GSL Season Three Begins

GSL is an acronym known to nearly all avid starcraft nerds as being the "Wimbledon" of E-sports. The Global starcraft league as it's known is the popular korean almost bi-monthly series of tournaments; (where the knockout tournaments are known as "seasons") where the best and the greatest of starcraft players duke it out in an either series of three games or 5 for finals. This event brings people from around the world to the home of e-sports, South Korea where the games played there have the potential to change the face of starcraft and the game as we know it. This happens so often, the metagames shifts so very often to the point where each month is a new flavour of play, and consequently leaving starcraft with a dynamic that many would consider alive. The game itself is incredibly rigid, and stays that way until the great starcraft community turns this game alive, making malleable play, and consequently giving blizzard a hard time working out what part of the game needs to be edited or "nerfed".

A prime example of how the korean scene has shifted the metagame in various ways is the stylings of a proffessional korean gamer known to many as SlayersBoxer. This man was known in brood war days as the emperor, a tribute to his strategic play and revolutionising the starcraft game. Recently Boxer has caused uproar in the korean scene with his wonderful play from the GSL season 2; to the point where he impacted every korean zerg player to the very core.

But what does this seasons GSL (season 3) have to offer. We see players revolutionise the games in different ways with such unique plays; the hyperaggresive, overextending style of aggression(high econ bane/zerg) has become ubiquitous with the name kyrix, what are we going to see now.

You can catch season three of the GSL at http://www.gomtv.net/2010gslopens3/ for previous games (note you need a premium account to access games two and three of many of these sets)or you can catch the live feed at http://www.gomtv.net/live

OMW TO DIAMOND AMG

here it is folks, the winning streak that will hopefully bring me all the way to the bottom of diamond in 4v4's (mind you a lot of these games have been against players who we as a team have been heavily favoured for); but irregardless, a streak of 10 wins stands tall on its own. I would guess that around 4-5 of these games have been with heavy concentrations of diamond league players, but alas, no diamond for me.

This streak has also altered my w/l ratio quite a bit. My current w/l ratio stands at a mighty 66.6% which i hope to somehow increase with a shiteload of luck. Maybe one day i will reach the elusive diamond league!

If anyone wants to have a good fun game with this poor platinum noob, then you can hit me up with an invite either on starcraft(my character id is #833 on SEA servers) or if you frequent the starcraftarena.net forums then you can pm me "HoriZon!" there.

John the starcraft 2 translator

First of all I'd like to say I have a great respect for NesTea not just because he won the tournament but because this guy had the courage to do what he wanted to do and proved he was right.I'm saying this because too many people even in Korea consider playing games is a waste of time.I, myself, was unemployed for 2 years , bout a year and a half before I joined GOM.All I did was play games at home and my friends would say that I'm wasting my life.Well...uhm..who's laughing now ?. I asked them " Can you honestly say that you like your job " and I asked them " Do you have a fan who draws a fanart just for you ? ". That shuts them up.

So everytime you feel ashamed of being a nerd and your friends, teachers, neighbours and even parents think gaming is a waste of time you'll remember there's no such thing as wasting life as long as you have the courage to do what you like and be passionate about it.You'll remember , if NesTea listened to all those critics he wouldn't be standing there with a trophy and you'll remember that even if you feel nobody around you supports you that I, Jay, Artosis and Tasteless, everyone in GOM will support you.Why ? Because we believe in esports. -Junkka November 2010 at the GSL season 2 finals.

Me playing terran

Just playing some interesting games, playing as terran goes very well. It's interesting to see how the different races play out; the discrepancies between the microing and macroing of different races.

Here we have it. I am picking it up though, really learning what terran has to offer, and terran as a race in whole is amazing; it teaches you so much about macroing and microing; absolutely fucking amazing.

Moar starcraft shenanigans

So lately folks my sleeping patterns have gone to shit. As a result i have been playing starcraft2 at very strange times of day. On Thursday i partook in some 6am starcrafts with some old guildies from Mac which made for some interesting play. It's amazing how strange the brain acts at particular times of days(especially 6am).

Anyways here is what starcraft2 looks like on my horrid computer(this baby has lasted me around 4 years now so it's still got a little kick in her).



These were some screenshots from a few games with a mate from Wow. Very good protoss (mid diamond if i recall)and zerg and it's interesting, because at the lower brackets games just are not enjoyable, the opposing player always has to try something gimmicky; they are always in it for the cheese, whereas most good players won't play for the cheese, they will play for the midgame, because they know that midgame starcraft 1v1 is where you are at your strongest and your weakest, and allows for strategy. It's quite refreshing actually to see a game get past the 10 minute line without my opponent making an ass of himself doing some sort of cheese.

Starcraft 2 shenanigans

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=161783

This game was between myself and my old guild master on World of Warcraft. It was a cannon rush that didn't work out.

Anyway i think the way i handled that cannon rush was pretty good, for one it was a pretty terrible one at that, and the one mistake i did make was not putting my guard sentry on hold [H]. Besides that i won fairly easy with superior economy and tech.

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=161781

This replay was between myself and a player named Bloodmoon on the SEA servers. I have started playing on the SEA servers occasionally and was a ladder matchup. I don't ladder nearly as often as i should, and when i do it is usually 3v3 or 4v4. This game was fairly easy, and my hero probe at the start running with my first lot plus superior micro won me the game.

Great Scott! Where has the time gone!?

So in this world of starbucks, internet, blogging, e-networking and the still tasty coca cola that Marty Mcfly enjoyed in his time, i have a question; would "Doc" Emmett Brown have seen this world the way we see it, and more importantly, would he be happy with this future that he has visited. Also, how much have we changed since the producers of BTTF (backtothefuture) envisioned this day. Did they seriously think in the naive days of 1985 that the not-so-far future would be similar to what they created. DID THEY REALLY EXPECT HOVERBOARDS!>!>!>!

Well i have to say that 25 years is a very short time in terms of the world of humandkind, and just a pinprick in the great lifespan of the earth. It took millions of years for neanderthals or monkeys or the missinglink or "politically correct term" to invent the spear, and discover fire; so you could say there was a minute miscalculation on their part. Like when we look at it, not much has really changed. Sure we dont have Deloreans everywhere, but we are still listening to Michael Jackson, the US is still scared of black people and the government still blows, but hey, it aint ever gonna change.

Here's a question i pose to you; what do you imagine 25 years into the future is going to be like, and do you think hoverboards will exist then?Or will it be bigger, will we have nanotechnology and have to bow down to our Evil ant overlords, or Libyans?