WCS Korea Season II - Up/Downs
Up/Down Group F Recap
Yonghwa and Keen advance!
Up/Down Group E Preview
YuGiOh, Gumiho, Swagger, Creator. Jangbi
Brackets and standings on Liquipedia
Up/Down: Group F Recap
Results from Live Report Thread by NovemberstOrm.
+ Show Spoiler [Overall Results] +
Crazy <Bel'Shir Vestige> KeeN
Avenge <Atlas> YongHwa
Crazy <Star Station> sC
YongHwa <Red City> KeeN
Avenge <Daybreak> sC
YongHwa <Akilon Wastes> Crazy
KeeN<Whirlwind> sC
Avenge <Whirlwind> Crazy
YongHwa <Bel'Shir Vestige> sC
Avenge <Akilon Wastes> KeeN
Tie-breaker between YongHwa, Keen & Avenge
YongHwa <Akilon Wastes>KeeN
Avenge<DF Atlas>YongHwa
AvengeKeeN
KeeN: 5-1
YongHwa: 4-2
Avenge: 3-3
sC: 0-4
Crazy: 1-3
Keen and YongHwa advance to the Starleague!
Avenge <Atlas> YongHwa
Crazy <Star Station> sC
YongHwa <Red City> KeeN
Avenge <Daybreak> sC
YongHwa <Akilon Wastes> Crazy
KeeN<Whirlwind> sC
Avenge <Whirlwind> Crazy
YongHwa <Bel'Shir Vestige> sC
Avenge <Akilon Wastes> KeeN
Tie-breaker between YongHwa, Keen & Avenge
YongHwa <Akilon Wastes>KeeN
Avenge<DF Atlas>YongHwa
Avenge
KeeN: 5-1
YongHwa: 4-2
Avenge: 3-3
sC: 0-4
Crazy: 1-3
Keen and YongHwa advance to the Starleague!
Veteran Savvy
– MVP.KeeN and LG-IM_YongHwa advance to the Starleague
For the two year StarCraft II veteran LG-IM_YongHwa, a change of scenery was just the thing he needed to finally make it into one of Korea's premier tournaments. Until last night, he was a player who had run afoul of fate, being constantly denied Code S status for the unluckiest reasons: a scheduling mishap with the IEM World Championship, a debilitating eye-infection just before an Up/Down group, or a bracket draw against the prodigy Life just as he began to peak.
In terms of format, nothing was different about last night's Group F. The Up/Down matches were being played using the same rules the GSL had codified back in 2011: A five-man round robin, with the top two players qualifying for Korea's premier tournament. But a change in name seemed to make all the difference for Yonghwa. He was not fighting for a spot in the next season of Code S, but in the next season of the OnGameNet Starleague.
Season Two Starleague Players
Season One Top Eight (8)
Soulkey, INnoVation, sOs, Symbol, LosirA, RorO, Bomber, PartinG
Challenger League Bracket Stage Winners (12)
Flying, hyvaa, SuperNova, Life, Flash, Trap, RagnaroK, Squirtle, Shine, soO, Rain, Bbyong,
Challenger League Group Stage Winners (8/12)
Leenock, Maru, FanTaSy, Savage, First, Hurricane, YongHwa, KeeN
While the StarCraft gods finally showed mercy upon a player who had frequently been called the "best player in Code A," they made sure things weren't easy for Yonghwa. A 3 - 1 finish in the round-robin is often enough for a player to advance directly out of the group, but in Group F, two other players tied Yonghwa: MVP.KeeN, one of Code S' regular patrons, and ST_Avenge, a long time prospect finally starting to reach his potential in HotS. A round of tie-breakers was required, and things did not get off to a good start for the long-suffering LG-IM Protoss. A daring medivac paratrooper attack from Keen caught YongHwa's one-colossus defense off guard and put Yonghwa 1 loss away from elimination. Season One Top Eight (8)
Soulkey, INnoVation, sOs, Symbol, LosirA, RorO, Bomber, PartinG
Challenger League Bracket Stage Winners (12)
Flying, hyvaa, SuperNova, Life, Flash, Trap, RagnaroK, Squirtle, Shine, soO, Rain, Bbyong,
Challenger League Group Stage Winners (8/12)
Leenock, Maru, FanTaSy, Savage, First, Hurricane, YongHwa, KeeN
Things stayed dangerous for Yonghwa as he went up against Avenge, who decided to go for an aggressive early attack in hopes of finishing Yonghwa off. However, Yonghwa stayed calm in the face of elimination, executing superbly on defense with a combination of probes and stalkers. A counter-attack forced the GG from Avenge, and Yonghwa was left to await the result of the Avenge vs. Keen match to see if there would be another round of tie-breakers with everyone tied at 1 - 1, or if Keen could finish the job and get them into the OSL. Fortunately for Yonghwa, Keen also proved to be quite the clutch performer as he held off Avenge's proxy oracles with ease, bringing the group to an end.
Quick Hits on the Rest
FXO.sC: The 'Prodigal Son' has had a pretty successful return to StarCraft II so far after dabbling in LoL, but getting directly to the OSL might have been too tall an order on such short notice.
KT_Crazy: Nothing much to say about Crazy, with many considering him the weakest player going into the group at the start.
ST_Avenge: Avenge got to show off his all-in favoring style in this group, and it almost got him through to the OSL. A pretty decent showing for a fast rising player.
Up/Down Group E Preview
5. MVP.Swagger
I could write about Swagger/Killer/Sangho's gameplay, but I'll just go with the line Monk gave me that summarizes him pretty well: He plays like it's still 2011. Now we have that out of the way, here's a little Killer anecdote.
After joining on Team MVP as a player, Killer seemed become a de facto coach of the team. While he explicitly denied that he was moving into coaching and emphasized that he was a competitor first and foremost, it didn't stop a constant stream of compliments from fellow MVP players who credited his leadership and advice for their success. On the whole, you could say Killer is one of the best coaches who isn't really a coach.
Unfortunately, no leader is perfect, and at some point you're inevitably going to disappoint your team. As MVP went up against team Karont3 in the Acer TeamStory Cup with their perfect record on the line, the Duran-Duran duo of Lucifron and Vortix was on the verge of handing the Korean juggernauts their first loss. Bang, Finale (x2 via revival), Monster had all gone down, putting team MVP down to their last runner. So, who came running to the rescue? Keen? Sniper? Vampire? No, it was Killer who came out as the team's final ace for a showdown against Vortix. And of course, Vortix held off Killer's all-in, scoring the 5 - 4 victory for Karont3, and giving MVP what would be their only loss of the tournament.
4. ROOT.YugiOh
As a Korean on a foreign team who would have had a pretty good shot at making the WCS America Premier division, YuGiOh valiantly decided to stick it out in Korea. So he has been rewarded for such bravery, breaking through the Code B qualifiers, getting past the first round of Code A, and now has a chance to qualify for the OSL. Unfortunately, from what we've seen from YuGiOh in the Acer TeamStory Cup and at DreamHack suggest the Starleague is beyond his grasp. Sorry YuGiOh, if you're regularly dropping games to foreigners, online AND offline, it's really hard for us to say you can crack the top 32 in Korea. On the other hand, we sincerely congratulate your return to Code A, even if it's called the Challenger League now. In our hearts, you are and always will be the true King of Code A.
3. CreatorPrime
After we wrote Creator a check for $16,000 for winning TSL4, we had big hopes for the youngster from Prime. And for a time, he really delivered on the hype. By taking #1 at WCS Korea and second place at the WCS World Finals, he seemed to lock himself in as one of the stars who would lead the Protoss race in 2013. Yet, somehow, HotS seems to have ruined him completely. He's 16 - 18 in the new expansion with three of those wins coming against Minigun, who happens to be North American. He dropped out of Code S in the Ro32, is on a four game losing streak in the GSTL, and dropped a Code A series to SuperNoVa to come into the Up/Downs. He really needs to stop the bleeding now, but he just hasn't shown us any reason to be hopeful about his chances. Unless he had some incredible epiphany about pro-gaming, StarCraft, and life in general over the last two weeks, then he's only going to continue to fall.
2. Samsung_JangBi
Perhaps the best Brood War player in the world when the game ceased to be played professionally in Korea, Jangbi has been one of the players who has been slow to adjust to SC2. However, the point is that he HAS been adjusting, and he's come a long way from the times when he mistakenly pressed guardian shield instead of force field in tight situations. He's become a reliable #2 man behind RorO for Samsung KHAN, and has quietly racked up the tenth most wins overall this season. All of that means we think it's time. JangBi is now ready to step back into the OSL arena, back into the tournament where he has won two championship in Brood War.
1. FXO.GuMiho
I have to admit that it hasn't been a good season for the most entertaining Terran in the world. He dropped out of the Code S Ro16, lost his Code A match to Ragnarok, and is now in danger of having to spend the next season down in the Challenger League. Even outside Code S, he hasn't been doing all that hot. He was disappointingly eliminated from DreamHack: Stockholm by Jaedong, and he's been doing poorly in his usual stomping grounds of the GSTL.
But hey, isn't that business as usual for Gumiho? Besides that one season where he reached the Code S semis, Gumiho has never been a particularly good Code S player – but he always manages to smash his Up/Down group to make it back for another go the next season. When Curious called him the new Code S gatekeeper, he really did have a point. Unless we see more evidence that there's been real shift in Gumiho's level, we have to pick the Code S regular to make it to next season's Starleague.