EPTSure, nerves and shakiness can come into matches but in general, when pros look really bad or get utterly owned, it's usually not because they just played bad. It's usually because they lost in the strategic game play and are caught off guard and put into positions they didn't prep for. It could be something like trying to blind counter a player and being dead wrong, or getting hard-core countered, or it's recognizing situations you can usually get away with certain things against a player but they end up punishing you for it in this game, etc. We like to think you can scout for everything and play safe against all and prevail through pure skill but that really isn't a thing at the pro level imo. Players are constantly taking calculated risks to secure an advantage one way or another and some days those risks are super rewarded and other days they lead to you looking like an absolute noob despite being one of the best players on the planet.
[ASL20] Ro8 Day 3 - Page 8
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G5
United States2921 Posts
Sure, nerves and shakiness can come into matches but in general, when pros look really bad or get utterly owned, it's usually not because they just played bad. It's usually because they lost in the strategic game play and are caught off guard and put into positions they didn't prep for. It could be something like trying to blind counter a player and being dead wrong, or getting hard-core countered, or it's recognizing situations you can usually get away with certain things against a player but they end up punishing you for it in this game, etc. We like to think you can scout for everything and play safe against all and prevail through pure skill but that really isn't a thing at the pro level imo. Players are constantly taking calculated risks to secure an advantage one way or another and some days those risks are super rewarded and other days they lead to you looking like an absolute noob despite being one of the best players on the planet. | ||
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Destroyer
Czech Republic947 Posts
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iFU.pauline
France1699 Posts
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Sabu113
United States11078 Posts
Soma has a nasty run. Bisu next would not be fun. Hoping he makes the finals because it'll make snow's win all the better. | ||
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Miragee
8657 Posts
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kidleaderr
366 Posts
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TMNT
3139 Posts
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TornadoSteve
1112 Posts
Either way, semi won't be a walk in the park for soma | ||
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Shinokuki
United States923 Posts
On September 30 2025 04:37 TMNT wrote: Funny that many are automatically assuming Soma will get Bisu next. Bisu is favorite against Larva, but there's a world where Larva beats Bisu and Soma tragically dies to a ZvZ lol. Bisu is favored vs soma AND larva based on head to head stats. | ||
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bw2ku
24 Posts
On September 29 2025 23:37 Shinokuki wrote: So does Soulkey. Soulkey would be an absolute bonjwa if he focused more on his early game mining and set ups. Soulkey was never the "best" online zerg player for even more than 2-3 weeks when proleague is the most important platform for a player's earnings. (not asl). Think of ASL as an incentive, like a year-end bonus based on some performance. Most of their income comes from proleague and Soma has always been the best performing zerg in proleague with his early game mineral optimization, advantageous setup to snowball into favorable macro game for him, and carefully crafted builds. The only thing Soma lacks is really the standard game that Soulkey has. Soulkey is the best "standard" player while Soma is closely catching up to his powess. Soulkey's won 4 ASLs in a row.... when any other zerg comes close to that, then they can be "catching up to his prowess". | ||
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Vasoline73
United States7851 Posts
 .Also I'm 0/3 on predictions for the ro8 lol | ||
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iopq
United States1077 Posts
On September 30 2025 09:06 bw2ku wrote: Soulkey's won 4 ASLs in a row.... when any other zerg comes close to that, then they can be "catching up to his prowess". ASL is like a dozen games, tiny sample size While SK is still the best macro Zerg, based on his record outside ASL he needed a lot of luck to win 4 times in a row. One of those lucky coincidences was not having to play vs Larva, Soma or Effort in ZvZ because they were not participating. | ||
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Shinokuki
United States923 Posts
On September 30 2025 09:06 bw2ku wrote: Soulkey's won 4 ASLs in a row.... when any other zerg comes close to that, then they can be "catching up to his prowess". It would've been real nice if Soulkey performed just as well online while Soma has always performed on the most important stage which is proleague and many games are played, with tens of thousands of dollars ons take every night (contrary to what foreigners think) | ||
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iopq
United States1077 Posts
On September 30 2025 08:12 Shinokuki wrote: Bisu is favored vs soma AND larva based on head to head stats. But nowhere near favored when you look at overall PvZ elo compared to Soma's ZvP elo. That's the biggest sample size we can compare | ||
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bw2ku
24 Posts
It would've been real nice if Soulkey performed just as well online while Soma has always performed on the most important stage which is proleague and many games are played, with tens of thousands of dollars ons take every night (contrary to what foreigners think)[/QUOTE] Because you're an insider and know the pro circle's dialogue lol? When have they EVER used proleague as a metric for success? Lord. Sure it may be a more lucrative daily thing for those who choose to participate, but nobody goes around talking about how many Proleagues theyve won lol. If it were as important as you claim, every pro player would do everything they could to partake in them daily, which is never the case.... | ||
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RowdierBob
Australia13385 Posts
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Artas1984
140 Posts
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Shinokuki
United States923 Posts
On September 30 2025 10:26 bw2ku wrote: It would've been real nice if Soulkey performed just as well online while Soma has always performed on the most important stage which is proleague and many games are played, with tens of thousands of dollars ons take every night (contrary to what foreigners think)[/QUOTE] Because you're an insider and know the pro circle's dialogue lol? When have they EVER used proleague as a metric for success? Lord. Sure it may be a more lucrative daily thing for those who choose to participate, but nobody goes around talking about how many Proleagues theyve won lol. If it were as important as you claim, every pro player would do everything they could to partake in them daily, which is never the case....[/QUOTE] Even flash has said "proleague is by far the single most important indicator for a player's skill/strength" Proleague = player's sole earnings and reason why they stream bw. ASL is just a nice bonus. If you've been watching proleague you'd know | ||
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bw2ku
24 Posts
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Shinokuki
United States923 Posts
On October 01 2025 07:26 bw2ku wrote: You just make assumptions that I dont watch proleague because I dont subscribe to your irrational idea that proleague is more indicative of a players' greatness as opposed to a tournament that isnt a bo1 that pros mess around and sometimes dont even attend? When was the last time any pro player has bragged about winning a proleague? Please, inform me since you think im so out of the loop. It doesn't happen, that's why.... literally everyone uses ASL titles/placements as a standard for how to measure them. Nope not anymore. Its a bit werid to see larva make it into ro8 and immediately picked as last when getting drafted for proleagues (like getting picked over effort/hero/royal) or the same soulkey picked 2nd/3rd when he was winning ASLs. I'm not saying ASL is a circus. ASL is a big part for sure but when you're earning most of your 120-250k usd from proleague you do tend to want to focus hard at proleague when it's your livelihood. If you do great in proleauge you do get bragging rights as you will be sought out for every night in proleague and you also get big donations towards crowd funded pool. Players love to brag they're #1 proleague player this soley for getting recruited and for getting donation. Now if you win both ASL and perform really well in proleague thats when you're bonjwa level (flash). That's why I said soma is kinda close to soulkey in terms of his powess because soma is so dominant in proleague and soulkey is aight in proleague. It's like "snow" and people have always rated snow top tier because of his performance in proleague and how he can always "win" once he gets over the mental barrier. It's like that for soma. | ||
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