You are Code not-as-good-as-me! ST_Curious advances in first place, reaching the Round of 8 for the first time
Everyone knows that ST_Curious is pretty good at StarCraft II. He has shown dozens of times that he has what it takes to hang with the best in the world, with insane performances in team leagues, online and Round of 32's. His famous mental block – the Round of 16, has been the bane of his existence since he made it through to Code S for the first time, and with the last Wings of Liberty GSL upon us, what better time was there for Curious to finally break his curse?
SK.MC was the clear favorite in the first match of the night as he went up against the elder Zerg on StarTale. Curious’ reading skills shone through, however, as he beat the two-time GSL champion in a brutal one-sided stomp.
The first game was all about MC going for an immortal/sentry attack in a tribute to his past ”Beware my all-ins”. But Curious knew something that MC might not have been aware of – immortals don't do so well against air. Smartly rushing to mutas, he barreled down on MC's bases and killed everything while utilizing spines at home, then completely destroyed the Protoss army, forcing a quick GG.
Game two saw MC take it to the late game instead, hoping to find some weakness to exploit there. It was not to be, though, as Curious deflected MC's attempts at harassment and eventually strangled him with a slow, safe broodlord/infestor/spinecrawler push across the map that eventually forced the SK Protoss to tap out.
Having already demolished a Protoss, Curious next opponent was the group's only Terran, the Towel Terran FXOGuMiho, just coming off the longest Best of 3 of all time against LG-IM_LosirA. Curious was quick to initiate the process of reading Gumiho's Code, as he essentially blind-countered Gumiho's hellion opening with quick roaches, busting into Gumiho's base by the seven minute mark. While Gumiho managed to hold on for longer in game two, Curious form was never in question. Though Gumiho made a few attempts to move out and inflict damage, Curious was on top of his aggression and deflected it every time without serious losses. Eventually, Curious' hive-based army proved too much for Gumiho to handle, and he delivered a swift ”You are Code A!” declaration to a fatigued Gumiho as he moved on to the Round of 8.
An Eternity Later FXOGuMihoand LG-IM_LosirA play an excellent 156-minute series but both fall to Code A
Imagine the longest game you've ever watched. Now, add twenty minutes. Then add two games, each about 35 minutes long. The end result would be similar to the second match of the night, with FXOGuMiho going up against LG-IM_LosirA. Both Gumiho and Losira have shown in the past that they are excellent players, with both of them displaying aggressive tendencies. In Gumiho's case, it's his trademark crazy multitasking and all-over-the-map aggression. For Losira, it's the reluctance to use the more immobile though powerful broodlord/infestor, instead favoring ultralisks and banelings. When two players whose styles clash like that meet, you're either in for a treat or a completely one-sided stomp.
Their first clash was on Daybreak, with standard openings evolving into a rather normal mid-game. Losira went up to 4 hatches and got his 12-minute hive with the desired upgrades for his lings, whereas Gumiho tried to keep up in both bases and upgrades. As Losira spread creep across the map, Gumiho did his best to stop him wherever he could. Despite Gumiho's best efforts, Losira went up to the ultimate broodlord/infestor ball and crawled across the map. At that point, EMP's and nukes became Gumiho's saving grace. In a nail-biting battle, Gumiho's stunning control took out Losira's army while his nukes incinerated drones on the other side of the map, forcing the GG.
Game two took place on Losira's map of choice Cloud Kingdom, and saw Losira step it up a notch as he utilized quick Neural Parasites for some interesting plays, most notably controlling medivacs to heal his ultralisks in battle. Though both players started out similarly to game one, Gumiho elected to go into a more tank-heavy composition whereas Losira stayed on ultra/infestor. This time, it was Losira's ling/baneling attacks that had Gumiho on the back foot for a few moments as multiple worker lines were ravaged. Good moves across the board from both players evened the game out several times before well-placed fungals on top of Gumiho's starved army forced him to tap out against the IM Zerg's superior forces.
Game three was... long. What started out with a 12-14 rax from Gumiho quickly turned into a standard macro game by their standard, with the two of them once again electing to macro up to their desired set of units, bases and upgrades – Losira went into Ultralisks and Gumiho into a bio-centric composition. With the success Gumiho had been having with his ghosts earlier in the series, he decided to get another set of relatively quick ghosts. Though Gumiho made aggressive moves around the 20-minute mark, trying to pick off whatever he could, Losira was on top of him every time and managed to save his spellcasters without serious losses. When he realized he could not pick off free units, Gumiho turned his eyes to the creep that was constantly spreading across the map. When the big engagement finally came, Gumiho's ghosts proved invaluable as EMP's and snipes immediately turned the fight in his favor. With neither player having taken enough damage to warrant a GG, they both went back into safe mode as they finished up all upgrades and made yet more bases. Another engagement came ten minutes later with both of them tied around 100 supply, but the result was the same as last time with both players disengaging before taking potentially crippling damage.
At this point, resources were becoming hard to come by, and so Losira brought his overlords onto the map to spread creep so he could bring his twenty spine crawlers along with him. The players clashed more times, but as every unit became more and more valuable, the engagements became more careful. With Gumiho's air army gone, Losira’s corruptors were more or less useless and kept around only for corruption on marines. Gumiho had a few spare resources left in his base that he eventually managed into a few units, but as his reaper(s) were taken out the game once again became a game of stamina as the two circled each other without ever committing to another attack. Gumiho took out a few spines with his tank/marauder army every now and then. At this point, the most interesting part about the game was Tastosis' mental breakdown. At long last, Gumiho had managed to outlast Losira, sniping most of the spine crawlers around the map, and at 86 minutes, Losira went for an ill-advised engagement, only to die a bloody death a minute later.
Please note that this recap does not nearly cover all the events of this match, as there were far too many moves – both brilliant and stupid, to mention all of them. Watch the game.
Fatigue + Code S = Code A Gumiho and Losira commit double GSL suicide and both fall to Code A
There wasn't really much to say about Losira vs. MC. ZvP was always Losira's weakest match-up and has at times been MC's strongest, and coming off the back of a 150-minute series, it's not hard to see why Losira looked even worse in this series. He ended up being stomped 0-2 and sent to Code A by the Boss Toss, who eventually moved on to beat Gumiho in the Final Match as well, where the FXO Terran showed similar signs of fatigue. One might have hoped that the rest of the matches would have been postponed to another day to let Losira and Gumiho recover from their beyond-intense clash that was about as long as the rest of the day combined, but that was obviously not an option. In the end both of them gave us the best series so far this year but ultimately, were crushed under its weight.
On paper, Group D is an easy group to predict, but the kind of group that has shown itself to not play out how it should, in the past. The player showing perhaps by far greatest form in the world right now, ST_Life comes into this group as the massive favorite. His opponent, former teammate SKT_PartinG showed similar form toward the end of last year, dominating Zergs (something that will prove very valuable in a 1P 3Z group) with his only significant loss coming from Life in the Blizzard Cup finals.
On the contrary, The other two players, Samsung_RorO and Azubu_BboongBboong, come into this group as massive underdogs. Though they both made it out of the Ro32 in convincing fashion – RorO in second place after MarineKingPrime, Bboong in first place over Squirtle, it is fair to say that these two guys, Bboong in particular, ended up in the worst group possible.
The first match of the night between Life and Parting is the long-awaited Blizzard Cup rematch. For those who didn't, watch it, and those who did – watch it again. While their last meeting spelled the end of Parting's seemingly invincible Wonwonwon and robbed the SKT Protoss of his third championship of the year, Parting seems to have kept his form from late last year as proven by his complete stomping of Losira.
His opponent has done perhaps more than that. Life has not only kept his form, but he has become even better. Consider this: StarTale and summer break turned Life from a good player into the best player in the world, ultimately putting him with two championships in GSL/MLG. And now, another break will likely have done even more for his play.
Of course, Parting still has a fighting chance – he has shown some of the best PvZ of all time recently and his battle micro makes him a scary player to play against, no matter who you are. Add to this the fact that Life's ZvP has at times been the match-up that has been his least convincing (which still means pretty damn scary), and Parting might even look at this match with some confidence – he did state that he won most of his games against Life when they were both on StarTale.
However, one must also consider the maps:
1) The removal of Ohana. It is reasonable to believe that Parting will want to go for at least one immortal/sentry push, and given his record on the map, Ohana might just have been the map he would have needed to secure at least one win. 2) Bel'Shir Vestige has proven itself to be a great ZvP map. Life and Parting may be somewhat evenly matched on a neutral map, but Bel'Shir sits at 75% in Korea right now, favoring Zerg - not a good sign for Parting.
The second match of the night seems to be much clearer on paper. RorO is coming off a string of great ZvZ performances, winning his last 5 games – wheras BboongBboong's record isn't as great, with only 2 wins in his last 10 games. That isn't to say the AZUBU Zerg is completely lost in the match-up as he has been steadily improving lately, but RorO was oozing confidence about the mirror match-up and it has been showing in his play.
But then again, BboongBboong was able to surprise with a quick and decisive 2-0 over last season's runner-up Hyun in the Round of 32, and BboongBboong is definitely the dark horse of the entire tournament. If anyone is to cause an upset, it'll be him – but against a proficient ZvZ'er like RorO, that will be very tough.
General outlook and predictions
Going past the first two matches, Life and Parting are the huge favorites in this group, with RorO as a distinct threat. Life has won a lot of stuff and is only getting better, and Parting's hot streak in PvZ was only stopped by the one player he's up against first in this group. One of them will obviously lose in the first match – if it's Parting, he gets to play his arguably strongest match-up against two players who consider it their weakest, and if it's Life then well, we all know what Life has been doing with his opponent across all match-ups recently.
For both RorO and BboongBboong, their best shot is to out-ZvZ their opponent and hope that Life beats Parting. I feel that both RorO and BboongBboong, though obvious underdogs, have better chances in a match-up they play well, ZvZ, than one that has shown to be somewhat lackluster at times in ZvP..
Make no mistake, this group should come down to Parting and Life. If they both bring their A-games, RorO and BboongBboong are in a lot of trouble. However, Life was knocked out by another KeSPA Zerg in Soulkey last season, and Parting's Wonwonwon has now been proven stoppable. But, despite the tendency to turn logic on its head that groups like these tend to have, both Life and PartinG have shown the consistency to make us confident they can keep it under control.
Luckily, I am not Fionn and thus, this prediction should be fine.
Life > PartinG BboongBboong < RorO Life > RorO PartinG > BboongBboong PartinG > RorO
On February 15 2013 08:05 Sumahi wrote: I almost cried nerd tears last night when Curious advanced. After so many seasons of trying, he advanced in style last night.
Cheering for Life tonight! The Startale fan in me hopes he can crush the soul of Parting!
If life gets first soulkey could win the entire tourney taeja fall out (he said he's not comfortable tvz), then life beats mc, soulkey wrecks life again, then makes it to the finals. He can beat everybody on the other side of the bracket except for maybe BboongBboong (not as many televised games as symbol curious or roro) and I guess if inovation got all the way to the end with soulkey then he could win as well...
I really really hope soulkey doesn't win vs taeja though... want taeja vs life or mc or parting
symbol, curious, inovation, or parting winning this season is what I see happening. Or at least who seems most on top of their game outside life/mc
Everything but a 4:0 for Life would be a HUGE upset, imo. He's really the one and only player right now who I just don't see losing. He knows how to stop PartinG's Sentry/Immortal Push, his ZvZ is incredibly good... Can't think of a way how he could actually fail in this group :-P
I think the writing of Zealously is still a bit rigid, things like this:
as there were far too many moves – both brilliant and stupid, to mention all of them.
(calling their moves stupid) makes me grind my teeth. I think its not the role of a reviewers to judge the players' decisions in such a manner, but simply to call out what happened while maybe combining a bit of personal opinion. It just might be only me though.
All in all decent read, agree on all the predictions.
Gumiho is the new gatekeeper of Code S. Also Zealously is playing with fire, mentioning Fionn within a line of the predictions. Of course its possible that Zealously is a Roro fan, and hopes to curse him into the Ro8, in which case mentioning Fionn will reverse curse the results to be those Zealously wants the least.
I certainly must praise the effort and research put into this writeup. However, I cannot agree with some of the points made. A niggling suspicion remains in my mind - does the author even follow Proleague? I believe most would hesitate to call the ace of Samsung Khan, and player with the second best Proleague record an underdog.
On February 15 2013 09:12 Pangpootata wrote: I certainly must praise the effort and research put into this writeup. However, I cannot agree with some of the points made. A niggling suspicion remains in my mind - does the author even follow Proleague? I believe most would hesitate to call the ace of Samsung Khan, and player with the second best Proleague record an underdog.
Are you seriously saying that doing well in Proleague is equivalent to winning individual championships?
Life to show why he is the second and last real Bonjwa after Mvp in WoL and PartinG to suffer the upset of his career against RorO in the deciding match, who turns out to be the second most potent Funkiller next to Bogus
actually technically if Curious loses in the round of 8, then he only knocked people into Code A, and didn't eliminate anyone after, so he can still kinda be called the Code S Reader
On February 15 2013 09:12 Pangpootata wrote: I certainly must praise the effort and research put into this writeup. However, I cannot agree with some of the points made. A niggling suspicion remains in my mind - does the author even follow Proleague? I believe most would hesitate to call the ace of Samsung Khan, and player with the second best Proleague record an underdog.
Are you seriously saying that doing well in Proleague is equivalent to winning individual championships?
Moreover, is there any zerg in the world that wouldn't be the underdog vs parting and life?
On February 15 2013 10:19 Misacampo wrote: Did the TL writers even watch the last game between losira and gumiho? The writeup didn't even come close to what actually happened.
It was somewhat accurate, how would you go about writing a summary for 156 minutes of action?
On February 15 2013 10:19 Misacampo wrote: Did the TL writers even watch the last game between losira and gumiho? The writeup didn't even come close to what actually happened.
It was somewhat accurate, how would you go about writing a summary for 156 minutes of action?
126 minute of action. 30 minutes of gumiho mining with 2 scvs and Legend following corruptors around with the camera*
On February 15 2013 10:19 Misacampo wrote: Did the TL writers even watch the last game between losira and gumiho? The writeup didn't even come close to what actually happened.
It was somewhat accurate, how would you go about writing a summary for 156 minutes of action?
126 minute of action. 30 minutes of gumiho mining with 2 scvs and Legend following corruptors around with the camera*
On February 15 2013 10:19 Misacampo wrote: Did the TL writers even watch the last game between losira and gumiho? The writeup didn't even come close to what actually happened.
It was somewhat accurate, how would you go about writing a summary for 156 minutes of action?
While relatively accurate, it really doesn't tell the tale of what actually happened in the ultra late game.
Obviously Parting and Life are the favorites and most likely they gonna advance to playoffs and that means MC has 0% chance to be 3rd time GSL champion. Both Life and Parting will destroy this very inconsistent (lately) player to nullity.
On February 15 2013 09:12 Pangpootata wrote: I certainly must praise the effort and research put into this writeup. However, I cannot agree with some of the points made. A niggling suspicion remains in my mind - does the author even follow Proleague? I believe most would hesitate to call the ace of Samsung Khan, and player with the second best Proleague record an underdog.
Let's simply put it like this: Watching Life's plays purifies my eyes.
On February 15 2013 10:19 Misacampo wrote: Did the TL writers even watch the last game between losira and gumiho? The writeup didn't even come close to what actually happened.
It was somewhat accurate, how would you go about writing a summary for 156 minutes of action?
While relatively accurate, it really doesn't tell the tale of what actually happened in the ultra late game.
The problem is that that sort of series would require a final edit length battle report, and that he did as well as possible in one paragraph.
On February 15 2013 10:19 Misacampo wrote: Did the TL writers even watch the last game between losira and gumiho? The writeup didn't even come close to what actually happened.
It was somewhat accurate, how would you go about writing a summary for 156 minutes of action?
While relatively accurate, it really doesn't tell the tale of what actually happened in the ultra late game.
Well obviously, because they want people to watch the VoD.
Post game write ups are supposed to be brief, enticing summaries that get you to want to watch the game, not detailed analysis that tell you every single detail.
--
Let's go Life. You cannot be stopped. Allow us to beat witness to your greatness.
On February 15 2013 13:46 mhael wrote: Is there any way only Parting comes out of the group? The other 3 are caught cheating or something? That would be awesome.
In theory this group is putty in the hands of Life and Parting. In reality, Life and Parting have been hyped up beyond belief, while RorO and BBoongBBoong represent a serious danger. Let's not forget Life and Parting both failed to make it out of the ro16 last code S; Parting has failed to advance beyond this stage in his last three attempts.
We haven't seen much from BBoongBBoong so far in his career, but taking down Squirtle and Hyun, two top protoss and zerg, in the last round was a strong statement. Can he repeat the trick? Odds are not but he created the upset last time, and he can no doubt do it again.
RorO on the other hand would be a favourite to emerge from almost any group except this one. Right now he is red hot, winning 12 of his last 15 games. His ZvZ is outstanding but his ZvP has stood out as a weak spot.
Parting is vulnerable. Ever since Life exposed the fatal weakness in his soul, the aura of invincibility has fell away. He could no longer be called the best player in the world. Now we remember he's never been a GSL champion or even finalist. He failed to impress in his last 2 tournaments, falling short of his lofty standards at Iron Squid II and IEM Katowice.
But Life is perhaps even more vulnerable. We will soon see if choosing Parting to be his first opponent was confidence or arrogance. Has he fatally overreached? He might feel confident because of his decisive victory in the Blizzard Cup finals, but this time Parting will be desperate for revenge. He won't rely on the old, broken down soul train this time. He'll have new builds ready, and since their last meeting, the terrain has also shifted in his favour. The infestor nerfs have thrown the zerg-dominated metagame into disarray, and there are new protoss-favoured maps as well.
It's impossible to say, but I have the feeling that Parting will continue the theme of revenge in this GSL's ro16. Innovation shutdown DRG in their ro16 rematch after getting shutout the previous round. Curious did the same to MC. Symbol managed to exact his revenge against Squirtle by the end of the same night.
And if Life takes the L in his first match, he'll have no more margin for error. It could come down to him and RorO in the last match of the night for the last spot in the quarterfinals. RorO's zvz is world class. So is Life's but he has also shown dangerous vulnerabilities. In a match at Iron Squid II last month against Goswser, an unheralded zerg from North America (which says a lot right there), Goswser managed to take the first two games against Life before Life came back with three in a row. In the finals against DRG, Life had thrown it away after going down 0-3 in a bo7 with some sloppy play and questionable decisionmaking before storming back in the next 4 with, frankly, more than a little help from DRG. In a bo3 with everything on the line, if he makes two slipups in a row again, this time he'll be going home empty-handed.
I still think Life and Parting are favoured to make it through, but it wouldn't be a big surprise to see one of them joining pre-tournament favourites Mvp, Nestea, DRG, Leenock, and Sniper in the practice queue for HotS games.
PartinG 3-0 Life in MLG Tournament of Champions Life 4-2 PartinG GSL Blizzard Cup These 2 are EXTREMELY evenly matched. I'd say it's a 50-50 chance for both. And I agree, BBongBBong and RorO are really good, but they really aren't on the same level with the first 2. However, crazy stuff have happened before...
nerds got Rorolled again xD. idk why everyone saw him as an upset, he's been playing better than Parting and B-dog lately. he was the obvious favorite to advance after Life imo..
Oh, and something interesting about this group: RorO lost the most possible games for winning a group (2) B4 won the most possible games for getting last in a group (2) PartinG had the worst record possible to move on (4-4) Life had the best record possible to not move on (4-4)
On February 15 2013 10:06 Flinch wrote: RorO and Parting advance. Life is a patch zerg without a patch now.
Called it.
Life is no patchzerg. Patchzergs were foreigners.
There were plenty of Korean patchzergs, don't kid yourself.
However, I think the worst thing about the infamous patch was not that it elevated certain Zergs or made Zerg imba... it was how much it ruined ZvX from a viewership perspective. Whelp, no such thing as early game aggression against Zerg anymore! I've been catching up on VoDs, and you can pretty much just skip to 7 or 8 minutes in on any ZvX.
PartinG mah boi never disappoints Pretty sure parting planned to lose first set against life so he can win ez against winner of B4/RorO and then beat life in the second set with new tricks up his sleeves
On February 15 2013 17:39 Evil_Sheep wrote: In theory this group is putty in the hands of Life and Parting. In reality, Life and Parting have been hyped up beyond belief, while RorO and BBoongBBoong represent a serious danger. Let's not forget Life and Parting both failed to make it out of the ro16 last code S; Parting has failed to advance beyond this stage in his last three attempts.
We haven't seen much from BBoongBBoong so far in his career, but taking down Squirtle and Hyun, two top protoss and zerg, in the last round was a strong statement. Can he repeat the trick? Odds are not but he created the upset last time, and he can no doubt do it again.
RorO on the other hand would be a favourite to emerge from almost any group except this one. Right now he is red hot, winning 12 of his last 15 games. His ZvZ is outstanding but his ZvP has stood out as a weak spot.
Parting is vulnerable. Ever since Life exposed the fatal weakness in his soul, the aura of invincibility has fell away. He could no longer be called the best player in the world. Now we remember he's never been a GSL champion or even finalist. He failed to impress in his last 2 tournaments, falling short of his lofty standards at Iron Squid II and IEM Katowice.
But Life is perhaps even more vulnerable. We will soon see if choosing Parting to be his first opponent was confidence or arrogance. Has he fatally overreached? He might feel confident because of his decisive victory in the Blizzard Cup finals, but this time Parting will be desperate for revenge. He won't rely on the old, broken down soul train this time. He'll have new builds ready, and since their last meeting, the terrain has also shifted in his favour. The infestor nerfs have thrown the zerg-dominated metagame into disarray, and there are new protoss-favoured maps as well.
It's impossible to say, but I have the feeling that Parting will continue the theme of revenge in this GSL's ro16. Innovation shutdown DRG in their ro16 rematch after getting shutout the previous round. Curious did the same to MC. Symbol managed to exact his revenge against Squirtle by the end of the same night.
And if Life takes the L in his first match, he'll have no more margin for error. It could come down to him and RorO in the last match of the night for the last spot in the quarterfinals. RorO's zvz is world class. So is Life's but he has also shown dangerous vulnerabilities. In a match at Iron Squid II last month against Goswser, an unheralded zerg from North America (which says a lot right there), Goswser managed to take the first two games against Life before Life came back with three in a row. In the finals against DRG, Life had thrown it away after going down 0-3 in a bo7 with some sloppy play and questionable decisionmaking before storming back in the next 4 with, frankly, more than a little help from DRG. In a bo3 with everything on the line, if he makes two slipups in a row again, this time he'll be going home empty-handed.
I still think Life and Parting are favoured to make it through, but it wouldn't be a big surprise to see one of them joining pre-tournament favourites Mvp, Nestea, DRG, Leenock, and Sniper in the practice queue for HotS games.
I just wanted to take a moment to say that this mini-writeup and player skill analysis was spot on and hit some things that even the preview writers missed.
You would actually do great as a TL.net writer if all of your writing is up to this quality, in my humble opinion. You are diplomatic in your analysis, and you dole our praise but do not overly hype players... it was pretty much all good.
Terrible summary. You failed to provide any analysis of losers match and final match in Group C. You talk about how tired the players were, but you must be just as tired since you couldn't be bothered to finish your article.
On February 15 2013 17:39 Evil_Sheep wrote: In theory this group is putty in the hands of Life and Parting. In reality, Life and Parting have been hyped up beyond belief, while RorO and BBoongBBoong represent a serious danger. Let's not forget Life and Parting both failed to make it out of the ro16 last code S; Parting has failed to advance beyond this stage in his last three attempts.
We haven't seen much from BBoongBBoong so far in his career, but taking down Squirtle and Hyun, two top protoss and zerg, in the last round was a strong statement. Can he repeat the trick? Odds are not but he created the upset last time, and he can no doubt do it again.
RorO on the other hand would be a favourite to emerge from almost any group except this one. Right now he is red hot, winning 12 of his last 15 games. His ZvZ is outstanding but his ZvP has stood out as a weak spot.
Parting is vulnerable. Ever since Life exposed the fatal weakness in his soul, the aura of invincibility has fell away. He could no longer be called the best player in the world. Now we remember he's never been a GSL champion or even finalist. He failed to impress in his last 2 tournaments, falling short of his lofty standards at Iron Squid II and IEM Katowice.
But Life is perhaps even more vulnerable. We will soon see if choosing Parting to be his first opponent was confidence or arrogance. Has he fatally overreached? He might feel confident because of his decisive victory in the Blizzard Cup finals, but this time Parting will be desperate for revenge. He won't rely on the old, broken down soul train this time. He'll have new builds ready, and since their last meeting, the terrain has also shifted in his favour. The infestor nerfs have thrown the zerg-dominated metagame into disarray, and there are new protoss-favoured maps as well.
It's impossible to say, but I have the feeling that Parting will continue the theme of revenge in this GSL's ro16. Innovation shutdown DRG in their ro16 rematch after getting shutout the previous round. Curious did the same to MC. Symbol managed to exact his revenge against Squirtle by the end of the same night.
And if Life takes the L in his first match, he'll have no more margin for error. It could come down to him and RorO in the last match of the night for the last spot in the quarterfinals. RorO's zvz is world class. So is Life's but he has also shown dangerous vulnerabilities. In a match at Iron Squid II last month against Goswser, an unheralded zerg from North America (which says a lot right there), Goswser managed to take the first two games against Life before Life came back with three in a row. In the finals against DRG, Life had thrown it away after going down 0-3 in a bo7 with some sloppy play and questionable decisionmaking before storming back in the next 4 with, frankly, more than a little help from DRG. In a bo3 with everything on the line, if he makes two slipups in a row again, this time he'll be going home empty-handed.
I still think Life and Parting are favoured to make it through, but it wouldn't be a big surprise to see one of them joining pre-tournament favourites Mvp, Nestea, DRG, Leenock, and Sniper in the practice queue for HotS games.
I just wanted to take a moment to say that this mini-writeup and player skill analysis was spot on and hit some things that even the preview writers missed.
You would actually do great as a TL.net writer if all of your writing is up to this quality, in my humble opinion. You are diplomatic in your analysis, and you dole our praise but do not overly hype players... it was pretty much all good.
Thanks! It's rare to get a compliment on the internet so I appreciate it and glad you enjoyed it. I do try my best to make an accurate prediction once in a while for my own amusement.
If you watch this series as a casual GSL viewer and casual Parting following - you may not get the full thrust of how great Parting vs Life turned out.
The first 2 games set up the last series between them, and game 3 (game 1 of 2nd series) is one of the best blind counters to a blind counter I have ever seen with a collossus sentry push (rather than immortal sentry).
These games were EPIC. This was the best set of games I have ever seen. GG's!!!
EPT
MC <Neo Planet S> 
Curious
GuMiho <Daybreak> 
.
