EPT
Samsung Khan WILL win the Proleague Dattebayo
![[image loading]](http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/5610/khanq.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images/3/30/January.jpg)
Walking the line between brilliance and facepalm since 2005. Two things characterize Samsung Khan's head coach: The faith in her players and her seemingly odd decisions. And both have the same cause: she just does what she believes in. And if that means sending out
TurN to the Ace Match in the Playoffs then that is what she does.+ Show Spoiler +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=docSeHNBIb4 + Show Spoiler +
(Just for the record: The decision was right. New Empire of the Sun is an extremely TvZ favored map and January anticipated correctly that Woongjin would send one of their Zerg. Both Zergs also happen to be Protoss slayers and the map is not that great for PvZ. Plus the Woongjin player will probably expect a Protoss so there is a big preperation edge for the Khan player. So sending a Terran was correct. And which Terran to send, that is a decision that Khan insiders can certainly make better than outsiders).
Did TurN win? No. Was that decision popular? Hell no, I rarely read so much flaming. Would she do it again? You can bet your ass that she would. And you also bet that after the loss she had TurN's back instead of punishing him (unlike what probably would happen in some other teams). With January Khan has the best coach a team and players can dream of.
The Roster
(P)
JangBi 2215 pts(P)
Stork 2135 pts(P)
Grape 2129 pts(Z)
RorO 2123 pts(P)
Brave 2123 pts(T)
Reality 2086 pts(T)
TurN 2084 pts(T)
Sharp 1995 pts(Z)
Juni 1987 pts(T)
Always - (T)
Bunny - (Z)
ByuL - (Z)hOpe - -
(P)
huro - (P)
JaeyOon -(T)
Kop - (Z)
oDin (<Captain>) -(T)
Point - Expect greatness!
![[image loading]](http://i56.tinypic.com/33p3m0z.jpg)
Well, what can I say about the Dinotoss that you don't already know?
Tell you about his crazy white fan?
+ Show Spoiler +
You know it.
The mad fanboy chants before every game that itsdaniel caused?
+ Show Spoiler +
SONG BYUNG GOO
His overall sexiness no homo?
+ Show Spoiler +
Come on.
People call him Dinotoss because he is in the scene for so long. For his experience. When actually they should call him that name for his dangerousness. The one thing that I noted about Stork is his ultra-agressive decision-making. By that I do not mean his general strategies which are as diverse as it gets, ranging from the dirtiest cheese to the most solid macro games. Not the Kwanro-Style buildorder all-in aggression. He cuts corners wherever he can but that is well known too. He can do so because his mindgaming is pretty good. He will never have that extra cannon except for that one game in which you decided to finally punish him for not having it. Well, that is in fact the experience of an old T-Rex who has feasted on a lot of lesser Dinos in the past.
What I mean is the instantaneous combat-decision aggression. And that doesn't resemble an old slow T-Rex, that is the aggression of a hungry young Velociraptor. I was wondering a lot of times is why he would risk running his Dragoon into a mine, why he would attack a Zerg or a Terran player with a single Zealot early on, why he engaged in that risky combat, why he persisted with that drop despite maybe being scouted. These things of course strike most when they fail and he bites his sharp Raptor teeth on iron. But when you pay more attention you see that he gains many edges with it. Having seen a lot of games from him now this seems to be his philosophy. When in doubt, make the aggresive decision. A good decision matrix. Not as good as
Flash's "when in doubt just make the right decision" but we are talking about mortals here. It reminds me a lot of a poker player's philosophy. The best poker players are very aggressive. Sure you don't get the extra benefit of fold equity in Starcraft but the general mindset is similar. If you are not in the pot you can't win it and you won't find out if the opponent really had it. Stork always wants to be in the pot.It is a thin line to walk though.
Kal, another of the Protoss dragons, for example lost a lot of games last season to his aggression. In the end he looked miserable when he went into the Zergs base yet again with 5-6 Zealots and got fought off so easily that it was painful to watch. Stork however is not Kal. He manages to dance on that thin line pretty well since many years. The end of last season was mediocre for Stork though, ending it with a slightly negative record. He came off an extraordinary successful run that catapulted him to #1 in PR, into the OSL finals and the MSL round of 8. But unfortunately that run ended in a huge loss in the Bacchus OSL finals against
Fantasy and somehow he hadn't got that out of his system during last season. But with another Khan Toss having avenged him this year and more time to refocus I can only assume that we will see a rejuvanated and hungry Dino this season.Stork's Theme Song for new PL season: Stork is the word!
+ Show Spoiler +
The Trashmen : Surfin' Bird
Expect the Birdtoss!
![[image loading]](http://sc2gg.com/hosted/fakekisser/player_pics/jangbi_020609.jpg)
Ah Jangbi. I almost the won Fantasy Proleague last season. In the end it was a close fight and a great third place but I have no one but me to blame for it. I lacked faith. I just thought he wasn't good enough anymore so I put him on my Anti. I wasn't alone with that opinion though. Jangbi was the player appearing on most Anti teams last season. Even more than #2, none other than the man known as the PvX Enigma
Jaehoon (who coincidentally whooped even more butts than Jangbi last season, at least in Pro League).27 points for my Anti Team, a too late trade-off and an OSL title (on a side note: DejaVu really? You don't cast THAT final? Really? Really?) later I stand proven wrong like the catholic church. The Earth revolves around the sun and Jangbi is better than ever. Even better than back in the day when he hit his legendary storms. Now there is no need for me link to those because you surely have seen them already (just kidding, hell as if you could ever see this enogh so here it is: ). + Show Spoiler +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3IbwjeCx6U
And that OSL title was not a fluke. You could argue that in the quarters Flash was injured, that Soo was no worthy semi final opponent and that Fantasy threw it away in the finals. But that misses the point.
Let's go back a bit in time to catch that point. At the end of last year Jangbi was in a slump. And what a slump it was. An insane losing streak and that after already playing way under his true potential for more than a year. His career seemed over at that point and I wouldn't have been surprised to see him retire. It didn't even seem like a slump anymore, it looked like he just wasn't good enough anymore. But January kept on trusting him. She even sent him to Ace match against MBC despite the facts that MBC only has Terrans and that Stork is the king of PvT. And despite the fact that Jangbi was on a 0-6 streak. Everyone expected him to lose. Everyone said this was a terrible decision.
+ Show Spoiler +
Don't watch this unless you hate Jangbi:
Jangbi lost and the game was as one-sided as a game can get. If you showed the Video to someone and claimed it was a battle.net attack then he would not have been questioning that. Jangbi played a terrible game. Nonetheless January kept on sending him out. And Jangbi kept on losing.His streak went 0-7, then 0-10, then 1-12, then 7-27. Until around May he suddenly decided to stop slumping. Maybe it was a confidence boost that resulted from beating none other than Sea half a year after that crushing Ace match loss. Whatever the cause was, that victory against Sea started a 13-2 winning streak with losses only against the Protoss destroyers Jaedong and Hydra. And have a look at that loss against Jaedong. Just rewatch it:
+ Show Spoiler +
What an awesome game. It couldn't be the same guy fromt he match against Sea a few months ago. Until the very late stages of the game it was not one of those countless games that only take long because the Protoss keeps fighting a hopeless battle until they inevitably get crushed by the Zergs superior economy. Jangbi multiple times came as close as it gets to legitimately beating Jaedong in the late game, only losing to a brilliant move by Jaedong in which he lured Jangbis army out of position and abused that one forced mistake in an unmatched fashion. It was imo one of the best games of the year. In the KO rounds of SPL he unfortunately got 3-0ed by the liitle Woongjin Zerg monsters
ZerO and Neo.G_Soulkey. But if you watch these games you see that they were close and it is no shame to lose a PvZ against those guys. The bad Jangbi that we had seen for way too long however was gone and hopefully stays gone. It were good games by him but sometimes you just lose. And sometimes you just win. And then he won. These legendary wins against Flash, Soo and Fantasy that followed were no fluke. Just a player who performs on S-class level since a couple of months deservedly winning a Star League, fulfilling the Legend of the Fall and paying back the trust his coach has put into him.Jangbi's Theme Song: Dream yourself a dream come true
+ Show Spoiler +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIv1MAClQhk
Expect Jangbangin!
![[image loading]](http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/8315/roro1pz5.jpg)
1v1 Record:
All: 104-105 (49.76%)
vT: 37-36 (50.68%)
vZ: 36-37 (49.32%)
vP: 31-32 (49.21%)
After Great going to Ace Khan was in desperate need of a Zerg. And boy did they get a Zerg. I was so happy to hear that RorO was traded to Samsung Khan. One of my favorite players going to my favorite team can't be a bad thing after all.
When Storks theme is aggressiveness and Jangbis theme is skill then RorOs theme is consistency. RoRo is 50-50 in everything. His winning record tells a lot about his play. He has no exceptional strenghts (no
ZerO Queens, no Action Defilers, no Hydra Mutalisk Micro) but he also has no real weaknesses. He is and always was a workhorse in Proleague destroying many fellow TLer's FPL Anti-Teams for years now. He also rarely cheeses, goes for crazy builds or gets excessively greedy with his economy. That is one of the reasons why I like seeing RorO so much. Just like you are guaranteed to see some hilarity once HyuN steps into the arena, when RorO sits in his booth you almost assuredly are going to see a good straight up game.But maybe his very conservative play also explains his balanced stats. Because he actually has everything a player needs to have a positive winning record. Granted, he probably lacks the raw skill to be S-class but his multitasking and APM are solid and he has a ton of experience. His micro and macro are both above average. So maybe if he can attend a couple of lectures in the Stork University of cutting corners he will destroy even more TLers FPL dreams who never learn it and foolishly put him on their Anti Team yet again.
RorO's Theme song: “Libera me” From Hell – “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann” FIGHT THE POWER
+ Show Spoiler +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V7aUT13qtM
Expect RorO hwaiting!
![[image loading]](http://www.fomos.kr/board/interview/1298294302_1.jpg)
In case you didn't know:
Grape is good. Despite most people not having caught up to that yet. And yes he looks way too much like his fruity nickname but nonetheless he is an awesome Broodwar player. Starting your career with a balanced record is already no easy feat but let's take a look at his opponents. His current 8-8 streak looks mediocre at first but starts looking a bit more impressive when you consider that in those 16 games he played the PvP monster Horang2 three times, none other than Jaedong 4 times and three of his Terran opponents were Baby, Leta and Bogus.Reality has shown promise. But most importantly January think that he is very good. In an Interview she said that Reality is the player with the potential in the Samsung House. His last season was solid, but not overwhelming. He played some really good games, but also some very bad ones. We will just have to see if he can live up to the expectations this season.TurN is the other Khan Terran with potential. January will believe in you. Next time you go to Ace you kick that Zerg's butt. I believe!Brave is a quite experienced player who somehow managed to accumulate a surprisingly high 55% win rate over his 64 games without anyone really noticing it. Even I was surprised when I checked his stats. I have to admit I do not know much about Brave and can't say anything about his gameplay. But I will make sure to change that once the new season starts.Expect to get graped
Victory will be ours!
![[image loading]](http://img.dailygame.co.kr/news/20110709/20110709_758e063ca57c98005c023aeeeac22be9.jpg)
