When he arrived on the StarCraft: Brood War scene in 2007, Flash was immediately hailed as a prodigy. At the tender age of fifteen, he was already crushing seasoned veterans of several years, and showing an innate talent for the game that seemed almost supernatural. The kid looked like he was destined to go places.
Six years, four-hundred forty-one wins, three OnGameNet Starleague championships, three MBCGame StarCraft League championships, and one StarCraft sequel later, Flash arrived at MLG Dallas, looking to extend his legacy of dominance to not just another hemisphere, but to another game. Championships had eluded him in the ten months since KeSPA's official switch to Brood War's sequel, but steady growth saw him climb through the StarCraft II ranks and become one of its elite players. With the advent of Heart of the Swarm, Flash was poised to show everyone in the world exactly why he had been called "God" as Brood War player.
Unfortunately for Flash, he wasn't able to succeed at beginning his second golden age. He did, however, have the privilege of witnessing first hand, a very significant event.
At MLG Dallas, Flash saw the future.
Photo: silverfire
Life didn't cause much fanfare when he arrived, largely because it was hard to pinpoint when that exactly was. Was it when he started showing up regularly on other player's streams as a pesky but skilled ladder opponent? When he became a regular in the various weekly cups of the early SC2 scene? Or was it when he scored an all-kill against TeamLiquid in the GSTL, as a member of team ZeNEX?
It will suffice to say that by June of 2012, there were a few hardcore fans who knew about the fifteen year old Life, and a few who even thought he might have a real future in pro-gaming. By the end of 2012, those few were more than just vindicated, as Life finished the year as the best StarCraft II player in the world. Life's potential "exploded" as the Koreans say it, and he won a Code S, MLG, and GSL Blizzard Cup in one of the most amazing six month runs in pro-gaming history. There was hardly a StarCraft II power who was spared Life's wrath, with Seed, TaeJa, MarineKing, Leenock, and Nestea all falling in his wake. Even Mvp, the reigning King of Wings and the greatest StarCraft II player to date, fell to Life at the end of a seven game final in the GSL. The 'prodigy' tag had to be attached to such a player, one who achieved so much at such a young age. With the advent of a new year and Heart of the Swarm, all eyes turned to Life and what more he might achieve.
Before their clash at MLG Dallas 2013, Flash had already faced Life twice before. The first time was at MLG's 2012 Dallas event, where Flash drew first blood by winning a 2 - 0 victory earlier on in the bracket. While some took this as a sign that Flash's will would be done in WoL as it had in BW, he had only succeeded in wounding Life's pride and waking a dangerous beast. When the two met further down in the bracket, Life showed no regard for his illustrious predecessor as he won in a crushing 4 - 0 sweep. The gulf between a highly skilled but still learning player, and the best player in the world was on full display.
The Wings of Liberty era would end without a rematch between the two, but on the eve of the transition to HotS, Blizzard would arrange for the two to meet again. Both players were invited to compete at the Heart of the Swarm Korea launch event, aptly picked to represent two past eras of StarCraft as it headed into yet another. Despite the match being held under the pretense of a friendly, the two players' competitiveness leaked through, and Flash showed that he had made massive strides towards recovering his earlier station. After an exhilarating match, Life came out the victor, but Flash won the pseudo-rematch – a resume-from-replay started from his point of choosing. To the younger prodigy who thought he was stronger, faster, and smarter, Flash had a message: Soon, he would be coming to set things straight.
A rematch at the finals of MLG Dallas 2013 was almost too good to be true. But then again, with 'too good' being more than appropriate to describe Flash and Life, maybe it wasn't so surprising after all. Besides a couple of tough games, Flash was barely troubled as he toppled Bly, Ret, PartinG, and Innovation with a combined record of 12 - 3 on his way to the final. Life had slightly more trouble, particularly against Terrans Polt and Last, but entered the finals with a slightly worse, 12 - 4 record.
The first game of the grand final saw Life open with some of his trademark aggression in a ten-pool build, but his gamble didn't pay off as Flash opted to for a decidedly un-risky expansion build. However, Flash couldn't keep Life's aggression away for long, and found himself taking a blow as Life went for an unexpected, off-beat zergling and baneling bust into the Terran third. That was the damage Life needed to do to put himself on good footing as he transitioned into the muta-ling-bane composition that had defined his success so far in SC II.
It was a style many thought to be considerably riskier in HotS, if not in danger of being obsoleted entirely due to the power of widow mines. And indeed, widow mines did look powerful later on in game two, when a fast marine-medivac-widow mine attack annihilated Life's defending zerglings and mutalisks to force the GG. But in game one, Life showed he didn't really give a damn about the new units, either 'defusing' them with zerglings, dragging them into Terran forces, or just tanking and healing their damage with mutalisks. While Flash's vaunted macro was on display, it didn't matter how many units he could produce as he fell to Life's muta-ling-bane like so many other Terrans before him.
Game three saw Life succeed with another one of his signature moves, as he went for a massive speedling and baneling attack off three bases, hitting at a timing many Terrans have found awkward to deal with. Flash did Life the favor of being caught hugely out of position, giving Life a surprisingly easy win and a 2 - 1 lead in the series.
However, Flash immediately followed with one of his own famous moves, going for a proxy two-barracks rush in game four. In typical Flash style, he placed the barracks at an extremely advance position just inches outside of the range of Life's scouting overlord. Despite it being an almost inevitable move from Flash in a multi-game series, Life was caught and forced to GG.
With the series tied 2 - 2, Life decided to keep things simple and go with something had already worked in a big zergling-speed baneling bust off three bases. With Flash having shown an inclination towards no tanks, and a lack of defensive widow mine coverage, it seemed like a tactic that could pay off. Amazingly, the attack worked almost as perfectly as one could realistic hope in a live game scenario, and Life barreled through Flash's defenses to cripple his economy. After transitioning to mutalisks, Life was able to easily take the win.
At championship point for Life, both players opted to go full macro game mode, with Daybreak offering the perfect backdrop for such a game. Once again it was up to Life to show that muta-ling-bane could work against a bio-based Terran army backed by widow mines, and actually able to drop against spire tech (unlike WoL) due to the new afterburner upgrade.
Life did indeed show that you can make muta-ling-bane work, but at the same time added the caveat that it probably only works for him and him alone. It meant staying on top of constant drops, using single lings to tank widow mines, splitting mutas after noticing mines were triggered, all the while taking care of the few dozen or so other tasks Zerg needs to take care of on a regular basis. It was a game where Flash truly gave it all he had, and Life just rolled with all of the punches and came out looking even stronger. An eventual transition to brood lords sealed the deal, and Flash had to concede one more 2 - 4 loss to the prodigy of the new generation.
At the end of it all, Life didn't seem to care particularly much about winning the tournament, picking up the trophy and glancing at it with a look that seemed to say "oh, I have this one already." The symbolism of the scenario, of new vs. old, KeSPA vs. eSF, seemed lost entirely lost on Life, whose motivation for winning seemed to be summed up as "because I can." Flash, who celebrated joyfully after winning his first major championship, might have been amused by the demeanor his successor. In any case, he can be assured that until the day that he should reclaim the title of best player in the world, it rests in good hands.
Photo: silverfire
Innovation continues quiet rise to elite status with 3rd place finish
While the spectacle of Life vs. Flash stole the headlines, STX's INnoVation quietly worked his way to yet another top four finish, solidifying himself as one of the world's best Terran players. Soft spoken and humble, the artist formerly known as 'Bogus' had always been slightly off the mainstream radar, whether he was quietly carrying STX Soul in the Brood War Proleague or making an impressive GSL semi-final run.
Photo: silverfire
With a 2 - 1 victory over the two time GSL champion MC, Bomber earned a third place finish at MLG Dallas, his best finish in a major tournament yet. While other KeSPA converts had peaked higher (for example, RorO and Rain's individual championships), the result confirmed Innovation as the Association's most consistently high level player, already having earned Ro4 and Ro8 GSL finishes in the GSL.
Up to the semi-finals, Innovation was the most impressive player of the tournament, going 3 - 0 in series and 9 - 0 on maps. After easily taking care of EG.HuK.RC in the first round, he moved on to earn an amazing 3 - 0 victory against two time MLG champion FXOLeenock. Innovation's incredible multi-tasking against Leenock had many viewers saying medivacs were imbalanced, as Leenock lost despite defending against against drops as well as it seemed humanly possible.
Innovation continued his path of destruction in the quarter-finals, taking down the original KeSPA standard-bearer in SKT_Rain. While Rain didn't get completely picked apart by drops like other Protoss players in the MLG tournament, he was still out-muscled by Innovation's marines and marauders on the ground.
It turned out that Flash was the only one who could stop Innovation, but not before Innovation put up an epic fight in a game that many called the best of the tournament (VOD). While the sheer size of the map Whirlwind had sometimes caused passive play from progamers in the past, it only served expand the scale of Flash and Innovation's epic battle as deadly drops criss-crossed the map. In the end, Flash proved to be the superior player, ending Innovation's run with a 3 - 1 victory in the series.
However, Innovation was able to regain some of his thunder to end his American excursion. Facing MC in the 3rd/4th place match, Innovation took a 2 - 1 victory to secure third place and a $3,000 prize money difference over MC. Game one saw Bogus thwart MC's blink-stalker aggression and take a victory. However, MC evened the score in game two, using a deadly oracle build that had toppled both Bomber and Mvp earlier in the tournament. MC looked to use his stargate play to finish the series in game three but Innovation anticipated his opponent's tactics intelligently, using defensive widow mines to thwart his opponent's attacks, With his opponent having wasted too many resources on stargate tech, it was all too easy for Innovation to run him over with infantry.
Though the Ro4 has consistently been a wall for Innovation in his short StarCraft II career, he will certainly be reaching finals soon if he can keep his current pace.
Protoss falls short as MC offers short term solution.
Although SK_MC did end up finishing one spot lower than Innovation, he surely had a larger impact on the larger StarCraft II world. MLG Dallas had seen many notable Protoss players get torn apart Terrans and their newly buffed medivacs, with CreatorPrime losing to CMStorm_Polt, SKT_PartinG to KT_Flash, and SKT_Rain to STX_INnoVation – not to mention some even more one-sided Korean vs. non-Korean matches.
MC offered a simple solution: Kill the Terrans before they can kill you. In order to achieve this result, MC did something few other Protosses in the tournament dared to do, and actually used the new HotS units. The oracle and its ability to disintegrate light-armor was key in MC's plans, as he opened stargate-first in several of his PvT games against illustrious players like Bomber and Mvp. Sometimes, the oracles were just able to slaughter defending marines straight up (with the help of a well placed time warp), and at others they were able to devastate an unguarded mineral line. Either way, it meant MC putting the pain on Terran early.
MC offers Protoss players a solution for the thirty-eighth time.
In particular, MC's two oracle into phoenix follow-up proved to be an absolutely devastating counter to a popular strategy where a Terran player would take a fast expand while also harassing with a medivac and widow mines. MC's phoenixes simply lifted the mines before they burrowed, while oracles wreaked havoc in undefended Terran mains.
With a 3 - 1 victory over Mvp and a 3 - 0 victory over Bomber, no one can doubt the effectiveness of MC's play in the short term. However, his strategy will surely have received the scrutiny of players everywhere, and we'll certainly see the PvT match-up change in the following few weeks. Yet, that might not worry MC, a player who has relied on early game tactics and all-ins ever since he first started playing StarCraft II. More than anyone else, MC realizes that knowing an all-in is coming, and actually being able to defend it, are two very different things.
Game One - Neo Planet S: Flash started the game standard with his reactor rax into CC and widow mines while Parting went for a fast nexus with an oracle follow-up. The oracle did no damage and Parting had to go home and switch to 2 forge colossus. Flash, now having the map control and superior army kept up the pressure by attacking the front and dropping the main, but Parting held off every attempt by Flash while sneaking in a 3rd and getting to storm. The pressure on PartinG only got worse as Flash kept getting higher in supply, but PartinG survived several attacks despite being down 50~60 supply for much of the game.
Parting made a DT shrine and used that to take back some map control and momentum. Parting attacked the 3rd of Flash while building a 4th, but Flash had stabilized and it became a battle for fourth bases as Parting and Flash tried to deny each other additional mining. Eventually, Flash got the upper hand as his economy was better for longer letting Flash get the better army advantage to finally take the game.
Game Two - Daybreak: Flash went for a macro build going for a rax into double cc. Parting just did a proxy oracle 3 gate bust to kill Flash.
Game Three – Akilon Wastes: With CC first having worked out badly for him previously, Flash elected to open 1rax reactor expand against Parting's gateway first. Parting immediately moved out onto the map, putting down a proxy pylon in the northwest part of the map, relatively close to Flash. The stargate followed up once again, and Parting elected to use his first oracle only for scouting while waiting for the second and a group of stalkers. His follow-up stalker/oracle attack was deflected with ease by Flash's marines, bunkers and mines. Behind in units and economy, Parting was forced to stay in his base as Flash moved out to take out his proxy stargate and pylons. Parting threw down templar archives and a dark shrine, but his sentries were caught out on the map and he promptly died to a bio push soon after.
Game 4 – Whirlwind SE: Deciding that proxy stargates weren't doing the job, Parting went for a nexus first whereas Flash opened 11/11 reaper. Parting pulled probes and managed to destroy the bunker without taking all too much damage, while Flash put down a proxy factory in Parting's third. Parting's mothership core ended up scouting it, and though Flash floated the building into the main and managed to get one widow mine out, he was forced to evacuate and go into macro mode. Parting went into colossi tech and Flash went for bio with double engineering bays, trying to deal damage with drops but being deflected without any success.
With both players up to 3 bases, Parting threw down more gates and got his storm research. Flash went for aggression on the third while simultaneously taking out a forge and the main nexus with drops before picking up and flying away without losing much. Parting tried to take out Flash's forces in the middle of the map, but Flash's forces were too well upgraded and another big drop in the main ended up dealing severe damage, leaving Parting with no options but to GG and surrender the series.
Game One - Cloud Kingdom: Both players opened with standard builds. Rain used a hallucinated oracles for a scout while Innovation did a marine widow mine runby. Rain was able to hold it off with a good robo timing. Innovation quickly got up to his bio medivac force and kept trying to harass Rain, and did a good job by picking off units including key colossus. Rain tried to go for DT tech, but just didn't have enough splash to stop the all out frontal attack.
Game Two - Whirlwind: Innovation started with a reaper opening while Rain did a proxy stargate. The stargate was successful as the oracle killed 12 scvs while Innovations widow mines only succeeded in killing a probe and doing some indirect damage. Even so, Innovation didn't look too far behind as both players got up to 3 base, with Rain opting for chargelot archon templar and Innovation getting a bio medivac 4 hellbat and 2 ghost composition. Innovation’s army was the perfect fit as it destroyed Rain’s army and took the game.
Game Three - Akilon Wastes: Rain decided to take the initiative this game by going for a 3 gate blink stalker build with robo and MSC. He did a large amount of damage as he killed depots, marines, and raxes while denying Innovation’s natural. Innovation forced him back slowly with siege tanks. After getting his natural back, Innovation went on the offensive with his bio tank medivac force with scvs to build bunkers. Rain had gone for DTs, so he had no splash damage to deal with the force and even though the DTs did massive economic damage by countering, he had no answer for Innovation’s army and died.
Game One - Akilon Wastes: Last started with reaper bunker aggression, going triple orbitals and hellions behind it. Life was able to hold it off, but was behind economically. Life took the map with lings and killed the reaper hellions and did some harass. Life tried a ling/bane bust, but Last was able to split and deal with it fine. Last moved out with bio medivac widow mines and Life dealt badly with the army as he lost too much to the mines. This let Last hit a strong timing as Life was transitioning into brood lords, killing the Zerg main and fourth base. Down in supply, army, and tech, Life GG'd.
Game Four - Whirlwind: Last opened up with a very risky three factory blue flame hellion build, which was designed to brutalize Life's economy. However, Life being Life actually just did not care one little bit, and managed to kill upwards of 20 hellions with only speedlings, while losing around 20 drones of his own. Life then transitioned into swarm hosts to counter Last's mech, as both players powered forwards towards their ultimate armies. Life was doing standard Life-ish roach runbys, doing his best to shut down Last's economy. Things were looking good for the StarTale Zerg, but decided to take a poor engagement to defend his expansion closest to the pushing Terran. He lost several roaches and key swarm hosts, putting him behind. From there Last was able to keep pushing forward, and Life was unable to muster another army large enough to challenge it.
Game One - Newkirk City: Bomber opened with the marine CC widow mine build, and MC did a stargate expand. MC did some damage with phoenixes and used them with an oracle to kill all of the widow mines in Bomber’s mineral line. MC followed it up with a 2 base collosus gateway attack that did substantial damage. It was held off, but the damage was done so Bomber decided he should try to counter all-in. He tried to do a mass drop in the main and push in the natural, but both were crushed and MC took game 1.
Game Two - Star Station: Both players opened the same as the previous game, and MC once again succeeded in defending against the Turbovac™ widow mine harass with phoenixes, while doing heavy damage to Bomber's SCV line with oracles. MC teched up to storm and took a third base, while building up a healthy phoenix count to shut down any medivac drops. MC's lead just grew and grew, and Bomber was forced to all in with his SCV's in an attempt to break through the SK Protoss's high templars. It was a desperate last ditch effort and ultimately futile, as MC mopped up the remainders of Bomber's army with ease.
Game Three - Whirlwind: The final game of the series was as one-sided as the previous games. Bomber went CC first, and MC responded by killing several of Bomber's marines with oracles and then walking up Bomber's ramp with the follow up four gate attack.
Game One - Cloud Kingdom: Flash opted for a WoL build, proxy marauders. Innovation's more modern and up to date reapers were not enough to deal with it, and despite some cute micro he was forced out of a very quick game.
Game Two - Neo Planet S: Both players mirrored each other in openers, with a reactor expand into fast starport. Innovation chose to go for a hellion drop off the back of this, however Flash foresaw this and shut it down with vikings. Flash chose to go into a very hellion heavy mech strategy, while Innovation preferred bio. Both armies clashed outside Innovation's third, before the game settled down again into a normal midgame. Innovation kept the pressure up on Flash, utilizing the medivacs very potently, drawing Flash's army out of position before running in elsewhere to try and pick off tanks.
Innovation applied heavy pressure to both Flash's third and fourth at the same time, trying to stretch Flash's decision making and multitasking as much as possible. While it looked for a while that Flash had the advantage and could start an attack of his own, Innovation was relentless with his aggression and eventually Flash had too few tanks to securely hold his fourth. He was forced to give it up, and eventually Innovation's bio army broke through his last defensive siege line and evened the series up.
Game Three - Whirlwind: Flash opened with an extremely greedy build as he went CC first, then two more barracks, then another CC. Innovation with his reactor expand failed to punish it early on, however as soon as he caught whiff of what Flash was doing immediately elevatored his marines and hellions into Flash's main. Decent damage was done, but nothing game ending and both players took their thirds and transitioned into the mid game. Innovation slowly fell behind in supply, as his drops were cleaned up and his marine tank force caught out of position once or twice. With Flash's army encroaching upon his third, Innovation decided that the best response would be a doom drop into Flash's main. The KT Terran dawdled for a few moments, before deciding to give up a chunk of his main while going for a counter doom-drop of his own. After the drops were cleaned up on both sides, Innovation ended up having lost a little less less than Flash, though Flash's superior base count meant they were still fairly even.
The end game phase of the game saw Flash taking every base he could while occasionally doom dropping, while Innovation kept up constant aggression with his drops of his own. Despite Flash being ahead of Innovation in nearly every aspect, the game still went down to the wire as one big doom drop still had the power to swing the game. This ended up being the case, as simultaneous drops saw Flash losing his main, natural and all production facilities while Innovation literally lost all his buildings apart from one. It took a few minutes, but Flash eventually realized his remaining army was a lot bigger than Innovation's, and proceeded to kill it and take the game.
Game Four - Daybreak: Innovation opened with a fast one base widow mine drop, which was easily shut down by his opponent's reactor expand into 1-1-1 style attack. A follow up push from Flash did little damage, until Innovation flew a medivac loaded with his entire army into Flash's viking and marines, losing it without unloading anything. Flash only needed to push into Innovation's natural and kill all the SCV's to take the series in a rather anti-climactic final game.
Game One - Cloud Kingdom: Life opened with a standard three hatch while MC opened with a forge FE. MC followed up with some stargate play, mixing in a single oracle with his phoenixes to do some minor damage to Life. MC tried to take his third quickly on the back of that, but had it almost immediately destroyed when Life struck with a hydralisk timing off of two bases. Life tried to continue to push into MC's natural, but was forced to retreat once MC got two colossi out. However, Life had been preparing to tech-switch into mutalisks in the meanwhile, and MC GG'd out after being caught with insufficient anti air defenses.
Game Two - Whirlwind: MC tried to go blind nexus first against a fast pool on a four player map and died a swift death.
Game Three - Akilon Wastes: MC went for a rare fast colossus build off of two bases, but couldn't get his crucial colossus out in time to stop Life's fast roach-ling aggression. While MC did manage to hold the attack off once he got two colossi out, he had taken too much damage and was left far behind. Life transitioned into mutalisks and stayed around 90 supply ahead of MC, eventually winning in a one-sided base trade when MC went for a hail mary attack.
Game One - Cloud Kingdom: MC played aggressively against Innovation, going for blink stalkers which were followed by DT harassment. Innovation was able to defend without much trouble, and ran over MC with his superior army for the victory.
Game Two - Whirlwind: MC went for the fast oracle build that had worked so well for him thus far in the tournament. It proved to be up to the task again, as a big attack of gateway units supported by five oracles was enough to bust through Innovation's defenses and take the game.
Game Three - Daybreak: In game three, Innovation decided to play defensively with mines, anticipating MC's stargate aggression. This paid off big for Innovation, as he was able to shut down MC's oracle play and make his stargate tech useless. With that advantage, Innovation was able to power up on bio and smash through MC in a head on attack.
Game One - Neo Planet S: Life tried out a 10 pool against Flash, but didn't find any weaknesses to take advantage of as Flash just scouted and opened with a barracks first. Flash took an economic lead as both players transitioned into a standard game, but Life put himself back on more level terms with an off-beat ling-speedbane timing as Flash tried to secure his third base. From there Life transitioned to his favored muta-ling-bane style against Flash's widow mine supported bio. Life did a good job defending against Flash's drops, making sure he didn't take any serious damage. Over the course of multiple skirmishes Life came out slowly ahead, able to secure more and more bases while teching to ultralisks and vipers. With a massive, coordinated attack on all of Flash's remaining bases, Life finished Flash off and took game one.
Game Two - Whirlwind: Life opened with a 10 pool against Flash's wall-off CC first build, killing 3 SCVs before transitioning to a macro game. Flash was able to hit a good timing with bio, medivacs, and widow mines just as Life was transitioning to muta-ling-bane. Two critical widow mine hits during an important early battle turned the tide in Flash's favor, and he took a quick win.
Game Three - Akilon Flats: After some standard macro openers on both sides, Life decided to go for a ling-speedbane timing similar to the one that succeeded in game one. Everything fell in place for it to succeed, as Flash had no idea it was coming and was out of position. In addition Flash even flubbed his micro at a critical juncture, allowing banelings to do maximum damage. With zerglings running amok all around his expansions, Flash surrendered.GG.
Game Four - Newkirk City: Flash went for his trademark proxy two-rax, the build that helped him win championships since 2007. Life became the build's next victim, and he GG'd out after he failed to defend.
Game Five - Cloud Kingdom: Life decided there was no need to diverge from a winning formula, going yet again for his 1/1 ling-speedbane timing attack off three bases. Once again, it worked wonders for Life as he was able to put Flash severely behind economically. From there, Life continuously attacked with mutas, zerglings, and banelings until Flash was forced to surrender.
Game Six - Daybreak: Game six saw both players agreeing to play a macro game, with Life again going for his preferred muta-ling-bane composition while Flash went for his marine-marauder-medivac army with widow mine support. The momentum swung in Life's direction early, as Flash's first serious move out with MMM was defeated by Life's army. Flash tried to keep attacking up the middle while dropping simultaneously, but good defense from Life saw him pull more and more ahead. It looked like Flash had a chance going into the late game as he managed to secure four bases, but he wasn't able to prepare enough for Life's successful transition into brood lords. Flash struggled to fight against the brood lord task force Life assembled and GG'd out after his bases were demolished one by one.
Great games! One of the better MLGs in a long time. I thought Innovation vs Flash was one of the best TvTs I've ever seen. Finals had a lot of suspense but Flash tore my heart going the same strat vs muta ling bane 3 games in a row while he didn't even come close to winning.
I like how people were complaining that Terran was OP, then MC proceeded to make the Terran players he faced (Code S level players) look like fodder. It just goes to show we were quick to jump the gun, what may seem OP today could be obsolete tomorrow as people figure out HotS more and more. Anyone else notice Life trigger mines with few lings and then run them into the Terran bio?
Unfortunately for Flash he had like 2-3 weeks to practice HOTS..He had awful Widow mines control or maybe widow mines are really that unreliable? ..Who knows. PS: I'm sad that another tournament was won by a Zerg yet again.
On March 18 2013 19:30 p14c wrote: Unfortunately for Flash he had like 2-3 weeks to practice HOTS..He had awful Widow mines control or maybe widow mines are really that unreliable? ..Who knows. PS: I'm sad that another tournament was won by a Zerg yet again.
Despite life winning, i'm very impressed by Flash's play and progress as a player. His multi-tasking, mechanics and decision making is better than MVP at his prime with only a few weeks/months of hots. Can't wait to see him play in the next tourney.
On March 18 2013 19:30 p14c wrote: Unfortunately for Flash he had like 2-3 weeks to practice HOTS..He had awful Widow mines control or maybe widow mines are really that unreliable? ..Who knows. PS: I'm sad that another tournament was won by a Zerg yet again.
You're funny. If i remember correctly Day9 said he ranked first in the HotS beta.
On March 18 2013 19:30 p14c wrote: Unfortunately for Flash he had like 2-3 weeks to practice HOTS..He had awful Widow mines control or maybe widow mines are really that unreliable? ..Who knows. PS: I'm sad that another tournament was won by a Zerg yet again.
You're funny. If i remember correctly Day9 said he ranked first in the HotS beta.
Nice read. I usually don't care for TL's opinion on who's "best player in the world this week", but Life is truly on another level than most everyone else. I wish Mvp had this kind of hype going when he was "in his prime" so to speak. Thank you for the article.
Blinding Cloud owns tanks and PFs and the hook owns Widow Mines (unburrows them so no danger). And the hook + neural owns ravens + the opponents army. Good thing Terrans are used to be fighting without AoE. But the way the games plays atm it should be easy for a terran to get Ghosts out. Unless they skip Siege tanks in the Midgame.
MLG was pretty nice and I liked the get all the games, but would prefer a group stage at the start even if I miss a few games ... but I hope they don't do a showmatch qualifier again.
On March 18 2013 19:30 p14c wrote: Unfortunately for Flash he had like 2-3 weeks to practice HOTS..He had awful Widow mines control or maybe widow mines are really that unreliable? ..Who knows. PS: I'm sad that another tournament was won by a Zerg yet again.
Haha^^ There were two Terran, one Zerg and one Toss left in the semis and people are still able to complain about zerg or balance? :D Have you ever thought about that maybe Life is a freakin' beast and played better than his opponents?
Astonishing play by Life, loved every second of championship Sunday. The other two days were a lot of one-sided games, but hey, who cares with such an awesome final. Thanks for the article, I really like those recaps.
U noe it is 7.30am at +8GMT time zone when Finals happened. MOnday! Go work, and missed the finals. And didnt slp whole night, slp at work. Almost get caught...
Reached home, didnt sleep, read the article. Hoping to watch Vods...
On March 18 2013 19:30 p14c wrote: Unfortunately for Flash he had like 2-3 weeks to practice HOTS..He had awful Widow mines control or maybe widow mines are really that unreliable? ..Who knows. PS: I'm sad that another tournament was won by a Zerg yet again.
Haha^^ There were two Terran, one Zerg and one Toss left in the semis and people are still able to complain about zerg or balance? :D Have you ever thought about that maybe Life is a freakin' beast and played better than his opponents?
More importantly, in the Round of 16, Every Zerg left facing a terran (excepting Life) was 3-0'd, and before you scream Korean vs Foreigner, so was leenock. Additionally, the Zerg facing a toss was 3-1'd, and even Life had to pull out a 3-2 victory (though admittedly he was playing Polt).
On March 18 2013 19:20 Gihi wrote: Great games! One of the better MLGs in a long time. I thought Innovation vs Flash was one of the best TvTs I've ever seen. Finals had a lot of suspense but Flash tore my heart going the same strat vs muta ling bane 3 games in a row while he didn't even come close to winning.
I don't know - previous one was pretty epic as well...
Good event but I still feel it's quite a terrible game at the moment. PvZ and TvP feel fucked to be honest. Couldn;t help but feel P is forced to play aggressively in TvP or just die to medivacs, if they invest in too much defense against drops they just die on the ground (phoenix for example are nice at stopping drops but just suck for anything else). Z is also forced to play aggressive in PvZ to not die to the deathball, for example MC just died to 3 aggressive early plays which are not difficult to stop at all.
Despite Z winning they are definately weakest, they just hardly get anything useful while there are a couple more openings to surprise them with. Their lategame composition is pretty much nerfed to death as well. Life won the event but basically on WoL units alone and by being aggressive or gaining big advantages early on. I feel if flash used tanks / widow mines for defense a little better early on he would have beaten Life too
On March 18 2013 19:30 p14c wrote: Unfortunately for Flash he had like 2-3 weeks to practice HOTS..He had awful Widow mines control or maybe widow mines are really that unreliable? ..Who knows. PS: I'm sad that another tournament was won by a Zerg yet again.
You're funny. If i remember correctly Day9 said he ranked first in the HotS beta.
Yeah that was MarineKing, not flash. Flash stated that he hadnt played the beta at because of proleague all when it was already ended, and that he just now felt he was starting to get a grasp on wol. So yeah...
I think Flash will win this code S or next. It seems he still hasnt played the game long enough to perfect more than one strategy in some matchups (tvz) which shows in his lack of versatility.
Flash was so obviously far from where he was in BW and where he will probably be in HOTS in two months. He had no build involving Tanks, he didn't know the "standard" Zerg builds, he didn't do a good job scouting Muta transitions, and his awareness of his own WMs was pretty poor.
This is just the beginning of a rivalry for the ages
Good thing that Life stepped up and showed that Zerg is useful, and patch Zergs have just practiced and mastered a useless skill set. Granted he is on another level than everyone else, but if every Zerg out there just practiced extreme defense leading to "the creeping death", also known as brofester, it is clear that their skill set will not be applicable to more aggressive styles of play (to be fair players like Nestea have said that the play style of Life is too hard to pull off). Even so I hope they don't do any balance patches to buff Zerg for the next long time, and we get allot of Zergs who play aggressively, it is really fun to watch!
Edit: Life's play style might be really effective because he is the only one who does it, and if more zergs did it, more P and T would know what to do against it. In that case a buff would be fine.
This MLG was one of, if not the most entertaining tournament for me in all of SC2. I was hoping for a Flash vs Life finals since the Ro16, and they sure delivered!
Zerg became fun to watch again- ling bling muta into ultras is thrilling and fast paced, especially against marine/tank/widowmine.
Life's games were every bit the "fun" as WoL in its heyday- I really, really enjoyed this tournament. The BL/Infestor turtle is clearly dead. The only changes I'd make is to have a better way for Phoenix/Viking to catch turbovacs- Mutas were able to catch them sometimes between turbos.
On March 18 2013 22:59 Nosferatos wrote: People must remember that most of the zergs where foreigners, so the race raito is a bit scewd cause they all had such a bad showing.
op implies that Flash didn't "succeed" Flash got second place. 1 month ago, he was considered a mid code-A player caliber, yet this tournament, he was able to get to second place among all the elite competition. That's top-tier code S material. I would say that's a success.
I admit, Life is hella good, but I feel this tournament gave me hope, as a flash fan, instead of disappointment. It showed me the rate of improvement of flash. From a bw legend to mild success in sc2 to a top code-s level player all within a couple months.
I think its slightly early to call anything about who the future of hots is, I mean obviously life will always be super scary, but lets not forget majority of KeSPA players have played this game counting days, not even weeks, cause thats how pl was scheduled. This tournament has made me incredibly excited for the next season of GSL, and as teams adjust strategies and actually figure some stuff out, i expect epicness beyond anything we have seen in WoL. Great tournament, Flash vs Innovation is the series to watch, games 2 and 3 are the perfect showing of how both these guys are different, but absolutely the best in their respective styles.
On March 18 2013 22:59 Nosferatos wrote: People must remember that most of the zergs where foreigners, so the race raito is a bit scewd cause they all had such a bad showing.
Leenock is a top teir Zerg
But it was 1 series. Who are we to determine balance off of 1 Bo5?
Let's give a time before we conclude that Zergs are underpowered and need range 7 queens :p
He played great despite relatively little HotS practice, and has already shown that like in BW, he is the kind of player that just gets better and better. Indeed, Life is the beginning of a new generation, but Flash is still young.
I wouldn't be surprised if Flash and Life end up playing each other in code S. Let's enjoy the show of a new rivalry.
Yeah! Now Zerg can stop bitching about Terran and Toss being OP. I hate the poor me shit we hear all day every day from the Zerg babies! lol But Im sure they'll find something else to cry about until Blizzard changes something to get a break from all the bitching haha
Fantastic writeup, you really illustrate the symbolic significance of a Flash vs Life finals. I have been curious for a while why Zergs don't use speed overlords to pop mines before a big engagement. Is it just too wasteful economically? Flank over the Terran army with 6 Overlords, pop all the mines (they take 2 hits, less if you factor in marine fire) and rush in with ling-bling against a Terran army with no splash. Pure theory-craft of course.
I feel, this article is a bit onsided. Like "Life is here, Flash can retire now". But maybe I am wrong with that.
Also I think, that Flash did not really well in the final. It seems to me, he could do better but was not prepared for the style, life played in the final. After all, I am glad, that Terran is only semi-imba and can be beaten.
Flash v Bly (who I hope gets more and more credit for that series, really amazing play on both sides) MVP v Feast (another foreigner who did alot better than the series score would indicate) Life v Polt (pretty sure this series is what taught Life what he needed to learn to smash Flash's lets dot he same imba thing a million times in a roll strategy, also was just a great series all around) Grand finals were great if only to sit there slack-jawed at how near-perfect Life's play was.
I thought Flash vs Bogus on Whirlwind was an epic game and definitely the best of the tournament. The skill level in that game was insane. Also, Flash's progress is great, I can't wait to see more of him!
Also, great MLG overall! The most entertaining tournament I've seen in many months.
i get the feeling that HotS has that BW "thing" about fast games and skill (combination of APM and decision making), still it will never be BW, mainly cause its another era for esports... but the future is bright
On March 19 2013 01:46 THM wrote: I thought Flash vs Bogus on Whirlwind was an epic game and definitely the best of the tournament. The skill level in that game was insane. Also, Flash's progress is great, I can't wait to see more of him!
Also, great MLG overall! The most entertaining tournament I've seen in many months.
Again I still think that previous MLG was at least as good. The Life-Flash 2-0 to 2-4, the incredible come back in the ZvZ final (I know - sad mirror matchup but that one was stellar example of it) between Life and Leenock, the NaNiwa Flash 2-1 to 3-4, the Life-TaeJa hard stomp 2-0 to 4-0. If I remember correctly the Bomber appearance was also quite memorable (semifinal after beating Rain 2-0).
On March 19 2013 02:21 MiQ wrote: Hopefully Flash vs Life will become what Flash vs JD once was, an epic rivalry! No doubt we'll see them in future finals.
It was a great event overall. The crowd was kind of pityful but that's pretty much it.
I believe Polt/Last vs Life were a lot closer matches and generally better TvZ. The final was extremely entertaining but partially because it was the Flash and the Life. Objectively, Life was able to outplay his opponent and few respectable tricks of former "god" weren't enough to change the final result.
Life is just so fast and perfect with all his actions it's crazy.
Funny thing I noticed: while the mines really had incredible hits and really killed huge ballds of lings and banes, they were also kind of unreliable at time, not triggering or triggering only when their splash damage hits the terran units too.
I think that needs to be looked at. It really seemed hard for both player to predict when and where the mines would connect, adding a stupidly random element to what was an incredible micro battle.
On March 18 2013 19:30 p14c wrote: Unfortunately for Flash he had like 2-3 weeks to practice HOTS..He had awful Widow mines control or maybe widow mines are really that unreliable? ..Who knows. PS: I'm sad that another tournament was won by a Zerg yet again.
You're funny. If i remember correctly Day9 said he ranked first in the HotS beta.
well flash was way to predictible for life imho, he played the same builds, except 2x racks rush. i wish he would be more aggresive, but he couldnt, cuz life oppened like everytime with early pool and thank good flash predicted it aswell. and for those who think bogus had way better chances cuz he overroled leenock so hard, bogus would be a freewin for life in first 3 sets cuz of the early pools+aggressions from life.
ps: not a single reaper/helion build vs life, but lots in past vs z games and mostly wins.
On March 19 2013 03:17 AceOfCakez wrote: Day 1 was pretty lame cuz of all the ggvacs and Winmines. But Day 2 and Day 3 were pretty darn good.
You are kiding aren't you? First day was foreigners getting stomped by koreans (who admittedly happened to be terran) and this is only a matter of practice and skill not of z,t,p or balance. No one can expect in such a ro32 that foreigners performe well... too staked.
On March 19 2013 03:32 Cattlecruiser wrote: The results are alarming for the foreign scene. Hoped that HoTS would balance out the gap, but it is looking pretty grim.
Indeed. No chance for foreigners versus korea. No wonder! Just watch GSL and Proleague and enjoy the show
Nice writeup! And I really like Life playstyle... in some games Flash looked so beaten. But I have to say that I am impressed still by Flash's progress to get to finals and win against so many good opponents. The Future looks really great!
On March 18 2013 22:33 Chronos. wrote: This MLG was one of, if not the most entertaining tournament for me in all of SC2. I was hoping for a Flash vs Life finals since the Ro16, and they sure delivered!
This x42, SUPER entertaining tournament + gave me hope as a struggling Zerg player
cant rly understand why all other zergs failed so hard. i mean vs terran lifes style its the same wol ling/bling style + mutas (not killable with mines) lategame + adding vipers swarmclowd, what makes tanks useless. why cant stefano play the same old imba style? Oo
On March 19 2013 03:32 Cattlecruiser wrote: The results are alarming for the foreign scene. Hoped that HoTS would balance out the gap, but it is looking pretty grim.
I would say it is still too early to really tell one way or the other. The game just game out.
On March 19 2013 04:27 jeri wrote: cant rly understand why all other zergs failed so hard. i mean vs terran lifes style its the same wol ling/bling style + mutas (not killable with mines) lategame + adding vipers swarmclowd, what makes tanks useless. why cant stefano play the same old imba style? Oo
Life makes it work because he's mechanically and strategically superior to everyone else.
While I still enjoyed the tournament, I really disliked that there wasn't a losers bracket. I would have liked to see how far Polt and Last could have gotten if they didn't have the misfortune of playing Life.
I liked the casting by TB / Incontrol and I hope we'll see more of that.
It was actually refreshing to have casters who don't overhype things and who criticize a player's move when it's bad. Not all storms need to be amazing, not every engagement need to inflict "terrible terrible damage". It's nice when the casters cut the crap and just say : "that's not gonna cut it" in the middle of the main engagement when it's obvious one player is way ahead.
Some games are just ordinary, boring games or flat out bad. That's ok to say it like it is. I wish more casters would go that route.
For the best game of the tournament : I havn't seen them all but damn... Flash vs Innovation on whirlwind was really impressive.
The article is spot on about Flash and Life. That will be a great story to follow. And epic rivalry is always good for show and therefore esport.
Overall great tournament. The only real defaults imo : from the stream, the live public seemed really sparse and apathetic. And the downtime... I know it's MLG and all but geez -_-'
On March 19 2013 03:32 Cattlecruiser wrote: The results are alarming for the foreign scene. Hoped that HoTS would balance out the gap, but it is looking pretty grim.
Well, I think HotS is just harder for all three races, therefore it's quite obvious that the foreigner have a hard time catching up. I always expected the difference to be bigger than it was in WoL, simply because it's the harder game now.
Welcome to the future? You mean the past, right? All the zergs had been lamenting the state of HotS as they got annihilated by terrans and protoss unleashing a year of pent-up frustration, but Life seemed to be in total denial that the Lings of Liberty era was over. Whereas other zergs were trying to "adapt" with new HotS compositions like roach/hydra/viper, Life carried on like HotS had never happened, rolling over opponents with good old-fashioned muta/ling/bane and barely using the new units. Life tried out vipers game 1 but after he was just like nah and didn't touch them again. He didn't make one swarm host the entire finals.
As if to underline the point, Life cleaned up Flash in the last game with broodlords and infestors, as if completely oblivious to the fact that they, and zergs, were supposed to roll over and die in this new HotS era. There's been a lot of crying by zerg about imbalance, but in the end, only Life was able to "adapt" by simply pretending HotS never happened and winning like it was still the height of Lings of Liberty.
On March 19 2013 04:27 jeri wrote: cant rly understand why all other zergs failed so hard. i mean vs terran lifes style its the same wol ling/bling style + mutas (not killable with mines) lategame + adding vipers swarmclowd, what makes tanks useless. why cant stefano play the same old imba style? Oo
Life makes it work because he's mechanically and strategically superior to everyone else.
imho violet is at the same level, atleast i thought so on last iem, but he couldnt get to the top aswell.
On March 19 2013 05:09 Evil_Sheep wrote: Welcome to the future? You mean the past, right? All the zergs had been lamenting the state of HotS as they got annihilated by terrans and protoss unleashing a year of pent-up frustration, but Life seemed to be in total denial that the Lings of Liberty era was over. Whereas other zergs were trying to "adapt" with new HotS compositions like roach/hydra/viper, Life carried on like HotS had never happened, rolling over opponents with good old-fashioned muta/ling/bane and barely using the new units. Life tried out vipers game 1 but after he was just like nah and didn't touch them again. He didn't make one swarm host the entire finals.
As if to underline the point, Life cleaned up Flash in the last game with broodlords and infestors, as if completely oblivious to the fact that they, and zergs, were supposed to roll over and die in this new HotS era. There's been a lot of crying by zerg about imbalance, but in the end, only Life was able to "adapt" by simply pretending HotS never happened and winning like it was still the height of Lings of Liberty.
only use for vipers, is when terran rolling hard with tanks grip+cloud = gg.
It looks like it might be similar to WoL where MC is the only protoss that ever wins (relatively speaking). I think in WoL, if you took out MC's winnings, protoss would have about 1/10th the winnings of terran or zerg. It did seem like with the current dropship meta, Protoss will either have to kill the terran early on with oracles before they can get sufficient anti air or play super defensive. Innovation started figuring out how to counter MC's early air harass build. Admittedly Bly took a game off Flash, which was impressive, and Thorzain got pretty thumped by Killer, but overall, Leenock getting rolled by Innovation was actually a joke. Life's micro and game sense were absolutely absurd. Ling bane muta micro is so risky now and unless you've got multitasking of a prodigy, I doubt anyone else can pull that off for a while.
On March 18 2013 19:30 p14c wrote: Unfortunately for Flash he had like 2-3 weeks to practice HOTS..He had awful Widow mines control or maybe widow mines are really that unreliable? ..Who knows. PS: I'm sad that another tournament was won by a Zerg yet again.
I think it's interesting that many people thought that HotS would be a fresh start and that lower level players in WoL would be able to take advantage of superior experience and an unstable metagame in Hots to upset more established player, but for the most part, it's been the opposite.
MC was the only player to advance through using "gimmicky HotS strategies", but even he utilized amazing execution and micro. The other top 4 (Life, Flash, Bogus) are all players that you'd say are just innately insanely good at Starcraft. Upsets were at a bare minimum throughout the entire tournament, and it'll be interesting to see if that trend continues in future tournaments (or even increases as the metagame establishes itself)
tl;dr HotS is looking incredibly skill based thus far.
Flash, who celebrated joyfully after winning his first major championship, might have been amused by the demeanor his successor. In any case, he can be assured that until the day that he should reclaim the title of best player in the world, it rests in good hands.
You can't really compare a BW 2008 Starleague to an MLG
Flash, who celebrated joyfully after winning his first major championship, might have been amused by the demeanor his successor. In any case, he can be assured that until the day that he should reclaim the title of best player in the world, it rests in good hands.
You can't really compare a BW 2008 Starleague to an MLG
No shit. An article that was essentially a long winded way of saying "Life beat Flash and Life is young but Flash is old now so life is the new Flash QED" after an MLG weekend tournament in a game that came out a week ago is maybe overstating the case.
On March 18 2013 19:30 p14c wrote: Unfortunately for Flash he had like 2-3 weeks to practice HOTS..He had awful Widow mines control or maybe widow mines are really that unreliable? ..Who knows. PS: I'm sad that another tournament was won by a Zerg yet again.
Are you fucking kidding me? Did you even watch the games? Life won because he was far and away the much superior player than Flash. Life was easily the best player at MLG. Every other zerg got crushed by terran while he was the only one in the RO8.
Life was just amazing... yet he barely scraped by vs First and Polt. It certainly wasn't complete domination by him and several times I felt he might lose it. I actually think Innovation could have beaten him after watching him dismantle Leenock.
I also wanted to add that Flash's macro is a really high level... like MVP level. He does still make micro mistakes though under pressure.
I'm glad life won, honestly. I think Flash is over-hyped. The guy is damn good, and he might have been the best thing ever in Brood War, but the sentiment surrounding him was the same as it was around Life when he first hopped into the scene. I think he will be very, very good in the future, but Life is still on his own level.
When you look at the 2 games Life lost as well, they weren't nearly as dominating as the games Life won. A 2 rax, poorly defended, and another game where Flash admittedly played very well. I'm not taking anything away from him, obviously getting to the finals and beating Parting/Innovation is no small feat, but I'm simply saying that he certainly isn't going to be the god of Starcraft II anytime soon.
And while I believe everything I just wrote, I'm fully prepared to eat my words if necessary.
ITT: Life being overhyped. He pretty much rolled Flash, yes, but I think that was also hugely because Flash was unprepared. You would have to be blind not to recognize that.
Life played amazing otherwise, but like others have mentioned I too felt Life could have lost it against Polt and Last. I understand that this is probably a very emotional triumph for Zerg/ESF fans though.
HOTS is still very new. While the top tier players now are likely to remain at the top, new ones are still very likely to break into these ranks. And shuffling of positions amongst the top will be inevitable.
All Matches were great. But the be honest. Flash did not look to be prepared at all. he got caught so many times by this massive baneling Zergling bust. Lost twice his Helions. I dont even see the sence to Skip Widdowmines for fast Medivacs against this aggresive style. I expected more Scouting by flash in the last series after the first game. Most of the Games would have been much closer if he had 1 or 2 Widdowmines in the right places. Especially on Cloud Kingdom. no Overseers with this huge Bane/Ling composition just overrun the depo wall and the marines with their medivacs :/
On March 19 2013 15:55 fluidin wrote: ITT: Life being overhyped. He pretty much rolled Flash, yes, but I think that was also hugely because Flash was unprepared. You would have to be blind not to recognize that.
Life played amazing otherwise, but like others have mentioned I too felt Life could have lost it against Polt and Last. I understand that this is probably a very emotional triumph for Zerg/ESF fans though.
HOTS is still very new. While the top tier players now are likely to remain at the top, new ones are still very likely to break into these ranks. And shuffling of positions amongst the top will be inevitable.
Life is not overhyped. He is arguably the best player in the world now. If anything,he deserves the hype.
The only Royal Roader in SC2. Pulling a fruitdealer-esque run in the first HotS run when the rest of the zergs has fallen.
Sure Polt and Last almost beat Life but Life have always been clutch. Remember Leenock vs Life? Or the reverse 0-3 to 4-3 against DRG?
On March 19 2013 15:55 fluidin wrote: ITT: Life being overhyped. He pretty much rolled Flash, yes, but I think that was also hugely because Flash was unprepared. You would have to be blind not to recognize that.
Life played amazing otherwise, but like others have mentioned I too felt Life could have lost it against Polt and Last. I understand that this is probably a very emotional triumph for Zerg/ESF fans though.
HOTS is still very new. While the top tier players now are likely to remain at the top, new ones are still very likely to break into these ranks. And shuffling of positions amongst the top will be inevitable.
Life is not overhyped. He is arguably the best player in the world now. If anything,he deserves the hype.
The only Royal Roader in SC2. Pulling a fruitdealer-esque run in the first HotS run when the rest of the zergs has fallen.
Sure Polt and Last almost beat Life but Life have always been clutch. Remember Leenock vs Life? Or the reverse 0-3 to 4-3 against DRG?
And he is only 16 years old. Life is a prodigy.
RorO begs to differ. Life still has something to prove, but he is going the right direction.
On March 19 2013 15:55 fluidin wrote: ITT: Life being overhyped. He pretty much rolled Flash, yes, but I think that was also hugely because Flash was unprepared. You would have to be blind not to recognize that.
Life played amazing otherwise, but like others have mentioned I too felt Life could have lost it against Polt and Last. I understand that this is probably a very emotional triumph for Zerg/ESF fans though.
HOTS is still very new. While the top tier players now are likely to remain at the top, new ones are still very likely to break into these ranks. And shuffling of positions amongst the top will be inevitable.
Life is not overhyped. He is arguably the best player in the world now. If anything,he deserves the hype.
The only Royal Roader in SC2. Pulling a fruitdealer-esque run in the first HotS run when the rest of the zergs has fallen.
Sure Polt and Last almost beat Life but Life have always been clutch. Remember Leenock vs Life? Or the reverse 0-3 to 4-3 against DRG?
And he is only 16 years old. Life is a prodigy.
RorO begs to differ. Life still has something to prove, but he is going the right direction.
Nah, Roro has something to prove before he can "beg to differ". 5 major tournament wins in as many months is, I believe, unmatched in Starcraft II. He still has more to do before he can legitimately be considered a "bonjwa" or whatever word you want to use for "really fucking good", but even if Life were to fall off tomorrow he'd still have one of the half-year periods of all time.
On March 19 2013 15:55 fluidin wrote: ITT: Life being overhyped. He pretty much rolled Flash, yes, but I think that was also hugely because Flash was unprepared. You would have to be blind not to recognize that.
Life played amazing otherwise, but like others have mentioned I too felt Life could have lost it against Polt and Last. I understand that this is probably a very emotional triumph for Zerg/ESF fans though.
HOTS is still very new. While the top tier players now are likely to remain at the top, new ones are still very likely to break into these ranks. And shuffling of positions amongst the top will be inevitable.
I agree with everything except Life being overhyped... how can somebody who has 2 GSL championships, back to back MLG wins, and multiple amazing performances be overhyped? He is very obviously the best player if not top 2 or 3 MAYBE players in the world. You can't really "overhype" that.
On March 19 2013 15:55 fluidin wrote: ITT: Life being overhyped. He pretty much rolled Flash, yes, but I think that was also hugely because Flash was unprepared. You would have to be blind not to recognize that.
Life played amazing otherwise, but like others have mentioned I too felt Life could have lost it against Polt and Last. I understand that this is probably a very emotional triumph for Zerg/ESF fans though.
HOTS is still very new. While the top tier players now are likely to remain at the top, new ones are still very likely to break into these ranks. And shuffling of positions amongst the top will be inevitable.
Life is not overhyped. He is arguably the best player in the world now. If anything,he deserves the hype.
The only Royal Roader in SC2. Pulling a fruitdealer-esque run in the first HotS run when the rest of the zergs has fallen.
Sure Polt and Last almost beat Life but Life have always been clutch. Remember Leenock vs Life? Or the reverse 0-3 to 4-3 against DRG?
And he is only 16 years old. Life is a prodigy.
RorO begs to differ. Life still has something to prove, but he is going the right direction.
RorO has 1 GSL championship. Life has 2, 2 MLGs, and 1st place in Iron Squid 2 after a reverse sweep of DRG. RorO is certainly good but he is so far from the proper example to disprove Life's ability.
On March 19 2013 15:55 fluidin wrote: ITT: Life being overhyped. He pretty much rolled Flash, yes, but I think that was also hugely because Flash was unprepared. You would have to be blind not to recognize that.
Life played amazing otherwise, but like others have mentioned I too felt Life could have lost it against Polt and Last. I understand that this is probably a very emotional triumph for Zerg/ESF fans though.
HOTS is still very new. While the top tier players now are likely to remain at the top, new ones are still very likely to break into these ranks. And shuffling of positions amongst the top will be inevitable.
Life is not overhyped. He is arguably the best player in the world now. If anything,he deserves the hype.
The only Royal Roader in SC2. Pulling a fruitdealer-esque run in the first HotS run when the rest of the zergs has fallen.
Sure Polt and Last almost beat Life but Life have always been clutch. Remember Leenock vs Life? Or the reverse 0-3 to 4-3 against DRG?
And he is only 16 years old. Life is a prodigy.
RorO begs to differ. Life still has something to prove, but he is going the right direction.
Nah, Roro has something to prove before he can "beg to differ". 5 major tournament wins in as many months is, I believe, unmatched in Starcraft II. He still has more to do before he can legitimately be considered a "bonjwa" or whatever word you want to use for "really fucking good", but even if Life were to fall off tomorrow he'd still have one of the half-year periods of all time.
Depends on the definition. Life won 5 Premier events between his GSL and this MLG.
But if we talk about Major+ tournaments... well: MMA between June 2011 and January 2012 won 4 Premier (IEM Kiev, BlizzCup, GSL, MLG) and 1 major (GeForce Pro/Am) Mvp between 31 July and 11th December won 4 Premier (WCG, BlizzCon, GSL, MLG) and 1 major (Arena of Legends: Team Ace) MC between 10th Dec and 12th June won 2 Premier (2 x GSL) and 3 major (StarsWar Killer 6, DreamHack Invitational and Copenhagen Spring of Games). DRG between January and June 2012 won 2 Premier (GSL, MLG Spring) and 3 major (MLG Spring Arena, FXOpen Invitational, Arena of Legends: King of Kongs)
so yea, Life is really something unseen on the scene. 5 premier titles is more than anyone except Mvp and MMA have in total and he won them so fast...
@Alryk My point is not based on number of titles but on the fact, that en route to the title, RorO crashed Life and it didn't look like much of a problem. Also season earlier Soulkey defeated Life 2-0 twice. In this MLG Life wasn't really challenged in ZvZ. Life is dominating but it looks like well prepared good zerg can give him a run for his money. Also Life has 1 GSL and 1 Blizzard Cup. Not quite the same thing.
On March 19 2013 15:55 fluidin wrote: ITT: Life being overhyped. He pretty much rolled Flash, yes, but I think that was also hugely because Flash was unprepared. You would have to be blind not to recognize that.
Life played amazing otherwise, but like others have mentioned I too felt Life could have lost it against Polt and Last. I understand that this is probably a very emotional triumph for Zerg/ESF fans though.
HOTS is still very new. While the top tier players now are likely to remain at the top, new ones are still very likely to break into these ranks. And shuffling of positions amongst the top will be inevitable.
I agree with everything except Life being overhyped... how can somebody who has 2 GSL championships, back to back MLG wins, and multiple amazing performances be overhyped? He is very obviously the best player if not top 2 or 3 MAYBE players in the world. You can't really "overhype" that.
If you read some of the comments and praise people heap on Life, you will know what I mean.
Perhaps this is also my personality of being reluctant to sing praises when not fully convinced (yet).
Just watched MLG final and that was "very interesting". Effort invested in the game victory Flash vs Life - no comment. How come that blizzard does not care about effort level, or do they? If you can win by massing t1 units in 15 minute game its fine? And the statement from Life that "zergs are weak right now" seems ridiculous if he managed to win just by t1 massing (yes he produced also other units in some games but he basically killed flash by the rush anyway), seems ridiculous. Also if you compare new units its quite a joke Terran vs Zerg and Protoss. Mines are very very conditional unit, Hellbat (personally haven't even seen that, that's how good they are and compare them with Oracle+Tempes/Locus+Viper hmm.
15 Foreigners, only 1 of which is Terran . It seems like overall foreign terrans just cant get to that same tier that foreign Zerg and Protoss are at. Dont think its really fair for Life to say that Zerg is weak because they got stomped on in this tourney considering that 8 of the 10 Zergs were foreigners and we know that the Koreans are on another level. Only 2 foreign Protoss took games off of Koreans(both of which happened to be Terran).
Best tournament so far (except of HSC), because of awesome line-up, HotS, free 720p, huge viewer-count and casters/hosts. I didnt like the noise of the other stages you could hear on the stream. Was kinda annoying, but after a few hours into the tournament I got used to it.
It's sad to even think of it, but it seems like Life is the "young blood" of the scene, bringing unbeatable mechanics and decision-making to the table. He's repeating what Flash did when Flash was first starting his career. I'm a huge fan of Flash, but I can't help to disagree with others who claim Flash is still going to improve, or that he wasn't playing to all his capabilities. If that's truly the case, what can we say about Life? 5 years his junior, major accomplishments over a ridiculous span of time, and still getting better.
Hopefully I'll be proven wrong, but it looks like Life is here to replace the kings of old.
On March 20 2013 13:51 Pasargadae wrote: Is the end of Flash?
It's sad to even think of it, but it seems like Life is the "young blood" of the scene, bringing unbeatable mechanics and decision-making to the table. He's repeating what Flash did when Flash was first starting his career. I'm a huge fan of Flash, but I can't help to disagree with others who claim Flash is still going to improve, or that he wasn't playing to all his capabilities. If that's truly the case, what can we say about Life? 5 years his junior, major accomplishments over a ridiculous span of time, and still getting better.
Hopefully I'll be proven wrong, but it looks like Life is here to replace the kings of old.
I think you underestimate what Flash has already done in SC2. He was god in Broodwar and entered SC2 with the greatest expectations possible and he is very close to fulfilling them.
That alone is an achievement hardly anyone else has reached. Jaedong, Stork, Bisu, Moon, Grubby, where are they now?
Yes, maybe Flash wont become as dominant as he was in Broodwar, but even coming close to that in SC2 would be incredible.
On March 20 2013 13:51 Pasargadae wrote: Is the end of Flash?
It's sad to even think of it, but it seems like Life is the "young blood" of the scene, bringing unbeatable mechanics and decision-making to the table. He's repeating what Flash did when Flash was first starting his career. I'm a huge fan of Flash, but I can't help to disagree with others who claim Flash is still going to improve, or that he wasn't playing to all his capabilities. If that's truly the case, what can we say about Life? 5 years his junior, major accomplishments over a ridiculous span of time, and still getting better.
Hopefully I'll be proven wrong, but it looks like Life is here to replace the kings of old.
I think you underestimate what Flash has already done in SC2. He was god in Broodwar and entered SC2 with the greatest expectations possible and he is very close to fulfilling them.
That alone is an achievement hardly anyone else has reached. Jaedong, Stork, Bisu, Moon, Grubby, where are they now?
Yes, maybe Flash wont become as dominant as he was in Broodwar, but even coming close to that in SC2 would be incredible.
When you put it that way, then yea - it is a success. However in SC2 this is only a consolation prize.
There's more prodigies than Life -- Creator and Maru are both younger than him, though haven't been nearly as successful. Dunno how much time they spend on SC2 vs school though. Leenock is close to Life in achievements and only a year older. He mentioned he doesn't go to school in an MLG interview I believe.
Why do people keep saying that tanks would have saved Flash in the last 2 games? He lost due to lack of base scan and hellion splits not unit comp. If you think he lost because lack of tanks plz reply why you think so.
he lost because he rushed marines and medivacs, instead of good scouting and a couple of mines. most of the games there were no overseer with the huge bane/ling busts. some good shoots with the mines would totally bring him on even terms..
EPT
Flash was immediately hailed as a prodigy. At the tender age of fifteen, he was already crushing seasoned veterans of several years, and showing an innate talent for the game that seemed almost supernatural. The kid looked like he was destined to go places.![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/MLG/winter2013/flashportrat.jpg)
Life didn't cause much fanfare when he arrived, largely because it was hard to pinpoint when that exactly was. Was it when he started showing up regularly on other player's streams as a pesky but skilled ladder opponent? When he became a regular in the various weekly cups of the early SC2 scene? Or was it when he scored an all-kill against TeamLiquid in the GSTL, as a member of team ZeNEX? ![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/a/a8/Metabolic_boost.gif)
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/MLG/winter2013/kekitslife.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/MLG/winter2013/bogusyo.jpg)
EG.HuK.RC in the first round, he moved on to earn an amazing 3 - 0 victory against two time MLG champion ![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/MLG/winter2013/oracleslol.jpg)
. It seems like overall foreign terrans just cant get to that same tier that foreign Zerg and Protoss are at. Dont think its really fair for Life to say that Zerg is weak because they got stomped on in this tourney considering that 8 of the 10 Zergs were foreigners and we know that the Koreans are on another level. Only 2 foreign Protoss took games off of Koreans(both of which happened to be Terran). 
