written by Jordan
All posts by Austin Kim
PSISTORM Cup 2 Recap
Overview
The second PSISTORM Cup took place on Saturday, June 4th at The Cave in Fairfax, VA. During the day, players competed in a Swiss format where the top 8 players were seeded into a single elimination playoff bracket.
Here’s a look at the final results:
- 1st – PiLiPiLi ($500)
- 2nd – Creature ($300)
- 3rd – Pokebunny ($150)
- 4th – xKawaiian ($50)
The PSISTORM lineup
In order to defend their team’s honor, the PSISTORM boys came out in full force with a mix of pro, academy, and casual players. Including PiLiPiLi and Draven who flew in from California, the lineup included Freeedom, EndOfLine, 
MygraiN, Sugar, Sef, Kriminal, Drakkhen, Archnog, SirMalagant, and 8 year old Isaac! EndOfLine and MygraiN made it into the single elimination playoffs stage while PiLiPiLi won the whole thing, which was awesome to see.
Missing players
Still missing in action was Jake “NoRegreT” Umpleby. Some say he’ll return to North America and become the foreign hope, others say that 
he’ll instead conquer the Korean scene. Only time will tell.
Two other notable players/personalities not at PSISTORM Cup were the champion of the previous event, RUFF, and our premier caster Temp0. Hopefully they’ll be at the next PSISTORM Cup.
Some non-locals
Similarly to the previous LAN, there were players who came from outside of the DC-Maryland-Virginia area. Here’s a shoutout to a couple of them.
Anny “Allaryce” Dao and Nick “Pokebunny” Taber drove in from New York in order to compete.
Broketail and Angrymuffinman drove in from North Carolina just for the PSISTORM Cup. They even got to cast a couple of games on the couch while they were here.
Swiss format
Unlike most other tournaments, players participated in a Swiss format tournament where they were matched against each other based on their records. This ensured that players were matched against similarly leveled opponents. After 6 rounds of games, the top 8 players were seeded into the playoffs stage.
“This is basically just a TA vs PSISTORM clan match”
With 4 Team Ascension (TA) players (Creature, Raze, Pokebunny, and Tesla) and 3 
PSISTORM players (PiLiPiLi, EndOfLine, and MygraiN), the playoffs was basically just a TA vs PSISTORM clan match. Even xKawaiian, the only non-TA/PSISTORM player at the time who also made top 8, now plays for TA as well.
Post-LAN KBBQ
After the finals concluded, everyone headed out to get some all-you-
can-eat KBBQ at Il-Mee. Unfortunately for me and Taylor some of us, we ordered a bit too much food and struggled to finish most of it.
Future StarCraft 3 GSL Champion
Isaac, the 8 year old Terran player, made his very first appearance at a LAN event. Some of his strategies involved floating his main command center to the gold base on Ulrena and constantly chatting during the game in order to distract his opponents. We look forward to seeing this cunning Terran become a literal god in the years to come. Perhaps he’ll be the American hero we truly neeb need.
Interview with DatBoiTesla 
Hi, who are you? Introduce yourself for all your future fans out there in the world.
Hi my name is Robbie aka Tesla from Team Ascension. I am a Protoss player loyally since 2010.
How did you first get into Starcraft and how have you kept up your passion until now?
I first got into Starcraft because my oldest brother Graham started playing the beta with his friends and it seemed like an interesting game. I have never seen anything like Starcraft, and as soon as I started playing, I just fell in love with the game. I kept my passion going by going to tournaments and trying to get better at this amazing game.
How did you hear about the PSISTORM Cup and what made you decide to come in the first place?
I heard about the PSISTORM Cup from my team and from Reddit, I decided to come because it didn’t seem to far from me and it was going to be a similar crowd to Cheesadelphia.
What did you like/dislike about the LAN?
I loved the LAN, the swiss format allowed all of the players to win some games, and good players would be rewarded and not be knocked out so fast. The format allowed at the very least, 12 games which is already above average for a competitive tournament.
I don’t want to be too critical about the tournament because it is so young and is already getting better in every way tournament by tournament, but it would be awesome to get some cooler production, as far as the stations and match ups go, I thought it was close to perfect.
Will we be seeing you again at the third PSISTORM Cup?
You will be seeing me at PSISTORM Cup again, and I plan on winning one someday.
Any last words for your friends and family?
Shoutout to KJ for running a sick LAN, shoutout to all the psi storm guys for being so 
welcoming, and thanks to Travis Yang for helping me get out there and entering me into this sick tournament! I can’t wait for the next one, and I will hopefully see most of you at Cheesadelphia as well!
Final thanks
First of all, we want to give a big shoutout to our sponsor and partner, The Cave, for providing the awesome venue for this LAN. We look forward to working together and providing better events in the future.
You can follow them on their Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCaveFairfax/ and Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecave_gaming
Additionally, we would like to thank the following people for their help during the event:
- Carl Parker (MotoLoco) and Sef: event photos
- Damen Knight (FilthyRake) and ZeRgWaVe/Trevhol: B and C streams
- Cait: observing
Tournament links
Liquipedia page: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/PSISTORM_Cup_2
Challonge brackets: http://challonge.com/psistormcup2 http://challonge.com/psistormcup2_playoffs
VODs: https://www.twitch.tv/psistormgaming/v/70539730
https://www.twitch.tv/filthyrake/v/70489113
https://www.twitch.tv/trevhol/v/70500485
Photos:
PSISTORM Cup 1 – Post Mortem Reflection
Overview
The inaugural PSISTORM Cup took place on January 31st, 2016 at The Cave Gaming Center in Fairfax, Virginia. Players competed in a double elimination bracket for their chance to earn the title of PSISTORM Cup champion, and win some money from the $1,100 prize pool as well. After a long day of intense Starcraft II action, a champion was crowned.
The final results (prize money earned in parentheses):
1st – Ruff ($500)
2nd – CNProtoss ($300)
3rd – Illusion ($150)
While knowing these final results is great, let’s get to the real important stuff here. We’ll be delving into what else was going on at the tournament.
PSISTORM players represent!
Seeing as this was the PSISTORM Cup, a couple of PSISTORM players had to show up to represent their team! The following PSISTORM players participated in the tournament: CNProtoss, EndOfLine, MygraiN, Freeedom, and Sugar.
PSISTORM Gaming’s players, overall, gave a solid performance. In particular, EndOfLine took 4th place while CNProtoss took the runner up spot.
However, we do have to turn our attention to CNProtoss, who fought his way through the loser’s bracket to the finals by teamkilling Sugar, MygraiN, and then EndOfLine. In the process, he eliminated many of his fellow PSISTORM players from the tournament. What a bad team player.
Is that an illusion I’m seeing?
No, that’s not an illusion you’re seeing. It’s the actual Illusion. Chris Lee, more commonly known as Illusion, decided to grace the first PSISTORM Cup with his presence. Although it seemed like he spent the majority of the LAN playing League of Legends (unfortunately no photographic evidence is available to prove this, you’ll just have to take my word for it), Illusion still managed to win his matches utilizing his superior mechanics to outplay his opponents and cause several headaches in the process.
Illusion cruised past his opponents in the winner’s bracket until he met his match in Ruff, who banished him down to the loser’s bracket with a swift 2-0. After waiting in the loser’s final for what seemed like an eternity, Illusion was rewarded for his patience with a brutal 3-0 defeat from PSISTORM’s CNProtoss, who reminded everyone of why he is a force to be reckoned with.
Despite his inactivity as a SC2 player, Illusion demonstrated why he is still a member of ROOT Gaming by taking 3rd place and a grand total of $150. We’re looking forward to seeing Illusion at our next event, who’ll most likely want to come to collect his free paycheck.
Some non-locals
Although the majority of participants in the PSISTORM Cup came from the Maryland/DC/Virginia area, there were several out-of-state attendees. Here’s a shoutout to these special folk who traveled all the way here just to play in our event.
Luis “FatCatChef” Lopez and Jimmy “Crayon” Or both drove down together from New Jersey and Pennsylvania respectively. Crayon made a strong run in the winner’s bracket, until he fell victim to Ruff like countless others before him. FatCatChef, on the other hand, got his revenge on Freeedom in the loser’s bracket after Freeedom eliminated him from the loser’s bracket in Cheesadelphia 1 (http://challonge.com/n3rdststarcraft2). A Bo1 loser’s bracket can be brutal that way.
Clearly feeling the passion, Kwame “Tempo” Mensah made the trip down here all the way from Massachusetts. Tempo casted several games and was a great presence here at the LAN. We hope you come back for the next PSISTORM Cup!
We even had a visitor from way up in Quebec, Canada! Rain came down here to the PSISTORM Cup by truck, interestingly enough. Though he was unfortunately eliminated by zamzx, Rain did not go empty handed as he won an entire case of Red Bull.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlTNYCfBKHE at 5:15)
ZombieGrub? ZombieGrub.
Despite casting the GnomeJon Archon Finals earlier in the day, ZombieGrub managed to drag herself out here to The Cave in order to hang out with us! She has almost as much passion as Tasteless. ZombieGrub, along with Allaryce, casted the loser’s final match between CNProtoss and Illusion.
The VOD for the first game can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFNp-lPReXU
No ragrets? Not even a single letter?
One notable player missi
ng from the PSISTORM Cup was PSISTORM’s very own Jake “NoRegreT” Umpleby. As the favorite coming into this day, the self-proclaimed “Best NA Zerg”
NoRegreT was surely already planning how he’d spend his tournament winnings. However, with an unscouted timing attack from the U.S. government, NoRegreT conceded his Bo1 series against the government and was, consequently, denied entry into the country.
Although we missed having NoRegreT here, hopefully he will make an appearance at the next PSISTORM Cup. 
U.S. government: 1
NoRegreT: 0
Note: For those who don’t understand the title of this section, it refers to a certain scene from We’re the Millers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqSXHiVfRlY
The Grand Finals: CNProtoss vs Ruff
In the first ever PSISTORM Cup grand finals, we had exciting Bo5 between CNProtoss and Ruff. The games themselves lived up to the hype, with the grand finals going the full distance with all 5 games played. Miraculous comebacks. Crazy proxy locations. Semi-basetrade scenarios. This series had it all.
This wasn’t the first time that these two players have met, actually. They faced off in the finals of DC LAN 16 (http://challonge.com/DCLANXVISC2) where Ruff beat CNProtoss with a score of 4-2. Additionally, Ruff knocked CNProtoss down to the loser’s bracket earlier in the PSISTORM Cup.
At the end of the day, CNProtoss had this to say about Ruff: I don’t want to play him again.
Final score of the grand finals: Ruff (3-2) CNProtoss
The 1st game of the grand finals can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n1rVlrvXgw&index=44
There’s always time for Korean BBQ
As is tradition, we went out to eat Korean BBQ at Ilmee Korean restaurant in Annandale, VA after the conclusion of the PSISTORM Cup. Although the all-you-can eat BBQ is nice, what we really wanted was the free ice cream. The ice cream machine was broken.
Not-so-quick interview with Allaryce
Hi, wou
ld you like to introduce yourself to those who may not know who you are?
My name is Anny, or Allaryce on Starcraft. I play Zerg.
How did you start playing Starcraft II and where did you get all your passion from?
I started playing Starcraft in my senior year of high school because I was going out with a guy who played Starcraft a lot. This was in 2011 with Wings of Liberty. He was a Protoss player, and so I played Protoss as well. When I felt that Protoss no longer felt challenging, I asked him to show me another race, so he showed me Zerg. Something about Zerg clicked with me, so I just stuck with the race.
After we broke up, I stopped playing until half a year ago. My friends stopped playing Starcraft then, so they let me use their accounts. I finally got my own account in July 2015, and I got into gold league after playing casually for a month. Soon, I stopped playing in order to work on my diploma. Then in December 2015, I started laddering seriously and after two weeks, I got into platinum league.
I would have to say that my passion comes from inner fire. I’ve always been a competitive person, and Starcraft fits me perfectly. It suits my personality.
How did you hear about the PSISTORM Cup?
I heard about it from Jake (NoRegreT). He told me about divisional prizes for top bronze/silver, gold/plat, diamond/master league placements. This happened while I was still in gold league, so I didn’t think that I would do well among the gold/plat players. Fortunately, I got into platinum league soon afterwards, so my confidence got boosted.
How was your experience in your first LAN event?
In the first round of the tournament, I was lucky enough to get matched against another platinum league player. We had a close series, and since I did end up losing, I think that I could’ve done better. Overall, I enjoyed my experience and wasn’t as nervous as people said I would be.
What did you like? What did you dislike?
I liked the turnout and the coziness of the atmosphere at the venue. It was intimate. One of my goals was to meet a lot of Starcraft players, and I got to do that here. Also, I got to cast several games with ZombieGrub so that was a really fun experience too.
What I disliked was that there was some miscommunication in the beginning of the tournament. I wasn’t registered properly, so my name didn’t appear in the bracket. Fortunately, KJ helped me out with that by letting me to take his spot in the tournament, so huge thanks to KJ for that!
Will we see you here again at the PSISTORM Cup?
Definitely, if you keep on giving divisional prizes, that is. The prizes for bronze/silver, gold/plat, and diamond/masters really incentivized me to come out in the first place. A lot of the time, players are hesitant to come out to these tournaments because they feel like they’ll just get knocked out by a GM anyways. I also think the prizes themselves are reasonable.
Any final words?
First of all, I would like to thank KJ for hosting me while I was here in the area! I’d like to give a shoutout to Jake for picking me up under his zergy wing. I also want to thank everybody in the Potato group, they’ve been really great to talk to, and really great to me as well. I’d like to give a final shoutout to kawemango because why not.
You guys can find me on Twitch here: http://www.twitch.tv/allaryce_
Also, my Twitter can be found here: http://twitter.com/allaryce_sc2
What we can do better
After all was done, several of us PSISTORM members got together to discuss the LAN. What we liked about the event, what we could’ve improved, everything was discussed. Here are several of our own ideas:
- Have a designated tweeter who will make live updates on matchups, casts, etc
- Set up a better stream overlay so people can more easily know what’s going on
- Have more game admins/tournament organizers keep the games going so we don’t fall behind schedule
- Have a schedule of other activities during the day, including an award ceremony and more player interviews
- Create a social committee which will organize activities before and after the LAN for participants who travelled from far away
What do you guys think? Give us any feedback that you might using the form below:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1yOzIJYMkBf3-ahHNJNlEhYtRn6JYVMYISMm3y2MEs8Y/viewform?c=0&w=1
We would greatly appreciate your feedback!
Final thanks
The Cave Gaming Center in Fairfax deserves a huge shoutout for providing a great venue for this event, and making everything possible in the first place.
You can follow them on their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/TheCaveFairfax/) or on their Twitter (https://twitter.com/thecave_gaming).
PSISTORM Gaming has also been a huge part in the success of this event. Follow them on Twitter (https://twitter.com/psistormgaming) and on Twitch (http://www.twitch.tv/psistormgaming/) for more Starcraft II action and news on the next PSISTORM Cup.
Shoutout to Red Bull for providing free energy drinks to our participants! Keeping players energized in a long LAN event is important, and Red Bull has done an excellent job with that.
Last but not least, here’s a shoutout to the following people who helped out during the LAN:
- Carl Parker from ADVMoto (a main sponsor of PSISTORM) helped out with registrations and tournament coordination
- Blake and Lucas Gillenwater (co-owner of PSISTORM & his brother) helped host and transport players
- Bob Toner, Cait, Fred, Kevin (FleshSpawn), and countless others helped out with observing/casting
- Archnog and WizeCrax came out to show their support for the LAN and its players
Please look forward to the next PSISTORM Cup which will be coming very soon!
Tournament Links
Liquipedia page: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/PSISTORM_Cup
Bracket link: http://challonge.com/PSIStormTheCaveSC2/
YouTube VOD playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuxOPc104Mmm0wMB7_6HJhdUkjxNz3MUH