|
I write this between the losers bracket final and the grand final of IPL4, to relate to you an anecdote. At the height of Stephano's dominating ZvP run (a matchup which he holds a 71.4% win rate) Protoss were looking for some answers to what appeared a very simple and solid style that the french zerg had adopted, a very fast 3 hatch combined with a consistent roach warren and evolution chamber timing in response to a forge fast expand let Stephano surge forward with a near maxed army of roaches impervious to the tickling of void rays.
The call went out to scour the internet for replays, anything that could reveal a weakness in the style that could be reliably exploited, made all the more difficult by the fact that no Protoss seemed to have strung together a consistent set of wins against the french zerg in months.
But sometimes answers come from the strangest places for just weeks prior Stephano himself had released a replay pack spanning his time in Korea for the Blizzard Cup. Contained within this mysterious pile were 6 PvZ's against someone with the id STGoboogie that fans of the early GSL's will recognize as the player now known as Squirtle.
What was clear from even a cursory skim of the games was that the artist formerly known as Goboogie didn't have some amazing strategical insight, a trick, or a cheese designed to counter Stephano, the builds were as standard as they were varied as time after time after time the Protoss player managed to pull out wins, his execution consistently carrying him through as he landed better forcefields, did more damage with his harass, and got his third much faster than his peers.
"Random code a korean beats top foreigner" might be the headline of every sarcastic Starcarft 2 tabloid from beta until the end of time, but a lot has changed since his days of heavy ladder dominance, Squirtle has breached code-S demolishing his up and down group with a 4-0 record, he sits now as the only player from the open bracket of IPL4 to survive until the final day having taken out MMA, Marineking, Bomber, and Nestea and he stands on the brink of his first title.
This Squirtle might be evolving...
|
he is going to make a lot of random terran players on the ladders sad for the next week or so. thats for sure.
|
Squirtle actually has been around for a while, gaining fame in the GSTL, and getting 3rd at IEM WC last year. But yes, this has been quite a great run for him.
|
On April 09 2012 14:12 Bagration wrote:
Squirtle actually has been around for a while, gaining fame in the GSTL, and getting 3rd at IEM WC last year. But yes, this has been quite a great run for him.
Yeah, definitely, I don't mean to imply he came from nowhere (though apparently some people in the live report seem to think that he's a no-name that doesn't deserve to be in the finals over Nestea) but I think we've definitely seen an up-tick in his play since the new year, both with his GSTL performances, his break into code-s and now this.
|
5/5 for the edit. Can't stop laughing ahahahahaha
|
|
|
squirtle is pretty dominant i was cringing in the finals though...
|
Or just give him a water stone and skip to Blastoise :>
|
Hopefully he'll evolve after his next tournament, or just come out and wreck code S.
|
Did anyone else spam B on their keyboard?
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/08iql.png)
