Stephano was showing an almost patch 1.6 (assuming the next patch nerf's infestors as expected) play style relying on so few infestors (relative to Life, Leenock, sniper, etc) and demonstrating that he can still basically make it work against even top tier Terrans (which Bomber is when he's playing well).
Stephano is the ultimate non-patch zerg. He doesn't abuse creep spread, do six queen openings, or crank out 15 infestors, and he often still builds roaches early. On the one hand this means his zvt is not as strong IMO as Leenock's or Life's at the moment. On the other hand, when Zerg gets nerfed, whether it be to queen range, fungal growth, or whatever, it's basically not going to impact him.
It bears noting that this win is coming on the heels of another two week long vacation from SC2. If he ever starts practicing consistently again, he will make another run at the best player in the world title.
Stephano takes up the hunt for being the player with highest prize money earnings in 2012 (/most successful player of 2012?)
DRG 1th $128,748 Stephano 2th place $127,995 MC 3th $118,688
No one else is close, with the number of tournaments left that Stephano is seeded in it is almost guaranteed that he becomes the "most successful" player of 2012. If DRG had gone on to round of 8th in GSL he would still had a good chance but now Stephano seems prone to take it.
On November 13 2012 04:35 zedrOne wrote: if Life win another GSL ? will he beat stephano in earning ?
Hmm. Does Life have any other prize money under his name? Or is it just MLG and GSL? If it's just MLG and GSL 4, he'll be at about USD110k if he wins GSL 5 as well.
On November 13 2012 04:35 zedrOne wrote: if Life win another GSL ? will he beat stephano in earning ?
No probably not, sc2earnings seemed to have gone down in this very moment. I believe I am innocent ^^
I think GSL championship is about ~40k if I remember correctly and Life is just above 70k now, so he would still miss the mark with some margin.
It is very likely that you will need to have at least 135-140k by the end of the year for 1th place. As DRG have a another ~3k not accounted for in that number and their are at least 5-6 major tournaments left in 2012.
On November 13 2012 04:53 Nelz wrote: WCS final has 100K for the winner, so clearly the winner should be first at the end of the year, especially if it's Stephano.
That tournament is actually pretty insane so you have a point that the player that wins WCS might become the highest prize earner of 2012. Not necessarly though as I mentioned in the post above you will probably need at least around 135-140k and most players attending WCS have not earned 40k in 2012.
On the other hand has several of the tops dogs done that, Rain, Creator, Nerchio so I guess we will have to wait and see. Rain in particular is a big "threat". I think he is the favorite to take WCS over all and on top of that is he in a easy group with Insur, Mafia and Babyknight. Anything else then first place would be an upset. If so he will meet the second place player of group E, which is Stephanos group. Taking first place in group E to avoid Rain early on is pretty important in other words.
If Rain takes the title he would get a total of 168000$ prize earnings 2012, making him a strong contester for the most successful player 2012.
Hehe a lot of speculation here, but it is kind entertaining, mind candy ^^
He should have a decent shot at the group and the title, but I can't help thinking that fatigue might start playing a part. Korea->Europe->USA->China->Europe->USA is his travel-schedule from the end of October to the end of November.
On November 13 2012 06:10 m0ck wrote: He should have a decent shot at the group and the title, but I can't help thinking that fatigue might start playing a part. Korea->Europe->USA->China->Europe->USA is his travel-schedule from the end of October to the end of November.
Does anyone knows if Stephano goes to wildcards in NASL4? It seems he barley missed the cut...
edit: he still has to play his match against MMA, a 0-2 would eliminate him and a 1-2 would put him in a 3 way tie with Puma and Ryung for the two remaining seeds of the wildcards.
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.dreamhack.se/dhw12/files/2012/11/eizo_open_dhw12_promo_slide_1-2.jpg)
