WCS Korea Season II

Ro16 - Day One Recap
Day One of Six

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

VODs on Twitch

by stuchiu

The first day of the Auction Starleague Ro16 passed by without any particularly surprising results - Soulkey defeated Symbol, First took down Fantasy, Bomber beat Bbyong, and SuperNoVa declawed KangHo. However, there were some eye opening performances within those predictable results, with LG-IM_First's PvT looking exceptionally dominant while Bomber put on a TvT firework show that suggested a new, less hellbatty way to play the match-up. Here's our recap of last night's games.

Group A
1.	Soulkey	1 - 0
–	PartinG	0 - 0
–	soO	0 - 0
4.	Symbol	0 - 1

Group B
1.	Bomber	1 - 0
–	Flash	0 - 0
–	INnoVation	0 - 0
4.	Bbyong	0 - 1

Group C
1.	First	1 - 0
–	hyvaa	0 - 0
–	Rain	0 - 0
4.	FanTaSy	0 - 1

Group D
1.	SuperNova	1 - 0
–	Maru	0 - 0
–	Trap	0 - 0
4.	KangHo	0 - 1

Detailed results from Live Report Thread by Wintex.
+ Show Spoiler [Detailed Results] +

No surprises: Soulkey (2 - 0) .Symbol

Woongjin_Soulkey continued to his rule over the Zerg race by beating down Azubu.Symbol in two games. He won the first game by defending against Symbol’s nydus roach queen attack and then countering with his own nydus. He then finished off Symbol in game two by showing superior micro after both players opened nine-pool, adroitly defending against Symbol's baneling bust.

Winning without hellbats (kind of): Bomber (2 - 1) Bbyong

Hellbats have become the alpha and omega of TvT. Those who make them win, those who do not lose. ST_Bomber seemed to know this rule well when he went up against Keen in the Ro32, using mass hellbats to fuel a come from behind victory that propelled him into the Ro16. So, as he headed into his series against CJ's Bbyong, most viewers expected another hellbat vs. hellbat slugfest. Instead, something entirely different happened. Maybe Keen’s superb, hellbat-less early game in the Ro32 struck a chord in Bomber’s heart, and he went back into the lab to try to solve the hellbat vs. hellbat conundrum.

In the first game both Bomber and Bbyong opened with early expansions. From there Bbyong stuck to the standard hellbat drop, but Bomber would start with marines, hellions and a banshee—an old standby from the days of WoL. From there Bomber would take an early lead with a marine runby and hellion follow up, forcing Bbyong back into his base while his banshee follow did massive damage. Bomber seemed to have studied the Hellbat opener extensively as he pulled back with his marines at the perfect time to intercept the drop and defend his base. Despite Bomber's preparations, there were still holes to exploit and Bbyong made a comeback into the game with even more hellbat drops to even things out.

From there, both players would go on to three base mech play. Bomber decided to go for an extremely fast paced tank-hellbat style as he stayed constantly aggressive while mass expanding behind. It was a risky style that both put Bomber in very advantageous positions, but also put him in danger of instantly losing his army with one poor decision. In contrast, Bbyong played the much more orthodox style of slowly building up an army while only sending out hellbat drops as harassment.

Those contrasting styles ended up having explosive results as the game immediately descended into chaos once Bbyong decided he wanted to move out. After an immensely hectic semi-base race scenario, Bomber was left with three mining bases and no production while Bbyong had production buildings but just one mining base. It was a race against time for Bbyong to finish off Bomber before he could start using his superior economy, but Bomber was able to hold out and put together a thor army in time to deny Bbyong's desperation push and force the GG.

Game two saw Bomber open a different way again, this time with marine mine medivac pressure into a cloaked banshee. This time Bbyong defended much better, and was able to trump Bomber's follow up marine-tank all-in with his mech. Even in defeat, you could see the cogs turning, the synapses firing in Bomber’s brain as he pulled out one unorthodox build after the other.

Game three was another hellbat-less experiment for Bomber as he went for a 2 rax reaper build with one rax proxied. It was a strong opening against Bbyong’s 1 rax cc allowing Bomber to get into his bio composition. By the time Bbyong's hellbat drops were out, so were Bomber’s marine drops with stim. Both players successfully dropped their units, but Bomber's marines were able to prove that they were the original overpowered drop unit by dealing more damage. From there Bomber sensed weakness and went for a head on attack, tearing through Bbyong's defenses to take the series 2 - 1.

After looking like the ultimate hellbat drop abuser a week ago, Bomber came out last night with three totally different builds: Hellion banshee, marine mine medivac, and double rax reaper. The question is, is this just an aberration? Does he only use these styles against a player he considers worse than himself? Or will he use these builds against Flash and Innovation? Bomber’s evolution is in progress, but TvT as a whole might still be in the hellbat age.

Masterclass: First (2 - 0) FanTaSy

Coming into this match, SKT_FanTaSy had all of the hype behind him. He crushed his group in the Ro32, had been on a minor hot-streak in the Proleague, and was named by Flash as one of the few players he fears. On the other hand, LG-IM_First went into this match with as much anti-hype as possible. Of the four Protosses left in the tournament, the duo of Rain and Parting were dominating the spotlight. If you listened closely, you could hear Artosis quietly muttering to himself how First would be the next big thing, but seeing how the Artosis curse works, people were rightly skeptical of how he would turn out.

At the end of WoL, TvP had become a bland matchup. Yes, there were drops, warp prism harass and zealot run-bys, but for the most part when the deathball fight came about, every ounce of attention was focused there, as a small bit of mis-micro from either side would end the game. But there were 2 players in particular who were slowly changing the matchup before the end of WoL: Dream and First. Both players had 2 things in common. They played PvT with map awareness, multi-tasking and constant movement. For them PvT was about map control, map vision, constant attack and defense. Fighting at the fringes of the army and expansions. A constant battle of putting down proxy pylons and killing proxy pylons. A war that was not won on one battle, but through a series of skirmishes all across the map.

All of this to say that it culminated in some extraordinary PvT games from First. He did not try to master the way PvT currently is, but the way he thought it would be. In the first match, Fantasy would stick to his aggressive tendencies as he would open with a mine-marine drop followed by a hellion drop. First deflected both with well placed stalkers, one MSC in the main and one cannon in his natural. And while he lost 7 probes, he killed all of Fantasy’s units to even things up. From there he took his third on the back of a solid immortal-sentry-zealot army. At the same time he was busy constantly harassing Fantasy with zealot drops and DT backstabs while teching to storm and upgrading. First continued to expand and spread his influence across the map, dotting it with pylons and observers to make sure there was no way for Fantasy to catch him off-guard. Going up against five bases with just three, Fantasy went for the only option left for him and went for an all-or-nothing attack with his main bio force. While the force looked almost strong enough for Fantasy to prevail, the flanking templars and overwhelming reinforcements were too much and he had to GG out.

In the second game, First showed two more aspects of his play. First was his ability to keep units constantly active on the map. After opening phoenix against Fantasy's Hellbats, First was constantly active with his phoenixes even after they fulfilled their primary purpose of thwarting Fantasy's drops. Combined with warp prism harass, this would cause Fantasy headaches all game. From there First transitioned into colossi, archons and some gateway units, leaving Fantasy to go for yet another big three-base attack. However, warp prism harass and the economic disadvantage wearing away at him, Fantasy was once again forced to tap out of the game.

Beatdown: SuperNova (2 - 0) KangHo

Azubu.SuperNova continued on his path of redemption as he brutalized LG-IM_KangHo for his first win in the group. Supernova once again showed his propensity to set up his games as large domino mazes. So long as he got the first hit off, everything starts crashing down for his opponents.

In his first game he opened with a light, non-committal hellbat drop, and then surprised Kangho with a frontal bio-hellbat attack that won the game. The second game started with Supernova hitting the first domino with a proxy reaper and hidden bunker in Kangho’s main. From there he would harass with reapers and hellions, and then cancel Kangho’s third with a banshee. Later, a diversionary attack into KangHo's natural that allowed allowed Supernova to kill Kangho’s third once it was actually complete. After that SuperNoVa slowed down the temp a little, but he had already got what he needed by taking a big economic advantage. With four bases up, he constantly rallied marines, medivacs, and mines to KangHo's base until he had no choice but to surrender.