Who Might Stop Flash in OSL? - Page 14

On May 02 2010 10:10 darktreb wrote:


Do you play SC?

This isn't meant to be a flame - a lot of people watch SC and never play it, which is totally fine. But admittedly it's much harder to appreciate Flash's play unless you play a lot of SC, because you don't really have a sense of what's hard and what's not.

Here are some things I look out for when I watch Flash play contrasted to when I watch some other Terran play. I don't think I've even scratched the surface of all the things to watch for when he plays though.

- Flash simply never moves out in TvP and gets crushed. He basically never misjudges his timings or the relative army sizes and blows an entire army for nothing, something that pretty much no other pro T manages to avoid 100% of the time.

- Flash's TvT positioning is unrivaled. He's always at the most important location given the current context of the game 5 seconds before his opponent. This is especially evident on 3 player maps like Medusa and Moon Glaive. Medusa especially, see Flash vs FBH (twice), Flash vs Leta, Flash vs Hwasin.

- His army size. You'd think that all progamers are so good at macro that this is even, but it's not true. Flash simply never misses a round (this is even more evident when watching his OSL games where you can watch his resource counter go through the production rounds with incredible regularity, even though he's still controlling his army attentively).

- Pace. Flash plays at a faster pace than any other Terran. He's always dictating the flow of the game. It's extremely rare to see him on his back foot in a game - rather it's always the opponent struggling to keep up with his decisions. A great example of this is his game 3 against Calm last OSL semifinals, the epic battle on Fighting Spirit where it seemed like Flash just constantly imposed his will across the map in spite of facing a Zerg who easily got 4 gas very early (and eventually picked up a 5th). You'll never find another TvZ where a top Z gets 4 gas that easily on a giant 4 player map and yet is constantly on his back foot the entire time.

It's easy to dislike Flash's play, in part because there's very little drama in his games usually. It's more like, step 1: get an advantage, step 2: make the advantage larger, step 3: win. You have make an effort to look for the perfection in his play to appreciate it, but it definitely makes watching pro SC much more enjoyable if you do.

On May 02 2010 10:10 darktreb wrote:


Do you play SC?

This isn't meant to be a flame - a lot of people watch SC and never play it, which is totally fine. But admittedly it's much harder to appreciate Flash's play unless you play a lot of SC, because you don't really have a sense of what's hard and what's not.

Here are some things I look out for when I watch Flash play contrasted to when I watch some other Terran play. I don't think I've even scratched the surface of all the things to watch for when he plays though.

- Flash simply never moves out in TvP and gets crushed. He basically never misjudges his timings or the relative army sizes and blows an entire army for nothing, something that pretty much no other pro T manages to avoid 100% of the time.

- Flash's TvT positioning is unrivaled. He's always at the most important location given the current context of the game 5 seconds before his opponent. This is especially evident on 3 player maps like Medusa and Moon Glaive. Medusa especially, see Flash vs FBH (twice), Flash vs Leta, Flash vs Hwasin.

- His army size. You'd think that all progamers are so good at macro that this is even, but it's not true. Flash simply never misses a round (this is even more evident when watching his OSL games where you can watch his resource counter go through the production rounds with incredible regularity, even though he's still controlling his army attentively).

- Pace. Flash plays at a faster pace than any other Terran. He's always dictating the flow of the game. It's extremely rare to see him on his back foot in a game - rather it's always the opponent struggling to keep up with his decisions. A great example of this is his game 3 against Calm last OSL semifinals, the epic battle on Fighting Spirit where it seemed like Flash just constantly imposed his will across the map in spite of facing a Zerg who easily got 4 gas very early (and eventually picked up a 5th). You'll never find another TvZ where a top Z gets 4 gas that easily on a giant 4 player map and yet is constantly on his back foot the entire time.

It's easy to dislike Flash's play, in part because there's very little drama in his games usually. It's more like, step 1: get an advantage, step 2: make the advantage larger, step 3: win. You have make an effort to look for the perfection in his play to appreciate it, but it definitely makes watching pro SC much more enjoyable if you do.

On May 02 2010 10:18 Lightwip wrote:

I play SC, although I never took a liking to playing as terran. That might be why. But sometimes, watching his games can be a bit boring, most notably his first game against Movie in the OSL.
I can probably see why others would like him, he does have a pretty epic style as far as winning. If I played Terran more I'd probably like him, but as I don't, the only matchup I find particularly entertaining of his is TvZ, with the occasional good TvT/P.

On May 02 2010 10:32 aegisabcde wrote:

His "boring" TvP is not really his fault. Progamers play to win. Protoss dictates the pace of the game in PvT. For example, if a Protoss does not get a quick 3rd, then there is no timing to push. Someone like fOrGG might try it and get utterly dominated. Flash never makes that mistake.

For his game on Heartbreak Ridge, the correct way to play it is to split the map. Pushing is too hard with all those ridges and the expansion layout makes extremely easy for the Terran army to get trapped or stasis-ed because of the lack of escape routes.

Did you see how after he got his gas stolen, Flash built a refinery at his natural and used 7 SCVs to get gas BEFORE his natural CC finished so he would immediately have 56 gas as soon as his CC finishes? That 10 seconds of factory timing could be crucial in TvP and those kinds of thought he puts in the game just make Terran players go crazy.

On May 02 2010 10:45 Lightwip wrote:

Actually, I'm pretty sure BoxeR said that he plays for the fans in his biography. But that is beside the point.
I don't really blame him for his play, and I agree that it is pretty brilliant, but it doesn't make it any more interesting to watch. Especially if I'm watching a game while somewhat tired. As i said before, it'd probably be more interesting for a terran.

On May 02 2010 14:47 dybydx wrote:
its obvious that Power Outage + KeSPA Referee > Flash's Awesome Skillz

On May 02 2010 14:47 dybydx wrote:
its obvious that Power Outage + KeSPA Referee > Flash's Awesome Skillz

On May 02 2010 10:18 Lightwip wrote:

I play SC, although I never took a liking to playing as terran. That might be why. But sometimes, watching his games can be a bit boring, most notably his first game against Movie in the OSL.
I can probably see why others would like him, he does have a pretty epic style as far as winning. If I played Terran more I'd probably like him, but as I don't, the only matchup I find particularly entertaining of his is TvZ, with the occasional good TvT/P.