GSL Season One
Code S

Started From the Bottom, Skydiving Back
Ro32 Group H:
Solar, Heart, INnoVation, Super

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by CosmicSpiral

2 months ago, Samsung.Solar was close to being ordained as the next darling of the Korean scene. He had recently capped off a notable 4-month run with his second premier win, taking MSI Beat IT with a thrilling 4-3 victory over PartinG; a month prior, Solar dominated soO 3-0 in the finals of Dreamhack Stockholm. Previously he had secured silver in RBBG: Global and 1st place in the first Connecting Professional E-Sports event, and he would soon triumph in The Fight Before Christmas. At the time Solar looked ready to become the eminent Zerg player. He could hit the same heights as Life and Soulkey without the erratic dips in form; he had general consistency similar to soO, but came through in the clutch more often. In terms of reliability, he bested all of them. He was more enthusiastic in interviews, perfectly willing to indulge in (fairly good) English for the sake of the audience. Never yielding to the laconic stoicism typical of his contemporaries, Solar’s personality was a perfect corollary to his inevitable success.

If you were a fan with high hopes, this winter has been excruciating. The idea of this new titan, if it ever existed beyond that fortuitous streak, crushing all before its path has been unceremoniously dashed by a flaccid Proleague performance. A 0-5 record is ugly from a relative neophyte, unacceptable from a player who should be Samsung’s ace. What’s worse is that no one can pinpoint a blatant flaw in his gameplay. It’s not like Solar is hung up on one particular race or puzzled by one specific strategy. He’s losing against all 3 races in PL with variable showings of weakness against T and P in other tournaments. As luck would have it, he might have to tackle every possible matchup tonight.

One man’s misfortune is another’s man profit, and Invasion.Super has benefited immensely from the recent flux in the Korean scene. In a more stratified world, Super would be relegated to the middle of the pack. Less successful than herO and Rain while lacking the recognition value of sOs and PartinG, he would never rise beyond the rank of annoying obstacle. Fortunately name value and results aren’t always synonymous. The Protoss hierarchy is a bit of a mess at the moment, and Super is looking to take advantage of the disarray. His record suggests that his time may be soon. From beating Rain and Soulkey to win the Hey Look, Koreans! tournament to qualifying for GSL and NSSL without dropping a series, Super has showcased competent play against all races with a multitude of strategies. Despite his unmemorable name and lack of big results, Super could end up being the next Stats: an underrated force who always punishes the unprepared.

SKT.INnoVation was always acclaimed as one of the best, but it was hard to determine his worth while he was on Acer. It was obvious that he was their lynchpin in team leagues: between ATC 2 and ATC 3, he posted a 58-15 record and 5 all-kills. Surely Acer management was pleased that they secured an immovable rock while MMA struggled with brutal highs and lows. But that juggernaut role never passed over to individual tournaments, which should have been a foregone conclusion after he crushed sOs in 2013 WCS Season 1. His inability to take a single premier event (he only won Ione tournament during his tenure) raised uncomfortable questions. Was his previous success less attributable to skill than format/metagame luck/training regime? Was he too enslaved to the rhythmic, meticulous routines of KeSPA training to adapt to that demanded quick thinking? Was he just overrated in the first place?

What we do know is INnoVation chose to come back to Korea, and right now he looks like the menace that inspired all those evil robot jokes in the first place. He’s won 12 out of his last 13 series, only taking a loss against Stats in NSSL Challenger League. This is only surpassed by his extraordinary prowess in TvT, a matchup that lost its title as “most stable mirror” a long time ago. After taking a brutal beating from TaeJa at BlizzCon, INnoVation has snatched 12 straight TvT games in a variety of circumstances. The only thing standing between him and an assured Ro16 spot is the ambiguous state of his TvZ. He hasn’t played a televised game since December 11th and prior to that, he looked a bit sketchy. In Bo1s he was liable to taking a L from Starbuck and TLO; he was predictably more tenacious in Bo3s, yet he fell to “lesser players” like TRUE and RagnaroK. If TvZ remains his Achilles’ heel, INnoVation should hope Solar receives a speedy exit. Nevertheless, it looks like he will be retaining his reputation whether he advances or not.

In other cases, underwhelming results were expected. Axiom.Heart started out as an opportunistic emigrant when he originally joined WCS America, no different than Apocalypse or TheStC. By the time he left he was regarded as one of its finest players, ending 2014 with a semifinals appearance and a 2nd place finish. When the new WCS rules were announced there were concerns that he was a big fish in a small pond, and the imminent move back to Korea would be the end of his winning ways. So far the fears have proven well-founded. Short-lived qualifier runs and unimpressive tournament runs peg him squarely as a mediocre Terran, fortunate enough to get shine in a region with inferior players. This isn’t a pejorative judgment as much as brutal reality. The GSL and NSSL are brutally unforgiving environments. “Excellent games” are rare but so are upsets, and Heart faces 3 players with better records against the same competition. He may be the type that excels in this particular format, and he certainly displayed that in WCS last year, but I’m not holding my breath.

Predictions:

Solar > Heart
INnoVation > Super
INnoVation > Solar
Super > Heart
Super > Solar

INnoVation and Super to advance.

Writers: CosmicSpiral.
Editors: CosmicSpiral.
Graphics: lichter.
Photo: GOMeXP.