In Miraculous Fashion, the Boss Toss Returns - SK_MC shows fine form to reach Ro16 after training with LG-IM
If the fans noticed that SK_MC was starting to fall off, then it's likely MC noticed it himself. It's no surprise, then, that MC decided to re-enter a team house for the first time since leaving oGs over a year ago, hunkering down at the LG-IM house to train for this season of the GSL. It already seemed like a wise decision when MC made it through his Up/Down group and into Code S, but it really paid dividends last night when MC had one of his best Code S performances in months. With a perfect score of 4 - 0, MC crushed Zergs FXOLeenock and ST_Curious to make it to the round of sixteen.
Three base timing attacks accounted for some of his wins, where his macro, micro, and overall game sense seemed better than ever. With CreatorPrime already out of the tournament, fans of his style of play could just watch MC's games and not miss much. But the highlight game for MC was a drawn out, macro game against Curious on Daybreak. Going up against the once-dreaded infestor-brood lord turtling tactic, MC turned to the sky-Protoss strategy that had failed so many times in the past and actually made it work. The nerfs to infested Terrans seemed to play a part as well, as they were more of a temporary meatshield than the slow-moving wall of death they were in the past.
The two times GSL champion has expressed his desire to match Nestea by getting a third, and by training with Nestea's team, he may very well reach his goal.
- FXOLeenock and 8th_BaBy play a fantastic game, but fail to reach the Ro16
Creator and Symbol had already played one of the finest games of 2013 in Group A, but FXOLeenock and 8th_BaBy combined to outdo them within a day (VOD of the game here). Facing each other in the first game of the night, they played an epic, hour long TvZ on Whirlwind that somewhat resembled one of the classic games of 2012, Ryung vs. DRG.
After a creative burrow roach opener from Leenock the game stabilized and went long. By masterfully abusing the immobility of brood lords, BaBy was able to chip away at Leenock's economy and infrastructure until nearly nothing was left. At the same time, Leenock managed to keep his core force together, and kept BaBy from securing the extra bases that would allow him win simply by spending more. A game that at one point saw nearly ten bases being mined from simultaneously eventually saw both players almost completely starved for resources, left with just the ragtag remnants of their once great armies.
It took a stroke of brilliance from Leenock to end the game. After setting a trap with burrowed infestors, Leenock lured BaBy into attacking his brood lords with vikings, only to fungal them all and remove BaBy's core air to air units. It was enough to give Leenock the deciding edge, and he won the game with a handful of infestors and a single brood lord remaining.
Unfortunately for the pair, they will have no more chances to entertain the fans in Code S. After dropping his first series to MC, the ever vigilant gatekeeper of Code S, ST_Curious resumed his role of casting unworthy back down to Code A. In the losers match, BaBy simply could not deal with Curious once he reached hive and brood lords. In the final match, Curious showed his long standing ZvZ prowess, taking one game with mass roaches and the other by defeating Leenock's brood lords and countering with his own. A frequent visitor to the Code S Ro16, Curious will see if he can finally break through into the Ro8 in the final season of WoL.
The champ is here! ... Arriving to what I imagine would be a chorus of raucous boos. From his Code S championship run, we can deduce the two things that MVP.Sniper hates the most: fan favorites, and fun. We saw him eliminate Polt, PartinG, Leenock, Ryung, and HyuN on his way to winning GSL Season Five, all the while playing a strong but unspectacular style of Zerg. No doubt, everyone had to admit that Sniper was an excellent player—but he just happened to play that race everyone hates, in the way everyone hates.
While Sniper hasn't fully embraced the villain identity (if he had, he would have told Ryung "The only thing that's imbalanced is our skill levels."), he still shows some anti-hero qualities. From his interviews, popularity doesn't really seem to be his concern as much as respect. He knows that some fans (and players) only see his race, and not his skill.
Thus, it's not surprising at all that he decided to pick EG.HuK.RC, (the finalists of the previous season can choose their initial opponents in the next season) one of the biggest fan favorites of the entire tournament, as his initial opponent. It won't help endear him to anyone to defeat such a player, but it's the safest way to making another Code S championship run, which will earn him the unconditional respect he desires.
HuK just hasn't been performing at a high level for a very long time, and it was a huge upset that he made it through his Up/Down group. The obvious comparison for HuK would be MaNa back in GSL season 4. Receiving an Up/Down seed, MaNa played surprisingly well on the day and qualified for Code S from second place in his group. However, MaNa was on a roll at that point, having won DreamHack Summer and being considered one of the best foreigners.
The better comparison is Suhosin, who also made it through the Up/Downs that season. Much like HuK, Suhosin doesn't really play an orthodox style in general, chose to all-in a lot in his Up/Down games, and needed a bit of tie-break luck to make it through his group in second place. More importantly, their post-group interviews were eerily similar, with both players seeming genuinely surprised that they had managed to make it to Code S. That's definitely not a good sign for a player going into the most difficult tournament in the world, and not surprisingly, Suhosin was quickly eliminated in last place in Code S (so was MaNa, by the way). You can't say things are looking up for HuK, but it's fitting that the foreigner with the most Code S experience of them all is back for one more fling as the GSL phases out Wings of Liberty.
The other matchup in the group features one of the less noticed rivalries in the GSL as FXOGuMiho takes on ST_Bomber. The pair have faced off nine times in their GSL careers, all the way from Code A, the Up/Downs, and to Code S. The record thus far favors Gumiho by quite a bit, with the FXO Terran having seven wins and just two losses against Bomber.
While Bomber's on and off capability to play like a championship player makes him intriguing in any tournament, this might be the most interesting he's been in a very long time. To rehash the rule of Bomber, it is: "Bomber will always disappoint," alongside its corollary "If Bomber does not disappoint, it is in order to set up a bigger disappointment later." It's not a slight on Bomber, it's just a well observed pattern over Bomber's career, where he plays awesome and goes on a deep runs in foreign tournaments and then crashes and burns in the GSL soon after.
Since November, Bomber has been on one of his best, most consistent runs in his career. He placed second at Lone Star Clash II, top four at both IPL5 and MLG Dallas, and then crushed his Up/Down group with a 4 - 0 score. While this would be reason to think "maybe he's finally figured out how to be consistent!" for fans of other players, Bomber fans have been burned too many times to be fooled. A let down seems almost inevitable, especially now that he is facing one of his worst opponents in the very first match. And yet, he has played so well in the past few months, it's impossible not to have the tiniest shard of optimism, a small hope that this could finally be the season.
Finally, there's Gumiho, another one of those players who wears the 'inconsistent' tag, though he's no where near as accomplished as Bomber in that regard. Besides one, excellent Ro4 run, Gumiho is locked into the Ro32 for Code S, routinely trouncing Up/Down and Code A opposition to make it back after each season's early elimination. Unlike other, similar players, there's a general feeling that Gumiho should (a silly, but inescapable word in sports) be doing better than that. Part of it is that his amazingly entertaining and chaotic style of play blinds us to his flaws. But a bigger part of it is that we've seen him come through in extraordinary circumstances against some of the best players in the world. 8 - 0 in GSTL finals tells you that Gumiho is a guy who could win a Code S championship. So many players have something to prove in this final WoL season, and Gumiho will be throwing his hat into that chaotic ring.
Overall thoughts and predictions:
This group all comes down to Bomber, the king of inconsistency. At his best, he could crush everyone and top the group. At worst, he could lose to HuK, who is one of the biggest underdogs in Code S history. With HuK having nary a chance, it's up to Bomber to supplant one of Gumiho or Sniper and make it into the top 16. Of the two, he would probably have a better chance against Sniper, a player whose ZvT—while strong—doesn't measure up to his ZvZ or ZvP abilities.
In the end, there's too much past precedent saying Bomber won't get it done, and I can't go against it. If he does somehow make it through, then it's ByuN's obligation to make it as well and face off in the Ro8.
Sniper > HuK Gumiho > Bomber Gumiho > Sniper Bomber > HuK Sniper > Bomber
I feel like Bomber is going to go 4-0 here, somehow get stuck in a group with the only 2 or 3 Protoss remaining and go 0-4, a disappointment worthy of the best TvP in the world. Or maybe he can make it to the ro8 and face off against Sniper, go up 2-0 looking amazing but then choke the series away 0-3. Hmm, tough choices.
On January 24 2013 10:23 BrokenMirage wrote: Because Sniper needs to be even more universally hated, he will lose to Bomber/Gumiho to get matched against HuK again, and will eliminate him.
Seems about right, but sniper will be hated no matter what as long as he passes, since he is sure to wipe a fan favorite. Although Sniper killing HuK twice should make him the ultimate villain.
On January 24 2013 10:23 BrokenMirage wrote: Because Sniper needs to be even more universally hated, he will lose to Bomber/Gumiho to get matched against HuK again, and will eliminate him.
Seems about right, but sniper will be hated no matter what as long as he passes, since he is sure to wipe a fan favorite. Although Sniper killing HuK twice should make him the ultimate villain.
I really think we'll see the old guard back this time around. MC, LosirA, Nestea, Bomber, MKP will probably all advance. MC was quite sizzling today, his PvZ seems to be lethal once again
On January 24 2013 10:51 govie wrote: Eversince i saw gumiho drops viking with medivac in opponents base on his stream (hots)... i was a fan:D
And yes, huk is underdog, but he was that in the last fight also. Being the only toss has some advantages too. Dont count him out just yet.
There are no un-entertaining Gumiho games. Win or lose, they are so fun to watch.
And I don't think this is so much that HuK is bad, but rather the other 3 members of his group are super strong. Gumiho 8-0 GSTL finals. Sniper the current champion. Bomber the vP specialist who could be setting up the biggest disappointment yet for all we know.
HuK got some of the toughest players in the Ro32. And he still doesn't look as good as he did when he made Code S back in the day.
And as for this group, Sniper and Bomber will take it. HuK will do the 0-2, 0-4 thing again, and Gumiho is overrated. Players are just too good at blocking drops and stabilizing, he won't get past anyone
So Bomber made it to Code S, because he was building towards a greater disappointment. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why HuK will be advancing. Huk and Bomber will be meeting in the winners match and Huk will utterly destroy Bomber.
On January 24 2013 10:49 zumpy wrote: what is the Bomber Byun ro8 reference? I didn't get it
So there was this one time, back in GSL July 2011, when Bomber faced Byun in the Ro8 of Code S. Bomber at this point was arguably the scariest Terran in the world, yes even scarier than MVP (whom he defeated 4-2 in the Code A championship).
Bomber was up 2-0, and looked like he was about to make the semifinals and come one step closer to become a GSL champion. But then Bomber choked. He lost the next 3 games, and was eliminated. He hasn't had a deep GSL run since.
On January 24 2013 10:49 zumpy wrote: what is the Bomber Byun ro8 reference? I didn't get it
Bomber choked when up 2-0 against Byun really really badly once upon a time. It was the beginning of the whole Bomber will disappoint theorem.
So Huk has been training with Stephano (arguably, not definitively but arguably, the best zvp there is) and Revival who is pretty good too, so maybe he will surprise vs Sniper? TT
Good Luck HUK! And have fun everyone else.... I guess I'd most rather gumiho after that.
Edit: To above: he was given an up/down seed then cleared it in second place.
Expecting Huk to make it through in typical Huk fashion.
I think Bomber needs to rise higher, get the hopes up to their peaks, before burning out. Expecting him to make the semi's before getting demolished 0-3 in rather embarrassing fashion.
We all kow how this story ends. Up/Down meh. If there was a group for a foreigner to perform in that was the one. Tonight's the test with Bomber and Sniper worthy opponents.
Too early for Bomber to disappoint us he makes it through.
On January 24 2013 10:49 zumpy wrote: what is the Bomber Byun ro8 reference? I didn't get it
So there was this one time, back in GSL July 2011, when Bomber faced Byun in the Ro8 of Code S. Bomber at this point was arguably the scariest Terran in the world, yes even scarier than MVP (whom he defeated 4-2 in the Code A championship).
Bomber was up 2-0, and looked like he was about to make the semifinals and come one step closer to become a GSL champion. But then Bomber choked. He lost the next 3 games, and was eliminated. He hasn't had a deep GSL run since.
To add onto this, Bomber didn't just go up 2-0, he DOMINATED going up 2-0. I remember one of the games he was dropping manner nukes all over the place, I think on xelnaga caverns.
And yeah, that's where it all began for Bomber, he's been the king of inconsistency ever since. It's a tragedy almost as sad as Marineking's story.
One of the biggest underdogs in the history of GSL? Overstated much? He might need a great day to get through this group but saying it the way you did is ridiculous.
On January 24 2013 10:23 BrokenMirage wrote: Because Sniper needs to be even more universally hated, he will lose to Bomber/Gumiho to get matched against HuK again, and will eliminate him.
Seems about right, but sniper will be hated no matter what as long as he passes, since he is sure to wipe a fan favorite. Although Sniper killing HuK twice should make him the ultimate villain.
I too am predicting that. This is the GSL of destiny, bomber will lose in RO4 to MKP who will take silver once more against MVP.
Thus Sniper > HuK Bomber>Gumiho Bomber > Sniper HuK > Gumiho Sniper > HuK
:p
Actually na. Sniper 2-0, Gumiho 2-1, Bomber 1-2 HuK 0-2 but I'm hoping I'm wrong with both of these
On January 24 2013 10:51 govie wrote: Eversince i saw gumiho drops viking with medivac in opponents base on his stream (hots)... i was a fan:D
And yes, huk is underdog, but he was that in the last fight also. Being the only toss has some advantages too. Dont count him out just yet.
Gumiho is the most overrated player of all time, you'll see him go down ezpz
Thats fine with me
Some peeps like to root for players with a solid performance and results, resulting mostly in perfect boring play every game. I on the other hand, root for the extremely talented and sometimes too creative players. Just because they change the game we play and influence the strats played online much more then the constant performing players. Most games that gets alot of attention, even after month's are because of players like MKP and Gumiho playing on the edge (with more risk)
HuK's PvT lategame looked up to par in his Up and down against Center, might be enough to get wins over Bomber/Gumi, but HuK's PvZ is definitely not enough for sniper. This means ofc, that in the winners match Sniper will purposly lose so he can personally eliminate the fan-favourite in the final match. Sniper has his priorities
I'll be rooting for Huk, but I'll admit I'm not betting on him to make it out. As long as Sniper doesn't make it out I'll be happy, I don't "hate" him like everyone else, but I just love Bomber and Gumiho too much!
Gumiho is an underachiever. If you isolate his best performances, you'll see the most disciplined micro and multitasking of any WoL player. I really hope his vast skill translates in results this season.
I'm actually pulling for both Bomber and Gumiho to make it out of here. They just create too epic of storylines to keep them both out of the Ro16 which is wjavascript:addUBB_selected('reply_area', 'b')here the REAL stories of GSL lore are born.
Unfortunately Sniper just seemed unbeatable when last we saw him in much the same way Life does now. I think it's safe to say he'll advance in the way only a cold hearted Zerg could. But I can have my hopes we'll see him fall and see DRG returned to the top of the MVP team food chain.
Good luck is all I can say to Huk. You're going to need it.
Bomber actually 4-0s this group in dominating fashion. He has disappointed so many times now that a mere ro32 won't do it anymore. He needs to hype up more and go into either ro16 or ro8 as a strong favorite before collapsing under his own awesome.
Four times in a row has Gumiho fallen out of his Ro32 group. Not anymore, I hope. And as for the second guy... Sniper is the most probable pick. But Bomber could be on and Huk could just beat who he needs to beat. One of the groups I'm most excited about, most definitely.
On January 24 2013 17:05 Daswollvieh wrote: Hadn´t realized that Sniper picked Huk for his group. Way to get respect by picking on the little guy. Not that anyone expected anything else. Coward.
The only 2 players that wouldn't have picked Huk are MC and Parting
On January 24 2013 14:25 Vindicare605 wrote: I'm actually pulling for both Bomber and Gumiho to make it out of here. They just create too epic of storylines to keep them both out of the Ro16 which is wjavascript:addUBB_selected('reply_area', 'b')here the REAL stories of GSL lore are born.
Unfortunately Sniper just seemed unbeatable when last we saw him in much the same way Life does now. I think it's safe to say he'll advance in the way only a cold hearted Zerg could. But I can have my hopes we'll see him fall and see DRG returned to the top of the MVP team food chain.
Good luck is all I can say to Huk. You're going to need it.
On January 24 2013 23:50 KAB00000000M wrote: Did you see Bomber's awesome 3CC openers? I wonder how a zerg can stop that. He held off a roach push pretty good vs Sniper.
you stop that by going really aggressive early or maybe even all-in. if you let bomber get his 3 you are in trouble, best solution is too prevent that entirely.
Love how Bomber always gets the label as a chocker when it's entirely from the truth..the kid is mad good in every match up and every aspect of the game. Even in his losses in tournaments he just runs out of steam, but every Korean gamer will tell you that Bomber is as good as they come and he's always the one you want to "avoid" in tournaments. Much like Taeja, he is streaky, but when he is on a roll man is he fun to watch. I'm a protoss and he's my favorite player..StarTale FIGHTING!
Would have preferred Huk and Bomber, but at least it was two Terran instead of more zerg. I'm not watching any more ZvZs, and Bomber is one of my favorite players to watch- I hope this is his season.
EPT
Leenock <Whirlwind SE> 
TY
MC
