Howdy doody!
Well, Blizzcon was on the other night and in case you missed it there was some pretty good announcements made! There was also playable versions of the new Diablo 3 expansion, Reaper of Souls and Heroes of the Storm a Blizzard take on League of Legends/DotA and a Hearthstone competition.. but for this post I'm going to focus on the Blizzcon WCS Grand Finals!
Let me start off by saying how good the overall production/competition was at the blizzcon finals. As someone who hasn't been keeping too up to date with the professional Starcraft scene for some time, it sparked that glimmer of enjoyment and threw me from watching it passively into me being an avid watcher and I found myself watching the entire tournament(picking the matches I found most interesting from the two streams available).
I have to give a shout-out to all the host/casters because without their animated commentary, it would have been a much duller affair. The list of casters was rather huge, with the biggest names in the industry there to give their expert analysis - Day[9], Tasteless, Artosis, RotterdaM, Mr Bitter, , Apollo. I also loved the fact that when they weren't casting they were at the analysis desk with good old DJWheat, iNcontroL and ToD giving their thoughts about the matches that were going on. I also have to say that ReDeYe and Chobra did a great job, their hosting has become a welcome mainstay of the WCS competitions in my view.
As has been said before, there was a distinct lack of Zerg players in the finals and as a zerg lover myself I found it easy to get behind the two players who had succeeded where so many had not. Those two also happen to be veritable giants in the race; Woongjin_Soulkey and EG.Jaedong.
It would be easy for me to discount the other amazing players who showcased their skill in an attempt to become the worlds best player of Starcraft 2. Such players as Acer.INnoVation, ST_Bomber, sk_mc, MaruPrime and [A]NaNiwa.. to name but a few. Maybe it was the fact that it kicked off right after an amazing opening ceremony, I found myself enthralled and unable to not pay attention as the first game of the show kicked off and it was a Terran Vs Terran, perhaps one of the most uninteresting matches for me to watch.
There were numerous upsets throughout the tournament, which is always nice! Now I say upsets like that because as with any tournament there are players who are expected to do very well in the competition and those who are not. Technically though there shouldn't be too many players who are at a lower skill cap in the Blizzcon Grand Finals.
However, with that all said.. when the grand finale was kicking off.. one of my Zerg heroes Jaedong had fought his way to the final to play against the Protoss sOs.. something stirred in me that had long been a part of playing Starcraft 2.. an intense feeling of frustration and possibly helplessness, I think it stands as testament to how well SoS was playing and perhaps also stretching the limits of my understanding of the match-up, Protoss Vs Zerg.
Again, I have to say that I don't think the finals were bad at all, the level of skill shown in all the games was unreal and a lot of the time had be gawking at the screen with an unbelieving look pasted on my face. But it left me with a bad taste in my mouth and caused me to immediately switch over to watch something else when it was over.
Ah well.. What was the highlight of Blizzcon for you? Let me know your thoughts!
Ciao for now!
Well, Blizzcon was on the other night and in case you missed it there was some pretty good announcements made! There was also playable versions of the new Diablo 3 expansion, Reaper of Souls and Heroes of the Storm a Blizzard take on League of Legends/DotA and a Hearthstone competition.. but for this post I'm going to focus on the Blizzcon WCS Grand Finals!
Let me start off by saying how good the overall production/competition was at the blizzcon finals. As someone who hasn't been keeping too up to date with the professional Starcraft scene for some time, it sparked that glimmer of enjoyment and threw me from watching it passively into me being an avid watcher and I found myself watching the entire tournament(picking the matches I found most interesting from the two streams available).
I have to give a shout-out to all the host/casters because without their animated commentary, it would have been a much duller affair. The list of casters was rather huge, with the biggest names in the industry there to give their expert analysis - Day[9], Tasteless, Artosis, RotterdaM, Mr Bitter, , Apollo. I also loved the fact that when they weren't casting they were at the analysis desk with good old DJWheat, iNcontroL and ToD giving their thoughts about the matches that were going on. I also have to say that ReDeYe and Chobra did a great job, their hosting has become a welcome mainstay of the WCS competitions in my view.
As has been said before, there was a distinct lack of Zerg players in the finals and as a zerg lover myself I found it easy to get behind the two players who had succeeded where so many had not. Those two also happen to be veritable giants in the race; Woongjin_Soulkey and EG.Jaedong.
It would be easy for me to discount the other amazing players who showcased their skill in an attempt to become the worlds best player of Starcraft 2. Such players as Acer.INnoVation, ST_Bomber, sk_mc, MaruPrime and [A]NaNiwa.. to name but a few. Maybe it was the fact that it kicked off right after an amazing opening ceremony, I found myself enthralled and unable to not pay attention as the first game of the show kicked off and it was a Terran Vs Terran, perhaps one of the most uninteresting matches for me to watch.
There were numerous upsets throughout the tournament, which is always nice! Now I say upsets like that because as with any tournament there are players who are expected to do very well in the competition and those who are not. Technically though there shouldn't be too many players who are at a lower skill cap in the Blizzcon Grand Finals.
However, with that all said.. when the grand finale was kicking off.. one of my Zerg heroes Jaedong had fought his way to the final to play against the Protoss sOs.. something stirred in me that had long been a part of playing Starcraft 2.. an intense feeling of frustration and possibly helplessness, I think it stands as testament to how well SoS was playing and perhaps also stretching the limits of my understanding of the match-up, Protoss Vs Zerg.
Again, I have to say that I don't think the finals were bad at all, the level of skill shown in all the games was unreal and a lot of the time had be gawking at the screen with an unbelieving look pasted on my face. But it left me with a bad taste in my mouth and caused me to immediately switch over to watch something else when it was over.
Ah well.. What was the highlight of Blizzcon for you? Let me know your thoughts!
Ciao for now!
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