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So, What's Up With Neeb? - Road to BlizzCon 2019

Forum Index > SC2 General
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So, What's Up With Neeb? - Road to BlizzCon 2019

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
October 17th, 2019 06:51 GMT

Road to BlizzCon 2019: Neeb (#3 WCS Circuit)

So, What's Up With Neeb?

by Wax

Here's a thought experiment. Let's say that you, a die-hard fan of competitive StarCraft II, had gone outside for a stroll following the conclusion of the 2017 WCS Global Finals, only to trigger a Stasis Ward deviously placed on your doorstep by your Protoss neighbor (you scratched his Warp Prism while parking your car last week). This Stasis Ward, being particularly OP, would have kept you frozen in time for nearly two years, wearing off just in time for upcoming the 2019 Global Finals.

Obviously, you'd immediately head to the TL.net forums to get caught up on all the major StarCraft II happenings you missed. We'd excitedly tell you about how Maru won an unprecedented four consecutive Code S tournaments, how Serral won the 2018 Global Champion, and how soO finally broke his second-place curse among other historic events. And you, still in your 2017 state of mind, would probably interrupt and ask "Yeah, but what happened to Neeb?"

More info: 2019 World Championship Series Global Finals

I mentioned how 2016 feels like ancient history in our preview for Dark—now that I think about it, even the pages from the book of 2017 are starting to become yellowed and musty.

After unleashing his potential by becoming the first foreigner to ever win a championship on Korean soil in the 2016 KeSPA Cup, Neeb went on to surpass all expectations by dominating the 2017 WCS Circuit and winning the title in three out of four tournaments. His performances against Koreans continued to be top-tier by the standards of 2017, defeating sOs to reach the top eight of GSL vs. The World and taking a series off of Rogue in the group stage of the Global Finals (though he would lose the rematch).

Looking back on the one-year reign of Neeb as top foreigner makes you realize how much Serral's 2018 has distorted our perception and standards. In 2017, it actually felt like a landmark moment when we gave the #8 rank for on the BlizzCon Power Rank (as opposed to #9, behind every single Korean), and some members of the notoriously Korea-favoring TL.net community actually demanded for him to be ranked even higher. For a fan in 2017, Neeb's marathon victory against late-game master Rogue might have actually been the top highlight of the entire Global Finals, as evidenced by the fact that it has accrued the 2nd most YouTube VOD views after the grand finals.


(Starts at 0:41:00)


Anyway, back to that question from the hypothetical, temporally thawed, 2017 version of you. "What happened to Neeb?"

Not much, actually! And that's a good thing. Even though Neeb was completely overshadowed by an even more historically amazing player in Serral, he's still an excellent player and arguably the second best Circuit representative headed to the Global Finals.

Yes, I know that Reynor is technically one spot ahead of Neeb in the WCS Circuit standings at #2, and leads him two-to-one in terms of Circuit championships on the year (especially unflattering for Neeb considering the relatively weak competition at WCS Winter: Americas compared to Europe). It's also undeniable that Neeb's WCS Circuit results have dipped radically since his three-championship performance in 2017. Some of that is due to Serral, as Neeb has drawn playoff matches against the Finnish Phenom twice during the 2019 Circuit. But even prior to that, Neeb had been dropping playoff series to many of the foreign elite, such as Reynor, ShoWTimE, and even MaNa during his run of destiny at WCS Austin 2018. The rest of the Circuit really has improved as a whole, which means Neeb is now liable to be upset by his Circuit peers the same way he shocked Korean opponents in the past.

However, the Global Finals is no Circuit event (duh). In mixed-region tournaments, Reynor's resume—or that of any of the non-Serral representatives from the Circuit—simply does not compare to that of Neeb's. Just this year, Neeb achieved top eight at IEM Katowice, top eight at WESG, and top four at GSL vs. The World (his worst finish was a Ro16 finish at ASUS ROG Summer with two losses to Zest). That's quite easily the best combined international results of any foreigner not named Serral, even taking Elazer's runner-up finish at GSL vs. The World into account. Of course, if you want to run up the score, you could also throw in Neeb's historic KeSPA Cup win and his Code S semi-final run in season three of 2018 (the best foreigner result since Jinro in 2011).

All that goes to say that the 2019 version of Neeb feels very much like the versions from 2016, 2017, and 2018 headed into the Global Finals. He may not be one of the absolute, top players at the tournament, but I'm certain the Koreans are going to point him out as one of the scariest foreigners they could possibly face. And unlike most occasions, it's not going to be polite, empty lip-service when they say it: they've seen Neeb beat plenty of their peers before.



Really, I'm counting on the Korean players to hype Neeb up because he certainly won't do it himself. One of the most confounding things about Neeb's consistent very-goodness for the last three years has been his demeanor. Humility and self-deprecation are a common undercurrent in pro-StarCraft II, but Neeb takes it to an almost comical level. His comments before GSL vs. The World 2019 are quite telling: No, he doesn't particularly feel like playing in Code S again—one semi-final appearance was perfectly satisfactory. He conveyed the same sentiment at August's WCS Fall, where he seemed rather content and resigned to his fate after drawing a semifinal match against Serral. And if you missed it at the time, you might still have a laugh reading his supposed 'hype' interview with sponsor Ting after his career-best 2017 campaign, where he offered up some gems such as "...it honestly feels like the foreigners got a little bit worse compared to last year ... I definitely improved but not enough where I should just be winning every event." and predicted a Korean beatdown at BlizzCon (SpeCial went on to place top four).

I can only assume this is all a part of Neeb's long-term, galaxy-brain master plan to make sure everyone underestimates him. After all, what else would explain the fact that he keeps telling everyone that he sucks, but he still continues to do better than almost everyone else?

One last thing: After Neeb said he was satisfied with reaching the top four of Code S once and didn't have much motivation to compete again, he followed that up by saying he was looking to do better at bigger tournaments such as IEM Katowice and BlizzCon. I don't have much hope at nabbing a TL.net interview with Neeb before the Global Finals, but what if in his fourth consecutive appearance, he finally said "I'm confident in my skills and I think I have a shot at beating everyone." That would be something, wouldn't it?

Ah well; it was just a thought.




Road to BlizzCon 2019

WCS Circuit
Serral - Reynor - Neeb - SpeCial - TIME - HeroMarine - Elazer - ShoWTimE

WCS Korea
Dark - Trap - Classic - Maru - soO - Rogue - herO - Stats



Credits and acknowledgements

Writer: Wax
Images: Helena Kristiansson via Blizzard
Facebook Twitter Reddit
TL+ Member
Shuffleblade
Profile Joined February 2012
Sweden1903 Posts
October 17 2019 06:51 GMT
#2
Hype!! Thanks for all the great articles, Neeb has a real chance in this group and we all know he has what it takes to go all the way if the stars align. (Especially if Serral gets knocked out of the group of death)
Maru, Bomber, TY, Dear, Classic, DeParture and Rogue!
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33383 Posts
October 17 2019 06:52 GMT
#3
On October 17 2019 15:51 Shuffleblade wrote:
Hype!! Thanks for all the great articles, Neeb has a real chance in this group and we all know he has what it takes to go all the way if the stars align. (Especially if Serral gets knocked out of the group of death)


impressive comment time ;o
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
Shuffleblade
Profile Joined February 2012
Sweden1903 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-10-17 07:00:35
October 17 2019 06:59 GMT
#4
On October 17 2019 15:52 Waxangel wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 17 2019 15:51 Shuffleblade wrote:
Hype!! Thanks for all the great articles, Neeb has a real chance in this group and we all know he has what it takes to go all the way if the stars align. (Especially if Serral gets knocked out of the group of death)


impressive comment time ;o

Hehe, you could say I'm eager for any Starcraft 2 content :D

This years WCS finals is really hype bringing such interesting groups played in bo5 GSL format in the GSL studio!
Maru, Bomber, TY, Dear, Classic, DeParture and Rogue!
ZigguratOfUr
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
Iraq16955 Posts
October 17 2019 07:28 GMT
#5
It does feel really easy to forget about Neeb's performance in non-WCS tournaments. There was always another story to overshadow him.

Also looking back at that Blizzcon power rank thread I feel I was a lot better at predictions back then:
On October 19 2017 10:49 ZigguratOfUr wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 19 2017 10:25 pvsnp wrote:
On October 19 2017 10:00 PuddleZerg wrote:
I can't wait to see Neeb fall to a Korean Terran again.


Can't fall to a Korean Terran if you already got knocked out by a Korean Zerg.

The most suitable outcome of that group is for Neeb to beat Rogue with the most disgusting skytoss imaginable before losing to soO and getting crushed in the rematch with Rogue.

Fango
Profile Joined July 2016
United Kingdom8987 Posts
October 17 2019 08:06 GMT
#6
On October 17 2019 15:51 TL.net ESPORTS wrote:
His performances against Koreans continued to be top-tier by the standards of 2017, defeating sOs to reach the top eight of GSL vs. The World and taking a series off of Rogue in the group stage of the Global Finals (though he would lose the rematch).

Winning two series in a whole year is a top-tier standard for someone who literally won a korean tournament the year prior?
Zest, sOs, PartinG, Dark, and Maru are the real champs. ROOT_herO is overrated. Snute, Serral, and Scarlett are the foreigner GOATs
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33383 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-10-17 08:11:55
October 17 2019 08:11 GMT
#7
On October 17 2019 17:06 Fango wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 17 2019 15:51 TL.net ESPORTS wrote:
His performances against Koreans continued to be top-tier by the standards of 2017, defeating sOs to reach the top eight of GSL vs. The World and taking a series off of Rogue in the group stage of the Global Finals (though he would lose the rematch).

Winning two series in a whole year is a top-tier standard for someone who literally won a korean tournament the year prior?


I think you're proving my point about how dark foreigner-dom was for a while D:
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
argonautdice
Profile Joined January 2013
Canada2718 Posts
October 17 2019 09:51 GMT
#8
On October 17 2019 17:11 Waxangel wrote:
Show nested quote +
On October 17 2019 17:06 Fango wrote:
On October 17 2019 15:51 TL.net ESPORTS wrote:
His performances against Koreans continued to be top-tier by the standards of 2017, defeating sOs to reach the top eight of GSL vs. The World and taking a series off of Rogue in the group stage of the Global Finals (though he would lose the rematch).

Winning two series in a whole year is a top-tier standard for someone who literally won a korean tournament the year prior?


I think you're proving my point about how dark foreigner-dom was for a while D:

Yes, Dark was a foreigner dom.
very illegal and very uncool
BerserkSword
Profile Joined December 2018
United States2123 Posts
October 17 2019 10:00 GMT
#9
bring the trophy home to america
TL+ Member
Harris1st
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Germany6924 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-10-17 11:08:11
October 17 2019 11:06 GMT
#10
Neeb knew it all along

Was there anyone specific in Montreal that you were happy about dodging throughout the tournament, or were you confident against everybody?

I think the two hardest opponents in terms of raw skill are probably ShoWTimE and Serral but for whatever reason ShoWTimE wasn’t doing too good recently, or at all events this year aside from Austin. He had kind of disappointing performance. I was super happy beating him at Austin because he was by far the hardest (opponent) there. And then Serral, I don’t know why he just doesn’t play well in a live event setting.
Go Serral! GG EZ for Ence. Flashbang dance FTW
BisuDagger
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Bisutopia19234 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-10-17 11:54:41
October 17 2019 11:54 GMT
#11
Neeb has been incredibly consistent for years now despite balance changes throughout that time period. He will always be someone who has the potential to take games off Korean players and is in fact the only protoss foreigner to repeatedly prove this. He definitely has a chance in this group stage.
ModeratorFormer Afreeca Starleague Caster: http://afreeca.tv/ASL2ENG2
Xain0n
Profile Joined November 2018
Italy3963 Posts
October 17 2019 12:08 GMT
#12
On October 17 2019 20:54 BisuDagger wrote:
Neeb has been incredibly consistent for years now despite balance changes throughout that time period. He will always be someone who has the potential to take games off Korean players and is in fact the only protoss foreigner to repeatedly prove this. He definitely has a chance in this group stage.


Showtime has his own nice collection of scalps, just don't make him face a korean Terran(Byun must have cursed him)!
Dingodile
Profile Joined December 2011
4133 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-10-17 12:32:02
October 17 2019 12:30 GMT
#13
Aren't the Writers bored to write countless articles About the same Player? I think Maru and herO are attending Blizzcon the ~7th time?
Grubby | ToD | Moon | Lyn | Sky
Nakajin
Profile Blog Joined September 2014
Canada8989 Posts
October 17 2019 12:48 GMT
#14
Great article, I hope Neeb can do well
Writerhttp://i.imgur.com/9p6ufcB.jpg
Harris1st
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Germany6924 Posts
October 17 2019 13:08 GMT
#15
BIG RED FIRETRUCK!
Go Serral! GG EZ for Ence. Flashbang dance FTW
ZugzwangSC
Profile Joined October 2019
87 Posts
October 17 2019 13:29 GMT
#16
Wax continues to do a fantastic job with these articles. I still feel kinda bad about scratching my neighbor's warp prism.

Man! It's hard not to love Neeb.
www.youtube.com/c/zugzwangstarcraft
BisuDagger
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Bisutopia19234 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-10-17 14:21:54
October 17 2019 14:21 GMT
#17
On October 17 2019 21:30 Dingodile wrote:
Aren't the Writers bored to write countless articles About the same Player? I think Maru and herO are attending Blizzcon the ~7th time?

I hope over 7 years we have acquired new fans of SC2 that come to the website and read the news. I think writing something updated to the current state of their play is preferable to just posting a headline with a link to last years article. As for Maru, I'd say the narrative is different this year then it has been in the past two years too.

Another good example in sports history would be Warriors vs Cavs. I bet there are tons of people who missed the finals one year, but were more engaged in the NBA the following year so reading the finals preview is still beneficial to those readers.

edit: Flash is the most boring person to write about hands down though. He's awesome and will win unless it is Effort. GG.
ModeratorFormer Afreeca Starleague Caster: http://afreeca.tv/ASL2ENG2
sudete
Profile Joined December 2012
Singapore3054 Posts
October 17 2019 14:58 GMT
#18
I love neeb's long disappearing spells between tournaments. You never know if he's doing well or poorly.

If he can figure out some way to win PvZs... you never know, eh?
Year of MaxPax
SuperFLY1
Profile Joined August 2019
5 Posts
October 17 2019 17:58 GMT
#19
I've always thought neeb was one good run from owning everyone in 2019. Hopefully that run happens at Blizzcon and he just wins the whole thing. I think he is the smartest foreign SC II to this date and thats no disrespect to Serral, Elazer, Special.

I think if neeb told himself, "I'm going to win this tournament and no one is going to stop me" he will walk away with Trophy at Blizzcon.
Kitai
Profile Joined June 2012
United States873 Posts
October 17 2019 19:42 GMT
#20
I think he's got a pretty good shot at making it to Blizzcon since he has favorable matchups against Trap and Elazer (he's a PvP monster and outclasses Elazer by a little bit imo). He could even potentially get another upset victory against Rogue, though it seems unlikely after watching the GSL finals. Hard to imagine him making it any deeper than Ro4, though I'd be really happy for him if he did. GL Neeb!
"You know, I don't care if soO got 100 second places in a row. Anyone who doesn't think that he's going to win blizzcon watching this series is a fool" - Artosis, Blizzcon 2014 soO vs TaeJa
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