2009 Pokerstrategy.com TSL
From Liquipedia Starcraft Wiki
| Overview | TSL1 | TSL2 | TSL3 |
| Overview | Ladder | Qualifier | Elimination Bracket |
| PokerStrategy.com TSL | |
 | |
| League Information | |
| Organizer: | TeamLiquid |
|---|---|
| Start Date: | 2009-11-21 |
| End Date: | 2010-02-28 |
| Player Breakdown | |
| Number of Players: |
52 |
| Protoss Players: |
|
| Terran Players: |
|
| Zerg Players: |
|
| Winners | |
  NonY
| |
  Mondragon
| |
 Sen
| |
| Maps | |
| Destination | |
| Andromeda | |
| Fighting Spirit | |
| Tornado | |
| Outsider | |
16
15
21
|
[edit] About PokerStrategy.com TSL
After the highly successful Razer TSL the fans screamed for another season. 1 year and 5 months after the finals were done their cry for more was met. TeamLiquid announced another season of TSL, with PokerStrategy.com as the sponsor.
PokerStrategy.com is a poker-site aimed at learning players who are new to the game how to improve and make a profit their gaming, they offer new sign-ups $50 added to their account at diffrent poker sites after answering a quiz at their site. Since starcraft players earlier have been proven to do well in the poker-world, they saw this as a investment.
Not only did PokerStrategy.com give away all the money for the prize-pool for this tournament, they also gave fans the opportunity to compete for a all expenses paid trip to South Korea and witness the OSL-finals live.
[edit] Prize Pool
The total value of the prize pool available for players was, for a starcraft tournament, a staggering $22,500, the money was divided as follows:
This can be put in perspective when again glancing at the 2008 Razer TSL that was widely popular and praised for its high prize pool, the total prize pool in the previous TSL was $10,000, as much as the winner in the PokerStrategy.com TSL would be winning. |
Official TeamLiquid.net graphics over the prize pool
 |
[edit] Season 1 Top 4
The top three finishers from the 2008 Razer TSL, IefNaij, Draco and Brat_OK, were seeded into the bracket stage of the tournament. The fourth place finisher, NonY, played the number 1 finisher on the ladder, IdrA, for a chance to qualify directly into the bracket stage. IdrA won the game and NonY got pushed into the qualifiers where he showed that he has not lost his magic and managed to move on to the Ro16.
While Draco and Brat_OK did not manage to get past their round one opponents, both IefNaij and NonY did quite well for themselves in the upper bracket. IefNaij managed to beat the Mexican terran hyped by Artosis, GosITerran, and White-Ra to reach the semi-finals. NonY also got to the semi-finals by beating both KabaL and IdrA, the latter being a really big scalp for the American protoss.
So it came down to the upper bracket final, the semi-final of the tournament. Two North American protoss players who had been inactive for a while. On the 20th of February the two faced off in a Bo5, with Artosis and Tasteless casting. After 4 fairly one-sided games NonY came out victorious and headed to the finals where he will meet another old-school player, German zerg Mondragon. On the 28th of February 2010 it was time for the American Protoss to defend his honor in a Bo7 finals. He showed off his mental strength and managed to come back from being down 0-2, taking home the 10,000 USD with a 4-2 victory.
[edit] Post-Ladder Qualifiers
[edit] Format
The qualifier consisted of three rounds, who played who was decided based on the final ladder results.
Along with the already qualified players Draco, IefNaij, Brat_OK, the winner from IdrA vs. NonY, this results in a 16 players bracket. |
Graphic overview of the post-ladder qualifiers format
 |
[edit] Players
(21)
 ret
|
 sziky
|
 koget
|
 Mondragon
|
 Sen
|
 Hayder
|
 XiaOzI
|
 FlaF
|
 KiLLeR
|
 OctZerg
|
 KenZy
|
kolll
|
 CaStrO
|
 Avi-Love
|
 Liquid.Drone
|
 iNcontroL
|
 TechnicS
|
CloseR
|
Shad
|
NeMu
|
Naugrim
|
(16)
| MaNa
|
 White-Ra
|
Yan
|
 Casper
|
KabaL
|
 Kr
|
 ClouD
|
Draco
|
| Arew
|
iNfeRnaL
|
 Gamtja
|
Dreiven
|
G5
|
datoby
|
NonY
|
IefNaij
|
(15)
| IdrA
|
mOrrow
|
Strelok
|
Fenix
|
 terran
|
pampam
|
Tarson
|
BRAT_OK
|
| HoRRoR
|
Nyoken
|
KawaiiRice
|
marw
|
Sawyer
|
GhosTa
|
 MikOeL
|
[edit] Ladder Stage
The end of the ladder stage was overshadowed by a unexpectedly large number of disqualifications, mostly due to transferring stats onto another account and playing against that account which was run by a friend then. See:
- 'DQs: A2 and Pomi'
- 'DQs: Dimaga, Reason, Sarens, Vasilisk'
- 'DQs: Yosh, RiboRibo, Scan, Mercury'
- Final DQs and Point Adjustments - Disqualifying fraer, Happyzerg, JuanJo, aQp_JuaChi and six players had points withdrawn.
- Aftermath for the abusers from the ladderstage
[edit] Casters
As a respectable tournament should, the 2009 PokerStrategy.com TSL had a great lineup of casters. All these profiles are taken straight from the thread announcing Casters, Maps and Format.
[edit] Chill
Blake "Chill" Muzar started out by making several strategic commentaries before casting events for TeamLiquid.net, including several seasons of TL Attack! and Liquibition. Chill was Artosis' casting partner for the Razer TSL and also moderates TeamLiquid's Strategy Forum. Chill is known for his strategic knowledge, dry humor, and brutally honest comments.
[edit] Day[9]
Sean "Day(9)" Plott is Tasteless's younger brother and a top American Zerg player who was invited to represent the United States at the WCG Grand Final three times. He currently hosts the program Day[9] TV on TeamLiquid.net that analyzes recent professional Korean StarCraft matches. Day also casted for hundreds of TeamLiquiders at Blizzcon 2009, providing refreshing analysis and live commentary of the OSL Finals between Jaedong and YellOw[ArnC]. Day is known for his deep strategical analysis.
[edit] Artosis
Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski was a top American Terran player before beginning his casting career by covering mainly non-Korean online tournaments like Ascension. After casting the Razer TSL in 2008, Artosis moved to Korea and now does interviews and coverage for IEG, the media giant that sponsors the eSTRO professional gaming team. Artosis joined Tasteless to cast Blizzcon 2008 and 2009, as well as the WCG Grand Final this year. Artosis is known as "The Wikipedia of StarCraft" for his comprehensive knowledge of the game.
[edit] Tasteless
Nick "Tasteless" Plott is regarded as the top English professional StarCraft commentator. Tasteless began his career with WCG USA Finals in 2005, and casted several other live events throughout the United States. In 2008, he became the first English-only caster to move to Korea, covering all seasons of GomTV's TG-Intel Classic and the WCG Grand Finals from 2005 to this year. Tasteless also casted many events for Blizzard, including their World Wide Invitational (since 2006) and Blizzcon (since 2007). Tasteless's nickname is the "Storm Observer" for his energy, humor, and enthusiasm.
[edit] Related links
- Announcement topic
- Casters, Maps and Format
- IdrA interview
- Pre-Ladder interviews - Artosis, Chill, Kennegit, IefNaij and NonY
- Legionnaire interview
- Official ladder-launch topic complete with interviews with IdrA, Ret and Draco
- Week 1 Update includes interviews with Mondragon and F91. Also a battle-report is included.
- Week 2 Update includes interview with Eriador and player profiles.
- 5 Days Left Update includes interview with R1CH and player profiles.
- Last Day Update includes a battle report and player profiles.
