EPTSPOTV Starleague 2015 Season 1
Ro16 Group B:
Stats, Classic, Life, herO
Brackets and standings on Liquipedia
Starcraft II Starleague
It's a Toss Up
by The_Templar and Gemini
Four heroes of Korea find their lives at risk as they face off in a classic group of death, where the numbers favor nobody. Although all of these players spend the vast majority of their time in Korea, and never left for other WCS regions during the great migration of 2013-2014, their paths in the GSL and histories in Korea could hardly be more different. Two of these players are GSL champions, two are champions of tournaments spanning the continents, two have enjoyed success in Proleague, and two will reach the round of 8 tonight.
Startale_Life is indisputably the greatest champion remaining in the tournament. With eight premier titles to his name and one acquired as recently as Blizzcon 2014, Life has cemented himself in Starcraft’s hall of fame. Since his second place title at Dreamhack Winter—where he crushed everyone except 
ForGG—and his Blizzcon title, Life has remained in Korea, but it’s difficult to tell how he’s been doing. Although he qualified for both individual leagues, losses to 
Seed and Hurricane in the qualifiers, combined with a disappointing 2-3 start to Proleague, paint a poor picture about the state of the prodigy’s ZvP. However, Life is a master of preparation and this group is likely his top priority. He thoroughly dismantled San and defeated Zest at the WCS Global Finals, and followed this up by crushing Flash 3-0 in his Challenger match and getting revenge against ForGG after losing twice at Dreamhack Winter. In all of these games, Life methodically took apart his opponents, showing that he understood their styles to near perfection and used it against them.SKT_Classic is also a GSL champion, but his path is markedly different compared to Life’s. After walking the royal road, Life immediately followed his GSL up with the quickest triple crown in Starcraft history as he won MLG and Iron Squid II. He joined the ranks of Mvp and MMA as a GSL champion that enjoyed wild success for years to come. Classic, on the other hand, dropped out of the Ro32, and—as he was obligated to stay in Korea—did nothing for months. He was written off as just another protoss champion at the time despite still being one of the most skilled players in the world. Most were unconvinced by his semifinal exits at the KeSPA Cup and Blizzcon months later and when he also failed in the Ro16 of Dreamhack Stockholm and the Hot6iX Cup at about the same time. KT_Stats comes into this group as a bit of a mystery, despite being a pro for the second longest amount of time out of the players in this group. He is not one to frequently participate in online cups as his only recent performances are three games from Proleague. From those three games, only one was in a matchup that actually applies to this group. If Stats has one thing on his side, however, it’s that he is difficult to prepare for. The amount of study material of the other players in this group vastly outnumbers that of Stats. He hasn’t played any PvPs since his run in WECG in October, except for one win versus MacSed in a Leifeng Cup on December 1st. Coincidentally, the person he did beat in WECG was herO so this will be a rematch for the two protoss. Stats has the element of surprise on his side for this group as most of it is PvP, so we’ll see what kind of builds he has prepared. The KT Protoss has additionally been known for his extremely solid PvZ. His game against Soulkey from last season’s Proleague finals was a wonderful example of how unbreakable he can be even when in a seemingly unfavorable position. However, Stats did lose to PenguiN in the GSL qualifier, so while his PvZ has been good in the past, it may not be up to snuff now. This will be put to the test against arguably the best zerg in the world right now. Stats’ previously unshakable form will need to be at its most outstanding to have hopes of overcoming the lone zerg in his group if they do match. It’s been somewhat up and down for
CJherO ever since his IEM San Jose win in December. His PvT remains his best matchup after getting into the group stages by beating Bbyong and overcoming TaeJa in GSL. Unfortunately for him, his greatest asset is not of use in this group. Even though his PvP looked adequate during the last IEM, the exact opposite has been true ever since. All of herO’s last four PvPs have been losses. Dear, YongHwa and Terminator have all bested him in what was previously considered one of his better matchups. These games are all extremely recent as they were from Proleague and GSL, so they will serve as perfect preparation material for his opponents. To add salt to the wounds, one of those PvP losses was a proxy 2gate, a build herO is famous for losing to. After all these months, it seems herO still hasn’t truly learned his lesson and with two other protoss in this group, it’s hard to imagine there won’t be at least one proxy gate used against the CJ player. It’s possible he’ll finally stop respecting his opponents so much and actually scout for proxy gates this time. herO’s PvZ also still seems solid enough to make some dents in top zergs. He personally said he thinks it’s his weakest during the SSL group selection, but he has been able to pull some crazy wins out of his hat, the most ridiculous being his Proleague match vs Curious on Foxtrot. Although he was thought to have lost various times vs Curious’ swarm host turtle, he eventually ended up coming back in a game that came down to the final units. When they rematched in the GSL last week, herO played with more finesse and creativity in the matchup than we had ever seen, using 2 warp prisms and 2 army groups at the same time. The ability is definitely there, but Life isn’t someone that’s so easily beaten when you consider PvZ to be your worst matchup. Overall Thoughts and Predictions:
Classic’s recent form in the mirror matchup has been fair, with his only recent losses being against PvP conundrums
Super and San. Additionally, he reverse swept herO at Blizzcon by exploiting his weakness to the proxy 2gate and beat him 2-0 shortly after the tournament, so he is favored against at least one player in this group. At the same time, however, his PvZ is a complete mystery with just one win against Life in a macro game and one loss to two proxy hatcheries since Dreamhack Stockholm. He is likely to be evenly matched against Life, who has recently looked vulnerable in shorter ZvP series. Both players are skilled at preparing for well-known opponents, so this should be one of the better matches of the evening should they meet.With this group mostly hanging on PvP, one of the most volatile matchups, Stats will have to be fully prepared for his historically strong opponents in order to make the most out of these matches. As the least visible player in the group, he certainly has the best opportunity to out-prepare his opponents. Meanwhile, herO will need to work out the kinks in his PvP or defeat Life twice if he has any chance of getting out of this group, and with the other protoss being quite good at PvP themselves, don’t be too surprised if the playoffs are lacking a CJ representative.
Stats > Classic
Life > herO
Stats < Life
Classic > herO
Stats < Classic
Life and Classic to advance.
Not happening. It will not happen! Once again I'll make a promise to break about posting a blog of my herOtic poetry 
