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Weekly Heroes: Tassadar
Setting the tone
For the first installment of Weekly Heroes I have chosen to face one of my greatest fears: Kim
Tassadar Jung Hoon. A ferocious predador with a legacy that dates back to the very first weekly. After being introduced by Raelcun as NsHS Tassaar due to a mislabled replay, he hits the ground running and, with the help of a lot of dts, takes second place behind 
aLive. In the following one he meets his fate at the hands of a shining San in the round of 8. After being introduced as Shuttle by orb he produces a nail biting PvP where at one point a probeless Tassadar is left with 5 blink stalkers and an observer in Sans base compared to the 1 stalker and 5 probes of San, only to be shut down by one of the most heroic dark templars in the history of the weekly. The dt returns from a probe massacre in Tassadars base and promtply 1 shots 2 stalkers, giving San enough time to mine and warp in the win.Setting the Tone
The Korean Weekly was one of my first encounters with competitive Starcraft 2. Some players bore semblance to butterflies in the way they played. Starting the game as a larvae, feeding and then cocooning up in time to deflect incoming attacks, before spreading their beautiful wings out as the game progressed into the later stages. Tassadar was a spider without a net. Usually spawning in the green color, he would suck the juice out of any defenseless larvae and try to chew through cocoons before the butterfly inside could start spreading its wings. If he couldn't break through the cocoon in time the butterfly would soar out of his reach, since he hadn't bothered setting up a net to catch it with.
Nightmare on Orb Street
He quickly became infamous among some of the viewers and casters with his aggressive 1 base and 2 base play, and for me he was the biggest cause of Starcraft grief in season 1 and 2. Watching him ravage my newly found favorites with various all-ins, no matter the match-up, was an emotionally taxing experience. Likewise watching him get squashed by strong defense, aggressive play or a counter all-in was always a delight.
- PvZ:
His 7 gate +2 blink stalker is ferocious indeed, but he often opens air in this matchup as well. If your overlord spots a stargate you can bet your stinking gaster there's a second one hid somewhere else. Usually Tassadar pumps three or more void rays and follows it up with phoenix while he pressures your third with his first gateway units. Sometimes he switches it up, goes phoenix first and rallies the void rays to his own front to hold the following counter attack if his opponent is oblivious, making roaches and lings. If the double stargate didn't kill you the immortals he has been massing at home from a double robo might. If he ever put down a third nexus it signalled that the game was over, either the all-in had failed and he was about to be overrun, or he was celebrating that the zerg was now down to one hatchery. - PvT:
In this match-up destructible rocks are used as void ray boosters, the third expansion is just extra space for more gateways and tech and forges are few and far between. If you see him on 2 gas and 1 gate with your initial scv you better start looking around for that proxy stargate, and a dt rush or blink play is not out of the question either. Teammates likeJjakji and Shuttle are careful about saving scans until their first turret is out, and never skips on the bunkers. Tassadar is also a fan of strong gateway timings off two base after going 1 gate expand. Some times it's a quick 4 gate or a stronger 6 gate, often followed up by a chargelot immortal timing, a colossus push or both. - PvP:
Tassadar is a master of deception, and often puts up a second gas to hide his 4 gate. Other favourites are blink obs builds and 1 base colossus play, but he has also showcased phoenix / gateway timings and warp prism immortal play. Due to the nature of PvP staying on one base doesn't raise any eyebrows, but his micro, the range of builds he uses and his deceptiveness sets him out from the rest. Don't forget to check for proxy gates in your base either.
Legacy of the Void Ray
He has an overall match win rate of 53% and a set win rate of 58%. His strongest matchup is PvP where he sports a 64% winrate, compared to his 49% in PvT and 52% in PvZ. He has been a fairly consistent performer throughout the history of the weekly, winning it once (4-0ing
Hack in the finals), taking silver once and hitting top 4 two more times. He has also appeared in every final there has been, and once took second place behind Squirtle. At the moment of writing he is qualified for the third seasons finals as well.One of his biggest problems so far has been his teammates. In fact Tassadar has yet to take a series of a fellow NSHS'er, he's down 0-6! Players like
Seal and Sting are all weary of his tricks and play super safe, often trying to blind counter him. Tassadar switches it up from time to time hoping to catch them off guard, but it seems the momentum they lose by preparing for the wrong things is often less then what Tassadar loses for not playing his usual way. Echoes of the Future
Lately there has been signs of evolution in his play. The net-less spider is starting to grow wings as the butterflies cocoons got harder. He's taking reasonably timed thirds from time to time in PvZ and PvT and he's getting earlier upgrades preparing for the later stages of the game. His all-in repertoire is still growing, his macro is decent, his micro is great as always and his multitasking seems to be pretty good (playing a decent series vs multitasking monster Gumiho).
He still seems to lack experience when the game goes past 2 bases, but if he keeps it up he could be a round of 8 regular, and grab a few more medals in the coming season. Not only will his opponents have to worry about a myriad of all-ins, and the misinformation you're being fed, but there's also a possibility that getting your third up and running is the same as winning anymore! Now if only his teammates would stop looking at his screen.
Relevant games (vods and replays available to ESV subscribers)
- S1W2, round of 16, Tassadar vs San - game 1: Crazy PvP, Sans DT hero
- S1W16, round of 32, Tassadar vs Life - game 1: Classic PvZ, Double stargate into double robo
- S2W1, round of 16, Tassadar vs TheStc - game 1: Proxy stargate, Charging up on Rocks
- Replay: S5W3, round of 32 - Tassadar vs Sirius, game 1: Tassadar taking a reasonably timed third.
- Replay: S5W5, semifinals - Tassadar vs Gumiho, game 4: Tassadar trying to take a quick third.
Note that this article is written based on Tassadars games from the weekly, I did not look at games from other tournaments so my analysis might be off (even if I did my analysis probably would be off). Thanks for reading.
Weekly Heroes will hopefully be a small series of detailed articles featuring my favorite players from the ESV Korean Weekly.
