Congratulations to SCSMaGiKL (P) and SCSXenocider (T)  for competing and placing in the first North American BeGosu Starcraft 2 Championship! The tournament was off to a rocky start with the chat channel crashing on several players causing a great deal of chaos and confusion. Once everything started rolling, however, our players really began to shine. SCSMaGiKL and SCSXenocider handily beat all their opponents in the first three rounds. Then, with a stroke of bad luck, were pitted against one another in a team-kill situation only half way through the tournament. In a hard fought battle, in an unfortunate bo1 scenario, SCSMaGiKL bested SCSXenocider with a tricky double assimilator into a standard one gate expand build. SCSXenocider, mislead by the double gas, prepared to defend a one base all in. Playing from behind on economy after throwing down three bunkers, SCSXenocider still managed to break out to his third expansion, but was never able to get it fully functioning. The constant pressure from a tough SCSMaGiKL who was operating on three bases proved to be too much, and SCSXenocider called the GG. From that point, the team watched as Ewic, a GrandMaster Terran player who frequents channel sc2s, climbed his way toward the finals. We fully expected the finals match to consist of a SCSMaGiKL vs Ewic card. To our surprise, Ewic was eliminated from the tournament in the quarter-finals by a Terran player we had covered at one point on our sister website SC2STrat.net, SnixSnipe.

In the finals, SCSMaGiKL faced the very same SnixSnipe who eliminated Ewic. After winning the first game with solid macro play, SnixSnipe took the second with a fast one base all-in. The third and final game looked to be in SCSMaGiKL’s favor until a micro blunder allowed SnixSnipe up his ramp to down his collosi with stimmed marines.

Congratulations to both players on winning a piece of the $350 prize pool, and congratulations to SnixSnipe for taking 1st place. We look forward to winning the next tournament and getting our sweet revenge on SnixSnipe. Hopefully next time, we won’t have a team-kill half way through the tournament, and we’ll be looking at an all SCS final.

If you’d like to hang out with the team, please join us in channel sc2s on b.net US.

http://starcraft2strategy.com is proud to present the first of several tournaments geared toward recruiting for our budding Professional Gaming Team.

Everyone is welcome to participate in the tournament series, of which there will be more to come soon. After the first few we fully intend to begin paying cash prizes to the top placing players. You do not have to be interested in joining the professional team to participate, but those who stand out will be considered for a slot on the team. See below for more details.

The Tournament
-Some matches of the tournament will be streamed live, the finals will be commentated on our YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/sc2stratnet)
-The Tournament will be held on Saturday, January 28th at 7PM EST in channel sc2s (North American Server)
-Please join our forums by clicking on the Forum button at the top of the page and make a comment on the tournament thread to indicate your registration. Official registration will take place in the channel at the start of the tournament, so be on time.
-Divisions will be Bronze through Gold and Platinum through Grand Masters. As more players register, we may divide the leagues into 3 groups.
-Top performers will be considered for the professional team
-Future tournament seeds will be based on this tournament!
-Brackets will be hosted and linked to, winners will be announced on several websites

The Team
-We are currently looking for Diamond-Grand Master players who are SERIOUSLY devoted to the game. We aren’t looking for the best player, but the players with the best work ethic and team mentality.
-Funding for the team will be provided by starcraft2strategy.com and our sponsors
-This will be a serious competitive team working toward eventual international level play and exposure
-Team members will have the opportunity to become known within the sc2 community and make a supplemental income, the harder you are willing to work the more money you will make and the more exposure you will get. You will not be required to pay for anything.
-Professional lessons from GosuCoaches, Seminars, Exhibition matches with top Master/Grand Master players, etc will be provided for all serious team members. We want you to improve, we want our team to become the best in the world.
-We are not expecting this to be a success over night, that is why we want hard workers who understand the championship mentality. Hard work pays off! Be willing to show up for weekly or even daily practices, play in national online tournaments regularly and put in the time and energy necessary to become the best player you can be.

Any further questions or comments can be directed to Chimera in the sc2s channel on tournament night, or addressed in the forum post. Registration is now open at 

http://binarybeast.com/xSC21201199# for [Broze-Gold]

http://binarybeast.com/xSC212011910# for [Platinum-Grand Master]

Patch 1.4.2 has been released and here’s what you need to know:

Forge upgrades all got cheaper for Protoss which benefits all Protoss ground units but all units in totality because Shield upgrades are cheaper now too.

Ghosts got a nerf with their EMP radius being reduced from 2 to 1.5. However, no word on whether that Protoss opponent you’re facing is going to un-clump those High Templars anyways, so EMP away

 

Here’s the balance patches in their entirety:

PROTOSS
Forge
The cost of Upgrade Shields Level 1 has been decreased to 150/150, down from 200/200
The cost of Upgrade Shields Level 2 has been decreased to 225/225, down from 300/300
The cost of Upgrade Shields Level 3 has been decreased to 300/300, down from 400/400
The cost of Upgrade Ground Weapons Level 2 has been decreased to 150/150, down from 175/175
The cost of Upgrade Ground Weapons Level 3 has been decreased to 200/200, down from 250/250
The cost of Upgrade Ground Armor Level 2 has been decreased to 150/150, down from 175/175
The cost of Upgrade Ground Armor Level 3 has been decreased to 200/200, down from 250/250

TERRAN
Ghost
EMP radius has been decreased from 2 to 1.5