Seventeen wins, Zero losses. That was Taeja's stat line during a weekend which saw him claim his fourth DreamHack title--his 8th title in the June to September months overall. The Summer of Taeja began as a suggestion more than a rule, but after its debut in 2012 and a sequel in 2013, it looks like the Liquid Terran is out to complete the trilogy this season. With 2 gold medals in the past two months, it looks like the international tournament circuit should be wary of Taeja's intentions, and looking at this weekend's results, it doesn't look like anyone can stop him.
DreamHack Recap: The Perfect Summer
by Darkhorse
After missing the tournament in Bucharest, Liquid`TaeJa proved that he is still the King of DreamHack with a dominating victory at DreamHack Summer. He mercilessly tore through the tournament without dropping a single game and capped it off with a 3-0 victory over teammate and multiple DreamHack Champion Liquid`HerO in the grand finals. His 17-0 run through the tournament is one of the most dominating single tournament performances in the history of Starcraft II, and is the first "perfect premier tournament" since Nestea's domination in GSL July 2011.
Taeja looked sharp and unbeatable throughout the entire weekend. Group stage 3 presented his first real challenge, where he was placed with StarDust, Oz, and Harstem, but Taeja was unfazed as he took the group with an easy 4-0. Taeja then proceeded to demolish Sjaak, Patience, and Jaedong in rapid succession with seemingly little effort. HerO provided Taeja with his stiffest challenge of the tournament, but the Summer Terran would not be denied as he still rolled over HerO 3-0 to claim the title.
With this win Taeja has now captured an as yet unmatched fourth DreamHack title (fifth if you count his win over Thorzain in the 2014 Kick off event). He has also won the last three DreamHack events he has attended in a row. No one has ever owned a tournament to a greater extent than Taeja has owned DreamHack, unless you count Hyun and IPL Fight Club. In addition, Team Liquid is far and away the strongest DreamHack team ever, as they have claimed the championship at 7 Premier DreamHack tournaments.
Despite his loss in the finals, HerO overcame what seemed to be one of the biggest slumps of his career with a solid performance. He looked somewhat unconvincing in the group stages where he lost a series to Snute, but he turned it on once he hit the brackets by beating strong opponents like YoDa, MC, and San to reach the finals. He was unable to overcome his teammate, but a finals appearance is a welcome change for HerO coming off of poor performances in WCS and Shoutcraft. He will look to keep up that momentum at next weekend's MLG.
Weekend Observations
Foreigners Start Strong, Fall Hard: As has become standard at DreamHack tournaments, foreigners gave fans hope early in the tournament only to fall far short of the title. Foreigner favorites Snute, TLO, Harstem, and Bunny scored wins in the group stage against strong Korean opponents, but were ultimately eliminated short of the bracket stage. ShoWTimE, Sjaak, and Scarlett met similar fates in the Ro16, although Scarlett in particular put up a strong fight in her bracket match against Jaedong. MaNa was the last foreigner standing in the Round of 8, but he was edged out by The Tyrant 1-2 to deny him a spot in the semi finals.
Sjaak Attack: At the beginning of the tournament, Sjaak was a relative unknown who wouldn't have looked out of place falling out in the first group stage. Instead he beat Hyun and Huk back to back to win his 2nd group, and he advanced second from his third group by beating Golden in the final match. Although he became a victim of the Taeja machine in the bracket stage, a top 16 performance is more than anyone expected for him, and is a good result to build on to start a career in WCS (once he gets old enough!).
Koreans Improve their English: There was an abundance of Koreans giving English interviews after their matches this weekend, meaning that Koreans are rapidly taking over the one area where foreigners had a distinct advantage.
Protoss Own the Bracket: With 9 of 16 in the Ro16, and 6 of 8 in the Quarterfinals, Protoss was far and a way the most represented race in the knockout rounds. This of course didn't matter in the long run: even though the top 4 consisted of one Terran, one Zerg, and two Protoss, a Terran still won the tournament.
First Wins Consolation Bracket: Quarterfinalists MaNa, First, MC, and Patience played a consolation bracket to claim Jaedong's direct seed into Dreamhack Winter (Jaedong already having claimed one at Dreamhack Bucharest). In the end, First managed to claim the spot by beating MC 2-1 and Patience 2-0 in the deciding match.
Controversy over Taeja's "Perfect" Record: Technically Taeja's record stands at 17-0 for Dreamhack, but one opponent did defeat him after the games had ended. The Liquid juggernaut was stopped by his nemesis, one that has beaten him several times in the past. I'm talking of course, about the champagne ceremony. Even Taeja admitted defeat, and Taeja vs Champagne has become a rivalry as one sided as Cloud vs Goody.
Best Games of the Tournament: DreamHack fell on Father's Day Weekend, so many fans may have missed some of weekend's finest matches. The pièce de résistance was undoubtedly the deciding series between Jaedong and Bunny. It was a back and forth clash of wills as neither player was willing to give up their place in the Ro16, but it was Jaedong who would be bloodied but victorious after taking more cost efficient engagements. The runner up title goes to HerO vs YoDa in their Ro16 series. If you’ve been disappointed by HerO’s recent performances, these games will restore your faith as he nails clutch storms and key engagements while refusing to lay down and die against YoDa's relentless pressure.
Grand Finals Recap: Taeja vs HerO Redux
by XXTN
When Taeja and HerO reached the Ro16 and were placed on opposite sides of the bracket, the idea of an all Liquid final still seemed like a distant possibility. But with each passing round and each victory by the two players, their status as the weekend's best players became more and more apparent. However, this wasn't the first time that the teammates have met in the grand final of a DreamHack. They faced off at DreamHack Winter 2012 after slaying every hopeful foreigner, but it was HerO that prevailed that day, crushing Taeja 4-0 to claim his prize. This time, however, it would be Taeja that proved superior, dropping HerO 3-0 and finishing the tournament without a loss.
It was a tournament to remember for the 4 time DreamHack champion, which culminated in a grand finals that only further cemented his place in the echelon of the game's greats.
(Game 1) Habitation Station: After narrowly beating San in the semis, HerO looked like a clear underdog against the undefeated Taeja in the Grand Finals. The action started from the get-go as Taeja kicked off the series with some Gangnam Terran. Initially, HerO responded brilliantly by picking off a couple of marines and scvs with his mothership core, but he could not maintain the pressure to keep Taeja from maximizing the gold base. Taeja eventually stabilized, which prompted HerO to research Blink and expand.
Taeja did not keep quiet for long, however, as he used his gold mineral boost to hasten the build up of his marine/tank/banshee force. By laying siege to HerO's natural, Taeja was able to put his opponent in an uncomfortable position, forcing a key mistake as HerO lost his mothership core before Photon Overcharge was cast. With no more defensive spells and tank fire raining down on his expansion, HerO had no choice but to attempt a jail break. A blink on top of the tanks and a charge in with zealots proved insufficient; Taeja stimmed his army and wiped the Protoss army from existence.
(Game 2) Overgrowth: Down 0-1, HerO opened with blink-stalker pressure hoping to catch his teammate off guard. Unfortunately for HerO, Taeja was able to scout it early and didn't skimp on the bunkers. A few SCVs did go down, persuading the Terran to stay defensive, and it allowed HerO to sit back and tech to colossus. Though Taeja would eventually attempt to move out of his base and posture for an attack, HerO would pull Taeja back repeatedly with a warp prism in his main. Any thought of a counter was dissuaded with colossus and thermal lance complete, and HerO entered the midgame in a comfortable position with both AoE techs already available.
Thanks to his quick storm, HerO was able to hold an attack on his third 15 minutes into the game. Unable to do damage with a direct confrontation, Taeja risked his entire army with a doom drop in the main, and it seemed to pay dividends as he was able to take down the robo and a forge upgrading +2 attack. Unfortunately for the Liquid Terran, his medivacs were unable to boost away fast enough as an archon and blink stalkers were poised to bring them down on the retreat. This decisive move convinced HerO he was ready to counterattack, but a terrible engagement denied him a chance to tie the score at 1-1. His army lost and down 60 supply, it was only a matter of time until Taeja rallied his troops to overwhelm what scant defenses HerO could muster.
(Game 3) Alterzim Stronghold: On match point, Taeja would have to close it out on the largest map in the pool: Alterzim Stronghold. The game opened on edge as HerO elected to build a stargate, but a clutch scout by Taeja's reaper foiled his teammate's plans. This forced HerO to abandon his initial build order, replacing that stargate with a robo. However Taeja would go 2 for 2 with his scouting, as 2 hellions were able to drive right in and see it while roasting 3 probes for good measure. Feeling safe from imminent threat, Taeja loaded up a marine/mine drop, but HerO finally found a break as he was able to repel it without key losses.
Taeja's star sense continued into the midgame, as he would once again thwart HerO's intentions. A robotics bay was HerO's AoE of choice, but a scan quickly identified it. Without hesitation HerO cancelled it, knowing that Taeja would take this chance to attack before his army was ready. Instead, HerO once again utitlized a warp prism to keep Taeja away from his side of the map. Taeja was readier this time, however, as he was able to deflect it with minimal losses. With three bases and having forced HerO to switch plans more than once, Taeja was content to pump out units and infrastructure. Finally with a third 12 minutes into the game, things would unravel quickly for HerO as he attempted to move out. Taeja erased the third with a drop, and, sensing HerO was out of position, drew the Protoss into his trap with another drop in the natural. Taeja managed to snipe a warp prism full of templars, eliminating what hope HerO had of coming back into the game. All the Prince of Summer had to do from there was stim to win and claim his 4th DreamHack title with a perfect tournament.
Lol Koreans improve their English Awesome write up. Taeja is just dominant as always and HerO was certainly a surprise as his form has been out of it recently. Gratz to the both of them
Only a mere paragraph for the force that is Champagnejwa? Disappointing!
TvC aside, TaeJa was a monster, watching that final as a Protoss player was saddening. No matter how hard he tried there was nothing HerO could do in any of those games, he even made Jaedong look like a gold league player.
Can't wait for Autumn when the natural Taeja nerf patch goes through again.
Dreamhack was awesome as always, at the SC2 tournament was really fun to watch. #SC2notdead. And what a preformance from Taeja, I really enjoyed the match and pretalk against the Dong.
On June 17 2014 17:08 KatatoniK wrote: Only a mere paragraph for the force that is Champagnejwa? Disappointing!
TvC aside, TaeJa was a monster, watching that final as a Protoss player was saddening. No matter how hard he tried there was nothing HerO could do in any of those games, he even made Jaedong look like a gold league player.
Can't wait for Autumn when the natural Taeja nerf patch goes through again.
Last autumn TaeJa won DH Bucharest (september) and HSC VIII & DH Winter (november). Unless autumn = October, I don't see a nerf.
Complaining about the booth and quitting during a series (76)
28%
Winning Dreamhack, including against the bottle of champagne (69)
25%
272 total votes
Your vote: What is the best way for Taeja to retire?
(Vote): Winning Blizzcon... against Flash (Vote): Winning Dreamhack, including against the bottle of champagne (Vote): Complaining about the booth and quitting during a series
On June 17 2014 21:21 nimdil wrote: It's amusing that regardless of all these accomplishments, TaeJa was unable to reach single WCS final, not to mention win one.
Better to be remembered as the best player ever not winning a WCS title than to be remembered as the guy whose pants were too tight.
On June 17 2014 17:08 KatatoniK wrote: Only a mere paragraph for the force that is Champagnejwa? Disappointing!
TvC aside, TaeJa was a monster, watching that final as a Protoss player was saddening. No matter how hard he tried there was nothing HerO could do in any of those games, he even made Jaedong look like a gold league player.
Can't wait for Autumn when the natural Taeja nerf patch goes through again.
Last autumn TaeJa won DH Bucharest (september) and HSC VIII & DH Winter (november). Unless autumn = October, I don't see a nerf.
He is adapting to lengthen his period of dominance. Soon nothing will stop him.
Teaja is only good in these kind of tournaments.. in Code S he would be crushed easily and he is only doing good in WCS AM because the quality of the players are waaaaay lower...
On June 18 2014 01:32 Rikudou wrote: Teaja is only good in these kind of tournaments.. in Code S he would be crushed easily and he is only doing good in WCS AM because the quality of the players are waaaaay lower...
When he was in Code S he was doing quite well. Guess we can't know for sure how he would do there but I wish people wouldn't assume, "He would dominate Code S" or "he would get crushed in Code S" without him being there.
Complaining about the booth and quitting during a series (76)
28%
Winning Dreamhack, including against the bottle of champagne (69)
25%
272 total votes
Your vote: What is the best way for Taeja to retire?
(Vote): Winning Blizzcon... against Flash (Vote): Winning Dreamhack, including against the bottle of champagne (Vote): Complaining about the booth and quitting during a series
Sooo funny hahaha I can't believe it though... TaeJa... such a beast...
On June 18 2014 01:32 Rikudou wrote: Teaja is only good in these kind of tournaments.. in Code S he would be crushed easily and he is only doing good in WCS AM because the quality of the players are waaaaay lower...
uh... TaeJa achieved 2 GSL Ro8s and 2 Ro4s, one of them last year...
Taeja is as good as HuK when he was on liquid HuK became the first person to win HSC and then win DH on the nxt week Taeja also on liquid has repeated the legendary protoss' legacy
On June 18 2014 01:32 Rikudou wrote: Teaja is only good in these kind of tournaments.. in Code S he would be crushed easily and he is only doing good in WCS AM because the quality of the players are waaaaay lower...
Are you upset that Taeja is 11-3 against Life in Hots?
On June 18 2014 01:32 Rikudou wrote: Teaja is only good in these kind of tournaments.. in Code S he would be crushed easily and he is only doing good in WCS AM because the quality of the players are waaaaay lower...
Ok, let's check TaeJa's HotS record against players in the GSL RO16 Code S.
With this win, Taeja now has 10 Premiere Championships, and 19 medals. MVP has 9 PT wins and 18 medals. He's making a serious case for himself as Greatest Of All Time, or at least the King of the Swarm
On June 18 2014 05:43 Ribbon wrote: With this win, Taeja now has 10 Premiere Championships, and 19 medals. MVP has 9 PT wins and 18 medals. He's making a serious case for himself as Greatest Of All Time, or at least the King of the Swarm
If he wins what I am now going to classify as a "Mega Tournament" i.e. GSL or Blizzcon or something, then I would be willing to consider him as a potential G.O.A.T. Still hard to beat 4 GSLs even though play wasn't as high level back then.
I think everyone has forgotten that Nestea wasn't was the only person to have a flawless victory before this. Curious also won code A without dropping a single set.
On June 18 2014 05:43 Ribbon wrote: With this win, Taeja now has 10 Premiere Championships, and 19 medals. MVP has 9 PT wins and 18 medals. He's making a serious case for himself as Greatest Of All Time, or at least the King of the Swarm
He is a great player no doubt, but he is playing is a much easier environment overall, that's not even up for debate. If Teaja was in Korea doing GSL and in Code S round of 16 or higher AND winning all these oversea events, than you can make some legit claim to that.
I mean MC is rank 1 wcs points, but no way in hell is he the same Tier of Protoss as say Zest, MC plays in a easier environment.
On June 18 2014 05:43 Ribbon wrote: With this win, Taeja now has 10 Premiere Championships, and 19 medals. MVP has 9 PT wins and 18 medals. He's making a serious case for himself as Greatest Of All Time, or at least the King of the Swarm
He is a great player no doubt, but he is playing is a much easier environment overall, that's not even up for debate. If Teaja was in Korea doing GSL and in Code S round of 16 or higher AND winning all these oversea events, than you can make some legit claim to that.
I mean MC is rank 1 wcs points, but no way in hell is he the same Tier of Protoss as say Zest, MC plays in a easier environment.
Oh my god give us a break with GSL. It is stack and maybe harder than the other WCS but not by far.
It is not the same as before (when Taeja performed well or MC won). Some of the best players left, it is not the Graal of sc2 players anymore.
And why this stupid comparaison anyway? MC is still a beast, Taeja is the best player today. Period.
On June 18 2014 05:43 Ribbon wrote: With this win, Taeja now has 10 Premiere Championships, and 19 medals. MVP has 9 PT wins and 18 medals. He's making a serious case for himself as Greatest Of All Time, or at least the King of the Swarm
He is a great player no doubt, but he is playing is a much easier environment overall, that's not even up for debate. If Teaja was in Korea doing GSL and in Code S round of 16 or higher AND winning all these oversea events, than you can make some legit claim to that.
I mean MC is rank 1 wcs points, but no way in hell is he the same Tier of Protoss as say Zest, MC plays in a easier environment.
Oh my god give us a break with GSL. It is stack and maybe harder than the other WCS but not by far.
It is not the same as before (when Taeja performed well or MC won). Some of the best players left, it is not the Graal of sc2 players anymore.
And why this stupid comparaison anyway? MC is still a beast, Taeja is the best player today. Period.
the best player in tournaments with average field. (didn't even reached a freakin WCS NA final lol)
Great performance by Taeja, but he has still to prove himself at WCS global finals against the Korean elite. The like of Shine, Hydra, SoS, Hero (CJ), Zest are probably a better challenge then he has in WCS am.
Always felt TaeJa was by far the most impressive Terran in the world when on his best form. Couldn't give a shit what region he plays, just from watching his play, his skill..he's seriously good. Just seems to slack off sometimes ( due to the injury I guess).
On June 18 2014 05:43 Ribbon wrote: With this win, Taeja now has 10 Premiere Championships, and 19 medals. MVP has 9 PT wins and 18 medals. He's making a serious case for himself as Greatest Of All Time, or at least the King of the Swarm
He is a great player no doubt, but he is playing is a much easier environment overall, that's not even up for debate. If Teaja was in Korea doing GSL and in Code S round of 16 or higher AND winning all these oversea events, than you can make some legit claim to that.
I mean MC is rank 1 wcs points, but no way in hell is he the same Tier of Protoss as say Zest, MC plays in a easier environment.
Korean tournaments hold the highest prestige, sure, but they're not everything. Some people truly do better in different types of leagues. Kespa players, for instance, tend to be pretty mediocre at foreign events for whatever reason. I'd wager Zest doesn't do half as well as Taeja even if he went abroad as much.
Foreign events I'd say hold less weight but they are still highly notable and in Taeja's case he's done profoundly well enough in them to deserve considerable recognition. Not only that, but in general Taeja has never really degraded to the level of being a subpar player since making code S. Even wayyy back before his gsl days in 2011 he was known as the Korean weekly bonjwa online. He is one of the most consistent players and has performed well in team leagues, gsl, online, and mentioned foreign events especially. He's earned the benefit of the doubt.
On June 18 2014 05:43 Ribbon wrote: With this win, Taeja now has 10 Premiere Championships, and 19 medals. MVP has 9 PT wins and 18 medals. He's making a serious case for himself as Greatest Of All Time, or at least the King of the Swarm
He is a great player no doubt, but he is playing is a much easier environment overall, that's not even up for debate. If Teaja was in Korea doing GSL and in Code S round of 16 or higher AND winning all these oversea events, than you can make some legit claim to that.
I mean MC is rank 1 wcs points, but no way in hell is he the same Tier of Protoss as say Zest, MC plays in a easier environment.
Oh my god give us a break with GSL. It is stack and maybe harder than the other WCS but not by far.
It is not the same as before (when Taeja performed well or MC won). Some of the best players left, it is not the Graal of sc2 players anymore.
And why this stupid comparaison anyway? MC is still a beast, Taeja is the best player today. Period.
Hmmmm, are you kidding ? Some old glory left GSL but other (and better) players replace them. Look at Shoutcraft, all the koreans who play in the foreign tournament and seems unbeatable (like Liquid HerO who are on the DH finals) where just crushed by the Kespa players (who are less famous than Taeja and co because they only play PL and GSL, but are in another level).
lol, the "different kind of tournament" thing is a reaaaaaaaaaal stretch. to each his own opinion, but i think saying taeja is better at a different kind of league is like saying a minor league baseball player is better at minor league baseball than major leaguers. if he were better at anything he would be in the major leagues
only difference is yes, there is a reason to play in foreign tournaments - money and global exposure. and those ARE good reasons. but you can't just ignore the fact that one league has a higher average and maximum skill level than any other. it's the premier starcraft league in the world.
tl;dr i think taeja would do well in gsl and he's a great player, but saying he's the best player in the world is wishful thinking. you can't prove that without competing in korea. and i think a lot of people are discounting that when a player like taeja plays against weaker competition, he WILL look better than he really is because of the juxtaposition and skill gap
We definitely needed a T winner in those dark times
Now IT'S YOUR TURN MARU!
Also, get out with GSL/Other environment comparison. Taeja dominated and displayed awesome level of play, period. And he would give any GSL player a run for his money, if not a really tough challenge.
Did noone notice how bad the finals actually was? Both players seemed quite tired, there were obvious mistakes on both sides in losing units unnecesarily and in the end, it was a pretty one-sided beating because hero did significantly more of such mistakes. I like both of them and the hype and the storyline was fun, but the actual games were really lame.
On June 17 2014 17:08 KatatoniK wrote: Only a mere paragraph for the force that is Champagnejwa? Disappointing!
TvC aside, TaeJa was a monster, watching that final as a Protoss player was saddening. No matter how hard he tried there was nothing HerO could do in any of those games, he even made Jaedong look like a gold league player.
Can't wait for Autumn when the natural Taeja nerf patch goes through again.
Last autumn TaeJa won DH Bucharest (september) and HSC VIII & DH Winter (november). Unless autumn = October, I don't see a nerf.
He is adapting to lengthen his period of dominance. Soon nothing will stop him.
Yea, there will be two seasons in a year: Summer of TaeJa and Spring Break :O
I thought Hero played like crap in the final against Taeja. Not sure what happened but he sure messed up a lot. Perhaps Taeja would have one anyway but not this stomping he did. It felt arranged somehow with the sloppyness of Hero.
On June 19 2014 00:57 theninjin wrote: I thought Hero played like crap in the final against Taeja. Not sure what happened but he sure messed up a lot. Perhaps Taeja would have one anyway but not this stomping he did. It felt arranged somehow with the sloppyness of Hero.
do you think there was collusion between Taeja and JD? How about Taeja and Patience? He stomped them even harder.
Point is Taeja stomped everyone last weekend. Making some kind of baseless suggestion that two Liquid players fixed the finals is not only pretty silly, it is also certainly insulting to the team. There is a 0% chance that the match was fixed.
TaeJa excels at performing strongly in ad-hoc play weekend tournaments where you cannot prepare extensively for your opponents as you can in GSL for instance. There are probably not many other Korean players that would perform on par or better in such an environment. Anyways, great run again for him this summer, hopefully he'll not retire too soon.
On June 19 2014 00:57 theninjin wrote: I thought Hero played like crap in the final against Taeja. Not sure what happened but he sure messed up a lot. Perhaps Taeja would have one anyway but not this stomping he did. It felt arranged somehow with the sloppyness of Hero.
do you think there was collusion between Taeja and JD? How about Taeja and Patience? He stomped them even harder.
Point is Taeja stomped everyone last weekend. Making some kind of baseless suggestion that two Liquid players fixed the finals is not only pretty silly, it is also certainly insulting to the team. There is a 0% chance that the match was fixed.
Not to mention Taeja vs HerO Game 2 was the closest (imo) that Taeja came to dropping a map all tournament long
On June 19 2014 02:32 Proseat wrote: TaeJa excels at performing strongly in ad-hoc play weekend tournaments where you cannot prepare extensively for your opponents as you can in GSL for instance. There are probably not many other Korean players that would perform on par or better in such an environment. Anyways, great run again for him this summer, hopefully he'll not retire too soon.
Agreed. TaeJa's practice regime is mostly laddering all day since he lives at home with his family so he's typically very prepared to play against the unexpected builds. It also helps that he's grandmaster at all 3 races
On June 18 2014 14:14 Waise wrote: lol, the "different kind of tournament" thing is a reaaaaaaaaaal stretch. to each his own opinion, but i think saying taeja is better at a different kind of league is like saying a minor league baseball player is better at minor league baseball than major leaguers. if he were better at anything he would be in the major leagues
only difference is yes, there is a reason to play in foreign tournaments - money and global exposure. and those ARE good reasons. but you can't just ignore the fact that one league has a higher average and maximum skill level than any other. it's the premier starcraft league in the world.
tl;dr i think taeja would do well in gsl and he's a great player, but saying he's the best player in the world is wishful thinking. you can't prove that without competing in korea. and i think a lot of people are discounting that when a player like taeja plays against weaker competition, he WILL look better than he really is because of the juxtaposition and skill gap
Still think GSL is major tournament? Just look at the viewership. GSL matter less and less now to the whole SC2 scene. Soo is consistent in GSL. I doubt he had a chance against Taeja.
On June 18 2014 14:14 Waise wrote: lol, the "different kind of tournament" thing is a reaaaaaaaaaal stretch. to each his own opinion, but i think saying taeja is better at a different kind of league is like saying a minor league baseball player is better at minor league baseball than major leaguers. if he were better at anything he would be in the major leagues
only difference is yes, there is a reason to play in foreign tournaments - money and global exposure. and those ARE good reasons. but you can't just ignore the fact that one league has a higher average and maximum skill level than any other. it's the premier starcraft league in the world.
tl;dr i think taeja would do well in gsl and he's a great player, but saying he's the best player in the world is wishful thinking. you can't prove that without competing in korea. and i think a lot of people are discounting that when a player like taeja plays against weaker competition, he WILL look better than he really is because of the juxtaposition and skill gap
Still think GSL is major tournament? Just look at the viewership. GSL matter less and less now to the whole SC2 scene. Soo is consistent in GSL. I doubt he had a chance against Taeja.
What the hell are you talking about? The viewer base for each tournament let alone each time zone has been ridiculously consistent. The viewers are no different for instance the difference between the ATC versus PL yet the competition level is severely different. It's not even in the same ballpark. Stop being ridiculous.
On June 18 2014 14:14 Waise wrote: lol, the "different kind of tournament" thing is a reaaaaaaaaaal stretch. to each his own opinion, but i think saying taeja is better at a different kind of league is like saying a minor league baseball player is better at minor league baseball than major leaguers. if he were better at anything he would be in the major leagues
only difference is yes, there is a reason to play in foreign tournaments - money and global exposure. and those ARE good reasons. but you can't just ignore the fact that one league has a higher average and maximum skill level than any other. it's the premier starcraft league in the world.
tl;dr i think taeja would do well in gsl and he's a great player, but saying he's the best player in the world is wishful thinking. you can't prove that without competing in korea. and i think a lot of people are discounting that when a player like taeja plays against weaker competition, he WILL look better than he really is because of the juxtaposition and skill gap
Still think GSL is major tournament? Just look at the viewership. GSL matter less and less now to the whole SC2 scene. Soo is consistent in GSL. I doubt he had a chance against Taeja.
What the hell are you talking about? The viewer base for each tournament let alone each time zone has been ridiculously consistent. The viewers are no different for instance the difference between the ATC versus PL yet the competition level is severely different. It's not even in the same ballpark. Stop being ridiculous.
This, and the sheer level of the games played this week-end, the simple fact that Hero vs Yoda is supposed to be one of the best game of the week-end is kinda embarassing, it was like watching WCS EU Ro16.
To me, the gap between PL players and rest of the world is getting scaringly big, and maybe Taeja could compete but if he was facing Soo/soulkey or Classic/Zest I wouldn't put any cent on him...