Anyone know a good place to start following Competitive Starcraft? Preferably for free, but legally.

[Amarok]

I like Starcraft 2. I like playing it and I like watching it. But so far my experience is limited to HuskyStarcraft's channel, Day9's dailies, TeamLiquid Streaming and the like.
I've seen highlight reels of Gom tv's GSL with Tasteless and Artosis casting and proper competitive seasons just look like they'd be awesome things to watch.

However gom tv requires that one buy a "season ticket" and while I'm not opposed to that in any way, that's something I'd feel more comfortable spending money on in a year or so, when my finances are a little less shaky

So anyone know any good free - yet legal - places one can follow a few tournaments? Doesn't have to be the biggest or the best, but it'd be nice to watch something more cohesive than random match after random match

 

[Verzin]

day9. you'll want his competitive coverage, not his daily show, though I suggest you do that as well.
blip.tv/day9tv

 

[Professor Putricide]

TotalBiscuit on Youtube does a lot of Starcraft-related content, including hosting a lot of competitive tournaments. His channel has a great deal of matches you could watch.

 

[somonels]

justin.tv/directory/gaming

 

[mag0r]

Well, I think GSL is the best and well worth the money. You can even watch it for free, but only live (6 p.m. in Korea which is 1 or 2 a.m. in the US) and in crappy quality.

MLG also organizes great Tournaments with a high level of play every 2-3 months:
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/MLG
They are usually free to watch and VODs become available shortly after the tournaments.


If you feel like watching Starcraft Live Streams or VODs right now just head to Teevox:
http://teevox.com/
It basically has every Starcraft Stream and VOD out there. You can just watch the first stream that comes up or choose one of the thousands of others.
MLG is also streamed there, so Teevox really has everything except GSL.


Other good tournaments are Asus ROG IEM (Intel Extreme Masters) or Homestory Cup. You can keep an eye on teamliquid.net to know when they start.

Edit: +the ones mentioned above hosted by TotalBiscuit

I think basically everything that is cast by Tasteless&Artosis, Day9, TeamBiscuit, dApollo or MrBitter is worth watching.

 

[brunothepig]

On this subject, and people who reliably upload LoL footage in downloadable chunks. To Youtube is most obvious, but really any site I can easily download the footage from. Been following the IPL Youtube channel, and while they still haven't finished uploading the IPL4 games, they have uploaded a good amount, said they're working on the rest, and their Killing Spree tournament is fun to watch.

Anyway, like I said. Anyone know any other channels/websites to follow for some good competitive LoL?

 

[mag0r]

brunothepig: Teevox has LoL aswell, but only Streams no downloads

 

[Amarok]

Thanks for the responses guys
I will check out all the sites linked. Also Verzin I didn't realise there was more to be found on day9tv than just his daily thank ye, I shall check it out!
Sounds like GSL live is 9am in the UK then...

 

[mag0r]

Ah, so you're from the UK. I live in Germany so it's 10am here which is quite alright if you want to watch live, especially since the Finals are always on Saturday (unless you were out on Friday and watch them with only 4 hours of sleep)

 

[Amarok]

Is the GSL on all the time? Or is it a few weeks a year? We're getting into territory where I could just google it now, but since we're all here...

 

[mag0r]

GSL is basically on all the time. Right now it's Season 2 of 2012. There are two leagues "Code A" and "Code S". Code A is basically just an extended qualifier for Code S. Right now there are "Up&Down Matches" happening, which decide who gets to play in Code S and who has to play Code A for another season.
The regular Code S season starts in about 2 weeks with a group stage. After that there's another group stage followed by quarter finals and then semi-finals and finals which will happen in 2 months or something like that.

I guess Team Liquid can explain this better than me:
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2012_Global_StarCraft_II_League_Season_2

During the regular season there are matches happening almost everyday from Monday to Thursday.

 

[Amarok]

GSL is basically on all the time. Right now it's Season 2 of 2012. There are two leagues "Code A" and "Code S". Code A is basically just an extended qualifier for Code S. Right now there are "Up&Down Matches" happening, which decide who gets to play in Code S and who has to play Code A for another season.
The regular Code S season starts in about 2 weeks with a group stage. After that there's another group stage followed by quarter finals and then semi-finals and finals which will happen in 2 months or something like that.

I guess Team Liquid can explain this better than me:
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2012_Global_StarCraft_II_League_Season_2

During the regular season there are matches happening almost everyday from Monday to Thursday.

Thanks I will definitely try getting into the live GSL then. It looks like such a cool thing to follow.
Also thanks for the teevox link, I'm enjoying that a lot.

 

[mag0r]

Glad I could help. GSL really is amazing - I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do!

 

[omega 616]

snip

Think of a big name player you like, find his stream.

if I remember correctly most, if not all by now, big SC2 players have live streams of them playing on the ladder or something.

That is the best I got anyway

 

[mag0r]

Since these upcoming tournaments were just posted by Blizzard on Facebook, I'll add it:
http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/3864436/eSports_Upcoming_Tournaments-16_03_2012


If you "like" StarCraft on Facebook you'll get news like this every few weeks.