GGL Wire

News

Alex Yue

Apr

Moon, Sky to carry Olympic torch on the road to Beijing

Filed under: 2008 Beijing Olympics, Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, BOCOG, China, DG, Digital Games, Islamabad, leilei, London, Moon, Official Welcome Event, Pj, San Francisco, Sky, starcraft, torch relay, Warcraft III, World Cyber Games

Moon, Sky and Digital Games Logo Superstar professional gamers Jae Ho “Moon” Jang and Li “Sky” Xiaofeng, of Warcraft III fame, will carry the Olympic torch as part of its procession on the road to the 2008 Olympic Games’ opening ceremony

The news is yet another sign that gaming has arrived in China, with the full support of the Chinese government.

Moon and Sky won’t be the only professional gamers in the torch relay. StarCraft apostle Junchun “Pj” Sha, 2nd place finisher at the 2007 World Cyber Games, and Lei “Leilei” Shen, also a known SC player, will join the march.

There’s no word yet as to when these e-sports luminaries will appear in the torch relay.

This year’s torch relay began, as always, in Olympia, Greece, and has already wound its way through London, San Francisco and even Islamabad, Pakistan, to date. Many more cities are planned on the tour before its culmination in Beijing.

2008’s Olympic Games will also feature the GGL’s Digital Games worldwide tournament as an Official Welcome Event. GGL, in partnership with China Internet Gaming (CIG) and the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), will organize and co-produce a competitive gaming tournament for gamers of all skill levels.

More information about the Digital Games is available at dg.ggl.com. Register now to be first in line to receive more information about the tournament.

Source: SK Gaming via Gamespot.China

3 Comments

Digital Games, News, E-Sports

Mahmood Ali

Apr

SCForAll announces open tournament and giveaways

Filed under: Activision Blizzard, blizzard, real time strategy, RTS, scforall, starcraft, Tournament, worldwide

scforall logo SCForAll.com has announced a StarCraft tournament open to the public with 128 slots available. the 300th, 500th, and 1000th user will receive a free mousepad autographed by a Korean pro gamer.

Prizes will be awarded to players who place from 1st to 16th place. Shoutcasting will be provided for the best matches. All players are eligible, regardless of nationality.

The tournament format is single-elimination, best of three. Semi-finals are best of five, and finals are best of seven. All the details can be found at the post at SCForAll.com.

1 Comment

Mar

Teamliquid.net Announces $10,000 StarCraft tournament

Filed under: Activision Blizzard, blizzard, e sports, Korea, real time strategy, RTS, starcraft, Teamliquid, Tournament

Team Liquid StarLeague

After six years as one of the most prominent sources of StarCraft news, TeamLiquid.net is hosting its own tournament for the international community: the TeamLiquid StarLeague. Broadcast live with experienced English commentators, the TSL will attempt to look and feel just like a professional Korean tournament.

On the eve of StarCraft’s 10th Anniversary, with thousands of viewers watching and a prize pool of over $10,000 at stake, you could be the champion in StarCraft’s most prestigious online international tournament ever.

There are no invites. Anyone can make it. The ambitious will enter, the determined will qualify, but only the best will be victorious.

Prizes will be awarded to the top 16 players. View the breakdown: Continued…

For more information, go to WCG’s website.

Dave Kuniski

After much input from the community and game experts, WCG has unveiled the lineup for 2008. Some new faces in the lineup, while the classics sit down for another round of competition.

Warcraft III
Starcraft
Counter-Strike (version not specified, 1.6 perhaps?)
FIFA 08
Need for Speed
Command and Conquer 3
Age of Empires 3
Carom3D
Red Stone
Project Gotham Racing
Asphalt 3
Halo 3
Guitar Hero 3
Virtua Fighter 5

Quite an interesting selection of games this time. WCG does not include Dead or Alive 4, currently used by the CGS as one of its staple games. The Guitar Hero 3 competition could be pretty intense too. Overall, the game pool looks heavier towards racing games.

2 Comments

Mar

GGL community wants StarCraft, CoD4 for Digital Games

Filed under: call of duty, China, Digital Games, Shanghai, starcraft

Last week, we asked GGL members what games they want to see at the Digital Games in Shanghai this summer. The response was overwhelming, so I decided to check out the suggested games and see which ones the GGL community really wants.

As of last Friday, with 336 comments, the winner by a slender margin was Call of Duty 4, which just eked past StarCraft to take the top spot.

Quake 3/4, Warcraft III and Counter-Strike 1.6 rounded out the top five suggestions. Continued…

10 Comments

Digital Games

Erik David Even

Mar

Starcraft: JaeDong wins MSL Season 4 title

Filed under: Blue Storm, JaeDong, Je Dong lee, Kal, Katrina, Korea, Ku Hyun Kim, MSL, OSL, ProLeague, Protoss, starcraft, Zerg

In a best of five set, Jae-Dong “JaeDong” Lee defeated Ku Hyun “Kal” Kim taking the StarCraft MSL Season 4 championship.

The set went to four games, with JaeDong losing the first map but taking the following three in powerful fashion. JaeDong potentially could have lost this set, with the Protoss versus Zerg matchup being one of his weaker ones, but he proved that conclusion wrong.

After losing Blue Storm, he defeated Kal on Katrina, a more Protoss favored map. The game was close, but a poor decision by Kal cost him his main base, while JaeDong suffered little damage. Kal soon conceded, the match reaching a tie.

Zodiac and Loki were far more one-sided games. JaeDong showed little weakness and pressured Kal in both matches, quickly shutting him down to go home and continue his reign as the top Zerg player in the world.

JaeDong now holds titles for each of the major proleagues in Korea: He is an MSL champion, an OSL champion, and his team won the most recent Proleague finals.

Mar

Starcraft: OSL features Stork and Flash rematch

Filed under: Blue Storm, fantasy ii, Flash, GomTV, GSI, Katrina, OSL, Star Invitational, starcraft, StarLeague, Stork, troy

With Flash claiming the StarCraft GOMTV GSI title for himself, Stork is now grasping for the OSL. Flash, considered on of the top Terrans in the world, has been gaining momentum, rolling over so many opponents lately. With his GOMTV win, he turned from a dark horse into a crowd favorite. Showing he can defeat Stork despite stacked odds against him, Flash will sit down once again to prove his victory was not a fluke.Stork is arguably the top Protoss player to set foot on the proleague scene today. Excluding Flash, Stork has only lost one PvT game to Iris (later on in GSI event he would sweep Iris 3-0). He can multitask and optimize every move, balancing micro and macro to an incredible degree even among players in his class. Stork demonstrates the full potential of the Protoss races in his games, never disappointing spectators.

While the players are clashing for a rematch, the maps have changed for this set.

Game 1 - Blue Storm
Game 2 - Katrina
Game 3 - Troy
Game 4 - Fantasy II
Game 5 - Blue Storm Continued…

Mar

Blizzard assists with Guitar Hero III expansion, builds for China, Korea

Filed under: Activision, Activision Blizzard, blizzard, China, Guitar Hero III, Korea, massively multiplayer online role playing game, mmo, PC bang, rhythm game, RPG, starcraft

Yes, that’s the correct headline.

As a result of the Activision/Vivendi merger, Blizzard (soon to be Activision-Blizzard) will be working on the Guitar Hero III expansion pack, helping bring the game to internet cafes in Korea and China.

The PC bang culture that birthed the professional StarCraft scene is going to get a dose of rhythm game action.

CEO Bobby Kotick also opened the door for a Guitar Hero MMO, something that could go over very well in Asian markets. Typically, Asian MMOs are free, but items, outfits, and other gear is bought on a microtransaction level–exactly the kind of thing you’d see a virtual rockstar doing.

Source: Shacknews

Mahmood Ali

Mar

GomTV: GomTV Star League announced

Filed under: GomTV, invitational, Korea, real time strategy, RTS, starcraft, stream, webcast

GomTV has given thanks and announced some upcoming events on their GSI website. The GSI was a huge success, bringing over one million unique IP hits.

GomTV now is in the process of planning a Star League. Other events planned include World of Warcraft invitationals and an International Star Invitational.

GomTV’s successful webcast of their StarCraft invitational tournament generated incredible amounts of attention.

With the possibility of international players entering the mix, Korean players are facing lots of potential upsets. They’re going to have to defend the honor and reputation of their homeland if the International Invitational gets mixed with the professional players.

[Final Match] Game 1 - Flash vs stork
[Final Match] Game 2 - Flash vs stork
[Final Match] Game 3 - Flash vs stork
[Final Match] Game 4 - Flash vs stork
[Final Match] Game 5 - Flash vs stork

Mar

GomTV Star Invitational: Finals complete!

Filed under: Flash, GomTV, GSI, JaeDong, Kal, Korea, multiplayer, Online, OSL, real time strategy, RTS, starcraft, Stork

GomTV’s Star Invitational is complete after several grueling rounds of play.

The final went to five maps. Here are the VODs, casted by Nick “Tasteless” Plott:

Megaspoilers below. Continued…

1 Comment

Catch up on the VoDs, player bios, and schedule at the GSI website!

Feb

GomTV Star Invitational: Finals preview & predictions

Filed under: Activision Blizzard, blizzard, Flash, GomTV, grand final, GSI, Korea, real time strategy, RTS, starcraft, Stork

The GSI comes to a close soon, with only two players remaining. Their paths to this match were long and hard-fought against other invitees. Proxy builds, cheese plays, and guerilla drops all played their role in bringing us to this final moment.

Flash’s path:

Flash > Savior, AnyTime, Mind in group play
Jaedong, AnyTime in elimination stage

Flash is on fire now, playing with unparalleled poise. He rose out of his group 3-0, then pushed out two favorites for event. His play against AnyTime in the semi-finals match on Blue Storm was incredible in both games. He managed to spot proxy gateways and adapted to AnyTime’s strategies each game. Though he took a loss on Katrina, a quick game on Baekmagoji tallied one more point in his favor. At a critical juncture in the match, Flash subtly moved a barracks and landed it to trap AnyTime’s units, changing their pathing into Flash’s favor. Unable to quickly finish the game on the second Blue Storm game, AnyTime bowed out after an all-in attack. Continued…