With the Wings of Liberty door closing shut, the elephant finally entered the room. Samsung KHAN's RorO scored an impressive 4 –1 victory over Team Liquid's TaeJa to win the last GSL Code S semi-final of the WoL era, becoming the first KeSPA player to reach the finals of the most prestigious StarCraft II league in the world.
It was a momentous achievement for RorO, a five year pro-gamer who was often acknowledged as a skillful player, but had never been considered a championship contender in his original Brood War career. KeSPA's official switch to StarCraft II in mid-2012 turned out to be the chance of a lifetime for the Samsung Zerg, who quickly distinguished himself as one of the best 'elephants' – KeSPA players who made the belated transition to StarCraft II. After a swing and a miss in the previous season of Code S, where a costly nydus error saw RorO tumble down into Code A, he has now earned himself a chance to immortalize himself in WoL history,
However, for many StarCraft II fans, the biggest story of the night was not of RorO's personal triumph, but the confirmation of a second straight Zerg vs. Zerg Code S final after HyuN vs. Sniper in the previous season. With Azubu's Symbol having clinched the other final spot the night before, RorO's win also confirmed the third consecutive Zerg Code S champion in a period where no topic was hotter than that of Zerg imbalance. Though the imminent arrival of the Heart of the Swarm has calmed the unrest to some degree, the murky specter of imbalance will inevitably loom over the finals on March 9th.
After poor start, RorO takes four straight games.
Make your own Liquid pun.
The first match of the night saw TaeJa bring his best play and RorO his worst, and unsurprisingly it ended with Team Liquid's golden boy going up 1 – 0. A sneaky, delayed hellion drop on Cloud Kingdom caught RorO off guard in the early minutes, and while it was not a crucial factor in determining the outcome of the game, it set the tone for one where RorO didn't look entirely warmed up. After a military build up on both sides, TaeJa began to encroach on Zerg territory, triggering a disastrous defensive engagement from RorO with hive units not far off. TaeJa only had to fend off a vain backdoor attack from RorO before sweeping through his bases to take the first game.
Unfortunately for TaeJa, that victory ended up being the sole highlight of his night. RorO found his groove in game two on Whirlwind, rolling with a mobile, muta-ling-bane style of play. Initially, TaeJa seemed to be holding out reasonably well, despite having to scramble frantically to keep up with RorO's multi-prong attacks. However, continual prodding from RorO eventually paid off, and he caught TaeJa's army out of position to kill off his crucial third base. TaeJa played well to keep himself in the game after taking such a severe economic hit, but was effectively on a timer as RorO bought time with the threat of backdoor attacks and continued to build his economy and tech. A series of desperation attacks for TaeJa went better than expected, but he had no choice but to GG out in the end.
After a pair of protracted games to open the series, games three and four went by in a breeze as RorO pulled the rug out from beneath TaeJa's feet with consecutive early attacks. On Akilon Flats, a two base roach rush caused severe damage to TaeJa and forced him into a failed, all-in counter attack. RorO then followed with an old-fashioned baneling bust on Icarus, going up 3 – 1 in the blink of an eye.
It then turned out that RorO had saved his best for last, clinically dismantling TaeJa on Daybreak in a game that he said went as perfectly as it had in his dreams. From start to finish, RorO controlled the tempo of the game, and was almost entirely untroubled as he took his half of the map, built up, and crushed TaeJa to finish the series 4 – 1.
On March 02 2013 01:49 StuDToSs wrote: Coincidentally, this final brings the same theme to the table as Hyun vs Sniper: a fan favourite vs an anti-fan favourite.
It's going to bring the same results too, most likely.
well if any of the kespa guys deserves it, it should be roro. he has shown good games from the start of the transition and he never let up. I feel like he and Rain represent kespa better than JD and Flash ever did during WoL, but I dont wanna start a who is better conversation. Probably not gonna watch the finals as I found ZvZ not entertaining to watch, but I'm crossing my fingers for Symbol and Azubu. Would be a great start for their whole team.
Nice games today. Glad that Roro won, but kinda sad we will have another zvz finals. Oh well, guess some games in the match up can be good. Just gotta hope it happens for the finals too.
I don't know why people are so upset about this happening . Roro played awesome and Taeja is still injured , if this was summer Taeja it might have been closer or a win for him . personally I am excited to see Symbol vs Roro, this should be good!
Hurray another ZvZ finals like in last GSL and nearly any other Major event, what a surprise :-/ Luckily that WoL BL Infestor shit is now over! I won't even watch the finals and don't care who wins, like last season...
...Just sad that Blizz could'nt make it possible to have an epic last WoL Code S :-(
On March 02 2013 02:54 Shakattak wrote: I don't know why people are so upset about this happening.
Really? Two very obvious reasons: People were rooting against a ZvZ finals (all balance aside, mirror matches are just not as popular), and Taeja is a Team Liquid player.
Call me a troll but innovation or soulkey would have been much better kespa representatives for the finals, proleague record non-withstanding I find roros play lackluster compared to the other two. Anyway, go symbol, TSL forever
Still f:ing hate the GomTV vods for the video ratings showing. Tried to avoid it, but accidentally saw it and knew RorO won because TaeJa was the fan favourite.
On March 02 2013 04:25 randomusername85 wrote: Still f:ing hate the GomTV vods for the video ratings showing. Tried to avoid it, but accidentally saw it and knew RorO won because TaeJa was the fan favourite.
On March 02 2013 01:49 StuDToSs wrote: Coincidentally, the finals for this season brings the same theme to the table as Hyun vs Sniper: a fan favourite vs an anti-fan favourite.
Just curious, which is which? Lots of people like both of them (relative to eachother, not comparting to, lets say, teaja)
Though personally I don't like Symbol too much, for very little reason, but people tend to prefer esf over kespa for no real purpose
On March 02 2013 03:50 IronL wrote: Call me a troll but innovation or soulkey would have been much better kespa representatives for the finals, proleague record non-withstanding I find roros play lackluster compared to the other two. Anyway, go symbol, TSL forever
RorO is way, way better than Soulkey though.
And Innovation couldn't beat SymboL, so he doesn't deserve to be a finalist.
My money would be on RorO for the finals. Symbol's good but RorO is just too hot at the moment. Too bad it's ZvZ and I can't be bothered watching another ZvZ game/finals.
On March 02 2013 02:26 trada wrote: well if any of the kespa guys deserves it, it should be roro. he has shown good games from the start of the transition and he never let up. I feel like he and Rain represent kespa better than JD and Flash ever did during WoL, but I dont wanna start a who is better conversation. Probably not gonna watch the finals as I found ZvZ not entertaining to watch, but I'm crossing my fingers for Symbol and Azubu. Would be a great start for their whole team.
Please go back and watch Flash vs Rain and say that one more time...
On March 02 2013 05:44 hotcoco wrote: Symbol just beat the best zvz pro player in Korea. And he didn't win through cheese. He'll probably take the title, 4-2 I'm guessing.
On March 02 2013 05:44 hotcoco wrote: Symbol just beat the best zvz pro player in Korea. And he didn't win through cheese. He'll probably take the title, 4-2 I'm guessing.
Never bet against a KeSPA player...
I have a really good feeling about Symbol's chances.
On March 02 2013 02:26 trada wrote: well if any of the kespa guys deserves it, it should be roro. he has shown good games from the start of the transition and he never let up. I feel like he and Rain represent kespa better than JD and Flash ever did during WoL, but I dont wanna start a who is better conversation. Probably not gonna watch the finals as I found ZvZ not entertaining to watch, but I'm crossing my fingers for Symbol and Azubu. Would be a great start for their whole team.
It's a shame that TaeJa had trouble finding the practice partners he needed as everyone rather wanted to play HotS. I guess that's where a strongly organized team such as KHAN helping out and extensively supporting their player shows the most.
Oh well. Too bad it's another ZvZ finals. Farewell, WoL.
I've got to say, as a fan of both Taeja and Roro, that Roro really deserved his win. He didn't just win with macro games, he won with macro, timing attacks, cheese, everything. It was an impressive display, and made Taeja look like he didn't deserve to be in the final - and that's not a small achievement.
This series was like a mirror of Innovation v Symbol. Both terrans were renowned for their zerg-killing abilities and superb lategame macro-oriented style. Both zergs scouted this and prepared a variety of aggressive builds and all-ins to keep it from going to the terran's favoured lategame every time.
I feel that Roro won because he did his homework in this series and Taeja did not. As I wrote earlier, Roro's only loss to terran this GSL was to MKP, both games to early timing attacks that caught him off-balance. # of timing attacks Taeja made this series: 0. At the same time, if Taeja watched the VOD's, he would see that Roro has gone for a lot of early aggression in zvt. Yet he was caught unprepared both times by early all-ins. The worst example was on Icarus, which is basically a 2-base all-in map, and he went triple-cc and went down to a simple baneling bust.
Basically Innovation and Taeja were stuck on one style that got figured out, and it led to their downfall.
I think it would be a really positive thing for Kespa if their player wins. It will be a big event for them to hold the last WOL code S title. I could see Roro getting a ton of help basically from any other Kespa player. I sadly don't think Symbol can match the sheer preparation coming his way.
I feel as if Waxangel didn't give enough credit to Taeja. It should have been noticed that Taeja was the remaining Terran in the final WoL Code S. This is just a wild accomplishment given his physical conditions.
I put money on another ZvZ final before the season began and I won! The problem is the odds were 1:1 so... they just gave me my money back. Nobody is shocked by these results right? Last 3 GSL's and MLG GSL: ZvT -Zerg won (life) MLG: ZVZ - zerg won (life) GSL - ZVZ - zerg won (sniper) GSL - ZVZ - zerg won
Those are the last 4 major tourneys with lots of top tier Koreans in the pool.
On March 02 2013 01:49 StuDToSs wrote: Coincidentally, the finals for this season brings the same theme to the table as Hyun vs Sniper: a fan favourite vs an anti-fan favourite.
On March 02 2013 01:49 StuDToSs wrote: Coincidentally, the finals for this season brings the same theme to the table as Hyun vs Sniper: a fan favourite vs an anti-fan favourite.
Who's the anti?
RorO because of how he treats antiteams in FPL I assume
You don't say... Two Zergs ending up in the finals in WoL? Two Zergs known for their 'amazing' BL/infestor play? Very unique and skillful BL/Infestor turtle play I might add :D
Obviously I'm being satirical, Roro and Symbol are good, but it is no coincidence that you find 3 zergs in the final 4 players (Something we all have noticed for a long time coming).
You know what would be funny? If they made another balance patch right now before HoTS releases.
But there's no point anyway, its a mirror matchup after all.
I'm personally rooting for Symbol here, despite Roro owning Taeja 4-1, but him dissing Taeja in the last game and him being a Kespa player makes me not want to root for him.
On March 02 2013 11:06 Hitch-22 wrote: You don't say... Two Zergs ending up in the finals in WoL? Two Zergs known for their 'amazing' BL/infestor play? Very unique and skillful BL/Infestor turtle play I might add :D
Obviously I'm being satirical, Roro and Symbol are good, but it is no coincidence that you find 3 zergs in the final 4 players (Something we all have noticed for a long time coming).
I 100% agree with you and yes Blizzard SHOULD do a balance patch because we all paid good money for a complete game - not a half game that is to be continued after you pay out another $50.00.
Roro's chances are very good. The guy wanted to be in Life's group for the round of 16 because he was so confident in his ZvZ, and advanced in first place.
Hopefuly he'll practice a lot with Soulkey, Effort and the other good zergs.
On March 02 2013 11:06 Hitch-22 wrote: You don't say... Two Zergs ending up in the finals in WoL? Two Zergs known for their 'amazing' BL/infestor play? Very unique and skillful BL/Infestor turtle play I might add :D
Obviously I'm being satirical, Roro and Symbol are good, but it is no coincidence that you find 3 zergs in the final 4 players (Something we all have noticed for a long time coming).
If you at least watched the dam match you would have noticed that in the whole Roro/Taeja series there was not a single Broodlord made...
On March 02 2013 11:06 Hitch-22 wrote: You don't say... Two Zergs ending up in the finals in WoL? Two Zergs known for their 'amazing' BL/infestor play? Very unique and skillful BL/Infestor turtle play I might add :D
Obviously I'm being satirical, Roro and Symbol are good, but it is no coincidence that you find 3 zergs in the final 4 players (Something we all have noticed for a long time coming).
If you at least watched the dam match you would have noticed that in the whole Roro/Taeja series there was not a single Broodlord made...
technically like 5 brood lords were made in game 1 but TaeJa caught them with no support right as they finished morphing between the natural and 3rd on cloud kingdom when he was going for the killing blow, so they did nothing
On March 02 2013 09:50 jinorazi wrote: where did all the balance whine go o.O i guess people just dont care because of hots
I think most of the posts are shrouded in sarcasm. If you listen to the commentating Artosis mentions at the end of game 5 (Taeja losing 4-1) that "Turns out Zerg is a good race in WoL...there I said it!." Tastless then adds to this by saying "Its funny you can have a maxed out army and somehow have a larger maxed out army through infested terran and making rows of evo chambers and cancelling." Even the casters, whose biggest deadly sin is pointing out obvious problems in game, can't help but laugh seeing another ZvZ calling it a "fitting end to WoL."
I think most people have conceded that Zerg was the dominant race and have moved on with hope from HoTs. In the two week stretch of beta being down I think I'll go practice my mechanics on WoL against Zerg. Do I need a Zerg partner to practice you ask? No, because every game I join on ladder is against a Zerg! GL in HoTs all.
On March 02 2013 11:06 Hitch-22 wrote: You don't say... Two Zergs ending up in the finals in WoL? Two Zergs known for their 'amazing' BL/infestor play? Very unique and skillful BL/Infestor turtle play I might add :D
Obviously I'm being satirical, Roro and Symbol are good, but it is no coincidence that you find 3 zergs in the final 4 players (Something we all have noticed for a long time coming).
If you at least watched the dam match you would have noticed that in the whole Roro/Taeja series there was not a single Broodlord made...
there were brood lords made
Really? somehow i missed it, fail on my side then.
[/QUOTE] I think most of the posts are shrouded in sarcasm. If you listen to the commentating Artosis mentions at the end of game 5 (Taeja losing 4-1) that "Turns out Zerg is a good race in WoL...there I said it!." Tastless then adds to this by saying "Its funny you can have a maxed out army and somehow have a larger maxed out army through infested terran and making rows of evo chambers and cancelling." Even the casters, whose biggest deadly sin is pointing out obvious problems in game, can't help but laugh seeing another ZvZ calling it a "fitting end to WoL."[/QUOTE]
I am glad they showed that side because they let us know they they know what we know and now we know that they know and we all know that zerg is . . . . well you know.
On March 02 2013 11:06 Hitch-22 wrote: You don't say... Two Zergs ending up in the finals in WoL? Two Zergs known for their 'amazing' BL/infestor play? Very unique and skillful BL/Infestor turtle play I might add :D
Obviously I'm being satirical, Roro and Symbol are good, but it is no coincidence that you find 3 zergs in the final 4 players (Something we all have noticed for a long time coming).
If you at least watched the dam match you would have noticed that in the whole Roro/Taeja series there was not a single Broodlord made...
there were brood lords made
Really? somehow i missed it, fail on my side then.
Well Roro didn't really use or abuse BL/Infestor and still won. I don't see how the supposed Z imbalance has anything to do with Roro's win over Taeja.
On March 02 2013 14:38 ElMeanYo wrote: Well Roro didn't really use or abuse BL/Infestor and still won. I don't see how the supposed Z imbalance has anything to do with Roro's win over Taeja.
It's not the BL/Infestor combo, it's the queen range which shuts down early terran pressure, as well as the viability of early heavy pressure from the zerg (games 3 and 4).
Two years of balancing the game and we have dis >.> On another note tho, Taeja played sooo well game 1 and 2.
Ppl calling Roro "patch-zerg" etc have no clue, Z is fuking imba but Roro is a damn good player. He got the macro, multi-tasking, build order preparation (micro is very good but not the best), but above all he's damn smart player and thinks on the fly. He's also infinitely patient (game 2).
PS. I can't believe ppl still refuse to acknowledge that Z is OP
i feel sorry for some good zerg players, because there are truly some good and smart zerg players out there, but its alittle hard to give credit when the balance problems is so blatant and untouched. but mostly im happy we get chance to revive the game with Hots, before too many players leave or lost interest, even zergs.
technicaly on the paper roro has much superior zvz than symbol, but so had curios too as all predicted him better in zvz than symbol aswell. i think roro gonna take it 4:2 so gogo roro!!
ps: dont understand all the whines about zergs... ask hyun, sniper drg and life why did they not make it to finals? prob the best bets where on life/drg, but they got simply outplayed by terans.
The first time I heard of Roro was when Idra beat him (in an MLG?). Good on him for getting this far. Sad to see Taeja lose as I really wanted a TvZ final, but at least we get an esf vs kespa match! Really, really want a kespa player to take home a gsl trophy. That should send a little jolt into the scene.
On March 02 2013 07:27 Evil_Sheep wrote: This series was like a mirror of Innovation v Symbol. Both terrans were renowned for their zerg-killing abilities and superb lategame macro-oriented style. Both zergs scouted this and prepared a variety of aggressive builds and all-ins to keep it from going to the terran's favoured lategame every time.
I feel that Roro won because he did his homework in this series and Taeja did not. As I wrote earlier, Roro's only loss to terran this GSL was to MKP, both games to early timing attacks that caught him off-balance. # of timing attacks Taeja made this series: 0. At the same time, if Taeja watched the VOD's, he would see that Roro has gone for a lot of early aggression in zvt. Yet he was caught unprepared both times by early all-ins. The worst example was on Icarus, which is basically a 2-base all-in map, and he went triple-cc and went down to a simple baneling bust.
Basically Innovation and Taeja were stuck on one style that got figured out, and it led to their downfall.
"Terran's favoured lategame?" Are you mentally ill? Never mind, your entire post reeks of ignorance of the current state of WoL.
On March 02 2013 14:38 ElMeanYo wrote: Well Roro didn't really use or abuse BL/Infestor and still won. I don't see how the supposed Z imbalance has anything to do with Roro's win over Taeja.
It's not the BL/Infestor combo, it's the queen range which shuts down early terran pressure, as well as the viability of early heavy pressure from the zerg (games 3 and 4).
Personally, I think pre queen/overlord buff was the golden period of SC2.
Roro! I think Roro has the better chance to win the finals if Symbol makes the same mistake that Life and BboongBboong did. You don't fight the broodwar progamer on his own ground in ZvZ. Stop trying to harass him with zerglings in the early game... lol
Quote from Azubu.sc2 thread: Supervisor IntoTheRain stated that "I am not expecting AZUBU to become a strong team right off the bat. Just like AZUBU'S LoL teams, Blaze and Frost, we are going to work Really hard and give everything we've got so that we can gradually become the world's best SC2 team."
GSTL Preseason finalist + GSL Finalist at same time, quite insane, wonder how would it be if they wanted to start strong.
Congrats to Roro, sadly a ZvZ finals so another GSL finals that i won't watch! =(
On March 02 2013 07:27 Evil_Sheep wrote: This series was like a mirror of Innovation v Symbol. Both terrans were renowned for their zerg-killing abilities and superb lategame macro-oriented style. Both zergs scouted this and prepared a variety of aggressive builds and all-ins to keep it from going to the terran's favoured lategame every time.
I feel that Roro won because he did his homework in this series and Taeja did not. As I wrote earlier, Roro's only loss to terran this GSL was to MKP, both games to early timing attacks that caught him off-balance. # of timing attacks Taeja made this series: 0. At the same time, if Taeja watched the VOD's, he would see that Roro has gone for a lot of early aggression in zvt. Yet he was caught unprepared both times by early all-ins. The worst example was on Icarus, which is basically a 2-base all-in map, and he went triple-cc and went down to a simple baneling bust.
Basically Innovation and Taeja were stuck on one style that got figured out, and it led to their downfall.
This is a very good analysis. MKP really dominated Roro with his proxy gimmicks. In his Ro32 game 1, he 2-raxed and even got his bunker up at Roro's nat. He would've crushed game 1 but decided to put his rax add-ons outside his base where they got sniped. Game 2, he proxy-rax'ed, got scouted, but still won because he forced Roro to cancel his hatch first. Game 3, MKP won on Whirlwind (!) w/ a timing marine/stim push. The key is that he prompted Roro to cheese w/ an early pool. Taeja should mix in the occasional 2-rax.
I also agree w/ the similarity to how Innovation lost. After seeing INnovation crush Stephano, I thought he would win the GSL but he was too greedy w/ his openings vs Zergs and lost on Icarus, the same way Taeja did.
I also agree that both Taeja and Innovation have very good mid-late game w/ their multi-prong drops. The game that Innovation took down DRG on Akilon was incredible; DRG was so confused that he threw a bunch of infestors away.
Sigh it's really disappointing to see the game's balance end up this way in the twilight of the game, the top of the top are obviously loaded with Zergs. Take nothing away from Roro though, he's a great player having much less experience and caught up so well from behind. Hopefully we'll a mix of races among the top pros in hots after this season.
EPT
TaeJa <Cloud Kingdom> 
RorO![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/GSL/s1_2013/justaddstupidcaption.jpg)
Make your own Liquid pun.
