With all the growth happening in the offline portion of SOSPA competition, the SRT, with its traditional 200,000 KRW first prize was increasingly beginning to look like the SSL's ugly cousin. Enter iStar PC Mall, best known as personal sponsors to a number of Afreeca BJs, who have stumped up a 1,500,000 KRW prize pool, making SRT15 a larger tournament monetarily than some early SSLs.

Along with the increase in the size of the prize pool has come an increase in the size of the player pool, which sees this SRT open with a Ro32, rather than a Ro16 as in the past. As such, rather than exhaust both myself and the reader with exhaustive recaps of each of the eight groups, we've opted to select a number of the more interesting happenings from the last fortnight's play and condense it into one small section. Following this, we have the usual preview section taking a look at the mirror heavy Ro16. For detailed results as well as full VODs, courtesy of ArvickHero and KristofferAG (who else?), head over to the R&S or follow the Liquipedia link below the table of contents.

Those of you who have been following SOSPA news for a while will know that we're about to arrive at he part of the intro where I say that this is the biggest and best thing Sonic has done yet, and who am I to disappoint? 1,500,000 KRW, 32 players strong and with both Sea and Movie both with a chance to take a record third title, bring it on.

After his first ever defeat in a SOSPA tournament in the final of SRT14, Killer pulled out of his Ro32 group last week, in the process losing out on a shot at the 1,000,000 KRW first prize. While it’s disappointing to see Afreeca’s highest ranked player withdraw from the first independently sponsored SRT, Killer has hardly been active since his SSL8 win and the manner in which he lost the last SRT final implied that perhaps his heart wasn’t entirely in it.


Killer’s absence undoubtedly weakens the field, and even though his dominance has now been interrupted, there’s a sense that no SOSPA tournament can really be classified as a major unless he’s playing in it. The irony is, of course, that in terms of the tournament itself this is the most major SRT that has ever been held, and in withdrawing Killer has given up his chance to take part of a prize-pool which represents a pretty significant fraction of what was offer in his two previous SSL wins. Regardless, Killer’s loss could be a gain for Sea, Movie or whoever else is able to step up.


Given the amateur heavy makeup of the Ro32, Larva’s chances of bouncing back from his first round elimination in SRT14 seemed pretty good. However after an opening series loss to a revitalised Pusan, Larva lost again in his trademark ZvP match-up against semi-pro Hint.


During SSL8, we wrote about how Larva had perhaps become distracted from playing by his involvement in helping Sonic organise and commentate on SOSPA tournaments. Since then, Larva’s results have continued to decline, with his ZvP win-rate dropping to an all-time low of 54% following losses to Sky, Shuttle, and now Hint and Pusan. Even with his commitments elsewhere in the SOSPA scene, Larva’s results since SSL8 have been disappointing and with the return of an apparently in-shape ZergMaN, his place just below Killer and hero in the SOSPA Zerg rankings is in real danger.


While it’s probably a bit early to be talking about dragons, the number of Protoss players who have progressed to the Ro16 is unique in SOSPA, with the development of less known sons of Aiur like Olympus, Hint and Hi especially interesting.


Each of the three amateur (or semi-pro) Protoss players to advance to the Ro16 did so by beating top players, with Olympus and Hi taking out HiyA and Mong respectively, while Hint overcame Larva’s once invincible ZvP. The apparent weakness of basically every big Afreeca Terran in TvP, along with the slightly anemic Zerg contingent, mean that this tournament represents a very real chance for one of these three to put in the kind of break-out performance that has seen players like ZeLoT and beast become household names (in the TL Brood War forum).


Once upon a time, ZergMaN was one of the players of the Afreeca scene. Competing closely with the other top players of 2011, Anytime, Savior and HiyA (who he always race-picked Protoss versus), ZergMaN was the best non-matchfixer Zerg around. Like any number of other players that we’ve written about before, ZergMaN’s successes were inversely proportional with the number of other ex-pros competing in tournaments, and when he dropped out of SSL8 due to hospitalisation it was easy to imagine that he’d never feature in a SOSPA tournament again.


Some of the magic clearly still remains, with ZergMaN’s first three games of SRT15 currently making up the entirety of his record for 2013, leaving him with an undefeated record in this calendar year. While a 2-0 win over complete unknown Minus)Crack and a Bo1 victory over the notoriously unstable PvZ of Movie is not quite grounds to be re evaluating ZergMaN’s current status as a SOSPA also-ran, his performance in this and future SRTs could see him regain some of the respect that he held in the good old days.

The first of two triple Protoss groups of the Ro16, the makeup of this group tells a story about how the tournament overall has gone so far, with Hint and Hi featuring as two of the three amateur (or semi-pro) Protoss players who advanced past the opening round. Elsewhere, double SRT champion Movie should be perhaps a little relieved that this group features no Zergs, after he barely made it out of the Ro32, losing to the almost forgotten ZergMaN in the Group F Winners’ Match. Rounding out the group is old favourite Ample, who has a lot on his plate up against three Protoss players all holding quite impressive PvT credentials.


Ample’s heart hasn’t really looked in it for a while now, with his exit in SSL8 exemplary of a player for whom Brood War competition was slowly becoming a hobby, rather than an occupation. While he advanced quite easily from the Ro32, he benefited from facing one of the weaker amateurs in the tournament. Hint and Hi’s progress to the Ro16 involved series versus Sexy and Mong, with both players excelling against their much better known Terran opponents.

While he does have the occasional strange result, given the match-ups this group ought to be a formality for Movie, whose chances of collecting a third title have risen ever so slightly following Killer’s withdrawal earlier this week. Second place is likely to come down to a Group Final showdown between Hint and Hi, with Hint the apparent favourite given his longer history in SOSPA competition and previous wins against Pusan and Sky in unofficial matches.

Movie and Hint to advance.


Group B is one of the more interestingly balanced group of this Ro16 and features the only two surviving Zergs in the tournament. hero and Shuttle are the two great deputies of SOSPA competition, with each player impressive on their own merits but always found wanting in comparison to the reigning kings of Zerg and Protoss. Alongside this pairing are the ghosts of Christmas past, with ZergMaN and Sky’s strong showings in the Ro32 reminiscent of their respective heydays in early 2012.

Although he has been largely off the radar for all of 2013, Sky actually made it to the Ro4 of SRT13, before he failed to show up for the Ro4, leading to an early final and Movie’s second championship. This is the kind of showing that we’ve come to expect from Sky, who exists now as an almost infamous misfit, able to find conflict with Sonic, his viewers and just about anyone else who happens to be in his vicinity. There’s no doubting how good Sky can be at his best, and it’s not hard to see how he could end up winning this group, even up against the strength of Shuttle’s PvP and hero’s ZvP. Of course there also remains the possibility that he won’t show up at all.


While ZergMaN’s upset win in the Ro32 was interesting, given his lack of any other recent results it seems unlikely that he’ll be able to match-up against such strong opposition. Given his long history of good results against Afreeca’s best Protoss, hero looks best placed to take first place in the group, with second likely decided by the winner of Shuttle versus Sky. Shuttle’s 58% winrate in PvP is significantly lower than Sky’s impressive 70%, but is largely the result of series after series of close losses against Movie. Given how narrowly he has been edged out of the last three SRT in PvP series, Shuttle should be well prepared for Sky, should they meet.

hero and Shuttle to advance.


In a welcome (?) departure from the PvP heavy groups A and D, group C sees two of Afreeca’s heavyweight Terrans facing off against the returning Olympus and promising young newcomer Shout. Right off the bat, sSak and HiyA appear the two players most likely to advance from this group, however Olympus’ 2-0 win over the ex-Hwaseung Terran in the Ro32 means that this group is far from perfunctory.


The arrival of Shout following his retirement from Woongjin is one of the more interesting developments in the SOSPA scene so far this year. Having been drafted in what appears to have been the final Rookie League draft ever in April 2012, Shout was among the first players from his group of draftees to be added to the Proleague roster but never ended up playing a single broadcast game during his pro career. While Shout is unlikely to have the instant impact of other recent retirees like sSak and Movie, he is following in the tradition of a number of other very successful ex-pro BJs, including SRT winner Mong and old favourite MinHo.

Even though he’s been away from top level Afreeca competition for a long time, after his 2-0 win over HiyA in the Ro32 means that Olympus represents a credible threat to all three of his potential Terran opposition in this group. Without hitting the TvT or TvZ highs of some other SOSPA Terran, sSak is beginning to look like one of its most stable TvP players. At this moment in time, it seems easiest to trust that the Ro32 result was a classic HiyA wobble and pick him to win the group, but Olympus could easily disrupt his progress again.

HiyA and sSak to advance.


Clearly someone has it in for Sea. Any ideas that the former MBC progamer had overcome his past struggles with Protoss following a 3-1 win over Movie in SRT14 were quickly dispelled by his 1-2 loss to Sky in the opening series of Ro32 group G. As if having detected Sea’s renewed weakness, fate conspired to place him against three of the nine Protoss players participating in the Ro16. While none of Pusan, Tyson or Lazy are expected to make a major impact on this tournament, all three possess enough (that is, very little) skill in PvT to pose a problem for Sea.

Somewhat remarkably given his lack of any significant results on Afreeca so far Lazy enters this group with the highest SOSPA Elo of the three Protoss players. While it’s hard to believe Lazy represents the greatest threat to Sea, his strength in PvP, evidenced by a recent 2-0 victory over Tyson, could be important if he has plans of making it past this stage. A year ago, this would have been the perfect group for Pusan but it will take a continuation of his current upswing in form for the godfather of Afreeca Protoss to find himself in the Ro8.


Facing off against Lazy in the group’s opening series, Sea stands a slightly better chance of making it to the Winners’ Final and advancing from the group in first place than he might were he starting off against Tyson or Pusan. The results for the group seem to hinge on this initial encounter, with the head to head match-ups of the three Protoss players slightly difficult to judge. After this group draw, Sea is due a bit of good fortune, so with that in mind it seems only fair to predict in his favour, with the second spot going to Tyson’s reasonable showings in PvP against Afreeca’s top two Protoss.

Tyson and Sea to advance.