Sting Retires

Favorite Terran Player: Western Wolves Sting
Formerly NHSH, Sting first caught my eye during the TSL4 RO16. On his first game vs Darkforce, he successfully proxied a supply depot and barracks, bunker rushed DarkForcE in his own main base, and somehow managed to transition into a 3 base timing attack that murdered the zerg's army. I was laughing the entire time, at the audacity of this nameless, teamless Korean Terran, to actually pull something like that in a tournament. And yet, from there on, he continued to impress me, as he showed full competence in being able to play a best of series, crushing DarkForce and the IM favorite First.

As I was eagerly watching the semifinals, I realized that this was a terran who I could follow to the ends of the Earth. Versus Creator Prime and as a teamless player with little fame before this tournament, Sting showcased truely one of the greatest TvP series of all time. In a full best of 7, Sting played his heart out, showing us amazingly well thought out anti-Creator build orders, from hellion marine elevators, 3 command center builds, to marauder openings. Sting cleverly analyzed his Protoss opponent's PvT style, tendencies, observer movements, and responded with a mix of mind games, abusive openings, meticious mid game timings timings and unit movements/positioning. <br /><br />Although he proceeded to lose the series 2-4 (the only player besides Life to force losses from Creator), Sting won my heart and loyalty that day.

A favored practice partner of many fan favorite players such as MMA, HerO, Taeja, Symbol, and even Creator; Sting is my favorite player to watch and learn from. <br /><br />He has a complete terran arsenal, having the ability to pull anything out of the hat from all ins to standard to greed, and the several weird variations in between. Sting manages to execute all of these, with good Korean Terran mechanics, which you'll see most in TvZ, where he musters up impossible armies despite being at a disadvantage.

Unlike a lot of build order dependent players however, Sting sets himself apart from the coL.Hearts out there by making smart choices constantly throughout his games. Accurately predicting his opponents moves, planning 2 steps ahead, he is able to constantly be a thorn in his opponents side. Exploiting his opponents weaknesses, sidestepping their strengths instead of looking for holes in them, Sting is a player who is always thinking and adjusting accordingly. You will see him making many quirky decisions throughout a game that end up being brilliant.

Not only is Sting exceptionally talented at the game, he is a humble and generous person outside of it. In any of his interviews, you'll find that despite being soft spoken, he shows a lot of passion to do his very best for himself and his fans.

I'm proud to call Joo Hoon (주훈) WW.Sting my favorite player.