I have returned: StarCraft II

[Julian]

But I'm gay.

[Salodin]

She probably didnt know =(

[Julian]

She knows.

[Eanae]

When efame goes to peoples head I guess?

[The Blackrose]

Julian, I just shot you a message, but I'm at MLG as well. Find the guy with the Team Spooky shirt.

[Avelain]

gooooooooooooo sase! 14-1 so far. he's gonna take this MLG!

[Gredival]

wtf MKP beats everyone in Pool A except Drewbie?

[Eanae]

wtf MKP beats everyone in Pool A except Drewbie?

He nuked his own army vs Drewbie by accident when he was winning.

[geno]

i hope:
MKP makes it to pool play
for an epic korean tvt
incontrol goes 0-6
kiwikaki shows more epic mothership
destiny makes it "far" in the open bracket

Oh god at how much you must have liked this MLG, haha. Each of those have already come to pass, except the Destiny one. He did get decently far though and ended up losing to a known player in a ZvZ who then lost to White-ra... not too bad. Also, maybe not the kiwi one, but at least white-ra got one out! And there is still kiwi hope for tomorrow (and what are the odds... in a rematch against Stephano!).

So far very much liking this MLG. Foreigners definitely have caught up significantly since the last MLG.. I'd say not all of them and still not enough, but I could totally see a Huk, Sase, or Stephano win for this in the end if their brackets work out. Korean terran contingent is still pretty crazy strong though, so I probably wouldn't bet on it, lol. Can't wait for tomorrow!

[geno]

Also, don't know if anyone noticed but.. race balance of those not yet eliminated?

8Terran 8Protoss 8Zerg.

Pretty cool that it worked out that way, even if most of the protoss are farther down in the bracket unfortunately

[Bweigelt]

Oh god at how much you must have liked this MLG, haha. Each of those have already come to pass, except the Destiny one. He did get decently far though and ended up losing to a known player in a ZvZ who then lost to White-ra... not too bad. Also, maybe not the kiwi one, but at least white-ra got one out! And there is still kiwi hope for tomorrow (and what are the odds... in a rematch against Stephano!).

So far very much liking this MLG. Foreigners definitely have caught up significantly since the last MLG.. I'd say not all of them and still not enough, but I could totally see a Huk, Sase, or Stephano win for this in the end if their brackets work out. Korean terran contingent is still pretty crazy strong though, so I probably wouldn't bet on it, lol. Can't wait for tomorrow!

I thought Stephano didn't make it through the open bracket, or am I missing something. He's not listed in the any of the pools.

[Radec]

http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft...onship_Bracket

He's still on the lower side of the bracket, plays Kiwi tomorrow morning.

[Bweigelt]

Oh ok so the loser of the round 6 games in the open bracket still make it, they just don't get to go to pools for a chance to place higher like the winners do. Sucks that's he lined up to run into Sase though.

[Deftscythe]

Regarding race balance, I know in interviews a few months back I heard a couple Korean players say they thought that while Korean Terrans were the best, the other regions had better Protoss players and Zerg was about even(with the obvious exception of Nestea). It makes some sense when you think about each races playstyle going from BW to SC2. Terran has definitely changed the least and the meta shift towards mech has got to feel like old times for a lot of old school pros.

[geno]

Oh ok so the loser of the round 6 games in the open bracket still make it, they just don't get to go to pools for a chance to place higher like the winners do. Sucks that's he lined up to run into Sase though.

They can still place higher. The pools are only for seeding purposes, and unlike IPL, these seeds mean a LOT, because they determine how many series you will need to win to win the whole thing. If you are last in your group, you have to start at the bottom of the champ bracket (10 in a row), while if you win your group, you are already a minimum top 6 finish, can win with a minimum of 3 series wins, and can even drop one and try again from the main bracket. Everyone else falls somewhere in the middle with only 1 elimination left.

Open bracket players have it tough. It is a double elimination bracket, but all but the 4 winners will use one of those eliminations up before the "real" champ bracket even starts (when you start playing the pool players). So you are always 1 series away from elimination and are forced through a very large path of players to get to the podium (the path is longer the earlier you lost in the open bracket).

MLG is pretty damn unforgiving to open bracket players. Pool players that concede every single match will still get more points than open bracketers that have won anywhere between 6 and 9 series already, and because they can just keep coming back in seeded, while the open bracketers have to make that run every time, the pools tend to stagnate rather quickly. That's why you'll see incontrol still in them despite going 0-5 in three MLG's running, while Whita-Ra makes miracle runs over and over just falling short and is still not there. It doesn't help that new koreans keep coming and dominating the podium, knocking out good pool candidates in the open bracket and then lowering the point gains for everyone else, often to not be able to make the next one making their won points wasted points.

Hope they can fix that next year, because some of the pools have really stagnated as a result of this system :/

[Gredival]

I'm sure whatever price EG paid for HuK it was worth it to have a Toss to publicize besides iNcontroL's goose eggs.

Also, don't know if anyone noticed but.. race balance of those not yet eliminated?

8Terran 8Protoss 8Zerg.

Pretty cool that it worked out that way, even if most of the protoss are farther down in the bracket unfortunately

The seeding is quite important though as you pointed out -- I wouldn't give a good chance to anyone besides HuK and MC looking at the bracket, and those are longshots.

Regarding race balance, I know in interviews a few months back I heard a couple Korean players say they thought that while Korean Terrans were the best, the other regions had better Protoss players and Zerg was about even(with the obvious exception of Nestea). It makes some sense when you think about each races playstyle going from BW to SC2. Terran has definitely changed the least and the meta shift towards mech has got to feel like old times for a lot of old school pros.

It makes some sense, and HuK has gone on the record saying that he thinks Korean Toss are weaker than Korean Terrans. But lots of pros, including non-Toss, also have agreed that Toss is underpowered atm. I remain convinced that the lack of Defilers/Corsairs are powering up tanks considerably.

Toss is my main, and I'm currently doing way better in 1v1's when I roll Terran or Zerg instead of Toss.

And for reference Code S Ro16: 10T, 1P, 5Z. Then 6T to 2Z by Quarters, and all Terran by Semis :/

[Julian]

Julian, I just shot you a message, but I'm at MLG as well. Find the guy with the Team Spooky shirt.

I don't think I saw you, but I'm not sure, as I have no idea wtf team spooky is >_>

Also, I am incredibly fucking disappointed at day9, and artosis/tasteless a bit. I have only heard of one instance where day9 came out to the crowd to take pics/autograph/etc, and it was on the first day after almost everyone had already left. There were like 40-50 people waiting around last night seeing if the same thing would happen, but the security people just shoo'd us away. I realize that they have a ton of fans and if they came out they would probably be stuck for hours, but come on, to not come out at all, even if just for a little bit? Incredibly disappointed, as day9 was the person I wanted to see the most.

(Also haven't seen any tasteless/artosis, but meh)

[geno]

I remain convinced that the lack of Defilers/Corsairs are powering up tanks considerably.

For reference sake, corsairs were never really used in professional level PvT in Brood War. Dealing with tanks was usually left to speed shuttle + zealot bombs and shuttle/reaver micro. Or if it got really late, then shuttle storm play. Keyword is shuttle by the way, I would love if warp prism could offer the same tactics early on for 1/1/1s (ie more than 1 colo could fit inside it ). Outside of that, it was just unit splitting and flank attacks, which are pretty much still very good ways to deal with them in SC2.

And though defilers were important for anti-tank, it was only in conjunction with the lurker. This was because dark swarm did not block the splash damage, but burrow did. Even still, tanks were WAY stronger in Brood War than in SC2 just in pure damage numbers, and mech was pretty insanely good against both Protoss (where it was standard) and Zerg (where it shared the spotlight with bio depending on the time period). I still have nightmares of seeing some of Flash's TvZs where he would mech and just seem to kill infinity zerg units.

[Thunder]

Incontrol won a single game against sheth in this mlg and losing 12. If that man isn't depressed he's some kind of mental powerhouse.

And YES! Tyler won at least single series.

I'm happy about everything at this MLG and anybody who's in the running for the victory can take it as far as I care besides Polt(and hongun, but let's be real - he isn't making it! *knockonwood*). Hated that guy ever since that interview he had prior to his jinro vs polt match. Polt said jinro was just very lucky, after placing top 4 in the past 2 GSL, while polt himself was only code S because he won that make-shift tournament for Idra's Code S spot(or someone else, but the fact of the matter is polt was ONLY IN CODE S because of luck).

edit: shit, hongun beat hero

[Blarg]

I don't think I saw you, but I'm not sure, as I have no idea wtf team spooky is >_>

Also, I am incredibly fucking disappointed at day9, and artosis/tasteless a bit. I have only heard of one instance where day9 came out to the crowd to take pics/autograph/etc, and it was on the first day after almost everyone had already left. There were like 40-50 people waiting around last night seeing if the same thing would happen, but the security people just shoo'd us away. I realize that they have a ton of fans and if they came out they would probably be stuck for hours, but come on, to not come out at all, even if just for a little bit? Incredibly disappointed, as day9 was the person I wanted to see the most.

(Also haven't seen any tasteless/artosis, but meh)

There have been big problems with the important players/casters being caught in the crowd before and basically being surrounded so blame it on MLG for not putting on an official autograph signing or something like that.