The final four have begun the “Extinction Event” as so wonderfully coined by the SSL writing staff. Protoss have been eliminated. Only a sole Terran remains and the most worthy of this spot. Mind has had the toughest road of the final four finalists. He has gone undefeated this tournament against Killer, Movie, Larva, and finally Bisu. Mind’s display of invincibility in this tournament will be tested as he must face two more Zergs in order to win the league.

Three Zergs fill in the remaining spots of the Kongdoo Starz League. The two players representing group C, ZerO and hero, advance in opposite fashions. Zero was tested thoroughly by the toughness of Mong as the series went to a third game. Hero had it easy as his hydra tactics crushed Free. The final participant, Kwanro, was able to defeat top ZvZ-er and zerg favorite, Killer. Kwanro may be considered an underdog, but he has wins against the best Protoss and Zerg on the scene.

This Saturday the swarm has one agenda, eliminate the final Terran. Revenge for the disappointing Zerg performance in the SSL must be made up in the KSL. Can Mind carry the pride of the Terran or will the hive mind infest this finals?

Game 1 Kwanro opened up with 9 pool speed. Killer opened up with 12 hatch before pool. The game was about as quick as it took me to write this summary. Kwanro won easily.



Game 2 Killer fought fire with fire and opened 9 pool speed. Kwanro in turn mind gamed Killer and went for 9 hatch/9pool expecting Killer to open aggressively. Kwanro easily prevented any damage from Killer’s ling in his natural. Lings battles ensued as players raced to have air superiority. Kwanro’s extra hatchery of larva paid of huge as it allowed him to overcome Killer’s early gas advantage. Beautiful scourge splits and muta engagements at Killer’s eventual natural finally ended the game.

Game 1 was played on new map Avalon. It was most definitely an odd game. Zero opened taking 3 bases that included his backdoor expansion and a low gas income. This could only mean one thing, lurkers over mutas. Mong prepared exceptionally in game one and opened up with double starport wraith. Zero took heavy damage from the air as he attempted to survive off hydras and refused to build a spire. Mong observed Zero’s stubbornness and had a heavy bio mech push prepared. With the aid of only one science vessel and no scourge on the map, Zero’s massive amount of lurkers were rendered useless. Mong was able to quickly leap frog his units across the map, closing the already short distance between his opponents natural. Zero’s army fell swiftly and conceded game 1.



Game 2 was played on Fighting Spirit. This match went very similar to the Hiya vs Zero matchup in the round of 16. Zero opened 2 base hive in order to use defensive defilers against the might of Mong’s early bio meching forces. Mong’s advances with tanks were easily dismantled. Zero played with huge efficiency as he retained his mutas from the early game and reused them to decimate Mong’s third and fourth consistently throughout the game. Mong continued to play aggressive, regardless of his economy. Zero looked unbreakable as he transitioned into ultras and drop overlords. The combination was too deadly and game was claimed by the swarm.



Game 3 was a hard fought battle between Zero and Mong. This was the only matchup to reach the ace match and there was no doubt why. After Mong dismantled Zero in game 1 and Zero overpowered Mong in game 2, it was truly a tossup on who would advance from this group. Zero spawned in the top left hand corner and Mong spawned in the bottom right. For the second game in a row, Zero refused to take a third until Lair tech was done. 2 base Zerg versus 2 base Terran, Mong was unable to take any advantage before defilers were able to come out. Mong opened with bio and fought to apply pressure at the third and natural of Zero.
As the game continued, Mong once again went for a double expansion while building on a mech force to take into the late game. The map was starting to split, however a solid muta harass was able to stall mining of Mong’s expansion while zerg carapace upgrades were able to finish. A constant sieging of Zero’s fourth absorbed a lot his attention. Eventually, fully armored ultras were able to storm the battle field and in combination with dark swarm overwhelmed Mong for the victory.

Game 1 was quite a spectacular game from the Terran point of view. Mind exposed a deadly timing mech push on the new map Demian. The game started off relatively even. Bisu was able to obtain his third base easily and Mind in took his third without trouble. Arbiter play was the choice tier 3 unit for Bisu while Mind built a large number of factories. Finally, Mind pushes out with his army and Bisu only has one arbiter at his disposal. Mind’s timing was so perfect as stasis was not completed. Finding a spot on Demian to siege and contain the natural of Bisu, the situation became dire. Bisu refused to fight head on and in turn recalled his army into Mind’s main. Barely any damage was done as the queued units of Mind popped out of the factories to kill off the Protoss forces. Bisu refused to learn his lesson and attempted a second recall in the main, only resulting in more Protoss death. The game was lost and Bisu tapped out.



Game 2 was BS BBS. Mind opened up Barracks, Barracks, Supply Depot in his natural with a close spawn position to Bisu. Bisu opened 12 nexus and sent his scout to cross spawn. He performed every wrong opening move possible before Mind’s army stormed his main. Bisu knew immediately he had lost the game to the finest cheese Mind had to offer. In game 2, Mind was a Munster!

Game 1 was played out perfectly for hero. Hero decided to go for a heavy hydra ling bust at the backdoor expansion of Free. Free opened gate, backdoor expand which was perfect for hero. Using a drone to mine out minerals at the temple and destroying it with lings, hero was able to complete his hydra/ling rush. Mutalisks were created for a follow up attack. From there the damage was too much and Free was defeated after a series of overlord drops in his main.



Game 2 was a basic 3 hatch hydra build. Free went for forge expand into corsair this game. The corsair timing was too late for Free to discover hero’s build. The hydras stormed the front and all the probes at the natural were killed off. The economic damage was enough to force a GG from Free in the following hydra attack.

Mong starts at the 5 o’clock position and chooses to open with a greedy 14 CC. ZerO starts at the 7 o’clock position and chooses to open with 12 Hatchery. ZerO quickly spots Mong with a drone scout. Having spotted Mong’s 14 CC this early, he could have opted to for a 2 Hatch build but instead he sticks with the standard 3 Hatch Mutalisk.

When ZerO’s mutas popped out he swings them from the center area over to Mong’s nat to harass him. Mong is more than prepared for the mutas due to the eco boost provided by his 14 CC. He made lots of turrets to minimize SCV losses. Mong basically doesn’t budge to ZerO’s muta threat and just continues to deny ZerO’s drone from getting to any expo with MnM pumping from 4 Rax. He delays ZerO’s third long enough that ZerO is forced to morph his lurkers near his nat. ZerO finally clears a path when he baits the MnM near the center and pokes into the natural. The position was just enough for ZerO to secure the top left.

Mong adds two tanks to his scary MnM force and sets out to get some zerg blood. ZerO tries to sway them away with muta-lurk but Mong gets to ZerO’s nat bridge without any trouble, even killing two lurkers on the way. The masses of marines begin tearing down the sunkens to the sound of sieging tanks. But with a few seconds to spare, consume finishes and ZerO strikes back under the cover of dark swarm, killing a couple of tanks.

Mong gets vessels as he swings over to the top left. There, he meets lurkers sitting atop the ramp area, ready to impale his marines. ZerO reacts quickly to place a dark swarm and it quickly becomes impossible to traverse. ZerO goes on further and pushes down to make his fourth base. Again, all Mong can do is back off and watch ZerO take a base. Well, it’s not that Mong isn’t taking bases of his own. He delays the mech switch a bit to double expand at 3 o’clock and at 6 o’clock.

ZerO forces Mong away by spewing playguu all over the marines while sending his idle mutas to turn 6 into dust. The mutas run away before Mong can catch them and they fly over to 3. Meanwhile, Mong goes for some drop play and lands MnM at ZerO’s main. Mong snipes the pool and gets plagued. He slides by the mineral line into the corner but ZerO’s defense is spot on as he throws a dark swarm and takes out the red MnM. However, Mong eraser’d some drones at the nat (JIEUGAE) and drives the pesky mutas away from 3.

Amid the chaos, Mong parks his mech outside ZerO’s fourth. ZerO swarm hops his units rapidly over to the tanks and takes them out easily. Having slashed the mech army, ZerO senses that he has the advantage (he knows Mong is also taking a 1 o’clock) and double expands at 9 o’clock and 12 o’clock. After this, a lull in the action ensues as ZerO secures his new acquisitions and adds some cows while Mong positions his mech to protect his top right and threaten an attack on 12 simultaneously.

When mech 1-1 upgrades finished, Mong attacked 12 with his tanks while his vultures go to 11. The vultures run into spines and get annihilated quickly. All the while, ZerO delays for key upgrades like ultra upgrades and ovie drops to launch a vicious counterattack.



Utilizing the same technique, ZerO advances downward and attacks Mong’s position near the 1 o’clock natural and cutting Mong off from much needed bases.



With his bases exposed, Mong is forced to retreat every worker to 3 and reinforces the base with siege tanks to pound the advancing zerg. Staying there isn’t an option for Mong with his dwindling resources and he moves out to retake top right. However, for ZerO this mech force is just more prey to his zerg swarm and overruns Mong. With no units left to resist, Mong concedes.



Mong tried to be greedy by taking two bases simultaneously but it didn’t work because he dealt little damage to ZerO’s economy. ZerO defended well partly because the double expand delayed mech so much and it came to a situation where Mong had to act despite his low, and consequently vulnerable tank count. Kudos to the mutalisks that denied/annoyed/delayed Mong’s three expansions.

Source: Kim Mu Young of HungryApp

Regarding today’s match, ZerO said, “I feel proud because my performance was good. I was really upset about losing yesterday’s match. But I think a good result was able to follow because I cleared my mind. It’s a solid map so I think that’s why I was able to establish the result that I got because I played like I always do.”

We then asked ZerO how he felt about the new maps being used for Starz League. “I don’t know for sure yet because I haven’t played a lot of matches on them yet. However, personally, I don’t like them. I prefer to use maps that I am already used to."

We then asked him about his semifinals opponent, Kwanro. “Back when Kwanro was on a different team, I lost to him a lot. But then he joined the same team as me so I know his style really well. I won’t lose to him as easily as I have in the past.”

When asked about shutting down Mong’s dropship plays with scourges, ZerO stated, “During practice, I fell victim to a lot of dropship plays. So I prepared a lot. I think the result of my preparations came out this match.”

Finally, we asked ZerO to say something regarding the upcoming semifinals match. “Now that I’ve made it to the semifinals, I want to win the championship no matter what. I will prepare really well for every single game ahead of me from here on out so I can play great matches.”

Source: Jang Jeong Woo of HungryApp

When asked how he felt about winning, Mind stated, “Thanks to the fact that I keep winning in this Starz League, I have never felt so good before. Since I won yesterday’s match, I showed a new and daring build and I was also feeling confident for game three. Pure helped me out a lot for my preparation on Avalon. Actually, the player who recommended the BBS build to me was also Pure."

He then went on to say, “I also thought about doing a BBS build just like Pure recommended, but I had a lot of worries as to whether or not it was going to work. Even though I practiced a lot once the build was recommended to me, that kind of strategy is a strategy where either scenario A or B happens, so I got really nervous. I was also worried about the fact that the momentum could potentially shift over to Bisu’s side if it ended up getting blocked. Thanks to that, I kept worrying about the same things over and over again.”

We asked Mind as to whether or not he felt that he had gotten closer to winning the championship. “I think a human being’s mind tends to change in the heat of the moment. Even though I defeated Bisu, the hardest opponent I foresaw for this season, I still can’t help but think that the next match will also be difficult. All I did was get a little closer to the championship, but I can’t say anything for certain."

Mind also stated that for the semifinals, “Even though I don’t know who my opponent is going to be yet (T/N: We now know it's hero), I still plan to prepare really hard. It was difficult to prepare for this match since I was on a tight practice schedule, but now that I have a lot of time, I think I’m going to be able to prepare well. Especially because I won, my mind is at ease and the fact that I gained confidence from this is going to be a big help.”

We asked Mind how he felt about defeating Bisu. “I don’t feel sorry for beating him since I remember a time when I had a six game losing streak against him. In fact, since he is such a strong opponent, I kept feeling a lot of pressure right up until the moment that I won."

Finally, we asked Mind to say something regarding the upcoming semifinals match. “I have a tendency to lose whenever I feel that I am doing well, so for this next match I plan on preparing for an awesome performance where I will have no regrets.”

Source: Jang Jeong Woo of HungryApp

When asked how he felt about making it to the semifinals, Kwanro stated, “I did not expect to do as well as I am doing right now for this league. A part of me is actually feeling the pressure of the fact that advancing to the semifinals means that I have yet another match ahead of me. But there is also a part of me that really wants this now that I was able to achieve a victory that I did not anticipate.”

We then asked him about his feelings towards the league in general. Kwanro said that, “From the semifinals and on, skill won’t matter. The victory can be decided by just one mistake so I will have to focus for every single game. Regarding the two new map additions to this league, I don’t think they’re that bad. Avalon is a map that requires strategic play, but I liked maps like these from back when I was a progamer, so I like these.”

Kwanro also went on to say that today’s match took on the scenario that he foresaw. “For today’s match, my past experiences really helped. I played out today’s scenario based on my past semifinals and finals experiences and I think that ended up being more effective than practicing. Just like I did for today, I plan on laying out a good scenario for my next match.”

Regarding his semifinals opponent, Kwanro stated that, “Even though I don’t know if my semifinals opponent will be ZerO or Mong (T/N: We now know it's ZerO), I personally would like to face ZerO. This is because I am more confident in ZvZ than ZvT.”

Regarding the semifinals match, Kwanro said, “The first game will probably be the most important. Even though I don’t feel any pressure regarding this semifinals match, the nerves one feels before a match begins is something that you cannot control since you don’t get to experience things like that on an everyday basis. If I can take this nervousness and convert it into a thrilling feeling so that I can enjoy the match, then I think I will be able to establish a good result.”

Finally, Kwanro stated, “I hope that the fans will be able to enjoy the matches along with me without caring about the end result. I’m sure that they will probably congratulate me if I win, but I hope they realize that there’s nothing that can be done if I end up losing.”

Source: Kim Mu Young of HungryApp

When asked about today’s match, hero said, “I feel good because today’s games went well. I think the situations that I wanted to happen were created well. Thanks to this match, I have also found confidence for the semifinals.”

We asked hero about his thoughts on the semifinals match. “I think the semifinals will be the biggest obstacle to overcome. At a recent event league, I lost to Mind. I plan to prepare a lot and practice a lot.”

We wanted hero to say something to Mind. So hero said, “Thanks to this league, I was able to get really close to Mind. We talked to each other a lot and we practiced together a lot. Since we helped each other out with practice, we also figured out a lot about how the other thinks. I really want to have a great match with Mind.”

In this Starz League, Zerg grabbed a 100% win percentage against Protoss, so we asked hero about that. “All the Zerg players who participated in this league were excellent players. But the Protoss players were also all really good and there wasn’t anyone there that you could just ignore. Looking back, I think Protoss just didn’t have any luck this league.”

When asked how he would prepare for the semifinals, hero stated, “First off, I plan on having a good rest before I start practicing. I plan on asking multiple Terran players to help me out with practice. Since Mind is such a good player, I will prepare a lot and practice a lot."

Finally, we asked hero regarding the upcoming semifinals. “When this league began, I started off with a clear mindset. I think that’s how I was able to get this far without feeling any pressure. But now that I’ve made it to the semifinals, I am feeling pressure. So I plan to clear my mind again as I tackle the semifinals.”

In the first semifinal of the KSL, ZerO will face off against everyone's favourite 9-pooling speed-upgraded pikachu Kwanro.

Interestingly, the two currently have exactly the same record in ZvZ in the SoSPa era since both joining in November 2013, at 9-10, despite ZerO logging significantly more games as a full-time streamer and participant in more leagues than Kwanro. In ZvZ ELO, the two are essentially identical to each other in the rankings, Both have not broken out on the SoSPa scene in the way they might have hoped: ZerO was one of the top zergs of all time, actually starting out as a ZvZ specialist with 45% of his total progames being ZvZ, and consistently placed in the elimination brackets of MSLs ,and OSLs (with a largely disproportionate number of ZvZ series, even making his elimination bracket run to the finals on ZvZ alone). Kwanro as well pulled a silver medal and was a semifinalist of MSLs in his own regard (actually beating ZerO 3-0 in Avalon 2009 on his way to silver). While Kwanro did finish a quiet fourth in the 9th Sonic] Starleague, this league provides that chance for a high-profile championship in an ever-stronger ex-pro scene.

Perhaps to their misfortune, both players seem to have their play go through bouts of high or low quality in their gameplay. ZerO unfortunately has been a chronic choker in high-profile matches, while Kwanro's play sometimes begs the question: "seriously why do people not expect Kwanro to 9 pool?", pulling early aggressive all-ins that seem to always pan out (although even a failed 5 pool sunken rush is always appreciated).

So with a bit of a storied history in their ZvZ play--with wonky styles and even famous hive tech plays--the question is if anything can be gleaned in recent history and their current form. ZerO played the ZvT of his SoSPa life in defeating Mong, while Kwanro completely outclassed the #1 ZvZ monster Killer (at 60-20 record) doing so with the less-commonly used 9 hatch strategy. Both tumbled out of SSL10, but looking back, ZerO looked scrambled to the amateur force[Name]'s lings compared to Kwanro who got eliminated by the finalist Last. ZerO recovered in the KSL though, displaying a beautiful 1 hatch ZvZ against the expanding hero.

The long story short is both looked very impressive in their last ZvZ games, but both haven't had an incredibly long track record to go on. And it is ZvZ after all, subject to build order losses.

Kwanro's domination of Killer is no joke, and I expect Kwanro to pull out at least 1 variation of ZvZ less commonly seen that the standard 9 pool 12 hatch 12 pool circle (gas first builds, another 9 hatch, or the like).

In the TvZ pairing, Mind, the fifth ranked player on the Elo, meets hero, the eleventh ranked.

Mind comes into the match as one of the hottest players at the moment, having had substantial success at all three leagues in which he is competing, the KSL, SSL10, and 41 Starleague Season 3. In the three leagues, Mind has gone 7-0 against Zergs, including wins against Modesty, Larva, and hero. The TvZ match-up is statistically Mind's strongest, with a win rate of over 80%. With his 250-300 APM play, Mind has practiced a variety of strategies, ranging from aggressive offensive bunkers, to six rax M&Ms, with a few early mech (wraiths and/or vultures, in particular) games thrown in for good measure. Although seemingly questionable strategies, Mind's significant KeSPA-era experience has boded well for reacting to Zergs's varied counters to Mind's aggressive early ploys.

hero, meanwhile, has been eliminated from both the SSL10 and 41 Starleague 3, leaving the KSL his only active tournament. Historically, hero has has significant trouble against Terrans, with a win rate of less than 45%. In the three active leagues, hero has been 2-6 (wins-losses) in the ZvT, including two losses to Mind. In the ZvT, hero typically opts for standard three-hatch muta and muta/ling play while teching to ultralisks and cracklings with defilers. hero, does, at times, favor lurker-first ZvT builds from time to time, thus catching the Terran M&M army off-guard if the Terran is not actively scouting. With a 350-400 APM, hero will also occasionally opt for aggressive late game play by teching early with only brief use of mutalisk stalling, favoring straight ultralisk/crackling builds without dark swarm.

Head-to-head, hero has a 3-6 record against Mind in league play, including four straight losses in the 41 Starleague Season 3 and a recent HungryApp Special Match, both best-of-threes. Significantly, both competitors have been practicing and studying up, which fans will appreciate, so it will be exciting to see how well-prepared the two will be. With two of their first three games on the less familiar Avalon and Demian, it's difficult to predict a distinct advantage, but the remaining maps all favor Terran historically: La Mancha, Fighting Spirit, and Circuit Breaker, further extending Mind's advantage. If these games progress into the late game, indicating hero has resisted Mind's M&M play, hero will have more of a chance, but in a Bo5, hero has quite a challenge ahead.

Prediction: Mind