With VSL having concluded its second season last week, we are back to the regular duality of starleagues in Korea: SSL Premier and Challenge continue with their weekly high-profile matches, while Code S presents us with two all-Korean groups—the first ones after the Foreigner double-attack last week.


A Kingdom for a Machine

Current SSL champion INnoVation now also holds the VSL title after his decisive, awe-inspiring victory over soO in the finals last week. He's now the first man to hold a GSL, SSL and VSL championship (albeit not quite simultaneously just yet), and he's simply continued with his reign of supremacy, giving herO—who’s come up from SSL Challenge—a very explosive welcome into his dominion last week. Like last season, it's INnoVation and Dark who top the standings after Week 1, alongside another one of their former SK Telecom T1 colleagues, Classic. Dear and Stats, too could score victories and keep close to the leading triumvirate, while the former playoff contenders ByuL and Solar had to accept early losses.

The field might be shaken up in Week 2, however: INno, Dark and Classic all meet Week 1 losers, making them favourites to create some distance between the three of them and their pursuers, who’ll have to fight among themselves to keep up and thus split up the rankings.

Mirror match connoisseurs will be especially pleased with the line-up for Week 2, as there will be one high-quality series for every race mirror: Long-time rivals ByuL and Solar meet once more—the two of them have over 50 competitive maps against each other behind them—with the Splyce player looking to go into it as the favourite. For Protoss, Dear and Stats go into the ring, and while Stats might have a slight historic advantage, Dear is in top form at the moment and shows a much better recent record against Protoss players, while Stats had to take in some PvP losses. Finally, the champion INnoVation fights aLive in what will certainly be an uphill battle for the latter one, even though he’s shown in the past that he’s able to compete with INnoVation in best of-series.

In the remaining matches, Dark meets herO—surely with the goal of continuing INnoVation’s welcoming celebrations for the ROOT player—and Classic goes up against Maru, who looks very beatable after losing his first match against Dear.


Hot Pursuit

Down in SSL Challenge routine has already taken over, the players have settled in and go after each other’s throats on the regular, weekly basis. In Group A, Bunny has taken the lead after wins over sOs and Patience, but next week he’ll face the pursuer snatching after his heels: soO. The Zerg has taken his shattering loss to INnoVation in VSL with grace—as expected of him, by now—beating jjakji last week to secure his second place in the group. Whoever wins this duel will likely remain the front-runner this entire tournament stage. It would be a great personal step for Bunny, if he could finally show some consistency in his performances, especially against a monster like soO.

In Group B Rogue wasn’t able to shake off his Week 1 loss and fell victim to Hush, whose successful SSL debut should give him a nice confidence boost for Code S, as well as his match against Zest right here in SSL Challenge. Should he pull off another upset, the Protoss will be in a prime position to advance into the next tournament stage. Rogue will have a chance at redeeming himself next week, as he meets Impact. Pack leader ByuN has a break in meantime, so he’ll have to watch how his pursuers—at the moment primarily the surprising duo of Impact and Hush—fight to keep on his tail.


Clear Lines

In both Code S groups for this week the favourites seem clearly established: For Group C soO and aLive are poised to be victorious, for Group D Stats and ByuN stand out among their peers. The competition will be fierce as always, and the four underdogs will not give their ground up lightly, but even they must acknowledge that a difficult uphill battle is their only way to victory.

Hush and Leenock recently were able to pull some unexpected successes out of their wizard's hats, at least. The Protoss qualified for both individual leagues and beat players of the calibre of Dark along the way—not to mention his win over Rogue in SSL only last week—, once more proving the qualities, which made him an effective surprise weapon for CJ Entus back in the Proleague-days. Leenock reached the Top 4 of VSL, edging out Classic in a heavily contested quarterfinal, before being defeated by eventual champion INnoVation—not too shabby a run for the otherwise struggling Zerg.

In the Friday group the ever dangerous Losira is not an easy obstacle. The Zerg hasn’t had the greatest months behind him, but his long experience and adaptability oftentimes let him play above his average level. And then there is the ever-inconsistent Forte, sometimes a rising star, sometimes a complete dud. A victory over ByuL in the qualifiers for Code S makes him a factor to consider when talking about this group, though. He’s one of those players who's able to take a single Best of 3 against a favoured player and massively influence the outcome this way, even though he never really profits of those rare moments himself and then vanishes for a few more months. Those may not be the most solid foundations for upsets, but there have been more miraculous events in SC2’s past.



Weekly Schedule:

MON - SSL Premier - ByuL vs. Solar / Dear vs. Stats / Dark vs. herO / aLive vs. INnoVation / Classic vs. Maru
WED - GSL Code S - Group C: soO / Hush / Leenock / aLive
THU - VSL Team League - Draft
FRI - GSL Code S - Group D: Stats / Forte / Losira / ByuN
FRI - SSL Challenge - soO vs. Bunny / Rogue vs. Impact / jjakji vs. sOs / Hush vs. Zest