Quarterfinal #1: Maru vs Rogue

by Destructicon
- TL_Destructicon


Our first round-of-eight match sees the current best Terran in the world (if not overall best player) Maru face off against one of the best Zergs in the world in Rogue. Honestly, it's a match-up worthy of the grand finals, but we're only being treated to a best-of-five in the quarterfinals due to Rogue's second place finish in his RO16 group.

In terms of form, both players are going into this looking incredible. Maru has done nothing to dispel the aura of dominance he built during his dual title runs in Code S and WESG (his Super Tournament loss to Classic, while relevant, is still just a footnote unless they should face again). Maru dominated both of his groups in this season of Code S, and his overwhelming TvZ ability seems to have survived the Raven patch. He obliterated a pre-patch Zanster in the RO32, as well as a post-patch Solar in the RO32.

Rogue, while not quite as impressive as Maru, has also done extremely well, cruising through a RO32 group which included the GSL Super Tournament winner Stats. Some would say Rogue should have topped his RO16 group, but others might say it was more a credit to Dear and his magnificent play on match day that he stole the #1 spot from far more illustrious opponents. Despite losing the winners match to Dear, Rogue still defeated INnoVAation twice in impressive fashion. INnoVation is rarely made to look like the slower player in a match, but Rogue made him look absolutely lead-footed with his backdoor attacks, opportunistic engagements, and overall army movements.

On paper, this should be a terrific match. Maru vs Dark has provided some of the highest level, most entertaining TvZ matches of the entire year, but each time Maru commented that Rogue is an even better ZvT player than Dark. Everything points to this being the match of the year, except one thing: it’s a team kill.

Team kills are almost always weird. The players, having become intimate familiarity with each other’s styles, tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses, try to exploit this knowledge to bizarre results. These kind of ploy often take the form of cheese, but it can also be in the form of corner-cutting macro builds that make no sense in any other circumstance. A team kill within Jin Air—the only surviving KeSPA team—is taking all of the aforementioned weirdness and cranking it up to 11.

Normally I’d go with Maru to win just off the back of his monster TvZ, but Rogue has defeated every other elite Terran, and Maru vouches for his skill as well. Should we take Maru's word for it? Sure, he might just be being polite to a teammate. But when we look at Rogue's gameplay, it feels like Maru is telling the whole-hearted truth.

prediction Rogue 3-2 Maru

Quarterfinal #2: Classic vs ByuN

The second RO8 of the day has the potential to be a lot more one-sided. In one corner, in the Protoss trunks, we have Classic, one of the most intimidating players of the year. In the other corner we have ByuN, a former champion and fan favorite who has struggled for over a year.

Classic himself has been pretty quiet since the GSL Super Tournament. He hasn’t participated in any online qualifiers or tournaments, instead dedicating himself wholly to the GSL. The results of his choice are evident in his results, going 4-0 across in matches and 8-2 in games across both his groups, defeating Elazer, Dark, TY and even ByuN himself. Overall, while the sample size for Classic isn't large, the quality of the opponents he has faced and defeated is a clear indication that his form hasn’t dipped. Yes, he has lost in most of his big matches, but is a match against 2018 ByuN truly a big match?

After his poor start to the year, ByuN has also cut down on his participation to online cups to shift his gear on the GSL. His advancement to the RO16 wasn’t entirely surprising as he defeated Leenock and Elazer in a MU which he is still strong in, while clearly losing to Classic. To his credit, though, ByuN did manage to adapt when it mattered most, defeating Stats not once, but twice in the new patch to secure his RO8 spot.

While ByuN has proven his capacity to change, it still feels hard to believe he could defeat Classic in a Bo5. Stats, throughout the year always felt shaky and it could be argued that ByuN simply exploited that lack of consistency. Classic himself has remained strong throughout the year. As such, while I know have faith in ByuN to bounce back and assert himself as a strong and respectable player, I just don’t think he’ll do it here and now. This match is Classic's to lose.

ByuN 1-3 Classic