MC Fan Club - Page 196

On September 26 2011 04:03 Amornthep wrote:
Nothing much. His upcoming games will be at~
IPL3
MLG Orlando
WCG Qualifiers
ESWC 2011

It's not going to be easy for him. If you want my honest opinion, I think MC isn't ready for Code A yet. He lost to Monster, who is a mediocre Zerg who got into Code A through a somewhat lucky run through the qualifiers. I've been sitting on this opinion for a long time now. When discussing this with many progamers during the Super Tournament, I was always of the opinion "In just a few seasons, MC will be out of the GSL". No one believed me. He's out. MC needs to rework his entire playstyle. His success was based on timing attacks that no one had really seen at the time. Then, he refined those timing attacks to make them seem unbeatable. Afterwards, many Protosses tried to learn from him. It was the era of the X-Gate. Four gates, six gates, seven gates, seven gate blink stalker +2 timing attacks, etc. Players like HongUn also found success during this time. During this era, some considered Protoss to be unbeatable and unpredictable. But players learned. Very rarely do these timing attacks succeed anymore. MC was figured out. He is trying to adapt and play macro-oriented styles, but is way behind. I think you can really compare MC to Jinro. Jinro was really way ahead of many Terrans and had success with new builds during 'his time', but after his styles were figured out, he could not really keep up. He's relearning too. Jinro and MC are in the same clump of progamers who need to refine their style.

On September 26 2011 14:17 Azzur wrote:
Interesting opinion of MC from Wolf: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=269282

On September 26 2011 15:04 moofang wrote:


This is fanboy speak (hey, this is a fanclub, so), but I don't completely agree with Wolf. It's true that the plethora of protoss timings he pioneered has been thoroughly figured out, but to say effectively that MC had nothing but those timings and is now working on macro-oriented play from scratch is stretching it to say the least. It's clear even now that MC can outplay the top foreign players in a macro game, and while that sadly doesn't say much, he more tellingly went toe-to-toe with Puma and Bomber in very close, mostly macro games back at NASL/Dreamhack, when the 1/1/1 era was still in its infancy. MC was beaten out of Code S and out of the IEM finals not quite by his faltering macro mechanics but by, ironically, one-base(ish) timings from his _opponents_. I'd drop a mention too that the closest game he came to beating Puma at IEM was a macro game, where he denied drops like few other players ever had and was mostly ahead and doing well before he made that small critical mistake with his HT/Warp Prism. Saying that MC the old unstoppable timing attacker is deadlier than MC the macro player is a defensible proposition, but to say that MC's macro mechanics is so behind that it's not even Code A material is taking it way too far imo.

On September 26 2011 15:43 cordlc wrote:
Yeah, what Wolf wrote there is nonsense. I enjoy his casting, but I never liked his analysis.

Anyone who's closely followed MC's games knows he isn't a fluke. Of course he wins many games from timing attacks (complemented with excellent unit control) alone, as that's what the Protoss race excels at due to the warpgate mechanic. Perhaps occasionally he does do silly things, like stubbornly trying a 4-gate in PvP when it has no chance at working, but that's generally a rare sight from him.

I'm not his biggest fan (I favor unique styles, he's more standard), but when watching his games, it becomes clear he is (or was) the most all-around Protoss. Not only is his micro / macro top-notch, but he always came up with his own amazing build orders, played smart, solid, with minimal mistakes. Basically the best standard Protoss play we've seen, definitely deserving of winning GSL twice. You can't say that about any other Protoss nowadays, not yet, anyway.

So what if he fell out of Code A? He's just not playing as great as he used to, during a time when Protoss is by far the toughest race to be. Everyone has a slump period, no big deal. He'll be back to Code S in no time. MC is easily among the best 32 players in the world, claiming he's not even Code A material is a joke. Even HongUn is still in Code S.

On September 26 2011 22:38 Elefanto wrote:


I think what wolf means is that his overall style doesn't work anymore.
For instance PvZ, his 4gate / 6gate / forge expansion into stargate, 1gate expansion into stargate and then Colossus Ball. Sadly these styles aren't working that well anymore.
Yet MC still exclusively plays only those styles, probably because he thinks they are the strongest.

Wolf probably means that MC has to change his approach to the Matchups, and has to build them new up from the scratch. And change his style into something similar to Sage / Hero / Tails / JYP. You can't just transition into these styles without heavily practice with them.
Their strengths, weakness, timings, reactions etc.
MC was always a formidable Macro player, with excellent mechanics. But most players died too early to let him showcase it. Currently he's behind in a major way in every PvZ entering the mid-game, fighting a huge uphill battle.

As soon as Protoss figures out new styles / timings / refined builds, he'll be back up in no time.
Whenever i watch MC compared to other Protoss, his play seems WAY more crisp, refined and clean. I've rarely seen a MC game where i thought he played sloppy, his unit control was lacking, or his macro was bad.