Here I am with the final part of the article as we pay homage to the game of the games - Starcraft 2! How do you trump the mighty South-Koreans? Well, it's simple - You don't! The foreigners still seem to be playing catch-up as the competition heats up for the next wave. With GSL Open Season 2 and IEM World Finals around the corner, it's raining Starcraft 2.

Mvp

The South Korean Terran beast Jong-Hyun “mvp” Jung has had a terrific start with two first places - Sony Ericsson GSL 2011 Code S and Gainward SC2 Tournament. His recent victory over Jung-Hoon "MarineKing" Lee in a shockingly one-sided match during the GSL 2011 January Code S tournament Grand Final played at the Jam-Sil Student Gymnasium was just epic. While a lot of supporters were backing Mvp for this match, no one had ever expected it would be such a steamrolling victory. This also makes Mvp the first ever Terran champion in the GSL. As the next GSL Sponsorship League kicks off on 21^st Feb 2011, Mvp would be going in really strong. MarineKing had beaten the Swedish Terran player Jonathan “Jinro” Walsh while Mvp reached the finals by beating his compatriot Zerg player Lim “NesTea“ JaeDuk. The foreigners might be looking strong but they’ve often collapsed in front of the mighty South Korean professionals. Mvp will be a serious challenge for anyone to take up and with his latest victory, it hardly looks like he’s going to slow down any time soon. Mvp is currently ranked #1 on GosuGamer’s rankings.

White-Ra

Arguably, one of the most lovable personalities from the Starcraft community and a 1^st class Protoss player, Oleksiy “White-Ra” Krupnyk has multiple WCG 1^st placings to his name. Having beaten the Korean trained Terran players like IdrA and ToSsGirL at the ESWC 2009 and reaching the Grand Finals at the Intel Extreme Masters Season 5 European Finals in Kiev, this benign looking Ukranian has repeatedly proven his place. Respected deeply within the Starcraft community as a player and a person outside of it, White-Ra was initially known for his amazing Protoss play in Brood War and currently continues to play Protoss in Starcraft 2 as well. His recent victory over IdrA at the HDH invitational finals was a ruthless display of his skill with Protoss. A number of his matches against TLO have been very intense as well. After losing only 1 game, he topped his group at IEM Kiev and went on to defeat Benjamin “DeMusliM” Baker in a cracker of a game to face SjoW in the Kiev Finals. The beast from the east has an amazing legacy and continues to enthrall everyone with his gameplay. Despite being married and having kids, he’s done pretty well in Starcraft 2 and has won several tournaments both in the Beta stage as well as WoL. He’s definitely a player who cannot be counted out of any tournament and has won many hearts. He’s looked very strong in the very first major Starcraft 2 tournament (IEM Kiev) of 2011 and should deliver plenty of intense games in the upcoming tournaments, including the World Finals in Hannover @ CeBIT.

SjoW

As a top-level WC3 2v2 player, SjoW’s transition to SC2 took its time. With a rather unique game play style, SjoW is known for avoiding early in-game scouting using workers. According to him, this doesn’t help him gain any valuable information. It’s evident from his builds where all that economy gets utilized. Jeffrey “SjoW” Brusi did not get a flying start in SC2 but managed a second place at the ESL Viking cups #5 and #6. However, when he defeated MorroW in the Inferno Online SC2 cup #1, he started raking up victories including the Zotac cup #17 win over Socke and GO4SC2 weekly cups. He remained as the #1 player on the GosuGamers and Team Liquid’s player rankings due to consistent results throughout 2010. At IEM Kiev, he looked unstoppable, not only topping his group but also dropping only 2 maps in the entire tournament before trumping White-Ra in the Finals with a 3-1 score putting his overall score at a whopping 16-2 in the tournament. This gifted Swedish Terran player has had a terrific 2010, beating formidable opponents like MorroW, Bischu, MaNa, and MaDFroG. His losses also came by early in the year to TLO at the Poker Idol European Championship in Jan 2011. All in all, SjoW is looking really strong and motivated for 2011 with a marathon run of map wins at the IEM Kiev, conceding only 2 maps to the likes of White-Ra and Socke in total. After winning the European Championship finals, he’d definitely want to seal the deal with the World Finals win. Whether he’ll make it or not remains to be seen, and see we shall!

MorroW

A top-tier Brood War and SC2 player, MorroW is one of the brainiest players on the circuit. He exploded into the scene with his first major win at IEM Global Challenge in Cologne (Germany) where he defeated Gregory “IdrA” Fields in the finals and eliminated Dmytro “DimaGa” Filipchuk and Dario “TheLittleOne” Wünsch aka TLO in the group stages. MorroW is one of those players who have a deep understanding of the game and is famous for using the map editor to create custom maps and try out different micro techniques. He defeated SjoW in the finals of the ESL Viking Cup #6 after previously losing to him in the Inferno Online SC2 Cup 1. He soon became one of the best TvT players in Europe. His play style ranges from fast/expand builds to tactical pressure/economy which we saw threw many off balance. MorroW is a determined player and he proved it by answering IdrA’s comment about him not being a skilled enough player to take out the likes of Dimaga with his grand final victory over him. He recently switched to Zerg from Terran. Given his analytical ability to break down the game and come up with novel micro techniques always make him a dangerous opponent and a top contender in any tournament he sets his eyes on.

Dimaga

After beating Sarens and Lucifron at the IEM Global Challenge in Cologne, Dimaga went on to beat his team-mate DeMusliM in an intense 5 mapper and took third place after beating Tarson. Dmytro “Dimaga” Filipchuk is a top-tier Zerg player who has won many fans due to his use of banelings and excellent swarming of his opponents for melee damage. Originally a Brood War player, Dimaga continued playing with Zerg in SC2 and raked up some quick early victories both in Beta as well as the released retail version WoL by winning 2 GO4SC2 cups. His fast paced aggressive style puts many players on the back foot. His aggression also got him into trouble when he ended up bad mouthing during the Team Liquid Star League 2 resulting in a ban from competing in any of the Team Liquid cups in 2010. His presence could’ve upset the order of things at IEM Kiev but it’s just the beginning of the year and there are many tournaments to look forward to. This aggressive Ukranian player shall definitely deliver some intense and amazing games with his Zerg rush in 2011.   

IdrA

A strong Terran player from Brood War who switched to Zerg in SC2, Greg “IdrA” Fields is one of the most decorated players in the world. At the IEM V Global Challenge Cologne, IdrA put up a brilliant display of skill and beat all his opponents before getting sliced by MorroW’s reaper usage with a 3-1 score. Known for his heavy macro style, IdrA made quite a wave when he defeated players such as SeleCT, HuK and KiWiKaKi to take the first place at MLG DC. He also qualified for the remaining GSL seasons which earned him the S-Class status. He has been also known for some BM’ing since the Brood War days and has continued it in SC2. However, it may not be close to NaniWa who has collected several penalty points for delaying matches, BM’ing and not showing up for his matches altogether! The negative aspects aside, IdrA is an excellent Zerg handler along with the reputation of being quite a persistent player. His recent loss to Liquid.Jinro (Terran) in the GOMTV Sponsorship League in January might have slowed him down for the moment but he’s known for his runs defeating anyone when he’s at it. One should look forward to his confrontations against Jinro and other top players in 2011 for some awesome games.

Some other worthy mentions include Strelok, Tarson, Bomber, Tester, SelecT, Naniwa, Mana, Jinro, SEn, NesTea and MarineKing. The list is just too long for this article to cover them all but much respect goes out to the players of this beautiful game who’ve given us great games to watch and won our hearts!