I don't think Byun won GSL Season 2. I also thought Neeb's first appearance in WCS America as Terran was in 2014. I remember him playing either Polt or Taeja in a TvT that year.

Edpayasugo

United Kingdom2217 Posts

March 30 2023 10:25 GMT

#11

Thank you. One of my all time favourite StarCraft memories.

Wolf

Korea (South)3290 Posts

March 30 2023 13:00 GMT

#12

One of the best tournaments I ever worked on. Such a memorable run.

Yoshi Kirishima

United States10366 Posts

March 30 2023 14:40 GMT

#13

On March 30 2023 22:00 Wolf wrote:
One of the best tournaments I ever worked on. Such a memorable run.

Miss your casting, but hope you're doing well!! Was nice hearing your voice again rewatching that VOD.

catplanetcatplanet

3835 Posts

March 31 2023 14:01 GMT

#14

Where you see a Neeb writeup, I see ten paragraphs of a frontpage feature being dedicated to PET!!! Fuck yeah! Pet is trending upwards in 2023. Can't wait for the full Pet career retrospective

On March 30 2023 04:18 MJG wrote:
Great article - I'm sorry to say that I completely forgot about (Z)

Pet!

what the fuck man

tlnetuser108

83 Posts

March 31 2023 22:52 GMT

#15

Unlike modern day foreigners that rely on patches, Neeb actually relied on real skill. 2018 was the start of the foreigner patch zerg era as well as when most good Koreans retired. I would say Neeb was the last foreigner to actually deserve his win

Crocolisk Dundee

870 Posts

April 03 2023 01:38 GMT

#16

On March 30 2023 22:00 Wolf wrote:
One of the best tournaments I ever worked on. Such a memorable run.

I also miss your casting and hope you are doing well these days, Wolf!

Charoisaur

Germany16062 Posts

April 05 2023 19:27 GMT

#17

Wasn't that tournament around the time teamhouses were closing and the koreans had to move out and transition to being independent players? Not to take away from Neeb but I think that definitely had an impact

Waxangel

United States33592 Posts

April 05 2023 21:17 GMT

#18

On April 06 2023 04:27 Charoisaur wrote:
Wasn't that tournament around the time teamhouses were closing and the koreans had to move out and transition to being independent players? Not to take away from Neeb but I think that definitely had an impact

There was a decent-sized section about this that got cut out.

There's some interviews/videos that attest to progamers being very demoralized at the time, but nothing that directly connects it to reduced effort or practice. In fact, given the WCS points situation at this event, players like Classic and herO were incentivized to play extremely hard to qualify for BlizzCon (they did not make the cut), while already qualified players like Zest and Stats should have been practicing hard since BlizzCon was just a month away.

Now, I do feel like I've heard off-hand or at least speculatively that KeSPA teams closing DID affect players' play levels, but we couldn't find sourcing that was acceptable. Ultimately, the element with Proleague ending/KeSPA teams disbanding felt too speculative to add.

Balnazza

Germany1281 Posts

April 05 2023 23:01 GMT

#19

It also feels weird to think that just one month of no teamhouses leveled the field that much when people always assume koreans before that were galaxies in front of the foreign scene

kamalsirji

1 Post

April 05 2023 23:19 GMT

#20

Bot edit.

User was banned for this post.

YoMeR

United States263 Posts

April 06 2023 05:07 GMT

#21

I remember watching that tourny live...What a treat it was. Respect to neeb.

Charoisaur

Germany16062 Posts

April 06 2023 10:43 GMT

#22

On April 06 2023 08:01 Balnazza wrote:
It also feels weird to think that just one month of no teamhouses leveled the field that much when people always assume koreans before that were galaxies in front of the foreign scene

I mean, koreans WERE galaxies in front of the foreign scene, we know that for a fact based on tournament results.
But no, I don't think the disbandment of teamhouses alone leveled the playing field, Neeb (and later Serral, Reynor etc) are obviously huge talents who deserved every amount of success they were getting. But still the circumstances were in Neebs favor when he won that tournament.