NGL finals without TeD or TH000

According to reports from replays.net, both Zhuo 'TeD' Zeng and Xiang 'TH000' Huang have backed out of the NGL ONE finals, due to scheduling conflicts.

The pair confirmed to replays.net today, that in order to attend a Chinese event(s) that both are slated to participate in, the NGL ONE invitation would have to be declined. Which event the two are favouring over NGL ONE has been left unspecified, however, given that four of the remaining five participants are also participating in the Stars War final, we can cross that one off. The same can be said for the recently announced TopGamer event.

ToD discusses Starcraft II BETA

Esportsfrance.com had a sit down with ex-Warcraft 3 professional Yoan 'ToD' Merlo, to discuss his thoughts on Blizzard's latest release, Starcraft II BETA.

As always, one of the most anticipated questions of the interview is, 'do you plan on turning Starcraft II into a profession?' To which ToD responded, "no I don't think so. Training 24/7 during months on a video game isn't something I see myself doing again," Surely a disapointing response for his scores of fans.

TopGamer €12,500 Chinese tournament

China continues to assert itself as the saving grace of Warcraft 3 after the announcement of yet another Chinese born event, the TopGamer Warcraft Tournament.

The event is comprised of mostly Chinese players, with a handful of Korean players mixed in for good measure and of course, what event would complete without the obligatory European star, Manuel 'Grubby' Schenkhuizen. In addition to the 12 strong invitation list, there's also going to be a 16 player qualifier; starting with four-player group stages and progressing to a eight player double elimination bracket.

ReMinD and MYM part company

According to reports from replays.net, Sung Sik 'ReMinD' Kim has split with his team MeetYourMakers for, as of yet, unspecified reasons.

Give or take a fortnight, it was roughly six months ago that ReMinD signed with MeetYourMakers. With that in mind, it would seem as though the Korean's contract was up, and one of the parties chose not to renew. Given that two of MYM's current Warcraft 3 team, Pedro 'LucifroN' Moreno Durán and Benjamin 'DeMusliM' Baker, continue to fly the MYM flag, chances are it was ReMinD's decision to opt of out renewing with MYM.

Stars War China, first group stage over

The first group stage of the Stars War Reborn Chinese qualifier has drawn to a close, while group stage two is primed and ready to go.

For the most part the initital group stage was uneventful, with a few exceptions. Well established players like Weiliang 'Fly100%' Lu, Xiang 'MacSed' Hu and Youchao 'Syc' Su were eliminated in favour of some lesser known players such as YuZong 'Blast' Wang, Uhen and Anonhe.

WhO teams up with ieS

Du Seop 'WhO' Chang, who's been without a team since parting ways with SK Gaming some two months ago, has signed on with ieS Virtual Gaming to replace Hyeong Ju 'Check' Lee.

Since releasing Check, ieS has been on the hunt for a suitable replacement for their former star player. After realising what the team lacked was the punching power of a strong orc player, they approached WhO, who was only too happy to join the team. WhO was inititally rumoured to follow Check to ieS after their break with SK-Gaming, but nothing ever came of it.