Hot 6ix GSL Season 1
Code S

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For KT_Zest, the hottest StarCraft 2 player of 2014, his momentum didn't stop until he achieved his ultimate goal. With a 4-3 victory over SKT_soO in the finals, Zest completed his Royal Road run and won GSL Code S in his very first attempt.

After Zest's dominating tournament run that included just one series loss, soO presented him with his toughest challenge. The SKT Zerg drew first blood by taking game one, and twice had the opportunity to finish Zest off after taking a 3-2 series lead. However, Zest refused to crack under the pressure. In fact, he seemed to play even better from behind, pulling off impressive comebacks in both games four and six after falling behind to soO's mutalisk play. Upon forcing game seven, Zest was cool and collected as he predicted and stopped soO's hydra-roach-corruptor timing to close out the series.

The championship was meaningful for Zest's team KT Rolster as well, giving them their first major title since the switch from Brood War to StarCraft 2 in 2012. In addition, the victory gave KT Rolster their first champion besides Flash in over five years.

On the other hand, soO's loss had unfortunate historical implications, making him the only player to lose in consecutive Code S finals. Though soO played far better than in his first final against Dear, he was left to rue the mistakes that allowed him to let two games where he had large advantages slip away.



Game 1 – Frost: Zest brought out an unexpected tactic for game one, bucking his reputation as a risk-averse player and going for a cannon rush. While the cannon rush itself worked as planned, Zest was completely blind-sided by soO's clever response. Sending a drone out in the midst of the chaos, soO went for an audacious offensive hatchery at Zest's third base. The hatchery went completely unscouted, allowing soO to counter-attack with an unexpected roach army that forced a quick GG out of Zest.

Game 2 – Habitation Station: After a disappointing game one, Zest was able to tie the score up with a game that was more to his liking. His fast expand to the gold base went completely unpunished by soO, setting him up to play a macro game from a highly favorable position. Things got even better for Zest when he snuck a warp-prism into soO's main and summoned a massive army of zealots and archons, all the while using a handful of force fields to hold off soO's frontal attack.

Zest seemed to play his advantage a little too patiently after ravaging soO's main, allowing his opponent to recover his economy to some degree and establish a threatening mutalisk force. However, in a reversal of roles, the Protoss player ended up being the one backdooring the mutalisk player, with Zest diverting his excess zealots and immortals to cripple soO's economy. Without a leg to stand on, soO GG'd out.

Game 3 – Heavy Rain: Zest decided it was time to play aggressively once more, opening phoenixes into 4-gate zealot pressure. However, his zealot timing ended up being not only ineffectual but detrimental as well. soO was able to easily hold the attack off with zerglings and then used his advantage to smoothly transition into mutalisk tech. Even though Zest caught whiff of soO's plan and prepared accordingly with phoenixes and blink stalkers, he was unable to hold against overwhelming numbers of mutalisks and zerglings.

Game 4 – Yeonsu: In what would end up being THE pivotal game of the series, Zest pulled off an unlikely comeback to tie the score.

Similar to Zest, soO came into the series known as an infrequent user of all-ins and cheesy tactics, and decided game four was where he would cash in on that reputation. An early roach-ling push cost Zest a significant number of probes on defense, giving soO a commanding economic lead as he transitioned into mutalisks once more.

Yet, with a 3-1 lead in front of his eyes, soO was unable to capitalize. Sticking with his muta-ling composition, soO continued to batter away at Zest's defenses, hoping that they would eventually fall. But each and every attack only left Zest in a slightly better position while soO's lead slowly started to fade. Eventually, Zest found himself in the position to divert forces to harass soO's economy, and not long after that, take a fourth base for himself.

Once Zest completed the trio of stalkers, archons, and phoenixes, the tables turned completely. Though soO tried his best to keep Zest pinned down with mutalisks, it was to no avail. After a final, futile attack to try and kill Zest's fourth base, soO surrendered the tying point.


Game 5 – Polar Night: Despite suffering a disheartening loss in game four, soO bounced right back in game five.

This time around it would be soO who capitalized on Zest's mistake. After sneaking out an early warp prism and warping in eight zealots, Zest seemed to have a free kill lined up on soO's third base. However, Zest committed a grievous error by not focusing the down the hatchery when he had the chance, allowing hydras to eliminate the zealots before they could finish the job. Though Zest later sent in four stalkers to kill the hatchery, they paid the price with their lives as well. All of this set up soO to hit a deadly timing with hydralisks before Zest had sufficient defenses back at home, giving him a 3-2 lead in the series.

Game 6 – Altzerim Stronghold: In a painful repeat of game four, soO found himself allowing Zest to tie up the series after throwing away an advantage.

Drawing diagonal positions on Alterzim Stronghold, soO took firm control of the game by going up to mutalisks and dominating the map. Containing Zest within a small pocket of the map, soO was free to expand and tech to his heart's content, eventually establishing a powerful hive army and banking over 10k in minerals and gas.

None of this seemed to concern Zest, who was perfectly content to bide his time. The pressure shifted onto soO instead, who seemed to be at a loss for what to do. Despite having a strong standing army, he refused to attack into the waiting Protoss defenses and instead sat back and allowed his savings to accumulate.

Eventually soO decided to dump a portion of his forces to focus heavily on mutalisks, but the move ended up being his undoing. Predicting soO's tech switch, Zest prepared a hidden force of phoenixes in response. Combined with the oracle's revelation ability, Zest's phoenixes were able to corral the mutalisks while he moved out on the map with his main force. soO was able to stop Zest's advance by switching back into ultralisks, but not before he lost several of his bases and most of his savings. Left with little income or bank, all soO could do was go for one desperate attack before GG'ing out.

Game 7 – Daedalus Point: With the championship on the line on a map with a notoriously short rush distance, Zest opted to play it extra safe by going for colossus tech before attempting to take a third. This proved to be an astute move (Zest would later comment that he always expected an attack Daedalus) as soO opened hydras followed by spire, followed by a deadly max-out timing with roaches, hydras, and corruptors. Though he went into the fight behind nearly 70 supply, Zest's ragtag combination of colossi, phoenixes, and gateway units was just enough to hold off the attack.

Even with the championship just one GG away, Zest was in no hurry to force an end to the game. Instead, Zest sat tight on three bases until he had massed an army that he was absolutely confident in, before finally moving out to claim the championship.

After the finals, a stoic Zest said he was happy he could finally make his father proud – a father who had passed away before he had been able to see his son's first match. Looking toward the future, Zest was determined to continue his success. "There's no end to man's greed. My role model is my friend and teammate Flash. Like Flash, I want to win six or more championships."

Notes and Observations

• Depending on the criteria, you could say that this was the first ever individual league finals between the telecom rivals KT and SKT. The MSL featured iloveoov vs. Yellow (2003) and iloveoov vs. Nada (2004) in the finals, but at the time SKT was known as Dongyang Orion while KT Rolster were the KTF Magic N's.
  
  
• After Zest beat Soulkey's swarm hosts on three separate occasions, it wasn't surprising to see his teammate soO not make a single swarm host in the finals.
  
  
• soO went mutalisks in 5/7 of the games, which might as well be 5/6 because game one ended before he could get a Lair. We're certain this was because of the TeamLiquid preview, where we said muta-corruptor was soO's most striking style.
  
  
• soO joins Mvp as the only players to lose two GSL finals. MarineKing still holds the record with three second place finishes.
  
  
• Zest's map record against SKT is now 16-6 on the year. He's 4-0 against them in series, having defeated Soulkey, Rain, and soO in the GSL and the entire SKT roster in the Proleague Round 1 finals. Needless to say, we're excited for the SKT-KT match in Round 3.
  
  
• Besides the KT Zergs, Zest also thanked the Samsung Zergs and the currently teamless Symbol for helping him practice in his post-match press conference with the Korean media.
  
  
• KT Rolster solved the celebratory champagne conundrum by having teammates and the coaching staff dump three bottles of champagne on Zest's head.
  
  
• Zest jumps to tie-2nd place in the WCS point standings. herO is still the #1 player due to his top 8 GSL finish combined with his great IEM performances.

Writers: Waxangel
Images: GOM eXP
Editor: Waxangel