Grack is back. Starcraft 2's most popular player took his second major LAN victory at Guangzhou. No smiling allowed.
Idra's defeat of Puma three to nil was one of the greatest upsets Starcraft 2 has ever seen. In fact, it was so surprising many community members speculated that Puma threw the series.
More important than the result, Idra showed he's capable of defeating top level Koreans in lengthy games without grabbing an advantage early; Idra's games against Revival on Metalopolis and Puma on T'al Darim Altar were stable for both players until the very late game.
Finishing up with Idra, he's finally playing out games to the Mr. Bitter end. Even as Elfi's Zealots were chomping through his infrastructure and Phoenix were David Copperfielding his Hydras (with defeat inevitable) Idra began setting up a fourth and rebuilding his tech.
Elfi took second place through a combination of Four Gates, fake four Gates, Dark Templars, and Colossus turtling. His group stage results, and Warcraft 3 past, show he's talented. But he wasn't the second best player at the Lan.
JYP? Just Your average Protoss. Squirtle, Alicia, and Seed would like to welcome you to the club. Something tells me Sage will be joining shortly.
Hasuobs, however, played solidly throughout the tournament. Instead of fawning over unproven GSTL and Code A players, Tosses should be looking to Hasuobs, Mana, or Socke for help.
Speaking of Hasuobs, Puma was able to completely dictate how Hasuobs played. Using the 1-1-1, the 1-1-1 with fast cloak, the fake 1-1-1 and double expo, two rax pressure, and one rax expansion, Puma was able to dismantle every Protoss he faced; he always entered mid-game with a large lead.
On the 1-1-1, it reminds of tank cliffing TvP on Lost Temple in Broodwar. Protoss couldn't scout if it was coming, so they had to open Robotics on 20. But if Terran 1 factory expanded, Protoss simply had to concede the advantage.
The crowd was unresponsive. Events should hire hosts who speak the native language, then translate to English for the stream viewers.
To conclude, I'm not sure if IEM is a better LAN than MLG, but I do know that Android Porn
is a lot more palatable than Hot Pockets Sideshots
1-1-1 needs to be removed from this game. If terran are unable to win after that, we can adjust balance accordingly, but as it currently stands, it just ruins the game.
1. Indeed. Hoping people will shut up about it now
2. Greatest upset in SC2? No, I think easily the greatest upset was Losira winning against Neste- Oh wait. No, it was TOP totally owning MVp- err... Ok I guess maybe you're semi-right, I'd say some of the TSL3 matches, namely Thorzain vs. FD (people still thought FD was a tip top tier player at this point) and Adel vs MVP. Though as far as finals go, I think you're pretty much right.
3. I still say IdrA has something left to prove before he gets as recognized as a top player as he was back in his "GSL prime". Namely, I'd like him to get something done in Korea when he gets there.
4. I didn't get to watch all of IdrA's games, but this sounds great.
5. Again, didn't get to watch all of his games, but this sounds somewhat biased... I think if he got to the finals he deserves to be there, regardless of how much he cheesed/did all in stuff. A winning tactic is a winning tactic. If he kept winning with these stupid DT's and 4gates, it's his opponents fault imo.
6. Hahaha NO, not happening. At the very least not the sage part
7. The European playstyle is very interesting, especially Stephano's in my opinion, the way he seems to always be maxed ridiculously early and have a huge economy to rely upon is very fascinating, but most of these players aren't near the level of koreans, and aren't in Korea. Even if they're good this early in SC2, they will be flushed out if they don't have the level of practice that koreans have.
A good example is a certain Guillaume Patry, who was a really good foreigner protoss in SC1, being the only foreigner in the 12-year long history of Starcraft 1 to win a Starleague (keep in mind that winning a starleague means a lot more than winning a GSL) and generally be a top contender in the scene. However, he didn't get that good by practicing a ton, it was because at the time the game was still being figured out (it still is to be honest) and he basically outsmarted his opponent by a lot. As soon as more koreans who practiced a ton and had decent mechanics hit the scene, he was flushed out due to not being as dedicated.
And so, due to inconsistent practice, the gap between Koreans and Foreigners grows bigger each day.
ALSO, being in Code A proves A TON. 4-killing and beating MVP + Nestea back to back in GSTL also proves a TON, a ton more than foreigner protoss have ever proven. I'm not trying to disrespect Europeans, I love them to death, but I doubt any of them will be the Bisu of SC2.
8. Puma's pretty good, people give him flak for using 1-1-1 sometimes but they're mostly just protoss who are a little angry
9. Good analogy I suppose, I think I've officially switched to Terran despite not being able to play much SC2. Not because I've "given up hope" or think it's imbalanced, but because I think it suits how I want to play the game more. I play a lot of BW nowadays too, as terran. Lots of fun ^_^
10. I've heard chinese fans are really awesome and energetic, if there were translation problems I could understand a lack of enthusiasm.
11. Hot pockets?... I thought our commercials were bad, sheesh!
JYP? Just Your average Protoss. Squirtle, Alicia, and Seed would like to welcome you to the club. Something tells me Sage will be joining shortly.
Hasuobs, however, played solidly throughout the tournament. Instead of fawning over unproven GSTL and Code A players, Tosses should be looking to Hasuobs, Mana, or Socke for help.
I respectfully disagree with your distinction between hasuobs and the rest of these guys. Hasu basically turtles up, plays unbelievably passive and collossi turtles up. I think toss's should be looking at themselves for inspiration because there is no true leader in terms of playstyle yet
On October 05 2011 04:34 -_- wrote: [*] Hasuobs, however, played solidly throughout the tournament. Instead of fawning over unproven GSTL and Code A players, Tosses should be looking to Hasuobs, Mana, or Socke for help.
are you suggesting that Hasu, Mana or Socke would, with their playstyles, be more succesful in GSTL/code A than JYP/Sage?
I disagree with your evaluation that Puma and Revival are "top level koreans", although Idra did certainly give a very strong showing at IEM, it remains to be seen how he fares against the actual top level koreans (MVP, Nestea, Bomber, etc)
This is also the tournaments where I became a fan of Mr. Bitter. Unfortunately I wasn't his biggest fan after MLG but I really enjoyed him and Rotterdam together (always loved Rotty).
Blatant foreigner-fanboyism and wearing the nerd-heart on the nerd-sleeve always endear me to casters. Keep up the good work guys!
You went on to say elfi turtles up then went on to say protoss should look at hasuobs on how to play.
He beat YHY and PiG in group stages and played turtle-like versus dimaga. He's the most passive toss player that I've seen play even before this tournament. (I have nothing against turtling btw)
On October 05 2011 06:25 Flaccid wrote: Nice post, face guy =)
This is also the tournaments where I became a fan of Mr. Bitter. Unfortunately I wasn't his biggest fan after MLG but I really enjoyed him and Rotterdam together (always loved Rotty).
Blatant foreigner-fanboyism and wearing the nerd-heart on the nerd-sleeve always endear me to casters. Keep up the good work guys!
On October 05 2011 05:55 Oreo7 wrote: I stopped reading when you said hasu, mana, socke > Sage, Alica and Jyp -_-.
I'm not sure about Sage yet. But I do think Mana and Hasu, and maybe Socke are better players than Alicia and JYP.
No. No they're not. And it's hilarious you think that. Mana hasu and socke would never take games off MKP or DRG (maybe Mana off mkp). I have no idea why you think this, Hasu and socke are good, but they're not even best protoss in europe, I can't think of the last time I saw socke place really high in something, and this result is really meh for Hasu. I have no idea how you can say they're on the level of Code A/S Protosses.
On October 05 2011 05:55 Oreo7 wrote: I stopped reading when you said hasu, mana, socke > Sage, Alica and Jyp -_-.
I'm not sure about Sage yet. But I do think Mana and Hasu, and maybe Socke are better players than Alicia and JYP.
No. No they're not. And it's hilarious you think that. Mana hasu and socke would never take games off MKP or DRG (maybe Mana off mkp). I have no idea why you think this, Hasu and socke are good, but they're not even best protoss in europe, I can't think of the last time I saw socke place really high in something, and this result is really meh for Hasu. I have no idea how you can say they're on the level of Code A/S Protosses.
While we're on this discussion.
Suppose that it really was Mana, Hasu, Socke >>> JYP/Sage/OtherCodeAProtosses Weren't Naniwa and Sase top EU protoss before going to korea? look how they got demolished. Hence, I (like yourself) find it ridiculous to claim that Hasuobs and Socke would be rocking code A right now.
EPT
