EPTFirstly an apology to all of the fans for letting them down today. We expected Acer to be a tough fight, we have never beaten them in this format (in the playoffs, we have beaten them in groupstage before) though we have many times come within 1 map of it. Innovation is a world-class player who we struggle to beat and we had hoped to bring him down at least once today before he was inevitably revived or we lost to one of Acers many other talented players, but it was not to be. The all-kill was crushing and has unfortunately reinforced a history of being unable to topple Acers lineup.
What we did not expect was to lose to Mousesports and I think it was obvious from our play today that we did not adapt well at all to Sjaaks style. Dropping a couple of maps to a good but unknown player in a teamleague is understandable, particularly when Protoss is a swiss-army knife of potentially deadly builds. Dropping all of them is not acceptable. We as a team failed to adapt to Sjaaks playstyle quickly enough and although Ryung was able to soundly defeat the rest of Mousesports lineup after defeating Sjaak, the inevitable revival of Sjaak in the ace match was enough to send us out of the playoffs in 4th place. This is not the first time we have let fans down in the Acer Teamstory Cup and you have the right and justification to expect better from GSTL champions. Assuming we compete in future team competitions, you can be assured that everyone on the team myself included is taking a long hard look at what went wrong and how we can prevent it from ever happening again. There will be no excuses from any of us for these losses.
I'd also like to apologise to Mousesports fans. When Sjaak was hired I made a flippant remark that was meant in the spirit of friendly banter. TL however doesn't actually allow the use of the word Kappa on the forums, which was meant to indicate that the statement was not serious, so the wording had to be changed. Some fans took it in a way that was not intended but that should have been something I could have foreseen and caused me to choose my words far more carefully. It was evidently our downfall, since Sjaak took it as an opportunity to gain some fame, fame well deserved. He is a talented player with a large library of unpredictable builds, which makes him a potent asset in a teamleague and we wish him more success in the future, particularly when he can compete in WCS. I also apologise particularly to Sjaak for the remark which he may have taken personally, it was not meant as a slight against his skill however that's how it came across and that is my fault entirely.
The risk of banter is of course that it blows back in your face and this time it certainly did. There's enough humble pie here to feed us for days.
Where now?
I think it's obvious that we are no longer a world class team-league force. Our results in ATC this season have been poor. We barely made the playoffs, we lost to teams we really shouldn't have, not to mention almost lost to plenty more. Why the fall from grace? Probably because we simply have not been preparing in the same way that we did for GSTL. When GSTL was the focus, it was really all the team was working towards, it was their top priority. Now with GSTL gone and the future of team-formats outside of Proleague uncertain, it makes more sense for the players to focus on their individual results. Because of this, our placements in WCS have risen, beating better and better players. We've had 2 semi-final finishes back to back with two different players, we've made it to our first individual finals, things have been going pretty well, but they could be an awful lot better. There's plenty more that needs to be done to ensure we can be considered world-class. Whether or not there will even be a reason to prepare for team-leagues in the future is uncertain. GSTL shows no signs of coming back, we don't know if there will be another ATC or whether we will compete in it if there is and of course Proleague is the place where non-KeSPA teams go to get ritually slaughtered for the amusement of the fans. Teamleagues may be a thing of the past and the team we formed to play in one specific teamleague now finds itself having to focus on individual results and ability, where before a well-rounded and deep roster was the best
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Teamleagues and formats
There's not much choice left for those who want to play team formats in Starcraft 2. Proleague is unattainable for most, ATC is really the only choice alongside SHOUTcraft Clan Wars (that have not been happening lately due to my treatment). I believe the Acer Teamstory Cup format should change in future and I'd like to explain why. The all-kill/revive format favours teams with strong, streaky players over teams with deep rosters. It also makes preparation very difficult. You can prepare to snipe a star player, but can you prepare to snipe them twice? The answer is generally no, particularly with smaller team-lineups than yesteryear. No longer are you dealing with 20-strong Startales, you're dealing with 5-6 man squads, some of which don't even have 3 races. This season of ATC in particular has had huge numbers of all-kills and 3-4 kill streaks, many of course perpetrated by the usual roster of star players. The acquisition of a star player is extremely beneficial for any team, since it usually translates into high finishes at the many individual tournaments, but I do not feel that should be the case in a team match. One player should not carry a team on his back, the win should be a team effort. The match against mouz demonstrated the absurdity of the format quite well on both sides.
Ryung starts off with a solid win, Sjaak then beats Ryung and comes close to all-killing the team. Ryung is then revived, kills Sjaak and comes close to reverse all-killing the team. Sjaak is then revived beating the revived Ryung to end the match 5-4. None of the other players on either team pick up a single win.
That is ridiculous and it shows the very worst of the format. I'm not particularly into all-kill at the best of times and this is certainly an improvement from previous ATC where it was actually possible to face the same player 3 times in a series if one of the limited revives was used. I'm not using this as an excuse, we lost to Mouz fair and square and they almost lost to us fair and square, but really, regardless of how that match went down, was it a team-match or was it just Sjaak vs Ryung at that point? There is a degree of excitement to be derived from all-kill and reverse all-kill, however you can do that without the revive rule, as GSTL demonstrated for years. I believe that if ATC wishes to continue to pursue the all-kill format in future seasons, they should revert to a BO7 series with no revive in the ace match, or switch to a Proleague format, in which an ace revive makes more sense.
As it stands, Proleague format is the best way to test a team. It results in more carefully prepared matches, it rewards teams that prepare properly for their opponents, whereas in this BO9 allkill + revive, preparation is for the most part fairly worthless, it's simply too hard to predict who will come out and even if you can, preparing to snipe a star player twice is basically impossible and that's assuming you even consider sniping valid anymore. Back when the Mothership core didn't exist and queens weren't so powerful, it was perhaps possible to create a cheesy build to snipe a particular player, but these days that's pretty hard to do unless you happen to be Protoss, that have such a large variety of potential all-in/cheeses. I would like to see the other two races given that degree of freedom to but that's another story for another time.
I'd like to poll the readers as to what they prefer.
Poll: If ATC were to do another season, which format should be used?
BO7 Proleague format (478)
59%
BO7 all-kill, no ace revive (109)
13%
Current format, BO9 all-kill + ace revive (97)
12%
BO5 Proleague format (78)
10%
Two rounds, allkill+proleague (GSTL S2 format) (48)
6%
810 total votes
BO7 all-kill, no ace revive (109)
Current format, BO9 all-kill + ace revive (97)
BO5 Proleague format (78)
Two rounds, allkill+proleague (GSTL S2 format) (48)
810 total votes
Your vote: If ATC were to do another season, which format should be used?
(Vote): Current format, BO9 all-kill + ace revive
(Vote): BO7 all-kill, no ace revive
(Vote): BO5 Proleague format
(Vote): BO7 Proleague format
(Vote): Two rounds, allkill+proleague (GSTL S2 format)
I'd personally be ok with any one of those, I think they are all preferable to the current format, plus it's easier to schedule, it's less taxing on the casters and production and is more representative of the strength of a team rather than a strength of an individual player. The challenges put upon a team with the proleague format are of course higher, particularly since they need to guarantee X number of players to be there to play their matches and we have seen that be an issue with a couple of the foreign teams in Clan Wars, but I think it's worthwhile. If we are to still do teamleagues in SC2, then they should be taken seriously and if a team is not willing to commit to that, then they can compete in individual tournaments instead.
Team roster changes during Teamleagues
A final point I would like to make is in regards to changing rosters during Teamleagues. ATC along with Proleague have rules that stipulate you must wait a set amount of time before making roster changes. This is to prevent bringing in unexpected players to throw the opposing team off as well as avoid the possibility of mercenaries being added into the team for short periods of time for the sole purpose of helping the team win their matches. Most sports have similar rules, with transfer and hiring deadlines being common-place.
While I understand that Mousesports was caught in a difficult position after Vortix contract expired, this is something they could have prepared for well in advance. The addition of new players right before the playoffs (in the case of Sjaak, about 48 hours before) was not in the spirit of the competition and seems to violate the spirit of ATC. As far as I am aware, ATC does not have a rules stipulation that covers this situation, so had to make an executive decision. I disagreed with this decision and made my opinion known to the admins a few weeks back. The other teams were also consulted, but I will not speak for them. Mousesports could not have done this during the regular season, they would have been forced to wait several matches before fielding a new player. The addition of new players at such short notice gives an edge to a team whose opponents are a known quantity and makes the already difficult preparation for such a match even more challenging. I feel that in future ATC should provide clear stipulations that indicate a team must announce roster changes at least 2 weeks in advance of the playoffs and that failure to do so would result in a disqualification and replacement by the next team in the rankings.
This opinion should in no way be construed as the belief that we lost due to Mousesports conduct and the decision of ATC. We lost because we weren't good enough to beat Sjaak and that is entirely our fault. My concern is for the integrity of the league in the future and to ensure that every team is treated equitably.
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Once again our apologies to all of our fans and sponsors for the disappointing results today. We all share the blame for this failure and we will do our best to make sure it is never repeated.
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