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With the first major victory for a foreigner at a tournament where serious, mid to top-level Koreans are competing, it seems that the gap between foreigners is making real, tangible progress towards closing. Say what you want about HuK's training schedule in Korea, but he's not the only foreigner that did well today.
Just three months ago, people were questioning whether a foreigner would ever win an MLG. Hell, some people were betting against any foreigners making the top 6 for the rest of the year. It's true that Koreans still disproportionally represent the top of the championship bracket, but it really doesn't seem that far out of reach anymore.
If IdrA and HuK can get top 4 at MLG, I have no doubt that Naniwa, Thorzain, and other foreigners at the top level can go to Korea and maybe even make a GSL finals someday.
And lose to whichever IM player decides to win it this time, but that's what Koreans do too.
 
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Smix
United States4549 Posts
slasher = kim carrier of sc2
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who is this slasher guy anyways? never heard of him till today
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On October 17 2011 12:57 Roe wrote:
who is this slasher guy anyways? never heard of him till today
former quake player turned esports advocate who hates being called zlasher.
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slasher is the opposite of the artosis curse.
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I think partially it really might be that they're starting to catch up on practice, but also there was a fair amount of overlap between IEM, the redbull lan for some people, training for IPL, and then immediately going to MLG. Basically, there hasn't been any time for people to "get worse", or slump, from not playing as much...because they've effectively been forced to play a lot against a high amount of competition consistently. I think for any season this will probably end up being true; the later in the season we get, the more we'll see foreigners improve, because they're forced to play closer to a korean schedule just from the tournaments.
At the same time though, I wouldn't say that the gap has decreased at all really. When a decent amount of foreigners can go toe to toe with MKP and Bomber...maybe. But right now it's too much of an achievement to even knock a single game off of them, except for people like HuK and Idra and...idk who else really, and it's just because they're monsters in thier own right and actually DO train crazy hard and are dedicated as hell.
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forget him, he will only make you angry if you look into him
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[Spoilers incoming]
IdrA beating Bomber (especially game one... best TvZ I've ever seen) made me incredibly happy. Stephano, IdrA, HuK, Thorzain, and Naniwa have all kicked ass in the foreigner vs. Korean scene, and I'm confident that these players can continue to do so!
When someone takes down MVP or Nestea though... that will be when the world stops turning 
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On October 17 2011 13:15 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:[Spoilers incoming] IdrA beating Bomber (especially game one... best TvZ I've ever seen) made me incredibly happy. Stephano, IdrA, HuK, Thorzain, and Naniwa have all kicked ass in the foreigner vs. Korean scene, and I'm confident that these players can continue to do so! When someone takes down MVP or Nestea though... that will be when the world stops turning
MVP and Nestea have the luxury of us only seeing them in 1 tournament (other than when MVP roflstomped MLG real quick). I would love to see MVP and Nestea dominate as hard playing as often and as publicly (including replays being everywhere) as almost any other pro.
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On October 17 2011 13:03 LuckyFool wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2011 12:57 Roe wrote:
who is this slasher guy anyways? never heard of him till today former quake player turned esports advocate who hates being called zlasher.
Best description of Slasher ever
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On October 17 2011 13:19 Mattchew wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2011 13:15 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:[Spoilers incoming] IdrA beating Bomber (especially game one... best TvZ I've ever seen) made me incredibly happy. Stephano, IdrA, HuK, Thorzain, and Naniwa have all kicked ass in the foreigner vs. Korean scene, and I'm confident that these players can continue to do so! When someone takes down MVP or Nestea though... that will be when the world stops turning MVP and Nestea have the luxury of us only seeing them in 1 tournament (other than when MVP roflstomped MLG real quick). I would love to see MVP and Nestea dominate as hard playing as often and as publicly (including replays being everywhere) as almost any other pro.
I agree. I suppose they're too busy playing that GSL game thingy over there in Korea or something  Tsk tsk.
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On October 17 2011 13:22 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2011 13:19 Mattchew wrote:On October 17 2011 13:15 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:[Spoilers incoming] IdrA beating Bomber (especially game one... best TvZ I've ever seen) made me incredibly happy. Stephano, IdrA, HuK, Thorzain, and Naniwa have all kicked ass in the foreigner vs. Korean scene, and I'm confident that these players can continue to do so! When someone takes down MVP or Nestea though... that will be when the world stops turning MVP and Nestea have the luxury of us only seeing them in 1 tournament (other than when MVP roflstomped MLG real quick). I would love to see MVP and Nestea dominate as hard playing as often and as publicly (including replays being everywhere) as almost any other pro. I agree. I suppose they're too busy playing that GSL game thingy over there in Korea or something Tsk tsk.
this is not to say they arent the 2 best players in the world because they are. I'm just saying that they play in a tournament where they get to prepare for awhile on 1 matchup and a specific player.
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On October 17 2011 13:03 LuckyFool wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2011 12:57 Roe wrote:
who is this slasher guy anyways? never heard of him till today former quake player turned esports advocate who hates being called zlasher.
He's been on the esports train forevvvvvvvver... him and djwheat are serious esports oldschool.
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On October 17 2011 13:27 Mattchew wrote:Show nested quote +On October 17 2011 13:22 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:On October 17 2011 13:19 Mattchew wrote:On October 17 2011 13:15 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:[Spoilers incoming] IdrA beating Bomber (especially game one... best TvZ I've ever seen) made me incredibly happy. Stephano, IdrA, HuK, Thorzain, and Naniwa have all kicked ass in the foreigner vs. Korean scene, and I'm confident that these players can continue to do so! When someone takes down MVP or Nestea though... that will be when the world stops turning MVP and Nestea have the luxury of us only seeing them in 1 tournament (other than when MVP roflstomped MLG real quick). I would love to see MVP and Nestea dominate as hard playing as often and as publicly (including replays being everywhere) as almost any other pro. I agree. I suppose they're too busy playing that GSL game thingy over there in Korea or something Tsk tsk. this is not to say they arent the 2 best players in the world because they are. I'm just saying that they play in a tournament where they get to prepare for awhile on 1 matchup and a specific player.
Well I do think you're ignoring the group stages where they have to still place well in their brackets (preparing against multiple players and all races Zerg and Terran... lol there are no Protosses), but yes I see your point
The skill level against Korean Terrans is significantly higher than 95% of anyone at MLGs or other foreign tournaments, but they might get caught off guard and it would be cool to see them play foreigners Maybe it's a money issue for them ::shrugs::
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Nothing has really changed. Koreans love terran and love aggression. With the nerfs to rax building time and BFH that takes away many of the things Koreans used to abuse foreigners to death with. With the lone exception of Stephano, I think the skill level overall between the scenes is still the same.
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On October 17 2011 12:53 Smix wrote:
slasher = kim carrier of sc2
looooooooooooool
so true
except Kim Carrier didn't bet body parts.
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On October 17 2011 14:46 Ryusei-R1 wrote:looooooooooooool so true except Kim Carrier didn't bet body parts.
He'd be quadruple amputee by now...
I like where it's at now, the matches are actually interesting and upsets are expected. Look at Gatored at IEM, defeating DRG certainly was surprising, same as destroying TOP 3-0. I still think koreans are better at abusing every single advantage they can get, but that's Blizzard's job to fix.
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At this point I think it remains to be seen whether foreigners in general can compete or if only the top top tier of foreigners who spend/spent an extraordinary amount of time in Korea (such as Huk/Idra/all those you mentioned) will be able to compete.
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On October 17 2011 12:52 lolsixtynine wrote:
With the first major victory for a foreigner at a tournament where serious, mid to top-level Koreans are competing, it seems that the gap between foreigners is making real, tangible progress towards closing. Say what you want about HuK's training schedule in Korea, but he's not the only foreigner that did well today.
Just three months ago, people were questioning whether a foreigner would ever win an MLG. Hell, some people were betting against any foreigners making the top 6 for the rest of the year. It's true that Koreans still disproportionally represent the top of the championship bracket, but it really doesn't seem that far out of reach anymore.
If IdrA and HuK can get top 4 at MLG, I have no doubt that Naniwa, Thorzain, and other foreigners at the top level can go to Korea and maybe even make a GSL finals someday.
And lose to whichever IM player decides to win it this time, but that's what Koreans do too.
Err I agree with you but Huk won dreamhack with a pretty good lineup of koreans
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We can't jump to such conclusions after a couple of tournament titles. Yes, foreigners are doing much better, but when we think about it huk was always good but he only got THIS GOOD when he started training in Korea. Idra as well. Idk, it just seems sometimes like the Korean players are coming to these foreign events and they're just having fun here. Looks to me like they aren't coming for the titles at all. Ofc, winning is always great, but take MKP @ MLG Orlando for example. The reddit community donated money for him to go there and he didn't really play the top level of terran at all, but the way he did play.... he was definitely paying his fans back with those strategies.
I'm saying that the way I see it is that if the skill gap might have narrowed a bit, yes, but it's far from being gone. And it won't be gone until sc2 will be perceived in the west as it is in Korea.
For me personally, this little rivalry of Korea-vs-the-World gives a lot of charm to the scene.
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I think that Huk doing well in tourament is more of a testament to how much the foreigners are behind in terms of practice and the infrastructure. Huk is competing with Koreans because he is practicing as Koreans practice. He had a coach and team living with him to help out with his understanding of the game for about a year or so (of course he left to join EG).
The gap is certainly there and it can only be crossed when you walk the same path that Huk chose to take. You have to go to Korea and practice with a korean team.
I think that the rate of improvement from the Koreans will quickly outpace the rate of improvement of the foreigner scene and it's only natural.
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EPT
