EPT+ Show Spoiler +
Embedding the video twice so nobody misses it. It's also at the bottom of the post.
Let me begin by saying I am not a veteran fan of Korean Starcraft. That said, I also don't think Leta is gay or that BoxeR is a faggot. I am making this blog entry because KTF_Yellow's story and games have captured me.
When I started watching Starcraft, the GOM Classic was in Season 2. Everybody was making a fuss because of BoxeR's live games against Baxter and then by.hero. I didn't know who BoxeR was in that I hadn't witnessed his reign of terror, but even Susie and Tasteless were making a huge deal out of his games and so I looked into BoxeR's history for myself. It was rather sad to see his past games against his present games. His bunker rushes, paratroopers, and dropships seemed to tear up past Zerg players. He couldn't get the same results against modern Zerg players, although I didn't know why. I remember after his ridiculous defeat to Calm in the Proleague
+ Show Spoiler +
I started to look at his past in ACE. He certainly wasn't on top, but he had some romantic moments, most notable of which was the June 10, 2007 Proleague match between Airforce ACE and KTF, when BoxeR defeated Nal_rA with a classic cheese rush, then carried the ace game versus Flash in a powerful TvT win.
Then everybody was hit by another bit of romanticism when sAviOr had his 9 game MSL/Winners League streak which started with his win against the usurper, Bisu. The cheering was loud, and the games were tense.
When YellOw joined the Airforce, I didn't know anything about him besides his old rivalry with BoxeR. It turns out he hadn't been slumping, he was just completely inactive in all leagues, although I imagine he still had a great impact at the KTF house. When this article showed up on TL, I looked back at the games of YellOw I could find on Youtube. The first thing I saw wasn't the Coca-Cola finals or anything spectacular, just a Proleague game vs
Assem.Then I found his GOM games against
free[gm] where he proxied hatcheries and was generally aggressive. Wow! I was astounded that someone could employ such creative strategies given how old the game is.Anyway, I started watching all ACE games live, even when YellOw wasn't scheduled to play, because in the deep parts of my heart, I wanted him to come out as a hidden ace player and crush Leta or somebody.
He posted great results in MSL and OSL preliminaries. While BoxeR was eliminated 2-0 in the Ro8 of his OSL group by
herb, YellOw lost 2-1 in the finals of his OSL group to 
Thezerg. Wow!Then Jinho got some more Proleague appearances. He faced Stork in a universe-destroying duel between the two Kings of Silver on Outsider. He defended Stork's 2gate to the crowd's cheers, but lost his entire air fleet and succumbed to Stork's sair/reaver play.
If you want me to win tomorrow
Come to Yongsan
And when the game's on, throw rocks at Stork's head
Then I'll win
Nobody threw any rocks.
Then Yellow had another PL match. This time, he faced Guemchi, who he had eliminated from his MSL group 2-0.
Yellow didn't make it past the 2gate rush. What was it? Where was all his practice going? It's rightfully said that anybody can take a game from anybody else.
Yellow played Bisu in the Proleague and showed us all that he was just waiting for the right opponent (or was he waiting for a map besides Outsider?). He hadn't had a televised KeSPA win in 2 years, and the crowd gladly welcomed him back. Yellow vs Bisu was the 3set of SKT T1, and ACE was down 2-0. After Yellow won, Xellos played Thezerg and as Xellos put up his 8rax and Thezerg put down his 12hatch it looked like the impossible would happen (Xellos would beat Thezerg and Yellow would win an ace match, thereby causing tsunamis and the melting of polar ice). Unfortunately, Xellos failed. I kept Yellow in my mind, though. I remembered all the ACE games I watched, hoping he would be sent out in 5set. Why do you keep sending out Anytime, coach?
Yellow's next Proleague game was against
Jaehoon. It is fair to say nobody really knew what the result would be. Jinho had beaten Bisu, but lost to Guemchi, Much, and Stork... could he handle Jaehoon?Another victory. Then everything fell into place. Yellow didn't have a game against Samsung KHAN, but I was watching the match anyway, and it went to 5set where he played Stork again.
He didn't play badly, but it was still a sad loss. He morphed 11 lurkers and tried to sandwich Stork's entire army, but the lurkers were burrowed too close to each other and too far from Stork's units, and too many of Yellow's hydras had already died for the sandwich to wok.
Next, there was the Heritage League. Everyone will tell you Yellow has a hard time in tournament finals, but does well in special events. I guess the GhemTV Starleague could be called a special event.
Here's how it works. In order to get out of a group of 5, a player needs a 4-0 or 3-1 score. The Heritage groups are as follows:
Group A:
BoxeR, YellOw, ToSsGirL, Anytime, ReachGroup B:
Kingdom, Nal_rA, sAviOr, NaDa, iloveoovTwo players from each group qualify to the Round of 4/Semifinals. Everybody plays 4 games. Nada and Boxer, who are both at 2-0, are favorites to qualify from their groups. In fact, Boxer is essentially qualified, as his next game is against Tossgirl.
I'm rooting for Yellow to qualify. He beat Tossgirl to get 1-0, but he lost to Reach on... OUTSIDER AGAIN?! to go 1-1. This means Yellow has no choice but to beat Anytime (on Outsider) and Boxer (on Nostalgia) in his next 2 games if he wants to qualify. Those will be games to watch.
Also, Yellow's most recent PL game vs.
Lomo is quite good.We know from Yellow's interview that he wants to take ACE to the playoffs. ACE isn't what it used to be (with Clon/fOru 2v2 games being the only PL victories). The line-up has great potential. I don't know what the Korean military's techniques are. I'm just happy to see Yellow doing alright. I hope he can qualify for the individual leagues next season. More than that, I know he will do well for ACE.
We'll see what happens in the Heritage League.
Oh, hello there. Thanks for reading (or scrolling) this far. You are hereby rewarded:
So here is the video. The tribute I made to YellOw's growing storm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQMj14j_Adg
+ Show Spoiler +
Sorry I didn't cut in the Jaehoon and ToSsGirL wins, but they weren't as fitting to me.
I cheer for Hong Jin Ho.
+ Show Spoiler +
I apologize for seemingly random capitalization errors. I accidentally TLPD-ized the whole thing and when I un-TLPD-ized, it kept the weird capitalizations.
+ Show Spoiler +
Youtube did not respect my aspect ratio, so I uploaded again.
