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4 Posts
All 10 of the SSL Premier players took to the Nexon Arena on Monday in the first of nine matchdays.
The first series pitted teammates  Maru and  sOs against each other. sOs started by taking his gold base as his natural, before making mass oracle, taking another gold and finishing Maru off with adepts. Games 2 and 3 were relatively tame in comparison. Both started with proxies by Maru, ultimately ending with Maru getting the better end of two basetrades to take the series 2-1.
 ByuL and aLive marked a return to normalcy. In a one sided two game series, highlighted by a massive mutalisk flock on Overgrowth, ByuL’s unending hordes of ling/bane/muta overwhelmed aLive’s bio forces.
Dark and Patience took the stage next. Patience went for dark templars in games one and two, but Dark was having none of it. He easily defended with roaches the first time and then ling/bane/hydra. Patience offered some resistance on Bel’shir Vestige, but he never built up enough steam to stop Dark from winning 2-0.
The fourth match featured heavyweights INnoVation and Zest. Zest tried to do damage in game one with phoenix, but he didn’t do enough. Even after adding adepts, his army crumbled as INnoVation demolished the Protoss third to take the game. Zest would repel INnoVation’s early tank push in game two, but his colossus based composition steadily fell behind. After accumulating a sizeable viking fleet, INnoVation attacked while dropping to start SSL with a 2-0 win.
The last series was another team kill between Solar and Stats. In game one Stats fell behind after his double warp prism harass was repelled by roaches. Solar failed to capitalize on his massive supply lead, though, and eventually died to Stats’ massive army. Solar shook things up in game two with swarm hosts. Stats tried to slow Solar down, but Solar was everywhere at once and evened the series. Game three started much like game one, but this time Solar was able to sculpt a primarily roach/ravager/hydra composition that had enough punch to win fight after fight. With Stats reduced to three bases he was forced to concede the game and match.
After an exciting first day, the players will return next Monday for the second round of SSL Premier.
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Yay all the protoss died
next the zerg > : )
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Great Games overall, Happy to see Solar taking the series 
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Are there VOD's anywhere?
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#AnyOneButProtoss. Like a dream come true, no more gimmicks just raw TvZ goodness. Yummy.
Now just need a little spare time to watch the VODs.
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I really enjoyed watching JinAir SSL !! Great format !
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Puck Frotoss? Gives me hope for soO in GSL :o
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France12980 Posts
Don't get your hopes up too high Stats will win on GSL maps!
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People getting ahead of themselves as usual...really thankful we have SSL can't wait for more games!
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On March 21 2017 05:18 Fonze wrote:
Protoss weakest race : (
Ah stop it already. I don't believe Stats was so amateur to show soO his best builds. At IEM he literally washed the floor with Dark.
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France12980 Posts
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United States33650 Posts
This Zest slump is quietly getting pretty long... is it time to worry?
And I admit, it's a testament to how good he is normally when this constitutes a slump 
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what's with all the protoss hate on here?
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Missed SSL so much. The games were fantastic all-around.
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On March 21 2017 05:18 Fonze wrote:
Protoss weakest race : (
Cheer up, we had two team kills and I feel like Patience is still perfecting how to come back if his build order doesn't go as planned, plus he played Dark one of the top zergs at the moment. Zest didn't look bad in my opinion, it's just extremely hard as Protoss to win against a Terran like Inno who has solid play with the current state of the game.
That's one of the beautiful things about SC2 is the ebb and flow, Protoss will rise again to fight.
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France12980 Posts
On March 21 2017 06:24 Waxangel wrote:This Zest slump is quietly getting pretty long... is it time to worry? And I admit, it's a testament to how good he is normally when this constitutes a slump
I don't understand Zest... he seemed to play the most abusive/perfect protoss back when he won GSL, in all three matchups... and now we are happy when he beats a pro, since he loses so much (albeit against good opponents).
What has happened to him, it's like he and Stats reversed their play
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On March 21 2017 10:19 Poopi wrote:Show nested quote +On March 21 2017 06:24 Waxangel wrote:This Zest slump is quietly getting pretty long... is it time to worry? And I admit, it's a testament to how good he is normally when this constitutes a slump I don't understand Zest... he seemed to play the most abusive/perfect protoss back when he won GSL, in all three matchups... and now we are happy when he beats a pro, since he loses so much (albeit against good opponents). What has happened to him, it's like he and Stats reversed their play
Zest did qualify for Premier...and this is one of nine upcoming series..I wouldn't dismiss him yet.
Plus you don't want to be a fan that only likes someone when they're winning..then you're not a true fan.
On a completely unrelated note, I want sOs' SSL pin. Wish I lived in Korea.
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Austria24422 Posts
On March 21 2017 10:19 Poopi wrote:Show nested quote +On March 21 2017 06:24 Waxangel wrote:This Zest slump is quietly getting pretty long... is it time to worry? And I admit, it's a testament to how good he is normally when this constitutes a slump I don't understand Zest... he seemed to play the most abusive/perfect protoss back when he won GSL, in all three matchups... and now we are happy when he beats a pro, since he loses so much (albeit against good opponents). What has happened to him, it's like he and Stats reversed their play
Zest has always tried to find a playstyle that, if he executes everything correctly, should win. There was a time in 2016 when that playstyle was twilight/robo with a fast third, double upgrades and midgame timings to keep Terran down. Right now there isn't a playstyle like that for protoss in either matchup. PvZ is 50/50 I think, but vs Terran there's no build that beats everything if done right. That affects nobody as much as Zest.
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France12980 Posts
Isn't that what Stephano was trying to do back then?
It only works when your race is OP, it's not really the way to go :/.
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Austria24422 Posts
I don't think it only works when a race is OP. Terran, for the longest time, had that in standard 3rax after expand builds. If done correctly, that wouldn't die to anything and had the potential to punish almost anything. That didn't mean Terran was OP though, just that if done perfectly, they had the tools to deal with everything. That's where the difficulty of SC2 comes in. Playing to theoretical perfection is incredibly difficult, so even though something may on paper be too strong, executing everything correctly is a different story.
So just because a certain opening for example won't straight up die to anything doesn't mean it's too strong - if anything that's what makes a build viable.
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France12980 Posts
You are talking about openers or about playstyle, it's not the same.
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Austria24422 Posts
I did talk about builds earlier, but should have probably expressed that more clearly.
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On March 21 2017 02:05 Edpayasugo wrote:
Great to have SSL back!
mhmmm, I don't think SSL gets enough love for all the creative stuff they do. Good to see them back in the scene.
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On March 21 2017 15:28 Olli wrote:Show nested quote +On March 21 2017 10:19 Poopi wrote:On March 21 2017 06:24 Waxangel wrote:This Zest slump is quietly getting pretty long... is it time to worry? And I admit, it's a testament to how good he is normally when this constitutes a slump I don't understand Zest... he seemed to play the most abusive/perfect protoss back when he won GSL, in all three matchups... and now we are happy when he beats a pro, since he loses so much (albeit against good opponents). What has happened to him, it's like he and Stats reversed their play Zest has always tried to find a playstyle that, if he executes everything correctly, should win. There was a time in 2016 when that playstyle was twilight/robo with a fast third, double upgrades and midgame timings to keep Terran down. Right now there isn't a playstyle like that for protoss in either matchup. PvZ is 50/50 I think, but vs Terran there's no build that beats everything if done right. That affects nobody as much as Zest.
great post, i completely agree. pvt might be 50% but there isnt a strategy you can do every game like there used to be.
i think zest will see more success in the future. hes one of those guys who does good in settled meta when stuff is figured out. rght now this patch is very young. even 3.8 changes feel very young
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On March 21 2017 04:11 Ej_ wrote:
Puck Frotoss?
>.< plz stop
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Yessss, I desperately needed some high level SC2 to watch!
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EPT
