Table of Contents

Losers R2: Day 1
Recap


Losers R2: Day 2
Preview


Players, brackets, and schedules on Liquipedia

by Fionn

Results from Live Report Thread by Probe1.
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Elephantopolis
- With four wins on Thursday, KeSPA extends its winning streak to 10.

This. Means. War.

At the start of the WCS Korea, the storyline was light and fun: KeSPA was allowed to invite six of their best Proleague players into the tournament. With how terribly they did in the preliminaries, only Reality being able to get out of the sixteen qualifying groups, not much was expected from the KeSPA players in this tournament. It was a fun idea to think that they might make an impact, but the best you could see is maybe one or two of the players making it into the top sixteen before meeting their death at the hands of the real GomTV players.

Things went as expected in the first round of the tournament. The first five players tried their best, but were either not able to keep up in the late-game against their opponent or simply outmatched in skill. This was followed by some uplifting back-to-back victories by the KHAN players Reality and Roro, but most of their force was still on the chopping block in the loser's bracket. Those two would get into the second round of winner's bracket, where Reality narrowly lost to Puzzle, and Roro picked up the first gigantic major upset for his faction by upsetting Leenock who had beaten MC the night before.

From there, the elephants were off to the races. Be it black magic, the GOM players being scared of elimination at the hands of players with two years less experience, or the KeSPA players rapidly improving their in-game decision making and skills, but we can now mark down ten straight victories for KeSPA players over their GomTV rivals.

Now, with only twenty players left in the tournament, we are left with seven KeSPA players and thirteen GOM players. What appeared to be a clean sweep for GOM at the start of the tournament has now been flipped on its head, and the GOM players left can't take their games lightly any longer. With each loss, the community backlash for them and the players who have been playing the game for the past two years becomes larger and larger.

Now, let's check our handy dandy Elephant Meter and see how well the KeSPA players ranked last night.

herO[join] vs. Tails: (1/5)

For his third straight match-up, we can't properly say how good KeSPA's Hero is. With two PvP's now under his belt and coming out of it with a 3-3 record overall and beating down a frightened YuGiOh, we can't say how well he matches up with his peers and the GOM players. He looked good for a second time in PvP, but all three games were cheeses by Tails who seemed to try and break BitByBit's record for most games in a row with all-ins. Tails, for the second series in a row, was able to pull out a victory in the second set, but couldn't make his all-in attempt in third gain him a victory.

Tails proved that he either has been too busy playing with the MVP League of Legends squad, or he really thought that going all-in game after game would get him to Shanghai. Up next for not-liquid Hero will be a match with his teammate Effort who looked atrocious in the ZvP match-up earlier in the tournament against Liquid`Hero. With a victory over his teammate, he will have at least clinched a spot in the consolation matches for a chance to get to the Asian finals.

Effort vs. Gumiho: (4.5/5)

He might ride low in his chair and look three feet tall when playing, but Effort is the scariest KeSPA player still left in this tournament. No offense to Roro who still hasn't lost and is playing Squirtle in the winner's bracket on Monday, but Effort has now beaten two of the best players GomTV hard to offer in consecutive series. His win against DongRaeGu with an electrifying third set was already enough to earn him praise, but he followed it up with an even more impressive 2-0 win against Gumiho, a player who was on a roll coming into the tournament.

For the second straight match in a row, Effort hits a strong 4.5 on the Elephant Meter. He not only showed that he had strong defense in the first game, stopping Gumiho's proxy two rax, but also that he had steel nerves going for a 10 pool on Daybreak to take the series. Effort has now provided us proof that his ZvZ and ZvT are at a level that could make him one of the top Zergs in the world, but we still have to wonder about his ZvP. He hasn't been good in Proleague in the match-up, and he looked the worst of the KeSPA Seven in the first round when Liquid's Hero embarrassed him. He gets a chance for a bit of redemption next round, thought against a different kind of Hero in his teammate hero[join].

Reality vs. Happy: (3/5)

Happy is still a mystery. It's not like he played a terrible series against Reality, but his TvT and overall presence lately has been that of a fringe Code A player. He first came into the GSL with the momentum of something with a lot of momentum, and reached the semifinals in his first Code S season. After that, he's only been a disappointment, never coming close to that achievement ever again.

Reality kept on trucking. His win against Happy is solid without being particularly notable, and he continues as the most decorated player statistically when it comes to beating GOM players so far. Now with a hit list of Shine, Symbol, Heart, YuGiOh and Happy, he has beaten four players who have gotten into Code S and one who is in the Up-and-Down matches for next season in Shine. He won't be getting the same talking up from the fans that Jaedong or Effort will, but he continues to roll with only loss being a close one to Puzzle.

You could say he got lucky that Mvp forfeited and didn't have to face the greatest player in SC2 history, but after getting through so many top tier players in a row, you can say he deserved a bit of a break before possibly facing Liquid's Hero in the next round in another TvP.

Jaedong vs. Genius: (4.5/5)

Genius was supposed to be the savior. No one should ever bet on Tails, Gumiho has a streak of inconsistency, and Happy's stock is going down fast. But Genius was supposed to be the guy the GOM side could rely on. Yeah, he's lazy and doesn't practice as much as his counterparts, but when motivated, he is one of the most dangerous players in the world. He was in a final only a few months ago, and he was going up against a player who has only faced KeSPA Protosses so far in his career.

The first game went as you would think. Genius went for one of his all-ins, broke down Jaedong, and brought the world back into order. The best GOM players were still the best, and Jaedong, even as great as he is, would not be able to breakdown a player who is one of the best PvZ'ers in the world and one of the main faces when it comes to the GSL. Yeah, they beat DongRaeGu, but he's slumping heavily and GOM can get a pass on that. Genius was here to save the day and bring order back to the world.

Then he lost the next two games. Jaedong did a fake third into an aggressive ling attack that effectively ended the second set when Genius had no defense to stop the oncoming onslaught. The third game was Genius either being too confident against a player with less experience, or he got simply outplayed by a guy who is one of the hardest workers in e-sports. With a gigantic crowd of fan girls cheering him on, Jaedong secured the sweep for his brethren on the night and gained his second straight win in a row.

The same as Effort, this ranks as a 4.5/5 on the Elephant Meter. Genius is a great player and a victory over him is nothing but outstanding for a player with the experience Jaedong has in Starcraft 2, but to reach a 5/5 one of the KeSPA players will have to get deep into the tournament and pull an upset in the late stages. For example, if Roro can defeat Squirtle on Monday, we might feel the whole earth shake as the elephants stomp on.