EPTSpoilers this is intended for people who have already seen the SPL matches on Friday night, (I live in California so yes Friday) if you haven't seen them, watch them.
Introduction:
This is about my viewer experience watching my firs t SPL ever, last Friday. It won't focus on the games just about how I felt about them. Now the next question is why does that matter? It really doesn't just wanted to put my feelings down on paper and maybe find out if anyone disagreed or agreed about the matches on Friday, feel free to respond with your opinions, or not at all. It should also be mentioned that though I played a lot of sc1 the first time I have ever watched a Pro Esports match was sc2. That being said let's talk about me as a spectator and what I enjoy in Esports.
First off, let me say that I haven't been the best fan this year. From the release of the game until the year end GSL in 2011, I watched every tourney, every match, and every game with an SC2 tag. Though I get onto Team Liquid everyday still, I haven't been watching like I used too.
I'm a big fan of underdogs, Fruit Dealers run through GSL one will probably be my favorite SC2 moment forever. Maybe it’s because of my love of underdogs, but I go crazy about this west vs. east mentality in Esports. I watched FXO try to take on the GSTL, so proud that a foreigner team was willing to give it a try on the highest level. QXC's all kill, second favorite SC2 moment. My love for the west vs. east matches even carried over into dota2, watching NA'Vi take on the Chinese. If you haven't seen the wombo combo game watch it, most exciting thing ever.
One of the tourney's I did catch this year was the BWC, the world championships. Needless to say after day one I was on cloud nine. The foreigners were looking great, the Koreans were looking beatable, this is going to be the tourney it turns around! Then unfortunately... Day 2 felt like every other tournament I've seen, the Korean players looking on a different level. Oh the Korean player is going for a timing *cough* Immortal sentry push *cough* the player sees it, can't defend it after days of preparation. Or has to over commit so hard to the defense that he loses after. Long story short, tough day for me as a fan. (I'm sure it was no pick nick for them, the players, either but this one's about me.)
The Hype
The unholy alliance. EG and Team Liquid. The two great foreigner rivals join forces to take on the first all StarCraft II Pro League. Even typing it here in this blog makes me giddy with excitement, I have to pause to grab a sweatshirt these nerd chills are so strong. This could be the greatest team up since… Goku and Vegita fused to destroy Majin Buu. Oh and did I mention that the fusion is stronger because they're rivals?( On a side note Zenio and Idra on the same bench lololololol.)
Not only will this just be a strong team all around but, Kespa is just getting into SC II, we have a two year head start on them. This is our chance! Oh how naïve I was. I read the elephant in the room; I saw all the forum posts. That’s just an old StarCraft 1 fan boy trolling, I would tell myself, the players I’ve been watching are amazing. One or two of the Kespa players will be good, I told myself, but not all of them. Having never seen a Kespa tournament how could I have known? They looked ok at blizzcon but nothing special.
The start of the SPL.
Oh course I was a little disappointed about the production value, but I like DOA as a caster so that was nice. Then I saw the start intro thing, so cool, it just proved the hype about SPL was real!
When the team’s walked out, KT Rolster just looks different from the get go. The level of confidence they walked out there left was just different, these guys were athletes, where the EG Liquid team looked nervous.
Flash vs. Zenio
Flash was of course the favorite but I was still excited. Zenio’s kind of fallen away lately but his aggressive style is always entertaining. If flash’s builds are well oiled machines, who better to throw a wrench in his gears then an aggressive Zerg like Zenio? Zenio goes muta’s which seemed unusual, because Infesters into brood lords is so popular lately, but I loved it. What better composition for harassing, for trying to tilt the untiltable. But Zenio plays fairly passive from the start, and eventually the game degraded into a point where Zenio couldn’t leave his base with flash’s constant stream of units marching in. Its ok I told myself, spirits still high, it’s flash after all.
Wookie vs. JYP
Again JYP just looks nervous in the booth, where Wookie is drowning in confidence. Wookie doesn’t go for the Robo, just don’t let him up that ramp JYP and you should be safe. He walks up the ramp and the games over before the introductions are done. "Eh, it's PvP," I laugh. "sometimes you just get bad breaks in that matchup."
Action vs. Thorzain
Thorzain was tired, we could all tell, DOA mentioned it like three times. I get it traveling is tough. But Thorzain scouts the build; it’s a popular build lately DOA tells us. Great he should know what he needs to hold, both of them are building up forces. The timing hits! and the games over he didn’t hold… Now I'm starting to worry, this isn't good. common Thorzain rule number 76 no excuses play like a champion. I understand he was dealing with jet lag, but... being affected with jet lag doesn't change how much I want him to win.
Stats vs. Jaedong
Thank god the put him in the fourth spot, if anyone can turn it around its JD. The sc1 fans talk about him like he’s a Zerg god! Ok stats is going to do the immortal sentry push, kind of getting tired of this but its ok JD scouts it, and it’s coming like 2 minutes later then Partings!! Oh wow no spines he’s so confident about what he needs to stop this thing! And... he doesn’t even come close to holding gg.
The aftermath
It had happened so fast. I felt so let down. StarCraft II is such a poorly designed game I told myself. We see the same unstoppable timings every game, it’s just one battle and over. There hasn’t been any innovation sense TLO! It was like Bane had giving me hope just to rip it away. I went to go make dinner, with the strong intention of never watching StarCraft II again. Looking back, I might have over reacted, but I just want EG TL to do well so bad!
The Great Coincidence.
After dinner, I sit back down at my computer intending to play some games, still completely down from the matches before. Oh woops I notice I had left the SPL stream going on my computer, having left in such haste. As I go to close it I notice the score is 3 to 2, at least this one’s close I think bitterly to myself. Then I notice that map, and begin to laugh. What is that? It reminded me of big game hunters that I used to play with my friend’s. (Arkanoid) It looks nothing like any of the professional maps I have watched for the last two years. Ah what the heck I tell myself I’ll watch just to see how this map plays out.
Classic vs. Fantasy
I won’t say it was the best match ever played. There was hesitation on both sides, a botched contain, and I think fantasy could have won sooner than he did at the end. It was a messy game; it was the most entertaining game of StarCraft II I had seen in a long time! There was battles all over the place, armies running around, at one point I thought Classic had won for sure but then fantasy got around the contain and suddenly I wasn’t so sure. SC2 can have great games, I remembered.
Conclusion
Maybe the game was better just because I was so down from the EG TL loss, but does it matter? I’m so excited about the SPL; it’s going to be amazing. In six months all these players are going to be amazing!! That little go intro was so cool!! And the maps are so different it’s going to create matches we can’t even imagine. SPL is the real deal, and the game I love SC2 is finally there! If you didn’t get a chance to watch any of the SPL, hunt down the VODS. SC2 is graduating college, and entering the pros!
EG TL Fighting!
-zektgn
