ThorZaIN

Overview

Results

ThorZaIN [help] [edit]
Background Information
Name:	Marcus Sebastian Eklöf
Team:	Evil Geniuses
Race:	Terran
Alternate IDs:	EGThorZaIN, mouzThorZaIN, PraeThorZaIN, Yakero
Nicknames:	T-Zain, Spoon Killer, Spoon Terran
Country:	Sweden
Birthday:	February 9, 1991 (1991-02-09)
TLPD:	International Korean
Site:	Facebook
Livestream:	TeamLiquid.net Twitch TV
Fan Page:	ThorZaIN's Fan Club
Twitter:	EGThorZaIN
Career
Team History:	Evil Geniuses mousesports Praetoriani Online Kingdom
Crowning achievement:	2012 DreamHack Open/Stockholm

Marcus "ThorZaIN" Eklöf is a high-level StarCraft 2 Terran player and former Warcraft 3 player from Sweden. While originally being a very obscure player who participated in only Nordic tournaments, ThorZaIN gained notable fame and prestige after defeating NaNiwa to win the TSL3.

ThorZaIN is known for his slow, methodical, method of play. His nickname, the Spoon Terran, originated when Korean netizens remarked that he was using a spoon to kill his opponent.

Wings of Liberty

ThorZaIN played for Online Kingdom in the beginning of Wings of Liberty. He did not make a big name for himself in the early stages of WoL, only taking part in a few Nordic competitions. One reason for this might be due to ThorZaIN opting to continue his parallel Warcraft 3 career instead of fully devoting himself to Starcraft 2. Nevertheless, the Swedish player managed to win the ESL Viking Cup #9 and continually ranked in the top 40 of the European ladder from late August through early November.

On the 3rd of November 2010, ThorZaIN left his old team, Online Kingdom, to team up with the Dutch organization Praetoriani, signaling a definite switch to Starcraft 2.

Sign-on statement from ThorZaIN:

"I will from today be a part of team Praetoriani. A newly founded team with some up and coming players. Some of you may know me from WC3 and some of you don't. I haven't really accomplished anything "big" in SC2 yet but that's mostly because I haven't really played any tournament except for the EPS.Nordic (Where I'm doing quite well). Instead I've been practising and improving. I feel that I'm doing great lately and therefore decided to try to get "more serious" with my team and therefore joining up with my old friend and managers from WC3. People who followed WC3 may know that Lloth can be a pain in the ass but one thing is certain: He takes good care of his players and gets things done. It will be a pleasure to once again play in his team."

Breakthrough on the European scene

Still a relatively discrete player, ThorZaIN managed to qualify for TeamLiquid StarLeague 3 through TeamSpeak TL Open 12. His first opponent in the event was the first champion of GSL, the Korean Zerg progamer FruitDealer. Despite being the underdog of the match, ThorZaIN eventually defeated his adversary 2-0, showing great patience and good micromanagement. In the next round, he faced the reigning TSL champion (on StarCraft: Brood War), Tyler, and flawlessly knocked him out. He advanced to round of eight, where he was pitted against the heavily favourite MC, twice GSL winner. ThorZaIN soon led 2-0, but MC managed to tie up the series and came back at 2-2. The Swedish player finally earned his spot in the final four by winning the last game with a heavy use of Thors.

A few days after his victory against MC, ThorZaIN was recruited by mousesports, stating that he believed that the German team would become an even bigger name in the StarCraft 2 scene, and expressing his desire of being a part of it .

Two days after he switched teams, ThorZaIN met Kas in the semifinals of TSL3, and despite TvT being ThorZaIN's worst match-up at the time, he was able to eliminate the Ukrainian player, therefore proceeding to the finals. His final adversary was his compatriot NaNiwa, who outmatched him during the first games, eventually leading the series 3-1. Nevertheless, ThorZaIN managed to win the three last games in a row in order to win the tournament.

Now regarded as one of the strongest European players, ThorZaIN made his first appearance in MLG two weeks after he became the TSL Champion, at MLG Columbus, as a signed-up player. He made his way through the open winner's bracket and eventually earned his spot in Championship Pool Play, where he notably defeated IdrA 2-0. His run in the championship bracket was however shortened by MC, in a rematch of the TSL3 quarterfinals. ThorZaIN lost 4-2, hence ending at the ninth place of the event, the furthest reaching player from the open bracket.

Korea

MLG had the right to grant three Code A spots to top competitors at MLG Columbus. ThorZaIN accepted that offer and participated in GSL August. He also participated in the 2011 Global StarCraft II Team League Season 1 as a part of the combined team, F.United. In Code A, his first match was up against YuGiOh, who 2 - 1'd ThorZaIN and thus knocked him out of Code A.

However, in his GSTL debut he showed off his true skills by defeating three Korean opponents before finally losing to Genius. In addition, ThorZaIN tweeted on August 31st that he would be staying at the SlayerS house instead of the WeMade FOX house until he leaves Korea on the 8th, since WMF would be ceasing their progaming operations.

After Korea

ThorZaIN was invited to the Dreamhack Valencia Invitational, as announced on September 1st. He finished second, losing to DongRaeGu 2-3 in the finals.

ThorZaIN participated in NASL season 2 in the semi-open tournament. He played in the upper bracket -- after defeating a relatively unknown Australian player named Shuffle he would notably defeat MajOr 2-0, Chinese zerg Uhen 2-0 and finally CatZ 2-1. His final match in the semi-open would be against Gatored (who had fought through the Loser's Bracket. As a result, their game would be a BO5, with the player in the winners' bracket starting with a 1-0 lead). ThorZaIN would win 2-1 with a final score of 3-2 to enter the Grand Finals at Ontario California. There he would sweep DeMusliM 3-0 in an exciting series and overcome his teammate MorroW 3-1 to enter the semi-finals against EG's PuMa. ThorZaIN would ultimately lose 2-4, and would play against Sen in the third place match, where he lost 2-4 taking 4th place.

ThorZaIN running to his booth at the NASL Season 2 Finals.

In the mid of December, ThorZaIN was one of eight invites of Starcraft2 Across The Galaxy. Taking the Ro16 and Ro8 without dropping maps against Eeel and White-Ra, he lost the first match on Metalopolis against the Korean Protoss Crank in the Ro4. Coming back from 0-1, ThorZaIN went on to win the next two matches, advancing to the Finals, where he defeated Jim 3-0.

Due to his second place in MSI Pro Cup 4, ThorZaIN was invited to MSI Pro Cup 5 and seeded directly into the quarter finals, where he once again faced off against White-Ra, emerging again victorious. After defeating Adelscott in the semi-finals, ThorZaIN was set against Polt in the finals, where he lost 0-3. Polt and ThorZaIN continued to meet in the finals of MSI Pro Cup 6 and MSI Pro Cup 7 again, with Polt again triumphing over the swedish Terran.

In February he participated in the MLG Winter Arena, qualifying in the European Qualifier with a third place, losing in the lower bracket against viOLet. After a win in the Ro16 against Sheth, ThorZaIN lost in the Ro16 against Leenock 1-2 and fell to the lower bracket, where he was eliminated by Grubby 1-2.

As of March, ThorZaIN was invited to the Iron Squid tournament, playing in Group B against Symbol, Mvp, IdrA and MC, as well as participating in the Red Bull LAN Orlando, an intense training weekend, where he is one of four spotlighted players. After the Red Bull LAN, ThorZaIN participated in the MLG 2012 Winter Championship, where he was seeded into round 5 of the Open Bracket. After victories over NonY and BlinG, the Swedish Terran continued to Pool A, where he went with a 1-4 match score to the second round of the Championship Bracket, where he was eliminated by Golden.

In April 2012, ThorZaIN defeated Polt 3-1 in the grand finals of the Stockholm DreamHack Open. Throughout the entire tournament, he only lost one Bo3 in the second Group Stage to Naugrim and one map to Monster and Polt, with a map score of 21-4 overall. Due to a recent collaboration of MLG and Dreamhack, ThorZaIN also receives a paid trip to MLG Spring Arena 2.

On April 26th 2012, it was announced that ThorZaIN was invited to the TSL4 as number 1 seed to defend his title. On the same day, ThorZaIN managed to finally win the MSI Pro Cup. After losing to KeeN 0-3 in MSI Pro Cup 8, he was once again seeded into directly into the Round of 8, where he won over the Russian Protoss TitaN 2-0, before defeating Nerchio 2-0 in the Ro4 and being the sixth time in the finals of the MSI Pro Cup, this time against viOlet. ThorZaIN managed to secure a 3-1 win as well as winning once again another seed into the quarterfinals of the next tournament.

On May 9th 2012, Evil Geniuses announced that ThorZaIN had joined the team.

Trivia

• Former top Human player in Warcraft 3.
• Played 50 games of Starcraft: Brood War, reaching D rank.
• Originally played Protoss in the beta, but decided to switch because he "lost every PvP". He chose Terran over Zerg for no particular reason.
• Nicknamed "Master Jane" for the corruption of his ID "mouzThorZaIN" as pronounced by the Korean hype caster.
• Nicknamed "Spoon Murderer" or "Spoon Killer" in Korea for the slow methodical way he plays out his games.
• Went 13-4 in the first IPL Team Arena Challenge 1, the highest of any participant.
• Does not like to be called ThorZain, as he says "IT SUX".
• Considers IdrA and NaNiwa two of the best foreigners.
• Considered by MMA to be the best foreigner.
• His victory at the DreamHack Open: Stockholm was the first premier tournament won by a foreign terran in over 11 months, the last being his win in TSL 3 in May 2011.

Achievements

In Premier Tournaments
Date		Place	Event	Result		Winnings
2012-04-22		A11st	2012 DreamHack Open Stockholm	3 : 1	Polt	$ 10,400
2011-12-04		A44th	North American Star League Season 2	2 : 4	Sen	$ 8,000
2011-09-17		A22nd	Dreamhack Valencia Invitational	2 : 3	DongRaeGu	-
2011-08-12		A44th	IGN ProLeague Season 2	1 : 3	Nerchio	$ 4,000
2011-08-07		A33rd	2011 European Battle.net Invitational	1 : 2	NaNiwa	$ 3,000
2011-05-15		A11st	2011 Pokerstrategy.com TSL3	4 : 3	NaNiwa	$ 15,000

In Major Tournaments
Date	Place	Event	Result		Winnings
2012-04-07	A33rd	The Gathering 2012	3 : 1	Grubby	€ 1,350
2011-12-24	A11st	StarCraft 2 Across the Galaxy	3 : 0	Jim	€ 1,000

Complete results in Minor, Monthly and Weekly Tournaments

Championships

Team Liquid Starleague Champion
SC:BW TSL2 Preceeded By:   NonY	Pokerstrategy Team Liquid Starleague 3 15th May 2011 - Present   ThorZaIN	TSL4 Succeeded By: TBD

DreamHack Champion
DreamHack Winter 2011 Preceeded By:   HerO	DreamHack Open: Stockholm 22nd April 2012 - Present   ThorZaIN	DreamHack Open: Summer Succeeded By: TBD

Gallery

• 
• 
• 

WoL Matches

• Thorzain vs FruitDealer, TSL Ro32 - Thorzain utilises a risky 16CC into double Expo build
• ThorZaiN vs YuGiOh, GSL August 2011 Code A Ro32 - ThorZaiN uses thinly spread tank-marine forces to control the map

Interviews

• Announcing his shift from WC3 to SC 2 - Interview by Esportsfrance
• BlizzCon Europe 2010 Interview
• "Nervousness often helps me" - Interview by fragster
• In bed with ThorZaIN and Effect - Interview by Iceman (Swedish)
• Interviewed by Teamliquid's HotBid at MLG Columbus 2011
• Interview with ThorZaIN at DreamHack Winter 2011 by UpCloseGamers
• Interview with ThorZaIN at MLG Columbus 2012 by TeamLiquid's HotBid
• Interview with ThorZaIN at DreamHack Open - Stockholm

External Links

• Battle Net profile and Ranking page for his European server account.
• Battle Net profile and Ranking page for his North American server account.