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Starcraft: The Korean Dynasty Continues

By: Lucas Bigham - Published October 08, 2007 at 1:31 PM EDT - Writer Archive
For the seventh year in a row the country of South Korea has managed to secure a gold medal in Starcraft at the World Cyber Games grand finals
In the future when we look back at WCG 2007 most of us will remember the two words controversy and upsets. These two simple words sum up the Starcraft tournament rather nicely as well.

Among the many Starcraft fans, the upsets of day one were only a beginning of what we were to observe in the latter part of the tournament. Fan favorites were being eliminated and relative unknowns were advancing. Even the two Americans, who were playing on their own turf failed to advance past the group stages.

With day one in the books it would now be time for day two. Unlike in the first day, all of the Koreans and a majority of the more famous non-Koreans were set to compete. While all three of them did advance to single elimination play, not all of them of Korean team ended undefeated. Jae Yoon "sAviOr[gm]" Ma and Byung Goo "Stork[gm]" Song managed to both lose once during the group stages preventing them from finishing in first place in their groups.

Following sAviOr’s first loss against Mondragon, local news crews bombarded the German for a television interview realizing that a professional gamer losing was a big deal.

During the tiebreaker in Group F, Byung Goo "Stork[gm]" Song, one of the Korean representatives was caught using an illegal bug during his game against the Russian Vakhtang "iP.Ex" Zakiev. Whether he knew this bug was illegal or not, he was caught by an observer who swiftly notified the referees. For what seemed like eternity, the referees came to the decision for them to replay the match, but not without the international media getting their fair share of coverage.

Even after the first two days of play the upsets were not even near over. In one of the most surprising results of the entire year, one of the heavy favorites Jae Yoon "sAviOr[gm]" Ma was defeated not by a Korean, but by a foreigner. The Chinese representative Jun Chun "WE.Pj" Sha even managed to take the giant down in his best match up. This match alone was enough to put the observer’s on-hand in shock and erupt and forum threads.

By this point, the non-Koreans had a glimpse of hope. Could 2007 be the year that South Korea, for the first time in World Cyber Games history fail to receive a gold medal? We would find out in the semi-finals.

In the first match of the semi-finals the Korean quickly defeated the German Christoph "ToT)Mondragon(" Semke with aggressive play and near flawless micro.

The second match of the semi-finals would be between the Chinese representative Jun Chun "WE.Pj" Sha and the last hope for Europe Aleks "MYM.White-Ra" Krupnick from Ukraine. In three very intense matches Pj was able to overcome White-Ra in Protoss versus Protoss.

For the third time in history a Korean would face a non-Korean in the finals match. Statistically, the Koreans have yet to lose a series in the finals. This year would be no different. Stork was able to keep the streak going be defeating Pj with a 2-0 score.

For the seventh time in a row South Korea has won the gold medal in Starcraft. This is an achievement that no country has even come close to matching in one certain game.

Will the dominance of South Korea continue into 2008 or will Germany mark the place where a gold medal is taken away? We will just have to wait and find out in Cologne.

User Comments

1
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So, what was the illegal bug that Stork used?
2
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#1 Observer over turret (during building phase) makes the turrent unable to attack it.
#afterwind all day
3
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Who cares they replayed it and he defeated him.
Go Read a Book =)
4
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Who cares its starcraft
5
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#4

Only a couple million Koreans and anyone who expects to play SC2? Seriously, SC matches blow everything else out of the water. Dj Wheat was even heard saying it in the background during one of the breaks.

Unfortunately none of the matches all tournament long were very exciting so SC noobs couldn't catch a glimpse of just how great the game can be.

Prediction for 2008: The Koreans actually practice the WCG maps and take 1, 2, 3. :x
6
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#4 is an idiot, #5 has it, and DAMN your REALLY think the koreans needed to CHEAT to win?!?!? LOL

Although savior whiffed hard.

This comment was edited at 10/08/2007 3:38 PM
For all your nerd/hobby/info needs: http://cigsandwich.blogspot.com/
7
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Even though sAviOr has definitely been vulnerable to corsair/DT harrass, his downfall was really his own sloppy mistakes rather than Pj's pressure, which wasn't close to the same level as Bisu's. sAviOr lost 2-3 unused hatcheries simply because he didn't cancel them in time when Pj made an attack and losing that 1 hatchery to a lone DT is inexcusable.

Furthermore, he lost an absolutely absurd amount of ovies to simple stuff like cannons and storms, not even corsair pressure. I've never seen him manage his drops even close to that badly and he didn't even use multiple fronts like he usually does when he drops.

The real question is what was sAviOr whiffing the night before? :x
8
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nt pj
9
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meh koreans will probably win it again next year
TRANCEaddict ♪~( ̄。 ̄) nemo me impune lacessit #925ballaz
10
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If only people realised that Starcraft and Warcraft are two of the main stream games in Korea. There are even 3-4 TV channels solely dedicated to games in Korea, majority of the time showing starcraft matches, so you have to understand how much of a controversy it is for them when things don't go their way.

This comment was edited at 10/08/2007 8:03 PM
11
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Starcraft might be the most skill-based game ever. For competitive play it's pretty much perfect.

But I could understand how it'd be boring as hell to watch if you don't know what's going on. I've never played Warcraft and don't care to ever watch any of those WC3 matches.
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind. -Einstein
12
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Koreans > Starcraft
13
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if you watch these people play live, behind them... you realize what true skill in a video game is.. funny when people flame starcraft lol
// #flawless //
14
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#11 See, that's why I think SC is so much better than WC3. I know a lot of non-RTS players who saw a few matches at Blizzcon and thought it was awesome and exciting, even without understanding why the spitting things just exploded into a pile of blood and cartilage.

The problem with WC3 is that stuff takes too long to die. >.>
15
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So true #13, should take a look at their machine hands in battles, MICRO AT ITS FINEST!
blbk
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gotta love the koreans, been there before and watched a few starcraft matches on TV LOL but geeez Seoul esports capital of the world easily gotta respect these koreans they work so hard to be at the top of their chosen game
17
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Warcraft 3 is not popular game in Korea. but.. SC ...is..

This comment was edited at 10/09/2007 12:45 AM
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not surprising
yo
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Its mad skills I tell you...
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Nerds.
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#5 "Dj Wheat was even heard saying it in the background during one of the breaks. "

LOL who cares if that lamer said it? he doesn't know jack sh*t about competitive gaming, worst match caster ever
22
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#4 has a list of his programs in his gf profile LoL
23
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Warcraft 3 and Starcraft shouldn't really be compared.. one is about microing and one is about macroing.
Snape Kills Planes
24
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#23 Not really. Starcraft > Warcraft 3 in micro and macro.
25
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"Statistically, the Koreans have yet to lose a series in the finals" did anyone lol at that comment?

Why did he say statistically? Dunno why I thought it was funny
It might be a Tumour, IT'S NOT A TUMOUR!!
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#25 because there were korean-korean finals so some koreans DID lose
Thundercats vs e-lemonaders @ CPL2007, following the tradition of great CPL matchups
27
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If 2008 is played with SC:BW then no.

More and more euro players are slowing down their practice scheduals because SC2 is on the horizon
This was most likely the last shot a non korean had to upset South Korea in SC:BW.
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well what do you expect... starcraft to the koreans is world of warcraft to us
=====

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