by CosmicSpiral



First Among Equals

Flowers wilt and the earth turns but STX_INnoVation continues to be a paradigm of consistency. He continues to gather momentum like an ocean swell, unimpressive at first glance but terrifying when you feel it drag you away. Even the fabled Ro16 group of death proved to be a mere annoyance for the STX ace. Sure he stumbled in the opening game against Flash but that proved to be the only moment where Innovation looked remotely mortal. He recomposed himself and won the group in dominating fashion, out-thinking and out-multitasking Flash and Life to gain small advantages that snowballed into decisive stomps. While Life admits that he has been playing subpar recently and PartinG dropped out of the Ro8 battered and slightly humbled (is taming Parting’s pride even possible?), Innovation remains unshaken and stands as the strong favorite to win it all.

But can Innovation make good on the promise that we see in his gameplay? He wows casters and audience members alike with meticulous builds orders, impeccable decision-making, excellent mechanics, and ability to make the best players in the world look helpless in the face of unyielding aggression. He boasts an amazing 11-1 TvZ record in HotS, a respectable 9-5 record in SPL, two GSL Ro8 appearances, and two semifinal finishes in MLG and GSL against top competition. Yet the leading candidate for “best Terran in the world” goes to sleep every night knowing he has never won a championship. Perhaps Innovation sleeps lightly, knowing it is only a matter of time until he stands in front of a roaring crowd and kisses the trophy. But many fans saw his overseas triumph as the beginning of something greater and their expectations carry over to the aura of tonight’s series. Can the best Terran in the world become the champion we imagine him to be?

Innovation’s goal tonight is simple: he wants to keep riding the wave of confidence and good planning that got him to this point. Although he is capable of strong midgame timing pushes and mindgames, nothing currently suggests that he must rely on them to win this series. As long as he focuses on keeping Roro’s late-game army thin and constantly on the back foot, he will be in control and on the road to victory. But it won’t hurt to have something special prepared just in case.

RorO Don’t Get no Respect

As much as Innovation’s outstanding gameplay has earned him the respect and admiration of the community, such an intense spotlight has proportionally diminished the public standing of his KeSPA peers. For reference to this look no further than this [http://www.gomtv.net/live/index.gom?conid=80090&set=1]GOM TV winner prediction[/url]. The current GSL champion, linchpin of Samsung KHAN’s limited success in Proleague, and boaster of a 68% win percentage in HotS is considered the underdog by a 4:1 margin. Gamblers, salivate away.

Samsung_RorO has never been the most popular Zerg in Korea. He defeated fan favorites MC and TaeJa on his way to the finals, where he overcame Symbol in everyone’s favorite mirror matchup ZvZ. He possesses no outstanding legacy from Brood War except the ability to ruin Liquibets by winning against all decency and common sense. Roro won’t give you awkwardly funny faces like Life; he doesn’t do charismatic ceremonies like DRG. However, he will deliver the solid defense and unit compositions which got him to this point and bested the likes of YoDa and Flying.

The biggest advantage Roro has in this matchup is lack of attention. Just like last season, he is in the nebulous position of “the good player with the skills to win without the pressure to do so”. If Innovation loses he will be personally disappointed and the audience will be baffled; if he wins he conforms to our expectations. If Roro loses people will be slightly sad for five minutes before remembering that Bomber finally made it back to the Ro8; if he wins, people will be slightly happy (and mad that Innovation lost) before remembering that Bomber finally made it back to the Ro8. There is everything to win and almost nothing to lose for the Samsung Khan zerg.

For Roro the name of the game is endurance. Innovation thrives on pushing opponents to their multitasking limit, forcing them to constantly readjust their defenses until they make an error. Once that happens he is content to lean on them and watch them collapse like a row of dominoes. For the most part this approach has been unstoppable even against the likes of Leenock and Life. However, Soulkey proved last month that this strategy works both ways; he defeated Innovation in SPL by constantly harassing his economy and never letting him establish his 3rd and 4th bases. Roro has shown in the past that he is quite comfortable with zergling harassment in conjunction with his standard passive style. A careful balance of the two will be key in cracking his opponent over a long set.

Overall Predictions

Unless Innovation pulls out specific builds to end the game before hive tech (or Roro designs some busts to exploit quick 3CC builds), expect this series to be a long slugfest. Both players are comfortable in the lategame and excel in attrition wars. Innovation will seek to exploit the sluggishness of Roro’s tier 3 armies with spread out bio strikes and careful widow mine placement; Roro will want to stymie those attacks and force Innovation into a direct confrontation while the latter is still stuck on bio-mine. The outcome of the series depends on how aggressive Roro wants to be while maintaining his solid expansion timings. He must interrupt his opponent’s usual anaconda style and force him to take larger risks for less reward.

Prediction: Innovation 3 - 2 Roro

by Fionn



Happily Ever After

Let's take our love for StarCraft II, and use that love as a literal analogy for a second. ST_Bomber, for all his good looks and charm, is the worst boyfriend you could ever have. He constantly cheats on you, breaks your heart, and then comes back a month later, acting like nothing ever happened and making you fall for him all over again before inevitably ripping your heart out by sleeping with your best friend. But you still come back. You believe that one day he can change and become a better person, even though deep down inside you know that you'll never be able to be happy together.

Before Innovation and Flash entered the scene, with everyone calling them Gods and the best things to ever happen to RTS, Bomber was once heralded as the next king of SC2. He came into the scene, brutalized Mvp in his royal road season of Code A, and turned the entire community into a Bomber fan club. He was exciting, mechanically strong, and a brilliant player when it came to decision making. With his mule drops and spammed orbital scans, he became a fan favorite with his flair and dominating performances.

Everyone picked him to win Code S back in the summer of 2011, and he got to the quarterfinals without too much trouble to open the road for an epic final against Nestea. Up 2-0 in the quarterfinals against Byun, Artosis claimed he had never seen someone play at this level before. Starting the long line of heartbreaking, Bomber then folded in the series, dropping three straight miserable games to Byun, almost looking like he had forgotten how to play the game. The hype was still there and people pushed off the choke as a one time thing. Unfortunately for Bomber, his choking became more notable than his skills.

Once considered the next king of Starcraft 2, it took two years for Bomber to get back to the quarterfinals. Now that he's here, he might be getting one of his last shots at rewriting his legacy and getting a shot at the championship. It's surprising to realize that Bomber is actually one of the older progamers in the scene, already twenty-five years of age. That's not to say that he's only a few months to the end of his career, but with how players usually peak in their late teens to very early twenties, and with the looming military service that Bomber will need to complete, you would have to believe we don't have another two years of waiting to see if he can win a GSL championship.

It's not easy to say, but this feels like it could be Bomber's final shot at taking a GSL crown. The KeSPA players, who are already on par or better than their eSF counterparts, are only going to get better with their systematic training and financial backing. Bomber isn't going to get any younger, and HotS might fit him more than Wings, but you shouldn't expect Bomber's skill to go much higher than what we are seeing now. When he's at his best, Bomber is one of the scariest players in the world, but those times when he is at his best are few and far between.

If you're a casual fan with no dog in the fight, you would probably want to root for Bomber. His career, more than anyone in SC2 history, has been more about disappointment, choking, and failure than success. Some people will bring up MarineKing, but at least MarineKing has made three GSL finals, and won titles in America. You can talk about Squirtle, but he's actually been to a final, which was the most memorable one of all-time. Those two players, for all their failures, have shining moments in their career that people will remember. They've made it to the finals and put on classic matches, cementing their legacies in Korea.

Bomber? The farthest he's ever gone was the quarterfinals, and as we talked about, he had the biggest choke job in GSL history when he was there. You want to forget all the bad times Bomber has broken your heart, throw away your cynicism and tell him that you think this is finally his time to at least make a finals. But then you have the rush of memories to your brain about all those awful times he made you cry, wondering why you thought he was a good player.

So, what will you do, dear reader. Give Bomber another shot, welcome him back into your life, and cheer for him to win his championship that people believed he would have two years ago, or has he burned you too many times for you to go back to him?

Consistent Joe

Azubu.Symbol's story is one of the strangest in the GSL. When he first entered the GSL as TSL's rookie ace, everyone was in love with him. His play was inspiring, he had the historic reverse all-kill of LG-IM in GSTL, and his games in his royal road season were amazing. He eventually choked against the champion Seed (yeah, Seed is a champion, remember?) in the quarterfinals, pretty much killing all the hype he had around him.

Now, almost a year after his break into the scene, Symbol is still here, doing what he does every season: getting far in Code S. Ro8 - Ro8 - Ro16 - Finals - and now another quarterfinal appearance? A lot of the luster of Symbol went away when he lost to Seed and his teammate Hyun went to the finals in Las Vegas, but he still just finds a way to make it to the round of eight or deeper in almost every single he's been in.

After having played in the GSL finals just a few months ago, it feels like Roro and Symbol are currently the two most underrated players in the world. Innovation, Flash, Soulkey and sOs are getting all the hype, but what about Roro and Symbol, the two guys who had the least time to adjust to a completely new expansion, and are now back in the knockout rounds anyway? People forget that while people were playing HotS beta and gearing up for the new game, Roro and Symbol, the two finalists, had to continue playing Wings to the very end, wanting to become the final King of Wings.

Considered one of Jaedong's two apprentices on Oz alongside Killer (the consensus best player still playing Brood War), Symbol has gone on to have a better SC2 than his former master, now carrying Azubu like he did TSL in individual leagues. People wondered if it was all of Hyun's tactics and strategies that made Symbol so good, but while Hyun has gone to Quantic and failed to qualify for the North American version of Code A, Symbol is sitting pretty in another quarterfinal appearance, favored over his opponent.

Yes, Symbol did choke once against Seed, just like Bomber did in his first quarterfinal, but the biggest difference is how the two players reacted to their failure. Symbol only got better, working his way up the ladder, learning to deal with his nerves on the big stage, going back to the quarterfinals and eventually, after a few more road bumps, finally getting past the round of eight and making it all the way to the finals. Bomber? TWO YEARS to get back to this stage. Do you know how much has changed in two years? The last time Bomber was in a quarterfinal, KellyMilkies was still around at GOM, Moletrap was talking about nukes landing on armies, and Life was thirteen-years-old.

Prediction:

There really is no reason to pick Bomber. Symbol has more experience in big games, has actually proven he can make it past the Ro8, and is playing his best match-up while Bomber has to play his worst match-up. Still, for some crazy reason, I want to pick Bomber. You watch Bomber at times and it's hard to believe that this guy is considered one of the biggest busts in e-sports history. You try to block all those bad times out of your head and try to remember those short good moments. The moments where he played like a God during IPL5, carrying the Terran flag when Zerg was extremely overpowered. You want to hold onto those moments and believe that those can last forever.

Sadly, Bomber fans, let's not kid ourselves. If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.

Symbol 3 - 0 Bomber