WCS Korea Season 1 - GSL

Code S Ro32 Group H
Recap: Flash and Soulkey advance


Winner Interviews
KT.Flash and Woongjin_Soulkey


Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by Waxangel

Results via Live Report Thread by NovemberstOrm.
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Kingdom Come?
– Flash advances from Group H with a 4 – 0 score,

It was the Code S debut everyone had been waiting for, and it did not disappoint. KT_Flash barely looked troubled as he crushed through his Ro32 opposition, passing on to the Ro16 with a perfect 4 – 0 map score. It was the kind of domination many fans had expected from the player called 'God' in Brood War, but Flash's early ventures in the GSL had resulted in disappointment, with repeated eliminations in the Up/Down matches. But after steady improvement, KT Rolster's Ace and six-time Brood War champion finally looked like a player 100% deserving of being in StarCraft II's most prestigious tournament, easily taking down former Ro16 finisher Azubu.BBoongBBoong and Ro8 finisher Woongjin_Soulkey in succession.

Flash played the style he was most famous for, that of taking three bases and then flattening his opponents with overwhelming macro. His first opponent, BBoongBBoong, tried to fight fire with fire, skimping heavily on early defenses to get a powerful economy. While this gave BboongBBoong the muta-ling-bane production to fight evenly with Flash for quite some time, he didn't have the finesse to dodge widow mine shots forever. Bit by bit, the game turned in Flash's favor until BboongBboong lost his vital fourth base, the point at which the tide irrevocably turned.

B4 tried to match greed with greed again in game two, but Flash had anticipated the move. Four hellions sped into a base defended by only queens, but more crucially, out of position queens. BboongBBoong took severe drone losses to start, which doomed him to a never-ending game of catch-up before he finally had to GG out.

Flash then faced fellow KeSPA player Soulkey in the winners match. Soulkey had come up after winning a hard fought first match against MaruPrime, including one particularly impressive game where he dismantled a deadly looking BC-Raven-Tank composition in the late game.

Soulkey started off by throwing Flash a curveball of sorts, using the recently unpopular roach-hydra composition on Star Station – perhaps on account of their close position starts. Flash's plan stayed the same, as he took three bases without incident and started pumping out masses of infantry, medivacs, and mines. Soulkey successfully held the line at first, but soon found himself on the backfoot as Flash's reinforcements never seemed to end. He GG'd out after Flash's forces started to enter his main, sending the the series to game two.

Game two on Whirlwind played out more standard, with Soulkey trying to hold four bases with muta-ling-bane while Flash once more sent endless waves of marines, medivacs, and mines toward his opponent. Soulkey nearly found the breathing room to switch to ultras, but couldn't get over the final hump as Flash dug in with mines and destroyed the Zerg fourth. Yet, Soulkey still managed to keep a foothold in the game, taking advantage of the fact that Flash had made a very late fourth to pump out as many troops as he could on three bases. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop Flash from eventually securing further expansions, after which the inevitable GG finally came.

Soulkey tackles Maru twice to advance to the Ro16 in second place

After losing to Flash in the winners match, Soulkey went heads up with MaruPrime for the remaining Ro16 spot to be won in the group. Maru had come advanced after a quick 2 - 0 win against BBoongBboong in the losers match, highlighted by artisan-like 8-8-8 reaper cheese.

As mentioned before, Soulkey had won the initial series against Maru – winning games with an early baneling bust and by taking apart a Sky-Terran army, while losing one map where Maru's incessant hellbat drops had crippled his economy. Both players had learned their lesson from the previous series, and took them into the high stakes rematch.

In the first game on Atlas, Maru opened hellion drops again, perhaps feigning a follow-up into hellbats. But instead he went for bio, which was a choice Soulkey welcomed. After forcing Maru into a defensive posture with a ling-roach attack, Soulkey played a solid muta-ling-bane game on the expansive map, shutting down Maru's harass with ease and establishing a solid economy. Maru looked for any way to gain an edge, but he just couldn't find a weakness to exploit, and eventually fell to a combination of brood lords and ultralisks.

Maru decided to fall back on one of his famous cheese rushes to even up the series, going for a proxy 8-8-8 reaper rush in game two. Knowing Maru's reputation and having seen him use the build against BboongBBoong earlier, Soulkey sent out scouts to search for such a tactic. Unfortunately, Soulkey didn't expect Maru to be so brazen as to build his barracks right outside the Zerg natural, and had to tap out against Maru's brilliant reaper micro.

The final game saw Maru decide he would return to the strategy he first used against Soulkey, a hellion-drop opener followed by hellbat drops. Unfortunately, it was what Soulkey had been waiting for ever since he lost to the strategy in their first series, having improvised a solution in the meanwhile. With more focus on defense, Soulkey was able to fend off the drops without too much trouble, teching quickly instead of taking his third to avoid stretching himself too thin. Without doing damage with his drops, Maru's mech transition fell apart, as Soulkey was comfortably able to tech switch between mutalisks and roaches to keep Maru off balance. Mutas crushed a desperation timing from Maru, after which a switch back to roaches was enough to finish Maru off and send Soulkey to his third consecutive Ro16.

Wishing all the best to the rest

Maru: Maru opened with some kind of hellion-drop open in several games, but Soulkey seemed to be largely immune to them by the end of the series. Perhaps Maru didn't expect to play three TvZ series in a row, or else he would surely have had more ideas to fall back on.

The other build Maru used to great effect was the 8-8-8 proxy reaper rush, with which he displayed some really splendid micro, going 2 – 0 on the night with the build. Overall, Maru did play some pretty good macro games, but it wasn't enough to get rid of his reputation as a spectacular cheeser first, and a standard player second.

BBoongBBoong: B4's best game was his first, where he evenly fought against Flash for a while before mines finally got the better of him. In general, his lack of finesse against hellions, drops, and mines – basically things that can only be fought with finesse – doomed him in the end. With a different group B4 could have gone through, but Flash + Maru was a very hard draw.

Winner Interviews

KT_Flash

Q: Great job, you finally advanced to Code S, and then made it to the Ro16 with a perfect score. How do you feel?
A: I advanced smoothly, which was good. I was on a loss streak, so I really wanted to win. It was great that I won, and I think can turn my momentum around.

Q: 'Flash on three bases' has been a thing since the Brood War days, but players prevented you from reaching that state in your recent PL games. You finally got to play exactly the way you wanted today. How did it feel?
A: In practice I just played without any kind of solution for those kind of builds, these days I practice well against those kind of tactics as well. My teammates were surprised too, because I had been stopping early attacks easily in practice. But I practiced harder and succeeded. I think my win-rate difference between when I succeed at starting with a 3 orbital base an when I don't is pretty big, I think I've won almost all my games when I get the start I want. All I can do is practice more and find solutions.

Q: You were in Code A for 3 seasons, how did it feel being stuck there?
A: Staying in Code A while, I felt like I didn't advance last season I would be in Code A forever. I thought that I really had to advance that season. I'm confident now that I'm in Code S, I think I can get good results.

Q: You used a lot of aggressive widow mine play today, is that your normal style in practice?
A: I practiced a lot until now, I'm very confident in TvZ. I came thinking that if I could play as did in practice, I would always win. Using them aggressively worked like it did in practice.

Q: BBoongBBoong took advantage of your greedy tendencies by going very greedy himself, not even making zerglings until 9 minutes in game one.
A: I was able to get the greedy start I wanted, and B4 made mistakes, and then the game slowly went my way. I was surprised that he was making so many units, then I heard from my coach after that he hadn't even made any zerglings at all. So I was able to use hellions in the next game and get an advantage.

Q: What are your thoughts on this new WCS system, that leads up to one world final?
A: My goal right now is to get to the season finals, of course. To do so, my results have to be good. I need to reach the top 4 of the GSL. I heard just winning once gives you a good chance of qualifying for the global finals.

Q: You are at a disadvantage not earning points from foreign tournaments.
A: It's not something we can do anything about. All we can do is clear our minds, and do the best in our given situation. I don't think about it as a disadvantage, I just try do the best from where I am.

Q: Your macro play is just something else compared to other players.
A: I think I have my own optimization that only I use. I have optimization know how from BW, so it looks like I have more production than other people.

Q: Who you want to play in the Ro16?
A: I want to play Life, I'm very confident in TvZ. It's okay if I play Life, but I don't mind playing toss either. Mirrors are a bit... so I want to play Z or P if possible.

Q: Anything you want to say to wrap up?
A: I was in a bad spot with four straight losses, and the team atmosphere was down as well. I was sorry to our fans, and the coaching staff. I hope I can take this opportunity to get back on my feet, and get the most wins award in the PL.


Woongjin_Soulkey
Q: You got to the Ro16 yet again. How do you feel?
A: My condition was bad today, so I didn't play well today. Our manager kept encouraging me, so I was able to stay in a good state mentally, and that helped me advance.

Q: You played Maru twice in one night.
A: I'm so tired right now, all I can think of is going back home and sleeping. When I lost to what Maru prepared, I thought immediately of what to do against it. So when he used it in the last game, I was able to win the series.

Q: What did you do in particular to stop his hellion drop strategies?
A: Well, basically just focusing on defending well early, and teching instead of expanding - I lost the first game against him because I took my third when I shouldn't have.

Q: You used hydra-roach, a rare ZvT strat in GSL games these days, against Flash. Why did you try it?
A: It happened to be a situation where it was usable, Kim Han Sem (a new player on Woongjin) had taught me the build before. The situation came around where I could use it, but Flash had more troops than I expected. My bad decisions ruined the build, so I'm sorry to Han Sem.

Q: Hellbats really wrecked you in game one against Maru. Why didn't you make more spines or spores against his drops?
A: It was the first time I was facing that kind of strategy, it never happened in practice. I was taken aback. I don't think there will be such mistakes in the future.

Q: You seemed to expect Maru's 8-8-8 proxy and tried to scout it but miss it. What did you think of that situation?
A: I did think he could have used the strat and I scouted for it, but I didn't think about the location he made the barracks at. I realized that in HotS I have to scout even more thoroughly.

Q: All three Woongjin players made it to the Ro16.
A: Because both Flying and sOs were in the ro16, I thought yesterday 'I must advance' as I practiced, even though it was a rest day, so I was able to get a good result. If I had been eliminated, I would never have heard the end of it from those two, so I really didn't want to get eliminated.

Q: Your goals this season, and going forward?
A: The Ro8 I went to twice, so this time I just want to get there again first, and then think about goals above that. My long term goal is a championship, but I feel it's so hard for Zerg these days. I have to get over it with practice.

Q: Anyone you want to face next round?
A: I think it will be hard no matter who I face, so I didn't think about that. I think it will be the same no matter what race I face, it won't be easy. I just want to avoid my teammates. If someone picks me into a team-kill situation, I'll use my pick to make a team-kill for that player too.

Q: How have you adjusted to HotS?
A: I think I've adjusted some, but I haven't mastered it.. it's hard to say that I have. To me it's still pretty hard.

Q: Any final comments or shoutouts?
A: I think I lost too easily to Flash... when I face him again I wont play like I did today. I'll prepare well and win for sure.

Writers: Waxangel.
Graphics: Shiroiusagi
Editor: Waxangel.