GGL Wire

The White Dudes in Ahaheim saw some sexy StarCraft games last weekend while the rest of the world envied them. It was the rare occasion that the scariest gamers on the planet, the South Korean SC pros, played their matches outside of their home country.

Six out of the eight players invited to Blizzcon 2007 were Korean professionals, including last Starleague’s finalist Byun “IriS” Hyung Tae and the world’s number one player, Ma “sAviOr” Jae Yoon.

The two White Dudes that played in the tournament were the Canadian WCG champion Nick “Testie” Perentesis and the American player Alex “Skew” Brola. They were sent home early, but not without a fight, at least in Testie’s case.

In the first round, he met Park “Reach” Jung Suk and played an extremely close an exciting match against the seasoned Korean. He won the first map but lost the other two. In the lower bracket against Kang “Nal_rA” Min, also 2-1 in maps.

Nal_rA was actually the second best player of the tournament despite finding himself in the lower bracket right at the start of the competition. In the first round, he met none other than sAviOr and lost 2-1.

This meant that his road to the very final was the longest possible in a double elimination bracket. In order to play sAviOr again, he had to beat Testie, Hong “Yell0w” Jin-Ho, Seo “XellOs” Ji Hoon and finally IriS.

What the public saw in the final could probably convert even the most die-hard World of Warcraft level grinders to StarCraft. The Protoss underdog played magnificently in the first match but lost a battle over an expansion that took almost ten minutes and the excitement it delivered was probably enough to fill three maps of Warcraft 3.

The second map was not quite as long and exciting with sAviOr breaking a risky rush from Nal_rA early, but overall, the final was a treat.

If StarCraft 2 is just as exciting, the future of esports is going to be very bright.