Starcraft II Teams Preview – Part 2

by JP “Moogle” McDaniels

Welcome back to the Complexity Starcraft 2 North American Preview Series. Last time we talked about two teams — fnatic and Root-Gaming. This time we’re going to focus on two individual players, Protoss phenom HuK and Complexity’s own Silver.

Chris ‘HuK‘ Laranger

Starting off as a relative no-name in the Starcraft 2 scene, HuK has risen from a humble Canadian player to become the biggest thing in the SC2 NA scene — maybe even the world. Many thought HuK was one of the best players in the world after sitting on top the global ladder for multiple weeks in a row. His impressive and consistent play across countless tournaments skyrocketed him into the hearts of many, earning him nicknames as “HuK Noris”. He even proclaimed that he wanted to be the next Lim Yo Hwan in SC2 (Boxer). Then, when he started pulling out tricks like the fabled Mothership Rush, he really won people over and they started to maybe believe his words.

A member of the French organization Millennium, Laranger recently participated in the Intel Extreme Masters in Cologne, Germany this past week — and didn’t make it out of group play. LAN jitters perhaps? Maybe. His fans sure hope so. He’ll have another chance to prove himself this upcoming weekend at the Major League Gaming event in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Check out some of the VODs below to see the Protoss player in action.

Strieb ‘Silver’ Roman

Creating a name for yourself in any environment can be done in multiple ways. A heroic deed, a campaign to get your name out into the crowds, or beating the most powerful wizard in the world in Starcraft 2. Silver chose option C. When the Warcraft 3 veteran turned Terran user took out IdrA in the ESL Qualifying Tournament — eventually winning it as a relative no name — people really wanted to know just who the Terran player was. This single win practically earned Silver a spot here at Complexity and now the player has become a name synonymous with Starcraft 2.

While still a young player, Silver shows that his intelligent play and unique build orders have what it takes to compete with the best. Still, though, he shows that his skill is not limited and has been improving over the course of the game. He will make his first tournament appearance this weekend at MLG Raleigh sporting the flashy Complexity insignia. How will he do? We’ll just have to wait and see.

We’ll be back next week with more insight into the Starcraft 2 North American scene.

In the most recent months, arguably one of the top Counter-Strike source teams, Blight Canada, had been followed by sponsorship trouble. The team was promised financial backing for live LAN events by Blight’s owner, blackfoger. But prior to the ESEA LAN Playoffs, Blight Canada team was informed that Blight would no longer cover any travel expenses. That brought on numerous articles, posts, and comments from former and current Blight players, and teams from Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, and Counter-Strike Source.

Just days after announcing their departure from Blight, the talented CS:S team found a new home at the infamous Counter-Strike organization known as Check-Six. Yes, Check-Six may have made its name from the CS1.6 scene, the organization has housed some of the top CS:S talent over the last few years; such as the old PowersGaming lineup of p0s, clowN, Warmach1ne, mOE, clark, and former Hyper! stars.

This makes the Check6.CSS team:

Frédérik “virulent” St-Onge
Jean-Philip “COLO” St-Onge
Corey “flashstep” Parks
Oliver “hRL” Guilbault
Roberto “UTP” Navas
Jeremy “ridox” Montulet – Backup

Over the last few weeks, former Blight.ca, and current Check-Six has been competing in the CEVO-Pro-AM event, with a solid victory of FYC eSports and earned a spot in the Grand Finals where they await their opponent to merge. Additionally, the Check-Six Source will now be competing in the upcoming ESEA-Invite Season 7 season where they will be attempting to make a run toward their second consecutive appearance in playoffs.

The Intel Extreme Masters is taking place from October 8-10th in New York City. Yesterday, ESL announced the event will be held at the Jacob Javits Center alongside Comic Con.

Last year the NYC Comic Con had over 77,000 attendees and was ranked by Crain’s New York Business at the second largest event in the City. The IEM American Finals will feature a stage and a seating area for all the matches, with ESL TV live on scene covering all the action.

The ESL had this to say.

The 2010 New York City ComicCon event will be the host of the first ever IEM American Finals from October 8th to 10th with $59,600 in prizes to be given away for StarCraft 2, Counter-Strike, and Quake Live. Sponsoring the event will be none other than Intel and Razer.
This year’s ComicCon will feature a stage and seating area for matches, so anyone attending can watch live action as some of the best gamers in the country go head to head. ESL TV will be providing coverage of the event with broadcasters to be announced for each game. They will also provide streaming video of the event for fans online so no one gets to miss out on the excitement.

The Intel Extreme Masters Group Stage is still underway, so the list of qualified players is still to be determined over the next few weeks. These players will include top gamers from their respective games, like the infamous Evil Geniuses and compLexity for Counter-Strike 1.6, the defending champion Rapha for Quake Live, and well known names like Qxc, IdrA, Silver, and HuK for StarCraft 2.

The New York City Comic Con attracted over 77,000 attendees in 2009, easily making it the second largest comic book and pop culture gathering in the country, and Crain’s New York Business has ranked it as the second largest event in New York City.

If you are in the New York area and want to attend, check out ComicCon’s website for ticket information.

CompLexity.cs, coL.Silver and coL.Dkt have qualified for the Group Stage and now will battle their way to make it to New York City.

For more information on Comic Con New York head on over to their website.

Today, ESL has announced the first fully organized StarCraft 2 League! The league will have four divisions. The league is modeled around European Premier football (soccer) with an American Football influence. Each division will represent different skill levels. The Premier division will feature a $1,000 prize pot.

Below is how each division works and how to qualify.

PREMIER DIVISION

16 players qualify
9 Week Regular Season
Playoffs with top 8 Finishers
$1,000 Purse Prize

How to Qualify (In order of importance)

• 1) Finish in the top 12 of the IEM Group Stage
• 2) Up to 8 players finishing in the top 2 of an IEM Regular Season Cup
• 3) Up to the top 4 from the Divisional Group Stage Cup

SELECT DIVISION

20 players qualify
9 Week Regular Season followed by Playoffs
Prizes TBD and top finishers moving up to Premier Division

How to Qualify

• 1) Bottom 4 players from the IEM National Group Stage Cup
• 2) Up to 8 players finishing in the 5-12th position of the Divisional Group Stage
• 3) Up to 8 players finishing 1st or 2nd in any Divisional Cup
• 4) Up to 8 players finishing in the top 8 of the Diamond Level ESL Ladders

MAIN DIVISION

40 players qualify
9 Week Regular Season followed by Playoffs
Top finishers moving up to Select Division

How to Qualify (The first 40 players registered that meet following qualifications listed)

• Remaining Players from the Divisional Group Stage
• Up to 64 players that Finish 1st to 8th in any ESL Open Cup
• Up to the top 12 finishers in either the Gold or Silver Level ESL Ladders.

OPEN DIVISION

Unlimited players may register
9 Week Regular Season + divisional ladder matches followed by Playoffs
Top finishers moving up to Main Division

How to Qualify

• This Division is open to all players. Simply register for the league and you will be placed in a group with 19 other players.

Remaining Qualifying Days

After numerous rumors and accusations, including the blog by Tonya Welch that we posted several months ago, NewWorld has released a press release out of the blue that doesn’t exactly provide any new information, but does announce that the acquisition of the CPL and CAL by WuLong Ventures is now complete and the two have entered an NDA contract regarding the financial details.

With this aquisition, WuLong has now aquired all of the international trademarks, logos and intellectual properties for both the CPL and CAL, in addition to other related assets.

Below is the official press release:

August 23, 2010 — DALLAS, TX and SINGAPORE — NewWorld.com, Inc., an investment and management company in Dallas, Texas and WoLong Ventures, Pte. Ltd., an investment and management company in Singapore announced that they have finalized the acquisition transaction of the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) and the Cyberathlete Amateur League (CAL).

As part of this final transaction WoLong Ventures has acquired all of the international trademarks, logos and intellectual properties for both the CPL and CAL, in addition to other related assets. Neither NewWorld nor its shareholders have retained any interest or control in either property.

“We are excited to have completed this valuable acquisition,” says WoLong Ventures CEO, Ryan Schumacher. “This acquisition is an important component of a larger strategic plan to create powerful experiences across diverse online platforms with an emphasis on entertainment and interactivity. While often imitated, the international success of the CPL brand has yet to be fully replicated.”

Created by Angel Munoz (CEO of NewWorld), the CPL is a worldwide-recognized brand in the video game industry, and the pioneering organization that launched and defined computer game competitions as a professional sport.

NewWorld and WoLong have entered into a non-disclosure agreement about the financial details of the acquisition.

More information can be found by clicking here.

The Lions have been without a squad for around a month due to several internal dissagreements between the organization and the previous team.

Today, the organization has announced the aquisition of Swedish powerhouse H2K.cs. The announcement comes after numerous rumors indicating that the H2K cs team was unhappy with their previous home.

“We’re glad to be able to get back into Counter Strike 1.6 this soon after we’ve parted ways with our Norwegian lineup some weeks ago. Having Counter Strike the past 11 months has been a great lift for Lions, and we were not ready to let that effort go to waste so soon. It will be very interesting to see what we can evolve to in tight cooperation with our new Swedish bred Lions. – Christophe “Monk” Roblin

Lions.cs:

 Richard “Xizt” Landström
Niklas “niko” Johansson
Frej “kHRYSTAL” Sjöström
Emil “FYRR73” Karlsson
Björn “threat” Pers

The team will be competing in the ASUS Summer 2010 event as well as the MSI BEAT IT finals in Beijing, China in early September.