This user has no status.
This user has no status.
Member
I agree with some of this, but these players didn't "come out of nowhere". As the last 3 games showed, these guys can still create upsets, it is just that Danny is too focused on single matches, rather than realizing that the most important thing is to be showing progress. The Olympics are a single moment. China is still the dominant power. But LYJ and TH have shown me enough for me to see that they have a chance - it is like 5% but 5% in the Olympics is better than zero.
By "out of nowhere" I mean in the sense of the international circuit. We havn't seen that much of them playing THAT many competitive matches against other top players, mostly because they havn't been on the scene that long and havn't had a chance to.
I think Danny isn't neccessarily focused on single matches, as their overall level of play. He's expecting them to already be favourites or roughly even against top players like FZD. This is simply not the case. FZD simply has a more complete and overall better game than either of these players at the moment, they are not going to be walking into a match with him as the favourite anytime soon (at least unless FZD hits another major slump).
I agree upsets are possible, especially, I think from LYJ. But he's not going to be looking like a better player against people who are genuinely top players at the moment, because he just hasn't had that development in his game yet. It's also what makes it an upset, it wouldn't be an upset if he were just better than everyone and is expecting to win.