So with IO MO & SO being void, LiLiu & Kamson will lose many points which means EndoW will most likely be WR3. With less tournaments, it will actually be harder to overhaul Minions point even though they have to defend their points at the end of the year cause there will be few chances for others to do well. would be nice to end WR1 for 4th consecutive year. Minions will consolidate even more. At this stage, i will rather they stay as long as possible as WR1 since they already won many titles. usually i d rather think its nicer to win the title than being consistent (like PraveenMelati) but in Minions case, i am happier if they stay at the top as long as possible. Any titles will be a cherry on the cake.
Yeah. And I also feel that Kevin being a total mess and wasn't his usual confident self in that match probably contributed a lot to that. Usually he probably thought that he was the one making the mess and needed protection but for this time he felt like he had to step in and help Kevin all he could. Kevin was under a lot of pressure, he must have felt that he had to do so much more himself hence his many mistakes from trying to make winners out of impatience and frustration. Partly I blame the coach for always tasking and telling Kevin to do more to "protect" Marcus. Whenever Marcus had a bad day, I could often listen the coach telling Kevin to do something more because Marcus wasn't having a good day. I can't blame him for being helpless, frustrated and losing his confidence after the disastrous defeats last year. But now, if Marcus can hold on to this confident self from now on in any situation, it would take a load off burden from Kevin to do too much and he could just focus on his own role and I am optimistic to see a better and stronger version of minions.
We could’ve said that Surdiman Cup 2019, Japan Open 2019, China Open 2019 last year as well. The thing is Marcus’ form fluctuates a lot across matches and tournaments. Hence, Kevin still feels insecure and feels obliged to take as many shots as he can. I feel like there’s a certain element of trust that has been missing for quite some time. The only time I feel Kevin trusted Marcus last year was in JO, where he was superb. You could see Kevin really be willing to go for his shots, crouch defence all that. I don’t blame Kevin for feeling that way, humans typically remember the worse times more vividly. But he’s got to have a better judgement of Marcus’ form that day. Marcus was pretty solid yesterday, and still Kevin tried to butt in when he was way out of position. That sort of intervention is detrimental.
Kevin looked weirdly off form in some of the rallies - almost tired. I even wondered if he was feeling alright and then suddenly he moved up a pace in speed and then down again. I even thought he was ill at one point.
Yeah maybe it has become a habit after doing it for so long. But at the end of game 3 Kevin admitted himself in the post match interview that he was being too impatience to finish the rallies and ended up making mistakes. At least he knew that and what he did wrong.
Gideon doesnt need to be at 100% for Minions to win matches, but Watanabe needs to be at 100% for EndoW to win matches. EndoW can easily be beaten by ShettyRR and all those pairs ( ChoiSeo ) etc because Watanabe cant be at 100% all the time. They can easily target Endo with their heights. Its fortunate that EndoW doesnt have to face those physical young pairs in AE.
He wasn't as sharp and his shot's accuracy dropped too. Probably exhausted from smashing hard much more times than he usually would? The increase of his smash power, the workload he shared at the back and the straps on his right shoulder.. I hope he isn't ill.
that is why I thought it quite strange. He looked a bit tired at end of game one but should be superbly fit anyway. And then he managed to last to the third game in along match, though up and down sometimes great shots and moving fast. marcus did great.
You think he was physically struggling? It seemed more to me that the playstyle was boring to him so he didn’t have the usual enthusiasm. He was uncomfortable playing Yuta/Endo that’s why he looked that way, at least that’s what I thought
Hmm to me he seemed enthusiast enough in the final. Much more compared to their previous matches at least.
Think he started well, I’m sure herry gave them some pep talk. But as the match progressed he started looking more and more muted. And even winning G2 didn’t display much of a reaction, because it was a pretty “boring” way to win it. Surely better than WTF last year though.
Well, Kevin isnt perfect...nor Gideon but its good there are discussions. In a way its good that they lost in SF & F. If they are champion always, there is not much to talk about. I hope they can stay as long as possible at the top like BoeMogensen who still makes themselves relevant at age 37-38. Of course if they keep losing in R1&R2 , eventually no one will be bothered too.
I thought he was tired. He hit a few wide smashes more than three times in a row toward the end of G1. That was quite unlike him. I thought he got very tired doing all the hard smashes instead of the halves or drop shots. I was just worried about his shoulder as he had recurring shoulder issue ever since he had a kind of major shoulder injury back in 2017. Kevin himself said he gave everything that night. So that was good enough for me.
Kevin did look like he smashed harder than usual. Marcus looked better at the net than I was expecting
To me it seems those wide smashes were out of frustration/anxiety to end the point rather than tiredness. But yeah as Cheung said, we all have different perspectives on the same thing.
I agree that it was out of frustration too. As far as I can remember Kevin never made those kind (same) mistakes twice in a row regardless any tight situation, save three times in a row. That was the first time I noticed that something was perhaps a bit off. Quite unlike his normal self. Maybe the combination of everything.
This game plan vs Endo/Wata is something that minions are not accustomed to do. It might take a little more time before they can get a hang of it. I am quite happy to see Marcus was seeking advice or discussion on how to be better at the net like that chat minions had after the SF match. Kevin was just so adorable in his heavy Javanese accent Agreed on how well Marcus had played at the front in the final exceeding everyone's (at least my) expectation. There was this rally which I think he kept hitting the shuttle downward as he moved forward to the net and won the rally. wow..
