It’s playoffs time! Day 5 at IEM Katowice kicked off with a quartet of tantalising Ro.12 matches, starting with a much-hyped encounter between two TvT masters in Ryung and INnoVation. What we got instead though was utter domination from the ex-SKT terran. A reaper rush on Honorgrounds and a doom drop on Proxima later, INnoVation was already up 2-0 heading into Cactus Valley. Heavy early cyclone damage allowed his macro to completely overwhelm Ryung, always up on upgrades and supply, and a maxed out push eventually crushed through the TeS terran.
Next came the obligatory KT team kill. This was Zest and TY’s fifth encounter in Bo5+ series in the past couple years, and while many of their previous encounters have been tight affairs, this was again a bit more one-sided. Newkirk Precinct saw TY’s love of multitasking and mines mesh perfectly with Zest’s phoenix-adept standard play, as well as his refusal to build a robo. Mine after mine detonated on his probe lines and army, and while Zest continually found damage to stay in the game, eventually TY’s upgrade lead allowed him to take a decisive engagement.
Zest equalised with another strong demonstration of phoenix-adept on Abyssal Reef, but TY’s superior late-game compositions made the difference on Proxima, and once ghosts came out it was all but GG. Zest attempted to mix it up, opting for a distinctly HotS-esque stalker / colossus core, but he threw away his whole army with an awful engagement into a liberator / viking line, and TY quickly converted it into a series victory.
The bops continued in the lower half of the bracket. Dark smashed Solar 3-0 with aggressive ling / bane play to claim revenge after the latter’s 4-3 victory in the SSL Finals last year, commenting that his opponent played far below his usual standard, while Polish hope Nerchio suffered a similar fate against Stats. Stats’ win in particular was one of the most technically precise series of the tournament so far, tearing apart Nerchio’s trademark lurker style in game 1 with storm and immortals. Game 2 ended swiftly after a huge adept attack inflicted game-ending damage on the zerg, but game 3 on Newkirk went long as well. Zealot harass was a constant throughout the series, with Stats constantly attacking across multiple fronts, and with Nerchio’s economy stymied throughout the game, he was forced to tap out when a large fight left him unable to remax.
With a wholly terran upper half of the bracket, it was time to settle in for a couple of blockbuster TvTs. INnoVation came into the quarterfinals fresh off his swift 3-0 of Ryung, but aLive was a whole different prospect as we were treated to the best TvT series of Legacy of the Void (VOD HERE). Game 1 immediately ramped up the tension, with aLive pulling off some of the positional moves that characterised his play throughout the series, dealing heavy damage to INnoVation’s economy and production. INnoVation meanwhile marched straight onto aLive’s side of the map, trying to initiate a basetrade. Clutch defence by the skin of his teeth left him with a working CC and a bigger army, and INnoVation was forced to concede.
This being LotV TvT, we couldn’t have too much of a good thing; aLive took a 2-0 advantage with a cloaked banshee rush that caught INnoVation without detection, while a doom drop allowed INnoVation to pull it back to 2-1. A viking patrol on Cactus Valley for INnoVation caught 3 of his opponent’s full medivacs attempting a drop, and suddenly the scores were level, despite an admirable fight from aLive, battling on despite INnoVation’s huge lead. All was up for grabs on Abyssal Reef, and what we got was the best TvT we’ve seen in years. aLive took his game to the next level, dropping and harassing INnoVation across the map. Constant multi-pronged attacks chipped away at the economy and production in an absolute masterclass of TvT, and a dispirited INnoVation allowed himself to drop to 2 supply before finally tapping out.
Next up was GuMiho vs TY, and it couldn’t have been more different. Where aLive and INnoVation had been clean and precise, GuMiho and TY were messy, chaotic, and downright dirty. The series is best encapsulated by a series of mistakes from GuMiho, who threw away a great opportunity to make his first top 4 since Dreamhack Tours 2015. A basetrade scenario on Newkirk was bungled; GuMiho 1a-ing liberators and tanks into a tank line, bleeding out his army advantage. Messy wins followed on Bel’Shir and Proxima Station, but the errors continued on Cactus Valley and Abyssal Reef—throwing away drop after drop in advantageous positions with non-stop aggression.
For many, Serral vs Dark was the tie of the round, but what seemed a dream tournament for the young Finn quickly fell apart to Korean zerg power as Dark extended his unbeaten streak against foreigners to #29, stretching back to 2012. Heavy ling / bane aggression gave him a swift 2-0 lead, before a masterful display of positioning and harassment completed the 3-0 sweep and a 1-9 record for the qualifiers from Group C. Still, making the Round of 8 should still be viewed as an exceptional performance given Serral’s matches in the group stages, and it’ll be very interesting indeed to see how he plays going forwards in 2017.
Finally, it was time for the third and final non-mirror of the day. There are certain landmark performances in a player’s career, where they seem to kick it up to a whole new level, and Stats’ games here were among the best we’ve ever seen from him. In a day of bops and scrappiness, Stats was clinically perfect; harassing ByuN to death with constant adept runbys while defending at home with perfect positioning. Stats was fully in control practically throughout his four games of absolute domination over ByuN, with his sole loss coming from a brilliant ByuN move to snipe a nexus and forges seconds before 2-2 and steal a game.
Recommended games
Stats vs Nerchio Set 1
aLive vs INnoVation Sets 1, 4, & 5
GuMiho vs TY Set 2
Dark vs Serral Set 3 (or Sets 1 and 2 if you’re a sadist)
Stats will win, semifinal in GSL, final on IEM in 2016, and now semifinal here, amazaing season. I think aLive/TY will lose in final and vs Stats and vs Dark
I would still vote TY vs ByuN from Sandisk back in 2015 a better TvT overall than aLive vs INno. aLive vs INno had a bunch of duds sandwiched by 2 absolutely sick games.
Also Stats' performance against ByuN was some of the best Protoss play I've seen. But ByuN also did a fantastic job keeping up, especially in the Proxima game.
The series reminded me of Rain vs Maru from Rain's GSL winning run in 2015.
On March 05 2017 06:57 Olli wrote: As someone who doesn't enjoy Terran play at all, what aLive did today was incredible.
I don't even know where aLive is pulling this from.
Loved the matches but that continued camera on Byun after the loss was heartbreaking. Whoever called the shots to keep that on screen has about as much classy as boxed wine. I don't know the person in charge was just lazy or stupid, but really bad sport to keep filming.
On March 05 2017 07:05 Cinskywind1 wrote: Loved the matches but that continued camera on Byun after the loss was heartbreaking. Whoever called the shots to keep that on screen has about as much classy as boxed wine. I don't know the person in charge was just lazy or stupid, but really bad sport to keep filming.
Probably gonna get a raise for capturing all the raw emotion
On March 05 2017 06:49 Elentos wrote: I would still vote TY vs ByuN from Sandisk back in 2015 a better TvT overall than aLive vs INno. aLive vs INno had a bunch of duds sandwiched by 2 absolutely sick games.
On March 05 2017 06:49 Elentos wrote: I would still vote TY vs ByuN from Sandisk back in 2015 a better TvT overall than aLive vs INno. aLive vs INno had a bunch of duds sandwiched by 2 absolutely sick games.
Was still great though.
For a tankivac series it was ok I guess
Not every TvT with tankivacs was a ruined mess and not every TvT after they got removed was aLive vs INnoVation.
The way players like TY and ByuN used tankivacs was actually a goddamn thing of beauty because they won with positioning even if they didn't "drop 1 second before their opponent".
Stats vs ByuN was such a great match. The skill of these two was so close and just incredibly high overall. Watching two players who are at such a high level duke it out is what makes Korean sc2 so much fun. That bm camera man at the end was kinda messed up though. Should let ByuN mourn his loss without lingering camera for so long.
On March 05 2017 08:33 ArtyK wrote: People complaining about the camera on ByuN after his loss apparently never watched an important sport match on tv.
Because we have to copy everything that other sports do...
On March 05 2017 08:33 ArtyK wrote: People complaining about the camera on ByuN after his loss apparently never watched an important sport match on tv.
Because we have to copy everything that other sports do...
I never said it was a good thing, i'm just amazed people got so mad on reddit and here, for something that happens everytime ByuN loses...why now?
On March 05 2017 08:33 ArtyK wrote: People complaining about the camera on ByuN after his loss apparently never watched an important sport match on tv.
Because we have to copy everything that other sports do...
I never said it was a good thing, i'm just amazed people got so mad on reddit and here, for something that happens everytime ByuN loses...why now?
People can always find an excuse to get mad about anything. Byun fans just wouldn't like to see their boy crying after getting roflstomped by Stats.
I can't recall a sports match where they did that sort of camera linger to the extent that they did in ByuN's match. If so, that doesn't make it okay, just makes them both poor taste. This was more than we are used to seeing other times we've seen him or others lose as well, which I think explains why people were unhappy about it. Show the winner rather than lingering on the loser. You don't have the Superbowl broadcast following the losing team into the locker room to film how upset they are.
I found weird that ppl are suprised that tl and reddit communities will complain about everything regarding sc2 or bw.. nothing is, will be and ever was good
Hope this stops the casters' bias on inno. All the bullshit on unstoppable machine bla bla bla. (Especially annoying during his match with Dark) Reason he looks remotely good is because he's playing an overlord race while abusing meta to the fullest. This guy has no shame using lopsided builds, just like the myungsik of Terran. Whenever he plays mirror, he fails to impress. Not against Taeja, MMA, Maru, Byun, ryung & now against alive.
On March 05 2017 13:34 fx9 wrote: Hope this stops the casters' bias on inno. All the bullshit on unstoppable machine bla bla bla. (Especially annoying during his match with Dark) Reason he looks remotely good is because he's playing an overlord race while abusing meta to the fullest. This guy has no shame using lopsided builds, just like the myungsik of Terran. Whenever he plays mirror, he fails to impress. Not against Taeja, MMA, Maru, Byun, ryung & now against alive.
Are you talking about Byun abusing reapers?
Then the power of a player isn't defined by his miror match up. Stephano could beat easily most of the foreigner while losing easily to any mid foreigner ZErg. INnoVation don't like TvT, thus he is still good at playing it.
INnOVation: according to Aligulac:
vs Byun they fought 7 times, he won 3 times
vs Taeja, they fought 13 times, he won only 4 times
vs MMA: they fought 5 times, he won 4 times.
vs Maru they fought 6 times he won 2 times
vs Ryung: they fought 12 times, he won 10 times
vs aLive they fought 13 times, he won 10 times.
Overall he is at 66% of winrate in TvT.
There is one thing more annoying than overhyping someone: it's belittling someone.
On March 05 2017 13:34 fx9 wrote: Hope this stops the casters' bias on inno. All the bullshit on unstoppable machine bla bla bla. (Especially annoying during his match with Dark) Reason he looks remotely good is because he's playing an overlord race while abusing meta to the fullest. This guy has no shame using lopsided builds, just like the myungsik of Terran. Whenever he plays mirror, he fails to impress. Not against Taeja, MMA, Maru, Byun, ryung & now against alive.
Are you talking about Byun abusing reapers?
Then the power of a player isn't defined by his miror match up. Stephano could beat easily most of the foreigner while losing easily to any mid foreigner ZErg. INnoVation don't like TvT, thus he is still good at playing it.
INnOVation: according to Aligulac:
vs Byun they fought 7 times, he won 3 times
vs Taeja, they fought 13 times, he won only 4 times
vs MMA: they fought 5 times, he won 4 times.
vs Maru they fought 6 times he won 2 times
vs Ryung: they fought 12 times, he won 10 times
vs aLive they fought 13 times, he won 10 times.
Overall he is at 66% of winrate in TvT.
There is one thing more annoying than overhyping someone: it's belittling someone.
On March 05 2017 13:34 fx9 wrote: Hope this stops the casters' bias on inno. All the bullshit on unstoppable machine bla bla bla. (Especially annoying during his match with Dark) Reason he looks remotely good is because he's playing an overlord race while abusing meta to the fullest. This guy has no shame using lopsided builds, just like the myungsik of Terran. Whenever he plays mirror, he fails to impress. Not against Taeja, MMA, Maru, Byun, ryung & now against alive.
Are we talking about the same player? INnoVation is one of the most standard players there is, he almost never abuses cheesy/broken builds.
On March 05 2017 13:34 fx9 wrote: Hope this stops the casters' bias on inno. All the bullshit on unstoppable machine bla bla bla. (Especially annoying during his match with Dark) Reason he looks remotely good is because he's playing an overlord race while abusing meta to the fullest. This guy has no shame using lopsided builds, just like the myungsik of Terran. Whenever he plays mirror, he fails to impress. Not against Taeja, MMA, Maru, Byun, ryung & now against alive.
Inmo is just ridiculously good, that's why there are so much hype on him. If it wasn't TvT, he would slap anyone like how he dominated Dark. Remember it's mirror, anyone can fall.
EPT
Ryung and 
Zest and 
Dark smashed 
