Table of Contents

STX wins!
STX 4-2 WJS
STX 5-0 Playoffs


SK Planet Proleague table and results at Liquipedia

By: kollin

STX wins the `12-13 season of SPL, going 5-0 in playoff matches

After eight months of toil, triumph and despair the 12-13 Proleague season has come to an end with a final showdown between two unexpected, yet extremely talented teams. In one corner, STX Soul stood proud and strong, their ace player Innovation backed up by a myriad of Protoss and a lone, slightly crazy Zerg. In the other corner was a team with the deepest roster in the whole of Proleague, a team capable of almost taking down Samsung Khan with a draft of B-teamers. Both Woongjin Stars and STX Soul had dominated all their opposition, an opposition built up out of juggernauts such as SKT T1 and KT Rolster, to get to the finals, and neither was about to bow out of the finals so easily.

It had been many years since either team had reached a Proleague finals, and with both their financial futures in jeopardy, this might have been either team's chance. STX Soul were generally considered the slight favorite, with many pundits believing Innovation could take down Soulkey in the second set as well as the ace match, should it come to that. The stage was set for a finals that promised high tension, high action, and high skill matches between the best that Kespa had to offer. It would all come down to this night, this stage and this Bo7. No pressure, fellas.


Game one: Mini <Akilon Wastes> BrAvO - VOD

Two of the less prestigious players from each team faced off first in what quickly turned into a comedy of errors. BravO turned on the aggression right out of the gate, choosing a one base two barracks concussive shell build to pile on the pressure, reminiscent of early WoL TvP. However, Mini had chosen a blink stalker build for himself and the two builds crossed strangely, almost canceling each other out. The first mistake of the game fell on Mini, who did not recognize his opponent's extremely rare build and thus threw away quite a few stalkers to his opponent.

With BravO holding the advantage, both players took their second bases. Mini meanwhile chose DTs as his next form of tech, hoping to catch BravO off-guard. Despite being prepared with a missile turret in his main, BravO's second CC was still prevented from landing on the low ground for a fairly significant amount of time due to a grievous mis-scan.

Mini whittled down BravO's SCV count to well below his own with a steady stream of DTs that managed to find holes in the Woongjin Terran's defense while he was out on the map, and BravO's pressure at Mini's natural was repelled. Left with an ailing economy and no ghosts against a growing number of HTs with storm, BravO conceded the first game to STX Soul.

Game two: INnoVation <Whirlwind> Soulkey - VOD

After a slightly strange start to the series, Innovation faced off against Soulkey in the most anticipated game of the match. The backdrop was Whirlwind, a familiar one for face-offs between the two, and Soulkey wasted no time in trying to one up his opponent. Innovation almost always CC firsts in TvZ, so Soulkey gambled that he would choose that on such a large map, opting for a three hatch before pool build. The gamble paid off, as Innovation had chosen the CC first and was unable to aggressively punish Soulkey in any way. A faster third CC than usual mitigated some of the economic deficit though, and both players headed into the midgame.

Innovation played how he does in every TvZ post-hellbat patch, and Soulkey also chose the double evo route. However, instead of sitting back at the 11 minute mark - when Innovation begins to ramp up the bio pressure - Soulkey hit an incredible 1/1 ling bane timing that punished Innovation just before he began pumping widow mines. Huge economic damage ensued, and Soulkey seemed to give himself a comfortable lead to fall back and take a fourth base on.

But it had come at a price. In order to execute this aggressive maneuver, Soulkey delayed his 2/2 upgrades, allowing Innovation to exploit a temporary weakness. Innovation's pressure had been delayed, but not for long. As soon as the STX Terran's 2/2 finished, he swept across the map, focusing his efforts on Soulkey's third and slowly grinding down the defenses. At the same time, Soulkey continued to harasswith sizable amounts of banelings at Innovation's third, eventually killing 49 SCVs in total throughout the game, but it just wasn't enough. Innovation's 3/3 kicked in and Soulkey's lair tech army could not trade efficiently enough to keep the advantage he had gained. As Soulkey's third fell he was forced to GG out.


Game three: Dear <Korhal Floating Island> sOs - VOD

Compared to the previous back and forth games, this PvP was an open and shut case. Dear chose to open with an expand into stargate build, one of the greediest builds possible in PvP. Meanwhile, sOs went for an aggressive three gate blink stalker build. The results were fairly predictable and with some solid micro, sOs easily walked over Dear's lackluster defenses to take Woongjin's first game.



Game four: hyvaa <Bel'Shir Vestige> free - VOD

hyvaa went into this match a relative favorite; he had recently defeated free 2-0 in the MLG Anaheim qualifiers and also has had a bit of success in Premier League. However, free looked by far the more crisp and focused player of the two in this game. He took a quick and greedy three bases while hyvaa remained resoundingly indecisive. He neither attempted to punish free's greed nor responded with overwhelming greed of his own. Instead, hyvaa went straight into a defensive and mediocre roach hydra composition while free powered up off the back of his accelerated economy.

free eventually moved out across the map with a colossus blink stalker army and simply won the game right there. While hyvaa did manage to take out every single colossus with his overwhelming number of corruptors, the losses the STX Zerg suffered were too great and free walked over the remaining roaches with an onslaught of blink stalkers.


Game five: Trap <Newkirk Redevelopment Precinct> ZerO - VOD

ZerO went into this game a slight underdog with his poor ZvP record matching up against Trap's excellent PvZ record. Trap opened the game with a common stargate in order to deny any scouting overlords. Then, he transitioned into one of Zerg's most feared strategies on Newkirk: the dreaded sentry drop into ramp block. Fortunately, ZerO, having had weeks and weeks to practice for this one game, was more than ready to meet this threat and completely shut it down. And with that, a large early lead was awarded to ZerO.

From there, Trap transitioned into a feigned 2-2-2 with the full two bases, two immortals, two colossus. However, perhaps because of the lack of damage done to his opponent, Trap decided to back off and attempt to draw it to a macro game by taking a third. Although Trap continued to warp prism harass, his efforts were folly and he failed to effect any damage, losing the warp prism and hundreds of resources of zealots along the way. With 200 supply to his opponent's 145 supply and a 2.5k/1.3k bank, any Protoss player would have told you that this situation looked exceeding grim. ZerO decided it had been enough and that it was time to either kill or cripple his opponent with his maxed army. But with a healthy unit mix, a clutch set of force fields and time warps, and the cost of all four of his colossi, Trap held for now.

But for ZerO, it all went downhill from there. During this attack, five rogue zealots had trekked across the map and managed to deal a crushing blow to ZerO's third base. And while they only brought it down to 100 hip points, a small squadron of blink stalkers would be more than enough to finish the job later on.

ZerO began his transition into the late game by remaxing on a large round of swarm hosts while Trap tried his warp prism tactics once again. The difference was that this time, ZerO's army was much less mobile and the prism dealt critical damage ZerO's main infrastructure and economy. As both armies built up to their desired compositions, with Trap opting for a three stargate void ray transition, Trap's prods and harass continued to be effective while ZerO's ling runbys remained relatively neutered. Suddenly, the game had turned completely around.

But in an effort to keep the game tense, this time Trap went in for the attack, against swarm hosts and broodlords without a crucial observer. The result would be that Trap would lose many of his expensive units, including all of his gas-heavy archons.

Though this would be a heavy blow to Trap, it only served to reset the game. Many trades later, with Trap sniping ZerO fourth base, his hive, and his greater spire, ZerO found himself with no choice but to attack with his deadly army consisting of swarm hosts, brood lords, corruptors, and infestors; he was all-in.

And though ZerO would eventually win this fight, Trap was able to pick off many of ZerO's brood lords and his seven surviving stalkers went on to reunite with his fourteen zealots that were in the process of ravaging ZerO's miscellaneous bases. After all of ZerO's bases were completely destroyed, it was clear what would have to happen. Neither player had any mining left and both players had exactly 87 supply. Both players pulled all their workers in what absolutely was the final fight of the game.


Game six: Classic <Neo Planet S> Flying - VOD

It was now match point in STX's favor, and Classic - the unorthodox, unpredictable Protoss capable of coming out with almost anything faced off against Flying, who is extremely good at adapting to things on the fly and changing his game plan accordingly. Flying opened up with nexus into robo while Classic reactively followed with a nexus into stargate build. Classic's first oracle wasn't able to achieve much damage, and the following phoenix were only able to mildly avenge their fallen comrade. The midgame approached quietly with Classic choosing a more old-school colossi composition while Flying went for the slightly more popular and modern immortal archon composition.

Flying moved out onto to the map and tried to engage Classic's army at a timing where it was considerably weaker, and for a fleeting moment it looked like he would succeed. A clutch recall and re-engage from Classic saved his arm, and he suddenly went onto the offensive to Flying's third. Flying was caught completely out of position and his third fell along with his probes. Now with an inferior army supply, army composition, and economy, Flying was left with little hope. Classic went for the throat and Flying quickly GG'd out, officially giving STX Soul the trophy and the glory of a Proleague championship, achieving what several generations of STX players could not before them.

---

"...and though his conquest was stopped by the foul youth known as Maru, he was reborn under the waters of Yongsan and set his eyes upon a greater prize. So it came to be that Innovation would lead his sheep through the valleys of the shadows. And through many trials and tribulations he slayed the false idols and gods and led his people to the promised land."