Starcraft 2 is a serious sport, and like any serious sport, players move from team to team. In 2012 we've experienced some surprising announcements and great transfer stories, but which one was the most interesting?
As with anything, player contracts end and are not always continued. Several big players shocked the professional scene with interesting career choices and decisions. We tried to find the most interesting ones and call them out as the most exciting Transfer Coup of 2012.
Yoon "TaeJa" Young Suh 
to 
Joining in May 2011, TaeJa spent nearly a year with the Korean powerhouse SlayerS. Learning a lot from their wonderful line-up and growing in skill, no one suspected his departure in March 2012. He was among the first in the wave of Korean players expressing their will to transfer to a foreign team to seek better career opportunities. He later explained that foreign fans asking him for autographs at The Assembly tournament (ASUS ROG Winter 2012) showed him how passionate those people were.
Two weeks later it was announced that Team Liquid will be TaeJa's new home. Team's CEO Nazgul talked about the transfer going on quote to say: "[it was] Liquid's biggest acquisition in history" and only a few hours after the announcement, TaeJa appeared to play his 2012 GSL Season 2 Code S matches in TL colors.
Ilyes "Stephano" Satouri 
to 
On the 21st of August, Stephano announced that he will not be continuing with Millenium, the team that nurtured the controversial fan favorite since 2010 and would not be bound to the team after September 1st. His final appearance under Millenium colors was at the 2012 MLG Summer Championship and seeing as he just won the NASL Season 3, and beforehand managed to win the WCS France Nationals, Stephano was pretty big in the headlines at the time. Needless to say, the scene exploded online with talks of Stephano's next move. Rumors gave way to further speculation, and everyone awaited some sort of announcement.
At one point it was pretty clear that Evil Geniuses was going to be the French Zerg's new home, yet no official word came out. On the 11th of September using a comical video titled Geniuses Falling speaking of the alleged EG Curse, the silhouette of Stephano was being interviewed as the newcomer of the team - and the announcement was made, while rumors about a whopping $8,000 monthly salary appeared. Stephano's debut as an EG member was made the same day, at the PTL Season 1 Premier Division, where he went on to defeat TaeJa and HerO to ensure victory for his new team.
Lee "Jaedong" Jae Dong 
to Jaedong's story was a bit of a shocker. A player with one of the largest fanbases in the world, "The Tyrant" has been with the KeSPA organization for years as a Brood War player, and started playing SC2 with the rest of the KeSPA guys at some point in 2011. Participating in several exhibition tournaments he showed his strength even in a new setting and with the other KeSPA players, was closely watched over by the community.
On the 5th of December, it was announced through EG's website that "The Tyrant Cometh", setting the scene on fire. It gave the feeling of the whole community waking up and scratching their heads in disbelief. The shock was so great, that EG's site could not hold the incoming traffic and actually crashed. The weird sight of JD in an EG would still be beheld, however, as the Tyrant is now often a part in EG-TL's Proleague roster. Where will the bonjwa go after his one-year contract with EG expires remains to be seen in 2013.
Jang "MC" Min Chul 
to 
Quickly after its forming, MC joined oGs which was becoming one of the Korean powerhouses of early SC2. On July 15th, though, a partnership between SK Gaming and oGs was announced. What this meant was that oGs players could play under the SK banner at international events, with an SK patch added to the oGs wear at Korean events. For MC in particular, this was the cue to start traveling the world and make a name for himself outside of Korea.
On January 13th 2012 the oGs-SK partnership ended, and MC decided to become a full member of the SK organization. While signing with the foreigners opened many doors to MC and the Boss Toss continued on to an impressive streak in 2012, his old team itself didn't enjoy such a bright future. When one team gained a powerful asset, another lost an ace. When one roster prospered despite being a one-man army, another disbanded as its stars started leaving.
ZeNEX
merged into StarTale 
Our last story isn't exactly a transfer. ZeNEX started out as a strong team formed by the merge of Zenith and NEX. Things were looking if not great, then at least decent for ZeNEX until on December 2011 formal general manager Dae Ki "Aozora" Kim resigned, leaving the team without a secure source of finance. In that time most of the team's stars had transferred away and the team was going through a rough patch - losing its training house leaving the players to train from home.
Afraid that these problems might end with ZeNEX's disbandment, StarTale head coach, general manager and chairman of the e-Sports association Joong Wook Won suggested a merge, so that the players won't end up team-less. On July 13th the announcement was made and starting August 1st all ZeNEX players would play under the ST tag, specifically in upcoming GSTL Season 3 and GSL Season 4. The merge came at the perfect timing to prevent another Korean team from disbanding, and was received very well among the community and players alike.
