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 The 2012-2013 SK Planet Proleague Season 1 is the first season of Korea's most prestigious team league played entirely in StarCraft II. The league is officially sanctioned by the Korean eSports Association (KeSPA), which announced it's intention to transition to StarCraft II last May. After a controversial Brood War / StarCraft II hybrid Proleague to ease the transition between the games, KeSPA has completely switched games and all future leagues will be played in StarCraft II. This year-long season has the largest prize pool of any Proleague to date, a total of 300,000,000 KRW (~$276,747). Proleague is broadcasted in Korea by OnGameNet, and casters have been hired for a new official English stream. KeSPA and OGN are still in talks regarding the English stream, but the opening matches will be streamed in English via Twitch.tv. The Korean stream will be broadcasted via YouTube. Update (12/15): Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid have obtained the rights to broadcast Proleague matches in English. TotalBiscuit, Adebisi, TLO and Mr. Bitter have all been hired as initial casters and there will be a likely rotation of casters heading forward. The biggest storyline heading into this season is the addition of a non-KeSPA foreign team, EG-Liquid. EG also made the story even bigger, by announcing the aquisition of one of KeSPA's star players, Jaedong. The competing storyline is the thing fans have been waiting to see for a long time, the elephant in the room, and that's the skill of KeSPA players as they play StarCraft II full time over the next year. Many of the players have become among the best in the world just months after playing the game for the first time, surpassing those who have trained for the past two years. The best eSports athletes in the world have transitioned, and by the end of the season they will be very familiar with the game.  Fantasy Proleague is a feature on TeamLiquid.net which allows fans to create their own team and compete against others. It makes Proleague much more fun to follow, giving you reason to follow certain teams and players you might not otherwise follow. We have our very own Proleague group with 53 players, make sure you join up if you want to compete with other goons! Register for Round Two here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/vie...topic_id=391291 The official Rip ZeeZ group can be found here: http://www.teamliquid.net/fantasy/p...php?r=13&g=1726 If you have a Fantasy Proleague team and you're not in the group, find it on this page to join: http://www.teamliquid.net/fantasy/p...Groups.php?r=13 Winners: Round One: Envisioned - 91 points Round Two: b0lt - 67 points Round Three: incoherent - 105 points Round Four: gobrin - 89 points  English Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/sc2proleague Korean Stream: http://www.youtube.com/esportstv or http://dostream.lab.so/stream.php?from=ongamenet Detailed results and schedule can be found on Liquipedia: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraf...oleague/Round_1 Spoiler-free VODs here: http://sc2ratings.com/season-info.p...A7ion=Round%201 Round 5 starting this week, schedule TBD.   2011-2012 Placing: 1st (Regular Season 2nd) 2011-2012 Season 2 Record: 12-9 Notable Players:  Bbyong EffOrt herO[jOin] Hydra Leta sKyHighCoaches: Kim Dong Woo, Lee Jae Hoon, Son Jae Bum CJ Entus won the 2011-12 Frankenstein BW/SC2 Proleague over Samsung KHAN in dominating fashion, taking them down 4-1 in the finals. Many of their players, notably herO, EffOrt, and Bbyong, excelled early in StarCraft II, which was huge for them given the weird format of the tournament. With the full switch to StarCraft II this season, expect them to be one of the better teams in Proleague.  2011-2012 Placing: 2nd (Regular Season 1st) 2011-2012 Season 2 Record: 12-9 Notable Players:  JangBi Reality RorO Shine StorkCoaches: Kim Ga Eul, Choi Soo Bum, Oh Sang Taek, Ju Yung Dal Samsung KHAN finished first overall in Group Stage last season, seeding themselves into the finals before ultimately losing to CJ Entus. KHAN had a number of talented players who showed promise early on in the KeSPA switch. Despite JangBi's continuing success in Brood War (champion in the final two Brood War OSL's), he showed early success in StarCraft II as well, famously demonstrating a new PvZ build in one of the first StarCraft II proleague matches. Although many of their players haven't shown too much success recently, they have an extremely talented roster that can be expected to develop nicely over the next year. I don't see them placing first in the Group Stage again, but a playoff position is certainly a possibility.  2011-2012 Placing: 3rd (Regular Season 4th) 2011-2012 Season 2 Record: 12-9 Notable Players: BeSt Bisu Dark FanTaSy Rain soOCoaches: Lim Yo Hwan (BoxeR), Kwun Oh Hyuk Although SK Telecom 1 narrowly made it into the playoffs last season, and we eliminated by CJ Entus in Round 2, they should be among the very best teams for this coming season. Rain and soO have both had great finishes in international tournaments since the season ended, and their newfound success will likely bring them to the top. It's not a stretch to call Rain the best StarCraft II player in the world right now. He's an OSL champion, a GSL semi-finalist, WCS Asia champion, and BWC semifinalist. All those results happened in the span of just over a month. SoO's success has been somewhat shadowed by the success of his teammate Rain, but he won the 2012 MLG vs Proleague invitational with impressive play, taking down BaBy, Flash, SoulKey, and Oz in the Playoffs. FanTaSy also has potential to become one of the best players in the world. He was the runner up in the final two Brood War OSL's, and continued the storyline of SKT1's Terran dominance right to the very end. With the legendary Terran Lim Ho Wan coaching the team, expect FanTaSy's Brood War success to eventually transfer into StarCraft II results.  2011-2012 Placing: 4st (Regular Season 3rd) 2011-2012 Season 2 Record: 12-9 Notable Players: BaBy Jaehoon SangCoaches: Ju Hoon, Han Sang Yong, Cha Ji Hoon, Kim Jung Hwan (Cezanne) Team 8 is a team created by KeSPA to round out the eight teams required for Proleague. They were formed out of the disbanded MBCGame HERO, WeMade FOX, and Hwaseung Oz. Although the team lacked sponsorship, they fielded a decent roster last season, with Jaedong leading the way. Unfortunately, the lack of funding has forced them to loan Jaedong to EG for the next year. They do still have some notable players, but the heart and soul of the team was Jaedong and he's gone. Sea also left the team to join Team Liquid. It's too bad Air Force ACE is disbanding, because Team 8 could have potentially competed with them for last.  2011-2012 Placing: 5th 2011-2012 Season 2 Record: 11-10 Notable Players: Flying free Light sOs Soulkey ZerOCoaches: Lee Jae Kyun, Son Seung Wan, Won Ryu Woongjin Stars narrowly missed out on the playoffs last season, finishing one spot out of the top four. Their lack of success was surprising, especially considering their StarCraft II ace, Soulkey. After the KeSPA transition, he was immediately considered one of the best StarCraft II players, apparently one of the first players to make it into Grandmaster on Korean ladder. Although their Proleague season was dissapointing, many of their players have shown success elsewhere. Flying made it to the quarterfinals of OSL. sOs took down Seed 2-0 in GSL Season 4 to advance to Code S for Season 5. In Season 5, Soulkey made it to the quarterfinals of Code S while sOs was eliminated in the round of 32. Although they lack the superstar talent many other teams have, they have a very solid lineup. They will without a doubt be a playoff contender. However, the lack of a star player may hurt them during the all-kill rounds of Proleague.  2011-2012 Placing: 6th 2011-2012 Season 2 Record: 11-10 Notable Players: Bogus Calm Classic hyvaa Last Mini TrapCoaches: Kim Min Ki, Park Jae Seok, Park Jong Soo, Choi Won Seok STX SouL finished 6th last season, a result which is somewhat surprising in retrospect. Bogus/Innovation has had one of the most successful runs of any KeSPA player so far, reaching the semifinals of GSL Code S. Last also accomplished the same feat in the OSL. Hyvaa has also shown impressive play, taking down Liquid'HerO and San at MLG Dallas. They have a ton of depth to their roster, something most KeSPA teams have been severly lacking. Like Woongjin, they may struggle in the all-kill portion.  2011-2012 Placing: 7th 2011-2012 Season 2 Record: 9-12 Notable Players: Action BarrackS Crazy-Hydra Flash HoeJJa Mind StatsCoaches: Lee Ji Hoon, Kang Doh Gyung, Kim Sang Hoon, Kim Yoon Hwan, Han Kyu Jong (Clide) After an incredibly dissapointing result last Proleague season, KT Rolster may be looking for revenge. Many of their players struggled with the hybrid season, and they ended up finishing last among non-Air Force ACE teams. Their star player in both Brood War and StarCraft 2, Flash, is the only Brood War bonjwa active in StarCraft II (other than SK Telecom T1's coach, BoxeR). He was the number one player that came to mind when KeSPA made the StarCraft II transition, and is somewhat expected to become one of the best players in the world very shortly. He expects himself to be unbeatable a year from now. Although his results have been slightly dissapointing so far (given massive expectations), he's shown flashes of brilliance in his micro and macro, and his claim to become the best is warranted.  2011-2012 Placing: N/A 2011-2012 Season 2 Record: N/A Evil Geniuses Players: HuK IdrA Jaedong (1 year loan from Team 8) JYP PuMa Stephano ThorZaINTeam Liquid Players: HerO Sea TaeJa ZenioCoach: Sung Jin Park An Unholy Alliance has been formed between the two biggest rivals in foreign eSports. KeSPA had announced the addition of a foreign team to replace the disbanding Air Force Ace team on November 27, which alone shook the eSports world. The idea of a foreign team joining the most prestigious Korean team league was once laughable, but the popularity of StarCraft II worldwide has allowed this to happen. Speculation over the next week mostly involved one of Evil Geniuses or Team Liquid joining the league, before it was announced that both teams were joining the league, together, on December 4. Evil Geniuses took the world shaking one step further, by announcing their aquisition of Team 8's Jaedong just a day later. HuK, IdrA, JYP, PuMa, Stephano, and ThorZain round out their star-studded line-up. Team Liquid is housing just four players for the start of Proleague: HerO, Sea, TaeJa, and Zenio. That doesn't mean a lack of quality, however. Expect EG-Liquid to be among the very best teams in Proleague for now. The improvement of KeSPA players throughout the season could potentially see EG-Liquid fall in the standings, however.          (In order: Planet S, Bifrost, Arkanoid, Caldeum, Antiga Shipyard, Cloud Kingdom, Tal'Darim Altar, Ohana) KeSPA has developed four new maps for use in Proleague this season, to go along with four official ladder maps. The new maps have many design features that make them play uniquely, something not really seen in the past for StarCraft II. It could lead to interesting metagame decisions and very map-dependant build orders. The ladder maps chosen also reflect the same intention by KeSPA; they made a point not to choose Daybreak as a map, widely considered to be one of the most straightforward and balanced maps in the game. They included Antiga Shipyard and Tal'Darim Altar, both of which have creative design that has made them somewhat Terran and Zerg favoured, respectively. Pengwin fucked around with this message at May 3, 2013 around 15:57 |
| # ? Dec 7, 2012 01:05 |
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| # ? May 25, 2013 22:36 |
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What are eEsports?
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 01:07 |
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TheHotCarl posted:What are eEsports? KeSPA is killing a lot of things, eSports and eEsports among them.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 01:08 |
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw8gE3lnpLQ Like that but competitive.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 01:09 |
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So in the fantasy thing I made some mistakes with regard to the whole anti-team thing. Now I guess I'm banking on Rain to have a major meltdown, stat...
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 01:13 |
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Oh thank god you posted this so excited. CANNOT WAAAAAAIT. Ugh I have to miss Saturday's games, but the games tomorrow are going to be MEXILENT.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 01:13 |
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Arkanoid is certainly...something.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 02:06 |
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Cicero posted:Arkanoid is certainly...something. Name: KeSPA Arkanoid Players: 4 Player map (1, 5, 7, 11) Size: 148 x 148 Rush distance: Island map Mapmaker: Jacky Concept: By utilizing neutral structures extensively to block every choke of the map, it first starts as an island map with a timer where players create their own path for ground movement. Arkanoid is a name of the classic block-smashing arcade game. Features: The two naturals beside the main base are blocked by a 'Creep Colony' with 200 hit point and 4 armour. Zerg is able to take an expansion right away, while Terran and Protoss must first destroy it to build their expansions at the correct location.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 02:17 |
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Cicero posted:Arkanoid is certainly...something.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 02:17 |
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That's an amazing OP. Great work zeezer. I am extremely excited about the influx of Kespa players. This is a game changer. SC2 is about to truly be born. Right in time for HOTS. Also those new maps are boss. Look at Araknoid! Look at Bitfrost! 5'd so loving hard.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 02:21 |
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How do I join the rip zeez group? Awesome OP.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 02:27 |
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Will English streams be allowed to be posted here?
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 02:28 |
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Meat Recital posted:Will English streams be allowed to be posted here? PLease post one! e: ALSO OMG THAT OP IS GORGEOUS AS gently caress PENGWIN semicolonsrock fucked around with this message at Dec 7, 2012 around 03:36 |
| # ? Dec 7, 2012 02:32 |
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1st_Panzer_Div. posted:How do I join the rip zeez group? Awesome OP. Thanks  I think once you create your team, you have to join groups via this page: http://www.teamliquid.net/fantasy/p...Groups.php?r=12 Meat Recital posted:Will English streams be allowed to be posted here? As far as I know, they're fine. Last season KeSPA/OGN were aware of Sayle's stream, but they didn't have it blocked out except for the finals where they hired their own English casters. e: fixed link, thanks Solar Pengwin fucked around with this message at Dec 7, 2012 around 07:47 |
| # ? Dec 7, 2012 02:36 |
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Hey heads up. From Team Liquid:quote:Making this thread because half the people in DoA's thread still don't know what's going on. Thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/vie...topic_id=386513
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 02:46 |
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Pengwin posted:Thanks Use this page: http://www.teamliquid.net/fantasy/p...Groups.php?r=12
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 07:25 |
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Thanks, I don't know why I didn't notice my link didn't work!  foutre posted:So in the fantasy thing I made some mistakes with regard to the whole anti-team thing. Now I guess I'm banking on Rain to have a major meltdown, stat... You can re-submit a team and it just replaces your old one. It leaves any groups you previously joined though, so make sure to re-join. ~~~  e: Big news regarding English broadcast: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/vie...topic_id=386687 Talks still underway! e2: English cast for opening day (at least)! Pengwin fucked around with this message at Dec 7, 2012 around 08:56 |
| # ? Dec 7, 2012 08:16 |
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Yay, we might get to watch games cast by Doa and Moletrap! ... Oh, wait.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 08:30 |
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Moletrap left Korea a while ago.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 08:48 |
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Stanlo posted:Moletrap left Korea a while ago. Forgot about that. I retract my comment.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 08:51 |
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Yaaaay English commentary on opening matches! I hope they get a duo as good as Tastosis/Wolf Khaldor, GOM really put in the effort to cycle through casters until they got what I think are some really quality ones.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 08:56 |
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Sooo glad they came to their senses. Even if the deal isn't set in place for the whole season yet, I'm sure it will be. EG/TL will be pushing for it, and I expect international viewership to be pretty spectacular this weekend with a reasonable starting time and a foreign team to root for.Neurosis posted:Forgot about that. I retract my comment. The casters OGN hired for StarCraft II are DoA and MonteCristo fyi. No idea who MonteCristo is, and that's probably not a good thing.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 09:05 |
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I was secretly hoping I could relive 5 years ago and find myself waking up in the middle of the night to listen to Klazart.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 09:25 |
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DoA is ruining esportsquote:OnGameNet caster DoA, who wrote a distorted, easily misunderstood post based on one-sided misinformation, has apologized for has made a correction. The association plans to immediately respond to the spread of baseless rumors rooted in distorted information.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 09:32 |
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Man I would love to watch this but euros are getting screwed  I don't think I can manage to stay up till 4 am, at least not on Friday night after working till almost 8 pm. And I also doubt I'll be able to heave my old and broken body out of bed at 4 am anymore to watch that, even though I figure that has a better chance of happening than actually staying up. At least I can just go back to bed afterwards.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 11:53 |
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Looking forward to this, as well as the fantasy-proleague. Although I don't know why Jaedong was so expensive for it, made him a comfortable anti-team pick given his weak performances* in SC2 previously (sure it could backfire, but so could pretty much any pick since only the good KeSPA players have shown their game the last 3 months anyway). * His record wasn't bad in the end (certainly not the fall-from-grace of Bisu), but it was mostly ace match wins, and he frequently won games because both he and his opponent played really sloppy. Insurrectionist fucked around with this message at Dec 7, 2012 around 12:16 |
| # ? Dec 7, 2012 12:05 |
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Sorry abraxas I guess it has to be 4am somewhere.. I wasn't particularly interested to begin with, but this beautiful OP and so much enthusiasm from other people has gotten me excited. Hope it's good!
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 12:08 |
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Really nice OP. I'm so excited about proleague i think i might faint.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 15:25 |
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I'm like stupid hyped for this and fantasy, but my team is going to be such garbage. I put Huk on my team, why in the world did I do that. I really hope they make it to the Arkanoid match in each round for the first few weeks, I want to see as many games as possible on that map.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 17:09 |
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They are really jerking DoA around, huh? I hope they're still having him do it. I don't think he's the best caster or anything but I like him.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 17:25 |
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The whole episode probably garnered a ton of extra interest so now that's there's apparently a resolution who cares?
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 17:27 |
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resistentialism posted:The whole episode probably garnered a ton of extra interest so now that's there's apparently a resolution who cares? Well, there isn't really a resolution. All that is confirmed is that just the opening matches will have English commentary with no further information.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 17:30 |
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So hyped for this. Fantasy SC2 sounds like it'll be really fun, I can't believe it's not more common.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 18:05 |
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Well it's not really a format that works with standard knockout tournaments, nor for non-team tournaments (not in the same way at least). Besides the one GSTL season that did have fantasy, I can't think of any SC2 leagues that would really work with fantasy-leagues.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 18:53 |
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Fantasy ZeeZ Team League
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 19:03 |
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Insurrectionist posted:Well it's not really a format that works with standard knockout tournaments, nor for non-team tournaments (not in the same way at least). Besides the one GSTL season that did have fantasy, I can't think of any SC2 leagues that would really work with fantasy-leagues.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 19:17 |
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I am so stoked for tonight. Also I didn't even read the rules for what an Anti-Team is supposed to be. I guessed people to get knocked out quick.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 19:17 |
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Pengwin posted:Fantasy ZeeZ Team League hahaha, this needs to happen when we do the TL
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 19:26 |
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King Pawn posted:Sorry abraxas Yeah it's true, I guess we get a way better deal on the GSL. Well, in theory anyway since I'm at work pretty much 99% of the time GSL is on. I'm happy this is being cast in english at all and I hope they don't gently caress it up or have it be some super dinky low quality stream or something. I think it's kind of insane that a couple of hours before this is supposed to go down, they still haven't really announced (or figured out?) who/where/what the english cast will be.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 19:34 |
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| # ? May 25, 2013 22:36 |
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I picked as many zergs as I could with Roro as my captain. Zerg OP.
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| # ? Dec 7, 2012 19:36 |
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