As we prepare to attend the sacred halls of Blizzcon, Alive conspires to show us how fragile our beloved icons really are.
by CosmicSpiral
There is no better compliment and greater insult than the phrase ‘Korean Terran’. By itself the term implies a level of skill that must be respected. Korean terrans are the pinnacle of mechanical skill and standard strategy; unlike zerg and protoss, they clearly outclass the rest of the world. However, not all terrans are equal in the eyes of the community. The truly great terrans marry an identifiable playstyle with a compelling storyline. MarineKing gave us an entertaining champion who was not afraid to show weakness in front of the camera. Polt is widely admired for his irresistible charisma as well as his remarkable comebacks. MMA will always be celebrated as the Emperor’s son who overthrew the reign of an unassailable king. We even celebrate the triumphs of less accomplished players like Bomber and jjakji because their stories were ones we could empathize with. ‘Korean terran’ here is the highest form of praise. These players always walk onto the stage to thundering roars. They make our hearts soar with every win and sink with every loss. They inspire and connect people by their very existence.
EG.aLive lives on the other side of the tracks. He occupies a ghetto (along with TOP, Heart, and the late Virus/Ensnare duo) where high-level terran play has little worth. Here ‘Korean Terran’ reminds us how much of a hellhole the KR region can be. In a scene where being good means you might qualify to Challenger League with some bracket luck, you need more than a few televised games for real recognition. Unlike the aforementioned champions, these mid-level players never gave us a reason to emotionally invest into their careers. They exhibit the worst traits endemic to Korean progamers: respectful modesty that immediately sours into tediousness, hoary clichés recited ad nauseam during interviews, and a peculiar aversion towards revealing weakness, quirkiness or anything that could be construed as a personality. They are further damned with statistical mediocrity. An uninteresting person can automatically become interesting if he also happens to beat the snot out of everyone else; a player like Innovation transcends his blandness by dominating so hard, his lack of personality goes full circle and becomes part of his storyline. But these poor souls are simply not good enough to make a memorable impression. How many people remember that Heart has five top eight placements in his career, or that TheStC almost won Dreamhack Valencia? Who really cares about players who are capable of winning tournaments but never actually win them?
Alive has never been able to escape the pejorative sense of the term. His slow ascent from the Code A pit to Code S was glanced over in favor of the greater accomplishments of his TSL teammates. Fruitdealer entranced us with his sorrowful decline, SangHo charmed us with his roguish confidence, Polt’s transfer made him the most accomplished player on the roster, and Puma staked his claim as the rookie with untapped potential. No one really cared about that shy, strange kid in the background with no feats to his name. Only a few hipsters recognized his GSTL success as the precursor to something bigger.
His unexpected winning streak on Fnatic almost changed everything. The freedom to choose his own practice schedule and the promise of international exposure awoke something within Alive. Maybe his Ro16 placing at IPL3 was the catalyst; maybe it was relief at escaping the stifling atmosphere of a Korean team house. All we know is that he started to play better than he had ever played before. He blazed a path through the GSL with amazing mech play and devious openings, only put out by a torrent of proxy void rays from Genius. Alive continued to impress with three excellent series against MC, MMA, and Nestea at Iron Squid. But it was his ultimate coup d’état at IPL 4 that stunned even the most imaginative fans. Reaching two consecutive semifinals in a row is a great feat but come on…this was IPL 4. This was the granddaddy of ridiculously stacked tournaments. Five GSL champions, a two-time GSL finalist, and the best foreigner were going as well as a slew of criminally underrated players like Puma, Creator, Squirtle, and Byun. So far Alive had only proved himself in matches with intense preparation. No one expected him to survive this onslaught of talent for three days. Instead, Alive pulled a Rorschach and showed that he was the most dangerous predator of the weekend. Merciless TvT, adequate TvZ, and a cool head allowed him to seize first place among that sea of killers.
Note: IPL staff is fantastic at scrubbing the blood out of windows. Photo: silverfire
By the time Alive had proven himself as a top-tier terran, it was too late to change his reputation. IPL 4 took place in April 2012 and at this point, Korean Terrans were already storming foreign lands and hogging all the loot. Before 2012 even started Mvp had three trophies to his name; MMA had won MLG Columbus, IEM Kiev, Blizzard Cup, and Iron Squid prior to IPL 4; MarineKing was the proud owner of double MLG gold. Meanwhile Polt was coming off a memorable victory at Assembly Winter, where he charmed viewers with his never say die stubbornness and willingness to speak English. If this had taken place six months earlier Alive would be remembered as a pioneer of the Korean invasion. Instead he was saddled with the burden of unconsciously justifying this win to the community at large. Who was this unknown player who overthrew all expectations? What was the significance of this victory?
With all those memorable players taking up the spotlight, there was previous little Alive could offer to distinguish himself. His stoic composure, the key quality that allowed him to recover from a near-devastating bracket reset during the finals, was ill-suited for giving interviews. Whether by choice or nature, Alive was unable to convey the overwhelming swell of emotions that usually come with such an important event. Alive had also indirectly ruined the buildup of IPL 4 by beating the players that everyone wanted to see. MarineKing entered as the favorite to win and played the best out of all competitors during the group stage; Nestea defied rumors of his recent demise by going undefeated until the semifinals. In one swift motion he knocked both of them to the losers bracket, where they would be eliminated. Furthermore, his rise was so fast and unexpected that nobody could tie it into a greater storyline. Alive wasn’t a brilliant prodigy preparing for an inevitable day of triumph. He did not hold the aspiration of an entire team on his back. He had not established himself as a top player looking to continue his domination. He was just…there, the beneficiary of good brackets and great play.
Soon Alive’s brief flash of brilliance faded without a single tear to mourn it. He settled back into mediocrity, falling out of Code S while entering a cycle of 8th-16th finishes. Spectators were quick to dismiss those magical few months as a gross aberration. It would be an entire year before Alive broke into the quarterfinals of a major tournament again.
It would be easy to dismiss Alive as a BlizzCon contender. He lacks the pedigree of Mvp and Jaedong. He is not as lovable as Bomber and MMA. sOs and HerO outshine him in terms of flair. He has no storyline as captivating as duckdeok and Naniwa. And he certainly can’t hold a candle to Polt and MC in interviews. But beware of such assumptions when it comes to the EG terran. Behind those puppy dog eyes and perpetual frown lies the equivalent of Coyote from Navajo mythology, a trickster who delights in flouting rules and expectations. Alive doesn’t specialize in winning championships or engaging audiences: he specializes in ruining dreams and pissing us off. To an ordinary person, his post-TSL career looks like a Road Runner cartoon: Wile E. Coyote always fails hilariously in the end and so do those unwise enough to treat Alive as some tomato-can opponent. By contrast SC2 lovers are not amused by his antics. He denied us the pleasure of a MC-MMA semifinal at Iron Squid. He dared to eliminate MMA from GSL Season 1 as the entire world rooted for Boxer’s prodigy. Alive single-handedly created ulcers around the world by beating almost every fan favorite during his IPL 4 run. He sent Crank packing with an easy 3-0 sweep in the WCS Season 1 Finals and ended Scarlett’s hopes in the Season 2 Finals. He’s defeated Polt more times than I care to recall. Stephano, Mvp, Maru, Grubby, Taeja, and MarineKing have all been his victims at one point or another. He’s nice guy Sniper without broodlord support.
Alive has been preparing for this weekend for an entire year. It has been a slow, pedestrian process without much fanfare. He received little praise for reaching top six in two consecutive WCS seasons and almost no attention over IEM Shanghai. He looked unimpressive at some points and plain terrible at others. Prior to WCS America Season 2, Alive admitted that he didn’t fully understand HotS; judging by his recent games, he still hasn’t got around to fixing that completely. Don’t expect such an obstacle to intimidate the 18th highest earning SC2 player of all time. Alive thrives in these types of situations. Only when all odds are against him does he show the promise that hides behind his regular play. Will Alive be the fly in the ointment one more time? Will he bow before the superior might of these assembled champions? With him you never know. Alive certainly wouldn't have it any other way.
I'm rooting for Alive, he's kind of an underdog against most the competition, but it was always really fun watching him kick ass. I still remember that TvT (vs MMA I think?) on Dual Sight where he raven rushed into an auto-turret and tank push that just plain won outright.
I think if people checked out his WCS America live interviews and his Proleague interview with Oz, they would see how aLive is a very funny guy! It's sad that we don't get to see that often!
On November 07 2013 15:59 Shellshock wrote: @Whitewing, yea it was vs MMA. It was pretty cool. Ro8 Season 1 2012
Did you just have that memorized, or did you look it up? I'm gonna go watch that game again. I miss seeing really clever plays like that. Auto turrets are underused early game, so hard to kill them.
You say he ended Scarlett's hopes, but actually Bomber ended Scarlett's hopes if you're talking about the finals. And Scarlett schooled him in WCS NA season 2. I guess he did beat her in group stage of the finals but she still advanced.
I remember how miserable Alive looked after he won IPL 4. I just dont get some of the Koreans. Dont you enjoy winning? Dont you like seeing the crowd go nuts? You can see that a lot of them hold back their emotions for some reason.
On November 07 2013 16:11 Bowzar wrote: I remember how miserable Alive looked after he won IPL 4. I just dont get some of the Koreans. Dont you enjoy winning? Dont you like seeing the crowd go nuts? You can see that a lot of them hold back their emotions for some reason.
It's probably not exclusive to Koreans. There's people who are a lot more reserved in all cultures.
Great write up as always, thanks for that! On a somewhat unrelated note, Fruitdealer's name was brought up multiple times in these articles, does anybody know what that guys's been up to now? Last I heard he was coaching Startale's LoL team but apparently that team has since disbanded? Is he still in the esports scene?
As an EG fan and Terran fan, I've been closely following aLive since he joined EG. He's definitely underrated but this is also a stacked tournament. Rooting for him to make a few upsets at Blizzcon.
On November 07 2013 16:11 Bowzar wrote: I remember how miserable Alive looked after he won IPL 4. I just dont get some of the Koreans. Dont you enjoy winning? Dont you like seeing the crowd go nuts? You can see that a lot of them hold back their emotions for some reason.
Wait... you can't be serious right? Either Sweden has very little Asians or you have lived under a rock since China opened its gates... Alive is just disappointed that he couldn't win his standard of a "hard" tournament, by Korean standards GSL is the benchmark of being good (just like any other Asians the only standard is the gold standard).
On November 07 2013 15:47 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: Alive doesn’t specialize in winning championships or engaging audiences: he specializes in ruining dreams and pissing us off.
On November 07 2013 16:11 Bowzar wrote: I remember how miserable Alive looked after he won IPL 4. I just dont get some of the Koreans. Dont you enjoy winning? Dont you like seeing the crowd go nuts? You can see that a lot of them hold back their emotions for some reason.
Wait... you can't be serious right? Either Sweden has very little Asians or you have lived under a rock since China opened its gates... Alive is just disappointed that he couldn't win his standard of a "hard" tournament, by Korean standards GSL is the benchmark of being good (just like any other Asians the only standard is the gold standard).
Horrible outlook.
Some people just happen to be much more reserved than others.
I'm rooting for Alive, he's kind of an underdog against most the competition, but it was always really fun watching him kick ass. I still remember that TvT (vs MMA I think?) on Dual Sight where he raven rushed into an auto-turret and tank push that just plain won outright.
there's a whole album called iconoclast by german band heaven shall burn - which I like and instantly remembered =)
I'm rooting for Alive, he's kind of an underdog against most the competition, but it was always really fun watching him kick ass. I still remember that TvT (vs MMA I think?) on Dual Sight where he raven rushed into an auto-turret and tank push that just plain won outright.
that game like broke artosis' brain for a little while
On November 07 2013 15:47 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote:there, the beneficiary of good brackets
Wait whaaaat ? He beat everysingle korean during bracket stage except Bomber who went 0-4 and MMA His IPL 4 Run was skill not luck, even if it was a fluke.
On November 07 2013 16:11 Bowzar wrote: I remember how miserable Alive looked after he won IPL 4. I just dont get some of the Koreans. Dont you enjoy winning? Dont you like seeing the crowd go nuts? You can see that a lot of them hold back their emotions for some reason.
It's probably not exclusive to Koreans. There's people who are a lot more reserved in all cultures.
We don't see foreigners win enough to be sure ;p
Oh for sure. Nerchio comes to mind, he didnt look all that excited both times he won but specifically holding back your emotions seems very common with Koreans. Look at Duckdeoks win before he broke down in tears, he tries so hard to act stoic which is weird.
Good write up and damn it sums up Alive pretty good but that IPL run seems pretty harsh. He crushed at that event coming from the shadows and no one had a clue!
Congratulations to the guts of the Writer.. It's not easy to find data and write a story for what common people tend to consider a "villain" at the event or sth..
Poor aLive. Everyone else, even "faceless" duckdeok, had their faces shown on the opening image of the article introducing them. Way to tap into the faceless Korean Terran stereotype!
The player I wish to be eliminated first. Not because I dislike him but just because I prefer any other player at this tournament plus I feel it's a bit unfair for him to have gotten so many points from getting to the WCS season 2 finals because Jim couldn't go
The guy has been stomping faces for a long time (especially after joining fnatic), and did very well at all WCS Season finals this year but yet some people still think about him as an underdog and i cant understand that... Also he DOES have something unique to him : that guy sweats in the booth like no one else. Make some lines about this ! :D
TaeJa, HerO, NaNi and Polt left? Seems like the most meaty texts are ahead of us - two Liquid champions, transplanted korean who is acting North America (and Texas) representative and the Foreginers' Hope
On November 07 2013 21:43 Marou wrote: The guy has been stomping faces for a long time (especially after joining fnatic), and did very well at all WCS Season finals this year but yet some people still think about him as an underdog and i cant understand that... Also he DOES have something unique to him : that guy sweats in the booth like no one else. Make some lines about this ! :D
He's not even the best at sweating - Gumiho beats him to that
On November 07 2013 21:38 Markwerf wrote: The player I wish to be eliminated first. Not because I dislike him but just because I prefer any other player at this tournament plus I feel it's a bit unfair for him to have gotten so many points from getting to the WCS season 2 finals because Jim couldn't go
So he was supposed to loose all matches on purpose because he didn't truly qualify? Come on - he got a chance and took it. JangBi won OSL because Die_soO went to military after beating JangBi in "preliminaries" yet nobody tries to deny him the accomplishment.
I'm surprised that the huge NASL open bracket wasn't mentioned. That's the first time I really noticed and began to follow him. Even though it wasn't against top Koreans, it's was a break-thru performance for him in a foreign tournament.
Well written, but I do wish he hasn't been so strongly portrayed as the new Sniper... Everyone has something hidden to cheer for, we just need to find it
Yessssss! TL didn't do a completely scathing writeup on Alive. Watch, if he wins Blizzcon, he will show a shit ton of emotion. You won't even be ready for it. Alive fighting!
On November 07 2013 23:55 Darkhoarse wrote: Yessssss! TL didn't do a completely scathing writeup on Alive. Watch, if he wins Blizzcon, he will show a shit ton of emotion. You won't even be ready for it. Alive fighting!
I wonder what preview will be last. I bet it's naniwa. I am curious to see the details, the discussions that happened behind the walls, between the TL writers and admins, to determine who gets the last preview. It would make sense that they keep their two liquid players at the end, but i think more people like naniwa than taeja and hero, because he's the only foreigner left.
On November 07 2013 15:59 Shellshock wrote: @Whitewing, yea it was vs MMA. It was pretty cool. Ro8 Season 1 2012
You really are a robot! :o
It was a pretty memorable season imo cause the final 4 was pretty unexpected apart from DRG. I jokingly picked Genius to win the season beforehand because most people figured Genius was on his last leg and wouldn't be around much longer. Suddenly goes undefeated when reaching max before the final, beats DRG (easily top zerg and top 2 player in the world) in the Ro32, advances out of the group of death in the Ro16 coming back to beat Marineking in a 2nd series after losing in the first one to a mech opening (still mad about that one because MKP actually went 3-2 in maps but won the wrong bo3 :/ and MKP was also meeting DRG in a bunch of finals at that time leading up to his MLG wins and was probably the best TvP) Then you had GuMiho. this is before we knew how good GuMiho was. At this point he was just a guy that kind of looked like Leenock according to people, we knew he sweated a lot, and he played with a towel. His win over Mvp was one of the biggest liquibet upsets in sc2 at the time I believe. It was something like double digit vs several thousand votes for their ro16 group. aLive was just that Ro32 terran that suddenly rose up and crushed MMA who was coming off the Blizzard cup win and one of the best games in sc2 history. The raven game on dual sight was pretty unique at the time The only expected person in the Ro4 was DRG who almost went down to Gumiho (Gumiho blew a 2-0 lead)
"Note: IPL staff is fantastic at scrubbing the blood out of windows." LOL, this made me almost spit coffee out of my mouth in the middle of the library.
Aside from the antics. Great read, probly the best one so far considering he likely has the least fans out of these 16 players. aLive is better than most people give him credit for, he is completely formidable in TvT, capable of beating ANY Terran. His TvP is also something a Protoss shouldn't slack on when playing him. I fear that he'll be instantly eliminated if he runs into a Zerg, but luckily they'll probly both be gone early in the tournament.
While I can appreciate the effort of writing this article and the quality of the result, I still can't muster any enthusiasm for alive. Even duckdeok is more exciting, and that's saying something.
Loving these writeups, but this oozes with false hype. Dude has never displayed the traits of a Coyote or whatever sort of spirit animal you want to call him. Just another polite, mechanical Korean Terran with the interview personality of a brick. Heck, just call him a brick.
I'm not the greatest SC fan, I watch it occasionally and more as a casual thing than as an actual hobby.
But is this really the way to treat a player who is among the 16 best in the world? The article basically says: he's mediocre, don't cheer for him, he sucks.
This is even more painful to read when other players are praised without stop even if they are not in their best form. The community I belong to would never do this to a player on a professional level, this is just... sad, that you treat a player this way.
On November 08 2013 02:31 leakey wrote: Loving these writeups, but this oozes with false hype. Dude has never displayed the traits of a Coyote or whatever sort of spirit animal you want to call him. Just another polite, mechanical Korean Terran with the interview personality of a brick. Heck, just call him a brick.
On November 08 2013 02:35 EnanoMaldito wrote: I'm not the greatest SC fan, I watch it occasionally and more as a casual thing than as an actual hobby.
But is this really the way to treat a player who is among the 16 best in the world? The article basically says: he's mediocre, don't cheer for him, he sucks.
This is even more painful to read when other players are praised without stop even if they are not in their best form. The community I belong to would never do this to a player on a professional level, this is just... sad, that you treat a player this way.
Being at wcs finals doesn't automatically make you top 16 in the world. Also I don't think the article is implying he sucks and don't cheer for him. It is saying don't count him out because he has the ability to knock anyone out in his best form.
but yeah my personal opinion? Few of these guys are nowhere near top 16 in the world and will get smashed.
On November 07 2013 16:02 Shellshock wrote: aLive leads Polt 14-12 in head to head and beat him in WCS AM this year 2-1. Definitely don't count aLive out
That is actually pretty impressive considering Polt's TvT.
aLive is the ultimate example of a player where you have to let his play speak for itself, in part because he's the ultimate bad interview combo: incredibly soft-spoken, extremely unemotional AND seemingly shy. The memory I always have of him is from when he played MMA in Iron Squid I (I think it was in the semifinals?). MMA won the series, but they had a match on Belshir Beach Winter where MMA tried his trademark drop-heavy style and aLive completely crushed him playing the same style. I seem to recall MMA even saying after that game that he gave up trying to use drop play against aLive because he was better at it than MMA was. And this was MMA at the height of his powers...
On November 08 2013 02:35 EnanoMaldito wrote: I'm not the greatest SC fan, I watch it occasionally and more as a casual thing than as an actual hobby.
But is this really the way to treat a player who is among the 16 best in the world? The article basically says: he's mediocre, don't cheer for him, he sucks.
This is even more painful to read when other players are praised without stop even if they are not in their best form. The community I belong to would never do this to a player on a professional level, this is just... sad, that you treat a player this way.
I didn't read it as that at all. I saw it as pointing out an obvious underdog that isn't even a fan favourite, someone that not a lot of people rally behind for a multitude of reasons. There are obviously more players that have more fans and I would probably bet the aLive has the smallest fanbase in comparison to the rest of the 16 players going to Blizzcon.
He doesn't suck and can definitely take out a good portion of the players going to Blizzcon, it's just that he doesn't have a huge fanbase behind him like others and the article reflects and laments on it.
"Alive doesn’t specialize in winning championships or engaging audiences: he specializes in ruining dreams and pissing us off." That made me rofl so hard!!! Nice writeup, you made me decide to cheer for alive if JD gets knocked out, the logic is: I get pissed because my favourite player lost, everybody shall feel the same.
"Alive doesn’t specialize in winning championships or engaging audiences" Only the brilliance of TeamLiquid writers could manage to turn a "mediocre and emotionless" Korean Terran into the ultimate super villain. Even I remember the bitter taste in my mouth when Alive slew the mighty Scarlett. Definitely hope for Naniwa to win, but would be really happy if Alive takes some names, slays some monsters, and cook up bloody noses.
This is the article that is supposed to generate hype for Alive? I must be misreading it then. I see paragraphs talking about how he is mediocre, has no emotion and a penchant for eliminating fan favorites. There's basically nothing talking about his qualification for Blizzcon because it was so boring. He mostly beat the dregs of the NA scene (big deal) and looked bad while doing it. I don't blame the author though. He definitely had the hardest task of them all.