EPTGSL Season One
Code S
Feels Like Home
Ro32 Group B:
Soulkey, MarineKing, YoDa, San
Brackets and standings on Liquipedia
Feels Like Home
by TameNaken
When MVP.
MarineKing qualified for Code S this season, he mentioned it felt like he had come back home. It had been 2 years since his last run and the world was a slightly different place. During 2013 GSL Season 1 he still held the appellation of Lord of Silver; it would be 6 months before 
soO appeared in his first GSL final. His current opponent, Soulkey, was in the prime of his career and would proceed to win that season against all hope and reason. Much like the parable, MarineKing bore some scars by his long adventure as the prodigal son. Although his retirement from StarCraft lasted a scant 5 months, it left him woefully behind his contemporaries in terms of strategy and execution. Despite returning to HotS in February, he earned no points for the whole 2014 WCS season. He was routinely ridiculed for his legendary stubbornness, which seemed like madness now that none of his old ploys worked. MarineKing haphazardly died to the most obvious counterplays and struggled to imitate the most successful Terrans. Perhaps, some people mused, it would have been better if he never returned at all. Similar to the prodigal son, MarineKing’s past failures make his current return all the more poignant. Just over a month ago, Marineking made his way through the 2014 Hot6ix Cup qualifier by beating such players as
ByuL, Maru and 
ParalyzE. Seeded into a group with herO, Stats and INnoVation, many people expected MK to bomb out. Yet MK won his group without dropping a map; even more surprisingly, he advanced all the way to the final. He accomplished it off the back of a 10-2 TvP record, eliminating Zest and PartinG past the group stage. Despite losing 1-4 to sOs in the final, MarineKing earned a large portion of his former reputation back. He may not be the wrecker of worlds he once was, but he is close to his old form.While MarineKing's rise in form is a recent affair, TCM.
Soulkey has remained a top 5 Zerg ever since his first championship. He was the undisputed king of the Swarm in 2013; he attended 9 tournaments in that year, never failing to finish anywhere lower than the quarterfinals. Even with an unimpressive 2014 Soulkey managed to retain an intimidating Code S presence, advancing from his RO32 group in all 3 WCS seasons. More recently Soulkey has shown an uptick in forms, taking second place in the ‘Hey Look Koreans’ tournament with wins over GuMiho and Rain. MarineKing's chances in the first match look shaky as Soulkey is 17-8 in ZvT since the start of Hot6ix Cup. Fortunately, the MVP Terran has had a decent streak of success over that time period: 12-6 with wins against Dark, Sacsri, and Symbol. Comparatively, yoeFW.
San’s own quarterfinal streak is longer and more recent. San had made the quarterfinals of the last 14 tournaments he’s participated in, a streak ended on Christmas when he was knocked out of S2SL by MyuNgSiK. Reputations aren't broken after a single series though. For any other tournament San might be expected to be a shoo-in for the quarterfinals. But after returning to the GSL for the first time in 4 years, San’s welcome present is one of the toughest groups in the round of 32. PvZ is San’s best matchup and while 2 consecutive immortal sentry all-in’s could be enough to dispose of Soulkey, San doesn't have the same reliable pocket strategies to defeat Terrans. In the last few months San’s PvT has regularly fallen below 50% and aside from S2SL, San’s only losses in the last 4 tournaments have been to either Life or Terrans. For San to advance to the round of 16, he’ll have to win one if not two PvT series against MarineKing (a TvP specialist at the moment) or YoDa (who San has a losing record against). If there is a hope for San, it’s that his play style is well suited for short series and his ability to plan out new variations of old strategies drives his consistency. Given San’s mediocre PvT and MarineKing’s incomprehensibly good TvP, a match between the two players would definitely be in MarineKing’s favor. As such, San will have to reach the winners match if he wants to be the master of his own fate.
But before he can get there he’ll have to face
YoDa.Prime. Just like San YoDa moved back to Korea in accordance with the new WCS visa requirements. It was a poor time to switch for the Terran, who was finally getting some respectable results at the end of 2014. YoDa took second place at WCS Europe Season 3 and a more recent 4th place at MSI Beat IT. With that level of play, YoDa easily found a home in Prime’s current ace spot. Unfortunately, in his very first PL ace match YoDa lost to none other than San. Aside from the chance meetings with San, YoDa also managed to garner a silver medal in The Fight Before Christmas. Due to the lack of Protosses in that tournament the only information that can be gleaned from his tournament run is that YoDa has a slightly better TvT than
Polt (3-2) or jjakji (3-2) and a slightly worse TvZ than Solar (3-4). These results are enough to show that YoDa can compete with Soulkey and MarineKing, but don't put him as a clear favorite. His tendency to go mech in both TvT and TvZ probably won’t work to his advantage against Soulkey, well known for his great anti-mech play, a great anti-mech player. It might prove to be a stumbling block for MarineKing, who only chooses mech play on occasion. Final Thoughts and Predictions
Despite his partial resurrection, MarineKing clings onto old habits. He still alternates between extremely greed and all-out aggression e.g. in his Hot6ix Cup series against Parting, MK followed up a CC-first build with double proxy rax in consecutive games. Remnants of his old bio-focused gameplay still remain, and not always to his advantage. While it seems that MarineKing can make almost anything work in TvP, his one-sided defeat against Dark in Proleague showed that forgoing hellions in TvZ is still an unwise decision. This instability could work in SK's advantage if he plans his timing attacks according. Soulkey has always had a flair for roach/bane attacks and given MarineKing's tendency for risky eco builds, those attacks could be even more effective than usual.
Much like a multiple choice quiz, GSL RO32 groups tend to have at least one obvious wrong answer. Group B is an exception in that regard. I favor Soulkey slightly above both Terrans but far below San. MarineKing ought to have a considerable advantage over San if they ever meet, but the initial match between YoDa and San is a 50/50 affair. And although MK has lost his last 4 broadcasted TvT’s, they were all played out in ways that left me impressed with MarineKing’s TvT. Ultimately, the initial arrangement plays to SK's strengths and San's weaknesses. The second seed will probably be decided between YoDa and MarineKing.
Soulkey > MarineKing
Yoda > San
Soulkey > Yoda
MarineKing > San
YoDa > MarineKing
Soulkey and YoDa to advance.
