Game of the Match: Piano vs. Hero (set 4)

Game 1: Brave vs. Britney on Fighting Spirit
Brave took the early advantage by getting a faster gas, allowing him to get his robo started quicker. Britney tried to do a little damage with zealot harassment, but Brave was able to defend easily, losing only one probe. Once Brave's shuttle and reaver had finished, he immediately attacked, and his slightly smaller ground army was more than made up for with the reaver. His narrowly timed attack paid off, as Brave broke through Britney's natural just as Britney's own reaver was finishing.

Game 2: Brave vs. Terror on Circuit Breaker
Brave went for one stargate with +1 air weapons and +1 speed zealots. Terror played standard, playing at two mains with 6 hatcheries and a sim city. When Brave got his gateways going, he started putting a lot of pressure on Terror's third with his zealots, and Terror responded by building mutalisks and scourge. This proved fatal, as an ill-advised engagement lost Terror all of his airforce, leaving him essentially defenseless when Brave attacked into his third and fourth and killed him off.

Game 3: Brave vs. by.hero on Electric Circuit
Hero went three hatch hydralisks with a fake lair at his main. Brave, whose later scouting attempts were blocked by speedlings, had only one completed cannon when range upgraded hydras arrived outside his natural. He GG'ed soon after.

Game 4: PianO vs. by.hero on Mist
Piano opened aggressive, with a forward 6-rax, and kept the pressure on throughout the match. He was constantly dropping vultures or marines in Hero's bases, and attacking expansions with tank + bio armies. Hero scouted very well, and continued to defend with some minor tech and worker damage, but no lost expansions. His defensive defiler play was particularly effective in warding off armies that easily out-sized him at his third gas. As Piano kept attacking and attacking, Hero found some space to counter, managing to incapacitate Piano's fresh expansions with the Terran army all over the map. Eventually, Piano ran out of steam and Hero had too much economy and Piano left the game.

Game 5: ZergMaN vs. by.hero on Neo Jade
Zergman opened 12 pool with gas, while Hero opened 12 hatch. Hero scouted Zergman first and immediately pressed his larva advantage, attacking with zerglings and winning the game.

Game 6: Snail vs. by.hero on Blue Storm
This game started almost identically to last game, with Snail opting for 12 pool and Hero for 12 hatch. The small direct entrance on Blue Storm gave Snail better luck in deflecting the early zergling attack, but Hero still had the superior economy and won the game with mutalisks.

Game 7: ZerO vs. by.hero on New Sniper Ridge
Zero went 9 pool with gas, and got lair before speed. Hero once more went 12 hatch. Zero moved his lings across the map, and misinterpreted a scouting overlord, sending all his forces to the wrong main. By the time he had corrected his error, Hero alread had lings out and a sunken completed. Hero ended the game by busting up Zero's ramp and killing him with zerglings.







Game of the Match: Ample vs. Shinee (Set 4)

Game 1: Minus)Eagle vs. By.Spire on Fighting Spirit
Eagle went gateway before forge in hopes of putting some early pressure on Spire, but Spire multitasked well and defended all of Eagle's zealots with minimal damage. Eagle now had fewer zealots defending his natural, and Spire had an abundance of zerglings. Spire ran into the natural, killing off the only cannon and the two zealots defending. After that, winning was just a matter of continuing to produce zerglings until Eagle died.

Game 2: Ample vs. By.Spire on Circuit Breaker
Spire went two hatch lurker, but lost many of his zerglings before his lurkers had morphed. Ample circumvented the double bridges and attacked Spire's natural from more open ground, allowing him to kill off the lonely lurker and sunken defending it. Spire managed to hold briefly, but his small lurker force on the map was easily destroyed by Ample's tank/vessel/marine composition and Spire was dead upon Ample's arrival at his natural. Spire lost without ever getting to attack with his aggressive opening.

Game 3: Ample vs. Onicle on Neo Electric Circuit
Though there was some interesting army control and multitasking on both sides, this game essentially boiled down to a macro slugfest. Ample took both his natural and his third more quickly than Onicle, and was able to keep up with the protoss in expansions until fairly late into the game. His upgrades were generally ahead of Onicle's and even his factory count was not much smaller than the Protoss's gateway numbers. This, coupled with the superior worker harassment Ample's vultures afforded him, allowed the Terran to basically steamroll the Protoss in the late game, despite Onicle's best efforts at arbiter and big army control.

Game 4: Ample vs. Shinee on Mist
Air dominance proved to be the deciding factor in this game's outcome. Ample was the first to push this agenda, opening with two starports before expanding, but it was Shinee, who responded by proxying two ports of his own while defending Ample's harassment, who ultimately dominated the skies. Shinee first managed to pincer Ample's early fleet of wraiths with goliaths and wraiths of his own, which opened up lanes for him to make use of his considerable dropship force. The game continued to swing in either player's direction, as Ample rebuilt his airforce and put them to use wearing down Shinee's tank lines. Both players largely kept up with each other on expansions, and the final tipping point came when Shinee's wraiths, coupled with a valkyrie, destroyed all of Ample's air units, leaving the KT Terran's ground force exposed and unable to defend itself.

Game 5: Light vs. Shinee on Neo Jade
This game developed pretty similarly for both players, who each seemed content to take his own half of the map and take things from there. The critical difference was that Light moved his army out into the middle of the map and took control of it, whereas Shinee made dropships and lifted forces over to defend each new expansion he took. As Light built up turrets and a wraith force of his own, Shinee's strategy started to work against him, and he found himself down an expansion at 12 o'clock with no easy way to take it. In desperation, Shinee tried to build a battle cruiser fleet, but Light's wraiths were so numerous that they could one-shot even battle cruisers. The game eventually devolved into Shinee saving up battle cruiser energy to widdle down the 12 o'clock expansion with yamato cannons while Light continued to profit from its resources and build up his own battle cruiser fleet. Things eventually came to a head when Light attacked Shinee's 1 o'clock expo, and while the air units very nearly traded, Light's ground force utterly dominated, and he took the game.

Game 6: Light vs. Olympus on Blue Storm
Olympus started out showing some great control this game, first with his dragoons, which were able to break into Light's natural and kill several SCVs against a very safe opening, and then with his reavers, which he microed fearlessly against tank pushes and in Light's mineral line. However, this success might have gone to his head a bit too much, as Olympus continued producing shuttles and reavers instead of transitioning out into more standard play, and ended up losing some large investments with very little return later in the game. Light stalwartly defended and expanded, amassing an army of metal while Olympus placed his hope in carriers, building up a fleet of them rather than focusing on his ground army and expansions. This proved to be the wrong choice, as Light eventually pushed down the map and obliterated Olympus, whose carrier fleet had not yet reached critical mass.

Game 7: Light vs. Soma on New Sniper Ridge
Soma went two hatch lurker with a fast queen's nest, hoping to get swarms outside Light's natural before he could prepare for it, but Light was not to be caught off guard. Despite losing his attacking force and getting contained and swarmed at his natural, Light calmly responded by laying down mines all over his main and countering with a drop ship. The lurkers impaled themselves on mines, and Light dealt heavy damage in Soma's main, leaving Soma with an anemic economy and no ground force, and no choice but to leave the game.




Socrates, a wise man from long ago knew one thing, that there are two types of people in this world. There are SK Telecom T1 fans and then there are non-SKT fans. That quote above refers to non-SKT fans. Is there a world worth breathing, eating, surviving, cheering in if there was no SKT to be a fan of? The facts are here. This team, the great kingdom, is back in Brood War proleague again. Only things are even scarier then before. In order to understand the magnitude of my words, I'm forced to describe one man. This man is someone who does not get nearly enough attention.... Bisu.



Dear God!?! What have we done as staff? If the brood war community feels we have let them down and that not mentioning Bisu is killing BSportsESports then let me make it up to you now!






Note: all stats are written according to TLPD

The hardest thing to do is give out blame. And I feel like there is a lot of blame in the BW 2.0 dished out towards Bisu. Should we blame Bisu for being #1 elo? (see image above). Should we blame Bisu for having a 10 game win streak? Should we blame him for being 6-0 against Terran (with 3 wins against Sea)? Should we blame him for being 2-1 against Zergs or 9-2 against Protoss? Should we blaaaaame Bisu for having a 17-3 record and holding an 85% winrate? The answer is no.

Bisu has shown weakness. Slight weakness. But he has lost 2 games in PvP. The most losses to any race he's played so far. While the number seems small, the weight of those loses feel hard. But with an impressive performance in his Group H PvP matchup I think we can all agree, he's got what it takes.

It's still very early in 2014. Bisu has to prove himself yet, that he truly is a proleague monster and that SKT will be the team to beat in SPL. As more games are played and we have data to analyze, you can rest assured the TeamLiquid staff will keep you informed of the SKT T1's ace player status. It is my hope that the statistics laid out before you today will be so mind blowing you'll liquibet against SKT T1 because you cannot believe that Bisu is the true god of Starcfaft: Brood War.




sSak, Larva, Midas, Pure + 1 amateur

sSak - With a record of 63-45 a 58% winrate is about as solid as you can get. It is long argued if you had over a 50% winrate in BW you were considered a good player. This definitely holds true to sSak. Scoring a bronze in SSL8 and a silver in the SRT it seems that he can beat just about anybody except the top 3 players consistently. But consistency in Proleague is not going to be an issue for sSak. He more then took command of his role on SKT and went for a solid 6-2 record in the Sonic KoTH PL series. This surely is a good sign for SKT heading in to SPL.

Larva - This is the silver medal winner of SSL7. Another kong among kongs in the SKT lineup. I mentioned in the last writeup I believe him to be a wildcard for the team. With a record of 80-95 just around 45% marks him down as a perfect fit for the SKT Zerg saga.

Midas - Boasting a record of 1-3(25%) record, Midas hasn't found his golden touch yet. One of the most veteran BW players to date, he surely will bring a lot of experience and coaching to the table. As a top 4 OSL finisher and winner of a WCG, Midas began his team career in 2004 on the team SUMA Greatest Ones and after playing with SKT a short time, finished on WeMadeFox. All SKT fans can hope for is that he doesn't carry the bad WeMadeFox mojo over into this team league.

Pure - Another WeMadeFox player added to SKT's roster, Pure is a Protoss beast. He once looked as if he would join the dragon ranks. With a deep run in the Korean Air OSL Season 1, Pure managed a semifinals finish (only to lose to Flash who punished his triple nexus openings). After this OSL his career went mostly silent. Still, he tries to make himself relevant once again, but the key will be to overcome his starting record in Sonic games of 1-12! An appalling 7% winrate will be tough to overcome. But have faith! This Protoss powerhouse will soon be making progamers cry.

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WRITERS: mustaju, BisuDagger and nbaker
GRAPHICS: KasPra