A Prime Tribute : 2012 is Prime's.

A Prime tribute : 2012 is Prime's.

First of all, this article will be as much a Prime hype thread as it will be a tribute. The reason I post it so late is because I got banned yet again, and three days later there was already GSTL hype threads popping up left and right.

Second, as a bonus I made a Prime hype video. At first I thought that I will put it at the end of the post but since this is so long many people would miss it so I will put it here. The credits / song for the video are on the youtube page and I'm so sorry I forgot to add AnnYeong :/ saw it after the render.



Plus I invite you to read the GSTL S2 Prime hype thread written by Lorning here : http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=340321.

Now let me explain why I decided to create such a thread : I stopped playing starcraft 2 a month ago because of a lack of time due to exams and stuff, but I kept watching starcraft 2, and what I looked at the most were teamleagues matches and MarineKing matches. Team matches and clan wars are amazing in the sense that no matter which race you play, you will go as far as cheering for a player playing the race you hated the most on ladder or giving you the most trouble, because you want your team to win. That's if you are cheering for a team obviously, I know that some of you just look at matches just for the sake of watching good starcraft play, therefore being genuinely happy whoever wins as long as it was a good match.

But, if you are this type of viewer, I can only advice you to try watching matches with a player or a team that you like more often, the experience will be much better. I watched a lot of starcraft 2 finals, and even though most of them were high level games, I don't remember them all. Those I remember the most are ThorZain vs NaNiwa from TSL final, about every MKP's finals except his first GSL final against Mvp because his play was so uncharacteristic of him that it was almost sad to see, Mvp vs Squirtle GSL final, MMA vs Polt Super Tournament final, ToD vs SarenS WCG France final, ThorZain vs DongRaeGu Dreamhack Valencia final and LucifroN vs Grubby from The Gathering (not a final but the most interesting match from this tournament).

Do I remember all those MLG finals when only a few koreans were invited? No, I only remember the fact that it was hard staying up until 5am just in order to see the final. Do I remember those NASL, Dreamhack (okay I sure would remember Polt vs ThorZain if there wasn't MKP vs DongRaeGu going on at the same time) and some other GSL finals? Not really either. Why is that? Not because the games weren't enjoyable or high level, no. The sole reason I don't remember these finals is that I wasn't really cheering for either player to win. For team leagues matches it's about the same, I remember Prime's matches the most.

-------------------------- --------------------------

Part I – Prime, the scariest team in the world.


IPL TeamLeague, KSL, GSTL. They won it all. Prime won every team league they entered this year. I told you 2012 is Prime's year, I wasn't lying. It has been explained multiple times that Prime became that much better as a team when they developped their own business, Primezzang, so I won't tell this story again.

Before GSTL season 1, people doubted Prime despite their second place against MVP in 2011, but recently Prime gained a lot of fans and almost anyone recognizes that they are the absolute best team in Starcraft 2, except maybe some StarTale fans because they keep losing to Prime in all-kill fashions. Oh and maybe StarTale Ace too, you know, this protoss whose greatest achievement was successfully losing with an unscouted proxy 2 gate against 1rax FE... Still don't remember? You know, this guy who always do ceremonies when he is sent out to play in teamleagues, who seems to practice more his ceremonies than Starcraft 2, resulting in a lack of ceremonies AFTER his match, because, well he loses it most of the time. Yeah you remember now. Since he revealed to us that he would not forgive himself for losing to a Prime player again, I guess he doesn't think too great of Prime.

So yeah, despite the fact that basically anyone thinks of Prime as a great team, something struck me when I was reading the StarTale vs Prime KSL final LR thread, particularly after the match was done. People seem to think that Prime has not a deep line-up, or that Prime isn't really better than StarTale but that MKP just outclassed them all. It's true that MarineKing outclassed the whole StarTale team (come on, winning on daybreak in TvP against PartinG without ghosts and... a base behind almost the whole game? It's such an amazing feat that I don't realize it fully yet. Winning in TvZ against a zerg as good as Curious on metropolis is quite nice too, especially when looking at terrans GSTL results versus zerg this season), but he would not have done it alone. As much as I like and think high of MarineKing's play, it would be delusional to credit his performance to him alone, and I will explain you why.

If you have followed GSL players for more than a year, you sure know that MarineKing went through a slump around the summer 2011 that lasted until the end of the year, and that he used to have TvT as his worst match-up. Looking at the TLPD here http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/details.php?section=sc2-korean&type=players&id=959&part=games&league=standard&vs=T and here http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/details.php?section=sc2-korean&type=players&id=959&part=games&league=all_but_offline&vs=P#tblt-11246-2-1-DESC we can see that he kinda become good at TvT around november in broadcasted matches, and that he started to become the ultimate TvP monster around the same period, losing only two BoX in TvP since then in korea, and crushing a ton of protoss in foreign events when every other korean terran struggled against the foreign protoss beasts from Sweden, NaNiwa and SaSe.

What's my point you are probably asking yourself right now... Well, a quick look at Byun's Liquipedia page here http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/GhostKing indicates that he joined Prime around the beginning of October, 2011. And what Byun is known for in starcraft 2? His good TvP (he even changed his nickname to GhostKing) and TvT. I am not in the Prime house but I'm almost certain that Byun is no stranger to MarineKing's improvements as a player. His TvT is really good especially in practice and we can even say that it was better than MarineKing's TvT for a very long time. He is also a beast on ladder.

Who is a beast on ladder too amongst Prime players? Creator, the ultimate teamleague ace who saved Prime a good number of times from defeat and who, despite his young age, trains a lot and is a beast in practice. The other players have helped him too I'm sure, and all of them helped him prepare against StarTale roster since they send almost always the same players in team leagues (Bomber, Curious, Squirtle, PartinG and they alternate between AcE, July and Hack/Sound depending of the format and the opponent weaknesses).

As for Prime's deepness, well they have a strong squad of terrans who are often sent to kill as many players as possible, sometimes they also use them as aces when there are protoss to kill. Their zerg line-up was not their strongest point in the past, despite BboongBBoong doing good, but with the new rise of zerg their zerg's line-up is scarier than ever. We could say that they lack in protoss compared to StarTale who have two protoss superstars, but I will say that to you : there is no protoss out there as effective as Creator in teamleague. He is kinda self-sufficient as a protoss line-up, he is a formidable ace and good in every match-up, plus he prepares a lot for teamleagues and it shows in his results and play.

Part 2 – Prime's ultimate roster.

Prime's Ace : Creator the one-man Protoss army


In the first GSTL season Prime thread, I described Creator as Prime's secret weapon, and not as the ace. He has been revealed and now everyone knows how scary good he is, but it doesn't matter if his opponents know that he will be played as the ace or sometimes in the middle, he still beats them. In fact, many teams were on the verge of beating Prime but each time the latter were put up in a difficult position such as the ace match... They had Creator left. There go away the other teams hopes, everytime they are crushed by Creator.

20 victories for 8 loss. These are his korean teamleagues stats. Leenock, Life, Happy, Jjakji, DongRaeGu. These are some of his last kills in korean teamleagues. Even if he would be 20, such great clutchness in teamleagues would be impressive, but hey he is only 15 (and 17 korean age). He will probably be the only protoss player used by Prime this season, but he is the scariest protoss one team could dream to ever have in teamleagues so it won't matter.

His results in individual leagues hasn't been as good but, remember DongRaeGu? He was trashing everyone in teamleague, managed to get a code S seed, but it took him a few months to really shine in the GSL. Creator is younger so it might take longer for him to play as good in individual leagues as in team leagues, mainly because of the pressure, but he will do it eventually. Mark my words.

Prime's core army : the Terrans


The core of the team, the main strenght of Prime, I present you Maru, Byun and MarineKing. This squad of terrans is the deadliest, scariest and overall best terran line-up ever used in teamleagues. Mvp, MMA, Jjakji... These three are former or current GSL champions, but in teamleagues they are nothing, except Jjakji who is afaik the only terran to have won some matches in the beginning of this season GSTL, which is an impressive feat. No, the real deal in teamleagues is Prime's terran line-up. Maru scored 19 kills in this season KSL Team League, including an all-kill over StarTale. MarineKing did good as Prime's ace in this KSL season, decimated StarTale in the controversed GSTL final, and all-killed them in the KSL final like it was nothing, on terran unfavored maps (Daybreak in an epic TvP against PartinG and Metropolis in some laggy TvZ against Curious). Byun is perceived by MarineKing as the best terran playing in the Prime house, which speaks for itself. During the time he was not allowed to play in broadcasted matches, he buttraped the korean ladder tooking all the top spots of GM with smurfs. He also saved Prime from defeat against StarTale by beating convincingly PartinG, AcE and Squirtle (poor StarTale they seem to have an hard time against Prime). Let me present them a little more.


MarineKing


MarineKing is perceived by many koreans and foreigners terrans as the most skilled player out there. His results in 2012 have been the best amongst terrans since he was so consistent this year, winning or making top 6 in every foreign tournament he participated in. He has not been the best Prime player in every this year except... when it mattered the most. MarineKing played good during KSL and IPL but maybe not as good as he was expected to, and Maru was far more effective in KSL group stages and KSL playoffs. Creator was more clutch in most of the matches, except that... MarineKing displayed his talent all along the GSTL and in the KSL finals. His play was brutal and he led his team to victory many times during GSTL. His record was 10-1, only losing to Curious in the group B match against StarTale, all-killing NSHoseo and 4 killing StarTale in the controversed GSTL final. In the KSL final he 6-0ed StarTale, showing again how scary he can be in teamleagues when it is important.

Let me explain why, in my opinion, MarineKing was weirdly put as the starter against StarTale in the KSL, which rarely happens. After the GSTL final controverse, StarTale players such as July and AcE, amongst others, started to talk shit about Prime and MarineKing whenever they were able to. They took MarineKing for responsible and said that Prime was undeserving. I can't know exactly if they were totally serious, half-serious, or joking, but I'm sure that MKP wanted to show them how their team just isn't in the same league. So did he, StarTale digged their own grave by being so provocative and harsh whenever they could, they were asking for revenge, they got humiliated instead.

Back to MarineKing, his main strength is that he has no real weakness, except in TvZ but EVERY single terran struggles in TvZ at the moment. His TvP is probably the best in the world in matches you can't prepare for (ie : Mvp had a good TvP run in the last season but I don't think that he can produce as good results as MKP in GSTL format TvP) and his TvT, well aLive can marauder cheese him sometimes but he kinda beat a lot of terrans lately. I missed the first game of the KSL against Bomber, but I read that Bomber got raped easily, Hack got embarassed despite knowing what MKP will do in TvT (like 3 months ago he was already doing these TvT elevators in broadcasted matches and they are still working despite everyone knowing that MKP loves them, he sure is doing something right). He shines when the stakes are high and that there are still players left after him, so Prime will probably send him as the third player or as the ace if against FXO, and maybe as the first player again if against StarTale.

Byun



Some call him GhostKing. Some call him the Puppy terran. I prefer to call him Byun. He was ZeNEXBleach, a protoss player, who switched from protoss to terran due to balance issues with terran at the release, and became the first runner-up of code A by losing 4-3 to oGsTOP, in a very close final, not soon after he switched up. He made a name for himself in GSL July by reaching the round of 4 after defeating Bomber who was at that time, the favorite to win the GSL. He was accused of match-fixing along with Slayers_CoCa, but now he is allowed by Prime to play again, and he is scarier than ever.

He qualified for code S relatively easily, the hard way : beating Monster and SoN in the GSL Qualifiers, he then proceeded to beat NaDa and Tree in code A, losing 2-1 to TheStC but qualifying for Up&Down, where he beat JYP and Lure which was enough to qualify to code S. His results are very encouraging lately, but his true strength is his play in practice or teamleagues.

His TvP is almost as good as MKP's, his TvT is as good and sometimes better, only his TvZ is seemingly weak. Nonetheless he will be used by Prime a lot and when his play is not affected by nerves he is a top terran for sure. He saved Prime against StarTale by defeating their top protoss one after the other, allowing them to qualify for the final. Still not convinced? Well I guess MarineKing words will be more clear than mine : + Show Spoiler +

If there there wasn't a regame called by the referees after the internet disconnect at the GSTL final, Byun would have been the one 4-killing the rest of StarTale, believe me. Be prepared, you will understand soon why MarineKing thinks that high of him.

Maru



I'm happy to be able to write about Maru. I did not include him in my Prime thread before the first GSTL of the year because well, he wasn't really known. I'm not even sure if he already beat MorroW at that time. However he quickly made a name for himself, people were shitting on MorroW for losing to such a young player, but his performances after that were so amazing that MorroW was fully forgiven. He all-killed StarTale in a dominating fashion in the first match of Prime in the KSL, and played well in the rest of the team league. He holds a 19 – 7 record in the KSL Team League, and a 20 – 9 record in korean teamleagues, making him the most successful KSL player of the first season.

He was able to perform that good because he is quite good in every match-up, his weakness is probably his TvP but (and maybe TvZ now, we still have to see him play this match-up prepatch) he played against very good code S protoss players so it impacted on his winrate in the match-up. He is the one with Creator practicing the most in the teamhouse (source : masterbreti who lived in the Prime house for quite some time), and MarineKing says that he (Maru) learns from him (MKP) and Byun very quickly, which is his main strength. His potential is enormous and I can't wait to see him play in the GSTL, the pressure will be more present than in KSL so it will be harder for him to do as good as in the KSL but I still believe that he will deliver. Oh and he qualified for code S recently, if beasting up the teamleagues wasn't enough.

Prime's new stars


Here we are, Prime's zerg line-up. Despite BboongBBoong doing okay-ish in teamleagues for a long time, Prime wasn't known for his zergs. None of them had good results in individual leagues, and none of them really participated in Prime victories (except BboongBBoong). But this will change. This patch is seemingly starting a zerg era in the GSTL, with Symbol, LosirA, Moon or even Byul doing crazy streaks in their matches. And they won't be the only ones to do such streaks amongst the zergs : BboongBBoong barely missed the qualification for code S in his Up&Down group, losing a very close game against his teammate MarineKing, being too stubborn with his ultra tech, and another game against AcE who played one of his best PvZ to date. However, he beat MMA and Heart which is very promising. AnnYeong qualified again for code A, and has a very scary ZvZ, he will probably be used in order to snipe some zergs. Salmosa is a relatively new Prime player, he lost in the GSL qualifiers against Luvsic or kAsyu (the results aren't clear on this case) but he was sent out in the KSL by Prime, so I believe that at the end of the season he will have progressed enough, allowing us to see more of him. There is finally AriA, I don't know much about him except that he recently joined Prime and lost in the GSL qualifiers against Punisher. Again with such teammates in the Prime house I'm sure that he will progress quickly along with Salmosa. These two might not be played often, but they will play a role in Prime GSTL performance to come.

I will only present BboongBBoong more in detail, because I can't really say much more about Salmosa, AriA and AnnYeong than I've already said.

BboongBBoong



BboongBBong has always played a great role in Prime teamleagues matches, from the beginning. He was almost always sent out, and he helped Prime qualifying in the 2011 GSTL. His playstyle was kinda funny in ZvP, I remember him using a lot of overlords right above his army whenever he had broodlords, to give troubles to the protoss player. He managed to beat MC back then, and he almost always do decent streaks in teamleagues. His record in team leagues is good but not shiny, 27 wins for 22 loss, it may not been as good as Creator, Maru or MarineKing record, but I'm sure that he will soon have a much better record, since he has been playing better recently and zergs all do better at the moment. He has no real weak match-up and his ZvT is probably his current strength.

Prime's Coach

Park Oi Sik, aka “Gerrard”. He is a former warcraft 3 and SC:BW player (source : liquipedia) and he has participated in GSL Open tournaments in the past. Nonetheless he is currently Prime's coach and he has stopped playing Starcraft 2 competitively. He received a lot of trash talk in the past, even sometimes from me I have to admit, because Prime kept losing in the 2011 GSTL despite having as good players as MarineKing & Polt. However what he did with Prime, PrimeZZang and his players is amazing, and he is no stranger to Prime 2012 success, believe me. He is always helping his players out, whether it is for Starcraft or for role-model purposes, and he will again participate in Prime success this GSTL.

Part III – Team Analysis


Prime may be strong, every team remaining in the GSTL is a serious contender for the title. I'll try to analyse Prime chances against their opponents, starting with fnatic. I'll update this part as soon as Prime got a new match to play in the GSTL.

Prime vs fnatic : 65% vs 35%

Prime won a close match against fnatic in the past, 6-4, with aLive 3-killing. However, aLive isn't the only threat fnatic got like he once was, they are now 3 : aLive, Moon and ByuL. Fnatic's strength comes from his two zergs and aLive, they have been trashing players left and right in this season, therefore if Prime can get rid of the two zergs they will win. Even though aLive is strong, there are plenty of players from Prime who can beat him, and ByuL / Moon aren't invincible. Prime got Creator, BboongBBoong and AnnYeong to beat the zergs, and Prime's terran squad should easily get rid of the rest of the line-up. This is why I estimate that Prime has a 65% chance of winning versus them.

Credits

flickr: flic.kr/ps/PZ3Mp | itsjustatank.net for Prime video photos
KoreanStarcraftLeague & KatuStarcraft for Prime video footage
Daft Punk - The Game Has Changed for Prime video song
AltTabbed from Reddit for Prime video photo
Liquipedia for all the informations & pictures