If you thought IPL3, MLG Orlando, and IEM Global Challenge New York were already a lot of eSports events to pack into a single month, then I’m not certain of what you might have thought when you realized the ESCW World Finals, GSL October Finals, and the Blizzcon Invitational were all going on this month, too. And all during the same weekend, at that. While the ESWC World Finals are still running during Paris Games Week, both the GSL and Blizzcon Invitational matches were wrapped up.
2011 Global StarCraft II League October
While the Blizzcon Invitational was underway at, well, Blizzcon, the GSL was holding their October event at… Blizzcon. Yes, that is correct, both major StarCraft 2 tournaments that were running over the weekend were held in the same place. Given that they were held at the same time, this was at least convenient for the players who managed to be in both tournaments. It also marked the first GSL tournament held outside of Korea, which is a pretty big marker for just how successful eSports in the West is becoming.
Both Code S and Code A had 32 players starting out. Of the 32 players competing in Code S, eight of them would lose their status through the course of the tournament and drop down to compete against the Code A players who had reached the Round of Eight. Those lucky Code A players then had a chance to claim Code S status themselves by defeating their opponents – and giving those former Code S ranked players a chance to reclaim their status. The winner of the Code A tournament would go on to gain Code S status for the next GSL, as well as winning the Code A tournament itself and the $1,400 grand prize. The Zerg player Curious claimed that win in his final match against the Protoss player Oz, and he did it without losing a single game during the entire course of the tournament.
In the Code S matches, it came down to the top four players. GanZi, Happy, MMA, and Mvp. In this all-Terran match up, both MMA and Mvp secured victories to move onto the grand final. You can see the final match here:
In the end, MMA secured victory for himself, along with the very sizable $46,000 grand prize.
Blizzcon 2011 StarCraft II Invitational
Running concurrently with the GSL October Finals, the Blizzcon invitational was a smaller tournament with 16 players competition against each other in for the grand prize of $50,000. The event was a double elimination format, fairly traditional for most North American tournaments, and the finals ran the day after the GSL tourment’s final match.
While two foreigners, the Zerg player from Taiwan, Sen, and the Swedish Protoss player NaNiWa made it into the top four positions, both of them were knocked out both the two Koreans, the Zerg player NesTea and, once again, Mvp. This gave the Terran player a chance to redeem his loss at the GSL finals the day before.
It also pitted teammate against teammate, as both players are members of, the perhaps well named team, Incredible Miracle. Although the match has since drawn up some controversy in eSports circles, NesTea eventually lost to his teammate, and Mvp found himself taking the grand prize and first place, after just having come in second in the GSL October Final only one day before.
With the ESCW wrapping up tomorrow, be sure to keep an eye out for our next eSports roundup.
