StarCraft 2

It's time for another roundup of the week's top stories from the world of competitive SC2.This week saw lots of noise from the major tournaments as NASL re-appeared with it's plans for it's second season, the GSL began the race for Code A and MLG nearly made the PR blunder of the year. Let's have a look at what's going down in StarCraft town.

For both pro players and fans the news that a new patch is coming comes with a mixture of hope and trepidation. It seems that the proposed 1.4 patch is going over very well with everyone in the SC2 world, although it's currently just people theorycrafting wildly as to what the changes will bring. Despite being one of the races most powerful units, a Hellion nerf has been greated with relief by Terran players who have endured a few months of ridiculous TvT games that have resembled a Mexican Standoff between Blue Flames Hellions, Vikings and Siege Tanks. The proposed Fungal Growth nerf has hardly been met with outrage by Zerg players which is a good measure of just how powerful the ability has been since it's buff. Reduced cost Overseers should see some of their scouting grumbles die down, with an increased mana cost for Contaminate meaning that ZvZ won't turn into an Overseer gloop-fest. Protoss will enjoy hardier Warp Prisms and longer-ranged Immortals, which might see a huge shift in midgame Protoss compositions and tactics. A further Blink nerf means PvP might end up being a completely different beast to the one-dimensional 4-gate play that has dogged the match-up so far. It's always the way that you never know the exact impact of a patch until a month or so down the line, but this certainly seems one of the more measured and reasonable patches to SC2 so far.

A couple of weeks ago we reported that the popular Zerg player, CoCa, had left ZeNeX to join SlayerS. At the time it was rumoured that their star Protoss player Puzzle would also soon be moving over, and this week the rumours were confirmed. Puzzle is a fantastic pickup for the Terran-heavy SlayerS team, especially after his amazing showing in the GSL group stages. The move leaves ZeNeX in real trouble, and rumours still abound that the team may soon disappear altogether.

Last week we reported that the former IEM Americas champion Fenix has left Fnatic. The Terran has been staying in Korea for the last few months and has shown some decent results, including three back to back sets in the team league against oGs, with the Kratos Protoss, MC, being his final scalp. He arrived at the event in an Incredible Miracle shirt, and shortly after then event was officially announced as an IM player. Fenix becomes the first foreign player to officially join a Korean team and as such had to try to qualify for Code A the hard way in the Code B play-offs, where he unfortunately fell in round two.

Drama an e-sports are never far away from each other. This week we got what was possibly a huge scandal, but it was nipped in the bud very early and quickly forgotten. Not that it didn't threaten to tear e-sports limb from limb for a few hours. A leaked MLG email showed the bigwigs at Major League Gaming's new shirt regulations. Teams sponsors would have to be small and at the bottom of the shirts, making them as good as invisible when players appeared on camera. A mass boycott was quickly threatened by the Korean teams and many of the Western ones, until just a few hours later MLGSundance posted that the whole thing was a misunderstanding and it was merely an attempt to help the Halo teams with their shirt specifications. Whether the whole thing was a massive U-turn or a misunderstanding is anyone's guess, but the affair left a sour taste in the mouth of many SC2 teams as Complexity co-owner Jason Lake explains


SC2's big brother, the e-sports monolith Brood War, seems to be in a bit of trouble at the moment. As well as WeMadeFox disbanding (which we reported here last week), it now seems that two more teams, MBC Hero and Hwaseung OZ, are also about to bite this dust. This is extrememly worrying news for Brood War in Korea, particularly as the TV Channel MBC recently announced it was stopping it's StarCraft coverage and ending its StarLeague. Kespa has promised to try and find new sponsors for the teams but it will be a surprise if at least one of them doesn't disappear. Normally we wouldn't be covering Brood War news, but if all three teams cease to exist then we might start seeing more Brood War pro's switch over to StarCraft II.

While most of the major Western SC2 tournaments have been new concoctions, such as the IPL and the NASL, the Electronic Sports World Cup is part of the old guard. It was started in 2003 by French company Ligarena as a rival to the World Cyber Games. The tournament was bought out by Games Solution in 2009 and since has come into a fair deal of criticism for how it has been run. Many old school competitive gamers in the StarCraft community were excited to see SC2 represented at this years tournament, but the news that players would be charged 200 Euros and teams 1000 Euros to attend saw Mouz, EG, mTw and many others turn the event down.

The latest player to make the jump from Brood War to SC2 is Yellow. Yellow has joined Boxer, July and Nada in the group of Brood War legends now trying their luck in SC2. With achievements spanning nearly ten years and numerous titles to his name, Yellow could possibly outstrip the other legends given that he was still near the top of the Brood War scene when he retired a few weeks ago. After being given a copy of Wings of Liberty at his retirement ceremony by Boxer, Yellow then joined Slayers and took part in a documentary series by GOMTV, called Project A. Cameras followed the Storm Zerg as he learnt the ins and outs of SC2 with the help of several of the most famous names in the GSL. After a few short weeks of training he then tried his luck at the Code A qualifiers where unfortunately he fell early to the unknown Protoss Maelstrom. It was a huge anti-climax given the hype of Yellow's transition, but is most certainly just the beginning of his SC2 adventure.

The NASL finished their invite announcements this week and revealed who would be playing who in the group stage. The groups have been reduced in size from ten players to eight, which should make the matches a little less endless this time around. The lack of a strong Korean prescence (and snubs by the two current Western superstars Naniwa and Thorzain) has certainly hurt the organisation, but even so the line-up seems as strong as it could possibly be given what they've got to work with. We'll see players like DeMuslim, Jinro, Huk and DiMaGa for the first time, as well as previous champion Puma and Liquid's Korean acquisition Hero compete alongside a glut of returning players from Season One. There will still be a ton of players coming to the finals from Open Tournament, and it remains to be seen whether some of the Korean teams will change their mind about the NASL by the time the open bracket comes around.

There's few players who enjoy such a rabid following as the ex-WarCraft 3 legend Grubby. The charasmatic Dutchman brings an amazing six WC3 world titles to Wings of Liberty, as well as a huge legion of fans. Despite his impressive credentials Grubby has struggled so far with SC2, with his abysmal performance in the NASL being a particular low-point. Never one to back down from a challenge though, Grubby has announced this week that he'll spend a month in Korea. Whether this is to attempt to qualify for Code A or just to hone is skills remains to be seen, but it should be a good move for him that gives him a great chance to improve his play.

Happy Birthday GSL. Home of such megastars as BitByBitPrime, SanZenith and TheBestFou, Korea's premier SC2 tournament celebrates it's first birthday this week. As a special treat for the fans they will be allowing free access to their VoDs for forty eight hours, from the 3rd to the 5th. So grab some popcorn and relive all those marvellous cannon rushes and one base all-ins from Season One. I kid, I kid. With such amazing games as FruitDealer's domineering final against HopeTorture, MarineKing earning his name by introducing the world to Marine splits against Kyrix, Jinro's amazing Mech build on Scrap Station against MC, TLO's desperate Nuke play, Idra's greatest hour in the January group stages or July's sudden explosion of aggressive Zerg play, there's a feast of the finest SC2 play for you to enjoy. Seriously, there's so many great moments from the sublime to the ridiculous you'd be a fool to miss out. There will also be a special All-Stars Tournament held to commemorate one year of the GSL, so head on over to GOMTV and vote for which players you'd like to see participate.

Wellplayed.org released a great video this week, a half hour mini documentary on the first year of SC2. Featuring interviews with such notable figures as Jinro, KiwiKaki and Naniwa, the half hour featurette is a slick and interesting look at a year of SC2 from the players point of view and well worth a watch.

And there we have it, another week of fun and games behind the scenes of SC2. We've got the GSL Semi's and Finals this week, so make sure to tune in for the last Terran dominated Code S before the patch kicks in. I asked Naniwa this week what he thought would happen with the changes to Warp Prisms and Immortals to which he replied he'd "drop lot's of immortals onto terran siege tanks I guess ". Hardly the words you'd expect from a master tactitican, but I'd rather watch that than another Hellion drop that's for sure. See you next time.

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