Second Chances

If there’s anything that this GSL season has proven, it is that past experience of success is a powerful asset in attempting to reach for that same glory once more. This season has seen an abnormally high number of Code S debutants—five, in Journey, Bunny, Forte, DeParture and SpeeD. Three fell at the first hurdle. Bunny and SpeeD both crashed out 0-2 in the second group stage. On the contrary, look at those who made it to the playoffs—herO, Cure, TY, Dream, Zest, TaeJa, Losira, and Dear. Three are starleague champions, two are past starleague finalists, and the remaining three have all made the semifinals before.

Now, only four remain. While Friday will feature a clash of past champions in Dear and Zest, tonight, it’s the turn of the Almosts. Both TY and Cure are still waiting for their first championships in their careers, but both have come within a hair's breadth of doing so—Cure losing 3-4 to INnoVation in GSL 2014 Season 3, and TY losing 3-4 to ByuL in SSL Season 3 last year. Both players could have been forgiven for thinking that bygones were bygones—Cure’s Indian summer is nearly two years gone now, while TY squandered the one chance he had at making a starleague final in ten years of gaming against ByuL last year. However, a new expansion has brought a second chance at glory for both. It's time to see if either will take it.

Cure’s been here before. Semifinal against a favoured opponent looking for his first GSL title sound familiar? Just like last time, he’s up against a terran—for INnoVation in Heart of the Swarm, read TY in Legacy of the Void. Back in 2014, Cure stood at the very pinnacle of online Korean Starcraft. Ladder might be a whole different environment to the GSL stage, but we’ve seen in the past how hitting #1 GM in Korea can be a portent of things to come. Take Zest for example—topping the ladder just before his breakout all-kill of SKT, Maru before his OSL win, or even DeParture, grinding his way to the top before flying to London to grab his first championship at Gfinity. There’s a hell of a lot more to the GSL than pure ladder skills—series planning, preparation and coping with the pressure on stage, for starters—but simply being able to win is hardly a skill that hurts.


Cure: "I will celebrate by grinding out a 24 hour marathon on EU servers again."

In the best form of his life, Cure glided through the GSL with ease. Player after player was brushed aside as he continued his surge to the top, walking the Royal Road. Approaching the semifinals, he was sitting on a ridiculous 31-4 series record. All that, for nothing. In an incredibly tight back and forth series, INnoVation edged out the Jin Air terran, taking the final set and starting on the road to glory against soO. We’ve seen before how players dip after a seemingly career-defining achievement or failure. Squirtle was never quite the same player after his GSL final loss to Mvp. Curious has regressed to the Ro.32 participant he was prior to his Dreamhack title and Code S semifinal. No one expected Cure to ever reach the heights he did, and no one blamed him for falling back to reality afterwards. In 2015, Cure was a mere ghost of his past self, making it to three of the six starleagues, and not once past the initial stages. That he’s back here right now, burning with desire to right the wrongs of the past is to be applauded.

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The most dangerous word in sports is ‘potential’. By its very nature, it’s a concept that is just that—a mere concept that has not yet been made tangible. It’s a promise of better things to come. It’s a millstone around a player’s neck; an eternal question asking ‘Why aren’t you better?’. TY had potential. Season after season he’d roll up, show us some new flashy trick or build, and lose. From 2012 to 2014, over 8 seasons of the GSL, he made Code S three times. In those three Ro.32s, he picked up a cumulative total of three maps. For all his Best of One prowess in Proleague, he simply couldn’t win when it counted. In 2015, that all changed. In that very same year of Cure's ebb, TY finally began to pay back the faith that people have been heaping on him ever since he was a child. A quarterfinal spot in GSL Season 1 was a nice start, but it was his SSL run in Season 3 where he came closest to claiming the vindication he’s been chasing for a decade. Victories over Trap, Rogue and Classic took him to the playoffs; an underdog victory over Zest took him into uncharted territory and a semifinal against ByuL. Much like Cure, TY took it all the way to the deciding set. Much like Cure, TY fell.


TY: "Shame I had to play ByuL in the semis, not the final"

While both players’ career paths have been mirror images to some extent, here’s where the comparison falls apart. Cure may have dropped off the radar following his past heights, but TY has gone from strength to strength, and his transition to Legacy has been seamless. A good performance in the Shoutcraft Invitational II was tainted by his failure to find a flaw in Solar’s play in the final, while Dreamhack Winter may have been a slight disappointment—ousted from the competition by PartinG’s traditional PvT brilliance—but since then he’s hardly looked back.

Both players tonight have been here before. Both players will know that it’s not guaranteed that they’ll ever be back here again. A hot streak in Starcraft 2 is a fickle thing, and both Cure and TY have been burned before by running out of steam before the final hurdle. Tonight, one of them will repeat the flaws of the past. Tonight, one will ascend to new heights.


Predictions

There are still questions unanswered for both players. Cure’s TvZ looked brilliant during his 4-0 over soO and Solar, and his TvP was solid against herO, punishing the CJ protoss’ mistakes consistently, but his TvT has looked much sketchier. Outplayed by aLive and Bomber in Proleague, and with confusingly inconsistent results online (3-0 over GuMiho, before losing 0-3 in the rematch on the very same day), there’s still too little evidence to truly judge him. His most impressive result in the matchup was his 3-0 over Sorry in Code A, manhandling him with tankivac play with ease, but that came in early January, and is pretty much irrelevant now considering how fast players have developed.

On the other hand, we’ve seen plenty of TY mirror matches. He might be in dodgy form in Proleague, losing his past five matches (to Bunny, Maru, ByuL, Trap, Dark), but his TvT has been excellent throughout LotV. He boasts an 80% set winrate, and looked a class above Dream in their quarterfinal, taking the 3-0 with ease. The only 2 series he’s dropped of his 18 played have been the aforementioned pair of Proleague matches against Maru and Bunny. Sure, consistent failure in his weekly commitments is a bit worrying, but the Dream match is a pretty convincing recent display of power in tonight’s matchup.

His style of play is marked by heavy multitasking and good control, and these are especially exemplified by his early game play, which is defined by early tankivac and viking pressure to seize both air and ground control on the map. Don’t rule out a cheeky reaper rush either, as seen against Dream. TY is simply the far more proven player in Legacy TvT, and should probably regarded as the best TvTer in Korea right now (with the possible exception of Maru). Should he play to GSL, rather than Proleague form, the KT terran should be favoured.

TY 4 - 2 Cure

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Writers' Draft

Round of 8 Report Card

Time for our penultimate report on our Writers’ Draft standings! For an overview of the initial drafting process, click here. Here’s a quick reminder of the teams:
+ Show Spoiler +

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Destructicon - 20 points - B-
Dream -5
Zest +25

Dream may have disappointed, but Zest is still alive, and thus so are Destructicon’s hopes. It essentially comes down to a straight shootout between him and Soularion for bragging rights, and should anyone but Cure win the GSL, the result should be pretty clear cut.

Soularion - 45 points - A+
TY +25
Dear +20

Two players, two winners. Not much more you could do, unless you’re that insistent that Dear’s dropped map and 5 bonus points is gonna cost Soularion. With a player in each semifinal, Soularion should now be considered the runaway favourite should your faith in Zest be anything but absolute.

TheOneAboveU - 20 points - B
herO +0
Cure +20

TheOneAboveU had two players left, and both were playing each other in the quarters. Not exactly ideal. Given how herO’s been pretty shaky recently, I think that Cure winning was actually a good thing. While he’s not exactly the favourite of the four remaining, I’ll give him more of a shot than I’d have given herO.

hexhaven - -5 points - E
TaeJa -5
Losira +0

Yeah, not great. Both TaeJa and Losira were huge underdogs, and both lost convincingly. hexhaven’s run ends here, and solidifies his 4th place finish. Time to go to Writers’ Jail.

Current standings

Soularion - 118 points (TY, Dear to play)
Destructicon - 110 points (Zest)
TheOneAboveU - 69 points (herO)
hexhaven - 36 points (N/A)