"The best of the best in Starcraft II players all gathering in Germany for their piece of an $117,707 prize pool. With not a single foreigner seen in the tournament, we will have all Korean power houses duke it out in a single elimination 16 man tournament. Within these series of articles we will break down the round of 16 into each match. We will revisit our predictions after each day of the event to further analyse the player’s performance up until the final day, where we will predict the finals.

To start off this we have CJ Entus’s herO, the player with the most IEM Championships under his belt, versus Jin Air Green Wings’ Cure. These two players have a small history with one another, with herO unable to have ever beaten Cure outside of a best of 1, going 1-2 in both. Within Proleague herO is currently 3 games to 1, with the most recent being Round 1 Playoffs of the 2015 season. With such a limited pool of data between these two players, it would be best to evaluate their current performance within their designated matchups.


herO is most known for being a dominant force in IEM tournaments having even reached the finals of the world championships of 2014. He also tied sOs for the most wins in Proleague of 2014, of whom he lost the previous world championships to. Within the PvT matchup, herO has only lost to one Terran player within all his official matches, that being Cure’s more decorated teammate, Maru. Even at that, herO was able to take Maru down 2-1 in the GSL 2015 Season 1.

Looking back at herO’s performance specifically oriented to 16 player, single elimination tournaments, herO has never gone out in the first round. In fact 2 of the 3 most recent tournaments of this format, he was able to clinch a 2nd place finish in the previous IEM World Championships, and the Kespa Cup. He is also ranked highest in Proleague of all Protoss players, and the top player for CJ Entus.

That being said, Cure is also ranked extremely highly in Proleague standards, being the top ranked player for Jin Air Green Wings, even over teammate Maru. Cure is more notable known for his performance at the end of 2014, making it to Semifinals of GSL Season 3 2014, only losing a series to INnoVation in a close 3-4. He also placed second to Bomber at the Red Bull Battle Grounds: Washington, where he qualified beating out herO in the Red Bull Battle Grounds: Online.


Though previously Cure seemed to be off his game, unable to qualify for the GSL 2015 Season 1, and falling early on in the SSL Season 1 to Classic 3-2. Comparing just WCS Points between Cure and herO, herO places second at 2525, and Cure is below most foreigners at a lowly 300 points, all from just qualifying for GSL and the IEM WC. Cure was able to take out Hurricane to qualify for GSL Season 2, but in comparison herO is the more proven player of the two. Even in qualifying for the Kung Fu Cup 2015, he was able to take down YongHwa 2-0, who is currently undefeated in Proleague, but without any PvT matches to show for.

No matter what, Cure will have the largest advantage in intel, having been able to witness herO in more best of 3 series than the latter, with herO still competing in the GSL. Being a part of one of the best Korean Teams, Maru can show Cure the ropes to defeating herO, while practising against Protoss Champions like Pigbaby, sOs, and Trap.

In qualifying, Cure showed weakness to strong Protoss players, in losing to both Patience and Terminator, and overall will be the underdog within this series. Though Cure is among the top Terrans in the world, he may not be of caliber to take down the IEM 3 time Champion, and 5 time finalist in Premier Tournaments, CJ Entus herO.

herO 3 - 1 Cure"

Source: OMW Productions