[SWL] Winner League Finals KT Rolster vs SK Telecom T1

Fan Interviews--First off, much thanks to the TL community--received quite a few replies and high participation. Second, many thanks to Flamewheel's 2009-10 SPL Grand Finals thread for the first question.

SkytoM: SK Telecom T1 Fanboy
TwoToneTerran: KT Rolster Fanboy
Necro)Phagist: SK Telecom T1/Reach Fanboy
Arvickhero: SK Telecom T1 Fanboy

1) Let's start with the basics: predict what's going to happen. You can be as general or detailed as you like.

SkytoM:First, although I'm a SKT fan, I think KTFlash is going to win. There are 2 Scenarios

s2 < Action
Bisu > Action
Bisu < Stats
Fantasy > Stats
Fantasy > Crazy-Hydra
Fantasy < Flash
Ssak > Flash with a Snipe Build

OR

s2 > Action
s2 < BarrackS
SoO/Sun > BarrackS
SoO/Sun < Flash
Bisu > Flash
Bisu < Stats
Fantasy > Stats

TwoToneTerran:s2 < Bloody Ridge > Perfective
s2< Fortress SE > Flash
Hyuk < Icarus > Flash
Fantasy < Circuit Breaker > Flash
Fantasy < Aztec > Action
Fantasy < La Mancha > Stats
Bisu < Empire of the Sun > Stats

Either Way I expect this to go to a final set.

Necro)Phagist:My prediction is Reach going Mantoss on SKT for a 3 Kill Only to be reverse 3 killed by Bisu then Flash coming out to clean it up in an Epic hour long Ace match :D

Arvickhero: Realistically, it'll probably end in KT's favor. But I'm hoping for SKT to dominate or to win in an epic fashion

2) Who do you think is going to come out, in what order, and why?

SkytoM:First Scenario: Pretty Clear, Bloody Ridge is a good Z Map and SKTZergs don't have the nerves to win, after that Bisu just Stomps Action into the ground, sending him in to a deep slump(what else? it's BvZ after all..). After Kim Taek Shin will transfer into Kim Yong Taek and Stats (who seems to have Bisu's Number) will win the 3rd Set. Fantasy shows his godlike TvP, Stats shows his overratedness and loses terribly. Funny side note here: Stats is bad, i mean really bad. He is like HiYa in Winner's League but that's all. 0-2 MST everyone? Share a good laugh with me :-)
KT may win, but everytime a player of them loses, they will play so bad and should retire.(exceptions: Flash and Violet) How does it feel Action, when KT buys friggin' CRAZY-HYDRA to help you?
Crazy-Hydra gets sent out, because Aztec is a good ZvT map, sadly CH is a bad player and Fantasy is on a roll. Maybe Fanta will throw in a bunker rush for the lulz and to mess with Flash's head.. let's see :-) should be a blast!
After that "God" comes out and cleans up. If Ssak or Fantasy can beat him is unclear so don't take my predictions there too seriously. Maybe even Best tries the 7th Set. He has the experience and potential to beat Flash, but is he ready for it?

Second Scenario: IF a SKT Zerg wins the first map, we have a pretty cool Situation, a Situation where KT may be forced to send Flash on Aztec and Bisu can go up against him. This will be the realisation of everyone's wet dream. Bisu + good map vs Flash "God himself"
Would be awesome.. i hope Bisu vs Flash Bacchus 2008 aweseome.

TwoToneTerran:You asked for it, for people who don't like reading my mindless drivel, here;s some TLDR lines!

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The series is going to have a boring start since both teams will want to throw zergs at bloody ridge instead of risking their more valuable players. Since Hyuk is on a 10 game ZvZ loss streak and Soo has evaporated into the ether, it'll probably be s2 vs Perfective. I'd like to say Crazy-Hydra but I doubt KT will play him this soon after joining the team. I don't see Perfective as a great player in pressure situations so I'm gonna say s2 takes it (also s2 is pretty wicked with Mutas).

Here's where I think the first curveball comes in, I'm betting KT sends Flash out here because they want to greatly avoid having Flash play on Aztec, EotS and even La Mancha with SKT's Protosses waiting about, so go for an early 3 Kill and get stats/action to clean up with one more win. Even with Icarus next, SKT probably already spent their best Zerg on bloody ridge and I'll take Flash over Hyuk or Soo even on Icarus, and over their protosses with a slight T leaning for it. Flash takes down s2 with the aid of Fortress being T > Z and then takes out Hyuk on Icarus, since SKT will assuredly have a Z ready for it. Even if they don't send Hyuk, I don't see anyone from SKT besides maaaaybe Fantasy touching Flash on this map after he's gotten a warm-up.

Now I get to call an upset that I think KT fans will dislike, but I'm going with my gut here. While I don't put it past Flash to 3 kill or even all kill, I think Fantasy will come up with the goods to beat him on Circuit Breaker. There's no logical reason for this other than Flash loses sometimes and Fantasy's one of the few players that doesn't shock me when it happens.

Here's where I think KT gets worried, because they'll send Action to snipe Fantasy on a pretty massively Z>T map and I think he'll fail. Not because I don't think he's good enough to do it, but Fantasy seems to play pretty well in finals and, like Perfective, I don't trust Action under pressure. But it's not all over, as La Mancha is a pretty good PvT macro map. Stats has beaten Fantasy more than once on this kind of map and he'll do it again. It then comes down to Stats playing Bisu on Empire of the Sun (SKT having saved Bisu for the very p favored later maps instead of playing him earlier, if Action could've sniped Fantasy in my hypothetical wonderland, Bisu would've been sent on La Mancha and probably won, thus bringing us to the same matchup). I don't think it unwise for me to bet on Stats PvP on a map he's 3-0 in the matchup on. He's beaten Bisu in one finals and he'll do it again with his recently sick PvP.

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Necro)Phagist:In all seriousness... I predict KT to start strong and send out Stats to try and get an early lead maybe 2 kills without using Flash for later. unless its bisu that beats Stats I think their 2nd choice will be Crazy-Hydra or Action If it is Bisu I expect Flash to come out and clean things up.

For SKT I think s2 or another one of their zergs(Maybe a Hyuking? :D) to try for an unexpected free win. Once the zerg falls I think we will most likely see Fantasy followed by Best and Bisu(Their order depending on which player is otu at the time(if zerg Bisu if Terran Best pvp toss up.. pun intended)

ArvickHero:I'd reason that s2 will be sent first because they'd want to save Bisu to snipe, and s2 is their best bet to beat Stats. Probably, s2 will lose here since Stats is a very solid player, but he still has a better chance than, say, Rain or Best. From there, KT will send as many players as they need to so that Flash won't get caught by a TvP on Aztec.

However, if s2 does manage to win, I think that KT will immediately send out Flash to get at least a 3-kill, or maybe allkill.

Rain/Hyuk/Ssak are all interchangeable as snipers. However I feel like Hyuk will get sent out either second or third set, since those are rather favorable maps for Zerg. If somehow s2 (or whoever starts) gets a multi-kill, then the chance of Hyuk appearing diminishes while it'll become more likely to see Rain or Ssak. Could even possibly see Best as a sniper if s2 manages to 3-kill.

Perfective and Crazy-Hydra are interchangable to me, depends on how well CH has adjusted to the new environment I guess. Tempest still sucks horrendously and sending out Barracks is akin to suicide.

so I envision the general lineup as

s2 Stats
Hyuk Stats
Hyuk Action
Hyuk Crazy-Hydra
Bisu Crazy-Hydra
Bisu Flash
Fantasy Flash

or

s2 Stats
s2 Flash
Hyuk Flash
Fantasy Flash
Bisu Flash
Bisu Action
Bisu Crazy-Hydra.
3) Explain your team's strategy. If they win, why will they win? If they lose, why will the other team beat them?

SkytoM:KT is a team that revolves around it's ace = Flash. What happens if you focus too much on that fact is what you see in KT vs SKT = some idiot player who is terribad will All-Kill you and make you look bad. Also, it screws with your head and hightens the morale of your enemy. But SKT wouldn't be SKT and KT wouldn't be KT if this would matter. SKT's Coaches are Mental Monsters and KT is the choker team of the century, even with Flash (Proleague 08-09 anyone?)
So SKT's strategy shouldn't focus on Flash, it should focus on the Set where Flash gets sent out AND they should chose that point. I think (if you see my predictions) SKT has many chances to get into control, so they can force Flash to come out at several points of the game, so SKT is prepared.
The only Problem is Flashs will. I think some S-Players (lately only Flash) have the power to change fate themselves just because they want the(or this) win SO MUCH. Some of the most ridicolous turn-around games from JD and Flash underline my point. Even the gods wanted JD/Flash to lose there but they overcame every obstacle in the way. No player in SKT can do that unfortunately. Bisu is good, but he doesn't have that. Otherwise he would've overcome his sickness back then and became a Bonjwa.
I feel the God's blessing upon my Team. And I fear Flash. I don't know the outcome but either way it will be spectacular.


TwoToneTerran:I pretty well explained it up there, but if KT loses it's because they were the worse team that day. They've got ample time to prepare, they've seen a lot of SKT's cards already played and they've got just as many dangerous weapons, especially on these maps. If I had to nail a reason why KT wouldn't win down to one, though, it'll be because the map order makes it difficult for Flash to all kill. KT doesn't want to send him first because he makes the rest of the team confident, but there's no way he's going out late on EotS and Aztec.

I look forward to my counterpart saying "Flash," :D

Necro)Phagist:As an SKT fan I think they're strategy will and bait out flash early and snipe him, I expect KT to be smarter then that and will save flash for the end I predict and epic ace match between flash vs Bisu, unfortunately with Bisu's bad PvT I give that match and the series to... REACH for being manly he is the only winner!
ArvickheroI think SKT will come to this match with a very "Sniper" approach, focused on gunning out Stats and Flash with specially prepared strategies. s2/Hyuk/Ssak/Rain will be used to take out Stats or delay Flash until a favorable map comes up, while Bisu/Fantasy are tasked with taking out Flash and the rest. If SKT loses, it will probably be due to not being able to take out Stats with their snipers, or Flash winning regardless of any prepared strategy.

ArvickHero: I think SKT will come to this match with a very "Sniper" approach, focused on gunning out Stats and Flash with specially prepared strategies. s2/Hyuk/Ssak/Rain will be used to take out Stats or delay Flash until a favorable map comes up, while Bisu/Fantasy are tasked with taking out Flash and the rest. If SKT loses, it will probably be due to not being able to take out Stats with their snipers, or Flash winning regardless of any prepared strategy.


4) The last time SKT went through multiple opponents to play KT in the finals, they lost because KT prepared extensive counterbuilds. Why won't it happen again this time?

SkytoM:This time it's Winner League Format, so sniping builds are not as easily planned and can backfire very easily. Also with Stats back to beeing bad, KT doesn't have any good players left. How they want to snipe anyone? Furthermore these days the players at SKT that are in shape are "reverse players" (Fantasy's TvP > TvZ and Bisu's PvZ > PvT).. those are sooo friggin' hard to snipe. No Terran in KT except Flash can beat Bisu btw.

TwoToneTerran:The format is completely different. KT got much less information from the playoffs this time around because SKT didn't play as many opponents and didn't have to reveal as much thanks to the multi-kills. It'll most likely just come down to how the players play on that day and maybe one or two new builds (expect fantasy to do something weird as always).

Necro)Phagist:I really think both teams will prepare very well for each other and we all know what happens when OOV has time to prepare builds and strategies... as long as they can prevent a Bisu vs Flash match they have a good chance of winning!

ArvickHero: SKT stated that they have taken appropriate measures to prevent such a thing happening again. Other than that, I can't really say that they will prevent it from happening again. KT prepared incredibly well in the SPL finals because of their powerful analysis, so they could very well do it again.


5) SKT and KT are both teams that have S-class aces. If you were the coach of your team, how would you snipe the ace(s) of the other team? If you had to surprise the other team with a sniper or map specialist that hasn't played much before, who would it be?

SkytoM:I would try to Snipe Flash with either Best or Ssak. Basically i would say "oov, give me a build to snipe Flash thanks" ^^

TwoToneTerran:Catch Bisu against Flash on any map but Aztec, or on Icarus, Circuit Breaker, or La Mancha with Action/Crazy-Hydra. I'd take Stats over Bisu on any map.

For Fantasy, pretty much any of the massive P > T maps with Stats. Fantasy's a strong enough player to multiple kill his way to Aztec if he doesn't from Bloody Ridge on, and Stats PvT has been shown to be a pretty good matchup to Fantasy's TvP. There's also the off chance that Action or Crazy-Hydra will show their rarely insane ZvT and take him out on one of the 3 Z > T maps. A special shoutout goes to "anyone on KT," because Fantasy is at Stork levels of susceptible to losing to a weaker opponent for a clearly S-Class player.

Necro)Phagist:
Head to head Flash will destroy Bisu IMO
I think for SKT Given enough time Oov could prep maybe Best for a unexpected Flash snipe..
As for KT I can see them trying to use Stats or Reach for a Bisu snipe (Mantoss can slay him :D)

ArvickHero: I would rather entrust sniping Flash to my aces instead of relying on the rookies to win. They already have the task of taking out Stats, which is much more doable for them. But if it did come to that situation, I would feel the most confident with sending Protosses (maybe Paralyze lol) against Flash on P-favored maps.

6) Bisu seemed to be slumping until his win over Jaedong, and his vT is looking shaky. Can he beat Flash?

SkytoM:With a good map, he can. But on even grounds, he can't. Fanboyism should not make you blind. Bisu's PvT is not up to par with Flash.

TwoToneTerran:Yes, on Aztec or maybe La Mancha. But Flash is the massive favorite on any of the other maps and even on Aztec and La Mancha he's tentatively favored -- it took Kal playing an absolutely monstrous game to beat Flash on Aztec and I don't think Bisu's PvT is gonna be nearly that good.

Necro)Phagist:No... SKT needs Bisu to win against everyone else but Flash his PvT is to weak.

ArvickHero: He says that he has a special strategy prepared for Flash, and his recent vT actually hasn't been that bad (he actually was able to use Carriers successfully in a recent game). I'd give Bisu 40/60 odds against Flash, but I have the feeling that Flash will just have a super special cheese prepared against Bisu haha

7) If your team loses this match, do you think they could make up the momentum in R5 and take their revenge in the Grand Finals?

SkytoM:Both Teams are very professional. So this Final will not relate to the grand finals at all imo. It will further heat the rivalry, but that's for the fans only.

TwoToneTerran:Yep. Despite their recent playoff surge, SKT has kind of hit a rut at the tail end of this winner's league because Bisu wasn't all killing and Fantasy isn't the most reliable winner. They're going to be in the same boat KT was in R1 and R2 unless one or two of Best/Hyuk/s2/Sun/Ssak can start performing. Going into the latter rounds with KT looking better and better (In spite of Flash at times, it seems so weird that we didn't get to see enough of Flash this WL), and acquiring a new, fairly good player in Crazy-Hydra, I see KT pulling away from SKT in their current dead heat.

Necro)Phagist:Of course! SKT will pwn face everywhere

ArvickHero:Of course. SKT was rather gimped by the WL Format, because their strength lies in being able to prepare outstandingly well, especially the "rookies" of the team, but all the while these rookies lack the raw skill to support well in WL. The normal PL format is where SKT performs best.

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8) How big is this rivalry to you? If you could give something up to make sure your team won, how far would you be willing to go?

SkytoM:A rivalry is only so good, because the Teams are so even. I want it to stay that way. I wouldn't give up anything to let Bisu/SKT win. But I would give up A LOT to make this finals epic as hell, so everybody can see why e-Sports and in particular SC:BW means so much to us!

TwoToneTerran:In all of broodwar there is nothing more heated and important than KT vs SKT, and nothing will probably ever come close. They're the only teams that badmouth each other on a frequent basis and they do so with giant grins -- despite their sometimes suffocating manners, the koreans do love to rub success in their rival's faces when they can hide behind a team banner. OSL and MSL champions have come and gone and SKT and KT are still here. Even when SKT is winning PL and KT isn't even making playoffs, the rivalry is still tangible -- no matter what condition they're in they always give each other everything they've got and it's the only truly electric struggle BW has anymore. We need teamleagues for Broodwar and esports to remain stable, and KT vs SKT is the very foundation of it.

What would I do for KT to win? What WOULDN'T I do?! Give up my tv, stop eating for a week, shoot Lightwip? Who knows, all I know is the more KT and SKT play, the better things are -- and the more KT wins, the happier I am. Even in the very minute chance that SKT wins, it atleast keeps their fans watching and the rivalry alive -- it's no fun if KT dominates the rivalry, is it?

Necro)Phagist:I love Reach to much to give anything up to root against him... that being said I would give my computer and booze stash to see Reach get a win or two and SKT win overall!

SKT(and Reach) HWAITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ArvickHero: I would give up meat and become a vegetarian if SKT was guaranteed to win (goodbye KBBQ ;__;)