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China's Warcraft III hero, Xiao Feng "Sky" Li, continues to be the player to beat in the World Cyber Games after winning back to back in 2005 and 2006.
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Prior to winning the 2005 Warcraft III championship, no one knew that Xiao Feng “Sky’ Li would walk away with the gold medal. He was more of a darkhorse than a favorite – he didn’t even win 1st place in China’s regional qualifiers. He managed to defeat Grubby early in the group stages with his strong Human vs Orc match-up that most of the Warcraft III populace ended up copying to their own advantage. This was the beginning of Sky’s extreme dominance and influence in the Warcraft III scene with his incredible play style and innovative tactics.
![]() | ![]() | ![]() | | Sky's WCG 2005 Run | ![]() | | | ![]() ![]() ![]() Shortround
![]() ![]() ![]() ToD
![]() ![]() ![]() Creolophus
![]() ![]() ![]() WinneR
![]() ![]() ![]() Zerter
![]() ![]() ![]() Grubby | |
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The road to his first championship certainly wasn’t easy. As mentioned before, Sky was placed in the same group as the former champion, Grubby. After getting through the group stages, he faced popular players such as Zerter, WinneR, Creolophus, ToD and finally, Shortround in the finals. Comparing to the players Sky has faced recently, this row of names isn’t as impressive – but still, it’s arguably one of the toughest roads to the finals that year.
![]() | ![]() | ![]() | | Sky's WCG 2006 Run | ![]() | | | ![]() ![]() ![]() ToD
![]() ![]() ![]() HoT
![]() ![]() ![]() Grubby
![]() ![]() ![]() GoStop
![]() ![]() ![]() Zeus[19]
![]() ![]() ![]() Rob | |
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Come 2006, fate didn’t change for the former champion at all. Sky faced players such as Zeus[19] and Rob in the group stages, considered as one of the most difficult groups drawn in the tournament. In the bracket rounds, Sky went against players such as GoStop, Grubby, HoT and ToD.
Compared to 2005, Sky certainly faced more formidable opponents in 2006 on his way to the finals.
![]() | ![]() | ![]() | | Sky's WCG 2007 Group Stage | ![]() | | | ![]() ![]() ![]() Lyn
![]() ![]() ![]() SoJu
![]() ![]() ![]() Zeus[19]
![]() ![]() ![]() Ciara
![]() ![]() ![]() Lose
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Sky never showed signs of doubt or hesitation. One of Sky's main strengths is his extreme confidence, which is not to be mistaken for arrogance.
In most of his interviews, you can see how Sky carries himself as a player. Instead of showing uncertainty, Sky focuses on the prospect of defeating his enemy and attaining his final goal. So far, this has worked well for the Chinese hero. His tough demeanor makes him a feared opponent by even the most confident player. No amount of pressure breaks his determination that every tournament is his to win.
His WCG 2006 win marked the first back to back title for Warcraft III, and cementing not only Sky’s dominance in the scene, but China’s emergence in Warcraft III as well.
Most professional gamers come, go, and fade away through the years. The phenomenon of a player winning two championships back to back is reserved for people such as the Starcraft emperor, Slayers_Boxer; and now, Sky. The WCG doesn’t even give a free seed to former champions due to the fast skill turnover of players. Sky is an obvious exception – two years after his first championship, he’s still considered a top favorite to win it all.
![]() Sky wins WCG 2006.
The World Cyber Games continues to be Sky’s tournament to lose. The Warcraft III tournament this year is hyped up as the most competitive one to date. Most of the big names managed to qualify this year: Night Elf phenomenon Moon, Orcish favorite Grubby and Human powerhouse ToD.
Joining these four big names are equally colossal players: recent ESWC winner SoJu, Orc poster boy Lyn, recently retired talent Creolophus... I could list more of the names, but I think we can all agree that the list does look pretty hefty to begin with.
Sky comes into the tournament as one of the top favorites, only to be met up with one of the toughest group to date. Prior to the event, Sky was supposed to play in Group F, where his only possible upset coming from the Russian player TitaN, who ended up unable to attend the finals due to visa problems.
Since China's first seed, Lyc, ended up with the same fate as TitaN; Sky was moved up into Lyc's group -- touted as the "group of death", even before Sky found himself into that deathtrap. Sky has to face two players who have the potential to actually win it all: Seong Deok "SoJu" Lee and June "Lyn" Park. It’s already a big blow to the general fans to see two South Koreans bunched up in the same group; much the less having to see one of them knocked out with Sky in the picture. Added to that, Ivica "Zeus[19] Petrovic, Rene "Ciara" Krag, and Romanas "Lose" Rimkus are all talented players who can all qualify if they managed to get seeded in a less cutthroat group.
While no one doubts Sky’s determination to take home another gold medal, there are two glaring factors which might hinder Sky from winning for the third time: Fly100% and Moon.
Sky has proven time and again that he can defeat most of the top contenders such as ToD and Grubby, as he has done in the past WCG championships. This year, Fly100% managed to qualify for his first WCG ever; while Moon returns since his last appearance from 2004.
![]() Moon with Sky at WSVG Wuhan.
Fly100% became extremely well-known in the Warcraft III circuit after repeatedly (yes, it’s not a fluke) defeating Sky in several Chinese LAN tournaments. What makes this victory so amazing is that Sky is renowned in devastating Orc opponents, and Fly100% managed to emerge triumphant over such a dominating Human player.
Moon of course, continues to be the most enigmatic Warcraft III player ever since he came bursting out into the scene. The WCG evaded him in 2005 and 2006, where he was knocked out early in the Korean qualifiers. This year, he finally managed to secure a spot for himself. Moon, in theory, can defeat virtually all other Warcraft III players. I know some people may lambaste me for this statement, but in all honestly, there’s a strong level of truth in that assumption.
Moon is certainly going to be a huge challenge for Sky to face, especially since Moon managed to 3-0 Sky two times in Warcraft World War; along with a 2-0 in WSVG Wuhan.
But honestly speaking, no one expected Sky to win back in 2005. While Sky was the favorite in 2006, some people doubted him to win it all, seeing the rough road ahead. This year brings tougher opponents, but Sky doesn't seem to notice the difficulty -- just as long as he knows he's going to win it all again.
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发表于 2007-10-6 19:32
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发表于 2007-10-6 22:03
