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The series so far had been more one-sided than expected, with Killer having seemingly good control of the games. The score however showed a landslide for Killer, being up 2-0 in a best of five meant he had a huge advantage going in to game three on Andromeda. The advantage doesn't stop there, Andromeda is a known Zerg-favoured map. Despite what the stats for SOSPA events tell you (1-5 for Zerg against Terran. Yes; SOSPA ZvT is terrible), Andromeda had a 57.3% winrate for ZvT in KeSPA events, and that's not even counting how Terran is said to usually win more in the match-up. Killer was looking to take the series in a clean sweep, but sSak wasn't going to it be an easy ride to the Grand Final.

sSak spawns in the bottom left and gets the allied colour; yellow. Killer spawns in the bottom right in red. Making it the third time in a row they spawn in these locations. Killer scouts very early at 9 before going for a 12 hatch, being extremely cautious. sSak goes for a wall-in at his natural with his first two depots and the barracks. He also goes for gas instead of a 1 Rax FE. Killer goes full Jaedong mode and 3 hatch before pool, taking his in-base mineral-only. With the first 100 gas for sSak he makes a factory. Seeing the 3 hatch before pool sSak attacks with his first marine and his scouting SCV, managing to get one drone kill. He also forces one drone to turn in to a creep colony as well as denying mining at Killer's natural for around 30 seconds.


At home sSak has made a vulture and a starport before building the command center. After seeing the vulture out on the map Killer instantly makes a hydra den, his lair has also been started. Correctly read, sSak goes for wraiths and a machine shop on his factory. sSak manages to get one overlord kill and fortunately for sSak he also scouts the spire at Killer's natural that was just started after his lair finished. sSak has a couple of vultures out on the map and starts laying spider mines outside of Killer's natural. sSak gets a control tower and starts researching cloak. He also abuses the fact that the minerals of the in-base mineral-only are pressed against the low groun. He does this by harassing the drone line with his wraith and vultures with the high ground vision provided by the wraith. He manages to get around three drones and a few drone pulls. After massing up a control group of hydralisks Killer starts clearing the mines outside of his natural. With one seemingly random mutalisk Killer manages to spot everything in sSak's main base.


Seeing the amounts of wraiths and the control tower Killer knows that sSak has gone for cloaked wraiths as well as not having a very large army. Killer pushes towards sSak's natural with his hydras, clearing the spider mines on the way. sSak also knows that Killer is currently pushing him from the vision from the mines. He sends all his wraiths to counter-attack and get as many drone kills as possible. He gets a lot of drone kills at Killer's natural as there are no overlords nearby and overlord speed isn't done yet. Killer finally arrives at sSak's natural and starts attacking the wall. sSak has pulled workers to repair it. The wall gets destroyed even though SCVs are there to repair. Killer tries running in with his hydras but the SCVs block and with one siege tank in the back shelling at Killer's hydras he is forced to fall back.

Killer barely gets his forth up before the drone is sniped by wraiths, in turn sSak knows exactly when Killer's expansion is built. sSak transitions back into standard bio with tank and vessel support. The leftover wraiths flies around the map trying to snipe some overlords and see if they can scout Killer's bases like corsairs. The queens nest is done for Killer but no hive has been spotted yet. After macroing up a big army with five tanks, two vessels and a bunch of medic marine, sSak starts pushing up to the middle of the map. Killer has tons of lurker ling on the map trying to setup for multiple flanks.


Killer destroys most of sSak's army, killing all of the tanks, one vessel, and a bunch of marine medic. Both players retreat after the engagement. With some reinforcements sSak starts pushing again. When sSak reaches more than halfway towards Killer's natural Killer counter-attacks with two control groups of lings, managing to kill almost all of sSak's units at his natural. sSak sieges outside Killer's natural but consume for defilers are already done and the first dark swarm is cast. sSak gets zoned off from both Killer's natural and retreating to his own base. The only option sSak has is attacking the 3 o'clock. Killer doesn't care and goes for a huge attack at sSak's natural. Killer gets dark swarms all up into sSak's natural and forces a lift, meanwhile sSak kills the 3 o'clock and retreats back with his army the long way, potentially being scared of a huge army from Killer. Both players trade a base and we are back to a three base two gas zerg vs a two base one gas terran. With all the marines out on the map there's no anti-air at sSak's natural and all of his vessels gets scourged. The defiler at the natural dies and sSak almost cleans up all the units before Killer reinforces with another defiler and tons of units.


Even though sSak is contained in his main Killer's economy is severely crippled. Without any anti-air and not paying attention sSak loses a third vessel to only two scourge. Killer is almost out of units and can't push up more but the dark swarms make sSak unable to push out either. Killer picks off another science vessel. Killer finally realises that without any anti-air and no vessel count to irradiate he can switch to mutas. The dark swarms finally disappears and sSak kills off the last lurkers as the mutas arrive. The only vessel left dies and the mutas have free reign over sSak's natural. Killer tried re-expanding to the 3 o'clock but gets shut down once again by the leftover marines out on the map. sSak floated out a command center earlier to the 9 o'clock but never mined, this is scouted during this time and is forced to lift and return home. Killer starts harassing the mineral-only with his mutas. Killer realises that sSak is still without anti-air so he's unable to defend his natural. Killer's mutas kill the command center. Mutas go back to the mineral-only and harasses some more. sSak finally has enough energy on one of his science vessels to irradiate the muta clump.


Killer is persistent with his mutas and picks off another command center as sSak still doesn't have sufficient anti-air. Killer knows he is currently ahead and has terrible economy so he takes the 3 o'clock and pulls back all of his units to defend it. Killer tries sneaking out a drone to the top right but it's sniped by vultures. Killer retakes the top right and defends it with his mutas as he attacks sSak's natural with his hydras and defilers. sSak is sieged in his natural waiting for the engagement. Killer throws down five dark swarms and pushes in with his hydras. The splash from the siege tanks still do a lot of damage and Killer loses his entire army. sSak still has a large standing army and immediately attacks. Killer counter-attacks with his mutas as sSak reaches the 3 o'clock. A control groups of cracklings and a defiler pops out of the nydus just as sSak sieges.


Just as sSak runs out of the swarm a bunch of hydras and lings comes in from behind and completely surrounds sSak's army. As the last units of sSak dies he gg's. Killer shows some extremely good game sense and has the decisive engagements that are very reminiscent of Jaedong's peak ZvT. What was supposed to be a very close series looked like a stomp, ending with a 3-0. If I'm HiyA I would practice day and night to even be able to stand up to the monster that is Killer.

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Terran versus Zerg is Starcraft’s hallmark match-up. For 15 years, battles fought between the descendants of Earth and the all consuming swarm have comprised some of the best individual games, the most famous aggregated series and the longest lasting, most emotive of rivalries. However TvZ has also played host to some of the least entertaining, most one-sided and occasionally downright embarrassing games that Brood War fans have ever been subjected to. When it is good, TvZ is a match-up which approaches perfection, when it is bad it can make you wonder if we’re all not just wasting our time watching.

Over the years, the balance between Terran and Zerg players has famously swung between the two foe, with some of Starcraft’s all-time great players having made their name by redefining or revitalising their race’s approach to the match-up. Toward’s the end of Brood War’s time on broadcast television in Korea, Terran players, lead by the likes of Fantasy and Flash, comfortably held the upper hand, with the last ever TvZ final in the ABCMart MSL exemplary of the depths that can be plumbed by a series between an imperious Terran and a hapless Zerg.

This trend of Zerg fragility crossed over to the Afreeca and eventually the SOSPA leagues in much the same way that many retired progamers did. The early presence of TvZ powerhouses like Mong, HiyA and Sexy set the stage for what was to come, as the top Terran gamers wasted little time going to work on the Afreeca scene’s less than ample pool of ZvT talent. Even as better Zerg players did arrive, their best efforts still saw them fall short, with MinHo and Luxury taking the fight to their Terran opponents in a way that few have replicated but never able to translate their good play into tournament victories.

SOSPA Zergs eventually found themselves at a point where even the best among them could not manage more than a 45% win rate versus Terran opponents, with the weaker players slumping as low as 25%. Fighting Spirit, long considered to the the pinnacle in Brood War map balance, saw its TvZ win rate approach 70% during 2012, with only more recent developments seeing that number sink back towards the 60% mark. Aside from the occasional good run courtesy of a favourable group or bracket draw, the was not a single Zerg player who could be considered a true challenger for any major tournament.

August of last year saw an answer to the Terran question in the form of a newly retired progamer named Killer. As a protege of a Zerg progamer who in his own era of dominance changed the face of the game in a way that few could, Killer was exceptionally well equipped to single handedly redress the balance of the Terran versus Zerg match-up in SOSPA competition. As it had often proved to be for other Zergs in the past, this ability to beat the best Terran opponents was the key to his period of dominance, one that continues to this day. Beat the Terrans, win the Starleague.

But what of this SSL? After a Ro4 which was more reminiscent of the quick and brutal we became used to, it is perhaps difficult to be optimistic about the potential for another dull, one-sided or, god-forbid, embarrassing series this Saturday. While it’s hard to imagine HiyA or Killer wilting in quite the same way that their opponents did a few weeks ago, regardless of the result this final is a celebration of what Terran versus Zerg can be. The ultimate platform for two competitors, tightly balanced and completely unforgiving, scene of tragic failures and great successes, in all its darkness and its beauty, the agony and the ecstasy of Terran versus Zerg.

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Killer’s defense of his SSL7 title now rests on one last series against his former teammate and SSL6 finalist, HiyA. With both players having proven their TvZ credentials with dominating victories in the Ro4, this final series represents a showdown between two titans of the SOSPA scene.

After completely outclassing the best that Afreeca had to offer in 2012, there was some speculation coming into SSL8 that Killer wouldn’t have it quite so easy this time. With the arrival of highly skilled ex-pros like Movie, Sea and Shuttle over the new year, this latest installment of the Sonic Starleague possessed by far the strongest pool of players of any Afreeca tournament to date. It seemed almost impossible that Killer could show the same level of dominance against this new generation of SOSPA players, especially given the time he had spent away from Brood War while practicing for his participation in the GSL qualifiers in January.

Killer’s response to this new challenge tells a story about the player we’ve come to know since his retirement from Team 8 last year. Although he has dropped games to the likes of Movie and Sea in less important online tournaments, Killer’s ability to outthink and outplay any opponent put in front of him in an offline setting has continued to win out. Rather than regress from the form that saw him take his first SSL championship, Killer has improved, with his play against sSak in the semi-final as crisp and well-planned as it has ever been during his time as a SOSPA player. The end result? An SSL run that has seen Killer lose only one solitary map against Shuttle in the Ro16.


While Killer’s progress to the final was, even with the rising threat of Movie and Sea, rather predictable, HiyA has spent much of 2013 struggling to keep his place in the increasingly competitive SOSPA landscape. Earlier this year, in the wake of SRT11, things had come to a point where it could be reasonably argued that HiyA was only the 8th or 9th best player on Afreeca. While hardly the end of the world, this period represented a huge fall from where he’d been only six months earlier. Given the much greater amount of time he’d spent away from a pro-team than any of his nearby competitors and his apparent decline in form following a loss to Sky in the SSL6 final, it perhaps made sense to think HiyA’s career as a real contender for Afreeca tournaments was coming to an end.

Even after a solid performance in the SRT12 that saw HiyA reach the final, his narrow loss to Movie brought back bad memories about the TvP failings of the past that had prevented HiyA from having a tournament record truly reflective of the long period he spent as one of Afreeca’s best players. Whether this SSL has been the revival of a dwindling career or simply a reminder of the former OZ Terran’s enduring talent, this final represents an opportunity for HiyA to define his legacy in SOSPA competition and stand alongside his old teammate as an SSL champion.


Killer has for a long time represented the only real challenge for any top Terran in ZvT, with this especially true in the case of HiyA, who, outside the occasional dip in form, has been a class above all other Zerg opposition during his Afreeca career. Since their first official meeting in SRT9, the former teammates have developed a rivalry that has spanned across multiple leagues, with Killer currently holding a one game advantage in their head to head record.

In his most recent ZvT series Killer was totally untroubled by the slightly underwhelming efforts of sSak, with the SSL7 champion dictating the pace of all three games and outplaying his opponent in slightly different scenarios in each game. It’s hard to find an example of Killer underperforming in an important game during his SOSPA career so far, with even his recent 2-3 SuperMatch loss to Sea having an echo of glory and constituting probably the closest and most entertaining series of the year so far. While sSak’s play in the Ro4 wasn’t sufficient to challenge him, Killer is clearly fallible, especially in the early to mid-game transition where he has been caught out a number of times by sharp timings from the likes of Sea and HiyA.


Against a normal Zerg opponent, HiyA’s TvZ can often resemble the complete package, crisp timings, excellent control and an otherworldly sense for when he’s going to be able to simply walk across the map and kill his opponent. The fact that HiyA rarely needs to take things into the late-game is a testament to his strong early and mid-game play and, in a series against Killer, is both a blessing and a curse. As the game clock ticks upwards and both players spread out across the map, the incredible sharpness of mechanics that Killer seems to hold as an advantage over every other player on Afreeca will become more significant. While HiyA is no slouch when it comes to multitasking, there’s a definite sense that if he is to win this series, it won’t be off the back of his late-mech transitions.

Another installment of what is becoming a great rivalry and the perfect ending to another Best Yet™ SonicTV Starleague, this series is finely balanced. While his importance to the development of Afreeca Starcraft leagues makes HiyA a very attractive prospect as SSL champion, Killer’s cold-blooded efficiency and ability to turn it on in important offline series make it hard to look past him for back to back victories.

Killer 4-2 HiyA

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WRITERS: Hyde, kjwcj & Epoxide
TRANSLATOR: Kimoleon
GRAPHICS: Hyde
PHOTOS: dailyesports, Blizzard Entertainment