ESL and DreamHack branded events will be exclusively broadcast on Twitch following this year, as the Turtle Entertainment companies have announced a partnership that turns the streaming platform options exclusive from 2021.

In an announcement today, esports giants ESL and Dreamhack have announced a three year deal with Twitch which will see CS:GO, Starcraft II and Warcraft III tournaments broadcast exclusively on the streaming platform for 2021 and 2022.

Whilst Twitch will operate as a non-exclusive partner alongside YouTube for 2020, this will see tournaments, such as the ESL Pro League, Intel Extreme Masters and DreamHack Open, move to a single platform for 2021 and 2022.

As well as their global tournaments, ESL also operates competitions within the SEA / OCE region, with the ESL ANZ Championships offering players from the three featured titles a chance at qualifying to international events to compete with the world’s best.

pic.twitter.com/hKoxKqQZSI

— ESL (@ESL) April 28, 2020

ESL teased the new partnership on Twitter

The plan is for Twitch to work directly with ESL and Dreamhack to provide a hub for their competitions. The partnership will springboard coordinated broadcasts and sponsorship efforts into the new decade.

Frank Uddo, Senior Vice President at ESL Global Media, said live streaming esports had belonged to Twitch in recent years.

“As we continue to host some of the world’s largest esports tournaments, it feels only natural to work even closer with Twitch to provide the best gaming experience for fans, as well as safeguard the future of the esports industry.”

Alongside the ESL ANZ Championships, ESL have also begun hosting weekly cups for Starcraft II and Warcraft III.

The weekly competitions are held Tuesday nights (for Starcraft) and Saturday days (for Warcraft). Both tournaments have a $100 prize pool and have open registration for anyone based within the SEA / OCE region.

As the battle for content access heats up and each streaming platform jockeys for positioning, this deal is one that stands out for the old guard of esports standing firm with each other.

In the current environment, it is noteworthy as well that Twitch has opted in with the TO that is promoting grass roots participation for those joining in from home. We’ll see as this deal plays out how this maneuvering benefits both sides.

Produced by Josh Swift

In a move that sees the former WCS Challenger tournaments by Blizzard replaced, ESL ANZ Champs has been announced as the new way for Oceanic and South-East Asian players to qualify into four Masters level events across the year.

ESL ANZ Champs has positioned itself as Oceania’s primary gateway event to international competition. With a corresponding move announced recently in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that will send a team to a DreamHack Open event, the Champs series is forming a key part of ESL’s wider global network to feed local players into the international stage across a range of titles.

ESL Australia’s Product Manager James Fletcher is excited for the opportunities this new event will provide.

“With the addition of StarCraft II to the ESL ANZ Champs, we’re excited to also unveil this new global pathway for players in our league.”

“Competing at an ESL Pro Tour Masters level event is an aspiration that we hope many local players share, and we look forward to seeing our region represented on the global stage.”

As the replacement for Blizzard’s WCS Challenger tournament, there are now four global events that Starcraft 2 players will be able to take part in from ESL’s SC2 Pro Tour.

The move had recently been speculated on the Esports Social Club’s Not Another Podcast and the opportunites that have been announced largely mirror what was discussed there.

Three DreamHack events will form the first three opportunities, in Dallas, Valencia and Montreal and the fourth Masters level event has not yet been announced.

The StarCraft II portion of ESL ANZ Champs this year will allow players from across Oceania and South-East Asia to compete, including players from countries such as Australia, New Zealand, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam.

Each qualifier will consist of three stages and will award $6,600USD in prize money along with the global pathway to each respective event.

The new event streamlines Starcraft 2’s pathway to the global stage along the range of events that fall under ESL’s banner and locally enables pro Starcraft 2 to be broadcast from the marquee ANZ Champs flag.

You can read more as the event progresses at https://pro.eslgaming.com/anz/sc2/

Header image credit: ESL

It was sad news for Australian StarCraft fans on Monday night as Sean “Probe” Kempen of Legacy Esports lost in straight sets in the IEM Katowice open bracket.

Facing a tough bracket in arguably StarCraft’s most prestigious tournament, Probe lost 2-1 to Russian Protoss SKillous, before losing to Russian Zerg player Vanya, 2-0 in the losers bracket.

The quick elimination means that alongside the two losses, Probe finishes just outside of the prize money distribution, sadly walking away with $0.

Preparing myself to be dominated by some young Russians.

Playing first game in 5 minutes pic.twitter.com/51SgE6kdz1

— Sean Kempen (@Probe_SC2) February 24, 2020

After the results Probe took to Twitter to state his thoughts.

“Sorry for always disappointing,” he said.

“But we grow from every fall. The season has just begun”.

Probe’s opening opponent was the highly ranked SKillous and in a fantastic long opening game we saw what the Australian Protoss was capable of, taking the game to his opponent and eventually overcoming him in a 15 minute long game.

• Read more: Blizzard unveils new home for StarCraft esports as three year deal with ESL, Dreamhack confirmed

It was sadly to be the highlight of the day, with SKillous taking the next two maps with an aggressive, proxy immortal based strategy.

It dealt decisive damage both games, forcing Probe into the losers bracket to face another Russian, this time the Zerg player named Vanya.

After game one saw Probe lose to swarm host and roach aggression, he took a significant worker lead in the second game.

Economically ahead, Kempen just had to hold the impending attack from his desperate opponent to survive in the tournament.

Hold our Australian Protoss did, but he took too much damage in the process, forcing him all in.

That last ditch attack fell agonisingly short, as Probe was eliminated from bracket B alongside names such as Liquid TLO, Korean Zerg Impact and 3x WCS champion of 2017, Neeb.

The IEM main event begins on February 27th, 22:00 AEST.

Follow Probe on Twitter.

Header image credit: ESL, Legacy Esports

All eyes in StarCraft will fix on Poland next week, as the esport opens up it’s 2020 season with their crown jewel tournament, IEM Katowice.

Competing as one in an exceptionally strong 76 player bracket, top Australian player Sean “Probe” Kempen will be looking to advance through arguably StarCraft’s most prestigious tournament of the year.

Probe won’t be the only Australian at the event however, with Australian casters Jared “PiG” Krensel and Leigh “Maynarde” Mandalov also flying the flag.

Their voices will soothe and excite the many fans watching in the arena, and from home, and while his 25 hour journey to Poland fills him with dread, Maynarde is always glad to go back.

“It’s talked about all year around as being the best tournament of the year,” the caster said.

“Even when BlizzCon rolls around ?— people are like BlizzCon is great, but nothing beats IEM Katowice.

“The games are of a level that you don’t see elsewhere, every player that’s worth their salt in StarCraft shows up for it.”

Maynarde is right. With 2019 World Champion Park “Dark” Ryung-woo attending, as well as 2018 World Champion Joona “Serral” Sotala and 2019 World Championship Runner Up Riccardo “Reynor” Romiti, Starcraft’s top dogs are hungry to add another trophy to their cabinet

These are just three names from the 76, other names including Koreans heavy hitters Maru, INnoVation, Rogue, Stats, sOs, soO and Trap to only name a small handful.

It’s a tournament which has captured the hearts and minds of StarCraft fans since its inception in the start of 2013.

Previous winners include legends like sOs, Polt, Zest, and TY, but it was a victory last year for soO that really pulled on the heartstrings.

“I was starting to get choked up [when Smix went to interview soO after his victory],” said Maynarde. “I used to be a competitive esports player myself and I know what it feels like to be the guy that never wins, that always gets to the final but never goes that extra one step to win the final.”

“soO had been second place in six GSLs and a bunch of other international events…it was called ‘soOcend’ because he never won anything and then bam ?— he wins the big one.

“I remember talking to InControL being like ‘oh I got this frog in my throat man, I’ve got to go hide in a corner somewhere because I’m getting emotional.’”

It’s sure to be another long ride for these players over the next few weeks, with Australian contender Probe looking to make his dream run start with a match against young Russian Protoss SKillous.

Despite boot camping in California for a week prior, Probe is realistic about his chances, saying that with his first match being Protoss vs. Protoss, anything could happen.

“There’s no easy bracket [but] I didn’t get an impossible bracket which is nice,” he said. “SKillous is really good, way better than me I think, so he’s going to be really tough, but not impossible.”

Maynarde is a little more optimistic for our Australian Protoss, saying the week-long boot camp was a great environment to be in to sharpen his skills for Katowice.

“[Probe] against SKillous is a pretty good matchup for Probe but I’m a little worried for the next match… because INnoVation is a potential semi-finalist, rather than a potential open bracket quarter-final player,” he said.

“We have to hope Probe’s Protoss vs Terran is insane, or he has something cheeky planned for INnoVation, or he has a good run in the lower bracket. If he tries to play regular against INnoVation I think he’s going to get wrecked.”

IEM Katowice starts with the open bracket on Monday February 24, 9pm AEDT, with Probe beginning his campaign later that night at 12:40am AEDT.

Follow Probe & Maynarde on Twitter.

Header image credit: ESL

After seeing Park “Dark” Ryung Woo win the StarCraft World Championship late in 2019, StarCraft fans will be excited to hear their esport will continue for the next three years, operating under the new management of ESL & Dreamhack.

The announcement, which was made in early January, means the World Championship Series (WCS), formerly run by Blizzard, is disbanding.

It will be replaced by the ESL Pro Tour, run in a joint collaboration between ESL and Dreamhack.

The name is not all that’s changing though, with the ESL Pro Tour also set to feature an updated format for the next three years.

Despite Blizzard stepping back from the organisational aspect, they will still continue to fund the legendary esport, with a prize pool of over US $1.8 million ($2.6 million AUD) guaranteed over the next three years.

According to Legacy Esports star Sean “Probe” Kempen, the new three year deal was accepted with open arms by fans and professionals alike.

“We’ve now got confirmation for the next three years, all the pro players can have peace of mind about their situation instead of worrying and just practice and compete to the best of their ability.”

“Overall I think the deal is very very good for all the current pro gamers and anybody looking to get into the game,” Probe told Snowball Esports while preparing for his campaign at IEM Katowice in Poland

“Because [as a pro player] do you really want to invest time if you’re unsure if in a couple of years it won’t be around.”

Whilst the new three year deal has generally been met with optimism, it has come at a cost too. Some regional areas, including Oceania and South East Asia, have seen their automatic, paid travel qualification spots cut for the premier international tournaments.

From two spots for the region in years prior, it is now only down to one spot for the paid trip, with other scenes such as China and Hong Kong / Taiwan also losing paid player slots.

Probe says qualification shouldn’t be easy for these outlying regions and that reducing spots to regions isn’t necessarily bad, but something should be given back to help the regions grow.

“If you do take away spots you need to do something else to give us a chance to help us grow our scene. The reason why Europe has done so well is because they region locked out Korea, Europe really grew. That kind of stuff can be done in the other regions but you just have to invest in it but that’s not what’s happening and that’s slightly disappointing”, Probe said.

“I think overall it is a good thing for StarCraft and will grow StarCraft as a whole, which might improve our region indirectly. But I’m not confident that will happen and I think there’s things that can be done to help the smaller regions.”

The format of the new ESL Pro Tour stays mostly the same, with regional areas given a certain number of spots to qualify for international ‘Masters’ tournaments throughout the year.

A big change comes in the re-introduction of ESL weekly cups, which are open registration tournaments which provide a small amount of points to the finalists.

These tournaments happen once every week, with three cups being held on the American, European and Korean server.

The other big change will see a big change to the global finals. From this year onwards, the global finals will take place at IEM Katowice in Poland, rather than BlizzCon in California.

Probe says he likes the new format changes and added that he believes IEM will do the global finals justice moving forward.

“This will open us up to do different stuff at BlizzCon and have a true world championship [at IEM],” he said.

“The weekly ESL tournaments are really good, consistent. Consistent content is really key in my opinion. Whenever there’s an ESL cup on, there’s 5,000 viewers, they [broadcasters, fans] get weekly content.”

“These cups are really good, the general deal is really good and we have all of the old tournaments as well.”

With the foreign scene locked into these events, the community still awaits news about the Korean scene, with only a single GSL Super Tournament (which was postponed until March due to the threat of the Coronavirus) appearing on the ESL website.

Our first taste of the new StarCraft system is happening right now with the ESL weekly cups, before all eyes move to Poland, where IEM Katowice will start on February 24.

Find out more about the new ESL Pro Tour here.

Header image credit: ESL

As we close out the decade it’s time for our yearly wrap, and a look back at what we accomplished this year.

In 2019, we went through some major growth at Snowball in a couple of areas. At the beginning of the year, San Hoang and Chelsea Moss became the first content producers outside of myself on the team since Snowball began. Having them on board allowed us to maintain the same quality while continuing to pump out more content, especially during the OPL splits.

We hit up IEM Sydney, the Melbourne Esports Open and PAX Australia this year, and brought our flavour of coverage to those events.

In September, we announced that Snowball will partner with META High School Esports next year. We’re really excited to work with Nigel Smart, Woody Wu and the rest of the team on this for their 2020 season, providing high quality content and regular coverage.

I took a different approach with my year in review, going month to month and picking some key pieces from each to give you some insight into our year.

January

OPL

Presenting Snowball’s Scuffed OPL Tips!

by Josh Swift

January 17, 2019

The likes of Andrew Wray and numerous others try and cheekily convince me to take on ridiculous time consuming projects all the time. After finding out there would be no tipping system for OPL like in 2018, we’d had discussions about trying to fill that gap and do something via Snowball but ultimately decided it wouldn’t be worth the time and effort to set up and maintain a competition.

We now know how weak-willed I can be when the community yearns for something. I ended up building an entire tipping league just days before the OPL returned in January. Over 200 OPL fans participated in the competition during the Split 1 regular season and some won some great RP prizes courtesy of Riot.

February

CS:GO

ARTeMis and refreshed lineup lay Carnage across WESG and IEM Qualifiers

by Reece Perry

February 8, 2019

A great feature from Reece Perry on Jessica “ARTeMis” Majrouh and Carnage after their efforts at the WESG qualifier in Perth. This piece was also produced by one of our talented new additions at the start of this year in Chelsea Moss.

March

OPL

An impossible Dream – How Ronan Swingler made it to the OPL

by Ellis Longhurst

March 22, 2019

I am intensely proud of this piece from Ellis Longhurst. Ronan’s story is one that resonated with League of Legends fans both here and overseas, and is one of the most viewed Snowball pieces of all time. Ellis took a unique approach composing this story as if it were to become a six-part Netflix series, it’s an intensely inspiring read.

Also during March was the OPL playoffs for Split 1, which marked the return of Snowball’s Gauntlet Run series, kicked off by Harry Taylor.

April

OPL

‘The stars aligned for us’: Order forge OPL history with 9-1 miracle gauntlet run

by Isaac McIntyre

April 2, 2019

I’m fairly sure this is the longest OPL recap of all time from Isaac McIntyre, and with good reason. It tells the tale of Order’s run through the OPL gauntlet, after barely scraping into the playoffs and taking down each team against all predictions on their path to the final.

Also worth noting in April was an interview ahead of the Mid-Season Invitational with Bombers coach Westonway which garnered international attention as people looked to find out more about the oceanic representatives, and announcing our IEM Sydney coverage, with the intent to bring a team to the event for the first time in Snowball’s history.

May

IEM Sydney 2019

IEM Sydney: Celebrating a Legacy

by Ash Whyte

May 31, 2019

Along with a myriad of written and video interviews with CS:GO’s biggest names, we had one of our newest writers Ashley Whyte put together a great feature on IEM Sydney, and the legacy that it’s created in our region after we talked with Michal ‘Carmac’ Blicharz.

As part of our IEM Sydney coverage, the popular Survival Guides made a return, this time with Sydney local Bernadette Wong at the helm.

June

OPL

FBI becomes first Australian in the LCS system: ‘It’s what I’ve always dreamed about’

by Isaac McIntyre

June 6, 2019

After a stellar split in the OPL, Victor “FBI” Huang became the first Australian to make the journey to North America following in the footsteps of New Zealand’s Lawrence “Lost” Hui as told by Isaac McIntyre.

Other notable pieces from June include Emma van der Brug putting a spotlight on the Girl Gamer Festival coming to Sydney, a foray for us into Hearthstone with Legacy signing Grandmasters star FroStee, and the acquisition of the Chiefs Esports Club by ICON.

July

CS:GO

Global Offensive & The Importance of Grassroots in Australia – BrisVegas LAN Preview

by Ash Whyte

July 3, 2019

Building up grassroots esports in Oceania has always been a focus for us at Snowball, so when Ashley Whyte pitched a feature on the latest BrisVegas LAN in July and why it’s important to have these kinds of events, it was a no-brainer.

August

OPL

‘Nothing else matters’: Chiefs eye return to the top – OPL Final Preview

August 31, 2019

OPL

Can Mammoth deliver on the superteam promise? – OPL Final Preview

August 31, 2019

The Melbourne Esports Open was Snowball’s biggest event by far of 2018, and this year was no different. Armed with a team of 7 at Melbourne Olympic Park, we worked to bring high quality coverage to as much of the event as we could.

I’ve spotlighted the two OPL final previews, on Chiefs and Mammoth, because it marks something really important to myself, and the wider management of Snowball. These pieces show more than most the growth in both Harry Taylor and Emma van der Brug. Both of them were added as community panelists for Snowball’s OPL Power Rankings in Split 2 of 2018.

These features are a testament to their hard work and dedication to growing themselves, and I’m intensely proud of that. Pair that with some stellar creative work from producer San Hoang and you have some bar-setting content.

September

MEO 2019

Yuki: A decade in esports

by Andrew Amos

September 16, 2019

Although we capped off MEO coverage in early September, also with the unfortunate debut of Roaming Wray, this feature from Andrew Amos on James “Yuki” Stanton is my highlight for September. It’s not often you see players have careers spanning this long, and it’s even rarer when they span as many titles as Yuki has, and Ducky did an excellent job bringing this story to life.

Also at the tail end of September, Go Next Media was announced to the world.

October

Interviews

Raid: The five thousand mile pilgrimage

by Andrew Amos

October 30, 2019

I believe this feature is the crown jewel of Snowball’s 2019. It was an absolute pleasure to produce, and was a complete product of circumstance. Andrew Amos was in Korea to cover the Overwatch Contenders Gauntlet right in the middle of Raid’s stay in Busan.

This is the calibre of content we strive for. You don’t often see this kind of unbridled view from retired esports pros in Oceania, and I can’t thank Julian enough for sharing his story with us.

Another notable mention from October was our PAX Australia content, my personal favourite of which was Ellis Longhurst’s look at the Mortal Kombat tournament finals.

November

CS:GO

[Updated] Australian CS:GO divided over scheduling controversy: The full story

by Andrew Amos

November 5, 2019

In one of the most worked-on investigative pieces in Snowball’s history, Andrew Amos with the help of Isaac McIntyre and myself aimed to tell the full story of the scheduling controversy between multiple Oceanic orgs and ESL Australia.

It’s a story we didn’t take lightly, and took the time to make sure we reported the facts of the situation after obtaining full email transcripts between the teams and various other parties.

Other notable pieces from November include my report on the Essendon Bombers leaving esports and selling their OPL slot to Pentanet.GG, Ellis Longhurst’s visit to the Red Bull Fight or Flight PUBG event in Sydney, and Kevin Walker’s Snowball debut with pieces exploring Overwatch 2 and its impact on competitive and a chat with New Zealand’s Overwatch World Cup team.

December

League of Legends

Triple joins FlyQuest Academy ahead of 2020 season: “Australian, American, Korean, I have to beat them all now”

by Isaac McIntyre

December 12, 2019

I love this feature from Isaac McIntyre, and it’s a good one to grasp the scale of the offseason oceanic League of Legends has had. We’ll have a piece recapping every move of the ‘OCE exodus’ as its been dubbed in the new year, but his chat with Stephen for this piece shows how dedicated these pros are, and I’m super happy to see so many of them head overseas next year.

Andrew Amos put in some work on the Australian Overwatch offseason this month, announcing the Sydney Drop Bears new roster and telling the story of a new super team being built on our shores.

It’s an exciting time for esports in Australia, and there’s a new event tailored for Starcraft fans just around the corner to add to the excitement: Auscraft, a Melbourne-based Starcraft II tournament set to debut on January 10.

The event will feature a number of local and international talents, all of whom will compete for the $5,000 prize pool. Invitees are expected to be announced in the coming days.

The tournament will be broadcasted live on Twitch, with three days of competition planned. This isn’t their only plan, however, as Auscraft aims to place an emphasis on the banter that backs competition to sweetly encapsulate the gaming culture that is unique to Australia.

As a LAN set in one of Melbourne’s most iconic beaches in Rye, Auscraft is all about combining the casual and social aspects of gaming within a competitive setting.

Besides the gameplay itself, an equal amount of focus will be placed on the individual competing personalities themselves. Unlike a typical tournament, Auscraft is unique in providing a platform for personal narratives to be told, creating a bridge between the community the players and the audience.

A subscription system will be implemented to unlock additional content for the viewer, and will allow fans to support the creation of content that directly appeals to them.

All in all, Auscraft serves as a love letter of sorts dedicated to both the players and fans that sets the Esports community apart from others.

“The heart and soul of esports is birthed in the shared experiences we have playing games together”

“The origin of all of this is our love for the LAN event,” said Michael Carmody, who leads the operations for ce2pe, the production company behind Auscraft.

“Through Auscraft and future events, we plan to just lean right back to the origins of what we all loved in the first place, being together in the same place for fun, games and talking smack about your opponent.”

Carmody also stated this event is the initial of a series of similar entertainment-focused, house-based events for other titles coming later this year.

Follow Auscraft on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for more information.

Sean “Probe” Kempen is used to being the underdog in StarCraft II tournaments. It’s a place so many Australian esports players are used to being when they come face to face with the world’s best, and a status they love turning on its head.

That’s what Legacy Esports’ high-flying Protoss player is looking to do when he battles his way through the third group stage of the 2019 WCS Winter Americas this Sunday. From top-tier Chinese and Mexican representatives, to some of the best players American and Canada have to offer, there’s just a few superstars of the game standing in his way.

“I am the underdog in this tournament, so it’s going to be pretty tough.”

“I only have to take a series here or there, and I think I’m in a great place to achieve that,” Probe said of making it through to the WCS playoffs.

“It’s a feeling that I have a lot though, sometimes people will doubt me and that’s when I turn around and win the next LAN or WCS Challenger event.

“Being the underdog is something that I very much enjoy, because it takes a lot of pressure off. There’s some people might even be thinking I’m favoured to get through to the playoffs, but I’ve got my work cut out for me because of a few factors ahead.”

Probe, who earned his place at the WCS Winter Americas competition that began back in February through the Asia Qualifier, feels he’s had an “interesting” road through to the final eight, but not one that has been “too challenging”.

In the first stage, Probe found himself in Group E against Li “TIME” Peinan, Alexandre “DisK” Corriveau, and Joseph “Future” Stanish. With the tournament based online and running through the American servers, Kempen knew he had to level the playing field if he wanted to compete.

“I saw what my group was going to be, and I thought it was sort of tough, so I headed to America to stay at the Root [Gaming] house and take advantage of the zero ping there,” Probe said. “Because the tournament was played on the US West server and I was there it gave me a big advantage, and I managed to only lose to TIME and make it out in second.”

Probe fell to Chinese representative TIME in a tight 2-1 series that saw the Terran player come out ahead, but his key results came against the North American representatives. A strong 2-0 over Future and a 2-1 win against DisK shot the Australian through to the second group stage.

It was here that Kempen found himself standing along among the Oceanic representatives – a tough group draw for SYF Gaming’s Sheldon “Seither” Barrow saw the other Australian involved in the tournament dumped out of the running off the back of two 2-0 defeats.

Lifting the Southern Cross-adorned flag high, Probe moved on to Group Stage 2, where he was drawn into the second pool with Maru “MaSa” Kim, Xue “Firefly” Tao, and the man responsible for sending Siether home, Invictus Gaming representative Wu “Coffee” Yishen.

Starcraft II prodigy @Probe_SC2 has finished off the @CyberGamerAUS Challenger regular season in absolute style with a 4-0 run last night.

Winning 22 out of 26 maps, he holds the top spot on the ladder heading into the playoffs. ?#weflyasone #LGCWIN pic.twitter.com/HWPecZiH0k

— Legacy Esports (@LegacyOCE) March 22, 2019

It was more success for Legacy Esports’ star. He opened the group by avenging Seither with a 2-1 win over Coffee, before a 2-1 defeat to MaSa put his tournament life on the line.

In a Protoss vs Protoss mirror match-up, Probe came out victorious as he claimed back-to-back wins on Kairos Junction and Port Aleksander to bag the 2-0 win and shoot himself into the final eight. The step into the third group stage also brought with it at least 300 WCS Circuit Points.

Probe, who had recently returned to Australia to continue his studies while playing StarCraft professionally, took on an excited air when he spoke about the possibility of locking a spot at the year-end 2019 World Championship Series Global Finals, hosted at Blizzcon each year.

Playing at LAN tournaments, seeing all the other competitors that he has formed connections with since he first began his career nearly five years ago, and just being involved in the top-level scene of StarCraft, all mean so much to the 22-year-old Protoss whizz.

Kempen recently attended IEM Katowice in Poland, where he placed 45th-60th, as well as the 2018 World Electronic Sports Games hosted in Chongqing. He finished 25th-32nd at the Chinese-based event.

Although neither tournament coughed up circuit points or prize money for Probe, it was still something he said he’d “enjoyed a lot”, especially as he knuckles down to get university finished from 2019 onward.

“I’m always trying to travel to play, and always keeping focus on improving,” Kempen said. “I didn’t do particularly well at either IEM or WESG but that’s alright. I plan to keep attending these kind of events and keeping my face in the scene.”

“My timetable has even worked out really well with the major events that are coming up on the horizon, so that’s really cool. I might miss a few quizzes but that’s okay. I’ll just have to sit down and catch up at some point.”

Ahead of Probe now however, are some of the best competitors the ongoing Americas tournament has to offer, including table-topping stars Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn and Alex “Neeb” Sunderhaft.

Both Hostyn and Sunderhaft have suffered just one map defeat in their entire campaign thus far, and come into the last eight with 4-0 match records across the two groups.

“I believe I can realistically get fifth or sixth in this group stage, people like Neeb and Scarlett are extremely tough,” Probe said of his chances to qualify for the WCS Winter Americas playoff bracket. “I’ve also already lost to the two Terran players MaSa and TIME this tournament so that really sucks.”

“Looking at the rest of the field, Cham is also really good but I have some special prepared for him so that’s okay. It’s hard because I think I can beat Astrea and puCK, I’m pretty confident about our match-ups, but they live on the west coast of America so they’ll be playing on zero ping while I’m back here in Australia.

“It sucks a bit that the players I’m confident with will have an advantage over me, but again that is that kind of underdog place so we’ll just see how it goes. I think that I can get fifth or sixth and that will get me through to playoffs.”

Regardless of if Probe can pull out a result against the other WSC Winter Americas final eight, he said he was already “really happy” with how everything had been going in 2019.

The Protoss player especially praised Legacy Esports, with whom he has now spent more than 18 months playing for in the StarCraft scene. For Kempen, who has spent time with three different organisations in his career, Legacy feels like “one big family”.

“Legacy is really cool in that there’s this big backroom family of media guys, and producers and things,” Kempen said. “Because the org is involved in games like League of Legends and other titles, there’s all these players that are also around.”

“I first started off with Ecko Esports in the scene, and that was a really small player-based org that I had a lot of loyalty to because they gave me my first big break in the scene, and then I was with Root Gaming in the US as well.

“Now, Legacy has this really family-based atmosphere and I absolutely love being involved with them. It’s a lot of fun and no matter what I’m competing in or where I’m going they make sure it’s all really cool.”

The 2019 WCS Winter Americas third group stage will begin this Sunday (AEDT), with the first games to be played at 4am. The top six players will move into the playoff bracket – to be played in early April – while the bottom two players will be eliminated from contention.

Follow Sean Kempen’s journey at @Probe_SC2, or tune in to his livestreams on Twitch.tv at twitch.tv/probe_sc2. Follow his supporting organisation at @LegacyOCE.