Pre eStars Blog

On NGL...
Season coming to an end, and my Top 8 rank is all but secured. I'm still pretty curious as to how the NGL ONE finals are going to be looking. As far as I know, no one really knows where it's going to be held, how the system is going to be, and which date it's going to be on. I kinda feel like such things should be announced when a league commences, not when it's drawing to a close. It was a good experience so far, with a LOT of games man! We've never played anything of this length before, so I hope it will have a beautiful finale.

On eStars...
I'll be flying on the 21st to Seoul, where we'll make our way to the hotel. Arriving on the 22nd is one day earlier than the default day, and I like to do that to accommodate a little to the time zone. The drawback of course is having one day less of practice at home, but I hope the improved adjustment to the environment is going to beneficially outweigh the reduced practice. In the past, I've tried to do the same - having a bit of rest - and I would say it's helped me.

Let me make you guys a bit excited about the tournament.
It's going to have a few different formats. I'm reserving the right to make any mistakes, but I feel like I got it pegged down quite well :P

24 July - Continental Cup
The tournament starts on the 24th of July. It's Seoul, South-Korea, so keep in mind the time zone difference (it's +7 hours to CEST, +13 hours to EST and +16 hours to PST).
First thing that's going to happen is the Continental Cup. This is where we're going to see East vs West in a combined might of WC3 + CS. That's HasuObs, Lucifron and me against Fly, Moon and Lyn.

We'll play two formats.

1. First one is "Line-up" á la WC3L. There's 3 maps, namely EI, SV and TM. We each seed 1 of our players per map, and play a Best-of-One. The team with 2 or more points, wins 1 point for their Continent.
2. Second one is "Winner stays". There are 5 maps, all of which will be played in sequence. You seed a starting player against the other starting player, and the winner stays. First one to eliminate all the players from the other team, wins. In doing so, 1 point will be granted to the team's Continent.

The maps for "Winner stays" are SV -> TR -> TS -> TM -> EI.

Counter-Strike will likely maintain the same format, except they will do their dirty work with ugly guns while we use stylish axes.

In the event that both continents obtain 2 points, a tie-breaker will be played in Counter-Strike.

25 July - King of the Game
On the second day, the solo tournament will kick off. All 6 players will play in a Round Robin Best-of-One format. My maps and playing order is as follows:

1. Grubby - Fly100% @ Turtle Rock
2. Grubby - Lyn @ Twisted Meadows
3. Grubby - Moon @ Terenas Stand
4. Grubby - HasuObs @ Secret Valley
5. Grubby - LucifroN @ Echo Isles

3 points will be granted to the winner of a match, and 0 to the loser. In case of equal points between two players, a rematch will always be played between them.

The same map pool will also be used for Stage II, which is played on the 3rd and last day of the eStars tournament.

26 July - King of the Game
The top 4 from the Round Robin will place themselves for the Semi Finals. The first ranked dude will play the fourth ranked dude.

1 vs 4
2 vs 3

It's single Elimination Best-of-Three, so there'll be a finals and a 3rd place decider.

Of course, there'll also be the Heritage Starcraft Tournament, so there's plenty to watch for everyone. I hope the coverage'll be good.

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And on the 27th, it'll be travel day again as we fly back home.

That's all for now, I've finished my practice, wrote my blog now, just gotta get packed, get some sleep, bring all I need to bring and it'll be showtime once again! I'm so excited, I can hardly wait :D