"The reason for falling into a slump is careless practice. The way to get out of a slump is to practice. I started again from the beginning. I must return to the time when I played with my own style, and when I determined the victory through strategies. And the strategies are a product of practicing more than anyone else. The key to success is to persevere through practice."
The person that looks for a shortcut is not a true professional. There is no shortcut to becoming the greatest progamer. -- by Lim Yo Hwan _____________________________________________________________________________________
Wow. This, again. Bisu vs sAviOr. The Maestro vs The Revolutionist. Do I need to say more? Well, I will because I'm writing an article -- but I'd hope you all know your history. Yes, these two have met before. Twice, in fact! The GOMTV MSL Starleague finals was the more meaningful of the two, certainly. Bisu introduced to the world a new style (omg, yes -- The Bisu Build!) that just dismantled sAviOr. Ma Jae Yoon's style of play required a very greedy opener which exploited the inability of Protoss and Terran to punish him effectively. His late game play was so impressive that the early surge in resources was often enough to overcome any shortcomings in control. Bisu, knowing this, opened with his own greedy build that used a precise 2-base timing attack with either dark templar or reavers and corsair. MJY was unable to adapt, as he lost quite convincingly 0-3 to Bisu in those finals. The other series he lost was the EVER 2007 OGN Starleague, but at this point Savior was already slumping quite a bit and unable to really match Bisu's intensity despite quite a fun game on Katrina.
What can I even say that you all don't already know about Bisu? Well, he's currently trying to break the all-time ELO record held by Flash at 2336. Bisu sits at 2314 at the moment with games against Ruby and by.hero shortly which he is expected to win handily. The big match will be Monday the 12th when he faces Flash in the Proleague. Likely Bisu will eclipse Flash's all-time ELO if he defeats him that night. Needless to say, Bisu is on fire. (lol...) With his 3rd MSL win in the bag, Bisu is going into no-man's land in 2009 where he attempts to become the first since NaDa to pass 3 MSL titles. Hopefully we can see an exciting series from sAviOr, but I would not hold my breath. This group belongs to Bisu anyone and the fight for 2nd spots will be intense as zerO and maGma both have a lot to prove. My pick is maGma to go through just because I admired his spirit the other night in the Steal Draft calling out all of the dragons, but really it is a toss-up.
The pressure is on Bisu now, an early bust-out and he goes months hearing it from his coaches, fans, and teammates. He lets belief creep back into the minds of the other players, and loses his aura of invincibility that gives a Bonjwa that ability to continue succeeding no matter the odds. I'm now even more hyped for this matchup.
Bisu was Kung-Fu Hwaiting! That cat was fast as lightning. In fact it was a little bit frightening, But he did it with expert timing!
They were funky templar men, from funky templar town, They were chopping drones up, they were chopping spires down. It's an Ancient Aiur art, and everybody knew their part, With a fake into a drop, kicking sAviOr from the top!
Luxury vs Kal is the opening match in Group B, but sadly I do not think it is going to be very exciting. Kal is 4-0 against Luxury in his lifetime, with two of the wins coming in the Proleague this season. Both of the wins were quite dominating, and Luxury has not shown his skills in the later half of this year. Unfortunately I do not expect Luxury to put up much of a fight here, which is sad because I do believe he has a lot of talent and the ability to play with Kal. However, in previous matches he could not match the control of Kal, especially in the larger battles where his army was efficiently dismantled.
The only game that Kal and Leta have played was a 25 minute bore-fest on Othello in Proleague. Oh, and that little match in last season's proleague where Leta shut down Kal on Blue Storm for a solid 33 minute TvP. This, my friends, was a game to watch. I believe Leta is one of the only players in this MSL to have the control that matches Kal. Leta is also on a burning hot streak in Proleague this season, racking up a 19-6 record so far. The match is sure to be intense, but I'm predicting Leta to be the winner of Group B, with Kal placing a close 2nd behind him.
Berserker v Mr. Potential -- Interesting match, really. I'm quite sure JangBi can handle this, not only because of the maps. JangBi did lose one match to Iris in the GOMTV Season 2 on Destination, but he later beat Leta in Proleague on Destination and he did end up winning that match in GOMTV. So, I'm fairly certain he's prepared enough to handle Iris at this stage. JangBi, as you all know, is one of the six dragons renown for his tactical ability. I'm really expecting a 2-1 here from JangBi.
The next matchup is Tempest v Fantasy. The only game these two have played occured very recently in Proleague. It really was quite strange as fantasy attempted to bunker rush in TvP -- then switched to fast vults with mines. Tempest did not have trouble at all dealing with this and the match ended shortly after when three dark templar arrived at fantasy's base. I do not anticipate fantasy attempting the same risky strategy, however; Tempest has been quite good PvT lately. I believe Tempest will take a game here, but fantasy has what it takes.
Iris against Tempest will be interesting certainly, just to see the two players battle it out for another chance against fantasy. I don't believe fantasy has much trouble beating Iris at all. He's simply much better technically than Iris and TvT is a very precise matchup. The two have already faced each other on Neo Harmony, and fantasy handled Iris relatively quickly (for a TvT) which leads me to believe Fantasy will escape this group with a second seed by the skin of his teeth. Jangbi did lose to fantasy, but it was on Chupung Ryeong which seems to be fantasy's most practiced map in my opinion.
This group honestly bores me. I'm not entirely sure why Doctor.K and Horang2 can't come out of this group. The chances for free making a mistake and not qualifying here are surprisingly low given how badly he's been playing as of late. I wish one player from Group F could move to this group so they could all participate in Ro16. Honestly, its a shame this group and group G spoil an otherwise extremely exciting MSL.
Thumbs down Doctor.K and Kwanro. Go ahead Free and Horang2.
This group just became five hundred times more interesting. Why, do you ask? + Show Spoiler +
by.hero just completely dominated Bisu in the OSL
I was almost certain of the outcome being a YellOw[ArnC] and UpMagiC advance, probably with YellOw[ArnC] as the top seed. However, now it could literally swing any which way. Am I overreacting to a one-time explosion of luck/timing? Perhaps-- But I've seen that time of overwhelming dominant play before. I'll be very interested in keeping a closer eye on the players in this group as the date approaches. None of the players are clear favorites at this point, but I will certainly have to allow for the possibility of two zergs advancing here. Neo Harmony and Destination both allow for a Sauron type of zerg gameplay, the latter of the two showcasing a more protective style than the former. I'm convinced that at least one zerg will escape from this group, and I'll say YellOw[ArnC] gets it done because of his success in ZvT.
Oh. Yeah, this isn't a mistake. No one accidentally screwed up the seeding or anything. This is really a group in the RO32. One of the more interesting facets of this group that I found while doing a little research was that FBH holds by far the better win percentage against these players than any of the others. I also noted that Hwasin was surprisingly adept at beating Jaedong. Jaedong hasn't lost to Hwasin in the latter half of the year, including 3-0 in the 2008 Arena MSL. JD and Flash have quite the history already, with JD beating Flash in the MSL and losing to him in the OSL. He also lost to Flash in the first English GomTV tournament.
Let me tell you what I think about Jaedong:
Okay. Now that we settled that... another important note is that Flash is on a 10 game TvT win streak. Who did he last lose to? FireBatHero. Yep, Firebathero will certainly be the player that has the most to gain from this group. Flash and Jaedong will almost certainly be predicted to escape from the group, but I don't have a doubt in my mind that FBH has the necessary skill and mettle to make it happen.
Hwasin? Oh god. It will be bloody. Okay, maybe not bloody. Hwasin did show he still has some talent when he beat + Show Spoiler +
Mind 2-0
the other night. I'm just not of the opinion that Mind is the same caliber player as Flash or Jaedong. Firebathero will need this victory to keep on pace. I don't think Hwasin has what it takes to make a name for himself here.
Stork will take this group handily. That is the one thing I am sure of about this MSL. My main concern lies in the ability of Stork to handle the latter matches against players with more skill. I'm predicting a swift win here, especially with the new Carthage map playing perfectly into the hands of Stork. His intelligent play should be able to be abused there. The only map he will need to avoid is Neo Harmony, where close positions will become a very tough game for him against these terrans.
We know fOrGG can do this..
but can he play?! Well -- He certainly beat the snot out of Sea in the MSL he stole. Other than that though, fOrGG is 0-7 against Sea lifetime. Ouch.
I am very much hoping Sea does not decide to choke this group again, otherwise Part II of + Show Spoiler +
--Credit to Atrioc for the nice image. Apologies for not including this.
Current Records: This is provided to save you time researching past history if you don't care to watch all of the games and only want to know the result. (Shame on you!)
[This document is meant to be read left to right, NOT top to bottom.] [The names at the top are simply to identify the opponent.]
Very interesting. It seems to me that you are underestimating Jangbi. In a group with all T's and P's, I expect him to easily 2-0 his group. Also, there's a chance that Stork will drop his group if he loses to forgg the first time. Stork is very good vT, but forgg has a long shot at an upset. Also, if Sea finally gets it together for the ro16, he just might beat stork. Honestly, I could see either go.go or Sea BBSing stork. Of course this is all a huge long shot, but stranger things have happened (like everything in the GSL).
Nice read, although last time bisu was in an all Z group he lost 0-2 if I remember correctly.
And i believe:
JD and Flash have quite the history already, with JD beating Flash in the MSL and losing to him in the OSL. He also lost to Flash in the first English GomTV tournament.
JD and Flash have quite the history already, with JD beating Flash in the MSL and losing to him in the OSL. He also lost to Flash in the first English GomTV tournament.
Is wrong.
do you mean 'wrong' as in he didn't add in all the games or 'wrong' as in that never happened? Because yeah alot more happened (GOMS1 and Proleague) but it isn't wrong
JD and Flash have quite the history already, with JD beating Flash in the MSL and losing to him in the OSL. He also lost to Flash in the first English GomTV tournament.
Is wrong.
Jaedong beat Flash 3-1 in the MSL Ro8 Jaedong lost to flash 1-2 in the Bacchus OSL Ro8 Jaedong lost to flash 1-2 in the Gom star invitational(the 16 player invitational)
As a khan fan i gota say i like those odds of them getting into the top 16. Stork should stomp his group, fbh has the ability to walk out of his, and jangbi could very easily take his. Bisu kinda sey himself up for a walk in the park, but last nights hiccup in is pvz, may be the few cracks in the armor that lead to his destruction. But as much a fan of Bisu that i am (second favorite player) everyone secretly wants Savior to stomp his group and win an msl, dont act like u wouldn't love to see it. Also much's group seems pretty fun along with kal's. Interestingly enough all 6 dragons (well 5) are split and all avoided the group of death, I wonder if itll be another toss msl. We'll see i guess.
On January 10 2009 03:48 SayTT wrote: Nice read, although last time bisu was in an all Z group he lost 0-2 if I remember correctly.
And i believe:
JD and Flash have quite the history already, with JD beating Flash in the MSL and losing to him in the OSL. He also lost to Flash in the first English GomTV tournament.
Is wrong.
Jaedong beat Flash 3-1 in the MSL Ro8 Jaedong lost to flash 1-2 in the Bacchus OSL Ro8 Jaedong lost to flash 1-2 in the Gom star invitational(the 16 player invitational)
Nothing is wrong there
Jaedong 3-0'd him in a more recent GOM final, that probably counts a bit more than the earlier 1-2.
On January 10 2009 03:48 SayTT wrote: Nice read, although last time bisu was in an all Z group he lost 0-2 if I remember correctly.
And i believe:
JD and Flash have quite the history already, with JD beating Flash in the MSL and losing to him in the OSL. He also lost to Flash in the first English GomTV tournament.
Is wrong.
Jaedong beat Flash 3-1 in the MSL Ro8 Jaedong lost to flash 1-2 in the Bacchus OSL Ro8 Jaedong lost to flash 1-2 in the Gom star invitational(the 16 player invitational)
Nothing is wrong there
Well u didnt mention that jd beat flash 3-0 in the avaratec intel classic season 1 (are we gunna call that the aic or something or maybe sic for sambo intel classic idk we need to shorten somehow)
"The reason for falling into a slump is careless practice. The way to get out of a slump is to practice. I started again from the beginning. I must return to the time when I played with my own style, and when I determined the victory through strategies. And the strategies are a product of practicing more than anyone else. The key to success is to persevere through practice."
The person that looks for a shortcut is not a true professional. There is no shortcut to becoming the greatest progamer. -- by Lim Yo Hwan
On January 10 2009 03:48 SayTT wrote: Nice read, although last time bisu was in an all Z group he lost 0-2 if I remember correctly.
And i believe:
JD and Flash have quite the history already, with JD beating Flash in the MSL and losing to him in the OSL. He also lost to Flash in the first English GomTV tournament.
Is wrong.
do you mean 'wrong' as in he didn't add in all the games or 'wrong' as in that never happened? Because yeah alot more happened (GOMS1 and Proleague) but it isn't wrong
It's me who remember wrong. When he said "in the first english gomtv tournament" I thought about the first real gomtv tournament where jaedong won the final 3-0 vs flash.
Bisu also beat Savior 2-1 last year at ... Blizzcon or WWI. And 2-0 (I think) this year at .. uh IEF? So in reality he's about a million to 2 vs Savior !
Good writeup, but I believe Jaedong 3-1'd Hwasin in Arena MSL? Lots of groups are bound to have shitttonnes of fireworks, and while others aren't as high-profile or competitive (at least on paper), I really think this is one of the finest Ro32's the MSL has ever had.
Great reading, really entertainment and informative ^_^
BTW I spoted a little mistake in your table at the end of the article, you typed in the Luxury line that he is 1-1 vr Hyuk, but then in Hyuk's line you said they are 0-0. Same problem with Leta vr Hyuk results.
Hey can you just put an image credit underneath the "Jaedong vs fOrGG" image in your spoiler. Not a big deal but it would be cool to get credit for making it.
On January 10 2009 03:10 FzeroXx wrote: Bisu was Kung-Fu Hwaiting! That cat was fast as lightning. In fact it was a little bit frightening, But he did it with expert timing!
They were funky templar men, from funky templar town, They were chopping drones up, they were chopping spires down. It's an Ancient Aiur art, and everybody knew their part, With a fake into a drop, kicking sAviOr from the top!
On January 10 2009 07:51 Atrioc wrote: Hey can you just put an image credit underneath the "Jaedong vs fOrGG" image in your spoiler. Not a big deal but it would be cool to get credit for making it.
Nice OP btw, very interesting stuff.
Done.
Also -- To all the people pointing out errors.. please note that I use TLPD. If the tournament/game isn't listed under the player, I'm probably not going to notice. I did notice I was leaving out a JD win -- but I think he's a favorite anyway. I want to spice it up! :O Sorry for the unprofessional writing/layout. I'm still learning how to use the forum quite well and I was writing a lot of the text around 3:30AM waiting for Bisu's match.
On January 10 2009 16:43 amorpheus wrote: I fear Jaedong may not get out of this group. Good thing is that I feel exactly the same for Stork
Stork and Bisu probably have the highest chance of getting out of their group
Sea chokes against Stork all the time, Stork's PvT is just better than forgg's TvP (fun games between them btw) and go.go is from ogn, team notorious for sucking against toss in general.
On January 10 2009 03:48 SayTT wrote: Nice read, although last time bisu was in an all Z group he lost 0-2 if I remember correctly.
And i believe:
JD and Flash have quite the history already, with JD beating Flash in the MSL and losing to him in the OSL. He also lost to Flash in the first English GomTV tournament.
Is wrong.
Jaedong beat Flash 3-1 in the MSL Ro8 Jaedong lost to flash 1-2 in the Bacchus OSL Ro8 Jaedong lost to flash 1-2 in the Gom star invitational(the 16 player invitational)
Nothing is wrong there
Jaedong 3-0'd him in a more recent GOM final, that probably counts a bit more than the earlier 1-2.
Why would I mention that?
I was correcting someone who thought the OP was wrong. I wasn't trying to argue a point.
On January 10 2009 16:43 amorpheus wrote: I fear Jaedong may not get out of this group. Good thing is that I feel exactly the same for Stork
Stork and Bisu probably have the highest chance of getting out of their group
Sea chokes against Stork all the time, Stork's PvT is just better than forgg's TvP (fun games between them btw) and go.go is from ogn, team notorious for sucking against toss in general.
Stork's play's been too shaky as of late and forgg has pretty good tvp, go.go also can pull out something, he's not that bad tvp either. And it's high time for Sea to show good play in star leagues as well. Last but not least I'm not speaking for logical conclusions, as both jd and stork are likely to make it out of their groups I'm speaking what intuition tells me.
Hope I'm wrong for jd, but I wont be surprised at all if Hwasin and fbh go the elimination stage.
On January 10 2009 06:45 Baddieko wrote: FBH and JD probably will advance in their group.
I'm thinking this as well
Nah, overall the most likely to get outta the group of death will be flash and jd
neither of them ever beat FBH. jd and fbh
yes, FBH has a winning record against all of them. He is prolly underrated in the group due to fans. TvT and TvZ is his strongest game. Flash and JD must be really worried about it and FBH is strong in mind games.
Stork would get out also due to his group consisting of macro straight-up terrans which wouldn't trouble him much anyway.
On paper, Bisu's group look a walk in the park. But the new maps are increasingly advantageous to zerg. He would still FE but all-ins are more dangerous now. I hope he don't rue his decision to put 3 zergs. In this level of sc, overconfidence can kill easily.
On January 10 2009 04:24 FrozenArbiter wrote: Bisu also beat Savior 2-1 last year at ... Blizzcon or WWI. And 2-0 (I think) this year at .. uh IEF? So in reality he's about a million to 2 vs Savior !
On January 10 2009 03:10 FzeroXx wrote: The other series he lost was the EVER 2007 OGN Starleague, but at this point Savior was already slumping quite a bit and unable to really match Bisu's intensity despite quite a fun game on Katrina.
On January 15 2009 04:35 Fx_ wrote: Ok ok may be this text contains some part of true.... but.... So many times all forecasts were incorrect.... i'll be waiting the results....
How could the forecasts be incorrect when the games haven't been played yet? The first one is tonight.
I agree, but his win percentage overall had started to slump. This article isn't really scientific. I hope people aren't reading it that way. I just wanted to provide some writing and info about the groups for anyone who doesn't keep up with it daily.
Group F is definitely wow, IMO it'll be FBH and Flash who come out. IMO JD isn't consistent enough lately to win. Heck, even with the TvZ sniper hwasin in that group JD could go 0-2.
GG Bisu.... Savior totally OWNED on that one..... And you people thought Savior had no chance! But I knew he would come through!!!! "I will destroy everyone in 2009" FTW!
EPT![[image loading]](http://pigmotel.com/suite105/files/2007/03/eee.jpg)
Bisu v 
sAviOr![[image loading]](http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/6852/dtdropbisuzr1.png)
![[image loading]](http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/3222/bvsjd1.png)
Leta v ![[image loading]](http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/9731/kalluxmv0.png)
![[image loading]](http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/1199/jangbisl0.png)
![[image loading]](http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/1157/bracketll4.png)
![[image loading]](http://www.mymym.com/gfx/nada1.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i39.tinypic.com/2ch3w9t.png)
![[image loading]](http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/1885/excelstatsta9.png)
!
