Red Bull Battlegrounds Live Updates - Day 2 - Page 272

I disagree about the reasoning. Stephano has had people scoffing at his potential since he became a Pro. There was a thread about his ladder run in EU. Haters scoffed at him and said he would get owned at LANS. He won IPL3 and the haters said he only won because his opponents were unprepared for his style. He struggled against Korean Terrans at MLG and the haters said he has been found out by the opponents he beat a week or so before at IPL3. He won ESWC and the haters said that he would be found out soon. He went to Korea for Blizzard Cup and within a week had smashed into the Korean GM Ladder beating ForGG, Sage, Bomber repeatedly. Haters said ladder does not matter and that Koreans are not playing those games to win because they are saving their strategies for LANS. They said he would get owned at Blizzard Cup. He went 2-2 at Blizzard Cup and went out despite having the same score as MC (due to the head-to-head). Haters said he only beat Hero because Hero was having an off-day - clearly untrue. Whenever Stephano beats a Korean his bashers make attempts to belittle this achievement by disrespecting these opponents. Oh Bomber is not very good, Puma is average, Polt is just OK, JYP is not so good, Ryung is no good etc. No-one else gets this level of disrespect. When Jjakji rose to win GSL did haters slag off the opponents he defeated? Did people disrespect DRG's opponents last year?

Stephano has not gone away, he has improved during 2012. The haters have been embarrassed by their predictions of his failure being wide of the mark and yet some are still clinging to them despite the ever-growing evidence that Stephano is actually pretty good at SC2. Now they are reduced to saying he will fail in GSL due to the preparations aspect or that DRG is still better at ZvP in an attempt to put down Stephano. They should try and be objective and acknowledge that their intial doubts have been proven unfounded. Haters should just hold up their hands and admit they were wrong in their predictions about Stephano being a flash in the pan.

SC2 has only been around for a few years, but already we can see new players have emerged during that time. During Beta no-one had heard of DRG, Stephano, Jjakji, Squirtle or Bomber. It was all about Tester, Fruitdealer, Idra and MakaPrime. The players at the top have changed somewhat although some players like MC and MKP have endured. Some players have risen and some players have fallen. Even the game has changed, with new maps and new patches and a new meta-game.

Stephano gets a lot of attention and hype because he is a Foreigner tearing up the scene. If there were other Foreigners doing this to the same extent, then this attention would be shared. So it is up to other players to raise their game. Maybe Thorzain, Ret, Mana, Sheth or Illusion could go up a gear. Who knows? I don't know the future, but I do know that if someone I had not anticipated started doing really well, I would not ignore the evidence and bash them due to outdated predictions.

Stephano is good for the foreign SC2 scene. He gives hope to other Foreign pros and his popularity helps sustain Foreign Tournaments. Even if you don't like him personally, that should be acknowledged. Of course some want the Foreign scene to die. Not me. I think it is great having IPL, MLG, DreamHack, IronSquid, IEM, Assembly etc plus all the numerous mini-tournaments. It is my understanding that Boxer's popularity helped establish the BW scene in Korea. If Stephano's popularity can help establish a sustaining SC2 Foreign Scene then that is certainly a good thing. I am not crediting Stephano with being the Foreign Boxer of SC2, but if the Foreign Scene becomes sustaining and growing in popularity then all SC2 pros and fans will benefit. Stephano is helping with that.