GSL Quarter Finals Recap

INnoVation – Life

After the glorious TvZ feast offered up by Life and Dream in the NSSL on Thursday, Friday’s follow up was an unexpected descent into mediocrity. INnoVation seemed off all night. His micro was non-existent at times, and the perfect splits that we've come to expect from him failed to materialize at the most crucial moments.

Game 1 began with a proxy reaper from INnoVation, the first in a string of cheeses from the traditionally macro-oriented Terran. Despite a late spawning pool Life’s micro was flawless, and the bunker rush was rebuffed without major losses. Taking the lead in upgrades, Life crushed INnoVation's army when it tried to encroach on his 4th base; with 2/2 finished, Life charged over the corpses and battered down the doors with never-ending streams of muta/ling. INnoVation tried a conventional triple reaper opening on Catallena, getting little out of it as well. Once again INnoVation again fell behind in upgrades and despite the early promise of his 2/2 parade push, Life held with ease. A trademark ling counterattack dealt a devastating blow to INnoVation’s economy, and the frustrated Terran was whittled down to nothingness.

With Life holding onto 2 match points, INnoVation needed a drastic reversal of fortunes. Holding Life’s early ling/bane bust on Deadwing, he entered the midgame ahead for the first time in the series. Although Life would take a few good engagements, it wasn't enough to slow down the SKT Terran, who pushed out with a maxed out 3/3 army which proved too much to handle. Game 4 saw INnoVation’s second proxy of the night on King Sejong Station. This time the reaper rush was successful beyond INnoVation’s dreams. Life’s micro let him down for once, and he lost 9 drones in total to the harass. The swift GG afterwards brought us to the deciding match.





It could hardly have started any worse for INnoVation as lings canceled his natural CC. Hugely behind, he immediately decided to go on the offensive. An elevator move brought marines and hellions into Life's main and INnoVation's force wreaked havoc, dealing massive damage while Life tried to rush out mutalisks. With such a large lead it looked like INnoVation would take metaphorical revenge for Soulkey’s reverse kill back in 2013. However, RoBogus was too impatient to let victory settle in his grasp. He began an endless parade push on 2 bases and 1/1, hoping to kill Life in one heavy blow. But the longer Life held, the more the Zerg wiggled back into the game as his 3rd base finished and his own 1/1 neared completion. Finally, a basetrade ensued as both armies wandered past each other without knowledge: Life’s mutas successfully camped the production facilities, while INnoVation’s marine push was halted by banelings. It was an inauspicious end to INno's GSL run while for Life, redemption was honey sweet.

herO - Rogue

The GSL quarterfinals this season have been incredibly tight and with the exception of MMA vs TY, all the games have gone the full distance. So it was no surprise that the final match of the week was perhaps the best of the lot.

Rogue has gained a reputation for being a cerebral Zerg, and Game 1 on Overgrowth was a perfect example of his intelligence. Scouting herO’s nexus first opening, Rogue quickly added on a very quick third base. Subsequently predicting that herO would put on pressure to punish his greedy opening, Rogue instead opted for a mass flood of slow lings. Breaking through the hasty wall off with ease, Rogue gutted herO’s entire economy and took the game.



Another interesting facet of Rogue’s play is that he has a tendency to pull out wins in the most unlikely of circumstances (I’m sure neither Classic nor Shine will be forgetting their Proleague matches in a hurry). On Deadwing, Rogue seemed dead. A beautiful sentry/stalker push right up the main ramp sealed the exit with forcefields, and the main was forfeit. Where other zergs would have seen only defeat, Rogue saw a dim shot at victory. Recognizing that he had the far superior army, Rogue rushed his swarm hosts right to the edge of herO’s base. Complemented by mass roach/ling, herO simply lacked the AOE damage to cope with such a large army, and Rogue found himself on match point.

After 3 games of such quality, the fourth was straightforward. Rogue committed to a ling/hydra timing attack but herO handled it well with strong army micro. By keeping his single colossus alive for the whole battle he razed Rogue's fragile force, and a simple counter push brought us to the final game. herO returned to his traditional warp prism harass style on Foxtrot Labs, which served him well. Constant zealot drops kept the Zerg's economy in check and irritated Rogue into a misguided roach push. herO took full advantage of his superior army: while herO gutted his opponent’s natural and main, he retained enough stalkers at home to prevent a base trade. For a player who fell apart so nonchalantly against Stats in the NSSL, Rogue’s attempts here were valiant. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't summon enough gusto to reach the Round of 4. Instead, herO secured his first spot in the semifinals of a Korean individual league.