WCS Korea Season 1 - GSL

Code S Ro16: Group A
Recap: RorO and Soulkey advance.


Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by stuchiu.

Zergs on the Swarm
- Samsung_RorO and Woongjin_Soulkey become the first Zergs to reach the Ro8

Results from Live Report Thread by opterown.
+ Show Spoiler [Match Results] +

It was no surprise to see Woongjin_Soulkey and Samsung_RorO – the two strongest KeSPA Zergs, and two of the best players overall – top group A and reach the Code S quarter-finals. If there was any surprise, it was that Soulkey was the one to advance in first, while defending Code S champion RorO had to struggle through the losers match to win a spot.

For Soulkey it was business as usual as he crushed his way through LG-IM_YoDa and Woongjin_Flying to make it to his third ro8 appearance in a row with solid play and strong fundamentals. Going up against YoDa first, Soulkey avenged YoDa's team-kill pick (he brought Flying and Soulkey together into Group A during the group selections) by crushing the LG-IM Terran. In the first game he held off hellbat drop pressure while getting up to three base, and then busted Yoda with a crippling speed roach-bane attack. The transition into muta ling bane sealed the deal, with YoDa forced to GG out. The second game had YoDa go for hellbat pressure again and it was denied even harder the second time. Yoda followed up with a hellbat marauder scv attack, and for a second it almost worked as he had enough marines to hold off the newly hatched mutas. But the defenders advantage was on Soulkey's side, and he prevailed in the end to move on to the winners match.

YoDa was taken care of, but his Woongjin team-kill setup couldn't be avoided. Soulkey was forced to play teammate Flying in the winners match, and showed precisely why he was above him in the Stars hierarchy by taking a 2 - 0 victory. Soulkey took first game with a ling run-by that did massive damage early on that gave him an insurmountable edge. The second game was more difficult as Flying took the early advantage with a fast 7 gate attack that killed Soulkey’s third. From there both players went to a macro game, but Soulkey was able to recover and shut down Flying's stalker-colossus timing with a well controlled roach-hydra-swarm host-corruptor combination. After Flying lost his army, the writing was on the wall and he GG'd out to let his teammate advance to the quarter-finals.

- RorO stumbles against Flying's all-ins, but recovers to take second place.

For RorO, things were much harder as Flying knocked him to losers match at the beginning of the night with two swift gateway attacks. In the first game he bowled over Roro with an old school 7 gate +1 attack that Roro didn’t scout. In the second he did a 4 phoenix into +1 zealot attack that hit a perfect timing where Roro had committed all of his excess larvae into drones right before the attack, letting Flying take a decisive lead that he rolled up into a win.

Roro would bounce back in the losers match as he destroyed YoDa in two long macro games where he was able put together his tier 3 army with mass queen support. While Yoda got ahead in both games during the middle phases with a better army and higher supply, he could never mount an offense that could pierce through Roro’s defenses and deal critical damage.

The first game was simple for RorO, as he exploited brood lord - ultralisk tech switching to force YoDa into bad compositions before rolling him over. The second game was much closer and scrappier as both players dealt heavy blows against each other, with Yoda constantly denying Roro’s expansions while Roro regularly raided Yoda’s SCV line with lings. This led to an ultimate confrontation with Roro’s queen ultralisk infestor army against Yoda’s standard MMMM composition. Eventually, Roro won out as his economy was more intact, and his larger surviving army let him secure more bases to finish the game.

- The future of ZvP?


The longest game of the night started as RorO faced off against Flying for the last spot to get out of the group. The first game was on the macro-friendly Akilon Flats where Flying played against his reputation and went for a long split map macro game and a Skytoss composition. In answer, Roro also split the map and went for the mass swarm hosts, infestors, and vipers. Both players used their excess of minerals on mass defense, but Roro was able to outdo Flying in terms of army control and economic management. While both had a similar count of bases, Flying was starving for resources because of bad trades while Roro was maxed and banking cash the entire game. Roro played the swarm host based composition perfectly, letting the locusts suppress Protoss troops while his corruptor-viper-infestor army constantly picked off Flying’s expensive units. Time after time Roro made cost effective trades and this eventually wore Flying down until his HT and Void Rays were caught by a key fungal that cinched the game for Roro.

After that game, the energy seemed to run out of Flying as he tried to all-in his way to the Ro8. In the second game he made it work with a 2 immortal 2 collosus 2 base all-in that Roro could not stop. However, he couldn't get it done in the final set, as his Void ray + gateway all-in was stopped cold by RorO, allowing the Samsung Zerg to defeat the champion's curse and reach the quarters.

Quick hits on the rest

Flying - Going into this group, Flying was picked as the most dangerous player to make an upset due to his aggressive unpredictable style. Unfortunately for Flying, his advantages were negated against his teammate Soulkey as Soulkey knew exactly what to expect and easily beat him. Flying’s games against Roro showed his depth of skill, as he played some strong late game PvZ alongside his varied timing attacks. Despite playing well, he still could not make it past RorO, and he will have to battle his way back into Code S once more in the Challenger League.

YoDa - The IEM Champion is once again sent down back to Code A making this the fifth season in a row where he could not break past the group stages of Code S. While Yoda showed some strong play in his TvZ, it was clear to see that he was a level below both Soulkey and Roro. He tried to win early on against Soulkey, but was denied time and time again. Against Roro, he tried for the late game but seemed to have no answer for the large, queen supported tier 3 armies. While a solid Code S Terran, he has yet to show the flair needed to make it past the group stages of Code S.

Writers: stuchiu.
Graphics: Shiroiusagi
Editor: Waxangel.