EPTRed Bull Washington Preview
As one of the last weekend tournaments of the 2014 WCS season, DC stands with a remarkably impressive roster and a lot of hype going into it. Two of the top KeSPA players, sOs and Cure, join a few of the top foreign koreans and the second-best foreigner in the world in Scarlett. Aside from sOs and perhaps Cure, nobody stands to gain much in terms of WCS points. Nevertheless there's considerable prestige and a $50,000 prize pool at stake. If last year's showing in New York City was anything to go by, there will be more than a few entertaining games in store.
It should be noted that no format has been revealed or even hinted at, thus leaving us in the dark and rendering any kind of prediction largely useless. In order to keep the audience on the edges of their seats, the format will be revealed live when the shows begins.
Worth checking out is Red Bull's own Fateful Eight Comic, a comic that summarizes the roads of the eight players gathered in DC. Also available are separate previews for each player, available on Red Bull's eSport page.
Cure – Living on a Prayer
Cure comes into this tournament with a lot of hype behind him, and for good reason. He was recently crowned as a GSL semifinalist, a rare distinction for terrans this year. He reached D.C. on one of the biggest streaks we've seen in 2014, aside from perhaps Flash a month ago. It's hard to imagine a world where Cure – a player who used to be regarded as nothing more than solid – climbs through the Red Bull circuit via its absurdly stacked online qualifiers and wins the D.C. finals. Yet as you take a look at his past results, it seems less of a long shot and more of a certainty. While Cure's chances at Blizzcon are still alive, he would need a practically impossible run in order to get there. Because of that, he comes to DC more in search of prestige and sweet, sweet cash than WCS points. Cure is one of the hottest, if not the hottest, players in StarCraft. A D.C. win would be the first step towards becoming the undisputed king of WCS KR Season 3, and a lot of people can't wait to see him take it.
DRG – The Prodigal Son
DongRaeGu's skill has always seemed to fluctuate between 'meh' and 'really good', yet he's never been straight-up awful. Even in the doldrums of BL/Infestor, he wasn't that bad. Rather, he was just not memorable. When you compare that to his absolute domination during late 2011/early 2012, it appears a bit strange that such a player would become nothing more than a consistent Code S Ro32/Ro16 zerg. However, this all changed a few weeks ago. He was given the chance of a life time – one Bo3 vs Flash. If he won it would fulfill the prophecy of Flash never making the quarterfinals, close the chapter on Flash's run for Blizzcon, and push DongRaeGu into the spotlight. With vindictive glee, DRG played a fantastic series and knocked him out 2-1. Then he got 3-0'd by INnoVation in a one-sided stomp.
Any one who watched Red Bull Battlegrounds: Global could’ve predicted this. There, DongRaeGu rose up from an early devastating loss to Mvp to win a qualifier. Not satisfied, he carried his strengths all the way to the championship and eventually beat the overwhelming favorite Solar. 2014 DRG has been a player of surprises, a book that most thought was closed and sealed. While he's certainly not a favorite, a win at D.C. is not impossible for the resurrected zerg, and would lend himself well for a true revolution.
Trap – In Search of Lasting Respect
Trap's story is a tragic one. During the later eend of WoL, the STX SouL protoss struggled through Code A with largely unimpressive play. HotS gave him a chance to break out, and he seized the opportunity. Utilizing his strong and volatile PvZ run, Trap burned through Code A to qualify for his first Code S appearance. While he didn't crack the top 8 that season Trap still looked impressive, taking a close Ro16 placement in a rough group. Feeling the exhilaration of hype for the first time in his SC2 career, he transformed into a more assured, powerful player. In Season 3 he made the Ro8 by beating his current teammate sOs 4-1, proving he was more than capable at PvP as well.
Yet when it mattered most, Trap couldn't rise to the challenge. His spiritual brother Dear 3-0'd him with a dominating performance in the Ro8, forcing Trap to defeat PartinG and jjakji to earn a trip to the season finals. At the season finals Trap surprised us big time – he defeated EU champion MMA 2-0 and ByuL 3-1 in quick succession. But once he started playing WCS KR Season 1 champion Soulkey, he was completely overwhelmed. Since then nothing has improved. He's still a solid toss who deserves more attention than he gets, yet everyone understands why he isn't written about more. Along a year of solid GSL finishes only one thing really stands out, his win at MLG Anaheim. Trap arrived at MLG Anaheim as a surprise attendant, and his excellent group results were no shock. He remained solid and consistent enough to avoid serious trouble. He defeated KeeN, HyuN, StarDust, Scarlett, viOLet and Polt on his way to a championship, a collection of players who still stand along the elites of SC2. It's tough to predict how the Jin Air toss will do here, but a win is certainly more likely than most would guess.
Polt – Professor of Brains
Polt's year has been one of low-key consistency. Unlike 2013, where he won two WCS AM seasons and had a collection of strong performances, Polt hasn't won anything significant besides Red Bull Detroit. Early in the year Polt displayed his typical TvP mastery, upsetting big name Korean tosses Classic and Rain on his way to the IEM Cologne final. Soon after at IEM WC, he 3-2'd Dear only to narrowly lose to herO. Always close, never quite there summed up the gist of his 2014 results. Victory successfully dodged his grasp at Anaheim and Red Bull Atlanta, but those nra misses continued to show how talented Polt was. It was only at Detroit where he truly impressed. There he took down WCS EU runner-up San and absolutely crushed TaeJa on his way to a championship, granting him his current seed.
While Polt has often moments of brilliance in both TvP and TvT, he's left with a couple weaknesses. Not only does his TvZ often look unimpressive (relatively, of course), but he also has a bad habit of dying to strong TvT aggression. Flawless defeats against both Cure and MajOr prove this, and he'll have to improve on a lot of his weaknesses to do well here. Yet, if there's anything to learn from Polt's career, its that its best to never count him out. The professor terran is only dead when he's GG'd his way out of the tournament - until then, all bets are off.
sOs – Too Smart for his Own Good?
sOs is a master strategist. While others might randomly throw in a cannon rush in the hopes of gaining an dubious advantage here, his cannon rushes are part and parcel of intricately woven strategies. As one example out of many, he sometimes uses a successful PvZ cannon rush as the forward position of a devastating follow-up. sOs proceeds to transition into a 4 gate + Oracle push, using the proxy pylon that powers his cannons as an anchor position. Using such devious tricks, he dictates the pace of the game and forces his opponents into situations that sOs knows exactly how to counter.
It is this command of strategy that he must rely on if he wants to win Red Bull D.C. His builds are designed to counter the current metagame; thus, they require opponents who are willing to play standard so he can abuse all their little obvious weaknesses. In a case of karmic justice, sOs has shown himself to be easy prey to those who can out-weird him. Those who refuse to go along with what sOs expects are the mostly to stop him in his tracks.
Bomber – Old Habits Die Hard
Being Red Bull’s baby, it would please Bomber and his sponsor if he could earn some more Brand Recognition™ here. The veteran has two distinct traits might allow him to grow wings and fly to the championship. The first is Bomber’s unpredictability, which was served him well and poorly in the past. Sometimes it makes him appear brilliant, such as his 4-0 romp over Jaedong in the WCS S2 finals. There, Bomber deployed a variety of old WoL builds, a calculated gamble that Jaedong has no response to. At other times, habits like his insistence on playing bio/tank TvZ falls flat on its face. If he was any other race, he’d be branded as ’creative.’ Bomber’s other trait is perhaps the best Terran macro on the planet. While many of the fine details in a SC2 game are hidden from the untrained eye, this is not the case for Bomber’s macro. Somehow, he is always ahead in supply and/or rallying 15 marines at a time across the map. Players who cannot keep up with Bomber’s production quickly fall victim to one of his powerful midgame pushes or get slowly grinded into dust.
His projected chances are as ambiguous as what build he’ll pull out. Bomber has history with several players at Red Bull, and most of the results have not been especially favorable. He’s only encountered PartinG once, losing 1-2 back in Battlegrounds: New York City. sOs is an old enemy of sorts; he got the better of Bomber in 2013 WCS KR Season 1 and the 2013 Global Finals as well. Bomber and Scarlett have regularly tossed the ball back and forth, exchanging series throughout the latter part of 2013. Bomber did beat Polt 3-1 to win Battlegrounds: Atlanta but their career record favors Polt overall.
PartinG – No Foot in Mouth Yet
Red Bull D.C. is the first step on PartinG’s long campaign to conquer the west. Having left SK Telecom T1 to pursue success overseas, he is here to show that he can win with his own individual strength. PartinG earned his spot at D.C. via winning Battlegrounds: NYC some ten months earlier. While he has never been in a bad slump during 2014, it might be telling that he didn’t arrive through a championship victory a month or two ago.
PartinG’s strength has always been an MC-like killer instinct coupled with aggressive brutality. While some protosses like Liquid’Hero have a particular finesse and beauty in their playstyle, others prefer to smash their opponent over the head with a club. Parting often shows off the former but relishes the latter. For PartinG, it is a matter of shaping up. Lately the SKT lineup has been plagued by a series of mediocre results, and PartinG will rise above mediocrity if he wants to succeed against D.C.’s formidable lineup.
Scarlett – The Flag Bearer
Is Scarlett hoping for Polt? She’s probably hoping for Polt. 3 months ago she bludgeoned him in a 6-1 romp to win Battlegrounds: North America and although Polt got revenge just shortly afterwards at MLG Anaheim (2-1), their recent record still leans heavily in her favor. She might need to rely on that mental advantage as her results post-Battlegrounds haven’t been the best. MLG Anaheim and IEM Toronto ended in slightly disappointing fashion: while she reached Losers Bracket Round 6 in the former, she was rapidly bumped out of Toronto by Life and Flash. To be fair she did climb back in WCS Premier League and is currently waiting on her quarterfinals match.
Currently Scarlett is fighting with Snute and Bunny for the title of best foreigner, but her participant is a mostly token one. Her recent lackluster performances haven’t helped her much in that department and the Liquid players can lay claim to several upsets over top-tier Koreans. With a strong showing at Washington, she can show the world that she firmly belongs in that discussion; a complete victory would shoot her back among the greatest StarCraft players right now. Just being at the event finals for a ten month long circuit shows that the clock has been pushed back a few minutes before midnight. Scarlett fans and fans of watching StarCraft grow are still holding out hope for more amazing games like those she showed at North America. See the crowd react and say that you’re not cheering for Scarlett, even somewhere deep down in your heart.
