Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Star Shaped Trophies
Once the best Zerg in the world, Lee "Life" Seung Hyun now fights to regain his title as the one true Overlord. Can a triumph in Romania turn things around?
by CosmicSpiral
Streaks are a staple of competitive play. A flurry of wins can come from the simplest factors: a good night’s sleep against a weak bracket, a series of miniscule errors that happen to favor one side, or the payoff of meticulous preparation and hard work. A streak can indicate the beginning of a great career, the discovery of a strategy no one has figured out, or sometimes just pure, dumb luck. Similarly a series of losses can invite all types of dubious speculation. Do Symbol’s recent woes mean he is washed up, or is he struggling to accept the uncertain future of his team? Is Fantasy forever hindered by his love of Brood War, or does he just need more time to adjust? How bad can Parting’s PvZ get before we write him off as a hopeless wreck?
Such questions are rapidly becoming the norm whenever Startale_Life enters a tournament. Six months ago, any trip to Europe would have been regarded as a free trophy to put on his mantle. At that point Life was all but unstoppable, only showing a slight weakness in the mirror matchup that hampered his progress in Code S. It seemed like every month he was winning another major tournament and defying the laws of SC2 in the process. Parting’s Soul Train was impossible for most Zergs to hold until Life brushed it aside in the finals of the Blizzard Cup. In the Iron Squid II finals he completed the first reverse-sweep in an SC2 major falling behind 0 - 3 to DongRaeGu in the first three games of the grand finals. Even the prospect of racial imbalance didn’t bother Life as he slogged through Terran after Terran to win MLG Dallas right after the release of Heart of the Swarm. Top pros like Bomber and Stephano had claimed that TvZ was so blatantly in favor of T that the matchup needed to be fixed; Life showed that muta/ling/bane could answer every problem with near-perfect control and positioning. He and Soulkey looked like the only Zergs who had properly transitioned to HotS while retaining their unmistakable flair. It was only natural to assume the gravy train would keep rolling.
Now, he arrives at DreamHack Bucharest as an unmistakable underdog. After a bitterly disappointing GSL Ro16 appearance and a shocking loss to Sjow at Dreamhack Summer, his scorching run came to a complete halt and has given way to a worrying patchiness. Since the aforementioned loss he has gone 5 - 11 in WCS, GSTL and OSL combined. Seven of those losses were a result of his ZvZ, which has become a liability that invokes dread in his fans whenever he has to play it. In the past he possessed the best ZvZ in the world and knew the match-up so intimately that he was regularly used as a sniper in team leagues; now he flails helplessly to make 10 pool ling/bane all-ins work on four player maps. If it was not for a 10 - 2 run against mid-tier foreigners in Sweden, his win-rate would be sub-50% overall. All of this has resulted in his rude dethroning as the King of Lings. Soulkey now rules the roost in Korea while Jaedong lays waste the West in order to shake off the Kong mantle. Life has even been eclipsed by the likes of old veterans like DongRaegu, KangHo, and Symbol as they have at least kept the form required to stay in the Premier League.
But if Life is in a slump, it’s one of the mildest ones in SC2 history. It’s a testament to our expectations that a slumping player can win an all-star online tournament (the player list alone should qualify the Ritmix RSL as a "major") and have a 56% win-rate after his embarrassment at DH Summer. And while his ZvZ is what the British would call “bollocks”, there’s no worry about his other matchups…yet. His ZvT and ZvP remain fairly robust at 69% and 73% win-rates respectively. Even after Dreamhack the small number of games reflects some measure of continuity: he is 6 - 3 in ZvT series and 14 - 8 in sets while 4 - 2 in ZvP series and 7 - 4 in sets. The biggest anomaly during this time was an odd 0 - 2 loss to Samsung_eMotion in the IEM KR Qualifier, a slightly forgivable offense considering eMotion reached the finals of his bracket by beating other notable players like Yoda and Classic. Overall, Life could be doing better but that is quite different from a long period of poor play.
The crux of Life’s success has always been uncanny decision making at times when other players would be unable to think clearly. His mechanics and strategy were clearly excellent but there were many points where he was evenly matched or outdone during a significant portion of a series: Mvp at the Code S Finals, Leenock at MLG Raleigh, DRG at Iron Squid II, PartinG at the Blizzard Cup. Those who remember the aforementioned finals will notice another trend. With the exception of his last championship at MLG Dallas against Flash, Life has always won tournaments while behind against the best competition in the world. For a newcomer to the top level he was remarkable nonplussed when defeat loomed. Rather than panicking at the prospect of defeat, he elected to make goofy faces or look like he was watching a bad Lifetime movie. Not only was Life able to maintain composure in such stressful situations, he also elected to take insane risks when he felt they were appropriate. How many players would gamble their hopes on a 10 pool or a backdoor attack when the enemy was knocking at the doorstep? Like Leenock, Life knew how to exploit tactics to take advantage of the slightest mistakes and never hesitated when the opportunity was clear.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to win this much. It just happened." Photo by Silverfire
So it’s now very weird to see Life regularly squandering advantages in games that he should have won. Going 2 - 2 in the most recent Up-and-Downs and failing to make it to Code S was heartbreaking to Life's fans, but the nature of the losses made it an even more bitter pill to swallow. Against soO, Life never had an overwhelming advantage, but had the opportunity to take an economic lead with a 3rd base after holding against a massive roach push. Instead he barely droned, allowed soO to get his own third up and running, and made a dubious transition into infestors that proved too little to hold the next push. The same theme occurred again against Byun. After holding a proxy reaper rush with almost no drone losses, Life failed to re-position his spine crawler correctly and lost a critical amount of workers to the next and final wave of attackers. His losses largely follow the same script: get a lead, hesitate to make the correct decision, proceed to lose the game.
In comparison, Life's ZvZ is different in that he will often throw the game without even ever getting ahead. Life was never fond of the mirror matchup in HotS and his lack of enjoyment seems to have developed into an active dislike. More than once he has tried and failed to end the game early with a 10 ling/bane all-in, a move that seems typical until you realize that he almost never attempted all-ins throughout his career. Besides 2 base nydus in ZvP during the summer of 2012, Life focused on aggressive builds that were disruptive yet could serve as the prelude to a regular macro game. His 10 pool opener in ZvT was terrifying because even if it failed he could recover and take the game anyway; the same applied to his ZvT speedling timing as well as his ZvZ 3 base roach roach timing with +1 attack. His reluctance to switch tech when he has the economic advantage has also be a setback when the opponent takes a risk and does it himself. If it was not for that stubbornness Life would have beaten hyvaa in Challenger League and gotten back into Premier League for this season.
There is a chance, a very small one, that Life will be kissing his sixth trophy at the end of the weekend. Even with all the issues I listed he is good enough to reach the Round of 8 with a favorable bracket. His greatest problem at Dreamhack will be the parade of zergs waiting to greet him. Any of them could be the end of his journey and there is strong reason to believe several will be extra motivated. Jaedong is looking for any occasion to throw off the Kong mantle. After dropping out of WCS Korea so quickly, this is a do-or-die chance for Symbol to get into Blizzcon. Hyun would be very glad to be a two-time Dreamhack champion, and Nerchio would be equally happy to steal that honor for himself. Beyond the obvious lie additional dangers for Life. Flash and sOs are certain to make deep runs and be potential obstacles later on. Taeja may have enough summer left in him for one more great performance. MMA’s resurgence may be the predecessor to winning his first event in what seems like an eternity. Life's own underrated teammate Avenge is an intriguing wild card that could soar or crash in his first international tournament. Dayshi, Snute, Grubby and the rest of the European contingent will certainly be eager to defend their turf. And of course, no words are needed for Innovation.
Bucharest will test whether Life can recapture the old magic that allowed him to enthrall audiences and bewilder his opponents. Right now most of the ingredients are still there and he should be able to advance out of the second group stage purely through skill. However he cannot rely on it alone once he faces the competition that waits at the end of the road. The best players at Dreamhack are not striplings who will choke at the thought of facing him and they will certainly punish for every foolish reaction and misplaced unit. Now that he is so well versed in the arts of failure, Life should know that there is no point in trying to avoid a matchup or waver when the game is firmly in his control. His decisiveness was what made him a champion and what will make him a champion again. If Life recognizes this and shakes off that cloud of doubt, things will get quite interesting again.
I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
On September 14 2013 04:58 Zealously wrote: Cosmic stole this article from me
Stole the preview with Polt from Fionn during the regionals too!
As soon as I saw this in the sidebar I was sure you wrote it >_>
I hope we see a lot of ZvT out of Life at this DH. That mass-ling aggressive style Day9 went over that he did against Jjakji is intriguing, I wonder if he'll stick to it. You just see so few of Life's games these days.
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Three of which he has crazy good records against?
In HotS? Except for bomber and flash i do not think he has stompingly winning record against any of 'em in HotS (!) and Flash vs Life did not happen for half a year already.
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Three of which he has crazy good records against?
In HotS? Except for bomber i do not think he has stompingly winning record against any of 'em.
Life is at least 4-2 against Bomber and against Flash in HotS; don't know about Taeja.
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Three of which he has crazy good records against?
In HotS? Except for bomber i do not think he has stompingly winning record against any of 'em.
Life is at least 4-2 against Bomber and against Flash in HotS; don't know about Taeja.
Yeah, but now i only consider 4-2 vs Bomber legitimate and i will gladly see if this DH will keep Life's record vs Flash relevant.
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Three of which he has crazy good records against?
In HotS? Except for bomber i do not think he has stompingly winning record against any of 'em.
Life is at least 4-2 against Bomber and against Flash in HotS; don't know about Taeja.
+ an additional 2-1 in the Asian Indoor Tournament against Flash
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Three of which he has crazy good records against?
In HotS? Except for bomber i do not think he has stompingly winning record against any of 'em.
Life is at least 4-2 against Bomber and against Flash in HotS; don't know about Taeja.
+ an additional 2-1 in the Asian Indoor Tournament against Flash
With 1 macro game loss and 2 bane busts win against him.^_^
On September 14 2013 05:24 FrostedMiniWheats wrote:
On September 14 2013 05:22 Zealously wrote:
On September 14 2013 05:18 lolfail9001 wrote:
On September 14 2013 05:17 Zealously wrote:
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Three of which he has crazy good records against?
In HotS? Except for bomber i do not think he has stompingly winning record against any of 'em.
Life is at least 4-2 against Bomber and against Flash in HotS; don't know about Taeja.
+ an additional 2-1 in the Asian Indoor Tournament against Flash
With 1 macro game loss and 2 bane busts win against him.^_^
I was never really a fan of life, but seeing him drop from the best Zerg in the world to a "eh, hes ok" Zerg in just a few months makes me want to see him win something.
On September 14 2013 05:24 FrostedMiniWheats wrote:
On September 14 2013 05:22 Zealously wrote:
On September 14 2013 05:18 lolfail9001 wrote:
On September 14 2013 05:17 Zealously wrote:
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Three of which he has crazy good records against?
In HotS? Except for bomber i do not think he has stompingly winning record against any of 'em.
Life is at least 4-2 against Bomber and against Flash in HotS; don't know about Taeja.
+ an additional 2-1 in the Asian Indoor Tournament against Flash
With 1 macro game loss and 2 bane busts win against him.^_^
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Three of which he has crazy good records against?
In HotS? Except for bomber i do not think he has stompingly winning record against any of 'em.
Life is at least 4-2 against Bomber and against Flash in HotS; don't know about Taeja.
Pretty sure he didn't meet TaeJa in HotS. :o The funny thing is, I think TaeJa has the winning record for all of WoL (Maybe like 12-8), since he kept beating Life when TaeJa was being an online bonjwa - before Life began X-0ing TaeJa near the end. :p
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
He's not very far off his "old form" at the moment.
I don't know if it will be now or next month or only next year, but Life will have a resurgence. He's truely gifted - unlike other hyped players, which just run on a streak, he is one of the few who has the talent to be an all time great.
On September 14 2013 05:24 FrostedMiniWheats wrote:
On September 14 2013 05:22 Zealously wrote:
On September 14 2013 05:18 lolfail9001 wrote:
On September 14 2013 05:17 Zealously wrote:
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Three of which he has crazy good records against?
In HotS? Except for bomber i do not think he has stompingly winning record against any of 'em.
Life is at least 4-2 against Bomber and against Flash in HotS; don't know about Taeja.
+ an additional 2-1 in the Asian Indoor Tournament against Flash
With 1 macro game loss and 2 bane busts win against him.^_^
On September 14 2013 05:37 ElMeanYo wrote: It was fun watching this kid when he was winning everything. I think he was a Flash in the pan tho.
Life lost to Sjow in the last dreamhack. He lost to Snute in some tournament which name escapes me. This preview lists Grubby, Nerchio, Daishy, Snute as legit treats to Life's run.
Can you remember at least a single foreigner who ever was a legit treat to Flash in Broodwar? Thought so. Don't go around comparing mortals to God so lightly.
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
He's not very far off his "old form" at the moment.
tbh... he really isn't... Beside his ZvZ, which is just outright terrible right now. I'd say he's capable of beating ANYONE in ANY tournament - beside the Zerg.
On September 14 2013 05:37 ElMeanYo wrote: It was fun watching this kid when he was winning everything. I think he was a Flash in the pan tho.
Life lost to Sjow in the last dreamhack. He lost to Snute in some tournament which name escapes me. This preview lists Grubby, Nerchio, Daishy, Snute as legit treats to Life's run.
Can you remember at least a single foreigner who ever was a legit treat to Flash in Broodwar? Thought so. Don't go around comparing mortals to God so lightly.
Foreigner in BW? Not saying you are wrong but besides few odds like PJ beating Savior and Draco beating Midas and such this comparison has no basis even for an average a-teamers which generally owned foreigners by default.
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
He's not very far off his "old form" at the moment.
tbh... he really isn't... Beside his ZvZ, which is just outright terrible right now. I'd say he's capable of beating ANYONE in ANY tournament - beside the Zerg.
And losing to anyone in ANY tournament. I hope Life proves me wrong, because having a Prime terran represent youngsters in GSL is bad.
Life is probably not the best Zerg in the world, but can obviously compete for that position still. He's whole starcraft career lies ahead of him if he chooses to stick to it.
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
He's not very far off his "old form" at the moment.
tbh... he really isn't... Beside his ZvZ, which is just outright terrible right now. I'd say he's capable of beating ANYONE in ANY tournament - beside the Zerg.
And losing to anyone in ANY tournament. I hope Life proves me wrong, because having a Prime terran represent youngsters in GSL is bad.
Well, of course. But he looked quite decent lately as long as there were no Zerg in his way. He lost to players like eMotion or Byun, but you can't always win :-P The vast majority and especially the most painful of his losses lately have been in ZvZ (Sniper, soO, Soulkey, hyvaa, Kangho), or to put it this way: If his ZvZ would be on a par with his other matchups... well... he'd be in Code S and in a pretty good shape in every tournament he enters :-P
On September 14 2013 05:37 ElMeanYo wrote: It was fun watching this kid when he was winning everything. I think he was a Flash in the pan tho.
Life lost to Sjow in the last dreamhack. He lost to Snute in some tournament which name escapes me. This preview lists Grubby, Nerchio, Daishy, Snute as legit treats to Life's run.
Can you remember at least a single foreigner who ever was a legit treat to Flash in Broodwar? Thought so. Don't go around comparing mortals to God so lightly.
Foreigner in BW? Not saying you are wrong but besides few odds like PJ beating Savior and Draco beating Midas and such this comparison has no basis even for an average a-teamers which generally owned foreigners by default.
On September 14 2013 05:37 ElMeanYo wrote: It was fun watching this kid when he was winning everything. I think he was a Flash in the pan tho.
Life lost to Sjow in the last dreamhack. He lost to Snute in some tournament which name escapes me. This preview lists Grubby, Nerchio, Daishy, Snute as legit treats to Life's run.
Can you remember at least a single foreigner who ever was a legit treat to Flash in Broodwar? Thought so. Don't go around comparing mortals to God so lightly.
On September 14 2013 05:37 ElMeanYo wrote: It was fun watching this kid when he was winning everything. I think he was a Flash in the pan tho.
Life lost to Sjow in the last dreamhack. He lost to Snute in some tournament which name escapes me. This preview lists Grubby, Nerchio, Daishy, Snute as legit treats to Life's run.
Can you remember at least a single foreigner who ever was a legit treat to Flash in Broodwar? Thought so. Don't go around comparing mortals to God so lightly.
Foreigner in BW? Not saying you are wrong but besides few odds like PJ beating Savior and Draco beating Midas and such this comparison has no basis even for an average a-teamers which generally owned foreigners by default.
Replace foreigner with B-teamer/low a-teamer.
Replace foreigner with Hyuk. Answer is yes.
Not to say you are wrong but if we keep replacing enough, it may turn out Flash wasn't that special at all. I.e. replace 'broodwar' with 'sc2'
On September 14 2013 05:37 ElMeanYo wrote: It was fun watching this kid when he was winning everything. I think he was a Flash in the pan tho.
Life lost to Sjow in the last dreamhack. He lost to Snute in some tournament which name escapes me. This preview lists Grubby, Nerchio, Daishy, Snute as legit treats to Life's run.
Can you remember at least a single foreigner who ever was a legit treat to Flash in Broodwar? Thought so. Don't go around comparing mortals to God so lightly.
Foreigner in BW? Not saying you are wrong but besides few odds like PJ beating Savior and Draco beating Midas and such this comparison has no basis even for an average a-teamers which generally owned foreigners by default.
Replace foreigner with B-teamer/low a-teamer.
Replace foreigner with Hyuk. Answer is yes.
Not to say you are wrong but if we keep replacing enough, it may turn out Flash wasn't that special at all. I.e. replace 'broodwar' with 'sc2'
Just kidding, I think your point makes sense.
Ye i was hesitant to wrote low a teamer because after i wrote it i remembered Flash got scrubbed few times ;D
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Three of which he has crazy good records against?
The last time he played Flash was in March, do those games even count anymore?
The last time he played Bomber in a major tournament was a month and a half ago. I'd say Bomber is looking WAY better than he did a month and a half ago, especially with a convincing 4-0 of JD and a 3-2 win over Scarlett, both of whom have looked better than Life has. TaeJa and JD both are great in their respective vZ matchups. Life has looked relatively mediocre (compared to other Code S zergs) and really has very few games to even base a record off. If you want to say that he has "insanely good" records against them based on a single series against each, fine. Unless Life all ins every game (which he didn't need to in WoL/early HotS) I don't see him beating any of them in a macro game, except possibly JD. The Terrans especially look much, much better than he has.
Wtf is this Life was KNOWN for all inning most of his career.
As for his zvz, it was one of the best EVER even being above NesTea's zvz win percentage. Like anyone knows that. Now in HOTS it's much different but saying that his ZvZ had always been bad is an overstatement.
It seems like NesTea placed a curse on him. Life is Zergbong 2.0
Edit: saw that he was just talking about HOTS. My bad
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Three of which he has crazy good records against?
The last time he played Flash was in March, do those games even count anymore?
The last time he played Bomber was a month and a half ago. I'd say Bomber is looking WAY better than he did a month and a half ago, especially with a convincing 4-0 of JD and a 3-2 win over Scarlett, both of whom have looked better than Life has. TaeJa and JD both are great in their respective vZ matchups. Life has looked relatively mediocre (compared to other Code S zergs) and really has very few games to even base a record off. If you want to say that he has "insanely good" records against them based on a single series against each, fine. Unless Life all ins every game (which he didn't need to in WoL/early HotS) I don't see him beating any of them in a macro game, except possibly JD. The Terrans especially look much, much better than he has.
You can always cherry pick to make a players situation seem better or worse. Life has played Flash for example twice for a combined 6-3 record in HotS in two important tournaments. Add to this that Bomber is looking kind of mediocre in vZ and Life beating him suddenly isn't so far-fetched. And besides, Life mechanically still looks top notch. Flawed decision making yes but let's not bring in some bullshit about Life not playing well, because he absolutely is. The problem lies with bad calls.
A good run at Dreamhack and he has the confidence to make it into Code S again. Once he does that all he needs to do is fix his ZvZ or get lucky run and before you know it, he is back in Ro8 and he will shine. Life finds a way.
My greatest wish for Dreamhack is that Life meets Jaedong in the finals and beat him.
Its a real shame but I think it has something to do with the current balance of the game not allowing for his specific style of play at all. Like he was known for doing random attacks and just winning games specifically against terran things like ling bling timings at the right time did so well even against the best terran players but in HotS there is widow mines to stop that as well as the old faithful counters like planetaries and even tanks if they are feeling nostalgic. So yeah I think he is still one of the best players in the world but the balance currently is slightly affecting him more than anyone else.
On September 14 2013 08:00 FlukyS wrote: Its a real shame but I think it has something to do with the current balance of the game not allowing for his specific style of play at all. Like he was known for doing random attacks and just winning games specifically against terran things like ling bling timings at the right time did so well even against the best terran players but in HotS there is widow mines to stop that as well as the old faithful counters like planetaries and even tanks if they are feeling nostalgic. So yeah I think he is still one of the best players in the world but the balance currently is slightly affecting him more than anyone else.
It's not like Life was one of first progamers to show mine defusing in televised game (also, damn Last for hellbat dropping Soulkey out of MLG T_T and Inno hellbat dropping Baby out of it :D).
Nice article. I think the thing with Life is that he is a Zerg who's style is actually just absolutely interesting to watch. I rarely if ever get excited by Zerg plays, make that of what you will, but Life's Zergling-heavy style of aggression is so much fun to look at. His micro and ferocity are amazing. I hope that he'll make a resurgence now.
He's got quite a long way to go to achieve his previous level imo. Back then, even saying that life is your opponent made you the underdog but now, so many players are at or above his level that I think his chances of winning are pretty low. I haven't seen the brackets and won't likely have time to watch so can't comment much further. Good article though.
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Bomber has seen slumps way worse than Life, Taeja is hardly worth being mentionned as a top 5 player (may want to replace him with soulkey or rain), JD is only doing so well because playing outside of Korea, and is still far from GSL championship level...
Yeah, no, Life can. Innovation may be trouble, but he beat MVP when everyone thought it was impossible and listed him as best player in the world. So who know?
On September 14 2013 08:46 Nyvis wrote: JD is only doing so well because playing outside of Korea, and is still far from GSL championship level...
2nd place WCS America winning vs Ryung,Oz,Scarlett,Jim and 2nd place WCS S2 Finals winning vs Rain,MC,Naniwa and First.
I would say he can definitely play in WCS Korea(and do well) and he is at least top 5 zerg.
Top 5 zerg probably yeah. But life is in it too. JD has a lot of wins against solid players, but he lacks a few wins against the very top (current top8 KR) to count as a top5 player. Top 5 zerg, I totally agree, though, but that's a very different thing.
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Bomber has seen slumps way worse than Life, Taeja is hardly worth being mentionned as a top 5 player (may want to replace him with soulkey or rain), JD is only doing so well because playing outside of Korea, and is still far from GSL championship level...
Yeah, no, Life can. Innovation may be trouble, but he beat MVP when everyone thought it was impossible and listed him as best player in the world. So who know?
Bomber has been in slumps that are bad, but he's not in one right now. TaeJa is definitely a top 5 player, I don't know what you're smoking (and neither Rain nor Soulkey are at DH, I don't know why I'd bring them up in a conversation about DH). JD also beat Rain, MC, and First, three of the top protoss players at the moment. He also beat Scarlett who's insanely good at ZvZ.
He also beat Mvp when Mvp's wrists were basically destroyed and when Zerg was...uhhh...OP (don't want to bring up balance but it's kind of widely accepted that Zerg was strong in WoL). He narrowly beat Mvp when Mvp was seriously injured and hasn't really reached any height of that sort since then. Winning MLG was cool and all, but has he really done anything else noteworthy?
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Bomber has seen slumps way worse than Life, Taeja is hardly worth being mentionned as a top 5 player (may want to replace him with soulkey or rain), JD is only doing so well because playing outside of Korea, and is still far from GSL championship level...
Yeah, no, Life can. Innovation may be trouble, but he beat MVP when everyone thought it was impossible and listed him as best player in the world. So who know?
Bomber has been in slumps that are bad, but he's not in one right now. TaeJa is definitely a top 5 player, I don't know what you're smoking (and neither Rain nor Soulkey are at DH, I don't know why I'd bring them up in a conversation about DH). JD also beat Rain, MC, and First, three of the top protoss players at the moment. He also beat Scarlett who's insanely good at ZvZ.
He also beat Mvp when Mvp's wrists were basically destroyed and when Zerg was...uhhh...OP (don't want to bring up balance but it's kind of widely accepted that Zerg was strong in WoL). He narrowly beat Mvp when Mvp was seriously injured and hasn't really reached any height of that sort since then. Winning MLG was cool and all, but has he really done anything else noteworthy?
1st place GSL 1st place MLG 1st place Blizzard Cup 1st place Iron Squid 1st place MLG
He did some noteworthy things that become even more noteworthy, because that's the longest streak of domination I can remember in sc2.
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Bomber has seen slumps way worse than Life, Taeja is hardly worth being mentionned as a top 5 player (may want to replace him with soulkey or rain), JD is only doing so well because playing outside of Korea, and is still far from GSL championship level...
Yeah, no, Life can. Innovation may be trouble, but he beat MVP when everyone thought it was impossible and listed him as best player in the world. So who know?
Bomber has been in slumps that are bad, but he's not in one right now. TaeJa is definitely a top 5 player, I don't know what you're smoking (and neither Rain nor Soulkey are at DH, I don't know why I'd bring them up in a conversation about DH). JD also beat Rain, MC, and First, three of the top protoss players at the moment. He also beat Scarlett who's insanely good at ZvZ.
Maybe because they are more worthy to be in the top5 than some of the players you mentioned? I'm not saying that Life is going to win the whole thing, or become a top player again, but I could see him beating some of the players you mentioned.
He also beat Mvp when Mvp's wrists were basically destroyed and when Zerg was...uhhh...OP (don't want to bring up balance but it's kind of widely accepted that Zerg was strong in WoL). He narrowly beat Mvp when Mvp was seriously injured and hasn't really reached any height of that sort since then. Winning MLG was cool and all, but has he really done anything else noteworthy?
Did you watch the games? Yes, Life won when zerg was op, but his strength wasn't the heavy macro game zergs usually relied on, and he instead played a zergling heavy, aggressive style. If someone didn't rely on the WoL zerg opness, it's Life. (he used it to close games out, but what made him able to win isn't passively waiting for BL-infestor like most patch zergs).
Also, MVP did manage to crush everyone else in the tournament, so saying he was in an horrible shape may be a bit of an exaggeration.
Maybe because they are more worthy to be in the top5 than some of the players you mentioned? I'm not saying that Life is going to win the whole thing, or become a top player again, but I could see him beating some of the players you mentioned.
Obviously he could, just don't think it's very likely at all.
Did you watch the games? Yes, Life won when zerg was op, but his strength wasn't the heavy macro game zergs usually relied on, and he instead played a zergling heavy, aggressive style. If someone didn't rely on the WoL zerg opness, it's Life. (he used it to close games out, but what made him able to win isn't passively waiting for BL-infestor like most patch zergs).
Also, MVP did manage to crush everyone else in the tournament, so saying he was in an horrible shape may be a bit of an exaggeration.
I really don't want to talk about WoL, the games, strategy, and balance are old news and irrelevant, but Terran was forced into going a very macro oriented 3cc style. It was hard to hold off certain all ins on maps (roach, roach/bane, and ling/baneling timings were difficult to hold) and going for blind 3cc basically exposed you to those risks. Life knew to take advantage of those things on certain maps, and also knew that Mvp would be going mech for the late game.
Obviously Life did amazing things. His blue-flame hellion hold with pure lings and queens comes to mind, but I just don't think he's in any shape to be placing in the top 4 of this tournament. Maybe I'll be surprised, but past experience makes me think I won't be.
Maybe because they are more worthy to be in the top5 than some of the players you mentioned? I'm not saying that Life is going to win the whole thing, or become a top player again, but I could see him beating some of the players you mentioned.
Obviously he could, just don't think it's very likely at all.
Did you watch the games? Yes, Life won when zerg was op, but his strength wasn't the heavy macro game zergs usually relied on, and he instead played a zergling heavy, aggressive style. If someone didn't rely on the WoL zerg opness, it's Life. (he used it to close games out, but what made him able to win isn't passively waiting for BL-infestor like most patch zergs).
Also, MVP did manage to crush everyone else in the tournament, so saying he was in an horrible shape may be a bit of an exaggeration.
I really don't want to talk about WoL, the games, strategy, and balance are old news and irrelevant, but Terran was forced into going a very macro oriented 3cc style. It was hard to hold off certain all ins on maps (roach, roach/bane, and ling/baneling timings were difficult to hold) and going for blind 3cc basically exposed you to those risks. Life knew to take advantage of those things on certain maps, and also knew that Mvp would be going mech for the late game.
Most of the builds Life used were valid before the queen patch. If you want to talk about a player who exploited the ZvT metagame to punish greedy terrans, look at Leenock.
On September 14 2013 10:00 Jerom wrote: This recent very big slump of Life makes me believe that Life might in fact have been a patch zerg
Is this a joke? Can't tell if the smiley is indicating sarcasm or not.
If serious, wtf. I mean sometimes I wonder if people just look at results and not the games. Life was one of those guys who's understanding of the game, mechanics, and diversity of play could shine through no matter what he did (and he wasn't the most standard Zerg either).
Even Symbol, who I'll continue to passionately defend was distinguishable even though he loved his roaches and BL/Infestor turtling. Never mind that he was breaking out prior to the queen patch still playing a similar style (he never liked mutas much).
Scarlett was even called a patchzerg at one point....yeah..
Vortix was one I thought would fall off into obscurity admittedly, but he's still doing great in HotS.
On September 14 2013 09:30 Brutaxilos wrote: Any reason why Bomber isn't going to Dreamhack?
Bomber hasnt really been going to foreign events for a little while now. And even after that DH isnt normally korean heavy at all. Remember that everyone was really shocked when Life was announced to be going to DH Summer. This DH is more the exception than the rule with so many koreans going.
Still the only Zerg I've ever respected in the BL/winfestor era. Life's games made the otherwise horribly boring and imbalanced TvZ matchup fun (it was still imbalanced, just cuz he was so much better).
On September 14 2013 11:01 Whatson wrote: Still the only Zerg I've ever respected in the BL/winfestor era. Life's games made the otherwise horribly boring and imbalanced TvZ matchup fun (it was still imbalanced, just cuz he was so much better).
this. From the games I've seen, his gameplay was better than most zergs in WoL. He's definitely not the same in HoTS though.
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Bomber has seen slumps way worse than Life, Taeja is hardly worth being mentionned as a top 5 player (may want to replace him with soulkey or rain), JD is only doing so well because playing outside of Korea, and is still far from GSL championship level...
Yeah, no, Life can. Innovation may be trouble, but he beat MVP when everyone thought it was impossible and listed him as best player in the world. So who know?
Bomber has been in slumps that are bad, but he's not in one right now. TaeJa is definitely a top 5 player, I don't know what you're smoking (and neither Rain nor Soulkey are at DH, I don't know why I'd bring them up in a conversation about DH). JD also beat Rain, MC, and First, three of the top protoss players at the moment. He also beat Scarlett who's insanely good at ZvZ.
He also beat Mvp when Mvp's wrists were basically destroyed and when Zerg was...uhhh...OP (don't want to bring up balance but it's kind of widely accepted that Zerg was strong in WoL). He narrowly beat Mvp when Mvp was seriously injured and hasn't really reached any height of that sort since then. Winning MLG was cool and all, but has he really done anything else noteworthy?
1st place GSL 1st place MLG 1st place Blizzard Cup 1st place Iron Squid 1st place MLG
He did some noteworthy things that become even more noteworthy, because that's the longest streak of domination I can remember in sc2.
MVP didn't win Iron Squid, MMA did. MVP's kryptonite.
I think a fair amount of losing is healthy to Life in his road to become the best zerg player. He still has time. He will get there so long as he puts in the hard work.
On September 14 2013 10:00 Jerom wrote: This recent very big slump of Life makes me believe that Life might in fact have been a patch zerg
User was warned for this post
This. Just because Life plays interesting aggressive Zerg style doesn't mean he did not benefit greatly from the OPness of Zerg. Infestors saved his ass so many times in his series agains Mvp , one infestor killed like 6 vikings.
P.S. : I will never forgive Life for taking that 5th trophy of Mvp.
On September 14 2013 08:00 FlukyS wrote: Its a real shame but I think it has something to do with the current balance of the game not allowing for his specific style of play at all. Like he was known for doing random attacks and just winning games specifically against terran things like ling bling timings at the right time did so well even against the best terran players but in HotS there is widow mines to stop that as well as the old faithful counters like planetaries and even tanks if they are feeling nostalgic. So yeah I think he is still one of the best players in the world but the balance currently is slightly affecting him more than anyone else.
That isn't his biggest problem, his biggest problem is his completely perplexing and unreliable ZvZ,.
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Bomber has seen slumps way worse than Life, Taeja is hardly worth being mentionned as a top 5 player (may want to replace him with soulkey or rain), JD is only doing so well because playing outside of Korea, and is still far from GSL championship level...
Yeah, no, Life can. Innovation may be trouble, but he beat MVP when everyone thought it was impossible and listed him as best player in the world. So who know?
Bomber has been in slumps that are bad, but he's not in one right now. TaeJa is definitely a top 5 player, I don't know what you're smoking (and neither Rain nor Soulkey are at DH, I don't know why I'd bring them up in a conversation about DH). JD also beat Rain, MC, and First, three of the top protoss players at the moment. He also beat Scarlett who's insanely good at ZvZ.
He also beat Mvp when Mvp's wrists were basically destroyed and when Zerg was...uhhh...OP (don't want to bring up balance but it's kind of widely accepted that Zerg was strong in WoL). He narrowly beat Mvp when Mvp was seriously injured and hasn't really reached any height of that sort since then. Winning MLG was cool and all, but has he really done anything else noteworthy?
1st place GSL 1st place MLG 1st place Blizzard Cup 1st place Iron Squid 1st place MLG
He did some noteworthy things that become even more noteworthy, because that's the longest streak of domination I can remember in sc2.
Longest streak of domination in sc2? What about Mvp? NesTea? MMA? DRG?
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Bomber has seen slumps way worse than Life, Taeja is hardly worth being mentionned as a top 5 player (may want to replace him with soulkey or rain), JD is only doing so well because playing outside of Korea, and is still far from GSL championship level...
Yeah, no, Life can. Innovation may be trouble, but he beat MVP when everyone thought it was impossible and listed him as best player in the world. So who know?
Bomber has been in slumps that are bad, but he's not in one right now. TaeJa is definitely a top 5 player, I don't know what you're smoking (and neither Rain nor Soulkey are at DH, I don't know why I'd bring them up in a conversation about DH). JD also beat Rain, MC, and First, three of the top protoss players at the moment. He also beat Scarlett who's insanely good at ZvZ.
He also beat Mvp when Mvp's wrists were basically destroyed and when Zerg was...uhhh...OP (don't want to bring up balance but it's kind of widely accepted that Zerg was strong in WoL). He narrowly beat Mvp when Mvp was seriously injured and hasn't really reached any height of that sort since then. Winning MLG was cool and all, but has he really done anything else noteworthy?
1st place GSL 1st place MLG 1st place Blizzard Cup 1st place Iron Squid 1st place MLG
He did some noteworthy things that become even more noteworthy, because that's the longest streak of domination I can remember in sc2.
MVP didn't win Iron Squid, MMA did. MVP's kryptonite.
I don't think MVP ever won a second MLG after Anaheim. And MMA 3-0d MVP in the semis of Blizzard Cup 2011
On September 14 2013 04:58 MtlGuitarist97 wrote: I'm not sure if Life will be able to regain his old form. I hope that he can, but I don't realistically think he can compete with the likes of Bomber, TaeJa, Flash, INnoVation, or JD.
Bomber has seen slumps way worse than Life, Taeja is hardly worth being mentionned as a top 5 player (may want to replace him with soulkey or rain), JD is only doing so well because playing outside of Korea, and is still far from GSL championship level...
Yeah, no, Life can. Innovation may be trouble, but he beat MVP when everyone thought it was impossible and listed him as best player in the world. So who know?
Bomber has been in slumps that are bad, but he's not in one right now. TaeJa is definitely a top 5 player, I don't know what you're smoking (and neither Rain nor Soulkey are at DH, I don't know why I'd bring them up in a conversation about DH). JD also beat Rain, MC, and First, three of the top protoss players at the moment. He also beat Scarlett who's insanely good at ZvZ.
He also beat Mvp when Mvp's wrists were basically destroyed and when Zerg was...uhhh...OP (don't want to bring up balance but it's kind of widely accepted that Zerg was strong in WoL). He narrowly beat Mvp when Mvp was seriously injured and hasn't really reached any height of that sort since then. Winning MLG was cool and all, but has he really done anything else noteworthy?
1st place GSL 1st place MLG 1st place Blizzard Cup 1st place Iron Squid 1st place MLG
He did some noteworthy things that become even more noteworthy, because that's the longest streak of domination I can remember in sc2.
MVP didn't win Iron Squid, MMA did. MVP's kryptonite.
Life's ZvT prior to the Queen (and overlord, I guess) buff: 49-57 (~46% winning percentage). Life's ZvT prior to the Queen buff: 54-19: (~74%). That's an enormous increase and it's not as though he was getting good at the matchup right before the patch either. From January 1st 2012 up to the Queen patch, he was 20-28. That's an arbitrary period, but you get similar results for other time spans.
His ZvP went from 52-36 (around 60%) to 54-19 and his ZvZ fell from 40-11 to 42-25 (around 78% to about 63%).
He was facing a very different group of players in the two periods (harder in the second period), but that shouldn't have a huge impact on his results by race. While he's immensely talented, the numbers make it hard to avoid the conclusion that he was not good at ZvT prior to the Queen patch making it easy for Zerg to deflect much of Terran's early aggression.
On September 14 2013 15:11 braller wrote: Life's ZvT prior to the Queen (and overlord, I guess) buff: 49-57 (~46% winning percentage). Life's ZvT prior to the Queen buff: 54-19: (~74%). That's an enormous increase and it's not as though he was getting good at the matchup right before the patch either. From January 1st 2012 up to the Queen patch, he was 20-28. That's an arbitrary period, but you get similar results for other time spans.
His ZvP went from 52-36 (around 60%) to 54-19 and his ZvZ fell from 40-11 to 42-25 (around 78% to about 63%).
He was facing a very different group of players in the two periods (harder in the second period), but that shouldn't have a huge impact on his results by race. While he's immensely talented, the numbers make it hard to avoid the conclusion that he was not good at ZvT prior to the Queen patch making it easy for Zerg to deflect much of Terran's early aggression.
You don't even have the proper statistics to support your claims: TLPD is a very bad resource as it doesn't record all the games. Life's actual ZvT record between 1/1/2012 and 5/9/2012 was 52-39 and he had a 54% winrate (83-70) in the matchup prior to the queen patch.
On September 14 2013 10:00 Jerom wrote: This recent very big slump of Life makes me believe that Life might in fact have been a patch zerg
User was warned for this post
This. Just because Life plays interesting aggressive Zerg style doesn't mean he did not benefit greatly from the OPness of Zerg. Infestors saved his ass so many times in his series agains Mvp , one infestor killed like 6 vikings.
P.S. : I will never forgive Life for taking that 5th trophy of Mvp.
I love MVP and wanted to see him win, but get real. Life was the better player that tournament and it was a surprise MVP took that to game 7 and nearly won in the first place.
Yeah Infestors helped, but so did his insane creep, magical lings that always seemed to do damage (still the best out there), and his great macro. I distinctly remember at least 2 games where Life would apply aggression so well and keep MVP so distracted, that by the time he'd move out for that inevitable thor/tank pre-BL timing Life would already have several broods. He never even got vikings.
Saying Life is a patchzerg is like saying Bogus was a hellbat-Terran.
On September 14 2013 10:00 Jerom wrote: This recent very big slump of Life makes me believe that Life might in fact have been a patch zerg
User was warned for this post
This. Just because Life plays interesting aggressive Zerg style doesn't mean he did not benefit greatly from the OPness of Zerg. Infestors saved his ass so many times in his series agains Mvp , one infestor killed like 6 vikings.
P.S. : I will never forgive Life for taking that 5th trophy of Mvp.
I love MVP and wanted to see him win, but get real. Life was the better player that tournament and it was a surprise MVP took that to game 7 and nearly won in the first place.
Yeah Infestors helped, but so did his insane creep, magical lings that always seemed to do damage (still the best out there), and his great macro. I distinctly remember at least 2 games where Life would apply aggression so well and keep MVP so distracted, that by the time he'd move out for that inevitable thor/tank pre-BL timing Life would already have several broods. He never even got vikings.
I like Life too but if Zerg wasn't a jokity joke Mvp would have won that finals, he nearly did with how the game was and how good Life was.
On September 14 2013 15:11 braller wrote: Life's ZvT prior to the Queen (and overlord, I guess) buff: 49-57 (~46% winning percentage). Life's ZvT prior to the Queen buff: 54-19: (~74%). That's an enormous increase and it's not as though he was getting good at the matchup right before the patch either. From January 1st 2012 up to the Queen patch, he was 20-28. That's an arbitrary period, but you get similar results for other time spans.
His ZvP went from 52-36 (around 60%) to 54-19 and his ZvZ fell from 40-11 to 42-25 (around 78% to about 63%).
He was facing a very different group of players in the two periods (harder in the second period), but that shouldn't have a huge impact on his results by race. While he's immensely talented, the numbers make it hard to avoid the conclusion that he was not good at ZvT prior to the Queen patch making it easy for Zerg to deflect much of Terran's early aggression.
You don't even have the proper statistics to support your claims: TLPD is a very bad resource as it doesn't record all the games. Life's actual ZvT record between 1/1/2012 and 5/9/2012 was 52-39 and he had a 54% winrate (83-70) in the matchup prior to the queen patch.
I was just using TLPD KR numbers. The combined numbers are similar to what you posted, though they do feature three more losses (TLPD invented three losses?).
On September 14 2013 15:11 braller wrote: Life's ZvT prior to the Queen (and overlord, I guess) buff: 49-57 (~46% winning percentage). Life's ZvT prior to the Queen buff: 54-19: (~74%). That's an enormous increase and it's not as though he was getting good at the matchup right before the patch either. From January 1st 2012 up to the Queen patch, he was 20-28. That's an arbitrary period, but you get similar results for other time spans.
His ZvP went from 52-36 (around 60%) to 54-19 and his ZvZ fell from 40-11 to 42-25 (around 78% to about 63%).
He was facing a very different group of players in the two periods (harder in the second period), but that shouldn't have a huge impact on his results by race. While he's immensely talented, the numbers make it hard to avoid the conclusion that he was not good at ZvT prior to the Queen patch making it easy for Zerg to deflect much of Terran's early aggression.
You don't even have the proper statistics to support your claims: TLPD is a very bad resource as it doesn't record all the games. Life's actual ZvT record between 1/1/2012 and 5/9/2012 was 52-39 and he had a 54% winrate (83-70) in the matchup prior to the queen patch.
On September 14 2013 15:11 braller wrote: Life's ZvT prior to the Queen (and overlord, I guess) buff: 49-57 (~46% winning percentage). Life's ZvT prior to the Queen buff: 54-19: (~74%). That's an enormous increase and it's not as though he was getting good at the matchup right before the patch either. From January 1st 2012 up to the Queen patch, he was 20-28. That's an arbitrary period, but you get similar results for other time spans.
His ZvP went from 52-36 (around 60%) to 54-19 and his ZvZ fell from 40-11 to 42-25 (around 78% to about 63%).
He was facing a very different group of players in the two periods (harder in the second period), but that shouldn't have a huge impact on his results by race. While he's immensely talented, the numbers make it hard to avoid the conclusion that he was not good at ZvT prior to the Queen patch making it easy for Zerg to deflect much of Terran's early aggression.
You don't even have the proper statistics to support your claims: TLPD is a very bad resource as it doesn't record all the games. Life's actual ZvT record between 1/1/2012 and 5/9/2012 was 52-39 and he had a 54% winrate (83-70) in the matchup prior to the queen patch.
On September 14 2013 15:11 braller wrote: That's an enormous increase and it's not as though he was getting good at the matchup right before the patch either.
That's actually not true watching his games. Life was actually one of my hipster predictions to make code S by the end of the year at the start of 2012, and it wasn't until just prior to the queen patch did he really start to pick up speed. Check out his Iron Squid run. I'll tell you from remembering those games, Life was looking pretty damn good in ZvT against the likes of MMA and Jjakji who were regarded as two of the best TvZ players in the world at the time. I distinctly remember some of his games in that tournament of champions online tournament as well (prior to IPL4), namely a game on Cloud Kingdom against Supernova (I think this one was actually listed in the top 2012 games article by TL).
On September 14 2013 15:11 braller wrote: Life's ZvT prior to the Queen (and overlord, I guess) buff: 49-57 (~46% winning percentage). Life's ZvT prior to the Queen buff: 54-19: (~74%). That's an enormous increase and it's not as though he was getting good at the matchup right before the patch either. From January 1st 2012 up to the Queen patch, he was 20-28. That's an arbitrary period, but you get similar results for other time spans.
His ZvP went from 52-36 (around 60%) to 54-19 and his ZvZ fell from 40-11 to 42-25 (around 78% to about 63%).
He was facing a very different group of players in the two periods (harder in the second period), but that shouldn't have a huge impact on his results by race. While he's immensely talented, the numbers make it hard to avoid the conclusion that he was not good at ZvT prior to the Queen patch making it easy for Zerg to deflect much of Terran's early aggression.
You don't even have the proper statistics to support your claims: TLPD is a very bad resource as it doesn't record all the games. Life's actual ZvT record between 1/1/2012 and 5/9/2012 was 52-39 and he had a 54% winrate (83-70) in the matchup prior to the queen patch.
On September 14 2013 15:11 braller wrote: That's an enormous increase and it's not as though he was getting good at the matchup right before the patch either.
That's actually not true watching his games. Life was actually one of my hipster predictions to make code S by the end of the year at the start of 2012, and it wasn't until just prior to the queen patch did he really start to pick up speed. Check out his Iron Squid run. I'll tell you from remembering those games, Life was looking pretty damn good in ZvT against the likes of MMA and Jjakji who were regarded as two of the best TvZ players in the world at the time. I distinctly remember some of his games in that tournament of champions online tournament as well (prior to IPL4), namely a game on Cloud Kingdom against Supernova (I think this one was actually listed in the top 2012 games article by TL).
Life improved because he started practicing full time with Startale as far as I know.
On September 14 2013 15:11 braller wrote: Life's ZvT prior to the Queen (and overlord, I guess) buff: 49-57 (~46% winning percentage). Life's ZvT prior to the Queen buff: 54-19: (~74%). That's an enormous increase and it's not as though he was getting good at the matchup right before the patch either. From January 1st 2012 up to the Queen patch, he was 20-28. That's an arbitrary period, but you get similar results for other time spans.
His ZvP went from 52-36 (around 60%) to 54-19 and his ZvZ fell from 40-11 to 42-25 (around 78% to about 63%).
He was facing a very different group of players in the two periods (harder in the second period), but that shouldn't have a huge impact on his results by race. While he's immensely talented, the numbers make it hard to avoid the conclusion that he was not good at ZvT prior to the Queen patch making it easy for Zerg to deflect much of Terran's early aggression.
Right, just a few things I need to point out:
Your numbers are wrong (at the very least incomplete). You say "he wasn't getting better at ZvT", what do you base this on? Did you watch his Korean Weekly games, for example? Iron Squid qualifiers? Tournament of Champions? After the Queen patch he suddenly became sick at ZvT, right? Did his zergling-style show up out of nowhere because he now had better queens and if so, why could no one else match the style or the winrate he obtained post-Queen patch? ZvT winrates went up after the queen patch, yes, but if he "wasn't good", why did he become better than the Zergs who were already good at ZvT, given the same tools? He started practising with Startale around that time, right after the Zenex-ST merge. Think about that.
On September 14 2013 19:36 FrostedMiniWheats wrote:
On September 14 2013 19:26 AyaaLa wrote:
On September 14 2013 15:27 CosmicSpiral wrote:
On September 14 2013 15:11 braller wrote: Life's ZvT prior to the Queen (and overlord, I guess) buff: 49-57 (~46% winning percentage). Life's ZvT prior to the Queen buff: 54-19: (~74%). That's an enormous increase and it's not as though he was getting good at the matchup right before the patch either. From January 1st 2012 up to the Queen patch, he was 20-28. That's an arbitrary period, but you get similar results for other time spans.
His ZvP went from 52-36 (around 60%) to 54-19 and his ZvZ fell from 40-11 to 42-25 (around 78% to about 63%).
He was facing a very different group of players in the two periods (harder in the second period), but that shouldn't have a huge impact on his results by race. While he's immensely talented, the numbers make it hard to avoid the conclusion that he was not good at ZvT prior to the Queen patch making it easy for Zerg to deflect much of Terran's early aggression.
You don't even have the proper statistics to support your claims: TLPD is a very bad resource as it doesn't record all the games. Life's actual ZvT record between 1/1/2012 and 5/9/2012 was 52-39 and he had a 54% winrate (83-70) in the matchup prior to the queen patch.
On September 14 2013 15:11 braller wrote: That's an enormous increase and it's not as though he was getting good at the matchup right before the patch either.
That's actually not true watching his games. Life was actually one of my hipster predictions to make code S by the end of the year at the start of 2012, and it wasn't until just prior to the queen patch did he really start to pick up speed. Check out his Iron Squid run. I'll tell you from remembering those games, Life was looking pretty damn good in ZvT against the likes of MMA and Jjakji who were regarded as two of the best TvZ players in the world at the time. I distinctly remember some of his games in that tournament of champions online tournament as well (prior to IPL4), namely a game on Cloud Kingdom against Supernova (I think this one was actually listed in the top 2012 games article by TL).
Life improved because he started practicing full time with Startale as far as I know.
Oh right. I forgot Life also was on the struggling Zenex that hemorrhaged talent prior to the patch as well. Joining Startale only adds to the argument in his favor.
of course life benefited from the queen change, as did many other zergs. but i think the main factor for him being almost invincible in zvt was the fact that he had amazing infestor usage. i distinctly remember one game against marine king on ohana where he took a game-losing amount of much damage early on and actually had no way of coming back...but he made about 5 infestors and with burrow, kept popping up/fungalling/spamming infested terrans (off 2-base while marineking had his third) and actually managed to come back and win the game, was quite disgusting to watch lol.
against mvp's strong style of mech use he would send his ling/b-ling army to counter when mvp moves out whilst using his infestors to mass fungal the mech army to stall/kill the army. this infestor retention whilst causing free damage was too much for terrans (because it was broken as fuck). leenock was another that had smart infestor (+broodlord) control and i remember multiple games where he would have his third denied over and over and still manage to comeback off 2 base against a 3/4 base terran because of the power of the infestor (and broodlord). look what happened to leenock now, he has disappeared just like life...sad stuff.
on the other hand, you can see how well drg is doing now, he never relied on broken strats. hopefully he continues to dominate with ling/bling/muta because that will always be more fun to watch.
On September 15 2013 00:01 TheOne26 wrote: of course life benefited from the queen change, as did many other zergs. but i think the main factor for him being almost invincible in zvt was the fact that he had amazing infestor usage. i distinctly remember one game against marine king on ohana where he took a game-losing amount of much damage early on and actually had no way of coming back...but he made about 5 infestors and with burrow, kept popping up/fungalling/spamming infested terrans (off 2-base while marineking had his third) and actually managed to come back and win the game, was quite disgusting to watch lol.
against mvp's strong style of mech use he would send his ling/b-ling army to counter when mvp moves out whilst using his infestors to mass fungal the mech army to stall/kill the army. this infestor retention whilst causing free damage was too much for terrans (because it was broken as fuck). leenock was another that had smart infestor (+broodlord) control and i remember multiple games where he would have his third denied over and over and still manage to comeback off 2 base against a 3/4 base terran because of the power of the infestor (and broodlord). look what happened to leenock now, he has disappeared just like life...sad stuff.
on the other hand, you can see how well drg is doing now, he never relied on broken strats. hopefully he continues to dominate with ling/bling/muta because that will always be more fun to watch.
On September 15 2013 00:01 TheOne26 wrote: of course life benefited from the queen change, as did many other zergs. but i think the main factor for him being almost invincible in zvt was the fact that he had amazing infestor usage. i distinctly remember one game against marine king on ohana where he took a game-losing amount of much damage early on and actually had no way of coming back...but he made about 5 infestors and with burrow, kept popping up/fungalling/spamming infested terrans (off 2-base while marineking had his third) and actually managed to come back and win the game, was quite disgusting to watch lol.
against mvp's strong style of mech use he would send his ling/b-ling army to counter when mvp moves out whilst using his infestors to mass fungal the mech army to stall/kill the army. this infestor retention whilst causing free damage was too much for terrans (because it was broken as fuck). leenock was another that had smart infestor (+broodlord) control and i remember multiple games where he would have his third denied over and over and still manage to comeback off 2 base against a 3/4 base terran because of the power of the infestor (and broodlord). look what happened to leenock now, he has disappeared just like life...sad stuff.
on the other hand, you can see how well drg is doing now, he never relied on broken strats. hopefully he continues to dominate with ling/bling/muta because that will always be more fun to watch.
You know, what most people remember about Life is his insane micro and inability to miss injects. Also, Life was one of the only zergs doing mass ling-muta in the mid-game for ZvT and Leenock was a ZvT specialist before DRG even entered the GSL
@zealously i've read the majority of it, and i already know that most of his fans love him for his insane ling usage and control. but i strongly believe that his 'style' comes hand in hand with the WOL infestor. the ling counters were the crux behind buying enough time for the ultimate zerg army. this doesn't work anymore in hots, so i hope for his fans out there that he can adjust because i really doubt he will do well again otherwise.
@whatson, not missing injects isn't really something impressive these days. i'm more impressed by zergs having godly creep spread whilst keeping up on everything else macro/micro wise (i.e. scarlett). reply to your edit addition: yes leenock was amazing at zvt before. he also employed many different strategies in the matchup including crazy nydus plays. i only added that he took advantage and abused the strength of the late game zerg army after the patch (as any smart zerg would - you use the tools provided to win) and it was incredibly frustrating to watch in a T perspective.
regardless, lets see how life does this tourny. hes looking good so far!
On September 15 2013 00:31 TheOne26 wrote: @zealously i've read the majority of it, and i already know that most of his fans love him for his insane ling usage and control. but i strongly believe that his 'style' comes hand in hand with the WOL infestor. the ling counters were the crux behind buying enough time for the ultimate zerg army. this doesn't work anymore in hots, so i hope for his fans out there that he can adjust because i really doubt he will do well again otherwise.
@whatson, not missing injects isn't really something impressive these days. i'm more impressed by zergs having godly creep spread whilst keeping up on everything else macro/micro wise (i.e. scarlett)
As a follow-up question: how much of Life's play in WoL did you watch? Have you watched his pre-Queen games, for example? Or do you base your statements on word-of-mouth and the almost universal Zerg hate that plagued the forums around 2012 GSL Season 5/2013 GSL Season 1?
i watched a few of his games when he was in ZENEX. he played like a regular zerg to me, nothing out of the ordinary. he definitely 'leveled up' shortly after he made the move to startale.
So Life gets ahead/denies his opponent with "insane ling usage and control" and techs up into the best composition to win the game, thus proving the fact that he wins because he had amazing Infestor usage.
On September 15 2013 00:31 TheOne26 wrote: @zealously i've read the majority of it, and i already know that most of his fans love him for his insane ling usage and control. but i strongly believe that his 'style' comes hand in hand with the WOL infestor. the ling counters were the crux behind buying enough time for the ultimate zerg army. this doesn't work anymore in hots, so i hope for his fans out there that he can adjust because i really doubt he will do well again otherwise.
@whatson, not missing injects isn't really something impressive these days. i'm more impressed by zergs having godly creep spread whilst keeping up on everything else macro/micro wise (i.e. scarlett). reply to your edit addition: yes leenock was amazing at zvt before. he also employed many different strategies in the matchup including crazy nydus plays. i only added that he took advantage and abused the strength of the late game zerg army after the patch (as any smart zerg would - you use the tools provided to win) and it was incredibly frustrating to watch in a T perspective.
regardless, lets see how life does this tourny. hes looking good so far!
That's actually quite funny, because nobody in the world would say that Scarlett' had the macro (or the micro) that Life had.
On September 15 2013 00:39 TheOne26 wrote: i watched a few of his games when he was in ZENEX. he played like a regular zerg to me, nothing out of the ordinary. he definitely 'leveled up' shortly after he made the move to startale.
Then how can you say that he relied on a broken composition to win? Life was always a Zerg who preferred early aggression with either ling/bling or roaches (he was especially good at wonky 2-base timings) and a muta/ling/bling midgame over playing for the super late-game with BL/Infestor and Spine Jungles. In fact, in his championship run through GSL4 he only played with the distinct goal of surviving until BL/infestor against Mvp, who had devised a style of mech specifically designed to counter Life's ling aggression. If your main tool is broken by an opponent, it's only natural to go for the next-best tool. In this case, this was BL/Infestor. It might have been broken and/or boring to watch, but don't bring in some crap about the majority of Life's successes coming from BL/infestor or Infestors being broken. There is truth to him being excellent at utilising infestors to stall, but attributing his success to mostly that is being ignorant. If you want to attribute it to one thing, it should be adaptability - something DRG lacks or at the very least lacked.
Though I'm not sure I fully understand what you're trying to say. He used an aggressive ling-heavy style to get to the (alternatively: the only good late-game composition) best composition available, and we clump him (and Leenock, what the hell) up with the Zergs who had more turtle tendencies, attributing their wins and leads (which came from amazing early- and mid-games) to solely infestors? Or am I completely misinterpreting what you're saying?
On another note: Scarlett's creep spread might be the best in the world. But even so, she doesn't have the macro nor the micro Life showcased during his championship runs.
@whatson: your right, but nobody would say she had his infestor control either, so which was the winning factor? ;p
@playnice: i think my points just flew over your head, you seem like just an angry life fanboy. how about this, if he goes far at dreamhack while smashing good T's along the way i will take back what i said, ok?
@zealously: maybe your right, "the majority" of his wins may have not been because of infestor/brood, but he always had that to rely on if things went sour. therefore he could never actually lose, which is what we saw with his crazy high win rate. without having a guaranteed free win vs T every game that goes past 15 mins things might have been different, especially that GSL vs MVP, where his style was read by MVP like you mentioned (mvp would go 2 fact. blue flame) but life would still win because he could fall back on all the broken shit. THAT is what is frustrating as hell. now that he has no OP things to fall back on we can see he is struggling. if you don't agree with my theory then why do you think he is not doing well all of a sudden? the guys on page 3/4 are not just spouting nonsense, there is an obvious connection there. by the way, i bring up leenock because unlike life who would usually enter the mid/late game ahead and then win, leenock would usually enter the mid/late game from behind (due to his nature of staying on 2 base for a very long time) and then still win by making ridiculous comebacks thanks to infestor/brood. it was just bullshit and i'm glad that whole phase is over.
I forgot to quote someone saying about Life's ZvZ being strong: ironically, after his winrates in other match-ups climbed up , his ZvZ became weaker to the point of getting 4-0'd by Soulkey, getting eliminated from IPL5 by Snute of all zergs there (no offence, but i would not consider Snute the guy you would expect to eliminate supposedly best zerg in the world) and winning Iron Squid on the back of reverse-sweeps in ZvZ (sorry, i consider reverse sweeps as choking of one getting reverse-swept).
On September 15 2013 00:58 TheOne26 wrote: @zealously: maybe your right, "the majority" of his wins may have not been because of infestor/brood, but he always had that to rely on if things went sour. therefore he could never actually lose, which is what we saw with his crazy high win rate. without having a guaranteed free win vs T every game that goes past 15 mins things might have been different, especially that GSL vs MVP, where his style was read by MVP like you mentioned (mvp would go 2 fact. blue flame) but life would still win because he could fall back on all the broken shit. THAT is what is frustrating as hell. now that he has no OP things to fall back on we can see he is struggling. if you don't agree with my theory then why do you think he is not doing well all of a sudden? the guys on page 3/4 are not just spouting nonsense, there is an obvious connection there. by the way, i bring up leenock because unlike life who would usually enter the mid/late game ahead and then win, leenock would usually enter the mid/late game from behind (due to his nature of staying on 2 base for a very long time) and then still win by making ridiculous comebacks thanks to infestor/brood. it was just bullshit and i'm glad that whole phase is over.
Cosmicspiral put it very well in the fan club
On September 13 2013 14:36 CosmicSpiral wrote: The more and more I watch Life's games leading up to Dreamhack, the more I'm convinced that his biggest problem is a mental one. It's not mechanics or strategy that is leading to his losses but uncharacteristically bad decisions and desperate moves that he would normally not pull in those situations. It gives me a lot of confidence as that can be addressed more easily with the right approach from a friend/teammate.
If you'd watch his games, you'd find more than enough evidence to support this theory. Useless aggression in ZvZ, late tech switches in other match ups and strange unit movements across all three. His mechanical proficiency hasn't gone anywhere - he's still monstrous in terms of micro/macro and all that, but his decision making (building placement, builds, that kind of stuff) has been very shaky as of late.
On September 15 2013 00:58 TheOne26 wrote: @zealously: maybe your right, "the majority" of his wins may have not been because of infestor/brood, but he always had that to rely on if things went sour. therefore he could never actually lose, which is what we saw with his crazy high win rate. without having a guaranteed free win vs T every game that goes past 15 mins things might have been different, especially that GSL vs MVP, where his style was read by MVP like you mentioned (mvp would go 2 fact. blue flame) but life would still win because he could fall back on all the broken shit. THAT is what is frustrating as hell. now that he has no OP things to fall back on we can see he is struggling. if you don't agree with my theory then why do you think he is not doing well all of a sudden? the guys on page 3/4 are not just spouting nonsense, there is an obvious connection there. by the way, i bring up leenock because unlike life who would usually enter the mid/late game ahead and then win, leenock would usually enter the mid/late game from behind (due to his nature of staying on 2 base for a very long time) and then still win by making ridiculous comebacks thanks to infestor/brood. it was just bullshit and i'm glad that whole phase is over.
On September 13 2013 14:36 CosmicSpiral wrote: The more and more I watch Life's games leading up to Dreamhack, the more I'm convinced that his biggest problem is a mental one. It's not mechanics or strategy that is leading to his losses but uncharacteristically bad decisions and desperate moves that he would normally not pull in those situations. It gives me a lot of confidence as that can be addressed more easily with the right approach from a friend/teammate.
If you'd watch his games, you'd find more than enough evidence to support this theory. Useless aggression in ZvZ, late tech switches in other match ups and strange unit movements across all three. His mechanical proficiency hasn't gone anywhere - he's still monstrous in terms of micro/macro and all that, but his decision making (building placement, builds, that kind of stuff) has been very shaky as of late.
Exactly. It almost seems like most of modern zergs either derp alot, while having insane mechanics (Losira, DRG sometimes, Life, JD in JvP) or have brilliant decisions, but lack in mechanics department (compared to).
On September 15 2013 00:58 TheOne26 wrote: @zealously: maybe your right, "the majority" of his wins may have not been because of infestor/brood, but he always had that to rely on if things went sour. therefore he could never actually lose, which is what we saw with his crazy high win rate. without having a guaranteed free win vs T every game that goes past 15 mins things might have been different, especially that GSL vs MVP, where his style was read by MVP like you mentioned (mvp would go 2 fact. blue flame) but life would still win because he could fall back on all the broken shit. THAT is what is frustrating as hell. now that he has no OP things to fall back on we can see he is struggling. if you don't agree with my theory then why do you think he is not doing well all of a sudden? the guys on page 3/4 are not just spouting nonsense, there is an obvious connection there. by the way, i bring up leenock because unlike life who would usually enter the mid/late game ahead and then win, leenock would usually enter the mid/late game from behind (due to his nature of staying on 2 base for a very long time) and then still win by making ridiculous comebacks thanks to infestor/brood. it was just bullshit and i'm glad that whole phase is over.
Cosmicspiral put it very well in the fan club
On September 13 2013 14:36 CosmicSpiral wrote: The more and more I watch Life's games leading up to Dreamhack, the more I'm convinced that his biggest problem is a mental one. It's not mechanics or strategy that is leading to his losses but uncharacteristically bad decisions and desperate moves that he would normally not pull in those situations. It gives me a lot of confidence as that can be addressed more easily with the right approach from a friend/teammate.
If you'd watch his games, you'd find more than enough evidence to support this theory. Useless aggression in ZvZ, late tech switches in other match ups and strange unit movements across all three. His mechanical proficiency hasn't gone anywhere - he's still monstrous in terms of micro/macro and all that, but his decision making (building placement, builds, that kind of stuff) has been very shaky as of late.
Exactly. It almost seems like most of modern zergs either derp alot, while having insane mechanics (Losira, DRG sometimes, Life, JD in JvP) or have brilliant decisions, but lack in mechanics department (compared to).
I'm guessing the later is Nestea, and the closest to having both is Soulkey.
On September 15 2013 00:58 TheOne26 wrote: @whatson: your right, but nobody would say she had his infestor control either, so which was the winning factor? ;p
@playnice: i think my points just flew over your head, you seem like just an angry life fanboy. how about this, if he goes far at dreamhack while smashing good T's along the way i will take back what i said, ok?
@zealously: maybe your right, "the majority" of his wins may have not been because of infestor/brood, but he always had that to rely on if things went sour. therefore he could never actually lose, which is what we saw with his crazy high win rate. without having a guaranteed free win vs T every game that goes past 15 mins things might have been different, especially that GSL vs MVP, where his style was read by MVP like you mentioned (mvp would go 2 fact. blue flame) but life would still win because he could fall back on all the broken shit. THAT is what is frustrating as hell. now that he has no OP things to fall back on we can see he is struggling. if you don't agree with my theory then why do you think he is not doing well all of a sudden? the guys on page 3/4 are not just spouting nonsense, there is an obvious connection there. by the way, i bring up leenock because unlike life who would usually enter the mid/late game ahead and then win, leenock would usually enter the mid/late game from behind (due to his nature of staying on 2 base for a very long time) and then still win by making ridiculous comebacks thanks to infestor/brood. it was just bullshit and i'm glad that whole phase is over.
I'm just having fun with you. No anger here. And if you are so convinced of the "fact" when there is already a huge body of evidence to suggest the contrary then I can't understand how a DH result will change your view about his past. Either you watched enough games to make a different conclusion or Life as everyone knows it cease to have existed.
On September 15 2013 00:58 TheOne26 wrote: @whatson: your right, but nobody would say she had his infestor control either, so which was the winning factor? ;p
I don't understand the question, because Life always used mutas against bio unlike Scarlett' who always used infestors, so I would say it was Life's muta/ling/bling control that made him the best player in the world.
In fact, all your arguments are centered around Life vs MVP, so that makes me believe that series was the only set of Life's games that you've ever watched.
On September 16 2013 20:11 SeriousLus wrote: so... what exactly or where exactly is this related to pain? headline suggests some sort of injury... no such thing mentioned in the article!?!
You fail to understand what the term growing pain means. It doesn't mean physical pain its supposed to mean the struggles youngsters have as they grow up, their perception about the world changes, they change and more responsibilities start to fall on to their shoulders.
For Life in particular it refers to his struggles now of having to cope with the fact that he was the de facto best player in the world and now he is struggling a bit and trying to get back to where he was.
On September 16 2013 05:37 Keeemy wrote: Top 4 is good <3
his path was rather easy though, dont know if i am too excited about his top 4 finish :/
I agree with that. I'm a huge Life fanboy and a round of 4 finish sounds really nice, but with Supernova being the strongest opponent he beat this kind of leaves a bitter aftertaste.
On September 16 2013 05:37 Keeemy wrote: Top 4 is good <3
his path was rather easy though, dont know if i am too excited about his top 4 finish :/
I agree with that. I'm a huge Life fanboy and a round of 4 finish sounds really nice, but with Supernova being the strongest opponent he beat this kind of leaves a bitter aftertaste.
Supernova is pretty decent. But yeah, losing to stardust in group stages and beating mostly foreigners isn't that impressive. But what do you expect in a foreign tournament? Still way better than it's latest performances. Far from being back, but he showed he's not completely dead, at least.
On September 16 2013 05:37 Keeemy wrote: Top 4 is good <3
his path was rather easy though, dont know if i am too excited about his top 4 finish :/
His path wasn't crazy, but he showed that he's at the very least not hopeless in ZvT and his ZvZ/ZvP still have positive aspects to them. Supernova kicked out Soulkey - considered by most to have at least top 3 ZvT in the world - from OSL, so beating him is pretty good. Other than that, a top 4 ensures a seed at DH:W, the more important tournament. It's important to note that it's more than two months until then, which should allow Life to get back some of his old form - he's back to practising hard now, so there's always that.
On September 16 2013 05:37 Keeemy wrote: Top 4 is good <3
his path was rather easy though, dont know if i am too excited about his top 4 finish :/
His path wasn't crazy, but he showed that he's at the very least not hopeless in ZvT and his ZvZ/ZvP still have positive aspects to them. Supernova kicked out Soulkey - considered by most to have at least top 3 ZvT in the world - from OSL, so beating him is pretty good. Other than that, a top 4 ensures a seed at DH:W, the more important tournament. It's important to note that it's more than two months until then, which should allow Life to get back some of his old form - he's back to practising hard now, so there's always that.
He seemed to turn his ZvT into overdrive towards the end, I was very impressed by his return to form in this tourney.
On September 16 2013 05:37 Keeemy wrote: Top 4 is good <3
his path was rather easy though, dont know if i am too excited about his top 4 finish :/
His path wasn't crazy, but he showed that he's at the very least not hopeless in ZvT and his ZvZ/ZvP still have positive aspects to them. Supernova kicked out Soulkey - considered by most to have at least top 3 ZvT in the world - from OSL, so beating him is pretty good. Other than that, a top 4 ensures a seed at DH:W, the more important tournament. It's important to note that it's more than two months until then, which should allow Life to get back some of his old form - he's back to practising hard now, so there's always that.
He seemed to turn his ZvT into overdrive towards the end, I was very impressed by his return to form in this tourney.
Honestly we can't fault him for having a bad series vs. Taeja, the guy made almost everyone including Innovation look silly this tournament. I think we saw legitimate improvement for Life, and from what he said about how hard he is practicing, I look forward to seeing what form his is in come Dreamhack Winter.