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Calm is one of my favorite progamers. I'm not sure exactly what it is I like about him, just sort of the amalgamation of everything he does. There is a sort of flow of gameplay that is the signature of a player - some might call it style. I like Calm's style.
Seeing Calm roflpwn Piano recently (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l24YSAbxSBg&feature=player_embedded) was an instant reminder of one particularly memorable game of Starcraft. It was the first game that I ever saw Calm play.
http://www.gomtv.net/videos/265 - The epic game in question.
Some people might dislike GOMTV vods. They might dislike the commentary. They might dislike the casters themselves. They might dislike the 'atmosphere' of the tournaments or the lack of Kespa sanction. But you know what? I like the Starcraft - GOM vods are just fine with me.
When I watched this game, I was honestly enraptured. This is by no means the most epic game of Starcraft ever, but the intensity of what Calm is doing - his gameplan, his mindset, his execution, his reactions etc. - is palpable to me.
I am honestly terrible at SC, completely unable to execute even the most basic fundamentals (not enough time to put into the game) so I sort of play vicariously through watching these games. It's such a great feeling to reach into the mind of a progamer.
I was impressed with Calm's play from the very beginning, and that was the perfect reason to try to get into his head early on. I was not disappointed after watching this game.
A few reasons to watch the game in case you're wondering:
1. Guardians. Guardians are just badass.
2. Many ultra, yes? A useful skill toi have.
3. Mutalisks. Calm's mutalisk control is just immaculate. This game is a master class for mutalisk control.
4. See 2.
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The game is on Colliseum. Calm immediately sends his first overlord to the middle of the map. I like this already since most Z players at the time are sending their ovies to a natural. Sending it to the middle allows you to hedge your bets on which natural you send it to, though.
His responses and scouting early game are awesome! Look where he builds his third hatch. He only puts up one sunken vs. the initial push. Watch his incredible control in keeping this first push at bay and then dismantling it.
Throughout the game, he uses his mutalisk control to abuse the poor army control of Piano. Watch what happens to the medics when Piano moves his army towards Calm's base. At this point, I'm convinced that this guy is seriously awesome.
After some anti-drop wizardry, the game is pretty much over. But it doesn't end there. Calm forgets what map he's on and just goes with his BGH strategy. You just have to watch.
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I had an epiphany at one particular point in the game. When Piano moves up with that early push threat, he positions his mnm on top of the ramp leading to Calm's 'natural third'. He has great positioning of his medics. They are just sitting at the front of the group - precisely in the spot where they would block incoming zerglings. I thought this was so good and that Calm was basically dead after they killed off that sunken colony. But Calm just used the 'good' positioning of Piano's medics to his advantage - by target-firing them with his muta. An obvious thing to do - in hindsight. However, even after watching 1984938 games of SC, my expectations were shattered by Calm's presence of mind.
I remember this game very distinctly. I also remember trying to tell a friend to watch it afterwards. He didn't because he "doesn't watch GOMTV".
Hope someone out there enjoys this little look into the past - and a very amusing game.
 
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United States4796 Posts
Someone did enjoy it. 4/5.
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I love when people write-up what they love about their favorite players 
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Oh really great game, I hadn't seen that before.
Calm really is such an entertaining player sometimes, its awesome ^.^
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enjoyed this! good work, but if you really want to get awed by someones amazing play you should watch jaedong or flash (: or even better! the upcoming jaedong vs flash ^_^
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5/5 I love calm's bold style as well. I hope he roflstomps pure tonight ^^
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I personally don't enjoy Calm, but he's a great player and this write-up rocks. 5/5
Also his muta control is pretty standard, in zvz it can be really bad at times.
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On December 18 2009 17:07 nttea wrote:
enjoyed this! good work, but if you really want to get awed by someones amazing play you should watch jaedong or flash (: or even better! the upcoming jaedong vs flash ^_^
I think Jaedong and Flash are both stellar players. Flash lately has given us such amazing games (including the one he lost to Hyun) especially considering his much more exciting TvZ strategies (I get bored of his earlier camp and stamp styles).
It's funny that you mention Flash vs. Jaedong since that is probably the most epic of GOMTV series (besides the epicly unepic Bo5 with Bisu and Jaedong). Really, I'd encourage anyone who hasn't seen all the GOM games to go watch them. Some of them are really quite good.
But with regards to watching Jaedong and Flash:
1. I can never keep up with Jaedong. I'm not sure what he's doing or what his mindset is, why he does small things differently, what he's planning when he does something out of the ordinary - I'm just not able to follow these until after the fact, then it's like 'OHHHHHH'. Maybe if I was actually better at playing the game, I could fully appreciate Jaedong's play. It's much more interesting to me to 'follow' someone who I can connect with, someone who thinks in the manner that I do.
2. I know very little about playing Terran. No, that's a lie. I'm fucking TERRIBLE with Terran. The only real appreciation I have for them is the appreciation that their Zerg opponent has for them.
Camlito wrote:
I personally don't enjoy Calm, but he's a great player and this write-up rocks. 5/5
Also his muta control is pretty standard, in zvz it can be really bad at times.
I just remembered the game and thought I'd put a link to it and possibly get some people to watch some GOM games (because some of them seriously rock - actually I may do a thread in the future where I try to highlight some really awesome GOM games). I'm glad that everyone finds it to be good reading.
As far as Calm's muta control being standard: I have to disagree somewhat. Firstly, I was only really talking about this game in particular. His muta control is just brilliant in this game. For anyone who disagrees - ask yourself if Jaedong would have done better with his mutalisks this game.
There probably is some kind of 'standard' style which everyone is first taught when they get into a progaming house. But every player's control is subtly different. Every player spends different amounts of time doing different things. They each have their own personal priority list that determines what they do and when they do it and what they do it with.
If the mutalisk is a hammer, Jaedong's toolbox is filled with various hammers of different strengths. I got a similar impression from Hyun's game against Flash (not Hyun in general, just that one game). Hyun saw that the mutalisks had an opening and he went with it as hard as he could. He's obviously very comfortable with mutas to be able to keep going back and doing the same thing despite the risk that he could lose everything and pretty much instantly lose the game.
Now what I do to distinguish between the players is imagine that someone else is playing the game. Imagine if Calm was playing Flash instead of Hyun - what would be different? I feel like Calm's toolbox is more varied, with no one 'powerful' tool or particularly strong set of tools - but his box is slightly bigger than others'. His real strength and confidence is in his macro. So he does the normal things that any Zerg would do - he tries to find holes in defense and exploit them. But his main focus is on preserving his ability to macro. He's not the kind to do daring attacks in Terran's main. If he attacks anywhere, it's going to be a defensive attack - an attack that cuts Terran off from his expansions or distracts him from Zerg's momentary weakness.
Now I figure that Calm probably wouldn't have gone for something so map-specific (exploiting that funnel + the area behind the mineral line). He probably would have seen Flash do the fake bunker rush and treat it as an opportunity to macro even harder than he planned to do - he's the kind of guy to do something like take his third with his third hatchery or something. He would have used his muta to allow him to macro even harder. So Calm's muta control in general is not really about doing damage or attacking (though it obviously 'counts' as both of those), the motivation is really to defend.
Maybe Calm would have lost against Flash if he didn't exploit the map like Hyun did. It doesn't make Hyun a better player, it's just a difference in style between the players.
/long-winded rambling
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EPT
