Progaming

The Great White American Hype!

2011-06-20 by tzenes. 1 comments

When MLG (Major League Gaming) announced the player swap program with the GSL (Gom Star League), there was a lot of discussion.  Was MLG getting more out of the deal? Were the foreign players getting the short end of the stick with only a Code A placement?  Regardless of how you felt, everyone was excited to see a cast of pro Korean players come down to participate at MLG Dallas:  MMAMoonLoSirA, and Bomber; and then, as if that were not enough at the last second Bomber had to drop out (for visa reasons) and was replaced by the Kratoss himself oGsMC.  Had the God of War arisen to deny foreign players even this tournament?

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TSL, or the Myth that is Korea

2011-03-29 by tzenes. 0 comments

DATELINE TARSONIS SECTOR… no, wait.  I made that joke once before and no one thought it was funny.  Let’s skip that and boil down to the TSL.  For those of you who aren’t giant Brood War nerds who dream about watching MenSol[ZerO] from an Opera balcony in a tuxedo, you’re probably unfamiliar with the history of the TSL.  Back in the dark ages of Brood War, if you wanted to be a professional StarCraft player, but didn’t want to transplant yourself to Seoul, there weren’t many options available to you.  These days, a $30,000 tournament doesn’t seem to turn heads, but once upon a time you were lucky to find a $200 tournament.  WCG, was the only place for American StarCraft players to compete.  Many of the big names today were once WCG medalists (Day9, Artosis, Idra, iNcontroL).  But WCG wasn’t that often, and the tournaments were small.  So a small group of gamers, under the name TeamLiquid, started up their own tournament and even managed to land Razer as their backer.  For North American Progamers, this was a landmark moment. more »