soO, Trap, herO, Bbyong

by Waxangel

Due to scheduling conflicts with the IEM World Championship on March 13-16, the GSL has shifted its Ro16 schedule around. Thus, three Ro16 groups are being played in one week, with Group D being pulled over and played early.

This is largely in part to accommodate CJ's herO, a player who has made IEM his personal ATM. By taking first place at both IEM Sao Paulo and Singapore, herO has become the face of IEM StarCraft 2 in the 2013-2014 season, and the world finals would certainly feel empty without him.

Those IEM wins are precisely why we consider herO to be a top Protoss at the moment, despite his rather mediocre 7-6 record in Proleague. Like all other CJ Entus players herO seems to be cursed to play his worst in Proleague, but his showings at IEM have always been spectacular. In both his runs through the online Korean qualifers and his performances on the live stage, herO has shown he can take on and beat the best Korea has to offer.

"The best Korea has to offer" is a description few would put on CJ_Bbyong, herO's initial opponent. Bbyong is the forgotten Terran hope of the tournament – a player who has survived but doesn't inspire the most confidence.

He's part of an old breed of Korean Terran that we haven't seen many of since the old 2011 WoL days. Though he's not the strongest player in Code S, he still has an inexplicable knack for hanging around in the lower rounds of Code S. And occasionally, he can turn on the heat and give a championship contender a really tough series, maybe even scoring an upset. That's the kind of role players like Keen and Hack fulfilled in the past, and now it's been passed down to Bbyong. It wouldn't be inconceivable for Bbyong to make it to the quarterfinals, but it would definitely be a surprise.

The second initial match of the night features two of the breakout stars from WCS Korea Season 3 from 2013, soO and Trap.

SKT_soO suffered for years from his reputation as an "SKT Zerg" in Brood War, and admitted to being content to coast along during his early HotS career. However, he found the spark he needed in WCS Korea season three, one that motivated him to become a better player and reach the grand finals by beating players like INnoVation, PartinG, and Soulkey.

At present, fans seem to be divided on whether or not that run was a fluke. soO is certainly a better player than he was in Brood War and ranks among the better Code S players, but was he really grand finals quality? His mediocre results after his finals run are the reason for the doubt. He flopped out in the Ro16 of the proceeding WCS Season 3 Finals in Canada, and then got swept by Maru 0-3 in the year-end Hot6ix Cup. His Proleague record is below expectations at 3-4, but he had no problem defeating sOs and Panic to get past his Code S Ro32 group.

This is probably the easiest Code S Ro16 group, so soO has more than a decent chance of advancing. But even if he does, we'll still be wondering about his ability to succeed in the higher rounds.

soO's opponent IM_Trap is another opponent stuck in some kind of post-WCS Season 3 limbo. Though he was a big contributor in STX Soul's Proleague championship campaign, few expected him to beat players like PartinG and jjakji to earn fifth place in WCS Korea.

Trap has been playing fairly well in the new year, going 4-1 in the Proleague while making it out of his Code S Ro32 group without much trouble. However, he just doesn't have any big wins over big names to get us hyped about his prospects in Code S. Not that it's Trap's fault – he hasn't had a chance to chase glory at foreign tournaments, and he's drawn easier opponents in his domestic matches.

From what we have seen, it does seem like the present version of Trap is the strongest ever. His skill at all-inning has been augmented with a stronger macro game, making him a dangerous all-around player.

Predictions:

soO > Trap
herO > Bbyong
herO > soO
Trap > Bbyong
soO > Trap

herO and soO advance.