On April 28 2026 11:55 Simplistik wrote: I don't really know where the herO ZvZ specialist thing came from. Has that ever actually been the case?
That has never been the case. He has always been a ZvP specialist.
His tournament results showed he was a solid ZvZ player in a matchup that is notorious for being basically a coinflip. Maybe specialist is a stretch but it's reasonable to have said he looked to be favored coming into this matchup. Too bad he shat the bed.
On April 28 2026 11:55 Simplistik wrote: I don't really know where the herO ZvZ specialist thing came from. Has that ever actually been the case?
That has never been the case. He has always been a ZvP specialist.
His tournament results showed he was a solid ZvZ player in a matchup that is notorious for being basically a coinflip. Maybe specialist is a stretch but it's reasonable to have said he looked to be favored coming into this matchup. Too bad he shat the bed.
What tournament statistic if I may ask? ASL? Because that is very small sample size. And even there he has a record of 14-12, which I wouldn't exactly call a ZvZ specialist. The wiki has hero at 65.8 % ZvP, 51.9 % ZvT and 50.2 % ZvZ, which is about what I expected. Hero always seem solid at ZvZ but nothing more and a 50% winrate reflects that. Meanwhile soma sits at 63.7 % ZvP, 56.4 % ZvT and 61.5 % ZvZ. These numbers should not be take as gospel, either, as it's not even stated what games are included or what timeframe. It's still much more solid evidence than ASL statistics, which are basically useless because it's a low number of games split across many years in which form can vary drastically. Which brings us to the next point: Aside from statistics, we know that soma is in really good shape right now while hero has been slumping for a while.
Anyways, maybe I'm missing some important source for recent tournament games beyond ASL. I would be interested seeing that.
On April 28 2026 11:55 Simplistik wrote: I don't really know where the herO ZvZ specialist thing came from. Has that ever actually been the case?
That has never been the case. He has always been a ZvP specialist.
His tournament results showed he was a solid ZvZ player in a matchup that is notorious for being basically a coinflip. Maybe specialist is a stretch but it's reasonable to have said he looked to be favored coming into this matchup. Too bad he shat the bed.
What tournament statistic if I may ask? ASL? Because that is very small sample size. And even there he has a record of 14-12, which I wouldn't exactly call a ZvZ specialist. The wiki has hero at 65.8 % ZvP, 51.9 % ZvT and 50.2 % ZvZ, which is about what I expected. Hero always seem solid at ZvZ but nothing more and a 50% winrate reflects that. Meanwhile soma sits at 63.7 % ZvP, 56.4 % ZvT and 61.5 % ZvZ. These numbers should not be take as gospel, either, as it's not even stated what games are included or what timeframe. It's still much more solid evidence than ASL statistics, which are basically useless because it's a low number of games split across many years in which form can vary drastically. Which brings us to the next point: Aside from statistics, we know that soma is in really good shape right now while hero has been slumping for a while.
Anyways, maybe I'm missing some important source for recent tournament games beyond ASL. I would be interested seeing that.
No, you're exactly right. People would rather look at either ASL results from ten years ago or literally only last ten games
Does nobody understand you can run really bad in a sample of 10 games, especially in ZvZ? I bet on the player who has a higher lifetime ZvZ winrate
On April 30 2026 15:16 GTR wrote: leta's run this season might be the biggest "no one had this on their bingo card" moment in asl history?
i believed and still believe.
imo he's always, always been chronically underrated. he's just a very high variance player which is a bad way to play in any kind of competitive game tournament or best-of-X match. but on a long enough timeline eventually it's possible for him to find some success at least once.
while i can't say "i think he will win asl", i believe it's very possible and i wouldn't be surprised. he's not like players like tulbo, mong, organ, scan, or ample, where i would be quite surprised if they won an asl.
i also think people constantly overlook his good plays, especially tastosis and so on, constantly just say things leta did are bad when they were good. like one of the games earlier in the tournament they were calling a move leta was making bad while he's up like 20 supply the whole game and then several minutes later they're like "wait, leta's up supply. when did that happen?". and it's been like that for years. a lot of viewers and players, have this kind of mindset about any player who is a high-variance player tbh.
but at every individual match he's had, i thought he had a good chance to beat his opponent, and i think the same about his chances vs soma. i think the player he'll have the most trouble with that's remaining is light, but i do think he can beat light also. certainly an underdog against everyone remaining but i wouldn't ever count him out
it's like a less extreme version of how shine has historically played
Leta picked a good time to make a miracle run, hardly any protoss made it deep and he's unlikely to end up facing a strong one (barring snow making it to finals). I am hopeful he can continue to show results but it's definitely uphill from here.
On May 03 2026 11:45 seRapH wrote: Leta picked a good time to make a miracle run, hardly any protoss made it deep and he's unlikely to end up facing a strong one (barring snow making it to finals). I am hopeful he can continue to show results but it's definitely uphill from here.
While Tulbo usually doesnt crash and burn as hard as he did in Ro8, Leta did get the one opponent he was most likely to beat. Leta gets hailed for his wraith builds but his wraith builds have been far inferior to the current top TvZ players their wraith builds. SoMa should by any imaginable metric take this Ro4 somewhat onesidedly. BUT Leta can overperform and win.
(Vote): Leta vs Light (Vote): Leta vs Flash (Vote): Soma vs Jaedong
Voted Soma vs Jaedong purely because no matter who wins the finals will probably be over in 40 minutes and most of the games will likely be decided by a coinflip at the start of the game.
Leta vs FlaSh has the chance to be like this and I'd argue Leta at the minute is playing better than he used to and FlaSh is possibly playing worse due to his hands.
EDIT: From pausing the VOD quickly, it looks like the drone was mineral glided over and then JD decided to glide it back... and that glitched them out of the way. Seems like an error on JDs part?