by: Zealously

• Azubu_Symbol
  
  Strengths
  -After choking twice in the Round of 8, he finally reached the semifinals and will be just as high on confidence as Curious.
  -Has strong Zerg teammates in viOLet, Sleep, and BboongBboong.
  -More experienced in the elimination rounds.
  -Is not playing against Seed.
  
  
  
  Weaknesses
  -Has looked very vulnerable in ZvZ lately.
  -History of choking in the elimination rounds.
  -With two 0-2 losses to Life in recent memory, it's quite possible that the StarTale Zergs have his number.
  
  Ideal Winning Scenario: When comparing Symbol's ZvZ to Curious', it is fair to say that just winning would be a great achievement. The AZUBU Zerg has had quite a bit of trouble in the match-up recently, and taking out the statistical best player in the match-up in the world and reaching the finals would be a great achievement.
  
  Craziest Winning Scenario: Winning. Although Symbol did do something to repair his reputation by crushing Byul in the Round of 32, his recent weakness in the match-up is hard to overstate. Beating Curious would be impressive, no matter how he does it.
  
  
• ST_Curious
  
  Strengths
  -Has all the momentum in the world behind him after finally ending his string of horrible Ro16 performances and obliterating Parting in the Ro8.
  -Is the statistical best ZvZ-player in the world, with a 72.2% win rate in Korea.
  -Has another extremely good ZvZ-player, Life, to practice with.
  -If looking bored has any impact on gameplay, Curious has this match in the bag.
  
  Weaknesses
  -Although Curious seems to have rid himself of mental blocks, he has broken down completely before and could again.
  -Less experienced in the format.
  -*Grumble grumble, curses, grumble grumble*
  
  Ideal Winning Scenario: Curious is the heavy favorite in this series, make no mistake. For Curious, everything that gives him more momentum and more confidence is ideal. A convincing 4-0 victory would not only secure a spot in the last WoL final, but it would also most certainly fill him with confidence in his abilities.
  
  Craziest Winning Scenario: The ”old” Curious shows up, looking unconfident and completely lost as he goes down 0-3 in sad fashion. Then, Life walks into his booth and tells him to get his shit together, the ”new” Curious appears and smashes Symbol in the next four games to reach his first Code S final.

The Final Reader

This is it for Curious. For the second half of 2012, the Code S Reader was overshadowed by the rapidly rising Life and became completely uninteresting as the former ZeNEX Zerg won two GSLs and an MLG. Things became even worse for Curious as he kept on getting eliminated in the group stages of GSL, and failure to reach (or win) tournaments overseas saw him gradually fade away from attention. He was always a solid player – always good enough to beat most players on a good day, but never quite good enough to get everything together and win a premier tournament.

But then, the inevitable happened. Curious, who had been having trouble keeping his nerves in check in the Round of 16, finally got everything together and made a convincing performance to advance in 1st place without dropping a map. ”Well done, Curious – now you'll be owned by Parting!” was the general community consensus. But the StarTale Zerg, now the alone representative of StarTale, said ”No” and eliminated Parting in one of the most one-sided slaughters in a long time.

If you think about it, Curious' story is the best out of the four remaining players in Code S. He was that guy that got a lot of hype after destroying Code A in October 2011, but never really had a true breakout performance, instead staying on the edges of Code S/Code A and determining who was worthy and who was not. Curious made a lot of jokes about his status as gatekeeper in interviews and group selections, but it was quite apparent that he wanted to advance badly.

Then when he finally did, in convincing fashion, he went one step further and took out perhaps the best Protoss player in the entire world, his former team mate. The guy who was never considered a championship contender winning the final championship after being ”really good, but not quite” for so long would really be a great ending to Wings of Liberty.

As for the match itself, things are looking great for Curious. I've already touched upon his monstrous 72% win rate in the match-up (higher than even Nestea), and I've mentioned how unconvincing Symbol has looked in the match-up. By all logic, if Curious brings the kind of play he did in the Rounds of 16 and 8, there is only one way this match will end, and that's with Curious emerging victorious.

Another factor is that given the fact that Symbol seems to like overseas (and online) tournaments, there is no shortage of VoDs for the StarTale Zerg duo of Life and Curious to study. Though the two have never been known for their specifically prepared strategies, Curious did a very good job of coming prepared to the Round of 8, and the result was a dominant 3-0. With a Zerg player as good as Life to practice with, Curious could easily grind out 50 ZvZs if he feels the need to, and though Symbol has the same opportunity with his Zerg team mates, the fact that they do not all live in a team house is another advantage for Curious.

The stars have aligned perfectly for Curious, and he's gotten the best opponent he could have wished for in the semifinals. He has the skill, he has the team mate(s) necessary to prepare for a long series against a (relatively) strong opponent, he has gotten over his nerve issues and now there is only one player between him and a Code S final – a player whose weakest match-up is ZvZ. This match is not only the best match-up Curious could have hoped for, it has aligned perfectly with his best season yet.

The Symbol of Ascension? Success? The Symbol of Good stuff?

Symbol and Curious are two very different kinds of Zergs. Whereas Curious was the slowly rising, consistent Zerg often considered boring for embodying the ”Faceless Korean” stereotype, Symbol was the Zerg that came out of essentially nowhere to rise to the top of the Korean world. Symbol was the Zerg with the flashy style and the interesting group selections – where he'd pit team mates against each other to better his own chances. Today, the roles are reversing. Symbol had been dropping off for a while after unconvincing ZvZs overseas and play that lacked the special ”spark” that made him famous in the first place, and Curious had finally gotten past the Round of 16 and was rising to the top.

Of course, Symbol did manage to claw through two tough group stages, and beat Innovation – the most hyped player to set foot in GSL for a while, to get to the semifinals. He beat another Zerg, Byul, to make sure he isn't looking utterly and completely outmatched in this series, and perhaps initiate the comeback to relevance. For Symbol, he was on the brink of greatness when he played Seed in Season 3 of last year, and though he has gone further now than he did back then, he doesn't have the same hype surrounding him this season; something a finals appearance would surely change.

Symbol is the underdog in this series, no question about that. But both the statistics and recent showings are deceptive for this match-up. While Curious has an insane win-rate in ZvZ, the opponents he has beaten lately do not all have impressive resumés. Aside from Leenock, most of Curious' wins come from mid-tier Korean Zergs such as Annyeong, KDY and Miya. Curious is good in the match-up, certainly, but Symbol isn't as outmatched as the statistics would imply.

For Symbol however, it is the other way around. Many of his losses in Korea come from very proficient ZvZ-players; Life, DRG, Losira and Jaedong have all beaten Symbol to push his winrate below the 50% mark, and make him look a lot worse than he actually is.
In fact, with adequate preparation and sufficient practice, Symbol has a good chance here. He was on the same team as Hyun for a while, and it's not hard to imagine that Hyun – also good at ZvZ, would be willing to practice with Symbol for the latter's first GSL semi-final.

If the AZUBU Zerg plays his cards correctly, his greatest advantage will be superior experience. He has prepared for multi-game series before, for this very stage, and grabbing a quick victory or two early in the series can snowball the match out of control in Symbol's favor. Hyun, last season's runner-up, pulled out a quick win against Sniper in the grand finals to put himself up 1-0, and whatever experience he has, I suspect he will be more than happy to share with Symbol.

General Outlook and Predictions

On paper, this match is very easy to call. Curious has a monstrous winrate and has the best Zerg in the world on his team, whereas Symbol lost 0-4 to a foreigner at Homestory Cup and doesn't actually live in a team house with his team mates, which makes practising for specific match-ups slightly more difficult.
But in reality, this match might be a lot harder to predict than one would initially think. Although both players have access to great practice partners, Symbol has the edge in experience – having been in the elimination rounds twice before. It's very possible that Curious brings preparation on the level of his series against Parting, but the memory of his repeated breakdowns in the Round of 16s of the past still linger when judging Curious' chances.

With the risk of enabling a one-sided 4-0 from Symbol, I'm still going to give this series to Curious. He seems to have all the ingredients for a great run this season, and some of Symbol's ZvZs recently have been very questionable. He might bring insane, mind-blowingly specialised builds to counter tendencies in the StarTale Zerg's play, but Curious might do the same. Had this been any other season, I would have given this series to Symbol. But everything about Curious' Season 1 screams champion, and Symbol won't get in the way of that.

Prediction: Curious 4 – 2 Symbol