IGN Pro League is thrilled to be able to bring you another unique StarCraft II tournament! This one is called Tournament of Champions, and is a 16-man, double elimination tournament for a $12,000 prize pool! Each team from the IPL Team Arena Challenge was asked to pick one player from their roster to represent them in this global tournament, that will span the month of March. The WINNER of the Tournament of Champions will receive a spot in our live, open qualifier at IPL4 at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Official Home of the IPL as well as an all expenses paid flight and hotel stay for the event!
The time has come for another Winners Round 1 match of the IGN Pro League Tournament of Champions!
When: Thursday, Mar 15 12:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) (we will also have a European re-broadcast as usual at Thursday, Mar 15 4:30pm GMT (GMT+00:00))
Format
This double-elimination tournament features 16 players from around the world and is an best of 5 format. This match is being played for Winners Round 1. The winning player will move on in the Winners Bracket, and the loser will drop into the Losers Bracket. Keep in mind that the top 8 spots receive prize money!
Jjakji < Atlantis Spaceship > Kas Jjakji < Tal'Darim Altar > Kas Jjakji < Metropolis > Kas Jjakji wins 3-0 over Kas and moves into WR2 and Kas falls to LR1!
The First Game for this match of IPL Tournament of Champions is on Thursday, Mar 15 12:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) (we will also have a European re-broadcast as usual at Thursday, Mar 15 4:30pm GMT (GMT+00:00))
Love this ToC. Looking forward to tonights games =) I think the Jjakji vs. Kas series should be entertaining. Hard to say who will win, but when in doubt, go with the korean right? haha
All of those terrans make me feel like im back in 2011 :DD Nevertheless great matches today, Hopeing that im home when Polt vs. Squirtle EU replays are shown
On March 15 2012 01:00 Fionn wrote: Now this is what I've been waiting for.
So have we all.
Regarding the matches: Kas is having a bit of a hard time at the moment, so I'd say Jjakji is favoured by quite a large margin, especially since he looked really good in almost all of his games I saw from him recently (e.g winning three TvTs against MKP and Byun in the IPL Team Arena Challenge finals). Even though TvT seemed like his Achilles' heel in the past, he looks relatively sharp now. His opponent Kas on the other hand, has proven that he can go toe to toe with Koreans in TvT in events like WCG where he beat MarineKing or in IPL Fight Club where he went up 3-1 against Ganzi but ultimately losing 3-5. As of late he has shown some problems against Korean Terrans though, losing to Puma, Heart and SuperNoVa in Assembly, EGMCS and IEM.
I still love to watch both of them and it'll be very interesting to watch if and how long Kas can keep up with Jjakji.
Polt and Squirtle need no big words, two Code S players - one coming off a big tournament win, the other just made it into Code S in impressive fashion. It's always something special to see Polt play against a good Protoss and I'm sure both players won't disappoint today.
I want to say Jjakji and Polt. If Kas starts playing well again he has a shot against Jjakji's TvT since he did beat Marineking at WCG and Marineking was still able to 2-1 Jjakji back then in Code A. I'm just gonna play it safe with the Korean win. 3-1 Jjakji 3-1 Polt
All due respect to Kas, I've always thought Jjaki's T v T is amazing, 3-0 Jjajki. I haven't seen much of Squirtle's play but I know Polt is a beast. 3-1 Polt
On March 15 2012 09:04 Finrod1 wrote: 1 TerranNSHjjakji 700 90 24 78.95% pretty damn impressive. O_o
Jjakji always has sick ladder stats, he just plays across a bunch of smurfs otherwise he'd be up there pretty much permanantly. He finished #2 last season when he bothered to play one account for a few days at the end of it, but I know for a fact he had at least 3 accounts in GM with close to 80% win ratio on average.
On March 15 2012 09:13 Dexington wrote: One of these days I won't have a busy week and I'll be able to play the drinking game of "drink every time CatsPajamas laughs and I don't"
Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha. True that.
Well played by Jjakji, Kas not looking too hot overall today.
On March 15 2012 09:16 zefreak wrote: 60 supply up in a tvt with higher economy and higher tank count.. jjakji could throw away this army and 3 more just like it and still win the game
On March 15 2012 09:19 StaplerPhone wrote: Kas's macro seemed worse that game than usual.. unless it just looks bad compared to Jjakji
He suffered too much damage early on, other than that his macro looked pretty damn good. He even had his 3rd command center earlier, so it was just a false impression, because the lower-tank count had him go back all the time.
On March 15 2012 09:19 StaplerPhone wrote: Kas's macro seemed worse that game than usual.. unless it just looks bad compared to Jjakji
He suffered too much damage early on, other than that his macro looked pretty damn good. He even had his 3rd command center earlier, so it was just a false impression, because the lower-tank count had him go back all the time.
Ah thanks I didn't catch the first few minutes so I didn't know about that
If I were to nickname Jjakji, I'd go with "Cinderella Terran", because of the way he became a champion out of nowhere while being on a mostly Code B team.
On March 15 2012 09:04 Finrod1 wrote: 1 TerranNSHjjakji 700 90 24 78.95% pretty damn impressive. O_o
Jjakji always has sick ladder stats, he just plays across a bunch of smurfs otherwise he'd be up there pretty much permanantly. He finished #2 last season when he bothered to play one account for a few days at the end of it, but I know for a fact he had at least 3 accounts in GM with close to 80% win ratio on average.
Sounds kind of similar to marineking. Ladder heroes, at least for marineking during seasons like 2 and 3
Reminds of his turrets in his TSL game against Nada, that was something that really made me notice Kas. Was so cool to watch at that time, how the banshee flew exactly to the points where the turrets were already placed.
These casters are pretty poor today, missing so much stuff, jjakji was repairing the banshee for a good 20 seconds in the middle of the screen and they are saying it died..
Kas isn't playing to the strengths of bio mech. He should be on 5 bases by now, not behind on bases.. and trying to be aggressive into a meching terran. Poor play unfortunately
Loved how steadily JumanJi added on extra command centres even when he was still a reasonable distance from maxed.
Didn't wait to be floating 1-2k minerals and then slap down 5 macro OC's like some Terrans do, just whenever he felt he had enough of a mineral buffer to maintain constant production with it he seemed to drop an extra CC to carry him into his lategame.
On March 15 2012 09:40 Asha` wrote: Loved how steadily JumanJi added on extra command centres even when he was still a reasonable distance from maxed.
Didn't wait to be floating 1-2k minerals and then slap down 5 macro OC's like some Terrans do, just whenever he felt he had enough of a mineral buffer to maintain constant production with it he seemed to drop an extra CC to carry him into his lategame.
Yes, jjakji is playing mech very well in this series, he is looking strong in all 3 matchups lately.
On March 15 2012 09:48 Shellshock1122 wrote: Is it me or do foreigners like to play more passive micro while Koreans are much more aggressive currently?
Pretty well known that foreigners are passive to a fault.
On March 15 2012 09:48 Shellshock1122 wrote: Is it me or do foreigners like to play more passive micro while Koreans are much more aggressive currently?
Koreans play macro and aggressive.
You are not wrong in your assessment, foreigners tend to like to macro macro macro.
And many people on TL seem to think early aggression is "cheese" they expect 20 mins of macro 20 minutes no rush.
On March 15 2012 09:51 Bagration wrote: My goodness, Jjakji just destroyed Kas, and Kas is widely considered a top foreign Terran, and Jjakji's TvT isn't even his best MU.
As i said in my prediction, Kas is severely outclassed by jjaki.
On March 15 2012 09:48 Shellshock1122 wrote: Is it me or do foreigners like to play more passive micro while Koreans are much more aggressive currently?
In my opinion, the most distinctive characteristic of a Korean player is their killing instinct, their tenacity when they smell blood. So this is old news for me
On March 15 2012 09:51 Bagration wrote: My goodness, Jjakji just destroyed Kas, and Kas is widely considered a top foreign Terran, and Jjakji's TvT isn't even his best MU.
In all honesty I feel that Kas being the "top foreign terran" is 85% hype, 15% skill. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a real solid player, but I've never been wowed by his play. I think Thorzain would take top foreign terran in my book.
On March 15 2012 09:51 EmilA wrote: Are these replays going to be released? Also, is that a push you commit to before you know whether he's FEing or not?
It's a pretty hardcore one base play that is safe against banshees b/c of the starport so yeah, go commit.
On March 15 2012 09:51 Bagration wrote: My goodness, Jjakji just destroyed Kas, and Kas is widely considered a top foreign Terran, and Jjakji's TvT isn't even his best MU.
In all honesty I feel that Kas being the "top foreign terran" is 85% hype, 15% skill. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a real solid player, but I've never been wowed by his play. I think Thorzain would take top foreign terran in my book.
In his defense there arent really a lot of good foreign terrans. Who else would even be close to the top besides Thorzain and Kas? Demuslim when he occasionally shows good results? There are just so many more zergs and toss in Europe and NA compared to Korea where it's historically Terran dominated
On March 15 2012 09:48 Shellshock1122 wrote: Is it me or do foreigners like to play more passive micro while Koreans are much more aggressive currently?
Sure, it's mostly true.
Earlier today, I watched the show 'In the Spotlight' where Kas was a guest and he acknowledged exactly that. At IEM he talked a lot with the other players and took some tips from MMA and he is trying to get much more aggressive and active in his practice games, it's just that at the moment he still believes more in and feels better with his largely macro oriented builds so he hasn't really switched up his playstyle in tournaments.
But it certainly sounded like he knows his weaknesses and is actively trying to improve them. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action sooner or later.
Edit: Oh god, yes. Legend coming to IPL is the best news I've heard in a while, if he's there I don't even care about casters. I could even watch it muted and still be satisfied, he's so much better than anyone who currently does observing.
On March 15 2012 09:58 Shellshock1122 wrote: wouldn't squirtle be an amphibian?
Aren't turtles reptiles? I think Charmander would be more of amphibian, since salamanders are amphibians and based off of name we can probably assume that Charmander is a salamander?
On March 15 2012 09:58 Shellshock1122 wrote: wouldn't squirtle be an amphibian?
Aren't turtles reptiles? I think Charmander would be more of amphibian, since salamanders are amphibians and based off of name we can probably assume that Charmander is a salamander?
But charmander can't go in water and therefore is not amphibious!
On March 15 2012 09:58 Shellshock1122 wrote: wouldn't squirtle be an amphibian?
Aren't turtles reptiles? I think Charmander would be more of amphibian, since salamanders are amphibians and based off of name we can probably assume that Charmander is a salamander?
Oh yea turtles are reptiles >.> Yea I guess he could be. Where they debating whether squirtle or squirrels were mammals?
On March 15 2012 09:58 Shellshock1122 wrote: wouldn't squirtle be an amphibian?
Aren't turtles reptiles? I think Charmander would be more of amphibian, since salamanders are amphibians and based off of name we can probably assume that Charmander is a salamander?
But charmander can't go in water and therefore is not amphibious!
On March 15 2012 10:11 0ne wrote: Looks really hard to transition with this build if you don't do a lot of damage with the mass gateway pressure
Yeah, it's a really agressive build, if you don't do damage you give up map control the second medivacs are out, and that lets the terran secure a free third and pressure like crazy. If he were to have added another gate to the push I really feel that Polt wouldn't have been able to hold like that without his units in bunkers. Upgrades are really all you have going for you if you don't pull ahead economically after the attack.
So confused how is polt ahead in supply. It's not like he macroed better because he was supply blocked for a good 30 seconds. Squirtle must have stopped producing probes or something.
On March 15 2012 10:34 Folstag wrote: So confused how is polt ahead in supply. It's not like he macroed better because he was supply blocked for a good 30 seconds. Squirtle must have stopped producing probes or something.
On March 15 2012 10:34 Folstag wrote: So confused how is polt ahead in supply. It's not like he macroed better because he was supply blocked for a good 30 seconds. Squirtle must have stopped producing probes or something.
On March 15 2012 10:34 Folstag wrote: So confused how is polt ahead in supply. It's not like he macroed better because he was supply blocked for a good 30 seconds. Squirtle must have stopped producing probes or something.
I know seeing Polt's aggression getting denied makes you think "ok, now squirtle is ahead" but squirtle baaaarly held, so he didn't have a big army lead afterwards, and Polt had a second base when Squirtle did, so squirtle couldn't really get a significant worker lead.
Yeah, if you lose your initial pressure terran should just gg on that map once toss gets a third, so fucking hard to engage their, it's like entombed with more chokes >.>
On March 15 2012 10:34 Folstag wrote: So confused how is polt ahead in supply. It's not like he macroed better because he was supply blocked for a good 30 seconds. Squirtle must have stopped producing probes or something.
Its called teching, Squirtle played that entire called purely for the late game, relying on his control to allow him to make expand and then defense it the whole time. =D
Really rough being forced to watch an observer other than ST_Legend though. >_< I actually have to pay attention and watch the mini-map quite closely at times.
I'm getting more and more convinced that Terrans need to incorporate BFH lategame against Protoss... upgraded chargelots are close to imbalanced in this matchup.
On March 15 2012 10:34 Folstag wrote: So confused how is polt ahead in supply. It's not like he macroed better because he was supply blocked for a good 30 seconds. Squirtle must have stopped producing probes or something.
Its called teching, Squirtle played that entire called purely for the late game, relying on his control to allow him to make expand and then defense it the whole time. =D
Really rough being forced to watch an observer other than ST_Legend though. >_< I actually have to pay attention and watch the mini-map quite closely at times.
Will ST Legend be the observer for IPL4? Or only for the GSTL finals?
On March 15 2012 10:34 Folstag wrote: So confused how is polt ahead in supply. It's not like he macroed better because he was supply blocked for a good 30 seconds. Squirtle must have stopped producing probes or something.
Its called teching, Squirtle played that entire called purely for the late game, relying on his control to allow him to make expand and then defense it the whole time. =D
Really rough being forced to watch an observer other than ST_Legend though. >_< I actually have to pay attention and watch the mini-map quite closely at times.
Will ST Legend be the observer for IPL4? Or only for the GSTL finals?
On March 15 2012 10:34 Folstag wrote: So confused how is polt ahead in supply. It's not like he macroed better because he was supply blocked for a good 30 seconds. Squirtle must have stopped producing probes or something.
Its called teching, Squirtle played that entire called purely for the late game, relying on his control to allow him to make expand and then defense it the whole time. =D
Really rough being forced to watch an observer other than ST_Legend though. >_< I actually have to pay attention and watch the mini-map quite closely at times.
Will ST Legend be the observer for IPL4? Or only for the GSTL finals?
At least a few IPL games, they said.
That's great to hear. In my opinion, a skilled observer can almost be as important as a caster.
On March 15 2012 10:41 nokz88 wrote: I'm getting more and more convinced that Terrans need to incorporate BFH lategame against Protoss... upgraded chargelots are close to imbalanced in this matchup.
The problem with hellions are you won't normally have upgrades for them. Also units are supposed to be cost efficient with an upgrade advantage.
On March 15 2012 10:41 nokz88 wrote: I'm getting more and more convinced that Terrans need to incorporate BFH lategame against Protoss... upgraded chargelots are close to imbalanced in this matchup.
Zealots are a problem but hellions are not the answer. At all. 2 supply, hundreds of gas in upgrades, and they don't sync with the rest of terran's late game army. Marines are more effective for their cost and supply. Trust me, there's a reason NO PRO EVER USES HELLIONS LATE GAME TVP, people need to stop suggesting this.
On March 15 2012 10:34 Folstag wrote: So confused how is polt ahead in supply. It's not like he macroed better because he was supply blocked for a good 30 seconds. Squirtle must have stopped producing probes or something.
Its called teching, Squirtle played that entire called purely for the late game, relying on his control to allow him to make expand and then defense it the whole time. =D
Really rough being forced to watch an observer other than ST_Legend though. >_< I actually have to pay attention and watch the mini-map quite closely at times.
Will ST Legend be the observer for IPL4? Or only for the GSTL finals?
Yes as someone else has just said he will be observing atleast some of the games at IPL4.
I think every tournament should fly him out and pay him millions to observe, I love that guy.
On March 15 2012 10:41 nokz88 wrote: I'm getting more and more convinced that Terrans need to incorporate BFH lategame against Protoss... upgraded chargelots are close to imbalanced in this matchup.
Zealots are a problem but hellions are not the answer. At all. 2 supply, hundreds of gas in upgrades, and they don't sync with the rest of terran's late game army. Marines are more effective for their cost and supply. Trust me, there's a reason NO PRO EVER USES HELLIONS LATE GAME TVP, people need to stop suggesting this.
No pro ever using something isn't an argument for anything really... ghosts for lategame TvZ was discovered by mvp midway last year. Mothership to counter zerg lategame deathball was discovered after the fungal buff... to stop innovating is admitting defeat.
On March 15 2012 10:41 nokz88 wrote: I'm getting more and more convinced that Terrans need to incorporate BFH lategame against Protoss... upgraded chargelots are close to imbalanced in this matchup.
Zealots are a problem but hellions are not the answer. At all. 2 supply, hundreds of gas in upgrades, and they don't sync with the rest of terran's late game army. Marines are more effective for their cost and supply. Trust me, there's a reason NO PRO EVER USES HELLIONS LATE GAME TVP, people need to stop suggesting this.
No pro ever using something isn't an argument for anything really... ghosts for lategame TvZ was discovered by mvp midway last year. Mothership to counter zerg lategame deathball was discovered after the fungal buff... to stop innovating is admitting defeat.
The real argument is that if you want to use hellions late game you have to upgrade them as well as your bio. Maybe not easy.
On March 15 2012 10:41 nokz88 wrote: I'm getting more and more convinced that Terrans need to incorporate BFH lategame against Protoss... upgraded chargelots are close to imbalanced in this matchup.
Zealots are a problem but hellions are not the answer. At all. 2 supply, hundreds of gas in upgrades, and they don't sync with the rest of terran's late game army. Marines are more effective for their cost and supply. Trust me, there's a reason NO PRO EVER USES HELLIONS LATE GAME TVP, people need to stop suggesting this.
No pro ever using something isn't an argument for anything really... ghosts for lategame TvZ was discovered by mvp midway last year. Mothership to counter zerg lategame deathball was discovered after the fungal buff... to stop innovating is admitting defeat.
But it's so fucking inefficient to buy 3/3 for vehicle armor and they don't even get healed, I'm all for innovating but people need to be realistic instead of suggesting hellions vs protoss in 50% of the plethora of tvp threads in the strat forum. It doesn't work and it never will work without a buff from blizz or the proposed hellion transformation in HotS.
Heh Polt too strong, I never see him play that well on his stream though.
Hopefully he can finally have another decent GSL run this season since running into MVP doesn't mean instant death in the RO32 and RO16 like in the past.
Definitely not the strongest games by Squirtle though, he can do much better. =(
Yes, one of the issues with upgrades mid-late game is that the toss ground army works on 1 attack upgrade while terrans has 2 paths... Perhaps they should make vehicle 1-1 cheaper if you already have bio 1-1 or something similar. Then terrans can try to implement tanks and hellions in their army comps. Even if it is 3-3 zealots vs bio 3-3+ mech 2-2, I think it would be more even. Because the counter to charge lots are suppose to be BFH but unupgraded BFH does nothing to 3-3 lots.
Heh Polt too strong, I never see him play that well on his stream though.
To be fair, players generally don't show optimize builds on ladder and it is mainly just for fans. They might also try new strategies they are playing around with. That is why ladder results don't mean much once you get to the top tier level.
Heh Polt too strong, I never see him play that well on his stream though.
To be fair, players generally don't show optimize builds on ladder and it is mainly just for fans. They might also try new strategies they are playing around with. That is why ladder results don't mean much once you get to the top tier level.
That wasn't really Polt winning through builds though. He found his timings in each game (except 2nd game of course, missed his timing by a little there) and was able to multitask well enough with his drops/running small groups in elsewhere. Just normal play, going for the win and playing well.
EPT
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