What Do The Top STARCRAFT Players in the World Think About Lady Champions?

This past weekend we had the opportunity to attend South Korea’s largest Gaming Convention, G-STAR! While there, the mighty Zerg creators themselves, Blizzard, allowed us to partake in their new expansion “Heart of the Swarm” and other goodies from their super secret laboratory buried in the heart of Soyosan Mountain. We’ll have more coverage on that in the coming days (including the tale our very own Adam Coulon’s magnificent 5 minute loss to an 8 year old), but for now, I’d like to share our awesome interview with the Top StarCraft players in the world: Flash, PartinG, and Effort.

You may recognize those names if you follow the larger tournaments or if you’re one of the thousands of bagel bites devouring gamers trying to emulate their style. Well, on Saturday they made an appearance  in a very special table interview session following the conclusion of a relentless 4 day tournament. The players were barraged with a series of questions and seemed pretty humble in their responses which we’ll have published as soon as we translate them from Korean. Though, we managed to sneak in one or two ourselves and Blizzard’s folks kindly translated (many thanks Seung!).

Now, I should probably admit, my personal time with StarCraft has been short and bitter. I played alongside my maniac friends in college, but was quickly thrown out of their battle station (the sweaty, Lo-Mein scented 1st floor lounge) after bombing a remarkably phallic forest instead of the enemy. Though, I’ve recently been interested in the changing scope of competitors. There has been a recent surge in Westerners, and even a particular rise in female champions, with Scarlett being the top one on mind.

I asked Flash about this, halfway expecting an aggressive response, but again, he was humble and welcoming…

I welcome the situation and I’m very happy that there are more female players and diverse players. I welcome them at tournaments

In turn, his fellow player PartinG agreed:

You’ll notice there are few female players out there on the floor and yes, I would like to see more participate.

And Effort had a similar sentiment:

I agree, more female players and more foreign players should join. I also want more Korean players to join in foreign tournaments.

I have to admit, for a game so famed for manly contests in damp basements and beer drowned quasi-frat houses, the professional players are pretty damn cool. Moreso, it would seem, than the FPS competitors in all of their n-bomb throwing, woman hating glory… or shame.

We’ll have more from G-STAR in the coming days, but in the meantime, just check out our homepage for more awesome goodies.