Table of Contents

STX takes match one
STX 4 - 3 SKT


Match 2 Preview
Can SKT tie it up?


SK Planet Proleague table and results at Liquipedia

By: kollin

INnovation's Ace Match win gives STX Soul 1 - 0 lead against SK Telecom T1

In an incredibly close match, STX took game one of their series against SK Telecom T1 by a score of 4 - 3. SKT T1. The result easily could have gone the other way, with SKT coming close to closing it out 4 - 2 in the sixth set. However, Bisu's risky fast expansion was countered, and the series went to a fateful ace match. There were no jitters in the clutch for INnovation, as he took out opposing ace Fantasy to take the match for his team.


Game one: INnoVation vs. Best

Not surprisingly, the underdog Best picked the single cheese that would work against Innovation's slightly too greedy reaper opener, using a proxy-gateway to take an early advantage. While many players who open reaper expand scout with an SCV too, Innovation decided against it and this lack of early information cost him dearly. Best did enough damage that Innovation had no chance of catching up, and while the STX ace did attempt to make his way back in with mine and bio drops, it was not enough. Best's follow-up two base colossus HT push crushed through Innovation's meager army and took the game. Almost everybody predicted an easy win for Innovation, however SKT's preparation was too good and Best won out in the end.

Game two: Dear vs. Rain

STX were quick to strike back with a cheesy play of their own, as Dear went for a DT build against Rain's fast expand. Dear failed to do the damage that Best inflicted in the previous game and Rain's immortal gateway counter attack came quickly and brutally. Despite Rain having a far superior army, by some miracle Dear pulled off a successful defence and found himself with a comfortable lead. This lead was increased when Rain tried to end the game before it got late with a two base immortal archon push. Dear once again mustered the forces to stave off Rain's army, and was left with a base up on his opponent and with a considerable army lead. From there Rain just had to go through his death animation of a few minutes, as before Dear finally broke through at Rain's third and forced the GG.

Game three: Mini vs. PartinG

This game was a slightly more old school PvP, as both players dueled each other off one base with almost purely gateway units. While neither player got an economic advantage, Mini was far more aggressive than Parting and that paid off, as he was eventually able to contain Parting on one base while taking his own natural. Throughout the game Parting put on a sterling display of simultaneously harassing while defending with the bare minimum of units required, but despite some truly stellar warp prism micro not seen since the days of NEXSickness, it was not enough. Parting eventually had to march down to his ramp to the sound of forcefields sealing his army in place, and he GG'd out after his units were left lying broken in his main.

Game four: FanTaSy vs. Classic

Fantasy showed off an interesting two base tank push in this TvP, similar to the build that Mvp pulled out last season in WCS Europe to overcome SaSe. Classic seemed fairly hapless against it with his expand into oracle build, as the clever positioning of low-ground tanks on Akilon Flats prevented mining at his natural. Classic made some odd decisions as well, losing several armies for seemingly no reason. While the lack of immortals due to his stargate build can be explain his loss to some degree, Classic's out of character bad decisions were also responsible for a large part of it.

Game five: hyvaa vs. soO

Soo vs. hyvaa was a fairly typical ZvZ, as hyvaa opted for a two base roach bane bust and Soo's solid defence shut it down with almost zero economic damage. From there Soo used his drone advantage to pump significantly more roaches than hyvaa and the SKT Zerg GG'd out as soon as he saw how vastly outnumbered he was.

Game sixBisu vs, Trap

While Bisu has an unfairly bad reputation in StarCraft II, there's no denying he messed up this chance to close out the series for SKT. Just one game away from ending the series 4 - 2, and one game away from preventing the best player in the world INnoVation from getting a second chance, Bisu took a big chance with a nexus first build.

As it turned out, Trap scouted Bisu going nexus first, while Trap himself wasn't going nexus first. The outcome after that was quite... predictable. Trap built two more gateways, marched into Bisu's base, and camped every single stalker that popped from Bisu's gateways (not even warp gates). All the while he picked off probes with a casualness that suggested he was already wondering what kind of ice cream to get after the match. Left without an economy, Bisu GG'd out and sent the series to an ace match.

Ace Match: FanTaSy vs. INnoVation

Bisu's folly undid Best's good work, and gave INnoVation a chance at redemption in a deciding ace match. Fantasy was sent out instead of Rain for SKT, which wasn't too surprising considering that Newkirk is a Terran favoured map in PL. As everyone expected, Innovation was STX's choice, and as always, he delivered. Fantasy chose to proxy a factory and starport, and go for a widow mine drop. Innovation knew exactly what was up, and blew the medivac out of the sky with a well placed widow mine before it had the chance to drop anything. Innovation's cloak banshee follow-up was fairly effective, especially considering the lowered cost of cloak.

Fantasy also went for a slightly delayed cloak banshee, however lost all his banshees to either a viking-raven hit squad, or the same heroic mine that had already killed a medivac. Innovation was ahead in almost every single way, and moved out to contain Fantasy on one base. He succeeded in doing so, and Fantasy was forced to sit still for a few minutes while Innovation only increased his lead further and further. While Fantasy eventually managed to break out from the contain, another wave of units from Innovation arrived and demolished what remained of Fantasy's army, winning the game and giving STX a 1 - 0 series lead.

Writers: kollin and Wunder.
Graphics: HawaiianPig
Editors: monk, Waxangel.