EPTDay 1 Preview: The Redeemers
by The_Templar
The eSports scene is extremely unforgiving. Most players don’t ever have an opportunity to make themselves known, or, if they do, they get to play against one top player before being knocked back into obscurity. If a player shows a strong performance or even wins, he is immediately subjected to intense scrutiny from other players, is expected to repeat or surpass his success by fans, and finds himself under infinitely more pressure than before to do well. While the addition of SPOTV's Starleague and extra KeSPA Cups does give these players additional chances to do so, there are still few ways for a player to fulfill everyone’s expectations. Both
Classic and 
Cure are players that succeeded and failed to follow up on their success, and they are definitely feeling the need to try to repeat their past performances.SKT_Classic is a player that almost seems to fluctuate between being a GSL winner and an unknown player. This isn’t because of his skill level – he can defeat the best players in perfectly normal games – or the amount of time he’s been around. In fact, it almost seems as if Classic has received as much if not less recognition recently than before he won the GSL, as many people saw his sudden elimination from Code S immediately following his title as an indication that he was following the same path as Seed, Sniper, or RorO. This notion was reinforced by a lack of games following his dropping out of Code S. Even though Classic’s reduction in form was not permanent, recent top four finishes at the KeSPA cup and Blizzcon have allowed him to gain very little visibility.JinAir.Cure took a different path compared to Classic, but has ended up in a similar place. While they were both candidates for the Royal Road, Cure participated in far more online tournaments and lurked away from the spotlight until he was ready to make his mark on the Korean and international scene. He wasn’t as successful however, as he failed to win either GSL or RedBull Washington despite two very impressive runs. He does continue to maintain a presence in online cups and qualifiers, but a lack of a followup to these tournaments has placed doubt into fans’ minds about how skillful he has remained.Both players have shown flashes of brilliance in the PvT matchup. Classic dismantled
Maru during his run to the GSL trophy in a very impressive series and proceeded to lose several important Proleague and qualifier matches before playing a very smart series against Polt at the WCS Global Finals. Meanwhile, Cure put on a magnificent display of TvP against Zest and Trap in his GSL and RedBull runs. However, neither of them have shown a lot of consistency against the other’s race. Cure has recently lost a lot of online matches against protoss players that he would have been expected to have little trouble against, while Classic recently found himself outmatched by Flash, sKyHigh, and Ryung. One of Classic’s key strengths is definitely preparation. Against Maru, he managed to cut exactly the right corners in response to his opponent’s aggressive history, playing a very safe and methodical game. He also came sufficiently prepared for Polt at Blizzcon, hitting timings and unit compositions that Polt wasn’t ready for. However, with only a few days of notice before this match, Classic may not be fully ready for what Cure might bring to the table. Cure, on the other hand, is capable of playing an extremely aggressive game, as he showed in full force against Zest and Trap. Additionally, he has very few games to speak of, which may give him the element of surprise.
Day 1 starts off with a ZvZ between two resurging zergs. Neither
TCM.Soulkey nor JinAir.Rogue are currently very visible players. With Soulkey’s drop in form in 2014 and Rogue’s promising runs in online qualifiers and tournaments not usually translating into actual results, they have very little recent history to speak of and only one head to head result, in a qualifier. Additionally, neither of them have played any ZvZ matches outside of qualifiers for months, making this match extremely difficult to predict. However, Rogue’s recent qualification for the GSL included a 2-0 win against soO, and he defeated more convincing opponents ZvZ games, whereas Soulkey has found stronger results in the Hot6iX cup and has only faced a few less notable Zerg players recently. Zerg fans will find themselves disappointed to see their race's lineup already shortened by one promising player.LiquidTaeJa makes his return to Korean individual leagues, as he faces Jin Air's Terminator in his opening match. Taeja is a dominant force of nature that, in the right conditions, is practically unstoppable. Indeed, he rarely loses in conditions that he has prepared for to some degree, and he can even thrive in unexpected ones on occasion. His move to Korea, although recent, should not require too much adjustment or cause him a great deal of difficulty. His opponent, Terminator, is a very decent player who successfully qualified for both GSL and SSL as well as Hot6iX cup. In fact, Terminator did string together a series of wins against decent Korean Terrans such as SalvatioN and sKyHigh in these recent qualifiers without losing out to any similar players. While Terminator’s recent PvT does look satisfactory, TaeJa can only be considered a heavy favorite in their clash.Predictions:
Classic 2-3 Cure
Rogue 3-1 Soulkey
Terminator 1-3 TaeJa
