I am usually quite good at remembering important dates in my life but it was just a couple of days ago, while I was reading my colleagues Patrick's article on "The Foreign Invasion in Korea", did I realise that 17.02.2011 is a day of utter importance. I suppose many of you have another date - 27.07 - better imprinted on your mind but the fact is that it was in February that the astonishing journey of Wings of Liberty began.

So why do I tell you all this? What difference does it make? Why the hell do we need to commemorate such a date?

The answer to all those questions is simple and stands behind the reason that now is a very good time to look back and remember. Remember the way that we - pro-gamers, players, shoutcasters, eSports writers, tournament organisers and viewers - all walked to reach this current state one year later.

I clearly remember the start of the Beta. I recall it pristinely entirely due to the fact that I, most unluckily, missed the first wave of keys and grew to loath every person who didn't. Fortunately, I was able to get my hands on one of those keys just before StarCraft 2, as an eSport, started walking down its

Carpet of Red Thorns

Although the professional scene quickly emerged and started its rapid development, it was not until late March that the first real major tournaments took place. The charge was lead by ESL Pro Invite which gathered players from different eSports games of Blizzard. BroodWar legends like Victor 'Nazgul' Goossens, Oleksii 'White-Ra' Krupnyk and Eugin 'Strelok' Oparyshev went against WarCraft 3 masters such as Pedro 'LucifroN' Moreno Durán, Benjamin 'DeMusliM' Baker and Zdravko 'Insomnia' Georgiev. This was also the first to feature a significant prize pool, which in that time was $270.


The next turning point was TeamLiquid Invitational #1 which featured a slightly larger prize pool of $680 but the accent fell elsewhere. The TL Invitational semi-finals featured one of the best games in the beta until its very end and gave birth to a new rising star and long-time fan favourite - Dario 'TLO' Wünsch.
TheLittleOne, who was quickly recruited by the evergrowing star team of Liquid, soon became one of the solid foundations of StarCraft 2 pro-scene. Despite the game being in its early beta testing, Dario sparked the imagination of countless players and fans by playing the game in ways unimaginable. He was featured in every second VOD, was interviewed by every single fan-site and was invited to every single tournament from that point on. He was the "Grrr" of StarCraft 2 and was certainly one of the most influential figures in the early days of the game.

It was around that time that old WarCraft 3 tournaments got their SC2 reincarnation. Go4SC2 and ZOTAC, who ran weekly and offered a bigger prize pool at the end of each month, were and still are one of the most popular open cups with as big player pool as 512/1024. Even though considered minor tournaments, those two along with others such as CraftCup and Viking Cup, gave the community the necessary drive to ladder hard in order to get continentally recognized.


Those were also times that marked the ascension of a pleiad of talents. One of them was Ukraine's most notorious Zerg Dmytro 'DIMAGA' Filipchuk who is still considered the best Zerg outside of Korea. Along with TLO, Dimaga caught the opportunity to set new standards of play that still last one year later. Being acknowledged as the inventor of the Baneling bust, Dimaga is also of the pioneers that popularized such fundamental plays such as the Mass Queen and perfected most of the Zerg openings to utmost solidity.

With the coming of May 2010 it seemed that SC2 was no longer suffering the pain of the thorny way - it was now confidently strolling down a proper red carpet towards the position of future king of eSports. In spite of its beta status, there was no sensible fragility in the game or its ever growing community. Following the success of the first two major invitationals, seven more were held in May. There was a big tournament every week, each more grand than the last until the middle of the month brought us two cups of utmost importance - HDH Invitational and the 178.com Europe vs Asia StarLeague.

Both these tournaments made two important steps towards the unification of all the communities. HDH put European and American player against each other to solve the much debated problem of who are the better Westerners and also was the tournament with biggest prize pool throughout the beta ($3,450). EU vs Asia, on the other hand, gave an answer to a much more vague (by that time) question of how good are the Koreans exactly. There wasn't an abundance of Asian replays as compared to the foreign scene and community members, for the first time in many years, had no idea what is happening in the Mecca of StarCraft. And now everyone could find out for sure.


By the end of May another tournament repeated this fundamental intercontinental format. The 17173 World Cup was the competition with largest player pool, featuring gamers from all three continents. The World Cup marked the the ascension of Won Ki 'FruitDealer' Kim as the best player in StarCraft 2 and reconfirmed the stature of Dimaga, who took the silver by defeating players like Check, Loner and Xiaot. A reassuring information was obtained after those tournaments - Asians were better but the skill gap was definitely surmountable. No longer would the foreigners be light years behind!

But as vibrant the pro-scene during the beta might have been, it was not only the pro-gamers that pushed the scene to a new level. There was a second driving force behind it. If pro-players were the templars, the other party was definitely

The Scholars of the Crusade

They recorded every battle, examined every move of every knight, documented every strategy with the pristine wish to share those with the common folk. They did not allow the crusade to wither away and spent humongous amount of effort and passion into keeping the war going. It was in the early beta that casters like Day[9], HD, Husky, Crota and TotalBiscuit rose to fame due to their tireless dedication to feed the community with everything StarCraft. A bit later innovative enterprises like 'GosuCoaching' and 'State of the Game' were created, giving fans yet more opportunities to come in touch and hear from their favourite pro-gamers. Long-time eSports figures such as Artosis, DJWheat and JP McDaniel also seized this fresh opportunity and soon became one of the leading SC2 doers. Community websites like GosuGamers.net, TL.net and Reddit.com were more vibrant than ever. The constant improvement and expansion to day of every single piece of "scholastic" doings remains the biggest proof that the supporters of SC2 are soon to hit the eSports scene like a tsunami. Again.



The Second March

of SC2 began soon after it's release. August 2010 marked the beginning of three major battlefronts, each taking the lead in its respective area of focus. Those were, of course, MLG Pro Circuit (North America), IEM (Europe) and GomTV's GSL (Korea). Each of them hit hard and left the community in awe, stunned by the disbelief that a month-old game (release-wise) could be played with such skill and dedication. Every single race managed to come out triumphant, shutting balance discussions at least for the time being.

In six months of active tournament life, StarCraft 2 has grown with unbelievable rates. Korea reached back to its former majesties and not only gave shelter to BroodWar and WarCraft legends, but also put them at the top of the grandest tournament for the time being. The western world was doing the same and trying to catch up with Korea, casting larger and larger tournaments like MLG, IEM, DreamHack, BlizzCon and the most recent Assembly Winter. By February 2011 there is no indication whatsoever that these events will not continue to grow into leading StarCraft 2 venues of incredible proportions.

So, in the end, where do we stand as of now? Numbers tell us that more than 10 new professional teams have been created especially to serve SC2 needs. More than 30 major tournaments have been conducted in the past 12 months. According to Liquiledia $14,225 have been given away in beta major events, with the sum from the official release till January 2011 being more than $830,000, not counting weekly cups, show-matches or player slaries. This means that prizes in professional StarCraft 2 have grown more than 58 times, giving us probably the most rapid expansion in eSports history. And we are all part of this expansion.

Happy first anniversary, StarCraft 2. And happy anniversary to the whole community. You have my dearest admirations!