Photos by Silverfire and GomTV

Group A Recap

Group B Recap

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by Pigscanfly

OnGameNet officially kicked off the second season of WCS 2013, giving Korea's premier division the prestigious garb of the Starleague. For the second year in a row, the shopping site Auction was named as the tournament's title sponsor, promoting their appropriately named "all-kill" series of promotions. The tournament kicked off with two groups being played back to back in one marathon day.

Group A: Flash and Soulkey Advance

New format, same old story

The first match of the night saw the result many had feared when they heard of the best of one format, as the underdog ROOT.YugiOh defeated the defending champion Woongjin_Soulkey. However, it was not cheese that saw YuGiOh score the upset, but solid play and smart thinking as he countered his opponent's strategy beautifully.

Both players opened almost identically, but after their initial expansions and baneling nests, Soulkey chose to upgrade to Lair while YuGiOh added double evolution chambers and a roach warren. Soulkey then added on a 3rd base and a Spire, and YuGiOh responded by throwing down his third base and adding just enough spores just in time to fend off Soulkey’s small mutalisk flock. Soulkey transitioned out of his spire opener, building up a sizable swarmhost/hydralisk/roach force while YuGiOh opted instead to go infestor/roach/hydra.

Initially, Soulkey seemed to have the upper hand. He executed a series of pesky roach runbys into YuGiOh’s main and natural, sniping drones and queens while keeping YuGiOh pinned back into his base, giving him time to move his swarmhosts into position to siege YuGiOh’s base. However, YuGiOh responded perfectly, busting out with speed banes to instantly wipe out the locusts and leave the swarm hosts exposed. Despite being up a base and causing YuGiOh constant trouble with his roach guerrilla attacks, the loss of the swarm hosts put Soulkey at a critical army disadvantage. YuGiOh read the situation perfectly and just attacked head on, annihilating Soulkey's forces with his superior numbers and well placed fungals to take the first game. Soulkey’s strategy, while clever and full of finesse, was easily deflected by the King of Code A’s perfect counter-play.

Meanwhile, KT_Flash was able to breeze through his first match against LG-IM_RagnaroK in a game that was reminiscent of Innovation and Soulkey's game one in the previous Code S final. Eschewing a standard, 3CC build, Flash opted for a hellbat drop opener that ended up working wonders. After his initial hellbat did a decent amount of damage and even managed to scout RagnaroK’s oddly placed roach warren, Flash was rewarded for his persistent hellbat drops when he finally broke Ragnarok's concentration and netted himself another 7 drone kills, bringing the total up to 20. These drops continued to drag RagnaroK's forces between his bases, and Flash eventually destroyed the Zerg's third base with his main army while RagnaroK was attempting to defend from yet another drop. Flash just added on more barracks before getting a third CC, allowing him to pump out enough units to kill RagnaroK outright.

King of Code A vs. The Ultimate Weapon

The Winner’s Match saw the King of Code A face off against the player many call God on Newkirk Precinct. Yugioh seemed to be off to a decent start as his roach-ling managed to crush Flash’s early push out with infantry and widow mines, as a number of the widow mines failed to connect properly with YuGiOh’s roaches. During this time, YuGiOh also took an upgrade lead as his double evolution chambers kicked in, and geared up to go for a big roach-bane attack.

However, Flash was ready for such tactics, and prepared for the inevitable attack by pumping out siege tanks and taking up a defensive position between his natural ramp and his third. Flash barely managed to hold his third (there was a disconnect and load from replay that occurred in between), with his reinforcements just managing to hold off YuGiOh’s army at the cost of his siege tanks. The trade left Flash ahead of YuGiOh, and a drop to kill YuGiOh’s fourth base put the ROOT Zerg in a troublesome situation. Flash’s superior economy allowed him to crush YuGiOh before he managed to reach his bail-out tech of brood lords, with YuGiOh GG'ing out with 2000 gas saved up for the units that never came.

Cheese Defence

After the early setback, Soulkey proved that he too could succeed in the Bo1 format, deftly defending 2 successive all ins from RagnaroK and YuGiOh to save face and advance to the Ro16. He scouted, spotted, and crushed RagnaroK’s attempted nydus play in the Losers' Match, and deflecting Yugioh’s 10 pool into baneling aggression in the deciding match on Whirlwind.

He also showed his prowess in late game ZvZ, as he took the small advantage he had from deflecting Ragnarok’s attack and ran with it, taking the game late and teching to Hive. The highlight – or low point, depending on your point of view – of this match was the swarm host/broodlord vs. swarmhost/infestor battle at the end, where we had the privilege (or punishment) of watching free units battle it out. In the end, Soulkey’s higher tech, free-er units (infested terrans cost energy, broodlings don’t) eventually overcoming RagnaroK.

Group B: Innovation and Bbyong Advance

Terran Dominion

With Flash and Soulkey getting through in Group A, there was no chance that Innovation wasn't going to roll through his opponents and reach the Ro16 as well. The only question was as to who would be able to take second place. While Savage, Flying, and Bbyong all showed good play worthy of OSL Ro32 players, in the end it was Bbyong who proved to be slightly better than the rest, earning advancement alongside his more illustrious Terran brother.

Innovativeness (Savage) vs. Savagery (Innovation)

STX_INnoVation, newly crowned as the best player player in the world at the WCS Season 1 Finals, vs. Team 8_Savage, a player who is 0-4 against Terrans in SPL and making his debut Premier League appearance. To no one's surprise, the opening game of Group B was forecast to be a one-sided stomp. Instead, we got a strange but entertaining game that ended up being one of the best of the month, and one that deserves a deeper look.



Artosis jokingly suggested that it’d take a strat as unorthodox as an offensive hatchery for Savage to beat INnoVation. Little did he know that would be exactly what he would be getting. Savage brought out the proxy-hatchery, an unorthodox strategy that has the potential to be deadly against unprepared opponents.



INnovation failed to respond adequately to Savage’s strategy and seemed to become increasingly flustered. With all his counter-drops handily deflected, and his economy stunted by not dealing quickly with the creep and spines in his natural, Innovation went into his trademark MMM + widow mine push at less than normal strength. While he succeeded in taking out Savage's fourth base, he made the uncharacteristic mistake of leaving a hole in the wall at his 3rd, causing this to happen:



Savage then deflected INnoVation’s push into his third with ling/bane/muta, crushing the army and pulling 40 supply ahead. Savage continued to press his advantage, with constant muta harass and ling/baneling runbys at both the third and the natural. However, INnoVation proved resilient, constantly dropping Savage at multiple locations and preventing him from acquiring a fifth base. As INnoVation pushed towards Savage’s fourth base, Savage responded by destroying INnoVation's own fourth base with a ling/bane counter-attack.




However, this proved to be a fatal mistake, as the loss of these banelings gave INnoVation an overwhelming army supply, especially since Savage had been late to hive and INnoVation's 3/3 kicked in right before he attacked. This allowed INnoVation to crush the backbone of Savage's economy just as his own bases were being muled out, thrusting him back into the lead. Eventually, INnoVation’s more cost effective army was able to whittle Savage down, forcing him to GG out. Savage’s innovative strategy had given him the advantage he wanted, but he couldn't close out a game against the raw skill and savagery of INnoVation’s assault.

Best of the Rest

After such an epic clash, the rest of the games could only look fairly mediocre in comparison. In the group’s second game, CJ_Bbyong dropped Woongjin_Flying in his main, Flying pulled his whole army back, Bbyong focused down Flying's natural with his main army, and Flying went into a 10 minute death animation. In the Winner’s Match, INnoVation proved to Bbyong that Hellbats and Vikings > Hellions as they engaged in a no-holds-barred drop/harass fest.

In the loser’s round, everything Flying did was comprehensively shut down by Savage. Flying constantly bled units for no reason, losing 3 sentries against speedlings during an attempt to pressure Savage’s third when he had a mothership core ready to recall. Soon after, his double stargates were spotted and his void ray/chargelot/archon army was crushed by Savage, who had 23 spore crawlers, swarmhosts and infestors ready at the 17 minute mark. In the final, deciding match, Bbyong easily defeated Savage with 1/1 MMM and hellbat drops, devastating Savage’s economy and forcing him into a roach/baneling all-in against the 5 bunkers guarding his natural.