Oh Baby

by Zealously

If it isn't one thing, it's something else. Not entirely surprisingly, Jin Air showed up well-prepared for their first match against KT Rolster. Leading the charge with Trap's haphazard and scrappy victory over Flash on Echo (worth noting is that the very same match-up will be the starting match for tomorrow's allkill format), the Jin Air lineup brought two things to the table today that KT Rolster did not: understanding and preparation. As one of the best Terran players in the world, TY should have expected the notoriously aggressive Pigbaby to hit him below the belt. And perhaps he did, but his willingness to believe that the initial oracle attack was all there was to Pigbaby's aggression came back to hurt him quickly. This is what we imagine Pigbaby was saying in the booth over course of the game:





Almost as if to drive the point home, Super's first game of the season (thanks KT coach) became KT's only win of the night. Cure has not been doing overly well recently, and his weaknesses were put on display against the hometurned KT player. But for all the void rays and evacuated bases that the game on Cactus Valley brought about (watch this game), KT entirely failed to capitalize on Super's victory.



Zest, admittedly, put up a fight on even footing against the Million Dollar Man. sOs raked in a number of minor advantages over the course of the game, none of which would have been game-ending without positioning errors on the side of the KT ace. Following a bad fight where Zest found himself spread too thin and reeling to respond to sOs' attack (the Jin Air Protoss had previously acquired a gold base of dubious value), he was pushed back and quickly made to concede the game. With the series hinging on Life beating out a meching Maru on Terraform, it was lights out for KT Rolster.

Match 1 In Short:

• Reading up is worth it: Pigbaby's build perfectly attacked TY's approach to the game. TY, on the other hand, seemed woefully unprepared for unorthodox aggression and would have required more diligent scouting and safer play. Don't salvage your damn bunkers, TY.
  
• Overconfidence is its own punishment.
  
• KT's rarely fielded players perform better than their regulars. Field Super again, KT.
  
• When in doubt, cheese: it might be ugly, it might consist of four low blows in a row, but it evidently works. KT's roster has what it takes to beat Jin Air, but stubbornly sticking to a standard against a team prepared for it is hubris and bound to result in elimination.
  

With that scolding out of the way, on to Match 2!

Jin Air Green Wings Roster Breakdown

by TheOneAboveU

Roster:

Protoss – Pigbaby, sOs, Terminator, Trap
Terran – Cure, Maru
Zerg – Check, Rogue, Symbol

Team Ace or 'Man, I've been carrying these fools for a while'

Maru

SPL record: 26-14 (65%)
Strongest match-up: TvP (14-3)
Maru most likely wants to play against: Stats, Zest
Maru most likely wants to avoid: Having to use mech

Had SPL Round 4 not have happened, Maru’s stats would look way more impressive and frightening than they do now. As it is, the 0-5 in this season’s last round really pulled him down to the realm of mortals. The reasons for his drop-off in these last weeks are easily found though: rumors of wrists hurting make their way around the scene quickly, and the dominant mech style in TvZ and TvT doesn’t really suit the multitasking-focused and highly aggressive Terran. And despite that, he was able to advance to the GSL semifinals only a few days ago, showing that he’s definitely not in a slump or in a continuing decline. With a win against his rival Life (bringing the record to 11-10 in his favor), things are coming together for the little psychopath.

Traditionally Maru is an excellent player in playoffs, even more so in his favored allkill format, where he is nearly unstoppable. Boasting a grand total of after taking two wins and gaining momentum. And: this season he has already raked up seven kills against KT in round playoffs. In Round 2 he took out Zest, Life and Stats to finish the match. In Round 3, he even managed to allkill the entire team by beating the same three players - plus Flash. With TvP still his best match-up, feared by nearly every Protoss player, he seems the most reliable option against KT's ace Zest. The fact that this opens up opportunities against Stats at no additional cost is very valuable for Jin Air. And despite his win over Life on Day 1, he still seems somewhat uncomfortable with mech, and will most likely want to avoid it.

Core Players

sOs

SPL record: 20-16 (56%)
Strongest match-up: PvT (9-5)
sOs most likely wants to play against: Flash, TY, Life
sOs most likely wants to avoid: Zest

sOs has been an unstable part of Jin Air all year, mixing hot winning streaks with dry weeks, never really providing stability despite being one of the biggest names on the team. Of course, sOs was never a player one would associate with the term “stability”. His whole career, after all, is essentially built on doing decidedly not-stable things. This makes choosing him at any point a risky decision, but if sOs hits, he hits very hard. As long as he avoids PvP (he might have beaten Zest, but the record still massively favors the opponent), he is a powerful, though unreliable, weapon. Capable of beating the likes of Flash, TY and Life, sOs has no glaring weaknesses. If Zest can be swept out of the way, sOs is free to reign supreme in the Nexon Arena.

Trap

SPL record: 9-9 (50%)
Strongest match-up: PvZ (4-3)
Trap most likely wants to play against: Flash, TY, Life
Trap most likely wants to avoid: Stats, Zest

It hasn’t been a glorious season for Trap, but he is definitely a valuable asset in a teamleague, and a pretty good choice for a starter, at that. As he is solid in every match-up and capable of achieving greatness from time to time (upsetting stronger players has become somewhat of a habit), Trap is the ideal catch-all opening player. His trademark control of oracles and high templars (using them together with warp prisms) makes him a fearsome opponent, threatening both lethal backstabs and well-executed frontal attacks. He is capable of defeating Flash once again, but he’s vulnerable against any Protoss KT might send out after that.

Rogue

SPL record: 22-12 (64%)
Strongest match-up: ZvT (8-3)
Rogue most likely wants to play against: Flash, TY
Rogue most likely wants to avoid: Zest

Rogue has shown weakness in longer series in the past [E/N: that is what you would find in a dictionary if you searched for "Understatement"] but in team leagues he has proven to be a very solid and stable player - especially so this year. Not only is the Sexy Boy Zerg a crafty player, equally comfortable with tailored builds as he is with run-of-the-mill standard play, he can go up against anyone in a game and have a reasonable chance of success. Rogue has been especially successful against the feared terran mech style over the last few weeks, and should be used against Flash or TY before individual wins can develop into multi-game streaks. This isn't to say that Rogue should be pidgeonholed into only playing ZvT. With ample preparation, Rogue can go up against a Protoss as well. The one player he might want to avoid is Life, as his ZvZ has proven suspect, but even the Zerg legend is an approachable opponent. Life has, after all, suffered similar trouble

Cure

SPL record: 11-12 (48%)
Strongest match-up: TvZ (5:2)
Cure most likely wants to play against: Life
Cure most likely wants to avoid: Flash, TY, Stats, Zest

Cure hasn’t been impressive at all this year, and his record shows it. But he still is one of Jin Air’s most fielded players, and we can only assume that there is a reason for that. We really don’t know how he fits into the whole picture, as his match-ups against Protoss and Terran (and that’s where KT’s strengths lie at the moment) are not at a level where they would pose considerable threats to KT. It must be mentioned that Cure was the only person to lose a map in Match 1, and that he did so against one of KT’s rarely seen benchwarmers. We will place no blame on Cure personally (watch that game), but morale might be under strain. Maybe Cure could steal one win against a weaker KT player or even beat a n off-form Life, but he probably shouldn’t be fielded in a format this punishing at the moment.

Snipers and Glorified Benchwarmers

Jin Air probably won’t have need of any player outside of Maru, Rogue, sOs and Trap in the allkill format, but the team's line-up offers potential nasty surprises for the unsuspecting.

Pigbaby

SPL record: 1-1 (50%)
Strongest match-up: PvT (1-0)
Could snipe: Flash, TY

Pigbaby has proven that he is not to be underestimated in a Best of 1. Showcasing a smart build against TY, utilizing fake aggression to buy enough time to prepare his real offensive, Pigbaby made it very clear that he's no slouch to be disregarded. Such trickery is typical for the Protoss player, who is very good at preparing for certain opponents, which makes him an ideal sniper in team leagues.



He could very well be used against KT’s Terrans, but fielding him in the all kill format constitutes a risk, especially since Jin Air has players who can not only deal with the terrans, but also have potential to win more than only one map.

Terminator

SPL record: 0-1 (0%)
Strongest match-up: -
Biggest strength: Ask Arnold Schwarzenegger

We have no idea where Terminator stands at the moment gameplay-wise, but we have seen him upsetting favoured players in the past. He is in the same category as Pigbaby, but neither as successful or experienced on bigger stages. The chance of seeing him is very low.

Check

SPL record: 1-1 (50%)
Strongest match-up: ZvT (1-0)

Not much can be said about Jin Air’s latest addition, as we haven’t seen much of him yet. Check probably mostly acts as a practice partner for the rest of his team, so we shouldn’t really expect to see him fielded at any point in these playoffs. Of course, we don’t know how in-house practice is going. Check might secretly have become a master in one match-up or another. Is he a likely Sniper? Certainly not. Therein lies his potential strength.

Symbol

SPL record: 1-2 (33%)
Strongest match-up: ZvP (1-0)

With Symbol we at least know that he’s capable of great things, or at least he was in the past. The zerg player hasn’t seen much success in Heart of the Swarm and unfortunately his games in Proleague weren’t impressive either, so he was degraded to a benchwarmer for most of the season. On a good day Symbol could definitely snipe one of KT’s terrans or even Life, but days like this have been very rare indeed these last years. Whenever roach/nydus might be useful, the same holds true for Symbol. But in all, the chances of seeing him fielded aren’t high.

KT Rolster Roster Breakdown

by munch

Team Ace or 'Guys, we might be in serious trouble'

Zest

SPL Record: 28-14 (67%)
Strongest matchup: PvZ (10-1)
Zest most likely wants to play against: Not-Maru or Nondescript Zerg
Zest most likely wants to avoid: Maru

Read the Maru section above, and reverse it for Zest. Without his obscene 11-0 record in Round 4, his stats for 2015 look fairly average; with it, he enters the playoffs as one of the current top players in Starcraft 2. He did take a bruising yesterday in his much vaunted PvP, when a rare breakdown in his army control allowed sOs to take an easy and unexpected win, and he’ll have to cut out such basic errors if he’s to fulfil his role as KT’s (by far) most important player. It helps that in a straight up game, he’s probably favoured against all but Maru on the Jin Air squad, and his ability to multi-kill will certainly be called upon here. It’ll be very interesting to see where KT field him, as Jin Air are often loath to field Maru in anything but the #4 position in the all kill format—an early run out could allow him to build up a head of steam.



Core Players or 'We might field TY'

Flash

SPL Record: 11-17 (39%)
Strongest matchup: TvP (6-4)
Flash most likely wants to play against: Pigbaby, Cure
Flash most likely wants to avoid: Rogue, Maru, sOs

It’s been a pretty dreadful year in Proleague for Flash, and the results he’s shown so far in no way justify his perennial spot in KT’s lineup. He’s back out tonight in the opening slot, and he’ll have to immediate relive last night’s defeat to Trap. It’s rare that Flash is outgreeded, but Trap’s extremely early unpunished third nexus set him up for the rest of the game. It was a pretty poorly played game from both players though, with plenty of missed opportunities for either player to seize the advantage, and Flash will certainly need to be far more decisive tonight. Actually responding to zealot harass wouldn’t go amiss either. If Flash does take the revenge victory against Trap though, it’s still hard to see him going much further. It’s highly likely that Jin Air will opt for some combo of Rogue, Maru and sOs as their remaining three (barring some snipe shenanigans for Zest), and all three have the aggressive tendencies to take advantage of the KT Terran’s predictability.

Life

SPL Record: 17-15 (53%)
Strongest matchup: ZvZ (5-4)
Life most likely wants to play against: Trap, sOs
Life most likely wants to avoid: Rogue, Maru

Much like Flash, Life has been seriously disappointing in Proleague this year. 17-15 is a fine record for a mid tier player; less so when you’re the megabucks star acquisition for a championship winning squad. He was the player who KT bought to elevate their squad into one capable of taking a second consecutive championship, and so far he’s failed to convince that he can deliver on those promises. While none of his matchups are awful (ranging from 50-55% win rates), he’s still looked sub par in all three matchups against the very best that Proleague has to offer. Curious has made him look like a fool repeatedly in the Zerg mirror match, while his ZvP has been unconvincing, and his anti-mech play downright awful. Taking a map off the Jin Air Protoss squad is probably his best chance at contributing tonight, unless he returns to the magical form that propelled him to ‘Best player in the world’ status earlier in the year [E/N: and many times before]

TY

SPL Record: 10-10 (50%)
Strongest matchup: TvZ (4-3)
TY most likely wants to play against: Maru, sOs
TY most likely wants to avoid: Rogue

TY is the ultimate feast and famine in Starcraft 2. His ability go through streaks of wins and losses seemingly at random might be an extreme irritation for the KT coach when planning for matches in the regular season, but multi-kill ability is what the all kill format is all about. As demonstrated against CJ Entus, that’s certainly a threat that TY poses, and besides Zest, he’s probably the greatest threat on KT for Jin Air. He’s shown great performances in all three matchups recently, and he’s an interesting snipe option for Maru if KT lose faith in Life’s ZvT ability. We could also be in for a fun Mech vs Z for once if he comes out against Rogue; TY’s more mobile meching style and Rogue’s odd compositions possibly steering us away from turtle mech hell.

Stats

SPL Record: 22-11 (67%)
Strongest matchup: PvZ (7-2)
Stats most likely wants to play against: Rogue, sOs
Stats most likely wants to avoid: Maru

As mentioned yesterday, it’s incredibly odd to see the massive shift in Stats’ results that’s occurred during the year. Compare his record in Rounds 1 and 2 (14-3, including an all kill of SKT) to Rounds 3 and 4 (8-9, including losses to jjakji, Trust and Billowy) and you’ll see just how far he’s fallen. He’s gone from the most consistently great Protoss of the first few months of the year to one of the most inconsistently awkward Protoss in the scene. Out of KT’s fab five, he’s now possibly the player most likely to miss out on appearing tonight. That said though, he still offers a threat against zerg, as his crucial victory over Curious in the Round 4 playoffs demonstrates, and will likely see action if KT rate Rogue’s anti-mech play highly.



Snipers and Victims of The KT Coach's Disapproval

Super

SPL Record: 1-0 (100%)
Strongest matchup: PvT (1-0)
Super most likely wants to play against: Probably grateful to get a game at all
Super most likely wants to avoid: N/A

After picking up KT’s sole win last night, Super’s probably shot straight up to the top of the depth chart. His proxy oracle into void ray bust was a move straight out of early Wings of Liberty, and although he was somewhat shaky against Cure’s mine drop counter-offensive, the damage done earlier was far too much for the Jin Air man to recover from. We simply haven’t seen enough of him all year long to judge him adequately here, but if last night was anything to go by, he could still deliver for KT in specific scenarios if given the chance. It would be incredibly odd to see him come out near the end of the series, but given Maru’s occasionally greedy openings, a similar cheese could be just what KT need.

Speed

SPL Record: N/A
Strongest matchup: N/A
SpeeD most likely wants to play against: Someone not on his team
SpeeD most likely wants to avoid: Being destroyed by a nasty Pigbaby 10-gate

We know nothing about this guy. That’s not going to change tonight.