In the darkness, music thunders from a wall of speakers.
A second later, lights turn on from all angles, showering the grand stage as well as the beach next to it in luminescence. Cheers from the crowd rise up to the commentator booth, where men chatter excitedly about what may happen in the day's events.
Gamers warm their hands, mascots embrace teams, nervous laughter can be heard from all sides.
Playoffs are here.
It is that time of the season, the time when everything matters a little bit more. A time when losing means you are out, gone for the year, forced to wait another season for the chance at greatness.
If you're a B-teamer recently promoted it may mean even more. With a playoff schedule that features best of 7 matches over the normal best of 5, it could mean your chance to first earn your keep on the stage. Not any stage of course, but the grandest of stages. Your chance to show the coaches, teammates, and family members why you do what you do. To make the sacrifice all worth it.
Here at Team Liquid, playoffs mean something special. It means a time to celebrate, rejoice at our accomplishments for the year. A time to look back at those who helped us get where we are, recognize all the hard work put into each and every one of the weekly updates. Just like Nas, we're never on schedule but always on time.
Sit back and relax, because this is going to be a long one.
Written in Red
by Riptide
From the Editor's Desk
by Riptide
From the Editor's Desk
I will always hold TeamLiquid's Proleague coverage very close to my heart. Why? It's where, many moons ago, heyoka and I first picked up our pens. Under the guidance of Plexa, we nervously took our writing to foreign Starcraft's biggest stage, and there, under the watchful eye of all of you, took it in brand new directions.
While R5 coverage in 2008-09 was exciting for us, it's in the playoffs that we began to go nuts. With guest columns by ITW and Mani and cool formatting stolen from a TLFE, Welcome to the Jungle was a precursor only in name. By the time the finals rolled around we had stepped up our game, and then some. Crossing the Rubicon, and then Masters of the Universe were how we chose to raise the bar for ourselves, and as we stepped back and basked in the beautiful win that Fantasy delivered on that night in Pusan, Heyoka and I both knew that things would never be the same again.
PL coverage was on the move.
In the year that passed, Proleague writing was at first led by myself, then pangshai and was finally passed on to the capable hands of heyoka. Today, TL's Proleague team is much larger than it was this time last year. Snowdrift joined us a few rounds ago, and he has certainly proven his worth as a regular scribe. InToTheWow, Harem, l10f, flamewheel and Mystlord have contributed regularly to the weeklies and we're grateful for the time they've given us. Of course, all these mini pieces are sliced and diced by PL Lead heyoka and Broodwar Coverage Editor pangshai, and then garnished with some sick graphical goodness courtesy of PL's own photoshop chef keit. It's good to note here that only the PL weekly update sported a different front page image for every single issue - once again, setting standards, and setting them high!
Why am I saying all this? It's important, dear reader, that you understand at least a little of what goes on behind the scenes here. Proleague writing has historically been a thankless job. Less glamour and glitz than the individual leagues with many more games and a lot more to keep track of. Yet, within the past year, this team has produced an update every single week. That's no mean feat, friends. Sure there have been times when we've wanted to afk brb 10 days, but we just didn't. Why? Because we're a team, because we love this game, and above all, because we're writing for you. Broodwar may be on its way out, but we're here to see it through to the very end.
Let's come back to the present. Given its size and posture, the PL team is also now better equipped to tackle an event of this nature. In fact, I believe that these PL playoffs will prompt TL to deliver some of the best coverage we have ever seen. We have the staff, we have the talent, and thanks to your patronage of these threads, we have the fan base to write to.
Although it has been a year of turmoil for progaming it's good to know that some things will never change.
SKT will win Proleague.
TL will deliver awesome coverage.
We will have the time of our lives.
Bring on the games!
Oh, that Riptide. Always making us blush. Its true though, proleague coverage has been absolutely stellar. Humbly, we thank you, our dedicated fans for bringing the excitement and keeping us going through thick and thing.
Going to more pertinent issues, there was still a series of games this last week! Lets take a second to remember them, as well as the round that put the seal on the proleague regular season and delivered us an endpoint.
Taking a look at the final week, a few noteworthy things happened. The most hilarious of which is the last swap in relevant placings, MBC losing the third place slot they have held for quite some time to SKT after losing to KT in ace (thanks to Jaehoon) and Oz in a clean sweep (thanks to some shady chicken deals).
KT finally stepped up their game, winning twice, both times in ace (against MBC and hite). Watch the skies for the seven horsemen, because it turns out that not sending Flash to play a deciding set is now the right move for their team.
Oz was also able to end their season on a high note, bringing their record to a respectable for both the round and the season. Their season has been
It is also partially worth mentioning that during this week no team both won and lost a match. There is no purple in the chart! With only 4 play days its less impressive but sometimes you gotta nod your head at chance.
Moving on to the full round, the big story here is those of supposed Unbelievable Legend, STX. Going 2-9, they were only able to beat hite and eSTRO. They even got pummeled by ACE, both in the series they played together and in overall ranking. In fact, the only player on the roster to do better than 50% was FrOzean(FrOzen(CuteAngel)).
Stew on that for a second, someone who goes by the id CuteAngel won as many games as Calm, Kal, and Hero put together. Other people took notice too, including his mom, who was so moved that she wrote a letter about it. It must be frustrating to watch your normally mediocre son string together some victories, only to have the rest of the team collapses around him.
On the opposite end, ACE tied their record for best performance in a round. Ever. Batting just under .500, they achieved a hefty nod from anyone who calls themselves a fan of Brood War and kept their pseudo-promise of a 10 win season. Congrats to them, they have created many exciting nights here in the labrynth we call our newsroom.
WeMade FOX and CJ kept to their guns and finished with their final goal: don't drop any places and make it into playoffs. They both should fair well against the opposition (SKT and MBC, respectively) so while they may not have blasted into position, there is no reason to doubt their future.
The teams on the bottom more or less had the round you might expect from bottom place teams. Despite losing in the latter stages, KHAN earned a winning record to finish out their season, bringing them to nearly 50% on the year and having improved quite a bit from their abysmal start. eSTRO, once looked ready to make a plyoff run, underperformed at the last half to finish out an unremarkable season. Even so, having developed some new talents they may surprise us next year.
On the other hand, hite is showing nearly no signs of improvement and will need to generate a non-Leta roster to really compete.
All in all, its been quite the round.
In true proleague style, we want to take a second to highlight Action one more time before he leaves our realm of play. He has shown us so many great games this year, and we cover them all, it only seems fitting to give a slight send-off to eSTRO's staple zerg. To think, one year ago he was completely unknown too!
Game of the Round, Action vs Mind
by Mystlord
by Mystlord
As the Playoffs loom closer and closer, it's time to think back on the awesome games that we've had for the entirety of the past Proleague season. If you're keeping track, that's games 5 times a week since October 10, 2009 - Present. That's a lot of games. Inevitably there were some seriously epic games played during this time period, games that transcend time and still remain with us in our hearts to this day. My job is to make you remember all those awesome games, and just think of all that's on the line for the upcoming days of Proleague Playoffs. The teams this year are going to work extra hard for the prize, with SKT even pulling players from the OSL Ceremonies to practice.
If they're going to this extreme, then there must clearly be some epic games in store right? I mean if we're looking at the past year in Proleague, who can forget the preparation that must have gone into Really's incredible Optic Flare usage in TvP? What about the confidence that Flying exuded when he went Arbiters and used Recall in PvZ, and against EffOrt of all players?
And yet there are games when two players that prepared heavily clash, and end up with a totally unexpected result. Remember Light vs oDin? Possibly the most standard 2 Hatch Muta vs 1 Rax CC exploded into one of the most tense and down to the wire games in Brood War history. How about TurN vs Bisu, where TurN, the Terran that no one knew at the time, performed a push so devastating that it almost defeated Bisu when he didn't suck?
But while those games are certainly fun to watch, they usually end when one player has made a critical mistake. Those games aren't the only kind of games we want to see in the Proleague playoffs. We want to see great games. Games that only come about once in a blue moon. We want to see freaking 40 minute ZvZs like those that have been popping up recently. We want to see more Flash vs Leta, where Leta overcame a dominant Flash and took the game out from under his nose. We want to see more Really vs Flash, where Really played some beautiful harass and stopped Flash from going into his dreaded macro mode. We want to see more Baby vs Flash where Baby out multi-tasked Flash and crushed him. We want to see Flash cry more!
Anyway, while those games were certainly top level play, I didn't choose any of them. I'm choosing to use this space to demonstrate the kind of play that I want to see from EVERYONE playing in the playoffs. This is not the time to slump. If there's one game this past season that I'd be willing to show everyone as an example of both a high level game as well as an exciting one, I'd look no further than Action vs Mind. Featuring some of the best Defiler usage I've seen in a long while, this game occurred early in the Proleague season, and it's time to remember exactly why this game is something that players need to take lessons from.
The map is New Tornado. eSTRO decided to field Action on this map, and he ended up getting matched up with the Terran Mind from FOX. As the game starts, Mind lands his purple Command Center at the 7 position, while the blue Action plants his Hatchery at the 5 position, and immediately sends his Overlord in the right scouting direction. Mind decides to go for an extremely risky 14 CC, while Action does a normal 3 Hatch build. Already at this point, Action is behind in the economic game. Even worse, Mind soon moves out with 6 Marines, but even though Action saw them with a Zergling, he's left with only three Lings as a defense when they arrive at his natural. The Marines pick off some Drones and an Overlord, and Action is forced to pull Drones to defend along with morphing more Lings, and although Mind is pushed back, Action lost a lot of mining time with his pulled Drones, and getting supply blocked with the Overlord doesn't help either. Even though Mind lost 6 Marines, he's clearly ahead.
A painful early attack.
Mind continues to be aggressive with his MnM forces, pushing out with a small group of MnM and two Firebats despite the fact that the Spire is at 50% health already. Action, however, only has one Sunken colony at his natural for defense, with a second just starting by the time Mind's forces get there.
Action has taken precautions and pumped quite a few Speedlings though, and thus Mind decides to pull back instead. Action tries to pursue with Speedlings, and although getting one Firebat, he is unable to do any real damage with his Lings. Strangely, Action decided to try to run into Mind's base with his eight or so Lings, and they were only able to kill one Marine before dying.
Failed attack.
Action's Mutalisks are finished now though, but Action doesn't have the same sense of Mutalisk control that someone like Jaedong has. He chooses to engage the MnM while they are clumped in a ball and can easily react to a Mutalisk attack. Action takes the base at 1, but it's extraordinarily late because Mind placed an SCV there to block the Hatchery, and Action was slow in taking it down so he could place his third Hatch. Because of the unit losses he took earlier in the game, and because he was busy pumping Drones and teching to Hive, Action took a much later third. The delayed third and faster Hive is likely a calculated move on Action's part in response to his early game disadvantage. He's going to be relying on Defiler usage to pull himself back into this. Meanwhile, Action's rather average Mutalisk control is revealing itself, as Action is losing quite a few Mutalisks during this harass. Despite that, he's able to keep Mind in the middle of the map long enough to allow his Lurkers to finish morphing and to place two at the ramp to his third expansion.
Once the Lurkers are in place, Action sends his Mutalisks to attack Mind's base. He's able to do some damage, and at this point, Action's Hive tech is up, but his Defiler tech is still researching, and his 3rd Hatchery is still building. At the same time though, Action is performing a massive Drone pump, and he's sitting on a grand total of four Lurkers.
Does he even have any Zerglings? All I see are Drones and some Lurks...
If Action can live through the next few minutes with only minimal damage, he'll be able to compensate a bit for the economic disadvantage he was at in the early game. Unfortunately, Mind's next push would be extremely strong, and Action has to pray that he can hold on until Defilers come. Luckily for him, Mind makes a minor slip up here, as he accidentally sieges a Tank in the range of a Sunken Colony, but Action is still not out of danger.
Whoops! It's off the creep too...
He makes a great play with Scourge and Mutalisks to snipe Mind's second Vessel and places three Lurkers in the path of Mind's reinforcements to hopefully catch some units.
Mind immediately pulls units from both the front lines and from his natural to deal with the threat, and although he pushes the Lurkers back, he essentially sacrifices the great timing he had with which to possibly break through Action's natural.
Barely... Just barely.
Despite pushing back Mind's strong midgame push, Action is still not out of trouble yet, as he has yet to fully utilize his third expansion to get more gas, while Mind still has a vastly superior economy, and now has dual Starports for SK Terran, which will ultimately lead to an extremely strong end game. Despite that, Mind loses another Vessel randomly to some Scourge, but pushes up the ramp into Action's third as there's only one Lurker under Swarm guarding the ramp.
However, instead of running past the Lurker like he should have, Mind accidentally gets caught up attacking the single Lurker, and pulls back instead, losing some Marines in the progress.
Mind's strategy is now made clear. Despite losing a lot of early Vessels, Mind is determined to add to his economic advantage by using dual Dropships to deal heavy damage to Action's main, and taking a third base himself while Action is busy dealing with the Dropships. Unfortunately for Mind, Scourge quickly come and kill a Dropship, and that single Dropship contained all the Medics for this attack.
However, the drop doesn't fail as Mind picks up more MnM with his surviving Dropship and reinforces his initial force. He is able to pick off an Evolution Chamber, delaying Action's upgrades, as well as forcing Action's Drones away from mining.
Meanwhile, Mind also attacks Action's front, and Action is hard pressed for units to defend both attacks. However, he is able to successfully do so with brilliant Swarm usage, but he's severely shaken by his current situation.
Pushed back by excellent Defiler usage!
Mind next turns his attention to Action's base at 1 o'clock, and he is able to push up the ramp, but a great plague by Action puts an end to that attack.
The first plague for many to come.
He uses this time to take a fourth base. Curiously, it's not at the natural to his 1 o'clock base, but instead at 11 o'clock. Mind finds it anyway, and Action, knowing that he can't hold it in his current situation, wisely cancels it and expands instead to the 12 natural.
Mind lays on the pressure by threatening to drop 1, but he's repelled by a lot of Cracklings lying in wait of any Marines that would exit the Dropships. He pulls back, and instead attacks the 12 natural with his units. Action throws down a Swarm near instantaneously, and Mind is pushed back. Action also catches a Vessel with some Scourge. In an attempt to pincer off Action's army, Mind drops above the ramp once most of Action's Zerglings were below it, hoping to pincer Action's army in a bad position. Action is able to bring reinforcements from his natural to destroy that force though.
Mind is still on 3 base, but Action now has 5 bases. The situation is incredibly starting to turn in Action's favor, which is extremely surprising just how he's able to hang on by a thread each time. However, Mind pulls it together, and once he has a sufficient Vessel cloud, he moves out to attack 12 again, hoping to shut it down. This time, with proper Irradiate support, he's able to take down Action's fourth for a while, though Action is able to take down 2 of Mind's Vessels.
Finally! Victory!
Mind can breathe a little easier now, but he still has a tough battle ahead of him, as Action has demonstrated that he can get by with so little while still pumping Drones to gain an economic advantage.
Mind, in classic turtle Terran style, adds two Factories and starts pumping Tanks to both defend his third, and prepare for a massive push.
He also sends an attack to Action's recently finished 11 base, and shuts that down. At the same time, he takes 10 o'clock, grabbing another gas base and helping to fuel his Vessel + Tank production. He also adds a bunch of Firebats to his army, hoping to counter the massive amounts of Zerglings that Action's been utilizing. He tries to attack 2 o'clock, but Action's prepared enough that he drives it back with just a Lurker and a few Swarms. He is able to snipe another Vessel, but that doesn't stop Mind from pushing Action's natural with a large group of MnM.
Attack repulsed... And bye bye Vessels!
Things are looking dire as Action seems to have stopped production of Defilers, and a large group of Lings that were intended to destroy Mind's fourth fall to Marines. Action's natural is compromised, but he is finally able to repulse it with another Swarm and Lings.
Defilers, where art thou?
There you are!
Mind returns again with a powerful attack, but Action repulses the attack with a brilliant plague, while striking at Mind's now weak 10 o'clock base.
PLAYYYGUUUU
Action is able to successfully take that base down, and despite Mind pressing his advantage on the right side of the map, Action uses some excellent Plagues to completely destroy Mind's army.
Every Zerg's worst nightmare...
Every Zerg's wet dream.
MOAR
MOAR!!
YEAHHHHH
Mind now looks like he's in serious trouble, as his 8 Tank push essentially did nothing. As Action counterattacks, it looks like Mind has really nothing left to defend against Action's units. Action has stopped Mind from mining, and just continues to funnel units in.
Cracklings > Buildings
Mind, seeing that he's overwhelmed, taps out. GG.
A brilliant game from Action, and one that has a lot more energy to it than it may seem. This is the kind of Starcraft that brought me back to the Savior days. Action walked on that same fine line razor edge between victory and defeat like a master, and despite being down economically for the entirety of the early game, he was able to pull back from the brink of defeat, and crush Mind by controlling the Vessel count and by utilizing Defilers brilliantly. Undoubtedly one of the best games in this past Proleague season. Let's hope for some more in these playoffs!
If we're going to be wrapping up our normal columns, we certainly can't forget about fantasy.
Some left happy, some left with bitterness, a few had regrets. Only one left a champion. ITW is here to give the skinny.
Fantasy Proleague Conclusion
by IntoTheWow
by IntoTheWow
Fantasy Proleague Season 9
Congratulations to the winner, Loli!
Congratulations to the winner, Loli!
With a balanced team, a good anti-team and bad trades; Loli wins the round, closely followed by everyone in the top 10.
This is our champion's only post in the [FPL] R5 Discussion thread:
On July 14 2010 00:41 Loli wrote:
Wait, is this for real? Even after I made all those trading mistakes (lol Perfectman on anti when I have Oz as team).
Wait, is this for real? Even after I made all those trading mistakes (lol Perfectman on anti when I have Oz as team).
As that thread states, Loli will receive a free TL shirt and a proper shiny crown to match it.
Or... you can trade it all for what's in this box.
Loli had a really well balanced team, with lots of solid picks. Not really too many players to set him apart from other teams, but overall no dead weight on his team that he had to make up for. He had a decent anti-team, but having no competition made Loli really sad, so he went on to make some bad trades to make up for it.
This round's Fantasy League was really close. Everything came down to the very last week, and hell, even Roffles, who finally sat at #21 could have won if he decided not to make trades at all!
FINAL STANDINGS
AWARDS
The "Savior" Award for Best
Goes to synapse, whose anti-team consisting of Lomo, Calm and Bogus let him grab the 6th spot. STX came on fire from the previous round on fire, so picking Calm and Bogus looked rather dangerous, but synapse with all his ProLeague wisdom, predicted the crashing of STX and gets the award!
That, or he contacted Paul the Octopus.
The "Wall Street" Award for Best Trader
Goes to pred470r. Even though there were other people with a bigger point gain from trades, most of them had the hite -> MBC trade, which could give you as much as 30 points. pred470r went on to make 12 trades (!!!), some of them bad, most of them good, and some of them hilarious. Like July -> YellOw, or NaDa -> firebathero. Your crazyness and consistency win you the award, congrats!
Honorary mention to RandomAbuse who made 3 trades, all of them in week 2, to get a nice 34 point gain.
The "KTF" Award for Worst Trader
Goes to Roffles who got a total -16 with 134 final points. Have not he traded at all, he would have ended at 150, winning the whole thing.
The "Nal_Rock" Award for Refusing to Change Anything
As usual, too many rocks, even in the top 10. All of them 2-10 points from taking the lead. Afraid to touch something an lose? Or just not caring ?
The "Hite Sparkyz" Award for Biggest Surprise Team
Goes to Air Force ACE who finished this round 5-6. Sure, that doesn't get them near the top ranks, but let's them finish the round with 10 FPL points while only costing -1. By picking ACE you were practically battling every other FPL team with an extra player pick. Not only that, but it made ACE players interesting picks as well (read the tidbits for more!)
The "Manifesto7" Award for Best Staff Performance
Goes to Nazgul! Our fellow dead wraith finished in the 36th spot. A interesting thing is he got Flash in his anti team. And the ultimate weapon's mini slump let Nazgul win both the Liquid Poker $100 Group and the Liquid Poker $10 Group.
The "Last Romantic" Award for Worst Staff Performance
Goes to SonuvBob, who finished #1728 out of 2249. SonuvBob, you simply DO NOT put RorO in your anti-team.
Some tidbits!
Best scoring player: Jaedong (39 pts)
Most Wins: Jaedong (9-3), HiyA (9-3)
Most Losses: Kal (2-10)
Best Win/Price Ratio: YellOw (0$, 19points), Pusan (1$, 19points), BackHo(1$, 18 points), RuBy (2$, 23 points).
Best Ace: no one really. The "best" was by.great, who went 2-0 in ace matches.
Worst Ace: Flash (0-5)
Most Line-up appearances: ZerO, Action, Flash all tied at 13.
Most popular: awww, TL's sweetheart, Sea (694 teams). Followed by EffOrt (626), Action (520) and Movie (519).
The average Air Force ACE player cost was 1.1$ and got 11.15 points. Even though ACE had a very good round, Reach finished 0-6.
CuteAngel was the best player for STX this round. He got 20 points with 6 appearances and costing 2$. He was followed by Kal, who got 10 points with 12 appearances and cost 8$.
Thanks everyone for participating, hope you all had fun and see you in the next round!
Whats that? You haven't seen every game of every match in the last month? No problem, we got your back.
Top 5 Games of the Round
by Harem
by Harem
Effort vs Kal
Zerglings are awesome. People who make zerglings are awesome. People who send waves after waves of zerglings at the opponent until he concedes? My hero. Sending all those waves of zerglings to raise morale for your own team? My messiah. Now, Kal actually starts off well in this game but he ends up overcommitting to sair harass and also reacts terribly to Effort's game plan and unit composition. Goon/ht vs super fast hive and muta/ling? That's Jaehoon level PvZ. Now, back to how awesome and sexy zerglings are. Zerglings rock and anyone who didn't enjoy seeing Kal being flooded by masses of them is a terrible human being.
Victoly
Hiya vs Effort
In one corner, we have the reigning OSL champion. In the other corner, we have a fish who likes to splash stuff. In the immortal words of Michael Buffer, "Let's get ready to rumbleeeeeeee." Hiya starts off by trying to bunker Effort but it gets fended off easily. Effort later gets some sick stop lurkers and prevents Hiya from killing his third as Hiya runs out of energy for scan. However, Hiya makes up for that by stopping Effort's flank with some bio control that makes even Boxer's best bio control look D- in comparison. Losing upwards of 7 lurkers is fatal when you delay hive and try to crush T with pure macro/flanks on delayed lair tech. Now, Effort starts making way more zerglings to compensate for this loss but Hiya apparently watched Idra vs Octzerg as firebats start to rape everything. Soon after, Hiya drops Effort's natural gas which compounds Effort's gas problems even more. Hiya finishes the game with a very well orchestrated 3 pronged attack and Effort GGs. After the game, an individual who looks strangely similar to Ku Sung Hoon was seen clapping in the audience.
Just as planned
Baby vs Kal
Baby may be young but his opponents can't take him lightly based on age alone. He has the potential to easily surpass Flash and he has definitely shown some of that so far. His game vs Kal on Fighting Spirit is no exception He begins by showing off some cute scv micro to block a probe from entering another main and tricking Kal into thinking that is his spawn location. By time Kal realizes, marines are already at ramp and Kal can't be sure what Baby's plan is. Baby then opens with an FD and starts laying mines. Amusingly enough, he also tries to proxy a starport but ends up placing it next to a spotter pylon. He realizes a second later and then cancels it. Later on, Baby shows off his orgasmic multitasking that must have frustrated Kal so much. Wherever Kal deals with one thing, he has more worries somewhere else. For example, tanks delaying his third indefinitely while vultures are in his main raping probes. Then, more vultures come out of nowhere and start laying mines so you see blue goon soup everywhere while Kal is trying to save his probes. Then, his third becomes even more delayed as more units start arriving there. Kal tries to reaver harass some but wraiths lol at shuttles and reavers. Meanwhile, Baby is working even more vulture and dropship micro everywhere he goes. Who knew that a dropship, 2 tanks, and assorted number of vults could deal so much damage? Later Baby gets off a monster push to Kal's third which dies while Kal tries to counter but the majority of Baby's army returns and easily crushes Kal's now puny army. From here, Baby is easily able to set up outside Kal's natural which no protoss ever wants to see. Kal manages to hold but ends up losing a good number of probes, his reavers and also a bunch of templar. He also still doesn't have a third at this point so the rest of the game is merely a formality.
Hail to the king, baby
Soulkey vs Fantasy
The sight of Fantasy vs any zerg is enough to make anyone laugh. To compensate for how bad he is at the matchup, he tends to go weird/off-beat/abusive builds. His game vs Soulkey on Grand Line is no exception as he opens with double cc into a fast factory. He then follows it up with a valkryie. Unfortunately for him, Soulkey made what is scientifically proven to be the bane of Fantasy, lurkers. Sure enough, Soulkey attack-moves with some lurker-ling and Fantasy crumbles hard. However, as long as you know how to make siege tanks, you can draw out any game indefinitely. What followed was a long macro game and Soulkey showing just how to use drops and ultralisks vs Fantasy's late-game mech switch. Just have a ballin' economy and just keep shitting out shit and eventually, you will grind out the terran through a war of attrition. Well-coordinated attacks with drop, swarm, and plague can help too as well as a terran who lacks AA to stop the incoming drops.
The key to beating mech is...
Much vs Light
Grandpa Toss could be 87 years old and he'd still easily crush Terrans. LIght almost gives this old man a heart-attack with his early contain and vults that end up killing way too many probes. Now, after managing to crush the contain, Much uses his old man wisdom and starts making Light's greatest weakness, carriers. What follows is an epic struggle against all odds and Much manages to pull out an epic victory while showing new-school tosses just how you use carriers.
I'm sure Idra played with these all the time as a kid
We're certainly not going to leave you hanging. Not when there are games to be had, players to be hyped, and time with nothing to fill but excitement. Flamewheel interviewed some TL veterans on their thoughts about who will come out unscathed this weekend, who will topple their foes and rise one step closer to becoming almighty champions.
Oh, and guess what? We got so excited about future prospects that we even did an audio. GTR and I (heyoka, me, I'm heyoka) babbled on for half an hour on our thoughts on proleague. You could listen to this before, during, after reading the thoughts of TL heavy-hitters, the choice is all yours. Here at TL, we're all about choice.
GTR wrote:
Mmm, goodness. Nice digestible audio. Feel free to also download if you don't want to keep a browser open while listening to us stutter.
Future Dreams
by Flamewheel
by Flamewheel
?Hello disciple, and thanks for taking some time to give an interview. I know it's a bit hard to call specifics in matches now due to lineups not being revealed, but would you please give us your predictions for how it's going to go down. You can be as general or detailed as you like.
disciple: I think SKT's lineup is kind of obvious: for a long time the team's strategy was to develop map specialists, thats why I think that expecting fantasy on Match Point, BeSt on Polaris Rhapsody, Bisu on HBR, s2 on Fighting Spirit, Hyuk on Judgment Day and Soo on Fortress, will be a safe bet. As for CJ, I cant really predict the order their players are going to appear, but I'm expecting EffOrt to face fantasy in the opening set on day 1.The worst case scenario for T1 will be to send BeSt vs EffOrt in the first set and fantasy vs Snow in the second, but even if CJ get their most favorable match ups, I'm confident SKT will take the first Bo7 and an ace match wont be needed.
As for day 2, the map order is kind weird and I'm expecting a very close match, still, I think SKT will win 2-0 and have enough time to prepare their ceremonies for the OSL group selection.
?With this last week, SKT has overtaken MBC for the 3 spot, meaning that it has to play CJ instead of FOX for its first round. Thoughts on this?
disciple: I think facing CJ instead of FOX is a great outcome for SKT. WeMade with its deep terran lineup is a very uncomfortable opponent to play against, especially for T1, because our Zergs' ZvT is good for nothing. We could still face WeMade in the next round though, so it doesnt really matter - I think all teams that made it to the PO are really good.
?Both SKT and CJ have had phenomenal R5s after mediocre R4s. Which team is better walking into this match, and why?
disciple: EffOrt is on fire, but the rest of CJ is kind of struggling. On the other hand, T1's players seem to overcome their personal slumps, and I think they are a slight favorite coming into the match. Still, just like SKT, CJ is always able to step it up a notch when it comes to playoffs, so I'm not expecting them to give up without a fight.
?Is Bisu back? And if so, what's in store for CJ?
disciple: While the whole TL is expecting me to say "Yes", I will be honest and say "No". Bisu seems to have changed his mindset entirely, but he still has to make a good streak to build up his confidence, especially in PvT and PvP. Rather than setting high goals about the individual leagues, I think Bisu must try to enjoy his game. He has the skill to walk the way again, but its a bit too early to make bold statements about the "Return of the Revolutionist". I think fantasy is the undisputed #1 at SKT at the moment.
As for Bisu's impact on the match vs CJ, I'm expecting him to take his game on HBR without a lot of fireworks, just like he did in the game against Oz last year.
?Will there be a next season of Proleague? What does the imminent release of SCII spell for the professional SC:BW scene?
disciple: I really hope so. The big problem I can foresee is that the sponsors might decide to focus on SC2 and stop the cash flow for the BW teams. I think if KeSPa is still in charge of things for the possible next season, they will try to play it safe and reorganize the league, by making the cycle only two rounds long - like it was with SKY back in the day.
?Thoughts on the removal of the Super Ace match?
disciple: I hated the format, because it was designed for OZ to get to the final. I cant really understand the "epicness" in the whole concept and I'm glad that it's gone. But even if it wasn't removed, OZ is not in the PO (entirely deserved, may I add), so it wasnt going to make a big difference. May I also point out that Jaedong is right now sub 50% win rate vs SKT players, thank you.
?Thank you for your time, kind sir. Any last words?
disciple: Thank you for interviewing me <3 As for last words, I really hope sAviOr made a bet for SKT, cause his ex-team will get crushed. T1 fighting !
?Buenos días, Señor IntoTheWow! Care to give us your predictions as to how the match against SKT will go down? You can be as general or detailed as you like.
IntoTheWow: I don't really want to, since it won't mean much
?CJ slides into the sixth spot, holding off the likes of OZ, Stars, and KHAN. Of course, being in the sixth spot means that CJ has to play the #3 seed, which was MBC up until this last week before SKT overtook them. What are your thoughts on this?
IntoTheWow: Well, this one is pretty easy to answer. SKT is a bigger rival than MBC. They are not only the defending champions, but they found a place for Zergs in their team.
The good news is Bisu is not playing at his top level and I believe EffOrt is stronger as an ace match player than anything that T1 can field (considering they will probably ace with Fantasy or Bisu).
This is the playoffs though, and you can't really count out any team. Every player is probably preparing for 1 or 2 matches tops and anyone can snipe anyone. We have seen that in the last P.O. pretty well. So I don't feel better or worse by having T1 or MBC on the opposing side.
?Both SKT and CJ have had phenomenal R5s after mediocre R4s. Which team is better walking into this match, and why?
IntoTheWow: Well, I really don't see any more room for 'improvement' for T1. I mean HyuK or Fantasy could have a wonderful day. But even though CJ is playing better I know Movie can play even better, sKyHigh can play better and I don't even know where Snow's skill roof is.
That being said, how they come from a previous round or from this one is probably a detail compared to how much team practiced this week.
?Will there be a next season? What does the imminent release of SCII spell for the professional SC:BW scene?
IntoTheWow: SC2 is in diapers still. I mean it's coming out and probably a lot of scenes are going to have a place for it, especially the Korean one. But Korea knows its way around Brood War. They know how to comment, they know its rules, matches, and structure. So yeah, I think we still have more Proleague to look for.
Starcraft II could be big, but it won't replace BW any time soon.
?Recently, both EffOrt and Bisu have been dominating in the individual leagues but aren't really showing the same consistency in SPL. Will we be seeing this change for the playoffs?
IntoTheWow: I never see EffOrt entering critical moments as a clear winner. No one believed he would win OSL before he 3-0'd Kal, and even after that few people though he would beat Flash.
Last playoff EffOrt built his clear ace reputation in the last matches as well. I think he feels comfortable entering the stage that way from what he says in his interviews.
I guess what I'm trying to say is: please Bisu fans, hype him all you want, jinx him as much as you can, because EffOrt will take the match home before you even know what happened.
?Thoughts on the removal of the Super Ace match?
IntoTheWow: Even though it helped CJ at some point, I think it's dumb and takes chances away from some teams. Sure it was exciting, but after the hype was gone you could see how bad it was, even if the team you liked won.
A team should be victorious by winning the most matches, not because they have 1 strong player they can abuse over the other team.
?Thank you for your time, kind sir. Any last words?
IntoTheWow: I really believe in CJ this round. In the previous round I was more hoping and seeing how things went with all the changes happening in the team.
This round I really believe each player has found his place in the team. CJ is reborn after being killed from the inside. EffOrt won OSL. CJ cannot be stopped.
?Hiya Milkis! I know you already wrote the "Why WeMade Will Win" (whoa alliteration) article, so would you mind detailing for us how the match against MBC is going to go down? You can be as general or detailed as you like.
Milkis: MBC, no matter how you put it, is a two man team that best performs in a best out of five format. They're going to have a rough time preparing a best out of seven lineup, and will likely have to use their less experienced players. I would expect good performances from Sea and Light, but MBC losing overall due to the best of seven format, especially if they stick to the current format of matches not being revealed in advance. WeMade definitely benefited the most from this format change, as they are a team where every player can perform.
?WeMade secures the fifth seed in this season's playoffs, meaning that they were to play the fourth ranked team, which seemed to be SKT going into Week 7. However, with the events of this last week, SKT has bumped MBC down to fourth, so FOX will engage them in the first round match instead. Thoughts on this?
Milkis: STX is a dirty team for using underhanded tactics. Secretly, I'm hoping MBC won't be too shocked by these results and recover in time for entertaining games.
?Both FOX and MBC have done pretty well this round. Which team is the stronger of the two walking into this match, and why?
Milkis: WeMade, without a doubt, simply due to Momentum. MBC hasn't been the same since they lost Hyungjoon, and without their mascot, they have no spiritual center, other than Coach Ha. WeMade's momentum is pretty strong, not only did they make playoffs after spending the first few rounds at the bottom of the standings, but the support from Korean Air seems to have made them stronger.
?BaBy hasn't been playing too well recently, and Midas seems to have lost his golden touch from R4. However, Sea and Light also seem to be struggling with mediocrity through the last two rounds. Are we going to be seeing some better play from the FOX Terrans in the playoffs, and what does it spell for the other opposition?
Milkis: It's kind of sad to see BaBy's momentum just reverse like that. His personal best nine game winning streak suddenly turned into what seems to be a mini slump, as BaBy crashed out of both OSL and MSL in an uncharacteristic fashion. I think, however, he would have had ample time to recover by the 20th.
As for the older Terrans, they seemed to have caught a second wind. NaDa has mentioned that he has practiced a ton for the OSL, and while he didn't make it, it led to better performance in the Proleague. Judging by how NaDa is practicing with Major, and how every player seems to be learning from one another, I think WeMade Terrans are in fine shape. Who knows, we'll see a five terran lineup in one of the matches...
I think this momentum will be too hard to ignore. MBC isn't coming off great momentum either, because what was considered to be their worst case scenario came true in the form of a year's worth of Chicken for Jaedong. MBC can't be too happy about this.
?Will there be a next season of Proleague? What does the imminent release of SCII spell for the professional SC:BW scene?
Milkis: The next season of Proleague seems to be up in the air, not because of SC2, but entirely because of the KeSPA - Blizzard dispute. From what I know, neither of the broadcasting stations nor KeSPA (and all the companies that make it up) has negotiated successfully with Gretech. Communication between the parties seem not exist at all. Neither party has spoken out to why that is the case.
It looks like KeSPA is hoping that the government will step in, at this point, however, that is also uncertain at this stage on how it's going to go on. All we know is that the deadline of August is approaching, and no negotiations have successfully taken place.
The release of SC2, along with the uncertain future of SC1, is likely shaking up the players quite a bit.
?Thoughts on the removal of the Super Ace match?
Milkis: Thank god they got rid of it ;;
?Thank you for your time, kind sir. Any last words?
Milkis: If this is the last Proleague, then I hope it ends in the following scenario.
WeMade vs KT, with a 3-3 split, coming down to the closing match between NaDa and Flash. NaDa takes down Flash, the player currently considered the best Terran, in an epic TvT, sealing WeMade's victory. With that, NaDa will stand with his team as he receives his final major award, to make the end of Brood War.
But hopefully, Brood War won't end. But if it ends, I want it to end it like a movie, and what better ending than the ending I described above?
?Salutations, Mr. Plexa. Thank you for taking time to grant me this interview. First off, MBC is facing FOX in the first round of playoffs. Care to enlighten us as to how this the match will go down? You can be as general or detailed as you want.
Plexa: Fox is a team very much like MBC. Neither team has a stand out player that can be relied upon in all circumstances. Indeed, with their current lineups, it's surprising these teams even made the top half of the draw.
Both sides have an abysmal Protoss lineup; Jaehoon is the worlds biggest failtoss, Pusan has shown some signs of form recently but I wouldn't rely on him to perform when it counts, and Han/Tyson has been so inconsistent but has shown some sick PvT/PvZ in the past. Compare that to Fox's lineup of Pure and ... Pure... Yea Fox don't really have many options for Protoss either. If I were MBC I would be fielding Pusan as my only Protoss since he can take Pure PvP no problem and he can hold his own in PvT (he'll be slaughtered in PvZ though). Han might be able to snipe baby though, if Ha can ninja predict fox's lineup.
Fox have MBC completely outgunned in the Zerg lineup - RoRo/Shine are capable of stealing wins - particularly Shine. Nevertheless, Hyun and Saint (and to a lesser extent, peace) aren't pushovers (although they're close). Best shot for MBC is to try get Saint or Peace to ZvZ roro freeing up Light/Sea for easier games. ZvZ is a luck fest, so they might just get lucky with roro. MBC have a marginally stronger Terran lineup - Sea/Light are as good if not better than Baby/mind/midas/nada at the moment. Thus I'm pretty confident that they will pull through.
The big potential matchups here are of course baby/roro vs sea/light. I wouldn't mind seeing Pure trying to snipe Light either.
MBC's best six should be Sea, Light, Hyun, Pusan, Saint and Han - although I bet that Ha will send Jaehoon to lose. Fox's best six should be Baby, Roro, Shine, Midas, Pure, Nada. If it goes to ace I expect Sea vs Roro with Sea winning. I think MBC should take this, although it's going to be tough.
?MBC recently lost its third-seat status that it had held onto since Winner's League to an on-fire SKT, meaning that it has to play the fifth seed, FOX, instead of the sixth, CJ. Thoughts on this?
Plexa: It was inevitable. MBC actually held on to 2nd place for the majority of the first half of the season and mediocre performances in rounds 4 and 5 led to their decline. CJ are definitely the harder opponent - Effort/Snow/Skyhigh are a scary trio to come up against and with support crew like Hydra, Iris and Movie they are probably the deepest team in the league at the moment. SKT might struggle against them, despite having players of better quality. By that I mean Bisu/Fantasy are better than any of those player, but CJ's overall consistency will cause them trouble given the right lineups. SKT vs CJ certainly is the more interesting matchup imo ^_^
?After a disastrous R4, MBC has had a slight rebound and is posting better results, while FOX isn't as hot as it was last round. Which team is stronger walking coming into the match, and why?
Plexa: I think i've mostly covered this already. But MBC bringing their A game will spell doom to WeMade. Indeed, I think the best way to answer this question is to quote the VOD of Pusan vs Midas from the PL finals - a matchup I would absolutely love to see happen this time around!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZuDMUHZ7_I&feature=player_embedded
?Sea and Light have been posting pretty good results in the individual leagues (with the exception of Light losing to Brave), but haven't been playing so stellar in PL, though the stars of FOX haven't been doing so hot as well. Will the Twin Tower Terrans kick it into high gear for playoffs?
Plexa: Don't know what you've been watching - Sea and Light have been the pillars of MBC with Light sniping Flash even. Sea played a really good game against Jaedong (despite what the Jaedong fanboys will tell you) and has been responsible for the vast majority of wins for MBC as well. Conversely, Light has been struggling in the individuals and his weakness vs Protoss is pretty glaring. Is Fox can snipe him with Pure then MBC are in a lot of trouble. Otherwise, Light/Sea are better than anyone on Fox - but Sea's TvZ and TvT is such that he can take and should be anyone on Fox. I'm confident that he'll be the MBC ace and he'll go 2-0 if need be.
?Will there be a next season of Proleague? What does the imminent release of SCII spell for the professional SC:BW scene?
Plexa: Yes there will be another season of Proleague. There will be SC:BW at least until the last SCII expansion. SCII still needs to develop an industry while the SCBW industry already exists. Part of the enjoyment behind SCBW is that there are teams that you can follow and support - that's an integral part of the viewing experience. With SCBW ratings still going strong and an esports plan recently laid out (there was a thread about it a week ago or so) I'm completely confident the two can co-exist.
?Thoughts on the removal of the Super Ace match?
Plexa: Excellent move. Superace was completely retarded and make zero sense what so ever. The current play off format is probably the best for both the teams and the fans. I'm extremely happy with the playoff format this season.
?Thank you for your time, kind sir. Any last words?
Plexa:
MBC hwaiting!
Think your team will win? So does everybody else. Are you a fan of SK Telecom T1? How about MBCGame HERO? CJ Entus?
Milkis thinks that WeMade FOX has it.
If you're an STX or KT fan, don't fret! They will be featured too, all in due time.
Why WeMade Will Win
by Milkis
by Milkis
The Golden Badge and the Golden Mouse. And now, finally, 100 wins. The only piece of glory NaDa has left is to stand in KwangAhnRhi, with his team, basking in their victory over KT Flash, while Midas photobombs every picture taken by the photographers. And nothing will stop NaDa and his team from winning it all on what may be the last Proleague season ever.
This is the first time WeMade Fox has entered into the Postseason, and they're going to make it count -- with the deepest lineup in all of Proleague. WeMade isn't some one man show like KT, nor are they a team of race snipers like CJ, nor a team of terrorists and cheesers like SKT, nor do they need to bribe other teams to win games for them like STX. WeMade's five Terrans, each with their unique style -- whether it be Baby's insane multitasking, Midas's "If it's close, bunker, if it's far, double", or NaDa's mindgames, are a force to be reckoned with -- only if CJ could send out Skyhigh every game, they may have a chance -- ignoring the possibility of Roro, Shine, and Pure ready to wreck the acne-filled faces CJ players and their delusional fans.
Only if MBC could stop them. Maybe MBC would have a better chance with Hyungjoon playing instead of some of their players. Tyson is still recovering from getting wrecked by Jaedong, and Saint from a complete newcomer. All WeMade needs to do is make it past Light and Sea -- then MBC has no player left capable of putting up a fight and finishing this best out of seven. While unfortunately for MBC, STX's devious plans has made MBC's worst case scenario come true -- and it's only going to get worst for them. If chicken is such a great motivator for progamers, just imagine how motivated WeMade would be considering the gifts they often receive from Korean Air.
All the pieces are in place for a WeMade victory, with the universe itself making it happen. NaDa will reach perfection as the cycle draws to a close, and Flash will be in his booth, contemplating a Table Tennis career.
Dang, that is one monster post. Games won't be on for several hours yet, so you certainly have time to digest it all. Our suggestion to maximum fun is to take whatever you normally do for proleague games, and multiply it by 10. Go extreme!
Normally we emphasize that you enjoy, but there is no way that you won't. Ride the wave.
This Proleague update was brought to you by Team Liquid's PL 2009-10 coverage team - heyoka, pangshai, harem, snowdrift86, Mystlord and IntoTheWow. Many thanks to keit as usual for the stellar graphics!