EPT
KT vs Jin Air
1-2 to PartinG. 0-2 to Stats. And with that, a quick exit from Code S in Season 3. It’s been 111 days since we saw Maru in a match on a Starcraft stage. Since then, the Terran Prince of the first half of the year has become practically invisible in the Starcraft scene, endlessly falling short in qualifiers. 2-3 to Dark. 1-2 to Super. 1-2 to Journey. 1-2 to Trust. 0-2 to MarineKing. 0-2 to sKyHigh. He’s finally broken the streak by qualifying for GSL and SSL. Is he about to rise again? (I was trying to make a 1-1-1 joke but ran out of ideas. Fill in your own joke here I guess).
Given Zest’s unbelievable consistency over the past year, his recent results must resemble a full blown crisis. Not only that, he’s shown several times during the year that he is indeed susceptible to Terrans (TaeJa, MarineKing, Dream in the GSL qualifiers) as well as mind games over a longer format (3-1 into 3-4 vs herO in Shoutcraft; 3-1 into 3-4 vs soO in the season 3 GSL Ro. 4; the tangible panic in his decisive losses to Life and TRUE). While the king is not dead, others have certainly shown he can bleed.
TY is the ultimate example of a fair-weather player. He looks unbelievably good when he wins, and godawful when he loses. His high risk, high reward style of multiple drop harass and frequent abuse of neat tricks (see his game against SoulKey in Round 1 of the 2014 SPL for some of the dirtiest Terran play you’ll see) mean that individual success, where consistency is arguably the greatest requirement, has so far eluded him. However, Proleague play is a different beast. Expect to see something new.
sOs. Hated by many (JaeDong / herO / MarineKing fans mostly I guess) and adored by the rest, sOs functions best when he knows exactly what his opponent will do. Think back to his 3 major successes – correctly reading JaeDong at every turn; having the balls to proxy gate herO twice; a destruction of MarineKing that was both intensely painful and hilarious to watch. So what will happen when he’s faced by a player who’s harder to read? Will he channel GuMiho and thrive in the chaos of playing a game on instinct? In terms of sheer quality, this is arguably the game of the night.
Speaking of predictable Terrans, Flash is next for KT. It’s always difficult to judge Flash’s games without the hordes of fans and haters clouding your judgement. Flash is the greatest player in the whole of SC2 (circa August 2014)! Flash is terrible and should retire (after every defeat)! Chances are, like many things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. His August was a freak occurance that may never be matched again; equally though, the sheer fact that it did in fact happen means you can’t dismiss it completely. While the separate strands of favourable meta, preparation and top condition all wove into place at precisely the same time, he still needed to execute. He still needed to prove that it was not beyond him. More than anyone else playing tonight, Flash is now back in the competition that he’s come to define. After disappointment in the GSL / SSL, it’s time to kickstart 2015.
Despite playing twice as many games as TRUE in Proleague 2014, Rogue’s somewhat flown under the radar in comparison to his ex-teammate. Whether it’s due to TRUE’s flashier style (often favouring the banelings into more banelings into so many banelings build), his much loved series with FanTaSy in 2013, or his slow ling progression into a GSL semifinal, this is the season for Rogue to break out from that image. After qualifying for the group stages of the SSL with a brutal evisceration of SoulKey, and blocking soO’s path to a GSL finals for the first time in one and a half years, Rogue is now unquestionably Jin Air’s Zerg of choice. Rogue is strong in ZvT, notably knocking out Flash 2-0 from MSI Beat It, and should be expected to pull off a repeat here.
A remarkable stat – in Stats’ SC2 career, the difference in winrate between his weakest matchup (PvT) and his strongest (PvP) is 0.2%. There are few players at all who are so consistent in their play across all 3 matchups. On the other hand, you could also argue that no single one of his matchups stands out; compared to a top tier protoss such as herO, their PvP skills might match up similarly, while herO clearly shines brighter in PvZ and PvT. It is much harder to elevate all 3 matchups to championship quality than it is to work on a weakness. However, in Proleague, it’s that consistency which makes him so valuable as the fourth pillar of the KT core squad.
Cure’s 2014 GSL results – code A; code A; code S Ro. 4. It’s been a sudden rise, which can be explained by one stat – Cure’s TvP is poor, and his win rate in TvP is 16% lower than his combined win rate in the other two matchups. As the meta shifted away from the Protoss-dominated start of the year, so Cure has risen in profile. In his match against Classic in the SSL, Cure’s success in the first 2 sets was more to do with Classic’s mistakes than anything else. After a single error gave Classic the win in game 3, Classic went on to fully control games 4 and 5 to complete the reverse sweep. Especially on King Sejong Station, Cure seemed far too timid, and was thus systematically taken apart. Unless he shows better play here I fully expect Stats to take the game.
Ace match – this is difficult to predict. For Jin Air, it all depends on how the first four games pan out. If Maru is on form, then he might be called up; if not, then sOs is the clear choice unless a pre-prepared snipe build is in the plans.
I would guess that despite Zest’s play, he’ll retain his place as KT’s ace. Flash against sOs is not a favourable matchup for the Terran.
Zest <King Sejong Station> 
MaruTY <Catallena> sOsFlash <KTV Foxtrot Labs> 
RogueStats <Overgrowth> CureAce:
Zest <Merry Go Round> sOsCredit Aligulac for all statistics used <3
I almost felt bad watching him play against innovation/skyhigh/marineking, it made protoss look so broken against terran.
