The Stephano Fan Club - Page 715

On May 12 2013 03:02 m0ck wrote:
On balance: Hellbats are stupid, but I don't think we can blame today on balance. Mostly bad decisions (/no decisions) by Stephano after he put himself in favorable positions.

What the successful Korean zergs do is to "bust or die". I think Stephano will need to be more directly aggressive in his play in the current format of TvZ. If you play for the standard macro-game, terran will have a pretty big advantage.

On the EIZO-cup forfeit: I really don't like to see it, I think he should have more consideration for the organizers, but what can you do (and what do we know?)? The heart wants what the heart wants, and sometimes it wants to get fucked up the day before a tournament. Borderline self-harming behavior from Stephano is part of his charm if you like him, and, I'm guessing, the opposite if you don't.

On May 12 2013 05:30 The_Darkness wrote:

Soulkey and co look very strong against bio-mine, whether they bust or not, so strong recently that I'm mildly fearful on behalf of Terran players (other than Flash and Innovation) since I dont want to see a return of pure Zerg domination in Korea. They do go for a lot of busts but they're also simply able to outmicro the mines so that they're doing quite a bit of friendly fire damage. The sort of finesse you need to play against that style is probably easier to achieve if you play 12 or so hours a day than if you're following a nonKESPA training schedule, and vastly easier than if your nearly sole means of practice is when you stream, as in Stephano's case. I feel like foreigners are about 2 to 3 months behind the very best Koreans so once they get a little more experience with dealing with mines we'll see a very even zvt matchup, which is what we see now in Korea -- actually I believe the MU is actually zerg-favored at the moment, something like 55-45 counting the Proleague and GSL.

Today, Stephano was clearly way off his game. He generally deals with bio mine fairly well. I don't think he needs to go for a bust oriented style since his late game is and always has been very good, although obviously he should occasionally use such tactics (as he did in WOL). I'll reserve judgment until I see him play under slightly better conditions.

As an aside, he needs to get his act together. EG seems to be cracking down a bit. It would be a shame to lose a 100K a year salary because you don't behave like a professional or because, through a lack of preparation and training, you simply aren't very good or relevant any more.

On May 12 2013 06:50 m0ck wrote:

I don't really think we disagree all that much, but you're jumping to some pretty wild conclusions..

First of, hellbats have been used to a much larger degree outside SK than inside it. It's really only in the last week or two that they've made a mark in SK. I don't think foreign players are "behind" (in the sense of figuring the game out) so much as generally just weaker mechanically than the the pretty extreme level of the cream of the crop of the ESF players and the Kespa invasion.

Second, seriously, take a look at how the majority of the Z games are won. Symbol is the prime example. Bust or die trying. That doesn't mean that it's the only viable way of achieving success, and busts can take many forms and different levels of thought and execution, but it has been the path most traveled. We've had about a week of solid Z success after a pretty dire period, particularly outside SK. You are very quick to conclude that SK terrans other than Innovation and Flash are in trouble. Gumiho, for instance, most likely lost his match against KangHo because he forgot to stim at a key moment.

I think busts will very much have to be part of the arsenal of Z players in the future. It exploits weak points in the heavy/greedy macro-mode of mmmm(h). If you simply play towards the late-game, you're at a disadvantage as a zerg player. The tech most obvious for fighting the mobile mmmm(h) forces, ultras, are pretty weak when attacking into entrenched positions (which can make it hard to capitalize on an advantage in the late-game). The siege-units, BLs and burrow-BLs, are very exploitable because of their immobility. Better to kill T off early.

As for Stephano and EG and irrelevance and that old song.. Really?

Irrelevant for what, exactly? WCS EU? Not a chance. Even on an off-day like today, Stephano is still the Z-player to beat. Irrelevant for winning code S? At the moment, yes. It's obvious that he still has a lot of stuff to figure out, and the Kespa-players have heightened the level of competition in SK to a pretty extreme degree. But then, he's not in SK, so what does it matter?

Our expectations of Stephano are insane. If he isn't the best foreigner, we consider him to be in a slump. What SK player do we hold to a similar standard? But Stephano didn't dominate the foreign scene from the beginning of WoL. I don't think it's unreasonable to think he might need a period of digestion of the game to reach that level. If he could eradicate some of his bad old habits (like, say 1. have a bloody OL covering the giant blind spot in your main when you play Whirlwind, 2. scout/actively figure out what your opponent is doing when you're playing ZvZ, so that you don't lose your grip on so many favorable positions in them) at the same time, well, that would be swell.

On May 14 2013 00:25 Sivir wrote:
Hey Stephano lovers. I'm trying to get to VODS of Steph playing SPL and Code S. I will be eternaly greatful if you provide me links to it, or at least brackets of all his official games. Please please please please please please please please please.

On May 14 2013 03:57 christophequirion wrote:
he just said there he will retired on August 15th.