Nal_rA
From Liquipedia Starcraft Wiki
 | This player has retired from competitive StarCraft. |
 Nal_rA
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 | |
| Background Information | |
| Name: | 강민 Kang Min |
|---|---|
| Team: | (Retired) |
| Race: | P |
| Birthday: | 1982-03-15 |
| IDs: | Nal_rA, Nal_rA |
| Height/Weight: | |
| Nicknames: | Dreamer |
| Fansite: | http://cafe.daum.net/starkangmin |
| Career | |
| ELO Rank: | |
| Peak ELO: | |
| Team History: | |
| Draft History: | |
| TLPD: |  Nal_rA
|
Kang Min a.k.a. Nal_rA is a retired Korean Starcraft progamer. He played as Protoss.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Known for his creative and unpredictable style, he pioneered Sair/Reaver and Fast Expansion among other techniques which would eventually become part of the standard Protoss arsenal. He would often rely on Probe micro to defend in the early game and would make extensive use of Photon Cannons, unorthodox builds and cheese rushes. Though his PvZ often receives the most attention, Nal_rA was also a proficient PvT player, and was very successful in the matchup. Nal_rA has been called the Protoss BoxeR, due to his creative and frequently unorthodox style.
Nal_rA is known for his rivalry with "The Maestro" sAviOr, whom he met several times in various tournaments and series. The rivalry was coined "The Holy Wars", and spanned across 3 MSLs, a Blizzard WWI tournament and a Blizzcon Invitational. Their rivalry totaled 17 games, with sAviOr winning 10 and Nal_rA winning 7. He also is known for having a rivalry with "Devil Toss" Kingdom, who he lost to in the finals of the 2003 MyCube OSL.
Nal_rA retired in 2008 and became a commentator for MBCGame and later OnGameNet, continuing his historic rivalry with Kingdom before joining him. On October 22nd, TeamLiquid's lilsusie interviewed him.[1] During the interview he revealed some of his thoughts on StarCraft and StarCraft 2. In addition to his duties as a commentator, he tried to qualify for the Korean Air Season 2 OSL. During this comeback, Nal_rA had a film crew follow him around and document his journey to qualify for the OSL. The show was called Nal_rA's Old Boy Series and totaled 13 episodes, though ultimately concluded with him not qualifying. In June 2010, he entered the military.
[edit] Trivia
- In an interview he mentioned his favorite unit is the Protoss Archon.[1]
- Nal_rA used a ball mouse for his entire career.
- During a match on MBCgame, Nal_rA suddenly paused the game. When asked by the commentators whether he was experiencing technical problems, Nal_rA abashedly responded with a request for a tissue to blow his nose. Nal_rA earned the nickname of "snot toss" from the incident.
[edit] Accomplishments
| Place | Year | Event/League |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd | 2006 | Pringles MBCGame StarLeague Season 1 |
| 2nd | 2005 | K-SWISS OnGameNet Dual Tournament Round 1 |
| 3rd | 2004 | SPRIS MBCGame StarLeague |
| 1st | 2004 | OnGameNet Intel The Games Opening Best Couple League |
| 1st | 2003-2004 | NHN HanGame OnGameNet Starleague |
| 2nd | 2003 | MyCube OnGameNet Starleague |
| 1st | 2003 | Stout MBCGame Starleague |
| OSL Champion | ||
| MyCube OSL Preceeded By:   Kingdom
|
NHN OSL 21st March 2004-31st July 2004 Nal_rA
|
Gillette OSL Succeeded By:  July
|
| MSL Champion | ||
| Baskin Robbins KPGA 4th Tour Preceeded By:  NaDa
|
Stout MSL 19th July 2003-6th November 2003 Nal_rA
|
TriGem MSL Succeeded By: iloveoov
|
[edit] Nal_ra's Old Boy Series
Much similar to MBC's beloved Hyungjoon series, OGN has decided to launch it's own rendition of a famous celebrity in his journey to become a progamer. However, rather than picking out a random pop culture celebrity, OGN has chosen it's own Kang Min, everyone's favorite Dreamer Toss.
- Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #1
- Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #2
- Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #3
- Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #4
- Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #5
- Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #6
- Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #7
- Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #8
- Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #9
- Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #10
- Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #11
- Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #12
- Nal_ra's Old Boy: Episode #13
[edit] Notable Games
[edit] PvT
- vs GooDFriend, on Parallellines 3, Spris 4th MSL FPVOD - Hallucination Recall - the quintessential Nal_rA game.
- vs Midas, on Raid Assault, 2004, You Are the Golf King MSL FPVOD - The little shuttle that could. Follow it's exploits in first person view.
- vs Casy, Peaks of Baekdu, ShinHan2006-1 OSL - How does Nal_rA respond to his opponent scouting his proxy? He re-proxies somewhere else, of course. Then he proxies more buildings in other locations.
- vs NaDa, on R-Point, SKY2005 Proleague Round 2 VOD - Nal_rA debuts the 12 nexus build, and upon scouting it NaDa chooses a less-than-optimal 2 Factory. This game ended the 12nex vs 2fact debates before they even happened, as rA's 12nex was easily designed to handle any kind of factory-based aggression - even though his goon micro was nowhere near what it is today.
[edit] PvP
- vs Kingdom, on Nemesis, Shinhan Proleague 2007 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 - An epic PvP featuring one of the great Protoss rivalries.
[edit] PvZ
- vs Savior, Sin Peaks of Baekdu, 2006, Pringles-2 MSL - At the apex of the Holy Wars we were presented with this masterpiece of a game. Huge late game armies, and an elimination race for the ages.
- vs Savior, Rush Hour 3, 2006, Pringles-1 MSL Finals, Game 2 - Combining a +1 speedzeal attack with an early version of 4Gate/2Archon, Nal_rA punishes Savior's overexpansion. It wasn't often Savior showed any weak points in his game, and this is the same one Bisu would eventually exploit (in a different fashion).
- vs Chojja, The Eye, 2006, Pringles-1 MSL - Also capable of playing standard as well as any protoss of the time, Nal_rA shows us how to break a lurker contain with amazing storm usage.
- vs Zergman, Rush Hour 3, ShinHan2006-1 OSL - Nal_rA cannon rushes Zergman, who responds with an offensive hatchery. Only one of these players carefully planned their build - can you guess who?
- vs JulyZerg, Monty Hall, 2007, GomTV MSL 2, Game 2 - Nal_rA meets Monty Hall. Everyone is used to seeing weird stuff from the Dreamer, but no one could have envisioned a game as crazy as this one.
- vs Orion, Blue Storm, 2007, GOMTV MSL S3 VOD - Nal_rA proxies everything but the kitchen sink into Orion's natural, including an amazingly placed first cannon.
- vs TheWinD, on Arizona, 2005, MBC Team League VOD - In probably the most efficent game ever, Nal_rA shows us how to devastate a zerg using just the first couple reavers and dragoons produced. Oh, and half the buildings involved were proxied for your enjoyment.
