When Bunny beat Sacsri in WCS EU Challenger League to make it back to Premier, many in the community were surprised with his performance. He had to face the most recent DreamHack champion--a player who looked like a revelation in his first offline tournament appearance--but on that night in WCS Europe, Bunny prevailed. Though he was a consistent feature of Europe's biggest tournament, he had yet to ascend the heights of his more illustrious teammates. His lack of success in major tournaments rightfully made him the underdog to the newly crowned DreamHack winner, but that label mattered not to the Liquid Terran.
Now, Bunny no longer has to worry about labels because he has made history as the first foreigner to win a sanctioned WCS tier 2 event. Gfinity may have only been a 12 player event with 3 qualifier spots, but there were no easy paths to the final. HyuN had to beat Zanster, TLO, DeMusliM and MC, while Bunny overcame DeMusliM, StarDust, TLO, Snute and HyuN to win the title. Not mentioned were the likes of MMA, jjakji, Grubby, and PiG, who completed a strong albeit small lineup.
The Battles of Britain
Day 1 went according to plan as many of the group favorites advanced to the quarter finals. The one surprise was StarDust's poor outing in London as he fell 0-2 and 1-2 to Bunny and DeMusliM respectively. He had not lost a PvT since his MLG Anaheim defeat to Polt, and had not lost to a foreign terran since Happy at Fragbite Masters back in May. Considered by many to be a favorite to win the event, getting dropped from a 3-man group like that has to be considered a grave disappointment. This did mean that hometown hero DeMusliM had one more day to impress his fans, but that day would not last long at the hands of semi finalist HyuN.
Despite reaching his first Ro8 since NASL Season 4, DeMusliM would become the only player to lose 0-2 in the quarterfinals. The series of the round was without a doubt Snute vs MMA, though it was not without some complaints. Game 1 was an atypical TvZ as Snute's composition of choice was swarm hosts against MMA's famed harass-based bio. This type of army is usually punished by drops and attacks from different angles before it can reach a critical mass, but Snute's diligent creep spread and intelligent repositioning of his main army ensured that he would not bleed from MMA's deft swipes at his economy. Game 2 on the other hand was a one sided affair when MMA's proxy reapers did considerable damage. A followup hellion runby netted a few more drones, enabling MMA to enter the mid game with a considerable economic advantage. Snute had no chance to keep up in economy, and he would fall to MMA's push. With things tied and Snute preferring to use swarm hosts whenever possible, there was no other way to end the series than with an hour long mech vs swarm host game. Though many supposed fans of the game consider these tug-of-wars to be laborious and plodding, in the right hands, these compositions can result in compelling games. That was the case here as neither player could wrest control of the game for long. MMA matched Snute at every turn, but the Norse demigod's control of swarm hosts, vipers and infestors proved too strong even for the the former Code S winner.
Snute once again proved why many consider him the best foreigner of 2014. His momentum would be stopped however, by his teammate Bunny. The Danish Terran fought tooth and nail in another teamkill in the previous round against TLO, and he would best his Norwegian compatriot in 4 games. Snute was the player to open with the lead after some clever reading of Bunny's reaper movement allowed him to eliminate them from scouting. This gave him the opportunity to surprise Bunny with roach baneling that rolled over the unprepared terran. The next three games, however, were all Bunny. Nimbus was the only thing close to a macro game in the series, but a big surge of barracks caught Snute unprepared. Bunny went straight for the jugular with an aggressive push, and Snute was unable to gather enough forces to repel the Dane's offense. The final two games on King Sejong and Merry Go Round showed just how strange teamkills can be as Bunny 2rax'd Snute on both maps. On the former, Snute overcommitted drones to his defense and lost far too many. On the latter, the zerg attempted a ling bane counter attack, but it was easily blocked by a barracks wall off. Bunny was too far ahead at that point, and he calmly claimed his place in the final soon after.
The Finals We Deserved
There he would face HyuN, who defeated MC in the Ro4. Many considered the ROCCAT Zerg the clear favorite, but once again that label meant little to Bunny. Things would not start off well for our foreign hero however as he would lose game 1 on King Sejong Station with abrupt ease after 6 lings were able to cancel his low ground CC. An 11 minute 1/1 roach timing promptly obliterated the terran's defenses, and even high ground tanks were not enough to stem the tide of units. This pattern of 1/1 mid game roaches would continue throughout the series, but Bunny's adjustments to HyuN's game plan showed that the Dane had both the micro and the intuition to win the title. The Liquid Terran switched things around as his early reapers paid dividends by scoring 6 drones. One reaper at home was enough to stop HyuN's early lings, and it was advantage terran. Things would end up even entering the mid game, however, when a roach attack caught Bunny out of position. He had just queued two dropships full of marines when the roaches took down the rocks, and 3 tanks were taken by surprise. But that would be all HyuN could seize when Bunny answered back with a strong push just before the zerg could transition into mutalisks. With a small army and a bank still morphing, HyuN did not have enough to hold, and Bunny claimed game 2 to even the series.
It was a nervy first two games, but things were about to heat up as Deadwing presented the best game of the finals. Quick speed and a baneling nest suggested that HyuN might try a bust, but after being unable to surround the initial hellions, he abandoned those plans and both players settled into their mid games. The first big engagement turned the game on its head when both players met in the middle of the map. HyuN's force of roaches, zerglings and banelings looked overwhelming, but a hot pickup by Bunny into HyuN's natural inflicted near catastrophic losses. 28 drones were dead, but HyuN was not done. He counterattacked without hesitation and was, at the same time as the drop, knocking on Bunny's front door. The Dane had no choice but to pull SCVs, but roaches were already in the main. By the end of the mutual onslaught, the terran and zerg were down to 34 and 55 workers respectively. The action continued as either player was constantly attacking, and each engagement was highlighted by Bunny's improbable splits and HyuN's improbably holds. Now with ling muta bane, HyuN's evasive army movement eventually forced a base trade, but while HyuN sacrificed his banelings on SCVs, Bunny was knocking down hatcheries. With his production hampered and his banelings gone, HyuN could not rally enough units to eliminate Bunny's army, and he was forced to gg.
The next game would not live up to the excitement of the last as HyuN was able to overwhelm the terran with roach hydra. With a good spread and the exact number of roaches, HyuN was able to eliminate all of the marines with most of his hydras intact. With half the supply and a 3rd command center shot down from the sky, Bunny had no choice but to concede. That would be HyuN's last win of the night though as Bunny turned things up to 11 to close things out in 6 games. Both were exciting macro games with multiple engagements, but it was Bunny's care and precision in picking the right spots to fight that won the day. On Nimbus, a big fight at the ramp of his fourth erased half of HyuN's army at the cost of a few marines. The thor's new attack priority once again proved decisive in big fights when HyuN's poor management allowed one thor to kill almost a dozen mutalisks. Along with Bunny's almost machine like splits, his parade push down the zerg's throat could not be stopped. It would be more of the same on Catallena. After having his third base cancelled put him at a disadvantage, HyuN would do himself no favors by repeatedly engaging off creep. That was bad enough, but his late baneling speed allowed Bunny to take favorable engagements time and time again. HyuN was able to hold once he was able to get his mutalisk count up, but the pendulum swung one last time with a brilliant piece of positioning by Bunny. By camping just below the zerg fourth in a small pocket with marines and shooting at mutalisks with his thor, Bunny forced HyuN into a terrible fight. Bleeding profusely, HyuN tried a desperate counter attack, but no amount of zerglings and banelings seemed to be able to take down Bunny's planetary fortress. With one last push down the middle, Bunny took game 6 and the Gfinity title.
The First of His Kind
The entire day was a lesson in TvZ. Bunny took down three very different players int he knockout stages in TLO, Snute and HyuN, and he looked like the superior player in all three series. His marine splits looked sublime, but his positioning and ability to take favorable engagements earned him his coveted trophy, the first for a foreigner in a Tier 2 WCS event. Though Snute has often received the accolades as the world's best foreigner, this win shows that he has competition to the title in his very own team. Bunny's victory against HyuN comes at the perfect time with Season 3 of WCS just beginning. It's the final opportunity for a foreigner to finally break the competition's Korean monopoly, and as Bunny has shown, there is no underdog when one plays to the best of his abilities. He will be one of the players to watch out for in WCS EU, and a good tournament could even catapult him into Blizzcon. Though the tournament was one of the least hyped tier 2 events in recent memory, it could be one of the turning points of the year.
Wow, I'm speechless, when you look at the lineup you'd never imagine in a million years that little Bunny would emerge the victor through the qualifiers in a tournament stacked full of Korean European champions, not to mention heavyweights like Snute and TLO.
I think Bunny's true nature has finally been revealed to the world... I am sure he is hopping up and down with joy right now.
I understand that people see "foreigner beat korean in a finals" and want to be blinded by this concept of "hype" (one of the worst buzzwords to exist in this era IMO) but I feel like this should be said:
For a while, overseas events in particular have had basically the same handful of low-mid tier Koreans (compared to Code S competitors) attending them to face off against foreigners who are admittedly better than average. I feel that this is more than likely in an attempt to set this kind of scenario up, because it's obvious how much attention events receive and how easy it is to "hype" up the chance of something like this happening. However, if you step back and compare the kind of Korean they're facing, it's really not that impressive, and it's almost expected at this point for these Koreans to lose, because they're not the same quality of Korean that competes in Korea.
To me, it seems like these Koreans in particular (coincidentally, MC HyuN jjakji MMA StarDust are perhaps the five that attend the most of these events out of any set of Koreans) keep being invited because not only are foreign fans more capable of recognizing them compared to other Koreans (because they keep getting invited) but also because to a foreigner, they're the most beatable Koreans nowadays, and when all the vast majority of foreign fans are capable of seeing is "a foreigner beat a Korean", the quality of Korean that the foreigner is beating is irrelevant.
I don't mean to rain on a parade here, but it's been obvious for a while, to me at least, what tournaments have been trying to do in this regard when it comes to the whole foreigner taking on the Korean menace bias. I'm probably going to be lambasted because people still think of most of those players listed as if they're still in their 2012 form, which would make a foreigner beating them special, but it's almost 2015, and nearly every single Korean that is actively invited and/or attends foreign events would more than likely struggle to qualify for Code A - just like foreigners.
On August 04 2014 18:39 sunship wrote: I understand that people see "foreigner beat korean in a finals" and want to be blinded by this concept of "hype" (one of the worst buzzwords to exist in this era IMO) but I feel like this should be said:
For a while, overseas events in particular have had basically the same handful of low-mid tier Koreans (compared to Code S competitors) attending them to face off against foreigners who are admittedly better than average. I feel that this is more than likely in an attempt to set this kind of scenario up, because it's obvious how much attention events receive and how easy it is to "hype" up the chance of something like this happening. However, if you step back and compare the kind of Korean they're facing, it's really not that impressive, and it's almost expected at this point for these Koreans to lose, because they're not the same quality of Korean that competes in Korea.
To me, it seems like these Koreans in particular (coincidentally, MC HyuN jjakji MMA StarDust are perhaps the five that attend the most of these events out of any set of Koreans) keep being invited because not only are foreign fans more capable of recognizing them compared to other Koreans (because they keep getting invited) but also because to a foreigner, they're the most beatable Koreans nowadays, and when all the vast majority of foreign fans are capable of seeing is "a foreigner beat a Korean", the quality of Korean that the foreigner is beating is irrelevant.
I don't mean to rain on a parade here, but it's been obvious for a while, to me at least, what tournaments have been trying to do in this regard when it comes to the whole foreigner taking on the Korean menace bias. I'm probably going to be lambasted because people still think of most of those players listed as if they're still in their 2012 form, which would make a foreigner beating them special, but it's almost 2015, and nearly every single Korean that is actively invited and/or attends foreign events would more than likely struggle to qualify for Code A - just like foreigners.
I think this greatly undervalues the accomplishment.
Those guys are not Code S champions that is true. However they are at the top of the WCS rankings. They got there because they have proven to be ahead of the foreigners every time they face them. For most of them their skill level appears to be Code S level even if it is not Code S championship level.
and it's almost expected at this point for these Koreans to lose, because they're not the same quality of Korean that competes in Korea.
If you look at their results they clearly are not expected to lose to foreigners. It's downright idiotic to say that. How do you think they became WCS EU champions and are topping the WCS leaderboard? They certainly didn't do that by letting foreigners get the best of them.
That's who he took out and who others have not been able to take out before him. It's incredibly impressive. Nobody is claiming he won a Code S championship.
Though many supposed fans of the game consider these tug-of-wars to be laborious and plodding, in the right hands, these compositions can result in compelling games.
Not sure why you felt the need to take a shot at people who dislike Swarm Hosts by implying that they're not truly fans of the game...
Not sure why you would want to start a nice victory article off with a reply like this but I guess that's also the reason why some ppl do nothing but complain about swarm host. Their day just isn't complete unless they can whine about something.
It's nice to have a foreign terran hope again. I think the last time we really had one was thorzain back around 2012. It's been a long time waiting for the fans. I thought lucifron or happy would be the standard bearer, but they always fell short. Glad to see bunny picking up the torch.
On August 04 2014 18:39 sunship wrote: I understand that people see "foreigner beat korean in a finals" and want to be blinded by this concept of "hype" (one of the worst buzzwords to exist in this era IMO) but I feel like this should be said:
For a while, overseas events in particular have had basically the same handful of low-mid tier Koreans (compared to Code S competitors) attending them to face off against foreigners who are admittedly better than average. I feel that this is more than likely in an attempt to set this kind of scenario up, because it's obvious how much attention events receive and how easy it is to "hype" up the chance of something like this happening. However, if you step back and compare the kind of Korean they're facing, it's really not that impressive, and it's almost expected at this point for these Koreans to lose, because they're not the same quality of Korean that competes in Korea.
To me, it seems like these Koreans in particular (coincidentally, MC HyuN jjakji MMA StarDust are perhaps the five that attend the most of these events out of any set of Koreans) keep being invited because not only are foreign fans more capable of recognizing them compared to other Koreans (because they keep getting invited) but also because to a foreigner, they're the most beatable Koreans nowadays, and when all the vast majority of foreign fans are capable of seeing is "a foreigner beat a Korean", the quality of Korean that the foreigner is beating is irrelevant.
I don't mean to rain on a parade here, but it's been obvious for a while, to me at least, what tournaments have been trying to do in this regard when it comes to the whole foreigner taking on the Korean menace bias. I'm probably going to be lambasted because people still think of most of those players listed as if they're still in their 2012 form, which would make a foreigner beating them special, but it's almost 2015, and nearly every single Korean that is actively invited and/or attends foreign events would more than likely struggle to qualify for Code A - just like foreigners.
I think this greatly devalues the accomplishment.
Those guys are not Code S champions that is true. However they are at the top of the WCS rankings. They got there because they have proven to be ahead of the foreigners every time they face them. For most of them their skill level appears to be Code S level even if it is not Code S championship level.
and it's almost expected at this point for these Koreans to lose, because they're not the same quality of Korean that competes in Korea.
If you look at their results they clearly are not expected to lose to foreigners. It's downright idiotic to say that. How do you think they became WCS EU champions and are topping the WCS leaderboard? They certainly didn't do that by letting foreigners get the best of them.
That's who he took out and who others have not been able to take out before him. It's incredibly impressive. Nobody is claiming he won a Code S championship.
Well, technically MMA, MC and Jjakji are Code S champions. I see your point ofc., but the choice of words here bothers me a bit. If you win Code S, you stay a Code S champion for the rest of your life. It doesn't just go away, because of the time, that has passed since than.
Congratz Bunny! A shame I was unable to watch this tournament : / (Next time I want TLO to win. I think that day I'll have to open a bottle of champagne).
On August 04 2014 18:39 sunship wrote: I understand that people see "foreigner beat korean in a finals" and want to be blinded by this concept of "hype" (one of the worst buzzwords to exist in this era IMO) but I feel like this should be said:
For a while, overseas events in particular have had basically the same handful of low-mid tier Koreans (compared to Code S competitors) attending them to face off against foreigners who are admittedly better than average. I feel that this is more than likely in an attempt to set this kind of scenario up, because it's obvious how much attention events receive and how easy it is to "hype" up the chance of something like this happening. However, if you step back and compare the kind of Korean they're facing, it's really not that impressive, and it's almost expected at this point for these Koreans to lose, because they're not the same quality of Korean that competes in Korea.
To me, it seems like these Koreans in particular (coincidentally, MC HyuN jjakji MMA StarDust are perhaps the five that attend the most of these events out of any set of Koreans) keep being invited because not only are foreign fans more capable of recognizing them compared to other Koreans (because they keep getting invited) but also because to a foreigner, they're the most beatable Koreans nowadays, and when all the vast majority of foreign fans are capable of seeing is "a foreigner beat a Korean", the quality of Korean that the foreigner is beating is irrelevant.
I don't mean to rain on a parade here, but it's been obvious for a while, to me at least, what tournaments have been trying to do in this regard when it comes to the whole foreigner taking on the Korean menace bias. I'm probably going to be lambasted because people still think of most of those players listed as if they're still in their 2012 form, which would make a foreigner beating them special, but it's almost 2015, and nearly every single Korean that is actively invited and/or attends foreign events would more than likely struggle to qualify for Code A - just like foreigners.
I think this greatly undervalues the accomplishment.
Those guys are not Code S champions that is true. However they are at the top of the WCS rankings. They got there because they have proven to be ahead of the foreigners every time they face them. For most of them their skill level appears to be Code S level even if it is not Code S championship level.
and it's almost expected at this point for these Koreans to lose, because they're not the same quality of Korean that competes in Korea.
If you look at their results they clearly are not expected to lose to foreigners. It's downright idiotic to say that. How do you think they became WCS EU champions and are topping the WCS leaderboard? They certainly didn't do that by letting foreigners get the best of them.
That's who he took out and who others have not been able to take out before him. It's incredibly impressive. Nobody is claiming he won a Code S championship.
I find it funny that 3 of those 5 koreans mentioned (MC, MMA and jjakji) ARE GSL champions, and HyuN a finalist.
While currently they probably are not on the same level as the top korean players, they are not that far off. Every time they face off against Code S ro8+ players, they put up a good fight and are never outclassed.
One has to keep in mind that as a player outside of korea, practice will be harder, no matter if you're a foreigner or a former GSL champion. Maybe the GEM house will be the exception to this, seeing as they are gathering quite the amount of top koreans at the same place.
edit: Not sure what I'm trying to get at. Probably that while MC, HyuN and the likes aren't the best of the best, they are as good as one gets while still travelling a lot, and that top koreans would probably also lose a bit of their skill if they did the same.
On August 04 2014 18:39 sunship wrote: I understand that people see "foreigner beat korean in a finals" and want to be blinded by this concept of "hype" (one of the worst buzzwords to exist in this era IMO) but I feel like this should be said:
For a while, overseas events in particular have had basically the same handful of low-mid tier Koreans (compared to Code S competitors) attending them to face off against foreigners who are admittedly better than average. I feel that this is more than likely in an attempt to set this kind of scenario up, because it's obvious how much attention events receive and how easy it is to "hype" up the chance of something like this happening. However, if you step back and compare the kind of Korean they're facing, it's really not that impressive, and it's almost expected at this point for these Koreans to lose, because they're not the same quality of Korean that competes in Korea.
To me, it seems like these Koreans in particular (coincidentally, MC HyuN jjakji MMA StarDust are perhaps the five that attend the most of these events out of any set of Koreans) keep being invited because not only are foreign fans more capable of recognizing them compared to other Koreans (because they keep getting invited) but also because to a foreigner, they're the most beatable Koreans nowadays, and when all the vast majority of foreign fans are capable of seeing is "a foreigner beat a Korean", the quality of Korean that the foreigner is beating is irrelevant.
I don't mean to rain on a parade here, but it's been obvious for a while, to me at least, what tournaments have been trying to do in this regard when it comes to the whole foreigner taking on the Korean menace bias. I'm probably going to be lambasted because people still think of most of those players listed as if they're still in their 2012 form, which would make a foreigner beating them special, but it's almost 2015, and nearly every single Korean that is actively invited and/or attends foreign events would more than likely struggle to qualify for Code A - just like foreigners.
I think this greatly devalues the accomplishment. Those guys are not Code S champions that is true. However they are at the top of the WCS rankings (top 3 in fact as well as 9 and 18 with MMA crushing every team league). They have proven to be ahead of the non-Koreans every time they face them. Their skill level appears to be Code S level even if it is not Code S championship level. That's who he took out and who others have not been able to take out before him. It's incredibly impressive. Nobody is claiming he won a Code S championship.
"and it's almost expected at this point for these Koreans to lose, because they're not the same quality of Korean that competes in Korea."
If you look at their results they clearly are not expected to lose. It's dowright idiotic to say that.
To be fair to the guy you responded to it's harder for the code s Koreans to get these points, but last years blizzcon had the koreans in EU NA getting further than the code s koreans. We will see if this holds true one year later at this blizzcon.
Hes totally right, just take a look at ur own TLPD rankings and compare it to the wcs ranking, not even one of the 10 highest WCS players is in your Top 10. That WCS system is the problem, european and foreignkoreans get most WCS points despite having the easiest opponents just because they get the biggest support from their teams and organisations.
Bunny did great, he deserved the win and all, but was it worth 750 WCS points ? Clearly not. thats the amount u get for getting RO4 in Code S, which is with any love for Bunny and the whole TeamLiquid not even close to comparable.
EPT
Bunny beat Sacsri in WCS EU Challenger League to make it back to Premier, many in the community were surprised with his performance. He had to face the most recent DreamHack champion--a player who looked like a revelation in his first offline tournament appearance--but on that night in WCS Europe, Bunny prevailed. Though he was a consistent feature of Europe's biggest tournament, he had yet to ascend the heights of his more illustrious teammates. His lack of success in major tournaments rightfully made him the underdog to the newly crowned DreamHack winner, but that label mattered not to the Liquid Terran.
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