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47-437: An English language stream is available, aimed at a global audience. The English cast was mainly performed by Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski and Nicolas "Tasteless" Plott until 2022; in 2023, it switched to Tasteless and Ryan "State" Visbeck. Early broadcasts were done on GOMTV's website and player; it switched to Twitch and Afreeca's own platform after Afreeca took over; and the program now broadcasts on Mondays and Thursdays, with

94-586: A "gateway" for bringing unfamiliar crowds into StarCraft . Artosis cast alongside Tasteless at the 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series Europe finals, Australian and Oceania finals, and UK nationals, DreamHack Winter 2011, IGN Pro League Season Two, and Major League Gaming 2012 Spring Arena, Raleigh, and 2011 Orlando. Artosis cast solo at the 2013 DreamHack Open in Stockholm. Two in-game Easter egg characters in StarCraft II: Heart of

141-612: A Code A champion, but rather victors would proceed into the Code S tournament. The 2012 tour changed the tournament format slightly, resulting in a longer season. Due to the extended season, there was only be 5 GSL tournaments in the year. In 2013, the GSL and the OnGameNet Starleague (OSL) jointly ran the Korean qualifier league for Blizzard Entertainment 's World Championship Series (WCS) under

188-516: A combination known as "Tastosis." The pair were considered a major draw of the tournament and helped establish a new standard in esports commentary in the English-language market, with the pair praised as "fan favorites" and their work praised as iconic to the medium. Artosis departed from Korea to move to Canada in 2022, with his last cast being of the 2022 GSL S3 Final in October 2022. From 2023 to

235-499: A direct qualifier into the main Code S tournament rather than a separate tournament. Champions of special tournaments are not considered GSL Champions. The third Arena of Legends tournament's name comes from Hong Jin-ho , a Brood War legend who was famous for getting second place. It invited non-champion runner-up players from previous GSL tournaments. GOMeXp (then GOMTV) ran a team league named GOMTV Global StarCraft II Team League (GSTL) from 2011 to 2013. In late 2011–2012,

282-501: A hallmark of Korean Starcraft II Tournaments, on October 15, 2022, after which he departed from Korea to move to Canada. Artosis regularly streams his StarCraft gameplay on his Twitch channel. Artosis's main sources of income are from venues like Twitch subscriptions, Patreon , casting gigs, and direct donations through StreamElements, Twitch Bits, and Tangia, the majority of which are spurred by viewers of his Twitch chat paying for text-to-speech to read out usually inane things on

329-513: A league for veteran StarCraft players and reviving the fortunes of StarCraft . The first activity was the inaugural "Star Final Four" event match held on 5 February 2014. Hong competed with Kang Min (Nal_rA), Park Jun-Suk (Reach) and Lee Byung-Min (GoodFriend). He eventually won the event. YellOw came out of retirement after he was one of eight players invited to the GOMtv classic in February 2014, one of

376-481: A prize of 100 million Won for the winner. These attracted attention as they featured the largest prize pool in the history of e-Sports . The Open Seasons were used to sort the players into Code S and Code A for the 2011 season. The major tournaments of the early era were divided into Code S and Code A. Code S is the major league and consists of 32 top players in Korea, with the winner of Code S crowned GSL champion. Code A

423-473: A small apartment with 15 teenage pro gamers. As StarCraft II ' s launch neared, Artosis and another American commentator living in Seoul, Nick "Tasteless" Plott , had individually amassed significant followings, and had the interest of commercial broadcast networks. The two began casting together and became known by a portmanteau of their nicknames, Tasteless and Artosis, as Tastosis. Before this partnership,

470-480: Is a South Korean television personality, poker player, and former professional StarCraft player who plays under the alias [NC]...YellOw or simply YellOw . In 2012, he became the coach of the Xenics Storm League of Legends pro gaming team. As a television personality, he is most known for his appearances in the reality survival show The Genius and the variety show Crime Scene . Hong, nicknamed

517-474: Is given GSL Code S seed and top three non-Korean players (top four if the winner is Korean) are given Code A seeds. MLG Columbus 2011 was the first event to see Korean invites. Moon "MMA" Sung Won won the tournament and the other invites finished 2nd, 3rd, and 8th. Non-Korean players accepting Code A seeds were Johan "NaNiWa" Lucchesi, Marcus "ThorZaIN" Eklöf, and Jian Carlo "Fenix" Morayra Alejo. They participated in both GSL August and GSTL August team leagues. For

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564-498: Is now currently a coach for League of Legends. In 2013, he was cast along with eleven contestants in the first season of the Korean reality television game show, The Genius: Rules of the Game . The series debuted on tvN starting on 26 April 2013. It featured weekly game challenges involving team politics and individual tactical play. Hong quickly became a fan favourite as he demonstrated his mental fortitude in strategic game play. He finished

611-478: Is the minor league, also of 32 players. The initial rules were that the winner of the Code A tournament automatically qualifies to Code S. The top seven Code A players and bottom eight Code S players participate in Up & Down Matches in groups of five players. The top two of each group qualified to Code S. Code A qualifiers were also held before the start of a new season. Top ranking players (informally called Code B) on

658-605: The KeSPA announced that it would accept only OnGameNet Starleague (OSL) and MSL records. His notable victories include first place in the 2003 ITV 5th Starleague, the Snickers All-Star league in 2005, and the first BlizzCon invitational tournament. Hong suffered his last major defeat against Han "Casy" Dong-wook in the semi-finals of the Shinhan Bank Season 1 OSL in 2006, and claimed 3rd place. Due to his poor performance in

705-506: The "Storm Zerg" and "Kong (means bean in Korean ) Jin-ho", is known for his aggressive and harass-style play, and for his rivalry with BoxeR . He is famous for never having won first place in major StarCraft tournaments despite his strong performances. Hong managed to finish second place six times in events which earned him the title "King of Silver". While there are some tournaments in which he finished first, these records were invalidated when

752-624: The 2000s, especially on PokerStars . He is currently sponsored by the online Japanese Brand J88Poker. He has won major Asian tournaments such as Asian Poker Tour Championships Event in Taiwan and the J88Poker Tour Shanghai Main Event. In 2022, Hong won his first WSOP bracelet in the $ 1,979 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty No-Limit Hold'em event, winning $ 276,067. On 25 May 2023, Hong announced his upcoming marriage to his girlfriend. On March 17, 2024, Hong married his girlfriend, who

799-510: The English casts on YouTube , since 2020. As of the end of 2015 GSL Season 2, GOMTV has awarded over 3.6 billion Korean won (over $ 3.1 million USD ) from the individual GSL and Arena of Legends leagues in StarCraft II . The 2010 Open Seasons were the first tournaments for the GSL, featuring three initial events with an overall prize pool of 600 million Korean Won (approximately US$ 500,000) and

846-497: The GOM house, but all expenses other than food were covered by GOMTV. The house closed in November 2012. Major League Gaming and GOMTV announced a player exchange program between the tournaments. MLG will invite and provide travel for four Korean players every tournament and the players will be seeded directly into Championship pool. Starting from MLG Anaheim 2011 the winner of the tournament

893-466: The GSL will continue, but with a reduced presence: the first tournament in 2023 played the preliminary matches online, presumably due to Blizzard no longer funding the prize pools. They reversed the decision to move early round matches online after the conclusion of the first season, and restored the event to the studio for the later 2023 seasons. The English-language broadcast was performed for years by Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski and Nick "Tasteless" Plott ,

940-470: The Internet. Artosis has said that after his first year, he had spent about 1,200 hours in-game, up to 16 hours a day, and knew he could play in tournaments. As his StarCraft habits began to affect his life, his parents confiscated his dial-up modem and computer peripherals , which he circumvented with replacements. Despite his parents' requests to desist, Artosis decided in high school that he would pursue

987-502: The Korean Battle.net server were allowed to participate, as were invited foreign players. For the 2011 GSL November season, it was announced that the format would be changing. The new format would be a dual tournament format with double-elimination four-player groups (also known in esports generally as "GSL-style groups"), where losing players in Code S immediately drop to Code A. The new GSL format meant that there would no longer be

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1034-642: The Naniwa Code S scandal as possible reasoning for the breakup of the partnership. With the closure of IPL, the partner program between the two is now finished. Since 2013, the GSL took over as the Korean part of the World Championship Series created by Blizzard Entertainment . 2011 and 2012 saw "Blizzard Cup" tournaments for an invited set of 10 players: 5 determined by GSL ranking, and 5 invitees from champions of other events such as MLG , BlizzCon and World Cyber Games 2011 . The World Championship

1081-632: The Shinhan Bank ProLeague 08–09, after 735 days of silence. He could not qualify for either OSL nor MSL since the Shinhan Bank OSL season 2 in 2006, but at the end of Shinhan Bank ProLeague 09–10 season, Hong ended the season securing a 3-game winning streak, including a dramatic victory against Jaedong . Hong officially announced his retirement from professional gaming on his website on 16 June 2011. At his retirement ceremony, BoxeR jokingly handed him an empty StarCraft 2 box. BoxeR said that

1128-458: The Swarm are named after the casters. On his YouTube channel "ArtosisTV", he regularly uploads content related to StarCraft and StarCraft II . As of February 2022 the channel has over 128,000 subscribers. In addition, he has a secondary YouTube channel named ArtosisCasts , on which he uploads daily casts of numerous StarCraft matches that primarily involve professional players. As of April 2022

1175-676: The box was empty, but the account was at the SlayerS clan house, and if Hong ever considered transitioning into StarCraft 2 , he knew where to go. In August 2011 he appeared on a reality TV series entitled Project A on GOMtv . The series follows Hong as he attempts to qualify for the GOMTV Global StarCraft II League and relaunch his pro gaming career in StarCraft 2 . The series premiered on 12 August 2011. On 16 June 2011, Hong announced his retirement from his StarCraft career. He

1222-567: The channel has over 14,000 subscribers. Artosis and Tasteless both cast for the AfreecaTV StarCraft League from 2016 to 2020. On 3 March 2021, it was announced by AfreecaTV that they would be discontinuing the English casts of the event. However, through Patreon support, the two were given permission to cast over VODs of the events, and have them uploaded onto the official AfreecaTV eSports YouTube channel. Additionally, Artosis cast his final GSL Code S Tournament, which had been

1269-431: The first televised Brood War tournaments in years. His final placement is unknown. In 2015, Hong returned for the fourth season of The Genius entitled The Genius : Grand Final and the second season of Crime Scene , getting 4th on The Genius: Grand Final and 1st on Crime Scene 2. Hong Jin-Ho has recently made a successful transition to professional poker, even though he has been playing online poker since

1316-630: The following OSL, Hong has fallen into a slump from which he has not recovered. Hong reached the round of 32 in the GOMTV Averatech Classic, but was eliminated by oDin(Joo Young-Dal). He enlisted in the Korean Air Force in November 2008 in the StarCraft team Air Force ACE. After being a member of ROKAF ACE, Hong recovered his form slowly but steadily. The trigger was an old-fashioned 'storm-like' victory against Bisu[Shield] on 20 June 2009 in

1363-699: The game as a career based on the game's popularity in South Korea. At this time, he was ranked within the top three American StarCraft players. He represented North America twice at the StarCraft World Championships, and competed in the United States finals eight times. He began a StarCraft tournament in New Hampshire, and was motivated to commentate on the matches by the dearth of English-speaking tournaments. Artosis has said that he felt like

1410-465: The game's community deserved more professional commentary, and decided to do it himself. His broadcasts were recorded to a computer and uploaded on the Web. Artosis was later approached by Korean broadcasting company International e-Sports Group (IEG) in 2008, and accepted their offer. He was the second Western StarCraft commentator, or caster , in South Korea, after Nick Plott . In Korea, Artosis shared

1457-401: The main competition to their respective winners. Some years, the organizers have run Super Tournaments as side events. The 2010 Super Tournament was a 64-man tournament featuring a prize pool of 202 million Korean Won. Participants are determined by the total GSL points obtained throughout the year. Super Tournaments were also run in 2011 and in 2017–2022. In 2023, it was reported that

Global StarCraft II League - Misplaced Pages Continue

1504-462: The name "WCS Korea". OnGameNet stopped its StarCraft II activities in 2014, and the GSL became the only individual league in South Korea . It ran every season of WCS Korea under its own name again (GSL). In 2015, the GSL and SPOTV 's newly established StarCraft II StarLeague (SSL) ran parallel to each other as the focus of professional play in South Korea. Each league had three seasons throughout

1551-703: The pair in 2011 as examples of how the electronics sports profession is developing celebrities. The Verge ' s Paul Miller referred to Tastosis as "the primary practitioners of StarCraft casting". A crowdfunded documentary about their careers, Sons of StarCraft , was released in early 2013. Artosis and Tasteless prepare separately, with Artosis constantly watching StarCraft matches and Tasteless studying commentary from non-traditional sports and major StarCraft news. Together, they incorporate team histories and their respective strategies into their commentary. Tasteless has said that he considers Tastosis's nuanced readings of player tactics and their eventualities as

1598-520: The present, the cast is done by Tasteless and Ryan "State" Visbeck. This is a list of all major GSL tournaments. They are considered equal by AfreecaTV and the winner of any of these tournaments is called a GSL champion. Preceding the beginning of 2016 HOT6 Global StarCraft II League Season 1, two Pre-Season tournaments were held by AfreecaTV, with the winner of each being seeded into the main event. Separate Code A tournaments were only held in 2011. The format changed in November 2011, where Code A become

1645-423: The previous week, and is meant as a lead-up to the airing of each new episode. In 2014, Hong appeared on popular TV programmes such as Radio Star and I Live Alone on MBC TV; Happy Together on KBS 2TV; and was recruited as a cast member of Crime Scene on JTBC. He also collaborated with other veteran StarCraft players to organise tournaments featuring former pro gamers, with the eventual goal of setting up

1692-423: The rival KeSPA-run Proleague , which was also a team event, switched from Brood War to StarCraft II (with 2011-12 SK Planet Proleague Season 2). GOMeXp stopped running its own team league, with the last event run at the end of 2013. GOMTV used to run a house for select foreigners to live in while attempting to qualify for Code A. The house could accommodate up to 8 players. Players are responsible for travel to

1739-457: The second season of the programme, which was named The Genius: Rule Breaker , began broadcasting. Hong was recast as a returning contestant, along with Lim Yo-Hwan (SlayerS_`BoxeR'), his longtime StarCraft rival. He was eliminated in Episode 7. He was eventually invited as a guest to appear on a new spin-off programme Genius Behind . This programme focuses on analyzing the episode that transpired in

1786-424: The series as the final champion, beating out other participants including celebrities, Harvard graduate and politician Lee Jun Seok, Mensa member Choi Jung Moon, and legendary pro gambler Jimmy Cha. The prize money was KRW 79,000,000 (approx. USD 70,000). With this achievement, he received positive comments that he had enhanced the image of pro gamers, not to speak of his own recognition as a genius. In November 2013,

1833-592: The stream. Artosis began playing the Blizzard Entertainment online collectible card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft during its closed beta in 2013, and began publishing Hearthstone podcasts in September 2013. In November 2013 Blizzard invited Artosis to participate in the Innkeeper's Invitational, a Hearthstone tournament hosted as part of the annual BlizzCon convention. On November 8, Artosis won

1880-463: The team league, they formed a team, F.United, together with players from a Korean pro team, WeMadeFox. It was thought that NaNiwa would have gotten the Code S spot for his second-place finish at the national finals at MLG Providence 2011, but it was revealed afterward that Code S would not have been given out at that event. The GSL-MLG Exchange Program has since been nullified, as GSL is now partnered with IPL. MLG CEO Sundance DiGiovanni has hinted at

1927-578: The tournament and was crowned "Grandmaster of the Hearth". Artosis regularly is a caster for gaming tournaments that occasionally includes Hearthstone content, and was featured in the ESports Global Network's Fight Night Hearthstone shows, as part of Team Dogehouse and at the 2015 Seatstory Cup. He streams on Twitch. Artosis is married and lived in Seoul, South Korea with his wife and children. His wife

Global StarCraft II League - Misplaced Pages Continue

1974-487: The two knew each other through their former competitive gaming careers, but became friends in Korea. Polygon attributed their success to their "magic" dynamic from complementary personalities, with Artosis being encyclopedic and analytic, and Plott bold and sociable. In July 2013, Polygon reported Tastosis to be "the most well-known StarCraft 2 casting duo in the world", both broadcasting for GOMTV Global StarCraft II League . PC Gamer ' s Rich McCormick cited

2021-510: The year, for a total of six individual league seasons. The GSL and the SSL continued to run as parallel leagues in South Korea for 2016. Each league had two seasons throughout the year, for a total of four individual league seasons, with the finalists of their first and second seasons playing in the first and second season Cross-Finals events. The first season of GSL for WCS 2016 was preceded by two GSL Pre-Season tournaments which both granted seeding into

2068-400: Was 14 years old when he was introduced to StarCraft at his best friend's house, where he watched his friend play. He received a copy of the game for his 15th birthday and played it casually with friends. When bedridden with a broken ankle and metal implants after a trampoline accident, he began to play StarCraft competitively. While his friends lost interest, he continued to compete over

2115-788: Was a yearly tournament that invited eight of the top non-Korean players to South Korea to play against the top eight Korean players. This was a two-part tournament; the first being a Korea versus the World team tournament, the second being a 16-man single-elimination tournament. Dan Stemkoski Daniel Ray Stemkoski (born April 6, 1983), better known by his nickname Artosis , is an American professional esports commentator and Twitch streamer. Stemkoski moved to Seoul, South Korea to commentate competitive Starcraft games in English. Together with Nick "Tasteless" Plott , he provides commentary for AfreecaTV StarCraft League games (and AfreecaTV Global StarCraft II League games until 2022). Artosis

2162-401: Was born on Prince Edward Island and moved to Korea around 2009. In June 2022, Artosis disclosed that the family will relocate from South Korea to Prince Edward Island, Canada. He departed Korea, where he had resided for much of his life, on October 16, 2022, after casting his final GSL Code S Tournament. Hong Jin-ho Hong Jin-ho ( Korean :  홍진호 ; born 31 October 1982)

2209-482: Was raised in Salem , New Hampshire . In his youth, his interests included skateboarding , basketball , chess tournaments , and competitive strategy games . Sports were his primary interest before he found competitive StarCraft . His consuming interest in playing and studying the game interfered with his high school education, where he failed many of his classes. He graduated from Salem High School in 2002. Artosis

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