Another week down, and we're almost at the halfway mark of this season! This week had lots of excitement, with some big matches happening: Wemade and SKT battled it out for a top position; OGN caught two of the bigger teams to see if they can claw their way back into the season, and Lecaf had to fight hard to keep top spot. So what happened?
Lecaf dropped a spot, after losing a tense game to WeMade, with Mind taking a strong win over an uncertain Jaedong, and Pure taking down the Death God on Andromeda. SKT is at first position after winning both their matches, walking over WeMade fox with only Pure, yet again, being able to take a win, and beating an uncertain Hanbit Stars 3-1, with only Bisu losing a game.
KTF continues their stagnation into mediocrity this season, once again dropping two places. They took down CJ, but they couldn't beat OGN, as OGN started its comeback. OGN Sparkyz also ravaged a strong MBC team, with Chalenge, Leta, and the threatening Flower/Zues team getting them the three games they needed.
In the map standings we see Zerg continuing their slump. The only map where Zerg seems to have a chance on is Andromeda, and even there they are 2-5 against Terran. With that in mind, they did climb 2% in the win percentage since last week, taking three wins and only two losses on Andromeda, while holding their own on the other maps.
Protoss continues to dominate last season's map, sporting a 73% win percentage on Katrina, and an 80% win percentage on Blue Storm, having won 4 out of 5 games against Zerg there. On the new maps, Protoss are holding their own but not doing much more.
Finally, the Terran players seem to be enjoying a good season on the new maps, winning at least half the time on all the newest maps. More importantly though, there has been 32 TvT's on Othello and Wuthering combined, and even though Terran does not seem to dominate on these maps (except against Zerg), few teams are willing to risk non-Terran players.
Flash holds on to the number one spot this week, even after losing an unnecessary game to go.go. Pure is gaining quickly though, with just win seperating him and Flash now, as he powers his way to a 7-0 rank. On Pure's heels is Ruby who is making a name for himself taking down some of the biggest Zerg players this season including Jaedong and Luxury.
Ignoring the big names on the chart and just looking at the pretty colours, the lack of Zerg players stand out very clearly. There is not a single Zerg in the top 10 list. Where are the top KeSPA ranked Zerg players?
Luxury is doing fairly well on 4-2, while Savior's only solo game so far has been a dismal game against Firebathero. While the KeSPA #1, Lee Jaedong, has won five of his games so far, but he has managed to lose three games against Terran opponents on three different maps.
In the 2v2 rankings, Max and Piano climbed two spots after taking another win to lead the table, while the other Terran team, Saint and Light, dropped a place. The only new team this week is Bul_T and Rumble, whose 2-0 stats this week insured the top position for SKT.
I'd like to leave you guys with a discussion for the week, which concerns the map balance. Do you think the lack of Zerg players at the top are thanks to an innate imbalance of the maps, or are the lack of quality Zerg players causing the stats to lean towards the other races? I'm leaning towards lack of strong Zerg players rather than map imbalances, but I'd like to hear what you have to say.
I hope you've all enjoyed this week, and I'll see you again next week with another Weekly Stats Report!
I think it's because of the Zerg players and coaches playing it safe by favouring Terrans and Protoss in their line-ups over shaky Zergs.
Total games played by each race:
Terran: 84 Protoss: 56 Zerg: 36
As for maps, I find Colosseum, Othello, Wuthering Heights, and Blue Storm to be rather entertaining. But they could use some other maps than macro-oriented 4 player maps, e.g. Tiamat or Athena. :D
Well teams should begin training new zerg "stars" if they want to keep zerg quality up. It always looks like weaker zerg players hardly defeats higher tier terran/protoss players. But protoss and terrans do beat higher tier zergs more often. Top of it, maps doesn't really favor zergs, because those maps are macro heavy nowdays. It's much safer to put protoss or terran, for example, to wuthering heights because of map layout (muta harass is hard to execute, getting third gas, etc)
I think there is a lack of quality zergs. The only Zergs who come to mind are: Jaedong [becoming shaky], Luxury [on the decline], July [becoming more consistent, but can never be too sure], rumble [not a good player, but hes starting to get better], GGplay [never managed to become a *top* player again after his OSL win...] and 815. Only 815 is actually truly proving to be solid, really. Even he has lost a few matches he should of won, not due to maps, but due to his own mistakes. I'm just eagerly awaiting a Zerg hero to come and retake the Zerg throne; Jaedong has lost momentum, he can no longer lead us!
Edit: Hyun and Kwanro arent too bad. But I kind of agree with the FE article on the Zerg race. They are just so powerful with the right mindset, without it they stagnant. Right now Jaedong is the only Zerg with momentum, so hes the only one truly showing anything. As I said, Jaedong is slowing down. I just dont trust any Zerg players to remain consistent without dominating or being lower tier, so I think his days are truly numbered. If he does not perform this MSL I think Jaedong will go the way of Savior. As I said, we need another Zerg player to take the throne fast, before Jaedong collapses. =0
what are the best zerg ? Jaedong, luxury, 815 and then ???? there is lack of new blood in the Zerg scene !
The maps are very entertaining this season compared to others and led to a lot of good games (look at this OSL, every game are entertaining !, look at the previous, he was so boring !)
Wow! SKT T1 Fighting! It's impressive to see what iloveoov and Kingdom have pulled off. Teams aside, I'm worried about zerg. In all honesty, I'm not sure if it's the maps, or the players. There are a lot of good zergs, but not very many dominant ones. However, there are a lot of good tosses, but no dominant ones, and toss is doing just fine. In the same vein, there are a lot of good terrans, but only one dominant one. I hope zerg can solidify some good strats on the new maps, so we can see more Z's in proleague. Also, I hope that Jaedong can find his fire again. The swarm needs a leader, and we are being deprived of one.
To add-on, I think zerg players and coaches looks to much on results @ different maps. If zerg player loses few games they just don't put anymore zergs there (wuthering heights and well colosseum[well this maps seem to suck for zerg even more] and othello seems to fall out of zerg play).
I also think it's the lack of quality Zerg players. With Jaedong slumping (especially in ZvT) and Lux looking pretty crappy, there's really no strong Zergs to speak of aside from 815, and he hasn't really proved himself outside of Blue Storm. Where's Yarnc?
What's even more shocking is the lack of good NEW Zerg players, I mean while BeSt, Pure, Flash, RuBy, fOrGG, LuCifer are all on the rise and playing well, we see very little development on the Zerg side.
My hopes are with Hyuk, a young T1 Zerg who looks quite promising...
And guys, Lecaf and T1 are playing THIS WEEKEND!!!!1111
I'd say it's because the whole zerg play needs to be revitalized. I feel that zerg players have two hard MUs and no hard ones.
After sAviOr perfected the macro style ZvT everyone learnt how to play against it, and on these maps not much else works consistently. ZvP is also so much harder after the invention of FE. It's better these days, since after the early days of FE there seemed to be no zergs able to outmacro a FE P, and the only way to win was by "all-ining". These days I've seen solutions to the FE, like jaedong-bisu games, but it's so much harder than outmacroing 2/1gate.
Jaedong is certainly not the player to do this though, as the reason for his "dominance" is due to extreme mechanics and tactics, not really smart, easy to use builds. The twins are better at those things (trying things like spire->lurks and muta->ultras builds), but we'll have to wait and see if anyone rises to the challenge. Two years ago the protoss were a rare sight at the top and now they're dominant (by the number of players).
Terran is now the most dominant i feel though because of stronger players like mind and flash and a whole wave of more or less new terrans (go.go, leta (watch out for this kid, he's going to be big), forGG (hate his guts), hwasin, sea (hate him too) and Midas who finally seems to have regained his game sense.
Maybe sometime soon a new messiah will do his (or her?....) entrance on the zerg scene.
I pray that someone will create some smart easy BO like the FE that people can use and must adopt to.
Feels like Jaedong did'nt have what it took to take sAviOrs place. I'm hoping the twins and Kwanro can do something about this before we get to much TvT and the whole proscene collapses due to boredom.
Just a thought: Wow the Korean scene just has such a high percentage of top terran players compared to the foreign scene. If Jaedong can't make something happen terran will dominate the power rank.
On May 23 2008 03:55 EtherealDeath wrote: Dammit KTF, why :-( They have a good lineup for once too :-/
They could have a good lineup, if they played Lucifer 815 and Ra on a rotation with Flash every game and Reach/Yellow in 2s. The last few weeks they've been playing other random Protoss players who have lost.
A feeling I've had all the time while watching pro-sc is that zerg always feels like the underdog going in >< Feels so bullied against protoss storm and terrain infantry... :< That's why it always feels pretty nice when a zerg wins even though I'm a T player ^^
TvZ is the most entertaining matchup imo, so it's too bad it isn't played more often :<
I think the worst factor for Zergs these days is that there are many Terrans, who are able to perform an SK bo close to perfection. So far, Z are 11-20 against T. I think it is pretty dismal (compared to 12-14 against P). Even great Zerg players (read : Jaedong and Lux) cannot counter an SK build on a regular basis, even though JD had a scary ZvT not so long ago. I think I only saw a couple games where T did not go SK against Z. On the other hand, I have seen Z go hydra, lurkerling, mutaling, ultraling, using various builds : no bo has proved to be really effective, hence coaches playing safe and not sending Zergs on "Terran" maps like Othello. Zergs badly need to find a counter to SK terran, and more generally to renew their play. Otherwise their decline in PL and xSL will get even worse. We need a Zerg Revolutionnist NOW.
On May 23 2008 06:45 uppTagg wrote: A feeling I've had all the time while watching pro-sc is that zerg always feels like the underdog going in >< Feels so bullied against protoss storm and terrain infantry... :< That's why it always feels pretty nice when a zerg wins even though I'm a T player ^^
TvZ is the most entertaining matchup imo, so it's too bad it isn't played more often :<
uhm did you see progaming a few years ago? Protoss was the little weak kid you bullied in the park laughing at his "+1-I-hope-this-works-timing-attack"...
The maps don't favor Zerg, but I don't realy think it's all about the maps. There is a lack of good Zergs now, but as BW has shown before things change, in a few months the stats might look different. You only need one Flash, Savior, Bisu, Oov to turn it around.
Jaedong is certainly not the player to do this though, as the reason for his "dominance" is due to extreme mechanics and tactics, not really smart, easy to use builds. The twins are better at those things (trying things like spire->lurks and muta->ultras builds), but we'll have to wait and see if anyone rises to the challenge.
"Jaedong is certainly not the player to do this though, as the reason for his "dominance" is due to extreme mechanics" : O
go die plz T.T
His extreme mechanics also but it isn`t the reason , many pro have extreme mechanics and still suck hard xd
" not really smart, easy to use builds"
Jaedong modified zerg bo vs Bisu build and somehow made it work, no other zerg countered it like him ... he was first zerg to counter Bisu build and beat its author himself ; o
his mutas in zvp , no zerg before used mutas zvp like this, his zvt all-in muta/muta + guardian builds he managed to made this strategies work somehow, geez you just fucking can`t say that he didn`t refresh zerg race :o
"The twins are better at those things (trying things like spire->lurks and muta->ultras builds), but we'll have to wait and see if anyone rises to the challenge"
spire-> lurks muta-> ultras are old builds, Savior used them, they don`t work well in a long run T.T
They are better at nothing. These builds aren`t new and it isn`t their builds. They fail to make this builds work and using unusual builds which don`t work doesn`t mean that they are more creative.
Its otherwise imo, Jaedong is much more insightfull and creative , as it comes to bo`s itself , he has much better bo`s and it is him who comes out with somethin new working.
I can atack with my first 4 drones I ll be more creative than any pro ever was ;o even if just for you ;>
How can u say such things -,- if not Jaedong the zerg would dissapear completely ;]
On May 23 2008 08:00 Kakashi[Black] wrote: "Jaedong is certainly not the player to do this though, as the reason for his "dominance" is due to extreme mechanics" : O
go die plz T.T
His extreme mechanics also but it isn`t the reason , many pro have extreme mechanics and still suck hard xd
Thanks for the flames...
Sure you might say that extreme mechinics isn't what defines skills, but I haven't seen many games where jaedong has won except for rushes or 3hatch (basically what sAviOr used to do) builds executed with perfection. His game sense is incredible and his decisions are top notch, what I mean is that I don't think there's anything easily definable where you can say: "that's why he's so good".
In the end (or is this the end ???) sAviOr was no way near innovative. He used the same build over and over again, but when he came he showed the world a whole different kind of zerg that was totally unstoppable, then people learned how to counter it and by then his innovation days were over. (although I hope he will do a nada comeback with a new crazy macroautowin-build and start working on that golden mouse)
On May 23 2008 08:00 Kakashi[Black] wrote: " not really smart, easy to use builds"
Jaedong modified zerg bo vs Bisu build and somehow made it work, no other zerg countered it like him ... he was first zerg to counter Bisu build and beat its author himself ; o
his mutas in zvp , no zerg before used mutas zvp like this, his zvt all-in muta/muta + guardian builds he managed to made this strategies work somehow, geez you just fucking can`t say that he didn`t refresh zerg race :o
If his style versus bisu is an easy copyable build please tell me what that easy build is.
What i see is a very hard game of exact balance between workers/units/expand/tech and of course the all important reacting to what your opponents do. I have no idea whatsoever where to start to copy his build.
On May 23 2008 08:00 Kakashi[Black] wrote: "The twins are better at those things (trying things like spire->lurks and muta->ultras builds), but we'll have to wait and see if anyone rises to the challenge"
spire-> lurks muta-> ultras are old builds, Savior used them, they don`t work well in a long run T.T
They are better at nothing. These builds aren`t new and it isn`t their builds. They fail to make this builds work and using unusual builds which don`t work doesn`t mean that they are more creative.
Its otherwise imo, Jaedong is much more insightfull and creative , as it comes to bo`s itself , he has much better bo`s and it is him who comes out with somethin new working.
I can atack with my first 4 drones I ll be more creative than any pro ever was ;o even if just for you ;>
How can u say such things -,- if not Jaedong the zerg would dissapear completely ;]
Sure their builds aren't either their own or new (although the ultra one is far from old IIRC) but at least they try them and don't go into every game saying "I will win because my mechanics and decision making are better than yours", but instead try new things to make sure that the terran race is not able to think every game "wonder if he's going 3hatch?" and be right every time.
The only one I've seen capable of doing the mutas->ultras build convincingly is luxury, but you might have missed those games and can only relate to the last time he used it and unfortunately lost. (sea, that retarded little bastard with the ugliest grin in progaming (don't ban me stevie))
In my opinion I'd say he's done nearly nothing for the zerg race, except maybe make bisu slump. Other than that, I think his legacy will be as a very strong player, but no way the one who changed the tide for zergs everywhere (which will happen sometime I'm sure).
Great, great writeup. I dont get to watch proleague games, so this is the perfect column for me. (wouldnt mind a little liquibet advice section at the bottom either *))
On May 23 2008 09:04 EGoldman wrote: why can't you watch PL games? Just use the Potplayer or go to the small vods thread. they got all the stuff up there.
p.s. Go go Samsung Khan!!
I'm sure Mani is perfectly capable of getting the stream and everything running. It's just he can't put in the time or something similar.
Anyways, Pure is on an amazing tear, as is Ruby. I wonder which proleague game both of them will finally win.
On May 23 2008 09:04 EGoldman wrote: why can't you watch PL games? Just use the Potplayer or go to the small vods thread. they got all the stuff up there.
p.s. Go go Samsung Khan!!
i think he was refering to his schedule not allowing him the time to do so not a lack of know how
I do believe that July is on his way back to the top. Ever since his move to STX I believe he hadn't dropped a game (correct me if im wrong, though I think he lost in a 2v2). If STX can capitalize on this and put him in the 1v1 rotation, they could be the team to beat. Hwasin, July, Kal, Calm, Sheis.
Regarding the lack of Zerg, my pick for next up and comer is HuskaL. The Zerg player who put up quite a fight with TvZ specialist Hwasin at the GOMtv tournament.
Zergs badly need to find a counter to SK terran, and more generally to renew their play. Otherwise their decline in PL and xSL will get even worse. We need a Zerg Revolutionnist NOW.
Maybe our next savior will revolutionize Queen use :D.
Regarding the lack of Zerg, my pick for next up and comer is HuskaL. The Zerg player who put up quite a fight with TvZ specialist Hwasin at the GOMtv tournament.
I saw that game and I too was impressed with Huskal's creativity. I think if he improves his macro/multitasking he'll be one to look out for.
Jaedong just needs to find his old zvt magic and he will be alright. Im not counting out on him cause his zvz and zvp are the best in the world (not to mention 79-80% win rate with zvz with 40 games)
On May 23 2008 16:07 yutgoyun wrote: How has Blue Storm gone from a Z-favoured map (last season) to a 30%-Z map?
I'd like to know this too. Of course, they use Blue Storm 1.2 now, which features a larger area behind the nat minerals (making muta harass less powerful), but could that have made all the difference?
No dominant zergs around? Jaedong is imo on its way to savior very soon, Twins can win or lose to anyone, July with soul behind his back might step up to challange of taking osl, but other than that don't mind the maps, there are no zergs atleast in osl who can go all the way.
On May 23 2008 15:28 911wasaLIE wrote: Nice job posting this 2 weeks after it happened.. breaking news my ass
I'm not quite sure where you are coming from with this. Firslty, this happened over the last week, so it's only one week old. Secondly, this is the Weekly Stats Report which implies a report that happens once a week. It would be silly to have it happen in the middle of the week, so it naturally happens at the end of each week. Finally, where did I call it breaking news? This column has always been a weekly stats report which focuses on events that happened over the last week, so it's not possible for it to be breaking news.
I don't know. Nice job on posting a non-sensical reply here.
On May 23 2008 16:07 yutgoyun wrote: How has Blue Storm gone from a Z-favoured map (last season) to a 30%-Z map?
I'd like to know this too. Of course, they use Blue Storm 1.2 now, which features a larger area behind the nat minerals (making muta harass less powerful), but could that have made all the difference?
It's quite simple really..
Look at trends on bluestorm before the update, say from the turn of the year through till its change; Record: TvZ: 5-13 (27.8%) | ZvP: 5-8 (38.5%) | PvT: 6-11 (35.3%) From this we already see protoss starting to take the advantage over Zerg...
The new switch simply reflects the latter trends of the map - and yes that little bit of difference has changed the dynamics of ZvT on it, and well the stats are about 50% T so no need to worry there
Nope, I am talking about Hyuk . He's quite young but with T1 doing so well lately I think he can improve fast (especially with some great Protosses to spar against ^^).
Watch Hyuk's game against free at T1 vs. Hanbit to see why he is awesome.
edit: by "young" I mean in terms of game experience, not age .
On May 23 2008 20:08 Axidboy wrote: No dominant zergs around? Jaedong is imo on its way to savior very soon, Twins can win or lose to anyone, July with soul behind his back might step up to challange of taking osl, but other than that don't mind the maps, there are no zergs atleast in osl who can go all the way.
nah, jaedong still has the edge, its just a couple of sloppy plays vs T's, if you saw his latest games with z and p, he is still the best zerg around
I don't get it, why isn't CJ's 2v2 team at the top of the 2v2 rankings when their stats are 8-1? Is it because they switch players from time to time (Nbs/sAviOr, Nbs/Kwanro etc)?
CJ has played four or five different 2v2 teams so far, all of them contained Nbs, and all of them did well. The ones I can think of now are Nbs/Savior, Nbs/Kwanro and Nbs/Effort.
As for the current zerg situation, I think it has more to do with the strategical side atm. Protoss has developed strategies that put them on equal footing most situation, with both forge/FE and +1 zealot as possible strategies. While we have a very small sample, this mu seems to be the most balanced right now.
With ZvT however, it seems that so many terrans have learned to use the SK to great effect, and zerg really has no good counters right now. I think this has gone on for quite a while, but zerg had Jaedong, who still won quite a lot.
It seems to me, however, that Jaedong won more due to beastly mechanics, both micro and macro, than due to a refinement of strategies. So even when he was dominant, he didn't really have a style that other zerg could copy and benefit from, and zerg play as a whole didn't evolve. Savior, on the other hand, besides his incredible game-sense, also evolved zerg play as a whole. I think that is what zerg need atm, a new strong player that can develop an easy copyable strat that stops terran from "auto-winning" once they have enough vessels.
EPT
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OMg so sad
so no need to worry there
. He's quite young but with T1 doing so well lately I think he can improve fast (especially with some great Protosses to spar against ^^).
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