by stuchiu



The Soul Train

The SKT_PartinG Train has been running ahead at full speed this season. It first flattened Leenock and Last in the Ro32, and then moved onto the Ro16 where it met the obstacles of Life and Flash. While Life stalled PartinG in the first match, the conductor toss eventually crashed through that roadblock in the elimination match, sending Life out of Code S and gaining the temporary upper-hand in the rivalry. Not even being down a base and forty supply to Flash could stop PartinG as he was far too strong on defense, and he gave Flash a lesson in PvT as he sent The Man Called God packing back to Code A as well.

Having defeated both Life and Flash already this tournament, is there anything left for the Soul Train that could? Why yes, as we are entering that portion of the GSL where PartinG has yet to fully assert himself. In his six Code S tournaments, PartinG has made it to the Ro8 three times. Of those three times, twice he was the projected favorite to make it to the finals, coming in with a full head of steam and all the hype behind him. Both times he was violently derailed, first by the injured-ridden Mvp who taught him a harsh lesson about having respect for his elders, and then by his former teammate Curious who served him Ro8 elimination as a parting gift from Startale. All of this goes to show that while Parting has constantly been hailed as one of the world’s strongest Protosses, he has yet to even come close to winning the most prestigious of all StarCraft II honors, a GSL trophy. Having already personally defeated two of his strongest rivals for the finals in Life and Flash, this season seems to be his best chance yet to make that dream into reality.

Unfortunately for Parting, his next opponent is Soulkey. Soulkey is one of the only players on the planet that can legitimately claim that he, too, could have beaten the group of death. For Parting, this match should be very difficult as he has yet to show effective play against the Swarm host, corruptor, viper style of Soulkey. Still, Parting is now the most well-armed PvZ player in the world with larger and stronger arsenal of all-ins than anyone in the world. Here's a short sampling of his move-list: The Soul Train (immortal sentry all-in), Spirit Bomb (mothership rush), Triple Double (2 base 2 immortal 2 colossus all-in), Inca Special (DT rush), and the Huk YOLO (random gateway all-in). Basically, he's a fighting game character that jumped out of the screen. So long as Parting can control the tempo of the series, confuse Soulkey with his crossovers and mix-ups, then he has a good chance to break Soulkey's guard and get one step closer to ascending to Train Godhood.

Soulkey in the Shadows

Ever since his debut, Parting has always grabbed the fan's attention with his incredible in-game skill, and an out of game personality to match it. For Woongjin_Soulkey, nothing but his gameplay and results matter. Unless it relates to his friendly rivalry with fellow Woongjin Stars Zerg ZerO, Soulkey always prefers to let his gameplay do the talking. This has led to a fairly quiet StarCraft II career for Soulkey, at least in terms of the spotlight. Once heralded as the best Zerg player from Kespa and possibly their best Zerg period, Soulkey’s time as #1 was even shorter than the life of team MJ (ask your parents) as Rain, Flash, and Innovation quickly passed him by as the superstars of Kespa. Roro would then pass him by as best Kespa Zerg by winning the final WoL GSL. Even within his own team, sOs' domination of the Proleague has gotten him more attention than Soulkey's solid performances in the GSL.

It must all seem unfair for Soulkey. He does not have the charisma of Parting, the looks of Bisu, the Brood War legacy of Flash, or the GSL pin of Roro. What he does have is three consecutive Ro8 performances in the GSL, a top five record in Proleague, and victories over Flash and INnoVation in spite of their TvZ reputations. So while he doesn't grab the headlines like other players, his in game skill has already done all the talking he needs. He is a top 5 Zerg, a top 5 KESPA player, and as many would argue, a top 5 player in the whole world. While he has gone unnoticed and unsung, he is one of the most dangerous players in this tournament.

He is especially dangerous against Parting. While Parting has played a decent amount of PvZ in HotS, Soukey has barely played any. What is there though is telling. Soulkey likes to open with hydralisks and ling aggression. If he sees weakness, he keeps pushing. If not, he transitions into the new late-game ZvP style focusing on Swarm hosts, corruptors, vipers and some infestors. All of this makes Soulkey well equipped to take PartinG's aggressive, early game focused style.

So for now, Soulkey will wait. He will let Rain and Bisu have his fangirls. He'll let Parting win over fans, let the worshippers of Flash tell the same story over and over again about how Flash will one day will the GSL. Because for Soulkey, all of that is just an illusion, a lie. The only thing that matters to him is victory, the GSL ladder. And one day he will get his fame, he will get his glory and he will do it over the broken bodies of his competitors. For Soulkey, the climb is all that matters.

Overall Predictions

The slight edge should go to Soulkey. While Parting has shown a lot of strength performing all-ins against Zerg and defending against them alike, Soulkey’s macro style should be a good counter to all of that. One key factor could be new 'triple-double' (two base, two immortal, two colossus) all-in, which seems to be the spiritual successor to the original soul train. If Parting realizes that Soulkey prefers hydra based strategies, then he may try to exploit that with any kind of colossus backed all-in. The key to this series will be preparation. Parting must find a weakness in Soulkey and take big risks to win the mind games. Soulkey has to not get caught up in Parting’s ploys and stick to his own style.

Prediction: Soulkey 3 - 2 Parting

by monk


The Other KeSPA Protoss

Rain, Rain, Rain. In terms of KeSPa Protoss, it's always been about Rain. So much so that one of the best Protoss players in the world seems to have been ignored. No matter how much Woongjin_sOs impresses avid watchers of Proleague, his achievements have always been overshadowed by those of his elder elephant, Rain. But sOs has quietly been massing results beneath our noses and it should no longer surprise us that he is now firmly on his way to being a potential GSL championship.

sOs is perhaps most known for his stellar performances in Proleague. For most of the current season of Proleague, sOs has topped the 'most wins' column. Only recently was he passed by titans such as Flash and Innovation (partly because they are on worse teams, and get to play more ace matches and rack up multi-kills in Winners League), but his current record of 23-12 still tells tales of his consistency. Along with Soulkey, sOs has led Woongjin Stars to a solid first place position in Proleague. Outside of Proleague, sOs has had individual league success as well. He placed first in the not much publicized Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games Qualifier, where he took down a who's who of current top players including RorO, Creator, EffOrt, INnoVation, and Life.

sOs' style of play can easily be compared to that of two other top KeSPA Protosses, Rain and Flying. Rain is the very definition of solid macro play. In contrast, Flying's play appears more haphazard and is often specifically geared towards sniping his opponents. sOs brings his own brand of solid play to the table, but adds his own little tricks to the mix. He exhibits extremely intelligent play, often making great use of hallucinations, warp prisms, and general deception to confuse his opponents. He also shares Flying's penchant for preparing specific builds against specific opponents, which is not a surprise since they're Woongjin teammates.

One of These Things is not Like the Other

When you look at the entire list of competitors currently in the round of 8, LG-IM_LosirA's (aka Kangho) name stands out and not in a good way. The rest of the players are all considered the best of the best, all having proven themselves in various other competitions outside of the GSL. Innovation, RorO, Soulkey, and sOs have consistently been the best KeSPA players both in and outside of Proleague. Parting took the WCS championship last year and proved himself yet again by escaping the group of death. Symbol surprised everyone by looking just as good in HotS, showing rock solid play and effectively breaking the GSL finalist curse. Even Bomber has consistently earned top placements at the end of WoL, especially in foreign tournaments.

Which brings us to LosirA. The last time LosirA placed well in any tournament was in 2011, when he famously lost 0 - 4 to his teammate, Nestea, in the GSL finals. After this heartbreaking loss, LosirA went into a downward spiral, never returning to his former glory. Perhaps this is the reason LosirA changed his name to Kangho at the start of HotS, to signify a new beginning after the disappointment that was the later half of his WoL career.

And though Losira has recently seen a slight resurgence in the past half year, you can't help but speculate that he might still not belong here in the big leagues, the round of 8. After all, LosirA qualified in second place in arguably the weakest group in the round of 16, only beating soO and Gumiho after initially losing to Gumiho in his first match.

The Grim Prognosis

What we can expect from sOs:

• A variety of different builds and styles
  
• At least three different types of hallucinations
  
• A sudden tech switch that LosirA doesn't scout on time.
  
• Perhaps a colossi push! Those seem to be popular lately.

What we can expect from LosirA:

• Close to 400 APM

Besides that, who knows? LosirA has only played one ZvP game in HotS, where all he had to do was hold a gateway all-in to win. Seeing as there's so many styles in ZvP these days, we have no idea about which ones he'll use. Roach/hydra/corruptor is a good standard, but LosirA has never been one for the standards. Swarm host builds also seem too slow for LosirA's style. Ling/Ultra seems to be the new trend and that's the style he prefers in ZvT, so that seems like a likely choice.

Whatever the strategy, Losira will have a hard time dealing with the KeSPa titan that is sOs. Losira's style may be more unknown and he may have had more experience in a high pressure Bo5 format, but those advantages alone will not be able to catapult him past the heavy favorite in sOs.

Prediction: sOs 3 - 1 Losira