Attention fatties: XL and XXL TL shirts are still available at the TL Store.
The Last Drop
Fusion
Plexa, Sep 21 2008
The fusion of two distinct elements has always amused me. The new and unique things that present themselves to you when you have the merging of two distinct identities is always a wondrous thing. This week my life has been completely entranced by my recent discovery of a band that draws together two completely different music genres into something brilliant. Those who know me will know that I love metal, particularly melodic death, and that i love trance and yet it has never crossed my mind about what would happen when these two things met.
This is the product
As far as I am concerned, its a brilliant masterpiece and indeed Blood Stain Child's most recent album has been spinning on repeat for the majority of this week.
Fusion in starcraft comes in slightly different forms. Very often we are presented with maps which are the fusion of two ideas or multiple ideas into a single entity. I love new maps, and the new set of maps has certainly lifted the bar in terms of fusion of concepts. The next most common is the fusion of styles; Jaedong is often referred to Savior with JulyZerg control (or at least was), Best can be thought of as PuSan with +10 Intelligence, Flash can be thought of the macro of iloveoov coupled with the mechanics of Nada and so on. But now we are faced with a new kind of fusion, the fusion of a map designed in spirit of the pre-2004 macro invasion with the macro intensive play of progaming today.
That's right, as we all know raid-assault is coming back with it's freakishly outdated design which is just so outdated it mayaswell be a concept map. Nevertheless, the map provoked some interesting play, particularly during UZOO MSL, perhaps the best MSL in history. One rather cool aspect about the map, is that it favored air units because of the short distance between mains, but long travel time. So that meant that in TvZ Terrans were always going to open with tech -> wraith or some variant. Zergs had their fair share of cool counters, but none quite the magnitude of JJu's epic counter
Truly one of the most inspirational counters seen in ZvT. But it does pose an interesting question; if Terrans play with air like oov did, will Zerg's opt for queens more often? Could this path the way for queens to actually enter the mainstream of gaming? Yours truly doesn't have high hopes, but obviously any Zerg mastering queen usage will have an advantage
But Raid-Assault has also been home to the making of legends. It was instrumental in YellOw's victory over Nada in the snicker's league. The opening game of the Savior vs Reach final was also held on this map, and with it ushered in the era of Savior dominance.
Even Boxer left a favorable impression on the map
GoRush also cited his favorite game that he played on MBCgame as being one on Raid-Assault;
But at the end of the day I have to wonder how exactly progamers are going to tackle this map. Will we see the same old same old, or will we see even more evolution? My gut tells me we are going to see player still try and use their macro hungry builds with expansions far too early than they should be and to that effect I dont think we'll see many non-Terrans around. Sure PvT/ZvT are playable, but given how the new Terrans are playing this map should be a haven for them. But at the same time, maybe the advances in muta micro may make this map more playable ZvT?
With proleauge imminent, this is one map to look out for and I will be following each game with interest
With 2v2 being banished to the nether regions of Professional Starcraft it seems appropriate to remember some of the greatest game of 2v2, indeed, if i can get myself motivated a top 10 2v2 games of all time is in order. But for now, you can settle with this game which will be #1 on the list as it is without doubt the greatest 2v2 game ever played.
Iron Curtain - Best 2v2 map ever? Quite probably
So let's go back to a time where SouL had crappy uniforms, when Khan was no more than a second rate team at best, when iloveoov still reigned strong, when savior only had a single MSL title to his name and when Boxer was battling in So1. Yes this was indeed a different world to the one we are living in today. SKY Proleauge had just started up again for the year (2005) and they had introduced two wicked 2v2 maps; Iron Curtain and Usan Nation. Both which oozed brilliance, innovation, and entertainment. The venue for this masterful war was indeed Iron Curtain, regarded by many as the best 2v2 map of all time (pictured above).
The teams clashing were Soul and Khan. Soul had recently gone on a winning streak at the end of Round 1 and had continued that streak in Round 2 to this point. The strange thing was, they had recently had released JJu from their ranks, and since then they had begun to win. Conversely, Khan had done next to nothing and had no big names other than JJu - who they had recently purchased from Soul. Another purchase for the season was Sigamari, a player in todays event (surprise surprise!).
Some of those names may look a bit odd to some of you newer members so here's a small history lesson. TheWinD was one of the great Gosu zergs of a the poor zerg era. Although he never won anything (like any Zerg) he could still strike fear into the hearts of his opponents. At his prime you could put him on par with the likes of Junwi, Chojja and JJu. TheWind was a pillar of the all-zerg Soul era as well. Child was voted worst player of 2006 by TL by qualifying for every OSL that year and failing 0-3 each time, or something like that. Child's since dropped off the radar. ggon used to be one of the only random players left in the scene, but then he switched to Protoss i beleive and kinda sucked at it and dropped off the scene. I think MBC picked him up for awhile, or POS sold him to khan. Can't remember exactly. ZergLee is the old ID of Sigamari, enough said. TT is the same as the perennial protoss 2v2 player from Khan today! Mansa[ok] is actually one of Stork's many old IDs - so this is a young 17 year old Stork going at it!
Khan were 1-2 down, and in a must win situation and for the 4th set, on Iron Curtain, they sent out Sigamari and Cuteboy (Terran player, played with Jihyun most of last season) to do battle. The T/Z combination was considered slightly weaker on this map for some reason, despite the fact that T/Z generally won, probably because team were caught off guard by the combination as they would have prepared for a P/Z team. Anyway, Soul played it standard and played CComa (Zerg who now plays for estro) and SoO (July's 2v2 partner from last season). Given the candidates, only one name really stood out from the bunch. And that's Sigamari and that's only because he used to be on 4U/Orion/T1 and built up a small reputation and one of the best 2v2 players in the business with IntoTheRainbow. Basically, no one expected anything to amount from this game.
But, instead of getting a shitfest like one would expect - the greatest game of 2v2 was played. Just watch for yourself
btw the final game of the series was sOo[S.SIR] > mansa[ok] lol
Disagree with my choice? Post details of your favorite 2v2 game (players/date/matchup/map/live report thread) and ill see if i can track them down and blog them as well ^^
For someone as young as myself, I am very lucky to have done quite a bit of traveling. I've literally been around the world and seen some great places. Perhaps my favorite trip was to Hong Kong last year with a group of friends who were graduating the year above me. It was awesome just to let loose in HK (and later Japan) and essentially live in a completely foreign place for us for a solid month or two. But no matter where i went in the world, coming home and eating home baked apple pie was always something to be cherished.
Well not so much literal apple pie more metaphorical in this case. I suppose the literal version of my metaphor is my Dad's bastardized Butter Chicken which is roasted and is not a curry which he would cook every single friday night when my brother and i returned from boarding school. There is a certain comfort within this realm of familiarity. No surprises, no eccentricities which could catch you off guard, no disappointments - just getting what you know and love time and time and time again. The metaphorical apple pie is just this, the idea that life is good within your comfort zone.
But sometimes we are thrust out of our comfort zone and into circumstances we would have rather avoided. Progaming is such a beast where upsets are increasingly common and disappointment runs rampant through the hierarchy. It's not hard to list events where we have all been thrust out of our comfort zones and into places we dare not tread. say for instance Boxer's crushing loss to Shinhwa after his 14 game TvZ winning streak and his subsequent loss to FireBatHero to knock him out of the OSL. Or even when Yellow was denied his rightful OSL title by Xellos all those years ago. Or perhaps more recently when Bisu destroyed Savior in the MSL.
Change is something most people on teamliquid don't accept too well - and who could blame them. We take pride in knowing that for the past 10 years we have had one solid game that we can rely on for our entertainment, and this really hasn't changed much for a lot of us. We also have our favorite progamers who we wish will never suck and will always dominate - but even the best have to come falling down. But change is obviously inevitable in both cases - we have SC2 coming out soon and progaming legends die young.
September is going to be funny month for teamliquid, and one event to mark on your calender is TL's birthday (22nd!). But in addition to our own growth over the following months there is going to be large changes in proleauge where new legends will be born, new formats will be tested, and sadly, some of the greats will come crashing down. We'll also see the first few weeks of the OSL and MSL which invariably brings its set of drama and change to the world.
Change is coming in every form possible from possibly every direction. It could be as small as a simple cosmetic change or it could be as large as an entirely new full scale project to make the community a better place. Things will be upgraded, things will become better - even if there are a few growing pains to begin with. Change is something which we have to accept, even within our comfort zones like Teamliquid, if we are to excel and get ahead. And well, teamliquid traditionally hasn't taken well to these things; just look at the icons on the side bars - people got incredibly angry when we changed those! Let me assure you, the magnitude of changes in coming months will be bigger than that.
Change is all about, well at least hopefully, bettering yourself and changing how your comfort zone operates in one such necessity. Indeed I've progressed on from the bastardized butter chicken into my own little rituals and classic dishes - such is the nature of growth and change. It's easy for me to look at my situation now and complain and remember the good old days when things were so much better than before. But really, were they? I was young, trapped in a boarding school, got about zero respect from everyone anywhere, no gf, no life, terrible at starraft, doing above average in school and the food was alright. But now, although I have more things on my plate, I've never been happier with how everything has turned out.
Nostalgia is a funny thing like that, which always makes events of old look warm fuzzy and friendly to us. But if you get right down to it - the position we are in right now as a site and as a community has never been better. Here's a thread i picked out at random. And well have things really changed that much? Well the posting quality is certainly up, and we celebrate the greatness of the best casters like Artosis and most of the crap is filtered out to "lesser" sites. So yea, I would say that on average we have come a long way and improved our forum. And well, the terrible threads in the past were significantly worse than today
Even in progaming nostalgia is an annoying thing. I remember this time two years ago thinking that the serious of Shinhan OSLs were pretty terrible compared to the likes of So1. But two years later I'm looking back and thinking "Hey the shinhan OSLs were pretty damn good!". The same is starting to happen with 2007 as well, but yea, that's nostalgia for you. And seriously! Watching some of the "legendary" games of old that went longer than 15 minutes gets painful after a while purely because of the stupidly high standard of games we have right now.
Nostalgia may be something which we can run to and dance in to stay within a place where everything makes sense, but it is a very skewed perception of a former reality. When looking back on the glorious history of teamliquid try to keep this in mind as we move forward. Things are going to become the best theyve ever been yet people are going to hate the changes and prefer to live in the nostalgia of old. But i hope in time, that even the naysayers will become used to the changes and love tl once again. Indeed, I can't remember what the old sidebar headers looked like I guess thats some kind of proof that change can quickly become a new comfort zone if you're willing to make small concessions
This is probably going to be fairly incoherent but bare with me...
Getting knocked on your ass sucks - and today, thats exactly what happened to me. Today was my mid-semester test for Maths 253 (aka last elementary calc paper for university) and with summer scholarships being awarded soon every grade counts. That being said, i am almost certain to get a summer scholarship by virtue of arranging a project with a professor earlier on in the week! Anyway, so this test, worth 30% mind you, is in two halves and is 1hour 30min long. Easy.
Section one is on 3D calculus basically, double integrals definition of differentiability, limits with two variables etc. You get the picture. Anyway, with 50 marks in this section i was fairly happy when i cruised through it in approximately 15 minutes giving me 1hr 15 to complete the linear algebra section. And oh my god, the questions were bitchy as hell. Anyway, after slugging through the rest of the paper i came to a question which required me to find the matrix [T]c (matrix T with respect to the basis C) given that T was some matrix and C was some basis. Awesome, so i work through the problem all right and end up with [T]c = [T] and go, fuck. In the last 5 minutes of the test i figured that the answer must be wrong and attempted a different method to find the solution.
Immediately after the exam my friend goes to me "lol at that [T]c question - so cruel - it was just the same matrix." And then wow, it hit me - i had crossed out the correct fucking answer and written down garbage. With shitloads riding on the test I had fucked up. And it felt terrible - and i wanted to drive my face through a sheet of iron. One girl from my class was sitting outside crying about how bad the test was and how hard she had studied for it. Others looked rather depressed at the outcome. Nevertheless, of the 5~ top students (one of which is myself) i had undoubtedly done the worst.
Failure is a tough pill to swallow, and im sure many of you have had similar experiences to my anecdote. Many of you will come back and say "its only one test" or something like that, or that in the long term things will get better. As true as this may be, it sucks when you get knocked on your ass and getting back up and carrying on is something that is always difficult no matter how experienced you are. I guess that's what separates the champions (my friend) and the losers (myself). The ability to regroup, and bring yourself back up in a flash. Champions, like Jaedong, are able to do this at such an outstanding level that it makes my mountain of an issue into nothing more than a mere hiccup.
Jaedong indeed is a particularly good example seeing as of all the top tier pros he's had the biggest ups and downs. Like when Flash metaphorically slapped him about with a wet salmon. Or when ForGG flogged Jaedong repeatedly with a sledgehammer. Or when Backho, bless his little soul, ran over Jaedong's foot with his tricycle. Jaedong just keeps fighting and fighting like a warrior - a true champion. The same can be said about Nada who continually fights like a savage beast and always manages to come back and dominate. Or even Boxer - the eternal champion.
I am not a champion, and champions are never my cup of tea. This is something I've come to accept about myself - I am someone who loves a player because of their imperfections, not their perfections. Because in each one of those players i see a little bit of myself in them. I fell in love with Boxer because of his imperfections. When Pusan faltered against Boxer and Boxer staged an epic comeback, the burning desire in his eyes to win the title was something i see in myself - something i saw projected onto the screen in front of me as i watch him pump the air with his fist. Then, as he failed at the final hurdle against Anytime, i saw him break into pieces, much like myself, as his dream of the golden mouse was brutally snatched away.
The fact that these progamers showcase little glimpses of my very own personality/persona on stage is a rather weird feeling. It's like theres some innate connection between us, although we've never met, and that even if it is just for a moment our thoughts are synced perfectly and the empathetic talent which i have is put to full use as i experience their emotions as they do. When MBC won proleague the overwhelming emotion from on stage created one of the most memorable night of SC for me as i too got to share in their delight in being crowned champions - especially since Pusan won. It was a glorious moment and it showed me, in a rather indirect way, that even people like myself - so called "losers" - can actually be champions with the right support. And of course when I say this, I'm talking about Pusan.
Pusan is a very special case for me, something which most people don't always get. Obviously back when he was destroying everyone in So1 he had a nice large fan following but as he continued to drop out of leagues the fan base dwindled and very quickly i found myself the last man in the stands cheering on the home team. Pusan, unlike any other progamer, plays a game of starcraft in such a unique way. Despite his stupidly good macro, he continually decides to play the unconventional risky build (e.g. 2 base arbiter) to win the game, even though there is no necessity for it. I mean, he played about 15 different PvT builds in as many consecutive games following So1 - the deviation from the norm is just so blindingly apprent. This is something which is very true about myself, as i often take on the controversial view point or the ridiculously difficult position to argue - or even just arguing a completely unthought about point; even though i could very well get the better grade/score by just doing it straight up. As a result of our unconventional tendencies, neither of us really made it to the top - always faltering at the last hurdle.
But despite our shortcomings, there is always that sign of brilliance within us - that some people see and go "this man's going to be a star". Pusan has had some of the most brilliant moves in progaming, from his double recall, fake reaver drop, impossible choke clearing, art storming, impossible carrier micro etc. All of these just make you want to see him succeed ridiculously. I too am like this, some days i can destroy exams and show wisdom far beyond my years (e.g. when i cam top in NZ in music studies) or i can flat out fail (like my yr 12 maths exams). Consistency is something which both me and pusan need to work on - because right now both of us are just sitting below breakout level.
I could continue to rant on about how Kwanro and I are also very similar. Or further discuss the similarities between myself and Pusan - but I don't think anymore is warranted. My favorite gamers of all time are those which i can see myself in - and invariably these are not the champs like Jaedong or Bisu but rather others like Pusan and Kwanro. Progaming is a weird thing, and when you're a weird empathetic individual like myself the players you worship are never gods. Just the stepping stones for them to walk on, so others can get to their places of greatness.
Throughout 2008 its difficult to argue against the fact that Jaedong has been the most consistent performer all year. And of course, thats for a very good reason - he's fucking good. So when Jaedong loses a final to a player only weeks prior was thought a scrub 0-3, you know theres something up. Furthermore, when arguably the best player in the world loses to a no-name MBC Hero gamer in the OSL prelims, once again you have to wonder what is going on here? With one of the most anticipated finals in a long time being played tonight - which will be the deciding factor; Maps or Skill?
Quite bluntly, the map pool this season has royally sucked for Zerg - especially against Terran. As the sole Zerg powerhouse for a long time now, Jaedong has had to deal with these imbalances with absolute precision control and insane macro. There is, however, always a breaking point so when you get a final with every single map favoring Terran heavily you know that you're going to have to work twice as hard as your opponent to win. ForGG didn't win the MSL, the maps did.
Set 1: Colosseum
This map is a rediculous 5-2 in TvZ with very good ZvT players (like Kwanro and Luxury) have lost games to Terrans. Jaedong accounts for one of the wins here, which he used an unorthodox strategy for, and the other was Savior bashing fantasy around. This map is quite clearly imbalanced against Zerg.
Set 2: Othello
Many people consider this map the most balanced map within the map pool, but hey, 52 TvTs and a TvZ record of 15-9 speaks for itself. At the highest level this map is a rhelm where Terran dominates, and will dominate most Zergs. Realistically, against a competent opponent like ForGG, there was nothing Jaedong could realistically do to win this set.
Set 3: Tiamat
This map is just a death sentence for any Zerg. The map was 4-0 in TvZ which is starting to verge on Arcadia territory. Once again, there was nothing that Jaedong could realistically do to stop ForGG here either. This map is just so bad for Zergs.
But wait, given a shitty map pool is suppose to be able to overcome it and win regardless a la savior in Shinhan S3 OSL. But this case just made things x10 harder for Jaedong. In the quarter finals Jaedong had to train extensively to beat Hwasin on the exact same map pool. He ended up going 3-1 (dropping the game on tiamat) but he must have practiced extensively with ForGG to train for the series and thus revealed all of his stylistic nuances to his future finals opponent. Indeed Jaedong in the quarters looked to playing a more desperate style than he was accustomed to, probably due to the terrible map pool. With ForGG prepared for everything that Jaedong could throw at him and the maps strongly in his favor - realistically Jaedong was trapped in a 0-3 ultimatum that he could not avoid.
Jaedong is not impressed
Okay so Jaedong loses one big final thanks to crappy maps, no big deal he'll bounce back right! Not quite true. After being cheesed out of the OSL by Casy and Backho, Jaedong was reduced to the offline preliminaries and forced to requalify. Sadly, the maps once again had more influence on the outcome than anyone wanted. Yes han played well, but the imbalance on each of the maps amplified his skill and created an impossible task for Jaedong to overcome.
Set 1: Troy
Troy, as we all know, is a Protoss paradise. The only Zergs capable of mustering wins have been ones who have used cheesy (but ballsy) strategies to avoid the Protoss lategame, and sometimes even that isn't enough. The stats of 3-5 in favor of Protoss clearly show that this map is heavily P>Z. Hence against the solid play of han, Jaedong was helpless.
Set 2: Athena
Athena was Jaedong's redemption card, as the map is 2-0 in favor of Zerg over Protoss. He wated no time in schooling han and tieing up the scored 1-1. But even though Han's play was solid, on a map like Athena against a Zerg the calibre of Jaedong he had no chance at all - and that was proved very nicely by Jaedong.
Set 3: Blue Storm
Blue Storm's statistics are highly misleading. Since the switch over to Blue Storm 1.2 the map has had 6-14 stats in favor of Protoss. Thats a measly 30% winrate for Zergs. And well, as expected, the solid play of han took Jaedong to school on the map that defined his ZvP, all because of the imbalance on the map. And hey! as a result, Jaedong didn't make the OSL (along with numerous others like savior)
If it's not clear to you right now that the map pool is [i]heavily not-favoring Zergs then I don't know what else will convince you. The question simply has to be, why are these map pools so utterly terrible that even Jaedong, master of the swarm, can't beat a B team rookie on the maps from the pool?
With the current map trends this will never happen again
Perhaps we can trace this to OGN rather than MBC. If you take a look at all the winners of the OSL from Shinhan 3 onwards; 4/5 of the winners have been of Zerg origin. Even July mustered a win over only Protoss and Zerg opponents with the map pool (the stats for ZvP are actually slightly Zerg favored). But as Zerg are traditionally weak in the OSL and Protoss should be winning the OSL in the fall to perpetuate the legend of the fall, map pools are adjusted to achieve the desired outcome. Sadly, Jaedong has ruined OGN's plot by showing that timing rushes can overcome any imbalance - this was later reiterated by July.
EVER 07 was suppose to be Bisu's victory, but he got sick and lost to Stork. Even so, OGN would not be unhappy with Stork winning the OSL - after all atleast he was a protoss. With a map pool featuring Persona, Fantasy II and Katrina the map balance suggested that Stork should waltz home with the win. However, the imbalance was not great enough to stop Jaedong - and with an e han timing rush he destroyed Stork's morale on his "sure win" map (katrina) and proceeded to gut him on Blue Storm/Fantasy. Seeing that their plot had failed, an even less Zerg friendly map pool was implemented by adding Troy to the mix. Sure enough, Jaedong ran into a Terran and with a little map imbalance was able to take the win and stop the reign of Zerg's over the OSL.
I WILL DESTROY YOU!
Jaedong's glory would come in the form of the MSL where he would win over Kal on a mostly neutral map pool (bluestorm 1.1, zodiac being zerg favored, and loki and katrina being Protoss favored). Kal indeed pushed Jaedon to his limit, but ultimately with a good map pool and the greater talent Jaedong came home with the win. MSL promptly adjusted their map pool the following season to make their pool even less Zerg friendly - and Jaedong getting 0-3'd was the result.
I dont know why Korean's don't want Zerg's winning tournaments, but the map balance the past season completely devastated both leagues Zerg population.
But there is another reason why Zerg's are getting a raw deal. Now that map makers know how to balance PvZ, and knowing very well that Protoss are the whiniest race on earth, they have chosen to prioritize PvZ balance over ZvT balance. This is different to the traditional Korean value of balancing Tvp/Tvz first then worrying about PvZ later. As a result, we've had a string of decent PvZ maps but absolutely terrible ZvT maps. As a large number of Terrans always qualify, season after season the number of Zerg's decrease.
Jaedong is probably the most talented starcraft player today, but his dominance is being largely nulled by the influx of anti-zerg maps. Not only has this devastated the number of Zergs qualifying for leagues - but it has also meant that Jaedong struggles to advance even though he is the best Zerg in the world. The map pools for the new seasons MUST be more Zerg oriented or at least try to bring some balanced maps to the table (KeSPA im looking at you) because losing TvZ as a viable matchup is a travesty to Starcraft as it is one of the most beautiful matchups in the game.
Who cares is Jaedong dominates ridiculously because the map pool is balanced? Whats more important is saving the Zerg race, and the art of ZvT, from near extinction. Hopefully KeSPA get the message before it's too late and Jaedong is a lone trooper.
This is not going to be a happy blog. In fact this blog will likely provoke some harsh criticism from virtually every member on this site. But this blog speaks of a harsh reality - one which we all hope never would actually eventuate. Boxer should retire from Starcraft Progaming.
Boxer is sad because its true
Boxer's career has been a story of continual reinvention and extreme highs and lows. Following Boxer's dominant period (ending with his loss to GARIMTO in SKY01) Boxer was forced to bring himself back up to speed. However in NATE OSL he went 0-3 in his group which showed quite strongly that he was desperately in need of a reinvention. Then in SKY 2002 Boxer's reinvention lead to him making the finals of the OSL - where he lost to Reach in another close final.
The loss to reach prompted Boxer to leave IS and form his own team - 4 Union (later Dong Yang and SKT1). Indeed the switch over to DY caused its fair share of drama and was the only solution Boxer could see to returning to his winning ways. While his play degraded over the next year he managed to raise one of the strongest teams in Brood War history and his role as a mentor and inspiration became firmly cemented in the minds of all fans of progaming as well as the progamers themselves.
His star pupil, iloveoov, lead the way in the macro revolution which changed the very fundamentals of the game. The game became about who could produce more rather than who could defeat his opponent in one single attack with brilliant micro. This change hurt Boxer's style, as can be seen in his sharp decline in form. However, Boxer, the master of reinvention, came back and ascended to the finals of EVER 2004 after showing promising games in KT-KTF 2004 earlier that year. Boxer brought all his tricks to the table, and even with his improved macro, could not topple the monster Terran.
Once again Boxer's form declined and fans were worried that they had seen the last of him - of course Boxer is a far superior player to that. Boxer once again redefined himself and adapted to the innovations of FD terran amongst other trends. Indeed, Boxer improved so remarkably that he once again returned to the OSL finals. After a remarkable OSL run in So1, including possibly the greatest comeback of all time against Pusan, he fell to Anytime in the final 2-3. Despite his total redefinition he couldn't muster a win. OGN believed that he would take the win, and arguably created to the Golden Mouse as an award for Boxer to win to make him seem like the best Starcraft gamer in existence. However, the plan backfired and obviously, Boxer lost.
Boxer after his comeback vs Pusan
With his military service looming on the horizon, Boxer picked up his game dramatically after a short decline and went on a rediculous 13-0 TvZ streak amongst other things. Shinhwa stopped Boxer in his last OSL run in Shinhan 1 OSL and then FireBatHero knocked Boxer out of his ODT group and OGN said goodbye to Boxer for a long time. In Pringles MSL, however, Boxer looked to be able to win the whole tournament after a ridiculously strong victory over Ra on Blitz in which Boxer showed that his macro was very much up to standard, and in fact was bloody scary. Boxer's MSL run was cut short, and was forced to join the military after the group stages were played out.
But then progaming threw Boxer a bone and created ACE - just in time for Boxer to join and make the team something amazing. Sadly, ACE will be the final nail in Boxer's coffin. Despite his brilliance and ability to adapt and redefine himself - this time the skill discrepancy is just too wide for him to catch up. Since Boxer has joined ACE his winrate has dropped to a substandard 40.32% (25-37) and noting that most teams opt to send out their B-Team's to dispatch of ACE, these figures are not reassuring.
The fundamental question here is what is stopping Boxer from coming back like he has done before and after maybe 6~ months return to tip-top shape. Well there are a number of forces at work here...
1) Mass influx of new gamers Since Boxer left for the Air Force, there has been a substantial change in the composition of proteams. Old gosus have faded away or retired and a mass of new energetic and hungry gamers have risen to take their place. Players like Best, Jaedong and Flash represent the youth of today in all their shining glory. The fact that most of the gamers on the top 30 are vastly different to 2 years ago clearly shows this if nothing else. In addition to the rise in youth gamers the competition has risen exponentially - even one off game these days is enough to send you home, and we have not seen a dominant figure in a long time as a consequence. These young gamers pose a serious threat to any comeback attempt Boxer will stage purely because of the intense competition and significantly higher skill level. This follows on nicely to...
2) The skill discrepancy between Boxer now and the average gamer is far greater than it has ever been since the start of Boxer's career What this essentially says is that Boxer has a huge amount of work to do to catch up to even the average 50% gamers of today. Before reinvention was easy, because Boxer was never below average for a gamer and was always a threat. Now any scrub has a decent shot at taking him down. If nothing else, Garimto's stunt proved that it's ridiculously hard for a gamer to make up a huge skill gap even with a significant amount of raw talent. This is one hurdle Boxer simply cannot jump.
3) The "Boxer" effect If by some miracle Boxer managed to return to ODT/Survivor the "Boxer" effect kicks in. Gamers instantly recognize that Boxer is their opponent and Boxer is synonymous with Starcraft genius. Hence gamers prepare harder to fight against Boxer than any normal gamer. This is partly due to his fame as Mr Stacraft and partly because of his traditional super high skill. This make any serious run extremely difficult because the gamers are better prepared than normal.
So what does Boxer have going in his favor? Well the simply answer is cheese. Boxer is the one gamer in all of Starcraft (aside from Ra) who can cheese and be called a genius. Any other gamer who cheeses in a similar fashion is looked down upon by the community. Don't beleive me? What about Flash vs Bisu on Monty Hall? That was a Boxer-esque cheese that everyone hated purely because Flash was "just another terran" at that point. Anyway, Boxer can still cheese - as he's proven throughout his time on ACE. But sadly, this isn't NATE OSL anymore and you can't cheese yourself to an OSL final. Even Boxer's biggest asset won't help him in ascending the individual leagues.
Basically, in light of all of this it is not unfair to conclude that Boxer will have a steep learning curve to get back up to speed - one which he probably won't be able to scale. However, Boxer has one important aspect about him which gives him a chance in Progaming - his charisma and role as a mentor. Boxer is the mentor figure and knows how to inspire a team to victory. He got ACE from #12 -> #11. He trained Oov into a monster. He performed the Proleague Grand Slam in 2005 by winning Round 1, Round 2 AND the Grand Final. Upon his departure the team fell apart which can't just be a coincidence. Boxer's Progaming future lies within a Mentor position within the team, a "player-coach" or "coach" if you will.
Although the thought of Boxer in an OSL finals gives me wet dreams at night, realistically it's never going to happen. He's never going to get to that Golden Mouse. Boxer will forever be "just another Terran" for the rest of his career thanks to the enormous setback ACE has had on his career. Boxer's career as a progamer after ACE is for the large part over. He'll pop up in Proleague from time to time - but will never advance out of his preliminary group. This is the sad truth.
I love you Boxer, but it's time so hang up your mouse.
Back in 2005/6 I had a really good Korean friend named Lee who used the alias Mura[Sharky]. You may know him better as the guy who designed Legacy of Char. Anyway, we gamed frequently and talked a lot and then one day in early March he started swearing to me repeatedly on MSN. I said “whats wrong Lee?” to which he simply replied “I’m being called up for military service T_T!” We counted down the days together, gamed for the last time, then said our goodbyes – not knowing the next time we would speak. In June 2006 my friend Lee entered the military to complete his mandatory military service.
Every Korean male dreads military service. For many it spells the end of a phase of your life, the end of your adolescence. After you come out you’re a man, and expected to pick up on your life as a fully grown up and matured adult. The time for youthful antics is now long gone. For progamers prior to 2006 military service spelt the end of your career, a depressing but very real fact. With Boxer’s military service enviably approaching the entire progaming world was worried about what would happen. But then something miraculous happened.
On the 21st of March 2006 the Korea Times reported that they were planning to form a progaming unit within their ranks. The purpose of these progamers being given a position within the Air Force was that their skills on the computer could be used to aid the military in their efforts. The dream became a reality as they actively went about recruited 5 members for their newly formed team. The first three were recruited fairly quickly; H.O.T-Forever, Clon and ChRh became the first members of the unnamed Air Force Team shortly after the announcement. Later on in the year Mumyung and Boxer joined the team, making the 5 gamers the team required to enter Proleauge. The following season the team was named “ACE” and the veterans returned to the stage to do battle against the more youthful teams in Shinhan Bank Proleauge 2007 Season 1.
With the conception of ACE progamers were given a way of extended their use by dates and no longer needed to fear military service. ACE placed last in both 2007 Proleague seasons and the original five were quickly doubled to 10. Despite placing last they still kept a strong fan base, but more importantly were able to steal the odd win; like being able to 3-2 MBCGame in season 1.
Something miraculous happened in the 2008 season. Despite being a team of on the verge of retiring gamers they finished 11th out of 12. For most teams this is a shameful result, but for ACE, it’s a miracle and a huge accomplishment. However with the end of the 2008 season comes a very strange time for the team. Their first recruits are going home.
Hot, Clon and ChRh will all have completed their military service before the start of the next Proleauge and they will be free to leave. Boxer and Mumyung will have completed their duties soon as well, in fact Boxer finishes in November. But the important question is; what is life going to be like for these retired gamers coming home from the military?
H.O.T.-Forever
Surprisingly, it is the gamer that never played a single 1v1 match in his time in ACE who has the most certain future of the returning gamers. Hot entered the Air Force from Hanbit in February 2006 and it was not long before he was snatched up in the Air Force’s progaming schemes. Having posted very few results in a long time, Hot was not the most skilled gamer in the world – but he was very experienced. He was given the role of “Player-Coach” on the team because of his longevity.
His battlefield was not the glorious field of 1v1 but rather the complex struggle of team play. Hot made a name for himself as half of the most feared 2v2 team in existence; the lethal Reach/Hot combination which was only ever matched by Sigamari/Rainbow. It was only natural that Hot be assigned the team play duties within the team. Hot played 20 games during his stay, and sadly lost most of them. By 2008 he was fazed out of 2v2 play all together and all his efforts were concentrated on coaching the team.
It was only natural that Hot was offered the job of coach once he was ready to leave. For Hot, ending his military service means a relatively secure job in e-Sports working with some of the biggest names in Starcraft history. With an influx of new talent on the way, Hot will in a charge of turning them into a functioning team which hopefully can build upon 2008’s success. Hot has a bright future ahead of him, and will serve ACE well.
ChRh
ChRh’s stay on ACE has been unique to say the least. ChRh suffered a rather serious wrist injury and took leave from progaming to recover. During his time off in 2005 he took a visit up to Canada amongst other things. However it was not long before he rejoined Khan in late 05 and subsequently received his letter for military service. By this stage ChRh’s play was sloppy and much of his former skill had been lost in his time off. Nevertheless, the Air Force invited him to join the progaming program and he accepted.
In May 2007 ChRh won his first Proleague for ACE against none other than Bisu. It was a game that brought progaming to a stand still and shocked everyone. Bisu, without doubt the best player in the world at that point, lost to ChRh, possibly the worst progamer in all of progaming. In beating Bisu, ChRh broke his 1042 day losing streak and earned the daily MVP award. It was a momentous occasion that meant so much to ChRh, you could see his elation in his eyes after the game.
But sadly, ChRh has probably played his last game of professional Starcraft. Unlike Hot who has a security blanket of a coaching job, ChRh has nothing to fall back on and will leave the army a free man. In all seriousness there is no progaming team that would hire ChRh with his weak wrists and lack of skill. For the second time in his career ChRh will have to hang up his coat; but this time he must enter a world without e-Sports. ACE gave ChRh a chance to play Starcraft again, and for his games to mean something. Now with ACE taken away from him, he has nothing and now must enter the real world; ending his e-Sports career.
Clon
Clon is a true gamer and has done immensely well on ACE. Clon retired in December 2005 after losing in Survivor 0-2 to Hwasin. In his farewell speech he simply said that his motivation for playing the game was “I just wanted to play Starcraft”. He never wanted to aspire to anything big, he simply wanted to play the game he loved so much. After retiring he had the simple ambition of completing his military service then returning to his studies. Ironically, entering the military service would give him some of the best results in his career.
Upon being offered the position in ACE, Clon snapped it up eager to get back into the one thing he loved beyond all else. It was a tough road though and was initially used by ACE as a 1v1 player. Early on in the second half of 2007, Clon’s position in the team changed, and assumed the 2v2 duties that Hot could not fulfill. Clon found immediate success. He paired with Daezang and Rage primarily and went 9-9 throughout the season. He produced some amazing games on Hwangsanbul which gave fans hope of Ace climbing the ranks.
In 2008 Clon paired Foru and ended up the most successful 2v2 team out of all the progaming teams. ACE’s 2v2 team was feared amongst the likes of JiHyun/TT and Yarnc/Zeus. For two “washed up veterans” they put on an amazing show and were integral to ACE’s brilliant performance over the season.
What’s so sad about Clon is that he has retired already, declaring his intent to study, meaning his 2v2 talents will go to waste. In a world where the future of 2v2 games is uncertain, Clon may not be the most attractive investment for a team. But if team games were to stay, Clon’s undeniable talent will probably be overlooked by many teams once he walks out the door. Hanbit, Clon’s former team, would be wise to invest in him to bolster their 2v2 lineup. But will it happen?
Upon leaving ACE, Clon will leave behind the magic he created during his stay. He will become just another face in the crowd. And that is a very depressing thought. Hot, ChRh and Clon are the first set of gamers to return from ACE. They return to a world where their progaming career is essentially over. If they had been playing in any other team they would never have been playing on TV as they would be on the B team. ACE was special; it gave them a chance to show off their skills one last time for their fans. Now that the journey is over things are abruptly set back to normal. While these three are the first, Boxer and Mumyung will follow soon after. Boxer, of course, has nothing to worry about due to his fame and contract with SKT1. Mumyung on the other hand is in the same boat as Clon/ChRh/Hot. Foru and Rage will also abide by a similar fate.
In coming home they are leaving behind a team that will become legendary. For just one moment, a bunch of retired gamers came together and made something beautiful happen. That thing was ACE. Now that they are off home it’s all over, and reality will set in hard.
Progaming is a fairly tale, and in this fairy tale the members of ACE will never get their happy ending. Their prize for their service is just a ticket home and an escape from progaming, and somehow I just don’t think that’s enough. P.S if you like this, let me know and ill post it in broodwar as well
Every so often we are gifted with inspiring play by young talent. Sometimes it is on the big stage, such as Sea's epic game against Goodfriend on old Peaks, other times its in the mass of games from proleague. While this game was noticed by TL - it is a year later and it warrants a revival.
Eh? Who is this guy?
We all know that Stork was one of the best proleague players last season. Indeed he was award MVP for Season 1 and was considered by all a monster. His PvT was undoubtedly one of the strongest PvT's in the world. Only a select few Terrans could even come close to touching Stork. Leading up to today's game, Stork was on an 8-0 Terran streak - fairly impressive.
However a young Terran stood against him in this time of superiority. He played the game of his life, and showcased the talent that he would one day bring to world over a eyar later. This young Terran was none other than Sea.Leta
Today's game speaks for itself - it is a high action, harass intensive, brilliant piece of art. Not watching this game would simply be a travesty.
Personally, as a avid Protoss fan i love it nothing more than to see a plethora of Recalls rain down from the sky and wreck havoc amongst the Terran (or Zerg) base. Of all gamers, PuSan is perhaps the most avid recaller of the lot. In 2007 he demonstrated that he was not afraid to tackle the sunk/spore/lurk defense with Recall against Calm on Tau. He also showed that he preferred to use Arbiters on Katrina - a decision which influenced a developing BeSt and indeed the future PvT's of Bisu.
This particular game occurred in the series between MBC and KTF on 14/10/07. I wrote a rather lengthy BR - which got 8 comments and 300~ views. Rather depressing. Thus i have tried to salvage it by blogging it. And thus, here is the BR of a particular Proleague encounter which includes a game with perhaps the most recalls ever in a single televised game.... (skip to the bottom if you just wanna watch the vod )
MBCGame Hero
The year 2006 saw MBC turn from "just another average team" into something phenomenal. All of a sudden, MBC players were flooding the leagues with talent - namely "the big 5" Bisu, July, Sea, Pusan and Light. After reaching the Playoffs for Proleague Season 1 2006 with some beautiful planning and strategy, they were denied 1st from a strong SKT side. However, MBC continued to dominate through Season 2, and were crowned champions of Season 2. In the grand finals, they defeated SK Telecom T1 and won it all earning the title "Best Team in 2006".
Coaches Kim Hyukseop and Park Yongwoon after their side won the championship
2007 Started strongly for the side, and they preformed well. However, they were stopped by the rising Lecaf in the semi-final of Season 1. The off season yeidled a win over OGN in the Game Channel derby, and a narrow loss to STX Soul aka Hwasin. Also, Bisu had developed into a 2 time MSL champion and was reigning number 1 on KeSPA. But something was missing in season 2, and indeed most of season one.
The missing link
Due do contract issues, July requested to be put on a waiver - releasing him from MBC. Shortly, T1 picked up the Sumo and added some serious weight to their Zerg lineup. Things inside the MBC camp are not great at this moment - their Season 2 results have been... terrible? horrendous? Disappointing? lets just leave it at bad. despite packing a fearsome lineup of Pusan/Sea/Bisu/Light + TheZerg/910/Saint/Jaehoon results thus far have been: 0-3 vs Samsung KHAN 1-3 vs CJ Entus 3-2 vs WeMade FOX 0-3 vs Hanbit Stars
To top it off, their loss against hanbit had them posting their premiere lineup of Bisu/Sea/TheZerg+Jaehoon/Light. A 0-3 loss comes at a complete shock to everyone - to MBC and indeed teamliquid!
What the fuck just happened? (After 0-3 loss to Hanbit)
Yes, MBC are far from there former glory now...
KTF MagicNs
There once was a time when KTF was capable of boasting a lineup of Yellow, Nal_ra, Reach, TheMarine, Goodfriend, Chojja ... the list goes on. The were the rivals of the ever-dominant SKT1. However, those days are long gone. With TheMarine preforming commentary, Yellow being addicted to Poker, Chojja and Goodfriend in huge slumps - to the point where they have been demoted to Online Practice Partner - whats up with KTF?
Well, here's the new story, theyre back - and a good as ever. Shedding the sagging skin of the old generation, KTF have emerged as a young Butterfly. Under the captaincy of GARIMTO, their new players are reaching phenominal heights. Their new lineup include; Flash, Lucifer, Haran, Hery, 815, Hazin, and the 2v2 combo - Reach/ZergBoy - not to mention the ever faithful Nal_ra.
Yes the glory days may be gone for KTF, but they are working their way up from the smoldering ashes of their last proleague effort. Their performance thus far? Good, and as the young side develops under GARIMTO's wise guidance, they are just getting stronger. This results; 3-2 vs Air Force ACE 3-2 vs eSTRO 3-1 vs CJ Entus You simply cannot complain.
October the 14th 2007
MBC - a team trying to regain its 2006 success, pitted against the rising phoenix - KTF in a brutal first to 3 match. The lineups? Light < Un'Goro Crater > Haran Pusan < Katrina > Flash Saint[z-zone]/Bisu < Seongangil > Reach/ZergBOy Sea < Monty Hall SE > Hery Ace Match < Blue Storm >
MBC's picks are reminiscent of their old days, where Bisu/Saint was the preferred 2v2 team. With Bisu's poor 1v1 performance in PL, this probably was a smart move. Otherwise, MBC is sending their best for this match in an effort to turn things around.
Team Huddle for MBC
KTF has sent a relatively predictable lineup - bar haran. Their sturdy 2v2 team of Reach/Zergboy have preformed well for a long time now, and are one of the better 2v2 teams out there. While Flash, the TvP killer, has been matched with a protoss who hasn't posted strong PvT results. Haran is a bit of a wildcard, he's got reletively little experience but if he's here - KTF has confidence in him.
KTF are ready to kick some ass
Lets see how it went down
Light vs Haran @ Un'Goro Crater Let the games begin
Light, the heavy favourite, sets up camp at 4 while Haran morphs in at 10 - a cross position fight. Light sends out his 5th SCV declaring his confidence in cheesing Haran. Haran's scouting lord however, runs into Light's SCV at 12 and effectively nulls any cheese attempt by Light with a 12pool. Light accepts a minor set back and builds standard in his main.
Lights SCV scout proves to be a bother for Haran, and Light denies haran an expo and nearly kills the expo drone. Nevertheless, Haran does manage to force his hatch down. Haran's lings hatch and hunt down Light's troublesome SCV. Meanwhile, Light has gone 2rax and a scouting party of rine exits and chases away Haran's lings. Light then proceeds to expand while Haran techs lair and adds a sunk while his third hatch is building.
Some early skirmishes between lings/rines occur with no casualties on both sides. Haran gets an early evo chamber and once his lair is done - adds a spire. Light's threat of pressure forces 2 more sunks from haran to make a total of 3. As scouting lings reveal more troops outside - haran plays it safe with a 4th sunk. Meanwhile Light adds a factory and sends his troops to check for hidden expos.
Haran's muting hatch, and they depart to harass light. Haran takes everyone by surprise and adds a Queens nest, and tech hive.
Queen's Nest? What could this mean Haran's harass deals minimal damage at first volley, and is chased around by Light's MM force. Haran adds a 4th hatch in main, and stalls any advance from Light - who now has a formidable MM force. Haran adds 2 more sunks, and has amassed a large number of lings which attack light's natural while light's army is about to raid Haran's nat. Light concedes, and returns his army back to base. Haran's forces run amok in Light's base.
While the Light is away, Haran will play
Meanwhile, while Haran is running around in Light's main - he adds an expansion at 6 and an Ultralisk cavern in his main. Light's forces finally get home and prevent any more damage. Light has discovered Haran's expo with a scouting party of rines - which are quickly cut down by Lings. Haran expands again to 7 while Light moves out with his blob. Haran's first ultra's pop while Lights first sci vessel pops. Using a Nydus canal - he transports his Ultralisks to 6 and flanks Light's army.
Clever nydus usage results in blood
Light has decided that the best way to exact revenge, is to start dropping Haran. His first dropship narrowly avoids running into some scourges at 6 before heading north. Meanwhile Haran's utlra army is growing. Light drops Haran's main where an awaiting ultralisk/ling force force light to retreat. A second drop is stopped by Haran at 7 and the Main drop is repelled again by ultras. Light decides its time to move out again, and a new blob enters the crater.
Haran in this time has linked all his bases together with nydus and added a defiler mound and expands to 6 nat. Both sides add units to their respective armies as each player attempts to judge when and how to engage. Light also exapands to 1 and Haran to 11. Light moves towards the forces of Haran - who now has a defiler - and an engagement is inevitable.
Let me take this opportunity to irradiate you
Cleverly, Light retreats up back onto his hill giving him a valuable chokepoint which he can work around. Haran charges full speed ahead only to receive a volley of irradiation from Light's vessels. Haran retreats - unable to crack light's hill. Lights blob heads towards 6nat where it meets some ultralisks and swarm. Light looks like he's about to crack harans defence when millions of ultra and ling force light to think twice about proceeding.
Go home!
Light presses forward once more, but once again is repelled by ultralisks and lings.
I said go home!
As light's blob dies to Kaiser Blades, Haran turns his attention to lights 1 expansion. A few ultra take the position, but only one remains - and he's irradiated.
Ohnoes
Yes, those SCVS don't last too long - and the ultra lives to rape the rest of the survivors. After utlra/swarm rape the remnants of Light's army - light concedes for the final time and calls gg.
MBC 0-1 KTF
What happened? Once Light got to two base, and Haran started teching Hive, Light really didn't do anything. Once he tried to move out, Haran cleverly snunk in and pulled light back. That being said Haran was never in any position to attack Light until his ultras arrived, up until then he could only counter attack. His strategy was dependent on light not figuring out what he was doing and playing a standard macro game. Towards the end of the game, Light let Haran get leaps and bounds ahead of him in the expansion department and his third came too late - which was painfully evident as the game dragged on. In short, lack of scouting by Light or lack of reacting on Haran's strat combined with late game eco failure lost it for him.
Pusan vs Flash @ Katrina The last time these two met Flash raped Pusan on Geometry
So Pusan warps in at 9 while Flash starts construction at 6. Both players open standardly for this map - Pusan with a 14 CC into Gate/Gas and Flash with a 14CC into an early bunker and a factory. Pusan adds a second gate and Flash follows suit by adding a second Fac. Pusan decides he will go templar teching and starts a citadel, followed by a templar archives. Then Pusan starts a stargate - arbiters are on the way :D. Flash on the other hand continues to play it standardly. Pusan has 2 dark templar which harass Flash - but can only get the bunker as flash has a turret and scan all ready for him. Pusan takes his center expansion and Flash declares his intention for a long game and adds a third CC. Flash moves out with his army - but is stalled by some dark templar buying pusan some much needed time. Flash makes a starport - for drop and floats his CC to his center expansion.
Meanwhile Pusan's first arbiter has popped out and idles over his stargate. Pusan then takes his 4th expansion - the min only of 12. And Flash drops pusan's nat with a tank and 2 vultures. THe drop scores multiple probe kills. Angered over the merciless slaughter of his defenceless probes, Pusan counters with...
RRREEECCALLLLLL
The recall kills a handful of scvs and a couple of tank/vult and force flash to run his scvs. The recall doesn't quite kill the CC - but manages to clear a path for escape for the arbiter. Pusan expands to 11 and a 2nd arbiter takes flight. On it's way to Flash's nat - it is scouted by a dropship. Once out of sight, the arbiter changes trajectory and heads for Flash's center expansion. Where...
Another Recall
This recall deals some damage - killing tanks and some SCVS but not the CC. Flash counter drops 11, but some zealots deal to it before it can deal any damage. Flash returns his scvs to his center expansion and fortifies it with tanks. A third arbiter is out, and heads towards Flashs main. Flash moves his army once scouting it, but the arbiter goes home... or so it seems - quickly after it returns to warp in;
Flash's army in continually on the move responding to these recalls
While dealing little damage, it still got some SCV kills and forced Flash to move his metal army around to react to it. Flash, in response immediately heads north towards Pusan's center expo. A brief skirmish occurs, and Pusan retreats allowing Flash to siege his center Nat. Flash heads towards 11 with a dropship and unleashes some tanks while pounding at Pusans expo. The remaining zealots cant defend - so Pusan freezes the tanks.
Waiting to die
Pusan then responds to the slaughter of his expo by...
BOOM!
Pusan's recall is raped by the mines Flash has planted - but a templar and 3 zealots survive to score a handful of SCV deaths. Flash intercepts some probes maynarding to Pusans warping expansion at 12. The vultures are soon stopped however. Pusan also decides to expand to the 12 center nat. An eerie silence occurs - which is shortly broken by Flash dropping pusan's nat with a tank/2vult - which does minor damage. Flash moves north with his blob of metal into the center of the map, and then towards the north entrance to pusan's center nat. Pusan's army gives chase, and just as flash sets up - Pusan swarms him from all sides and with some good stasis - he emerges as the victor.
Stasis is a pretty useful tool isnt it?
Pusan doesn't let flash settle from his assault and immediately counters with...
You would think that all these recalls would have messed up space-time
Yes, another recall at Flash's center expo which forces flash to retreat scvs - losing a few on the way. The recall otherwise does minimal damage. Pusan finishes off the stasis'd tanks. Flash decides its time for him to shine, and drops pusan's nat with 2 dropships
This drop is a little more substantial
But pusan, not give Flash a morale boost from his little drop, counter recalls him at his center expo.
How would you feel if you were Flash right now?
The recall does some pretty hefty damage against the scv population and scores some tank kills. Flash angry that his first drop did not psychologically hurt pusan - re-drops him with 3 dropships - which finish of the nat nexus before being dispatched of.
] Back to finish the job
Pusan expands to 3 and Flash takes pusan's min only. Flash sends a vult raid towards Pusan's 12 center nat and scores some probe kills. Pusan, once again outraged at Flash's disrespect for his probes, demands blood for Flash's crimes.
The perfect way to get revenge - drop your opponents new expo!
Pusan recalls Flash's new expo, and scores many SCV kills. Meanwhile, pusan enters spirit mode and has atleast 18 gateways to Flash's 10 factories. Flash re-expands to Pusan's min only - this time with some tank support. Noticing this - Pusan reacts the only way he knows how...
This is just getting ridiculous
Pusan recalls Flash's nat once again, this time scoring major damage - killing scvs, buildings and tanks before being dispatched of. Pusan is also expanding to 1. Flash mounts an offensive north from his min only expo - heading towards the remains of pusan's center expo at 3. A final showdown ensures - and with some first class stasis and flanking Flash's soulless metal army is destroyed. Flash has no choice but to concede defeat - and gg's.
T_T ouch
MBC 1-1 KTF
What Happened? Pusan opened with a risky build, one which he has used before, and Flash was doomed the moment he committed himself to a third base. THe third base allowed pusan 2 places to harass (his nat and center expo) which is physically very distant - forcing troops to move back and forward. This stalled any advances Flash was going to mount and gave pusan time to expand himself and enter spirit mode. Flash could have done much more with his drops - it wasn't until much later where we saw some heavier drops - which did do the damage he needed a long time earlier. But overall Flash over committed himself and paid the price.
Bisu/Saint vs Reach/Zergboy @ Seongangil
The game starts and Bisu (teal) warps in at the top right, Saint (green) morphs at the bottom left expansion. KTF mirror MBC, and Reach (yellow) warps at the top left and Zergboy (red) at the bottom left. Both protosses open 1gate - core adding a second gate shortly after. Zergboy opens 12hatch in main, then hatch at nat before pooling and gassing, while saint simply 12 hatches at his nat and pools shortly after.
A short zealot/probe fight takes place between Bisu/Reach, before reach dashes forwards into bisu's minline and scores a probe kill before dying. Saint sends his first set of lings towards Zergboy - whos lings pop JUST in time to defend his base and force saint to retreat. Both zergs add sunks at their expos and reach adds a third gate. Saint starts his lair, while boy masses speedlings (still on hatch tech). Reach/Boy head towards bisu, and in an instant saint dashes up with his lings. The first major skirmish occurs -
Bisu is lucky
Saints lings arrive just in time to force reach/boy back. Boy counters saint - but cannot get far due to his sunking. Boy refuses to tech to lair, and lings hard still. Reach adds a forge, and boy a spore in anticipation of Saints muta - which kills a drone before being forced away. Reach and boy go at bisu once again, this time saint is already there and a 2nd battle commences. Reach/Boy execute a tricky flank - but bisu holds the highground and crushes the ling force before reach has effectively flank him.
Bisu holds the highground
The resulting casualties for reach are devastating - 3 goons survive from the attacking party. Boy sneaks some lings inside bisus main, but superb goon micro kills them without any damage. Bisu has a shuttle - and shuttles some goons up onto the highground - killing one of boy's overlords. He then moves into position to stop reach from mining - and with some teamwork - Reach's econ is in bad shape.
Teamwork
Boy and Reach go allin at bisu and flank him once again - but bisu holds strong and once saint's mutas arrive its all over - and KTF concede.
The Final battle
What happened? Essentially, Reach/Zergboy gambled it all on taking down bisu hoping saint would invest too little in lings to save his ally or too late. The MBC team had some pretty good defence and held the high ground well. After the first attack by KTF failed - the game was a slippery slope for them - Zergboy was way behind in tech - which resulted in them going all out until they fizzled. Bisu's defence is to be applauded this game.
Sea vs Hery @ Monty Hall It all comes down to this for KTF
It came down to this for KTF - win and go to an Ace match, lose and go home. The fate of the match rests on Hery's shoulders. Sea opened at 5 (purple) while Hery opened at 11 (orange). Sea opted for a Fast CC build into the top lane, while Hery opted for the classic rax first. Hery then jumped the top lane min wall and began constructing a factory in that lane - lucky guess. Sea's expansion completes - and scvs maynard in and one goes off to scout. Hery decides to expand after his factory is done. A cute vulture/scv moment then occurs with Sea's scouting scv - the scv and vulture tried to move past each other, but was denied twice .
A cute stalling manoeuvre by Sea
Sea immediately starts a bunker upon discovering the vult and a short scv/vulture fight occurs - but the bunk finishes before significant damage can be dealt. The vulture attempts to enter sea's base once again - but is stopped by a scv wall. Sea now has a big eco advantage - but hery has a tank rolling down towards sea's exp - but sea's first tank just hopped off the production line - so hery's tank poses no threat. Sea decides to move out with 2tank/vult/4rine against Hery's 3 tanks. Hery lands his rax in the opening of Sea's minwall to prevent reinforcements to his attack. Sea then sets up camp close to Hery's nat. Sea starts his 3rd CC near the mid lane and Hery sieges up to create a nomansland between him and sea. But sea decides to go home and defend at home - because he is investing in a 3rd cc. Hery's army remains stationary, but it does indeed grow bigger and Hery's first wraith pops out. Sea creates a FOURTH CC at the left lane - signaling to us that he is very confident right now. Hery takes his 3rd in the top lane, while the wraith kills sea's floating barracks.
Sea discovers hery's 3rd base and stalls it by killing the building scv before hery's army arrives. Hery declares his agressive intent - and move down the top lane towards Sea. Sea attacks Hery's line in the middle of the map
Sea's army just rolls on
Hery's macro disadvantage becomes painfully clear when sea's non-sieged army demolishes Hery's sieged army. Giving him a firm upperhand. Hery has 2 dropships - which insted of attacking, are forced to defend Hery's third expansion. Hery has moved forces down the bottom lane to stop Sea's 4th expansion - but sea has forces there preventing Hery from doing any more damage at the bottom lane. Meanwhile sea blasts on ahead seizing Hery's third - Goliath fire finishes off the CC.
Sea takes his bottom lane expo, and hery's 2 dropships patrol the map looking for weakness - of which there is none. Hery takes his expo in the bottom lane as sea's fac count is extended to 9, while Hery's is only 4. 3 dropships head towards Sea's expo in the middle lane with ground support - but he ferries them over the divide into the top lane and begins to attack Sea's nat. Sea has three dships of his own - and they blitz Hery's newly created midlane expo and force him to lift. Sea prevents hery expanding to the top right expo by landing his barracks there - must to the annoyance of Hery. Sea concentrates his efforts on the mid like and sends a strong attack.
Those Dships are about to unload tanks
Sea easily takes the expo, with the aid of some dropships - and starts a 5th CC. Hery's dships and ground forces concentrate on the expo-less top lane, and kill some of sea's forces but can't enter the main. Hery's dropship mass then attacks Sea's middle expo - scoring many kills but is stopped by Sea's army. Hery's dships then run straight into sea's goliaths - the result? All but 1 die. Hery then launches an attack down the bottom lane - so sea reveals to us his macro and a mass of tanks counters up the bottom lane - destroying Hery's army.
Sea's mass of tanks soon destroy everything Hery has
Sea now has total map control with conglomerates of tanks stationed at ever lane. Sea sends 5 dropships towards hery destroying his last line of defence.
Hery's forces are falling like flies
Hery, retreats to within his base - traumatized by the rape sea is giving him. Hery drops the conglomerate of tanks at the top lane - killing them all. Sea doesn't care, he has this game - and his 5 dropships and mass of units prove it by storming hery's main via the top lane.
The 'g' key must be missing from Hery's keyboard
Shortly after his army is destroyed, Hery does infact find the 'g' key and concede defeat.
MBC 3-1 KTF.
What Happened Sea won the battle of the build orders with his CC before Rax, and had the large eco advantage. This just kept mounting as sea added expo after expo. Hery reacted decently, pushing sea out of his top lane expo but by then it was too little too late - sea had the macro advantage he needed to power on ahead. What he needed to do was come at sea ealier, maybe be foregoing his first expo in favour of pressure or stalling the third/fourth cc's of sea as opposed to enter a macro war by taking a third base against a player who already has the macro advantage over you. And as the game dragged on, Hery was always going to be the loser.
The Victors
Summary
At the end of the day, only the score remains - 3-1 to MBC. Light vs Haran was a good watch if you like late game zerg or sexy nydus usage or you need evidence that Ultralisks are imbalanced. I'd rate it 3.5/5. Pusan vs Flash reminded me why I am a Pusan fan, the copious amount of Arbiter usage made it a game of pure sex. I'd rate it 4.5/5. The 2v2 was short and intense and showed some great defence by bisu, although, i felt the KTF effort lacking somewhat. I'd rate it 3/5. Sea vs Hery was too drawn out for my liking. Sea had some pretty cute moves throughout, which was nice, but overall it was a one sided rape. I'd give it 3/5.
How will MBC continue after their victory? They've posted almost an identical lineup for their next match - so here's hoping they continue their success. KTF shouldn't be too upset over their loss. Their 2v2 needs to get back into the dominant form they were in awhile ago, else they should be quite happy - except flash who will have nightmares for weeks.
Lol if you've made it this far, well done and congrats. Now for the game of interest PuSan vs Flash from Katrina!! And seriously, a game worth the watch if you are a fan of recalls ! The rest of these games are available via TLPD if you are interested
It's not that im running out of material, its that VODs from YellOw's prime are in serious obscurity. This is an obvious problem but one which i cannot solve because I'm not Live2Win with a massive VOD collection. Alas, this will probably be the last blog specifically dedicated to yellow. Atleast I'll go out with a bang First up is the secret behind Yellow's victory in the Snickers All-Star tournament.
After that masterful performance, we will dip into one of the sorry chapters of Yellow's life. With YellOw on the resurgence, fans everywhere were amped for what would be the definitive Lim-Jin standoff. Of course, I am talking about the EVER 2004 Semifinal. This is perhaps one of the most famous series, and if you haven't seen it - you simply must watch it now.
YellOw is only a human Zerg, and when Boxer came prepared with "the ultimate" cheese he was blown out of the water. Fortunately he was able to win snickers the following year, but alas the pain was very real. In the words of Jin Ho;
I'm too sorry to see the faces of my teammates and coach so I came to a PC bang..
I am so sorry to my fans and can't see the faces of the people I know..I don't know what to do..
I promised myself over and over again that I would show my fans the results of my overwhelming practice, but I didn't show anything and just loose 3:0..Now my mind is just blank
As a pro I must study all the strats and builds of the other player but in order to win I had no choice but to do the strats I chose..I am so angry at myself for not finding an answer to counter the Terran's strat.
In order for Zerg to have a chance, zerg must do nat hatchery first and then go spawning..its very hard for Zerg to win by going spawning first..SO I wished plese be diagonal positions..but I am ashamed of myself for relying on luck rather than skill at the beginning of the game..
I am destined to play a lot more but today's shock will never be forgotten. Until now I have fought a lot of terrans and whenever I was in disadvantage I knew what I did wrong to make that situation. And I blamed myself for making those wrong decisions..
But today..
I am thinking that Terran has an advantage in Starcraft and their units are too good. T-T I think I have much more to practice..for being so unlucky..T-T;;..God has abandoned meT-T
Ah~I wanna cry. Being a professional and blaming the game for my losses..I feel so ashamed and am about to go crazy.
Today I wasn't Hong Jin Ho, Today I wasn't Storm zerg Today.. Today I was just a zerg. Zerg... T-T Ahhh~~
My fan site cafe is really chaotic right now.. I wish it will come back to its original "Jin Ho cafe" I sometimes want to be a fighter too.. Stupid Zerg!! That's all I have to say..always be happy.
very moving
To close off the blog post i will post the "best" games of Yellow from the MBC network - ironically one of the games i posted earlier is the first game . However there are two more - Yellow vs Stork on RH2 and Yellow vs Control on RH2; both brilliant displays of JinHo superiority. So if you haven't seen this before then my suggestion is that you watch and enjoy.
With nothing left to say about this titan of Brood War i can only leave you with a simple image;
so here's a small history lesson. TheWinD was one of the great Gosu zergs of a the poor zerg era. Although he never won anything (like any Zerg) he could still strike fear into the hearts of his opponents. At his prime you could put him on par with the likes of Junwi, Chojja and JJu. TheWind was a pillar of the all-zerg Soul era as well. Child was voted worst player of 2006 by TL by qualifying for every OSL that year and failing 0-3 each time, or something like that. Child's since dropped off the radar. ggon used to be one of the only random players left in the scene, but then he switched to Protoss i beleive and kinda sucked at it and dropped off the scene. I think MBC picked him up for awhile, or POS sold him to khan. Can't remember exactly. ZergLee is the old ID of Sigamari, enough said. TT is the same as the perennial protoss 2v2 player from Khan today! Mansa[ok] is actually one of Stork's many old IDs - so this is a young 17 year old Stork going at it!
)
]
very moving
