The first game on Sin Peaks of Baekdu saw Mong open with a factory expand adding a starport soon after while Free went for a one-gate FE. Mong took map control early on with mines before observers were out and tried some drop-harass and vulture run-bys which Free deflected while taking a third. Of course, if you keep trying and things may just work. Mong kept constant harassment with vultures, disrupting mining and killing probes. A double reaver drop did some damage while Mong's run-bys keep on raking up kills until Free adapted. Players took the map with Free trying over and over again to attack Mong, however Mong's strong defense allowed him to take more bases. Free transitioned to mass carriers though Mong attacked at the perfect time and took a major engagement. Multitasking like a madman with great control, Mong eventually managed to attack Free's fifth base sieging it and pushing his carriers back. He then took out his sixth to win the game.


While game one was standard play, game two on Blue Storm was anything but that. Free opened with a proxy seven-gate into forge that managed to break down Mong's wall. Strong zealot harass by Free saw Mong lose many workers while Mong went for a rax in Free's base but that was scouted. Mong was forced into bio so he added on two more rax which he floated outside his base and then decided to go for a surround. Though he eventually managed to claim his expansion, once reavers were out, Mong was forced back to his main and was on the defensive. Free easily took a third then fourth base behind this while Mong just finished expanding to his natural. Once templars were on the field, Mong was easily overwhelmed when their power was coupled with reavers and speedlots.


The final game between these two titans took place on Return of the King and was the best game of the series. Free opened with a twelve-nexus against the factory expand of Mong. He added three gates soon after while Mong added a starport. The game entered a lull as both players expanded to their back mineral-only base with minor skirmishes near Free's bases. Seeing as Mong was happy to stay on the defensive, Free went up to six bases while Mong took a hidden fourth that was barely missed by one of Free's observers. After Mong defended a strong assault from Free near his expansion, he took his fifth base while Free took yet another base to go up to seven in total. After his hidden base was scouted, Mong moved out with a large force. Using map architecture to his advantage, he managed to leap his tanks and engaged Free near his expansion in an attack that he easily won, however he was forced to retreat when Free countered his fifth base scoring massive kills by constantly storming the ramp. Fast forward a bit and both players went into crazy mode as Mong attacked Free's sixth and seventh base. Free countered by attacking the fifth base, did major economical damage at the fourth base and pulled double recalls into Mong's main. After the dust settled, Mong had the bigger army, the better mining and he ended Free's run at his expansion.



On Return of the King, both players went for one-rax grabbing their gases for a factory, however where Mind went for two port, Last went for a CC. Mind looked to take the game early on with a strong early push but Last managed to just survive using SCVs as a buffer. From this point on, both players kept trading blows in the middle of the map. Last took the earlier third however he lost many workers to a vulture run-by. Mind kept dropping Last's main but it was cleaned up promptly. Both players were constantly active on the map trying to out-position each other. Last eventually managed to beat Mind and took a great position outside the ramp at his expansion cleaning up a lot of his army. He took the game after he went for a strong attack on Mind's third that Mind could not defend.

Last decided to open game two with a factory while Mind went for a one-rax FE on Fighting Spirit. Last established a strong position outside Mind's expansion and used wraith to pick off some valkyries before deciding to take his third. In the meantime, Mind was on the defensive and eventually took his own third. The two players had many small battles with Last trying to maintain his current hold while also expanding it. With great positioning and quick reactions, Last managed to maintain his contain. Mind tried to break out yet again but Last was able to deny it to win the series.






On Sin Peaks of Baekdu, Mini opened up with one-gate zealot harass that was well defended by sSak who went for a one-rax FE. sSak took control of the game soon after through constant vulture run-bys and drops that saw Mini take severe damage, losing eight probes and several dragoons. A four tank drop that utilized map architecture helped sSak take down Mini's third as he grabbed his own to lead in the economy game. From there, sSak dealt the final blow through a strategic play. Dropping tanks into Mini's main, he forced Mini's army to relocate to deal with the drop while he sieged the expansion with little resistance. Though the force was cleaned up, Mini was down to one mining base to sSak's three and left the game after he was unable to hold against sSak's followup attack which included wraith support for carriers.


Unlike the first game, the second game on Fighting Spirit was less intense. sSak decided to expand using mines for defense. Mini who opened with one gate and added another for two-gate goon used hold micro against the mines to prevent the expansion from going up. He made his way into sSak's main for an easy win.

Both players opted for the macro game on Return of the King. sSak went for a vulture drop which only netted him four probes due to good defense by Mini. Mini countered with his own double drop killing many SCVs though he lost everything. The game entered a lull as both players expanded further and Mini made carriers. Soon after, Mini was forced to forfeit his fourth to sSak's strong offensive position atop the high ground. After cleaning up this force, Mini decided to triple expand while sSak went up to three ports and started massing wraiths. With a strong carrier and goon force, Mini attacked sSak's natural and then denied his fourth, however, sSak got revenge later on after he engaged the army with a strong tank and wraith force that saw him take down all of Mini's carriers. Grabbing the momentum, he pushed back seiging Mini's natural while using his wraith force to take down Mini's fourth and fifth bases with ease. With his tournament life on the line, Mini tried one last break out but was unsuccessful calling the GG.






HiyA opened up the first game against Snow on Fighting Spirit with the two-fac Joyo rush which according to our TL Terran expert, Sayle, had the Terran add a second factory when the first is 60% completed. Snow opened up with a one-gate FE into robo but scouted the move out too late. Having an army that seemed small in comparison to HiyA's three tank army with vulture support, he abandoned his expansion and tried to make a stand at his ramp. Though he defended valiantly and was able to get the reaver out, HiyA managed to make it up the ramp taking out the pylon powering Snow's gateway and robo before taking the game soon after.

Their second game on Return of the King saw HiyA open with a factory expand while Snow opted for one-gate-core expand into robo build. HiyA played a solid defensive style and had great turret/tank coverage after expanding preventing Snow from doing any reaver harass. Both players added more buildings with HiyA going up to six factories and Snow adding an expansion and going up to eight gates. After amassing a large army, HiyA moved out causing Snow to withdrawal from his ramp. A mis-control by Snow saw him lose his shuttle and two reavers, which left him in a bad spot as HiyA leaped tanks ever so fast to his expansion. With good mine placement and an overwhelming force, HiyA easily took down Protoss expansion and probes inside the main before Snow could clear the army. The followup attack which included goliaths coupled with losing five to six dragoons to mines was enough for Snow to tap out.

The wraith made its way into the metagame pretty early on. It was quickly identified as a staple TvZ build. It later found its way into TvT. And it stayed there, for a long time, content as an offbeat opening, something a few progamers who made paper airplanes in school would bring to the world of StarCraft.

But it grew overtime.

Did you know a wraith can 1v1 any unit?



Did you know the last pro-OSL TvT ended with a two-port vs two-port??

Did you know the last pro-OSL TvZ series ended with a two-port and then two port?

The Afreeca SOSPA scene is just starting to discover what the professional meta was quickly converging to: an all-wraith meta.

TvT used to be a long battle of battlecruisers and goliaths. Nope. Wraiths emerged victorious in the modern progaming era, although they were also used some in the early days:






Heck, go ahead and throw starports wherever you want.



In TvZ, if two-port is good, surely four-port is better?





Now in TvP, wraiths have had their fair share of troubles. Sure, HiyA has gotten close opening with them in the greatest game ever played, and some shuttle and carrier snipes have happened over the years, but embracing the mass wraith has had difficulties in TvP



But now SBENU, Terrans finally realise the power of wraiths. The final solution to their individual weakness? More wraiths. Throughout the SBENU Starleague, Terrans have consistently been opening with dropship play (on Sin Peaks and Return of the King, both good maps for it), and using wraiths for shuttle defenses (standard play) and transitioning into heavy wraith play to take out small carrier fleets.

Now poor Protosses don't stand a chance. They may as well instantly resign when seeing wraiths.



Style, start, wraisu!

It happened: SSL10 has broken new ground yet again. Single-race semifinals have occurred twice before: Protoss managed it at the 2008 ClubDay MSL, within the span of the Six Dragons' domination, and Zerg in 2011's PDPop MSL, at the height of a swarm season. Given those facts, what does the first fully-Terran semifinal across Korean majors say about the state of affairs in the bitter winter of 2014-15?

The answer: only that the dominion of the Terran Lords remains a reality both on and off the Fish server. The triumphant Lords dispatched every alien threat with ease until only they remained, but now face the unfortunate reality that with all unworthy races so efficiently exterminated, the war must still continue until there is only one oppressor remaining. Whatever kinship exists between the remaining Lords, it must cease to exist until the overlord has been crowned.



Despite a rather weak showing in 2014, Mong's inspirational momentum continued well into the new year. The return of Mong's amazing unit control alone was enough to redeem him in the eyes of his fans, but his TvT is a rare sight, and thus somewhat more difficult to predict. Most recently, he forced two short - bordering on cheesy - TvTs to surprisingly win his HSL group against TvT monsters Sea and PianO, helping to repair his reputation as a poor TvTer. It would appear that Mong's aggressive style translates well into his statistically worst match-up, lending him to be disfavored running into dark horse Last, especially if Last can set the pace. Knowing his waning limits in the TvT, Mong is expected to utilize a hanbang push - with ample vulture micro - for a victory during his own high-impact violent mid-game.


If you watched more prize tournaments than casual streams on Afreeca last year, it would be likely that Last slipped right by you. Last is one of the few existing players with the sheer APM to maintain optimal efficiency past the 15-minute mark in TvT, as he has proven in his long histories against the significantly slower Sharp and Mind. His style begets the sort of TvT that is more interesting from a theoretical level than it is when gleaned for visceral highlights. This is because, unlike every Terran out there, Last's ultimate goal is to deny the center-field until the later stages of TvT, wherein no Lord can hope to keep up in efficiency; as in Chess if it were played underwater. Rarely dropping below 350 APM (far higher than that of the remaining Terrans), the Royal Road candidate seems to have been designed by STX coaches with the sole specific purpose of sniping strong Terrans, which is all that remain on his path. It didn't seem likely that Last would progress far with all the Protoss in his path and heavy reliance on cheese, suggesting lack of confidence, but his match against Mind plainly displayed that the same Last that nonchalantly starved out Shinee in the Ro32 is still with us.

This is doubtlessly another "early versus late" TvT set, just as the one played last round between Last and Mind, although the sheer pressure exerted by Mong's style will add a factor that Last may not be prepared against. Blue Storm is one of Mong's strong maps, but Last is 2-0 in TvTs on Return of the King. In fact, he's 4-0 in TvT in SSL10, and those wins have been taken both before the five-minute mark and over half-an-hour in. It's difficult to favor Mong over a recent record like that even with a strong recent record of his own, but if the Pig gets a good hit in by the 15-minute mark, all eyes will be on him to close it out and enter his second SSL final.

Last to advance.




Unlike the previous group, sSak and HiyA have represented Terran very successfully throughout the year, and are largely responsible for establishing the dominance of Terran in 2014. The main distinction to be drawn between sSak and HiyA is raw mechanical skill (in HiyA's favor) and TvT tactical mastery (in sSak's favor).


Returning to form after an autumnal slump, and overjoyed to enter a full bracket of Terran mirrors, sSak prepares to defeat the monstrous fish with a strong grasp of his signature match-up. With no bizarre antics to speak of inside nor outside the game, the ex-T1 Terran's claim to fame on the amateur circuit is his victory over the 2014 1st SBENU Allstars league, taken primarily with his TvT against the likes of PianO and Mong. sSak has a strong record on every Terran Lord this year except for HiyA and Sea, and manages to keep up in long games despite being the verifiably slowest Terran still in the league, at around 240APM in recent mirrors. sSak is not to be underestimated for his minimalism - if anything, it shows how far his strategic edge has carried him and proves that one can be a terror in TvT without Last's sheer macro capacity.

Magikarp is known better than the other three semifinalists to dislike TvT outright, despite being one of the best in the world at it. Only PianO and Ample can boast good records against him in the mirror, and he's gone 6-0 against Sea in sponsored matches this year. Still with much to prove after a slew of early eliminations from all concurrent leagues, the perpetually under-practiced HiyA is fortunate to have no other match-ups to prepare for a while. He's promised viewers entertaining games, which may be a tall order for TvT considering his own feelings regarding the match-up. He's also got a diverse build library serviced by his famously high APM. He certainly has the mechanical advantage on the more-fundamental sSak, and should be able to continue his strong record against the humble Spartan (5-3 this year, 2-0 on Fighting Spirit) and advance to his third SSL final, if only he can get his blood boiling in time.

HiyA to advance.

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WRITERS: BigFan, Stratos, N.GeNuity & Mirabel_
GRAPHICS: Hyde
EDITORS: prech, Stratos, BigFan & Hyde
PHOTOS & ART: Blizzard Entertainment, dailyesports, FOMOS, Game Chosun, OSEN & Kongdoo Company.