EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/SilverskY/BackseatBroodwar.jpg)
It's finally ready! Thanks Silversky
We're back, sportsfans, and what better way to begin this roundup than to talk about stuff that went down today? Love it or hate it, IEF is one of the rare opportunities where the foreign and Korean Broodwar communities get to meet and mingle, and if the news trickling in from Suwon is anything to go by, mingle (and might we add, massacre) they did. While some big upsets did go down at the event, the highlight for us here at TL was watching our own Chill and Midian take to the stage and win some games.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/riptide/misc/ief_chill.jpg)
Seen here at IEF, Chill takes a break from the games to read the ZvP imba thread in total.
Actually, what on earth is going on over at IEF? Just have a look at some of these results; G5 > Boxer, White-Ra > Boxer, PJ > Effort, Jaystar > Bisu?? There are some seriously mucked up things going on over there. We'll have to wait until our on ground correspondents to fill us in on what is actually going on over there before we jump to conclusions. Anyway, the top four ended up being Idra, Terror, Stork and PJ with most of the elimination bracket to be played out tomorrow.
Foreign SC has never been something we've focused a lot on here at TL. In general, our coverage teams focus exclusively on Korean Broodwar. Just because we don't cover the little foreign tourneys though doesn't mean that we aren't interested in non-Korean Starcraft. No, we do think that tournaments outside Korea can be pretty awesome if run well. In fact, a while ago we ran the biggest one ever, had a ball doing it.
Wishful thinking aside though, the next week is going to be pretty sparse as far as Proleague goes. With four teams having a rest week (we sometimes wish we had a rest week), the lineups are noticeably bland when compared to the rare dynamite we experienced in the last few days, and OSL and MSL notwithstanding our calendar would have ended up looking at least a little bare. However, thanks to Day[9].tv, our events list is looking a lot more interesting. Armed with years of Broodwar experience and a passion for casting, Day[9] joined staff this week as a part of an ongoing effort to rid the world of bad strategical advice. Joining Chill and the Liquipedia team on the mission to rid the world of faulty build orders and bad timings, Sean will be continuing his strategy casts while helping around the house with a few other projects. Glad to have you Day - it's about time!
OK, enough home and home news - let's look at Seoul.
There is a buzz lingering around the proscene at the moment around the little Zerg that couldn’t, but now can. Of course, we're talking about SKT1’s pride and joy – HyuK. HyuK has been doing phenomenally well this season – defeating the likes of Jaedong and Effort which allowed SKT to roll over Hwaseung and CJ with a cool 3-0. So what’s the deal with HyuK? Why is there so much hype? Basically the hype comes from the fact he is able to pull off key victories in ZvZ and his winrate has been amazing over the past two months. Awesome.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/hyuk.jpg)
Hyuked
But really, Is all this hype justified? Backseat Broodwar is proud to reveal that no, the hype is not justified. What we have here is the perfect conditions for HyuK to survive. The heavy bias towards Zerg in the map pool results in a lot of ZvZs being played in proleague. That means that he’s pretty much exclusively playing ZvZ – which he happens to be good at (the kid has some pretty sick Mutalisk control). Couple that with Jaedong making some key mistakes against him and Hyuk making the MSL, you have the illusion that Hyuk has suddenly become something great over night.
Actually, let’s take a look at his MST run. He defeated Backho on Byzantium – which has terrible Z>P bias, 25-14 in favour of Zerg to be precise. And as we all know, Backho isn’t exactly known for his PvZ (despite putting up a good show against Calm). He then lost to Hwasin, in a pretty poor game to be blunt. Then caught a break with hitting Hoejja on the river, which allowed him to abuse his insanely good ZvZ to get through to the MSL.
Hyuk, as far as we are concerned, is a one matchup wonder catching a break with a good set of Zerg maps which is allowing him to hit lots of Zerg – boosting his streakiness. The moment he hits a decent Protoss (on a semi balanced map) or a half-way competent Terran Hyuk is done for. If you try to make a case that his ZvP is good – then just look at his games compared to other Zergs, they’re not that impressive and the single biggest reason why he’s scraping by in that matchup is because of the maps and Zergling runbys.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/shine2.jpg)
Shine demands attention!
The hype has been misplaced, and a truly talented Zerg is emerging but has been clouded by waves of “ZvP imba” threads. The hype HyuK is receiving rightfully belongs with Shine. Yes, this WeMade Fox Zerg is the next big up and comer for the swarm. If you want to talk about streaks – look at Shines prelims results; he lost a single game and qualified for both the OSL Round 1 and the MST. Furthermore, he went on to qualify for both the OSL and MSL – the one of three people to do so so far (others are in both leagues, but are there because of seeding and whatnot. Hwasin and Stork are the other peeople to qualify into both).
Maybe you want to make a case that Shine too is abusing ZvZ and the good maps vs Protoss. This is completely not the case. Sure there may have been some help from the maps when he was able to overcome Bisu in the OSL – but the bottom line is that Shine’s games there were impressive, maps or not. Furthermore, he played pretty damn well against Really and put up some impressive games. While he hasn’t faced any serious ZvZ competition recently, he is 16-7 all time vs Zerg which is pretty damn good.
Let’s look at the MSL – he came up against Light on Byzantium first up. Now, Byzantium is a pretty terrible map so far as balance goes, its 22-30 in favour of Terran over Zerg. With that said, Shine took it to Light and in a long drawn out close game, Shine came off second best. Taking the loss in his stride, he then proceeded to decimate Skyhigh with perfect Mutalisk control on Heartbreak (perfectly balanced TvZ by the way) and then defeated Violet using a brilliant combination of Parasite and Broodling. Indeed, the Shine/Violet game is one of the best games this year and shows exactly why Shine has so much potential.
Just watch over the coming weeks as the OSL and MSL truly start to get going and Hyuk’s luck starts to run out and Shine makes it through to the next level. You heard it here first in Backseat Broodwar.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/shine.png)
Shine - Self-portrait
Another things which ticked off the Backseat Broodwar ‘omfg imba’ alarm is the use of Recall in PvT. Now I (Plexa) am a Protoss player. I love Arbiters a bit more than your average joe. Indeed, I would go as far as to say they are my favourite unit in all of Broodwar. But there is something devastatingly wrong when 2 Recalls can completely turn the tide of a game. Three examples of this in the past week – Jaehoon vs Firebathero, Pusan vs Mind and Guemchi vs Hwasin.
Let’s look at Jaehoon vs Firebathero first. Now this is an outstanding game, and we’ll be recommending it below, but let’s look at the bit that important to the discussion. Firebathero has a huge advantage and is pushing hard into Jaehoons natural. He has got Jaehoon completely contained – and disallowed him to take a 2nd expansion. With two bases each, Firebathero has an economic advantage in addition to his positional advantage. Furthermore, the players have about even supply which means, once again, that Firebathero has the advantage. The only thing going for Jaehoon is that he has Arbiter tech – so he’s got the Tech advantage.
Then what happens? Jaehoon recalls one group of units into Firebathero’s main and completely turns the tide of the game. The strength of this recall was in the fact that FBH’s units were all dedicated to the contain and the map (Eye of the Storm) is a massive map meaning the units took ages to get back. Jaehoons units destroy FBH’s main and give Jaehoon a massive advantage. Now Jaehoon being Jaehoon, he fumbles away the advantage and loses anyway – but the point is the power of that single Recall was incredible – more powerful than a nuke that’s for sure. Surely there is something wrong here?
Example 2: Pusan vs Mind. This one actually starts out differently. Pusan has a pretty good advantage over Mind on Heartbreak Ridge. He decides to go recalling but his first recall recalls right into a huge bunch of mines and his army is obliterated. Pusan is now significantly behind in units and Mind pushes out as we expected him to do. Pusan can barely fend off Mind – and Mind uses this to solidify his economic position. Then what happens? Pusan recalls into Minds main – avoiding mines this time – and takes control of the game. Pusan rides this to victory. Mind couldn’t get back to defend in time since the map is so large, and his army all the way out defending his expansions. Again, recall is the game breaking move.
One more example, albeit not the best example! Guemchi is basically lost against Hwasin who has simply dominated him throughout the game, and the series. A last ditch recall by Guemchi deals a disproportionate amount of damage to Hwasin’s main. The map is El Nino, so again the map is quite large, so Hwasin can’t get back to defend in time. Despite doing lots of damage, once Guemchi’s units are dead his economy is so bad he can’t fight Hwasin anymore and he taps out. The point to this example is the disproportionate amount of damage that a recall can do.
Recall is being employed incredibly effectively recently. And the single biggest reason why is because the maps are designed in such a way that it takes a long time for a Terran’s army to come home and save the Terrans main from annihilation.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/recall.jpg)
Protoss imba imho
Terrans are playing this wrong – especially when they have many expansions on the map. Now let us take you back to a time when Arbiters were first coming to prominence – these were the days of R-Point and Forte, and when Pusan/Stork/Anytime were answering the newly invented fd build. On R-Point, especially during its later life, when PvT went to the late game you typically saw the map split in half with the Protoss going Arbiters with a heavy ground army, and the Terran maxing out to 200/200 with 3-3. Two things regularly happened;
1) The Protoss would recall and the Terran would defend
2) The Protoss would recall and the Terran would counter
Very simple options. However, in the case of (1) more often than not the Protoss player would win whereas in the case of (2) the Terran player would more than likely win.
When a Protoss recalls he is dedicating a large portion of his army to the attack so what he needs to do with that recall, really, is stall for time (and do damage in the process). When a Terran retreats to defend the recall the Protoss breathes a sigh of relief as he now has about 1 minute to rebuild his army and charge at the Terran again. We cannot stress enough how important time is when recalls are used.
Now, if the Terran instead decides to counter attack what happens? Well the Protoss has not successfully stalled for time, and the Recall has basically split his army in half. Since the Terran has not split his army – he can roll over half the Protoss army easily – and then move on to take out the production facilities. This is risky, and you commit to an elimination race, but the very fact that the Protoss has split his army when recalling gives you the edge when you attack. Furthermore, when you do end up fighting the recalled units (after you’ve ploughed each other’s mains) you will have the advantage since you have a concentrated army vs half an army.
Terran players are reacting wrong. On large maps you give the Protoss too much time to recover if you try to defend – what you really want to be doing is counter attacking. If Mind had decided to counter attack against Pusan – the game probably would have ended right then and there. If Firebathero had pushed all in to Jaehoons natural he probably would have taken the game right there and then. Maybe Hwasin did play it right thought in defending, but nevertheless, counterattacking would have also resulting in Guemchi conceding.
So please Terran’s in Korea. Realise that if a Protoss recalls you, a counter attack is probably the better option. At the very least, you’ll produce an entertaining game.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/savior.jpg)
Back and still a badass
What else is new this week? Actually, that’s put very badly, since what’s new this past week has been old. Titans of old have returned to the forefront of Progaming once again. Savior has just coasted into the MSL going 2-0 over han and Upmagic. Sure Zerg have been getting a boost lately, but Savior back in the MSL makes it seem like everything is right with the world once again. Oh and the way Savior handled UpMagic’s proxy barracks was brilliant – it was cool, calm, collected and effective. Full credit to Savior for that excellent defence.
Boxer has also returned to the limelight after he annihilated Killer with Nuclear warheads. Ho ho ho, yes, that is a game that should be mandatory viewing for any fan of Progaming. Indeed, it is linked and recommended below. Stork went up against Gorush on Outsider – for the first time since their amazing encounter on Neo Requiem in the SKY 05 Proleague Playoffs. Their encounter was also a great game, but also brought back memories from yesteryear. If you haven’t watched Stork vs Gorush on Requiem yet, here’s the vod.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPoMIn8WBHw&feature=player_embedded
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/hwaseunghouse.jpg)
By Sadistx
So there is one last issue that we really need to touch on here, and that's the issue of Hwaseung and Jaedong. After the FA crisis its perfectly reasonable to assume that the Hwaseung management crew realised how fickle their relationship with Jaedong actually is and how dependent they are on him. That and the many statements Jaedong's parents made about Jaedong being overworked. Their response this season? Work on the rest of the team so that Hwaseung is no longer a one man team. As a result we've seen them put out Perfectman and Killer in the lineup over ggaemo and Backho to get them experience and, hopefully, results.
Now another consequence of this decision is that Jaedong isn't playing Hwaseungs Aces anymore. What? Hwaseung, you realise that him not playing pretty much means you're going to be losing games, right? As a result, Hwaseung just lost to ACE of all teams. Indeed, the decision to not play Jaedong annoys anyone with Jaedong on their fantasy team which in turn, hurts the Hwaseung fan base.
Unfortunately Hwaseung fans, Backseat Broodwar approves with the Hwaseung managements Coaching strategy in this case. The fact they are losing games are just growing pains that the team has to go through if it wants to be competitive down the line. This is a strategy designed to have payouts in the long term, and thus in six months time they will still be a force, even if Jaedong slumps, since they are going to have players with experience in high pressure situations.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/Backseat_Broodwar/killer.jpg)
The future of Hwaseung - believe it!
Furthermore, this strategy has been employed before by some of the best coaches in the business. Particularly, Coach Ha of MBC (then Pirates of Space) in 2005. POS where one game away from making the playoffs, literally, and instead of playing Pusan or July who would have pretty much guaranteed victory for the team, the played Sea in the Ace match. This isn't Sea the beast we know and love, but rather Sea the inexperienced 15 year old gamer - and he was put out in the most important game of the entire season for POS. What happened? Sea lost. And POS did not make the playoffs.
Why would Coach Ha voluntarily sacrifice an entire season for this stunt? Well firstly, whats the point of going to the post season if your team doesn't have the depth to be competitive? Back then Pusan and July were all that was holding the team together, with no support from other games, there was no way they could win a best of seven. And secondly, it developed character in Sea and gave him invaluable experience. Indeed, a year later in the 2006 Proleague Grand Finals between MBC and SKT, the score was tied 3-3. Who did MBC turn to? They turned to Sea, and he defeated GoRush - winning MBC the title. The excellent foresight of Coach Ha to play Sea a year earlier resulted in MBC winning the big prize a year later. Hwaseung is employing the same strategy now. So despite the frustration it brings to the fans, this is a necessary move to make for Hwaseung's success.
So yes, what games can Backseat Broodwar recommend to you from the past week? Four games have stood out amongst the pool. As already mentioned, Jaehoon vs Firebathero is an absolute must watch. It starts off as a mediocre PvT, then the recall sets the game afloat and it becomes anyone’s for the taking. This game will be immortalised as one of the games of the year. Incidentally, this was the 2000th game to be played on OGN – how very fitting!
+ Show Spoiler +
Furthermore it will be immortalised as the “FBH Vulture Save” game. Seriously, those vultures were sick. Definitely worth the watch for this unconventional ending.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNF0jpGuaYA&feature=player_embedded
Boxer vs Killer goes without saying. If you have no watched this yet, and you choose to skip over this VOD, you are not a true Broodwar fan at heart. You are a phony.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE3V34acd9w&feature=player_embedded
Violet vs Shine also makes the list this week. Indeed, it would probably make the list as one of the best games of the year (Iris vs Bisu still beats it though!). This game isn’t error free, not by a long shot. Violet’s harass could have been better – although it was highly effective. Shine played it pretty well, but only just hung in there to the end game. Both players ripped out unconventional units – both DAs and Queens reared their heads here. The ending is pretty sweet, and is one of the few times Zergs have come out of a semi-stalemate positions with a win – and full credit to Shine for being able to convert this to a win.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfq3Q3E8ywU&feature=player_embedded
Lastly we have Stork vs Gorush. Its no where near the magnitude of their 2005 encounter, but when was the last time you saw a real Sair/Reaver in action? Incidentally, Stork has the second best Sair/Reaver of all time hands down (behind Nal_ra of course). This sounds really peculiar at first, but having been a Stork fan since 2005 I (Plexa) can safely say that when the man chooses to use Sair/Reaver, the game is always great. Particularly, Stork’s Corsairs are x1.5 as effective as your average Protoss – and as July noted in his OSL Finals Interview; Corsairs are way more scary than Reavers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hiUxxrFLo0&feature=player_embedded
And that’s all this week from the guys behind the driving seat. Be sure to have an excellent week. I’m sure that just like the past week produced more amazing moments than the week before, this week will deliver even more great moments to remember for a lifetime. One last rant before we go – STUPID PROLEAGUE SCHEDULE NOT HAVING SKT/KTF/STX/HITE PLAY THIS WEEK. Ahem... Yea, we really like Fantasy Proleague.
