The king of silver

My Sc1 roots often make me partial to the old schoolers. The players that played thia game when it was young and owned! Although my personal favourite will always be Guillaume Patry aka Grrrrr this is another's story. As few of you have guessed it is about yellow's quest to enter code A in Sc2. Nicknamed the king of silver due to many second places in tournaments he is one of the best zergs that played Starcraft Broodwar. There is a series of games that live infamy to this day,
in the semifinals of the EVER 2004 OSL. Everyone expected a slugfest between Boxer and Yellow while Boxer it seems had other plans. He actually bunker rushed
Yellow three times to win the series 3-0. It remained a famous and infamous series for the mind games and the perfect micro exhibited by Boxer. I personally would have attacked him with the keyboard at the end of the games but I'm only human...
Bunker rush x3
This is ProjectA with Yellow. Enjoy!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Click read more only if you want to know if he succeeded or failed.

IGN Proleague

What exactly is it? Good question, I did not know that much about this tournament but day-in day-out they have been providing high quality Starcraft 2 comentary and matches. They have a team league and they have individual tournaments. I found myself tuning in to the broacast with more and more interest. Some of the games I did not really know for what were played but the big names and high quality commentary was enough for me. As I am typing this I'm watching a game between Socke and TLO (tlo lost) and before it was Puma vs Mana. If you do not know who they are believe me they are some of the best players! It seems that they are preparing for a big live tournament in Atlantic City at Caesar's Palace. They seem legit , I like the format and they provide EU re-broadcast (the world does not begin and end in North America :) ).
The live event will go down on october 6-th at the Caesar's Palace and it will last 4 days. This is the big leagues from what it seems as it rivals IEM, MLG and even TSL. 
You can check the stream at: teamliquid stream
Honestly their site was a pleasant surprise also - IGN They have a highlight section and it is definitely worth checking out!

Barcraft, because we drink beer and we are many!

There aree thre things I love. One is Starcraft 2, the other is unfiltered beer and the third is SF books! Well there is one thing that combines two of the things I love and that is barcraft. So yes, bars are no longer for the unruly, "uneducated" jocks, WE are here! The nerds are conquering the previous traditional sport bars. Yes, we do drink beer, we have money and esports IS a sport! Sure, the huge majority of sport bars are still only showing "real sports" but remember they are the dinosaurs while esports is the next step of evolution. Say hello to your new Starcraft 2 overlords! Don't worry though, because we are better we will not treat you in the same way we were treated. We embrace diversity because we are global by the nature of our sport! The title of the thread on teamliquid is:"BarCraft is a grassroots movement to bring eSports to bars in every city and town throughout North America.". I would love this to be a global movement. I can only suggest you listen to a better person than me.
Listen to Day9's sage advice, "Stop asking for permission, go f**king do it!"
I'm still waiting for the bar where you can watch Starcraft 2, drink beer and they also have SF books but hey the world isn't perfect and I'm not opening my own bar... yet!

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=248963
P.S.: There are some awesome stories and pictures in the thread.

Back to the beginnings

It's time to go back to the beginnings, an age of mythical creatures, mighty heroes and great battles. We will remember especially one of these heroes, the "Dreamer" as he was called.
While this might seem as a corny introduction to World of Warcraft, fear not for it is a corny introduction to Starcraft 1. The player in question is Nal_ra. He is known for his unorthodox style and creative builds, from which stems
the nickname "Dreamer". He reminds me personally of a quote I once read regarding light-sabers(Starwars) - "An elegant weapon, from a more civilized age."
I will not go on to list his achievements in Starcraft 1 as a Google search would provide the answers easier.
I will link to one of his greatest moves. It was an arbiter recall of the ages. Before his execution this move had been a matter of speculation for Korean progamers but it was deemed too difficult to pull off.
It implied two arbiters hallucinated that would recall at the same time:
Pimpest play 2004
I wanted to present a series in which nal_ra documents his attempt to come back to Starcraft 1 as a pro-gamer. This shows the hard work that some of the old-school pro-gamers put in to become famous, sometime without much in the way
of money. Probably also related to Korean culture which is based on hard work to become better and achieve your goals.
Wihtout further adieu this is Nal_ra - oldboy:

Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #1

Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #2

Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #3

Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #4

Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #5

Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #6

Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #7

Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #8

Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #9

Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #10

Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #11

Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #12

Tournament review: Northern American Starcraft League

Featuring almost all the top players in the world this is a league based tournament full of action. You can check the website at http://nasl.tv/
The NASL was developed by Russ Pfister, owner of the video-game coaching website Gosucoaching. The prizes exceed 100.000 dollars so this tournament can be called anything but serious!
There is one huge advantage for Americans and Europeans and that is the streaming time. You can tune in every day at NASL.TV to see matches as they are aired at 6pm PST and 9pm EST. The rebroadcast of the show is at 6pm GMT and 7pm CET every night. Basically you get reasonable hours instead of having to get up at 2-3 AM in the morning as is the case with GSL.
There is a free stream that you can watch but of course it is of lower quality and you do not get access to vods. What I mean by lower quality is that you can't watch 1080p.
The price for a pass is 25 dollars which is rather low considering you get more hours of footage then you get for a GSL seeason. There are also zero commercials if you buy the pass.
This being the first tournament organised by NASL there have been some problems, ranging from lag to bad sound quality for the casters to one of the casters talking too loud at times cough Gretorp cough. The tournament is casted by EG.Incontrol and Gretorp with guest appearances from other known casters. While some might not agree with how Gretorp commentates(read: gets overexcited) he is making efforts to improve the commentary and it is showing. The tournament is streamed in high quality 1080 on justintv. This is a two-edged sword because on some computers you can't actually watch such a high quality stream(laptops!!). They have changed this option so that you can watch in 720p, 480p, 360p and 240p quality. The lag problems and to a certain extent the sound problems have also been fixed.
There are 50 top players divided into groups of 10. Each player competes against every player in his group in a best-of-three match. At the end of the season the top two in each season qualify to be flown for the live-finals.
I could give some examples of good players but the truth is they all are: OGS.MC(toss bonjwa), White-ra(grandpa toss), TLO, HasuObs, Sjow, Tyler, Kiwikaki, EG.Incontrol, EG.Idra, Morrow, Boxer(long live the Emperor!), July(Sauron zerg), Goody(panzer general) and many more.
As a sidenote there is no option to pay by paypal for this tournament, at this moment at least, so this might be a deterrent. You can pay by credit card.
Some have said they will wait for a second season to buy a ticket because by then all problems will be solved and the organizers will have more experience. This is a personal choice but I will say one thing, this tournament will only get better and it is good now!

Let's waste some time!

Question: Why did the Collossus fall over?
Ansewer:Because it was imbalanced.
I wanted to write something about balance. About how protoss isn't imbalanced but actually a little stronger than zerg and that zerg is the harder race to play. Then I read it and realized it's bullshit. I'm wasting my time and yours.
Actually nobody reads the damn blog but if you would have read it then that article would have been a waste of time. There is one ingredient that's gonna improve your win rate well actually two if you include metamphetamine but I'm talking about legal stuff right now and that thing is hard work. This is not just another damn game, if you want to win against another human being and feel superior you better damn well put in the work to do it. I have a friend that started in silver league and is now in diamond(top 8) and there's a simple recipe to do what he did. Work on your timings, read strategy guides, play against good people and never give up.
I'll leave you with this little gem.It was a game in a big tournament(MLG), the score was 1-0 for toss. Even day9 is kind of speechless.

P.S.:And if you're reading this, leave a comment, it's lonely here.

Global Starcraft 2 League tournament review

There are a few tournaments right now where the cream of the crop of Starcraft 2 players are participating. I'm talking about the really huge tournaments.
For a list of day to day tournaments the best source is teamliquid.At the right side of the site there is a list with upcoming events where you can see all tournaments.
The biggest tournaments are the following:
1) The Global Starcraft 2 League: hosted by south koreans is the heart of Starcraft 2 at right now. Featuring the best south korean players but also non-koreans that managed to qualify to the tournament, this is an example of professionalism. A season ticket with adds costs 10 dollars while one without costs 20 dollars. You also get the vods(videos on demand) of the games played which means that you can re-watch them whenever you like. You can pay with credit card or through paypal and I assure you this is a safe site. If you do not wish to pay or do not have money to do so you can watch the live-stream but at lower quality and you will not have access to the vods.
What I like most about is the english casters.Artosis and Tasteless, together forming the casting archon Tastosis. From guinea-pig random facts to in-depth analysis they do it all and they do it good. Fun fact Tasteless is actually Day9's brother.
To watch the games you should create an account on the site or login with your facebook account. If you are on linux there are some people re-streaming but this is not really legal so I won't give you any advice on finding them. You could try searching on ustream, justin.tv or livestream with some keywords. There is also a tutorial to make the free stream work on linux but it relies on a program made in python and honestly I could not make it work for me. GSL on linux/. In conclusion if you weigh the pros and cons - this tournament is definitely worth to watch. They will never be late, any technical difficulties are fixed very fast and the quality of the games is top notch because some of the best players in the world are here.
There's nothing better than grabbing a beer/cola putting some popcorn in the oven and chilling while watching some Starcraft 2 tournaments. Well at least this is what works for me. If you have any better suggestions or healthier food/drinks while watching I'm willing to hear some suggestions.
I hope this helped.

A movie review

This is a movie suggestion. So why exactly am I suggesting you a movie on a Starcraft 2 site? Well because this is a fraking(yes I use frak I'm a geek deal with it) awesome movie full of action some comedy but the most important part this is how a film set in the Starcraft Universe was supposed to turn out. And yes I'm talking about Starship Troopers. Ok so there are no protosses but no movie is perfect. It is a good movie nonetheless and for those of you that have not seen it but love Starcraft it's going to give you nerd chills, I guarantee it! Some might argue that the alien movies(Aliens) are just as close but still in a marathon Starship Trooper would be the kenian runner while Alien 2 would be the decent white skinned slower dude.

A little about me and a day in a life of Starcraft

This is harder than I thought. I would like to welcome you to my blog and hope that you will learn and have fun along with me in the world of Starcraft II. A ittle about myself, I am a player of Blizzard Games, mostly of Starcraft I and Starcraft II.I've been playing them for more time than I can remember and having a blast. In Starcraft II I am currently in the master league but due to time constraints I do not have time to play at anything but a casual level. I watch tournaments every chance I get and generally stay informed on what is happening. I honestly think that in the future there will be just as many people tuning in to watch a gaming tournament as there are now watching football or some other mainstream sport. And gaming is a sport make no mistake though I think that it is just now beginning to grow and am very excited as I love e-sports in general and Starcraft II in particular!
But enough about myself for now. There is another person that I would like you to meet, an inspirational caster of e-sports and a person that always manages to make me laugh. Sean day[9] Plott
He has a very good show the day[9]daily that I would like you to visit to learn more about Starcraft II. You might be wondering why I am showing you another site that would draw you away from the blog. But it's not like that, if there is at least one person who learns about e-sports from this article then it's enough for me. I will link what I believe is his defining show the day9 daily 100. It's a special show, not so much an analysis but actually a story about how he grew and learned while playing games. Hits close to home for me as some aspects seem quite familiar. It will make you laugh ,move you to tears and in the end I hope you will see e-sports in another light but don't believe me, just watch:


P.S.:

Since this is my first attempt at this I hope you won't be too harsh of my writing. Also, English not being my native language some grammar mistakes are bound to happen.
I will leave you with the traditional SC II wish Gl hf(good luck have fun!).