I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, watching mini throw games is a work of art, couple that with the thrashing around in his chair etc. it’s gold
I genuinely don't know of another pro who gets AS TILTED as Mini can be, and at the funniest stuff. Whether it's a worker mistiming or a dumb gamble gamble, it gets him rocking in his chair at a major tournament. When Mini is clicking and firing on all cylinders, he is oppressively terrifying. But he just gets in his own way half the time.
I know the cultural difference is significant in Korea, but I'm pretty sure those ads are bizarre even for them. I don't know what they were thinking... they should have at least used an actual model if they wanted to go with the sexy marketing approach.
Have you seen the one that ESL was running for SC2 and CS? Literally just starts with a woman giving the most visceral moan on full blast, then bass and flashing lights for 15 seconds. Because...thats what i want in my chair?
I watched those first two games, and I wondered how Mini could ever lose with how dominatingly strong his midgame was. Then Mini did everything in his power to die before the midgame. What's a wall or a cybernetics core, anyway?
15 years of world class matches is a decent practice of the mind. Some luck plays a role too though. Which you probably just need against a gambler like Mini.
So true. Mini tries to win ironically too strategically sometimes. Seems he learned nothing from losing to larva in the finals. Larva showed mini the path which is to make your opponent wary of your prep (hydra bust in his case). Minis version of that a strong macro like an 11 nexus never came back. He trained soulkey to expect something wild and forced him into heavy early unit play when it seemed soulkey wanted to take things to lurker hydra or beyond. All mini needed to do was to play economical once more I think and rely on his excellent tactics and mechanics. I think despite his good prep that’s where it was off. You need your opponent to be left out in the cold as to whether you’re gonna crush him early or bring it to mid/late. Great builds poorly planned series.
@@smallwisdom8819soulkey got really lucky with that first scout. I know he didn’t want the hatch in main. That said he could still have lost. If mini went forge before nexus or sniffed what soulkey was up to and left the zealots at home. Really soulkey paid super close attention to the zealots making sure none leaked out and more importantly fracturing them. Mini thought the main force retreated south when in actuality it went north to circumvent them and meet up with his second group coming from the third at the nat. Ironically soulkey did to mini in game 5 what mini did to soulkey in game 1. Although why soulkey pushed out against an 11 nexus….i can’t really say cuz even if he pushed to the nat - cannon + storm + rally would’ve held the nat. After 1 and 2 it was minis series to lose and he threw it.
9:30 I refuse to believe that "Slobberknocker" was the direct translation lol glad to see the translator is having fun and getting the vibe through though!
non-native here. I look up the word and it seems like it's only about aggressive play. You say the translator is having fun. Is there any other connotation of the word?
Mini is the kind of a guy that is super intriguing but at one point you started avoiding him and you forgot why, then you met him again and remembered that he was a gambler…
Mini once again just absolutely refusing for some reason to wall in, play a normal game, and win. He would have easily taken this had he simply played one safe game in any of the last three games. Incredible.
its not just gamble, its crazy multitasking, skills, precision and creativity, watch his games vs Queen in asl 11-12. How could he won over Queen like that with just ''luck'' thats a ridiculous thing to say
@@meowmers2512 He played "safe" games in last season's finals. Lost 4 of them. His only win was a 2 gate all-in. It is clear he is not confident he can outplay Soulkey without doing something off-meta. What he should have played is eco allin: 12 Nexus 3 times in a row, that should have won him 1 out of 3 instead of what he actually did.
A classic Mini series - opening games are transcendent that redefines the game, then continued reliance on weird builds and his emotional response to negative outcomes. Those first two games started a bit more normally (optimization + cutting corners), and then his subtle build selection could shine through. Good on SoulKey for remaining solid throughout!
I hate mini but man I can’t deny he has good prep Troy seems like an obvious spore map and that build was purpose made to dismantle fast spire. The first game has to be my favorite because he took a risk (11 nexus) and the economy he got coupled with a masterclass in army movement was smart. I really think mini would’ve won if he threw in another standard game like just a forge expand or even another 11 nexus in game 5. He’s bad at adapting and going for 2 starport again on blitz y made no sense. Soulkey only made the spire + mutas cuz of his huge gas bank from all the early back and forth - so he made a few mutas really muscled on the corsairs and relied on heavy unit production. But that’s mini for you he’s really looking to sweep the legs out from under a zerg or Terran even though he can absolutely muscle it in a macro game.
The post-game interviews were really good here. SoulKey intuited that Mini had figured out how SoulKey would want to prep, and SoulKey adjusted mid-series. Mini didn't. Strong mindgames.
Soulkey has to be the most resilient player out there. Even in ASL 16, he had many games go to the wire and managed to get on top. Really shows how even when behind, his spirit might bend, but won’t break.
This match left me empty. . . . . . Mini has showed us pure works of art with DTs slashing infinite mines without taking damage, looking completely unbeatable, then he just throws it 3 games in a row, lol. As good as Soulkey is, and he's a champ.. I felt like Mini lost this more to himself than being beaten.
I feel like he let himself get super tilted by game 3, it seemed like from then on he was frustrated and wanted to force wins by being over-aggressive and skipping the "don't lose" part of winning. It looked like the calculated decisions adapting to conditions from those earlier games weren't there.
SPOILERS tl;dr - I really think Mini could have won Game 5 if he wasn't so tilted. If my analysis is way off, please tell me. Watching both Nyoken's and Tastosis's casts, and looking at the timestamps and what Mini's vision was by the time the Probe died, he actually did do a significant amount of economic damage without seeing it. Because of all the crazy nonsense he pulled for three games in a row, Soulkey went 9 Pool Speed, and put a Hatchery down in his Main base the moment he saw the Double Gateway at the Natural with his Overlord. That's actually a horrible economic opener by Soulkey. He was semi-all in just by responding to the Double Gateway. Even though Mini saw basically nothing except for the 9 Pool, I think he should have thrown a Forge down no matter what. Without any vision and he has a somewhat awkward Simcity up at his Natural, I believe he could have put a Forge down and plugged up the natural and took his Nexus without eating a Speedling run-by. Regardless of the lack of scouting intel Mini got, I don't think there's a universe where pushing out with 5-6 Zealots would be advisable because of the 9 Pool. If Mini plugs up his Natural with a Forge, he could have maybe gone Nexus -> Cannon -> Cannon -> Cybernetics Core -> Cannon -> Stargate -> Corsair (safety Cannon against a 2 or 3 Hatch Hydra All-In). It'd be a long time before his first Corsair gets out to scout what Soulkey has, and I know playing in the dark for that long against a Zerg is really nerve racking. But again, Mini knows that a 9 Pool opening sucks economically. Soulkey is also behind and has crappy options on the table as well. With a Forge thrown down, Soulkey has only a couple of options. One would be taking his Natural and playing from behind and try and get back into a normal Mid-Game rhythm. The other is saying screw it, tech into Hydras, get Hydra Speed and try and bust the natural with 2 or 3 Hatcheries. I really don't think Soulkey had great options here. After all of that, it's probably up in the air what happens next. Most likely Mini goes for +1 Speedlot with 6 Corsairs and move across the map to smash Soulkey. I don't know, I just look at what Mini has at around ~3:00 and the fact that he kept making units instead of a Forge feels wrong to me. Throwing the Nexus down at ~4:00 just seems like such a massive coin-flip on whether or not Soulkey put the Hatchery down at the natural and is droning up behind the Zerglings.
Good take, but I think Mini was too fancy with his plans after being up 2-0. If he went an eco all-in like 12 Nexus (instead of the fancy aggressive all-ins that he did in actual games) for the next 3 match points, the odds of it working at least once are very high IMO. It's like he was psychologically traumatized after losing last season's finals vs Soulkey.
@@kane_lives Yeah, it's obvious that Mini is an emotional player and it's preventing him from adjusting on the fly / resetting his state on the next games. He's letting bad outcomes from previous games affect his judgment in future games. Yeah looking at the game again at the 2:00 mark, and it's so clear that Mini is tilted, it's crazy. I don't even think Soulkey meant to end Game 5 with a Speedling All-in. His Overlord is just sitting at the natural opening for 2 whole minutes looking to see when a wall would get thrown down and it never happens. Hell, I think even a C-Rank Protoss would realize you have to wall-in or you're going to get busted with the infinite openings you have at the natural. It's just frustrating because I know Mini can give good games but refuses to do them.
Spoiler They were right, the longer the series goes, the more Soulkey downloaded Mini's style and countered it. He looked a bit like Best "broken robot", despite his attacks being very varied. The setting was perfect for a macro game in game 5, but he couldn't resist going aggro and Soulkey predicted it and perfectly countered it.
Protoss players seem to have this problem, where they just don't adapt on the fly and counter whatever their opponent is doing. Best, Mini, bisu all seem to have this issue. Sn0w might win it all simply because he just pays attention to whats going on.
@@meowmers2512 Even the last game like... 2 gates at the natural? but why bulid them such that lings can run above the gateways, between the gateways, below the gateways, around the pylons, etc. it held lings about as well as a sieve holds water
1st, 2nd games: =D 3rd game: scratching my head as to why Mini is going robo instead of stargate 4th game: screaming at the screen "WHY THE FUCK U NO WALL!!!???" 5th game: running the bath, grabbing my knife
Haha, I had literally the exact opposite reaction. Classic SoulKey, acting like a shonen protagonist where he has to be back against the wall before revealing his true power.
Assuming the cheeses are 50/50 to win, you would have to lose three in a row to lose the series, which is like an 88% chance of victory across three games. And while he did win in game 1/2 in a more normal fashion, there is no guarantee SoulKey doesn't adjust his style and beat Mini straight up. SoulKey also has a WAY better mental than Mini, if mini goes down in a long, dramatic game 3, he might be unable to recover, whereas SoulKey is a fucking tireless, unflappable machine.
@@michaellopate4969 Mini gets way too emotional and also seems to vastly underestimate his ability to play a normal game against Soulkey for some reason
@@michaellopate4969 I don't know about that...seems like he broke mentally after winning 2 in a row. Game's 3 canon rush had no chance of working without zeolot back up and not walling in game 4, there was absolutely no reason for that, he had a core and forge. Those were not 50/50 cheeses. 10/90 maybe Don't fix what isn't broken. Playing straight up got you 2 games. Playing 3 more has a much better chance than the nonsense we witnessed
Mini is a reminder that you can be mechanically gifted and a micro god but nothing can cure ego induced stupidity, just wall in and give us a real game lmao, no reason to walk out if you are aware you got scouted first.
I feel like Mini is someone who can get into their opponents mind during his prep, those first two games had timings that were so elegant it felt like he knew what soulkey was going to do before soulkey himself knew, as if it was rehearsed. But Soulkey knows how to get into his opponents mind during the game, that 4 ling red herring in the last game was unbelievable, not taking an expansion and just mass producing lings, what a genius. Soulkey earned this win, well played.
Mini literally beat himself. All he had to do was play one semi standard game after his 2-0 lead and he woulda won 1 of them but no. He doubles down on risky cheesy builds. 🤯
Thiscould be one of the best RO4 yet. It wasn't until the conclusion of the Snow/Bisu game that I knew what I wanted the finals to be and after this we are only 2 matches away. This was some incredible gameplay and I can't wait for the Ro4 and finals.
Why did mini stick with the two gate in game 5? You could see he was upset when he saw soulkey’s overlord, why not just expand and abandon the two gate pressure
Mini was tilted after losing Game 4. Even with the 2 Gateways, if he would have thrown down a Forge to help plug up the natural, that would have greatly increased his chances of holding the Speeding All-In. And even if Soulkey would have thrown down his 3rd Hatch at the natural and played a normal game, the Forge should have gone down anyways. It's like Mini was expecting Soulkey to go 12 Hatch every single game this series.
I admire Mini (im a terran player and fan) for how he beated Queen in ASL 11 and 12, and from then a big fan of him. I think he underestimated Soulkey in game 3 for a stupid cheese, and by not walling in game 5. He needs to find more balance betwin cutting corners and play conservative
i thought the cheese was smart for the series and on that map. the problem was mini gets tilted over losing even when he cheeses, so he proceeded to throw the next two games. Game four he made some big micro mistakes and bad decisions. Game five he should have picked a more standard build. His game 5 opener was actually good, i think it's like 1/6 or 1/5 chance they see it with the overlord if you build in the natural, but in the last game of a bo5 against soulkey even if soulkey didn't scout it mini probably would have lost
Mini imploded here. He tried to clown in game 3 and then completely threw the series away from there. You just can't cheese a player of Soulkey's caliber
Game two's opening is awsome. I actually do something somewhat similar in SC2 sometimes and it works around 5.5k mmr. Obviously without the forge because that would be too slow. But massing up zealots with 2 gates out of a nexus first opening is actually a really strong tempo move against zerg. You just need a good amount of scouting to find out whether or not you can move out. And if you think going for roach cheese beats it, you can actually parry any attack by going into cyber double gas and delaying for sheild batteries and stalkers. Zerg cant break you.
I know I'm late, but a little context about Mini's strategy, from himself: SPOILERS It seems like he throws games a lot, but his mentality is that he has game plans before every series and has learned to stick with those game plans. He's said in the past when he would deviate from what he decided to do before the games, then his hands would suddenly freeze. It's also one reason why you see him in past games where he's in a clear advantage then "throws" the game mid- to late-game by making some stupid error. He decided that it's better to stick with what he practiced and his predetermined builds. It's his philosophy and approach to his current games. It has its advantages (i.e. Jaedong said during this ASL that he had builds in mind but when he played, he decided to do something else; if he stuck with his original game plan, he'd have won the games), but when it fails, it makes him look a bit careless.
Mini's unpredictability became predictable in the end. Soulkey eventually figured that out and just went pool first and massed lings every game. Lesser players would have got rolled 3-0 so kudos to Soulkey for turning it around and making Mini look foolish.
SPOILER . . . . . . . . . . Great games, both players very mechanically gifted, but I felt Soulkey deserved it for being able to react and adjust much better than Mini.
SPOILER Like I can't say say the winner is surprising, but mini being up by 2 sets at the starts had me absolutely clenching. What a match, absolutely awesome seeing SoulKey go full clutch
if mini had just got a forge instead of second gate and took his nat expansion he wouldve won the game for sure.... such a sad game for him. Not that i blame him of course it's easy to say after watching the game
Hate to say this but wow.. so many mistakes from both sides. Pretty bad games overall. The first 2 games SoulKey choked so hard. Then game 4 Mini looked so disgusted with himself and just straight up shat the bed in game 5. yikes
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@@MichaelSotoCE You can ... not look ? If it's difficult just look above when clicking on the video, or put your hand in front of you so you block your vision of the comments part with your hand. You can do it, you only need to want to.
@@gryu325 yt mobile shows you a single comment the moment you open the video. Usually it always says "spoiler block" but for some reason YT promoted this random comment with only 4 up votes
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