WCS Korea Season 3
GSL Code S

Ro8: Dear vs. Trap
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Ro8: Soulkey vs. Rain
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Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by CosmicSpiral

During its tenure in SC2, STX SouL became inextricably linked to the fortunes and identity of its star player. From the beginning INnoVation proved to be SouL’s most adept player in individual leagues, and he quickly garnered admiration as he qualified for OSL and GSL mere months after officially switching from BW. From there he developed into a guaranteed threat to win every premier tournament, beating the best players with stunning ease and singlehandedly skewing TvZ stats with his merciless pushes.


Team leagues did not escape his wrath either: he seized a 43-20 SPL record while serving as Soul's dreaded final boss. The robot with a human face contributed to every victory and defeat and in doing so, became subconsciously associated with the overall state of his team.


But just like a quasar, Innovation shone so brightly that everything in his orbit became regarded as minor stars. Debates on Proleague matches inevitably focused on whether the opposing team could snipe him with a well-conceived plan, not on how they would deal with the supporting cast. The accomplishments of teammates like Last and hyvaa had no luster compared to Innovation’s, and their failure to replicate those results came under greater scrutiny due to their teammate’s reliability. Innovation was winning in every scenario regardless of circumstance, making it easy to typecast the rest of STX SouL into their Proleague roles: hyvaa the cheesy zerg, Trap the PvZ specialist, Mini the secret PvP specialist. So when Innovation joined Acer, it was a slight blessing in disguise. Without his specter serving as the ultimate benchmark, it forced other players to fill his shoes while letting their individual performances stand alone.

From the shadows they come

Nobody has benefited more from this change than Soul_Dear and Soul_Trap. The two best players after Innovation (and arguably hyvaa), they were the stalwart pillars that supported STX through their championship run in Proleague, Dear acting as the workhorse while Trap was reserved for his untouchable PvZ. Together with Mini and Classic, they formed a Protoss quartet that could take the pressure off of Innovation and win matches before he had to be called in. And yet despite their obvious promise, they were overshadowed by their perfect teammate who could seem to do no wrong. Rarely were they given credit for STX’s championship run despite playing essential roles in the playoffs. Instead Trap was dismissed as a one-matchup wonder while Dear was strangely criticized for not stomping everyone at MLG Spring Championship (the high expectations of a KeSPA representative!).

In the span of only one match, things have completely reversed. Today we regularly criticize Innovation for being too predictable in his TvT and too stubborn in his overall approach to the game. Meanwhile the two Protoss underdogs are in the Ro8 against all odds and expectations. Dear is being praised for excellent play throughout the tournament, especially his games against DRG and Supernova. And how many people would’ve predicted that Trap would get this far without playing a single PvZ? Instead he has had to rely on his so-called weak matchups and while he has not looked as clean as his SouL brother, Trap has shown equal ingenuity in manipulating the expectations of his opponents.

Despite their overall success in Proleague, Dear and Trap have mediocre records in PvP overall: Trap barely sits above a 50% winrate at 20-18 and Dear is only slightly worse with 16-17. Oddly enough these players, who were clearly excellent when preparing against zergs and terrans in a BoX series, performed slightly worse when they tried the same against protoss. Dear is 7-11 in Bo3 series and has lost his last 5 series in a row in various embarrassing ways. Trap is only 6-6 and while he pulled off some neat tricks against sOs in the Ro16, he was blatantly outplayed by Yonghwa in Code A and Squirtle in the IEM qualifiers. His recent matches in the Ro16 epitomized his strengths and weaknesses to a tee: most of his wins against sOs showed great aggressive control and adaptability, while his loss against Rain on Yeonsu demonstrated an indecisive lategame.

One soul, two styles

Dear and Trap share a similar approach to PvP, one in which big risks take ultimate precedence, and the level of mindgames between these two might reach absurd heights. Trap can be classified as the ‘aggressive SouL player’ due to his emphasis on 1 base play. He loves to challenge his opponent’s scouting with an assortment of proxy builds, notably double gateway and twilight council -> 1 base blink. If he can’t get a quick expand with 1 gate -> nexus -> robo, he will elect to delay his opponent’s expansion as long as possible with 3 gate blink. Trap occasionally experiments with archon/void ray variants instead of the typical immortal/colossus/archon compositions but has found little success.

By contrast Dear can be loosely categorized as the ‘safe SouL player’. He also exposes himself to danger but usually to grab an economic advantage. While Trap has only elected for fast nexus on huge 4-player maps against predictable opponents, Dear is willing to do so the same on 2-player maps like Bel-Shir Vestige. Dear is not a huge fan of proxy strategies as his playstyle is based on controlling the opponent’s movement until the midgame. To that end he prefers fast twilight council for blink and stargate builds for oracle harassment. Dear will sometimes open void ray first if he is feeling particularly frisky. Yet Dear has blindly gone for 4 gate blink all-ins and proxy stargate to punish greedy opponents in the past, and such strategies could work well against a player who is accustomed to exploiting standard openers.

Overall outlook and prediction

All of this sounds like the makings of a fun, if sloppy, showdown except for the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Stylistically, Dear excels in the midgame and he annihilates adversaries if he can reach that point with an untouched economy…if he can get there. As it turns out he dies a lot before he reaches that point. Dear’s love of expanding and teching quickly is unfortunately coupled with an inability to read his adversary’s intentions. It’s a pattern that has been exploited by opponents dating back to MLG Spring Championship. If he sees nothing that’s blatantly out of the ordinary he’ll take that as a sign that he should expand right away or immediately go for stargate. And so opponents gladly allow him to indulge in this habit. They place proxy buildings a pixel outside of the regular scouting paths, betting that Dear will not deviate from them even by accident. Most recently sOs slapped him around just by placing pylons inside his main base and waiting for Dear’s army to be out of position. Dear never spotted them as he never had units in position to see the probe, even when he was completely safe from harassment.

This will undoubtedly be one of the most stressful matches of Dear’s life. He may have had the more impressive games leading up to this match, but Trap is the worst possible opponent he could face. He’s aggressive, keen on punishing tendencies, and willing to push attacks past their rational end if it can win him the match. Of course Dear is keenly aware of his teammate’s approach to PvP and he must subvert expectations if he wants to seize control of his series. Trap is a crafty opponent but most of his plans share a common theme: he is the one making the critical moves while his opponent sits back and attempts to figure out what’s coming next. If Dear can reverse the roles and keep Trap in a guessing state, he can extend the match and force the type of macro game where he will be comfortable. However, his glaring weaknesses in the matchup may be too much of a problem to overcome.

Trap 3 - 1 Dear

Writers: CosmicSpiral and Waxangel.
Graphics: wo1fwood.
Editor: Waxangel.