GSL Season 2 - First Impressions

Another season of the GSL Starcraft II Open is upon us and with it comes another $90,000 USD(approx) grand prize for the winner. Oh, did I mention the tournament was even better this time around? It is.

GOMtv has gone to great lengths to improve the production value of this tournament is quite a number of ways, paying special attention to areas that viewers had been whining concerned about during the first season. Did they smooth out all the wrinkles? I'll give my view beyond the break.

GOMtv Starcraft II Team Invitational

When you're having people over to your house for a fancy dinner, you want to make sure everything's in order before they get there. And if you happen to be having say.. thousands of people over to watch 64 of the best players in the world square off in Blizzard's Starcraft II, then that need for preparation is all the more urgent. This is exactly why GOMtv is holding a short(4 day) tournament for the biggest Starcraft II teams in Korea from October 13-16, 2010.

That's right, as a dry run to test the limits of their improved streaming service, GOMtv is hosting a full-blown tournament that anyone can watch... FOR FREE. Details follow the break.

Patch 1.2: Upcoming Zerg Changes

So it seems Blizzard has not forgotten about the ravenous horde of Zerg players entirely. Dustin Browder(lead designer of Starcraft II) posted some changes he intends to make next patch, along with some interesting numbers that go a long way to show how deep Blizzard is looking into balance issues.

Where I'm coming from

I didn't think I would like Starcraft 2.

I played Starcraft, the original, for a total of a day when it launched and dismissed it as a Warcraft II clone with lasers instead of swords. I didn't particularly like WC2 either, other than the occasional multiplayer with friends. Perhaps I wasn't at the right point in my life to appreciate RTS games or perhaps I simply had other things to do. I don't really know.

After being addicted to WoW since its vanilla release but eventually souring to it after playing the WotLK expansion, I hungered for something new and different. Enter Starcraft 2.

Engaging, with enough story to keep me interested, and most importantly, missions that rarely able to be reduced to "build your base. kill the enemy base.". Admittedly, the zerg colonies would usually die in the process, but that is very rarely the central purpose of the missions. This was one of my hang ups about earlier RTS games.

So that is where I come from. Here is where I am right now. I have completed the single player campaign on Normal(yeah, I know, big achievement) and am now pushing through it again on Brutal with an eye on getting achievements. I am becoming more and more engrossed with league play, even though I am sitting at #29 in my Bronze-level division, but I am learning.

I'll be venting my frustrations about my matches, my thoughts on the game, and keeping updates on where I am in the battle.net ladder, so if that interests you, keep coming back. If not, well, you can still keep coming back.