EPTSBENU GSL
Season 2 Code S
Break the Pattern
Life, Maru, Bomber, MyuNgSiK
Brackets and standings on Liquipedia
Break the Pattern
by munch
Since last year’s WCS Finals at Blizzcon concluded,
Life has reigned supreme over the Starcraft scene. There have been challengers and unexpected speed-bumps, but he has sufficiently weathered the storm to maintain his reputation. However, he has been dogged by one recurring issue—ZvT. While Life’s ZvP has been unassailable this year, only losing a Bo1 to Stats since February, he’s been beaten six times by Terrans in the same time period. He has traded series with INnoVation’s parade pushes, been roasted by Bbyong’s inevitable hellbat timings, and outplayed by Dream twice in nail-biting series. The variety of his defeats lends extra credence to Maru and Bomber's chances as they are two of the most exploitative Terrans at the moment. I’m nitpicking here for sure: the few players I've mentioned rank comfortably among the world’s best. Yet for a player with Life's lofty ambitions, any weakness in his signature matchup is intolerable. After Dream wounded him last week in the S2SL quarterfinals, Life will be looking to cement the status quo once again.While Life comfortably strides into this group,
MyuNgSiK comes in with nothing to his name. That arguably puts him in the position where he’s most dangerous. The newly minted SBENU Protoss has claimed some vaunted scalps this season, and he’s had a surprising upturn in form after New Year's. In the past four months, his win rate stands at a healthy 60%—a whole 5% better than his all time statistics—and we’ve seen him turn from an inconsistent Protoss to one digging a solid post in the scene. Watching him, you get the sense that there’s a quality player there struggling to break through, and he surprised many when his cerebral play led to first place in his group. One also gets the feeling that this set of opponents may prove to be too great for his talents. While MyuNgSiK’s recent PvZ record stands at 7-1, Life’s record in the matchup is hardly shabby, and Maru's spectre looms large after last week’s Proleague mocking. But if we’ve learnt one thing about MyuNgSiK (apart from the fact that repeatedly typing his name gets irritating fast), it’s that he’s resilient. Ditched by KT after TRUE embarrassed him in the Proleague playoffs last year, MyuNgSiK bounced back to claim his best individual league performance last season. Bearing the burden of carrying PRIME in Proleague, he responded with key wins. And in a year of consistent improvement for him, it would not be entirely shocking if MyuNgSiK bounces back here.At this point, it’s difficult to know what to think of
Bomber. Much like TaeJa, Blizzcon seemed like the end of the road for the enigmatic Terran. Ejected from WCS America, he seemed to take a step back from the daily grind on his return to Korea. Taking up a player-coach role on StarTale, his debut in Proleague proved to be a damp squib, with a loss to YoDa and a win against Flash being his only contribution in the first two rounds. A swift exit from the Code S group stages followed his elimination from the S2SL qualifiers at the hands of Dynamite, and suddenly we were questioning if we’d ever see him again. Between February and April, more than two months went by without a single game from Bomber. However, the recent emergence of our footwear-purveying god seems to have put the cat among the pigeons. Bomber seems re-energized, ready to assume his place at the head of the pack. He has led from the front in Proleague: in his winners interview after week 1, he noted that while he had been nervous going into the match, he felt that it was his duty as one of the senior players to step up. Now he stands as one of the two remaining SBENU members in the GSL. Last year Bomber teared up during an interview at Red Bull DC, nakedly expressing his feelings of responsibility towards his sponsor. Following the SBENU takeover, it would be interesting to see if he harbors a similar fire towards this tournament. If Life has been the standout player of the past 6 months,
Maru's been the scariest. The frightening thing about the Jin Air Terran is his total control over all facets of the game. He’s the only Terran around who’s truly solid in all three matchups. He can play mech and he can play bio. He can beat you in the late game as easily as the midgame, and his ability to bust out gorgonzola at the right moments is reminiscent of old champions. All this precedes the ridiculous matchup of Maru vs Protoss that we’ve been seeing in 2015. A 70% win rate in the past four months doesn’t begin to summarize how borderline unbalanced he makes the game look. Not since the days of the Soul Train has a player’s matchup approach been so predictable but so hard to stop. Such effluent praise should not be taken as a sign of future dominance. When Maru shot to glory in the 2013 OSL, we were saying many of the same things. Disappointment after disappointment followed that triumph and it’s been a long two years since. The looming question remains—what happens next? Predictions
In any other group, I’d give due respect to MyuNgSiK. However, Life and Maru who are simply far too good for him, whereas Bomber in the right mood is as destructive as anyone. Life ought to have a slight edge over both Terrans, so the group should come down to a Bomber/Maru rematch. Frankly, this is too hard for me to call—both made their names defeating the then best terran in the world—and it all depends on Bomber’s form at that specific moment. Bomber looked dominant in his victory over INnoVation earlier this season, and I'll side with the SBENU player here.
Life > MyuNgSiK
Bomber < Maru
Life > Maru
MyuNgSiK < Bomber
Maru < Bomber
Life and Bomber advance.
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