EPT
After watching Life's run through the TSL4, I can agree that there is something crazy about his play. His games against ROG's elfi were among the strangest I have ever watched, and probably among the strangest ever played at the highest level. elfi famously decided that the best way to beat a (now) Code S-level Zerg was to throw down a dozen cannons in said Zerg's natural.
Life is no stranger to unorthodox strategies, but elfi's frequent cannon rushes evidently caught him off guard. In the end, a combination of Life's vastly superior mechanics, his ability to adapt coupled with elfi's stubborn unwillingness to stop building cannons allowed Life to win in the end; but only after he had completely wrecked Apollo's nerves.
Life's breakout performance was undoubtedly his all-kill of Team Liquid in the GSTL, followed by his 3-kill against SlayerS. I wasn't really a fan back then – he was good, sure – really good, even. There was a lot of potential for sure, but what was a ZeNEX Zerg who got himself a few (allright, many) kills compared to the other big names in Korea? What did he have that DRG, Symbol or Nestea didn't? Not much, I thought.
Eventually he proved me wrong, of course. His games against elfi showed nerves of steel, a willingness to do what was needed to win, even if it meant throwing ”standard” out the window altogether and playing completely unpredictably for an entire series, and a style that was apparently, despite how crazy and unstable it looked at times, his own.
In his ZvT against Kas, however, he transformed into the epitome of standard, picking Kas apart with straight-up macro. Gone was the gimmicky player who would take a 6-pool over an early hatchery every time, and instead we had a player with great confidence in the longer games.
The hyper-aggressive play was still there, and Life is not afraid to pull out aggression if a Terran gets too greedy, and his somewhat unique take on the match-up makes sure his ZvT is more interesting than what most other Zergs are doing right now – and by more interesting, I do mean, of course, more deadly.
Just ask Keen.
This is one of the things I find the most interesting about Life. His ability to switch seamlessly between two styles that are as night and day to each other – the hyper-aggressive Life that we see in ZvP, who is fond of two-base Nydus play and early pools, and the passive, economic Life that we oftentimes see in ZvT.
In a best of 7 such as the one he will be playing next weekend, he will look to keep his opponent of balance. Life thrives in situations that do not follow the standard rules of the current metagame, and will happily throw in all-ins and funky builds that his opponents have never seen before, and he will execute flawlessly.
With Creator, one can draw parallells to an immovable object – he plays standard, super-safe Starcraft, and defends almost perfectly. I think it is fair to say that if Creator is allowed to stay in his comfort zone, he is a tough player to beat.
But Life, more than anything, excels at keeping his opponents light years away from their comfort zone.
There is no doubt that Life can, if he so desires, macro like a boss. He has some of the best mechanics in all of Korea and has shown that if he is put into a situation where he might grab an economic advantage, he will capitalize and overrun you with hordes of standard-composition Zerg units.
The question to ask now, just before the Grand Final of the TSL4, is what he will choose to do against CreatorPrime.
In the finals of the TSL, I feel he will need both. Creator is a Protoss player approaching the #1 spot in Korea, and he has shown us, time and time again, that his macro is impeccable. Creator is so confident in his macro that he will play the same safe, economic builds most of the time, and win. If Life's element is chaos, then Creator's is undoubtedly the opposite – precisely mapped out build orders and an ultra-safe style that has proved too much for Terrans and Zergs alike.
I think, if anything, the sheer safety of Creator's builds will be the true test for Life.
The Prime Protoss has shown that all-ins are more often than not ineffective against him, and if you make a single mistake he will deflect it and catapult himself to victory.
If Life sticks to his belief that all-inning Protoss is the best way to beat them, he will need to pull off the best games of his career. There can be no mistakes, or Creator will punish them harshly.
But Life is not your average all-inner. If there is a hole in your defense, a single weakness, Life will find it and exploit it flawlessly.
When I watch Life play, I see two things.
First, I see a player much reminiscent of a mad scientist. Someone who will look at what he has, not caring for irrelevant details such as the current metagame, and use what he has to its fullest potential. Life is not a player who will get three fast Hatcheries because it's what most Zergs are doing, but instead someone who will mix and match seemingly crazy or even stupid unit compositions and builds to great success, and just roll over his opponents. His opponents never knew what hit them, the casters never knew why it worked, it just did. Because Life knows something the rest of us might not, and he will use this knowledge, this skill, to its fullest potential.
Second, I see a player with massive potential getting ready to make his true breakout onto the scene, and show Zergs all around the world that they've been doing it all wrong.
Creator may have won a Protoss-dominated WCS Korea, but TSL4 will be Life's tournament.
Make no mistake, Life will win it, and Creator will never have known what hit him.
