When: Wednesday, Jan 23 12:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) (we will also rebroadcast repeatedly afterwards!)
Format
Premier Division Group A is made up of four teams: StarTale, Evil Geniuses, FXO, and Prime. Group B contains LG-IM, MVP, Team Liquid, and Karont3. Both groups will play round robin against each other team in their group. When group stages are over, the top two teams from each Group will play in a playoff for the $9,000 first prize!
StarTale AcE Avenge Bomber Curious Hack Harrier July Life Sound SuHoSin TREME Aphrodite Virus Brain KingKong MisS Pet Sparta SoN Tiger Zero
Prime ByuN MarineKing Creator Maru Classic Lucy Bumblebee Kong
This match of the IPTL Premier Division Group A is on Wednesday, Jan 23 12:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) (we will also rebroadcast repeatedly afterwards!)
The first map will be on a set rotation, and then it is loser's pick.
Casters
Today's games will be commentated by Kevin Knocke and Tim Frazier!
NOTE: We have changed the naming schema for this season of IPTL. We will now be naming our seasons by year (though I know you were all excited for IPTL XXVI). This will be IPTL 2013 Season 1.
Lol Startale roster still so big even after losing PartinG and Squirtle. I want Prime to win but... Life is zerg and he is the best of all zergs :d. And zergs seems to be Achilles heel for whole prime team (and ofc they have other very strong players like Bomber and Curious)
On January 23 2013 05:52 TommyP wrote: if Prime can beat life then prime will win.
Hmm, Bomber might pull out a great performance. And Curious might impress as well. Prime's roster is really looking depleted nowadays, so they have very little margin for error.
Virus retired, and July is in the military, I think. Those two will never (well, not in the foreseeable future) play in IPTL, and I don't think listing them is of any use.
Anyway, I don't see StarTale losing this. Between Hack, Bomber (BOMBING RUN), Curious and Life, possibly Avenge or Sparta, I don't think Prime can beat them on a normal day.
On January 23 2013 06:40 Zealously wrote: Virus retired, and July is in the military, I think. Those two will never (well, not in the foreseeable future) play in IPTL, and I don't think listing them is of any use.
Anyway, I don't see StarTale losing this. Between Hack, Bomber (BOMBING RUN), Curious and Life, possibly Avenge or Sparta, I don't think Prime can beat them on a normal day.
MKP fighting though </3
I remember MarineKing all killing ST 2 times in finals and the rivalry where Prime has more wins. Prime won 6 times (0 in IPTL, 3 in GSTL, 3 in KSTL) StarTale 4 times (2 in IPTL, 1 in GSTL, 1 in KSTL)
On January 23 2013 06:40 Zealously wrote: Virus retired, and July is in the military, I think. Those two will never (well, not in the foreseeable future) play in IPTL, and I don't think listing them is of any use.
Anyway, I don't see StarTale losing this. Between Hack, Bomber (BOMBING RUN), Curious and Life, possibly Avenge or Sparta, I don't think Prime can beat them on a normal day.
1. That all-kill coincided rather nicely with MKP's beastmode around last spring/summer 2. Startale's supporting cast (Hack, Avenge, BRAIN, Sparta) got better. 3. MKP, though still very good, is not currently the championship contender he was when the KSL Grand Finals took place 4. Prime's roster is looking very thin recently, with their players being highly inconsistent (the exception is called Creator) 5. Life. (6. I guess you have to mention, to Prime's advantage, that Parting and Squirtle are now gone)
In fact, after Life's breakout I don't think Prime has beaten StarTale in a team league, and Life is something insane like 10-1 (I admit I don't have exact numbers here, but something like that is what I seem to recall) against Prime players from GSL Season 4 and onward.
On January 23 2013 06:40 Zealously wrote: Virus retired, and July is in the military, I think. Those two will never (well, not in the foreseeable future) play in IPTL, and I don't think listing them is of any use.
Anyway, I don't see StarTale losing this. Between Hack, Bomber (BOMBING RUN), Curious and Life, possibly Avenge or Sparta, I don't think Prime can beat them on a normal day.
MKP fighting though </3
I remember MarineKing all killing ST 2 times in finals and the rivalry where Prime has more wins. Prime won 6 times. StarTale 4 times.
Next to EG and TL this is probably my favorite rivalry ^^.
On January 23 2013 06:40 Zealously wrote: Virus retired, and July is in the military, I think. Those two will never (well, not in the foreseeable future) play in IPTL, and I don't think listing them is of any use.
Anyway, I don't see StarTale losing this. Between Hack, Bomber (BOMBING RUN), Curious and Life, possibly Avenge or Sparta, I don't think Prime can beat them on a normal day.
MKP fighting though I remember MarineKing all killing ST 2 times in finals and the rivalry where Prime has more wins. Prime won 6 times. StarTale 4 times.
On January 23 2013 06:56 PhoenixVoid wrote: ST will get their revenge this time. Prime's roster has never looked weaker, and ST still has solid players like Life, Curious, Bomber and Hack.
ST 5-2 Prime
ST has 4 solid players (Life, Curious, Bomber and Hack) and Prime has 4 solid players (Creator, MarineKing, Maru and ByuN). ST has 4 Code S players, Prime has 3 Code S players. New Prime player btw and his IEM results http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/IEM_Season_VII_-_Katowice/Korean_Qualifier : HogU 2-0 Classic HogU 2-0 RagnaroK HogU 2-1 ByuN HogU 2-1 jjakji HogU 0-2 First HogU 0-2 YoDa
I think you are underestimating the potential of Life/Bomber/Curious and overestimating Creator/MKP/Byun. But that is, of course, mostly the huge ST fan in me speaking - we'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.
On January 23 2013 06:56 PhoenixVoid wrote: ST will get their revenge this time. Prime's roster has never looked weaker, and ST still has solid players like Life, Curious, Bomber and Hack.
ST 5-2 Prime
ST has 4 solid players (Life, Curious, Bomber and Hack) and Prime has 4 solid players (Creator, MarineKing, Maru and ByuN). ST has 4 Code S players, Prime has 3 Code S players. New Prime player btw and his IEM results http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/IEM_Season_VII_-_Katowice/Korean_Qualifier : HogU 2-0 Classic HogU 2-0 RagnaroK HogU 2-1 ByuN HogU 2-1 jjakji HogU 0-2 First HogU 0-2 YoDa
But would you really consider ByuN's wins to Code S convincing? Creator has been slumping more than ever, and is vulnerable in every match-up. MKP and Maru have yet to be consistent. Life is a huge factor because he is consistent and absolutely dominant in every match-up, which Prime really lacks.
In fairness, Creator is still pretty damn good. On an average day, he can beat most high Code A - low Code S players, and on a good day he can cause a lot more damage than that. People were hyping him up as the next Protoss President, which he may not yet have become, but he's hardly "slumping". If anything, I'm much less convinced by Byun.
Creator out already? Prime is already in a deep hole. I wonder why they send Creator first so often now, it is too much of a risk to lose such an important player that early.
On January 23 2013 09:32 Sumahi wrote: I was about to type that Parting should come out now and crush Maru with his glorious P v T, but it's sad I can't type that anymore.
They could always send Squir... um I guess they should just send like Curious
On January 23 2013 09:32 Sumahi wrote: I was about to type that Parting should come out now and crush Maru with his glorious P v T, but it's sad I can't type that anymore.
They could always send Squir... um I guess they should just send like Curious
On January 23 2013 09:48 Sumahi wrote: I'm glad to see Sound play, I haven't seen him play in so long, but I'm sensing alot of overconfidence from Startale.
On January 23 2013 09:48 Sumahi wrote: I'm glad to see Sound play, I haven't seen him play in so long, but I'm sensing alot of overconfidence from Startale.
I don't think it's overconfidence. I'm pretty sure they're guaranteed to finish 1st in their group regardless of the score of this match, so they might as well give the B teamers some experience.
On January 23 2013 09:48 Sumahi wrote: I'm glad to see Sound play, I haven't seen him play in so long, but I'm sensing alot of overconfidence from Startale.
I don't think it's overconfidence. I'm pretty sure they're guaranteed to finish 1st in their group regardless of the score of this match, so they might as well give the B teamers some experience.
Your right, I completely forgot about the standings. I hope we get to see Aphrodite or Miss then.
On January 23 2013 09:51 Shellshock1122 wrote: StarTale has already clinched advancing, right? I guess they are giving some of their other players some playtime
Yes, they even clinched first place in their group.
Sound started off strong in that game, but it was sad the way he lost that lead. I hope Sparta, the slayer of Nestea and the dreams of Tastosis can start the comeback.
On January 23 2013 12:44 IMLyte wrote: StarTale just pulled an IM, send out all b-teamers and then your ace against a team you think you'll destroy. (referring to qxc's All-Kill of IM)
I dont remember Startale having done this before which is pretty odd especially since its against a strong team. I remember Slayers sending out their B-teamers before we found out about all the shit that was going on in their team. Hopefully Startale is ok and this is just them trying to train their upcoming talent since they lost Parting and Squirtle.
I really think this was just a test run for Startale to train some players and to see who could be used for GSTL. Not making any excuses for the losses though.
On January 23 2013 13:30 babylon wrote: Does Avenge look good?
Watched the opener, he just had a much better game-winning engagement. Creator saw Avenge's gate expand and went up to seven gates but never really got much more of an army than Avenge, and Avenge at usual built lots of early immortals (3). At the engagement creator had two immortals, one of which was too close to the front and was targeted by zealots.
I wish that we could have seen one of the B-Teamers, other than Avenge shine. I hope they had a good learning experience though, toughen them up a bit.
Anyone know who this guy is? Dimano mentioned him on the first page and said he was one of the best Tosses ST has now. Never heard of him before though.
On January 23 2013 16:06 babylon wrote: 한재운 ST_Panic
Anyone know who this guy is? Dimano mentioned him on the first page and said he was one of the best Tosses ST has now. Never heard of him before though.
He's had a strong run in the IPL6 amateur qualifier, he's in the semis and we'll see if he makes the finals. RemarK had good things to say about him as well after losing to him in the qual.
On January 23 2013 16:06 babylon wrote: 한재운 ST_Panic
Anyone know who this guy is? Dimano mentioned him on the first page and said he was one of the best Tosses ST has now. Never heard of him before though.
He was on NEX clan before joining ST so he is a part of ZeNEX generation which merged with ST. And as catplanetcatplanet has said he is in the semis of http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/IGN_ProLeague_Season_6/Amateur_Regional and I will give you a hint that you should watch his match vs Arthur Also you should look after http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Zero_(Lim_Choon_Ho) who is also former NEX player and he was 2 times 1 step before qualifying for Code A, also Curious praised him for crazy builds which he used in some GSL matches vs MarineKing and some toss players (the notable nydus rush build which was popular some time ago).
On January 23 2013 12:44 IMLyte wrote: StarTale just pulled an IM, send out all b-teamers and then your ace against a team you think you'll destroy. (referring to qxc's All-Kill of IM)
I dont remember Startale having done this before which is pretty odd especially since its against a strong team. I remember Slayers sending out their B-teamers before we found out about all the shit that was going on in their team. Hopefully Startale is ok and this is just them trying to train their upcoming talent since they lost Parting and Squirtle.
I think that's part of it and also that there was no way that this match could affect their seeding. Prime was already out, they were already in, and they had a tremendous map score and the head to head advantage over EG. Perfect time to send out B-teamers.
EPT
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July 
Virus 
Tiger are not on StarTale for a long time stop listing them already. And add 
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