So can you tell us a bit about why and how you became a fan of TaeJa?
Back in 2011, after TaeJa had switched from Zenex to SlayerS, he had a GSTL appearance for his new team – playing against his old team, coincidently. TaeJa opened for SlayerS and he didn’t leave the booth until he had allkilled his former team. It was really impressive to me, how this young kid, only just turned 16 at the time, just absolutely crushed these already quite established and older ex-team mates of his, with a good mix of macro games and clever cheeses. His ceremony after this win, is still regularly brought up . I knew after his performance in that clanwar, that this was a guy to look out for.
However, TaeJa didn’t actually make that big of an impact on the Korean scene immediately after this breakout performance, at least not in a way that I took note of and once again, he slipped off my radar. That is, until I started following the ICCup (Nationvoice) Korean Weekly tournament a few months later – to this day, one of the most underrated tournaments in the scene – Tune in, or watch the VODs, you won’t be disappointed!. TaeJa was a regular attendee, and after the 7th edition with many 3-5 place finishes, something just clicked for him, as he became unstoppable in this particular tournament, winning a total of 7 tournaments – none of them with an easy line up. He won his games with such style and variety, that if you were watching those games at the time, it was really hard to not be impressed. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t till he was in the middle of his Korean Weekly dominance (Q3 2011), that I became a true fan of the guy – No hipster claims from here. What a ride it’s been since then
TaeJa took out MaNa, Mvp, Polt and DongRaeGu to advance this season - some very strong players, and a boatload of GSLs to boot! Which one of his games so far this season do you think has been the best?
I want to say MVP, simply because he’s MVP – But to be fair, the games weren’t really that close, TaeJa just played beautifully. I think a lot of Terran players look towards MVP when it comes to innovation and trendsetting in all Terran matchups, which is partly why he is so important for many people, but I got to say, I think TaeJa has the edge right now when it comes to execution. I mention his games against MVP here because I think that the story between these two players is so interesting. MVP, the long-reigning King of Terran, the monster with three GSL Code S victories and then the upstart, young gun TaeJa, the Crown Prince (which his nick “TaeJa” actually means in Korean), fighting for the right to carry on in the GSL. Game 2 of MVP vs. TaeJa on Daybreak was an old fashion mech vs. mech, map split into Sky Terran. It was glorious. Watch it if you haven’t already!
TaeJa's recently burst onto the scene with a lot of momentum, taking out 3 Premier wins (the most of anyone this year); however, he's fallen at the RO8 in Code S 2 times. How good do you think are TaeJa's chances to win this GSL? Who would be his toughest opponent(s)?
TaeJa himself, has jokingly said in interviews, that he has been cursed in the past two GSL Seasons to only be able to reach the round of 8 and that he’s looking to break the curse this season. However, I don’t really think he is worried about a curse – “Momentum is not important to me – Only skill” TaeJa said after he allkilled SlayerS in the IPLTAC3 LB finals and I’m certain, that curses does not concern him either.
If you look at his opponents in the two past seasons ro8, (MC and Squirtle), they have both been really skilled and experienced players. Losing to players of this caliber can happen to anybody – Especially, if they have 3 weeks to study you. An interesting aftermath of TaeJa losing to MC and Squirtle is, that after Squirtle beat him handily in Code S s2, TaeJa killed him off in several tournaments just a few days after their match – The one that I can remember off the top of my head, was the MLG Summer Arena Korean qualifier, TaeJa eliminated Squirtle 2-0 in non-close games. Their next encounter was ESV Grand Prix, where TaeJa also made short work of him. After MC beat TaeJa in the round of 8 Code S s3, TaeJa knocked out MC in the ASUS RoG finals 4-0, only a few weeks after their GSL match. A clear indicator, that TaeJa’s style is ever adapting, ever liquid (pun intended) and that he may be countered if given enough study, but you can be certain, that by your next encounter, TaeJa will have adapted and will shut you down hard. To me, the sign of a truly great player.
Every player left in this seasons Code S, are worth opponents, and every one of them capable of beating TaeJa on the right day, given the nature of GSL and the long periods between matches and thereby preparation time. I do however believe, that TaeJa is the most overall skilled contender in the field and I think his chances to win this season, are quite good.
So the maps for the match will be Cloud Kingdom, Whirlwind, Entombed Valley, Antiga Shipyard and Daybreak. What do you think of the maps?
I could give you my personal spiel about Entombed Valley and how it feels like when I play on it versus Zerg, but then you look at TaeJa and realize that his WR on that map is actually around ~60% (Last months TLPD showed TvZ on that map to be as low as 39% as far as I remember) and then his overall TvZ for Korea at 71% to top it off. Disgusting, isn’t it? How does he do it? Yes, he is just that good! Overall though, the maps are probably as good as you can expect them in a tournament and I’m confident that TaeJa can find a win on any of these maps.
Leenock has a very distinctive style as a Zerg player, historically favouring strong Lair attacks. Recently, however, he's shown a lot of proficiency in the later stages of the game, and is one of the strongest ZvT players around. With NesTea and DRG slumping, he's one of the top contenders for #1 zerg right now. Of course, TaeJa is an excellent - possibly the best current - TvZ player. How do you see this series turning out? Will TaeJa's nerves get in the way?
Well, im not going to go into balance here, but I think most Zergs are comfortable with their lategame vs. Terran. However, Leenocks lategame isn’t my primary concern for this particular match, even though he has shown deadly proficiency at this, in his recent games. I still think Leenocks deadliest weapon, despite the current state of ZvT, is to sniff out timings in his opponents midgame. I look at Leenocks games and I’m amazed by this almst JulyZerg-esque killer instinct of his. He is a truly frightening opponent. I think TaeJa’s chances would be better against any other Zerg-player than Leenock. I still think TaeJa is going to come out on top though – This is a bo5, luckily, and I trust in TaeJa’s ability to adapt and conquer, will shine through.
Will TaeJa’s nevers get in the way? What nerves? I have often asked how TaeJa manages to sit down, with balls that big. I do not think nerves will play a part for him, what so ever. I’ll give you an example: He opens up on the best TvP map in the pool against MC in a bo7. He then proxy 11-raxes MC to take the win. Which other Terrans would have the nerve to to that? I don’t know, tbh.
If you could say a few words to TaeJa before their match, what would you say?
Please don’t get too greedy if you aren’t sure if Leenock going for the counter, because he will punish it if he’s able in any shape or form.
You earned this, now finish it.
Any last words?
Thank you Opterown for taking the initiative for making this fan interview. Come say hi in the TaeJa fanclub HERE. You know you want to
So can you tell us a bit about why and how you became a fan of Leenock?
I don’t really know. I have been watching GSL and following players for a long time but the only player that keeps on growing on me is Leenock. It’s weird and I wish I could give you a reason to why it is like this but I don’t actually know. He always seems happy, no matter what results. The SC2 community could use a smile or two sometimes.
Leenock's been away from the RO8 for a while, but he's looking very strong lately, taking out PartinG, SuHoSin, HerO and Squirtle to make it back. Which of his games was the most exciting this season?
In terms of his skill, the match on Ohana vs Squirtle was fun to watch because he abused Squirtle’s lack of observers with a lot of multitasking in burrowed roach harassment. In terms of a nailbiter, it was vs HerO on Antiga where he pulled off a really good comeback.
So it seems that Leenock's improve a lot in ZvP lately, taking out MC and HerO and Squirtle - all top PvZ'ers. With this in mind, who do you think Leenock's biggest obstacles are this season?
Leenock says that ZvP is his strongest and he feels his ZvT needs work at the moment. I also consider Leenock the best of the 3 remaining zergs. His biggest obstacles are all the terrans. Taeja / MKP / MVP are all very good. If he beats Taeja, I think he will take it all. He wants to avoid mirror matches so I hope he doesn’t have to play vs zergs.
So the maps for the match will be Cloud Kingdom, Whirlwind, Entombed Valley, Antiga Shipyard and Daybreak. What do you think of the maps?
Antiga is said to be a bad map for ZvT but Leenock seems to keep on winning on this map for some reason so I don’t know. I am nowhere near good enough to comment on map balance which makes this kind of a difficult question.
TaeJa's the new hot kid on the block, and seemed to be the only Terran to win in TvZ during the dark days of the patch. Leenock, on the other hand, has been a very powerful ZvT player for a long time, with his distinctive style. How do you think the series will play out?
Taeja will probably just play close to perfect as he usually does. Very standard macro style but doing it close to no mistakes. He is solid. I think Leenock is the one going to be mixing it up a bit.
The things to look out for is mass mutalisk baseracing with burrowed banelings. Killing all orbitals for no scans and then slowly killing all the marines with baneling landmines. The style I am talking about :
If you could say a few words to Leenock before his match, what would you say?
I would say that he should stick to what he practiced, even if the first maps don’t work out as he hoped for. He probably knows this already but I wouldn’t want to throw him off. It’s going to be a tough match vs Taeja but he could win. Would also wish him TheBest of luck.
Any last words?
Wings of Liberty is coming to an end. I don’t know how many more GSLs there is going to be in WoL but I really hope Leenock gets the chance to be a GSL champion in WoL at least once.
So can you tell us a bit about why and how you became a fan of MarineKing?
I have been a fan of MarineKing for so long that it's hard to remember exactly why he became my favorite player. I did not get to watch often the GSL live during the Open Seasons, therefore I only followed the results and watched in VODs the available games that I found interesting. When I learned that FruitDealer got beaten by an almost "unknown" player I was unhappy, because I thought that the game was random or something.
But then he beat SanGho, a known player who was still the favorite against at the time "BoxeR", because well some thought that MarineKing kinda "abused" to win against FruitDealer, and then people started to get interested in him, and so did I. I wasn't able to watch the games against Kyrix live but I read the comments and everyone was going crazy about MKP with the baneling busts vs marine micro and so on. I was happy that MarineKing won despite still not having viewed his games, especially because micro and other visual show off are the things I prefer in almost every competitite video game.
However, it was when he beat Rainbow that I really became a fan of him : tank/viking wars from pre tank nerf was driving me crazy in the TvTs I played and watched, so this young terran destroying the "best" terran of the time and runner-up of the last GSL, with marines-heavy compositions and strats, was such an inspiration. I watched the free vods of each of his sets, and started to go maka rax and variations in every TvT I played. I still wasn't able to watch the final live, but I was sad to see him lose against NesTea because of the pressure. I only got to watch the season 2 vods at the Gom anniversary event.
MarineKing is the only player who gives me "butterflies in my stomatch" (google translate not sure about the expression in english :D) every time I watch him play in important matches, and I was one of the few viewers cheering hard for him against Jinro in the GSL ro4, and probably the only one of french viewers who was very pissed off when he lost to Stephano at ESWC... Sorry for the long answer though!
MarineKing has finally made his first RO8 for more than a year, and he's had a tough road getting here with losses to Curious and Mvp. However, he did manage to beat MC, Jaedong, JYP and Curious in a rematch. Which of the games would you recommend the most to watch?
Unfortunately I wasn't at home when MKP played in his ro32 group and I don't have a GSL ticket (shame on me I know T;T) thus I was only able to follow the LR thread. So I will only comment on the ro16 matches : out of the ro16 matches MarineKing has played, I would recommend the most to watch every match, in the right order. The games against Curious and JYP were both "roflstomp" so as nice it was to see as a MarineKing fan, the most interesting thing was that MarineKing was able to play at his usual level after losing in the winner match.
Usually in group stages, MKP would play good in his first match, winning (such as against Genius or against TaeJa in the 2012 GSLs), but after losing in the winner match (against DongRaeGu who was beating him in every event in korea at the time, right before the MLGs that MKP won, and against PartinG in the last GSL if I recall correctly), he just choked and wasn't able to beat the player he beat in the first match again, which was depressing to watch (vs Genius and TaeJa). But this season, he managed to play well even after losing to his nemesis Mvp. My favorites out of the ro16 matches are the games against Curious though, because I like to see zergs dying to 2 raxes!
How good do you think are MarineKing's chances to win this GSL? Who would be his toughest opponent(s)?
I think that MarineKing's has good chances to win this GSL, depending if Mvp makes it to the final or not. If Mvp doesn't make it, MKP's toughest opponents will be TaeJa and Rain. Since TaeJa has shown recently that he is "mortal" and that MarineKing beat him 5-1 in IPL fight club, I am confident that MKP can beat him. Rain hasn't played enough games to reveal that he is, in fact, mortal too, so he seems invincible at the moment but MarineKing has both Creator and Byun as practice partners in case of him being against Rain in the final, so I'm confident too.
However, if both MKP and Mvp manage to go to the final once again, it will be 50-50 : Mvp still has a good mental edge over MKP, but MKP will have the momentum (if he beat TaeJa and not Leenock) and Byun as a practice partner, so it will make it even. Every other player would be hard to beat, starting with Life, but Mvp, Rain and TaeJa are really the biggest threats here I think.
So the maps for the match will be Abyssal City, Cloud Kingdom, Ohana, Entombed Valley and Whirlwind. What do you think of the maps? Any of them you're particularly scared, or confident, of MarineKing winning on?
I have only played (and watched games) on Cloud Kingdom, Ohana and Entombed Valley, and didn't get to watch a lot of games on Whirlwind and Abyssal City, so I am nor scared nor confident of Whirlwind and Abyssal City, I guess it will come to preparation (there isn't enough games on them to use TvZ stats as indicative, plus Life has not a standart ZvT style).
Nevertheless, I can comment on the three maps I know : MKP has shown his 2 rax build against Curious, so I don't think that Life will try a 6 pool against MarineKing on this map. It should go at least to the mid-game and if MKP plays mech, fancy things could work (such as roach drops into the main) but I don't think that they will work in a prepared bo5 so MKP should be fine on this map. As for the other maps, once again the series against Curious showed that MKP isn't as predictable as he was in the past, thus we should not see more than 1 BO win in the series and I'm confident for MarineKing in longer games against Life, because he is used to crazy games and unorthodox playstyles.
Life is undeniably a strong and quickly rising zerg player, recently coming 2nd in TSL4 to MarineKing's teammate, Creator. He's quite an unpredictable player - how do you think this will affect the series? MarineKing is definitely prone to his own strange games. Will his ailing TvZ be a problem? Or would it fare better against a non-standard Zerg?
I already answered a bit in the previous question but I will add precisions : I don't think that Life's unpredictability will be too much of a problem against MarineKing in longer games, and even though MarineKing s,howed weaknesses in the early games in the past because of his predictability, he has improved on this and it should not be a problem. As for his "ailing" TvZ, he beat SymboL in WCG playoffs, displayed a good preparation against Curious recently, and imo played a good mech game against DongRaeGu in the OSL, so I think he will be ok, even against standard zergs now that the metagame in TvZ has stabilized a bit.
If you could say a few words to MarineKing before his match, what would you say?
Thanks for all the amazing games you provided us, have fun and don't give up no matter how the games go!
Any last words?
Yes, thank you for the opportunity to do this interview, and a shout out to all the MarineKing fans around the world!
So can you tell us a bit about why and how you became a fan of Life?
I knew about Life when he first made his appearance in online tournaments. However I was not nearly as engaged in the Korean scene as I am now, so I was not actively looking for talented players who had not broken out. His playstyle was cool but I didn’t discern anything else from his games.
I really took notice of him when I was watching the second Iron Squid qualifier. It was the Round of 8 and Bomber had just lost Game 1 against someone using the ID NEXJenny. This zerg wasn’t the greatest at micro but he was doing all the right moves: ling/infestor composition into broodlords, spinecrawlers at his outlier bases, setting up flanks before the battles ever occurred, tech switching once Bomber committed to marauder production. Then Bomber gets ahead in Game 2 with a marauder/hellion push and NEXJenny responds by taking a third and making…hydras! I had only seen one zerg do that in the past and it instinctively clicked in my head, “Oh, this is Life!” He walloped Keen in the final and ever since, I’ve watched his career closely.
Life’s won every series so far this season – the only player to do so, I believe. NesTea, JYP, Happy, and Seed all fell to him. Which of the games would you recommend the most to watch, and why?
The second game against JYP really showcased his amazing defense, something you see a lot in his ZvZ but not often in his ZvP. The 7 gate ended up being a bad decision but 99% of zergs would have died to it due to one small mistake. Somehow Life managed his larvae and his positioning just right to push the attack back. You also get to see a lot of drop play and nydus worms for harassment, tactics that zerg don’t use enough. Game 3 versus Seed is also worthwhile to see how he comes back from an inferior opening. And Game 2 – queen burrow micro!
If you’re looking for something informative I recommend the Happy series. All the above games were great but suffered from funky openings and there is some sloppy decision-making from both sides. The games against Happy are pretty standard for Life and showcase his real strengths. You can observe how to exploit speed in multiple ways such as controlling information, punishing positioning errors, and threatening an army without actually fighting it.
So Life is one of two potential Royal Road candidates this season. How good exactly do you think his chances of winning the GSL are? Who would be his most difficult opponent(s)?
MarineKing and his wild approach to TvZ will be a problem but a small one compared to bracket luck. I don’t foresee this being a problem unless Life starts to panic during the series. I have no doubt he can crush MarineKing if he enters in the booth with all his usual confidence.
If Leenock beats Taeja then Life is favored to reach the finals. Leenock has recently regained his confidence and seems to have fixed his ZvP problems, but he will be facing the best ZvZ player in the world (in my opinion). Unlike Symbol and Parting, Life has already gone through his “I lost a series that I should have won” phase and came out more determined to win; coincidentally that series was against Leenock in Code A. If Taeja wins…well damn, good luck there. Life will have to deal with the psychological issue (1-12 lifetime record against Taeja, I believe) as well as Taeja’s love of the late game. Taeja is especially good at deflecting those midgame attacks that are Life’s forte.
On the other side of the bracket you have Mvp and Rain. Mvp might be in terrible condition but he’s still a champion. He’s smart enough to exploit weaknesses and make the right decisions when it matters. By.Sun still draws on BroodWar for his stylistic tendencies, which will make it hard to replicate his playstyle in team practice. He doesn’t get flustered in the booth and make the same mistakes like other people do under pressure.
Life would have much better chances against Hero and Symbol. Life has dominated Symbol for the entirety of their shared careers and Symbol is looking pretty sketchy in ZvZ right now. Hero is really doing well against zerg at the moment but Life doesn’t play ZvP like everyone else, and he is rapidly improving in the late game.
So the maps for the match will be Abyssal City, Cloud Kingdom, Ohana, Entombed Valley, and Whirlwind (no Daybreak and Antiga). What do you think of the maps?
It’s hard to make any type of judgment on Abyssal City. Only 4 TvZ games were played on it: two of them were mercifully quick deaths to the almighty proxy 2 rax, another was a poorly executed 2 base mutalisk rush with three seconds of nonexistent muta control, and then you have Life vs Happy. So far we have not had many games with two players playing well simultaneously.
It’s tempting to think MarineKing will resort to proxy 2 rax on Abyssal City. It is a largely unexplored map in terms of TvZ strategy and an initial look finds several features that favor zerg. The wide-open third causes problems for both protoss and terran, especially when you consider the large plain directly in front of it; there are no narrow chokes to funnel the zerg army; the fourth base’s proximity to the main is a liability once the broodlord/infestor army starts pushing. However there are several good locations for forward buildings. Right now we don’t have a standard way to approach the map.
Both players have very good records on Ohana. Never seen MarineKing play on it, but I know Life loved this map even when it was considered terran-favored. It doesn’t require too much multitasking to defend a four-base economy for either side, but it’s harder to exploit broodlord immobility with the short width. This is also a map where Life is willing to get a fast third or a 11:00 hive so it will be interesting to see if MKP will prepare for that possibility.
The defensive architecture of Cloud Kingdom and Entombed Valley favor MarineKing as far as establishing a third base. Since these maps restrict harassment opportunities Life dislikes them and will attempt to play standard macro games. However, the middle sections are vastly different. The ramps and chokes on Cloud allow the terran to establish strong siege positions on the zerg’s fourth while sending units to the fifth; Entombed is purely open ground and you risk a full surround while you push to the enemy fourth. Cloud Kingdom is one of the best maps in the pool for MarineKing, but Entombed Valley greatly favors Life.
The larger a map gets the stronger Life’s roaming zerglings become, and Whirlwind is one of the largest maps in the entire GSL pool. The third base is so exposed that zergling/baneling can easily get into the mineral lines, while terran pushes take forever to actually reach the zerg’s third. MKP will be praying that they spawn close positions so he can attempt specific timings instead of waiting for the lategame. However, it works both ways. Once Life starts expanding past the fourth base, MarineKing can abuse drops to pull the zerg army out of position (or banshees if he goes mech). I only question where MKP actually does this enough to change the match. He is primarily known for his great micro in battle, not the multitasking aggression associated with Mvp and MMA.
An important thing to note is that Ohana, Abyssal City, and Cloud Kingdom have fixed spawn locations. If Life is going to attempt any of his tech rushes it will be on those maps, as there will be no possible variance in timings. 2 base mutalisk would be a perfect but expected choice on Cloud Kingdom, while it would be risky on Ohana due to the frequency of bio openers.
So quite a few people would call Life a fairly chaotic zerg player, with plenty of fun strategies thrown in with the macro game. Likewise, MarineKing can often be unpredictable too, and he definitely has a lot of builds. Life does have an advantage in that his ZvT looks to be more on point than MKP’s TvZ, which has been questionable since the patch. How do you see this series turning out?
Most of the burden will fall on MarineKing. In his interview he admitted feeling like the underdog and it’s not hard to see why. He may be the least stable member of the Round of 8, winning with a lot of build order advantages and shaky games. He looked truly outclassed against Mvp and only made it out of the Ro32 because MC’s brain melted halfway through the final game. Meanwhile Life is 21-6 in the GSL studio since GSTL Season 2; he has gone 20-3 in total games since his Up-and-Down matches. He has only lost one series in that entire time. Furthermore he has considerably improved in the areas where he used to be terrible: infestor control, drop defense, lategame army positioning, etc. Life will come in feeling like the favorite, which reflects reality.
MarineKing will be hard-pressed to crack this particular nut. He could resort to his “crafty” side and prepare builds specifically to outthink Life’s openers. It worked very well against Curious and well, it’s another StarTale zerg right? And it might’ve worked if we were talking about Life four months ago. Today he actually scouts and knows how to hold a proxy 2 rax. If he attempts to play passive macro games it could end up just like the series versus Happy. Life is great at delaying pushes and getting into mineral lines when you least expect it, plus he doesn’t sit back with his hive tech and wait for you to make the first move. If MarineKing tries either of these extremes he will probably lose 3-1 or even 3-0. Will MarineKing do the correct approach i.e. systematically put on careful pressure while macroing, seize tempo control with proper army movement, and bait Life into bad engagements? I honestly don’t know.
In addition MarineKing has to prepare for the upcoming GSTL match between Prime and TSL, which is held the next day. We all know that he is eager to shake off the Kong identity but one has to wonder if he can balance the two responsibilities. MarineKing is not exactly cold and distant from his teammates and Prime will need him if they want to win. There couldn’t be a worse juxtaposition of events for this match.
Meanwhile Life doesn’t have to do anything outrageous. He is beating top-tier terrans all over the place and MarineKing is not exactly confident in the matchup these days. His ZvT is pretty tame in terms of build orders, not easily exploitable unless one wants to try some heavy 1 base all-ins. The ST-MvP match is two days away and Life is not as important to ST as MarineKing is to Prime. And Life is riding a wave of momentum without the character flaws that doomed other potential Royal Road candidates. He’s confident but not too confident and knows the perils of overestimating his ability. The chances of pulling a Symbol are minuscule.
Let’s not forget, winning your groups isn’t indicative of your chances at taking the title belt. Mvp finished second place in both his groups before winning Season 2; Seed finished second in his Ro32 group in Season 3. So take hope MKP fans!
If you could say a few words to Life before his match, what would you say?
Take it one game at a time.
Any last words?
Big shoutout to Asha and catplanetcatplanet for cheering Life on at all times. And thanks for asking me to do the interview.
I'm a huge MarineKing fan, but people are really underestimating Life here. Last picked in group nominations and going 9-1 in sets for Ro32 and Ro16? I think he has the advantage here.
On October 01 2012 11:18 Cyanocyst wrote: OMG What an OP!
Great Work Opterown!
haha, cheers! the hardest bit was printscreening the gom player so that the players are on the correct side. mkp for some reason loves to face left, had to dig through a bunch of vods to get his pic haha!