Starleague

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Starleague refers to professional StarCraft championships matches currently run by Ongamenet in South Korea.

1 History of Starleague
2 League Champions
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History of Starleague

Starleague started out as a program in Tooniverse, following the immense popularity of StarCraft in Korea, and the success of broadcast-gaming on other Korean channels. In 2000, Starleague was spun off into a gaming-dedicated channel, OnGameNet.

Starleague started out modestly, with a small prize sum and a few cult followers. In its seven-year history, it has evolved into a major "sport" in Korea, with more viewers than most professional sports. Recently in the related Proleague finals, 120,000 fans came out to watch the match between SK Telecom T1 and KTF Magic N's. Finals for Starleague now regularly attract more than 50,000 fans, and viewed nationwide on television by millions. Famous gamers like Lim Yo Hwan (Boxer) have more than 500,000 registered fans. Progamers are organized into teams supported by major Korean firms, and prizes, contracts, and endorsements are now huge in comparison to even 3 or 4 years ago.

Starleague started to attract major attention with the rise of the "Boxer Terran" in the HanbitSoft Starleague in 2001. Professional gamer Lim Yo Hwan swept the scene with a 3:0 victory against Jang Jin Nam, using a rare race at the time (Terran) and using the Terran dropship. Boxer continued to win the next league, Coca-Cola Starleague, and end up 2nd to Garimto in the 2001 Sky Starleague. By this time, first-prize was 20,000,000 Korean Won, about USD 20,000.

Starleague became so popular that it began to attract several foreign players, including Elky (Bertrand Grospellier ) from France and Grrrr... (Guillaume Patry) from Canada. In 2005, Australia had its first entry in the form of Hieu. He went 1-2, beating Lee Yun-Yeol in the first round and losing the next two matches. New Zealand also had its first contestant inthe form of NauticalCommand (Mark). He also went 1-2.

Starleague started to gain its own "color" with the 2003 MyCube Starleague, with a distinctive red, black, and white emblem and a much more polished opening CG movie. Prize money by this time was more than double the amount in the 2001 Coca-Cola championships, and regular games started to attract more people, with a refurbishing of the Ongamenet studio.

In the start of 2003, with the rise of progaming teams and their popularity, Ongamenet decided to create a spin-off of the Starleague, simply named 'Proleague', in which pro teams play against each other for the championship title, these proleagues go at least twice as long as a normal Starleague.

[edit] League Champions

1999 ProGamer's Korea Open: Choi Jin Woo (ESC Net) 3-2 Kook Ki Bong (Lime I&C)
2000 Hanaro Telecom Tooniverse Starleague: Gillaume Patry (U2U4) 3-2 Kang Do Kyung (SM)
2000 Freechall OnGameNet Starleague: Kim Dong Su (SM)3-0 Bong Jun Gu (Hanaro Telecom)
2001 HanbitSoft OnGameNet Starleague: Lim Yo Hwan (IS) 3-0 Jang Jin Nam (KISS)
2001 Coca-Cola OnGameNet Starleague: Lim Yo Hwan (IS) 3-2 Hong Jin Ho (Gamei)
2001 SKY OnGameNet Starleague: Kim Dong Su (Hanbit) 3-2 Lim Yo Hwan (IS)
2002 NATE OnGameNet Starleague: Byun Gil Sub (Hanbit) 3-1 Kang Do Kyung (Hanbit)
2002 SKY OnGameNet Starleague: Park Jung Seok (Hanbit) 3-1 Lim Yo Hwan (IS)
2002 Panasonic OnGameNet Starleague: Lee Yun Yeol (KTF) 3-0 Cho Yong Ho (SOUL)
2003 Olympus OnGameNet Starleague: Seo Ji Hun (GO) 3-2 Hong Jin Ho (KTF)
2003 MyCube OnGameNet Starleague: Park Yong Wook (Orion) 3-1 Kang Min (GO)
2003 NHN Hangame OnGameNet Starleague: Kang Min (GO) 3-1 Chun Tae Kyu (KOR)
2004 Gillette Starleague: Park Sung Jun (POS) 3-1 Park Jung Seok (KTF)
2004 EVER Starleague: Choi Yeon-Sung (SKT) 3-2 Lim Yo Hwan (SKT)
2004 IOPS Starleague: Lee Yun Yeol (PANTECH) 3-0 Park Sung Jun (POS)
2005 EVER Starleague: Park Sung Jun (POS) 3-2 Lee Byung Min (PANTECH)
2005 So1 Starleague: Oh Young Jong (PLUS) 3-2 Lim Yo Hwan (SKT)
2005 Shinhan Bank Starleague: Choi Yeon-Sung 3-0 Park Sung Jun (POS)
2006 Shinhan Bank Starleague Season 1: Han Dong Wook (OnGameNet) 3-1 Cho Yong Ho (KTF)
2006 Shinhan Bank Starleague Season 2: Lee Yun Yeol (PANTECH) 3-2 Oh Young Jong (LeCaf)
2006 Shinhan Bank Starleague Season 3: Ma Jae Yoon(CJ) 3-1 Lee Yun Yeol (PANTECH)