[Tom]

I have a love affair with Starcraft that goes back 12 years. At 27, with a real job and life, you might say its time to move on, to grow up. But once bitten…

In the 6 months or so following the release of SC2 (or longer if you count the beta), a new generation of talented players has sprung up. But I am amazed at the old faces I'm continually running into – people that I knew back in the beginning in 1998, players who were the "elite" of their day in 2001, players who have been pillars of the Australian Starcraft community for 10 years.

With the modern "chat channels", connecting with the old community has felt a bit like searching blindfolded. For all of you guys out there (and I know there are many), here's who I know are still playing. I've also included those who played SC2 briefly but left, and some MIA AUS-1ers who really should buy the damn game and get cracking!

There are too many Australian players for me to mention, so I've only gone through those I knew best. Anyone from AUS-1 or TeamAus reading below who I haven't mentioned, please sign in!

Filthy – probably the best known "old schooler" in the modern scene. Always a solid 1v1 player and well known personality on the AUS-1 server, member of the (in)famous Australian crap clan (crap999) back in the day. However, never truly "shone" until his later days as a War3 player. Now needs no introduction as the SC2 random/terran powerhouse that he has become!

Legionnaire – cut his teeth on the AUS-1 server before moving to Korean and becoming a progamer/ all-round e-celebrity. Played casually during beta and early release, but stronger than most even when mucking around (very solid in the games we've played together). Appears to have gone inactive in recent months.

JugglerX – broodwar zerg gosu, self-proclaimed protector of gaming etiquette (Ms Manners), and leader of the crap clan (crap007). Represented Australia at WCG2000 in Korea, along with crap711 and the legendary Australian terran iori. At this stage, televised tournaments in Korea were in their infancy, and when Juggs randomed verses X'Ds~Grrrr… (later to become the first foreign "pro gamer" in Korea), he was surprised to hear the English commentators loudly announce his race to the crowd and (presumably) his opponent! Juggs is still playing the odd game and has maintained a respectable Masters rating and top 200 ranking despite is relatively modest level of activity.

iori – my old 2v2 partner and the best terran ever to come out of Australia (according to the legendary US protoss Smuft, not my bias!). Surprisingly, iori rarely played 1v1, but when he did his mass tank drops and 400 APM were lethal. When iori turned up to WCG2001 as a "spectator", we convinced him to sign up and play at the last minute. He went on the win the Australian qualifier versus Legionnaire in front of the crowd at darling harbour! iori played during the first few months after the release of SC2 (sticking to his customary 2v2), but quit suddenly for reasons unknown.

Outcast – the most naturally talented starcraft player I ever met, with the potential to go pro if he ever focused! Appears to have played a few games of SC2 on SEA before going completely inactive. Baz, seriously, get back on for some games.

YouAreLove – aka HaLL/crap711, the only player I know who got better when stoned. Represented Australia at WCG2000 and a consistently top level Australian player. Played SC2 early on and got a pretty good diamond rating before becoming inactive towards the end of last year. Will hopefully get his @#$% together and log back on for some games.

PwnStar – aka KoRn^DAG^. Old school Australian top level protoss and my clan mate. Won some serious SC2 beta tournaments and was very high up in the SEA top200 when SC2 retail was first released. Has become somewhat inactive of late due to dissatisfaction with the skill level / mechanics of SC2 compared to the original.

Martyr – aka Martyr^DAG^ / crap360. Another old time clan mate/friend. At one stage arguably the strongest player in Australia, particularly during his well publicised games against aLt)Nirvana during the Singaporean invasion of the AUS-1 server. Currently not very active until he gets his computer issues sorted, but I understand he will be playing SC2 seriously and if he ever makes good that threat all I can say is watch out…

RazoR - backbone of the ^DAG^ clan. Hailing from Hervey Bay with Legionnaire (very strange that this small Queensland town can produce do much SC talent!). Skilled with all races, but predominately a zerg player, placed highly in WCG Australian qualifiers in the early 2000s. Notorious smurf, including the ]FC[ clan, where he and I fought many games against shor/sectoid and his Singaporean ring ins! I still can't work out the other ]FC[ members but nirvana might know ... !

Sectoid[Y] – powerhouse of the famous Australia "Y Clan" (www.yclan.org). Currently a professor at the Harvard department of mathematics (seriously, not kidding). 1v1 broodwar genius perhaps best known for his top rankings in early starcraft ladders such as PGT and Tao of Gaming and his famous matches versus Legionnaire when Leg was an unknown emerging on the Australian starcraft scene. Should be well known to nirvana and the other old aLt clan members. Other notable achievements include winning a gold medal in the Australian maths championship and being an insane ping pong player. Also a long-time 2v2 partner of mine. Not playing SC2 to my knowledge, but if anyone knows otherwise I'd love to hear.

Shor[Y] - after working in Singapore, Shor returned to Australia and promptly introduced the aLt clan to the AUS-1 server. Should we well-known by old-school Australian and Singaporean players alike as a talented 2v2 player, notorious gossipmonger and @#$%-stirrer (sex team anyone?)

nGenStarhunt – better known as Starhunter / Starhunter[cF]. Always been a strong Australian player in the starcraft scene, previously spending time on the AUS-1 server but also with his American clan mates in old school Bnet channel "Clan X17". Has made the transition to Starcraft 2 as a top level SEA player.

Shout outs to other old schoolers I know who are or were playing include on SEA or NA:

- Hogfather (founder of AUS-1 server and pillar of the community, now running the site www.starcraft.org.au);

- StationaryE (this guy would be awesome if he ever stayed active and away from WoW – barely plays 1v1 these days but I know he beat Filthy on ladder for example);

- moggy (better known as a WC3 player);

- goOn (damn good BW and WC3 player – not very active in SC2, but still able to place in a S-Class diamond division after only 30 1v1s!);

- Gabriel (was the top zerg on Team Australia around 2003 onwards – was active in sc2 early on but appears to have dropped off a bit);

- Kinnear (aka Scorpion in BW, TasteOfMyCheese in WC3 – recruited by IN-clan early in WC3. Has gone inactive in SC2 but I still see him playing the odd game);

- Shogun (aka Paladin on AUS-1 / Team Australia, is quite active and still battling away on SEA ladder);

- Xenq (very strong Australian BW terran – now playing semi-active on SEA);

- Prodge (former crap clan/DAG member - Dave is still around on SEA fighting the good fight!)

- Artanis (very good BW player back in the day, also quite good early on in SC2 but less active 1v1 now. Still playing the odd game);

- ViRuS (moved to NA and semi-inactive due to WoW; top 2v2 SC2 team with Koi);

- Koi (as above);

- Fragma (top level tournament BW zerg player for Team Australia, now playing semi-actively on SEA under the ID fraggles);

- Yulla (crazy team gamer player from AUS-1 and will be well known to anyone who was on the server during its latter days. Now mass random teamer on SEA and twice as crazy as I remember)

- MicromaN (has just started up again on SEA after a period of inactivity - well known 1v1er on AUS-1)

- Simmo (appears to have been active early after the release, but has probably gone back to WoW. Best known as the Diabolo 2 hardcore PvP dueler)

[nirvAnA]

this is gold, loved reading it, brought back lots of memories although its sad to see the top players back in the day are all no longer active and have become casual players because they have grown up and have more pressing RL piorities now

omg and sectoid being a harvard professor man wtf IS THAT LOL!!!!!

wonder what happened to shor and razor needs some love!

[Tom]

RazoR added!

[JacziE]

TasteOfMyCheese TasteOfMyCheese TasteOfMyCheese TasteOfMyCheese TasteOfMyCheese TasteOfMyCheese TasteOfMyCheese TasteOfMyCheese

[x5_Potter]

Artanis on my steam list, friend of my brothers from school, coaching inc ;D

[deL]

Here's the History Freezer and myself wrote up for sc2australia.net (the new teamaus.org eventually - feel free to contribute there to help it get started!). Lots of the players you have already covered but this covers SC in Aus up to modern times!

Source: http://www.sc2australia.net/teamaus/...p?site=history

The history of Starcraft in Australia first happened when Hogfather founded the AUS-1 FSGS private server in January 1999.

The traces of the first Australian National Starcraft come from Aus-1. With a team in early 2002 Captained by Jules looking like:

Aus-1

Jules (Captain)

L!MP
crap999 (Filthy)
Starhunter
[AKB2K]-nhs@JyS ([AKB2K]-aDrone)
[AKB2K]-Casanov
TuDe(MT)
RazoR^DAG^
OrangeZg (crap009)
HaLL(MT)
Legionnaire



The history of Teamaus.org started in late 2002, created by Oscillate and Freezer as a community portal for the Australian National Starcraft team. The site kept many an Aussie informed with all the latest scene news, replays and other various events. Effectively taking over from the once popular Aus-1.au.nu website.

The original team selected to represent Australia at the Start of 2003.

Teamaus.org original team

Freezer (Captain)
Oscilliate (Webmaster)
Artanis
BrenProtoss
Du5t
Filthy
LastScv
Legionnaire
LIMP
Paladin
SH@RP.

The team scheduled two knockout tournaments, one on the West server, the other on the Aus-1 server. The top finishers then made their way to the elimination group stages, with the top inform players selected to the represent the team.

The team had its most successfull period during the Clanbase World Cup in 2004. The team came second out of a group of 8 nations in a round robin. Sweden, Poland, and Finland were some of the strong nations in our group. Australia then went on to the knockout stages, losing in the quarter finals to Canada. An extremely proud Australia finished the tournament in the top 8 teams.

After Freezer retired in May of 2005, Bman who had been running the Australian Clan League stepped in to fill the void. During this time Australia competed in several high profile tournaments with some very solid results. In both WGTour World Cups Australia finished at the top of their pool however both times fell in the quarter finals, the first time around to eventual Runners-Up Poland(3-2) and the second time around to eventual Winners Russia (4-1). Australia also competed in the WGTour run Galactic Conquest where it was eliminated by Germany(2-1) and the Hungarian tournament E-World War where it finished 6th.

It was also during this time that Australia notched its first and only tournament win to date when it won the ASEAN (Australia and South East Asian Nations) tournament. This tournament featured local heavy weights Malaysia and Vietnam as well as a very competitive Australia B. Australia finished first in the ladder stage but lost to Malaysia in the Major Semi-Final(3-2) they recovered from this loss by beating Vietnam in the Final(3-2). The Grand Final was played over a tense couple of hours where Australia pulled off an upset 3-2 victory. Bman lead both Australia A and Australia B for a combined 56 matches making him the longest serving leader to date.

During these 56 matches the core lineup consisted of

Team Australia Members

Bman( Captain)
Oscillate (Webmaster)
Legionnaire
L!mp
DaNcErS
ExistenT
Fragma
Endi
Atlantis
XianG
Xephon
sMbK
Gucman


The site went missing in action during 2009, which almost signalled the end for the once popular Aussie Starcraft Community.

Later in 2009 the Australian scene was disorganised and splintered. However, the existence of two websites ensured the continued existence of a SC:BW scene in Australia - the iccup.com competitive ladder and the teamliquid.net community. Through the former deL began hosting small Australia and New Zealand friendly tournaments which saw turnouts ranging from 16 to 32 players. Teamaus.org came back into some activity with the injection of life into the BW scene down under and this had immediate positive results - most notably it was through teamaus.org that the Korean pro team WeMade FOX contacted deL and dAncerS to set up a meeting in Sydney with WeMade FOX's NaDa.

Activity only increased from late 2009 into early 2010 and eventuated into the State of Origin (SoO) competition run through teamliquid. This event was hugely popular amongst the few BW fans still remaining and even encouraged some, such as Legionnaire, out of retirement. It also uncovered new stars of Australia SC:BW such as fadetowhite and NrG.GoD-. While no official Australian team was formed after this activity, Australians did compete as a State All-Star team as part of a showmatch with Team Evil Geniuses after the SoO event. Australia went on to win the event convincingly 4-1 despite being seen as the underdogs.

While SC:BW in mid-2010 was essentially dead again, it was for a much more positive reason - the release of StarCraft 2. The activity seen in the leadup to the game's release acted as a catalyst for SC2 in Australia. The game hit the ground running in the competitive scene, with several tournaments featuring $200+ prizepools running during beta for Australian players only, before the game was even officially released. These tournaments continued to grow with some multiple-thousand dollar events taking the spotlight and unveiling some truly world-class Australian talent with players such as Filthy, deth, mOOnGLaDe, pinder and Azz.

The Australian team was revived in StarCraft 2 for two showmatches hosted on teamliquid by deL, resulting in a surprise loss to New Zealand and a win over tough opponents Singapore. SC2SEA then ran a Nation War event and Australia took revenge over New Zealand in the last round robin stage to claim #1 spot after being undefeated all season. This stands as the team's greatest achievement in SC2 to date.

Now in 2011 with a brand new game in Starcraft 2 it is time to reignite this community once again!

[Aean(:]

i am jealous of top players :P everyone so connected and yeah.

[aztecx]

Originally Posted by Tom

- Yulla (crazy team gamer player from AUS-1 and will be well known to anyone who was on the server during its latter days. Now mass random teamer on SEA and twice as crazy as I remember)

omfg i would have gone 18-0 one day in 2v2r if it wasn't for this guy. Instead i went 16-2 cus i lost both games I had him as a partner. He thought that 4 gate meant 4 gate zealots no warp and the second game when he told me to go all in rush, he built gates in his base and started marching zealots across the map. lol he didn't even proxy the gates. if this is what u mean by crazy than yeah?

[Jaii]

I remember waiting at a lan cafe with Legionaire the night before we flew out to Korea in 2002 and he was playing some mouse control game for practice. I wanted to know why he was bothering and didnt really understand... why did he need to practice mouse control when his control was already insane?

Age 2 required such low APM

[inFeZa]

I thought Leg would get a bigger post than that :P

Edit: i sound too unappreciative. Was a good read, hoping for more soon.

[kellyMILKIES]

Wow this is cool! Great write!

[DRFT]

lol DAG clan... completely forgot about them

[mGMUSE]

Originally Posted by Tom

YouAreLove – aka HaLL/crap711, the only player I know who got better when stoned. Represented Australia at WCG2000 and a consistently top level Australian player. Played SC2 early on and got a pretty good diamond rating before becoming inactive towards the end of last year. Will hopefully get his @#$% together and log back on for some games.

lol i remember facing this guy on ladder while i was a diamond newb and we base traded for an epic game.. then he added me and was all high(typing in caps and incompleted sentences) and asked me to go 2v2 with him going ghost rush into nukes... what a ballar!

[Draxy]

Heh, I remember playing against a lot of these players, though I wasn't on the same level as them back on Aus-1. Then the transition to war3 I got to play with them again until they leveled too high. Even though I was never a top player, was always fun to follow the aus community in the shadows of obscurity =]

[deL]

Bman, Freezer, XianG (aka SeMu), Gucman (aka aLtGuc), sMbK (aka AUSSIESCUM) are all relatively active on SEA.

[nirvAnA]

aLtSemu! oh wow didnt know both of them played sc1 at a high level too haha yay alt!

[Tom]

Yeah I played some games with Guc a couple of weeks back. Great to see he is still owning it up in sc2, although he says he isn't so active these days.

And XianG definately rings a bell, although he might have been after my time.

Long live DAG ;p

[shor]

Wow, I feel so nostalgic!
So many great players from the depths of Aussie SC history... a honour to be mentioned in the company of much more talented players than myself (hindsight means I can freely admit playing 2v2 with Tom, Martyr & Sectoid helped cover up my slowass APM ^^)

Years of growing up have meant most of the old guard from the '99-02 years have stopped playing competitively, i can fill in a few bits & pieces for those interested about Sectoid:

He was apparently offered a progaming contract but instead took the wiser, more boring Asian route and finished his postgrad at MIT, then an associate professor at Harvard and is now an assistant professor at Univ. of Michigan. Apparently he _is_ playing SC2!

As for the rest of yclan, after WOW, most of us ended up playing LOL where we are absolutely craptastic (no 1500 ELO players, which is a cutoff mark to be considered 'good').

Currently on lunch break so i'll further revive this thread tonight
Shoutout to Draxy & Sexbihua though, as i at least recognize some of you!

[Tom]

OMG shor!

When are you logging onto sc2? I've recently been playing some team games with dino and VK. iori also logged on for first time in ages yesterday.

And yes I've heard sectoid is playing sc2 on NA from Michigan, although I checked his stats on sc2ranks.com and he hasn't played in the new season. One of you Ys tell him to him to buy a SEA account.

Quote from VK yesterday - "I went to Vegas with sectoid last year. It was like going with a monk"... wtf?

[deL]

Link their blizzard profiles imo! I saw RazoR on the other day after like 8 weeks away. His ID is sacrifice.