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101-643: The StarCraft II World Championship Series ( WCS ) was a StarCraft II professional tournament series organized and sanctioned by Blizzard Entertainment that ran from 2012 to 2019. For all but its first year of operation, it was the highest tier of professional StarCraft II competition . Its longest-running iteration featured two regions, World Championship Series Korea and World Championship Series Circuit , with World Championship Series Global events featuring players from both regions. Grand finals were held annually at BlizzCon in Anaheim, California , except for

202-412: A 3-mission prologue, a 19-mission main story campaign, and a 3-mission epilogue that wraps everything up. At BlizzCon 2015 , during the "Future of StarCraft II" presentation, it was revealed that Blizzard will release additional mission packs to keep players engaged with StarCraft II . The Nova Covert Ops mission pack consists of three episodes, with a total of nine new missions. It did not require

303-402: A Starleague ( Ongamenet Starleague , MBCgame Starleague ), viewed by millions of fans. Starting in about 2003, pro-gamers started to become organized into teams, sponsored by large South Korean companies like Samsung , SK Telecom and KT . StarCraft is also the most popular computer game competition during the annual World Cyber Games thanks to its Korean fanbase, and it is overall one of

404-585: A collaboration with Blizzard to create "a useful testing platform for the wider AI research community." StarCraft II has been used in the field of multi-agent reinforcement learning for a dual purpose: Professional StarCraft competition The real time strategy (RTS) computer game StarCraft had an active professional competition circuit, particularly in South Korea . The two major game channels in South Korea, Ongamenet and MBCGame , each ran

505-663: A frequent menace, though Raynor ultimately recovers their incapacitated queen Sarah Kerrigan from the Zerg home world. In Heart of the Swarm , the Dominion attacks Raynor and Kerrigan, and the story mainly follows Kerrigan's exploits against Mengsk's forces as well as the newly emerged Protoss-Zerg hybrids. In Legacy of the Void , the Protoss are the protagonists, led by Zeratul and Artanis, fighting against

606-549: A hybrid tournament featuring both Brood War and StarCraft II . Brood War professional competition was eventually phased out entirely in Proleague, although fan interest in the game continued. Brood War tournaments with cash prizes continued to be run following KeSPA's exit from the scene. In 2014, two years after professional KeSPA-sanctioned StarCraft competition ended, OGN once again televised StarCraft competition for two seasons. Starting in 2016, Afreeca TV began running

707-460: A legal status in South Korea, the consequences of these actions was severe: 11 players were banned from all professional StarCraft competition for life, and faced civil and criminal lawsuits. All eleven players had all prizes and rewards revoked (e.g. Player of the Year Reward, Proleague Player Reward, Weekly/Monthly MVP Reward) As of 9 June 2010, eleven Players have been banned from programing as

808-664: A long slump managed to win the Ever OSL 2008, making him the second player and first zerg to win three OSL titles and claiming the Golden Mouse trophy. July is known for being closer to the amateur community than the typical professional player, having played in amateur leagues such as the WGTour Speed Ladder in the past, and was one of the players on the Asian team for the friendly Blizzard Invitational Tournament held in early 2005. JulyZerg

909-557: A new 3D graphics engine and adds new features such as the Havok physics engine . StarCraft II also incorporates DirectX 10 level effects in Windows. Originally envisioned as a single game, StarCraft II was split into three parts during development, one for focusing on each race. The base game, Wings of Liberty , follows the Terrans, while two expansion packs, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of

1010-620: A pro-gamer. He made the GomTV 2 MBC Game Starleague in 2007, but was eliminated in the group stages. When his air force contract expired on 24 December 2008, he rejoined his former team SK Telecom T1, appearing actively in Pro League in July 2009. In October 2010 he switched over to StarCraft II and competed in GomTV GSL 2. In November 2010 he retired from his KeSPA pro-gamer status to only focus on SC2 and have

1111-474: A result of the scandal: sAviOr , Hwasin, go.go, Type-b, Luxury, YellOw (ArnC)*, DarkElf, UpMaGiC, Justin, By.1st and ShinHwA. In October 2010, sentences were declared. *Note: not to be confused with Hong "YellOw" Jin Ho, who played for KT Rolster—the involved player's full name is Park "Yellow[ArnC]" Myung Soo, who played for Hite SPARKYZ. The suspended sentences mean the players can avoid prison if no wrongdoing

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1212-469: A small community wherein StarCraft fans post the files to video sharing sites such as YouTube , but with their own English commentaries dubbed alongside the original Korean commentary. Notable English-speaking YouTube commentators include Day9, KlazartSC, Diggity, Moletrap, NukeTheStars, and Rise. The Collegiate Starleague is a seasonal intercollegiate league that is modeled after Korea's ProLeague. It

1313-421: A team either wins or is eliminated. The versus mode also includes the "Archon" option, where the matches are ostensibly 1v1 but more than one human player control what is usually controlled by a single person. The co-op mode involves two human players playing against an A.I. using special hero characters, and where collecting XP leads to leveling up that in turn affects future gameplay. The heroes are modeled after

1414-545: Is appearing in a reality 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 programing career in StarCraft II . sAviOr (previously known as IPXZerg) has won three MSLs and one OSL, and reached five consecutive MSL finals during the height of his dominance. Nicknamed "Maestro" for his play, timing, and game sense, he

1515-465: Is committed within the time period. Despite the release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty , KeSPA, OGN and MBC Game decided to stick with Brood War for their competitions. KeSPA and OGN eventually came into talks with Blizzard and GomTV for broadcasting rights of StarCraft II . After discussions and negotiations were complete, it was announced that the SK Planet Proleague season would be

1616-601: Is currently a coach for the SKT1 squad with Kingdom. However, in November 2008, he declared he would come back to the squad and works as coach in SKT. His first coming back game was held 17 November. He played against Kim Myung Un (Zerg) and lost, himself using Valiath (Valkyrie+Goliath). He has a relationship with Boxer (who was on the same SK Telecom T1 team with him), as he sees Boxer as a kind of "older brother" or mentor (Boxer brought iloveoov to

1717-465: Is currently in a competitive slump, having been eliminated from the first round of both the most recent OSL and MSL. However, he has since qualified for the next upcoming MSL and is currently ranked 53rd in the February 2010 KeSPA ranking. On 13 April 2010, he was implicated in a cheating scandal involving several Korean pro gamers, illegal betting websites, and allegations of games being deliberately lost. As

1818-490: Is currently playing StarCraft II on the pro team ST, but is serving in the military until 2014. Reach, nicknamed "MAN-TOSS" (due to his muscular build and brute strategies) or "Hero Protoss", is the Protoss player who has been most consistent in the long term, beating Boxer in an OSL final near the height of his dominance, and placing well in tournaments. He is known for his standard/solid/safe style of play, with flawless macro and use of Psi Storm (the latter of which earned him

1919-540: Is currently pursuing a professional gaming career in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty . NaDa joined the StarCraft II team, Complexity Gaming , but announced his retirement in June 2012 due to financial difficulty, current poor state of health pending military issues, and various family issues. The next successful Terran player after Boxer and Nada, iloveoov's macro is even better than Nada's, leading to him being known as

2020-741: Is known for his micro of mutalisks, his trademark unit. His ZvT and ZvZ are among the best in the progaming scene, and he is regarded as the best Zerg player, if not the best player overall. He walked the Royal Road by qualifying for the OSL for the first time and defeating Stork in the EVER OSL finals 3–1. Soon thereafter, he proved that his ZvP matchup was strong by defeating Bisu in the GOMTV MSL S4 group stages. Since his OSL win, Jaedong's ZvP has statistically been his second strongest matchup (71.25%) Jaedong has also won

2121-716: Is the first Protoss player to reach the top spot in KeSPA history. Bisu lost 1–3 to Mind in the finals of the September GOM MSL 3 and was eliminated by Stork in the semifinals of the EVER OSL. Bisu was eliminated in the group stages of GOM MSL 4, losing most notably to Jaedong. However, he made it to the semifinals of the Bacchus OSL, but was eliminated by Flash. Bisu regained his dominant form by defeating free in ClubDay MSL semifinal, and defeated Jangbi in final to win his 3rd MSL title,

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2222-449: Is viewed as a strong Zerg, having defeated BoxeR, iloveoov, NaDa, Midas, Nal_rA and many other top players. He is well known for his perfect defiler usage, particularly in the ZvT matchup. sAviOr made the semifinals of the 2007 September–November GOM TV MSL but was surprisingly eliminated by Terran player Mind 2–3. Soon after, he was eliminated 1–2 by Bisu in the 2007 Ever OSL quarterfinals. sAviOr

2323-635: The Global StarCraft II League (GSL) and non-Korean events such as Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) and Dreamhack had been included in the WCS system, distributing points and guaranteeing spots that qualify players for the Global Finals, held annually at BlizzCon . Since 2020, Blizzard changed the format of WCS by entering into a three-year partnership with esports organizers ESL and DreamHack . In November 2016 Alphabet's DeepMind branch announced

2424-616: The Korea StarCraft League (KSL), bringing the number of professional individual leagues for StarCraft: Brood War , now StarCraft: Remastered , in Korea back to two for the first time since 2011 when the last season of MSL was played. Known as the "Emperor of Terran", or sometimes just "The Emperor", Boxer's creative play helped him to be the first (of two) StarCraft player to win the World Cyber Games (WCG) twice. He has also won

2525-685: The Ongamenet Starleague (OSL) twice (only eight other players have achieved that). He is the first of three players to win two consecutive OSLs. He holds the record for being number 1 in KeSPA's rankings for 17 consecutive months. Boxer made a comeback in 2005, winning second place in the So1 OSL 2005, but had to retire from professional gaming to join the Korean military service, which is mandatory for all Korean males. On 3 October 2006 he played his rival [NC]...Yellow in "Superfight", which he won 3–2. One of

2626-521: The WCG and other international events, to provide English commentary for the 2008 GOM TV Star Invitational and the 2008 Averatec-Intel Classic tournaments. According to GOM TV statistics, over 1 million viewers watched the GOM TV Star Invitational matches with English commentary. Many StarCraft fans outside South Korea download video files of the pro games to watch on their computer. This has spawned

2727-566: The Wings of Liberty soundtrack spans approximately four hours. Brower has said in interviews that his team was consciously seeking a film-score feel for StarCraft II . In a short commentary provided for Blizzard, he recounted that the orchestral music for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was performed by 78 members of the San Francisco Symphony and Opera and recorded at the Skywalker stage at

2828-531: The "Cheater Terran" due to his ability to create large armies in a short span of time. He is also known as "Monster" because of his dominance over his opponents. He has won the MBCGame Starleague (MSL) three times in succession, and in November 2004 finally won the OSL. He won his 2nd OSL title in March 2006, defeating JulyZerg in the 1st ShinHan Bank tournament. iloveoov has now retired from professional gaming and

2929-654: The 2007 Season 1 OSL. Reach has slumped since his return and is currently enlisted with Yellow in Air Force ACE. Reach has shown some return to form with impressive victories in the ProLeague. Since his retirement from professional Brood War he became coach of the Najin Corporation League of Legends teams. The 'Dreaming Protoss' is often considered to be a Protoss version of Boxer due to his creative and daring play. He frequently hides his buildings in other parts of

3030-672: The Afreeca StarCraft League (ASL) alongside their StarCraft II event, the Global StarCraft II League (GSL). In 2017, Blizzard announced StarCraft: Remastered , a graphical and systems update to StarCraft: Brood War that left the gameplay completely untouched. Following the release of StarCraft: Remastered , the scene had no trouble transitioning as the game remained exactly the same in terms of gameplay and only had its graphics and matchmaking improved, which didn't affect professional players. In 2018, coinciding with StarCraft' s 20th anniversary, Blizzard announced their own league,

3131-509: The Afreeca StarCraft League (ASL) and Global StarCraft II League (GSL), are organized by Afreeca TV . Players have transitioned between the two throughout the years, but outside of the transitional 2012 season of Proleague , none have competed professionally in both at the same time. There have been several commercial attempts to bring televised professional StarCraft matches to audiences outside South Korea. GOM TV hired Nick "Tasteless" Plott , an American who previously cast StarCraft at

StarCraft II World Championship Series - Misplaced Pages Continue

3232-653: The Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul , South Korea. StarCraft II was being developed, under the codename Medusa , for concurrent release on Windows XP , Windows Vista and Mac OS X . Blizzard announced a release date for July 27, 2010. Development on the game began in 2003, shortly after Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne was released. The soundtrack for StarCraft II was provided by Derek Duke, Glenn Stafford, Neal Acree, and Russell Brower . Brower, Blizzard's Director of Audio, has suggested that

3333-675: The Blizzard studios, performed by musicians such as Laurence Juber (formerly of Wings ) and Tommy Morgan . The soundtrack also contains John Bacchus Dykes and William Whiting's hymn Eternal Father, Strong to Save (1860). The orchestral music for Heart of the Swarm was likewise recorded in Marin County, again with the services of Kurlander and Noone, with 80 performers from the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra. Brower stated in an interview in 2013 that he intended to continue

3434-810: The Lucasfilm Ranch in Marin County, California, under the name 'Skywalker Symphony Orchestra', conducted by Eímear Noone . Brower also recalled the use of a 32-voice choir in Seattle, Washington. Both these recording sessions were mixed by John Kurlander, who had previously worked on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Beatles' Abbey Road . The Terran country and blues pieces were recorded at Dreamland studio in Woodstock, New York and performed by members of Peter Gabriel's band, including bassist Tony Levin and drummer Jerry Marotta . Remaining pieces were recorded at

3535-500: The MSL season 4 by defeating Siz) Kal 3–1 in March 2008, further proving himself as the top Zerg on the scene. Jaedong set a new record for the highest ZvZ streak by winning 12 games straight, only losing to Oversky in the Proleague. As of June 2009, he is 72–19 (79.12%) in ZvZ, and considering that ZvZ is thought to be one of the most volatile and luck based matchups, this is a feat. In July 2008, he

3636-721: The Pringles MSL finals by defeating Kingdom, but lost 3–1 to sAviOr. He also made it to the Semi-Finals of the subsequent Pringles 2 MSL, only to lose again at the hands of sAviOr. Nal_rA has retired from progaming and is a broadcaster for OnGameNet. In 2009, it was announced that Nal_rA would retire from commentating and that he would pursue a career in teaching at Seoul Institute of the Arts. Bisu (meaning "assassin's dagger" in Korean), nicknamed "Ninja Toss" for his creative Dark Templar use, plays at

3737-455: The Shinhan Bank 08-09 Proleague and brought them a second-place finish. On 22 August 2009 he won the Bacchus OSL (his third OSL title) and won the Golden Mouse. Jaedong was ranked first in the February 2010 KeSPA rankings. Jaedong has also been a very popular person outside of StarCraft having done commercials for various Korean companies and attending several international competitions such as

3838-615: The Starleagues are named after the corporate sponsor for that year and that the other finalists are given in descending order of their finish. P/T/Z after a player's name indicates whether they played Protoss, Terran or Zerg, respectively. The players are from South Korea except when noted. 2003: 2004 SKY: 2005 SKY: 2006 SKY: 2007 Shinhan Bank: 2008 Shinhan Bank: (There is no Season1 or 2.) 2008–2009 Shinhan Bank (Introduced Winners' League into format): 2009–2010 Shinhan Bank: 2010–2011 Shinhan Bank: 2011-2012 SK Planet: Winners of

3939-417: The Void (2015). A final campaign pack called StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops was released in 2016. StarCraft II multi-player gameplay spawned a separate esports competition that later drew interest from companies other than Blizzard, and attracted attention in South Korea and elsewhere, similar to the original StarCraft esports . Since 2017, StarCraft II multi-player mode , co-op mode and

4040-536: The Void , the format of the WCS was once again vastly changed. After 2015s consolidation, the WCS Premier League was completely phased out in favor of regional qualifiers and large weekend tournaments. The regional qualifiers took up the name of the lower flight of Premier League competition, and became WCS Challenger. Starting in 2016, Korean and non-Korean WCS rankings were separated, with the newly created WCS Korea and WCS Circuit rankings each constituting half of

4141-458: The Void is a stand-alone game in which new units are added to all three races as well as changing existing units, and also makes groundbreaking changes to the economy-aspect of the game. The story of StarCraft is concluded by following the Protoss Race in their quest to reclaim their homeworld and for Kerrigan to ultimately slay the greatest threat to the entire universe. The game is divided into

StarCraft II World Championship Series - Misplaced Pages Continue

4242-468: The Void , have been released to complement Wings of Liberty and further the story from the views of the Zerg and Protoss, respectively. The story of Wings of Liberty continues from four years after the conclusion of Brood War and revolves around Jim Raynor's struggles against the Terran Dominion. StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is an expansion pack to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and

4343-780: The WCG2007 Grand-Final, against Sha Junchun, China). In 2009, he became the finalist of many contests such as WCG, IEF. And because of this career, he got the other nickname, 'Song Sun-sin (compound of Song(Last name) and Lee Sun-sin (the greatest general of Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592). He continues to go through to round of 16 of OSL for 17th and 13th in a row (2007 DAUM (3rd)-EVER (2nd) -2008 bacchus (2nd) -EVER (round of 16) -Incruit (1st) -2009 Batoo (round of 8)-bacchus (round of 16) -EVER (round of 8) -2010 Korean Air S1 (round of 16) -Korean Air S2 (3rd) -2011 Bacchus (2nd) -Jin air(round of 16) -2012 OSL (con). He set many records-the most fanalist among Protoss of Private starleague (5th),

4444-663: The World Championship Series Circuit name with qualifiers held for each under the World Championship Series Challenger name. World Championship Global competition featured two large events each year. These were ESL's Intel Extreme Masters World Championship event in Katowice, Poland , and afreecaTV 's GSL vs. the World event in Seoul, Korea . For its final two iterations as part of the WCS system,

4545-542: The World Cyber Games two years in a row (2008–2009) and is the WCG champion for 2009, after beating his fellow Korean, Stork in the finals. In 2012, Jaedong left Team 8 and joined North American based organisation Evil Geniuses on a one-year contract, in order to compete in the first SC2 Proleague season. JulyZerg (or simply "July"), the "God of War", was credited with revitalizing what had been stagnant Zerg play, and of leading

4646-516: The World. While other events could be included in the WCS if they covered given requirements, this was the official lineup of events for both 2017 and 2018. Also starting in 2017, crowdfunding was introduced in the form of a War Chest system that allowed players to purchase cosmetic items in-game with 25% of revenue from purchases going to increasing the prize pool of a given event to a point, beyond which money would go to funding competitive play in general. The first event to have its prize pool increased

4747-465: The architect of the Protoss-Zerg hybrids, the malevolent being known as Amon. In a short epilogue after the end of Legacy of the Void , all three factions join to confront Amon inside the Void. Nova Covert Ops takes place sometime after Amon's final defeat, and follows the ghost operative Nova as she uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the reformed Terran Dominion. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

4848-462: The characters from the single-player campaign, amended with extra abilities. This mode also features what is called "mutations", where the game parameters change in order to present a bigger challenge. There are 18 co-op commanders in total to choose from, divided evenly between the three races (6 of each). The co-op mode takes heroes from the main game storyline although not all heroes (46 heroes) are playable characters. Since its release, StarCraft II

4949-536: The company. Coinciding with the release of StarCraft II ' s first expansion pack, Heart of the Swarm , the World Championship Series' format was changed drastically to center around Blizzard-run events, turning it into the highest level of professional StarCraft II competition . Starting with the 2013 season, the WCS transitioned to a GSL -inspired league format where seasons would run over multiple weeks and months. These leagues were played under

5050-530: The creation of a new professional circuit, the ESL Pro Tour StarCraft II (EPT) run by ESL and Dreamhack with prizing funded by Blizzard. While the format of events run by Dreamhack would remain unchanged from the WCS Circuit, changes to the overall structure of the tournament were announced, including the final event of each year of competition being moved from BlizzCon to IEM Katowice . The EPT

5151-402: The end of 2017, Blizzard had listed the combined StarCraft franchise among their brands that have lifetime revenue totaled over $ 1 billion. Aside from the single player campaigns corresponding to the four expansions, StarCraft II features several multiplayer game modes, the most common of which are the "versus" modes and the "co-op" mode. The versus mode can be 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, with

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5252-557: 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 announced his retirement from professional gaming on his website on 16 June 2011. At his retirement ceremony, BoxeR jokingly handed him an empty StarCraft II box. BoxeR said that the box was empty, but the account was at the Slayers clan house and if Hong ever considered transitioning into StarCraft II , he knew where to go. As of August 2011 he

5353-445: The final sixteen in both the 2008 MSL and OSL, but was stifled of another attempt at a trophy by Hwasin and Jangbi respectively. As of December 2008 he is ranked 18 in KeSPA. As of June 2009, Nada has fallen to rank 31 in the KeSPA ranking system, making it the first time that he has been out of the top 30 since March 2002. In October 2010 after his contract ended, he retired from playing StarCraft: Brood War professionally instead NaDa

5454-655: The finalist of EVER starleague 2007 and 2007 Bacchus starleague, but he was lost by Flash, and Jaedong. His career was wonderful, but only second place, and it made him called as 'Kong-Line (successor of Yellow, Hong Jin-Ho)'. However, finally he got the win at Incruit starleague and he was the legend of fall (This is the Legend of protoss who won the Starleague at fall. First is Park Jung-suk (DAUM OSL 2002), and continued by Oh Yeong-jong (So1 OSL 2005), Song Byung-Gu (Incruit OSL 2008), and Hu Young-Moo (Jin-air OSL 2011). In 2008, he also won

5555-462: The first single-player campaign have been free-to-play . The story of StarCraft II continues on the story of the original StarCraft releases, dealing with the races of StarCraft and characters of StarCraft . Wings of Liberty is set four years after the events of StarCraft: Brood War , and focuses on the conflict between Jim Raynor 's rebel faction and the Terran Dominion regime led by its emperor, Arcturus Mengsk. The Zerg reappear as

5656-538: The first and last seasons of WCS 2013 in Korea being GSL events, and the second being an OSL event. In 2014, all Korean leagues were GSL events as the OSL had officially ceased operations. In 2015, non-Korean leagues were consolidated into one, the WCS Premier League, while the Korean region saw the introduction of a new Korean league to run alongside the GSL, the StarCraft II StarLeague (SSL) organized by SPOTV . For

5757-493: The first and only Protoss to achieve this feat. For the first time in StarCraft progaming history, two opponents faced in a final back to back, once again, Bisu defeated Jangbi 3–1 in the GOM Averatec-Intel Classic Season 2 tournament. Inexplicably, his performance in OSL did not yield him any championships which is the only knock on his career so far. Bisu is known for his plays against zerg having popularized

5858-464: The first time since the transition to a league format, harsh region-locking restrictions were introduced which lead to the first non-Korean WCS Premier League champion, though some Korean players managed to continue competing by moving to the United States and participating under the new residency requirements. In 2016, coinciding with the release of StarCraft II ' s second expansion, Legacy of

5959-564: The first year of competition, when the finals were held in Shanghai, China . WCS Circuit events were streamed on Twitch while WCS Korea events were available on Twitch, YouTube , and afreecaTV . World Championship Series Korea professional competition was centered on events organized by afreecaTV under the Global StarCraft II League (GSL) name, including GSL Code S seasons and GSL Super Tournament events. World Championship Series Circuit professional competition centered on tournaments held under

6060-617: The first year of the new league format and though reintroduced in 2014, region-locking remained minimal. This led to Korean players, historically dominant in professional competition for both the original StarCraft and StarCraft II , winning all leagues across all regions for both years of open league play. 2013s WCS featured cross-league seasonal finals, while those were removed for the 2014 season. Both of Korea's individual leagues, Ongamenet 's Ongamenet Starleague (OSL) and GOMTV 's Global StarCraft II League (GSL), were included in this new WCS format in 2013. The leagues alternated, with

6161-601: The following OSL, Hong had 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 is now in the Korean Air Force since November 2008, and has enlisted in the StarCraft team Air Force ACE. After being a member of KAF ACE, Hong is recovering his form. The trigger was an old-fashioned 'storm-like' victory against Bisu[Shield] on 20 June 2009 in Shinhan Bank ProLeague 08–09, after 735 days of silence. He could not qualify for either OSL nor MSL since Shinhan Bank OSL season 2 in 2006, but in

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6262-424: The forge fast expand and the Bisu build. He is currently ranked 2nd in the August 2009 Kespa rankings and is considered to be the best protoss in history. His team SKT1 also won their second proleague grand finals with Bisu being the ace player of their team having won the most matches for them and having the best win–loss ratio in the entire tournament. Unfortunately, he has been slumping for a long time and has one of

6363-452: The former has had its prize pool crowdfunded, as did the Global Finals event for its final three iterations. This was done through the StarCraft II War Chest system, which allowed players to purchase cosmetic items in game with 25% of sales going towards funding the professional scene. The StarCraft II World Championship Series was founded alongside a move to share branding among Blizzard Entertainment 's competitive games and tournaments under

6464-441: The highest level of progaming. He had moderate success in Shinhan OSL 2 where he made it to the Sweet 16 playoff round. Bisu rose to prominence when he unexpectedly defeated sAviOr 3–0 in the March 2007 GOM MSL final at the height of Savior's dominance. Bisu is also known as the "Revolutionist" for his strong PvZ, and changing how Protoss players play the matchup. He also recently won the July 2007 GOM MSL 2 by defeating Stork 3–2. Bisu

6565-477: The highest overall Elo, TvP, TvZ and TvT ranks of all time. He has been in three consecutive dual Starleague finals, winning four golds within the past year. He defeated Kal (Goojila) in the 2010 World Cyber Games, eventually becoming the world champion. He also came back in 2017 and won the ASL season 2, defeating sea in a series of 3–1. He had to beat Jaedong in the semi-finals and it went to the 5th game, which he eventually won 3–2. Hong Jin Ho known as "Storm Zerg"

6666-405: The investigation continued, Savior admitted his guilt on 20 May, and was forced into retirement by KeSPA . Known as the "Lord of Destruction", and the "Tyrant", Jaedong was Team 8's ace player. He took down many top players when he first entered the scene, earning the nickname "Legend Killer". He is known for his intense and focused demeanor during play and his tendency to excel under pressure. He

6767-586: The lowest Elo ratings among the top players of each race. Stork, nicknamed 'The Faultless Supreme Commander' for his all-round ability against all (vs protoss 60.8%, vs zerg 53.9%, vs terran 66%), is one of the highest pro-gamers, 'Taek-Bang-LeeSSang'. His debut was 2004, and now he is the oldest programer in active. He was focused when he won CYON 2004 challenge league, and got 4th rank of EVER starleague 2005. However he couldn't get contentable grade. After his frustration, he didn't give up, and finally he made victory of Samsung KHAN in 2007, 2008. At that time, he became

6868-420: The map and pioneered and standardized several notable Protoss strategies such as fast expanding and using corsairs and reavers in tandem against Zerg. He won an OSL and MSL in the same season and does well in team tournaments, playing for KTF. He has won the Blizzard WorldWide Invitational tournament during early 2006. He has recently recovered from a severe slump; and qualified for ShinHan Bank 2 OSL and made it to

6969-431: The most participant for round of 16 (27th), the most successive victories against terran (12th), the first reverse-all-kill (got four victories in one game) among protoss, etc. He is the captain and also ACE of Samsung Khan. The two most prestigious and lucrative series of tournaments were the Ongamenet Starleague and MBCgame Starleague . The following winners are all listed from oldest to most recent. Note that many of

7070-410: The most popular fights with [NC]Yellow was Boxer's Famous SCV rush, where he sent his SCV's and a couple of marines and won in five minutes. His total record of televised matches before he joined the Korean Air Force was 500 wins and 338 losses. Boxer became one of the first members of the Korean Air Force pro-gaming team ACE (an acronym of Air Force Challenges E-sports), where he continued playing as

7171-478: The music of StarCraft serves two functions: the music heard during gameplay is designed to be unobtrusive in order to allow the player to focus, with only the music that attaches to the cinematic interludes permitted to become more distinctive. Brower has also pointed out that certain musical themes in StarCraft II become associated with certain characters, a technique borrowed from composers such as John Williams and Richard Wagner . The original material for

7272-523: The name Battle.net World Championship Series , which also included World of Warcraft competition. The first year of competition, the 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series , featured over 30 events including national and continental championships that fed into the grand finals of the year held in Shanghai, China alongside the World of Warcraft finals. Events were limited to a few days or weeks of play with nationality-based limitations. This format lead to

7373-417: The name WCS Premier League with the lower tier of competition named WCS Challenger, analogous to the GSL's Code S and Code A respectively. Korean StarCraft II leagues upon which this new format was based were included in this transition and came under the WCS banner, with WCS points being given out alongside prize money to define who would qualify for the Global Finals. Nationality requirements were removed for

7474-445: The numbers indicating the number of players per team. The 1v1 mode is the most well-known one, and the basis for the esport competition (see below). In it, the players collect experience points and achievements , but these do not affect future gameplay per se. The complexity of the game grows as the player progresses through the ranks, based on a matchmaking system that is based on the number of wins and losses. The so-called "ladder",

7575-408: The opportunity to form a new SC2-team sponsored by Intel. The "Genius Terran" (also known as "Tornado Terran") started his pro-gaming career by beating ChRh (Choi In Kyu) on the "Amateur vs Pro" TV show. He has a consistent and dominating style, backed up with excellent macro. A strong micro among all StarCraft players (e.g. Nada's Vultures), Nada's infantry army had good performance. He has been on

7676-399: The ordering of all players, is organized per geographic region, and consists of tiers called leagues, ranging from the lowest bronze, through silver, gold, platinum, diamond, master and in turn the highest, grandmaster league. As the number of players per team grows, the maps they can play on typically change as well. It is also possible to play multiplayer tournaments in each team size, where

7777-556: The other nickname "Mudang Protoss", meaning shaman Protoss in Korean, owing to the uncanny accuracy of his Psionic Storm use), although he has been leaning away from this slightly due to changes in the playing style of the other races. Reach is known for his PvP and PvT skills, with his PvZ being strong. Park was the captain of the KTF progaming team. Reach has been absent from the Starleagues and KeSPA rankings for 18 months but has recently returned to StarCraft pro-gaming tournaments, qualifying for

7878-470: The process of associative musical themes in Legacy of the Void . The release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty performed very well commercially and critically, selling 1.8 million copies within the first forty eight hours of release, which breaks the record of best selling strategy game in the history of the gaming industry. It received very positive reviews with an aggregate GameRankings score of 93%, and

7979-419: The professional scene after seeing his talent in amateur leagues), and as a result, was somewhat regretful for beating him (3–2) in the finals of the EVER OSL in November 2004. He also won the WCG in 2006, beating Julyzerg 2–1 in the finals. Nicknamed "The Little Monster", "God-Young-Ho", and "Ultimate Weapon", Flash arrived in the gaming scene by defeating Bisu in a Starleague game by "cheesing" his opponent. He

8080-567: The purchase of StarCraft II and could be played with the Starter Edition. The release date for the first episode was March 29, 2016. At the same time, Blizzard has announced that new commanders are planned to be added to the Co-Op mode in Legacy of the Void as a DLC, with Karax to be the first addition given for free. StarCraft II was announced on May 19, 2007, nearly a decade after the original, at

8181-607: The seeds into the year's Global Finals. In late 2016 after the 2016 Global Finals, for the first time since the start of the World Championship Series, Blizzard announced a standard format that would remain unchanged for both 2017 and 2018, as all previous event years had featured large changes each year. There would now be three seasons of Korea's GSL Code S, joined by shorter week-long GSL Super Tournaments for WCS Korea, and four weekend events for WCS Circuit, with regional Challenger qualifiers held for six regions. Two official WCS Global tournaments would be held, IEM Katowice and GSL vs.

8282-548: The series of events being well-viewed but not considered the peak of StarCraft II competition, especially all events that featured no Koreans and strict nationality requirements for players of the respective nationality or continent. The shared branding initiative ended as starting with 2013, the respective games' events no longer culminated in the Battle.net World Championship and instead ended under separate names as more Blizzard games came to have their own professional circuits run by

8383-455: The team IS, KTF and now the Wemade FOX, formerly Pantech EX, formerly known as Toona SG. Nada has won 3 OSLs, 3 MSLs, and the first KT-KTF invitational tournament. After a resurgent OSL victory in late 2006, NaDa became the first player to have won the OSL three times, winning the "Golden Mouse". He recently qualified for his tenth MSL, but failed to qualify for the next OSL. Nada managed to reach

8484-423: The three remaining WCS Circuit stops were organized by Star Ladder, significantly lowering Dreamhack's participation in the circuit with just one stop compared to all four for the previous two years. Despite the changes in organizer partnerships, the tournament circuit format remained unchanged beyond the inclusion of WCS Winter. In early 2020, Blizzard announced the end of the World Championship Series in favor of

8585-572: The three species. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is the official sequel to StarCraft released for Windows and Mac OS X by Blizzard Entertainment on July 27, 2010. The game was announced at the Worldwide Invitational in South Korea on May 19, 2007 with a pre-rendered cinematic cut scene trailer and a gameplay demonstration of the Protoss. Further demonstrations regarding the game's new features have been showcased at subsequent BlizzCons and other games conventions. The game incorporates

8686-429: The way for a kind of "Zerg renaissance" with his highly dynamic and aggressive style, incorporating a strong understanding of his opponent's weaknesses and immaculate unit control. He is the first Zerg player to win an OSL; having accomplished this feat in 2004, and he also won the second KT-KTF Premiere League. In July 2005 he won a second OSL, something that to that date only four other players have accomplished, and after

8787-545: The world during its early years and has been credited as bringing esports to the rest of the world in the way the original brought it to South Korea. It has since experienced a decline and a more recent resurgence following its transition to a free-to-play business model. In 2012, Blizzard started the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) as the primary sanctioned StarCraft II tournament circuit. Since 2013, both Korean individual leagues like

8888-598: The world's largest computer and video game competitions in terms of prize money, global coverage and participants. Over US$ 4,000,000 in prize money has been awarded in total, the vast majority of which comes from tournaments in South Korea. For several years after the release of StarCraft II , competitive StarCraft: Brood War was no longer televised. However, in early 2015, the game returned to Ongamenet 's televised lineup. The game's professional competition has remained largely separate from that of StarCraft II , though both games' current largest Korean competitions,

8989-493: Was an early rival to Lim Yo-Hwan (Boxer), losing several Starleague finals to him. Hong is known for his aggressive and harassing style of play, and for his rivalry with BoxeR. Hong never won first place in major StarCraft tournaments despite his strong performance. Hong managed to finish second place six times in the events, never once attaining a major championship, which earned him the title "King of Silver." While there are some tournaments in which he finished first, these records

9090-421: Was announced with a commitment of three years of competition and prizing including a one-off increase in prize pools for events in 2020 for StarCraft II's tenth anniversary. StarCraft II StarCraft II single-player campaign is split into three installments, each of which focuses on one of the three races: StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (released in 2010), Heart of the Swarm (2013) and Legacy of

9191-631: Was defeated in the Arena MSL 2008 Finals 0–3 by his teammate Park Ji-Su (ForGG), but he was able to defeat his rival Flash 3–0 in the TG Sambo Intel Classic finals. He has won his second OSL title against Fantasy in the Batoo OSL 2009. In the Summer 2009 StarCraft season, he was the only player to make the quarterfinals of every Starleague: GOMTV Avertec Classic, OSL, and MSL. He also carried his team through

9292-536: Was divided into eight teams, six of which were sponsored by corporations, and the remaining team by the Korean Air Force. All teams dissolved or transitioned to StarCraft II in 2012. As a result of the match-fixing scandal all teams except for Jin air green wings has disbanded. A cheating scandal in the sport came to light in South Korea on 13 April 2010, when it was found that popular StarCraft players were intentionally losing games. As professional gaming has

9393-560: Was founded in 2009 by students at Princeton University . Its fourth season (Fall 2010) marks a shift from StarCraft: Brood War to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty , and includes the participation of over 100 North American colleges including Harvard University , Yale University , Cornell University , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Rutgers University , and Case Western Reserve University . Notable contributors and players include Sean "Day[9]" Plott , Kevin "QXC" Riley, and Andre "Gretorp" Hengchua. The Korean professional scene

9494-486: Was heavily criticized by StarCraft fans as a "cheap" player, but he dispelled all accusations by dominating the StarCraft gaming scene. He propelled his team KTF (now KT Rolster) into Proleague victories and championships by winning the 2010 Proleague. Flash is involved in a rivalry with Jaedong. Flash holds world records such as longest TvT winning streak, longest TvP winning streak, youngest Starleague winner, youngest Golden Mouse winner, highest KeSPA rank of all time, and

9595-535: Was invalidated when the KeSPA announced to accept only 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 poor performance in

9696-408: Was nominated as the "Best PC Game of 2010" on GameSpot. By the end of 2012, Wings of Liberty had sold more than 6 million copies. This success continued with the release of the first expansion pack, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm , which had a GameRankings aggregate score of 86%. The standalone expansion pack sold 1.1 million copies within the first two days of its release on March 12, 2013, and

9797-418: Was played professionally throughout the world, though much like its predecessor StarCraft: Brood War ' s professional competition , the highest level of play has historically been centered in South Korea . Since the release of StarCraft II , a number of tournaments have been hosted in Korea and elsewhere, such as the Global StarCraft II League (GSL). The game was widely considered the largest esport in

9898-428: Was released in 2010, taking place four years after the end of StarCraft: Brood War . Two expansions, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void (both currently stand alone games), were planned from the beginning; the former was released in 2013 and the later was released in 2015. All the games in the main series are real-time strategy games , where the player views the events as a military commander for each of

9999-457: Was released on March 12, 2013. It is part two of the StarCraft II trilogy. The expansion includes additional units and multiplayer changes from Wings of Liberty, as well as a continuing campaign focusing on Kerrigan and the Zerg race. It spans 27 missions (20 main missions and 7 side missions). The saga of StarCraft is ultimately completed with StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void , which was released on November 10, 2015. StarCraft II: Legacy of

10100-430: Was the 2017 WCS Global Finals, which received $ 200,000, the targeted amount, within the first of three stages of the crowdfunding. Since then, it has been used to crowdfund $ 200,000 for latter Global Finals and $ 150,000 for IEM Katowice events. In 2019, one stop for the year's World Championship Series was replaced by a pair of online leagues with live in-studio finals, WCS Winter America and WCS Winter Europe . Two of

10201-401: Was the best-selling PC game in that quarter. StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void , the third expansion pack, was similarly well received, having a GameRankings aggregate score of 88% while selling more than 1 million copies worldwide within the first day of its release. The StarCraft and StarCraft II series had sold over 17.6 million copies of games and expansions by the end of 2015. By

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