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StarCraft in esports

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An e-sports stadium, where professional StarCraft is played

The computer game StarCraft has an active professional competition circuit, particularly in South Korea. The two major game channels in South Korea, Ongamenet and MBCGame, each run a Starleague, viewed by millions of fans. Starting in about 2002, pro-gamers started to become organized into teams, sponsored by large South Korean companies like Samsung, SK Telecom and KTF. StarCraft is also the most popular computer game competition during the annual World Cyber Games thanks to its Korean fanbase, and it is overall one of the world's largest computer and video game competitions in terms of prize money, global coverage and participants.[1][2]

KeSPA rankings

KeSPA[3] stands for Korean e-Sports Players Association and publishes a monthly calculation of rankings based on a point scale. It is a rolling system based on the past six months of performance in both major and minor events, awarding points based on wins. The most weight is placed on recent games, while games farther back have less emphasis.

KeSPA rankings as of July 2009[4]
Rank Player Screenname Rating Change Race Played
1 Jaedong 2,701.5 0 Zerg
2 Bisu 2,328.0 0 Protoss
3 Flash 1,943.8 0 Terran
4 Leta 1,898.6 +2 Terran
5 Fantasy 1,730.3 -1 Terran
6 Stork 1,714.5 -1 Protoss
7 Luxury 1,594.5 0 Zerg
8 JangBi 1,527.0 0 Protoss
9 Yellow[Arnc] 1,371.0 0 Zerg
10 Kal 1,317.0 0 Protoss
11 Zero 1,285.3 0 Zerg
12 Effort 1,176.8 +8 Zerg
13 Free 1,176.2 -1 Protoss
14 Hwasin 1,139.3 +1 Terran
15 Light 1,095.0 +3 Terran
16 Calm 1,083.2 +1 Zerg
17 Best 1,015.9 -4 Protoss
18 UpMagic 999.6 -4 Terran
19 Hyvaa 935.6 0 Zerg
20 Hiya 910.1 -4 Terran
21 Really 841.5 +5 Terran
22 Kwanro 807.2 +12 Zerg
23 FireBatHero 798.8 +1 Terran
24 Sea 793.1 -3 Terran
25 By.Hero 769.1 +5 Zerg
26 go.go 741.8 +10 Terran
27 Mind 729.8 0 Terran
28 sKyHigh 715.3 0 Terran
29 Iris 707.3 -4 Terran
30 ForGG 696.8 -8 Terran

List of professional StarCraft teams

StarCraft match televised on MBCGame

The Korean professional scene is currently divided into 12 teams, 11 of which are sponsored by corporations, and the other by the Korean Air Force.

  • Air Force ACE (공군 에이스)
  • CJ ENTUS (CJ엔투스) - formerly GO (Greatest Ones)
  • eSTRO (이스트로) - formerly eNature Top Team, AMD Hexatron
  • Woongjin Stars (웅진 스타즈) - formerly Hanbit Stars
  • KT FingerBoom (KT핑거붐) - formerly KT MagicNs, KTF MagicNs
  • Hwaseung Oz (화승 오즈)- formerly Lecaf OZ, Plus, IS (Ideal Space)
  • MBCGame HERO (MBC게임 히어로) - formerly POS (Pirates of Space)
  • Hite SPARKYZ (온게임넷 하이트 스파키즈) - formerly OGN SPARKYZ, KOR
  • Samsung KHAN (삼성전자 칸)
  • SK Telecom T1 (SK텔레콤 T1) - formerly 4U, Orion
  • STX SouL (STX소울)
  • WeMade FOX (위메이드 폭스) - formerly Pantech EX, Pantech & Curitel Curriors, Toona S.G.

Notable professional StarCraft players

Terran

Known as the "Emperor of Terran", or sometimes just "The Emperor", Boxer's highly creative play has made him the most popular StarCraft player in history. He is also one of, if not the most, successful as he is the only StarCraft player to win the World Cyber Games (WCG)[5] twice. He has also won the Ongamenet Starleague (OSL)[6] twice (only 6 players have achieved that). In fact, he is the only player to win OSL consecutively. He holds the record for being number 1 in KeSPA's rankings for 17 consecutive months. Boxer made a comeback in 2005, making it to the finals of the So1 OSL 2005, but had to retire from professional gaming to join the Korean military service, which is mandatory for all Korean males. On 3 October 2006 he played his rival [NC]...Yellow in "Superfight", which he won 3-2. One of the most popular fights with [NC]Yellow was Boxer's Famous SCV rush, where he sent his SCV's and a couple of marines and won in five minutes. His total record of televised matches before he joined the Korean Air Force was 500 wins and 338 losses. Recently, Boxer became one of the first members of the Korean Air Force pro-gaming team ACE (an acronym of Air Force Challenges E-sports), where he continued playing as a pro-gamer. He made the GomTV 2 MBC Game Starleague in 2007, but was eliminated in the group stages. When his air force contract expired on December 24, 2008, he rejoined his former team SK Telecom T1, appearing actively in Pro League in July 2009
The "Genius Terran" started his progaming career by beating ChRh (Choi In Kyu) on the "Amateur vs Pro" TV show. Statistically, he's the best player in history, having achieved the highest KeSPA score of any player before it was re-scaled. He has a consistent and dominating style, backed up with excellent macro. Once believed to also have the best micro among all StarCraft players (eg. Nada's Vultures). He has been on the team IS, KTF and now the Wemade FOX, formerly Pantech EX, formerly known as Toona SG. Nada has won 3 OSLs, 3 MSLs, and the first KT-KTF invitational tournament. After a resurgent OSL victory in late 2006, NaDa became the first player to have won the OSL 3 times, winning the "Golden Mouse". He recently qualified for his tenth MSL, but failed to qualify for the next OSL. Nada managed to reach the final sixteen in both the 2008 MSL and OSL, but was stifled of another attempt at a trophy by Hwasin and Jangbi respectively. As of December 2008 he is ranked 18 in KeSPA. He is noted to have the most consistent stats of any pro gamer in existence, never falling out of the top 25 in KeSPA rankings. As of June 2009, Nada has fallen to rank 31 in the KeSPA ranking system, making it the first time that he's been out of the top 30 in 87 months(March 2002).
The next on line of successful Terran players after Boxer and Nada, iloveoov's macro is even better than Nada's, leading to him being jokingly known as the "Cheater Terran" due to his ability to create large armies in a short span of time. He has won the MBCGame Starleague (MSL)[7] three times in succession, an amazing feat, and in November 2004 finally won the OSL, cementing his place as one of the strongest players of the game. He won his 2nd OSL title in March 2006, defeating JulyZerg in the 1st ShinHan Bank tournament. iloveoov has now retired from professional gaming and is currently a coach for the SKT1 squad with Kingdom. However, in November 2008, he declared to come back to the squad and works as playing-coach in SKT. His first coming back game was held 17th of November. He played against Kim Myung Un (Zerg) and lost, himself using Valiath (Valkyrie+Goliath).
He has an interesting relationship with Boxer (who was on the same SK Telecom T1 team with him), as he sees Boxer as a kind of "older brother" or mentor (Boxer brought iloveoov to the professional scene after seeing his talent in amateur leagues), and as a result, was somewhat regretful for beating him (3-2) in the finals of the EVER OSL in November 2004. He was the WCG 2006 winner, beating Julyzerg 2-1 in the finals.
ToSsGirL is the best female starcraft player, winning every female starleague she entered. For this she was known as the female counterpart of Boxer in her early days, and to this day, her nickname remains "Empress". The name "ToSsGirL" suggests that she plays the Protoss race, but she switched to the Terran race because she finds it fits more to her playing style. ToSsgirl has had some prominent victories in regular starleagues including beating YellOw 2-0 in 2003, beating Freemura 2-0 and in 2009 beating Max 2-1 in the MSL Preliminaries. Besides these, ToSsGirl has had limited success in the main starleagues. She saw limited play time in 2006 and 2007 after a series of losses by her and her team. In 2008, ToSsGirL was able to defeat Modern 2-0 in the round of 64 in the Gom Averatec-Intel Classic Season 2. This was the first time a female has won a match in a KESPA recognized tournament. In turn with the newyear, ToSsGirL has been placed on the STX Proleague roster.
The "Ultimate Weapon", Flash is KTF's current ace player, and is currently considered the strongest Terran player in all three matchups. He is currently ranked 2nd in the KeSPA rankings only to Stork as of December 2008. Flash is particularly known for his innovation of early upgraded Goliaths known as the "Flash build" for effective defense and attack against Protoss, which effectively eliminated the Terran weakness vs Carriers. He took fourth place in Daum OSL in 2007 and is the first winner of the GOM TV Star Invitational. At age 15, he was the youngest progamer to win a title. A new Boxer/Yellow type of rivalry has developed between Flash and Jaedong as they faced each other three times in 3 quarter-finals of MSL Season 4, Bacchus OSL, and GomTV Star Invitational which all took place during February 2008. Jaedong beat Flash 3-1 in MSL Season 4 and won the tournament, however, Flash defeated Jaedong in both Bacchus OSL and GOM Star Invitational 2-1. Flash subsequently won both the GSI and Bacchus OSL Finals against Stork. He is currently the best of many bright new stars of the KTF MagicNs progaming team as they begin to replace their aging group of starters such as Reach, Nal_rA (retired), Yell0w, Garimto (retired), Sync (now Flash's trainer), and Chojja (retired).
Known as the "Terran Revolutionist" or "Terrorist" (A reference to Bisu, who was known as the Protoss Revolutionist), Fantasy has revived the creativity of TvZ play, which had remained essentially unchanged for years, by re-introducing the use of mech units against traditional zerg tactics- even on maps where this had previously been impossible (this was assisted by the playing coach of his team SKT1, iloveoov). His strongest match-up is believed however to be his harass-driven TvP, which uses dropships and vultures to slow the Protoss's economy, and deplete his forces. Overall, his unique control of a wide range of terran units and his ability to use them in concert, including the almost-never-used Valkyrie, has led him to incredible success recently, as he has been the runner up in two successive OSL finals (2008, 2009).

Zerg

Yellow, the "Storm Zerg", is known for his aggressive and harass-style play, and for his rivalry with Boxer (who has never lost to him in a Starleague final). He is also infamous for showing strong performances, but never being able to finish first in the major events. He managed to finish second place six times at these events, never once attaining a major championship. Yellow finally won the Snickers All-Star league vs. Nada in 2005 (in fact, Yellow is noted for his success in such special events, having won MBC Winner's Championship and the OGN King of Kings tournament) and won the first BlizzCon invitational tournament. Yellow once again suffered defeat at the hands of eventual champion Casy in the semi-finals of the Shinhan 1 OSL in 2005, but claimed 3rd place. However, due to a poor performance in the following OSL, YellOw has had a slump from which he has not yet recovered. Recently, Yellow managed to make it to the round of 32 in the GOMTV Averatech Classic, but was eliminated by oDin. He is now in the Korean Air Force, and has enlisted in the StarCraft team Air Force ACE.
Currently ranked #23 in KeSPA, JulyZerg (or simply "July"), the "God of War", is credited with revitalizing what had been stagnant Zerg play, and of leading the way for a kind of "Zerg renaissance" with his highly dynamic and aggressive style, incorporating a strong understanding of his opponent's weaknesses and fantastic unit control. He is the first Zerg player to win an OSL; having accomplished this feat in 2004, and he also won the second KT-KTF Premiere League. In July 2005 he won a second OSL, something that to date only four other players have accomplished, and after a long slump managed to win the Ever OSL 2008, making him the second player and first zerg to win 3 OSL titles and claiming the Golden Mouse trophy. July is known for being closer to the amateur community than the typical professional player, having played in amateur leagues such as the WGTour Speed Ladder in the past, and was one of the players on the Asian team for the friendly Blizzard Invitational Tournament held in early 2005. After his OSL victory in July 2008, JulyZerg continues to be one of the top zerg players, though is rarely seen in proleague due to his team's wide lineup of other promising zergs.
sAviOr (previously known as IPXZerg) has won three MSLs and one OSL, and reached five consecutive MSL finals during the height of his dominance. Nicknamed "Maestro" for his incredible play, timing, and game sense, he is often viewed as the most successful and fearsome Zerg of all time, having defeated BoxeR, iloveoov, NaDa, Midas, Nal_rA and many other top players. He is well-known for his perfect defiler usage, particularly in the ZvT matchup. sAviOr made the semifinals of the 2007 September–November GOM TV MSL but was surprisingly eliminated by Terran player Mind 2–3. Soon after, he was eliminated 1–2 by Bisu in the 2007 Ever OSL quarterfinals. sAviOr is currently in a competitive-slump, having been eliminated from the first round of both the most recent OSL and MSL. However, he has since qualified for the next upcoming MSL, and has promised to "destroy everyone in 2009". He is currently ranked 27th in the November 2008 KeSPA ranking.
Known as the "Lord of Destruction", and the "Tyrant", Jaedong is currently Hwaseung OZ's ace player, and gained fame from taking down many top players when he first entered the scene, earning the nickname "Legend Killer". He is known for his incredible micro of mutalisks, his trademark unit. His ZvT and ZvZ are among the best the progaming scene has ever witnessed, and he is currently regarded as the best Zerg player, if not the best player overall. He recently walked the Royal Road by qualifying for the OSL for the first time and defeating Stork in the EVER OSL finals 3-1. Soon thereafter, he proved that his ZvP matchup was not weak by defeating Bisu in the GOMTV MSL S4 group stages. Since his OSL win, Jaedong's ZvP has statistically been his second strongest matchup (71.25%)[8] Jaedong has also won the MSL season 4 by defeating Siz)Kal 3-1 in March, 2008, further proving himself as the top Zerg on the scene. Jaedong broke the records by winning 12 ZvZ games straight, only losing to Oversky in the Proleague. As of June 2009, he is 72-19 (79.12%) in ZvZ- considering ZvZ is thought to be one of the most volatile and luck based matchups, this is a very impressive feat. In July 2008, he was defeated in the Arena MSL 2008 Finals 0-3 by his teammate Park Ji-Su (ForGG), but he was able to bounce back from his loss and defeat his rival Flash 3-0 in the TG Sambo Intel Classic finals. He has recently won his second OSL title against Fantasy in the Batoo OSL 2009. He was the only player to make the quarterfinals of every starleague this season: GOMTV Avertec Classic, OSL, and MSL. He is a favorite to win the OSL. He's also currently first in the KeSpA rankings and has been at the top or thereabouts in the past two years

Protoss

One of only six players to win the OSL twice, Garimto, nicknamed "The Zealot" was notable for succeeding even during Boxer's height of dominance. He also innovated heavily with Protoss build-orders, making frequent use of "hidden" tech buildings and other tricks. Garimto had to quit SC in order to do his Korean military service, but now regularly acts as a commentator for games. In his commentary he is known for criticizing current Protoss players for playing sloppily and hence not achieving the potential of the race. Garimto completed his military service on December 21st, 2006 and has rejoined the e-sports competition as part of KTF. After never recovering to his legendary progaming status, he retired from professional gaming after playing only one game, a loss to Free during the 2nd half of Shinhan Proleague 2007. He was lately seen as a commentator in the Gomtv Star Invitational.
The 'Dreaming Protoss' is often considered to be a Protoss version of Boxer due to his highly creative and daring play. He frequently hides his buildings in other parts of the map and pioneered and standardized several notable Protoss strategies such as fast expanding and using corsairs and reavers in tandem against Zerg. He won an OSL and MSL in the same season and does exceptionally well in team tournaments, playing for KTF. He has won the Blizzard WorldWide Invitational tournament during early 2006. He has recently recovered from a severe slump; as a result, he has qualified for ShinHan Bank 2 OSL and made it to the Pringles MSL finals by defeating Kingdom, only to lose 3-1 to sAviOr. He also made it to the Semi-Finals of the subsequent Pringles 2 MSL, only to lose again at the hands of sAviOr. Nal_ra is currently in a severe slump as he went 1-7 in the 2nd half of Shinhan Proleague 2007. He dropped out of MSL after losing to Xellos in the quarter finals of MSL season 3 and has yet to recover. Nal_rA has now retired from progaming and is currently a broadcaster for MBCGame.
Reach, nicknamed "MAN-TOSS" (due to his muscular build and brute strategies) or "Hero Protoss", is the Protoss player who has been most consistent in the long term, beating Boxer in an OSL final near the height of his dominance, and generally placing well in tournaments. As his nickname suggests, he is generally known for his standard/solid/safe style of play, with flawless macro and use of Psi Storm (the latter of which earned him the other nickname "Mudang Protoss", meaning shaman Protoss in Korean, owing to the uncanny accuracy of his Psionic Storm use), although he has been leaning away from this slightly in recent times due to changes in the playing style of the other races. Reach is known for his PvP and PvT skills, with his PvZ being inconsistently brilliant. Park was the captain of the KTF progaming team. Reach has been absent from the Starleagues and KeSPA rankings for 18 months but has recently returned to StarCraft pro-gaming tournaments, successfully qualifying for the 2007 Season 1 OSL. Reach has slumped since his return and is currently enlisted with Yellow in Air Force ACE. Currently, Reach has shown some return to form with impressive victories in the ProLeague.
Considered one of the best PvP players in history, Kingdom has only won a single OSL but is noted for his fantastic unit control. Nicknamed the 'Devil Toss', he is famous for using his scouting probes to effectively harass enemy workers. He is also known for his frequent use of (and excellent micromanagement with) Reavers and Carriers. He played for SK Telecom T1 and was ranked 25th on the April 2006 KeSPA rankings and outside the top 30 in June and July rankings. Kingdom has now retired due to an arm socket problem and is now a coach of SKT1.As of July,2009 Kingdom has left the skt1 as a coach and is going to be a commentator just like 1 of his rival protoss(reach/kingdom/ra 3 toss kings) Nal_ra (Kang Min).
Nicknamed "Dinosaur Toss", Stork was named by Boxer himself to be the next great Protoss player when he first entered the scene. Stork began to climb the ranks in 2006, and is currently ranked 1st by KeSPA as of december 2008, and is consistently ranked highly in competitions. He plays on the Samsung Khan team and placed first in Starcraft at WCG 2007 and second in the WCG 2008. Stork has a history of 2nd place finishes in Starleagues, having lost to JaeDong in the EVER OSL finals, to Flash in both the GSI and Bacchus OSL finals, and previously to Bisu in the GomTV 2 MSL finals. He has recently placed 1st place in the 2008 OSL Finals by defeating Fantasy in the finals of the Incruit OSL in November 2008. Stork is respected by fans for his well-mannered and modest behavior. He recently reclaimed 1st place in November and December 2008 Kespa rankings, before fading slightly along with the Protoss race as a whole.
Bisu (meaning "dagger" in Korean), nicknamed "Ninja Toss" for his creative Dark Templar use, plays at the highest level of progaming. He had moderate success in Shinhan OSL 2 where he made it to the sweet 16 playoff round. Bisu rose to prominence when he unexpectedly defeated sAviOr 3-0 in the March 2007 GOM MSL final at the height of Savior's dominance. Bisu is also known as the "Revolutionist" for his strong PvZ, and changing how Protoss players play the matchup. He also recently won the July 2007 GOM MSL 2 by defeating Stork 3-2. Bisu is the first Protoss player to reach the 1st spot in KeSPA history. Bisu lost 1-3 to Mind in the finals of the September GOM MSL 3 and was eliminated by Stork in the semifinals of the EVER OSL. Bisu was eliminated in the group stages of GOM MSL 4, losing most notably to Jaedong. However, he made it to the semifinals of the Bacchus OSL, but was eliminated by Flash. Bisu recently regained his dominant form by defeating free in ClubDay MSL semifinal, and defeated Jangbi in final to win his 3rd MSL title, the first and only Protoss to achieve this feat.For the first time in StarCraft progaming history, two opponents faced in a final back to back, once again, Bisu defeated Jangbi 3-1 in the GOM Averatec-Intel Classic Season 2 tournament. Inexplicably, his performance in OSL did not yield him any championships which is the only knock on his career so far.

History of pro-level tournament winners

All listed from oldest to most recent. Note that many of the Starleagues are named after the corporate sponsor for that year and that the other finalists are given in descending order of their finish. P/T/Z after a player's name indicates whether they played Protoss, Terran or Zerg respectively. The players are from South Korea except when noted.

Winners of the Ongamenet Starleague[6]

  • FreeMuRa (Z) over TheBoy, Ssamjang (99 Progamer Korea Open)
  • Grrrr... (P) (Canada) over H.O.T-Forever (Hanaro Communication Tooniverse Starleague )
  • Garimto (P) over Skelton (Freechal 2000)
  • BoxeR (T) over JinNam, Grrrr... (Canada), Kingdom (Hanbitsoft April - June 2001)
  • BoxeR (T) over YellOw, V-Gundam, Tis)Isaac (Coca-Cola July - September 2001)
  • Garimto (P) over BoxeR, TheMarine, YellOw (Sky 2001 October - December 2001)
  • Sync (T) over H.O.T. Forever, ChRh, Oddysay (NATE April - June 2002)
  • Reach (P) over BoxeR, YellOw, ElkY (France) (Sky 2002 July - October 2002)
  • NaDa (T) over ChOJJa, YellOw, Junwi (Panasonic November 2002 - February 2003)
  • XellOs (T) over YellOw, BoxeR, Junwi (Olympus April - June 2003)
  • Kingdom (P) over Nal_rA, Junwi, Reach (MyCube August - October 2003)
  • Nal_rA (P) over ZeuS, Silent_Control, JJu (NHN Hangame December 2003 - March 2004)
  • July (Z) over Reach, iloveoov, Silent_Control (Gillette April - July 2004)
  • iloveoov (T) over BoxeR, Reach, YellOw (2004 Ever August - November 2004)
  • NaDa (T) over July, GoRush, GooDFriend (IOPS December 2004 - March 2005)
  • July (Z) over GooDFriend, XellOs, GoRush (2005 Ever May 2005 - July 2005)
  • Anytime (P) over BoxeR, iloveoov, PuSan (So1 August 2005 - November 2005)
  • iloveoov (T) over July, PuSan, Casy (2005 Shinhan December 2005 - March 2006)
  • Casy (T) over ChOJJa, YellOw, JJu (2006 Shinhan 1 April 2006 - June 2006)
  • NaDa (T) over Anytime, Midas, Goodfriend (2006 Shinhan 2 September 2006 - November 2006)
  • sAviOr (Z) over NaDa, Iris, Casy (2006 Shinhan 3 December 2006 - February 2007)
  • GGPlay (Z) over Iris, Stork, Flash (Daum May 2007 - July 2007)
  • Jaedong (Z) over Stork, Bisu, UpMagic (EVER October 2007 - December 2007)
  • FlaSh (T) over Stork, Bisu, Luxury (Bacchus January 2008 - March 2008)
  • July (Z) over BeSt, BackHo, Luxury (Ever April 2008 - July 2008)
  • Stork (P) over Fantasy, BeSt, GGPlay (Incruit August 2008 - November 2008)
  • Jaedong (Z) over Fantasy, by.herO, Bisu (Batoo December 2008 - April 2009)

Winners of the MBC Starleague[7]

  • Boxer (T) over YellOw, IntoTheRain, ChRh (KPGA 1st Tour)
  • NaDa (T) over YellOw, Black, ChOJJa (KPGA 2nd Tour)
  • NaDa (T) over Reach, BoxeR, ChRh (KPGA 3rd Tour)
  • NaDa (T) over ChOJJa, kOs, JinNam (KPGA 4th Tour)
  • Nal_rA (P) over NaDa, Zeus, ChOJJa (Stout May 2003 - August 2003)
  • iloveoov (T) over YellOw, NaDa, GooDFriend (TriGem September 2003 - November 2003)
  • iloveoov (T) over NaDa, TheMarine, Nal_rA (HanaFOS January 2004 - March 2004)
  • iloveoov (T) over Kingdom, Nal_rA, GooDFriend (Spris May 2004 - August 2004)
  • GoRush (Z) over NaDa, XellOs, ChOJJa (You're the GolfKing July 2004 - February 2005)
  • sAviOr (Z) over Reach, ChOJJa, iloveoov (UZOO April 2005 - August 2005)
  • ChOJJa (Z) over sAviOr, iloveoov, MuMyung (Cyon October 2005 - January 2006)
  • sAviOr (Z) over Nal_rA, Kingdom, Midas (Pringles I April 2006 - July 2006)
  • sAviOr (Z) over SiLvEr, Nal_rA, JJu (Pringles II August 2006 - November 2006)
  • Bisu (P) over sAviOr, Nal_rA, HwaSin (GOM TV I December 2006 - March 2007)
  • Bisu (P) over Stork, GoRush, Firebathero (GOM TV II April 2007 - July 2007)
  • Mind (T) over Bisu, sAviOr, Xellos (GOM TV III September 2007 - November 2007)
  • Jaedong (Z) over Kal, Mind, Jangbi (GOM TV IV January 2008 - March 2008)
  • ForGG (T) over Jaedong, FlaSh, Kal (Arena April 2008 - July 2008)
  • Bisu (P) over JangBi, Kal, Free (Club Day September 2008 - November 2008)
  • Luxury (Z) over JangBi, Zero, Stork (Lost Saga January 2009 - March 2009)

Winners of the World Cyber Games in StarCraft: Brood War

  • GoRush (South Korea) (Z) over I.LOVE_STAR (South Korea) (2000)
  • BoxeR (South Korea) (T) over ElkY (France) (2001)
  • BoxeR (South Korea) (T) over YellOw (South Korea) (2002)
  • Ogogo (South Korea) (Z) over FiSheYe (Germany) (2003)
  • XellOs (South Korea) (T) over Midas (South Korea) (2004)
  • fOru (South Korea) (P) over Androide (Russia) (2005)
  • iloveoov (South Korea) (T) over JulyZerg (South Korea) (2006)
  • Stork (South Korea) (P) over PJ (China) (2007)
  • Luxury (South Korea) (Z) over Stork (South Korea) (2008)

Winning teams of the Proleague

2003:

  • KTF Ever: Tong Yang Orions over Hanbitstars
  • Neowiz Pmang: Greatest One over Toona SG

2004 SKY:

  • Round 1: Hanbitstars over SK Telecom T1
  • Round 2: Pantech & Curitel Curriors over SouL
  • Round 3: KOR over KTF MagicNs
  • Grand Final: Hanbit Stars over Pantech & Curitel Curriors

2005 SKY:

  • Season 1: SK Telecom T1 over KTF MagicNs
  • Season 2: SK Telecom T1 over Samsung KHAN
  • Grand Final: SK Telecom T1 over KTF MagicNs

2006 SKY:

  • Season 1: SK Telecom T1 over MBC Game Hero
  • Season 2: MBC Game Hero over CJ Entus
  • Grand Final: MBC Game Hero over SK Telecom T1

2007 Shinhan Bank:

  • Season 1: Samsung KHAN over Lecaf Oz
  • Season 2: Lecaf Oz over CJ Entus
  • Grand Final: Lecaf Oz over Samsung KHAN

2008 Shinhan Bank: (There is no Season1 or 2.)

  • Samsung KHAN over Ongamenet Sparkyz

2009 Shinhan Bank:

  • SK Telecom T1 over Hwaseung Oz

Other Tournaments

Winners of the KBK:

  • TheMarine over I.LOVE_STAR (1999)
  • [GG99]Slayer over I.LOVE_STAR (2000)
  • TheMarine over PRO_NT.SONJJANG (2001)

Winners of the OGN King Of Kings tournament:

  • Grrrr... over TheBoy (2001)
  • YellOw over V-Gundam (2002)

Winners of the MBC Winner's Championship:

  • MuMyung over YellOw (2002)
  • YellOw over BoxeR (2003)

Winners of the KT-KTF Premiere League:

  • NaDa over BoxeR (2003)
  • July over GoRush (2004)

Winners of BlizzCon:

  • YellOw over Reach, NaDa, Nal_rA (2005)
  • sAviOr over Nal_rA, Iris (2007)
  • sAviOr over NaDa, Jangbi, ForGG (2008)

Winner of the CKCG (China-Korea Cyber Games)

  • iloveoov over NaDa (2005)

Winner of the Snickers All-Star league:

  • YellOw over NaDa (2005)

Winners of WEF (World e-sports Festival):

  • sAviOr over iloveoov (2005)
  • sAviOr over NaDa (2006)

Winners of Blizzard Worldwide Invitational:

  • Nal_rA over YellOw (2006)
  • Bisu over sAviOr (2007)
  • Stork over Sea[Shield] (2008)

Winner of IEF (International e-sports Festival):

  • NaDa over iloveoov (2006)
  • Bisu over sAviOr (2007)
  • Bisu over Stork (2008)

Winner of the Shinhan Masters tournament:

  • NaDa over sAviOr (2007)

Winner of GOM Star Invitational:

  • Flash over Stork (2008)

Winner of GOM Averatec-Intel Classic:

  • Jaedong over Flash (2008)
  • Bisu over Jangbi (2009)
  • Flash over Berserker (2009)

Winner of GOM Averatec-Intel Classic Special Match:

  • Jaedong over Bisu (2009)

Top players ranked by major tournament wins

Player OSL Wins MSL Wins Total Championships
NaDa 3 3 6
iloveoov 2 3 5
sAviOr 1 3 4
July 3 0 3
BoxeR 2 1 3
Jaedong 2 1 3
Bisu 0 3 3
Nal_rA 1 1 2
Garimto 2 0 2
FreeMuRa 1 0 1
Grrrr… (Canada) 1 0 1
Sync 1 0 1
Reach 1 0 1
XellOs 1 0 1
Kingdom 1 0 1
Anytime 1 0 1
Casy 1 0 1
GGPlay 1 0 1
FlaSh 1 0 1
Stork 1 0 1
GoRush 0 1 1
ChOJJa 0 1 1
Mind 0 1 1
ForGG 0 1 1
Luxury 0 1 1

Viewership Outside Korea

Many Starcraft fans outside Korea download video files (VOD's) of the pro games to watch on their computer. This has spawned a small cottage industry wherein StarCraft fans post the files to video sharing sites such as YouTube, but with their own English commentaries dubbed alongside the original Korean audio.

Recently there have been commercial attempts to bring televised professional StarCraft matches to audiences outside Korea. GOM TV has hired Nick "Tasteless" Plott, an American who previously cast StarCraft at the WCG and other international events, to provide English commentary on the 2008 GOM TV Star Invitational and the 2008 Averatec-Intel Classic tournaments. According to GOM TV statistics, over 1 million viewers watched the GOM TV Star Invitational matches with English commentary. [1]

References

  1. ^ World Cyber Games
  2. ^ Rise of the e-sports superstars BBC Click article
  3. ^ "KeSPA e-Sports" (in Korean). Korea e-Sports Association. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
  4. ^ "KeSPA Ratings on TeamLiquid".
  5. ^ "World Cyber Games". World Cyber Games. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
  6. ^ a b "Ongamenet" (in Korean). Ongamenet. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
  7. ^ a b "MBCGame" (in Korean). MBCGame. Retrieved 2008-03-03.
  8. ^ http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/details.php?type=players&id=211&part=games&vs=P&league=any&map=any&from_year=2007&from_month=12&from_day=23&to_year=2009&to_month=7&to_day=24&action=Update


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