As region-locking came into effect, one Code S-level Zerg went against the grain and decided to risk it all to come compete in the foreign scene. He left behind his home, his family, his friends, all his established connections in Korea. He joined a North American team, and hoped to make it big outside of Korea, just like the legendary globe-trotting Koreans of the Wings of Liberty days.

He succeeded, bursting onto the scene with impressive mechanics and stage experience. It wasn't long before he won a championship, achieving more in a few months of North American play than he had in years in Korea.

Sound familiar? That's because that's Hydra's story, not TRUE's. But there are quite a few parallels.

When Hydra first made the leap across the Pacific in 2015, he was going against the tide of Korean players returning to Korea from Europe and North America after region-locking first came into effect. In his first tournament, he looked unstoppable, before Polt pulled off a remarkable comeback win. Still, he netted himself a title in Season 2 of that year, earning himself more in 2015 than in the entire 2012-2014 period.

Hydra flourished in the foreign environment, not only defeating foreigner after foreigner, but drastically upping his win rate against Koreans as well. Just a few months later he was in the finals of the combined WCS Season 1. A few months after that, he stormed his way to a championship in Season 2.

TRUE had more success in Korea than Hydra did. He was a regular Round of 32 performer in the GSL, and made the semifinals in 2014. In DreamHack: Moscow and DreamHack: Tours, he also made the semis, before losing to Curious in the finals at DreamHack: Valencia in 2015.

TRUE joined Psistorm Gaming near the end of last year, and from there worked to obtain a visa to compete in the now even more strictly region-locked WCS Circuit. Throughout the process he struggled in Korea, only reaching Code A in Season 1. He once again made Code S in Season 2, but somewhat astonishingly forfeited his seed to move to North America once the visa came through.

Unlike Hydra, however, TRUE didn't have the same instant impact in the foreign scene. He reached the quarterfinals of HomeStory Cup XIII, but fell there to a somewhat-resurgent Scarlett, 3-2. He didn't compete in either DreamHack: Valencia or IEM Shanghai.

TRUE's defeat at HomeStory Cup sparked a great deal of discussion in the foreign community. Was it true that Korean Zergs were actually just bad (they have been struggling greatly this year)? Had foreigners closed the skill gap so dramatically? The foreign scene had gotten used to a beatable Polt, Hydra and viOLet, but TRUE was fresh from Code S.

Then along came the WCS Circuit Summer Championship, and we get at least of few answers.

First of all, TRUE is good at StarCraft. His micro intensive Zergling usage and strong tactical sense makes up for some occasionally sloppy macro — or perhaps it causes it. His heavy counter-attack style is reminiscent of Life and, as we saw in Valencia, the young Italian Reynor. Most of his games ended not with a decisive fight, army against army, but with an economy-gutting Zergling run-by or Baneling drop. And in a TvZ meta that is still dominated by Roach/Ravager compositions, TRUE routinely used Zerling/Baneling compositions against HeRoMaRinE and Polt, even using the seldom-seen Mutalisks in some games.

TRUE was in form this event, tearing through Snute 3-0, Harstem 3-0, and a surprisingly strong Welmu 3-0. His first lost was to the similarly in form HeRoMarinE, but he took that series 3-1. With only a single dropped map to Polt in the final, he finished the tournament with a 16-2 record.

That dominance from TRUE distracted from a host of side stories that played out through the three days of competition. The strength of the Korean contingent was one such storyline. While TRUE and Polt took over the tournament, TRUE's spiritual precursor, Hydra, had a disappointing first round loss to Welmu. viOLet, meanwhile, lost to MajOr, who showed some of his old talent. A mixed bag, at least.

TRUE's run also underscored a disappointing first round loss for Snute, fresh off a title in China and still one of the most dangerous foreigners in 2016. Similarly, TRUE overshadowed an exceptionally strong performance from HeRoMaRinE, who fought his way through three tough matches against ShoWTiMe, MarineLorD and MajOr.

Finally, a great showing by the hometown hero Scarlett made up for MaSa's unexpected defeat, but it was Neeb who had the strength to move on to the semifinals to face Polt, as he beat the Canadian Zerg 3-0. Neeb would lose that now classic matchup, giving Polt the edge in their career head-to-head, 4-3.

Overall, this is TRUE's first real tournament in the foreign scene, and he nailed it. He won, and he won in his own style, tearing apart his opponents with counterattacks and being almost irresponsibly reliant on a Zergling/Baneling composition.

He looked just about as strong as Hydra did when he first came to America in Season 1 of last year. But this time when the Korean Zerg met Polt in the final, the Zerg won. If that is anything more than an interesting coincidence, WCS players should be very, very scared of TRUE.

TRUE has broken into the scene, now all remains is to see how far he can go. Like Hydra, Polt and viOLet, TRUE is here to stay, and that opens up a lot of opportunities for more showings like this. After losing to Polt in Season 1, Hydra barely skipped a beat before winning it all in Season 2. It was only later that the ROOT Gaming Zerg slowed down — or the rest of the competition sped up.

TRUE has already won his championship, what's next?

Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto, who shed a tear when he typed out l-i-f-e in this article. You can follow him on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

On Saturday, ByuN "ByuN" Hyun Woo slammed his way back onto the Korean StarCraft 2 scene, with a devastating 4-1 over 2015 WCS world champion Kim "sOs" Yoo Jin. It's a long way to come from where ByuN was a year and a half ago — i.e., nowhere at all.

During his prime in the late Wings of Liberty period, ByuN earned the nickname "GhostKing" for his pioneering use of mass Ghosts and Vikings in late-game TvP. The handle fit his playstyle, but it also came to represent his character as a player. ByuN has been elusive for much of StarCraft's adult life, and it's only recently that he has once again made his presence felt. But now that he's back, he's making it clear the King was never really dead.

First playing for ZeNEX and then for Prime, ByuN performed well in his first three years on the scene, but he struggled in 2013 to adapt to the new meta of Heart of the Swarm. He failed to reach Premier League in all three seasons of WCS Korea. In December that year, he disappeared from the competitive scene altogether.

He had been playing in team leagues, and he was supposed to play in the qualifiers for 2014 leagues — but he never actually did, and no one, at least in the foreign scene, knew where he'd gone.

One of the better WoL Terrans (a two-time GSL semifinalist) became an enigmatic figure. Rumors of "KeSPA jail" began circulating. Fans would catch wind that he was signed up for a qualifier, only to be disappointed when he didn't show. When ByuN's Prime teammate MarineKing returned to play SC2, the team's coach indicated that ByuN would also make an appearance, but nothing came of it. ByuN was well and truly gone.

Then, almost a year and a half later — an eon in esports terms — ByuN played in the April 2015 Olimoleague. He won.

Over the following months, he tore his way through online cups, winning consistently online, but never appearing at a LAN. In October, Prime collapsed under the weight of a match-fixing scandal, and we learned ByuN was now playing for a Chinese squad called X-Team.

Back on the scene, ByuN quickly rose to prominence as one of the strongest players in the Legacy of the Void beta. He continued to dominate online after release, qualifying for his first LAN tournaments since his disappearance. He eventually made a deep run into the Top 4 at SSL Season 1, though in GSL he lost to Curious in Code A.

He struggled in the offline environment, visibly anxious during several matches. But little by little, fans got a better look at ByuN — the man who had gone from meta pioneer, to meme, and now was back to being one of the most feared forces in StarCraft.

What people saw, they liked. Legacy of the Void fit ByuN's strengths perfectly, and his masterful micro and multitasking were on full display. His Medivac/Tank micro was awe-inspiring, and his focus-fire on Banelings soon became a trademark move.

In May 2016, ByuN left X-Team and struck out on his own, qualifying this time for both Korean premier leagues. Soon those incredible tactical skills were on display on the biggest stages. ByuN was eliminated in the Ro16 of SSL by a combination of Solar and Classic, but in GSL he seemed untouchable. ByuN beat Losira, Seed, sOs and Dark in the group stages, before overcoming Ryung in a tight TvT series and then smashing Dear in the semis to reach the finals.

In his winner's interview after the series against Dear, ByuN revealed how he had prepared for the match. Without the structure of a team house — the readily available practice partners or the infrastructure — ByuN had gone further afield. He had reached out to a variety of players: Super, the Korean Protoss, but also the Chinese players Cyan and Jim, and the American prodigy Neeb (currently practicing in Korea). For guidance, he said he had relied on "coach ByuN."

ByuN's win over sOs in the GSL finals is the latest chapter in the developing story of Korea's progaming infrastructure. Though KeSPA teams have proven that they can successfully produce superstars like Maru, Innovation, Stats, Dark and sOs, a handful of Koreans have flourished in the more lax environment of foreign teams or personal sponsorships.

Globe-trotting Koreans like Taeja, MC and HyuN are excellent examples of this. Players like FanTaSy have excelled only after joining a foreign team. Polt spent most of his career abroad as the only player under the CM Storm brand. Last year, Rain became the first player on a foreign team (mYinsanity) to win a GSL title.

But rarely has a player been so successful without any team to speak of. ByuN can't even rely on friends in Korea to practice with him in custom games, like Polt, for example, is able to do. ByuN has emerged from his mysterious disappearance as a lone wolf.

That makes his win all the more terrifying. ByuN not only defeated the two-time world champion, he did so with a fraction of the resources. sOs had teammates like Maru and Cure to help him with regular practice in TvP, but that didn't help.

And make no mistake — ByuN stomped him. After a wacky first game where both players attempted to proxy each other, ByuN maintained firm control of the series. Game 2 highlighted his incredible micro, from individual marine drop control to some of the best kiting we've ever seen (fittingly, with a Ghost/Viking composition).

Game 3 on Dusk Towers was almost painful to watch, as ByuN slowly picked sOs apart. Game 4 was much the same. sOs looked shaky from Game 3 on, making a series of questionable tactical decisions. ByuN brought it home with an absolutely dominant Game 5 on Frost, showing near-perfect execution.

With that, ByuN made history by being the first teamless player to win a GSL title. He did so nearly alone, shortly after returning from an almost 18-month break without a professional match of StarCraft 2. Emerging from his disappearance, he has returned to become perhaps the best Terran in the world.

ByuN also seems like he's mastered his own demons. He's become more and more comfortable in an offline setting, and this season he's shown some of the best control we have ever seen in StarCraft 2. If ByuN can maintain his ridiculous micro and multitasking, while surviving alone in a world full of KeSPA team members, then Legacy of the Void will continue to reward the Ghost King with the best results of his interesting career.

Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto who is hailing the new Terran church of ByuN, successor to Taeja. You can follow him on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Just after her victory at the third season of Kings of the North in Toronto, Sasha "Scarlett" Hostyn sat down with theScore esports to talk about her play in the tournament, the Korean scene and the new Team Expert.

First of all, congrats on winning the tournament, how did you feel about your level of play?

Pretty good. I’ve been playing well for a while, but [I've] been having some issues in tournaments with playing as well as I do in practice. But I feel like most of the games today until the finals I played my best, so I’m happy.

How is your training in Korea going? What’s life like there with the small group of foreign players?

Right now I’m back in Canada for a bit, but being there is really fun. Me, Jake [NoRegret] and Alex [Neeb] — Alex unfortunately is leaving soon — but it was fun when he was there, having him experience Korea.

What was your favorite thing you did there together as a group?

We actually didn’t do a lot together because I wasn’t there for long when Alex was there. So it was mostly just practice.

How has the training affected your playstyle?

Partly because I have been practicing in Korea, my playstyle is a lot more similar to the Korean playstyle of Zerg, in some ways, especially in ZvT. The training has mostly made my early game a lot better, because there’s more focus on aggression early game in Korea so it helps with that.

There’s been a lot of talk this tournament about you having confidence in the Korean meta, even when players like Snute and Nerchio have been a bit critical of it. What do you think about that?

A lot of the European games I watch, I feel like there’s some flaws in the play that they’re overlooking. And because the Koreans don’t play the same way, they think the Koreans play worse. I feel like especially in the past they [Koreans] thought there were problems with TvZ, which the Europeans never thought there was, because the playstyle was completely different. But we’ll see, especially at BlizzCon, how people really match up. Because this year, compared to last year, there’s a lot less competition between foreigners and Koreans, so the Europeans have gotten a lot more confident with their play even though there’s no real proof that they actually are better this year.

Scarlett with her crown post winning King Queen of the North.

Two quick points about ZvT meta right now. First, MaSa and Kelazhur seemed to be loving the mass Reaper early game. Are you seeing this a lot in Korea as well?

Yeah I think this became popular again thanks to ByuN, so in Korea first. I practice a lot against him and I feel like my early game defense is almost perfect, but I still end up behind, so… Game 1 in the finals I got really frustrated because of that and I played worse because of that. I feel like I got a little lucky with the defenses in Game 2 and 4. Game 2 I saw what he was doing really early so it was like a free win. And in Game 4, he messed up his micro. Sometimes it feel like a free win against 3 Rax Reaper, but sometimes I feel like I play perfect early game, like much better than the Terran does, and I still end up behind, so I’m not sure what’s up with that.

Second, you preferred Broodlord transitions to the more standard Ultralisks, something I’ve seen Snute do a bunch. Why that choice?

The way it works is that a lot of Terrans try to all-in before Ultras, to try to kill the Zerg before Ultras get out. But I feel if they don’t do that, and its an even game, Ultras are almost useless against a good Terran, so I never really make Ultras, except for in very specific situations.

You mention you were playing a lot with ByuN when you were in Korea, how was that?

It was really good, I usually don’t play custom games, but he asked me to before SSL and I feel like I learned a lot because of that, especially because a lot of Terrans started copying ByuN after that. So I feel like I had an advantage against all the builds that they do, because I played against the person who made the builds. They’re just copying it and playing a little worse with it.

How do you feel about the general state of the game right now? The map pool and balance should be coming under increasing scrutiny before Blizzcon, now that there aren’t that many tournaments left.

I feel like right now the balance is pretty good right now in all matchups. I think people are still figuring these maps out so it doesn’t feel too favored for anyone. The only issue is with Dasan [Station]. I think that map is really stupid, but other than that I don’t think there are many issues. Maybe Reapers are a bit too strong, but that’s the only thing right now.

When we last spoke at Kings of the North, you told us that Neeb was a “literal god". You’ve been proven mostly right -- what do you think are the chances of the foreigners (Neeb, Nerchio, MarineLorD) in the upcoming KeSPA Cup?

I feel like if Neeb plays as well as he does in practice he can do really well. Honestly in practice he plays better than like, Solar, who just won SSL and everything, so I feel like if he plays well he definitely has a shot, if he gets over his nerve issues -- not nerve issues, but whatever’s keeping him back in tournaments. Nerchio, I’m excited to see him play because he plays very different than the Koreans, so he could either do really well or really badly, I have no idea which. MarineLorD, I don’t really watch his play so I don’t exactly know.

A lot of foreigners have been saying that they may be closer in skill to Koreans than ever before. Do you feel the same way?

As I said earlier, we can’t really tell because we haven’t played enough against Koreans, but we’ll see a BlizzCon.

How about for yourself?

I feel like this year I’m worse compared to Koreans than I used to be. Like in 2014, 2013, I was a lot better, comparatively than I am now. I would get like top 4 in tournaments where there was lots of Koreans and now I’m losing to like, lower tier Koreans I guess. So I feel like personally for me, its gotten farther, but that's because generally I’m worse. I used to not lose to foreigners either but now its generally close games.

A big piece of news recently has been the reformation of Acer into Team Expert, which you and Bly have signed on to. How is that going, and can you say anything about whether Expert will be looking for any other SC2 players in the off-season?

Its really nice. Its the same management as Acer was before, so its pretty much what it was like back then, and I really enjoy being on that team, especially with Bly. So its fun being back on Expert. We might pick up a player in the coming months, its not confirmed yet, but its a possibility, for sure.

Have you had a chance to play the balance test map that is live right now? If so, what do you think of the changes?

I haven’t really played it much, I focus on… until I have no more tournaments on the current game I won’t really play it much, so I can’t really say.

What are you planning for the next few months? Are you looking to get revenge at HomeStory Cup, are you planning on going to BlizzCon?

I probably won’t be going to BlizzCon since I’m not playing, but I most likely will be at HomeStory Cup, so I look forward to that. There’s a lot of Koreans going to it should be a lot of fun, HomeStory Cup is always great.

Any final words to your fans?

Thanks everyone for watching. It was nice to win a tournament in Toronto. This is the first time since 2012 I’ve done well in Toronto, every other event here I’ve done poorly, so hopefully I can continue playing well. Its definitely fun and relaxing to play in a place near home.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto waiting for the "DIE, DIE, DIE" voicepack for SC2 Reapers.You can follow him on Twitter.

Navneet Randhawa does stuff and things at theScore esports. The #QOTN crown somehow ended up in her car. You can follow her on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

After 16 years, a foreigner has finally won a Premier tournament on Korean soil. The last time a foreigner won a Premier tournament was Guillaume "Grrrr..." Patry's 2000 Hanaro OSL win. At the time that the Canadian player made history, his successor was only two years old.

After his victory, theScore esports caught up with 18 year-old Alex "Neeb" Sunderhaft to talk about his win, upcoming tournaments, his time in Korea and his thoughts on the current state of the game.

Firstly, congratulations on your win! This is the first foreigner Premier victory on Korean soil in 16 years and your first Premier title. How do you feel about this win? What does it mean to you?

This win means so much to me I can’t even put it into words. I always thought I’d be mediocre at best and after two years of playing Terran as a low-tier foreigner, I never thought I’d ever do anything significant. But here I am now with people saying that I made esports history so I’m still kind of coming to terms with it — that I’m not just a low-tier foreigner.

What did you think of your opponent’s gameplay during the finals? Do you think Trap was prepared?

I think Trap played very well strategically, always making an effort to abuse the fact that I’d go Stalker/Disruptor every game. However, like the other Koreans he didn’t have as much experience as me just playing a solid mid/late game rather than winning early on, so I’d do well in the mid/late game despite [Trap's] small early game advantage. In the past, I would have lost every game since there was very little comeback potential in old PvP but now with Disruptors the games stabilizes every time because the Koreans currently don’t seem to play with this in mind.

Has it sunk in that this win is already part of SC2 history? You’ve generally been very humble about your accomplishments, but this win will completely change how many pros and fans see the competitive scene.

Probably not yet. I’m still getting situated since I came back to America the day after KeSPA cup. I still feel exactly the same as before I won in terms of my personality, so the win hasn’t changed me much, but yeah it will probably change the way I’m viewed.

Stephano, NaNiwa and Jinro are considered some of the best foreigners of all time playing in Korea, but none of them ever got past a Korean semifinal. With your win, some will argue that you have already surpassed them in accomplishment. How do you feel about that? Do you agree?

I don’t agree, both Stephano and NaNiwa at least played in times where all the Koreans were experienced and trying their best. Jinro, like me, hasn’t shown enough consistency or long term results, but Stephano and NaNiwa were competitive with top Koreans for a few years so they are above me I’d say.

From the group stage onwards, you beat Rogue, Zest, Pet, Stats and Trap, who together hold a handful of titles and some of the best Proleague records in Korea. Does it feel particularly good to be beating these types of players, or are you used to it by now?

Now I think I’m used to it, but when I went into my first match against Rogue I was so nervous that my hands were completely numb after the first game. The referee in the booth actually asked if I was in pain and needed a break because I’m sure it looked really bad. After I beat Rogue I was completely fine and played confidently against all my other opponents.

When we last talked at Kings of the North you said PvP was your strongest matchup, and it clearly showed in this tournament. How do you feel about your matchups overall?

It’s just a recent thing where I’ve been doing well in PvP. My best matchup is probably still PvZ because I’ve been doing consistently well there, but it’s hard to say. With the metagame changing so much my confidence in each matchup changes a lot as well.

Do you think training here in Korea has helped you significantly? ByuN mentioned you practiced with him before the GSL finals. Did you get a chance to practice with him or any other top tier players before or during KeSPA Cup?

Yes, my training in Korea was a huge help since playing custom games allows me to direct my practice how I want it to, rather than play ladder games where some of my games could be useless when I’m preparing because I’m playing versus the wrong race or wrong playstyle. Over the 2 months I was in Korea I played custom games with ByuN, Ryung, GuMiho, Patience, Solar, Pet, TRUE and viOLet.

How intense has your practice been coming into the tournament? Did you change your routine? This win will also be talked about in the debate over KeSPA training/infrastructure techniques vs. non-KeSPA pros.

I didn’t play that much honestly. I prepared a lot for the first group stage but after I made it out 4-0 I barely played at all before my Ro8 and semis/finals games.

Did you feel you had any special advantage going into the tournament by being relatively new to Korea? If not, is there something else in particular you think gave you the edge to win?

I don’t think so. I feel like all the Koreans knew somewhat how I played so I don’t think I had any significant edge going into the tournament other than the fact that I play Protoss.

I know it's very soon afterwards, but what kind of response have you been getting from Koreans pros, as well as fans? I’ve seen people like Golden saying things like “give him Korean citizenship” and Stats was complimenting you in the recorded interview before your match. Is there any difference between how they’ve looked at you before and after the tournament?

I don’t think there was that much of a difference. The SC2 community is pretty small so most people of the Korean pros/fans probably knew of me before the tournament and they are all really respectful to everyone so it feels about the same to me. I’m sure there are some people though that hadn’t heard of me before KeSPA Cup but know who I am now.

With this win behind you, what are your realistic goals for BlizzCon?

I’d like to just make it out of groups. I still feel like the same player I was before KeSPA Cup even though everyone expects me to win every tournament these days.

In terms of balance and maps, could you briefly tell us what you think of the state of the game right now?

It’s very tough to talk about balance because there is definitely some imbalance in the game but it’s hard to tell where it comes from or how exactly that imbalance affects the outcome of the game. For example, I think PvT is imbalanced but it’s not like Protoss units just deal 20 percent more damage than Terran units or something like that. It’s much more subtle and either race can create situations where it’s much easier for them to play well than for the other race to play well. So basically I like to avoid talking about imbalance. PvZ seems very balanced right now though and PvT is imbalanced for both races in certain situations but probably favors Protoss overall.

Going forward, what are you planning? Are you going to take a break? Scarlett mentioned that you guys are going to Brazil this month for WESG, and HomeStory Cup is also approaching.

I'm probably not going to take a break with so many tournaments in the next few months but I might play less after BlizzCon/WESG and skip a few tournaments next year depending on how I feel.

Congratulations again, do you have anything to say in closing to your fans?

Thank you for making what I do worthwhile and giving me a reason to work hard, I love you all.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto waiting for the "DIE, DIE, DIE" voicepack for SC2 Reapers. You can follow him on Twitter.

Navneet Randhawa does stuff and things at theScore esports and is not... a literal god. You can follow her on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

After his narrow defeat to Sasha "Scarlett" Hostyn​ at Kings of the North Season 3 in Toronto, Diego "Kelazhur" Schwimer sat down with theScore esports to talk about his results this year and his thoughts on where the game is at.

First of all, consolation about your loss in the finals. How did you feel about your level of play during the tournament?

I was pretty satisfied. I was disappointed about my loss to MaSa [Maru "MaSa" Kim], because I think I could have won that series, but beating viOLet [Kim "viOLet" Dong Hwan] very close and then beating MaSa [in the Loser's Finals] gave me back my confidence.

Last year was sort of a breakout year for you, but this year it seems like you’ve struggled in the premier tournaments. How do you feel about how you’ve been playing?

I’m confident online but I don’t know... When I go to offline tournaments, I feel like I kind of under-perform, so that sucks. But at least in these smaller tournaments I don’t have that kind of mental block, I guess, so I perform better.

In this tournament, both you and MaSa used a lot of early Reaper attacks. Did you chose that strategy based on your opponents, or are you generally finding a lot of success with it?

That’s just my general playstyle, and we’re both very alike in that sense. We both like to play very aggressive.

How has the Latin American scene been this year? You’ve been doing consistently well in Copa América.

The Latin American scene is pretty small, but at least we have tournaments like Copa América and the recent WCS Intercontinental. That helped a lot to boost the viewers, give them something to watch, and its nice to be able to represent them and play in the local scene.

How do you feel about the general state of the game right now, specifically balance and the map pool?

I think the current balance is pretty good. Maybe Protoss is still a bit too strong because of the map pool. So I hope they change that.

What’s next for you, are you looking to participate in Homestory cup?

I hope so — but I’m not even sure when it is.

Any final words from your fans, last comments?

Thanks very much for cheering for me. Follow me on Twitter so you can see what I’m doing.

Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto who is confused which Terran god to worship. You can follow him on Twitter.

Navneet Randhawa does stuff and things at theScore esports. You can follow her on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The world’s longest running esports league is ending. Today, KeSPA announced that it was “discontinuing” the league, and ceasing support for five teams. A report in FOMOS named the teams it would no longer operate: KT Rolster, SK Telecom T1, CJ Entus, Samsung Galaxy and MVP.

It’s unclear at this point what the fate of the players on these teams will be, given that Proleague play was the main impetus behind the large infrastructure set up to support them. So far, mainly SKT players have spoken out: MyuNgSiK and Sorry have retired, while soO tweeted what appears to be a goodbye to SKT.

Meanwhile, Jin Air, one of the teams not mentioned in the KeSPA announcement, has committed to maintaining its support for its currently signed players. Jin Air houses some of the world’s best players, including two-time world champion sOs, Maru and Rogue. The other unmentioned team is the league's newest, the Afreeca Freecs.

But the shakeup of the team environment is likely to leave dozens of players in the lurch, many of them world class stars like Zest, Stats and TY from KT Rolster; INnoVation, Dark and Classic from SKT; Dear and Solar on Samsung; and herO, MC, GuMiho and Ryung from CJ and MVP.

Worse, its departure could leave some players who could otherwise have excelled without a venue to display their skills and find domestic success in Korea. With GSL and SSL moving to two seasons rather than three this year, the loss of one of the only other top-tier venues for StarCraft's best to display their skills will certainly be felt.

All in all, it’s the end of an era for Korean StarCraft in particular and StarCraft esports in general. Proleague, as one of the few constants in a rapidly changing competitive StarCraft system, has provided the backdrop for some of the most significant moments in SC2’s history. From the meta innovations pioneered to snipe the Bo1 format, to the drama and sheer unpredictability of the all-kill.

The memorable moments are too many to mention, and each of us will have our own personal highlight reel from the league. Those who saw it will always remember sOs’ reverse all-kill of KT Rolster in 2015’s playoffs. One of my favourite plays of all-time is Rogue’s Baneling drops against herO just a week later. Looking back earlier, the final fight between FanTaSy and TY on Newkirk Precint, or Bisu’s ridiculous basetrade against Shine in 2013 were among the many standout moments.

Proleague was also the nexus for some of the biggest transfers, power-shifts and storylines we’ve ever seen. From PartinG’s antagonistic departure from SKT, Maru’s transfer from Prime to Jin Air, Life’s signing to KT Rolster and the Prime match-fixing scandal. We have seen SKT dominate in unprecedented fashion in 2015, and seen many teams collapse under the pressure. Each of these moments has helped enrich the narratives and memories that have shaped StarCraft esports.

Proleague was a place where sheer StarCraft genius was often on display, as the high level of competition encouraged innovation (INnoVation also did well, with a 61-33 record) and dynamism. It has also been home to some of the most controversial moments in SC2 history, like MarineKing’s embarrassing loss to ByuL on Expedition Lost.

Proleague was even a major attraction for the foreign scene, though it has always been aimed primarily at a Korean audience. Wings of Liberty veterans should look fondly back on the EG-Team Liquid alliance in the 2012-2013 Proleague which, though largely filled out by Koreans, helped solidify Stephano as the greatest foreigner of all time, not to mention his unforgettable “glhf” incident in his very first match. Beyond this, all of us have come to appreciate seeing StarCraft played at its highest level, in one of the world’s most unique formats.

We have seen all that in Proleague, and that’s just in the past few years.

Proleague has been one of the most important parts of StarCraft 2, but its history extends far beyond that. Before KeSPA had fully transitioned to StarCraft 2, it helped organized the 2011-2012 hybrid Proleague. The league was meant to help Brood War pros transition to the game’s sequel, and so fans were treated to a wacky format in which regular matches were composed on two best of threes — one in Brood War, one in Wings of Liberty.

And even before that, Proleague was a staple of Brood War. Led by the greats like Bisu, Stork and Flash, teams fought it out in much the same style as we have seen in StarCraft 2. In this way, Proleague has acted as one of the great threads that have run between different StarCraft iterations. Teams like SKT, Samsung and KT have provided continuity, and fostered some of the greatest players in every version of the game. Where other teams leagues — GSTL, Acer TeamStory Cup, among others — have come and gone, Proleague has always been a pillar of the scene.

To say that the end of Proleague will be an enormous loss, then, is an understatement. Beyond providing a brilliant mechanism for the creation of rivalries, narratives, and fostering new talent, Proleague has been an integral part of the health of the Korean scene. Players who either miss out on the individual leagues, or are not suited for that kind of tournament, were able to rely on Proleague for exposure and practice. And there were lots of players like that. Flash (though he didn't need the exposure) never reached a GSL quarterfinals, but was one of the best Proleague players in SC2.

With Proleague gone, only GSL and SSL, the two Korean Premier leagues, remain open for the best of the best in StarCraft. Since the leagues are only offering two seasons each this year (down from three each in 2015), players had to do well in the qualifiers and early rounds, or face half a year with little competitive play. The only opportunity for them was Proleague. Maru was just one of many to face this challenge in 2016: his best result was a GSL Ro16 appearance.

Anxiety about the health of the Korean scene and its teams, which has increased markedly this year due to the two-season format, the lack of global events and the popularity of Overwatch in Korea, will no doubt continue to grow in the near future.

KeSPA’s statement allows for some hope that the KeSPA Cup tournament will step in to fill the gap. Yet we’ve heard similar language from the organizers in the past few years, and yet have only four tournaments in three years to show for it. Whether KeSPA and Blizzard will commit to filling the gap left by Proleague, therefore, remains to be seen.

In the foreign scene, where teams have far less interaction, it’s sometimes hard to understand how seriously teams are taken in Korea, and by extension how important Proleague was. But like any other sport, teams have been the focus of some of the most important narratives, the highest drama, and the fantastic lows of StarCraft 2. Proleague was where all that drama and hype, all the elation of victory and the despondence of defeat, all the anticipation of a new season and the tension of the final matches played out. It was where the world’s greats proved themselves capable, or not.

It will be sorely missed.

Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto mourning the loss of one of SC2's great institutions. You can follow him on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

It’s StarCraft fans' favorite time of year: the WCS Global Playoffs. Sixteen of the game's best and brightest have traveled to California to battle it out in hopes of becoming this year's world champion. Only eight of them will make it through this week.

Before they can worry about winning it all, the world’s top players from both Korea and the foreign scene will have to get through some of the most brutal groups we could possibly imagine. Played in the GSL-style double-elimination format with best-of-threes, this year's group stage marks a radical departure from the straight single-elimination bracket of the past four years at StarCraft's biggest international tournament.

This time, players will have two chances to beat some of their most dangerous competitors, and most will need them. The level of talent assembled in Anaheim is incredibly high, and the group draw will have an enormous impact on how likely each player is to make it to the more prestigious — and lucrative — playoff bracket. Each group includes two players that have qualified from Korea and two from the WCS Circuit, ensuring plenty of Korean versus foreigner action.

Here's one more look at who'll be facing off on BlizzCon Opening Week, starting Oct. 27:

Group A

Preparing for these groups would have been difficult to begin with, but some last-minute changes in seeding have made it even harder. Hydra was the first to announce he would not be able to make it to the Global Finals, due to a conflict in schedule with his wedding; just over a week later, Polt announced that he had to return to Korea to complete his military service, and would miss out on what would have been his fourth consecutive BlizzCon appearance.

Polt's replacement, PtitDrogo, was initially put in to replace him in Group C, but the fact that he was ranked much lower than Polt on the global leaderboards forced a substantial reseeding. The French Zerg ended up alongside two of Korea's heaviest hitters, Dark and Stats, plus Snute, who is perhaps the most consistent foreigner of 2016.

Dark has been arguably the best Zerg in Korea this year, after nearing that mark in 2015. His SSL Season 1 victory, SSL Season 2 finals appearance and a pair of GSL Ro16 finishes were enough to secure the top seed coming out of Korea. He will be PtitDrogo's first opponent, and though PvZ has traditionally been the French player's best matchup with a win rate at almost 66 percent, that falls well below 50 percent in games against Koreans. It's hard not to give Dark the edge here — though PvZ has historically been Dark's worst matchup, this year it has been his best, with a 65 percent game win record playing almost exclusively in Korea.

Snute's biggest strength this year has been his consistency. He's reached at least the semifinals in six out of ten premier tournaments he's attended, reaching the finals in three of those and winning one championship in Mexico. Clearly, Snute is one of the foreign scene's best hopes for a playoff contender.

The Norwegian Zerg has made a habit out of beating strong Korean Protoss players, with 53 percent all-time win rate in the matchup. Though Snute and Stats have not played one another, Snute has beaten Protosses like herO and Zest, and notoriously defeated both Classic and Rain in quick succession. This was particularly impressive since at the time they were the reigning SSL and GSL champions, respectively.

All in all it makes for a tough group, not just in the initial matchups, but in the Winner's and Loser's matches as well. The SSL finalists (Stats lost to Dark in Season 1) should be favored to make it out, but Snute and PtitDrogo could look to upset the balance with the strength they have in the matchups they face.

Group B

Here lies the great foreign hope: Neeb. After he tore through Zest, Stats and Trap on the way to his KeSPA Cup title, Neeb is faced with a fortunate group draw of three Protoss players. If he can bring the same crisp play he showed in Korea, he has a strong chance of making it out of this group. Patience, his first opponent, has been quietly brilliant this year, and will be looking to foil the hometown hero.

In the second match, Zest will go up against TRUE. The Season 1 GSL champion has been slumping lately, winning only three of his last ten matches, not including Proleague games. His only PvZ in that period was a 1-2 loss to Dark. Still, this is how Zest looked prior to his IEM Katowice win, and it will be interesting to see how his fairly traditional style will match up against TRUE's unconventional (read: lots of Zerglings) strategies.

This is probably the only group where two Koreans are expected to be eliminated, though it's not clear which two. Patience has been surprisingly good this year, Zest's recent form is unimpressive, and TRUE is simply unpredictable, beating herO one day and losing to Harstem just a few days later. Neeb has already shown he can beat Zest, and if he advances to a Winner's Match against TRUE, the American should again rest easy: he holds a 5-2 match advantage in their head-to-head.

Group C

Front and center in Group C is our first Terran competitor, the newly minted fan-favorite ByuN. ByuN made history by being the first teamless player to win a GSL in Season 2, finally capping off a dominant year online with real tournament success. He'll be facing off against his fellow veteran viOLet in the second match, but should be considered a favorite for the group, boasting an 88 percent match win rate in 2016.

That likely leaves Dear, ShoWTimE and viOLet battling it out for the second seed to the playoffs. ShoWTimE has had a career year, winning WCS Spring and reaching the semis or finals in three other premier tournaments. viOLet, barely squeaked into the Global Finals, but he brings years of experience to the table.

Dear, on the other hand, has made consistency his watchword this year, reaching both GSL semifinals and an SSL Ro8. He should be considered the favorite to follow up on ByuN's success, but not with the same comfortable margin as in other groups.

Group D

Where Zest has faded in recent months, his ex-KT teammate TY has been on fire. The tournament's only other Terran has won nine out of ten of his last matches, and has even shown a strong mech style against some Zergs.

That should lead to an interesting match against one of the foreign scene's strongest contenders. Nerchio, the DH: Valencia champion, has absolutely dominated the foreign scene with his ZvT style this year, and though he did not escape the group stages at KeSPA Cup, the Polish Zerg showed some good games and even swept Classic 2-0. He and his compatriot Elazer should at least pose a threat to both TY and Solar.

Much like Group A, the last group of the Ro16 looks to come down to a battle between two exceptionally strong Korean players. TY did not win a championship this year (in fact, he never has) but he is always dangerous, and only barely lost out to a seemingly unbeatable Zest in GSL Season 1. Solar has had glories galore, and will be looking to solidify his claim to the title of best in Legacy of the Void with a win at BlizzCon.

The group stage is a new feature at the Global Finals, and combined with the historically unprecedented number of non-Koreans in contention, the Round of 16 is looking to be an exciting, unpredictable affair. The group stage may be played out a week before BlizzCon itself, but it will determine the success and failure of Korean superstars like Dark, ByuN and Zest, and foreign hopes like Snute, Nerchio and Neeb. With any luck, these matches will be some of the most carefully planned and passionately fought of the year. And they should, because everything is on the line.

Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto preparing for the inevitable Neeb/ByuN matchup and its attendant crisis of fandom. You can follow him on Twitter.

Stats courtesy of Aligulac.com.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

On Nov. 10, 2015, shortly after sOs was crowned world champion for the second time, StarCraft 2 dropped one last expansion. Legacy of the Void fundamentally altered the game’s economy, quickened its pace and upended the metagame. The Heart of the Swarm era, bookended by sOs’ two BlizzCon wins, was over.

Seventeen premier tournaments later, with 16 champions (only Solar has won two titles since last November), we’ve finally arrived at Legacy's first World Championship Series Global Finals. This Thursday we will see the ultimate results of the major changes brought about by the new expansion and the reworked WCS system. sOs failed to reach the Global Finals this year, so the first chapter of StarCraft’s new era will end with a brand new world champion.

BlizzCon has always been the culmination of a year’s worth of storylines, the setting of both epic success and failure. There is no more important event. Players will be bringing everything they have to the booth — as hard as they’ve worked to get here, they’ll have to work harder still.

Korea vs. the World, region-locking edition

In 2014, Blizzard introduced "soft" region-locking to the WCS by restricting residency requirements, but players from all regions still attended international events like DreamHack and IEM. This year brought the "hard" version. The WCS league was replaced with the new international Circuit, and Korean pros were effectively locked into the GSL, SSL and now-defunct Proleague.

It was an incredibly controversial decision, and to this day the debate rages on in fan circles. One thing is clear, however: foreigners are succeeding more than ever in this competitive climate. Nerchio returned from semi-retirement and dominated the Circuit. Snute’s consistent results have been upgraded from regular Ro16 and quarterfinal placements to four finishes in the semis or better. There have been seven different foreign champions on the Circuit this year. The international scene’s resident Koreans (Hydra, viOLet, TRUE and up until earlier this month, Polt) remain strong, but no longer seem invincible.

The Korean vs. Foreigner dynamic — the narrative conflict that gave so much meaning to past victories won by Stephano, NaNiwa, Snute, Scarlett and Lilbow — has faded from the foreign scene. In its place, we have seen more traditional national rivalries, personal grudges, classic stories of failure and redemption.

But beyond the non-Korean Circuit, the Korean vs. Foreigner narrative has only intensified. That's in no small part thanks to how few matches have been played between Koreans and foreigners this season. Most of them have been at small online cups, though there have been a few major tournaments like IEM Taipei, ShoutCraft Kings, and Kung Fu Cup. The only premier-level tournament to feature both Koreans and foreigners was the KeSPA Cup — which, you'll no doubt recall, was won by a foreigner.

KeSPA Cup was no outlier. The results of inter-regional clashes in 2016 have been far more mixed than in previous years; Koreans have won a lot, but they are no longer the supreme force they once were. Top non-Korean players have said they feel the skill gap is closer than it has ever been in StarCraft 2. If that turns out the be true, we could be in for one of the most explosive Global Finals yet.

The fate of one of the foundational narratives of StarCraft 2 is uncertain. Foreign fans will be watching the group stage with high hopes for players like Nerchio, Snute, and most of all the American phenom Neeb, whose KeSPA Cup victory rocked the SC2 scene to its core. Others will be hoping only that the foreign scene avoids the fate that befell Lilbow, 2015’s only foreign Global Finals attendee.

Terrans on the backfoot

With Polt’s sudden retirement from StarCraft to serve his compulsory military service, the tournament’s racial balance has tilted to an extreme. Only two Terrans now stand against seven Protoss and seven Zergs.

Those two Terrans, however, are among the very best performers this year. TY was an unstoppable force in GSL Season 1, right up until he met the immovable object of Zest in the Grand Finals. He has continued to play well throughout the year, reaching the quarterfinals of both GSL and SSL in Season 2, and recently he seems to be reaching peak form, playing both mech and bio against Zerg and winning with both. Though TY has never played at BlizzCon before, he should be considered among its most dangerous competitors.

The same goes for ByuN, the GSL Season 2 champion. ByuN has been arguably the world’s best player in Legacy of the Void, emerging from an enigmatic disappearance to boast an incredible win rate and his first premier win. Last month he became part of SC2 history, as the only teamless player to win a Korean premier SC2 league. He has excelled in every matchup, succeeded where others have failed, and forged a path for Terrans everywhere.

Personal stakes in the Global Finals

Along with the larger dynamics, the Global Playoffs will play host to a multitude of personal ambitions and rivalries. Each player would like nothing more to win, but many of them have very different motivations based on their unique histories.

BlizzCon is Stats' chance to finally prove that he has what it takes to win on the biggest stage possible. For years, Stats has found himself in the shadow of his ex-KT Rolster teammate Zest. At times, he has seemed the better player, but the results don't lie. Stats has been good this year, but so far a championship has eluded him.

For Nerchio, a BlizzCon win would firmly place him among the best foreigners of all time. He has had incredible success in the Circuit this year, returning after two years of infrequent activity. But he has yet to break through the barrier that Neeb overcame a month ago at the KeSPA Cup. Since his return, he has yet to win a tournament with a significant Korean contingent. Nerchio has already left his mark, but BlizzCon gives him a chance for so much more.

Players like ByuN, Dark and Solar have already proven, at various times, to be the strongest players in the world. Each of them has a convincing argument backing their bid for the title of Best Player in Legacy of the Void. The Global Finals will prove decisive in that argument, and so these three are fighting for the highest honor there is.

For some, like last-minute additions PtitDrogo and Elazer, simply advancing past the group stage will be considered a success. But that is no easy task, and a single best-of-three can mean the difference between a successful tournament and a disappointing trip home.

There are so many strong players in contention to become the next SC2 world champion — Zest, who is looking to come back to form; Snute, who can solidify his legacy once and for all; Patience, who can complete his quiet record of success this year; TY, who can finally win a championship. Each player brings their own unique story to the booth, and each will walk back out with something new. It's up to them whether that will be the uplifting spirit of triumph, or the heavy weight of defeat.

Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto praying that the TY/Nerchio series lasts less than 4 hours. You can follow him on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Before the WCS Global Finals get started at BlizzCon, theScore esports reached out to some of the WCS Circuit's most well-known names to get their take on the upcoming matches and their predictions for the final.

Here's what Aleksandr "Bly" Svusuyk, Maru "MaSa" Kim, Grzegorz "MaNa" Komincz, Marc "uThermal" Schlappi, Dario "TLO" Wünsch and Kevin "Harstem" de Koning had to say.

RELATED: Top 8 locked in for WCS Global Finals; Elazer, ByuN, Neeblet, Stats through to bracket

Who are your picks to win the quarterfinals?

Bly

1. Elazer: He won the last few times vs. ShoWTimE.

2. Neeb: I doubt there is anybody except me that can stop him #proxhatch.

3. ByuN: He’s the best and will win it all.

4. Zest. He beat Neeb in PvP, so OFC YES.

MaSa

1. ShoWTimE. He'll just stop the dark horse with no passion.

2. Dark: Neeb is really solid in PvZ, however Dark will use different strategies to beat him I think.

3. ByuN: TY is really solid in TvT but I don’t know if that applies to ByuN's micro.

4. Stats: PvP-wise, Stats is better than Zest, I’ve heard.

MaNa

1. ShoWTimE: Elazer is a great player, very unpredictable in his builds, but he's been playing vs. ShoWTimE a lot and I think the experience between these two will come out ahead.

2. Dark: He has played some impressive ZvP and we are yet to see Neeb's PvZ in a big tournament since KeSPA Cup. He has lost vs. Scarlett recently, and I think Dark knows his weaknesses too. Dark wins.

3. This one I have no idea about. I am sure we are going to see some incredible TvT.

4. Stats: Teammate-on-teammate PvP is unpredictable. I want to say Stats is a slight favorite, but since it's a teamkill anything may happen.

uThermal

In the upper bracket ShoWTimE and Dark should win, just picks based on skill. Then TY would win against ByuN, because I think he's stronger in TvT. The PvP could go either way, but I'll go with Zest.

TLO

1. ShoWTimE: While Elazer recently beat ShoWTimE, I believe ShoWTimE's experience and consistency will be decisive.

2. Dark: Neeb impressed us all, but I'm afraid Dark will make better use of preparation and exploit weakness to aggression.

3. TY: Very hard to call, think it'll be very close but my intuition says TY.

4. Zest: Zest's series vs. Neeb convinced me he'll also take out Stats.

Harstem

1. Elazer: Elazer beat showtime 3-0 at WESG. I would be surprised if that would change.

2. Dark: I really want Neeb to win, but I'm afraid Dark might be too good.

3. TY: TY might be the best player at preparing, and ByuN is probably the most predictable.

4. Stats: I believe Stats to be the best 'toss in the world. I would be really surprised if he lost.

Which player is most likely to exceed expectations?

Bly: Elazer.

MaSa: If Zest does beat Stats (opposite to my prediction) he'll exceed expectations because he's really been lacking in results lately.

MaNa: I think the only one who can exceed expectations and have a chance on doing so is Elazer. I think any one of the other players advancing to the next round wouldn't be a surprise.

uThermal: I think Zest might be. Most of the other players already have high expectations, but I feel like most people aren't expecting too much from Zest, even though he's one of those players that could win a tournament out of nowhere — just like IEM last year.

TLO: Elazer is a massive underdog but definitely underrated. He could make the Finals if the stars line up.

Harstem: I think Elazer already exceeded expectations, and I think he is capable of a Top 2 finish.

Which player is likely to fall short of expectations?

Bly: Stats.

MaSa: TY. A lot of people are picking him as possible champion but falling off at Ro8 RIP.

MaNa: Neeb. He said Dark is not that good, but the chances of Neeb beating him are like 30-70 in my opinion.

uThermal: ByuN and Neeb. Both players have lots of hype behind them, but they both drew really rough opponents. Dark is the best Zerg by pretty far, and TY has always been a master in TvT, so even though people have high expectations of ByuN and Neeb it’s not that unlikely they both lose in the first round.

TLO: Byun and Neeb have everyone's eyes on them, but looking at the bracket, I can see both losing in Ro8.

Harstem: I'm afraid Stats might fail in the quarters or the semis.

How likely is a foreign finalist? What about champion?

Bly: Neeb will be in the finals for sure, no doubt about it, but ByuN will win it all.

MaSa: I have no clue on this, because due to my prediction it's ShoWTimE vs. Dark, and I have no information on either.

MaNa: It's very likely actually. It will all depend on the day that Dark has. Of course he's a clear favorite at that side of the bracket, but foreigners have already shown that they can fight with the best. I think if a foreigner in the Finals meets a Terran there, then we're not going to have a foreign champion. Korean Terrans are just that much better at the game, it feels like playing different matchup.

uThermal: The chance for a foreign finalist is decent, a foreigner to win is not very likely though. Neeb has a chance to beat Dark, it'd be much harder for ShoWTimE or Elazer though, so the best chance is probably Neeb winning against Dark, then Neeb losing to ShoWTimE and ShoWTimE winning against a Terran in the finals. I'll give it a solid 15 percent.

TLO: I'd give a foreign finalist a 60 percent, considering there's two chances to beat Dark. Champion is hard to predict, depends too much on the individual players.

Harstem: The chances of a foreign finalist are about 50-50. The chances of a foreign champion about 15 percent.

Who do you think we are going to see in the Final (head/heart)?

Bly: Neeb/ByuN, ByuN wins 4-2.

MaSa: Head: Dark vs. Stats, Stats will beat ByuN with imbatoss. Heart: Dark vs. ByuN. Terrans unite then ByuN beats Dark with amazing TvZ.

MaNa: Head says Dark vs. TY, heart says Dark vs. ByuN and ByuN taking it. I like ByuN’s attitude, very open to the community and what a story it would be if he would win both GSL and BlizzCon as a teamless player and now with a new Team Expert.

uThermal: My favorite Final would definitely be ByuN against Dark, but I think it will probably be either Zest or TY against Dark, with a slight edge to Zest.

TLO: Heart: ShoWTimE vs ByuN. Head: Dark vs TY. Prediction: TY will take the title, he's on an insane streak right now.

Harstem: Head: Dark vs. TY. Heart: Elazer vs. Stats. I think Dark will win. But I hope it's Elazer.

Thanks to all the players who took the time to make their predictions, and good luck to all those competing at BlizzCon!

Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto waiting for the 4-0 Elazer cheeseout of ByuN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Navneet Randhawa does stuff and things at theScore esports. You can follow her on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Théo "PtitDrogo" Freydière is the first champion of a premier event in 2016, and of the first in the new WCS Circuit. Playing for mYinsanity, the French Protoss defeated TLO, uThermal and finally Bly to claim victory at DreamHack Leipzig.

Following his win, theScore eSports was able to talk to PtitDrogo about his tournament win, his thoughts on the new WCS system and the state of Legacy of the Void.

Firstly, congrats on your win at DreamHack Leipzig. This is your first premier tournament win, how does that make you feel and how does it set the tone for the year going forward?

It feels great obviously and makes me hopeful for this year of WCS. This year is going to be very volatile since a lot of top foreigners have a similar skill level but I hope I'll be able to stand above the rest.

You had a couple of very tough series leading up to the finals. Were you confident going into the match against Bly? What was your strategy and thinking going in, and did you adapt mid-series?

I had a lot of information on Bly, while I was able to mix a lot of different strategies on my way to the finals. So I was hoping to have an edge build order-wise, since he wouldn't be able to predict what I was going to do with 100 percent certainty, which often happen with me and my predictable playstyle. In the actual matches it didn't quite go according to plan, especially in Game 2 and Game 3. The fact that I was able to win Game 3 after being really behind was massive, it gave me a lot of momentum and the next two games kind of went as expected (run-by of Zerglings on Ulrena and massive Zergling aggression on Ruins of Seras).

What would you say is your biggest strength as a player? And what is maybe one weakness you have?

It's hard to say, I think I'm the most comfortable when I can just follow my build order and pressure my opponent. I never really try to outplay my opponent, but rather follow the gameplan perfectly and play it better than him. This can be a strength and a weakness at the same time.

The rest of the foreign scene is, I think, a bit jealous of the French community right now. French players have been doing particularly well from 2015 onwards. Why do you think this is, and will it continue to be like this?

Simply put we have the strongest community in Europe, in my opinion. Even when you don't look at the top players, there is a strong pool of mid-tier grandmaster players that are practicing a lot to one day become the new top French player. The competition is really high within the French community and it shows on the European scene.

So it's competition between French players that makes them so successful when put up against others?

The competition and the support from the community, yes.

DreamHack Leipzig was our first look at the new WCS system and it sparked a lot of controversy. Would you like to comment on the new system?

It's obviously a very controversial topic in my opinion and it's hard not to be biased in my position. I think it's a step in the right direction, some people prefer to watch an higher level of play with top Koreans at DreamHack, for them I apologize and I'll practice to hard to bring a level similar to them for the next event. I know that a lot of people prefer the tournaments with players from their country that they can relate too. It's hard to please everyone.

Where do the remaining Koreans (Polt, Hydra, viOLet) fit into the skill level in WCS? They did well at Leipzig but Bly was able to beat both of them.

They definitely feel beatable at the moment, but they will still always be the favorites at every event they attend.

How do you feel about the Protoss match-ups right now? You can comment on balance (and considering the upcoming balance patch) and/or just how the matches have changed from Heart of the Swarm to Legacy of the Void.

I'm gonna be really honest here. After the patch (especially the Pylon nerf), Protoss is going to be the weakest race. Especially in PvZ it's going to be literally impossible to win, you'll play perfect and still lose. It will be 100 percent wins for Zerg on 4/7 maps of the map pool.

Design-wise, in the transition from HotS to LotV, PvP is better overall, PvZ is way better and PvT kind of sucks because of all the turtling, but this might all change with the new patch, so I don't really know.

Is there any one thing that you would like changed that hasn’t been so far? Balance, maps etc.

Change the damn maps, this map pool is a giant joke.

Just as a quick question, have you played the GSL maps?

GSL just changed 2 maps if I recall correctly, I never played on them since it's kind of a waste of time if they're not in the map pool.

Do you have anything else to comment on? Words for your fans?

I want to thank all of my fans for the incredible support I received at DreamHack Leipzig. The coming weeks are going be very hard with the maps and the balance but I will train hard and do my best to provide some amazing gaming for my fans.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Christian Paas-Lang is an eSports journalist from Toronto lifting a baguette in solidarity. Navneet Randhawa is drowning in chocolate croissants. Follow Christian and Navneet on Twitter.​

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

With DreamHack Leipzig behind us and the first WCS Circuit champion crowned, the next step in the experiment of WCS 2016 is IEM Taipei, an eight-player invitational that will not be doling out Circuit points, but instead has $25,000 up for grabs.

And unlike regular WCS Circuit events, which have on the whole worked to exclude Korean players, IEM Taipei has gone so far as to invite six of them, fully three quarters of the players involved. Only Snute and Lilbow will represent the foreign scene in Taiwan.

The tournament comes at a time of passionate discussion in the StarCraft scene, as defenders and critics of the new system clash over its viability. In this sense, Taipei will provide something of a counterpoint. We’ve seen one side, and the success of DreamHack Leipzig gave region-lockers something tangible to point to. Now, Taipei will test how successful nearly pure top-level play can be. To that effect, eight of the game’s strongest are flying to Taipei for Feb. 1.

The tournament will also be the first to showcase the newest version of Legacy of the Void, as aspects of both the Protoss and Zerg arsenal have been nerfed. Pylon Overcharge energy cost is up, along with its attack speed (for what is likely an overall nerf), while the Viper’s Parasitic Bomb ability damage has been reduced. How this will change the game is up in the air, though opinions abound over the relative strengths of each race going forward.

You can be sure, however, that each of the eight players in Taipei will do their utmost to quickly adapt (and to create) the new meta. The four Protoss competitors — MC, herO, sOs and Lilbow — are perhaps the most pressured, as the Pylon Overcharge ability has been a core defensive tool since its implementation.

MC’s “retirement” is in full-swing, though he seems to be following the Stephano example. The idea of an eight-player is obviously to his liking. MC has a style that is well-suited to Legacy of the Void’s emphasis on aggression and multitasking, and he has acquitted himself well so far in the expansion. Add that to his legendary killer instinct and decision-making, and MC will always be a dangerous opponent, retired or not.

herO and sOs make up the KeSPA contingent of Taipei’s competitors. Not too much remains to be said about them — they are two of the best Protoss players in all of StarCraft 2. sOs is a two-time BlizzCon champion and the holder of a handful of other titles. herO, meanwhile, is an IEM legend, winning three separate titles. He is coming off the best year of his career. In 2015 he emerged as the most consistently stellar Protoss player in Korea, winning a SSL, a KeSPA Cup and carrying CJ Entus in Proleague.

Lilbow rounds out the Protoss ranks and is our first non-Korean player. The French Protoss has struggled somewhat since the high of his WCS Season 3 victory last year, starting with his controversial performance at BlizzCon. He has picked up lately, but his skill level relative to foreigners — let alone top Koreans — right now is questionable. Lilbow probably has the most to prove going into Taipei, but he will have a tough go of it, especially considering his first opponent.

ByuN’s story reads like eSports fanfiction. Out of the game for years, unseen, unknown, a once-great player returns from the dead in a new era of the game. In April 2015, ByuN started appearing in online cups, dominating small events while failing to appear at a number of offline tournaments. Once Legacy of the Void launched, he gained almost immediate notoriety as the best player in the game, often a single Terran who held out against a torrent of Ravager all-ins in the early stages of the expansion. Then, as the new competitive year got underway, we finally saw ByuN in the flesh. A new Ghost King on a new team, returning from the dead to break into both Korean leagues. ByuN is still something of an unknown quantity, but we at least know him to be among the deadliest progamers playing right now.

His Terran compatriot is Polt, the perennial Terran legend, one of the game’s greatest remaining veterans. Polt is one of the few Koreans left in the WCS Circuit and his performance here will be yet another test of how well the “foreign Koreans” can hold up after years practicing outside the Korean ecosystem. Yet Polt’s consistency is his greatest strength — if he’s been practicing well, he will always be a threat.

Finally, we have the Zergs. Two players with very different histories, they will be hoping to continue the dominance of the Swarm in Legacy of the Void. Soulkey was considered the best Zerg in the world in 2013, but dropped into semi-retirement in 2015 after a mediocre year. Soulkey will be up against Polt in a TvZ for the ages.

Snute, meanwhile, is going up against herO and will be looking back to IEM Toronto in 2014, where he beat the Korean ace twice. What's more, at IEM Shenzhen last year, he beat both Classic and Rain, then the reigning SSL and GSL champion. Snute has the capability to come up big when the pressure is on, and the disconnect between foreign and Korean metas often works to his advantage. Good thing, too, because he will need every edge to reenact his miraculous wins against herO.

Taipei presents us with a cast of characters, each fulfilling their own unique role in the drama to come. A retired legend, a psychological mastermind. A man risen from the grave and a pair of foreign hopes. Leipzig gave us a glimpse of how 2016 will play out in the foreign scene, while SSL and Code A have already shown us the new Korea. Now, those two arenas come together in Taiwan for two days of high stakes, high pressure competition.

Christian Paas-Lang is an eSports journalist from Toronto praying for a ByuN Ghost rush. You can follow him on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

After weeks of qualifiers, high-intensity preparation and shifts in the meta, the WCS Winter Championship at IEM Katowice is finally upon us. The tournament represents the culmination of Blizzard’s new approach to StarCraft eSports, with fewer, more important and hyped tournaments. It is also the second test of how the strict region-locking of WCS, which has extended now to WCS Circuit events like DreamHack and IEM, will affect participation and interest from the foreign scene.

The Winter Championship will complement the long build-up with an unforgiving format. Thirty best-of-five series and one best-of-seven final will be played over three days, all single elimination. And in a WCS environment where it seems like anybody can beat anybody, the potential for surprise is never absent.

The stakes

Along with the terrifying possibility of an early exit comes the tantalizing prospect of the Winter Championship’s enormous prize pool, not to mention its payout of precious WCS Circuit Points. At $150,000, the tournament features the highest prize pool of any single event tournament outside of BlizzCon.

The winning player will walk away with not just the $35,000 first prize, but also a direct seed to the WCS Global Playoffs in November. This alone is a prize worth fighting for. The 31 other players who won’t be earning that spot will have to fight it out for the remaining 8,000 WCS Circuit Points, which are used to determine seeding and invites for upcoming events as well as further seeds to the Global Playoffs. The stakes, in brief, are high, and players will need to bring their very best.

Who to watch out for

With so many players in the running for the title at this tournament, it's impossible to go over all of them, but here are a few of the key players to watch in the coming days:

Nerchio:

Pegged by many as the strongest Zerg in the foreign scene right now, Nerchio is riding a wave of impressive results that have marked a strong comeback to the scene. Once one of the best European players, Nerchio faded from competitive play during Heart of the Swarm, but with the advent of Legacy of the Void he has proven that he has lost little of his skill. The Polish Zerg is considered by pros and fans alike to be one of the best all-around players – with a firm understanding of the meta – in the tournament. He has a tough first match against ShoWTimE, but the hometown hero is looking for a deep run at this event.

PtitDrogo:

The winner of DreamHack: Leipzig, the French Protoss struggled to build off his victory, instead stringing together a series of poor results. He failed to gain a seed through the regular EU qualifiers, having instead to compete in the Regional Challenger tournament, where he only barely squeaked through due to a series of tiebreaker matches. PtitDrogo clearly has the skills to face down the best of the best outside of Korea, but he’ll have to bring better than he has been if he wants to move past his veteran compatriot, Dayshi, in the first round.

Polt:

The godfather of the WCS, Polt will be looking to fulfill his destiny of winning five or more WCS titles. Well on his way with three victories so far, Polt should be going into his first match against the German Zerg, Lambo, full of confidence. When well-practiced, the Korean transplant has shown that he has some of the very best execution outside of Korea, and that gives him an edge against most of his opponents. Polt, along with viOLet and Hydra, have certainly looked beatable in the past few months, but they remain a tough match for even the best Circuit competitors.

MarineLorD:

MarineLorD set the foreign scene alight when he all-killed Team South Korea in Nations Wars III (beating INnoVation and PartinG twice each) to cap off a 21-2 record with four all-kills in that tournament. This astounding victory made up for lacklustre performances at both HomeStory Cup XII and DreamHack: Leipzig. Based on his current form, MarineLorD is widely considered to be among the best Terrans in the WCS system right now, and a deep run could cement his reputation.

Neeb

Neeb’s story is the perhaps the most inspiring of the whole group in the past few months. Once a player that drifted in and out of premier league through 2013-4, Neeb has become one of the most dangerous players in the scene: a ladder hero who finally performs when it counts. Having already qualified to the Winter Championship through the regular qualifiers, Neeb went on to win the Regional Challenger tournament by beating both Polt and Hydra to claim his first tournament title. Neeb has been proclaimed as the redeemer of NA, but will have to get past another surging Americas champion, Kelazhur, to truly make his mark in this event.

TLO:

Doctor Dario has been in his element over the past few months, as the uncertainty of Legacy of the Void's meta gives his creative playstyle some extra staying power. TLO has performed well so far with a solid quarterfinal finish at DreamHack: Leipzig, but will be looking for a top finish here to prove that he is once again amongst the best Europe has to offer. TLO benefits from playing the same matchup (his historically strong ZvZ) in both his first match and the Round of 16, should he beat his Chinese opponent iAsonu.

After weeks of feverish preparation, the players are finally ready to put it all on the line. With so much to gain, and with the margin for error so small, creativity, adaptability and near-perfect execution will be required to gain a victory in the crowded, uncertain hierarchy of the Winter Championship.

Christian Paas-Lang is an eSports journalist from Toronto looking forward to the BlizzCon finals featuring Neeb vs. Hitman. You can follow him on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

When we spoke to Jens "Snute" Aasgaard in the leadup to the WCS Winter Championship at IEM Katowice, he was in a period of high-intensity practice. On the line was $150,000, a direct seed to the WCS Global Playoffs and 11,000 precious WCS points.

Since the launch of Legacy of the Void, Snute had posted mixed results. He won the GPL 2015 International Challenge shortly after the new expansion was released, but dropped out of the 2016 DreamHack Open: Leipzig in the Round of 16. IEM would be Snute's chance to prove that he was back, that he'd solidified his understanding of the meta and he could once again compete on the international stage.

The format for the Winter Championship was unforgiving: single-elimination with best-of-fives up until the final. Too many mistakes in the Round of 32, and Snute could find himself going home empty-handed.

But he didn't end up going home, not until the very end. Snute went to the Grand Finals in Poland, defeating MajOr, MaSa, viOLet and Hydra on the way there. Although he fell just short of victory, Snute's second-place finish to Choi "Polt" Seong Hun cemented his reputation as one of a handful of Western StarCraft II players that can go toe-to-toe with South Korean pros.

IEM Katowice: Validation

Snute reached the Grand Finals at Katowice by keeping things in perspective. The 25-year-old Norwegian has been in enough tournaments to know that the difference between a successful run and a disappointing finish is terrifyingly small; so it's best not to look too far ahead. "The most important thing is preparing for the next opponent and being in shape for the match," he says.

Hope, it seems, is a dangerous game. "Sometimes you can get excited if you make it far or have a lead, but most of the time it's just distracting," he continues. "It's better to concentrate on playing well each map and focus on winning until the tournament is over."

Snute's stoicism and standard play worked well for most of the tournament, but not against Polt. The Norwegian struggled against some uncharacteristically innovative strategies from the legendary Korean Terran, who threw out a variety of early pushes designed to keep Snute off-balance. In the end, Polt took the series 4-2, claiming his fourth WCS title and keeping Snute away from his first.

Snute is happy with the result, but he knows how close he came to the win. He also knows that one tournament isn't going to get him where he wants to be, especially given his poor results prior to the Winter Championship. "To me it's always been more about the averages and climbing steadily, working on fixing the biggest problems," he says. "I don't want to lose early or have volatile results."

Long-term consistency is something that all StarCraft 2 pros struggle with, though some — like Snute — have had more success than others. Part of Snute's strength is being able to move past poor individual games to see the big picture. Though he has underperformed in recent WCS tournaments, failing to break out of the group stage in both Season 2 and Season 3 of the 2015 WCS Premier League, he has managed to put up solid results on average over five long years of competitive play. He remains one of the few non-Korean players whose career winrate against Koreans approaches 50%.

Snute's conscious approach to forming strategies and practicing is perhaps his defining characteristic as a player. He is dogged in his pursuit of improvement, constantly looking for ways to root out weaknesses in his play. "It's a very delicate process, being stubborn and protecting your winning moves, and being open-minded enough to remove the losing moves, or find new ways, at the same time," he says.

With this approach, he doesn't see an upper limit on how good he can get. "There isn't a true skill ceiling," he says.

Long Live the Swarm

Snute cites his victory at HomeStory Cup VI as one of his proudest moments. At the dawn of Heart of the Swarm, his 4-0 sweep over GSL Code S Korean Zerg Kang "Symbol" Dong Hyun heralded the beginning of two years of strong finishes. In 2013 and 2014, Snute ranked among the top non-Koreans in the scene, winning a series of major tournaments and coming tantalizingly close to another premier title, though it stayed beyond his reach.

Part of what made him successful during that period was the dominance of Swarm Hosts. A loyal adherent of the Swarm Host meta, he went beyond the standard usage in ZvP and experimented with the unit against Terran bio compositions (with mixed success). His affinity for the positional, patient style saw him succeed against fellow foreigners, but also against players from Korea, where the Swarm Host meta had a weaker grip.

"The Swarm Host 'mech' style, or turtle style, was very similar to Terran Mech or just the Protoss race as a whole," he explains. And, like mech, attrition-based Swarm Host games tended to go very long and could be quite exhausting. But as long as it won him games, Snute was committed to it. "I was quite bored of playing the style eventually, but winning made up for it," he says. "It didn't matter if I'd spend some extra time, obviously I'd be a bit more fatigued than my competitors, but still I'd be winning."

He recalls some of his Swarm Host games that were "truly enjoyable," including his series against Mun "MMA" Seong Won at Gfinity G3 in 2014, or against Kim "herO" Joon Ho at IEM Season IX Toronto in the same year. Those games at IEM Toronto (where he would go down 3-2 in the Quartefinals to the eventual victor, Lee "Flash" Young Ho) marked a high-point in Snute's career that he wouldn't top until he defeated both Jung "Rain" Yoon Jong and Kim "Classic" Doh Woo — then the reigning GSL and SSL champions, respectively — in IEM Season X Shenzhen in 2015.

Snute is not the most mechanically gifted player. He's not the fastest, though he isn't the slowest, and he can't dominate players through sheer multitasking. What he is good at, however, is analyzing and understanding the macro game, the meta, and focusing his practice accordingly. From the beginning, he's been careful about how he approaches his preparation and forms his routine — for Snute, it's as much about how he practices as what he practices. Snute did all of those things in the Swarm Host era, and in Heart of the Swarm more generally.

Leaving HotS behind

All good things must come to an end, and Blizzard eventually responded to the growing backlash from players and fans over the Swarm Host by nerfing the unit beyond viability.

"It just became a completely different unit, more like a useless bio unit," Snute says of the redesigned version of the Swarm Host. "My impression is that Blizzard does not want players to play mech styles that involve long games with all bases on the map taken and positional play and possible split-map scenarios. Everything about the new maps and units promote aggressive back and forth plays off of two or three bases."

The changes meant Snute had to jettison the style he had been so successful with. Although he preferred the slow, methodical "mech" play, LotV calls for speed, aggression and multitasking.

The transition has proven more difficult than he expected. Having developed such a strong understanding of the HotS macro game, he had trouble forgetting what he knows and adapting to the new demands of the game. That surprised him, and the surprise itself made his reeducation more difficult.

The effort of reinventing his playstyle led to some disappointing results, such as his early exit from DreamHack: Leipzig. "I expected to do much better than what I've done so far, and thought the transition would be no problem," he says. "I was able to win the GPL International Challenge right after [LotV's release], and it set a great mood for me. But then I had a horrible performance in Nation Wars. Semifinals of HomeStory Cup was a small relief, but on average I've had a lot of failures that I wouldn't have had before — Nation Wars being the prime example of this."

Part of the difficulty he faced was keeping up with the competition. European Zergs like Artur "Nerchio" Bloch and Aleksandr "Bly" Svusuyk have taken to Legacy far faster than Snute, and the competition has been tough.

"In general, I feel like my level has weakened a lot in the transition from HotS to LotV, so I've lost a lot of confidence," he confesses. "I'm losing a lot of matches now that I wouldn't have lost before because of not handling the new maps and units well, and then it stings a lot. It makes me feel like whatever skill I had in HotS wasn't real, if that makes sense, since all the other players all of a sudden got so much better."

Snute is determined to make it work, though. Radical change, painful though it is, is necessary to keep winning. "I'm quite desperately trying to leave whatever pride I had behind and work on things one at a time," he says. "Before, I would make small adjustments. Now I need to throw more of my concepts and previous 'winning ideas' out of the window in favor of new knowledge, while still trying to keep some of the good things."

It's tough, he says, but as a veteran, he's been able to take his disappointing results in stride, and he's learned the importance of not getting stuck in his old ways. Luckily, his analytical mindset helps as much with adapting a new strategy as it does with refining a well-practiced style. Ultimately, it's just one more challenge to approach with his characteristic thoughtfulness.

The WCS Winter Championship may be the turning point for Snute. It showed that he could play a more defensive, standard style and still succeed. His Queen-heavy defense against a few deadly Terran pushes shows the kind of innovation that only comes with thorough strategic understanding.

"Getting to the Finals is great," he says. "The ZvZs worked out much better than I expected. ZvT I'm still not sure, I need to learn a lot there."

Despite his strong finish, he's not planning to get comfortable. "Everything about these big WCS tournaments is very amplified, but to me it's still a very small sample of games," he says. "If I can bring similar performances in qualifiers, online tournaments, perform better in practice and keep having results like this offline, I'll feel very good about it."

Snute feels as though he's still unproven in Legacy of the Void, but he's looking forward to more practice, more thought, and better results. "For now, it certainly brought at least some faith back, even if it was only five series," he says.

Christian Paas-Lang is an eSports journalist from Toronto pouring one out for all the Swarm Hosts that haven't been spawned this year. You can follow him on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Sasha "Scarlett" Hostyn was in Toronto this weekend for the Kings of the North StarCraft II tournament, along with seven other top North American players. Although Scarlett has been out of the spotlight for a while, she remains one of the all-time greats in the SCII foreign scene — and she's getting ready to ramp it up, with planned appearances at DreamHack Austin and the WCS Circuit Gold Series International 2016.

So you’re coming off of a break and then returning for Legacy of the Void, right? What's your practice schedule like now?

I’ve been playing in a lot more small tournaments than I used to, and lots of NA and Europe ladder. I always play a lot better on ladder than in tournaments, like way better. I have more trouble focusing on the game in tournaments than on ladder. At a tournament I end up thinking about something completely unrelated to StarCraft, I don’t know why. I just have trouble focusing on the game.

So I do really well on ladder and I’ve been playing decently in online tournaments, but at the same time, even though I’m beating everyone on ladder, I’m not fully confident in tournaments. I’m actually going to Korea, like right after this, so hopefully I get a bit more into it then.

Are you looking forward to DreamHack Austin and the Spring Championship as well?

99% I’ll be at DreamHack Austin and of course I’ll try to qualify for the Spring Championship. I didn’t… try as hard as I should have for the Winter one, if you saw that. I started playing ladder the last night, when you needed to make top 16, and ended up 17th. I ended up getting Top 16 two minutes after the bell. I only started that day and I was like a thousand points behind. And I ended up losing to MaSa [Maru "MaSa" Kim] actually, three times right before the clock, I thought I could beat anyone, except maybe MaSa, and that happened.

What do you think about the ladder system for WCS Challenger in general?

I think it's good. The reason I’m actually playing NA now is [because of] a tournament run by feardragon [Ravi "feardragon" Pareek] called Ladder Heroes, so it's actually fun just playing for that. And then WCS is like that, but it's a bigger deal, and a lot of people focus on that. I’ve always liked using ladder as practice, even though it might not be the best idea — I just enjoy that, so I think that is better.

In your series against MaSa here at Kings of the North, you played Roach/Ravager in Game 1, but then in Game 2 went into Muta/Ling/Bling. Which one do you prefer right now?

I only play Mutalisks really. I went into Roaches Game 1 because I thought I was more ahead than I was, I guess, after the proxy didn’t work… but I guess it was just normal, like a pretty late proxy, so it wasn’t a big deal. But I tried to Nydus, off three-Hatchery, which doesn’t even make sense. I don’t know what I was thinking then, but I had no upgrades, no ling speed and Roaches, and Lair, so I thought I had to go into Roaches.

If you go into Muta/Ling/Baneling, it's very dependent on just having enough Zerglings to fight their army, and if you don’t have enough you’ll just straight up lose. If you’re behind after a certain point you just can’t play it, whereas with Roach/Ravager/Infestor you can rely on Fungals and Corrosive Bile a little bit to catch back up. The only way with Muta/Ling/Baneling is if they really screw up and forget a turret at a base, or a bunch of Banelings kill SCVs. So I felt like I was forced into it.

In Game 2, I kinda knew that he was going to do exactly what he did, a Tank drop into the second base, +1 Tank push behind the third. That’s very very very strong on that map. So if you watch the game, I only took one gas at the third, the one that wasn’t by the Tanks, and I took the faraway fourth which is very unusual. So I felt like I was in a pretty good setup to deal with it, but I just failed my macro. I had about 2,000 minerals, which is like 80 Zerglings with +2, against Marines. I would have crushed him, I just messed up.

You also didn’t have Baneling Speed when the push hit, is that a mistake or is that just how the build orders shake out?

No, you can’t really have Baneling speed unless you have a super-fast gas and Lair. In the past, people would go two-base Muta, especially in Heart of the Swarm, and then with that they obviously have a faster Baneling speed. But I feel like to play against Terran now you have to do a pretty greedy opening and get fast upgrades. I didn’t have Mutas and I didn’t have Baneling speed, and they kinda come at the same time cost — 110 Baneling speed, 100 second for Spire — so, you kinda have to hold the first push with just Zergling/Baneling. If I macroed well I probably could have held it.

How real of a team is OnFire? Are you guys looking to be more formalized, or is it just a banner for you guys to play under?

You know the #blyonfire thing, right? So it's just kinda a joke on that, to play in the [SC2Improve] team league. Neeb [Alex "Neeb" Sunderhaft] doesn’t really want to be on a serious team right now. He’s actually had a lot of offers but he’s turned down everything, like personal sponsorships... He’s like “no I don’t need it, it's fine, maybe later.” But him and State are teamless, State hasn’t been looking for a team. I haven’t tried to join a team yet, I don’t know why. But it's kinda just a fun thing to play together.

I just wanted to make it [playing in the team league] happen even if it couldn’t be with Acer. So I just organized it with the players. It's kinda fun, managing Clan Wars and doing that sort of thing. It's very different from playing, but it helps your team win the matches.

But in terms of actually looking for a sponsorship or picking a serious team, I definitely would do that if it was possible. But at the same time, I don’t want to put in the full-time effort as a team manager. So unless someone approaches, or says they want to do a little sponsorship, I probably won’t look for that, just keep it as a casual team for us to play in a team league.

Who do you think is going to break out this year? We’ve already kind of had Neeb, right?

Neeb is a god, a literal god.

Do you have any ideas of who’s next?

I don’t know anything of the Korean scene right now. European, I’d say Elazer [Mikołaj "Elazer" Ogonowski], but he’s already getting more noticed. Lambo [Julian "Lambo" Brosig] is definitely very good. I mostly know Zergs in terms of this. In NA, I think JonSnow [Jarod "JonSnow" George] could. He has the potential if he really wanted to try for it. He’s pretty good. I don’t know about anyone else.

If you had to be a unit in another player’s army, what unit and which player would you be?

Hmm. Probably an Immortal, because… they don’t really die to anything. They don’t care about anything. Neeb’s army of course. Literal god Neeb. On Fire Neeb.

Christian Paas-Lang is an eSports journalist from Toronto thanking Scarlett, and also hoping to be drafted into Neeb's army. You can follow him on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Maru "MaSa" Kim, the 21-year old Terran playing for Team eLevate, has seen a lot of success in the Canadian scene. True to form, MaSa recently defeated Marc-Olivier"desRow" Proulx​, Sasha "Scarlett" Hostyn and Alex "Neeb" Sunderhaft (twice) on the way to a first place victory at Kings of the North.

We caught up with MaSa to chat about his recent tournament performances and how he feels about the Legacy of the Void meta.

You just joined Team eLevate, how is that working out for you? They have lots of players in other games, but you’re their only SC2 player.

Its good. Considering I was on ROOT Gaming, which is a lot of players, I didn’t really do team-oriented stuff, like, in-house practice and stuff, so there’s no difference there. Because I’m the only player on eLevate, I think they’re doing better for me, so that’s nice.

A few weeks back you played in the WCS Winter Championship in Poland, where you beat Harstem and then lost to Snute. How did you feel playing at a major tournament?

Really, really nervous. I remember against Snute I was really nervous and I couldn’t raise my depots, so I got wrecked. I was kind of getting a mental breakdown there.

But in the second game I brought it back, because I was playing really well and I smashed him. Third and fourth game, the nervousness and the pressure hit me again, so I couldn’t play at my best.

It's always a problem. But it is getting better, I believe, as I'm doing better in results.

What do you think of the state of balance for Terran and the game in general right now?

It just sucks how... I get that they don’t want M-M-M [Marine, Marauder and Medivacs] for the entire game, so they buffed the shit out of Ultralisks. But still, that forces you to mass Ghosts, so the late-game becomes really dumb. That’s what I don’t like.

What tournaments are you looking forward to now?

DreamHack: Austin, and hopefully I can qualify for the Spring Championship.

Player-wise, who do you think is going to be a rising star this year?

Neeb is already there, and aside from him I don’t know.

If you had to be a unit in another player’s army, what you unit would you be and which player would it be?

Unit would be the Ultralisk, and I would be in Snute’s army, because he builds a shit-ton of Queens, so he’s going to save me the entire game.

Christian Paas-Lang is an eSports journalist from Toronto who would probably just be a Zergling in Snute's army. You can follow him on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Last year's WCS region-locking forced some of Korea's top talent to return home from dominating America and Europe. The upside? Korea has become as competitive as we've ever seen it, as new (old) faces seek to regain status in their homeland. Some have succeeded, and some have failed.

This year, the competition hit fever pitch. Both GSL and SSL have reduced their schedule to two seasons in the year, albeit with more prize money overall. That means the risk of a loss is amplified — losing one series in some cases means sitting out for six months.

Compound that with a completely new meta and faster game pace thanks to Legacy of the Void, and the Korean leagues this year have shown some of the most tense, explosive play in competitive StarCraft 2 history.

Into this cut-throat environment entered SK Telecom T1's Park "Dark" Ryung Woo and KT Rolster's Kim "Stats" Dae Yeob, two players with similar histories and different approaches to the game. But they both coveted the same thing: victory at a premier Korean tournament.

Dark: SKT's quiet ace

One of the few SlayerS players who followed BoxeR to SK Telecom T1 when the legendary team disbanded in 2012, Dark wallowed in anonymity until 2014. His first steps into the light that year were qualifying for GSL Code S twice and reaching the Ro16 once. He played nine times for SKT in Proleague in 2014, going a very respectable 6-3.

But 2015 was Dark's time to shine. Although his runs in the two Korean individual leagues, SSL and GSL, still weren't anything to write home about, he soon discovered a love for weekend events. Dark reached the semifinals at the IEM World Championship in Katowice, and then took second place at two KeSPA Cups that year, losing to herO and his teammate soO.

That loss came as a reminder that despite his growing talent, Dark was surrounded by SKT teammates who cast long shadows. INnoVation, Classic and soO together won five premier titles that year.

It became a theme for Dark: not good enough. He was arguably the best Zerg in the world at a time when his brethren were getting beat down by a perfected Blink Stalker/Sentry meta. A flagging Life and a yet-to-emerge ByuL gave Dark a brief glimpse of the pinnacle, but he never managed to keep it in sight.

He needed one more swing at the plate, and he got it this season at SSL. Dark tore through three top Protoss players (MyuNgSiK, Classic and Stats, sending his future Grand Finals opponent to the Loser's Bracket) without dropping a map. He then went on to conquer Solar, losing only two games in a best-of-seven against the strongest early adapter in LotV. Dark, having reached his first final in a premier league, waited to see who would arrive from the Lower Bracket.

Stats: Out from the shadows

Stats' career has a lot in common with Dark's. Playing for KT since he started in SC2, he never recorded a significant result until 2014, when he reached the quarterfinals in GSL Season 3 and lost to soO.

In 2015, Stats took off. Where Dark found an affinity for weekend events, Stats made deep runs in the newly formed SSL, reaching the semifinals twice. He performed extremely well in Proleague, going 22-12 with an All-Kill over SKT.

Yet Stats too was overshadowed by his stronger teammates. Just as Dark had soO, Stats had Zest. Stats actually beat Zest in the quarterfinals of SSL Season 2, but Zest topped premier tournaments more consistently, with the strongest individual performance at Proleague that year, going 28-15. Life, also a teammate at the time, started the year as the best player in the world and ended with a second-place finish at BlizzCon.

Like Dark, Stats was good, but not good enough. He was an honorable mention on the list of the best in 2015, but he never found a way to put any daylight between himself and players like herO, Zest and Classic.

Then Stats started this SSL season with two strong PvP wins over Hurricane and Patience. He lost a rather embarrassing series 3-0 to Dark that sent him on a long march back to the finals, but he managed to beat ByuN, Patience (again) and Solar to make it there.

So the finals were a rematch, with Dark aiming to put down an opponent he had already beaten once, and Stats looking for redemption.

The Grand Final: Adapt or die

Dark went into the series as one of those dangerous macro Zergs who, like Life, can use perfectly tailored builds to unleash devastating all-ins. In the first game, that's exactly what he did.

It's worth it to watch the whole game, but the real beauty comes at the six-minute mark. Dark, powered by just 35 Drones on two gold bases, launches a brutal Zergling/Baneling assault, supported by six Queens flown across the map in two speed-upgraded Overlords.

Stats is up 10 supply when the attack hits, but 20 of that is in workers, so his army supply actually trails Dark's by 10. He's also behind an attack upgrade. The attack doesn't kill him outright, but it knocks down his third and contains him on two bases for almost five minutes. Dark continues to make just Lings and Banes, and wins after a couple surrounds in the center of the map.

Dark's strategy wouldn't work on any map other than Prion Terraces. The gold bases give him the economy to power early aggression, and he takes full advantage of it with a specifically tailored build.

The rest of their matches look a lot like the first. On Dusk Towers in Game 2, Dark once again tops 100 Zerglings and crushes Stats before the game clock hits 13 minutes. In Game 3 he tests Stats with a risky cheese on Ulrena, but fails.

Games 4 and 5 are mirror images of one another. In the fourth game on Orbital Shipyard, the two players trade harass, but Dark gets the better end of it, then expands relentlessly and enters the final engagement with a massive bank of resources. In Game 5, the roles are reversed, with Stats able to deal damage, defend against a strong Hydra/Bane attack and go into the final fight with a decisive advantage.

Game 6 is a simpler one by comparison. Stats' Phoenixes are out of position when Dark launches a Nydus attack. He doesn't kill the Nydus in time, and his Phoenixes run out of energy as he tries to defend. That one slip up costs him the game and the series.

The real story of the last five games is Dark's adaptation to the current PvZ meta. Essentially, Dark won the series because he's trailblazing a new playstyle for Zerg (along with Rogue), and Stats got stuck trying to adapt to it in real-time.

In Dark's new style of ZvP, Banelings play a much more central role. He uses them to completely dismantle a push from Stats in Game 2, by timing out three waves of Ling/Bane attacks. The first — made up of only Banelings — destroys Stats' Zealots, who normally buffer for the Archons and Immortals. The second all-Baneling wave does less damage, but it kills off the remaining Zealots and, crucially, triggers the Immortals' Barrier ability, which is then on cooldown for the third wave. With the third, mostly Zergling attack, Dark completely surrounds the Archons and Immortals that make up the meat of Stats' push, and takes them down easily.

For any Zerg player, it's a beautiful thing to watch. For a Protoss, it's a death knell sounding the end of the brief meta advantage they held in LotV. The Chargelot/Archon/Immortal composition, with Phoenix support, was engineered mainly as a counter to the Lurker-heavy meta that Dark himself used in his three previous PvZ series. With the addition of Banelings, however, the burden shifts once again to Protoss to find a viable composition.

Returning to Forcefields could be the answer — with the prevalence of Ravagers, Protoss players have shifted away from Sentries, which created the vulnerability Dark so expertly exploited with Banes. Stats began to incorporate more Sentries into his compositions, especially on Central Protocol in Game 5, but by then it was too late to turn the series around. Likewise, Stats eventually figured out how to counter Dark's Baneling drops (which he boldly brought back despite the popularity of Phoenix builds), defending almost perfectly in Game 4 on Orbital Shipyard and only narrowly losing to Dark's more powerful economy.

So, in the end, it wasn't a matter of adapt or die for Stats. He adapted, and still died. Dark was able to maintain the initiative, forcing his opponent to find counters in the middle of the series and dictating the pace each game. The SSL Grand Final was Dark's turn to cast a shadow over the Korean StarCraft scene. Stats will have to wait for next season — or the one after that.

Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto who had to grit his teeth and avoiding using "meta-bolic boost" in this article. You can follow him on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Sometimes, watching Zest play can be frustrating. For someone looking to tease out the narrative of a series, he's a major obstacle. It’s not just that his style itself is relatively unremarkable — it might charitably be described as “phenomenally solid” — it’s that there are times in Zest’s career where he suffers from an age-old storytelling problem: invincibility. Like Superman, Zest's story gets stale fast.

Once Zest gets rolling, it's hard to believe that anyone can stop him, and his ultimate showdowns tend to turn into predictable slaughterfests. The Code S Finals this past weekend, viewers only had one question left: How far can Zest push his streak before someone learns how to beat him?

The answer depended on KT Rolster TY, Zest’s teammate, who's currently considered one of the best Terran players in the world.

TY: Moment of a lifetime

TY presented just about the best challenge to Zest possible. Just as Zest made an undefeated run through the playoffs to the finals, sweeping both Taeja and Dear, TY also swept both his playoff opponents, Dream and Cure. Before the final, he had only dropped three maps (all three to Protoss).

TY has spent his whole life preparing for this moment. Drafted to play Brood War for WeMade FOX nearly a decade ago, the 22-year-old has spent almost half his life playing StarCraft at a professional level. On WeMade FOX, then 8th Team, then Jin Air Green Wings and finally KT Rolster, he slowly gathered experience that could only be earned by playing with the best.

In StarCraft 2, he only truly hit his stride last year, when his undeniable skill finally manifested in tournament results. He regularly reached the main stage at the two Korean leagues, and stretched to semifinal finishes at IEM Shenzhen and the third season of Starleague. But a premier Grand Finals appearance still eluded him after nearly a decade of play.

This was TY’s shot to cap a period of amazing improvement with a victory, and to validate his lifelong commitment to the game.

Zest: Dominance

While TY has years of experience playing and practicing with the best, Zest has experience winning. The KT Protoss has been playing for just a fraction of his Terran opponent's career, but he has spent that time well.

Having been a strong Proleague player, Zest started his incredible individual SC2 performance in 2014, walking the Royal Road to win a GSL title in his first appearance there. A few weeks later he won the GSL Global Championship event. Over the rest of 2014 he reached two more semifinals, came runner-up to Flash at IEM Toronto and won a KeSPA Cup.

Then came a major trip-up in 2015, when Zest shockingly failed to qualify for either of the major Korean leagues. He redeemed himself with an equally surprising victory at IEM Katowice, defeating Hydra, INnoVation, Bbyong and Trap on his way to the title — but the spell was broken. Zest maintained solid results in 2015, regularly reaching the quarterfinals and maintaining his position as the top player in Proleague, but he didn’t reach another final that year. He'd cooled off, stabilized.

Legacy of the Void brought a renewal for Zest. Though he didn’t play in some of the expansion’s earlier tournaments, he quickly became one of its most feared players. Since the beginning of this year, Zest has won an incredible 81% of his maps — compared to a 67% overall map win rate during his 2014 hot-streak between February and April.

In 2016, he has an 85% win rate against Protoss, and a stunning 90% win rate against Terran. His biggest failing? An "only" 57% win rate against Zerg, including a mind-bending 0-3 loss to Snute. Only Snute, Classic, Rogue, DeParture, Journey and Dear have beaten Zest in four full months of competition. Over a period almost twice as long, Zest has been significantly better than his breakout era.

Which brings us to the first season of GSL in 2016. Make no mistake, we are living in another era of Zest dominance. That’s why, going into Sunday’s Code S Grand Finals, it was difficult to take seriously the notion that Zest could make a mistake and give up the title.

The Grand Final: Tide against the cliffs

Zest is generally a standard, defensive Protoss, of the style pioneered and perfected by Rain. In Heart of the Swarm, he was among the best at warding off mid-game aggression from a dropping Terran, splitting his army perfectly and multitasking exceptionally well.

TY is a far more aggressive player. His drop control and multi-pronged harass is the key to his success, and his tactical decision-making (when, where and how to take fights) is extremely well-tuned.

We saw the result of that clash of styles in the first game of the series, the best of the day. After an interesting bit of Hellion scouting/harassment from TY (a tactic he would maintain throughout the series) both players ramped up to a mid-game slugfest. TY took a very fast third Command Center, and Zest countered with a pre-six-minute fourth base and double Forges.

TY began his mid-game assault at 8:30 on the game timer, with a strong army lead because of his weaker economy, hitting before Zest could take a strong upgrade advantage and tearing him apart with some of the best multitasking we’ve seen this season. Zest tried valiantly to defend his spread out bases against the more mobile bio army, but TY slowly ground him down.

The scary part wasn’t TY’s multitasking, daunting as it was. What was more impressive was that Zest almost survived. While defending at home, Zest was still able to find the attention and resources to repeatedly deny TY a fourth base and keep the game within reach. Zest's tenacity in the face of such an onslaught showed that TY would have to play near-perfectly to take the series.

In Game 2, Zest showed us why he is feared as the best Protoss in the world right now. Rightly anticipating that TY would once again go for a greedy three Command Center build, Zest unleashed a precision all-in on Orbital Shipyard. Zest actually mismanaged his defense of the Hellion harass, but his excellent Warp Prism control and TY’s failure to adequately prepare for a Dark Templar build handed Zest a quick victory. With the win, Zest was able to cut short any momentum TY was building, and retake the initiative.

In Game 3, TY tried to return the favour, with a quirky two-base build that began with a Thor and ended with a +1 attack, Stimpack and Combat Shield SCV-pull timing. In theory, it was a strong attack, but it didn’t work against Zest. The Protoss player was on three bases, and a series of small mistakes from TY lost him the critical engagement.

First, he engaged before his +1 finished, making Zest’s +1 armor upgrade incredibly valuable. Second, his SCVs were stuck behind the bio force for most of the fight, instead of tanking damage. Finally, TY fought without two Hellions, three Medivacs and a handful of bio units, which might have salvaged the fight.

What was most odd about TY’s play was that after a macro win in Game 1, he would attempt as many two-base all-ins as he did in the series. TY is an aggressive player, but his multitasking strength can serve him best in the late game. Yet, after Game 4 — which featured a wonky base-trade scenario on Sky Shield that TY eventually won — the Terran player attempted two more two-base pushes in Games 5 and 6.

In Game 5, Zest crushed an interesting SCV pull, this time with Siege Tanks, that failed simply because it hit too late. By the time of the fight, Zest had leveraged a three-base economy to gain a 50-supply lead and overwhelmed TY’s forces.

In Game 6, TY didn’t seem like the player who had pulled Zest around in Game 1. He was able to adequately defend against Zest’s Oracle harassment (the first time Zest had gone for a Stargate opener in the series), but he made a critical mistake, building a second Factory instead of a Starport. This single error put an end to the two-base push that TY was attempting, and allowed Zest to once again secure and exploit his three-base economy.

In a reversal of Game 1, TY almost pulled it off. His trademark drop control and a tenacious defense anchored by Widow Mines almost evened up the game, but Zest’s economic advantage was too strong to overcome. Though TY fought to the last gasp, he eventually surrendered the game. Zest won his second GSL league title — his fifth premier tournament title — and lived up to the hype.

Going Forward: Long may he reign

Zest, ever the defensive Protoss, weathered the storm of all-ins and came out on top. He only once wavered from the formula, in Game 2, almost always choosing to get to a strong three-base economy while relying on his defensive posture. It was TY who struggled to wear down Zest's defense through aggressive strategies, and who repeatedly failed in the last half of the series.

Zest is a player who always knows what he needs to do and where he wants to gets to in a game, and he executes perfectly. His style is not flashy, but what he does works. His approach to the game is essentially pragmatic, and that pragmatism has given him his fifth premier title.

The KT Protoss has succeeded in extending one of the most remarkable periods of dominance in StarCraft 2's history. Yet the question that motivated this series — could Zest continue to dominate — hasn't gone away. In fact, by winning, Zest has only added to the pressure to keep going. From the top, there is nowhere to go but down.

Just as it was inevitable that Zest would win Sunday, it's inevitable that at some point, he will fail. Just like Mvp in Wings of Liberty, Life last year and Zest himself in 2014, no one can stay at the pinnacle forever. Until then, however, Zest is forging for himself a legacy, built on a string of stunning victories, that will establish him firmly among the game's all-time greatest competitors.

Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto, eagerly awaiting the discovery of Zest's kryptonite. You can follow him on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

During Dreamhack: Austin, theScore esports had a chance to talk to Paulo "CatZ" Vizcarra, the co-founder and captain of ROOT Gaming. CatZ spoke to us about balance, the StarCraft scene as a whole, and the challenges of managing a team.

There's been some talk recently about the struggles faced by teams in SC2. Do you have any thoughts to share as the leader of one of North America's most established StarCraft 2 rosters?

Absolutely. I think that StarCraft hasn't been as good as it could have been at promoting players and teams, but having said that, they have started using for example the launcher to promote community initiatives, and I think that's the right way to go.

If we can see more of that, and things on top of that in the same direction, I think that will be really good for the game in the long run. I think the game is here for the long run, Blizzard is very committed to keeping StarCraft alive, and I think they will.

How do you feel about the current state of balance and the meta right now?

I think that the game is well balanced. As a Zerg, I have a lot of options. I have my own frustrations, but it's difficult to say whether they are personal or global issues. So I don't like commenting on balance unless I am discussing it with another progamer who can give me their side of the story, if we're talking about ZvP or ZvT for instance.

In terms of design, most of the complaints I've heard are from Terran players, saying that they have to rely on Liberators too often, which makes the game a little one-dimensional for them. So we might want to diversify Terran a little bit. Other than that, I think the game is in the best spot it's ever been in terms of how fun it is and how many options there.

What about the discussion of upcoming balance changes, which include changes to Liberators, Thors and Swarm Hosts? [Editor's Note: The changes Catz is responding to were the original Blizzard changes, not the finalized changes.]

I don't know how the changes are going to play out. I actually wrote an article on Swarm Hosts, I'm sure many of you [reading] this have read it ... It should be featured on the front page. I think that my change for the Swarm Host was a little bit more sensible than what David Kim is proposing, just because my change was a lot smaller, only changing the resource costs by a tiny bit, but it would be a better synergy.

What I proposed essentially was that they flip the costs of the Gas and Minerals, and that they add a way to have Locusts on the ground. ... My thinking is that it's not going to help the Swarm Host that much, but it's going to make it a powerful unit when you are able to get it.

The problem with Swarm Hosts is that they are not very versatile, because you need the Infestation Pit for them, and they cost mostly minerals, which is already counter intuitive, because to get to a quick Lair and Infestation Pit you need a lot of Gas. What I proposed was to have the Infestor and the Swarm Host have a similar gas to mineral ratio with each other in terms of cost. So that one can decide to go either Infestors or Swarm Hosts. For example in ZvP, if the Protoss goes for a Stargate opener, you can decide to go Infestors, if not you can go Swarm Hosts.

What they are proposing [instead] is a huge change, its like a 20% decrease in the cost of the unit. But the problem with the unit is that if you're planning to go Swarm Hosts you need to mine more Minerals than Gas, and if you're going Infestors you need to mine more Gas than minerals, so there's no flexibility there. So you kind of have to decide going in, and that's bad for Swarm Hosts because they get hard-countered: they can't shoot up, and they're very expensive. So I don't like the change. They will be a lot stronger, but it will make them a gambly unit.

In terms of the Liberator, I don't know how it will pan out, but I'm guessing Corruptors with +1 Armor with be a little too strong against Terran, because Liberators will do less damage, and Marines also have low damage against Corruptors. So Corruptors will be super hard to kill for Terran and I can see how that would be a problem, because now you have to add either Vikings or Thors, maybe? So I'm not a giant fan but we'll see how it turns out.

What do you think about the map pool this season? Is it better or worse than last season?

I love the map pool this season. A lot of people don't like it, but I completely disagree. I think that we have a lot of very unique maps.

If you watch my series against FireCake [Sébastien "FireCake" Lebbe], for example, we played five different maps, and I did five different strategies. They were really fun games. Like I said, the game is very versatile, and how different the maps are allows us to show different strengths and tactics. A lot of people don't really like that, they like to play the same style. I personally like strategy and real-time strategy, what StarCraft is meant to be.

Are there any maps you would switch out to make it even better?

I think one of the most important things is to keep the map pool fresh. I wouldn't mind rotating all the maps. Just because I think the game needs to stay fresh and bring in new people. Or at least, retain the people we have until we have a chance to grow. Potential to grow will be there for StarCraft in the future, its just a matter of Blizzard and the community getting together and both pushing forward.

On the whole, how successful has the WCS system been so far, or is it too early to tell?

I actually also wrote an article on this. A lot of the things I proposed were added to the new system, things like region-locking and the ladder qualifiers. I think that it is working really well. In terms of Korean skill to foreigner skill, the gap has never been closer. It was perfect to start in Legacy of the Void because it's a new game and it resets everything. Not having as many Koreans makes it possible for foreigners to win, which means they're going to practice more.

And it shows. Polt, for example, [dropped out of DH Austin], and he's a world caliber player. Snute beat Zest just recently online before Zest destroyed everyone in Korea, and they were playing on NA. A lot of people were saying, "Oh, it's the ping," but that's not true. Foreigners are really good right now, and I think we have the WCS system to thank for that.

Now we just have to get hyped for the foreigners, and to believe in the foreigners, and for the foreigners to keep it up. We're not quite caught up, but the gap is about the closest it's ever been.

On that note, who do you think is the strongest foreigner right now?

Ah, I'll be boring and say Neeb, because he just is. The thing with Neeb is that, in my opinion, he is incredibly predictable if you study him. Like, he wouldn't do very well in the GSL right now. But as he diversifies, because he's a young talent and is only truly breaking into the scene now with Legacy of the Void, I think he can become invincible.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story said CatZ's proposed change to Swarm Hosts would be to allow a player "to go either Gas or Swarm Hosts." CatZ contacted theScore esports after publication to say that he misspoke, it now specifies he suggests a choice between Infestors and Swarm Hosts. We regret any confusion that may have been caused.

Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto currently powering up for the Korean league cross-finals. You can follow him on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

One of the core narratives of StarCraft 2 has always been the non-Korean versus Korean dynamic. The rapid growth of a mainstream, parallel scene outside of Korea upon release in 2010 allowed for a ready-made “us versus them” narrative.

While this narrative has provided a lot of hype and left a huge mark on the very language of the game (the coveted title of “Best Foreigner,” for example), it also has shown the narrative weakness of the non-Korean scene. While Korean fans can look forward to personal rivalries and team allegiances, any of these elements in the foreign scene have always been overshadowed by the attractiveness of the Korean versus non-Korean storyline. The foreign scene has often viewed itself only in relation to the Korean scene, not as its own entity.

Prior to WCS region-locking in 2015, the only foreigners worth caring about, in most people's opinions, were those that could beat Koreans. Korean dominance was so strong that Sen was the only non-Korean to win a Premier title in two full years in 2013 and 2014, on his home turf in Taiwan. Most StarCraft fans chose their favorites from among the best of the globe-trotting Koreans, legends like MC, Jaedong, Taeja and Bomber. These Korean players took up a lot of “narrative ground” in the foreign scene.

That all changed after WCS became region-locked in 2015. The few remaining Koreans, notably Polt and Hydra, continued to dominate the region, but they were no longer fan favourites. In fact, their role transformed into full-fledged spoilers, even villains. Fans rediscovered or chose new favorites among the non-Korean competitors, though the “best foreigner” idea remained as important as ever, as it will for the foreseeable future. Lilbow’s finalist placement in Season 2 and the ecstasy of his victory in Season 3 were watershed moments for the scene.

The “hard” region-locking of 2016 took it one step further. Not only was WCS region-locked, but it now included the major weekend tournaments (mainly DreamHack and IEM) that had been Koreans’ bread and butter in the past.

It's a matter of debate whether there is a direct connection between this "harder" region-locking and a rise in foreigner's skill. But because of this decrease in the skill gap, the Korean versus foreigner narrative has been fading over the past year of play. Crucially, its clear that Polt, Hydra, viOLet and TRUE are beatable, and so beating them has become less important. Far less thought goes into wondering about the strengths of the Korean contingent, and far more narrative worth is invested into the personal and national rivalries amongst foreigners themselves. It still pays to be skeptical about the skill level of foreigners vis-a-vis KeSPA players, but the scene itself is finally building an identity that is formed less by its opposition to Koreans (ironically perhaps, by banning Koreans) and increasingly by more traditional narratives — personal, team, or nationality-based rivalries.

DreamHack Valencia was the culmination of this process. All the signs are there: the main questions going into Valencia were the strengths of the top players like Nerchio, ShoWTimE, Snute and the HSC XIII champion Harstem. Polt and Hydra were eliminated in the Ro32 and Ro16, respectively (Polt's series against ShoWTimE was one of the best of the tournament). That left a full quarterfinal bracket of only foreigners. There was very little talk of the relative strengths of the WCS Koreans and foreigners.

The narrative hole left by the collapse of the foreigner versus Korean storyline (strictly within the foreign scene) has left the possibility for greater meaning to be given to the various side stories that developed throughout the course of DreamHack Valencia. The hometown hero, VortiX, was defeated by the 14-year old Italian prodigy Reynor, making Reynor into an instant celebrity. Harstem failed to win another title, falling in the open bracket. Neeb once again defeated Hydra in what is becoming a personal rivalry, not one dominated by the Korean/non-Korean theme (as it once was).

MarineLorD made a surprising run to the finals, snatching another chance at a title from arguably WCS' strongest player in 2016, Snute, by upsetting him in the semis. Nerchio avenged his Zerg cousin with a strong 4-0 sweep in the final against the French Terran. It seems appropriate that it would be Nerchio, one of the world’s best foreigners in the last era before KeSPA dominance solidified, who would once more win a title in a now region-locked WCS. Emerging as clearly one of the most skilled non-Koreans upon the release of LotV, he has finally fulfilled his potential.

Finally, it’s telling that the main theme to emerge from DreamHack: Valencia, besides the personal narratives, is the continuing divergence of the foreign meta from Korea. Players like Snute continue to watch Korean VODs religiously, but in an interview after his victory over Bunny, the Norwegian revealed that he thought that Korean Zergs were “doing a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense.”

Snute is referring to the terrible time almost all Zergs in Korea (except perhaps Dark and Rogue) are having against Terrans. The lopsided win rates and persistent feedback led to both a Spore Crawler and Queen anti-air range buff, which players like Snute and Nerchio benefited from in Valencia.

Outside of Korea, though, Zergs are having a field day, just as they have been since the beginning of the year. A quick look at the WCS Circuit Standings shows four Zergs, three Protoss and a single Terran, Polt in the top eight players. A Zerg has been the winner or runner-up of every single Premier WCS tournament so far this year.

Valencia further emphasized Zerg dominance: six out of eight quarterfinalists were Zergs. MarineLorD went 9-0 against Zergs in the playoffs, and was able to smash Snute's style, but he didn’t make a dent in Nerchio’s armor, as the Polish Zerg easily deflected drop harassment and consistently reached Ultralisks relatively unhindered. MarineLorD took a strategic advantage in Game 3 — the best of the series — with an unorthodox two-Starport Banshee build, but strong tactical play and supreme late-game control and decision making netted Nerchio the win. Nerchio joins Hydra as the second Zerg champion this year.

The development of a foreigner-specific meta is the surest sign that the influence of the Korean versus non-Korean idea is waning within the foreign community. Between communities, however, this development opens up another question: what will happen when the two metas clash? A further irony of the fading foreigner versus Korean narrative inside the foreign community is that it might actually the strengthen the narrative in a wider sense.

If the few instances of competition we’ve had between the two communities are to be believed, foreigners are as close in skill to Koreans as they’ve ever been. Snute famously beat Zest 3-0, Neeb swept ByuN 4-0, and Snute just barely lost 3-2 to both ByuN and Solar in the TING Open on Monday.

Whether that competitiveness holds up as we slowly approach the WCS Global Finals is the $500,000 question. With Lilbow's official transition from SC2 to Overwatch, and his last tournament ending in a 3-0 sweep at the hands of Snute, foreign fans had a chance to once again relive the pain of the Frenchman's 3-0 loss to Life at last year's Global Finals. The real test of this year's non-Korean representation — more numerous and, perhaps, more skilled — is whether they can make the foreign scene move on from that moment.

Christian Paas-Lang is an esports journalist from Toronto who is waiting for the return of Jinro, the foreign Terran savior. You can follow him on Twitter.

Copyright © 2016 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Ahead of the WCS Summer Championship, the staff at theScore esports took the opportunity to sit down and predict some of the outcomes of the tournament.

Who will win the WCS Summer Championship?

Christian Paas-Lang: My head and heart say Neeb. It seems like he's been getting more and more comfortable at LANs as the year goes on, and this is his time to really step up. Add that to the fact he's been in Korea and I think he has the edge to win it. My guess is that he'll meet Snute in the final and take the set 4-3.

Simmy Fong: My head says Neeb will win. He’s been so consistent leading up to this tournament, constantly improving and he’s been training in Korea. It would be incredible to see him play against his rival, Hydra, in the finals, but I think it’ll be Neeb taking on viOLet with a 4-2 victory. My heart says that MaSa deserves to finally win a championship and what better place to do it than on home turf.

Connor Dunn: I’ve been a huge Snute fan ever since his amazing series against CJ.herO at IEM Toronto. He’s also coming into this event on a hot streak after defeating recent IEM Shanghai Champion uThermal en route to his first place finish at NEO Star League.

Navneet Randhawa: I think Neeb will win, but my heart says Snute. Although Snute was knocked out of IEM Shanghai during the Round-of-16 to uThermal, he was able to bounce back and win the NSL 2016 International shortly after. But with that said, Neeb's been on the rise for some time now, and I feel like this will be his tournament to shine. The finals will come down to Neeb vs. Snute, and Neeb will take it 4-3.

Who will do the best from each race?

Paas-Lang: Zerg - Snute has a very tough bracket, but has a chance at the finals. His real challenge will be whoever comes out of the top bracket in the semifinals (ShoWTimE, MarineLorD or MaSa) as well as Hydra, but Snute has been so consistent this year that it's hard to bet against him. Ever since WCS switched over to a weekend format, Snute has been crushing it.

Terran - As long as Polt has been practicing, he should be able to take advantage of a relatively easy road to the semifinals, where only SortOf could surprise him.

Protoss - Neeb does the best. Neeb wins. America is great again.

Fong: Zerg - It’s tough for me to pick just one. viOLet had improved a lot going into Shanghai as he defeated the Valencia champion Nerchio in a close 3-2 and just barely fell short of appearing in the Grand Final after losing 3-2 to the eventual champion uThermal. viOLet needs a strong showing here if he wants to go to BlizzCon.

Terran - The easy answer would be the Shanghai champion uThermal, but I predicted Neeb to win the tournament so that wouldn’t work. On the other side of the bracket we have MaSa who time and time again finds a way to impress me in these stacked tournaments. With no Protoss in his path until potentially the quarterfinals, he has a great chance to place higher than any other Terran at this tournament.

Protoss - Neeb is going to win, what more is there to say?

Dunn: Zerg - It feels like ages ago, but Snute actually took second place at the Winter Championships in Katowice. There’s just no way you can count him out when it comes to going far in an event this size.

Terran - I feel like it’s either Polt or uThermal but with the way the brackets worked out, Polt has a higher chance of going further with uThermal likely having to face Neeb in the Round-of-16.

Protoss - The obvious choice is Neeb. He’s earned the respect of the entire Starcraft community while being known as the strongest foreign Protoss. And with second place finishes at both DreamHack Austin and IEM Shanghai, he’s got the results to back it up.

Randhawa: Zerg - Snute is an A-grade student — he always produces good results, though 2016 has been a blend of second and 3-4th place finishes.

Terran: Polt will probably make it in the quarterfinals or semifinals, but then lose to a foreigner. His preparation will definitely be there, but it won’t be up to speed against his opponents the deeper he gets into the tournament.

Protoss: It’s Neeb! Do I Neeb to say more?

Who will underperform, who will over-perform?

Paas-Lang: I think that even after a strong showing at IEM Shanghai, viOLet will underperform in Montreal. He's strong, but he has a very tough bracket ahead of him and I think MaSa or PtitDrogo has what is takes if Kelazhur doesn't. Similarly, I don't think uThermal can repeat his impressive run from Shanghai.

Polt will over-perform simply because he's been out of the picture for a while (Round-of-32 in Valencia, did not participate in Shanghai), but my real answer is Elazer. I think he has a real shot at the semifinals depending on how strong Polt is right now.

Fong: Polt has been quiet ever since he won the Winter Circuit Championship, placing 3rd-4th in spring, and completely missing in summer. I’m not sure how much he’s been practicing and he hasn’t been streaming nearly as much. I expect him to beat ShaDoWn but he could very well lose in the next round to SortOf.

Hydra has had a mental block going up against Neeb in the past few tournaments, but now that they’re on opposite sides of the bracket we could very well see him tear his way through to the semis.

Dunn: I am expecting Nerchio to perform relatively well (especially after his first place finish at DreamHack Valencia) but unfortunately I just can’t see him getting past either Neeb or uThermal.

Masa is my pick for over-performing. He has to be kicking himself for sleeping in at DreamHack Valencia and missing his matches. Hopefully that will light a fire under the young Terran player and he can show the world what he’s really made of.

Randhawa: Hydra’s last big win was at DreamHack Austin back in May, but since then, he hasn’t been able to perform as well. Neeb took him out 3-1 during the Spring Circuit, and 3-0’d him during DreamHack Valencia and IEM Shanghai respectively. Lucky for Hydra, Neeb is on the opposite side of the bracket. However, I feel that his play won’t be up to par.

We’ve called MaSa the “King in the North” for many years since he wins all of the local Toronto tournaments. This has been a good year for him, so I think his preparation for this event will be that much greater, and he will show us some great games.

Which Canadian will go the farthest?

Paas-Lang: MaSa is the only sensible answer here. He's by far the strongest Canadian this year. He has a long way to go in the upper bracket, but unless Scarlett has come back from Korea with her old strength, I don't see her getting past Nerchio, let alone "literal god" Neeb.

Fong: MaSa desperately needs all the points he can get here to make it to BlizzCon. I think he’s easily the best out of the Canadian players participating and has the strongest drive to make it far in this tournament.

Dunn: If MaSa beats MajOr in the Round of 32, he could easily make it to the Semifinals. Unfortunately I don’t see Scarlett going far, even with the home crowd advantage, just because of the way the bracket turned out.

Randhawa: If MaSa is able to pull it together, he will be the Canadian who will go the furthest. It has been some time since Scarlett has achieved the greatness that was a few years ago, Semper is on the right path, but not quite on the same level as MaSa. So here’s to our Toronto boy MaSa.

Who's a dark horse to watch out for?

Paas-Lang: I feel like I always pick either Serral or Elazer, so this time I'm going to pick another European Zerg, SortOf, who has a very strong run in Shanghai and I feel has a chance to cause a ruckus in the lower bracket.

Fong: Cham made a name for himself at the Spring Circuit Championship surprising many by taking out Bly 3-0 and Jim 3-1 to make it to the quarterfinals. We haven’t heard much from him since but he’s definitely who I would look out for.

Dunn: While MaNa has won several events this season, he has expressed multiple times that he is having a tough time understanding the current meta. Maybe he has found a playstyle that works for him and can fly under the radar coming into this major event.

Randhawa: Katy Perry. But in all seriousness, uThermal. He will definitely beat Serral in the Ro32, but the face-off with Neeb in the Ro16 may prove to be an intense matchup. He did defeat Neeb in the IEM Shanghai finals with an outcome of 4-2, but I really hope Neeb can make it out.

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