As StarCraft II becomes increasingly popular throughout 2011, many teams are striving to get the best players they can. MYM recently announced the addition of three new members to their SC2 roster. One of the acquistions is former Templars of Twilight leader and creator Christoph ‘Mondragon‘ Semke.

MYM.SC2 2011 is:

Christoph ‘Mondragon’ Semke
Daniel ‘XlorD’ Spenst
Carlo ‘ClouD’ Giannacco
Kim ‘SaSe’ Hammar

When asked why he decided to join MYM, Mondragon said:

MYM was the first and only clan that offered me to lead the squad and be a player. Besides they offered me the personal freedom I need to have in order to achieve the best possible results. The talks and negotiations were very friendly and both MYM and I agreed on the key points how to lead a squad. Thus you can expect good things in the future

For more information click here
For an interview with Mondragon about his addition click here

Today, SK announced the formation of SK Gaming US. The team is composed of a number of former Turmoil players, and will be coached by Ediz ‘goodfornothing’ Basol. The team will be competing in the next ESEA-o season. Along with the announcement, team member Alice ‘ali’ Lew answered a couple of interview questions to get to know a little bit about the background of the team.

What are the short term and long term goals of the team? Which competitions will you play and which LANs can you be expected to attend in the future?

Obviously our goal is to be one of the best in the world. This is a star-studded lineup with years of experience, so I find that with practice and time, we will definitely be a force to be reckoned with. Our short term goal would to be the #1 team in America. Our long term goal would to be the best team in the world. There was no way for us to start in ESEA-i.. so we are starting off the year in ESEA-o next week and hope to be playing in the invite division by next season. You’ll definitely be able to see us in tourneys around the states and whatever tourneys we get invited to outside the country.

The lineup contains a number of previously top tier North American names who have at one point or another decided to step away from active play at the top. What lead to the formation of this lineup?

Although many of these players stepped down from competitive play at one point, we always stuck together and played for fun through pugs and scrims. It also helped to be friends outside of the game as well, so it really was a given for me to pick who was best fit for the team. After talking as a team, we knew we shared similar goals, and with the support of SK, we knew we would have a chance to achieve them.

SK Gaming US 2011

  Ben ‘ben’ Hui
  Joe ‘perez’ Perez
  Alice ‘ali’ Lew
  Tyler ‘willsoNirL’ Wilson
  Ryan ‘Ninespot’ Bell
  Derrick ‘impulsive’ Truong (backup)
  Ediz ‘goodfornothing’ Basol (coach)

More information about this transaction can be found by clicking here.

As one of eSports most recognizable figures for well over a decade, Lim Yo Hwan, also known as SlayerS_`BoxeR, has competed on one of the world’s biggest stages, in countless events, in dozens of venues. From his humble beginnings as young Starcraft player, to his current reign as Korea’s most notable gaming celebrity, Boxer has lived the ultimate dream of any aspiring gamer.

SK Gaming has released a bio of Hwan, detailing his early life, pre-SC, to his stardom as a Starcraft legend today. Below is an excerpt from the biography.

During one fateful summer break in 1998, Boxer travelled to a friend’s house in an attempt to gain a tutor, a mentor and a way to raise his grades and satisfy his parents but not himself. Ironically, it was there that he discovered StarCraft. As he sat impatiently waiting for his friend to teach him English and mathematics, his friend was too busy playing Protoss. When Boxer saw the game, he was immediately sucked in. Over the course of the summer, he played the game at his friend’s house as though it was a job. It occupied his thoughts day and night. He felt flush with happiness when he was able to defeat the computer. He strained to improve. This was a purpose, a goal for Boxer. It was, as he describes it, the light at the end of the dark tunnel.

Boxer left the arcades and soccer fields behind. He entered a new world in which a computer game gave him the power to express and experience his imagination in a way which excited him to no end. He discovered PC Bangs, Korean internet cafes, and began to learn the intricacies of the game, the worldwide community that it held. At school, he befriended other StarCraft players and soon learned what it meant to win.

As he slept through his last year of high school and spent his evenings playing StarCraft at PC Bangs, Boxer began to dream of playing professionally. The game became his sole source of excitement, the rest of his life faded into the background. Friendly rivalries with Boxer’s sparring partners emerged which helped him develop his play immensely. Professional gamers began to emerge on television in South Korea and a deep feeling stirred within Boxer.

The full biography can be found by clicking here.

Interview with Catz

By Jen “jenzebubble” Cide

A couple days ago I approached Jason ‘col|1’ Lake. I don’t exactly remember what my original intent was when I talked to him, but that is of no consequence. During the course of our conversation he asked me if I would be interested in provided StarCraft 2 content for compLexityGaming.com. After a little thought I decided to give it a shot. Jason and I agreed that a series of interviews to introduce our audience to the StarCraft 2 scene would be the best use of my time and abilities.

In the weeks to come I will be interviewing compLexity Gaming’s StarCraft 2 division along with top StarCraft 2 professionals, well known casters and some behind the scenes people. The RTS genre, as a whole, has a rich and storied history in e-sports. Since the StarCraft 2 division marks compLexity’s first foray into the RTS world we thought it apropos that we catch our audience up on who our team is and who they will be competing against.

For my initial interview I wanted to talk with someone that had established themself as a power in the StarCraft 2 professional scene. Through a process of elimination I came to the conclusion that ROOTCatZ fit that description perfectly. Being that he is a prolific live streamer I also knew he had an affable personality which would get this series started kicked off on the right footing. So without further ado, here is my interview with ROOTCatZ.

Hi CatZ! Thanks for joining us today. Could you give us some background information?

My name is Paulo Vizcarra and I am 24. I was born in Lima, Peru. For now I live in Florida, waiting to move in with Drewbie.

You co-lead Team ROOT. Could you tell us how that came about?

It is a huge long story, but i’ll try to be as short and concise as possible. Drew and I were 2v2 partners in Broodwar for many years and as soon as they announced StarCraft 2 we decided we’d be pros and make the best team in North America. Our thought process was pretty simple: we’ll both be really really good 1v1 and 2v2 with hard work. This way we can win every clanwar assuming it’d be old Broodwar style with 4 1v1’s and 1 2v2.

Eventually with a lot of hardwork, time and practice, we became established as a top StarCraft 2 team. We are very happy with our acomplishments thus far. Our goals have expanded to infinity at this point.

ROOT is our baby 🙂

In recent games, both the justin.tv Invitational and the SCReddit Invitational you’ve popularized the proxy hatch into roach against forge first protoss. Is this something you intend to continue doing or do you think the change to phoenixes will drasticly affect ZvP early game?

I think that it’s a strech to say I popularized it.

To execute builds like that you need some good understanding of the game and what you can transition into. However, yes I think its a viable option, so its just sitting there in my arsenal to be used whenever I feel like it is appropriate. I never go into a game knowing exactly what I am going to be doing, although, I have some ‘standard’ openers.

Every game is different. I am not 100% sure how to answer or elaborate more on this question. The answer is, yes, I will continue to do this and other strategies whenever I feel I have room to do them and they will be effective. And no, I don’t think the change to phoenixes is going to make a big difference in early ZvP.

ROOT has a very strong line-up, perhaps the strongest in North America. There’s been rumors here and there about teams approaching the team looking to pick ROOT up as a whole. Care to comment on that?

I don’t know how much you’d like me to elaborate, LOL, but yes we’ve had tons of individual offers as well as offers from almost every big organization in North America and even some European ones to absorb us as a whole.

Honestly, I would rather keep those conversations private, but I will say this: we have no plans to sell out to any organization. We have plans to make it on our own, our brand, and our logo. The ideals that we’ve been fighting for since the beta are sort of an extra player and friend for us. That ethos is hard to leave behind.

Do you have plans on making your way to Korea?

No, my focus is my team and my team’s focus is North America for the time being. Not ruling out any possibilities in the future, but it’s not something I have listed as a “to-do” for now.

Thank you for your time, CatZ! compLexity Gaming and I would like to wish you luck in all of your feature endeavors. Is there anything else you’d like to say before leaving?

www.root-gaming.com — ROOT’s website.
www.youtube.com/catzstarcraft — My YouTube channel.
www.justin.tv/rootcatz — You can watch me stream live here.

Shoutout to Nerdstomper and Dreamhost for being awesome.

Lastly, follow us on Twitter, IRC and Facebook. You can find links to each on ROOT’s website.

Natus Vincere has released their first movie about Na`Vi’s road to victory and their first major achievement in the Intel Extreme Masters Season 4 Global Finals.

In this tutorial video, Dylan from Starcraft Connection goes over some multi-player scouting strategies for Starcraft II. The video will show you how to read your opponents defense, general to all races, as well as some race specific tips for countering your opponent.

Source: Starcraft Connection