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Great deal for AF and solid for KT too.
Life obviously is much better at the BO tournament style where his adaptation and improvisation take over. Clearly the KT style training regiment didn't seem to mesh w/ his beautifully crazy play-style, but he did seem to become noticeably stronger at standard mechanics and crisp timings towards the end of last year despite lackluster results. Although in the BlizzCon GF, he switched back to his old insane self and took sOs to the absolute brink in G7.
Think we are being a bit too quick to discount Life's BO1 PL ability. In R1 last year, he carried a bad Startale team to the round playoffs (where they never got a chance regrettably) on the strength of multiple ace match wins. While his game is not ideally suited for PL, to discount possibly the most accomplished and gifted SC2 player ever (who is still stunningly young) is absurd. Now he's the unquestioned face of the team, and could easily excel in an environment likely much more relaxed and suited to his tastes.
For KT, I like the swap too. On paper it seemed like they were getting Jordan in his prime when they stunningly acquired Life last season. But it didn't help as both Life and KT never performed relative to their ability. KT never was able to establish a winning core coupled with supporting cast. As Life/TY took turns being the 5th wheel except when Stats was briefly benched.
With God retired, TY now assumes a guaranteed starting slot as their only viable T. And by subtracting Life, Losira who is a PL beast gets regular playing time which should be a big plus. Leenock at this stage in his career seems much better at PL preparation as a fairly frequent sniper, as he showed some of the most creative Z strategies last season.
A core of Zest/TY/Losira/Stats with Leenock/Jjakji/Speed in support appears very solid.
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I'm guessing it's an economic and promotional request from Afreeca, still feels really weird, guess we will have to wait for the player interviews and media day.
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Oh my god Afreeca Freecs about to be so strong
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On January 27 2016 20:44 OtherWorld wrote:Show nested quote +On January 27 2016 18:16 pure.Wasted wrote:On January 27 2016 17:00 OtherWorld wrote:
Lol, so a big team gives away a big player to a lower team because of the show?
What is this, a competitive game or NASCAR? Correct me if I'm wrong, but most widely watched sports have some rules regarding which teams can pick up which players, eg. worst-performing teams get first pick, specifically to prevent the sort of domination that we've seen from SKT over the years. KeSPA is actually quite unique in that - as far as we know, anyway - player acquisition has always essentially been a free for all. Let's grant for the moment that Life was given to Afreeca out of charity (a theory I don't agree with, because Life is pretty shoddy in PL), are you against that sort of interference on principle or do you just not like how arbitrarily it was applied in this one instance (eg not a player from SKT, but KT; only once instead of a regular ruling)? Afaik that's mostly true in NA sports, because there show > competition ; here in Europe you don't see that kind of thing. I dislike it because trying to "avoid domination" artificially is something that's viewer-focused, and as all superficial things it's something that's not good for the health of the sport. What the hell is the narrative interest of watching PL if teams start to give ace players to each other out of charity? What's the interest of a sport if everyone has the same chance to win? What's the point if there are no favorites and underdogs? Should Djokovic play with a ballast on his racket when he's playing players worse than him?
Isn't it contradicting to want to have a couple of teams dominate but also want to have good competition? How can good competition be possible if you know the same 1 or 2 teams will always win? I would say that using things such as salary caps and drafting rules to avoid domination is not artificial at all. It helps to promote league parity. The interest of watching a sport when any team can win at any time is just that. You don't know who will win, so you tune in to find out and watch some high quality games because most likely the teams are close in skill and you won't have one team trouncing the other. Why would you watch if you knew who was going to win?
I would also argue that the "show", as you put it, and good competition go hand in hand. Having league parity and good competition should naturally lead to high viewership (the show), because instead of having just one team's fans be invested in the team and the league, you can have all team's fans interested and invested.
With regard to the Djokovic reference, you can't really compare individual sports with team sports/leagues like that. That's like saying top players such as Life, sOs, or Innovation should play with only one hand when they play in GSL/SSL against lesser players. Well, no. That would be an artificial way to avoid domination. But in team leagues/sports, should every team be able to have access to and draft the same players? Yes, they should. The way they would potentially differentiate themselves in their league would be through player development, coaching, strategies, etc.
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Does anyone know when one can show their Afreeca Freecs support by flair?
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On January 28 2016 04:33 Penev wrote:
Does anyone know when one can show their Afreeca Freecs support by flair?
Try to do lobbying by manually putting a AF flair at the end of every post you post
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I'm shocked they let him go. I'd have thought with Flash leaving they'd need all hands to the pumps, for publicity and sponsorship, as well as Proleague etc.
Still, if the KT Gods decree this a sane move, who am I to argue? That said, Losira and Leenock in a Zerg tag-team? Fuck yeah, I'm all aboard!
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On January 28 2016 04:46 OtherWorld wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2016 04:33 Penev wrote:
Does anyone know when one can show their Afreeca Freecs support by flair? Try to do lobbying by manually putting a AF flair at the end of every post you post
Sounds like a great idea for someone less lazy :p
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On January 28 2016 03:58 GGzerG wrote:
Oh my god Afreeca Freecs about to be so strong
don't think so. more like, more marketable.
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On January 27 2016 13:35 Solar424 wrote:
Welcome home, Life. Its a little different from how you remember it, but its all the same for the most part.
Solar <3 Life <3 GL to you and your team!!
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he literally just did the KT photoshoot for proleague..
man, im guessing that they made him a pretty nice offer
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On January 28 2016 07:01 sc2chronic wrote:
he literally just did the KT photoshoot for proleague..
Meh, the photoshoot was about a week before they released the teaser, so almost 10 days before he left the team.
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On January 28 2016 07:06 Elentos wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2016 07:01 sc2chronic wrote:
he literally just did the KT photoshoot for proleague..
Meh, the photoshoot was about a week before they released the teaser, so almost 10 days before he left the team.
im sorry... 10 days.
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I saw this transfer this morning and it's still weird to me.
It'll be good to see Life back in "ST", and a great pick up for them. Things are definitely on the up and up for the Freeks.
I honestly haven't say I've seen Leenock play in years, so how's his form?
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On January 28 2016 07:44 BretZ wrote:
I honestly haven't say I've seen Leenock play in years, so how's his form?
Last year he had a better record in Proleague than Life. Life did much better in individual tournaments though. In Legacy of the Void so far he's been doing okay (but only okay, no more, no less). We'll have to see how he develops on KT.
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On January 28 2016 07:44 BretZ wrote:
I saw this transfer this morning and it's still weird to me.
It'll be good to see Life back in "ST", and a great pick up for them. Things are definitely on the up and up for the Freeks.
I honestly haven't say I've seen Leenock play in years, so how's his form?
he is really strong in zvz especially, and always was bette rin teamleagues than life. so kt prolly wants to focus more on proleague and less on individual championships.
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On January 28 2016 07:49 Elentos wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2016 07:44 BretZ wrote:
I honestly haven't say I've seen Leenock play in years, so how's his form? Last year he had a better record in Proleague than Life. Life did much better in individual tournaments though. In Legacy of the Void so far he's been doing okay (but only okay, no more, no less). We'll have to see how he develops on KT.
I mean he qualified for gsl and then haven't really had any more official games. Hard to judge his skill atm. Have to see vs Jaedong next week
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On January 28 2016 07:56 Rocket-Bear wrote:Show nested quote +On January 28 2016 07:49 Elentos wrote:On January 28 2016 07:44 BretZ wrote:
I honestly haven't say I've seen Leenock play in years, so how's his form? Last year he had a better record in Proleague than Life. Life did much better in individual tournaments though. In Legacy of the Void so far he's been doing okay (but only okay, no more, no less). We'll have to see how he develops on KT. I mean he qualified for gsl and then haven't really had any more official games. Hard to judge his skill atm. Have to see vs Jaedong next week
Well he played some online games and I don't like disregarding those, or qualifier games. And he did okay on that front. But who knows, he might be pretty hot atm and has no chance to show it, he might be in poor form and needs a new environment. Will be interesting to see. But we have even less of a clue about Jaedong's form so that might not tell us anything in the end 
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On January 28 2016 07:44 BretZ wrote:I honestly haven't say I've seen Leenock play in years, so how's his form?
 Leenock went 11-7 in 2015 Proleague (61% winrate), while Life went 12-11 (52% winrate) when he was on KT Rolster. He looked solid to me. Haven't seen him in anything recent though.
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this is clearly cost-cutting
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EPT
