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Monday, July 26, 2010

PinoyCosplay Presents Special Edition: ToSsGirl

As we come close to the July 27th release of StarCraft 2, the much-awaited sequel to the universally acclaimed real-time strategy game that single-handedly invented "pro-gaming" in South Korea and, arguably, the rest of the world, it's high time to catch the StarCraft fever. Now I bring you a celebrity in the pro-gaming arena, the StarCraft goddess if you will, female StarCraft reigning champ and strong contender in regular pro-leagues Seo Ji-Soo a.k.a. ToSsGirl.

ToSsGirl is the real deal. There are many posers out there who call themselves "girl gamers" merely because they play what the boys do instead of just Bejewelled, Diner Dash, and Farmville. They think they run with the cool club because they can play a few tunes from Final Fantasy on the piano and play the PS3 without looking at the screen.

ToSsGirl is different. She makes a living out of playing StarCraft, literally. No, she doesn't earn her dough by wearing skimpy outfits and scoring endorsement deals. Her wages come from her pro-gaming team and prize money from tournaments. Even for your typical nerd in his mom's basement who plays video games 20 hours a day, this is no easy feat. For a girl in a male-dominated scene, like in any sport, it's much more difficult.

Still, ToSsGirl continues to strive. Affectionately called "Queen of Terran", she switched from the race of her namesake to one she's more competitive with in order to have a fighting chance. Until female leagues lost popularity and eventually ceased to exist around late 2005, she won in every female league she participated in while also playing in the regular leagues. Back then, she was notorious for the retirement of every male player she beat on national TV. During the preliminaries of WCG Korea in 2005, she even shut down the legendary player Yellow in a 2-0 match-up.

ToSsGirl is now 26 years old, and for many pro-gamers, that is nearly the end of the line. It's the time when your reflexes begin to slow and you lose all that sharpness you once had in your earlier years. This doesn't stop ToSsGirl, though, as she's still duking it out in the big leagues. She's not making any huge waves now that there are more excellent players like the young prodigy Flash in the picture, but as the only active female StarCraft pro-gamer, seeing her in action is a blast.


Additional Info:
At some point, she practiced StarCraft at least 11 hours a day. Her father introduced her to StarCraft (and later regretted that decision) and when she saw the pioneer of StarCraft pro-gaming BoxeR play on TV, she fell in love and decided to go pro.

As an amateur she played Protoss against her sister ZergGirl (guess who her favorite race is) and consistently lost initially until she got better. Being experienced with the piano gave her fast fingers, which led to her friends suggesting her to play Terran instead. She gladly accepted, admitting she sucked with Protoss.

Hotness must be in the blood because her sister is a TV commercial model and actress. For now her goal is to win in ProLeague (where her team fights against other pro-teams) and enter the much tougher individual leagues. In 10 years she hopes to be "married and be a pretty wife", but she's not leaving StarCraft without a major victory.