EPT
Airforce ACE
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Ace/aceemblem.jpg)
I promised myself that these would be more "fun" writing than official TL news, but I don't know if that's actually being achieved
Nevertheless after a week's hiatus I'm back with another installment of team of the week. And technically, they shouldn't win this week, but they should have won last week. And seeing as Ace probably won't win again this season - I reasoned that it's better to do them now than force it later on in the season.So who are ACE? While the Airforce will probably deny it, ACE's origin is closely connected to the Boxer-Military Service problem that faced Boxer in late 2006. In 2006 Boxer received his letter from the Government drafting him into the military. He would join up into one of the military divisions in June/July 2007. This would effectively end his career as a progamer.
So the Airforce devised a clever publicity stunt. What better way to get people to enlist than appear trendy to the intelligent folk who follow pro-Starcraft? With Boxer soon to enlist the Airforce had a unique opportunity to exploit Boxer's popularity to birth a Progaming team. If the Airforce had a Progaming team, that would mean they would get lots of TV time and hence be a more attractive option to the Korean Males who are forced to do military service (and hence get more funding from the government!).
So in early 2007 it was announced that the Airforce would soon start up a Progaming team. The founding member consisted of recently retired progamers and those just about to enlist in the Airforce. This first group consisted of: ChRh, Clon and H.O.T-Forever. They were quickly joined by Boxer and Mumyung, and together those 5 gamers formed Airforce Ace.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/Coming_Home/ace2.jpg)
Over time the Airforce roster was expanded to 10 and created some amazing moments in Progaming. Like the time they defeated MBCGame Hero in Shinhan Proleague 2007 S1 when ChRh won a marathon game over Bisu on Monty Hall, then Boxer defeated Bisu as well to claim the Ace win. This in addition to a variety of Boxer cheeses defined Ace for the first stage of it's life. Some of the new recruits had a minimal impact on the team; specifically players like Rage who did very little while on ace. Others, like Oversky, gave the team a breath of fresh air and revived the team when it was in a bit of slump.
Oversky went on to become one of the key players in the Ace lineup and went on to produce a number of cool games while on Ace. Including a host of awesome cheeses like the Sunken rush on Colossseum. Foru/Clon became the most successful 2v2 team Shinhan Proleague 2008 beating the infamous Khan team and the Reach/Zergboy team from KTF. They lead Ace through their best season ever and gave Ace that little bit of extra flair in the competition (Ace finished 11th in the 08 season).
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Ace/banner.jpg)
There was some talk amongst the progaming scene that Ace should be disbanded due to its poor results. But a petition from the gamers themselves convinced the Airforce to maintain the team (they were obviously worried about Boxer leaving) and hence Airforce is around today. But it did make them produce some surprising results in the 2008 season.
By the end of 2008 the original 5 gamers had departed the team, and either returned to real life or rejoined the progaming world. H.O.T became a coach, Boxer joined up with SKT1, Mumyung became the Zerg coach for SKT while Clon and ChRh returned to the real world. To replace these gamers a few high profile gamers were recruited to the team - notably Anytime, Xellos, YellOw and Reach. Thus defining the 3rd generation of Ace gamers.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Ace/trio.jpg)
Anytime immediately started producing results for Ace and is single handedly responsible for Ace not being all-killed in the Winners League. The remaining gamers are all putting in an inhuman effort to turn Ace into a team which is no longer a push over in Proleague. They are taking steps to rectify their problems (like a lack of practice partners) and are giving the team 110% of their efforts. This determination is reflected in their games.
So what is the future of Ace? So long as their is competitive Starcraft there will be an ACE team. I envision that once YellOw/Reach leave, Nada will be called up in their place. There will always be high profile gamers who qualify for Ace that will keep the Ace brand alive - hence maintaining the team's popularity hence retaining its purpose. Ace is a special team, and not one that should ever be discounted - else you may fail to convert the easy points that Ace typically are. KTF fell into this trap last week; and those games inspired me to write about ACE for team of the week.
So who are the driving forces behind ACE this season?
Anytime
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Ace/anytime.jpg)
Despite the fact I firmly beleive that Anytime is the least deserving OSL winner of recent memory and that both his So1 and Shinhan 2 OSL runs were flukes, abusing players weak matchups and stealing builds from better gamers and hence appearing like he's actually good, Anytime is still the power player within ACE at the moment. It is painfully clear that this is Anytime's ACE team; when opinions about ACE are needed Anytime is asked, when Ace get 1-3'd it's Anytime that won the game and when the team needs support they turn to Anytime.
Anytime is leading by example and is posting the results of a leader (well a leader from within ACE at least). However, Round 4 isn't going as well as the Winners League did... and is yet to win a game from memory. With that said the games he has played have been very close and entertaining - such as his game against fantasy on Outsider. He's obviously giving it his all so he can help the team out once again which is good to see.
If Anytime picks up his game and becomes the ace he used to be, then Ace have a legitimate chance of defeating weak teams and causing more than a few upsets this year!
Oversky
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Ace/oversky.jpg)
Oversky is a member of the second generation of ACE gamers and thus is due to leave soon. With that said, his time on Ace has been more successful than most - and he has produced his fair share of upsets. While you could never count on him to win on any given day, he would always surprise you with a win when you least expected it.
Indeed that has happened in Round 4 already. Oversky seems to be charged with Battle Royal and is currently 2-0. While defeating Modesty isn't that big of an achievement, defeating the likes of Flash is. And indeed, his victory over Flash was instrumental in Ace's victory over KTF. And while the game was played on Battle Royal; it was by no means a walk over game. The game was very even, and it's my bet that Flash underestimated Oversky's economy after he saw Overskys 11 position empty of drones and just 1 morphing sunk (ie he thought the expo was new, or neglected) and thus proceeded to get crushed.
Oversky is a wildcard player, and with his crazy builds and his ability to force wins off good players is an amazing ability. Oversky is responsible for Ace staying afloat for the past year and a bit, and thus he is an invaluable player.
Reach
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Ace/reach1.jpg)
Fun fact about Reach: he was the first progamer to reach 100 wins in Proleague! There is a reason for this, and it's not because he's the Mantoss - it's because he used to be a 2v2 specialist with H.O.T and later YellOw, and Zergboy. In addition to his 2v2 skills, he is a very accomplished 1v1 player and has a Starleague title under his belt (amongst a few 2nd places).
Reach's transfer to Ace has reinvigorated him in my opinion, much like it has done to YellOw (more on that later). In this round of proleague we are seeing a Reach who is giving each match 150% and as a result has been able to become a better player than when he first joined Ace (unlike pretty much every other gamers on Ace). His win against fOrGG was voted as the best game of Week 2, and for good reason - it was amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZftH_-7tK8&feature=player_embedded
If Reach continues to put in this much effort into his games he could well go on to do great things while in Ace. Here's hoping he does just that, because Reach winning always makes for good games
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Ace/reach2.jpg)
YellOw
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/LosingID8/KNF_2008_12_13/YellOw.jpg)
As has been shouted from the hill tops, YellOw is reportedly practicing harder than ever. With this said, there is very little TV evidence of this actually benefiting YellOw - he's still losing, a lot. But there are signs of hope from the Offline Qualifiers - where he performed amazingly well making the finals of both MSL and OSL prelims.
The thing for YellOw is to translate this into points in proleague, as after all, that's all that matters in the end. Why YellOw is doing so much better in the offlines than TV may be due to his nerves, and lack of exposure to the TV recently, or maybe he's just been getting lucky. Whatever it is, that practice needs to start paying off else he will burn himself out again and become less motivated than ever.
YellOw has enormous potential on Ace, but if he doesn't start performing soon it's likely he won't ever perform at all....
Casy
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/TOTW_Ace/Casy.jpg)
Casy is quite a strange character in Progaming... He was originally dubbed the neo-Emperor but after a huge falling out with the OGN coach and hence receiving zero play time, he kinda faded into oblivion. Then he launched the drama bomb (with his coach, not the nuke) and joined up with WeMade where he almost made it into Ever2008 OSL only being stopped by some Protoss. He also managed to nuke rush jY - which lead to his retirement shortly after (he swears its unrelated, but we all know better).
Casy is back in awesome mode once again, and he has managed to qualify for the OSL - a massive achievement for an Ace player. Don't let his terrible run in the Winners League fool you - Casy is back to kick ass! And he is already 2-0 in Round 4, and as we have come to expect he is pulling out some pretty slick builds!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNQP_HtjuvE&feature=player_embedded
If Casy keep performing well Ace could have a very decent chance of taking even more games off teams. Casy certainly has the potential to do this; here's hoping the limited practice partners at Ace doesn't affect this too much.
There are many more Ace players I have neglected - like Gorush, Xellos, Daezang, Ruby and Darkelf and many more. Ace is a unique team with a unique purpose in PL - and despite them still being #12 on the table; they are probably the most important team in the league - the team that keeps old flames alive through military service. If YellOw, Reach, Anytime, Casy and Oversky step up their game like they are capable of, you have yourself quite an impressive lineup which is certainly able to win games, and probably matches as well. Only time will tell if this actually materializes.
For defeating KTF two weeks ago, and for being everyones favorite team in Proleague - Airforce ACE are Plexa's Team of the Week.
