WCS Korea Season 3
GSL Code S

Ro32 - Group H Recap
Super and soO advance, Bomber eliminated

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

Bomber eliminated as Super and soO take last Ro16 spots

by Waxangel

There's an idiom in Korea called Sam il cheon ha (三日天下 for you Japanese and Chinese folks), which roughly translates to "three day reign." It is used to denote a regime that takes power but loses it in a short span of time.

I guess you know where I'm going with this. ST_Bomber, after becoming the WCS Season II Champion, lost his title of best-in-the-world in less than two weeks. In the final group of the Code S Ro32, Bomber suffered losses to MVP.Vampire and SKT_soO, eliminating him from the premier competition of the world.

A different player might have received the benefit of the doubt. After all, INnoVation is still being called the best in the world by large number of SC2 fans, despite his lackluster performance at the WCS Season 2 finals. It's because he was consistently dominant up to that point, so consistent that he's convinced many that he will be able to bounce back.

Bomber, on the other hand, was doubted by many heading into the WCS Season 2 finals. While he looked marvelous all-around at TvT, he seemed to use SCV-pull all-ins as a crutch in TvP, and his TvZ had been suspect since time immemorial. Though he played brilliantly to win two key TvZ series against Scarlett and Jaedong in Cologne, cynics said that he was relying too heavily on one-shot strategies and the surprise factor of retro WoL-style strats. Those same cynics probably cackled with glee when Bomber fell to the very ordinary soO on Thursday night.


But before we talk more about TvZ, there's a more important thing to talk about: The Bomber SCV pull timing in TvP. It's dead.

Well, kinda. At least in its current iteration. At least against opponents who have perfect observer and hallucinated phoenix scouting. MVP.Super said he didn't even have to watch the replays—the VODs from the S2 finals sufficed for him to figure out how to stop Bomber's attacks. Colossi, the units the SCV pull timing was supposed to counter in the first place, ended up being the solution after all. By keeping a near perfect tab on what Bomber was doing, Super was able to secure three bases, power up his econ, and build a powerful combination of mass colossi + protective stalkers just in time to thwart Bomber's attacks. Bomber, tunnel-visioned into assuming his opponent would be going storm, wasted precious time and resources to add ghosts to his timings. Against five range upgraded colossi, things did not go well.

Still, Bomber was able to beat YongHwa in the loser's match, thwarting fast DTs in game one, and a proxy-stargate in game three to take a 2 - 1 victory. That set him up to face SKT_soO, a three time WCS Korea Ro16 player for the last chance at advancement.

When Bomber came with his throwback hellion-banshee in game one, soO pretty much laughed and crushed it with an even faster roach rush. Game two then saw Bomber try to strike with double proxy barracks, but soO defended solidly to pull ahead. Bomber kept up his trend of to play against the current meta, going for mass, unupgraded marines behind his his early cheese. soO welcomed him with open arms, controlling the map with lings and banes, and causing Bomber much pain with his mutalisks. Eventually Bomber was able to push out for a marine-tank push, but the game had already spiraled out of control. A solid muta-ling-bane engagement wiped Bomber's force off the map, forcing the season 2 champion to surrender.


PartinG Notes

MVP.Super: Super looked every bit the ace of team MVP, dominating Bomber's timing attacks and looking good against soO as well. He didn't show all too much flair in his games, but that's never really been the Super Vampire's forte.

SKT_soO: soO lived up to the reputation of being an SKT Zerg, defying all expectations and making it to the Ro16 for the third time in a row. Honestly, it's a bit of a mystery as to how he does it. He's never the most impressive player in Code S, but he always manages to play better than his Ro32 opponents.

ST_Bomber: Owch.

IM_YongHwa: Even with Artosis on a plane during his matches, YongHwa wasn't able to escape the curse.

Writers: Waxangel
Graphics: wo1fwood.
Editor: Waxangel.