SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

**syfSoundwave** · Sun, 25th-Jan-2015, 11:26 PM

This was the first week of many to come that will be packed full of tournaments. In addition to the Leifeng Cup held daily on the Korean server, there's SEAcraft Weekly on Monday, SEAcraft Melee on Thursday and Friday Fun Night on (obviously) Friday! The SEA scene has more money in it than ever so now is a great time to get involved.

Remember you get 5 OSC points just for joining! Playing tournaments is a huge benefit now! Also don't forget that the person with the highest participation in tournaments this year will get their 2016 LAN fees covered! Huge opportunity!

Results From This Week

SEAcraft Weekly:

+ [Winners] +

SEAcraft Melee:

+ [Winners] +

Friday Fun Night:

+ [Winners] +

Qualified for Eastern StarCraft League:

+ [The List] +

Upsets:

+ [Keep an eye on these ones!] +

Near Upsets:

+ [You'll get 'em next time guys!] +

New Kid On The Block

Azure has been around for a while, but very much under the radar. He managed to defeat Wally and MightyKiwi back in the MSi BeatIt qualifiers quite some time ago, whilst being high Master on NA ladder. Swarmstika talked to him and let him know he should join a clan (especially a clan of the greatness of Eternal E-Sports) and get more involved in the scene, it seems he has taken those words to heart. Making it into Grandmaster on NA and winning the SEAcraft Melee, his first tournament under the ETL banner, Azure is getting more involved and giving all the young Terrans at home a new hero to root for. Azure has already shown great skill in the TvP match-up by defeating Probe (the Heart slayer!) 2-0 and even managing to beat Albion, the Japanese menace who had been terrorizing the SEAcraft Melee that day. Azure also managed to qualify for the Eastern StarCraft 2 League, proving that his good performance was definitely no fluke. It remains to be seen truly how far Azure to go, but he's definitely someone you need to keep your eye on in 2015.

Japanese Participation Continues

The participation of Japanese players in SEA tournaments continues to raise the competitive level within the SEA scene. This week we saw a great peformance from Japanese Protoss Albion, who managed to defeat such mighty and reputable foes as Crimson and Satu, showing great skill in the PvZ match-up. We hope to see the continued play of Japanese players, as even those with little name value are able to do well and make for very entertaining games.

#Year Of Probe...again?

Probe, one of the top Protoss within SEA, has been out of action for a while. After the Domination Cup he went overseas and his lack of presence has definitely been felt in places such as the WCS Qualifiers. Probe was known as a very, very good mid-late game PvZ player, arguably the best in all of SEA. However, I've heard he has been working on his weaknesses to early attacks and mixing more timings into his play, truly gaining the full power of the mighty Protoss. Probe has already proven himself to still be a top contender, with two Top 4 finishes in this week alone. 2014 may have been the year of Probe, but it appears as if 2015 will still be a great year for the young man.

SEAcraft Melee

This week we saw the debut of a great new tournament that, in addition to putting yet more money into the scene, lets players not at the very top of the scene have a fair crack at some good money. There are a lot of cases when a very skilled player like Satu could enter the SEAcraft Weekly, and be knocked right out by someone of the skill of KingkOng or EnDerr. While having the opportunity to play people of more skill than you is no doubt good to learn your mistakes, it can be monotonous and frustrating when you are unable to go far into a tournament because of factors like bad bracket luck. With the SEAcraft Melee though, there are no PiGs, no EnDerrs. Not even any MightyKiwis. This is a great chance for people pushing towards the top level, or pushing towards the level below the top level (!) to earn some money in a somewhat consistent fashion and maybe justify to themselves spending a little bit more time on the game.

I wanted to have an interview with someone who had a good run in a tournament this week and made some upsets happen, but I left it too late and I guess they had already gone to bed. Next time, though.