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.
Standard cannon-rush counter: Expand to opponent's third and roach rush.
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.
Not a position you want to be attacking into.
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.
There's no such thing as overkill when countering mutas.
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.
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.
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.
I just realized that Zest has no fanclub yet... Today isn't possible for me, but tomorrow before watching the new game of thrones episode will be enough time :D
On April 06 2014 01:28 Shellshock wrote: Good finals. sad that soO threw away so many games
Well, I would say that finals were so-so(no pun intended), they could have been better even though few games were quite good, but still aren't nearly as bad as some other finals. As you said, sad thing that most of the Zest's comebacks weren't because he did something amazing but because SoO was doing something stupid. :/
On April 06 2014 01:50 mr.reee wrote: Teamliquid - Don't ruin the GSL code S finals with a spoiling headline on the front page. I have 'hide spoilers' checked for a reason.
On April 06 2014 01:28 Shellshock wrote: Good finals. sad that soO threw away so many games
Well, I would say that finals were so-so(no pun intended), they could have been better even though few games were quite good, but still aren't nearly as bad as some other finals. As you said, sad thing that most of the Zest's comebacks weren't because he did something amazing but because SoO was doing something stupid. :/
I wouldn't say that. soO made non-optimal decisions, but he didn't "donate" the games. Zest was pretty much dead a few of the games he won. In that position you have to play perfectly, along side the opponent making not-great plays.
On April 06 2014 01:28 Shellshock wrote: Good finals. sad that soO threw away so many games
Well, I would say that finals were so-so(no pun intended), they could have been better even though few games were quite good, but still aren't nearly as bad as some other finals. As you said, sad thing that most of the Zest's comebacks weren't because he did something amazing but because SoO was doing something stupid. :/
There are not many people who could take advantage of SoO's 'stupidity' like that. Zest's engagements were very good.
last year after such a final there would have been a snarky remark about another zerg win, in the tl wrtiteups nowadays it isnt even mentioned that protoss won every major event in 2014 so far
On April 06 2014 02:17 Tsubbi wrote: last year after such a final there would have been a snarky remark about another zerg win, in the tl wrtiteups nowadays it isnt even mentioned that protoss won every major event in 2014 so far
On April 06 2014 02:17 Tsubbi wrote: last year after such a final there would have been a snarky remark about another zerg win, in the tl wrtiteups nowadays it isnt even mentioned that protoss won every major event in 2014 so far
b-but this is not as horrible as bl-infestor!
That is true, those games were just painful to watch
I take it that the people already bitching in this thread about Protoss and balance didn't actually watch any of the games because they were all close and evenly matched. "Imbalance" had nothing to do with this win for Zest.
But, it's impossible to reason with people who will whine no matter what.
After seing the comeback on Yoensu, I thought a bigger comeback couldn't happen this series. I stopped watching during Alterzim Stronghold, when soO had 6k/5k +25 food lead... How the hell did Zest come back from that?!... What the actual phuck..
soO was way too cocky in all games. This series gonna haunt him for the rest of his life.
On April 06 2014 03:33 mangofrancesco wrote: I take it that the people already bitching in this thread about Protoss and balance didn't actually watch any of the games because they were all close and evenly matched. "Imbalance" had nothing to do with this win for Zest.
But, it's impossible to reason with people who will whine no matter what.
I'm pretty sure that people are upset that of the last 10 finalists in premier tournaments, 8 have been protoss, one terran and one zerg.
I only watched games 2 - 6, but I have to say that Soo threw those games so hard. Like when he had 10k/8k in the bank and made Ultra/BroodLord and he DIDN'T do anything with them... Honestly, it feels extremely fishy to me. Anyway, gratz Zest
On April 06 2014 03:51 astray71 wrote: I only watched games 2 - 6, but I have to say that Soo threw those games so hard. Like when he had 10k/8k in the bank and made Ultra/BroodLord and he DIDN'T do anything with them... Honestly, it feels extremely fishy to me. Anyway, gratz Zest
On April 06 2014 03:33 mangofrancesco wrote: I take it that the people already bitching in this thread about Protoss and balance didn't actually watch any of the games because they were all close and evenly matched. "Imbalance" had nothing to do with this win for Zest.
But, it's impossible to reason with people who will whine no matter what.
haha, I'm surprised there aren't more zerg players in here announcing their retirements.
It was all the finals I could ask for. Both players pulled great comebacks. I feel Soo could have won if he had been more decisive, but he wasn't suffering from indecision when he attacked Zest with roach hydra ling after faking a muta switch in the last game. The move didn't work, but I loved it.
The prize pool is seriously fucked over there. With Zest taking home 5x more money, it might as well have been winner takes all. And then we wonder why all the Koreans are bailing hard on the KR region...
On April 06 2014 03:33 mangofrancesco wrote: I take it that the people already bitching in this thread about Protoss and balance didn't actually watch any of the games because they were all close and evenly matched. "Imbalance" had nothing to do with this win for Zest.
But, it's impossible to reason with people who will whine no matter what.
Once I saw a chimpanzee with an ak47 beating a massive gorilla but only slightly.
The one game where Zest basically just FF off the ramp of soO's main and he literally couldn't do anything about it. It's shit like that that makes people frustrated with this game. And I play Protoss. In a series as close as this one, a player armed with basically a free pass to wipe out the other players main and all the tech in it has such a massive advantage it's ridiculous. I'm not surprised Zest won, but I felt soO was playing the best SC2 of his life this Code S season and he put up an amazing fight making it 3-4, although there were mistakes on both sides, the Power of Protoss prevails. So how many major tournaments has it been so far in 2014 that Protoss has won? All of them?
I watched the event live at the gom studios last night and it was truly a dream come true for me. I got my skt jersey signed by Rain and Dark and cheered on soO at every chance. The studio was absolutely packed with nerds, even until the end when they were giving away diablo collectors boxes. soO put on a true display of heart and skill and came within inches of beating Zest multiple times in the final two games. It was a tough loss, and soO looked devasted after the match but he surprised even his toughest critics and won fans along the way. soO fiiightinggg! SKT fiightingg!!
I dunno how people can call these finals one of the best PvZs they've seen(saw it mentioned in some comments in LR and such). I can understand that PvZ has been undergoing a lot of changes and swarmhost games are boring to watch etc... but honestly, soO should've won this series 4-1. He had 2 won games(maybe even 3 but let's say 2 for sure), one where he kept throwing away mutas allowing Zest to come back into the game but he didn't know when to stop and the other where he had 10k/6k bank and had a superior army plus more bases and had a large corruptor/muta flock with some BLs and infestors. He even had 6 ultras with this army. He could've easily parked his air army behind Zest's 4th base and stopped mining then engaged the rest of the army outside that but he sat back, banked a lot of money which he didn't use and allowed Zest to get more bases for w/e reason then panicked when he lost.
Shit like that was irritating to watch because I was cheering for soO and to see him make such big mistakes is unfathomable at their level. I mean, seriously. They say when you're ahead, get more ahead or if you see a chance, just go and finish him but soO didn't even get ahead lol. He had 3-4 bases he could've taken, tons of spores/spines to defend against dts and any small zealots attack etc... but he kept dancing his army around the map as if that does anything. He could've even gotten zipers, sniped colossi, archons, the mothership with that 10k/6k bank but nope ><; Congrats to Zest and he definitely has the skills but as I mentioned in the LR, this was more soO backstabbing himself due to horrible late game decision making skills and allowing Zest to come back from bad situations. Even roro vs symbol was more interesting lol.
On April 06 2014 01:50 mr.reee wrote: Teamliquid - Don't ruin the GSL code S finals with a spoiling headline on the front page. I have 'hide spoilers' checked for a reason.
On April 06 2014 01:50 mr.reee wrote: Teamliquid - Don't ruin the GSL code S finals with a spoiling headline on the front page. I have 'hide spoilers' checked for a reason.
Same, thanks for the ****up TL.
Who the fuck checks TL the day after a premier tournament. If i ever do want to watch it i just have my friend find it and link it to me on skype or something.
On April 06 2014 03:33 mangofrancesco wrote: I take it that the people already bitching in this thread about Protoss and balance didn't actually watch any of the games because they were all close and evenly matched. "Imbalance" had nothing to do with this win for Zest.
But, it's impossible to reason with people who will whine no matter what.
haha, I'm surprised there aren't more zerg players in here announcing their retirements.
It was all the finals I could ask for. Both players pulled great comebacks. I feel Soo could have won if he had been more decisive, but he wasn't suffering from indecision when he attacked Zest with roach hydra ling after faking a muta switch in the last game. The move didn't work, but I loved it.
The prize pool is seriously fucked over there. With Zest taking home 5x more money, it might as well have been winner takes all. And then we wonder why all the Koreans are bailing hard on the KR region...
They bailed 12 months ago, when the prize money was the same in all regions, nothing to do with the current GSL prize money.
The WCS Korea prize pool distribution is as close to exactly the same as WCS EU and WCS AM as possible. The only different being the winner gets an extra $45k. So, if anything, staying in Korea would be more enticing than 12 months ago...
On April 06 2014 01:50 mr.reee wrote: Teamliquid - Don't ruin the GSL code S finals with a spoiling headline on the front page. I have 'hide spoilers' checked for a reason.
On April 06 2014 01:50 mr.reee wrote: Teamliquid - Don't ruin the GSL code S finals with a spoiling headline on the front page. I have 'hide spoilers' checked for a reason.
Same, thanks for the ****up TL.
Who the fuck checks TL the day after a premier tournament. If i ever do want to watch it i just have my friend find it and link it to me on skype or something.
No kidding, pretty silly. Either have some self-control and do something else other than browse TL until you have watched the finals, or dont complain imo.
On April 06 2014 01:50 mr.reee wrote: Teamliquid - Don't ruin the GSL code S finals with a spoiling headline on the front page. I have 'hide spoilers' checked for a reason.
On April 06 2014 01:50 mr.reee wrote: Teamliquid - Don't ruin the GSL code S finals with a spoiling headline on the front page. I have 'hide spoilers' checked for a reason.
Same, thanks for the ****up TL.
Who the fuck checks TL the day after a premier tournament. If i ever do want to watch it i just have my friend find it and link it to me on skype or something.
Don't want to be a fuck-up, but if TL.net implements a spoiler function, they should really use it . That's what it's for - that you CAN check out TL.net without being spoilered.
Uhhh I understand why Dongyang Orion isn't considered "SKT"... but KTF = KT... was just a slight rebranding/name change by the corporation. Don't know why people would act like it's a different team somehow :O.
On April 06 2014 03:33 mangofrancesco wrote: I take it that the people already bitching in this thread about Protoss and balance didn't actually watch any of the games because they were all close and evenly matched. "Imbalance" had nothing to do with this win for Zest.
But, it's impossible to reason with people who will whine no matter what.
The series was mediocre at best. Both players made tons of mistakes all-throughout, which determined almost every single match. So, I wouldn't exactly say it reflected "balance" very well, but if you were to include the other premier tournaments as well, it's quite clear that Protoss is (or at least was) dominant.
Nice write-up Wax. Just a little quibble with the following, "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" in notes and observations.
That doesn't read right as it makes it sound like SoO went Muta/Corruptor because of the TL preview which is not the case and not what I imagine you are saying anyway. Rather, I suppose, what you are saying is that he would have gone Muta/Corruptor in 6/7 because that is his style as detailed in the TL GSL finals preview.
I really enjoyed the finals. One of the best series I have seen in a long time. I'm also happy that the crowd were so solidly into it. That last game was so tense when SoO moved out but Zest, perhaps learning from Polar Night, played it so safe with Colo and extra gates before taking the third. I was hoping SoO would win it, but I can have no qualms with Zest taking it. SoO made too many mistakes, and Zest showed the resilience of a champion in clawing back games 2 and 4 from the abyss.
That moment when you enter TL, see a "show spoiler" link because you have this option marked, then you think to yourself "wait... there wasn't any big tournament yesterday", and then you click on the link and finds out that actually there was a big tournament going yesterday.
Woohoo! So happy for Zest! :D I guess he really must have great confidence in his skills to be so patient and tenacious in those seemingly lost game situations!
Loved the pre game videos about their storylines... (also Zest's was so touching!)
Hehe, soO fulfilled the role of the red carpet quite handily, first Dear and now Zest that walked the royal road on his back Overall it was a good final, back and forth, rich variety of strategies, some comebacks, I think probably the best PvZ final the GSL ever had.
On April 06 2014 05:36 BigFan wrote: I dunno how people can call these finals one of the best PvZs they've seen(saw it mentioned in some comments in LR and such). I can understand that PvZ has been undergoing a lot of changes and swarmhost games are boring to watch etc... but honestly, soO should've won this series 4-1. He had 2 won games(maybe even 3 but let's say 2 for sure), one where he kept throwing away mutas allowing Zest to come back into the game but he didn't know when to stop and the other where he had 10k/6k bank and had a superior army plus more bases and had a large corruptor/muta flock with some BLs and infestors. He even had 6 ultras with this army. He could've easily parked his air army behind Zest's 4th base and stopped mining then engaged the rest of the army outside that but he sat back, banked a lot of money which he didn't use and allowed Zest to get more bases for w/e reason then panicked when he lost.
Shit like that was irritating to watch because I was cheering for soO and to see him make such big mistakes is unfathomable at their level. I mean, seriously. They say when you're ahead, get more ahead or if you see a chance, just go and finish him but soO didn't even get ahead lol. He had 3-4 bases he could've taken, tons of spores/spines to defend against dts and any small zealots attack etc... but he kept dancing his army around the map as if that does anything. He could've even gotten zipers, sniped colossi, archons, the mothership with that 10k/6k bank but nope ><; Congrats to Zest and he definitely has the skills but as I mentioned in the LR, this was more soO backstabbing himself due to horrible late game decision making skills and allowing Zest to come back from bad situations. Even roro vs symbol was more interesting lol.
I agree with your sentiments. I found these series to be quite lackluster. It was a decent GSL finals in comparison to most of the GSL finals in the past, but that isn't saying all that much, considering the GSL finals has often been outright terrible landslides. I considered it to be the most "un-epic" epic 7 game finals I have seen. soO's decision making in the longer games was pretty mind boggling. During the Yeonsu game, soO was in a near unbeatable position when I turned to my friend and said "It's over. The only way Zest could possible come back is if soO a-moves his air army repeatedly into the entire anti-air army of Zest + cannons". Like 2 minutes later, sure enough, soO derps in and out of Zest's third base repeatedly, losing tons of units for very little and gifting away his lead.
The game Alterzim was pretty equally mind boggling. soO gets a massive eco and base lead, but instead of trading units for units to make use of his bank, he derps around back and forth with his army, eventually building up as much as 11k minerals / 10k gas, while the toss the whole time has been spending all of his money just to create a super army of which he doesn't have the economy to replace. soO only decides to engage after retreating and gifting 5-6 Broodlords for free, and sending his ultras + queens into the Protoss third cannon wall to die. soO's remaining army is considerably weakened by this, and takes a pretty bad engage. It's only after he remaxes on some more Ultras and other units that soO is able to push Zest back, but by this point his bank is basically halved. He follows up with trying to go back into air, but Zest predicted this, and had a bunch of phoenix saved up. This all coupled with soO allowing Zest to get a fourth up. But hey, at least soO tried to get infestors in that game.
On April 06 2014 01:50 mr.reee wrote: Teamliquid - Don't ruin the GSL code S finals with a spoiling headline on the front page. I have 'hide spoilers' checked for a reason.
On April 06 2014 01:51 anessie wrote:
On April 06 2014 01:50 mr.reee wrote: Teamliquid - Don't ruin the GSL code S finals with a spoiling headline on the front page. I have 'hide spoilers' checked for a reason.
Same, thanks for the ****up TL.
Who the fuck checks TL the day after a premier tournament. If i ever do want to watch it i just have my friend find it and link it to me on skype or something.
No kidding, pretty silly. Either have some self-control and do something else other than browse TL until you have watched the finals, or dont complain imo.
TL did a great job putting all the WCS/IEM news under the spoiler tag so it was safe to use TL ever since that feature got implemented. Only had this issue once last year for a smaller event. Now they spoil a GSL final (yearly gsl sub myself).
That has nothing to do with self control, just has to do with a certain thrust that TL posters will make quality posts that include spoiler tags when needed.
Edit: I do remember they messed up when Taeja won DH as well.
Anyone else think this finals was a complete joke? soO played like garbage after the early to mid game for most of the series, so much so that I was asking myself if he was throwing the games on purpose. There is no way a GSL finalist should have been running into a fortified toss third with muta ling corruptor against pheonix blink stalker over and over. A diamond league player wouldn't have done that! Then he has a maxed army that would have likely won the game if he attacked but instead he sits on 10k 10k bank and lets the toss get a perfect comp and 5 base as well as lose 5 BL for nothing. Am I the only one shocked by this? There has to be some reason other than nerves that he played so badly.
The most amazing part about zest play is that he is not afraid to do runbys even against a muta corruptor composition which is supposed to have complete map control.
In many occasions that is what won him the game, such a skilled player
On April 06 2014 11:01 knOxStarcraft wrote: Anyone else think this finals was a complete joke? soO played like garbage after the early to mid game for most of the series, so much so that I was asking myself if he was throwing the games on purpose. There is no way a GSL finalist should have been running into a fortified toss third with muta ling corruptor against pheonix blink stalker over and over. A diamond league player wouldn't have done that! Then he has a maxed army that would have likely won the game if he attacked but instead he sits on 10k 10k bank and lets the toss get a perfect comp and 5 base as well as lose 5 BL for nothing. Am I the only one shocked by this? There has to be some reason other than nerves that he played so badly.
Haha yeah, I joked to my friend that the fix was in, and that the two players had already agreed to split the prize money before the games. Seemed like pretty bizarre play. The only explanation I can think of is that soO is used to always winning with a big muta / corruptor army, and once zest defended it, he had no clue what to do.
On April 06 2014 07:28 aZealot wrote: Nice write-up Wax. Just a little quibble with the following, "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" in notes and observations.
That doesn't read right as it makes it sound like SoO went Muta/Corruptor because of the TL preview which is not the case and not what I imagine you are saying anyway. Rather, I suppose, what you are saying is that he would have gone Muta/Corruptor in 6/7 because that is his style as detailed in the TL GSL finals preview.
I really enjoyed the finals. One of the best series I have seen in a long time. I'm also happy that the crowd were so solidly into it. That last game was so tense when SoO moved out but Zest, perhaps learning from Polar Night, played it so safe with Colo and extra gates before taking the third. I was hoping SoO would win it, but I can have no qualms with Zest taking it. SoO made too many mistakes, and Zest showed the resilience of a champion in clawing back games 2 and 4 from the abyss.
I think saying that he went that style because of the TL preview is what he meant. I think he is making a joke saying his previews have a lot of influence on how the pros play.
Protoss has won 5 premier tournaments in a row now which is the best streak any race has done so far in SC2. Terran did 4 in a row a couple times but never 5. Zerg has never even won 3 in a row pathetically enough. Not even during BL/Infestor era.
I'm really curious how long they will continue this streak.
I wish WCS Eu was ending before WCS Am. With WCS AM ending first I think the streak stops here. Though Oz/Alicia/Arthur all definitely have a chance to win but Polt and Taeja are heavily favored.
On April 06 2014 07:28 aZealot wrote: Nice write-up Wax. Just a little quibble with the following, "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" in notes and observations.
That doesn't read right as it makes it sound like SoO went Muta/Corruptor because of the TL preview which is not the case and not what I imagine you are saying anyway. Rather, I suppose, what you are saying is that he would have gone Muta/Corruptor in 6/7 because that is his style as detailed in the TL GSL finals preview.
I really enjoyed the finals. One of the best series I have seen in a long time. I'm also happy that the crowd were so solidly into it. That last game was so tense when SoO moved out but Zest, perhaps learning from Polar Night, played it so safe with Colo and extra gates before taking the third. I was hoping SoO would win it, but I can have no qualms with Zest taking it. SoO made too many mistakes, and Zest showed the resilience of a champion in clawing back games 2 and 4 from the abyss.
I think saying that he went that style because of the TL preview is what he meant. I think he is making a joke saying his previews have a lot of influence on how the pros play.
Oh, it was sly joke. Thanks.
Sorry Wax, I get it now. I had no idea you could mind control Korean pros with your prose (pun intended).
I was worried that even that small venue could not be filled, but I am glad it was packed. For a finals, they need a place a bit larger than the studio but still far smaller than the normal grand finals venues.
The observer really should have been using the Korean client, though. >_>
I watched these finals and only 30000k watched it?? if this had a terran, it would of been higher. I feel like protoss is a boring race to watch and thats why people aren't excited.
I'm sad because this finals should of been huge based on games.. but it wasn't
On April 06 2014 15:22 Malphite wrote: I think sc2 is hurting... because of protoss.
I watched these finals and only 30000k watched it?? if this had a terran, it would of been higher. I feel like protoss is a boring race to watch and thats why people aren't excited.
I'm sad because this finals should of been huge based on games.. but it wasn't
Yeah.......but no, did you even watch the finals? It went all 7 games, SOo would of won if he did not throw 2 or 3 games that he had in the bag. Both played legit macro strats, with zest only doing a few cheesy builds. SC2 gets more views compared to when it started out. Stop with this stupid "protoss op no one watches sc2 anymore crap"
There was no swarm hosts or anything boring or "op" in this best of 7, please stop joke. It was a good finals.
On April 06 2014 15:22 Malphite wrote: I think sc2 is hurting... because of protoss.
I watched these finals and only 30000k watched it?? if this had a terran, it would of been higher. I feel like protoss is a boring race to watch and thats why people aren't excited.
I'm sad because this finals should of been huge based on games.. but it wasn't
Yeah.......but no, did you even watch the finals? It went all 7 games, SOo would of won if he did not throw 2 or 3 games that he had in the bag. Both played legit macro strats, with zest only doing a few cheesy builds. SC2 gets more views compared to when it started out. Stop with this stupid "protoss op no one watches sc2 anymore crap"
There was no swarm hosts or anything boring or "op" in this best of 7, please stop joke. It was a good finals.
I guess you can't read... must be 10 years old.
Last sentence, I said it should of been huge based on the games......... man read... you're the joke here
On April 06 2014 15:22 Malphite wrote: I think sc2 is hurting... because of protoss.
I watched these finals and only 30000k watched it?? if this had a terran, it would of been higher. I feel like protoss is a boring race to watch and thats why people aren't excited.
I'm sad because this finals should of been huge based on games.. but it wasn't
the k after the number means thousand so 30000k would be 30 million.
Said it before, will say it again... if SoO was "throwing" games, what do you call game 1 and 5? Looked like Zest "threw" those games to me. But instead of saying they threw games I like to think mistakes were made and the other player held on and went for the throat
Better player won...
EDIT: This "throwing" shit is just making me lol. Soo fans why are you so mad? Game 1 and 5 Zest had won but no one calls those throws..
On April 06 2014 15:22 Malphite wrote: I think sc2 is hurting... because of protoss.
I watched these finals and only 30000k watched it?? if this had a terran, it would of been higher. I feel like protoss is a boring race to watch and thats why people aren't excited.
I'm sad because this finals should of been huge based on games.. but it wasn't
The time for the finals was aweful for a lot of the world though so it's not that strange :-/
On April 06 2014 01:28 Shellshock wrote: Good finals. sad that soO threw away so many games
Well, I would say that finals were so-so(no pun intended), they could have been better even though few games were quite good, but still aren't nearly as bad as some other finals. As you said, sad thing that most of the Zest's comebacks weren't because he did something amazing but because SoO was doing something stupid. :/
Isn't that how it always is? In SC2, it's almost impossible to create a comeback if the leading player doesn't make massive mistakes.
I didn't watch the games (fortunately or unfortunately), but this was a lot closer for Zest than I thought it'd be. Either way, glad to see Zest royal road it and take the trophy.
Kinda surprised to see no Immortal all ins and basically all macro games (or super early "cheese"). I mean, maybe that's how Zest plays, but I'd imagine you'd see at least 1 Immortal all in.
And good on soO to put up such a fight. If he just tightens up his play in big situations a bit more, he should be able to win a few trophies.
Just finished watching the games... great finals! Both players extremely evenly matched, at the top of their games, went the full seven games with a lot of back and forth and big comebacks. Zero swarm hosts were produced, abusive tactics weren't abused... honestly asking much more of a GSL finals is just greedy.
Although it's kind of pointless to respond to the usual balance whine, I might point out that 2012 was year of the zerg while 2013 HotS was the year of terran, so if Protoss won a few big tournaments in a row in 2014, well it's a bit of karma frankly. And certainly in terms of GSL success, they have long been a distant 3rd to zerg and terran. As for this finals, it seemed pretty clear that player skill determined the outcome and not balance. Zest won despite not once going blink all-in or any other all-in timings for that matter, and the only time he went for cheesiness, he lost. The way Zest played, it's impossible to say anything except that he won, fair and square.
Man I'm really sad I missed the finals, it sure as hell seemed epic!
Really happy for Zest here, and definitely happy for KT as well! Looking forward to catch up with the VODs (are these available without a subscription by the way?)
Oh, well, I will. Now that I know the results, I care about watching awesome games (which they were, apparently), and I can keep myself busy 'til the VODs are out
(I could also get myself a subscription... mmmmmmmh ^^)
Man, some of the games are painful to watch...... Both players seem to repeat the same mistakes throughout the series (Zest keeps trying to do some early pressure but always got discovered and end up being behind; Soo insists on massing muta when a swarmhost or any other ground switch will probably win him the game...). With that being said, these two players are pretty evenly matched, and in the end the better player wins.
On April 06 2014 15:22 Malphite wrote: I think sc2 is hurting... because of protoss.
I watched these finals and only 30000k watched it?? if this had a terran, it would of been higher. I feel like protoss is a boring race to watch and thats why people aren't excited.
I'm sad because this finals should of been huge based on games.. but it wasn't
The time for the finals was aweful for a lot of the world though so it's not that strange :-/
This.
It was 14:00 in Korea, so early morning in Europe and night in America...
On April 06 2014 15:22 Malphite wrote: I think sc2 is hurting... because of protoss.
I watched these finals and only 30000k watched it?? if this had a terran, it would of been higher. I feel like protoss is a boring race to watch and thats why people aren't excited.
I'm sad because this finals should of been huge based on games.. but it wasn't
Yeah.......but no, did you even watch the finals? It went all 7 games, SOo would of won if he did not throw 2 or 3 games that he had in the bag. Both played legit macro strats, with zest only doing a few cheesy builds. SC2 gets more views compared to when it started out. Stop with this stupid "protoss op no one watches sc2 anymore crap"
There was no swarm hosts or anything boring or "op" in this best of 7, please stop joke. It was a good finals.
I didn't watch it live because it was early in the morning, and I was asleep. Not a good time for much of the world to watch, the games were great, so I agree with you wholeheartedly.
People tend to not consider all of the relevant variables when commenting. 30,000 concurrent viewers is pretty good for something that is broadcasted when all of europe and much of america is asleep.
OK finals, better than last season. Entertaining in terms of it being a rollercoaster, but hardly impressive play from either finalist. I didn't know who to root for going in, but Zest going full Protoss and attempting to cheese in game 1 really made me root for soO, and combined with soO's fantastic response, had me thinking "instant karma." I was also really, really impressed by soO's fake Muta switch into roach timing in game 7. So my respect for his early game decision making has definitely gone up. Then again, the mid/late games were sometimes atrociously, horrifyingly bad... and worst of all repeating the same mistakes over and over.
Nothing about Zest really stood out. Story of his GSL run. OK cheese - but not sOs level. OK Blink micro - but not PartinG level. OK macro and Zealot harassment - but not Rain level. I guess being OK at everything is enough to win. Pretty true of soO as a player as well, but soO did have those two inspired moments that made me think twice.
P.S. obligatory "/surprise@ Protoss winner." Five premier tourneys in a row, you say?
On April 08 2014 10:02 pure.Wasted wrote: OK finals, better than last season. Entertaining in terms of it being a rollercoaster, but hardly impressive play from either finalist. I didn't know who to root for going in, but Zest going full Protoss and attempting to cheese in game 1 really made me root for soO, and combined with soO's fantastic response, had me thinking "instant karma." I was also really, really impressed by soO's fake Muta switch into roach timing in game 7. So my respect for his early game decision making has definitely gone up. Then again, the mid/late games were sometimes atrociously, horrifyingly bad... and worst of all repeating the same mistakes over and over.
Nothing about Zest really stood out. Story of his GSL run. OK cheese - but not sOs level. OK Blink micro - but not PartinG level. OK macro and Zealot harassment - but not Rain level. I guess being OK at everything is enough to win. Pretty true of soO as a player as well, but soO did have those two inspired moments that made me think twice.
P.S. obligatory "/surprise@ Protoss winner." Five premier tourneys in a row, you say?
Lol. You definitely are pure wasted. I guess being OK enough to beat all the players you mentioned in his tourney run (except Parting who was slayed easily by SoO) just isn't enough. And Zest still beat Parting in PL R1 finals in match point. So... yeah. Also the fake muta into roach was read by Zest and countered... not saying you can't be impressed by SoO's attempt or mindset to try it, but Zest stomped that game 7 tactic. I guess he's just protoss though right?
On April 08 2014 10:02 pure.Wasted wrote: OK finals, better than last season. Entertaining in terms of it being a rollercoaster, but hardly impressive play from either finalist. I didn't know who to root for going in, but Zest going full Protoss and attempting to cheese in game 1 really made me root for soO, and combined with soO's fantastic response, had me thinking "instant karma." I was also really, really impressed by soO's fake Muta switch into roach timing in game 7. So my respect for his early game decision making has definitely gone up. Then again, the mid/late games were sometimes atrociously, horrifyingly bad... and worst of all repeating the same mistakes over and over.
Nothing about Zest really stood out. Story of his GSL run. OK cheese - but not sOs level. OK Blink micro - but not PartinG level. OK macro and Zealot harassment - but not Rain level. I guess being OK at everything is enough to win. Pretty true of soO as a player as well, but soO did have those two inspired moments that made me think twice.
P.S. obligatory "/surprise@ Protoss winner." Five premier tourneys in a row, you say?
Lol. You definitely are pure wasted. I guess being OK enough to beat all the players you mentioned in his tourney run (except Parting who was slayed easily by SoO) just isn't enough. And Zest still beat Parting in PL R1 finals in match point. So... yeah. Also the fake muta into roach was read by Zest and countered... not saying you can't be impressed by SoO's attempt or mindset to try it, but Zest stomped that game 7 tactic. I guess he's just protoss though right?
I think Zest is cool with just being OK.
I'd love to see Zest counter that play without relying on Forcefields to save his ass by rendering Ling/Roach/Hydra compositions useless since 2010. SoO engages with a fantastic concave, but who cares, there's a Time Warp and enough FFs to keep the Hydras out of range until the Roaches are all dead. So, yeah, Protoss.
If you seriously think that either of these guys looked half as good as Innovation or Soulkey last year, we must be watching different games. They were both making horrendous mistakes left and right. Poor decision making, suboptimal control (Zest lost at least 3 Phoenixes to the same Spore Crawler in one game, wtf), doing the same plays over and over (Zealot pressure for Zest, Muta/Corruptor transitions for soO) allowing their opponent to get better and better at countering it over the course of the series. It makes for nail-biting viewing, certainly, but it's not the highest caliber of play.
And I'm sure that Zest's cool with it. Obviously it's enough to win a GSL title. Obviously I don't think it should be, but obviously my opinion doesn't matter.
On April 08 2014 10:02 pure.Wasted wrote: OK finals, better than last season. Entertaining in terms of it being a rollercoaster, but hardly impressive play from either finalist. I didn't know who to root for going in, but Zest going full Protoss and attempting to cheese in game 1 really made me root for soO, and combined with soO's fantastic response, had me thinking "instant karma." I was also really, really impressed by soO's fake Muta switch into roach timing in game 7. So my respect for his early game decision making has definitely gone up. Then again, the mid/late games were sometimes atrociously, horrifyingly bad... and worst of all repeating the same mistakes over and over.
Nothing about Zest really stood out. Story of his GSL run. OK cheese - but not sOs level. OK Blink micro - but not PartinG level. OK macro and Zealot harassment - but not Rain level. I guess being OK at everything is enough to win. Pretty true of soO as a player as well, but soO did have those two inspired moments that made me think twice.
P.S. obligatory "/surprise@ Protoss winner." Five premier tourneys in a row, you say?
Lol. You definitely are pure wasted. I guess being OK enough to beat all the players you mentioned in his tourney run (except Parting who was slayed easily by SoO) just isn't enough. And Zest still beat Parting in PL R1 finals in match point. So... yeah. Also the fake muta into roach was read by Zest and countered... not saying you can't be impressed by SoO's attempt or mindset to try it, but Zest stomped that game 7 tactic. I guess he's just protoss though right?
I think Zest is cool with just being OK.
I'd love to see Zest counter that play without relying on Forcefields to save his ass by rendering Ling/Roach/Hydra compositions useless since 2010. SoO engages with a fantastic concave, but who cares, there's a Time Warp and enough FFs to keep the Hydras out of range until the Roaches are all dead. So, yeah, Protoss.
If you seriously think that either of these guys looked half as good as Innovation or Soulkey last year, we must be watching different games. They were both making horrendous mistakes left and right. Poor decision making, suboptimal control (Zest lost at least 3 Phoenixes to the same Spore Crawler in one game, wtf), doing the same plays over and over (Zealot pressure for Zest, Muta/Corruptor transitions for soO) allowing their opponent to get better and better at countering it over the course of the series. It makes for nail-biting viewing, certainly, but it's not the highest caliber of play.
And I'm sure that Zest's cool with it. Obviously it's enough to win a GSL title. Obviously I don't think it should be, but obviously my opinion doesn't matter.
But P really needed time warp to hold very strong and broken compositions like roach hydra. Would YOU be able to do a time warp, with such non-instant animation, on a group of units? I doubt it!
EPT
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. ![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/GSL/S1_2014/zoozestminimap.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/GSL/S1_2014/zestsoomutasdie.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/GSL/S1_2014/zestsoomutas.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/GSL/S1_2014/ro8bracket_7.png)
. That's what it's for - that you CAN check out TL.net without being spoilered. 
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rPaVT4e.png)
