Table of Contents
Round 5 Week 2 Review
Spoiler Alert!
Bisu’s Resolve
Bisu 8-1 RorO
Unsung Heroes
The best things in life are free, TY
Innovation’s Bogus Performance
Bogus, man
Games of the week
Flash vs hyvaa
Bisu vs Shine
SK Planet Proleague table and results at Liquipedia
Round 5 W2 Results
By: Wunder
With the second week of Proleague behind us, we're here to tell you all about how Bisu two-killed Samsung KHAN, why Woongjin is the number one team and why Innovation was so scared of Flash's bio play. We even had a foreigner debut this week in the form of Liquid`Snute. All this and more in this week's Proleague recap!
Round 5 Week 2 Matches
May 11
Woongjin Stars vs KeSPa 8th Team
Flying <New Fighting Spirit> TY
free <Neo Planet S> TY
free <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Terminator
free <Bel'Shir Vestige> Cure
free <Akilon Wastes> Argo
Soulkey <Korhal Floating Island> Argo
Woongjin wins 4-2!
EG-TL vs CJ Entus
Revival <Akilon Wastes> EffOrt
Jaedong <Naro Station> EffOrt
Jaedong <New Fighting Spirit> Bong
Jaedong <Korhal Floating Island> herO
HerO <Bel'Shir Vestige> herO
HerO <Whirlwind> Hydra
EG-TL wins 4-2!
Flying <New Fighting Spirit> TY
free <Neo Planet S> TY
free <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> Terminator
free <Bel'Shir Vestige> Cure
free <Akilon Wastes> Argo
Soulkey <Korhal Floating Island> Argo
Woongjin wins 4-2!
EG-TL vs CJ Entus
Revival <Akilon Wastes> EffOrt
Jaedong <Naro Station> EffOrt
Jaedong <New Fighting Spirit> Bong
Jaedong <Korhal Floating Island> herO
HerO <Bel'Shir Vestige> herO
HerO <Whirlwind> Hydra
EG-TL wins 4-2!
May 12
Samsung KHAN vs SK Telecom T1
RorO <Whirlwind> Bisu
Shine<Bel'Shir Vestige> Bisu
JangBi<Neo Planet S> Bisu
JangBi <Akilon Wastes> Rain
Reality <Korhal Floating Island> Rain
SK Telecom T! wins 4-1!
STX Soul vs KT Rolster
Dear <Akilon Wastes> Zest
Trap <Naro Station> Zest
hyvaa <New Fighting Spirit> Zest
hyvaa <Korhal Floating Island> Flash
INnoVation <Bel'Shir Vestige> Flash
KT wins 4-1!
RorO <Whirlwind> Bisu
Shine<Bel'Shir Vestige> Bisu
JangBi<Neo Planet S> Bisu
JangBi <Akilon Wastes> Rain
Reality <Korhal Floating Island> Rain
SK Telecom T! wins 4-1!
STX Soul vs KT Rolster
Dear <Akilon Wastes> Zest
Trap <Naro Station> Zest
hyvaa <New Fighting Spirit> Zest
hyvaa <Korhal Floating Island> Flash
INnoVation <Bel'Shir Vestige> Flash
KT wins 4-1!
May 13
CJ Entus vs KeSPa 8th Team
Hydra <Whirlwind> Argo
Hydra <Bel'Shir Vestige> Cure
Hydra <Neo Planet S> Terminator
Hydra <Akilon Wastes> TY
Bong <Korhal Floating Island> TY
EffOrt <New Fighting Spirit> TY
herO <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> TY
CJ wins 4-3!
EG-TL vs Woongjin Stars
Revival <Korhal Floating Island> free
Snute <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> free
HerO <Naro Station> free
Jaedong <New Fighting Spirit> free
Jaedong <Whirlwind> sOs
Woongjin Stars win 4-1!
Hydra <Whirlwind> Argo
Hydra <Bel'Shir Vestige> Cure
Hydra <Neo Planet S> Terminator
Hydra <Akilon Wastes> TY
Bong <Korhal Floating Island> TY
EffOrt <New Fighting Spirit> TY
herO <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> TY
CJ wins 4-3!
EG-TL vs Woongjin Stars
Revival <Korhal Floating Island> free
Snute <Newkirk Redevelopment Precint> free
HerO <Naro Station> free
Jaedong <New Fighting Spirit> free
Jaedong <Whirlwind> sOs
Woongjin Stars win 4-1!
May 14
STX Soul vs Samsung KHAN
Trap <Naro Station> TurN
INnoVation<Korhal Floating Island>TurN
hyvaa<Whirlwind>TurN
hyvaa<Neo Planet S>RorO
Dear<Newkirk Redevelopment Precint>RorO
Samsung Khan wins 4-1!
Trap <Naro Station> TurN
INnoVation<Korhal Floating Island>TurN
hyvaa<Whirlwind>TurN
hyvaa<Neo Planet S>RorO
Dear<Newkirk Redevelopment Precint>RorO
Samsung Khan wins 4-1!
Standings
Bisu’s Resolve
It’s a bit bizarre, the fact that we mention Bisu any chance we get, and yet we’re here again with another update about how the Revolutionist is getting on. While we might have been a bit negative about Bisu’s outlook going into his match against Roro, we still held out a small glimmer of hope for him, the man that made his name through changing how PvZ was played in Brood War. Last week, he performed admirably. Bisu secured two wins for his team last week, beating the last GSL winner, Roro, as well as Shine in a nail biting base race.The game against RorO was surprising, as Bisu responded well to Roro’s roach aggression and matched his opponent’s movements to edge out an advantage, taking a safe third and managing to defend it as well as his natural from Roro’s advances. While Roro tried to respond with a roach/hydra composition that transitioned into mutalisks, he was caught off-guard by Bisu’s attack and had to force a base trade and couldn't set up a defensive posture fast enough to halt Bisu’s deathball. It was only a matter of time before Bisu crushed the attack in his main and the final hammer came, crashing down at Roro’s third and the Samsung Zerg had to GG.
The next match was against Shine, a player who hasn’t appeared on Proleague for a while, perhaps using his time to train for WCS Korea instead. This game was so brilliant and nail-biting that it's featured in our games of the week section.
While Bisu eventually lost to JangBi in the third set, it was still a monumental achievement and will hopefully instill renewed faith in Bisu fans as well as create new ones. While one would hope Bisu will keep being fielded occasionally and that he will continue to play well, it has reached a point where we have written enough about how Bisu is an underdog. The next time we write about him, it will be entirely on his merits as a StarCraft II player.
Unsung Heroes
free When you think of Woongjin Stars, two players immediately come to mind, the twin players currently in the WCS KR Ro4, sOs and Soulkey. This Protoss and Zerg duo have just blasted past their opponents in the WCS Korea Ro8, but behind these two titans there is yet another duo of Protoss and Zerg - ZerO and Flying. While ZerO may have fallen off in recent times, Flying has continued to soar, getting to the Ro16 in the the first season of WCS Korea. Behind all those players, is the lone Protoss, free, who has always stood head and shoulders above the other Woongjin players like Light, BrAvO and Aria, but has hardly ever broken past the vanguard of the core four that represent the Woongjin name. This all changed last week when he managed to shine, grabbing a total of six wins over the course of two matches.People could attribute the wins to the fact that they were against the two weakest teams in Proleague, but the fact remains that Woongjin chose to send out free instead of any of the other 4 players they could have sent out. With two wins against each race this week, he is the perfect example of a great all-around player Woongjin has relied on to obtain their now insurmountable lead.
TY: On the topic of underrated players, TY, Team 8's top Terran proved himself last week as well, netting a total of four wins for his team. While Team 8 has never been a stellar team, they have had flashes of brilliance, with Cure’s strong performance near the start of the season and Argo pouring blood, sweat and tears to carry his team to victory, Team 8 has hung in the race for a long time. It was Ty’s turn to shine this week, as after showcasing some stellar mech play against players like aLive in round 4, he took to the stage to display his TvP and TvZ with a myriad of compositions. He used drops to dismantle Hydra, hellbats to disorient EffOrt, and hellions to destroy Bong.
While Team 8 ended up losing both games against Woongjin and CJ, it wasn’t due to Ty’s lack of perseverance and determination, and it’s clear that the player once known as Baby has grown up.
Innovation’s Bogus Performance
While the previous sections have mostly been happy rainbows and unicorns, praising players that have been performing well recently, we here at Teamliquid love being fair and balanced, so we thought we’d take about the underperformers as well, namely INnoVation. Innovation played two games this week and he lost both of them. Granted, both of those games were against his worst match-up, but it was clear that something was off during the games. Innovation got caught off guard by Samsung’s TurN and responded poorly to Flash’s aggression.In his game against Turn, Innovation opened up relatively safely while Turn went for a heavy hellion build to try and catch Innovation unsieged or moving out across the huge map. He sent his hellions in at the right time, just as Innovation attempted to move out with three tanks and a handful of marines, and roasted Innovation’s entire mineral line at the natural. Turn then shut down Innovation’s pressure with a pincer movement which sandwiched Innovation’s tanks and marines and cleaned up what could have been a dangerous contain in a matter of seconds. From there it was only a matter of time before Innovation succumbed to the huge lead that Turn managed to carve out, and even though Turn made some mistakes of his own, it simply wasn’t enough for Innovation and the game was over.
In our preview, we mentioned that STX Soul vs KT Rolster would be the match to watch, and though it was an extremely important match, it still left something to be desired. This came mainly in the form of the fifth and last set, Innovation vs Flash, the inevitable rematch. They both opted for a drop, with Innovation stuffing his medivac with two widow mines and four marines while Flash went for the octo marine drop. While Innovation’s drop did minimal damage, Flash’s drop elicited a huge reaction from Innovation, which resulted in numerous SCV deaths which was then further compounded by Flash’s hellion runby straight into Innovation’s main, setting the STX Terran back 15 SCVs. Flash used this gigantic advantage well, and played it out slowly but surely, eventually denying Innovation’s third and forcing the Terran to tap out.
Games of the Week
by kollin
This week has been fairly quiet in terms of notable games, with Innovation vs Flash being relatively underwhelming when compared to the caliber of games both players have had before. Flash still managed to make it into this weeks best games, with a sublime TvZ against hyvaa. The other match we will be looking at is between the Revolutionist Bisu, and the One-Hit-KO Zerg Shine, which ended in a kooky base trade that came down to the last building.
hyvaa <Korhal Floating Island> Flash
VODS: Free Korean on Youtube - HQ English on Twitch
Innovation stated in a recent interview that he actually considered Flash's TvZ to be superior to his own, and we certainly saw a glimpse of that in this game. Flash opened up with CC first into hellions and a fast third, a build he commonly employs. Hyvaa's build was a WoL-esque 4 queen build, and both players transitioned fairly normally into the mid game. Flash deflected the light zergling pressure that hyvaa threw his way, and turned on the heat himself with the bio mine composition he had assembled.
Hyvaa did his best to defend off four bases, but his muta ling bane control was sloppy and he ended up losing his fourth. Flash established a fourth, then fifth base as hyvaa teched up to ultralisks and just for a minute it looked like hyvaa might be back in the game. That was until Flash reminded everyone his name is not God for no reason, and picked hyvaa apart piece by piece with drops and frontal aggression. Left 80 supply down with a worse economy hyvaa tapped out, and Flash showed the world that even though he didn't advance from the hardest group in GSL history, he could still annihilate the average player, leaving them a sobbing, quivering wreck on the floor. Interestingly enough the style Flash used was extremely reminiscent of Innovation's TvZ, and it's easy to see how the two top Terran's in the world have influenced each other.
Shine<Bel'Shir Vestige>Bisu
VODS: Free Korean on Youtube - HQ English on Twitch
When the countdown started for this game, I was initially expecting to be disappointed because Bisu was playing. Then Shine began going for zergling drops and Bisu decided to base trade. I was beginning to feel slightly excited about this game. Then Shine had a single structure left...and so did Bisu. That's when I knew this game was something special.
Weirdly enough, the early game looked fairly standard from both players as Bisu went for a stargate while Shine went for the fast double evo chambers into ultralisks off three bases that Zergs are doing more and more nowadays. Nothing particularly interesting happened until Shine made the decision to research overlord speed, drop tech and then drop 3-3 cracklings into Bisu's base. As Bisu was going for the counter, Shine built thirty mutalisks and went for the base trade. Both players zipped around the map, losing all of their infrastructure while returning the favor to his opponent.
Eventually it ended up with Shine having a single extractor, in the base formerly known as Bisu's main, while Bisu had a nexus outside the natural. Shine tried to pick off archons and stalkers, and succeeded to the point where his 30 mutalisks could easily crush the rest of the anti air. However, Bisu had an ace up his sleeve. He had hidden three colossus just out of vision of the mutalisks inside his former main, and struck as soon as Shine moved out. The last building for Shine, a single extractor, quickly fell and Bisu jumped out of his chair with a huge smile plastered across his handsome features. It wasn't the highest quality of Starcraft we've ever seen, but it definitely was entertaining.
Meanwhile, Shine buried his face in his hands, wondering how he could have thrown this almost 100% won game.
VODS: Free Korean on Youtube - HQ English on Twitch
Innovation stated in a recent interview that he actually considered Flash's TvZ to be superior to his own, and we certainly saw a glimpse of that in this game. Flash opened up with CC first into hellions and a fast third, a build he commonly employs. Hyvaa's build was a WoL-esque 4 queen build, and both players transitioned fairly normally into the mid game. Flash deflected the light zergling pressure that hyvaa threw his way, and turned on the heat himself with the bio mine composition he had assembled.
Hyvaa did his best to defend off four bases, but his muta ling bane control was sloppy and he ended up losing his fourth. Flash established a fourth, then fifth base as hyvaa teched up to ultralisks and just for a minute it looked like hyvaa might be back in the game. That was until Flash reminded everyone his name is not God for no reason, and picked hyvaa apart piece by piece with drops and frontal aggression. Left 80 supply down with a worse economy hyvaa tapped out, and Flash showed the world that even though he didn't advance from the hardest group in GSL history, he could still annihilate the average player, leaving them a sobbing, quivering wreck on the floor. Interestingly enough the style Flash used was extremely reminiscent of Innovation's TvZ, and it's easy to see how the two top Terran's in the world have influenced each other.
Infestors are still good!
Shine<Bel'Shir Vestige>Bisu
VODS: Free Korean on Youtube - HQ English on Twitch
When the countdown started for this game, I was initially expecting to be disappointed because Bisu was playing. Then Shine began going for zergling drops and Bisu decided to base trade. I was beginning to feel slightly excited about this game. Then Shine had a single structure left...and so did Bisu. That's when I knew this game was something special.
Weirdly enough, the early game looked fairly standard from both players as Bisu went for a stargate while Shine went for the fast double evo chambers into ultralisks off three bases that Zergs are doing more and more nowadays. Nothing particularly interesting happened until Shine made the decision to research overlord speed, drop tech and then drop 3-3 cracklings into Bisu's base. As Bisu was going for the counter, Shine built thirty mutalisks and went for the base trade. Both players zipped around the map, losing all of their infrastructure while returning the favor to his opponent.
Eventually it ended up with Shine having a single extractor, in the base formerly known as Bisu's main, while Bisu had a nexus outside the natural. Shine tried to pick off archons and stalkers, and succeeded to the point where his 30 mutalisks could easily crush the rest of the anti air. However, Bisu had an ace up his sleeve. He had hidden three colossus just out of vision of the mutalisks inside his former main, and struck as soon as Shine moved out. The last building for Shine, a single extractor, quickly fell and Bisu jumped out of his chair with a huge smile plastered across his handsome features. It wasn't the highest quality of Starcraft we've ever seen, but it definitely was entertaining.
Meanwhile, Shine buried his face in his hands, wondering how he could have thrown this almost 100% won game.
If we huddle together, he won't see us!