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4 Posts
Full results on Liquipedia: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2015_StarCraft_II_StarLeague_Season_1/Challenge#Day_2
Yesterday was one of the most anticipated days of the SSL, with three high-level TvZ matches that involved extremely skilled and well-known players. Although all of the series ended up being somewhat one-sided, they each brought interesting games that allowed one of the players to shine.
The first match,  Samsung_Solar vs  SKT_Dream, seemed to confirm that yesterday’s games would be a treat. The series was a clash of similar, moderately aggressive styles, but Dream used stronger multitasking and control, particularly his nearly flawless use of medivacs to keep thors alive, in order to take an edge in interesting macro games. Dream, who later admitted he had recently attempted to master INnoVation’s 2013 style of endless attacking with strong macro, took an early lead after a well-controlled macro game. However, Dream’s micro really stood out during the second game, which took place on Catallena. Both players managed to exchange blows at first, but Solar took a decisive edge after thwarting an important attack on his third. Although Solar relentlessly counterattacked, Dream managed to use the aforementioned pick-up micro with his medivacs and thors in order to dodge mutalisk shots and zerglings, which allowed him to stabilize and eventually take the game. While Solar would win the third map after being aggressive in the mid-game with baneling/zergling/mutalisk, Dream would close out the series in another high quality, aggressive macro game where Solar looked entirely unprepared to deal with Dream's well-executed onslaught.
KT_Flash vs ST_Life, the next series, initially looked like it would be a letdown given the fame of the two players. After some uncharacteristically poor mistakes out of Flash, his 2rax in the first game was denied by an unusually dedicated drone pull (hopefully in the future referred to as "Life's Drone Picnic"), and Life’s followup roach bust on three bases was enough to make him leave the game. However, the second game was far more exciting than the first. Life opened with an extremely quick roach + slow zergling bust, but Life erred by not focusing on enough SCVs to break through, and had to be content with fifteen worker kills. This looked like enough to be enough damage to pull ahead, but Flash’s banshee followup did more than enough damage to even up the game and Flash took a sizable mid-game lead while denying mining at Life’s third base. Life, realizing that he couldn’t engage Flash’s army directly, continuously threatened to counterattack, which delayed Flash for as long as it took for Life to get the engagement he wanted. While both were able to stabilize in a somewhat even position afterwards, Flash refused to build any thors or a large enough number of widow mines against mass mutalisks and eventually lost his economy to consecutive mutalisk backstabs. Despite killing upwards of twenty banelings with well-positioned widow mines, Flash could not crush Life with a last-ditch attack and surrendered. After throwing away a sizable lead in game two, Flash seemed to be crushed, as he fell apart to Life’s mutalisk harass to lose 0-3 and drop out of the tournament.
The day’s final match, Acer.Scarlett vs TY, was highly anticipated as many considered Scarlett to be the fan favorite in the SSL. It was an underdog story of her single-handedly waving the non-Korean flag against one of Korea’s most promising and rising Terrans, but she could not surpass expectations in order to advance. While she found herself with a quick build order advantage right from the outset with a 10 pool against TY’s CC first, TY’s extremely aggressive mine drop + hellion runby followup allowed him to gain an economic advantage, which he rode to a victory. Similarly, Scarlett took a lead in the second game with an intelligent baneling bust, which avoided TY’s army completely, before TY seized control of the game by dropping every single base; he even used empty medivacs to distract Scarlett’s army at one point. While Scarlett managed to take the third map in rather effortless fashion with a 3-base baneling bust, TY closed the series out in a straightforward fashion. With an extremely aggressive hellion/banshee opening, he took enough of a mid-game lead to eliminate the foreign hope 3-1.
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your Country52798 Posts
(hopefully in the future referred to as "Life's Drone Picnic")
Haha, good idea.
I seem to recall Soulkey having a similar drone picnic in the Hot6iX cup (against sKyHigh?). It seems to be pretty effective 
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"her single-handedly waving the non-Korean flag"
"the foreign hope"
Aren't you guys forgetting JIMCREDIBLE?
Also, I'm more surprised Life 3-0'd than Dream winning, but that's just me...
still good job guys.
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On December 20 2014 02:21 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:
"her single-handedly waving the non-Korean flag"
"the foreign hope"
Aren't you guys forgetting JIMCREDIBLE?
Also, I'm more surprised Life 3-0'd than Dream winning, but that's just me...
still good job guys.
It's kind of hard to count players like Jim and Macsed as foreigners when we almost never see them outside of WCS. I wish their teams would send them to more foreign events. Quit hogging your pros, China!
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On December 20 2014 02:21 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:
"her single-handedly waving the non-Korean flag"
"the foreign hope"
I mean yeah..... but he was *looks side to side* -wispers- "still Asian" GASP
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ZigguratOfUr
Iraq16955 Posts
Dream winning isn't of itself surprising, but the level of play he exhibited is. Definitely someone to watch out for.
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On December 20 2014 02:26 Enemony wrote:Show nested quote +On December 20 2014 02:21 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:
"her single-handedly waving the non-Korean flag"
"the foreign hope"
I mean yeah..... but he was *looks side to side* -wispers- "still Asian" GASP
I know, it's just everyone forgets about the Chinese and Taiwanese foreigners sometimes... they're one of us damn it!
And for the Foreign Hope thing... Scarlett had a better chance against TY than Jim has against Maru so there really wasn't hope to begin with.
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dream's shown a lot of promise since he knocked out Rain on Daybreak with his hidden factory (and that run in IEM), but people had largely written him off in HOTS despite him being a very young player.
kid is only going to get better as he hits his 20's.
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also dude seriously young terran on SKT with innovation and iloveoov to show him the ropes
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Dream definitely stole the day with his sweet, sweet Thor micro. Looking forward to seeing him do it again.
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On December 20 2014 02:18 The_Templar wrote:Haha, good idea. I seem to recall Soulkey having a similar drone picnic in the Hot6iX cup (against sKyHigh?). It seems to be pretty effective
mining time is overrated! :D
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I would highly recommend the Dream/Solar series. So much higher quality than the other two. Solar did not play badly at all, Dream was just so damn impressive.
On December 20 2014 02:33 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:Show nested quote +On December 20 2014 02:26 Enemony wrote:On December 20 2014 02:21 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:
"her single-handedly waving the non-Korean flag"
"the foreign hope"
I mean yeah..... but he was *looks side to side* -wispers- "still Asian" GASP I know, it's just everyone forgets about the Chinese and Taiwanese foreigners sometimes... they're one of us damn it!
Whilst I don't want to sound exclusive, a Chinese player is a different kind of foreigner in my eyes. As mentioned, they don't spend much time at foreign tourneys but also they don't have the same interaction as Western foreigners and therefore I don't connect with them in the same way. This is not a criticism of Chinese pros at all, it's simply the result of language/geographical barriers. Still, they face the same difficulties of breaking into the Korean scene as other foreigners 
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Mute City2363 Posts
On December 20 2014 02:26 Enemony wrote:Show nested quote +On December 20 2014 02:21 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:
"her single-handedly waving the non-Korean flag"
"the foreign hope"
I mean yeah..... but he was *looks side to side* -wispers- "still Asian" GASP
We're all the same aren't we ;_;
Dream - Solar was great fun, as was Life - Flash game 2
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On December 20 2014 03:47 IAMPRO wrote:I would highly recommend the Dream/Solar series. So much higher quality than the other two. Solar did not play badly at all, Dream was just so damn impressive. Show nested quote +On December 20 2014 02:33 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:On December 20 2014 02:26 Enemony wrote:On December 20 2014 02:21 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:
"her single-handedly waving the non-Korean flag"
"the foreign hope"
I mean yeah..... but he was *looks side to side* -wispers- "still Asian" GASP I know, it's just everyone forgets about the Chinese and Taiwanese foreigners sometimes... they're one of us damn it! Whilst I don't want to sound exclusive, a Chinese player is a different kind of foreigner in my eyes. As mentioned, they don't spend much time at foreign tourneys but also they don't have the same interaction as Western foreigners and therefore I don't connect with them in the same way. This is not a criticism of Chinese pros at all, it's simply the result of language/geographical barriers. Still, they face the same difficulties of breaking into the Korean scene as other foreigners
hmm well what about lesser known or amateur Taiwan players or Australian or Japanese or South African, etc players that dont go to "Western" tournaments and dont interact with Westerners...would u bunch them up as in your words, a "different kind of foreigner" like the Chinese?
personally i dont think it matters if the player doesnt speak English or "Westerner" languages and doesnt go out to participate in "Westerner" tournaments; non-Koreans are foreigners, doesnt matter what language they speak or whether they can continually interact with "Westerner viewers" or not
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On December 20 2014 04:26 tomastaz wrote:
My boy Jim got this
Jim has beaten Maru 4-3 in Kungfu cup
this was in WoL though
so yea....
lets go foreigner power!!
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Mute City2363 Posts
On December 20 2014 04:27 mikumegurine wrote:Jim has beaten Maru 4-3 in Kungfu cup this was in WoL though so yea.... lets go foreigner power!!
What I wouldn't pay to see Has bullshit his way to a GSL / SSL title
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On December 20 2014 02:21 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:
Also, I'm more surprised Life 3-0'd than Dream winning, but that's just me...
Why? Flash is hardly relevant outside of Proleague.
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On December 20 2014 05:16 esdf wrote:Show nested quote +On December 20 2014 02:21 SetGuitarsToKill wrote:
Also, I'm more surprised Life 3-0'd than Dream winning, but that's just me...
Why? Flash is hardly relevant outside of Proleague.
Well, a 3:0 is still surprisingly onesided.
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