| Sport | Starcraft II |
|---|---|
| Founded | October, 2010 |
| Country(ies) | South Korea |
| Most titles | Lim Jae Duk (IMNesTea) and Jeong Jong Hyeon (IMMvp) (Tied with 3 titles) |
| Official website | GomTV.net |
GOMTV Global Starcraft II League (GSL) is a StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty tournament hosted by GomTV and Blizzard Entertainment in South Korea. There is an English stream available for non-Korean viewers. The tournament features two leagues, Code S (major) and Code A (minor). Code S and other major events are casted by Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski and Nick "Tasteless" Plott, whereas Code A has a series of rotating commentators and is currently being casted by "Wolf" Schröder. [1][2] The event is broadcasted Monday to Friday on GomTV, with the regular individual leagues occurring Monday to Wednesday, and the GOMTV Global Starcraft II Team League on Thursday and Friday.[3]
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Major League Gaming and GOMTV have announced a player exchange program between the tournaments. MLG will invite and provide travel for four Korean players every tournament and the players will be seeded directly into Championship pool. Starting from MLG Anaheim 2011 the winner of the tournament is given GSL Code S seed and top three non-Korean players (top four if the winner is Korean) are given Code A seeds. Players may use the GOMTV foreigner house during their stay in Korea.
MLG Columbus 2011 was the first event to see Korean invites. Moon "MMA" Sung Won won the tournament and the other invites finished 2nd, 3rd and 8th. Non-Koreans players accepting Code A seeds were Johan "NaNiWa" Lucchesi, Marcus "ThorZaIN" Eklöf and Jian Carlo "Fenix" Morayra Alejo. They will participate in both GSL August and GSTL August team league. For the team league they will form a team F.United together with players from a Korean pro team WeMadeFox.[4]
It was thought that NaNiwa would have gotten the Code S spot for his second place finish at the national finals at MLG Providence 2011, but it was revealed afterwards that Code S would not have been given out at that event.[5]
The 2010 Open Seasons were the first tournaments for the GSL, featuring three initial events with an overall prize pool of 600 million Korean Won (approximately 500,000 USD) and a prize of 100 million Won for the winner. These attracted worldwide attention as they featured the largest prize pool in the history of e-Sports. [6] The purpose of the Open Seasons was to sort the players into Code S and Code A for the 2011 season. [7]
Sponsorship League is the regular tournament that is held multiple times a year. Code S is the major league and consists of 32 top players in Korea. Winner of Code S is crowned GSL champion. Code A is the minor league of 32 players. Winner of code A qualifies to Code S. Top seven Code A players and bottom eight Code S players participate in Up & Down Matches in groups of five players. Top two of every group qualify to Code S. Code A qualifiers are held before the start of a new season. Only top ranking players (called Code B) in Korean Battle.net server are allowed to participate. Foreign players are allowed to attend qualifiers without meeting the criteria though.
For the 2011 GSL November season, it was announced that the format would be changing to deal with certain issues that have came up in Code S and Code A.[8] A chart was later released that would illustrate the new format. The new format would be a dual tournament format, where players in Code S immediately drop to Code A, and will have to continue playing if they want to get back up to Code S.[9] The new GSL format means that there would no longer be a Code A champion.
The 2012 tour will have the tournament format changed slightly, resulting in a longer season with slight changes with prize money in Code A. Due to the extended season, there will only be 5 GSL tournaments in the year.[10]
The World Championship is a yearly tournament that invites top eight non-Korean players to South Korea to play against the top eight Korean players. This is a two part tournament, the first being a Korea versus the World team tournament, the second being a 16 man single elimination tournament. [11]
The 2012 tour will not have a World Championship event.[12]
Similar to the 2010 Open Seasons, the Super Tournaments are a 64 man tournament featuring a prize pool of 202 million Korean Won. Participants are determined by the total GSL points obtained throughout the year. [13]
The 2012 tour will not have a Super Tournament event.[14]
The Arena of Legends are a special tournament series that are only available to premium users. They are generally online tournaments as opposed to the offline ones of the standard GSL. The first one featured four invited representatives of each race that was broadcasted throughout the month of September 2011 on Saturdays and Sundays.[15] Another Arena of Legends tournament was announced on November 2nd, 2011 called the Team Ace Invitational featuring two players from each team battling it out to see who is the strongest ace.[16] The third Arena of Legends tournament was announced on December 27th 2011 called "Arena of Legends: King of Kong", featuring all of the non-champion runner up players from previous GSL tournaments.[17] A "Kong" is Korean for a pea, and refers to Hong Jin-Ho, a Brood War legend who was famous for getting second place.
The top 10 players of the year will compete in an epic tournament to decide the best player of the year in a two phase event including a group stage and a playoff stage. The 2011 event featured the top 5 players in terms of GSL ranking and champions of other events such as MLG, Blizzcon and World Cyber Games 2011 and more.[18]
This is a list of all major GSL tournaments. They are considered equal by GOMTV and the winner of any of these tournaments is called a GSL champion.
| Year | Name of Tournament | Winner | Result of Final | Runner-Up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | TG-Intel STARCRAFT II Open Season1 | Kim "FruitDealer" Won Gi (TSL) (Zerg) | 4 - 1 | Kim "Rainbow" Sung Je (ST) (Terran) |
| 2010 | Sony Ericsson STARCRAFT II Open Season2 | Lim "NesTea" Jae Duk (IM) (Zerg) | 4 - 3 | Lee "MarineKing" Jung Hoon (Prime) (Terran) |
| 2010 | Sony Ericsson STARCRAFT II Open Season3 | Jang "MC" Min Chul (oGs) (Protoss) | 4 - 1 | Park "Rain" Seo Yong (TSL) (Terran) |
| 2011 | Sony Ericsson Global StarCraft II League Jan. | Jeong "Mvp" Jong Hyeon (IM) (Terran) | 4 - 0 | Lee "MarineKing" Jung Hoon (Prime) (Terran) |
| 2011 | 2nd Generation Intel Core Global Starcraft II League Mar. | Jang "MC" Min Chul (oGs) (Protoss) | 4 - 1 | Park "July" Sung Joon (ST) (Zerg) |
| 2011 | LG Cinema 3D World Championship Seoul | Jeong "Mvp" Jong Hyeon (IM) (Terran) | 4 - 2 | Lee "MarineKing" Jung Hoon (Prime) (Terran) |
| 2011 | LG Cinema 3D Global StarCraft II League May | Lim "NesTea" Jae Duk (IM) (Zerg) | 4 - 0 | Song "InCa" Joon Hyuk (oGs) (Protoss) |
| 2011 | LG Cinema 3D GSL Super Tournament | Choi "Polt" Sung Hoon (Prime) (Terran) | 4 - 0 | Moon "MMA" Sung Won (SlayerS) (Terran) |
| 2011 | Pepsi Global StarCraft II League July | Lim "NesTea" Jae Duk (IM) (Zerg) | 4 - 0 | Hwang "LosirA" Kang Ho (IM) (Zerg) |
| 2011 | Pepsi Global StarCraft II League August | Jeong "MVP" Jong Hyeon (IM) (Terran) | 4 - 1 | Kim "TOP" Jung Hoon (oGs) (Terran) |
| 2011 | Sony Ericsson Global Starcraft II League Oct. | Moon "MMA" Sung Won (SlayerS) (Terran) | 4 - 1 | Jeong "Mvp" Jong Hyeon (IM) (Terran) |
| 2011 | Sony Ericsson Global Starcraft II League Nov. | Jung "jjakji" Ji-Hoon (NSHoSeo) (Terran) | 4 - 2 | Lee "Leenock" Dong-Nyung (FXO) (Zerg) |
| Regular Season | World Championship | Super Tournament | Blizzard Cup | Open Season |
There will be no more Code A champions due to the format change in 2011 GSL November.
| Year | Name of Tournament | Winner | Result of Final | Runner-Up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Sony Ericsson Global StarCraft II League Jan. | Kim "TOP" Jung Hoon (oGs) (Terran) | 4 - 3 | Byun "Byun" Hyun Woo (ZeNex) (Terran) |
| 2011 | 2nd Generation Intel Core Global Starcraft II League Mar. | Hwang "LosirA" Kang Ho (IM) (Zerg) | 4 - 3 | Kim "SuperNoVa" Young Jin (oGs) (Terran) |
| 2011 | LG Cinema 3D Global StarCraft II League May | Choi "Bomber" Ji Sung (ST) (Terran) | 4 - 2 | Jeong "MVP" Jong Hyeon (IM) (Terran) |
| 2011 | Pepsi Global StarCraft II League July | Kim "Puzzle" Sang-Joon (ZeNEX) (Protoss) | 4 - 2 | Kim "Tassadar" Jung Hoon (NSHoSeo) (Protoss) |
| 2011 | Pepsi Global StarCraft II League August | Kim "GanZi" Dong Ju (SlayerS) (Terran) | 4 - 3 | Lee "MarineKing" Jung Hoon (Prime) (Terran) |
| 2011 | Sony Ericsson Global StarCraft II League Oct. | Lee "Curious" Won Pyo (ST) (Zerg) | 4 - 0 | Kim "Oz" Hak Soo (FXO) (Protoss) |
Champions of special tournaments are not considered GSL Champions.
| Year | Name of Tournament | Winner | Result of Final | Runner-Up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | GomTV All-Stars Invitational 2010 | Han "Kyrix" Joon (Zenith) (Zerg) | 2 - 0 | Lee "MarineKing" Jung Hoon (Prime) (Terran) |
| 2011 | Arena of Legends | Lee "MarineKing" Jung Hoon (Prime) (Terran) | 4 - 1 | Park "DongRaeGu" Soo Ho (MVP) (Zerg) |
| 2011 | Arena of Legends: Team Ace Invitational | Jeong "MVP" Jong Hyeon (IM) (Terran) | 3 - 2 | Kim "GanZi" Dong Ju (SlayerS) (Terran) |
| 2011 | Blizzard Cup | Moon "MMA" Sung Won (SlayerS) (Terran) | 4 - 3 | Park "DongRaeGu" Soo Ho (MVP) (Zerg) |
| 2012 | Arena of Legends: King of Kong | TBD | TBD | TBD |
GOMTV Global Starcraft II Team League (GSTL) is a StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty tournament hosted by GomTV and Blizzard Entertainment in South Korea. The GSTL focuses on team play to see which is the best team. The GSTL is broadcasted on Thursday and Friday, whereas the GOMTV Global Starcraft II League is broadcasted on Monday to Wednesday.[20]
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