Well boys, it's time to find out if the 2019 season of GSL was just a young adult fiction series where Trap was the true protagonist all along. After spending years as Maru's side-kick on Jin Air, Trap enjoyed a brief moment in sun during Code S Season 1 by reaching the playoffs for the first time in five years. Of course, he was quickly knocked to the wayside by the heroic Maru in his pursuit of a legendary fourth championship. In season 2, Trap was given an even bigger chance to shine, actually reaching the grand finals of Code S. Alas, he was only being built up to be torn down, making us care just enough about him to feel bad when he was thrashed by the sinister Dark.
Now, in Season 3, Trap has defied to odds to reach a second consecutive final. In one of the biggest upsets of the season, he defeated superstar teammate Maru in semifinals, abruptly cutting short an intensely hyped Maru-redemption plotline. After such a masterful performance, not only have we been forced to wonder if this season of Code S is Trap's tournament of destiny, but if he'll end up as the top Korean player for the entire year.
Seriously, is J.K. Rowling scripting this s***? It feels like I'm back in high school and reading Order of the Phoenix, trying to digest this "LUL what if Neville Longbottom was the chosen one all along?" plotline that came out of nowhere.
All of these late-career surges in Legacy of the Void make sense with the benefit of hindsight, but it's still hard to fully wrap my head around Trap's awakening. It's kind of weird—somehow I fell into the trap of thinking 'if it's never happened before, it will never happen ever' about Trap escaping his Ro16, DESPITE the fact that he actually made it to the top five of Code S in the past, and despite the fact that he actually won a championship in at MLG Anaheim 2014 (a softer tournament than GSL Code S, but not a cakewalk like some later foreign events).
And it's not like Trap was incapable of momentary greatness. Trite as it may sound, Trap played numerous games and series that made me think 'if Trap always played like this, he'd be a champion,' from a simple group stage beatdown of TY in Code S to an upset against Dark in a highstakes IEM Katowice match (message GGemini19 for countless more online tournament examples). Perhaps it speaks to how long Trap was stuck in his Ro16 prison (five years) that I thought his once intriguing potential had been completely lost.
Was it really as simple as flipping a switch in one's mind? That's how Trap's interviews throughout the 2019 season have made it seem. Trap's more successful teammates had always given glowing testimonials about how strong the 'in-practice' Trap was, but it was easy to brush that off as empty compliments. Whatever the reason, Trap has been transformed from group stage filler to legitimate GSL player of the year candidate. He currently stands at #2 in the WCS Korea rankings and has taken quality wins off the likes of INnoVation, TY, Classic, and Maru throughout the season. There's still plenty of StarCraft II left to be played this year, but it's quite likely that Trap ends up being the best Protoss of the year, with an outside chance of becoming the best player, bar none.
PvT is where Trap has been the most imperious. There were shades of prime Rain and Zest in his latest series against Maru, where he seemed confident in his ability to defend against any attack and win in a macro game. That's a recurring pattern for all-time great PvT players, with the utterly dominant ones falling into that macro-mold.
However, that won't do Trap much good against Rogue, and he appears to know it. In his post-match interview after the semifinals, Trap said that Rogue seems more comfortable facing him than teammate sOs. That didn't come as much of a surprise, even considering sOs' yearlong slump. PvZ isn't a match-up where the best players can just turtle and expect to grind out a win after a late-game slog. That has been possible in certain metas of the past, but for the most part, the most fearsome PvZ players have been the most sinister ones. They're the ones who are willing to smash a Zerg's kneecaps before they can even stand up—exactly how sOs became the only two-time WCS Global Champion.
Even without taking style into account, PvZ has been an understated weakness for Trap throughout his breakout year. When you look at all GSL competitions in 2019, Trap has struggled to record even a 50% win-rate in PvZ. It's telling that all of his notable victories have come against Protoss and Terran opponents, while he was unable to overcome Solar and Dark when they confronted him in Code S (admittedly, Trap played very few PvZ matches in GSL).
When we expand our view to all competitions and not just the GSL, Trap's PvZ remains statistically unremarkable. At the time of writing, he stands at just 40-28 in matches (58.82% win rate) and 106-92 in games (53.54% win rate) over the 2019 season. In terms of win rate, that's worse than players such asZest, sOs, Dear and even PartinG (Trap's win rates are just barely better than Hurricane's). And yes, while you could say Trap's record isn't quite as inflated with wins against foreigners in online cups compared to others, that's more a knock on those Protoss players than a credit to Trap.
The big statistical positive for Trap is that he's been on a heater since the latest balance patch in August, and is currently on a four-match winning streak for a 4-2 record. A 3-2 win over Solar in the Olimoleague weekly finals is Trap's most impressive win during that period, where he even managed to beat Solar after he assembled the deadly Brood Lord-Infestor combination. Still, the games weren't exactly the cleanest, and are open interpretation. My personal takeaway wasn't that Trap is a late-game master—it was more along the lines of 'where was the Solar that crushed Maru in the late game?' and 'Serral woulda crushed that.
But Rogue isn't exactly Serral, neither in terms of current level nor style of play. He has the reputation of being a great late-game player, but his Season 1 match against Classic was really the last time he proved it to us in a major offline match. Also, Rogue has historically been fond of cheeses and all-ins, making me wonder if all this hubbub about late-game ZvP will end up being meaningless in the end. This may very well end up being a mirror of Trap's Season 2 finals match against Dark, where Trap's ability to scout and defend against Dark's cheeses was the deciding factor. Of course, there's the chance that none of the above stats or observations will come into play. This is a team-kill finals after all, where all of our limited information could be rendered useless as two players who are deeply familiar with each other bring out the mindgames.
How does this plotline end? In the YA novelization of SC2 esports, Trap would end up being shunted to the sidelines yet again, getting some kind of consolation prize (maybe beating Reynor in quarterfinals of BlizzCon) while our main character Maru fulfills his destiny by destroying Serral's horcruxes and winning BlizzCon. Fortunately for Trap, he's not beholden to anyone else's script, nor is he obliged to please the fans. It's within his power to make the story of Cho Sung Ho and the story of StarCraft II one and the same, reveal himself as the true hero, and earn himself the perfect ending.
Great writeup. I m totally sold on the Trap plotline. In season 1 I was like, how did he even get to Ro4? In season 2 Finals I cheered for Dark, because I felt like he deserved it more. Now I m 100% on the Trap Hype train. Bring it on! Get your trophy! This was such a remarkable year, it s time to end GSL 2019 the right way.
Thanks for the write-up, made me let out quite a few chuckles along the way.
I think while Rogue MIGHT be favored on paper, Trap would definitely deserve this win, his play has been looking really good this year; pretty stoked to see what he can bring out in BlizzCon.
Also, it's time we had a Protoss Code S champion again
If Trap wins this, he will definitely win Blizzcon. No questions. If Trap can beat someone like Rogue, he can beat any Zerg in the world. Hopefully his PvZ improved from last season as he was completely outplayed by Dark. And Rogue is better than Dark.
On September 26 2019 15:57 fgonzo wrote: If Trap wins this, he will definitely win Blizzcon. No questions. If Trap can beat someone like Rogue, he can beat any Zerg in the world. Hopefully his PvZ improved from last season as he was completely outplayed by Dark. And Rogue is better than Dark.
Not sure if trolling or not, but looking at Rogue vs Zest, I m not convinced, that winning against Rogue would mean anything for Blizzcon. Of course every Code S Champion would be a strong contender for world champion, but no one got it for sure. Not even Serral, even though he s still the favorite.
On September 26 2019 15:57 fgonzo wrote: If Trap wins this, he will definitely win Blizzcon. No questions. If Trap can beat someone like Rogue, he can beat any Zerg in the world. Hopefully his PvZ improved from last season as he was completely outplayed by Dark. And Rogue is better than Dark.
He can beat Rogue and perhaps Dark if he gets matched up against him again. But I doubt vs Serral. Serral already proved that in 2 separate years. 1 in IEM 2018 where he failed to land the sweep vs Serral (3-2 loss) and got reversed sweep. The recent one vs GSL vs. the World where it was 3-1 (of course some people will say that it won't count, for some reasons). Stats was the recent Toss I knew who was able to beat Serral.
I knew over a year ago trap would end up one of the best players in the world. Even though he didn't have much to show, I could see that confidence and nerves was the only thing holding him back.
His control was spectacular even back then, but he also spectacularly made the most ridiculous mistakes and sloppy moves that lost him key games. That was back then, these days, he's much better in that department, although still caves a little when the stakes are high. Even if he does not take this finals, he will someday that's for sure.
Great writeup folks, I really do hope Trap does it but extended series vs Zergs are a different beast to playing PvT. You can’t just play solid and into a macro game, you need all those tricky builds and timings to be super tight and that your opponent doesn’t read them all.
I do think he can do it, especially given how shaky Rogue looked against Zest but it’ll be tough.
On September 26 2019 15:57 fgonzo wrote: If Trap wins this, he will definitely win Blizzcon. No questions. If Trap can beat someone like Rogue, he can beat any Zerg in the world. Hopefully his PvZ improved from last season as he was completely outplayed by Dark. And Rogue is better than Dark.
He can beat Rogue and perhaps Dark if he gets matched up against him again. But I doubt vs Serral. Serral already proved that in 2 separate years. 1 in IEM 2018 where he failed to land the sweep vs Serral (3-2 loss) and got reversed sweep. The recent one vs GSL vs. the World where it was 3-1 (of course some people will say that it won't count, for some reasons). Stats was the recent Toss I knew who was able to beat Serral.
Yeah good point. Why would someone say that GSL vs. The World doesn't count? Isn't a win and win? I mean if that was ladder I can sort of understand. But this was a legit tournament.
I wouldn't simplify Trap to "just turtle and expect to grind out a win after a late-game slog", I would honestly say his opponant, Rogue is the (or 2nd) best example of someone who usually has that approach.
I watch all of Traps games that are available, he has a decent amount of diversity to his play. He goes with double robo more consistently vs Zerg than most and he opens with Stargate vs Terran more than most would be a fair claim.
Imo he thinks more than most too and "just do what is correct in the situation" maybe with a bit of risk aversion would fit better than "just turtle" for him.
He was one of the first to show aggression with blink stalkers vs Swarm host transitions rather than the more passive storm and shield batteries and hope the zerg sends locusts at the shield batteries at the 3rd.
Imo Trap times his pre broodlord/infestor attacks really well, before broodlord/infestor while having as good an army for that timing as possible. One doesn't often see him "turtling" at his own base as broodlords and infestors pop.
He also often aims to make very cost efficient compositions in PvZ and min maxes for that, delaying the timing of when would be correct to attack. He often has more High templar and Immortals earlier but less stalker/ zealot as he is very good at knowing what corners he can cut.
You can't blame Trap for the state of ZvP.
Its silly to pick out protoss players who have better PvZ winrates than trap saying it makes Trap bad at PvZ, then say those protoss players with better winrates just have them because they faced many weaker zergs, and call it a knock on those too. Then you're effectively mocking them for picking Protoss and being put vs Zergs.
Trap is also not vs a weak Zerg and the best Zergs are all doing great vs Protoss (Ragnarok even recently called it an unfair easier matchup for Zerg after beating Zest).
What people currently look like they could play protoss and beat the likes of Serral, Solar, Dark or Rogue in a bo7 without the zerg having a bad day or big mistakes.
Don't take that and mock the player for having to play a currently one sided at the top level matchup (Aliguliac has top 5 zergs leading by 13% and top 5 protoss lagging by 14% : aligulac.com/periods/ ).
Is the point of the article not to hype up Trap for the most impressive achievement from a Protoss in awhile rather than mock him for playing the weaker race in (IMO both currently and historically) the most 1 sided matchup, PvZ (Zerg favoured). I am not basing this on personal experience but on data. Aliguliac balance graph has P losing to Z in PvZ as the most 1 sided matchup overall. I am only bringing it up because the article.
Also Cure is not on the list of Terrans that Trap beat even though Cure has been great at TvP recently and is now the highest rated TvP player (it honestly could be a large part of why Trap and him are so good at the matchup).
-Longtime Trap fan (Thank you to this site for putting up breakdowns of some of Traps early HOTS builds like DT drop rush vs meta Widowmine drop etc, nice to see him get exposure again) .
Serral, TBZOAT has 149–40 (78.84%) in games and 60–5 (92.31%) in matches versus Protoss since Jan 1st, 2018 (arbitrary date, but for painting his form in this match up). Only Stats (2), Neeb (2), and Classic have managed to win matches against him, and it was even a narrative how ZvP is Serral's worst match up.
(EDIT: Against Koreans Serral is 36–19 (65.45%) in games and 13–3 (81.25%) in matches within same time span, but that doesn't mean much as Neeb and ShowTime aren't there and some Korean Protosses are "far" below them
Rogue is 258–131 (66.32%) in games and 98–40 (71.01%) in matches against Protoss since Jan 1st, 2018, and against Korean Protosses he is 199–120 (62.38%) in games and 71–37 (65.74%) in matches.)
Rogue isn't Serral, but Trap truly need make his best to beat him. All the best for him, and good luck!
If I haven't seen Rogue play against Zest in Ro8 (one of the worst matches I've ever seen in GSL), I'd totally go for Rogue with this one. But right now I don't know what should I think, there are so many factors making this difficult. Rogue's slump, Trap's momentum, ZvP being late-game Zerg favored (and mid-game P favored), and the most confusing thing - it's a teamkill!
On September 27 2019 02:34 UnLarva wrote: User was warned for this post.
Uh, what? What about this post was worthy of a warning?
My first guess would be the fact that he went completely off the rails to make this Trap GSL preview thread about Serral.
While Serral isn't normally relevant to the GSL, the fact that he was Trap's last major Zerg opponent in a significant tournament makes him and his ZvP prowess relative to Rogue's absolutely pertinent.
He currently stands at #2 in the WCS Korea rankings and has taken quality wins off the likes of INnoVation, TY, Classic, and Maru throughout the season.
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Cure instead of Classic I assume, Classic plays Protoss now. I didn't even spot it on first read.
He currently stands at #2 in the WCS Korea rankings and has taken quality wins off the likes of INnoVation, TY, Classic, and Maru throughout the season.
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Cure instead of Classic I assume, Classic plays Protoss now. I didn't even spot it on first read.
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NVM you probably meant Classic PvP last season, my bad, thought that paragraph was about PvT. Back to Cure is left out, I guess the blink allin vs Cure wasn't special but Cure is great at TvP. More impressive head to take in my book than Innovation.
On September 27 2019 02:00 paddyz wrote: I wouldn't simplify Trap to "just turtle and expect to grind out a win after a late-game slog", I would honestly say his opponant, Rogue is the (or 2nd) best example of someone who usually has that approach.
I watch all of Traps games that are available, he has a decent amount of diversity to his play. He goes with double robo more consistently vs Zerg than most and he opens with Stargate vs Terran more than most would be a fair claim.
Imo he thinks more than most too and "just do what is correct in the situation" maybe with a bit of risk aversion would fit better than "just turtle" for him.
He was one of the first to show aggression with blink stalkers vs Swarm host transitions rather than the more passive storm and shield batteries and hope the zerg sends locusts at the shield batteries at the 3rd.
Imo Trap times his pre broodlord/infestor attacks really well, before broodlord/infestor while having as good an army for that timing as possible. One doesn't often see him "turtling" at his own base as broodlords and infestors pop.
He also often aims to make very cost efficient compositions in PvZ and min maxes for that, delaying the timing of when would be correct to attack. He often has more High templar and Immortals earlier but less stalker/ zealot as he is very good at knowing what corners he can cut.
You can't blame Trap for the state of ZvP.
Its silly to pick out protoss players who have better PvZ winrates than trap saying it makes Trap bad at PvZ, then say those protoss players with better winrates just have them because they faced many weaker zergs, and call it a knock on those too. Then you're effectively mocking them for picking Protoss and being put vs Zergs.
Trap is also not vs a weak Zerg and the best Zergs are all doing great vs Protoss (Ragnarok even recently called it an unfair easier matchup for Zerg after beating Zest).
What people currently look like they could play protoss and beat the likes of Serral, Solar, Dark or Rogue in a bo7 without the zerg having a bad day or big mistakes.
Don't take that and mock the player for having to play a currently one sided at the top level matchup (Aliguliac has top 5 zergs leading by 13% and top 5 protoss lagging by 14% : aligulac.com/periods/ ).
Is the point of the article not to hype up Trap for the most impressive achievement from a Protoss in awhile rather than mock him for playing the weaker race in (IMO both currently and historically) the most 1 sided matchup, PvZ (Zerg favoured). I am not basing this on personal experience but on data. Aliguliac balance graph has P losing to Z in PvZ as the most 1 sided matchup overall. I am only bringing it up because the article.
Also Cure is not on the list of Terrans that Trap beat even though Cure has been great at TvP recently and is now the highest rated TvP player (it honestly could be a large part of why Trap and him are so good at the matchup).
-Longtime Trap fan (Thank you to this site for putting up breakdowns of some of Traps early HOTS builds like DT drop rush vs meta Widowmine drop etc, nice to see him get exposure again) .
Hype for Trap!
Solid post and analysis, would read again oh fellow Irishman!
I love Trap, but Rogue has this ezpz. No Protoss has figured out how to win a long PvZ series after the recent patch... I fear a 4-0. I agree with the OP that he has more possibilities if he tries crazy things, but that style is definitively not his.
I think the protoss players may feel like they have better chances to win if the game is more chaotic with a lot going on over the map as they feel like the zerg won't lose without the zerg player making mistakes and the zerg player is more likely to make mistakes if they have a lot to do at once.
So if anything the way Trap won in a messy game where Solar made mistakes and the fact that the Zest vs Rogue series was so messy could be representative of Trap & Zest succeeding in their intention of playing to maximise the chances of a zerg mistake in a messy game rather than believing in P to be able to beat Z in a clean game (as Protosses have tried to do with little success).
This, I think is why we don't see "clean" Protoss wins vs Zerg late game.
Signature trap would be Immortal, Archon storm push right before broods are ready, with blink stalkers too if rogue went SH. (2nd SG phoenix with archons defending from warp prism if vs muta).
I wonder if Trap would ever even try to replicate Stats approach in game 2 vs Serral in Assembly and think he has control over his own success like that vs Infestor/Brood now that infested Terrans are nerfed.
It would be amazing if there was something Protoss could do to win cleanly without relying on a clear Zerg mistake. I think Trap is way up there for people smart enough to work it out if there is a way, I am not getting my hopes up though.
I was really glad to see Trap get put vs the best Terrans on his way to the final and showcase peak PvT. Also nice to see Jin Air Zerg, Protoss & Terran in the final 4.
Either way we have a new GSL champion soon I think, grats to them, deserved.
On September 27 2019 02:34 UnLarva wrote: User was warned for this post.
Uh, what? What about this post was worthy of a warning?
My first guess would be the fact that he went completely off the rails to make this Trap GSL preview thread about Serral.
While Serral isn't normally relevant to the GSL, the fact that he was Trap's last major Zerg opponent in a significant tournament makes him and his ZvP prowess relative to Rogue's absolutely pertinent.
It was reported by a user for: "poorly veiled effort to stir up serral discussion in a thread that has nothing to do with it", and it seems the responding moderator chose to warn for it.
I also have to voice my protest there, that warning is absurd. The user did nothing wrong, and in my mind was actually contributing. The article even brings up Serral and a comparison between him and Rogue, not that it really matters.
TBH it maybe seems likely the mod is just busy and trying to keep things in check without having to study everything that is going on with the post.
On September 27 2019 02:34 UnLarva wrote: User was warned for this post.
Uh, what? What about this post was worthy of a warning?
My first guess would be the fact that he went completely off the rails to make this Trap GSL preview thread about Serral.
While Serral isn't normally relevant to the GSL, the fact that he was Trap's last major Zerg opponent in a significant tournament makes him and his ZvP prowess relative to Rogue's absolutely pertinent.
It was reported by a user for: "poorly veiled effort to stir up serral discussion in a thread that has nothing to do with it", and it seems the responding moderator chose to warn for it.
I also have to voice my protest there, that warning is absurd. The user did nothing wrong, and in my mind was actually contributing. The article even brings up Serral and a comparison between him and Rogue, not that it really matters.
TBH it maybe seems likely the mod is just busy and trying to keep things in check without having to study everything that is going on with the post.
Yup, some times you just get a "brush it off" warning. Don't sweat it unless your intentions are to be a trouble maker. Then you can bet your keaster the banling squad will get you again.
Oh, no worries about that warning (no ill intentions, or spamming purpose. I was even sober when commenting, which isn't necessarily always the case). My intention was just try to make Rogue's level of competition (as Zerg-player) someway visible, and as I don't know any better measuring stick for that than comparing player's stats to Serral's ZvP statistics, I used them. Time frame was set long for making sample set enough large to make it anyway illustrative. Rogue is certainly one of top Zergs of the world, even if not in his best form. Also, it wasn't too long ago when Trap had match vs Serral, which wasn't total sweep (3-1 for Serral). OP itself mention Serral in relation to Rogue, so I thought there was nothing wrong to look at it little bit deeper.
More relevancy to the comment comes from the fact that recent form Trap can meet Serral in Blizzcon, regardless of do he win or lose this final Code S. Code S season 3 champion or runner-up is certainly at least minor favorite for successful Blizzcon, right?
Anyway, its seems to me uphill battle for Trap, in which I hope him only best luck.
On general level, its certain that both Top Level Protosses and Zergs are doing (or at least should be doing) their respective studies with past Serral ZvP vods and vids in that match up, but that goes without underlining as its obvious thing to do. I personally consider both Trap and Rogue a top level of their races...
On September 27 2019 23:30 HolydaKing wrote: I'm expecting Trap to win 4-1, hope the matches will be decent to watch - PvZ can be terrible but can be great too.
The chance of that happening is not as high as my chance of graduating with my BS in EE without any debt.