Yoan "ToD" Merlo is a Protoss player and caster from France, who is currently retired from pro-gaming. In the info section of his Twitch profile, he says that he has no plans on returning to pro-gaming.[1] He was previously very active in the Warcraft III scene.

Biography [ edit ]

ToD was one of the most successful Warcraft III players. During his Warcraft III career, he lived and competed in both China and South Korea. He accomplished an impressive amount of achievements in the Warcraft III scene, which include podium finishes at World Cyber Games, CPL and BlizzCon.

Wings of Liberty [ edit ]

ToD played StarCraft II for the first time during the beta, but fully switched over in November 2010. His playstyle relied on strong micromanagement, which was inherited from his Warcraft III experience. He joined Millenium on January 9, 2011.[2] ToD quickly proved himself as one of the best French players by taking second place at Spirit Lan #8.

On May 1, 2011, ToD and Millenium decided to end their collaboration, explaining that they were disappointed by each other's work.[3]

ToD participated in eOSL Summer 2011, where he managed to achieve first place in his group, but was eventually eliminated in the semifinals by SarenS. He then won 3-0 against Origine in the third place match.

He also competed in HomeStory Cup III, which was the first major offline event he participated in during his StarCraft II career. Despite showing an impressive level of skill in the group stage, with a victory against ThorZaIN, ToD was quickly eliminated in the playoffs after encountering the future winner HuK, and SaSe.

In July, ToD successfully secured the French spot for World Cyber Games 2011 after his victories against Adelscott and SarenS at the WCG Qualifiers France. After this successful bout of LAN events ToD rejoined Millenium.[4] At the end of the month, he narrowly defeated his teammate Adelscott in order to win ESL Pro Series France X.

ToD's next competitive appearance was his participation in the open bracket of 2011 MLG Anaheim. He began the tournament with an unexpected 2-0 victory over the top South Korean Protoss player Alicia, but was then knocked-out of the upper bracket by CatZ. Nevertheless, ToD made his way through the lower bracket, beating Alicia again, as well as OpTiKzErO and Stalife. He was finally eliminated out of the main bracket by another top Protoss South Korean player, Choya.

On September 8, ToD left Millenium for the second time in four months.[5] The same day, he announced on his stream that he was planning to practice in Korea for several months.[6] On September 10, it was announced that ToD had joined Fnatic.[7]

During the weeks before his departure for Korea, ToD had a successful succession of achievements. On September, he was invited to SCAN Invitational #1 where he knocked-out Strelok and TLO in order to reach the final against his former teammate Stephano, whom he couldn't defeat, therefore taking second place at the tournament. Two weeks later, ToD participated in the Samsung European Championship 2011 in Poland. He again managed to reach the final against a Zerg player, this time being Nerchio, and was able to defeat him in a tied series. The next week, ToD was back in France in order to compete in the first event of French Master Series 2011 - 2012, the PxL-Lan #31. Seen as the favorite of the event by the commentators, thanks to the non-attendance of most of the best French players, he made a clean run to the finals, and swept an unexpected Kamikaze to claim the win of the tournament.

ToD spent the last months of 2011 in South Korea, where he attended the World Cyber Games 2011 in December. His run at this event was short-lived, with a 1-5 record during the group stage which resulted in ToD ending up in last place of his group. He wasn't more successful at attempting to qualify for the 2012 GSL Season 1 a month later as he was stopped in the preliminaries by Creator.

On January 14, ToD announced with desRow that he will start his JToD program again (a laddering session while having guests on Skype ask him questions about his ongoing ladder games and question his decision making) every Sunday 7PM CET[8] Recently, he stopped doing this show with desRow and continue alone.

March 5, ToD joined the Fnatic Gaming House.[9]

July 15, ToD parted ways with Fnatic.[10] About 1 month later, on August 11, ToD found a new team and joins ROOT Gaming.[11]

On December 6, ToD left ROOT on good terms, returning to France after failing to acquire a work visa in the United States.[12]

IGN ProLeague [ edit ]

IPL Season 5 [ edit ]

On July 21, 2012, ToD participated in the IPL 5 European Satellite Qualifiers. ToD received a BYE in round one and then went on to take down UserStupid in order to advance to the finals to face White-Ra. In the finals, ToD defeated White-Ra by a score of 1-0 and was able to take first place. His first-place finish qualified him for the IGN ProLeague Season 5.

Heart of the Swarm [ edit ]

On April 2013, ToD launched his official website Go ToD,[13] with the desire to become more active in the StarCraft II community by uploading vods, shoutcasting videos, tutorials and news about his job of professional gamer.

In April 2013, ToD was elected best StarCraft II French player as Protoss by Millenium.org[14]

On April 26, 2013, ToD joined XMG.[15]

He managed to qualify for the Challenger League of WCS Europe season one during the fourth qualifier tournament. Then, he qualified for the Premier League season 2 by finishing first in Bracket 6 beating Socke, sLivko and ThorZaIN, despite concurrently casting Season 1 Premier League.

In the WCS Europe 2013 Season 2 Premier League, ToD's first match in the Round of 32 was against SortOf on July 17, 2013. After losing 0-2, he was able to take a game off Happy before being knocked out of the tournament 1-2. ToD was once again able to qualify for Premier League through the Challenger League bracket by defeating Kas, TargA, and Tefel.

At the 2013 DreamHack Open: Stockholm tournament, ToD topped his Group Stage 1 group 6-1, including a victory over his teammate monchi. He dropped out of the tournament in the second group stage, losing to NaNiwa and Center.

In the WCS Europe 2013 Season 2 Premier League, ToD played his Round of 32 group on September 3, 2013. He lost his first match to ForGG and faced TargA in the Loser's Match. Unlike in Challenger League, ToD lost 1-2, and consequently dropped to Challenger League.

ToD competed at the 2013 DreamHack Open: Bucharest tournament on September 14–15, 2013. He went 6-1 in the first group stage, notably defeating KrasS, Jagelius. He placed third in his second group stage group behind Ryung and 2013 DreamHack Open: Valencia champion HyuN to fall out of the tournament.

Caster career [ edit ]

After his return to Europe at the end of 2012, ToD started a shoutcaster career. He casted the Iron Squid 2 qualifiers, group stage and showmatches in English.[16] Then, he casted some little tournaments and showmatches. He casted the The GD Studio HotS King of the Hill Series in French. His first premiere tournament as a caster was the IEM Season VII - World Championship in English. In 2013, he casted WCS Europe Premier League Season 1, WCS Europe Premier League Season 2 Playoffs and 2013 WCS Season 2 Finals.

Since then ToD has casted several WCS events as part of the Main-Stream-Broadcast Teams, among them 2019's WCS Spring.

Trivia [ edit ]

One of the most successful players in Warcraft III outside of Korea and China.

Played with Grubby in 4Kings.

Played Human in Warcraft III. [17]

Played Terran in StarCraft : Brood War, due to his interest in BoxeR. [17]

Warcraft III player of the year 2007 [18]

The first game he ever played was Command & Conquer, at the age of 12. [17]

Was reported by a Mainstream French newspaper to become the second professional StarCraft II player in France (the first being MoMaN). Nevertheless, it didn't happen because of his first departure of Millenium. [19]

ToD was criticised for his behavior during the finals of ESL Pro Series France X. He rudely kicked a featured streamer because he was upset after he lost a match during the group stage.

During his Warcraft III career, ToD was banned for one season of arguably the most prestigious team league, the WC3L. He was indeed caught aliasing as two sTar) players in clanwars versus 4K and mTw. [20] [21] Some months later, ToD got caught again, this time aliasing for his friend m@gic.byrden. [22]

Some months later, ToD got caught again, this time aliasing for his friend m@gic.byrden. First foreigner to win a Bo7 against a Code S player (Alicia at 2011 MLG Anaheim Open Bracket).

Achievements [ edit ]

Interviews [ edit ]

2014 [ edit ]

2013 [ edit ]

2012 [ edit ]

2011 [ edit ]

2004 [ edit ]

2004-03-13 | Interview with ToD in 2004 by WCReplays.com

Matches & VODs [ edit ]

First Person View Match VODS [ edit ]

Gallery [ edit ]

Statistics [ edit ]

Matchup Statistics

vs vs vs vs Total Record Win% Record Win% Record Win% Record Win% Record Win% as 180 - 144 55.6 % 182 - 130 58.3 % 175 - 156 52.9 % 4 - 2 66.7 % 541 - 432 55.6 %

Earnings Statistics

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Medal Statistics

Tier Total Major 2 0 1 3 Minor 7 8 3 18 Weekly 2 1 0 3 Show Match 0 2 0 2 Total 11 11 4 26