Grack's back, BabyKnight rains on Rain's parade, TitaN towers over the competition, and all sorts of chaos.
Wow. Where to begin. Well, how about this picture for starters:
Yes, it was that kind of night.
After EG.IdrA.RC lost to 1 - 2 to coL.Sasquatch at MLG Raleigh and attributed his loss to his opponent's inability to play correctly, it didn't really seem like America's favorite player was going to find much success in Zerg vs Zerg. But on Friday night in Shanghai, IdrA looked like a maestro of the Zerg mirror, crushing Samsung_RorO and teammate EG.Stephano.RC with alarming ease. IdrA's play even earned accolades compliments from one FXOLeenock, a player who had just made it into the GSL Ro8 on the back of some seriously impressive ZvZ of his own.
IdrA defeated his two opponents in long, macro games (what else?), taking better engagements while controlling the flow of the game. The most notable aspect of IdrA's ZvZ might have been his tendency to keep a lower infestor count - in the sixes and eights, compared to the tens and twenty's commonly seen in recent ZvZ's between Koreans. In any case, IdrA earned the shock result of finishing first place in the consensus group-of-death, and he even flashed a rare smile after he sealed his final victory against Stephano.
Naturally, the StarCraft gods decided to reward IdrA by giving him the best player in the entire touranment as his Ro16 opponent. Wait, what?
- Koreans drop games, series, and some drop out of the entire tournament.
The brackets worked out so that IdrA was slated to face the second place player in Group D, which contained SKT_Rain, FXOBabyKnight, Quantic.State, and iM.MaFia. However, instead of crushing his group like he was supposed to, the OSL champion and WCS Asia Champion decided it would be cool if he lost 0 - 2 to BabyKnight, giving up the first place spot to the Danish champion.
Rain was one of the players working on getting rid of the notion of PvP as a coin-flip, consistently playing long games and winning with superior late-game management. However, BabyKnight would have none of that, using aggressive strategies and taking advantage of his excellent micro in two consecutive games. Rain crumpled helplessly, his five-series PvP winning streak broken by a foreigner.
While IdrA and BabyKnight were indeed impressive, the performance of the night belonged to Russia's RoX.KIS.TitaN, who defeated not one but two of the vaunted Koreans to advance to the Ro16. Alright, so perhaps one of his victories was against serial choker Curious in one of the messiest series of the tournament - we can overlook that kind of blemish when a foreigner has defeated a six time Code S player. No such flaws could be found in TitaN's victory over KeSPA's CJ_herO[jOin], where he won in both a prolonged laser show as well as with a cheesy 3-gate attack.
TitaN's victories directly led to a later deathmatch between Curious and Hero[join], ensuring there would be one less Korean for any foreigners to face in the later rounds. Unlike IdrA, TitaN received a reward of sorts, getting matched up against Chile's d.KiLLeR in the Ro16 - one of the more palattable opponents he could have faced.
- Top Europeans Stephano and Nerchio bow out early, casting shadows on day two.
It wasn't all good news for the non-Korean world. Two of the players touted as the greatest weapons against Korean hegemony, Stephano and Acer.Nerchio, were eliminated early. While Stephano's loss to IdrA has already been mentioned, it happened to be that Nerchio also had his teammate to thanks for his exit from the tournament.
Neither Nerchio nor Acer.Scarlett were able with stand the might of CreatorPrime's devastating 3-base pre-hive attacks, but at the same time both were able to triumph over Australia's Nv.mOOnGLaDe. That left to the two Acer Zergs to fight it out for the last Ro16 seed in their group, which went to Scarlett in the end after she triumphed in a horrifically boring BL-infestor vs BL-infestor war.
Stephano's exit from the touranment proved to be far more interesting, as he took on Liquid's HerO in the final match of his group. Stephano had easily beaten down HerO earlier in the day, and things looked grim for the Protoss player. However, HerO had one sleight of hand prepared for use against the foe who had tormented him in many tournaments before, and with the score tied 1 - 1, HerO deployed a clever hallucinated colossus fake. It worked like a charm, with Stephano overinvesting in neural parasite and corruptors, giving HerO the advantage he needed to win with a horde of stalkers, immortals, and archons.
While the Koreans also lost RorO and hero[join] on day one, it's hardly a fair trade from the Korea vs. World point of view. As encouraging as it was to see TitaN, IdrA, and BabyKnight perform well, they are not the proven, tested Korean-Killers like Stephano and Nerchio. Looking ahead to the final bracket, one must wonder if the elation of day one might come with a later cost.
- A list of other surprises and players that deserve mention, but can't be written about at length since this article will become too long.
EG.Suppy.RC was the first player to advance to the Ro16, defeating beat Comm and ROOTViBE. USA! USA!
d.KiLLeR managed to narrowly edge out Grubby for a Ro16 spot in some very ugly games.
The mysterious Fenix looked pretty good, and he answered all our questions by showing up in an LG-IM jersey. He didn't advance, but was good enough to 2 - 0 aTn.Socke.
On that note, German champion aTn.Socke was very disappointing, unable to win a single map as he went out of the tournament. Quantic.Illusion took the second place spot in Group A instead.
ROOTMajor came pretty close to winning a series against a Korean, going 1 - 2 against both Hero[join] and Curious.
Though they were avoided for the most part, iS.Insur and FXOLoWeLy managed to make sure some truly dreadful late-game PvZ would be played. After losing two of them, Insur opted to play weird two-base builds instead of tolerating playing a late game PvZ again (he lost).
Brazil's Levin actually managed to take a map off Lucifron to finish 1 - 4 on maps, better than the 0 - 4 records of Mafia and Socke.
- A list of things the few things that actually went as expected
ST_PartinG swept Illusion and Socke to clear his group without a hitch, attracting 0 attention.
The brothers Duran, LucifroN and VortiX, quietly made their way through their Korean-less groups and into the Ro16.
Gamania.Sen looked a step above most foreigners as usual, defeating Grubby and Killer to advance.
Sorry for them, but it s sad to see some players like Killer or Lowely in the final bracket when Stephano, Roro, Nerchio, MoOnglade are out...Blizzard should have set up some kind of seedings based on the national/continental results... the exciting code S like groups of death turned into a bad joke... I mean not the group themselves I m really really happy for Idra who activated BEAST mode but in compairson to other groups its just not the same level at all...
On November 18 2012 02:19 OrchidZerg wrote: Remember when everyone said Group E was not a group of death because it had IdrA and he sucks? Kind of funny that he went 2-0 and finished first.
(This is coming from a not fanboy)
Big news: People sometimes perform better than they are expected to.
Hero vs Stephano Series 2 was amazing! Hero hallucinates 2 colossus *looks at production tab* Stephano makes 10 corruptors, +1 air attack upgrade and neural parasite *Hero rolls over Stephano* GFG!
Titan was very impressive, look out for this guy.
GL to Scarlett tomorrow, she will need it. Parting does not hold back, not even for girls!
Socke somehow managed to lose a fight where he had like 13 blink stalkers against 7 blink stalkers vs PartinG. I dont wanna see that ever again. Shame on you Sockman.
On November 18 2012 02:19 OrchidZerg wrote: Remember when everyone said Group E was not a group of death because it had IdrA and he sucks? Kind of funny that he went 2-0 and finished first.
(This is coming from a not fanboy)
Big news: People sometimes perform better than they are expected to.
Yes, you are allowed to have a good day every now and then.
It may very well end in tears for IdrA fans.
On November 18 2012 03:02 R3DT1D3 wrote: I was blown away when I realized 4 NA players advanced. The picture for this should just be Idra doing his rare evil grin.
Checked the Scarlett vs Nerchio game. Saw both players at ~110 supply and BL+inf vs BL+inf, switched to another stream and when I checked back 2 min later they were at ~100 supply and still fighting at the same place.
I liked the note about insur's game... though I have to point out he did 1 2base all in that wasn't even a weird one and lost it after a heartbreaking lategame pvz loss in a game he dominated. But man watching that PvZ lategame was harsh... especially when they ended the ways they did. (insur not having a mothership and losing the first time, having a full energy mothership that got neural'd and double vortex'd his own army the second time)
It was very ironic to read that translation of a new browder interview where he said they were going to make a test map where psionic units can't be neuraled... poor insur.
On November 18 2012 02:36 tMomiji wrote: YESSSS! Hero for the WIN!!! I had to fall asleep at one in the morning and I was so worried; SO HAPPY when I saw this result. WHOO!
this is exactly my thoughts! WHOO! when i woke up and hit f5 on liquipedia I had the biggest grin on my face. Hero FIGHTING! Its entirely possible he wins the whole thing! Hero, Scarlett, Idra, Creator semis? I would love it.
I feel like the united front of babyknight, idra, suppy, and scarlett should be able to pull a foreigner world champ. Babyknight will take out the protosses and the three zergs will cleanup all else. And sory spain bros
On November 18 2012 04:54 Ganero wrote: I think "WAXANGEL" have forgotten, that IdrA & HuK is the two most experienced AND sucessfull foreingers at dealing with koreans.
IdrA have in the past defeated several major koreans, like:
MMA Mvp MKP MC NesTea Bomber etc etc.
Is this "forgotten" on purpose, or is "WAXANGEL" new to the foreing scene?
On November 18 2012 04:54 Ganero wrote: I think "WAXANGEL" have forgotten, that IdrA & HuK is the two most experienced AND sucessfull foreingers at dealing with koreans.
IdrA have in the past defeated several major koreans, like:
MMA Mvp MKP MC NesTea Bomber etc etc.
Is this "forgotten" on purpose, or is "WAXANGEL" new to the foreing scene?
I found a troll do i get a cookie?
Why am i a troll for mentioning IdrA's past wins?
EDIT: Trolling is the art of deciving people to aggrevate them. What i did there was pointing out flaws in the recap.
On November 18 2012 04:54 Ganero wrote: I think "WAXANGEL" have forgotten, that IdrA & HuK is the two most experienced AND sucessfull foreingers at dealing with koreans.
IdrA have in the past defeated several major koreans, like:
MMA Mvp MKP MC NesTea Bomber etc etc.
Is this "forgotten" on purpose, or is "WAXANGEL" new to the foreing scene?
The best part about this post is that you put Wax's name in quotes (twice) as if he's either, not qualified to to say these things against the beloved Idra, or he's not a real person. At least that's the way I read it...
On November 18 2012 04:54 Ganero wrote: I think "WAXANGEL" have forgotten, that IdrA & HuK is the two most experienced AND sucessfull foreingers at dealing with koreans.
IdrA have in the past defeated several major koreans, like:
MMA Mvp MKP MC NesTea Bomber etc etc.
Is this "forgotten" on purpose, or is "WAXANGEL" new to the foreing scene?
I found a troll do i get a cookie?
Why am i a troll for mentioning IdrA's past wins?
EDIT: Trolling is the art of deciving people to aggrevate them. What i did there was pointing out flaws in the recap.
you're a troll for questioning wisdom of Waxangel. Don't do it. Seriously.
On November 18 2012 04:54 Ganero wrote: I think "WAXANGEL" have forgotten, that IdrA & HuK is the two most experienced AND sucessfull foreingers at dealing with koreans.
IdrA have in the past defeated several major koreans, like:
MMA Mvp MKP MC NesTea Bomber etc etc.
Is this "forgotten" on purpose, or is "WAXANGEL" new to the foreing scene?
I found a troll do i get a cookie?
Why am i a troll for mentioning IdrA's past wins?
EDIT: Trolling is the art of deciving people to aggrevate them. What i did there was pointing out flaws in the recap.
you're a troll for questioning wisdom of Waxangel. Don't do it. Seriously.
Ha I don't think questioning Wax is trollish, people do that all the time. I think the issue is more that Idra has had a horrendous 2012 and many people just don't expect him to be beating Koreans right now with the exception of his fanboys. Sure you can make the case that he's beaten Koreans in the past, but he hasn't shown that form in over a year, and now of course...last night.
Awesome result for IdrA. Real shame about drawing Rain in the Ro16. I really can't see him getting through that. Would love to be proved wrong though!!
On November 18 2012 02:31 v_lm wrote: Sorry for them, but it s sad to see some players like Killer or Lowely in the final bracket when Stephano, Roro, Nerchio, MoOnglade are out...Blizzard should have set up some kind of seedings based on the national/continental results...
Lowely finished ahead of Nerchio in the continental finals.
On November 18 2012 02:36 tMomiji wrote: YESSSS! Hero for the WIN!!! I had to fall asleep at one in the morning and I was so worried; SO HAPPY when I saw this result. WHOO!
this is exactly my thoughts! WHOO! when i woke up and hit f5 on liquipedia I had the biggest grin on my face. Hero FIGHTING! Its entirely possible he wins the whole thing! Hero, Scarlett, Idra, Creator semis? I would love it.
And Idra vs Scarlett finals, and the one in leather jacket will win, I am calling it now!
On November 18 2012 06:26 Mambo wrote: Babyknight will beat HerO. I just hope he can defeat the zerg he will face in ro8.
Babyknight isnt even on the same level as LiquidHero.
Hero is miles ahead of him in terms of skill. You might argue that
Hero's pvp is bad, but if so, how did he get 3rd place in wcs asia beating top protoss players?
Babyknight has 0 chance of beating Hero.
then how did Babyknight take out Rain, who many claimed to have the best PvP?? I want HerO to win but to say Babyknight has no chance is a little insulting
This tournament is a joke. None of the best terrans on the planet are there and its so one sided 4 terrans. And if Idra does well it's great but I think we all know he's not the best zerg out there.
On November 18 2012 02:44 StarVe wrote: Hahaha, great recap, Waxangel, I can almost feel the anger you try to convey after having to endure some of those "dreadful" games.
step forward from the darkness they said you'd lose regardless hes the grack and hes back Thanks to THE GRACKET AND THEY SAY THERE'S a RACKET? we all shouting we so excited The grack IS BACK
Yesterday was so much fun. It was one of those tournaments where I was glued to the screen because anything could happen and it regularly did. I was sad Grubby didn't advance, but glad that Curious and Parting did. Idra advancing is always good for esports, especially since he hasn't advanced much lately, and so it always creates a compelling storyline when he does.
Im quite sad that nor Stephano or Nerchio will be playing next round. (btw im not zerg player..). But they were my euro's heroes. NOw looking for Scarlett and Rain.
On November 18 2012 08:16 Sumahi wrote: Yesterday was so much fun. It was one of those tournaments where I was glued to the screen because anything could happen and it regularly did. I was sad Grubby didn't advance, but glad that Curious and Parting did. Idra advancing is always good for esports, especially since he hasn't advanced much lately, and so it always creates a compelling storyline when he does.
Yeah, I felt that too I of course rooted for my favorites but always was happy when someone advanced regardless of who he was. WCS has just created a storyline for everyone.
On November 18 2012 09:12 sAsImre wrote: checking some vods. TDA... is this MLG T.T ? well since it's blizzard own tourney it's not surprising that the maps suck but still
Say what you want about the Lowely vs Insur series, but Lowely showed some great play and proved that you can truly make magic happen with 90 APM. Lowely u and ur baneling drops r00l <33