Alexander “Neeb” Sunderhaft won the KeSPA Cup. Mikolaj “Elazer” Ogonowski, Tobias “ShoWTimE” Sieber and the aforementioned Neeb all made it into the round of 8 at Blizzcon. This is a wild time to be a StarCraft fan, as the foreigners continue to close the gap against the Korean programmers, making their mark more and more.



And now, Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn has qualified for the longest standing and most prestigious tournament in all of StarCraft II, the GSL Code S. While this is certainly an impressive feat, Scarlett’s entire story in the GSL has not unfolded yet, so I’d like to take this time to look back on the history of foreigners (non-Koreans) in GSL.



GSL started just after the official release of SC2, all the way back in August of 2010. It was an exciting time, the start of the first Korean league in the sequel to the game that really started esports. Immediately great attention was given to the GSL, and many top Non-Korean players decided to attempt to make their name by traveling to Korea to compete.





The First Era - Open Seasons 1-3



The Open Seasons were like the Wild West of GSL. StarCraft II was an untamed land, one full of strategies and mechanics yet to be discovered. There was a pretty good understanding of who the top players were at the time, but really anything could happen as the game was not even close to mapped out at the time. To add to the craziness, the first 3 seasons were known as “Open” for a reason. There were no seeds, and the brackets started at 64 players. This means that during the open qualifiers, there were 64 spots up for grabs to get into the GSL. That is a LOT of spots, which both allowed almost every top player to qualify, but also let in a lot of randoms who had some strange strategies or easy brackets.







Open Season 1





The first qualifier for GSL was announced very last minute, but still 4 non-Koreans were able to make it into the main tournament.



Trevor “TorcH” Housten made it only as far as the round of 64, losing to a Protoss player who, little did we know, would several seasons later become a surprise powerhouse: Cho Won “San” Kang.



Dan “Artosis” Stemkoski (me, lol!) also only made it into the round of 64. There I played a pretty poor series against a Protoss player and lost 1-2. This was of course with Zerg, my original race in SC2.



Dario “Liquid`TLO” Wunsch also qualified for the first GSL Open Season, and certainly did a good job there as well. He took out Kang Ho “LosirA” Hwang, who is still a top professional Zerg to this day, with a 2-0 score, and then lost to Yoo Jong “Hyperdub” Kim in the round of 32, a well known Terran of the time, 1-2. By the way, this was all playing Terran, the race TLO started out with.



The favourite of the Non-Koreans (and truthfully, one of the overall favourites of the whole tournament), Greg “IdrA” Fields didn’t preform as well as anyone expected in the first season. After handily dispatching a Terran player in the round of 64, he lost to Yung Soo “NettiePrime” Jun 1-2 in the round of 32.

Thus ended a very underwhelming Open Season 1 for a hopeful foreigner scene.







Open Season 2





Season 2 had repeat qualifiers in TLO and IdrA, as well as a new one in Yi “Loner” Dai, the Chinese Terran (who would soon later go on to get 2nd at the first StarCraft II Blizzcon tournament).



TLO had a harder season this time, hitting Sang Ho “Killer” Shin AKA SangHo, an experienced StarCraft 1 pro who had just switched over. He went out in the round of 64.



IdrA had a much better run this time. He took out 2 Terrans before losing to Jung Min “Zenio” Choi in the round of 16.



Loner had a pretty impressive in his first GSL, first taking out the current world champion, Hyun Woo “ByuN” Byun (who played Protoss at the time and was known as Bleach), followed by a victory over a Zerg player before losing to the Emperor himself, Yo Hwan “BoxeR” Lim.



2 rounds of 16 was certainly a much better showing for the foreigners, but nothing compared to what the 3rd season had in store…







Open Season 3





Some truly heavy hitters came out of the woodwork this season.



Hayder “Liquid`HayprO” Hussein made it in but instantly fell to the cheesiest player in the history of StarCraft, Nam Kyu “BitByBitPrime” Kim.



IdrA, Jos “Liquid`ret” de Kroon, and Chia Cheng “Sen” Yang all fared a bit better than HayprO and made it to the round of 32 before falling. Notably Sen’s run was cut short by the previous season’s champion, Jae Duk “NesTea” Lim, who mentioned multiple times that he felt Sen was easily top Korean level.



Pretty underwhelming for a brand new game with the best RTS talent outside of Korea trying their best to overcome the history of Korean dominance. Enter Jonathan “Liquid`Jinro” Walsh.



Jinro had already tried the previous 2 seasons to qualify for the GSL. Despite many weaker players making it into the GSL, Jinro was only able to make it to the ro8 in both previous qualifier attempts. 3rd time’s a charm.



In the round of 64, Jinro took out the strong Zerg player Jin Yung “Drug” Kwun 2-1. Sadly, he would be going up against the 5th race, the ultimate legend from WarCraft III, Jae Ho “Moon” Jang, in the round of 32. Sadly for Moon, that is. 2-0 for Jinro. Well, in the round of 16, which is as far as any non-Korean had made it so far, he would have to play Seong Hun “Polt” Choi. Yes, that Polt. Polt, by the way, had already taken down BoxeR in the previous round. Oh, never mind, no problem. Jinro wins 2-0. Well round of 8 is pretty damn good. But now he was going up against Hyung Seop “Choya” Lee, who had already taken out He Who Would Be The Greatest That There Ever Was, Jong Hyun “Mvp” Jung. Jinro clutched that round out as well, with a 3-2 score. Round of 4. This would be where Jinro was stopped, by none other than the Boss Toss, Min Chul “MC” Jang. MC crushed Jinro 4-0, and would go on to give a 4-1 victory against Seo Yong “Rain” Park in the Finals. MC would also go on to be the biggest money winner EVER, even to this day, when he is retired and coaching a League of Legends team. Not a bad player to go out against.





Just to get this out of the way, these large 64 spot GSLs were the ONLY times that foreigners ever qualified for the GSL through an open bracket. Every single participation in the GSL after Open Season 3 (which started in November of 2010) by a foreigner was seed-based. Until, that is, Scarlett won her qualifying group this past week.





The Second Era - Rapid Fire GSL Code S

2011 had 7 GSL Code S tournaments. 2012 had 5 GSL Code S tournaments.







GSL January 2011





Loner and ret both played in Code A and both lost to Jung Hwan “Cezanne” Kim. ret in the first round, Loner in the second.



Jinro and IdrA were in Code S, where they were both put into Group H. The star foreigners were both able to eek it out, forcing Sang Cheol “Ensnare” Kim and Hyung Joo “Check” Lee into the Up and Down matches.



The round of 16 groups were absolutely brutal for both players. IdrA was in a group with the legendary Yoon Yeol “NaDa” Lee, the Blizzcon Champion Min Soo “Genius” Jeong, and one of the strongest players of early StarCraft II, Kyu Jong “Clide” Han. Despite this, IdrA advanced in first place to the round of 8.



Jinro’s group was no less scary. Sung Je “Rainbow” Kim, the runner-up of Open Season 1. MC, the Boss Toss and defending champion. And last but certainly not least, the legendary Jung Hoon “MarineKingPrime” Lee, who was the runner up to Open Season 2. No prob Bob. Jinro gets out cleanly in 2nd place, moving on to the round of 8 with IdrA. Or should I say against IdrA?



Having not played against each other enough, what being in the same ro32 group and all, IdrA and Jinro faced off in the round of 8, to see if IdrA would become the most successful foreigner in GSL history, or if Jinro would run far out of his range. Jinro came out on top, securing his second top 4 in a row. Here he would fall to MarineKing once again, 1-3.



A remarkable season for the non-Koreans, and a statement to be sure. Spoiler alert: this greatness would never be matched again.







GSL March 2011





This was a sad time, the time when IdrA, after many years living in Korea decided it was time to move back to America. With that, Jinro would be the only foreign player in Code S this season.





It started out well for Jinro, beating down a group containing RainBow, Polt and Check to finish in first place. Once he reached the round of 16 (now a bracket), he was taken out by Hong Wook “HongUnPrime” Ahn, a Protoss of some note in early SC2.



There was also quite a handful of foreigners in Code A this season. Loner, HayprO, ret and Andrew “mOOnGLaDe” Pender all lost immediately in the round of 32.



This though, was Chris “HuK” Loranger’s big breakout moment. HuK was seeded into the Code A and was able to take down Won Pyo “Curious” Lee and Dong Hyun “Revival” Kim, two extremely strong Zergs before losing to LosirA in the round of 8. This gave HuK a spot in the Up and Down matches. After losing to Joon Hyuk “InCa” Song, a previous GSL Finalist, HuK managed to take down Choya in a close series and gain a spot in the next GSL Code S.







GSL May 2011





HuK and Jinro were all that was left going into the GSL May season. Neither were able to make it out of their round of 32 groups. Jinro beat San but lost to both Nestea and Clide. HuK wasn’t able to take any victories, losing once again to InCa as well as to the God Of War himself, Sung Joon “JulyZerg” Park.

These disappointing performances forced both into the Up and Down matches. Jinro lost to both Jong Hwan “CoCa” Choi and Zenio, while HuK was able to take out Seong Won “MMA” Mun and advance back into Code S.







GSL July 2011





Due to a partnership between MLG and GSL, Shawn “Sheth” Simon was given a Code A spot for this season. Showing great skill he was able to take down San in the first round, but did lose in the next round to the strong Protoss, Sang Jun “Puzzle” Kim.



Jinro met a similar fate. After winning the first round of Code A against an unknown Protoss, he fell to the strong Terran player Dae Jin “asd” Lee, who had taken down fan favourite BoxeR in the previous round. Thanks asd.



Meanwhile in Code S, HuK was having a strong showing. He topped his ro32 group which included Polt, Killer and Lee Seok “aLive” Han. It was a much tougher round of 16 though, as HuK faced off against his close friend MC. HuK was crushed here but at least secured the next season of Code S on the back of this performance.







GSL August 2011





There were 4 new foreigner seeds for Code A this season due to the MLG / GSL partnership:

Marcus “ThorZaIN” EklofJohan

“NaNiwa” Lucchesi

Jian Carlo “Fenix” Morayra Alejo

And Kim “SaSe” Hammar



All 4 players, as well as Jinro who was in Code A once again, lost in the round of 32 in Code A. Only ThorZaIN was able to take a map.



Similarly to GSL July, though, HuK was having a great time up in Code S. First he got out of his ro32 group in second place. Out of Killer, Ji Sung “Bomber” Choi and Dong Hwan “viOLet” Kim, only Bomber was able to take him down.

As one of 4 Protosses in the round of 16, HuK got a deadly opponent indeed. A bonjwa of StarCraft 1, NaDa. HuK managed to take down his opponent 2-1, but that’s where his run would end. His next opponent was Mvp. HuK lost 0-3 there, but who can blame him? Mvp was just hitting his stride as the strongest player in the history of the game.







GSL October 2011





NaNiwa and SaSe both remained in Korea and gave Code A another go. It didn’t go very well, as both Swedish Protosses fell in the first round to Korean Zerg players. Joining them, and fairing a bit better though, was fellow Swede Jeffery “SjoW” Brusi. SjoW did manage to win his first round against Han Eol “MaKa” Kwak, but then promptly lost to the Code A Gate Keeper himself, Curious.



Meanwhile, due to his strong showing in the previous Code S season, HuK was once again the only foreigner representation in the most prestigious league in the world. He ended up in 3rd place in his ro32 Group, having lost to asd and Joon Yong “Virus” Park, but having taken down Zenio at least.







GSL November 2011





HuK fights on in Code S. Put into group C with Clide, JulyZerg and Puzzle, HuK takes first place with a clean 2-0. In the round of 16 groups, though, he gets a devastatingly hard group. The Creator Of The Universe, NesTea, along with MMA and Dong Nyoung “Leenock” Lee. No laughing matter. HuK manages a win against Leenock but loses against both NesTea and MMA, getting 3rd place. This loss in the ro16 immediately seeded HuK into the Code A ro24, where he would face Kyu Seok “KeeN” Hwang. With a 0-2 loss, HuK was off to the Up and Down matches. His group was played less than 2 weeks later. Unable to secure a top 2 spot, HuK was relegated to Code A.



SaSe and Naniwa, once again, stayed in Korea to fight the good fight. Both dropped in the first round of Code A with 0-2 scores.







GSL 2012 - Season 1





A welcome surprise occurred with the new year’s first GSL season. The return of IdrA. Kind of. Both IdrA and Sen were seeded directly into GSL Code S this season, much to the delight of the fans. They didn’t fair too well, though. Sen ended up with a 0-4 map score and immediately was eliminated. IdrA, in what could be called the group of death (containing NesTea AND Mvp) fell out in last place as well, taking only a single map.



Code A was chock-full of foreigners this season: HuK returned, of course. Two still-famous Chinese pros also came to Korea: Xiang “MacSed” Hu and Lei “XiGua” Wang. IdrA and Sen, who were eliminated early on in Code S were also back to battle it out.



It didn’t go well. IdrA lost 0-2. HuK lost 1-2. XiGua lost 1-2. MacSed? 0-2. Only Sen was able to take his series, but fell immediately in the next round.







GSL 2012 - Season 2





Only HuK and NaNiwa remained to fight on. HuK had to start out in the Up and Down matches, which still consisted of 6 man groups with the top 2 advancing to Code S. Heartbreakingly, HuK got 3rd place in his group and had to go into Code A. Here he lost in the first round to Young Il “Hack” Kim, being completely eliminated from the GSL.



NaNiwa was given a seed directly into Code S, where he made an extremely impressive run. First he topped his round of 32 group which included Dong Won “Ryung” Kim, Puzzle, and Mvp himself. Naniwa dropped only a single map. The round of 16 groups, somehow, went even better. With a flawless victory, Naniwa won the group over Young Jin “SuperNova” Kim, Virus and Genius.



This put NaNiwa into a fabled land: the GSL Code S round of 8 bracket. Here his opponent was Mvp, the eventual champion of the tournament. NaNiwa fell 1-3.







GSL 2012 - Season 3





HuK was now completely out of the GSL. NaNiwa remained in Code S due to his high placement, and ThorZaIN was back due to a seed, this time directly into Code S. Sadly, ThorZaIN wasn’t able to capitalize upon his seed in the same way that Naniwa had in the previous season, falling out of a strong group containing Hyun Woo “Squirtle” Park, Byung Jae “GuMiho” Koh, and Keen. His 3rd place finish put him into the Code A round of 32 against Jin Young “JYP” Park, where he ended up falling 1-2.



NaNiwa though, wasn’t done making his mark on Code S. In a group containing NesTea, Hyun Woo “Creator” Jang and Yeon Sik “TheStC” Choi, NaNiwa got out in second place right behind NesTea. The round of 16 groups went just as well for Naniwa, getting 2nd place to ByuN, beating out both Genius and KeeN. Again NaNiwa found himself in the round of 8, and again he found himself eliminated by a legend. This time it was Soo Ho “DRG” Park who took him out with a 3-2 score.







GSL 2012 - Season 4





Season 4 brought a new seed: Grzegorz “MaNa” Komincz was put directly into the Up and Down matches. In a 5 man group containing Ji Hoon “jjakji” Jung, Seok Hyun “HyuN” Ko, KeeN and Bomber, MaNa was able to secure 2nd place (to Bomber) and move on to the Code S. Code S didn’t go so well for MaNa. His group was maybe the most ridiculous of the year, though, so 4th place with a 1-4 map score really wasn’t that bad. Who was in the group? Oh, only Mvp, MMA and Young Seo “TaeJa” Yun.



Naniwa had similar results in his ro32 group, going 1-4 total against Squirtle, Min Hyuk “Heart” Kim and Tae Hoon “Sniper” Kwon. His drop down to Code A was similarly rough, losing 0-2 to a Protoss player.



These results meant that GSL 2012 - Season 5 would have not a single foreigner playing in it.





The Third Era - The End of Hope







GSL 2013 - Season 1





The Up and Down matches this season had both HuK and Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen seeded in. Grubby ended up losing each and every map in his 6 man group and was immediately eliminated. HuK, on the other hand, managed to get top 2, just behind NesTea. This seeded him directly into Code S, where he and Ilyes “Stephano” Satouri (also seeded) would be the last foreigners to play in the tournament until Scarlett’s debut.



HuK was placed into another tough group with Bomber, GuMiho and Sniper. Only able to win a single map, HuK fell out of GSL Code S for the last time.



Stephano didn’t fare much better. With DRG and Shin Hyung “INnoVation” Lee topping the group, Stephano was only able to beat out Hack, losing to INnoVation 1-2 in the decider match of the group.



With both players in Code A, we would witness the unceremonious exit of foreigners from GSL. HuK lost in the first round 0-2 to Young Han “Shine” Lee. Stephano, seeded one round higher due to his 3rd place group finish, lost 1-2 to Jae Wook “Flying” Shin.



That season of GSL ended in March of 2013. Since that last moment, we haven’t had a single foreigner compete in the GSL. Now, with Scarlett having qualified for GSL 2017 Season 1, we begin a new Era.

