GOMTV Hot6ix Cup

Quarterfinals Day One

Rain vs. Symbol

Dear vs. RorO

Brackets and standings on
Liquipedia

by Waxangel

In 2011 and 2012, we had the Blizzard Cup. GomTV invited the top finishers from premier tournaments around the world to compete in one final competition to close out the year. MMA lifted the trophy in 2011, and Life capped off his domination of 2012 by winning the cup as well.

This year, the Blizzard Cup has become the Hot6ix cup, and the format has changed alongside the name. Instead of inviting the top finishers from international tournaments, the eight finalists from this year's Code S and Starleague tournaments have been invited to compete in an all-Korean event. Here are your contestants:


The tournament begins tonight with the upper half of the quarter-final bracket, as Symbol takes on Rain and Dear faces RorO!

Quarterfinal 1: Symbol vs. Rain

With all the buzz around Blizzcon, DreamHack Winter, and Red Bull, you could be excused for briefly forgetting about SKT_Rain and Azubu.Symbol. But with the Hot6ix cup coming up, they demand our attention once more.

It's true that neither of them has done much of note in the most recent time frame, but they're players who have shown they never really "fall off." When you least expect it they're back in the mix, reminding the new kids on the block why they've been contending for championships ever since WoL. Rain is the rock at the heart of SK Telecom T1, and Symbol was the Code S paragon of consistency before the arrival of Soulkey. They'll be eager to show that all these recent tournaments were truly poorer because of their absence.

Lest we forget, Symbol was just inches away from eliminating TaeJa from HomeStory Cup VIII and reaching the finals. Unfortunately, a gigantic late game throw saw him lose what had appeared to be an insurmountable lead, and he had to content himself with a top four finish.

Alright, so using a monumental throw to demonstrate a player's strengths has some flaws. But it's important to point out that Symbol hasn't been reduced to a gimmicky, all-in loving player in HotS like some people have been led to believe. Sure, he loves to go for aggressive strategies to catch his opponents off guard, but he can lock horns with the best players in the world in macro games as well.

As for Rain, he was in an OnGameNet Starleague finals just this summer. Some uncharacteristic losses to Jjakji and TaeJa saw him miss out on the points needed to go to BlizzCon, but he was right there on the cusp. He was on the verge of going to IEM Singapore as well, but was knocked out at the very last hurdle by CJ's Hydra. With a guaranteed spot in the Hot6ix cup, he'll have a chance to remind us why he's known as THE exemplary macro Protoss player.

Overall Outlook and Prediction

There's rarely any need to doubt Rain's PvT or PvP, but his PvZ has been questionable as of late. His record against top players has been poor in the past few months, losing to Jaedong, Soulkey, and Hydra at a number of important junctures. The Zergs he did beat, TRUE and Songduri, aren't the most fearsome of players. If Rain hasn't been working hard on improving his PvZ, then Symbol could very well hand him another big loss.

On the other side of the table, Symbol's been hot and cold in ZvP, sometimes playing hydra-ling -> muta switch style beautifully, and sometimes just making mind-boggling decisions to throw games that he has in the bag. Also, he seems to have a weakness against all-ins, which Rain might want to exploit. Overall, I'd say he's closer to the Jaedong/Soulkey end of the spectrum than TRUE or Songduri, and stands a good chance to beat Rain in straight up games.

Symbol 3 - 2 Rain

Quarterfinal 2: Dear vs. RorO

Sniper isn't around to ruin Christmas this year, but he may have found a replacement.

Way back in the summer, when GomTV announced their plans to invite all the Code S/OSL finalists for a year end cup, they probably didn't expect Samsung_RorO to fall off a cliff. The final WoL champion performed well enough in the first HotS Code S by reaching the top eight, but from there on it's been nothing but agony for the Last King of PatchZergs. Ro32 elimination followed in WCS Season 2, and by Season 3 he had sank back into Code A.

Although RorO is a rather awkward addition to the seven other players who have enjoyed success HotS, he's not completely out of his depth here. Even if his performances in the studio have been dreadful, he's at least been decent in online qualifiers. Even so, he's probably very dead against Dear.

Despite his elimination at the hands of Jaedong in the BlizzCon quarterfinals, we still have to give Soul_Dear credit as one of the very best Protoss players in the world, if not THE best. With all due respect to sOs, Dear's double championships in WCS Korea Season 3 and then the Combined Season 3 Finals in Canada was really the most impressive achievement of WCS 2013. One series loss to Jaedong doesn't make that go away.

Dear wasn't able to make it to IEM Singapore or DreamHack Winter, but fortunately we get one last chance to see him play in 2013 in the Hot6ix cup. Given the way Dear 4-0'd Soulkey in Canada, 4-2's soO in Seoul, and just barely lost 2-3 to Jaedong in Anaheim, RorO has to be shaking in his boots.

Overall Outlook and Prediction

Well, the one thing going for RorO is that he's been practically invisible while Dear has had to bring his best strats in a lot of high profile games. The problem is that Dear is the kind of player who can play macro games so solidly that sometimes it doesn't really matter if you know what he's doing - he'll stomp on you anyway.

Personally, I'm curious to see how Dear plays PvZ at this point in time. The mass void style that Dear sometimes employed has lost popularity as Zergs have gotten better at punishing it, but Dear has generally been good at mixing his strategies up. In particular, he had much success with blink-stalker heavy compositions in his WCS championship runs, and it will be interesting to see if he brings that kind of play again.

On the whole, I think RorO will be better than we expect for someone who is in Code A, and he'll probably be putting his all into making a comeback in this tournament. However, it won't be enough to overcome Dear.

Dear 3 - 1 RorO

Writers: Waxangel.
Graphics: shiroiusagi.
Photos: GomTV and ThisIsGame.
Editor: Waxangel.