Much[gm]: The strategist

MisteR

Netherlands595 Posts

March 25 2010 01:20 GMT

A play with brains is best who laughs last, not win a battle.

Hi everyone, I'm MisteR. I've been thinking about making a blog post for a long time now; the time has come. If you ever feel that my writing is bad, keep in mind two things: if you translate it back into dutch it all makes sense, and reading it aloud also helps a lot.

Let's continue. Ever since that awesome person, who made his first ever blog post a beautiful story about (P)

Kal (the STX SouL protoss ace), I knew I had to make my own first blog post about my super-favourite progamer: (P)

Much.

Much[gm] is at the moment with Airforce ACE, but before that he was the long time protoss ace of CJ Entus. He is well known for his creative cheeses, and of course for building a pylon heart as an in-game ceremony against (T)

firebathero. Besides that, he's been a reasonable successful progamer, slowly on his retour.

I'm not sure when or how I became a Much fan, but I do know why. Whenever I see Much play I feel a bond between us, since he does those exact things I would've done in his situation. I'm sure everyone has a couple of progamers who match their style so perfectly, that it might've been themselves there in the booth.

Much's style is (obviously) creative protoss. I guess you could say that (P)

Nal_rA, or more recently, (P)

GosI[Flying], or possibly (P)

Horang2, are other examples of this style. It's like in football you've got footballers like Fabregas from Arsenal, Guti from Real Madrid or Pirlo from AC Milan. They are the playmakers, the creative midfielders.

But besides his style, it is also his personality, that makes him stand out to me, and allows me to relate to him even more. There's a noticeable difference between progamers who have troubles with their nerves, and those who don't. We all know about (Z)

Hyuk,

Jaehoon and (T)

FrOzen: the so-called practice-bonjwas.

I believe that Much is one those as well. But what is his weakness, is also his strength: somehow, his skill, when not failing under pressure, is, like Hyuk and the others, on a whole different level than the regular progamers.

Sure there are the Jaedongs and the Flashes and the Storks, who play near perfect starcraft every week. But still I always sense that whenever Jaehoon is feeling fine (which is sadly very rarely) he produces magic. When Hyuk is on a roll, he is downright scary. When Frozen losens up a bit, he is tough as nails.

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The same with Much. He is inconsistent as hell, he loses whenever he's in a pressured situation, but, and I have to keep myself from exaggerating, when he's good, he is amazing. Much then creates never before seen cheeses, he then uses zealots in ways you'd never imagine, he then utilizes every trick in the protoss book of awesomeness... Twice!

Watching Much play is like hearing the Rhapsody in Blue. The Rhapsody is a musical piece by George Gershwin, an American composer who tried to put a bit of jazz in classical music. It is a mixture of supreme unpredictable creativity and a powerful, wonderful overlying theme.

That's exactly what goes on in a good game from Much. He'll keep his opponent constantly on the back foot, while creating an insurmountable momentum. You won't see him taking unnecessary risks. Every seemingly weird action has an underlying reason. When Much has found a weakness, he'll push it once, hard, and then ride the game out on that little advantage.

I believe that it is not (Z)

Jaedong or (T)

Flash or

Stork who play the best starcraft. I believe it is these practice bonjwas that can show the most amazing things. It does however take skill as a coach to allow them to perform. It therefore saddens my heart to see my favourite player being used as the ace player for Airforce Ace.

Much is bad with pressure and it shows. If you look over his results in the past winners league you'll immediately recognize that his coach has tried to use him as a clutch player, and it failed every time. The one time (I think it was only once) he was sent out as the first player, however, when the pressure is low, he almost performed an all-kill, easily wiping out the SKT zergs.

So let's conclude that with a plea to the Airforce Ace coach: please, send Much out only in low pressure situations! He'll win a lot then, and when his confidence grows, you can use him in more clutch moments.

But there's more from Much than that. He is also recognized as one of the best strategists in the scene. He has been credited by Stork as his prime support in winning his OSL. Besides that, he is known to provide creative builds for his team members. Flash remarked that playing against (P)

Movie, in the OSL finals, was like playing against Much.

Besides the OSL finals, where Movie used a couple of creative builds that gave him huge advantages, I also believe one can recognize the hand of Much in the last two wins from Airforce Ace. Doesn't the way that Jaedong was taken out by (T)

DarkElf, seem unusually ingenious of the admittedly cheesy, but structured terran?

Though it is mostly conjecture, since the departure of Much, CJ entus has been performing way below their standards. (T)

sKyHigh has been playing only standard lately, same with (Z)

EffOrt. Movie is stagnating as well. Was it all the mind of Much behind their unique styles? I'm exaggerating again, but I don't know how much (hehe)...

All right, let me wrap this up. Everyone has a favourite player, and for me that player is Much. Following the footsteps of Kal's greatest fan, I've tried to give my man a worthy story. I look forward to other people writing about their most beloved player!

There's life in the old hero yet...

Whiplash

United States2929 Posts

March 25 2010 01:24 GMT

Great post, I am a much fan and def a fan of creative protosses, feeling that I am one myself.

Zona

40426 Posts

March 25 2010 01:36 GMT

Thanks for sharing your passion for Much with us. That zealot drop on the mineral line was pretty neat. Then the repeat which got almost all the SCVs, that was GREAT.

flamewheel

FREEAGLELAND26782 Posts

March 25 2010 01:39 GMT

Amazing blog! Much is so funny, love watching him play.

koreasilver

9109 Posts

March 25 2010 01:40 GMT

I remember I snapped at some newbie poster for listing Much as one of his most disliked/hated players in some thread. He was a supposed CJ fan too, which fueled my rage.

rgfdxm

United States239 Posts

March 25 2010 01:44 GMT

Also remember that as long as Much was on CJ, basically every single time a protoss won a game or match and was interviewed afterward, they thanked Much for helping them practice and come up with strategies. He seemed to the player that was everybody's friend and was the strategic brains behind a lot of games that he and his team were not involved in.

3FFA

United States3931 Posts

March 25 2010 01:46 GMT

On March 25 2010 10:24 Whiplash wrote:
Great post, I am a much fan and def a fan of creative protosses, feeling that I am one myself.

have you ever tried a stove build-> a 2 stargate scout pump after losing first scout/mass zeal/ht->
when have around 6-7 scouts at least you move out with scouts and harass like with mutas(this is after having also gotten speed for scouts and only speed). I did it on blue storm a couple times and never lost lol(this is PvZ).

Once I even did mass sair/goon vs terran and only used that and 4 dts->1 da and 2dts and a shuttle and just harassed with shuttle and dts and once even caught a base completely undefended and MCed a scv and then built up to tanks and did mass tank/goon/sair and lost because my opponent got to 200/200 and I only had 155/200. I ended the game with the great quote from the Royal Stove and said " I should've won"-> 3FFA left the game.

Apexplayer

United States406 Posts

March 25 2010 02:09 GMT

Great work good sir

Vasoline73

United States7976 Posts

March 25 2010 02:40 GMT

Much never really reminded me of a practice "bonjwa" like Hyuk, Jaehoon or FrOzen (whom I all think suck by the way and are bland.) I always really liked Much and thought he was a great player and even recently he was the one who knocked Flash out of WCG Korea and that was right before going into the military.

He always reminded me of a scrappy fighter, never someone "perfect" even in practice.

His one base carrier build against Bisu, messing with FBH, and his series against Jaedong in Arena MSL always stay with me as reminders of his funny, scappy, not quite a champion but still badass, style.

GrimAngel

United States416 Posts

March 25 2010 02:41 GMT

#10

nice writeup! much is probably my favorite protoss player too!