[SPL] Playoffs: STX Soul vs SK Telecom T1, Day 1

Not much has changed since the last time STX has played T1. Cuteangel is still the best player on STX, the rest of STX is practically invisible, and Bisu's PvT is still pretty bad. Cuteangel is also the man who nearly allkilled T1 itself during STX Masters before. He has shown he has what it takes to crush T1 before now can he do it yet again? Speaking of Bisu and Cuteangel, Cuteangel once had some very interesting thoughts about Bisu himself.



This is all irrelevant, however, as it's not the fact that T1 is playing STX that is getting people excited. Instead, it is the return of everyone's favorite map, Outsider. This map provides so many epic games that even if we see Mong vs Bogus, no one will really care. Everyone will just be salivating and cherishing the fact that we get to see Outsider once more. It is a map where anything can happen and in a high-stakes match like the playoffs semifinals, we know these teams aren't going to hold back. So, just sit back and enjoy the ride because Outsider doesn't disappoint.

---

Now, let's enjoy some friendly rivalry as we interview a T1 fan and one of the three STX fans on this site. They are Roffles and Carnivorous Sheep; they may be lowly workers but we don't discriminate here.

Hi! Let's start off easy today and thanks for doing this interview. STX hasn't been relevant in ages. Thoughts on this and what it will potentially mean for the playoffs semifinals?
Carnivorous Sheep: Irrelevant? R5 slump or not, STX's still rank 2, automatically making STX more relevant than CJ, Fox, MBC, and the other six teams who didn't make the playoffs. And honestly, if the MSL Ro16 games are any indication, Calm and Kal are still fully capable of playing winning games, and hero is still a solid player. SKT may have had it easy with demolishing noob teams like CJ and Fox, but STX is going to destroy them.

Roffles: Once a failure, always a failure. STX hasn't been relevant because their team is full of losers. Guys who can't step their game up when it counts. Because of their lack of experience due to past failures, they'll simply succumb to pressure when it counts. Their Ace, Kal, is pretty good at failing under pressure. Hwasin was good at it too. And you know how all the younguns look up to the old seasoned vet...

STX's ace this round is clearly Cuteangel. This is a problem for T1 because Bisu's PvT is bad and Cuteangel says that he is 6:2 vs Bisu and that beating Bisu is no big deal. In addition, Bisu and 2 Factory builds just don't get along. How can T1 overcome this massive weakness as it potentially means they are down 0-1 every game?

Carnivorous Sheep: They simply won't. SKT will keep fielding Bisu in the hopes that he'll proxy Gate or something, but Cuteangel will see through those pathetic attempts and continue to drink Bisu fanboys' tears in lieu of Pocari sweat. How does it feel knowing you support a player who has been irrelevant for years Roffles? Why do you insist on supporting terribad players?

Roffles: Cuteangel's a pile of garbage. You know your team is terrible when your best player is Cuteangel. That being said, I highly doubt STX's coach will be smart enough to successfully snipe Bisu. And even if he does get the desired matchup, Cuteangel's already used his playoff magic a few years ago vs. Jaedong. Fluke wins don't repeat themselves in playoffs.

Often regarded as the poor man's Jaedong vs Flash, Calm vs Fantasy games make everyone face palm while being very cringe inducing. For example, when they last met on Match Point, Calm showed that he was the real "Minesweeper Zerg" as he spent a whole game running into mines repeatedly. Plus, we could potentially even more of this "oh dear god why are they ever allowed to play each other" in MSL. Thoughts on what to expect from these two should they meet?

Carnivorous Sheep: Spending his entire time preparing for (and then losing) TvTs to Skyhigh has obviously traumatized fantasy. He'll pull out a build similar to the one he used against Hydra, and then die just as badly as he did then. But he can always pad his vZ stats by having Hyuk throw games, so all is well for fantasy as he goes down in an inglorious blaze.

Roffles: Calm's play as of late has been reeking of smelly cheese. His wins as of late have all been either from ZvZ or from doing stupid shit like hydra busting in ZvP. Skilless noob has no confidence in his play. But back on topic, Fantasy's shown that he can adeptly handle skilless noobs (see Effort) who try to win in the early game because they have no confidence in their late game skills. Should they meet, Fantasy would 100% wreck Calm cause he sucks. Plus, if Clam shows up, then lol.

The real hero for T1 these playoffs has been Best. Without him, they probably wouldn't even have made it past CJ, let alone Wemade. How can STX hope to overcome this macro machine?

Carnivorous Sheep: Best may be sort of good at spamming units and then 1a2a3aing, but his PvP and PvZ remains a tragedy. If he meets either Calm who'll mindgame him with some epic all-in build (assuring more delicious fanboy rage), hero who'll A-move him to death like he did Bisu, or Shuttle PvP monster who has even better macro, Best will just shed a silent tear before descending into a downward spiral of drugs and alcohol in an attempt to hide his shame.

Roffles: Plain and simple, put a zerg up against him that's somewhat competent and he'll most likely lose. Plus, I don't get why players insist on playing macro games with this guy. Everytime they do, they just get painfully wrecked. Mind and Midas had the right idea, but Best is just too good for stupid antics like that in TvP.

With the removal of Hwasin, STX's Terran depth plumeted drastically. This means that STX can't exploit T1 Zerg's lolbad ZvT. Can we expect to see Last, Bogus, and Notice step it up for the playoffs or will Shuttle be forced to pick up the slack?

Carnivorous Sheep: First and foremost, we have Terran bonjwa Cuteangel to lead the Terran line. That said, Bogus is probably our best bet, and he can just turtle a SKT zerg until he goes insane.

Roffles: STX has a terran line? Never heard of em, and with good reason too. They're just your typical trash no namers who get sent out as fodder because they have no other competent players.



Despite the fact that this will be like watching two cripples fight, there is a reason to still watch this. The return of everyone's favorite map, Outsider, is sure to lead to some amazing and exciting games. How much have you guys missed this map?

Carnivorous Sheep: Outsider is FTW.

And STX is like crippled cause of an injury (attained honorably in battle obviously, no shame), which can heal. SKT is like mentally crippled, something that will never leave them. It's one of those "I may be drunk, but in the morning I'll be sober, but you'll still be ugly" kind of things.

Roffles: Only crippled team I see is STX. Ever since Hwasin left, they've been in shambles. SKT on the other hand doesn't have scumbags, cause their players know better. Oh, Outsider's a fun map, pretty decent zerg map that leads to innovative play. Since STX doesn't have any good terrans, I expect an SKT zerg to play and win against STX's shitty protoss/zerg line.

Now for some words for each other, anything that you two want to say? Perhaps a bet of some sort should your favorite team lose? I hear everyone misses VWolf and no one would mind seeing him post again.

Carnivorous Sheep: VWolf is eaten, ok?

That said, just randomly ban some SKT fans imo. There's so many of them and they all say the same things, I doubt they'll be missed. Banning fake SKT fans who sport Oz icons also works, not like we need them.

Roffles: Ever since the start of Round 5, STX has been complete shit. Hell, they even stooped down to bribing other teams to win for them cause they're too terrible to win their own games. That's how fucking bad they are. I'll gladly make a bet, but I'm afraid CSheep's too scared to accept cause he knows his team sucks. The guy drives the largest Dodge Ram I've ever seen.

On a more personal note, I know that you two have been planning to do a bo9 grudgematch. Current status on that? Also, how is that dancing going, Roffles?

Carnivorous Sheep: It will happen the moment Roffles dances. Give the people what they want Roffles! Stop dodging lil' SCV!

Roffles: Thanks to Shuttle failing (pretty normal really), CSheep has no choice but to grudgematch vs me. Ima have to give him a handicap or two to make it close really. The guy's like bronze level at SC2, which is equivalent to keyboard rank in BW. However, that'll have to wait until after I dance, which I have planned for the next couple of weeks. I've set plans for it to come out on post 9999.

Thanks for your time~ Any last words to say before ending this interview?

Carnivorous Sheep: SKT bad, KT bad, STX Proleague Champs.

Roffles: To all you delusional STX fans out there, why the hell do you even root for this shitty team? Your team has no terrans, no competent zergs, and a protoss who fails when he succumbs to pressure. Why do you even bother rooting for these losers? Do you like being heartbroken? Do you like witnessing failure? I'd jump ship if I were you, cause SKT's gonna pummel STX into oblivion, two nights in a row.

This picture says it all

Bogus <Match Point> Fantasy
Modesty <Roadrunner> Canata
Hero <Grand Line SE> s2
Kal <Fighting Spirit> Bisu
Clam <Judgment Day> Hyuk
CuteAngel <Fortress> Best
+ Show Spoiler [Ace Match?] +

Bogus > Fantasy
Modest < Canata
Hero > s2
Kal < Bisu
Calm > Hyuk
Cuteangel < Best
Hero < Fantasy

STX Soul 3 - 4 SK Telecom T1
+ Show Spoiler [Summary for the lulz] +

To be honest, no real recommended games. Almost every game was either lopsided or the loser made a stupid blunder and ended up getting raped.