Grubby

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Overview

Results

Grubby [help] [edit]
Player Information
Name:	Manuel Schenkhuizen
Birth:	May 11, 1986 (1986-05-11)
Country:	Netherlands
Race:	Protoss
Sponsor:	TwitchTV BenQ Tradimo
WCS Rank (Points):	#28 (500 points)
Links
History
2004 - 2008 4Kings 2008 - 2009 Meet Your Makers 2009 – 2011 Evil Geniuses 2011 - Present Independent

Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen (Dutch: ['manyɛl 'sxɛŋk,hœyzən]) is a professional StarCraft II Protoss player from the Netherlands and is a former WarCraft III World Champion.

Biography

Grubby is a Dutch professional PC gamer. He has been competing in eSports in the real-time strategy games WarCraft III, WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. As an Orc player, Schenkhuizen has won more than 38 LAN tournaments, of which 6 are World Championships. Grubby has been known for being part of one of the most successful WC3 teams in history, namely the British 4Kings. Later teams include the Danish MeetYourMakers and the North-American Evil Geniuses. Grubby enjoys a large fan base throughout the world and especially in China. He's sometimes characterized as being not one of the fastest players, but one that compensates with smart and effective play styles.

Grubby's first experience playing computer games was at around age three or four giving him an early start in gaming. Grubby's first experience with an RTS game was with Populous 2, released in 1991, where you play a god guiding your subjects. He continued to play many games such as StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War before moving to the WarCraft III competitive scene. His first competition was in 2003 at age 17, at a LAN party of around 1000 people. The WarCraft III competition consisted entirely of Dutch players except the Danish player playing for Grubby's future team, MYM, Bjarke. Grubby made it to the finals to meet MYM]Bjarke and compete for the €200 prize. Grubby ended up winning the competition and taking the prize before becoming a progamer at age 18.

Grubby met his wife, Cassandra Ng Schenkhuizen, at WCG 2005, where he played WC3 and finished third. At BlizzCon 2009, he proposed to her on-stage after the award ceremony, and they subsequently married in May 2010. Cassandra currently works as Grubby's manager and supports him in his career.

Wings of Liberty

Transition to Starcraft 2 and Korea (Winter 2011 – Fall 2011)

Grubby began participating in notable tournaments in 2011 with his offline debut at SteelSeries StarCraft II Challenge during Assembly Winter 2011. He was one of the 50 players invited to participate in the North American Starleague. He was placed into Division 1. He went 6-17 in his group, finishing with one win and 8 series losses. Despite releasing largely marginal results, Grubby would demonstrate significant improvements in his play during Copenhagen Games Spring 2011 where he defeated players such as LaLuSh and TLO but was defeated by Kas in the semis. He still managed to beat MorroW in order to take his first major tournament podium on Starcraft 2. During the summer, he would participate to both DreamHack Summer 2011 and Assembly Summer 2011, but couldn’t do a better result than ro48 and ro32 respectively.
Grubby posted on his twitter on September 2 that he would be flying out to Korea for a month to play in the IeSF 2011 World Championship. He trained in the oGs-TL House during his stay, and posted a video about his training. . During the tournament, Grubby made his way to the final, only losing a map to Orly, but then was swept 3-0 by the Sjow, earning his first second place in a Starcraft 2 LAN. Despite being in Korea, Grubby didn’t attempt to qualify for Code A.

Round-Trip Between Europe and North America (Fall 2011 – Summer 2012)

Back in Europe, his tournament results improved a lot in the first few weeks. Besides winning several smaller online tournaments he participated also in the Electronic Sports World Cup 2011 and finished 4th after losing to MaNa in the semifinal and MarineKing in the bronze match. A week later, he won his own online tournament, the Grubby's Starcraft II Series Pro Invitational 3, beating players such as TitaN, Nerchio, Feast and DIMAGA. In early 2012, Grubby got the last seed in the European qualifier for IEM Kiev, managed to qualify himself for the main event. He was placed in Group B, along with Kas, Zenio, and NightEnD. He failed to clear the Group Stage, finishing 0-3 in his group, with a poor 1-6 map record.
Grubby's first MLG event was the 2012 MLG Winter Arena, he suffered an early loss against NaNiWa, but defeated LosirA in the loser’s bracket, his first victory against a Korean player in an offline StarCraft 2 event. He also took down ThorZaIN before losing to DeMusliM, thus ending his run in 13th-16th place. This was enough to qualify him for the groupstage of the 2012 MLG Winter Championship. There, he unfortunately ended up in an all Korean group. Despite showing a lot of skill, especially in PvP , he was crushed 0-5 in his group.
In between, he had been invitated to play in the Lone Star Clash. There he won against BlinG but lost immediately after to French zerg Stephano. In the loser’s bracket, he defeated Destiny, Heavens and viOlet, ending in the fourth place after losing to Sleep.
He briefly returned to Europe in May to compete in WCS Netherlands. He showed dominance in the national scene, winning the competition with a single map loss, securing his first SC2 LAN victory and a spot to the European Final. During the following month, he would attempt to every MLG events, but couldn’t reach in better result than a 9th to 12th place during 2012 MLG Spring Arena 2.

Pushing the Grubby line (Fall 2012 – Winter 2013)

Back in Europe at the end of the summer, Grubby participated in the 2012 World Championship Series Europe. Despite a first round loss 1-2 against sLivko, Grubby fought his way through the lower bracket , defeating players such as JeaL , StarEagle, Ret and Nerchio in an amazing series before falling to eventual bronze medalist Lucifron, showing that he has reached a top European level of play, earning $1,200 a spot in WCS World Championship tournament in Shanghai with his 5th/6th place. On 17th November 2012, Grubby joined the best players from all continents in the 2012 Battle.net World Championship. He was placed in group C with Huk, KiLLeR and Sen. While he was able to edge his fellow Protoss 2-1 in the first match, he was unable to overcome Zerg players losing remaining matches 2-1. As the result he didn't advance to the Playoffs and was tied 17th-24th.

Grubby at IEM Singapore, one of most his impressive events so far.

A week after, he played in IEM Singapore. He got placed in a tough group, with players such as sLivko, LucifroN and Oz. He placed third going 3-2 (8-5) in maps, which placed him in the Round of 12. Here, he beat StarDust 3-1, which put him up against MC in the quarterfinals. Despite MC being the favorite, Grubby still managed to pull out a 3-2 victory. His next opponent was fellow European sLivko who he also beat 3-2, to get him a spot in the finals against Sting. It was a close fight, but Grubby lost 2-3. He still managed to grab himself $3,300 from the event and a spot for the IEM Season VII – World Championship

He played his last event of 2012 in Germany, the HomeStory Cup VI. He went through the two group stages, beating BlinG, MC once again and Kas in the process. He was the only protoss remaining in the playoffs, but was unable to held the swarm dominance on the tournament, losing to the eventual winner Snute in the quarterfinals.

Return to Korea (Winter 2013 - Spring 2013)

In January 2013, Grubby was invited alongside the Canadian Protoss Huk to play in the 2013 Global StarCraft II League Season 1 Up & Down matches. Placed in Group C with LosirA, First, Bbyong, Symbol, DongRaeGu. He went 0-5 and placed last in the group, thus sending him down to Code A. He would eventually forfeit this code A spot. During his second travel in Korea, he stayed and trained in the FXOpen House. On January 15, 2013, FXOpen e-Sports and Grubby jointly announced a partnership which will allow him to play in 2013 GSTL Season 1.

Heart of the Swarm

HotS Launch Event

On March 11, 2013, during the Heart of the Swarm Launch Event held in Versailles, France, Grubby took part in a 4-player tournament alongside Stephano, WhiteRa and LucifroN. His first match was against the French Zerg, Stephano, which he won 2-1, putting him up against White-Ra in the finals. Grubby managed to pull a 2-1 victory over him, earning him his first tournament victory in Heart of the Swarm. At its peak, the tournament stream had over 130,000 viewers concurrently.

Sponsors

Main Sponsor(s)

• In early 2012, Grubby announced his partnership with TwitchTV and runs a voluntary $4.99 monthly subscription on his stream.

• On June 8, 2012, BenQ was announced as one of Grubby's main sponsors.

Stream Sponsor(s)

• On February 22, 2013, Grubby announced AllKeyShop.com, a web store that sells CD keys, as one of his stream sponsors.

• On March 13, 2013, Grubby announced the trading school & community, Tradimo.com, as his new stream sponsor.

Trivia

• His name comes from when he played Dungeons and Dragons with his older brothers. Originally "Grubtor Steelheart", he was given the nickname "Grubby" when playing with others over the internet, later he kept the nickname replacing his original. At the time he wasn't aware of the English meaning of the word and claims to be unsure as to whether he would have kept it had he known at the time.
• He played the Orc race in WarCraft III and was known as the "Orc King".
• Has ranked in the top 10 WarCraft III players in terms of winnings each year since 2004.
• Featured in the film "Beyond the Game".
• Organized his own invitational: Grubby's Starcraft II Series Pro Invitational.
• Played WarCraft III for 4Kings, Meet Your Makers and Evil Geniuses.
• Began training in Korea at FXOpen eSports's team house in preparation of his 2013 Global StarCraft II League Season 1 Up & Down matches in January 2013, and compiled a list of trivia.

Achievements

In Premier Tournaments
Date		Place	Event	Result		Winnings
2012-11-25		A22nd	IEM Season VII - Singapore	2 : 3	Sting	$3,300
2011-10-23		A44th	Electronic Sports World Cup 2011	1 : 3	MarineKing	$4,000

In Major Tournaments
Date	Place	Event	Result		Winnings
2013-05-12	A22nd	EIZO Cup	1 : 4	LucifroN	$750
2013-01-13	A11st	Alienware Arena SC2 Pro-Am Tournament	4 : 0	SaroVati	$2,000
2012-04-08	A44th	The Gathering 2012	1 : 3	ThorZaIN	5,000 NOK
2012-03-18	A44th	Lone Star Clash	0 : 2	Sleep	$500
2011-04-23	A33rd	Copenhagen Games Spring 2011	3 : 0	MorroW	8,000 DKK

Complete Results in any Tournament

Interviews

2013

• 2013-01-30 | Grubby: "I think HotS is more my game" by Paul Chaloner of ESL at IEM Brazil 2013 [LoL-only event]
• 2013-01-20 | RAKAKA! Grubby at IEM Katowice by RAKAKA of rakaka.se

• 2013-01-04 | Pre-GSL Interview with Grubby by Cadred of Cadred.org

2012

• 2012-09-24 | Video Interview with Grubby by CadredClips at 2012 DreamHack Open: Valencia
• 2012-09-03 | BenQ Channel: Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen Interview by BenQ at IEM Global Challenge Cologne
• 2012-06-10 | Video Interview with Grubby by WaxAngel of TeamLiquid.net at MLG Spring Championships 2012
• 2012-05-29 | Guest on Real Talk by itmeJP
• 2012-03-28 | Video Interview with Grubby by Rachel Quirico of Cyber Sports Network at 2012 MLG Winter Arena
• 2012-01-10 | Grubby talks about his past, present, and future by Ayesee of It's Gosu eSports

2011

• 2011-12-05 | Written Interview with Grubby by zilir of Team Dignitas
• 2011-10-21 | Video Interview with Grubby by Noam at ESWC 2011

See also

• Personal Sponsorship

External links

• Wikipedia - Manuel Schenkhuizen
• Grubby's Player Profile on e-Sports Earnings

Gallery

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