Why is Woongjin stars gonna dominate 2010-2011 season
As this long and painful off-season is finally nearing, only one question can be read on every single BW fan's lips... Who will win 2010-2011 Proleague season? SKT! THE RETURN OF BISU, Some claim, “FLASH, THE NEW BONJWA, GOLD TO KT” others will say, all blinded by their rabid Fanboyism, For there is only one team, that will stand head and shoulders above all else.
The cleanse
Over this off-season, Woongjin stars released a total of 6 players, plus traded kwanro to SKT
On September 18 2010 01:04 l10f wrote: Daezang, Ganzi, Special, MVP, Guemchi all left Woongjin.
Daezang wanted to go into commentating. Ganzi wanted to go do his military service. Special wanted to further his education. MVP said it was too hard for him to be a progamer. Guemchi said he was tired being a progamer and wanted to go on a vacation.
many qualified this as Woongjin collapsing, these fools quite clearly lacked common sense. For this was no collapse... it was a cleanse. Now that Woongjin is free from these negative influences, and only the clearly dedicated players are still within the team, forget the zero and free's chokes in ace matches, these were all due to the negative influence bought by these players to the team, in such close knitted community such as a progaming team, only 1 unmotivated player can corrupt the whole atmosphere and give the whole team a losing spirit. With 6 of such individuals, Woongjin never would had fulfilled their glorious destiny, to win the 2010-2011 proleague that is.
The STX masters
Woongjin stars performance in the STX soul masters was simply dominating, first defeating HwaDong(Hwaseung OZ), with their ace, Zero, all-killing.
This valiant crew moved on to fight CJ entus, after defeating CJ in a tight encounter 4-3, with Terran Hon_Sin winning his first 2 televised games. Soulkey all-killed WemadeFox in a one-sided affair, the next opponent was MBCGame Hero, 3rd place through the regular season, winners league finalist, with the Bonjwa of unimportant matches Sea and winners League style Bonjwa Light, many more blind fanboys predicted a woongjin loss
On August 15 2010 00:29 matjlav wrote: yum bo sung going to go on a motherfucking RAMPAGE after last night
no one will stop him
On August 15 2010 00:31 infinitestory wrote: Due to the presence of Light, I feel like, sadly, Stars' strong zergs will get shot down pretty fast. Light has hardly blinked in TvZ in his Last 30 games, losing Only 3 (!!!! >90% winrate). Unless Stars can snipe Light with (probably) free, I find it possible Light will go on a rampage. Looking forward to seeing hOn_sin playing again, his repair micro was uniquely monstrous.
yet Yom Bo Sung proved no match for up and coming Neo.G. Soulkey, who defeated the imba mech switch with immaculate play, so called TvZ Bonjwa Light rolled over and died to Zero's immaculate play. Woongjin had rolled through 4 teams in order to win the GSM, they were the favored team to beat STX soul and advance to fight KT rolster.
Sadly, after playing 4 games in such a small window of time, any team would be wearied down and stars is no exception, stars went on to lose to STX souls in a 4-2 series. With Zero losing the 6th set for his team to ZvZ sniper modesty, who 9 pooled his 12 hatch.
-zero went 12-1 during this league, achieving a 12 game winning streak. -Soulkey went 6-2, with immaculate late-game play being displayed. -woongjin stars made the longest win streak in the GSM's history, with 4 straight wins.
there is a newer, heavier on spore and 2 base hive style of ZvZ. As I believe everyone noticed, hive tech ZvZ have become a lot more common recently. Yet, what seems to go unnoticed most of the time is how this revolution (and I will say it , in a close future most ZvZ will get to hive tech and ZvZ will become a macroer match-up) is coming from the woongjin house, Zero is currently Spearheading the new style and soulkey is stepping in his big brother's footsteps, most of the recent hive tech ZvZs include either soulkey or zero (5/7 actually, If I recall correctly). All the developpement Zero bought to this match-up recently got him back his forgotten ZvZ skills. The Ballerness of woongjin's zerg squad is simply unmatched in the pro-gaming world and things are looking wonderful for the 2010-2011.
Supporting Cast
Considering Woongjin stars new acquisitions, I think we agree that woongjin stars is now the deepest team of the whole pro-scene (shut up blind hite entus fanboys). The B-team ended last year's dream league with Silver and now that woongjin acquired flying, I don't think any support cast is looking as mighty as stars'
Hon_Sin: a young Terran who showed nice games in the GSM, nothing to get too hyped about but still looking fairly good
Flying: this Ex-Estro protoss is showing some incredible potential
Neo.G.Soulkey: Soulkey established himself as a good, reliable zerg through the end of last season. Starting from his all-kill of STX during the winners league play-offs first round, Soulkey recorded a 21-11 (65.63%) record. Soulkey is not only winning, he wins with style, through beautiful late-game management. The kid is only 18 and is one of the most promising zerg at the moment.
Neo.G.Soulkey
Backed by PianO, SaiR, Center, Actually, Eagle and Crazy-Hydra, Woongjin's supporting cast is definitely one of the best, if not the best, in the whole league. Now that regular proleague also is a bo7 format, having a deep team is as important, if not more so, then having a powerful ace
Aces High
Even so, a team cannot make it far without a dominating ace. KT proved this last season. Woongjin does not have a single ace, but three gifted players to lead the team to victory for the 2010-2011 season
Free
Free had a dominating end of the 2009-2010, walking his royal road undefeated all the way up to the semi-finals. Finishing the OSL with a 10-3 record, beating the likes of stork, Fantasy, Zero(twice), kal and calm, his only defeats to the hands of the recently crowned Bonjwa, Flash. His play Boasted flair, timing and prettiness (see what I did there). Protoss' hope for a starleague between this man's hands (and stork's).
Really
Woongjin fans are currently dancing in Estro fan's tears, Really now is coming on a traditionally weak Terran team, it is up to him to dismantle this image, and he will. Really is simply an incredibly talented player, he is solid in all match-ups, showed amazing plays throughout this year. Really did have a really(pun intended) shaky end of 2009-2010 but when a player is as talented as really is, such things never lasts and now that he is on woongjin I am certain that he will start 2010-2011 on fire and will soon be considered one of the top terrans once again.
Zero
Zero is simply the player everyone should be hyped about for the 2010-2011 season. Zero finished last august with a 13-5 record, including a 12 game win streak in the GSM. Some might argue he lost 2 games to Fantasy and 2 other game to free. But if you actually watched the series against Fantasy, Zero was simply dominating Fantasy it was laughable. Unfortunately, his failure to defend Fantasy's desperate drop turned the series around and Fantasy cheesed him out of WCG in game 3. It looked like Zero had not yet recovered for his OSL series against Free and his teammate played a brilliant series to send him out of the OSL 2-0. But now that zero has had a full month to recover, has cured and revolutionized his ZvZ during the GSM. I have no doubt he is skill-wise, as strong as Flash or Jaedong. Zero's true problem lies in his head. He simply lacks Jaedong's mental fortitude to challenge the throne of best zerg. If zero can finally get over this final barrier, the monster will emerge from his chrysalis and both Flash and Jaedong both soon will be, nothing but distant memories, buried by Woongjin's fans' incessant cheering.
STAR HWAITING! Oh gawd, I want to see them facing against KT in the final with ZerO beating Flash ace game! But they just had to give away Kwanro (woulda swithed from Khan to STARS if he didn't leave )
On October 15 2010 10:34 Antoine wrote: I did think that the 6 players leading was a sign of collapse, but the fact that they went out and got Really and Flying made me feel otherwise.
That said, there's no possible way this team ever beats KT.
Oh come on lets see one's best Matchups. Really vs Stats or vs Flash. Its really 50/50 for those 2. Free can also take on Flash as well (he doesn't choke like Kal does vs Flash). Free can well against any Zergs that KT throws at them (both him and Action has SICK lategame army but I trust Free's experiences better). It then leaves ForGG as KT's other backup. Pretty sure that ZerO can stop ForGG's timing push and push it into a lategame. I can see Barracks getting play time with Tempest and Violet but ZerO's ZvP is KILLLER as always and SK can take care of Barrack cuz he has more experience.
I think Stars is actually in a fairly great position if Zero gets out of his little slump. Zero, Free, Flying, Really, Soulkey... that's a nasty lineup no matter how you look at it.
I had written this about Woongjin in the now closed "who will win proleague" thread.
I'll definitely be rooting for them and CJ this year. ^^
I think Woogjin will be up in the top few, since Zero/Free are solid. Really is a good terran, but towards the end of the season even terrans were starting to get the better of him (despite 1 win against the slumping Flash). Other then that he still gets absolutely dominated by zergs.
Soulkey is a solid rookie zerg though who surprised a lot of people with clutch all kills, but Flying on the other hand seemed to have really good months and kinda mediocre months.
I'm a KT fanboy, but I'd say KT/SKT1/Woogjin will be top three (going off what I know from last season). Anything can happen though.
edit: Suppose with the new Bo7 format depth means a lot more this time around, but KT has Action/ForGG/Flash/Stats/Violet/Tempest (hoejja is awful, don't even bother ) and SKT1 has Fantasy/Bisu/Hyuk/Best/s2/KWANNROOOOOOO (Canata was pretty awful but had some decent wins in the Proleague playoffs).
On October 15 2010 10:44 krndandaman wrote: Free looks lost whenever he faces flash. Recent records prove that too
I think you can say that about a lot of players when they play Flash.
This needed more Realpenguin, but all that aside. The Estro draft turned woongjin from an outlier to a contender. If they had 1 more terran, they would be much stronger, or if they had managed to retain Kwanro to have one more player to have a solid top 6. Their top 3 can match up with just about any team, but outside of soulkey or flying, they are really going to struggle past that.
also, you seem to have so quickly forgotten Sea and Light's convincing defeat in WL of all 3 of the Woongjin veterans that you cite in the OP (and kwanro).
also, you seem to have so quickly forgotten Sea and Light's convincing defeat in WL of all 3 of the Woongjin veterans that you cite in the OP (and kwanro).
also, you seem to have so quickly forgotten Sea and Light's convincing defeat in WL of all 3 of the Woongjin veterans that you cite in the OP (and kwanro).
also, you seem to have so quickly forgotten Sea and Light's convincing defeat in WL of all 3 of the Woongjin veterans that you cite in the OP (and kwanro).
Excellent post, beat me to the punch (I was thinking of making a thread just like this today actually lol.)
Good luck to Woongjin, really excited for this year. Maybe having Really gave PianO a terran practice partner of high enough calibre to finally step up his game.
I think you should call it "why woongjin is going to dominate 2010-2011 rather than "why is woongjin going to dominate 2010-2011" but regardless, good read
And I hope you're right about the new state of ZvZ, more variety in that matchup would lead to some awesome play and it would become a lot more fun to watch.
Woongjin hellll yea! If they had kept Kwanro they'd be even better, though =/ I really agree what you said about Zero. When you watch his games, you think "Why is this guy not the best player in the world", but then he loses randomly and it's disappointing. I really, really hope he can get that killer edge and dominate in 2010.
WOONGJIN. WOOGJIN!!!!! I LOVE WOONGJIN. I LOVE FREE. I LOVE ZERO. REALLY IS PRETTY GOOD. SOULKEY IS A BALLER. FLYING IS FLYING. CRAZY-HYDRA IS ONE CRAZY MOTHERFUCKER. WOONGJINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN <33333333333
Stars got Really, KT got Action. Stars' lineup does look really good, but I feel that KT has the stronger lineup. Flash is almost a free win at this point and the 3-5 players after him are all pretty good as well. Of course I like SKT. They have potential, but need to actually make use of it. Fantasy had some amazing games against Flash (probably the best bo5 TvT in a longass time, if ever), Bisu is always that "maybe he won't slump this season" factor, and Best is much of the same. Unfortunately SKT doesn't look quite as impressive after you get those three out of the way.
In the end it all boils down to a simple fact: Stars doesn't have the Chintoss, your argument is invalid.
On October 15 2010 15:39 Grobyc wrote: WOONGJIN. WOOGJIN!!!!! I LOVE WOONGJIN. I LOVE FREE. I LOVE ZERO. REALLY IS PRETTY GOOD. SOULKEY IS A BALLER. FLYING IS FLYING. CRAZY-HYDRA IS ONE CRAZY MOTHERFUCKER. WOONGJINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN <33333333333
You didn't mention that all three of the team's aces had terrible ace game records last season :p Still, I hope they do well. With Soulkey emerging as a baller Zerg I'm on the verge of switching my fandom to Stars.
I really like this team. They are equally strong in all races and this will really help every player practice-wise. Expect the Stars to go deep in PL. KT might be to strong and SK will be tough to beat, too, but 3rd place is minimum. I'm sure we'll see their Aces to go deep in individual leagues, too. Everyone of them will improve a lot with the new practice partners. They need to be extremely lucky to beat JD/Flash but they can beat everyone else. Since I havent been into PL since last Playoffs I had no team to cheer for but Woongjin Stars got me <3
Really is top 3 terran in the world. Everyone in Korea knows it, watching his games it's obvious. Noone will beat that man in a management game TvP or TvZ when he plays well.
On October 15 2010 21:07 thehitman wrote: Because most good Brood war players from the other teams transferred to SC2 and only Woojing Stars kept its players?
Not really. People have left for SC2 were pretty much those who didn't really achieve anything or wouldn't ever achieve anything in the near future. Cutting those players out really doesn't change anything.
Nada was pretty much unable to compete with the current crop of Brood War players, Boxer was pretty much a bench warmer, MVP was the proscene's terran punching bag, and Iron didn't achieve anything outside of Dream League. These were the only A teamers to actually quit and all of them are objectively bad players compared to the competition.
On October 15 2010 21:07 thehitman wrote: Because most good Brood war players from the other teams transferred to SC2 and only Woojing Stars kept its players?
Go back to the SC2 section if you're completely clueless.
Woongjin is always a team that I liek watching. I really like their line-up and hope the best for the team. I made a all-in Woongjin team 2 season ago and got into top10 xD
On October 15 2010 21:19 Womwomwom wrote: MVP was the proscene's terran punching bag
He took a game off Flash once, you take that back
Heh, Flash's dominance has almost gotten so far that this is actually a decent accomplishment. XD It was an awesome game too, with BC's and everything.
I was that close to becoming an eStro fan, because the combo of good zerg + Really was nice, but now he moved to even more traditionally zerg dominating team, so it's decided for me. Note: fandom may expire when both free and Really retire. Stars fighting!
On October 16 2010 00:29 Iplaythings wrote: I like how a hype thread for KT wont even be needed
We got mafia zerg :D
Other than that, I like this article more than SKT1's
I'd be happy to write one but I'm shite at finding pictures.
I got most of mine from 1. Searching names on google 2. Looking for NeverGG photos 3. Searching korean names on google. Go for it, write a hype thread full of lies for us.
On October 15 2010 20:55 Holgerius wrote: I'd just like to point out that Great>>>Zero (and everyone else) when it comes to Hive tech ZvZ. ^__^
Does not compute...I've never seen a ZvZ that went to that late of a game.
What, you serious? There has been several games in the last couple of seasons. Great vs Zero on Triathlon was the best IMO, go watch it. ^__^
I saw the game and I was like HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!!!!
Holy fucking shit indeed. Like, the only thing that -didn't- get made was Guardians. Was beautiful. Also, at 22:00 the commentators are so calmly like "Plagu? Aye, plagu." The way the second guy said it, it was almost like "Indubitably, ol' chap, that was a plagu right there. Jolly good!"
On October 15 2010 10:29 swanized wrote: many qualified this as Woongjin collapsing, these fools quite clearly lacked common sense. For this was no collapse... it was a cleanse. Now that Woongjin is free from these negative influences, and only the clearly dedicated players are still within the team, forget the zero and free's chokes in ace matches, these were all due to the negative influence bought by these players to the team, in such close knitted community such as a progaming team, only 1 unmotivated player can corrupt the whole atmosphere and give the whole team a losing spirit. With 6 of such individuals, Woongjin never would had fulfilled their glorious destiny, to win the 2010-2011 proleague that is.
What kind of Stars fan are you? MVP and Guemchi are negative influences? What? :V
Nothing much really changed... we lost a good terran and a good protoss, and we gained a good terran and a good protoss. Meh.
WOONGJIN. WOONGJIN!!!!! I LOVE WOONGJIN. I LOVE FREE. I LOVE ZERO. REALLY IS PRETTY GOOD. SOULKEY IS A BALLER. FLYING IS FLYING. CRAZY-HYDRA IS ONE CRAZY MOTHERFUCKER. WOONGJINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN <33333333333
On October 15 2010 10:29 swanized wrote: many qualified this as Woongjin collapsing, these fools quite clearly lacked common sense. For this was no collapse... it was a cleanse. Now that Woongjin is free from these negative influences, and only the clearly dedicated players are still within the team, forget the zero and free's chokes in ace matches, these were all due to the negative influence bought by these players to the team, in such close knitted community such as a progaming team, only 1 unmotivated player can corrupt the whole atmosphere and give the whole team a losing spirit. With 6 of such individuals, Woongjin never would had fulfilled their glorious destiny, to win the 2010-2011 proleague that is.
What kind of Stars fan are you? MVP and Guemchi are negative influences? What? :V
Nothing much really changed... we lost a good terran and a good protoss, and we gained a good terran and a good protoss. Meh.
WOONGJIN. WOONGJIN!!!!! I LOVE WOONGJIN. I LOVE FREE. I LOVE ZERO. REALLY IS PRETTY GOOD. SOULKEY IS A BALLER. FLYING IS FLYING. CRAZY-HYDRA IS ONE CRAZY MOTHERFUCKER. WOONGJINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN <33333333333
lol are we comparing really to MVP here?
(and considering Guemchi is in india and MVP playing SC2 I'd say they were negative influences)
WOONGJIN. WOONGJIN!!!!! I LOVE WOONGJIN. I LOVE FREE. I LOVE ZERO. REALLY IS PRETTY GOOD. SOULKEY IS A BALLER. FLYING IS FLYING. CRAZY-HYDRA IS ONE CRAZY MOTHERFUCKER. WOONGJINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN <33333333333
I have finally made the switch - if a bit hesitantly - from Khan(&Stars) fan to Stars(&Khan) fan. The only reasons I was staying with Khan were Stork (who's simply awesome) and Jangbi (who is my favourite Protoss of all time, definitely my favourite PvT-er).
Now that Really is joining Zero and Free with the Stars.. well.. gg everyone else...
I'll still root for Jangbi and Stork whenever they play, but Stars just look like a great team now.
On October 15 2010 10:29 swanized wrote: many qualified this as Woongjin collapsing, these fools quite clearly lacked common sense. For this was no collapse... it was a cleanse. Now that Woongjin is free from these negative influences, and only the clearly dedicated players are still within the team, forget the zero and free's chokes in ace matches, these were all due to the negative influence bought by these players to the team, in such close knitted community such as a progaming team, only 1 unmotivated player can corrupt the whole atmosphere and give the whole team a losing spirit. With 6 of such individuals, Woongjin never would had fulfilled their glorious destiny, to win the 2010-2011 proleague that is.
What kind of Stars fan are you? MVP and Guemchi are negative influences? What? :V
Nothing much really changed... we lost a good terran and a good protoss, and we gained a good terran and a good protoss. Meh.
WOONGJIN. WOONGJIN!!!!! I LOVE WOONGJIN. I LOVE FREE. I LOVE ZERO. REALLY IS PRETTY GOOD. SOULKEY IS A BALLER. FLYING IS FLYING. CRAZY-HYDRA IS ONE CRAZY MOTHERFUCKER. WOONGJINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN <33333333333
lol are we comparing really to MVP here?
(and considering Guemchi is in india and MVP playing SC2 I'd say they were negative influences)
WOONGJIN. WOONGJIN!!!!! I LOVE WOONGJIN. I LOVE FREE. I LOVE ZERO. REALLY IS PRETTY GOOD. SOULKEY IS A BALLER. FLYING IS FLYING. CRAZY-HYDRA IS ONE CRAZY MOTHERFUCKER. WOONGJINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN <33333333333
You better take that back......
but for the team itself would say that MVP left the team on positive terms so I would say he's not really a negative influence.
On October 15 2010 10:29 swanized wrote: many qualified this as Woongjin collapsing, these fools quite clearly lacked common sense. For this was no collapse... it was a cleanse. Now that Woongjin is free from these negative influences, and only the clearly dedicated players are still within the team, forget the zero and free's chokes in ace matches, these were all due to the negative influence bought by these players to the team, in such close knitted community such as a progaming team, only 1 unmotivated player can corrupt the whole atmosphere and give the whole team a losing spirit. With 6 of such individuals, Woongjin never would had fulfilled their glorious destiny, to win the 2010-2011 proleague that is.
What kind of Stars fan are you? MVP and Guemchi are negative influences? What? :V
Nothing much really changed... we lost a good terran and a good protoss, and we gained a good terran and a good protoss. Meh.
WOONGJIN. WOONGJIN!!!!! I LOVE WOONGJIN. I LOVE FREE. I LOVE ZERO. REALLY IS PRETTY GOOD. SOULKEY IS A BALLER. FLYING IS FLYING. CRAZY-HYDRA IS ONE CRAZY MOTHERFUCKER. WOONGJINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN <33333333333
lol are we comparing really to MVP here?
(and considering Guemchi is in india and MVP playing SC2 I'd say they were negative influences)
WOONGJIN. WOONGJIN!!!!! I LOVE WOONGJIN. I LOVE FREE. I LOVE ZERO. REALLY IS PRETTY GOOD. SOULKEY IS A BALLER. FLYING IS FLYING. CRAZY-HYDRA IS ONE CRAZY MOTHERFUCKER. WOONGJINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN <33333333333
You better take that back......
but for the team itself would say that MVP left the team on positive terms so I would say he's not really a negative influence.
I'm thinking that someone who was not that interested in playing pro-BW and was preparing for SC2 is not very positive on a team but eh... not like I am in the team house...
On October 16 2010 06:54 supernovamaniac wrote: lol@my ezpz picture being used
I just wanted to bump this to say that Stars actually is doing really well this season. Better than I expected, I thought they would be at #3 behind KT, but they really showed a good record this time around.
On October 15 2010 20:55 Holgerius wrote: I'd just like to point out that Great>>>Zero (and everyone else) when it comes to Hive tech ZvZ. ^__^
I agree that Great's lategame ZvZ is better than Zero but their styles are really different. Where Zero has a distinct style in getting queens out when a lull in the muta fight occurs when it really gets to the lategame Zero doesn't really play that differently from how other Zerg players play. Great on the other hand stays on lair much longer and takes the hydra tech route instead of getting hive tech faster. Their distinct ZvZ style doesn't derive from their usage of hive tech as much as how they play it out in the lair game if the game goes on longer than usual.
I don't really think we can say much about whose late game zvz is better, since there are simply too few data point to crunch. Moreover, something dramatic must have happened for it to reach late game in the first place, and one player would often have significant advantage over the other.
Well, in the Great vs Zero game a big reason for why the game went to that phase is because of the map it was played on. There's also the thing about how a bit prior to that game Zero and Great were both showing off some new ZvZ ideas and they were amongst the very few Zerg players that played the matchup in a more long-term way at that particular time (Effort also had a distinct style but he was different from Zero and Great in that although he had an affinity for defensive play he didn't take his resource advantage into the lategame with new tech but preferred to use his resource advantage to overwhelm his opponent with explosive macro with a very traditional mentality. There is also an important distinction in that Great and Zero's ZvZ style emerges during the midgame while Effort's defensive style is something that is early-game oriented). In a way, Zero's style also has a more traditional ZvZ mentality compared to Great's style
I'm not entirely sure but it seems like their styles try to exploit different timings. Great's style has a weak timing window when he first begins to get his hydra tech to an opponent that is massing mutalisks where Zero would be safer as he can use ensnare in both defensive and offensive ways. But Great's hydra transition gives him a lot of strength if he survives and the game goes into hive tech compared to a player that has continued to commit to mutalisks while also teching to hive. I think the reason why Great was able to win was because he survived until his transition locked in and Zero's style is still fundamentally mutalisk oriented.
If we ignore Soul's last loss, than #1 #2 and #3 in the proleauge ranks are SKT, Stars and Soul; the three teams with a hype tread. Coincidence? Doubtful. Somebody get on a Jangbi hype thread ASAP.
On November 17 2010 10:58 koreasilver wrote:I'm not entirely sure but it seems like their styles try to exploit different timings. Great's style has a weak timing window when he first begins to get his hydra tech to an opponent that is massing mutalisks where Zero would be safer as he can use ensnare in both defensive and offensive ways. But Great's hydra transition gives him a lot of strength if he survives and the game goes into hive tech compared to a player that has continued to commit to mutalisks while also teching to hive. I think the reason why Great was able to win was because he survived until his transition locked in and Zero's style is still fundamentally mutalisk oriented.
I think Great only got hydras (& many drones) as a response to enemys high tech - I could be wrong but that's what I remember seeing.
I became a Stars fan after not being able to take the heartbreak of OZ constantly letting JD down anymore. I also realized I liked more players on the Stars team than on OZ.
As for their prospects, against any other team Stars should be able to win in the form they're in this eason, but, of course, the big problem is SKT. Bisu's PvZ is so damn good right now he could probably beat Zero or Soulkey and while SKT's zergs still aren't that great they do seem to be good at ZvZ snipes. Also any of the Woongjin terrans would get crushed by the likes of Bests TvP or Fantasy's TvT.
Ah, but this is meant to be a hype thread so, go Stars! They definitely have a chance to win it all this season.
I want either STX (first choice) or (Stars) to win this years ProLeague. Though I still have confidence that STX can do it, Stars looks a bit more likely right now. I definitely don't want SKT/KT to win, they've had their time in the spotlight already.
The addition of Really certainly did them good. Soulkey is also a pleasant surprise. Both Free and Zero are very strong progamers, and can (usually) be relied on. Their biggest weakness seems to be the coach, who lacks the cutting edge that for example the SKT coach has in abundance. I'd say they'll reach the playoffs, possibly in a good position, but will fail to win it all. A cute team though, good marketing.