EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/LastRomantic/Nony.jpg)
A long long time ago...
There was
Nony, reigning champion of T★SL2 and the best player in the foreigner world. When no one thought that 
IdrA could be stopped there was Tyler 'Nony' Wasieleski accomplishing the seemingly impossible as he went on to take out the previous T★SL champion IefNaij and the ever dominant 
Mondragon to win his crown. At that time Nony looked unstoppable, but jump ahead to today and those wins of the past feel forgotten. Forget the title of best non-Korean, today it is hard to even find reasons to call Liquid Tyler the best American Protoss player. Many newcomers to TL.net have not witnessed Tyler’s history and see only a struggling player that they write off, but this was not always the case.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1-lYA9W0_I&feature=related
That was my first introduction to this player, a 1 second blip of a half transparent guy with his arms folded across his chest on a brick wall during the Razer T★SL intro video back in 08. Still there was something about that image that stuck with me. Like many recent Esports converts at the time the foreigner competitive scene was an unknown entity to me with MSL, OSL and Proleague hogging the limelight and it was only through the T★SL that our view of the SC world was expanded beyond Korea, and by the end of the tournament Nony’s 4th place finish was enough to generate at least one new fan.
From there he took WCG USA and followed that up with a brief stint in Korea playing on Estro which garnered him even more acclaim. While in Korea, Nony managed to make it to the finals of a Courage Tournament on his first attempt, an unbelievable feat, before his return to American and his temporary retirement from the game. At the time it was (like other player’s withdrawal from Korea) a topic of fierce debate until word slipped out of his marriage to “Mrs. Tyler” whereupon (of course) the community generally agreed that he made the right decision.
Nony was only brought back to the competitive scene by the T★SL2 one year later for what became the most hyped up match TL.net would ever see (except for maybe Jinro vs Idra). Because of Nony’s 4th place finish in the Razer T★SL he did not need to take part of the ladder to qualify for the tournament, instead he was to face the top ranked player from the ladder in a best of five for a seed into the tournament. When Idra finished an uncontested first in the ladder the match was made perfect.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Kennigit/TSL2_Banners/IdraNony_Poster2.png)
The word on the street was that Nony had only been practicing for a few weeks while in contrast Idra had been practicing daily with the best players on CJ Entus and Estro for the past two years. It was not known if Nony would even have a chance given this lack of practice. As anticipated by the community Idra took the day, but it was not the landslide victory that some expected infact the match lived up to all expectation. On Andromeda, while the commentators were still questioning Nony’s decision to attack he proved beyond doubt that he was on his game as the sky tore open and a god of storms emerged. Nony made it out of the group stages and on to face Idra again, this time in the round of eight. What followed next was one for the history books.
Nony was not able to repeat his performance on Andromeda as Idra countered his fast nexus for a quick win. In the second game Idra accidentally cancelled his halfway finished command center and promptly left the game instead of trying to salvage the match. (I haven’t pulled an scv from a building using a hotkey since) On outsider Nony proved that he didn’t need free wins when he eventually broke through Idras’s defenses and in the fourth match Idra fended off one of the most aggressive rushes in the entire tournament leaving it tied 2-2 in the final match. Here Nony, knowing Idra preferred to fast expo, proxy’d 3 gateways in the middle of the map.
Unbelievable moment here! What an epic final match! Idra has to hang on! He’s suppose to be the one who’s gonna win he’s suppose to be the one who’s been in Korea this whole time and is therefore is more experienced and can handle any situation training all day with progamers. Nony coming back from the dead emerging from the middle of the wrestling map like it’s a WWF match here!
-Nick Plott
-Nick Plott
That was the Nony that players feared, the player that could take out the best of the best when everything was on the line.
It feels like ancient history now as so much has changed since Starcraft2 beta, but it was only a little more than a year ago. When Jianfei won Razer T★SL it cemented him as the foreigner bonjwa for the year while Nony’s reign lasted for but a month before the beta gobbled up everyone’s attention.
Now with T★SL3 less than a week away where has Nony gone? With his name change Tyler has failed to live up to expectations. His results this past year have been disappointing for him and his fans with only a few showings in major tournaments and hardly any real accomplishments to speak of(The only exception being his triumph over Idra in the Gosucoaching.com Showmatch Series #1). Even on the ladder Tyler’s presence has been lacking with only a brief visit to the top 100 during September. You can say that it is not fair to hold Tyler up to high standards with a new game, but certainly other players such as Idra and Whitra have made the transition and Tyler himself made it clear what his expectations were when he told David Kim to watch his back during beta.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/lsUT3.png)
MC vs Tyler: I'll let you guess which graph belongs to who
This year's lacking performance has even caused Tyler’s seeding into T★SL3 to become controversial. While it's been the practice of almost all major tournaments to seed players from previous event this time with the change of game and the unimpressive performance of Tyler, Mondragon, and Sen in Starcraft2 competitions has left the community wondering if they can bring it well in the tournament.The list of talented players who have posted good results yet haven't managed to qualify for T★SL3 is so large that it is hard not to wonder if it would have been in the tournament's best interest to just start from scratch.
For right now
Tyler stands favored to win his first match of the TSL3 against the Ukrainian Strelok after his victory in the round of 32 during last month's ASSEMBLY Winter: SteelSeries Challenge, but simply moving to the round of 16 again isn’t enough for the American Protoss. In numerous interviews Tyler has made his desires clear and when asked about the importance of the tournament for him personally he said, “This is what I do.” In order to actually win the T★SL 3 he will need to make his way through a bracket of GSL champions FruitDealer, MC, MVP, and NesTea could all stand in his way towards the title. With such a difficult road ahead of him, repeating his accomplishment of last year seems unlikely, but even so the current reigning TSL champion stands undaunted welcoming the challenge. With everything on the line the one question left unanswered from this player is if Tyler can become Nony again.
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