EPT
Commentators Lee Seung-won, Yu Dae-hyun, Im Sung-chun, and Shark – Their picks on the MSL winner
![[image loading]](http://www.fomos.kr/board/issue/1298008293_1.jpg)
Hydra, who has been riding high spirits, will face Great, who is expected to bring hive tech play, in the PDPop MSL finals at Yonsei University in Seoul this coming Saturday.
Both fighting for their first individual league win ever, Hydra has the upper hand in terms of recent match records. But depending on how well Great’s hive tech preparations are, it is difficult to predict the winner of the MSL.
What do the MBC Game commentators think about who will be the next top Zerg player? With one day left until the finals, Fomos asked each of the commentators for their predictions.
▶ Lee Seung-won – If the match is decided quickly, Great will win; if the match is drawn out, Hydra will win
If the match ends in a score such as 3:0 or 3:1, I think Great will win and if the match goes all the way to last set, I think Hydra will win.
I’ve thought about who will win for a while now but I want to say that Great has the skill and aptitude to plan build orders. But if these kind of players lose the first set unexpectedly, they often crumble in the following sets. The games have to proceed at one’s pace but if Great starts to drag Hydra around with his prepared builds, Hydra will lose his games helplessly.
But Hydra is someone who has defeated Jaedong. Because he has such high spirits and such skill, Hydra has a good chance that he won’t fall to Great’s strategic play, and if he goes all the way to the last few sets, then I think he has a better chance of winning.
▶ Yu Dae-hyun – Great will win with a dramatic victory
I predict that Great will win at least 2 games out of the 5.
In one game, with only zerglings. In the 2nd game, I think he will win with the hive tech that he is confident in. Hydra is undoubtedly the best in mutalisk control but a moment of carelessness or losing a game before it progresses to mutalisk fighting is always possible. Also Hydra is someone who delights in flair when he is in the advantageous position. That might make him more prone to defeat by Great’s hive tech.
So Great will win two sets like that. And out of the remaining three, Great will have a high chance of winning when the build orders split in a way where he will be in a superior position. If this happens relatively quickly, Great could even win 3:0.
There is a high chance that instead practicing to try countering Great’s hive tech, Hydra will focus on his strengths and try to stop his opponent from executing his plans. If Hydra decides to prepare himself this way, Great will probably win at least once with his prepared hive tech builds.
▶ Im Sung-chun – Hydra victory, nothing out of the extraordinary during the match
From his current high spirits to his actual skill level, Hydra seems most likely to win. His recent match records are solid and has much more force compared to Great. I think he’ll win 3:1. If Great’s prepared builds are really good, the games might be much closer but even with all the talk about hive tech, I think he’ll win only one game with it.
▶ Shark – Great victory, and he will change the metagame in doing so
It is very difficult to predict the winner but I feel that Great’s chance of winning is slightly higher.
The reason for this is because Great has nearly perfected his hive tech builds through his preparation. From Hite Entus’ point of view, they feel that the chance of going all the way to hive tech in a game is low; in other words Hydra will probably want to try to finish the game before hive tech but if the build orders that both players choose in the beginning differ drastically, the possibility of going all the way to hive tech is definitely there. And it’s pretty clear that Great wants to show something different in this finals match.
If you look back at the finals between Savior and ChoJJa, ChoJJa changed the metagame in that match (T/N: I think he's talking about the 2005 CYON MSL). At that time, ChoJJa continuously used a 1-hatch 9 drone build and no one could play that build better than he did. And it seems like Great will display similar results when he uses his hive tech builds.
In the past, because players have often won due to their focus on changing the metagame, I feel like Great’s hive tech preparation will end up on top, even if Hydra has been skyrocketing in his recent surge.
credits: kangzuck@fomos.co.kr
(T/N: Not sure how many of you guys will see the predictions before the finals since it is very very soon but if you end up seeing this after the finals end at least you can laugh about what the commentators thought beforehand
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