Starcraft II Teams Preview – Part 1

by JP “Moogle” McDaniels

Hey. Did you hear? Starcraft 2 is out. It’s a game where you have these bugs fighting against some glowy dudes and some space cowboys. Oh. You’ve heard of it? Well that’s good!

Well have you heard about the SC2 North American scene? It is blowing up right now and SC1 nerds everywhere are in jubilation! Names both old and new have been springing up all over the place and this article series ( featuring 2 teams/players an article) will serve as a simple directory of the best and brightest players in the NA scene today.

Root-Gaming

Root Gaming is a new team with some of the best players in North America scene. Every single player on this team has had a big tournament win or a notable match and some have builds all across Battle.net being used right this minute.

With so many great players on this squad, the oldest and probably most prolific player on the team has to be SLush. As a member of the famous X`Ds~ clan back in the vanilla days of Starcraft, SLush made quite a name for himself alongside teammates like Grrrr. He’s now come full circle and is terrorizing nerds everywhere with his impressive Zerg play, really utilizing the Infestor unit to hits full potential. He’s not the only zany Zerg on the team though! Sheth has proven to be one of the best Zergs in the world!

The team also possesses the best North American Terran users in qxc, CauthonLuck, and drewbie. All three of these players have preformed well in countless tournaments and showmatches. There really isn’t a better group of NA Terrans out there.

And who could forget the Protoss users of the bunch? While I can’t speak much for Nightwolf and sky (because I haven’t had a chance to observe them), Kiwikaki is a force to be reckoned with. This nerd has been taking names for quite some time and really showing how strong of a player he is.

qxc (T) vs. HuK (P) – Replay
Kiwikaki (P) vs. ThisIsJimmy (T) – Replay
Sheth (Z) vs. Morrow (T) – Replay

Fnatic

If you follow eSports what-so-ever then of course you’ve heard of the name Fnatic. From their triumphant days in Counter-Strike to the terror (re: hilarity?) of Hafu and company destroying MLG events, the team has a history in the world of competitive gaming. With their latest addition of SC2, the team has picked up three North American players: Gretorp, KawaiiRice, and TTone.

You might of heard about Gretorp as he does moonlight as a caster from time-to-time with his impressive, expansive vocabulary. Well, he’s also a beastly Terran user and one of the smartest players I’ve seen thus far in the game. If you’ve ever watched his stream then you know all about his analytical style of play, giving viewers a window into the mind of a madman (and I do mean that — sometimes he says crazy stuff!).

Opposite from the well-known Gretorp is tournament shy KawaiiRice. A hidden gem of sorts, his friends all consider him to be one of the best NA Terran and with his recent showing at a SoCal LAN event in which he finished top four among a sea of great players, expect him to break out onto the scene even moreso into the future.

Rounding out this squad is Protoss player TTone. who has been battling it out on top of the global ELO leaderboards and boasts an impressive 275 games played at time of writing. When I first met and spoke with TTone about playing in showmatches, he kept asking me to get the best players to play against him. I was kind of in the dark as to how strong of a player he actually was so I was hesitant. When I put him up against a strong Zerg user and he absolutely squashed him like a bug, I now knew why he wanted the best players: because he too was one of them.

TTone vs. KawaiiRice – Replay
Gretorp vs. Khufu – Replay

Expect a strong showing from Fnatic and Root Gaming going into future tournaments in the North American scene. Next time we’ll be discussing quite possibly the best Protoss player in the world as well as a strong Terran user who made a name for himself from beating a powerful wizard.