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motbob
United States12546 Posts
Huk tweeted a photo of the Proleague stage a few minutes ago, and it made me think about the importance of tonight's match.
When the TL/EG announcement was made, most of the hype was about the formidable new team composition. Stephano, Taeja, HerO, Jaedong. Two teams that had never been in GSTL (beyond the one season Liquid-oGs partnership) were suddenly the collective favorites to win the Shinhan Proleague.
It's not surprising that the true significance of what happened got lost in the shuffle.
Foreigners used to be represented in Proleague. The Korean "AMD Dream Team" (also known as Hexatron) thrust foreigners onto the stage to represent them in teamleagues back in the 2003-2005 period. Legionnaire, Assem, Elky... those players had their moment in the spotlight, winning games on the big stage, showing that the commitment they'd made in coming to Korea wasn't for nothing.
But after 2005, no foreigner made an appearance on the Proleague stage again. Elky turned to poker. Assem and Legionnaire went home. And despite numerous attempts -- Idra, Nony, Ret, and Draco all tried -- no foreigner really ever came close to representing their team in Proleague. Koreans were too good. The teams were never serious about attracting and nurturing foreign talent (no, not even eSTRO). KeSPA obviously had no need to promote a domestically successful product outside of Korea.
But tonight, that changes. What tonight really represents is a new playing field. Jaedong and Huk playing on the same team? Flash vs Thorzain in the ace match? It could happen -- it's a Terran favored map, from what I hear! These matchups would have been unthinkable two years ago. A foreigner mentioned in the same sentence as Flash? On the same stage? A pipe dream. Yet, here we are.
 
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FREEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
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Best thing about the sc2 switch, so glad to see foreigners in the greatest team league ever. Liquid geniuses fighting!
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CHILLS... I am SO fuckin hyped for this. 10 min to go...
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Time to get another Grr~~ :O, ok that might be a bit of blasphemy but I can only hope ^^.
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Mexico675 Posts
Liquid played 1 season in the GSTL, all by themselves.
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I think a lot of foreigners that went to Korea could have gotten TV games if they had stuck with it. They played BW in Korea for a relatively short period of time. Idra was very much on his way but played SC2 instead. Nony got tired of it and wanted to prepare for SC2 as well. Ret felt he was not getting along that well. Draco was similarly having difficulty coping with the new culture and accepting his position as a B teamer, but was otherwise getting much better.
I would watch this but it is PPV and they are not even giving a sample lol. (oh, the stream is... sort of working? They confused me by randomly cutting out for 10 minutes).
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Where do I watch it?
got it.
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On December 08 2012 11:55 docvoc wrote:
Time to get another Grr~~ :O, ok that might be a bit of blasphemy but I can only hope ^^.
actually they should try to hire grrrr and he can help translate to the foreigners since he speaks fluent korean, i don't know though if he still lives in korea.
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United States4796 Posts
motbob gets me excited about StarCraft like no one else does. <3
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2 teams competing together against 1 team is cheating though
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8751 Posts
It was pretty damn likely that I would have gotten my opportunity to play some Proleague matches in summer 2009 (I arrived December 2008, left in February 2009). But because of the circumstances, there was a very low chance of me staying. So you could say I was close in the sense that I only had to stay and grind out four more months. There are certainly times when I wish I had said fuck it all and stayed and did it, especially with how things have actually turned out four years later. Oh well! This doesn't take anything away from your point though. Just a point of pride for me.
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On December 08 2012 12:51 Liquid`NonY wrote:
It was pretty damn likely that I would have gotten my opportunity to play some Proleague matches in summer 2009 (I arrived December 2008, left in February 2009). But because of the circumstances, there was a very low chance of me staying. So you could say I was close in the sense that I only had to stay and grind out four more months. There are certainly times when I wish I had said fuck it all and stayed and did it, especially with how things have actually turned out four years later. Oh well! This doesn't take anything away from your point though. Just a point of pride for me.
Would you have put yourself as captain of your FPL team?
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LOL
Don't worry Nony, everyone who began this site with BW knows how good you were. 4 months is a long time to stick it out, but in terms of what I think B teamers normally have to do? You advanced very quickly. There's sometimes a misconception that foreigners who went to Korea just weren't good enough, but I think a lot of us recognize this has more to do with personal life than skill. It's easily shown by the way foreigners that come back from Korea tend to come back super strong.
Maybe if one person had stuck it out, we could have seen a bit of a watershed of foreigners, but this is not the way history was written..
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Ok, just watched Stats vs Jaedong.
SC2 units are a joke.
Why is Jaedong always stuck with a team below his level? 
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On December 08 2012 13:53 fabiano wrote:
Ok, just watched Stats vs Jaedong.
SC2 units are a joke.
forcefields did seem a litle strong in that match lol
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On December 08 2012 13:53 fabiano wrote:Ok, just watched Stats vs Jaedong. SC2 units are a joke. Why is Jaedong always stuck with a team below his level?
The build Stats used on this particular map is extremely hard to deal with. Like someone else said, sending a Z against a P on that map was not the best decision ever.
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On December 08 2012 13:53 fabiano wrote:Ok, just watched Stats vs Jaedong. SC2 units are a joke. Why is Jaedong always stuck with a team below his level?
Saying EGTL are below his level..is harsh. Taeja, HerO, and Stephano are playing brilliantly right now. Zenio didn't look half bad vs FLASH (yes, you read that right God himself), and the other games were meh, but still. The team itself isn't full of no name players. Each one has his story, has produced results, and is brilliant at times.
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EPT
