StarCraft Remastered fans keep the game alive outside South Korea

Blizzard achieved what it set out to do by bringing StarCraft back into the spotlight. The Remastered game is immensely popular in South Korea and many professional gamers have picked it up. The biggest prizes are rightfully awarded to players from the peninsula, as they are the best in the world. Outside Korean borders, the game is far from capturing its lost glory and is kept alive by a few enthusiastic individuals. The “Bombastic StarLeague 4” is a success story for casual players with higher expectations.

A tournament for International StarCraft: Remastered Players

Less than one year ago, Blizzard Entertainment released StarCraft: Remastered, but the game quickly lost its glitter outside South Korea. ZZZero is one of the former players who hosts tournaments for talented players, who can’t make it as professionals. The Bombastic Starleague is not exactly a new tournament, as the first edition took place precisely four years ago. His decision to revive the event came as a result of international players having no real choice for tournaments.

The prizes are insignificant, but there’s a lot of interest for this event and more players have announced their intention to sign up. All the matches except for the final have been played, and many of them were watched on Twitch. Any non-Korean players could sign up for the tournament and Bombastic StarLeague 4 was well attended. Most of the participants were Europeans, but North and South American also found it worthwhile to sign up.

Tournament information and prize pool

The Bombastic StarLeague 4 has a prize pool of only $1000, which is ridiculously low when compared to Korean tournaments. Having said this, ZZZero did a brilliant job at creating hype about this event, with hundreds of players signing up. Anyone who had an account with a BSL tag could participate and play in a ladder stage. This phase of the competition finished on February 28 and the most successful 24 players qualified for the BSL ProLeague.

Those who made it this far, were invited to put their skill to the test in a Swiss tournament. In the opening stage, players were matched based on how they performed during the ladder campaign. In order to qualify for the group stage, one would have to win four games. By contrast, anyone who lost four matches was automatically eliminated from the competition. During this phase of the Bombastic StarLeague 4 participants were playing in a best-of-three series.

Most of the players who qualify for the group stage were Terrans, with an even number of Protoss and Zerg. Once again, they locked horns in best-of-three series and two players from each group advanced to the playoffs. A single Protoss survive the group stage and joined his peers in an eight player single elimination bracket. Both the quarterfinals and semifinals were played in a best-of-five format, while the final will be decided on Saturday after a maximum of seven games. In 2018, Bombastic StarLeague 4 will feature two Terrans in the final act of the competition.