On The Shoulders of Giants

September 21st, 2009 15:07 GMT

On The Shoulders of Giants
by Riptide
Team Liquid: Final Edits

It's a slow evening in the News room. Apart from team melee and IRC, not a lot is being done.

Suddenly a door slams somewhere outside, and the Editor's long, deliberate steps are heard across the hallway.There's a rush to altqq Broodwar and gather notes. Someone starts scribbling frantically in the margin of his notebook. A newbie opens TLPD on all the available machines and retires to his seat just as the door opens.

Fluorescent light spills in from the hallway, and a tired looking man steps into the darkened room. Walking to the head of the table, he yanks open a yellowed folder and pulls out a sheaf of papers.

Thumbing through them at ease, he walks around the room.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. What have you got for me today?"

He sees a shuffling of feet, and a folding of hands. Finally, from the far end of the table, a guest writer pipes up.

"PvZ - is it really imbalanced?"

The man looks at him over his half rimmed glasses. "What?"

"Um, we have some Mondragon reps."

"There's a new foreign Starleague being organised."

"What Bonjwa really means!"

The Editor looks around the room, unable to summon the energy to even shake his head.

The man sighs. "Do any of you know who used to sit in those chairs?"

His voice swells to fill the shadowy interior of the room, and the ancient paper cuttings on the walls seem to echo his speech, each line of carefully written prose strengthening his own voice, every paragraph a declaration of the past.

"News is not the General Forum. It is not Broodwar."

He continues, his tone measured and definite.

"Team Liquid News is not about making threads. It's about making history."

He pulls a ripcord, and a light in the far corner flickers to life, illuminating a battered filing cabinet.

"Boys and girls," he says, "let me tell you a story."

Team Liquid has been around for seven years, and in doing so has provided English speaking fans with coverage of the Korean Professional Starcraft scene for the entirety of its existence. From its early days, TL's News team did its best to give the site's readers the best of Korea, and over the years this outfit has seen many changes. Of course, one thing has always remained the same - the quality of coverage. From the early days when VODs were hard to come by, to now where most games are freely available on Youtube, times have changed, technology has advanced, but TL keeps churning out the best written coverage on the Starcraft scene, and dare we say, in all of ESPORTS™.

Seven years is a long time to do anything consistently. Whether you're a navel gazer or a BGH player, going at something for that long must be applauded. Thus, as we celebrate TL's 7th Birthday, we thought it would be good to take a stroll through the site's history and feature seven of the best writers TL has known. Some them you may know already, as they post among us every day. Others you may have only heard of in passing, in a nostalgic comment left by a veteran, or in an age old battle report that you scarcely understand. Either way, rest assured that this analysis of TL's writing history is going to make you appreciate more than ever what this News team has done for the community.

Before we begin though, it's important that we understand the philosophy behind News coverage on TL. As Nazgul says, "We didnt really choose the Korean scene as much as other sites chose to cover foreign Starcraft. To me, it was just natural - Korea was SC and gaming at its finest, and how can you consciously choose not to cover this when you are able to do so?"

Having said that, and seen where all this is coming from, have a walk with us as we look at seven years of TL News through the eyes of seven of its most vibrant writers.

Waxangel
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Waxangel, left, was one arm of Team Liquid's original News team.

Waxangel's user ID is 2. His first post ID is 1. This dude is as old as the hills, and for years he provided TL with coverage from Korea when few other English sites knew, let alone cared about Professional Starcraft. Here's an excerpt from the very first post on Team Liquid, a topic that featured coverage from the 2002 SKY Ongamenet Starleague Semi-finals -

On September 22 2002 22:08 Waxangel wrote:
Game report for September 20th, 2002.

2002 SKY Ongamenet Starleague Semi-finals

[Oops]Reach vs [NC]..Yellow

Today I went to see the semi-finals of the Starleague live. That meant going 5 hours early and sitting on ridiculously uncomfortable benches for the duration of the games. Was it worth it? No chance in hell. Oh well, here are the games.

Yes, not only was TL's first post Korean scene coverage, it was live Korean scene coverage. In an age where games getting on to youtube was not even a distant dream, Waxangel gave TL, and through TL the entire foreign community a taste of ground zero. Remember, this was September 2002, and Boxer was still in IS. In fact, just a month later, he breaks two huge pieces of news in just two paragraphs -

On October 15 2002 12:35 Waxangel wrote:
Well, let's see....

Boxer left the IS team, soon after his loss to Reach in the OGN finals. Apparently his father was mad that the IS team couldn't acquire good protoss users for Boxer to practice against. Perhaps that's part of the reason. Anyway, Boxer is up for grabs now, it's said he's been contacted by various companies....

And....

Garimto announced he would retire :O! He said he would continue playing for the duration of next OGN starleague and the OGN war3 league. Apparently he has decided to set aside progaming for the new job he has gotten as a developer for a Korean game company. He will also stop doing announcing for iTV. I'll have to watch all of his OGN games now, it may be the last time I see him progame

Well, bad news or good news? I suppose Boxer's departure from IS could be considered a good thing and a bad thing... He'll still be an excellent player competing in various leagues..

As for Garimto, I really hate to see him go T_T. But if he can help make a good korean(unheard of!) game, it might be worth it in the long run

Information from PGR21.com, which took it from a Korean newspaper, Sports Chosun.

I hope mensrea can get more news on this :O!

"What? Leaving? Thanks, we'll break it right away. Yes, telex it to me."

Yeah so uh, Boxer leaves Ideal Space and GARITMO retires. Thx. Put that into context - no other English speaking site of the day ran that news. It was exclusive to TL, and Waxangel was there, dishing it out. This break it first, break it good mentality was something that the news team would run with well into the future.

From reporting that Nazgul didn't die on his the way to Korea to breaking the startling news of players moving teams, Waxangel was a News pioneer in every sense of the word. What he is most famous for though, are his Battle Reports. In a time before VODs, these were the closest foreign fans could get to the action, and pieces like the 2002 SKY OSL Semi-finals battle report remind us of just how close to the game a good writer can bring his or her readers.

Mensrea
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"So, I followed that lead, and Boxer's starting his own team or something. Wtf?"

The other half of the original news team, Mensrea was Waxangel's partner in crime, and with him ruled SC coverage for the early part of TL's life. Indeed, Waxangel's reliance on Mensrea is seen clearly in his concluding remarks of the post we featured above - I hope mensrea can get more news on this :O!. Of course, as you read old Mensrea posts, you quickly understand why. Powered by an excellent knowledge of the pro scene, an abundance of attitude and plenty of sarcasm, his posts are witty, informative and always a thrill to read. XellOs fans, rejoice -

On November 18 2002 02:23 mensrea wrote:
And did all of the above not matter at all to Xellos (@8) on this made-for-Xellos map?!?! Did I not call this one?! Is there any doubt why Xellos is being called "Perfect Terran?" I mean, objectively, the tide seemed to swing from player to player throughout the match - but you wouldn't have known it watching Xellos play. He just never seemed to lose composure, surprise Ultras or otherwise. It was like he knew, no matter how advantageous things looked for his opponent, that he wouldn't be the one typing "gg" in the end. It was obvious Mumyung came prepared for this battle and I'm really not sure what more he could have done. I'm tellin' ya, Zerg users all over Korea were shaking their heads after this match and considering retirement.

His dedication during TL's early days knows no bounds, and history tells us that he even put hand to keyboard when he would very have liked to just give up and go chill somewhere.

On February 20 2003 09:39 mensrea wrote:
I gave serious thought to just NOT writing up a report on the Panasonic OGN Starleague final between [Red]Nada (T) and [Soul]Chojja (Z) (took place Friday, February 14). Warum? Because, it was boring, ok? B-O-R-I-N-G! I ended up spending more time staring and picking at a piece of dead skin sticking out on my left index finger than the TV screen. Was it because we'd all already SEEN this matchup before just a short time previous? Was it the fact the final between supposedly the two current best players on the planet ended up being a one-sided shit-kicking the likes of which OGN hasn't seen since Boxer v Jinnam in the HanbitSoft Starleague final? Could it have been the disappointingly smaller scale of the final put on by OGN in the cozy confines of Jamsil Indoor Sports Auditorium (well, smaller being relative to the massive final for the Boxer v Reach SKY 2002 final with like 20,000 fans screaming their heads off for 3 hours straight in the middle of Olympic Park in Seoul - a tough act to follow, I'll admit)?

Maybe ALL OF THE ABOVE? Well, whatever it was, the charged energy I usually sense leading up to, during and after the final just wasn't there this time. The trio of OGN casters/commentators were decked out in snazzy, Andre Kim knock-offs (or...were they REAL?!), but all things considered, they were over-dressed for the occasion. Most of you all already know the final results, but here's what happened in more detail:

Seriously, what a hero.

In fact, further investigation has shown that Mensrea also had an uncanny ability to incorporate progaming incidents that had not yet taken place into his word play, as is seen in his 2002 article News Flash! - Yellow Set To Join KTF Team. Like Waxangel, he was also instrumental in breaking big news to the foreign community. He was around when Boxer started his own team, and there when SKT stepped up to sponsor it.

As if all this wasn't enough, this writer also pioneered the OSL awards which we now vote on as a community at the end of every season. See the mensrea OGN Starleague Mid-Term Awards thread for one of the first OSL awards ceremonies to take place on TL.

Manifesto7
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"So, Mensrea, this newbie wants to write for us."
"What you want to cover, kid?"
"I was thinking it would be interesting to..."
"Go write about Gillete. Thanks."

A benevolent ruler, Manifesto7 has been admin on these forums for as long as most of us can remember. While spreading fear far and wide is his current occupation, one must not forget that he began his career as a News writer. Indeed, if you caught any of his writing for Proleague last season, you'd have seen that he hasn't lost his touch at all. While Waxangel and Mensrea are still going strong at this point, Mani thankfully enters the fray as well, and slowly but surely the writing mantle passes to him over the next year or so.

Of course, the era in which TL was stepping into was vastly different from the one that Waxrea had just brought them out of. VODs were now available, and by available I mean you had to have significant pull within the community to get access to them quickly.

TL News was one of the first departments to get VODs quickly,
and the results started showing in their coverage soon enough.

They were however, available, and as the months wore on, we see battle reports get more and more indepth. For posterity's sake, here is a snippet from Manifesto7's first News post, a paragraph under Game Notes in which he notices the beginnings of a trend we take for granted today.

On April 11 2004 17:37 Manifesto7 wrote:
- Gillette is definitely getting their advertising money out of this venture. Remember those old home video editors (or the Simpsons episode) where you could star swipe to the next scene? Well every time the commentators switched to the first person view, a huge razor swept across the screen, flashing the Gillette name, as a visual segue. In addition, the name was all over the studio, including July�s headphones. I guess for the amount of money they are spending, they want to use it to its fullest potential.

Starting there, Mani wrote a lot for news. His coverage spreads across five years, countless leagues and hundreds of games. It is a well known fact however, that his favourite match was the EVER 2004 final, and this indeed is seen in his epic coverage of the series.

On November 21 2004 01:19 Manifesto7 wrote:

This really was one of the best 5 game series I have ever seen. The games lived up to the drama, and that is a rare event. The two players know each other so well, that the games were balenced on the razors edge. A singel mistake was all it took to win or lose. After the games, the two players were brought up on stage where Lim was unable to contain his emotions as the tears came down. Obviously I can�t know, but it looked like the stress of playing in a final against his prot�g� (and friend) Iloveoov. Although it put a damper on oov�s celebration, as well as the awards ceremony, I totally sympathize with him. The pressure both players were under was incredible, and it seemed that at the end it all came out in a rush. I thought the most touching moment was when oov went to comfort his friend at the end, giving up his own glorious time for the well-being of someone who has obviously given him so much.

If that is not Manifesto7's magnum opus, I don't know what is. Of course, it's difficult to summarise the writing of a guy who has so much content in News. While his farewell to Boxer is an irreplaceable part of TL history, it is in articles like his Shinhan 3 OSL Finals piece that Mani truly pushed boundaries. From layout to length, it is pieces like this that began to set the standard for News in the era that was to come.

Arbiter[frolix]
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"Superman did what? Write me a full battle report and I'll believe you."

One of the most famous battle report writers on TL, Arbiter[frolix] rose to prominence during the Gilette OSL Taking the starleague, and writing the crap out of it, he finishes coverage off in style by making note of just how historic July's win really is.

On August 01 2004 18:00 Arbiter[frolix] wrote:
July proves himself the champion of the entire swarm by becoming the first zerg player to win the Ongamenet Starleague. After speeches by Korean actor Jo Jae Hyun and a German representative of Gillette Korea, who entertained the crowd with his faltering Korean, July Zerg was presented with his winner's cheque for 20 million Korean Won, roughly 9,400 British Pounds or 17,100 US Dollars. In recognition of his second place finish, Reach received 10 million Korean Won.

July, who finished with a record of 11 - 4, truly had a phenomenal tournament, 4-pooling Casey, and knocking over Zeus, Xellos, Oov and Reach to take the ultimate prize. Throughout the tournament he eschewed defensive play and always took the game to his opponent, his performances against Oov a particularly striking example. Reach, who finished 8 - 7, had a good tournament, showing flashes of his old brilliance, particularly in the semifinal, and defeated Nal_Ra, Nada and Silent_Control on the way to the final.

This is Arbiter[frolix] signing off from the 2004 Gillette Ongamenet Starleague.

He would return, just a few weeks later, to cover EVER 2004, a league which Mani eventually took over. One thing to note here is that around this time we also begin to see a shift in News writing style, something that is clearly evident in Arbiter[frolix]'s coverage of EVER Week 1, a rather lengthy post for so early on in a league. From new features like weekly awards in News posts,

On October 07 2004 00:45 Arbiter[frolix] wrote:
And the TeamLiquid.net Player of the Week award for week four goes to:

The irrepressible Nal_Ra, for the second time this season. Having lost two games in a row even Ra's fans may have forgiven him for opting for a conservative and solid game plan to try to secure a much-needed win. However, that just is not Kang Min's style as he once again left the Ongamenet audience and commentators almost speechless with a veritable forest of manner pylons in his unusual victory over a confused IntotheRainbow.

to image heavy battle reports, Arbiter[frolix] was at the forefront of TL's changing News scene, and it is safe to say that all subsequent writers were influenced, perhaps even unknowingly, by the way he approached the coverage of this game.

Hot_Bid
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"Hello, gfx? Where's my banner? What? No, today. Today, today, today.
Don't make me come down there..."

Although perhaps most well known for heading up the TSL, it's important to note that Hot_Bid's role as a writer on TL precedes any other responsibilities he now has. Currently in charge of the hallowed TLFE section, Hot_Bid was behind its creation, and also wrote many of its most legendary pieces, including the famous Revolutionary Magic and Heir Apparent, a personal favourite.

On December 28 2007 15:16 Hot_Bid wrote:
Zerg users are like their race. Their careers can blaze and rage or wither and die all within a year, a season, or a single game. More so than any other race, a Zerg player’s abilities are influenced by their momentum. Fear the confident, win-streaking Zerg player, and be happy to play the opposite. How else does one explain GGPlay’s lone title or July’s entire career?

Therefore, as much as it hurts to say this, it is becoming increasingly evident that Shinhan3 was Savior’s peak. The Maestro we knew and loved may never return. The fan in me will always support Ma Jae Yoon and hold out the hope that the Bonjwa in him has not fully been extinguished. If any player can make a full comeback, he can. But history is not on his side.

It is as if all Zerg players are subconsciously linked. Within a hive mind, it is logical, almost intuitive, that only one champion is supremely successful at any given time. With Savior’s painful fall from Bonjwa, it is inevitable that the Zerg hierarchy sort itself out. Savior’s successor, his heir, will step forward.

Personally, these were the words that brought me to TL, and made me want to write for the site. Hot_Bid himself though began at TL as a writer on Liquiscoop, the now retired community news rag. Although the newsletter lasted for only six months, he stayed on and began his News coverage with a piece titled Top Ten Memorable Moments from Shinhan3 OSL.

This piece stands alone for a while however. As the years pass and interestingly, despite several Final Edits to his name, Hot_Bid only returns to proscene news coverage in 2008, where he takes on the MSL and carries it through for two seasons, including the last. In his position as MSL writer, he gave us pieces like Last Dance,

On November 22 2008 05:27 Hot_Bid wrote:
SK Telecom T1 house. Best is 4-1 since his semifinals loss against Stork. Best continuously loops the VOD of the Stork OSL win over his teammate Fantasy, a combination of jealousy, anger, and determination in his eyes. It's 6:00 AM.

Best: (bursting into Bisu's room) Let's practice some PvP.
Bisu: (groggily, still half asleep) wuhh
Best: Let's go practice for your MSL Final.
Bisu: It's 6 AM.
Best: (throws cup of water into Bisu's face) Let's go.
Bisu: I'm up, I'm up. Geez.

They walk to the practice room. Half the computers are missing monitors.

Bisu: What happened here?
Best: Fantasy and I burned all Samsung products.
Bisu: Let me go eat breakfast first...
Best: (not allowing him to leave) No. Practice now. Beat Samsung. Eat after.

If there's one thing that's clear at this point, it's this - TL news had certainly evolved, and now included content like mock interviews, and more in depth analysis, both features that would slowly become a staple of News in the era that Hot_Bid was leading TL into.

thedeadhaji
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The community arrives en masse to see how Haji
managed to break the News team's only typewriter.

TL's most prolific poster, haji wrote for both the News and TLFE sections, and even holds the honour of being the first contributor to the latter via his amazingly accurate Why Lecaf OZ Will Win the Proleague piece.

On July 17 2007 20:32 thedeadhaji wrote:
If this isn’t enough for you, let me give you this line: Lecaf fielded a mind-boggling zero players to the OSL or MSL, making them the only team to accomplish such a feat this season (with even the lowly ACE team having Boxer in the MSL).

This team was one game away from getting to the finals against CJ last season, and they’re back again with a dramatically improved lineup. For the last 5 months, they have had nothing to play for other than winning the Proleague. Can any other team possibly want it as badly as these guys?

In fact, in the early days of the TLFE, he was its main benefactor, and with a whopping 18 articles in that section alone, to date remains the writer with the most Final Edits to his or her name. From his SPL Best games series, to the famous Starcraft Tivo threads, thedeadhaji provided a lot of quality content in a very short time. Indeed, apart from being one of TL's biggest contributors, Haji is also one of its most faithful. In fact, his last OSL post is about Incruit and was made long after he was no longer with News.

Having said that, haji's biggest contribution to TL news was obviously the sheer volume of his posts. Post-haji, writers could not get away with a few well written paragraphs. As seen in his GOMTV MSL S3 Finals Battle Report, when thedeadhaji brought it, he brought it, and did so experimenting with new page layout methods to boot, a practice that subsequent News team members would gladly run with.

Plexa

Plexa, front center, seen here disgusted by MBC's recent Proleague run.

Head of the writing team, and general overseer of the written word on TL, Plexa needs no introduction. From the TLFE to league coverage, he is the News team's most public member, and is always hard at work making TL's written coverage better on a daily basis.

Bursting on to the big stage after a particularly violent bout of blogging in early 2008, Plexa took TL News by storm. Starting with some OSL coverage and then diving into his first TLFE, Plexa brought a unique passion for the game to writers, and this showed clearly in all his work.

On February 06 2008 20:51 Plexa wrote:
It’s all nice and easy when your player is winning.

But when things go wrong, it’s tough to be a fan.

Starcraft is a cruel mistress. The average duration of a Progamer’s career is roughly three years. In those three years, only six months is spent at the top in either of the two major individual leagues. Even when you’re a fan of a bonjwa, it really hurts when they come plummeting back down to earth. All you Savior fanboys know exactly what I’m saying. Savior’s recent games have been abysmal at best and a long way away from the form he showed when he was on top.

Plexa's main contribution to News though lay in how he went about league coverage. In terms of layout, TLFEs like I Loved Victory pioneered the box and side story systems which are now used in news coverage, and pieces like ... It's About Change and A Grand Summation helped solidify editorial trends like the practice of using multiple writers on one piece. As TL News moves forward under his watchful care, you can rest assured that it will grow and change to meet and overcome all the challenges that modern Starcraft throws at it.

Historians at Heart
As you can see, Team Liquid News has come a long way in seven years. Starting from quick, vital updates in the no-VOD era, to lengthy analyses following the birth of TLFE, TL's written coverage of Professional Starcraft stands unrivalled in today's online world. While dozens of other websites now focus on SC in Korea, none can match the length or breadth of what TL provides.

Indeed, every time a Team Liquid News writer sets out to write a piece, much like I did today, he or she is never putting together something from scratch. No, when TL writers begin crafting their pieces, they are not only building on the work of legends like those mentioned above, they are actually just using pieces of the past to mirror the present, and in doing so, give us a glimpse of the future. From writing style, to layout and content, each News writer inadvertently pays homage to this entire team every time he or she pens an article.

Indeed, as I write these words, and as I sign off now, I am ever conscious of the fact that in presenting this piece to the community, I am now, and through my future work always will be, standing on the shoulders of giants. They were TL, they are TL, and they will be TL, for what is Team Liquid if not the sum of its greatest contributors? Thank you, News team, for seven years of the world's best Starcraft coverage. Happy Birthday Team Liquid, and here's to many more!

Thanks to Silversky for the banner, and Happy Birthday to him too! He's 20 today, and TL wishes him nothing but the best.

Kerotan

England2109 Posts

September 21 2009 15:16 GMT

Another awesome article.

For me, pieces like this are brilliant, as a late comer, my knowledge of the early days of TL has been relativly limited compared to this article, but even in my short time on TL its been easy to see the evolution in style and content, of what has always been steler reporting from the writing staff.

I'm fairly sure that in a years time, there will new name on this list, when it is writen by the new and upcoming staff writer of the day, and that name will be yours riptide.

vRoOk

United States1024 Posts

September 21 2009 15:17 GMT

Riptide your bomb.com

KasPra

Estonia983 Posts

September 21 2009 15:21 GMT

A great article, however there certainly isnt a lot of similarities between teamliquid and professional journalism, lawl. Anyway i really like the introduction

TL has great writers.

JonsaBoy

Denmark457 Posts

September 21 2009 15:28 GMT

Awesome write-up. Being a newer starcraft player, this is a lot of interesting stories about the TL team through the last 7 years.

Spenguin

Australia3316 Posts

September 21 2009 15:39 GMT

Riptide that was amazing TL FIGHTING

HiHiByeBye

Canada365 Posts

September 21 2009 15:57 GMT

Happy Birthday TL! Amazing stuff!

Julmust

Sweden4867 Posts

September 21 2009 16:07 GMT

Really good read, I was actually thinking of this when I read Plexas Here To Stay.

I was thinking about how a site like TeamLiquid, who is strictly non-profit (from what I have gatherd), can have this many great articles. I mean the writing on TL is better then most news-papers today. It's got this professional feel to it.

Altough I havent been here for long;
Thanks to all the writers!

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21242 Posts

September 21 2009 16:07 GMT

Amazing article.

Eiii

United States2566 Posts

September 21 2009 16:20 GMT

#10

This is such a great read it almost hurts.

imweakless

757 Posts

September 21 2009 16:27 GMT

#11

Classic article!.GJ riptide

Amnesia

United States3818 Posts

September 21 2009 16:31 GMT

#12

Your writing style amazes me as well. This website has so many talented writers.

cgrinker

United States3824 Posts

September 21 2009 16:37 GMT

#13

Epic history here.

29 fps

United States5718 Posts

September 21 2009 16:40 GMT

#14

nice. TL definitely has had some great historians.

i do have to disagree with "the quality of coverage has remained the same" because if anything, it's gotten better and better over the years.

Iplaythings

Denmark9110 Posts

September 21 2009 16:54 GMT

#15

Wow, awesome article, do anyone mind me telling me when the first PR came out? and TLPD?

Lenwe

Netherlands757 Posts

September 21 2009 17:00 GMT

#16

You probably would not mention yourself and perhaps you have not been writing long enough to be up there, but with the quality you have been delivering it won't take that much longer.

Zyrre

Sweden291 Posts

September 21 2009 17:05 GMT

#17

Love the article and the pictures + descriptions are amazing!