#122 – StarCast: “Massive Damage to…Massive” w/Tumba of eSports Mgmt.

Listen Now:  

"Massive Damage to…Massive" w/Tumba of eSports Mgmt. – Episode #122

This Episode:

• Tobias Interview
• eSports Management Group
• News
• HotS Balance Update #4
• New Liquid: Sea
• The Results
• GSL Season 4
• IPTL
• OSL
• leSF 2012 World Championship

Hosts: Garrett and Kyle

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Tobias Interview
Interview Resources
TL Thread for Questions
StarCast Thread for Questions

eSports Management Group

1. What exactly is eMG?  What is your purpose, what do you do?

1. What’s your position?

1. Do you run eMG as more of a talent resource company actively selling the people you represent or as an entity that provides business support to talent you represent, or BOTH?

[If the answer to the above question is not talent resource company, these questions may not be relevant]

1. Typically, how do you engage with brands and/or companies when representing talent?

1. When you are approaching new talent, how do you sell the eMG approach and differentiate it from other self-representation or talent models?

1. What is your approach to esports talent as opposed to other industries. For example, do you represent an esports talent the same way you would represent an actress, dancer, TV broadcaster, athlete etc. What are the similarities and differences between esports talent compared to the others?

1. You guys have been "quiet" in terms of any announcements in public. Is this on purpose as a management agency? What is the actual purpose of eMG? What are your goals?

1. I heard you recently signed Matt “LookNoHands” Fink as well?  What will he be doing specifically?

1. You guys have made announcements of hiring Artosis, Tasteless, and White-Ra. What do you guys have in plan for these guys, other than what they are currently doing?
1. Also, are you guys hiring?

1. Can you share some unexpected situations that have come up since starting eMG, such as cost impacts, community responses, talent obligations, etc.

StarCraft II

1. What race do you play when you have time to jump in?

1. What tournaments do you go out of your way to catch?
1. Favorite tourney?

1. Favorite pro-player?

1. Before you started EMG you were a rising star in the caster scene. Why did you stop casting?
1. Do you plan to start casting again in the future?

General eSports

1. What do you think are some of the merits of DotA 2 as an eSports game?

1. We talk a lot about who won what and how much they won on StarCast.  When you look at tournaments and some of the top players’ earnings, it looks like there is a lot of money in this industry.  But when you talk to the people putting on these events and running teams it sounds like the complete opposite.  How do you see eSports from a business perspective right now?
1. How would you improve the model to bring more revenue into the scene?

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News

HotS Balance Update #4

Protoss

- Mothership Core
Purify has been changed to the following:
Purify can now only be cast on your Nexus at max 10 range.
Once cast, the mothership core will attach itself to the Nexus, transforming into a weapon with range 10.
While attached to the Nexus, the mothership core will be unable to cast abilities and regenerate energy.
The damage of Purify has been lowered to 20 and can attack both air and ground units.
Purify will last until cancelled.
Recall has been changed to the following:
Recall is now a simple cast-and-click ability on a player’s Nexus.
Once cast, the mothership core and every friendly unit within a 7-range radius to the core will be recalled to the Nexus.
A new ranged weapon called Repulsor Cannon has been added to the mothership core while in its mobile state.
Repulsor Cannon deals 8 damage to ground units with an attack speed of 0.85.
The cost of the mothership core has increased from 50/50 to 100/100.
Movement speed has increased from 0.47 to 1.875.

"The main design changes for this week are surrounding the mothership core. Due to the variety in maps, we found that no matter how slow we made the mothership core’s movement speed, deadly all-in strategies exist on many different maps and/or positions. To ensure that this unit does not limit us as well as the many tournament map makers around the world, we decided to go in a new direction."
"Both of these changes were made to discourage the unit from being used in all-ins. Now that its two spells are strictly defensive, we believe we can make a cooler mothership core. It will now move at a reasonably fast speed and feature an anti-ground attack. We hope these changes will make the unit a lot more fun to use."

Neural Parisite a Mothership core?

- Oracle
Health has increased from 20/80 to 60/100.
Speed has decreased from 3.75 to 3.375.
The duration of Entomb has increased from 30 to 45.

Terran

- Widow Mine
The duration of Activate Mine has been decreased to 2 sec.
Auto-cast can now be turned off in both activated and deactivated modes.

Zerg

- Swarm Host
Locust attack range has increased from 2 to 3.
Locust damage has been reduced from 14 to 12.
"We’re currently looking at ways to alter the design of the widow mine so that it feels like core terran unit. We’re also reevaluating the oracle’s third spell: Phase Shift. While Phase Shift is a cool option against Fungal Growth, is not very appealing in other situations. These are the main things we’re looking at right now, so we encourage you to share your feedback regarding these two topics."
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New Liquid: Sea
TL has a great post introducing Sea to new StarCraft fans.  In the article they explain that Sea was the only registered KeSPA player during the early Brood War days that was registered on TL and actually reached out to his foreign fans.

Follow Liquid_Sea:

1. @liquid_sea
2. Twitch.tv/liquidsea

Liquid also released a Sea replay pack as well as an interview.
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The Results

GSL Season 4

1. GSL on Liquipedia

Ro8
Liquid_TaeJa vs FXO_Leenock

MarineKing_Prime vs StarTale_Life

1. Classic MKP victory in Game 1.  Over-aggressive mass-Bio play.
2. Life PUNISHED MKP the next 3 games in a row though.

The Final Four

1. Rain vs Mvp
2. TaeJa vs Life

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IPTL

1. IPTL on Liquipedia
2. VODs

Last night:
StarTale vs Prime
Parting wins the series for StarTale with an amazing 5-0 victory over Prime’s line-up.
Can’t wait for StarTale vs MVP in the GSTL this Saturday!
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OSL

1. OSL on Liquipedia
2. VODs ($11.99 per season)

DRG and MC move on over Flying and Oz.

All that’s left is for Rain to play Last and DRG to play MC to see who will move on to the finals.
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IeSF 2012 World Championship

1. IeSF on Liquidpedia
2. VODs
3. IeSF Site
4. Finals: Monchi vs NightEnD

Wanted to shine a light on this tournament because it flew completely under my radar.  It has some solid European talent and Monchi, who’s in the finals, even took out Squirtle his way through the brackets.

The finals are tonight!  About two hours after the show.
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