On October 09 2024 21:24 Biff The Understudy wrote:
On October 09 2024 16:31 gingerfluffmuffnr2 wrote: Cant watch any other than Nyoken casting BW. Pure passion, entertainment is ok and deep knowledge with his partners makes the games super interesting.
Sadly the viewer numbers among english fans isnt based on merit alone, else other casters would be pretty doomed.
Seeing vultures trying to kill ultras is sad and funny at once. Light gets always hyped to heaven and never delivers
SK was supply blocked forever. I don’t understand that transition. Wouldn’t have just continuing into SK terran won him the game easily.
Soulkey really looked like the better player yesterday.
It's weird because there's a world where after G4 Light is up 3-1, does SK have the fortitude to win 3 on the trot (with Minstrel and Monty Hall at the end)?
What's crazy is I think the answer is still yes. SK hasn't looked as untouchable in his ZvTs this season, but he's so adept at handling chaotic and scrappy gamestates it's difficult to imagine him losing long series like the ones we now find ourselves with.
Of course he comes back from behind in a series. I was more worried when he had the 3 2 advantage.
In the postgame interview Soulkey says he came up with the build for Pantheon around an hour before going to bed the previous night and decided to use it in the game after practicing it a couple times.
On October 10 2024 23:33 prion_ wrote: In the postgame interview Soulkey says he came up with the build for Pantheon around an hour before going to bed the previous night and decided to use it in the game after practicing it a couple times.
Soulkey really is natural instinct player. he feel sometimes could be good and goes for it.
On October 10 2024 23:33 prion_ wrote: In the postgame interview Soulkey says he came up with the build for Pantheon around an hour before going to bed the previous night and decided to use it in the game after practicing it a couple times.
In the preview interview he said practice went good. In contrast Light said it went bad. I think they were both correct.
On October 10 2024 23:33 prion_ wrote: In the postgame interview Soulkey says he came up with the build for Pantheon around an hour before going to bed the previous night and decided to use it in the game after practicing it a couple times.
Well, he won the game... but to be fair was it because of the build that he won? Was it even a good build?
Light actively looked for the hidden base but unfortunately couldn't find it. Then even with that bad luck he still almost broke Soulkeys neck. In the end Light essentially gifted him the game.
Surprisingly, Artosis had an interesting read on the 2nd game. The purpose of the mineral-only expansion was to hide the quick evo chamber, which is a sign of ultralisk rush. Soulkey even built a hydralisk den in his main to trick Light into thinking it was a Guardian rush (Light did scout the quick queen nest). In response, Light went for Valks and delayed his science facility, and thus also his +2 upgrade. Light's bio was too far behind in upgrades and would get destroyed by ultras, possibly explaining why he went for a mech switch.
On October 11 2024 05:29 cheesehuehue wrote: Surprisingly, Artosis had an interesting read on the 2nd game. The purpose of the mineral-only expansion was to hide the quick evo chamber, which is a sign of ultralisk rush. Soulkey even built a hydralisk den in his main to trick Light into thinking it was a Guardian rush (Light did scout the quick queen nest). In response, Light went for Valks and delayed his science facility, and thus also his +2 upgrade. Light's bio was too far behind in upgrades and would get destroyed by ultras, possibly explaining why he went for a mech switch.
That was the genius behind it. SV's are 232.7 second tech, nothing but Queens counter it at 225.5 seconds although nobody except Soulkey could trick the terran into delaying SV's any further. This game is up for the Hall of Fame. PS: this was a Tier 3 bait. Never has been done before.
On October 10 2024 02:01 RJBTVYOUTUBE wrote: Sometimes it also just takes a while for someone to have their breakthrough moment because something in their play is not yet in the right place. An example is Speed. I have followed him since 2019. He has always been fast, always had amazing control and multitasking, but he didn't utilize it like he does now. He joined team Ukkz late 2023 where he has both Light and Mini as co-members. He has without a doubt learned a lot from them two directly to improve on his play.
Likewise Soulkey has teachers in Light and Queen. Light used to practice and spon vs soulkey a lot in 2019-2022.
When was Soulkey's military service? I would argue that this is Soulkey's second peak. The first one was back in 2017, but he didn't get as much attention because Flash was still active.
People seem to brush off that on in his way to win the WEGL Soulkey destroyed Flash and made him look like an average terran. That was in November 2017, when Flash had already won ASL 2, 3 and 4. Soulkey also displayed an other-worldly performance when he beat Flash in the ace match of the the ASL Team Battle Season 1, in March 2017.
In may 2017, he got knocked out the ASL3 ro4 by Flash (score was 2-3). And in October 2017, he lost in the ASL4 ro4 against hero (score 2-3). And then you have his KSL2 title in 2018, where he beat Last 4-0 and Sharp 4-1, in the semifinals and finals, respectively.
What I find fascinating is that during the ASL16 and 17 winners interviews he said that he felt that he was out of shape, but as he kept winning he gained more and more confidence. At the end of ASL17, he said that now he felt greedy, and would attempt to win 3 ASLs in a row. So I think what we are seeing right now is a highly motivated and greedy version of Soulkey that we hadn't seen before.
Soulkey getting eliminated by Brain in Ro16 ASL9 hurt people's perception of him. People also hyper focus on just ASL and forget anything outside of ASL even exists. So Soulkey got kind of neglected. For example people love down playing SnOw and SoMa yet they were the best two performing players beside Light in everything beside ASL.
Imo Soulkey's lackluster ZvZ hurt our perception of him. Anytime there were a lot of zergs in the tourney, it was over for him. Ofc his ZvZ now is topnotch due to many adjustments.
On October 09 2024 16:14 RowdierBob wrote: Poor Snow gonna get wrecked by SK. SK can beat him in the big macro games and has the unorthodox cheeses that hits Snow’s predictability hard.
Yeah, I've been wanting to see Snow win a premier tournament but I feel like he might be a bit to limited in his play-style and strategizing to be well rounded enough to go all the way.
Of course, he still can, it depends on a lot of factors but in bo7 series, I feel like he is going to run into someone who can outdo him...
On October 08 2024 21:03 Simplistik wrote: Can someone explain to me why Light doesn't defend against mutas in his main?
I think Artosis and Tasteless made a good call in saying that he optimizes and he builds his turrets in a ring to defend and leaves some opening inside his main. Very few zergs are so ontop of it all to be able to exploit it, but soulkey definitely is one of them.
Oh, and in game 1 where Light goes for the sunken bust, why did Soulkey go attack with his mutas instead of defending?
Did he think he had enough sunkens? Did he miss the army movement of Light? Did he think that light would turn back if he was aggressive enough with his mutas?
I was like screaming at him in my head to go defend with his mutas for quite some time before the attack hit. With the mutas damage output he would've held that.
It was so frustrating to me and I don't understand his decision making there, anyone more knowledgeable that can give some insight?
On October 12 2024 06:34 Barneyk wrote: Oh, and in game 1 where Light goes for the sunken bust, why did Soulkey go attack with his mutas instead of defending?
Did he think he had enough sunkens? Did he miss the army movement of Light? Did he think that light would turn back if he was aggressive enough with his mutas?
I was like screaming at him in my head to go defend with his mutas for quite some time before the attack hit. With the mutas damage output he would've held that.
It was so frustrating to me and I don't understand his decision making there, anyone more knowledgeable that can give some insight?
Third option. Notice, JD got eliminated the same way, so it is not that different whoever is playing among them. The key is avoiding having to face the SK terran style.
On October 12 2024 06:43 mtcn77 wrote: Third option. Notice, JD got eliminated the same way, so it is not that different whoever is playing among them. The key is avoiding having to face the SK terran style.
I guess that makes the most sense, but as spectator it was so easy to see that Light wasn't going to turn back, he had a lot of turrets and his army was very aggressive.
On October 09 2024 16:14 RowdierBob wrote: Poor Snow gonna get wrecked by SK. SK can beat him in the big macro games and has the unorthodox cheeses that hits Snow’s predictability hard.
Yeah, I've been wanting to see Snow win a premier tournament but I feel like he might be a bit to limited in his play-style and strategizing to be well rounded enough to go all the way.
Of course, he still can, it depends on a lot of factors but in bo7 series, I feel like he is going to run into someone who can outdo him...
The big difference between Snow and mini is that Snow has such a consistent play-style in all his games that it makes him a weaker BoX player. Mini has been able to reach more finals than any other protoss despite weaker fundamentals than snow because he's willing to mix up his strategies in every series and take big risks. You need to be able to do that to keep your opponent uncomfortable and off their own gameplan.
We'll see if this crazier map pool will encourage snow to play riskier but the fact that it's now a Bo7 instead of a Bo5 makes it even harder for protoss players to beat zergs IMO. Maybe this map pool will help snow out but hard to tell. my guess is SK 4-1 over snow.
EPT
