The final twelve Code S players to be decided in the final week of Code A.
by Waxangel
Many important questions hang over Code A as it heads into week two. How many more Terrans will make it to Code S? Will another fan favorite suffer Flash's fate and be eliminated? Will Daedalus Point be awful enough to get removed from the map pool? Perhaps we will learn the answers to some of these questions tonight.
Group H: Life, Paralyze, Skyhigh, Squirtle
Tuesday, Jan 21 4:30am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Here is the twisted counterpart to the group of death known as the group of unpredictability. At first glance you'd have to think multiple champion ST_Life is the favorite to get through. After all, he partially recovered from a long slump toward the end of 2013 to win IEM New York and come in second at DreamHack Winter. Yet, after seeing Life become complacent in the past we have wonder whether or not he'll be in top form as he returns from the winter off-season.
The remaining three players are very hard to judge. Though all three of SKT_ParalyzE, CJ_sKyHigh, and IM_Squirtle are on Proleague teams, none of them have really left an impression on us. While we can understand Paralyze being benched behind Rain and PartinG, sKyHigh's inability to earn starts ahead of Bbyong and Bunny doesn't speak well of his abilities. Yet, he managed to beat players like Shine and Kangho to make it through the Code A qualifiers, so he must have some quality play in him. Squirtle is far more accomplished in individual leagues than Skyhigh or Paralyze, but his 1-3 start in Proleague and subsequent benching aren't a good sign.
Predictions: It would be soooo typical of Life to flop here and then move on to dominate ASUS ROG Winter like nothing happened. However, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's learned his lesson about not taking things easy, and say he gets through as a player of his caliber should. Also, he can always pick Daedalus if he loses a map. It's a close call between the remaining three players, but I like the Protoss not-facing-Life in Paralyze to make it through.
Life and Paralyze advance
Group G: INnoVation, Zest, Stork, herO
Tuesday, Jan 21 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Three fan favorites but only two spots in Code S! This group is bound to end in tears.
We've come to find Acer.INnoVation's stoic demeanor and general awkwardness in front of a camera to be endearing qualities, particularly because they contrast comically with the brutally efficient beatdowns he administers inside games. Though his late game TvP has been a weakness at times, you get the feeling he will find a way to take care of his TvP business with relentless aggression in the mid-game.
CJ_herO is the other favorite to make it through. In the past few months, the old herO who was a Proleague workhorse and an individual league flop did a big 180 turn. He won his first major title at IEM Singapore with amazing play, looking like he had taken the leap to being an elite class player. However, he followed that up by appearing in Proleague in disappointing shape. While that's a problem for the floundering CJ Entus team in Proleague, in individual leagues we have no problem staying on the herO hype train.
Samsung_Stork is the player all of the Brood War fans will be rooting for, but unfortunately he's in what we can only call "2012 Jaedong" form. He just recently broke a loooong Proleague losing streak of thirteen games, and he was only able to pull it off against one of Prime's rookies in KassiA. As beloved as he is to old school fans, it's hard to think he can make it through a group with much more successful SC2 players.
Finally we have KT_Zest, the non-fan favorite of the group. Maybe that would be different if he hadn't changed his ID so many times! Sometimes known as Wooki and sometimes known as P7GAB, Zest has basically been an even less noticeable version of Stats: A very strong, solid sidekick to Flash in the Proleague. Think of him like a Dear or Trap on STX SouL before they had their breakout tournaments. Though Zest has started off slow in the current Proleague season, he's definitely a dangerous underdog competitor in this group. HerO will have to be careful in particular, with a few PvP missteps being all it would take to send him down to the qualifiers.
Predictions: Easy predictions in INnoVation/herO advancing, but don't count out Zest.
Hey, if stork commits he is capable of anything. I really just dont think the BW players have the drive and dedication (currently) due to lack of interest in a game that they consider less balanced, less innovative, and less fun that Brood War. Fantasy, Stork, people really don't understand what these amazing RTS players are truly capable of. Sucks to see them brushed off as an old wiley vet, when in reality I just don't think they care. Blizzard essentially forced a bunch of Grandmaster level chess players to play 3D chess for profit margin (if the best players in the world convert all the younger generation who look up to them will obviously jump ship) Crying shame. I truly believe any of the high caliber kespa players, if interested certainly have the raw skill, dedication, motivation and support staff to dominate the scene.
Also I believe SC2 is a game that marginalizes the raw talent and strategical genius of the BW greats. Most games end up in a macro fest to 200 with various bits of insanely powerful harass options (for every race) along the way. Then both players posture while attempting to distract their opponent somehow (a drop, a few units broken off attacking somewhere, warp prism, runby) in an effort to remove their attention from the 3 seconds that decide the ENTIRE GAME. A great match in BW is a saga of transitions. I only played BW competitively for a small term, and in earnest it was to prepare for sc2, but I have watched OSL/MSL/Proleague MBC Game content my entire life it seems. Managed to make it to b- on iccup with Terran and Zerg, and I can honestly say I miss BW in so many ways. I can't imagine what its like for them. The whole situation just sucks.
Game development has taken a turn for the worse, I miss the days of Diablo2, where the world was your oyster. You could attack as fast as you wanted, run as fast as you wanted, teleport everywhere killing wave after wave of enemies. You played the game YOU wanted to play it, and your character was a reflection of that in every way right down to its equipment and skill specification. Half-Life deathmatch: Adrenaline gamer where I fell in love with deathmatch
Clip of top tier HLDM:
As you can see, the world again is under your control, and you can move through it like a bat out of hell.
and creative weapons like the Tau cannon (A physics based weapon that propels you in the opposite direction with equal force to its charge, can also shoot through walls opening up more possibilities) This was also my into to the quake engine, quake world, and competitive gaming but most importantly bunny hopping. I could go on for pages but I'll wrap this up as this isn't the time, thread or place. I can't remember the last time something as exciting as the sc2 beta happened. The introduction of a unit that burrows and makes free units that don't require micro, and Firebat with a mechanical jumpsuit (which I thought they had anyways) and a capital air ship for Protoss that makes Broodlords and BC's irrelevant and has no micro mechanics, is slow moving, but point/shoots automatically up to over a screen away simply does not get my gamer nerd chills going. Let's face it bc's were never relevant to begin with but I can hope
To attempt to make a point out of this rant: In video games I want to do things I cannot do in real life. I don't want my units or weapons to mimic real life physics or combat. Graphics are nice, but gameplay and replay value are everything. Most importantly I don't think we can be too hard on the greatest rts players of all time whom I believe are in forced limbo. Sc2 viewership is at an all time decline, and I think its due to lack of interesting content in the game and the way the meta has become stagnant. I'm well aware there are always minute changes, sometimes major ones. But the 200/200 deathball clash build up can be incredibly booring to viewers who don't play the game. Swarm hosts ..... a unit that outright creates giant stalemate situations and trench warfare/evasion tactics is introduced to the game. I love this game, this community, but simply don't know what to do.
I can post some of my ideas elsewhere if anyone cares to hear/read them.
On January 22 2014 14:38 PainUser wrote: Hey, if stork commits he is capable of anything. I really just dont think the BW players have the drive and dedication (currently) due to lack of interest in a game that they consider less balanced, less innovative, and less fun that Brood War. Fantasy, Stork, people really don't understand what these amazing RTS players are truly capable of. Sucks to seem him brushed off as an old wiley vet, when in reality I just don't think they care. Blizzard essentially forced a bunch of Grandmaster level chess players to play 3D chess for profit margin. Crying shame.
That entire paragraph is full of assumptions that undermine Brood War, SC2, and Stork himself especially. You just shit all over the player you tried to 'defend'. I have five minutes, so here's a quick rebuttal. 1. Statistically, SC2 and BW are very close in balance numbers right this second (well, last OSL vs current SC2 anyway - idk what the balance numbers are for the SSLs, but they're probably pretty skewed based on who remained anyway). 2. You choose to shit on Stork and Fantasy for their decisions to continue practicing SC2, whereas an alternative perspective could have praised them for sticking with something even when they weren't showing progress - for giving it their all. If they really thought so strongly that SC2 was the worst thing in the history of the universe, it's highly unlikely they would be playing it. 3. You make the ridiculous assumption that they are 'bad' only because they don't care and don't have any drive (again, this is hating on the player, even if you can't figure that out). However, you think that it is possible for players to decline in skill over time naturally? How do you have ANY idea that these players are still 'amazing' at BW? A few of the latecomers to SC2 who switched back to BW have had virtually zero success in BW afterwards. Some have transitioned back well, some badly - just like the initial transition for most of them for SC2. 4. Blizzard didn't force anything. They made a new game. They offered a prize pool for their new game. End of story. Blizzard even still let OSL have the rights to BW. They could host a BW tournament if they wanted to, and so can GOM (and GOM is). This whole 'Blizzard ruined BW' stuff is just lolzy. They offered incentives for SC2 that are natural for literally any company promoting a new game as an esport. It's arguable that Savior and kin caused more harm to BW in Korea than Blizzard has even if you count releasing a new game and providing a prize pool as harm.
TL;DR: If you have any true respect for these players, you would cheer them regardless. You can't know their motivations, feelings, or current skill levels (in either game, honestly - we haven't seen enough of them). It's incredibly presumptuous to write what you did.
Why do you think we see so many Brood war legends retiring? Not playing in proleague? I didn't claim to know his motivations or lack there of, I was postulating. And if you can't perceive the respect oozing out of that post you are a buffoon. No fecal matter was dropped on Stork or Fantasy, there is no need for you to post a "rebuttal" to my thoughts and opinions. You completely missed my sentiment entirely. But thanks for the point by point breakdown in your 5 minutes of free time bud.
On January 22 2014 15:25 PainUser wrote: Why do you think we see so many Brood war legends retiring? Not playing in proleague? I didn't claim to know his motivations or lack there of, I was postulating. And if you can't perceive the respect oozing out of that post you are a buffoon. No fecal matter was dropped on Stork or Fantasy, there is no need for you to post a "rebuttal" to my thoughts and opinions. You completely missed my sentiment entirely. But thanks for the point by point breakdown in your 5 minutes of free time bud.
No you didn't shit on Stork and Fanta, you just shat all over SC2. We all get it, broodwar was amazing, this isn't broodwar. Noone forced anyone to switch so for the love of christ stop postulating that they suck because they don't like the game. Then they can go and play BW if they want to.
On January 22 2014 15:25 PainUser wrote: Why do you think we see so many Brood war legends retiring? Not playing in proleague? I didn't claim to know his motivations or lack there of, I was postulating. And if you can't perceive the respect oozing out of that post you are a buffoon. No fecal matter was dropped on Stork or Fantasy, there is no need for you to post a "rebuttal" to my thoughts and opinions. You completely missed my sentiment entirely. But thanks for the point by point breakdown in your 5 minutes of free time bud.
No you didn't shit on Stork and Fanta, you just shat all over SC2. We all get it, broodwar was amazing, this isn't broodwar. Noone forced anyone to switch so for the love of christ stop postulating that they suck because they don't like the game. Then they can go and play BW if they want to.
/rant
Actually that is where you are wrong, they where forced to switch to SC2. By Blizzard who did everything they could to kill pro BW in South Korea, by KeSPA who where also forced to switched to SC2 format, by their perceived responsibilities to their fans and teams etc. Its not out of the real of possibility for a lot of players to suck because they don't like the game, just look at Bisu and JangBi after returning to BW, they are orders of magnitude more happy and they are playing superb BW.
In case you missed it, a lot of ex BW players did retire and switched back and a couple of more will probably follow them. A lot of them probably hoped that SC2 would turn out to be like BW and if not that maybe HoTS would push it in that direction, that failed to happen so the players ran out of patience and retired, and mind you some where doing relatively good in SC2 as well.
So weather you like it or not you'll have to accept the fact that the players themselves just didn't like SC2 and preferred to go back to BW, that isn't postulation, its the truth, deal with it.
On topic, couldn't catch today's 1st group, damn, wanted to see Life play, well I guess I'll have to settle for Bogus and the 3 toss.
On January 22 2014 15:25 PainUser wrote: Why do you think we see so many Brood war legends retiring? Not playing in proleague? I didn't claim to know his motivations or lack there of, I was postulating. And if you can't perceive the respect oozing out of that post you are a buffoon. No fecal matter was dropped on Stork or Fantasy, there is no need for you to post a "rebuttal" to my thoughts and opinions. You completely missed my sentiment entirely. But thanks for the point by point breakdown in your 5 minutes of free time bud.
No you didn't shit on Stork and Fanta, you just shat all over SC2. We all get it, broodwar was amazing, this isn't broodwar. Noone forced anyone to switch so for the love of christ stop postulating that they suck because they don't like the game. Then they can go and play BW if they want to.
/rant
Actually that is where you are wrong, they where forced to switch to SC2. By Blizzard who did everything they could to kill pro BW in South Korea, by KeSPA who where also forced to switched to SC2 format, by their perceived responsibilities to their fans and teams etc. Its not out of the real of possibility for a lot of players to suck because they don't like the game, just look at Bisu and JangBi after returning to BW, they are orders of magnitude more happy and they are playing superb BW.
In case you missed it, a lot of ex BW players did retire and switched back and a couple of more will probably follow them. A lot of them probably hoped that SC2 would turn out to be like BW and if not that maybe HoTS would push it in that direction, that failed to happen so the players ran out of patience and retired, and mind you some where doing relatively good in SC2 as well.
So weather you like it or not you'll have to accept the fact that the players themselves just didn't like SC2 and preferred to go back to BW, that isn't postulation, its the truth, deal with it.
On topic, couldn't catch today's 1st group, damn, wanted to see Life play, well I guess I'll have to settle for Bogus and the 3 toss.
Were the players forced to play a game they didn't like? You always have a choice.
EPT
ST_Life is the favorite to get through. After all, he partially recovered from a long slump toward the end of 2013 to win IEM New York and come in second at DreamHack Winter. Yet, after seeing Life become complacent in the past we have wonder whether or not he'll be in top form as he returns from the winter off-season.
SKT_ParalyzE, 
CJ_sKyHigh, and 
.
