This Week in Competitive Gaming - July 18

Scarlett and Stephano crowned NASL Champions

The conclusion of season 3 of the North American Star League wrapped up this weekend in Toronto to a raucous crowd who has long-awaited a major eSports event in Canada. Three champions were crowned at the end of the weekend for the main Starcraft 2 event, Blizzard's World Championship Series Canadian finals, and the Tribes: Ascend Finals.

Team Millenium's Ilyes "Stephano" Satouri from France won the main Starcraft 2 event and a $30,000 check with it, sweeping Team Slayers' Yang "Alicia" Joon Sik from South Korea in the finals 4-0.

Team Millenium's Ilyes "Stephano" Satouri from France won the main StarCraft 2 event and a $30,000 check with it, sweeping Team Slayers' Yang "Alicia" Joon Sik from South Korea in the finals 4-0. Stephano's Zerg timing and control took out three of the best Korean Protoss players in the world including Team Liquid's Song "HerO" Hyeon Deok and SK Gaming's Jang "MC" Min Chul. Top PC FPS players put on a skiing display in Tribes as Team MonoManiacs squeaked by Team Legion 3-2 to take the Tribes trophy.

Lastly, Team Acer's Sasha "Scarlett" Hostyn captured the heart of the crowd by taking out four of the best Canadian players in a row, all starting with Evil Geniuses Chris "HuK" Loranger. She went on to defeat Christopher "Ostojiy" Ostojic, Andrew "Drewbie" Moysey, Moon "DdoRo" Jung Ho, and Ostojiy a second time in the grand finals, only losing one map the entire event. She will now lead team Canada at the Blizzard World Championships in China later this year. "I was really confident [going into this event]" Scarlett told GameSpot after her victory. "I was most worried about Ostojiy, I always beat HuK on the ladder recently, but Ostojiy I always lose to. When I played him the first time I thought I might lose. The first game I got way ahead but then I lost to a Nydus Worm, I thought I would lose the series, but then I barely won. I got more confident after that so when I played him in the grand finals again I thought I could easily win."

Stephano's win this weekend was a big statement for the Western StarCraft community, highlighting and capping off a third victory in the past month. Victories started by Polish stars' Team Mousesports' Grzegorz "MaNa" Komincz winning DreamHack Summer 2012, and Scarlett's teammate Artur "Nerchio" Bloch taking home the fifth HomeStoryCup. Stephano will use the win going into this weekend's MLG Summer Arena. "Winning a tournament doesn't really boost my confidence, because everybody will expect me to do good so everyone will be playing better against me," Stephano told GameSpot. "But I think this tournament has been good practice for me as I haven't been able to do it the past days, so I think I could do it."

Stephano has said many times in interviews that he doesn't practice leading upto the big events

Stephano has said many times in interviews that he doesn't practice leading upto the big events, just going by feel. I don't quite know if I buy that (nor does anyone else), but his results are consistent of being one of the very best western Starcraft 2 players in the world. He says he will be heading to Korea soon to play GSTL with his team Millenium and their partnership with Korean team TSL. Korea is still the best place in the world to level up your game, as shown by Quantic Gaming's Johan "NaNiwa" Luchessi, the other western player who looks on top of the world. If what Stephano says holds true about his practice, who knows what boost he may get from his stay with his Korean teammates. For now, he'll probably end up relaxing in New York City leading upto this coming weekend's MLG event -- which he may very well win.

Capcom Gets In The Mix with Street Fighter's 25th Anniversary

For the first time, Capcom will be taking competitive gaming into their own hands for the 25th anniversary of Street Fighter this year, with a $500,000 tour for Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition, Street Fighter X Tekken, Street Fighter Third Strike, and Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix. Coming right off the heels of a fantastic EVO 2012, registration for the first event in Austin, Texas has been opened for July 28th and 29th at the Marchesa Event Center. Top American players such as Evil Geniuses' Justin Wong and Ricky Ortiz will be attending, both who underperformed at EVO 2012 after high expectations from their run at CEO 2012. Want to be a part of the action yourself? You can sign up now here.

Blizzard's World Championship Series Full Speed Ahead

Blizzard announced this past weekend that everyone will return to China for the conclusion of the WCS at the World Championships in Shanghai, November 17 and 18.

Three more champions were decided this past weekend in Blizzard's World Championship Series, as the finals of China and South America happening alongside Scarlett's Canadian championship run. It was an all-Zerg final in China as Hui "Comm" Shen took out Huang "TooDming" Hui Ming 2-0 in the finals, both succeeding over favorites Lei "XiGua" Wang, Li "LoveCD" Jun Feng, and Xiang "MacSed" Hu. The rivalry for the best player in South America continued between Team Dignitas' Felipe ‘Killer' Zuñiga of Chile, and Peru's Jian Carlo "Fenix" Morayra. Killer got the better of Fenix this time, as Zerg dominance continues in the WCS off the backs of Stephano's win at WCS France, and Nick "Ziktomini" Copello's win in the UK. Blizzard announced this past weekend that everyone will return to China for the conclusion of the WCS at the World Championships in Shanghai, November 17 and 18. World of WarCraft will also be on-hand with their global finals, but who knows how that will do after the competitive community has been defunct for so long.

Na'Vi dominate Dota2 at the StarLadder Finals

The Dota 2 International 2011 Champion Na'Vi dominated the StarLadder SteelSeries LAN this weekend in their hometown of Kiev, Ukraine. They lost their very first game of the tournament to Mousesports, and then proceeded to go undefeated to another title, sweeping Moscow 5 and Mousesports. "Na'Vi were stable through the whole event, giving flashbacks to their domination at the last International," StarLadder and joinDOTA.com Caster Toby Dawson told GameSpot. "They still have a couple of problems here and there, but a big improvement from their performance at DreamHack." Na'Vi will look to repeat as champions of The International in just under two months, with another million dollar check up for grabs.

QuakeCon Tournament Details Roll In, Finally

The QuakeCon 2012 Tournament lineup has been announced, which will see Quake Live featured and $30,000 up for grabs spotlighted by the Duel Invitational Masters Championship, and accompanied by the Capture The Flag Open, and the Duel Open, for amateur players. The announcement comes just two weeks before the event will take place in it's longstanding home of Dallas, Texas, an issue which has come up in nearly every QuakeCon of recent memory. The late announcement in prize money, maps, and rules will hit the European players the hardest, as it costs them the most money to get here. QuakeCon 2011 Champion Shane "Rapha" Hendrixson will be on-hand to defend his title after his recent victory run at DreamHack Summer. After grabbing another title in Sweden, a victory here surely will cement him as the greatest Quake Live player of all time, if not Quake overall. Longtime rival and QuakeCon 2010 Champion Alexey ‘Cypher' Yanushevsky will look to stop that from happening, wanting revenge from his loss at DreamHack Summer.

Brood War's Legendary OSL Tournament Reaches the Finals

Just this week, the last ever Brood War OnGameStarLeague Final was played, with Terran masters Lee Young "Flash" Ho and Jung Myung "Fantasy" Hoon squaring off. The series turned out to be nearly identical in matchup and build order, with two of the best Brood War Terran's of all time going up against each other for the last time. The series started off with a 45-minute thriller that went back-and-forth till the very end, with Fantasy barely squeaking by Flash's dropship play with better positioning. Fantasy rallied off his initial win and surprised the world by sweeping Flash 3-0, and moving onto the finals to play the finals against defending champion, Protoss player Heo Yeong "JangBi" Moo. The OnGameNet StarLeague will be fully switching to StarCraft 2 by next season.