During the last TSL, HasuObs took out Boxer 3 – 0 to make his way to the semi-finals. This time around he swept his former mouz teammate ThorZaIN to advance into the Ro16. Then and now, no one who is familiar with HasuObs' tournament performances is really that surprised. HasuObs has always been able to hang with the best European players, and his only fault is that he hasn't had the luck to win a high-profile tournament in his SC2 career. In that way you could say he's like a German, Protoss version of DIMAGA before he finally found gold at Assembly Summer 2011. Rest assured, we will question his ability to make it deep in tournaments come the later rounds, but in the Ro16, we like his chances.

His opponent, Hack, is a borderline Code S Korean Terran whose best match-up is TvP. He will be an extremely difficult player to go up against, but he's not unassailable. Perhaps shaken by the expectations of having to beat an 'inferior' player, he is coming off a recent loss in the WCS tournament against Samsung's RorO. In his mind, HasuObs is probably another inferior player, but that kind of dangerous thinking could lose him two games in a row. Then again, Hack just beat MaNa – one of Europe's premier players – with a crushing 3 – 0 score in the previous round, so perhaps it's us who are not giving the Korean enough credit for his TvP ability.

Style wise, this should be a classic duel of sword vs shield. HasuObs is at his best when he can safely macro up, max-out his army, and slaughter the Terran forces in favorable engagements. Hack's late-game Terran is decent, but his biggest strength is his ability to abuse the firepower and mobility of Medivac-marauder-marine during the phases of the game where Protoss defenses are stretched thin. If he can weather the storm, HasuObs should be in good shape to take the games, but he's in danger of crumpling to the floor without a fight if he doesn't have 100% concentration while defending.

One peculiar twist is that Hack displayed a unique mech style of TvP when he played in the TLOpen qualifiers for TSL4. Without any Korean TvP games since then, we haven't seen whether it's still in his arsenal. Against MaNa, he preferred to play bio as well. Is he just hiding his mech so he can use it against future opponents, or has he decided after further experimentation that it's just not worth it? Hopefully it's the former, because his mech games ended up being some of the most entertaining. Overall, Hack is favored slightly, but this match is definitely on our upset watch.





As two of the biggest dark horse candidates in this tournament, Sting and DarkForce are players who unfortunately have become lost in the shuffle due to being from countries with great Starcraft depth and a considerable number of marketable stars. Alas, what celebrities they could have been in the USA! Instead they will have to make their names known the hard way, by defeating great players and winning tournaments. Luckily for them, TSL is one the greatest launching pads in the scene.

From what we can tell, Sting has left NSH and is now all out there on his own. However, considering that PartinG never forgets to thank him for practice in his recent PvT interviews, we can surmise that he's still well connected. If he can summon equivalently skilled players at ZvT as PartinG is at PvT, then being out of a team shouldn't hurt his preparations for this match against DarkForce at all.

The TvZ style Sting showed us in his impressive TSL4 qualifier run was one of hyper-aggression, sending streams of reinforcements across the map to batter his Zerg opponent into submission. It's an older style from the pre-queen buff days, when you didn't have to fight on creep about 99% of the time, but he still managed to make it work against strong lair stage players like CoCa and HyuN.

DarkForce is actually somewhat similar to the other German who is playing on this match day, HasuObs. Both have been known to be quite good for a long time, both are excellent with end game compositions, but both haven't really had the break-out performance to make them known on a broader scale. Unlike HasuObs, at least DarkForce got a chance to impress the North American audience by defeating aLive in the first round of NASL S1, but that even then he was quickly overshadowed by an even better foreigner performance as Sen made his third place run. On a marginally related note, Darkforce has a penchant for unintentionally comedy, and aTn manager Take should consider making a popular youtube series based around his amusing player to increase his profile worldwide.

Late game ZvT is where DarkForce shines the most. A year ago, he was already babying his expensive infestors and brood lords more carefully than some prominent foreign Zergs can manage even now (we won't mention any names, but one's from the Netherlands and the other is from Ukraine). Many Zergs have caught up in the hive management department as it became an integral part of their game, and it's made DarkForce's greatest strength a little less unique, but it's a strength nonetheless. Unfortunately, DarkForce's play at the early and mid phases of the game is wanting in comparison, and he doesn't always complete his end game composition without getting severely bloodied beforehand (if not killed).

If Sting is as relentless as he was against Hyun and CoCa, then DarkForce might very well be in trouble. He will certainly want to study those games and find a solution, but the answer might not be a simple strategic adjustment. More likely, it means he will just have to flank better, inject more often, and micro more accurately – not improvements that are easily made in a short amount of time. We don't know much about Sting's late game play, but assuming that he plays against high level Korean pros on a regular basis, nothing DarkForce does should seem particularly impressive to him. While this is a prime opportunity for both players to shine, we think it will be Sting who keeps his tournament hopes alive.





Despite both being great Korean players that have fairly unique playstyles, Creator and CoCa just haven’t quite found the spark to bring themselves into the upper echelon of Code S level competition. Also, having more recently made their skill known, they have yet to have many opportunities to compete abroad. However, here in the TSL, two of the best rising players in the world will be given a chance to showcase their skills.

As far as recent results, both players have an impressive number of victories over top opponents, but not consecutively in a single event. CoCa performed excellently in the GSTL and ESV weeklies, and Creator made a brief Code S appearance before getting sent to the Up/Down matches. Both showed stellar play in their TSL qualifier runs, showing they are definitely in top shape coming into this tournament. Though his GSL results were pedestrian, Creator did quite well elsewhere, taking a little-noticed victory in the Gigabyte Nvidia Invitational with Bo5 wins against Leenock, MarineKing, and Nerchio. Additionally, he's coming in with a 2 - 1 victory over DongRaeGu in the WCS Korea Nationals, which is the biggest confidence booster any Protoss player could get. In their Ro32 matches both players made quick work of foreigner opposition, with Creator looking solid in a quick 3-0 over SeleCT and CoCa getting over a first game defeat against SaSe, by taking three straight from there.

Creator plays solid, efficient two-way threat PvZ builds, capable of taking a third base safely or just going for the all-in. He’s not afraid to take games late, having just as much confidence in picking apart the hive army as he does in finishing games off two or three bases. CoCa on the other hand plays a bit of an unconventional style, but not in the sense that he uses tons of all-ins or totally off-the-wall strategies. CoCa just tends to do things with his own little spin.

This match is a tough one to call. Both are looking stellar, but neither is looking close to unstoppable. This match will likely come down to maps, preparation, and simply who has a better day on game day. Zergs in Korea have been lamenting their Protoss woes a bit as of late, so we're going to go ahead and pick Creator for a match that is certain to be close an exciting.





Alongside Creator vs CoCa and Squirtle vs Curious, this match is one TSL4 matches that will feature Code S level play.

Not much more can be said about TaeJa than what has already been said. He’s on fire, he often looks like the best Terran player in the world, and he has all the momentum behind him going into this tournament. Adding a victory at ASUS ROG was almost expected, and it reinforced the growing opinion that TaeJa simply was better than the competition. He did look a little shaky in his Ro32 series against Bischu, but he may have relaxed a little too much after making Bischu look silly in the first two games.

Just recently, he went 7 - 1 against LG-IM in the IPL TAC3 finals, further solidifying his reputation as the best Terran. If he had singlehandedly won the series for Liquid, we'd be billing him as THE best player in the world. He was particularly impressive in TvP, looking most of the LG-IM Protoss line look outclassed, with the highlight being a ridiculous win against Younghwa from disadvantageous position on Antiga Shipyard. Unfortunately Liquid, TaeJa was eventually taken out by Seed (who annoyingly decided to not qualify for TSL4 in favor of silly things like winning Code S), so the hype train has been temporarily halted, albeit at a very high peak.

On the other hand, First is a bit of a mystery, someone who had gone relatively unnoticed until he decided to roll over a bunch of Terrans at MLG Summer Arena, including TOP, PuMa, GanZi, and aLive before falling to TaeJa. At the very least we know his PvT is very good, and at the same time we can say it's still probably not as good as TaeJa's TvP, and he’ll certainly need to bring his best in this match. Aside from that, there’s not a ton that makes First stand out amongst Korean Protoss players – a win vs TaeJa followed by a nice run in this TSL could do much to improve that standing.

It’s hard to pick against TaeJa. You could say First has good PvT, you could say TaeJa almost lost in the Ro32, you could say a lot of things, but when it comes down to it, there is very little reason to doubt the wrecking ball that is the crown prince of Liquid. After IPL TAC, TaeJa is now 3 - 0 against First, and comes into this match as the favorite. There is no reason to doubt his ability to cruise through to a path of glory.

---