Hello friends and fellow gamers! It's been a couple of months since I've updated the old gaming blog here, but I have stumbled on to something that I think most of us can have some appreciation for or at least get some amusement from.
As you may or may not know, StarCraft II had its long-awaited worldwide release last Tuesday, July 27th. There is already a camp being run by three members of Team Evil Geniuses, pros from StarCraft: Brood War, and they are teaching newbs, novices, and even gaming veterans everything they know about the RTS (real time strategy) game and how to be more efficient at scouting, spending, and creating army compositions that will be perfect for steamrolling their unwitting opponents.
There are three coaches, Geoff "iNcontroL" Robinson seeming to be the head counselor so to speak. Here's a short video of their orientation, embedded from their Gosu Camp YouTube channel:
In all there are 3 coaches, two of which play Protoss (iNkA and iNcontroL), and one Zerg (Machine). The coaches all have extensive Brood War experience as well as having great records throughout the StarCraft II beta. They each currently offer their tutoring services online for $15 to $30 an hour. There are 8 attendees of the three-day camp in Queen Creek, Arizona that have driven in or flown in from all around the country. The campers came in from Georgia, Illinois, West Virginia, and California, and their ages range from 17 to 34. All of the campers paid $250 for this three-day training regimen to learn from some of the best, most renowned StarCraft II players in North America. The attendees will have one-on-one sessions with each of the coaches and compete against each other daily. Housing and groceries are covered by the $250, but the attendees may choose to play against each other to see who gets to sleep on the couch instead of the floor.
Even Kevin "qxc" Riley has joined in on the camp to train with Machine, iNkA, and iNcontrol before he participates in a large LAN event at Green Forest Cafe in Ventura, California on August 14th and 15th. Riley gained a lot of notoriety by the end of the beta phase of StarCraft II and was one of only eight invitees for the Razer King of the Beta tournament, with a prize pool of $3,000. He made it to the semi-finals, but was upended by Greg "IdrA" Fields, an American living in South Korea with the professional Brood War team CJ Entus.
So, if this coming together of pros and newbs alike intrigues you, be sure to check out all of their various social media efforts, including their:
Website: http://www.gosucoaching.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/gosucoach
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gosucoaching
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gosucoaching
But here is the real icing on the cake! Brent "Psyonic_Reaver" Shultz is in charge of providing multimedia from the event, which runs from today, August 5th, all the way until Sunday, August 8th. As such, he will be constantly uploading videos from the camp and interviews with both coaches and players to their YouTube page, but he is also streaming the entirety of the camp LIVE right here: http://www.justin.tv/iccup
Gosucoaching has already announced that they will be running boot camps and more gosu camps in the future, so stay tuned to their website for more information!
-Josh Sutherland
