Beware: Nothing here meets journalistic standards. Read at your own risk ^^;
BW Proleague Final Tidbits, taken from DES and Fomos.
Caster Predictions:
- TheMarine: "As the post season went on, I saw KT's players gradually gaining confidence. The more they played the more they were growing. I think KT will write a dramatic story and raise the victory trophy above their heads"
- Kingdom: "When making up the entry, SK Telecom can come up with a greater variety of strategies. They had more time and they controlled their condition through individual league. And when coming up with new strategies, there are no teams that are on the level of SK Telecom's coaches, so I think SK Telecom is advantageous in many ways"
- GoRush: "When I predicted just on my instinct, I was mostly correct. I think SK Telecom will win 4:0 or 4:1. The map order favors SK Telecom, and because there are maps that SK Telecom can play their strengths in early on, even a 4:0 is possible". He added "If they obtain two wins in the first five sets and get to set 6 and 7, KT has the advantage, as the map favors KT near the end"
- Jaedong: "KT Rolster's rookie Roo's play has been noticeable lately. Because both teams have many strong players, I think there'll be a lot of good games."
- Oz's Coach Han: "SK Telecom's overall strength looks better. But if Hoejja runs into a Protoss that's not Bisu, KT may be able to win"
- Tossgirl: "SK Telecom has a slightly higher chance to win"
Tidbits:
- A fan gave Jaedong an iPad 2, and then asked Jaedong if he could have a cup of tea with Jaedong. The fan then bought tea for Jaedong and Coach Han in the Sky Lounge.
- Coaches and people form the executive office, Jaedong and Tossgirl went to the Oriental Pearl and was shut in the observatory for an hour because a highly ranked government official visited and so they stopped running the elevators.
- For a snack SK Telecom picked cup ramen, while KT picked hamburgers. KT also had chocolate bars as snacks.
- When SK Telecom players were uncomfortable with the chairs at the practice rooms, SK Telecom's executives went to the nearby IKEA and bought four chairs and put them together for two hours.
Media Day:
- Flash didn't show up to the media day, as he was getting treated for his wrists.
- KT's Coach Lee: "I think god made this season so that we would experience everything possible. The only thing left is to hold up the Victory Trophy. I think he trained us like this so that he could give us the victory as the final gift. We will do our best so that we can win and write the best story of this season."
- Bisu: "I have more good memories in China because I had visited China three times and won twice. Because they were all unofficial matches so not many people remember them, but because Proleague is an official match of the grandest scale, I'll definitely win so that fans in China or Korea will eternally remember SK Telecom winning at the Grand Finals in China"
- When asked who the key player would be, SKT's coach Park picked Best without hesitation. "Everyone at the bench gets refreshed by watching Best play, because when Best is winning, he dominates while pouring out immense amount of units". He added "If Best wins in the Proleague finals in China, he is also preparing a ceremony that will flip the atmosphere around, so you should expect great things"
- When asked what the score would be when they won, SK Telecom's Coach Park answered "I think we will have a complete 4:0 victory, and it'll be a big deal if KT places Flash and Stats in the back". When hearing this, KT's Coach Lee just laughed. "If you're saying you will win 4:0, then doesn't that mean you're placing Best, Bisu, and Fantasy all in the front? Thank you for telling me about your entry and I'll plan the entry so we can snipe them". He also added "If we win 4:0, it'll be betraying the fans", and then said "We will win 4:2". He finished the psychological battle by saying "I think SK Telecom's coach Park is paranoid a bit that Flash and Stats will come out early, and I'll think about whether I should play on that paranoia or not"
- Fantasy didn't receive any attention during the media day, until he suddenly pointed out that "I'm the only player who has won every game in a Proleague Finals"
Some (Selected) Netizen Reactions to MLG... It's really way too much to go through them all.
- "As expected MLG is the best in terms of atmosphere T_T It's excited just looking at it!!! It's so fun!!!! Uh oh... will this get compared with the GSL finals today? *shiver*" "It's ZvZ. ZvZ." "Even though it's ZvZ you don't get cheers like that in Korea T_T"
- "If BoxeR wins MLG... and the emperor receives the trophy at the awards ceremony... and during the middle of the cheers, he suddenly says 'I have something to say', and suddenly gets on his knees and proposes to Jessica... It'd become the topic of conversation globally and it'd be amazing.
When are they getting married? She's getting old..."
- "If Nestea comes to MLG... will he win all his games?" "That's a possibility... but he's probably too busy with GSL so I don't think he'll go" "As unlikely as it may be, strong players lose to foreign players now and then"
- "The Protoss that is playing BoxeR really is something.... to be honest he's doesn't have the skill to play at an MLG" "He rested a lot while commentating for the NASL"
- "Seriously, DRG is the most likely to win this MLG.... all the Korean players who made it are Terran, and the fact that he's the only Zerg makes it the best opportunity ever for DRG.... Just like that, someone in the PC Bang prelims suddenly gets Code S" "As long as Korean Protosses aren't there, Terrans are just a snack"
- "I just watched the MLG game.... when BoxeR lifted his buildings and hid it, everyone is like "T____T"... but what if Rain did it? Then everyone would be like 'man he can't face him directly so he's doing that bullshit'" "If BoxeR does it, it's perseverence, if Rain does it, it's that he's just a spoiled brat"
- "Seriously, why is MLG so fun..;; The match contents are good too, but I get more entertainment out of it than GSL" "It's fun cause it feels like a festival lol" "Cause Code S is on the line?" "Because GSL Production is on an Amateur level" "Because it's all done on a short period of time, stories come out quite directly"
- "Back in Starcraft 1... we definitely were not behind MLG in terms of passion in the fans.... T_T I miss it"
- "Wow this is the first time I'm watching MLG... There's something about the foreign casters' voices that I like kekeke. Something is funny when they go "DONGRAEGU! DONGRAEUGU!" lol I think I should watch it more in the future."
- "MMA is seriously well suited for the MLG... It feels like he slumps in Korea quite a bit and then regains energy from MLG and goes back lol. What if he wins all the MLGs this year -_-;;? After he won the MLG last time, it was almost as if he was going to win the GSL and the Super Tournament and then he fell out of both -_-"
- "It feels like MLG will only invite Zerg and Toss from now on"
- "The greatest match in this MLG won't be the finals, but the upcoming match. Because MVP is already up there, it's the semifinals that decides whether or not BoxeR gets to Code S or not"
- "Didn't MMA destroy his own Command Center last MLG too?" "It's because he didn't want to give experience points to the mutalisk"
[Funny story: I told MMA if he plays Idra, he should build a Command Center in front of Idra's base and kill the CC while it was building. Sadly the match never happened T_T]
- "I'm really sorry to MVP... but I almost closed the stream after the MMA vs BoxeR match cause I thought it was the finals almost instinctively keke" "BoxeR this MLG... he was way above expectations. His play was really entertaining"
- "I'm a fan of BoxeR and I was hoping he'd just do okay in the MLG... Wow, the emotions running through right now T_T"
- "What happens if Idra goes all the way to MLG Finals and gets Code S? Will he just refuse it? Because it's Idra... i wonder what he'd do" "He threw away what he had when he left, though" "He threw it away and then Koreans suddenly swept all the foreign tournaments so he can't even make money... I bet he didn't expect that"
- "In terms of prize pool, there isn't much difference between MLG, Dreamhack and NASL, but I think in terms of entertainment, MLG is by far the best. Even though it's difficult to understand MLG's double elimination system, I think in terms of fun it's incredible" "The only bad part is that it's like death to the player who climbs all the way up from the Open Bracket T_T"
- "But seriously, watching the 19+ version of SC2 on MLG is incredible. It makes an impact when they burn to death... and so the TvT firefights are really fun to watch"
Overall netizen reactions on Boxer vs Yellow
- "Does GOMTV seriously think it's enough to just put "Lim Jin Rok" on the title? If you look at yesterday's games, that's not Lim Jin Rok, but it's just publicly humiliating Yellow. It also looks like Yellow isn't seriously considering playing Starcraft 2... Why did they plan something like this and just ruin the image of a legend?"
- "Yesterday's Lim Jin Rok... it was a really difficult game to watch if you aren't already an invested fan.... even if it's just for fun, it was really boring. If it was for fun then they should have tried to entertain using things outside of the game but things were really pathetic.... it felt like "They gathered all those people and they do this?"... I looked at the community reactions and there were a lot of backlash to the games but they were passionate just for the fact that it was a Lim Jin Rok... is this the difference between an old fan and someone who just became a fan?"
- "I wonder if they could have put in more diverse content as much as the number of people who were watching. There weren't many different units T_T... they only advertised how imba hellions are"
Okay I don't really have the heart to translate the rest of these T_T basically they seem to be worried that many people who watched SC2 for the first time will think that this is what SC2 is and be disappointed, but no one denies how popular the event was.
Random news
- On August 1, oGs announced that they will be drafting players into their team for the second time. They will be chosen either by oGs staff members observing the games directly during the Code A qualifiers, or through requesting to join online. They will be accepting applications until August 20th, and they will make their final decision by the 31st.
- Drama between TSL/SC2 Association. Hopefully someone else will translate these because I don't have the heart to translate drama related stuff anymore =(