WCS Korea Season II

Ro16 - Day Five Preview
The Final Week

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

VODs on Twitch

by stuchiu and CosmicSpiral

As we head into the final week of the Ro16, four players have confirmed their qualification for the quarter-finals, and four spots remain up for grabs. With some players being eliminated already, a few of these matches might be played at a more casual pace. On the other hand, some of the others should be intense do-or-die matches, with elimination or advancement directly on the line.

Group A
1.	Soulkey	2 - 0
2.	soO	1 - 1
3.	Symbol	1 - 1
4.	PartinG	0 - 2

Group B
1.	INnoVation	2 - 0
1.	Bomber	2 - 0
3.	Flash	0 - 2
3.	Bbyong	0 - 2

Group C
1.	First	2 - 0
2.	Rain	1 - 1
3.	hyvaa	1 - 1
4.	FanTaSy	0 - 2

Group D
1.	Maru	2 - 0
2.	SuperNova	1 - 1
3.	Trap	1 - 1
4.	KangHo	0 - 2

SKT_PartinG vs Woongjin_Soulkey (no effect on group)
by stuchiu

By the end of 2012, PartinG had clearly been the most successful Protoss player of the year. He had won WCS, WCG and got 2nd in the Blizzard Cup, winning nearly $130,000 in the span of a few months. He had made everyone rethink PvT with his 2 base storm builds and his fast 3 nexus build, and almost broke PvZ with his Soul Train all-in. He cashed in on his reputation by joining SKT1, becoming the first eSF player to earn a big payday from a KeSPA team.

Everyone expected PartinG to become even stronger than before after joining SKT and practicing under the famous Kespa training regime and teaming up with the other top Protoss player in the world in Rain.

Six months into 2013, Parting is looking... ...shaky, to put it lightly. More importantly, he's looking soulless. What's soul? The combination of confidence and near-perfect execution that let him tell Zergs he was going all-in them before games, and then win anyway. While PartinG's PvP and PvT are still very strong, his PvZ has become horrendous. Once a runaway Soul Train that had everyone running for cover, he's barely got out of the station in HotS. His all-ins have become dull and lifeless, and his force fields are Bisu-esque. Having lost confidence in his all-ins, PartinG has returned to macro-style PvZ’s. While he occasionally shows brilliant play and glimmers of hope, it is clear that PartinG's overall PvZ is just a level below his opponents.

So for Parting, this is a match for redemption. To prove to himself and his fans that he can in fact play PvZ and beat the current GSL Champion. For Soulkey, it matters a lot less. He is guaranteed to go through in first place even if he loses here, so he will most likely try to use this time to practice some off kilter builds and mind-game his future opponents. He has the Proleague finals to look forward to in two weeks, and he's not going to give anything away. Or, he can try to mentally break Parting so hard that Parting will never dare to challenge him again. Either way, the soulless matchbox car has his work cut out for him.

Prediction: Soulkey 2 - 1 Parting


CJ_Bbyong vs. KT_Flash (no effect on group)
by CosmicSpiral

This match is morbidly interesting insofar as there is nothing at stake. Neither Bbyong nor Flash have any hope of advancing to the Round of 8 and without a practical reason to play their best strategies (besides pride), there’s a miniscule chance they might pull out the crazy stuff for fun. Thanks to the recent patch we might even see some prototype builds incorporating the new, cheaper Cloak upgrade. Or they might throw hellbats at each other until nothing remains but scorched earth.

Gods may be immortal but every now and then somebody musters the courage to aim a square hit to the crotch. After learning that he would still have to deal with the uber drops of death for his match, Bomber summoned his pluckiness and delivered a strong performance to eliminate Flash from the OSL. No doubt it stung to lose so handily against a guy who had to change his strategies on the fly, but Flash has never been one to let such defeats rattle him. Regardless of whether you think he is the best Terran, he is undeniably one of the most consistent players in the game. His recent TvT losses were to two great TvT players and he is not facing someone of that caliber here.

Bbyong is Bbyong, which means he’s a less good-looking Virus or one of those generic supermarket brands you see at Shop-and-Stop. In short, he’s a Terran who has yet to carve a place in the hearts and minds of the SC2 community. He’s not particularly strong in any matchup except TvZ (a lot of terrans can say the same thing), he doesn’t make waves with a charismatic personality, and he doesn’t even get the benefit of going on notable winning and losing streaks. But it’s unfair to judge him by those merits instead of his gameplay. Perhaps he’ll never be famous but Bbyong made it to the Ro16 and that deserves some respect; most players will never even get past Challenger League.

The deciding factor in this match for me is the patch. The hellbat drop midgame is dead for the moment (may its grave be salted and obscured by the trampling of horses) and such a change only benefits Flash in the long run. The strategy was one that never played to his strengths and introduced an element of severe instability that preyed upon his economic greed. Bbyong could’ve used that instability as he is historically terrible at converting solid TvT play into actual wins (only 3-8 in HotS). Bbyong is a very competent player and Flash has looked weaker than usual over the last few weeks, but it would be a noteworthy upset if he could take this series over the legend.

Prediction: Flash 2 - 1 Bbyong


STX_hyvaa vs. LG-IM_First
by CosmicSpiral

Last week hyvaa demonstrated that even though he is predictably unpredictable in ZvT, there’s a difference between knowing your opponent will all-in and knowing which all-in you’re going to face. While Fantasy won Game 1 by opening 12 rax against 6 pool he ended up getting complacent and the silly goose thought he could play standard macro games. The latter punished Fantasy’s impudence with a 2 base roach/nydus worm all-in on Whirlwind and a 3 base roach/bane/speedling bust on Bel’Shir Vestige, leaving the Crown Prince to hope for an unlikely three-way 1 - 2 tie at the bottom. Tonight hyvaa can repeat his tving OSL performance and make another Round of 8, and also finish off Fantasy for good if he takes out strong up-and-comer First

It will be quite the mountain to climb. Nobody in the OSL is playing better than First, who has anointed himself as the unexpected dark horse of the tournament. He’s kicking ass and doing it in style with slick builds and excellent multitasking. Rain? Ain’t nobody got time for your proxy oracles. Fantasy? Move aside, I’m the new king of harassment. He has been duplicating similar results ever since HotS started and no one can accuse him of merely riding a wave of momentum. But momentum is what he will want to continue tonight so don’t expect First to blow this match off as irrelevant.

Like his ZvT, hyvaa’s style revolves around a succession of three stages: the opening gambit, the midgame timing, and the mass expand late game. He often chooses to start the game with an economic 9-10 pool for light pressure, transition into speedling/hydra to punish a fast third with a two-pronged attack or speedling/roach if he anticipates being attacked, and ultimately assemble a speedling/hydra/corruptor/swarm host army while taking every base on his side of the map. It’s a very curious playstyle that emphasizes firepower and mobility over staying power, as his entire force can get swiftly decimated with one mishandled engagement. Meanwhile First loves to lean on his opponent from the instance his phoenixes enter the field. Zealot/phoenix aggression on the third seems to be a staple of his ZvP play. He’s very flexible when it comes to unit composition as well. Most of the time he will transition to blink stalker/immortal after stargate but also slides in some air toss on the side and occasionally fast colossi.

On paper the matchup looks lopsided but one can never underestimate hyvaa’s cunning. However he has been overall mediocre in ZvP and has lost 6 out of his last 7 ZvP games. Furthermore First prefers opening phoenix into zealot aggression at the third, hyvaa’s Achilles’ heel as most of his builds don’t get roaches or hydralisks out early enough to deal with them.

Prediction: First 2 - 1 hyvaa


STX_Trap vs. Azubu.SuperNova (winners advances, loser eliminated)
by stuchiu

For Supernova this OSL is a milestone. At the end of WoL, Supernova was primed to be the second player to ever win the Nestea award, a prize given to players who had competed in ten consecutive Code S tournaments. SuperNoVa had been in 9 seasons of Code S and was well on his way to his 10th until he met Trap in Code A. There, the STX Protoss stopped his almost historic streak, and SuperNoVa's dream of being only the third player to win the Nestea award was thwarted.

So for a player like Supernova, who has stated that he wants to reach a next level of play, a player that wants to go from being merely a good player to a champion, this will be one of the most crucial matches of this season. Fighting from the bottom of the barrel, he forced his way through Code B, Code A, and right back into the Starleague within a season. Along the way he has beat renowned Protoss opponents PartinG and Squirtle. It's been a long time coming, but SuperNoVa looks set to gain the ultimate revenge against the player who denied him the Nestea award. A win will send SuperNoVa through to the Ro8 and give him a Code S seed next season. A win for SuperNoVa will send Trap out of the tournament, and down to Code A where he will face the peril of elimination.

As for Trap, this is the first time he has made it into Code S and he has proven himself to be one of the better Protosses with his uncanny expertise against Zerg. And while his PvZ has been the cause of plenty of Zerg tears, his PvT has been somewhat lackluster. He barely scraped by with a victory against Maru with surprise DTs before losing to an 11/11 and hellbats. His other games have been just as gimmicky as he has relied on proxy blink tech and proxy stargates to try to get him easy wins. But this is also the first PvT since the hellbat nerf and Supernova was notorious for relying on hellbats in his wins, and now this match-up should be a lot closer. For now, I’ll tentatively go with Supernova as the really seems to have a knack for controlling the tempo of a game which matches well against a player like Trap, who isn't known for his defensive stability.

Prediction: Supernova 2 - 1 Trap