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NASL Week 9 Preview / Week 8 Recap

by motbob, confusedcrib, JimLloyd, and emythrel



Week Nine: The Games to Watch

by confusedcrib



NASL represents two things to me: interesting macro games, and fun, creative ones. Players like Kiwikaki and Qxc always introduce new, fun, exciting things to try out with your friends that never fail to entertain. Meanwhile players like iNcontroL, Select, and Ret all offer macro games that are possible to recreate in your safe standard play. These types of players offer real learning; in terms of game plans, taking advantage of timings, and general good decision making. Below are the best of both worlds, the games that will entertain, and the games that you will learn from.



Day 1



For Fun: KiwiKaki vs. Vibe



Vibe tends to play a nonstandard ZvP and Kiwikaki tends to play a non standard Starcraft. Vibe is on the forefront of innovation in the ZvP match up, utilizing everything from banelings to nydus worms to break apart his opponent. Vibe’s play is not solid enough to shut down Kiwikaki’s non standard play. Oftentimes, what you’ll notice with KiwiKaki is that you can force him into a standard game through timed builds and aggression. Vibe is not solid and standard enough to force Kiwikaki to go down the standard route, meaning that this series will be incredibly enjoyable.



To Learn from: Artosis vs. TLO



While the majority of people reading this probably think that Artosis is a bad player, I can assure you he is not. The guy is incredibly solid in the way he plays, especially in his thought process. When I watch Artosis play, I can understand why he is doing everything he is doing. He’s not cheesing, he’s not taking risks, and he’s just playing a safe game. This is why he loses a lot to players that do take risks, but in terms of helping yourself develop as a player, Artosis is a great protoss to watch. His opponent TLO, although his openings and late games tend to be quite crazy, his mid game is usually very solid and standard. Whenever I watch TLO play I learn a cool and clever way to get where I want to be in the mid game, very useful if you're getting bored with the match up.



Day 2



For Fun: Qxc vs. DarkForce



Qxc vs. DarkForce is the setup for a very cool TvZ. Qxc has so many openings designed for aggression that there’s no way the series will be boring. Qxc should have a legitimate chance of winning the match with his incredibly creative openings, but DarkForce's mid and late game may be stronger than Qxc's. Either way, expect the game to be full of back and forth aggression.



To Learn From: Incontrol vs. Sjow



iNcontroL is one of the kings of strong standard play, as is Sjow. Both of these players showcase extremely safe and solid styles that should be great for incorporating into your macro play. iNcontrol tends to be very solid in his decision making, showing you great places to hide pylons and when are good timings to poke out with your army. Sjow is very solid in his macro and decision making as well, a great player to learn proper army control and movement from. Both of these players should teach some great timings to poke and prod at your opponent



Day 3



For Fun: Squirtle vs. MoonGlade



Squirtle got famous from his team league performance, demonstrating what was, at the time, revolutionary Protoss play. His cheeses were inventive and his standard play even had non-standard aspects to it (such as having both a robotics and a stargate with only one gateway). MoonGlade is similarly very creative in his play and use of the full zerg arsenal, this game should be very entertaining to watch.



To Learn from: Haypro vs. Naniwa



Despite the fact that our good friend Haypro hasn't gotten very much “star status” as of late, he plays an extremely standard, safe, macro style that is great to learn from. Ever since Naniwa's destruction of the open bracket of MLG he has been hailed as an extremely safe and standard player. Oftentimes, the plays of the more creative players are difficult to emulate, but these two will be showing some great strategies that will be useful in your standard ladder play.



Day 4



For Fun: Catz vs Machine



Oh man am I titillated for this game beyond belief. Catz and Machine both have a lot of well thought out innovation in all of their match ups, and this game should be no different. Another fun part about watching these two duke it out is that when two players are playing creatively, it is often an extremely back and forth series. This should definitively be a fun one to watch



To Learn from: MC vs. Select



Select is one of the best ladder style Terran players out there. He does very well on the ladder and because of that, often plays a super safe yet creative game against his opponent. Every time I watch Select play I learn something about Terran, whether it was a cute tactic, or an awesome macro trick. MC shows a similar mix of standard with creative play in his style; this one should be a great match for learning.



Day 5



For Fun and Learning: Boxer vs. Idra



It’s always a treat to watch Boxer play; he has the best mix of safe and creative play and makes some awesome decisions while playing. And of course Idra needs no introduction, a beastly macro zerg with a beastly attitude in his tight leather gracket. Oh man, I’m getting hot already, this will be a great match to round out the week.



Things to Look for all Week Long:



Will Grubby, Qxc and Painuser get their first wins?



Can Morrow, Select, Squirtle, and Boxer all stay on top of their division? They're all one game away from falling from their top spots.



And as always, can Artosis bring great honor to his family? NASL represents two things to me: interesting macro games, and fun, creative ones. Players like Kiwikaki and Qxc always introduce new, fun, exciting things to try out with your friends that never fail to entertain. Meanwhile players like iNcontroL, Select, and Ret all offer macro games that are possible to recreate in your safe standard play. These types of players offer real learning; in terms of game plans, taking advantage of timings, and general good decision making. Below are the best of both worlds, the games that will entertain, and the games that you will learn from.vs.Vibe tends to play a nonstandard ZvP and Kiwikaki tends to play a non standard Starcraft. Vibe is on the forefront of innovation in the ZvP match up, utilizing everything from banelings to nydus worms to break apart his opponent. Vibe’s play is not solid enough to shut down Kiwikaki’s non standard play. Oftentimes, what you’ll notice with KiwiKaki is that you can force him into a standard game through timed builds and aggression. Vibe is not solid and standard enough to force Kiwikaki to go down the standard route, meaning that this series will be incredibly enjoyable.vs.While the majority of people reading this probably think that Artosis is a bad player, I can assure you he is not. The guy is incredibly solid in the way he plays, especially in his thought process. When I watch Artosis play, I can understand why he is doing everything he is doing. He’s not cheesing, he’s not taking risks, and he’s just playing a safe game. This is why he loses a lot to players that do take risks, but in terms of helping yourself develop as a player, Artosis is a great protoss to watch. His opponent TLO, although his openings and late games tend to be quite crazy, his mid game is usually very solid and standard. Whenever I watch TLO play I learn a cool and clever way to get where I want to be in the mid game, very useful if you're getting bored with the match up.vs.Qxc vs. DarkForce is the setup for a very cool TvZ. Qxc has so many openings designed for aggression that there’s no way the series will be boring. Qxc should have a legitimate chance of winning the match with his incredibly creative openings, but DarkForce's mid and late game may be stronger than Qxc's. Either way, expect the game to be full of back and forth aggression.vs.iNcontroL is one of the kings of strong standard play, as is Sjow. Both of these players showcase extremely safe and solid styles that should be great for incorporating into your macro play. iNcontrol tends to be very solid in his decision making, showing you great places to hide pylons and when are good timings to poke out with your army. Sjow is very solid in his macro and decision making as well, a great player to learn proper army control and movement from. Both of these players should teach some great timings to poke and prod at your opponentvs.Squirtle got famous from his team league performance, demonstrating what was, at the time, revolutionary Protoss play. His cheeses were inventive and his standard play even had non-standard aspects to it (such as having both a robotics and a stargate with only one gateway). MoonGlade is similarly very creative in his play and use of the full zerg arsenal, this game should be very entertaining to watch.vs.Despite the fact that our good friend Haypro hasn't gotten very much “star status” as of late, he plays an extremely standard, safe, macro style that is great to learn from. Ever since Naniwa's destruction of the open bracket of MLG he has been hailed as an extremely safe and standard player. Oftentimes, the plays of the more creative players are difficult to emulate, but these two will be showing some great strategies that will be useful in your standard ladder play.vsOh man am I titillated for this game beyond belief. Catz and Machine both have a lot of well thought out innovation in all of their match ups, and this game should be no different. Another fun part about watching these two duke it out is that when two players are playing creatively, it is often an extremely back and forth series. This should definitively be a fun one to watchvs.Select is one of the best ladder style Terran players out there. He does very well on the ladder and because of that, often plays a super safe yet creative game against his opponent. Every time I watch Select play I learn something about Terran, whether it was a cute tactic, or an awesome macro trick. MC shows a similar mix of standard with creative play in his style; this one should be a great match for learning.vs.It’s always a treat to watch Boxer play; he has the best mix of safe and creative play and makes some awesome decisions while playing. And of course Idra needs no introduction, a beastly macro zerg with a beastly attitude in his tight leather gracket. Oh man, I’m getting hot already, this will be a great match to round out the week.Will Grubby, Qxc and Painuser get their first wins?Can Morrow, Select, Squirtle, and Boxer all stay on top of their division? They're all one game away from falling from their top spots.And as always, can Artosis bring great honor to his family?



Game of the Week

by emythrel





This week the only hard part of choosing a game of the week was whether it should be Moon Vs KiwiKaki Game 1 or Moon Vs KiwiKaki Game 2. That isn't to say these were the only great games this week, it's just that these 2 games were crazy good. I usually find ZvP to follow a predictable pattern. Protoss gets the deathball and Zerg mass expands and after 20 minutes they finally fight. This makes the matchup, to me, rather boring. The Moon Vs KiwiKaki series, however, was anything but.



Moon Vs KiwiKaki on Backwater Gulch

Kiwi spawned top right, Moon bottom right. The game starts out normal enough, Kiwi elects to 4gate while Moon decides on a speedling expand. The first five minutes of the game see very little action aside from a fail field at Kiwi's ramp that completely missed the two lings it was intended to trap. Kiwi builds up a nice Sentry/Zealot force and decides to attack at a very strange timing, while taking his natural behind it. Moon brings out both Queens and some drones to help fend off the rush but some amazing forcefields from Kiwi block the ramp, then block the queens and the drones into a nasty choke.





Moon throws up five, yes five spines and pumps out a lot of lings. Moon thinks Kiwi is all-in, however he is building a huge economy back home. More fantastic FF's block Moon's lings from exiting his natural to make a counter attack and they all die in a horrible massacre.





Having done as much damage as possible with very few losses, Kiwi goes home and takes a huge lead into the mid-game.



A minute or two goes by before Kiwi returns to Moon's natural, this time with Stalkers and an Immortal in tow. However Moon is more prepared this time around, he has been teching to Muta's and has his lings set up for a flank. A small engagement forces Kiwi to back off until his blink research finishes. This is moon's queue to counter with his Mutalisks, they fly straight in to the unprotected main of Kiwi and wreak havok on his mineral line, meanwhile back at Moon's base Blink has finished and Kiwi uses an observer to gain access to Moon's main. A mini base trade begins, great FF blocks the drones escape route as Moon's Spire dies. However Kiwi bizarrely elects to not kill Moon's Lair. Back in Kiwi's base the Muta's are still uncontested and well on their way to killing Kiwi's Main nexus. Moon expands to both the bottom left and top left mains while Kiwi continues to bring the pain back at the bottom right main.





More drones die as Kiwi camps at the top of the ramp, when his Main Nexus falls Kiwi decides its time to go home. The Muta's are finally repelled from Kiwi's main when the blink Stalkers get back home. The action is still happening as Kiwi discovers both of the expansions Moon has on the left side of the map, he sends a small group of stalkers to bottom left and then takes his main army to kill the top left main while Moon's Mutas rush to save the already saturated bottom left main.





Moon is severely wounded, but still has a significant Muta force. The Benny hill music begins to play as the Stalkers make a futile attempt to chase the Muta's around the middle section of the map. The Muta's return back to Kiwi's main just in time to see the new Nexus finish and take down some stalkers for fun. At this point the game begins to stabilize as both players finally begin to mine from their main's once more. Moon attempts to expand again to the top right main and continues to pick off any outlying pylons at Kiwi's base with his Muta ball. Kiwi, still stuck on two bases to Moon's five, is playing from behind and sneaks out DT and HT tech, Kiwi positions a DT at every Zerg expansion he can, taking out the heavily saturated bottom left main. At the same time Moon loses a bunch of Muta's at Kiwi's main to a great storm. The DT's continue to do their work taking one expansion down to just over 200 health and another down to less than 100 before Moon can clean them up.





Kiwi takes the opportunity to move out with his army, still being stuck on 2 bases he needs to make some magic happen. The Protoss army marches across the map to finish off the 200 HP hatch but Moon is already on his way to counter at Kiwi's natural with Lings and the now massive Muta force. The moment the natural falls the Muta's move to the main and drop that too. Kiwi now has no mining bases and only 365 minerals in the bank, its now or never, he must attack or face defeat. He warps in a round of units with his remaining minerals and heads straight for the Zerg base.



Probes, Stalkers, Zealots and Archons roll in to Moon's natural but are met by a huge Roach force that seemed to materialize from nowhere and NINE, yes NINE Spine Crawlers. With his supply rapidly falling and only Stalkers left on the field of battle, even the amazing blink micro Kiwi is known for can not save him and the Canadian is forced to GG.







Overall this was one of the best ZvP's I've ever seen, Moon showed that Muta's can be extremely effective against Protoss. He also showed that by expanding aggressively and spreading the Protoss out you can force them in to positions they would rather not be contesting allowing the Zerg to have free reign over the Protoss main base with those pesky Muta's! If you have VOD access this series is one you must see. This week the only hard part of choosing a game of the week was whether it should be Moon Vs KiwiKaki Game 1 or Moon Vs KiwiKaki Game 2. That isn't to say these were the only great games this week, it's just that these 2 games were crazy good. I usually find ZvP to follow a predictable pattern. Protoss gets the deathball and Zerg mass expands and after 20 minutes they finally fight. This makes the matchup, to me, rather boring. The Moon Vs KiwiKaki series, however, was anything but.Kiwi spawned top right, Moon bottom right. The game starts out normal enough, Kiwi elects to 4gate while Moon decides on a speedling expand. The first five minutes of the game see very little action aside from a fail field at Kiwi's ramp that completely missed the two lings it was intended to trap. Kiwi builds up a nice Sentry/Zealot force and decides to attack at a very strange timing, while taking his natural behind it. Moon brings out both Queens and some drones to help fend off the rush but some amazing forcefields from Kiwi block the ramp, then block the queens and the drones into a nasty choke.Moon throws up five, yes five spines and pumps out a lot of lings. Moon thinks Kiwi is all-in, however he is building a huge economy back home. More fantastic FF's block Moon's lings from exiting his natural to make a counter attack and they all die in a horrible massacre.Having done as much damage as possible with very few losses, Kiwi goes home and takes a huge lead into the mid-game.A minute or two goes by before Kiwi returns to Moon's natural, this time with Stalkers and an Immortal in tow. However Moon is more prepared this time around, he has been teching to Muta's and has his lings set up for a flank. A small engagement forces Kiwi to back off until his blink research finishes. This is moon's queue to counter with his Mutalisks, they fly straight in to the unprotected main of Kiwi and wreak havok on his mineral line, meanwhile back at Moon's base Blink has finished and Kiwi uses an observer to gain access to Moon's main. A mini base trade begins, great FF blocks the drones escape route as Moon's Spire dies. However Kiwi bizarrely elects to not kill Moon's Lair. Back in Kiwi's base the Muta's are still uncontested and well on their way to killing Kiwi's Main nexus. Moon expands to both the bottom left and top left mains while Kiwi continues to bring the pain back at the bottom right main.More drones die as Kiwi camps at the top of the ramp, when his Main Nexus falls Kiwi decides its time to go home. The Muta's are finally repelled from Kiwi's main when the blink Stalkers get back home. The action is still happening as Kiwi discovers both of the expansions Moon has on the left side of the map, he sends a small group of stalkers to bottom left and then takes his main army to kill the top left main while Moon's Mutas rush to save the already saturated bottom left main.Moon is severely wounded, but still has a significant Muta force. The Benny hill music begins to play as the Stalkers make a futile attempt to chase the Muta's around the middle section of the map. The Muta's return back to Kiwi's main just in time to see the new Nexus finish and take down some stalkers for fun. At this point the game begins to stabilize as both players finally begin to mine from their main's once more. Moon attempts to expand again to the top right main and continues to pick off any outlying pylons at Kiwi's base with his Muta ball. Kiwi, still stuck on two bases to Moon's five, is playing from behind and sneaks out DT and HT tech, Kiwi positions a DT at every Zerg expansion he can, taking out the heavily saturated bottom left main. At the same time Moon loses a bunch of Muta's at Kiwi's main to a great storm. The DT's continue to do their work taking one expansion down to just over 200 health and another down to less than 100 before Moon can clean them up.Kiwi takes the opportunity to move out with his army, still being stuck on 2 bases he needs to make some magic happen. The Protoss army marches across the map to finish off the 200 HP hatch but Moon is already on his way to counter at Kiwi's natural with Lings and the now massive Muta force. The moment the natural falls the Muta's move to the main and drop that too. Kiwi now has no mining bases and only 365 minerals in the bank, its now or never, he must attack or face defeat. He warps in a round of units with his remaining minerals and heads straight for the Zerg base.Probes, Stalkers, Zealots and Archons roll in to Moon's natural but are met by a huge Roach force that seemed to materialize from nowhere and NINE, yes NINE Spine Crawlers. With his supply rapidly falling and only Stalkers left on the field of battle, even the amazing blink micro Kiwi is known for can not save him and the Canadian is forced to GG.Overall this was one of the best ZvP's I've ever seen, Moon showed that Muta's can be extremely effective against Protoss. He also showed that by expanding aggressively and spreading the Protoss out you can force them in to positions they would rather not be contesting allowing the Zerg to have free reign over the Protoss main base with those pesky Muta's! If you have VOD access this series is one you must see.



Nine Things I Think I Think

by JimLloyd



1. The NASL is competitive; you have to be focused. This is high-level play, and if you aren’t playing Starcraft professionally -- in the sense of doing so full-time -- you’re going to lose. Artosis and PainUser are excellent players, but they haven’t been fully focused on playing Starcraft II, and so have less-than-stellar records in the NASL. qxc is dealing with finishing up school and moving thousands of miles, and it’s reflected in his position in the standings. Interestingly, since many of these players won’t be in Season 2, it could be some time before they can return to the NASL. At least it’s still easier than Code A -> Code S.



2. Koreans are very good. No kidding, right? But note that I didn’t say they were “great.” The NASL hasn’t turned into a Korean league that just happens to be based in North America. Most of the Koreans are near the top of the division standings, but none of them look unbeatable. The top player by points is SeleCT, an American, and two of the five divisions are lead by non-Koreans. Ensnare and Rainbow have looked terrible at times, and even MC is only +3 on points. And lots of great non-Korean players -- e.g., Kas, ThorZain, miniWHEAT -- aren’t in the NASL yet. But obviously there’s a reason for this, right? The Koreans are dealing with lag (like they'd sweep the podium at a NA LAN event), or these aren’t the best Koreans (as if someone like, say, MMA, would beat July), or something else; I'm sure someone will tell us.



3. How are the teams faring? Remember, you had to be on a “team” (scarequotes for Grubby) to get into the NASL, so let’s look at which teams are doing well. Startale is clearly the class of the league, with July (7-1, 10 points), Squirtle (7-1, 9 points), and Ace (6-2, 6 points) all doing well. Dignitas also looks good, with SeleCT (7-1, 12 points) leading his division and Naniwa (5-2, 7 points, and one of the losses was a no-show) and SjoW (5-3, 3 points) both headed for the playoffs. Mousesports and fnatic are also positioned well, with a division leader and several other notable players. OGS and Evil Geniuses are pretty solid all around, with three players doing well and one not as much. ROOT, Liquid, and FXOpen are in similar positions, with one ace player high in the standings and the rest near the bottom. And CompLexity and sixjax are hoping to sneak someone into the playoffs. Then you have teams with few representatives like imba.FXOpen (not confusing at all), MYM, or ESC.Icybox, that don't really fit into a "how are the teams doing?" analysis.



4. CatZ is awesome. But we already knew that.







5. Not all divisions are made the same. When we get to the playoffs next week, it’ll be cool to see which divisions are tougher than others. Since there’s no inter-division play, there’s really no way to know, and we can only go by reputation and guesswork. Good enough for me! My ranking of the divisions from strongest to weakest: 4 (SeleCT, Ret, Ace, HasuObs, MC), 2 (July, White-Ra, SjoW), 5 (Sen, BoxeR, IdrA, Zenio), 3 (Squirtle, Strelok, Naniwa), 1 (Rainbow, Artosis, Grubby).



6. Speaking of playoffs, what is up with Starcraft leagues? Is it some kind of nerd filtering system whereby people who don’t want to spend forty minutes examining a giant chart don’t get to understand what’s going on? (And that giant chart was kindly made by some third party so other people wouldn’t have to wade through



7. So many casters! If Starcraft is going to grow in popularity, it’s going to require good casters. Only the most die-hard fans and players can follow everything that’s going on without help, and a caster can make complex things seem simple (see John Madden, from American football). The NASL plays a ton of games, and they’ve used that as an opportunity to showcase lots of different casters.



And with iNcontroL playing so much, they’ve brought out a ton of different people. We’ve seen IdrA (low intensity, high game knowledge), TotalBiscuit (high intensity, lower game knowledge), CatsPajamas (giant beard), Mr. Bitter (tiny beard), Khaldor (German), Xeris (not German), and Diggity (shirt and tie!). I'm sure I’m forgetting some, too. It gives a lot of casters an opportunity to be seen on a big stage, and fans a chance to see how other people cast. I like the idea of different casters; you don’t need the same people casting every game, and the NASL has a lot of games -- viewers can use some different perspectives. It's a win-win-win for the casters, the league, and the fans.



The one constant this season, Gretorp, has frequently been the object of criticism, and yes, he does misuse words and make some others up on the fly, but I think he’s been pretty solid. His awkward charm and chemistry with iNcontroL have really developed over the course of the season, and he’s been a good counterpoint to the charismatic Protoss (who himself has been excellent). Personally, I think he should own the malapropisms, make them his “thing.” It'd add a "what will he say next?" element to the broadcast, like Bill Walton for the NBA. I don’t like when casters try to do “the ESPN voice.” Just because traditional sportscasters all talk the same doesn’t mean that it’s the right way to do it; I like that a caster’s personality can show through and add something to the broadcast.



8. So little context! While the casters have done a good job in describing and commenting on the action, they rarely put the games in the context of the larger league. Sometimes they don’t know where the players are in the standings, even where it’s a potentially important match. The casters could also provide some connection between what’s happening in the match being broadcast and the bewildering playoff system. There’s ample time before the games get “out of book” to throw in a few comments, which would only add to the drama the league said they wanted to create.



9. Quitters. So some players aren’t showing up for their late-season matches after they’ve been eliminated from the playoffs. I see two points: (i) if they’re already out of the money, why should they “waste” their time practicing or playing, but (ii) if they want to be considered “professionals,” they’ve got to show a professional ethic. Other sports use the “league standings before a playoff system” format, and professionals in those sports play hard even after they’ve been eliminated. Of course, it’s probably easier to maintain that professional ethic if you’re pulling in a substantial salary that can be cut off if you dog it late in the season. There's probably an analogue in the history of Brood War (as team leagues with salaried players came to the fore) with which I'm not familiar. So is it a flaw of the structure of the NASL, or is it a problem with the financial structure of “pro” Starcraft 2? What's the solution to either?



*The extent to which the designers add complexity to league structure in order to bring the results into line with their pre-existing expectations of what the “correct” results ought to be, and whether this is appropriate, shall be left for another article. This is high-level play, and if you aren’t playing Starcraft professionally -- in the sense of doing so full-time -- you’re going to lose. Artosis and PainUser are excellent players, but they haven’t been fully focused on playing Starcraft II, and so have less-than-stellar records in the NASL. qxc is dealing with finishing up school and moving thousands of miles, and it’s reflected in his position in the standings. Interestingly, since many of these players won’t be in Season 2, it could be some time before they can return to the NASL. At least it’s still easier than Code A -> Code S.No kidding, right? But note that I didn’t say they were “great.” The NASL hasn’t turned into a Korean league that just happens to be based in North America. Most of the Koreans are near the top of the division standings, but none of them look unbeatable. The top player by points is SeleCT, an American, and two of the five divisions are lead by non-Koreans. Ensnare and Rainbow have looked terrible at times, and even MC is only +3 on points. And lots of great non-Korean players -- e.g., Kas, ThorZain, miniWHEAT -- aren’t in the NASL yet. But obviously there’s a reason for this, right? The Koreans are dealing with lag (like they'd sweep the podium at a NA LAN event), or these aren’t the best Koreans (as if someone like, say, MMA, would beat July), or something else; I'm sure someone will tell us.Remember, you had to be on a “team” (scarequotes for Grubby) to get into the NASL, so let’s look at which teams are doing well. Startale is clearly the class of the league, with July (7-1, 10 points), Squirtle (7-1, 9 points), and Ace (6-2, 6 points) all doing well. Dignitas also looks good, with SeleCT (7-1, 12 points) leading his division and Naniwa (5-2, 7 points, and one of the losses was a no-show) and SjoW (5-3, 3 points) both headed for the playoffs. Mousesports and fnatic are also positioned well, with a division leader and several other notable players. OGS and Evil Geniuses are pretty solid all around, with three players doing well and one not as much. ROOT, Liquid, and FXOpen are in similar positions, with one ace player high in the standings and the rest near the bottom. And CompLexity and sixjax are hoping to sneak someone into the playoffs. Then you have teams with few representatives like imba.FXOpen (not confusing at all), MYM, or ESC.Icybox, that don't really fit into a "how are the teams doing?" analysis.But we already knew that.When we get to the playoffs next week, it’ll be cool to see which divisions are tougher than others. Since there’s no inter-division play, there’s really no way to know, and we can only go by reputation and guesswork. Good enough for me! My ranking of the divisions from strongest to weakest: 4 (SeleCT, Ret, Ace, HasuObs, MC), 2 (July, White-Ra, SjoW), 5 (Sen, BoxeR, IdrA, Zenio), 3 (Squirtle, Strelok, Naniwa), 1 (Rainbow, Artosis, Grubby).Is it some kind of nerd filtering system whereby people who don’t want to spend forty minutes examining a giant chart don’t get to understand what’s going on? (And that giant chart was kindly made by some third party so other people wouldn’t have to wade through an impenetrable wall of text. ) My theory is that everyone’s trying to come up with that perfect system that’s completely fair and will allow for the “best” players to succeed and the “worst” to fail.* But the perfect is the enemy of the comprehensible. I don’t know how the abstract mathematicians who came up with the systems missed the concept of “ satisficing ," but they’ve really got to read about it.If Starcraft is going to grow in popularity, it’s going to require good casters. Only the most die-hard fans and players can follow everything that’s going on without help, and a caster can make complex things seem simple (see John Madden, from American football). The NASL plays a ton of games, and they’ve used that as an opportunity to showcase lots of different casters.And with iNcontroL playing so much, they’ve brought out a ton of different people. We’ve seen IdrA (low intensity, high game knowledge), TotalBiscuit (high intensity, lower game knowledge), CatsPajamas (giant beard), Mr. Bitter (tiny beard), Khaldor (German), Xeris (not German), and Diggity (shirt and tie!). I'm sure I’m forgetting some, too. It gives a lot of casters an opportunity to be seen on a big stage, and fans a chance to see how other people cast. I like the idea of different casters; you don’t need the same people casting every game, and the NASL has a lot of games -- viewers can use some different perspectives. It's a win-win-win for the casters, the league, and the fans.The one constant this season, Gretorp, has frequently been the object of criticism, and yes, he does misuse words and make some others up on the fly, but I think he’s been pretty solid. His awkward charm and chemistry with iNcontroL have really developed over the course of the season, and he’s been a good counterpoint to the charismatic Protoss (who himself has been excellent). Personally, I think he shouldthe malapropisms, make them his “thing.” It'd add a "what will he say next?" element to the broadcast, like Bill Walton for the NBA. I don’t like when casters try to do “the ESPN voice.” Just because traditional sportscasters all talk the same doesn’t mean that it’s the right way to do it; I like that a caster’s personality can show through and add something to the broadcast.While the casters have done a good job in describing and commenting on the action, they rarely put the games in the context of the larger league. Sometimes they don’t know where the players are in the standings, even where it’s a potentially important match. The casters could also provide some connection between what’s happening in the match being broadcast and the bewildering playoff system. There’s ample time before the games get “out of book” to throw in a few comments, which would only add to the drama the league said they wanted to create.So some players aren’t showing up for their late-season matches after they’ve been eliminated from the playoffs. I see two points: (i) if they’re already out of the money, why should they “waste” their time practicing or playing, but (ii) if they want to be considered “professionals,” they’ve got to show a professional ethic. Other sports use the “league standings before a playoff system” format, and professionals in those sports play hard even after they’ve been eliminated. Of course, it’s probably easier to maintain that professional ethic if you’re pulling in a substantial salary that can be cut off if you dog it late in the season. There's probably an analogue in the history of Brood War (as team leagues with salaried players came to the fore) with which I'm not familiar. So is it a flaw of the structure of the NASL, or is it a problem with the financial structure of “pro” Starcraft 2? What's the solution to either?*The extent to which the designers add complexity to league structure in order to bring the results into line with their pre-existing expectations of what the “correct” results ought to be, and whether this is appropriate, shall be left for another article.

Did you miss NASL last week? Perhaps you were watching MLG non-stop and completely forgot about the league? Or maybe you haven't ever watched NASL? Well, that's OK! Last week was kind of lackluster, a week defined by walkovers and five page LR threads. There were some pretty amazing games, to be sure, but it was the least-watched week in NASL's history.But the time for abstinence from the NASL stream is over. This week is theof the NASL regular season, with all of the drama and passion that it entails. A big criticism of the NASL's format was that the perception existed that the games in the regular season "didn't matter." Well, this week, they matter in a way that's very easy to see: the playoffs are coming, and the spots to get in are far from being set in stone.So join us, the NASL writing team, as we preview what promises to be the best week of NASL yet.We aren't only previewing Week 9 in this article. Here, emythrel takes a look back at a fantastic Week 8 game you might have missed.In the spirit of the best online weekly sports column on the internet today, JimLloyd gives us a retrospective on the first eight weeks of the NASL.Well, that's all we have for this week. Stay tuned; we'll have more content out when the NASL playoffs roll around!