WCS Korea Season 1 - GSL

Code S Ro32 Group B
Recap: YoDa and Flying advance


Code S Ro32 Group C
Preview: MKP, sOs, soO, Curious


Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by kollin and Waxangel

Results via Live Report Thread by opterown.
+ Show Spoiler [Results] +

Disturbance in the Force
- LG-IM_YoDa tops Group B while Woongjin_Flying upsets SK_MC and MVP.DongRaeGu to advance in second.

SK_MC had a lot of pressure on his back going into Group B. As the only Protoss able to advance to the Round of 4 at the recent MLG Winter Championships and the only Protoss able to convincingly beat top level Terrans with his innovative stargate openers, he had to show that he could turn that into results in the very first HotS GSL and first WCS KR season. With one of his Protoss brothers, Creator, already being knocked out by Terran fiends in Group A, MC had to go big or go WCS America if he wanted to start making his way towards the $250,000 Blizzcon pot.

However MC failed up to live his reputation as the top star in Group B, and instead had the spotlight stolen by the IEM World Champion LG-IM_YoDa. While Mvp once did say YoDa was the best Terran on Incredible Miracle, that seemed like more of an encouraging comment than actual truth. At least, until HotS was released. Whether it was because of the new expansion, the new studio or the new trophy sitting back in the LG-IM display case, something is driving YoDa to reach heights he has never rose to before. Yes, YoDa has reached the Ro16 in Code S before. But the way he has been playing in the past month, and especially last night, suggests he could be ready to make the run of his life.

YoDa's first series of the night was against the 'Final Boss,' DongRaeGu, in an ironic twist. The MVP Zerg had become one of the greatest players in WoL using muta-ling-baneling, a style which has been strengthened by the changes brought about in HotS. However, DRG couldn't work his magic on the night, with YoDa taking a 2 - 0 victory.

The first game of the series was on Bel'Shir Vestige, and produced an action packed MMMM vs. muta ling bane game with both players executing at an extremely high level. Both players butted heads around the entire map in a battle of control and positioning, and it was difficult to determine who had the upper hand as even the GomTV observer struggled to keep up with the speed of the game. The game eventually ended in a fairly large anti climax, as DRG's refusal to go beyond 1/1 ground upgrades (whether it was by design or by mistake) saw him get crushed as soon as he made a mistake against YoDa's 3/3 Terran. DRG's near perfect play saw him take a lead even with his massively under-upgraded troops, but it took just one poor battle for it to all come crashing down. Even DRG seemed to find it slightly funny, as he cracked a smile in the booth post-game.

The next game was underwhelming in contrast to the first, as YoDa started the game by dealing crippling economic damage to his opponent with an hellion drop that killed 24 workers while getting an obscenely quick 3 command centres himself. DRG then started his fifteen minute death animation as YoDa built up a large bio mine army and started flinging units at his opponent to try and end the game. A lot of marines and huge widow mine hits later, YoDa finally left his booth as the victor.

YoDa's next opponent turned out to be Flying, the difficult-to-rate Protoss playing for Woonjin Stars. A slump toward the end of 2012 saw many fans downplay his skill, but his resurgence in 2013 forced his opponents to stay on their toes. Flying came into the winners match after proving his mettle against MC in a strong 2 - 0 victory, another sign of his recovery. However, Flying would have to wait until the end of the night before he could fully declare himself as a serious contender in Code S, as he lost a quick 0 - 2 series to YoDa in the winners' match.

The first game was fairly scrappy from both sides, as Flying attempted to execute a version of the Tails DT drop, but got shut down when his warp-prism was spotted, and then counter-dropped dropped by YoDa. Somehow Flying managed to turn it into a weird, pseudo-base trade scenario, but he couldn't overcome the might of MMM in the end. The second game was the showcase game that allowed YoDa to show that he is really, really solid in TvP. The game played out like a standard TvP on Daybreak and YoDa simply played better, cleaner Starcraft than Flying and won without really breaking a sweat. Drops led into a better economy, a better economy led into a better composition (hellbats to counter mass zealots!), which eventually ended with YoDa crushing Flying's army while casually standing in storms.

While YoDa might not be in the very top tier with players like Life, you have to consider him a serious contender to make it extremely deep into WCS Korea. Always a monster of mechanics, the multi-tasking heavy nature of HotS has benefited YoDa even further. What YoDa still needs to overcome is the inconsistency he shows in the GSL. He showed at the IEM World Championship that he can be nigh unstoppable over a four day stretch. If he can bring his IEM form over the course of the next four GSL rounds, from the Ro16 to the finals, then a GSL championship is certainly within grasp.

President in Exile

Unfortunately for the Bosstoss, he went through another one of his famous Code S swings, breaking his fans' hearts after a successful campaign in the previous season. His initial series against Flying ended 2 - 0 in Flying's favour. The first game saw the two players take the game late and decide it in an epic, final battle where Flying's archon-templar-colossus-stalker proved to be superior to MC's void ray-colossus-tempest composition. In the second game, MC failed to keep oracles in mind as he performed a fast expansion build and had his probe line devastated by Flying's oracle + 3 gates attack. When he finally shifted his stalkers over to his mineral line, he lost his his natural. Another successful oracle strike meant the game was all but over, and Flying applied the coup de grace to send MC to the losers' match.



In the losers match, MC met fellow GSL champion DRG, a familiar foe in GomTV tournaments. The first game, which ended in a victory for MC, continued the trend of HotS being a PvZ time machine back to early 2011, with colossus-void ray bludgeoning roach-hydra repeatedly until it collapsed into a bloody heap on the floor. The next game threatened to play out in a similar way, but DRG's roach-hydra-corruptor was enough to kill MC off before he could reach critical mass. The final game also had a retro feel with MC investing heavily in an early gateway attack, only to be foiled by speedlings picking off unprotected sentries. DRG used his lead to comfortably go into mutalisks, eventually goading MC into a one-sided base trade. With that, the MC became the third player to fall to the Challenger League, left to consider his options in the upcoming season.

With Flying Colors

How do you prove that your OSL Ro8 run wasn't a fluke, and that you truly deserve to be in Code S? Why, you defeat two GSL champions in a single night, of course! By defeating MC and DongRaeGu to advance from group B, Woongjin_Flying announced that he had fully escaped from his slump and proleague losing streak, and was ready to cause some damage in WCS Korea.

As described above, Flying won an impressive 2 - 0 series against MC to start the night, looking like the superior player throughout the series. Though he was manhandled by YoDa immediately after, Flying more than made up for it by scoring another great win against DongRaeGu to clinch a spot in the Code S Ro16. The first game saw Flying use the same kind of gamble he used to crack Stephano back in Code A, showing phoenixes to DongRaeGu early and then hitting with a devastating +1 zealot attack after he had convinced his opponent to skip roaches and make only zerglings. DongRaeGu got some of his thunder back in game two, where he used his roach-hydra-viper combination to mangle Flying's colossus-reliant army for the easy win.

The third and final game of the series turned out to be a real nail-biter, one worthy of the Ro16 spot that was at stake, and one that forced us to look at the winner in a new light. The early-mid games saw both Flying and DongRaeGu take plenty of resources and face off in a series of action packed battles, but the real fun came in the late game as both players started to fight over extra bases with their resources running thin. DongRaeGu seemed to have an edge with a huge flock of mutalisks controlling the map, as well as having a strong spine crawler + swarm host defense that would make any Protoss attack very costly. Unfortunately for DRG, he could not get the win as Flying showed great composure and decision-making in such an unusual, high stakes situation. Flying used Dark templars expertly to deny DongRaeGu from expanding and force him to invest in detection. He also persistently made new attempts to take new bases until DongRaeGu finally managed to let one slip through, all while staying calm and refusing to overreact as DongRaeGu destroyed huge portions of his main. In the end, DongRaeGu ran completely dry while Flying successfully held a solitary mining base. When DongRaeGu made a last-ditch attempt to take a new base, Flying crushed him with superior numbers to earn the GG and a spot in the Ro16.

Writers: kollin, pigscanfly and Waxangel.
Graphics: Shiroiusagi
Editor: Waxangel.