Time flies fast in the StarCraft world. A mere three weeks ago, we were watching Stats dissect soO en route to the GSL Season 1 title, and anointing him as the Best Player in the World. Since then, we’ve had zerg dominance in the SSL Premier, some surprising results in the VSL, and herO’s community-enraging path to winning the first GSL Super Tournament of the year.

Now though, it’s time for things to get serious once more. The VSL is a cute sidepot; the SSL an interesting detour, but this Wednesday sees the start of Season 2 of the GSL. With all groups determined (see Liquipedia), it’s time for the return of the most venerated SC2 competition of them all.

This also marks a change in our content style. We’ve been wanting to switch this up for a while, and it makes sense for us to make a clean break of it just in time for Code S’ return. Every Sunday, we’ll be putting out one article for the week’s games.

Section 1 will contain a preview of the week’s important storylines—for example, this week sees the return of INnoVation to the GSL, as well as Solar’s continued defence of his unbeaten record in the SSL. This will cover all three leagues, and allows us to address storylines as a whole rather than on a per tournament basis. Ever got bored about reading herO previews in all three tournaments? Now, you won’t have to (and, more importantly, we won’t have to try to write three different versions of the same piece again).

Section 2 will address the big storyline of the week—stories like the VSL Grand Finals this coming Thursday, or perhaps (spoilers) the upcoming foreigner brigade in the GSL. Finally, Section 3 will be a melting pot for everything else we want to chuck in, such as this week’s editorial on the comparative importance of the GSL by lichter. In addition, we’ll be putting out a weekly wrap-up article on Saturdays, summing up the major stories from the week’s events. Hopefully you enjoy the new approach; without further ado, let’s get on with the preview…

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INnoVation - Stick or Twist?

Ever since he declared his return from League of Legends at IEM Gyeonggi, INnoVation has been heralded as the champion incarnate of Starcraft 2. Beating Dark—the best zerg in the world—and thrashing Stats—the best protoss in the world—6-1 will do that for your reputation, and after shutting down Losira, ByuL, soO, and Classic in the opening groups of the GSL by a combined map record of 8-1, there’s no doubt that it was thoroughly deserved.

Now though, the losses have started to kick in. A 2-3 reverse kill by Stats in the GSL must have hurt—flashes of SoulKey echoing in his memory—while twin losses to aLive in Katowice and at the GSL Super Tournament have put a serious dent in his claim to the TvT throne. Even his dominance of the SSL has been challenged—up against Solar last week, it was the Splyce man who extended his series record to 4-0, taking firm control of the #1 spot.

Sure, by themselves, none of those results are that worrying. Stats was in the best form of his career, on his path to the GSL title; while similarly aLive is showcasing skills that we haven’t seen from him since 2012—especially in his traditionally strong mirror matchup. But taken together, they’ve all demonstrated chinks in his armour. While he’s still clearly a top tier player, he no longer stands unchallenged at the top of the scene. It's easy to forget that for all his "dominance" over the past five months, his only title in the period remains the relatively minor IEM Gyeonggi—not the GSL; not IEM Katowice; not the Super Tournament. With his GSL Season 2 campaign kicking off this week with an eminently doable group, not to mention his first SSL match since his loss to Solar, it's time for INnoVation to re-stake his claim for the throne.


Solar - SSL Dominance

Speaking of Solar, he now stands alone at the top of the SSL standings at 4-0. While all four have been 2-1s—over Stats, sOs, Zest, and now INnoVation—we’ve already been shown by TY at IEM Katowice that it’s the series win, rather than your map record that truly counts once all’s said and done. Solar’s looked incredible in ZvT recently, whether with the hydralisk-powered style he showed against Maru in the Super Tournament, or with the more EU-style infestor / ultra / ravager mix he used at times against INnoVation in the SSL. Against a player unbeaten in offline TvZ since his loss to Nerchio in Paris in NationWars 4 (a loss he swiftly avenged in the subsequent rematch), it was a hell of a statement.

It’s been so long ago (and so many patches ago) that many might have forgotten, but Solar is still the reigning champion of the SSL. Seven months ago, his 4-3 win over Dark in the Grand Finals brought an end to the SKT zerg’s ambitions of becoming the first starleague champion since NesTea to defend his title. Halfway through the SSL round robins, Solar looks well on the way to keeping the dream alive.


sOs & Ryung - Where from here?

In every single GSL, players in the playoffs can be broken into two rough groups—those we can expect to see again at the same stage next season, and those we don’t. While Stats is a player who we certainly can expect to mount a strong defence of his title, and soO’s perennial consistency is a conundrum that will probably never be solved, the final two members of the semifinals are in much murkier waters.

Both sOs and Ryung stand at opposite scales of the Starcraft achievements list. One is arguably the most up and down, inconsistent player in Starcraft history, capable of spellbinding play in both right and wrong reasons—yet stands today with a trophy haul that puts most of the scene in his shade. The other was one of the kings of his mirror matchup, at his peak in the time of GomTvT—and yet remains trophyless, eight years after his debut.

While their places in history couldn’t be more different, they stand in similar positions in this upcoming season of the GSL. Both had somewhat easy paths to the GSL semis; both have failed in all tournaments since. Ryung’s TvT reputation was dealt a stinging blow by the ease of INnoVation’s 3-0 sweep at IEM Katowice, while his other two matchups have hardly looked that great either in limp losses to Losira and Classic in the SSL Challenge. Meanwhile, sOs too has looked below par in the SSL Premier—gimmicky play not quite bringing him results just yet.

Both start their GSL campaigns once more this week, and both have groups that might be more challenging than they seem at first glance. INnoVation and ByuL headline their groups, and should be considered heavy favourites to advance, but should Impact bring his VSL form to the table, and Dear translate his strong online PvT games to studio play, then things might soon get awkward for the duo.


Impact & ByuL - Zerg Rising

For pretty much the whole of 2016, there was only one zerg worth talking about. Dark stood so far above every other zerg in the world that even when Solar beat him in the SSL Finals, there was still no real question about where the true power of the swarm lay. Ever since then though, there’s been a slow leak of power. Dark has still looked pretty good—particularly at Katowice despite his eventual 3-1 loss to Stats—but there’s no denying that a brigade of zergs, led by Solar, are gunning to replace him on the throne.

Impact hasn’t looked this good since his breakout silver at Dreamhack Bucharest. His VSL qualifying run might still be hilarious, but he’s since proved that his place was deserved with some strong play, reverse sweeping Zest on his path to the finals (more on that later). For his part, ByuL has similarly looked good recently—crushing Ryung and Dark in the Super Tournament, while his 3-1 record in the SSL puts him in 3rd in the table.

Still though, this is the GSL. While ByuL’s a proven quantity at the highest levels of play, this is a competition where Impact’s historical record reads: six exits in Code A, one exit in the Round of 32 of Code S. He might have proven time and again that he just isn’t cut out for this level of play, but in the best form of his career, this is his chance to defy his history.


Terran Tears in the SSL Challenge

When the initial ten players were announced for the SSL Challenge, it was hard not to imagine that it would prove to be a terran slaughter. TY, ByuN, and GuMiho are three perennial heavy hitters in the Legacy world; Ryung had just come off his GSL semifinal; while jjakji and Bunny are more than capable of the odd upset victory.

Who would have expected then that three weeks in, five of the six would be rooted to the bottom of the table? Ryung, GuMiho, and jjakji are all but out with 0-2 records—all requiring two wins and some bracket luck if they want to progress; and TY and Bunny still very much in limbo at 1-1. While the latter two still have a game in hand over Classic and Losira (both 2-1), it's always better to have the wins already on the board. Only ByuN has a positive win-loss record at 2-1, but with a final game against adept-savant herO coming up, he too isn't quite safe yet.

The SSL Challenge rules state that three of the five members in each group progress to Stage 2 (a six-man round robin group), and so clearly at least two terrans have to make it through. With time running out though, they're going to have to up their game if they want that number to be larger.