I think it means something because you are playing the best players at your level.

Now if Stats is ranked 30th that by no means suggests he is only the 30th best player in Korea but it also tells us he has not been in top form. The top 50 players in the korean ladder are the same players you play in tournament.

Fango

United Kingdom8987 Posts

June 01 2017 10:37 GMT

#3343

On June 01 2017 01:17 Rolltide wrote:
Stats in streaming s I write this. Cool.

Stats is only 30th ranked in GM ladder. So perhaps for the last 40% of the year Zest is poised to make his move as the world's best Protoss.

Perhaps an SoS 2015 type run is in order. SoS got hot, barely qualified for blizzcon and won it all.

sOs has a habit of end-of-the-year runs to try qualify for blizzcon. Still waiting for it this year

Lil_nooblet

United States459 Posts

June 03 2017 16:20 GMT

#3344

Zest is number 2 on the ladder right now (although a few people left league but still). He's been practicing like a mad man on stream the last week. I think he will do a lot better in the 2nd half of this year if he keeps practicing like this

Sakat

Croatia1599 Posts

June 04 2017 15:53 GMT

#3345

I am unable to watch the stream... what does Zest look like? In his play I mean

BeaTeR

Kazakhstan4130 Posts

June 04 2017 18:33 GMT

#3346

looks like he will play alive in 10 minutes
some online tourney

Fango

United Kingdom8987 Posts

June 04 2017 19:01 GMT

#3347

zest just took the worst engagement I've ever since 2014 when he died to True's slow ling surround.......

edit: okay he still won the game, vs aLive btw

BeaTeR

Kazakhstan4130 Posts

June 04 2017 19:10 GMT

#3348

On June 05 2017 04:01 Fango wrote:
zest just took the worst engagement I've ever since 2014 when he died to True's slow ling surround.......

edit: okay he still won the game, vs aLive btw

agree
walking his entire land army into a bunch of liberation zones was painful to watch

Fango

United Kingdom8987 Posts

June 04 2017 19:19 GMT

#3349

He 2-0'd aLive but didn't look convincing doing it

Lil_nooblet

United States459 Posts

June 04 2017 19:55 GMT

#3350

On June 05 2017 04:19 Fango wrote:
He 2-0'd aLive but didn't look convincing doing it

A month ago he would have never 2-0'd aLive so it's better than nothing.

Rolltide

United States447 Posts

June 05 2017 05:52 GMT

#3351

It was very impressive his win over Alive. His defense was very solid, He only took one bad engagement and he was not aggressive enough after winning an engagement in game 2.

Still Alive is a top 10 player this year and did not play badly at all and Zest beat him 2X in macro games. No cheese, no DTs!

The best indication he is back is his defense. He made Alive pay for his attacks but nailing medivacs with Phoenix and Stalkers and had good angles for his army at home and quick recognition. Reminded me of his win over Innovation in Katovice in 2015.

Note that Zest had streamed live playing game after game on ladder for 7 hours just before his match which took place in the middle of the night Korean time. During the stream he won about 60% of his games. He was sharp and in condition and motivated.

He plays Elazer in a semi today. I think he's going to win this.

He's back!

Rolltide

United States447 Posts

June 05 2017 06:08 GMT

#3352

The match vs Innovation in 2015 bears some similarity and it is a favorite of mine. Zest had been having a bad year. He was eliminated in GSL group by lessor players. Here he was in IEM Katovice playing better but in the eyes of the "experts" still struggling. He beats Hydra 3-2 in a really close match to make the final 8. Innovation beat Life.

Going into that match Innovation was the big favorite and Zest beat him and went on to win the whole tournament.

Now this was HOTS not LOTV so no adepts. But what i remember most was Innovation's difficulty having successful drops into Zest's main 2 bases early in games. Zest had perfect positioning of his army and perfect instincts for where Innovation would try drop. Todd doing the match once said "He's a genius!"

His defense vs Alive reminded me of tht match.

Fango

United Kingdom8987 Posts

June 05 2017 12:24 GMT

#3353

I'm not saying it wasn't an impressive win. But not exactly the most convincing either. I can't bring myself to say he's back in top form if his control is looking like that