Hello, folks!
Some weeks ago, I started a new format on our German page, the TaKeTV SC2-Newsflash. Within this, I try to summarize the most important news, results, developments and side stories of the SC2 community, so that you can always stay informed without the need to crawl through every little news excerpt there is. (And there are a lot of them, oh boy).
So yeah, here it is, the first TaKeTV SC2-Newsflash in English! Please keep in mind: I'm not a native speaker, so bear with me, please?
E-sport's biggest enemy
Of course, to celebrate the birth of this format, this week has gifted me with quite a few rememberable news (although not as much as I would've hoped, curse you, Diablo 3!!). Before I let this introduction get too long and talk about how TaKe clipped his toenails this morning: Let's get this started!
Show'em who's boss, Boss-Toss – Red Bull Battlegrounds Austin
While the scale of the tournament wasn't exactly unrivaled, the Red Bull Battlegrounds event proofed to be a very fulfilling alternative to the rather similiar in style Dreamhack Invitationals in Europe.
Especially the quality of the player cast was worthy of a big stage and was met with an impressive price pool on one hand and an even more impressive production value on the other hand. There is hope that this wasn't the last we've seen from Red Bull.
Of course with players as great as MC, Stephano or Squirtle (just to name a few), the quality of matches was on the highest level, displaying how great Sc2 developed up to this point in time.
The korean to non-korean ratio of 7 wasn't exactly an indicator for hope for a foreigner win and yet again the outcome seemed to be doomed from the start, a Korean victory was more than likely. Even though the chance of winning in the face of the Korean overlords was slim, the foreigners decided to put on a good show and reminded us, that even the mystical Koreans are not invincible.
SK_MC
Stephanos 3-0 run and eventual 3rd place finish, Illusion's mighty series against Ganzi and the surprise (?) of SaSe managing to get past the Group stage, just to name a few examples, might quell our thirst for foreigner success. At least for now. The EG curse has still not been dispelled though.
The grand final was, as expected, tight in Korean hands. The president toss, MC, managed to beat Bomber to claim the first prize of $15k. A big sum for big matches.
„What do you mean, there is an outside world?“
This announcement is in line with the transition from Brood War to Starcraft 2 in Korea. It is basically something many Starcraft fans hoped for for a very long time: The arrival of KeSPA on western soil!
While the nature of the deal between the MLG and KeSPA leaves some open questions and can be seen under a very critical perspective (I recommend to destiny's comment comment about this), we should also see the positive things that come with it.
After many years of almost complete isolation, the Korean super-pros of the Korea e-Sports Association are now one step closer to compete with all the (Sc2) players we grew fond of: Eight (ex?)-BW figureheads have been chosen to play in their own seperated showcase tournament at the MLG Spring Championship 2012. Every single one of them reeks of incredible talent and their names alone are enough to inspire fear in everyone unlucky enough to confront them:
They are:
- Neo.G_Soulkey
- Calm
- Stork
- Flash
- Leta
- Bisu
- Fantasy
- Jaedong
Whether they'll be kept separated in order to protect the participents of the real grid from the unfathomable skill or to spare the legends the shame of a quick elimination due to the lack of training is unknown.
What is known, on the other hand, is the undeniable fact, that this series of showmatches is already hyped to the max. Let's hope it'll be as epic as it already sounds!
The GSTL has got some new maps, hooray
While it may not seem like a big news, it certainly could have an impact on the Sc2 metagame for the near future:
GOMtv introduced two new maps for their Global Starcraft 2 Team League. „Whirlwind“ and „Muspenheim“ both look very interesting and will hopefully enhance the quality of the matches.
On the same note, „Dual Sight“ is removed from the map pool after being attacked for being unbalanced for several months now.
The complete list of the maps in the GSTL is now as follows:
- Ohana
- Cloud Kingdom
- Atlantis Spaceship
- Antiga Shipyard
- Daybreak
- Entombed Valley
- Metropolis
- Whirlwind
- Muspelheim
No one should be surprised if the new maps will be played in other future competitions as well. So you better get used to them. 
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GSL Whirlwind ESV Muspelheim
Oh, by the way: HOMESTORY CUP!
Ok ok, we had some problems with our servers at the first NA qualifier. Rest assured, those problems have all been taken care of.
Nonethess, despite some problems with signups, the first NA qualifier for the HSC V powered by XMG was a success. As a result, Golden.Light will be the second players qualified for the HSC V powered by XMG after empire.Kas.
Just as a reminder: The next NA qualifier is on friday. Everyone can sign up. For all informations regarding our qualifiers, please refer to THIS LINK.
We hope you like it
This is just an attempt to open up to the English speaking community. We hope you like this format. If you do or if you don't, tell us what you think. I will definitely read your comments and we will try to react to your feedback as directly as possible.
Even if you can't draw any useful information out of this article, consider this just the start of us opening up to you.
By the way: If you don't like the formatting of this blog, feel free to check out the original version on our site.
With lots of love
The TaKeTV crew!
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