WCS Korea Season II

Ro8 - Day One Recap
INnoVation 3 - 0 Soulkey
Maru 3 - 1 Symbol

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

VODs on Twitch

by Waxangel

The long streak of Zerg champions in Korea came to a quick end in the Auction Starleague quarter-finals as Maru and INnoVation eliminated the last remaining Zergs from the tournament. After winning the last four major Korean championships starting in Code S Season 4 of 2012, Zerg saw their hopes of a fifth consecutive title erased as Symbol and Soulkey were knocked out of the tournament.


Maru and INnoVation have confirmed at least one Terran finalist as they move on to face each other in the semi-finals. Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, a duo of TvP matches awaits as SuperNoVa faces Rain and First takes on Bomber.


The much awaited rematch of the WCS Korea Season 1 finals between Soulkey and INnoVation went similarly to the same way it did last time—INnoVation took the first three games. However, this time around it was best of five, and 0 - 3 was the end of the series for Soulkey, not the start of a miracle comeback.

The series wasn't completed one-sided, at least for one that was a sweep. The opener on Newkirk Precinct in particular showed how evenly Soulkey can match INnoVation in some games, as they fought evenly for much of a thrilling match. There was almost a gentleman's agreement to play a standard game at the start, with both players playing greedily as they prepared for the midgame war. With his production in place, INnoVation went for his standard play of sending streams of marines, medivacs, and mines toward his opponent's base, while Soulkey showed off his own skills by defending excellently with muta-ling-bane.

For a moment, it seemed as if Soulkey had taken the upper hand by stopping INnoVation's forward momentum entirely, pushing him all the way back to his main while using mutalisk harassment to be an immense nuisance. However, after stopping briefly to stabilize on defense, INnoVation was right back on the warpath. Following the pattern of many INnoVation TvZ's, the turning point of the game came as INnoVation hit 3/3 while his opponent was still making an awkward transition to ultralisks and higher upgrades. While Soulkey did manage to survive until his ultralisks hatched, he was almost immediately forced to use them on the defensive. An ugly engagement for Zerg ensued as mutas and ultras fought separately, and Soulkey GG'd out after losing his army.

After an exciting first game, the rest of the series ended up being more one-sided. Soulkey attempted to mix things up in game two by going for a mass 1/1 speed roach timing against another economy-focused opener from INnoVation, but he failed to strike while INnoVation was still weak. By the time his troops arrived, INnoVation's production had already kicked in and he had more than enough infantry to hold the attack. After that, the game was basically going through the motions, as INnoVation used his MMM to crush Soulkey's mostly roach army.

Soulkey went back to the standard muta-ling-bane combination for the final game, but couldn't replicate his strong play from game one. He struggled to keep up with INnoVation's unrelenting attacks, his defenses slowly eroding away until they crumbled entirely. Soulkey GG'd out, bringing an end to his title defense.



The other quarter-final match of the night saw one of Korea's most consistent players in Symbol suffer an upset against the rising Terran Maru. Showing up in the GomTV studios when he was just 13, Maru first made a real splash in 2012 when he reached the Code S Ro16. However, Maru struggled to elevate his game from that point, remaining a fringe Code S player for nearly a year. This 3 - 1 victory over Symbol marks the best result yet in his career, and he heads to the semi-finals of the Starleague while having earned automatic qualification for the Season II finals at Gamescom in Cologne.

The first match of the night saw Maru take a fairly easy victory, with his widow mine drop killing off a dozen drones due to late reactions from Symbol. There was no way Maru was going to lose after taking such a significant early lead, and he played it slow and safe until he could overwhelm Symbol with a superior army.

Game two took place on the peculiar map Anaconda, where Symbol employed the strategy of blocking his front door with collapsible rocks while playing greedily behind it. However, Maru brought his own map-specific strategy aimed at countering such greedy play, ferrying marines and hellions into Symbol's base before sufficient defenses were up. This attack dealt severe damage to Symbol, and once again Maru was able to safely snowball his lead into a victory.

It wouldn't have been a Maru series without some cheese, and Maru went ahead with an 8/8/8 reaper rush that had stolen games off players like Soulkey in the past. However, Symbol scouted out the strategy almost instantly and had no trouble shutting it down. Knowing he was immensely behind, Maru gambled and played greedily behind his failed rush, going up to four orbitals early. The move saw Maru recover surprisingly well given his poor start, but good mutalisk harass followed by an ultralisk transition took the game for Symbol.

The fourth and final game of the series was the only one where both players could be said to have played a relatively normal and even game. Maru opened with heavy MMM pressure and a delayed third orbital command center, but Symbol used his roach-bane composition well to hold Maru off. Symbol then went for a kill-move with mass roaches and banelings, but only did enough damage to put him on even footing from Maru. The standard TvZ patterns played out from there, with Maru constantly knocking at the gates with his mobile forces while Symbol tried to hold out while he went up to hive tech.

It looked like Symbol had succeeded in his goal after he safely got ultralisks and infestors out on the battlefield, but he then committed the cardinal sin of ultralisk usage by overextending off creep. Marauders blew up a huge chunk of Symbol's force in an instant, and Symbol was powerless to hold against the following counter attack. Having attained five top eight finishes in six seasons, Symbol bowed out of the tournament.