One the of the nice things GomTV has been doing is holding tournaments in the down time between GSL tournaments. In the past few days, they put on the "All-Stars Invitational", a 16 player tournament that, like the GSL itself, was single elimination best of 3 matches. The player pool consisted of every S Class player except LiveForever, with the remaining two spots filled by oGsTheWinD and SangHo (playing as TSLKiller, an id so boring that I would argue it's even worse than his previous BabyByeBye).
Unfortunately, there was no English cast. Just in case someone reading this is going to view Korean VODs I'll still spoiler my comments about the results, which you can see at the tournament's
Liquipedia page.
Click for thoughts on the All-Stars tournament results
The final four ended up being two Zergs, a Protoss, and a Terran, so that's a positive sign from a balance perspective. On the other hand, that Protoss (sSKS) didn't qualify for GSL 3. Back on the first hand, NsPGenius beat IMNesTea in the opening round and only lost to a fellow Protoss. The balance implications can be interpreted either way.
What is more apparent, however, is that the "new generation" players from GSL 2 did very well. OK, it's pretty silly to talk about generations when these tournaments happen every month, but a lot of people felt Foxer and Kyrix were fluke winners in GSL 2. Most of the players widely recognized as good are either respected Brood War players (SlayerSBoxeR, oGsNaDa, TSLRainbow) or players who've been playing well since the beta (MakaPrime, oGsEnsnare, FruitDealer, sSKS). Foxer and Kyrix essentially came out of nowhere in GSL 2. Sure, Foxer was at the top of the ladder, but this was seen merely as evidence the pros were practicing each other in custom games now instead of playing on the ladder.
Well, it looks like Foxer and Kyrix are here to stay and have to be considered among the favorites to win GSL 3.
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