Nine months removed from his victory over Dark in the last SSL finals, Solar looked to defend his throne against INnoVation, who dominated the regular season of Premier on his way to booking a direct ticket to the finals. Solar, on the other hand, only reached the big stage after grueling 3-2 victories over Stats and ByuL.
INnoVation started the series with a command center first on Frost. Solar opted to settle into a macro game instead of trying to punish the greedy opener. He effortlessly defended when INnoVation began to poke with multiple pairs of marine filled medivacs, moving into ling/bane/hydra while establishing himself on four bases. Up by over 30 supply, Solar attacked into INnoVation's third from multiple angles, effectively resetting INnoVation's army. Solar reloaded before returning with double the army supply to take a 1-0 lead.
INnoVation opened game two with hellions and banshees. The initial group of hellions failed to get damage done, but the follow up in greater numbers killed nearly 20 drones. Solar tried to catch up in the worker count, but INnoVation was already transitioning into mech. Solar's paltry army couldn't defend two places at once and he lost even more workers to thors and hellions. Having severely weakened Solar, INnoVation gathered his army together for a lethal push on Solar's third and rolled his opponent over.
With the series tied, Solar tried to throw INnoVation off with a gas steal and an unusual third base location. INnoVation once more went into cloaked banshees before bio, slowing but not crippling Solar's economy. Solar's macro appeared to be humming, but a drop in his main caught his mutalisks out of position. Solar defended but lost a good portion of his army. INnoVation took advantage, powering up into a massive army on three bases. Solar tried to counter with mutalisks, but while he killed 10 workers he couldn't force INnoVation back. Down 40 army supply, Solar dove in and lost his army, giving INnoVation his second straight victory.
INnoVation’s bunker rush went unscouted in game four. Solar was unable to stop INnoVation from killing his hatchery and his only response from that point was to mass zerglings in an attempt to break out. INnoVation had too many marines and bunkers, though. Stuck on one base with no army, Solar conceded.
INnoVation's banshees gave him an economic lead going into the mid game on Whirlwind. Just as he had on Overgrowth, he moved into mech and the same double thor drop/hellion run by. He found less success this time, even losing a thor. Despite that, Solar was still behind. He got a hive, but was unable to hinder INnoVation who moved out with a maxed out army. He sieged up outside Solar's natural, even killing multiple vipers before Solar could even engage. When Solar finally took the fight, he lost the majority of his army. Solar tried one final roach/hydra push, but his army evaporated to tanks. Despite having started the series with a win, Solar tapped out, giving INnoVation his fourth straight win, the match and the 2017 SSL Premier Season 1 championship.
Whoa that is some fast typing, hasn't even been an hour since Inno won.
Congratulations to Inno for picking up his third Starleague trophy! Also, great to see Inno mixing it up with mech as well as bio, especially with the new Thor. And he didn't even use 5rax reaper, so even better.
I'm most interested with the possible JinAir INnoVation though. Can anyone (Korean speakers?) confirm what exactly the CEO meant by "supporting" Inno?
Innovation outplayed Solar the entire time. Solar has the hydra/lurkers build vs bio which his thing but then Innovation turned on the mech switch and Solar was basically clueless.
Happy for Innovation but I wonder where this amazing performance was when he played at GSL.
On June 11 2017 01:11 AshC wrote: Innovation outplayed Solar the entire time. Solar has the hydra/lurkers build vs bio which his thing but then Innovation turned on the mech switch and Solar was basically clueless.
Happy for Innovation but I wonder where this amazing performance was when he played at GSL.
He basically got all the TvTs that knocked him out of all the recent tournaments.
Bad performance by Solar, Hellion into Banshee is a very old school build that has long since been figured out and Solar just looked like a clueless noob.
Granted, mech has also been buffed to shit, Innovation plays about as perfect as a human can and Solar isn't really in the same league as him, but still, Zerg looked pretty hopeless this tournament, stiff competition nonetheless.
I feel like it would have been a closer game if it was Byul vs Innovation. Byul is much better at macro TvZ than solar, which would fare much better against Innovation's style.
Solar down 40 army supply in a game he was always behind in is a war? That's really lol worthy. It was a slaughter. He didn't belong on the same stage as Inno.
Solar down 40 army supply in a game he was always behind in is a war? That's really lol worthy. It was a slaughter. He didn't belong on the same stage as Inno.
mvp was a god in 2011 and is a legend because he took life to game 7 in GSL 4 2012 1 year and a half after his first starleague title. Inno has won a premier 4 years in a row.
Solar down 40 army supply in a game he was always behind in is a war? That's really lol worthy. It was a slaughter. He didn't belong on the same stage as Inno.
This is aggressive but pretty hard to refute, Solar looked completely and totally outclassed. I really dislike his Hydralisk build against Terran, it only works against Terran's that he would outplay with any other style. A truly elite competitor like Innovation won't be tripped up by a gimmick, he will exploit it, and exploit it he did, 4 crushing victories in a row.
Solar down 40 army supply in a game he was always behind in is a war? That's really lol worthy. It was a slaughter. He didn't belong on the same stage as Inno.
This is aggressive but pretty hard to refute, Solar looked completely and totally outclassed. I really dislike his Hydralisk build against Terran, it only works against Terran's that he would outplay with any other style. A truly elite competitor like Innovation won't be tripped up by a gimmick, he will exploit it, and exploit it he did, 4 crushing victories in a row.
Solar down 40 army supply in a game he was always behind in is a war? That's really lol worthy. It was a slaughter. He didn't belong on the same stage as Inno.
This is aggressive but pretty hard to refute, Solar looked completely and totally outclassed. I really dislike his Hydralisk build against Terran, it only works against Terran's that he would outplay with any other style. A truly elite competitor like Innovation won't be tripped up by a gimmick, he will exploit it, and exploit it he did, 4 crushing victories in a row.
But
the hydra build
it was the only one that worked
it didn't get exploited at all
This comment doesn't compute.
Didn't he go for Lair then Hydra den 3 out of the 4 games? 1 other game he went Spire yes? I mean, he got exploited and wrecked when he went Mutalisks too but I guess my original wording was odd.
Solar down 40 army supply in a game he was always behind in is a war? That's really lol worthy. It was a slaughter. He didn't belong on the same stage as Inno.
This is aggressive but pretty hard to refute, Solar looked completely and totally outclassed. I really dislike his Hydralisk build against Terran, it only works against Terran's that he would outplay with any other style. A truly elite competitor like Innovation won't be tripped up by a gimmick, he will exploit it, and exploit it he did, 4 crushing victories in a row.
But
the hydra build
it was the only one that worked
it didn't get exploited at all
This comment doesn't compute.
Didn't he go for Lair then Hydra den 3 out of the 4 games? 1 other game he went Spire yes? I mean, he got exploited and wrecked when he went Mutalisks too but I guess my original wording was odd.
Inno went mech twice, you need hydras against mech. And the only time Solar went hydras against bio, Inno tried to blind counter it and still lost.
Solar down 40 army supply in a game he was always behind in is a war? That's really lol worthy. It was a slaughter. He didn't belong on the same stage as Inno.
That's harsh, but pretty accurate since Solar just got totally outclassed by Inno in every game after the first. Not close games at all.
To be fair, Inno's TvZ is such that I'm doubtful any Zerg alive can beat him in a Bo7. ByuL and Dark would probably put up a much better fight and entertain the fans with exciting macro games but I'd be surprised if they managed to take more than 2 maps off of Inno. His TvT might be shaky but his TvZ is godly.
On June 11 2017 04:43 DieuCure wrote: Mvp is so overrated, ok he has title, but watch some match of gsls 2011
And in 7 years Innovation's games from last night will look really bad too lmao
Actually the overall skill has reached its peak at 2013-2015, the best players nowaday are the ones can maintain their levels. We will not see any players better than Inno, Life, Zest ... in their best forms.
On June 11 2017 11:58 Boggyb wrote: I guess all the Zerg players on NA are better than Solar what with how he lost to a completely non-viable build twice.
Mech is never non viable in TvZ as long as you can make economical advantage over Zerg in the early game. I bet 99.99% Terrans couldn't do what Inno did yesterday, which make them think the build is non viable.
On June 12 2017 09:46 Waxangel wrote: More importantly, what do we think of INnoVation going back to glasses?
I don't like the frames. Wish he would get something more stylish.
That look is very stylish in Korea right now.
Inno keeping up with Korean fashion at the same time he's winning Starleagues, whatta god.
Great post about Inno, Mvp, Starleagues, GOAT, etc btw! I think the discussion is fun, but you were right the Zest thread is probably not the place for that
On June 11 2017 03:26 jpg06051992 wrote: Bad performance by Solar, Hellion into Banshee is a very old school build that has long since been figured out and Solar just looked like a clueless noob.
Granted, mech has also been buffed to shit, Innovation plays about as perfect as a human can and Solar isn't really in the same league as him, but still, Zerg looked pretty hopeless this tournament, stiff competition nonetheless.
It's really hard to defend it when you take a fast third (28-30).
Actually having a fast third doesn't pay, as you need to invest so much to defend it, while you're really vulnerable as you need to defend a huge space vs the mobile hellions and banshee.
But fast third is meta on ZvT vs 2-1-1 (because you just drone until 4:30-4:45 + queens).
Imo a 44-50 B3 is better vs hellion banshee, and you rather do some roach style at first, and transition more or less into lings (so or 1/1 ranged into 1/2 melee so you some roach/ravagers at the beginning into roach/ravagers/infestors into hive, or 1/1 mele and you turn your roach into ravagers to play lings/ravagers, later banes)
On June 12 2017 09:46 Waxangel wrote: More importantly, what do we think of INnoVation going back to glasses?
I don't like the frames. Wish he would get something more stylish.
That look is very stylish in Korea right now.
Inno keeping up with Korean fashion at the same time he's winning Starleagues, whatta god.
Great post about Inno, Mvp, Starleagues, GOAT, etc btw! I think the discussion is fun, but you were right the Zest mthread is probably not the place for that
On June 10 2017 22:18 pvsnp wrote: Whoa that is some fast typing, hasn't even been an hour since Inno won.
Congratulations to Inno for picking up his third Starleague trophy! Also, great to see Inno mixing it up with mech as well as bio, especially with the new Thor. And he didn't even use 5rax reaper, so even better.
I'm most interested with the possible JinAir INnoVation though. Can anyone (Korean speakers?) confirm what exactly the CEO meant by "supporting" Inno?
I feel like they probably wrote the LR stuff while the games happened, while the historical stuff was already written when the semis/Ro3 finished.
EPT
Dark in the last SSL finals, 
INnoVation, who dominated the regular season of Premier on his way to booking a direct ticket to the finals. Solar, on the other hand, only reached the big stage after grueling 3-2 victories over 
Stats and 
Not even finding the time to watch the SSL finals 
Too much 10/10 game? 
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/i2lER8A.png)
