Acer.INnoVation is the same dominant player he always was - except in TvT.

by Zealously

It feels like just yesterday that Acer.INnoVation was an invincible robot, a nightmare for Zerg, a perfect SCV puller, and the best player in the world. More than perhaps any other player in the three-year history of SC2, Innovation looked almost unbeatable at his peak. He carried a last place Proleague team to a championship, made former GSL champions like Life and RorO look like jokes, and generally ruled with an iron fist. Even one monumental choke (the first and last time it would happen) against Soulkey in the Code S finals did little to blemish the fact that the first three months of HotS belonged to INnoVation and INnoVation alone.

His fall came with the hellbat nerf—a crippling blow to the hellbat-drop tactics that were the backbone of his TvT play. Without hellbat drops, INnoVation would have his path impeded by Terran after Terran, with the mirror-match up contributing to every single tournament elimination that followed after the patch. Each successive elimination slowly dimmed his aura of invincibility, each GG revealing more of his mortality. And though INnoVation no longer has that mystical aura, rumors of his demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Yes, the overall win-rate after the hellbat-drop nerf shows a marked change, with INnoVation dropping to a 64.75% win rate from a previously jaw-dropping 72.58%. But a closer examination of the stats reveals that it really is just Terran vs. Terran holding INnoVation up. His winrate excluding TvT is still a bonjwa-esque 76.74%, actually UP a few percentage points from 73.86% before the hellbat patch.

The TvT hit INnoVation took from the hellbat patch is just that massive: he's down from an excellent 69.44% win rate to a dismal 36.11%. Going by just the numbers, it seems that INnoVation is just as unstoppable as before as long as he's not playing TvT.


Looking at the content of his games, we're led to a slightly different but altogether similar conclusion. Through adaptation and the help of a few minor buffs, Zergs have learned to somewhat handle Innovation's once unstoppable parade push and can occasionally steal a macro game off of him. On the other hand, INnoVation has become much better at stopping the baneling all-ins that were once his only weakness, leading to a similar win-rate on the whole. Meanwhile, as Protoss players have become rather adept at defending and playing for the late-game, INnoVation has remained a very strong TvP player by focusing on dealing damage in the early-mid game and adding SCV-pull timings to his arsenal.

Late game strength is what creates the image of invincibility, and it's true that INnoVation is currently lacking in that regard. But as MC has shown on countless occasions, or PartinG as showed at last year's WCS Grand Finals, as long as you win it doesn't matter how you win. INnoVation may no longer be the pure, Artosian ideal of a macro Terran player being cast on your LCD monitor, but against Protoss and Zerg he's just as strong as he was before.

The problem for INnoVation is Terran, seven of which have been gathered at Blizzcon aside from himself. If nothing else, Bomber, Maru, MMA, Polt, TaeJa, Mvp, and aLive are all superb TvT players. If INnoVation has spent this long time off honing his TvT, bring it up back up to par with his other match-ups, then he can take Blizzcon and begin his second reign. If not, he will continue on as a great but not transcendent player. That's a fine existence for 99% of the players in the world, but not for INnoVation, a player who has tasted what it's like to be utterly peerless. For him, the only thing to do is reach that spot again, and hold on to it for even longer.

INnoVation has been waylaid on his road to becoming the undisputed king of the Starcraft II scene, the Mvp of HotS. Winning the biggest Starcraft II tournament there is to win will bring him one colossal step closer to reaching that goal. It will mean more than having an absurd win rate, more than winning the Proleague, and more than winning the Season 1 finals. With this in mind, I believe that Innovation comes into Blizzcon with more determination than ever before.

Everything else this year has been qualifiers upon qualifiers for even more qualifiers, all for one ultimate tournament. Ultimately Blizzcon is what decides what we'll remember of 2013 in Starcraft. Blizzcon represents the chance to create a lasting legacy as the ultimate champion of 2013. The $100,000 first place prize is a huge motivator for sure, but INnoVation would have stayed with KeSPA if money was his primary goal.

Don't be fooled by INnoVation's disinterested demeanor and monotone voice, a certain interview lets us know that Innovation's ultimate goal is winning and proving to both himself and to the fans that he is the best player on the planet. Winning is what Innovation is all about. and nothing else will satisfy him. With an attitude like that, mark my words that INnoVation will make sure he is in the very best condition he can possibly be in coming into the WCS Finals, and he will play at the highest level possible at Blizzcon.

Writers: Zealously.
Supplemental writing: Waxangel.
Photo: silverfire.
Editors: stuchiu, Waxangel.