Lilbow and his Approach to WCS Finals 2015 - Page 15

Lilbow can't be the next bad boy of StarCraft. He's a nice guy who made the mistake of clumsily making excuses of a bad showing because he didn't practice enough. Disappointing, but not seduced to the dark side.

On November 03 2015 09:12 rfv14 wrote:

I believe neither Idra nor Naniwa are really "bad boys". They were just clumsy, socially awkward, miscommunicating and shit happened, so they had to play the role. Lilbow should do that too to make himself more prominent. Next time people will pay to see him lose to a Korean .

Why is there so many cases of Matchfixing then?...
See blanket statements aren't fair, it's not fair to downplay western/foreign players nor put them all in the same basket.
Lilbow's chances were the worst in the tournament to begin with and had no access to an active ladder or active practice partners to prepare with, as I said before, I wouldn't do the same, but I can respect his adult decision.
He believes that doing this is what gives his career as a player the best chances, wether that is correct or not is irrelevant, his intentions are clear and have no malice attached to them.
These were extraordinary circumstances not likely to repeat themselves, LOTV Beta being up makes it incredibly hard to prepare, so being the weakest player and knowing that he has virtually have no practice partners or even a ladder going up against -the best- KeSPA players living and preparing in houses with their teammates and the still active KR ladder... it's a tough situation to be in. No one likes losing or giving up, but Lilbow made it clear his goal was to win WCS and after that stated more than once that he lost motivation in Hots, he said multiple times that he didn't think he had a chance at Blizzcon, does that make him such a horrible monster?
To the second part of your blanket statement if it counts for anything I've been around eSports and poured my heart and soul into it for a good 5+ years trying to do my bit to help it grow to where it is right now, and Lilbow isn't a disgrace to me, he's an adult who made an honest (perhaps dumb, perhaps not) decision, with no malice whatsoever for what he believes is the best for his career, that's all. I promise you he tried his best in the games, he wasn't throwing or matchfixing, he just didn't prepare as much - and I can't give him shit for that because I know how hard it has been to find anyone to prepare with outside of Korea in the last month+ for Hots. (Again, an extraordinary circumstance that won't be repeating itself in sc2).
I get that I'm going against the circle jerk, and I understand that him explicitly saying 'he didn't practice' as an excuse or whatever that is doesn't look good on anyone involved, himself included and is kind of 'weak', his biggest mistake was to type that tweet, but how much preparation he decides to put in is kind of up to him, he earned that spot, not anyone else. He didn't matchfix or break any rules, he did what he thought was best for him - selfish? absolutely, but that's about his biggest sin here. I'm sure everyone (yourself included) has found themselves guilty of being selfish more than once in your lifetime, just saying, judging helps no one and I'm sure he learned his lesson, jump off the high horses and lay down the pitchforks - those help no one either.

On November 03 2015 01:32 Ctone23 wrote:
Lilbow is a WCS Champion, no twitter BM can take that away. He is a young man who in the end made a poor choice of words. That's just it, words...

Look at Life's pre and post game interview. Pre game he says he knows nothing of Lilbow and will simply crush him because he's a foreigner, yet post game he admitted to studying him and planning the all in strategies for each game. Players are full of shit and always looking for the #mindgames.

Twisting his words and pitchforking him as a disrespectful player is utter bullshit. He gave his all this year and deserved his spot. The timing wasn't great with DH winter qualifiers just happening, etc. Let's not crucify this young man for a poor choice of words for attention. He's clearly one of, if not THE best foreigner we have. Let's calm down and wish him well in the future.

On November 03 2015 11:27 CursOr wrote:
Here is my thought.

Lilbow was afraid. Not afraid of Life or afraid of losing, because he would never be as good as he is if he had these fears. He was just afraid of trying REALLY hard, and still coming up 0-3. Now at least, it has some validity and he saves face.

I know this fear because it is the same (sad) reason I am not masters. I piddle around against AI and ladder every so often, but never sit down and say OKAY for this month I am going to bust my ass and try to get masters. Because what if I cant? What if I really try and I just can't then I'm just bad or something.

I totally understand why he did not want to try. It's scary to give your all and to come up short. That is the same reason Stephano always had his excuses. You just undersell everything then its okay to lose.

No one is going to say, "I've been training really hard, and I've put my whole life into this for a month" and then get 0-3'd? Ouch.

The only foreigner who would do this is Snute, and that is why he is so loved! I don't blame Lilbow, but I would have loved to see him move to Korea for a month and play smurf Korean account and ladder or something to train. Even at the risk that this would expose his practice to the Koreans, at least he would have tried. O well.

I think he could have won. I think he was good enough, when giving 100% effort, to have a 30 or 40% chance against Life. I guess we will never know.

On November 03 2015 11:34 Plexa wrote:

I dont think he was afraid, but your analysis is right. Giving 100% effort he could get a 30-40% chance vs life at best. So why not focus on LotV, get really good at that, and crush the tournaments after that. The payoff there is far greater since his chance of winning R1 was so low. It's a disappointing stance from the spectator point of view, but understandable from his point of view.

On November 03 2015 12:12 phodacbiet wrote:
I don't understand why people are giving Lilbow such a hard time. I mean it's not like he was going to beat Life even if he did practice.

On November 03 2015 12:12 phodacbiet wrote:
I don't understand why people are giving Lilbow such a hard time. I mean it's not like he was going to beat Life even if he did practice.