TheMajor League Gaming StarCraft 2 Summer Arena (opens in new tab)wrapped up this weekend with a hefty $10,000 purse going to Team Liquid’sYoon “TaeJa” Young Suh, a South Korean Terran player who took down team SlayerS’ Protoss player Alicia in convincing fashion, winning 4 out of 6 games.
The finals victory was TaeJa’s first ever win in an offline tournament as he took down Yang “Alicia” Joon Sik, who has now lost three straight finals matches. Despite the incredible feat of making it to three consecutive championship series’ he has been frustrated by an inability to seal the deal. He previous lost to DongRaeGu in the MLG Spring Championship, then again to Stephano in the North American Star League Season 3 finals.
Losing to the highest quality players in the world is nothing to be ashamed of, but we imagine Alicia has got to be itching to walk away with a championship title soon.
The full breakdown of the winners is as follows:
1st Place – $10,000 – Taeja
2nd Place – $6,000 – Alicia
3rd/4th Place – $2,900 each – First, Oz
5th/6th Place – $1,400 – Stephano, Losira
7th/8th Place – $900 each – Alive, Hero
If you’re not watching professional StarCraft 2 yet, there’s never been a better time to jump on board. MLG (opens in new tab) offers free SD streams of their events, and the talent pool has been amazing lately along with great personalities like the cocky but undeniably amazing French Zerg Stephano (who strode out to his championship final in a previous tournament to Queen’s “We Are the Champions.” Which he then proceeded to dominate 4-0.)
Some marked improvements in casting and presentations have helped make the events far more newbie-friendly as well, with casters helping explain the strategy behind the battles taking place even if you’re not familiar with the hardcore mechanics.
The next major event will be the GSL Finals taking place Friday in the late evening.