Starleague (Ongamenet)
The emblem of Ongamenet Starleague
|
|
| Sport |
StarCraft: Brood War StarCraft II |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2000 |
| Ceased | 2012 |
| Owner(s) | Ongamenet |
| Last champion(s) |
Heo "JangBi" Yeong Moo |
| Most titles | 3: Lee "NaDa" Yun-yeol Park "JulyZerg" Sung-joon Lee Jae Dong Lee "Flash" Young-ho |
| TV partner(s) | Ongamenet |
| Related competitions |
MBCGame StarCraft League |
The Starleague, or the Ongamenet Starleague, (OSL) was a professional South Korean StarCraft individual league run by Ongamenet. It first ran StarCraft: Brood War competitions but transitioned to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty after that game's release. The Starleague was broadcast on Korean cable television. The league folded after the 2012 season.
Starleague started out as a program on Tooniverse, following the immense popularity of StarCraft in Korea, and the success of broadcast-gaming on other Korean channels. In 2000, Starleague was spun off into a gaming-dedicated channel, OnGameNet.
Starleague started out modestly, with a small prize sum and a few cult followers. In its seven-year history, it has evolved into a major sport in Korea, with more viewers than most other professional sports. Recently in the related Proleague finals, 120,000 fans came out to watch the match between SK Telecom T1 and KT Rolster. Finals for Starleague now regularly attract more than 50,000 fans, and viewed nationwide on television by millions. Famous gamers like Lim Yo Hwan (Boxer) have more than 500,000 registered fans. Pro gamers are organized into teams supported by major Korean firms, and prizes, contracts, and endorsements are now huge in comparison to even 3 or 4 years ago.
Starleague started to attract major attention with the rise of the "Boxer Terran" in the HanbitSoft Starleague in 2001. Professional gamer Lim Yo Hwan swept the scene with a 3:0 victory against Jang Jin Nam, using a rare race at the time (Terran) and using the Terran dropship. Boxer continued to win the next league, Coca-Cola Starleague, against Hong Jin-Ho (Yellow), and ended up 2nd to Kim Dong Soo (Garimto) in the 2001 Sky Starleague. By this time, first-prize was 20,000,000 Korean Won, about USD 20,000.
Starleague became so popular that it began to attract several foreign players, including Elky (Bertrand Grospellier) from France and Grrrr... (Guillaume Patry) from Canada.
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Wikipedia