Zest, Maru, Soulkey and Dear star in the group of death

by stuchiu

Last year Mr. Chae cried tears of blood during the WCS KR Ro16 group selections. Survival and strategy went flying out the window as a few cocky players decided to play a dangerous game of one-upmanship. It ended with four of the best players in the world at the time being put into one group: Parting, Life, Flash, Innovation. It wasn't the first time GomTV had to grit its teeth and bear the pain of two popular players going out in the Ro16, but it was the most egregious case. It was the straw that broke the camel's back.


In 2014, things were to be different. The renamed GOM eXP eliminated group selections altogether, instead choosing the Ro16 groups by a semi-seeded random draw. However, you can't escape fate, and the GSL's fate is to have a group of death. The live group drawing quickly made a dramatic turn as players were drawn into Group B.

Zest? Fine, gotta start with someone. Zest has been doing pretty well lately, he should be a tough opponent for even the established Code S players.

Soulkey? Damn, combined with Zest, this already makes group B one of the tougher groups in the Ro16.

Maru? Wait a sec, the WCS Korea season one AND season two champions are in the same group?! Looks like is gonna be the hardest Ro16 group with just three players drawn.

Dear? WHAT!?!?! ALL THREE WCS KOREA CHAMPIONS FROM 2013 IN THE SAME GROUP? If the players still had picking power, no one would have been insane enough to make this group... ....You okay over there Mr.Chae? That's a lot of blood that's coming from your mouth.


Zest, The Wooki Covered in SKT’s Blood

The first and least tested among the players is KT_Zest. Formerly known as both P7GAB (Covered in Blood) and Wooki, Zest has settled on a name that better hides his true nature as a cold-blooded butcher.

Ever since KeSPA's full SC2 switch, few people have noticed Zest. Like many other KT Rolster players he was overshadowed by the titan known as Flash, and it's generally hard to notice a player named after citrus peels. He seemed fated to remain in obscurity in the first round of Proleague 2014, going 2-4 while looking like the least important of KT's core four.

However, everything changed in the Round 1 playoffs. Facing arch-rivals SKT in the Round 1 championship match, KT Rolster sent out Zest as their point man to lead the way. Zest threw off his lemon-scented cloak to reveal the beast that lay beneath, smashing Rain with a fast 3-gate rush in the opening set. SKT looked to put the insolent Zest in his place by sending out top Zerg Soulkey, but instead they suffered a morale-crushing defeat. Soulkey almost had victory in his hands with locusts ranging deep into Zest's territory, but a few mistakes allowed the KT player to pull off an unthinkable comeback victory.

Running out of WCS champions, SKT was forced to instead field a WCS runner-up in SoO, who got smashed by a blink stalker all-in. With no choice left, SKT sent out PartinG as their ace. But even the Soultoss was couldn't pull back the tide, and Zest calmly outplayed him in a macro game to complete his 4-0 all-kill.

Zest has continued to go on a roll in round 2. He smashed Terminator, Maru and Solar during opening week, helping KT Rolster to the top of the standings. His momentum was only stopped last week, when he suffered defeat at the hands of Bbyong and herO. Even so, his overall record has been extremely impressive, going 31-12 in the new year. In addition to his SKT sweep, he's beat ace-class players from a variety of teams such as Byul, Innovation, Flash, Maru, and Solar.

If Zest has a weakness at all, it might be his PvT. It is the matchup he’s played the least, and he hasn't been especially convincing in macro games. The blink all-in, as well as the threat of the blink all-in, have been a key part of his play. In a pre-patch game against Maru he was able to scare the Jin Air ace into defending against a phantom attack before cruising to victory with a superior economy. When he tried something similar against Bbyong after the patch, Zest found his tricks weren't doing the job anymore. Playing with a strong resource base, Bbyong had a surprisingly easy time forcing the GG from Zest. At the end of the day these are just a couple of games, but you can be sure that Maru will have gleaned valuable information from them.

Up until his losses to herO and Bbyong on the same day, Zest had the most momentum of anyone in this group. Will Zest continue to be mighty Wooki we know he can be, or has his downfall already begun?


Maru, The Final* Hope

A short time ago, in a city far, far away...

The Kingdoms of Terran and Zerg were locked in a bloody conflict over the throne of GSL. But even as Innovation and Soulkey fought for dominance over Korea, they did notice the hidden threat. From the shadows Protoss came, and wreaking havoc upon the Korean scene. The Terrans were hit the hardest, with those who had the means fleeing to different regions while others like Byun and Yoda went missing entirely. Those that stayed to fight were cut down by the dozens, their blooded bodies littering the fields of Code B. Less still survived the horrors of Code A, leaving just three to face the challenge of Code S.

Yet, not all is lost for the Terran race. There is one among them who is not like the others. Possessing the marine micro of MKP, the SCV pulls of ByuN, and the 2-rax cheeses of BitbyBit, JinAir Maru is hailed as the Terran Prince that was Promised. He is the final hope of Terran to win the GSL championship and end these dark times. While other Terrans ran in terror at the thought of facing Protoss players, Maru fought as many of them as he could in Proleague.

While a few other players like Polt and Jjakji have had success in TvP lately, those two rely on different aspects of their play than Maru. Polt uses his intelligence and tactical prowess to outmaneuver his Protoss opponents. Jjakji utilizes a combination of calculated greed and solid late game control. Maru, on the other hand, wins with sheer force of micro. Where other Terrans are loathe to fight Protoss head on, Maru is addicted to combat. Storms, upgrades, chargelots, colossus: none of those mean a thing to Maru who sends attack after unrelenting attack until his opponent has been beaten into a bloody pulp.

Unfortunately for Maru, the outcome of his hyper-aggressive style has started to change as of late. Instead seeing a bloodied Protoss tap out after eating a barrage of blows, we're more likely to see Maru collapse in a heap after running out of steam.

Even worse, this group in particular seems tailored to kill him. Zest is as strong a Protoss player as they come and defeated Maru in recent Proleague match. Even if Maru beats Zest, he still has to face Soulkey and Dear. Of all the players in the world, they are the two who could be said to hard-counter Maru. Just about every encounter Maru has had with them in the past year has ended in a beatdown. Against Dear, Maru is 2-6. Against Soulkey, he's 3-12. He hasn't won a series against either. If Maru wants to save the Terran race, he will have to exorcise his worst demons.

*Because seriously, how many of you believe in Bbyong?


Soulkey, the Best Zerg Player in the World

The SC2 competitive scene is cutthroat. If you let your mental and physical condition lapse, then you can lose to anyone. Take a quick break, and you risk falling irrevocably behind the curve. Do you know what else is dangerous for your career? Winning a championship. It's a shortcut to a never-ending slump born out of complacency and mental pressure. Even the most diligent and disciplined players fall victim to the winner's curse. What goes up must eventually come down.

Unless you happen to be SKT_Soulkey. For almost a year now, Soulkey had held the title of best Zerg player in the world. At the beginning of HotS, it was Innovation, Flash, Parting and Life who were considered the best players in the world. Soulkey beat them. All of them. One WCS KR later, the best players were Soulkey, Rain, Bomber and Maru. And the next season, they were Soulkey, Soo, Dear and Maru.

Consistency is a quality that's often to underrate, but it's something more easily appreciated given some perspective. Perhaps Jaedong was the sexier player when he was playing well, his aura enhanced by his raw charisma and status as a Brood War legend. However, when you see him getting cheesed out of WCS America in the Ro32 while Soulkey is shooting for a sixth consecutive quarterfinal appearance in Korea...

There's no one thing that makes Soulkey a great player. He excels at everything. He has the best defense of any Zerg in the world, but he also has the best all-ins when he has a mind to use them. His mechanics, his multi-tasking, his decision-making are all amazing. Life has better speedling control, Symbol has a better nydus strategies, and Hyvaa is better at 6 pooling. Outside that, Soulkey is the best.

One thing to keep an eye out for in this group is Soulkey's swarm host play. When people talk about swarm host play in general, it is usually in disgust at how they slow down the pace of the game. But when Soulkey is at the reins, swarm hosts play is sometimes even talked about in reverent tones. Few other players have the skill to use them aggressively without exposing themselves to a fatal blow.

Even in this group of death, Soulkey is a step above the rest.


Dear, the Lost Champion

For a few weeks in the fall of 2013, mouz.Dear looked like the new champion of Aiur. Since MC's departure from Korea, the Protoss race had lacked the single hero all others could rally around and look to for inspiration. After walking the royal road to finally give Protoss their third ever GSL title and winning the WCS Season 3 Finals right after, Dear was hailed as the next great Protoss champion. His play in all three match-ups was immaculate, and his rivalry with Maru seemed like it could headline StarCraft 2 tournaments for several seasons to come. Sadly, Dear's recent play has him resembling Seed more than MC.

Is it the championship curse? At his debut for mousesports at ASUS ROG Winter, Dear had a good tournament on paper by finishing second. However, it was a rough ride the entire way, as he played incredibly sloppy in several of his games. He was just barely good enough to take 3-2 wins in close series before getting swept by San in the finals. IEM Cologne didn't even offer him the solace of a high finish as he was knocked out in the group stages after consecutive losses to jjakji.

Dear played much better upon returning to Korea, making noticeably less blunders as he made it out of his Code S Ro32 group with wins against YongHwa and Dark. Yet, it was not a completely vindicating performance for Dear. Though he played fairly well, Dark's mistakes also played a role in allowing Dear through.

For Dear, it is more important than ever to win now. In the era of Protoss, his name is being quickly forgotten as other players make a mad dash for championships. Also, this will be a turning point for Dear in terms of personal momentum and morale. If he loses here, then all those nagging doubts about his form will start to crystallize. If he loses here, then he faces a series of long, dark weeks where he won't have a tournament to prove himself. Many champions have fallen into a cycle of losing from which they have never escaped. Though Dear might have the strength and tenacity to pull himself out, it's far better if he doesn't even start down that path in the first place. For Dear, this isn’t about getting to the Ro8. This is about survival.

Overall Predictions:

Maru > Zest
Soulkey > Dear
Soulkey > Maru
Zest > Dear
Maru > Zest

Soulkey and Maru advance.