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StarCraft 27 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

SpoTV back in the game

As 2016 drew to a close, major changes to the StarCraft scene were to be expected. Though the community would yet again be cut in twain with WCS Circuit and WCS Korea as separate entities, the details of the 2017 WCS were still very much undecided. The discontinuation of Proleague meant fewer opportunities for Korean players to showcase their skills, and although the chairman of AfreecaTV had announced that the GSL would continue to bring top notch competition in 2017, SSL was a completely different matter. Rumours of SpoTV looking to completely withdraw from the StarCraft franchise altogether were quickly hushed on forums by fans with a polyannish outlook on life, yet as the days passed by no official statement regarding the SSL was issued by the company.

Suspicions regarding the SSL's future were confirmed on the 9th of December 2016, when the WCS 2017 format was announced, revealing the GSL would be the sole StarLeague constituent of the Korean part of the series. It became apparent Blizzard and SpoTV did not manage to find common ground and although the Korean broadcast company was at liberty to organise events in the future, the SSL would not be a league sanctioned by Blizzard Entertainment and would not yield WCS points to its competitors.

Until now.

 

Over the course of the past few months, various teasers started appearing on SpoTV's social media, hinting towards a 'new beginning'. The videos featured the same chair that had appeared in sundry SSL 2016 material, thus the community was led to believe the company is returning with yet another installment of the StarCraft II StarLeague (aka SpoTV StarLeague). And as much as that seemed a reasonable assumption, speculations regarding the TV channel shifting their attention towards Brood War began circulating online forums. During one of his regular streams, former KT Rolster progamer Lee 'Flash' Young Ho mentioned that sponsors were queueing up to organise StarCraft I competitions.

On the 28th of February the company's plan saw the light of day, when they announced the 2017 SSL Series featuring both Brood War as well as StarCraft 2. The Brood War part of the competition, dubbed the SSL Classic, will be a 10 player invitational, whose participants will be determined through a popular vote, whilst the StarCraft 2 portion is split into two separate levels. SSL Premier and SSL Challenge will see a total of 20 players battling it out not only for monetary gains but also the much sought-after WCS points. The format is akin to that of the GSL of yore, where Code A and Code S were two separate competitions, the former feeding top finishers to the latter. SSL Premier, the more prestigious level, not only offers players the opportunity to contend for a more lavish prize purse, but getting to the top 4 is also the only way for the players to obtain the aforementioned WCS points.

The league will also utilise the round-robin format, which has been gaining a hefty amount of popularity in recent months.

 

The qualifiers have also concluded, here are your 20 competitors:

 

SSL Premier :      

                                                                                                             

  • Kim 'sOs' Yoo Jin                                                                                                                
  • Lee 'INnoVation' Shin Hyung                                                                                                        
  • Joo 'Zest' Sung Wook                                                                                                          
  • Kang 'Solar' Min Soo                                                                                                            
  • Cho 'Maru' Seong Ju                                                                                                              
  • Kim 'Stats' Dae Yeob                                                                                                              
  • Han 'ByuL' Ji Won                                                                                                                
  • Han 'aLive' Lee Seok                                                                                                            
  • Jo 'Patience' Ji Hyun                                                                                                              
  • Park 'Dark' Ryung Woo  

                                                                                                       

SSL Challenge:

 

 

The tournament kicks off on the 20th of March with regular weekly broadcasts.

headline image source: SpoTV 

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