Yoan "ToD" Merlo is a French former professional player of the real-time strategy games Warcraft III and Starcraft II. In WarCraft III he played as the Human race and in StarCraft he played as Protoss. he was signed to the top esports team in the United Kingdom, Four-Kings, until November 7, 2007, when he decided not to renew his contract for unspecified reasons.[1] He later explained in an interview that the dissatisfying results of the Four Kings team were the reason for his departure. After much speculation, Merlo unexpectedly joined the team Mousesports on December 1, 2007.[2][3]
In an interview with GOMTV.net, an esports organization based in Seoul, Korea, he hinted at his interest in competing in Starcraft 2.[4] He achieved moderate success, winning some small tournaments and qualifying for World Cyber Games 2011.[citation needed]
Warcraft III career
Rise in France (2002–2003)
Prior to playing Warcraft III Yoan played such games as Starcraft: Brood War and Counter-Strike, he cites twofold Starcraft World Cyber Games champion Lim "BoxeR" Yo-hwan as the reason he plays the Human race.[5] He started high level competitive Warcraft III after joining French based ArmaTeam, at the time a high level competitive gaming team sponsored by Intel. While representing the team he took fourth place at the 2003 Electronic Sports World Cup.
Following this strong result he joined SK Gaming around August 2003[6] as ArmaTeam was facing internal problems at the time. Around this time he was competing in tournaments around the globe such as those organized by the Cyberathlete Professional League and Cyber X Games, something which he continues to do until today. After six months he returned to ArmaTeam because he preferred to compete with his friends in Paris rather than the globally diverse members of SK Gaming.
A year in South-Korea (2004–2005)
Several months after re-joining ArmaTeam he was asked to join the European-based Warcraft III squad of the United Kingdom-based team Four Kings in order to stay in and compete in the "mecca" of professional gaming, South Korea. On September 16, 2004[7] the team consisting of Manuel Schenkhuizen, Dae Hui Cho, Sebastian "FuRy" Pesic and Ivica "Zeus[19]" Markovic took residence in Seoul and Merlo joined several televised competitions such as those hosted by Ongamenet and MBCGame. He was the most successful Four Kings player in these televised leagues.[8]
His reputation grew strongly during his time in the country, Merlo took third place at the 2004 World Cyber Games[9] and second place at the 2005 Samsung European Championships and would stay in South-Korea for almost a full year competing in two seasons of the World e-Sports Games following the closing of the before mentioned televised leagues. At this time the Warcraft III squad of Four Kings became known as the world's premier competitive Warcraft III team, going undefeated in the Warcraft 3 Champions League for over a full season and being recognized as the esport team of the year in the 2005 eSports Awards.
Return to France (2005–2006)
Upon returning to France in late 2005, he finished the 2005 season by qualifying for and competing in the World Cyber Games 2005 where he took fourth place. The following year he would once again take second place at the Samsung European Championship before embarking on a one-month tournament in Hangzhou, China: the Master edition of the World e-Sports Games. Merlo would surprise many by taking home the first place prize of US$31,000, at the time the biggest prize ever awarded for a Warcraft III competition. He would continue to show strong results throughout the season as he took second places at major tournaments in China such as the World e-Sports Festival and KODE5. He finished the year by taking second place at the World Cyber Games 2006, losing to Li "Sky" Xiaofeng in the finals.
Move to China (2006–2007)
China was significantly growing at this time as an important country for Warcraft III competitions and in 2006 Merlo was frequently visiting tournaments there as well as using the country as grounds to train. In September 2006 he took up permanent residence in the country. He resided in Beijing, China together with Swedish professional gamer Kim "SaSe" Hammar, which allowed them to train in China as well as have an easier time competing in the country's many competitions.
His successes still mainly came from international competition however. In early 2007 he once again took second place at the Samsung European Championship as well as first place in the Electronic Sports League's Extreme Masters. He would win one of the biggest tournaments of the year in the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational and also quite notably declined to compete in several competitions.
He declined to participate in the Electronic Sports World Cup because he would have to travel between China and France twice in order to qualify. He also declined to participate in the World e-Sports Games eStars in Seoul, South Korea. Before agreeing to compete, he specified two conditions, which he claimed were agreed to but not met when he arrived to compete. Claiming to be pressured into a response after this apparent miscommunication, he declined to participate, dissatisfied with the organisation of the tournament, a feat which received both criticism for his demanding nature yet also praise for not accepting the false promises of the tournament organisers. It is widely known in the community ToD was "game dodging".[10]
He was recognized as the player of the year 2007.[citation needed]
Starcraft II career
Yoan began playing StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty during its beta but wouldn't officially switch to the game until late 2010. His playstyle relies on a strong micromanagement, inherited from his Warcraft III experience. He joined Millenium on January 9, 2011.[11] ToD quickly proved himself one of the best French players by taking the second place of Spirit Lan 8. On May 1, 2011, ToD and Millenium decided to end their collaboration, explaining that they were disappointed by each other's work.[12]
ToD participated in eOSL Summer 2011, where he managed to come out of his group in first place, and was eventually eliminated in the semifinals by SarenS. He then won 3–0 against Origine in order to get finish third place. He also competed in HomeStory Cup III, which was the first major offline event he participated in his StarCraft II career. Despite showing an impressive level in the group stage, with a victory against ThorZaIN, ToD was quickly eliminated in the playoffs, after encountering the future winner HuK and SaSe.
In July, ToD successfully got the French spot for World Cyber Games 2011, after his victories against Adelscott and SarenS at the WCG Qualifiers France. After this successful bout of LAN events ToD rejoined Millenium.[13] At the end of the month, he narrowly defeated his teammate Adelscott in order to win ESL Pro Series France X.
Then, he participated in the open bracket of the MLG Anaheim 2011 . He began the tournament by an unexpected 2–0 victory over the South Korean top Protoss player Alicia, but was then knocked-out the upper bracket by CatZ. Nevertheless, ToD made his way through the lower bracket, beating Alicia again, as well as OpTiKzErO and Stalife. He was finally eliminated in the main bracket by another top Protoss South Korean player, Choya.
On September 8, ToD left Millenium for the second time in four months.[14] The same day, he announced on his stream that he was planning to practice in Korea for several months.[15] On September 10, it was announced that ToD had joined Fnatic.[16]
During the weeks before his departure for Korea, ToD had a string of successful of achievements. In September, he was invited to SCAN Invitational 1 where he knocked-out Strelok and TLO in order to reach the final against his former teammate Stephano, whom he couldn't defeat, therefore taking the second place of the tournament. Two weeks later, ToD participated in the Samsung European Championship 2011 in Poland. He managed again to reach the final against a Zerg player, this time being Nerchio, and was able to defeat him in a tied series. The next week, ToD was back in France in order to compete in the first event of French Master Series 2011 - 2012, the PxL-Lan 31. Seen as the favorite of the event by the commentators, thanks to the non-attendance of most of the best French players, he made a clean run to the finals, and swept an unexpected Kamikaze to claim the win of the tournament.
ToD spent the last months of 2011 in South Korea, where he attended World Cyber Games 2011 in December. His run in this event was short-lived, with a 1–5 record in the group stage which resulted in ToD ending up at the last place of his group. He wasn't any more successful at attempting to qualify for the 2012 GSL Season 1 one month later, as he was stopped in the preliminaries by Creator.
On March 5, ToD joined the Fnatic Gaming House.[17] On July 15, ToD parted ways with Fnatic.[18] About 1 month later, on August 11, ToD found a new team and joins ROOT Gaming.[19] On December 6, ToD left ROOT on good terms, returning to France after failing to acquire a work visa in the United States.[20]
On July 21, 2012, ToD participated in the IGN Pro League (IPL) 5 European Satellite Qualifiers. ToD received a BYE in round one and then went on to take down UserStupid in order to advance in to the finals to face White-Ra. In the finals, ToD defeated White-Ra by a score of 1-0 and was able to take first place. His first-place finish qualified him for the IGN ProLeague Season 5.
Casting career
After casting at multiple WCS events, ToD joined ESL full time in 2016 to do casting for Starcraft II and Heroes of the Storm events. [21] In 2020 he was the commentator for the IEM Katowice 2020 Startcraft II event, and in 2021 he was the streams guest commentator for IEM Katowice 2021 Starcraft II event.[citation needed]
Manuel Schenkhuizen, better known as Grubby, is a Dutch real-time strategy gamer and former professional esports player. He competed in the RTS games Warcraft III (WC3), Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and Starcraft II. Grubby is the most successful WC3 player of all time, as an Orc player, having won more than 38 LAN tournaments, of which six were World Championships. His command over the Horde placed him early enough among the elite of the WC3 players, while his clash with Jang "Spirit Moon" Jae-ho rewarded him with a legendary status among the fans of the game. Grubby has been known for being part of one of the most successful WC3 teams in history, namely the British 4Kings. Later teams include the Danish MeetYourMakers and the North American Evil Geniuses. Grubby is widely regarded as one of the greatest Orc players of all time. Grubby is now a popular full-time streamer on Twitch.
SK Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Germany that has teams across the world competing in different titles. SK is particularly known for their success in Counter-Strike (CS) tournaments. SK's Brazilian CS team won the ESL One Cologne 2016 Major. SK currently has players and teams competing in League of Legends and Hearthstone. SK Gaming was founded in 1997 by a small group of Quake players in Oberhausen, making it the oldest esports organization in the world.
The Electronic Sports World Convention (ESWC) is an international professional gaming championship. Every year, winners of national qualifier events around the world earn the right to represent their country in the ESWC Finals. The event has been praised for its organisation and ability to put on a good show for spectators.
Jang Jae-ho is a South Korean professional gamer of the popular Blizzard real-time strategy games Warcraft III and StarCraft II. He is seen by many as the best Night Elf player in the world. Jang Jae-ho is a five time world champion and has won three televised national Korean WarCraft III Championships as well as four seasons of MBCGame's World War. He is particularly known for his excellent micromanagement and innovative strategies. He is often seen using strategies that later set the benchmark for many Night Elf players and was nicknamed the "5th Race" by Gametv.com. He has played and won more televised WarCraft III games than any other Warcraft III players. Jang Jae-ho is featured in the documentary film Beyond the Game. Moon transitioned to StarCraft II and was without a team for a while, before retiring from professional gaming in order to fulfill South Korean military service requirements. After completing his military service, Moon returned to Warcraft 3 and is currently active.
The World e-Sports Masters (WEM) was an international competitive gaming event organized by the Hangzhou eSport Culture & Sport Communication Company, Ltd. Prize money are awarded to winning individuals and teams. It was first held in 2005 under the World e-Sports Games.
The G7 Teams or G7 Federation is an association of professional esports teams. It was originally formed by seven teams: 4Kings, fnatic, Made in Brazil, mousesports, Ninjas in Pyjamas, SK Gaming and Team 3D. Currently, the organization is made up of six members. The organization aims to promote the interest of the community and players to tournament organizers, sponsors, and other professional gaming institutions. The G7 teams have active presence in the advisory boards for both the World Series of Video Games and KODE5, and has relations with other tournament organizations, including the Cyberathlete Professional League, along with its players committee, and the Electronic Sports World Cup. The G7 teams also recognized in Zonerank as the official world esports rankings. In 2010, after a contract dispute between fnatic and SK Gaming, the organization dissolved.
Li Xiaofeng, who also goes by the pseudonym "Sky" or "WE.Sky", is a Chinese former professional gamer of the popular Blizzard Entertainment real-time strategy game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. He played for the China-based World Elite team. He is considered one of the best Human players in the game's history by World Cyber Games In the past few years he has been heavily involved with coaching Team WE's League of Legends team.
Chun Jung-hee (Korean: 천정희) is a retired South Korean professional player of the real-time strategy game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. He used to play for the Chinese professional gaming team Beijing eSport Team. He goes by the gamertag of Sweet and is a member of clan WeRRa.
The expansion to the computer game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, known as The Frozen Throne, had an active professional competition scene, particularly in China, Germany, and South Korea. The game was featured at eSports festivals including the World Cyber Games, the Electronic Sports World Cup, the World e-Sports Games, the World Series of Video Games and the International E-Sports Festival. Outside of the professional circuit, the game had many active competitive circuits, with users at Battle.net ranging between 70,000 and 100,000 at any given moment. In China, in which Warcraft III was extremely popular due to it being easily available through piracy, fans and users often used an alternative client due to the country's poor internet connections to the outside world. Around 3,000,000 copies of the game were sold in the country. 500,000 Chinese competed in the Chinese qualifiers for the 2006 World Cyber Games. The amount of prize money through the years has been significant with top players winning hundreds of thousands of dollars. As usual in competitive gaming, income for Warcraft 3 professional players flowed from various sources like team salaries from pro-gaming teams and sponsorships usually computer technology related. A famous example was the Danish gaming organization known as Meet Your Makers which boasted of paying their players US$300,000 on an annual basis. Similar to older games with huge competitive scenes like Starcraft:Brood War and Counter-Strike 1.6, the popularity of Warcraft 3 steadily declined and towards the end of the previous decade almost all tournaments and players were Chinese. After 2010, with Starcraft 2, League of Legends, and Dota 2 being released and becoming popular, Warcraft 3 gave up its position as one of the prime eSports titles.
Mouz, formerly mousesports, is a professional esports organisation based in Germany. It fields teams in several games but is particularly known for its CS:GO team. MOUZ was one of the founding members of the G7 Teams. MOUZ's League of Legends team currently competes in the ESL Pro Series, having formerly competed in the European Challenger Series.
StarCraft II is a military science fiction video game created by Blizzard Entertainment as a sequel to the successful StarCraft video game released in 1998. Set in a fictional future, the game centers on a galactic struggle for dominance among the various fictional races of StarCraft.
Serious Gaming is a professional gaming team based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was founded in 2004 by entrepreneur Bas Peeperkorn. Serious Gaming is known for their achievements in first-person shooter Deathmatch tournaments, most notably those by Quake series players Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski and Alexey "cypher" Yanushevsky.
The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) is a series of international esports tournaments held in countries around the world. These Electronic Sports League (ESL) sanctioned events, sponsored by Intel, as of 2022 currently host events in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and StarCraft II. Other game titles were hosted in the past. The body that owns the league is Turtle Entertainment. The League has operated 17 seasons as of 2023. The season finals, with the largest prize pool, takes place in Katowice, Poland. Mid-season events are held in numerous cities around the globe, including Chicago, Shanghai and Sydney.
Chris Loranger, better known name HuK, is a former professional Starcraft II player and former president of gaming for the Boston Uprising of the Overwatch League.
Lu Weiliang, who also goes by the pseudonym Fly100%, is a Chinese professional esports player of the real-time strategy game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. He previously been a member of Team Hacker, EHOME and Mousesports. He is considered one of the best Orc players. He had one of the longest playing careers of professional players of Warcraft III.
Wang Xuwen, who goes by the pseudonym Infi, is a Chinese professional esports player of the real-time strategy games Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and Starcraft II. He previously served in team World Elite, Tyloo and VICI GAMING. He is considered one of the best Human players in the world. In 2008, World Elite was the best team of the year and Wang Xuwen was the core member. In 2009, Wang Xuwen helped World Elite obtain the champion of Warcraft III Champions League Season XIV. Additionally, Wang Xuwen also has many individual champion titles from various Premier Tournaments such as World Cyber Games and World e-Sports Games. From 2008 to 2011, the Chinese competitive scene for Warcraft III was dominated by 4 players, Lu "Fly100%" Weiliang, Li "Sky" Xiaofeng, Wang "Infi" Xuwen and Huang "TH000"Xiang. Wang "Infi" Xuwen and the other three were considered the four kings in Chinese Warcraft III. He played Starcraft II for a few years before retiring from competitive gaming.
Park "Lyn" June (Korean: 박준) is a professional Starcraft II Terran player and former Warcraft III Orc player from South Korea. Lyn was a successful Warcraft III player before transitioning to Starcraft II. He is the only player to have won almost all of the premier tournaments, including the World Cyber Games, Electronic Sports World Cup, BlizzCon and Intel Extreme Masters. The only two premier tournaments which he has never won are the World e-Sports Games and International E-Sports Festival, instead placing second in the World e-Sports Games in 2008 and 2010, and in the International E-Sports Festival in 2007. The total prize money Lyn has won playing Warcraft 3 is behind only Jang "moon" Jae-ho.
4Kings or Four Kings is a professional esports organization established in 1997 and based in the United Kingdom Bought and now running in United States. The organisation has been recognised as a British flagship clan since its founding. It was operated by 4K UK Ltd and managed by Toby Aldridge. 4K is particularly known for its Warcraft III team, which won the ESL WC3L Series on four occasions. In late 2007, the section that signed players such as Warcraft III player, Grubby Schenkhuizen and Yoan "ToD" Merlo was dissolved due to financial problems.
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