|
Canada5062 Posts
Sorry people, I know this update is way late, but I couldn't access the site over the weekend. I tried and tried, but either my connection's screwed up somehow or the site's not agreeing with my comp's new Win XP/Explorer. I never had this problem before, but started ever since I reinstalled XP last weekend. What the frig... (Hmm, or maybe the site's just REALLY busy on weekends...)
Bah. Enough of personal troubles. There's more to talk about now than life, liberty and the pursuit of information (which are what my inet connection means to me): Starleague started, yowza!
(FYI, the games were played Groups D, B, C and A, respectively. Other than HOT v Reach coming last, there doesn't seem to have been any rhyme or reason to the order the other Groups were played.)
GROUP D
Xellos[yG] (T) ("Seo Ji-hoon") > Mumyung (Z) ("Sung Hak-seung") - Neo Bifrost
Did I not call this one?! Did Mumyung (@1) not play the game of his life here?! Did Mumyung not do the best impression of Sauron Zerg since Blackman in the WCG and have literally half the map covered with expos?! Did Mumyung not pull out all the stops and show an awesomely balanced mix of mass strats and gosu micro?! Did Mumyung not surprise the bejeezus out of everyone, including OGN casters (everyone in the studio let out a huge collective gasp when they saw him do this...), when he showed mass Ultras to stop Xellos's attack on his 12 expo?! Did Mumyung not play almost perfect in this game?!
And did all of the above not matter at all to Xellos (@8) on this made-for-Xellos map?!?! Did I not call this one?! Is there any doubt why Xellos is being called "Perfect Terran?" I mean, objectively, the tide seemed to swing from player to player throughout the match - but you wouldn't have known it watching Xellos play. He just never seemed to lose composure, surprise Ultras or otherwise. It was like he knew, no matter how advantageous things looked for his opponent, that he wouldn't be the one typing "gg" in the end. It was obvious Mumyung came prepared for this battle and I'm really not sure what more he could have done. I'm tellin' ya, Zerg users all over Korea were shaking their heads after this match and considering retirement.
GROUP B
[Oops]Lee (T) ("Lee Woon-jae") > Jinnam (Z) ("Jang Jin-nam") - Gaema Gowon
Jinnam (@5) put up a fight, but Lee (@8) jumped quickly to BCs and backed them up with M&Ms. A tough combo to beat for any T, much less Jinnam. Lee wasn't spectacular or anything (other than his initial bunkering of Jinnam's fast natural, as well as the early move to BCs), but showed solid play. A bit shaky on micro still tho. Jinnam loses again to a Terran player. Jinnam now has only like a 20% win percentage v T in OGN play. The only reason his overall record doesn't seem so bad is because he's 80% v P! I personally like Jinnam a lot. At his best, he's a crafty player who knows how to psych out his opponents from start to finish. But, he really needed to win this one v the unproven Lee in order to have a decent shot at advancing. With games v Boxer (no chance in hell) and Garimto (can prolly win) still left for our Demon Zerg, Lee now has the inside track on the next round. Boxer, of course, ALWAYS has the inside track on advancing into ANY round.
GROUP C
[z-zone]KOs (T) ("Kim Hyun-jin") > [Soul]Chojja (Z) ("Cho Yong-ho") - Neo Forbidden Zone
The match was a lot longer, but Chojja (@7) basically lost the fight at like the 15 min mark when he moved to erase Kim's (@1) fast double CC natural and threw a dozen guardians at it - and got stopped so stone cold by half-a-dozen cloaked Wraiths. No one saw it coming - even the OGN obs were left rubbing their eyes and blinking. After that, it was all KOs. Calculatingly efficient, this kid wasn't fazed a bit by his first Starleague appearance. Chojja tried, but not all his finger movements could stop KOs from M&M/tank/dropping him to a slow and seemingly-inevitable death. Impressive stuff from KOs.
HOT_Forever (Z) ("Kang Do-gyung") > [Oops]Reach (P) ("Bak Jung-seok") - Avant Garde II
HOT (@7) won in this much-anticipated clash with the returning champ Reach (@1). But that wasn't the real surprise. The surprise was how much Reach didn't put up a fight in the process. Bak showed signs of some of the brilliance he displayed last Starleague, with good goon micro and unit combos. But overall he seemed lethargic and indifferent. He went through the motions of the match, and, to be sure, Bak at 50% is still 100% better than 99% of toss players on the planet, but the sense of urgency and determination just wasn't there. He even typed out with his main still untouched. Very uncharacteristic of him. HOT was HOT and did a good job of luker/hydra dropping on Bak's hill natural (the key to the win), but I can't help feel Reach should have done more. Even his famed mudang storms were missing. Hmmm. An omen of things to come perhaps? Hope not. Otherwise, we'll have another balance controversy on our hands...
|
Canada398 Posts
|
4492 Posts
Lalala, why is rea booing down 'rrans again :/. Other than that; <quote>Liquid'Crystal</quote> job 
-Mynock
|
4492 Posts
Btw, go easy on Jinnan, kk? :/ U know he's busy with fktour...
-Mynock
|
United States4471 Posts
VOD/mms links? I'm really curious as to how futile Mumyung's efforts against Xellos were.
|
poor toss 
|
MURICA15980 Posts
haha, i say any SKY tournement = the doom of the protoss that WILL win it. Look at garimto and now look at reach. I'm telling, a protoss wil always win SKY, but, after that, they'll will fall and die like garimto.
Watch as my words become prophetic in the next few weeks.
(my guesses based on reaches next games (vs Nada then vs ElKy).
^^
|
Australia388 Posts
Great informative and interesting post yet again, gj mensrea!
Hmmm,...Reach take too much of a break or something?, think he got burnt out a lil, practising his balls off the kpga tournament and the finals of the previous starleague. Hope he gets his act together or he might be eliminated in the 1st round without knowing wat hit him...
On a side note, could some1 post the vod links plz, need to rippin to do =)
|
sounds like reach needs a vacation --a
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Netherlands2766 Posts
|
|
|
Looks to me like Reach is suffering from what James Cameron seemed to be suffereing, and that is a fear of failure to repeat a previous success. Most of you probably know that James Camerons Titanic became the biggest box office success, as well as garnering something like 13 (record?) Oscar nods, only to drop off radar in subsequent years to produce smaller projects like Dark Angel and other semi-obscure T.V. shows. A lot of people say he's afraid that he'll never direct a movie that will best Titanic, which is quite a quandry considering people in the industry are always lookin' to one up on their previous projects. The same thing seemed to have afflicted Garimto, who after creating quite the buzz defeating Boxer for the OGN crown slipped into a major slump.
Whatever it may be, I surely hope the 'hero toss' snaps out of it and regains his old form in time to exert his authority as OGN champ.
|
So what are the games played on next friday?
|
Canada5062 Posts
On November 18 2002 16:01 Veg wrote: terran owns zerg on bifrost;; and xellos is an amazing T... bifrost isnt a map-made for xellos.. its a map made for Terran users 
The general consensus here in Korea is that Neo Bifrost (as well as its predecessor) is tilted slightly in Z's favor. As with anything SC, much depends on race match-ups, and Bifrost is certainly anti-toss (tho much more balanced since the NEO version), but the ZvT match-up is generally considered by pros to be balanced, tho minimally skewed to favor Z. HOT is an excellent example of just how good Z can be on the map.
I emphasize Xellos's dominance on Neo Bifrost because he has the best OGN record among T users on the map - by FAR. In fact, as far as I know, he's undefeated on it.
|
Canada5062 Posts
On November 18 2002 21:41 Muhweli wrote:
So what are the games played on next friday?
I'll be posting a preview on the upcoming matches soon, Muhweli.
|
is there anywhere we can look to see our fav players groups/upcoming matches?
i sure hope Reach can snap out of it, he's really the only hope for us toss fanboys 
|
ok, thx rea 
|
Just read your post rea. I try to download the matches and then watch them before I read who won . . . of course I rarely can do that considering most people post the results before I can get the links or even the results with the links. I still knew your post was here so I made sure to come back to it.
The Bifrost game was the best one by far I think. Mumyung looked like he had a shot when he attacked Xello's gas natural, but Xellos had a nice wall of tanks to bail him out. It seems like if a Zerg can't take a Terran by the 20 min mark it's lights out for the Zerg. There really wasn't much more Mumyung could have done with the exception of a drop on Xello's main. Which would've proably failed anyways.
 Good post man.
|
Canada5062 Posts
Thx Siege.
Regarding your observations on Mumyung & Zerg: I was thinking along the same line. A massive drop on Xellos's main is probably the only thing Mumyung could have tried. But, like you, I'm doubtful it would have succeeded anyway. Xellos is one of the top players for D, especially against drops.
I also agree Z has the best chance v T by going for the knockout early. For sure, that's the secret to HOT's success on Bifrost. His matches on Bifrost are about as fast & furious as they come.
Cheers.
|
Man... Offensive bunker killed Jinnams exp in the beginning!!1
|
In addition he lost the expansion the second time to a few m&m while he had just a lurker and a couple of lings trying to defend it!!1 AND a drop killed his spire... So the BC's weren't the real thing kill him 
|
Heh, i watched xellos before lee.. I really thought lee sucked ;] Very poor marine-control vs lurkers and extremely sloppy with his vessels. I doubt he would've won without a succesful bunkrush.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
