EPT
WeMade FoX
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Fox/fox.png)
Oh shit its a new Plexa blog! So what crazy thing am I doing this time around. Well, given the huge interest in Proleague thanks to fantasy I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of these teams and get to know them better. The scene has changed so much since I was fluent with all the teams, so now is a good time for me personally to get fluent with all the new gamers that have come through.
Hopefully, each week I'll be taking a look at one team which I think has been interesting over the last week. The first week of Proleague had many surprises, the most shocking in my opinion was that of Fox beating both KTF and STX. Hence, Fox have become the first Plexa Team of the Week.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Fox/nadawarm.png)
This is NaDa warming up against XellOs from Blizzcon
Firstly, who are WeMade Fox? Their origins come from the ancient Toona S.G Family (this was a progaming team!). which was around the time of the Ideal Space collapse. Toona quickly flexed its financial muscle in 2003 and bought out two of KTF's biggest names - the up and comer NaDa and the almost-champion YellOw. However YellOw didn't last long, and hurried back to KTF within a few months.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Fox/toona.jpg)
Yes, that is YellOw in the center ^_^
Toona did not just purchase big names obviously, the had to scout some talents out and recruit them. So within the first few years they had the not-quite-so-impressive-then-but-kinda-now lineup of Nada, Goodfriend, Silver, TheRock and Ogogo. In 2005 Toona became sponsored by Pantech and Curtiel.
The P&C Curriors had some pretty good success. They were a middle of the table team, kinda like Lecaf when they just had Anytime and Jaedong (and no one else). Nada became stupidly successful and kept winning leagues left right and center, while Goodfriend came the closests I've ever seen to winning a final, only to lose to July in one of the craziest Game 5's ever (in EVER2005 OSL ironically).
The team peaked in 2004 when they won the 2nd Round of the Sky 2004 Proleague against Soul. The won with a score of 4-1 if my memory serves me right. This would prove to be the high point of P&C's life though. Ohh yea! And they had a girl on the team, SunHee_gm. Not that she ever accomplished anything...
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Fox/sunhee.jpg)
The team was pretty good, and they recruited more and more talent to the team like nal_keke and Mind. However, P&C always remained one of the smaller teams, a facet which is still true today in Fox. In 2006 KTF bought Goodfriend off P&C, and so ended Goodfriends career. Also in 2006 Curtiel dropped their sponsorship as the company ran into money troubles - so Pantech became the sole sponsor, and Pantech EX was formed.
EX was less successful than P&C because of a talent shortage. Nada, Silver and TheRock formed the core of the team - and the very fact that Rock was the core of the team speaks volumes about it's depth. Nada was still winning OSLs though - winning Shinhan 2, runner-up in Shinhan 3, and winner of Shinhan Masters. Despite this, the team struggled even more in 2007 when Pantech also withdrew sponsorship and possibility of EX being disbanded was very real. Eventually, WeMade picked up sponsorship of the team - and WeMade FoX was born.
FoX was a new beginning for the Toona Family, and a lot of the old names faded. The new team featured a lineup of Pure, Hero, Nada, Mind and Keke and they found immediate success in Mind. Mind became one of the top Terran players in 2007/08 after defeating Bisu in GOMTVS3 (in addition to Savior and iloveoov). Mind and Nada lead the team from here. The team hasn't done anything spectacular since then, aside from boasting some cool players.
NaDa
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Fox/plexanada.png)
Yup, thats me with Nada =]
Yup, thats me with Nada =]
Nada has been the heart and soul of WeMade since forever. His outstanding career as a gamer did not start here, but it matured and developed here more than anywhere else. He has been the sole reason this team didn't become as bad as Plus or eSTRO.
Nada on Fox is very similar to Jaedong on Lecaf. If you ignore Nada/Jaedong, their respective teams royally suck. Well that was true for Nada up until 2008 anyway. There are always a bunch of mediocre gamers lying about on the team; TheRock, Backho, Goodfriend, Anytime - but none like Nada or Jaedoong. They are the single greatest strength of the team.
Nada has always been one of the greats, but as his form decline over 2007 he had to give up some of his position to Mind, who took over the teams effective leadership. Despite this, he is a strong mentor for the team and is raising Baby to be a monster.
While he has not entered the 4th Round of Proleague yet, he did do very well in Lost Saga MSL. I beleive he got a seed, which is pretty damn good! Nada is in this post because he draws the crowd, and the crowd love him. And we all hope that one day he will return to dominate the scene once again.
Mind
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Fox/mind.jpg)
Mind is the true power house on the team. The teams performance has heavily relied on Mind's ability to perform under pressure and on demand. He rose to prominence when he defeated Bisu in GOMTV S3 MSL and was considered the second best Terran under Flash for half of 2008. His strength lies in his insane timing. His sense for this is unparalleled in the scene and has allowed him to push at the exact right moment to win the game without trouble; a truly impressive skill.
He has played one game so far in Round 4. This was against STX_Kal. This was arguably the most important set for WeMade to win as Kal is probably STX's strongest player. Now Mind played a really good game against him on Destination where he was able to defend of Kal's reaver harass with zero losses. With that advantage, he was able to push out with great timing and expand.
Kal was no pushover though, and was able to split the map and delay his defeat for the long time. Eventually Mind pushed out with a strong push and took the win for WeMade. This win ultimately allowed Fox to go on and play in the Ace set - where they won. Mind's victory here was critical to the team's success and shows just why the team depends on Mind to perform in Proleauge.
Pure
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Fox/pure.jpg)
Pure has been the surprise performer from WeMade so far this season. He has played two games and won them both - upset victories which lead his team to two upset wins. He made quite an entrance in 2007 and people got really excited about his performance in Proleague. Then, for some reason, he disappeared from the WeMade lineup. Pure has only made a resurgence now - and it's propelled WeMade to the top on Round 4.
Against KTF he played against Luxury, and indeed, defeated him. In this game Pure showcased absolutely nothing special at all. He didn't have the flair that Bisu shows, he didn't have the brute force of Best, he didn't have anything. He was bland. His victory was nothing more than Luxury's self-destruction, rather than Pure's brilliance.
Against STX he played against Notice, a lesser opponent, and indeed defeated him as well. Once again he showcased nothing special. Just standard play executed surprisingly well. But then I noticed something. His observers, they were everywhere. He was making more use out of his Observers than most Protoss I see. The only other gamer that I've seen use Observers this well is Stork.
And then it dawned on me, Pure is a neo-Stork. He encapsulates everything about Stork's style, regurgitated in a new vessel. It's quite an interesting thing to observe really. Pure probably won't be the next superstar, but he will be a consistent performer this season; so keep an eye out for him.
nal_keke
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Fox/kekecc8.jpg)
Nal_keke has been on Fox since oh god.. 2005? He's been on it for ages. He released a lot of replays before that, and was friendly with the foreign scene iirc. Everyone loved Keke, but he never really amounted to anything spectacular. He has, however, been useful to Fox this season and is showing signs of improvement.
He has played a single game this season, against STX_Hwasin. This game was actually really intense and really close. Keke's micro was up to the task and his muta control was great. He pushed Hwasin to the limit, then Hwasin came back at Keke with everything he had. He used drops to distract Keke while pounding his front. Keke eventually broke and was forced to concede. But with that said, his form has improved quite a bit since last I remember him.
He has been consistently average though, and shows little signs of actual improvement. His ZvT skill hasn't really changed since he beat fantasy on Neo Requiem (I beleive). That was the game where he built 9 sunkens and muta micro'd like a mofo. If he can't improve, then he won't be too useful to the team - he needs to get better if he wants to be an asset to his team and propel his team up the ranks.
Shine[kal]
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Fox/shine.jpg)
Shine has been another star performer for WeMade so far. It is very clear from his games that he is putting a huge effort in to win, no matter the cost. Each of his games have been strategical designed to take out better players; and thus score points he shouldn't.
Take his game against fOrGG. He abused Heartbreak Ridge to its fullest - literally killing him with Mutalisks. He was only able to do this by mining out fOrGG's mineral block at 7. When fOrGG scouted this, he was unable to prevent mining because he stalled for time by attacking with his lings - a game winning move. With that block removed, fOrGG couldn't get any Turrets up behind his minerals and the rest of the game was just Shine running amok with Mutas. A really cool game.
And then against Kal - the powerhouse of STX - he used a 2/3 base Hydralisk build. The build was scouted, but killed off a number of Kal's temples which made it look like he was going to go in another way. Couple this with Kal scouting the Hydra rush, and hence suspecting that Shine wouldn't go through with it - and you have one unprepared Kal. Shine easily killed off Kal, kinda depressing, but still a wins a win.
Shine has become the WeMade sniper, a position of enormous danger. If he keeps on putting in the effort like he is now, he will become a really dangerous weapon. Snipers are always exciting things in Proleague, so it's cool to be able to observe one in action on this team
.RoRo
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Fox/roro.jpg)
who is Roro? He's some kid Zerg who managed to win some games last season and has become one of those promising Zergs. However, I beleive he was all hype. He got lucky a few games and hasn't really been able to show off any kind of flair, intelligence, grace, style, elegance or brutishness. He's like a plate of agar, boring and uninteresting with zero intelligence.
Take his game against Calm. Both used identical builds, just Calm played 100% smarter. Both killed off their Geysers to prevent ling run-bys and whatnot. Calm's lings ended up in the middle, Roro's were trapped inside. Calm's lings ended up doing some harass by killing off some of the Neutral buildings and hence actually came to some use int he game. In addition to that, Calm completely outplayed Roro in every respect.
I'm sorry Roro, you're just not ready for Proleague yet. You need to keep practicing and maybe one day you will be able to compete and not be out-everythinged by any non-crap progamer you meet.
And that is how I see WeMade FoX. How I view their history, their current run in Proleague and a few comments on their players. I hope you enjoyed it!!
