Day 1 of IEM Gyeonggi lived up to its billing as a set of four groups of death, with all four quarterfinals already decided. While a number of top players rose to meet expectations, others, struggled to keep their heads above water, proving inadequate in the face of less heralded players.
First up were group A and B, both of which featured disappointing results from two paragons of protoss and the return to prominence of two established names.
In group A, INnoVation started off his tournament with a hiccup against Stats on Echo, torn apart by simple DT harass before taking some massive disruptor hits. He bounced back successfully though to take down the ex-KT protoss with strong macro play to await his opponent in the winners' match.
Rather surprisingly, that opponent was Losira. herO had initially looked in full control of that match, demonstrating his typically strong stalker play on Newkirk, before taking a huge lead on Whirlwind with adept / oracle harassment while teching up to carriers. Losira turned the tables on his opponent though with a return to Wings of Liberty; a roach / queen nydus all-in with spore support that worked better than anyone could have dreamed. Taking game 3, he pushed INnoVation all the way too, but the ex-SKT terran was able to emerge victorious in first place.
With one player through to the quarterfinals, Stats and herO faced off in a somewhat surprising losers' match. Cheese was the name of the game here, and in yet another 3-game series, it was herO again who looked like taking the win. A proxy robo immortal drop in game 3 seemed likely to do critical damage, but excellent control from Stats sealed herO's fate. Stats capitalized on this win by defeating Losira in the final match. Advancing from the group in second place, Stats secures the opportunity to take revenge on INnoVation in the elimination rounds.
The surprises continued in group B, which opened up with Zest facing off against Leenock. In the battle of ex-teammates, it was Leenock who surprisingly won in three games. Game 1 in particular was a minor classic; Zest looked shaky (as he did throughout the day), but correct decision making allowed him to force a basetrade, taking several key engagements to thin out the zerg's brood lord count before stalkers mopped up the rest.
Meanwhile, soO rolled over Trust easily in a rare 2-0, setting up a ZvZ in the winners match. For the second time of the day, it was soO who won the latest iteration of the once vaunted Telecom Wars by defeating Leenock with superior roach / ravager control, emerging from the group in first place. With soO through, it was Zest and Trust who would do battle. In what could be considered the biggest upset of IEM Gyeonggi, tournament favorite Zest was defeated by his old KT B-teamer, who showed strong disruptor play in particular to come back from a deficit in game 3. With one of the all-time greats expunged from the event, Trust was matched against another in Leenock with their tournaments on the line. Trust was able to keep his streak going, become the second player to emerge from the group.
Group C was another chance for Dark to put all his challengers back in their box. The zerg who's dominated 2016 from start to finish continued to roll on to victory here, sweeping jjakji first with strong burrowed roach play before continuing his campaign against (ex-)SKT by taking out Classic too to become the first and only player to emerge 4-0 from the group stages.
Meanwhile, ByuL continued his resurgence following a quiet 2016, beating Classic in the decider match after taking out a disappointing jjakji in the losers' match. Alongside his 2nd place at Afreeca's SC2 Cataclysm post-season tournament last month, ByuL once again looks to be improving as we move into 2017.
Group D featured what might have been the premier opening match of the group stage, with Solar and Maru facing off to start their campaigns. Much like ByuL, Maru's been a player who's severely disappointed in 2016 (individually, at least), and he made up for lost time here; strong positional play with liberators and widow mines was the name of the game here. More eye-raising though was his eventual triumph over BlizzCon champion ByuN; a sign that the once undisputed champion of TvT might be back to dominate the matchup once more.
Solar meanwhile has disappointed for the third tournament in a row; a mediocre top 8 finish at HomeStory Cup (albeit losing to an in-form Stats) sandwiching two group stage defeats at the WCS Global Finals and here at IEM. He even had the indignity of losing to the sole foreigner here in iAsonu, who showed some sharp ZvZ skills, and there'll undoubtedly have to be some introspection for the Splyce zerg going forwards as he attempts to figure out how the past couple of months could've gone quite this badly. Unfortunately for the Chinese zerg, his road ended here too; quickly dismissed 0-2 by a vengeful ByuN.
On December 15 2016 02:35 Hider wrote: Alot of pretty good and highlevel games.
Still can't get over how Solar just "chokes" to big underdogs after looking like a world class player.
iAsonu really showed a great performance today, so ofc on the paper he was inferior to the 3 big names in his group, but he did a good job, even against ByuN.
So maybe it was more IAsonu playing great than Solar "choking"?
On December 15 2016 02:35 Hider wrote: Alot of pretty good and highlevel games.
Still can't get over how Solar just "chokes" to big underdogs after looking like a world class player.
iAsonu really showed a great performance today, so ofc on the paper he was inferior to the 3 big names in his group, but he did a good job, even against ByuN.
So maybe it was more IAsonu playing great than Solar "choking"?
Solar also choked against Elazer at blizzcon so my confirmation bias tells me that he also choked here.
(really starting to enjoy using this meaningless term).
Excluding the ZvZ possibility all of those sound great. Protoss just needs to leave :p
a final with stats vs inno,dark or byun could be great
Stats vs Trust....the matchup that no one would predict or want, but which would still probably be pretty good.
I say that if Byun makes it past Dark, then the best finals would probably be against Maru or Stats. I think he would do very well against soO or Byul.
I think Dark vs Maru would be a good final. I think Innovation vs Maru/Zerg would be good. I don't really want a ZvZ matchup, but TvT isn't bad, and I saw some good PvP.
Excluding the ZvZ possibility all of those sound great. Protoss just needs to leave :p
a final with stats vs inno,dark or byun could be great
Stats vs Trust....the matchup that no one would predict or want, but which would still probably be pretty good.
I say that if Byun makes it past Dark, then the best finals would probably be against Maru or Stats. I think he would do very well against soO or Byul.
I think Dark vs Maru would be a good final. I think Innovation vs Maru/Zerg would be good. I don't really want a ZvZ matchup, but TvT isn't bad, and I saw some good PvP.
I think ByuN vs Stats would be horribly one-sided tbh
My question was only to ask if I should watch any particular games. I'm interested if mech is viable, and I was hoping maybe Innovation, anyone really, went full mech for a long game that against zerg or protoss.
Some people read replies and automatically jump to conclusions.
Honestly, I would have expected many pros to not use mech yet. Maybe have tanks as support to bio with a few mines, but not a full tank entrenchment. There is still so much work to make a full mech build viable. Pros refine their builds, but that takes a shit load of time. All the terran players are still working on that refinement. I can't wait to see if they bust out a full mech build in the quarter finals, but incredibly surprised as well.
It's still too early to tell how viable is full mech, or if it is at all. Mech could also very well turn into a long 3 hour game that ends in split maps and boring stalemate potential. Or have a glaring weakness that makes it practically useless.
I am truly excited to see how full mech works out.
My question was only to ask if I should watch any particular games. I'm interested if mech is viable, and I was hoping maybe Innovation, anyone really, went full mech for a long game that against zerg or protoss.
Me too, but no luck. And I think the "issue" is that terrans have become so fantastic at controlling bio units that they feel they have more control over the game when they play bio.
Personally I would really like it if Lurker got some type of armor buff (along with HP nerf obviously) so it would counter Marines/bio (as in BW). That would make tank play (both with bio and as mech) better.
Also as long as Ravens and BCs are so strong, I don't know if late game mech will be interesting anyway.
Excluding the ZvZ possibility all of those sound great. Protoss just needs to leave :p
a final with stats vs inno,dark or byun could be great
Stats vs Trust....the matchup that no one would predict or want, but which would still probably be pretty good.
I say that if Byun makes it past Dark, then the best finals would probably be against Maru or Stats. I think he would do very well against soO or Byul.
I think Dark vs Maru would be a good final. I think Innovation vs Maru/Zerg would be good. I don't really want a ZvZ matchup, but TvT isn't bad, and I saw some good PvP.
I think ByuN vs Stats would be horribly one-sided tbh
? ByuN has a shot at beating him, why would it be one sided? Did the patch affect his TvP too?
Innovation is so damn good. He is realy the only Terran around who does not win off tricky plays, cute control, and multi pronged harass. Innovation just kicks down the door and his opponents cant stop him from doing so because he is just hands down better at macro than anyone period and on top of it has some of the best control in the world. I predict despite early setbacks he takes the whole thing.
On December 15 2016 14:54 zakadar wrote: TY also plays very macro oriented and tries always to get in the lategame and what is innos cyclone plays prepatch if not tricky plays
you raise a good point, TY Is also realy realy good but he tends to win off the back of his understanding of the late game and his ghost/lib control. His games don't have the same kind of I'm just better than you and make more stuff vibe that innovation's do when hes playing well.
On December 15 2016 02:35 Hider wrote: Alot of pretty good and highlevel games.
Still can't get over how Solar just "chokes" to big underdogs after looking like a world class player.
iAsonu really showed a great performance today, so ofc on the paper he was inferior to the 3 big names in his group, but he did a good job, even against ByuN.
So maybe it was more IAsonu playing great than Solar "choking"?
According to SC2unmasked, iAsonu is ranked #12 GM on the KR ladder. We really might be seeing the rise of a new Zerg champion!
EPT
INnoVation started off his tournament with a hiccup against 
Stats on Echo, torn apart by simple DT harass before taking some massive disruptor hits. He bounced back successfully though to take down the ex-KT protoss with strong macro play to await his opponent in the winners' match.
Losira. 
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rvqcAtT.png)
