Walking the line between brilliance and facepalm since 2005. Two things characterize Samsung Khan's head coach: The faith in her players and her seemingly odd decisions. And both have the same cause: she just does what she believes in. And if that means sending out TurN to the Ace Match in the Playoffs then that is what she does. + Show Spoiler +
(Just for the record: The decision was right. New Empire of the Sun is an extremely TvZ favored map and January anticipated correctly that Woongjin would send one of their Zerg. Both Zergs also happen to be Protoss slayers and the map is not that great for PvZ. Plus the Woongjin player will probably expect a Protoss so there is a big preperation edge for the Khan player. So sending a Terran was correct. And which Terran to send, that is a decision that Khan insiders can certainly make better than outsiders).
Did TurN win? No. Was that decision popular? Hell no, I rarely read so much flaming. Would she do it again? You can bet your ass that she would. And you also bet that after the loss she had TurN's back instead of punishing him (unlike what probably would happen in some other teams). With January Khan has the best coach a team and players can dream of.
People call him Dinotoss because he is in the scene for so long. For his experience. When actually they should call him that name for his dangerousness. The one thing that I noted about Stork is his ultra-agressive decision-making. By that I do not mean his general strategies which are as diverse as it gets, ranging from the dirtiest cheese to the most solid macro games. Not the Kwanro-Style buildorder all-in aggression. He cuts corners wherever he can but that is well known too. He can do so because his mindgaming is pretty good. He will never have that extra cannon except for that one game in which you decided to finally punish him for not having it. Well, that is in fact the experience of an old T-Rex who has feasted on a lot of lesser Dinos in the past. What I mean is the instantaneous combat-decision aggression. And that doesn't resemble an old slow T-Rex, that is the aggression of a hungry young Velociraptor. I was wondering a lot of times is why he would risk running his Dragoon into a mine, why he would attack a Zerg or a Terran player with a single Zealot early on, why he engaged in that risky combat, why he persisted with that drop despite maybe being scouted. These things of course strike most when they fail and he bites his sharp Raptor teeth on iron. But when you pay more attention you see that he gains many edges with it. Having seen a lot of games from him now this seems to be his philosophy. When in doubt, make the aggresive decision. A good decision matrix. Not as good as Flash's "when in doubt just make the right decision" but we are talking about mortals here. It reminds me a lot of a poker player's philosophy. The best poker players are very aggressive. Sure you don't get the extra benefit of fold equity in Starcraft but the general mindset is similar. If you are not in the pot you can't win it and you won't find out if the opponent really had it. Stork always wants to be in the pot. It is a thin line to walk though. Kal, another of the Protoss dragons, for example lost a lot of games last season to his aggression. In the end he looked miserable when he went into the Zergs base yet again with 5-6 Zealots and got fought off so easily that it was painful to watch.
Stork however is not Kal. He manages to dance on that thin line pretty well since many years. The end of last season was mediocre for Stork though, ending it with a slightly negative record. He came off an extraordinary successful run that catapulted him to #1 in PR, into the OSL finals and the MSL round of 8. But unfortunately that run ended in a huge loss in the Bacchus OSL finals against Fantasy and somehow he hadn't got that out of his system during last season. But with another Khan Toss having avenged him this year and more time to refocus I can only assume that we will see a rejuvanated and hungry Dino this season.
Stork's Theme Song for new PL season: Stork is the word!
Ah Jangbi. I almost the won Fantasy Proleague last season. In the end it was a close fight and a great third place but I have no one but me to blame for it. I lacked faith. I just thought he wasn't good enough anymore so I put him on my Anti. I wasn't alone with that opinion though. Jangbi was the player appearing on most Anti teams last season. Even more than #2, none other than the man known as the PvX Enigma Jaehoon (who coincidentally whooped even more butts than Jangbi last season, at least in Pro League).
27 points for my Anti Team, a too late trade-off and an OSL title (on a side note: DejaVu really? You don't cast THAT final? Really? Really?) later I stand proven wrong like the catholic church. The Earth revolves around the sun and Jangbi is better than ever. Even better than back in the day when he hit his legendary storms. Now there is no need for me link to those because you surely have seen them already (just kidding, hell as if you could ever see this enogh so here it is: ). + Show Spoiler +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3IbwjeCx6U
And that OSL title was not a fluke. You could argue that in the quarters Flash was injured, that Soo was no worthy semi final opponent and that Fantasy threw it away in the finals. But that misses the point. Let's go back a bit in time to catch that point. At the end of last year Jangbi was in a slump. And what a slump it was. An insane losing streak and that after already playing way under his true potential for more than a year. His career seemed over at that point and I wouldn't have been surprised to see him retire. It didn't even seem like a slump anymore, it looked like he just wasn't good enough anymore. But January kept on trusting him. She even sent him to Ace match against MBC despite the facts that MBC only has Terrans and that Stork is the king of PvT. And despite the fact that Jangbi was on a 0-6 streak. Everyone expected him to lose. Everyone said this was a terrible decision.
Jangbi lost and the game was as one-sided as a game can get. If you showed the Video to someone and claimed it was a battle.net attack then he would not have been questioning that. Jangbi played a terrible game. Nonetheless January kept on sending him out. And Jangbi kept on losing.His streak went 0-7, then 0-10, then 1-12, then 7-27. Until around May he suddenly decided to stop slumping. Maybe it was a confidence boost that resulted from beating none other than Sea half a year after that crushing Ace match loss. Whatever the cause was, that victory against Sea started a 13-2 winning streak with losses only against the Protoss destroyers Jaedong and Hydra. And have a look at that loss against Jaedong. Just rewatch it:
What an awesome game. It couldn't be the same guy fromt he match against Sea a few months ago. Until the very late stages of the game it was not one of those countless games that only take long because the Protoss keeps fighting a hopeless battle until they inevitably get crushed by the Zergs superior economy. Jangbi multiple times came as close as it gets to legitimately beating Jaedong in the late game, only losing to a brilliant move by Jaedong in which he lured Jangbis army out of position and abused that one forced mistake in an unmatched fashion. It was imo one of the best games of the year. In the KO rounds of SPL he unfortunately got 3-0ed by the liitle Woongjin Zerg monsters ZerO and Neo.G_Soulkey. But if you watch these games you see that they were close and it is no shame to lose a PvZ against those guys. The bad Jangbi that we had seen for way too long however was gone and hopefully stays gone. It were good games by him but sometimes you just lose. And sometimes you just win. And then he won. These legendary wins against Flash, Soo and Fantasy that followed were no fluke. Just a player who performs on S-class level since a couple of months deservedly winning a Star League, fulfilling the Legend of the Fall and paying back the trust his coach has put into him.
Jangbi's Theme Song: Dream yourself a dream come true
After Great going to Ace Khan was in desperate need of a Zerg. And boy did they get a Zerg. I was so happy to hear that RorO was traded to Samsung Khan. One of my favorite players going to my favorite team can't be a bad thing after all. When Storks theme is aggressiveness and Jangbis theme is skill then RorOs theme is consistency. RoRo is 50-50 in everything. His winning record tells a lot about his play. He has no exceptional strenghts (no ZerO Queens, no Action Defilers, no Hydra Mutalisk Micro) but he also has no real weaknesses. He is and always was a workhorse in Proleague destroying many fellow TLer's FPL Anti-Teams for years now. He also rarely cheeses, goes for crazy builds or gets excessively greedy with his economy. That is one of the reasons why I like seeing RorO so much. Just like you are guaranteed to see some hilarity once HyuN steps into the arena, when RorO sits in his booth you almost assuredly are going to see a good straight up game. But maybe his very conservative play also explains his balanced stats. Because he actually has everything a player needs to have a positive winning record. Granted, he probably lacks the raw skill to be S-class but his multitasking and APM are solid and he has a ton of experience. His micro and macro are both above average. So maybe if he can attend a couple of lectures in the Stork University of cutting corners he will destroy even more TLers FPL dreams who never learn it and foolishly put him on their Anti Team yet again.
RorO's Theme song: “Libera me” From Hell – “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann” FIGHT THE POWER
In case you didn't know: Grape is good. Despite most people not having caught up to that yet. And yes he looks way too much like his fruity nickname but nonetheless he is an awesome Broodwar player. Starting your career with a balanced record is already no easy feat but let's take a look at his opponents. His current 8-8 streak looks mediocre at first but starts looking a bit more impressive when you consider that in those 16 games he played the PvP monster Horang2 three times, none other than Jaedong 4 times and three of his Terran opponents were Baby, Leta and Bogus. Reality has shown promise. But most importantly January think that he is very good. In an Interview she said that Reality is the player with the potential in the Samsung House. His last season was solid, but not overwhelming. He played some really good games, but also some very bad ones. We will just have to see if he can live up to the expectations this season. TurN is the other Khan Terran with potential. January will believe in you. Next time you go to Ace you kick that Zerg's butt. I believe! Brave is a quite experienced player who somehow managed to accumulate a surprisingly high 55% win rate over his 64 games without anyone really noticing it. Even I was surprised when I checked his stats. I have to admit I do not know much about Brave and can't say anything about his gameplay. But I will make sure to change that once the new season starts.
Stork is the Dinotoss. The (former) Silver Surfer. The slayer of SKT1. Jangbi is the Storm toss. The (former) member of the Kong line. The Dreamtoss. Roro is the guy who ruined my FPL anti-team for multiple seasons. I'm glad to finally have him on "our side."
Everyone on Khan is amazing. January is amazing. KHAN is amazing.
Awesome introduction starting with Coach January. Hahaha, made me chuckle a bit.
If my #1 favorite team was Khan, I would support this OP 100% without any doubt nor questions. But since Khan is my second favorite team (after the obvious favorite being my most holy and glory SKT1), I will support this OP and thread only 50%. But with that said, I will believe January will make some weird decision and that is how Samsung Khan will lose to SK Telecom T1 in the 2011-12 Proleague Grand Finals 3-4 with Bisu completely dominating Stork.
But good job OP, I'm very proud of you for making an awesome convincing thread for Khan to win. The theme songs touch are top notch but wait until we get SKT1 thread up and running....
Go Khan! Make it to the PL Grand Finals only to lose to SKT1 this year!!
I love these threads. Not only because fans passionately argue why their team is the best, but because if they turn out to be wrong, we can come back here and taunt them. ^^
If my english was good enough and I wasnt full of work, I'd write something like this for CJ. Im not worried though, there are a lot of notable CJ fans around here that know how to hype the team that is actually going to win PL this season :p
I love these threads, and this one is very nicely done.
Khan is a very sexy team, but they have their work cut out for them this season given how stacked the competition is. To keep up they really need at least a couple of their rookies to deliver while both Stork and JangBi stay in form.
On November 07 2011 00:46 QuickStriker wrote: Awesome introduction starting with Coach January. Hahaha, made me chuckle a bit.
If my #1 favorite team was Khan, I would support this OP 100% without any doubt nor questions. But since Khan is my second favorite team (after the obvious favorite being my most holy and glory SKT1), I will support this OP and thread only 50%. But with that said, I will believe January will make some weird decision and that is how Samsung Khan will lose to SK Telecom T1 in the 2011-12 Proleague Grand Finals 3-4 with Bisu completely dominating Stork.
But good job OP, I'm very proud of you for making an awesome convincing thread for Khan to win. The theme songs touch are top notch but wait until we get SKT1 thread up and running....
Go Khan! Make it to the PL Grand Finals only to lose to SKT1 this year!!
Bisu betting Stork in Proleague? highly unlikely = )
On November 07 2011 04:03 Ideas wrote: does anyone know if realty and turn are in trouble for the shit they did during that korean clan war last month?
On November 07 2011 04:03 Ideas wrote: does anyone know if realty and turn are in trouble for the shit they did during that korean clan war last month?
Look out for Sharp! His game against sKyHigh last season really impressed me. My gutt never fail me guys. Almost every single prediction i make in BW comes to fruit. Sharpwill be a top player next season.
On November 07 2011 00:46 QuickStriker wrote: Awesome introduction starting with Coach January. Hahaha, made me chuckle a bit.
If my #1 favorite team was Khan, I would support this OP 100% without any doubt nor questions. But since Khan is my second favorite team (after the obvious favorite being my most holy and glory SKT1), I will support this OP and thread only 50%. But with that said, I will believe January will make some weird decision and that is how Samsung Khan will lose to SK Telecom T1 in the 2011-12 Proleague Grand Finals 3-4 with Bisu completely dominating Stork.
But good job OP, I'm very proud of you for making an awesome convincing thread for Khan to win. The theme songs touch are top notch but wait until we get SKT1 thread up and running....
Go Khan! Make it to the PL Grand Finals only to lose to SKT1 this year!!
IMO Khan will lose to SKT with a Fantasy vs JangBi rematch at Ace.
Samsung Khan has always been my second favorite team, obviously because of Jangbi / Stork / January. (even though I admit I hated Jangbi for a short period after he made Nada cry)
It was a good read, and I hope that RorO's addition to the roster will let Samsung Khan be on par with the announced big 4 (SKT, KT, CJ, KeSPA)
It's just that Samsung Khan without FBH lacks some flavor. I hope that we will hear the crowd singing "SONG BYUNG GOO !" like last year, it really was one of my best BW moments of last year.
On November 07 2011 18:04 Subversive wrote: Lol I'm a huge fan and even I don't believe this. I'll be satisfied with Khan being top 4, coming third would be nice
I dont see Khan coming anywhere close to winning PL. Outside of Stork/Jangbi they are incredibly bad and if you are hoping Roro will make a difference that is not going to end well. Not to mention their two best players are both toss which is problematic. Unfortunately it looks like a KT, SKT, Kespa 8 top 3. I will definitly be rooting for Khan, they are my sentimental favorites.
Die TurN win? No. Was that decision popular? Hell no, I rarely read so much flaming. Would she do it again? You can bet your ass that she would. And you also bet that after the loss she had TurN's back instead of punishing him (unlike what probably would happen in some other teams). With January Khan has the best coach a team and players can dream of.
Might want to fix that typo near the top I wonder how Roro will fill the gap left by Great, and I eagerly await the Samsung Terrans to help carry the team.
This year got to be ours, khan fans!! I am really excited for Roro, and I think he'll bring more to the table than great ever did. Despite his splash of brilliance (and failing at his only chance for MSL gold), great has never been consistent for us, which we desparately needed from our terrans and zergs to support the tosses. Roro has become the definition of consistency, and let's not forget how good roro used to perform as the ace of fox (in 09~10 and 08~09 I believe?). I never thought I would say such thing, but I hope Khan can also pick up shine. As much as I want to support Juni and Odin, they just aren't that great and I believe Byul still has ways to go until he becomes a solid zerg card. With Roro now our zergs are obviously looking a lot better but not solid. If we can add Shine, we'll have two strong zerg cards with completely different playing style. I'm not exactly sure, but wasn't Shine performing well in PL when Roro was also performing well? If that is the case (can somebody confirm?), it makes sense to me that that was the case because Roro and Shine have such different playing style as zerg. Not to mention, they've been teammates for a while now too. On the other hand, I guess there also could be a screnario of it not working like when Kwanro went to SKT and eventually retired.
For our terrans, I think we are set if Reality is playing full-time now. I believe he's one of the players with most potential in the scene right now and we can only hope to see how good he will be playing full-time, and with improved tvz.
Since the legend of fall, can we safely say that we have the best protoss line now? ^^ I am sure Jangbang's legendary OSL run inspired everyone on the team, but it had to affect stork the most. If so, then we can all sit and enjoy watching stork carry khan, even if jangbi doesn't perform too well. But I mean our protoss line will still be at least decent, even if all things go wrong.
I'm very excited about this season, because the young kids are in their 2nd full year. Looking forward to seeing Turn, Reality, Grape, and Brave. I think Roro and Great are kind of a wash, except at least Trollary likely won't have the same fascination with sending Roro like she did with great. And with Jangbi's renewed confidence, and I'm pumped.
Reality in particular could really breakout next season. The kid's potential is off the chart.
On November 09 2011 19:31 baubo wrote: Reality in particular could really breakout next season. The kid's potential is off the chart.
I don't know why everyone is saying this guy has so much potential. His winrate is pretty mediocre (even for a rookie), and all he's really done is pull off a nice cheese against Jaedong. Is it true that January thinks very highly of Reality? Makes sense because she was sending him out so often at the beginning of proleague and he would continually lose. :/ I'm not saying he's terrible, but so far he's shown himself to be mediocre at best and have some serious problems with micro. As for Turn, he looks kind of like Jaedong so maybe that will help.
With an in shape Jangbi, and the new addition of Roro (an above average, well rounded Zerg), Khan is looking strong. Stork just needs to get back in shape...
@motivate, as far as i can see reality CAN be really good, but he isnt all that consistent. He got wins last season against flash, fantasy, baby, jaedong, kal and stats. There are alot of 'above average' players who cant boast that.
In fact in Roro has never beaten flash fantasy or kal in his entire career and has only 1 win vs jaedong.
I dont know, reality may turn out really good if he fixes his faults, or he could remain a pretty average terran imo.
On November 09 2011 19:31 baubo wrote: Reality in particular could really breakout next season. The kid's potential is off the chart.
I don't know why everyone is saying this guy has so much potential. His winrate is pretty mediocre (even for a rookie), and all he's really done is pull off a nice cheese against Jaedong. Is it true that January thinks very highly of Reality? Makes sense because she was sending him out so often at the beginning of proleague and he would continually lose. :/ I'm not saying he's terrible, but so far he's shown himself to be mediocre at best and have some serious problems with micro. As for Turn, he looks kind of like Jaedong so maybe that will help.
With an in shape Jangbi, and the new addition of Roro (an above average, well rounded Zerg), Khan is looking strong. Stork just needs to get back in shape...
Is there anything in Reality's play that causes you to believe he's simply mediocre? And by that I mean beyond the 3 games he played Jaedong? I have seen probably 10+ games from him. Both wins and losses. And I have seen play that make me feel he can easily achieve the level of an A level terran if not more. But that he's too inconsistent as of right now. If you feel differently, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what makes his play not conducive to improvement.
Also, fwiw, Reality is still in school. The kid is really, really young.
On November 09 2011 19:31 baubo wrote: Reality in particular could really breakout next season. The kid's potential is off the chart.
I don't know why everyone is saying this guy has so much potential. His winrate is pretty mediocre (even for a rookie), and all he's really done is pull off a nice cheese against Jaedong. Is it true that January thinks very highly of Reality? Makes sense because she was sending him out so often at the beginning of proleague and he would continually lose. :/ I'm not saying he's terrible, but so far he's shown himself to be mediocre at best and have some serious problems with micro. As for Turn, he looks kind of like Jaedong so maybe that will help.
With an in shape Jangbi, and the new addition of Roro (an above average, well rounded Zerg), Khan is looking strong. Stork just needs to get back in shape...
Basically what xccam and baubo said, but I want to mention few more things. First of all, you are right about his record being mediocre; however, that's doesn't really do justice. Reality's overall record is greatly affected by his shitty tvz record of 5W-12L. He himself admitted that he sucks at tvz and using bio (there was an interview of him on either fomos/des semi recently, i'm not quite sure if it was translated though). Even his tvp and tvt records aren't that great (just about .500), but the players he beat are really impressive. Reality beat a lot of solid players at their best matchup, such as: fantasy and flash in tvt & best and stats in pvt. Well, "at their best matchup" may sound misleading (especially for flash, all matchups are his best), but you get the point.
Also, fwiw, Reality is still in school. The kid is really, really young.
Reality just took his college entrance exam, he's almost done or done with school already. I remember looking at pictures of khan players attending someone's graduation a while back and I'm not exactly sure if it was for reality or not. Anyways, he's pretty much done.
There has been a lot of potential talk about reality because he did all that while still going to school and not being able to practice as much as others.
On November 11 2011 13:32 a176 wrote: lol, oops was thinking of great ><
Or Stork? And speaking of finals appearance rather than wins?
Either way, PL performance and SL performance aren't all that in sync with each other. Stork in particular has a tendency to win silvers at the same time as winning just half his games in the PL.
Everyone seems to forget that Khan has the best player of this generation, rookie-bonjwa Byul. He has a fucking 100% ZvP winrate. When January decides to play him and stop trolling us, Khan will win Proleague.
Honestly speaking , Jangbi revival plus stork commander in charge right now in leading Samsung khan following roro and shine as backup players . Khan is looking really scary T_T. Nonetheless khan fighting hope to see you in the battlefield ;D.
We are well on our way. Stork and Jangbi the big guns, Roro as consistent as ever and even our Terrans getting a couple of wins. Too bad Shine couldn't ... shine yet.
Hello all those who doubted Khan! Even some with the icon lacked faith! Now you know!
Like expected we are on a good way so far. Khan is in the playoffs and there is no team I would fear, compared to Khan they all seem less consistent and deep.
I think Coach January is just an excellent coach who knows how to manage her team. She often sends out the most suitable players for each situation, occassionally gives chances to lesser players, and also has produced some of the most promising rookies.
On February 29 2012 15:12 white_horse wrote: I think Coach January is just an excellent coach who knows how to manage her team. She often sends out the most suitable players for each situation, occassionally gives chances to lesser players, and also has produced some of the most promising rookies.
She's the only remaining head Coach who used to be a progamer afaik right?, I guess this gives her extra perspective. But man, Khan finally has some rookies developing that are promising, how long has it been since they've had that? Plus the acquisitions recently, if they brought out BO7 for the entire season Khan should do very well.
I sure always did believe Samsung KHAN was, is and for sure will be the most balanced team that even when in slump can easily win with every one/two-star-player roster. But when on their highest peak, they can deflect any punch enemies would throw at them So proud to be forever-khan-loving-stork-nad-jangbi-and-turn-fanboy ;d
I love it how people got from calling January Trollnuary and bashing her for fielding random players to complementing her on her insight when things do actually work out. Makes perfect sense.
On February 29 2012 18:52 Holy Check wrote: I love it how people got from calling January Trollnuary and bashing her for fielding random players to complementing her on her insight when things do actually work out. Makes perfect sense.
I feel the whole January trolling thing, at least those who spoke it seriously rather than in jest, was not really justified. As someone who followed Khan for years now, they've always had trouble when it comes to Ace choice. Stork had always been inconsistent in the PL with very average ace records. Not to mention his PvZ was mediocre for a long time. Jangbi was in a huge slump for a long time. FBH in his prime couldn't win a TvP to save his life. In the end even though they had strong players, they never had that definitive "Ace" that Bisu, Jaedong, Flash provided.
In the end, Khan simply look like a team that's when aces don't factor into play. Which is why I really want them to get first place, since in a potential 3-match series of Bo7 with Ace match, they become a bit nerfed.
Khan has easily had one of the deepest lineups in all of BW overall. Other teams may have been more powerful, but Khan always played things a bit differently.
SKT's had tons of great players, but it seems like they rely on whoever among their potential aces isn't in a slump...KT has been utterly carried by Flash for the last four years... -_-
Samsung was a powerhouse that last season 2v2 was in. Their TT/Zeus combo was just insane. 2v2s were almost a guaranteed win. After that, they pulled wins with careful player picks instead of relying on a star player. They've been more inconsistent since then, but they've always been pretty damn clutch. I think they've made at least top four every year since I started following BW, but I'm not sure.
EITHER WAY...to my favorite team...and how I hope to god they'll win this year!
EPT
![[image loading]](http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/5610/khanq.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/3/30/January.jpg)
TurN to the Ace Match in the Playoffs then that is what she does.
JangBi 2215 pts
RorO 2123 pts![[image loading]](http://i56.tinypic.com/33p3m0z.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://sc2gg.com/hosted/fakekisser/player_pics/jangbi_020609.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/8315/roro1pz5.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.fomos.kr/board/interview/1298294302_1.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img.dailygame.co.kr/news/20110709/20110709_758e063ca57c98005c023aeeeac22be9.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.blindloop.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Genghis-Khan.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/6647/khanfighting.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j388/Mathew_Jimbob_Stone/khaaan.png)
![[image loading]](http://img.dailygame.co.kr/news/201111/attachments/20111116_b183adbc94cdeec36cd52210767a29ff.jpg)
