EPTSPOTV Starleague 2015 Season 1
Maru vs Stats
The Familiar in the Unfamiliar
Life vs Dream
All Our Hopes and Dreams
Brackets and standings on Liquipedia
Starleague
The Familar in the Unfamiliar
With the surprising amount of upsets that have happened throughout the first Naver Starcraft II Starleague, largely unappreciated players were given the opportunity to shine, and several players perceived as weaker than a majority of the competition unexpectedly reached the playoff stages. As a result, it’s almost refreshing to see four well-respected veterans facing off in the semifinals. While both Maru and Stats destroyed their ro8 opponents 3-0, they both had to overcome extremely powerful opponents to reach the playoffs in the first place, and they both have good reasons to fear each other as a result.
Most players are retrospectively found in the background, with nothing particularly notable setting them apart, if they aren’t viewed as some critical part of Starcraft history. With the best player in the world regularly changing whenever a new champion is crowned, it’s easy to forget the fourth, third, or even second best standing right next to him. Perhaps the most prominent case of this is
Maru. With seven top four finishes in some of the most fierce tournaments during the last two years and a signature micro-heavy style to back these results, it’s hard to deny that Maru has been a top player for some time now. However, a distinct lack of a followup victory after his solitary OSL win has denied him the fame that one with his list of achievements might expect, and the first NSSL is as good a time as any to claim his spot as a champion.Although it’s nice to talk about how Maru’s defining championship could happen at any moment and he’s often a favorite to win any given tournament, his form and the remaining players cast doubt onto his NSSL run. Maru is usually one of the more unknown players in any given round of a tournament, and his recent matchup results don’t give any clear indications of how he’ll perform. His current constant is strong TvZ, which isn’t particularly helpful as his Achilles' heel in the matchup, Life, is the only zerg player remaining in the tournament. Recent painful TvP losses could potentially give Stats enough information to exploit his fragilities in the matchup. Meanwhile, TvT is Maru's least inspiring matchup and includes a recent loss to the only other terran, Dream. Every player remaining is still a legitimate threat and Maru isn’t guaranteed a victory over any of them despite his recent performances and vast playoff experience.
While Maru is well known for his status as a veteran,
Stats is a part of the larger crowd that has been around for just as long, yet is only remembered and not celebrated. As a regular, strong Proleague player for KT in Brood War, Stats was one of the many players who was expected to excel upon switching games, but like many other people he accomplished little and was similarly relegated to the bottom of Code A. However, despite a lack of results, Stats maintained a solid record in Proleague and slowly but surely improved away from the spotlight, eventually reaching the playoffs of a GSL for the first time. Although he was eliminated by soO, the KT Protoss quickly made up for it by defeating several ace-level players across the board, both in Proleague and in the NSSL.As one of the two trophy-less players left in this tournament, it’s difficult to determine exactly how well Stats can be expected to do. Despite being just as experienced as any other remaining player, Stats has never had to play a Bo7 series in an individual league, and his PvT isn’t particularly interesting or well-defined. This is a definite problem in addition to his lack of experience in the later stages of the playoffs, when preparation and adaptation are often just as important as the players’ skill levels. Stats may be one of the best players in the world, but the transition from winning in the earlier stages to being a legitimate playoff contender is rarely smooth, and his remarkable recent performance isn’t likely to be duplicated in an unfamiliar format even though he’s facing familiar players.
Predictions:
The match will likely be determined by which player can abuse the other’s shortcomings more effectively. Maru’s style of TvP is a chaotic, drop-heavy one that relies on constant attacks to confound his opponents. It is difficult to follow and even more difficult to stop. While he is extremely capable of delivering a knockout blow at any moment in the game, he’s also well known for preferring excellent macro and solid control to wear down his opponent before needing to match the technological capability of a late game protoss army. His weaknesses are opposite sides of the same coin, with only aggressive or super safe styles from PartinG and herO reliably defeating him.
Stats’ PvT was the first necessary hurdle for him in this tournament, but it may still not be strong enough for this series. Despite beginning his NSSL run with a 0-2 start against INnoVation, he managed to edge out three straight games in a messy series where INnoVation could certainly have played much differently and won. Since then, his PvT has only been tested in qualifiers and Bo1s, with mixed and unconvincing results. There is no particular reason to believe his PvT is strong despite being his recent best matchup statistically, and his style isn’t nearly as clearly defined and crisp as Maru’s. However, with fewer clear losses to analyze compared to Maru, there’s a chance for Stats to prepare for Maru’s style while keeping him in the dark, even though he’s disadvantaged in this series.
Maru 4-1 Stats
All Our Hopes and Dreams
Although it is now old history,
Dream was once one of the fastest rising stars in the Korean scene. He was young, which alone made him interesting. He was on team MVP, a team quite known for fostering future talent. He demonstrated incredible prowess in a short period of time in early 2013, which made him a fascinating prospect for the GSL. He was fast, breaking opponents down with the brute force of cold, mechanical aggression. Even the players normally renowned for being calm and collected, safe and impenetrable when faced with aggression, were picked apart by Dream's drops and runbys. To say that he looked like a superstar in the making would perhaps be overselling the skill he displayed, but it is not far from the truth. His rise began with the dismantling of a player considered far above his level, the brutal destruction of one SKT.Rain, but he subsequently fizzled out when he simply could not continue to build on the expectations he created for himself.Dream's story is hardly unique in Starcraft. There are far more great players than we ever get to see win tournaments, and their failures are not always only their own. The stage breaks many players down to their weakest selves, weakens them through pressure until their more experienced, more collected opponents gain the advantage. Given Dream's success in Katowice it would also not be accurate or fair to say that his potential was never reached because his nerves held him back. But undoubtedly, something did. It might have been his team, it might have been his own interest waning, it might have been his sudden peak ending as others caught up. Exactly what held Dream back is impossible to say for sure.
Life is Dream's polar opposite in this story. His career is lined with successes, exceeded expectations and broken records. When Life faced the most successful Korean player of all time in his first-ever GSL, he beat him despite facing the (by back injuries undiminshed) power of Mvp's preparation expertise. He proceeded to board a plane to America and won one of the most stacked MLGs ever, mere days after his victory in Korea. Where Dream's train derailed half-way, Life's picked up pace and carried him through one of the most dominant stretches of any player in Starcraft II.This contrast defines the second NSSL semifinals. Life is everything (and, with respect to Dream, more) Dream was made out to be but was unable to become: expectations met and tournaments won. Separated only by a few months, both were named part of the "Next Generation" along with players like Maru and Creator. Players for whom "potential" was as much an accurate descriptor as the buzzword commonly used to pin every other player down as a championship contender. The future champions of our scene, the child prodigies that play so much better than they should have any right to.
They are no longer children. At this point, both Life and Dream are known quantities. We have watched them play and evolve for almost three years, seen their play go from unrefined and chaotic to (though occasionally still chaotic) personal and refined. They have found their strengths in very different kinds of play and honed the abilities that take them the farthest. For Life, that has awarded far more success than for Dream. For Life, the road to this point has been paved with trophies. Where Life goes, success follows. The same cannot be said for Dream, whose struggles have kept him down, near the middle of the pack.
But while both are approaching veteran status within the Starcraft scene, we cannot forget that both players are still young and—for lack of a better term—impressionable. Dream's transfer to SKT and the strictly organized structure of Coach Oov's practice environment—one that features prominent terrans and zergs alike—seems to have paid off for the ex-MVP Terran, and the fact that his best-ever individual league performances have come after his transfer implies that he has found a place where his potential can be developed. Life's transfer to rival team KT, on the other hand, is an as of yet unclear quantity. According to Life himself, he is yet to be beaten (regularly) in-house, but the change of atmosphere feels good. A play for the audience? With Life, it's impossible to know what the future might hold. His fans will know that he could be heading for a roadblock at this very moment, hindered by the stricter environment on KT and hurt by the change in practice habits. He could also be on his way to dual Starleague titles, dual titles that would immortalize him as the greatest player to ever play the game.
Given Dream's rapid re-emergence, there is no way to truly tell just how well (or for how long) the SKT Terran will perform. Keeping in mind that his most recent streak coincided with his transfer to SKT, it seems Dream is fully intent on lifting the trophy. We bought into the belief that he could do so once, in similar circumstances. He broke free from the pack once, to take a stab at the top tier. Why not again?
Thoughts and Prediction
While I could easily lie and say that this match is the clash between two players of great potential and skill, I would much rather tell you the truth: Life is far more likely to beat Dream into the ground than Dream is to even make the series close. Life has been on an unparallelled hot streak over the last few months, possibly surpassing even his late-2012 run, when he still struggled in the GSL. He rarely looks confounded and dominates his opponents more often than he struggles. Dream has not displayed that same ability, nor has he been playing well for the same amount of time.
But of the players remaining in the NSSL playoffs, Dream is the player best equipped to surprise us. He has come effectively out of nowhere to make it this far, displaying a range of abilities he wasn't expected to possess beforehand. Will that take him all the way against the best player in the world, the only remaining potential dual champion? It's about as likely as an unknown MVP Terran 2-0'ing the hottest Protoss in the world in Code A.
Life 4-1 Dream
you would think with all the discussions we have about Mvp being the GOAT, he wouldn't say this kind of editorialized rubbish until Life actually proves he can do it 
