14-1-6 is not the kind of record you typically expect from a tournament champion, but IEM Cologne was anything but a typical tournament. The fourth and final day stretched on for over fifteen hours and included just about everything a viewer could want: spectacular comebacks, dramatic upsets, a draw, and more epic games than anyone had ever packed into a single tournament day.
While it was a fantastic experience for the fans, the marathon final day could only have been an ordeal for the players involved. In the end, only one player would receive the champion's trophy as a reward for his effort. Liquid's HerO had come into the tournament as something of an underdog due to a string of mediocre tournament results behind him (top 16 ASUS ROG, top 12 DH: Winter, top 8 HSC8). However, HerO put together what was perhaps the most impressive run of his career to claim his first championship since 2013's WCS America Season 1. Fantastic PvT was the backbone of HerO's success as he took out Mill.ForGG, Acer.INnoVation, EG.Jaedong, and finally CMStorm_Polt to take first place.
The difficulty level quickly ramped up for HerO once he hit Jaedong in the semifinals. After taking a 2-1 lead in a series of quick games, HerO allowed Jaedong to tie up the series 2-2 at the end of a long game on Heavy Rain. HerO decided to gamble on the fifth and final set with heavy zealot aggression in the early game, but quickly came to regret it as Jaedong defended himself easily with zerglings. Staring elimination in the face, HerO reloaded with immortals and sentries for a last ditch effort to salvage the series. Through a combination of precise micro on HerO's side and mistakes on Jaedong's end, HerO managed to wear Jaedong down with a neverending all-in. With Jaedong's GG, HerO was able to breath a sigh of relief.
In the other semifinal, Polt survived his own near-death encounter with Rain to reach the final. Though Rain constantly bullied Polt in straight up engagements, Polt's superior ability to manuver his troops around the map proved to be the key to victory. With incisive drops and backdoor attacks, Polt cracked apart Rain's famed defenses to take a close 3-2 victory and secure a spot in the grand finals.
Rain and Polt shake hands before their semifinal match.
The traditional curse of StarCraft 2 is for amazing tournaments to end on lackluster finals, but IEM Cologne would break the mold. What seemed like an easy game one win for HerO was quickly turned around by Polt who initiated a base trade and proceeded to float his buildings away. Left with a superior army but no way to kill Polt's buildings, HerO was forced to accept Polt's offer of a draw and regame.
From there, the best-of-seven final would closely follow the pattern of the earlier Rain vs. Polt series. Polt found it difficult to engage HerO head on once templars were out in numbers but used his mobility to make up for it. Dropships combined with small detachments of ground troops tested HerO's reaction speed, positioning, and ability anticipate where the next attack would come. In a couple of games, HerO crumbled dramatically against Polt's incessant prodding. Most notably, HerO threw away a massive advantage on Daedalus Point as Polt yanked the so-called 'defenders' around on a leash while killing four nexuses in the span of a minute.
But unlike Rain, HerO was able to persevere until the end. Additionally, his own bent toward harassment and guerrilla warfare played a key factor as well. Though lacking the building demolishing power of Polt's marauders, HerO's zealots and high templars made sure Polt was always busy replenishing his SCV count.
HerO almost seemed overcautious at times on the sixth (seventh including the draw) and final game on Polar Night, afraid of the havoc Polt could wreak if his troops were caught out of position for a moment. However, the slow and steady approach worked out for HerO in the end. He deflected Polt's drops just effectively enough to keep himself stable while whittling down Polt's economy with warp-ins. Polt found himself forced to go for more and more audacious drops which began to backfire. Once HerO determined he had an insurmountable advantage in both economy and army, he went in for the kill and collected the final GG of the tournament.
With the win, HerO claimed the champion's trophy, $10,000, and a spot in the upcoming $100,000 IEM World Championship.
Random notes and parting thoughts
A hero has won the last three IEM tournaments.
It's so easy to forget the other entertaining games after the drama of the final day. StarDust vs. Polt was particularly well received, but there were plenty of other games that would have been stand-out games in any other tournament...
...but that goes to show just how insanely good the tournament was from the quarterfinals on. Without exaggeration, IEM Cologne's day four might be the best tournament day in StarCraft 2 history in terms of sheer entertainment value. Check out the VODs when they're up!
Shoutouts to qxc and Ret for being great at the caster's desk and at the analyst's monitor.
Shoutouts to MaNa and HasuObs for beating Jaedong and San respectively.
It's really hard to knock Polt's play after the incredible games he showed. but if we had to criticize him, his ghost micro could have been better. Which is not to say it was bad; it just wasn't as good as some other Terrans whose ghosts are like PDD's that shoot emps.
It's seriously so awesome to see HerO genuinely happy again. This tournament run was honestly sick as fuck. Especially after a few failed tries in the last couple tournaments, I'm sure this is a massive confidence booster and a reminder that he's still a champion and can take on the best of the best. He retakes his place as one of the best protoss in the world.
...but that goes to show just how insanely good the tournament was from the quarterfinals on. Without exaggeration, IEM Cologne's day four might be the best tournament day in StarCraft 2 history in terms of sheer entertainment value. Check out the VODs when they're up!
hmm I haven''t payed attention to starcraft in a while, was there any particular group or group match that you guys think I should try to watch? or just the final bracket? :D
Congratulations HerO! What an amazing final day to an amazing tournament. The quality of games was so high throughout, really looking forward to the next few events
A lot of people who were upset about the result rated the games as poor, which I have done in the past when I was upset so I can't blame them. Still the series is well worth a watch
that game 5 between hero and JD is extremely rage inducing but I can see why people will like it. Damn it hydras are horrible.
also the whole tournament was really amazing, one of the best I have ever watched in years. RO8 onwards are all worth watching imo except the innovation vs hero series. (yes, even that JD vs Hero game 5 was amazing, very intense for the series)
On February 17 2014 13:19 Complete wrote: hmm I haven''t payed attention to starcraft in a while, was there any particular group or group match that you guys think I should try to watch? or just the final bracket? :D
I can't help but feel the entire tournament was fantastic, but I didn't watch 100% of the tournament on the first day but the entirety of today (ro8 on I think?) was incredible imo.
damn was really hoping for a JD/Polt rematch. I still have hopes for JD to take one of the last two qualifier spots! Congrats to Hero though well deserved win
The first two games were underwhelming overall so I can see why the whole series wasn't rated high. Plus there were the balance whiners hurting the pools.
Amazing competition...was really great,,,Terrans, Zergs, Protosses all there playing insanely well....I have to say the state of HoTS is incredible....
JD got manhandled by Hero in game 5...and Polt showed the Power of Terran to the world again...Although Hero was able to break him down.
lovely play all round though! Was a pleasure to watch!
The first two games were underwhelming overall so I can see why the whole series wasn't rated high. Plus there were the balance whiners hurting the pools.
Yeah that is true. I just figured so many people would be recommending that final game that it would make it anyway.
On February 17 2014 13:19 Complete wrote: hmm I haven''t payed attention to starcraft in a while, was there any particular group or group match that you guys think I should try to watch? or just the final bracket? :D
Group stage: Polt vs protoss Polt vs protoss From Ro8 onward: Polt vs protoss Polt vs protoss Polt vs protoss
Congrats to HerO! Watching Jaedong lose that game 5 was so heartbreaking though. He defeated the all-in, was up a base and like 20+ army supply on top of the worker supply difference then he ended up making mistakes and HerO just kept building his army with more sentries, immortals and micro'd till Jaedong had nothing left. You can just tell how Jaedong was feeling after he lost that game from his view.
Polt's play was also pretty sad to watch. I always remembered that he had much better decision making and micro and against someone like HerO who keeps doing ht drops, he shouldn't have lost anywhere near the amount of SCVs that he did. He also sat in storms for way too long and didn't split much in some cases eating full storms. That was disappointing to watch lol. His 4 nexus swipe was something that I would recommend to watch though!
dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
On February 17 2014 15:43 Kosak wrote: dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
What is wrong about showing some emotions after a victory ? Wouldn't you be happy if your hard work pays off ?
On February 17 2014 13:46 Divinesia wrote: At some point it seemed p-p finals for sure. Glad not this time. JD vs Polt finals would`ve made this tournament perfect.
Finals were perfect. Polt's TvP is something beyond
On February 17 2014 15:43 Kosak wrote: dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
I'd be crying to if I just won a stack of dirty dirty money.
On February 17 2014 15:43 Kosak wrote: dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
I'm sure you've heard this before but most people have emotions. When they win a lucrative international event against the best in their field and justify their choice of livelihood, it's a big deal for them.
On February 17 2014 13:46 Divinesia wrote: At some point it seemed p-p finals for sure. Glad not this time. JD vs Polt finals would`ve made this tournament perfect.
Finals were perfect. Polt's TvP is something beyond
I was rooting for Classic and never expected him to lose to Polt coz Classic had the godly TvP and was unstoppable last months I thought it were nerves but then Rain also lost in crazy macro games so I was extremely surprised and sad that proleague.players were eliminated but Polt play was incredible I am disappointed that my fav player at the end vent was eliminated but respect Polt for such entertaining games.
Damn I quoted myself if someone can plz merge my posts
It was a great day yesterday, im very glad about that hero won the tournament but in the same time im Little bit mad about jaedong, he was my favourite.
On February 17 2014 13:19 Complete wrote: hmm I haven''t payed attention to starcraft in a while, was there any particular group or group match that you guys think I should try to watch? or just the final bracket? :D
The Polt vs Rain and HerO vs Jeadong series in the semies were one of the most amazing Starcraft 2 matches I ever watched.
On February 17 2014 15:43 Kosak wrote: dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
These guys played for over 10 hours of intense matches dude they have constant mindset switches and have to deal with a lot of mindgames and pressure in general. You would be on your knees after 5 hours probably...
On February 17 2014 13:46 Divinesia wrote: At some point it seemed p-p finals for sure. Glad not this time. JD vs Polt finals would`ve made this tournament perfect.
Yes and i became so disappointed in JD when he threw the last game by engaging of creep outside of spines
On February 17 2014 15:43 Kosak wrote: dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
On February 17 2014 16:56 litlnoobs wrote: No mention of the 1hr+ delay thanks to Blizzard's decision to not include LAN? We really letting them off the hook that easy?
Blizzard will probably implement LAN by 2025 by the time SCIII comes out On a more serious note, yes, that delay was pretty bad(wasn't 1+ hr though) but that was due to some technical issue(server maintenance or something) which could have been avoided so I wouldn't necessarily blame lack of LAN for it(not that LAN wouldn't have helped).
On February 17 2014 15:43 Kosak wrote: dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
cmon, he's still pretty young and as mentioned, he hasn't won anything in a while. Infact, I've completed written HerO off at this point but then he took down hard opponents and reminded me that he still exists and will continue to be a contender for a championship yet again.
Legendary players, huge games, (almost) balanced races, drama, tears, nails bitten. Everything was gathered for a great tournament and we had it. Too bad these technical issues made the viewers count drop by 33%.
On February 17 2014 17:11 Ragnarork wrote: Gratz HerO !
A bit sad for Polt though, seeing him winning against Rain gave me so much confidence in him winning the tournament...
Oh and what was that drama I missed ? (Wait, I'll get my pitchfork).
Jaedong losing game 5 to HerO after beating his all in and being up in army/worker supply? It was quite disappointing to say the least but Jaedong shouldn't have throw away his lead by losing 15-20 roaches on 2 gateways and an immortal.
The whole tournament was really high level play. I actually enjoyed this tournament way more than any GSL group so far or Proleague playoffs. But this would be so much better if Polt managed to eliminate the last standing protoss as well.
On February 17 2014 17:11 Ragnarork wrote: Gratz HerO !
A bit sad for Polt though, seeing him winning against Rain gave me so much confidence in him winning the tournament...
Oh and what was that drama I missed ? (Wait, I'll get my pitchfork).
Jaedong losing game 5 to HerO after beating his all in and being up in army/worker supply? It was quite disappointing to say the least but Jaedong shouldn't have throw away his lead by losing 15-20 roaches on 2 gateways and an immortal.
Oh okay. I missed quite a few games of the semis (I'll check the VODs then). Thanks
EDIT: Ooooh I knew about it in fact, thanks to R1CH hahaha !
On February 17 2014 15:43 Kosak wrote: dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
How do you know hes not seeking for help? He has stated many times that he has. Some health issues havent been solved by medicine you know. You will grow up and feel this first hand, although I wish you wont have to. Especially after 35yo you'll see.
On a second note, the tournament had very good games, but I DO NOT UNDERSTAND in ANY WAY why they dont START the tournaments EARLIER FFS. They lost 30k viewers because of the time, maybe more. The delay played little part. Start the damn tournament earlier Im at work having 4 hours of sleep and its not the first time.
this IEM delivered beyond my imagination, i would have personally loved Polt to win, but he really showed a brilliant TvP style. Congratulations to Hero!
On February 17 2014 16:56 litlnoobs wrote: No mention of the 1hr+ delay thanks to Blizzard's decision to not include LAN? We really letting them off the hook that easy?
AFAIK HerO could not log in. As long as you have to be logged in the LAN actually does not help because how the hell LAN helps if you cannot log in to use it?
HERO!!!!! YEAH! I'm so sad I could not wathc because of the delay After the work vods ^_^ Yaaaaay
On February 17 2014 18:39 MirageTaN wrote: That game 5 vs Jaedong definitely a MUST WATCH for EVERYONE
No, not really for everyone. And this isn't balance whining, Jaedong made such stupid mistakes and decisions that he lost easily won game because Yaonsu is Protoss favored map, and such mistakes are heavy punishable.
On February 17 2014 17:11 Ragnarork wrote: Gratz HerO !
A bit sad for Polt though, seeing him winning against Rain gave me so much confidence in him winning the tournament...
Oh and what was that drama I missed ? (Wait, I'll get my pitchfork).
Jaedong losing game 5 to HerO after beating his all in and being up in army/worker supply? It was quite disappointing to say the least but Jaedong shouldn't have throw away his lead by losing 15-20 roaches on 2 gateways and an immortal.
Oh okay. I missed quite a few games of the semis (I'll check the VODs then). Thanks
EDIT: Ooooh I knew about it in fact, thanks to R1CH hahaha !
I usually hate Protoss as much as anybody but this tournament was just about great players making great games. Hero might be a bit cheese but who would blame him? Rain, Polt, JD would have also deserved to win.
On February 17 2014 18:39 MirageTaN wrote: That game 5 vs Jaedong definitely a MUST WATCH for EVERYONE
No, not really for everyone. And this isn't balance whining, Jaedong made such stupid mistakes and decisions that he lost easily won game because Yaonsu is Protoss favored map, and such mistakes are heavy punishable.
Well, only mistake I saw was building Hydras. That game was the showcase game to DK for planned Hydra buffs.
On February 17 2014 19:32 marvellosity wrote: First time in a long time I had the chance to sit down for a whole day and watch a tournament... what an unbelievable day of Starcraft.
This! Jinro's post hit it on the head StarCraft 2 has never been this good to watch! I love it! Also HERO WON!!!!!!!!!!
On February 17 2014 18:39 MirageTaN wrote: That game 5 vs Jaedong definitely a MUST WATCH for EVERYONE
No, not really for everyone. And this isn't balance whining, Jaedong made such stupid mistakes and decisions that he lost easily won game because Yaonsu is Protoss favored map, and such mistakes are heavy punishable.
Well, only mistake I saw was building Hydras. That game was the showcase game to DK for planned Hydra buffs.
The hydra buff would give JD 10 more hydra but he would still lose and the immortal would have 80 kills.
On February 17 2014 15:43 Kosak wrote: dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
How do you know hes not seeking for help? He has stated many times that he has. Some health issues havent been solved by medicine you know. You will grow up and feel this first hand, although I wish you wont have to. Especially after 35yo you'll see.
On a second note, the tournament had very good games, but I DO NOT UNDERSTAND in ANY WAY why they dont START the tournaments EARLIER FFS. They lost 30k viewers because of the time, maybe more. The delay played little part. Start the damn tournament earlier Im at work having 4 hours of sleep and its not the first time.
they lost 30k viewers because Jaedong lost to Hero
On February 17 2014 15:43 Kosak wrote: dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
How do you know hes not seeking for help? He has stated many times that he has. Some health issues havent been solved by medicine you know. You will grow up and feel this first hand, although I wish you wont have to. Especially after 35yo you'll see.
On a second note, the tournament had very good games, but I DO NOT UNDERSTAND in ANY WAY why they dont START the tournaments EARLIER FFS. They lost 30k viewers because of the time, maybe more. The delay played little part. Start the damn tournament earlier Im at work having 4 hours of sleep and its not the first time.
they lost 30k viewers because Jaedong lost to Hero
you can't say that, it was midnight in germany when they finals started
On February 17 2014 15:43 Kosak wrote: dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
How do you know hes not seeking for help? He has stated many times that he has. Some health issues havent been solved by medicine you know. You will grow up and feel this first hand, although I wish you wont have to. Especially after 35yo you'll see.
On a second note, the tournament had very good games, but I DO NOT UNDERSTAND in ANY WAY why they dont START the tournaments EARLIER FFS. They lost 30k viewers because of the time, maybe more. The delay played little part. Start the damn tournament earlier Im at work having 4 hours of sleep and its not the first time.
they lost 30k viewers because Jaedong lost to Hero
you can't say that, it was midnight in germany when they finals started
Oh I would have stayed up for the finals if it had been JD vs Polt and I am sure tons of others would have done the same thing. Sure you can blame the time for some of them, but its no surprise that viewership peaking in the JD series and fell after he lost
This has been a really nice tournament, starting with the stacked Dual Tournament until the final bracket plenty of great games. Also a nice cast imho. HerO is such a good fighter, even when his level is at times below expected, he always comes back to show he's not done winning tournaments. A very few players can do that honestly.
Still catching up, just finished the Rain vs Jjakji games. Fantastic play from everyone involved. Not only are the games mostly macro back-and-forth slugfests, but you can see the players adapting to one another's playstyle, and really trying to outsmart each other. Polt's run-by and Obs deny, Classic incorporating a lot of Phoenixes, Jjakji dismantling Rain's Obs network, Rain being Rain. Might end up showing this RO8 to some non-SC initiates later this week.
One of the best tournament in long time IMO. Congrats to HerO and also gotta say huge thanks to IEM for releasing all the replays! Can't wait for IEM Katowice now. :D
Honestly... this was the perfect tournament. It couldn't have been any better for me as a HerO fan. The most STACKED day of amazing games I've ever had the pleasure to witness with the perfect end to it <3
On February 17 2014 15:43 Kosak wrote: dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
How do you know hes not seeking for help? He has stated many times that he has. Some health issues havent been solved by medicine you know. You will grow up and feel this first hand, although I wish you wont have to. Especially after 35yo you'll see.
On a second note, the tournament had very good games, but I DO NOT UNDERSTAND in ANY WAY why they dont START the tournaments EARLIER FFS. They lost 30k viewers because of the time, maybe more. The delay played little part. Start the damn tournament earlier Im at work having 4 hours of sleep and its not the first time.
they lost 30k viewers because Jaedong lost to Hero
Actually the viewer count dropped like 10k in the downtime between JD vs Hero and the finals but was picking back up again as the finals started until there was an hour delay due to technical issues. Maybe that had something to do with the decrease in viewers?
HerOOOO!! So nice to see him back in a giant explosion of awesome, I missed his semi and finals >.<, but I am probably going to watch the vods this weekend. Also, he looks really thin, anybody knows whats up with that? Still, HerOOO!!!!! <3
I had to watch the grand final on a vod because I was simply too pumped and exhausted from cheering on the other games yesterday. I'm a massive Polt fan, but damn it was also great to see Hero happy again. :D
On February 17 2014 15:43 Kosak wrote: dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
How do you know hes not seeking for help? He has stated many times that he has. Some health issues havent been solved by medicine you know. You will grow up and feel this first hand, although I wish you wont have to. Especially after 35yo you'll see.
On a second note, the tournament had very good games, but I DO NOT UNDERSTAND in ANY WAY why they dont START the tournaments EARLIER FFS. They lost 30k viewers because of the time, maybe more. The delay played little part. Start the damn tournament earlier Im at work having 4 hours of sleep and its not the first time.
the tournamnet already started at 12 pm, you can't go much earlier than that :/
On February 17 2014 20:44 pure.Wasted wrote: Still catching up, just finished the Rain vs Jjakji games. Fantastic play from everyone involved. Not only are the games mostly macro back-and-forth slugfests, but you can see the players adapting to one another's playstyle, and really trying to outsmart each other. Polt's run-by and Obs deny, Classic incorporating a lot of Phoenixes, Jjakji dismantling Rain's Obs network, Rain being Rain. Might end up showing this RO8 to some non-SC initiates later this week.
Evverything was great except HerO vs Inno. DONT WATCH THAT SERIES xD
On February 17 2014 15:43 Kosak wrote: dont hate my ass, but Im not happy about hero winning this, someone should tell the kid to calm down or seek help, it was a pain to watch these camera shots where he was about to cry after a game he won = wtf
congrats, you just made yourself sound like a jerk. you never been through a stacked tournament like this, never had $10k on the line, never had to travel across the world and play sc2 for 10+ straight hours. he showed his emotions and i am sure alot of us can relate to feelings of barely winning a long game.
Incredible show they put on, I enjoyed every second of the grand finales! Awesome to see a nerve wrecked and tired Liquid_HerO struggling his way to the very top! Jawdrop amazing PvT
As much as it hurt me to see JD lose to him, I have to tip my hat to Hero. He didn't exactly have an easy time in this tournament. He struggled and sweated out victories vs JD and Polt. He's an emotional player and you can see the toll this tourney took on him. I do really like emotional players who are deeply invested in the moment.
Heroes imortals HAS to be nerfed... So basically polt is strongest terran, because innovation got stomped by hero. Wow.. Well this tournament had probably most strongest matches ever!
The final day of iem was 15 hours long. It started at 6am for me... I didn't sleep the night before, expecting the tournament to be over around mid-afternoon. I stayed up through the entire thing and watched every game, and all I can say is... worth it
I've been a fan of HerO for a long time. It's always super hard to watch him play, because you feel so crushed when he loses (because you know how badly he's hurting) -- so this was just perfect. I made it in time to see him vs Jaedong and Polt, and man, by the end of it I was shouting at the computer screen! I was so excited for his wins that even my buddy who is a diehard terran player was happy (I got a few high fives, heheh).
Even the chance to attend to the IEM Grand Final is so heavily fought for, its pretty amazing. But as awesome as IEMs promise to be this year. I miss the times only a few Koreans attended to fight through the masses of foreigners.
Despite Toss being a bit ahead, this was an amazing tournament start to finish. It proves IMO that a race being a bit ahead on the power curve means nothing. The most important thing is learning how to adapt your play to attack the inherent weaknesses of another race and the opposing player in order to succeed. So much potential for games of the year here; I wasn't able to watch some bits but the Polt v Stardust games were absolutely amazing. Top to bottom quite frankly one of the best tournaments I've ever watched. Just fantastic. I can't wait to see how patience develops. Gratz to the top 8 and Hero for sealing the deal.
This tournament was so amazing that I didn't want to move from watching even to grab dinner! I was feeling a bit tired of TvP coming into the tournament, but even though the tournament was mostly TvP, I couldn't get enough even at the end. It was an amazing show of skill.
Still, I'm sad jjakji didn't win the whole thing. Guess he is saving it for Katowice where he can get his $100K
On February 18 2014 02:47 jakethesnake wrote: Congrats to HerO!
This tournament was so amazing that I didn't want to move from watching even to grab dinner! I was feeling a bit tired of TvP coming into the tournament, but even though the tournament was mostly TvP, I couldn't get enough even at the end. It was an amazing show of skill.
Still, I'm sad jjakji didn't win the whole thing. Guess he is saving it for Katowice where he can get his $100K
Was so happy to see my favourite player (HerO) play on such high level.
Whole tournament was super awesome =)) Congrats to every single player on great tournament but specially to: JaeDong, Polt, Rain, Jjakji and ofc HerO!
Was so happy when HerO beat JaeDong in semi-finals but so sad for JaeDong. His face expression showed how sad he was and his fingers dropped from 400apm to 0.
Anyway guys - keep playing this awesome game and show us much much more awesome games!
maybe I am a n00b, but HerO dropped several times with a warp prism. Why did Polt not use a sensor tower to detect those slow vehicles. 100/100 for a mmm terran in minute 13+ is not an investment compared to what you can lose - or what he did lose: Hero dropped 2 HighTempler that killed 5-8 workers with storms. So this or warping in 4-6 zealots are worth a sensor tower at least on one side.
On February 18 2014 04:43 neverlast wrote: maybe I am a n00b, but HerO dropped several times with a warp prism. Why did Polt not use a sensor tower to detect those slow vehicles. 100/100 for a mmm terran in minute 13+ is not an investment compared to what you can lose - or what he did lose: Hero dropped 2 HighTempler that killed 5-8 workers with storms. So this or warping in 4-6 zealots are worth a sensor tower at least on one side.
The answer probably wasn't as obvious to Polt in the moment as it was to us viewers. I personally believe though that sensor towers will get used more and more in the future. Being able to not get caught off guard by things coming in from any direction is really such a huge value to your game.
On February 18 2014 03:43 n1kon82 wrote: Was so happy to see my favourite player (HerO) play on such high level.
Whole tournament was super awesome =)) Congrats to every single player on great tournament but specially to: JaeDong, Polt, Rain, Jjakji and ofc HerO!
Was so happy when HerO beat JaeDong in semi-finals but so sad for JaeDong. His face expression showed how sad he was and his fingers dropped from 400apm to 0.
Anyway guys - keep playing this awesome game and show us much much more awesome games!
Patience deserves some shout out for his play, IMO. Dude looked fantastic the whole tournament.
On February 18 2014 00:57 webas wrote: Heroes imortals HAS to be nerfed... So basically polt is strongest terran, because innovation got stomped by hero. Wow.. Well this tournament had probably most strongest matches ever!
To be fair innovation got cheesed to death. Hero went full protoss early game there.
On February 18 2014 03:43 n1kon82 wrote: Was so happy to see my favourite player (HerO) play on such high level.
Whole tournament was super awesome =)) Congrats to every single player on great tournament but specially to: JaeDong, Polt, Rain, Jjakji and ofc HerO!
Was so happy when HerO beat JaeDong in semi-finals but so sad for JaeDong. His face expression showed how sad he was and his fingers dropped from 400apm to 0.
Anyway guys - keep playing this awesome game and show us much much more awesome games!
Patience deserves some shout out for his play, IMO. Dude looked fantastic the whole tournament.
On February 18 2014 04:43 neverlast wrote: maybe I am a n00b, but HerO dropped several times with a warp prism. Why did Polt not use a sensor tower to detect those slow vehicles. 100/100 for a mmm terran in minute 13+ is not an investment compared to what you can lose - or what he did lose: Hero dropped 2 HighTempler that killed 5-8 workers with storms. So this or warping in 4-6 zealots are worth a sensor tower at least on one side.
The answer probably wasn't as obvious to Polt in the moment as it was to us viewers. I personally believe though that sensor towers will get used more and more in the future. Being able to not get caught off guard by things coming in from any direction is really such a huge value to your game.
He could have seen most Prism as he often had a unit in position that saw it, but he was probably to worn out to concentrate on everything. Also the Prism is pretty fast, so the Sensor tower won't help you most of the time. Its like a giant sign stating "I plan on having no defenses here so drop here as soon as I move out". And if you saw those games you should have noticed that Polt was always out on the map. The Speed and Shield buff on the Prism made alot of possible defenses for Terran against it useless. So they will get in ... and then the Zealots already loaded in will scout if there is enough defense close while the Warpin is going on. If there are enough defensive units there you will switch mode and cancel the warpin and fly away knowing around 20 supply of the Terran is useless as long as you have your Prism, if not you will do nice damage. And while Terran Sim City often is bad for Zealots, if there are HTs in the Prism your Bio can have problems as seen in the Finals. Oh and the Sensor Tower is a free army bait if you have a Sentry with 100 energy. So Prism good unit if the Terran wants to play the split army game, especially because you can fake warpin units with it.
On February 18 2014 04:43 neverlast wrote: maybe I am a n00b, but HerO dropped several times with a warp prism. Why did Polt not use a sensor tower to detect those slow vehicles. 100/100 for a mmm terran in minute 13+ is not an investment compared to what you can lose - or what he did lose: Hero dropped 2 HighTempler that killed 5-8 workers with storms. So this or warping in 4-6 zealots are worth a sensor tower at least on one side.
The answer probably wasn't as obvious to Polt in the moment as it was to us viewers. I personally believe though that sensor towers will get used more and more in the future. Being able to not get caught off guard by things coming in from any direction is really such a huge value to your game.
He could have seen most Prism as he often had a unit in position that saw it, but he was probably to worn out to concentrate on everything. Also the Prism is pretty fast, so the Sensor tower won't help you most of the time. Its like a giant sign stating "I plan on having no defenses here so drop here as soon as I move out". And if you saw those games you should have noticed that Polt was always out on the map. The Speed and Shield buff on the Prism made alot of possible defenses for Terran against it useless. So they will get in ... and then the Zealots already loaded in will scout if there is enough defense close while the Warpin is going on. If there are enough defensive units there you will switch mode and cancel the warpin and fly away knowing around 20 supply of the Terran is useless as long as you have your Prism, if not you will do nice damage. And while Terran Sim City often is bad for Zealots, if there are HTs in the Prism your Bio can have problems as seen in the Finals. Oh and the Sensor Tower is a free army bait if you have a Sentry with 100 energy. So Prism good unit if the Terran wants to play the split army game, especially because you can fake warpin units with it.
The only reason HerO's warp prism harass was so effective is because it directly played to the style that Polt was using. There was never anything at home to defend Polt's base for a reason.. he was all over the map attacking Hero in 2-3 different places at a time. If Polt kept troops at home to defend he wouldn't have been able to put on the insane aggression that he used to win his games. This low Ghost count low Viking count style relies on constant aggression and keeping your opponent's AoE really low and Hero countered that style very well with the constant back door attacks.
On February 18 2014 04:43 neverlast wrote: maybe I am a n00b, but HerO dropped several times with a warp prism. Why did Polt not use a sensor tower to detect those slow vehicles. 100/100 for a mmm terran in minute 13+ is not an investment compared to what you can lose - or what he did lose: Hero dropped 2 HighTempler that killed 5-8 workers with storms. So this or warping in 4-6 zealots are worth a sensor tower at least on one side.
The answer probably wasn't as obvious to Polt in the moment as it was to us viewers. I personally believe though that sensor towers will get used more and more in the future. Being able to not get caught off guard by things coming in from any direction is really such a huge value to your game.
He could have seen most Prism as he often had a unit in position that saw it, but he was probably to worn out to concentrate on everything. Also the Prism is pretty fast, so the Sensor tower won't help you most of the time. Its like a giant sign stating "I plan on having no defenses here so drop here as soon as I move out". And if you saw those games you should have noticed that Polt was always out on the map. The Speed and Shield buff on the Prism made alot of possible defenses for Terran against it useless. So they will get in ... and then the Zealots already loaded in will scout if there is enough defense close while the Warpin is going on. If there are enough defensive units there you will switch mode and cancel the warpin and fly away knowing around 20 supply of the Terran is useless as long as you have your Prism, if not you will do nice damage. And while Terran Sim City often is bad for Zealots, if there are HTs in the Prism your Bio can have problems as seen in the Finals. Oh and the Sensor Tower is a free army bait if you have a Sentry with 100 energy. So Prism good unit if the Terran wants to play the split army game, especially because you can fake warpin units with it.
The only reason HerO's warp prism harass was so effective is because it directly played to the style that Polt was using. There was never anything at home to defend Polt's base for a reason.. he was all over the map attacking Hero in 2-3 different places at a time. If Polt kept troops at home to defend he wouldn't have been able to put on the insane aggression that he used to win his games. This low Ghost count low Viking count style relies on constant aggression and keeping your opponent's AoE really low and Hero countered that style very well with the constant back door attacks.
I'd argue this was probably the best tournament Starcraft 2 has seen. The depth of skill, variety of opponents, and diversity of the map pool made for some consistently epic games.
The production and quality of the casting and commentary by IEM and ESL was the best I've experienced. The only other tournament to come close was the 2013 WCS Season 3 America Finals done by NASL. I turned on WCS Korea this morning, to catch up on Group C, and I was quite disappointed in the production and casting. If only all tournaments had the quality of IEM, and the enthusiasm and knowledge Apollo, Kaelaris, ToD, Ret, FunKa, and ReDeYe. It is one thing to know the game, but another to excited by each and every decision.
It`s going to be a slap in the face to watch PL after being spoiled by the great casting. Ret`s break out performance left nothing to be desired. Him and Apollo are the perfect mix of everything. Though, they could add a Terran in qxc for the perfect trio.
On February 18 2014 23:16 DinoMight wrote: The only reason HerO's warp prism harass was so effective is because it directly played to the style that Polt was using. There was never anything at home to defend Polt's base for a reason.. he was all over the map attacking Hero in 2-3 different places at a time. If Polt kept troops at home to defend he wouldn't have been able to put on the insane aggression that he used to win his games. This low Ghost count low Viking count style relies on constant aggression and keeping your opponent's AoE really low and Hero countered that style very well with the constant back door attacks.
I think you nailed it. It was down to the balance of how much army to send out and how much to leave for defense. Just that polt did not not make a lot dmg - or at least enough to win. I recall one situation where he sniped all 3 nexi from herO but still he lost. Hero had a good defense compared to polt. 1 viking + 1 raven patrolling in front of his base to clean numerous observer & kill the warp prism coming in, might be a solution.