From the World of eSports
In the very first week of March, the cogs and springs of the Korean e-sports scene finally clicked to their right places - DongRaeGu, arguably the best zerg if not the best player in the world, brought home the most solid gold achievement of theм all - the Code S trophy. Year 2011 was not as kind as DRG and his fans hoped for - the MVP zerg was always in the center of high esteem but the overhype surrounding him was padded with just two first places - one at DreamHack Valencia and one at IEM New York, both "minor" events for such an outbursting talent. The third places at MLG Providence and Raleigh and the silvers at the Arena of Legends and especially the Blizzard Cup continued to mock DRG's renown. Winning the King of Kongs in the beginning of 2012 was a small consolation; after all, this only meant he was the best of the runner-ups. An unacceptable praise, amplified even more by another second place at the MLG Winter Arena.
Then, on March 3rd 2012, in a six-set series against his team-mate Genius, DongRaeGu finally got what he deserved - a Code S trophy in his hand. It felt like the most appropriate answer to the question "When will the most feared player in all StarCraft reach the highest peak". Yet, seeing how the month of March developed for him, one has to whisper to himself "At least he got that one..."
Less then a week after Code S ended, we packed our bags and flew to Hanover to experience the enormity and grandeur of the IEM World Championship. After five days of tooth-and-nail scrimmages and loudly exciting StarCraft 2 rumble, the season did a full circle since its beginning in Cologne in 2011 and MC and Puma met for a fourth time.
Puma was already ahead of MC, having beaten him at two grand finals--IEM Cologne and NASL 1--but as is the case of every rivalry of Holmes-Moriarty subclass, there is never an ultimate winner and each of the parties are constantly in mortal danger (although with MC as your arch-enemy, you are in a more mortal danger than normal people will ever be). After being down 1-2 with a very real possibility of ending defeated in the next set, MC pulled a miraculous comeback after being substantially behind following the events of a failed timing attack. A game later and SK's protoss jumped on stage victorious and grabbed the trophy in a spontaneous, unconstrained fashion.
The number two is a very sacred for MarineKingPrime, it has always been. During the blossom of his early career, it marked the curse that followed him everywhere, often delivered by the shattering hand of IMMvp. The young and very emotional ace of Team Prime quickly became the personification of the eternal runner-up, the SC2 reincarnation of Yellow, the King of Silver continued.
It all went to dust at the MLG Winter Arena in February when MKP found gold at the end of the premier rainbow, besting the undisputed TvZ specialist DRG in the final. Just one month later, MKP met DongRaeGu at a second grand final--namely MLG Winter Championship--crushing him for the second time to win his second MLG in a row. We shall never know if Prime had staffed a warlock to transfer the silver curse over to DRG (again!) but whatever the truth, the facts are that MarineKing may conquer yet another championship should his team defeat StarTale in the GSTL grand finals this month.
After failing to be crowned MLG champion for yet another time, DongRaeGu returned home to be tested in what should have been a much more mundane trial. After all, what normal people call "TvZ challenge", DongRaeGu refers to as "free win encounter".
Not that day. By the power of jet lag or just a bad afternoon gone worse, DongRaeGu ended fourth in a group with three terrans, winning just one map, falling down to Code A and writing possibly the biggest upset in GSL history since San's fiasco in March 2011. What is more worrysome is that he is one game away from GSL elimination and having a zerg mirror in Code A Ro48 against Revival is not making his future any brighter. TSL are, after all, most famous for their zerg line-up and Revival is hovering around 60% win-rate. DongRaeGu's loss to TheSTC and Taeja might just be the most lethal event in his career.
In People's Mouths
On March 1st we heard from a WarCraft 3 legend trying to make his way over to StarCraft 2. In an interview for Tatazu.com, the renowned Human player and WCG '09 champion Infi talked about his transitioning from a dying game to a new and more promising one. Infi expressed some strong statements about the scene and the game, e.g. that SC2 is "still a tower rush game", that early GSL VODs bored him, how the gameplay is SC2's only advantage to WarCraft 3 and about the latter having a superior battle system.
The focus of community's discussions, however, lied with if Infi's transition can be successful to any extent. Can he and his Chinese compatriots reach the heights they conquered in WC3? Will Infi be as successful as other War3 pros such as Stephano and Naniwa or will he share the fluctuating results of Grubby and Moon? Is there a point where WarCraft players are unable to shake off their old habits and embrace the new game or the past has nothing to do with the future as long as one finds a style that suits him?
Maybe you should skim through the interview and leave a comment yourself.
This shocking news came a week ago as Cadred.org cited WCG's CEO Brad Lee who said that "WCG had been committed to the PC-Based gaming event for a long time and under this circumstance, [WCG] made a hard decision that [it] should bring the mobile, new key sector in the game industry, in [its] event concept."
Naturally, there were strong reactions coming from the community and many people held to the opinion that this is the stupidest idea WCG could ever have. Going mobile-only, scrapping the Pan Championships and the PC-Based national finals, as well as filling the official WCG list top-to-bottom with mobile games, would mean the demolition of a tournament that was a pillar for eSports for many years in the past.
Still, whether this was an April Fools joke posted a bit too early or not, one can see the sliver of reasoning behind such a move. To many fans' disapointment, WCG 2011 failed to deliver anything close to an adequate production and we saw StarCraft 2 games being streamed in a resolution that would have been perfect had we lived seven years in the past. If WCG administration and its partners have no intention or the spare capital to compete with high-production non-mobile eSports events such as MLG, IEM or DreamHack, maybe removing themselves from the calendar would spare both them and the eSports fans a lot of negative emotions.
The guys over at Fnatic made a big step this month, opening an independent foreign team house in South Korea. No co-operations, no partnerships with Korean teams, just a place of their own where the StarCraft 2 and League of Legends rosters can live, train and get better at the game.
Also, it is a relief to see that the unfortunate development of Fnatic-TSL negotiations about a partnership (which came to an end during the aLive conflict) proved no obstacle to Fnatic's goals. Next on their list of tasks: kicking ass at the GSTL!
Usually, StarCraft players whose career is not going all too well embark on any other journey to professional success but this one.
The first such news surfaced at the end of February when Yellow--the zerg BroodWar legend--announced his career switch from a StarCraft player (although not a full-time one) to a League of Legends coach. The shocking decision was followed by another similar one coming from the first ever GSL champion and member of StarTale FruitDealer. FruitDealer's departure from professional StarCraft 2 came a few months after his elimination from Code A and to many fans ending his occupation as a player was understandable. On March 5th, the wait for FruitDealer's reappearance as a StarTale coach came to an end... although to one that no one in the whole world expected.
The topic of debate was one clearly outlined: What set of skills can a SC2 pro teach a League of Legends team. Certainly not the micro and macro mechanics but maybe the mentality of the professional competitor and champion, training discipline and habits or simply the mentoring of a figure that has done eSports for a long, long time. Whatever the reason and the outcome, it was sad to see a name of his caliber go.
Out of the GosuGamers' Oven
Shortly after his victory at IEM Hanover, we talked to the Boss Toss Min Chul "MC" Jang about a great deal of things - his grand final series against Puma and the thoughts that races through his head while he was sprinting for the gold; how and if the metagame shift helped him; the lessons he learned during his stay in Germany; and how he wants to learn WhiteRa manners.
"I was pissed when he caught me off-guard and was in a really bad spot," told us MC. "Puma thought he could finish me off after he caught all my sentries and most of my army but when he was fighting near my choke I had all my 8 gateways up and so I managed to defend it. After I defended that attack I knew that I am back in the game."
Although his plans to win MLG were thwarted by Naniwa, IPL comes along in a few days and the "Obama Protoss" will get another chance to shine. Mayhaps he'll talk to us after another international win...
It was an utmost pleasure to have Grubby as our first interviewee at IEM World Championship. In the cold windy morning of March 7th, we talked to one of the most cheerful eSports figures and despite the feeling of our hands freezing and the few technical difficulties with a certain traitorous microphone, we were able to share with you a very interesting and very personal conversation with the WarCraft 3 legend. Manuel walked us through his last-minute arrival at IEM, his take on how the latest patch changed how protoss is played, what does he expect from Heart of the Swarm and, last but not least, his feelings towards the game he played for so many years and the emotions that accompanied his transition to StarCraft 2.
"I wouldn't say that "miss" is the correct word because I know the scene is over and I've had my grieving period during which I accepted this fact. So yeah, at one point I realized it was all over and I had to move on to something else, that being StarCraft 2. People have been telling me "You should go back to WarCraft 3" and yeah, maybe I would've if I could've, if there was a scene like StarCraft. But there isn't and you can only go so far in bringing something back from the dead.
In my heart, WarCraft 3 has always meant so much, almost everything good that happened to be was because of it. Meeting my wife I owe to WarCraft, having my fans I owe to WarCraft and all the travelling and experience I had I owe to WarCraft. It's a beautufil period in my life and I have this box of memories, you know, like those snowglobes that you turn upside down and see snowflakes falling - I can recall them at any time I want and I can feel a sense of satisfaction. But to say that I miss it would mean that I can't get past it and I am past it!"
We never met Kaelaris prior to our arrival in Hanover but it would be a lie to say that the charming Brit did not win us over as his fans over the course of this interveiew. The Boromir of StarCraft 2 took eight minutes of his time to tell us why he moved to Finland, how did he get into casting and why he's not such a huge Idra fan anymore.
If you have to pick one video interview (although you shouldn't, you should watch all of them) let it be this one. Give James some love. After all, his two look-alikes were either beheaded or arrowed to death.
