Player Spotlights

Lucifron, YuGiOh, and JYP


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Considering DreamHack's historically high rate of cancellations, it's always a gamble to pick a player to write about at length. But here we are with three players we think deserve a bit of the spotlight. Lucifron, YuGiOh, and JYP come in from wildly different situations, but they're all tied together in not having a major to their names, and by the fact that relatively soft DH: Valencia pool provides a unique opportunity.

Lucifron: Living Up to It

by Waxangel

A lot of the time when we say a player has something to prove, we're saying it mostly to keep things interesting. I mean, it's not like Mvp has really had anything to prove since 2011 – he just keeps winning because it seems to entertain him, and because he'd rather have money than not have money. If we say a guy like ThorZaIN has to do well at a tournament to show he's still a top foreigner... well not entirely true. I mean, the guy won DreamHack in f***ing Stockholm. I think he's pretty set in terms of 'proving' for the next year or so, and probably forever in Sweden.

However, mouz.LucifroN is still very much affected by all this proving yourself business. There may not have ever been a player in StarCraft II history, not even one from Korea, who has been as hyped as Lucifron without having won a single major* tournament. Casters are constantly telling us how he's the best Terran in Europe, if not the best player, period. Fellow progamers are always talking him up in interviews, saying how they fear to face him and think he's the favorite to win a tournament. It goes so far that even in victory, TLO was deferential to Lucifron, saying he was the worse player but won with gimmicks.

The unfortunate thing for Lucifron is that he's a StarCraft II progamer. In another field, the universal recognition of one's peers would be enough to validate one's worth, but in progaming that can only be done by winning highly luck-based tournaments in a very high variance game.

It's hard to say what the problem has been for Lucifron so far. "Nerves" is the overused, default explanation everyone goes to, but it's not like Lucifron hasn't performed well before on big stages. In fact, his breakout performance was a top-three finish at 2012's WCS Europe, where he impressed everyone by showing high level games with a huge spotlight on him.

More likely, he's just been unlucky. In the previous WCS Europe Premier quarter-finals, he drew the opponent he wanted to face the least in TvT master ForGG, and lost by a narrow 2 – 3 scoreline. At DreamHack Stockholm, he was randomly coinflipped out of the tournament because of DH's rule of not having more than two rounds of tiebreakers. At DreamHack Summer, he made a strong run to the quarter-finals before he ran into eventual finalist Jaedong and lost 0 – 2. Top eight finishes at two major tournaments is still pretty damn good.

The thing is, you can only be unlucky for so long before people start calling it a pattern, begin saying the word 'overrated,' and talk of ceilings emerges. Sure, Lucifron is going to be at least considered top tier in Europe, but that's low considering where the hype, and the quality of play he's shown places him. He was supposed to be the first in line to inherit the throne when Stephano retired, but every month that passes with merely good results sees that slip further and further way.

It's not at all fair to take this one tournament, and ask Lucifron to show us who he really is. But that's what we're going to ask of him anyway, because this is progaming, and the only way to prove anything is by winning games.

*Feel free to try and argue how The Gathering and IPL Dice were major tournaments.

YuGiOh: The One Who Stayed

by stuchiu

Do you know the biggest difference between ROOT.YugiOh and every other Korean playing in this tourney? All of those guys ran. Yugioh stayed.

When WCS was announced, every Korean was given a choice. Stay and fight it out in Korea, or go to the much easier American or European regions. While it wasn't really a choice for most players as they lacked the financial backing to fly to Europe or America, nearly every player who did have that luxury chose to switch regions.

And really, it was hard to blame them. Unless you were already in Code S for the first season of WCS, you'd be wasting a season playing for pennies in Code A. It was no surprise at all when players like HerO, Mvp and viOLet took the seeds offered up by WCS AM and EU so they could play in the Premier division right away. It was even a smart choice for Code A players like Center and Jaedong, who had a chance to qualify directly for the WCS America Premier League instead of languishing in Korea's Code A for a season. Everyone in their right mind was going overseas.

You have to wonder why YuGiOh stayed. Was it his legacy as the King of Code A? Was it his desire to prove that he could go blow for blow with any opponent, even the greatest players in the world? Was it the foolish pride a progamer who put glory ahead of money?

Whatever the case, here are a few things everyone should let sink in. YuGiOh is overshadowed by the likes of Jaedong and Hyun going into this tournament. Jaedong failed to qualify for WCS NA Premier on his first try and just barely crawled his way in this season. HyuN also flubbed his lines miserably, and is still stuck in the Challenger division of WCS America. YuGiOh qualified for Korea's Premier Starleague division, beating sC, Creator, Gumiho and Swagger as he started from the bottom of Code B. Then, once he reached the Starleague, he took a game off Soulkey and gave Flash a run for his money. Looking purely at WCS, Yugioh has had a far more successful run than most of the players who switched regions.

Yet, Yugioh is still a dark horse in Valencia. For whatever reason, he's never had much success in foreign tournaments. Maybe he's just a player more suited to the preparation heavy Korean tournaments than the marathon weekend tournaments played abroad. There are many players who are more proven at international events who are being pegged as favorites to win: Jaedong, Hyun, Stephano, Stardust, etc. YuGiOh is more than beating any one of them in a single series, but in a tournament like this it's all about going on a hot streak.

This could finally be Yugioh’s chance to step up his game and become a champion. But even if he can't take it all, Yugioh will surely do what he does best. He will fight for every map, every round until the very last second. And that is what makes Yugioh one of the most dangerous players in this tournament.

JYP: The Mystery Gift

by CosmicSpiral

Dreamhack Valencia is serious business but for EG.JYP it might be a much needed vacation. Once heralded as a savant only held back by his bizarre ineptitude in PvT, HotS and SPL have turned his world upside down and left us with Bizzaro JYP. Once PvT was his qualitatively worst matchup (even factoring in his substantial improvement near the end of WoL); now it is statistically his best. Once JYP boasted some of the best PvP and PvZ in the world; now he struggles with sub-40% win rates in both. Many players became weaker in certain matchups due to the new interactions between races but JYP’s complete reversal is very troubling.

Considering JYP’s position the cause could be from any combination of problems: the responsibility of being EG-TL’s primary PvP sniper, the quality and meticulous planning of KeSPA opposition, the stress of re-learning the matchups and timings while still having to play important games, or the snowballing frustration of coming short over and over again with teammates relying on him.

Whatever the problem may be, Valencia will be an opportunity to relax and test himself against a different type of competition. For six months JYP immersed himself in the mano a mano approach of Proleague and all the planning, mindgames, and team order concerns that came with it. Now he will play against opponents who aren’t obsessively watching his games to devise counterstrategies, opponents who are overall weaker than the terrifying mishmash of unknowns and top-tier monsters back in Korea. And unlike at Stockholm he won’t have the specter of an upcoming EG-TL vs. X match in the back of his mind.

Most importantly, JYP comes to Valencia with everything to gain and nothing to lose. Besides his competitive nature and EG’s natural demands there are almost no other demands on him. In his current condition, almost every negative outcome possesses a secret silver lining:

• If he loses one game, he can still win the series.
  
• If he loses one series, he can still advance from the group.
  
• If he gets a terrible first round draw (e.g. Hyun, ForGG, and Lucifron in his group) and ends up a spectator he can relax for the rest of the event.
  
• If he fails at the second round, he still matches his placing at Stockholm.
  
• If he fails at the third round, he gets further than his placing at Stockholm.
  
• If he makes it anywhere between the Ro16 and the finals, he has exceeded the majority of current expectations.
  
• If he loses in the finals, it is a sign that he is still a legitimate presence in premier tournaments.
  
• If he wins the whole shebang in a barely watched Korean vs. Korean PvP, he still gets paid and goes partying with Jaedong and Stephano in Ibiza.

Unlike most players, JYP is in the weird position where “playing my best” is his main prerogative. He hasn’t focused exclusively on an individual tournament since November 2012 so no one knows what to expect. Unlike Proleague he doesn’t have to worry about letting his teammates down because he screwed the pooch once. He doesn’t need to plan for Challenger League either since he lost in the first round and there are no other professional concerns at the moment. For the first time in over nine months, JYP can enjoy a large margin of error in his approach to the game and that introduces a delightful element of uncertainty to Valencia. Players without any pressure on their shoulders can either be the scariest opponents or flop on their bellies like dying fish. On Friday we’ll see which JYP shows up.

Writers: CosmicSpiral, stuchiu, and WaxAngel.
Graphics: shiroiusagi.
Banner Photos: 7mk.
Editor: Waxangel.