I am having the "hunch" that I, as a GosuGamers editor, haven't been paying the attention that team FXOpen actually deserves. After all, this is the first ever all-foreign army that has entered the GSTL with the intention to face the Korean maestros and defeat them at their home ground. Thus, their run should be followed closely, regardless the overall results. And that's the reason I am here now.
With the beginning of GSTL Season 1, the FXOpen guys were placed in what someone might consider the easier group, although I am not sure if such term can exist when looking at the other teams and their setups. Yes, they wouldn't have to play the two-times champions SlayerS or the star-spangled roster of oGs (or TSL and Prime who each tutored recent champions), but there were other enemies to be feared, ST and IM among the more fearsome. FXO's run would not be at all easy.
Week 1: A promising start
Sheth after scoring his first victory for FXOFXO's debut series was against StarTale - one of the leading pro teams in Korea and silver medalists from the first edition of the team league. Matches went head to head, the teams trading sets one for one, making the impression that the powers were most equal. QXC fell to the DT/Archon build of Tiger but Sheth was quick to avenge him by keeping his cool even under heavy double stargate pressure.
After Sheth's fall to Curious, it was time for another player to prove himself. Oz came ahead and snatched a shaky victory out of ST's zerg, achieved despite his badly timed sentry pushes. Following Oz's victory, Squirtle stepped forward to crush the foreign resistance, DT-ing his protoss compatriot and then putting an end to Moonan with 1-base Void Ray. FXO finished 2-4 - a loss, but not an embarrassing one by any standards. To make such a stellar debut against the prestigious ST was a feat by itself.
After rewatching the said series, a few things struck me regarding FXO's performance. First, their players seem to take extra damage from DTs. Second, it would appear that nerves played a bigger role than they should. Both QXC and Moonan seemed to choke when facing the protoss harass and died to stuff that a well-trained player would most likely not. However, the pressure is understandable - after all you are playing your first match in the GSTL and Squirtle is crushing your face with a Void Ray. Nonetheless - FXO would get more chances to prove their forte...
Week 2: The disaster
"I would not indulge in guessing about what the hell happened to FXO on that particular Friday but a thought about them staffing a pay-rolled exorcist briefly crossed my mind."Sadly, a forte was not proven during the second week either. Instead, FXO faced a humiliating defeat, getting all-killed by the terran Hack - a player few would consider the strongest one on team Zenex.
In his article, a colleague writer described the series as Hack just surviving FXO's suicidal tendencies, not really all-killing the foreigners as much as they all-killed themselves. One couldn't be more right - it was like a third party force had handicapped the entire line-up of FXO, pushing them into making all the wrong decisions, crippling their micro capabilities or taking hold of their sight altogether.
As you might have guessed, week 2 was a short one for FXO. Moonan was the first to face Hack and after couple of okayish minutes of TvT, the FXO terran decided to run into tank fire and sacrifice all his marines, handing the victory on a silver platter. Slog took on the torch and once again a nice, fairly decent match was played until Hack dropped a nuke in the middle of an equal battle. Slog didn't see it and evaporated in seconds.
Tgun and Oz did not perform any better. Instead of just playing normal, Tgun decided to do a blind rush to infestors, doing little to none scouting - something very, very important when your opponent is transitioning into double banshee. Oz, on the other hand, got defeated by poor control of his 3-gate/void ray build, losing flier faster than a lingerie model loses her virginity (no offense to any lingerie models reading this article). I would not indulge in guessing about what the hell happened to FXO on that particular Friday but a thought about them staffing a pay-rolled exorcist briefly crossed my mind.
Weeks 3 and 4: Deeper downfall
QXC achieves the only triumph in week 4. With style, though, as always!FXO's misfortunes carried on as GSTL went by. Their players continued to perform below their optimum level which both you and I know to be WAY higher. Thus, FXO scored two 1-4 losses, dropping down to the last place in group B but giving us some good plays nonetheless.
Oz, and in part Tgun, were the only ones that defended FXO's honor in week 3. The Korean protoss snatched a victory out of team HoSeo by not choking at the sight of Seal's mass infestor build, which actually delivered quite serious doses of hurt before Oz could power up his army with multiple archons. His zerg teammate also made a nice stand (despite the fact that he got slapped by Jjakji, the terran that would eventually go 4-0 against FXO), playing an intense ZvT but once again facing defeat due to a problem previously discussed in this article - nerves due to lack of booth experience.
QXC was the lonely hero of FXO in week 4, going through Gumiho in a perfect TvT with impeccable preigniter harass. The fOu terran took nearly 90 SCVs in casualties and left the booth probably wondering what the hell just happened and how hard it is to leave a few marauders at every mineral line (it was not like there were million bases to defend, Gumiho barely managed to take a third). Mr. Riley, though, was quick to fall to Choya in the next set (ah, those pesky DTs again, hm?) but I was already too impressed by his hellion control I barely noticed the final defeat for the day.
Week 5: The miracle
"In less than 15 minutes QXC made MVP look like someone who regularly gets defeated in the first round of a weekly tournament."
"I wish I had that many workers..."It would be the final game of FXO in this GSTL. By that time they were 0-4 in series, with no chance of jumping through the group stage. The community sites were burning with negative predictions, anticipations of an all-kill and one promise of a T-shirt being eaten. After all, the amazing Incredible Miracle were to be faced.
QXC was the banner bearer for FXO, stepping first in the booth to face the IM elite. And the onslaught began.
Perfect turtling, late game reapers, immaculate mech play - it took IM three sets to take QXC seriously before they would send someone who can actually win games. There was no more room for fooling around with B-teamers - IM were on the brink of being all-killed and shamed before the eyes of thousands of fans. MVP stepped forth to put an end to this madness.
With a terrifying calmness, QXC opened preigniter hellions into banshees and in less than 15 minutes he made MVP look like someone who regularly gets defeated in the first round of a weekly tournament. With pristine micro, QXC kept each hellion alive as long as possible which allowed him to execute devastating drops upon MVP's mineral lines and finish him with double banshee harass. MVP hesitated in GG-ing out even when his SCV count dropped to three. But, well, what can you do when your opponent has thrice the supply count?
I wonder what happened to that T-shirt, though...
Drawing the line
Despite their contradictory overall results, FXOpen performed better than I actually expected. There are obvious flaws in the team but nothing incurable, to be honest. A few more televised matches, few months of hard Korean practice (now made easier with acquiring the entire fOu line-up) and polishing some aspects of their play and FXO would have little trouble performing seventeen times better. Even though they recently lost Sheth, that should not stop them from coming back and showing the Koreans their worth. Who, by the way, should esteem them way higher. Right, IM?
With the beginning of GSTL Season 1, the FXOpen guys were placed in what someone might consider the easier group, although I am not sure if such term can exist when looking at the other teams and their setups. Yes, they wouldn't have to play the two-times champions SlayerS or the star-spangled roster of oGs (or TSL and Prime who each tutored recent champions), but there were other enemies to be feared, ST and IM among the more fearsome. FXO's run would not be at all easy.
Week 1: A promising start
Sheth after scoring his first victory for FXOFXO's debut series was against StarTale - one of the leading pro teams in Korea and silver medalists from the first edition of the team league. Matches went head to head, the teams trading sets one for one, making the impression that the powers were most equal. QXC fell to the DT/Archon build of Tiger but Sheth was quick to avenge him by keeping his cool even under heavy double stargate pressure.
After Sheth's fall to Curious, it was time for another player to prove himself. Oz came ahead and snatched a shaky victory out of ST's zerg, achieved despite his badly timed sentry pushes. Following Oz's victory, Squirtle stepped forward to crush the foreign resistance, DT-ing his protoss compatriot and then putting an end to Moonan with 1-base Void Ray. FXO finished 2-4 - a loss, but not an embarrassing one by any standards. To make such a stellar debut against the prestigious ST was a feat by itself.
After rewatching the said series, a few things struck me regarding FXO's performance. First, their players seem to take extra damage from DTs. Second, it would appear that nerves played a bigger role than they should. Both QXC and Moonan seemed to choke when facing the protoss harass and died to stuff that a well-trained player would most likely not. However, the pressure is understandable - after all you are playing your first match in the GSTL and Squirtle is crushing your face with a Void Ray. Nonetheless - FXO would get more chances to prove their forte...
Week 2: The disaster
"I would not indulge in guessing about what the hell happened to FXO on that particular Friday but a thought about them staffing a pay-rolled exorcist briefly crossed my mind."Sadly, a forte was not proven during the second week either. Instead, FXO faced a humiliating defeat, getting all-killed by the terran Hack - a player few would consider the strongest one on team Zenex.
In his article, a colleague writer described the series as Hack just surviving FXO's suicidal tendencies, not really all-killing the foreigners as much as they all-killed themselves. One couldn't be more right - it was like a third party force had handicapped the entire line-up of FXO, pushing them into making all the wrong decisions, crippling their micro capabilities or taking hold of their sight altogether.
As you might have guessed, week 2 was a short one for FXO. Moonan was the first to face Hack and after couple of okayish minutes of TvT, the FXO terran decided to run into tank fire and sacrifice all his marines, handing the victory on a silver platter. Slog took on the torch and once again a nice, fairly decent match was played until Hack dropped a nuke in the middle of an equal battle. Slog didn't see it and evaporated in seconds.
Tgun and Oz did not perform any better. Instead of just playing normal, Tgun decided to do a blind rush to infestors, doing little to none scouting - something very, very important when your opponent is transitioning into double banshee. Oz, on the other hand, got defeated by poor control of his 3-gate/void ray build, losing flier faster than a lingerie model loses her virginity (no offense to any lingerie models reading this article). I would not indulge in guessing about what the hell happened to FXO on that particular Friday but a thought about them staffing a pay-rolled exorcist briefly crossed my mind.
Weeks 3 and 4: Deeper downfall
QXC achieves the only triumph in week 4. With style, though, as always!FXO's misfortunes carried on as GSTL went by. Their players continued to perform below their optimum level which both you and I know to be WAY higher. Thus, FXO scored two 1-4 losses, dropping down to the last place in group B but giving us some good plays nonetheless.
Oz, and in part Tgun, were the only ones that defended FXO's honor in week 3. The Korean protoss snatched a victory out of team HoSeo by not choking at the sight of Seal's mass infestor build, which actually delivered quite serious doses of hurt before Oz could power up his army with multiple archons. His zerg teammate also made a nice stand (despite the fact that he got slapped by Jjakji, the terran that would eventually go 4-0 against FXO), playing an intense ZvT but once again facing defeat due to a problem previously discussed in this article - nerves due to lack of booth experience.
QXC was the lonely hero of FXO in week 4, going through Gumiho in a perfect TvT with impeccable preigniter harass. The fOu terran took nearly 90 SCVs in casualties and left the booth probably wondering what the hell just happened and how hard it is to leave a few marauders at every mineral line (it was not like there were million bases to defend, Gumiho barely managed to take a third). Mr. Riley, though, was quick to fall to Choya in the next set (ah, those pesky DTs again, hm?) but I was already too impressed by his hellion control I barely noticed the final defeat for the day.
Week 5: The miracle
"In less than 15 minutes QXC made MVP look like someone who regularly gets defeated in the first round of a weekly tournament."
"I wish I had that many workers..."It would be the final game of FXO in this GSTL. By that time they were 0-4 in series, with no chance of jumping through the group stage. The community sites were burning with negative predictions, anticipations of an all-kill and one promise of a T-shirt being eaten. After all, the amazing Incredible Miracle were to be faced.
QXC was the banner bearer for FXO, stepping first in the booth to face the IM elite. And the onslaught began.
Perfect turtling, late game reapers, immaculate mech play - it took IM three sets to take QXC seriously before they would send someone who can actually win games. There was no more room for fooling around with B-teamers - IM were on the brink of being all-killed and shamed before the eyes of thousands of fans. MVP stepped forth to put an end to this madness.
With a terrifying calmness, QXC opened preigniter hellions into banshees and in less than 15 minutes he made MVP look like someone who regularly gets defeated in the first round of a weekly tournament. With pristine micro, QXC kept each hellion alive as long as possible which allowed him to execute devastating drops upon MVP's mineral lines and finish him with double banshee harass. MVP hesitated in GG-ing out even when his SCV count dropped to three. But, well, what can you do when your opponent has thrice the supply count?
I wonder what happened to that T-shirt, though...
Drawing the line
Despite their contradictory overall results, FXOpen performed better than I actually expected. There are obvious flaws in the team but nothing incurable, to be honest. A few more televised matches, few months of hard Korean practice (now made easier with acquiring the entire fOu line-up) and polishing some aspects of their play and FXO would have little trouble performing seventeen times better. Even though they recently lost Sheth, that should not stop them from coming back and showing the Koreans their worth. Who, by the way, should esteem them way higher. Right, IM?
