GSL's round of 32 has come and gone and Terran's remains an endangered species in Korea (although one wonders how different it would be if Bomber, Polt, jjakji, YoDa, ForGG, MMA, Taeja, etc were still in that region). Of note, PartinG earned his Nestea award by making his 10th straight R16. Here's the racial balance: PvZ 10-9, ZvT 3-3, PvT 2-3; overall Zergs were 7-7, Protoss 7-7, and Terran 2-2. I think this appearance of balance is what makes Blizzard reluctant to tweak the game. As for specific maps, here are the scores (ignoring mirrors, in brackets I put how many total games were played; there's not enough Terran results to learn much):
Frost (14) PvZ 6-4 ZvT 1-1 PvT 0-2
Overgrowth (12) PvZ 3-5 ZvT 1-2 PvT 1-0
King Sejong (11) PvZ 5-2 PvT 1-1 ZvT 0-2
Merry Go Round (10) PvZ 1-6 PvT 0-2 ZvT 1-0
Habitation Station (10) PvZ 4-2 ZvT 1-2 PvT 1-0
Alterzim (8) PvZ 5-1 ZvT 2-0
Waystation (8) PvZ 3-3 ZvT 1-0 PvT 1-0
Overall map scores (73): PvZ 27-23, ZvT 7-7, PvT 4-5
A number of thoughts: Zerg's were overwhelming successful against Protoss on Merry Go Round; Protoss dominated Zerg on Sejong and Alterzim; Waystation's numbers should be divided by the different spawning locations, but as is was the only 50-50 PvZ map; outside of Frost, the four-player maps were the least played.
Blizzard is attempting to sue hackers who have created cheats in SC2. I'd rather see the game eliminate the cheats themselves, but the pressure of prosecution might dissuade hacks. You'd think a supposedly dead game wouldn't attract hackers, but apparently not.
Richard Lewis, whose promised expose of NASL is still not out (March 7th is when the company ceased operations), reports that NASL was 1.6 million in debt when they closed up shop, with barely over $1,100 in assets.
BabyKnight has retired from StarCraft in order to become a full-time DOTA player--this is before his Group E matches (where he was unlikely to overcome StarDust and First), and pretty sad timing for any potential European qualifier who might have taken his place. The only way BabyKnight doesn't return to SC2 is if he can actually make it as a pro DOTA player.
Hendralisk won the second Breaking Out NA tournament run by feardragon. I sporadically caught the action, but I think Ravi would have done better with a tighter schedule and using casters with more cache (it was a good decision to involve Rifkin, albeit briefly). I like the idea of the tournament and I think if he keeps at it numbers will slowly improve. Given that by definition the event can't have big names, casters are the hook needed to get more people to tune in.
Solar received an offer to fix a match and it's unlikely he'll be the last for that to happen too. Given that the stakes in SC2 are small I don't expect match-fixing to plague the game too much.
Conti provides his list of the top streamers from April (his previous can be seen here) and one of the main conclusions to draw from it is that people who stream a ton will grow their viewership. Pros who stream erratically, unless very well known, don't do that well. It's also worth noting that the money earned from streaming has declined significantly, so that incentive to broadcast isn't what it was (the less obvious incentive of growing your brand is not, apparently, much of a draw to most). With the increasing number of SC2 events being shown on the MLG platform, Conti's overall SC2 numbers are becoming less viable, but it's still a valuable resource. The decline in April's numbers for WCS are partially attributable to the cramped scheduled ESL was forced to follow after absorbing NASL. Conti implies lower numbers for DreamHack as well, but as he doesn't include them I don't know what to make of the comment.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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