems weird to me but w/e. This tournament is first and foremost meant as a WCS stop, evidently; if koreans will come, we'll be happier(not sure if WCS players would be).
Why is that weird to you? I don't know the specifics of any player's contract with their team, but the teams are trying to make money. If a player isn't a clear cut top 8 player (and that probably means they have to be top 4) and it takes a top 8 performance for the team to break even, why would they take that risk?
The cheapest round trip cost from East Asia (Seoul or Beijing) to Helsinki is $700+, and more than $1000 from American continent, while the cost from most major Europe city may be less than $300. Other than Neeb, Special or Scarlett, I wonder how many players outside Europe are willing to go since only top 8 have money. Do they have support for travel and accommodation?
Anyway, it is always welcome to see more tournaments.
On June 19 2019 01:22 Azhrak wrote: This is gonna be good. Great to see Blizzard awarding WCS points to these kinds of events! With no region lock, I'm hoping for some HSC type of action in a more formal setting.
I think it's WCS Circuit event? IE no koreans
no region lock, Koreans can play, but not earn any points
That seems like a such a strange ruling. Is it really a lot of effort to just add any points they win to the KR standings?
They haven't said how qualifiers or invites will work either so there's a chance not many koreans will end up at the event.
Edit: I wonder when GSL vs The World will be announced as well, the date for it on liquipedia overlaps with this event.
Qualifiers are online. It's a Circuit event without region lock, I guess you could at least appreciate the fact koreans are allowed in the tournament! Maybe they feared too many koreans would try to participate if GSL points were given while the intent of a WCS stop is to assign points for Circuit only. Actually, how does this work? Are the points won by a non WCS player not assigned or given to the first eligible WCS player?
I'd imagine any korean players who enter simply don't get any points out of it.
On June 19 2019 01:22 Azhrak wrote: This is gonna be good. Great to see Blizzard awarding WCS points to these kinds of events! With no region lock, I'm hoping for some HSC type of action in a more formal setting.
I think it's WCS Circuit event? IE no koreans
no region lock, Koreans can play, but not earn any points
That seems like a such a strange ruling. Is it really a lot of effort to just add any points they win to the KR standings?
They haven't said how qualifiers or invites will work either so there's a chance not many koreans will end up at the event.
Edit: I wonder when GSL vs The World will be announced as well, the date for it on liquipedia overlaps with this event.
Qualifiers are online. It's a Circuit event without region lock, I guess you could at least appreciate the fact koreans are allowed in the tournament! Maybe they feared too many koreans would try to participate if GSL points were given while the intent of a WCS stop is to assign points for Circuit only. Actually, how does this work? Are the points won by a non WCS player not assigned or given to the first eligible WCS player?
I'd imagine any korean players who enter simply don't get any points out of it.
Would those be wasted, tho, or reallocated so that a player ending fifth could get 600 points in a korean heavy scenario?
On June 19 2019 01:22 Azhrak wrote: This is gonna be good. Great to see Blizzard awarding WCS points to these kinds of events! With no region lock, I'm hoping for some HSC type of action in a more formal setting.
I think it's WCS Circuit event? IE no koreans
no region lock, Koreans can play, but not earn any points
That seems like a such a strange ruling. Is it really a lot of effort to just add any points they win to the KR standings?
They haven't said how qualifiers or invites will work either so there's a chance not many koreans will end up at the event.
Edit: I wonder when GSL vs The World will be announced as well, the date for it on liquipedia overlaps with this event.
Qualifiers are online. It's a Circuit event without region lock, I guess you could at least appreciate the fact koreans are allowed in the tournament! Maybe they feared too many koreans would try to participate if GSL points were given while the intent of a WCS stop is to assign points for Circuit only. Actually, how does this work? Are the points won by a non WCS player not assigned or given to the first eligible WCS player?
I'd imagine any korean players who enter simply don't get any points out of it.
Would those be wasted, tho, or reallocated so that a player ending fifth could get 600 points in a korean heavy scenario?
Those points are likely just wasted. It would be unfair to reallocate them, and probably a big hassle for blizzard given how long/scrict the WCS handbook is.
On June 19 2019 01:22 Azhrak wrote: This is gonna be good. Great to see Blizzard awarding WCS points to these kinds of events! With no region lock, I'm hoping for some HSC type of action in a more formal setting.
I think it's WCS Circuit event? IE no koreans
no region lock, Koreans can play, but not earn any points
That seems like a such a strange ruling. Is it really a lot of effort to just add any points they win to the KR standings?
They haven't said how qualifiers or invites will work either so there's a chance not many koreans will end up at the event.
Edit: I wonder when GSL vs The World will be announced as well, the date for it on liquipedia overlaps with this event.
Qualifiers are online. It's a Circuit event without region lock, I guess you could at least appreciate the fact koreans are allowed in the tournament! Maybe they feared too many koreans would try to participate if GSL points were given while the intent of a WCS stop is to assign points for Circuit only. Actually, how does this work? Are the points won by a non WCS player not assigned or given to the first eligible WCS player?
I'd imagine any korean players who enter simply don't get any points out of it.
Would those be wasted, tho, or reallocated so that a player ending fifth could get 600 points in a korean heavy scenario?
Those points are likely just wasted. It would be unfair to reallocate them, and probably a big hassle for blizzard given how long/scrict the WCS handbook is.
Points are locked to the tournament finish. It's UP TO 3200 points awarded—some could go unearned if a Korean player takes a point-giving spot.
Pretty amazing to see a tournament pop out of no where like this. I really hope there are some really good koreans attending though. I don't see myself having much interest if it's almost only foreigners. We already have challenger + 4 WCS to watch circuit players.
In regards to the wcs points given to a eurocentric tournament, NA just needs to host its own wcs point-giving tournament, with hookers (vipers) and blow (banelings).
Very nice that they're handing out WCS points, let's hope most of the top western pros show up! Too bad I can't attend due to my military service but hey there's the stream at least
Also Invited and qualified players should cover all their travel and accommodation expenses themselves
I don't know how many Koreans will be able to qualify if the qualifier is on the EU server and how many teams will cover the costs to fly people to Finland. I believe similar issues were mentioned from Take for HSC.
I'm not expecting this to be that big.
Edit> Actually applies to any nonEU players. Flight costs are big, I wouldn't be surprised if this happened to be European tournament, considering the prize distribution.
This tournament was announced yesterday and we did not know anything about it before, yet people seem to be complaining; we could even have some korean in a WCS stop, the alternative would have been no tournament at all...
On June 19 2019 20:20 Xain0n wrote: This tournament was announced yesterday and we did not know anything about it before, yet people seem to be complaining; we could even have some korean in a WCS stop, the alternative would have been no tournament at all...
Same with the WCG Tournament announcement. TL getting more toxic by the day :/
On June 19 2019 20:20 Xain0n wrote: This tournament was announced yesterday and we did not know anything about it before, yet people seem to be complaining; we could even have some korean in a WCS stop, the alternative would have been no tournament at all...
Same with the WCG Tournament announcement. TL getting more toxic by the day :/
What's toxic about being realistic? Can you point the toxic reactions, please? Because all I saw was calming down the hype because, let's face it, it doesn't look as promising as people are trying to make it.
On June 19 2019 20:20 Xain0n wrote: This tournament was announced yesterday and we did not know anything about it before, yet people seem to be complaining; we could even have some korean in a WCS stop, the alternative would have been no tournament at all...
Same with the WCG Tournament announcement. TL getting more toxic by the day :/
What's toxic about being realistic? Can you point the toxic reactions, please? Because all I saw was calming down the hype because, let's face it, it doesn't look as promising as people are trying to make it.
Maybe toxic is the wrong word here. I apologize
Fact is: There is a tournament where none was before. Most people here appreciate that fact.
On June 19 2019 20:20 Xain0n wrote: This tournament was announced yesterday and we did not know anything about it before, yet people seem to be complaining; we could even have some korean in a WCS stop, the alternative would have been no tournament at all...
This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but my hierarchy of preferences: 1) This tournament happens but NO WCS points. 2) This tournament doesn't happen 3) This tournament happens with WCS points
This is the 2nd time this year that a major change has been made to the WCS Circuit (the first being regarding playing in GSL and WCS Challenger) and that's 2 changes too many since stability is necessary for players to make informed decisions for their career.
This prize pool is not significant enough to overcome that.
On June 19 2019 20:20 Xain0n wrote: This tournament was announced yesterday and we did not know anything about it before, yet people seem to be complaining; we could even have some korean in a WCS stop, the alternative would have been no tournament at all...
Same with the WCG Tournament announcement. TL getting more toxic by the day :/
What's toxic about being realistic? Can you point the toxic reactions, please? Because all I saw was calming down the hype because, let's face it, it doesn't look as promising as people are trying to make it.
It's litteraly the first big european open lan not run by Take or Blizz to be anounce since Dreamhack left 3 years ago. Even if it's just foreigner it's great news!
On June 19 2019 20:20 Xain0n wrote: This tournament was announced yesterday and we did not know anything about it before, yet people seem to be complaining; we could even have some korean in a WCS stop, the alternative would have been no tournament at all...
Same with the WCG Tournament announcement. TL getting more toxic by the day :/
What's toxic about being realistic? Can you point the toxic reactions, please? Because all I saw was calming down the hype because, let's face it, it doesn't look as promising as people are trying to make it.
Maybe toxic is the wrong word here. I apologize
Fact is: There is a tournament where none was before. Most people here appreciate that fact.
Some are just looking to make everything bad
Where? Show me the posts. I don't think it makes them look bad as people are trying to calm down the hype, IMO.
e.g. somebody posted Maru v Serral final this time. Let's check the HSC thread, Naruto's post and that 100k requirement for Maru to leave Korea. If thsi would be in a close vicinity of Korea(China, Japan) I can see the moeny requirement lowered, but this is Finland. One example of how this thread is hyped over 9k.
On June 19 2019 20:20 Xain0n wrote: This tournament was announced yesterday and we did not know anything about it before, yet people seem to be complaining; we could even have some korean in a WCS stop, the alternative would have been no tournament at all...
Same with the WCG Tournament announcement. TL getting more toxic by the day :/
What's toxic about being realistic? Can you point the toxic reactions, please? Because all I saw was calming down the hype because, let's face it, it doesn't look as promising as people are trying to make it.
It's litteraly the first big european open lan not run by Take or Blizz to be anounce since Dreamhack left 3 years ago. Even if it's just foreigner it's great news!
And I haven't seen anyone saying anything against this, but I'm blind, maybe I missed such posts
Edit> Fine, boggyb above you.
On June 19 2019 21:57 ordeal11 wrote: This is huge, perhaps start of new era of foreigner + korean tournament?
Doubt it. WCS players mostly, especially if the qualifier will be forced to the European server region
On June 19 2019 20:20 Xain0n wrote: This tournament was announced yesterday and we did not know anything about it before, yet people seem to be complaining; we could even have some korean in a WCS stop, the alternative would have been no tournament at all...
Same with the WCG Tournament announcement. TL getting more toxic by the day :/
What's toxic about being realistic? Can you point the toxic reactions, please? Because all I saw was calming down the hype because, let's face it, it doesn't look as promising as people are trying to make it.
Maybe toxic is the wrong word here. I apologize
Fact is: There is a tournament where none was before. Most people here appreciate that fact.
Some are just looking to make everything bad
Where? Show me the posts. I don't think it makes them look bad as people are trying to calm down the hype, IMO.
e.g. somebody posted Maru v Serral final this time. Let's check the HSC thread, Naruto's post and that 100k requirement for Maru to leave Korea. If thsi would be in a close vicinity of Korea(China, Japan) I can see the moeny requirement lowered, but this is Finland. One example of how this thread is hyped over 9k.
On June 19 2019 20:20 Xain0n wrote: This tournament was announced yesterday and we did not know anything about it before, yet people seem to be complaining; we could even have some korean in a WCS stop, the alternative would have been no tournament at all...
Same with the WCG Tournament announcement. TL getting more toxic by the day :/
What's toxic about being realistic? Can you point the toxic reactions, please? Because all I saw was calming down the hype because, let's face it, it doesn't look as promising as people are trying to make it.
It's litteraly the first big european open lan not run by Take or Blizz to be anounce since Dreamhack left 3 years ago. Even if it's just foreigner it's great news!
And I haven't seen anyone saying anything against this, but I'm blind, maybe I missed such posts
On June 19 2019 23:34 Harris1st wrote: I imagine people busting their ass to get this of the ground, then come here and read comments like yours and Boggyb. Think about it
Edit: I think it's fine to voice some concerns/ opinions, just do it in a constructive way is all
Blizzard is the one who decided to give this tournaments WCS points and my criticisms are only about giving them to another event that non-European players will have to think long and hard about attending because it is a questionable move financially.
That could be mitigated with some NA and Korean server qualifiers that included paid travel to the event, but we've heard nothing about that.
I'm surprised I haven't seen a "dead game" meme yet at this point. I can't see how the fact that this tournament gives WCS points would be so bad that it would be better not to have any tournament, really; at worst, it's going to be a mainly EU populated WCS event.
Not a ton of WCS points are going to be assigned so that skipping Asus Rog would surely be better than not playing in Kiev; anyway, the non european players who have chanches of winning the event are basically the same who could qualify for BlizzCon so I guess they might not be losing money by going to Helsinki. It's of course easier for europeans to go to Helsinki, the Circuit would benefit of having one more NA tournament.
Koreans may or may not be interested to come, the decision of not applying region lock to the event is highly experimental; I think that we could see Dark, Trap, soO and/or Inno in addiction to some solid mid tier korean. It's just a possibility that did not exist previously.
On June 20 2019 01:17 Xain0n wrote: I can't see how the fact that this tournament gives WCS points would be so bad that it would be better not to have any tournament, really; at worst, it's going to be a mainly EU populated WCS event.
I feel like it is selling out the integrity of the competition for the WCS Circuit's spots for the WCS Global Finals for a paltry sum. To be fair, maybe Blizzard didn't think the competition had much integrity in the first place considering the region lock split is racist and the WCS Circuit was already favoring Europeans over people from other regions. But Blizzard at least pretended to try to make things even with WCS Challenger granting paid travel to some players which helps mitigate the fact that there are/were 3 open events in Europe and 1 in the Americas though having server qualifiers for Katowice rather than region locked qualifiers all but guaranteed that more NA server spots would be lost to players from outside of the Americas than EU spots would be lost to non-Europeans. This event does not do that at all.
On June 20 2019 01:17 Xain0n wrote: I can't see how the fact that this tournament gives WCS points would be so bad that it would be better not to have any tournament, really; at worst, it's going to be a mainly EU populated WCS event.
I feel like it is selling out the integrity of the competition for the WCS Circuit's spots for the WCS Global Finals for a paltry sum. To be fair, maybe Blizzard didn't think the competition had much integrity in the first place considering the region lock split is racist and the WCS Circuit was already favoring Europeans over people from other regions. But Blizzard at least pretended to try to make things even with WCS Challenger granting paid travel to some players which helps mitigate the fact that there are/were 3 open events in Europe and 1 in the Americas though having server qualifiers for Katowice rather than region locked qualifiers all but guaranteed that more NA server spots would be lost to players from outside of the Americas than EU spots would be lost to non-Europeans. This event does not do that at all.
ASUS ROG gives out 3200 WCS points assuming no koreans or Serral(he's already qualified) take any of them, and I don't think it's going to happen; an ordinary WCS stop assign 12600 given points. Leipzeig's stop, this year, has been replaced by the two separated Winter tournaments which granted NA region 9300 points(to EU as well, but I guess that's better than having Leipzeig only to your eyes?).
Moreover, it's not like NA players cannot get themselves to Helsinki, I'm quite confident the top ones will decide to go; it is not totally fair due to the travel expenses, I agree with you on this, but you are making it catastrophic, which it isn't.
On June 20 2019 01:17 Xain0n wrote: I can't see how the fact that this tournament gives WCS points would be so bad that it would be better not to have any tournament, really; at worst, it's going to be a mainly EU populated WCS event.
I feel like it is selling out the integrity of the competition for the WCS Circuit's spots for the WCS Global Finals for a paltry sum. To be fair, maybe Blizzard didn't think the competition had much integrity in the first place considering the region lock split is racist and the WCS Circuit was already favoring Europeans over people from other regions. But Blizzard at least pretended to try to make things even with WCS Challenger granting paid travel to some players which helps mitigate the fact that there are/were 3 open events in Europe and 1 in the Americas though having server qualifiers for Katowice rather than region locked qualifiers all but guaranteed that more NA server spots would be lost to players from outside of the Americas than EU spots would be lost to non-Europeans. This event does not do that at all.
ASUS ROG gives out 3200 WCS points assuming no koreans or Serral(he's already qualified) take any of them, and I don't think it's going to happen; an ordinary WCS stop assign 12600 given points. Leipzeig's stop, this year, has been replaced by the two separated Winter tournaments which granted NA region 9300 points(to EU as well, but I guess that's better than having Leipzeig only to your eyes?).
Moreover, it's not like NA players cannot get themselves to Helsinki, I'm quite confident the top ones will decide to go; it is not totally fair due to the travel expenses, I agree with you on this, but you are making it catastrophic, which it isn't.
uThermal has missed out on attending 2 WCS Global finals by a combined 180 points (technically 182) including 15 (16) in 2016. Attending or not attending this event could literally be what decides whether a player like Masa, TIME, or Scarlett makes the Global Finals. That's a pretty big deal in my opinion.
On June 20 2019 01:17 Xain0n wrote: I can't see how the fact that this tournament gives WCS points would be so bad that it would be better not to have any tournament, really; at worst, it's going to be a mainly EU populated WCS event.
I feel like it is selling out the integrity of the competition for the WCS Circuit's spots for the WCS Global Finals for a paltry sum. To be fair, maybe Blizzard didn't think the competition had much integrity in the first place considering the region lock split is racist and the WCS Circuit was already favoring Europeans over people from other regions. But Blizzard at least pretended to try to make things even with WCS Challenger granting paid travel to some players which helps mitigate the fact that there are/were 3 open events in Europe and 1 in the Americas though having server qualifiers for Katowice rather than region locked qualifiers all but guaranteed that more NA server spots would be lost to players from outside of the Americas than EU spots would be lost to non-Europeans. This event does not do that at all.
ASUS ROG gives out 3200 WCS points assuming no koreans or Serral(he's already qualified) take any of them, and I don't think it's going to happen; an ordinary WCS stop assign 12600 given points. Leipzeig's stop, this year, has been replaced by the two separated Winter tournaments which granted NA region 9300 points(to EU as well, but I guess that's better than having Leipzeig only to your eyes?).
Moreover, it's not like NA players cannot get themselves to Helsinki, I'm quite confident the top ones will decide to go; it is not totally fair due to the travel expenses, I agree with you on this, but you are making it catastrophic, which it isn't.
uThermal has missed out on attending 2 WCS Global finals by a combined 180 points (technically 182) including 15 (16) in 2016. Attending or not attending this event could literally be what decides whether a player like Masa, TIME, or Scarlett makes the Global Finals. That's a pretty big deal in my opinion.
You mean it might be a big deal. And I insist, there is nothing preventing non EU players from going, even if it is expensive.
On June 20 2019 01:17 Xain0n wrote: I can't see how the fact that this tournament gives WCS points would be so bad that it would be better not to have any tournament, really; at worst, it's going to be a mainly EU populated WCS event.
I feel like it is selling out the integrity of the competition for the WCS Circuit's spots for the WCS Global Finals for a paltry sum. To be fair, maybe Blizzard didn't think the competition had much integrity in the first place considering the region lock split is racist and the WCS Circuit was already favoring Europeans over people from other regions. But Blizzard at least pretended to try to make things even with WCS Challenger granting paid travel to some players which helps mitigate the fact that there are/were 3 open events in Europe and 1 in the Americas though having server qualifiers for Katowice rather than region locked qualifiers all but guaranteed that more NA server spots would be lost to players from outside of the Americas than EU spots would be lost to non-Europeans. This event does not do that at all.
The WCS circuit favoring European players is a bold claim at least as far as WCS points distribution is concerned. If we assume that the European server has the toughest non-Korean competition (which seems to be commonly considered as true) the fact that the Challenger events in all regions give an equal amount of points puts European players at a disadvantage for the Blizzcon race (and this applies even if we disregard that Serral is competing in the EU region). Due to the weaker competition the top players of other regions collect a significant amount of WCS points fairly easily. By dominating their respective regions, Special earned 800 WCS points, Neeb got 660 points, Has got 690 for the Blizzcon race. Even a couple of non-dominant players from the non-EU regions, earned more challenger points than any European player other than Serral: NA: Scarlett with 460 points; SA: Kelazhur - 560; China: Time - 490, Cyan - 410; SEA: Seither - 630, Probe - 490, Hut - 460; Taiwan: Nice - 410. Comparing this to Heromarine who qualified for the grand finals with 210 points from challenger or Showtime and Lambo with merely 120 challenger points, it seems fair to say that EU players need to perform noticably better than the upper echelon of players from other regions to reach Blizzcon. (I am obviously not claiming that Neeb or Special did not deserve to go to Blizzcon btw)
It is probably fair to say that the fact that WCS events generally happen in Europe puts players from other regions at a disadvantage. However, I am pretty sure that this decision was made based on financial considerations due to the local viewership numbers and organization costs - it may not be perfectly fair, but it is probably the most viable option to continue having a large scale sc2 competition.
The argument about Katowice is not unreasonable, but 1. with IEM bearing the cost, they are likely to have chosen the format to assure more competetive finals, 2. it just so happened that Special and Neeb earned 2 of the 3 EU qualifier spots.
Haha. Just few days ago I made my drunken tirades about Serral's potential and how business opportunities are missed and that Blizzard don't care the game etc. not necessarily too constructive.
The Law of Karma slaps my face so nicely, and I get all beating eagerly.
I took silence as an ominous sign, but ultimately, essentially what I dreamed of and hoped for was already in making behind the scenes. Thank you, thank you, thank you Serral, Asus, Blizzard, and all!
More Koreans better tournament. Beating Serral on his home grounds would be an achievement and the deed of high prestige.
Coming now to Finland for Serral likely improve probability he will go to Korea later...
On June 19 2019 20:20 Xain0n wrote: This tournament was announced yesterday and we did not know anything about it before, yet people seem to be complaining; we could even have some korean in a WCS stop, the alternative would have been no tournament at all...
Same with the WCG Tournament announcement. TL getting more toxic by the day :/
What's toxic about being realistic? Can you point the toxic reactions, please? Because all I saw was calming down the hype because, let's face it, it doesn't look as promising as people are trying to make it.
Maybe toxic is the wrong word here. I apologize
Fact is: There is a tournament where none was before. Most people here appreciate that fact.
Some are just looking to make everything bad
Where? Show me the posts. I don't think it makes them look bad as people are trying to calm down the hype, IMO.
e.g. somebody posted Maru v Serral final this time. Let's check the HSC thread, Naruto's post and that 100k requirement for Maru to leave Korea. If thsi would be in a close vicinity of Korea(China, Japan) I can see the moeny requirement lowered, but this is Finland. One example of how this thread is hyped over 9k.
On June 19 2019 22:07 Nakajin wrote:
On June 19 2019 21:40 deacon.frost wrote:
On June 19 2019 21:00 Harris1st wrote:
On June 19 2019 20:20 Xain0n wrote: This tournament was announced yesterday and we did not know anything about it before, yet people seem to be complaining; we could even have some korean in a WCS stop, the alternative would have been no tournament at all...
Same with the WCG Tournament announcement. TL getting more toxic by the day :/
What's toxic about being realistic? Can you point the toxic reactions, please? Because all I saw was calming down the hype because, let's face it, it doesn't look as promising as people are trying to make it.
It's litteraly the first big european open lan not run by Take or Blizz to be anounce since Dreamhack left 3 years ago. Even if it's just foreigner it's great news!
And I haven't seen anyone saying anything against this, but I'm blind, maybe I missed such posts
Edit> Fine, boggyb above you.
On June 19 2019 21:57 ordeal11 wrote: This is huge, perhaps start of new era of foreigner + korean tournament?
Doubt it. WCS players mostly, especially if the qualifier will be forced to the European server region
I imagine people busting their ass to get this of the ground, then come here and read comments like yours and Boggyb. Think about it
Edit: I think it's fine to voice some concerns/ opinions, just do it in a constructive way is all
How else am I supposed to write it? Give me finally those examples!
Or at least stop replying to me with this stuff and give all your attention to others.
On June 19 2019 23:34 Harris1st wrote: I imagine people busting their ass to get this of the ground, then come here and read comments like yours and Boggyb. Think about it
Edit: I think it's fine to voice some concerns/ opinions, just do it in a constructive way is all
Blizzard is the one who decided to give this tournaments WCS points and my criticisms are only about giving them to another event that non-European players will have to think long and hard about attending because it is a questionable move financially.
That could be mitigated with some NA and Korean server qualifiers that included paid travel to the event, but we've heard nothing about that.
It was already stated in the leading psot that it won't be paid to travel there and live there. You get free entry to the event and that's all you get for free.
Now if some executives of Finnair would make a simple sponsorship/marketing decision for example giving good discount in ticket prices to incoming Korean SC2 Players... Just few weeks ago Finnish and Korean presidents hyped how new direct route between Helsinki and Busan was opened by Finnair (Helsinki is closest and fastest spot en route to European cities if travelling from Korea - Seoul/Busan).
Would be nice way to promote new route. Finland isn't far side of the world from Korea if we look at the map of airlanes on a globe.
Just 2 cents. Hopefully some Finnair's marketing folks are also SC2 fans following these threads.
edit/add: Then, if its about cost of coming to Finland to compete, I wonder what Finnish SC2-scene could really do for Koreans' accomodation if taking it as question of honor. Hard to imagine there would be insurmountable problems there either.
Well, we still got plenty of events and with prizemoney for koreans, it would be 3rd european event with koreans (1 IEM, 1 ROG, 1-2 HSC). I feel like giving WCS points is little bit unfortunate because it brings all the issues you guys were mentioning. If instead of points there were little bit more money it would be perfect. But still, another major event, huge thing for SC2 in those times.
What is exact reason WCS points from this tournament couldn't be counted for GSL participants' benefits too (that said if they arrive and compete successfully. I take that as granted)? Regions are diverged anyway and total sums of points in one doesn't impact to other.
What exactly prevent that?
GSL vs Worlds, you get eligibility to WCS Grand Finals by winning it? If you're Korean do you get such eligibility by winning this tournament?
If so, then why not count also points for the same purpose?
Please, Correct me if I'm wrong with the basic assumptions.
ADD: Regardless of exact status of the tournament and background thinking behind it (by Blizzard), every practical action that increase the competitive potential and intermingling between regions is good thing in current overall situation.
I simply don't get it why there couldn't be tournaments where points are shared regardless of where participants are coming from, as by definition of region lock, gathered points by one player in one region doesn't impact to gathered points of another player playing in another region. If players from one region take all top spots and thus majority of points from that common tournament, it doesn't make difference to order of players of other region, but it makes the scene more competitive and offer the initiative to participate off-region tournaments. There would be also better ways to measure what would be most suitable quota for regions to participate The Grand Finals.
You don't have to drop region lock alltogether between the Circuit and GSL, when you can organize common tournaments from which the points are counted for the players regardless of the region. More these kind tournaments would make good for both regions and the game as a whole.
Add. Further bondering... Allocation of points available from top spots of some moderately rewarded (by money) tournaments could actually make scene as a whole much more competitive than few top-heavy rewarded elite tournaments. In adjuntion of more widely spread prize money this could make miracles for the competitive scene. In other words: Much more relatively low reward tournaments by monetary rewards, but awarded top-heavy by points and eligibilities to the top tournaments. In case of ties of achieved eligibilities between players their overall points would be the tie breaker. That could function even under region lock conditions as long as there are enough tournaments where points are awarded.
Its easier to find small sponsors than big ones. Its easier to organize several small-priced local small tournaments than few high-prized top tournaments in which large part of best players cannot participate anyway. Player vs player mix of competition would be much more diverse, and international top players would've to take part to many low-priced tournaments for gathering enough points to make it the top tournaments (or their qualifiers).
My perspective is more sustainable and audience friendly global competitive environment by means of giving the Circuit/GSL (or some combined form) points more higher role than sheer amount of winning money of a tournament. Region lock could be simply upheld only by scheduling tournaments in way that its practically impossible to take part to them all only because many of them are simultaneous.
I perceive whole competitive scene too TOP-heavy in every relevant aspect to it being capable to remain sustainable longer term in current economic frameworks set by the Company. Just thinking...
Most self-suffocating traditions of "Korean Elitism" must be obliterated by spreading the best Korean SC2 traditions all across the gaming world of SC2.
Wow, I had no idea that somebody organizing tournament open for all the players who can qualify is a bad thing, the more you learn... I have to remember to frown the whole time I'm watching!
On June 23 2019 08:46 MrFreeman wrote: Wow, I had no idea that somebody organizing tournament open for all the players who can qualify is a bad thing, the more you learn... I have to remember to frown the whole time I'm watching!
On July 02 2019 00:52 Elentos wrote: Considering the qualifiers are this week there's not a lot of people signed up yet. This could be some shitposter's opportunity to get in
12 players qualify in EU and 11 sign up, Luolis is in right now!
Can't wait for everyone to try to sign in an hour before then bitch on twitter about the organisation.
At the moment there are Inno, Solar, Gumiho, Ragnarok and Fantasy in the qualifiers, and we might maybe expect some JAGW player; that's already better than someone imagined, for sure.
On July 05 2019 02:51 Xain0n wrote: I guess it's safe to assume the invited players do not figure among those who are playing or will be playing in the qualifiers?
Correct, invited players are not allowed in the qualifier.
On July 05 2019 01:20 Nakajin wrote: So it's one bo3 to qualify for most, 2 max? Pretty sweet deal, especially since there's still another EU qualifier
Wait no, you qualify into another qualifier?
Top 8 qualifies from this. The minimum path here is three bo3's if first round is bye. The maximum path is five bo3's if knocked to the lower bracket from ro16.
Players getting in from first EU Qualifier look great. Hopefully ShowTime gets invite because he can not participate on events currently because of dislocated shoulder. Both currently invited players other than Serral have beaten Serral this year, so maybe Innovation will get invite too.
On July 05 2019 20:49 Legan wrote: Players getting in from first EU Qualifier look great. Hopefully ShowTime gets invite because he can not participate on events currently because of dislocated shoulder. Both currently invited players other than Serral have beaten Serral this year, so maybe Innovation will get invite too.
ShowTime signed up for today's qualifier apparently. Inno was but he isn't listed anymore so probably he will get an invitation; only Neeb and Stats are missing among those who have beaten Serral this year.
On July 06 2019 09:13 Cyro wrote: Did i miss Solar moving to Europe?
Qualifier were oppen to all, Solar played from Korea, just like the old days
Even in the old days playing from KR to EU was pretty impressive due to the ping. Nowadays with Europe being more competitive it's even more so. Though I don't think it beats whoever it was (KeeN maybe?) played the KR, NA and EU qualifiers back to back to back for like 16 hours before qualifying through EU.
On July 06 2019 09:13 Cyro wrote: Did i miss Solar moving to Europe?
Qualifier were oppen to all, Solar played from Korea, just like the old days
Even in the old days playing from KR to EU was pretty impressive due to the ping. Nowadays with Europe being more competitive it's even more so. Though I don't think it beats whoever it was (KeeN maybe?) played the KR, NA and EU qualifiers back to back to back for like 16 hours before qualifying through EU.
On July 06 2019 09:13 Cyro wrote: Did i miss Solar moving to Europe?
Qualifier were oppen to all, Solar played from Korea, just like the old days
Even in the old days playing from KR to EU was pretty impressive due to the ping. Nowadays with Europe being more competitive it's even more so. Though I don't think it beats whoever it was (KeeN maybe?) played the KR, NA and EU qualifiers back to back to back for like 16 hours before qualifying through EU.
On July 06 2019 09:13 Cyro wrote: Did i miss Solar moving to Europe?
Qualifier were oppen to all, Solar played from Korea, just like the old days
Even in the old days playing from KR to EU was pretty impressive due to the ping. Nowadays with Europe being more competitive it's even more so. Though I don't think it beats whoever it was (KeeN maybe?) played the KR, NA and EU qualifiers back to back to back for like 16 hours before qualifying through EU.
Definitely. Solar is a monster.
Solar is one online monster, offline he hasn't won anything big in three years; also, he was kind of lucky having to only face Snute in ZvZ in EU qualifiers.
Surprised there are so few Koreans in the NA qualifier. The EU qualifier made sense due to the latency but this little participation in the NA qualifier suggests there just aren't too many interested.
On July 07 2019 04:21 JJH777 wrote: Surprised there are so few Koreans in the NA qualifier. The EU qualifier made sense due to the latency but this little participation in the NA qualifier suggests there just aren't too many interested.
I guess most korean pros don't know the tournament. Taeja, Bomber of course do. Also it's pretty late in Korea so maybe some found it too tiring and will just try the KR qualifier
On July 07 2019 04:21 JJH777 wrote: Surprised there are so few Koreans in the NA qualifier. The EU qualifier made sense due to the latency but this little participation in the NA qualifier suggests there just aren't too many interested.
Why are you surprised? With the exception of Masa, the top NA pros are passing on this event and they have WCS points to gain from attending. (LOL Blizzard) The financial upside of this event is pretty low.
On July 07 2019 04:21 JJH777 wrote: Surprised there are so few Koreans in the NA qualifier. The EU qualifier made sense due to the latency but this little participation in the NA qualifier suggests there just aren't too many interested.
I guess most korean pros don't know the tournament. Taeja, Bomber of course do. Also it's pretty late in Korea so maybe some found it too tiring and will just try the KR qualifier
Yeah I don't think most Koreans know about this. The NA quali started at 4 am KST which also doesn't help, but so far the Korean qualifier has 16 sign-ups half of which are from non-Koreans.
Also there's the whole deal about you having to cover your flight and hotel costs yourself, even if you get invited.
The absence of real top players makes this qualifier pretty interesting though. I think PtitDrogo will qualify along with Elazer, Taeja and maybe TRUE? Idk about Armani and Losira.
PtitDrogo seems to always cut a bunch of corners with his builds. Which makes it pretty easy for players like Reynor who know how to punish corner-cutting, but Bomber probably isn't that type of player.
On July 07 2019 05:50 ZigguratOfUr wrote: PtitDrogo seems to always cut a bunch of corners with his builds. Which makes it pretty easy for players like Reynor who know how to punish corner-cutting, but Bomber probably isn't that type of player.
Bomber's response has always been to just try to cut even more corners.
I didn't really think there was such a thing as a "new low" for TRUE at this point in his career but losing the qualifying match against Awers 0-2 could be it.
On July 07 2019 08:47 AzAlexZ wrote: Why didn't Neeb try to qualify? Unless he plans on not playing in this tournament or he is getting an invite?
I'm assuming Neeb got an invite, maybe Scarlett and Special too but it might also be that they don't want to travel from Korea
It looks like Scarlett is now signed up for the Korea server qualifier. I'm guessing she didn't play NA due to GSL. Elazer is trying yet again, as is Skillous. TRUE, Losira, Ragnarok, and Fantasy are some other notables.
On July 07 2019 04:21 JJH777 wrote: Surprised there are so few Koreans in the NA qualifier. The EU qualifier made sense due to the latency but this little participation in the NA qualifier suggests there just aren't too many interested.
I've got 280ms ping and 90% bandwidth loss to Seoul because the connection quality across mainland europe and asia is so bad. AFAIK the connections between the US and Seoul are far lower latency and higher quality than that, as little as ~125ms as the routes are relatively direct via trans-pacific cables.
Ah, you mean very few of them signed up to either? It's seems kinda weird to me that it's even allowed at all anyway
On July 07 2019 16:17 Elentos wrote: Turnout for KR qualifier is real bad.
Indeed, but it's not hard to find multiple possible reasons (not getting flight paid from team, focus on GSL, not wanting to travel that far etc). Still we will get 4 very good player tbh. herO, Zest, RagnaroK, Scarlett, TIME, KeeN and aLive are all good, and not all of them will qualify. I don't think Elazer has any chances after not qualifying in the other two, especially with the lag.
Scarlett had 0 chances against that Zest push. What a stomp
Four players in total forfeited. Including aLive and TRUE who checked in, and matched aginast each other, but then did not show up which delayed the tournament a bit. :/
Really don't want to sound rude here but turns out the poor turnout of players are probably due to: a) Players are reluctant at taking this tourney seriously or b) They never heard of it so they don't care or c) They have really poor organization.
On July 07 2019 18:05 AzAlexZ wrote: Really don't want to sound rude here but turns out the poor turnout of players are probably due to: a) Players are reluctant at taking this tourney seriously or b) They never heard of it so they don't care or c) They have really poor organization.
How about "If players don't have a team that pays for their travel they would have to make top 4 in a tournament with unannounced invited players if they want to make a profit"
On July 07 2019 18:05 AzAlexZ wrote: Really don't want to sound rude here but turns out the poor turnout of players are probably due to: a) Players are reluctant at taking this tourney seriously or b) They never heard of it so they don't care or c) They have really poor organization.
How about "If players don't have a team that pays for their travel they would have to make top 4 in a tournament with unannounced invited players if they want to make a profit"
In any of case, we might end up with approximately 1/3 of players being koreans; I would see well Inno, Stats, Dark, Neeb and Special as the invited ones.
On July 07 2019 20:51 Xain0n wrote: In any of case, we might end up with approximately 1/3 of players being koreans; I would see well Inno, Stats, Dark, Neeb and Special as the invited ones.
If Dark refused an HSC (with paid flight and stuff) invite to focus on GSL, I very highly doubt he'll play in THIS tournament.
On July 07 2019 20:51 Xain0n wrote: In any of case, we might end up with approximately 1/3 of players being koreans; I would see well Inno, Stats, Dark, Neeb and Special as the invited ones.
Stats replaces SpeCial who cancelled his participation.
Juanito pls... Well, now we have 12 koreans, all Code S players(and, I'd say, 9 of them being top tier); so much for people complaining in advance about conditions being too unfavourable for koreans to attend the event.
On July 26 2019 21:16 emperorofwild wrote: if all these kr players can attend, only serral has chance to get to top 4. so most likely the circuit ranking will not change a bit
On July 26 2019 21:16 emperorofwild wrote: if all these kr players can attend, only serral has chance to get to top 4. so most likely the circuit ranking will not change a bit
eh, Neeb and Showtime might surprise us
Don't forget Reynor and the fact WCS Zerg are very strong in ZvZ. I hope Serral wins the event, in any of case.
I have been watching pro StarCraft since 2010 and I have never attended any live StarCraft event or ANY LAN event. This is going to be my first one. I yesterday bought tickets Im starcraft live virgin dont hurt me lol :D Im coming all the way from Kuopio. Its quite long drive.
On July 27 2019 12:11 TheBloodyDwarf wrote: I have been watching pro StarCraft since 2010 and I have never attended any live StarCraft event or ANY LAN event. This is going to be my first one. I yesterday bought tickets Im starcraft live virgin dont hurt me lol :D Im coming all the way from Kuopio. Its quite long drive.
Hopefully somebody wants to meet me :D
This'd be my 1st SC event too despite following the scene since 2010 like you. Considering I live like five tram stops away and people are coming from Savo or beyond it'd be rude not to go.
On July 27 2019 12:11 TheBloodyDwarf wrote: I have been watching pro StarCraft since 2010 and I have never attended any live StarCraft event or ANY LAN event. This is going to be my first one. I yesterday bought tickets Im starcraft live virgin dont hurt me lol :D Im coming all the way from Kuopio. Its quite long drive.
On July 26 2019 21:16 emperorofwild wrote: if all these kr players can attend, only serral has chance to get to top 4. so most likely the circuit ranking will not change a bit
eh, Neeb and Showtime might surprise us
Neeb, Showtime, Lambo, Reynor all have a shot at top 4 imo. Also, the old formula states MC wins when he is lucky, MKP will place second (unless soO is in the tournament) and Taeja will win any given summer weekender. Those laws have not held sway for some time, but there is still power in ancient rites.
On July 28 2019 17:31 deacon.frost wrote: So we're missing Dark, Trap, Maru, Classic(duh)? Generally speaking the absolute top of the Korea? At least there's Stats or Inno.
Maru and Classic going outside of Korea? According to your prediction this tournament would have had very few koreans and now that there are 12 you still find some reason to complain?
On July 27 2019 12:11 TheBloodyDwarf wrote: I have been watching pro StarCraft since 2010 and I have never attended any live StarCraft event or ANY LAN event. This is going to be my first one. I yesterday bought tickets Im starcraft live virgin dont hurt me lol :D Im coming all the way from Kuopio. Its quite long drive.
Hopefully somebody wants to meet me :D
Meet me at the back alley for drunk santa action.
Beers on you?
Just came back from Korea where we attended GSL for the first time and now Asus Rog right afterwards. Good times <3
Edit: btw, happy to see that you get to go behind commentators desk. Gotta tune to YLE to see how Finnish casting fares against mainstream :D
Groups look interesting. Lambo got unlucky, but if his ZvZ is good enough, I could see Serral dropping out at first stage. I had hoped that Serral would play later so that it would be easier to catch his games at the venue.
I kinda gotta give the group of death trophy to either group D or E. Reynor, Ragnarok, and Harstem in one group is terrifying, and souL, while definitely the weakest player here, isn't half bad either.
On the other hand, Stats, Showtime, and Bomber is maybe equally terrifying. Bly on top of that becomes a complete wildcard, who I'd say while extremely unlikely to advance, is very, very capable of pulling some crazy shit and upsetting someone to completely change the face of the group. Those two are probably the groups to watch for me.
On July 30 2019 07:18 Psychonian wrote: I kinda gotta give the group of death trophy to either group D or E. Reynor, Ragnarok, and Harstem in one group is terrifying, and souL, while definitely the weakest player here, isn't half bad either.
On the other hand, Stats, Showtime, and Bomber is maybe equally terrifying. Bly on top of that becomes a complete wildcard, who I'd say while extremely unlikely to advance, is very, very capable of pulling some crazy shit and upsetting someone to completely change the face of the group. Those two are probably the groups to watch for me.
You might be a bit out of loop, Bomber's best result since returning to the scene is dropping out of code S ro32 without winning a single map, he's nowhere near the level of Stats or Showtime.
On July 30 2019 07:18 Psychonian wrote: I kinda gotta give the group of death trophy to either group D or E. Reynor, Ragnarok, and Harstem in one group is terrifying, and souL, while definitely the weakest player here, isn't half bad either.
On the other hand, Stats, Showtime, and Bomber is maybe equally terrifying. Bly on top of that becomes a complete wildcard, who I'd say while extremely unlikely to advance, is very, very capable of pulling some crazy shit and upsetting someone to completely change the face of the group. Those two are probably the groups to watch for me.
Group G and group F are very competitive groups too.
On July 30 2019 07:18 Psychonian wrote: I kinda gotta give the group of death trophy to either group D or E. Reynor, Ragnarok, and Harstem in one group is terrifying, and souL, while definitely the weakest player here, isn't half bad either.
On the other hand, Stats, Showtime, and Bomber is maybe equally terrifying. Bly on top of that becomes a complete wildcard, who I'd say while extremely unlikely to advance, is very, very capable of pulling some crazy shit and upsetting someone to completely change the face of the group. Those two are probably the groups to watch for me.
You might be a bit out of loop, Bomber's best result since returning to the scene is dropping out of code S ro32 without winning a single map, he's nowhere near the level of Stats or Showtime.
Yeah, Stats and Showtime are rather among those who are most likely to walk to Ro16.
On July 27 2019 12:11 TheBloodyDwarf wrote: I have been watching pro StarCraft since 2010 and I have never attended any live StarCraft event or ANY LAN event. This is going to be my first one. I yesterday bought tickets Im starcraft live virgin dont hurt me lol :D Im coming all the way from Kuopio. Its quite long drive.
A: Serral, Inno (group of death #2) B: soO, Zest, C: herO, Drogo D: Reynor, Ragnarok (group of death #1) E: Stats, Showtime F: Neeb, Solar G: GuMiHo, Time ( group of life IMO) H: Dear, Heromarine
excuse me what the fuck is there a BRITISH FLAG next to my name?!
If you don't speak the Queen's English I'm calling the cozzers.
I gotta call Wardii and Demuslim to work on my British accent. Lot of work to do in the next 2 days. Oof.
Really happy that you made a name for yourself btw :D Really like your casting You've come a long way since that thread you posted here for casting Code A / Code S qualifiers and the "Please Blizz/ Afreeca make a decent timetable for your tournaments" - thread ^^
Protoss lineup at this tournament is disproportionately strong. There is basically no weak protoss participants, maybe except for Dns. That means people gonna cry 'protossed' and use this tournament as the proof of toss being OP.
On July 30 2019 18:07 Harris1st wrote: Predictions (probably inthat order)
A: Serral, Inno (group of death #2) B: soO, Zest, C: herO, Drogo D: Reynor, Ragnarok (group of death #1) E: Stats, Showtime F: Neeb, Solar G: GuMiHo, Time ( group of life IMO) H: Dear, Heromarine
This looks pretty much like GSL RO16 material. I m not saying, that a GSL RO16 would look like this, not eben close. But I gues almost everyone listed would have quite a good shot to qualify if playing in point.
On July 30 2019 18:07 Harris1st wrote: Predictions (probably inthat order)
A: Serral, Inno (group of death #2) B: soO, Zest, C: herO, Drogo D: Reynor, Ragnarok (group of death #1) E: Stats, Showtime F: Neeb, Solar G: GuMiHo, Time ( group of life IMO) H: Dear, Heromarine
This looks pretty much like GSL RO16 material. I m not saying, that a GSL RO16 would look like this, not eben close. But I gues almost everyone listed would have quite a good shot to qualify if playing in point.
Do I have to point out some of the players again? There's 7 foreigners... c'mon.
Update to partner streams: Wardi decided to drop from the partner stream list. CreightonOlsen will provide a secondary English stream for Thursday and Friday, and we're looking for one more to cover games on Thursday.
On July 31 2019 16:04 ROGtournament wrote: Update to partner streams: Wardi decided to drop from the partner stream list. CreightonOlsen will provide a secondary English stream for Thursday and Friday, and we're looking for one more to cover games on Thursday.
Mebbe a bunch of flowers might have smoothed things over?
EPT![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/3SgAaol.jpg)
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Serral - ENCE![[image loading]](https://tl.net/images/flags2/it.png)
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Neeb - Ting![[image loading]](https://tl.net/images/flags2/kr.png)
GuMiho - PSISTORM Gaming![[image loading]](https://tl.net/images/flags2/de.png)
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ROGTournament
Yle Areena
starmania
O’Gaming SC2
TakeTV
Starladder
Miura TV
Crank
Mage1404
ASUS ROG Summer 2015
Stats & 
INnoVation![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/OOeZlyh.jpg)
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/6zNBXca.png)
