Up/Down: Group D Recap
Results from community Live Report Thread by Wintex.
+ Show Spoiler [Group D Results] +
HerO <Daybreak> ByuN
Bomber <Whirlwind> Genius
ByuL <Entombed Valley> sOs
HerO <Bel'Shir Vestige> Bomber
ByuN <Antiga Shipyard> ByuL
Genius <Abyssal City> sOs
HerO <Cloud Kingdom> ByuL
ByuN <Bel'Shir Vestige> Genius
Bomber <Whirlwind> sOs
HerO <Daybreak> Genius
ByuN <Antiga Shipyard> sOs
Bomber <Cloud Kingdom> ByuL
HerO <Abyssal City> sOs
Genius <Entombed Valley> ByuL
ByuN <Entombed Valley> Bomber
HerO 2-3
ByuN 2-2
Bomber 4-0
Genius 1-4
ByuL 4-1
sOs 1-4
ByuL and Bomber advance to Code S!
ByuN advances to Wild Card Group!
Bomber <Whirlwind> Genius
ByuL <Entombed Valley> sOs
HerO <Bel'Shir Vestige> Bomber
ByuN <Antiga Shipyard> ByuL
Genius <Abyssal City> sOs
HerO <Cloud Kingdom> ByuL
ByuN <Bel'Shir Vestige> Genius
Bomber <Whirlwind> sOs
HerO <Daybreak> Genius
ByuN <Antiga Shipyard> sOs
Bomber <Cloud Kingdom> ByuL
HerO <Abyssal City> sOs
Genius <Entombed Valley> ByuL
HerO 2-3
ByuN 2-2
Bomber 4-0
Genius 1-4
ByuL 4-1
sOs 1-4
ByuL and Bomber advance to Code S!
ByuN advances to Wild Card Group!
Bad Boys
- ST_Bomber and LG-IM_ByuL advance to Code S, ByuN takes wild card spot
Groups A and B saw MC and Squirtle give Protoss players hope, but the results of Group D showed us why there's only four Protoss players qualified for next season's Code S. The Terran and Zerg players took all top three spots, while Protoss lined up in last place. While the competition was fierce, two players were above the rest: ST_Bomber and LG-IM_ByuL, going 4 - 0 and 4 - 1 respectively.
In a rare show of consistency, Bomber continued his run of great play in the past months, dominating his competition from start to finish without a single blown lead or inexplicably bad decision. The closest he came to a loss happened during his game against Woongjin_sOs, where he held off his opponent's initial 4 gate pressure easily, but was caught off guard by a DT follow up. It was a tense game that could have been determined by one mishap, but at all times, Bomber remained calm and composed as he dealt with the DTs and the following mass chargelot attack from two bases. In the end, Bomber took that game, like all the rest in his group, with a strong decisive push that sOs wasn’t able to hold.
2013 Code S players
'12 Season 5 Top Eight (8)
Creator, HyuN, Bogus, Soulkey, MarineKing, Ryung, Leenock
Sniper
Qualified through Code A (11)
Noblesse, PartinG, BBoongBBoong Hack, BaBy, Mvp, Life
Curious, RorO, KeeN, GuMiho
Polt (forfeited)
Code S Seed (1)
Stephano
Up/Down winners (8/10)
MC, YoDa, Squirtle, TaeJa
LosirA, DongRaeGu, Bomber, ByuL
4 Spots Remaining
Up/Down winners (2), Up/Down wild cards (2)
While it's been just a short time since he joined LG-IM, ByuL has already seemed to have benefited from the move as his games already look reminiscent of his shepherd Nestea. Against sOs and Bomber, he used some tricky all-ins to try to get the wins, while against both Hero and Genius, he played a much more standard ZvP style to take safe wins in the late game. But most tellingly, his game against Byun on Antiga was a carbon copy of Nestea’s game against Heart in Code A. He opened with a fast lair, using a overlord + slowly sent queen to creep Byun’s entire third base. From there, it was like watching a vintage Nestea game. Byul took the map, easily getting 5 bases. He denied drop after drop with overlords, ling coverage and mutas. Finally, he ended the game with a tech switch from ultras to broodlords after containing ByuN the entire game. It was a great performance by the new IM player and continues their success in this season's Up/Downs.'12 Season 5 Top Eight (8)
Creator, HyuN, Bogus, Soulkey, MarineKing, Ryung, Leenock
Sniper
Qualified through Code A (11)
Noblesse, PartinG, BBoongBBoong Hack, BaBy, Mvp, Life
Curious, RorO, KeeN, GuMiho
Polt (forfeited)
Code S Seed (1)
Stephano
Up/Down winners (8/10)
MC, YoDa, Squirtle, TaeJa
LosirA, DongRaeGu, Bomber, ByuL
4 Spots Remaining
Up/Down winners (2), Up/Down wild cards (2)
- Byun gets into wildcards off the back of his record length win, and some help
By the end of the 11th game, ByuNPrime had all but secured himself a spot in the Wildcard playoffs. He started off the night by winning the longest game in GSL history against Liquid`HerO on Daybreak. It was a game that was excellent in the beginning, but became a test of endurance for everyone watching as ByuN seemed to be willing to let HerO die of old age, rather than use his huge advantage to finish HerO off. Byun was then caught off-guard by both Genius and ByuL, but he rebounded with a 2-rax proxy and against sOs to go 2 - 2 heading into a final match with Bomber.
However, he ended up not needing to play that game at all. HerO needed to beat sOs and Genius needed to beat ByuL for there to be the possibility of tiebreakers, and HerO did what he could by taking out sOs. Genius would then go on to fail a warp prism all-in against Byul, but inexplicably give Byun a small heart attack as he did a strong 3 base all-in follow-up that looked like it might just possibly break Byul. Luckily for Byun, Byul was having none of it and cleaned up the attack, allowing Byun to take the wild-card spot uncontested.
- Quick Hits on the rest
Liquid`HerO: He wasn’t able to close out in his PvT against Byun and looked outmatched by both Bomber and Byul. His new and improved PvP seems to be here for good, though, as he convincingly defeated both Genius and sOs.
Azubu.Genius: He tried some all-ins and one of them happened to work against Byun. You can't blame him for that approach, since that's how he got past hyvaa and into the Up/Downs in the first place.
Woongjin_sOs: sOs didn't get much playing time, with Byul and Byun busting him the early game. The games where sOs was allowed to show more of his play ended up being fairly exciting matches, winning a proxy vs. proxy against Genius while he stood to to toe with Bomber and HerO for a while. All of the hopes of the elephant now lay with Fantasy and Flying.
Up/Down Group E Preview
by Waxangel
6. Woongjin_Flying
Flying, what's happened to you? You used to be one of the best StarCraft II players KeSPA had, even having an 8 - 1 record against other elephants at one point. But with the events of the Hybrid Proleague looking less and less relevant by the week, I guess it's no surprise that some of its stars are having a hard time in the 100% SC2 world. Flying is 0 - 6 in his last games, losing every single one of his Proleague games while going down 0 - 2 to Mvp in Code A as well. If his play doesn't pick up, he might regret making those dishwashing jokes. The play of other KeSPA players in this season of the Up/Downs hasn't been impressive at all, and if that's anything to go by, it's hard to see Flying making it out of this group.
5. EG.HuK.RC
HuK, what's happened to you? You used to be one of the best StarCraft II players the international scene had, even winning multiple major tournaments and playing in Code S for multiple seasons. Now, you don't seem very different all the other guys we call foreigners. HuK lack of results in the second half of 2012 was making us paint a very gloomy picture indeed, but he went on a good run at IPL5 which should encourage foreigner fans who hope HuK will turn things around in 2013. Though HuK lost to two GSL champions in Sniper and Life, he beat Korean like Hwangsin, Ryung and YoDa to tie for best foreigner finish at T-16. It means all that much more when you consider that the two players he was tied with, Snute and XiGua, received seeds into the third winners round.
Still, if the recent example of Grubby says anything, foreign tournament momentum doesn't mean much when you're in the GSL. Rather than his IPL5 results, the most encouraging thing for HuK might be that he's had a long, uninterrupted period to prepare for this match, longer than he's had in a very long time.
4. LG-IM_NesTea
2012 Season 1 Wild Card Group
Round robin, top two advance to Code S
EG.Jaedong.RC
Shine
Symbol
ByuNPrime
3rd place Group E
Nestea, what happened to you? You used to be the best StarCraft II player in the world, period. Alas, the creator of the universe hasn't played on that level since 2011. Nestea was a very average player in 2012, with a 48% win rate on the year. He beat Heart and lost to Bbyong to make it into the Up/Downs, which is a very unexciting result. The award for Code S consistency might be named after Nestea, but he may need the help of HotS to make it back in.Round robin, top two advance to Code S
EG.Jaedong.RC
Shine
Symbol
ByuNPrime
3rd place Group E
One thing to consider is the LG-IM resurgence that's been going on in the Up/Downs, with YoDa, ByuL, and Losira all making it through with great performances. Perhaps they held some of the most epic training sessions ever over the winter break? Old school fans can only hope Nestea will ride his team's momentum.
3. Center
Center is one of those players that's fun to hype up because he's a new face that's doing well, but when the chips are down we'd rather go with the established vets. With wins over Seed and ByuN in his Code A run, Center definitely looks to be Code A quality, and maybe he's Code S quality as well. He was stopped in the final round because he lost to PartinG, but that's PartinG we're talking about, and a loss to him doesn't tell us much about what Center's ceiling could be. This Up/Down season has been all about surprising underdogs, and Center could fill that role perfectly.
2. MVP.finale
Finale aced his previous Up/Down group, going 4 - 0 in a group with Terminator, Heart, Sparta, and Happy. While on the whole we'd say this group is a little bit harder, finale still looks like a strong candidate to get through. He's not the sexiest name in this group, but he's the only one who comes in as a recently proven Code S player. Every other group has seen at least one player with recent Code S experience advance, and considering Nestea's weakened state, I'm giving that spot to finale.
1. SKT_Fantasy
The previous four groups have taught us that Proleague is one thing, GSL is another. Flash, sOs, Bbyong, and Trap were all eliminated, with only Jaedong somehow getting through into the wild card matches. Fantasy's 8 - 3 record in Proleague looks good, but Flash and sOs were performing at that level as well when they bounced down to Code A. So, why pick Fantasy to get through? A few reasons.
1) This is the easiest group. Flash had a tough group and narrowly missed out and sOs had the hardest overall group of the entire Up/Downs. All the other groups had players who had high Code S finishes or international tournaments, while the most accomplished player in Group E is finale. (Nestea's accomplishments were too long ago to reflect his current skill)
2) Fantasy has had more time to prepare than the other Proleague players. This one's simple. The other KeSPA guys had to juggle Proleague matches at the same time as their Up/Down matches, sometimes even playing on the same day. On the other hand, Fantasy has had a solid two days to prep for this group. SKT is known to make players prioritize their Proleague practice over individual pursuits, but the extra time is still a boon for Fantasy.
3) Fantasy looks better every single time he plays. This is more subjective, but Fantasy has been one of the most exciting KeSPA players to track. He plays an aggressive, multi-task and harassment style that's quite entertaining, and he refines it and makes it more effective every time we see him. Occasionally atrocious macro holds him back, but optimistically he could be a Gumiho-like player in the near future (and even better down the line, if you continued with the optimism).