It leaves us with many memories, both good and bad. It was the year Blizzard revealed the singleplayer of Starcraft 2, Ret moved to Korea, and Jaedong won the World Cyber Games. This is how we will remember 2009.
The end of GOM TV
GOMTV had three successful Starcraft seasons, but in October the bad news hit us, they will not be running a fourth season. SuperDanielMan announced this on his twitter by saying;
- "As of now I can safely say there won't be any more GOMTV leagues with Progamers in it. Well, to make the long story short, under kespa there are 12 teams and most of them decided not to participate."
The new Battle.net
During BlizzCon 2009, Blizzard revealed their new Battle.net, often referred to as Battle.net 2.0, with a lot of new features. World of Warcraft players will now be joining Diablo, Warcraft 3 and Starcraft in Battle.net, and we will only have one Real ID. They also announced that mapmakers may charge money for their custom made maps, along with all the new features for the mapmaking.
No LAN in Starcraft 2
In 2009 we also got the announcement that Blizzard will not include a LAN feature in Starcraft 2. With fear and frustration the community started a demonstration petition which in writing moment has got 244,936 signatures. Though, Blizzard still stand by what they said, and doesn't seem to be willing to change their minds. They also announced that we'll be able to play the Singleplayer through Battle.net, giving you the option to earn awards in different ways. Around the same time Garimto also announced that he will make a comeback in Starcraft 2.
Singleplayer in Starcraft 2
The singleplayer of Starcraft 2 was revealed. We got the information that in Wings of Liberty we'll be starting out on Jim Raynor's ship, and we'll be able to choose what our next destination will be. We also saw some new videos from the singleplayer, and people at BlizzCon were even able to try out some of the missions. At the same BlizzCon, EffOrt amazingly won the Starcraft tournament. Later making himself the rookie of the year in the Esports Awards in Korea.
The end of ESI
The ESI - Esports International - was about to start it's third season when a terrible announcement hit the scene, the ESI was in lack of dependable admins, sponsors and support from the teams, and in a blink of an eye the league was gone. Manager, ToT)YentA( asked the community for help, but unfortunately it vain.
White-Ra vs BoxeR
White-Ra got to play BoxeR in a TV game of IEF 2009, which is big news itself, but that White-Ra managed to even beat the legendary Emperor himself, that's something for the record. Artosis also told GosuGamers that this game is his best memory from 2009.
Ret moves to Korea
“
I had never expected that I would still get the chance to go to Korea”- RetThe amazing Jaedong
Jaedong had more than 3000 points on the KeSPA ranking, and dominated nearly everyone this year. In 2008 he didn't even make it top four in the grand finals of WCG, but this year he got his revenge and won the World Cyber Games.
He became the Zerg player of the year, but also the player of the year at the Korean Esports Awards. It doesn't stop there, he became the champion of Bacchus OnGameNet Starleague 2009, and he also managed to win the Averatec-Intel Classic Special Match against Bisu, winning the set 3-2. It sure has been a great year for the Tyrant, Jaedong.
Teamliquid Starleague 2
"Welcome Back, TSL" introduced Teamliquid's second TSL. With Pokerstrategy.com as their sponsor, they managed to have a prizepool on almost $20,000. Now the ladder has finished, and the qualification rounds for the ro16 playoffs are about to begin.
IdrA reached A+, and MorroW managed claim the second spot.
Tasteless, Chill and Artosis will also cast the games, starting in ro3. It's also announced that Day9 will pick out games to cast of the round two qualifiers and do a casting / analysis of them.
To Beta or not to Beta
- That sure was the question of 2009. The Beta was announced to launch during the summer but it never happened, and Blizzard also said they were aiming for an end of the year release. Unfortunately they later said both the game and the beta had been pushed to the first half of 2010. It was said the delay was due the new Battle.net, and rumours appeared about the beta being released soon when Blizzard announced that the World of Warcraft players had to merge their accounts to Battle.net to be able to play after November the 11th. Yet nothing happened, but now, it is in fact, the first half of 2010.
Dreamhack Summer & Winter
During Dreamhack Summer, many of the top foreign players of Europe showed, and Ret was one of them, who also won the whole tournament above players such as Dreiven and Dimaga.
Dreamhack Winter was somewhat different, less foreign players and more Swedes in the top. But the Russian Terran player, BRAT_OK outplayed everyone, and defeated Enivid in the finals, who beat Naugrim on his way in the semifinals. Naugrim later grabbed the thirdplace.
There have been some upsets this year, but a lot of great news as well. We started the GosuCups here at GosuGamers, Yellow and Boxer have played some nostalgic games, we've seen Blizzard's latest Battle Reports, many new Q&A Batches, and ToT managed to win both the Titans League and the WGTCL. Hopefully 2010 will be just as good, or even better. The new year is starting out with the TSL2 qualifiers, and Starcraft 2 is said to be released during the first half of the year, so it's a good start.
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