Zest vs TY

by Destructicon
- TL_Destructicon



Our first semi-final sees two former titans of KT battling each other. In years past, this would have been the headline match of the entire tournament—it was, in fact, the final of a Code S in 2016. But the two have been far from their respective peaks and their arrival at this point could be classified as a surprise. One of them will go even further and become a finalist, the other's run ends here.

Zest, while not at his full strength, has always been a dangerous player and a championship contender in most tournaments he enters. As such his 2018 was a veritable rollercoaster, going from Ro8 in GSL S1 and PyeongChang to being eliminated in the group stages of IEM Katowice and in the first stage of the GSL ST. These erratic results also coincided with a period of PvZ struggle in which Zest’s winrate in the matchup fell dramatically, and, unsurprisingly, a lot of his eliminations came at the hands of Zergs.

Online, though, Zest has been slowly gathering strength once more. He hasn’t looked flashy offline, but he got the job done and survived round after round before reaching Dear. This is where we finally got to see glimpses of the level of player Zest should be and has historically been. His game sense and series-planning were on full display as he dismantled Dear in a clean 3-0 sweep that could hardly have been more onesided.

TY’s journey was even more arduous.

He re-qualified for a GSL after dropping off everyone's radar for a while, overshadowed by the brilliant resurgence of Maru. Slowly but surely TY dug through his matches—through Impact and Cure in the Ro32, and twice through Trap in the Ro16. GuMiho, his quarterfinal opponent, proved to be the hardest challenge for TY thus far. Their series was close, bloody and hectic, and while GuMiho had gotten the better of TY throughout the year, the former KT man came out victorious at the end. But now he faces a different challenge entirely.

Zest and TY are quite closely matched in many ways. Their form is certainly comparable—not overly dominant, but not to be taken lightly either. Both have been quite active in offline and online tournaments and, between them, have defeated many strong players such as GuMiho, INnoVation, Dark, Solar, and Trap recently.

Historically, Zest has been stronger at the PvT matchup than his former KT teammate. His prowess was still on display in online cups, as he beat INnoVation, aLive, and GuMiho, but also in GSL S1, where Zest eliminated INnoVation. It hasn’t been all sunshine and roses though, as Zest has also dropped series to Keen and GuMiho.

TY’s online results, while quite impressive, have been padded by more wins over weaker Protoss such as MacSed, Nice, but also a strong Trap, while he hasn’t really been able to take series of the very best PvT players like herO, Classic or Stats.

In terms of preparation both players are also just about equally matched. TY is well known for his intricate, map-specific builds, but it did him little good in their last best-of-seven encounter in 2016—Zest won that series 4-2.

Zest, while definitely capable of tailoring builds to opponents, would usually rather stick to his trusted and established openers and strategies that usually allow him the flexibility to adapt to the opponent.

Prediction:

Overall I’m going to side with Zest here. He has had better results this year, he has proven that he can overcome his weaknesses when given time to prepare and TY just doesn't have enough strong Protoss wins under his belt to put up much of a fight.

Zest 4 – 1 TY

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