This changes everything - GOMTv and MLG Partner

[Araneatrox]

My Previous release was just DWARFED! by this.


MLG is honored to announce a true game-changer for the world of competitive StarCraft 2. Beginning at MLG Columbus and continuing throughout the 2011 Season, Major League Gaming and the GOMTV Global StarCraft 2 League are establishing a League Exchange Program that will send the best MLG players to compete in the GSL, and allow top Korean talent to play live in the US.

Pro Circuit Players Competing in the GSL

At MLG Columbus, the Top 3 non-Korean finishers will each be placed into GSL Code A.
At every 2011 Pro Circuit Live Competition after MLG Columbus, GSL placement will occur as follows:
Code S status will be awarded to the highest placing player, within the Top 3, regardless of country of origin, who does not already have Code S status.
Code S status will not be awarded if all of the players placing 1st-3rd already have Code S Status.
Code A status will be awarded to the next three highest placing non-Korean players.
If Code S status is awarded to a Korean player, or not awarded at all, Code A status also will be awarded to the 4th highest placing non-Korean player.
All travel and accomodation expenses for these players will be provided by the GSL.
GSL Pro Players Competing on the MLG Pro Circuit

MLG will invite four Korean pro players to each Pro Circuit Live Competition.
These players will be placed directly into the Championship Pools, one into each Pool.
Their placement in the Pools will be determined by their GSL rank.
All travel and accomodation expenses for these players will be provided by MLG.
For MLG Columbus, we will also be inviting a player from the CSN tournament, currently in progress. This player will be seeded into the Open Bracket, and their travel and accomodation expenses will be covered by CSN.
This historic partnership marks the first time the GSL has ever qualified a player directly into Code S based on results from another tournament, and MLG Columbus will be the first time Korean players have ever competed live in an open-registration StarCraft 2 tournament in the US. We are working closely with the GSL to coordinate schedules so that all players involved will be able to compete in both the GSL and the Pro Circuit.

The Players
The following four GSL pro players will attend MLG Columbus. We are honored to welcome these players to the already stacked pool of talent competing on the Pro Circuit.

ST_Bomber
IM.Losira
SlayerS_MMA
FOXMoon
The full Pool lineup will be announced on Tuesday, May 17. Please go here for an explanation of minor changes made to the competition format to incorporate the larger Pools.

The Pro Circuit Livestreams: A Completely New Experience
Our partnership with the GSL is not the only new beginning for MLG StarCraft 2. Over the past month, we’ve taken many steps to improve and enhance our streams and our live spectator experience, for MLG Columbus and every Pro Circuit Competition to come. The changes we’ve made are so extensive that they require an announcement of their own, so we’ll be bringing you those details soon. For now, know that if you come and watch live, you’ll be able to hear every word spoken by the casters in the venue, and if you’re watching from home, you’ll be able to see every minute of the action. And there’s going to be a lot of action to see.

We’d like to thank the GSL for their cooperation and generosity; with this exchange, we can bring players from all regions together to fight on the same playing fields and stand on the same stages. The future of StarCraft 2 starts now. Join us in Columbus and be a part of it.


Beginning at MLG Columbus, MLG will be participating in a historic League Exchange Program with the GOMTV Global StarCraft 2 League. MLG will be inviting four GSL pro players to compete in each remaining Pro Circuit Competition of 2011, and these players will be placed directly into Pool Play in each Regular Season Event.

This incredibly exciting change necessitates some adjustments to the Regular Season Competition Format, in order to accommodate the extra players. Here’s exactly how it will work.

There will still be four Championship Pools. The Top 16 finishers from MLG Dallas will be seeded into the Pools based on their rank, just as in Dallas.
One GSL pro player will be added to each Pool, based on their GSL rank, as follows:
The #1 GSL pro player will go to Pool D
The #2 GSL pro player will go to Pool C
The #3 GSL pro player will go to Pool B
The #4 GSL pro player will go to Pool A
As before, one undefeated player from the Open Bracket will eventually join each pool, for a total of six players per Pool.
Each member of the Pool will play a total of five Pool Play matches, rather than four, which significantly increases the amount of games you will see played by top players
After MLG Columbus:

The Pools will always contain the Top 20 players (four invited GSL pro players, and 16 top-ranked MLG players) and four undefeated Open Bracket players, for a total of 24.
The 20 players who start in Pool Play on Friday will be seeded according to their Pro Circuit Rank Points.
No matter what their MLG seed is, the invited GSL pro players will be placed in Pools based on their GSL rank. The #1 ranked GSL pro player will always be placed into Pool D, etc.
In the National Championship, where there are no Pools, the GSL pro players will be seeded based on their MLG Rank Points.
Adding four players to the tournament has some ramifications for the format that go beyond Pool Play, so Regular Season competitions will work in the following way from MLG Columbus onward:

A round (Open Losers Round 9) will be added to the Open Bracket
12 Players will advance from the Open Bracket into the Championship Bracket:
The four undefeated players will move into the Pools
The eight players with only one loss will be seeded into the Championship Losers Bracket
At the end of the tournament, 52 players—rather than the usual 48—will receive Pro Circuit Rank Points. Please see here [link] for a full breakdown of the new Rank Point allotment.
Please see the official StarCraft 2 Competition Format for a more detailed explanation of the new tournament format.

If you haven’t already, take a look at the official announcement of the MLG/GSL League Exchange Program; these are very exciting times for StarCraft 2, and we can’t wait to see what happens. Join us in Columbus and see for yourself; spectator passes and competitor passes are on sale now.




Tl;DR Version

The Top placing player(Who does not currently have a GSL Rank) at MLG will be given GSL Code S Status for the next GSL Season.

The Top 3 Players(That do not have a GSL Rank) at MLG will be given Code A status for the next GSL Season

4 Players from the GSL Code A and Code S pool will be given Pro status and invited to an event(They are only invited for one live event, so if they want to come again they do it on their own accord)

Players for Columbus are
IM.Lousira(AMAZING!)
ST_Bomber(Awesome!)
SlayerS_MMA(Not yet proven himself, but SlayerS)
FOXMoon(Wc3 Legend)

[GunnerDude]

They will all be subject to Idra Rage!

[Gweedo888]

i love the idea and i love rachel so hot but two things that trailer could have been so much better and she needs to hold the mic better

[Crinkly Duke]

The dude at the end almost sounds like D-Maq.

[Araneatrox]

The dude at the end almost sounds like D-Maq.

The guy at the end is called DOA, he is a Code A caster for GSL. He is good... But not as good as Moletrap

[Hylian]

I'm excited and i'm not even a fan... yet.

[Araneatrox]

Addition as well,

MLG are dropping Octoshape, and will be using Streamworks(Which will allow Korean viewers to watch using GOMplayer)
http://imageshack.us/m/854/7086/streamu.jpg

[D Moralize]

This is so sick I love seeing leagues work together instead of trying to run each other out of business, and I know octoshape gave alot of people problems, hopefully thats gone too

[Gweedo888]

wow thats is awesome i really hope this bridges the gap between american sc2 fighters and korean. It will be amazing to see who makes it for the orlando leg of the circut as well

[cF WiNGER]

I'm not a SC2 fan, but WOW is this big for MLG and SC2!!!! Awesome, glad to see the continued growth of MLG world wide!!!!

[ReFlex]

so excited!! :D

[Araneatrox]

Updated with some of the details of how everything will work.

[DeeLuv]

Does this mean Halo won't be the flagship game for MLG anymore? Neighbor, Ghostayame, and BestMan had a brief, but polite, dustup today with Sundance on Twitter (tweets since deleted) about SC2 getting potentially preferential treatment over Halo. Ghost even raising fears of Halo going the way of GoW. A fear I have shared quite frankly, with all respect due to SC and its players.

[Araneatrox]

Does this mean Halo won't be the flagship game for MLG anymore? Neighbor, Ghostayame, and BestMan had a brief, but polite, dustup today with Sundance on Twitter (tweets since deleted) about SC2 getting potentially preferential treatment over Halo. Ghost even raising fears of Halo going the way of GoW. A fear I have shared quite frankly, with all respect due to SC and its players.

Think of it this way, does Halo have a set of 64 players that are arguably better than anyone that goes to MLG Events?
No not at all.

Sc2 has a unprecedented following in Korea, and thus it gives us some of the best players in the world.
Huk, Idra, Jinro(Who have all Won MLG) Struggle to compete against these Korean players in perfect environments. I am sure that if there was this sort of pool of players for Halo then MLG would pursue it. But, Halo seems to only been played commutatively at a decent level in the US, the rest of the world has not caught onto it.

That is just my reply to Neighbor Ghost and Bestman.

[chris_cr33p]

holy ag;j/WFON'GWNREGOKNERNGT[OHTMNHGP]OQERMGHNQER[OJHNOjfdavaijsfdngokalkrubng qawrejgb [oewrjhg[oawhefonreq[ugas[iodjgn[oasnfdg[oainrgo[nargonaee[goinaoiwe[rngoanrgo[ianwerg

THAT IS FREAKING SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[xxlilxdragonxx]

Sc2 just got even better for mlg :)

[Antidote]

That's awesome. GSl teaming up with MLG will be exactly the boost MLG needs right now.

Sadly I'm not sure how the veterans of GSL will take to this.

[DeeLuv]

Think of it this way, does Halo have a set of 64 players that are arguably better than anyone that goes to MLG Events?
No not at all.

Sc2 has a unprecedented following in Korea, and thus it gives us some of the best players in the world.
Huk, Idra, Jinro(Who have all Won MLG) Struggle to compete against these Korean players in perfect environments. I am sure that if there was this sort of pool of players for Halo then MLG would pursue it. But, Halo seems to only been played commutatively at a decent level in the US, the rest of the world has not caught onto it.

That is just my reply to Neighbor Ghost and Bestman.

I think some of this also has to do with SC being on PC, which is universal, and Halo being exclusive to one console (and a console not popular in Japan at that). It restricts it quite a bit IMO. Frankly, I can't watch SC. I totally respect the geek culture aspect of the game, and am sure it takes a ton of skill to play, but viewing a game from a top down angle moving virtual armies around and whatnot just doesn't do it for me. I don't understand everything that is going on, and really don't want to invest the time into learning all that. Seeing a game from a first person perspective like Halo or COD is much more entertaining, and Halo has those moments like a 1v1 DMR battle or a sick snipe that provide the Ohh and Ahh moments that even someone who doesn't know everything thats going on can appreciate. COD, because of its pop and shot nature, can't quite provide those moments like Halo. Nothing against SC, but I sure hope Halo at least stays on equal footing with SC on MLG's main stage in the future.

[Antidote]

I think some of this also has to do with SC being on PC, which is universal, and Halo being exclusive to one console (and a console not popular in Japan at that). It restricts it quite a bit IMO. Frankly, I can't watch SC. I totally respect the geek culture aspect of the game, and am sure it takes a ton of skill to play, but viewing a game from a top down angle moving virtual armies around and whatnot just doesn't do it for me. I don't understand everything that is going on, and really don't want to invest the time into learning all that. Seeing a game from a first person perspective like Halo or COD is much more entertaining, and Halo has those moments like a 1v1 DMR battle or a sick snipe that provide the Ohh and Ahh moments that even someone who doesn't know everything thats going on can appreciate. COD, because of its pop and shot nature, can't quite provide those moments like Halo. Nothing against SC, but I sure hope Halo at least stays on equal footing with SC on MLG's main stage in the future.

I don't understand what japan has to do with Halo or SC. Sc is just a better game in a worldly sense. Lots of people get the appeal of SC and while we are all Halo fans SC is going to be the thing that keeps MLG going and growing bigger in an international sense. I don't really think we will ever see Halo being as big as that game, the best we can do is hope that it continues being as big as it is and doesn't die like a lot of competitive FPS games.

[DeeLuv]

I don't understand what japan has to do with Halo or SC. Sc is just a better game in a worldly sense. Lots of people get the appeal of SC and while we are all Halo fans SC is going to be the thing that keeps MLG going and growing bigger in an international sense. I don't really think we will ever see Halo being as big as that game, the best we can do is hope that it continues being as big as it is and doesn't die like a lot of competitive FPS games.

Totally agree with this and Canadian's post.

[DrunkTiger]

I have been a Halo fan since the beginning of Halo: CE. Halo has been the only eSports titles that i have actually been able to sit down and watch... up until SC2. I love both games and I hope to see them both move forward. The is pretty awesome move on MLG's part. This only opens doors for the future of MLG and could open up other opportunities likes this for other titles if some were to rise.

I'm a huge fan of SC2 now. I can't wait for Columbus. I wish I could attend. I hope they have the live stream worked out because I'm going to be shredding some bandwidth.

Edit: SlayerS_MMA to do big things in Columbus!