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.
Those were some seriously impressive games. I don't think we've ever seen anyone defend from mutalisks as well as innovation did in that first game. And the amount of incredible marine splits against banelings and baneling splits against widow-mines showed just how skillful these players really are.
I could see Maru beating Innovation over soulkey considering how good Soulkey's ZvT is relative to Innovation's TvT... good thing he's playing Innovation. It would be insane to see a Maru vs Supernova/Bomber/First dark horse like finals, as Rain is probably the favorite from the other side of the bracket.
P.S. everybody keep predicting bomber to fail so that he can get to the finals!
As awesome as Innovation was in that epic first game, Soulkey too was playing fantastic. I'm so used to seeing Innovation with the relentless aggression that it was really cool to see Soulkey return the favor with superb Mutalisk harassment and aggression of his own, not to mention the brilliant use of burrowed Zergling "wards." Any other Terran would have crumbled, but Innovation is not just any other Terran.
If Innovation wins the next two GSL's, the next two season finals and the grand finals, we'd have to call him the first bonjwa? After his mini slump from losing GSL 3-4 (i.e. losing like 5 games after that he didn't before) he looks as strong as ever right now. Clearly the game against bomber didn't mean much to him, cos he roflstomped Soulkey regardless (except game 1).
On July 24 2013 12:36 bo1b wrote: Innovation managing to recover from two mineral lines of scvs getting killed is pretty sick.
From my experience, Terran getting half their scvs killed early game generally isn't game ending at all. Gas income is "probably" more important to Terran than mineral income, or something like that. But from my own experience, as well as watching pro games, I've seen so many Terrans just lose SO many scvs and still be quite competitive.
How could you have a recap of those Maru vs Symbol games and not use the word "split" or "micro" even once? Maru's splitting micro was a thing of beauty..... the kind of micro only God allows a select few to attain such an ability to perform. But it is a fleeting granted ability, as we all know God is a fickle bastard. All we can hope is that Maru still has it when his match against Innovation takes place.
On July 24 2013 12:36 bo1b wrote: Innovation managing to recover from two mineral lines of scvs getting killed is pretty sick.
From my experience, Terran getting half their scvs killed early game generally isn't game ending at all. Gas income is "probably" more important to Terran than mineral income, or something like that. But from my own experience, as well as watching pro games, I've seen so many Terrans just lose SO many scvs and still be quite competitive.
in 2010 or 2011 dimaga played an all in vs a terran player, he got EVERY scv, so the terran was at 0! scv and then they did open the income tab and they was even, because he had 3 mules all time that game was even won by the terran, so terran can recover from ALOT of scv losses, especially in tvz where your main army consist out of very cheap units like marines ^^
have you seen that micro , both innovation and maru showed ? Picking up medivacs druing combat to reposition or detonate on banelings. beauty ! Game1 Innovation vs Soulkey was realy scary play from soulkey but he barly lost that first set and i think this might have cost him the series. the burrowed lings and counter attacks looked more like lifes kind of play but with a different touch. Game 2 looked promesing aswell with both going into heavy macro but it was shorter then i thought. With the upcoming PL Finals i think we will see another rematch between these so evenly matched players, innovation may have the upperhand right now but we will see. Ggl maru against innovation, you´ll need it kido ! may be rain vs innovation finals :D
And it shall all end with a terran win, but that terran is not Bogus; for he has been dismantled before our vigilant eyes by the true terran hope... yes, I am speaking of Bomber, the doom of Innovation.
On July 24 2013 12:58 Alryk wrote: I could see Maru beating Innovation over soulkey considering how good Soulkey's ZvT is relative to Innovation's TvT... good thing he's playing Innovation. It would be insane to see a Maru vs Supernova/Bomber/First dark horse like finals, as Rain is probably the favorite from the other side of the bracket.
P.S. everybody keep predicting bomber to fail so that he can get to the finals!
i concur. If got Maru to the finals i think i would suffer a minor heart attack. and a finals with Maru vs Bomber/Supernova/First would indeed be insane and epic
Nice job Maru it's cool that he has come this far and has been under the radar for a while. Maybe MKP can learn a thing or two from the prince haha. First Game of Soulkey vs Innovation was pretty good. I still can't believe we wont have any zerg in the semi's wow. And can protoss make it into the finals? or better yet maybe a TvT finals.
Good writeup. The games were amazing to watch. Game 1 was insane for SK vs Innovation and SK looks poised to take it if he kept up the aggression if he didn't make that big blunder towards the end. Game 4 of Maru vs Symbol was also fantastic as well and its nice to see Maru make the semis. Maru vs Innovation is going to be hard to call but I feel like Innovation has the upper hand. He has the multitasking and I'm sure he'll study Maru's strategy well for their RO4 games.
On July 25 2013 00:37 keepitsimple172 wrote: This just proves that koreans know a thing or two about terran that others simply do not.. glad to see no zerg for a change
insane mechanics that no foreigners can match besides stephano at his peak.
On July 25 2013 00:37 keepitsimple172 wrote: This just proves that koreans know a thing or two about terran that others simply do not.. glad to see no zerg for a change
insane mechanics that no foreigners can match besides stephano at his peak.
Those matches made me so, so happy. I really hope Bogus takes this OSL, not just because of how awesome of a player he is, but it will mean the first Terran Starleague (SC2 GSL or OSL) victory in over a year.
On July 25 2013 03:20 sorrowptoss wrote: After watching the vods, here's what I've taken from it: DOA is a good caster, BarbiePrime is really hot and Innovation has really good macro.
I've been enjoying DoA & Montecristo more than Tastosis lately. Tastosis has a little more depth but they are too critical of players mistake and somehow Artosis always manage to pick the wrong winner. DoA casting is hilarious.
On July 25 2013 03:20 sorrowptoss wrote: After watching the vods, here's what I've taken from it: DOA is a good caster, BarbiePrime is really hot and Innovation has really good macro.
I've been enjoying DoA & Montecristo more than Tastosis lately. Tastosis has a little more depth but they are too critical of players mistake and somehow Artosis always manage to pick the wrong winner. DoA casting is hilarious.
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/OSL/auction13/ro8bracket_1t.png)
Soulkey <Newkirk Redev Precinct> 
INnoVation
that game was even won by the terran, so terran can recover from ALOT of scv losses, especially in tvz where your main army consist out of very cheap units like marines ^^
