WCS Korea Season II

Ro32 - Day 3 Recap
Fantasy, Kangho, Hyvaa, and First advance

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

VODs on Twitch

by Zealously

Two more groups are in the books for the Ro32, and we know who twelve of the final sixteen players will be in the Starleague. With a big string of upsets occuring on day three, here's a look at who's qualified for the Ro16 so far.

Currently Qualified For Ro16: KT_Flash, Woongjin_Soulkey, STX_INnoVation, CJ_Bbyong, SKT_soO, MaruPrime, STX_Trap, AzubuSymbol, SKT_FanTaSy, LG-IM_KangHo, STX_hyvaa, LG-IM_First

Group E: Fantasy and Kangho Advance

Is This the Real Life?

The headline of Group E was no doubt the continuing fall of the Startale prodigy, ST_Life. After winning five major tournaments in the span of half a year, Life has now officially hit his first really rough patch since the ball started rolling for him the summer of 2012. With series losses to TLO and Sjow at DreamHack and a starter loss to Ryung in the GSTL, Life was already on shaky ground coming into the group stage of his first ever OSL.

Although Life did play reasonably well in his opening match against SKT_FanTaSy, he kept repeating the same mistakes he made against Sjow at Dreamhack. Getting caught up in his own relentless aggression, Life constantly lost units to widow mines all over the map. They devastated attempts at runbys, bruised mutalisks at crucial moments in important battles, and generally did everything you do not want them to do as a Zerg player. Despite Life's (half-hearted) efforts to clean up the mines out on the map, he kept on moving out without overseers, and he had to pay the price for it. Life played well for sure, but when matched up against a player like Fantasy who is always on the attack, losing crucial units to mines is unforgivable.

As if a loss to Fantasy in his favorite match-up wasn't enough, Life followed up his loss to the SKT Terran with another loss to his next opponent, LG-IM_KangHo. Despite making a few good plays to put himself ahead early in the game, Life eventually found himself in a losing situation as KangHo utilized superior positioning to win a decisive roach-infestor engagement, sending the young champion hurtling out of the OSL.

Is This Just Fantasy?

While Life going 0 - 2 and out of the OSL was a surprise, we also saw one of Brood War's champions who had struggled to transition to StarCraft 2 top the group with a 2 - 0 score. SKT's FanTaSy had his flashes of brilliance in WoL (notably dismantling Nestea in the first SC2 OSL) and has sporadically played brilliant games in HotS as well, but all-in-all, the Terrorist Terran has been very mediocre in SC2 comapred to players like Flash, Soulkey or Rain, sitting at a 23-20 Proleague record.

However, with the OSL – a tournament no doubt close to his heart – starting up again, Fantasy decided that he was done being mired in mediocrity. He played an all-around solid, aggressive TvZ against Life where a hellbat drop and strong bio-mine play was too much for the Zerg player to handle, and then proceeded to trample his nemesis Samsung_JangBi in the Winners' Match by utilizing mobility to outmaneuver and decisively pick the Samsung Protoss apart to confirm his advancement in first place.

And in the last surprise of the night, LG-IM_KangHo proved that his top six finish in the last Code S was not a fluke, as he eliminated JangBi from the OSL in the final match of the night. While some poor swarmhost play saw him lose to JangBi in their first meeting, KangHo overcame his opponent in the rematch with aggressive play. After a successful ling runby, KangHo used continued roach-hydra attacks to keep JangBi reeling until he was able to land a knock-out blow.

Player Ratings

Fantasy: B
Showed some very good bio-mine play against Life where his micro and ability to remain on the aggressive was really allowed to shine. Stomping on Jangbi also gives him bonus points, but his lackluster macro prevents him from achieving top grades.

KangHo: C
Weird Nydus play against Jangbi made Kangho look like he was completely off his game in the beginning, but he redeemed himself against Life in an okay display of ZvZ skill, and then got his revenge on Jangbi by playing much better than he did in their first meeting.

Jangbi: C-
Played a strong game against Kangho in his first match, played a slightly less strong game against Fantasy where he may have been thrown off by continued technical issues, and then played totally unlike himself in the final match.

Life: D-
In a lot of aspects, Life played well against Fantasy. His micro and macro were both on point, but his decision making was severely lacking. Too few overseers, badly positioned overseers, an inferior build order and constant unit donations sent him to the losers' match, where he did nothing to convince us that he deserves a higher grade.

Group F: First and Hyvaa Advance

First Things First

In Group F, it was LG-IM_First's turn to defy the doubters, pulling off a major upset as he tore up the group with two championship Zergs to advance in first place. His first victim was 2013's first GSL champion in Samsung_RorO, who got off to a horrid start by losing his third hatchery and several of overlords to a zealot/msc/phoenix attack he was completely unprepared for. Although Roro managed to get back into the game with his roach/infestor composition, First never truly let go of his advantage. He sat back and calmly waited for his 3-base economy and superior upgrades to kick in, at which point he moved across the map and brought the Samsung Zerg to his knees.

Put up against FXOLeenock in the winners' match, First mixed things up slightly by going for a sentry drop in the main base of Leenock. With zealots warping in and phoenixes to support his attack, he dealt a crippling amount of damage to the main base of Leenock while forcefields kept opposing units out. By the time Leenock was finally able to re-enter his main, First had enough units to overpower the defending forces and move out into the natural. Though his first attack was eventually deflected, he simply went for another – this time with robo support. Leenock saw the incoming army and, 25 supply down before the battle could even start, decided to GG.

OSL: Where ZvZ Happens

The unexpected results didn't just end there, however. After being sent down to the losers' match, RorO dropped right out of the tournament as STX's hyvaa flexed his ZvZ muscle. This set up a final match between hyvaa and Leenock for the remaining Ro16 spot. With hyvaa's baneling aggression having been deflected without trouble in their earlier match in the night, the STX Zerg attempted another approach – the more economy-oriented, macro style ZvZ, with Leenock agreeing to the dance.

With neither player confident enough to throw everything into one attack, the players took turns taking prods at each other but not going further than that. Both Leenock and hyvaa went up to three bases, with Leenock even going up to a fourth base (in ZvZ!). At this point, hyvaa knew he had to make something happen, so he made good use of his stronger roach/hydra/infestor army, taking out several of Leenock's drones while simultaneously attempting to hold off a counter on his own side of the map. He was unsuccessful, as his third was sniped by Leenock's roaches.

The game continued in the same style for a while, with the players trading blows and losing more and more economy. At one point, hyvaa found himself far ahead, but indecisiveness allowed Leenock to come right back into the game. Of course, it wouldn't be WCS KR without wonky games, so the two kept going while staying at around 20 workers and an equal amount of infestors for a while longer, unable to assess their situations in such a bizarre game. In the end, hyvaa's decision to keep on teching would decide the game, as his swarm hosts pummeled an unprepared Leenock, sealing the deal on his Ro16 progression.

Player Ratings

First: A-
First came prepared – he had strategies designed to give him an early advantage, and he executed them very well. Roro and Leenock never really pushed First to his limit, so we never truly got to see the full extent of his skillset and crisis management, but he was without a doubt the best player in this group.

Hyvaa: C+
Hyvaa failed to kill Leenock with a baneling attack and tapped out shortly after, but redeemed himself with a strong performance against Roro and in the rematch against Leenock. Had the STX Zerg been a little more decisive he could have ended the slugfest against Leenock much earlier, but he kept backing off before realizing his tech advantage could easily win him the game.

Leenock: D
Didn't do much of note in this group. He held off a baneling attack with some nice defense, but beyond that, he looked very vulnerable against First and never truly found a way to make something happen in the rematch against hyvaa. He had multiple opportunities, but he kept sending all of his army out of position in response to small roach squads, which ended up costing him too much.

Roro: F+
Joining the crew of GSL Zerg champions falling off recently, Roro didn't really look too good in this group. First played very well in the first match and Roro's play was mediocre.