Written by: Padraic 'Cyan' Murphy

In the summer of 2015, the Starcraft community was wild with speculation as to why so many casters, content creators, and professional players were suddenly in California. The weeks preceding this convergence saw weekly shows canceled, plans to meet made on twitter, and pictures of new friendships between SC2 personalities all over social media.

The community quickly learnt that Blizzard had brought people who had a high profile in the SC2 community, and who had a stake in the game’s success, to their headquarters in Irvine California for the first ever SC2 Community Summit.

The goal of the summit was to give the people who worked in the StarCraft 2 scene a chance to voice their opinions, concerns, and ideas for SC2 directly to the development team. This was only months before the release of Legacy of the Void, so the attendees were also treated to insider information on what would happen in the next year of StarCraft 2 (information that remained confidential under non-disclosure agreements).

The information that was not bound by NDA was substantial though. The community learnt that although the SC2 development team had been initially downsized with the development of Heroes of the Storm, the dev team had grown to be even larger than when the first Starcraft 2 expansion, Wings of Liberty, was released. Furthermore, those developers would not be removed from Starcraft 2 when Legacy of the Void was released, highlighting Blizzard’s wish to make (and keep) SC2 as successful a game as possible.

At the time, very little could be said by the attendees about what they had spoken about or what Blizzard would be doing with Starcraft 2 in the coming year. Having said that, the community summit undoubtedly shaped the future of Starcraft 2.

The news of a new community summit was met by some with disappointment. To many fans, Blizzard still hasn’t lived up to the hype that came as a result of last year’s summit. Many features that have been promised years ago still have not been put into the game, and some fans have grown hopeless.

Although the formal list of attendees is not public, I’ve compiled a list of people who we can speculate are attending the Starcraft 2 Community Summit. This list is based almost entirely on social media. Tweets and facebook statuses from SC2 personalities that reference being in California likely mean that said personality is attending the summit. Several people, such as Lycan and Jakatak, have openly stated that they’re attending the summit. For others, some detective work was necessary. This list may not be entirely accurate, but I am confident that most of the people listed below are attending the community summit.

The BasetradeTV casters Rifkin, ZombieGrub, and Feardragon. BasetradeTV is the most popular StarCraft 2 stream, featuring high level professional play in tournaments almost daily. Long time members of the SC2 and esports scene, BasetradeTV is now a staple of the industry, with the largest fanbase of any one stream in SC2. Though there are many critics of their work, Basetrade continues to polish their product and hosted their first offline event, the ‘Hell its Aboot Time’ tournament, last year.

Host of the weekly esports talk show ‘The Late Game’, tournament sponsor, and event host Lycan. Lycan is best known for hosting a popular weekly talk show with guest hosts iNcontrol and Destiny, and has supported the SC2 scene through the creation of several online tournament series. He also has a fondness for grassroots ideas and initiatives, and often goes out of his way to support smaller known personalities.

Grandmaster player and streamer, Winter. Winter is arguably the most popular Starcraft 2 solo streamer on twitch. A multiple time Grandmaster player who specializes in teaching new players how to play Starcraft 2, his stream has over 10 million total views and over 118,000 followers. Winter has become infamous among much of the diehard SC2 fanbase after accusations of viewbotting.

Content creator Jakatak. Jakatak rose to fame in the SC2 community thanks to his highly analytical work. He has provided insight on unit interactions, balance, maps, and more in SC2. Most recently, Jakatak has launched CSNStarcraft.com, a website designed to aid new and old fans alike with both playing and watching SC2.

Professional player Scarlett. Scarlett is one of the most popular and most successful professional players outside of Korea. Scarlett has played in several matches that fans consider to be some of the greatest StarCraft ever played. She has established herself as a consistent foreign powerhouse in the scene and is currently staying in Korea to practice and play in as many Korean tournaments as possible.

Casters Nathanias, Rotterdam, ToD, and iNcontrol. These four gentlemen are casters for most of the premier offline WCS events. Though Nathanias and Rotterdam both live in California year round, with  the inclusion of ToD and iNcontrol, we can assume that Rotti and Nate were also invited. Rotterdam and Nathanias both host popular streams and are members of Root Gaming. iNcontrol is a member of Evil Geniuses, a co-host on Lycan’s weekly talk show, former pro player, and popular streamer. ToD is a former professional Warcraft 3 and SC2 player who has become a full time caster.

Casters Tasteless and Artosis. Perhaps the most famous and loved attendees of this year’s conference, Tastosis (as they are often referred to by fans) are full time English casters in Korea. They cast the highest level of Starcraft 2 professional play in the GSL Code S tournament (as well as SSL and Proleague from time to time). Artosis is an outspoken supporter of having only the absolute best at Blizzcon, the biggest and year ending SC2 tournament, so we can assume he’ll be speaking out against the new region locked WCS system.

Grandmaster player, streamer, and content producer Lowko. Lowko is one of the most recent personalities to have worked his way up to becoming a professional within the scene. Lowko was an ‘in house’ commentator for Quantic gaming Mousesports between 2013 and 2014, but he really started to hit his stride as a streamer at the end of 2014. He produces regular content for his youtube channel and streams regularly. He has produced many guides on how to play SC2.

An unknown number of mapmakers. Rifkin referenced meeting Avex and Jacky on twitter. The two are responsible for several popular maps between them, including New Gettysburg, Detox, Crevasse, Invader, and more. It is unclear exactly how many mapmakers may be attending the summit.

Korean caster JYP. Like Tasteless and Artosis, JYP is a caster for the most prestigious, toughest Starcraft 2 competition in the world, GSL Code S. A former professional player for team Evil Geniuses, JYP retired from professional play in 2015, but quickly announced that he would be casting GSL. It is unclear whether or not there are more Korean language casters attending the event.

Professional player, content producer, streamer, and caster PiG. PiG is a man of many talents. The Australian pro is a member of Team Exile5 and has had some decent results throughout his professional career. Working his way up to higher levels of fame in 2015, PiG is now one of the most beloved SC2 personalities, with many fans likening him to Day[9]. He produces the PiG daily, streams regularly, and provides analysis and casting for many premier WCS offline events.

Popular streamer and former professional player Crank. Crank is a Korean streamer who was formerly a member of one of the best SC2 teams to ever exist, SlayerS Clan. When SlayerS disbanded in 2012, a crowdfunding effort to send Crank to MLG was started on /r/starcraft. When Reddit successfully funded his trip, Crank was taken under the wings of Totalbiscuit and Intricacy (otherwise known as John and Genna Bain). Inspired by Crank and the community (and appalled by the esports vultures wanting to make Crank commit what were allegedly horrible contracts) the Bains created Axiom Esports, an organization that became a highly successful foreign owned Korean Starcraft team. When Axiom closed its doors in 2015, Crank transitioned from pro player to pro streamer. He now hosts a successful stream and regularly posts content to his youtube channel.

Grandmaster player, streamer, and former professional player Livibee. Australian streamer Livibee has been a professional member of the SC2 scene since 2011. While she never found great success as a pro player, she has become a very popular streamer and content creator.

Polish caster Emil.  Emil is a popular Polish language caster. He produces SC2, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch content and is the primary Polish caster for the SC2 scene.

*New additions* Rifkin has revealed on twitter that Harstem, Neeb, Catz, and Miniraiser are in attendance, as well as more progamers. If the whole Root team house is attending then we can assume that Kelazhur and Hydra are also taking part in the summit.

This year, hot button issues will likely include the long debated region locking of WCS, the structure of WCS tournaments and how regular they happen throughout the year, in game features such as voice packs and skins, balance issues and maps, and many more in game features. Starcraft 2 fans will be keeping their ears peeled for news this week. Any hint of what the future might hold will be hotly debated and speculated on within the community. It’s an exciting time to love SC2!

If you enjoyed this feature, follow the author on Twitter at @CyanEsports.

Header artwork courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.