Banner by pachi, photos by skAnarky, screenshots from GSL Open Season 1
“The One Zerg” GSL Finals
We all knew it had to end this way. Any other win by any other player would have been anticlimactic. With all due respect to Rainbow, it was Fruit Dealer's GSL, judging from the reactions on TeamLiquid and the Korean forums. We love an "underdog" story even though Cool was never a true underdog.
Cool's secret? Be faster. Smarter. Better.
Despite only sixteen Zergs in the Ro64, two in the Ro16, and one in the Quarterfinals and beyond, the GSL was won by a transcendent Zerg player. It seems like ages ago, but Cool's ultralisk flank on Kulas saved not only his tournament but potentially the GSL's ratings as well. It would have been a disaster for GOM if Cool had lost to TOP in the Ro16. That series was the only time Cool played an elimination game, and it's easy to forget just how close he was to being completely out of the tournament. If TOP won that third game, we likely would have seen a TTTT semifinals and TvT finals.
It seems that the greatest Zerg players are forged during times of adversity. Dire situations bring out the best, and when Zergs are dropping left and right, there's always one that remains. We've seen it before, with Jaedong and that guy who shall not be named. Maps and balance didn't matter. They would always find a way. Cool found a way. Whether he's a racial anomaly or a sign of future Zerg tournament success remains to be seen.
Rainbow opens the same build he did against Check -- fast hellions into expansion and mech. Cool responds by taking his natural and both unoccupied mains, making the bare minimum defensive units. Rainbow attempts to harass with a dropship, but Cool sacrifices 3 mutalisks to kill it. Cool maintains a speedling-baneling-infestor army, teching fast to hive and ultralisks. Rainbow sends out two more dropships to do harass at Cool's two far expansions, but Cool easily defends with fungal growth.
Rainbow moves out with his tank-marine army, setting up his tanks at the watch tower at the center o the map while sending his marines to kill one of Cool's expansions. Cool meanwhile drop harasses with several ultras, and defends the marines with fungals and banelings. Rainbow splits his army, sending half to Cool's natural and half to Cool's other main expansion. This decision proves fatal, as Cool easily crushes both armies with fungal growth and ultralisks.
Rainbow's last offensive threat is extinguished, and Cool with five secured bases, it's only a matter of time before a large ultralisk army marches into Rainbow's main.
Cool < 1-0 > Rainbow - A well played game that shows the difference between Cool and Check, as Rainbow used almost the exact same strategy against both players. Cool had overlord eyes everywhere, and his multitasking abilities allowed him to defend all drops and attacks while simultaneously countering Rainbow's expansions.
Rainbow opens tank drop while Cool expands, morphing his lair at his expansion. It looks very bad for Cool as his lair is not even completed when the tank drop arrives at his cliff, but Cool uses three queens, multiple spine crawlers, and transfusion to delay the single tank until he can get spire. Cool takes a third base while Rainbow takes his natural.
Rainbow attempts to harass but loses two more medivacs to mutalisks. Comfortably ahead, Cool to take his fourth and tech to banelings and roaches. When Rainbow finally moves out, Cool drops Rainbow's main with roach-ling, and intercepts a third dropship with mutas. Rainbow moves part of his army back home to take care of the drop, and Cool immediately flanks Rainbow's tank army in the center of the map with roaches and mutas, killing it. Rainbow finally successfully drops Cool's main with two medivacs, but it's too little too late as Cool rolls through Rainbow's natural and main with a huge army.
Cool < 2-0 > Rainbow - Cool clearly knew the timing on Rainbow's tank drop. Perhaps it could have been different if Rainbow brought two tanks instead of a tank and SCVs, but we'll never know. Against a lesser Zerg, Rainbow may have been able to claw his way back with dropships, but Cool deflected every harass attempt easily.
Cool opens by expanding to the gold, while Rainbow goes for tank drop on the tiny gold base cliff. Cool delays with roaches and spine crawlers, but a viking arrives to kill the overlord, denying Cool vision of the cliff. However, while Rainbow micros the medivac and viking, he completely misses Cool's nydus worm, which sends waves of zerglings into Rainbow's undefended main base. Rainbow floats to the high ground, but with all his tech and production structures gone, Cool easily breaks down the rocks and ends the game.
Rainbow's face must have been priceless when he heard the nydus sound effect.
Cool < 3-0 > Rainbow - This game showed Cool's ability to take calculated strategic risks. The nydus play was especially risky, as it cannot be cancelled and was made right under Rainbow's nose. In a way, Cool was relying on Rainbow making a mistake, but he did create the situation by forcing Rainbow into a high-attention micro battle. Kulas Ravine was supposed to be a Zerg graveyard, and Cool finished a spotless 5-0 on it.
Cool opens expand into banelings, while Rainbow opens expand into mass marines. When Rainbow moves out, his marine force is quickly killed on creep by banelings and speedlings. Rainbow adds two factories with tech labs while Cool takes a third base (gold) and gets infestors. Rainbow's next attack is a two medivac drop, which eventually is stopped by infestors but deals a good amount of damage. Rainbow meanwhile has moved out with marines, tanks, and a thor. As Cool masses ling-baneling to deal with the attack, Rainbow drops Cool's main again, this time escaping when the lings return.
Cool takes a fourth base, and Rainbow's army is looking pitifully small. Rainbow drops Cool's natural while Cool drops Rainbow's main with zerglings, forcing workers at both bases to run. Rainbow's main army attacks, and crushes through Cool's gold, since most of Cool's lings were used in the drop. Rainbow rebuilds at his own gold, while Cool takes the island. Cool attempts to drop banelings directly on top of tanks, but Rainbow's tanks and thors are too much, eventually busting through Cool's natural and main.
At this point Cool is on two bases (one island) but his army consists only of a few hydralisks, while Rainbow is mining from one gold and is leading in supply count by a huge margin. Cool attempts to break the middle one last time with hydras and fails.
Cool < 3-1 > Rainbow - The game opened very poorly for Rainbow, but he persistently wore down Cool with drops. Cool's drop in Rainbow's main was a success, but it cost him his gold base as he could have beaten the push with those lings. He simply could not deal with Rainbow's tank heavy army composition without ultralisks.
Rainbow opens proxy reaper, and Cool plays right into his hands by going hatch first. Rainbow's first few reapers get some drone kills, but slowlings chase them away. Cool runs ten lings toward Rainbow's base just as Rainbow's nitro packs finish, and Rainbow sends his reapers to chase, but Cool brilliantly turns around and uses the smoke to kill two reapers. Rainbow floats a CC to take the island. Cool attacks with several roaches, and Rainbow repairs late, allowing one of his barracks to be destroyed and losing several SCVs before clearing the threat with marauders. Rainbow takes his natural.
Meanwhile, Cool takes his third and fourth (gold) and techs to mutas and banelings. Cool then uses mutas and drop to take out Rainbow's island, and when Rainbow uses his dropships to clear out the threat, Cool traps part of Rainbow's MMM on the island with mutas. This allows him to trade his roach-ling army for Rainbow's tanks. Rainbow drops a large army in Cool's main, but Cool annihilates it with a huge group of infestors, banelings, and mutalisks. Cool's next attack at Rainbow's main ramp ends it.
Cool < 4-1 > Rainbow - Cool's early use of the vision-denying smoke set the tone for the game. Rainbow was never comfortable, even falling apart at times. Cool was never challenged and this game seemed more of a coronation than a competition.
Player Grades
Cool - A+ What more is there to say about this guy? Cool's play this entire tournament was sublime. He had great scouting, terrific macro, and diverse strategies. His push-breaking control with a fully mixed Zerg army was a beautiful thing to watch. He made extraordinary Terrans look ordinary, and threw in some dramatics with ultralisk spawn timing for good measure. The undisputed best player in the GSL and so far in front of his Zerg peers it was no contest.
Rainbow - B- Rainbow failed to play to his potential. The aggressive, dominant style he showed in his games against Ensnare was easily brushed aside by Cool. His strategies were a bit predictable, but that's to be expected given the short turnaround between the semis and finals. Ultimately, there's not much for Rainbow to take away from this series except that he was soundly beaten by a better player, and that's nothing to be ashamed of.
GSL Season 1 Awards
The "Bonjwa" Award for Best Player Goes to Cool aka Fruit Dealer for winning the tournament. That was easy.
The "Pokju" Award for Worst Player Tie between WindPrime and SopiaWerra. Wind was awful, trapping his own probes and losing multiple void rays to marines. Sopia played a game I would grade an F- only because there is no grade lower. Have you ever seen 20 thors vs 10 mutas? Watch Sopia vs Ensnare Game 2.
The "Rainbow" Award for Divine Intervention Goes to Tester's miracle defense against FreeSaga. Unscouted proxy 2-gate against 1-gate core should be impossible, but somehow Tester did it.
Apparently, a HopeTorture fan painted the ceiling for the GSL Finals.
The "Giyom" Award for Best Non-Korean Player Goes to TLAF-Liquid`TLO. Yes, he and Idra both reached the Ro32. But TLO produced one of the most entertaining TvTs in SC2 history with his comeback win over Hyperdub.
The "Flash" Award for Last Second Lifeguard Save Goes to Cool for his just-in-time ultralisks against TOP's thors in Game 3 of the Round of 16 on Kulas Ravine. TOP was so close, yet so far.
The "Effort" Award for Biggest Upset Goes to Rainbow over Tester in the Quarterfinals. Not so much for the results, but for the ease at which Rainbow won and the horrible way that Tester crumbled, in Game 2 especially.
The "Bisu" Award for Best Single Play Goes to Tester for his forcefield split against JSL. Bonus points for the commentators losing their minds over it. "I'm Tester, SUP." -- Artosis.
The "BackHo" Award for Biggest Failure Play Goes Maka's SCV marine rush on Metalopolis against LiveForever. Maka went ahead with the all-in even after being scouted, and LF had two bunkers and a siege tank on his ramp.
The "July" Award for most Fruit Consumed Goes to Inca, for getting demolished by Cool in the Quarterfinals, losing to a 6-pool then failing to 2-gate rush and leaving without a GG.
Somewhere, a future SC2 Zerg mistakes orange thunder sticks for Pocky.
The "Boxer" Award for Most Creative Play Goes to LotzePrime, for his double mindgames to fool IdrA about his void rays in game 2. Building a robo as nothing but scouting bait? Brilliant.
The "Yellow[ArnC]" Award for How-Did-I-Make-The-Semifinals? Goes to LiveForever, who lived far longer in this tournament than everyone expected, beating August, Lotze, and Maka, only to get steamrolled by the Fruit train.
The "IdrA" Award for Foreigner Fan Villain Goes to Hyperdub, who cheesed out TLO only to spectacularly fail against Tester in the next round. At least show us some entertaining games!
The "White-Ra" Award for Best Quote Rainbow himself, who said he chose Terran because it was "the most challenging race." People laughed at him when he made the quote but it boomeranged and smacked everyone in the face when it actually turned out that playing T vs Fruit Dealer actually is the biggest challenge.
The "Jaedong Hugs His Mom" Award for Best Tournament Moment The Fruit Dealer fans at the finals holding up the melons and bananas.
GSL Season 2
For Cool and Rainbow, life is good. Relax, enjoy your prize money. But for everyone else, the window of opportunity is closing. The GSL will increase in difficulty every season it runs. GSL Season 2 Qualifiers start in two days, and there are quite a few players practicing hard to make it. You may have heard of them -- Nada, Boxer, and July. These guys bring a nearly a dozen championships worth of experience to Starcraft 2. No wonder Cool and Rainbow are watching their backs.
Cool and Rainbow hear Brood War footsteps approaching. Probably July's.
The scary part is that whoever wins GSL2 will play significantly better than Cool did in the GSL1. That's hard to imagine right now, but it'll happen. Today, tomorrow, or in a couple of years, it'll happen, and we can't wait to watch it. As usual, TL writing team will be here to preview the GSL Season 2 and cover its games, players, and storylines.
Thanks for reading, and may we see some more TLAF-Liquid` players in the GSL2!
Big thanks to skAnarky for his excellent on-site GSL photos, to BroOd for helping me recap the absurd number of games, and to GOM for running such a great tournament. Good luck to those trying to qualify for the GSL2.
Awesome writeup. I still haven't watched the vods (FML job) but I will when I have time. His fans brought melons and bananas to the finals? That's so funny/great!
Biggest upset has got to be Lotze over Idra. Lotze is good but definitely not a tournament favorite. I'll give you that rainbow over tester was an upset but not something that no one could have predicted.
On October 07 2010 07:19 Hot_Bid wrote:Goes to Tester for his forcefield split against JSL. Bonus points for the commentators losing their minds over it. "I'm Tester, SUP." -- Artosis
It was a great Tournament, and an even better final. I'm definitely watching the qualifiers closely to see how the old school BW gamers do this time around.
Too bad IntoTheRainbow lost, because now it just adds to his resume of brilliantly finding ways to finish second. But i'm glad FruitDealer won, because now zergs have someone to emulate who defies balance.
The "Bisu" Award for Best Single Play Goes to Tester for his forcefield split against JSL. Bonus points for the commentators losing their minds over it. "I'm Tester, SUP." -- Artosis.
JSL who? whats the actual nickname so I can find the vod :s
Fruit for the win!! The TL polls thought rainbow would win. How wrong they where. I hope every member who voted for rainbow would have some ULTIMATE PLAY FROM FRUIT RUBBED IN THEIR FACES.
The "Bisu" Award for Best Single Play Goes to Tester for his forcefield split against JSL. Bonus points for the commentators losing their minds over it. "I'm Tester, SUP." -- Artosis.
JSL who? whats the actual nickname so I can find the vod :s
if you search for JSL there's only one VOD that comes up on the GOM site.
The "Bisu" Award for Best Single Play Goes to Tester for his forcefield split against JSL. Bonus points for the commentators losing their minds over it. "I'm Tester, SUP." -- Artosis.
JSL who? whats the actual nickname so I can find the vod :s
On October 07 2010 07:31 Murderotica wrote: Great write-up. I am so sad that my BW favorites are going to SC2 though.
T__________T;
I hope GSL2 withers and dies as the BW pros roflstomp everyone, making no games interesting until the finals/semis. I hope this happens in GSL3 and 4 until they stop running GSL's.
Actually that would be the best thing to happen in GSL 2 and seeing the number of old pro there is good chances some of them will meet before the semi. The worst thing that could happen is if some nobody won it (like LiveForever in GSL 1) with lots of pros failing to qualify.
Nice write up as always! GSL 2 is gonna be 10x more fun,hard to imagine since i was screaming when cool ran those ultralisks right trough the mech on delta game 1
On October 07 2010 07:19 Hot_Bid wrote: The "White-Ra" Award for Best Quote Rainbow himself, who said he chose Terran because it was "the most challenging race." People laughed at him when he made the quote but it boomeranged and smacked everyone in the face when it actually turned out that playing T vs Fruit Dealer actually is the biggest challenge.
This was actually misunderstood. Rainbow chose to play Terran during the beta, and he was referring to Terran being the most challenging race to play during the beta. I'm a huge FS fan, but I hate to see Rainbow get flak for a misunderstanding.
On October 07 2010 07:19 Hot_Bid wrote: The "White-Ra" Award for Best Quote Rainbow himself, who said he chose Terran because it was "the most challenging race." People laughed at him when he made the quote but it boomeranged and smacked everyone in the face when it actually turned out that playing T vs Fruit Dealer actually is the biggest challenge.
This was actually misunderstood. Rainbow chose to play Terran during the beta, and he was referring to Terran being the most challenging race to play during the beta. I'm a huge FS fan, but I hate to see Rainbow get flak for a misunderstanding.
Terran mechanics haven't really changed in any real way from beta to retail that would make it easier, so dunno how its misunderstood.
EXCELLENT article thank you very much. Cool definitely deserved to win the GSL 1
The "Flash" Award for Last Second Lifeguard Save Goes to Cool for his just-in-time ultralisks against TOP's thors in Game 3 of the Round of 16 on Kulas Ravine. TOP was so close, yet so far.
Wow what would happen to the ratings if it was TvTvTvT and then TvT? I know I wouldn't watch, never mind buying the season ticket. That result was mostly why I didn't buy the ticket I feared that I would see only Terran everywhere, I was right except for that one zerg who just barely stopped my prediction, TOP really screwed up on that last game. But I can assure you people that the next GSL will also be Terran dominated and the semifinals will be only Terrans.
On October 07 2010 07:19 Hot_Bid wrote: The "White-Ra" Award for Best Quote Rainbow himself, who said he chose Terran because it was "the most challenging race." People laughed at him when he made the quote but it boomeranged and smacked everyone in the face when it actually turned out that playing T vs Fruit Dealer actually is the biggest challenge.
This was actually misunderstood. Rainbow chose to play Terran during the beta, and he was referring to Terran being the most challenging race to play during the beta. I'm a huge FS fan, but I hate to see Rainbow get flak for a misunderstanding.
Terran mechanics haven't really changed in any real way from beta to retail that would make it easier, so dunno how its misunderstood.
No one really knew how to play terran back then + terran was weaker while zerg and protoss were stronger. No one believed reapers would be used as much. There was quite big outcry from terran users about balance, Strelok even demanded from blizz that banelings should be nerfed. Funny thing is the next patch they were buffed
This is awesome. It seems the GSL is happening when the OSL and MSL are not, which is great, I love having something awesome to watch while I wait for another to start up again.
On October 07 2010 07:19 Hot_Bid wrote: The "White-Ra" Award for Best Quote Rainbow himself, who said he chose Terran because it was "the most challenging race." People laughed at him when he made the quote but it boomeranged and smacked everyone in the face when it actually turned out that playing T vs Fruit Dealer actually is the biggest challenge.
This was actually misunderstood. Rainbow chose to play Terran during the beta, and he was referring to Terran being the most challenging race to play during the beta. I'm a huge FS fan, but I hate to see Rainbow get flak for a misunderstanding.
Terran mechanics haven't really changed in any real way from beta to retail that would make it easier, so dunno how its misunderstood.
No one really knew how to play terran back then + terran was weaker while zerg and protoss were stronger. No one believed reapers would be used as much. There was quite big outcry from terran users about balance, Strelok even demanded from blizz that banelings should be nerfed. Funny thing is the next patch they were buffed
Terran got a bunch of buffs, which Protoss and Zerg got nerfed heaps (remember 1 supply roaches?).
I remember playing in the Beta and rolling over Terrans with baneling/roaches.
The "Giyom" Award for Best White Player Goes to TLAF-Liquid`TLO. Yes, he and Idra both reached the Ro32. But TLO produced one of the most entertaining TvTs in SC2 history with his comeback win over Hyperdub.
Should probably say best "foreign" rather than best "white" at some point, but for now it's pretty much true.
that montage vid made all my hair stand up which you can imagine isn't pleasant in some parts of the body. awesome job with the write up. cant wait for season 2!!
I think NexGenius should've gotten the Pokju award (worst player) because DAVIT crushed him in under ten minutes. Not scouting double cheese is baaaad. Then DAVIT got steamrolled 2-0 the next round. Maybe that match was also the upset of the tournament (Effort award), since NexGenius recovered to win the Blizzcon qualifier.
this was awesome. what really made my day was when fans in the crowd started shaking fruits they brought in to support cool. and wayyyyy to many cheesy fruit jokes from tasteless and artosis, lol.
to watch the rest, you have to pay $9.95 via paypal.
I wonder if they will let those of us who paid to view the VODs see them once the next season starts. I hope so because IIRC they used to say we will be able to view them only during season.
Loved the video!!! Also the ''Flash'' award could've went to Artosis on Game 2 (on LT) vs NEXFreeSaGA for his last second save with ultras... overall a great GSL, with many awesome game!!!! Hope to see more!!!
Great article, though I don't think a lot of people are giving Rainbow the credit he deserves. Until the finals he had not lost a single match even against Tester, and yes he was beaten convincingly, but his build simply was proven to be less effective than Cool's. Had there been more time for them to prepare I imagine it would of been much closer, even if Cool still won.
Totally makes me want to play zerg now, but I'm incompetent at playing it. I suppose I'll just stick to Protoss and play Zerg in my free time. Definitely a great read, and a wonderful victory for zerg! Stick it to em' Cool! Inspire them zerg players to be better, faster, and powerful! FOR THE SWARM!!
On October 07 2010 10:48 Retgery wrote: Where do these match's happen? I'm a noob so don't hate to much? What website can i watch them on? Are there any english commentators?
this was the TG-Intel STARCRAFT II Open Season1 and these matches took place in korea. as another user said, you can watch some games on gomtv.net, but you will need to pay to be able to watch most of them. they are casted in english by artosis and tasteless, with a special guest appearance by torch whilst artosis was playing.
I've noticed that you pay wayyyyy too much attention to when inca lost to cool and didn't gg. I've seen you mention it in two recaps and try to make inca look like a bad guy =/
He clearly stated he didn't do it on purpose and was just confused. I think he even apologized and cool said it was not even a problem.
But other than that I love seeing how you rate games and you're almost always dead on which games are good and which are not.
The "Jaedong Hugs His Mom" award is probably the most entertaining award. I saw the guys hold up the bunch of bananas and watermelon and I almost laughed my a** off. Haha. Artosis and Tasteless did say to bring fruit in support of the fruit seller.
On October 07 2010 11:18 PallasAthena wrote: I've noticed that you pay wayyyyy too much attention to when inca lost to cool and didn't gg. I've seen you mention it in two recaps and try to make inca look like a bad guy =/
He clearly stated he didn't do it on purpose and was just confused. I think he even apologized and cool said it was not even a problem.
But other than that I love seeing how you rate games and you're almost always dead on which games are good and which are not.
But how can we make drama if everyone is GM??
Yes you're probably right, but Inca still deserves the award because he got such a large helping of gRapes that he was disoriented into not GGing even if it was not malicious.
On October 07 2010 07:19 Hot_Bid wrote: The "White-Ra" Award for Best Quote Rainbow himself, who said he chose Terran because it was "the most challenging race." People laughed at him when he made the quote but it boomeranged and smacked everyone in the face when it actually turned out that playing T vs Fruit Dealer actually is the biggest challenge.
This was actually misunderstood. Rainbow chose to play Terran during the beta, and he was referring to Terran being the most challenging race to play during the beta. I'm a huge FS fan, but I hate to see Rainbow get flak for a misunderstanding.
Terran mechanics haven't really changed in any real way from beta to retail that would make it easier, so dunno how its misunderstood.
No one really knew how to play terran back then + terran was weaker while zerg and protoss were stronger. No one believed reapers would be used as much. There was quite big outcry from terran users about balance, Strelok even demanded from blizz that banelings should be nerfed. Funny thing is the next patch they were buffed
Remember when everyone whined about how tanks were useless and that they needed to be buffed to be worth their increased cost from BW? Blizzard's changes were to decrease the build time by 5 seconds, increase health by 10, and decrease siege damage by 10. Not very significant and its very arguable that the decrease in damage far outweighs the other buffs.
Since the beta, everyone was whining about tanks being OP, which resulted in tank damage being significantly nerfed even further. And still people will complain about them. Sometimes Blizzard really does know better.
First off, thank you to everyone on the TL news team, I think all of you do a great job.
Still, I'm really annoyed that the front page of TL spoiled the GSL finals for me. I've been really busy lately, and I've been trying to watch all of the GSL games and I've only gotten up to the round of 4. TL has been really good in the past of not putting a picture of the winner on the front page for every MSL/OSL I've seen covered (granted, I haven't been around here very long). What makes the GSL any different?
On October 07 2010 11:43 CakeOrI)eath wrote: First off, thank you to everyone on the TL news team, I think all of you do a great job.
Still, I'm really annoyed that the front page of TL spoiled the GSL finals for me. I've been really busy lately, and I've been trying to watch all of the GSL games and I've only gotten up to the round of 4. TL has been really good in the past of not putting a picture of the winner on the front page for every MSL/OSL I've seen covered (granted, I haven't been around here very long). What makes the GSL any different?
We respect spoilers to a certain degree. GSL Finals was almost five days ago. If you still haven't watched it or know the results, then it's your responsibility to avoid spoilers. That means don't visit TL until you watch the matches. I usually respect spoilers for 24, maybe 48 hours maximum. Anything longer than that is unreasonable, we're not going to spoiler tag our front page news because 1% of the population hasn't watched the finals 5 days later.
On October 07 2010 11:43 CakeOrI)eath wrote: First off, thank you to everyone on the TL news team, I think all of you do a great job.
Still, I'm really annoyed that the front page of TL spoiled the GSL finals for me. I've been really busy lately, and I've been trying to watch all of the GSL games and I've only gotten up to the round of 4. TL has been really good in the past of not putting a picture of the winner on the front page for every MSL/OSL I've seen covered (granted, I haven't been around here very long). What makes the GSL any different?
We respect spoilers to a certain degree. GSL Finals was almost five days ago. If you still haven't watched it or know the results, then it's your responsibility to avoid spoilers. That means don't visit TL until you watch the matches. I usually respect spoilers for 24, maybe 48 hours maximum. Anything longer than that is unreasonable, we're not going to spoiler tag our front page news because 1% of the population hasn't watched the finals 5 days later.
Yea, its understandable. I just figured since I hadn't been spoilered for a MSL/OSL yet (In just the year I've been hanging around) that the same would be true for the GSL. I'll be more careful in the future. That and watch sc2 a lot more to stay caught up!
this was not a sc1 tournament. cool didnt win. didnt see any rainbows either. this stuff is very annoying and makes esports look silly. its like calling the Tennessee Titans the Houston Oilers just because thats what people use to say/recognize. moronic. it was stated on gomtv that they wanted to be called a fruit dealer and hopetorture. it shouldnt be this confusing/difficult
The "White-Ra" Award for Best Quote Rainbow himself, who said he chose Terran because it was "the most challenging race." People laughed at him when he made the quote but it boomeranged and smacked everyone in the face when it actually turned out that playing T vs Fruit Dealer actually is the biggest challenge.
disagreed, I think Fruit's "Because I was hungry" quote was the best in the tournament.
On October 07 2010 10:05 astalkulo wrote: is there vods available, sorry I've been living under a rock lately
Someone posted the matches on Youtube. Just do a search for starcraft 2 gsl finals
Or, if you want to actually put your money where your mouth is and support E-Sports, you can pay GOM to watch all the VODs from the GSL. You know, the legal and ethical way.
On October 07 2010 10:05 astalkulo wrote: is there vods available, sorry I've been living under a rock lately
Someone posted the matches on Youtube. Just do a search for starcraft 2 gsl finals
Or, if you want to actually put your money where your mouth is and support E-Sports, you can pay GOM to watch all the VODs from the GSL. You know, the legal and ethical way.
You can also wait with that until they improve quality of their stream at least. Only people not paying will make them do that. I don't know what was the cost of streaming and how many people paid for this season but it rather easily can be said there were at least 10 000 people who did. That's 195 500$ right there, the prize pool was 170 000$ and GOM is being sponsored already.
And I did pay for this season, I fucking did it right before semifinals. It's not like I regret that and most probably I will pay for the 2nd and, fuck it I have money to spare, for 3rd as well just this year but I'm just a lazy, naive loser and like I said, there is only 1 thing that will make them improve quality faster.
edit: and to give you something to consider it seriously - I have to work for about 7-8 hours to earn that 20 bucks.
On October 07 2010 10:05 astalkulo wrote: is there vods available, sorry I've been living under a rock lately
Someone posted the matches on Youtube. Just do a search for starcraft 2 gsl finals
Or, if you want to actually put your money where your mouth is and support E-Sports, you can pay GOM to watch all the VODs from the GSL. You know, the legal and ethical way.
You can also wait with that until they improve quality of their stream at least. Only people not paying will make them do that. I don't know what was the cost of streaming and how many people paid for this season but it rather easily can be said there was at least 10 000 people who did. That's 195 500$ right there, the prize pool was 170 000$ and GOM is sponsored already.
And I did pay for this season, I fucking did it right before semifinals. It's not like I regret that and most probably I will pay for the 2nd and, fuck it I have money to spare, for 3rd as well just this year but I'm just a lazy, naive loser and like I said, there is only 1 thing that will make them improve quality faster.
edit: and to give you something to consider it seriously - I have to work for about 7-8 hours to earn that 20 bucks.
I will be the one to say it but i watched every game (didn't pay) but it was Korean commentated on some Korean website my friend game me PM if you wanna watch the finals
On October 07 2010 10:05 astalkulo wrote: is there vods available, sorry I've been living under a rock lately
Someone posted the matches on Youtube. Just do a search for starcraft 2 gsl finals
Or, if you want to actually put your money where your mouth is and support E-Sports, you can pay GOM to watch all the VODs from the GSL. You know, the legal and ethical way.
You can also wait with that until they improve quality of their stream at least. Only people not paying will make them do that. I don't know what was the cost of streaming and how many people paid for this season but it rather easily can be said there was at least 10 000 people who did. That's 195 500$ right there, the prize pool was 170 000$ and GOM is sponsored already.
And I did pay for this season, I fucking did it right before semifinals. It's not like I regret that and most probably I will pay for the 2nd and, fuck it I have money to spare, for 3rd as well just this year but I'm just a lazy, naive loser and like I said, there is only 1 thing that will make them improve quality faster.
edit: and to give you something to consider it seriously - I have to work for about 7-8 hours to earn that 20 bucks.
I will be the one to say it but i watched every game (didn't pay) but it was Korean commentated on some Korean website my friend game me PM if you wanna watch the finals
I think I know which you mean, I know about those. Thank you edit: TBH since Korean stream and VODs are for free I don't think there is any problem with posting info about http://www.wfbrood.com/movie/search.asp search for GSL
Sick writeup! It really was Cool´s GSL and it was an epic one! Really looking forward to season 2 with all the big names and there will be so much upsets!
On October 07 2010 13:13 BradyBunch wrote: this was not a sc1 tournament. cool didnt win. didnt see any rainbows either. this stuff is very annoying and makes esports look silly. its like calling the Tennessee Titans the Houston Oilers just because thats what people use to say/recognize. moronic. it was stated on gomtv that they wanted to be called a fruit dealer and hopetorture. it shouldnt be this confusing/difficult
Get off your high horse -_-. They were known as cool and ITR, I don't see a problem if people refer to them as such. I highly doubt people will refer to Boxer as manofoneway. I'm starting to get really annoyed at people who are like "SC2 is not SC1, SC2>SC2" or "I don't want any connections with SC1." Clearly there's going to be some. Live with it.
I never played online with sc1, but it was an eye opener to me on the level of play fruitdealer set out. I would love to see more people of his caliber play later on after the ranks and qualifications are set.
On October 07 2010 13:13 BradyBunch wrote: this was not a sc1 tournament. cool didnt win. didnt see any rainbows either. this stuff is very annoying and makes esports look silly. its like calling the Tennessee Titans the Houston Oilers just because thats what people use to say/recognize. moronic. it was stated on gomtv that they wanted to be called a fruit dealer and hopetorture. it shouldnt be this confusing/difficult
Unfortunately your analogy does not make sense because a gamer's ID is largely determined by what the fans recognize him as, not what the progamer calls himself. It is not the same thing as a professional sports team moving cities. When proteams change their names (from KTF MagicNs to KT Rolster for example) the entire community calls them the updated name. But when a player selects an ID, it's a much more informal thing and the fans basically decide what to refer to them as.
Thus, you are free to call them whatever you wish, but to many here they will always be Cool, Rainbow, and Boxer. This will always be so in our news posts, in our official TLPD statistics database, and in our forum threads. Get used to it. Cool's main ID here might be interchangeable just because of how awesome "Fruit Dealer" is and how little he accomplished in BW, but Boxer and Rainbow will never be more known on TL than as their original IDs.
In the GSL2, there is no way I'm calling Nada "BnetLagNotKESPA" and July "XtraLargePizza" just because they decide they set those IDs.
The "Bisu" Award for Best Single Play Goes to Tester for his forcefield split against JSL. Bonus points for the commentators losing their minds over it. "I'm Tester, SUP." -- Artosis.
BEST. GSL was so legit. Worth staying up late every night to watch. :D
On October 07 2010 15:44 Hot_Bid wrote: Unfortunately your analogy does not make sense because a gamer's ID is largely determined by what the fans recognize him as, not what the progamer calls himself. It is not the same thing as a professional sports team moving cities. When proteams change their names (from KTF MagicNs to KT Rolster for example) the entire community calls them the updated name. But when a player selects an ID, it's a much more informal thing and the fans basically decide what to refer to them as.
Thus, you are free to call them whatever you wish, but to many here they will always be Cool, Rainbow, and Boxer. This will always be so in our news posts, in our official TLPD statistics database, and in our forum threads. Get used to it. Cool's main ID here might be interchangeable just because of how awesome "Fruit Dealer" is and how little he accomplished in BW, but Boxer and Rainbow will never be more known on TL than as their original IDs.
In the GSL2, there is no way I'm calling Nada "BnetLagNotKESPA" and July "XtraLargePizza" just because they decide they set those IDs.
Really? The vast majority of fans (Korean, not foreign) refer to many of their players by their real names. In GSL, whenever someone mentioned Fruit Dealer in Korean, either the interviewee or the interpreter said his real name.
Anyway, Fruit Dealer is a special case: Boxer and NaDa have fan clubs and are known even outside the SC circuit; Fruit Dealer had an unremarkable SC1 career. Many people have never even heard of him until the GSL, and a good portion of his new fans will relate to him as Fruit Dealer, not Cool. If Fruit Dealer ends up playing 5+ years of SC2 with that name and completely overshadows his SC1 career, will people still call him Cool? It's like calling Babe Ruth "George" just because that's his birth name.
I think the players change names because they want it to mark a turning point in their life/career, a new leaf perhaps. Tester has gone on the record that he doesn't like that name anymore and wants to be called sSKS. Shouldn't we respect that?
Besides, seeing fans wave around fruit and Tastosis utter a corny fruit-related joke every few minutes is a lot more entertaining than trying to come up with "Cool" puns.
On October 07 2010 13:13 BradyBunch wrote: this was not a sc1 tournament. cool didnt win. didnt see any rainbows either. this stuff is very annoying and makes esports look silly. its like calling the Tennessee Titans the Houston Oilers just because thats what people use to say/recognize. moronic. it was stated on gomtv that they wanted to be called a fruit dealer and hopetorture. it shouldnt be this confusing/difficult
Unfortunately your analogy does not make sense because a gamer's ID is largely determined by what the fans recognize him as, not what the progamer calls himself. It is not the same thing as a professional sports team moving cities. When proteams change their names (from KTF MagicNs to KT Rolster for example) the entire community calls them the updated name. But when a player selects an ID, it's a much more informal thing and the fans basically decide what to refer to them as.
Thus, you are free to call them whatever you wish, but to many here they will always be Cool, Rainbow, and Boxer. This will always be so in our news posts, in our official TLPD statistics database, and in our forum threads. Get used to it. Cool's main ID here might be interchangeable just because of how awesome "Fruit Dealer" is and how little he accomplished in BW, but Boxer and Rainbow will never be more known on TL than as their original IDs.
In the GSL2, there is no way I'm calling Nada "BnetLagNotKESPA" and July "XtraLargePizza" just because they decide they set those IDs.
I disagree. Rainbow's career in the brood war genre was nothing extraordinary, and if he wants to change his sn in Starcraft 2, whatever his reasons, we should respect that; and even the korean commentators agree. Boxer will always be boxer because that has always been his sn in brood war, it has been for YEARS, and he has achieved much. Even if he achieves more than what he did in Starcraft 2 than in brood war, he will still be known as Boxer in brood war, and manofoneway in Starcraft 2 out of respect. You are really comparing different things.
In the GSL2, there is no way I'm calling Nada "BnetLagNotKESPA" and July "XtraLargePizza" just because they decide they set those IDs.
Wow, if this is true I cant wait for their first broadcasted game: "And in the upper left, we have....the one and only...wait for it...any second now...*epic bells* EXTRA LARGE PIZZA!"
On October 07 2010 13:13 BradyBunch wrote: this was not a sc1 tournament. cool didnt win. didnt see any rainbows either. this stuff is very annoying and makes esports look silly. its like calling the Tennessee Titans the Houston Oilers just because thats what people use to say/recognize. moronic. it was stated on gomtv that they wanted to be called a fruit dealer and hopetorture. it shouldnt be this confusing/difficult
Unfortunately your analogy does not make sense because a gamer's ID is largely determined by what the fans recognize him as, not what the progamer calls himself. It is not the same thing as a professional sports team moving cities. When proteams change their names (from KTF MagicNs to KT Rolster for example) the entire community calls them the updated name. But when a player selects an ID, it's a much more informal thing and the fans basically decide what to refer to them as.
Thus, you are free to call them whatever you wish, but to many here they will always be Cool, Rainbow, and Boxer. This will always be so in our news posts, in our official TLPD statistics database, and in our forum threads. Get used to it. Cool's main ID here might be interchangeable just because of how awesome "Fruit Dealer" is and how little he accomplished in BW, but Boxer and Rainbow will never be more known on TL than as their original IDs.
In the GSL2, there is no way I'm calling Nada "BnetLagNotKESPA" and July "XtraLargePizza" just because they decide they set those IDs.
I disagree. Rainbow's career in the brood war genre was nothing extraordinary, and if he wants to change his sn in Starcraft 2, whatever his reasons, we should respect that; and even the korean commentators agree. Boxer will always be boxer because that has always been his sn in brood war, it has been for YEARS, and he has achieved much. Even if he achieves more than what he did in Starcraft 2 than in brood war, he will still be known as Boxer in brood war, and manofoneway in Starcraft 2 out of respect. You are really comparing different things.
Are you sure you have the knowledge required to question an admin? Old names will keep coming back because there is significant amount of people who recognize them by their old names but aren't familiar with the new ones. It's similar with nicks people are given in school or at workplace IMO.
You will always hear "HopeTorture aka IntoTheRainbow".
On October 07 2010 15:44 Hot_Bid wrote: Unfortunately your analogy does not make sense because a gamer's ID is largely determined by what the fans recognize him as, not what the progamer calls himself. It is not the same thing as a professional sports team moving cities. When proteams change their names (from KTF MagicNs to KT Rolster for example) the entire community calls them the updated name. But when a player selects an ID, it's a much more informal thing and the fans basically decide what to refer to them as.
Thus, you are free to call them whatever you wish, but to many here they will always be Cool, Rainbow, and Boxer. This will always be so in our news posts, in our official TLPD statistics database, and in our forum threads. Get used to it. Cool's main ID here might be interchangeable just because of how awesome "Fruit Dealer" is and how little he accomplished in BW, but Boxer and Rainbow will never be more known on TL than as their original IDs.
In the GSL2, there is no way I'm calling Nada "BnetLagNotKESPA" and July "XtraLargePizza" just because they decide they set those IDs.
Really? The vast majority of fans (Korean, not foreign) refer to many of their players by their real names. In GSL, whenever someone mentioned Fruit Dealer in Korean, either the interviewee or the interpreter said his real name.
Anyway, Fruit Dealer is a special case: Boxer and NaDa have fan clubs and are known even outside the SC circuit; Fruit Dealer had an unremarkable SC1 career. Many people have never even heard of him until the GSL, and a good portion of his new fans will relate to him as Fruit Dealer, not Cool. If Fruit Dealer ends up playing 5+ years of SC2 with that name and completely overshadows his SC1 career, will people still call him Cool? It's like calling Babe Ruth "George" just because that's his birth name.
I think the players change names because they want it to mark a turning point in their life/career, a new leaf perhaps. Tester has gone on the record that he doesn't like that name anymore and wants to be called sSKS. Shouldn't we respect that?
Besides, seeing fans wave around fruit and Tastosis utter a corny fruit-related joke every few minutes is a lot more entertaining than trying to come up with "Cool" puns.
andrea... read what he wrote about Cool. You basically agreed with him on every point
Thanks for the recap, greatly appreciated. I wasn't able to follow the entire GSL 1, but I really enjoyed watching it from the semifinals onwards. Seeing him "dealing fruit you can not refuse to buy" was amazing and spectacular, it's nice to get such a comprehensive summary of not only the final games but the whole event. Thanks for the coverage TL
PS : "This video contains content from UMG. It is not available in your country" puts a (very) minor damper on it.
I happy for FruitDealer and Zergs in general, I'm sure they'll learn a lot from these games. I'm also happy for Protoss and Terran players, as now it should be easier to defend "your race is OP" accusations.
I can wait to find out which Americans will be in season 2. Anybody know?
On October 07 2010 21:51 DamageInq wrote: I'm also happy for Protoss and Terran players, as now it should be easier to defend "your race is OP" accusations.
my sarcasmometer broke last week so you'll have to tell me if that was it. if it wasnt, then im truly sorry that you feel that way.
I stayed up till like 13:00 to watch the games and I am so glad I did... Game 1 was just so amazing I was sure that Cool would loose when Rainbows main army went through the middle and at the same time attacked the top-right and bottom-left... But man Fruitdealer is just sick
I love the music video, it was very well made.... and out of all the zerg players who got eliminated, Artosis seemed to have the most devastated look on his face lol
The Fruit Dealer highlight video is awesome, thanks for the recap. As stated, GSL wouldn't have been half as good as it was without Fruit Dealer. TvT final would have been so, so bad. Can't wait for GSL 2 and to see some new (old) names!
can we have a prize for "best build" ? could even split it by race or just 1 overall winner. Polt's raven/banshee is my vote. though i havent seen all the matches.
The scary part is that whoever wins GSL2 will play significantly better than Cool did in the GSL1. That's hard to imagine right now, but it'll happen. Today, tomorrow, or in a couple of years, it'll happen, and we can't wait to watch it. As usual, TL writing team will be here to preview the GSL Season 2 and cover its games, players, and storylines.
I trembled when I read this part So true, I can't wait.
Great recap, really looked epic, and it is really truth, GSL with 4 terrans in semies, and zerg winning it, makes all totaly different, we can all thanks to Cool for doing what he did
Great write-up. I had the feeling this would happen. And wow 100.000.000 won... I hope that kind of money wont make Fruit go lazy. That's enough money to live for 4-5 years luxury life easily without having a job.
Awesome, thanks TL for the write-up. I've only watched the 1st match in gom's site, the others were locked, so thanks for summing up the matches. Awesome the game, awesome that gsl2 qualifiers are starting soon, can't wait! Scary to think how players will get monstruously better... And awesome to be with you tl. Thanks.
On October 07 2010 13:13 BradyBunch wrote: this was not a sc1 tournament. cool didnt win. didnt see any rainbows either. this stuff is very annoying and makes esports look silly. its like calling the Tennessee Titans the Houston Oilers just because thats what people use to say/recognize. moronic. it was stated on gomtv that they wanted to be called a fruit dealer and hopetorture. it shouldnt be this confusing/difficult
Unfortunately your analogy does not make sense because a gamer's ID is largely determined by what the fans recognize him as, not what the progamer calls himself. It is not the same thing as a professional sports team moving cities. When proteams change their names (from KTF MagicNs to KT Rolster for example) the entire community calls them the updated name. But when a player selects an ID, it's a much more informal thing and the fans basically decide what to refer to them as.
Thus, you are free to call them whatever you wish, but to many here they will always be Cool, Rainbow, and Boxer. This will always be so in our news posts, in our official TLPD statistics database, and in our forum threads. Get used to it. Cool's main ID here might be interchangeable just because of how awesome "Fruit Dealer" is and how little he accomplished in BW, but Boxer and Rainbow will never be more known on TL than as their original IDs.
In the GSL2, there is no way I'm calling Nada "BnetLagNotKESPA" and July "XtraLargePizza" just because they decide they set those IDs.
I disagree. Rainbow's career in the brood war genre was nothing extraordinary, and if he wants to change his sn in Starcraft 2, whatever his reasons, we should respect that; and even the korean commentators agree. Boxer will always be boxer because that has always been his sn in brood war, it has been for YEARS, and he has achieved much. Even if he achieves more than what he did in Starcraft 2 than in brood war, he will still be known as Boxer in brood war, and manofoneway in Starcraft 2 out of respect. You are really comparing different things.
Are you sure you have the knowledge required to question an admin? Old names will keep coming back because there is significant amount of people who recognize them by their old names but aren't familiar with the new ones. It's similar with nicks people are given in school or at workplace IMO.
You will always hear "HopeTorture aka IntoTheRainbow".
On October 07 2010 15:44 Hot_Bid wrote: Unfortunately your analogy does not make sense because a gamer's ID is largely determined by what the fans recognize him as, not what the progamer calls himself. It is not the same thing as a professional sports team moving cities. When proteams change their names (from KTF MagicNs to KT Rolster for example) the entire community calls them the updated name. But when a player selects an ID, it's a much more informal thing and the fans basically decide what to refer to them as.
Thus, you are free to call them whatever you wish, but to many here they will always be Cool, Rainbow, and Boxer. This will always be so in our news posts, in our official TLPD statistics database, and in our forum threads. Get used to it. Cool's main ID here might be interchangeable just because of how awesome "Fruit Dealer" is and how little he accomplished in BW, but Boxer and Rainbow will never be more known on TL than as their original IDs.
In the GSL2, there is no way I'm calling Nada "BnetLagNotKESPA" and July "XtraLargePizza" just because they decide they set those IDs.
Really? The vast majority of fans (Korean, not foreign) refer to many of their players by their real names. In GSL, whenever someone mentioned Fruit Dealer in Korean, either the interviewee or the interpreter said his real name.
Anyway, Fruit Dealer is a special case: Boxer and NaDa have fan clubs and are known even outside the SC circuit; Fruit Dealer had an unremarkable SC1 career. Many people have never even heard of him until the GSL, and a good portion of his new fans will relate to him as Fruit Dealer, not Cool. If Fruit Dealer ends up playing 5+ years of SC2 with that name and completely overshadows his SC1 career, will people still call him Cool? It's like calling Babe Ruth "George" just because that's his birth name.
I think the players change names because they want it to mark a turning point in their life/career, a new leaf perhaps. Tester has gone on the record that he doesn't like that name anymore and wants to be called sSKS. Shouldn't we respect that?
Besides, seeing fans wave around fruit and Tastosis utter a corny fruit-related joke every few minutes is a lot more entertaining than trying to come up with "Cool" puns.
andrea... read what he wrote about Cool. You basically agreed with him on every point
Am I sure I have the knowledge to question an admin? Since when did being an admin mean your smarter than everyone else? You can't question an opinion, he has his opinion and I have mine, if I disagreed with him on something that he believed was fact, then for me to prove my fact I would have to back it up with evidence. However we are not discussing fact, but opinion.
Watching this recap makes me wonder how many banelings were slaughtered in the makings of this production/his championship (would be hilarious to get a count...entirely too lazy to add them up myself, but that's a TON of banelings, hah)
Great tournament with storybook-style ending, hope this is a preview of the future of sc2.
These write up's were hilarious, an excellent compliment to some great play. I think my favorite moral so far is that against cool, thors fail to successfully sell fruit at the zerg natural.
On October 07 2010 13:13 BradyBunch wrote: this was not a sc1 tournament. cool didnt win. didnt see any rainbows either. this stuff is very annoying and makes esports look silly. its like calling the Tennessee Titans the Houston Oilers just because thats what people use to say/recognize. moronic. it was stated on gomtv that they wanted to be called a fruit dealer and hopetorture. it shouldnt be this confusing/difficult
Unfortunately your analogy does not make sense because a gamer's ID is largely determined by what the fans recognize him as, not what the progamer calls himself. It is not the same thing as a professional sports team moving cities. When proteams change their names (from KTF MagicNs to KT Rolster for example) the entire community calls them the updated name. But when a player selects an ID, it's a much more informal thing and the fans basically decide what to refer to them as.
Thus, you are free to call them whatever you wish, but to many here they will always be Cool, Rainbow, and Boxer. This will always be so in our news posts, in our official TLPD statistics database, and in our forum threads. Get used to it. Cool's main ID here might be interchangeable just because of how awesome "Fruit Dealer" is and how little he accomplished in BW, but Boxer and Rainbow will never be more known on TL than as their original IDs.
In the GSL2, there is no way I'm calling Nada "BnetLagNotKESPA" and July "XtraLargePizza" just because they decide they set those IDs.
I disagree. Rainbow's career in the brood war genre was nothing extraordinary, and if he wants to change his sn in Starcraft 2, whatever his reasons, we should respect that; and even the korean commentators agree. Boxer will always be boxer because that has always been his sn in brood war, it has been for YEARS, and he has achieved much. Even if he achieves more than what he did in Starcraft 2 than in brood war, he will still be known as Boxer in brood war, and manofoneway in Starcraft 2 out of respect. You are really comparing different things.
Are you sure you have the knowledge required to question an admin? Old names will keep coming back because there is significant amount of people who recognize them by their old names but aren't familiar with the new ones. It's similar with nicks people are given in school or at workplace IMO.
You will always hear "HopeTorture aka IntoTheRainbow".
On October 07 2010 18:43 andrea20 wrote:
On October 07 2010 15:44 Hot_Bid wrote: Unfortunately your analogy does not make sense because a gamer's ID is largely determined by what the fans recognize him as, not what the progamer calls himself. It is not the same thing as a professional sports team moving cities. When proteams change their names (from KTF MagicNs to KT Rolster for example) the entire community calls them the updated name. But when a player selects an ID, it's a much more informal thing and the fans basically decide what to refer to them as.
Thus, you are free to call them whatever you wish, but to many here they will always be Cool, Rainbow, and Boxer. This will always be so in our news posts, in our official TLPD statistics database, and in our forum threads. Get used to it. Cool's main ID here might be interchangeable just because of how awesome "Fruit Dealer" is and how little he accomplished in BW, but Boxer and Rainbow will never be more known on TL than as their original IDs.
In the GSL2, there is no way I'm calling Nada "BnetLagNotKESPA" and July "XtraLargePizza" just because they decide they set those IDs.
Really? The vast majority of fans (Korean, not foreign) refer to many of their players by their real names. In GSL, whenever someone mentioned Fruit Dealer in Korean, either the interviewee or the interpreter said his real name.
Anyway, Fruit Dealer is a special case: Boxer and NaDa have fan clubs and are known even outside the SC circuit; Fruit Dealer had an unremarkable SC1 career. Many people have never even heard of him until the GSL, and a good portion of his new fans will relate to him as Fruit Dealer, not Cool. If Fruit Dealer ends up playing 5+ years of SC2 with that name and completely overshadows his SC1 career, will people still call him Cool? It's like calling Babe Ruth "George" just because that's his birth name.
I think the players change names because they want it to mark a turning point in their life/career, a new leaf perhaps. Tester has gone on the record that he doesn't like that name anymore and wants to be called sSKS. Shouldn't we respect that?
Besides, seeing fans wave around fruit and Tastosis utter a corny fruit-related joke every few minutes is a lot more entertaining than trying to come up with "Cool" puns.
andrea... read what he wrote about Cool. You basically agreed with him on every point
Am I sure I have the knowledge to question an admin? Since when did being an admin mean your smarter than everyone else? You can't question an opinion, he has his opinion and I have mine, if I disagreed with him on something that he believed was fact, then for me to prove my fact I would have to back it up with evidence. However we are not discussing fact, but opinion.
I disagree. Rainbow's career in the brood war genre was nothing extraordinary
Even though TL player database shows he achieved only 1 title I believe his Reaver usage is legendary. You can dislike it and say it was nothing extraordinary for you but you can't deny he has many fans that think otherwise. Nobody gets fans for not being extraordinary.
The point is admin on this site is someone who got his status through extreme dedication and follows SCene for years. Have you followed it and seen the greatest BW plays of Rainbow?
I would think InCa's play would get an award against Protoss...either the cannon rush or his fail on his 3gate on lost temple and still manage to come out to win with a perfect timed FF at his choke point
I watched the games on youtube. Cool's style of play is remarkable. Many zerg players QQ about terran having easy harasses and how cost effective their units are, but Cool just deals with it and then gets an awesome mixture of units that just demolishes the terran army. Needless to say, I'm really glad that Cool won the GSL because he really deserved it. I've even switched over from protoss to zerg just because I find that zerg play is much more versatile and fun than the rather straightforward toss play.
Same. I switched from Protoss to Zerg immediately after watching Cool's play in GSL. It's so amazing that words cannot describe. Even though I'm having a lot of trouble playing Zerg now, lost like 80% of my game when I play Zerg
idk if anyone has mentioned this yet but the two pictures on the game 5 recap are the exact same. Just letting the OP know in case he wants to edit it. Loved this post. Thank you =]