ASUS ROG Summer 2019 may have begun as a homecoming celebration for 2018 Global Champion Serral, but Finland's most prominent StarCraft II tournament concluded as it had several times in the past: in an inter-Korean clash. The finals saw Stats defeat Solar 4-2 to win the $10,000 first place prize, snapping his streak of three straight finals losses at high-profile, international events in the process (GSL vs. The World 2018, the 2018 WCS Global Finals, and IEM Katowice 2019).
Stats earned his spot in the grand final by defeating his nemesis Serral, overcoming a 0-2 deficit to steal a 3-2 reverse-sweep in the semifinals. Stats looked outmatched in the first two games, tapping out to a speedling rush in game one and collapsing at the end of a drawn-out, split-map staring contest in game two. However, Stats found a solution in the strategy that had previously allowed him to take a match off Serral in July's HomeStory Cup 19: his 1-phoenix, 3-oracle, 2-adept opener. The flexibility of the build helped Stats rip off a string of three victories—holding off a roach all-in in game three, dealing crippling drone damage in game four, and building a strong foundation to ultimately defeat Serral's swarm hosts in game five.
Though Stats had overcome the tournament favorite in Serral, the worst was far from over. Solar entered the finals with a monstrous 14-1 map record against the likes of Zest, GuMiho, Neeb, uthermal, soO and INnoVation—a rather Serral-esque path of destruction. It made it all the more surprising when Stats proceeded to dismantle Solar in the first three games of the best-of-seven finals, using his 'anti-Serral' build to great effect. "This is a bit much. I can't breathe," complained Solar in the pre-game lobby chat, after going down 0-3.
However, Solar proved his mettle by punishing Stats' clumsy cannon rush in game four, followed by a decisive win with swarm host-nydus play in game five. Solar even seemed to be on the brink of tying the series halfway through game six, having taken minimal damage damage from Stats' oracle harassment and follow-up ground attack. Unfortunately for Solar, outside circumstances came into play, with a denial-of-service attack on the event forcing a lengthy pause. Upon resuming, Solar showed some less-than-ideal swarm host play, including a brutal error that saw half his swarm hosts get stranded and killed (Solar later tweeted that the long delay caused him to lose focus). That ended up being too damaging a loss for Solar to recover from, and Stats quickly consolidated his forces to deal the final, series ending blow.
Exorcising Stats' Demon
Stats featured prominently in Serral's legendary 2018 run, facing Serral in the finals of his two most important tournament triumphs: GSL vs. The World and the WCS Global Finals. On the one hand, Stats got credit for being the player who put up the best fight against a seemingly unstoppable force. On the other, much, much larger hand, Stats still ultimately lost in those two finals, ceding over $170,000 in prize money to Serral.
And so, it's doubtful that Stats would now tell Serral "we're even," simply because he prevented Serral from winning a major tournament in Finland. But hey—maybe any revenge is better than none at all.
Solar is back! Kinda. Maybe. We'll get back to you.
After last reaching a major tournament final in 2017, Solar has been enjoying a kinda-sorta-comeback this summer.
He was dominant for Triumphant Song Gaming in its China Team Championship title run (Solar was the certain MVP, had such an award been given), even if the level of competition wasn't quite top-tier. However, his performances at the foreigner-heavy GPC and HomeStory Cup were somewhat disappointing, as he was ousted in the top eight of both events. Meanwhile, in Code S, Solar reached the Ro16 for the first time in four seasons, even beating last season's finalist Trap in his Ro32 group.
ASUS ROG Summer gave us a look at what this resurgent Solar can be at his best, and it will be interesting to see how he performs in the remaining GSL competitions. If Solar can become more consistent, he may even become a darkhorse contender for a WCS Global Finals spot.
Building to success
Much attention was put on Stats' anti-Serral build, which he used in every winning PvZ game during the semifinals and grand finals. Even Serral took to Twitter to mention that he was 0-5 against Stats using that build, though it was hard to tell if his underlying sentiment was that of frustration or bemusement.
Whatever we want to call it ("the Stats build" would be a cheeky nod to TL.net's Brood War community, but "the anti-Serral build" also has a nice ring to it), the build seems perfectly tailored to Stats' skill set. Stats is one of the most mechanically gifted Protoss players in the world—if not THE top Protoss in that regard—and the early-game combination of 1 phoenix, 3 oracles, and 2 adepts allows him to harshly test a Zerg's multi-tasking ability and reaction speed. Stats is also as close to an ace-of-all-trades player for the Protoss faction, and the build's flexibility allows him to all-in or play for a standard macro game as he sees fit (although some may just call this an overall perk of playing Protoss).
It it should be noted that Stats didn't inflict crippling damage with his oracles and adepts in every single game—sometimes the game progressed fairly normally and Stats won by being a better player in the mid-game. Serral even semi-gifted Stats a game with an ill-fated all-in. Here's something to mull over: If a player can defeat top-tier competition by repeating the same, predictable plan over and over, does it say more about the player or the build?
Unpacking Serral's run
What is one to make of Serral's top four run? Few would fault him for losing to a player of Stats' caliber in the semis, but his earlier matches may have been cause for worry. Serral began the group stage by dropping a map against the unrankedZhuGeLiang and came dangerous close to losing 0-2 before he turned the series around. China's TIME also made Serral sweat in a full-set quarterfinal series, pushing Serral's defensive abilities to the edge with constant attacks.
In isolation, those results aren't that surprising. Serral survived many close calls against foreigner Zergs to win last year's WCS Montreal tournament, while top foreign Terrans such as SpeCial, HeRoMaRinE, and uThermal have often put up a strong fight for a game or two (even if they almost never win the series). Still, it was disconcerting to hear Serral's post-match interview where he admitted that he didn't exactly understand why he fell behind against some of TIME's trickier builds. It was quite the departure from the player who always seemed to know what adjustment or adaptation he needed to make to overcome an obstacle.
After teasing Serral for being such a comically humble and self-effacing champion, he might be proving himself right after all. Maybe everyone else actually DID get better, and he only has a 50% chance of winning tournaments. The upcoming GSL vs. The World tournament should be very interesting, indeed.
GSL vs. The World will take place during August 15-18. The final WCS Circuit championship of the year will take place in Montreal during September 6-8 at WCS Fall.
TIME was the biggest surprise. He played out of his mind this tournament. Had that push in Game 1 worked out this could have been a 3-0 upset against Serral. (What?!!!)
I first saw TIME live at the GSL studios a couple of years back and never thought he would get this good. Ironically back then, he got thumped by INno while this time round it was him and not INno who pushed Serral hard.
Last game between Stats and Serral was amazing. That switch into carriers while defending Serral's aggression left right and centre was a treat to watch. Stats finally got his revenge haha.
On August 05 2019 11:31 RealityTheGreat wrote: Reaaly an exciting tournament.
yes, it was a very good tourney and very good event. the technical difficulties at the end kept it from being a 10 out of 10 event though. i think the game is in great shape right now.
Great tournament to watch, I really liked the prematch interviews, analysis and the pro gammers casting too. Was hoping to have either lambo, PtitDrogo or harstem cast the finals!
For Stats build the opening was pretty good , but it was really the Sentry Immo follow up that killed Serral and Solar. To me, that seemed to be the killer part of the build.
On August 05 2019 13:40 Snijjer wrote: For Stats build the opening was pretty good , but it was really the Sentry Immo follow up that killed Serral and Solar. To me, that seemed to be the killer part of the build.
Stats is one of the most lovable SC2 players of all time. How can anyone dislike this genuinely nice person? And his oracle play is just pure joy. Well done, i'm very happy for him!
For me stasis wards look one of the most imba thing sc2 has. One player has to constantly watch the minimap, constantly micro their entire mineral lines, and must even leave units to kill stasis wards, meanwhile what does the other player need to do? Click stasis ward and the location? The difference in how much effort one player has to make defending them, against the effort of the other player who wants to pull it off is beyond huge. It is one of the things, i dislike most in sc2. Not only dislike it, but i find it really boring to watch...
So Stats might be one of the nicest guy IRL, but he has one of the most boring and disgusting playstyles.
People say hero or sOs plays dirty, but their games are a whole lot more enjoyeable...
kajtarp you kidding right? like liberator one click siege, or medivac one click drop one click burrow mine is different. Or one click speedlings to miniman and as a protoss if you dont have hold position zealot in place, it's (possibly) gg... Everythink seems easy when pros do it.
On August 05 2019 19:27 kajtarp wrote: For me stasis wards look one of the most imba thing sc2 has. One player has to constantly watch the minimap, constantly micro their entire mineral lines, and must even leave units to kill stasis wards, meanwhile what does the other player need to do? Click stasis ward and the location? The difference in how much effort one player has to make defending them, against the effort of the other player who wants to pull it off is beyond huge. It is one of the things, i dislike most in sc2. Not only dislike it, but i find it really boring to watch...
So Stats might be one of the nicest guy IRL, but he has one of the most boring and disgusting playstyles.
People say hero or sOs plays dirty, but their games are a whole lot more enjoyeable...
Calling stasis wards imba shows you either didn't watch the game or fail to appreciate what Stats did. He micro'd two separate oracles and his adept harass all at the same time WHILE macroing to an incredible level back home. He is probably the only player with the mechanics capable of pulling that off. It is in no way low skill what Stats did, in fact I'd go so far as to say it is some of the highest level PvZ I've seen in a long time.
Also if stasis wards are imba then so are widow mine drops, baneling drops, BC teleports and liberator harass which is clearly not the case.
Stats repeating the same predictable plan? Same versatile opening. The same predictable plan that wins regardless of top level players having time to come up with a solution is infestor/broodlord which Serral showed again in this series.
Game 3 Stats got 3 shield batteries at home and held Serrals all in.
Game 4 he started a 3rd and won with a committed Immortal/Sentry push.
Game 5 he won through feigning the same Immortal/Sentry push, pulling back with a lead after Serral cut drones, dealing with swarmhosts really well and making a great transition into carriers to win.
If anything its Infestor/Broodlord that is the same predictable stuff that wins over and over regardless. I am pretty sure Stats knew of Infestor/Broodlord, had years of trying to find a way to deal with it, is one of if not the most qualified Protoss to deal with it and still can't. Game 2 serves as as clear an example as possible imo.
I am surprised people don't talk more about the utter failure of the walled-garden WCS system in regards to the mysterious process of closing the gap. We finally have an old-school weekender open to all and what happens? Koreans laugh all over everyone else, exactly how they did since the beginning. Yes, Serral is an anomaly and his ability to stand up to Koreans is great (kinda sucks he had to run into Stats before the finals), but in general, tournaments like this prove that WCS competition is still a complete farce and people who love to pretend otherwise are delusional.
On August 05 2019 19:27 kajtarp wrote: For me stasis wards look one of the most imba thing sc2 has. One player has to constantly watch the minimap, constantly micro their entire mineral lines, and must even leave units to kill stasis wards, meanwhile what does the other player need to do? Click stasis ward and the location? The difference in how much effort one player has to make defending them, against the effort of the other player who wants to pull it off is beyond huge. It is one of the things, i dislike most in sc2. Not only dislike it, but i find it really boring to watch...
So Stats might be one of the nicest guy IRL, but he has one of the most boring and disgusting playstyles.
People say hero or sOs plays dirty, but their games are a whole lot more enjoyeable...
Calling stasis wards imba shows you either didn't watch the game or fail to appreciate what Stats did. He micro'd two separate oracles and his adept harass all at the same time WHILE macroing to an incredible level back home. He is probably the only player with the mechanics capable of pulling that off. It is in no way low skill what Stats did, in fact I'd go so far as to say it is some of the highest level PvZ I've seen in a long time.
Also if stasis wards are imba then so are widow mine drops, baneling drops, BC teleports and liberator harass which is clearly not the case.
Both Classic and Maru have the mechanics to do it too IMO.
If anything its Infestor/Broodlord that is the same predictable stuff that wins over and over regardless. I am pretty sure Stats knew of Infestor/Broodlord, had years of trying to find a way to deal with it, is one of if not the most qualified Protoss to deal with it and still can't. Game 2 serves as as clear an example as possible imo.
He also tried to play late game against reynor but he can't even come close when mass infestors come out. I think he also tried to do that against serral in g2 but he came to his senses and does his imba build which he can only do.
Take note the even european pros cant even hold a candle on what stats is doing.
On August 05 2019 19:27 kajtarp wrote: For me stasis wards look one of the most imba thing sc2 has. One player has to constantly watch the minimap, constantly micro their entire mineral lines, and must even leave units to kill stasis wards, meanwhile what does the other player need to do? Click stasis ward and the location? The difference in how much effort one player has to make defending them, against the effort of the other player who wants to pull it off is beyond huge. It is one of the things, i dislike most in sc2. Not only dislike it, but i find it really boring to watch...
So Stats might be one of the nicest guy IRL, but he has one of the most boring and disgusting playstyles.
People say hero or sOs plays dirty, but their games are a whole lot more enjoyeable...
Imagine if there wasn't an air gap behind the main and natural on maps for air units to camp in. The strategy would not be able to exist and I think Stats would have lost 0-3. Stats played amazing protoss, but he wasn't given the opportunity to scale with Zergs in the mid game without the Oracle Phoenix opening. And the single game where he lost an extra Oracle early, he was severely punished for it. I think what we learned from this is that (without patch changes) Protoss cannot keep pace with Zerg economically unless they design the early phase of their game around heavy harassment or partial allins. And maybe that's intended design by blizzard. Each race has the attack, defend, or harass role at different phases of the game. It's honestly not horrible. After all that harass from Stats it still lead to very hyper and balanced mid games where two equally talented players battled it out in a spectacular manner.
On August 05 2019 19:27 kajtarp wrote: For me stasis wards look one of the most imba thing sc2 has. One player has to constantly watch the minimap, constantly micro their entire mineral lines, and must even leave units to kill stasis wards, meanwhile what does the other player need to do? Click stasis ward and the location? The difference in how much effort one player has to make defending them, against the effort of the other player who wants to pull it off is beyond huge. It is one of the things, i dislike most in sc2. Not only dislike it, but i find it really boring to watch...
So Stats might be one of the nicest guy IRL, but he has one of the most boring and disgusting playstyles.
People say hero or sOs plays dirty, but their games are a whole lot more enjoyeable...
Calling stasis wards imba shows you either didn't watch the game or fail to appreciate what Stats did. He micro'd two separate oracles and his adept harass all at the same time WHILE macroing to an incredible level back home. He is probably the only player with the mechanics capable of pulling that off. It is in no way low skill what Stats did, in fact I'd go so far as to say it is some of the highest level PvZ I've seen in a long time.
Also if stasis wards are imba then so are widow mine drops, baneling drops, BC teleports and liberator harass which is clearly not the case.
Both Classic and Maru have the mechanics to do it too IMO.
Well Maru probably but I was thinking more in terms of Protoss players. Classic is a maybe but I feel like his micro isn't all that amazing honestly.
On August 05 2019 20:19 opisska wrote: I am surprised people don't talk more about the utter failure of the walled-garden WCS system in regards to the mysterious process of closing the gap. We finally have an old-school weekender open to all and what happens? Koreans laugh all over everyone else, exactly how they did since the beginning. Yes, Serral is an anomaly and his ability to stand up to Koreans is great (kinda sucks he had to run into Stats before the finals), but in general, tournaments like this prove that WCS competition is still a complete farce and people who love to pretend otherwise are delusional.
I think that's a pretty aggressive oversimplification. You can't wholly attribute the emergence of players like Neeb and Serral to region lock, but you can't wholly sever that relationship either.
On August 05 2019 20:19 opisska wrote: I am surprised people don't talk more about the utter failure of the walled-garden WCS system in regards to the mysterious process of closing the gap. We finally have an old-school weekender open to all and what happens? Koreans laugh all over everyone else, exactly how they did since the beginning. Yes, Serral is an anomaly and his ability to stand up to Koreans is great (kinda sucks he had to run into Stats before the finals), but in general, tournaments like this prove that WCS competition is still a complete farce and people who love to pretend otherwise are delusional.
What the heck are you talking about?
Koreans returning from the military can't keep up with foreigners (see Bomber, TaeJa). A GSL champ got beaten in TvT by a foreign terran, not even named Special / training in korea. Serral is Serral and was tough to knock out, Reynor was a bit disappointing but it could have gone either way. Showtime won his group against the eventual champion. WCS is inferior but far from being a farce.
On August 05 2019 20:19 opisska wrote: I am surprised people don't talk more about the utter failure of the walled-garden WCS system in regards to the mysterious process of closing the gap. We finally have an old-school weekender open to all and what happens? Koreans laugh all over everyone else, exactly how they did since the beginning. Yes, Serral is an anomaly and his ability to stand up to Koreans is great (kinda sucks he had to run into Stats before the finals), but in general, tournaments like this prove that WCS competition is still a complete farce and people who love to pretend otherwise are delusional.
"Stand up to koreans"? You are speaking of the WCS player who holds the best streak against korean players, ever(and the one who arguably had the most dominant year in the whole history of Sc2). That player is a product of the "walled garden failure", where he could grow from prospect to champion without being strangled by your army of b tier koreans. Locking regions was a huge success, it revitalized the foreign scene and reinstated better audience for the game.
Speaking of ASUS Rog itself, korean players are expected to be stronger. I was actually pleasantly surprised to see WCS players beating top koreans in PvP and TvT, you have to take into consideration only one cross region ZvZ was played(Snute beat Armani) and that's the matchup where WCS players are on par with koreans(or even slightly above if the skill level is comparable). When WCS meta is ahead of GSL's in a certain matchup, you see skilled players like Neeb winning an important tournaments in Korea; at the moment, foreign Terran seem to be getting better but they are still behind in skill if compared to the korean ones while the current Protoss meta in Korea is light years ahead of WCS one so that foreigners of every race are having significant problems against P, and it clearly showed.
Now that the WCS scene's survival is granted while korean scene's influx of new players has stopped, it could make sense to remove the region lock or alter the way it works now in a way that should allow both scenes to grow together; in the worst case scenario that migh cause a migration to Wc3 reforged, but I am confident WCS scene is now robust enough to survive the initial burst a merge would inevitably cause. Code S, however, should be made easier to play in for players who not reside in Korea.
Calling stasis wards imba shows you either didn't watch the game or fail to appreciate what Stats did. He micro'd two separate oracles and his adept harass all at the same time WHILE macroing to an incredible level back home. He is probably the only player with the mechanics capable of pulling that off. It is in no way low skill what Stats did, in fact I'd go so far as to say it is some of the highest level PvZ I've seen in a long time.
Also if stasis wards are imba then so are widow mine drops, baneling drops, BC teleports and liberator harass which is clearly not the case.
I appreciate multitasking, but I am sorry if i have an unpopular opinion that you and others might not like. Meaning i do not find such games entertaining at all, and find stasis wards one of the biggest bs the game has. It is not only imba, but unentertaining to watch. This game has way too much units and ablities designed to harass for my taste. And guess what, toss has most of them (Phoenix, Oracle, Adept). About widow mines, liberator, bc teleport I agree with you. Plus i would also include Swarm hosts, SH builds are also totally boring to watch.
On August 05 2019 20:15 paddyz wrote: Stats repeating the same predictable plan? Same versatile opening. The same predictable plan that wins regardless of top level players having time to come up with a solution is infestor/broodlord which Serral showed again in this series.
Game 3 Stats got 3 shield batteries at home and held Serrals all in.
Game 4 he started a 3rd and won with a committed Immortal/Sentry push.
Game 5 he won through feigning the same Immortal/Sentry push, pulling back with a lead after Serral cut drones, dealing with swarmhosts really well and making a great transition into carriers to win.
If anything its Infestor/Broodlord that is the same predictable stuff that wins over and over regardless. I am pretty sure Stats knew of Infestor/Broodlord, had years of trying to find a way to deal with it, is one of if not the most qualified Protoss to deal with it and still can't. Game 2 serves as as clear an example as possible imo.
Serral won game 2 vs Stats because his harass was way better than that of Stats.
Stats lost multiple warpprisms and zealot rounds without achieving much while Serral's ling/bling/hydra runbys repeatedly killed bases, units and probes. This lead ultimately to Stats demise. Serral even took a base on Stats' half of the map, outmining and outbanking him
#2mutalisksthatwonthegame
EDIT: I agree with the opinions on getting rid of region-locks. But they would have to shorten GSL's from 3 month to 3 weeks to open it up for foreigners. And maybe lenghten WCS stops to 2 weekends per event? But probably not efficient from a finacial point of view
Calling stasis wards imba shows you either didn't watch the game or fail to appreciate what Stats did. He micro'd two separate oracles and his adept harass all at the same time WHILE macroing to an incredible level back home. He is probably the only player with the mechanics capable of pulling that off. It is in no way low skill what Stats did, in fact I'd go so far as to say it is some of the highest level PvZ I've seen in a long time.
Also if stasis wards are imba then so are widow mine drops, baneling drops, BC teleports and liberator harass which is clearly not the case.
I appreciate multitasking, but I am sorry if i have an unpopular opinion that you and others might not like. Meaning i do not find such games entertaining at all, and find stasis wards one of the biggest bs the game has. It is not only imba, but unentertaining to watch. This game has way too much units and ablities designed to harass for my taste. And guess what, toss has most of them (Phoenix, Oracle, Adept). About widow mines, liberator, bc teleport I agree with you. Plus i would also include Swarm hosts, SH builds are also totally boring to watch.
While I absolutely don't agree with you I can respect if that's how you feel about all harassment based units.
On August 05 2019 19:27 kajtarp wrote: For me stasis wards look one of the most imba thing sc2 has. One player has to constantly watch the minimap, constantly micro their entire mineral lines, and must even leave units to kill stasis wards, meanwhile what does the other player need to do? Click stasis ward and the location? The difference in how much effort one player has to make defending them, against the effort of the other player who wants to pull it off is beyond huge. It is one of the things, i dislike most in sc2. Not only dislike it, but i find it really boring to watch...
So Stats might be one of the nicest guy IRL, but he has one of the most boring and disgusting playstyles.
People say hero or sOs plays dirty, but their games are a whole lot more enjoyeable...
Calling stasis wards imba shows you either didn't watch the game or fail to appreciate what Stats did. He micro'd two separate oracles and his adept harass all at the same time WHILE macroing to an incredible level back home. He is probably the only player with the mechanics capable of pulling that off. It is in no way low skill what Stats did, in fact I'd go so far as to say it is some of the highest level PvZ I've seen in a long time.
Also if stasis wards are imba then so are widow mine drops, baneling drops, BC teleports and liberator harass which is clearly not the case.
Both Classic and Maru have the mechanics to do it too IMO.
Well Maru probably but I was thinking more in terms of Protoss players. Classic is a maybe but I feel like his micro isn't all that amazing honestly.
Isn't Classic da man who did show us 2 WP micro harass for the first time? I have my money on Classic being able to do this properly. Be this still KeSPA time I would add herO to the list.
On August 05 2019 19:27 kajtarp wrote: For me stasis wards look one of the most imba thing sc2 has. One player has to constantly watch the minimap, constantly micro their entire mineral lines, and must even leave units to kill stasis wards, meanwhile what does the other player need to do? Click stasis ward and the location? The difference in how much effort one player has to make defending them, against the effort of the other player who wants to pull it off is beyond huge. It is one of the things, i dislike most in sc2. Not only dislike it, but i find it really boring to watch...
So Stats might be one of the nicest guy IRL, but he has one of the most boring and disgusting playstyles.
People say hero or sOs plays dirty, but their games are a whole lot more enjoyeable...
Calling stasis wards imba shows you either didn't watch the game or fail to appreciate what Stats did. He micro'd two separate oracles and his adept harass all at the same time WHILE macroing to an incredible level back home. He is probably the only player with the mechanics capable of pulling that off. It is in no way low skill what Stats did, in fact I'd go so far as to say it is some of the highest level PvZ I've seen in a long time.
Also if stasis wards are imba then so are widow mine drops, baneling drops, BC teleports and liberator harass which is clearly not the case.
Both Classic and Maru have the mechanics to do it too IMO.
Well Maru probably but I was thinking more in terms of Protoss players. Classic is a maybe but I feel like his micro isn't all that amazing honestly.
Isn't Classic da man who did show us 2 WP micro harass for the first time? I have my money on Classic being able to do this properly. Be this still KeSPA time I would add herO to the list.
On August 05 2019 18:52 Mudbuddha1 wrote: writer sounds like a serral fanboy who is salty, haha nonetheless great writing about stats winning
Was wondering if anyone was gonna point that out. They somehow made it more about Serral than Stats, but I guess that's become pretty standard in these articles. DDoS aside this was a great tournament!
On August 05 2019 18:52 Mudbuddha1 wrote: writer sounds like a serral fanboy who is salty, haha nonetheless great writing about stats winning
Was wondering if anyone was gonna point that out. They somehow made it more about Serral than Stats, but I guess that's become pretty standard in these articles. DDoS aside this was a great tournament!
The whole tournament basically took place because of Serral.
On August 05 2019 18:52 Mudbuddha1 wrote: writer sounds like a serral fanboy who is salty, haha nonetheless great writing about stats winning
Was wondering if anyone was gonna point that out. They somehow made it more about Serral than Stats, but I guess that's become pretty standard in these articles. DDoS aside this was a great tournament!
The whole tournament basically took place because of Serral.
Yeah, wasn't there already another article dedicated to explaining that?
I wonder if Stats overplayed his hand with this build of his. It looks strong and versatile as hell, but with bigger tournaments coming up he’s really exposed it to study.
I like it a lot and how it flows, but then again I liked his 4 stalker WP opener that he used at Katowice and soO adjusted for it well even within the confines of the tournament.
Great tournament in basically all aspects, good stuff.
On August 05 2019 23:05 Wombat_NI wrote: I wonder if Stats overplayed his hand with this build of his. It looks strong and versatile as hell, but with bigger tournaments coming up he’s really exposed it to study.
I like it a lot and how it flows, but then again I liked his 4 stalker WP opener that he used at Katowice and soO adjusted for it well even within the confines of the tournament.
Great tournament in basically all aspects, good stuff.
Maybe by the time the zergs adjusted to his style, he already come up with another variation of his build. I think he is not like parting who abused his soul train to be destroyed by soo. He is good enough to know that Zs will come up with a plan to kill him. Or study how soO did it in Katowice.
Congrats Stats! Didn't have a chance to watch the grand finals, but his last map vs Serral was really impressive to watch, weathering all that swarmhost pressure.
On August 06 2019 05:56 bestiszest wrote: I hope all the people talking about the phoenix 3 oracles build realize it was shown in HSC and used by other protoss players as well...
Everyone is aware of that, it's about the follow up and the continued use of the oracles after that. Even in GSL season 1 Classic used the phoenix, 3 oracles opener quite often but the way he played it was quite different. Stats turned it into a flexible good-against-everything macro build.
Heromarine played so good, after 2-0 vs Gumiho he was one map away from winning the group with Gumiho and Stats. Watch those games! Also Showtime - Stats 2-0 in the group play, he was the only player to beat Stats in the tournament.
On August 06 2019 09:29 muppet70 wrote: Heromarine played so good, after 2-0 vs Gumiho he was one map away from winning the group with Gumiho and Stats. Watch those games! Also Showtime - Stats 2-0 in the group play, he was the only player to beat Stats in the tournament.
wow that is impressive. i'm loving the global parity we get in SC2
On August 06 2019 09:29 muppet70 wrote: Heromarine played so good, after 2-0 vs Gumiho he was one map away from winning the group with Gumiho and Stats. Watch those games! Also Showtime - Stats 2-0 in the group play, he was the only player to beat Stats in the tournament.
But Heromarine crumbled, as almost always when playing vs decent Koreans. I think he has some sort of mental blockade or sth. Talent wise he think he could be further up.
Same with Reynor, though he is younger and may overcome this eventually
On August 06 2019 17:17 ThunderJunk wrote: Stats is to Sc2 what Bisu was to broodwar when he revolutionized PvZ.
Please don't complain away the very best, most fairly articulated early-midgame PvZ setup there's ever been.
The issue is he didn't revolutionized PvZ. It's not what Parting did with the Templar opening bakc in WoL, where everyone was like - duh, you have to open robo and then Parting came and open with Templars and everyone was - this isn't supposed to work, how does this work, it's so obvious now, why didn't we do this earlier?
Stats took a build and made it better. He did a good job, no doubt, but I wouldn't go as far as calling it a revolution.
Stats vs. Serral was honestly one of the best series Ive watched this year. With the current PvZ and PvT meta its difficult for me to remember when Ive seen a series where the Protoss play impressed me to any degree. Zest vs Elazer at HSC comes to mind with Zests unrelenting perfect execution of harass. This series though blew even that away for me. Stats played so unbelievably well in games 3-5. This is what RTS is supposed to be about. If you can literally brute force out apm your opponent you should win the game, period (Life for example as Zerg (i dare spoke his name) or Maru as T have illustrated this historically beautifully). Non stop harass at multiprong with perfect micro while not missing a beat macroing all the while executing strategically brilliant transitions that threw the god for a loop. We got to see both players pushed to their ceiling with sick highlights like in game 5 when Serral was multiprong hitting the third and natural w SH roach/rav and Stats used his prism from his third to grab 2 immo to juggle into the nat chasing roaches while simultaneously perfectly microing the fight at his third with FF and bile dodges..so fucking epic. Consider that he did this vs. SERRAL - the literal god of defensive Zerg play swatting down KR gods left and right over the last year. Compare that now to watching goblin put his prism in warpmode out of range of queens and spam zealot warpins while right clicking his immortals a few times at 5min in...smh...I will take this 100 out of 100 times over gimmicy all ins or turtle play into deathballs.. MOAR PLS
On August 06 2019 23:36 DomeGetta wrote: Stats vs. Serral was honestly one of the best series Ive watched this year. With the current PvZ and PvT meta its difficult for me to remember when Ive seen a series where the Protoss play impressed me to any degree. Zest vs Elazer at HSC comes to mind with Zests unrelenting perfect execution of harass. This series though blew even that away for me. Stats played so unbelievably well in games 3-5. This is what RTS is supposed to be about. If you can literally brute force out apm your opponent you should win the game, period (Life for example as Zerg (i dare spoke his name) or Maru as T have illustrated this historically beautifully). Non stop harass at multiprong with perfect micro while not missing a beat macroing all the while executing strategically brilliant transitions that threw the god for a loop. We got to see both players pushed to their ceiling with sick highlights like in game 5 when Serral was multiprong hitting the third and natural w SH roach/rav and Stats used his prism from his third to grab 2 immo to juggle into the nat chasing roaches while simultaneously perfectly microing the fight at his third with FF and bile dodges..so fucking epic. Consider that he did this vs. SERRAL - the literal god of defensive Zerg play swatting down KR gods left and right over the last year. Compare that now to watching goblin put his prism in warpmode out of range of queens and spam zealot warpins while right clicking his immortals a few times at 5min in...smh...I will take this 100 out of 100 times over gimmicy all ins or turtle play into deathballs.. MOAR PLS
this is why stats is by far my favorite protoss player. he's just an all around beast. doesnt rely on mindgames, gimmicks, timings, etc as much as other protoss players. He's such a dynamic player. Such things are evident in games like game 2 where he built double prisms, disruptors, and dropped a fleet beacon with gusto showing he's willing to throw down in the late game vs zerg...and even though he got steamrolled by the zerg lategame eventually, stats control of that insane disruptor deathball was a mechanical marvel.
Stats - Maru in the super tournament was my other favorite series this year, particularly because of that Year Zero game. serral innovation in WESG was excellent too
stats-serral might be the best matchup in starcraft 2 recently though. they are all phenomenal
Democratically selected prime minister dare accuse The commander of The Defence Forces of Finland, nominated by democratically elected President of The Republic...
Serral was not elected.
God-Kings just over rule.
Disclaimer: we all hear that Trump-BS every day. Prime minister of Finland makes a mishit... Whatever.
Serral will fix his ZvP.
Only REAL thing we can learn from politics within this sphere.
On August 06 2019 23:36 DomeGetta wrote: Stats vs. Serral was honestly one of the best series Ive watched this year. With the current PvZ and PvT meta its difficult for me to remember when Ive seen a series where the Protoss play impressed me to any degree. Zest vs Elazer at HSC comes to mind with Zests unrelenting perfect execution of harass. This series though blew even that away for me. Stats played so unbelievably well in games 3-5. This is what RTS is supposed to be about. If you can literally brute force out apm your opponent you should win the game, period (Life for example as Zerg (i dare spoke his name) or Maru as T have illustrated this historically beautifully). Non stop harass at multiprong with perfect micro while not missing a beat macroing all the while executing strategically brilliant transitions that threw the god for a loop. We got to see both players pushed to their ceiling with sick highlights like in game 5 when Serral was multiprong hitting the third and natural w SH roach/rav and Stats used his prism from his third to grab 2 immo to juggle into the nat chasing roaches while simultaneously perfectly microing the fight at his third with FF and bile dodges..so fucking epic. Consider that he did this vs. SERRAL - the literal god of defensive Zerg play swatting down KR gods left and right over the last year. Compare that now to watching goblin put his prism in warpmode out of range of queens and spam zealot warpins while right clicking his immortals a few times at 5min in...smh...I will take this 100 out of 100 times over gimmicy all ins or turtle play into deathballs.. MOAR PLS
I’m really excited to get hold of the replays of that series and rewatch from their respective views for the reasons you described.
I wish Protoss was a bit easier to play in that style, and a bit harder to play in other ways, it’s more enjoyable to watch for me and you see the full range of player skills.
Protoss has a lot of cool tools that require tons of skill to use simultaneously anywhere close to the level Stats showed, sadly they’re also very potent when bringing out the Protoss book of bullshit.
PvZ is potentially in a really good spot of late, Zerg have gotten a lot better vs various timings, so the terrible state the matchup was in a few months ago of games consisting of one all in that either succeeded or failed seems to have been negotiated.
If Protoss can either figure out or get some patch help at dealing well once it goes very late game the matchup will have quite a lot of potential in terms of ‘straight up’ macro games
On August 06 2019 23:36 DomeGetta wrote: Stats vs. Serral was honestly one of the best series Ive watched this year. With the current PvZ and PvT meta its difficult for me to remember when Ive seen a series where the Protoss play impressed me to any degree. Zest vs Elazer at HSC comes to mind with Zests unrelenting perfect execution of harass. This series though blew even that away for me. Stats played so unbelievably well in games 3-5. This is what RTS is supposed to be about. If you can literally brute force out apm your opponent you should win the game, period (Life for example as Zerg (i dare spoke his name) or Maru as T have illustrated this historically beautifully). Non stop harass at multiprong with perfect micro while not missing a beat macroing all the while executing strategically brilliant transitions that threw the god for a loop. We got to see both players pushed to their ceiling with sick highlights like in game 5 when Serral was multiprong hitting the third and natural w SH roach/rav and Stats used his prism from his third to grab 2 immo to juggle into the nat chasing roaches while simultaneously perfectly microing the fight at his third with FF and bile dodges..so fucking epic. Consider that he did this vs. SERRAL - the literal god of defensive Zerg play swatting down KR gods left and right over the last year. Compare that now to watching goblin put his prism in warpmode out of range of queens and spam zealot warpins while right clicking his immortals a few times at 5min in...smh...I will take this 100 out of 100 times over gimmicy all ins or turtle play into deathballs.. MOAR PLS
I’m really excited to get hold of the replays of that series and rewatch from their respective views for the reasons you described.
I wish Protoss was a bit easier to play in that style, and a bit harder to play in other ways, it’s more enjoyable to watch for me and you see the full range of player skills.
Protoss has a lot of cool tools that require tons of skill to use simultaneously anywhere close to the level Stats showed, sadly they’re also very potent when bringing out the Protoss book of bullshit.
PvZ is potentially in a really good spot of late, Zerg have gotten a lot better vs various timings, so the terrible state the matchup was in a few months ago of games consisting of one all in that either succeeded or failed seems to have been negotiated.
If Protoss can either figure out or get some patch help at dealing well once it goes very late game the matchup will have quite a lot of potential in terms of ‘straight up’ macro games
It's unfortunate that Protoss players are pigeonholed into relying on gimmicks and mindgames. Blizzard doesn't want them to have all around strong and versatile backbone units. Everything relies on a gimmick
On August 05 2019 14:33 StarcraftSquall wrote: At long last... a Protoss champion! It’s been YEARS :-)
Yeah! The first since Classic one GSL Super Tournament just a couple months ago!
That’s a major in name only, it’s basicall a weekend of chaos among just 16 players. Besides that tourney you have to go back to 2017 to find a bonafide long form tourney Protoss title.
On August 05 2019 14:33 StarcraftSquall wrote: At long last... a Protoss champion! It’s been YEARS :-)
Yeah! The first since Classic one GSL Super Tournament just a couple months ago!
That’s a major in name only, it’s basicall a weekend of chaos among just 16 players. Besides that tourney you have to go back to 2017 to find a bonafide long form tourney Protoss title.
Yeah, who cares about a tournament with top Koreans in it and a qualifier with all the top Koreans in them. No big deal winning this thing, everyone can do it, right?
Seriously? How can we argue about the top names in the business except Serral vs a tournament without top names but including Serral... wtf?
On August 05 2019 14:33 StarcraftSquall wrote: At long last... a Protoss champion! It’s been YEARS :-)
Yeah! The first since Classic one GSL Super Tournament just a couple months ago!
That’s a major in name only, it’s basicall a weekend of chaos among just 16 players. Besides that tourney you have to go back to 2017 to find a bonafide long form tourney Protoss title.
I don't understand how you think GSL Super Tournament is less prestigious than ASUS ROG. It has more top tier Koreans and a larger prize pool, compare the ro.16 of last GSL super tournament to the ASUS ROG equivalent.
On August 05 2019 14:33 StarcraftSquall wrote: At long last... a Protoss champion! It’s been YEARS :-)
Yeah! The first since Classic one GSL Super Tournament just a couple months ago!
That’s a major in name only, it’s basicall a weekend of chaos among just 16 players. Besides that tourney you have to go back to 2017 to find a bonafide long form tourney Protoss title.
I don't understand how you think GSL Super Tournament is less prestigious than ASUS ROG. It has more top tier Koreans and a larger prize pool, compare the ro.16 of last GSL super tournament to the ASUS ROG equivalent.
Yeah don't try logic bro - it doesn't work lmao It only counts if Protoss lost it - and it doesn't matter if they were half the ro16 and ro8 - this is 101 my man.
EPT
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