Hydra has a ton of momentum. Good to see a new S-player raising and amazing that he came from CJ, same house that brought us Effort. Upcoming must see matches:

22 Feb, CJ vs KT.Flash
26 Feb, CJ vs MBC.Light

Mortality

United States4790 Posts

February 12 2011 22:35 GMT

#304

Hydra definitely has more power than JD right now, but it's too soon to call him "better." He has stronger momentum, certainly, but this is Hydra's breakout season, whereas JD has proven himself for years. Hydra is virtually untested. Two ZvZ bo5's is all he has to his name, really.

I do believe that this was the confirmation we needed that Hydra was ready to play with the big dogs. And, to be honest, his Power Rank now looks too low in retrospect. If he wins MSL, he will be the player who I will consider to have had the best season overall, yet he has not broken into the top 5 on Power Rank yet.

I do not mean this as a criticism of Flamewheel. His placement of Hydra was logically sound. It's only in hindsight that Hydra looks to be Effort 2.0.

Lebesgue

4542 Posts

February 13 2011 00:00 GMT

#305

On the other hand, last night result only shows that it was right to put Jaedong at 5. Even though there were people saying he should have been higher...

If Hydra wins MSL he definitely deserves a top 3 spot. But first he needs to win the final...

Lightwip

United States5497 Posts

February 13 2011 00:56 GMT

#306

So I decided to take a look back at older PRs.
Jaedong hasn't been this far down since November/December 2008(Out of both leagues, mid->low PR placement).
This may be the low point of his career if you throw in his recent Bo5 losses.

luckybeni2

Germany1065 Posts

February 13 2011 04:32 GMT

#307

Dammit this might be the worst MSL ever. Hydra vs Great in the finals? Zergs only in the final 4. First Flash in the ro32, then Bisu vs Stork in the ro16 and finally stork fell in the ro8 leaving only zergs

J1.au

Australia3596 Posts

February 13 2011 07:27 GMT

#308

On February 13 2011 13:32 luckybeni2 wrote:
Dammit this might be the worst MSL ever. Hydra vs Great in the finals? Zergs only in the final 4. First Flash in the ro32, then Bisu vs Stork in the ro16 and finally stork fell in the ro8 leaving only zergs

The worst part about it was that Flash was knocked out by Terran scrubs so I can't whine about imbalance. Oh well!

Seriously though, I'm convinced that Flash would have made it to the finals if he hadn't not taken his Ro32 opponents seriously.

jalstar

United States8198 Posts

February 13 2011 08:09 GMT

#309

Avalon MSL, Calm vs Kwanro. Also much like this MSL, the highlight was in the Ro8 (Iris vs Bisu, Snow vs Jaedong).

revy

United States1524 Posts

February 13 2011 14:47 GMT

#310

On February 13 2011 17:09 jalstar wrote:

Show nested quote +

Avalon MSL, Calm vs Kwanro. Also much like this MSL, the highlight was in the Ro8 (Iris vs Bisu, Snow vs Jaedong).

Man was that Iris Bisu TvP BO5 epic. Game 5 definitely still is my favorite TvP, I swear Bisu threw the kitchen sink at Iris but somehow Iris pulled through.

Mortality

United States4790 Posts

February 13 2011 15:17 GMT

#311

Calm vs Jaedong was an awesome series. And iirc Kwanro vs Iris pretty interesting. This MSL Hydra vs JD was pretty good. The real gripe I think is that there are just too damn many ZvZ's. No Terrans at all in the Ro8 either.

mnesthes

5433 Posts

February 13 2011 15:23 GMT

#312

On February 14 2011 00:17 Mortality wrote:
Calm vs Jaedong was an awesome series. And iirc Kwanro vs Iris pretty interesting. This MSL Hydra vs JD was pretty good. The real gripe I think is that there are just too damn many ZvZ's. No Terrans at all in the Ro8 either.

Doesn't it kinda say something? Like Terran is a necessary evil. Without them, Zerg will run free and swarm us with unending ZvZ marathons.

Lightwip

United States5497 Posts

February 13 2011 15:54 GMT

#313

On February 14 2011 00:23 mnesthes wrote:

Show nested quote +

Doesn't it kinda say something? Like Terran is a necessary evil. Without them, Zerg will run free and swarm us with unending ZvZ marathons.

Naw man, we have BISU for that. Stork once in a while too.
But you are right about terran being an evil.

Ah, I really hope JD can bounce back from this. Today we'll get to see.

Mortality

United States4790 Posts

February 13 2011 16:37 GMT

#314

I don't see Terran as evil at all. :/ Actually, I think I enjoy watching Terran the most. Even if TvT's often take a long time, I enjoy them more than ZvZ and PvP. Usually, at least. I play all three races. Terran used to be my best but since I've been playing more Z/P lately (when I actually do play...) it's probably my weakest at the moment.

johanes

Czech Republic2227 Posts

February 13 2011 17:25 GMT

#315

There is only one reason for not hating terran - Flash. Flamewheels PR looks pretty solid after today's games.

Lightwip

United States5497 Posts

February 13 2011 17:53 GMT

#316

On February 14 2011 02:25 johanes wrote:
There is only one reason for not hating terran - Flash. Flamewheels PR looks pretty solid after today's games.

On the contrary, that is the most hate-able part of terran.

Holgerius

Sweden16951 Posts

February 13 2011 17:56 GMT

#317

Hehe, you would have a really hard time if you would want to argue that Flash isn't the best player in the world at the moment. :D

The Elo page is pretty exciting to look at right now as a Flash fan; he's #1 in all categories and he's currently peaking in two MUs.

Can't wait for the next season of Starleagues to begin.

Mortality

United States4790 Posts

February 13 2011 23:23 GMT

#318

He probably is. He is a recently crowned bonjwa after all.

But TBH, he really should not have beat Mind last night. That was one of those TvT's that isn't fun to watch. If I could have teleported through my monitor and into Korea I would have punched Mind in the face and started playing for him. I. Would. Have. Punched. His. Lights. Out. God!

Flash played okay, but nothing spectacular. It was Mind's loss. Had he rushed his vultures into Flash's main when he had the chance instead of retreating them back into the line of fire (losing half his vults for only 1 gol) he could have taken 10+ SCVs. Had he moved his tank line at 12 just a tiny bit to the left he could have denied Flash the center GAS expo at 12. Had he moved his tank line at 6 up just a tiny bit he could have at least denied Flash the ability to put an extractor at the center GAS expo at 9. And yet despite all of that he was winning handsomely up until he let Flash's drop into his base and then did a piss poor job defensively. And then he eats the EMP and instead of pressing when he has BC numbers advantage he lets Flash build up. And his BC's were totally uncoordinated with his gols. Embarrassingly uncoordinated. And at the big BC battle he had like 4 BC's just one screen length to the south, just sitting there, having popped out of his starports. Jesus.

Well, at least it was funny watching how badly Lucifer got his ass raped. Prison sex with a 16 incher.

Musoeun

United States4324 Posts

February 13 2011 23:40 GMT

#319

I just hope great wins the MSL - partly to avoid the Samsung Silver curse, but mostly because it would create the most challenging ranking scenario.

Mortality

United States4790 Posts

February 14 2011 00:05 GMT

#320

If Great does win, then he better revolutionize ZvZ as promised. I can live with Hydra winning more easily. Hydra is over 70% wins this season, has been displaying awesome ZvZ and his ZvP is looking every bit as ridiculous. And historically, ZvT has been his strongest, although he hasn't palyed it much this season. His MSL run is definitely reminiscent of Calm's, including the Bo5 win over Jaedong. Ironically he 3-0'd Calm on his way.