It Doesn't Get Much Better Than This

There's never been a more awesome time to watch teamleagues.

With both the IPL TAC and the GSTL wrapping up concurrently, we can see that there is more parity than ever. SlayerS and FXO will meet in the GSTL finals. SlayerS and IM will meet in the TAC3 winners bracket finals. In the lower bracket, still alive are MVP, Startale, Prime, and Liquid. TSL put together a great run in this TAC, as did FXO and EG. ZeNex has stopped being an anchor, and is instead adding a shot of life (haha) into Startale's already powerful line-up. NSHoSeo, which is looking like the least deep of the teams in this conversation can still boast Jjakji as a killer ace.

All of this is going to say that right here, right now, every single team looks deep, every single team has a tremendous ace player at their disposal, every team has caterpillars turning into beautiful butterflies.

The names that don't quite fit as much onto that list above; Liquid and EG, have held the banner of foreign-controlled teams high. Some forum posters have reached for the typical complaint about foreign mercenaries, but both of these teams have incorporated their Korean players into the team better than almost anyone else, and it might very well be a key part of their success. Although EG lost, Liquid remains, and will play for their tournament life against MVP on Wednesday; a can't miss affair that potentially may feature a HerO-DRG rematch.

The other losers semi-final is a team-wide rematch as Startale hopes that the third time is the charm against Prime. As usual, MKP will be the biggest threat for ST, but maybe this time, somewhere between Squirtle, PartinG, Curious, Bomber, and Life they will have an answer for him. Either way, Startale's recent moves; from absorbing ZeNex to picking up Red Bull as a sponsor, have them on the up and up.

But before those two incredible matches can begin, there's first the little matter of the winners bracket finals, which will be played between the two teams that have owned this tournament so far. In fact, with a combined six matches, these teams have never trailed once in the tournament so far. SlayerS has dropped only six games overall. IM has dropped only three.

We have just six matches to go, and six teams left in the IPL TAC 3. Can Liquid continue to keep the foreign hope alive, or will MVP squash them like the all-Korean squads are supposed to do? Will Startale finally get revenge on Prime, with a new sponsor and an infusion of talent? Or will Prime prove the kyrptonite for Squirtle and co.? Which two teams will meet on Friday in the losers bracket finals? All of these questions await answers this week.

But tonight, we will find the answer to the most important question. Which one of our two sterling WB finalists, IM or SlayerS, will punch their tickets to the live IPL TAC 3 finals in San Francisco!

Week Ten (Winners Semis, Losers First-Semis) Review

By tree.hugger

Winners Bracket Matches

The Liquid magic only lasted for a series, as the fan-favorite upstarts in the winners bracket were smacked down by the fan-favorite favorites. Which begs the question; who the hell are these guys that SlayerS keeps sending out, and why are they so good at winning?

I ask that semi-sincerely, because the likes of Min, Miya, and Crank have been noticeably absent from GSL competition, and don't look unbeatable in these games. Yet somehow, they can't seem to get sent out without taking a win. We know SlayerS has talent like Puzzle and CoCa, and they haven't hesitated to use them. But we also know SlayerS has terrans like Ryung and MMA (before the recent issue) or a player like YuGiOh. Yet they rely day in and day out on players who are totally anonymous. And they've beaten teams like Liquid, NSHoSeo, and Empire with them, all without breaking a sweat.

Liquid didn't quite die here, 3-5 isn't so terrible, and they traded blows with SlayerS for a while. But despite sending their ace line-up, nobody was able to gain any traction against their opponents. Ret's loss to Puzzle was particularly damaging, as his NASL finals performance showed that he could clearly be expected to defeat the SlayerS ace, but couldn't put the pieces together. TaeJa's loss to Alicia was also undermined by his convincing defeat of Alicia in the MLG Summer Arena. So Liquid's principles didn't quite play their best here. Against MVP this week, there's no room for error, and no forgiveness if Liquid can't put together wins again.

SlayerS will move on to the WB finals, having secured a top three spot. There, they will meet IM. Both are elite teams with huge name recognition in the foreign scene. And both have clearly been the best teams in the tournament. While their rivals have fought nailbiters, both SlayerS and IM have crushed their opposition. Utterly dominant so far, something will have to give for one of these two teams. Will it be SlayerS? Will IM finally break the strange dominance of SlayerS' B-teamers? Perhaps, but SlayerS has been more ready than IM to commit their aces. Whatever occurs, we can be sure it'll be the highest level team match of the tournament so far.




IM's up-and-comers are one of the more exciting stories in the Korean scene lately, and here their skills were on full display. First—née KT_anyppi—put IM up to a commanding lead, with three solid kills, reinforcing his image as an elephant who is more tusk than tail. Seed made an unsuccessful cameo (but we always love to see Seed) before the resurgent LosirA came back and rolled out a 2-0 of Startale's two finest protoss. Clean, cut, and dry. Perhaps IPL was a little disappointed to not have this marquee match-up go all the way, but sometimes when two top teams meet each other, it means that both are good enough to rout the other.

Startale is still the creme of the crop, and their loss here is almost a blessing in disguise, as it sets them up for a GSTL/KSL finals rematch against Prime. So far, the red devils have gotten the better of the men in mustard, but there's no real reason why that ought to be the case; Startale is a brilliant team, and perhaps they can even out the statistics here. Both teams have seemed vulnerable, both in their losses and in other series. It'll be fascinating to see which team is best able to capitalize on their opponent's new weaknesses in this IPL TAC.

In the winners bracket finals, two mighty patterns will collide. Both SlayerS and IM have been winning each series by a one game shorter margin than the previous win. SlayerS began 5-1, then played 5-2 and 5-3. IM began 5-0, and has hit 5-1 and 5-2. Thus, in the battle of the patterns, IM seems to have the edge, having dropped three fewer games than SlayerS throughout the tournament. But nothing is guaranteed in the IPL TAC. Both teams are sporting new-look line-ups of protoss and zergs, and have completely ignored their respective GSL winners in this tournament. Odd, but effective. And dynamic. I love seeing promising players come into their own, and it's been a treat to have the two best teams in this event with line-ups oozing promise.


Losers Bracket Matches



Just as predicted, TSL continued the pattern of going all the way to the final set; their fourth time this season. But unfortunately, it will also be their last, as MVP was bailed out once again by their mini-DRG, Sniper. The MVP zerg has been a revelation for his team in the last few months, taking a lot of the burden off of DRG. He has transcended his name, for he's no longer a specialist expected to get a single kill against a high value target. Instead, as occurred here, MVP is trusting him to get as many kills as possible.

It was a good run from TSL, and heaven knows, we got to see quite a bit of them. Having made it into the top eight, we'll see them in the IPTL, and that's a good thing, because HyuN and SymboL alone are fun to watch. Add to that players like Polt, the resurgent Inori, and the deliciously named RagnaroK, and we're dealing with a team that can be flashy and win stuff. They couldn't take down MVP here, nor Startale in the losers bracket, but they sure made every one of their matches into a fun spectacle.

And then there's MVP. Just like TSL, the Most Valuable Playah's have tons of budding talent. Unfortunately, they couldn't get it going in this match for the most part. Vampire and TAiLS dropped the ball big time, and you'd like to see Finale get past his 'take the occasional TAC win' mode. Dream did his job; you can't fault a terran for beating HyuN and losing to SymboL. Last was Sniper, who I've already lavished with praise, and I might find myself doing the same next week. This kid is very very good, and it'll be exciting to see what kind of damage he can do in the Up/Down matches this season. If his teamleague performances are any indication, probably a lot.

MVP plays Liquid this week, which is a match-up that they'll probably be happy with, given the circumstances. Sure TaeJa is wrecking everything in his path, and HerO just defeated DRG twice at IPL Hot Import NIghts, buuuut MVP has Liquid beat in the depth category, and Sniper + DRG are a compelling tag team against TaeJa + HerO. It will probably come down to those two pairs killing each other, but if anyone is going to knock the other down from their perch, MVP has more resources with which to do it.




What a bizarre series. If I had told you before the match that MKP and Creator would take only a single win and that both IdrA and DeMusliM would pick up a kill each, you'd be betting all your money on an EG upset. But instead, Prime dug B4 out of absolutely nowhere, and the zerg proceeded to four kill, ending EG's run through the tournament in completely confounding fashion.

There are some interesting parallels with this game and Prime's matches against EG's rivals; Team Liquid. Just like the Prime-Liquid match earlier in TAC3, it was a random zerg coming from left field who did the damage for the Koreans. And just like the Prime-Liquid match from TAC2, the actual result was mostly obscured by the win of a foreign zerg over MKP.

Even though the end result here is that Prime moves on and EG is out; the foreigners probably got the most out of this. They're already into the IPTL, so there's only money to lose. Meanwhile, IdrA's win over MKP, accented with dancing ultras and this gem, will have revived his legend just in time for the second half of 2012. After a precipitous fall to start the year, there's ample evidence that the gracken is again on the rise. How high he'll go remains to be seen, but this was a highlight to be sure. So for EG, even though they're out, even though they probably missed a golden opportunity to take this series after the start they had, even though 2-5 isn't the greatest of results... probably a good day for them overall.

Oh, and Prime. After getting walloped by TaeJa, they're back and on a roll with a two game win streak. Both victories were 5-2, and the fact that they came in completely different ways is a testament to the depth of Prime. Even if MKP and Creator look more vulnerable now than they did last season, Prime has been getting help from unexpected places and finding ways to win. Against their nemesis Startale in the next match, they should be confident in their ability to persevere yet again.

Week Ten (Winners Finals, Losers Semis and Finals) Preview

By NrGmonk
Winners Bracket Finals

SlayerS vs IM in the Winners Bracket finals? It feels as if we've traveled over a year into the past into early 2011 when both teams were considered top two teams and they faced each other in the finals of the second ever season of GSTL. Both these teams share a similar path, one of decline and then recent resurgence. Earlier this year, SlayerS seems to be struggling. MMA was nowhere the skill of where he was, and a host of players once wearing the SlayerS tag had recently left the team, including Sleep, Golden, Ganzi, and Taeja. Times looked dark for SlayerS as they were prompted eliminated from both the first season of this year's GSTL and evicted from many of their former Code S spots. But then, a string of rather fortunate events propelled SlayerS once again from a rather mid-tier Korean team to one of the best. Puzzle proved to the world how solid he is, anchoring SlayerS in team leagues with his extremely safe and meticulousness play. Alicia somehow became good again, gaining back-to-back-to-back 2nd place in MLG Spring Championships, NASL Season 3 Finals, and MLG Summer Arena. And CoCa returned from his exile, although he had a rough start, proved that he was just as strong, if not stronger than the CoCa of old, once heralded as one of the top five Zergs in the world. Although SlayerS partnered with EG for GSTL, they have proven in the IPL TAC that they don't need this crutch to succeed in team leagues.

For the past few months, IM has been in a similar position to SlayerS. Earlier in the year, both MVP and Nestea were a shadow of their former selves. And with their supporting cast considered one of the worst in Korea, team league championships looked ever so distant for IM. But over the past few months we were pleasantly acquainted with the third race of IM. We've heard of IM Zergs such as Nestea and Losira and IM Terrans like MVP and Happy, but over the last few months, we've gotten to intimently know of the rare species called the IM Protoss. Not only GSL Finalist Seed and Homestory Cup silver medalist Younghwa, but LG-IM-First has also begun to show up in our rader. With a top 4 MLG Summer Arena win, qualifying for TSL4, and a strong performance in last week's IPL TAC3 match, I think it's time we paid attention to this lad. In every preview, we talk about how bad IM players are at team leagues and how Coach Kang makes the worst possible lineup decisions possible, sending out weaker less known players instead of proven Code S mainstays. Well, the joke is on the other teams. These "weaker" players have now come out of their shells and with the experience their coach provided them on the big stage, they are now able to contribute handsomely to the team. Who knows? Maybe one day we'll regard Coach Kang as a genius.

These two teams are tired of being in the shadows; they once held the spotlight in 2011, they know what it feels like to be bathed in constant admiration, and now they're fighting to get it back. Against most other teams, I would give IM an edge. (After all, I owe them one after picking against them in almost every match.) But this is SlayerS, and the momentum argument really doesn't work for IM here, seeing as SlayerS has more momentum than any other team at the moment. With this momentum, SlayerS will ride all the way to the IPL TAC3 finals, the GSTL finals, and then finally laughing all the way to the bank.

Prediction: SlayerS 5:3 IM

Losers Bracket Matches

Unfortunately, Liquid lost against SlayerS last week. Even using their best possible lineup, they were not able to topple the behemoth Korean team, which puts them here, against MVP, another behemoth Korean team. MVP, the team of DRG, recently toppled from GSTL, can now fully focus on IPL TAC, which spells trouble for Liquid. To stand a chance, Liquid will have to pull everything out of its arsenal, but at least there are a few things going for them.

The biggest thing going for Liquid is that they some excellent counters to MVP's biggest strength, their Zergs. Hero is a well-known for his PvZ; his unique style pioneered harassment-based PvZ, and to this day, his PvZ ranks among the best in the world. He proved this at IPL Hot Night Imports, where he 4-2'd DRG, perhaps a preview of what is to come. And Taeja, although maybe more known for his TvP these days, has always been a TvZ god. TvZ is the match-up where micro shines the most, and Taeja's micro, which is held in high regard by even MKP, propelled him to be one of the best TvZ players in the world, long before his other match-ups rose to this level. Against even DRG, I would put Taeja at close to 50:50 odds.

The biggest thing going against Liquid is the beyond their top two Koreans, the rest of the team doesn't look particularly strong lately, not on the level of the other Korean teams. Ret is probably their next best player, and although he can beat most anyone, he shows very inconsistent results and is not a top pick to score multiple kills. Zenio, the odd man out in Liquid's trio of Koreans, has always been shaky, both in his results and his plays. And Sheth, once regarded as one of the best foreigners in the world, has fallen off the rader a lot lately, never advancing too far in the tournaments he enters. Liquid's other players, including Jinro, TLO, Haypro, and Nony are even more obscure these days, and although they have each taken games off Koreans in the past, it's been a while since one of them has made a huge impact in a team league lately.

In contrast, although I still believe MVP's Zerg players to be their ace players, MVP actually has a surprisingly strong and balanced lineup. With Protoss players like Vampire, finale, Lure, and Tails, and Terrans in Dream, Keen, and sC(remember him?), MVP has a vast assortment of options to choose from when determining a lineup. Even though none of these players are regular Code S players, they're all often able to take a few matches in any given team league match, proving once again how deep the talent pool in Korea really is.

I gave Liquid a good chance last week against SlayerS, on the basis that SlayerS is a similar team to Prime(a team Liquid beat) in terms of player and race composition. MVP, however, is an entirely different Monster and poses many unique challenges for the boys in blue. Liquid has secured a top six spot among the absolute best teams in the world. This, in itself, is a huge accomplishment and they should be proud, but I feel that their time in this league is about to come to an end.

Prediction: MVP 5:3 Liquid


Rematch! Prime and Startale, regarded as the two best teams of early 2012 are at it again, but this time in unfamiliar territory in the losers bracket. These teams have a troubled history of team league finals starting with the first GSTL 2012 LAN finals in Las Vegas. In a crucial game 4 of the finals, Parting vs MKP disconnected in a game in which most people considered Parting to have the overwhelming advantage. However, GSL officials called for a re-game which MKP went on to win; he then went on to clean up the rest of the Startale team. Startale players and fans alike felt gripped of a win, and they had every right to be. Afterwards, Prime players and Startale players felt extremely awkward when they ran into each other at the IPL venue and some were not even in speaking terms. Fast forward a few weeks to the KSL finals. Startale and Prime meet up once again and most people see this as a golden opportunity for Startale to get revenge and prove that they deserved the win in the recent GSTL finals. But then the worst possible result happened for Startale. MKP started on the opening map and never looked back, killing six of Startale's best players; Startale never scored a map. Completely humiliated, Startale once again went back to their lair, plotting the day when Prime would pay. Today, we get to see part three of their story.

Boasting two of the most solid lineups in the league, these teams seem, on paper, to be extremely evenly matched. Prime has the legendary MKP, the ever solid and reliably Creator, the recent GSL RO4 player Byun, and the young and talented Maru. Bbongbbong has also shown great play recently, gaining four kills against EG and also qualifying for WCS Korea while he's at it. Similarly to Prime, Startale has the extremely strong Bomber, GSL finalist Squirtle, the star of PvT, Parting, and the often underestimated Curious. For their fifth player, in addition to the possibilities of Hack, Ace, and Virus, Startale now has an even more tempting option in Life. This new player, acquired from the Startale-Zenex merger gives Startale an excellent Zerg team league player, who recently qualified for TSL4; with any luck, Life can breathe some of himself into his new team.

Although Prime has a huge lead in recent team league matches, the results of this match are extremely unpredictable and volatile. In this king of the hill format, each team has many players which can all-kill the other, and the whole match can be decided in one moment, as it was in Las Vegas not too long ago. Look for Startale to practice harder than they ever have before, because for them, this is not just a match in a team league. This time, it's personal.

Prediction: Prime 5:4 Startale


Losers Bracket Finals