The Liquid Weekly #10

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HuK at IEM NY, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

HuK represented on Friday at IEM, blazing through his group and going 2-0 against suggy and 2-1 against drewbie. On Saturday at 20:30 CEST, he will face off against qxc in the semifinals. [More]

Jinro, Haypro, TLO at GSL Open #2 Quals - This Weekend

Nada to oGs - This Weekend

Yes, your world has just been rocked, we know. Lee Yoon Yeol, the most successful progamer of all time, is joining Liquid's partner team oGs! [More]

HuK at IEM NY, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

HuK signs his Liquid contract as Hot_Bid looks on.

HuK represented on Friday at IEM, blazing through his group and going 2-0 against suggy and 2-1 against drewbie. On Saturday at 20:30 CEST, he will face off against qxc in the semifinals. Join us on stream and in the LR thread for all the usual banter and of course, the chance to win a TL t-shirt. HuK SMASH INCOMING!

Jinro, Haypro, TLO at GSL Open #2 Quals - This Weekend

Jinro, TLO and HayprO in the brand spanking new Liquid jersey. Woot! (Fomos picture)

Our boys are at the GSL Quals these next four days and will be battling a lot of competition to get through to the GSL Open #2. Jinro and HayprO play Saturday and TLO plays his match on Monday. Be sure to follow the action in the Live Report thread for today and check back on Monday again as TLO throws down in a bid to qualify for his second GSL Open!

In case you didn't notice, our boys in blue are also now sporting the colour in the form of an awesome new jersey designed by Kennigit. It looks pretty awesome, if we do say so ourselves. Think you'd like one too? Let us know.

Nada to oGs - This Weekend

Yes, your world has just been rocked, we know. Lee Yoon Yeol, the most successful progamer of all time, is joining Liquid's partner team oGs! We're super excited to follow up the Korean media announcement by bringing you Liquid's thoughts on this ground breaking piece of news, and also, exclusive replays of the man himself playing our very own TLO.

Hello, Liquid! Big news today. What were your initial reactions to it?

TLO: First I was like: Oh wow, then it went to HOLY SHIT, passing the "that cant be real, am I dreaming" making its big final in hopefully he needs to sleep in my bunk bed because everything is taken!

Jinro: Excitement, but my mind is too pre-occupied with the upcoming GSL to really feel much of anything.

Haypro: It' insane to have such a huge player on our partner team. Gonna be really cool to meet him!

Do you remember first getting to know about Nada? Where were you in life, and how did you find out about Lee Yoon Yeol?

Jinro: Pretty sure it was shortly after I started following progaming - was about 13 years old, had just watched my first OSL (actually, second - I started watching progaming around the NATE OSL semis, but Sky 2002 was the first full OSL I followed). Shortly after Reach 3-1ed BoxeR in the Sky finals, NaDa 3-0ed Reach to win the MBC Starleague (back then called KPGA tour I think) going on at the time... I remember sort of putting it down to Reach just focusing his efforts on the OSL finals, I was a huge fan of Reach, but Nada just kept on bulldozing.

Haypro: I remember watching replays of Nada playing on WGT where he in TvP just did 6 fac tanks only and won all games like that.

Nada was known as the Genius Terran in Broodwar and was famous for his vulture harass into 200/200 "Tornado" TvP. How do you think his play will evolve as he moves into SC2 and is there a particular style of play you expect to see from him?

Jinro: Well, the same I guess? Harass into big push seems pretty suitable for SC2 terran.

TLO: I think he will treat the game a lot like SC1, which is a very good thing not enough people do that. He'll be all over the map multitasking, doing drops and probably implement tanks a lot. So he can just roll over his opponent after damaging him enough.

Haypro: Yes indeed, I think harass into big push is a big thing for terran in sc2 and that will suit him perfectly.

TLO, you played him at IEM Gamescom. Even at that early stage, he showed remarkable prowess as a Terran. If there was something unique about his play compared to the Terrans you had met until then, what was it?

TLO: Well back in IEM he played a very oldschool Terran style in my opinion just having this tank line over the map. But nowadays he is not playing like that anymore I think.

In conclusion, what's gonna be the best part about having Nada around?

TLO: His Body. Actually, His Body and fangirls coming here to stalk him! :D

Jinro: I see a sexual harassment lawsuit in your future.

Haypro. Yes, Dario, be careful.

I think we will all get more dedicated because we have such a big name player as part of our practice environment.

Hi Tyler - we join you today just a week or so from MLG DC. How is everything going?
Tyler: I'm really excited for MLG DC. The player list is great. And I am doing well thank you!

Some cool stuff has happened since we last spoke. Most notable, HuK is now a Liquidian. Any thoughts on that?

Tyler: I love it. HuK and I got along well at MLG Raleigh and it'll be nice to have some teammates with me.

And now we're joined by the man himself. Welcome, Huk! Tyler was just saying it'll be cool to have a teammate at MLG.

HuK: Lol yes, of course. There will be the three of us, I believe, among a lot of other top notch players now that the official list has been released.

Let's do the obvious and talk Protoss. Which matchups are you both happiest with, and which do you think you need to work on more?

HuK: personally my pvt is best probably and pvz weakest

Tyler: I like PvT and PvZ but PvP is still annoying for me.

There have been rumblings of Zergs being dissatisfied with ZvP, calling it difficult. HuK, you said it's your weakest MU and Tyler you said you like it - could you go into specifics?

HuK: Well my failings pvz maybe be mainly contributed to the fact that I do most of my practice on ladder, and I rarely meet up with any good zerg players; or even zerg players at all. I would say I play against zergs like 10% of my matchups or less.

Tyler: I think I've just found some gameplans that fit my strengths and style of play so I feel very comfortable with it now.

There are a fair amount of complaints about the effectiveness of EMP in PvT, especially as a counter to templar. What are your thoughts on this?

HuK: Emp vs templars is pretty sick, ghosts in general with cloak and snipe as well destroy templar builds. Although collosus vs ghosts is pretty autowin.

Tyler: I think EMP is really too strong but not necessarily against HT. I like playing HT vs Ghost cuz then I can multitask better and Feedback his Ghosts and feel awesome. But I think EMP does too much damage to shields.

Tyler we know you've been messing around with PvP. How do both of you feel about the mirror matchup and its development these past few months?

HuK: Well I think it’s really developing fast and there are a lot of viable things that are surfacing especially since MLG Raleigh. I guess wait and see NYC it will change a lot of peoples perspectives on PvP I hope.

Tyler: Like I said PvP still bothers me. I've been going through all the popular openings to kind of start from scratch and see what I like. I've learned a lot but I haven't discovered a completely safe way of playing which is what I always like.

HuK: Still very much like flipping a coin, basically.

Tyler: Yeah I think that the things that have been seen in big tournaments don't represent all the things that are out there.

It's interesting you bring up style. Tyler, you're known for your safe, conservative play with solid mechanics and HuK you're renowned for being super aggressive and getting up in your opponent's face from the word go. If you each had one thing you'd like to learn or adopt from your Protoss counterpart, what would it be?

HuK: Hmm... I would say I would like to have the creativity and imagination to come up with the build orders he does. Hes the type of player to revolutionize the matchup with bringing something completely new to the table (hopefully in a tournament).

Tyler: Hmmm I like HuK's control of big armies in PvT. Well probably in all the matchups but I've noticed some very solid control in PvT and it makes a huge difference.

Protoss went from being a race that was under represented at the first SC2 retail event (Gamescom Cologne), to sweeping the podium at the first North American tournament (MLG Raleigh). How do you reflect on this, and where do you think the race is headed in general?

HuK: Well generally speaking at the time of those very close events I said and still feel like the NA protoss were a lot better then the EU ones; although now I think its a lot closer. Other then that I think the EU terran/zerg maybe a bit stronger then the NA. Don't really look into it much could of all just been chance as well.

Tyler: Ah I don't pay too much attention to the races to be honest. Just the players. I think Protoss will keep doing fine I guess? Haha. All three races have a lot of work to do on strategies and control so I'm sure we'll see them all evolve and maybe one will get ahead of the others and dominate but it's not a huge deal.

Players - who are your favourite Protoss to watch at the moment, and which of them do you think has the most to offer the race in terms of development?

HuK: I have a lot but obviously my favorite is Nony.

Tyler: Hmm just HuK. HuK and I are gonna do it all.

Hahaha. We’re gonna let you go then. GLHF and see you at MLG!

We've only got a couple of replays for you this week, but you're gonna love them all. After all, with games vs the two greatest Broodwar Terrans of all time, what's not to love?

Download Liquid Weekly #10 TLO TvT Ladder Rep Pack

Poll: Would you buy and wear the new Liquid jersey?

Yes! It's pretty awesome. (1125)

71%

Nope, not interested. (229)

15%

For sure, and I look forward to more Liquid apparel. (220)

14%

1574 total votes

Your vote: Would you buy and wear the new Liquid jersey?

(Vote): Yes! It's pretty awesome.
(Vote): Nope, not interested.
(Vote): For sure, and I look forward to more Liquid apparel.

Liquid is currently blessed with a sponsor that just keeps on giving, and we're now ready to share some of TLAF's awesomeness with you too! Thanks to The Little App Factory, we're going to be giving away a TL Winged Horse t-shirt every week.

The Winged Horse, as worn by Liquid and every TLer worth his or her salt.

To win yours today, try your luck at the

TLAF Cheerful Contest

This awesome canvas is courtesy of our favourite paintbrush, pachi!

How Do I enter?
1) Grab the cheerful template seen above.

2) Make a cheerful for HuK!

3) Use it in the Live Report thread for IEM New York Day 2 (Semi Finals). Posting your cheerful in this (The Liquid Weekly) thread will not count as an official contest entry.

A Cheerful? What's that?
Cheerfuls are fan made placards which Korean progamers traditionally display in their booths when they play on live TV. Here at TL, we use them in LR threads to support players and teams we like.

+ Show Spoiler [Examples from a previous contest] +

When will I know if I've won or not?
The winner of this week's contest will be announced in next week's Weekly.

Is is true that wearing the Winged Horse will immediately increase my SC2 skills by 50%?
Although we cannot confirm this, our users have claimed that the t-shirt has significantly changed the way they play the game.

+ Show Spoiler [Last Time's Winner] +

Congrats to TL user MaBe for winning the last cheerful contest.

Please pm 'riptide' on TL for more information on how to get your t-shirt.

Liquid` is proudly sponsored by The Little App Factory, makers of fine applications for Windows and Mac OS X and fans of great Starcraft! Their flagship program, iRip allows you to recover your music from iPods - a life saver if you, like many of us, do tech support for friends and family. In fact, for a limited time, you can use the coupon code TEAMLIQUID to get 25% off when you get TLAF products!