As the most competitive StarCraft II team league in the world, making it to the semifinals in the Global StarCraft II Team League five times in two years is no easy feat. But doing so is one of the many feats that put Team SCV Life, or “TSL,” on the map for its many fans around the world. So it was surely with regret that TSL’s head coach  Lee Woon Jae officially disbanded the team today, citing the recent loss of tree star players on top of difficulties finding sponsors.

In the last two months, the team had lost  Woo “Inori” Min Gyu,  Kim “Revival” Dong Hyun and  Choi “Polt” Seong Hoon. Inori, a Protoss known for his macro-based mirror games, left StarCraft II completely to play League of Legends. Revival, with First and Second Place trophies from dozens of small Korean-based tournaments, left to join international team Evil Geniuses. And Polt put his whole eSports life on pause in order to study English in America after a marathon of top placements at major tournaments around the world.  

TSL’s exact financial situation was not as clear as the player situation was, but as of this morning the team’s only major sponsors were Korean-based electronics company Skydigital and “The Handsome Nerd,” an eSports apparel store run by English casters  Nick “Tasteless” Plott and  Dan “Artosis” Stemkoski.

Another English commentator  Thomas “Khaldor” Kilian reiterated the financial issues some eSports teams are having right now on his Facebook page, where in response to several questions, he said that the situation “Has nothing to do with HotS, it's because of the financial problems a lot of the Korean teams have. It's very hard for them to find good sponsors.”

Currently, the majority of sponsors backing Korean StarCraft II teams consist of hardware manufacturers and energy drink brands. Of these companies, some even support multiple teams; at the last GSTL Grand Finals, both finalists MVP and FXOpen were sponsored by peripheral manufacturer Razer. And Korean energy drink Hot6ix sponsors not only MVP, but is the official sponsor of all GSL tournaments as well. But despite intense devotion from a handful of companies, there is only so much sponsorship money to go around.

TSL’s disbanding has left nine professional StarCraft II players searching for a new team. The nine include  Kang “Symbol” Dong Hyun and  Ko “Hyun” Seok Hyun. Symbol is notable for grabbing second place at MLG Spring Arena and executing an “All-Kill” of team Incredible Miracle. Hyun entered the spotlight early last month when he made it to the 2012 GSL Code S Finals in Las Vegas and just barely lost to  Kwon “Sniper” Tae Hoon.