If you are a fan of terrans and zergs, then rejoice! Group B has plenty of them with the small, but optimistic, chance of an all TvZ night. Given that all these players have their own take on the game, the games should turn out wildly different. We might have a rematch for a shot at the vacant zerg throne.
With his victory at IEM Taipei, Life obtained his 9th premier tournament and is now tied with Mvp in number of vtrophies. Life's form currently looks frightening. He managed to reverse a 3-1 deficit to defeat Maru at IEM; he is one of only 4 players still in the NSSL and GSL; he holds a comfortable 5-4 record in Proleague, including 2 victories in ace matches; being a newly christened KT member, he will be doubly determined to prove his worth. Looking at this group Life should feel secure as he gets to play both his current and historically best matchups. However, Life must not become complacent, as ForGG showed he was still mortal at Dreamhack Winter. For his possible opponents, the biggest lesson that can be drawn is that Life is vulnerable when he can't establish the tempo. Maru and Stats both showed that Life can be beaten, and convincingly at that, if he can't employ his precise midgame attacks.
It is intriguing that Life's first opponent is YoDa, who was once considered to be Mvp's successor. Indeed, after Mvp praised YoDa's skills in the practice house, he went on to win the 2013 IEM World Championship. Since then, YoDa's career has been a veritable roller coaster ride. After leaving IM he struggled for the better part of HoTS, failing to find easy spoils after initially switching WCS EU. For a short time things started to look bright: YoDa found a team in TCM and placed 2nd at 2014 WCS EU Season 3. Shortly afterwards, YoDa was forced to move back to Korea after the WCS 2015 changes were announced. While many dreaded a return to the crucible, YoDa found Korea a place strong in the Force. He quickly found a home on PRIME and racked up a decent 4-4 record in Proleague. YoDa had little trouble establishing his credentials in individual leagues, tearing through MyuNgSiK, PenguiN, HerO to qualify for GSL. San and MarineKing proved more valiant enemies, but YoDa also bested them to reach the RO16. A close analysis of his recent victories shows overwhelming success in TvT, but passable results versus zerg. If YoDa wants to advance he'll need to be more than adequate in the matchup. For Life in particular he'll need to work on getting him off his game. He is more than capable of this if he pushes his multitasking and drop capabilities, or he could play it like WWI with his very slow mech turtle style.
YoDa's stock seems to be on the rise while TY's took a recent dip. Getting off to a brilliant start by qualifying for both GSL and NSSL, TY has since faltered in the latter; one of the standout performers of Proleague last year, he has accrued a disappointing 2-4 record so far this round. In his recent showings, TY's strengths and weaknesses have been on full display. In the first round of Code S, meticulously chosen builds granted him leads big enough to ride to the RO16. However, during the NSSL Ro16 we saw what happens when he fails to secure a early lead and it isn't pretty. TY must ensure that he can arrange favorable situations in all his games for while his TvT still seems fairly reliable, his TvZ looks far more shaky. In particular, his style can be boom or bust against Life and Soulkey. Both can be hampered and cut down by an aggressive opponent yet they possess remarkable adaptability and tenacity in bad situations. Should TY fail to capitalize on any early advantages, he could find himself the victim of his own schemes.
In a rather odd twist of fate, the last man to enter the group was Soulkey, the former king of zerg who usurped the throne from Life. A lot has changed for Soulkey since he was the de facto inspiration for the race. After hitting his peak in early-mid 2013, the former ace of Woongjin Stars was forced to find a new home after his team disbanded. While at the time joining SKT1 was an appetizing offer, the move failed to maintain his idiosyncratic success. Soulkey's form dipped until, slowly but surely, he relinquished the honor to soO. However, with all that silver weighing soO down, it seems like Soulkey is starting to regain his old power. He has had a great run at IEM, only losing to TRUE and the eventual finalists Life and Maru. His ZvT has traditionally been very strong and it look close to his old form at the moment. His victims since the beginning of the year include GuMiho, Ryung, KeeN, MarineKing, Polt and jjakji. Overall Soulkey looks better than he has been in years, but he must get out of the group to be a worthy contender for "best zerg".
Thoughts and Predictions:
Barring some catastrophic meltdown, Life should advance from this group in first place. His recent form and momentum just look way too good, neither terran is particularly well-equipped to tackle him, and Life beat Soulkey effortlessly at IEM. Second place will likely go to Soulkey. His most recent results are more solid than YoDa and TY's, while his ZvT is more than sufficient to make up for a loss to Life. Sadly, I don't see either YoDa or TY getting past the two zerg juggernauts. They are not TvZ specialists and their opponents rank among the top 3 in ZvT prowess.
Life > YoDa TY < Soulkey Life > Soulkey YoDa < TY Soulkey > TY
This is a pretty tough group to call. Obviously the favourites are Life and somebody, but who will be the somebody? I went with TY as I think he's got the most potential, but there's no possible result that could surprise my in this group (even Life finishing bottom would be unexpected rather than genuinely surprising)
Yeah look...No one is arguing Life will get out....
But...
I have insider info...
(my wife is korean and she knows the cousin of an ex room mate who was a friend of the sister to one of Yoda's teachers from a middle school English summer camp that he failed to attend)
that Yoda has something quite special planned for tonight's matches v these Zerg kings...
Yoda > Life 2-1 Soulkey > TY 2-0 Yoda > Soulkey 2-1 Life > TY 2-0 Life > Soulkey 2 - 0
On February 13 2015 11:57 AxiomBlurr wrote: Yeah look...No one is arguing Life will get out....
But...
I have insider info...
(my wife is korean and she knows the cousin of an ex room mate who was a friend of the sister to one of Yoda's teachers from a middle school English summer camp that he failed to attend)
that Yoda has something quite special planned for tonight's matches v these Zerg kings...
Yoda > Life 2-1 Soulkey > TY 2-0 Yoda > Soulkey 2-1 Life > TY 2-0 Life > Soulkey 2 - 0
Yoda and Life advance...
Thank you your welcome.
Ya Yoda is gonna beat Life and Soulkey. Keep dreaming. I need some of those drugs you got
meh, I still think Soulkey's slump was overrated. He had tons of great games last year and his results weren't that bad given everyone's adaptation to HotS by 2014 as opposed to 2013 and being bound exclusively to Korea. Also, you know, 2014 protoss. Specifically Zest, whom he unfortunately kept running into..
On February 13 2015 12:31 FrostedMiniWheats wrote: meh, I still think Soulkey's slump was overrated. He had tons of great games last year and his results weren't that bad given everyone's adaptation to HotS by 2014 as opposed to 2013 and being bound exclusively to Korea. Also, you know, 2014 protoss. Specifically Zest, whom he unfortunately kept running into..
I agree, Soulkey's decline was greatly exaggerated. The problem is the players are so far ahead of the viewers and casters in terms of understanding the game, we have to fall back on very basic measures of skill-gleaning... like results. It's incredibly frustrating.
I was going to write more, but I think I'll turn it into a blog instead.
I think people overlook Yoda a lot more than they should. Yoda was once one of the best players on IM, alongside everyone else that was dominating that was on IM. He's back in Korea, on a stable-ish team. I can see him advancing.
And Life too, just because he's the #1 player in the world atm. Not many arguments that he isn't, especially with his track record this year. Yeah, sure, PL hasn't been that great but his individual success speaks for itself.
On February 13 2015 16:44 Ja.Y. wrote: I think people overlook Yoda a lot more than they should. Yoda was once one of the best players on IM, alongside everyone else that was dominating that was on IM. He's back in Korea, on a stable-ish team. I can see him advancing.
And Life too, just because he's the #1 player in the world atm. Not many arguments that he isn't, especially with his track record this year. Yeah, sure, PL hasn't been that great but his individual success speaks for itself.
On February 13 2015 16:44 Ja.Y. wrote: I think people overlook Yoda a lot more than they should. Yoda was once one of the best players on IM, alongside everyone else that was dominating that was on IM. He's back in Korea, on a stable-ish team. I can see him advancing. [...]
I feel the other way around, some people are giving him too much credit right now. He never won anything important besides that in-house IEM back in 2013. And he was never a real title contender for the stacked tournaments like GSL. On a scale from 1 to 5 were 1 is average and 5 is Maru/Life/Rain/etc. Yoda is somwhere around 2.5, which is nice and stuff but not sufficient.
Life on the other hand, theres no debate that he's world strongest Zerg right now.
eh, Yoda's right about where he should be rated imo. Deep down I think he has superb mechanical potential, but he consistently makes the most boneheaded plays. He's got potential but that isn't enough in the group like this where the other 3 players excel in pretty much all areas.
He'll probably go on to hang around code A-low code S as the year goes on. As for him making it out of this group....unlikely but far from the craziest thing to happen recently. The dawn of 2015 has been filled with surprises.
On February 13 2015 19:11 ejozl wrote: I voted Life+YoDa, hopefully YoDa didn't get too crushed? Can someone recap first series for me?
YoDa goes proxy 11/11 against one of the greediest openings from Life, (15 hatch + 2 more drones + gas before pool) and still lost... 2nd Game YoDa does a proxy rax into 3 reaper, does ok damage, but Life has 3 hatches and recoups nicely, then he counter attacks, kills tons of drones, catches the hellions and reapers and does a roach, ling, bling attack that kills YoDa.
Game 1: Yoda goes proxy two rax bunker rush on Overgrowth. Life goes for a pretty late pool after hatch first, so it's looking good for Yoda. Yoda goes with his initial three marines into life's main to interrupt mining, instead of just parking outside and shooting the hatch. Life microes 4 newly minted lings from the expo and pulls drones to full surround and kill the 3 marines and SCV. Big deal. Then life makes lots of lings and gets out to the rax to kill marines and make the raxes lift. Life then baneling busts the bunkers. Yoda has nothing to defend when his rush has been held and life baneling busts the main. GG
Game 2: Yoda goes 1 rax proxy for a very aggressive 3 reaper harass. It works fairly well interrupting mining and killing a couple of drones against Life's 3 hatch opening. Behind this, he gets some hellions out and goes 3 CC. However before he can really get anything going, life does a small ling runby while the hellions are on the map, killing 9 SCVs. Life smelling blood does yet another runby, killing 5. Life then cranks out roach, bane, ling to win the game very early.
Life and TY to advance. Life is the clear favorite and TY has looked slightly stronger than YoDa and SoulKey over the past month or 2, especially in vsT and vsZ. Hoping for Life and SoulKey though.
EPT
Life obtained his 9th premier tournament and is now tied with 
Mvp in number of vtrophies. Life's form currently looks frightening. He managed to reverse a 3-1 deficit to defeat 
MyuNgSiK, 
