DongRaeGu Fan Club - Page 313

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November 30th, 2013
The Floppy
neoghaleon55

Believe it or not, fans give their favorite player nicknames all the time. Scarlett is known as the Queen of Blades, Haypro was known as the Banjo, and DongRaeGu is current known amongst his loyal fans as "The Floppy." Before that, we used to call him "the fatty" because he gained a million pounds early in 2013. But now that he lost all that weight, we can't justify calling him fat anymore, thus Floppy was born. Now this nickname works on several levels, so bear with me as I explain. First off, floppy should conjure an image in one's head that's similar to this:

+ Show Spoiler +

which fits DRG's personality pretty well. He's carefree, outgoing, generally well liked by everyone and is a bit of a ditz. lol.
Secondly, being floppy should reminisce this creature from many of our childhood gaming memories:

+ Show Spoiler +

which again, fits DRG's performances in 2013 pretty well. Whenever DongRaeGu plays, there seems to be a binary coinflip on whether or not he will show up as Magikarp or Garados. Either DRG demolishes his opposition in convincing fashion or he flops right out of the tournament.

As IEM Singapore heads towards a close, fans like us will be eagerly watching to see which version of DongRaeGu shows up. So far, he's been looking like a Garados, destroying his round of 16 group and taking first place. But if history has its way, DRG will have a highly probable chance of turning back into Magikarp again as he enters the single elimination Round of 8. It's been a very long time since our lovable Zerg player has even made the semifinals. Here's to hoping that he can break that curse.

First up tonight will be DRG's favorite matchup, ZvT, against Startale Hack. Best of luck DRG!

FloppyGu Fighting!!

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November 28th, 2013
Team Spirit
neoghaleon55

DongRaeGu returns to the tournament stage this weekend for one last tournament to close out the year. And he has a surprise for all his fans: he's wearing our fan club shirt!! THE FAN CLUB SHIRT!!! You know, the one with our names written on it! We gave this shirt to DRG over a year ago in Los Angeles when he took 2nd place at IPL Hot Import Nights. A lot has changed since then: DRG isn't as dominate today as he was in 2012 and his achievement list in 2013 has been sparse. There is still hope for fans of this iconic Zerg player, however. Every tournament DRG has been in this year, he has delivered: consecutive top 8 rankings at international tournaments, beating INnoVation in WCS S3 when no Zerg player could for months on end, destroying the eventual champion of IEM NY, Life 2:0, etc. Yet for all of his accomplishments, DRG has yet to nab a championship this year. Thus this tournament is now of great importance for DRG and his fans and he knows it. He's bringing out the shirt both as a gesture of fan appreciation and for luck. We are reminded today that we are Team DRG. We have survived this long in cheering unison for one very talented and endearing player. And all of that isn't about to stop now.

So this is it guys, one last show, one last tournament, one team united under the DRG banner!

First stop: Happy, EffOrt and KingKong

Let's go kick some ass, DongRaeGu!!!

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October 10th, 2013
IEM New York Open Bracket: Home Coming
by TommyP

Everybody's favorite zerg, DongRaeGu is on his way to New York to play for a chance to become a two-time IEM New York champion. What better place to end his championship drought than where he won his first major championship? With his rival MMA finally breaking his long dry spell, DRG fans want to see him prevail even more. Since Heart of the Swarm released, DRG's ride has been bumpy to say the least. We have seen many players, new and old, win major championships but DRG, one of the greatest Wings of Liberty players, has been unable to grab one. This will be his third foreign tournament this year and his second IEM.

Just like he did in IEM Shanghai, DongRaeGu will have to start from the Open Bracket. In Shanghai, we saw him demolish players like Grubby on his way to qualifying for the next stage without dropping a map. This time however, he has Stardust (who has since dropped out) and Life in his side of the Open Bracket so things won't be as easy. DRG's first match will be against puCK, the American protoss player on Root. Anything other than a DRG victory would be a big surprise here. His next opponent will probably be Stardust who made the WCS EU round of 8 this season where he lost 3-1 to Vortix. Given that result, I think DRG is favored, however Stardust has shown world class PvZ in the past. Should DRG prevail over these two, DRG and Life could meet. Life is always a threat, but no where near as dominant as he was and DRG has looked a lot better recently. I think DRG would be favored here as well, but Life has killed him everytime they've played.

Predictions:

DRG 2-0 Puck
DRG 2-0 Stardust
DRG 2-1 Life

DRG advances to Group Play!

Read TeamLiquid Official Preview Here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=431658

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September 22th,, 2013
Birth
by neoghaleon55

DongRaeGu might have been regarded as one of the greatest players to ever have touched Wings of Liberty on a professional level, but what most people don't remember is that he had a rocky start. When DRG was discovered as some random teenager who sat atop the Korean SC2 ladder, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was destined to be one of the greats of the sport. However, during the first few months of being a pro-gamer, DRG actually flopped pretty badly. While he was a monster in the team leagues, DRG was remarkably lackluster in the GSLs proper. In fact, he never ...ever... made it through Qualifiers for Challenger League (not ever!). It was, in fact, a Code S seed that was given to him by MLG Raleigh of 2011 that landed him into the big leagues where he has remained for what seems like a generation. DRG's momentum in WoL grew slow and steadily after that point. He started taking down top players after top players, like a storm cloud growing bigger and turbulent. And then at Blizzard Cup 2011, DRG took the runner up title to MMA in what became the best finals in the game's history. It was there on that stage at BlizzCup that the real DongRaeGu was truly born.

Similar to the early life of WoL, DongRaeGu's performance in early Heart of the Swarm had been anything but inspiring, that is, until two weeks ago when he took down quit possibly the best player in the world, INnoVation. Innovation was so good at TvZ that he had been undefeated in the matchup for over 3 months prior to meeting DRG in Code S. (What happened between these two players that night was so grand that recapping it here would be a travesty. As such, I will be providing a more indepth blog about the series in the weeks to come.) Much like his birth in WoL against the formidable MMA, DongRaeGu's rebirth in HotS was encapsulated by a showdown against one of the greatest Terrans of our time in Innovation. DongRaeGu's stormcloud has never looked more fearsome now than ever before, the question is, will his fans finally see the rain as he edges closer to getting another trophy?

DongRaeGu's round of 16 will be matched against Dear, Sleep and Soulkey. In his current form, DRG is underdog to no one. His ZvP is still statistically his best matchup in HotS (although he has express his great hatred for Protoss) and his ZvZ was never actually bad. Time has proven, that generally, mechanical players thrive in mirror matchups, especially in ZvZ, where every little click could mean life or death of tons of your units. Thus, Soulkey and DRG are by far the favorite to come out from this group. The match between DRG and Soulkey should likely be the high point of the night, as these two players are out to prove themselves as the alpha of the Swarm. Make sure you tune in to cheer for DRG, fans. The rain is nigh.

Good Luck DRG!!

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September 5th,, 2013
Shine
by neoghaleon55

DongRaeGu returns to Code S to battle it out in one of the hardest round of 32 groups this season, although he doesn't seem to mind. DRG is first up against GuMiho, one of the legendary Terran players from Wings of Liberty. The name Gumiho has become synonymous with medivac drop play. This style is so chaotic that often times Gumiho, himself, gets confused in what the hell he's doing. Against a lesser player, the matchup would be a cause for concern. However, DRG is a multitasking beast who often, if not always, employs tons of mutalisks in his arsenal to shutdown mass medivacs. Regardless of who comes out on top, expect some interesting games from these two.

herO[jOin] and INnoVation rounds out the remainder of DongRaeGu's group, with hero being the weaker of the two players. DRG's ZvP has improved by leaps and bounds lately, so being matched against herO would pose no problems. Innovation, on the other hand, was regarded by many as the best player in the world not one month ago. His TvZ winrates remain at a staggering 78%. On paper, Innovation should beat DongRaeGu, however, in light of recent events of his old team being disbanded, joining a foreign team and losing to shit ton of players he shouldn't have been losing to, Innovation is technically in a downturn. We can certainly hope that these events have unhinged Innovation's play enough so that he would look mortal tonight. Regardless of how good Innovation turns out to be, we need to be reminded that it's DRG that we're talking about. He is a player who can unexpectedly go into god mode and demolish whatever group he comes into. Whatever happens, I am sure that DRG will be comfortable in his booth tonight. He's been in code S for 10 consecutive seasons. The GSL stage has become his homeland, his warm bed on cold nights, his mother's milk. It is on this stage that he had become a star and hopefully, it will be the same stage where he will shine once more.

In addition to watching DRG in Code S, fans can look forward to seeing him receive his well deserved Nestea Award right before the main show. Make sure you tune in to watch this historic moment.

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Photo thanks to thisisgame.com

DongRaeGu Obliterates Up & Down Group to Seize Historic Nestea Award!!!

August 13th,, 2013
Immortalized
by neoghaleon55

With the clean sweep of 3:0 in August of 2013 against a formidable lineup of Trap, Squirtle and FanTaSy;
MVP_DongRaeGu has gone down in the history books as the third individual to ever achieve the prestigious Nestea Award. This honor is given to StarCraft II players who have achieved 10 consecutive Code S showings in a row, a testament to their consistency and skills.

[9:15:09 PM] neo: omg! YOU!!
[9:15:12 PM] neo: how do you feel?!
[9:15:23 PM] DRG: fucking awesome

In the last several months, DongRaeGu's image as a pro-gamer has been made, unmade and remade countless times. Since the start of HotS, DRG has been in the longest slump of his career. With a total of 6 months worth of games in the gutter and a winrate that hovers around 40%, many were starting to wonder if he had it in him to ever win another match again, let alone return to Code S triumphantly. Yet in just a few short weeks, the star MVP Zerg player's career began to show a pulse. He cinches the top 8 finish twice at IEM Shanghai and ASUS ROG, respectively, then came in strong at the GSL Up and Down and finished with a flawless score. Although it may be too early to call DRG fully rehabilitated, it was still nice to be reminded that he still has that champion fire in him. DRG's return to Code S is significant in more than just a hero's homecoming. It signifies the end of his own personal dark ages and symbolizes something more meaningful: his mark upon the world. To understand the scope of this monumental accomplishment, consider the following:

Epics in Greek Antiquity often follow a similar pattern: A boy becomes a man and the man travels far and wide to become a hero. The hero makes a name for himself by accomplishing grandiose feats and slaying vicious beasts. At one point, the hero must descend into the underworld to retrieve something precious he had lost. If he succeed, the hero emerges a legend.

The entirety of DRG's long history in Code S is not unlike an epic. The boy, Park Soo Ho, became the hero, DongRaeGu. DRG, the hero, slew countless beasts like Genius and MarineKing and accomplished many great wonders, such as winning GSL and MLGs. Eventually, like most heroes, DRG succumbs to hubris and loses everything, including his most cherished seed into Code S (during WCS Season 2 2013). He descends into the purgatory of Code A and then into the hell that is Up & Down to retrieve not only his tournament seed but also his honor. There, he struggled and defeated the three headed Cerberus made up of Squirtle, Trap and Fantasy. Having won, DRG emerged immortalized by the Nestea Award.

Congratulations DRG!!


DRG's message to fans: "now im get the feel of winning game! lets see how can i be the winner"

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August 12th,, 2013
The Finish Line
by neoghaleon55

As much as I love DongRaeGu, I can't deny the fact that his career has been full moments where the finish line is just right there in front of him but he was unable to cross it. Talk to any long-time fan of DRG about Blizzcup 2011, GSTL 2012 or Iron Squid 2013 and you will get a sense that supporting this talented player hasn't always been kind to one's heart Tonight is going to be one of those finish line moments, and this fan club has been hyping it up for a long time. If DRG wins, he will be in Code S a total of 10 consecutive seasons and thereby would qualify for the very prestigious Nestea Award in honor of his consistency. If he loses now, all would be for nothing and his beautiful record will be lost forever. DRG's form lately still hasn't been the best and his competition tonight is nothing less than fearsome: Squirtle and Trap gets the "oh noez it's PvZ" card, FanTaSy is a legend of StarCraft and YugiOh freaking destroyed DRG the last time they met. Our favorite player's chances of getting into Code S honestly hasn't looked this bleak in a long time. I am praying for a miracle, guys. Really praying... Regardless of the outcome, I will still support this amazing player, but a small part of me will certainly die should he fail to cross another finish line.

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August 2nd,, 2013
ASUS Day 2 Recap
by TommyP

DongRaeGu advanced to the Quarterfinals of ASUS ROG Summer with a clean 3-0 sweep over Welmu and a thrilling 3-1 over Axiom's Alicia. Those results give him a 12-1 map score for the tournament, the best of any player.

The first series, DRG found himself against the Finnish Protoss, Welmu. This was a bo5 DRG shouldn't ever lose, I would've been surprised if it even went to the 5th game. In the first game went for the proxy hatchery after he saw that Welmu went gateway first, a build he has used very frequently in ZvP lately. The hatchery was able to finish and it delayed Welmu's natural expansion for such a long time. Later in the game, DRG bust the front of Welmu with ease with his Corrupter, Ling, Hydra composition and Welmu was forced to GG.

The 2nd game, Welmu went for a cannon rush and DRG was forced to cancel his natural expansion but he kept his composure and was able to macro up without a problem. Welmu went for a sentry heavy timing, but it was delayed by a DRG counter attack that forced a recall and that extra time was enough for DRG to get up a good defense and defeat the attack of Welmu.

The last game of the series, we saw DRG try for a proxy hatch again but Welmu pulled probes and was able to force a cancel before the creep could spread on his natural. Welmu went for an attack with a lot of blink stalkers but DRG was able to hold as he had a good number of hydralisks and zerglings and had spines adding extra damage. DongRaeGu was able to hold on just long enough with that composition to get infestors out and he was able to fungal all the blink stalkers of Welmu which led to the Finnish player tapping out, sending DRG to the winner's match against Alicia.

The best of 5 against Alicia was a very intriguing match up as it was DRG's first real test of the tournament and rematch of the finals of the last tournament he won, MLG Anaheim 2012.

DRG went for a proxy hatch again in the first game against the Axiom protoss and it got up, delaying the Protoss expansion. Alicia then went on the aggression with a 3 gate attack and zealots were able to kill a few drones. Mutalisk was DongRaeGu's tech of choice. Alicia's army moved out, DRG sent his mutas to Alicia's main and natural, killing all but 3 probes. Alicia recalled his stalkers, but the damage had been done and DRG was able to kill off all the stalkers anyway with his muta/ling. With a depleted economy, Alicia GG'd.

DongRaeGu decided to go for a proxy hatch again in the 2nd set, but it didn't finish this time unfortunately. Alicia followed up with a 3 gate pressure again but this time did way more damage and Alicia's follow up was too much for the MVP zerg to handle and DRG lost his first map of the tournament.

DRG finally didn't proxy hatch in the 3rd game. Alicia flew his phoenix over the zerg's hydras and lost about 4 of them. DRG maxed out on Hydra, Corruptor, Ling and was able to overrun Alicia on Neo Planet S.

The most exciting game of DongRaeGu's tournament run was the last one he played on game 2. DRG went for mutas again this time and forced a crazy base race where DRG killed Alicia's last building while all he had was a spawning pool with less than half health. The thrill of this game cannot be describe in words, please watch the VOD if you havent.

Quarterfinal preview
DongRaeGu drew San for his Round of 8 match. The Azubu (for the time being) Protoss is a formidable opponent. DRG even lost 2-0 to him recently in the IEM Shanghai qualifier but that was online where San normally performs 10x better than he does offline where he is known to crumble under the pressure. DRG is the favorite here in my mind, especially after going 9-1 against Protoss this tournament, but DRG did lose to a mediocre Korean protoss in the quarterfinals of IEM last weekend so history may repeat itself. I still predict a 3-1 victory for DongRaeGu though and I expect a great series in the semifinals against Hyun.

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August 1st,, 2013
Enter ASUS ROG
by neoghaleon55

DongRaeGu returns to Europe for the first time in over half a year for ASUS ROG. Having fallen short just one title from the revered triple crown achievement, DRG is back to make aim for his missing European championship. I must say, it feels a bit strange to suddenly see so much DongRaeGu games lately. For most of 2013, fans of this amazing player have been slowly and painfully taught the virtues of patience and restraint. Bearing that, I gotta tell you, it feels fucking nice to see DRG trashing nerds again in a live tournament. Our liberation cometh!

Enter ASUS ROG day 1, DongRaeGu did not disappoint, riping his group a new one by scoring a flawless 6:0, knocking out Naama and TitaN without losing a single map. Though it was a shame that DRG's much troubled ZvT matchup against Naama was not casted, his series against Titan remains a treat for fans of all ages. His timings were solid and his strategies, sound. Save for the occasional brainfarts like that disgusting round of 8 series against Oz at IEM, DRG is looking better and better every time we see him.

It's a good thing that he's doing so well in ZvP because his upcoming round of 16 group is a Protoss-fest containing Welmu, Alicia and elfi, although all three of which are not very highly ranked. With Alicia being the only real threat to DRG, it's hard to imagine our favorite Zerg player not making it out of his group and advancing to the quarter finals. The best of 5 format of this tournament should help DRG more than anything as he is an adaptive player, and on paper, he's miles ahead of his group in terms of skills. In terms of what to look for, expect Phoenixes from Welmu, Voidrays from Alicia, and hilarity from Elfi. I'm very much looking forward to seeing another elfi vs DRG match, as their last series together can only be described as a natural disaster wrapped in a comedy basket.

Don't miss out on the fun, fans!

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July 26th, 2013
IEM Shanghai Group Stages Recap
by TommyP

Our beloved Zerg hero, DongRaeGu, was able to carry the momentum he had picked up from his perfect open bracket run and took it to the Group Stage where he used it to cleanly advance out in first place. He was not quite as dominant as he was in Day 1, but playing against a rising KeSPA star in MyuNgSiK and a very solid Zerg player in Revival, that was to be expected and at this point, I don't care if he is that dominant, I'm happy with just any win.

The day started off shaky as he lost game 1 on Bel'shir Vestige to Myungsik's 13 phoenix attack. It seemed like he didn't know the correct response because he scouted Myungsik's 3 Stargates well before the attack hit. There were so many phoenixes that his hydras were essentially useless because they were all floating in the air. Luckily, he was able to bounce back in game 2 by using the same strategy that he used to defeat Grubby: proxying a hatchery in the Protoss's natural against a gateway expand. In Game 3, DRG went for a roach/ling aggression that did enough damage to give him a huge advantage, from there, he was able to overwhelm Myungsik later in the game. This series was very odd to me because when I think of DRG, I think of someone who wants to macro up and use his multitasking skills and rarely cheese, but it was nice to see him mix things up and take a victory.

Although this win was nice, but DRG clearly had an unfair advantage: Myungsik had be cursed by Artosis!

In the winner's match, he faced off against EG Revival. DRG was able to take game 1 because of the emphasis on early upgrades. DRG was on 2-2 when Revival was on 2-0. Game 2 might have been the most disappointing of the night as the MVP Zerg looked like he had the game won but took some bad engagements that allowed Revival to get back in the game. This time Revival had the upgrade advantage and was able to overwhelm him. The final game, DongRaeGu was able to get his 3rd base up very quickly and then DRG pressured Revival repeatedly with a small group of lings, causing Revival to cancel his third expansion multiple times. DRG's production and economy were much better than Revival's as a result, and he was able to push the EG Zerg player right out of the tournament even with inferior upgrades. I was very impressed by DRG's constant usage of ling run-bys and small roach hit-squads during this entire series.

Unfortunately, we don't know who he is playing in the Quarterfinals yet because Group D still needs to be played. I hope he can avoid HyuN, Polt and HerO for as long as possible, not to say he cannot defeat them, just I'd rather him play aLive, Oz or even MC.

The hard times we have been through as DRG fans in the last 6 months made yesterday so much sweeter. Let's hope DRG has what it takes to take home this whole tournament. I believe!

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July 25th, 2013
DongRaeGu @ IEM Shanghai
by Neoghaleon55

Rejoice fans! DongRaeGu is now playing in IEM Shanghai!! After what looked like a double dose of disaster as DongRaeGu dropped from IEM Shanghai Qualifiers AND his Code A match against YugiOh , it seemed like fans would have to wait another month to see their favorite Zerg play in a televised game again. Luckily, a stroke of good fortune came through, then boom! DongRaeGu was playing in China. Ok, let me explain:

Even though DRG had lost the KR Qualifiers for IEM, he had applied for a Blizzard's special showmatch to be played on the 26th-28th, a promotional event for Heart of the Swarm launching in China this very month. DongRaeGu is quite popular with Chinese speaking fans because of team MVP's relationship with the TeSL,Taiwan. Because of this, DRG often attended Taiwanese showmatches during 2012. Ultimately, it was his high profile and popularity in that region that earned DRG an invitational to Blizzard's show. And since the showmatch in Shanghai corresponds with IEM's event, DRG decided to go ahead and attend the IEM's Open Bracket, anyway!!

A lot of us were so excited to see DRG play again in the international stage, and with good reason: it's been 6 months since his last tour outside of Korea (which was for Iron Squid II in January) to play StarCraft. But to be sure, we were cautious and didn't have our hopes up too high. 2013 has been a challenging year for DongRaeGu, whose career took a sudden plummet since HotS began. We all know that he's a good player, even he still has confidence in his abilities, yet tournament results have proven otherwise. Fans have been waiting for a long time, patiently, to see a spark and a flicker in DRG's gameplay once again.

And then it happened. At the IEM Shanghai Open Bracket, DongRaeGu finally showed his full hand, winning every series without dropping a single game! His timings were great, his injects were perfect, his scouting - immaculate. If you haven't had the chance to see it yet, I highly recommend watching DRG vs Grubby. Game 1 saw DongRaeGu do something we have never seen him done before...ever: a proxy hatch in ZvP. As it turns out, this very simple ploy was so genius that it flipped Grubby's entire game plan upside-down! The Protoss player stayed on 1 base for the remainder of the game until a 3-base rampaging DRG forced a concession using roach/ling/mutalisks. Although that game was great, the one which followed was even more spectacular! Grubby went for a planned cannon rush, but DongRaeGu, through some of the best scouting yet seen in a ZvP this year, sniffed it out and, get this: He pulls 3 drones to deal with the offensive probe, 2 drones to pincer the probe, and 1 drone to patrol between the two gases, making sure the pylon will never get up in the tightly clustered choke. It was amazing! I cried a bit! :')

With that win against Grubby, DongRaeGu advances to IEM Shanghai proper, which begins with the group stages. In a few minutes from the time of this writing, he will be playing against MyuNgSiK, a Protoss player that's been getting a lot of fame lately for his 13 phoenix rush that hits at 11:30 minutes. The other two players in his group are TitaN and Revival, neither of which are known to be very solid players. Though Revival did make the finals of WCS AM last season, his flawed mechanics and decision making have always squarely put him as a mid-tier Zerg player. In my opinion, DRG got perhaps the easiest group out of the whole tournament. By the merit of his name and skills alone, DRG should have no problem making it out of groups, by merits of his performance yesterday, I expect him to make at least top four!

Good luck DRG!!

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July 15th, 2013
Life with DRG in Code A
by Neoghaleon55

In a few hours from now DongRaeGu will face off against YugiOh in the 2nd round of Code A. This match is made interesting for several factors. First of all, the entire Code A Bracket is full of Zerg players, it means that DRG has only to practice one matchup and should be showing decent level games tonight and beyond. Next is that DRG and Yugioh are actually comparable in skills currently when it comes to HotS tournament performances. Although the DongRaeGu a year ago would have wrecked Yugioh in WoL, the DRG now seems to be on the steep slope of just figuring the game out. Yugioh, on the other hand has never looked terrible as a player, but he certainly never gave the impression that he could take a championship. Oddly enough that these two are meeting now, at the intersection of both their careers and skills.

Finally, the juiciest tidbit of this matchup is that both players have ties to CatZ! As you may know, DongRaeGu and Catz are good friends. Catz call DRG, "Sabu;" DRG calls him "Jeja," a kind of master/student relationship. However, Catz also owns and runs RootGaming, which is Yugioh's team. So the question is...who will Catz 'Root' for?
:O




Will Catz congratulate DRG if he beats Yugioh? Or will their Sabu/Jeja relationship be ruined forever?!
Find out next time on Life with DRG (in Code A), airing tonight!

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DongRaeGu Defeats sKyHigh in the First Round of Code A 2:1!!!

July 10th, 2013
A Breath from the Depths
by Neoghaleon55

They call Code B the Abyss, the endless void where no light shines. It is despair personified, and of the greatest magnitude when a Code S player plummets down into its depths. Every DRG fan knew that the matchup against CJ-Entus_sKyHigh yesterday would be one of the most important battles of his career in 2013. Losing the games would send DRG into the chasm of obscurity, with little hope of ever coming back out. Nearly five months ago, DongRaeGu defeated his teammate, MVP_Billowy, in the third round of Code A to win a seat back into Code S for the 2013 WCS KR Season 1 Tournament. Since then, he hasn't been able to take a series from anyone*...until today. DongRaeGu fought the good fight and ended up on top. The victory over sKyHigh ended the longest slump to have ever stricken our favorite player.

So what the hell happened last night? The games weren't even streamed, so none of us had any clue on what was happening behind the monitors. Luckily for us, DongRaeGu just happens to be the coolest SCII pro-gamer ever. So he gave us, the best fans ever, an exclusive interview on how it all went down:


[1:57:39 AM] neo: omg congratz!!!
[1:57:52 AM] DRG: xD feel so good
[1:58:06 AM] neo: tell me everything
what happened game 1?
[1:58:14 AM] neo: lol
[1:58:19 AM] DRG: um
[1:58:21 AM] DRG: its normal game
[1:58:23 AM] DRG: and he used
[1:58:25 AM] DRG: hellbat drop
[1:58:29 AM] DRG: and defend perfectly
[1:58:31 AM] DRG: and after drop
[1:58:39 AM] DRG: he push with maraduer+hellbat
[1:58:47 AM] DRG: so I just push s and rrrrrrr
[1:58:52 AM] DRG: but block supply!!!
[1:58:54 AM] DRG: holy shit
[1:58:56 AM] DRG: so gg

LOL, he's so ditzy!


[1:58:56 AM] neo: ahh
[1:59:02 AM] neo: goddamn hell bats
[1:59:05 AM] neo: nerf this week!
[1:59:06 AM] DRG:

[1:59:12 AM] neo: ok game 2?
[1:59:17 AM] DRG: same game
[1:59:22 AM] DRG: and i defend 2nd rush also
[1:59:29 AM] DRG: and overwhelmedd
[1:59:36 AM] neo: hellbat drop again on game 2?
[1:59:39 AM] DRG: yes
[1:59:41 AM] DRG: hellbat drop after
[1:59:42 AM] neo: wow
[1:59:44 AM] DRG: marauder + hellbat drop

[1:59:57 AM] neo: what about game 3?
[2:00:02 AM] DRG: he use same build
[2:00:06 AM] neo: omg
[2:00:12 AM] DRG: and i use 2base muta
[2:00:19 AM] DRG: so just won
[2:00:20 AM] neo: ooh very nice
[2:00:22 AM] DRG: kkkk
[2:00:25 AM] neo: DRG so smart
[2:00:27 AM] neo: <3
[2:00:33 AM] DRG: sick!
[2:00:35 AM] neo: thanks for telling me
[2:00:39 AM] DRG: ur welcome


There you have it folks, the accounts of what happened, according to DongRaeGu, himself. "Sick," indeed!
Let us remember that today was the day when DRG peered into the blackness of the Abyss and calmly said "no, thank you!"

Congratz DRG!!
YOU ROCK!!


+ Show Spoiler [* Footnote] +

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DRG Post-Victory Interview:
Source: http://esports.dailygame.co.kr/view.php?ud=2013071015072034426
Translation by: Wozzot (Thank you so much!!! <333)


What are your thoughts on reaching Round 2?

Not only has it been a while since I've won, but I don't have to play in the qualifiers now, so I'm feeling good. If I'd gone to the qualifiers, I'd have had to wait six months before returning to the Premier League. I didn't feel confident that I would be able to hold myself together with my own strength: it got to the point that I was praying for victory on the day before the match.

What did you talk about with the coaching staff after losing the first set?

Dream and Coach Choi Yun-sang told me to use my Overlord placement to look for the Terran army heading out while I played, and I was able to make up for my mistakes in the first game due to that.

Your performance has been lackluster recently. What would you say is the reason why?

I sensed during my games that I haven't been able to keep up my form during televised matches anymore. In the past, I didn't have that kind of feeling. I honestly felt as I did at my debut when I played my match today: when I faced a major obstacle, my heart would race, and I wouldn't be able to keep my attention on the small details. I'll have to fix that.

In Round 2, you'll be facing YugiOh.

Even if I don't practice, I don't feel pressured in ZvZ. My [ZvZ] win rate is high on ladder, too. Since I won't have to return to the qualifiers, I'll play without worrying. My priority is to get less tensed up during televised games.

Do you have anything more to say?

I'm thankful to our sponsors, Lotte Chilsung and Razer, as well as to Coach Choi Yun-sang and his father. I also want to thank Dream, whom I have to buy chicken for for practicing with me, as well as KeeN and Shine for standing by me and filling me in on the finer points [of the game]. The [StarCraft 2] community has been saying, "I don't see DongRaeGu staying alive," but I haven't been losing during practice. I personally think that I'm doing well at the game, and I'm always working to stay on top. If I manage to get used to playing in televised series again, I'm confident that I can play as I did in the past. Finally, I want to send my thanks to the people in my Team Liquid fan club.

---

July 7th, 2013
A Very DRG-y Update
by Neoghaleon55

Hi Fans. It's been a while since our last news article was published so I wanted to fill you all in on what's happening in the world of DRG. First off, on July 10th, DongRaeGu will have his Code A match Round of 48 played against CJ-Entus sKyHigh. This match will not be streamed over GomTV so you will have to watch it on OGN's twitch channel. More on that later when we cover it, schedule is also listed above in upcoming matches.

When asked what he thought about his Code A Bracket, DRG replied "I like my bracket! Except if i will go up round,
there [will be] so many zergs, but it's better than protoss obviously." With regards to his first opponent, Skyhigh, being a Terran, DRG has this to say "I almost adapt to against hellbat now." "Almost" he says, that still makes me a little nervous, but there may be some truth to his claim. In a recent ATC team league match against Quantic, DongRaeGu was sent out against
Apocalypse...whom he wrecked, and continued to take down two more Quantic members in the form of Center and TREME. The three-kill streak harkens back to the days of old when DRG would just bulldoze over people in team leagues, and it may be what DongRaeGu needed to bolster is confidence again. "Im always confidence in HotS," says DRG, "Problem is in tourney."

As for the future, DongRaeGu told me he plans to focus more on foreign competition. He will make at least one trip soon, which I'm not allowed to disclose, but I'm sure you can guess. Also, if you haven't been following GSTL, DRG's team, MVP, advanced directly to the grand finals as a result of their latest series against Azubu. It's been a slow couple of months for DRG fans, but it seems like things are finally picking up for our favorite Zerg player.

Keep cheering for him fans, DRG <3 you.

---

May 28th, 2013
In Total Darkness
by Neoghaleon55

There is no easy way to say this, folks. DongRaeGu has lost. Not only did he lose, he looked completely lost playing Heart of the Swarm. The free-fall DRG is in right now seems more severe than any in the past, so much so that it may require an intervention of some kind by a coach or players close to him. As of right now, it seems like he just doesn't understand ZvT in HotS in the least. His ZvZ and ZvP could use some work, but it's nowhere as atrocious as his DRGvT. This is very sad considering that a year ago, he was one of the most celebrated Zerg vs Terran player to ever grace the planet! Yet today, there isn't enough excuses that even I can come up with to patch all the holes in his play.

Perhaps we can all breathe a sigh of relief now that Mr. Chae (GomTV Director and CEO) has officially declared that the next season of WCS will not count towards the Nestea Award. Meaning, DRG has one season to get back to Code S or he forfeits his chances of ever getting one. Still, DRG will be in the first round of Code A, it's hard not to worry that one more fuck up could plummet him down into the Abyss of Code B. Shit needs to change. Whatever DongRaeGu has been doing in the last few weeks is clearly not working for him. And if he is not getting the help he needs to succeed, then I dare say, he needs to switch teams.

As our words of encouragement have fallen on deaf ears in the past, perhaps I'll try a different approach: tough love! I offer the following advice to our Zerg Hero:

"GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER, DRG!!"

---

May 27th, 2013
Do or Die
by Neoghaleon55

It's no secret that DongRaeGu is in a slump. While his Zerg brethren have began rising up against the Terran Terrors and Protoss Oppressors, DRG seems to be stuck in the early days of Heart of the Swarm, where Zergs barely won. Speaking of winning, our Zerggy Hero has yet to win a match ever since the expansion went live! Sure he beat MC in a best of 3 once, but both of them eventually found themselves in the abyss of Code A. Continuing his downward spiral, a flop in Code A two weeks ago against SuperNova have lead DRG further below the depths into the Up and Down matches. It's do or die time, failing to secure Code S tonight would be catastrophic to his career in 2013.

So why has DongRaeGu not been living up to expectations? Several factors may have attributed to his decline in recent months. First off, the meta game has been extremely unstable since the expansion went live. For lack of better words, DongRaeGu is a solid standard type of Zerg players. He relies on a normal game, he doesn't cheese often and he enjoys drawing things out into the late game where his mechanics can outshine his opponent's. Generally, these players do not do well when the meta become jumbled with random new timings and cheeses, both of which have been abundant since the release of HotS. Secondly, the players DRG have lost to recently have been on the rise, SuperNova, Avenge and Flying have shown themselves to be absolute monsters, taking down the top names left and right. Lastly, DongRaeGu himself just hasn't been playing well. It's not that he lost, it's the way in which he loses that is concerning: miss-reading mech for bio, dying to widowmines, dying to hellion drops, miss-reading bio for mech... and my personal favorite, losing to some guy who made TWO robotics support bays.

Even with all the harsh words, I am still DongRaeGu's fan. I am reminded that DRG was arguably the top 3 players in Wings of Liberty. I am reminded that I wrote this unpublished article about him as one of the greatest players of all time. And I am reminded that he's really only been slumping for 2 months.

Regardless of my feelings, DongRaeGu has some work to do tonight in the Up and Down ring of fire. He needs to bring his A game, he needs to stop feeling shitty about himself and start showing his confidence again, and he needs to transcend his weaknesses to take back his Code S stars and banner. The opposition in Maru, Ruin, and Bunny are not the top line of players. Leenock may prove challenging, but it's ZvZ, anything can happen. It is thus likely that DRG will make it out of the group as one of the top two players. That is what we hope, that is what we believe in as his loyal fans.

Come back to us, DRG! We need our hero again!

---

May 7th, 2013
Nine and Counting
by Neoghaleon55

It has been exactly one month since MVPDongRaeGu took the stage. He returns tonight in the second round of GSL Code A and the stakes have never been higher. On the line is the fabled Nestea Award, given to the most consistent of players who have been in Code S for 10 consecutive seasons. DongRaeGu is currently on his 9th. The opposition is none other than veteran, SuperNova, the man who once also had 9 consecutive Code S seasons under his belt before he failed to make the final lap and was booted out of Code S. Nothing would sate SuperNova more than to see another dream crushed as his own was. To this date, only two players have ever achieved the Nestea Award: Nestea, himself, and LG-IMMvp, neither of them are even in GSL anymore. Should DRG succeed, he would be the most consistent active player in Korea.

It is difficult to predict who will come out on top tonight. Both DRG and SuperNova are well recognized forces in Korea since time immemorial, but they are both green when it comes to stage experience in the Starcraft II expansion. It's hard to predict the state of DRG in general when it comes to HotS. The game is fresh off of shelves and the MVP Zerg player has had difficulty with the transition from Wings. His ZvP looked particularly impressive in Code S yet his ZvT is still under question, having a total of Zero ZvT wins since the release of the game. SuperNova also has Zero TvZ wins, but that's because he never played any on the professional stage. His two games in Code A thus far have been against Terrans. That being said, Supernova does have a penchant for cheeses and early game aggression from his Wings of Liberty days and DRG has been falling victim to Terran cheeses more often than most. With the overall matchup being Terran favored, I would have to give a slight edge to SuperNova. However, DRG has never had a problem being the underdog. In a perfect world, SuperNova would win. But the world isn't perfect, the metagame is still chaotic and unforgiving. And in that chaos lies opportunity, the same kind that allowed DRG to single handedly skewed the statistics of ZvT in the GSTL of 2011, when Terran was factually overpowered. Plus, DRG has a really good team. I'm sure they'll figure out something.

Good Luck DRG!!
Cheer for him DRG-fans!!

---

April 25th, 2013
What's going on with DRG?
by Neoghaleon55

It's been a few long quiet weeks since MVPDongRaeGu lost his Code S Round of 32 matches to YoDa and Flying. DRG was trumped by Yoda's marine/widowmine slow push and seemingly couldn't catch up in upgrades in game 1. In game 2, he fell victim to a hidden hellion drop and lost the match. From there, our Zerg player made sure to let the world know that he still had fire in him when he destroyed SK_MC in a 2:0 decisive match. DRG's aggressive use of roach/zergling secured him victory over the one opponent in his group who had earlier slighted him with the phrase "DongRaeGu doesn't understand HotS." A very close match between DRG and Flying ensues where Flying was able to blindside DRG by pushing with mass upgraded zealots at a peculiar timing, taking game 1. DongRaeGu fought back in game 2 with his roach/hydra/viper composition to dismantle Flying's collosi-based army. The series climaxed with one of the best games of this season which saw DRG used mass-mutalisk/swarmhosts vs Flying's templar/archon/stalker/collosi deathball. The game went on long until DRG could not secure a 5th expansion while Flying's much faster anti-mutalisk army could. War of attrition was the name of the game and DRG was simply starved out before he could transition into a viper based army that could match Flying's war machines. The heartbreaking defeat came at a difficult time for DRG as his string of narrowly-defeated-by-just-one-game continued.

The aftermath of the Code S battle saw DRG slump into a mini-depression. Luckily for him, DRG-fans are the best fans, and a cheer project was started to bring the former Zerg champion back from the brink and onto his feet. DRG has been reportedly been feeling better, back to his cheerful self and has resumed his regular practice again.

So what's next for our funny/lovable/ Zerg-superstar-former-Code-S-Champion?
Code A has just been announced with DRG seeded into round 2 of the tournament. He will face off either against.SKTT1_Labyrinth or SuperNova, whoever wins the first round of Code A. There are also team leagues to be played, with both Team Story Cup (in which team DRG remains undefeated) and GSTL (Team DRG is playing tonight!). I am told by DRG's coach that when the time comes to go to Germany for Team Story Cup's grand finals, he'll take his five best players, DRG most likely will be among them. All in all, the state of DRG could be better, but the future doesn't look too bad. Here's hoping that DRG continues to practice, win his Code A matches, then get his NesTea Award!

PS.

Ok now for the gossip part. Apparently, DRG has been kicked out of GrandMasters League on the Korean server for this season because he was caught smurfing on another account. lol. Season 2 of Ladder starts next week, so he will have his chance to come back to where he belongs. Also, DRG has admitted to having a weight issue lately and has been eating waaaaay too much. As his faithful fan and teamliquid publicist, I, neoghaleon55, plan to make fun of DRG's weight as often as possible until he develops an eating disorder (anorexia) and become sexy again. lol. The plan is working well so far! XD

Hope to see you guys in the Live-Report threads when we see DRG play again in the GSTL and Code A.
And keep on cheering for DRG, the soon-to-be skinny, best zerg player in the world. <3

---

April 8th, 2013
Into the Unknown
by Neoghaleon55

MVPDongRaeGu is back in Code S tonight to face off against LG-IM_yoda, SK_MC and Woongjin_Flying, but he's returning at a very tough time for Zerg. A year ago, DRG was at his prime and was considered by many as the best player in the world, but today, he enters this group as the underdog. So what exactly happened? Well, for starters, Heart of the Terran happened. Since the expansion came online, Terran dominance has been at a level unseen since the release of Wings of Liberty, while Zergs' performances has taken a turn for the worse. At the forefront of Terran's climbing win-rates is LG-IMYoda, whose stocks have skyrocketed after taking first place at the IEM World Championship in March. Using the plethora of new harassment options available to Terran, Yoda has emerged from being just a mediocre Terran on team LG-IM, to being the top TvZer in the world with an astonishing winrate of 80%. On the flip side, Zergs' winrates have been abysmal. The race hasn't looked this bad since the first GSTL in March of 2011, where teams just right out refused to use their Zerg players. A similar trend is taking place in many team leagues as of late, where matches are colored by only the blue and yellow of Protoss and Terran.

DongRaeGu has a tough night ahead of him. There are few zergs out there able to compete in this brave new world (Roro and Life), yet so far, DRG has not made an impression that he is one of them. His train-wreck of a match against MMA did not help to bolster confidence in his play right now, but perhaps the apex of DRG's performance remains to be seen tonight. Win or lose against Yoda, DRG will have to play against his nemesis, MC or newcomer to the GSL, Flying... ergo another problem: ZvP.

Anyone who has been following DRG's twitter lately should already know how much he hates the matchup. Late game 'air PvZ' teeters on the line of being imbalanced, as has been the consensus of many professionals and commentators given on shows such as State of the Game and NASL The Pulse. There is simply no cost-effective way for Zerg to trade with certain Protoss compositions (i.e. cannon-storm-tempest or mass voidrays-storm-collosi). Unless some new metagame is to be invented tonight, things are looking very grim for our hero, Park Soo Ho.

As terrible as things may be, there is still one glimmer of hope: Historically, DongRaeGu has always performed best when Zerg is weakest and performed worst when it is strongest. DRG is an innovative, resourceful and very skilled player with world-class Zerg-teammates in Sniper and NAKSEO, so there is room for a miracle to happen. DRG beating Flying may be a given, considering how green Flying is to Code S, but our Zerg player's is going to need just that, a miracle, to get out of this terrifying group tonight.

---

February 26th, 2013
"No Such Thing as Three in a Row"
by Neoghaleon55

Around the same time last year, DongRaeGu had just lost two championships to his rival, MarineKing, both in the finals at MLG. Several weeks later, they met again for a third time at another MLG finals. There, DongRaeGu uttered the famous line, "there's no such thing as three in a row," after which, he took down MarineKing and ended his losing streak against the Terran player. One year later, DRG found himself in a similar predicament, having been stuck between Code A, U&D, and Code S for the last three seasons. But last night, in a similar fashion as things once were, DongRaeGu put his foot down and ended his GSL-Cyclic-Curse. For the first time in over half a year, DRG will advance directly to Code S from Code A, foregoing Up&Down matches completely. It's more than just a return to form, it's a statement that DRG isn't fooling around any longer. His place is with the best of Code S, and there, he has returned.

Although the match against Lure went 2:1 in DRG's favor, the games never really looked close. Lure, being the cerebral player that he is famous for, opted for unconventional builds: 3-base carrier rush, late 1-base-immortal-sentry-blink all-in and 2-base-phoenix-warp-prism all-in. Game 1 on Alkion Flats saw Lure taking a third base as DRG rushed speedlings to pressure his opponent. Lure defended perfectly with smart building placements and the Zerg player's attack was effortlessly deflected. At this point, DRG was behind, having invested a ton of larvae into speedlings without doing any damage while his Protoss opponent was now on even bases with him and looked completely safe. However, DRG by some mind game miracle, knew that Lure would go Stargate and immediately threw down a Hydra Den. Hydras and speedlings were at Lure's doorstep before the first carriers came out. A misplaced Artosis-Pylon near the front was sniped by DRG, unpowering all of Lure's defenses and forced the GG.

+ Show Spoiler +

In game 2 on DayBreak, DRG knew that Lure would press for a third early and thus began mass production on roaches and lings to deny it. Lure, with both robo tech and blink on the way, felt uncomfortable taking said third expansion, decided on a whim to push a very late immortal sentry all-in, backed by blink stalkers. As Lure prepared his push, DRG carelessly took a 4th as well as several macro hatches to prime for the late game. Lure's army came at an unexpected timing and took an already won game from DRG.

The rubber match of the night went to Whirlwind at cross spawn positions. Lure opened phoenix harass into zealot drops via warp-prism with +1 weapon upgrades while DongRaeGu mass speedlings on 3 bases. Normally, upgraded zealots would absolutely obliterate lings at this timing, however, DRG wisely got +1 carapace and +1 melee upgrades very early. A great mass of upgraded speedlings choked out Lure's Zealot forces, ending the attack abruptly. Lure, having done zero damage to DRG's economy and was then behind in bases (2 to DRG's 4), quickly tapped out as infestor/corruptors/mass lings swarmed over his army and defenses.

+ Show Spoiler +

The night marks the end lines in Code A for both men. One now goes to the Up&Down to await judgement, the other directly into the first Code S in Heart of the Swarm. DongRaeGu, having been sated with the results that should have been, sat quietly playing with the drinking water in his mouth.

+ Show Spoiler +

Congratz DRG!
Job well done.

---

photo thanks to ESFIworld

February 25th, 2013
Cycle
by Neoghaleon55

Here we are again, with MVPDongRaeGu in the Code A round of 24. Ever since the season where MC dethroned him as the best player in the world, DRG has been stuck in an uncomfortable GSL Cycle of losing in Code A, ravaging Up&Down, destroying Code S Ro32 then losing in Code S Ro16 to come back to code A. Today marks the third time this has happened, and if history is to repeat itself, DRG may very well be destined to end up in U&D once more.

His opponent this day is none other than fellow teammate MVPLure, a rising star in his own rights. Fresh off a huge tournament win from China in the NSL, Lure has never looked stronger (especially against Zerg) as he crushed Jaedong and EffOrt, back-to-back, in the first two rounds of Code A. Lure's play has been very cerebral; he hits sharp timings, has a very large pocket of builds, sports solid defenses and maintains a very good sense of game awareness throughout all his matches. DongRaeGu, on the other hand, has not been shy about his difficulties against the Protoss race and his practice time has been split between Heart of the Swarm and the currently played Wings of Liberty versions of the game. That, and we really haven't seen DRG vs Protoss in a long while, (since DRG vs First from the previous season of U&D) give rise to an uneasy feeling going into this match tonight.

On the flip side, one could stay that Jaedong and EffOrt are actually awful at ZvP (with Jaedong at 36% and EffOrt at an abysmal 21%), Lure has never been in Code S before but DRG's been a championship contender all his career. In StarCraft, experience certainly outweighs build order preparations. DongRaeGu once said last year before winning an MLG title that "there's no such thing as 3-in-a-row." Here's hoping that DRG can finally break his GSL-Cycle-Curse.

DongRaeGu Fighting!!

---

February 21th, 2013
The New DRG Fan Club & Week in Review
by Neoghaleon55 & TommyP

Hello everyone!! I'm proud to present to you the NEW and TOTALLY REVAMPED FAN CLUB! Besides the new color scheme, there's been many major improvements. First, I want you to go ahead and refresh the fan page at the top of your browser! See how much faster the page loads now? We've trimmed a lot of ends to keep it running smoothly and coded a lot of things differently so it will not slow down your browser as you open the front page. We will try to maintain the opening post as clean and smooth as possible from now on. So let me list the following changes and improvements:

-Button Links! Each button icon such as twitter or tlpd now link to their respective places.
-Sponsor Recognition!! We've added sponsor buttons to recognize those who financially support DRG,
again these buttons link to their respective sites.
-Smoother Interface: Pictures/fan-arts/gifs/and videos can now be viewed by just clicking on the titled icons.
-All New Banners: We all know DRG has the best smile in e-sports!
When he flashes it, it lights up the room, so most banners now feature a brimming DRG!
-Almost every section including pictures/videos/accomplishment/etc have been updated.
-Membership is now up to date!!! Sorry to Provok for taking so long to add him.
-Less Clutter: As mentioned before, the new design is to avoid clutter and slow load times.

I hope you all enjoy the new fan club and keep on supporting DRG because he <3 us.
<3


****************
Code S in Review
by TommyP
+ Show Spoiler +

**************
Aftermath and Renewal
by neoghaleon55
+ Show Spoiler +

****************

Best of luck, DRG. Keep Healthy and Happy!
Fans, keep on supporting DRG and tell him how much you like him. He enjoys that. lol.

Also give those sponsors a click, maybe leave them a message thanking them for sponsoring DRG.

---

February 6th, 2013
Charged
by Neoghaleon55


MVPDongRaeGu will light up the GSL tonight as he leads the charge into the final Code S Round of 16 in Wings of Liberty. He is scheduled to go up against 3 very accomplished Terrans in Bomber, TaeJa and INnoVation. Taeja and Bomber have been known to take series from DRG before, the most recent came from from IPL6 where Bomber defeated DongRaeGu, setting him at only top 8 of the tournament. Similarly, Taeja has been known to topple DRG over a few times, their last encounter in Season 4 of Code S 2012 ended with the Terran player's 2:0 victory. KesPa's Innovation rounds out the group and has demonstrated himself to be a very potent TvZ player, as well, incorporating a variety of build orders and timing attacks to confuse and unbalance his opposition.

During Group Selection, it was DRG who picked Bomber first and started the polymer chain of Terran players in his group. So why would DongRaeGu pit himself against people, that on a good day, could give him a run for his money? The easy answer might be that DRG's ZvT has never looked better recently and he will only need to prepare for one matchup in this group. The metagame itself is in DRG's favor as top Terran players continue to struggle against the more modern styles of Zerg which incorporates a lot of aggression. But perhaps it's something else, perhaps DRG discovered a new read on Bomber's play, or because Taeja's been slumping lately due to an injured wrist, or that Innovation was just curbstomped by him just a week ago. Whichever the reason, it must have been a very compelling, enough to give DRG the audacity to assemble arguably the toughest group in the round of 16 this season.

But regardless of how tough this group is, I believe DongRaeGu has what it takes to make it through. DRG's play has been simply electrifying as of late, his game sense has been sharp, his wits have been sharper. And when we last saw him, he looked like a man who is charged up and ready to make it to the top again. The first step begins tonight.

Keep your head cool, DRG!
Keep on cheering for him, DRG-Fans!

---

DongRaeGu Mops the Floor with Group H in GSL Round of 32!!! 4:0 !!!

February 1st, 2013
D -is for Dominance- RG
by Neoghaleon55

It seems every time we see DongRaeGu play in the last two months, he keeps getting better and better. DRG Code S performance last night continued this trend as he absolutely ravaged the group with the ferocity not seen since his reign in 2012. He first dismantled Hack in two games straight, the first was a longer macro match where DongRaeGu showed his superior control by flanking Hack with Ultralisks multiple times until dead. The second game, DRG defended Hack's 2base Maurader/Hellion/Marine All-In timing and crushed him with a counter attack. Hack looked visibly outclassed and completely lost in both games. It wasn't that the StarTale Terran player was bad, it was just that DongRaeGu was so much better that he made Hack look awful. See the carnage for yourself:

+ Show Spoiler +

Bogus was next in line for the DRG-chopping block, and he did not fare any better. In all honesty, Bogus is an extremely good Terran Player, capable of humiliating Stephano last night with a 4:1 score. However, up against DRG, he just looked like another mediocre Terran. In game 1, Bogus spread his army too thin near his 3rd expansion and was brutally punished for it by DRG's Muta/Ling/Bling army. In the second game, DongRaeGu did a 2/2 Lair Mutalisk/Ling/Baneling Timing Attack that took Bogus by surprise. With his tanks unsieged, everything just died in an instant and the KesPa Terran was forced to ceded the match to his better.

+ Show Spoiler +

Although many people are jumping the bandwagon in calling DongRaeGu's return to form a throwback to the 2012 DRG of yore, I have a different take: He's not the DRG of 2012, he's much better and here's why. The 2012 DRG was rash, impatient and was often times overconfident. The DRG of 2013 is more calm, collected and innovative. One of the critical flaws I've always attributed DRG of 2012 was that he was predictable, but he was so good compared to everyone else that it didn't matter. With the competition these days being so fierce, it has forced DRG to evolve with the times. His ability to mindgame his fellow competitors improves with each new showing and his decision making has become as wise and sharp as his well-honed skills. There was one game last night that truly showcased the NEW and IMPROVED 2013 DRG at its fullest: the DRG vs Hack game 2 on Planet S.

Now, the Marauder Hellion All-In timing with SCV pull is one of the scariest TvZ strategies in Wings of Liberty. It usually hits before Infestors come out, and without adequate splash damage (banelings just don't cut it because of the SCV and Marauders), the Zerg tend to flat out lose. Polt is notorious for beating DRG multiple times with this strategy. In the past, DongRaeGu would just idlely let all his forces die to this attack as he greedily drones. In Yesterday's match, DRG made a very keen decision that won him the game. When Hack's forces proved overwhelming, DongRaeGu backed up his roaches and PULLED HIS OWN DRONES to tank the fire. The more greedy DRG of yore would not have been able to make that call. Sure, he lost a ton of workers, but he was up a base, and Hack has just devoted a large portion of his workers to do the all-in. DongRaeGu came out ahead and took the game.

+ Show Spoiler +

DongRaeGu's 4:0 sweep last night was less of a victory over Code S Terrans and more of a Victory over his old self. It seems that he has finally conquer some of the internal demons that has haunted him since the day he lost the Busan matches. What we have left is a stronger, more disciplined and ever smiling Park Soo Ho. And that, my friends, is something to be happy about!

+ Show Spoiler +


Congratulations DRG!! Now go beat the shit out of the round of 16!

Read DRG's Winning Interview Here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=396485
TeamLiquid's Official Recap: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=396573

---

January 31st, 2013
Winter is Here
by Neoghaleon55

One year ago, during the winter of 2011-2012, DongRaeGu was slowly becoming the best player in the world. At the time, the only players to rival his prowess were MMA (who just won Blizzard Cup), MarineKing (who seems to exist solely to steal championships from DRG), NesTea (the declining King of the Zergs) and Genius (who was so good at meta-gaming DRG, he could do it in his sleep). Today, I think we can declare that Genius, Nestea and MMA are officially dead, at least in Wings of Liberty. Genius and MMA can't even make it into Code A, while Nestea seems to throw games away as if he's playing ring toss with them. Only MarineKing is still left standing, but with his awful performances from Iron Squid II (going 1:3 to Life and 0:3 to ...Nestea) and recently losing to San in IPL6 Qualifiers, his chances of winning a GSL are looking bleak.

DongRaeGu, in constrast, has continued to make himself relevant at every turn. Last weekend, he took second place to Life in Iron Squid II and just yesterday, he took first place in the IPL6 Qualifiers, earning himself a trip to Vegas and a seed into definitively the best StarLeague in the West (now that MLG has gone bonkers and NASL is in hiatus). DRG has consistently injected new strategies to the StarCraft landscape: his latest nydus worm build on DayBreak has been used by almost every Code S Zerg player in this Season. We thus have good reasons to hope that he still has what it takes to bring home another Championship before the curtain closes on Wings.

DongRaeGu's first challenge this season is to get out of his Round of 32 group which includes Bogus, Stephano and Hack. DRG will start the night defending his Code S status against Hack, who should not pose much of a problem considering that DRG absolutely murdered him just a day ago in IPL6 Qualifiers. Likewise, DRG should have an edge over Stephano, who he recently destroyed 3:0 in IronSquid II Quarter Finals. Which leaves us with Bogus... Of the KesPa players, Bogus and Soulkey seem the most intimidating at the moment. It's easy to write off Bogus as just another Terran, but he did beat Sniper last season of Code S. Luckily, the toughest match of the night will also be DRG's favorite matchup: ZvT. DRG seems more comfortable than ever fighting against Terrans, and with his newly discovered love for the BURROW Tech (which Catz and I have been railing on him for ages to research), you can count on him to put on one hell of a show.

Be strong DRG! Be resilient DRG-Fans! Now is the winter of our discontent!

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The two best Zerg players in the world.

DongRaeGu Takes Second Place in Iron Squid to Life in 3:4 Epic Finals

January 28th, 2013
Iron Squid II Finale Closure: Where We Are
by Neoghaleon55

Wars are not fought within a season, Kingdoms cannot be reclaimed within a day. At the Iron Squid Grand Finals, DongRaeGu had the chance to take down Life the Usurper once and for all, but he was once again woefully defeated by his much younger nemesis. The manner of his defeat is too painful to be described at length here. It was nonetheless, a very close finals that showed the world just how nearly matched the two best Zergs in the world are at the moment. For the time being, DongRaeGu will endure exile from the crown a while longer. And we, his loyal subjects will follow him into the waste and await the coming of our time again. As for Life, he might just be what DRG needs at the moment, a strong rival to push him forward. With MarineKing, MMA and Genius falling out of relevance, DRG will need to look to Life now for that extra kick of motivation in the road to reclaiming all that has been lost.


January 28th, 2013
Final Thoughts
by TommyP

The second chapter of Iron Squid was an amazing event. Day9 said it was the best he's ever been too. I too was absolutely loving it, until the last 4 games were played. DRG's 3-4 loss to Life was one of the most devastating I've endured in my time as a fan of DongRaeGu. Here he was, only needing to win 1 out of 4 games to win the whole tournament against the biggest threat to his zerg crown and he just could not do it. After the series, I was so upset that all I could do was stare at a wall for 10 minutes, as I was trying to refrain myself from saying something stupid on TeamLiquid and to figure out how the hell Life held that all-in. Luckily, DRG himself did not take the loss as hard as some other fans and me did and that's all that matters.

Looking back at Iron Squid, DRG had an amazing run, only dropping one map in the online portion of the tournament while he was facing the likes of GanZi, Leenock, Creator, and Stephano. DRG seemed to have a lot of fun in Paris and I hope his time there helped him become refreshed for his upcoming Code S games and he said in an interview that he just wanted to show great games and he did just that.

Looking forward, The Final Boss still has many chances to create an even bigger mark in Wings of Liberty. Another Code S champion would, in my opinion, make him the most accomplished Zerg in the history of SC2 and would give him so much momentum going into Heart of the Swarm. DRG has history on his side for this GSL season as last year he won the first season of GSL after going to a foreign tournament and placing second as Code S was playing out. So let's hope history repeats itself.

DRG FIGHTING!!

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art thanks to Nicolas Chaussois

January 25th, 2013
Iron Squid II Finale Preview: Line of Succession
by Neoghaleon55

Three Zergs, Three Ruling Lines, Three Generations. The war of succession begins in Paris this weekend as DongRaeGu, NesTea and Life battle for control over the Zerg Swarm. But before we discuss their fates in this tournament, we should harken back to how each of these men came to power. It is without a doubt the Nestea was the first supreme ruler of the Zerg race. FruitDealer, who came before him, briefly held power but it slipped from him as quickly as it had came. Nestea, however, was no one time wonder. In 2011, he took 3 GSL championships and ruled uncontested as the best Zerg player in the world for almost half the history of Wings of Libery. Nestea was a strategic mastermind. At the peak of his dominance, he would always be one step ahead of his opponent and often won matches while leaving the opposition completely bewildered. Nestea was also very good at clutch/ low-econ style of play, where he would achieve victory from seemingly unwinnable circumstances by smart usage of counter attacks, burrow play and base trade maneuvers.

But towards the end of 2011, Nestea began to show signs of decline. His once stellar plays were becoming standard in the GSL. And though Nestea continued to bring innovative builds to the table, the mechanics of the 30-year-old Zerg player never really improved to match the ever growing prowess of his peers. By early 2012, DongRaeGu overtook Nestea as the best Zerg player in the world. In a decisive match at the GSL Season 1, Round of 16 Group of Death, DRG defeated Nestea with a score of 2:1 and seized control over the swarm for the next 7 months, winning a GSL championship, and two MLG titles. DongRaeGu was a completely different beast than Nestea in terms of playstyle. Though he rarely displayed the level of ingenuity that Nestea had, DRG was mechanically superior in every way. He relied less on defensive macro styles that Nestea favored, instead, DRG was a momentum based player. He was constantly active on the map in all his games, preferring fast units that could out maneuver and flank his opponents. DRG was capable of attacking and pressuring the enemy base at multiple fronts simultaneously. His trademark mutalisk play was and remains peerless in the competitive StarCraft to this day.

DongRaeGu's slipped from power by the end of July due to several tragic losses in the finals and semifinals of major tournaments (OSL, GSL S3, GSTL 2 & 3). And though he is slowly regaining what he had lost, the throne laid bare for a period of several months (from July to October 2012). It wasn't until GSL Season 4 that Life came along and claimed the crown for himself. Life was unique from his predecessors in that he seemingly broke all the laws on how to play Zerg in StarCraft II. The Zerg ethos established by Nestea was: defend, defend, outmarco and outsmart the opponent. The ethos established by DRG was: outmaneuver and distract the opponent long enough to get a superior economy, then crush him. Life's ethos was simply: attack, as often as possible until the opponent dies. It seemingly didn't make sense for a Zerg player to favor a lower economy in order to gain more aggressive timings, but Life somehow made it work. Like DRG defeating Nestea before him, the line of succession passed on to Life when took down DRG at the BlizzardCup 2012 with a score of 3:2 to solidify his position as the apogee of the Zerg food chain. By the end of 2012, Life had claimed two GSL championships and currently holds the record high ELO in all time of StarCraft II history.

Going into the Iron Squid II, I can't help but to feel the gravity of it all as the Past, Present and Future of Zerg playstyles are about to collide to battle for supremacy. Each of these three players have a lot to prove and it's difficult to know whether Brains, Brawns or pure Savagery will define the zeitgeist of our time.

That being said, this is the DRG fan club, and I'm a firm believer in solid but sound strategies that doesn't sacrifice economy or hinge on quirky surprises, I'm going to call DRG to win it all. The crown will be reclaimed for Park Soo Ho and Iron Squid II will be the first stone that he will use to build his new kingdom.


Go DRG!!

PS. Yes, I know there's a random MarineKingPrime in the tournament also, but he hasn't convincingly won a TvZ against top end Zerg players in a long time (and these are the best of the best of them), I'm not betting things will change this weekend.

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DongRaeGu Defeats Stephano 3:0, Advances to Semifinals in Paris!!

January 14th, 2012
To Paris
by TommyP

Iron Squid Chapter 2 Quarterfinals Recap

It was a battle between two of the best zergs in Wings of Liberty history, Evil Genius' Stephano and MVP's DongRaeGu. The foreigner was no match for DongRaeGu as the series ended in a 3-0 sweep. With this victory, the MVP zerg wins a trip to Paris, France and a date with NesTea in the semifinals of Iron Squid on the 26th on January.

The first two games of the series, DRG used an awesome build, going for a quick plus one ground carapace and building a lot of lings to try and deny the third of his opponent. In the first game on Daybreak, he was successful in denying the third which lead to him gaining a large advantage. DRG then engaged extremely well and just had more than Stephano could handle.

Game 2 the strategy didn't go as planned. He was unable to deny the third and lost a lot of lings in the process. However, DRG got his infestors out faster and Stephano went for a counter attack that was unsuccessful. By the time the next battle came, DRG had a better bank, upgrades and concave which let him remake more units faster than Stephano which let him push through on the next battle.

The final game both players went hatch first. DRG attacked fairly early and traded evenly with Stephano. Stephano counter attacked and traded evenly with DRG. After the two attacks, the players had lost basically the same number of units. Both players got their thirds up, even though Stephano went muta. Stephano went for a fouth, DRG got better upgrades and more infestor energy and hit a timing right before Stephano's 4th became operational and the upgrades of Stephano finished. Stephano then gave DRG is signature "congratz."

Semifinals Preview: MVPDongRaeGu vs. LG-IM NesTea

NesTea advanced to Paris for the second time in a row while this will be DRG's first time. They will play each other for a chance to play MKP or Life in the finals of the second Iron Squid. These are the two best zergs to play the game and every time they play, amazing games are sure to be played and judging from their twitters and the HotS Invitational, they seem to be very good friends.

What makes this really exciting is that they haven't played in such a long time (not counting HotS matches) because NesTea fell off the face of the earth for a couple months and he is looking to be in great shape at the moment.

Prediction: I don't know if its Bo5 or Bo7 so I'll give two predtions.

Bo5: DRG 3-1
Bo7: DRG 4-2

Fun Facts:

1. With DRG's win over Stephano today, he guaranteed himself $2,500 from Iron Squid which will put him over $200,000 in Wings of Liberty from tournaments.

2. DRG has only dropped one map the whole tournament (When Creator Soul pushed him on Daybreak

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DongRaeGu Defeats Creator 3:1, Advances to Quarter Finals of Iron Squid II

January 13th, 2012
Hot Streak
by TommyP

Round of 16 Recap: DRG v. Creator

MVPDongRaeGu continued his hot streak and defeated Creator Prime 3-1 in Iron Squid: Chapter 2, Round of 16. Game 1 was a very standard game where it seems Creator may have missed a 3 base timing and DRG just had a better army by the time Creator tried to attack.

In game 2, DRG essentially maxed out on lings super quickly and when Creator attacked and was in the process of killing DongRaeGu's third, he took his over 100 lings and ran them into the natural of Creator. Creator, now on one base, pushed through to the natural of DRG and killed it of as well. Infestors came out at the perfect time, DRG pulled his drones and attacked with everything he had and barely killed off the army of the Prime Protoss. DRG managed to sneak an expansion in the top left of the map. His economy and tech was much better and he ran his lings and infestors into Creator's natural and killed him.

Creator pulled through in game 3 using the now less common Soul push. DRG knew it was coming, he tried to bait out forcefield and pick off units. He did just that, however he lost way to much of his army doing it and the all-in came and it could not be stopped.

DRG clinched the series in game 4 on the zerg favored map of Abysal City. DRG cancelled the third of Creator at least twice and this game his tech of choice was Spire. He built a hefty Mutalisk flock and when Creator attacked, DRG went for the base race and as a Protoss you don't want to be base trading against Muta/Ling. Both killed basically all the buildings of their opponents and both tried to expand. DRG was successful in expanding twice with his mobile army, Creator could not leave his expansion. Creator knew he had lost and GG'd thus DRG had eliminated him and advanced to the round of 8.

Round of 8 Preview: DRG v. Stephano

Next for DongRaeGu is EG.Stephano.RC. The Frenchmen will no doubt want to make the offline event in Paris and this match decides who will go. Stephano struggles with ZvZ compared to his other match ups, but he recently beat DRG in the World Championships. These two don't have much history together outside of that, so that makes this series all that more interesting. This is the best foreign player in WoL history versus arguably the best zerg in WoL history. DongRaeGu is the favorite, but Stephano can beat anyone.

One big concern for both of these players is that the Iron Squid Semis and Finals are held on the 26th in France and the Code S Round of 32 starts on the 22nd of January and ends on the 2nd of Febuary (no games are played the 26th, 27th and 28th though.) So I hope GOM lets those in the final four have good dates to play their games.

Prediction:DongRaeGu will win 3-1 and advance to the offline event in Paris, France held on the 26th of January.

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DongRaeGu 4:1 Up & Down Group, Advances to Final Wings of Liberty Code S

January 8th, 2013
The State of DRG
by Neoghaleon55

MVPDongRaeGu left many fans yearning for more when he departed Blizzard Cup a bit sooner than expected late last year. The state of DRG after the Blizzard Cup was then left uncertain. On the one hand, DongRaeGu continued to lay waste to top end professionals such as IMmvp, Leenock and HerO, on the other, he was losing to people like YoDa at IPL5 and Noblesse in Code A. With that in mind, many felt unsure whether DongRaeGu was ready to make it to another season of Code S, let alone a GSL finals. Last night in the Up & Down Groups of this season's GSL, DongRaeGu resoundingly reminded people that he is still the final boss of the competitive scene and that naysayers should return to the dark cold corners from whence they came. The solid performance ending with a score of 4:1 has earned DRG a spot in the final Code S tournament featuring Wings of Liberty. Dropping only one game to a hidden Roach/Baneling bust from LosirA, DongRaeGu displayed his dominate style of play the entire night and was every bit the menace he once was at the start of 2012. He out macro'd Grubby and Bbyong (not surprisingly) while picking apart First with smart engagements and precise ling/infestor timings. The match of the night, however, belonged to DRG vs Symbol, with Symbol opening 10 pool - 1 base baneling bust against DRG's 14 pool, 16 hatch. Forced to have his hatchery canceled, DongRaeGu put up 2 defensive spines in his main to cover his drones. Symbol continued to pressure DRG's main until a rogue squad of banelings detonated on DRG's drones killing off eight. The worker count swung wildly into Symbol's favor 11: 9. However, DongRaeGu retained his two queens and spines, while Symbol was left with little defenses and zero queens. As the zergling speed upgrade kicked in for both players, DongRaeGu was able to pressure symbol more heavily and got ahead with a ling/baneling bust of his own.

+ Show Spoiler +

The attack was greatly successful as DongRaeGu killed off all of Symbol's queens and a ton of drones. DRG took a 4th while massing infestor/roaches and hydralisks at symbol's front door, blockading him from taking an expansion. The two traded several times until Symbol's production collapsed from a poor economy. DongRaeGu smiled and chewed his gum as the Code S position landed on his lap. The state of DRG: Outstanding!

+ Show Spoiler +

Welcome back to Code S, DRG!

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January 7th, 2013
2013: A New Beginning
by TommyP

Group C is finally here. The group consists of Symbol, Grubby, Bbyong, LosirA, his teammate First and of course, DongRaeGu. DRG's fans have been waiting for this moment since his abrupted end in the Blizzard Cup 2012. If he plays even remotely close to how he did in the Blizzard Cup he should advance with ease. Tonight will decide DRG's fate (unless he gets third.) Should DRG go to Code A, he might as well start playing some Heart of the Swarm because all he has left is Iron Squid and IPTL. Should DRG advance to Code S, he has a chance to grab a 2nd Code S title which, in my opinion, would cement him as the best WoL zerg.

Prediction:
DRG to Code S
First to Code S

Symbol goes to Wildcard

Read TeamLiquid Official Preview Here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=392111

Make sure to check out our new DRG-Blog Here: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=392146