On that note, sanmu is the inaugural champion of the Small Earth Series.

We're now open to new challengers. I will pair up sanmu with whoever we believe to have the best shot of beating him (sanmu will have some input here), based on criteria including but not limited to:

- performance in Small Earth competitions (like the Seasonal)
- Quickmatch score on Small Earth templates (with SE1W strong pref'd)
- Clan Wars performance on Small Earth templates
- any known impressive wins demonstrating strong play
- known general ability (from MTL and other community competitions, like the CL)


If you are interested in challenging for the title, please apply in this thread with:

- Whether you are open to being paired in an undercard match (so we can cut down the challenger pool; winning an undercard match will strongly advantage your odds of getting selected as the next challenger, and if you work your way up the undercards you are guaranteed to wind up in the title match eventually)
- The strongest case you think you can make for why you are going to beat sanmu

Good luck! I'll kick off of the next series once the challenger pool looks strong enough to set up the next match.

I would like to give it a try. I have won all my seasonal ladders till now... I dont believe i would win, i will would still like to try if samnu has time...

Arrow, are you open to being on the undercard if you don't make the title match this time?

Yes i am

It's not the time, Jacob, it's the honour that is at stake here. (;

Yeah i am fine with it. Since i was a SE player, i dont think the me or samnu will have any advantages over each other... It would be fun to play him(even if honour is at stake)

I'd take the non SE master spot. No tryout matches though

non SE master

(https://www.warzone.com/LadderTeam?LadderTeamID=27095)

While we're waiting for a new headline challenge, why not have an undercard tournament? Anyone who wants to throw their hats in can play in the tournament for a chance to be an official undercard, who will battle each other to challenge the champ (Shamu, unless someone dethrones him before then).

thank you for the confirmation knyte. rank 35 is nowhere near master of course, also my QM rating is rather poor compared to SE masters

I need to play 12 more games for seasonal ladder, but i did win all the 8 games i played, so i could really give it a go...

One thing I can say, Arrow would at least finish the series. He's active, often asking other players to make their moves!

As for how good rank 35 is or isn't ... well it beats the crap out of my rank 319. (;

So if #35 isn't Masters, who are the Masters? Ends at #34? lol

@Beep Beep Jeep
You're probs trolling, but you're a master at SE. I sincerely apologize if anyone (not saying names) mistakenly judged you in the past.

@Nauz
You can dislike SE; that's fine. But you agreed to an 11 game series. A forfeit is a forfeit. But if I can say one thing, my dear friend, it's that SE stresses the fundamentals and the roots of the game. I only played you for two games, but I could tell you were quite weak at them. Perhaps if you were to actually try to get better at SE, it could improve your Strat 1v1 performance (not that I particularly care). It's better than doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results...

@krinid
I think that SE is actually UNDER-saturated with masters, rather than over-saturated. I think SE is a map that initially appears so simplistic that people wrongfully think they've mastered it (just like Nauz). But like a lot of games with a deceptively simple ruleset (like go or chess), the game is actually quite deep. You could probably count the true masters of SE on one or two hands.

I don't know if SE has a lower skill ceiling than MME or ME or not. I see the argument for why it does. There are simply more things to consider in the other maps. However for me, that obscures attention from the particular things I actually care about, which is why I like SE. I'm also just kinda impulsive and it's easier to get into SE quickmatches, so that's part of it too, I'm sure.

@everyone
Thank you all. I'll be the first to admit that I do not yet play Small Earth optimally (SE1W in particular, I am slightly better at SEAD). I probably do not deserve the title yet, especially for only beating Nauz, but I will try to be worthy of it. I am continuing to get better at Small Earth and I am continuing to deep study the template (in my spare time of course). I will make sure that I am ready to take on the true SE greats when they challenge me.

Edited 6/11/2021 22:08:23

i might be up for the challenge

i will play sanmu in a bo11.
tho we will only play 6 games considering i will go 6-0

^Joi, I think you mean you'll lose 6-0 ;)

Knyte it looks like there's a lot of challengers. What's the protocol here?

Make a tournament, and whoever wins get to play...

how do I join se masters and how do I withdraw my request to join normal masters

Protocol is to let me play first and lose. we essentially skip all the unecessary steps for everyone else to play

:o this isn't real small earth!
Set no army stand guard to off and starting armies to 5