EPTThe Old and the New
by munch and Shtanjel
MarineKing vs Patience
Oh
MarineKing. For years he was endlessly promising and exasperating in equal measure; just as likely to hold a 6 pool with a command center first as he was to crumble under pressure in the finals. Much like his old teammate Creator, though, his glory days seem behind him. The release of Heart of the Swarm brought about a precipitous collapse in form. Gone were the days when the sheer power of his control could carry him through matches; MarineKing finally paid the price for his bloody-minded fixation on maintaining the 11/11 and CC first as the only tools in his locker. However, his surprise run in the Hot6ix Cup, as well as qualification for both starleagues last season brought renewed hope to his legions of fans. He may have crashed out in the first stages of both, but as they represented his first taste of Korean individual league competition for two whole years, beggars can’t be choosers. While his Proleague form has been terrible (1-4 in Round 2), the GSL has always been the ultimate goal for MarineKing, and it would be foolish to write him off completely in his strongest match-up.
While HotS brought about a downturn in MarineKing’s fortunes, it would prove to be the making of
Patience. An ex Prime B-teamer, with no notable results in WoL, Patience burst onto the international scene with a stunning run at Dreamhack Winter 2013. While many of the Koreans who set out to plunder foreign pastures have begun to regret their decisions, it’s interesting that Patience has been one of the most consistent of the lot. Although he has yet to pick up a major trophy, 5 top 8 placements at international LAN competitions in 2014 is nothing to be sniffed at. His recent run through the IEM Katowice qualifiers was just as impressive, culminating in a controlled 2-0 victory over Dark. The only blotch on his résumé remains his lack of results in individual leagues—failing three times so far in the Round of 32 (twice in WCS EU, and once in the S2SL last season), and the weekend warrior just might put that right this season.MarineKing 2 - 3 PatienceCurious vs BrAvO
Remember when
Curious was a GSL semi-finalist? Well, that was a long time ago, during the maligned late WoL period. Since then, he has mostly been seen lurking in the group stages of the tournament, acting as its gatekeeper and banishing the unworthy. Curious would love to finally break his GSL curse and make another deep run, but this is not the only incentive for him to advance. He failed to qualify for NSSL Season 2, where he was knocked out by HyuN, as well as for Season 1 of KESPA Cup, losing initially to First and then to INnoVation. Code S is his only Korean individual premier tournament for this season.As far as his ZvT goes, Curious is currently 6-5 in matches in 2015. Some of those wins were against notable players like Taeja in GSL Season 1 and TY in Proleague, and we have seen flashes of brilliance from Curious in ZvT before. He was one of the few players to take INnoVation into the late game and beat him (with ultras) in 2013, though he has fallen a bit since that highlight. He's been given many chances to succeed on a struggling StarTale team, yet it seems he is destined to merely make up the numbers.
BrAvO's great opportunity came when he joined SK Telecom T1 as a promising player to bolster their terran ranks. Sadly, he did not meet expectations and fell out of favor when Dream and INnoVation joined the team. Cast aside, he decided to leave, and he found his new home with Samsung Galaxy for whom he has put up some good wins in Proleague. Unfortunately, he has not been able to translate that into individual leagues. Despite being a part of the SC2 scene since the hybrid 2011-2012 Prolegaue Season, BrAvO has never done anything to suggest that he's more than just a roster player. This is only his second time in Code A, while he has never reached the main event of a premier tournament.The last time BrAvO met with Curious was during the NSSL Season 2 qualifiers, where the zerg got the upper hand and knocked him out of the tournament. The upcoming match is both an opportunity for revenge as well as a statement of intent. It is time for BrAvO to stand up for himself: the Code S gatekeeper is in his way, and he must get through his bully zerg in order to reach a big event for the first time in his life.
Prediction:
Are we going to see Code S play out without its Gatekeeper this season? I doubt it. Apart from two matches against Life and DeParture in Proleague, we have no seen many high-profile TvZ games from BrAvO recently, and given his opponent's form I would give a slight edge to Curious.
Curious 3 - 2 BrAvOMC vs Trust
It’s difficult to know what to think of
MC’s return to Korea so far. In Season 1, he breezed past FanTaSy and PenguiN with summary ease, before being edged out in two tight series against herO and PartinG in the Round of 16. On the one hand, he’s shown yet again that there are few as decisive as him when confronted by a foe below his level; on the other, we’re still not sure where that level is. This has been exacerbated by his lack of foreign LAN tournaments this year, with MC falling in the qualifiers for both IEM Katowice and the recent Gfinity Spring Masters.From everything we’ve learnt about MC though, it’s unlikely that he’ll settle for merely participating in the GSL. Time after time, MC has found himself counted out, and time after time he’s come roaring back. It’s undeniable that the flood of silverware has slowed since his early years, but after maintaining his place at the cutting edge of the scene for close to half a decade, it’s got to the stage where doubting his skill and hunger for success is no longer an option. Initial glory in Korea, money plundered abroad, and now a return to his native scene, driven by a desire to prove that he can still cut it amongst the best. He may have seen it all and done it all, but there’s no sign he’s stopping yet.
On the other hand, his opponent in the group could not be more different. While MC is one of the most prolific tournament contestants in SC2 history,
Trust’s opportunities have been rather more scarce. A brilliant run in the online qualifiers for RBBG Global, including victories over ByuL, Panic, and herO has been by far the standout of his nascent career. Unfortunately, it was rendered moot when passport issues prevented him from attending the event; fortunately, Red Bull stepped in, sponsoring his trip to the subsequent Detroit tournament once the CJ Entus Protoss had resolved his issues. There, Trust showed further glimpses of his talent, before falling out in the Round of 16.In Korea, Trust has been limited to a handful of appearances in Code A alongside his single Code S spot in late 2014. While elimination in the Round of 32 by DongRaeGu and soO is hardly the most damning of results, it’s telling that he was unable to progress when faced with his preferred match-up of PvZ. Here, he’ll have to fight for his place in the mirror matchup—his weakest. While Trust may have the might of Proleague-topping CJ Entus behind him, MC needs no such support. There’s nothing that MC hasn’t seen or executed, and it’s difficult to see how Trust could progress here. Grounded in Korea by his lack of foreign opportunities, the GSL represents MC's only competitive play in the near future, and he'll be determined to not let that chance slip.
MC 3 – 1 Trust
