|
Browsing TLPD a few days ago I noticed that there are currently only 3 players at their all-time ELO rating high -not counting new players without a registered peak yet-, which debatably signals them 3 being in the best form of their carreers. Appropriately enough, one of them is terran ( Flash, with a rating of 2331), one of them is zerg ( by.hero, 2132) and one of them is protoss ( Kal, 2218). Now since this third player, STX SouL's Kal (a.k.a. Goojila) happens to be my favourite progamer, I realized that this occasion, as a special point in any player's career, and his very person are worthy of this somewhat special spot, my 1001th post on TL.
So here it is, let me tell you a little more about this gem of a progamer, and show you why I think he is one of the most likeable characters in pro gaming, and why is he one of the most dangerous possible opponents for all his challengers.
"Kal is (...) a gem of a player who among the handful of new generation Protosses has perfected the blend of finesse, misinformation and mechanical strength to produce undeniably consistent and powerful results." /thedeadhaji/
Kim Ku Hyun is a well-known figure of the korean Starcraft scene, it's been more than 3 years since he was drafted to the team STX Soul, and he hasnt been avoiding the spotlights for long either. He started his carreer off with a dismal 2-13 record, including a 10 game losing streak in mostly offline preliminaries, but what has pushed several new players into eternal inferiority or straight-up retirement didnt hurt Kal, he bounced back fast and strong, scoring several wins in the 2006 Winter MST offline prelims, only to be stopped short of qualifying by an other rising protoss of the time, JangBi.
Came 2007, and he slowly became a regular of the STX PL lineups, and during the end of the year he finally started qualifying for individual leagues too, which seeing his total record of 53W-32L (62,4%) in 2007 was more than well deserved.
His run ending with a silver medal in the 2008 GOMTV MSL Season 4 is history now, and nothing short of impressive, only losing 1-3 to Jaedong himself in a great finals, in which he was probably the only player around that time (along with Flash) to push the rising Tyrant (who has just won his first OSL gold at the end of 2007) to his limits. Kal then went on to dominate the scene in 2008 as one of the 6 Protoss Dragons, whose story has been told several times, so I shouldnt cover it now.
Now a seasoned and respected player, Kal continues to show good results, actually reaching a new ELO peak just recently by easily dismantling a Protoss superstar of a past era, Air Force ACE's Park Jung Suk, [Ooops]Reach, then adding a good 15 points to it by 2-0ing his MST group, defeating Crazy-Hydra and go.go. But instead of a more detailed, dry and lengthy history lesson let us now concentrate on Kim Ku Hyun's person, playing style, skills and abilities in this game we all love, all the aspects (the heralded 'faces' ) that make him one of the most unique and likeable players currently in the scene.
"Looks like Kal has managed to break this! Kal might be able to break this [contain] just with Scouts!" /Diggity/
First of all, the entertainer, because Kal, above all, plays entertaining Starcraft. He can execute cookie-cutter strategies flawlessly as well, but his true spirit shines when he gets lost in microing a battle instead of flawless macro, when he decides to cheese an opponent, when he dismantles an incoming cheesy all-in with one hand (see his recent MST game versus go.go, all 3 minutes of it), when he decides to pull out some Scouts to break a terran contain and turn a lost game around, or when he morphs his first DTs into a Dark Archon just to help TL's strategy section in the debate whether it is the answer to the metagame shift in recent PvZ or not. All in all he is widely accepted as one of the most creative active players.
Not only is he producing entertaining games again and again, but interestingly enough, his subtle changes in play seem to force his opponents to pick unusual routes too, or just to play to the best of their abilities in trying to defeat him. I think the finest example of this is his legendary clash with fOrGG in the Arena MSL. First they met in the round of 32, where ForGG, the cookie-cutter timing attack monster decided to pull a Deep 6 -one of the most elaborate, technically difficult in execution and most timing-dependent cheeses in Starcraft- versus him on Tiamat, resulting in a beautiful game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jeBlCAjtFU
(Even if you decide to skip watching the entire game now, I strongly suggest watching the beautiful push, defense and just endless battle from 16:00 on in the video)
And this was just the beginning, as they met again in the quarter-finals of the same MSL, and battled it out in what is considered by many to be one of the greatest best-of-fives in Starcraft history. It starts off with one of my favourite games of all time, game 1 on Colosseum:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YQcNJ1iF5A&feature=related
If you haven't seen this series yet, go watch it now. To read how it played out, i recommend thedeadhaji's awesome writeup on it: [MSL] The Circus Show - ro8 Kal vs ForGG
I cannot help but feel that at the time their series was clearly the catalyst to ForGG ending up taking the Arena MSL, and helped him present his most creative and strongest play yet (dismantling Jaedong 3-0 in the finals).
Being just unique and entertaining though wont get you far in professional starcraft (just ask BackHo or Chalrenge), but thankfully, there's a lot more to Kal:
"My 3 favourite progamers are Flash and Jaedong (...) and I also like Goojila. He plays a very creative game, and his games always have a lot of ideas and thoughts in it, I feel that, and so I like it." /Garimto/
Kal is a genius because he knows you can't fool around all the time, he excels in picking the right times to bring out a monstrous standard play, and knows when is he able to change up things, be it some mid-game adaptive or surprising deviation or planning games in advance. Kal is still considered a PvZ monster (though his record in this matchup has fallen back quite a bit lately from his famed 70%+ winrate), with the pleasant combination of prefectly executed builds, cheeses, brave army compositions and game-long focused and smart play with masterful lategame harass, timing-awareness and the obilogatory adaptive play and generally good game-sense.
His PL game against Jaedong on Colosseum II is a good example of this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNo_yFAKqF0
Some even go as far as calling Kal the true revolutionist of the PvZ matchup instead of Bisu, and while this claim is obviously exaggerated, Kal did have the best PvZ of the dragons (29-10/ 74,4% winrate compared to Bisu's 21-13/61,7% in 2008). (Kal by the way also boasted a 71%+ PvZ record in 2007 as well)
Despite his outstanding PvZ, Kal was considered by most to be the weakest (or second weakest) of the dragons, and that is mainly due to his -at the time- inferior, below 50% PvP, that most of the time left him behind in head-to-head situations.
In mid-2008 Plexa wrote a great article about STX Soul, in which he predicted Kal to "shortly" strengthen his PvP, and become an all-round protoss superstar. (note how the article also predicts the rise of Calm)
And Kal did pick up his PvP, not that soon though, but by quite a notch!
In the Clubday MSL quarterfinals he defeated Stork, who was then on top of his PvP game (a mere week after the Dino-Toss walked over easily the PvP prodigy Best):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imVpbMB4heo
He currently has a 54,2% win-rate in the matchup, going 13-3 (that is 81%, folks) in 2009, only dropping a game each to Bisu, JangBi and BackHo. No wonder he is already the second highest ranked PvP player (according to TLPD detailed ELO) after Bisu (whose PvP is truly reminescent of Jaedong's ZvZ lately).
His PvT has always been strong, and it is currently at a 60%+ winrate, but he has always stayed below Bisu, Stork and JangBi in the PvT rankings, even with the KHAN players slumping badly lately.
With the promising results in his PvP as of late, his falling results in PvZ are quite a disappointment, actually making that aforementioned steady PvT the statistically best matchup of his, as this PvZ monster now only has a "measly" 57% winrate versus the swarm, and ironically enough, that matchup might be the one now keeping him from obtaining that predicted superstar status. (that 57% winrate is quite dismal if you consider he has been averaging around 72% throughout 2007 and 2008. His PvZ in 2009 is 13-19, which is only barely above 40%, with Just 2-1-ing him out of this years OSL prelims, though it could be as "high" as 13-13 too if he didnt meet JD 4 times and July twice.)
On the long run, it was still Kal to be shown the second most consistent of the dragons after Kim Taek Yong himself.
As an other recommended game, watch him tear apart Flash in the ace game of a KTF-STX match, presuming, scouting, then exploiting the flaws in his greedy build with a 3-pronged late DT attack on Destination:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9igyCM86OAo
"Kal cannot be killed!" /Nick "Tasteless" Plott/
What makes a certain play badass? In my eyes, it has to be something unorthodox, spectacular, involving high risk, and not ending in utter failure (that's why BackHo is not badass most of the time, while certainly entertaining). But as a player, Kal is more then someone just doing such moves. He has a cool and confident aura, he takes losses with dignity, but can surely enjoy a win. He often finds time to micro even situations not needing it, and that, and his choice of strategies give his play some unique elegance, even when it's bordering silly recklessness.
His finesse and bravery in shuttle control has earned him the nickname Red Shuttle, as his shuttles' health is often in the red while he is still running around merrily with them above the enemy base, trying to find holes in the defenses and opportunities to harass. Those who play with fire are bound to get burnt, but Kal usually makes up for the cost of lost shuttles. Would you believe he actually said in an interview once that he isnt too fond of harassing, and only does it when he sees an opening?
Watch him "suicide" at least 5-6 shuttles above enemy forces in this game on Destination as he slowly but steadily crawls his way back to victory in a seemingly lost game against the then Samsung KHAN terran, now his STX teammate FrOzean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThRGjKG4KnU&feature=player_embedded
Kal is generally not one to gg prematurely, or give up on a game in any way before all is lost, and that helps producing entertaining fights (where one can't help but sympathize with Kal's often self-induced underdog position) and sometimes surprising comebacks, as his smart and restless harass can easily upset someone relying too much on his macro to finish off an ostensibly won game. One of the finest examples of his endurance and fighting spirit lately was seen in his GOM S3 series against his teammate, the ZvP monster July.
I cannot embed GOMTV videos, so clicking this link below will take you to the GOMTV site where you can watch this awesome PvZ, the 3rd and deciding game in their clash on Outsider with the english cast of Tasteless and Daniel Lee:
At the start of that series (http://www.gomtv.net/videos/833) there's an amazing scene (you can also see some bad quality screenshots of it in this next oversized sub-section banner ) that brings us right to the next face of Kim Ku Hyun:
"Kal is a really fun guy. He is really playful, but when he's serious, he is dead serious. I think that makes him a particularly charismatic hyung" /Fantasy/
At the beginning of the GOMTV series versus his teammate July, the players approach each other for the usual greeting of opponents, but they instead hug each other passionately and spin around a little playfully and laughing before they depart to their respective booths with pats on the backs. This touching and unique gesture shows not only great sportsmanship but actual friendship, and -together with the subsequent series- a huge amount of deep respect towards each other, all in all, two hugely sympathetic players.
Kal is said by many to be one of the friendliest -although somewhat shy- characters among pro-gamers, complimented by interviewers, and thanked often for practice sessions by members of STX and other teams as well.
Outside his team, he is friends with KT's Flash and SKT1's fantasy, as they were once in the same clan. Fantasy mentioned Flash to be his closest progamer friend, but the friendship of Kal and Fantasy is rumored too to be one of the strongest friendships in the SC scene.
+ Show Spoiler [bonus game] +A bit above I already showed you how Kal treated his dear friend Flash on the terran's very birthday (as cruel as it sounds,but obviously any kind of "mercy" in play would have been disrespectful and not sportsman-like. In the winner's interviews Kal clearly expressed his worries for the young Flash's mood after losing twice for his team KTF on a special day.) Here's a decent TvP, Fantasy versus Kal from a korean WCG qualifier, just two good friends playing a casual game of starcraft, still not quite the usual bnet BGH game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff8mMf1EdYA&feature=player_embedded
Not only is he there for his friends, but also for his team, STX Soul, the team that drafted him back in 2006. During these 3 years of loyal dedication, Kal has slowly evolved to become the team's Proleague ace, and he was the first STX member ever to reach the final of an individual starleague (the aforementioned GOMTV MSL Season 4). He aquired a steady 60% winrate in the 08-09 Proleague showing reliable play again and again, even in high pressure situations, for e.g. when STX was tied with Lecaf at 2-2, and he was chosen to face Lee Jae dong in the all-or-nothing ace game on Andromeda: + Show Spoiler +where he showcases his trademark endurance coming back from a big deficit in a 25 minute macro game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvcIKQsC-l8
Great sportsmanship, nice personality, team loyalty and reliability make him a truly likeable character, even if somebody (for some reasons beyond my understanding) does not like his style of play.
After all this praise, one has to wonder: what keeps then Kal from becoming a superstar of the scene, from taking a single individual title or at least having more fans (or back in the day, not being considered the weakest of dragons)? The answer is every fan's least favourite aspect of Kal:
"On his good days, Kal is arguably the best Protoss on planet Earth. On his bad days, Rock would beat him in a best out of 5 series." /OneOther, Power Rank October 2008/
If we were to conduct a survey asking random people to describe Kal in one word, 'inconsistent' would surely give 'creative' a run for its money. Kal is known to be able to beat any player when in good shape, but he has proven, and continues to prove that he can lose in the most lackluster fashion to any B-teamer as well.
Here is an infamous game on Medusa, where he scouts Shine's 2-hatch hydra build with a smart (and maybe lucky) 2nd scouting probe, then proceeds to stubbornly stick to his corsair build and put only 3 cannons up in his natural, which get properly busted by the first wave of hydras, and Kal is forced to type out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZaTqppB77U
As I briefly mentioned above, he got eliminated from the current OSL without even making the group stages by losing 1-2 to a noname zerg, Just. Kal is 7-4 against Stork, but 0-4 against BackHo, 3-0 against sAviOr but 0-2 against Shark. His longest winning streak is only 6 games long. He doesn't slump because he's never truly on a roll. And one can hardly win a Starleague without ever being on a roll.
The consensus about Kim Ku Hyun seems to be clear: he is simply not champion material. His biggest victory to date remains that GOMTV MSL S4 silver.
Confident entertaining plays slip into stubbornness, bravery turns to recklessness, badass unit control is bittersweet when he's just dragging out a lost situation, and a decent PL performance is not enough to be remembered. Kal's style is sure hard to balance, and it's not something you'll ever see a Strategy Forum thread discuss in detail, because it's simply not by the book.
Is the "solution" to have his entertaining but somewhat negligent style withdrawn in favor of a more standard, cookie-cutter, but in turn, reliable play, just like how the young cheesy Flash slowly evolved into today's turtling monster, "glacier terran"? Would I still be a fan of his if he showed more consistent results, but less entertaining play or less or just even smaller smiles during and after games? The answer is clearly no. I'm hoping for both. As a fan, it's my duty to dream big, to insist that the entertaining, smart and enthusiastic play can overcome temporary imbalances, perfected build orders and mechanized game senses. And if it can, Kal is the player to do it.
Then again, insisting his losses all come from bad executions of otherwise awesome plays would be pretentious even from a die-hard biased fanboy like myself. Most of his losses are simply due to inconsistency, in the purest sense of the word, Kal sometimes trades all these faces for an absent-minded, tired and stubborn protoss. Due to him proving himself in several high-pressure situations too, we can't even say he's having nerve problem's like the TL favourite Sea[Shield] of MBC.
Kal just needs to get his act together.
Seeing him reach his ELO peak this week was somewhat surprising from the once MSL finalist, and (before the reign of Calm) the lone ace player of STX, both suggesting something has changed. We'll have to see if it's some statistical anomaly or the true sign of an overall more consistent play. This peak was reached with the combination of a steady PL performance (going 3-1 so far this round, only losing to Jaedong himself), and MSL qualifiers, and it still has the impact of the invididual and team leagues towards the end of last season: Kal is in good form. He has qualified for the current MSL - for the 6th season in a row now, in TLPD ELO he is currently the 7th ranked player overall, the 2nd protoss after Bisu.
While all this usually means nothing from him, here's to hoping that this time it does herald the start of his most succesful era yet.
+ Show Spoiler [disclaimers and thanks] +
I have been using TLPD's numbers on the 22th of October, before p4NDemic's recent additions to the database - hence the statistics are probably not a 100% precise or up to date, but this should be nothing major -, and also they obviously dont include PL or other event results since then.
For the banner and the sub-section graphics I've used pictures of NeverGG (nevergg.net) and pictures found on fomos.kr.
Huge props as usual to jon747 and nevake for all their uploading work, and thanks to GOMTV for making games freely availible online with english commentary on their site.
And thanks everyone who bothered to read it all the way through, it sure got longer then I expected it to be, and it required quite some work, I hope you enjoyed reading it.
Kal fighting!
|
sweet read
kal fighting!
|
Gonna read after class, but Kal is frikkin awesome!!!
|
On October 28 2009 02:48 StorrZerg wrote:sweet read kal fighting!
October 28 2009 02:42
October 28 2009 02:48
u read that in 6 mins? nice!
|
Nice writeup! Kal is indeed a sweet player to watch
|
"On his good days, Kal is arguably the best Protoss on planet Earth. On his bad days, Rock would beat him in a best out of 5 series." /OneOther, Power Rank October 2008/
i lol'd
|
Well written article, good work!
Kal is awesome! :D
|
Loved the last section.
KAL HWAITING
awesome writeup.
|
On October 28 2009 02:50 Spanxxx wrote:October 28 2009 02:42 October 28 2009 02:48 u read that in 6 mins? nice!
And I guess he also watched the 4 hours of VODs I linked
+ Show Spoiler +j/k Storr, FIWK fighting;)
edit: it feels so good to post again, I've been holding back for so long to get this out on the 1000th, then i wasted that in some random LR thread by accident:D
|
5/5 awesome. I like Kal
Edit: but imo he looks like 150% better when he wears his glasses. hope to see him in ACE matches more often
|
That was a really great read thanks. His gom tv game on outsider vs July is one of my all-time favourites.
|
Wow, thanks for the spotlight, whoever did it
Awesome.
|
Kal just got absolutely destroyed by Really in one of the most one-sided games I've ever seen. Looking at his stats Kal is actually on a hot streak right now, so what does that say about Really?
|
On October 28 2009 04:06 jalstar wrote:
Kal just got absolutely destroyed by Really in one of the most one-sided games I've ever seen. Looking at his stats Kal is actually on a hot streak right now, so what does that say about Really?
Beat me to it. That was one of the biggest beat-downs I have ever, EVER, seen in a pro-SC game.
|
woah. LONG LONG LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG article but totally worth the read
love the games that you linked. Of all the dragons i've had the LEAST interest in kal. I thought he was just another Bisu play-alike. This completely changed my opinion of him
|
On October 28 2009 04:16 On_Slaught wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2009 04:06 jalstar wrote:
Kal just got absolutely destroyed by Really in one of the most one-sided games I've ever seen. Looking at his stats Kal is actually on a hot streak right now, so what does that say about Really? Beat me to it. That was one of the biggest beat-downs I have ever, EVER, seen in a pro-SC game.
Really played that game very well, completely denying Kal any information, his observer couldnt get in, and he was holding back all the factory units. He did an 8 factory timing push off two bases, which is (while I'm not an expert in TvP, seems allin-ish to me) rare and very aggressive. Kal was completely unprepared, he had been scouting the map for hidden bases, but from what he saw, it could have been the same 1 rax into CC Deep 6 that Classic pulled off against Best's (also the same!) 2 base arbiters not so long ago. I guess that's why Kal went so zealot-heavy, and with 2 reavers.
But all in all, it was very nicely played by Really, really impressive
Maybe Kal should have forced in an observer like Bisu did against go.go on Byzantium 3 when he got Deep 6-ed, only that it was too late for him:-p
As a Kal fan, I'm used to watching him getting raped from time to time, see article:-p
(I saw the game while writing this, but I didnt want to update it with the newest results)
On October 28 2009 04:30 DreaM)XeRO wrote:
woah. LONG LONG LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG article but totally worth the read
love the games that you linked. Of all the dragons i've had the LEAST interest in kal. I thought he was just another Bisu play-alike. This completely changed my opinion of him
I'm really glad it did.
|
wow
nice article homie
keep them coming
|
On October 28 2009 02:50 Spanxxx wrote:October 28 2009 02:42 October 28 2009 02:48 u read that in 6 mins? nice!
When people say sweet ride, they mean it looks like a nice car. Doesn't have to mean they drove it or sat in it. So I'm guessing that's what he means. Or he can slow down time. Both are plausible explanations.
On topic: As the way things are going right now on the pro scene, I only recognize 2 dragons. bisu and stork, call me when Kal starts face pounding zergs again.
|
On October 28 2009 04:49 lone_hydra wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2009 02:50 Spanxxx wrote:On October 28 2009 02:48 StorrZerg wrote:sweet read kal fighting! October 28 2009 02:42 October 28 2009 02:48 u read that in 6 mins? nice! When people say sweet ride, they mean it looks like a nice car. Doesn't have to mean they drove it or sat in it. So I'm guessing that's what he means. Or he can slow down time. Both are plausible explanations. On topic: As the way things are going right now on the pro scene, I only recognize 2 dragons. bisu and stork, call me when Kal starts face pounding zergs again.
rofl? stork is so bad now...i wouldnt even put him as S class anymore
|
I guess this is a bad time to talk about how much I hate him?
Pretty funny quotes though. gg
|
On October 28 2009 05:41 Mobius wrote:
I guess this is a bad time to talk about how much I hate him?
Pretty funny quotes though. gg
No, please do elaborate, I'm curious.
Is it because he left you disappointed so many times after you started liking him? Thats the only thing I can think of off the top of my head ;-p
|
what was that game where kal used scouts to break a contain, can anyone post a youtube link for it?
|
On October 28 2009 05:45 [Fin]Vittu wrote:
what was that game where kal used scouts to break a contain, can anyone post a youtube link for it?
It's linked later on in the article, though I didnt make it clear that it was the game where he did that.
It's the Kal vs ForGG game on Colosseum from their Bo5:
+ Show Spoiler +
|
Kal vs ForGG was one of the best bo5 series I've ever had the pleasure of watching.
|
fucking awesome article :D
I really hope Kal learns how to PvZ again. If I have to see him lose to another mediocre zerg in PL I dunno what I'll do.
|
another great kal game is his game vs midas on neo requiem from GLS S2.
but my favorite kal game is probably his game vs frozean on destination. such awesome shuttle play :D
|
On October 28 2009 05:40 StalinRusH wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2009 04:49 lone_hydra wrote:On October 28 2009 02:50 Spanxxx wrote:On October 28 2009 02:48 StorrZerg wrote:sweet read kal fighting! October 28 2009 02:42 October 28 2009 02:48 u read that in 6 mins? nice! When people say sweet ride, they mean it looks like a nice car. Doesn't have to mean they drove it or sat in it. So I'm guessing that's what he means. Or he can slow down time. Both are plausible explanations. On topic: As the way things are going right now on the pro scene, I only recognize 2 dragons. bisu and stork, call me when Kal starts face pounding zergs again. rofl? stork is so bad now...i wouldnt even put him as S class anymore
What? (last 3 months)
|
On October 28 2009 06:12 Ideas wrote:
another great kal game is his game vs midas on neo requiem from GLS S2.
but my favorite kal game is probably his game vs frozean on destination. such awesome shuttle play :D
Yes, I was thinking briefly about including that game versus Midas too, it was very well played, but I can see people not liking it for the use of imba carriers, so I decided not to
(I mean, keeping Midas occupied, slowing his push, and kinda hoping that he does not discover the dangerous mass expanding, and the general shuttle play was smart, but at a quick glance, it might just look like a simple game where Protoss got carriers and won:-p Not to mention it was on Neo Requiem, and it had dt harass into carriers, I just didnt want to see too many "P is imba" messages here:p)
|
On October 28 2009 06:19 ZBiR wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2009 05:40 StalinRusH wrote:On October 28 2009 04:49 lone_hydra wrote:On October 28 2009 02:50 Spanxxx wrote:On October 28 2009 02:48 StorrZerg wrote:sweet read kal fighting! October 28 2009 02:42 October 28 2009 02:48 u read that in 6 mins? nice! When people say sweet ride, they mean it looks like a nice car. Doesn't have to mean they drove it or sat in it. So I'm guessing that's what he means. Or he can slow down time. Both are plausible explanations. On topic: As the way things are going right now on the pro scene, I only recognize 2 dragons. bisu and stork, call me when Kal starts face pounding zergs again. rofl? stork is so bad now...i wouldnt even put him as S class anymore What? (last 3 months)
i dont count WCG and other then that hes only beaten nonames mostly (lost to a bunch of nobodys also)
|
Woot for kal fanboyism.
I would say that Ive never really been a huge fan of Kal, though i did like him. Now i can say that I am a proper fan of Kal's.
Thx for converting me.
|
You're cool for making this great post. Thanks!
|
On October 28 2009 06:31 StalinRusH wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2009 06:19 ZBiR wrote:On October 28 2009 05:40 StalinRusH wrote:On October 28 2009 04:49 lone_hydra wrote:On October 28 2009 02:50 Spanxxx wrote:On October 28 2009 02:48 StorrZerg wrote:sweet read kal fighting! October 28 2009 02:42 October 28 2009 02:48 u read that in 6 mins? nice! When people say sweet ride, they mean it looks like a nice car. Doesn't have to mean they drove it or sat in it. So I'm guessing that's what he means. Or he can slow down time. Both are plausible explanations. On topic: As the way things are going right now on the pro scene, I only recognize 2 dragons. bisu and stork, call me when Kal starts face pounding zergs again. rofl? stork is so bad now...i wouldnt even put him as S class anymore What? (last 3 months) i dont count WCG and other then that hes only beaten nonames mostly (lost to a bunch of nobodys also)
why the fuck wouldnt you count WCG? It's one of the hardest tournaments one can play in.
|
That Kal vs fOrGG game with the Deep 6 push was so intense. He held out for so long.
|
On October 28 2009 05:40 StalinRusH wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2009 04:49 lone_hydra wrote:On October 28 2009 02:50 Spanxxx wrote:On October 28 2009 02:48 StorrZerg wrote:sweet read kal fighting! October 28 2009 02:42 October 28 2009 02:48 u read that in 6 mins? nice! When people say sweet ride, they mean it looks like a nice car. Doesn't have to mean they drove it or sat in it. So I'm guessing that's what he means. Or he can slow down time. Both are plausible explanations. On topic: As the way things are going right now on the pro scene, I only recognize 2 dragons. bisu and stork, call me when Kal starts face pounding zergs again. rofl? stork is so bad now...i wouldnt even put him as S class anymore
S class easily. On par or winning record with all of the top players... Jaedong, Flash and Bisu. He has also completely trashed Fantasy lately. Also he's in the OSL and winning a bit mre consistently than our beesuit friend.
Also nice article. Lately every game I watch Kal he loses.
|
On October 28 2009 07:25 Sabu113 wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2009 05:40 StalinRusH wrote:On October 28 2009 04:49 lone_hydra wrote:On October 28 2009 02:50 Spanxxx wrote:On October 28 2009 02:48 StorrZerg wrote:sweet read kal fighting! October 28 2009 02:42 October 28 2009 02:48 u read that in 6 mins? nice! When people say sweet ride, they mean it looks like a nice car. Doesn't have to mean they drove it or sat in it. So I'm guessing that's what he means. Or he can slow down time. Both are plausible explanations. On topic: As the way things are going right now on the pro scene, I only recognize 2 dragons. bisu and stork, call me when Kal starts face pounding zergs again. rofl? stork is so bad now...i wouldnt even put him as S class anymore S class easily. On par or winning record with all of the top players... Jaedong, Flash and Bisu. He has also completely trashed Fantasy lately. Also he's in the OSL and winning a bit mre consistently than our beesuit friend. Also nice article. Lately every game I watch Kal he loses.
shouldnt feed a troll who thinks stork is bad when stork is doing pretty well right now with many good players beaten within the 3 months and still holding a good win rate this year and many games played.
|
Osaka27149 Posts
Really great article. Kal always flies under my radar so this piece really put him together for me.
|
That was a great article I haven't had a chance to watch the vods yet but he's also among my favorite progamers and I'm fairly sure I've seen the games but I'll rewatch them anyways sometime tomorrow.
As for him losing a lot of PvZ lately I blame it on the maps not on him, all protoss are losing to zergs right now :X
|
|
|
Kal is looking like the 3rd best toss atm, behind Bisu/Stork. All three of them are doing pretty decent atm while jangbi and best are kinda slumping atm. I don't know too much about free.
|
5673 Posts
This is a great read. Thank you!
|
awesome read!
kal needs to get his pvz back into shape; i feel like july was the one who did a number on kal though.
|
Very nice article. Although I am not a particular Kal fan, I support all of the Protoss Dragons. Plus, Kal has always provided with some very entertaining games, so I hope he does well.
|
On October 28 2009 07:25 Sabu113 wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2009 05:40 StalinRusH wrote:On October 28 2009 04:49 lone_hydra wrote:On October 28 2009 02:50 Spanxxx wrote:On October 28 2009 02:48 StorrZerg wrote:sweet read kal fighting! October 28 2009 02:42 October 28 2009 02:48 u read that in 6 mins? nice! When people say sweet ride, they mean it looks like a nice car. Doesn't have to mean they drove it or sat in it. So I'm guessing that's what he means. Or he can slow down time. Both are plausible explanations. On topic: As the way things are going right now on the pro scene, I only recognize 2 dragons. bisu and stork, call me when Kal starts face pounding zergs again. rofl? stork is so bad now...i wouldnt even put him as S class anymore S class easily. On par or winning record with all of the top players... Jaedong, Flash and Bisu. He has also completely trashed Fantasy lately. Also he's in the OSL and winning a bit mre consistently than our beesuit friend. Also nice article. Lately every game I watch Kal he loses.
ok ok maybe i went a little to far as to say "not S class anymore" he just isnt anywhere as strong as he used to be imo
|
United States4796 Posts
Nice quotes, and excellent writeup! This was a great 1001st post.
|
sweet read. nice to see an articulate and passionate fan.
|
|
|
iNfeRnaL
Germany1908 Posts
Damn nice effort, he's my 2nd favorite Toss after Bisu since a long long time, even tho I kinda lost interest since his PvZ dropped at bit, he's still a great and creative player tho.
|
Even though Kal is on my anti-team, I wish him the best of luck and hope that he gives us some awesome games <3
|
Nice article, been a fan of Kal since his match vs July on Outsider
|
thanks for everyone's kind words so far^^
On October 28 2009 21:46 Ro[]t wrote:
Even though Kal is on my anti-team, I wish him the best of luck and hope that he gives us some awesome games <3
Kal on anti-team? Ballsy:-p
I always wanted to pick him for main, but due to his relatively high cost/still inconsistent form i only did it once i think, which is really a shame, since I suck at FPL anyway, so I should just make a team out of my favourite players next time
|
On October 28 2009 05:40 StalinRusH wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2009 04:49 lone_hydra wrote:On October 28 2009 02:50 Spanxxx wrote:On October 28 2009 02:48 StorrZerg wrote:sweet read kal fighting! October 28 2009 02:42 October 28 2009 02:48 u read that in 6 mins? nice! When people say sweet ride, they mean it looks like a nice car. Doesn't have to mean they drove it or sat in it. So I'm guessing that's what he means. Or he can slow down time. Both are plausible explanations. On topic: As the way things are going right now on the pro scene, I only recognize 2 dragons. bisu and stork, call me when Kal starts face pounding zergs again. rofl? stork is so bad now...i wouldnt even put him as S class anymore
Um. 7th Elo, 3-0 in his last 3 games vs fantasy, 2-0 Jaedong in WCG. What a noob.
|
Good stuff. I also love watching Kal when he is successful at his creative plays.
|
Haha, I totally forgot about this article: it glimpsed before my eyes and disapperaed. Thanks 538, for mentioning it in my blog comments, this was indeed awesome job. And Kal... I guess if he was just a bit more consistent he would easily surpass JangBi / free as #3 Protoss.
|
Just wanted to say that this was excellent. I'm jealous of your dedication to work so hard for your favorite player. Awesome article.
|
On October 30 2009 05:04 kvilx wrote:Haha, I totally forgot about this article: it glimpsed before my eyes and disapperaed. Thanks 538, for mentioning it in my blog comments, this was indeed awesome job. And Kal... I guess if he was just a bit more consistent he would easily surpass JangBi / free as #3 Protoss.
Dude don't you have any PvX guides too? I'm sure the community would be grateful, and maybe we could ask NeverGG or someone in korea to deliver them to Kal himself?
|
On October 28 2009 22:48 538 wrote:thanks for everyone's kind words so far^^ Show nested quote +On October 28 2009 21:46 Ro[]t wrote:
Even though Kal is on my anti-team, I wish him the best of luck and hope that he gives us some awesome games <3 Kal on anti-team? Ballsy:-p I always wanted to pick him for main, but due to his relatively high cost/still inconsistent form i only did it once i think, which is really a shame, since I suck at FPL anyway, so I should just make a team out of my favourite players next time
Haha so far it has proven more stupid then ballsy 
|
On October 30 2009 05:11 538 wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2009 05:04 kvilx wrote:Haha, I totally forgot about this article: it glimpsed before my eyes and disapperaed. Thanks 538, for mentioning it in my blog comments, this was indeed awesome job. And Kal... I guess if he was just a bit more consistent he would easily surpass JangBi / free as #3 Protoss. Dude don't you have any PvX guides too? I'm sure the community would be grateful, and maybe we could ask NeverGG or someone in korea to deliver them to Kal himself?
If I even had one, I wouldn't pass it to NeverGG. She is awesome, but...
This would ruin every creative strategy. You know what I mean. 
|
On October 30 2009 05:22 kvilx wrote:Show nested quote +On October 30 2009 05:11 538 wrote:On October 30 2009 05:04 kvilx wrote:Haha, I totally forgot about this article: it glimpsed before my eyes and disapperaed. Thanks 538, for mentioning it in my blog comments, this was indeed awesome job. And Kal... I guess if he was just a bit more consistent he would easily surpass JangBi / free as #3 Protoss. Dude don't you have any PvX guides too? I'm sure the community would be grateful, and maybe we could ask NeverGG or someone in korea to deliver them to Kal himself? If I even had one, I wouldn't pass it to NeverGG. She is awesome, but... This would ruin every creative strategy. You know what I mean.
I thought you were not one to judge a zerg opponent on the sim-city of her bases.
|
ForGG vs Kal on Colosseum is one of the most unique games ever.
+ Show Spoiler +Most important unit = Protoss Scout? (Yes, the unit)
|
Kal was one of the first high tier protoss players I ever watched professionally, when he was ranked 9 on KeSPA. Since then I have always loved his games. I pray from the bottom of my heart that Kal becomes consistent, because that is what is keeping him from winning titles and surpassing Bisu and Stork as the #1 protoss.
|
thanks for the great writeup
|
i thought this was going to be a comparison of his jaw before and after surgery. he lost like 5 lbs of jaw matter man. his face looks completely different now. great protoss nonetheless.
|
This is a fantastic thread. I think you just made me a Kal fan. I'm going to go and watch a whole bunch of his games now.
|
|
|
wow never noticed the JAW part.
He looked so manly with those JAWS looks like he crunches human head for breakfast
|
538: Great article. Best read for quite a while. Thx!
|
Great read, epic 1000th post. I can only hope that I can come up with something nearly as good for my 10000th. You have inspired me. Major props.
|
Great read and completely agree. You'll be happy to see that he's continued his good form into the new season.
Man, Kal is so underdiscussed on teamliquid.
Kal: the invisible Toss.
|
I need to bump this. Kal's OSL games were just too damn awesome. Kal has never been playing more exciting starcraft than he is right now :D
GOOJILLA
|
Kal is awesome. He just chokes too often. Well written!
|
My 3 fav programers are Flash and Jaedong ROFL
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT![[image loading]](http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww92/tl_t538/TL/Kal/mainbanner2B.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww92/tl_t538/TL/Kal/entertainerB.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww92/tl_t538/TL/Kal/genius.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww92/tl_t538/TL/Kal/badass.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww92/tl_t538/TL/Kal/teamplayer.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i709.photobucket.com/albums/ww92/tl_t538/TL/Kal/inconsistent.jpg)
