
This evening at a press conference in Korea, Blizzard announced the new format of the 2013 World Championship Series, substantially revising how competitive StarCraft 2 works around the world. The restructuring places the US’s Major League Gaming, Europe’s Electronic Sports League, and Korea’s GSL and Starleague inside Blizzard’s overarching WCS. It is a major step toward Blizzard’s longstanding eSports goal of creating a sensible international tournament series that can credibly identify the world’s greatest player.
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Jung “Rain" Yoon Jong (Korean Protoss) is having an amazing year: in his first GSL tournament, he made it to the semifinals, while simultaneously making his way to victory in the very first StarCraft 2 championship in the history of the storied Starleague. He took his win from no less formidable an opponent than one of the world’s top Zerg players, and a GSL champion, DongRaeGu, and he was seeded back into the Code S pools for the newest season.
Now, he’s abruptly dropped out out of the GSL tournament to try his luck at the MLG Fall Championship this weekend, where he’ll have to first play through the open bracket before he can even think about making a run at the title. While it’s certainly not unusual for Korean pros to take time off from the fiercely competitive Korean tournament scene to work the foreign circuit, league politics make Rain’s decision more fraught with implications.
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It was exactly what professional StarCraft 2 needed after a tumultuous week: a championship-deciding seven game series between the sport’s most successful player and a brilliant newcomer. Each player stared annihilation in the face, and each player had to battle his way back into the series. No matter who won, history would be made. A win for Jung “Mvp" Jong Hyun would give him his fifth Global StarCraft 2 League title, a feat unlikely to be repeated any time soon. On the other side, Lee “Life" Seung Hyun had a chance to walk the Royal Road to its end, becoming the first GSL champion to claim the distinction by winning on his very first appearance in Code S.
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