EPT
The Weekly Preview
by munch![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/bird_blue_16.png)
- Munchkin365With Season 2 of the GSL getting into its stride, and both editions of the SSL reaching the business end of their initial group stages (not to mention the week-long teamleague portion of the VSL) things in Korea are getting frantic. This week sees plenty of crucial clashes across all three leagues; let’s break down the main storylines. From this week on, we'll also be providing a list of this week's offline Starcraft action at the bottom of this page, so you've got no more excuses for missing a match.
Maru and Dark
Since the inception of the SSL, the question of priorities has often raised its head. We’ve seen all the way back in SSL S2 2015 that players are willing to conceal strategies in one league to benefit their preparation for the other—Dream memorably meekly gifting herO a 2-0 win in the GSL Round of 16, before thrashing him 4-0 in the SSL semifinals. More recently, herO was once again on the wrong side of the same "deception"—bopped 3-0 by Impact in the VSL Finals after the zerg’s pretty limp performance in the GSL the previous night. Which brings us to one of the key clashes of the week.
Dark and 
Maru will play twice, back to back—first in their SSL clash on Monday, and then in their Wednesday Code S group.
You can make the argument that their SSL Premier match is more important—both sit on a 2-3 record right now, and with only the top four progressing to the post-season (not to mention the prospect of relegation looming for the bottom five), this mid-season match could well decide both players’ prospects in the coming weeks. Both players should be regarded as favourites to advance in Code S, given Super and Curious’ struggles in 2017 so far, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that Super’s often had the rub of the green against Maru in the past (6-3 lifetime record), while Curious has pretty much made a career out of knocking out big names who’ve dared to underestimate him. With Maru struggling for consistency this year, and Dark fallen from his imperious 2016 peak, this is a dangerous week for both players, and it’ll be fascinating to see how they approach their matches.
aLive
Speaking of players with do-or-die matches on both fronts,aLive has a tough week ahead of him. We’ve seen him blossom in weekender events so far this year—arguably the highlight of both IEM Katowice and the GSL Super Tournament—but GSL success eluded him in Season 1. Losing to TY and ByuL in the second group stage isn’t that bad, but we’ve come to expect miracles from the newly minted mYinsanity man, and a similar result this time round will be a disappointment. He’s still challenging on both fronts right now, but potential banana skins this week come in the form of established threats.
One thing that’s always run true with INnoVation is that he is dominant in the mirror matchup in times of strength. Think early 2013, before his nosedive in form following the hellbat nerf; late 2014, before the highly aggressive TvT meta of 2015 kicked in; late 2015, when his understanding of mech positioning far outshadowed everyone else in the world. So for aLive to dump INnoVation out of two successive events—a gruelling five-set classic at IEM Katowice, and a controlled 3-0 sweep back in Korea at the Super Tournament—is an outstanding achievement. Third time’s the charm though, and with both chasing the leading pack in the SSL Premier with a 3-2 series record, it’s no less important than their previous elimination matches. The winner will still be in the hunt for top spot going into the final weeks of the season; the loser dropped into a tough fight to retain their spot in Premier.
His GSL group is easier on paper, but still shouldn’t be taken lightly. People might be calling aLive the finest TvTer in the world right now, but GuMiho 4-0’d him with ease in the Ting Open a mere month ago. Creator qualified for the GSL by beating Dream and TY by a combined 4-1 map score (unfortunately unstreamed), while Zest hasn’t played a competitive PvT for a month—it’d be folly to assume that he hasn’t prepped something here.
Zest
Speaking of
Zest, he too has to face his demons. If you wanted to point to his weakness in 2017, you’d have to say PvT—in 2017, Zest’s winrate is a miserable 50%. More than that though, he simply hasn’t managed to establish a style in the matchup, whether adopting the current trend for aggressive adept-phoenix play, or Stats’ more passive attempts to tech to colossi and storm.
If you wanted to point to a baffling weakness from his past, you’d have to point to Creator; a world-beating wonderkid in WoL turned mediocre has-been in HotS; yet the memory of that stunning hat-trick of Proleague wins lives long in the memory.
If you wanted to point to a player who’s caused him more than a little grief in the past, it’d be sOs. While the facts slant their matchup well towards the ex-KT man at 16-7 (10-5 in matches), there’s a sense that sOs is the player for the biggest of occasions (a feeling clearly corroborated by his trophy cabinet). Three Proleague Season Playoff matches; three wins for the Jin Air man, with two of them instrumental in Jin Air’s 2015 semi-final wins over KT Rolster.
Zest is clearly out of the running for SSL glory, losing 5/5 matches so far, but he’s still in with a shot at playing the long game by avoiding the automatic relegation spots to next season’s SSL Challenge. Should he lose today though, and lose again in the GSL, he’ll have a whole lot of free time on his hands in the coming months.
ByuL vs Solar vs Patience
One of the most surprising things of the SSL has been the resurgence of two zerg talents, as well as one of the most inconsistent protosses around. Given the full ten-man roster, few would have picked these three as the league leaders heading into the second half of the season.Patience has a tough match against Stats—struggling for form slightly following his GSL triumph—but more intriguingly is the top of the table zerg mirror match that headlines the week.
In 2017,ByuL has converted one of his weaknesses into a strength. From being hampered by his weakness in the mirror matchup, ZvZ now appears to be his strongest suit—his 2-0 and 3-1 wins over Dark in the SSL and the Super Tournament respectively are eye-raising results, and more than ever his 2-3 loss to Impact in the VSL looks to be an anomaly. Meanwhile, it’s been Solar’s recent success in ZvT (see his Super Tournament run) and ZvP (wins over Stats, sOs, and Zest in the SSL so far) that have catapulted him back to the top. So will it be the player who’s playing well in ZvZ, with plenty of VODs available for study, or the player who hasn’t played a televised mirror match in over a month who’ll end up on top? With just four weeks to go, either player extending their record to 5-1 would go a long way to guaranteeing a spot in the post season.
SSL Challenge - Judgement Day
With just one week to go in the first stage of the SSL Challenge, scenarios have crystallised for the players in action this week.herO has already qualified for Stage 2 with a perfect 3-0 record so far, as have TY and ByuN (both 2-1) due to their superior map records. It all boils down to this:
In Group A, everyone bar Bunny holds their fate in their own hands.Bunny needs to 2-0 Classic, and hope Ryung loses to TY to stand any chance, giving him a tied map record with the protoss on 2-2. The SSL ruleset is unclear on whether they’re settling ties on head-to-head or with a playoff match, but Bunny would hold the advantage either way. Similarly, Ryung needs a 2-0 over TY to avoid a similar tiebreaker with Losira (who holds the head-to-head advantage). Losira has already played all four of his matches, but is praying that the sole scenario which sees him knocked out before a tiebreaker—Classic winning, and Ryung winning 2-0—doesn’t happen, while he also holds all the cards with head-to-head advantages over both Classic and Ryung. Assuming head-to-head is the tiebreaker, Classic is the sole player in a simple scenario—should he win, his Stage 2 spot is safe.
Meanwhile, Group B is far simpler, with onlyDear and GuMiho left in the hunt for the final Stage 2 spot. As Dear has already played out his matches, GuMiho simply has to beat jjakji to knock out the ex-Samsung protoss.
GSLTV Race Wars
Finally, it’s worth giving a shoutout to the GSLTV crew. After their 6 week series of games in Season 1 with ’The Loser Strikes Back’, they’ve got a brand new format this month with ’Race Wars’. The general format is a teamleague 12-map King of the Hill, with each player limited to four maps per series. Each team has three players—Classic, herO, and Stats for Protoss; INnoVation, Maru, and TY for Terran; and Dark, Solar, and soO for Zerg.
We’ve already seen PvZ week (a tight 7-5 win for zerg) and TvZ week (an even tighter 7-6 win for zerg, featuring an ace match win for Dark over INnoVation). Now it’s time for PvT, with the winner headed for Finals day next week. If you’re somehow still starved for Starcraft despite the triple starleague barrage, this should be a great place to start.
Weekly Schedule:
Mon - SSL Premier - sOs vs Zest / INnoVation vs aLive / Solar vs ByuL / Stats vs Patience / Maru vs Dark
Wed - GSL Ro.32 Group C - Maru / Super / Curious / Dark
Thu - VSL Teamleague - Team Impact vs Team herO / Team Zest vs Team Rogue
Fri - VSL Teamleague - Finals Day
Sat - GSL Ro.32 Group D - aLive / Creator / Zest / GuMiho
Sat - SSL Challenge - Classic vs Bunny / jjakji vs GuMiho / TY vs Ryung / herO vs ByuN
Maru and Dark
Since the inception of the SSL, the question of priorities has often raised its head. We’ve seen all the way back in SSL S2 2015 that players are willing to conceal strategies in one league to benefit their preparation for the other—Dream memorably meekly gifting herO a 2-0 win in the GSL Round of 16, before thrashing him 4-0 in the SSL semifinals. More recently, herO was once again on the wrong side of the same "deception"—bopped 3-0 by Impact in the VSL Finals after the zerg’s pretty limp performance in the GSL the previous night. Which brings us to one of the key clashes of the week.
Dark and Maru will play twice, back to back—first in their SSL clash on Monday, and then in their Wednesday Code S group.You can make the argument that their SSL Premier match is more important—both sit on a 2-3 record right now, and with only the top four progressing to the post-season (not to mention the prospect of relegation looming for the bottom five), this mid-season match could well decide both players’ prospects in the coming weeks. Both players should be regarded as favourites to advance in Code S, given Super and Curious’ struggles in 2017 so far, but it shouldn’t be forgotten that Super’s often had the rub of the green against Maru in the past (6-3 lifetime record), while Curious has pretty much made a career out of knocking out big names who’ve dared to underestimate him. With Maru struggling for consistency this year, and Dark fallen from his imperious 2016 peak, this is a dangerous week for both players, and it’ll be fascinating to see how they approach their matches.
aLive
Speaking of players with do-or-die matches on both fronts,
aLive has a tough week ahead of him. We’ve seen him blossom in weekender events so far this year—arguably the highlight of both IEM Katowice and the GSL Super Tournament—but GSL success eluded him in Season 1. Losing to TY and ByuL in the second group stage isn’t that bad, but we’ve come to expect miracles from the newly minted mYinsanity man, and a similar result this time round will be a disappointment. He’s still challenging on both fronts right now, but potential banana skins this week come in the form of established threats.One thing that’s always run true with INnoVation is that he is dominant in the mirror matchup in times of strength. Think early 2013, before his nosedive in form following the hellbat nerf; late 2014, before the highly aggressive TvT meta of 2015 kicked in; late 2015, when his understanding of mech positioning far outshadowed everyone else in the world. So for aLive to dump INnoVation out of two successive events—a gruelling five-set classic at IEM Katowice, and a controlled 3-0 sweep back in Korea at the Super Tournament—is an outstanding achievement. Third time’s the charm though, and with both chasing the leading pack in the SSL Premier with a 3-2 series record, it’s no less important than their previous elimination matches. The winner will still be in the hunt for top spot going into the final weeks of the season; the loser dropped into a tough fight to retain their spot in Premier.
His GSL group is easier on paper, but still shouldn’t be taken lightly. People might be calling aLive the finest TvTer in the world right now, but GuMiho 4-0’d him with ease in the Ting Open a mere month ago. Creator qualified for the GSL by beating Dream and TY by a combined 4-1 map score (unfortunately unstreamed), while Zest hasn’t played a competitive PvT for a month—it’d be folly to assume that he hasn’t prepped something here.
Zest
Speaking of
Zest, he too has to face his demons. If you wanted to point to his weakness in 2017, you’d have to say PvT—in 2017, Zest’s winrate is a miserable 50%. More than that though, he simply hasn’t managed to establish a style in the matchup, whether adopting the current trend for aggressive adept-phoenix play, or Stats’ more passive attempts to tech to colossi and storm. If you wanted to point to a baffling weakness from his past, you’d have to point to Creator; a world-beating wonderkid in WoL turned mediocre has-been in HotS; yet the memory of that stunning hat-trick of Proleague wins lives long in the memory.
If you wanted to point to a player who’s caused him more than a little grief in the past, it’d be sOs. While the facts slant their matchup well towards the ex-KT man at 16-7 (10-5 in matches), there’s a sense that sOs is the player for the biggest of occasions (a feeling clearly corroborated by his trophy cabinet). Three Proleague Season Playoff matches; three wins for the Jin Air man, with two of them instrumental in Jin Air’s 2015 semi-final wins over KT Rolster.
Zest is clearly out of the running for SSL glory, losing 5/5 matches so far, but he’s still in with a shot at playing the long game by avoiding the automatic relegation spots to next season’s SSL Challenge. Should he lose today though, and lose again in the GSL, he’ll have a whole lot of free time on his hands in the coming months.
ByuL vs Solar vs Patience
One of the most surprising things of the SSL has been the resurgence of two zerg talents, as well as one of the most inconsistent protosses around. Given the full ten-man roster, few would have picked these three as the league leaders heading into the second half of the season.
Patience has a tough match against Stats—struggling for form slightly following his GSL triumph—but more intriguingly is the top of the table zerg mirror match that headlines the week. In 2017,
ByuL has converted one of his weaknesses into a strength. From being hampered by his weakness in the mirror matchup, ZvZ now appears to be his strongest suit—his 2-0 and 3-1 wins over Dark in the SSL and the Super Tournament respectively are eye-raising results, and more than ever his 2-3 loss to Impact in the VSL looks to be an anomaly. Meanwhile, it’s been Solar’s recent success in ZvT (see his Super Tournament run) and ZvP (wins over Stats, sOs, and Zest in the SSL so far) that have catapulted him back to the top. So will it be the player who’s playing well in ZvZ, with plenty of VODs available for study, or the player who hasn’t played a televised mirror match in over a month who’ll end up on top? With just four weeks to go, either player extending their record to 5-1 would go a long way to guaranteeing a spot in the post season.SSL Challenge - Judgement Day
With just one week to go in the first stage of the SSL Challenge, scenarios have crystallised for the players in action this week.
herO has already qualified for Stage 2 with a perfect 3-0 record so far, as have TY and ByuN (both 2-1) due to their superior map records. It all boils down to this:In Group A, everyone bar Bunny holds their fate in their own hands.
Bunny needs to 2-0 Classic, and hope Ryung loses to TY to stand any chance, giving him a tied map record with the protoss on 2-2. The SSL ruleset is unclear on whether they’re settling ties on head-to-head or with a playoff match, but Bunny would hold the advantage either way. Similarly, Ryung needs a 2-0 over TY to avoid a similar tiebreaker with Losira (who holds the head-to-head advantage). Losira has already played all four of his matches, but is praying that the sole scenario which sees him knocked out before a tiebreaker—Classic winning, and Ryung winning 2-0—doesn’t happen, while he also holds all the cards with head-to-head advantages over both Classic and Ryung. Assuming head-to-head is the tiebreaker, Classic is the sole player in a simple scenario—should he win, his Stage 2 spot is safe.Meanwhile, Group B is far simpler, with only
Dear and GuMiho left in the hunt for the final Stage 2 spot. As Dear has already played out his matches, GuMiho simply has to beat jjakji to knock out the ex-Samsung protoss.GSLTV Race Wars
Finally, it’s worth giving a shoutout to the GSLTV crew. After their 6 week series of games in Season 1 with ’The Loser Strikes Back’, they’ve got a brand new format this month with ’Race Wars’. The general format is a teamleague 12-map King of the Hill, with each player limited to four maps per series. Each team has three players—
Classic, herO, and Stats for Protoss; INnoVation, Maru, and TY for Terran; and Dark, Solar, and soO for Zerg.We’ve already seen PvZ week (a tight 7-5 win for zerg) and TvZ week (an even tighter 7-6 win for zerg, featuring an ace match win for Dark over INnoVation). Now it’s time for PvT, with the winner headed for Finals day next week. If you’re somehow still starved for Starcraft despite the triple starleague barrage, this should be a great place to start.
Weekly Schedule:
Mon - SSL Premier - sOs vs Zest / INnoVation vs aLive / Solar vs ByuL / Stats vs Patience / Maru vs Dark
Wed - GSL Ro.32 Group C - Maru / Super / Curious / Dark
Thu - VSL Teamleague - Team Impact vs Team herO / Team Zest vs Team Rogue
Fri - VSL Teamleague - Finals Day
Sat - GSL Ro.32 Group D - aLive / Creator / Zest / GuMiho
Sat - SSL Challenge - Classic vs Bunny / jjakji vs GuMiho / TY vs Ryung / herO vs ByuN
VSL - Teamleague Edition
by hexhaven - thehexhavenTeam leagues have a long and admired history in the StarCraft 2 scene, with Proleague leading the way for many years. While the SSL Premier Division is nowadays arguably closer to the traditional Proleague preparation-based format, VSL’s team league has managed to garner a good amount of interest. What’s intriguing is that the teams consist of the exact same players as in the individual league, which means that all of them have had at least some experience playing against each other. The team captains are the semifinalists from the individual league, and they’ve had the pleasure (or misery) of drafting the teams. Old allegiances seem to die hard, but in a format like this, it might very well be the crucial advantage to have a familiar face by your side.
Team herO
herO
ByuL
Bunny
Trust
Second chances are rare in the competitive scene. They should be cherished, nurtured, and, most importantly, fully embraced. Impact and herO had a title bout what seems like just yesterday, and the Protoss was soundly trounced in one of the biggest upsets of the year. Be it divine providence, or simply the machinations of the wily organizers, there’s a chance that they’ll meet again the winners’ finals here. That's not the only redemption on offer here though. Excluding The Season Which Shall Not Be Mentioned, CJ are the sole member of the 'Big Four' who failed to pick up a Proleague title in SC2, and that's before we get onto the subject of their horrendous showings in the 2016 season. Their partisan renaissance here is an opportunity to redress the balance for a group of players who would’ve been considered the clear underdogs just months ago. ByuL has shown a remarkable improvement in form recently, and herO himself, despite the devastating loss against Impact, has shown resilience and skill not seen in his play since HotS. On paper, their performance seems to rest entirely on the two, but Trust and Bunny in particular might still reach the heights that underdogs occasionally surprise us with. Most importantly for the team, herO is the kind of star player that can anchor the team as its ace, especially when going up against players like Patience and Stats. Trust, Bunny and especially ByuL act as an excellent foundation, while herO can be brought in with the big guns, if needed.
Team Impact
Impact
Patience
Stats
Forte
Impact’s most important victory was of course the VSL title. His second most important victory was drafting Stats. While the Protoss did not have a chance to play in the first round, he’s the obvious choice for the ace position. He's been decent since his GSL title, if perhaps lacking the veneer of invincibility he's shown at times this year, and it's inarguable that he'll have to be the cornerstone behind any success for his team. While a single clutch player is usually not enough, crucially for Impact, Patience seems to have been on another upswing recently. Known as one of the most volatile Protoss players in the scene, his SSL performance has been a marvel to behold. For his part, despite his complete invisibility so far this year, Forte managed to pick up a prized double kill over Classic and Zest in the opening stages of the tournament last week; for a player who's best work seems to solely come in the teamleague format, it's a welcome return to the spotlight. Working from a solid base of two world-class Protoss players, Team Impact should be one of the favorites to reach the grand finals. Even if the team falls against Team herO, they will still have the losers’ finals to earn their own second chance.
Team Rogue
Rogue
Solar
Dear
Creator
Rogue’s team will rely entirely on Protoss and Zerg players, and perhaps most heavily of all on Solar. Having been able to prepare against his opponents in the SSL has served him well, but it remains to be seen if he can pull off the same tricks here. He needs to adapt faster, meaning he has to draw on his weekender experiences back when he was a household name abroad. He went 0-2 in his VSL group, so this would be the perfect chance to redeem himself. Much will fall on his shoulders, especially since Team Rogue is going against a group of some of the biggest names in the scene. Dear and Rogue have been able to step up in the past, so it’s plausible they’ll be able to perform here, and Creator, well, he did defeat Trust. The team will face an uphill battle in any case, and it’ll be a small miracle if they reach the grand finals.
Team Zest
Zest
ByuN
jjakji
Classic
What’s the one thing all of the players in Team Zest share in common? What sets the team apart from the other three? That’s right, all of them are trying to claw their way back to their glory days. Oh, you thought I’d mention their GSL victories? While that’s also true, they’ve all been struggling recently. Zest has not been able to crack the SSL Premier Division, ByuN’s offline performance has been lackluster in comparison to his 2016 displays, Classic is still trying to find his footing, and jjakji’s GSL title is from 2011. On paper, grouping up four champions should lead to easy victories, but these are champions of different eras, and arguably only one of them is still a top player. Just like Team Rogue, Team Zest will have their work cut out for them if they want to make a claim for the trophy. If they manage to combine their differing strengths, it just might be possible, but for now it would seem that the idea of the Dream Team remains elusive.
Team herO
herOByuLBunnyTrustSecond chances are rare in the competitive scene. They should be cherished, nurtured, and, most importantly, fully embraced. Impact and herO had a title bout what seems like just yesterday, and the Protoss was soundly trounced in one of the biggest upsets of the year. Be it divine providence, or simply the machinations of the wily organizers, there’s a chance that they’ll meet again the winners’ finals here. That's not the only redemption on offer here though. Excluding The Season Which Shall Not Be Mentioned, CJ are the sole member of the 'Big Four' who failed to pick up a Proleague title in SC2, and that's before we get onto the subject of their horrendous showings in the 2016 season. Their partisan renaissance here is an opportunity to redress the balance for a group of players who would’ve been considered the clear underdogs just months ago. ByuL has shown a remarkable improvement in form recently, and herO himself, despite the devastating loss against Impact, has shown resilience and skill not seen in his play since HotS. On paper, their performance seems to rest entirely on the two, but Trust and Bunny in particular might still reach the heights that underdogs occasionally surprise us with. Most importantly for the team, herO is the kind of star player that can anchor the team as its ace, especially when going up against players like Patience and Stats. Trust, Bunny and especially ByuL act as an excellent foundation, while herO can be brought in with the big guns, if needed.
Team Impact
ImpactPatienceStatsForteImpact’s most important victory was of course the VSL title. His second most important victory was drafting Stats. While the Protoss did not have a chance to play in the first round, he’s the obvious choice for the ace position. He's been decent since his GSL title, if perhaps lacking the veneer of invincibility he's shown at times this year, and it's inarguable that he'll have to be the cornerstone behind any success for his team. While a single clutch player is usually not enough, crucially for Impact, Patience seems to have been on another upswing recently. Known as one of the most volatile Protoss players in the scene, his SSL performance has been a marvel to behold. For his part, despite his complete invisibility so far this year, Forte managed to pick up a prized double kill over Classic and Zest in the opening stages of the tournament last week; for a player who's best work seems to solely come in the teamleague format, it's a welcome return to the spotlight. Working from a solid base of two world-class Protoss players, Team Impact should be one of the favorites to reach the grand finals. Even if the team falls against Team herO, they will still have the losers’ finals to earn their own second chance.
Team Rogue
RogueSolarDearCreatorRogue’s team will rely entirely on Protoss and Zerg players, and perhaps most heavily of all on Solar. Having been able to prepare against his opponents in the SSL has served him well, but it remains to be seen if he can pull off the same tricks here. He needs to adapt faster, meaning he has to draw on his weekender experiences back when he was a household name abroad. He went 0-2 in his VSL group, so this would be the perfect chance to redeem himself. Much will fall on his shoulders, especially since Team Rogue is going against a group of some of the biggest names in the scene. Dear and Rogue have been able to step up in the past, so it’s plausible they’ll be able to perform here, and Creator, well, he did defeat Trust. The team will face an uphill battle in any case, and it’ll be a small miracle if they reach the grand finals.
Team Zest
ZestByuNjjakjiClassicWhat’s the one thing all of the players in Team Zest share in common? What sets the team apart from the other three? That’s right, all of them are trying to claw their way back to their glory days. Oh, you thought I’d mention their GSL victories? While that’s also true, they’ve all been struggling recently. Zest has not been able to crack the SSL Premier Division, ByuN’s offline performance has been lackluster in comparison to his 2016 displays, Classic is still trying to find his footing, and jjakji’s GSL title is from 2011. On paper, grouping up four champions should lead to easy victories, but these are champions of different eras, and arguably only one of them is still a top player. Just like Team Rogue, Team Zest will have their work cut out for them if they want to make a claim for the trophy. If they manage to combine their differing strengths, it just might be possible, but for now it would seem that the idea of the Dream Team remains elusive.
