The last significant pro StarCraft 2 tournament of the year concludes in Long Beach, California on Saturday and Sunday as the North American Star League (NASL) closes out Season 4 with its Grand Finals. Season 4 is down to its quarterfinal round, with star players like Polt, TaeJa, HerO, viOLet, and HyuN still in play for the title.
Sean “Day[9]” Plott will host the event, which begins on Saturday afternoon at 8 PM GMT / 3 PM Eastern with Polt v. Golden. Low-resolution streams will be free at NASL.tv while high-quality streams require the $10 season pass via Twitch, which also gets you access to the VODs and ad-free viewing.
Information about the prize pool is not yet available, although glancing over the history of NASL championship on Team Liquid suggests that the first-place finisher will receive somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000 to $40,000.
Based on IPL5 last weekend, Polt and viOLet look like the strongest contenders coming into the weekend. Kim “ViOLet” Dong Hwan lost the IPL StarCraft tournament to Leenock in an extended series after making his way through the loser’s bracket, a great result under difficult circumstances. Choi “Polt” Seong Hoon came within a game of that IPL Final before getting knocked out by viOLet. As the GSL runner-up, HyuN is another strong contender, but both Polt and viOLet were more consistent last week.
No matter what, though, that bracket should yield up some good games, not least of which will be the best of seven finals at 8 PM Eastern on Sunday.