Clarity Gaming Bi-Weekly Wrap-Up #2

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Clarity Gaming’s Starcraft 2 roster and we’ve all been hard at work to keep up the wave of momentum the team has been riding. Earlier last week, Clarity was proud to announce the recruitment of former NsHS and LgN Terran pro-gamer SeongJin “cShuttle” Choi to the active roster! If you haven’t yet had a chance to read the press release you can do so here. On top of that, the Clarity members have been hard at work spreading our efforts across qualifiers and team leagues trying their best to prove themselves as top competitors!



Flying the Clarity Gaming flag in his quest to qualify for the HomeStory Cup VI, ManHyeok “cJookTo” Jo participated in the North American qualifiers on the 5th. Going into the tournament, it was obvious the competition would be difficult but nevertheless, jookTo remained confident about his ability to put up a good showing and represent the team well. He did not disappoint.



After receiving a bye in the Ro64, ManHyeok went up against the teamless North American Protoss, KiF1rE in the Ro32. Although KiF1rE fought valiantly, jookTo’s superior training and game sense allowed him to take the series easily by a score of 2-0. Up next was Goswer, now on Millennium. The North American (now European) Zerg was unable to match JookTo in his ZvZ and Clarity's player was one step closer to qualification! Similarly dispatching his first Protoss opponent of the day, ManHyeok was faced with another ZvP, this time against My Intent’s shinyA. After another strong showing from our Zerg from South Korea with liberal usage of infestors, he advanced to face one of the toughest players in North America. Ex-ROOT’s MajOr managed to take out our jookTo in a great show of multitask and micro unfortunately cutting him just short of qualifying for the unique European event.




The North American Qualifiers for IEM Poland concluded this past Thursday and Clarity Gaming was out in force. Representing our banner were three of our most talented progamers; ManHyeok “cJookTo” Jo, Kevin “cSiphonn” Bentz and Brian “ cSaroVati” Zhao. While it is unfortunate that IEM has not followed in the footsteps of tournaments like MLG with flight compensation, we were nonetheless excited for a chance to compete internationally yet again.



Brian received a seed automatically to Stage 2 of the IEM Poland Qualifiers given his strong run in Stage 3 of IEM’s previous qualifier for their event in Singapore. Unfortunately the pressures and workload of finals week weighed heavily on our young Protoss from Canada and he made an early exit going down to both compLexity’s Sasquatch and LighT’s KawaiiRice. While he wasn’t able to show his best games, we expect to see Brian back in top form as soon as he finishes his tests at university.




Making one of his strongest showings in recent days was Pennsylvania’s very own cSiphonn. Kevin’s been practicing hard since Major League Gaming’s Fall Championship and was really able to show off some great games during the three day qualifier. While he unfortunately fell just short of qualification, Siphonn managed to take down some of the top American talent and proved that he’s a force to be reckoned with in any series.



One of the hardest working players in Clarity Gaming, Manhyeok once again proved just how valuable Code S experience and a Korean training regimen can be. IEM Poland had special significance for JookTo given his disappointment with himself over his Dreamhack performance. The NA Qualifiers to Katowice would be his chance to return to Europe and attempt to truly leave his mark on the continent.

Throughout the entirety of the qualifier, JookTo was a man on a mission. From his first series against Isurus’ Gaming’s Capoch, the WCS Argentina Champion, it was clear that nothing would be stopping him from obtaining a seed. LighT’s KawaiiRice, 4Not’s Boyo, Infinity Seven’s Axslav, and compLexity’s TriMaster + qxc all took on the challenge but in the end Clarity’s JookTo managed to lock down the final slot for IEM Katowice in January. We could not be more proud of ManHyeok’s achievements and look forward to cheering him on in Poland!






After a grueling regular season, and a quick gauntlet of playoff games, the Under Rated Team League Season 1 is drawing to a close, and Clarity Gaming is proud to say that we will be competing in the finals against My Intent for the Gold!

Clarity Gaming started out the Season in Group D of the League which hosted some tough competition, including the hosts of the league, Under Rated, as well as other strong teams from across North America:



Our first two weeks came off to a rocky start, with a 2-4 loss vs Fallacy and then an 0-4 sweep vs Under Rated. As a completely fresh team we were still working out quite a few kinks and it showed in our results at the time. Thanks to a lot of quick work from our players we were able to turn the regular season around and take 5 straight wins afterwards. Taking down Quetzal (4-0), Frost (4-2), DuSt (4-2), Triumph (4-1), and Soviet (4-1), we were able to reverse our bad luck at the start of the season and come out of group stages strongly.

After over a month of regular season play, and a lot of hard work from all of our players in preparing for our matches, we advanced out of the group stages and into play-off contention. Our first match in the play-offs was a re-match against DuSt in the Ro16, and the score reflected our first performance against them, advancing to the Quarter-Finals. Awaiting us with a Quarter-Final seed was .SCA, who couldn't stand up to the might of Clarity as we toppled them 4-1 and went on to re-match Triumph in the Semi-Finals. Another rematch that mirrored the first, Clarity was able to take out Triumph 4-1 once again and secure our berth in the Finals vs My Intent! You can tune in to the finals this coming Friday, December 21st to watch Clarity fight for 1st Place!





For this edition of the Bi-Weekly Wrapup one of Clarity’s hardest working members, Zerg Player ManHyeok “cJookTo” Jo wanted to talk a little bit about his experience so far being with the team. We discussed his experience in America, his qualification to IEM Poland, the upcoming Team House, and what we can expect to see out of him in the near future. If you aren't yet familiar with this incredible player you can find his initial recruitment interview here.









As always, if you enjoy the content, and want to see more of our players in the future, you can follow the team, and the progress and travels of the players on the following sources:

Website: ClarityGaming.com
Twitter: @Clarity_Gaming
Facebook: Facebook.com/ClarityGaming
Twitch: Twitch.TV/Clarity_Gaming
Youtube: YouTube.com/ClarityGamingSC2


Thanks for reading!