eSports Update: State of the GSL

27.02.2011
As usual, the world of Starcraft II competition is busy-busy. Today we're going to recap the GSL Team League matches and the new Code A/Code S seasons.

The Global Starcraft League ran a team tournament during the normal GSL season break, from February 7th to the 11th. Eight teams (IM, fOu, ST, Slayers, Prime, ZeNEX, oGs, and TSL) started on the field with four players each, and they endured a series of 1v1 best-of-one matches until only one team remained.

Team ST (StarTales) and Team IM (Incredible Miracle) made it to the finals, leaving behind a few excellent war stories in their wake--ST "Ggoboogie" ("Squirtle," in Korean, for you Pokemon fans) landed the only clean sweep of the whole tournament by beating four fOu players in a row. Team IM, on the other hand, was a heavy favorite to win it all due to the presence of two GSL winners (Jae-Duck "NesTea" Lim from GSL Open Season 2 and Jong-Hyeon "MVP" Jeong from the Code S tournament in January).

Needless to say, the finals matches were truly epic: Each team traded wins back and forth until IMNesTea beat Ggoboogie/Squirtle in the last game on Xel'Naga Caverns to win it all with ruthless Hydralisk/Zergling attacks. The best games of the series were undoubtedly game 7 (Bomber/MVP on Tal'Darim Altar) and game 8 (Ggoboogie/MVP), the former demonstrating the comeback power of a former champion and the latter showcasing Team StarTales' up-and-coming talent, respectively.