SBENU SC2 Starleague 2015 Season 2

S2SL Main Event
Ro8
Maru vs herO
Dream vs Life

Brackets on Liquipedia
Starcraft II Starleague

Thursday, May 21 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00)
by Zealously


If there ever was another Terran player whose foremost goal in life was to beat every Protoss opponent into submission brutally and uncaringly, that player has long since been overthrown. Brief reigns of terror, short bursts of dominance by individual players in a match-up otherwise often considered supremely difficult – Mvp's underhanded and tactically brilliant proxy rax plays, Innovation's SCV pulls or Taeja's flawless reactive play chief among these – are now forced to give way to the prowess of one player, cute and terrifying in equal measure.

Maru enters his second consecutive SSL quarterfinals as a favorite against every Protoss player in the world save one arch-enemy, favored against the cheesy and the greedy alike. This year, Maru has put up a string of performances for the gallery that makes him seem nearly invincible in the match-up, flaunting an abusive and entirely effective hyper-aggressive style. In the way Maru plays, he feels no need to adhere to the laws of common sense in the match-up and no pressure to play like other Terrans do. While others have to defend, Maru simply keeps attacking. It's a playstyle balancing on the knife's edge, a russian roulette-esque risktaking that depends on his opponent not calling his bluff, on his Protoss foes not striking when his focus is elsewhere.

It sounds risky and volatile, but not so. Maru pours on pressure in heaps, enough that no more than a handful Protoss players can even think to move out, even fewer capable of attacking without taking potentially game-ending damage. Once Maru is on your throat, he never lets go. Most recently displayed in a Proleague game against Myungsik which made the game look borderline imbalanced, this style is most reminiscent of a psychopath's utterly cold and utterly calculating behavior. Marauders snipe innumerable colossi while mines ravage mineral lines and Maru keeps playing that symphony of aggression, largely unhindered. Myungsik was prepared for that onslaught, did admirably in pushing it back with minimal losses, but lacked the aggressive prowess and the tactical acumen needed to initiate the counter-offensive. The endless waves of aggression eventually toppled even Myungsik, his stumbling attempts at establishing a dominant phoenix/colossus army thwarted by a complete lack of interest in how TvP should, logically, be played.

In this, herO might be Maru's equal. While the Terran is most notable for attacks that pull apart and an outward show of disinterest, herO is his opposite. Content to strike on one front with pushes made unstoppable by the force of unit control, herO's trade mark stalker control might have won him as many games as colossus snipes have for Maru. With success in both international and domestic tournaments, herO is not bound to one kind of tournament format and often seems more than happy to win in either. Cheerful demeanor sets him apart from the much less outgoing Maru, but calling herO a nicer player or a less menacing one in identical situations would be vastly understating things.

Against any Terran player, not excluding Maru, expecting herO to go on the offensive is more than reasonable, but you shouldn't be bound by the perception that aggression is all herO is comfortable doing. Maru is a known quantity and almost as predictable as Flash, which makes him an ideal target for tailored builds. The difficulty of Maru's resilience and hyper-aggression remains even then, eliminating a vast majority of greedy builds from consideration. If you doubt Maru's ability to see through economic deception, consider the almost prescient ability he displayed in seeing through Stats' deception in this game:

With his tricky options all but taken away, herO is left with only a few options, all of them demanding varying degrees of standard play. Maru has shown that he responds too well to most kinds of trickery to be caught off-guard and forced into awkward reactions. Relying too much on gimmicky play and knife's edge-pushes and the risk of gambling away his chances become too great. Play too safely, and Maru is allowed free reign in both aggression and greed. Finding the balance between the two will be key.

Overall thoughts and prediction

There are only a handful of players in the world that currently exhibit the level of play both herO and Maru have displayed recently. One an SSL champion, the other the most recent KeSPA Cup champion, both would be reasonable picks to walk away with the trophy had the brackets played out differently. But like I said, there is only one Protoss in the world I would favor against Maru, and that Protoss isn't herO. Even so, herO has beaten Maru in the past – and did so in their most recent meeting – with neither playing far from their normal levels, so it's fair to say that herO does, at least, stand a fighting chance provided he does not suffer an early loss to something unscouted.

You know, such as a proxy in your base.

Maru 3-1 herO

Writers: Zealously.
Graphics: shiroiusagi.
Editors: Zealously.
Stats: Aligulac