Nada is at Assembly

From Anna:

The Genius Terran

When I first started following Starcraft 2 last year, I would regularly vent about the gap between the legendary status of some players and the level of play that they would sometimes exhibit. For example, although Julyzerg is now my favorite player, the first games I saw him play didn't impress me. The same went for Fruitdealer who was a god in the first season of the GSL, but has since struggled.

One such player who did not impress when I first heard of his legend was oGsNada, the Genius Terran from Starcraft 1. Known as the most consistent progamer, a golden mouse winner and an all around nice guy. The legend didn't seem to manifest at first. This does not mean I didn't think he was a good player, but rather I found myself trying to discern what of him was real and what was hype.

Yesterday while I was watching the VODs for the North American Starleague which began this past week, I saw some of the greatness of Nada. He was playing against SixJaxDde, another Terran, and the series was split 1 - 1 heading into the final game. The final was on Metaloposis and while the game seemed close with similar builds (marines, siege tanks, one or two banshess and finally vikings and medivacs), dde pulled into a serious lead when Nada threw away the bulk of his forces while attempting to break the marines and siege line of dde. Dde, smelling his lead quickly struck back at Nada's third base, inflicting some serious damage and preventing him from mining. Nada, barely held on to hold the line, while dde expanded. When dde withdrew from Nada's third, the floating command center of Nada was landed in his high yield, and he moved his tanks over to attempt to defend it, cramming them into the high ground and the xel'naga towers. Dde with his tank and supply lead slowly pushed into Nada's high yield base. Nada, far behind on bases, money and production facilities, made a brilliant decision which eventually won him the game. While keeping his meager tank force around his high yield, he took almost his entire marine force and dropped them into the main of dde, where all of his production facilities were. The stimmed marines started destroying everything in sight: barracks, the starport, factories and eventually supply depots. Dde, decided to return to his base to deal with the massive drop, leaving the map to Nada, who quickly moved his siege line ahead, and stabilized his side of the map. Dde, tried to rebuild his production facilities in the grass in front of his natural.

It was almost as if a huge crack had appeared in the world. In just a few moments, everything was different. Nada had been losing quietly, sadly and slowly and suddenly he was on top and his victory was almost certain.

The incredible thing about watching Nada play was his macromanagement, something which is the mark of the greatest players. Dde had a much better economy than Nada and always had more money, and so some might see that has Dde playing a better game. But Nada's low money meant that he was managing his economy far better, never letting his money pile up, but always spending it constantly. That puts him in danger if he takes a huge hit to his economy or his army, since he doesn't have alot of money to bounce back right away. But it means that even when he is down, in the long run he can outlast his opponent. He is using his production facilities to their maximum advantage, not overbuilding anything, but only exactly what he needs.

July Interview

This Friday is the finals of the March GSL, as I was hoping it'll be ST_July v. oGsMC. I'll be writing more about this later (pa'go ha' tinane' yu' ni' i che'cho'-hu). But in the meantime, here is an interview with July after he defeated his old rival (who had defeated him many times in Brood War Nada), on his way to the finals. The interview comes from this link.

********************

Q: Feelings for advancing to Ro4?
A: I have never felt this anxious/nervous for such a long time. I do not even know how long have I not felt such feelings. When I win I kept on thinking, did I really just win?

Q: 1st 2 matches you won easily.
A: I thought today I could perform a 3-0 victory. It will be 3-0 as long as I take down the 1st match, even if I lost the 1st match it will be 3-1 victory. However, during the 3rd match I actually did a low level mistake, not scouting.

Selected strategy and spawning locations are good, but I did not see opponent's hellion coming out of base. After I saw my spawn location which are all in the correct location, I feel ladyluck is blessing me.

Q: Today matches strategy are similar
A: I saw many comments from friends on the internet. They say my matches contain aggressive elements, extremely entertaining. Even if I lose I will still see good comments for my play. I love these comments. Without these comments I will never be able to take down today's matches.

Q: You have a match with Nada after 2 years, feelings?
A: Both of us should be pretty excited about this. We trained very hard after all, and result in panda eyes. In SC1, I lose alot, thus in SC2 I hope I can win him.

Q: In 4th matches, do u notice not the small passage between the 2 barracks?
A: I do not know about this. If I knew, I could have won alot easier. Main thing is, after losing the 3rd round I felt a little bit at loss. In addition, 4th match bunker rush I defended poorly. Key factor in winning the 5th match is due to having adjusted my mental condition.

Q: Not using late game units on purpose?
A: Ultralisk is really not good. Even if I max out 200 food count on ultralisk, it is hard to win. Analysing Nada I have realised he love doing a Timing All-In. So I have decided to specifically counter against his unit's mobility. Against other player I may choose other strategy.

Q: MC said between July and Nada, whoever wins will enter the Finals.
A: I totally agreed with MC! Now I cannot see other opponent, only MC. Although in Ro32 I lose to MC, but at the finals I WILL LAUGH TILL THE END.

Q: MC said to win the finals, a zerg opponent will be the best bet.
A: Indeed, due to ZvP matchup. I can only sigh.

The races characteristic is wierd. A 200/200 maxed out engage basically Protoss could have won with just a net loss of 30 food count units. Then another push from Protoss Zerg would have KO. Zerg is too fragile. ZvP is indeed hard to fight.

Q: Next match could be Lyn or MarineKing
A: Lyn is famous @ War3, so I want to play a match against him. I have not fought him yet, I will win lyn to advance the semifinals, in the end everything will play out according to my script and I will win the finals.

Q: Alot of audience from SC1 wished today's victor would go to the Finals and win. Are you confident?
A: During group selection I have said that I have climbed from the lowest point. I will let everyone know how did I climbed to this place. I have the capabilities to advance from Code A to Code S Ro4, what is so difficult about going into the Finals? On the contary, I feel entering the Finals would make my mental condition even more stable.

Q: As of now, Zerg who advances to Ro8 take the finals.
A: There is alot differences between the past and now. Compared to last time, now racial balance is much better. But after hearing this I feel I must take the finals. Now I can only think being champion.

Q: Feel any 'Champion' Omen incoming?
A: Today, when I washed my hair, I think back of the past. Suddenly I thought of...should I dye my hair red again? Still, I feel now and the past there is some differences, now I am at the stage of climbing 1 step at a time.

Q: Last words?
A: Yesterday I discussed alot with my teammates, thank deeply for them. Many players accompanied me to train. Especially Clide whom I eliminated in Ro16, still he sincere helped me in training. Finally, I want to thank my coach.

Kelly from GOMTV

Here is a pic from Kelly, the new commentator on GOMTV for the Code A matches. She's from Singapore and flew into Seoul to help out Tasteless and Artosis so they can ladder more. So far she's done very well, she knows her stuff and does her best to join the nerd-love-always-ready-to pun-banter of the Casting Archon. But like anything, I couldn't help but notice several trolls, haters, whatever word you want to use to describe them attacking her for her accented English.

This is one of the difficulties of the globality of online games such as Starcraft 2. For all the rhetoric of breaking down borders, barriers and connecting people, the internet, for all the supposed freedom from identity or locality that it is supposed to provide, is a great way for people to find new ways of reproducing their particular identities of actually invigorating them to new levels. Gaming is one such way for the United States and for English speaking communities. Although the majority of people on the internet are not English-speaking, the internet is a place built around English. The sites which connect places to each other have a heavy dose of English or originate in a place like the United States.

As the internet has connected people in the United States to the rest of the world virtually, it has done little to challenge their mindsets linguistically (and in other ways as well). There is still that almost unbelievable expectation that everyone speak English and that even if they already do speak English, that they speak it "correctly" the way they are used to. It almost boggles my mind.

Good luck to Kelly as she continues her casting. If you are on Twitter you can follow her there. Or you can check out her blog a diva and her demons.

(Otro fino'-ta) the player that Kelly is posing with in the picture is oGsNada, who is considered to be one of the best Starcraft players ever in the world.

SC: BW

I'm going to take the advice of my brother and order the book he recommended in a post below, The Starcraft Bible.

Part of the reason why I want to get this is because I know very little about the first version of Starcraft and its expansion, which has been around for a decade. When I watch the games, I sometimes can't tell what's going on (especially when the commentators are speaking in Korean), because while some units are the same, some are very different. The mere look of Starcraft sometimes makes my eyes hurt compared to the graphics of Starcraft 2.

I've been trying to learn more about Starcraft in hopes of gaining more understanding of it as a cultural phenomenon and also so I can enjoy and appreciate the legacies or narratives that follow some players. Nada is supposed to be one of the most consistent SC progamers. Players such as Jaedong and July in their own ways revolutionized the way to play Zerg. Some players who were on the B team for SC1 are in Code S and dominating in SC2. When I first heard the theme song written for Tasteless there were several references to players and matchups in SC1, and I didn't get them so I had to ask my brother what they were all about.

In hopes of getting caught up and also familiar with the basic mechanics of SC1, I've started to watch more and more games, starting with this list of "most unusual progames" that I came across on TeamLiquid.net.