WCS Korea Season 1 - GSL

Code S Ro32 Group A
RorO, Crazy, Creator, Bomber


Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by Fionn

Though Blizzard announced that they would be upheaving the existing Korea order on Wednesday morning, GomTV still emerged with their premier brand name intact. This might be WCS Korea Season 1 instead of GSL Season 2, but at least it's still Code S. Well, at least we think so. GomTV's website still says Code S on their schedule, and until we hear otherwise, we'll take their word for it.

Group A: Samsung_RorO, KT_Crazy, CreatorPrime, ST_Bomber

As usual, the new season of the GSL(?) will begin with the defending champion starting off the affairs. Samsung_RorO, the first KeSPA GSL champion and the final Wings of Liberty champion, will be moving to a new game to defend his championship, hoping that HotS will be as good to him as Wings was. Being the champion often means you are one of the best, if not the best player going into the next tournament. But that may not be the case for Roro. He will have had the least amount of experience of any player in Code S with the new expansion pack, having had to practice for Proleague and Code S all the way up to the very end of WoL. Opening the season might be an honor for most champions, but Roro would have probably liked another week or two of practice with HotS before being thrown into a group with three other strong players.

While his title win didn't get much fanfare with Heart of the Swarm beta tournaments grabbing most of the attention during his Wings run, Roro was not a fluke champion. He played Wings to the best of his abilities, beating Life in the Ro16 and not losing a step as he powered through his opponents in the knockout rounds. MC and Symbol did cause him some problems in the quarterfinals and grand finals respectively, but Roro held his nerve and was able to close out both series after briefly allowing both players the hope of a comeback. On the other hand, his semi-final opponent TaeJa was barely a problem at all, as RorO won in a one-sided 4 - 1 series. We haven't seen RorO play much HotS just yet outside of some casual matches in the Proleague "The Special" series of games, but if his Wings play is any indication of how well he'll do in HotS, RorO is a worthy champion to defend the Code S crown in the first Swarm season.

His first round opponent, KT_Crazy, is one of the more overlooked players in this season's Code S. Once known as Crazy-Hydra, he was one of the less glamorous but still vital members of KT Rolster in Brood War, filling a vital rotation spot on their championship teams. Now, in Starcraft 2, he's playing the same role, being one of the core players that got KT Rolster out to a hot start in Proleague before they cooled down in round three. There is no HotS information to talk about when it comes to Crazy, but he'll need to improve his ZvZ if he wants any chance of knocking off the champ, only holding a 5-8 record in the mirror match-up.

KT Rolster needs a right hand man next to Flash if they want to compete for a Proleague title this season, and Crazy might be that player if he can put everything together. Stats, who started out Wings looking like maybe the strongest Protoss on the KeSPA side, has gone into somewhat of a slump and has done nothing in single leagues. No one except Flash or Crazy have really made any noise when it has come to individual StarCraft II leagues, with the rest of the team stuck in Code B. The most unknown player, and definitely the player with the least chance of making it out, Crazy advancing would not only be a big boost for himself, but for his team of Flash and Friends as well.

The other half of the group features two eSF veterans who know their way around Code S. CreatorPrime, the WCS Korea champion of 2012, heads into Heart of the Swarm with lots of expectations on his shoulders and will be looking to make it back to the WCS Grand Finals. On a Terran dominated Prime team, Creator is the only reliable player they have when it comes to non-Terrans. He has already won some big tournaments in his budding career, but a GSL championship has eluded him, as he has only made it as far as the quarterfinals.

His performances in Heart of the Swarm so far haven't been anything to write home about, so he'll need to play better if he hopes to advance considering the players he is grouped up with. His once invincible PvT didn't look very good against Polt in IPL Fight Club or MLG Dallas, losing by a combined score of 8-2. His understanding of the new units didn't seem to be all there when those games were played, so hopefully with two more weeks of practice and going over the game, he will be able to stand up better when facing a drop-happy Terran in his group.

ST_Bomber, the Terran he will be facing, did not win a GSL championship in Wings. Save one championship at MLG Raleigh in 2011, Bomber failed to win any major titles, falling short of the vast potential that saw many fans call him the future best-in-the-world. Ever since then, he's been relegated to the role of bridesmaid but never the one at the altar, putting on some epic performances but always falling short of true glory. Bomber is a player who always provides entertaining matches, but also lets you down in the end. He looks good in Heart of the Swarm in the early going thus far, getting to the quarterfinals of MLG Dallas before getting bounced by MC's oracles, but it just reinforced the idea that whenever Bomber does well, he will follow it up with an even bigger disappointment later.

With many players calling Terran imba, and how well he played in Dallas, Bomber could be one of the favorites to make it far this season. But can you really trust the man who has broken your heart so many times in the past? Even if he says he's changed and this is a whole new game, you still can't forget the countless tournaments where he raised your hopes before he randomly, inexplicably crashed back down to earth.

Overall thoughts and predictions:

Roro is the champion, so picking him to advance is easy. He has had the least amount of time with the new expansion, but he is a good enough player where that shouldn't affect his play too badly. Crazy is an intriguing player, but there really is no evidence to put him anywhere but last place in the group. As with any player who's good enough to make it into Code S, don't be too surprised if he comes out and advances, but with the lack of individual results and no record in Heart of the Swarm, he's still a huge underdog. Finally, we have to choose between Creator and Bomber. Bomber has looked good in Heart of the Swarm so far, and Creator has looked frustrated with the PvT match-up, getting roasted by Polt on two separate occasions.

Bomber and Polt have similar PvT styles and strengths in the match-up, so the same frustrations Polt caused for Creator could reoccur with Bomber. With the speed boosters enabled on the medivacs, Creator will need to defend much better if he wants to have any chance of taking out Bomber. Creator has been more consistent when it has come to tournament results... ...but this is Bomber we're talking about. He's practically guaranteed to show us a dominating performance in the Ro32 before he bows out in the next round, going 0-4 and making a few of his fans punch their computer screens in frustration.

Roro > Crazy
Bomber > Creator
Bomber > Roro
Creator > Crazy
Roro > Creator

Bomber and RorO advance

Writers: Fionn.
Graphics: Shiroiusagi
Editor: Waxangel.