Hello and welcome to Volume 4 of our Amateur Brood War Coverage. Given that it seems to be turning into of a tradition now, I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize for the fact that the news is as late as it is. For the most part, this has been due to some academic commitments on my part, but this was exacerbated by time spent working on some other BW-related projects we’re preparing behind the scenes.

Our "little" ABC is growing up quickly, and the amount we have to cover is increasing at a rapid rate. Consequently, the TL BW staff has decided to split our coverage in order to give each tournament the write-up it deserves. You may have noticed this already with our separate [ThSL] Round of Eight Preview, which is fast becoming a favorite tournament among foreign BW fans.

Besides ThSL, we'd like to give a dedicated write-up to as many tournaments as possible. However, since we're understaffed, it won’t be possible to give everything the coverage we’d like to. Regardless, we’ll stretch ourselves as best we can to cover as much as humanly possible. Everyone is talking about Sonic's Starleague now, as well as the future SOSPA events, so of course we’re planning to provide the best coverage possible for it.

So if you're willing to contribute to our Amateur Brood War Coverage, now it would be the perfect time to send me a PM. I won't lie, it's a lot of hard work and it can be time consuming, but I assure you the feeling of contributing to the greater good of our burgeoning scene is amazing.

Continuing with our regular content, we have a new addition to our writing staff, TheEmulator, giving you an update on weeks five and six of the premier team league, Gambit Cup. I understand that week seven has also been played, but since this news was supposed to be published last Sunday, we're leaving it for next issue. We're also thinking of running standalone coverage for Gambit Cup, much as we have for ThSL, so if you’d like to write specifically for Gambit Cup write-ups, get in touch.

After you're done reading the Gambit Cup recap, you can proceed to Rest of the Scene article, which aims to give you a short update on all of the tournaments currently running. We're also looking for ways in improving our coverage on this, as well as presenting the information in a more readable way, so if you have any constructive feedback, don't feel shy about dropping us a line.

As always, after a lot of text it's time to watch some VODs. So this time we give you five Recommended VODs, which will make sure to keep you entertained for a while. When you’ve watched all of the games, you can read an Interview with Pucca, courtesy of our very own Pholon, and get to know the man behind majority of the current casting.

Last, but by no means least, we close our write-up with a Preview of Things to Come, in which you can read about some of the events that will grace our beloved BW scene in the near future.

We’re happy to have been able to bring this to you, and we hope you enjoy it.


The past two weeks of Gambit’s Cup have been very exciting, with nothing but great matches. Being the most prestigious team league in the foreign BW scene, we are left each week in awe of the amazing talent and dedication these players demonstrate. This article will focus on weeks 5 and 6 of Gambit’s Cup where we saw some close matches with key deciding factors, and a few not so close matches ending with some impressive all-kills. You can see the current standings at the end of the results section of the article. The competition is starting to get real serious and the next weeks to come will only get better.



First up for week 5, we had the tournament leaders Sas going up against the rather unknown Chinese team, CN. Going into this match Sas was sitting at a record of 4-0, and CN at 1-2. Despite the favor being in the hands of Sas, CN decided to step up their game and edge out Sas, with a very close series ending 4-3 for CN. Heroes came up with two clutch wins at the end giving them the win against the previously undefeated team Sas.

The second match of week 5 was between the two last placed teams, reps) and SiR. These two teams have had little success so far in Gambit's cup with records of 1-3, but with three weeks left anything can happen. This week, reps) ended up taking the match with a convincing 4-1 victory. Zerg player from reps), Defi, was the star player this week, winning three of the four games.

We also had SJ vs LRM this week. Being 3-0, LRM was considered as the clear favorite for this match against the 2-2 team, SJ. Fortunately for SJ this was not the case as they took the series 4-2 over LRM. SJ players Napoleon and TerrOr both did well coming up with clutch wins against some of LRM's top players.

Last up in week 5 was Fox vs iFu. Both teams have been sitting in the middle of the pack but with strong terrans on both sides this may change in the weeks to come. We saw iFu's terran player Ex take three games in a row against Fox. Fox's new star terran player Bibiane quickly ended that streak but was unable to come up with the strength to win his second game, resulting in a 4-1 win for iFu.











The sixth week of the prestigious Gambit’s cup will forever be known as the week of the all-kill. Three out of the four matches ended with all-kills, making this one of the shortest weeks to date. First up we had iFu vs Sas, which Sas took with their zerg player Michael finishing off four games in a row. Sas is doing very well so far with a current record of 5-1.

We had SJ vs CN up for the second match of the day. The CN team started off fairly unknown but have been gaining their share of fans throughout the tournament. Unfortunately, SJ’s Napoleon showed up with his game face on, taking out the whole CN team with a convincing All-Kill. This win brings SJ into second place in the current standings.

The third match of the day was SiR vs Fox. With both of these teams currently residing towards the bottom of the standings, we expected a close and long series. Except we saw another all-kill from SiR, with their ace zerg named Ace took four great games in a row. After this week both teams are still at the bottom sitting with records of 2-4.

Lastly, we had LRM vs reps), which was the only non all-kill of the week. This was a very close series with a score of 4-3 in favour of reps). Defi and Largo had some great performances for reps) with Largo taking 3 games and Defi closing out the series with the final win.













If you have any feedback how to report on all the tournaments going on in the community right now, please let us know. For now, we're sticking with just listing all the tournaments in this one article while providing a short update on the status of the tournament. If you think there's some information missing, or anything else that you'd like to see, write in the thread and we'll see what we can do. Now here's the list of all the tournaments that have been ongoing for past two weeks and their current status.



The third season of the http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/D_Ranks_Teamleague continues its epic journey and marking its place as a prime competition for D ranked players everywhere. Even though the league has been experiencing some difficulties along the way, it is not being abandoned, and in fact, a reform of the league is in talks. Head on over there and join the discussion to make this league the best there is.

In other news, DRTL has officially entered its playoffs, with Stealth Bunnies fighting DeSPA and Courage battling with Team All-Kill Kings. Smack talk has already started in the forums, while the tension between the teams rises. Make sure to not miss this epic battle of D rank players because they take pride in it just as if it was an A rank league. You can see the line-ups of playoffs below:



Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=349433




The fourth edition of the D Ranks Individual Tournament started some time last week and it's already in its Round of 8 phase. We saw some of the old faces, familiar with D ranks competitions, mixed with some new faces battling out for a very much wanted crown that is placed on the winners head. Even though the crown might be an imaginary, players who prove themselves in this league will have their names chanted by all the plebs admiring them. For they just might be on a verge of bright yellow color that awaits them on the other side of the kingdom.

If you missed watching this great competition live, you can catch up on it by watching the full VODs that shows some inspiring play. Below you can see the bracket of the tournament in its current stage ripped off from the wonderful Liquipedia:



Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=366904




The conclusion of TheShimmy's Rush Week is remained to be played between korean powerhouse Gwangtaek and the floating-shirt player, Jumper. The games for this tournament were all great and you could see the determination and pride that the players exuded throughout. Before the finals we had a great semi-finals match between Jumper and kmdkt, with Jumper taking the win. On the other side of semi-finals bracket, Gwangtaek took out an Australian fold to reach the finals.

Last week we said that the winner of Game vs GwangTaek could potentially become college BW's Bonjwa, and with GwangTaek jumping into the finals with impressive performances, that statement still remains to be tested. GwangTaek and Jumper will play the final game and the winner gets crowned as a new Starcraft BW Collegiate World Champion, and the winner of TheShimmy's Rush week college individual tournament. Let the best man win, and a shoutout to Pucca for bringing some great casts throughout the season.

Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=354318




A very well hyped NoisE Amateur Starleague continues to progress forward in a slow, but steady pace. Remaining divisions have played their games and it is now time for group stages. The group stages were played a couple of days ago, so make sure you tune into the VODs when they become available, which were casted by an amazing Elegant and hacklebeast duo. To explain how the group stages work, I'll quote the league's organizer, Shimy:



You can see the groups in the spoilered image below:



Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=368915




The http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/Yellow_Starleague carried on its merry way with the Ro16, played in the first week of September and cast, as always, by Pucca and BMW. The Ro16 featured a number of interesting results, including an upset win for Mexican Zerg youRun over strong Swedish Protoss and early favourite, Splax. Other results included a devastating loss for people's champion Telecom, who lost 2-1 to popular TL streamer fold, and another dominating 2-0 victory for drshrinker, who enters the Ro8 as overwhelming favourite to win it all.

The quarter-final stage sees two of the strongest remaining players, fold and drshrinker, facing off against two talented European Zergs, in the form of ihuf and Zangetsu. In the other half of the bracket, two PvTs will decide who reaches the semi-final with all onlookers surely praying for anything but PvP. With the Ro8 games having been played last weekend, keep an eye on the calendar for Pucca and BMW's cast of what is sure to be another lively and entertaining set of games.

In case you missed the previous rounds of this magnificent tournament, you can see the full bracket in the spoilered image below:



Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=369604




Pucca's inaugural CTF tournament has come to a close, with Croatian race-picker Quirinus confirming early speculation that maybe he knows a little bit more about BW CTF than everybody else by winning the four way final match. Having scraped his way through the Ro22 and the Ro10 with only two kills, Quirinus showed good form when it counted, doubling his tournament kill score in the final four game. However, a special congratulations is in order for two of the losing finalists, Canadian Protoss WandS and Czech Terran dollar, who battled it out at the top of the flag kill leaderboard through their impressive performances in the earlier rounds of the tournament. In the end, neither managed a kill in the final game so WandS took the points classification with six kills overall.

Organiser and caster Pucca has expressed a desire to make these CTF tournaments a regular fixture of the foreign Brood War scene. For anyone interested in trying out what is sure to become the next truly global eSport, check the Brood War Tournaments forum regularly for your chance to take down reigning champion Quirinus.

Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=359887




Yet another tournament for the thriving D rank scene, the D Ranks Game of Thrones kicked off earlier this month with reigning monarch and tournament organiser Kal_rA defending his mandate against all comers. In true Shakespearean fashion, the tyrant Kal_rA had a fatal flaw, namely his PvZ, and he was taken out in the second game by young upstart Birdie. However Birdie's reign was short lived, deposed by Terran player Obelisco and marking the birth of what soon became the greatest dynasty in the history of the Brood War Tournaments sub-forum.

With King Obelisco currently reigning over the ferrous expanse of the iCCup's D ranks, Kal_rA remains in the shadows, organising an army of would-be kings to face Obelisco in single combat. If you seek the fame, glory and power of the D rank throne, simply leave your name, race and match-ups in the D Ranks GoT thread and begin your preparations for your thousand-year rule.

To watch the VODs of these great battles of kings, head on to its VOD thread.

Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=367530




Last week we had the very peculiar Ribbon's No Spire ZvZ tourney, which is part of a new group of niche tournaments called Ribbon's Mirror tournaments. This tournament had a no spire rule, so as you could imagine it made for some really interesting and funny games. With a $100 prize pool split among the top 3 and a teddy bear hug on Skype for 4th place, there were huge stakes on the competitors who took action in this tournament. The tourney had 16 well known players, with guys like LRM)Bakuryu, TrutaCz, and Technics as the more well known participants. Last week we had the conclusion to this epic tournament with LRM)Bakuryu taking 3rd place in a great series against Michael. In the finals TrutaCz and Technics faced off against each other with TrutaCz taking a convincing 4-1 victory over Technics.In all, the tournament was very interesting, and in the weeks to come you can expect some more great ideas from Ribbon's Mirror tournaments.





Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=364219




Do you like TvT? Battlecruiser battles? If yes, then you will love the 1 Factory TvT tour brought to you by Ribbon. This was the second installment of Ribbon's Mirror tourneys, which ended up being only TvT with a restriction on only building one factory throughout the game. Like the ZvZ tour, there was a $100 prize pool split among the top 3. This week we saw the conclusion of the tournament with a great finals consisting of Bizzy vs Cryoc. This Bo5 was probably one of the most entertaining I have seen in awhile. The restriction of one factory resulted in a Meta which included lots of Starports. In the last game we had some epic BC vs BC battles with each player having a substantial amount their supply taken up with that unit. Bizzy ended up taking the series 4-1, taking home the $50 prize and the title.





Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=369877




Russia's greatest export, the Defiler Tour, returned this month in some style, with the best and the brightest of the Amateur Brood War scene spending one frenetic Sunday afternoon (or morning or night, depending on location) fighting for the chance a $150 dollars and a higher place in the Defiler.ru rankings.

Multiple Defiler winner and definitely-not-an-SKT-progamer Scan missed his first round match-up and had to work his way back through the losers' bracket for a chance to take what would be his thirteenth slice of Yoda's bank balance. Meanwhile, handsome Spanish Zerg and TL featured streamer, iFU.eonzerg swept his way through the winners' bracket, beating the likes of Largo and TerrOr to earn his place in the aptly named "Super Final". Unfortunately for eonzerg, Scan's Korean genes and definitely-not-a-progamer training won out in the final, with the score ending 3-1 in favour of ISL1 champion.

As usual with Defiler tournaments, individual replays or a full replay pack can be found on their website for those looking to admire or emulate the gameplay of some of the best foreign players around.

Reference: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=367409














In the weeks to come we have some interesting tournaments and events in store for everyone. First up we have the Pucca Relive Series. Pucca is starting a project where his goal is to relive the past of Brood War. In order to do this he is going to start casting old BW games starting with the 2001 Coca-Cola OSL. Here's a taste of what this entails, where he casted a game between two legends, Reach and V-Gundam:



Next up we have the NW CUP 2012 #1. The NetWars community will be hosting a tourney on September 29th, which will be running on the defiler.ru site. This is a Polish only player tournament with a $100 prize pool. This should be a great exposure for some of the top Polish players.

Lastly, we have the E to A+ Ladder Clan League. This tournament will consist of teams made up of people from 5 different skill levels, which are E to A+. Starting on October 5th, this tournament will be under way, and I can only imagine the games will be great.