SHOUTcraft Kings - A $7500 monthly King of the Hill
Sponsored by Blizzard Entertainment
Introducing our new co-sponsor - Ting - Mobile that makes sense http://shoutcraft.ting.com
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VoDs
2016
July - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS67L5dgs2EYjZfMHPG6KIm6kjxRW6bj6
August - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS67L5dgs2EZ1dABCVlAnvGHRcYI0YoEw
September - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS67L5dgs2Eby1AIOWGbGEXc_TNr00bbC
October - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS67L5dgs2EbZTwtZB8LW1g9gNZ3vIqpQ
November -
December - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS67L5dgs2EZg6bn5y55W308FVSduLMAo
2017
January -
February - No event was held
March - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS67L5dgs2EZDYD_7kdXarlrwU7z0ZXrJ
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Unofficial Kings Stats page - http://shoutcraft.maxisoft.org/
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Where? - http://twitch.tv/totalbiscuit and http://www.youtube.com/totalbiscuit
When? - Saturday, Jun 24 12:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
Invites - Worldwide, all regions.
Format - King of the Hill. Winner receives $350 per map victory and will continue to defend until they are defeated.
Casters - TotalBiscuit and Incontrol
Map pool - TBA
Foreign language casting teams
French - https://www.twitch.tv/ogamingsc2
German - https://www.twitch.tv/taketv
Korean - http://twitch.tv/crank
Chinese - www.douyu.com/scboy
Announced Players
TBA
Reigning King - aLive
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2017 Update - High stakes. Less mistakes, maybe
It's 2017 and the momentum SHOUTcraft Kings gained in 2016 yielded excellent results. Far surpassing estimates and expectations, SHOUTcraft Kings is one of the most successful online events in Starcraft history, surpassing viewcounts for even big offline events such as Dreamhack Austin and GSL. We intend to continue to build on that success in 2017 and once again bring you the exciting action of our "no second chances" format. Our success in 2016 allowed us to bring on a co-sponsor in Ting, who we worked with several years ago to produce the SHOUTcraft America Winter event. With their involvement, the overall prize pool is raised to $7500, paying out $350 per map win. With even more money on the line and access to the best players in the world, we expect even better games, more tension and greater excitement. But TB, $7500/20 isn't $350. Ok Commander Mathematician, well that's because...
Introducing The Kings Bounty
A notion has been flying around in my head for a little while. Kings has been about epic streaks and great storylines. The format lends itself well to that. So how can we raise the stakes when it comes to finally knocking a long-reigning King off their throne? Should somebody who beats a guy that 10 other people couldn't beat be awarded an even bigger prize?
Now they will be. We've set aside $500 per month as a bounty pool. The way it works is very simple. Defeating a player with a winning streak will award $25 extra for every map the now-defeated King won before their eventual defeat.
eg: Defeating a King with only a single win to their name will award a total of $375. Defeating a King on a 10 win steak will award $525 and so on.
In the highly unlikely event that a King manages a 20 win streak, the bounty will roll over to next months event and continue to pay extra to the challenger who eventually defeats the King.
The Kings Bounty adds an extra little dimension to a victory and spices up the efforts to break the streak of dominant players.
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Original announcement - July 2016
+ Show Spoiler +
Well well, it's been a while and I'm finally happy to announce my new tournament venture, SHOUTcraft Kings, which is directly sponsored by and partnered with Blizzard Entertainment. I've been thinking for a while now about what the Starcraft 2 scene could do better and my conclusion is, story-telling. Any sport lives or dies based on stories. Stories get people to tune in. Stories fuel the passion of the fans. Stories are the basis of competition. Storytelling can be tricky with a complicated system and so many different tournaments. It can be hard to keep track. I wanted to host a format in which it wasn't, something where the story could not be simpler.
Who is at the top of the mountain? How long can they defend it?
King of the Hill is that format. It's a little underused in Starcraft 2, which is a shame, because it's easy to follow and it naturally creates stories. Epic runs, surprise opponents, shock dethroning. I wanted to create something akin to WWEs Royal Rumble, but in Starcraft. Why do people watch that? For surprise entrants, long runs, big elimination streaks. It's exciting to tune in and be surprised. King of the Hill does all of that naturally and it's a compact, easy to follow format with month-to-month continuity.
We're going to do 20 maps in a one day event every month. Each map victory pays out $250 prize-money to the winner. The winner of the map becomes the King and will then play their next opponent. They will not know who that opponent is in advance, it will be a surprise to both them and the audience. If they keep winning, they keep playing and they keep getting paid. If they lose, they're out of that months event, to be replaced by the new King. That said, being King has its advantages. The King gets to choose the map. We use a 5 map pool from the ladder. Once a map is picked, it cannot be used again until the entire pool is exhausted. The King will choose the map and there are no vetoes.
I'm excited to bring you this event in close cooperation with Blizzard who will be providing the prizepool. We've been working on this idea for a number of months and we think it will provide something awesome to the online tournament scene and an entertaining event for the viewers. Join us on July 24th live for the first edition and on Youtube for spoiler-free VoDs. We will be revealing some of the players who will participate over the next month, but of course some will remain a mystery until they appear during the event.
Who is at the top of the mountain? How long can they defend it?
King of the Hill is that format. It's a little underused in Starcraft 2, which is a shame, because it's easy to follow and it naturally creates stories. Epic runs, surprise opponents, shock dethroning. I wanted to create something akin to WWEs Royal Rumble, but in Starcraft. Why do people watch that? For surprise entrants, long runs, big elimination streaks. It's exciting to tune in and be surprised. King of the Hill does all of that naturally and it's a compact, easy to follow format with month-to-month continuity.
We're going to do 20 maps in a one day event every month. Each map victory pays out $250 prize-money to the winner. The winner of the map becomes the King and will then play their next opponent. They will not know who that opponent is in advance, it will be a surprise to both them and the audience. If they keep winning, they keep playing and they keep getting paid. If they lose, they're out of that months event, to be replaced by the new King. That said, being King has its advantages. The King gets to choose the map. We use a 5 map pool from the ladder. Once a map is picked, it cannot be used again until the entire pool is exhausted. The King will choose the map and there are no vetoes.
I'm excited to bring you this event in close cooperation with Blizzard who will be providing the prizepool. We've been working on this idea for a number of months and we think it will provide something awesome to the online tournament scene and an entertaining event for the viewers. Join us on July 24th live for the first edition and on Youtube for spoiler-free VoDs. We will be revealing some of the players who will participate over the next month, but of course some will remain a mystery until they appear during the event.