Grubby
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Grubby
Player Information
Name:
Manuel Schenkhuizen
Nationality:
Born:
May 11, 1986 (age 38)
Race:
Nickname(s):
King of Orcs
Approx. Total Winnings:
$60,349
Years Active:
2011 - 2014
Years Active (caster):
2012 - 2013
Links
History
| 2003-08-10 — 2008-01-22 | 4Kings |
| 2008-02-23 — 2009-01-29 | Meet Your Makers |
| 2009-02-18 — 2009-04-17 | Meet Your Makers |
| 2009-04-17 — 2011-02-11 | Evil Geniuses |
Retired:
2014
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen (born May 11, 1986) is a retired Dutch Protoss player who last played for Evil Geniuses.
He is a former Warcraft III World Champion.
Biography[edit]
Grubby is a Dutch professional PC gamer. He has been competing in eSports in the real-time strategy games Warcraft III and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne as well as Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm. As an Orc player in Warcraft, Schenkhuizen has won more than 38 LAN tournaments, of which 6 are World Championships, which has led to him being known as the King of Orcs even after his transition to StarCraft II.[1] Grubby has been known for being part of one of the most successful WC3 teams in history, namely the British 4Kings. Later teams include the Danish MeetYourMakers and the North American Evil Geniuses. Grubby enjoys a large fan base throughout the world and especially in China, one of the hotbeds of Warcraft. He's sometimes characterized as being not one of the fastest players, but one that compensates with smart and effective play styles.
Grubby's first experience playing computer games was at around age three or four giving him an early start in gaming. Grubby's first experience with an RTS game was with Populous 2, released in 1991, where you play a god guiding your subjects. He continued to play many games such as StarCraft I, including Brood War, before moving to the Warcraft III competitive scene. His first competition was in 2003 at age 17, at a LAN party of around 1000 people. The Warcraft III competition consisted entirely of Dutch players except the Danish player playing for Grubby's future team, MYM, Bjarke. Grubby made it to the finals to meet MYM]Bjarke and compete for the €200 prize. Grubby ended up winning the competition and taking the prize before becoming a progamer at age 18.
His Warcraft career included a famous rivalry with Moon, and within that, two of his most famous victories. First was a 3-1 upset of Moon at the World E-Sports Games in Hangzhou in 2006 that was Moon's first defeat in 29 matches in the Night Elf vs. Orc matchup and led to Chinese fans rushing the stage to congratulate him.[2] Then came his second WCG championship in 2008 in Cologne, where he bested Moon in five games.[3] In August 2013, The Daily Dot listed him as one of the 10 greatest players in eSports history alongside the likes of BoxeR, Moon and Flash.[4]
Grubby met his wife, Cassandra Ng Schenkhuizen, at WCG 2005, where he played WC3 and finished third.[5] At BlizzCon 2009, he proposed to her on-stage after the award ceremony, and they subsequently married in May 2010. Cassandra currently works as Grubby's manager and supports him in his career.
Wings of Liberty[edit]
Transition to StarCraft II and Korea (Winter 2011 – Fall 2011)[edit]
Grubby began participating in notable tournaments in 2011 with his offline debut at SteelSeries StarCraft II Challenge during Assembly Winter 2011. He was one of the 50 players invited to participate in the North American Starleague. He was placed into Division 1. He went 6-17 in his group, finishing with one win and 8 series losses. Despite releasing largely marginal results, Grubby would demonstrate significant improvements in his play during Copenhagen Games Spring 2011 where he defeated players such as LaLuSh and TLO but was defeated by Kas in the semis. He still managed to beat MorroW in order to take his first major tournament podium on StarCraft II.
During the summer, he would participate to both DreamHack Summer 2011 and Assembly Summer 2011, but couldn’t do a better result than ro48 and ro32 respectively.
Grubby posted on his twitter on September 2 that he would be flying out to Korea for a month to play in the IeSF 2011 World Championship.[6] He trained in the oGs-TL House during his stay, and posted a video about his training.[7] During the tournament, Grubby made his way to the final, only losing a map to Orly, but then was swept 3-0 by the SjoW, earning his first second place in a StarCraft II LAN. Despite being in Korea, Grubby didn’t attempt to qualify for Code A.
Round-Trip Between Europe and North America (Fall 2011 – Summer 2012) [edit]
Back in Europe, his tournament results improved a lot in the first few weeks. Besides winning several smaller online tournaments he participated also in the Electronic Sports World Cup 2011 and finished 4th after losing to MaNa in the semifinal and MarineKing in the bronze match. A week later, he won his own online tournament, the Grubby's Starcraft II Series Pro Invitational 3, beating players such as TitaN, Nerchio, Feast and DIMAGA.
In early 2012, Grubby got the last seed in the European qualifier for IEM Kiev, managed to qualify himself for the main event. He was placed in Group B, along with Kas, Zenio, and NightEnD. He failed to clear the Group Stage, finishing 0-3 in his group, with a poor 1-6 map record.
Grubby's first MLG event was the 2012 MLG Winter Arena, he suffered an early loss against NaNiWa, but defeated LosirA in the loser’s bracket, his first victory against a Korean player in an offline StarCraft II event. He also took down ThorZaIN before losing to DeMusliM, thus ending his run in 13th-16th place. This was enough to qualify him for the groupstage of the 2012 MLG Winter Championship.
There, he unfortunately ended up in an all Korean group. Despite showing a lot of skill, especially in PvP,[8] he was crushed 0-5 in his group.
In between, he had been invitated to play in the Lone Star Clash. There he won against BlinG but lost immediately after to French zerg Stephano. In the loser’s bracket, he defeated Destiny, Heavens and viOlet, ending in the fourth place after losing to Sleep.
He briefly returned to Europe in May to compete in WCS Netherlands. He showed dominance in the national scene, winning the competition with a single map loss, securing his first SC2 LAN victory and a spot to the European Final.
During the following month, he would attempt to every MLG events, but couldn’t reach in better result than a 9th to 12th place during 2012 MLG Spring Arena 2.
Pushing the Grubby line (Fall 2012 – Winter 2012)[edit]
Back in Europe at the end of the summer, Grubby participated in the 2012 World Championship Series Europe. Despite a first round loss 1-2 against sLivko, Grubby fought his way through the lower bracket, defeating players such as JeaL , StarEagle, Ret and Nerchio in an amazing series before falling to eventual bronze medalist LucifroN, showing that he has reached a top European level of play, earning $1,200 and a spot in WCS World Championship tournament in Shanghai with his 5th/6th place.[9] On 17 November 2012, Grubby joined the best players from all continents in the 2012 Battle.net World Championship. He was placed in group C with HuK, KiLLeR and Sen. While he was able to edge his fellow Protoss 2-1 in the first match, he was unable to overcome Zerg players losing remaining matches 2-1. As the result he didn't advance to the Playoffs and was tied 17th-24th.
A week after, he played in IEM Singapore. He got placed in a tough group, with players such as sLivko, LucifroN and Oz. He placed third going 3-2 (8-5) in maps, which placed him in the Round of 12. Here, he beat StarDust 3-1, which put him up against MC in the quarterfinals. Despite MC being the favorite, Grubby still managed to pull out a 3-2 victory. His next opponent was fellow European sLivko who he also beat 3-2, to get him a spot in the finals against Sting. It was a close fight, but Grubby lost 2-3. He still managed to grab himself $3,300 from the event and a spot for the IEM Season VII – World Championship
He played his last event of 2012 in Germany, the HomeStory Cup VI. He went through the two group stages, beating BlinG, MC once again and Kas in the process. He was the only protoss remaining in the playoffs, but was unable to hold the swarm dominance on the tournament, losing to the eventual winner Snute in the quarterfinals.
Return to Korea (Winter 2012 - Spring 2013)[edit]
In January 2013, Grubby was invited alongside the Canadian Protoss HuK to play in the 2013 Global StarCraft II League Season 1 Up & Down matches.[10] Placed in Group C with LosirA, First, Bbyong, Symbol, DongRaeGu. He went 0-5 and placed last in the group, thus sending him down to Code A. He would eventually forfeit this code A spot.[11] During his second travel in Korea, he stayed and trained in the FXOpen House. On January 15, 2013, FXOpen e-Sports and Grubby jointly announced a partnership which will allow him to play in 2013 GSTL Season 1.[12]
On January 18, Grubby would play in IEM Season VII - Katowice, he qualified through the IEM Katowice European Qualifier. Grubby was placed in group A which had Dream, TLO, mOOnGLaDe, Snute. and Tarson. Grubby defeated Tarson 2-1, Snute 2-0, lost 1-2 vs mOOnGLaDe, lost 0-2 vs Dream, and won 2-1 vs TLO, this allowed Grubby to advance into the Round of 8. In the Round of 8 Grubby faced Korean Terran player YoDa who proved to be too strong and defeated Grubby 3-1 ending his tournament.
Heart of the Swarm[edit]
By participating in IEM Season VII events Grubby managed to gain enough points to be qualified for IEM Season VII - World Championship. Grubby was placed in Group D with Stephano, Golden, Dream, Mvp, and TLO, Grubby lost 0-2 vs Mvp, 1-2 to Stephano, 0-2 to TLO, Grubby defeated Golden 2-1 but due to his series score of 1-4 he did not advance to the Playoffs.
On March 11, 2013, during the Heart of the Swarm Launch Event held in Versailles, France, Grubby took part in a 4-player tournament alongside Stephano, WhiteRa and LucifroN. His first match was against the French Zerg, Stephano, which he won 2-1, putting him up against White-Ra in the finals. Grubby managed to pull a 2-1 victory over him, earning him his first tournament victory in Heart of the Swarm. At its peak, the tournament stream had over 130,000 viewers concurrently.[13]
On April 26, Grubby participated in Dreamhack Stockholm. Grubby was seeded into Group Stage #2 and be put in a group with Ret, Njal, and Zanster, Grubby would defeat all his opponents only losing 1 map to Ret. In Group Stage #3 Grubby was placed in a group with HuK, Polt, and Snuffe, Grubby lost 0-2 to HuK, but in surprising upset defeated Polt 2-0, and then Snuffe 2-0 to advance into the Round of 16. Grubby's opponent would be Leenock, the zerg player proved too strong and defeated Grubby 2-0 knocking him out of the tournament.
Grubby was one of 24 players to be invited to 2013 WCS Season 1 Europe Premier league. He was placed in Group G and was played on May 8, 2013. His group had players Stephano a long time rival of Grubby even though it's mostly been one sided in Stephano's favor, BabyKnight, and KrasS were also in Grubby's group. Grubby lost 1-2 to BabyKnight, defeated KrasS 2-0 and in the final match he faced Stephano where he lost 0-2 which knocked him out of the Round of 32 and into Challenger League. Grubby would start at the bottom of Challenger league in the Round of 40 where he defeated DarkHydra 2-1, he then faced the bosstoss MC, Grubby showed his superior skills by winning 2-0. In the Round of 16 Grubby faced Polish Zerg Nerchio, Grubby beat him 2-1 which would put him into the Premier league for 2013 WCS Season 2 Europe.
Grubby attended 2013 MLG Spring Championship on June 28. Grubby was placed in Bracket 7 where he defeated Guitarcheese 2-0, lose 1-2 to qxc which put Grubby in the losers bracket. In the losers bracket Grubby defeated CaptainObvious 2-0, 2-0 vs Hendralisk, 2-0 vs Cham and then lose 0-2 to TheStC which ended Grubby's tournament run.
Grubby was placed in Group G for 2013 WCS Season 2 Europe, the group had players VortiX, top 4 finisher of last season ForGG, and Danish player Bunny.Grubby would defeat Bunny 2-1, lose 1-2 vs VortiX, and then defeat ForGG in the final match 2-1 to advance into the Round of 16. In the Round of 16 Grubby was placed into Group A with Ret, Mvp, and HasuObs. In the first match, he faced HasuObs, and despite great efforts, he lost 1-2. He rebounded to beat Ret 2-1, setting up a final match against defending champion Mvp with a quarterfinal berth on the line. Their contest left Grubby unable to contain his tears when he emerged victorious 2-1. In the Round of 8, Grubby faced Spanish Zerg player VortiX, where despite being the underdog, Grubby managed to defeat him 3 to 1 and advance to the semifinals, where he faced the Korean Protoss Duckdeok. They played a tense series, but Grubby ultimately lost 2 to 3 against the Korean, who eventually won the tournament. His result secured him a spot for the Season 2 Final. Despite a partisan crowd at the Koelnmesse in Cologne - the same building where he had won his second Warcraft WCG championship - he lost to eventual champion Bomber and Polt and was knocked out early, though he later managed to qualify for IEM Season VIII - Singapore.
Sponsors[edit]
Main Sponsor(s)[edit]
- In early 2012, Grubby announced his partnership with TwitchTV and runs a voluntary $4.99 monthly subscription on his stream.[14]
- On June 8, 2012, BenQ was announced as one of Grubby's main sponsors.[15]
Stream Sponsor(s)[edit]
- On February 22, 2013, Grubby announced AllKeyShop.com, a web store that sells CD keys, as one of his stream sponsors.[16]
- On March 13, 2013, Grubby announced the trading school & community, Tradimo.com, as his new stream sponsor.[17]
Trivia[edit]
- His name comes from when he played Dungeons and Dragons with his older brothers. Originally "Grubtor Steelheart", he was given the nickname "Grubby" when playing with others over the internet, later he kept the nickname replacing his original. At the time he wasn't aware of the English meaning of the word and claims to be unsure as to whether he would have kept it had he known at the time.[18]
- He played the Orc race in Warcraft III and is known as the "King Of Orcs" even after his transition to StarCraft.
- Has ranked in the top 10 Warcraft III players in terms of winnings each year since 2004.[19]
- Featured in the film "Beyond the Game", which covered his Warcraft rivalry with Xiaofeng Li (Sky).[20]
- Organized his own invitational: Grubby's Starcraft II Series Pro Invitational.
- Played Warcraft III for 4Kings, Meet Your Makers and Evil Geniuses.
- Began training in Korea at FXOpen eSports's team house in preparation of his 2013 Global StarCraft II League Season 1 Up & Down matches in January 2013, and compiled a list of trivia.[21]
- Has also launched a casting and analysis career thanks to work during 2013 WCS Season 3 Europe and ASUS ROG NorthCon 2013.
Achievements[edit]
Interviews[edit]
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
First Person View Match VODS[edit]
Gallery[edit]
Statistics[edit]
Matchup Statistics
vs  | vs  | vs  | vs  | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record | Win% | Record | Win% | Record | Win% | Record | Win% | Record | Win% | |
| as | 219 - 192 | 53.3 % | 239 - 258 | 48.1 % | 341 - 296 | 53.5 % | 7 - 0 | 100 % | 806 - 746 | 51.9 % |
| Σ | 219 - 192 | 53.3 % | 239 - 258 | 48.1 % | 341 - 296 | 53.5 % | 7 - 0 | 100 % | 806 - 746 | 51.9 % |
Earnings Statistics
{"xAxis":{"type":"category","name":"Year","axisLabel":{"rotate":0},"axisTick":{"alignWithLabel":true},"data":["2011","2012","2013","2014"]},"yAxis":{"type":"value","name":"Earnings ($USD)"},"series":[{"emphasis":{"focus":"series"},"stack":"total","type":"bar","name":"1v1 Earnings","data":["9583","17649","23025","10092"]},{"emphasis":{"focus":"series"},"stack":"total","type":"bar","name":"Team Event Earnings","data":["0","0","0","0"]},{"emphasis":{"focus":"series"},"stack":"total","type":"bar","name":"Other Earnings","data":["0","0","0","0"]}],"size":{"width":1400,"height":400},"grid":{"top":"15%","left":"15%","right":"12%","bottom":"10%"},"tooltip":{"trigger":"axis"},"legend":{"1":"1v1 Earnings","2":"Team Event Earnings","3":"Other Earnings"},"div":"chart-area-0"}1v1 Medal Statistics
| Tier |  |  |  |  |  | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S-Tier | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| A-Tier | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| B-Tier | 8 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 22 |
| C-Tier | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Total | 13 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 38 |
References[edit]
- ↑ WCG '04, ESWC '05, BlizzCon '05, WSVG '06, WCG '08 and WEM '09
- ↑ WEG 2006 - Warcraft 3 - Grubby Vs. Moon - Game 4 (VOD)
- ↑ WCG 2008 - Warcraft 3 Final - Grubby Vs. Moon - Game 5 (Official German VOD)
- ↑ The 10 Greatest Players In eSports History (Patrick Howell O'Neill, The Daily Dot)
- ↑ "WCG 2005 medalists in Warcraft 3"
- ↑ Grubby to Korea, TL.net, 2011-09-03
- ↑ Grubby Video Blog from the oGs-TL House in Korea YouTube.com, 2011-09-21.
- ↑ MLG Winter Championship - Day 1 Recap TL.net, 2012-03-24
- ↑ WCS EU Recap & Best Games TL.net, 2012-09-17
- ↑ Brackets for 2013 GSL Season 1 Up&Down Matches TL.net, 2012-12-28
- ↑ 2013 GSL Season 1 Code A Brackets Gomtv.net, 2013-02-04
- ↑ Grubby and FXO announce partnership in 2013 GSTL Season 1
- ↑ Blizzard Press Release post-Swarm Launch, Blizzard.com, 2013-03-21.
- ↑ Grubby's Stream
- ↑ Grubby gets BenQ as main sponsor
- ↑ AllKeyShop.com sponsors Grubby
- ↑ tradimo supports Grubby
- ↑ Grubby speaks about his nickname
- ↑ Grubby's Esport Index Wacraft III SK-Gaming.com.
- ↑ Beyond the Game http://weblogs.hollanddoc.nl/beyondthegame
- ↑ Grubby (2013-01-04). "Team FXOpen eSports trivia". TL.net.