Starcraft 2 & IPL

darkrabbi · Post by **darkrabbi** » Tue May 31, 2011 10:18 pm

Hey n00bs, for those of you who play/follow competitive SC2: I just started work @ IGN eSports working on the IPL! You can follow me at

http://people.ign.com/darkrabbi

http://twitter.com/darkrabbi

I'll probably setup a separate blog pretty soon so I can talk about the things actually on my mind without carefully picking my words.

IGN is investing a shit ton into this project, there's some big things planned for the next few months. If there was this much corporate interest in competitive gaming back when we played it would have been so different. The major difference this time around is that the casual viewers are involved and interested in the competitive scene. It would have been like if the dodmod.com kids instead of hating us with a passion instead sucked our dicks and followed all the leagues. That's really why SC2 is taking off the way it is, there's even people who have never played who follow the competitive scene.

So yea, follow me on IGN/Twitter! I hate twitter but I promise not to post bullshit like "LOL HAD INDIAN FOOD TODAY". It will be stuff relevant to competitive SC2 and the IPL with the occasional dod throwback.

Sears · Post by **Sears** » Tue May 31, 2011 11:10 pm

I hope you got this gig because of your dod raps.

darkrabbi · Post by **darkrabbi** » Tue May 31, 2011 11:41 pm

Sears wrote:I hope you got this gig because of your dod raps.

LOL, unfortunately no but I definitely played a short clip from my 2nd dod video during my interview. Turns out Painuser actually played dod and had heard of me, apparently he used to be in exigent with nick patten but I don't remember him. He was probably like 14 or 15 at the time. Makes me feel like an old man, GET OFF MY LAWN SC2 KIDS

`NG · Post by **`NG** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:15 am

darkrabbi wrote: "LOL HAD INDIAN FOOD TODAY".

I lol'd

Airnick15 · Post by **Airnick15** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:28 am

Time to start filling stadiums with spectators to get on the korean level

motive · Post by **motive** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 8:26 am

i'd actually be interested in some indian food tweets because i imagine you get dat homegrown goodiegoodie shit

also i should start playing sc2 again since i went to the midnight launch, did my placement matches then promptly stopped playing. now i just watch matches all the time and laugh at people calling idra an asshole for making fun of crunchers alleged fatness

t`RavE · Post by **t`RavE** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 10:09 am

motive wrote:laugh at people calling idra an asshole for making fun of crunchers alleged fatness

Hahaha! All the good zerg players are assholes though.

billbsod · Post by **billbsod** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:57 pm

Pain User played for GL at summer cpl 05. He was a good rifle. I don't think he had ever really played with GL before the tournament. GL was just a cal-o team wanting to play at a LAN. I hated how the rounds were set up, they set up teams that were in seeded in the 30's against each other so one cal-im team would face a cal-o team and knock the cal-o team out. So all 6 of the guys on the cal-o team get to play one match for 300 dollars (50 dollars a person to play). It just feels like so many teams (including mine) went down there with no expectation of winning anything, some teams not even a single match, and paid all that money for it.

plus who could forget KAN =X

But yeah, congrats!! that's cool to see pain user adapting to the changing competitive gaming community.

joeledmunds · Post by **joeledmunds** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:58 pm

billbsod wrote:plus who could forget KAN =X

Lol poor poor Bayside High.

And congratulations! Game journalism, especially competitive, sounds like a pretty fun gig.

St|ck · Post by **St|ck** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:04 pm

Speaking of korean level, will IGN begin covering MLG and GSL, also? Or will it mostly be for IPL?

darkrabbi · Post by **darkrabbi** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:13 pm

billbsod wrote:Pain User played for GL at summer cpl 05. He was a good rifle. I don't think he had ever really played with GL before the tournament. GL was just a cal-o team wanting to play at a LAN. I hated how the rounds were set up, they set up teams that were in seeded in the 30's against each other so one cal-im team would face a cal-o team and knock the cal-o team out. So all 6 of the guys on the cal-o team get to play one match for 300 dollars (50 dollars a person to play). It just feels like so many teams (including mine) went down there with no expectation of winning anything, some teams not even a single match, and paid all that money for it.

oh snap I didn't know he played at that CPL.

I worked at CGS with Greg before it collapsed so I've been in gaming production stuff before. It's better than before but a lot of the same misconceptions are floating around.

motive wrote:i'd actually be interested in some indian food tweets because i imagine you get dat homegrown goodiegoodie shit

also i should start playing sc2 again since i went to the midnight launch, did my placement matches then promptly stopped playing. now i just watch matches all the time and laugh at people calling idra an asshole for making fun of crunchers alleged fatness

I'm Israeli actually but I do have a high tolerance for spicy food and curries. Idra is a funny, I enjoy when he rages, he had a lewltastic couple games + bm exchange with minigun last night on his stream.

St|ck wrote:Speaking of korean level, will IGN begin covering MLG and GSL, also? Or will it mostly be for IPL?

Yea our shooter/editor and casters are flying out to Ohio tomorrow and friday. They're going to be doing interviews with the players and a big event on Sat at the sushi place across the street from MLG. Here is a pic from yesterday when we did a dry run of the setup for the interviews

Everyone says that we're catching up to the koreans, it's so far from true, watching GOM versus the top NA leagues is like night and day. I wish it wasn't true.

St|ck · Post by **St|ck** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 11:56 pm

I couldn't agree more. The euros are ahead of NA in terms of skill also but still not enough to pose a threat to the koreans.

t`RavE · Post by **t`RavE** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:20 am

darkrabbi wrote:Everyone says that we're catching up to the koreans, it's so far from true, watching GOM versus the top NA leagues is like night and day. I wish it wasn't true.

I mean, can you blame them? SC in South Korea is like the NFL here, the literally go to stadiums to watch them play, its fucking hugeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. The eat, shit, sleep and breed Starcraft.

mg_ · Post by **mg_** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:27 am

GL was a pretty decent team. Good group of guys. They were always quasi affiliated with GsS I thought.

billbsod · Post by **billbsod** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 8:20 am

Yeah, always thought they were cool guys, I'm pretty sure rented us a server.

Expunge · Post by **Expunge** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 8:41 am

i remember painuser from natural selection heh

AlopeX · Post by **AlopeX** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 8:50 am

Expunge wrote:i remember painuser from natural selection heh

holy crap THATS where I know the name from. Was bugging me

Airnick15 · Post by **Airnick15** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:40 pm

NS was a nasty game, has the source mod come out yet?

Sears · Post by **Sears** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:46 pm

NS was a ton of fun. I think the source version is still in beta.

[youtube]_UHXOoUWu5s[/youtube]

http://www.naturalselection2.com/

AlopeX · Post by **AlopeX** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 5:30 pm

NS2 broke off from source and made their own engine from the ground up. Still in beta which is only to those who preordered it a while ago

james- · Post by **james-** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 5:33 pm

SC2 seemed good from the little bit of the beta I played. Never bought the retail copy although I've been considering it.

I'm sure i'll get shitstomped online tho..

scorch- · Post by **scorch-** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 8:12 am

james- wrote:SC2 seemed good from the little bit of the beta I played. Never bought the retail copy although I've been considering it.

I'm sure i'll get shitstomped online tho..

the ladder system is pretty good. unless you're the best or worst player in the world, the matchmaking will place you against people of your skill level so you win about half your games.

motive · Post by **motive** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 8:20 am

scorch- wrote:
james- wrote:SC2 seemed good from the little bit of the beta I played. Never bought the retail copy although I've been considering it.

I'm sure i'll get shitstomped online tho..
the ladder system is pretty good. unless you're the best or worst player in the world, the matchmaking will place you against people of your skill level so you win about half your games.

sc2's great i jusdt wish i didnt have an anxiety attack every time i opened it thus discouraging me from playing and embarrassing myself

darkrabbi · Post by **darkrabbi** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:35 am

motive wrote: sc2's great i jusdt wish i didnt have an anxiety attack every time i opened it thus discouraging me from playing and embarrassing myself

haha I feel it. Play against Very Hard AI until you are crushing it then go ladder. You can save game and reload at any point. So if some attack is coming you can save the game and re-load it and try different things. Custom 1v1's against friends is also really good to get you comfortable playing. Just remember that you don't really learn much from winning whereas losing teaches you a valuable lesson every time.

nugz` · Post by **nugz`** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:00 am

TEAM IDRA! oh and toss is fucking OP. and Day9 is annoying as fuck.

Sears · Post by **Sears** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:10 am

I suck at RTS's because I always get distracted wanting to build sweet bases like it's sim city.

AlopeX · Post by **AlopeX** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:10 am

Sears wrote:I suck at RTS's because I always get distracted wanting to build sweet bases like it's sim city.

this

joeledmunds · Post by **joeledmunds** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:19 am

AlopeX wrote:
Sears wrote:I suck at RTS's because I always get distracted wanting to build sweet bases like it's sim city.
this

lol yup, when I was like 13 me and a friend had the sweetest island base in WC2. We started building on the same island to grab resources to supplement our gigantic fleets, and we had two cool bases and eventually our farms got really close. So we called a truce and started building together, orcs and humans making a better tomorrow. Until we ran out of wood and gold.

It was way funnier when we were 13.

Sears · Post by **Sears** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:24 am

joeledmunds wrote:
AlopeX wrote:
Sears wrote:I suck at RTS's because I always get distracted wanting to build sweet bases like it's sim city.
this
lol yup, when I was like 13 me and a friend had the sweetest island base in WC2. We started building on the same island to grab resources to supplement our gigantic fleets, and we had two cool bases and eventually our farms got really close. So we called a truce and started building together, orcs and humans making a better tomorrow. Until we ran out of wood and gold.

It was way funnier when we were 13.

TOTALLY

nomis · Post by **nomis** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 3:04 pm

motive wrote:
scorch- wrote:
james- wrote:SC2 seemed good from the little bit of the beta I played. Never bought the retail copy although I've been considering it.

I'm sure i'll get shitstomped online tho..
the ladder system is pretty good. unless you're the best or worst player in the world, the matchmaking will place you against people of your skill level so you win about half your games.
sc2's great i jusdt wish i didnt have an anxiety attack every time i opened it thus discouraging me from playing and embarrassing myself

They got rid of losses if you're anything under master league, so that helps a bit. Also, I tried to get more comfortable by playing 3v3 and such, it's much less stressful than 1v1, and I actually got kinda decent just by playing 3v3 ladder, then moved on to 1v1

AlopeX · Post by **AlopeX** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 7:00 pm

[quote="darkrabbi So yea, follow me on IGN/Twitter! I hate twitter but I promise not to post bullshit like "LOL HAD INDIAN FOOD TODAY". It will be stuff relevant to competitive SC2 and the IPL with the occasional dod throwback.[/quote]

Had lunch at the Thai place across the street from IGN, they have a sick $6 lunch special that my stomach and wallet appreciate equally.

so not on twitter but you couldn't resist posting it on your blog.

Avail · Post by **Avail** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 8:22 am

IPL's pretty cool. Pity season 1 results were leaked. Also wasn't too big a fan of the random seedings done for the open qualifiers for season 2, but they were run a lot better than the NASL one going on right now.

darkrabbi · Post by **darkrabbi** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:32 pm

AlopeX wrote: so not on twitter but you couldn't resist posting it on your blog.

LOL called out. I have no defense, guilty as charged

Anyway the first episode of the Top 10 I've been working on is going to air on IPL TV in about 30 minutes, here's the link:

http://www.justin.tv/ignproleague

For some bonus content, here's one of our recent vlogs - http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/07/11/in ... t-the-team

hellfire · Post by **hellfire** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:39 pm

IM JELLY !!!!!!!! I WANT SOME!

hellfire · Post by **hellfire** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:57 pm

darkrabbi wrote:Hey n00bs, for those of you who play/follow competitive SC2: I just started work @ IGN eSports working on the IPL! You can follow me at

http://people.ign.com/darkrabbi

http://twitter.com/darkrabbi

I'll probably setup a separate blog pretty soon so I can talk about the things actually on my mind without carefully picking my words.

IGN is investing a shit ton into this project, there's some big things planned for the next few months. If there was this much corporate interest in competitive gaming back when we played it would have been so different. The major difference this time around is that the casual viewers are involved and interested in the competitive scene. It would have been like if the dodmod.com kids instead of hating us with a passion instead sucked our dicks and followed all the leagues. That's really why SC2 is taking off the way it is, there's even people who have never played who follow the competitive scene.

So yea, follow me on IGN/Twitter! I hate twitter but I promise not to post bullshit like "LOL HAD INDIAN FOOD TODAY". It will be stuff relevant to competitive SC2 and the IPL with the occasional dod throwback.

Congrats DR,

I wish you best of luck at IGN. They have a lot to offer, hopefully you excel quickly with them.

St|ck · Post by **St|ck** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 7:43 pm

The matches today looks interesting. Only problem is there's too many terrans.

darkrabbi · Post by **darkrabbi** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 1:09 am

Thanks for the kind words guys!

Sorry to bump an old thread but I did some casting the other week!

http://www.twitch.tv/ignproleague/b/293572522 (with HD)

and

http://www.twitch.tv/ignproleague/b/294206423 (with CatsPajamas)

I also did an interview with Gordon Hayward (spoof of the Lebron James decision) here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMsc2jlN-6A

Sears · Post by **Sears** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 3:01 am

darkrabbi wrote:Thanks for the kind words guys!

Sorry to bump an old thread but I did some casting the other week!

http://www.twitch.tv/ignproleague/b/293572522 (with HD)

and

http://www.twitch.tv/ignproleague/b/294206423 (with CatsPajamas)

I also did an interview with Gordon Hayward (spoof of the Lebron James decision) here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMsc2jlN-6A

You should give Revo and his parents a call again, for old times sake.

darkrabbi · Post by **darkrabbi** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 10:29 am

LOL Sears, I don't think joel@boylove.com would be too happy about that.

As a side note, we're having a big event in Atlantic City in 2 weeks (Oct 6th-9th) at Caesars. We just had a production assistant bail on us so if anyone is interested in going to this let me know ASAP and I can probably get you in. Deal is you get airfare/hotel covered but you're a volunteer to work the event.

More info: http://www.ign.com/ipl/starcraft2/tournaments/ipl3/

t`RavE · Post by **t`RavE** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 4:22 pm

I was watching these matches live on the streams through TeamLiquid, I love eating and watching SC2. ^^

joeledmunds · Post by **joeledmunds** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 7:27 pm

t`RavE wrote:I love eating

t`RavE · Post by **t`RavE** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 11:21 am

joeledmunds wrote:
t`RavE wrote:I love eating

Lol if you ever saw me you would see I'm far from fat haha. Also, we need to play some HoN, I don't have the vent you guys use anymore.

Avail · Post by **Avail** » Thu Sep 22, 2011 11:36 am

Just curious, what does a 'production assistant' do? I'd be interested except I'd have to take time off work, so unfortunately it's not going to happen.

scorch- · Post by **scorch-** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:01 am

does whatever needs to happen to get the show on the road

RoNiX · Post by **RoNiX** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:32 am

production assistants are bitches, you picking up what i am putting down?

jgale · Post by **jgale** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:00 am

darkrabbi wrote:LOL Sears, I don't think joel@boylove.com would be too happy about that.

As a side note, we're having a big event in Atlantic City in 2 weeks (Oct 6th-9th) at Caesars. We just had a production assistant bail on us so if anyone is interested in going to this let me know ASAP and I can probably get you in. Deal is you get airfare/hotel covered but you're a volunteer to work the event.

More info: http://www.ign.com/ipl/starcraft2/tournaments/ipl3/

I live 5 minutes from AC. I'll stop by and say hi...I'm off work that weekend.

motive · Post by **motive** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 7:32 am

jgale wrote:
darkrabbi wrote:LOL Sears, I don't think joel@boylove.com would be too happy about that.

As a side note, we're having a big event in Atlantic City in 2 weeks (Oct 6th-9th) at Caesars. We just had a production assistant bail on us so if anyone is interested in going to this let me know ASAP and I can probably get you in. Deal is you get airfare/hotel covered but you're a volunteer to work the event.

More info: http://www.ign.com/ipl/starcraft2/tournaments/ipl3/
I live 5 minutes from AC. I'll stop by and say hi...I'm off work that weekend.

ditto

lets do this

Schmiggs · Post by **Schmiggs** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 6:37 pm

Ron Rabbi! My favorite DoD/Poker Player of all time!

What's up dude? Still playing pkr??

scorch- · Post by **scorch-** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 12:54 pm

Schmiggs wrote:Ron Rabbi! My favorite DoD/Poker Player of all time!

What's up dude? Still playing pkr??

that's illegal.

Schmiggs · Post by **Schmiggs** » Thu Sep 29, 2011 8:08 pm

oh el scorcho, officials at FTP should be the only one's to go to prison for poker related thingamahoozies.

RonRabbi was on Live at the Bike though. Just wondering if he still plays there or at all.