Akin to the older system of the South Korean ProLeague, a total of 4 matches are played with a final ace match. Three 1v1s and a 2v2 match are played before the ace. Although previous seasons of the CSL have been played in Broodwar, the CSL has switched to StarCraft 2 for season 4.
The CSL is ran mainly by the community of players who have shown interest in playing. Each week, coordinators of each collegiate team are charged with organizing their teams and submitting line-ups for that week's match. At the head of this organization are several members who helped to develop the CSL and help it evolve over its two year existence.
Taking time out of their busy schedules from work and school, I was able to ask head administrators Mona 'hazelynut' Zhang and Duran 'Xeris' Parsi a couple of questions. hazelynut is currently a junior at Princeton University and is also the founder of the CSL. Xeris is no stranger to the Broodwar community, his contributions have been wide and varied from the U.S. national teams to team fnatic.
Duran Parsi, a.k.a. 'Xeris'
Communications, Head Administrator
So how did the idea of the CSL first come to be?
Xeris: Pretty much we're all fans of Starcraft. The idea was to create something that rivaled proleague in Korea. We wanted Starcraft on TV here in North America.
This will be your 4th season and the league has been running for almost three years now, what do you think has contributed to this success?
Xeris: The fact that people LOVE Starcraft as much as we do. Also, because people generally have school spirit, and enjoy the social aspect of being in their CSL team just as much as actually playing the game. CSL is a way to bring people together and create new bonds - I think everyone involved realizes this and that is why the same schools keep coming back.
Very early on in the life of the CSL, an article was published by the New York Times about the league, how did this affect the CSL? Do you think it helped to draw more players?
Xeris: I doubt it specifically helped draw more players, but what I think it did was show us how much of an impact the CSL could have. I think if eSports is promoted and pushed the right way in North America, we can successfully take it main stream. This is what we hope to achieve. If we're lucky, we will get some more exposure from them!
The New York Time's article covers a tournament organized by the CSL called the Cotter StarCraft Cup could you elaborate more on that tournament?
Xeris: The Cotter Cup was meant to be a fun competition between the Ivy league schools and some Asian universities. It was sponsored by a former Princeton alumni who wanted to see old college rivalries play out in a new medium. I was pretty upset at the time that UCSD was not invited. :)
“You never want to expand unless you have enough units to stop a rush.”Since the completion of the Cotter Cup, has there at anytime been plans to expand into other regions of the world such as Europe or Asia?
Xeris: We are nowhere near ready to expand that far. Once we get an offline final played and some real stable and consistent widespread exposure maybe then we can feel safe expanding. You never want to expand unless you have enough units to stop a rush.
Marked on this map are the locations of all the campuses that registered during the pre-season.
Mona Zhang, a.k.a. 'hazelynut'
Founder, Head Administrator
So what has been the largest challenge in organizing the CSL so far?
hazelynut: Strangely enough, everything runs amazingly smoothly, and I think it's mainly because schools have a genuine interest in sacrificing a little bit of their Saturday nights for good old StarCraft and collegiate rivalry. We only get a few hiccups along the way--
"So-and-so didn't show up until 8:31pm, do we get a bye?" or "This guy is trash-talking about my probes in game, that means he's map hacking!"--and everything else is surprisingly easy to manage. So far, I think the most difficult thing is running this season because of the massive influx of players we have coming from SC2. We're organizing on a whole new scale now.
Which schools do you think have the greatest rivalry and why?
hazelynut: That's hard to say. So far it's been Duke, UCSD, and Waterloo in the finals, but as of yet there's no real rivalry-feeling. UCSD puts up the best fight with the most spirit, and Duke kind of just reigns on top because of the sheer force of their lineup. Waterloo disappeared in Season 3 when we gave them beta keys. Now that it's SC2, CSL Season 4 will be a whole different story. We have a lot of new names in the top 10, so we should be seeing a lot of new rivalries.
“At one point, one of our players' computer overheated and we actually physically LIFTED his computer while he played so that it wouldn't lag.”What for you has been your best moment in the history of the CSL?
hazelynut: Princeton 3-2'ing Duke in what could be the strangest, greatest upset of all time. I remember the entire team huddling around our player's laptop, wondering "is this really happening?" while our ace took down NonY due to sheer preparation, mind games, and hard work. At one point, one of our players' computer overheated and we actually physically LIFTED his computer while he played so that it wouldn't lag. That's teamwork.
Are there any plans to expand into Europe?
hazelynut: It's a possibility, but at the moment, probably not. Time zones are an issue (although University of Guam almost joined Season 4!) that we need to consider, and we don't want to expand too fast at the moment.
Any plans on naming a trophy for the CSL champion?
hazelynut: Yep! Well, it's not a trophy, per se...but there'll be news on that later ;)
The CSL is set to begin its fourth season on Saturday, October 23rd with matches set to be played at 16:00 EST. There has already been a show match between the Canadian University U. of Waterloo and the U.S. collegiate team of UCSD. This match was casted by Day[9] and links to the VODs will be updated to this thread as soon as they are posted. Now all that stands between teams and the championship title are 17 weeks of regular season matches and a battle through the playoffs.
Sources/Links
cstarleague.com - Collegiate StarLeague
Video Game Becomes Spectator Sport - New York Times
Comm-Link Online #8 - Battle.net
The CSL is ran mainly by the community of players who have shown interest in playing. Each week, coordinators of each collegiate team are charged with organizing their teams and submitting line-ups for that week's match. At the head of this organization are several members who helped to develop the CSL and help it evolve over its two year existence.
Taking time out of their busy schedules from work and school, I was able to ask head administrators Mona 'hazelynut' Zhang and Duran 'Xeris' Parsi a couple of questions. hazelynut is currently a junior at Princeton University and is also the founder of the CSL. Xeris is no stranger to the Broodwar community, his contributions have been wide and varied from the U.S. national teams to team fnatic.
Duran Parsi, a.k.a. 'Xeris'
Communications, Head Administrator
So how did the idea of the CSL first come to be?
Xeris: Pretty much we're all fans of Starcraft. The idea was to create something that rivaled proleague in Korea. We wanted Starcraft on TV here in North America.
This will be your 4th season and the league has been running for almost three years now, what do you think has contributed to this success?
Xeris: The fact that people LOVE Starcraft as much as we do. Also, because people generally have school spirit, and enjoy the social aspect of being in their CSL team just as much as actually playing the game. CSL is a way to bring people together and create new bonds - I think everyone involved realizes this and that is why the same schools keep coming back.
Very early on in the life of the CSL, an article was published by the New York Times about the league, how did this affect the CSL? Do you think it helped to draw more players?
Xeris: I doubt it specifically helped draw more players, but what I think it did was show us how much of an impact the CSL could have. I think if eSports is promoted and pushed the right way in North America, we can successfully take it main stream. This is what we hope to achieve. If we're lucky, we will get some more exposure from them!
The New York Time's article covers a tournament organized by the CSL called the Cotter StarCraft Cup could you elaborate more on that tournament?
Xeris: The Cotter Cup was meant to be a fun competition between the Ivy league schools and some Asian universities. It was sponsored by a former Princeton alumni who wanted to see old college rivalries play out in a new medium. I was pretty upset at the time that UCSD was not invited. :)
“You never want to expand unless you have enough units to stop a rush.”Since the completion of the Cotter Cup, has there at anytime been plans to expand into other regions of the world such as Europe or Asia?
Xeris: We are nowhere near ready to expand that far. Once we get an offline final played and some real stable and consistent widespread exposure maybe then we can feel safe expanding. You never want to expand unless you have enough units to stop a rush.
Marked on this map are the locations of all the campuses that registered during the pre-season.
Mona Zhang, a.k.a. 'hazelynut'
Founder, Head Administrator
So what has been the largest challenge in organizing the CSL so far?
hazelynut: Strangely enough, everything runs amazingly smoothly, and I think it's mainly because schools have a genuine interest in sacrificing a little bit of their Saturday nights for good old StarCraft and collegiate rivalry. We only get a few hiccups along the way--
"So-and-so didn't show up until 8:31pm, do we get a bye?" or "This guy is trash-talking about my probes in game, that means he's map hacking!"--and everything else is surprisingly easy to manage. So far, I think the most difficult thing is running this season because of the massive influx of players we have coming from SC2. We're organizing on a whole new scale now.
Which schools do you think have the greatest rivalry and why?
hazelynut: That's hard to say. So far it's been Duke, UCSD, and Waterloo in the finals, but as of yet there's no real rivalry-feeling. UCSD puts up the best fight with the most spirit, and Duke kind of just reigns on top because of the sheer force of their lineup. Waterloo disappeared in Season 3 when we gave them beta keys. Now that it's SC2, CSL Season 4 will be a whole different story. We have a lot of new names in the top 10, so we should be seeing a lot of new rivalries.
“At one point, one of our players' computer overheated and we actually physically LIFTED his computer while he played so that it wouldn't lag.”What for you has been your best moment in the history of the CSL?
hazelynut: Princeton 3-2'ing Duke in what could be the strangest, greatest upset of all time. I remember the entire team huddling around our player's laptop, wondering "is this really happening?" while our ace took down NonY due to sheer preparation, mind games, and hard work. At one point, one of our players' computer overheated and we actually physically LIFTED his computer while he played so that it wouldn't lag. That's teamwork.
Are there any plans to expand into Europe?
hazelynut: It's a possibility, but at the moment, probably not. Time zones are an issue (although University of Guam almost joined Season 4!) that we need to consider, and we don't want to expand too fast at the moment.
Any plans on naming a trophy for the CSL champion?
hazelynut: Yep! Well, it's not a trophy, per se...but there'll be news on that later ;)
The CSL is set to begin its fourth season on Saturday, October 23rd with matches set to be played at 16:00 EST. There has already been a show match between the Canadian University U. of Waterloo and the U.S. collegiate team of UCSD. This match was casted by Day[9] and links to the VODs will be updated to this thread as soon as they are posted. Now all that stands between teams and the championship title are 17 weeks of regular season matches and a battle through the playoffs.
Sources/Links
cstarleague.com - Collegiate StarLeague
Video Game Becomes Spectator Sport - New York Times
Comm-Link Online #8 - Battle.net
