EPTI realized as I dragged myself out of bed to do all the “real life” things people claim exist, that as incredably fantastic and mindblowingly awesome as TSL3 was, TSL4 will be even better. Here’s why:
+ Show Spoiler +
If you've already seen this just read on, but if you missed it, here's my favorite piece of hype, and history, from TSL3. It actually gets more and more relevant over time.
Pretty great right? Well, it's only gonna get better.
1. The Hype
TSL3 was the most hyped up thing I’ve ever seen in my life and it was AWESOME for it. Seriously, even the men’s gold medal olympic hockey game in Victoria (about 60 minutes from Vancouver) weren’t as hyped as TSL 3 was. As the proud owner of an “Expand Your Horizons” ringtone (the TSL3 intro music), I can tell you that I really REALLY appreciated the hype. And it’s just gonna keep getting better. Next time around we won’t just have “and european you haven’t heard of X who played warcraft is gonna take on former brood-war player Y” We have a STARCRAFT 2 BACKSTORY. How well they did last time, and the player who defeated them is going to be far more relevant than it was for TSL 2 vs TSL 3. Many of us started watching e-sports after starcraft 2’s release, and now we have seen the awesomeness that it can be. Not only that, but with the MLG-GSL player exchange there’s a great chance of some epic rivalries popping up between some of the koreans and our own foreigners, which brings me to my next point.
![[image loading]](http://dungeonrun.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/wow_motivation_poster_prepared.jpg)
2. The World will be Ready
The sweet taste of Thorzain’s victory over Fruitdealer gradually turned to ash in my mouth as Korean after Korean went down in the first round. Admittedly, they were all EPIC games (Nestea vs Goody and QXC vs Genius especially IMO), but one way or another whether it was lag or experience versus foreigners it seemed that the Koreans were not prepared. Fortunately by the RO 16 MC was acutely aware of what the foreigners were capable of and pushed on to that glorious series against ThorZain. But MC and Boxer were the last of their kind by the Round of 8, all others having fallen early in the tournament. I'm sure that those who went quickly are hungry for their revenge, ruing the day so many of them were crushed by the fearsome fighting foreigners. Make no mistake, when TSL4 rolls around, Korea will be ready.
Meanwhile, you know what’s going on right now? China is hosting their first big SC2 tournament since Beta... and they’ve beat us. I now find myself cheering for MC against the red menace -jk, I <3 China- that has defeated all of the foreigners in the Gigabyte Starwars tournament. It seems that China too is on the rise, and with them will come new names and awesome stories.
With pros from China and Korea being more prepared, you can expect more fans to join in. Even though 70k fans watching the finals was pretty fricken sweet, can you IMAGINE if there had been a korean in the finals!? And soon the Chinese players will have a following too. Yes, as amazing as TSL 3 was, TSL 4 will be out of this world due to the ever growing fan-base.
3. The game will be more balanced OR it'll be more awesome
Have you watched PvP lately? How many archons were used in PvP a month ago? Not a heck of a lot. The times, they are a changing my friends, and by the time TSL4 rolls around hopefully every matchup is balanced and exciting. If it’s not quite balanced yet, then there’s an equally awesome reason for that: Bolding that because apparently I need to. Just saying that there is no downside tho, either it'll be more balanced, or it'll be new and exciting due to this:
![[image loading]](http://mydailygadget.mdg.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/heart-of-the-swarm.jpg)
4. (Maybe) Heart of The Swarm will be released
There’s a significant chance that TSL 4 will in fact be the first big SC2 HoTS tournament. Think about that for a second. It’s a long-shot, but timing wise it could happen. And it would be glorious! New units, strategies, and who knows what. Now, this is Blizzard we’re talking about, so who know’s when HoTS will come out but I’m just saying, if it’s a year off then the times could work out nicely.
5. It has huge shoes to fill
There’s no denying that TSL 3 was some of, if not unequivocally the BEST sc2 tournament play we’ve seen. But from the sounds of it, TSL is always like that. Perhaps its the open qualification process, perhaps its the prestige of being THE foriegner tournament. Probably some combination of the above, but no one can deny that TSL 3 was fantastic, players played their absolute best, and when times looked bleak called upon the gods themselves to give them the strength to succeed. (cough, seriously, Thorzain seemed like he had a touch of divinity to him in game 6 of the finals). TSL 4 is gonna have big shoes to fill, and I believe that it will indeed exceed even our wildest expectations.
I’m one of the guys who voted “maybe wait a bit” for TSL 4. As much as I want to watch it right this second I realize that given more time it can only be better and better.
Edit: I'm actually going to keep a little section updated here because some fascinating things are happening right now.
Rivalries
IdrA vs Protoss (and the world)
Obviously IdrA has several rivalries, but none are more prominent at the time of writing as two protoss... And possibly soon to be a third.
We all remember the infamous
from Cruncher, as he defeated IdrA in TSL3.Not long after that, this happened:
Currently at MLG Columbus, Cruncher lurks in the open bracket about to take on IdrA's teammate EGAxSlav. More importantly however, HuK's Korean Brotoss MC has been 2-0d by IdrA. In an interview afterwards MC said he wasn't playing his best and that he will still go on to win this tournament. Could we see a potential third protoss rival of IdrA forming? Lets hope so! As an IdrA anti fan --though he is playing PHENOMENALLY this MLG tournament-- I yearn to see MC take a game off of him and then in the next game say: "you realize of course, half my army was halluc"
Edit: Sure enough, at Columbus the MC vs Idra rivalry was born. "Are you angry?"
Meanwhile, MC does have a very busy week ahead of him. After MLG collumbus he has to fly to China for the Star Wars tourny. Will Korea's best be able to defeat China's best? Could there be a new regional rivalry there? First of all, will the MLG champion this time be Korean, European, or North American? Only time will tell.
Team Liquid FIGHTING!!!
Edit:
But also... Dare I say it, Team EG fighting?
Prior to very recently IdrA was in many ways the face of EG. Yes Incontrol is amazing, but when people think of EG they don't think of well mannered body builders, they think of IdrA and everything associated with him. Now that HuK is on team EG, there's even more layers of story. Will they be able to bury the hatchet? Who will be the most successful team EG player? Idra, HuK, or Puma? When will HuK first have to fight one of his former team mates? All this and more await with TSL 4.
