History of the WarCraft III scene 2002-2010

WarCraft III 2002-2003 (first beta, Reign of Chaos, second beta, early Frozen Throne)

Introduction
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos was released July 3, 2002 by Blizzard Entertainment. It was the sequel to WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness. From a competitive (eSports) point of view it was the sequel to StarCraft: Brood War, the original StarCraft being released March 31, 1998. StarCraft was the most important electronic sports game at the time with televised leagues taking place in the game in Seoul under the guidance of broadcasting stations OnGameNet and MBCGame. It was also the premier game of the annual World Cyber Games (which also originates from Korea). Many of the big western eSports organisations of the time had not been involved heavily in StarCraft (instead being driven by Quake Deatmatch or Counter-Strike competition), but decided to get in on the ground floor with the release of the new Real Time Strategy, most notable of these are the Cyberathlete Professional League (USA), the Electronic Sports World Cup (France) and the Electronic Sports League (Germany). Blizzard Entertainment (USA) decided to get involved with the competition behind their game as well following the release of the Frozen Throne.

OnGameNet (OGN), MBCGame (MBC), World Cyber Games (WCG), Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC), Electronic Sports League (ESL) and Blizzard Entertainment (Blizzard) were the early driving forces behind the professional WarCraft III scene. Some of them such as OGN, MBC and CPL eventually dropped the game or ran into difficulties preventing them from supporting any game. WCG, ESWC, ESL and Blizzard continue to support the game till this very day, though the release of StarCraft II might have an impact on that. Many others would join these driving forces, with this article describing all notable ones.

For those not familiar with the basics of WarCraft III or those who need refreshing. WarCraft III is a Real Time Strategy multi-player computer game, meaning it is a war game played in real time against life opponents (though you could also face computer opponents if you chose to do so, which none of the players described here do). You control one of four races when playing the game: Human, Orc, Undead and Night Elf. You can decide which race to pick beforehand or you can let it be decided randomly. All professional gamers pick races themselves and almost all professional gamers are specialized in a single race; this is necessary because the races and how they interact with other races as well as the various maps (the arenas in which the war games are played) are very complex and nobody can ever master this “perfectly”, meaning that if you divide your attention over two races you will have 50% of the mastery of someone that focuses on a single race has and everything else being equal you will probably lose the game against those players.

The WarCraft III competitive scene (the social environment consisting of a large informal, vague group of people with a uniting interest; that interest being WarCraft III competitive gaming) is made up of various sub-scenes which are determined by regions. These sub-scenes vary in size throughout the years (as does, naturally, the entire scene) but generally speaking you can identify the following three major WarCraft III regions: South Korea, China and Europe (including Russia) and one minor region: the United States of America. You can also speak of a “western” region (Europe, the Americas and Australia) and an Asian region (China, Korea and various Asian nations not notable for their WarCraft III scene on their own). The Russian and German scene (which fall under the European scene) are also notable on their own to some degrees as it is home to national competitions on a comparable level (in terms of prize money, level of competition and / or professionalism) as many of the internationally better known tournaments. There can also be talked about a global scene in a way that is unique in eSports as usually one of the regions is extremely dominant in a game (though StarCraft II is headed that way as well). Some regions which might be notable in a truly complete WarCraft III history such as Sweden, Singapore and Australia are not fully explored.

Aside from nationality, players are also identified with on the basis of their WarCraft III race. Orc players tend to be sympathetic to other Orc players in the same way someone from Germany or Korea (or any other nation) tends to be more sympathetic towards players of their own nation.

Throughout this article we will try and gauge who are considered the champions of various races and regions or a combination of the two (who is the strongest Undead player in the European region could be a question for example). Some players could be champions of as many as three regions (Russia, Europe and the western world for example), but it is not very realistic to be the champion of more than one race. Sometimes there are many tournaments taking place at the same time producing contradicting results, meaning there is no clear “global champion”, something which tends to be more clear when you look at specific regions or races.

Some basic knowledge of competitive gaming is likely required to understand everything written.

The article is structured as followed:

The pages on 2003-2004 starts with introducing various scenes, happenings in these years and some notable personalities. Generally the focus is on scenes as a whole. This is to introduce the scenes and because in these years the major regions are very independent from each other. In the 2005 pages this transitions to a chronological based way of writing, with events being described as they follow each other. The scenes start coming closer together in this year as well. Starting from 2006 the history is described in a purely chronological order, with the unique “global” scene being a reality for WarCraft III; this continues until the end of the article. Following the actual history, there are various add-ons to be found talking about notable players, teams and 2v2 competitions.

In the beginning there was… TillerMaN
The WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos closed beta launched January 2002 with a beta tournament being held prior to the game’s release on July 3, 2002. Just like future Blizzard betas the WarCraft III beta ended with a tournament, which was won by UK resident Iain “TillerMaN” Girdwood. 26-year old TillerMaN had a close relation with Blizzard Entertainment prior to and following the WarCraft III beta and as a result had an impact on the way the game was balanced (the way the four races measured up against each other). This relationship later deteriorated as did TillerMaN’s status as the world’s “number 1 player”. He would throughout Reign of Chaos remain the strongest UK player but did not impress on a international level and he retired shortly after the release of The Frozen Throne winning approximately 14.000$ throughout Reign of Chaos (the WarCraft III add-on The Frozen Throne did not appeal to him according to a 2005 interview [http://warcraft.ingame.de/szene/interviews/tillerman_21-09-05.php]. Arguably his biggest legacy is his involvement in founding one of WarCraft III’s most dominant teams: British based Four Kings as chronicled by KidArctica (http://www.wcreplays.com/articles.php?get=23). Most notably he scouted future professional gamer Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen (more on Four Kings in 2004). He was also a pioneer in terms of making audio commentaries, audio recordings of his matches describing the events happening and the reasoning behind them. More famously than he was for his commentating however; he became a source of ridicule throughout the scene for his humorous breakdowns in audio commentaries while commenting on the state of balance in WarCraft III, downwhere uploaded a bunch of these audio commentaries on YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4LiaGG8KSs&feature=related]. He became a successful poker player after retiring from competitive gaming; you can read more about TillerMaN’s view on his WarCraft III history on his blog [http://www.tillerman.net/2008/08/warcraft-3-commentary-and-history.html].

Korean scene
While western competitions was still limited to online competition the first televised league already launched in Korea during the WarCraft III beta: the OnGameNet WarCraft Retail League. Not a lot is known about this event, the finals were won by a Korean named Medusa[Saint] who beat StarCraft & poker legend Bertrand “ElkY” Grosspellier in the finals (see YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fd80HwVMV0]. ElkY would show only mediocre results in WarCraft III competitions otherwise and never fully commit to being a WarCraft III professional gamer (reportedly playing the before mentioned league alongside StarCraft competitions in the first place). Regardless, his second place would later stand as the best result a non-Korean would ever attain in a WarCraft pro-league event (pro-league events are national, televised competitions taking place in Seoul, Korea). It is hard to imagine these days, but Korean and western competitions were almost completely segregated in WarCraft III Reign of Chaos; two scenes that were in practice stand-alone competitive gaming scenes. Eventually several international tournaments (Clickarena, ESWC, ACON, WCG) would lead to western and Asian players meeting, and of course gaming team SK-Gaming would take a trip to Seoul that launch the short-lived but very memorable professional gaming career of Fredrik “MaDFroG” Johannson.

A testimony to how little we knew of the Korean scene is the inclusion of Daeho “ShowTime” Kim (winner of OnGameNet League IV and ESWC Korea 2003) to eSports website ESReality’s Greatest Gamer poll in 2004 (he lost to Unreal tournament legend GitzZz 45% - 55%) based on his ladder accomplishments and “enormous tournament history”, they could not name the events he had to his name (or did not think they would be recognized) and actually passed on several more accomplished Korean players (probably wanting to include both a Korean and an European player and going for the ones they saw as the most popular) to include the Korean RTS legend (see here [http://www.wcreplays.com/page?section=interviews&id=3] for an interview held with him by another WarCraft III legend). The tournaments played in Korea (outside of the World Cyber Games finals) from 2002-2003 include the MBCGame Prime League and the OnGameNet (OGN) invitational, taken from an older article[http://www.ggl.com/index.php?controller=News&method=article&id=3770&page=3]:

The MBC Prime League was a very prestigious league (rivalling a WCG or ESWC title) with 30 professional gamers participating, playing weekly a best of one in a round-robin. The maps were intense, as the stakes were incredibly high. The players had a week to do nothing but prepare for one opponent on one map. After the first group stage, a second one followed, which was followed by a single-elimination bracket. The OGN War 3 TFT Invitational used a similar format, only with fewer players. Being a TV broadcast league, it also was held in high regard, though the Prime League was definitely considered the biggest tournament to win in South-Korea.”

OnGameNet
[2002] OGN WarCraft Retail League - 1. Medusa 2. ElkY
OGN League II – 1. Jojo 2. Medusa
[2003] OGN League III – 1. Gerrard 2. DayFly
OGN League IV – 1. ShowTime 2. DayFly
[2003] Sonokong OnGamenet I – 1. Check 2. ReiGn 3. Rainbow

MBCGame
HanbitSoft Gembc WC3 1st League – 1. Shoo 2. Medusa 3. Gerrard 4. Skelton
[2003-01] MBC Hanbitsoft II – 1. Anyppi 2. DayFly 3. ReadyTo 4. JuJu
[2003-08] MBC HanbitSoft Prime League – 1. DayFly 2. Check 3. Anyppi 4. starTRuth
[2003] MBC Sonokong Prime League II – 1. Moon 2. Sweet 3. Check 4. Anyppi

Team
[2003-01] hanbitsoft clan teambattle 1 – 1. Pooh
[2003-06] hanbitsoft clan teambattle 2 – 1. Pooh

International tournament qualifiers
Blizzard Worldwide Invitational (to take place in 2004) – 1. EvenStar 2. ReiGn
Electronic Sports World Cup – 1. ShowTime 2. DayFly 3. Jojo
World Cyber Games – 1. Check 2. NangChun 3. Topspeed

Or, (with all tournaments appreciated equally):

Korean major events till 2003
Winners
Lee “Check” Hyung Joo 2-0-1-0
Daeho “Showtime” Kim 2-0-0-0
Jung Heon “Dayfly” Lee 1-3-0-0
Medusa 1-2-0-0
Jang “Moon” Jae Ho 1-0-0-0
Yim Hyo “Anyppi” Jin 1-0-1-1
Jojo 1-0-1-0
Oi-sik “Gerrard” Park 1-0-1-0
Shoo 1-0-0-0
Jae Park “Evenstar” Lee 1-0-0-0

Runner-ups
Kang Seo “ReiGn” Woo 0-2-0-0
Jung Hee “Sweet” Chun 0-1-0-0
Bertrand “ElkY” Grosspellier 0-1-0-0
Dae Young “NangChun” Kwak 0-1-0-0

Third places
Kim Tae “Rainbow"”In 0-0-1-1
ReadyTo 0-0-1-0
Yun Seok “Topspeed” Kang 0-0-1-0

Fourth places
Joon Goo “Skelton” Bong 0-0-0-1
JuJu 0-0-0-1
starTRuth 0-0-0-1

The results of the Koreans at World Cyber Games (WCG), Clickarena and Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) (all of which took place in 2003) were:

Electronic Sports World Cup 2003 – Korean player results
5th place ReX.jojo
9th place DayFly
9th place ShowTime

Swedish progamer MaDFroG (whom we’ll talk about at greater length later on) was effectively about to be eliminated from the tournament by DayFly when a disconnect occurred involving the Swede accidently kicking out a cable right before DayFly finished him. The SK-Gaming players (MaDFroG represented the team) pressured the admin into giving MaDFroG a re-game against the Orc player DayFly. DayFly had just revealed his strategies, which gave his at the time underpowered race a fighting chance against the Undead player. DayFly lost 1-2 and was eliminated from ESWC.

DayFly was the most successful Orc player 2002-2003, compensating for what was at the time known as a weak race (compared to the other three) with creative and innovative strategies. He would retire by 2004 only to make a short-lived comeback later on and is currently playing StarCraft II.

World Cyber Games 2003 – Korean player results
9th place Topspeed (eliminated by MagicYang)
17th place NangChun (eliminated by MagicYang)
17th place Check (eliminated by Sol_Mimmox)

WCG 2003 occurred while the entire scene had already moved on to The Frozen Throne, with only players that were qualified for WCG still putting any effort into Reign of Chaos. It’s impossible to say how this affected the individual results of any player, but it does lessen the worth of the event in comparison to future editions of the most important WarCraft III tournament.

Check would six year later be the only active player left from WCG 2003 alongside Grubby. He was one of the dominant Korean players of this time period and remained an active professional gamer throughout the years with fluctuating levels of success, he is currently playing StarCraft II.

Clickarena 2003 – Korean player results
4th place Anyppi
7th place ShowTime
9th place ElkY

We’re going to talk about Clickarena later in a European context. This event is famous as the first big event in WarCraft III to not pay out prize money.

At this point in time the Korean players represented various national pro-teams which competed in a nationally televised league (which would be cancelled mid-2004). At the time of SK’s (team Intel) presence in Korea (mid-late 2003) the following notable players represented the following professional gaming teams:

KTec - Say, ReMind, Gray
Sonokong FrienZ - Check, DayFly, Swain
EX - NangchuN, EvenStar, HomeRunBall
Saint - Zacard, Sweet, May
Samsung Khan - FreeDoM, ReiGn, Anyppi
Hanbit Stars - ShowTime, Lucifer, Gerrard

SK.Asia would later be found with Jae Shin "EVE" Park, Yu Jae "BestWolf" Hoon, Dong Hyun "May" Kim, "Tiv and Tiger. To which Skelton, Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun, Zacard and Ryoo Kyung "SeleCT" Hyun would be added. SeleCT would later gain fame for winning two World Cyber Games in Dawn of War in 2005 and 2006. MaDFroG would later join FrienZ.

By the time Four Kings went to Korea (mid-2004) the era of pro teams in Korea was over (more on this later). SK.Asia would later be absorbed by SK.International. Hanbit Stars would later add Moon & Lucifer and merge with Meet Your Makers before being absorbed fully by the team. All other (active players) would find their way to non-Korean teams eventually (though sometimes as a group), that is until the more recent (2009) launch of the WeMadeFOX WarCraft III team. GoStop also represented Korean pro-team eSTRO for an extended period of time starting in 2006.

Between the complete disbandment of all Korean pro-teams and the rise of the western based WarCraft 3 Champions League there was a period in which many Korean players were “double dipping”, representing a pro team in Korea and carrying a different flag in online competitions. This lead to the phrase mercenary to refer to players without strong bonds to a team that sold their skills to whoever would pay (a term which would not be used solely for Korean players). WC3L would eventually react by introducing rules stipulating players could only represent one team professionally and restrict the possibility to transfer during a season. The most iconic of mercenaries is probably ShowTime who represented 64AMD, Yperano, Rival, Only Team Players, ArmaTeam and MeetYourMakers (as part of MYM.Hanbit) from 2004-2005 while at the same time representing team WeRRa, Luxury and later Hanbit Stars in Korea, he was referred to in a comic manner with his nicknames meshed up in various ways: 64AMD.Luxury.Rival.OnlyTeamPlayers.Yperano[aT]MYM.Hanbit.ShowTime.WeRRa (you get the idea).

You can see full list of accomplishments for DayFly, Gerrard and Check here[http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=13848807575&topic=13835].
You can see Moon’s Wikipedia biography here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jang_Jae_Ho].
You can see FreeDoM’s Wikipedia biography here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youngsuk_Chang].
You can see FoV’s Wikipedia biography here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dae_Hui_Cho].
You can see Sweet’s Wikipedia biography here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jung_Hee_Chun].
You can find an overview of Zacard’s career here[http://www.ggl.com/?controller=News&method=article&id=4820].
You can find an overview of ShowTime’s career here [http://www.gotfrag.com/war/story/39814/].
You can find a news post on ReiGn’s retirement here[http://www.mymym.com/en/news/16306.html].

Chinese scene – Interview with Zax

There’s very little information on the Chinese scene on any English language website in the 2002-2005 time-periods. Zax Chou, co-founder of the world’s biggest eSport site, Chinese Replays.net, was kind enough to answer some questions however that give us more insight into the Chinese scene and where he sees the future headed.

These questions and answers were edited a little bit but pretty much represent the original content 100%.

Hello Zax, how are you?

Zax: I am good. How are you?

I am good as well! I would like to know more about the Chinese WarCraft III scene 2002-2005, there is very little information to be found about this period on western sites. You are a much respected person, the founder of Replays.net, is it alright if I ask you?

I am nobody (blushes). Go ahead and ask me.

When was Replays.net launched?

2002.

How did Replays.net start?

When WarCraft III was born, I found it's hard to find good replays [note: A replay is a saved file of a WarCraft III match which allows you to see it again using WarCraft III], so I just started to make a site at which you can share progamer's replays with all fans. At first, it was just a pure "replay" site and it was updated manually, simple and crude.

How did it grow to be a site of such importance?

It's a long story, I can only say: Rome is not build in one day. Staff's efforts, some coincidental events and good timing.

Can you give us any estimation of the size of the Chinese WarCraft III scene between 2002 and 2005 in terms of players and fans?

Eight million.

Can you name some of the top teams in this time period as well as the players representing these teams?

Yoliny(ex-World Elite), lion, TS, GF,SOZ. Gamedge, but all are gone now.

What was the level of professionalism in these teams (were salaries paid, contracts signed)?

Yoliny and Gamedge had contracts and salaries, but very low.

Did the level of professionalism rise with the years, and if so, can you describe how?

No, even today, it's not stable. In China there are only two pro team that still survive, World Elite and Ehome.

Currently China is the main nations in terms of WarCraft III fans and competitions. Did you expect China to develop the way it did and why did you expect it to develop this way?

The development is still not done the right way; it's what I'm struggling for.

In a 2008 interview with fnatic you said “I hope SC 2 can be the slogan to be used by eSports games. eSports has too many games at the moment we need one game to unite the world, people in Europe, Korea, China everywhere should play one game.” How do you see the future of Real Time Strategy gaming in China now that StarCraft II is about to be released?

Like I said in 2008's interview, SC2 is the only hope for China esports, unite all kinds of gamer so that eSports reaches a new level, it's the rule of quantitative change and qualitative change. And I hope Blizzard won't release Warcraft 4 forever, esports needs fixed rules just like traditional sports, nobody will out of date, even one day when you are 50 years old, u still know what happened in matches.

Maybe the game is not so perfect now, but that’s not the point, human effort can achieve anything, we shall make it perfect and popular everywhere.

Thanks a lot for your help Zax! Good luck with your projects.

No problem =)

European scene
Where the way Koreans teams were shaped was formed by televised leagues the biggest influence on western teams came from ESL’s WarCraft 3 Champions League. Founded by a man that would become known as the godfather of European competitive WarCraft III: Sebastian “Baschi” Weishaar. The team league WC3L started in 2002 and quickly gained following and eventually evolved into one of the premier competitions in WarCraft III and eSports, it started as a purely online league and had its first LAN finals take place during its fourth season in Paris, France in 2004.

The teams competed online with twelve teams playing each other. Prior to each season a qualifier would be held which enabled four new teams to join (or current teams to re-qualify). In the online season every team would play every other team once with three (later four) solo matches and two 2v2 matches (later one) taking place, each matches earning points which lead to a ranking. At the end of this “regular” season the top ranked teams would play a play-offs to determine the winners of league while the lower ranked teams would play a play-down to determine which teams would join the qualifier and be forced to qualify again.

The teams in season I which ran from August 15, 2002 to February 17 2003 were (only results for top five, there was no play-off system yet):

1. Schroet Kommando (SuRviVoR, fortuNe, Insomnia, Eirik, sTOrM)
2. e.Sports united (NitemarE, KaJ, Soul, Asmodey, Kilrogg, Goldenboy, Zeus[19], Kiko)
3. Ocrana.D-Link (Pagan, Zyrano, Thagor, Fire, TaKe, bIaZe)
4. Advanched Online Losers (Labatyd, GeNThO, WickedGame, st0r)
5. Orcish Empire -> pro-Gaming (Twinsen, Charon, MouSe, Racor, Allanon)
Demons of Starcraft (piNg, Flamm, Sevarion, rAziD, DerTick, ThE, Sinister, Madness, SsaMJjaNG)
Team PcN (Dalai, Dan, Bizarre, DrizZt, Astrapilot, Avenger, eLeMeNt)
The-Feared (Domi, Rif, 2Hot, Demo, Kain, Nuh, Holy, Kida)
Iomega (players unknown)
Alien Invasion (dev, ThePig, Hazeem, BuRnY, Spawn, Vlodok, Ironman)

Season II, February 27, 2003 till May 11, 2003 (play-off system introduced)
1. Schroet Kommando (Insomnia, KaJ, MaDFroG, HeMaN, BeaveR, Eirik, Goldenboy, Kilrogg)
2. armaTeam (FaTC, Overmind, ToD, BIatty, Shore, InToX)
3. mTw.alternate (Tak3r, ThePig, LasH, Matzerg, Modo, dArk)
4. Advanced Online Losers -> a-Losers (Dan, Dalai, FatRandy, st0r, WickedGame, pLaGuE, Socke, GeNThO)
e.Sports united (Kilrogg, Ranger, Jan, Harty, DIDI8, NitemarE, Goldenboy, Soul, Asmodey, Zeus[19], four20, Kiko)
OCRANA.D-Link (Thagor, kookian, TaKe, Fire, Zyrano, Pagan)Riot-Squad -> RsGaming.com (X, Asmarand, Falzure, Maestro, Hyper, leolaporte, Smurphet, Shortround-, Pussinboots)
pro-gaming.net (Allanon, BuTTerKeKs, Nabb, Maid, MouSe, Twinsen, Zografa)
The-Feared (line-up unknown)
Netco.sTar -> XSarena (ArMoR, ChobO, DK, OkaiN, MeddY)

Season III, June 1, 2003 till September 23, 2003
1. mTw.alternate (Tak3r, LasH, ThePig, Ghostridah)
2. Schroet Kommando (Insomnia, DominatoR, MaDFroG, SuRviVoR, sTOrM)
3. 4Kings (line-up unknown)
4. armaTeam (InToX, ToD, BIatty, Hazeem, GeNThO, Wizard, Shore, MnZ)
a-Laget (line-up unknown)
bmfheadz (Dukie, Nuke, Hulm, Twisted, Mahadeva)
a-Losers (Dan, Dalai, WickedGame, st0r, GeNThO, FatRandy, mightyx, Crebom, Twi)
OCRANA.D-Link (Pagan, Zyrano, TaKe, Sky, Fire, Lunastar, Blaze)
pro-Gaming (Allanon, BuTTerKeKs, HoRRoR, Twinsen, MouSe, pLaGuE, Dezzi, Nightwind, Racor)
XSarena -> sTar (DK, Psio, Okain, ChobO, Nada, ArMoR)
rSgaming.com (line-up unknown)
e.Sports united (Jan, Harty, Four20[303], Grave, sTaTic, dArk)

Thanks to the Warcraft 3 Database for all WC3L information.

At this point in time the teams were no match for the Korean teams in terms of professionalism. Very few players received even small salaries, WC3L paid out hardware prizes, and few players had contracts signed. But WC3L and the WarCraft 3 would both grow a lot over the years, the foundation for which was partially in these early online seasons.

There were a bunch of LAN competitions taking place throughout Europe 2002-2003, not all of them will be singled out. Two pre-Electronic Sports World Cup 2003 competitions were significant in that they were considered the biggest European events before the world championship:

CPL Cannes 2003 – March 14, 2003 till March 16, 2003
1. aT-InToX (France: 3.000 USD)
2. SK.Insomnia (Bulgaria: 2.000 USD)
3. DIDI8[pG] (Bulgaria: 1.000 USD)
4. eSu.Soul (Russia: 700 USD)
5. aT-BIatty (France: 400 USD)
5. aT-SeGaL (Greece: 400 USD)
7. eSu.Zeus[19] (Croatia: 250 USD)
7. a-L.MSI.WickedGame (Germany: 250 USD)
9. Netco)FaTC (France)
9. xSarena.Chills (France)
9. aT-ToD (France)
9. SK.MaD)Q(FroG (Sweden)
13. aT-Shore (France)
13. Netco)Meddy (France)
13. SK.BeaveR (Sweden)
13. aT-Overmind (France)
17. SK.Eirik (Sweden)
17. 2o.BaGhla (Sweden)
17. a-L.MSI.FatRandy (Germany)
17. aDK.Storm (France)
17. SK.KaJ (Denmark)
17. xSarena.MNZ (France)
17. a-L.MSI.pLaGuE (Germany)
17. Netco)ArMoR (France)
25. NoHope (France)
25. SK.HeMaN (Sweden)
25. eSu.Kiko (Croatia)
25. SK.Isha)Q( (Sweden)
25. eSu.Four20[203] (Bulgaria)
25. aT-Khan (France)

The tournament was won by Eric "InToX" Dieulangard (who would later be nicknamed TreeToX) most notably using Ancients of Wars which was considered an imbalance (a strategy that is too strong as it can’t be properly countered by the other races) at the time. Notable is Human player Insomnia’s presence as runner-up of the event despite facing tree abuse, showing skill that signaled things to come. It is interesting to note with our eyes on the running StarCraft II scene that the first generation of European pro’s including MaDFroG, Insomnia, Zeus[19] and DID8 all held previous competitive experience in StarCraft (Insomnia was offered a chance at professional gaming at an early age, DID8 famously played BoXeR at the World Cyber Games and MaDFroG won a bronze medal representing Sweden in the nations tournament of WCG). Similarly you can expect the first generation of StarCraft II pro’s to have at least some prior experience in high level RTS.

The event had a impressive line-up of European players and was indicative of the way the Cyberathlete Professional League, which was at the time the big driving force behind FPS Deatmatch competitions, invested early in the game (they had held a prior event and would host a bigger event later that year), only to reject the game afterwards. The game was still present at three CPL World Tour stops in 2005, with the prize money of at least one event never paid out. It is hard to imagine these days, but CPL was considered one of premier competitive gaming organizations and their backing helped early WarCraft 3 development a lot and could have continued to be important, especially in terms of helping a professional US scene grow.

The next big event was Clikarena 2003 (April 18, 2003 – April 20, 2003) in France:
1. eSu DIDI8 (Bulgaria)
2. eSu.Soul (Russia)
3. SK.Insomnia (Bulgaria)
4. Anyppi.WeRRa (South Korea)
5. Ranger (Russia)
5. aT-InToX (France)
7. ShowTime.WeRRa (South Korea)
7. FuSioN (South Korea)
9. eSu.Asmodey (Russia)
9. AMD.ElkY (France)
9. eSu.KiKo (Denmark)
9. ApeX (USA)
13. mTw-ThePig (Germany)
13. ocr-Thargor (Germany)
13. Medusa (South Korea)
13. SteeL.KaJ (Denmark)
17. 4K-TillerMaN (Great Britain)
17. ocr-TaKe (Germany)
17. SK.MaD)Q(FroG (Sweden)
17. eSu.Zeus[19] (Croatia)
17. M19-BlackMan (Russia)
17. BIatty (France)
17. mTw-Tak3r (Germany)
17. Karma (Russia)
25. eSu.NitemarE (Sweden)
25. Fen1x (Spain)

Clickarena did not pay out. Ivan “Soul” Demidov could probably care less by now as he became World Series of Poker main event runner-up in 2008, winning roughly 5.800.000$, beating the total prize money by the number nine of this event, ElkY, whose career tournament winnings in poker total around 5.700.000$ according to Wikipedia. Dimitar "DIDI8" Aleksandrov would remain a professional gamer for many years however and would continue to cite this event as the disappointment of his career. In terms of what the event means, we once again see an impressive line-up of European players with Insomnia, DID8, Soul and InToX repeating strong performances from Cannes. MaDFroG travels in the back of the pack however, reminding us that these are early results in a scene that is still very much in development (once again lessons for the StarCraft II scene).

These two tournaments set the stage however for the 2003 Electronic Sports World Cup (Ancient of War abuse was fixed at the time of this event) from July 8, 2003 till July 13, 2003 at Paris France. ESWC was significant not only because it’s a major tournament but also because it was regarded as the first real measurement of the Korean professionals (some of which already appeared at Clickarena) versus the European elite and because it was rumored that Intel would approach the number 1 ranked European player and offer him support to compete in Korea professionally. It set the first steps in bringing the two scenes together, in the long run creating the first truly global eSports discipline. National qualifiers took place all over the world to determine the competitors, in future editions some players would also be invited directly.

ESWC 2003
Overall Ranking:
1. SK.HeMaN (Sweden: 7.000 USD)
2. SK.MaDFroG (Sweden: 5.000 USD)
3. aT-FaTC (France: 3.000 USD)
4. aT-ToD (France: 2.000 USD)
5. ReX.jojo (South Korea: 1.200 USD)
6. rS.RushWizard (USA: 800 USD)
7. aT-BIatty (France: 600 USD)
8. SK.Insomnia (Bulgaria: 400 USD)
9. ShowTine (South Korea)
9. InToX (France)
9. DayFly (South Korea)
9. Segal (Greece)
13. apex (USA)
13. =dc=andy (Germany)
13. SK.ZeeRaX (Bulgaria)
13. Grubby (Netherlands)
17. TillerMaN (United Kingdom)
17. ocr-TaKe (Germany)
17. Miliz (Sweden)
17. SK.DominatoR (Norway)
17. cafone (Italy)
17. Raggy (Australia)
17. TeG-Dreamboy (Romania)
17. CT-skAyA (China)
25. Lb.MedMaster (Brazil)
25. oG.Eboceixa (Belgium)
25. Magic.BaGhla (France)
25. No.R_MeRLiN (Lybia)
25. miTh (Czech Republic)
25. zA.Ir0nclad (USA)
25. Deco (France)
25. sWoop (South Africa)
33. Ogain (Algeria)
33. e4.kunyyori (Spain)
33. rW.kOtoRi (Switzerland)
33. Sorimachi (Canada)

Notable as Grubby’s first international competition.

Following this event Intel, a major player in the world of eSports sponsoring, approached Alborz "HeMaN" Haidarian and MaDFroG to come to Korea as a team, they would bring fellow SK teammates Henrik "DominatoR" Strom and Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev along and would be the only European players to compete in a televised team pro league, as Team Intel, in Korea with the following results:

Team Intel at OGN: SUMA War 3 Pro-League – Groupstage 1
2:0 KTec (Say, ReMind, Gray)
1:2 Sonokong FrienZ (Check, DayFly, Swain)
1:2 EX (NangchuN, EvenStar, HomeRunBall)
0:2 Saint (Zacard, Sweet, May)

DominatoR and Insomnia returned to the west after three months, so HeMaN and MaDFroG competed alongside SK.Asia in the second group stage:

Team Intel at OGN: SUMA War 3 Pro-League – Groupstage 2
2:1 Samsung Khan (FreeDoM, ReiGn, Anyppi)
0:2 Hanbit Stars (ShowTime, Lucifer, Gerrard)
1:2 Sonokong FrienZ (Check, DayFly, Swain)

None of them were tremendously successful individually in Korean national competitions. MaDFroG and HeMaN both tied for second place in their OnGameNet groups only to lose tie-breakers. MaDFroG did have some team successes playing with FrienZ. The experiences did help them greatly in international competition however with MaDFroG and Insomnia both taking home the wins that would define their respective careers during their stay in Seoul.

HeMaN's OnGameNet Sonokong TFT group
1. Check 3-1
2. JinSung 2-2 (won tie-breaker vs HeMaN & RANdom)
3. HeMaN 2-2 (won tie-breaker vs RANdom)
4. RANdom 2-2
5. Friday 1-3

MaDFroG won DayFly in his OnGameNet group and also won 1000$ at the Kbk Jeju cup with the following results:

MaDFroG in Kbk Jeju Cup
1-0 ZanDarke
1-0 Mr
0-1 NangchuN
1-0 Scorpio

MaDFroG would stay in Seoul longer than HeMaN and also attend MBCGame’s second prime league with the following results:

MaDFroG in MBCGame Prime League II
0-1 vs. Scorpio
1-0 vs. Justice
0-1 vs. Lyn
1-0 vs. ShowTime
0-1 vs. Sarang

HeMaN would take bronze at ESWC 2004 and be the most successful European player during the first season of the televised World e-Sport Games in Korea, those being his most significant accomplishments alongside winning ESWC 2003 before retiring. MaDFroG would go on an unprecedented run in international competition following ESWC 2003, which lasted roughly a year before he flamed out completely. He would also join Sonokong FrienZ in Korea, becoming the first and only European in a Korean WarCraft III pro-team. Insomnia would win the World Cyber Games during his stay in Korea and remain one of the world’s best and most popular Human players for many years following his return to Bulgaria, even though he never really competed for a major title again. DominatoR did not build a significant professional gaming career individually.

You can read a more complete account of Team Intel’s accomplishments in Seoul in two parts here[http://www.ggl.com/index.php?controller=News&method=article&id=3730] and here[http://www.ggl.com/index.php?controller=News&method=article&id=3770].

CPL Copenhagen took place in November, 2003 and was the first major European event featuring WarCraft III addition The Frozen Throne:

1. MYM]Bjarke (Denmark: 3.500 EUR)
2. SK.SuRviVoR (Sweden: 2.500 EUR)
3. aNc.Delicato (Sweden: 1.500 EUR)
4. DSky.Chemi (Finland: 1.000 EUR)
5. SK.Miou (Germany: 800 EUR)
5. DSky.Creebom (Sweden: 800 EUR)
7. gmpo.Four20 (Bulgaria: 250 EUR)
7. SK.FaTC (France: 250 EUR)
9. e2s.Wandis (Sweden)
9. orky.Flash (Russia)
9. aNc.NitemarE (Sweden)
9. SK.pLaGuE (Germany)
13. 4K.FuRy (Sweden)
13. 4K.Zeus (Croatia)
13. SK.Insomnia (Bulgaria)
13. orky.Asmodey (Russia)
17. Gorthaur (Finland)
17. Grubby (Netherland)
17. Eldor (Sweden)
17. DIDI8 (Bulgaria)
17. StarSlayer (Sweden)
17. ToD (France)
17. Miliz (Sweden)
17. InToX (France)
25. ZeeRaX (Bulgaria)
25. DjiN (Germany)
25. Tiger4 (Denmark)
25. Thagor (Germany)
25. BIatty (France)
25. BigMan (Russia)
25. Geeko (Denmark)
25. Giacoma (Czech Republic)
33. SK.mightyx (Germany)
33. e2s.BeaveR (Sweden)
33. SK.sTOrM (Germany)
33. ocr-TaKe (Germany)
33. e2s.Pey (Sweden)
33. Tagtix (Denmark)
33. MYM]Kanadan (Denmark)
33. gmpo.Zografa (Bulgaria)
33. =dc=andy (Germany)
33. aNc.FeSTis (Sweden)
33. planB.Exil (Sweden)
33. aNc.After7Days (Denmark)
33. 4K.KaJ (Denmark)
33. Dezzie[pG] (Sweden)
33. 4K.Kiko (Croatia)
33. aT-SeGaL (Greece)
49. moony (Denmark)
49. McOrange (Denmark)
49. Django (Denmark)
49. JuanCarlo (Spain)
49. cZ.Heat (Norway)
49. pG.HoRRoR (Germany)
49. JipJap (Norway)
49. 4K.Junior (Denmark)
49. aT-Deco (France)
49. Frido (Slovakia)
49. e2s.Thrawn (Sweden)
49. 4K.BoNd (United Kingdom)
49. Vank0r (Greece)
49. DSky.Magik (Finland)
49. gmpo.Enrique (Sweden)
49. graabein (Norway)

Similar to Clickarena and CPL Cannes, an impressive line-up of players, it’s hard to imagine nowadays that these kind of open tournaments took place in Europe with over 50 players from all regions attending. This CPL model of tournament (anyone is free to attend, top eight is paid out) was simply not used a lot later on in favor of players having to qualify for or being invited to tournaments. You have tournaments later on that use comparable models such Game-X in 2007, WSVG stops in 2006 and CPL 2005 Dallas, all of which had broad based, high level attendees. It seems likely that had CPL chosen to substantially support WarCraft III, we would have had a different scene (at least until their crash).

German scene (2002-2003)
The German scene is sometimes underrated in WarCraft III as the region never produced any player that is considered one of the all-time greats (as subjective as that list might be). It would surrpise many to learn however that more prize money was won by German players than those in any other national scene with the exception of Korea and in later years China. This is a direct result of the German Electronic Pro Series organized by the Electronic Sports League. The concept of this tournament is as followed: there are two seasons per year, twelve players per season, every player plays every other player once in an online season (with some matches taking place offline in various “Intel Friday Night Games”). You get paid for every match you win (100 euro was the highest paid out throughout the seasons) and you get paid extra to attend an Intel Friday Night Game. At the end of the season there’s a LAN finals with major tournament prize money.

This, combined with a bunch of smaller national competitions in the country and the possibility to compete in various international tournaments, a lot of which take place in Germany, which also happens to the home to most of Europe’s professional gaming teams, is why German players could comfortably dedicate their time to WarCraft III knowing they would see something in return (despite not being very successful on the absolute highest level of WarCraft III).

The first few seasonal finals had the following results (season 1 not included since it was 2v2 based):

Season II – June 2003
1. mTw-ThePig (10.000 EUR)
2. ocr-Thagor (6.500 EUR)
3. ocr-Twinsen (4.000 EUR)
4. mTw-Tak3r (3.000 EUR)

Season III – December 2003 (using Frozen Throne)
1. HoRRoR[pG] (5.000 EUR)
2. ocr-kookian (2.500 EUR)
3. mTw-LasH (1.500 EUR)
4. mTw-ThePig (800 EUR)

EPS ran WarCraft 3 competitions for eight years and supported every German WarCraft 3 player you’ve ever seen. It was a high level competition, when WCG, World e-Sport Games and BlizzCon runner-up Tae min "Zacard" Hwang moved to Germany in 2005 with the specific intent of competing in the German EPS; he failed. More on that in a later chapter though.

The EPS champions through the ages have been:

ThePig – June 15, 2003 till December 14, 2003 (since winning EPS II)
HoRRoR – December 14, 2003 till June 13, 2004 (winning EPS III)
Daniel “Miou” Holthuis – June 13, 2004 till June 16, 2007 (winning EPS IV)
Dennis “HasuObs” Schneider – June 16, 2007 till June 8, 2008 (winning EPS X)
Daniel “XlorD” Spenst – June 8, 2008 till December 15, 2009 (winning EPS XII)
Marc “yAwS” Förster – December 15, 2009 till June 14, 2010 (winning EPS XV)
Dennis “HasuObs” Schneider – June 14, 2010 till forever (winning EPS XVI)

WarCraft III ended its EPS Germany run after sixteen seasons (probably to make room for StarCraft II). Daniel “miou” Holthuis is likely one of the ten best earning WarCraft 3 players (in terms of prize money) based mainly on his six EPS victories.

Global scene 2002-2003
WarCraft 3: The Frozen Throne was released July, 2003 following a beta period of several months. WCG 2003 took place in WarCraft 3: Reign of Chaos in October. The entire scene had moved on already, of course participants prepared well for the event, but regardless it was not as widely followed or significant as you can expect a World Cyber Games (WCG) to be. WCG had always been the biggest event in StarCraft for the international scene, and has a format similar to ESWC: national qualifiers take place all over the world with the national championships meeting at a world championship to determine a champion. It remains the biggest individual event in WarCraft III till this very day.

The results of WCG 2003 were (not including the team competition):

1. SK.Insomnia (Bulgaria: Gold, 20.000 USD)
2. ChinaHumaN (China: Silver, 10.000 USD)
3. TeG.EviscErator (Romania: Bronze, 5.000 USD)
4. Myth_ShaMan (Chinese Taipei)
5. MagicYang (China)
5. C14_Maloy (Ukraine)
5. eXecutor (Peru)
5. SK.FaTC (France)
9. SoL_Mimmox (Italy)
9. wndekfsha (South Korea)
9. FM_Karma (Russia)
9. ChobOs (France)
9. Grubby[iS] (Netherland)
9. mTw_Tak3r (Germany)
9. orky_Flash (Russia)
9. G.Kanadan[rR] (Canada)
17. BULGARIA (Bulgaria)
17. leehyungju (South Korea)
17. 4K.Myth (Netherlands)
17. pluslover (South Korea)
17. 13est_HeAvY (Chile)
17. KnightMerlin (Czech Republic)
17. Dreamboy (Romania)
17. Skyward (Brazil)
17. orky_Soul (Russia)
17. 4K.TillerMaN (Great Britain)
17. secondwar (Vietnam)
17. ZeeRaX (Bulgaria)
17. Atelle (Chinese Taipei)
17. AciD0 (Latvia)
17. OrLy (Romania)
17. XRRaggyCA (New Zealand)
33. lms_feral_id (Poland)
33. Slacash (Chinese Taipei)
33. Twinsen[pG] (Germany)
33. Darksun[RA] (Kazakhstan)
33. ToNY_hk (Hongkong)
33. krawiec (Poland)
33. Gravedigger (Turkey)
33. Amirav (Israel)
33. l2uby (Canada)
33. PaulYan_my (USA)
33. Meguvin (Spain)
33. miou[pG] (Germany)
33. GeNThO (USA)
33. Lotharw3 (Mexico)
33. limmouse (China)
33. 666MetalHeart_ (Peru)
49. B3lcEbU (Columbia)
49. Ir0nClad (USA)
49. SGC_Frido (Slovacia)
49. WarBringer (Hungary)
49. Adolf[RA] (Kazakhstan)
49. DpZiNhO (Portugal)
49. SoL_GodZo (Italy)
49. OneStar (Canada)
49. Krisss
49. [aLt]duckie (Singapore)
49. 4K.KaJ (Danemark)
49. Indalecio (Thailand)
49. FINaL_ELEMENT (India)
49. boy_sibak (Philippines)
49. janby (Philippines)
49. firstwar (Vietnam)
65. TheBm (Hongkong)
65. 4K.BoNd (Great Britain)
65. Juvenile (South Africa)
65. e4Evil (Spain)
65. Vlc)3BEPb(RESET (Lithuania)
65. GG_saeed (Iran)
65. Dale (Estonia)
65. Thirdwar (Vietnam)
65. L_Clan_Chobo (Kazakhstan)
65. Underground_Sp (Ukraine)

China did surprisingly well in this time for those following the global scene with ChinaHumaN taking second place and MagicYang eliminating two Korean players. Insomnia cemented his name as a RTS legend and Grubby showed the first signs of promise of things to come (taking a map of Insomnia in Human mirror before being eliminated). Grubby and Check are the only two players to have had uninterrupted professional gaming careers between this event and present day (with Check currently focusing on StarCraft II). Various players on this list are active in StarCraft II and / or poker.

Around this time as well. By late 2003 there was also a Go4WC3 cup running paying out 200 euro every week (a prelude to inCup). Allow various players around the globe to showcase their skill in the weekly online tournament.

Recap 2002-2003
This is where the WarCraft 3 scene roughly was at the dawn of 2004:

Televised leagues (two individual, two team-based) were taking place in Korea.
Two annual world championships took place (WCG and ESWC).
CPL had rejected the game after running several events in 2002-2003.
Germany had a running pro-series financing their national scene.
The first WC3L LAN finals were about to be held in Paris.
The first Blizzard Worldwide Invitational was about to be held in Seoul.
Cyber-X-Games was about to be held in Las Vegas.
The first ACON tournament was going to take place in Shanghai.
Various LAN tournaments with varying degrees of success were held throughout Europe.

Professional gaming careers launched 2002-2003

China – ChinaHumaN & MagicYang
Europe –TillerMaN, FaTC, HeMaN, MaDFroG & Insomnia
Germany – Eli, Hell, ThePig & HoRRoR
Korea - Medusa, ShowTime, Jojo, Gerrard, DayFly, Check, ReiGn, Rainbow, Anyppi, Star, Moon, Sweet, EvenStar, FreeDoM, Swain & Zacard

ChinaHumaN, HeMaN, MaDFroG & Insomnia all won enough (6.000$ - 22.400$) in international competition to justify their inclusion here (in the case of HeMaN, MaDFroG & Insomnia their stay in Seoul also helps as it lessens their own expenses and it meant they saw some income next to tournaments).

Eli, Hell, ThePig & HoRRoR are the original four German EPS champions and thus could probably make a living playing the game.

TillerMaN, MagicYang and FaTC all saw some prize money (up to 14.000$) and all likely saw some monthly salary (through teams) / income (be it through selling lessons or audio commentaries); enough to justify their inclusion here.

Check, ShowTime, DayFly, Medusa, Moon, Anyppi, Jojo, Gerrard, EvenStar, Reign & Sweet all finished in the top two of important Korean competitions and probably all received some monthly salary next to income out of televised competition. FreeDoM, Swain & Zacard were also showing strong results already and signed to professional teams. On Star’s retirement he was supposedly a fulltime professional, a career which would have to have started during this time-period.

Total prize money paid out 2002-2003 (as far as the data is available, some tournaments are estimated)

WCG 2003 (49.000$)
German EPS I (28.000 Euro = roughly 36.200$ today)
MBC Hanbitsoft II (36.000$ estimated)
MBC Prime League I (36.000$ estimated)
MBC Prime League II (36.000$ estimated)
OGN League II (36.000$ estimated)
OGN League III (36.000$ estimated)
OGN League IV (36.000$ estimated)
OGN Invitational (36.000$ estimated)
German EPS II (23.500 Euro = roughly 30.400$ today)
ESWC 2003 (20.000$)
CPL Copenhagen (10.600 Euro = roughly 13.700$ today)
German EPS III (9.800 Euro = roughly 12.700$ today)
OGN WarCraft Retail League ($10.000 estimated)
HanbitSoft Gembc WC3 1st League ($10.000 estimated)
hanbitsoft clan teambattle 1 ($10.000 estimated)
hanbitsoft clan teambattle 2 ($10.000 estimated)
CPL Cannes (8.000$)
Campus Party 2003 (6000 Euro = roughly 7.800$)
Arbalet Cup (6.000$)
Gamefixx USA Tourney ($5000)
Go4wc3 / inCup (2570 Euro = roughly 3.300$)
Kbk Jeju cup (3000$ estimated)
Intel Masters (2500$)
GIGA Grand Slam I (1000 Euro = roughly 1.300$)
ASUS Summer (800$)

Total: 491.700$

WarCraft III 2004 (first Blizzard event, first trouble for Korea scene, first China event, start of Korea / Europe merger)

The USA
So far the USA has not been discussed. The region played a significant role in WarCraft 3 in 2004; they were home to several international contenders such as Aether, Dennis "Shortround" Chan and Matthew "Wizard" Anderson. WCReplays was launched and quickly developed into the main community of the western WarCraft 3 scene.WCReplays launched the WC3Masters; setting the golden standard for weekly competitions (a standard that still has to be surpassed today). Two major events happened in the US: the Cyber-X-Games and the World Cyber Games. And Blizzard Entertainment, an US organisation, hosted the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul. CPL might have discontinued their events, but they did hold three high level WarCraft 3 tournaments in Europe 2002-2003.

So why did the region decline eventually? Aether, Shortround and Wizard all considered professional gaming an unrealistic career choice for an US player, so the region never really had dedicated professionals the way Asia or Europe did. Several tournament organisers might have had their origin in the US, but most never really warmed to WarCraft 3 or vice versa (CPL and Cyber-X-Games had payment issues). CPL was not the only tournament organiser not to see a future in WarCraft 3 after hosting events, the game was selected for the first season of the World Series of Video Games only to be rejected the next year, no major future US organiser would pick the game up again. WCReplays remains to this day the number one community site for western WarCraft III players, but it never really developed into something “more” the way TeamLiquid has for StarCraft for example (this could also be attributed in part to professional eSport organisations actively recruiting the biggest talents of WCReplays, with less of a demand on StarCraft writers there is less of a constant brain drain at StarCraft community sites).

US players did have some advantages compared to players of other countries. Nowhere in the world did you qualify for major events so easily with BlizzCon, the World-eSport Games and various other tournaments holding qualifiers open to American players only or inviting players from the region. Similarly several events such as WCG America or BlizzCon USA allowed USA players to pick up winnings or titles with relatively little effort. This might have helped boost the scene to some degree as it gives top players an incentive to be the best of the country as there relatively to other national scenes a lot and easy chances to showcase their skills on the world stage, but apparently this was not enough for the nation to maintain its status as a junior partner to the European and Asia scenes (which it did have in the time period that is about to be described).

Cyber-X-Games – January 2004
1. 4K.Grubby (Netherlands)
2. aT-Wizard (USA)
3. SK.Insomnia (Bulgaria)
4. 4K.Zeus[19] (Croatia)
5. 64AMD.Delicato (Sweden)
5. SK.SeaWeed (USA)
7. aT-BIatty (France)
7. aT-Shore (France)
9. SK.FaTC (France)
9. SK.SuRviVoR (Sweden)
9. 64AMD.NitemarE (Sweden)
9. Hunter(kill)er (USA)
13. MYM]Bjarke (Denmark)
13. mTw-Ghostridah (USA)
13. 4K.KaJ (Denmark)
13. DSky.Chemi (Finland)
17. RivaL.PerFume (USA)
17. rS.Tray (USA)
17. aT-Shortround- (USA)
17. aT-Deco (France)
17. CADX2-Craft (USA)
17. rS.Careless (USA)
17. rS.eTched (Canada)
17. SK.ToD (France)
25. rS.Suboshi (USA)
25. 3mon1c (USA)
25. Apex-X (USA)
25. 64AMD.Four20 (Bulgaria)
25. rS.X (USA)
25. Dragon (USA)
25. SK.Miou (Germany)
25. rS.Pillage (USA)
33. Disarray (USA)
33. RuckusMcDuckus (USA)
33. DSky.Blue (Finland)
33. wudu (USA)
33. Rival.Bey (USA)
33. Massud (USA)
33. aT-InToX (France)
33. unkn[o]wn (USA)
33. Mortal1 (USA)
33. BOO-CRAFT (USA)
33. Rival.Ramboner (USA)
33. TheDrone (USA)
33. u77.BlueWolf (USA)
33. Disarray (USA)
33. Tyrande (USA)

Day 3 (final day) results:
Grand Finals
aT-Wizard vs 4K.Grubby (0-2)

Winner's Bracket Finals
aT-Wizard vs 4K.Grubby (1-2)

Loser's Bracket Round 10
aT-Wizard vs SK.Insomnia (2-X)

Loser's Bracket Round 9
SK.Insomnia vs 4K.Zeus (2-X)

Loser's Bracket Round 8
Sk.Seaweed vs SK.Insomnia (X-2)
4K.Zeus vs 64AMD.Delicato (2-X)

CXG was the first major international event in 2004 and Grubby’s coming out as a major tournament champion. Grubby remains active to this day and would be the player that defined the Orc race for much of his career, being the first and only Orc player to win a major international tournament until 2007(!). Cyber-X-Games never paid out. It also helped brandish Wizard’s reputation as a major tournament contender and the iconic USA WarCraft III player of his era (his Tetris pants also helped). As a tournament attended solely by US and European players it was still very much representative of a time of segregated gaming scenes. If a 25.000$ tournament dollar would have been announced anywhere in 2006 or beyond (you can’t tell they won’t pay out in advance) you could be sure to see several Korean and possibly Chinese players attend.

The 2004 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational (WWI or BWI, the event which would later evolve into BlizzCon) took place a month (in February) after Cyber-X-Games. With no true world champion events having taken place since the release of The Frozen Throne and a never-before-seen 25.000$ first place pay out, all eyes were on this event. It featured champions from every region in the world and would wield surprising results:

1. MaD)Q(FroG (Sweden: 25.000 USD)
2. Jonathan "duckie" Tan Wei Zhong (Singapore: 15.000 USD)
3. Lu "TrustMyself" Aodan (China: 5.000 USD)
4. Cherry-ReiGn (South Korea)
5. 4K.Grubby (Netherlands)
5. Zhu "HaMasAki" Hui (China)
7. EvenStar (South Korea)
7. Huy Duck "Soul.JaH" Pham(Australia)
9. SeaWeed (USA)
9. IAMBAN (Chinese Taipei)
9. HasuHasu (Arabia)
9. B-ill (Japan)
9. ALLYELLE (Chinese Taipei)
9. SK.HeMaN (Sweden)
9. RushWizard (USA)
9. sWoop (South Africa)

Where did duckie come from and who trained this awesome player to play WarCraft III at the highest level? According to fellow Singaporean Wind, former manager of China-based professional gaming team wNv, duckie trained on the USA ladders (reaching rank 1) prior to this event and did nothing but play WarCraft III fulltime, professionally for a year following WWI. He won every competition happening in Singapore at the time and was invited to join a Korean pro-team (he declined, eventually picking up studies again). Korea’s representative, ReiGn, once again failed to finish in the medals, with China’s representative once again showing remarkably strong results for a scene that is developing in near isolation from the rest of the world (with the exception of ACON 4, which took place in China and we’ll cover later).

The biggest story however is Fredrik “MaDFroG” Johansson winning the event without dropping a single map. MaDFroG stayed in Seoul to train and play with FrienZ (forming an insanely strong line-up of players with possible the strongest player of each race in the world at the time: MaDFroG, Check, DayFly and Swain) long after his team mates left homesick. He would eventually stay in the country for eleven months the most spend in the company of people with which his only way of communication was through very basic English, any Korean he had picked up and WarCraft 3 phrases.

When he returned to Sweden he would once again become runner-up of the Electronic Sports World Cup (2004) and he was recognized as the first eSports Player of the Year in the annual eSports Awards (which started in 2004). MaDFroG is a true gaming icon, his accomplishments all took place between the span of roughly one year (between ESWC 2003 and ESWC 2004) and he never recovered from the decline that set in after his return to Sweden. Ask many fans however and they’ll rank MaDFroG above more accomplished players with professional careers spanning five or six time the length of the Swede’s. Contributing to this as well might the notion that MaDFroG was the only western Undead player to ever compete at a level strong enough to win major international competitions. Like ShowTime he was included in ESReality’s 2004 Greatest Gamer Poll, his entry can be found here [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=637604], he lost 45-55% to a RTS legend from a previous era.

Two months after the Worldwide Invitational ACON 4 took place in Shanghai (April). ACON 4 is notable for a bunch of stuff, lets start with the results:

1. mTw-Wizard (USA: 6.000 USD)
2. aT-Deadman (Russia: 3.500 USD)
3. SK.Sweet (South Korea: 2.000 USD)
4. YolinY.suhO (China: 1.000 USD)
5. mTw-Tak3r (Germany)
5. 4K.Grubby (Netherlands)
5. Toey (Thailand)
5. SK.FaTC (France)
9. CPTP.13U[2HG] (Hong Kong)
9. Caf1 (Italy)
9. MYM]CoReY (Denmark)
9. Myth.CareFly (Taiwan)
9. BMi.PhilBot (Australia)
9. ODETON (Japan)
9. SK.HeMaN (Sweden)
9. KrawieC (Poland)
17. TAG.BoNd (United Kingdom)
17. BILLY_LO_ (Spain)

It is the first and only major event ever won by an US player. It is the first major international tournament to take place in China (currently the sole region of importance in WarCraft III). It is the first time a Korean player finishes top three in international competition. In fact, Sweet would later be crowned WarCraft 3 Player of the Year by the eSport Awards (for various accomplishments). It is the event that kept Grubby out of the only ESWC event he missed (as it collided with the Dutch national qualifier).

It is also the first appearance in a tournament in this article by former map hacker Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev, for a long time the bad boy of the western WarCraft III scene. Several players have cheated on some minor level (in this list Tak3r and Sweet come to mind), Deadman is the only professional player however to have been known to actively use cheat programs in online play. He was somewhat of a pariah among his fellow players for several years, but proved himself in competition time and time again until professional teams (64AMD followed by SK Gaming) took him in. He eventually left SK Gaming on pretty poor terms, in a famous incident that involved him kicking a manager. He saw a decline in his career afterwards until he quit WarCraft III and entered engineering school. Arguably, Deadman is the strongest western Night Elf player in the history of the game with the possible exception of Creolophus (who will be introduced in 2006), and at certain peaks in his career one of the absolute best players in the world. More on Deadman later however.

Two months after ACON 4 the Electronic Sports World Cup took place in Paris (July). As mentioned before, this tournament effectively ended MaDFroG’s one year of international tournament dominance (though that was not obvious at the time). It also introduced the first Korean professional that would commit fully to a European team (FoV).

ESWC 2004
1. aT-FoV (South Korea: 10.000 USD)
2. SK.MaDFroG (Sweden: 6.000 USD)
3. SK.HeMaN (Sweden: 3.000 USD)
4. SK.Sweet (South Korea: 2.000 USD)
5. mTw-Aether (USA: 1.000 USD)
5. SK.FaTC (France: 1.000 USD)
5. aT-ToD (France: 1.000 USD)
5. GoStop (South Korea: 1.000 USD)
9. aT-Deadman (Russia)
9. SK.DominatoR (Norway)
9. xiaoT (China)
9. SK.Insomnia (Bulgaria)
13. Giacoma (Czech Republic)
13. DingDong (China)
13. aT-Deco (France)
13. SK.Miou (Germany)
17. DSky.eNvious (Finland)
17. mTw-Wizard (USA)
17. Big (Russia)
17. Evil (Spain)
17. aT-SkyWard (Brazil)
17. 64AMD.Zubie (Sweden)
17. lef (Greece)
17. 4K.Myth (Netherlands)
25. Icest0rm (Italy)
25. TAG-BoNd (United Kingdom)
25. Nightwolf (Brazil)
25. pG.Racor (Austria)
25. PaTo (Brazil)
25. Hitking (Iran)
25. 4K.KaJ (Denmark)
25. PaulYan (USA)
33. sWoop (South Africa)
33. Izuael (Ukraine)
33. Flowless (Marocco)
33. Chouchana (Lebanon)
33. WiNdel (French Guiana)
33. Alnetf (Saudi Arabia)
33. DkH.Ravage (Germany)
33. Manwe (Iran)
41. Fenomenum (Lebanon)
41. TaG-PureBall (United Kingdom)
41. Woah (Portugal)
41. Arthur (Columbia)
41. Fen1x (Spain)
41. Void (Turkey)
41. Siegfried (Spain)
41. SK.voOr (Switerland)
49. Badseed (Saudi Arabia)
49. Merlin (Lebanon)
49. Skin (Portugal)

Quarter-finals
mTw-Aether vs aT-FoV 1:2
SK.FaTC vs SK.Sweet 0:2
aT-ToD vs SK.MaDFroG 0:2
SK.HeMaN vs GoStop 2:1

Semi-finals
SK.Sweet vs aT-FoV 1-2
SK.HeMaN vs. SK.MaDFroG 0-2

Third place
SK.HeMaN vs SK.Sweet 2:1

First place
aT-FoV vs SK|MaDFroG 2-1

FoV’s win brings Korea their first world champion (many more to follow). It allowed Sweet to continue building the success that would eventually earn him his WarCraft 3 Player of the Year award. Aether’s fifth place helps cement his name as one of the few US players in the country’s history capable of competing at major international events. It’s also the second time Yoan “ToD” Merlo does well at the event, a prelude for things to come.

Four months after ESWC 2004 the last major international tournament of the year takes place: the World Cyber Games in San Francisco. In order to properly discuss this event it is important to know more about some of the key players involved, this was the first of many World Cyber Games that were supposed to crown the career of WarCraft 3’s fifth race, Jae Ho “Moon” Jang (known for his extremely creative and succesful strategies, thus “being an entire WarCraft III race on his own, a fifth race), but ended up in disappointment. Instead it ended up lifting the career of Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen, creating what can be considered the biggest rivalry in eSports, bar none. It also introduces the player that probably suffered most from in peak condition at the same time as the two gentlemen mentioned before: Tae min "Zacard" Hwang, eternal runner-up.

The Korean scene 2004
Koreans thought WarCraft III was boring to watch on television. They could not easily follow the fantasy game compared to the science fiction based StarCraft. StarCraft was faster, people could understand tanks blowing stuff up, a town portal needs to be explained however. Combine that with a single race (Night Elves) dominating leagues, and you can understand why Korean mapmakers wanted to spice things up (more on this later).

At the dawn of 2004 Koreans had no major international successes. Western players looked up to the scene nonetheless, they knew they could not handle the level of Korean pro-leagues, Koreans were seen as respectful and mannered, having a higher level of professionalism and a more broad based professional scene. No doubt that international success was just a matter of time, these were the results of qualifiers at the time (EvenStar went to the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational based on a 2003 qualifier):

Electronic Sports World Cup
1. Dae Hui "FoV" Cho
2. Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun
3. Kim Dong "Gostop" Moon

Taking 1st, 4th and 9th place, FoV became the first of what currently are five Korean ESWC champions (out of seven events).

ACON 4
1. Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun
2. Kang Seo "ReiGn" Woo

Sweet took 3th place at the main event. He was also promoted by SK Gaming, the first player to reach level 50 on the Kalimdor ladder and a semi-finalist in MBC Daum Prime League IV. Combined with his ESWC results, you could see how Sweet was the most visible Korean player of 2004 and why he was awarded WarCraft 3 Player of the Year.

World Cyber Games
1. Jang Yong "FreeDoM" Suk
2. Tae min "Zacard" Hwang
3. Jang "Moon" Jae Ho

FreeDoM was relatively young (born 1988), he was the only player at the time giving Moon trouble in Korea and seen as having a golden future in WarCraft III. He would later leave the game, switching to StarCraft after the Korean national scene crumbled in WarCraft III. After playing StarCraft for several years he started dedicating himself to poker with some succes.

A former Age of Mythology pro, Zacard is one of the best WarCraft III players ever, despite never winning a major international tournament. He retired in 2007, you can find a tribute here [http://www.ggl.com/?controller=News&method=article&id=4820]. He was an Orc player at a time in which Orc did not win a lot vs. Night Elf, meaning that his second place was received very well. He was little known outside of Korea (not being one of the dominant players in Korean pro-leagues) until he introduced himself properly to the world by eliminating three European top players in an online showmatch (beating Fredrik "MaDFroG" Johansson, Ivica "Zeus[19]" Markovic and Antoine "FaTC" Zadri).

The showmatch took place August 28, 2004 and had the following results:

SK.HeMaN vs. SK.Sweet 1-2
4K.Grubby vs. SK.Sweet 2-1
4K.Grubby vs. Check[PooH] 0-2
SK.MaD]Q[FroG vs. Check[PooH] 2-1
SK.MaD]Q[FroG vs. SK.Zacard 0-2
4K^Zeus[19] vs. SK.Zacard 1-2
SK.FaTC vs. SK.Zacard 0-2

And than of course there is Jae Ho “Moon” Jang. Hold a greatest gamer poll today and Moon would not only be definitely included, he would have a decent shot at winning. Moon was terrifying in pro-leagues, coming up with incredible strategies to defeat his opponent with seeming ease. He was the most feared WarCraft III player in 2004 (and remains to be so today), humiliating his opponents in Korean pro-leagues and seemingly invincible vs. Orc (having never lost a televised match vs. the race, a streak he would keep up for years).

Prior to WCG he also competed in the MBC Sonokong Prime League III, losing to Park Se “Swain” Ryong in the finals (famous for being the only Human player to ever win a Korean pro-league, Korea’s most accomplished Human player just on that).

Sonokong OnGamenet II
1. Check
2. DayFly
3. Sweet

MBC Sonokong Prime League III
1. Park Se "Swain" Ryong
2. Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
3. Jang Yong "FreeDoM" Suk
4. Kim Tae "Rainbow" In

For good measures also the results of IV (also took place in 2004):

MBC Sonokong Prime League IV
1. Lee Jae "EvenStar" Pak Kang
2. Seo "ReiGn" Woo Park
3. Se "Swain" Ryong
3. Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun (no third place match found).

suma ongamenet proleague
1. Sonokong FrienZ

Hello APM WEG
1. SK Gaming Asia

MBC movies clan teambattle 3
1. Sonokong FrienZ
2. Saint Proteam

If anyone is wondering how far back e-drama and people saying “WARCRAFT 3 IS DYING” goes, around this time the following highly publicized argument also took place:
“You’re killing this game” – Richard "RaGe" Bishop [http://www.wcreplays.com/articles.php?get=173]
“MaDFroG’s reply” - Fredrik "MaDFroG" Johansson [http://www.wcreplays.com/articles.php?get=174]
“Survival of the fittest” - Jad "NuKe" Fawaz [http://www.wcreplays.com/articles.php?get=175]

A WarCraft III manager accuses MaDFroG of killing the game after he played subpar (due to having to play against his will because his manager, NuKe, lined him up) in a WC3L war. Recommended reading, both educational and amusing.

European scene 2004
If 2003 in Europe was all about the SK Gaming crew, 2004 is very much about the rise of Four Kings. Grubby won the first major event of the year and Four Kings did well in team competition as the first two WC3L LAN finals of 2004 show:

WC3L Season IV top four rankings and full team line-ups – October 9, 2003 till March 28, 2004 (LAN finals introduced, taking place in Paris, France between the top two teams)

1. 4Kings (Myth, Grubby, FuRy, LaWn, Zeus[19], Kiko, KaJ)
2. armaTeam (BIatty, Hazeem, MnZ, Shore, Deco, InToX, LwL, Wizard, GeNThO, Shortround)
3. mTw (LasH, Tak3r, Modo, Matzerg, Ghostridah, Scytale)
4. Destination Skyline (Ace, CoReY, Blue, Chemi, Ghortaur, Magik, Ouga, Puffe, eNvious, Durandal)
Schroet Kommando (Kalaschni, Thagor, sTOrM, ToD, SuRviVoR, DominatoR, miou, pLaGuE, Seaweed, ZeeRaX)
OCRANA.D-Link (justtryit, voOr, Pagan, Zyrano, Deluxe, BIaze, kookian, boNe, kain, DarK.FoRcE-, DiaZ)
Revolution Sports Gaming (Tray, leolaporte, Hyper, Maestro, eTched, Love, Pills, KlasH, Akrobatik, X, Pillage, Universe)
pro-Gaming.net (Jan, dArk, Allanon, BuTTerKeKs, HoRRoR, Dezzi, Racor, Twinsen, FiSheYe)
sTar (ChobO, OkaiN, Psio, DK, ArMoR, Wolfy, MeddY)
Gamepoint -> 64AMD (Krackmaster, Saitoh, midnight, plaZ, DIDI8, Lituch, BigEr, Four20, Goldenboy, Kilrogg, Caravaggio, UberElf, heat, zirx, inFi, BiZ)
The aNcients (FEsTis, LeQua, CoReY, Ace, NitemarE, Delicato, SjoW) -> plan-B[headZ]
plan-B[headZ] (Duke, Nuke, Limmet, alven, Eldor, Hulm, SjoW)
SAINT (Winners, Medusa, Bestwolf, Sweet) -> a-Losers
a-Losers (Mirai, hAsU, XardaS, PuN1Sher, Dalai, CmdrCD, Spell, WoO, fl1ps, 11LooSeR1, ThurisaZ, Dan, uc-)

WC3L Season V rankings (top six play-offs took place at LAN finals in Cologne, Germany) and team line-ups. This season took place between April 1, 2004 and June 27, 2004.

1. mTw (Ghostridah, RushWizard, Tak3r, LasH)
2. 4Kings (Grubby, Myth, FuRy, LaWn, KaJ, Zeus[19])
3. Schroet Kommando International (Insomnia, ZeeRaX, DominatoR, SuRviVoR, FaTC, Sweet, HeMaN, SeaWeed)
4. armaTeam (Sabre, RaZ, BIatty, Shortround, InToX, Deadman, Deco, ShowTime, Shore)
5.MeetYourMakers (aCe, CoReY, KiA, Takete, Bjarke, ySkhYr, Geeko, GoStop, Susiria, Warthog, Jango, TuNe)
6. Identity.ioS -> Team 3wD (Alven, Limmet, Karma, Ranger, SjoW, Ranger, Delicato)
7. Destination Skyline (DIDI8, eNvious, sAtiiNi, n0mad, Chemi, Demon-TT)
8. OCRANA.D-Link (TaKe, Harty, Zyrano, voOr, Crimson, kookian, DarK.FoRcE-, Caf1)
9. pro-Gaming (Allanon, BuTTerKeKs, YaD, Amun, Hunter, CareLess, ShoCK, vanHunt, HoRRoR)
10. Schroet Kommando Germany (sTOrM, Thagor, j4yiwd, miou, Thagor)
11. Mousesports (Jan, dArk, PuN1Sher, HasuObs, Spell, PaNiC_Wasano)
12. Team 9 -> Clanless Power (BiZ, RaGman, sNaggy, Zubie, SaSe, Caravaggio, aNty)

We see a number of players that are active today have been active in RTS as far back as these seasons: Grubby, miou, Satiini, TaKe & HasuObs. We also see a number of players that have gone inactive at least once since but have at least played the SC II beta (this list is by no means conclusive): KaJ, Tak3r, ToD, ZeeRaX, FiSheYe, DeliCato, Spell & Zubie.

We also see the start of a phenomena that was described before, the inclusion of Korean players in various WC3L teams despite their representing Korean pro-teams in national competitions (it must also be noted they did none flew over to compete in the WC3L finals, a practice that would start in the next season, the Asian players only competed online). Among the Korean pro-gamers: Winners, Medusa, Bestwolf, Sweet, ShowTime, GoStop and Susiria; especially GoStop and Susiria are known for becoming an integral part of WC3L history, with Susiria helping MYM to various WC3L victories (he attended nine WC3L LAN finals representing MYM.Hanbit and MYM, winning two). Sweet has a more negative WC3L history, he would later leave SK-Gaming on bad terms after choosing not to attend a WC3L LAN finals in order to join World Elite at its inception, he would in fact represent various teams making it to the WC3L LAN finals and for various reasons never attend except for a single time late 2007 as part of the Beijing eSport Team (they took fourth place).

Regardless, WC3L gives us an idea of how the teams measured up in this time-period and we see Four Kings doing well, taking an first and second place. mTw is also enjoying something of a peak period, the team would not improve strongly on its line-up in future editions of the event while other teams grew and as a result mTw would slowly see declining WC3L results over the years. Many of these teams would disband over the years or move out of the WarCraft III scene (most famously of which Four Kings), only MYM, mTw, SK and mouz retained active WC3 squads until WC3L season XVI (the last one).

We do not see a return of Four Kings to the next WC3L LAN finals as they (or to be more precise: Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen, Sebastian "FuRy" Pesic, Yoan “ToD” Merlo and Ivica "Zeus[19]" Markovic) would travel to Seoul in September where they would join add Dae Hui "FoV" Cho to the team. Originally Jae Ho “Moon” Jang and Human pro-gamer Tae In “Rainbow” Kim were meant to join them as well, however they were at the time signed to Korean pro-teams which prevented that deal from going through (indicating once again a knowledge gap between the two scenes as they were signed at the time of being recruited).

ESWC 2004 champion FoV became the first Korean player (many more to follow) to become an integral part of an European based team, technically SK.Asia could count as well, but in practice they remained more of a Korea-based team despite being signed to SK-Gaming.

Right before Four Kings left for Korea the 2004 European Nations Championship took place in Cologne, Germany (organisted by ESL). they would continue to happen annually till this very day and give some indication of how the various European nations stacked up against each other (the format consisted of four 1on1’s and a single 2v2):

European Nations Championship 2004 – September 3-4, 2004

Day 1
Sweden vs. Denmark 4:1
Bulgaria vs. France 4:1
Germany vs. Denmark 2:3
France vs. Netherlands 4:1
Sweden vs. Germany 4:1
Bulgaria vs. Netherlands 3:2

Day 2
semi-finals: Bulgaria vs. Sweden 2:3
420 & Jack vs. SuRviVoR & MaDFroG 2:1
Insomnia vs. MaDFroG 1:2
420 vs. SuRviVoR 0:2
ZeeRaX vs. HeMaN 0:2
Jack vs. FuRy 2:1

semi-finals: France vs. Denmark 4:1
ToD & Shore vs. KaJ & coReY 2:0
InToX vs. Heman_ 2:0
FaTC vs. KaJ 2:1
ToD vs. ySkhYR 2:0
ChobO vs. coReY 1:2

finals: Sweden vs. France 3:1
MaDFroG & LaWn vs. ToD & Shore 0:0
HeMaN vs. InToX 2:1
SuRviVoR vs. Shore 2:0
FuRy vs. ToD 0:2
MaDFroG vs. FaTC 2:0

Some well known names. Probably the time that InToX started slipping away from the top players after having been one of the dominant players in Europe up to this point. It must be noted that Russia would never attend an European Nations Championship event until 2010 due to either organisational or visa issues.

Four days after this event and just a week or so before leaving for Korea Grubby played Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev in WC3L’s king of the hill series. These two would be the major intra-Europe rivalry for several years (Grubby famously played under the nick “apm70maphacks” in ladder, reminding everyone of the Russian’s past) and matches like these drew major attention. Deadman won with a 3-2 score, he would later lose the title to MaDFroG. For those keep tracking, this is also roughly the time ArmaTeam and Destination Skyline disband, the first due to the management being frustrated with the demands ArmaTeam’s players made on them, the second due to lack of sponsorship.

Four Kings in Korea
Four Kings come to Korea in hopes of competing in various pro-leagues and are invited to MBCGame and OnGameNet’s individual pro-leagues. None of the players are particularly successful in either (with Grubby losing to Moon in two televised games, setting the early trend for their rivalry). ToD is the most successful of players in the televised competitions and would stay in Korea for almost a full year, with the other players (with the exception of FoV) returning home before the end of the year.

The team-based pro-leagues were already cancelled on Four-Kings’ arrival (a prelude to things to come), Four Kings does however play a Korea all-star line-up on television on October 1, 2004 with the following results:

4K-FuRy (UD) vs Swain[FrienZ] (HM) on "Odessa"
4K-ToD (HM) vs Cherry-ReiGn (UD) on "Lost Temple Prime"
4K-Zeus[19] (NE) vs SK.Zacard (OC) on "Turtle Rock Prime"
4K-FoV (UD) vs Spirit_Moon (NE) on "Cross Road"
4K-Grubby (OC) vs Rex.Evenstar (NE)

All Four Kings players would lose. A month later the World Cyber Games would take place in San Francisco, USA (October 7, 2004). Grubby and ToD were qualified for the event, China’s delegation (including a certain Xiaofeng “Sky” Li) were barred from the event due to visa issues, Deadman was barred from WCG Russia due to his young age (fifteen, Moscow had an age policy in place more strict than the main event). We saw earlier that FreeDoM, Zacard & Moon were to represent Korea at this event.

WCG 2004 is a pivotal event in the career of Jang “Moon” Jae Ho who was widely feared ahead of the championship and seen as a big title favourite. Had he won this event it would have “sealed” the deal on his reputation as the player that completely dominated WarCraft III. Instead it introduced two major rivals to Moon, first of all an intra-Korea rival in Zacard and secondly the world’s greatest (what either they experienced it as such or not) eSport rivalry in Moon vs. Grubby.

The results (starting from the single elimination):

DNAngel_indY vs 4K.KaJ 0:2
4K.Grubby vs Df1ToRReN 2:0
SK.MaDFroG vs GG_Chobo 2:1
fm_ranger vs 64AMD.Cara 0:2
Freedom vs SK.Wizard 2:0
Lynx.Zerter vs SK.FaTC 0:2
SK.Insomnia vs mouz.HasuObs 2:0
eTched[pG] vs Shortround 1:2
3wD.420 vs gscHoTdaw (HoT) 0:2
Nw_Caf[pG] vs MiNeTwk 2:0
64AMD.Crimson vs MoonGlade 2:0
MythCareFly vs 4K.ToD 0:2
philbot_au vs SK.Miou 0:2

64AMD.Racor vs Shock[pG] 0:2
ACT_Giacomo vs SK.Zacard 0:2
reseT)3BEPb vs SpiritMooN 0:2

Antoine "FaTC" Zadri (who likely threw his group-stage game vs. Shock[pG] for what seemed the easier bracket) elimination of Jos “Zerter” Buijvoets is a pivotal moment in the history of WarCraft III journalism as it meant the young Dutchman had nothing better to do than spend his remaining time writing about and observing the event, eventually leading to this article.

4K.KaJ vs 4K.Grubby 0:2
SK.MaDFroG vs 64AMD.Cara 1:2
Freedom/Lady vs SK.FaTC 0:2
SK.Insomnia vs Shortround 1:2
HoT vs Nw_Caf[pG] 2:1
64AMD.Crimson vs 4K.ToD 1:2
SK.Miou vs Shock[pG] 2:0
SK.Zacard vs SpiritMooN 2:1

MaDFroG’s elimination by Caravaggio was considering something of an upset at the time. In retrospect the Swede had a declining interest in the game since his return from Seoul, something which was becoming more and more visible. FaTC eliminates prodigy FreeDoM, the Korean Night Elf player might have had a hard time playing against the Human due to a lack of Human players in Korea (having no significant international experience to compensate, online or offline).

Most famous of these matches however is the defeat of Moon on the hands of Zacard. Note that this match happened prior to MagicYang popularizing mass Druids of the Talon in Night Elf vs. Orc and also prior to Zacard popularizing Blademaster vs. pretty much everything in Orc matches (Orc players continue to go to bed praising Zacard for that one), so Orc vs. Night Elf was an entirely different game than it is today. Moon had never lost a televised match vs. Orc in Korea, so this was at the time possibly the biggest upset ever. It instantly made Zacard a big favourite to take home the gold and might have given a boost to Warcraft III in Korea as the way Elves were beating Orc players was helping the game to be perceived as not interesting in the country.

4K.Grubby vs 64AMD.Cara 2:0
SK.FaTC vs Shortround 1:2
HoT vs 4K.ToD 1:2
SK.Miou vs SK.Zacard 0:2

Dennis “Shortround” Chan’s defeat of FaTC was quite the upset, especially considering FaTC had just 2-0’d Night Elf players FreeDoM and Zerter (FreeDoM is probably the more impressive one). Shortround used the newly introduced firelord hero to maximum effect and would soon replace Wizard as the USA’s iconic WarCraft III player. There were no surprises in the other matches. HoT’s strong results in these event caused him to be noted by manager Jad "NuKe" Fawaz and picked up by SK-Gaming, leading to a very successful partnership as HoT would develop into one of Europe’s strongest players and an iconic SK Gaming player.

4K.Grubby vs Shortround 2:1
4K.ToD vs SK.Zacard 0:2

Shortround came surprisingly close to eliminating Grubby, he would be beat relatively easily by ToD in the match for third place however, with ToD possibly having learned from Shortround’s matches against fellow Frenchman and Human player FaTC. This set the stage for a match between Orc players Grubby and Zacard, which would coincidentially also determine the winner of the WCG nations ranking (adding extra pressure to both players as well as giving the entire Dutch and Korean delegations additional incentive to cheer their respective players on). Naturally this would also determine who would be considered the world’s strongest Orc, in effect taking over from the retired DayFly who was considered the first to lead the horde (Moon’s reign as the king of Elves would never be in question till this very day).

3rd place
4K.ToD vs Shortround 2:0

Finals
4K.Grubby vs SK.Zacard 2:1

Grubby would return to Korea and shortly return to the Netherlands (homesick). Zacard would return to Korea and would soon make an unique (at the time) move to establish himself in Germany in order to compete in German EPS. He would return to Korea to compete in the World e-Sport Games in 2005. Something which Grubby declined to do and would add to the perceived rivalry between him and Moon as Grubby would win various tournaments outside of Korea while Moon was dominating the World e-Sport Games causing the players to not meet in any “official” matches for an extended period of time.

This event is where Grubby definitely takes over from MaDFroG as Europe’s “big player” without the two ever having settled this in direct competition. Grubby’s rise more or less coincides with MaDFroG’s fall. This tournament also marked goodbye to a generation of western top-players such as KaJ, FaTC, and Wizard. Some of which may have made appearances at later events, but all of which would never achieve at the level they achieved in 2002-2004 again.

This was also the month the finals of the Battle.net ladder season I (which was completely online) took place. The ladder season was an online competition organized by Blizzard Entertainment and you could qualify by doing well at their online ladders. This and the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational would later evolve in what is today known as BlizzCon.

The champions of each gateway were:

Kalimdor: PhoeNix_ReMinD
Northrend: SK.Insomnia
Azeroth: mTw-Ghostridah
Lordaeron: Rival.ShowTime

Which lead to the following semi-finals:

PhoeNix_ReMinD 3-2 Rival.ShowTime
mTw-Ghostridah 3-0 SK.Insomnia

And the following grand final:

mTw-Ghostridah (Azeroth) 0-3 PhoeNix_ReMinD (Kalimdor)

Thus introducing Sung "ReMinD" Sik Kim to the global scene. ReMinD would become Korea’s “other” big Night Elf player (next to Moon), being a professional contender for many years and going on to win the next season of Battle.net as well and the first LAN season (IV).

Around this time Four Kings also challenged the Korean all-stars again, only this time to an European style war:

1. Swain VS Zeus[19] (Twisted Meadows) 0-1
2. Reign & Moon VS FoV & Zeus (Gnoll Wood) 1-0
3. Sweet VS Grubby (Turtle Rock) 1-0
4. Swain & Check VS Grubby & Fury (Avalanche) 1-0
5. Check VS ToD (Lost Temple) 1-0

Which lead to an one point improve for the European pros.

Around this time there were several signs indicating the Korean and European scene were coming closer together:

- SK-Gaming announced Zacard would be moving to Germany.
- ReMinD played and defeated MaDFroG in the ESL King of the Hill
- MeetYourMakers flew in Susiria and GoStop to compete at the WC3L LAN finals in Copenhagen.

The WC3L season VI finals (December 4-5, 2004) featured four teams and had the following results (Four Kings was absent due to them deciding flying to Kopenhagen not being a worthwhile investment of their time and resources, the latter of which could be explained as a prelude to the financial difficulties that lead to the ultimate disbandment of the team):

1. 64AMD (Robert "Enrique" Stolpe Björn "ElakeDuck" ödman Alex "King.Crimson" Andrei Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev Kim "SaSe" Hammer Igor "Caravaggio" Lyalin)
2. MeetYourMakers (Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh Kim Dong "Gostop" Moon Rene "Ciara" Krag Viktor "ySKhYr" Stauning)
3. SK Gaming (Fredrik "Survivor" Jansson Antoine "FaTC" Zadri Tae min "Zacard" Hwang Fredrik "MaDFroG" Johansson Alborz "HeMaN" Haidarian)
4. mousesports (Minh "Spell" Nguyen Dennis "HasuObs" SchneiderMarios "PaNiC" Kalagis Jan "Jan" Stötera Paul "PuN1sher" M. K. Dennis "Shortround" Chan David "Suboshi" Lynch)

This is the first time a manager (Enrique) participates in the WC3L finals (not the last). Deadman being part of the winning team of the event in the absence of Four Kings helps him build up credibility as Europe’s number one player in the absence of Grubby and ToD who were staying in Korea at the time. Of the SK-Gaming team, only Zacard would see a return next season’s LAN finals (with MaDFroG making a return in the season after that in the first of his unsuccessful comebacks).

Line-ups of the teams that did not attend LAN finals (the above line-ups only include the players that attended the LAN finals, Insomnia is absent for example but most definitely a player for SK at this time):

SK Gaming Germany (sTOrM, Thagor, TaKe, kookian, j4yiwd, boNe, KaiN, miou)
Destination Skyline (Magik, Durandal, n0mad, DIDI8, Demon-TT, Suboshi, Talon, bonchance)
4Kings.Intel (Grubby, Zeus[19], LaWn, FuRy, KaJ)
Team 3wD (HomeRunBall, Lyn, Karma, Ranger, OMA,S.Jack, 420, BigEr, eNvious)
Storm Games Clans (Denon, Moloch, Uhlyk, Hum4nic, InTheEnd, DORAN, Frido, Tlaloc, MokoNoTora, Rong, Lagking)
DkH.Mystify (EvE, Mirai, DaviN, eLTmaNN-ciTy, TrueShot, PoDoX, Ravage, Galeth)
armaTeam (MnZ, Skyward, Sabre, Shortround, ToD, Deadman, SeGaL, FoV, Deco)
mTw (Aether, Ghostridah, Tak3r, LasH, JanThePig, Benni)

Note that as mentioned before, armaTeam and Destination Skyline did not exist long enough to see the season through. With armaTeam’s line-up especially making its way to several other teams.

In the end of 2004 World of Warcraft launched. This did not really affect the WC3 pro-scene (no active pro-gamers played the game, though various players such as HeMaN and Deadman have been known to play it in inactivity), but it might have caused a portion of the fan- and the less dedicated playerbase to switch, thus impacting WC3 negatively. Either way, people outside of eSports started confusing WarCraft III with World of Warcraft (this strengthened over time), which would result in cold glares from WC3 players and the feeling you would have been better off hitting on their girlfriends (or wives as some players matured) in terms of the damage you’ve done to your relationship.

Also the World e-Sport Games (WEG) were announced. WEG was a major televised league to take place in Seoul during 2005 that lasted for several months and invited some of the best players from China, Europe and the US to compete alongside several Korean pro-gamers. With the declining ratings from national competitions, WEG brought the standard of Korean pro-leagues to a global competition in a manner which up to today has yet to be replicated.

Recap 2004
This is where the WarCraft 3 scene roughly was at the dawn of 2005:

Blizzard got involved in WC3 competitions with BWI and Battle.net season I.
Korean team leagues were discontinued, World e-Sport Games was launched.
ACON 4 was held.
Three WC3L LAN finals were held.
The European Nations Championship was launched.
The first Samsung European Championship was about to be held.
Korean individual leagues continued.
German EPS continued.
WCG and ESWC continued.
WC3M was cancelled January 2005, leaving inCup as the sole weekly online league paying out 200 euro to the winner.
Another US player, GGL, was about to become involved with the WC3 scene.
The CPL was about to launch a one million dollar Painkiller World Tour, briefly a chief competition to WC3’s status as the number one individual eSports game worldwide, also a boost to the scene in the form of three WarCraft III tournaments held at various stops.

Professional gaming careers launched 2004

China – SuhO, TrustMyself & Sky
Europe – Grubby, Zeus[19], Deadman, ToD & FuRy
Germany – Tak3r & Miou
Korea – FoV, Susiria & ReMinD
Singapore - duckie
USA - Wizard

TrustMyself & duckie won enough money (5.000$ - 10.000$) in international competition to justify their inclusion here (both saw other income as well). As far as TrustMyself goes, 5.000$ goes a long way in China. duckie is known to have been a professional gamer for a year following BWI.

The inclusion of SuhO and Sky should have possibly been delayed until 2005, but that is hard to say without knowing more about China. They had monthly salaries by Yoliny at this time and belonged to the top of the Chinese scene with Sky leading the national WCG delegation (whose visa was denied) and SuhO taking fourth place at ACON 4.

Grubby, Zeus[19], ToD, FoV and FuRy all launched professional gaming careers this year either as part of Four Kings’ stay in Seoul or on the merits of their international succeses (FoV winning ESWC, Grubby winning WCG).

Deadman had some international winnings as well as national winnings in Russia. It is hard to say what kind of monthly salaries he received, but his inclusion here feels justified.

Miou won German EPS, twice (‘nuff said). Tak3r consistently finished in the top four of German competitions and probably saw some money from mTw.

Wizard won a sizable amount internationally (6.000$ from ACON 4 and a undisclosed amount from a WC3L championship with mTw). He saw a monthly salary as well and likely money from national events.

Susiria (MYM’s captain) and ReMinD (Battle.net champion) both probably saw enough income for them to dedicate themselves to the game fully. Maybe they did not really make enough to truly support themselves yet, either way, they would soon enough.

Total prize money paid out 2004 (as far as the data is available, some tournaments are estimated)

BWI 2004 (45.000$)
WCG 2004 (40.000$)
Sonokong OnGameNet II (36.000$ estimated)
MBC Sonokong Prime League III (36.000$ estimated)
MBC Sonokong Prime League IV (36.000$ estimated)
German EPS V (25.000 Euro = roughly 32.600$)
ESWC 2004 (25.000$)
German EPS IV (17.760 Euro = roughly 23.000$)
Battle.net Season I (13.000$)
ACON 4 (12.500$)
NGL Finals II Germany (9000 Euro = roughly 11.600$)
NGL Finals I Germany (8.750 Euro = roughly 11.300$)
ENC 2004 (8000 Euro = roughly 10.400$)
SMAU ILP 2004 (8.000 Euro = roughly 10.400$)
suma ongamenet pro league (10.000$ estimated)
Hello APM WEG (10.000$ estimated)
MBC movies clan teambattle 3 (10.000$ estimated)
inCup (6000 Euro = roughly 7.800$)
European Online Gaming Championship (5.500 Euro = roughly 7.100$)
WC3Masters (6500$)
GIGA Grandslam III (3.000 Euro = roughly 3.900$)
GIGA Grandslam II (3.000 Euro = roughly 3.900$)
WC3L season V (2.500 Euro = roughly 3.250$)
WC3L season VI (3.250$ estimated)
MrFixItOnline (2500$)
ASUS Cups (2350$)
WC3L season IV (2000$ estimated)
Master Clan League Season III (1300$)
Almojo Warcraft III Tournament (1000$)
Arbalet Cup (1000$)
DLgamer WGTour Tournament (400$)
Netgamez 2004 (275 Euro = roughly 350$)

Total: 419.400$

WarCraft III 2005 (World eSport Games, BlizzCon & Stars War launched, Korea national scene continues decline, China rises)

Once again, credit to Blaze for his 2005 Year in Review [http://www.wcreplays.com/page?section=articles&id=371] which was consulted considerably in the writing of this chapter.

Swain and Won-il "Star.WeRRa" Choi retired at the start of the year.

Swain is notable as the only Human player to win a televised league in Seoul as well as being part of the legendary Team FrienZ. He would announce 23 days later he would make a comeback at some point as “ShowBu”, stating he could not forget about WarCraft III.

Star.WeRRa is not notable for any results in particular (he was a regular in televised competition) but because he was the first of Korea’s “Undead Princes” (Star, Sweet, Susiria, Lucifer, FoV & ReiGn as well as later Space) to retire. He threw in the towel following the Prime League map scandal which screwed him out of a win. Also because he was 23 and real life concerns (not being successful enough to make a longterm future out of gaming, financial difficulties, mandatory draft coming up) were catching up with him.

The first major event of 2005 was the World e-Sport Games I which took place in Seoul, Korea starting January 30 and featured the following groups:

Group A
SK.Zacard
YolinY.Sky
EAT
64AMD.Deadman

Group B
SK.MaDFroG
Moon[One]
4K.ToD
MagicYang

Group C
4K.FoV
mouz.Shortround
SK.Insomnia
YolinY.suhO

Group D
SK.HeMaN
17games.xiaOt
SK.Sweet
FreeDom.WeRRa

If you’ve been reading this article, every single one of these players has been introduced, with the exception of the Chinese players, various of which have been mentioned but none of which have been talked about at length. This is because we knew very little about the Chinese scene at the time of this event, something which is about to change drastically at this point in time as China is about to develop in a global hotspot both in terms of players and events.

Every single match these players played was televised, the prize purse was approximately 41.000$. The players stayed in Seoul for a period of about two months (the exceptions being ToD who never left Korea since Four Kings moved there, and the Koreans who obviously lived in the country full-time).

This might also be a good time to discuss Zacard’s presence at the event who, as we mentioned before, moved to Germany. He did not do well enough in German EPS to make it likely he would qualify for the finals and got homesick to a point where SK Gaming made a public call on their website asking if any Koreans that lived in Cologne could contact them so Zacard could socialize with them. Obviously he was happy for a chance to return home and compete at this level so he cut his stay in Germany short. This is similarly perhaps to the way Grubby cut his stay in Seoul short, homesick as well, to return home and spend the Christmas holidays with his family.

MaDFroG would announce his retirement at the event (long past his prime at the time but still invited based on reputation), the event also features something of a last hurrah on the part of HeMaN who was the only European to make it out of the first group stage. HeMaN would also fade in inactivity shortly. You can find a VOD dedicated to MaDFroG here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rajT1dztR5A]. He would also be featured post-retirement in the Beyond the Game documentary.

The event also properly introduces several members of the Chinese elite for the first time: MagicYang who earlier competed at WCG 2003 and popularized mass druid of the talon vs. Orc would take fourth place. Sky, whose only mention up to this point was as part of the Chinese delegation whose visa to WCG 2004 was denied, he would take third place at WEG and almost eliminated Zacard in their semi-final match. XiaOt and SuhO would remain among China’s and the world’s strongest players for many years to come, never really rising close to the number one position in the region but doing well enough to be considered among the best.

Sky beat MagicYang in the battle for third place at the event. Moon beat Zacard in the grand finals of the event, using druids of the talon, and would win the first edition of the World e-Sport Games without dropping a map, cementing his reputation as Korea’s and quite possibly the world’s strongest player.

You should also watch ToD vs. Moon if you’re interested in perhaps the most famous smack-down in WarCraft III history, Moon beats ToD using his own units against him:

ToD vs. Moon – WEG I
part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3rYH-0iUXc
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK1YOJIQf-Q
part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYkygNlPsZg
part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObPGgsaukKs

As in 2004, the only player really challenging him in Korea at the time was FreeDoM who could hold his own vs. Moon in Night Elf mirror. There were two Korean individual pro-leagues that concluded early 2005 (having started in 2004) with the following results:

Ongamenet Invitational
1. Jang Yong "FreeDoM" Suk
2. Jang "Moon" Jae Ho Kang
3. Seo "ReiGn" Woo

You can watch the spectacular FreeDoM vs Moon finals on YouTube (thanks to “InactiveLegend” on SK forums), here:

Game 1

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Mds2B81dE
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FteGF470-wA

Game 2

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbiJKjC-UCs
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eqqC34kY_Q

Game 3

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUKQTOBWzeQ
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9gHK7nloZs

Game 4

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE7MGP3aU5c
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvWoCkyWcQc
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOWd3WvgBPM
Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfmhJTMwZeI

Game 5

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkVqiZzGZeE
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m8KTTzb0VM

MBC Land Cinema Prime League V
1. Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
2. Kim Hong "Romeo" Jae
3. Jang Yong "FreeDoM" Suk
3. Lee Jae "EvenStar" Pak (3/4)

At this time the Korean prime league map scandal hit early March as written about by KidArctica here [http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/9106-MBC_Prime_League_Map_Scandal]. Basically the televised leagues had declining popularity for a long time partly due to the success of Night Elf players and the failure of Orc players to compete (there simply were not a lot of Human pros in Korea, Undead did fine). So the maps were rigged to benefit Orc and to weaken Night Elf. This was discovered, caused a lot of uproar and was all the excuse the big two leagues (OGN and MBC) needed to discontinue their individual prime leagues (having already discontinued the team leagues in 2004). MBC would remain supporting WC3 with several competitions over the years, but WarCraft III in Korea would never recover and this caused the pro-gamers to seek opportunities in teams and tournaments outside of the country.

Alongside the World e-Sport Games CPL Istanbul also took place in February. This was basically a competition between the best of Europe, minus those competing in the World e-Sport Games. Istanbul never paid out, as far as early 2010 at least. CPL claimed it was hosted by an organisation independent of CPL who were given the rights to carry the tag and a result it was not their responsibility.

CPL Istanbul top six
1. 4K.Grubby (Netherlands)
2. SK.HoT (Ukraine)
3. 4K.Zeus[19] (Croatia)
4. mTw-DIDI8 (Bulgaria)
5. 3wD.FlasH (Russia)
5. SK.FaTC (France)

Following CPL Istanbul a more proper European championship took place involving the European players that competed at WCG 2004. The Samsung European Championship took place in March in Hannover, Germany and featured ToD who had finally returned from Korea.

1. 4K.Grubby (Netherlands: 5.000 EUR)
2. 4K.ToD (France: 3.000 EUR)
3. 4K.Zeus (Croatia: 2.000 EUR)
4. GSC.HoT (Ukraine)
5. LanFan.ToRReN (Spain)
5. 64AMD.Caravaggio (Russia)
7. Miou (Germany)
7. TeG-BirD (Romania)
9. sCa.HasuHasi (Schwitzerland)
9. eT.LostSoul (Estonia)
9. Giacomo (Czech Republic)
9. Sharky (Serbia and Montenegro)
13. Spermon (Slovakia)
13. BoNd (United Kingdom)
13. Snake-DUNE (Poland)
13. [avatar] (Hungary)

You can see how on one hand Moon is the most successful player in this time period due to his succeses at the World e-Sport Games but Grubby can be portrayed as a potential rival to the Korean star due to his succeses in competitions outside of WEG. The 2004 Electronic Sports World Cup would add to this dynamic in a big way.

The month following this event (April 16) China based Replays.net unveiled their WarCraft III division: World Elite (the Chinese players came from Yoliny, as mentioned by Zax in the interview posted earlier). This was once again a sign of the way China was strengthening their hand in WarCraft III, World Elite continues to be China’s premier WC3 division and would produce several iconic WC3 players as well as win a WC3L championship.

World Elite announced
WE.Sweet
WE.DayFly
WE.Swain
WE.Check
WE.suhO
WE.Sky
WE.Anas
WE.ReMinD (added shortly after announcement)
WE.SuJo (added shortly after announcement)


DayFly and Swain, together with Check former members of the legendary Sonoking FrienZ, had recently returned from inactivity and would not be particularly succesful on their return (DayFly did win the MBCGame champion carnival and Swain had strong moments in the MBCGame World War). Sky and suhO represent World Elite in WarCraft III to this very day. Sweet, Check, Sujo and ReMinD all had successes under the flag of World Elite, but ultimately departed for various reasons. Sweet is currently either still serving in the Korean army or has recently done his service, Sujo and Check are competing in the StarCraft II beta, ReMinD remains an active WarCraft III professional.

As mentioned before, the Korean national scene was mostly dissolving and the players looked for international support. Later in April MeetYourMakers and Hanbit announced a merger, leading to the following line-up:

T.MH]Susiria
T.MH]Lucifer
T.MH]FarSeer
T.MH]ShowTime
T.MH]EVE
T.MH]High
T.MH]Bjarke
T.MH]Ciara

MeetYourMakers would later discontinue their association with Hanbit completely, taking in the entire team with the exception of ShowTime. They would later add Moon (who had a brief stint with Mousesports as well as Korean company Pantech & Curitel) and at a later point Grubby, forming a wildly successful team. Danish-based MeetYourMakers later attracted a big financer and reportedly paid their players an annual 300.000$, an unrealistically high sum of money and the eSports equivalent to showing off the size of your genitals, it put pressure on all professional teams to increase salaries and eventually help lead to many WC3 teams being financially unsustainable (due to players expecting to be compensated in amounts above their actual worth), eventually this bubble burst and MYM famously dissolved. The current MeetYourMakers crew took over the brand and website of the previous owners.

Following April the WC3L season VII took place in May. Four Kings were undefeated in the regular season and took home the finals without losing a war, building an unrivalled succestreak in WC3L history that would eventually lead to them being recognized as the eSports team of the Year in all of gaming by the eSports Award (like WC3L owned by Turtle Entertainment).


WC3L season VII finals (Cologne, Germany) – May 21 – 22, 2005.

4Kings.Intel [3:2] SK Gaming - Winner Bracket Round 1
Team 64AMD [3:2] Team mYm.Hanbit - Winner Bracket Round 1
SK Gaming [3:2] Team mYm.Hanbit - Loser Bracket Round 1
4Kings.Intel [4:0] Team 64AMD -
Winner Bracket Round 2 SK Gaming [1:4]
Team 64AMD - Loser Bracket Round 2
4Kings.Intel [4:1] Team 64AMD - Grand Finals

All WC3L team line-ups at this time:

4Kings.Intel (Grubby, FuRy, FoV, ToD, Zeus[19])
SK.Gaming International (MaDFroG, SuRviVoR, HoT, HeMaN, Zacard, May, Sweet, FaTC, DominatoR, Deadman)
Team 3wD (Demon-TT, OMA.S.Jack, BiGeR, FlasH, SoJu, FlasH, eNvious, BiGD, gh0sT, 3Bepb, JustStar, RotterdaM)
Team64.AMD (ElakeDuck, SaSe, Caravaggio, King.Crimson, WinneR, Deadman, Creolophus)
Deutschlands kranke Horde (PoDoX, TrueShot, EvE, ZeN, Ravage, DaviN, Facilis, dev, epilogue, sAtiiNi, TheUndeTaker, klog_joe)
mTw -> mTw.ATI (Ghostridah, RushWizard, LasH, Tak3r, DIDI8, ShoCK, Aether)
Revolution Sports Gaming (eTched, Hunter, Arcanne, KOoba, Boo, PhilBoT, Shore, PiLLaGe)
GoodGameLeague -> United 5 (qazzi, yahi, Sabre, Zzat, Incinerator, Newbiee, DaViVi, Legato, Tazz)
The JuNgLe TeaM (Levin, Gillian, PaTo, Skyward, Photon, Lombrastic, Myst, aDyRo)
MeetYourMakers (Wolfy, Ciara, Lucifer, GoStop, Maestro, Susiria, plaZ)
Team Ownage (Zerter, Zubie, Delicato, SjoW, aNty)
mousesports.BenQ (Jan, dArk, HasuObs, PuN1Sher, Spell, Shortround, Panic, Romeo, Wolf, Suboshi, mightyx)

Note that inactive players such as MaDFroG and SuRviVoR still appear on the roster even though they no longer play.

Following the finals GoStop, Way and Rainbow make their way to Mousesports.

The next month (June 3) the second edition of the World e-Sport Games was launched with several players being invited from the previous season and several players having to qualify. Some also decided not to make a return. The groups consisted of the following players:

World e-Sport Games II

Group A
Spirit_Moon
Guangmo
GG16-Shore
64AMD.WinneR

Group B
wNv.xiaOt
mTw-Wizard
4K.FoV
SK.Insomnia

Group C
MagicYang
mouz.GoStop
SK.ElakeDuck
4K.ToD

Group D
mouz.Shortround
mTw-DIDI8
SK.Zacard
WE.Anas

DIDI8 is a player we talked about before briefly, he was a veteran StarCraft player and one of the strongest European Night Elf players through his WarCraft III career. Anas and Guangmo qualified from China. Sky decided not to make a return, competing in ACON 5 and ESWC instead. Shore was added to the European line-up on the recommendation of ToD. WinneR was a fifteen year old Undead player from Lithuania (Europe had no big weight Undead players since the retirement of MaDFroG) who was showing strong results in online and team competitions. We’ve seen GoStop compete in various international and Korean events as far back as 2003, he qualified in Seoul and would later represent Korea at WCG 2005 as well.

Moon, xiaOt, ElakeDuck and Shortround all won their respective groups with ElakeDuck playing GoStop and after winning opting to enter group B instead of group A due to the perception it was the easier group. WinneR, FoV, GoStop and Zacard were runner-ups.

Group A – second stage
Moon
FoV
GoStop
Zacard

GoStop beat Moon in this group stage, ending his uninterrupted WEG win-streak, though both would proceed to the semi-finals.

Group B – second stage
WinneR
xiaOt
ElakeDuck
Shortround

WinneR and Shortround proceeded to the semi-finals.

Semi-finals
WinneR [1:3] Moon
Shortround [1:3] GoStop

WinneR took a second map off Moon and would proceed to win bronze vs. Shortround. In the finals GoStop played Moon to a 2-2 score only to lose the deciding map, meaning Moon would defend his title and pick up 20.000$.

During this event ACON 5 took place in China from June 3-7, featuring none of these players as well as an absent Grubby (whose national ESWC qualifier collided with ACON 5).

Sky continued to build his reputation as China’s strongest player at the event, ReMinD won the winner-bracket finals and showed his skill was not limited to online events, Deadman (by this time signed to SK-Gaming) took a third place; continuing showing strong presence at the event after taking second place the previous year.

ACON 5 – Xi’an

1. WE.Sky (China: 8.000 USD)
2. WE.ReMinD (South Korea: 5.000 USD)
3. SK.apm70 (Russia: 2.000 USD)
4. SK.miou (Germany)
5. BIatty (France)
5. RotterdaM (Netherlands)
7. XR.Paz (Philippines)
7. T.MH.Ciara (Denmark)
9. TeRRoR (Poland)
9. Panlyan (Malaysia)
9. rS.eTched (Canada)
9. APM.Coconut (Hongkong)
13. Caf1 (Italy)
13. BoNd (United Kingdom)
13. L_Clan_VeNoM (Turkey)
13. Kikui (Japan)

Taking place later this month, also in China, was the innovative first edition of Stars War (organized by Replays.net). The tournament would have something of a king of the hill format (one player, a “king”, keeps meeting challengers until he loses at which point the winning challenger becomes the “king”) with each match won earning a player 50$ as well as 3000$ dollar going to the overall best player. Originally the 50$ was only supposed to be paid out to players that opted out early (which was possible) and thus went undefeated. However at the end of the event this meant only one player would have won a total of 50$, causing the organization to decide to simply pay every player 50$ for each of their wins. Stars War was widely followed in the WarCraft III scene and remains one of the most memorable tournaments up to this very day.

The results were (first match paid out 150$):

4K.Grubby
2:0 WE.Sky
1:0 WE.Sweet
1:0 Freedom[KHAN]
1:0 WE.SuhO
0:1 T.MH]FarSeer

T.MH]FarSeer
1:0 ReiGn[KHAN]
1:0 WE.ReMinD
1:0 WE.SoJu
1:0 WE.Anas
1:0 WE.Ducui
1:0 WE.DayFly
1:0 BadPlayer
1:0 QcH[ATI].Syc
0:1 T.MH]ShowTime

T.MH]ShowTime
0:1 WE.Check

WE.Check
0:1 WE.Swain

Leading to the following cash prizes to be awarded:

T.MH]FarSeer - $3400
4K.Grubby - $350
T.MH]ShowTime - $50
WE.Check - $50
WE.Swain - $50

At this time team Fnatic was formed in Europe, effectively replacing 64AMD as a high level European team. 64AMD did not have the financial strength continue supporting their professional level WC3 division (losing their strongest players to various other teams).

Fnatic.WC3 – formed June 2005
trimbLe (Orga)
fnatic.Bjarke
fnatic.Creolophus
fnatic.Rholle
fnatic.RotterdaM
fnatic.SaSe
fnatic.SunShinE
fnatic.Vankor
fnatic.Caravaggio

Creolophus would develop into one of the world’s absolute best players, garnering most of his successes under the Four Kings flag. RotterdaM and SaSe would also become very respectable European players. Former European heavyweights Bjarke and Caravaggio were past their prime at this time already.

The next month (July) the CPL Summer Championships (the biggest of all WC3 CPL events) takes place, at the same time as ESWC 2005. Also MaDFroG announces the first of his comebacks, being invited based on his reputation to participate in BlizzCon (similarly to how he was invited to WEG I), he does not live up to his prior successes and eventually returns into inactivity (only to come back again later, this time announcing his return as a “amateur gamer playing for fun”).

The CPL Summer Championships (July 6-10) gave a much needed boost to the US scene and also featured several European players not qualified for ESWC. It took places in Dallas, Texas and had the following results:

1. 4K.ToD (France: 6.000 USD)
2. mTw-DIDI8 (Bulgaria: 4.600 USD)
3. SK.Elakeduck (Sweden: 3.400 USD)
4. rS.Suboshi (USA: 2.400 USD)
5. mTw-Wizard (USA: 1.300 USD)
5. u5.IncInerator (USA: 1.300 USD)
7. mouz.Shortround (USA: 800 USD)
7. pG.Boo (USA: 800 USD)
9. rS.PiLLaGe (USA: 250 USD)
9. u5.Quazzi (USA: 250 USD)
9. rS.eTched (USA: 250 USD)
9. mTw-Tak3r (Germany: 250 USD)
13. Darius (USA)
13. JorgeLausi (USA)
13. u5.ViVi (USA)
13. mTw-ShoCk (USA)
17. MaMe (USA)
17. Scourge (USA)
17. TestLng (USA)
17. TiGel2 (USA)
17. rS.Hunter (USA)
17. Amp (USA)
17. sleepz (USA)
17. PerFume (USA)

At the same time (July 5-10) the Electronic Sports World Cup was taking place in Paris, France featuring Grubby, Sky, Deadman as well as various of the Korean pros, FoV, ReiGn and Sweet, not competing in WEG (the notable exception being FoV who could compete in both as he was invited to ESWC based on his win in 2004 and thus did not have to qualify in Korea where the qualifier collided with WEG). Grubby was put in the no-seed group after losing ESWC Netherlands to the writer of this article, a fact not otherwise relevant but something which he felt he wanted mentioned in order to boost his ego.

This is also the first notable event to which Matti "Satiini" Bäckström qualified but which he declined to attend. Satiini suffers from a travel phobia which would hinder him throughout his career and limited him to online competition in which he was a heavyweight player.

The results were:

1. 4K.Grubby (Netherlands: 13.000 USD)
2. SK.Deadman (Russia: 9.000 USD)
3. Reign-Khan (South Korea: 6.000 USD)
4. WE.Sky (China: 4.000 USD)
5. Sweet (South Korea: 2.000 USD)
5. 4K.FuRy (Sweden: 2.000 USD)
5. SK.Insomnia (Bulgaria: 2.000 USD)
5. GG18-Wolf (France: 2.000 USD)
9. 4K.FoV (South Korea)
9. Yper.Endure (South Korea)
9. GG13-FaTC (France)
9. Guancmo (China)
13. it-Giacoma (Czech Republic)
13. fnatic.SaSe (Sweden)
13. LanFan.ToRReN (Spain)
13. Syc (China)
17. u5.PaTo (Brazil)
17. mouz.Spell (Germany)
17. fnatic.Creolophus (Norway)
17. Santo (Spain)
21. Armsing.Swen (Russia)
21. V4-pro (Portugal)
21. GG14-ChobO (France)
21. PaulYan (USA)
25. fnatic.Bjarke (Denmark)
25. it-Humanic (Czech Republic)
25. fnatic.Vankor (Greece)
25. LuckinG (Portugal)
25. Wizzede2 (Israel)
25. St3 (Italy)
25. NiNJ (Austria)
25. Symphonia (United Kingdom)
33. 4gl.Rista (Serbia and Montenegro)
33. play.Zerter (Netherlands)
33. Aioria (Mexico)
33. DoYouLoveMe (Tunesia)
33. Hitking (Iran)
33. MJ-Kayo (Belgium)
33. WhiSp (Italy)
33. Shase (South Africa)
41. Teuy (???)
41. Yarayko (United Kingdom)
41. Nova (Iran)
41. Clint (Iran)
41. Merlin (Lebenon)
41. Johnboy (Mexico)
41. SK.miou (Germany)
41, Qooth (Saudi Arabia)
49. Badseed (Saudi Arabia)
49. Hamperer (Portugal)
49. POG (Carribean)
49. Cafone (Italy)
49. mTw-ShocK (USA)
49. NameH (UAF)
49. Keyzer (Saudi Arabia)
49. Skin (Portugal)
57. Satiini (Finland)
57. Hendry (Poland)
57. Poison (Lebanon)
57. SeaWeed (USA)
57. Zenith (Mongolia)

So far this article has been building up a number of rivalries, two of which were significantly affected by this event. First of all we see Grubby and Deadman, rivals for the European crown, clash in the finals of the event. Secondly Grubby winning ESWC builds credit for his status as the challenger to Moon’s status as the world’s best player (both would not meet in any offline match in 2005). We also see ReiGn and Sky doing very respectfully and both Wolf and FuRy having one of their best moments in competitive gaming. FoV was eliminated after a three way tie with Deadman and Grubby in the group-stage, his broadcasted match vs. Grubby (Grubby lost) is recommended watching (YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtPMjzWaqC8]).

After the prime league map scandal MBCGame decided to continue Korean national televised competitions in a reduced shape. The first of which was the MBCGame Warcraft League, finished in August, 2005.

The results starting with the quarter-finals:

Quarter-Finals
ReiGn[KHAN] < play`Lyn
4K.FoV > mouz.Rainbow
T.MH]FarSeer > T.MH]Lucifer
Spirit_Moon > FreeDom[KHAN]

Semi-Finals
4K.FoV < play`Lyn
T.MH]FarSeer < Spirit_Moon

Grand Finals
play`Lyn < Spirit_Moon

This is the first success of June “Lyn” Park who would grow into one of the most successful WarCraft III players in history. Moon continues to dominate Korean competitions until later in the year, having reigned undisputed from late 2004 to late 2005.

The China / Korea Cybergames also took place August 20-21 at Qingdao, China adding to the perception of Moon as the undisputed champion of the region as well as Korea’s continued dominance of WarCraft III in the region (one Chinese player reached the quarter-finals), the results starting from the groups:

Group A
1. GoStop 3-0
2. Lucifer 1-2
3. DT 1-2
4. Sky 1-2

Group B
1. ReiGn 3-0
2. Sweet 2-1
3. SuhO 1-2
4. DuCui 0-3

Group C
1. Moon 3-0
2. xiaOt 2-1
3. Thank 1-2
4. EvenStar 0-3

Group D
1. FreeDoM 3-0
2. Check 2-1
3. Guangmo 1-2
4. Anas 0-3

Quarter-finals
GoStop 2-0 xiaOt
ReiGn 1-2 Check
Lucifer 1-2 Moon
Sweet 2-1 FreeDoM

Semi-finals
GoStop 2-0 Check
Moon 2-0 Sweet

Finals
Moon 2-0 GoStop

Moon picked up 9870$ for his trouble, GoStop 4935$ and Check and Sweet both received 2468$.

This is also the month in which ReMinD defeats FuRy in the finals of (fully online) battle.net season II. This is also the month in which Grubby is awarded WarCraft 3 Player of the Year over Moon, leading some to criticize Turtle Entertainment (though given he was reigning ESWC and WCG at the time and lead Four Kings to a undefeated streak in WC3L lasting almost a year it was hard to make the case he did not deserve it). Four Kings was awarded Team of the Year, the only time a RTS team won this award.

Also the European Nations Championship took place again, August 19-21 at Leipzig, Germany. Once again giving us insight into how the European nations stacked up against each other (much like the China / Korea Cybergames gave us insight in Asia’s dynamics):

ENC 2005 LAN finals
1. Sweden (ElakeDuck, SaSe, MaDFroG, Ziebed: 4.000 EUR)
2. France (ChobO, Wolf, FaTC, ToD: 2.000 EUR)
3. Germany (TaKe, Kookian, miou, Spell, HasuObs: 1.250 EUR)
4. Denmark (Rholle, Ciara, Bjarke, WraLth: 750 EUR)

The Czech republic and Russia shared place five in the online relegation. Sweden once again won. France once again took second place.

The next month (September) Moon won another China / Korea clash in the form of the World e-Sports Festival. While Moon continued his reign of the region (except for a failure to qualify for WCG 2005, losing to FoV), Grubby had his first stumble in a long time as GGL / ClanBase’s EuroCup finals took place in Almere, Netherlands. He lost to both ToD and HoT at the event, having to settle for fourth place as WinneR (fresh from his succeses at the World e-Sport Games) took first place, denying ToD (who was Grubby’s main challenger in the European region) any claims of being European champion.

This set the stage for October in which World e-Sport Games season III and BlizzCon took place.

The third season of the World e-Sport Games started October 20 and featured the following groups:

Group A
Spirit_Moon
wNv.xiaOt
GG18-Wolf
verGe_Boo

Group B
NiP-GoStop
SK.ElakeDuck
fnatic.SaSe
Qch[ATI].GoHome

Group C
T.MH]Lucifer
WE.Sweet
WE.TiGer
mTw-DIDI8

Downsized to three groups, BoO represented the US after Wizard hung up his Tetris pants and decided to embrace real life (college); though Wizard would continue to attend several events during his studies. Shortround had no desires to return to Seoul, leaving BoO pretty much as the last top US player standing willing to attend. BoO had in fact been invited to a two-person US qualifier alongside Incinerator only to find after driving 11 hours from El Paso, Texas to Los Angeles, California that Incinerator had no intention to attend having already paid his school tuition. The European qualifier produced ElakeDuck, SaSe, Wolf and DIDI8 as attendees. The Chinese qualifier produced xiaOt, GoHome and TiGer. Moon and GoStop were invited based on their success in season II with Lucifer and Sweet making it through the Korean WEG qualifier.

The two Swedes did surprisingly well at this event. SaSe ended up in a three-way tie with Moon and Lucifer in the second groupstage (GoStop having won the group), the three played three consecutive tie-breakers, tying up each time again, before Lucifer took home the win among them. ElakeDuck was the only non-Korean in the top four. Moon was obviously still the most accomplished Korean player by far in 2005 despite being eliminated in the second group stage, but it would end a year in which he won almost every event he entered on a bitter note.

Sweet ended up winning the event and cancelling his (already announced) retirement. GoStop took second place again and Lucifer took a very respectable third place finish. ElakeDuck did well in two consecutive World e-Sport Games seasons and was considered one of Europe’s heavyweight players in part because of his successes in Korea. He would soon take up poker however.

The DigitalLife Global Gaming League event took place between October 14-16 and featured numerous USA professionals as well as Grubby. GGL was another US organisation, alongside WSVG and CPL, that held several WarCraft III events, giving a boost to the US scene. The relationship between GGL and the scene was more warm than was the case for the other two, but like them GGL eventually proved to have little viability in eSports as the organisation would leave eSports entirely behind them as well as several unpaid bills.

It had the following top 5 results:

1. 4K.Grubby (Netherlands: 4.000 USD)
2. verGe.Wizard (USA: 2.500 USD)
3. mouz.Shortround (USA: 1.500 USD)
4. u5.Psion (USA: 1.000 USD)
5. u5.Qazzi (USA: 500 USD)

As mentioned before, BlizzCon also took place in October (28-29), at Anaheim, California. Featuring only non-WEG players. The finals of BlizzCon is some of the most beautiful WarCraft III ever captured. The event had the following results:

1. 4K.Grubby (Netherlands: 10.000 USD)
2. SK.Zacard (South Korea: 3.000 USD)
3. 4K.ToD (France)
4. Shortround (USA)
5. Wizard (USA)
5. 4K.FuRy (Sweden)
7. eTched (Canada)
7. SK.MaDFroG (Sweden)

Zacard and Grubby once again clashed for the crown of the Orc horde, with Grubby again coming on top.

When you look at achievements over entire history of WarCraft III, Zacard does not rank close to being one of the best players of the game with three second place finishes at major events (WCG, WEG and BlizzCon). He however had the misfortune to enjoy his peak alongside a very strong Grubby and a very strong Moon, in any other era he would have almost certainly taken home a major title.

This BlizzCon is not a particularly strong global event. eTched was brought in to replace Insomnia who was involved in a car crash, FuRy, MaDFroG and Wizard were not competitive at the highest level (anymore). Basically the event more or less unfolded as you could have expected (the top four is a exact copy of the top four of WCG 2004), with Zacard and Grubby’s beautiful final matches as a bonus.

We also see a new European based WarCraft III team created this month with a fully Korean line-up: Ninja in Pyjamas. A team name revered in the Counter-Strike scene, they would not leave much of an impression in WarCraft III prior to their eventual disbandment.

NiP.wc3
GoStop
Rainbow
FarSeer
Way
NangChun
SouthSea

Grubby and Moon also clash in an online showmatch, Moon won 3-2 as the rivalry continues.

And finally, the World Cyber Games took place between November 16-20 at Suntec City, Singapore. Reading this article requires an assumed level of eSports knowledge (otherwise, congratulations on making it this far and not getting bored or confused), but this deserves to be spelled out nonetheless: the World Cyber Games is the main individual event of WarCraft III. Since WarCraft III is also the main individual game in eSports through these years as a result the World Cyber Games in WarCraft III is probably the most important individual tournament that takes place in all of eSports in every year covered by this article, no exceptions (including the 2005 CPL World Tour finals).

WCG 2005 results:

1. SKYCN (China: 20.000 USD)
2. mouz.Shortround (USA: 10.000 USD)
3. 4K.Grubby (Netherlands: 5.000 USD)
4. 4K.ToD (France: 2.000 USD)
5. Creolophus (Norway: 750 USD)
5. SK.HoT (Ukraine: 750 USD)
5. 4K.FoV (South Korea: 750 USD)
5. WE.suhO (China: 750 USD)
9. fnatic.Bjarke (Denmark)
9. mTw-WinneReseT (Lithuania)
9. uikl (South Korea)
9. Giacoma (Czech Republic)
9. XIAOT (China)
9. SK.Deadman (Russia)
9. 3LFear (Argentinia)
9. SK.Insomnia (Bulgaria)
17. Vankor (Greece)
17. u5.Plato (Brazil)
17. mTw-Zerter (Netherlands)
17. LoL_vs_xD (Spain)
17. Avatar (South Korea)
17. u5.Levin (Brazil)
17. BG.JustDisel (Bulgaria)
17. Mordack (Panama)
17. v4_NightWolf (Belarus)
17. Neytpoh (Russia)
17. Myth.CareFly (Chinese Taipei)
17. Flyshow (Indonesia)
17. bu_hero (Turkey)
17. janby (Philippines)
17. mTw-Wizard (USA)
17. mouz.PhilBot (Australia)
33. [SkyLine]FoX (Ukraine)
33. svk_pipinka (Slovakia)
33. mouz.Hasu (Germany)
33. a-L,MSI.BrO (Canada)
33. Nicholas (Hongkong)
33. WuLvEraTe (Switzerland)
33. FuRy (Sweden)
33. kow3orky (Latvia)
33. ToNy (Hongkong)
33. Wind (Kazakhstan)
33. B)Hitking(M (Iran)
33. arC_YarChik (Kazakhstan)
33. (Landed)Ben (Great Britain)
33. Paladyn (Poland)
33. 4K.Zeus[19] (Croatia)
33. BasHx (Germany)
49. arby (Philippines)
49. WCG.PureE (USA)
49. CSG_Sin (Romania)
49. Leijonamieli (Finland)
49. Play_St3 (Italy)
49. Feanor (Ecuador)
49. risen_my (Malaysia)
49. Gosubay (Singapore)
49. Fallen[eGe] (Canada)
49. shase (South Africa)
49. HutrVIE (Vietnam)
49. sventrapapere (Italia)
49. occ_Kayo (Belgium)
49. AoD-Firestrike (Austria)
49. [Sonic]NaB (Hungary)
49. ToRReN (Spain)
65. goxx (Macedonia)
65. Solid (Portugal)
65. es7_Kenny (Columbia)
65. SetaVIE (Vietnam)
65. LamWilliam (Venezuela)
65. Davin (Germany)
65. Kumai (Thailand)
65. Duke_SCG (Serbia and Montenegro)
65. aliaseTRazorS (Estonia)
65. NoobHUman (Peru)
65. PaulYan_my (Malaysia)
65. paladin (Uzbekistan)
65. Playdium_rafey (Pakistan)
65. k23_DarkSun (Kazakhstan)
65. it_flash (Russia)
80. Leyhern (Chinese Taipei)
80. Jaychoujienlun (Indonesia)
80. Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
80. Hobbit (Spain)
80. Charpis (Mexico)
80. [vSport]HeaVeN (Mexico)
80. Han_Hang (New Zealand)
80. mStaiL (Georgia)
80. NCDude (Vietnam)
80. Clint (Iran)

Grubby beat CareFly, Deadman and FoV only to be eliminated by an at the time seemingly inactive Shortround who would go on to lose the grand finals in dominating fashion against Sky. Sky on the other hand eliminated Zerter, WinneR, Creolophus and ToD prior to walking all over Shortround, who could probably care less after winning 10.000$ and cementing his name as the best USA player in history. Grubby beat ToD for bronze, maintaining his European crown but definitely being challenged internationally as the main challenger to Moon by Sky (to whom he not only lost his title but to whom he also lost in the groupstage).

Sky had also won ACON 5 and showed strong finishes at ESWC and WEG. Sky’s win gave an impulse to a Chinese scene already very much on the rise and would pave the way for an entire generation of Chinese players competing at the highest level. He also gave a impulse to the Human race having showcased several of what would be his signature strategies including his “Sky push” which is a towerrush timed to take place very shortly after reaching tier 2 and which proved devastating against Orc and Night Elf players. This event also crowned Sky king of the Human race (no Human player had won a major event in a while with the exception of Sky’s win at ACON 5). His most direct rival was ToD, the two having played a close semi-final match at the event.

This is also the last time we see WinneR at a major individual event with WinneR having decided that pro-gaming life does not suit him and going into inactivity shortly. WinneR is notable as one of few western Undead players capable of competing with the absolute top players of the game.

There are two events rounding off 2005, the first of which is the WC3L season VIII finals taking place November 26-27 at Cologne, Germany. FuRy and FoV could not attend on behalf of Four Kings, meaning they were forced to compete with just Grubby, ToD and Zeus[19]. They won nevertheless.

Results and participants at the LAN finals:
1. 4Kings.Intel (Grubby, ToD, Zeus[19])
2. mYm.Hanbit (Susiria, Storm, EVE, BerA)
3. Mousesports.BenQ.GeiL (Shortround, HasuObs, Romeo, Spell)
4. SK Gaming (EvenStar, Zacard, MaDFroG, HoT, Insomnia)

Other team line-ups:

mTw.ATI (Ghostridah, Aether, Tak3r, ShoCK, WinneR, DIDI8, Zerter, Zubie, BasH)
rS-Gaming -> Check 6 -> verGe Gaming (eTched, Hunter, fire, BoO, Suboshi, Wizard, PiLLaGe)
fnatic Team (Caravaggio, Creolophus, RotterdaM, Vank0r, Bjarke, SaSe, Rholle)
Team Ownage -> A.S Teamplay.it (DeliCato, SjoW, Spider, eNdure, Abver, Lyn, eNvious, Tharkas)
goodgame (ChobO, Wolf, BIatty, sAtiiNi, FaTC, Sad)
Incredible Teamaction (Tama, FlasH, FiX, Point, Giacoma, BoB_IsNice, Psycheout, Cherep, Huma4nic)
Team Pentagram (X_x_X, Darkside, Paladyn, NightWOlf, TeRRoR, MeS, Arch, Ryba, LinKin)
plan-B (GLaiVe, DreaMLanD, ToRReN, Ziebed, Style, ChrisS, LiiLD.C)

Also taking place at the end of the year was a relatively minor Korean event titled “China Internet Games” won by FoV. In addition to his national and international succeses in WEG, ESWC, WC3L and WCG this backed his reputation as one of the strongest Korean pro-gamers following Moon and Zacard. Where there were clear “race champions” at this time in Moon (Night Elf), Sky (Human) and Grubby (Orc), there were various Korean Undead players, Sweet, GoStop, FoV; possibly Lucifer and Susiria as well, who were seen as close in skill to eachother and could be considered something of the princes of the Undead race.

Recap 2005

This is where the WarCraft 3 scene roughly was at the dawn of 2006:

BlizzCon (BWI), WCG, ESWC, Battle.net season, Stars War, German EPS, WEG, WC3L, ENC, inCup, China e-Sport Games, WEF, ASUS Cup, Dreamhack, SEC are all running events having taken place in 2005 and continuing in 2006.
The World Series of Video Games was about to be announced including WC3 as a main game.
WEG was about to move to China.
MBCGame would substitute WEG as the provider of a Seoul-based Korea plus rest of the world televised competition and announce the WarCraft 3 World War, ending their national competition MWL (thus definitely ending televised national competitions in Korea).
NGL was about to be announced.
The ProGamer League would hold its first edition in China.
The International Esports Sports Tournament would hold its first edition in China.

Professional gaming careers launched 2005

China – xiaOt
Europe – DIDI8, HoT, SaSe, WinneR & ElakeDuck
Germany – HasuObs & Spell
Korea – Romeo, Lucifer, GoStop, FarSeer & Lyn
USA – Shortround

xiaOt played three seasons of the World e-Sport Games and established himself as one of China’s iconic WC3 players.

HasuObs and Spell impressed in German EPS with Spell becoming the main rival to Miou’s championship crown.

HoT signed with SK Gaming late 2004 and had a successful year in 2005, winning EuroCup and showing strong results otherwise. Definitely enough to support himself in Ukraine.

SaSe moved to Korea and subsequently moved to China, living and competing as a professional gamer fulltime.

DIDI8 won a decent amount of money this year and lived in Korea for several months. Alongside his winnings he likely received a small salary, all in all enough to support himself in Bulgaria.

WinneR won 5.600$ in international competition and likely received a small salary. He also lived in Seoul for several months. All in all enough to support himself in Lithuania and be designated as a professional gamer.

ElakeDuck was relatively successful during two seasons of the World e-Sport Games and also won some money (taking 3.400$ at CPL Summer, winning ENC with Sweden) outside of this event. All in all probably enough to support himself at a basic level.

Romeo took second place at a MBC Prime League, taking home 10.000$ and justifying his inclusion here.

Lucifer took third place at the third season of the World e-Sport Games, winning 5.000$ and being supported by MYM at the time. Maybe he could not support himself fully at the time, but he was certainly about to break that threshold.

GoStop took two second places at consecutive World e-Sport Games events which earned him 20.000$, more than enough to justify calling him a professional gamer.

FarSeer took home 3.500$ at Stars War and 4.000$ from Battle.net season II. He also likely received a salary from NiP. He could support himself by the game at this point, even though by next year that party was probably over.

Lyn took second place at MWL, alongside showing strong results online. This combined with a salary was probably enough for him to start dedicating himself to the game fully and justifying defining him as a professional gamer. It would still be a while before he definitely established himself as one of the absolute best players in the world however.

Shortround took second place at WCG, winning 10.000$, alongside smaller international and national winnings (competing in the World e-Sport Games) and being supported by Mousesports. He could definitely support himself at an existence level by means of his results in the game.

Total prize money paid out 2005 (as far as the data is available, some tournaments are estimated)

WEG III (41.000$)
WEG II (41.000$)
WEG I (41.000$)
Electronic Sports World Cup (40.000$)
MBC Land Cinema Prime League V (36.000$ estimated)
OnGameNet Invitational (36.000$ estimated)
World Cyber Games (35.000$)
ESL Pro Series Season VII Germany (25.000 Euro = roughly 32.500$)
ESL Pro Series Season VI Germany (25.000 Euro = roughly 32.500$)
China / Korea Cyber Games (22.000$)
CPL Summer (20.000$)
MBCGame Warcraft 3 League (16.000$ estimated)
ACON 5 (15.000$)
Battle.net season II (15.000$)
ClanBase / GGL Transatlantic finals (15.000$)
Samsung European Championship (10.000 Euro = roughly 12.900$)
inCup tournaments (10.000 Euro = roughly 12.900$)
ENC 2005 (8000 Euro = roughly 10.400$)
DigitalLife Global Gaming League Tournament (9.500$)
WC3L Season VIII (5.000 Euro = roughly 6.500$)
WC3L season VII (6.500$ estimated)
ASUS Cups (161.000 RUB = roughly 5.300$)
Dreamhack Summer & Winter (37.000 SEK = roughly 5.100$)
CPL Chile (5.000$)
NGL Finals IV Germany (3.500 Euro = roughly 4.500$)
NGL Finals III Germany (3.500 Euro = roughly 4.500$)
Clanbase/MCL Eurocup XI 1on1 (3.100 Euro = roughly 4.000$)
GIGA Grandslam V (3000 Euro = roughly 3.900$)
GIGA Grandslam IV (3000 Euro = roughly 3.900$)
Stars War I (3.800$)
RixHack (25.000 SEK = roughly 3.400$)
Revelcell Masters Challenge (2.000 Euro = roughly 2.600$)
ESL Pro Series Season I Alpen (1.950 Euro = roughly 2.500$)
ESL Pro Series Season I Italy (600 Euro = roughly 780$)
WC3Masters (200$)

Total: 546.180$

WarCraft III 2006 (rise of China, transformation of Korea, start of the “global” scene)
2006 was very much about two things, the Korean pro-gamers were at this point representing western and Chinese teams as well as competing in international competitions to an extent that created the feel of a true ‘global’ scene, this is more or less the era WarCraft III would be until 2009 / 2010 (at some point a decline among European players and competitions would set in, partially due to the announcement of StarCraft II which had a big impact on tournaments right away).

The other thing is the ascension of China as the top nation in WarCraft III behind Germany in terms of tournaments and behind Korea in terms of players. WEG was to take place in China as well the IEST, Stars War various CEG events and numerous other tournaments. Chinese players, empowered by the succes of Sky, did extremely well in international competition and would continue building on those succeses in upcoming years.

Also, if 2003 was the year of SK-Gaming and if 2004-2005 were the years of Four Kings, 2006 was very much the year of MeetYourMakers.

In the beginning…
Serious Gaming (known for their Deathmatch division) announced a WarCraft III team at the start of the year, starting with Zubie & Zerter and adding more players quickly. They would continue to be active until the start of the StarCraft II beta with various players; at which point the team switched in its entirity to compete in StarCraft II.

The team looked like this after several months:

Serious Gaming
Caravaggio
DeMusLiM
Rholle
XlorD
Zerter
Zubie

DeMusliM and XlorD would develop into European heavyweight WarCraft III players and are currently competing in the StarCraft II. Zubie and Caravaggio would both go inactive shortly. Zerter would take on a manager position. Rholle would remain active for a period of time before also taking on a manager position at a different team.

The first notable event of 2006 was Stars War II, there was in this period a strong Europe-Korea-China dynamic in the WarCraft III scene with all scenes being perceived as being roughly equal to the others in terms of player strength. Stars War captured this mood very well and held two events in 2006 featuring some of the best players of every region representing that region in spectacular events.

Stars War II took place between January 21-22 at Shanghai, China. And had the following participants:

Team Europe
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen
Yoan "ToD" Merlo
Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev
Kim "SaSe" Hammar
Mykhaylo "HoT" Novopashyn

Why were these players invited?
Insomnia still retained a strong popularity in China ever since his WCG 2003 victory. SaSe became a popular player after his succeses vs. Moon in the World e-Sport Games and would move to China. Grubby and ToD are no-brainers and HoT was emerging as one of Europe’s strongest players.

Team Korea
Dae Hui "FoV" Cho
JaeWook "Lucifer" Noh
Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun
Tae min "Zacard" Hwang

Why were these players invited?
All of these players are no-brainers, the most popular, most visible, most accomplished Korean players of this time-period.

Team China
Xiaofeng "Sky" Li
Shu "suhO" Hao
Sun Ri "XiaOt" Wai
QcH[ATi]Gstar
Guo "Guangmo" Zhengkun

Why were these players invited?
Sky, SuhO and xiaOt had been the most visible China pros until 2006. Guangmo and Gstar also belonged to the Chinese top.

The format, as explained by Grubby on Four-Kings forums (no longer available, found here [http://www.wcreplays.com/articles.php?get=373]):

“Each team (Europe, Korea, and China) has 5 players. The teams will play against each other once. The first team to get 5 points, wins the match. A point is gained by winning a match. One match will be played at a time. The five players are put in the line-up on "Spot 1", "Spot 2", "Spot 3", "Spot 4" and "Spot 5", meeting the player from the other team on the same spot. Players will not know what maps will be picked for each spot until the lineups are revealed.

The maps are decided by the team which isn't playing; i.e. Team Europe will choose the map order for China vs. Korea. The available maps are Lost Temple RoC, Turtle Rock, Echo Isles, Gnoll Wood and Twisted Meadows.

Spot 1 will be played first, Spot 2 as second, and so on. There are only 2 PC's on a majestic stage, so turns are taken to play.

The losers from the matches are defeated, resulting in a point for the opponent. The first winner from a team will play on Spot 6 against the first winner (if any) from the other team. Whereas the first 5 matches were "WC3L style" [meaning that each player plays their matches regardless of outcome], Match 6 to potentially Match 9 will be "King of the Hill style", as the winner stands and challenges the next winner from the other team. When all 5 players are defeated from a team, they lose.

The most recent rule to be added is that once an entire team has been defeated, the fans have the opportunity to pick one player from the defeated team to come back and play one more time, giving their team one last chance to win.

Example:

Team A vs Team B

Spot 1 A < Spot 1 B
Spot 2 A > Spot 2 B
Spot 3 A > Spot 3 B
Spot 4 A > Spot 4 B
Spot 5 A < Spot 5 B

Spot 2 A > Spot 1 B
Spot 2 A < Spot 5 B
Spot 3 A < Spot 5 B
Spot 4 A < Spot 5 B

Team A Player Chosen By Fans < Spot 5 B

Team B wins with 6:4 score.”

Easy ‘nuff! On to the results:

Team Korea [6:3] Team Europe
WE.IGE.Sweet [0:1] 4K^Grubby (Turtle Rock)
SK.Zacard [0:1] SK.Insomnia (Gnoll Wood)
T.MH]Lucifer [1:0] mouz.SaSe (Echo Isles)
4K^FoV [1:0] 4K^ToD (Twisted Meadows)
Spirit_Moon [1:0] SK.HoT (Lost Temple RoC)
T.MH]Lucifer [0:1] 4K^Grubby (Echo Isles)
4K^FoV [1:0] SK.Insomnia (Echo Isles)
Spirit_Moon [1:0] 4K^Grubby (Echo Isles)
4K^FoV [1:0] 4K^Grubby (Turtle Rock)

FoV impressively beating ToD, insomnia and Grubby.

Team Korea [6:0] Team China
WE.IGE.Sweet [1:0] WE.IGE.Sky (Echo Isles)
SK.Zacard [1:0] QcH[ATi]Gstar (Twisted Meadows)
T.MH]Lucifer [1:0] WE.IGE.suhO (Lost Temple RoC)
4K^FoV [1:0] E-homE.Guangmo
Spirit_Moon [1:0] wNv.xiaOt (Turtle Rock)
WE.IGE.Sweet [1:0] wNv.xiaOt (Turtle Rock)

Team Korea impressively beating everyone, securing their first place at the event.

Team Europe [5:6] Team China
4K^ToD [1:0] WE.IGE.suhO (Lost Temple RoC)
SK.HoT [0:1] E-homE.Guangmo (Echo Isles)
4K^Grubby [1:0] wNv.xiaOt (Turtle Rock)
mouz.SaSe [0:1] QcH[ATi]Gstar (Twisted Meadows)
SK.Insomnia [1:0] WE.IGE.Sky (Gnoll Wood)
4K^ToD [1:0] E-homE.Guangmo (Echo Isles)
4K^Grubby [1:0] QcH[ATi]Gstar (Echo Isles)
SK.Insomnia [0:1] WE.IGE.Sky (Twisted Meadows)
4K^ToD [0:1] WE.IGE.Sky (Echo Isles)
4K.Grubby [0:1] WE.IGE.Sky (Echo Isles)
4K.Grubby [0:1] WE.IGE.Sky (Echo Isles)

Sky pulling through for China in a close war, earning China a second place finish at the event behind Korea. Sky had really emerged as the star of the Chinese scene and was building a lasting legacy in the WarCraft III scene.

The first major individual event of the year was the 2006 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational which featured the top two contenders from every gateway in ladder season III (this would later grow into the current BlizzCon model). This tournament started February 4th in Seoul, Korea and had the following results:

First Round

4K.Grubby [2:1] WizPizSizZiZ
T.MH]ShowTime [2:0] NiP-SouthSea
NiP-Farseer [2:0] fnatic.RotterdaM
WE.Sweet [2:0] verGe)Rainman

2nd Round Winner Bracket

WE.Sweet [2:0] NiP-Farseer
4K.Grubby[2:0] T.MH]ShowTime

2nd Round Loser Bracket

NiP-SouthSea [0:0] WizPizSizZiZ (double forfeit)
fnatic.RotterdaM [0:2] verGe)Rainman

3rd Round Loser Bracket

NiP-Farseer [2:0] forfeit win
T.MH]ShowTime [2:0] verGe\Rainman

4th Round Lower Bracket

T.MH]ShowTime [2:1] NiP-Farseer

Finals Winner Bracket

4K.Grubby [2:0] WE.Sweet

Consolation Finals Loser Bracket

T.MH]ShowTime [0:2] WE.Sweet

Sunday 5th February


Grand Finals - Sunday 5th February

4K.Grubby [2:1] WE.Sweet
4K.Grubby [1:2] WE.Sweet

Sweet added a second major title closely after winning World e-Sport Games and was looking exceptionally hot. He was getting something of a reputation for comebacks after winning WEG III coming from a 0-2 score and winning the grand finals of this event after losing the first best-of-three. As you may recall, Sweet was crowned WarCraft 3 Player of the Year in 2004 already and had a long and accomplished career by now. This event was also something of a last hurrah for ShowTime who had by far his strongest showing in years, possibly as far back as 2003. ShowTime would soon become inactive. Grubby’s 2nd place was in line with his results of the previous year. RotterdaM was attaining the status of a heavyweight player in European WarCraft III. Shriek used his fifth place for years to come to justify a claim that he was top five in the world.

The 2006 WCG European Championship took place March 9-15 at Hannover, Germany and featured most of Europe’s best players (this event did not include various players that did not qualify for WCG 2005). Predictably the final came down to Grubby and ToD, with Grubby fending off a challenge to his European crown.

WCG European Championship 2006
1. 4K.Grubby (Netherlands: 4.000 EUR)
2. 4K.ToD (France: 2.000 EUR)
3. fnatic.DIDI8 (Bulgaria: 1.000 EUR)
4. Giacoma (Czech Republic)
5. SK.apm70 (Russia)
5. Vankor (Greece)
7. ToRReN (Spain)
7. Paladyn (Poland)
9. WuLvEraTe (Switerland)
9. A-Online|HaMSy (Romania)
9. SGC.pipinka (Slovakia)
9. BasH (Germany)
13. 4K.FuRy (Sweden)
13. fnatic.Bjarke (Denmark)
13. Firestrike (Austria)
13. Solid (Portugal)
17. Ghost (Serbia and Montenegro)

In the month following BWI (March 26) Grubby and Moon would finally meet offline for the first time since their clashes in the Korean pro-leagues in a showmatch organised by GGL and Intel. Moon beat Grubby 2-0 at New York, descriptions of the game can be found here [http://clanbase.ggl.com/news.php?nid=207979]. A much followed match in which Moon won convincingly. Moon won a laptop worth roughly 3.000$.

The World e-Sport Games Masters were to take place in Hangzhou, China between April 22 and May 3. The event was shortened and almost cancelled due to some bureaucratic issue in China. Every match was broadcast, the writer of this article in fact skipped school to watch every game being streamed, a nice write-up on the entire event including pre-WEG interviews with all the players by JacziE can be found here [http://www.wcreplays.com/articles.php?get=396]. For the first time WEG managed to get pretty much all top players of the time, with the possible exception of xiaOt all eight were top 8 or top 10 worldwide.

An interesting note are some of the more popular nicknames of many of these players, they were:

Moon - The Fantasista, Andromeda & The Fifth Race (that’s right, he gets three)
ToD - Romantic Human (well, he is French)
Sweet - Devil Scourge (evil!)
xiaOt - Genius Orc (genius was used for talented players, xiaOt was young)
GoStop - Master of fiend (GoStop was known for his mastery of fiends)
Sky - Dominator of the Sky (Apparantly Sky’s fans did not like him)
Zacard - Orcish Warrior (this referred to Zacard’s reputation for working hard)
Grubby - Emperor of Orc (WarCraft III’s SlayerS_`BoxeR`?)

They would compete in the following groups:

Group A
Sky
Grubby
Sweet
Zacard

Group B
ToD
xiaOt
GoStop
Moon

With the following results:

Group A
4K^Grubby [1:2] WE.IGE.Sky
SK.Zacard [1:2] WE.IGE.Sweet
WE.IGE.Sky [2:1] SK.Zacard
WE.IGE.Sweet [1:2] 4K^Grubby
WE.IGE.Sweet [1:2] WE.IGE.Sky
4K^Grubby [2:0] SK.Zacard

Group B
MYM]Moon [2:0] NiP-GoStop
4K^ToD [2:1] wNv.xiaOt
NiP-GoStop [2:1] 4K^ToD
wNv.xiaOt [0:2] MYM]Moon
4K^ToD [0:2] MYM]Moon
NiP-GoStop [1:2] wNv.xiaOt

Tie-breaker
4K^ToD [1:0] xiaOt
4K^ToD [1:0] GoStop

ToD practically considered himself eliminated after losing to Moon, with only a 1-2 result between GoStop and xiaOt leading to a tie-breaker. This happened and he passed to meet Sky in a rematch of their WCG 2005 semi-finals. The other group proceeded more or less within what can be expected. Sky was a very strong player at the time, Zacard was somewhat in decline compared to his 2004-2005 season. Sweet and Grubby had shown to be evenly matched at BWI a few months early.

The semi-finals would include several rivalries. ToD and Sky were obvious rivals for best Human player and it would mark the first time that the Korean and the European WarCraft III giants Moon and Grubby would clash in an official match since 2004, with Moon having won a showmatch in New York a few months earlier. Given the decisive win by Moon at the time, his shape in this event and the generally perceived advantage that Night Elf was considered to have over Orc, Moon was a big favourite to win

Semi-finals
WE.IGE.Sky [0:3] 4K^ToD
MYM]Moon [1:3] 4K^Grubby

ToD made short work of Sky and could be considered the reigning Human champion following this event, though not by much (Sky won ACON 5 and WCG in 2005, but given that WEG carried a weight comparable to WCG and it was the more direct event by four months, ToD certainly had a legitimate claim). Grubby beating Moon here is probably one of the highlights of Grubby’s career as it opened their rivalry all over again now that he has finally shown capable of beating the Korean pro. He was literally stormed by a swarm of Chinese fans on stage following this win.

Finals
WE.IGE.Sky [3:2] MYM]Moon – 3rd place
4K^ToD [3:1] 4K^Grubby

Sky beat Moon for 3rd place and Moon was about to enter something of a slump. A downperiod in which he would continue playing activally and participating in many events but not quite showing the kind of results we saw from 2003 up to this point. ToD had not only dealt a strong blow for the Human crown to Sky but also challenged Grubby for reign of Europe.

In May the NGL One professional league was announced. This league would run until 2010 and its main event featured a high level, king of the hill style, team competition with the exception of its sixth and final season which featured an individual league. The main events would be held at LAN finals in Germany. NGL was somewhat more poorly organized than WC3L and indeed tried to differ itself from the popular team competition with its alternative king of the hill team format (which actually is very similar to the earliest formats used for WC3 team competitions despite being branded as new and revolutionary, see the Korea vs. Europe showmatch in 2004 for example). Not quite the equal of WC3L, but not that far behind it either, in any history of WC3 team competitions substantial chapters would be dedicated to NGL One.

At its inception the following teams participated with the following line-ups:

4K.Kings.Intel (Grubby, FuRy, Zeus[19], Creolophus, FoV, ToD)
SK Gaming ( Deadman, Elakeduck, HoT, Insomnia, Zacard)
mTw.expekt (DaviN, Ghostridah, hanf, Modo, LasH, Protois, Tak3r, ThePig)
mYm.Raptor-Gaming (Ciara, BerA, EVE, Lucifer, Moon, Storm, Susira)
Mousesports.GeiL (BasH, MiraldO, Giacoma, SaSe, Spell, TitaN)
SK Germany (AtoM, Fire.de, Fisch, 1mpacT, Ente, j4yiwd, Miou, TaKe, XlorD, ThurisAz)
NIP-gaming (FarSeer, GoStop, Nangchun, Rainbow, Southsea)
fnatic Team (Abver, DIDI8, RotterdaM, Satiini, Vank0r, XyLigan)
Serious Gaming (Caravaggio, DeMusliM, FiX, Rholle, Zerter, Zubie)
AoD.SalzburgerLan.wc3 (AkkiS, DeaTH, PheniX, Sayen, biGs, BPunkt, ChobO, eLquA, Firestrike, MaNuS)

The LAN finals were to take place in August.

A week after the World e-Sport Games Moon, Grubby and ToD met up again at the E3 in the USA at May 10 to compete in the V-Sports Allstars (GGL event) alongside Lucifer. The competition was not very high stake with an unusual format, the players having just been through a tough competition and “only” a shuttle PC at stake for first place (with the winner and runner-up both receiving a videocard).

The results were:

Day 1 Results
4K^Grubby <> 4K^ToD 1-1
MYM]Moon > MYM]Lucifer 2-0

Day 2 Results
4K^ToD < MYM]Lucifer 0-2
4K^Grubby <> MYM]Moon 1-1
4K^ToD > MYM]Moon 2-0

Day 3 Results 4K^Grubby > MYM]Lucifer 2-0

V-Sport All-Stars final standings
1. 4K^Grubby 1 2 0
2. 4K^ToD 1 1 1
3. MYM]Moon 1 1 1
4. MYM]Lucifer 1 0 2

ToD beating Moon for the first time in this history and Grubby coming on top due to a win against Lucifer. Not a particularly interesting event, but noteworthy because of the ToD-Moon-Grubby-Lucifer dynamics involved (Lucifer was about to become a very relevant player).

This is also around the time that Olav “Creolophus” Undheim is added to the Four Kings roster. Creolophus was long considered a potential pro-gamer in Europe with strong results online and on LAN despite not going for the game fulltime. He would eventually have a career similar to that of MaDFroG (though ending it on a much better note); doing extremely well at various events for a time period of about a year only to hang up his gloves following these events (in his case to attend university in Norway).

An interesting event took place online throughout June 2006: Race Wars! High level representatives of every race would battle every other WarCraft III race, thus (supposedly) giving us insight into the dynamics between the four WarCraft III races. These results can’t be taken as seriously “deciding” which race is better in certain match-ups, but they do give us insight into how various players were perceived as the limit of three invites to every race restricted them to only inviting those seen as truly being at the top of their respective race. You can find a nicely written coverage here[http://www.wcreplays.com/page?section=articles&id=410].

Human
ToD
Insomnia
Sky

Why were these players invited?
ToD and Sky are obvious choices. Insomnia’s peak (winning WCG 2003) was long behind him, but he remained a popular Human player worldwide and was still getting respectable results. Like we mentioned before, there were not a lot of Humans winning major events at this time, so 3rd place more or less defaulted to Insomnia.

Orc
Grubby
Zacard
Lyn

Why were these players invited?
Grubby and Zacard are obvious choices. Given how little we have been hearing about Lyn since his 2nd place in MWL he might not seem like a obvious choice based on reading this article (over say, xiaOt), but he was really showing his stuff outside of the big leagues and was developing into a truly world class player.

Undead
FoV
Sweet
Lucifer

Why were these players invited?
FoV and Sweet are obvious choices. Lucifer might not seem like an obvious choice over GoStop (and accomplishment wise certainly is not), but there was a interesting dynamic going on as he and Moon dominated WarCraft 3 Champion League wars, and to be honest, GoStop achievements (runner-up in WEG twice vs. Lucifer’s 3rd place) might have surpassed Lucifer’s, but they were in 2005 and we’re talking June 2006 by now. There might have also been a likeability factor at play, Lucifer was a lot more popular personally than GoStop (something which also hurt, say Deadman, while aiding Insomnia for example).

Night Elf
SuhO
Moon
ReMinD

Why were these players invited?
Moon is a obvious choice. SuhO and ReMinD are acceptable choices among what might be as much as ten Night Elves players competing at roughly the same level at this point in time.

The results of the event were:

Orc [4:2] Night Elf
SK.Zacard [0:1] WE.IGE.SuhO
Lof_Lyn [0:1] WE.IGE.ReMinD
4K^Grubby [1:0] MYM]Moon
4K^Grubby [1:0] WE.IGE.SuhO
4K^Grubby [1:0] WE.IGE.ReMinD
4K^Grubby [1:0] MYM]Moon (revived)

Grubby is in good shape. As mentioned before, Moon was in something of a slump, the other two players were not at “that” level at this time. Still an impressive all-kill considering the supposed advantage of Night Elf over Orc.


Human [2:4] Undead
SK.Insomnia [0:1] MYM]Lucifer
WE.IGE.Sky [1:0] 4K^FoV
4K^ToD [1:0] WE.IGE.Sweet
WE.IGE.Sky [0:1] MYM]Lucifer
4K^ToD [0:1] MYM]Lucifer
WE.IGE.Sky (revived) [0:1] MYM]Lucifer

This time an all-kill by Lucifer. You can see how this leaves an impression, especially considering this competition placed him directly alongside two supposedly stronger Korean Undead players, making quite a contrast.

Undead [0:4] Orc
MYM]Lucifer [0:1] Lof_Lyn
4K.FoV [0:1] 4K^Grubby
WE.IGE.Sweet [0:1] SK.Zacard
MYM]Lucifer (revived) [0:1] 4K^Grubby

This has not really been an issue so far in this, but Undead vs. Orc was definitely a favored match-up for Orc at this time.

Human [3:4] Night Elf
WE.IGE.Sky [1:0] MYM]Moon
4K^ToD [1:0] WE.IGE.suhO
Insomnia [0:1] WE.IGE.ReMinD
WE.Sky [0:1] WE.IGE.ReMinD
4K.ToD [0:1] WE.IGE.ReMinD
WE.IGE.Sky (revived) [1:0] WE.ReMinD
WE.IGE.Sky [0:1] MYM]Moon (revived)

ReMinD would become quite famous for his strong match-up vs. Human, and you can see why looking at these results.

Undead [4:2] Night Elf
4K^FoV [1:0] MYM]Moon
MYM]Lucifer [1:0] WE.IGE.suhO
WE.Sweet [0:1] WE.IGE.ReMinD
4K^FoV [1:0] WE.IGE.ReMinD
MYM]Lucifer [0:1] MYM]Moon (revived)
4K^FoV [1:0] MYM]Moon

Moon’s match-up vs. Undead was considered a weakness in 2005 (he lost his WEG title due to losses vs. Lucifer and GoStop, he lost to Night Elf SaSe as well, but only in the tie-breaker; he also lost the WCG 2005 qualifier to Undead player FoV). Moon went 2-4 in the racewar overall.

Orc [1:2] Human
Lof_Lyn [0:1] WE.IGE.Sky
4K^Grubby [1:0] 4K^ToD
SK.Zacard [0:1] SK.Insomnia

And race war ended following Grubby’s win. He went 6-0 overall, ToD went 2-3 and Lucifer went 5-2. Orc won the race wars, followed by Undead.

June also brought the world the conclusion of the MBCGame International League during June 2 at Seoul. A televised national competition in Korea featuring slots to the Electronic Sports World Cup as well. Basically combining the remaining support for a televised league with a ESWC qualifier, it was won by FoV (winning 4000$ and about to attend his third consecutive ESWC) with the runner-up being Lucifer, who also qualified for ESWC. ReMinD beat Check in the battle for third place.

June also brings us the launch of a new major tournament series: the World Series of Video Games! WSVG was basically the continuation of what was the 2005 CPL World Tour (a 1 million dollar tour for the game Painkiller) and was set to include various games this time including WarCraft III. Anyone could enter the events, but the pay-out was top heavy (meaning in this case the top three earns prize money, as opposed to say the top eight, which you want to do if you have an open event so people outside of those capable of finishing top 3 have incentive to enter).

It also did not really promote itself well in the WarCraft III scene, relying first of all on a tournament model that was custom made for Deatmatch and no longer in use in WarCraft III since 2003 (the aforementioned open tournament model, and in 2002-2003 the prize purse made it all the way down to number eight); secondly it pretty much relied on teams to just send people to attend and sites to just pick up that it’s going on and cover it, doing no real outreach to the community. This was a good way to work if you have a certain level of credibility in the scene, but that not being the case, means they pretty much spend the entire first season being passed on for other tournaments by players and slowly building up that credibility. After having done an entire season of doing nothing else but building up credibility in the scene, they decided to drop the game for season 2, which makes you wonder if they had any clue what they were doing. The fact that they cancelled the series in the midst of season 2 citing lack of revenues pretty much answers that question though.

For all the negative comments above, WSVG was a purely positive addition to the scene, giving a small but significant boost to the USA scene with a stop and with the finals to take place there. It there had been an organizer in the US organising a few significant tournaments every year, the scene would have probably looked very different as you can really see the impact these kind of tournaments have on the scene as a whole.

The first two stops took place alongside eachother (as well as Stars War II, which took priority for most of the professionals invited) in June and showed a smart move on the part of WSVG, holding the USA event alongside an European event, thus protecting the American players to some extent and ensuring an American presence at the finals possibly taking lessons from 2005 CPL Summer which had three European players taking 1-3). For some reason no Asian players attended even though several players that competed no where else could have had a relatively very good chance of securing a ticket at this event. These were the results:

WSVG LanWar – Louisville (June 15-18)
1. u5.NilknarfLP (USA: 5.000 USD, WSVG Final Championship Ticket)
2. 3D.Shortround (USA: 2.500 USD, WSVG Final Championship Ticket)
3. verGe)SonkiE (USA: 1.500 USD)
4. verGe)Wizard (USA)
5. aG-Qazzi (USA)
5. HolyHuman (USA)
7. MaMe[tZ] (USA)
7. u5.IncInerator (USA)
9. u5.Newbiee (USA)
9. Orandu (USA)
9. arf (USA)
9. TeK-9.TechnoBoy (USA)
13. Spartan062 (USA)
13. Plasma (USA)
13. Re-Chavez (USA)
13. Bren (USA)
17. Peitanni (USA)
17. Shawnt2 (USA)
17. desteffy (USA)
17. SonOfJun (USA)
17. Elian (USA)
17. Eli_Somera (USA)
17. Sharingan (USA)
17. Nuuk (USA)
25. cloudburst (USA)
25. Source (USA)
25. mechsquirrel (USA)
25. mthdirtyenglish (USA)
25. Xanthus (USA)
25. SirCrono (USA)
25. LicHmicrO (USA)
25. Blunty (USA)

This event introduces Franklin "Nilknarf" Pearsall to us who would eventually take over from Dennis “Shortround” Chan as the dominant USA player (Shortround himself haven taken over from Matthew “Wizard” Anderson around the end of 2004). It’s also the first mention of Nikolaus “SonKiE” Cassidy who would be perceived as the dominant USA player after the retirement of Nilknarf and Shortround.

At the same time a stop took place in Sweden:

WSVG DreamHack 2006 – Jonkoping (June 17-19)
1. SK.Deadman (Russia: 5.000 USD, WSVG Final Championship Ticket)
2. mouz.SaSe (Sweden: 2.500 USD, WSVG Final Championship Ticket)
3. MYM]Storm (South Korea: 1.500 USD)
4. 4K.Zeus[19] (Croatia)
5. ID.SjoW (Sweden)
5. 4K.FuRy (Sweden)
7. MYM]Ciara (Denmark)
7. mouz.Giacoma (Czech Republic)
9. SK.ElakeDuck (Sweden)
9. verGe)GLaiVe (Sweden)
9. adsl (Sweden)
9. ID.Kiske (Sweden)
13. Aske (Sweden)
13. Skoth (Sweden)
13. MYM]Susiria (South Korea)
13. SunShinE (Sweden)
17. ID.aNty (Sweden)
17. Wyzor (Sweden)
17. cZar.Anticom (Sweden)
17. AoTK.Enjoy (Sweden)
17. Qpool.LiiLD.C (Sweden)
17. Shamash (Sweden)
17. Don-Xine (Sweden)
17. ID.Yenmoon (Sweden)
25. ID.eNs (Sweden)
25. Sousz (Sweden)
25. TR-Vanilla (Sweden)
25. DeliCato (Sweden)

Deadman would eventually be denied a visa to enter the WSVG finals which took place in USA, continuing a long streak of him being prevented of attending tournaments due to factors outside of his control (recall he could not attend WCG 2004 due to age restrictions and Russia being denied ENC attendance several times). SaSe would prioritize another event that collided with the WSVG 2006 finals.

Stars War III took place between June 17-18 at Xi’an, China and once again featured three regional teams featuring some of the best players in every region.

Team China
Xiaofeng "Sky" Li
Shu "suhO" Hao
Weiliang "Fly100%" Lu
Hongliang "xTiGer" Liu
Guo "Guangmo" Zhengkun

Sky, suhO and Guangmo also represented China at the last event. Orc player Fly100% was about to emerge as one of the Chinese pros at the same level as Sky, eventually surpassing the Human player.

Team Europe
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen
Yoan "ToD" Merlo
Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev
Dimitar "DIDI8" Aleksandrov
Olav "Creolophus" Undheim

Grubby, ToD and Insomnia also represented Europe at the last event. Much like Korea was home to several Undead players of roughly the same level, DID8 and Creolophus were European Night Elf players on a level comparable to that of last Star War’s SaSe and HoT.

Team Korea
Lee "Check" Hyung Joo
Rainbow
Seo Woo "ReiGn" Kang
Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun
June "Lyn" Park

Only Sweet returns from last season’s team Korea, with this team being slightly weaker overall. Check and ReiGn have gained attention before, Lyn is mentioned before as well and would become a very prominent player in the future. Rainbow was one of Korea’s top two Human players alongside Storm and obviously high level, but not really a contender for top three at events in the country.

You can find a nice coverage of the event here[http://www.wcreplays.com/articles.php?get=415].

Team Korea [4:6] Team Europe
WE.IGE.Check [0:1] 4K^Grubby
Sweet.WeRRa [1:0] fnatic.DIDI8
Cherry-ReiGn [1:0] SK.Insomnia
NiP-Rainbow [0:1] 4K^Creolophus
Lof.Lyn [0:1] 4K^ToD
Sweet.WeRRa [1:0] 4K^Grubby
Cherry-ReiGn [0:1] 4K^Creolophus
Sweet.WeRRa [1:0] 4K^ToD
Sweet.WeRRa [0:1] 4K^Creolophus
Lof.Lyn [0:1] 4K^Creolophus

Creolophus doing noticeably well, going 4-0 vs. the Korean pros.

Team Korea [6:5] Team China
Sweet.WeRRa [1:0] WE.IGE.xTiGer
Lof.Lyn [0:1] Hacker.Fly
WE.IGE.Check [1:0] WE.IGE.Sky
NiP-Rainbow [1:0] Guangmo
Cherry-ReiGn [0:1] WE.IGE.suhO
Sweet.WeRRa [0:1] Hacker.Fly
WE.IGE.Check [0:1] WE.IGE.suhO
NiP-Rainbow [0:1] Hacker.Fly
Sweet.WeRRa [1:0] WE.IGE.suhO
Sweet.WeRRa [1:0] Hacker.Fly
Sweet.WeRRa [1:0] WE.IGE.Sky

Team Korea eeking out a close victory vs. team China on the strength of Sweet who went 4-1.

Team Europe [4:6] Team China
4K^Grubby [0:1] Guangmo
4K^Creolophus [0:1] WE.IGE.suhO
SK.Insomnia [1:0] Hacker.Fly
fnatic.DIDI8 [1:0] WE.IGE.xTiGer
4K^ToD [0:1] WE.IGE.Sky
SK.Insomnia [0:1] Guangmo
fnatic.DIDI8 [1:0] WE.IGE.suhO
fnatic.DIDI8 [0:1] WE.IGE.Sky
4K^Grubby [1:0] Guangmo
4K^Grubby [0:1] WE.IGE.Sky

China beating Europe, once again on the strength of Sky who went 3-0. With all regions taking one win, China takes home the win on the basis of points followed by Europe, followed by Korea.

June also featured the WarCraft 3 Champion League season IX finals (the only WC3L finals in 2006) taking place June 23-24 at Oberhausen, Germany.

LAN Finals
1. mYm.Raptor-Gaming (Moon, Lucifer, Susiria, Storm: 5.000 EUR)
2. 4Kings.Intel (Zeus[19], Grubby, FoV, ToD: 3.000 EUR)
3. SK Gaming (Deadman, HoT, Zacard, Insomnia: 1.500 EUR)
4. World Elite (ReMinD, SoJu, suhO, Sky: 500 EUR)

MYM pretty much dominated 2006 team-competition wise.

All team line-ups during this season of WC3L:

4Kings.Intel (Creolophus, Grubby, Zeus19, KaJ, FoV, FuRy, ToD)
mTw.ATI -> mTw.expekt (LasH, Tak3r, BasH, hanf, Protois)
mYm.Raptor-Gaming (BerA, EVE, Lucifer, Moon, Storm, Ciara)
fnatic Team (LiiL.C, SunShinE, Creolophus, Bjarke, DIDI8, WinneR, Abver, sAtiiNi, XyLigan, Vank0r)
plan-B -> Team LanFan (Lefthander, WuLvEraTe, Space, leekigogo, JoeY, Style, sAtiiNi, epilogue, Space, DaeBu)
A.S Teamplay.it -> Homeless -> 12-05-06 -> Placeholder (Abver, XyLigan, Spider, Mamoru, HomeRunBall, Lyn)
United 5 (IncInerator, PaTo, Canuck, NilknarfLP)
verGe Gaming (Hunter, GeNThO, Darius, Virus, SonKiE, Rainman, Wizard)
Mousesports.GeiL (Spell, HasuObs, PhilBoT, Romeo, SaSe, BasH)
SK Gaming (TaKe, Fisch, Zacard, Deadman, HoT, Insomnia, ElakeDuck)
NIP-gaming (GoStop, NangChun, FarSeer, SouthSea, Rainbow)
World Elite.IGE (Sweet, Check, SoJu, Sky, suhO, Anas, DuCui, FoCuS, xTiGer, Sky, ReMinD)

And finally June ends with the start of the 2006 Electronic Sports World Cup which would establish Lucifer as Korea’s number one player. Taking place in Paris at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, the results were:

1. mYm]Lucifer (South Korea: 13.000 USD)
2. 4K.Zeus[19] (Croatia: 9.000 USD)
3. WE.IGE.Sky (China: 6.000 USD)
4. SK.Insomnia (Bulgaria: 4.000 USD)
5. u5.NilknarfLP (USA: 2.000 USD)
5. 4K.ToD (France: 2.000 USD)
5. 4K.Grubby (Netherlands: 2.000 USD)
5. SK.Fire_de (Germany: 2.000 USD)
9. mouz.TitaN (Russia)
9. 4K.Creolophus (Norway)
9. 4K.FoV (South Korea)
9. 4K.FuRy (Sweden)
13. LanFan.NightWOlf (Belarus)
13. mYm]Bjarke (Denmark)
13. WE.IGE.suhO (China)
13. SK.HoT (Ukraine)
17. 3D.Shortround (USA)
17. sRs.Zerter (Netherlands)
17. GG-Wolf (France)
17. fnatic.DIDI8 (Bulgaria)
21. u5.Pato (Brazil)
21. fnatic.RotterdaM (Netherlands)
21. rCode.LoL_vs_xD (Spain)
21. HasuHasi (Switzerland)
25. Rua (Vietnam)
25. xLo.apm (Canada)
25. sRs.DeMusliM (Great Britain)
25. xTx (Belgium)
25. mYm]Ciara (Denmark)
25. atr.Sweet (Serbia and Montenegro)
31. Chase (South Africa)
31. Silence (Bosnia)
31. Spirit (Belarus)
31. gosubay (Singapur)
31. Viewtiful (Tunesia)
31. Clint (Iran)
31. Balrog (Vietnam)
31. AoD-biGs (Switzerland)
39. aShuN (Italy)
39. TasteT (Saudi Arabia)
39. zergle (Egypt)
39. bote (Macedonia)
39. AoD-Firestrike (Austria)
39. Nickunj Bansal (India)
39. Saint2K (India)
39. xLo.Offman (Portugal)
47. Qoot (Saudi Arabia)
47. Poison (Lebanon)
47. Stingray (Malaysia)
47. Mytyc (Caribic)
47. CeNaRiUs (Iran)
47. HUNTER (Algeria)
47. NerzhuL (Lebanon)
47. water-melon (Egypt)

Lucifer winning the event (briefly) made him be perceived as Korea’s number one player, Moon was in a slump since the WEG Masters finished and Lucifer was doing exceptionally well in various online competitions, WC3L and ESWC. Proof of Lucifer being perceived like this can be found in the upcoming MBCGame World War where Lucifer was ranked 1 and invited as the first Korean player to participate in and launch the event.

Among the other players we see something of a last hurrah of both Zeus[19] (2nd place) and Insomnia (4th place). for Zeus[19] this second place would also be the highlight of his long career, having been seen in tournaments since 2002 and playing a key-role in Four Kings since its inception. Insomnia remained extremely popular until his 4th place, but was long perceived as past his (WCG victory) prime. This event helped counter that idea to some extent, though he was not far away from retiring and would never accomplish on this level again. Nilknarf’s fifth place helped him establish himself as the USA’s number one player, he would be invited to various “global” events following this event, replacing Shortround as the token USA player.

Somewhere around this time the Beijing eSport Team was announced. This was a Beijing based team (obviously) which enabled several Korean players including Zacard and Sweet to remain in China and compete in Chinese national events and delay their draft-duty in the Korean national army.

Grubby also won WarCraft III player of the year alongside eSport Player of the Year overall at Turtle Entertainment’s eSport Award. Making him the second WarCraft III player (following MaDFroG in 2004) to win the most prestigious award in competitive gaming.

Around August 4 the World E-Sports Festival took place at Qing Dao, China. This is the sort of event this article refers to when we describe one of the the advantages USA players have. It’s a competition that wants to be perceived as global and tries to invite the best most popular players from every region, usually not quite living up to the potential an event with this kind of acces to players and prize money could have (it is a major competition, but given a different set-up and other invites could have more quality). This event was no exception but did feature some interesting matches.

The results were:

1. 4K^Grubby (The Netherlands) - $6,000
2. 4K^ToD (France) - $2,500
3. WE.IGE.suhO (China) - $1,500
4. mouz.SaSe (Sweden) - $600
5/8. verGe.Wizard (USA) - $350
5/8. WE.IGE.Check (South-Korea) - $350
5/8. mYm]Moon (South-Korea) - $35
05/8. WE.IGE.Anas (China) - $350

First of all, ToD showed some balls at the event by going random twice vs. Moon and eliminating the Fifth Race Moon (who was admittedtly in something of a slump) with a 2-1 score. Possibly payback for ToD’s humilitation at the hands of the Korean player at WEG 2005 edition one. SuhO played a very strong event, making an impressive comeback vs. SaSe (after being reduced to 50% of his opponent in terms of unit food count). The Chinese Night Elf player came close to eliminating Grubby as well. If judging on this article’s events Korean Undead players are what haunts Moon in his sleep (most notably perhaps FoV), Grubby is probably kept awake by what arguably are players of the world’s second tier of pro-gaming Night Elf players among which Shortround (who eliminated him at WCG 2005), Zeus[19] (who eliminated him at ESWC 2006) and at this event almost SuhO (the likes of Moon, ReMinD, Deadman and Creolophus making up tier one in this time-period).

From August 23 till August 27 the NGL One finals took place with the following results:

1. MeetYourMakers
Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh
JaeWook "Lucifer" Noh
Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
Jin Sung "BerA" Lee

2. SK-Gaming
Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev
Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev
Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun
Tae min "Zacard" Hwang

3. Four Kings
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen
Yoan "ToD" Merlo
Dae Hui "FoV" Cho
Olav "Creolophus" Undheim
Ivica "Zeus[19] " Markovic

4. Mousesports
Minh "Spell" Nguyen
Dennis "HasuObs" Schneider
Kim "SaSe" Hammar
Michael "Giacomo" Hladik

Moon broke his arm at the event hitting a wall (the wall won), he played anyway.

As was said at the start this year, MeetYourMakers pretty much dominated team competitions winning both the WarCraft 3 Champions League and NGL One. Lucifer & Moon won the Transatlantic Showdown as well (2v2 competitions are covered in a separate add-on), and were part of the Team Korea that won Stars War II.

At the same venue, the Games Convention at Leipzig, the European Nations Championship took place with the following results:

1. Sweden
SaSe
ElakeDuck
LiiLD.C
FuRy

2. Bulgaria
Insomnia
DIDI8
Shocker
Jack
DieSeL

3. Germany
Miou
hanf
Spell
Fisch
DaviN
HasuObs

4. France
Wolf
PheniX
ToD
eLquA
Sayen

Sweden wins for the third time, France falls down to fourth after finishing second at the two prior ENC events, Germany and Bulgaria belonged to the stronger European nations at the time while France’s scene had been in a slow but steady decline for years which would continue following 2006.

The first edition of the ProGamer League took place at Beijing, China starting September 10. This was a event, supported by the Chinese government, in which popularity as determined by polling had an impact on the event, eventually over halve a million votes were cast to determine the popularity of the players. It had an unique format as taken from ESReality[http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1193975]:

“After a round of elimination (phase 1) the losers of phase 1 will meet eachother in phase 2 to play another round of elimination. The losers of which will join the least popular player of either phase 1 or phase 2 (depending on which has a uneven numbers of players) to play a round robin. The weakest player in a round robin is eliminated from the competition.This happens once or twice every day until the 10th, after which three players remain. Those three players and one player revived based on his popularity will play a single elimination to determine first to fourth place.All matches are best of three's, except for the finals which is best of five.”

With the following results:

Round 1 – Sweet eliminated
Phase 3
mouz.SaSe 2:1 SK.BeT.Sweet
SK.BeT.Sweet 1:2 WE.suhO
mouz.SaSe x:x WE.suhO

Phase 2
SK.BeT.Zacard 2:0 SK.BeT.Sweet
4K^ToD 2:0 WE.suhO

Phase 1
WE.Check [2:1] SK.BeT.Zacard
Hacker_Fly100% [2:0] WE.suhO
mouz.SaSe [1:2] wNv.xiaOt
SK.BeT.Sweet [1:2] 4K^FoV
4K^ToD [1:2] WE.Sky

Round 2 – ToD eliminated
Phase 3
4K^ToD 1:2 Hacker_Fly100%
mouz.SaSe 2:1 4K^ToD
Hacker_Fly100% x:x mouz.SaSe

Phase 2
WE.Sky 2:1 Hacker_Fly100%
SK.BeT.Zacard 2:0 mouz.SaSe

Phase 1
WE.suhO 2:1 WE.Sky
4K^FoV 2:1 SK.BeT.Zacard
4K^ToD 1:2 WE.Check
mouz.SaSe 1:2 wNv.xiaOt

Round 3 – xiaOt eliminated
Phase 3
WE.suhO 2:0 wNv.xiaOt

Phase 2
mouz.SaSe 2:0 WE.suhO
Hacker_Fly100% 2:0 wNv.xiaOt

Phase 1
4K^FoV 2:1 mouz.SaSe
WE.suhO 0:2 WE.Check
WE.Sky 2:0 Hacker_Fly100%
wNv.xiaOt 0:2 SK.BeT.Zacard

Round 4 – Zacard eliminated
Phase 3
SK.BeT.Zacard 1:2 mouz.SaSe

Phase 2
4K^FoV 2:0 SK.BeT.Zacard
WE.Check 2:0 mouz.SaSe

Phase 1
SK.BeT.Zacard 1:2 WE.suhO
Hacker_Fly100% 2:1 4K^FoV
WE.Sky 2:1 mouz.SaSe

Round 5 – SaSe eliminated
Phase 3
WE.suhO 2:0 mouz.SaSe

Phase 2
4K^FoV 2:0 mouz.SaSe

Phase1
Hacker_Fly100% 2:1 4K^FoV
WE.Sky 2:0 mouz.SaSe
WE.suhO 0:2 WE.Check

Round 6 – Fly100% eliminated
Phase 2
WE.Sky 2:0 WE.Check
WE.Check 2:0 Hacker_Fly100%
Hacker_Fly100% 2:1 WE.Sky

Phase 1
Hacker_Fly100% 0:2 4K^FoV
WE.suhO 2:1 WE.Sky

Round 7 – SuhO eliminated
4K^FoV 2:0 WE.Sky
WE.Check 2:0 WE.suhO
4K^FoV 2:0 WE.suhO
WE.Check 2:1 WE.Sky
WE.suhO 0:2 WE.Sky

Finals
WE.Sky 3:1 Hacker_Fly100%

Battle for Third Place
4K^FoV 3:1 WE.Check

Semi Finals
WE.Sky 3:1 4K^FoV
WE.Check 1:3 Hacker_Fly100%

Kind of the coming out event for Fly100%, he would eventually emerge as one of the world’s absolute best players. It also helped Sky, Check and FoV reaffirm their positions as respectively the strongest Chinese player and players among Korea’s strongest.

Other interesting information concerning this event (I thought so at the time anyway):

Particapants - win/loss ratio (maps) - popularity
Weiliang "Fly100%" Lu 7-5 (17-16) 31.93%
Kim "SaSe" Hammar 4-9 (12-21) 30.58%
Sun Ri "XiaOt" Wai 2-3 (4-8) 7.49%
Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun 0-4 (3-8) 7.03%
XiaoFeng "Sky" Li 9-5 (24-15) 6.71%
Yoan "ToD" Merlo 1-4 (6-8) 3.63%
Dae Hui "FoV" Cho 9-3 (22-11) 3.51%
Shu "suhO" Hao 6-8 (12-20) 3.42%
Lee "Check" Hyung-Ju 8-3 (18-11) 2.98%
Tae Min "Zacard" Hwang 3-5 (9-9) 2.73%

Race vs race win/loss ratio (maps)
Night Elf vs Undead 2-4 (6-11) (TS 3-1) (TR 1-2) (LT 1-2) (EI 1-3) (TM 0-3)
Night Elf vs Orc 5-5 (13-14) (TM 7-3) (EI 2-6) (TS 3-4) (LT 1-0) (TR 0-1)
Night Elf vs Human 5-5 (10-11) (TR 3-4) (TS 4-5) (EI 3-6) (LT 1-0)
Undead vs Orc 3-3 (6-7) (TS 3-2) (TM 2-3) (EI 4-1)
Undead vs Human 1-1 (3-3) (TM 1-1) (EI 1-1) (TR 1-0) (TS 1-0)
Orc vs Human 1-3 (4-8) (TS 3-1) (LT 0-3) (EI 1-3) (TM 0-1)

The World Series of Video Games stop in China took place between 22-24 September and featured no less than 64 players including various representatives of the absolute top of the Chinese and Korean pro-scene.

Top eight:
1st. Jung Hee "SK.Sweet" Chun - $3.000 USD, Travel & Lodging for Finals
2nd. Dae Hee "4K^FoV" Cho - $1.500 USD, Travel & Lodging for Finals
3rd. Liwei "wNv.xiaOt" Sun - $750, Travel & Lodging for Finals
4th. Tae min "SK.Zacard" Hwang
5th. Hongliang "WE.IGE.xTiGer" Liu
6th. Chenglong "Hacker_Sai" Zhou
7th. Hyun Gju "WE.IGE.Check" Lee
8th. Colorful.BadPlayer

The top three was send to attend the WSVG finals, with xiaOt attendance not being announced until later (him replacing SaSe, the number two of DreamHack). This was one of the bigger China / Korea clashes in WarCraft III history and the entire list of results can be found here [http://www.gotfrag.com/war/story/34626/?spage=1].

The KODE5 global finals were also played in September, starting the 26th. WSVG had kind of turned into 2006’s poor brother to ESWC and WCG, it featured qualifiers around the globe and a LAN finals in Moscow. It featured an impressive line-up with various Korean and European professional gamers and saw Deadman playing the tournament of his life.

01. SK.Deadman ($10.000)
02. 4K^ToD ($4.000)
03. 4K^Grubby ($1.000)
04. 4K^FoV
5-8th. WE.IGE.SoJu
5-8th. Go)ShowBu-
5-8th. WE.IGE.Check
5-8th. 4K^Creolophus
9-16th. alt)darkstrike.dfi
9-16th. skt]Nick
9-16th. Jun Wang
9-16th. verGe.Canuck
9-16th. zAp.TaNGerINe
9-16th. fnatic.Rotterdam

It lends credit to the idea that ToD was the superior player to Grubby in this time-period, considering his WEG Masters victory, this event as well as his upcoming strong World Cyber Games event.

Something of a complete overview of their LAN matches up to this point as described in this article is:

Grubby vs. ToD
SEC 2005: 2-1, 2-0
EuroCup 11: 1-2
WCG 2005: 2-1
SEC 2006: 2-1, 2-1
WEG Masters 2006: 1-3
World E-Sports Festival: 2-1
KODE5: X-2

The ClanBase EuroCup 2006 (GGL event) took place October 1st at Aarhus, Denmark. Deadman could not attend (again) and was replaced by RotterdaM. Grubby, Paladyn & SaSe made up the remaining players.

These were the results:

1. RotterdaM – 2000$
2. Grubby – 1000$
3. SaSe – 650$
4. Paladyn – 350$

This win was the highlight of RotterdaM’s WarCraft III career. RotterdaM was the “other Orc from the Netherlands” (perhaps similar to how ReMinD was the other Night Elf from Korea, though on a smaller scale) he bested Grubby at several other events in this time-period and also cleaned his ESWC group earlier in 2006. He would remain an European heavyweight player for some time, eventually focussing his attention on commentating (becoming quite popular). He would go on to briefly lead a professional Heroes of Newerth team and is currently focussing on StarCraft II.

WSVG London took place between October 13-15 and featured Grubby, Creolophus, GlaiVe, SaSe (an European heavyweight Night Elf player who spend time in Korea and would spend an extended period of time living and playing in China) and Giacomo, as well as a small number of UK attendees.

Top 3
1. 4K^Grubby $5.000
2. mouz.Giacomo $2.500
3. 4K^Creolophus $1.500

Creolophus was playing at a high level, but not quite living up to his potential yet. Giacomo has not been talked about in this article before, but he was the strongest Undead in Europe for a long period of time (notwithstanding Happy who at the time did not attend LANs), and regularly finished among the top eight at top tier European events.

The World Cyber Games 2006 took place between October 18-22 at Monza, Italy and would catapult Sky (who would win the event) among the ranks of most accomplished WarCraft III players, making him one of the big three players in the game’s history alongside Moon and Grubby, who coincidentially all represented one of the major WarCraft III regions.

This is a good a time as any to mention Beyond the Game, the biggest piece of WarCraft III media ever made: a documentary film prominently featuring Sky and Grubby and to a lesser degree MaDFroG. WCG Monza was basically where the film was born.

Disclaimer (and self promotion): I worked on Beyond the Game, I introduced Grubby and Sky to the director as well as the idea of a film following their WCG rivalry and continued working on promoting and shaping the documentary before and after its release.

This film was made by a prominent Dutch documentary director, Jos de Putter, and was very much an art film made by de Putter to appeal to his type of audience. It played in Dutch cinema’s, Dutch national television, Finnish national television, film festivals around the world and various other places around 2007-2008. Later a DVD was released which extended the 70 minute film to two hours, making it a lot more accesible to a bigger group of people. Alongside portraying the WarCraft III scene, Sky, Grubby, MaDFroG and people associated with them the DVD features in-depth interviews with ToD, Moon as well as an one hour interview with the guys behind Blizzard Entertainment. It also features Gary Kasparov more or less recognizing Grubby as an equal, which is pretty cool for any RTS fan.

There’s some justifiable critism of the film by eSport fans that certain aspects of the film don’t portray aspects of the scene as they really are.

Enough of promoting a product I had a role in however! on to the WC3 event at WCG Monza.

WCG naturally featured a big number of top WarCraft III players, we start with the round of 32. The most notable player to fall in groups was Daniel “XlorD” Spenst who had the misfortune to be paired with HoT and SoJu. XlorD was a German WC3 prodigy that would go on to win three seasons of German EPS after he reached the required age (16) to participate.

Round 32
HoT [2:1] NightWOlf
Hum4niC [2:0] BasH
DIDI8 [1:2] Nicholas
Deadman [1:2] Ciara
Sky [2:0] FireStrike
GoStop [2:1] Syc
Ghost [0:2] DNA
Grubby [2:0] Yarchik

Soju [0:2] LeviN
ToD [2:0] KiWiKaKi
Rabbit [2:1] CareFly
FiX [1:2] Giacomo
ToRReN [1:2] Rob
XyLigan [2:0] Diesel
TeRRoR [0:2] Creolophus
ElakeDuck [2:1] Dave

The notable results are: Ciara beating Deadman, the Russian simply seemed to perform erriticaly throughout his career being nearly unbeatable one event only to be eliminated quickly the next. 25-year old Brazillian medicine student LeviN beating fulltime Korean professional gamer Soju. The highlight of LeviN’s gaming career, he would return to studying medicine despite possibly, briefly, being tempted to drop everything and go pro (the next match probably brought him back to reality).

Round of 16
HoT [2:1] Hum4niC
Nicholas [1:2] Ciara
Sky [2:1] GoStop
DNA [0:2] Grubby
LeviN [0:2] ToD
Rabbit [2:0] Giacomo
Rob [0:2] XyLigan
Creolophus [2:0] ElakeDuck

Notable was the match between Sky and GoStop which was played at the main-stage of the World Cyber Games and featured an incident involving GoStop pausing the game, claiming Sky cheated him by watching replays of GoStop versus another Chinese Human, syc, prior to their match, which was not allowed by WCG rules. Sky admitted as much and technically it was not allowed (Sky received a yellow card), but in the real world you can’t expect a team-mate of Sky whom you just played not to tell Sky what you just did (if you don’t want your secret, new, strategy revealed you should not use it) and it pretty much was whine at pro-level by GoStop. Creolophus eliminated ElakeDuck who could have had a pretty succesful WarCraft III career but was commiting himself to poker already at this point.

Round of 8
HoT [2:0] Ciara
Sky [2:1] Grubby
ToD [2:0] Rabbit
XyLigan [2:1] Creolophus

In the match that laid the foundation for the Beyond the Game documentary, Sky eliminated fellow WCG champion Grubby. HoT and XyLigan are coming to their own in this tournament as well, HoT as one of Europe’s absolute strongest players and XyLigan as Europe’s number two Human player (behind ToD) and the player that would ultimately follow Deadman as the strongest Russian player (who at his time followed Caravaggio), though XyLigan’s reign of Russia would be relatively short lived as longtime WC3 prodigy Happy was about to enter the world of LAN tournaments.

Semi-finals
HoT [0:2] Sky
ToD [2:1] XyLigan

There was an interesting dynamic for the Human crown going on here as ToD and XyLigan (rivals for best western Human player) clashed for the right to meet Sky (who was expected to best HoT), the best Asian Human player in the world in what were the 2006 WCG grand finals.

Match for third place
HoT [2:0] XyLigan

Finals
Sky [2:0] ToD

In their third prominent clash in a year following the WCG 2005 semi-finals and the WEG 2006 semi-finals, Sky beat ToD and definitely established himself as the best Human player as well as a WarCraft III and gaming icon (having won two consecutive WCG’s) made for the ages. Sky remains an active WarCraft III professional gamer to this day, competing with various levels of succes in competitions, he is not quite China’s strongest player anymore, though it would neither be a huge shock to see him retake that role. He would return to WCG in 2007 to defend his title.

For those looking for prove that Lucifer was for a period of months (July-December 2006, Lucifer’s ESWC win to the event that ended Moon’s slump) perceived as the strongest player in Korea, look no furter than the opening match of the MBCGame World War featuring none other than Grubby and Lucifer. This was basically a televised showmatch taking place Seoul at November 1 with 5.000$ at stake and would be the start of Korea’s last big hurrah in terms of WarCraft III events launched by either MBCGame or OnGamenet. Grubby won 2-1, thus becoming reigning champion of the event. His reign was not meant to last however as Moon was about to break free from his slump.

Moon and Grubby clashed in a showmatch titled “Superfight” on November 10 at Korea. 10.000$ was at stake and Moon won 2-0.

The week following Lucifer vs. Grubby the first season of the World War would start, four players would compete to determine who would have the right to face Grubby for the championship belt. At November 8 Zacard and Rainbow clashed with Zacard beating the Human player with a 3-0 score. The next week a classic Moon vs. Zacard match took place with Moon winning 3-0. The week after that another classic match (you’re bound to see lots of classic matches at an event like this) took place between ToD and Moon, they were pretty evenly matched at the time and Moon came on top with a 3-2 score. Grubby forfeited the championship finals, thus making Moon the champion of season one, earning him media attention (he played two televised matches and was set to play more), 5.000$ and the championship belt [http://w3league.natoo.net/bbs/data/photo/ChampBelt.jpg]!

Openings match & season I of MBCGame’s WWW (WarCraft 3 World War)
Grubby vs. Lucifer [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1246645]
Moon vs. Zacard [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1249994]
ToD vs. Moon [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1251178]

1. Moon
2. ToD
3. Zacard
4. Rainbow

Season two started right away with Lyn beating Susiria 3-0 at November 29. Susiria never really broke through as a solo contender (though obviously was very valuable for MeetYourMakers) but Lyn was really emerging as one of Korea’s shining stars. The next match was between ReMinD, Korea’s other big Night Elf star next to Moon, and Lyn; with ReMinD winning 3-2 against his World Elite teammate. Obviously these matches were set up to garner maximum media attention (it is no coincidence we saw Zacard vs. Moon and Moon vs. ToD in season I), so with that in mind it was no surprise to see ReMinD play FoV next with FoV beating his opponent with a 3-0 score, setting up another classic match: FoV vs. Moon for the championship belt. FoV had a long history of eliminating Moon from tournaments and qualifiers, but Moon was looking extremely hot again at November 27, having just won IEST and took home the win 3-1 vs. FoV; defending his title.

A history of their televised matches up to this point was as followed, notice especially the two times FoV eliminated Moon from WCG:

FoV [5:9] Moon
6 October, 2003 - SUMA Pro League AMD vs. Fairs 0-1 (Twisted Meadows)
Showmatch 4Kings vs. OGN Allstars 0-1 (Cross Road)
20 December, 2004 - OGN War3 Invitational 0-1 (Maelstrom)
16 June, 2005 - WEG Season II 0-1 (Turtle Rock)
24 September, 2005 - WCG Korea 2-1 (Echo Isle, Lost Temple, Twisted Meadows)
6 July 2006 - WCG Korea 2-1 (Twisted Meadows, Echo Isle, Turtle Rock)
November 27 2006 – 1-3 MBCGame World War II (Turtle Rock, Echo Isle, Twisted Meadows Lost Temple)

MBCGAME WWW Season II
Susiria vs. Lyn [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1260277]
Lyn vs. ReMinD [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1266503]
ReMinD vs. FoV [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1284604]
FoV vs. Moon [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1289141]

1. Moon
2. FoV
3. ReMinD
4. Lyn
5. Susiria
.
In December, the last month of 2006, two major international events took place in the forms of the International Electronic Sports Tournament and the World Series of Video Games finals. A number of players had to make a choice, with SaSe chosing IEST (which was invitational) over WSVG and otherwise all players attendeded WSVG (though some players such as possibly ToD might not have given WSVG the same priority they would have if they had not known this event was to take place as well). Both tournaments featured WCG like cash prizes and a strong list attendees featuring eight players, with IEST’s being arguably slightly stronger (though they did have the advantage of being able to cherry pick their players were WSVG was dependent on qualifiers).

IEST 2006 took place starting September 10 at Guangdong, China. You can find a coverage here [http://www.gotfrag.com/war/story/35749/?spage=1] The groups and participants consisted off:

Group A
WE.IGE.suhO
MYM]Moon
u.s.T_Gggg
SK.Insomnia

Why were these players invited?
Insomnia was popular in China. SuhO was a very visible Chinese professional gamer at the time. Moon is pretty much a no-brainer at any event. Gggg was not a very visible player on the international scene but likely made a splash in China.

Group B
WE.IGE.Sky
4K.ToD
mouz.SaSe
MYM]Lucifer

Why were these players invited?
Sky, Lucifer and ToD are no-brainers at any event in this time-period. SaSe lived in China at the time and had shown to be extremely popular during the PGL event.

Results:

Group A
1. Jae Ho "MYM]Moon" Jang 3-0 (6/1)
2. Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev 2-1 (4/2)
3. Hao "WE.suhO" Su 1-2 (3/4)
4. Yong "usT-3H_Gggg" Duan 0-3 (0/6)

Group B
Xiaofeng "WE.Sky" 3-0 (6/1)
Jae Wook "MYM]Lucifer" Noh 2-1 (4/2)
Yoan "4K^ToD" Merlo 3 1 (3/5)
Kim "aTTaX.SaSe" Hammar 0-3 (1/6)

IEST semi-finals
Xiaofeng "WE.Sky" Li 2-0 Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev
Jae Ho "MYM]Moon" Jang 2-1 Jae Wook "MYM]Lucifer" Noh

IEST battle for third place
Jae Wook "MYM]Lucifer" Noh 3-0 Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev

IEST finals
Jae Ho "MYM]Moon" Jang 3-1 Xiaofeng "WE.Sky" Li

And thus ended the slump of Moon.

The World Series of Video Games main event took place starting September 9 at New York, USA. You can find a coverage here [http://www.gotfrag.com/war/story/35749/?spage=1]. As mentioned before, Deadman was denied a visa.

The results were:

WSVG 2006 Main Event
1. Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen - $20.000, Rolex Watch, Computer
2. Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun - $10.000, Computer
3. Dae Hee “FoV” Cho - $5000, Computer
4. Dennis “Shortround” Chan – Computer
5/6. Michael “Giacomo” Hladik – Computer
5/6. Franklin “nilknarf” Pearsall – Computer
7. Liwei “xiaOt” Sun – Computer

Grubby winning his third “world championship” in as many years following World Cyber Games 2004 and Electronic Sports World Cup 2005. If you look at the best player in every region, 2006 ends as a repeat performance of 2005 with Sky, Grubby and Moon all looking exceptionally hot towards the end of the year.

So what did we see in 2006? MeetYourMakers really established itself as the team to beat in 2006. The Chinese scene is having an increasing influence on the WarCraft III scene with many new events originating from and hosted in the country as well as several players, most notably Sky, doing exceptionally well on the world stage.

Recap 2006

This is where the WarCraft 3 scene roughly was at the dawn of 2007:

WCG, ESWC, BlizzCon, German EPS, IEST, WEF, ASUS Cup, Stars War, MBCGame World War, PGL, NGL, WC3L, ENC, SEC, GGL, CEG, inCup, DreamHack, Battle.net and WSVG all held WC3 events throughout 2006 and would continue to do so in 2007.
The Extreme Masters, Rampage Asia, Game-X, Iron Lady and Make Games Colorful were to take place in 2007.
WSVG would drop WC3 as a main game, hold a single event for the game in 2007 and dissolve entirely later in the year.

Professional gaming careers launched 2006

China – Fly100% & Sai
Europe – Creolophus
Germany – XlorD & fire_de
Korea – Storm
USA – Nilknarf

Xlord, Fire_de and Nilknarf are all added based on them winning four figure amounts in domestic as well as international competitions. In the case of Xlord and Fire_de they were likely supported with a salary as well. Nilknarf, who represented home team United 5, might have had to support himself as a player completely on his prize money winnings.

Fly100% is added based on his success in PGL which saw him win enough money and fame to support himself.

Creolophus is added as he signs with Four Kings and becomes a fulltime professional gamer with strong support (Four Kings were invested in the player) and some winnings to add to his income.

Storm is added as he has considerable team winnings with Meet Your Makers, some individual winnings (1.500$ at WSVG Dreamhack) and likely receives a salary. Combined this is probably enough for him to dedicate himself to the game fully, for the time being at least.

Sai is added based on his strength in domestic Chinese competitions (which is more noticeable in the next chapter). This is likely enough to support himself at this point, and otherwise it will be soon enough.

Total prize money paid out 2006 (as far as the data is available, some tournaments are estimated)

World Cyber Games (43.000$)
WEG Masters (42.000$)
Electronic Sports World Cup (40.000$)
WSVG 2006 finals (35.000$)
ESL Pro Series Season IX Germany (25.000 Euro estimated = roughly 32.500$)
ESL Pro Series Season VIII Germany (25.000 Euro = roughly 32.500$)
IEST 2006 (35.000$ estimated)
NGL One (21.000$)
European Nations Championship (12.500 Euro = roughly 16.200$)
BWI (16.000$)
KODE5 (15.000$)
MBCGAME WWW Season II (13.000$)
WC3L Season IX (10.000 Euro = roughly 13.000$)
inCup tournaments (10.000 Euro = roughly 12.900$)
World e-Sports Festival (12.500$)
Stars War III (10.000$)
Stars War II (10.000$ estimated)
Superfight (10.000$)
ASUS Cups (300.000 RUB estimated = roughly 9.900$)
Samsung European Championship (7.000 Euro = roughly 9.100$)
WSVG London (9.000$)
WSVG Dreamhack (9.000$)
WSVG LanWar (9.000$)
MBCGame International League (6.000$ estimated)
CEG X’ian (5.300$)
WSVG China (5.250$)
MBCGAME WWW Season I (5.000$)
MBCGame World War opening (5.000$)
PGL I (30.000 CNY = roughly 4.400$)
ClanBase EuroCup (4.000$)
ESL Pro Series Season II Alpen (1.950 Euro = roughly 2.500$)
ESL Pro Series Season I Italy (600 Euro = roughly 780$)

Total: 493.830$

WarCraft III 2007 (reign of Moon, last march of Seoul, rise of China, Extreme Masters, million dollar plus in prize money, StarCraft II announced)

2007 is probably the best year of WarCraft III in terms of tournaments. It is the last year Seoul is a significant player globally, it is one of the best years for competitions in Europe and China is quickly nearing its peak as well. It is also the year in which Moon dominated events, winning more prize money in a year than any single Counter-Strike team had done up to that point in a year.

The “The WarCraft III Prize Money List 2007”[http://www.gotfrag.com/war/story/41059?spage=1] will be used freely throughout this chapter.

2007 started with a showmatch at January, 3 organized by Korea-based broadcasting station MBCGame between MeetYourMakers and Chinese based wNv Gaming which had recently recruited a number of professionals including FoV, Check and Soccer and was also the longstanding team of Chinese professional xiaOt. Reportedly it paid out 10.000$ to the winning team and 5.000$ to the losing team.

It had the following results:

MYM [4:2] wNv
Lucifer > FoV
Moon > Check
Lucifer > Soccer
Lucifer < FoV
Moon < FoV
Susiria > FoV
Susiria > Check

The easiest money either team ever made in competition.

Closely following this showmatch the China eSport Games took place in Xi’an. Basically this was a running series of tournaments which took place all over China and that have not been included (though they have been mentioned) in this article so far. You can find a full coverage for the results of the 16 groups and the play-offs here [http://www.gotfrag.com/war/story/36030/].

CEG Xi’an 2007
1. ReMinD
2. xiaOt
3. Sky
4. Sweet
5/8. SaSe
5/8. DuCui
5/8. SoJu
5/8. Lyn
9/16. Zacard
9/16. YellOw
9/16. xTiger
9/16. TeD
9/16. Lucifer
9/16. FoV
9/16. DT
9/16. Fly100%

Quite the event on small prize purse.

Starting on January 26, 2007 a rather cost saving event took place: the Battle.net season IV finals / WC3L season X LAN finals at Cologne, Germany. Blizzard and ESL cooperated to host the event with a number of players competing in both tournaments. The Battle.net seasonal competition was purely online in season I and II (with ReMinD winning) and season III served as an qualifier for the 2006 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. This season saw three global finals (Europe, USA and Korea) to determine the attendees in every region, which would eventually meet at a LAN finals. Which is the format used to this very day to determine attendees for BlizzCon events. Note that Chinese internet is too poor / restricted to compete on par with the Koreans on Battle.net, so they would never make an attendance at any of these competions (though technically they could).

For Korea the following players qualified:

MYM]Lucifer
SK.BET.Sweet
Cherry.ReiGn
wNv.FoV
WE.IGE.ReMinD
NoA.Showbu

A familiar list of players, we’ve covered all of them extensively including Showbu which was the new nickname of Swain, the only Human player to ever win a televised league in Seoul (all the way back in 2004), he is also notable for being the first player to come back after retiring and being one of the founding members of World Elite’s Warcraft III squad.

For Europe the following players qualified:

mouz|SaSe
SK.Insomnia
4K^Grubby
4K^ToD
SK.fire_de
verGe.GlaiVe

The first four are familiar name. German Fire_de had been making a name for himself in the past year or so as a heavyweight European Human player, he was previously WCG 2003 champion in Age of Mythology and did very well in German EPS competitions (though would never win a season). GlaiVe was a Swedish player that was known for representing USA teams.

For the USA the following players qualified:

verGe.longwalk
hoorai.KiWiKaKi
verGe.SonKiE
verGe.ShrieK

We’ve seen ShrieK, the player claiming to be top five worldwide, before at BWI 2006. KiWKaKi would emerge as a visible player internationally and Canada’s strongest player. Longwalk and SonKiE would emerge as the strongest two USA players post-nilknarf.

The top eight of the event was as followed:

1. ReMinD – 10.000$
2. Lucifer – 3.000$
3. Grubby – 2.000$
4. ToD – 1.000$
5/8. SaSe
5/8. ShowBu
5/8. Sweet
5/8. ReiGn

ReMinD switched between Night Elf and Orc vs. Lucifer’s Undead, which was not that uncommon in this time-period (Check even switched to Orc fulltime for a short period). ReMinD would be one of the best performing players of the year. The Korean was looking exceptionally hot already anyway, winning this event following his win at CEG Xi’an. Grubby’s 3rd place might be in line with the expectations this article have build (which have show him performing among the absolute top for years), but it would actually end up being one of the highlights of his 2007 season in which he entered something of a slump.

At the same time the WarCraft 3 Champions League X finals took place with the following results:

WC3L Season X finals
1. Four Kings
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen
Yoan "ToD" Merlo
Olav "Creolophus" Undheim
Sebastian "FuRy" Pesic
Ivica "Zeus[19]" Markovic

2. MeetYourMakers
Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh
JaeWook "Lucifer" Noh
Jae Shin "EVE" Park
Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
Kim "Storm" JaeWoong

3. World Elite
Sung "ReMinD" Sik Kim
June "Lyn" Park
Lee Sung "SoJu" Duk
Clemens "HoTLiPs" Uhlig

HoTLiPs was World Elite’s manager and represented the team as World Elite’s Chinese players could not attend.

4. Mousesports
Minh "Spell" Nguyen
Dennis "HasuObs" Schneider
Kim "SaSe" Hammar
Michael "Giacomo" Hladik

Four Kings reclaimed their WC3L championship title one last time (they would play one more finals however). FoV left the year before to represent Chinese professional gaming team wNv, probably due to Four Kings’ financial difficulties and FoV’s desire to play in the new WarCraft 3 hotspot China. It was known Creolophus would retire somewhere in 2007 as well to focus on his university studies. ToD would leave before Creolophus however, probably due to a combination of the beforementioned financial difficulties and the poor results of Four Kings which would fail to qualify for a WC3L finals for the first time this year.

Before, during and following the event in Cologne, the televised MBC Game World War was still running in Seoul, Korea. The third season had been launched with the showmatch between MYM and wNv and in the individual competition five players would compete for the right to face Moon for the championship belt.

On January 17 Park chul "Shy" Woo faced Kwon Oh "FiveStar" Seong in a best-of-three, this was followed right away with a best-of-three between Hyung-Ju "Check" Lee and Hyo "FoCuS" Sub. Shy beat FiveStar 2-0, FoCuS beat Check 2-1. FoCuS, Shy and FiveStar were all part of a second generation of Korean topplayers that had not earned their stripes in the Korean pro-leagues between 2002 and 2005 and were coming of age as professionals in a world that was very different then the time Check earned his stripes. Check had won major televised leagues as far back as Reign of Chaos, was part of Korea’s legendary team FrienZ and represented Korea at the first WCG to include WarCraft III.

The next week, January 24, Shy and FoCuS faced off for the rights to face Grubby, with Shy coming on top 3-1. Maybe MBCGame had hoped for a Check vs. Grubby to happen at this stage, which can be construed as a classic as they were among the only two WCG 2003 participants still active at this point (and would eventually in fact be the only two). Regardless, Shy played Grubby and came close to eliminating the Dutchman, losing with a 2-3 score and setting the stage for a classic Moon vs. Grubby match. On January 24 the two met with Moon handily defending his title, beating his Orc opponent 3-0 and collecting 10.000$ for his troubles (Grubby went home with 3000$).

MBCGame WWW III
1. Moon
2. Grubby
3. Shy
4. FoCuS
5/6. FiveStar
5/6. Check

Shy vs. FiveStar & FoCuS vs. Check [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1310135]
Shy vs. FoCuS [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1314997]
Shy vs. Grubby [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1323077]
Grubby vs. Moon [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1331433]

At the start of February Steelseries tried to follow a proud eSport tradition of putting female gamers in the spotlight commonly found in such games as Quake and Counter-Strike and held a female WarCraft III competition titled “Iron Lady” at China which claimed to “represents and signifies the strength within these females' personalities, but also their determination and ability to compete on a professional level” while at the same time blasting as many pictures and videos of pretty looking girls into the world as humanly possibly. Obviously this was a big media success, if this type of tournament had been picked on up by other events it could have lead to a host of female professionally gamers who compensated for barely touching the game with at least looking good when they did. This is of course no dig at the females themselves, some of which were known WarCraft III players and naturally you attend an event like this if given the chance, but if SteelSeries really intended to build a “cornerstone of competitive female electronic sports” they could have done it in a way that put the competition before objectifying the women.

The results for both the 2007 (top two only) and the 2008 event were:

Iron Lady 2007
1. Zhang “Cang” Xiangling
2. Cassandra “PpG” Ng

Cassandra is better known as for her contributions (writing, blogs and pictures) to various eSport sites over the years and as the wife of Grubby.

Iron Lady 2008 (January 4-6)
1.Zhang "Cang" Xiangling (SteelSeries sponsorship and DELL XPS M1530)
2.Xu "Sara" Yinghua (5000 RMB and DELL XPS M1330)
3.You "MoonFish" Jianying (3000 RMB)
4.Iin "sweetdream" Jia
5.Zhao "KilLah" Ming
6.Wu "Dido" Jingjing
7.An "Angel" Jia
8.Mimi "MiMi"

For those interested, Cang was also voted the crowd’s darling. SteelSeries was kind enough to put up pictures of all attendees which can be found here [http://www.steelseries.com/ironlady].

This is also the month in which Meet Your Makers announced the following regarding their WarCraft III division: “It is with greatest pleasure that MYM today announces that the whole line of the club’s Asian Warcraft III stars in MYM.WC3 have renewed their contracts with MYM for an additional 12 months for 2007/2008. On top of that MYM can announce that the player recognized by many as the worlds best, Jang 'MYM]Moon' JaeHo, with the renewal of his 12 months contract with MYM has achieved a contract that contains the salary of the best/highest paid Esports player in professional Warcraft III and by that moving a yearly amount never seen before in that genre of Esports. With that said we surely would like to mention that every player of our international WarCraft 3 team is amongst the best paid players in the scene.”

How much Moon or other played received individually is unknown. But figures released in Korea later indicated the entire team received 300.000$ in annual salaries (which could have been the amount distributed after their next contract renewal). The high salaries received by these players eventually lead to several professional players feeling they should earn more as well and this was one of the contributing factors to WarCraft III player salaries in general going up, with more players making (small) monthly amounts as well. You could see this as a good thing, but the reality was that the players could not justify these amounts based on the sponsorship of the teams at the time (who felt the need to compete or risk losing their top players) and a bubble was being inflated that at first caused a lot of player movement (players leaving teams that could not keep up) and in the end burst when financial times became harder.

Starting March 9 Game-X took place at Moscow, Russia. This event, that came out of nowhere, paid out roughly 38.120$ to the first place finisher (assuming they actually paid out) and saw the eastern European scene clashing with various representatives of the Korean elite. Various players such as Grubby, ToD and Sky were supposed to attend but cancelled due to a variety of reasons. A coverage for the entire event can be found here [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1350164].

The results were:

1. Jang "Moon" Jae Ho - 38,120$
2. Dae Hui "FoV" Cho - 9,530$
3. Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev - 3,812$
4th Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun - 1,906$
5-8th Kim Sung "ReMinD" Sik - 953$
5-8th Mykhaylo "HoT" Novopashyn - 953$
5-8th Park chul "Shy" Woo - 953$
5-8th Robert "Rob" Abdrakhmanov - 953$

The biggest single pay out in WarCraft III history (once again, assuming the event did pay out), it leaves ToD’s 30.000$ WEG Masters cheque behind it with over eight thousand dollar.

Taking place at roughly the same time as Game-X was the KeSPA (Korea’s government backed eSports organisation or the Korean electronic Sports Association) Cup. The results of this event were:

KeSPA Cup 2007
1. Lyn
2. Lucifer
3. Soju
4. WinNerS
7/8. ShowBu
7/8. GoStop
7/8. FiveStar
7/8. Space

Two major European WarCraft III events took place at CeBIT in March 15-19. One was the Extreme Masters, which can be seen as in a broader eSports picture as the continuation of the World Series of Video Games (was can be seen as the continuation of the CPL World Tour) with Intel putting their money behind all events as the common link. The other was the Samsung European Championship which was to host a WarCraft III event for the third year in a row.

Fire_de and ToD eliminated Grubby from the second group stage of the Extreme Masters event (as we mentioned before, we’re in a slump period for Grubby), with ToD eventually taking the win from the lower bracket by beating HoT in the grand finals after being beaten by Creolophus in the upper bracket. Fire_de would later focus on his economic studies, but could have emerged as a strong player on the world stage.

Extreme Masters 2007
1. ToD
2. HoT
3. Creolophus
4. Fire_de
5/6. Grubby
5/6. Deadman
7/8. DID8
7/8. LillD.C

40.000 euro was distributed among the European players, the biggest prize purse in WarCraft III history for an European event. A complete distribution can be found here [http://eslgfx.net/media/de/news/2007/EM/EM01-WC3-Prizemoney.jpg].

SEC 2007 took place as well which confirmed the current powerrankings in Europe which saw Grubby behind HoT, ToD and Creolophus (judging based on both of these events):

Samsung European Championship 2007
1. HoT – 4000 Euro
2. ToD – 2000 Euro
3. Grubby – 1000 Euro
4. Creolophus
5/6. Insomnia
5/6. LillD.C

As was mentioned way back when Creolophus joined Four Kings, he would have a MaDFroG like career with very strong results spanning less than a single year. This was that year, and these were the first results of Creolophus in full “progamer-mode”. These events gave ToD the status as the definite European powerhouse player (following Grubby who followed MaDFroG late 2004), having beaten HoT at the more prestigious of the two European championships and having the strongest recent international results of all European players.

Taking place as well, starting March 7, was the fourth season of MBCGame’s WarCraft 3 World War. March 7 featured matches between four known players: SuhO and GoStop (GoStop won 2-0) and Zacard and Swain (Swain won 2-1). Swain would do unexpectedly well and beat GoStop (who had of course been the stronger player the previous years, being runner-up of the World e-Sport Games twice in 2005 and qualifying for WCG in 2006) 3-2 on March 14.

This set him up for a match against Sky in what is probably the only time a non-Chinese Asian Human player seriously challenged Sky for the title of Asia’s strongest Human player. It was also the first mirror match (which were considered boring compared to other type of matches) in the World War, which is somewhat of a testimony to the extent these matches were arranged to produce interesting match-ups with many “rivals” meeting eachother. As you might recall, GoStop (which was the favourite to win between the above four) and Sky had a much talked about incident at WCG 2006 which would have made their clash a “grudge match”. SuhO and Zacard make interesting opponents for Sky as well with SuhO and Sky having an intra-China rivalry (with the “Chinese champion” eventually meeting the “Korean champion” Moon in the finals) and Zacard and Sky having played in the WEG I semi-finals. However SuhO was placed vs. Night Elf killer GoStop, giving him little chance of progressing, and Zacard was somewhat inactive at the time, making the case very hard that Sky was not meant to meet GoStop. MBCGame’s World War might not have had the fakeness of wrestling (the matches might have been placed in a specific order in hopes of producing specific outcomes, but they were definitely real), but given the costumes, rivalries, grudge matches and hero vs. villain themes it certainly had the potential to go there eventually. Sky beat ShowBu 3-1 and would go on to meet Moon in another one of those famous match-ups.

Taking place April 4 at the MBCGame Hero studio at Seoul, Korea, Moon beat Sky 3-0 and retained his championship belt and gained another cheque for 10.000$ (with Sky having to settle for 3.000$).

MBC Game WWW IV
1. Moon
2. Sky
3. ShowBu
4. GoStop
5/6. SuhO
5/6. Zacard

SuhO vs. GoStop & Zacard vs. Swain [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1347058]
ShowBu vs. GoStop [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1350924]
ShowBu vs. Sky [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1356720]
Sky vs. Moon [http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1362336]

Taking place between March 30 and April 1, the NGL season II finals took place at Germany. The event had the following results:

NGL Season II LAN Finals

1. World Elite
Sung "ReMinD" Sik Kim
June "Lyn" Park
Lee Sung "SoJu" Duk
Seo Woo "ReiGn" Kang

2. MeetYourMakers
Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh
JaeWook "Lucifer" Noh
Hyo Sub "FoCuS" Eom
Jang "Moon" Jae Ho

3. Four Kings
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen
Yoan "ToD" Merlo
Olav "Creolophus" Undheim
Sebastian "FuRy" Pesic
Ivica "Zeus[19]" Markovic

4. fnatic Team
Frederic "triMble" Steinfeld
Kevin "RotterdaM" van der Kooi
Björn "ElakeDuck" ödman
Samuli "elfittaja" Sihvonen

Like was mentioned at the creation of fnatic’s WarCraft III squad, they can be seen as a continuation of 64AMD and triMble, fnatic’s manager, keeps up their proud tradition of having a (Swedish) manager present at the team competing in the LAN finals after Swedish manager Enrique helped 64AMD achieve first place at the WarCraft 3 Champions League season VI finals.

April (the 16th) 2007 was also the month Zacard said goodbye to WarCraft III to fulfil the mandatory draft in South Korea. You can read more on Zacard here [http://www.ggl.com/?controller=News&method=article&id=4820/]. Zacard is a unique professional gamer, starting professionally with Age of Mythology and having played professionally in Cologne, Seoul, Hangzhou and Beijing during his WarCraft III career. He never won a major tournament except for Korea’s WCG 2004 national qualifier. He is most notable of course for being the runner-up of WCG 2004, World e-Sport Games I and BlizzCon 2005. Zacard finished his military time and is currently playing (or attemting to play) poker professionally.

Starting May 2, the fifth season of MBCGame’s World War was launched with Lyn beating HoT and ReiGn beating Infi. Lyn beat ReiGn in the second match, setting him up to meet Sky. Lyn beat last season’s runner-up and would go on to meet and lose vs. Moon, earning Moon his fifth win and another 10.000$ cheque.

You can read a prelude to the event here[http://www.ggl.com/index.php?controller=News&method=article&id=4807]
Lyn vs. ReiGn[http://www.gotfrag.com/wow/story/37610/?cpage=1]

Following the event a final MBCGame World War Grand Prix event was announced to take place between July 28 through July 29 with 40.000$ in prize money.

Between May 1 and May 3 the last WarCraft III event of the World Series of Video Games took place at Wuhan, China, featuring quite an impressive line-up of players consisting of the Chinese elite, the Korean elite as well as Grubby and ToD. It ended with the following standings:

WSVG Wuhan 2007
1. Moon – 5000$
2. Sky – 2500$
3. Susiria – 1000$
4. Grubby – 1000$
5/6. XiaOt, ToD
7/8. Fly100%, Sweet
9/12. SuhO, GoStop, FoV, SoJu
13/16. Lucifer, Lyc, Syc, Panxiang

Moon reigned alone in 2007, winning events with line-ups such as this one is not something you repeat easily in this game. WSVG Wuhan is perhaps noticeable as well as the best individual event by Jung Ki “Susiria” Oh (though he would perform strongly at two other events this year), the team captain of Meet Your Makers and one of Korea’s Undead princes.

Between the 19th and 20th of may the 3rd Blizzard Worldwide Invitational took place featuring eight players invited directly in a single elimination tournament taking place at Seoul, Korea.

The results were:

Quarter-finals
Sweet [0:2] Sky
FoV [2:1] Grubby
ReMinD [1:2] ToD
Moon [2:1] Nilknarf

Semi-finals
Sky [1:2] FoV
ToD [2:0] Moon

Finals
ToD [2:1] Moon

FoV seemed to collect silver and bronze medals following his stay at Four Kings, being runner-up of WWI and WSVG China for example and taking third at such events as the WSVG finals and the ProGamer League. ToD won his second major international event following WEG Masters in 2006 and once again bested Moon. He also had claimed events such as the CPL Summer championship and the Extreme Masters, making him pretty accomplished by now.

StarCraft II was also announced at this event (going into closed beta on February 17, 2010). StarCraft II would have an impact on WarCraft III right away with none to few major new investments being made in the game (or decisions to renew investments being taken against the game more easily) as a result. StarCraft II instantly killed the longterm future of the game as any investment in WarCraft III tournaments came with a time-table: when StarCraft II was released your status in the WarCraft III community was suddenly worth a lot less (though of course you did build up credit in the RTS/eSports community in general). This, and the economic crisis of 2008, is probably why 2007/2008 were peak years for WarCraft III tournaments in general with the scene having grown at a shocking rate ever since 2002/2003 and going into decline following the period we’re describing right now. We’ve seen Zax comment in his interview that he felt China and the world eSports community should unite behind StarCraft II. ESL’s Baschi made similar comments in an interview in this time-period, saying ESL would throw its full weight behind a single RTS when the time comes and that RTS would be StarCraft II.

On May 27 the ASUS Masters took place at Moscow, Russia. We have not been covering the ASUS Cups (though have been mentioning their existence). But basically every spring, autumn, winter and summer a cup would take place in Moscow featuring the best players of eastern Europe, as well as some international players on occasion. The masters were the master event of these series and in 2007 had the following results:

ASUS Masters 2007
1 Deadman
2. HoT
3. XyLigan
4. TitaN
5/8. Quai, Abver, Neytpoh, Hitman

This is pretty much how the top three stacked up against eachother (with TitaN being considered a potential breakthrough player that eventually never quite made it). The eastern European bloc is somewhat underappreciated in the WarCraft III community in general, with four of the region’s players making a combined six appearances at WCG semi-finals through history (Happy twice, XyLigan twice, HoT once and Nicker once) between 2007 and 2010. Add to that the accomplishments of Deadman, runner-up of ACON 4, ESWC 2005 and champion of KODE5 and WSVG Sweden and you have quite the impressive list of achievements.

Prior to the WC3L finals many Korean players came to Sweden to compete in the DreamHack Summer event alongside the Scandanivian elite. DreamHack is the world’s biggest LAN party and hosted tournaments drawing from the strength of the Scandinavian countries (most notably Sweden) in the summer and the winter period; taking place at Jönköping, Sweden. Deadman won the event the year before (the World Series of Video Games in Sweden stop took place at the event), Moon would win it this year and Grubby would win the next. It did not generally have the level of the ASUS Cups in Moscow, but it did have more international appeal.

DreamHack Summer 2007
1. Moon
2. Lucifer
3. Creolophus
4. SaSe
5/6. Susiria, FoCuS
7/8. EVE, Giacomo
9/12. egern, KnOfF, TeRRoR, Ciara
13/16. Geno, LillD.C, Mind, Ghost
17/24. Santa, Xine, Vanilla, Darkmov, GlaiVe, Konna, FuRy, Tharkas
25/32. illumiz, BuLLiZ, Aliis.T, armsta, Brother, Skutt, sqeek, Zivvi
33/48. cAile, cybermo, T2MM, Krieger, Krucks, Baffy, Nonst0p, xenta, BelZebu, H_2_0, MyWa, Spanky, BoiMber, Znikal, e-light, bloodfr
49/57. dizecto, smirren, Zurotzi, EK_DUCK, vitalit, endarsp, Ducksay, GiGabyt

Note especially the presence of Swedish manager endarsp at the event, probably preparing for when he has to step in for his team at a WC3L or NGL LAN finals in the tradition of Swedish managers Enrique and triMble. In all seriousness, Moon won the event (no surprise there), Lucifer and Creolophus ducked it out for second place with Creolophus beating the Undead player in the upper-bracket only to lose in the consolation finals. Creolophus had definitely stepped up his game compared to the year before, but still had places to go before justifying all the attention he’s been given so far in this article (which he will).

At June 23 WCG held a Pan American championship at Cancun, Mexico featuring champions of the various American countries. There was no strong US presence and it was interesting to see how the region performed without, it had the following results:

WCG Pan America 2007
1. Bernardo "PaTo" Rodrigues
2. Tristan "CanucK" Taschuk
3. Jonathan "KiWiKaKi" Garneau
4. Oscar "H2O.TechnoBoy" Rivera
5/6. Ninjah, Charpis
7/8. Rasspot, Demonz

Probably the crowning achievement of history’s iconic, alongside the beforementioned LeviN of WCG 2005 fame, Brazillian player: Bernardo "PaTo" Rodrigues. PaTo was a relatively young player (1990) that performed as an American heavyweight in online and international competition.

As mentioned before, the WC3L finals took place this month at Hamburg, Germany between June 22 and 24. This was the last time Four Kings attended a WC3L LAN finals. It is also the WC3L finals at which Deadman gets in a fight with his manager after having been asked / told (depending on which side you believe) to quit smoking in the car that was driving the team. Deadman famously “kicked Ownitsch in the face” (he probably hit him or tried to so anyway) with Insomnia breaking the fight up. Deadman would leave SK Gaming shortly after this event, also citing issues such as late salary payments, salary payments that were still due and missing prize money (which SK Gaming said was never paid out; which given the amount of prize money that is not paid out, some of which has been highlighted in this article, is very believable). Ownitsch would stand in for Deadman at the event, joining the elite ranks of managers to represent their team at the LAN finals of an event.

WC3L finals season XI

1. World Elite
Xiaofeng "Sky" Li
Sung "ReMinD" Sik Kim
June "Lyn" Park
Lee Sung "SoJu" Duk
Seo Woo "ReiGn" Kang

2. Four Kings
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen
Yoan "ToD" Merlo
Olav "Creolophus" Undheim
Sebastian "FuRy" Pesic
Ivica "Zeus[19]" Markovic

3. Meet Your Makers
Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh
JaeWook "Lucifer" Noh
Jae Shin "EVE" Park
Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
Hyo Sub "FoCuS" Eom

4. SK Gaming
Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev
Andrew "Fire_de" Regendantz
Mykhaylo "HoT" Novopashyn
Daniel "ixi" Spenst
Daniel "miou" Holthuis

World Elite are currently the reigning WC3L and NGL champions (taking over from Meet Your Makers) and definitely host an impressive line-up with the best Human (Sky), Orc (Lyn) of the time as well as several players belonging to the top of their respective races such as ReMinD, Soju and ReiGn.

Four Kings are still holding their own very respectably with Creolophus and ToD on top of their game, Grubby not far behind and FuRy and Zeus[19] dividing the position of “fourth” player between the two of them. They have had an exceptionally stable line-up to this point, with few changes (all of which have been noted in this article).

Meet Your Makers takes third but would go on to have a better year taking first at NGL one and second at WC3L season XII. Like Four Kings they have an exceptionally stable line-up with Susiria, Lucifer and Moon all identified with strongly for their time with Meet Your Makers.

SK Gaming was not quite cutting it at the level of the other teams anymore with Insomnia, Fire_de, HoT and “ixi” (XlorD) all being European heavyweight players punching above their weight (this analogy makes sense, right?) against these kind of line-ups. They would get some reinforcements soon however that would breath new life into the team.

Between July 5 and 9 the 2007 Electronic Sports World Cup took place at Paris, France featuring the entire western top scene, except for ToD who was in China during the French qualifier, as well as Fly100%, Lyc, Lucifer, Lyn and Soju.

Notable in the group stages was Nilknarf winning his group (beating Fly100% and XyLigan) and beating Deadman in the second group stage as well as Zeus[19] beating Fly100% in the second group stage. The single elimination bracket that followed the two group stages of ESWC looked as followed:

Quarter-finals
Insomnia [0:2] Lyn
Lucifer [0:2] Soju
Grubby [2:0] Lyc
Creolophus [2:0] PaTo

semi-finals
Lyn [0:2] Soju
Grubby [0:2] Creolophus

Match for third place
Grubby [2:1] Lyn

Finals
Soju [2:0] Creolophus

Soju, who has a history of underperforming at these type of events (ask LeviN), had the highlight of his career, taking down Creolophus who went through the tournament undefeated till that point (Soju had losses vs. Insomnia and Creolophus in the group stage). SoJu was actually known as one of the most talented players in Korea but also for not putting in the kind of work the other professionals did. Him and ReMinD were something of best buddies during their professional gaming careers; playing 2on2 together and moving alongside eachother to different teams. Soju would also win a national championship in Korea in 2008 and continue to perform well in team leagues.

Grubby and Lyn played the battle for “best Orc” in the battle for third place with Grubby coming on top, for now at least. PaTo has a relatively strong showing as well, his best result at a world championship.

The ProGamer League season I finals took place between July 25-26 at China and featured the following top four:

ProGamer League season I
1. Sky – 10.000$
2. Moon – 4.000$
3. TH000 – 2.500$
4. ToD$0

Sky successfully defended his title, fending off a challenge from Moon. This is the first time we see TH000 in action, one of the most creative players at a professional gaming level, he is known for unsual strategies with his main race Human as well as switching up races sometimes; playing Night Elf for instance.

Moon would have more success in another event however as the WWW 2007 Summer Grand Prix was to take place between July 28-29 at Seoul, Korea featuring a 40.000$ prize purse and a host of WarCraft III professionals that would compete in a televised marathon of games for a total of two days.

The matches and the results were:

Day 1
Sweet [2:1] ShowBu
FoV [2:1] Shy
Susiria [2:0] Zeus[19]
ReMinD [2:1] Lucifer
SaSe [1:0] Soju

Old schooler Sweet taking down old schooler ShowBu. Old schooler FoV taking down new schooler Shy. Susiria taking down ESWC 2006 runner-up Zeus[19]. ReMinD and Lucifer playing a repeat of their Battle.net IV finals with the same result. SaSe receiving a defwin. All of the losers take home 500$.

FoV [0:2] Lyn
Susiria [2:0] SaSe
Sweet [2:0] ReMinD

Lyn looking very strong. Susiria eliminating another European Night Elf heavyweight. Sweet continues to impress as well, beating ReMinD after ReMinD just took down Lucifer. All of the losers take home 1000$.

Susiria [0:2] Lyn

Susiria loses to the Orc terror Lyn, taking home 2.000$ to comfort him.

Day 2
Lyn [3:0] Sweet

Lyn beating Sweet quite convincingly (who still picks up 3.000$), setting up the stage for a repeat of the ESWC 2007 battle for third place between him and Grubby.

Grubby [1:3] Lyn

Lyn taking home the win (Grubby still receives 4.000$ for his loss) and faces five time WWW champion Moon for the championship belt.

Moon [3:2] Lyn

Lyn almost wins (taking home 8.000$ for runner-up), coming as close as ToD did in Moon’s original WWW match (with only FoV having taken a map from the Night Elf player otherwise). Thus ending the MBCGame World War with Moon picking up an additional 20.000$ and reigning supreme for all five seasons as well as the Grand Prix (with Grubby winning the openingsmatch and therefore being the original champion). Furter plans for competition were announced but never materialized and the Grand Prix is pretty much goodbye to the era of major televised WarCraft III in Seoul (which started in 2002).

Shortly following the Grand Prix (which in turn followed PGL shortly which means some of these players were getting exhausted) Stars War IV took place at Shanghai, China. Six (instead of the usual four) regional teams were representing the major regions with the teams consisting off the following players:

“Team Kylin”
Sky
SuhO
Infi
TeD

Pretty much team World Elite.

“Team Dragon”
Fly100%
xiaOt
Lyc
Sai

Pretty much the top of China minus World Elite (and TH000).

“Team CovaNoil”
FoV
ReMinD
ReiGn
Soju

Four of the strongest Korean professionals at the time.

“Team Andromeda”
Moon
Lucifer
Susiria
Shy

Pretty much team Meet Your Makers.

“Team Skywalker”
Grubby
Creolophus
Insomnia
PaTo

A team home to two current and one future WCG champion, it does not really seem on par with the teams mentioned before with Insomnia and PaTo being weak links (despite both of them finishing top eight at ESWC).

“Team Romantic Elves”
ToD
Check
SaSe
Neytpoh

Check replaced HoT whose visa was denied. A pretty strong team at the time actually, ToD, Check and SaSe were all active professional gamers and Neytpoh was an European heavyweight that was hindered from competing effectively online because he lived on the wrong side of Russia: Vladivostok, Russia (one of those places that Sarah Palin can see from her house in Alaska).

Day 1 had the following results in group A:

Team Kylin [4:3]. Team Skywalker
SuhO > Insomnia
InFi > PaTo
TeD < Creolophus
Sky < Grubby
InFi > Creolops
TeD < Grubby
InFi > Grubby

Team NovaCoil [4:0] Team Skywalker
FoV > Insomnia
ReMinD > PaTo
Soju > Grubby
ReiGn > Creolophus

Team NovaCoil [2:4] Team Kylin
FoV < Sky
ReMinD > InFi
Soju < SuhO
ReiGn > TeD
ReMinD < Sky
ReiGn < SuhO

Which eliminated Team Skywalker from the event on the shoulders of InFi as well as the combined strength of Team NovaCoil, one player (guess who) could be revived later in the event that the other European team progressed to the next stage and join them.

Day 2 - Group B

Team Dragon [4:3] Team Andromeda
Fly100% [1:0] Susiria
Sai [0:1] Moon
Lyc [0:1] Lucifer
xiaOt [0:1] Shy
Fly100% [1:0] Lucifer
Fly100% [1:0] Moon
Fly100% [1:0] Shy

Team Dragon [4:3] Romantic Elves
Fly100% > ToD
Sai < SaSe
Lyc > Check
xiaOt < Neytpoh
Fly100% < SaSe
Lyc > SaSe
Lyc > Neytpoh

Team Romantic Elves [4:2] Team Andromeda
Lucifer < ToD
Moon < SaSe
Shy > Check
Susiria < Neytpoh
Shy > Neytpoh
Shy < SaSe

Fly100% and Lyc really coming through for Team Dragon. Neytpoh doing very well for someone that has not been (and won’t be) mentioned outside this tournament; taking down xiaOt and Susiria. One player of Team Andromeda could be revived to join Team NovaCoil (guess who…).

Day 3 – semi-finals

Team Kylin [2:4] Team Romantic Elves
Sky > Check
SuhO < ToD
InFi > Neytpoh
TeD < SaSe
Sky < ToD
InFi < ToD

Team Dragon [1:4] Team NovaCoil
xiaOt < FoV
Sai > ReiGn
Lyc < ReMinD
Fly100% < Soju
Sai < FoV

Team Romantic Elves winning with a 3-0 by ToD. NovaCoil clearly besting their opponents; setting up the stage for a Team Korea vs. Team Europe grand finals with Check (who did not win a single match) being replaced by Creolophus and Moon as well as Grubby being revived to join the teams.

Day 4 – Finals

Team NovaCoil [4:3] Team Romantic Elves
Moon < ToD
ReMind > Grubby
FoV > SaSe
ReiGn < Neytpoh
ReMinD < Neytpoh
FoV > Neytpoh
FoV > ToD

An unexpected show of strength by Neytpoh (given well, this is probably the first time you hear of him) gives the European team a boost; but FoV manages to seal the deal with a total of three kills in the final match. Ending what was a very busy month for some of these players (travelling straight away from PGL to Seoul to compete in the Grand Prix only to travel to Shanghai the next day to compete in Stars War) but who were still in a very busy season of WarCraft III competitions throughout the rest of the year (and the next) with August featuring over 140.000$ prize money at various tournaments.

The second BlizzCon event (which would become the annual form of Blizzard competitions; more more worldwide invitationals or Battle.net seasonal LAN competitions) would take place between August 3 and 5 at Anaheim, Californa and would be featuring the top three of LAN qualifiers in Europe and Korea as well as the top two of an event in the USA. It had the following results:

BlizzCon 2007
1. Creolophus
2. ReMinD
3. Grubby
4. Shy
5/6. ToD
5/6. Moon
7/8. Nilknarf
7/8. KiWiKaKi

Creolophus, who was about to retire, won the event on pretty much the strength of his Night Elf mirror (his only non-Elf match was vs. Nilknarf). He would soon hang up his keyboard to focus on university studies, having shown some excellent results throughout the year such as becoming Extreme Masters third place, ESWC runner-up and BlizzCon champion. He was still qualified for WCG and would represent Four Kings at the event, but in practice he was completely done.

e-Stars Seoul would follow this event quickly between August 9-11 taking place at Seoul, Korea. Aside from being a nice event with lots of prize money and professional gamers attending, e-Stars is famous for polling which players should attend and the polls being abused easily; something for which they have been critized extensively on eSport sites [http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/16690-6305_eStar_votes__where_are_they].

e-Stars Seoul featured a single elimination bracket with the following results:

e-Stars Seoul 2007
Quarter-finals
SuhO [0:2] Grubby
ReMinD [2:0] Nilknarf
Lucifer [1:0] ToD
Moon [2:0] TH000

ToD refused to play at the event because he found the venue too hot to play in (which it probably was) and no air conditioning could be arranged.

Semi-finals
Grubby [1:2] ReMinD
Lucifer [1:2] Moon

This set us in for a finals between Moon and his strongest Korean Night Elf rival in the tradition of such events as Ongamenet Invitational 2004-2005 which saw FreeDoM and Moon play a spectacular best-of-five in which FreeDoM came on top 3-2.

Finals

ReMinD [2:1] Moon

ReMinD adding another major event after winning Battle.net season IV as well as 20.000$. Moon would have to comfort himself in his loss with adding 10.000$ to the gigantic pile of money he was building with his 2007 tournament results.

Colliding with e-Stars Seoul and also following BlizzCon rather quickly, the International Esports Festival was to take place at Gangneung, Korea between August 9-12. It featured a host of top Chinese and Korean players (of course not including the e-Stars attendees).

The top eight (out of sixteen players attending):

1. InFi – 10.000$
2. Lyn – 5000$
3. xiaOt – 3000$
4. GoStop – 2000$
5-8. FoV
5-8. ReiGn
5-8 Sai
5-8 Soccer

InFi proving himself as a major tournament champion, setting him up to eventually replace Sky as the strongest player in China and the strongest Human player in the world. Lyn, xiaOt and GoStop all doing good as well, win a lot of thouse four figure cheques over time and they build up to quite the amount.


Around August 26 the NGL One season III took place at Leipzig, Germany. The same event was home to the European Nations Championship as well which had the following results:

ENC 2007
1. Finland
2. Sweden
3. Germany
4. Bulgaria.

NGL had the following results:

NGL One Season III

1. Meet Your Makers
Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh
JaeWook "Lucifer" Noh
Hyo Sub "FoCuS" Eom
Jang "Moon" Jae Ho

2. Mousesports
Weiliang "Fly100%" Lu
Dennis "HasuObs" Schneider
Kim "SaSe" Hammar
Dmitriy "Happy" Kostin

3. Four Kings
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen
Yoan "ToD" Merlo
Olav "Creolophus" Undheim
Sebastian "FuRy" Pesic
Ivica "Zeus[19]" Markovic

4. SK Gaming
Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev
Andrew "Fire_de" Regendantz
Tobias "ownitsch" Jacob
Daniel "ixi" Spenst
Daniel "miou" Holthuis

This is the first time we see Dmitriy “Happy” Kostin at LAN. The young (1991) player was for years one of the strongest players in online competition but despite living in Moscow (where four ASUS cups take place every year) never attended LAN competitions. He remains one of the world’s best WarCraft III players to this very day. Otherwise, we see Meet Your Makers reclaiming their NGL One title and the last time Four Kings would attend a team LAN finals. We also see another manager make it in the line-up of their team with ownitsch proudly carrying the SK flag.

ToD was awarded WarCraft 3 Player of the Year at the eSports Award ceremony at Leipzig as well, surprisingly beating Moon (though certainly with some awards to back him up including the recent Extreme Masters and BWI events).

Around the same time (August 27) there’s also a China eSport Games event taking place at Wuhan, China. The results starting from the single elimination bracket are:

CEG Wuhan 2007

Round of 16
SuhO [2:0] RotterdaM
LL [2:1] WJ
Sai [2:0] SIDY
Ace [2:0] DJ

Wulin [2:0] Keda
TeD [2:0] Lyc
ReMinD [2:0] InFi
Sweet [1:2] FoV

Quarter-finals
SuhO [2:0] LL
Sai [2:0] Ace
Wulin [2:0] TeD
ReMinD [0:2] FoV

Semi-finals
SuhO [1:2] Sai
FoV [2:1] Wulin

Battle for third place
SuhO [2:0] Wulin

Battle for first place
Sai [2:1] FoV

RotterdaM was at a China tour at the time organised by team Fnatic, travelling the country and competing in several tournaments. He beat ChinaHuman, of WCG 2003 fame, in the group stages. Otherwise, we see more prove of a slow change in the balance of power between Chinese and Korean top players throughout this article, with Korean professionals now facing a hard time against Chinese players that are not (yet) well known.

Which brings us to September. Three individual events in respectively USA, China and Europe hosted by the GGL would take place in this month as well as the China e-Sport Games in Xi’an. An interesting online competition featuring China vs. Korea hosted by PPStream takes place as well.

Digital Life 2007 Am was to take place at Chengdu, China between September 7-8 and featured a host of Korean and Chinese elite players as well as two European heavyweights in the shape of SaSe and RotterdaM.

The top eight was:

1. Moon – 10.600$
2. Sweet – 5300$
3. Lyn - 2600$
4. Fly100% – 1300$
5-6. Lucifer, SaSe – 530$
7-8. Lyc, FoV – 260$

This article is running out of jokes to make about what Moon is possibly gonna do with all the money he is winning.

EuroCup 2007 was to take place at Enschede, Netherlands between September 8-9 and saw Grubby winning (for the first time in three editions), followed by three European Night elf players.

EuroCup 2007
1. Grubby – 2000 €
2. Paladyn – 1000 €
3. LillD.C - 600 €
4. Tresh - 400 €

Many events bigger than this one were ignored throughout the writing of this article, however with the other two GGL events taking place this month mentioned (as well as the two previous EuroCup finals in 2005 and 2006) it felt fair to include the results of this one.

Between September 14 and 23 an online competition with roughly 6.000$ in prize money took place between various Chinese and Korean competitors. It had the following top three:

PPStream: Korea vs. China – 2007
1. WE.TeD – 4.000$
2. WE.Sky – 1.300$
3. wNv.xiaOt – 650$

It’s the first time we see TeD win an event, even though it is online, Sky and xiaOt are all still doing nicely.

Inbetween the events of “GGL Month” there was also another stop of the China e-Sport Games taking place in Xi’an, China (the same place ReMinD won the first stop of the year) around September 23. It featured the usual Korean and Chinese elite duking it out.

China eSport Games Xi’an 2007 II

Round of 16
Fly 2:1 InFi
ll 0:2 Lyc
Sky 0:2 Moon
FoV 2:1 Susiria

Check 0:2 SuhO
TeD 0:2 Sai
Ace 0:2 xiaOt
DuCui 2:0 Syc

Some of these players seem to have been active forever by now with Moon, FoV and Check making appearances in the 2002-2003 chapter. Susiria, xiaOt, SuhO and Sky were first introduced in the 2004 article (Sky because his visa to WCG was denied). They’re still around and still doing well (at this point they all passed a tough group stage). There’s also some notable new blood such as Sai, who won last edition, one of China’s strongest players in this time-period; and TeD who would grow into the only Undead player outside of MaDFroG, WinneR, Happy and the Korean Undeads to compete at the absolute highest level (in history). TeD is also known for several innovations in the Undead playstyle such as building an extra necropolis in his base for a variety of purposes. Fly100% and InFi might also qualify as new blood, but they have been mentioned before and will be mentioned plenty of times again.

Quarter-finals
Fly100% 2:1 Lyc
Moon 2:1 FoV
SuhO 2:0 Sai
xiaOt 1:2 DuCui

Semi-finals
Fly100% 0:2 Moon
SuhO 2:1 DuCui

Battle for third place
DuCui 2:0 Fly100%

Finals
Moon 2:0 SuhO

Moon winning his second tournament of the month. SuhO (1983) is ancient in WarCraft III years by now, but remains active till this very day.

We end September with the GGL DigitalLife Pro event at New York, New York featuring several members of the Korean elite, a bunch of USA players, RotterdaM and InFi. It ended up with the following results:

GGL DigitalLife Pro 2007
1. Moon
2. Sweet
3. Check
4. RotterdaM
5. LongWalk
6. SonKiE
7/8. InFi, wiNners
9/12. HolyHuman, Stealth, Technoboy, micheal
13/14. Christina, peter

Moon winning his third event of the month. Sweet not winning any events in 2007 but hopefully picking up enough change outside of the topposition to make him a happy man. RotterdaM having one of his better results, including a win over wiNners. wiNners would actually be one of the best earning players of the year, we’ll get to how he managed that feat later. LongWalk and SonKiE playing a match for the USA crown with LongWalk coming on top.

Which brings us to October, 2007; a month home to three major events. The World Cyber Games, another edition of the International Electronic Sports Tournament (following the first 2006 event which indicated the end of the slump of Moon) as well as the Los Angeles edition of the Extreme Masters (the European competition has been going on all year online).

This is also the month in which Deadman retires, following the WC3L finals incident he joined the lower rated team Defining Stars which broke the news of his retirement. Deadman would later come back shortly and disappear again; according to an interview held with him having entered engineering school.

The World Cyber Games 2007 took place between October 3-7. Featuring a host of elite players from around the world, it would be the event at which Sky could possibly prolong his title a second time; which would have been an unique accomplishment in eSports history. Moon was also qualified, meaning he would get another chance (after WCG 2004) to “seal the deal” on his status as a player beyond the rest of the scene by winning the year’s biggest title. The slots in the elimination bracket were reduced to 16 (from 32). Notable players eliminated in the groupstage include: LongWalk, Zeus[19], Lyn (the first Korean not to make it out of WCG groupstage) and Protois.

Starting from the single elimination bracket:

Round of 16
XyLigan 2:0 Konna
ToD 1:2 Myst
XlorD 1:2 Creolophus
Soju 0:2 xiaOt

SaSe 1:2 HoT
Fly100% 0:2 Moon
Slh 2:1 HasuHasi
Grubby 0:2 Sky

Grubby met Sky at WCG 2007 in an effort to not totally ruin the Beyond the Game documentary which was predicated on this happening. Score for Zerter. Otherwise we see ToD losing to Brazillian Myst who is keeping up a proud tradition of a Brazillian WCG participant eliminating one of the world’s best professional gamers only to flame out in the next match; remember LeviN losing to ToD at WCG 2005 after beating Soju. Creolophus barely made it through groups (losing to sLH and Swift), only to barely beat XlorD. xiaOt beats Soju who continues his proud tradition of leaving ESWC and WCG events early after winning ESWC earlier this year.

Quarter-finals
XyLigan 2:0 Myst
Creolophus 2:0 xiaOt

HoT 1:2 Moon
sLH 0:2 Sky

The inactive Creolophus somehow takes down xiaOt, probably a result of Night Elf vs. Orc imbalance. Myst flames out. HoT actually comes really close to eliminating Moon but seems to let his nerves get the best of him. Sky beats sLH.

Semi-finals
XyLigan 1:2 Creolophus

Moon 0:2 Sky

Creolophus somehow limps past XyLigan, probably a product of many hours spend training with ToD during his active days as well as being coached by the Frenchman prior to this match. Two-fold WCG champion Sky beats Moon in convincing fashion. It must be noted that they played a WCG mainstage match right after Moon had just played a very intense best-of-three vs. HoT (also on the main stage), and might have suffered some from that.

Match for third place
Moon > XyLigan

Finals
Creolophus 2:1 Sky

That’s right, an inactive Creolophus, losing to sLH and Swift just days earlier, barely getting past XlorD and XyLigan, beats two-fold WCG champion Sky in what should have been the crowning match of Sky’s career. Not only that, but Creolophus would not even return to professional gaming, picking up studies despite winning WCG and BlizzCon in 2007. Creolophus stands on top of the pile when it comes to retiring in strength. Pretty much every player is either forced to retire (mandatory draft), retires after losing their touch or decides to never go professional in the first place. Creolophus is the only player to ever retire wilfully while in the kind of condition to win World Cyber Games events. Moon might not have won WCG, but a bronze medal is nothing to sneeze at.

The World Cyber Games were closely followed by the International Electronic Sports Tournament between October 20-21. This event invited twelve professional gamers to Beijing, China in order to compete for about 50.000$ in prize money.

Group Stage 1 – IEST 2007
Group A
Sky 2-0
Zeus[19] 1-1
SaSe 0-2

Group B
SoJu 1-1-0
Sai 1-0-1
Grubby 0-1-1

Grubby vs. Soju was not finished after 1-1 as it would not have impacted the results (Grubby was behind in maps and would have needed a 2-0 win to force a tie-breaker).

Group C
HoT 2-0
Moon 1-1
InFi 0-2

Group D
ToD 2-0
FoV 1-1
XyLigan 0-2

Group Stage 2 – IEST 2007
Group A
Sky 3-0
ToD 2-1
Sai 1-2
FoV 0-3

Group B
Hot 2-0
Moon 2-1
Soju 1-2
Zeus[19] 0-2

A match between HoT and Zeus[19] was not needed as it would have impacted the results of the group (HoT won Moon and would finish first regardless).

Semi-finals – IEST 2007
Sky 1:3 Moon
HoT 0:3 ToD

HoT ending a undefeated tournament streak with a hard loss vs. ToD. Moon evening the score for his WCG loss.

Battle for third place
HoT 0:3 Sky

Finals
Moon 3:1 ToD

Moon wins 21.290$ to add to the huge pile of money he has been sleeping in to make him feel better after losing WCG. ToD wins 10.640$ and is not doing too bad himself.

Alongside this event the Extreme Masters Los Angeles were taking place at Los Angeles, California between October 20-21. The top two of this event would qualify for the Extreme Master finals (to take place in 2008) alongside several European players who would qualify in an on-going online competition. Four Koreans, two Germans, one Canadian and five USA players attended the event. The top four basically says all you need to know about what happened in L.A..

Extreme Masters L.A.
1. Lyn – 12.000$
2. Lucifer – 5.000$
3. FoCuS – 1.500$
4. Susiria – 1.000$

Starting and finishing on the 3rd of November, Make Games Colorful took place at China between four of the best Chinese and four of the best Korean players. It had the following rankings:

Make Games Colorful 2007
1. Lyn – 10.000$
2. Moon – 5.000$
3. TH000 – 3.000$
4. InFi
5/6. xiaOt, Sky
7/8. Sweet, Lucifer

If Lyn could cherry-pick at which events to best Moon, MGC would have probably not been in the top three. Still, it was a nice event and one of many intra-Asian clashes to take place in 2008.

Between 17-18 November the WarCraft 3 Championship finals season XII took place.

Prior to this event ToD announced he would be leaving Four Kings (he later joined Mousesports). Four Kings failed to qualify for the finals, Creolophus was retired and Grubby was not performing as well as during his 2004-2006 seasons. Add to that that Four Kings was apparently low on money and not paying out salaries that were likely beneath that of competing offers anyway and you can see why it would make sense for ToD to leave the “sinking” ship. Four Kings was somewhat defined in professional WarCraft III history in that it was a team that seemed to, to some extent, truly be kept together by bonds formed during the Korea period which Grubby, ToD, Zeus[19] and FuRy spend together in an apartment in Seoul. FoV leaving was the first blow to that, ToD added a second and Four Kings would soon throw in the towel altogether.

ToD’s statement read: It's a very sad day for me to part way with the team I have played so long time in. I had alot of fun in 4kings and don't regret a single thing. I wish everyone in the team the best of luck for the future. We're still friends and I hope we'll always be even when we are no longer playing this game together. – ex-4K ToD

Four Kings was not the only team to undergo changes, World Elite had also parted way with their longtime Korean players (apparently due to financial difficulties as well) and these had found their way in the team of SK-Gaming, bringing them their first (and only) WC3L LAN final victory since joining the league in season I.

The results of the event were:

1. SK Gaming
Sung "ReMinD" Sik Kim
Lee Sung "SoJu" Duk
June "Lyn" Lyn
Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev
Mykhaylo "HoT" Novopashyn
Daniel "miou" Holthuis
Daniel "ixi" Spenst

This was a huge line-up and meant SK probably needed to let some players go.

2. Meet Your Makers
Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh
JaeWook "Lucifer" Noh
Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
Hyo Sub "FoCuS" Eom

The classic Korean line-up of Meet Your Makers, they were about to undergo some changes as well (only partially line-up wise).

3. World Elite
Xiaofeng "Sky" Li
Shu "suhO" Hao
Zhuo "TeD" Zeng
Xuwen "Infi" Wang
Kejing "Like" Li

World Elite retained their Chinese players with probably only Sky making the kind of money that the Koreans were looking for.

4. Beijing eSport Team
Hyeong Ju "Check" Lee
Dae Hui "FoV" Cho
Du Seop "WhO" Chang
Jin Woo "WinNers" Kim
Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun

The all-Korean line-up of BeT (making their solo WC3L appearance) meant that only SK hosted non-Asian players at this WC3L. Quite a change from the early seasons and indicative of the direction WarCraft III was taking with many retirements among European professionals coming up and not enough significant new blood to replace them.

In December Insomnia (finally) retired from WarCraft III. SK Gaming made an official announcement including a lengthy piece by Insomnia which can be found here [http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/15336-SKInsomnia_Retires] and is certainly worth a read and of a key paragraph is posted here:

“The few months I spent there [Korea] were certainly the most memorable and joyful times of my whole gaming career. Here I will use the opportunity to thank Fredrik, Alborz and Henrik for all the great moments we shared. I will never forget you guys. I was also able to win the WCG2003, which happened in Korea during my stay there. At this point I became a star in Korea. Teenagers were recognizing me in public places and I received offers for 3x the salary I was getting. However with every day passed I was feeling more and more homesick and the nostalgia for my friends and lifestyle in Bulgaria was getting stronger. So at the exact peak of my career, against all kinds of logic, I decided to leave the heart of the progaming world and return home and celebrate my victory with friends and family.

At this point of my life I felt as if I had nothing left to prove (in the field of RTS games) to myself or to anyone else. I had achieved my dream. This was the turning point for me at which War3 slowly started turning from a great passion to just a job.” – SK.Insomnia

Insomnia remains one of the world’s most recognicable WarCraft III icons and is currently playing the StarCraft II (doubtfully with the intention of going pro however) and is also active in poker; reportedly involved in a poker-related website in Bulgaria.

Also taking place in December were tournaments totalling over 100.000$ in prize money.

It was mentioned before that wiNnerS was one of the best earning players of the year, its time for the big reveal: he won the money in Rampage Asia. An online event, basically a ladder, hosted by WCGzone which paid out 35.000$ to the numbers 1-3. It got no publicity whatsoever and can be seen as the crowning achievement of wiNnerS who has been active as far back as the 2002-2003 period, playing for SK.Asia. This is probably not even the easiest 20.000$ made by a member of that team as one of winNerS’s former teammates, SeLeCT, managed to win two World Cyber Games events in Dawn of War.

Rampage Asia
1. WinNerS – 20.000$
2. Check – 10.000$
3. ReMinD – 5.000$
4. Sweet – 0$

At December eight the Afreeca WarCraft III League Season 1 concluded in Seoul. This was a league hosting all of Korea’s top players and paid out a respectable 10.000$. It had the following results starting from the single elimination bracket (which was preceeded by two group stages):

Quarter-finals
Soccer 2-1 Carrier
Soju 2-0 Susiria
Moon 2-0 ReMinD
Lyn 1-2 Space

Semi-finals
Soccer 3-2 Soju
Moon 3-1 Space

Battle for third place
Soju > Space

Finals
Soccer 3-1 Moon

And thus Soccer becomes the third Night Elf player, following FreeDoM in 2005 and ReMinD earlier this year, to best Moon in the national finals of a Korean league. Soccer picked up 6.000$ for his troubles and would remain one of Korea’s professional gamers until this very day, currently playing alongside Moon, Jin Wook “Rohjinwook” Roh (younger brother of Lucifer) and Lyn in WeMadeFOX.

Between December 28-30 the last event of the year took place, the IEF Masters which hosted thirteen representatives of the Chinese top, five Korean professional gamers as well as Grubby and ToD.

The top four was:

IEF Masters 2007
1. ToD – 5.000$
2. xiaOt – 2.000$
3. Moon – 1.000$
4. Sky

ToD eliminating Moon once again who was performing somewhat weaker towards the end of the year compared with the rest of his, outstanding, season.

Money, money money.
You were promised some stuff from the 2007 WarCraft 3 Prize Money List[http://www.gotfrag.com/war/story/41059/?spage=1], and here it is:

A total of at least 1.018.591$ was distributed at events in 2007. Broke down by countries as followed:

Germany – 305.943$ worth of tournaments
* Electronic Sports League – 237.693$
* Blizzard Entertainment – 18.250$
* World Cyber Games – 7.000$

South Korea – 209.850$
* MBCGame – 123.600$
* World e-Sports Games – 39.000$
* International eSports Festival – 20.000$
* Blizzard Entertainment – 17.250$
* Afreeca Warcraft League – 10.000$

China – 185.370$
* International Electronic Sports Tournament – 50.000$
* International eSports Festival – 25.380$
* Global Gaming League – 24.440$
* China eSports Games – 18.360$
* Make Game Colorful – 18.000$
* Electronic Sports League – 16.500$
* World Series of Video Games – 9.500$
* E-Gome – 9.230$
* Replays.net – 8.000$
* Neo Star League – 4.660$
* Steelseries – 1.300$

Russia – 105.336$
* Game-X – 61.162$
* ASUS – 35.674$
* World Cyber Games – 7.000$
* Proplay – 1.500$

USA – 95.250$
* World Cyber Games – 33.000$
* Electronic Sports League – 20.000$
* Blizzard Entertainment – 19.750$
* Global Gaming League – 12.500$
* Fire in Ice – 10.000$

online – 51.193$ (incomplete)
* World Cyber Games – 35.000$
* PPStream – 5.950$
* inCup – 7.551$
* Fragbet – 1.442$
* Replays.net – 1.250$

Sweden – 27.168$
* Dreamhack – 23.468$
* Spixelania – 2.700$
* Wonderbase – 1.000$

France – 19.000$
* Electronic Sports World Cup – 19.000$

Spain – 7.060$
* Gamegune – 7.060$

Netherlands – 5.830$
* Global Gaming League – 5.300$
* Netgamez - 530$

Singapore – 2.400$
* World Cyber Games – 2.400$
Norway – 2.000$
* The Gathering – 2.000$

Brazil – 1.500$
* Electronic Sports World Cup – 1.500$

Mexico - 900$
* World Cyber Games - 900$

Estonia - 200$
* World Cyber Games - 200$

Broke down by player winnings as followed:

** (only includes players winning over 500$)

Countries' player winnings
South Korea 388.951$
China 119.700$
Germany 87.184$
France 51.954$
Norway 47.709$
Netherlands 33.433$
Russia 19.610$
Ukraine 18.751$
Sweden 6.871$
Bulgaria 5.907$
USA 2.500$
Brazil 2.100$
Poland 1.377$
Finland 1.036$
Canada 1.019$
Denmark 622$
New Zealand 600$
Belarus 543$

Broke down by race as followed:

(only includes players winning over 1000$)

Night Elf – 387.054$
(43,42% of these winnings come from Moon, 12,33% from Creolophus, 12,23% from ReMinD)

Human – 155.075$
(33,50% from ToD, 30,44% from Sky, 10,46% from Infi)

Undead – 107.510$
(24.09% from FoV, 20.69% from HasuObs, 14,49% from Lucifer, 14,22% from Sweet)

Orc – 108.687$
(42,71% from Lyn, 29,08% from Grubby)

Individual players won the following amounts in 2007:

Players
1. Jang "Moon" Jae Ho – 168.074$ (South Korea)
2. Yoan "ToD" Merlo – 51.954$ (France)
3. Olav "Creolophus" Undheim – 47.709$ (Norway)
4. Kim Sung "ReMinD" Sik – 47.355$ (South Korea)
5. Xiaofeng "Sky" Li – 47.207$ (China)
6. June "Lyn" Park – 46.849$ (South Korea)
7. Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen – 31.899$ (The Netherlands)
8. Dae Hui "FoV" Cho – 25.900$ (South Korea)
9. Dennis "HasuObs" Schneider – 22.248$ (Germany)
10. Jin Woo "WinNers" Kim – 20.269$ (South Korea)

11. Mykhaylo "HoT" Novopashyn – 18.069$ (Ukraine)
12. Yuwen "Infi" Wang – 16.216$ (China)
13. Jae Wook "Lucifer" Noh – 15.580$ (South Korea)
14. Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun – 15.291$ (South Korea)
15. Hyung Ju "Check" Lee – 12.969$ (South Korea)
16. Lee Sung "SoJu" Duk – 12.730$ (South Korea)
17. Daniel "miou" Holthuis – 10.558$ (Germany)
18. Lars "Protois" Reichelt – 10.041$ (Germany)
19. Cheng Long "Sai" Zhou – 9.055$ (China)
20. Liwei "xiaOt" Sun – 8.356$ (China)
21. Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev – 7.882$ (Russia)
22. Andrew "Fire_de" Regendantz – 7.275$ (Germany)
23. Xiang "TH000" Huang – 7.173$ (China)
24. Weiliang "Fly100%" Lu – 6.764$ (China)
25. Duck Man "Soccer" Youn – 6.538$ (South Korea)
26. Johannes "hanf" Morlo – 6.273$ (Germany)
27. Merlin "Thurisaz" Muller – 6.271$ (Germany)
28. Mikhail "XyLigan" Ryabkov – 5.276$ (Russia)
29. Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh – 4.728$ (South Korea)
30. Zhuo "TeD" Zeng – 4.673$ (China)

31. Shu "suhO" Hao – 4.610$ (China)
32. Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev – 4.599$ (Bulgaria)
33. Park chul "Shy" Woo – 4.173$ (South Korea)
34. Kim Dong "GoStop" Moon – 2.800$ (South Korea)
35. Moritz "corugnoll" Wagner – 2.799$ (Germany)
36. Bin "Ace" Liu – 2.750$ (China)
37. Hyo Sub "FoCuS" Eom – 2.731$ (South Korea)
38. Daniel "LiiLD.C" Claesson – 2.582$ (Sweden)
39. Daniel "TryDying" Zuzanski – 2.486$ (Germany)
40. Julian "Fisch" Höbener – 2.377$ (Germany)

41. Park Se "ShowBu" Ryong – 2.220$ (South Korea)
42. Bernardo "PaTo" Rodrigues – 2.100$ (Brazil)
43. Daniel "XlorD" Spenst – 2.050$ (Germany)
44. Marc "yAwS" Förster – 2.048$ (Germany)
45. Franklin "Nilknarf" Pearsall – 2.000$ (United States)
46. Dennis "1mpacT" Kalsen – 1.961$ (Germany)
47. Oleg "Titan" Kuptsov – 1.879$ (Russia)
48. Kim "SaSe" Hammar – 1.854$ (Sweden)
49. Marvin "BasH" Bartels – 1.853$ (Germany)
50. Rob "Rob" Abdrakhmanov – 1.770$ (Russia)

51. Maxim "Swift" Kholomiev – 1.764$ (Russia)
52. Adrian "Freezer" Zowislo – 1.687$ (Germany)
53. Toni "Dolorian" Bulitz – 1.541$ (Germany)
54. Kevin "RotterdaM" van der Kooi – 1.534$ (The Netherlands)
55. Hjalmar "DowaQ" Högberg – 1.410$ (Sweden)
56. Jorg "Cold.D" Jeremias – 1.384$ (Germany)
57. Przemek "Paladyn" Wadoń – 1.377$ (Poland)
58. Eric "Eric" Marten – 1.348$ (Germany)
59. Dimitar "DIDI8" Aleksandrov – 1.308$ (Bulgaria)
60. Stefan "dArk" Lehmann – 1.170$ (Germany)

61. Arthur "AkkiS" Roskos – 1.131$ (Germany)
62. Yury "Neytpoh" Karev – 1.039$ (Russia)
63. Juha-Matti "Satiini" Bäckström – 1.036$ (Finland)
64. Johan "NaNiwa" Lucchesi – 1.025$ (Sweden)
65. Jonathan "KiWiKaKi" Garneau – 1.019$ (Canada)
66. Like - 943$ (China)
67. Seo Woo "ReiGn" Kang - 800$ (South Korea)
68. Friedrich "Bam" Franz - 683$ (Germany)
69. Artem "Tresh" Mosyakin - 682$ (Ukraine)
70. Cang - 653$ (China)

71. Dhc.X - 650$ (China)
71. Ducui - 650$ (China)
73. Rene "Ciara" Krag - 622$ (Denmark)
74. Hamish "Kowi" Parker - 600$ (New Zealand)
75. Kristoffer "TargA" Marthinsen - 575$ (Norway)
76. Future - 543$ (China)
76. Yaroslav "NightWolf" Kavetsky - 543$ (Belarus)
78. Phil "LongWalk" Crawford - 500$ (USA)
79. Björn "ElakeDuck" Ödman - 481$ (Sweden)
80. Andrew "mOOn-GlaDe" Pender - 400$ (Australia)

81. Cassandra "PpG" Ng - 392$ (Singapore)
82. Peter "Firestrike" Staudacher - 364$ (Austria)
83. Banana - 360$ (China)
84. Christopher "SunShinE" Olsson - 352$ (Sweden)
85. Nikita "Naps" Shatokhin - 344$ (Russia)
86. Tristan "Canuck" Taschuk - 300$ (Canada)
86. Kirill "Hacker" Zheltogonov - 300$ (Russia)
86. Dmitriy "Happy" Kostin - 300$ (Russia)
89. Maxim "SDmK" Babarcev - 274$ (Russia)
90. WhO - 269$ (South Korea)

91. Babo - 261$ (China)
92. Yanchao "Lyc" Lu - 260$ (China)
93. Lukas "HumaniC" Nemec - 229$ (Czech republic)
94. Ivica "Zeus[19]" Markovic - 220$ (Croatia)
95. Michael "Giacomo" Hladik - 209$ (Czech republic)
96. Kwon Oh "FiveStar" Seong - 200$ (South Korea)
96. Romanas "Lose" Rimkus - 200$ (Lithuania)
96. Tae min "Zacard" Hwang - 200$ (South Korea)
96. Kjetil "GamlaSonn" Hårtveit Kyrkjerud - 200$ (Norway)

100. Boris "Quaix" Lekontsev - 171$ (Russia)
101. Ilya "KempeR" Babushkin - 163$ (Russia)
102. Pavel "DoLLaR" Kondrashov - 156$ (Russia)
103. Donderdrakie - 134$ (The Netherlands)
104. Jou "MagicYang" Chen - 125$ (China)
105. Real - 122$ (Russia)
106. Ruslan "Clown" Gilfanov - 102$ (Russia)
107. Inter - 100$ (Russia)
107. Vadim "Kpect" Erokhov - 100$ (Russia)
109. Alan - 97$ (Russia)
109. Bug - 97$ (Russia)

111. Hitman - 96$ (Russia)
111. Alexei "Abver" Drunin - 96$ (Russia)
113. Mateusz "hG" Pietrzak - 94$ (France)
113. Thomas "ThomasG" Glinski - 94$ (Denmark)
115. Vladimir "Becks" Skubko - 30$ (Russia)
115. Spot - 30$ (Russia)
117. Fair.TT - 20$ (Russia)
117. Vladimir "Point" Egorov - 20$ (Russia)
Teams won the following amounts:

*** (only includes WC3L, NGL One and WWW)

1. Meet Your Makers – 49.170$
2. World Elite – 37.512$
3. Four Kings – 30.633$
5. SK Gaming – 17.267$
4. Mousesports – 6.848$
6. wNv Gaming – 5.000$
7. Beijing eSport Team – 4.388$
That’s it. There are some conclusions in the original article.

Recap 2007
This is where the WarCraft III scene roughly was at the dawn of 2008:

WCG, ESWC, IEF, BlizzCon, EPS, SEC, Extreme Masters, CEG, ASUS Cup, DreamHack, ENC, Stars War, WC3L, NGL One, MGC, AWL, PGL, BWI, PPSstream, KODE5, PGL, NSL were all tournaments that took place in 2007 and would take place again in 2009.
MBCGame, WEG, IEST and Game-X would not return in 2008. Though WEG would morph into something called World E-Sports Masters.
International Electronic Sports Federation & NiceGameTV League would start tournaments in 2008.
StarCraft II had been announced the year earlier and would start impacting tournaments in this season.

Professional gaming careers launched 2007

China – InFi, TH000 & TeD
Europe –XyLigan
Germany – Protois
Korea – WinNers, SocceR & SoJu

These players had the following income:

InFi - 16.216$ + World Elite salary.
TH000 - 7.173$ + possibly wNv salary
TeD - 4.673$ + World Elite salary
XyLigan - 5.276$ + Gravitas salary
Protois - 10.041$ + mTw salary
WinNers - 20.269$
SocceR - 6.538$ + would soon sign with MYM
SoJu - 12.730$ + SK Gaming salary


WarCraft III 2008 (Europeans fall behind, Four Kings gone, general decline of WarCraft III scene sets in)

When you look at WarCraft III tournaments up till now you see the elite European players as on the same level as the elite Korean and elite Chinese players. Europeans dominated international competition till 2004 and did alright afterwards. In 2008 Europeans held the following positions on the player money list: 2, 3, 7, 9 & 11; this as compared to 1, 4, 6, 8 & 10 for Korea and 5, 12, 19, 20 & 23 for China. In 2008 this balance would change.

Creolophus, Deadman and Insomnia retired in 2007, ToD is closing in on retirement (the period leading up to retirement is usual one in which you see a player perform worse), Grubby performs stronger than his 2007 season but not on the same level as his 2004-2006 seasons (or he might just be facing more / stronger competitors). You see some names rise up to the highest level such as Happy and LucifroN, but not quite enough to compensate for the drop in elite European players.

At the same Korea is strong as ever despite also facing retirements; Zacard, GoStop & Sweet being notable ones (GoStop’s retirement was never officially announced). Korea also has something of an infusion of new blood including SocceR, FoCuS (who we have already seen mentioned) and WhO.

China has been rising steadily ever they have been talked about in the article and 2008 would be no exception with InFi, TeD, TH000 and Fly100% becoming household names.

This trend is obviously a long time coming, but it really sets in in 2008 with Chinese and Korean players mostly dividing the big tournaments between the two scenes. It continues in 2009 and is the status quo until this very day.

As far as the general decline of the WarCraft III scene is concerned. This is not caused by tournaments suddenly dropping the game because it is ill. Rather some tournaments disappear naturally as has always been the case (we have seen plenty of major events not make returns all the way back to 2003). But, partially because StarCraft II has been announced, there is no new blood stepping in to replace these events (as has usually been the case). Thus the net growth of the scene is negative (and obviously when StarCraft II is eventually released in 2010 there are suddenly plenty of tournaments dropping the game as if it is ill, but that is another story).

On to 2008!
Lets start 2008 with the introduction of Seung Hyun “Space” Park as portrayed by noname at the time, here [http://www.mymym.com/en/news/11677.html]. Space is a (semi)professional Korean WarCraft III player that was diagnosed at the age of 11 with a “rare inveterate muscle disorder” which basically means he can’t do a lot and that he’s going to die soon. Despite this disease however he can compete in WarCraft III at the highest level, something which he attempts to do in order to fulfill his dream which is: “neither not to become a pro-player nor be healthy. But I hope to be the best player in WC3 which is the only thing I can do now to make my family proud”. How awesome is a sport in which you can compete under these conditions and really not be that different from the other players? Could someone with the same disease diagnosed fifty years ago imagine that he could compete in a discipline at the highest level, not be given any quarter, and still come close to being the best? When Space dies there will be people mourning for him all over the world. Not because he was sad or had a disease, but because he was one of the best WarCraft III players in the world.

Between January 11 and 13 another edition of the China eSport Games took place at Shaoxing, China with six professional Korean gamers and 33 top Chinese players attending. It had the following results starting from the round of 16 single elimination bracket:

CEG Shaoxing 2008
Round of 16
Lyn 2:1 Check
ReMinD 1:2 SuhO
Sky 2:0 X
Fly100% 2:1 ForDream

TeD 2:0 GGTry
Sai 2:1 xiaOt
Moon 2:0 Shy
FoV 1:2 Ace

Quarter-finals
Lyn 2:1 SuhO
Sky 0:2 Fly100%
TeD 0:2 Sai
Moon 2:0 Ace

Semi-finals
Lyn 0:2 Fly100%
Sai 0:2 Moon

Battle for third place
Lyn 2:1 Sai

Finals
Fly100% 0:2 Moon

Moon still doing well and Fly100% impressing as well; beating Sky and Lyn. Sai is also performing consistently very strong at these Chinese events, but he would never truly convince in international tournaments as opposed to the likes of other Chinese players such as xiaOt, Sky, Fly100%, TH000, SuhO, InFi and TeD.

On January 22, 2008 Four Kings disbands. The most accomplished team in WarCraft III history alongside Meet Your Makers. The reason was Four Kings’ management inability to attract sponsorship for an internationally wildly successful division, with the team’s director stating: “The simple reason is, our company income is predominantly UK focused and as the Warcraft III scene has flourished, so has the costs which are needed to support it”. Zeus[19] and FuRy would soon go into inactivity (not that either was very active at this point). LillD.C, who was attracted to replace Creolophus as the Night Elf of the team (not quite making it to Creolophus’ level, not that he was seriously expected to), would continue playing for some time but eventually abandon his professional gaming dream. DeMusliM, the best WarCraft III player in the UK who was attracted shortly prior to Four Kings’ collapse in hopes of attracting UK sponsorship, would remain an active player until this very day; currently he is competing in StarCraft II. Grubby would join Meet Your Makers and represent the team until their financial collapse in 2009.

Four Kings accomplishments, as taken from Grubby’s Wikipedia page, are:

1st Place - Clanbase MCL Season 1 (2004)
1st Place - ESL WC3L Season 4 (2004)
2nd Place - ESL WC3L Season 5 (2004)
1st Place - ESL WC3L Season 7 (2005)
1st Place - ESL WC3L Season 8 (2005)
2nd Place - ESL WC3L Season 9 (2006)
1st Place - ESL WC3L Season 10 (2007)
2nd Place - ESL WC3L Season 11 (2007)
3rd Place - NGL-ONE Season 1 (2006)
3rd Place - NGL-ONE Season 2 (2006-2007)
3rd Place - NGL-ONE Season 3 (2007)

With the exception of the MCL online event, all were covered in this article.

Between January 21-27 the second season of the ProGamer league took place at Beijing China featuring six of China’s finest and ten players outside China as well as a 13.000€ prize purse. It saw Moon, Sky, Sweet and xiaOt qualify for the semi-finals with the following results:

ProGamer League II
Semi-finals
Moon [3:1] Sweet
xiaOt [0:3] Sky

Battle for third place
Sweet [3:0] xiaOt

Finals
Moon 3:0 Sky

Moon vs. Sky is really one of those “classic matches” in WarCraft III history with them having encountered eachother in major tournament finals since 2006. Sweet is doing surprisingly well for someone close to retirement; although his was forced (mandatory draft) which means it makes perfect sense that he is still performing well (as he did not retire due to lack of motivation or results).

The second edition of the Afreeca WarCraft 3 League (AWL) concluded on February 1, 2008 after starting September 18, 2007. As a competition featuring the entire Korean top of the time it gives some insight into how the players stacked up against eachother during this time-period (since Moon does not make it out of groups you might not want to use it as an absolute way of measuring the players).

Group stage 1 – AWL II
Group A
1. SocceR 3-0
2. Rohjinwook 1-2
2. Check 1-2
2. Susiria 1-2

A tie-breaker was needed to determine who would take second place in Group A.

Group A tie-breaker
1. Check 2-0
2. Susiria 1-1
3. Rohjinwook 0-2

Which meant Check would progress alongside SocceR.

Group B
1. WinNers 2-1
2. Lyn 2-1
3. Moon 1-2
4. ReiGn 1-2

Losses vs. WinNers (of Rampage Asia fame) and Lyn eliminate Moon from the event.

Group C
1. Lucifer 3-0
2. FoV 2-1
3. SoJu 1-2
4. Reprisal 0-3

Lucifer and FoV progress to the single elimination bracket.

Group D
1. Sweet 2-1
2. ReMinD 2-1
3. FoCuS 2-1
4. Space 0-3

After performing very strongly the first season, Space is eliminated early. The other three players progress to a tie-breaker to determine #1-#3.

Group D tie-breaker
1. FoCuS 1-0
2. Sweet 1-0
3. ReMinD 0-2

ReMinD loses vs. both players and is eliminated. FoCuS beat Sweet in the original group-stage so he takes first place.

Which leads to the following single elimination bracket:

Single Elimination bracket – AWL II
Quarter-finals
SocceR [1:2] Lyn
Lucifer [1:2] Sweet
WinNerS [2:1] Check
FoCuS [2:0] FoV

Semi-finals
Lyn [3:0] Sweet
WinNerS [2:3] FoCuS

Battle for third place
Sweet [3:1] WinNerS

Finals
Lyn [3:0] FoCuS

Lyn wins 6.000$ for his efforts, dropping two maps vs. WinNerS and SocceR, with FoCuS taking 3.000$ and Sweet 1.000$.

Between February 22-24 the NGL One finals took place at Berlin featuring a 16.000$ prize pool. The event had the following results:

NGL One 2007-2008 finals
1. Meet Your Makers
Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh
JaeWook "Lucifer" Noh
Hyo Sub "FoCuS" Eom
Jang "Moon" Jae Ho

MYM would be the strongest team of the year, winning both NGL and WC3L (though losing the NGL title later in the year).

2. SK Gaming
Sung "ReMinD" Sik Kim
Lee Sung "SoJu" Duk
June "Lyn" Park
Seo Woo "ReiGn" Kang

SK switched to an all-Korean line-up quite successfully, ReMinD, SoJu and Lyn had won the past two WC3L finals and would perform quite admirably under the SK Gaming flag.

3. Mousesports
Yoan "ToD" Merlo
Dennis "HasuObs" Schneider
Kim "SaSe" Hammar
Dmitriy "Happy" Kostin

ToD gives a nice boost to the Mousesports team, possibly joining in part due to a long friendship with SaSe.

4. mTw
Tae In "Rainbow" Kim
Lars-Gerriet "Protois" Reichelt
Jonathan "KiWiKaKi" Garneau
Yaroslav "NightWOlf" Kavetsky

mTw’s line-up is obviously quite strong, but not really on par with the other three teams.

Between March 6-9 the second edition of the Extreme Masters were to take place at Hannover, Germany featuring eight of Europe’s strongest players who qualified themselves in online competition as well as Lyn and Lucifer who had qualified themselves for this event at the Extreme Masters edition taking place at Los Angeles in 2007.

Extreme Masters season II LAN finals – final standings
1. Lyn – 20.000$
2. ToD – 10.000$
3. Grubby – 6.000$
4. Lucifer – 4.000$
5/6. Protois, Happy – 2.000$
7/8. Elfittaja, HasuObs – 1.000$
9/10. HoT, Paladyn – 500$

Lyn looking extremely hot, winning this event right after winning AWL. He would in fact be the strongest player of the year, picking up an amount of winnings throughout the year that is only surpassed in history by Moon’s 2007 winnings. ToD is showing he is still Europe’s strongest player at the event (despiting not winning SEC, which is a lower-rated event), beating Lucifer and Grubby. Overall the Extreme Masters which had WarCraft III as a main event for two seasons (with side events later) is the most professional event originating from Europe during this time, comparable in status as it relates to European events as the World e-Sport Games relates to events in Korea (really setting the standard quite high).

Taking place at Hannover between March 7-9 is the Samsung European Championship featuring WCG national champions from all over Europe. The results were:

1. HoT
2. SaSe
3. ToD
4. Grubby
5/6. XyLigan, XlorD
7/8. DNA, sLH
9/12. Zeus[19], Last_Phoenix, Ciara, DeMusliM
13/16. bd_Eddy, HasuHasi, Vankor, icest0rm

HoT defends his SEC title, not quite being able to claim it as grounds for being best European on pretty much the same reasons as the year before (not showing equal success at the Extreme Masters, not having major international succeses to back it up). SaSe doing surprisingly well, one of the highlights of his professional gaming career. ToD showing a respectable third with Grubby not far behind. Grubby was actually showing a dynamic that is unique in his career, not really convincing at intra-European events (see SEC now and BlizzCon Europe later on); but doing really well at the global ones.

Immediately following the last season of the Afreeca WarCraft 3 League (season two) another was to take place (this was an online event) starting February 12 and ending March 22. This event was streamed on Internet television in Korea and followable on streams worldwide. The four best ranked players from the prior season were invited as well as twelve players that qualified online, with Moon taking partially taking a break from competition at the time and deciding not to enter the league.

Once again, full results:

AWL III – Group stage
Group A
1. Lyn 2-0
2. Check 2-1
3. Lucifer 1-2
4. Believe 0-2

Lyn vs. Believe was not necessary as Lyn had already won the group with Check as runner-up.

Group B
1. ReiGn 2-0
2. ReprisaL 2-1
3. Shy 1-2
4. FoCuS 0-2

ReiGn vs. FoCuS was not necessary as ReiGn had already won the group with ReprisaL as runner-up.

Group C
1. Sweet 2-0
2. Space 2-1
3. Susiria 1-2
4. FiveStar 0-2

Sweet vs. FiveStar was not necessary as Sweet had already won the group with Space as runner-up.

Group D
1. Storm 2-0
2. FoV 2-1
3. SoJu
4. WiNnerS

Storm vs. WiNnerS was not necessary as Storm had already won the group with FoV as runner-up.

AWL III- Single Elimination
Quarter-finals
Lyn [3:1] ReprisaL
Sweet [1:3] FoV
Check [2:3] ReiGn
Space [3:1] Storm

Semi-finals
Lyn [3:0] FoV
ReiGn [0:3] Space

Battle for third place
ReiGn [3:2] FoV

Finals
Lyn [3:0] Space

Lyn winning his second season, dropping but three maps (WiNnerS, SocceR & ReprisaL) throughout the two seasons. He picks up 6.000$ for his troubles. Space has the highlight of his career up to this point as well; winning 3.000$. ReiGn has to settle for 1.000$.

Immediately following AWL III another (the third) edition of Race Wars was launched by PPLive and Garena featuring four teams representing the races of WarCraft III competing against each other online for a prize purse of 3.000$ between March 22-29. Edition two was not covered in this article but saw Night Elf win, followed by Orc. Race Wars III started with internal matches in each team being played to determine the “hero” player which would play a special role in every clan war, taking on the other race’s hero player.

The players and heroes were:

Team Human
Sky (hero)
InFi
Rainbow
TH000

ToD noticeably missing, opening up a slot for Korean (semi)professional Rainbow to take alongside the three big Human players from China.

Team Night Elf
SoJu (hero)
ReMinD
HoT
SaSe

SoJu was quite the terror in Night Elf mirror. Moon was taking a break from online competition, as mentioned during AWL season II.

Team Undead
Lucifer (hero)
Susiria
ReiGn
TeD

Sweet is noticeably absent (definitely outperforming Susiria in this time-period for instance); but as his retirement was announced the next month (Korean mandatory draft) he might not have been in the mood to play an online competition taking up a precious week of free time.

Team Orc
Grubby (hero)
Lyn
Fly100%
xiaOt

Team Orc being the only team with a definite all-star line-up. It was surprising to see Grubby come on top given the way Lyn was going at the time (though winning one online match should not be over-interpreted).

The match results were:

Night Elf [3:7] Undead
SaSe [0:2] TeD
SoJu [2:0] Susiria
ReMinD [0:2] ReiGn
HoT [0:2] Lucifer
SoJu [1:1] Lucifer

Undead, traditionally the race most feared by Night Elf players, taking home the win quite convincingly with only SoJu winning points for his race. Moon’s absence probably hurt the team however.

Human [3:7] Orc
TH000 [0:2] Fly100%
Rainbow [0:2] xiaOt
Sky [2:0] Lyn
InFi [1:1] Lyn
Sky [0:2] Grubby

Orc winning strongly against Human, Human being a race usually considered to have the slight upper hand in this match-up. ToD’s presence might have helped the team however.

Night Elf [3:7] Human
SaSe [1:1] InFi
SoJu [0:2] Sky
ReMinD [0:2] TH000
HoT [0:2] Rainbow
Soju [2:0] Sky

Both teams missing a key-player in what is not perceived to be an imbalanced match-up. HoT, who we saw perform very strongly vs. Human at several events in 2007, performing somewhat weakly vs. Rainbow.

Undead [2:8] Orc
Lucifer [1:1] Fly100%
Susiria [0:2] xiaOt
TeD [0:2] Lyn
ReiGn [1:1] Grubby
Lucifer [0:2] Grubby

The traditionally strong match-up of Orc. No Undead manages to beat expections.

Human [7:3] Undead
InFi [2:0] Susiria
TH000 [1:1] TeD
Sky [2:0] ReiGn
Rainbow [1:1] Lucifer
Sky [1:1] Lucifer

Probably the least played interracial match-up (Human and Undead are the least played WarCraft III races); InFi and Sky carry home the win for their team.

Orc [6:4] Night Elf
xiaOt [0:2] SaSe
Fly100% [2:0] SoJu
Lyn [2:0] HoT
Grubby [1:1] ReMinD
Grubby [1:0] SoJu

Traditionally the strong match-up of Night Elf; Orc’s weakest result this tournament. It settles this event in which Team Orc wins, followed by Team Human, followed by Team Undead and leaving Team Night Elf in fourth place (losing their championship title).

At the start of April, 1-12, the Masters edition of the Afreeca WarCraft 3 League take place featuring ten players invited based on their results in the previous three seasons. Eight players would compete to determine who would face season I champion SocceR and season II, III champion Lyn in the semi-finals

AWL Masters
SoJu [1:2] Space
Moon [2:0] WiNnerS

Moon [1:2] Space

Space goes on to meet SocceR.

ReiGn [>] Sweet
FoV [2:0] FoCuS

ReiGn [2:0] FoV

Sweet gives a defwin, because (I speculate) his forced retirement and the prospect of a life consisting of doing push-ups closes in on him and he can’t be bothered very much to play in some online league when his last days as a free man are numbered. ReiGn goes on to meet Lyn.

SocceR [2:0] Space
Lyn [2:1] ReiGn

The champions meet in the Masters Finals.

SocceR [3:1] Lyn

SocceR end Lyn’s reign of the league and picks up 6.000$, Lyn picks up 3.000$. We see a similar patron as Moon in 2007 emerging for Lyn in 2008, with the player not winning every event he enters but winning a lot of them and generally doing well in the ones he does not win.

The Neo Star League Season 2 Finals took place between April 18-20 at Shanghai, China. The event not only had an unusual format (which is not that unusual for Chinese competitions); it had a very poor format (which is unusual for Chinese competitions) with players facing eachother to determine seedings (do you go serious in those kind of matches, revealing your strategies to gain a purely theoretical advantage?) and simply reviving the popular players (both Moon and Sky) after they were eliminated.

The final top five rankings and prize money distributed were:

NSL II
1. Sky – 7.000$
2. InFi – 4.200$
3. Lyn – 1.400$
4. Moon
5. Lucifer

Sky showing he still remains the champion of China despite there being blood in the water (which attracts sharks!) because of his WCG silver medal (winning WCG gold three years in a row kind of gives you immunity to being challenged by your countrymen for the title of best even if you spend the next year eating popcorn all day in front of the TV) in combination with other Chinese players (lead by InFi) doing very well in various competitions.

At the end of April, 2008 Sweet (1983) retires having been finally called to fulfil Korea’s mandatory draft. The “Devil Scourge” originally postponed this after winning the third season of the World e-Sport Games all the way back in 2005. His stay in China was also in part to avoid entering the army. Sweet had a longlived professional gaming career up to this point, having been one of the absolute best players in the world from the 2002-2003 period until now. The only Undead professional gamers with careers spanning similar lengths are FoV and Lucifer (with ReiGn having a period of inactivity and Susiria never reaching absolute top level). Sweet’s career knew fewer downperiods than these two however; being runner-up of MBC Sonokong Prime League II in 2003, WarCraft III player of the year in 2004, World e-Sport Games champion in 2005, Blizzard Worldwide Invitational champion in 2006 and finishing #2-#4 at seven major events 2007-2008. Lucifer, ReiGn, Susiria and FoV would retire in 2009, marking the end of the reign of Korea’s Undead Princes (GoStop already being retired). You can find a VOD dedicated to Sweet here[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuBB6RUmV18].

Around May 3 the Road of the King event took place at Wuhan, China featuring four teams: World Elite, SK Gaming, Meet Your Makers (now featuring Grubby) and fnatic battling it out for 16.000$ and a nice sounding title (“World Elite, Road of the King champion team”).

Road of the King
1. World Elite
Xiaofeng "Sky" Li
Shu "suhO" Hao
Zhuo "TeD" Zeng
Xuwen "Infi" Wang
Kejing "Like" Li

2. SK Gaming
Sung "ReMinD" Sik Kim
Lee Sung "SoJu" Duk
June "Lyn" Park
Seo Woo "ReiGn" Kang

3. MeetYourMakers
Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh
JaeWook "Lucifer" Noh
Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen

4. fnatic
Hyo Sub "FoCuS" Eom
Chul Woo "Shy" Park
Sung Hyun "Space" Park
Min Hyuk "MinHyuk" Jo

World Elite taking gold and looking good in front of the home crowd.

Between May 10-11 the last KODE5 global finals featuring WarCraft III took place at Moscow, Russia featuring an 15.000$ prize purse as well as an internationally diverse line-up of 20 players all of which have won qualifiers around the globe.

From the single elimination bracket:

KODE5 Global Finals 2008
Quarter-finals
ToD [0:2] SocceR
Grubby [1:2] Shy
InFi [2:0] XyLigan
Happy [1:2] HasuObs

Semi-finals
SocceR [0:2] Shy
InFi [2:0] HasuObs

Battle for third place
SocceR [2:1] HasuObs

Finals
Shy [0:2] InFi

HasuObs enjoying the international tournament of his life, beating ToD and Happy; both of which feature match-ups he needed to keep sharp for German EPS. Otherwise we see InFi win a genuine world championship following his already impressive win at IEF 2007, adding credence to the idea of him as China’s main player. Shy is also having the highlight of his professional gaming career. As you might recall he came far in one of the World War seasons; almost beating Grubby for the right to face Moon. He would take second place at BlizzCon Korea 2009 and end up in fourth place at the global finals of that event.

Between June 4-14 the ProGamer League III takes place at Beijing, China which had one of those unusual formats that actually makes sense when you think about it. Taken from SK-Gaming:

“Tournament structure

Team battle stage
Sixteen players are drawn into four groups and each group will play as a team in this stage. Rather than just a warm-up for players as stated before, this stage will decide which group will have more players advance to the future knockout stage.

This stage follows the King of the Hill best of one used in the NGL and double elimination format. The winners of upper bracket final and consolation final will be labelled as upper groups while the other two groups will be lower groups.

Group stage
This stage follows best of three and double elimination format. Winners of upper bracket finals and consolation finals of the two upper groups will advance to the knockout stage, while losers of lower bracket finals of the two lower groups will be eliminated from the tournament. The other eight players will go to next stage.

Revival stage
Eight players from previous stage will go through a double elimination playoffs. Games in this stage will follow best of three format and four players will advance to the knockout stage.

Knockout stage
This stage will also follow best of three and double elimination format. Contenders will draw their opponents in quarter-finals and play until four players left.

Final stage
Four players will draw their opponents beforehand. The stage will follow best of five and single elimination.”

No results, just rankings.

PGL III
1. TH000 – 11.700$
2. Moon – 5.900$
3. Fly100% - 2.900$
3. Sky – 2.900$
5. Lyn – 1.450$
5. HoT – 1.450$
7. SuhO - 725$
7. SaSe – 725$
9. FoV
9. Like
11. Susiria
11. ToD
13. xiaOt
13. ForDream
15. Lucifer
15. FoCuS

ToD forfeited mid-tournament in what might be a prelude to his eventual retirement, his reasons as given to Replays.net and translated by SK-Gaming: "I am sorry to have let you down, my mind is really not well right now, I cannot play well, and dont really want to play Warcraft right now to be really honest with you. I don't enjoy playing poorly and I don't think it's enjoyable for anyone to watch me play like this~I'm quite depressed lately, but I will be better I'm sure and come back in greater shape~Hope you can forgive me and have a good time enjoying the other player's good games."

Otherwise we see TH000 taking home the biggest win of his (on-going) career with Moon showing he is a far way from being counted out at events of this level. As mentioned before, TH000 is known as one of the world’s most creative professional gamers; bringing innovations (use of Mountain King first and Blood Mage as a viable hero for example) to the Human race as well as mixing his races up occasionally (mostly by picking Night Elf, but also by picking Random or Undead).

Following PGL III the Warcraft 3 Champions League season XIII finals took place at Changsha, China.

Warcraft 3 Champions League season XIII
1. MeetYourMakers
Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh
JaeWook "Lucifer" Noh
Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen

Grubby in effect replacing FoCuS, making for quite the well-rounded line-up.

2. Mousesports
Yoan "ToD" Merlo
Dennis "HasuObs" Schneider
Weiliang "Fly100%" Lu
Jiankai "Yumiko" Yu

ToD and Fly100% could beat any players, but with HasuObs and Yumiko not being as competitive vs. many of the players at this event they would have needed things to go their way for them to beat MYM.

3. SK Gaming
Sung "ReMinD" Sik Kim
Lee Sung "SoJu" Duk
June "Lyn" Park
Seo Woo "ReiGn" Kang

SK Gaming not defending their title but still performing better than they did prior to renewing the squad.

4. World Elite
Xiaofeng "Sky" Li
Shu "suhO" Hao
Zhuo "TeD" Zeng
Xuwen "Infi" Wang
Kejing "Like" Li

World Elite taking fourth. Somewhat surprisingly possibly since you would expect a Chinese team to outperform their online results on LAN.

Between July 25-27 the WCG China finals take place at Shanghai, China featuring all Chinese top players, three slots to WCG and a roughly 8.800$ prize pool. This is the first national WCG finals covered in this article and when you see the results you’ll understand why:

WCG China 2008
1. Like – 4.400$ + WCG slot
2. Sai – 2.930$ + WCG slot
3. InFi – 1.466$ + WCG slot
4. TeD

Sky was eliminated in the group stage, losing to team mates InFi and TeD. Sai would be denied a visa to WCG and TeD would attend instead. This would mark the period in which Sky would no longer stand atop of the other players in the Chinese scene, instead players such as InFi, Like, Fly100%, TH000, TeD and him would all perform somewhat on the same level as a group; all showing considerable skill at national and international events. InFi and Fly100% were becoming the leading players of the country (first among equals, a rivalry which would eventually be fought out at the highest stage).

Between June 28-29 another edition of the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational took place at Paris, France featuring eight professional gamers: Sky, XlorD, ToD, FoV, Lyn, Moon, Grubby & SaSe. XlorD makes sense as an invite as he was the reigning German EPS champion at the time (having finally gotten to the age where was allowed enter the competition, 16, and having won the title 20 days earlier from HasuObs), SaSe was one of the most visible Europeans internationally due to his attendance of many competitions while living in Korea and China.

Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2008
1. Moon – 11.000$
2. Lyn – 5.000$
3. Grubby – 2.500$
4. Sky
5/6. FoV, ToD
7/8. XlorD, SaSe

Grubby is climbing out of his slump in this time-period, though never dominating as he did prior to it. Sky and ToD are both in decline somewhat, ToD suffering from motivational problems and Sky finding many Chinese players eager to take over his stature as the nations’ champion player. Moon becomes BWI champion following ToD (2007), Sweet (2006), and MaDFroG (2004). Other champions of the major Blizzard events are: Creolophus (BlizzCon 2007), ReMinD (Battle.net IV 2007) & Grubby (BlizzCon 2005). Battle.net season III and Battle.net season V overlap with BWI 2006 and BlizzCon 2007 respectively (the first two seasons being purely online).

All of the BWI players remained in Paris to compete in the ESWC Masters Paris between July 4-6. This “Masters” edition of the Electronic Sports World Cup was one of several to take place 2008-2009 with the main event having moved to San Jose, California and ESWC going bankrupt sometime in 2009 only to be revived later and take place again in 2010. Several Chinese players would refuse to attend ESWC 2010 however citing missing prize money (ESWC would have bank notes gaurantueing their ESWC 2010 payouts, but apparently not pay out money missing prior to that season), something which seems likely to have been an issue starting with this ESWC event.

Sky, XlorD, yAws, five French players, DNA, Demigod, six professional Korean gamers, Grubby, RotterdaM, LillD.C and HoT were to compete at the event which had the following results starting from the elimination bracket:

ESWC Masters Paris 2008
Quarter-finals
WhO [2:1] Lyn
Moon [2:1] ReiGn
HoT [1:2] ToD
Sky [2:0] Grubby

Semi-finals
WhO [0:2] Moon
ToD [0:2] Sky

Battle for third place
ToD [2:0] WhO

Finals
Moon [2:0] Sky

Classic matches:

- HoT vs. ToD (ToD eliminated HoT from two World Cyber Games events and the two clashed at several intra-European competitions including the 2005 ClanBase EuroCup, SEC 2007, SEC 2008 and the Extreme Masters finals)
- Sky vs. Grubby (Sky beat Grubby at three World Cyber Games events)
- ToD vs. Sky (Sky eliminated ToD from two World Cyber Games event and was eliminated by ToD from the WEG Masters 2006 semi-finals)
- Moon vs. Sky (they met eachother in a number of finals over the years).

We also see newcomer Du Seop “WhO” Chang take down June “Lyn” Park in the quarter-finals. WhO (1988) was at the time showing really strong results in online competitions and would remain one of Korea’s strongest players till this very day.

The e-Stars 2008 took place at Seoul, Korea July 24-27 and featured a clash between “west” and “east”. With the players on the winning team receiving 4.000$ each and the winners on the losing team receiving 2.000$. e-Stars had put up a public poll to help determine what players would attend. Not only is polling publically like this dumb to begin with for a variety of reasons (among which that it is not exactly difficult to cheat at this kind of polling). But e-Stars simply ignored the results when they did not like them, stating they were taken “into account” and than inviting the players they liked.

Team captain (who would not be playing but who would lead the team officially) for east was Kim "Garimto" Dong-Soo. Garimto was a two-fold Starleague champion (the most prestigious competition in StarCraft) who had returned to professional gaming after serving (mandatory) in the Korean army.

Team captain for west was Jørgen "XeqtR" Johannessen. XeqtR was a successful Counter-Strike player that had represented a sizable number of teams throughout his career and was something of the pretty boy of the Counter-Strike scene.

The junior version of ShowTime coming from a team shooter game vs. a two-fold Starleague champion that breathes old school RTS ownage, it is pretty surprising Team West managed to not finish the event with negative scores.

The players were:

Team East
Xiaofeng "Sky" Li
Jae Ho "Moon" Jang
June “Lyn” Park

Team West
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen
Kim "SaSe" Hammar
Mykhaylo "HoT" Novopashyn

They played both a war featuring all players being assigned a 1on1 slot to face one other player and a king of the hill style war, the results were:

East [1:3] West – King of the Hill
Sky [0:1] SaSe
Moon [1:0] SaSe
Moon [0:1] Grubby
Lyn [0:1] Grubby

East [2:1] West – assigned slots
HoT [1:0] Sky
Grubby [0:1] Moon
SaSe [0:1] Lyn

Team West eeks out a win in an event that gives us very little insight in the east vs. west dynamic.

Between July 9-31 the NiceGameTV All-Star event took place online featuring eight professional gamers competing for a 5.000$ prize pool. It had the following results:

NiceGameTV All-Star 2008
Quarter-finals
Moon [1:3] WhO
ToD [2:3] Lucifer
Sky [3:1] Lyn
Grubby [0:3] Fly100%

Semi-finals
WhO [3:1] Lucifer
Sky [2:3] Fly100%

Battle for third place
Sky [0:3] Lucifer

Finals
WhO [1:3] Fly100%

WhO (winning 3000$) and Fly100% (1500$) are both showing very strongly they are the new hot players in their respective regions. They would continue backing this up with results. Lucifer (500$) is showing he is still relevant even though he has not been very visible among tournaments lately.

Between October 24-25 another edition of Make Games Colorful took place at Wuhan, China featuring seven Chinese players, eight Korean players and SaSe as well as an 17.290$ prize pool.

The results of the event were:

Make Games Colorful 2008
1. TeD – 12.200$
2. Fly100% - 3.650$
3. SuhO – 1.460$
4. FoV
5/6. WhO, SaSe
7/8. TH000,.Ace
9/12. Lyn, SocceR, Moon, Check
13/16. FoCuS, Lucifer, Sky, InFi

SuhO is 25 by now which is ancient. TeD takes his first major tournament win and is building quite the reputation following his 3rd place at ESWC 2008. TeD would take over the Undead crown from the Korean princes (all of which were nearing retirement leaving Space as the top Undead in Korea) and become the world’s dominant Undead player which he remains till this very day (with Happy as closest competition).

Between October 26-31 the World e-Sport Masters took place at Hangzhou; China featuring a 33.500$ prize pool as well as eight of the world’s best players. It had the following results:

Group A
1. Lyn 3-0
2. InFi 2-1
3. ToD 1-2
4. TeD 0-3

Group B
1. Moon 3-0
2. Sky 1-2
2. WhO 1-2
2. Grubby 1-2

Group B tie-breaker
Grubby 2-0
Sky 1-1
WhO 0-2

Semi-finals
Lyn 2-0 Grubby
InFi 2-0 Moon

Battle for third place
Grubby 2-0 Moon

Finals
Lyn 0-2 InFi

InFi winning his third major international competition following IEF (2007) and KODE5 (2008). Lyn is adding to his winnings as well and Grubby is showing the improved shape we mentioned.

Between August 21-24 the European Nations Championship took place at Leipzig, Germany with the following top four:

European Nations Championship 2008
1. Germany
2. Finland
3. Sweden
4. Denmark

Moon won both Best WarCraft 3 Player and eSports Player of the Year (overall) at the eSports Award. Becoming the third WarCraft III player following MaDFroG (2004) and Grubby (2006) to win western eSport’s most prestigious award. Obviously Moon received plenty of accolades in his time, here’s a list of some of the more notable ones:

Moon
eSports Award Korea Player of the Year (2009)
eSports Award eSports Player of the Year (2008)
eSports Award Best Warcraft 3 Player (2008)
eSports Award Korea Player of the Year (2008)
KespA E-Sports Player/Team of the Year runner-up (2007)
KeSPA Greatest WarCraft III Player (2007)
KeSPA Greatest WarCraft III Player (2006)
KeSPA Greatest WarCraft III Player (2005)
GGL Warcraft 3 Player of the Year (2007)

Between August 25-27 the sixth ESWC grand finals took place at San Jose, California featuring 34 players from around the globe. An important change to past ESWC finals is the addition of the ESWC Masters to the event, the top ranked players of which would qualify for ESWC directly (the defending champion was invited as well), by-passing national qualifiers. Moon, ToD, Sky and WhO benefitted from this as the ESWC Masters Paris top four. The rankings of the event were:

ESWC 2008 – San Jose
1. WhO – 12.000$ (received?)
2. Sky – 7.000$ (received?)
3. TeD – 4.000$ (received?)
4. ReiGn
5/8. Lyn, SaSe, ToD, TH000
9/12. Grubby, Bonecracker, Moon, HoT
13/16. HasuObs, Miou, FiX, SoJu
17/24. DowaQ, Shriek, ckortl, Guesswho, Paladyn, SonKiE, RotterdaM, DeMusliM
25/32. Cypress, Coup, Dark Scorpion, LamWilliam, Wolf, Darkdancer, Yane,
33/34. Dave, Firestrike

WhO becoming the fourth Korean ESWC champion following FoV, Lucifer and SoJu. He would be unable to defend his title until 2010 as 2009 did not have an event (ESWC going bankrupt in 2009 with new management taking over in 2010). Also, this event likely never paid out in the first place as Sky and TeD both declined to attend ESWC 2010 citing missing prize money. It is actually somewhat notable that, with the exception of Grubby, all ESWC champions have no more than one world championship to their name; which for all of them defines their professional gaming careers (when you talk about HeMaN, FoV, Lucifer, SoJu or WhO in any way that involves their accomplishments it is very hard to get around the fact they are ESWC champions). WhO is still active and doing well however and might break the chain (in which case instead of Grubby being the exception, Orcs are). Later edit: Orcs did become the exception as Lyn was crowned ESWC 2010 champion.

Between September 6-7 the European BlizzCon qualifier took place at Madrid, Spain. This is the first BlizzCon qualifier that is covered and is done so because it is significant as far as the European scene is concerned. Prior to every BlizzCon a season battle.net competition takes place which sees six players qualifying for a regional BlizzCon events in three regions: Europe, Korea and USA. At this event they join the two top ranked players from their region in the previous BlizzCon and compete for either three (Europe and Korea) or two (USA) slots to the BlizzCon main event. The qualifiers have an 8.000$ prize pool. The results of the BlizzCon Europe 2008 double elimination bracket were:

BlizzCon Europe 2008
1. Happy
2. SaSe
3. LucifroN
4. ToD
5/6. Grubby, Creolophus
7/8. LillD.C, KnOfF

Creolophus was invited as the reigning BlizzCon champion. Despite being totally inactive for an extended period of time by now he still managed to win one match (KnOfF). Happy was mentioned before as a player that would grow into one of Europe’s absolute top players at the world stage. SaSe has also been covered extensively starting with his contribution to eliminating Moon from the World e-Sport Games to his move to China. LucifroN is a new player, a young (1991) Orc player from Spain that has the potential to become a very successful professional gamer but for now prefers to focus on his studies (think Creolophus).

This will be the first BlizzCon event not to feature either Grubby & ToD and at the time you could wonder of this was a sign of things ahead. At this time you could have certainly made that argument, but with the benefit of knowing how events unfold in the future you can answer more clearly. ToD certainly is enjoying a period in which he is less motivated for the game (which will lead to his eventual retirement) and he has losses vs. LucifroN and Happy (two losses in a double elimination bracket and you are out) both of which would prove to be quite the contenders at world championships. In Grubby’s case it is probably more of a fluke giving his relatively strong shape in the rest of the year. Both SaSe and ToD are approaching retirement (though still professional gamers at the time), and given SaSe’s, overall strong, results overall this season he might have actually been quite motivated at the time; possibly doing something of a last ditch effort to win (or at least reach the semi-finals) of a world championship event.

Between August 11 and October 4 the NiceGameTV League Season 1 took place online featuring seven Chinese, nineteen Korean and six western players. The matches were streamed online and the players competed over a 20.000$ prize pool.

NiceGame TV League Season 1 – single elimination bracket
Quarter-finals
ReMinD [0:3] Fly100%
Moon [3:1] Myth
Lyn [3:0] viOlet
Grubby [3:1] WhO

Semi-finals
Fly100% [3:1] Moon
Lyn [2:3] Grubby

Battle for third place
Moon [3:1] Lyn

Finals
Fly100% [3:2] Grubby

Fly100% is really establishing himself as one of the world’s best players. At this point in history there are so many tournaments taking place over the course of a year that you really need several strong results to leave an impression (or win one of big three: BlizzCon, WCG or ESWC). Grubby also shows he is definitely back in shape.

Between October 10-11 the BlizzCon 2008 main event took place. Blizzard had build up a lot of credibility in the scene with various major events throughout history such as the various BWI events (2004, 2006, 2007, 2008) Battle.net season IV (2007) and the BlizzCon events (2005, 2007). BlizzCon would for the remaining years be the stable form of their events and really held the status as one of the “big three” alongside ESWC and WCG; possibly as one of the “big two” alongside WCG since ESWC’s bankruptcy (they might have come back, but it certainly hurt their brand).

The results of this event were:

BlizzCon 2008
1. Lyn – 25.000$
2. LucifroN – 10.000$
3. Happy – 5.000$
4. Check
5/6. SaSe, ReMinD
7/8. KiWiKaKi, SonKiE

This article has been building up towards Happy and LucifroN doing well for quite a bit, but even though the European scene as a whole is underperforming compared to previous years there was also some new blood coming in lead by these two and to a lesser degree players such as DowaQ. Lyn picks up a nice piece of change and adds the title that would for now define his career, he has been a wildly successful player 2007-2008 and would continue to remain on top of his game for at least another year. Check, winner of the first Sonokong OnGameNet invitational in 2003, is also showing surprising strength for a player that has been active as a professional longer than anyone except for maybe Moon and possibly SuhO.

Between October 17-18 the ESWC Masters Athens took place at Greece featuring an 15.000$ prize pool and slots to the ESWC grand finals (in what would turn out to be 2010). Fourteen players participated in the event.

What did Greece and ESWC have in common? They were both on the verge of bankruptcy and have both have been an important part of history since way back (recall that ESWC 2003 was WC3’s first world championship event). They would also both be saved by outside investors, that’s where the similiarities end however. I would imagine that the people investing in ESWC are actually expecting a return whereas the investment in Greece was more similar to putting your cocaine-abusing brother (whom you never liked anyway) in rehab to prevent him from humiliating your family & making your parents miserable and because you’re worried he’s gonna steal the silverware; however I’m sure he promised that he would get his act together and really meant it this time.

The results of the event were:

ESWC Masters Athens 2008
1. Lyn
2. Moon
3. ToD
4. WhO
5/6. Grubby, Check
7/8. HoT, ReMinD
9/12. ElementWaRRioR, Vankor, iblazatar, SaSe
13. SeGaL

SeGaL was actually an old school Reign of Chaos players that performed very respectably in the European scene in his time, taking 5th place at CPL Cannes 2003 and 9th place at ESWC 2003. As far as the results are concerned, they don’t really surprise with Lyn winning again so closely after defending his BlizzCon title and ToD still doing remarkably well. We’re nearing WCG however so ToD might have had a boost to his motivation as he would have another shot at the main title.

The 2008 World Cyber Games took place, November 5-9, at the heart of eSports in Europe: Cologne, Germany. The 2004, 2006 and 2007 events took place at locations that did not actually have the kind of local fanbase that makes being at the event feel like you’re at the most important happening of the year (taking place at San Francisco, Monza and Seattle respectively). The 2009 World Cyber Games would take place in China and be even better however.

It featured 56 national championships (as well as runner-ups and third place finishers) from all over the globe. The following notable players were eliminated in the group stage:

- yAwS (a future EPS champion), yAwS would force a tie-breaker with SaSe and Grubby by beating SaSe (with Grubby beating yAwS) but would lose to SaSe in the tie-breaker (SaSe beating Grubby again, considering it is the third time he does so this season but does not really play on the same level otherwise he might have actually had something of a “read” on the Dutchman),
- WhO, WhO had losses versus Like, mOOn-GLaDe and BoneCracker (and wins vs. ThomasG & DILEX). He would be the second Korean eliminated at WCG groups in history following Lyn in 2007.
- FoCuS, FoCuS had losses vs. RotterdaM, LucifroN and Aca (and wins vs. XlorD, MeS and KiWiKaKi). He would be the third Korean eliminated at WCG groups in history following Lyn (2007) and WhO (2008). All three of which happened since the introduction of the round of 16 single elimination bracket (with years prior to 2007 using a round of 32 single elimination bracket)

The single elimination had the following results:

World Cyber Games 2008
Round of 16
SaSe [2:1] Raspot
Bonecracker [1:2] Happy
TeD [2:0] XlorD
Moon [2:0] S.o.k.o.L

ToD [2:1] Like
Nicker [0:2] Grubby
Kim [0:2] HoT
LucifroN [2:0] XyLigan

XlorD and XyLigan eliminated in tough matches.

Quarter-finals
SaSe [1:2] Happy
TeD [1:2] Moon
ToD [1:2] Grubby
HoT [2:0] LucifroN

HoT was somewhat inactive at this time, but so was LucifroN who never really commited to being a professional gamer. TeD loses vs. Moon, probably the one opponent he wanted to avoid. Happy takes down SaSe and crushes his dream of reaching the semi-finals of a world championship event. Grubby beats ToD in an extremely close match and what is definitely one of WarCraft III’s top classic match-ups.

Semi-finals
Happy [1:2] Moon
Grubby [2:0] HoT

Happy failing against Moon as TeD did, with Moon definitely having a top-notch match-up vs. Undead. Grubby beating HoT relatively easily after an intense match vs. ToD.

Battle for third place
Happy [2:0] HoT

Happy takes the crown of Eastern Europe.

Finals
Moon [1:2] Grubby

Moon comes closer than ever but fails to beat Grubby in what is the biggest rivalry in eSports (though the idea of them as rivals was not as alive as it was a few years prior) fought out at the biggest stage of eSports. Grubby enters WCG hall of fame and breathes new life in a professional gaming career that seemed to become less and less about competing for the big prizes (with him attending a lot of tournaments and regularly finishing in the prizes, but not really convincing as a major tournament champion anymore). Grubby remains an active professional WarCraft III gamer till today and actually came very close in 2009 to claiming another major tournament for the second time and in 2010 to claiming WCG a third time.

For anyone interested in VODs of the event, they can be found here [http://www.mymym.com/en/news/15061.html].

Between November 13-14 the IeSF Invitational 2008 took place at Seoul, Korea featuring eight players and a 20.000$ prize purse. This event was organized by an “International e-Sports Federation” representatives of which brought along national champions. The single elimination bracket was:

IeSF Invitational 2008
Quarter-finals
Lyn [2:0] Renaissance
SushiLicious [0:2] WuLvEraTe
Freedom [2:0] R3CoR
Moon [2:0] SchLeiM

Semi-finals
Lyn [2:0] WuLvEraTe
Freedom [0:2] Moon

Finals
Lyn [2:0] Moon

Any reading this article should be able to appreciate the logic behind pitting Lyn and Moon against six players with virtually no international tournament experience between them. This probably stands as the easiest money (9.000$ and 5.000$ respectively) either made this year.

Following this event the Extreme Masters III Global Challenge Seoul took place featuring four invited players competing over a 10.000$ prize pool between November 15-16.

EM III Seoul
1. Grubby – 5.000$
2. Lyn – 2.500$
3. Sky – 1.500$
4. Moon – 1.000$

Grubby adding another notch to his belt (possibly belts by now) after winning WCG 2008. Lyn adding to what would turn out to be a 100.000$+ haul this year. Sky beats Moon for third place. Lots of nice matches, but results at these kind of events are not really interesting as far as determining best players go. They are more an added bonus that players receive for attaining a certain status in the scene and as such are relevant for this article as we can draw conclusions about how players were perceived in this time-period from the invites they receive. You need to keep more factors in mind however; this event took place in Korea for instance and so will likely be Korea heavy on players (while the same would apply for events held in China, Europe or USA). These kind of events also show part of the reason why you can’t solely use prize money as a basis to compare players. As long as any of these players remain active they’ll receive invites based on their popularity and pick up four figure amounts throughout the year, eventually adding up to amounts that might surpass the winnings of players who are in fact performing better throughout the season but not getting invited to everything (see for example Moon picking up 6.000$ inbetween these two events despite losing against all professional gamers or Grubby picking up 4.000$ at the World War Grand Prix the year before despiting losing his sole match).

Between November 22-24 another edition of the China eSport Games takes place at Beijing, China featuring an all-Chinese attendance of 18 players. The results starting with the single elimination bracket, TeD was eliminated by draw after being stuck in a tie with Sky & Fly100%.

CEG Beijing 2008
Quarter-finals
Fly100% [2:0] Wulin
Like [2:0] My_Star
Sky [2:0] InFi
SuhO [2:0] Lu

Semi-finals
Fly100% [0:2] Like
Sky [2:0] SuhO

Battle for third place
Fly100% [2:1] SuhO

Finals
Sky [2:1] Like

Sky wins his first China eSport Games and shows that even though he might no longer be dominant in China; he certainly remains capable of winning national events.

Between November 19-30 another (third) online season of the China versus Korea series hosted by PPStream took place featuring eight of China’s finest vs. eight of Korea’s finest as well as an 10.000$ prize pool.

The two line-ups played a king of the hill style match with TeD and Like ending up as Most Valuable Players:

China [8:3] Korea – 2008
InFi [1:0] Lucifer
InFi [1:0] SoJu
InFi [0:1] Lyn
SuhO [0:1] Lyn
TeD [1:0] Lyn
TeD [1:0] ReiGn
TeD [1:0] ReMinD
TeD [0:1] WhO
Like [1:0] WhO
Like [1:0] Moon
Like [1:0] FoV

An individual competition was also held which had the following results:

China vs. Korea individual – 2008
1. InFi – 4.390$
2. Lyn – 2.190$
3. TH000 – 1.020$
4. SoJu
5. TeD
6. Fly100%
7. Moon
8. WhO
9. Like
10. Sai
11. Sky
12. SuhO
13. FoV
14. Lucifer
15. ReiGn
16. ReMinD

Not quite the same status of tournament as InFi’s three major tournament wins, but still a nice notch to have.

From December 5-8 the International Esports Festival 2008 took place at Wuhan, China featuring twelve players as well as an roughly 21.500$ prize pool. This was actually a somewhat messy event with TeD being disqualified for what does not really seem like a good reason (read about it here [http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/20390-TeD_disqualified_from_IEF], they claimed he was late which seems very unlikely) and ToD forcing the hand of the admins in bracket making (not a good thing) only for Sky to force it back again (really not a good thing).

The results were:

IEF 2008
1. Moon
2. Sky
3. ToD
4. InFi
5/8. TeD, Lyn, Sai, SocceR
9/12. Susiria, Nicholas, Sai, LillD.C

Moon at least claiming a title after taking silver at WCG, with him facing his usual finalist opponent in Sky.

From December 12-13 the World Gamemaster Tournament took place at Beijing, China. This was an event featuring ten of the Chinese top players as well as ToD and SaSe.

WGT 2008
1. ToD
2. Sky
3. Wulin
4. MacSed
5/8. SaSe, SuhO, InFi, Fly100%
9/12. Tyler, Tree, Panxiang, Sai

Sky is a finalist once again in what is the classic Human vs. Human rivalry. ToD takes home a win after doing without for the entire year, winning roughly 3.000$.

Around December 21 a fairly weak NGL One finals took place featuring only three teams. The teams agreed to split the 16.000$ prize money beforehand and with NGL One turning into a individual league next season this made something of a sad goodbye to the team league.

NGL One 2008 finals
1. mTw
Hyeong Ju "Check" Lee
Dae Hui "FoV" Cho
Du Seop "WhO" Chang
Jin Woo "WinNers" Kim

The former Beijing eSport Team, picked up by mTw. Quite the old school Korean team (with the exception of WhO) taking home the win.

2. SK Gaming
Sung "ReMinD" Sik Kim
Lee Sung "SoJu" Duk
June "Lyn" Park
Seo Woo "ReiGn" Kang

SK Gaming doing well again.

3. Meet Your Makers
Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh
JaeWook "Lucifer" Noh
Deok Man "SocceR" Youn
Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen

Meet Your Makers showing off latest recruit SocceR.

Between December 20-21 another edition of the China eSport Games takes place at Chengdu, China featuring 20 Chinese players. Starting with the single elimination bracket:

CEG Chengdu 2008
Quarter-finals
TH000 [2:0] Thank
Fly100% [2:0] Panxiang
InFi [2:0] Lu
Sai [1:2] Sky

Semi-finals
TH000 [0:2] Fly100%
InFi [0:2] Sky

Battle for third place
TH000 [0:2] InFi

Finals
Fly100% [1:2] Sky

Sky defends his CEG title. It is not quite the same as defending your WCG title, but it definitely shows Sky remains a relevant player.

From September 29 to December 27 NiceGameTV League Season 2 took place (online) featuring 24 players and a 20.000$ prize pool. The results were:

NiceGameTV League Season 2
1. SoJu – 12.000$
2. Check – 6.000$
3. Lyn – 2.000$
4. ReiGn
5/8. Sky, Moon, Grubby, Space
9/12. Fly100%, SuhO, TeD, SocceR
13/16. Shy, InFi, Myth, SaSe
17/20. WhO, Susiria, DestroyuU, ReMinD
21/24. Like, viOlet, Hovermoon, Townhall

SoJu picking up 12.000$. As you might recall his ESWC 2007 first place earned him 10.000$ so he picks up a substantially bigger amount at a much less prestigious event (once again something to keep in mind when using prize money to compare players: not all prize money should be weighed equally, though the people spending it might disagree). Check is also enjoying one his better tournaments.

And thus ends the year 2008.
A year which saw Lyn win over 100.000$ in prize money. A year which saw some new players come up including InFi, Fly100%, Happy, LucifroN & WhO. A year which saw Four Kings fall and Sweet retire. A year which saw a surprising high amount of Orc players doing well (Lyn being highest earner, Grubby being WCG champion, WhO being ESWC champion). 2008 was not that much behind 2007 in terms of tournaments, but it definitely started a trend which would accelerate in 2009. StarCraft II and the economic crisis were really having an effect at this point.

ESWC would go bankrupt in 2009 (only to return in 2010). CEG would discontinue. KODE5 would drop WarCraft III. Extreme Masters would drop WarCraft III. NGL One was in steady decline (going for an individual league) and would not continue after its next event. A big list of longtime players would retire in 2009 including xiaOt, Lucifer, ToD, SoJu, FoV and ReiGn, making room for the new blood. A lot more tournaments and players would go with the release of StarCraft II, but before the release starts having effect there’s an entire year of competitions .

Recap 2008
This is where the WarCraft 3 scene roughly was at the dawn of 2009:

WCG, BlizzCon, ENC, WC3L, EPS, WEM, ASUS Cup, DreamHack, XPLeague, WCIP, e-Stars, Race War, IEF, PGL and ZOTAC would all continue to run tournaments after having done so in 2008.
ESWC, NGL One and Extreme Masters would run some events but not close to 2008 levels.
China eSport Games and KODE5 would either discontinue alltogether or no longer host WC3 events.
There would be no Stars War in 2009.
WCG’s continental championships (SEC, WCG Asia, WCG Pan-America) would discontinue.
IEST would hold another event in 2009 after not being held in 2008 due to lack of sponsorship.
GomTV would hold an online WC3 event with ToD and RotterdaM as shoutcasters.

Professional gaming careers launched 2008

China – Like
Europe – Happy & LucifroN
Korea – WhO

Like’s main achievement was winning WCG China which netted him 4.400$, combined with some other income this is enough to support himself in China.

Happy took third place at BlizzCon and WCG and showed some strong results otherwise among which victory at BlizzCon Europe. All in all more than enough to support himself.

WhO’s main accomplishment was winning ESWC, even if it did not pay out, it made him a star player and gauranteed he would see continued income from salary (for the time being at least).

LucifroN took second place at BlizzCon Europe and BlizzCon global. Enough to support himself.

Total prize money paid out 2008 (as far as the data is available, some tournaments are estimated)

Extreme Masters II (47.000$)
BlizzCon (40.000$)
PGL season III (37.000$)
ESL Pro Series Season XIII Germany (25.000 Euro = roughly 32.500$)
ESL Pro Series Season XII Germany (25.000 Euro = roughly 32.500$)
NGL One 2007 + 2007 / 2008 (32.000$)
World e-Sports Masters (30.000$)
World Cyber Games (29.500$)
BlizzCon regionals (24.000$)
ESWC 2008 (23.000$)
IEF 2008 (21.700$)
IeSF Invitational 2008 (20.000$)
NiceGameTV League Season 2 (20.000$)
NiceGameTV League Season 1 (20.000$)
Blizzard Worldwide Invitational (18.500$)
Warcraft 3 Champions League Season XIII (10.000 Euro estimated = roughly 13.000$)
e-Stars Seoul (18.000$)
Make Games Colorful (17.300$)
Road of the Kings (16.000$)
ESWC Masters Athens (15.000$)
PGL Season II (13.000$)
European Nations Championship (8.000 Euro estimated = roughly 10.400$)
EM Global Challenge Chengdu (10.000$)
AWL III (10.000$)
AWL II (10.000$)
AWL Masters (9.000$)
WCG China (8.800$)
Neo Star League II (8.100$)
China vs. Korea III (8.000$)
Samsung European Championship (7.800$)
Zotac Cups (5.200 Euro = roughly 6.800$)
CEG Chengdu (5.100$)
CEG Shaoxing (5.100$)
CEG Beijing (5.100$)
NiceGameTV All-Star 2008 (5.000$)
WGT 2008 (5.000$)
ESWC Masters Paris (5.000$)
Race Wars III (3.000$)
ESL Benelux Season I (1.100$)

Total: 643.200$

WarCraft III 2009 (General decline WarCraft III scene continues, financial reality hits teams, a generation retires)

There have been people saying that WarCraft III is dying as long as there has been WarCraft III. A lot more than usual shared this opinion at the start of 2009 however. Obviously they were wrong. the scene did not vanish overnight in 2009 (otherwise this would have been a short chapter). But many people felt the game was getting hit kind of hard and that this would eventually lead to the demise of the pro-scene. This has not been the case, even though some tournaments disappeared from the scene in 2009 (and plenty more will when StarCraft II will be released in 2010); a lot also went and will continue to go on. As long as there are a substantial amount of fans and players there will be a substantial scene and as long as there will be an eSports scene WarCraft III players will be icons in that scene.

The golden days of WarCraft III could very well be behind us at this point in time, but that does not mean fans had nothing left to look forward to.

The ProGamer League season IV launched the new year taking place January 1-10 at Chengdu, China and would be featuring sixteen players as well as an 23.640$ prize pool. It had an awesome format which can be found here[http://www.sk-gaming.com/event/1273] (alongside the match results). The rankings of the event were:

PGL IV
1. Fly100%
2. Sky
3/4. InFi, WhO
5/6. Lyn, Happy
7/8. TH000, Wulin
9/10. HoT, Lyc
11/12. HopeStar, Check
13/14. SuhO, Like
15/16. Grubby, FoV

This was Fly100%’s second big win following the NiceGameTV League Season 1. The (eol or match based) rankings at the time had him as the number one player of the world. He would have a great season including another major win and a very strong World Cyber Games which saw him take on InFi in what could be one of the classic match-ups in any future history of the WarCraft III scene.

Between January 16-18 the Extreme Masters III continental finals Asia took place at Chengdu, China featuring eight invited professional gamers.

Extreme Masters III Asia Continentals
1. Sky – 5.000$
2. Grubby – 2.500$
3. TeD – 1.500$
4. Moon – 1.000$
5/6. Lyn, InFi
7/8. Fly100%, HoT

Sky, TeD, Fly100% and InFi were seen as the four top players from China at this time (TH000 possibly belonging in that group as well). Moon and Lyn remained the top players from Korea. With ToD having motivational issues, HoT was a natural fit as the next European in line to be invited to events like this; him being the the third player behind Grubby and ToD for so long. HoT was camping with motivational problems of his own however and would never officially retire (no big “I loved WarCraft III but I feel I have to move on” newspost); rather he slipped into inactivity queitly.

WarCraft 3 Champions League LAN finals took place January 10-12 at Chengdu, China and featured almost solely Asian line-ups with Grubby representing the other regions. There would be another (last) WC3L finals later in the year.

WC3L Season XIV LAN Finals
1. World Elite
Xiaofeng "Sky" Li
Zhuo "TeD" Zeng
Xuwen "Infi" Wang
Kejing "Like" Li

World Elite claiming their second WC3L title, making them rival Meet Your Makers in terms of LAN finals won with Four Kings (four) topping that ranking.

2. SK Gaming
Sung "ReMinD" Sik Kim
Lee Sung "SoJu" Duk
June "Lyn" Park
Seo Woo "ReiGn" Kang
Dong Hwan "viOlet" Kim

SK-Gaming’s fully Korean period was quite succesfull for them, at the WC3L LAN finals taking place since they took in SoJu, ReMinD and Lyn they had the following results: 1st – 3rd – 2nd.

3. Meet Your Makers
Jung-Ki "Susiria" Oh
JaeWook "Lucifer" Noh
Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
Deok Man "Soccer" Youn
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen

There are no real weaknesses in Meet Your Makers’ line-up with five players capable of competing at the highest level. It is just that the same goes for the two teams ranked above them at this finals.

4. Fnatic

Hyo Sub "FoCuS" Eom
Chul Woo "Shy" Park
Dae Duck "Kei" Yoon
Min Hyuk "MinHyuk" Jo

Fnatic did really well making it this far but at a tournament at this level are somewhat out of their depth.

WC3L changed their format next season. Instead of four players being needed for the four 1on1 slots, two players would fill up two slots each (which was not a totally new format, it was possible all the way back in 2004 where you could do something similar in the first season of the European Nations Championship). The 2on2 would remain and the same and every 1on1 as well as the 2on2 would only see two maps played, with an ACE match added at the end of the war to determine the winner of the match if necessary (a total of seven points). This was done because many of the professional teams, facing financial reality, reduced the amount of players they had signed to fewer numbers (focussing on individual competitions) and thus would not have been able to compete in WC3L.

Meet Your Makers’ WarCraft III (and later Meet Your Makers’ entire team, though another management would take over the brand. Which is actually quite similar to what happened to ESWC) disbands January 29, 2009 as you can read here[http://www.mymym.com/en/news/15720.html].

Basically MYM was burning through money (you might recall the 300.000$ annual salary of the WC3 division which is only part of the expenses that come with a team) and not getting close to enough in sponsor money to justify the burn rate (they had a private investor who reportedly had backed them with a seven figure amount). This might have been manageable (though if it was smart is another question) in good economic times, but with the economic crisis that had hit in 2008 it apparently was no longer feasible to pour hundrerd of thousands of dollars in a black hole annually in hopes of maybe one day seeing a return.

MYM.wc3 will be best remembered for several things. First of all, they were alongside Four Kings the most successful team ever with the following LAN accomplishments:

MYM 1.0 accomplishments
3rd place WC3L Season XIV 2009 - Susiria, Lucifer, Moon, Grubby & SocceR
3rd place NGL One Season V 2008 – Susiria, Lucifer, Moon, Grubby & SocceR
1st place WC3L Season XIII 2008 – Susiria, Lucifer, Moon & Grubby
3rd place Road of the King 2008 - Susiria, Lucifer, Moon & Grubby
1st place NGL One Season IV 2008 – Susiria, Lucifer, FoCuS & Moon
2nd place WC3L Season XII 2007 – Susiria, Lucifer, Moon & FoCuS
3rd place WC3L Season XI 2007 – Susiria, Lucifer, Moon, EVE & FoCuS
1st place NGL One Season III 2007 – Susiria, Lucifer, FoCuS & Moon
2nd place WC3L Season X 2007 – Susiria, Lucifer, Moon, EVE & Storm
2nd place NGL One II 2007 – Susiria, Lucifer, FoCuS & Moon
1st place WC3L Season IX 2006 – Susiria, Lucifer, Moon & Storm
1st place NGL One Season I 2006 – Susiria, Lucifer, Moon & BerA
2nd place WC3L Season VIII 2005 – Susiria, Storm, BerA & EVE
4th place WC3L Season VII 2005 – Susiria, GoStop, Lucifer, Ciara & Bjarke
2nd place WC3L Season VI 2004 – Susiria, GoStop, Ciara & ySKhYr

Secondly they were instrumental in the growth of Susiria and Lucifer both of whom became household names in the WarCraft III scene carrying the MYM flag.

Thirdly Moon and Grubby both carried the MYM flag for quite a while and are identified with the team to some extent.

The players and managers that were suddenly without a home at the time were the following:

MYM]Losemann aka. Matthias Beyer
MYM]Nordahl aka. Jesper Nordahl
Henriksen MYM]Moon aka. Jang JaeHo
MYM]Grubby aka. Manuel Schenkhuizen
MYM]Susiria aka. Jung-Ki Oh
MYM]Lucifer aka. JaeWook Noh
MYM]Soccer aka. Deok Man Yoon
MYM]EVE aka. Jae shin Park

Susiria, Lucifer and EVE would soon retire. Lucifer is currently serving his mandatory draft and has recently announced he will make a comeback as a top gamer in 2011.

Managers Nordahl and Losemann would cease to be active in professional eSports.

Moon and SocceR would find their way to WeMadeFOX (famous for their StarCraft team); forming the first Korea-based pro-team in years which would also be adding Lyn and Rohjinwook (younger brother of Lucifer). Moon was signed for three years and an amount of roughly 468.227$.

Grubby and Ciara would briefly make a return in MYM 2.0 before being picked up by Team EG where they formed a WarCraft III division alongside Happy.

xiaOt (1987) retires February, 2009 (following the collapse of the wNv gaming team). The “Genius Orc” had been one of China’s more visible players internationally, competing in the first three seasons of the World e-Sport Games as well as the World e-Sport Games Masters. Representing China at ESWC 2004, WCG 2005 and WCG 2007. He was also present at numerous tournaments throughout China as well as several international events including IEF, PGL and Stars War events. xiaOt had the intention at the time already to compete in StarCraft II, which he is currently is doing with some success.

From March 10-16 the G-League 2008 season finals took place at Shanghai, China featuring four Chinese professionals as well as Check & Shy. Guangmo and Lyc were allowed to participate but both were no-shows.

G-League 2008 season finals
1. SuhO – 2.924$
2. Check – 1.462$
3. Sky – 731$
4. TeD – 146$
5/6. Shy, Fly100%

25-year old SuhO winning his first event described in this article (though given that he represented China at ACON 4 all the way back in 2004 he probably has a few national competitions to his name). Otherwise Check is doing well as he would remain to do for the remainder of the year.

ToD (1985) retires April, 2009 (following an extended period of struggling with his motivation). The “Romantic Human” would remain active in eSports to some degree. Commentating a tournament, competing in several WC3 tournaments and playing both the Heroes of Newerth and StarCraft II beta. Reportedly he is currently trying to become a professional poker player.

SoJu (1985) retires May 5, 2009 as he had been called to serve in the Korean army shortly. SoJu is most famous for his ESWC 2007 victory and his win in the NiceGameTV League Season 2. He also represented Korea at WCG 2005, WCG 2006, WCG 2007 and ESWC 2008. Alongside World Elite and SK-Gaming he won a WC3L title; alongside the latter team he also claimed a NGL One title. He was famous for playing alongside ReMinD as one of the strongest 2on2 teams in history and the two moved to teams together on several occasions. SoJu was also known as one of the most talented players in the world with ReMinD claiming SoJu could have been the best player in the world if he had put in the effort (though obviously someone that wins ESWC and represents Korea at three consecutive WCG’s definitely belongs to the best players in the world).

In an interview with GosuGamers he stated: “I'm very disappointed that I have to leave now because I'm in such good condition. Economic crisis makes whole thing different at that time. I think I can win surely if there was a WC3 contest on time.”

The fifteenth and last WC3L Championship LAN finals took place May 25-27 at Beijing, China. There would be a sixteenth season which was took place solely online.

WC3L Season XV LAN Finals
1. Wicked eSports
Hyo Sub “FoCuS” Eom
Chul Woo “Shy” Park

2. Mousesports
Weiliang “Fly100%” Lu
Xiang “TH000” Huang
Dennis “HasuObs” Schneider
Dae Hui “FoV” Cho

3. Team EG
Dmitriy “Happy” Kostin
Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen

4. nGize
Lee "Check" Hyung Joo
Pedro "LucifroN" Moreno Duran

Grubby attended most WC3L LAN finals in history (ten out of twelve) followed by Susiria (nine). Grubby won most WC3L LAN finals (five) followed by Zeus[19] & ToD (four), followed by FuRy (who won three, having missed season XIII’s), followed by Sky, Susiria, Lucifer, ReMinD, SoJu, Lyn, Moon & Lucifer (all of whom won two).

It was announced April 5, 2009 that Games-Service (the company behind the Electronic Sports World Cup) would go bankrupt. Apparantly they had large debts and had trouble maintaining the event financially prior to the economic crisis. ESWC is the biggest tournament brand in WC3 to go bankrupt. They would return in 2010 with a new management taking over the ESWC brand and organising a 2010 main event at Disneyland, Paris. Because they had a bad reputation in terms of paying out prize money at this point they used a bank guarantee to gaurantee the prize purse to be paid out right after the event finished (which is very unusual, it usually takes months or even over an year for an event to pay out). They would not pay out outstanding prize money however (debt which legally belongs to the previous owners) which hurt the brand to some extent as for example Sky & TeD refused to attend citing the issue of missing prize money.

Reportedly GGL, ESWC and CPL still had outstanding prize money in the eSport scene totalling 274.000$ at this time. ESWC and to a certain extent CPL have legitimate reasons for not paying out (even though the current ESWC organisation is deservedly is tainted by this as they wanted to inherit the ESWC brand) as they simply ended up not having the money but did have reason to believe they could finance the tournaments at the time (both going bankrupt eventually). GGL however might have stopped being involved in professional eSports; they are still around in gaming and simply cut their losses when they stopped being interested in being a player in the eSports scene leaving outstanding salaries, prize money and debts unpaid. It is unclear if anyone will give them a hard time for this however as they did leave quite the eSports legacy, being responsible for such ground breaking professional gaming concepts as the “Hip Hop Gaming League”, “V-Sports” and the “Professional Baseball Gaming League”.

The ESWC Masters Cheonan took place May 2-6 at Cheonan, Seoul and featured sixteen players. Fourteen of them were invited with SocceR having qualified themselves for the tournament in Korea. This event was run quite poorly, which is not that surprising given that ESWC just went bankrupt. Apparantly it was actually (co)hosted by another organisation but carried the ESWC name nonetheless (and they went on with the event despite ESWC going bankrupt), whateither the prize money was paid out is unknown.

ESWC Masters Cheonan 2009
1. LucifroN – 10.000$
2. Lyn – 4.000$
3. Fly100% - 1.000$
4. Happy
5/8. WhO, TH000, TeD, Moon
9/12. SocceR, Eric, Kumai, XlorD
13/16. Grubby, Nicker, DowaQ, Sky

Obviously this was a big victory for LucifroN; showing his second place at BlizzCon was no fluke. This is also one of many tournaments taking place since 2007 that are indicative of the new strength of Orc players, a high level tournament like this featuring an all-Orcish top three would have been unheard off in the first half of this history (though admittedly Grubby and Zacard played two major tournament finals in 2004 and 2005).

The PGL Championship Challenge, featuring the best players in the prior ProGamer League events, took place May 26-27. There was 1465$ paid out to the first place finisher. Check replaced Moon who could not attend (as you might recall, Check also replaced HoT at Stars War IV; making him something of the default Night Elf to replace other Night Elf players at Chinese events).

PGL Championship Challenge
1. Sky – 1.465$
2. Fly100%
3. TH000
4. Moon

Sky adding another win after the Extreme Masters III Asia continental finals. As you might recall he also won the last two editions of the China Esport Games in late 2008. Even though he was no longer WCG champion, he was still doing quite well and he would remain a very serious contender for tournaments till the end of this history.

There has not been much attention paid to the regional BlizzCon qualifiers in this article, however given that there were no other significant intra-European clashes this year (with the Samsung European Championship, ClanBase EuroCup and Extreme Masters all no longer taking place) there is reason to cover BlizzCon Europe 2009 which took place June 26-27 at Cologne, Germany. Taking place at the same event is BlizzCon USA 2009 which saw the two usual suspects, SonKiE & LongWalk, battle it out for for first place.

As you might recall last BlizzCon Europe saw quite the upsets take place as ToD and Grubby did not qualify with instead LucifroN, SaSe & Happy representing Europe. LucifroN and Happy would be among the strongest players of the year as LucifroN took second at the BlizzCon main event and later won ESWC Cheonan while Happy took third at WCG 2008.

Silviu “NightEnD” Lazar, one of Europe’s leading Undead players, was denied particicapation in BlizzCon Europe because he was from Romania, one of a number of countries barred from entering the competition. This was quite controversial as no explanation was ever given and he put in quite the effort to qualify, his statement concerning being barred:

“I just want to emphasize on the dissapointment I've had from these events. I've worked hard and earned my place in the tournament but it seems that is not enough. It looks like you have to be born in a special or priviledged country to be able to participate in those kind of events. I strongly think that the only faulty legal part is on Blizzard's side because as a member of the EU my country has the same legal rights as those of the other guys participating in the event and we do have eSport recognition here in Romania as well as eSport tournaments (WCG, SEC, KODE5 to name a few).

Let's say Blizzard didn't do a recheck on my country or not a check at all because there haven't been any participants from my country to their tournaments before or even if my country is indeed not eligeble then why even send the invite, ask and receive my contact information for the flight and delay me so much with a half-answer.” – NightEnD

The results of the two BlizzCon qualifiers were:

BlizzCon Europe 2009
1. LucifroN
2. Grubby
3. Nicker
4. ThomasG
5/6. Happy, SaSe
7/8. VortiX, DeMusliM

Happy doing surprisingly bad and losing to ThomasG. ThomasG would become the dominant Night Elf player in Europe following SaSe’s as well as HoT’s drift into inactivity. Nicker would actually compete at a number of major events this year including IEF, ESWC Cheonan and this one. LucifroN and Grubby were the two best performing players in Europe at this time and so it might not be a surprise to see them play the finals.

BlizzCon USA 2009
1. LongWalk
2. SonKiE
3. CrunCher
4. ShrieK
5/6. HolyHuman, BoX
7/8. UnknownGuru, Deuce

LongWalk and SonKiE competed for many of the international tournament slots with them representing the USA region last year as well. If there was still a 2007 level of tournaments taking place each year than either of these players would have been the token USA player at global events.

The e-Stars Seoul 2009 took place July 24-26 featuring a “Team East” as well as a “Team West”. As usual they had polling open prior to the event claiming it would impact which players were selected for the event. There was an individual as well as a contintal team competition.

“Team East”
June “Lyn” Park
Jae Ho “Moon” Jang
Weiliang “Fly100%” Lu

“Team West”
Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen
Pedro Moreno “LucifroN” Durán
Dennis “HasuObs” Schneider

East [2:1] West e-Stars Seoul 2009 – assigned 1on1 slots clan war
Fly100% [1:0] Grubby
Lyn [0:1] LucifroN
Moon [1:0] HasuObs

East [3:0] West e-Stars Seoul 2009 – King of the Hill
Fly100% [1:0] LucifroN
Fly100% [1:0] HasuObs
Fly100% [1:0] Grubby

Team East wins!

e-Stars Seoul Individual Competition
1. Grubby – 6.400$
2. Lyn – 3.200$
3. Fly100% - 2.800$
4. Moon – 2.400$
5. LucifroN – 800$
6. HasuObs 800$

Grubby winning his first high levent event this year. He would continue to show strong results in upcoming months. Lyn and Fly100% would do even better however, both of them still have their best results still ahead of them. Moon would actually have a relatively weak year, often finishing in the prize money but not winning any major tournaments except for WCG Korea.

From June 4 to July 11 the GomTV invitational took place online featuring eight players and a 8.000$ prize purse. This was an event hosted by Seoul-based GomTV, currently best known for having been granted all broadcasting rights to Blizzard games by Blizzard entertainment in Korea, and matches were broadcast on streaming with ToD and RotterdaM shoutcasting from Seoul. It is the last tournament featuring FoV who is about to retire.

GomTV world invitational 2009
1. Grubby – 4.800$
2. TeD – 2.400$
3. Moon – 800$
4. FoV
5/6. Sky, InFi
7/8. HoT, Lyn

Grubby wins his second major tournament of the year. TeD might not win any events yet, but he is certainly the best perfoming Undead player of the year. FoV takes a respectable fourth place before retiring to fulfil the mandatory draft in Korea.

FoV (1985) retires August 6, 2009. He stated in an interview [http://www.mousesports.com/en/article/4121/] with Mousesports (his team at the time):

“WarCraft 3 has given me a lot. I was able to learn English and Chinese, met good friends and made money”. Which summed up his career quite nicely.

FoV is best known for his ESWC 2004 victory becoming the first Korean world champion. He is also an iconic Four Kings player, joining the team during their stay in Korea and representing them in their strongest period. He would later leave to join China-based teams including wNv and Beijing eSport Team as he moved to China in 2006 to compete in tournaments throughout the country. FoV competed in two seasons of the World e-Sport Games, represented Korea at ESWC 2004, ESWC 2005, WCG 2005, KODE5 2006, Stars War II & ESWC 2007. His accomplishments include taking third place at the World Series of Video Games finals, second place at the 2007 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, second place at Game-X and winning an edition of the China e-Sport Games at Changchun. He was one of Korea’s legendary Undead Princes and at various times in his career could have been considered the king.

BlizzCon 2009 took place August 28-29 at Anaheim, California. It featured champions of the regional BlizzCon qualifiers (Europe, Korea & USA). LucifroN had taken first in Europe followed by Grubby and Nicker. LongWalk had beaten SonKiE in the USA finals. Lyn had taken first in Korea followed by Shy and SocceR. The results were:

BlizzCon 2009
1. Lyn – 25.000$
2. Grubby – 10.000$
3. SocceR – 5.000$
4. Shy
5/6. LucifroN, Nicker
7/8. LongWalk, SonKiE

Lyn succesfully defending his BlizzCon 2008 title, the only person in history to defend his title at one of the annual “big three” (ESWC, WCG & BlizzCon) alongside Sky (who won WCG 2005 and 2006).

Moon and Grubby have similar records involving three tournament wins each as Moon famously won two World e-Sport Games in a row alongside MBC Land Cinema Prime League V and Grubby won all big three consecutively: WCG 2004, BlizzCon 2005 and ESWC 2005, BlizzCon did not have the status at the time it does now however

And it pretty much put Lyn up there with these players in terms of status. Obviously he had been the strongest player of 2008, however there have been plenty of players throughout history that have been the strongest player at one time or another. There were not many players however that repeated their success year after year, with many winning one or two world championship events in a single period and being defined mostly by that for the remainder of their career (WCG 2003 champion Insomnia, ESWC 2006 champion Lucifer, etc.).

Alongside Lyn we see Grubby doing very well, taking second place and coming remarkably close to repeating his 2005 BlizzCon win. SocceR is also have something of a highlight in his career, being noticeable for his succeses at the Afreeca WarCraft League competitions 2007-2008 and building up quite the achievement list by now.

ReiGn (1988) retires September 9, 2009 stating he had thought about doing so for a while. ReiGn was one of the brightest young stars in Korea in his days. He took second place at the first OnGameNet Invitional, a televised league taking place in 2003 (he was 15 at the time). Despite several very notable accomplishments, including reaching the top four of three world championships (taking bronze at the 2005 Electronic Sports World Cup), he would never truly fulfill that promise. He was an instrumental player for SK-Gaming (2008-2009) and World Elite (2007) during their Korean periods. He was the last of the so called “Undead Princes” of Korea following the retirements of Susiria, Lucifer and FoV earlier this year (with Sweet retiring in 2008 and Star.WeRRa being long retired (January, 2005) following the Prime League map scandal; but ReiGn kept the legacy alive by designating Space as an prince stating in an interview with GosuGamers:

“When I started my progamer life, I didn't consider playing any other game after WarCraft 3 at all. With me retiring, there is only one remaining Korean Undead player: Space. Please support him and I hope new talented Undead players will come along so the Korean WarCraft 3 scene will be more prosperous” – ReiGn

It is unknown what he is doing at the moment, though he ruled out returning as a professional gamer in StarCraft II.

The Extreme Masters IV Global Challenge Chengdu took place October 1-3 and featured twelve players as well as an 10.000$ prize pool. The results were:

Extreme Masters IV Global Challenge Chengdu
1. Fly100% - 5.000$
2. Moon – 2.500$
3. Sky – 1.500$
4. FoCuS – 1.000$
5/8. InFi, TeD, Lyn & ReMinD
9/12. TH000, Check, DeMusliM & Grubby

Fly100% winning his second major tournament this year. He would win three in total and would be a medalist at WCG 2009 as well. He expressed the ambition at the start of the year to be the best player of 2009; he might not have succeeded completely but he was certainly among the best players of the year.

The International Esports Festival 2009 took place at Suwon, Korea from October 30 to November 3, it featured thirteen participants including Silviu “NightEnD” Lazar. As you might recall, NightEnD was barred from entering BlizzCon Europe. He was welcome in Suwon however at a tournament that was building up quite the history by now. You might recall InFi winning the 2007 edition and Moon taking home IEF 2008. The results of the 2009 event were:

International Esports Festival 2009
1. Fly100% - 10.000$
2. InFi – 5.000$
3. TH000 – 2.000$
4. TeD – 1.700$
5/8. ENZA, Moon, WhO, SocceR
9/12. Nemuke, NightEnD, Nicker, Grubby
13. Lyn

Fly100% winning his third major tournament of the year following the Extreme Masters IV Global Challenge Chengdu as well as the ProGamer League IV. He took on InFi in the finals in what has very much potential of being considered a classic match-up one day with the classic match-up coming closest in this article probably being Zacard vs. Moon (both intra-regional and between two players on the absolute top level). They were followed closely by TH000 and TeD lending credence to the idea these were the top four players of China alongside Sky.

Between November 11-15 the 2009 World Cyber Games took place at Chengdu, China featuring 35 of the best WarCraft III players from all over the world including the “big five of WarCraft III: ToD (who qualified as an amateur), Lyn, Sky, Grubby & Moon. These were the best WCG finals ever in terms of venue as you can see from the grand finals VOD here[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkyKM5OY3os&feature=related]. 7.000 to 8.000 people watched the finals live. You might hear events being sold with numbers like “30 million people watched the streaming”, “There were roughly 40.000 spectators”, this is usually people playing around with numbers trying to sell the events. 8.000 People watching a finals live is huge and showed the game was still very much alive in China.

Starting from the single elimination bracket:

World Cyber Games 2009
Round of 16
Fly100% [2:0] Reaper
yAwS [2:0] Revenant
Grubby [2:0] Xelsing
Lyn [2:0] LongWalk

Happy [2:0] Sky
ToD [2:0] Ciara
InFi [2:0] Padash
Moon [2:0] WhO

Happy eliminating Sky, being only the second player to do so over four World Cyber events following Creolophus at WCG 2007. ToD eliminating Ciara despiting being inactive, which might not be that surprising given that Ciara never gave the impression he was playing fulltime himself. Moon eliminating ESWC 2008 champion WhO, WhO seemed to have peaked around ESWC last year however and his results were generally not on that absolute top level anymore.

Round of 8
Fly100% [2:0] yAwS
Grubby [1:2] Lyn
Happy [2:0] ToD
InFi [2:0] Moon

Reigning champion Grubby and Lyn repeating their BlizzCon finals with Lyn winning again. Happy eliminating ToD after having just eliminated Sky, looking very strong vs. Human overall. InFi beating Moon, who is once again eliminated by someone that finishes top 2 at WCG following Zacard (WCG 2004), Sky (2007), Grubby (2008).

Semi-finals
Fly100% [2:0] Lyn
Happy [0:2] InFi

Fly100% beating Lyn in a clash for the Orc crown. InFi beating Happy 2-0. Fly100% and InFi play a repeat of the IEF 2009 finals which took place just weeks prior.

Both players actually looking quite good overall, Fly100% not dropping a map in the tournament and InFi dropping just one vs. Moon (Fly100% is the first player to reach the finals of the event without dropping a map). In fact, champions often lose matches in the group stage: Grubby was in a tie-breaker at the WCG 2008 group stage after losing to SaSe (in which he beat yAwS and lost to SaSe again). Creolophus lost to two players in the WCG 2007 group stage (Swift and sLH). Sky lost to Nicholas in the groups at his first (2005) WCG win.

Battle for third place
Lyn [2:0] Happy

Finals
Fly100% [1:2] InFi

InFi wins, as mentioned before you can see the videos of the final match here[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkyKM5OY3os&feature=related]. Fly100% was actually favored to win by conventional wisdom, nevertheless it is hard to call InFi a true underdog after he just took down Moon and Happy. The finals were exciting with Fly100% winning the first map in just over three minutes and InFi recovering strongly.This was the third consecutive WCG finals decided on Twisted Meadows. Turtle Rock is runner-up in terms of final map as it decided two finals in 2004 and 2005.

Winning WCG (in China no less) established InFi as the top player in China and somewhat as the heir to Sky; both of them played Human, represented World Elite and InFi took over what was for years “Sky’s title”. Of course he is not quite there yet as winning WCG will earn you a solid spot in WC3 history (see Insomnia or Creolophus) but Sky went back the next year to win WCG again and the year after that to reach the finals again. InFi’s career is still on-going however so he might end up matching or even beating Sky’s record (on which Sky might still improve as he is still active after all).

As far as Fly100% is concerned, taking silver at WCG alongside his three major title this year also showed Fly100% was definitely one of the absolute best players in the world and not going away.

Between November 20-21 the International Electronic Sports Tournament took place at Beijng, China. This event was won twice by Moon in 2006 and 2007 and was quite prestigious. It did not take place in 2008 due to lack of sponsorship. It featured some of the best players from every region competing for a sizable prize purse (27.412 euro). It also included ToD who was retired as a professional but still accepting invites. The Chinese played a qualifier but it seems the other players were invited. The results were:

International Electronic Sports Tournament 2009
1. Sky – 15.664 euro
2. Check – 7.932 euro
3. Lyn – 3.916 euro
4. Happy
5/6. Grubby, Fly100%
7/8. ReMinD, Sai
9/12. SaSe, Moon, ToD, SuhO

Check is enjoying one of his better international tournaments at the event. Sky takes home a major international tournament victory following his wins at the PGL Championship Challenge & the Extreme Masters III Asia Continentals and finishes the year as one of the most succesful players.

From September 8 till November 25 the Shadow League season I took place online featuring 24 players. This article is gonna ignore twelve of them. The Shadow League was a competition featuring twelve of the currently best players in the world and twelve old school players currently in retirement. The results of the professionals were not all that interesting and naturally they end up beating the retired players in the later stages of the tournament. The old-schoolers were:

Zdravko “Insomnia” Georgiev
We know Insomnia as the guy that went to Korea as a member of Team Intel in 2003, won the World Cyber Games while staying there and subsequently played professionally for several years until retiring in 2007. He took up poker and study after professional gaming.

Fredrik “MaDFroG” Johansson
MaDFroG took second at ESWC 2003, subsequently went to Seoul for 11 months and won the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational while staying there. Upon his return to Sweden he took second at ESWC 2004 and was crowned eSport Player of the Year. He lost motivation for the game and eventually retired early 2005. MaDFroG tried to take up poker as well as make a comeback after his professional gaming career. He would also work as a security guard in a prison.

Christopher “Tak3r” Heil
Tak3r was one of the strongest German players in the early years of this history and is notable for winning WC3L alongside mTw in 2004. The Orc player was known for his typical strategies which relied on the use of towers.

Jae Park “EvenStar” Lee
Was one of the strongest players in Korea in the early years of this history. He was a well regarded Night Elf player known for his stylish looks.

Dimitar “DIDI8” Aleksandrov
DIDI8 was one of the strongest European player from 2002-2007. He famously won Clickarena in 2003 only to not be paid out. He also participated in two seasons of the World e-Sport Games.

Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun
Sweet was one of the most successful players in the world between 2002-2008, representing Korea successfully at tons of international events. Most notably he was runner-up of the MBC Sonokong Prime League (2003), WarCraft III player of the year (2004), World e-Sport Games champion (2005) and Blizzard Worldwide Invitational champion (2006). He entered the military in 2008 and probably was finished with this by the time of this event.

Hong Won "FarSeer" Ui
FarSeer is most notable for winning the first Stars War event as well as representing Korea at the 2006 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational.

Minh “Spell” Nguyen
Spell was for years the main rival to Miou in the German Electronic Pro Series. Spell was considered by many the overall stronger player in Germany and represented Germany at many international events. Miou usually did worse than Spell in the general season of EPS but ended up besting Spell in the finals of the event, indicating that Miou might have the superior Human mirror, a “read” on Spell or possibly some kind of psychological advantage (Spell “fearing” Miou).

Bjarke “Bjarke” Rasmussen
Bjarke was one of the best European Human players in the early years of this history and is best known for winning CPL Copenhagen.

Dae Ho "ShowTime" Kim
ShowTime was one of the best Korean players in the early years of this history. He was very popular worldwide and for example took part in a 2004 “Greatest Gamer Ever” poll alongside MaDFroG which was organized by ESreality.

Shore
Shore was one of the best French players in the early history of this event. He took part in the second season of the World e-Sport Games due to the recommendation of ToD.

The results of the tournament were:

Group A
1. Insomnia
2. MaDFroG
3. Tak3r
4. EvenStar
5. DIDI8
6. ElakeDuck

Group B
1. Sweet
2. FarSeer
3. Spell
4. Bjarke
5. ShowTime
6. Shore

Semi-finals
Insomnia [0:3] Sweet
FarSeer [3:0] MaDFroG

Both players were eliminated following the semi-finals with Insomnia losing 0-3 to FoCuS and FarSeer coming amazingly close (2-3 loss) to beating WCG champion InFi.

Between December 12-21 the World e-Sport Masters took place at Hangzhou, China featuring eight invited players as well as an 26.000$ prize purse.

The results were:

World e-Sport Masters 2009
1. Grubby – 14.000$
2. Moon – 6.000$
3/4. SocceR, TeD – 2.000$
5/6. Infi, Lyn – 500$
7/8. Fly100%, Sky – 500$

This has been mentioned before, but Grubby was #1 of European players invited to these kind of events. Moon and Lyn were #1 & #2 of Korea. Infi, Fly100%, Sky and TeD were the four most popular Chinese players attending these kind of events. SocceR is the only anamoly at this particular event.

Grubby gets his biggest win since WCG 2008 and finishes the year quite nicely having taken second at BlizzCon 2009 earlier in the season as well haven taken wins at the GomTV Invitational & e-Stars Seoul Individual Competition. Moon had one of his worst seasons ever and this is actually the biggest win in prize money he takes home in 2009 (he did win WCG Korea though which is considered quite prestigious).

Which wraps 2009 up. A year which saw Lyn defend his BlizzCon title, InFi winning WCG and Fly100% emerging as one of the absolute strongest players in the scene. Sky and Grubby proved contenders throughout the year as wel with both winning considerable titles. It is also a year that saw Lucifer, FoV, Susiria, ReiGn, EVE, xiaOt, ToD & SoJu retire.

Recap 2009
This is where the WarCraft 3 scene roughly was at the dawn of 2010:

WCG, BlizzCon, ENC, WC3L, EPS, WEM, ASUS Cup, DreamHack, XPLeague, WCIP, e-Stars, Race War, IEF, PGL and ZOTAC would all continue to run tournaments after having done so in 2009.
Stars Wars and ESWC would return.
The last edition of German EPS, NGL One, WC3L, XPLeague and various other competitions would take place.
A StarCraft II closed beta was about to be launched.

Professional gaming careers launched 2009

Germany – yAwS

yAwS won EPS Germany, ‘nuff said.

Total prize money paid out 2009 (as far as the data is available, some tournaments are estimated)

BlizzCon (40.000$)
International Electronic Sports Tournament (27.421 Euro = roughly 35.600$)
World e-Sports Masters (26.000$)
BlizzCon Regionals (24.000$)
ProGamer League IV (23.640$)
World Cyber Games (23.000$)
IeSF Invitational (20.000$ estimated)
International Esports Festival (18.700$)
e-Stars Seoul (16.400$)
ESWC Masters Cheonan (15.000$)
EPS Germany XV (10.000 Euro estimated = roughly 13.000$)
EPS Germany XIV (10.000 Euro estimated = roughly 13.000$)
Warcraft 3 Champions League Season XIV (10.000 Euro estimated = roughly 13.000$)
IEF China (10.200$)
Extreme Masters IV Global Challenge Chengdu (10.000$)
Extreme Masters III Continental Finals Asia (10.000$)
GomTV world invitational (8.000$)
Warcraft 3 Champions League Season XV (6.000 Euro estimated = roughly 7.800$)
Zotac Cups (5.200 Euro = roughly 6.800$)
G-League 2008 (5.400$)
Race Wars IV (4.500$)
European Nations Championship (3.000 Euro = roughly 3.900$)
XPL League 5 (1.600$)
PGL Championship Challenge (1.465$)

Total: 351.005$

WarCraft III 2010 (General decline WarCraft III scene continues, StarCraft II launched, a new era begins)

This article was mostly written mid-way 2010 and finished in November so can not cover 2010 entirely. Tournament wise several major events take place this year including WCG, ESWC, BlizzCon, e-Stars Seoul and the final (individual) season of NGL One and the final (team) season of WC3L. Also the European Nations Championship attains a new main sponsor (ASUS) and becomes considerable more sizable then it was in years prior with a larger prize purse (10.200 euro for WC3) and several LAN competitions occuring leading up to the finals. The Intel Extreme Masters also returns with a single 5.000$ event.

On February 17, 2010 the closed beta testing for StarCraft II begins. Players playing the game competitively include (not all with the intention to go pro obviously): Check, DayFly, xiaOt, DeMusliM, NaNiwa, HasuObs, XlorD, Gerrard, RotterdaM, SonKiE, viOlet, SushiLicious, KiWiKaKi, FreeDoM, Rainbow, LucifroN, Strifecro, Zeerax, Insomnia, Axslav, Neytpoh, mOOnGlaDe, Satiini, LeviN, BoneCracker, Ciara, MacSed, iNSoLeNCE, GlaiVe, Filthy, Elfitaja and many, many more with players such as ToD, Grubby, MaDFroG and Moon likely playing the game on an amateur level as well.

On March 14 the last match of the sixteenth season of the Warcraft 3 Champions League takes place. The season is fully online (like the early seasons were) and features a 3.000$ prize purse. Many of the teams disband after being eliminated from WC3L.

WC3L Season 16 Play-off Rankings

1. WeMadeFOX

WMF remains an active WC3 team and are represented by Moon, Lyn, SocceR and RohJinWook.

2. MeetYourMakers

MeetYourMakers disbanded their WC3 division with DeMusliM moving to the SC2 team, ReMinD joining Mojawi and LucifroN becoming teamless.

3. Serious Gaming

The entire Serious Gaming WarCraft III division consisting off viOlet, SonKiE, RotterdaM, SushiLicious as active players and DowaQ & Zubie as honorary members moved to StarCraft II with SonKiE and viOlet still competing in some WC3 competitions throughout 2010.

4. World Elite

World Elite would remain an active WC3 team with InFi, Sky and Like still proudly carrying the flag of the team and TeD having recently moved to RAGE.

5/6. IeS

The prominent players carrying the IeS flag including Check and Myth would move to StarCraft II and other teams.

5/6. Team EG

Grubby and Happy remain active WarCraft III players with Ciara having been seen active in StarCraft II. Happy would part ways with the team in the season.

7/8. Raptor

Raptor’s competitive WC3 division would see either players leaving or going inactive.

7/8. GaB

GaB is home to some of WC3’s strongest European WarCraft III players including ThomasG and Thorzain till this very day.

Among the teams that did not make it into the play-off stage, Mousesports and SK Gaming disband their divisions after failing in the league with Mousesports having an active SC2 division which includes WC3 team captain HasuObs.

Around April 14-15 the Alienware Top Gamer tournament took place at China featuring a 12.500 euro prize pool as well as eight Chinese, three Korean and one Dutch players competing for it.

The results were:

Alienware Top Gamer
1. Lyn
2. Sai
3. TH000
4. InFi
5/8. Grubby
5/8. Sai
5/8. Wulin
5/8. Fly100%

Lyn wins his first major event of the year leaving Sai behind him which we’ve seen do very well at tournaments in China in prior years.

April 16-18 sees Stars War reborn takes place at China featuring all-star line-ups from China, Korea and Europe. The teams are:

Team China
TH000
TeD
Future
InFi
Sky

Qualifiers were held to determine the participants.

Team Korea
SocceR
ReMinD
Lyn
Check

Moon was absent because he was at a marriage.

Team Europe
Grubby
Thorzain
Happy
ThomasG

The final results of the event were:

China [5:3] Europe
Korea [5:1] Europe
China [2:5] Korea

Which means Korea wins, followed by China with Europe taking last place.

On April 18 Moon marries.

April 23-24 saw the season six finals of NGL One takes place at Berlin, Germany with five players competing over a 17.500$ prize purse. The results were:

NGL One season six finals
1. Moon
2. Grubby
3. Lyn
4. FoCuS
5. SocceR

Moon having his first substantial win since WCG Korea 2009 (just a week after marrying!), he would go on to have quite a succesful year qualifying for BlizzCon and taking second place at ESWC 2010. At this point Grubby really seems like he remains as the last person standing of the western professional gamers with ToD and HoT retired and LucifroN competing in StarCraft II. Happy also remains active but as he becomes teamless and does not win substantial prize money it is doubtful whateither he qualifies as a professional.

At the same time as the NGL One season six finals the Neo Star League 3 takes place at China featuring several of China’s best players as well as ReMinD and WhO. The final top 5 of this event was:

Neo Star League 3
1. Sky ($6.000)
2. - ReMinD ($2.000)
3. - Like ($1.000)
4. - WhO ($500)
5. - Infi

Sky once again showing he remains one of China’s top players, having won the IEST event as well late 2009.

On May 10 Grubby marries Cassandra “PpG” Ng.

On June 18 the Korean BlizzCon qualifiers conclude with the following top eight.

BlizzCon Korea 2010
1. ReMinD – 5.000$
2. Lyn – 2.000$
3. Moon – 1.000$
4. Shy
5/6. RohJinWook
5/6. SocceR
7/8. viOlet
7/8. WhO

ReMinD becomes the fourth player to win a major event this year following Lyn, Sky and Moon and possibly HasuObs who had won the last season of German EPS just days prior.

July 1-4 saw the 2010 Electronic Sports World Cup take place at Disneyland Paris, France featuring a 14.000$ prize purse and 25 participants. The event had the following results:

1. Lyn – 8.000$
2. Moon – 4.000$
3. ReMinD – 2.000$
4. Happy
5/8. Grubby
5/8. FoCuS
5/8. Thorzain
5/8. Majestic
9/10. LucifroN
9/10. Nicker
11/12. VortiX
11/12. Aca
13/16. ThomasG
13/16. Syde
13/16. Tas
13/16. Yumiko
17/20. Zerter
17/20. sLH
17/20. VeryB1gman
17/20. Monster
21/23. Demigod
21/23. S.o.k.o.L.
21/23. Wulin
24. P1nke

The top three include all major tournament winners of the year so far except for Sky who would not attend citing missing prize money from years prior. We see Lyn claiming his third world championship title after BlizzCon 2008 and BlizzCon 2009. We also see the return of Zerter in one last WC3 event!

Fly100% won the not mentioned G-League and HasuObs won the last season of German EPS.

ENC 2010 wrapped up at a LAN finals August 22 taking place at Cologne, Germany with the following top four:

1. Ukraine (4000 Euro)
2. Russia (2000 Euro)
3. Denmark (1500 Euro)
4. Germany (1000 Euro)

Ukraine winning ENC 2010 despite the retirement of longtime star player HoT. Russia finally making it to a ENC LAN finals and doing quite respectaby.

World Cyber Games 2010 took place September 30 to October 3 at Los Angeles, USA. It had a significant drop in attendees compared to previous editions and saw the players join a eight player single elimination bracket after the group stages with WCG 2003, 2004 and 2005 having a 32 player bracket and WCG 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 having a 16 player bracket. Winning the event was still quite prestigious, but the event had declined somewhat overall with reaching top 8 not being nearly the achievement it was in years before.

The final top eight was:

1. ReMinD
2. Grubby
3. Lyn
4. Nicker
5/8. Happy
5/8. TeD
5/8. TH000
5/8. Fly100%

Moon lost to FoCuS at WCG Korea. Undead players have always performed somewhat poorly at WCG events with only Happy winning a medal in its history (compared to ESWC which counts FoV and Lucifer to its champions). The Chinese delegation also performs poorly at this event after having been represented in the final two at WCG 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009 (all-Chinese) and this time not reaching the semi-finals. Game 2 between ReMinD and Grubby will enter WarCraft III history as one of the great comebacks ever as Grubby fights his way back after being in a practically unwinnable position.


BlizzCon 2010 took place October 22 and 23 at Anaheim, California with the following top eight:

1. ReMinD
2. InFi
3. Moon
4. Grubby
5/6. Fly100%
5/6. Raspot
7/8. Cruncher
7/8. Happy

ReMinD wins BlizzCon alongside the World Cyber Games in 2010 and is easily the best player in the year.

Total prize money paid out or will be paid out 2010 (as far as the data is available, some tournaments are estimated)

BlizzCon (40.000$)
BlizzCon Regionals (24.000$)
World Cyber Games (11.000$)
IeSF Invitational (20.000$ estimated)
NGL One finals (17.500$)
e-Stars Seoul (16.400$ estimated)
Alienware Top Gamer (12.500 Euro = roughly 16.200$)
Electronic Sports World Cup (14.000$)
ASUS ENC (10.200 Euro = roughly 13.200$)
EPS Germany XVI (10.000 Euro estimated = roughly 13.000$)
Eacan Cyber Games (10.500$)
Neo Star League III (9.500$)
Esports Cyber League (7.200$)
Zotac Cups (5.200 Euro = roughly 6.800$)
Intel Extreme Masters Shangai (5.000$)
NVIDIA Games Festival (4.500$)
WC3L Season XVI (3.000$)
WC3PL Div.1 (750$)
ESL Major Series (500 Euro = roughly 650$)
ESL Bundes Liga 13 (500 Euro = roughly 650$)
eBet Challenge (500$)

Total: 234.350$

Recap of the entire WarCraft III scene

Yeah, where to begin. Starting with TillerMaN and ending with Lyn, the WarCraft III scene was home to countless champions. An estimate (I’m eyeballing competitions that have no released sums) of prize money paid out annually at events described in this article (which is not a complete list but should show most of it) is:

2002-2003 – 491.700$
2004 – 419.400$
2005 – 546.180$
2006 – 488.530$
2007 – 1.018.000$
2008 – 643.200$
2009 – 351.005$
2010 - 234.350$

Total: 4.192.365$

How many professional gamers have there been in WarCraft III? This is also an interesting question and a hard one to answer as it requires a proper definition of a pro-gamer as well as information on what players earned exactly (just because a player wears the tag of a professional team does not mean they’re receiving the kind of money that justifies them calling themselves professional gamers). Defining a professional gamer as someone that earns enough money to make a living (very possibly not a good one) in their home country for at least a year by playing WarCraft III (in that year), this is a master list per year of players debuting as a professional gamer (with some players being debatable, note that not being a professional gamer yet does not mean a player was not yet active in tournaments):

2002-2003 (27)
China – ChinaHumaN & MagicYang
Europe –TillerMaN, FaTC, HeMaN, MaDFroG & Insomnia
Germany – Eli, Hell, ThePig & HoRRoR
Korea - Medusa, ShowTime, Jojo, Gerrard, DayFly, Check, ReiGn, Rainbow, Anyppi, Star, Moon, Sweet, EvenStar, FreeDoM, Swain & Zacard

2004 (15)
China – SuhO, TrustMyself & Sky
Europe – Grubby, Zeus[19], Deadman, ToD & FuRy
Germany – Tak3r & Miou
Korea – FoV, Susiria & ReMinD
Singapore - duckie
USA - Wizard

2005 (14)
China – xiaOt
Europe – DIDI8, HoT, SaSe, WinneR & ElakeDuck
Germany – HasuObs & Spell
Korea – Romeo, Lucifer, GoStop, FarSeer & Lyn
USA – Shortround

2006 (7)
China – Fly100% & Sai
Europe – Creolophus
Germany – XlorD & fire_de
Korea – Storm
USA – Nilknarf

2007 (8)
China – InFi, TH000 & TeD
Europe – XyLigan
Germany - Protois
Korea – WinNers, SocceR & SoJu

2008 (4)
China – Like
Europe – Happy & LucifroN
Korea – WhO

2009 (1)
Germany – yAwS

Making for a grand total of 76 professional gamers in WarCraft III history.

What you have read up to this point was the “main article”. What follows are four add-ons talking about the future, six notable players, several notable teams and 2v2 competitions.

So what will the future bring?

The future of StarCraft II and WarCraft III (written mid 2010)
Like most of you I’ve been focussed on the StarCraft II scene for the past few months, the development of this scene has not disappointed me so far with many competitions taking place already and a infrastructure being put in place for major events. It’s going to be interesting to see what role Korea will have with a lot of drama taking place already (will the betting scandal facilitate a transition to the new, “clean”, game? What kind of impact will the fallout between KeSPa and Blizzard have?). As well as how Blizzard’s more active role in e-Sports will impact its growth. For Europe the ESL is looking to put its considerable weight behind a single RTS (ESL’s Baschi literally said so) and that it is going to be StarCraft II. I think China is going to stick with WarCraft III as a main game, though since they have a very active eSports scene they’ll no doubt be a player of significance in StarCraft II. This is somewhat similar to Korea’s role as a tournament organizer in WarCraft III, in which they were significant despite StarCraft being by far the leading game in the country’s eSports scene.

I’m not really sure what is going to happen in the USA, prior to the beta I figured they would have a role as a junior scene to Europe’s and Asia’s major scenes (a role they had for several years in the WarCraft III scene). But with, to my limited knowledge, the possible prospect of Major League Gaming picking it up as well as the success of USA players so far I have a different model in mind now: the role Germany always had in WarCraft III. This means tournaments taking place in the country isolated to some degree from being entered by contestants from the rest of the world which supports their professional scene. Regardless of MLG’s possible involvement in StarCraft II (it’s a national competition so it’s ensured to support US players), major US events (not just in RTS) always protect national players so the model might become a reality anyway if US events pick up the game. There’s no point in staging tournaments in the country meant to appeal to a national base without US champions, so if any major US tournament organizer gets involved in the game you’ll have a base of US professional StarCraft II players. This is to some degree true for any tournament in any country, France (not exactly the world’s greatest eSport nation) has two times the first place finishes at ESWC (eight) the runner-ups Sweden, Germany and USA have for example.

On WarCraft III’s future… I’ve been reading a lot of comments by people formerly involved in the WarCraft III scene pronouncing the game dead. I’ve been writing about the subject as far back as May 21 2007 [http://www.ggl.com/index.php?controller=News&method=article&id=4956] and I have no problem seeing StarCraft II has a major impact on WarCraft III scene. The game is very much alive however with China supporting the game in a big way alongside some national support in other countries (it’s still played at the ASUS Cup in Russia for example), and it still has active global competitions such as WCG, ESWC and BlizzCon. Now, ESWC could very well drop the game in favour of StarCraft II (they might not however, they continued to support Counter-Strike after the release of Source and were among the first to return to Quake III after Quake IV was judged a failure as a competitive game). but I don’t see why BlizzCon (which supports the more “dead” StarCraft 1 and the never alive World of WarCraft) drops the game. Or why the World Cyber Games (which supported Command & Conquer, Age of Empires and Dawn of War) would suddenly consider the game beneath their, not exactly golden, standards. Unless of course Blizzard no longer supports the game at the event, which I guess would also be a reason to not see WarCraft III make a return at BlizzCon. The golden days of WarCraft III might be behind us, but fans still have plenty to look forward to.

Profiles of the “big five”

There have been strongest players in every year described in the WarCraft III history. Sometimes just two or three players were generally considered contenders for the world’s strongest, sometimes the number was closer to ten. There are a handful of players among all these players that return year after year and continually ranked among the strongest, these are the big five of WarCraft III history: Moon, Grubby, Sky, ToD & Lyn. ReMinD might also be considered among these ranks following his WCG 2010 victory.

Profile of Moon 
 
Moon was one of the absolute top players in Korean televised competition 2002-2004 and rose to be seen as the number one of the Korean scene by late 2004. In 2005 he introduced himself to the world stage by dominating the televised World e-Sport Games alongside the national pro-leagues. By 2006 he began entering many tournaments around the world and was signed by Meet Your Makers which he helped to victory in five global team competitions. He remained the dominant player in Korea, winning five seasons of MBCGame's World War as well as its final event between 2006-2007, but he was now mostly getting acclaim for his success in international competitions. He won over 150.000$ in competitions in 2007 and was reportedly re-signed to Meet Your Makers for 9.000$ a month, a contract he would extend in 2008 before signing a three-year contract with WeMadeFOX worth 468.227$. Moon remained one of the most successful players in the world in the 2008-2010 seasons, coming close to two of the titles that has alluded him by winning silver at the WCG 2008 grand finals as well as the 2010 Electronic Sports World Cup. 
 
Awards
eSports Award Korea Player of the Year (2009) 
eSports Award eSports Player of the Year (2008) 
eSports Award Best Warcraft 3 Player (2008) 
eSports Award Korea Player of the Year (2008) 
KespA E-Sports Player/Team of the Year runner-up (2007)
KeSPA Greatest WarCraft III Player (2007)
KeSPA Greatest WarCraft III Player (2006)
KeSPA Greatest WarCraft III Player (2005)
GGL Warcraft 3 Player of the Year (2007) 
 
SK Gaming prize money list (up to 2009): 314.226$ 

Profile of Grubby
Grubby's formative years as a competitive gamer took place in Reign of Chaos where he rose from an unknown player to a hot prospect signed by Four Kings. By the start of the 2004 season he was one of the best players in the west, winning Cyber-X-Games. Alongside Four Kings he travelled to compete in pro leagues in Seoul for several months, during which time he won the World Cyber Games and became seen as Europe's number one player. Following his stay he returned to Europe and became the dominant player in international competition for most of 2005, eventually sharing that position with Sky and Moon from late 2005 to early 2007. Four Kings would grow to be the dominating force in team competitions at this time, winning four WC3L championships. During 2007-2008 his successes lessened somewhat, with no major tournament victories occurring until his victory at the 2008 World Cyber Games. At this time he was signed to Meet Your Makers alongside which he added another WC3L victory. He remained a successful professional gamer in the 2008-2010 seasons, currently being signed to Team EG and taking second place at WCG 2010. 
 
Awards 
World Cyber Games Hall of Fame (2008) 
myMYM Warcraft III: Best Player (2009) 
eSports Award eSports WC3 Player of the Year (2009)
eSports Award Western European eSports Player of the Year (2008)
eSports Award Best Warcraft 3 Player (2006)
eSports Award eSports Player of the Year (2006)
eSports Award eSports Team of the Year (2005) [Four Kings]
Best Warcraft 3 Player (2005)
Gosu Gamer of the Year (2008) 
Gosu Gamer of the Year (2006) 
Electronic Sports League WarCraft 3 League Season 9 Most Valuable Player
Electronic Sports League WarCraft 3 League Season 8 Most Valuable Player
Electronic Sports League WarCraft 3 League Season 7 Most Valuable Player
Electronic Sports League WarCraft 3 League Season 5 Most Valuable Player
 
SK Gaming prize money list (up to 2009): 196.868$ 

Profile of Sky

Sky tried and failed to become a professional gamer in StarCraft. On WarCraft III's release he dedicated himself to the game, rising to be one of China's best players. He introduced himself to the world scene at the World e-Sport Games in Seoul at the start of 2005 where he took third place. The remainder of the season saw him do better and better with a fourth place at ESWC, victory at ACON 5 and eventually winning WCG 2005 as an underdog. Having established himself as a Chinese world champion, Sky would pave the way for an entire generation of Chinese gamers to enter the world of global WarCraft III competitions. He remained one of the most successful players in international competition, defending his World Cyber Games title in 2006 and claiming silver in 2007. He helped establish China-based World Elite as one of the strongest teams in the World including victories at WC3L, NGL One and Road of the King. Sky remains an active professional WarCraft III gamer and one of the best players in the world. 
 
Awards 
World Cyber Games Hall of Fame (2006) 
eSports Award China eSports Player of the Year (2009) 
eSports Award China eSports Player of the Year (2008) 
GGL Warcraft 3 Player of the Year (2006) 
Electronic Sports League WarCraft 3 League Season 9 Rookie of the Year 
 
SK Gaming prize money list (up to 2009): 162.772$

Profile of Lyn

Lyn rose to be one of the absolute strongest players in Korea 2006-2007, proving himself increasingly more successful every year which culminated in him dominating Korean as well as international competitions in the 2008 season including BlizzCon and Extreme Masters victories. He was signed to World Elite from its inception to 2007, winning NGL One as well as WC3L as a member of the team. He subsequently signed with SK-Gaming late 2007 and succesfully defended his WC3L title as part of the team. In 2009 he could not repeat his overall 2008 success but managed to defend his BlizzCon title as well as take third place at the 2009 World Cyber Games. He signed to WeMadeFOX later playing alongside Moon, winning another WC3L title with the team. He remains one of the best players in the world, winning the 2010 Electronic Sports World Cup.

Awards
GGL WarCraft Revelation of the Year (2007) [shared with Creolophus]
Electronic Sports League WarCraft 3 League Season 12 Most Valuable Player
Electronic Sports League WarCraft 3 League Season 11 Most Improved Player

SK-Gaming Prize Money list (up to 2009): 191.562$

Profile of ToD

ToD was one of the strongest Europeans in Reign of Chaos, taking fourth place at ESWC 2003. He joined Four Kings on their Korea trip and grew to be competitive at the highest level, taking third place at WCG 2004. He would remain in Seoul for almost a year and subsequently he competed successfully at many events, claiming his first world championship title by winning the WEG Masters early 2006. Following his victory he emerged as one of the absolute best players of the world 2006-2007, winning the Extreme Masters and Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. By mid-2006 he moved to China in hopes of competing at events there. He was also a key-player for Four Kings alongside Grubby and instrumental in their four WC3L championships. Later on he signed with Mousesports and experienced a drop in motivation, continuing to compete with various levels of success until finally retiring by early 2009.

Awards
eSports Award Best WarCraft III Player (2007)
eSports Award eSports Team of the Year (2005) [Four Kings]
GGL Player of the Year (2007)

SK-Gaming Prize Money list (up to 2009): 122.659$

And finally a profile of ReMinD. When this article was originally written he was not included, but following the results of WCG 2010 and BlizzCon 2010 it seems hard not to add a sixth name to the big five.

ReMinD originally made his name online in the Battle.net competitions of which he won season I and II as well in various competitions such as the WarCraft 3 Champions League and ESL’s King of the Hill. He would remain one of the dominant online players throughout his career, winning a record 24 ZOTAC Cups. His first offline succes came with a second place at ACON 5. At the time he competed for recognition among several Korean professional gamers doing well, his real breakout year was 2007 which saw him win Battle.net season IV (offline), take 2nd place at BlizzCon and win e-Stars Seoul. He would not repeat this level of success in 2008 or 2009 but definitely ranked among the best players of those years as well. ReMinD eventually peaked after the decline of the WarCraft III had definitely set in by becoming the first Korean player to be crowned World Cyber Games champion in 2010 as well as by winning BlizzCon 2010 keeping the tournament’s title in Korea for a third year straight. ReMinD is also noted for his friendly and mannered personality, his friendship with ESWC 2007 champion SoJu, as well as being publically known to have a strong sense of (christian) religion.

SK Gaming prize money list (up to 2009): 53.879$ 

Not only players are important however. Teams played a role in WC3 as well.

Which teams contributed the most to the scene in terms of helping players develop?
Obviously this is a hard question to answer and worthy of an entire article on its own. The biggest gap in this article is the lack of information on the early Korean scene so it can’t be answered fully here. What can be done however is a highlight the biggest contributors based on the amount of “world champions” each team produced (which is very subjective as what constitutes a world champion is subjective to begin with). You could rank the teams based on their accomplishments (MYM or Four Kings would come on top depending on how you make the ranking); but ultimately a team’s role in history is better expressed in what they did in terms of helping the players evolve (in my opinion there’s little accomplishment for a team in buying already established players just for them to continue doing well).

What you see below are the teams and what players were associated with them at the time of their first world championship victory, you’ll see that victory mentioned as well as possibly some other notable ones. Also mentioned is made of other notable players that saw their reputation grow during their time with the team.

SK-Gaming (five world champions totaling seven titles)

- HeMaN (ESWC 2003)
- Insomnia (WCG 2003)
- MaDFroG (BWI 2004; not officially signed to SK at the time, FrienZ also played an important part in his development)
- Deadman (KODE5 2006)
- Lyn (BlizzCon 2008, BlizzCon 2009, ESWC 2010; World Elite also played an important part in his development)

Other notable players signed for a long time by SK include: HoT, Sweet, Zacard & Miou.

SK Gaming was one of the more successful teams in terms of seeing players grow. The Europeans (Insomnia, HeMaN, MaDFroG & DominatoR) that went to Korea all came back a lot stronger. Zacard and Sweet really emerged as dominant players in the scene while being signed by SK for years. They also signed and watched develop the two iconic players of the eastern European scene: Deadman & HoT. And naturally Lyn emerged to become a superstar under the wings of SK-Gaming.

World Elite (four world champions totaling ten titles)

- Sky (ACON 5, WCG 2005, WCG 2006, IEST 2009)
- Sweet (WEG III, BWI 2006; SK Gaming also played an important part in his development)
- ReMinD (Battle.net IV)
- SoJu (ESWC 2007)
- InFi (KODE5 2008, WCG 2009)

Other notable players signed for a long time by WE include: SuhO, TeD, Like & Lyn.

Sky and InFi are associated with no other team than World Elite and its predecessor Yoliny and remain active until today. This is unique among all players listed here. ReMinD, Sweet and SoJu all were already established professionals at the time of their signing but really came into their own while playing for the China-based team. The team is also notable for producing the currently strongest Undead player of the world in TeD.

Four Kings (three world champions totaling nine titles)
- Grubby (WCG 2004, BlizzCon 2005, ESWC 2005, WSVG 2006, WCG 2008)
- ToD (WEG Masters, BWI 2007)
- Creolophus (BlizzCon 2007, WCG 2007; Fnatic also played a part in his development)

Other notable players signed for a long time by 4K include: Zeus[19], FuRy & FoV.

All players mentioned above went from being merely top to rank among the world’s best during the many years they played for the team. The only exception to this is FoV who was already ESWC champion at the time of his. The team was extremely close and a had an exceptionally stable line-up through the years they existed.

mTw (two world champions totaling two titles)
- Wizard (ACON 4)
- WhO (ESWC 2008)

Other notable players signed for a long time by mTw include: ThePig, Tak3r, LasH & DaviN.

mTw was one of the dominant teams in early WarCraft III and saw their position slipping as the scene grew. Strangely perhaps for a team that focused mostly on the German scene, they produced two world champion players from two different non-European continents (and arguably might not have had a huge role in either player’s development). Wizard and WhO both carried the mTw tag while scoring the successes that defined their respective careers.

MeetYourMakers (one world champion totaling one title)
- Lucifer (ESWC 2006)

Other notable players signed for a long time by MYM include: Ciara, Susiria, FoCuS & Storm.

MYM is most known for having signed Grubby & Moon. Both were very much established players at the time however. MYM did play an important part in the career of several Korean players, most notable of which are Lucifer and Susiria both of which saw major growth during their stay with the team.

Other World champion players:

- Moon (WEG I, WEG II, IEST 2006, Game-X, BWI 2007, IEST 2007, MBC WWW; no team to credit in particular)
- FoV (ESWC 2004; no team to credit in particular though he played for ArmaTeam at the time of his win)

There might be Korean pro-teams to credit for both these players, but this article lacks the information to help make that call.

World Elite, SK-Gaming and Four Kings really are in a league of their own when it comes to having produced great players. Several of the most successful players in history have literally attained the bulk of their achievements representing World Elite and Four Kings even though they were first signed at a point where they had none to few achievements to their name. SK Gaming produced the first champions to all three of the major events of history: WCG, ESWC and BlizzCon (to which BWI can been seen as a predecessor). They would continue to be an important team in terms of helping players grow with Deadman, Zacard, HoT and Lyn all having their strongest periods carrying the SK flag.

MeetYourMakers and mTw also both produced several noteworthy players. In the case of mTw their legacy might not be so much in Wizard and WhO as they just more or less happened to be signed at the time of their respective victories (they could have as easily been made for other teams); they should probably be credited more for nurturing several of Germany’s iconic players, most notable of which is Tak3r. MeetYourMakers’ role is defined by the Korean players signed to them longest. If there was no Meet Your Makers it seems very much in doubt that Susiria would have had such a long and active career (as he mainly gained fame and success representing the team in leagues) and the team also helped Lucifer develop from a hot prospect to someone that could unseat Moon as the champion of Korea (albeit it briefly).

Of course a lot teams not mentioned here have had tremendous impact on the WarCraft III scene (and continue to have in the case of for example WeMadeFOX who have RohJinWook & SocceR signed). These are just highlights on a subject on which can be written far more extensively.

A history of 2v2 competitions

As anyone reading the history might have noticed, there is little attention paid to 2v2 competitions. This is in part because I felt it would be distracting to add 2v2 to the narratives already paid attention to. But it is also because I felt people might appreciate to have history’s most notable 2v2 results bundled together. Tournaments included are:

EPS Germany season I
WCG 2003 Nations
Battle.net season I
Battle.net season II
ClanBase EuroCup XII

All these competitions are introduced more properly in the main article. EPS (Electronic Pro Series) is the main national competition in Germany organized by the Electronic Sports Leage. WCG (World Cyber Games, backed by Samsung) is an annual world championship event widely considered the premier tournament of Warcraft III. Battle.net (owned by Blizzard Entertainment) is the online integrated ladder system behind Warcaft III. The EuroCup is a long running online competition organized by ClanBase occasionally featuring lan finals, at the event we’re describing the Global Gaming League (GGL) was active in eSports (or v-Sports as the case might be) and they helped WarCraft III gain backing as a main event in the series.

What is definitely worth a read as well are the 2v2 results in WC3L from season 1 to 10, as bundled together by Storch here[http://eslgfx.net/media/de/news/2007/wc3/wc3l/WC3L-S1-S10-Stats.pdf]. An overview of the prize money won per player as far as these tournaments tell us will also be included.

EPS Germany season I took place between August 10, 2002 and December 15, 2002 at Germany and featured fourteen teams. It featured the only WarCraft III competitions at German EPS to take place using 2v2 and as taken from the wc3database had the following results:

EPS Germany season I
1. Orcish Empire (OgerEli & OgerHell: 15.000 EUR)
2. Ocrana1.D-Link (Thagor & FiRe: 7.500 EUR)
3. mTw.aTn (Matzerg & Modo: 4.000 EUR)
4. Ocrana2 (SkY & TaKe: 1.500 EUR)
5. Nightfall (ver & ?)
6. Orcish Empire (OgerTob & ?)
7. SK-Gaming (Ken & sTOrM)
8. Ocrana (HoRRoR & ?
9. Demons of Starcraft (DerTick & ?)
10. shuuk (MIA & ?)
11. rAiL (Lenny & ?)
11. Double D (? & ?)
11. niNJ Clan (niNJ & ?)
11. a-L (Ixtana & FatRandy)

The players representing the Orcish Empire might have won what was the most serious 2v2 competition in WarCraft III, ever. All other WarCraft III 2v2 competitions featuring large sums of prize money featured players that were focused primarily on 1v1 competitions (whereas I would imagine that the Germans taking place in this competition were focused primarily on 2v2).

WCG 2003 took place October 12-18 at Seoul, Korea. Fifteen national teams competed for the gold, bronze and silver in the last WCG event to feature nation tournaments. The event (WCG nations tournament in general) is notable for featuring the first major tournament top three finishes for both MaDFroG (bronze at WCG Nations StarCraft in 2001) and Grubby (this event). Results taken from the WC3database.

WCG Nations 2003
1. Chinese Taipei (ShaMan and Slacash: 7.000 USD)
2. United Kingdom (TillerMaN and BoNd: 5.000 USD)
3. Netherlands (Grubby and Myth: 2.000 USD)
4. China
5. France
5. Malaysia
5. Russia
5. Bulgaria
9. Hongkong
9. Slovakia
9. South Korea
9. Ukraine
9. Germany (miou, Tak3r)
9. Kazakhstan
9. Peru
9. Philippines
17. Poland
17. India
17. Czech Republic
17. South Africa
17. Mexico
17. Canada
17. Romania
17. Australia
17. Italy
17. Vietnam
17. Spain
17. Turkey
17. USA
17. Switzerland

ShaMan did really well at this event overall, also taking fourth at the individual competition. The notable presence of Chinese Taipei at WCG overall suggests they were one of the stronger WC3 nations at the time, but if this was the case they lost their competitiveness with other nations later on.

Battle.net season I took place online during 2004 and featured the best teams of every Battle.net region (Asia, Europe, US East, US West) compete for a chance to be crowned the first champion team of Battle.net. The winners and runner-ups in each region were (all of which saw sixteen teams compete in a single elimination bracket):

Kalimdor (Asia) 2v2 Champions
ShowTime.WeRRa & RendeyQ
Runners-Up: PhoeNix_ReMinD & PhoeNix_SoJu

Northrend (Europe) 2v2 Champions
aNc.DeliCato & aNc.SjoW
Runners-Up: Jill.Kelly & Sky-Lopez

Azeroth (US West) 2v2 Champions
Legato[CF] & NewBlee[GGL]
Runners-Up: CmdrCD1 & Strifecro

Lordaeron (US East) 2v2 Champions
mechanix & seksi
Runners-Up: BaByPeOn & PoW.Llano

Blizzard decided to mock the skills of players focusing on 2v2 by sending all these players an autographed copy of World of Warcraft. Each member of a champion team received one Grom Hellscream statue as well to make up for the drop in manliness that comes with owning a copy of World of Warcraft.

The final results were:
1. ShowTime.WeRRa & RendeyQ (1.200$)
2. aNc.DeliCato & aNc.SjoW (300$)
3. Legato[CF] & NewBlee[GGL]
3. mechanix & seksi

DeliCato and SjoW would remain one of the most successful 2v2 teams for years to come. ReMinD and SoJu would use their 2v2 skills to carry two WC3L teams to victory. Legato and NewBlee would also remain well regarded 2v2 players. The strength of USA teams in 2v2 in general was seen as relatively high compared to their individual prowess.

Season II took place online in 2005 and featured the following champions and runner-ups of the four gateways:

Winners
Kalimdor: PhoeNix_ReMinD & PhoeNix_SoJu
Northrend: Target & Zipper
Azeroth: FarSeer & Check
Lordaeron: 2winnerz & 2winners

Runner-ups
Kalimdor: ShowTime.weRRA & RendeyQ
Northrend: SexyPoncho & SexyPonka
Azeroth: KoD-Axslav & KoD-Hero
Lordaeron: BobBarker[GGL] & DonVito[GGL]

Final results:
1. FarSeer & Check
2. ReMinD & SoJu
3. Target & Zipper
3. 2winnerz & 2winners

The prizes were (as taken from the battle.net page):

Prize Packages: 2v2 Competition (both members of the 2v2 team will receive this package)

Battle.net Overall 2v2 Champions
US $4,000
PCMCIA Sound Blaster®
Audigy®
2 ZS NotebookRazer Diamondback & Razer eXactMat
Z-Board base keyboard + World of Warcraft keyset
D-Link DGL-4300

Battle.net Overall 2v2 Runners-Up
Alienware Area-51 computer + Microsoft XP Professional
PCMCIA Sound Blaster®
Audigy® 2 ZS Notebook
Razer Diamondback & Razer eXactMatZ-Board
base keyboard + World of Warcraft keyset
D-Link DGL-4300Gateway

2v2 Champions
PCMCIA Sound Blaster®
Audigy®
2 ZS NotebookRazer Diamondback & Razer eXactMatZ-Board
base keyboard + World of Warcraft keyset
D-Link DGL-4300Gateway

2v2 Runners-Up
Sound Blaster®
Audigy®
2 ZSRazer Diamondback & Razer eXactMat
Microsoft XP HomeD-Link DGL-4100

Taking place throughout 2006, the transatlantic finals of the Euro- and AmeriCup organized by GGL took place at and featured the following top four:

1. MYM.Hanbit – 7.500$
Lucifer & Moon

2. Revolution Sports – 3.750$
Axslav & Strifecro

3. Four Kings – 2.250$
Grubby & ToD

4. United 5 – 1.500$
Nilknarf & Incinerator

Which leads to the following prize money list for 2v2 players (total prize money by the individual player and all partners won shown, so in actuality they probably received halve of it):

2v2 tournament prize money list
1. Eli – 18.905$
1. Hell – 18.905$
3. Thagor - 9.455$
3. FiRe - 9.455$
5. FarSeer – 8.000$
5. Check – 8.000$
7. Moon – 7.500$
7. Lucifer – 7.500$
9. ShaMaN – 7.000$
9. Slacash – 7.000$
11. Matzerg - 5.042$
11. Modo - 5.042$
13. TillerMaN – 5.000$
13. BoNd – 5.000$
15. Grubby – 4.250$
16. Axslav – 3.750$
16. Strifecro – 3.750$
18. ToD – 2.250$
19. Myth – 2.000$
20. SkY - 1.890$
20. TaKe - 1.890$
22. Nilknarf – 1.500$
22. Incinerator – 1.500$
24. ShowTime – 1.200$
24. RendeyQ – 1.200$
26. DeliCato – 300$
26. SjoW – 300$

Which wraps up the 2v2 chapter!