WCS Korea Season II

Ro16 - Day Two Preview
KeSPa Terrans collide

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

VODs on Twitch

by CosmicSpiral and stuchiu


While Day 1 of the Auction Starleague Ro16 showed a volatile mixture of eSF and KeSPA players, Day 2 is chock-full of the latter. In particular tonight is heavy on protoss with all three KeSPA protoss taking their first swing, including the returning OSL champion. Meanwhile, the lone eSF representative, Maru, looks to bring hope to his struggling team. But above all, the two best Terran players in the world face off in what promises to be the highlight series of the night.

Group A
1.	Soulkey	1 - 0
–	PartinG	0 - 0
–	soO	0 - 0
4.	Symbol	0 - 1

Group B
1.	Bomber	1 - 0
–	Flash	0 - 0
–	INnoVation	0 - 0
4.	Bbyong	0 - 1

Group C
1.	First	1 - 0
–	hyvaa	0 - 0
–	Rain	0 - 0
4.	FanTaSy	0 - 1

Group D
1.	SuperNova	1 - 0
–	Maru	0 - 0
–	Trap	0 - 0
4.	KangHo	0 - 1

And now, our day two preview!

Group A: PartinG vs soO
- by stuchiu

Have there ever been two teammates so different from each other? On the one hand we have one of the most nondescript players on SKT, soO. He plays a standard Zerg style and all-ins a predetermined amount to deter greedy play from his opponents. Beyond that, there are three things we can say about him: He did really well in the MLG Qualifiers. He thinks the Prime team is easy (but who doesn’t?). Oh, and he lost a PvZ against Sage at MLG.

On the other hand we have PartinG and where soO is bland, Parting is bombastic. Always up to some antics, Parting has taken over the MC’s role as the showman of Korea, starting trash talk with anyone and everyone. In the game, he easily switches styles mid series from an extremely sharp all-in style to a macro based one depending on how he feels. While many would classify him as the favorite in this match, there is some disturbing evidence to show otherwise. Since his loss to Soulkey in the last GSL, Parting has gone 2-8 in his last PvZs. Though a majority of those losses were against RorO, some of them were against players like Hoejja and even Jaedong. Simply put, Parting has never looked so vulnerable in a matchup as he does now. So does Parting still have enough Soul left in him to run a train on his teammate? I say yes.

Bonus list of possible all-ins Parting could use: Soul Train, Soul Plane, Seed max-out, Spirit Bomb, Huk YOLO, Inca Special, The Stardust Bust, sOs cannon rush.

Prediction: Parting 2 - 1 soO


Group B: STX_INnoVation vs KT_Flash
- by stuchiu

In the race to become the King of Terran, INnoVation currently holds the crown. Yes, Flash is 5-3 against Innovation head-to-head, but Innovation is the one who won in GSL, Innovation is the one who got to the finals, and Innovation is the one who won the WCS World Championships. But that was then and this is now. Both players have moved on to exclusively only use hellbats in the TvT matchup so everything will come down to their conditions on the day of the match.

For both players, a lot is on the line. Flash was supposed to be the chosen one, the destined Terran to lead the charge for KeSPa. As the greatest champion BW produced in its twilight years, Flash has the history, the charisma, the fans and the skill. It seemed fated that Flash would become the flagbearer of the Terran race and push it to unforeseen heights. But Flash became complacent. Yes, he would put in the hours of training, but the all-consuming passion to become the greatest Terran in the world wasn’t there. And for his moment of complacence, a monster had overtaken him.

Innovation is the terminator in the room. While Flash carries his fans, KeSPa and StarCraft on his back, Innovation is only capable of feeling one emotion: the emotion of victory. And even then his victory celebration is looking straight into the eyes of his opponent as if asking, “Is this it? Is this all you are?” He is the perfectly made robot, a man who let himself die in the waters of Yongsan, only to be reborn under the Korean ladder. He is a player with perfect macro, micro, multitasking and speed, the perfect war machine.

But even the robot with a human face has acknowledged Flash as a worthy rival for him, if he had to pick one. Flash on his part is going on a warpath, taking the first shot at Innovation by proxying out Innovation’s own prophet, Major, in Proleague. If Innovation were human, I would think that he would want to avenge his ever dutiful prophet. But as it is, we do not know if Innovation feels any emotion beyond the crave for victory.

Predictions: Innovation 2 - 1 Flash


Group C: SKT1_Rain vs STX_hyvaa
- by CosmicSpiral

The defending OSL champion comes into the Round of 16 with the respect he’s earned, but not the hype one would expect. While Rain has been nothing short of incredible in Proleague, he has only shown lukewarm results in individual leagues since the Battle.net World Championship. Forfeiting his Code S group to attend MLG Fall Championship (and Dream subsequently reminding him how precious Code S spots really are) took the oomph out of his hot streak and he has never completely recovered since. Right now the OSL conversation has been dominated by Flash, Soulkey, and Innovation while Rain has been courteously mentioned but never considered a real contender.

If you’re a Rain fan who wants to see him clothed in glory again, there’s hope for you yet. His Round of 32 games showcased Rain demolishing Bomber and Keen in classic fashion. The SKT Protoss made his name through meticulous safe play and he imitated Aesop’s turtle to a tee, letting his enemies exhaust themselves with attempts to break his defenses. Once he saw the proper opportunity, Rain took a (figurative) bat to their knees with constant zealot harassment. Expect Rain to take the same approach against hyvaa, a Zerg player who can play strong macro games but often prefers to attack early and punish opponents who play too mechanically.

When I leave my keys somewhere and I forget where I placed them, hyvaa springs to mind. Despite not remembering exactly who he is I get the distinct impression that he’s done something noteworthy. Before writing this article I had to look up his profile to remember that he made it straight to Code S by beating First and Yoda. Hyvaa has had the benefit of having thorough practice but his results are not entirely comforting against a player of Rain’s caliber. He is only 13-10 while losing to most of his notable protoss opponents like Brown, sOs, and JangBi.

As mentioned before, hyvaa loves to punish opponents who brazenly ignore their lessons from The Art of War. Opponents who cut corners can expect to meet their protoss comrades in the afterlife as they are swarmed by a speedling all-in; if you try to play without colossi hyvaa will pounce with mass speedling/hydra and contain you until his mutalisks ravage your mineral lines. Hyvaa chooses his unit compositions based on speed and the ability to catch armies off-guard. Consequently he doesn’t go for roach openers and while he quickly techs to lair, he rarely goes straight for infestors.

Rain’s playstyle has very few holes for early attacks to work and his transitions from early colossi to templars will make it close to impossible for hyvaa to get favorable trades unless he manages to completely out-position his opponent during a fight. We may see hyvaa take inspiration from Soulkey and Solar, who exploited Rain’s predictability in SPL with a 10 pool and ingenious overseer build respectively. However, I expect Rain to scout more carefully than he did against Solar and execute builds that will not automatically leave him open to risks.

Prediction: Rain 2 - 0 hyvaa


Group D: MaruPrime vs STX_Trap
- by CosmicSpiral

The best thing I can say about Maru and Trap is that they are doing okay in HotS. Not stellar, not better than average, just okay. Both are winning roughly 50% of their games against Terran and Protoss. Trap’s 26-14 record may look better than Maru’s 22-18 record on the surface, but Trap’s amazing ability to snipe anyone in PvZ really skews the numbers. Neither of them were favorites to advance to the Ro16 and they will be feeling the anxiety that comes with this opportunity; expect some instances of sloppy play when they face off.

Maru’s approach to PvT remains the same as it was in WoL. He loves aggression and constructs his builds in such a way that he can always establish a strong economy without relenting on pressure. He is a big proponent of marauder-heavy compositions for their durability and efficiency, especially in low-economy scenarios. This attitude is both his strength and weakness. Players who assume Maru will conform to the standard drop-heavy style get rudely awakened by units when they break down the front door. But it often hurts him as it fuels his worst tendencies to overextend and commit to conflicts that he can’t afford to lose. Often he will put all his eggs in one basket and stay on two bases while throwing everything he has at the opponent; once the protoss fends off the aggression, Maru can only watch helplessly as he automatically loses the war of attrition.

There aren’t many games of Trap versus T out there (and none outside of SPL), but most of them suggest that Trap is going to proxy something until it works. He’s done proxy oracle and proxy twilight council for 1 base blink stalker and hopefully he will complete the trifecta against Maru with a proxy dark shrine. His other builds don’t stray far from the tree either. He used a 2/2 chargelot archon all-in to smash Light in SPL and failed to break Turn’s defenses with a chargelot/archon/immortal timing. In a Bo3, Trap could easily overwhelm an unsuspecting opponent with these powerful strategies.

If things go as expected, whoever wins the first battle will win the game. Trap is predictable in the sense that he is almost guaranteed to attack you early on, but when and how will wildly change based on the map and his personal confidence. Maru could scout correctly and lose the game by preparing for the wrong push. Trap is historically poor at defending counterattacks and Maru can easily exploit this after defending the initial push. In a Bo1, Trap is a formidable opponent but Maru should be able to sniff out his plans over the long haul.

Prediction: Maru 2 - 1 Trap