Only a few days ago, a league called The Global Gaming League ended. The prize was an Alienware Computer, and is to be considered one of the best prizes given for such an online league. However, the average skill level was far below their expectations and the league wasn't popular at all, for various reasons.The professional and world wide famous web design company 2advanced.com were the creators of the GGL's site. The main sponsor is Alienware, sponsoring the winner of every league with a top performing Alienware PC. The administration and especially the economy is from what I've seen far beyond my dreams for a simple Starcraft league and could be compared to any major gaming event of modern days. But still, something went wrong.
Except for the winner, Rekrul, there was hardly anyone with previous merits within the Starcraft community at all. Average players mostly from America participated in the league which must have cost a lot more than it tasted. Here's an interview with Rekrul about the matter:
First of all, congratulations to your win Rekrul. How did it feel?
I wasn't like super happy and proud of my play or anything, because the level of competition was much lower than that of any other tournaments I have ever played in for such a huge prize. But I was very relieved and satisfied that I managed to win after losing the first round.
Yes, that was one of the main subjects I wanted to discuss. From what I've seen of the site, the administration and not to talk about the prizes, it all seems very well planned and simply great. How do you think this enourmous league has failed to get the Starcraft players into their ladders?
Well, their biggest problem was their ladder system itself. It was a rung system in which you challenge someone above you, and they have 3 days to accept/reject your challenge. If they refuse it, they go down 1 rank and thats it. If you win, you swap ranks. The challenging system took way too long than any BW player would have been patient enough for, so no one really wanted to waste their time trying to play it. This is why some lesser known USA players got into it, they thought it would be an easy opportunity at a free computer. The system almost screwed me over actually, I started trying to get games for the ladder like a week before it ended. Since I wasn't smurfing everyone in the top 8 just dodged me because they didn't want to lose their rank. Finally, on the last night, 2 hours before the deadline I found someone nice enough to play me (forn1x) and I won and took his 7th place rank and qualified for the finals.
But I have been told by GGL-DonKing that they are going to do a ranking system next time around much like WGT's system and will publicize it much more to attract a way longer quantity of players.
I was very glad when I managed to get into the top 8 though, because a lot of the players in the top 8 had banded together and all vowed not to play me, which was not very mannerful.
Could you describe more detailed your way to the win in the final tournament? Was it newbie-bashing all the way or was it hard? What happend in that first game you lost?
Well, I lost in the first round against Nyoken (who was playing for BoX). I strongly feel it was Nyoken because his strats/APM matches the player that I played, plus him and BoX are good friends. Once I told the admins about this, the admin started doing IP checks and BoX had to play for himself and played protoss only and played at a level much lower than "he" did in the first round against me. I wasn't really mad about losing round 1, even if it was Nyoken. I am still way better than Nyoken and should have won easily. Anyways, that loss compelled me to start practicing (Yeah I didn't practice at all before the tournament). So the day after that loss and from there I was playing 2-3 hours a day with FroZ, to get myself back into shape. Once I got my skills back I went 4-0 (8-0 in games) through the losers bracket. The players in the losers bracket really didn't have much tournament experience/experience against good players so I was able to beat them pretty easily.
In the finals I had to win two best of 3's against Pyrrhus and he only had to win one of those series to take home the prize. He won the first game, but I didn't lose composure and managed to win the next four games in a row, giving me the win.
Will you participate in the next league of GGL, or is this your definite end of BW - ending while on top?
I will compete in the next GGL, though I am going back into "retirement" for the time being. My poker hobby is much more interesting/fun for me right now. But I will always love BW and will come back for any GGL/CPL/WCG events.
Thanks for your time and good luck to you in the next league! Feel free to add any shoutouts.
Thanks to FroZ and forn1x, I could not have won if it wasn't for both of you. And GGL-DonKing for being a great admin!These are the full results of Rekrul's walk through in the tournament:
| BoX | > Rekrul | 2-1 |
| Rekrul | > eVaDe | 2-0 |
| Rekrul | > BoX | 2-0 |
| Rekrul | > Kakashi859 | 2-0 |
| Rekrul | > DigitalBoy | 2-0 |
| Rekrul | > Pyrrhus[cF] | 4-1 |
We'll be looking forward to see results from the second round of this league (which actually works more like a ladder) and will report back to you with results and informations regarding registrations and more.
Links
GGLeague.com - Official homepage
GGLeague.com - Brackets for SC:BW finals
