MLG Spring Championship

KeSPA Scouting Report
Dear, Stats, and soO

Brackets and results at Liquipedia

by monk

The KeSPA qualifiers for MLG Anaheim was one of the most brutal tournaments ever, and at the end three unexpected players emerged victorious over all the Innovations and Soulkeys of the world. Here's TeamLiquid's report on the three players that will be trying to bring KeSPA their first overseas championship.


STX_Dear

Road to Anaheim

Dear 2-0 Journey
Dear 2-1 Acacia
Dear 2-0 Solar
Dear 2-0 hyvaa
Dear 2-1 JangBi

Player Analysis

Dear has always been a consistent player for STX, but he only truly blossomed after the switch to HotS opened up a variety of new strategies for him. Of the two KeSPa Protoss going to MLG, Dear is certainly the more tricky of the two, the one who relies more on outsmarting his opponents than beating them with brute force. His games are full of proxies and other strategies that count on a lack of proper scouting from his opponent or a mis-reaction. And unlike most players who simply like to mix in generic proxies, Dear actively tries to add in interesting twists that aim to further confound his opponents. Some examples can be found in the following games:

Selected Games

vs. Bbyong - VOD: Dear proxies a twilight council and a dark shrine in addition to a single gateway in order to really throw his opponent off the DT trail. The logic behind the gateway proxy is that with his build, Dear would only have two gateways, an awkward number to have at this timing. But by proxying the gateway, his opponent will only scout a single gateway, throwing him off the trail.
vs. soO - VOD: Dear fakes colossus range by researching observer speed, then cancels it and begins switching to immortals. For Dear, gravitic boosters is the Protoss caduceus reactor.
vs. soO #2 - VOD: Dear takes a third base and then follows up with a gateway timing attack.
vs. Flash - VOD: Dear proxies an oracle in Flash's natural. You can read more about that one here.

Expectations

Dear's dedication to obscuring his true intentions is impressive and will certainly be a challenge to those unfamiliar with unorthodox play. His play should stand out in an entertaining way and in the end, it may take either another KeSPa player or a PvP to knock him out. Dear has been in fierce competition with the likes of Trap, hyvaa, and Classic for the title of STX's second best player and a win here could put him over the top.


KT_Stats

Road to Anaheim

Stats 2-0 Lallapalooza
Stats 2-1 Size
Stats 2-1 Trap
Stats 2-1 Rain
Stats 2-1 TY

Player Analysis

As it was in BW, Stats is Flash's right hand man on KT Rolster in StarCraft II. Though his teammate, Zest, may have a better record than his Protoss brother(27-15 vs 22-13), Zest's success comes mostly on the back of his PvP in a Protoss dominated league. Stats, on the other hand, shows a much more refined style in the other matchups, one that is less susceptible to silly mistakes and execution errors. This Proleague season, in the one time Flash was not called upon as the ace player for KT, Stats successfully subbed in and took the win against Jaedong.

Like his name suggests, Stats plays a very refined style of Protoss that rests on the back of his solid defense. But besides this theme of defense, it can be quite hard to pinpoint another motif in Stats' play. Yes, he heavily leans towards macro strategies, but unlike his KeSPa sibling, Rain, he isn't afraid to mix in all-ins as well. In addition, Stats also shows some flairs of creativity with some of his unique builds.

Selected Games

vs Soulkey - VOD: In a demonstration of Stats' solid play, he displays one of the first broadcast games of skytoss and defends against Soulkey's aggression and tech switches. Note that Stats does not regularly turn to Skytoss, but in this game he certainly shows it's in his repertoire.
vs FanTaSy - VOD: Stats defends perfectly against Fantasy's hellbat drops and counters with a two base 2-2 archon/chargelot/immortal timing, showing his propensity to all-in as well.
vs Sacsri - VOD: Stats uses a creative mass phoenix zealot strategy that catches his Zerg opponent off-guard. This particular strategy had never been seen before and certainly provided for an interesting game.

Expectations

The real story for Stats' travel to MLG is that this is his first opportunity in his career to really shine as an individual. Though he has been KT's second best player throughout the end of BW and in StarCraft II, most of his success comes from his contribution to team leagues. And though he was widely regarded as one of the best Protoss at the end of BW, capable of beating anyone, his impressive win rates in Proleague never fully transferred over to the individual leagues. Similarly in StarCraft II, Stats repeatedly failed at qualifying for GSL/OSL/WCS, only making it in the most recent qualifiers. However, with his qualification to this overseas tournament, Stats finally provides himself an opportunity to step out of Flash's shadow and make a name for himself.


SKT_soO

Road to Anaheim

soO 2-0 Miso
soO 2-1 Classic
soO 2-1 RorO
soO 2-0 Bbyong
soO 2-0 Savage

Player Analysis

Out of the three KeSPa players traveling to Anaheim this week, soO should be most well known to the majority of StarCraft II fans. soO actually won the first first MLG MVP tournament, albeit struggling along the way. Back then, he was regarded as SK Telecom's second best player after Rain and even took the ace position once or twice in his stead. He was one of SK Telecom's regulars in Proleague and is somehow still is a Premier League regular.

But then HotS happened and soO suddenly found himself lost. To put things into perspective, soO's record pre-HotS in Proleague was a respectable 12-9; his record post-HotS is an abysmal 1-7. With soO's declining results, SK Telecom's acquisition of Parting and Brown, and the resurgence of Bisu, soO has since been demoted from his position as a Proleague regular.

Two weeks ago, soO had a total of zero win in non-mirrors in HotS except against his bumbling teammate, Paralyze. This, of course, made it even more astonishing when soO made it out of his OSL group in first place against Effort and sOs. With yet another round of 16 advancement under his belt, soO is still somehow by far the most successful individual league KeSPa player traveling to MLG.

As far as style goes, soO is vanilla ice cream, a business-casual potted plant. Unlike Shine or hyvaa, he does not tend towards aggressive plays. And unlike Symbol, he does not have a trademark play such as the nydus worm. soO mostly plays macro games based on the accepted standards of the time. He all-ins and plays aggressively a predetermined amount, not enough by to be labeled an all-inner by any means, but just enough to exactly match the all-in rate of the average Zerg player.

Selected Games

vs Flash - VOD: Ok, so soO loses this one, but to be fair, the number of non-mirrors that soO has won in HotS amounts to just five games. That being said, this game shows soO's standard style against Terran, one that is nearly indistinguishable from most Zergs. He actually puts up a great fight, but as with most Zergs, he eventually succumbs to the unrelenting pushes from Flash.
vs Maru - VOD: soO demonstrates his willingness to make aggressive roaches against a Terran. Nothing really to see here else-wise.
vs sOs - VOD: Again, soO plays a standard straight-up ZvP with a hydralisk into mutalisk transition. Though he takes significant damage from harassing phoenix, his transitions are smooth and crisp and he defeats his opponent with completely standard play.

Expectations

Though in the round of 16 in the OSL and the most known of KeSPa players , soO is probably the least likely to take the MLG title. Though a strong standard player, he doesn't bring anything to the table that the other Korean Zergs attending wouldn't have. He's easily the most predictable of the bunch and had one of the easier (Zerg dominated) brackets on the way to qualifying for the tournament. On the other side of the coin, though the high number of strong Zergs attending MLG would worry some Zergs, soO should remain undeterred as ZvZ is his strong suit. soO also has the most foreigner tournament experience, especially with the gauntlet that is MLG. These factors combined could give him a decisive advantage over his KeSPa rivals.

Writers: monk.
Graphics: MLG
Editor: Waxangel.