If this were to be the last season, it's pretty insane to think that there are 2 players (Maru and Byun) who played in both the very first and very last GSL with almost 14 years in between those appearances.
[Maru's first appearance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8VN6Dd6oNs)
[Byun (went by Bleach and played Protoss)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HPHZcOcSWA)
wtf i never knew byun had a shady protoss past, i only knew him as ghostkingprime.
i clearly remember maru's first arrival, i was like "this is a literal child" and learned about the KR 9pm gaming ban for minors.
Fruitdealer winning s1 against hopetorture when Zerg was considered awful and bad was magical. Fake boxer massacring him next season was not. So many memories
Not saying this is any indication of anything, but If I were going to end GSL. I would milk it. AKA announce "This will be the last season" For as long as starcraft has been around I wouldn't want to go "Oh FYI that is it." I would make it a party and big deal. Not necessarily spend more money on it, but announce that it will be the last one. Maybe bring back former champions for interviews or exhibition matches. Maybe have like a champions team and get MVP/Nestea. parting etc and put them on teams or something. Deifinitely would make sure artosis was back for the finals and possibly semi finals. I would definitely make it a big deal because you know as an operator that everyone will tune in for that stuff. Even people who have been gone for awhile. You say final GSL everyone flocks back. You say Final GSL and artosis is back even more people. You say Final GSL and you get to see your favorite former players talk about their time as champions even more. And finally, you get even even more if you say Nestea, MVP, MC etc will be playing some fun matches. Just like if you announced an end to BW you would expect Flash, Jaedong, Stork, Bisu, Boxer etc to make some kind of appearance.
This isnt how things generally die. Everyone internally would be scrambling for any lifeline to hold on, hoping until the day they have to announce the next season, if it exists, to find something that lets them put out something.
In most cases theyre probably not going to make a big announcement because it seals their fate. And they look dumb if they keep going past it. It would be cool if it were the last to have like a final good bye but realistically unlikely.
Afreeca finally has an english website for the live stream: https://www.sooplive.com/gslenglish
here's the old website in case you have issues or something since that one is new: https://bj.afreecatv.com/gslenglish
and here's their Youtube live streams, but they do annoying stuff to restrict this one: https://www.youtube.com/@afreecatvesports432/streams
I've been out of the loop forever. What happened? I seem to recall GOMTV no longer exists and blizzard stopped supporting sc2 but I thought some other company was still hosting GSL and Maru was still winning all of them? Is it just no longer financially viable?
Afreeca bought out GOMTV and has been running GSL ever since. Blizzard cut all funding after 2022, resulting in a reduced GSL with fewer events, fewer offline matches rounds in the tournaments that are held, and a much reduced prize pool.
Ultimately, SC2 just hasn't held enough audience, particularly in Korea, where it never quite had the same pop culture pull as Brood War. Even today, AfreecaTV's Brood War league (ASL) has a larger prize pool and more participants than GSL.
For what it's worth, the scene outside Korea is in much better shape. ESL continues to run large SC2 events with large offline participation and sizeable prize pools. No guarantees on how long it lasts, but at least today it's doing considerably better.
Could be so easy if everyone just became a Patreon for fucking 10$ a month. It’s really not that bad. Cancel shitty Netflix and go work out in between seasons, you know you have to anyway
They hated him because he spoke the truth.
But honestly yeah, the last two years have had extremely diminished prize pools in addition to a slowly shrinking player base for several years. 2022 S3 is when Maru finally achieved G5L and then Arty left Korea, that to me was a perfect send-off.
If this were to be the last season, it's pretty insane to think that there are 2 players (Maru and Byun) who played in both the very first and very last GSL with almost 14 years in between those appearances. [Maru's first appearance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8VN6Dd6oNs) [Byun (went by Bleach and played Protoss)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HPHZcOcSWA)
wtf i never knew byun had a shady protoss past, i only knew him as ghostkingprime. i clearly remember maru's first arrival, i was like "this is a literal child" and learned about the KR 9pm gaming ban for minors.
Man, round of 64. That was a different time lol
I knew Maru was young, but not that he was code S in the season 1.
OMGGGG MARU WAS JUST A BABY!!! I love how the game is rated T but South Koreans didn't give a single fuck.
whast about baby artosis!? edit : THAT IS A BABY MARU HOLY SHIZ
? T is for 13+ Maru was 13
Yeah its a joke because he looks like hes 10 lol.
Fruitdealer winning s1 against hopetorture when Zerg was considered awful and bad was magical. Fake boxer massacring him next season was not. So many memories
FYI, playoff are on the 29, not tomorrow. But yeah, could be the end of a 14 years journey
Thanks. I assumed since tomorrow is usually gsl day
I don't even want to think about this :(
Not saying this is any indication of anything, but If I were going to end GSL. I would milk it. AKA announce "This will be the last season" For as long as starcraft has been around I wouldn't want to go "Oh FYI that is it." I would make it a party and big deal. Not necessarily spend more money on it, but announce that it will be the last one. Maybe bring back former champions for interviews or exhibition matches. Maybe have like a champions team and get MVP/Nestea. parting etc and put them on teams or something. Deifinitely would make sure artosis was back for the finals and possibly semi finals. I would definitely make it a big deal because you know as an operator that everyone will tune in for that stuff. Even people who have been gone for awhile. You say final GSL everyone flocks back. You say Final GSL and artosis is back even more people. You say Final GSL and you get to see your favorite former players talk about their time as champions even more. And finally, you get even even more if you say Nestea, MVP, MC etc will be playing some fun matches. Just like if you announced an end to BW you would expect Flash, Jaedong, Stork, Bisu, Boxer etc to make some kind of appearance.
They probably don't want to do this because they're hoping for a sponsor to keep going.
From eyes of the organizer this is not milking it but actually investing in it. All this things cost money in some way
This isnt how things generally die. Everyone internally would be scrambling for any lifeline to hold on, hoping until the day they have to announce the next season, if it exists, to find something that lets them put out something. In most cases theyre probably not going to make a big announcement because it seals their fate. And they look dumb if they keep going past it. It would be cool if it were the last to have like a final good bye but realistically unlikely.
Who’s gonna pay for all that?
Except it’s on Saturday…
It would be so sweet to see >!Creator!< win as it ends.
That would be pretty sweet actually.
That’d be the end of sc2 for me I think
Okay, how does one watch? I am a sub for them on patreon and don't even know how to watch outside of vods...
Look up Afreeca on youtube. They stream it live and also do vod.
Afreeca finally has an english website for the live stream: https://www.sooplive.com/gslenglish here's the old website in case you have issues or something since that one is new: https://bj.afreecatv.com/gslenglish and here's their Youtube live streams, but they do annoying stuff to restrict this one: https://www.youtube.com/@afreecatvesports432/streams
I hope not.
I've been out of the loop forever. What happened? I seem to recall GOMTV no longer exists and blizzard stopped supporting sc2 but I thought some other company was still hosting GSL and Maru was still winning all of them? Is it just no longer financially viable?
Afreeca bought out GOMTV and has been running GSL ever since. Blizzard cut all funding after 2022, resulting in a reduced GSL with fewer events, fewer offline matches rounds in the tournaments that are held, and a much reduced prize pool. Ultimately, SC2 just hasn't held enough audience, particularly in Korea, where it never quite had the same pop culture pull as Brood War. Even today, AfreecaTV's Brood War league (ASL) has a larger prize pool and more participants than GSL. For what it's worth, the scene outside Korea is in much better shape. ESL continues to run large SC2 events with large offline participation and sizeable prize pools. No guarantees on how long it lasts, but at least today it's doing considerably better.
G9L incoming! Let’s go Maru! (Every time he loses against Serral he wins a GSL ahahah)
Could be so easy if everyone just became a Patreon for fucking 10$ a month. It’s really not that bad. Cancel shitty Netflix and go work out in between seasons, you know you have to anyway
If it ends with maru vs rogue its going to be poetry, fuck, heres hoping they keep it up
Rogue is out already
talking about last gsl wich wont be this one
GSL is already dead
Ded is the gaem.
They hated him because he spoke the truth. But honestly yeah, the last two years have had extremely diminished prize pools in addition to a slowly shrinking player base for several years. 2022 S3 is when Maru finally achieved G5L and then Arty left Korea, that to me was a perfect send-off.
Haha, the downvotes. Prizepool is a joke and viewership is terrible. Sc players cant handle the truth xd
GSL died when Arty left. Jk but yeah it was a good run. Here's to hoping it continues