EPTSBENU SC2 Starleague 2015 Season 2
S2SL Challenger
Myungsik vs Journey
Maru vs Sora
Dear vs soO
Brackets and Standings on Liquipedia
Liquipedia
MyuNgSiK vs Journey
by lichter
Nobody can remember where it all started, but the Stupid Gun has been passed down from generation to generation in Starcraft. For those who don't know, the Stupid Gun is that special ability that allows a player to make another player play like an idiot, while playing badly himself. This of course leads to ridiculous or ridiculously painful games. What makes the Stupid Gun different from other special weapons, however, is that it can work against anyone at anytime, and only one person can wield it. Sometimes, the Stupid Gun disappears from history only to reappear again at some point in the future.
Once upon a time, HuK possessed this mythical weapon. Though he was one of the best foreigners at the time, he had the tendency to play mind boggling games while dragging down his opponents with him. Somehow, he'd win with his Top 3 control, even though everything else in the game suggested that he deserved to lose. He won DreamHack Summer 2011 against Moon by zapping him repeatedly, and it was actually a rather impressive final. By the middle of 2012, however, HuK began to lose control of the Stupid Gun and he was no longer deemed worthy to use it.
It resurfaced once again towards 2013 in the hands of Bbyong. While he's fondly known now as a strong terran player, he was once one of the worst players in Code S. Yet, somehow, he kept climbing back into Code S by sheer force of the Stupid Gun. Who could ever forget Bbyong vs MarineKing in WCS Korea S2 2013 (OSL), one of the most agonizing Bo3's ever played? Sure, he didn't really need to shoot MarineKing in the foot, but he did anyway. And he used it time and again to reach Code S. Eventually, as we know now, Bbyong revealed himself to be a skilled player after all, and he lost possession of the Stupid Gun in 2014.
After a brief respite, the Stupid Gun has returned in the hands of MyuNgSiK. Taking nothing away from the most awkward protoss in the world—he's actually genuinely clever—but sometimes his games leave fans tearing their hairs out. Whether it was his misguided commitment to phoenix colossus or his current refusal to play standard, MyuNgSiK enjoys causing chaos for his opponents. Unfortunately, he often can't contain that chaos and it spreads to both players, leading to madness. Yet this is his 5th straight season confounding fans in a premier Korean tournament (3 Code S, SSL, Code S again). Hey, whatever works, right?
Now his next victim will likely be Journey. On the one hand, MyuNgSiK's pretty bad at PvT, hardly breaking even. Journey hasn't beaten a Code S caliber protoss since sOs (when he sucked) back in April, but it's still his best matchup statistically. On the other hand, an up-and-coming player like Journey is just the type of target the Stupid Gun loves to impair. The Samsung Terran has been tipped as one for the future (just like a bunch of other Samsung players) and this is his big shot to prove himself worthy. Sadly, MyuNgSiK feels no emotion for wide-eyed hopefuls, and expect Journey's game to be riddled with bullets.
Prediction:
Stupid Gun gives MyuNgSiK +2 wins this series
MyuNgSiK 3 - 2 
JourneyMaru vs Sora
by lichter
One of the first things I do when writing a preview is open up Aligulac to look at winrates. Most of the time it's about what I expect and I just use it for reference. Sometimes, I get a genuine surprise.
Yep. Apparently, despite not being relevant for close to a year, Sora still has a 70% winrate against terran. Upon closer inspection, however, it looks like my expectation is actually a lot closer to reality than I thought. Sora hasn't won a PvT against a top terran since WECG 2014 (vs TY and Cure). Yep, WECG. Everyone knows Sora can only ever do well in tournaments that have the letters W, C and G in them. Unfortunately, none of those letters appear in SSL, which leads me to believe that signals 0 wins out of a possible 3.
Superstitions aside, Sora hasn't played a televised match since the start of June: a loss to Bomber after a loss to sOs. In fact, he hasn't won a live televised match since.. Code A Season 3 almost an entire year ago against PartinG (before losing in the rematch). That's a hell of a long time between wins, but as WCG season approaches, Sora could be in the mood to play better.
Unfortunately, despite drawing a terran, it just had to be Maru. Maru, of course, has been destroying most protoss so badly that the games need to be censored for being too inhuman. However, it was 2 protoss that stopped him in both Code S and SSL, and Sora was once mentioned in the same breath as Rain and herO. That was 2 years ago, sadly, and you'd probably have a hard time mentioning Sora along the lines of MyuNgSiK or even Terminator in 2015.
There's also the little matter of this:
Yeah, this isn't going to be pretty for Sora.
Predictions:
Maru makes everyone cringe in pity of Sora at least twice in the series, makes everyone cringe once for trying a ridiculous cheese.
Maru 3 - 1 SoraDear vs soO
It’s been a strange trip to the bottom for both, but two years on from their Code S finals clash, Dear and soO meet again. It’s the first meeting between the two titans since that fateful encounter, and one that shows the dichotomy in their career paths so far.
There’s been no precedent in Starcraft 2 for Dear’s rise in late 2013. To go from being a backing singer in the INnoVation Proleague Show to walking the Royal Road, with twin victories in the GSL and the WCS Season 3 Finals was insane. Even Life had been making waves in the scene before his title; enough that he was feared by all when Season 4 came around in 2012. Equally, there are few falls from grace as dramatic as Dear’s—the switch to mousesports bringing about a swing from Champion to Code B within a season. While he has fought his way back in 2015, he’s still a long way off championship form. A mediocre 10-11 record in Proleague isn’t indicative of his Ace Player status on Samsung Khan (though admittedly it does look prettier in light of Solar’s abomination of a season so far), and his individual league form has hardly been stellar either. Even with all of those caveats though, it’s important to bear in mind the memories of how Dear came to fame; an eternal reminder that all it takes is one good run. 2015 has seen an abundance of protoss champions of old jostling for position at the head of the pack. Zest shook off his early season woes with his unexpected triumph at IEM Katowice, while Classic and Rain have taken a starleague each in the past season. Dear will be hoping to do the same here.
One question that pops up often in Starcraft debate is this: Would you prefer to be a one-off champion, or a consistent player who never wins a title? While Dear encapsulates the former case pretty well, there’s no player who epitomises the latter quite as well as soO. The staggering level of ‘nearlyness’ that he displayed over later 2013 and 2014 is unmatched in Starcraft 2. His break at the start of the year clearly affected his form, with dual failures in the Season 1 Qualifiers. He was rather more unfortunate in Season 2, where a once in a lifetime loss to FanTaSy seemed to break him mentally. But if the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that heartbreak and defeat are mere fleshwounds to soO, and his recent Proleague results have showed signs that the beast is stirring within the SKT zerg.
Predictions
It won’t ever make up for that first crushing finals defeat, but revenge is on the cards for soO here, and another starleague campaign beckons.
Dear 1 – 3 
soO
