EPTSBENU GSL
Season 2 Code S
Unpredictable You
Life, Symbol, YoDa, Bbyong
Brackets and standings on Liquipedia
Unpredictable You
by Destructicon
Life's quest to become the best player of 2015 got off to a great start. After winning Blizzcon 2014 Life continued his rampage by winning IEM Taipei and qualifying for GSL, NSSL and IEM Katowice. In both Starleagues Life advanced deeper and deeper, and as the trail of bodies grew it seemed as if no one could challenge him. And then Life meet Dream in the NSSL semi-final, and after a titanic battle of wills, the KT Zerg found himself vanquished. Despite taking the GSL title after a close fought series with PartinG, the NSSL defeat still denied the zerg prodigy from achieving the rare feet of winning both Korean individual leagues. Shortly afterwards, Life's journey at IEM Katowice was cut short by INnoVation in another tense series and, with the loss to Dark in KeSPA Cup's Ro4, Life's crusade came to a screeching halt. Despite all the setbacks Life is still a monster of a player; all his losses came at the hands of phenomenal players and in most cases only after long and arduous series that went the distance. Life has already restarted his journey by going through his S2SL group. Now he will look to do the same in GSL. Despite being favored against most of the players, Life still has to not let his love for aggression get the best of him, especially against Bbyong who has shown a strong tendency to go mech.Symbol for the longest time just couldn't catch a break. After being picked up by Jin Air, he spent the majority of his time on the bench and in the team house, training, day after day to reach his old level. The first few months of 2015 didn't help as he failed to make a dent in individual leagues. However with the advent of season two for GSL and S2SL, Symbol succeeded in qualifying for both. His successes softened the hearts of the Jin Air coach who gave him two opportunities to play in Proleague, but Symbol crashed and burned in both games. Despite getting 3-0'd by herO in S2SL challenger, Symbol managed to reach Code S by defeating PenguiN. Still, I can't see him making it any farther. His style of play doesn't seem suited to the present meta-game and he is stuck in a group of very strong opponents.
YoDa just can't seem to catch a break, either. After leaving IM and moving to Europe he turned from one of the most consistent and reliable team league and promising Code S player into a shadow of his former self. His results plummeted and for months he was stuck in mediocrity. Finally it seemed like his results would turn around once he joined TCM and made a WCS EU Final. But with the announced changes to the WCS system, YoDa was forced back to Korea. Initially it looked like it would be a smooth transition for the former IM terran as he joined PRIME, won a couple of games in Proleague, and even qualified for Code S Ro16. However as time went on YoDa's results started to regress, and in time, both his individual league and team league results plummeted. YoDa managed to save his Code S berth by defeating DRG by the skin of his teeth. However he'll need to do a lot more if he plans to advance from this group.The last player in this group,
Bbyong is without a doubt one of the most volatile in the entire scene. A look at his recent results will reveal wins in both individual tournaments and in Proleague against top players such as Life, sOs, herO and Solar. On the flip side though you also see losses against people you'd consider beneath him, like Pet, BravO, Creator and Dynamite. Despite his overall consistency improving vastly as the years have gone on, Bbyong still remains highly unpredictable, capable of both defeating S class players as well as lose to Code B players. Common sense would dictate that he should be doing great right now, as Bbyong has long been a strong mech player and his style improved in TvZ, which was already at a superb 60% win rate. At the very least his love for offbeat builds coupled with his strong style should see him at least favored to advance in second place. But with Bbyong you never know: he might as soon beat Life as he is likely to lose to YoDa.Prediction:
Life > Symbol
YoDa < Bbyong
Life > Bbyong
Symbol < YoDa
Bbyong > YoDa
Life and Bbyong to advance.
