SSL Losers' Round 5

Nobody likes being the loser. In Korean leagues, lose once in the bracket stages and you're out, never to be seen again. While group stages offer a little respite, bad luck in the draw can be the difference between contention and failure. We'll never forget the madness that was the Super Tournament, and some of the strangest results have come from cups. MarineKing reaching the finals of the Hot6ix Cup in 2014 was such an anomaly that it was only topped by the demolition that transpired in the finals. Perhaps it's masochism that compels us to enjoy brutal formats, and this is supported by the fact that our desire to see reviled players lose is as strong as our hope for our favorite players to win.

When the StarCraft II Starleague introduced a double elimination bracket for this season, it gave the losers a second chance. With only 1 winner and 15 other losers, that's a lot of second chances.

By all estimations, everyone expected Patience to lose twice by now. After a rousing 2-1 victory over herO that few anticipated, he was trounced 1-3 by Stats in the next round. It seemed that his luck had run out after his upset win against herO, and the opponents that he would have to face would only get harder from there. Yet he would meet them in the losers' bracket, which meant that they were all losers like him. Patience, of course, became on of the most famous losers in SC2 due to his heroic DreamHack Winter 2013 run. Dropped by MMA with ease, he defeated sOs, Polt, MMA and INnoVation before losing to Life for a shot at the finals. It remains the most unlikely and most miraculous lower bracket run in history.

It didn't matter that soO was a 4 time GSL runner up. It didn't matter that Classic was a GSL and SSL champion. This was the losers' bracket, and nobody understood the losers' bracket better than Patience. The only man that could have challenged him, RagnaroK, turned out to be a dunce in ZvP. Patience's love of phoenixes proved to be a problem that RagnaroK could not solve. Even though he is unheralded for his mechanics or his strategic play, what Patience has can only be described as gumption—a shrewdness of will and resourcefulness that manifests itself when backed against a wall. None of the three players he had to defeat pushed hard enough, and they paid the price.

In losers' round 5, however, Patience must face a player he's already lost to once this tournament. Stats was the very man to send Patience down in the first place, and this is either a chance for revenge or a repeat of history.

The 3-1 score accurately represents the gap in quality that both players displayed in that series. On Ruins of Seras, Stats deftly held Patience's blink+immortal attack, even though his opponent managed to blink into the main. It was a routine defense for the KT player, but a haphazard move from his opponent. Patience showed a little more savvy in game 2, but he was on the back foot from the early game after Stats denied his natural. The dPix player broke out with a warp prism, and even appeared to have the upper hand when it came to disruptor micro. However, DTs ravaged his third back home, forcing him into another ill-advised attack.

With his life on the line, Patience grabbed a game on Ulrena with a very straight forward stalker-immortal assault, but Stats would end the series on Orbital Shipyard. DTs again controlled the game for Stats, and even though Patience held on through the macro game and disruptor dances, the harassment would eventually pile up. A big shot on all of Patience's disruptors basically ended any hope of a comeback, and he was forced to accept a familiar spot in the lower bracket. Stats became the only non-zerg to reach the semi finals, but he too, would be dismissed.

After that series, Stats was summarily humbled by Dark. While the 0-3 looks harsh on paper, it is true that Stats failed to display any of the wit and wisdom that had earned him the right to be called one of the best protoss in the world. He performed a little better against ByuN, but his 3-2 was hardly convincing. ByuN played largely according to expectations, yet Stats struggled to abuse any of ByuN's weaker proclivities. It seems as though Stats is still fumbling in the dark searching for build orders to add to his playbook, and he has been surviving thus far with instinct and raw skill alone.

He will have to rediscover some of his magic, if not against Patience, then against his next opponent should he win. First, however, he must once and for all put Patience to pasture. Stats himself has long been lauded as one of the most skilled players on the planet. Yet, so far, he has been unable to translate that into a medal. He may be a winner at heart and in the minds of many, yet he's still a loser on paper. Whoever wins this series gets one step closer to becoming a winner.

Both these players have climbed all the way back up to the final four, but one of them becomes the loser of losers. Nobody likes being that loser.

"I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?"

Predictions:

Stats has only played one PvP in the tournament, and it was his win against Patience. Patience, on the other hand, has beaten both herO and Classic to chalk up an impressive hit list. However, the manner of Stats' win in their first series suggests that he still has the advantage over his clever but clumsy opponent, and it seems like history likes to repeat itself with Patience, for better or for worse.

Stats 4 - 3 Patience