EPTOn 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.
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.
