WCS Korea Season II

Ro16 - Day Six Preview
Final Day

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

VODs on Twitch

by CosmicSpiral, PigsCanFly, stuchiu

The round of sixteen is nearly over, and we know who five of our quarter-finalists will be. However, Group A and Group C still have some unfinished business. While Soulkey has clinched the #1 spot in Group A, there's still the matter of the second place. That will be taken care of in a winner-take-all series between Symbol and soO.

Meanwhile, Group C looks destined to head to a tie-breaker between First, hyvaa, and Rain. OnGameNet's nonsensical scheduling has made it so the fate of the group lies in Fantasy's hands—not the most desirable place considering Fantasy is already eliminated and must face his teammate. We'll elaborate on this ridiculousness in a bit.

Finally, we have some matches that are pretty much just for pride, as INnoVation takes on Bomber and Kangho faces Maru. While there won't be any stakes in those matches, they should at least provide some good information on the strategies being developed in the post-hellbat world.

Group A
1.	Soulkey	3 - 0
2.	soO	1 - 1
3.	Symbol	1 - 1
4.	PartinG	0 - 3

Group B
1.	INnoVation	2 - 0
1.	Bomber	2 - 0
3.	Flash	1 - 2
4.	Bbyong	0 - 3

Group C
1.	hyvaa	2 - 1
2.	First	2 - 1
3.	Rain	1 - 1
4.	FanTaSy	0 - 2

Group D
1.	Maru	2 - 0
2.	SuperNova	2 - 1
3.	Trap	1 - 2
4.	KangHo	0 - 2

Symbol vs. soO (Winner advances to Ro8, loser eliminated)
by stuchiu

Going into Group A, just about everyone expected Soulkey to advance while Symbol, Parting and Soo would fight each other for a chance to move on to the playoff bracket. It's played out that way for the most part, with Soulkey going 3 - 0 and cruising to the Ro8. PartinG turned out to be the punching bag of the group and he's out with a 0 - 3 record. Now it's down to soO and Symbol for second place, with both having performed strongly leading into the most important match of the night. The winner takes all, and the loser goes home.

This isn't just a battle to advance to the Ro8 and earn a Code S seed for the next season. It's a battle to get some goddamn respect. Symbol is looking for that championship he knows is so close. He has gone from season to season constantly changing and reinventing himself to adapt to the changing times, and he's been rewarded for his chameleon like ways with constant high finishes in the GSL. Unfortunately for Symbol, his consistently high level of play is always being overshadowed by hotter, less stable Zerg players like Life, RorO, or even Sniper who happened to peak higher.

As for soO, this may be his only chance to get out of the shadows, and wash away that "SKT" Zerg taint. SKT Zergs have been the butt of jokes since the Brood War days, and on a team with Parting, Fantasy, Bisu and Rain, Soo’s chances of becoming noticed or appreciated were always going to be low. He can never inherit the legacy of Boxer like Fantasy, have the fangirls of Bisu, or the showmanship of Parting. All he has can have is the SKT Zerg legacy, a legacy more known for its blunders than successes. So for Soo, this is it. This is his chance to come out of the shadows and become the champion that SKT1 needs. With their chances in PL over, all of the SKT1 fans will be looking to the OSL to watch their favorite team. Though Soo may not be the champion they want, he will give everything he has to try and reach the promised land.

This will be a complex battle between the two players. Symbol likes roaches and Soo likes mutas. Soo will want to get to mutas and take the map. Symbol will want to bust Soo before then or dig in for a late game war. On top of that, both players have a tendency to ling-bling bust their opponents early on in the game as well making this a very hard series for both players to prepare for. This series is a hard one to call, but I’ll go with Symbol because he has been more consistent, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Soo made it out either.

Prediction: Symbol 2 - 1 Soo


ST_Bomber vs. STX_INnoVation (No effect on group)
by PigsCanFly

It turns out that Bomber’s TvT is actually pretty good. He has a fantastic 13-3 record (81.25% winrate), with his only serious loss coming against Ryung in GSTL. However, a close look at the stats paints a less flattering picture – most of his victories have come against players with average or poor TvT – Bbyong is 3-10, Keen is 3-6, and while Taeja is 21-19, it is by far the weakest of his matchups, with 21-19 compared to 24-13 vs. Z and 20-8 vs. P. His most notable victory came in his last group game against Flash, yet similarly to Taeja, Flash’s TvT is erratic and much less stable than his TvZ.

Bomber’s build orders this GSL have been interesting. He used a variety of anti-hellbat builds against Bbyong and Flash pre-patch, showing that he knows how to play the Terran mirror without its once staple. His sky-hellbat-thor-tank army against Flash showed that he has deep knowledge of the matchup and is capable of building interesting compositions in order to get the jump on his opponents. The return of banshee openings should also favour Bomber as he is used to them from his early WoL days.

Facing Bomber is INnoVation, the undisputed best player in the world and robot extraordinaire, fresh off two ace match victories in the SPL Playoffs. However, if there is any match-up where he is fallible, it is TvT, where he "only" has a 20-9 win rate (Yes, I know that’s still really good but it’s not as good as his 30-10 TvZ or his 24-6 TvZ). Yet, INnoVation’s TvT record, just like everything else about him, is superhuman. Even back in WoL, INnoVation had a 17-5 win record and he is unbeaten in Bo3s bar a single loss against Flash in MLG Winter (which counts for less as players had just switched to HotS). I mean, there isn’t much more to say. INnoVation is just really, really good.

Bomber’s TvT appears strong but I’m not 100% convinced he can beat INnoVation. INnoVation has proven himself adept at adapting to innovative builds like Savage’s proxy hatch in the Ro32, so Bomber’s off kilter builds might be less effective than they would be against another player. I’d say INnoVation would take this with a 2-0 any other day, but STX’s Ace player is busy trying to win more things in SPL, and might put a bit less preparation into this (relatively) meaningless match than he otherwise might. Furthermore, Bomber needs to win this more – finishing second means a chance of drawing Soulkey in the Ro8, who is probably the scariest opponent besides INnoVation. INnoVation on the other hand, is probably itching for a rematch after his dramatic collapse in last season’s finals and would probably beat Soulkey bar another brain fart. Still, I suspect INnoVation will be just too good, and perhaps Bomber might even welcome a loss since it would keep Bomber’s Law from activating, while a victory would start the Bomber hype train full steam ahead into an inevitable crash.

Prediction: INnoVation 2 – 1 Bomber


SKT_FanTaSy vs. SKT_Rain
(If Rain wins, three-way tiebreaker between Rain, hyvaa, and First. If Fantasy wins, Rain is eliminated and First and hyvaa advance)
by CosmicSpiral

So it’s finally come to this. In a bizarre coincidence two teammates must face off with far different stakes, one at the verge of elimination and the one with nothing to fight for besides pride. It’s an awkward scenario that should never have occurred in the first place but has huge implications for the rest of the group.


If Fantasy wins he knocks his teammate out of the tournament and leaves all of SKT’s chances in OSL up to soO. SKT fans all just shuddered in unison. If Fantasy loses, it conveniently sets up a 3 way tie between Rain, hyvaa and First to be determined by BO1 tiebreakers. There’s no guarantee Rain would get out against such a crazy Zerg and solid Protoss, but it would at least give him a chance to keep defending his title. No matter how seriously Fantasy takes this match, he will be severely scrutinized from the outside. People will nitpick every single decision and error and wonder if it was intentional or an accident. Did he really get caught offguard by the zealot-archon push or did he pull his SCVs too late to make it seem like he didn’t know it was coming?

On the other hand, this could be a very important win for Rain right now. The supposed best player on SKT had a miserable run in the SPL playoffs, losing every set as well as the crucial ace match of the second series. Even though those failures were reasonable in hindsight (PvP is Rain’s weakest matchup and Innovation is the best Terran in the world at the moment) they were a somewhat stinging blow to his reputation as a consistent and dependable player. Such losses can induce doubt and uncertainty into a player’s mind.

Ignoring all of the external circumstances, Rain is just more solid in the matchup. Rain is 18-12 but 6 of those losses have come against Innovation. Without him in the picture he has only lost one series to Gumiho all the way back in April while taking out the likes of Bomber, Taeja, and Keen in impressive macro games. Fantasy’s 9-14 record in TvP doesn’t begin to express how shaky he has looked over the entirety of HotS. In BO1 scenarios he has taken out threats like Jangbi, Dear, and HerO with clever builds and timings but so far he hasn’t won a Bo3. Both players will be intimately familiar with each other's builds and strategies but it's hard to know who that favors. Rain has been exploited recently for his overly predictable, safe style and lack of scouting but Fantasy has been similarly beaten by players who punish his economic greed. I'll take the safe route and say Rain takes this match easily.

Prediction: Rain 2 -0 Fantasy


MaruPrime vs. LG-IM_KangHo (No effect on group)
by stuchiu

In some ways, this group for Kangho was probably the hardest group conceivable. His group was made up of Trap, Supernova and Maru. Trap has sharp aggressive timings that kill a Zerg before he gets into the macro mid-game. Supernova has sharp aggressive timings that run the Zerg ragged from the early game to the mid game to the late game, never letting Zerg a chance to breathe. Maru has sharp aggressive timings that kill a Zerg as fast as possible, whether that means using proxy reapers or proxy marines.

And Kangho’s greatest weakness is that he plays a largely defensive macro style until he gets to the late game. Against players that have unique styles made to abuse his, Kangho’s chances in this group were always going to be low. So it came as no surprise when he got slaughtered by both Trap and Supernova. Kangho’s chances in this match don’t look to be any better.

No, the real story of this match will be Maru. Maru, one of the champions of the Hellbat. Maru, in the last pre-hellbat nerf TvT EVER IN KOREA, betrayed everything I thought he stood for as he went for all bio builds in all three of his games. Will Maru continue to abandon the hellbat, or will he use them one last time as a sort of eulogy to a unit that has done so much for him?

Prediction: Maru 2 - 0 Kangho