EPTNow that the Ro32 is out of the way, the business end of the itemBay SSL can now begin, with the Ro16 making the start of fully fledged studio broadcasts and (we hope!) the return of the juice girls.
Because the Ro16 takes place over four weeks, we've decided to keep the two parter system that we used for the Ro32, this gives us a chance to focus a little more on each group without having each update become too large. Before we can begin to think about the Ro16, however, Hyde is here to remind us of what went down in the final four groups of the Ro32 in his recap part II. Following that, my increasingly inaccurate and embarrassing previews, this time looking at the two opening groups of the Ro16, featuring defending champion
Killer and a host of other top players.
We'll be back in two weeks time to check in on the Ro16 and preview the final two groups, including the absolutely terrifying Mong/HiyA/sSak group D. Until then, enjoy the SSL!
Because the Ro16 takes place over four weeks, we've decided to keep the two parter system that we used for the Ro32, this gives us a chance to focus a little more on each group without having each update become too large. Before we can begin to think about the Ro16, however, Hyde is here to remind us of what went down in the final four groups of the Ro32 in his recap part II. Following that, my increasingly inaccurate and embarrassing previews, this time looking at the two opening groups of the Ro16, featuring defending champion
Killer and a host of other top players.We'll be back in two weeks time to check in on the Ro16 and preview the final two groups, including the absolutely terrifying Mong/HiyA/sSak group D. Until then, enjoy the SSL!
Table of Contents
Round of 32 Recap Part II
Round of 16 Preview Part I
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Liquipedia
Round of 32 Recap Part II
Round of 16 Preview Part I
LiquipediaRound of 32 Recap Part II
By Hyde
Final Destination
The second half of SSL began with a slight line-up change; Perfectman was set to play but work commitments forced him to forfeit his position and through the demands of the sponsor, Sky was resurrected. Since placing third in the 7th SSL, Sky's tournament results have been unremarkable. In the two SRTs leading up to this SSL, Sky was knocked out in the very early stages and given his unresolved kerfuffle with Sonic that saw him originally kicked out of this tournament, this was probably Sky's last chance to win an SSL title.
At first glance, Sky's situation looked hopeful, on the outset he was slated to play in the Group of Death where he faced likely elimination at the hands of fierce competitors and now it appeared his fortune had changed. But before Sky could even step into the studio his night began its descent and he was immediately knocked into the losers' round as a penalty for his tardiness.
Elsewhere, Donggle made his debut in unspectacular fashion. After being swiftly defeated by the APM Zerg, Donngle joined Sky in the losers' bracket where the series revealed his inadequacy in handling battles with anything upwards of ten units, which was basically every major battle. His inability to deal with multiple attacks only served to quicken his journey's end and Donggle's 0-2 score put him on the long list of amateurs bumped out of the SSL.
On a brighter note, hero's night ended fairly well and thanks to Sonic's penalty against Sky, hero avoided the only real threat of the group. The 12th SRT semifinalist played an average of eleven minutes over four games that included a fast and furious ZvZ series against ZeLot. Hero's addition to the Ro16 gives a much needed boost to the overall Zerg numbers.
Back to Sky, despite the second chance from itemBay, a more manageable group, and an opponent that on any other given day he would handily defeat, Sky was eliminated. His defeat was made more humiliating by his own arrogance. ZeLot's aggressive and somewhat cheesy style of play would eventually get the better of Sky, and by the third game Sky was in so much trouble that not even itemBay could bail him out. It's ironic how Sky was eliminated given some of his advantages, and I can't help but think Sky just wasn't meant to make it out of his original group and this was just fate following up.
Rock, Paper, Stim Pack
Since the dawn of StarCraft, Terran and Zerg have fought across the
Dancing extraordinaire and TvZ monster, Mong, was the first to go through. Known for his brutal ability to beat down Zerg players, Mong was hardly going to bend a knee to either beast or Feat. If Mong was going to bend to anyone in this group it was going to be against Sexy, but given his continued practice regime that wasn't going to happen.
Sexy is returning from a period of inactivity but you wouldn't know it looking at his games against Feat or beast. However, his series against Mong was a little more telling and while the gap between the two wasn't chasmic it was definitely noticeable. Nonetheless, Sexy's ability to still play a mean game of TvZ allowed him to easily place second.
Beast's 1-2 result marked an end to his hot-streak. Recently his progression through tournaments were getting deeper and he'd shown some astounding play that earned him a silver place finish in the 12th SRT. What's concerning here was his inability to take a single game against Terran, which included the rust-covered Sexy, and I'm not quite sure if this was an existing weakness that went largely untested in prior tournaments or if this was just a stroke of bad luck.
Before the interview with Feat, little was expected from this Zerg player. If you look at recent results you'll see the carcasses of amateurs, crushed by the unforgiving competition. But having learnt from the interview that Feat had once been good enough to practice with WoongJin Stars, expectations went up. But like most amateurs, Feat's results were disappointing. Having practiced with world-class players one might think Feat would have at least a glimmer of hope but alas he would be rubbed out without taking a single game.
Double Trouble
With three Protoss players in the group there was a good chance that two would go through but I think racial balance was the last thing on everyone's mind.
Anticipation reached an all-time high on TL; all eyes were on Iris as the OSL silver medalist made his return to the glorious game. Iris recently made waves when he unexpected took games off players like Killer and Larva in Sonic's KoTH/exhibition matches. While it's nice that Iris could beat some high profile Zergs, the problem was that his group didn't contain any, in fact they contained nothing but Protoss players. In the same exhibition match where he trounced Larva, Iris also lost two straight games to PvT specialist Shuttle, and in a group that consisted of two tectonic forces like Movie and Tyson, Iris was but a pebble.
It was clear from the beginning Iris was going to have a hard time and his first game was a reminder that playing StarCraft is indeed a perishable skill. Things like early-game harassment that Iris would've brushed off in his CJ days would now do catastrophic damage. Tyson would donate groups of units and still remain in firm control.
A slim chance of Iris surviving his group appeared when he smashed Perry, but that turned out to be more of a statement on Perry's skill level rather than of Iris' chances. Iris would eventually meet Tyson a second time to be eliminated. I'd say Iris was fortunate to come across Tyson twice, because the alternative was Movie and who knows how bad a beating Iris would've received with Movie's persistent reaver openings.
Speaking of Movie, the former CJ Protoss was the alpha dog, victorious but not unscathed. The 12th SRT champion took some blows from Tyson in their series but a mixture of superior game sense, unit positioning, improvisation along with just better overall execution lead him to take the deciding game and advance first place.
Stuck on Repeat
Two more Protoss players joined the final Ro16 contingent as the last group was played out. Shuttle lead the way with a comfortable 2-0 win against Lazy and Shinee. An expected result given his underwhelming list of opponents and lofty experience in both PvP and PvT.
On the opposite end we have Spire, another amateur looking to make his mark. Spire garnered much fandom after a grandiose showing at the group ceremony, unfortunately his results didn't quite match his showmanship and Spire was the first to be dropped from this group. On the plus side, his losses against Lazy, who used sairs and reavers to stylishly devastate the amateur Zerg, were at the very least entertaining.
Like a broken record, Shinee again failed to turn his high fish ranking into results. The former SSL champion did worst compared to his last SSL run where he actually made it through to the Ro16. This marked the third time in consecutive tournaments where Shinee had been eliminated at the first turn with a 1-2 score, further reinforcing that while he's not the worst, he's also not good enough to make the cut. Stranger still is that Shinee is supposedly the King of Fighting Spirit, something even Sea has acknowledged, but the results suggest otherwise and had he actually won on that very map against Shuttle he would've been the one sitting at the top instead of being eliminated at the fringe.
Round of 16 Preview Part I
By kjwcj
| Group A | Group B |
|---|---|
 Ample |  Killer |
 ErOs_Lucifer | Pusan |
| hero | Shuttle |
| ZeLoT | Tyson |
Group A
Saturday, Mar 30 10:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Saturday, Mar 30 10:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Hardly a blockbuster opening to the Ro16, group A is clearly the weakest of the four groups but still ought to produce one or two interesting series, when considering the players involved. The two top seeds, Ample and hero, are probably the least formidable of all the Ro32 group winners but both still possess the ability to make an impact on later stages of the tournament if the draw hands them favourable match-ups.
ErOs_Lucifer fought back from the losers’ match of Ro32 group A with two PvP series wins but, as the only Protoss player in this group, his other two match-ups will need to be as good or, if you listen to Hyde, much better than his mirror.
Finally, brought to us this week by the letter D (for “drone drill”) everyone’s favourite ZvP cheeser, ZeLoT. Having taken advantage of some exceptionally sloppy play by Sky in the Ro32 group E final, ZeLoT’s presence in the Ro16 represents something of a pleasant surprise but it would be wrong to completely write him off, with a potential ZvZ rematch with hero especially enticing.
Hero hadn’t shown anything particularly inspiring in the lead up to his appearance in the Ro32, but was at least good enough to fend off ZeLoT in the winners’ match. There’s little since that series to suggest a huge upswing in form and, as such, hero looks likely to struggle against the oppressive TvZ stylings of Ample. The former KT Terran should take this group easily, having looked strong in what is usually his weakest match-up (TvP) in the Ro32 and with a history of beating much better Zergs than hero and ZeLoT.
With Lucifer having been only just good enough to make it out of a fairly easy Ro32 group, he seems to be the odds on favourite for last place. ZeLoT is a similarly scrappy player, but has a knack of using the chaos that he’s able to generate to his advantage and could prove a threat to anyone, including Ample, in a Bo1 group opener.
This has the look and feel of a one-series group, with that series being the ZvZ between ZeLoT and hero. While hero was able to take out ZeLoT in their meeting a few weeks ago, it was hardly the assured victory you’d expect from an ex-pro with more than 150 broadcast games. Barring any other exceptional results, Ample should make it through without breaking a sweat.
Ample and ZeLoT to advance.Group B
Saturday, Apr 06 10:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Saturday, Apr 06 10:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
In an effort to escape the awful reality that is a group composing almost entirely of PvP, I was hoping to play up the prospect of getting to watch Killer go to work in ZvP. The flaw in this plan, of course, is that Killer is likely going to need a combined of about 30 minutes of gametime to beat whichever two Protoss he ends up facing, thus continuing his inexorable advance towards the final and another big-ass cheque.
Once the Killer show is over, we are left with PvP. A lot of PvP. Perhaps the one saving grace is that all three of the Protoss players in this group happen to be pretty good in their mirror match-up, with Pusan and Shuttle existing as probably the two strongest PvP players on Fish, behind reigning SRT champion, Movie. Tyson is also somewhat better than his 29% win-rate in Afreeca PvP would suggest, having competed reasonably well in his two series against Movie, managing to take one game in both series.
Coming into the Ro32, Pusan’s level of activity was of some concern and although he managed to take a spot in the Ro16, his mind clearly isn’t on Starcraft in the same way it was in 2012. While his guile and experience remain as valuable as ever, Pusan’s best performances in SOSPA tournaments, at least for the time being, appear to be behind him.
Meanwhile, Shuttle has continued to look pretty good for at Ro4 spot, with his 3-0 win against Sky in the final of a recent Super Match further underlining his credentials as the group B player with the largest PvP-ness. While Tyson’s ability to compete relatively closely with Movie in the Ro32 deserves some respect, Shuttle should have the measure of him in a multiple game series.
It’s hard to pick out one key possible series between these three, with any possible combination of results having some level of plausibility. Pusan is the least active of the three but retains an excellent record in PvP, Shuttle is probably the most in form and the strongest PvP player while Tyson retains the ability to beat either of them given the right circumstances.
For the sake of consistency, Shuttle gets the nod in this instance, and he also represents the player with the best chance of making a significant dent on the later rounds of the tournament.
Killer and 
Shuttle to advance.WRITERS: Hyde, kjwcj
GRAPHICS: Hyde
PHOTOS: dailyesports
loved him back in the days... Savior, Iris and Much were my proleague favorites
