Starleague (Ongamenet)
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Starleague refers to professional StarCraft championships matches currently run by Ongamenet in South Korea.
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[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 other 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 ended 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.
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 FreeMura Jin Woo (ESC Net) 3-2 Kook TheBoy Ki Bong (Lime I&C)
- 2000 Hanaro Telecom Tooniverse Starleague: Guillaume XD's~Grrrr... Patry (U2U4) 3-2 Kang H.O.T.-Forever Do Kyung (SM)
- 2000 Freechall OnGameNet Starleague: Kim GARIMTO Dong Su (SM)3-0 Bong SKELTON Jun Gu (Hanaro Telecom)
- 2001 HanbitSoft OnGameNet Starleague: Lim SlayerS_'BoxeR' Yo Hwan (IS) 3-0 Jang Jinnam Jin Nam (KISS)
- 2001 Coca-Cola OnGameNet Starleague: Lim SlayerS_'BoxeR' Yo Hwan (IS) 3-2 Hong [NC]...YellOw Jin Ho (Gamei)
- 2001 SKY OnGameNet Starleague: Kim GARIMTO Dong Su (Hanbit) 3-2 Lim SlayerS_'BoxeR' Yo Hwan (IS)
- 2002 NATE OnGameNet Starleague: Byun Sync Gil Sub (Hanbit) 3-1 Kang H.O.T.-Forever Do Kyung (Hanbit)
- 2002 SKY OnGameNet Starleague: Park [Oops]Reach Jung Seok (Hanbit) 3-1 Lim SlayerS_'BoxeR' Yo Hwan (IS)
- 2002 Panasonic OnGameNet Starleague: Lee [ReD]NaDa Yun Yeol (KTF) 3-0 Cho ChOJJaYong Ho (SOUL)
- 2003 Olympus OnGameNet Starleague: Seo XellOs[yG] Ji Hun (GO) 3-2 Hong [NC]...YellOw Jin Ho (KTF)
- 2003 MyCube OnGameNet Starleague: Park KingdOm Yong Wook (Orion) 3-1 Kang Nal_rA Min (GO)
- 2003 NHN Hangame OnGameNet Starleague: [[Kang Nal_rA Min]] (GO) 3-1 Chun Zeus Tae Kyu (KOR)
- 2004 Gillette Starleague: Park JulyZerg Sung Jun (POS) 3-1 Park [Oops]Reach Jung Seok (KTF)
- 2004 EVER Starleague: Choi iloveoov Yeon-Sung (SKT) 3-2 Lim SlayerS_'BoxeR' Yo Hwan (SKT)
- 2004 IOPS Starleague: Lee [ReD]NaDa Yun Yeol (PANTECH) 3-0 Park JulyZerg Sung Jun (POS)
- 2005 EVER Starleague: Park JulyZerg Sung Jun (POS) 3-2 Lee GoodFrienD Byung Min (PANTECH)
- 2005 So1 Starleague: Oh AnyTime..[gm] Young Jong (PLUS) 3-2 Lim SlayerS_'BoxeR' Yo Hwan (SKT)
- 2005 Shinhan Bank Starleague: Choi iloveoov Yeon-Sung 3-0 [[Park JulyZerg Sung-Joon|Park Sung Jun]] (POS)
- 2006 Shinhan Bank Starleague Season 1: Han iOi[aLive] Dong Wook (OnGameNet) 3-1 Cho ChOJJa Yong Ho (KTF)
- 2006 Shinhan Bank Starleague Season 2: Lee [ReD]NaDa Yun Yeol (PANTECH) 3-2 Oh AnyTime..[gm] Young Jong (Lecaf OZ)
- 2006 Shinhan Bank Starleague Season 3: Ma sAviOr[gm] Jae-Yoon (CJ) 3-1 Lee [ReD]NaDaYun Yeol (PANTECH)
- 2007 Daum Starleague Season 1: Kim GGPlay Jun Young (Hanbit) 3-2 Byun Iris[gm] Hyung Tae (CJ Entus)
- 2007 EVER Starleague: Lee n.Die_JaedOng Je Dong (Lecaf OZ) 3-1 Song Stork[gm] Byung Gu (Samsung KHAN)
- 2008 Bacchus Starleague: Lee FlaSh Yeong Ho (KTF MagicNs) 3-0 SongStork[gm] Byung Gu (Samsung KHAN)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- OnGameNet http://www.ongamenet.com
- MBCGame http://www.mbcgame.co.kr
- FighterForum http://www.fighterforum.com
- Fomos http://www.fomos.kr
- Starleague Results & standings
- TLPD: Overview of all Starleagues & matches
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