Patience, INnoVation, and Maru broke through the North American server qualifier to earn spots in the group stage (round of 24) of IEM Katowice. With Serral already seeded into the IEM main event as the reigning BlizzCon champion, Korean pros were largely unchallenged in the online qualifier. While top NA players such as SpeCial and Neeb were able to take series off Korean players, they were ultimately eliminated several rounds away from qualification.
Three more players will earn group stage spots through the European server qualifier (January 7-8), while five spots will be up for grabs in two Korean server qualifiers (January 9-22). The $400,000 IEM Katowice main event will be held between February 25th and March 3rd, beginning with the round-of-76 double elimination tournament (visit IntelExtremeMasters.com for more information on the tournament format).
On January 07 2019 17:42 deacon.frost wrote: Maru's TvT is still his Achille's heel. But I'm impressed he managed to beat his JAGW Nemesis.
Im not sure about it. I feel his weakness are protoss. Sure he lost to INno today but INno played flawlessly and Maru's TvT weakness was proved wrong last GSL when he demolished Gumiho and beat TY in GSL.
On January 07 2019 19:36 Kurao wrote: I bet INno calculated how many seconds the NA ping would affect his 2-2 push timing, and decided it was worth it to play the NA qualifiers
On January 07 2019 17:42 deacon.frost wrote: Maru's TvT is still his Achille's heel. But I'm impressed he managed to beat his JAGW Nemesis.
Im not sure about it. I feel his weakness are protoss. Sure he lost to INno today but INno played flawlessly and Maru's TvT weakness was proved wrong last GSL when he demolished Gumiho and beat TY in GSL.
The last GSL is the last GSL and if we scratch these two matches he looked shaky before and after. OK, so he managed to prepare properly for Gumi and TY. (and TY didn't recognize his build he won 3 games with ) but then my memory bias remembers almost losing to some Terrans
On the other hand I remember Maru making the fastest GSL final against Zest
Therefor if we use the last year Maru won against Stats, smashed Zest and looked equal to TY. Therefore I say his TvT is his weakness
But hey, maybe my memory is fooling me, wouldn't be the first time :D
Well, I'd instead say Maru's TvT is not shaky; It's quite consistent, but it seems TY is at least his equal in the matchup(and Inno has been too, lately).
On the other hand, Maru's TvP has indeed been shaky, looking dominant in Code S but ultimately failing him in many important tournaments in 2018! Excluding Rogue at IEM, he was only defeated by Protoss:he lost 1-3 to Classic at Super Tournament 1, 1-3 to Stats in GSL vs the World, 1-3 and 0-3 against sOs at Super Tournament 2 and BlizzCon.
On January 08 2019 01:07 Xain0n wrote: Well, I'd instead say Maru's TvT is not shaky; It's quite consistent, but it seems TY is at least his equal in the matchup(and Inno has been too, lately).
On the other hand, Maru's TvP has indeed been shaky, looking dominant in Code S but ultimately failing him in many important tournaments in 2018! Excluding Rogue at IEM, he was only defeated by Protoss:he lost 1-3 to Classic at Super Tournament 1, 1-3 to Stats in GSL vs the World, 1-3 and 0-3 against sOs at Super Tournament 2 and BlizzCon.
I'd say his TVP is fine. Last year Maru's overall offline winrate vs Protoss was over 70%, he completely destroyed Classic and Zest in the latter half of 2018 and those two have arguably the best PVT in the world. Losing to sOs doesn't really indicate much since they're practice partners.
Ofc considering all the hype built around him after last year people may consider not having 100% winrate "shaky"
Hahah ofc Maru's TvP is great and it's not actually shaky, but it betrayed him multiple times last year while his TvT and TvZ did not. sOs is his practice partner, but so is Rogue and Maru fared better against him(despite losing to him in Katowice).
I have no problem with there being no region lock for qualifiers, but maybe the qualifier name should be changed from NA/EU/etc. to Qualifier #1/#2/#3... It would reduce the confusion as the why Koreans are in a NA event. With the generic Qualifier #1 name you can then specific that this qualifier will be played on the NA server.
On January 07 2019 19:36 Kurao wrote: I bet INno calculated how many seconds the NA ping would affect his 2-2 push timing, and decided it was worth it to play the NA qualifiers
On January 08 2019 01:46 Xain0n wrote: Hahah ofc Maru's TvP is great and it's not actually shaky, but it betrayed him multiple times last year while his TvT and TvZ did not. sOs is his practice partner, but so is Rogue and Maru fared better against him(despite losing to him in Katowice).
And that's why Rogue v Maru was the best RO8 match in the GSL. Rogue somehow didn't get his usual RO8 form and channeled his inner top form Rogue and boy, it was something.
On January 07 2019 17:42 deacon.frost wrote: Maru's TvT is still his Achille's heel. But I'm impressed he managed to beat his JAGW Nemesis.
Im not sure about it. I feel his weakness are protoss. Sure he lost to INno today but INno played flawlessly and Maru's TvT weakness was proved wrong last GSL when he demolished Gumiho and beat TY in GSL.
The last GSL is the last GSL and if we scratch these two matches he looked shaky before and after.
Well he didn't play any TvT for like six months before those matches against Gumiho and TY so it's difficult to say he looked shaky. Even after, trading online maps against TY and losing to an INno in good form isn't really a case for being weak in the matchup.
On January 07 2019 17:42 deacon.frost wrote: Maru's TvT is still his Achille's heel. But I'm impressed he managed to beat his JAGW Nemesis.
Im not sure about it. I feel his weakness are protoss. Sure he lost to INno today but INno played flawlessly and Maru's TvT weakness was proved wrong last GSL when he demolished Gumiho and beat TY in GSL.
The last GSL is the last GSL and if we scratch these two matches he looked shaky before and after.
Well he didn't play any TvT for like six months before those matches against Gumiho and TY so it's difficult to say he looked shaky. Even after, trading online maps against TY and losing to an INno in good form isn't really a case for being weak in the matchup.
Hmm, true that, but then again, he has to have sdome weakness and that's his TvT for me
On January 08 2019 02:17 BisuDagger wrote: I have no problem with there being no region lock for qualifiers, but maybe the qualifier name should be changed from NA/EU/etc. to Qualifier #1/#2/#3... It would reduce the confusion as the why Koreans are in a NA event. With the generic Qualifier #1 name you can then specific that this qualifier will be played on the NA server.
Well qualifier name is "NA Server qualifier" "EU server qualifier" etc... nowhere it says european or american qualifier
On January 08 2019 02:17 BisuDagger wrote: I have no problem with there being no region lock for qualifiers, but maybe the qualifier name should be changed from NA/EU/etc. to Qualifier #1/#2/#3... It would reduce the confusion as the why Koreans are in a NA event. With the generic Qualifier #1 name you can then specific that this qualifier will be played on the NA server.
Well qualifier name is "NA Server qualifier" "EU server qualifier" etc... nowhere it says european or american qualifier
I was looking at the calendar names. Right now it reads "EU Final Qualifier". That's where my confusion came from. Thanks for clearing that up!
On January 07 2019 17:42 deacon.frost wrote: Maru's TvT is still his Achille's heel. But I'm impressed he managed to beat his JAGW Nemesis.
Im not sure about it. I feel his weakness are protoss. Sure he lost to INno today but INno played flawlessly and Maru's TvT weakness was proved wrong last GSL when he demolished Gumiho and beat TY in GSL.
Whoa, Maru is currently almost unbeatable against protoss... His weakness is, and always been TvInno (his style is just not effective against the machine). His TvT is fine otherwise, his online results are about even with TY, and he has been crushing weaker Terrans without much issue.
EPT
![[image loading]](https://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/iem/katowice2019/iemkatowice2019banner.jpg)
Patience, 
