{"post":{"id":"9984","title":"ASUS Republic of Gamers Summer 2012 - Recap","content":"##TaeJa Continues to Dominate\r\n\r\nWith his latest conquest coming at the ASUS Republic of Gamers tournament in Finland, there is no way to hide it at this point: Yoon Young Suh, better known as Team Liquid's TaeJa, is on an absolute tear. Just take a look at the thrashings he has delivered in events since the start of June: \r\n\r\n![image](https://s3.amazonaws.com/scvrush/uploads/image/image/normal_taeja.jpg)\r\n*Image Source: www.teamliquidpro.com*\r\n\r\n* he performed an all-kill against Prime in the IPL Team Arena Challenge, \r\n* edged out Polt in the IPL 5 International Qualifier, \r\n* crushed Genius to win a TSL 4 qualifier, \r\n* took the MLG Summer Arena title over Alicia, \r\n* and last but not the least, soundly defeated Squirtle in a Korean Weekly Grand Prix final. \r\n\r\nAdding that all to his victory over MC in the finals this weekend, TaeJa cannot seem to lose to anyone, even against the highest caliber players.\r\n\r\nThough it was not a gauntlet of Code S Koreans, TaeJa's path through this tournament was certainly not a walk in the park. He brushed aside all competitors on his path to the finals without losing a series and dropping only six maps. His closest scare came from **Mouz.MaNa** in the winner's match of his second group, barely coming out on top with a 3-2 score, and the other two group stage map losses came against two Evil Geniuses players, **Idra** and **DeMuslim. **\r\n\r\nEven the bracket stage seemed to be easy for the Liquid player, as he knocked out both his teammate **Hero** and the new Korean recruit for Millenium, **ForGG**, by 3-1 margins, positioning himself for a best of seven series against the Boss Toss, **SK.MC.**\r\n\r\nIn such a position, it is fair to expect some intangible advantage for the Protoss player; MC has proven himself on both the Korean and international stage, capturing many of the most prestigious tournaments in the Starcraft 2 scene, and actually dominated the field even more thoroughly than TaeJa on his way to the final. \r\n\r\nTaeJa, however, showed no signs of being intimidated by his opponent's cornucopia of accomplishments, trouncing the two-time GSL champion with a 4-1 series score. It was supposed to be an extremely tough final, and it was not even close. Watch out for TaeJa, he will not be going anywhere.\r\n\r\n##ForGG's International Premiere, SortOf Soldiers On\r\n![image](https://s3.amazonaws.com/scvrush/uploads/image/image/normal_forgg.jpg)\r\n*Image Source: www.millenium.org*\r\n\r\nWith the disbanding of his former team, Old Generations, former Brood War champion ForGG looked to join a team capable of sending him to foreign events, and Millenium jumped at the opportunity to pick up this esports legend. In his first event under the new banner, ForGG impressed, winning his first group outright and managing a ridiculous comeback from a 2-0 deficit against EG's Puma in the final match of his second group to barely reach the bracket stage. \r\nHe then won another close TvT series against his former oGs teammate, TheStC, before falling to the eventual champion TaeJa. Considering this was his first major international tournament, ForGG's performance should be seen as a great sign for his future with Millenium, and we can expect to see him perform even better very soon.\r\n\r\nWestern Wolves' Rickard \"SortOf\" Bergman is making a huge splash in the scene as of late. Rickard first came into the general consciousness as a surprise qualifier at the MLG Summer Arena, a major tournament with a smaller field where he gained exposure by defeating eventual third place finisher LG-IM.First, and more recently defeated Swedish beasts Cytoplasm, Bischu, SaSe and Naniwa in the loser's bracket of the WCS Swedish Championship before losing in the finals to Thorzain. By being one of two foreigners to make it through the group stages, SortOf showed that he is no fluke, and should be a force to be reckoned with.\r\n\r\n##Production Excellence from the GD Studio\r\n![image](https://s3.amazonaws.com/scvrush/uploads/image/image/normal_gdstudio.jpg)\r\n*Image Source: http://www.facebook.com/TheGDStudio*\r\n\r\nThe GD Studio was saddled with the responsibility of handling the production at the ASUS ROG event. In their first major tournament test, **James \"2GD\" Harding's boys** passed with flying colors. Their in-house talent was on top of their game with:\r\n\r\n* **Christian \"Trance\" Tamaş** in charge of the stream production, \r\n* **Shaun \"Apollo\" Clark** forming half of the primary casting duo, \r\n* **Auguste \"Semmler\" Massonnat** doing some off-stage interview work, \r\n* **James Harding** himself managing the primary stream's hosting desk. \r\n\r\nHarding also knew exactly who to bring in as outside help and where to use them, utilizing casters Wolf and Khaldor as a duo for the second stream and having the popular Team Liquid player TLO commentate alongside Apollo.\r\n\r\n**Harding** and **Geoff \"iNcontroL\" Robinson** proved to a dynamic hosting duo, killing dead time between matches brilliantly. While their style of humor would admittedly not be allowed at an MLG, IPL, or other major event, the boys' antics served their purpose as there was rarely a dull moment on the main stream. We had not yet seen this style of hosting with a dedicated desk cut to on stream for extended periods of time, but I think it was a major success, and a similar idea should be pursued by other tournament organizers. \r\n\r\nAlso, let us not forget the continued efforts of **Mike \"Adebisi\" Van Driel**, one of the few dedicated observers we have in the foreign scene, and his contributions made the primary stream experience even higher in quality. Frankly, any tournament worth their salt needs to bring in someone for this role, whether it be Adebisi or not, as it greatly improves the casters' performances.\r\n\r\nThe GD Studio has been producing quality content from their home studio in Sweden for some time, and this weekend they showed that they can handle a major event as well with just a small amount of outside personnel. James Harding understands what people want, and he has assembled a team capable of following through on his vision. This is an outfit you should certainly keep an eye on in the future.\r\n\r\n*Featured Image Source: http://esporteye.net*","image":"/assets/post_default_image.png","tag_list":["scene-news","recap","asus"]}}