Even amidst a sea of Korean Protoss players, it's hard to make a case that sOs isn't the king. Yes, PartinG has the championships and money and Rain is the ace of the most popular team, but sOs has been the best player on by far the best team in Proleague. With an incredible 18 - 8 record (he would have more wins, but Woongjin rarely has to play an ace match), he has lead Woongjin Stars to an almost insurmountable lead atop the standings leaderboard, over ten games up on the second place teams. 8 - 4 in Heart of the Swarm so far, the player formerly known as Shy has continued his rapid pace of picking up wins in Proleague and has established himself as not only one of the very best players in KeSPA, but the entire Starcraft 2 scene.
Heading into the group, sOs' biggest challenge will most likely come in his first series against Bomber. While the Startale captain hasn't been able to make the quarterfinals since the summer of 2011 (yeah, it's really been that long, Bomber fans), Bomber's TvP is still widely regarded as the best in the world. sOs is also very strong at PvT, and will be able to test it out in the series against the Startale Terran.
sOs has disappointed before in Code S, qualifying for the first season when KeSPA was eligible only to drop straight out with a miserable performance in the Ro32, but that was over half a year ago, and this is a shot at redemption. With more experience under his belt, a strong team to practice with behind him, and an entire race rooting for him, sOs has the best shot of escaping this group and heading into the knockout rounds to make a run at the WCS Korea title.
Yes, I am picking Bomber to advance in second. Yes, I know this is a terrible decision and there is almost a 99.99% chance that he will fail me and the rest of his loyal fans, but this is one of the better groups Bomber could have asked for. He dodged the all Zerg group that could have given him lots of trouble, and he was able to keep himself out of Group B (Flash, Innovation, Life, Parting), which all the other eleven players beside Bomber can also be thankful they didn't get drawn into.
His first match is against a Protoss, which bodes well for his chances at getting into the winners match. sOs is an extremely tough opponent, and he might very well be the best Protoss in the world, but Bomber would most likely prefer to take the best Protoss in the world over a mediocre Terran or Zerg any day of the week. His TvP has always been his calling card, and if he wants to break the curse and make it into the quarterfinals after a two year hiatus, beating sOs is almost essential. Bomber is capable of beating all three players in his group, but his inconsistency and disappointing play in the deeper rounds of the GSL gives you the feeling of dread every time he enters this stage of a tournament.
Can Bomber make it out of this group? Yes. Should Bomber make it out of this group? Yes. Could he, if he makes it out of this group, even go all the way to the finals? Yes. Will Bomber more than likely get destroyed by sOs in his first match, drop down against Shine and then lose to two baneling busts in a row? ...Yes.
I still have no idea where to rank Taeja. He has the most question marks of any player this deep into the tournament. He's being used sparingly in Proleague, coming out once and a while to make a cameo performance and pick up a clutch win for his team. His wrists will always be a talking point in wondering how far he can go in this tournament, but they seem to not have caused him too many problems in the past few months, and he's made it to the Ro16 for the fifth time in a row.
There is also the issue of Taeja technically being a WCS American player who just happens to be playing in WCS Korea for one season. The Challenger League qualifying list has been posted and Taeja is on the list, confirming that he will be switching over to WCS America in the second season and leave Korea behind. So, hypothetically, Taeja could run the table, surprise everyone and win WCS Korea, but fail to qualify for WCS America Challenger and be in Code B of America next season, despite having won the hardest tournament of all three WCS regions. That would certainly be something to see, but it's highly unlikely to happen.
Winning GSL/WCS/Premiere League/Code S/Whatever you want to call it would be nice for Taeja and finally accomplish a goal many thought was coming in the summer of 2012, but his main focus could really be on qualifying for WCS America, knowing that whatever happens in Korea, he will be in the American region come season two. Taeja's track record tells us that he will advance and Bomber will fail, but I am going to do the stupid thing and bet for the opposite.
Shine makes no excuses for how he plays the game. He says he will deliver one strike per game and the entire match will come down to if that one strike can knock out his opponent or not. It's not the style that will gain him millions or fans or awards at the end of the year when we're trying to decide who had the best matches of the year, but it's a way of playing that is able to upset many players considered better than him.
You have to rank Shine at the bottom of the table when it comes to predicting the group, but I'm sure even Shine would say the same. He is technically the weakest out of the four players, but he has one shot per game to kill his opponent and gain victory. He was able to do this in the Ro32, taking out Squirtle and Keen in succession, beating players considered to be better than himself and confirming that his 'one hit KO' mantra is able to take out some of the better players in Korea.
On paper, Shine is dead. He should go 0-4 in his group, go down to Code A and maybe make it back to Code S if he gets favorable match-ups. In reality, all it takes is four games of his hail mary knock out punches to steal a quarterfinal spot from one of the three players in the group. He could surprise us all and put on a great night of macro battles against three players who are all capable of going deep into the late game, but Shine knows what he does best, and he will be revving up for that one punch that could knock out any player in the world.
Rooting for sOs here- he is likely the most solid Protoss player at the moment, and any protoss fan should know that "stability" is a rare thing amongst the progamer representatives of their race. Both terrans are damned fine to watch, but Shine...I hope his cheeses die against solid defence from the other players.
Protoss is in dire need for a player to lift up the race's spirits. The time has come for sOs to do just that and top this group so he can gain momentum to go all the way to the finals.
All my possible predictions have SoS and Taeja advancing. I'd like to say Taeja's Tvp is enough to beat SOS, but i think if they play i'd bet 60/40 in favour of SOS, same for Bomber except he'd be closer to 50/50, if this comes down to a Bomber v.s. Taeja final match which I think is most likely, i'd say that Taeja has the advantage as he beat Bogus in PL last week. Taeja and SOS advance.
On April 30 2013 08:24 asdfOu wrote: shine the new sniper?
More Line than Sniper. Sniper was very good, but boring and beat a lot of favorites. Shine just is mega aggressive and tries to beat people with one big attack.
On April 30 2013 08:19 alQahira wrote: Is there a list of most consistent code S players somewhere? Has anyone else done 5 straight Ro 16s? I wonder what the record is?
Well, up until they left Korea Nestea and MVP ofc.
NesTea had 11 straight code S seasons and only missed out on 1 code S throughout WoL.
Mvp had 10 straight code S and also only missed out on 1 season of code S in WoL.
In terms of those making deeper runs consistently, MKP is very consistent. He too is 9/10 on getting his Nestea award, and this season marks the first time he's gone out in the ro32 in over a year (he was ro16+ throughout 2012).
Symbol has gone ro8 -> ro8 -> ro16 -> finals since making code S
Leenock is 9/10 on the way to the Nestea award. As is DRG.
MC and PartinG I'd say are the only proven consistent protoss players to date. That race really has a problem with staying on top for long.
Can't forget TaeJa either. Since making code S in season 2 of 2012 he has:
Bah, Bomber is overrated. The only reason he keeps on "disappointing" is people keep overrating him. Don't get me wrong, he's good, and lately he's looking stronger than ever, but he's not, say, a potential code S champion.
Taeja and Bomber are very close in skill, but I think Taeja gets out of the group over him for one reason: his higher seeding has him opening against his choice opponent in Samsung's Shine, whereas Bomber has to start against one of the toughest opponents in the world ATM. If their positions were switched I'd say sOs & Bomber but the brackets mean I think you have to favour Taeja by a tiny margin.
Although there's a very good chance Taeja and Bomber battle it out in the final match for the second spot in the group, which is a very close match to call. When they met in last season's ro16, Taeja completely outclassed him, but in their most recent meeting at MLG, Bomber destroyed Taeja 3-0. I think there might be some mitigating factors, Taeja had lack of HotS practice due to his deep run in code S + proleague + injuries limiting practice, but still. Very close to call b/w these two. I'm going with sOs & Taeja.
Thanks FrostedMiniWheats! I was more looking for Ro 16 and above performances, which you happily provided! Would be neat to see records for consecutive Ro 16s and consecutive Ro 8s. Has anyone done Ro 4 or better more than twice in a row?
On April 30 2013 08:43 alQahira wrote: Thanks FrostedMiniWheats! I was more looking for Ro 16 and above performances, which you happily provided! Would be neat to see records for consecutive Ro 16s and consecutive Ro 8s. Has anyone done Ro 4 or better more than twice in a row?
Why none other than MVP ofc.
From August 2011- Blizzard Cup (if you count this)
On April 30 2013 08:42 Evil_Sheep wrote: Bah, Bomber is overrated. The only reason he keeps on "disappointing" is people keep overrating him. Don't get me wrong, he's good, and lately he's looking stronger than ever, but he's not, say, a potential code S champion.
Taeja and Bomber are very close in skill, but I think Taeja gets out of the group over him for one reason: his higher seeding has him opening against his choice opponent in Samsung's Shine, whereas Bomber has to start against one of the toughest opponents in the world ATM. If their positions were switched I'd say sOs & Bomber but the brackets mean I think you have to favour Taeja by a tiny margin.
Although there's a very good chance Taeja and Bomber battle it out in the final match for the second spot in the group, which is a very close match to call. When they met in last season's ro16, Taeja completely outclassed him, but in their most recent meeting at MLG, Bomber destroyed Taeja 3-0. I think there might be some mitigating factors, Taeja had lack of HotS practice due to his deep run in code S + proleague + injuries limiting practice, but still. Very close to call b/w these two. I'm going with sOs & Taeja.
Bomber is both under and over rated depending on who you talk to and their perspective on what "good" is and how to measure it.
Its mostly down to his playstyle - He plays Terran like a sledgehammer, winding back and back and back, on the verge of losing his balance and toppling over, only to then launch forward at the perfect moment and bludgeon the opponent with unstoppable force. All of the power in it relies on whether the opponent can send him off balance before the second phase of his gameplan.
On the other hand, he's really, really fucking good at making this work, and a lesser player than Bomber simply CAN'T make it work.
I just noticed that sOs has only played pvp this round in proleague with a record of 4-3. Thats all ive seen him play in Hots. I hope he is good in the other matchups. Someone has to carry the protoss hope in Code S.
To be honest I think the writer has no knowledge of the players. Why is shine going to lose 0-4? I am not a shine fan or anything but the writer just seem to not know anything about the sc2 leagues going on or even proleague.
The assumptions he make have no evidence and I think this is very poorly written.
On April 30 2013 09:36 TwentyOneJ wrote: To be honest I think the writer has no knowledge of the players. Why is shine going to lose 0-4? I am not a shine fan or anything but the writer just seem to not know anything about the sc2 leagues going on or even proleague.
The assumptions he make have no evidence and I think this is very poorly written.
12 posts and already being rude to TL writers? yeesh...
On April 30 2013 09:36 TwentyOneJ wrote: To be honest I think the writer has no knowledge of the players. Why is shine going to lose 0-4? I am not a shine fan or anything but the writer just seem to not know anything about the sc2 leagues going on or even proleague.
The assumptions he make have no evidence and I think this is very poorly written.
I really really REALLY hope your joking. -_- shine is 3-9 in proleague sOs is 18-8 The article was great. I have no clue what you're talking about with "no evidence" because its clearly there.
On April 30 2013 08:42 Evil_Sheep wrote: Bah, Bomber is overrated. The only reason he keeps on "disappointing" is people keep overrating him. Don't get me wrong, he's good, and lately he's looking stronger than ever, but he's not, say, a potential code S champion.
Taeja and Bomber are very close in skill, but I think Taeja gets out of the group over him for one reason: his higher seeding has him opening against his choice opponent in Samsung's Shine, whereas Bomber has to start against one of the toughest opponents in the world ATM. If their positions were switched I'd say sOs & Bomber but the brackets mean I think you have to favour Taeja by a tiny margin.
Although there's a very good chance Taeja and Bomber battle it out in the final match for the second spot in the group, which is a very close match to call. When they met in last season's ro16, Taeja completely outclassed him, but in their most recent meeting at MLG, Bomber destroyed Taeja 3-0. I think there might be some mitigating factors, Taeja had lack of HotS practice due to his deep run in code S + proleague + injuries limiting practice, but still. Very close to call b/w these two. I'm going with sOs & Taeja.
Bomber is both under and over rated depending on who you talk to and their perspective on what "good" is and how to measure it.
Its mostly down to his playstyle - He plays Terran like a sledgehammer, winding back and back and back, on the verge of losing his balance and toppling over, only to then launch forward at the perfect moment and bludgeon the opponent with unstoppable force. All of the power in it relies on whether the opponent can send him off balance before the second phase of his gameplan.
On the other hand, he's really, really fucking good at making this work, and a lesser player than Bomber simply CAN'T make it work.
Or at least, thats how I see it.
Definitely Bomber has an exciting playstyle and I'm personally hoping to see him advance but...we'll see. The hype train around Bomber has definitely died down a lot, but it's still rolling.
On April 30 2013 08:24 asdfOu wrote: shine the new sniper?
More Line than Sniper. Sniper was very good, but boring and beat a lot of favorites. Shine just is mega aggressive and tries to beat people with one big attack.
I could see any of Taeja/SoS/Bomber advancing. I am hoping for SoS because we need protoss in the Ro8. I think Taeja will be able to edge out bomber in TvT if it comes down to that in the winners match.
I have largely given up supporting Bomber but still always watch him just in case he shows up with his A-game (on these days he can beat anyone in the world). His macro never fails to impress. I do feel like he often tries to just win straight up with a big ball of units most of the time, I think if he worked some multi-pronged harass into some of his games things would work out a lot better for him, but he obviously dedicates more of his APM to perfect macro, rather than fancy multi-tasking.
I put Taeja/Bomber for my Liquibet (figured I would get at least 1/2 this way ) but going to predict Taeja/SoS
On April 30 2013 08:24 asdfOu wrote: shine the new sniper?
More Line than Sniper. Sniper was very good, but boring and beat a lot of favorites. Shine just is mega aggressive and tries to beat people with one big attack.
On April 30 2013 12:12 Zealgoon wrote: Shine is going to royal road this tournament. You heard it here first.
Lol I would love to see this happend, and to see increasingly creative cheeses (with proxy hatches, ninja expands, burrowed roaches rushs, vipers rush,...)
On April 30 2013 08:19 alQahira wrote: Is there a list of most consistent code S players somewhere? Has anyone else done 5 straight Ro 16s? I wonder what the record is?
Marineking had the longest active streak of Ro16s before this season at 6 (only player to make all 5 in 2012 + s1 2013). Not sure who has the longest all time
On April 30 2013 08:19 alQahira wrote: Is there a list of most consistent code S players somewhere? Has anyone else done 5 straight Ro 16s? I wonder what the record is?
Marineking had the longest active streak of Ro16s before this season at 6 (only player to make all 5 in 2012 + s1 2013). Not sure who has the longest all time
Pretty sure that goes to MVP.
He got at least ro16 from August 2011 to Season 5 of 2012. 7 consecutive seasons
On April 30 2013 08:19 alQahira wrote: Is there a list of most consistent code S players somewhere? Has anyone else done 5 straight Ro 16s? I wonder what the record is?
Marineking had the longest active streak of Ro16s before this season at 6 (only player to make all 5 in 2012 + s1 2013). Not sure who has the longest all time
Pretty sure that goes to MVP.
He got at least ro16 from August 2011 to Season 5 of 2012. 7 consecutive seasons
probably. I could only find a streak of 6 for Nestea. 2011: March May July August November, 2012 s1. They all played in the most code s seasons so it would probably be between them
Bomber is simply to inconsistant to root for, it's insane how many times i fell for his traps his great macro and games then you root for the guy and he play's like a wet towel and drops out.
Taeja has nothing to lose if he drops out, he is with is mind already in NA and is thinking how many noodles fit inside his suitcase.
sOs to solid, he will study his oponents well and simply kill them. Shine, just impossible to prepare for such a crazy guy, play save and he will abuse it, play greedy and your dead. Shine will drop out ones the best of 3series are over.
sOs is an obvious choice just after his impressive perf at Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games... He took the whole thing defeating life 2-0, innovation 2-1, Creator 2-1 and RoRo 2-0. He should have no problem taking first place.
Now second place... hmmm. I'll go with Taeja. Just because I want him to do well. Sorry OP but my bet is Bomber will disappoint one more time.
As a fan of Taeja, I almost hope he drops out so that he can take a break and heal his wrists up. I don't think he has what it takes to go all the way with his injury this season.
We need players like Shine who are 'villains'. And personally I would find it hilarious if Shine would be the 'best player in the world' and would get invited to all the MLGs and such, only to disappoint there with everyone booing him. :p
We need players like Shine who are 'villains'. And personally I would find it hilarious if Shine would be the 'best player in the world' and would get invited to all the MLGs and such, only to disappoint there with everyone booing him.
We need more people pausing games for sweat in their eyes :D
Shine must win, then Taeja would be nice. Bomber can't win when it matters (sorry dude) and SoS I think is too strong to root for. Realistically it may end up as SoS Taeja but Shine Taeja would be much cooler :D
On April 30 2013 09:36 TwentyOneJ wrote: To be honest I think the writer has no knowledge of the players. Why is shine going to lose 0-4? I am not a shine fan or anything but the writer just seem to not know anything about the sc2 leagues going on or even proleague.
The assumptions he make have no evidence and I think this is very poorly written.
The night is still not finished (last set remains), but I had to come to support the TL writers. So far, who topped the group, and who went 0-4?
I agree that predictions are not always true, but this one was spot on. (last set is a gamble anyway)
On April 30 2013 09:36 TwentyOneJ wrote: To be honest I think the writer has no knowledge of the players. Why is shine going to lose 0-4? I am not a shine fan or anything but the writer just seem to not know anything about the sc2 leagues going on or even proleague.
The assumptions he make have no evidence and I think this is very poorly written.
Terrans are playing too standard. Maybe the race is being forced into always playing the same style, but sOs really showed how to exploit that with creative play.
EPT
Woongjin_sOs
ST_Bomber
Samsung_Shine
) but going to predict Taeja/SoS
