EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/etSlD.jpg)
Sen in his new Gamania Bears uniform
What? Taiwan has a professional league?
Yes, not only that but the first country in the world to broadcast games lively on television. I won’t spend a lot of time introducing the TeSL here, if you want to know more about it you can take a look at this article written at the beginning of TeSL’s last season:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=203564
Also here is Artosis' video about TeSL:
Some things have changed, and some info is outdated (namely: Due to strict government laws on foreign workers the TeSL was not able to open up to foreign players as planned for the second season. It appears that this will have to wait until eSports become a recognized sport by the Taiwan government and rules for foreign players are relaxed) but most is still accurate. Actually I have been meaning to write a follow up to this article with all of the highlights of TeSL’s first season. It really is a shame that TeSL has not been able to get together an English stream, website and team of writers because their players and games really are very entertaining.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5PHeR.jpg)
Artosis with Gamania Bear's coach 4Leaf (a pretty well known Brood War player)
Sen will join teammates Croly (P), the teams former ace player, Slam (Z) a new addition to the team at the end of the first season, and Heero (T)(more commonly known as “Pencil”, his ID in the amateur days). TeSL is a team league, I will try to explain briefly the structure of the matches and how adding Sen will affect the dynamic. For every match each teams pick 3 players eligible to play a Bo5 match. The first 3 games of the match (all Bo3) have an arranged order. If there is a 4th game needed the coaches from each team select a player (again from the same pool of three players) to go out and play, and the same for the fifth match. So every player can potentially play twice in each match. Because, obviously, Sen is a level (or two) above the TeSL players (however to give credit where it is due, the players have improved a lot over a season and are still getting better. Players took games off of July and Whitera when they came to visit Taiwan) it is expected that teams will arrange their lineup so in the first three games they match their weakest player against Sen and hope to win both of the other matches. This way going into the 4th game with a 2-1 lead even if they have to lose another one against Sen they still have another game to take the match.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150262186439024&oid=128498683541
This is a video released by the Gamania Bears of Sen introducing himself (in Mandarin) to the fans. Basically he is saying that he couldn't participate in the opening match of Season 2 last week because he was stuck in the Shanghai airport coming back from Assembly in Finland because of a typhoon (he refers to the typhoon as a force field wall), but this week nothing will keep him from playing, even if their are force fields he will do an overlord drop to get over them. Also the funny thing is, in his first ever TeSL match his opponent will be his uncle (they are only 4 years apart), the Tt Apollos protoss player Apro!
After the Gamania Bears drafted Sen they stated that they plan to send him to every international tournament he wants to attend, so we don’t have to worry about not seeing Sen in major tournaments. As far as I know they even said that Sen’s international tournaments will take a priority over TeSL regular season matches (every weekend). Anyway, I guess that’s all the major points, if anyone has any more questions I’ll do my best to answer to the best of my knowledge. I’ll also try to find time to write a detailed recap of TeSL season 1, because there really were a lot of good stories. Cheers
PS, I guess Taiwan had a fanart contest recently, there are some really good ones of Sen in there. For those who don't know he is famous among the Taiwan community for loving Taiwan style fried chicken, that's why there is fried chicken in so many of the pictures
And also those pictures of "Luway" you see is a female amateur player who has beat July and Moonglade (the latter in a Bo3). You can see Sen's new teammate Croly in #5, he got a funny nickname like "the guy smashes into the wall" because in his first TeSL game he tried to blink up to the high ground unsuccessfully seemingly going head first into the cliff. In #39 you can see Sen's new teammate Slam walking a pet zergling, because he is known for is love of speedling play. Haha, also in #7 you can see a picture of a TeSL player Hui of the Xpec Ironmen (their ace player and MVP of the TeSL championship match), in the picture his hands are being mind controlled by July like a puppet master, this is known as the "July Curse". When July visited Taiwan Hui defeated him on live TV using creative... wait for it... CARRIER play, but after he won that match he proceeded to lose I think 10 or so matches in a row. From looking at these I'm sure you can get a sense that the Taiwanese community (while unfortunately pretty secluded from the rest of the world) has a lot of good things going on!http://tw.battle.net/sc2/zh/blog/379774#blog
![[image loading]](http://tw.media1.battle.net/cms/content_entry_media/WYMRMKZLJ9KV1313028844746.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://tw.media4.battle.net/cms/content_entry_media/U7AKNTM6GIHW1313029216303.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://tw.media5.battle.net/cms/content_entry_media/TWY6GAHHZ97N1313029602008.jpg)
wish I knEw more about the tiawanese scene. Would love to see some of their players play in other leagues!
