EPTGSL Season One
Code S
Life vs INnoVation
The Toughest 24 Hours of His Life
Rogue vs herO
The Gateway to Glory
Brackets and standings on Liquipedia
The Toughest 24 Hrs of His Life
by lichter
How cruel, the fickleness of the SC2 calendar. In one of the rare instances of one's successes turning against him,
Life must now play another ZvT series with his tournament life on the line. Due to his qualification for IEM Katowice, his NSSL semi final was maddeningly rescheduled a week earlier, forcing the KT Zerg (how strange it is to say this positively) to face two of the best TvZers in Korea on successive days.As some of you probably know by now, it was heartbreak for the best zerg in the world.
Once reknowned for his infallibility in Bo7s, Life succumbed in games 6 and 7 to surrender his spot in the finals of the NSSL to Dream. It was one of the best series ever played in Starcraft, yet the entertainment of his fans is scant consolation for the last aspiring double Starleague winner. He has less than 24 hours to recover from that humbling defeat, but Life has always been impervious to pain or pressure. His seeming disrespect towards the tribulations that afflict even the mightiest of champions is perhaps his greatest quality, and he must summon that intransigent mettle to face his polar opposite.
Where Dream vs Life was a like for like—two players that acted on predatory instinct and innate guile—this match against
INnoVation will pit Life's unrestrained vision against the war machine. Methodical and precise like no other, INnoVation is the ruler that most terrans measure themselves by. Though they haven't played each other since August of last year, INnoVation holds a close 16-12 advantage in games, winning their last 2 series by a combined 6-1. While those games may not be very relevant, it shows that neither player holds a mental edge. This series will not be decided by form or winrates—the two players hold the top 2 ratings on Aligulac and hold top 5 ratings in the matchup. This series will not be decided by balance or maps—both players have well documented personal styles. This series will not be decided by experience nor reputation—both players are champions and aces.Instead, this series will be decided by what the two players learn from last night.
Despite the painful loss, Life can take several invaluable lessons from that series. First, he must curtail his tendency to overextend as he did in games 6 and 7. On Merry Go Round, he fell into the trap of constantly rallying units in a desperate attempt to end the game before terran upgrades became insurmountable. An uncharacteristic lack of a transition meant each succeeding attack fell in efficacy, and the blood that he smelled turned out to be bait. In the ultimate match of the series, he grew too bold off creep and lost all his mutalisks in order to pare down Dream's army. Secondly, Life must know when to hold back and consolidate his position. After doing significant economic damage in game 6, he could have leepfrogged into a larger lead had he fully saturated his third, gotten upgrades and eventually secured a fourth. In game 7, he should have taken the time to spread creep as he gutted Dream's mineral lines with muta harass in order to quell the potential counterattack. Even though Life managed to adjust to Dream's openings in games 3 through 5, it was once again overconfidence that led to his demise.
There is no doubt that once celebrations are over, Dream and INnoVation will go through the replays in order to give the Machine an advantage. Life appeared vulnerable to build orders focused around hellions and banshees, as he did against Bbyong in Proleague and ForGG all the way back in Dreamhack Winter. INnoVation would be wise to switch between this and his patented parade push style in order to keep his opponent guessing, and INnoVation is a superior mech player compared to Dream. RoBogus must also know when to move out and when to defend in order to lure Life into overextending. It is zerg's original sin, and INnoVation defeated soO, another zerg famous for attacking too far, to take the title last season. Finally, INnoVation should realize that Life builds units when no other zerg does, as he did in game 4 when Dream appeared to have an unbeatable mech force. The SKT Terran failed to commit enough SCVs, and Life's surprisingly large roach count flattened the attack. Only then did Life saturate his bases, but Dream lost all possibility of stopping him from expanding.
As it happens, Life's greatest strength happens to be one of INnoVation's question marks: the SKT Terran has been accused of having a spirit easily broken—by Soulkey's all-ins in 2013, by lag against TaeJa in 2014. It is something to be admired from someone so young, and the Royal Roader should have no trouble playing 24 hrs after a big defeat. On the other hand, INnoVation now has a best of 7 to scrutinize with oov and Dream. If he can process last night's series and find ways to optimize his play, INnoVation could take one step closer to becoming the first back-to-back Code S champion since NesTea in May-July 2011.
Prediction:
Last night's series against Dream may have been a loss, but it didn't hurt Life's reputation as much as some would believe. Dream played the series of his career, and Life came agonizingly close to advancing several times in the last two games. The suggestions that this might finally be a sign of a slump are premature, though he does have a greater mountain to climb against INnoVation. That seems like such a strange thing to say about the BlizzCon champion, but last night's loss against a player that many predicted would collapse with every ling runby has at least tempered expectations for the KT Zerg. Another backbreaking battle is on the cards, much the the delight of TvZ fans everywhere.
Life 2 - 3 INnoVation
The Gateway to Glory
by munch and lichter
herO’s Starcraft 2 career has been curious so far to say the least. Between Blizzcon 2013 and the IEM Season VIII World Championship in March 2014, he established himself as the protoss to watch. A stunning run of form brought consecutive IEM titles at Singapore and Sao Paolo, but it was the ease with which he seemed to breeze past some of the best players in the world that caught the eye. He recorded a paltry 64% win rate in his weakest matchup of PvP, while stretching to a patently absurd 87% against zerg. There were more aggressive protoss, and there were safer protoss, but in early 2014 there wasn’t a protoss around that was quite as good at straight up murdering their opponent. Then, sOs decided that winning 6 figure cheques was a tradition he’d quite like to continue, thus breaking herO’s mind and soul at Katowice.herO fell into a malaise. Back amongst the cream of the crop in Proleague and GSL, his PvT and PvZ didn’t seem quite as indomitable as they had before, while the mirror matchup continued to give him nightmares. As much as some Koreans may love to rake in the cash overseas, the pride of victory on home soil remains the prize that drives the majority. While his twin IEM triumphs (later adding a third at San Jose) marked him out as a big game hunter in the foreign safari, success in individual tournaments back home continued to elude him.
Look at those exits, though, and it becomes clear that inconsistent PvP remains at the heart of herO’s failure in his quest for a Korean title. Rain. PartinG. Super. Stats. All have played their part in denying herO again and again from a place in the top echelon of the Korean game. Tonight, though, is different. As herO gears up for only his second playoff match ever in the GSL, the path to the final is lined with zergs and terrans. Rogue is in fine form—indeed, beating herO in both of their most recent encounters—but sometimes, it’s the little things that we have to be thankful for. This time, the gateway to glory is in sight. This time, there won't be two gateways blocking his path.
A Second Chance, A Second Protoss
It wasn't the first time that he was put in the spot light, but
Rogue crumbled. There isn't any other description for his capitulation against Stats in the NSSL, as he played baffling 2-base strategies that never looked close to sensible. Rogue had finally reached a Ro8 on home soil, and he turned to dust. Stats wafted him away 3-0 and we collectively wondered if that would be it for one of Korea's hottest zergs. Instead, he bounced back by defeating Rain and Dream in order to reach the Ro8 of the GSL. It didn't go smoothly, however, as Rain played a masterclass in PvZ in their first game of the evening before losing his cool and surrendering the series 1-2 to the Sexy Boy. He became only one of two players to reach the playoffs of Korea's 2 premier individual tournaments, and a place just behind Life in the swarm hierarchy seemed deserved. He's even solidified his place in the Jin Air Proleague lineup with 7 wins over 4 losses. In an age where consistent zergs appeared impossible to find—Solar and Dark seem to have signed a blood pact fating them to success in either Proleague or individual leagues—he was as good a candidate as any to carry the zerg banner.
Yet questions still remain regarding his ability to win a Bo5. We'll never know for certain if his decisions against Stats were prepared or some convoluted counter against protoss all-ins, but none of them worked. His burrow roach trickery looked misguided, and he couldn't even defend Stats' vanilla phoenix into +1 7gate. And while he has shown flexibility in the manner of his play, he must avoid twisting in the wrong direction as he did in the NSSL.
Now, he faces a protoss of a higher caliber: a champion and known zerg-killer. Rogue's performance in this match will likely determine the reputation that he will carry for the rest of 2015: a zerg on the ascendancy that learns from his stumbles, or another would-be contender found irresolute in longer series. It's something that comes naturally to a select few, while many of the best players spend months or years wrestling the trials of playoff matches. Dozens of hot streaks have ended in the GSL Ro8. Rogue must show us that he's developed the character of this rarest breed and that there's another side to his loss against Stats. For now, one side's been burned, and the other still looks raw.
Prediction:
Can we really expect Rogue to fall as helplessly as he did against Stats? It was one of the most abject displays we had ever seen in a best of 5 and it doused the fire of Jin Air's self proclaimed Sexy Boy. Rogue's 39.13% winrate in ZvP in 2015 compounds a lack of faith in his chances. herO is far more accomplished in the matchup than his protoss kin, and his experience in individual leagues outmatches even the most experienced of pros. With no protoss left until the finals to confound the CJ Ace, this could finally be his opportunity to win something other than an IEM.
Rogue 1 - 3 herO
