The Stephano Fan Club - Page 624

On November 24 2012 00:47 Vanadiel wrote:
The way he was playing remines me of him facing Violet at an MLG final while being hangover, it's not a question of practice as some said but just his mechanics were sloppy, missed a lot of inject, way too much supply block. I feel like he must be either really tired (France -> Lone Star Clash -> WCS - > Dreamhack is a lot of travell), or the one month ban and all the drama really broke him and his motivation to continue playing.

On November 24 2012 01:01 The_Darkness wrote:


I think that Stephao's current slight downturn probably stems from a combination of the factors you mentioned but don't you think that practice significantly impacts mechanics? The KESPA zergs (SoO, JD, Soulkey, etc.) pretty much without exception have better mechanics than everyone else at this point, except perhaps for Hyun, who might as well be considered a KESPA zerg. They have such great mechanics presumably from practicing 12 hours a day, whereas from what I understand even the ESF zergs (let alone foreign zergs) do not put in such long days. This isn't to say they're better (yet), since they're clearly not, but their creep spread, overlord spread, injects, etc. are already basically the best in the business.

To Stephano -- better luck at IPL5.

On November 24 2012 01:14 Vanadiel wrote:
I don't really think so, you don't need to play a lot (for a Zerg player) to maintain your mechanics at the same level, and it shouldn't take a lot of time to recover your normal level if you stopped playing for a while. Practice is more about learning new play style, how to play against new build ( new mech style, 7 gates robo...) and new build for different match up, how to transition from it and so on. Really sloppy play like he show today seems to be for me more like a lack of focus while playing, either because he's too tired, or he is not 'in the game'. He never had godly mechanics because he always had focus on better micro and army control, but the way he was playing the past few tourneys was worse than average, and it keeps getting worse as time goes on.

I wish him best nevertheless!

On November 24 2012 01:46 The_Darkness wrote:


I was a masters zerg (until switching to Terran) and my mechanics would suffer when I didn't play for a few days; I can't imagine I'm alone. Nevertheless, I agree that mechanics are surely not the entire story and focus probably plays a part (although it can be hard to distinguish a lack of focus from a lack of practice, since practicing and getting in the habit of doing something means you're less likely to miss a drop, an inject, etc.). However I disagree that his mechanics weren't some of the best around when he was at the top of his game. An example:
When he was in the midst of his 90%+ EU ladder run, I remember seeing a game where he lost his third because of cannons (not cancelled), built 6 initial lings (instead of the more economical two lings), had to take a third at a weird location his third, snuck a couple lings into the Protoss natural and because of cannon positioning had to spend a lot of time microing them around and still managed to almost max out (192 / 192, IIRC) at around 11:50. You need flawless mechanics to do that. I haven't studied this systemically but there's been a drop in his overall level of play (including mechanics) and I have to imagine a primary reason is a lack of practice.

I think Stephano will turn it around. He has too much talent not to. There was a really good interview in French (from this year) where he was asked about his future and he said that it would be hard to walk away, at this point, from e-sports. I think he's in it for the (relatively) long haul, which makes me happy and optimistic that he'll eventually start streaming and practicing regularly again. I should also note that Stephano more than any other pro-gamer I feel has the ability to exceed expectations, so who knows? Maybe he wins IPL5.

On November 24 2012 01:27 vthree wrote:


No, SoO, JD, Soulkey still have issue with mechanics at this point. Kespa zergs suck atm.

On November 24 2012 01:50 vthree wrote:


Sorry, stream is practice is pretty much mutually exclusve at the top levels.. You just cannot stream AND practive your refine builds...

On November 23 2012 20:37 RaelSan wrote:


That's ridiculous, you gotta have respect for progamers, and I will even say that some have to work very hard to get low results, but saying that "Being a progamer is way more difficult than most anything else you could do" is stupid, especially if you refer to Stephano who DOES NOT train 8 hours a day ( and even if he was, still more fun than working with your hands or dozens of other hard jobs ) and earns a bit less than 8k $ a month only in salary with possibilities to earn dozens of thousands thanks to pure and raw talent.

But I guess it couldn't last, the lack of training just catched up to Stephano, or for some reason he lost his powers ( for me it is clear that something has changed in his play, just like if something had clouded his fabulous decision making and his ability to take crazy engagements )

It is extremely painful for me to see him like that, I always thought Stephano would never be in a slump, because it just wasn't the way he is, but here we are, and I'm not giving up on him.

Are you ?

On November 24 2012 02:19 DanLee wrote:

Pro starcraft2 player hardest job.

On November 24 2012 02:25 RaelSan wrote:


You must be trolling..

On November 24 2012 02:04 m0ck wrote:
Our expectations of Stephano are so high, he's been the best foreign player for what seems like forever, always pulling through and always placing in the top of every tournament. But, like in every other sport, players go through patches of good and bad form. It has happened to everyone else but Stephano, and now finally we see that he is also mortal. It will be interesting to see how he reacts, hopefully it will motivate him for a period of practicing to improve.

The harder the fall, the sweeter the rise ^^