Groups A and B saw MC and Squirtle give Protoss players hope, but the results of Group D showed us why there's only four Protoss players qualified for next season's Code S. The Terran and Zerg players took all top three spots, while Protoss lined up in last place. While the competition was fierce, two players were above the rest: ST_Bomber and LG-IM_ByuL, going 4 - 0 and 4 - 1 respectively.
In a rare show of consistency, Bomber continued his run of great play in the past months, dominating his competition from start to finish without a single blown lead or inexplicably bad decision. The closest he came to a loss happened during his game against Woongjin_sOs, where he held off his opponent's initial 4 gate pressure easily, but was caught off guard by a DT follow up. It was a tense game that could have been determined by one mishap, but at all times, Bomber remained calm and composed as he dealt with the DTs and the following mass chargelot attack from two bases. In the end, Bomber took that game, like all the rest in his group, with a strong decisive push that sOs wasn’t able to hold.
While it's been just a short time since he joined LG-IM, ByuL has already seemed to have benefited from the move as his games already look reminiscent of his shepherd Nestea. Against sOs and Bomber, he used some tricky all-ins to try to get the wins, while against both Hero and Genius, he played a much more standard ZvP style to take safe wins in the late game. But most tellingly, his game against Byun on Antiga was a carbon copy of Nestea’s game against Heart in Code A. He opened with a fast lair, using a overlord + slowly sent queen to creep Byun’s entire third base. From there, it was like watching a vintage Nestea game. Byul took the map, easily getting 5 bases. He denied drop after drop with overlords, ling coverage and mutas. Finally, he ended the game with a tech switch from ultras to broodlords after containing ByuN the entire game. It was a great performance by the new IM player and continues their success in this season's Up/Downs.
- Byun gets into wildcards off the back of his record length win, and some help
By the end of the 11th game, ByuNPrime had all but secured himself a spot in the Wildcard playoffs. He started off the night by winning the longest game in GSL history against Liquid`HerO on Daybreak. It was a game that was excellent in the beginning, but became a test of endurance for everyone watching as ByuN seemed to be willing to let HerO die of old age, rather than use his huge advantage to finish HerO off. Byun was then caught off-guard by both Genius and ByuL, but he rebounded with a 2-rax proxy and against sOs to go 2 - 2 heading into a final match with Bomber.
However, he ended up not needing to play that game at all. HerO needed to beat sOs and Genius needed to beat ByuL for there to be the possibility of tiebreakers, and HerO did what he could by taking out sOs. Genius would then go on to fail a warp prism all-in against Byul, but inexplicably give Byun a small heart attack as he did a strong 3 base all-in follow-up that looked like it might just possibly break Byul. Luckily for Byun, Byul was having none of it and cleaned up the attack, allowing Byun to take the wild-card spot uncontested.
- Quick Hits on the rest
Liquid`HerO: He wasn’t able to close out in his PvT against Byun and looked outmatched by both Bomber and Byul. His new and improved PvP seems to be here for good, though, as he convincingly defeated both Genius and sOs.
Azubu.Genius: He tried some all-ins and one of them happened to work against Byun. You can't blame him for that approach, since that's how he got past hyvaa and into the Up/Downs in the first place.
Woongjin_sOs: sOs didn't get much playing time, with Byul and Byun busting him the early game. The games where sOs was allowed to show more of his play ended up being fairly exciting matches, winning a proxy vs. proxy against Genius while he stood to to toe with Bomber and HerO for a while. All of the hopes of the elephant now lay with Fantasy and Flying.
Flying, what's happened to you? You used to be one of the best StarCraft II players KeSPA had, even having an 8 - 1 record against other elephants at one point. But with the events of the Hybrid Proleague looking less and less relevant by the week, I guess it's no surprise that some of its stars are having a hard time in the 100% SC2 world. Flying is 0 - 6 in his last games, losing every single one of his Proleague games while going down 0 - 2 to Mvp in Code A as well. If his play doesn't pick up, he might regret making those dishwashing jokes. The play of other KeSPA players in this season of the Up/Downs hasn't been impressive at all, and if that's anything to go by, it's hard to see Flying making it out of this group.
HuK, what's happened to you? You used to be one of the best StarCraft II players the international scene had, even winning multiple major tournaments and playing in Code S for multiple seasons. Now, you don't seem very different all the other guys we call foreigners. HuK lack of results in the second half of 2012 was making us paint a very gloomy picture indeed, but he went on a good run at IPL5 which should encourage foreigner fans who hope HuK will turn things around in 2013. Though HuK lost to two GSL champions in Sniper and Life, he beat Korean like Hwangsin, Ryung and YoDa to tie for best foreigner finish at T-16. It means all that much more when you consider that the two players he was tied with, Snute and XiGua, received seeds into the third winners round.
Still, if the recent example of Grubby says anything, foreign tournament momentum doesn't mean much when you're in the GSL. Rather than his IPL5 results, the most encouraging thing for HuK might be that he's had a long, uninterrupted period to prepare for this match, longer than he's had in a very long time.
Nestea, what happened to you? You used to be the best StarCraft II player in the world, period. Alas, the creator of the universe hasn't played on that level since 2011. Nestea was a very average player in 2012, with a 48% win rate on the year. He beat Heart and lost to Bbyong to make it into the Up/Downs, which is a very unexciting result. The award for Code S consistency might be named after Nestea, but he may need the help of HotS to make it back in.
One thing to consider is the LG-IM resurgence that's been going on in the Up/Downs, with YoDa, ByuL, and Losira all making it through with great performances. Perhaps they held some of the most epic training sessions ever over the winter break? Old school fans can only hope Nestea will ride his team's momentum.
Center is one of those players that's fun to hype up because he's a new face that's doing well, but when the chips are down we'd rather go with the established vets. With wins over Seed and ByuN in his Code A run, Center definitely looks to be Code A quality, and maybe he's Code S quality as well. He was stopped in the final round because he lost to PartinG, but that's PartinG we're talking about, and a loss to him doesn't tell us much about what Center's ceiling could be. This Up/Down season has been all about surprising underdogs, and Center could fill that role perfectly.
Finale aced his previous Up/Down group, going 4 - 0 in a group with Terminator, Heart, Sparta, and Happy. While on the whole we'd say this group is a little bit harder, finale still looks like a strong candidate to get through. He's not the sexiest name in this group, but he's the only one who comes in as a recently proven Code S player. Every other group has seen at least one player with recent Code S experience advance, and considering Nestea's weakened state, I'm giving that spot to finale.
The previous four groups have taught us that Proleague is one thing, GSL is another. Flash, sOs, Bbyong, and Trap were all eliminated, with only Jaedong somehow getting through into the wild card matches. Fantasy's 8 - 3 record in Proleague looks good, but Flash and sOs were performing at that level as well when they bounced down to Code A. So, why pick Fantasy to get through? A few reasons.
1) This is the easiest group. Flash had a tough group and narrowly missed out and sOs had the hardest overall group of the entire Up/Downs. All the other groups had players who had high Code S finishes or international tournaments, while the most accomplished player in Group E is finale. (Nestea's accomplishments were too long ago to reflect his current skill)
2) Fantasy has had more time to prepare than the other Proleague players. This one's simple. The other KeSPA guys had to juggle Proleague matches at the same time as their Up/Down matches, sometimes even playing on the same day. On the other hand, Fantasy has had a solid two days to prep for this group. SKT is known to make players prioritize their Proleague practice over individual pursuits, but the extra time is still a boon for Fantasy.
3) Fantasy looks better every single time he plays. This is more subjective, but Fantasy has been one of the most exciting KeSPA players to track. He plays an aggressive, multi-task and harassment style that's quite entertaining, and he refines it and makes it more effective every time we see him. Occasionally atrocious macro holds him back, but optimistically he could be a Gumiho-like player in the near future (and even better down the line, if you continued with the optimism).
Flash had a tough group and narrowly missed out and sOs had the hardest overall group of the entire Up/Downs. All the other groups had players who had high Code S finishes or international tournaments, while the most accomplished player in Group E is finale. (Nestea's accomplishments were too long ago to reflect his current skill)
That and he had 2 TvP specialists in his group and had 2 PvPs on a map he never practices... and he fell for the Zenio strat...
Oh boy for once I predicted the same top 2 as TL. My liquibet is doomed. No but on a serious note good picks this time around. I think Nestea/Center might reverse around though. And since it is BO1 and Nestea is known for being highly creative at times he may even sneak into that #2 spot.
I wish Grubby had gotten this group instead of Huk, I think he could've made it. But really, if you have to add 'through an easy group' to your claims of 'making Code S', then you're devaluing your own achievements . It's been a long time since I've seen Huk play at all, so I just went and assumed he'd declined in quality, but that's just a guess, I'm eager to see how he really performs. I'm always rooting for Canadian Protosses .
Aside from foreigners though, I'm really hoping and expecting that Fantasy gets through. I've been a fan of him since I started watching pro-StarCraft back during Incruit. Then there's Nestea, but like Huk, that's more 'hoping' and less 'expecting' .
Thanks for the quick recap (stuchio) and preview again (Waxangel)
I'm also curious how Center will do, especially as I imagine him, HuK, Flying and Nestea all to be able to take the 3rd or even the 2nd place on a good day - or placing 6th on a bad day.
Fantasy will win the group because he's awesome. I'm hoping Huk can take second and show up all the people who keep saying he's no longer any good, despite still being as good as just about any other foreigner out there over the last year. Seriously: at IPL5 the only people that managed to take him down were the two last GSL champions in a matchup many are calling pretty f*ing imba.
Really tough to predict who's going to grab the code S spots, I'm guessing Fantasy and Center. I'd be harder on Fantasy, but his TvT is excellent so he'll be one of the few people in this group grabbing a game off Center. Huk 0-5, or 0-4 depending on how the brackets play out.
I really hope NesTea qualifies for Code S. Or if he fails he HAS to be in Code S for the first HotS season, he'll destroy everyone in this game as he used to destroy everyone in WoL quite a while ago :-P
After watching Huk's stream recently, I am predicting he won't win a single game. He's just not looking like he's in very good shape. Worse than that, he seems to be lacking that "top 3 control" confidence that was his trademark for so long.
It's really hard for me to envision a scenario in which Fantasy doesn't make it through. I think Nestea would have to summon up some beast mode play for it to happen. He would certainly have to beat Fantasy, at the least.
Put this line-up a year and a half in the past and I'd clearly say NesTea and HuK make it. Put in in present time, and I'm all like "Why the fuck is HuK even playing Up&Downs? He's maybe playing Code A quality at the time, maybe even Code B. Didn't see anything on his ladder stream that impressed me. Sorry.
lol fail predictions. Not a fan of Huk and don't think Nestea will make far this season, but it's kinda fitting the last GSL of WoL is composed with old timers. It's actually a great story line. Who knows maybe Huk will make it in Ro8 and Nestea wins the whole thing? XD And the world is back in order under one god.
I mean, to be frank the first game Huk looked great and it looked like he was able to pull off a build that he planned. Sharp executions. But he really needs some more crisis management skill. I don't know how you learn that but it seems like once Huk loses pace everything spirals down. He needs to learn how to put a stop to such circumstances.
EPT
HerO <Daybreak> 
ByuN
ByuL <Entombed Valley> 
Bomber 
. It's been a long time since I've seen Huk play at all, so I just went and assumed he'd declined in quality, but that's just a guess, I'm eager to see how he really performs. I'm always rooting for Canadian Protosses 
