[nirvAnA]

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SC2SEA Awards 2012

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Player & Team Awards

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Best New Clan

Nominees:

• ETL
• pX
• iOS OS
• mGG
• FS

+ [And the winner is...] +

There were several good clans that popped up over the year. Phoenix e-Sports a relatively new clan regularly host their own tournaments. OS even have their own custom made jerseys. ETL is driven mostly by soundwave, in the same way FS is driven mostly by its leader BenAd. They even organized and won their own Fusion Clan league which was a fantastic effort!

However, the winner this year is quite obvious. I think its partly due to how many committed members they have involved. From Alpha to Asrathiel & GooSe to Nemesis, they have a lot of individuals dedicated to growing the scene and their clan. And this has resulted in massive growth everywhere, from clan numbers, activities and tournaments. They are by far the biggest sub-community on SC2SEA today and have the most popular channel on battle.net.Even Protoss Star Light ending up joining mGG giving them his stamp of approval.



Winner: mGG
Runner-Up: FS

Most Improved Clan

Nominees:

• ToR
• mGG
• TCP
• IFS FS
• iTA TA
• aLt
• FaDe

+ [And the winner is...] +

For most improved clan, we look at the overall improvement across all the divisions. All the nominees have a tight community that encourages growth in each other's games. TA and aLt had nice improvements with players like Kez, Fourby, BigBird, Ninja, NXZ, Stally, delete going from nobodies in 2011 to quality players in 2013. But their improvements were mostly top heavy though.

TCP, FS, FaDe and ToR we clans that seemed to improve all round. I felt the biggest improvement was from ToR. They came from barely winning the new clan award last year to having their own Pro team. Whats better was they were made up of homegrown stars Dano, Pez, Zoom and Pox and they have come a long way. Their activity has seemed to have dwindled recently though and it will nice to see them as active as they were before on SC2SEA!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYdTeYnQfDk#!

Winner: ToR

Best Pro Team

Nominees:

• Immunity
• Nv
• Frenetic Array
• xGking
• Mineski iMINESKI
• Flash

+ [And the winner is...] +

Fray have been doing a lot of awesome stuff from coaching winners of BSG cups to helping in charities. IMO this is mostly due to Chadmann's networking abilities who continues to look out for this team and manages to secure sponsorships and lead them. I remember him being super protective of Pet when he was in Singapore and he even accompanied him to France so Pet could just focus on his games. He makes the best of what fray is provided with.

Mineski have quite a big budget but the PH community although large, is very disconnected from the SEA scene and we don't feel that they are involved much even though they are. They have sent their players several times to Singapore and EnDerr and JaBi seem to be treated like PH e-Sports royalty each time I see them.

Flash picked up some decent sponsors but the best thing about them was the players they groomed. They picked up three relative unknowns, one of each race in BlitzHawk, netherdrake and Kyzersoze. They then instilled in them a proper training schedule and motivation and turned them into Singapore Starcraft 2 stars. I don't think there has even been any progress quite like that anywhere else in SEA. This is something big other teams can learn from.

xGking had a fantastic start to the year and would have won this year's award again if it was a mid-year awards. They won the most team competitions, placing a #2 in SEASL, SEACC and winning the Frog Cup. Not to mention strong performances in other regional leagues, finishing in the top 4 for the TCL S4, ASIT and XGTL.

Unfortunately, the purchasing power of the richer teams meant that they key stars of xGking - Light, MaFia and Jazbas have now left them and they have become a shadow of their past self. And with Benji's shifting attention to LoL I am not sure what will happen to xGking in the future but its still a relief to know that they are still in good hands, with Eddie, delete, Stally and the Korean beast King Kong.

Nowadays if you talk about "Pro Teams" in the SEA scene today, the first two that would come to most people's minds are Immunity and Nv. IMO a large part of the teams success depends on the financial power it wields - look at EG for example. Then after that it comes down to management. Immunity lacked a dedicated active manager in the scene and Dox from a players perspective has to be one of the best managers you could ask for. He handles everything and spares no expense, the Nv boys are used to staying at classy hotels when they travel.

So between Immunity and Nv, I felt Nv had the edge in terms of management and giving their players opportunities. The Nv boys were basically given an opportunity of a lifetime, though so far it only seems like mOOnGLaDe has been able to capitalize on it fully. Its hard to give any non-glade team the award based on his performances alone.

It is rumored that a large 5 figure amount was spent on Team Nv this year which came out of Dox's own pocket. Whether this will be sustainable remains to be seen but for now Nv continues to give the whole of SEA a reason to cheer when they perform at international events from IEMs to MLG.



Winner: Team Nv

Most underrated player

Nominees:

• ToRXzam
• ProAnnn
• IXLSaviour
• xGkingMyuu
• TABigBird
• Lobo
• aLtNXZ
• AuXMegaFonzi (Caz)

+ [And the winner is...] +

None of the top SEA Zergs used to give ProAnnn respect even after he knocked them out of tournaments (*cough* tgun/mafia). Whether they do now I have no idea but ProAnnn the master 2 baser has always performed well in Singapore tournaments, finally winning the IEM Singapore qualifiers.

Saviour is another guy who used to get a lot of flak and he probably deserved it too as he went on consistently about beating a fake Naniwa, omitting the fake part each time. I think people would rate him higher if he was more likable. BigBird had a massive performance at WCS, coming out of nowhere to qualify then taking out iaguz. Lobo is a clanless Singaporean who has quite decent results but has never been given any attention.

NXZ won SpringSmash 2012 Brisbane and reached GM on NA but surprisingly remains teamless till today. Caz and Xzam and two very good Australian protoss players who need to start playing in more tournaments or will forever be under the radar. The winner though goes to a player so low profile only the top players would know about and rate. Hes like a ghost. I don't think he has an sc2sea account either and you probably are wondering what race he plays.



Winner: Myuu

Most Likely to get banned in 2013

Nominees:

• Frustration
• cruxis
• Ruined
• Centrelink

+ [And the winner is...] +

Winner: You are all terrible.
Hall Of Fame for most bans on SC2SEA: AtlasMech

Whatever happened to?

Nominees:

• deL
• crAzerk
• yoonyj
• yang
• Satu
• JimDiddy

+ [And the winner is...] +

Jimdiddy came back from the wilderness to take ACL Brisbane Regional with a 6-0-0 score including taking out moonglade. He then disappeared into the wilderness again and was never heard off. Yoon had his last big run at MLG destroying American hero QXC, before disappearing into the Abyss. I think he even deactivated his facebook account. Come on yoon come back!!



crAzerk went off to study in america, yang lost interest in the game and Satu... well I have no idea too!

The award tho has to go one of SC2SEA's biggest contributors, who did a fantastic job running T4 of the SEAL last season. He was in the middle of hosting the much anticipated sOO before disappearing into the bizzare triangle of love.



Congrats on your engagement deL! He also recently donated $50 to our SEAL tournament. And heres a short interview.

Q1: You were previously one of the most active community members in the scene. Then one day you suddenly disappeared. What happened!

A1. I had wanted a break for a while, and it just coincided with me getting back into the dating scene (well, getting into it at all). I met a lovely lady by the name of Cheyanne and 5 months later we are engaged, with a wedding hopefully as soon as November this year Spending time with my now-fiancee is a big part of what kept me away from the computer.

Aside from that, a big part of my motivation for being so active was to follow tournaments and local players, and provide events for them to prove themselves. I went from being a tournament host into more of a general fan and casual player as there was no real need for me to be hosting events any more because there were a bunch of people doing an excellent job already. It was natural that my activity decreased because of this.

I am also quite into fishkeeping as a hobby and have 6 fishtanks, which takes up alone time

Q2: Do you still play Starcraft?

A2. I haven't touched StarCraft for a long time, though I have watched a few games here and there since I've vanished. Mostly Korean ProLeague and of course following all the SEA guys in MLG and other big events. I will be getting back in to it for SEACL if there's a team that can take me, though I shudder to think how slow and useless I will be even compared to usual. I have been playing a few casual games but mostly console stuff. I still remember the basics though so hopefully the builds that were relevant when I left are still used.

Q3: What are your future plans, do you intend to come back to the scene?

A3. I doubt I will be as involved in the scene as I have been in the past, at least for the near future. HotS and other expansions may change this of course but after marriage and a job things that take up your spare time just increase. Kids are planned in the near future too Maybe the break will increase what I get out of the game or give me a new perspective that will encourage me to return! You guys seem to be doing fine though haha.

Winner: deL

Breakthrough tournament performance

Nominees:

• fray`Petraeus at ESCW
• draKe at Alienware Arena
• TargA at GESC
• FlashBlysk at TGS
• fray`Ninja at ACL Sydney
• EveYekke at WCS

+ [And the winner is...] +

Blysk took his first championship by winning the TGS qualifies, coming back from the losers bracket to beat Revenant 4-0! Yekke who was regarded as an unknown at that point my most, surprised many by finishing #2. Ninja got finally recognized as a top tier player after finishing top 4 at ACL Sydney.

TargA who had a string of decent performances but never a big win yet - took down the $2,500 first prize in GESC and his first major victory on Australian soil, defeating moonglade in a super tense final game. draKe had his year of hardwork finally awarded clinching a computer at Alienware arena.

The winner however, goes to somebody who risked flying over just to compete in a qualification tournament. Although he placed third, he at that point had his fair share of doubters. And from that moment on Petraeus was acknowledged as one of the very best SEA players. His courage to take that risk and his performance since then wins him award of the year.



Winner: Pet @ ESCW qualification

Most Improved Rookie

Nominees:

• ToRPox
• xGkingdelete
• xGkingPoker
• fray`fenner
• draKe
• FlashKyzer
• FlashBlysk
• EveYekke

+ [And the winner is...] +

From a SC2SEA organizer to New Zealand superstar. Who would have thought? Petraeus wins the award for best rookie.

Winner: Petraeus

Player of the year:

Nominees:

• iMLight
• Nv.mOOnGLaDe
• iMtgun
• PiG
• iMMafia
• Fray`Petraeus
• Ninja

+ [And the winner is...] +

The most obvious award every year. GLaDe still remains a league above the other players in SEA. In the SEA performance of the year, he took out MC and then Huk to win his open bracket. He then beat Major and Revival before finishing the MLG tournament as the 2nd highest foreigner behind Naniwa!



Will anything change in 2013? That remains to be seen. For now all hail our SEA king!



Winner: Nv.mOOnGLaDe

The End!

Until 2013's awards! Now let the drama and butthurt begin!

Quick Comments

	Malice:	Best of the west needs most improvement.
	syntox:	Looking good :) Keep up the good work writing team

[ToR.Arnor]

Breakthrough tournament performance

Id Say Pets run for the Tokyo Gaming Show Qualifiers was his "Break-out"performance It was alot more impressive at the time (imo)

Best Pro Team

This one im not sure about

If its well Glade is on Nv he wins most things so Nv is best team then winner = Nv

If its based purely of Team Results No one matches xG's year (despite the big roster change this year) They came 4th in xGTL, 4th in ASiT, 4th in TCL4, 1st Frog Cup, 2nd SEACL#2 and 2nd SEACC

If its based of the how well a team performed as a whole (eg numerous players recording top 3 results) then Id say it would be cR/Fray , iM, xG or Nv (we'd need to do a further count back).

Most Improved Rookie

IMO Pet is easily the winner, Id say DrakE is worthy of a nomination his shown some descent results heading into the back half of the year, id also say "Poker" isnt much of a rookie but is he certainly worthy of a "Player to Watch 2013" style award


Most Improved Clan

FaDe is worthy of a nomination maybe even IXL?

Tournament Organizer

Id say Frequency is a consideration for a nomination as is someone from ACL (Vanz or Beware?)

Caster of the year

Benji is an obvious leader for this but alot of his recent stuff has been on the TW scene, if you're looking at casting the SEA area I honestly cant pick anyone, all these casters have done a great job, but all of them have gone through fairly large patches of inactivity throughout 2012

[nirvAnA]

testtestsetset

[Cute]

SEACL for best sc2sea event imo. Was a blast.

PREPARE FOR DRAMA

[ToRSpookToR]

infixzam is actually Av.ToRXzam