by: Paul Benson and David Wise
If you close your eyes and imagine the phrase “summer break” and
you’re like me, an image (or two) of sun and vacations comes to mind. I once
spent a summer in upstate New York wakeboarding, playing Diablo 2, and
persuading my friend to do the Ocelot torture scene on the “Extreme”
difficulty.
Collegiate StarLeague players are different – these athletes set their
minds to the game (and their future careers) because they know what is common
sense to all in the industry: e-sports doesn’t take breaks.
Now that the Summer Collegiate Champions has played out to the Round of 16,
we take a moment to look at each group in detail and see how the warriors stack
up against each other as they enter the arena.
Group A:
KawaiiRice
SaroVati
TheoRy
shake
Group A sports serious competition. In StarCraft 2, KawaiiRice (Adrian
Lok-Yin Kwong; University of Washington) is certainly an e-sports veteran but
he’s not alone in this group. SaroVati (Brian Zhao; University of Alberta)
plays for Clarity Gaming. TheoRy (Derek Travisano; Georgia Institute of
Technology) plays for FXO North America. Shake (Justin Griffin; Sage) is the
dark horse of the group, so keep an eye on him.
While the play level of the group should be high - SaroVAti’s impressive
run in Alienware’s Pro-Am tournament (Jan ’13) stands out. He beat ViBe and qxc
to face Grubby in the finals. If you’re a betting man, expect to see him in the
Ro8.
Group B:
Massan
Caliber
hellokitty
Schnitzel
As the most daunting group of the Ro16, Group B will undoubtedly test wills
as well as entertain StarCraft fans. This group boasts the talents of Ohio State’s
Corey “Schnitzel” Schnedl, a Terran who is both deadly and delicious. He looks
to topple CSL powerhouse and ROOT Gaming pro Patrick “Caliber” Coury from the
University of Washington. Also present is Fnatic’s Zifeng “hellokitty” Wang
from the University of Texas at Austin, who posted impressive results at WCS
America and ShoutCraft America. Quantic’s Harry “MaSsan” Cheong from Georgia
Tech finishes off this group of death.
This promises to be a slugfest as only two of these titans can advance to
honor and internet glory in the Ro8.
Group C:
binski
hendralisk
Poo
Tbeezy
I look at the list and thing “Group C is strong, too!” It’s getting so that
you can barely find a strong CSL player that’s not already on a progaming team.
Group C houses two players from Infinity Seven: Binski (Sung-Bin Lee;
University of North Texas) and Tbeezy (Tim Gandioco; University of
California-Davis); but, here we have another two from Complexity: Poo (Alek
Hrycaiko; University of British Columbia) from the Academy, and hendralisk
(Henry Zheng; University of Toronto).
“Alek is a hardworking player,” says Marcus “AGIANTSMURF” Bazan, a team
mate from Complexity Academy. “He's taken up a leadership role as a
player/captain during team leagues this summer. As a player, he has a
play-to-win mindset and refuses to let thoughts of game balance impact his work
ethic.”
With strong votes of confidence to Poo’s dedication over the summer, I’d
look for him to move to the Ro8.
Group D:
Suppy
Abstinence
Isaac
SniXSniPe
Does anyone else Suppy? We at the Collegiate StarLeague sure do! Group D
features Conan “Suppy” Liu from Evil Geniuses as well as his CSL Terran
teammate Alan “Abstinence” Yao whom Suppy recently described as “the second
best player” on the Berkeley squad. Ohio State’s “Isaac” Smith and his cool
Zerg configurations promise to make things interesting in this stacked group.
Also seeking to conquer Group D is University of Houston’s Michael “SniXSniPe”
Niven who will undoubtedly shake things up with his tri-racial proficiency as a
Random pro.
This is must-see StarCraft as some of the best players of the American
scene duke it out for a chance to advance to the Ro8 and a shot at becoming the
last man standing: the CSL Summer Collegiate Champion.
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