SC2 Pro Tournament Discussion

Had some downtime at work this morning so I threw the ProLeague finals for BroodWar up on my Tablet. Watching Fantasy and Flash play TvT makes me feel like Artosis is right and Marauders really do ruin the game. Much more interesting watching them poke and prod and try to break tank lines with vultures and goliaths than the bio ball.

*Stephano just smashed Bomber 2-0. He's up against the winner of Nestea/Squirtle next.

*Doa: I see a lot of signs for Stephano where are all the signs for Nestea?
*MC: Korea.

*Seems like Nestea just flat out predicted what Stephano would do to a t in that first game and blindly countered it. Second game not going quite as smooth for him so far though.

*Doa: What about Carrier?
*MC: Carrier? ... Trash.

This is so great.

*Also of note: Alive is up a game on MarineKing right now in the winner's bracket.

*Really close and fun 2-1 matches between both Nestea/Stephano and Alive/MarineKing

Guys, if you aren't watching Lani's stream you're missing out on a lot of backstage interviews, goofing around, hilarious moments and just plain awesomeness. http://www.twitch.tv/iplliveu

Just watching the main stream right now while download some files from an external hard drive for the last hour... Job so boring... IPL so good!

MarineKing just got knocked out of the tournament by Squirtle.

*And if you're watching Lani she's got the camera guy capturing every moment of his sorrow. Awkward

liquid wrote:

This makes me so happy http://www.twitch.tv/iplliveu/b/3143... :)

I haven't been able to watch much of IPL after the first day. Could I get some context?

Good God. This final is incredibly tense.

Hypatian wrote:

Good God. This final is incredibly tense.

Spoiler:

I can't believe squirtle pulled this back to a second game!

Kerplunk wrote:
liquid wrote:

This makes me so happy http://www.twitch.tv/iplliveu/b/3143... :)

I haven't been able to watch much of IPL after the first day. Could I get some context?

MKP losing to Squirtle 2-0, he takes losses really hard all the time. And I like to see him cry.

http://www.twitch.tv/iplliveu/b/3143...
http://www.twitch.tv/iplliveu/b/3143...

And these are the things people missed if they didn't watch Lani's stream. That and a lot of interviews with koreans.

Oh, i didn't realize I was the last who posted. Oopsie.

I only half paid attention to the final. Would be hard to find another tournament final that involves two players I find less interesting than Squirtle or Alive.

I do recall saying Fnatic made a good move picking up Alive though, so good for them. Their SC2 division ended up looking really rough there for a long time, especially after Sen left. Now they've at least got one genuinely good player on their roster.

*Twitch.tv finally has an official Android app and it works amazingly well. Ultra quality looks great on my Galaxy Tab 10.1 and framerate is super smooth. Between this and the SC2Casts app my tablet gets more and more useful as a way to watch a game of SC2 here and there all the time.

Didn't know there was a fellow Dutchman that seems pretty good at the game as well
http://www.teamliquidpro.com/liquidret

Sparhawk wrote:

Didn't know there was a fellow Dutchman that seems pretty good at the game as well
http://www.teamliquidpro.com/liquidret

Ret's been around since Brood War...

Sparhawk wrote:

Didn't know there was a fellow Dutchman that seems pretty good at the game as well
http://www.teamliquidpro.com/liquidret

Grubby is Dutch as well, if you missed it.

I've never paid much attention to Broodwar as a sports back then. Since SC2 and better streams and all, now I do. Missed Grubby indeed. Cool

Sparhawk wrote:

Since SC2 and better streams and all, now I do. Missed Grubby indeed. Cool :)

That was part of the point, Ret's been a big name foreigner in Starcraft 2 since Beta

*Code S started again the other day. Finally getting caught up just now. Some really good games in both these groups! And as usual some unexpected results.

*Everyone should watch the Code S group from this morning!

Naniwa/Puzzle/Ryung/MVP

Thin_J wrote:
Sparhawk wrote:

Since SC2 and better streams and all, now I do. Missed Grubby indeed. Cool :)

That was part of the point, Ret's been a big name foreigner in Starcraft 2 since Beta

*Code S started again the other day. Finally getting caught up just now. Some really good games in both these groups! And as usual some unexpected results.

*Everyone should watch the Code S group from this morning!

Naniwa/Puzzle/Ryung/MVP

This is the next one up for me, I just finished Group H which was outstanding PvT greatness... one of my favorite matchup's. Learned a new build I am going to be trying out in a few hours from now.

Thin_J wrote:

Naniwa/Puzzle/Ryung/MVP

Spoiler:

It's cool that Naniwa got out of the group, but on the other hand Ryung and Puzzle are the type of Koreans I'd expect him to have a very good shot at beating in a tournament outside Korea. I think Huk or Stephano could've made it out of that group too. The best foreigners have been as good as the "b-tier" Code-S players for quite a while. It's just that there are a ton of Koreans who play at that level, so when you dump one foreigner into GSL he's not likely to make it that far. To consistently make it far you have to be exceptionally good, like DRG, and even he dropped to Code-A.

What I'm saying is just that I'm not surprised he advanced and I don't think it means much. He just needed to not get an impossible group and play his best, just like any random Korean.

Scarlett will be announcing on monday which Team she's joining. Apparently got several good offers, or at least good enough that it took some time to choose which deal to take.

And just because... Day9 being awesome at MLG. And an MLG cameraman being awesome too for doing this totally on the fly.

*Only two zergs in the second group stage of Code S. Not gonna be much variety in the matchups for the rest of this season

*And they're both in the same group now, so even less.

*4/17 - Two things.
First... Dear pro Zerg players, please stop suiciding giant balls of infestors into enemy units. The "infestor headbutt" isn't a real thing. That's the kind of sh*t people like me that are straight up bad are supposed to do. You're doing it in every goddamn match I watch. Quit it.

Second: today's Code A broadcast went live at just after midnight. Almost 9 hours later and they're still going

The infestor headbutt thing has made me wonder if they're hoping the infestors will absorb a few shots while their real forces attack, after the infestors have used up their energy. But it really does seem like most of those infestors could escape and live to fight another day.

I'm pretty sure it's just bad army control.

Also, don't bother watching DRG vs Revival. It's terrible and is over in like 8 minutes. That's both games combined. Not worth working through the pre or post game stuff to get to the games.

Did Scarlett make any team announcements yet?

Yes. Team something, with desrow, welmu, slog. What a disappointment.

Dyni wrote:

Did Scarlett make any team announcements yet?

Yeah, some random team you've never heard of.
"Eclypsia"

liquid wrote:

Yes. Team something, with desrow, welmu, slog. What a disappointment.

Artist also

edit: on an unrelated note, all the NASL Season 3 VODs are available for free on their youtube account, and now that they have MrBitter and Rotterdam casting it's a lot more enjoyable. I recommend MorroW vs Puzzle!

Yes, the infestor headbutt makes me squirm. I know they are multitasking a lot of things, but I swear even I pay more attention into keeping my infestors alive than some pros. 6 infestors is 900 gas, just send them home after they use up energy

Umm yeah, I don't get that either.
Pros just a-move their Infestors after they're out of energy.
At least burrow them or something.

Yeah, Scarlett supposedly had several offers from teams. I was surprised she ended up with a relative no name team like Eclypsia.

On the other hand it's possible that a team with a bunch of low 2nd tier or even just straight up 3rd tier players like desrow might have just offered her more than the other teams to get somebody that seems to have genuine talent on their roster.

Thin_J wrote:

Yeah, Scarlett supposedly had several offers from teams. I was surprised she ended up with a relative no name team like Eclypsia.

On the other hand it's possible that a team with a bunch of low 2nd tier or even just straight up 3rd tier players like desrow might have just offered her more than the other teams to get somebody that seems to have genuine talent on their roster.

Probably true, but Eclypsia is also apparently willing to send her to Korea to practice. That had to be a big factor in the decision. Apparently she received better 'on the surface' offers from other teams, but preferred what Eclypsia was promising.

Better to be part of the 'higher' echelon in a group, that to sit at the bottom, catching scraps.

Genius vs. Naniwa

Spoiler:

Nani dominates, 2-0, just as I predicted. I like. Just perfect play from nani, and the second game was a bit wild