tl;dr: We are all immensely proud of SCReddit's success. Several days ago, I sat down with FearGorm and talked to him about the origins and people involved in that great endeavor. We also talked about his team's history and goals with their new project, WellPlayed. This is their story.

For Us, The Living

In the late, hot days of Summer 2010, shortly after Starcraft II's long climb out of beta, /r/starcraft was a community that was missing something. Not members, or content, but community events they could gather around. The subreddit talked about the beta, about Team Liquid, about HD and Husky and others.

What that subreddit didn't talk about, because they couldn't, was their own members regularly competing in their own events for the enjoyment of their own community.

Then FearGorm started the SCReddit Open.

And just like that, the many talented players of /r/starcraft had a home.

As regularly as possible, /r/starcraft gathered, and /r/starcraft played. The subreddit cheered the first winner, and every subsequent winner, as champions of the community. Great games were played, with upsets and streaks, complaints of imbalance and teary eyed wails of QQ. /r/starcraft watched chompyyy, and WinHouse, and NrGdde, and all the rest.

The community laughed, cried, and all it got out of it, at least initially, was simple prestige. Not prestige with anyone outside /r/starcraft, but bragging rights within.

The team that assembled behind FearGorm grew stronger with each passing SCReddit Open. First came live streams, then higher quality justin.tv streams. Then prizes and small amounts of money. Each Open was stronger than the last, and /r/starcraft grew to know not only the players, but the casters.

But that wasn’t enough. SCReddit Open was known mostly within the halls of /r/starcraft. FearGorm, and others, wanted a bigger event. Something to put SCReddit on the map.

Glory Road

There was a brief but strong moment of incredulity during the GSL World Championships when White-Ra’s info card flashed on the screen and it proudly stated that he was the SCReddit Invitational Championship.

Surprised though /r/starcraft was, looking back, the SCReddit Invitational was equal in quality to any other Starcraft II tournament. It was produced to the highest standards, gathered more views on the stream than anything else until TSL3, and included outstanding players of all nationalities and races. It was even commentated by Day9, djWHEAT and a whole crew of talented, well-known casters.

It was, in short, ample reason for the SCReddit team, and /r/starcraft, to feel extremely proud.

But the transition from SCReddit Opens to the SCReddit Invitational is seemingly large, an abrupt leap forward in scale, complexity, and sheer production quality.

How did this happen?

As with many things, it started with a group of dedicated people.

By His Bootstraps

The initial post that introduced the SCReddit Invitational (SCRI) revealed withe prize pool. With help from a very generous and dedicated group of Redditors, over $600 was raised. But just having sponsors wasn’t enough. A great tournament is derived from a multitude of areas: production, art, organization, brackets, and referees; SCReddit needed help, and it was looking for help from the community that had supported them for so long.

They needed all the untapped talent that /r/starcraft could offer up. And offer up /r/starcraft did.

SCRI had wonderful referees. Fair and organized, they kept the entire event running smoothly without any major hiccups. They ensured that matches were set up correctly, that players were where they were supposed to be. They were the arbiters, and they took their roles seriously.

SCRI had incredible production values. Their VODs were some of the best ever seen. The hype videos, the website, the sheer professionalism of the entire tournament rivaled that of any other. Every aspect rang with quality.

SCRI had awesome players. SCRI truly succeeded in its goal of drawing great players to a tournament supported by the Reddit community. Players who were famous through the scene, and who could bring to bear their massive talents to produce games that every fan would enjoy: KiwiKaki, White-Ra, TT1, and more.

It’s All Still There.

Check it out if you haven’t seen it at: http://screddit.com/invitational/

Time Enough for Love

Some time before the SCRI, the SCReddit team discovered that they really wanted a good, robust tournament management system to make their lives easier. Running a tournament was hard work and immensely time consuming. Anything to make the process more streamlined and manageable would greatly reduce overhead.

So just as they’ve done before and since, they put out a plea for help.

And just as /r/starcraft has done before and since, the community answered. Developers and designers from across the world put in their time and effort into creating a system for running events.

Somewhere along the line, a name was decided: WellPlayed.

And somewhere along alone the line, dreams grew bigger, goals more ambitious, and the desire to truly create a space for SC2 more determined than ever.

Citizen of the Galaxy

Much of the team that created and produced the SCRI still remains to this day, working tirelessly to promote esports and to create quality content.

Shortly after the SCRI, they were contacted by some of the biggest names in the scene.

At PAX East, this team – now going by the moniker WellPlayed – was tagged to help produce Day9’s and Husky’s VODs. Working in tandem with the two popular casters, WellPlayed cut and edited videos that really highlighted that talents of Day9 and Husky, and provided the community with yet another round of good, high-quality Starcraft II content.

WellPlayed, previously SCReddit, proved once again that they were eminently capable of producing great content for fans.

Unknown to the community, their performance at PAX East was but a precursor to grander dreams still to come.

Time For the Stars

WellPlayed wanted more. Not only out of themselves, but also out of the community at large. They wanted better ways of consuming streams, easier ways of following tournaments, and less time-consuming methods of managing events.

They wanted, in short, a custom-created hub for all things Starcraft II. A hub that acted as a nexus for the entire scene, that gathered fans, and players, and streams in one place for discussion, for consumption, for organizing.

Never known to back down from a challenge, the WellPlayed team built exactly that.

With the core group of developers, artists, producers, writers and marketers that helped create the SCRI, and with additional help from even more members of /r/starcraft from around the world, WellPlayed slowly crawled itself towards reality.

And now, after countless hours of blood, sweat and tears, WellPlayed is ready to show the world their newest project.

Beyond This Horizon

FearGorm was careful to note that the site wasn’t built because the WellPlayed team was dissatisfied with the community at /r/starcraft, at Team Liquid, or anywhere else. The team was well aware of the effect that the subreddit and Team Liquid has in drawing and motivating the legions of fans.

They were aware that they were standing on the shoulders of giants. Aware that they were working within an environment created by very dedicated and passionate people that came before.

What the WellPlayed team was dissatisfied with, however, was the platform.

They felt that though both /r/starcraft and Team Liquid had great communities, the platform on which they resided wasn’t something that was specifically made, custom tailored to their needs. Just as they wanted to give the /r/starcraft community a tournament they could call their own with the SCReddit Opens and SCRI, now they want to give the community a home to call their own.

A home designed not to divide the community, but to bring it together so that new members, new players and new fans could more easily discover just what it is that we love and devote some much of our time and energy towards.

eSports. Starcraft II.

To Sail Beyond the Sunset

And so, after talking with FearGorm and learning what the WellPlayed team has planned, I say–I hope we all say–to them:

gl. hf.

And for what they’ve done with SCReddit for the /r/starcraft communty:

gg. wp.