It's crazy how things have worked out this season. Everyone who's made it into the RO8 has a legitimate chance to make it to the finals. In the past, we've had guys who made it far, but didn't really stand a chance of making it further. This time around, it's a damn shame to see anyone drop out, and the RO8 really feels like do or die time. Here's one last shout out to the long overdue but completely necessary GSL format revamp from last November, before we let it pass away into one of those things we take for granted.

On to the match!

It's a bit surprising how quietly FXOGuMiho became one of the best players in the world. On paper, it's been a very impressive, alarmingly quick rise to the top. He was a major workhorse fOu/FXO in the GSTL with a 9 – 6 record in 2011. In September, he crushed Nestea 2 - 0 the WCG Korea qualifiers, and followed that up a few weeks later by topping a tough up/down group that included Puzzle, Sage, Genius, and Zenio. He then beat DRG and Bomber in his first Code S outing, though he was eliminated by Mvp later. Gumiho went on to kill his up/down group a second time, got back into Code S, beat Mvp four times, and here we are today.

Despite all this taking place over five odd months, there's still a feeling of "oh wow, where did this kid come from?" It's not like he went completely unnoticed, as he was in Code S after all. It's just that at the same time Gumiho was making his ascent, Stephano was making his international presence known, MMA won his first and second championships, three major foreign tournaments held their finals within weeks of each other, Leenock emerged as a Zerg Star, Naniwa did Naniwa things, Jjakji finally gave us a good GSL final, MMA and DRG had the best series in GSL history... the list goes on. Really, how was yet another good Terran player supposed to capture our attention?

Similarly, SlayerS_Puzzle arrived at this point in a subdued way. He received a lot of hype after he smashed through Code A July to earn the direct seed into Code S, but quickly settled into being another forgettable Code S player (I blame the system, not the player... mostly), with his race being his main point of interest. It's not that he was a bad player in Code S at all, he was pretty good. It's just that he was such a generically good player, winning in such standard, clear cut Protoss ways, that it was hard to be interested. Good execution of a 7-Gate +2 blink all-in? Zzzzz. Good control of an archon-colossus-templar deathball after turtling for 20 minutes? Zzzzz. If he grinded his way to a RO16 finish, that was no surprise. RO8 was a little bit more surprising, but not by much. Two RO8's in a row? People started to wake up, only to have their attentions immediately diverted to MC, Parting, and Genius' more compelling stories and gameplay (aLive was another such generically good player, until this season where he distinguished himself with some jaw dropping mech play).

But here we are, as two players are poised to go to a GSL semi-final, make serious claims to being the best player at their race, and have very realistic shots at destroying hype-machines DRG/Parting and go to the finals.

If their recent matches are any indicator, this series should be an extremely close battle of standard TvP. Puzzle really is the face of textbook PvT, with a fondness for aggressive two base play where a dozen well-placed forcefields will auto-win against an unprepared opponent, and defensive three base play that refuses to fight until an unbeatable deathball has been completed – while doing very little in between. It's the 'right' way to play Protoss these days, and Puzzle is very good at it.

Puzzle is actually starting to resemble MC a bit as of late, as he seems to favor the aggressive two-base pushes whenever there's a chance, compared to players like Genius who skew towards drawing the game out. However, Puzzle's late game abilities are more in line with the ultra-safe Genius, than the sometimes shaky MC.

Though he's super stylistic in TvZ, Gumiho's TvP play is pretty analogous to Puzzle's PvT play. Gumiho plays a standard TvP style, using the fast-expanding bio-ball, dropping frequently but not crazily (unlike his TvZ), and mixing in a 1/1/1 now and then to keep the opponent honest. Though it doesn't have the unique flair of his TvZ, he still plays this standard style very well. I would say it's pretty much on par with Puzzle, and their 4-4 head to head record is somewhat indicative of this. Most of their games have been as textbook as they come, with games won and lost within the standard margin of error.

The X factor here is that these two players are facing off in a GSL series, with a ton of time to prepare for this five game series. As opposed to non GSL games which still tend to boil down to 1-gate FE into 3-gate robo vs rax FE into 3-rax tech, this season of Code S has been all about doing funky builds that try to take an economic lead in the first few minutes. Puzzle or Gumiho will have to have those triple CC and triple nexus builds in mind, especially after Parting showed last week that the payoff on an economic risk is even better than one on an early game rush.

One thing I'm worried about for Gumiho in that regard is that he hasn't shown much desire to do marine all-ins, which is a really critical piece of the TvP multi-game series puzzle. Your cheese arsenal isn't complete without it, and the full range of mind-games is not unlocked until you can show your opponent you're willing to go for a complete all-in.

Putting it all together, I'm inclined to pick Puzzle as the winner. Though his PvT play tends to bore me, he has clinically good execution, and a very calculated amount of aggression to go alongside his late game ability. Gumiho is good at standard TvP, but not great. Also, his previous series give me the feeling he will try to slug it out with Puzzle, instead of trying to be too creative. And even if he does, I don't think he's particularly better than Puzzle in that department. It looks like one of those series that will be close, but Puzzle will grind out a win in the end.


Prediction: Puzzle 3 – 2 Gumiho

Well, it wasn't the cleanest way to the quarterfinals, but Blizzard Cup champion SlayersMMA was able to get out of his round of sixteen group. His loss to teammate Puzzle was a setback, but he was able to get revenge for GSL November by defeating Oz in two sets, winning with a combined score of 4-2. In any case, MMA now has a unique opportunity. His closest competitor to the Terran throne, MVP, wasn't able to get out of his group, making this MMA's chance to not only eliminate all doubts that he is the best Terran in the world, but the best player as well.

The talk of MMA being Boxer's heir has been around since he made his first big splash in Columbus, going through the entire tournament without losing a series and winning the first singles title for the Slayers clan. Eight months later, the crown prince has two GSL titles to his name and is ready to take the proverbial torch from his mentor, ready to cement himself as the icon of Starcraft. His road will be difficult, having to face the red hot lightning Alive, a tough Protoss in the semifinals. But if he should make it through, a finals rematch against DongRaeGu is a tantalizing possibility. That's a match up that could become like Boxer's Brood War rivalry against his own Zerg counterpart, the original Kong, YellOw.

MMA's TvT has been sharp in the GSL lately. He crushed fellow quarter-finalist Gumiho in the round of thirty two and made MVP look silly in the Blizzard Cup semi-finals, where MMA was able to use mindgames and superior builds to sweep his foe (some would call it cheese). Amazingly, MMA has only ever lost two TvT's at the Code S level, and both times were to Polt who he faced in GSL August and the Super Tournament finals. Besides those two series, MMA has been able to defeat MVP, Ganzi, MarineKing, Happy, Clide, asd, Ryung and SuperNova in best-of-three or longer series, showing that besides the enigma that is Polt, he can slay any Terran put in front of him. It's obviously not his strongest match-up - that being his extraordinary TvZ - but there is no question that his TvT is some of the best in the world.

While we're all very familiar with MMA and his quest for three titles, his opponent in the quarterfinals might actually be coming into the match with even more momentum. FnaticRCaLive is in his second straight Code S quarterfinals and might have put on one of the best performances in the second round, not dropping a game and tearing through his opponents of Curious and Gumiho. In the process, he was able to show some of the cleanest, crispest and precise mech play that we've ever seen in the GSL. While MVP might be considered the God of Mech, Alive in the round of sixteen was able to outperform the three time GSL champion, playing better mech and able to get out of the group where MVP could not. If you had stripped the names from the games and showed Alive's games against Gumiho to a random fan, there's a good chance they would have thought Alive was MVP. He was that damn good in that series.

Alive has always been one of the best Terrans in Korea, but consistency was a big problem. The talent was there, but for whatever reason, he would tilt at the worst time and not be able to play at his top level. The best example of this would be his series against Leenock in the November Code S quarterfinals. Alive looked good in the round of sixteen, and even though Leenock was a great TvZ player, he was disadvantaged by jet lag from MLG Providence and not having practiced solely for Alive. On paper, it was a series that Alive should have at least been competitive in, winning a game or two if not winning it outright.

In reality, it was an awful showing from the then TSL Terran. He tried to cheese in the first game, trying to surprise Leenock, but it failed. From at 0 - 1 start, it only got worst, Alive made mistake after mistake, tilting after his first sneaky build didn't work out and lost in three straight games to Leenock. What could have been his coming out party as one of the best Terrans in the world turned out to be another disappointing series, showing that he still needed to get his mental side in check before ever challenging for a title.

A big change that might help Alive this time around is the fact that he's on a new team. From what we know, Alive, towards the end of his run on TSL, was not in a good place. He wasn't happy on the team and wanted to leave, leading to a huge bout of drama with Coach Lee and the TSL team where he was even threatened with legal action. In the end, Alive was able to leave and move to Fnatic, giving him a new team to train with and new environment for him to perform in. Would it be a stretch to say he's seemed a lot happier since? He killed his Code S group, breezed through his IPL4 qualifier, and showed that a happy aLive is a dangerous aLive.

If he can beat MMA, and that's a big if, it would prove to many that he is no longer the inconsistent player who can look amazing half the time and terrible the other half. Instead, he would be considered a serious threat for the title, and a top three Terran in his own right alongside MMA and MVP. If he can carry over the play he showed against Gumiho, MMA will have a hard time defeating him. With his turret rings and patient style, MMA will have a hard time using his drop style against Alive. aLive will be going into the series as the underdog, but if MMA and Alive both play at their absolute best, it will be a close series.

The biggest question mark is if Alive can keep it together if something goes wrong. He's playing in the RO8 against the consensus best player in the world, so the pressure will be high like it was in his series against Leenock in GSL November. Let's say he messes up in game one due to a minor mistake, and falls behind in the series like he did against Leenock. Will he fold like a house of cards, reverting back to the old Alive, or will he be able to fight through the adversity and make it a close series? This is the series that will shape Alive's career. If Alive should defeat MMA, then it will signal that we have a new star on the horizon.

So, whose side are you on? The established champion, looking to clearly state he is the best player in the world, or the skilled underdog who is looking to prove that he has what it takes to be a GSL champion?


Prediction: MMA 3 - 2 Alive