Eight professional Starcraft 2 players gather at Red Bull HQ this weekend to compete for money and prestige for the Red Bull Training Grounds event in Santa Monica, CA. The tournament takes place over three days with a total of $8,600 in prize money.
The games are being livestreamed on Red Bull’s Twitch channel on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 2 PM to 9 PM PST with commentary by veteran Starcraft 2 shoutcasters Day[9] and Husky. If you missed game that you wanted to see, don’t fret. All of the matches are also recorded on Red Bull’s YouTube channel.
The tournament has two stages. First, the players are split into two groups for a best-of-three round robin tournament. The first and second place winners from those two groups go into a single-elimination playoff, with a best-of-five semifinal and a best-of-seven final match. The third and fourth-place players get $625, second place gets $1,250, and first gets $2,500. To sweeten the deal, each player gets $100 for every game he wins.
Only two players compete at a time, duking it out inside a dark sound-proof booth. The other players wait their turn at a circular table covered with computer terminals, watching the livestream or scrimmaging to keep their skills up. The atmosphere is friendly, with many players familiar with each other through the competitive scene. Some are even members of the same professional team, with three players representing North American team ROOT Gaming and two representing Korean team StarTale.
The first day saw the two StarTale members, Sound and Golden, taking the lead with two match wins apiece and no losses while the US player ViBE trailed in last with two match losses. Let’s see if the Western players can fare better against StarTale in the coming days.