• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 05:14
CEST 11:14
KST 18:14
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)10Code S RO4 & Finals Preview: herO, Rogue, Classic, GuMiho0TL Team Map Contest #5: Presented by Monster Energy4Code S RO8 Preview: herO, Zoun, Bunny, Classic7Code S RO8 Preview: Rogue, GuMiho, Solar, Maru3
Community News
Weekly Cups (June 9-15): herO doubles on GSL week1Firefly suspended by EWC, replaced by Lancer12Classic & herO RO8 Interviews: "I think it’s time to teach [Rogue] a lesson."2Rogue & GuMiho RO8 interviews: "Lifting that trophy would be a testament to all I’ve had to overcome over the years and how far I’ve come on this journey.8Code S RO8 Results + RO4 Bracket (2025 Season 2)14
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (June 9-15): herO doubles on GSL week The SCII GOAT: A statistical Evaluation Nexon wins bid to develop StarCraft IP content, distribute Overwatch mobile game Rogue EWC 2025 Hype Video! Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)
Tourneys
RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series $5,100+ SEL Season 2 Championship (SC: Evo) SOOPer7s Showmatches 2025 SOOP Starcraft Global #22 $3,500 WardiTV European League 2025
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response Simple Questions Simple Answers [G] Darkgrid Layout
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 478 Instant Karma Mutation # 477 Slow and Steady Mutation # 476 Charnel House Mutation # 475 Hard Target
Brood War
General
ASL20 Preliminary Maps BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Recent recommended BW games FlaSh Witnesses SCV Pull Off the Impossible vs Shu
Tourneys
[BSL20] GosuLeague RO16 - Tue & Wed 20:00+CET [BSL20] ProLeague Bracket Stage - WB Finals & LBR3 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL 2v2] ProLeague Season 3 - Friday 21:00 CET
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers I am doing this better than progamers do. [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile Beyond All Reason What do you want from future RTS games?
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine UK Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Echoes of Revolution and Separation
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club! Maru Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Korean Music Discussion [Manga] One Piece
Sports
NHL Playoffs 2024 2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
A Better Routine For Progame…
TrAiDoS
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Heero Yuy & the Tax…
KrillinFromwales
I was completely wrong ab…
jameswatts
Need Your Help/Advice
Glider
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 30795 users

A Brief History of Starcraft, Part 1 - Page 2

Blogs > motbob
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 All
Bobo_XIII
Profile Blog Joined October 2003
United States429 Posts
August 19 2017 06:11 GMT
#21
Awesome, awesome, awesome. I can't wait for the next pieces.

On August 11 2017 14:12 Letmelose wrote:
Top notch stuff. I think this piece provides really good context of how the professional Brood War scene evolved over the years.

iloveoov is one of the most interesting greats of the Brood War scene, even if I personally had a dislike for him in general. I wanted add my own thoughts on him as a player.

Brood War is a craft of many dimensions.

It is a craft of dexterity, and the successful, crisp execution of what the players have inside their heads, is often like watching a well trained musician transforming a series of notes on a sheet of paper into a beautiful melody. Watching iloveoov in this particular regard was infuriating, especially once you consider how successful he was during his prime.

Brood War is also a craft of intellect, where players are constantly challenged in real-time about the best course of actions. Sometimes, people would successfully make a plan that would outline the flow of the match before the games even began. This was where iloveoov separated himself from the rest. BeSt said on stream that iloveoov would go into a game without deciding on which units he'll end the game with. That was the level of iloveoov's confidence in his ability to win the game even before it started. iloveoov was more concerned about the manner in which he would bring his opponent down to his knees. There were so many occasions of iloveoov being so economically ahead that it wouldn't matter which units he built as long as he had enough of it.

Making ghosts en-masse against the zerg legend JJu.

+ Show Spoiler +


Purposefully sticking with wraiths against goliaths when facing GoodFriend.

+ Show Spoiler +


There was a reason why iloveoov was allowed so much freedom within the game. He was amongst the absolute greatest (in my personal opinion, the greatest) in terms of winning a game before it even began. GoRush, one of the most brilliant minds the zerg race ever had, often commented that it was easy to predict how NaDa would play, and it was only the moments of absolute genius that would catch him off-guard.

This was one of those moments.

+ Show Spoiler +


GoRush said that he had trouble dictating the direction of the game against iloveoov, saying that iloveoov was a tier above of him in terms of cunning. Another insight from a fellow SK Telecom T1 teammate (Hyuk), informs us that iloveoov would never play the game out to the end during practice, leaving the game no matter what the situation, if he personally wasn't satisfied with the overall flow of the game. Hyuk said that during the course of a week of preparing for certain match, iloveoov would lose most of his practice games to Hyuk (or more accurately, would forfeit roughly 80% of his practice matches before it fully panned out), but after about three days or so of constantly re-adjusting his build orders to absolute perfection, iloveoov wouldn't lose a single match to Hyuk during practice.

Hyuk explaining how iloveoov practiced, for those who are familiar with the Korean language.

+ Show Spoiler +


Finally, Brood War was also a psychological warfare between the players, and iloveoov prided himself in being able to pysche a player off his comfort zone. As well as his well documented intimidation tactics both in and out of the game, he was someone who was an expert on feeling an opponent's vibe. illoveoov said that NaDa, as talented as he was, was someone who was very easy to read into emotionally. Within the same context, one of the reasons iloveoov explicitly stated was his reason for struggling against XellOs, the terran-versus-terran specialist, was the fact that he had so much trouble reading the emotional state of XellOs, and said that he would often lose games despite having the superior build orders. This was something that BoxeR, another player who relied heavily on psychological warfare and strategy, said about XellOs.

iloveoov and BoxeR describing what it was like playing versus XellOs.

+ Show Spoiler +


There are a lot of historical pieces about iloveoov, and this piece reminded me of the miserable years I suffered watching, what I felt at the time, someone who was ruining this intricate craft of dexterity and intellect into a goddamned cesspool of guess-work and psychological bullying. iloveoov would purposefully taint what I considered to be the greatest indicators of skill, and would do aesthetically unpleasing things like attack moving a bunch of inefficient army compositions after the game was already won. It was one of the most traumatic things for someone who desperately wanted a hero to put this abomination in his place. I initially thought (and hoped) it would be July and his godly micro-management that would bring about the end of iloveoov, but it was another player whose strengths also shifted towards intellect that brought about iloveoov's ultimate demise.


What a beautiful post. Thank you for sharing that.
There's a hole in the world like a great black pit, and the vermin of the world inhabit it... and its morals aren't worth what a pig could spit, and it goes by the name of Reddit.
masoka82
Profile Joined June 2020
Spain594 Posts
July 08 2020 11:55 GMT
#22
Well, and now what) 2010-2020 , I think that 2020 is better than 2014-2016..
Prev 1 2 All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 46m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft: Brood War
TY 800
Flash 533
Killer 373
actioN 288
Stork 266
Jaedong 230
EffOrt 139
Zeus 135
Leta 133
JulyZerg 116
[ Show more ]
GoRush 30
NaDa 28
Sharp 24
sSak 20
Rush 18
ajuk12(nOOB) 17
yabsab 12
sorry 12
Movie 10
Soulkey 8
Free 7
ivOry 2
Dota 2
XcaliburYe318
Fuzer 230
League of Legends
JimRising 474
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K981
shoxiejesuss639
Super Smash Bros
C9.Mang0456
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor176
Trikslyr33
Other Games
ceh9659
Hui .102
SortOf57
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick660
StarCraft: Brood War
Kim Chul Min (afreeca) 269
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH329
• LUISG 16
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV429
League of Legends
• Stunt702
Upcoming Events
The PondCast
46m
RSL Revival
46m
Harstem vs SHIN
Solar vs Cham
WardiTV Invitational
2h 46m
ByuN vs Reynor
Clem vs MaxPax
OSC
3h 16m
Replay Cast
14h 46m
RSL Revival
1d
Reynor vs Scarlett
ShoWTimE vs Classic
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
1d 5h
SOOP
1d 23h
Cure vs Zoun
SC Evo League
2 days
Road to EWC
2 days
[ Show More ]
SOOP Global
2 days
Future vs MaNa
Harstem vs Cham
BSL: ProLeague
2 days
Sziky vs JDConan
Cross vs MadiNho
Hawk vs Bonyth
Circuito Brasileiro de…
2 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
Road to EWC
3 days
BSL: ProLeague
3 days
UltrA vs TBD
Dewalt vs TBD
Replay Cast
5 days
Online Event
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Acropolis #3 - GSC
2025 GSL S2
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
BSL Season 20
Acropolis #3
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
NPSL S3
Rose Open S1
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
Copa Latinoamericana 4
RSL Revival: Season 1
Murky Cup #2
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025
YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025
PGL Bucharest 2025

Upcoming

CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
SEL Season 2 Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
HSC XXVII
Championship of Russia 2025
BLAST Open Fall 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.