**Huk finishes 2nd in the group over Center due to head to head tiebreaker
HuK and NesTea advance to Code S! Center advances to Wild Card Group!
Old School - Nestea and Huk make it straight through into Code S with stellar performances.
LG-IM_NesTea might have won the group, but the MVP of the night award would have to be given to Evil Geniuses' HuK. Overshadowed by Grubby in the announcement of the two foreigners getting a crack at Code S, Huk was able to get out of his Up and Down group with a direct spot in Code S, while his Dutch counterpart fell without a single map win in five tries. Not given much of a chance by even the biggest foreign fanboys, Huk only lost a single game relevant on the night, losing to finale when his 4-gate failed. Later he would take a loss against Nestea as well, but his passage to Code S was all but confirmed at that point.
His PvT looked strong, taking out Fantasy with a blast to the past 2-base blink stalker + warp prism strategy, while he played a macro game with Center and finished him off in the late game. That win against the former TSL Terran clinched his Code S spot with a 3 - 1 record. After all the talk of Grubby, the rise of Naniwa in 2012, and even Mana making his short stint in Code S, Huk had been almost forgotten. But with last night's performances, he reminded everyone why he was once a long standing Code S player, and called the best foreigner in the world.
Nestea did well, topping the group and getting his place back in Code S after falling all the way into Code A a few months ago. His only loss of the night was to the KeSPA player Fantasy, losing after he took a poor battle in the open field with brood lords. Nestea isn't getting any younger, but maybe he did drop down to Code S purposefully to drag Losira back with him up to the top. Since dropping to Code A, he's come back to his old form, showing that while he might be the oldest man remaining in the GSL, he might also be the smartest. It's going to be tough to do well in the current landscape of Code S, but with this being the last Wings of Liberty season, Nestea will be trying his hardest to take his fourth title and place himself right next to Mvp with the game being put to rest.
The Elephant in the Elephant in the Room - KeSPA finishes the Up and Downs with only Jaedong advancing to the wild card round
Alright, it's time for some real talk, friends. It's now been almost six months since the KeSPA players switched to Starcraft 2, and we're still waiting for the dishwashers of the past to be replaced by the former stars of Brood War. Fantasy, the player who looked the strongest coming into the Up and Down groups, wasn't able to make it out, going 2 - 3 for a fourth place finish.
There will be of course talk of KeSPA players not caring about GSL and how all their focus is on Proleague. That's ridiculous. With the OSL having no set date as to when it will return, any KeSPA player not taking a Code S spot seriously would be a fool. The big names like Fantasy, Jaedong and Flash had decent showings, placing in the middle for all three, but they still weren't able to grab one of the two direct spots into Code S. Heading into the first season of 2013, we will only have Bogus, Soulkey, Baby, Roro (who beat Fantasy in the third stage of Code A) and maybe Jaedong if he makes it out of the wild card group.
So what does this mean for the future? I'm not worried about a Fantasy or Flash making it into a future Code S, but the expectation that Starcraft 2 would become KeSPA World is becoming more of a dream by each passing day. Not only are the B-teamers from the old Brood War days holding down their ground well like Mvp, Nestea and MC, but you have the young upstarts like Life, Creator, and surprises like Center who are coming in with StarCraft II as their first serious game. With a lot of ESF teams having an uncertain future with money and keeping a team together, a lot of these young stars could switch to KeSPA in the coming years, but it might be time to look back at the Elephant in the Room, have a good laugh, and move on with our lives.
This is a new game and it doesn't matter if you're a former A-team star or a practice partner who cleaned the floors. The strong will survive and the weak will fall.
Quick hits on the rest:
Center: With Polt now in America, the Marauder Prince will need to continue the making of a thousand marauders per game until he returns back to GSL. His TvP and TvT were both strong, but his TvZ wasn't good enough to beat Nestea. Heading into the wild card group with two former TSL Zergs and Jaedong awaiting him, the Son of Polt will have his hands full if he wants to make it out. Center is the biggest surprise of this Code A season and making it into Code S could see a new Terran star be born, but it isn't going to be easy.
Woongjin_Flying: KeSPA hasn't done well in the Up and Downs the past two seasons, but Flying has just been plain bad for the last month. He doesn't have a single win in Proleague, and he ended the group with only a single victory, getting crushed in the rest of his matches. He was the player who did the dish washing ceremony against Parting after beating him in the OSL, but if he doesn't change his results around soon, he might be the one ending up cleaning the floors and washing the dishes for Parting.
SKT_Fantasy: Despite an 8 - 3 record in Proleague, Fantasy just couldn't hack it in the Up/Downs. While he showed a couple of good games, like his win against Nestea, he didn't really have what it took in the end. It will be fun to see HuK return to Proleague, how that he's poached both Flying and Fantasy's heads in the GSL.
MVP.finale: finale is good, but it just wasn't his night. He beat the best player in the night in Huk, but couldn't get a win anywhere else. A bit unlucky in his play, but the three players who advanced were all much better than him on the night.
We've had some very even Up and Down groups so far, but the Wild Card group is the tightest of the bunch. It's really no big surprise, since it's like the members of this group had to go through one extra round of preliminaries, filtering out both the best and the worst, leaving just the players in the middle. This is a five man group, which means the implications of head-to-head are big, and no one knows what might go down until the very end. Remember, just last season, Flash went ahead 2 - 0 to begin in a five man group, but saw himself go out on tiebreakers with a 2 - 2 record. Before that, Suhosin saw himself earn a Code S spot out of almost nowhere, sitting back and watching the results of a couple of games go exactly as he needed. Skill is the key here, but there's an undeniable amount of luck involved as well.
The first thing you notice in this group is that there are three ex-TSL players in Shine, Symbol, and Center. Symbol could be the favorite to clear the group at first glance, but his ZvZ has been very shaky as of late. Snute destroyed him 6 - 0 at HSC, and he's 1 - 8 in the GSL since November as well. In this three Zerg group, it's enough to knock him down from the favorite to being just another one of the contenders in the pack. Unlike his former teammate, the race make-up is a boon to Shine. ZvT has been his bread and butter in the Up/Downs and ZvP his Achilles heel, which means this two-Terran, no-Protoss group is one of the best he could have hoped for. In Center's case, he remains mostly a mystery, because even after playing a dozen broadcast games in the GSL, he's only played a single TvZ. He didn't look all that impressive against Nestea, showing good macro but seeming to lack finesse overall. But that was just one game, and Center has been full of surprises thus far.
The lone eSF employed player, ByuNPrime, didn't do anything out of the ordinary in his regular Up/Down group, using his strong TvP to beat sHy and HerO, losing to an all-in by Genius, and not looking particularly impressive in TvZ as he fell to ByuL. The absence of his best match-up, TvP, really hurts ByuN here. Moon and Luvsic are the only Zergs he has beaten in a very long stretch of broadcast games, and beating those two isn't that great an accomplishment. ByuN's TvT is good, but he'll either need tie-break luck to fall his way, or bring some good TvZ all-ins to get through. The match between him and Center may as well decide which Terran has any chance at getting into Code S.
Finally, we come to Jaedong. There are two great powers at work in this season of the Up/Downs. The five previous groups showed that KeSPA players still have some ground to make up for on the eSF players, despite showing lots of improvement in Proleague games. Additionally, the five Up/Down groups also showed that unexpected players, ones that the data and recent games suggested had nary a chance, will torch everyone's expectations and make it through to Code S.
Jaedong is most definitely a KeSPA player (doesn't matter if he changed to a foreign team a few months ago), but does he qualify for the underdog card? Well, Shine might be lesser known, but his solid GSL resume makes it hard to call him an underdog. No, it's a two race race between the newcomer Center and the Tyrant to take that no-one-saw-it-coming card. And in a strange relationship, the first power (KeSPA will lose) is feeding the second (underdogs will win), making it all the more difficult to tell what to make of Jaedong's chances here.
There's also a third power at work regarding Jaedong, and this one isn't entirely made up or superstitious: the power of international travel and disrupted circadian rhythms. Jaedong is flying back to Korea right on the tail of winning the HyperX 10-Year tourney in Las Vegas. We already saw HerO and TaeJa get whacked when they had to play GSL just hours after touching down in Korea, and Jaedong will be in a similar situation. Only Seed, the master of playing from behind, was able to overcome such a disadvantage in a GSL game, and Jaedong doesn't have anywhere near Seed's GSL accomplishments. It would be the most shocking surprise of all if Jaedong managed to overcome such odds and make it through into Code S. But hey, we've already seen HuK, YoDa, Losira, ByuL, and Nestea make it through, so why not the Tyrant?
Jaedong looked very good at Vegas, but I wonder if the jetlag and travel could have an impact on him. If he plays like he did there, he should do very well.
Fionn there's a few errors in this (Fantastic) write up. Flying beat Fantasy, and HuK went 3-2, not four-one as the post implies. Still, I grinned HARD at "The Elephant in the Elephant in the Room"
On January 11 2013 09:22 LiLSighKoh wrote: Huk lost twice. Not once?
Beat me to it.
And I saw 15% voting for Huk on GOM (Better than Finale, Flying and Center). Don't trust the Liquid polls since people always vote after the games. But people definitely believed in him.
Also, Go Huk, I was never your fan, but I'm rooting for every protoss this season!
Rooting for Byun, if not just for the fact a lot of older players have made it in to this final WOL season's Code S. So i feel byun is the most fitting.
Heading into the first season of 2012, we will only have Bogus, Soulkey, Roro (who beat Fantasy in the third stage of Code A) and maybe Jaedong if he makes it out of the wild card group.
LOL. Since a bunch of people are correcting this article, I guess I don't have to feel too bad about getting too nitpicky. Anyways:
Only Seed, the master of playing from behind, was able to overcome such a disadvantage in a GSL game, and Jaedong doesn't have anywhere near Seed's GSL accomplishments
1) Seed played in a WCS game. 2) MC was the first to truly accomplish this feat right after touching down. He actually beat huk after NASL.
Heading into the first season of 2012, we will only have Bogus, Soulkey, Roro (who beat Fantasy in the third stage of Code A) and maybe Jaedong if he makes it out of the wild card group.
On January 11 2013 09:37 wklbishop wrote: LOL. Since a bunch of people are correcting this article, I guess I don't have to feel too bad about getting too nitpicky. Anyways:
Only Seed, the master of playing from behind, was able to overcome such a disadvantage in a GSL game, and Jaedong doesn't have anywhere near Seed's GSL accomplishments
1) Seed played in a WCS game. 2) MC was the first to truly accomplish this feat right after touching down. He actually beat huk after NASL.
afaik there was a few days gap between those games?
On January 11 2013 09:37 wklbishop wrote: LOL. Since a bunch of people are correcting this article, I guess I don't have to feel too bad about getting too nitpicky. Anyways:
Only Seed, the master of playing from behind, was able to overcome such a disadvantage in a GSL game, and Jaedong doesn't have anywhere near Seed's GSL accomplishments
1) Seed played in a WCS game. 2) MC was the first to truly accomplish this feat right after touching down. He actually beat huk after NASL.
I'm impressed that you remembered that from all the way back in mid 2011.
Heading into the first season of 2012, we will only have Bogus, Soulkey, Roro (who beat Fantasy in the third stage of Code A) and maybe Jaedong if he makes it out of the wild card group.
On January 11 2013 09:37 wklbishop wrote: LOL. Since a bunch of people are correcting this article, I guess I don't have to feel too bad about getting too nitpicky. Anyways:
Only Seed, the master of playing from behind, was able to overcome such a disadvantage in a GSL game, and Jaedong doesn't have anywhere near Seed's GSL accomplishments
1) Seed played in a WCS game. 2) MC was the first to truly accomplish this feat right after touching down. He actually beat huk after NASL.
I'm impressed that you remembered that from all the way back in mid 2011.
checked the vod, MC landed the day before, not a same day arrival as game :o
well we know for a fact that Seed beat Gumiho right after he came back from IPL TAC so just go with that ;o It's not like anyone remembers NASL season 1 and GSL july anyway ^_~
Fantasy, the player who looked the strongest coming into the Up and Down groups, wasn't able to make it out, going 2-3 and only being able to take out the two weakest players in the group, one of them including a fellow KeSPA member in Flying.
This isn't right, though. He lost to Flying. He took out Nestea and finale
Fantasy, the player who looked the strongest coming into the Up and Down groups, wasn't able to make it out, going 2-3 and only being able to take out the two weakest players in the group, one of them including a fellow KeSPA member in Flying.
This isn't right, though. He lost to Flying. He took out Nestea and finale
I'm in offseason mode.
Also we need an Editing Czar who edits our edits of facts.
I was watching all of the Up&Down matches and this group was a bit weird too me. I saw so many sloppy games in this group to be honest none of them deserves to be in Code S at this point. When I think of stacked Group A with Flash on 4th place I feel a bit sorry for Flash he would have destroyed this group.
And I dont think HUK beat Center in the late game, yeahr the game was ending at the late game but it was decided in the early game when Center expected HUK to be aggressive and HUK did the very opposite of it and played very greedy. Hell it was 3-3 against 1-1 what kind of balanced late game is this?! Brilliant mind game from HUK though I think thats the only way HUK can win in the GSL with mind games and good timing attacks.
This group is so middle of the road. I almost want Center and Shine to make it just for the underdog factor, but I genuinely can't find it in me to care. :p
On January 11 2013 09:45 Dodgin wrote: who needs editors when you have TL netizens
On January 11 2013 09:37 wklbishop wrote: LOL. Since a bunch of people are correcting this article, I guess I don't have to feel too bad about getting too nitpicky. Anyways:
Only Seed, the master of playing from behind, was able to overcome such a disadvantage in a GSL game, and Jaedong doesn't have anywhere near Seed's GSL accomplishments
1) Seed played in a WCS game. 2) MC was the first to truly accomplish this feat right after touching down. He actually beat huk after NASL.
I'm impressed that you remembered that from all the way back in mid 2011.
checked the vod, MC landed the day before, not a same day arrival as game :o
Ah fair enough. My apologies then, should have fact checked to be sure beforehand. I vaguely remember Tastosis saying and I paraphrase he just got back, but probably forgot them saying the exact time.
At any rate, I don't really follow SC2 anymore since I've felt like the recent games were a bit ehh, but I pride myself in knowing 2011. I think I'm going to re-watch GSL July again and watch HongUn 4-gate MC. haha.
On January 11 2013 09:22 LiLSighKoh wrote: Huk lost twice. Not once?
Reread the sentence please. It says HuK lost one relevant game. The game against NesTea didn't matter to him. He was guaranteed Code S before the game.
edit - predictions 1. Symbol - playing against 2 Terran players, a teammate that he's better than, and a jetlagged Jaedong... 2. Center - Has better chances than everyone else in the group. 3. Shine - Dat 3rd place curse yo. 4. Jaedong - jetlagged, still has a 25% win rate against Terran in the GSL booth. 5. ByuN - 40% TvZ and Center, who he already lost to in Code A to fall into the Up & Downs...
I still have faith in the elephants. Proto-elephant Hyun performed up to expectations, it just took him over nine months. KeSPA players started later, had to play Brood War for a while, so they probably need another six months to catch up. Fortunately, HotS will be out by then, so they should be on completely even footing. Expect the best players in HotS to be the same KeSPA players that picked up on SC2 the fastest, such as Bogus, Flash, Rain, as well as some new talent like Creator, Life.
On January 11 2013 09:22 LiLSighKoh wrote: Huk lost twice. Not once?
Reread the sentence please. It says HuK lost one relevant game. The game against NesTea didn't matter to him. He was guaranteed Code S before the game.
edit - predictions 1. Symbol - playing against 2 Terran players, a teammate that he's better than, and a jetlagged Jaedong... 2. Center - Has better chances than everyone else in the group. 3. Shine - Dat 3rd place curse yo. 4. Jaedong - jetlagged, still has a 25% win rate against Terran in the GSL booth. 5. ByuN - 40% TvZ and Center, who he already lost to in Code A to fall into the Up & Downs...
It was edited to reflect what he said.
Notice the fact that a bunch of people also said the same thing before the edit time at the bottom right of the article.
I feel like Jaedong will win all of his ZvZs and that will see him through. I also feel Symbol will make it on the back of smashing a couple of terrans, although if Byun brings it things could get interesting.
I don't think any prediction of JD winning has been right so far. Getting 3rd in his U/D group was pretty indicative of his current level, so I'd expect the same again. Symbol probably first, maybe Shine or Byun second.
Really, Nestea is just going to get demolished in code S. His play looked extremely sloppy, and he was lucky to get probably the weakest U&D group and a bit of a walkover against Huk, who had already qualified for code S by the time they played.
On January 11 2013 11:46 GolemMadness wrote: Really, Nestea is just going to get demolished in code S. His play looked extremely sloppy, and he was lucky to get probably the weakest U&D group and a bit of a walkover against Huk, who had already qualified for code S by the time they played.
NesTea looked kinda decent, imo. At least until he had to play the standard late game, he's just horribly bad when it comed to BL/Infestors, beside that, I was surprised how well he played And the walkover didn't really matter, he won against Center and would have been qualified with a 3:2 as well. Thanks to Center beating fantasy in the last game, the previous game between Huk and NesTea was irrelevant for both of them.
But yeah, you're right, he had the easiest possible group and his opponents played some weird shit (WHY should someone EVER try to 4-Gate NesTea, the one player who dominated the scene at the times were these strats were used? I don't get it), but I still think he deserves it to get another chance in Code S - and with the release of HotS his strategical skills will bring him to the top again!
Symbol's too good of a player not to pass this group. I don't think Center's as good as he might be. Jaedong is a Kespa players. That leaves Shine and Byun who will both go 3-2 with Byun having beat Shine to make Code S in a tiebreaker.
'This is a new game and it doesn't matter if you're a former A-team star or a practice partner who cleaned the floors. The strong will survive and the weak will fall.'
as someone who has followed byun religiously since his days in Zenex i can tell you that his tvz is unfortunately really bad. he does hellion/marauder pressure that might work if all his opponents weren't already expecting it 80% of the time and he does a lot of harassing which tends to make him lose more units than he can afford. he also doesn't keep up in macro with zergs very well, usually staying on less bases longer trying to do damage. virtually all zergs with strong defense tend to have an easy time with byun.
I would like nothing more than for him to come out storming and take this group but i would not bet a cent on him making it out, unfortunately
On January 11 2013 11:06 Grumbels wrote: I still have faith in the elephants. Proto-elephant Hyun performed up to expectations, it just took him over nine months. KeSPA players started later, had to play Brood War for a while, so they probably need another six months to catch up. Fortunately, HotS will be out by then, so they should be on completely even footing. Expect the best players in HotS to be the same KeSPA players that picked up on SC2 the fastest, such as Bogus, Flash, Rain, as well as some new talent like Creator, Life.
That's not what the elephant in the room is, though. The elephant in the room was originally the claim that all competition in SC2 was entirely pointless because all the BW players would dominate immediately once they came over. That has very much not been the case.
On January 11 2013 10:16 CRDJGE wrote: HuK is like MC. Decent control and absolutely nothing else going for them except for a strange way to make people lose to them often in ugly messes.
This is a new game and it doesn't matter if you're a former A-team star or a practice partner who cleaned the floors. The strong will survive and the weak will fall.
I remember when joining this site, I was told it was only people with less than 1000+ posts like me that didn't think that players such as Flash wouldn't win a GSL after one month in Starcraft 2, while 1000+ posters equaled knowledgeable people.
EPT
NesTea <Cloud Kingdom> 
Center
finale
so sad, 
