WCS Global Finals

Grand Finals Recap
sOs deafeats Jaedong

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sOs defeats Jaedong 4-1

Both sOs and Jaedong had a champion slaying road on their way to the grand finals of the WCS 2013 Global Finals. sOs had defeated Hero, Polt and Bomber and Jaedong crushed through Mvp, Dear and maru. It was no secret how each player was going to approach the series; sOs had been getting into the heads of his opponents and destroying them with carefully selected strategies while Jaedong had crushed his foes with merciless aggression coupled with flawless mechanics -- very reminiscent of the Jaedong we saw during his peak in Brood War.

It was clear that this would be a tournament to remember, regardless of the result. Over 150,000 fans from all over the world had tuned into watch this series, and it started off with an epic game.

sOs tried to dictate the series right from the opening of the first game with a low ground cannon rush on Akilon Wastes. Despite forcing a cancel, the game was still relatively even. Jaedong progressed towards a hydra/roach/viper composition which he used to put on relentless pressure on sOs. Through some miracle, sOs held the aggression and was able to finally get his fourth after being denied multiple times. Jaedong did well defending sOs's counter harass attempts, saving hatcheries with less than 100hp multiple times, and that set him up well for the late game. Jaedong’s decided for an ultralisk late game planning a switch into mutalisks. But sOs was one step ahead. sOs went for a base trade with a archon/colossus/stalker/templar near maxed army with three stargate phoenix replacing any lost supply. Jaedong was somewhat indecisive in committing to the base trade, but there was little he could do. sOs crushed Jaedong’s army before he got to the critical mass of mutalisks and took an impressive game 1.


sOs opened game 2 with yet another cannon rush in an innovative position on Derelict Watcher. This time the cannon rush was more successful – scoring a cancelled hatch and a few drone kills. sOs continued the pressure with a warp gate zealot +1 attack from the pylon used to cannon rush. The attack hit at an awkward timing which forced, and killed, many zerglings. From this awkward position Jaedong attempted to go for his tried and true spire play, but sOs already had two stargates producing phoenix before the spire had even completed or been scouted. Jaedong gained back some ground with a zergling deny on sOs's third, but continued zealot pressure in his main and awkwardly positioned fourth kept sOs in the drivers seat. Things turned dire as sOs’s phoenixes terrorized Jaedong’s scattered bases – destroying corruptors with perfect control, slaughtering overlords and drones mercilessly and reducing Jaedong to effectively one mining base. It wasn’t long before Jaedong was forced to tap out.


Game 3 on Whirlwind returned the series to some level of normality – with Jaedong not fazed by the cannon rushes in games 1&2 and going for three hatch before pool. While sOs went for a standard nexus first build into stargate tech. sOs then shocked everyone by dropping a third base in another main hoping it would be unscouted. After a botched void ray attack, Jaedong started to play the game of ‘deny the third’ without knowing of sOs’s hidden base. Things still looked okay for sOs as sold the image of him having a delayed third well. But Jaedong kept up the pressure by going for an unscouted mutalisks transition and for the first time caught sOs off guard. With sOs's army being mostly zealots and void rays, mutalisks were able to pick off key tech structures and probes.


With this move Jaedong took a clear upper hand in the game. With map control given by mass zerglings and mutalisks, it was easy for Jaedong to deny sOs’s fourth (or, from Jaedong's point of view, third) for a very long time. As infestors found their way into the mix, Jaedong managed to nab some units with fungal growth which enticed Jaedong to attack. However, sOs was able to clear up the mutalisks with phoenix/archon, but at the cost of losing his entire ground army to Jaedong’s zerglings. The zerglings went on to (once again) clear up sOs’s fourth.

From Jaedong’s point of view it looked like he had a clear edge with a scary infestor count, but the hidden base kept sOs competitive. But as Jaedong continued to trade his army with sOs’s it became increasingly clear that sOs was being out matched. Eventually Jaedong scored the perfect chain fungal and sOs lost any control over the game. Jaedong continued to soft contain sOs, traded off some more units before broodlord/infestor into Jaedong’s trademark mass mutalisks switch won a crucial point for the Tyrant.

On Polar Night in game 4 sOs opted for a gateway first opening, while Jaedong went for hatch/pool. After sOs expanded, he added a robotic facility to the surprise of the crowd and casters. It first produced a warp prism, which went to 'harass' Jaedong with a few zealots. sOs's aim wasn't to harass, rather it was to force Jaedong to build roaches and not drones to keep Jaedong on a lower economy in preparation for his follow up attack. After the faux harass sOs immediately followed it up with a scary zealot/immortal push. Somewhat uncharacteristically of the series, Jaedong failed to put up any kind of a fight and tapped out.



With cross positions on Frost both Jaedong and sOs continued the series with standard play; Jaedong with three hatch and sOs with nexus first into stargate. sOs managed to hide a pylon behind some line of sight blockers which allowed him to make a surprise zealot attack leading to slaughtering 10 drones and forcing many lings from Jaedong. This move set Jaedong 30-60seconds behind in his build, allowing sOs a more or less uncontested third base. After both sides consolidated their position, sOs moved out on the map putting pressure on Jaedong. Jaedong stumbled over himself to bolster his army and tried push sOs back. A poor engagement with his hydralisks baited sOs into attacking the Zerg who was not prepared. As colossus laser beams fried the last of Jaedong’s hydralisks, he tapped out conceding his fifth finals this year and crowning sOs as our 2013 world champion.



As we reflect on the series it’s worth remarking that sOs played Protoss how it is meant to be played. He took what was strongest about the race (the strength of catching players unprepared) and took it to the next level. We saw five games where sOs took a different approach to the game, and each time seemed to be in Jaedong’s head. Even in the game he lost, sOs’s hidden base was never scouted and seemed to be one step ahead of Jaedong. Any player will tell you that a Protoss that has your number will be very difficult to defeat and that was unfortunately the case for Jaedong. The Tyrant played the series exceptionally well, but by the end of it you could see that sOs had won the mental game. It takes two players to give us an amazing final, and both Jaedong and sOs stood up and gave us one of the more memorable finals of 2013.

Writers: Plexa.
Editor: Plexa.