The 30th of April was the last day of Dreamhack Austin. We had TRUE looking strong going into the Ro4. He went through the Ro16 going 3-0 over uThermal, he went through the Ro8 going 3-1 over Cham. It was set to be a good series against the tough Nerchio.

Game one started off well. In the early game TRUE was able to get the better end off small speedling and baneling skirmishes. With small leads stacking up, he was able to create an economical lead. He kept at the small skirmishes, a group of burrowed roaches here, a ling run by there. With every moment he was able to create a lead out of nothing. He had more resources in the bank, more bases, yet Nerchio kept up in army supply and upgrades. It all came down to a single engagement that TRUE took magnificently. Better arc, better biles. He took it decisively.

Game two saw a little bit of a curve ball by TRUE. Again, after winning most of the small ling skirmishes, he was able to transition to mutas unbeknownst to Nerchio. He was unable to transition to hydras fast enough and was only able to use spores and a few fungals to defend against the massive muta flock. TRUE was relentless in his attack, completely overwhelming his opponents main base, Nerchio went for a desperate counter-attack and he found the bases completely undefended. TRUE sunk every single resource into mutas, he had no ground army. With the spawning mutas he tried to defend but it wasn’t enough and he called the GG.

After some early speedlings and baneling shenanigans by Nerchio, the game went late. With each player on five bases, on hive with a roach, ravager and infestor army, it became a game of small steps. Responding to an earlier attack, TRUE was able to snipe the evolution chamber researching +3 for Nerchio. His opponent then traded his army for TRUEs’ and both players remaxed to max with roaches and a new round of infestors. Meanwhile, our Zerg was able to saturate a 7th base and with the extra income started to tech up to ultralisks. When his ultras were halfway complete, Nerchio attacked TRUE’s 4th, killing it and most of his opponents army. He backed off only once he saw the 6 ultras that finally hatched. While TRUE tried to counter-attack, his opponent was able to tech up to lurkers and destroy what remained of his opponents army.
Economy devastated and with no army, TRUE GG’d out.

The fourth game was uneventful, after standard openings from both players and some ling/baneling skirmishes here and there, they both went into roach ravager and macroed. From there, TRUE tried an attack into the area between the third and the natural. His army was split in two parts, as the first wave hit, it was sandwiched by a group of roaches and ravagers to the north. The first wave of TRUE’s army lost about half of its forces while it retreated to the other half, the slower ravagers were picked off first and this spelled the beginning of the end. As he retreated back home, he was down a little more than half in army supply. Even at his base, he did not have enough resources or units to push Nerchio back and he sadly typed out GG.

With that, we were out of the tournament. It was still a great event for us.

■ TRUE – finishes 3rd-4th
■ JonSnow – finishes 9th-16th
■ PiLiPiLi – finishes 17th-24th
■ PengWin – finishes Group Stage 1
■ jheffe – finishes Group Stage 1
■ WarreN – finishes Group Stage 1
■ Silky – finishes Group Stage 1
■ sLeet – finishes Group Stage 1

All pictures by Troyseph

On this second day of Dreamhack Austin, we had two players in the Ro16 ; TRUE and JonSnow. [Read Day 1]

The first series to be played out was TRUE vs uThermal. Going into the match, our Korean star was feeling confident, having had a nice run through the 3 bracket stages. He started the games off with a bang. Some early ling pressure gave him just enough breathing room to adequately defend the hellbat pressure follow-up. From there, it was a macro game where he was ahead, granting him the resources to build up to ultralisks and run over his opponent. Game two was similar, the Terran opened like the previous game with a hellbat which was successfully defended by queens and speedlings. It then snowballed into a macro lead, into an army lead and finally into a map win. Game 3 was a whole other story. TRUE wanted to win quickly, so he opened with a 1.5 base roach ravager cheese. While looking promising, it ultimately failed when he walked up his opponents ramp and lost his entire army. Forced to play roach/ravager with some infestor support, our Zerg was able to defend his bases long enough to transition to a ultralisk, crackling and infestor based army. Even despite losing his entire army near the end, with an upgrade lead and economical advantage, TRUE win the 3rd game. In the Ro8, he then faced the ROOT Zerg Cham.

Meanwhile we JonSnow against the ever so frightening Polish Zerg Nerchio. With a best-of-five against such a strong opponent, our american hope had to pull out his best play yet. The series was played on BasetradeTV and sadly it was a quick 0-3 loss for our King of the North. Despite great effort, he was simply outclassed by the his opponent. Finishing top 16 at such a big event is nothing to scoff hmat, we are very happy with such an amazing performance.

In the Ro8, TRUE played against the Mexican Zerg Cham. Hot off a 3-0 against uThermal, our korean zerg was playing his very best. He started off strong with victory, overwhelming his opponent with strong macro and excellent micro when it counted. In the second game, Cham had the best of him with superior opener which gave him the economical lead which translated to an overwhelming push. Despite great harass, TRUE lost the game, but not his spirit. The third game went late. Both players maxed out on a roach, ravager and infestor composition. With a slight economical advantage, TRUE danced around Chams’ army and eventually decided to go for a basetrade instead of defending his fourth. At that moment, TRUE portrayed his superior decision making and split his army just enough to wipe out his opponents 4 bases while protecting his own bases just enough to evacuate a good number of drones. After a few skirmishes TRUE had the superior force and walked over what remained of Cham. Like with uThermal, with a single game to win, he went for a quick speedlight and baneling attack. Through superior micro and better macro, our zerg was able to force Cham into submission.

Watch the final moments of TRUE vs uThermal

In the semi-finals, TRUE will have to face off against either Kelazhur or Nerchio, a tough match no matter who he plays. Yet, with his performance throughout the tournament, it is very possible he can win the series and propel himself into the finals.

His match will be played tomorrow. Don’t miss out on the amazing series to come #GoPSISTORM

Day one of Dreamhack Austin concluded not too long ago. 6 players went into the First Stage with hopes of defeating strong opponents.
We had PengWin, WarreN and sLeet, TRUE, jheffe and silky competing in the hopes of advancing until the playoffs.

After three hours of intense games, the competition was whittled down from 64 contenders to 32. Unfortunately we lost 5 players in the bloodbath. Despite good games, PengWin, WarreN, Silky, sLeet and jheffe fell in their respective groups. Only TRUE was able to make it out of his group, even finishing in first place with a perfect 4-0 record.

Every single player was close to advancing, finishing either in 3rd place or in Group L’s case, finishing 3rd and 4th. Despite the losses, we are proud of our players who have shown they can battle it out with good players, they simply need a little but more to be able to drive it home.

In the second group stage, TRUE was seeded into Group B with TLO, Pandabearme and FeaR. he first played against the german protoss quickly winning in a 2-0. He then had to face Doctor Dario himself. He lost the first map on abyssal, but was able to mount a comeback and won 2-1. Topping the group 4-1.

The next group stage saw TRUE join JonSnow and PiLiPiLi, having been seeded through the qualifiers.

Our american zerg saw himself the only North American in group A with Harstem, Serral and Optimus. Losing the first match 0-2 to harstem, it started off poorly. He was able to grab on to hope with a flawless 2-0 win against Optimus and had to have a rematch against the dutch protoss. The first game went late, hydras, banelings and finally broodlords saw the game until his forces overwhelmed his opponents. In the second game, Harstem was able to quickly end it with some adepts and oracles. In the last game, JonSnow was once again able to dance around the map long enough to bring out broodlords, granting him the win.

In group E, PiLiPiLi had to square off against Cham, NonY and Namshar. Matchup against the veteran NonY, he was able to take it 2-0. Now against Cham, it was close series, but in the end, he wasn’t able to score and lost in a close 1-2. In the loser’s finals, he had to defeat Namshar to advance to the Ro16. Despite a promising Game 1, his attack failed and it lost him the game. On the second map, after defending some muta harass, he bet it all on a attack against his opponents 3rd with blink stalkers, immortals and a few disruptor. The swedes defence was too tight, as he held off the attack long enough with roaches and ravagers that his remaining mutas were able to pierce PiLi’s bases, killing all his probes forcing him to GG.

TRUE was placed in the hardest group of the three. With Snute, SortOf and TIME, it was going to be a tough battle. Faced off against the chinese terran player TIME, he lost the first map, but was able to bring it back with clever play and his famous multi-pronged harass. The 2-1 victory lead him to play against the formidable Snute. Once again, despite losing the first map, he was able to win the second game in a long game which saw TRUE send wave and wave of ultra and crackling into Snutes’ lurker defence until he fell to mutas, having most of his anti-air destroyed by cracklings and ultras. The third game was the story of a perfect defense. Snute went for a 1 base speedling and baneling all-in. TRUE was able to defend it perfectly despite not having any banelings of his own. With his massive economic lead , our Korean Zerg flooded his opponent’s base, forcing a GG.

Starting with 8 players, only 2 remain. It was a brutal day of StarCraft, our players did their best and we are happy with the result.

Don’t miss out on the the games on the 29th! It starts at 11am CDT!

Just before Dreamhack Austin, we are glad to announce that our academy player Silky is being promoted to the Pro team! He will become the 11th player of our roster joining such amazing players as TRUE, GuMiho, JonSnow and PiLiPiLi.

Pro team manager PengWin’s statement:

“When we picked up Silky, I knew that he was well on his way to being a member of the pro team. Recent performances have more than underlined that, with fantastic team league performances as well as a stellar top 8 in the WCS Austin NA Qualifier. I’m very excited to see how he goes on to perform, because he truly is one of the most talented players the NA scene has to offer”

We had a quick interview with him regarding the promotion.

P :First, give us a quick introduction.

Nick “Silky” : Hey everyone my name is Nick “Silky” and I’m a Zerg player from California. I have been playing the game since 2011 and have loved every minute of it.

P :What does this promotion from the academy to the pro team mean to you?

I’m extremely excited to be apart of PSISTORM and be on a team with very high level players. I think this is a great opportunity to improve my game and take on a new adventure. I look forward to becoming a better player and I hope that my practice will turn into great results!

Silky will play at Dreamhack Austin in Group K with Bly, Fear and teammate WarreN.

Make sure to follow Silky on twitter.

A little over 7 months ago, on the 17th of October 2016, SC2 Proleague was discontinued. Immediately following the news, SKT, KT, CJ and Samsung disbanded their teams. A little after HSC XIV, Afreeca freecs disbanded on the 21st of November. A little over two weeks later, MVP disbanded their SC2 team. To this day, JinAir GreenWings is the only remaining korean based Starcraft 2 team still operational.

With 5 of the 6 korean teams closing their doors, 39 players were now homeless in difficult times. Many people were bringing up the “ded gaem” meme, others were hopeful for new sponsors stepping in.

So far, 15 players found new teams and 2 players retired. We will go through the old teams rosters and explain where each player is now.

SKT Telecom 1:
With a roster of 6 players, only one was able to find a new team. Impact joined Team Dead Pixels, the Switzerland based team, February 5th 2017. The rest of the powerhouse team; soO, INnoVatioN, Dream, Dark and Classic are still teamless

soO – Teamless
INnoVation – Teamless
Impact – Team Dead Pixels
Dream – Teamless
Dark – Teamless
Classic – Teamless

Today we are strengthening our roster with another korean player! Welcome the ex-SKT1 Zerg @dPixImpact1 pic.twitter.com/luKeP1duvT

— Dead Pixels (@TeamDeadPixels) February 5, 2017

Samsung Galaxy:
With a roster of 7 players, two of them were able to find new teams. Armani joined IsIMBA, a Romanian based team, on December 12 2016. In a suprising move to many, the NA based team Splyce, known for its EU League of Legends team and NA based CS:GO Squad, signed Solar a day after his contract officially expired on December 1st 2016. The remaining members, Bravo, Dear, Hurricane, Journey and Reality remain teamless.

Armani – Joined IsIMBA
Bravo – Teamless
Dear – Teamless
Hurricane – Teamless
Journey – Teamless
Reality – Teamless
Solar – Joined Splyce

For the Swarm! pic.twitter.com/uM3LWnytd1

— Splyce (@Splyce) December 1, 2016

KT Rolster:
With a roster of 7 players including big names like jjakji, Zest, Stats and foreign favorites like Losira and Leenock. Only 2 of their players were able to find new homes. The Terran player jjakji, having been on mYi in 2015, was able to find a new home in another foreign team; Team RevolutioN the 27th of December 2016. Stats was also able to find a new team with Splyce the 25th of December 2016. The other 5 players, Leenock, Losira, Trust, TY and Zest remain teamless.

jjakji – Joined Team RevolutioN
Leenock – Teamless
Losira – Teamless
Stats – Joined Splyce
Trust – Teamless
TY – Teamless
Zest – Teamless

Our newest addition to join our StarCraft II roster from KR, check the video out;https://t.co/MJHuBPPGjm

— Team RevolutioN (@TeamRevoGG) January 27, 2017

CJ Entus:
With a small roster of 5 players, 2 of their players were able to find new teams, albeit one of them is a short term-test contract. The smiling assassin herO joined ROOT Gaming, the long-established NA team, the 14th January 2017. Meanwhile, Byul has a short-term test contract with BaseTradeTV, the community caster organisation, the 15th March 2017. Hush and Bunny both joined DuSt Gaming, the NA based organisation, the 2nd December 2016 (Bunny is released the 21st of April). The Zerg player RagnaroK remains teamless.

ByuL – Personal sponsorship by BaseTradeTV
herO – Joined ROOT Gaming
RagnaroK – Teamless
Hush – DuSt Gaming
Bunny – DuSt Gaming Bunny released by DuSt Gaming

Our new player https://t.co/WmcDpl0tRJ

— OSC-ROOT (@ROOT4ROOT) January 15, 2017

Afreeca Freecs
Featuring a roster of 8 players, Afreeca Freecs had the most players before the disbanding. One player, the famed Terran Bomber ended up retiring to do his military service, leaving 7 free agents. The first to find a new team was Patience, returning to Dead Pixels, having played under their banner for a little over a year, from December 2014 till March 2016. He joined them December 13 2016. The only other player to find a new team was aLive. The Terran player joined mYinsanity the 2nd April 2017. The 5 other players, Billowy, Curious, DRGLing, Super and Symbol, remain without teams.

aLive – Joined mYinsanity
Billowy – Teamless
Bomber – Retired
Curious – Teamless
DRGLing – Teamless
Patience – Joined Dead Pixels
Super – Teamless
Symbol – Retired

We are proud to welcome @mYiaLive1 to the @mYinsanityEU family today! Please read our official announcement here! – https://t.co/KYcfC2nGzC pic.twitter.com/9y4zgrbo14

— mYinsanity (@mYinsanityEU) April 2, 2017

MVP
The last team of 5 teams who disbanded, MVP’s players have had the most luck in finding new teams, with 4 of their 6 players sponsored by organisations. The Terran, Ryung rejoined True eSport on the 10th December 2016, having been on their roster back in October 2014-January 2016. Forte, on his side, joined IsIMBA the 2nd January 2017, meeting up with Armani. Gumiho, also known as the Towel Terran, joined PSISTORM Gaming on the 3rd February 2017. Finally, the Zerg player Pet joined Team RevolutioN the 8th February 2017. This leaves only Blaze and NaTuRal without teams.

Ryung – Joined True eSport
Forte – Joined IsIMBA
Blaze – Teamless
GuMiho – Joined PSISTORM Gaming
NaTuRal – Teamless
Pet – Joined Team RevolutioN

welcome to @psistormgaming @psiGumiho https://t.co/QubPWacNsM @psiPengWin put a lot of time working on him. Terran! pic.twitter.com/fZqSSU4rpK

— KJ ƑℝΞΞΞƊ☢Ɱ G ♒ (@KarlJayG) February 3, 2017

____________________________________________________________________________________________

But what about the players without a team. How have they been doing?

Well the big names have been having the same results as before with a few players finally getting the results they wanted.

TY had his best year ever, winning WESG and bringing back $200k, he also won IEM Katowice taking home $100k. His performance in GSL, SSL and Afreeca GSL Super Tournament and have been the same as before, top 8’s and top 16’s with no issue.

INnoVation has had the same results as before, won IEM Gyeonggi, finished in the top 8’s at all GSL’s, SSL’s and Afreeca GSL Super Tournament and even top 8 at IEM Katowice.

Dark with top 4 at IEM Katowice and Gyeonggi, top 16 in GSL S1, top 8 in Afreeca GSL Super Tournament. It’s pretty much the minimum you would expect from such a strong player.

Meanwhile, even without SKT T1 to back him up, soO is still unable to win a GSL making it his fifth try. With a top 8 at IEM Katowice and top 16 in the Super Tournament. He’s doing about the same as before.

The Chin-Toss Classic has been continued being solid yet not outstanding. Top 12 at Gyeonggi, top 12 GSL and in the top 10 of the Super Tournament. Consistent, yet still missing an edge.

Zest slumped just a little, top 16 Gyeonggi, top 24 GSL, top 12 Katowice. Not bad results by any means, but he has played better in the past and produced better results.

Finally we have Dear left in the “big names”. He was unable to qualify to GSL S1, didn’t even try to qualify for Gyeonggi, nor Katowice. Some even said he was going to retire, but he came back. Finishing top 16 at the GSL Super Tournament and is now in round of 32 of GSL S2 and top 10 of SSL Challenger.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

All in all, with the big names, despite not having teams are having about the same results as before. The strong players continue to be strong while the average pro korean continue to linger in the shadows.

When Blizzard announced the format for WCS in 2017, they also announced that the system used will likely be the same for 2018. This is good news for the Korean scene who will still have at least 8 tournaments to play in next year.

In addition, more and more players have been streaming now that they don’t have loaded schedules. A full comprehensive list can be found here made by lilsusie.

So all in all, the korean starcraft 2 scene hasn’t been doing that bad. The top of the top have been doing great in tournaments, some have found teams while others support themselves with tournament winnings. More and more players have been streaming and interacting with their fans. Korean Starcraft is doing pretty okay.

Frostbite is the social media manager and writer for PSISTORM Gaming, give him a follow Twitter