WCS Korea Season 1 - GSL

Code S Ro32 Group G
Preview: Life, PartinG, Last, Leenock


Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by Zealously

We're down to the final group of the Round of 32, and coincidentally also the last of several groups of death. In the first match, we have the #1 prize money earner in 2012 going up against the only person in the history of Starcraft II to get reverse-swept in a high-profile Best of 7, twice. Then, we have two very similar Zergs going up against each other, one seated upon the throne of the Swarm and the other looking to usurp him.

Group G: SKT_PartinG, STX_Last, FXOLeenock, ST_Life

To end a drought

The first player we introduce in this four-man group is SK Telecom T1's SKT_PartinG, the cocky yet likable Protoss. PartinG first made a name for himself by innovating the PvT match-up in early 2012, trash-talking Mvp and having to eat his words as he was cheesed out of the semifinals back in Code S Season 2. He soon became even more famous for his exploits in a different match-up as he ”completely mastered” the immortal/sentry all-in, thus creating the ”Soul train”. The story is famous – Parting claimed that no one could beat his push, and this seemed to hold true until he ran into first Sniper, then Life. But aside from those two, no Zerg player managed to stop his push when it truly mattered, and the then-Startale Protoss managed to soul train his way all the way to a WCS championship, a WCG championship and a Blizzard Cup 2nd place, earning the attention of the telecom rivals KT and SKT.

He eventually ended up signing with SKT (who won what was essentially a coinflip against KT for the rights to PartinG's services), but has since cooled off somewhat, at least relative to his success in late 2012. While he has a very solid record in Proleague with wins over TRUE, Stork, aLive and MyuNgSiK, his success so far in Heart of the Swarm hasn't been comparable to his borderline insane record in late-2012, with mediocre placings at IEM WC and MLG Winter that brought an abrupt end to the rain of dollars.

All of this comes down to one match-up: TvP. It was his strongest by far in early 2012, with his PvP and PvZ growing to become equal later down the line. And then his PvT began to fall behind as Terrans better figured out how to play against his greedy double expands, fast storm gambles and brilliant templar positioning. Parting has never looked weaker against Terran than he does right now. Getting eliminated by Yoda at IEM, Flash at MLG and losing to Innovation in Proleague, he's far from his previous position of best PvT player in the world. Obviously, those three players are all extremely strong against Protoss, making it very hard to judge exactly where Parting is at against a somewhat weaker Terran in Last.

Parting's excellent micro makes his all-ins and early timings very dangerous, and his long history of all-inning against all races should leave all three of his groupmates wary of what he'll bring to the table. Can he end the temporary drought by advancing to the Round of 16? It will very much come down to what shape he is in tomorrow, and what he and his SKT Protoss brethren have prepared.
Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation
The other guy on STXInnovation Innovation Innovation Innovation
Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation Innovation
I'll write two words, and you'll tell me what pops up in your head: STX Terran.Innovation Innovation

Now, did you think of someone other than Innovation? Don't lie, I know you didn't.

This accurately reflects Last's situation right now. He's good, especially against Zerg – as evidenced by his very impressive and surprisingly close series against Life at MLG (and remarkably easy wins against Killer and Stephano), but he's not as good as Innovation, in any match-up. Whereas his more famous teammate has a stellar 21-11 Proleague record and semifinal appearances in GSL/MLG, Last is more of a mixed bag. On one hand, he went far in the only StarCraft 2 OSL, reaching the semifinals and going up 3 - 0 on Rain before being reverse-swept. And like I mentioned, he made a solid showing at MLG by almost taking out Life on his way to a top 8 finish. However, his 7-10 Proleague record seems to indicate that he might also be weaker than you'd first think... or that he needs to play individual leagues to show his true strength.

This group is the proving ground for Last. There is no way for Last to come out of Innovation's shadow in the foreseeable future through just Proleague results, but through the GSL-WCS he can take the first step towards becoming an entity of his own, not clumped together with "players on STX SouL not called Innovation”. His play is certainly solid, with strong overall gameplay and impressive micro, but he isn't everywhere-at-once like Innovation, he doesn't micro quite like Innovation and most importantly, he doesn't have Tasteless and Artosis in his pockets to jump out and hype him up whenever he makes an SCV.

Make no mistake, Last's position isn't bad here – Leenock has looked very weak in HotS and Parting has looked weak against Terran specifically. Oh, and he has turbovacs at his disposal, which gives him an inherent advantage.

The Stranded Octopus

The third player in Group G is everyone's favorite Leenocktopus, who has been struggling quite a bit recently. He had to face off against Innovation in the early rounds of MLG which led to an early, anti-climactic exit from the tournament. He also ended up losing twice in the GSTL – a tournament where he was superb in 2012 – against Squirtle and Super respectively, but other than that we haven't seen too much. Leenock's starting match is a ZvZ against Life, which although terrifying might be the best starting match he could have hoped for Leenock. ZvZ right now seems to favor mutalisk play, which Leenock never had any problem with in WoL. But then again, Leenock never really had a problem with any style in particular, and his extremely deep playbook may be his greatest ally against Life. The one thing that speaks in Leenock's favor is that he, much like Symbol, excels at playing non-standard ZvZ. He could plant a nydus worm in your base or bring out a funky rush of some kind and it wouldn't be at all surprising. With a lot of this season's ZvZs being decided by early game rushes and all-in tactics, Life needs to take care to figure out what Leenock is doing, preferably before he finds 30 hydras in his base.

Win or lose against Life, Leenock is in for trouble in the matches after. Last in particular is dangerous, as he showcased showed great multi-tasking and aggressive play that blasted apart foreigners and almost brought Life to his knees at MLG. It is fair to say that Leenock had weaker ZvT than Life both in WoL and, seemingly, in HotS, and so it will once again come down to whether or not Leenock has adapted to the changes that came with HotS. He was a very strong Zerg in WoL and I'm reluctant to give up on him so quickly, but if Leenock hasn't learned how to handle the medivac and heavy mine play that Terrans seem to favor right now, I don't see him getting out of this group.

Live and Let Die

The fourth and final player in group G is the consensus best player in the world, the Zerg prodigy and member of a neo-LeeSsangRok in the making, ST_Life.

Life couldn't ask to be in a better situation right now. Whereas many of the players who ended 2012 on a high note fell disappointingly with the release of Heart of the Swarm, Life just kind of chugged along at his best-in-world pace, winning an MLG and asking Blizzard to buff Zerg right after. He then went back to Korea, presumably to drink more of whatever magical brew StarTale gives him, and 3-killed Maru, Creator and Byun in the GSTL. Granted, he did lose to his eternal nemesis San in his next GSTL appearance, but that is pretty much the only thing in recent memory that hasn't been a resounding success for Life.

It's hard to see Life not getting out of this group. ZvZ has been his least reliable match-up for a long time by now, but Leenock hasn't looked too sharp in HotS so far. The one thing that speaks in Leenock's favor is that he, much like Symbol, excels at playing non-standard ZvZ. He could plant a nydus worm in your base or bring out a funky rush of some kind and it wouldn't be at all surprising. If Life can force Leenock into playing the more standard ling/bling duel into mutalisks, Life has a major advantage going into the first match.

After Leenock, Last and Parting seem like more comfortable opponents for the Startale prodigy – ZvT is still Life's strongest match-up, and he remains unbeaten in BoX-series in Heart of the Swarm. His ZvP has also been quite convincing, with a brutal beatdown of MC at MLG and a solid win over Creator in GSTL.

Looking at this group, the most serious threat to Life might actually be his very rare mental lapses that have gotten him kicked out of the GSL before – notably his ”Let's stand in the storms” that led to his elimination at the hands of Parting last season. Unlike his rather machine-like rival in Flash, Life still shows signs of being warm-blooded, with his brilliance occasionally tempered by very human mistakes. Is it likely that he will suffer such a lapse on any given day? Not really.

After all, Life's a bitch... and then you die.

Overall predictions

This group is very difficult to predict, both because of the general skill level of all four players, but also because of the many assumptions we have to make about players in these first few months of HotS. Predicting Life and Last to advance would assume that Leenock and Parting still are not as at home in HotS as they were in WoL, but it could very well be the case that they're much stronger than when we last saw them.

The safest bet here is to follow three simple steps, which has worked alright so far in HotS:
- Bet on Life
- Elsewise, bet on Terran
- Elsewise, bet based on WoL results

Following these steps, we get:

Last > Parting
Life > Leenock
Last < Life
Parting > Leenock
Parting < Last

Life and Last advance

Writers: Zealously.
Graphics: Shiroiusagi
Editor: Waxangel.