We've been here before. Three times INnoVation has faced Maru; three times he's been thrown down. This year the SKT ace took two beatings, both in Proleague, in addition to the humbling thrashing that Maru handed out way back in the OSL semifinals in 2013; it's resulted in a cumulative 0-6 record against the little Psychopath of Jin Air. Their story is a common theme in SC2 history—mechanical predictability against mercurial freestyling—and oftentimes the latter comes out on top.
There are signs that we’re possibly in for a different result. Throughout the year INnoVation has shown a growing ability to adapt. For the vast majority of his career he’s picked one strategy in each matchup and rolled with it, getting by on superior mechanics and execution. Be it his MMM style in TvZ, refining the parade push style to efficient perfection, his insistence on SCV pushes in TvP, or the mech/hellbat drop style he’s preferred in TvT circa 2013, chances are you can all picture his playstyle in your mind right now. This year though, the core feature of his play that let him get away with such predictability has let him down.
It began with a barrage of losses in TvZ in the first half of 2015, as ByuL and Life revealed weaknesses in INnoVation’s macro game where previously few had been seen before. In the two years since the release of HotS, players have been getting better and better at fighting him straight up, notably DRG and Curious, but never before had we seen him truly outclassed in the matchup. We’ll likely never know why INnoVation switched to mech—whether he contributed to the KR meta shift or merely copied the latest trends on the ladder—but it’s notable that the switch coincided with the weakest displays in his career using bio. As dominant as mech seems after the fact, it still takes guts to completely retool your strongest matchup.
Given what happened recently in the Round of 8, we’re much more inclined to believe that INnoVation is finally learning to change up his style. His Bo5 showdown against Zest was the first real indication that he has what it takes in the planning department, as he unveiled a set of builds that beautifully played into the map order and his own reputation. It was even more unexpected given the incredibly standard SCV pull into loss move that he used in Proleague less than a week before, and possibly hints that he purposefully played against type to catch Zest off guard.
What does INnoVation plan to unleash tonight? We’ve seen time and time again that his late game mech TvT is some of the best in the business—think of his legendary pair of battles with TaeJa at the WCS 2013 Season 2 Finals and at last year’s Global Finals, or his dominance over Flash this year—but it’s a composition which can be beaten on larger maps by the multitasking ability of a bio player. GuMiho’s clinical dissection of INnoVation earlier this season was a perfect example of the former, while Maru’s miracle engagement in their most recent Proleague encounter showed the limitations of the latter.
The question is, does the Jin Air genius have what it takes to pull it off again? The aforementioned victory occurred in early July, when Maru was at the height of his powers. Dominant in TvT, unplayable in TvP, while being more than handy enough at early aggression against Zerg, Maru looked to be a complete player—unquestionably the in-form star of the Korean scene. While his performances are still good enough to maintain a healthy respect for his abilities, he’s tailed off since that staggering peak. Contrast an overall win rate of 67% and a 23-5 mapscore in TvT for the first half of the year to 57% and 4-6 since.
It’s particularly noteworthy that of those recent TvT defeats, three have come against mech. BrAvO and Flash (twice) both weathered the storm of early aggression to the point where Maru’s bio forces smashed impotently against a maxed out mech army. Maru’s TvZ has shown that he’s not particularly suited to the glacial pace of a positional mech game, and he lacks the patience to curb his naturally aggressive tendencies. It will be interesting to see how he intends to stop INnoVation from ever reaching the late game, and their games from 2013 will surely be in the back of the SKT ace’s mind. For better or for worse Maru’s remained true to his roots in extended series, and it’s almost certain that we’ll see cheese at some point. The question is whether INnoVation will have sufficient tactical fluidity and mental fortitude to cope with it. We might see INnoVation go on the aggressive—he’s certainly no stranger to early aggression in Bo5+ himself—and after seeing the array of strategies he unveiled against Zest, maybe the SKT coaching staff has stepped in to offer him a different perspective.
Predictions
It’s very unlikely we’ll see another 4-0 from Maru, but that’s exactly what we said back in 2013. With the benefit of two years of experience it’s difficult to see INnoVation falling for the same tricks, and given Maru’s recent high profile failures against Mech, the SKT Terran looks poised to take the series. It’s always a bit jarring to see how bare his trophy cabinet is given the dominance he’s exerted on the scene, and there’s no way he’ll be satisfied with a mere IEM trophy as his only title of the year. We may have been here before, in the wake of another flawless victory for Maru over INnoVation, but chances are we won’t be here again.
It's a bit uncanny but last year's GSL Season 3 INnoVation played a TvT Semi and TvZ final which he won. If he beats Maru this time around, I reckon he'll repeat it again this year and win the TvZ Finals. Another interesting thing - If he wins this GSL he'd have beaten a Protoss, a Terran and a Zerg on the way to the title.
However, I'd like to see Maru win this so we can have our first Triple Starleague winner or ByuL win his first tournament.
I really hope this is a back an forth series. I love both of these players but I'm hoping Innovation pulls through because I think the finals will be a better series with him involved.
I want Maru to win so bad even if I'm mecher myself... Maru deserves a tittle after all he has done in the GSL in the past. Innovation seems like just shines in few times. But Maru has been consistent for over 2 years now. He deserves a final spot.
If Inno wins here, it could be the GSL when Inno overcomes his biggest fears (Zest, Maru and Byul) to claim his throne. Sad that Taeja is not around anymore...
On September 25 2015 14:04 KingofdaHipHop wrote: if Maru wins he becomes the third player to make two Korean Starleague finals this year (joining Dream and ByuL) !!
5th*, Dark got to the finals of 2 Kespa Cups. herO got to Kespa Cup and SSL.
On September 25 2015 14:04 KingofdaHipHop wrote: if Maru wins he becomes the third player to make two Korean Starleague finals this year (joining Dream and ByuL) !!
5th*, Dark got to the finals of 2 Kespa Cups. herO got to Kespa Cup and SSL.
As much as I love KeSPA Cup, I have to admit it is only a tier 2 tournament. Pretty sure he talking about tier 1 tournaments (GSL / SSL).
On September 25 2015 14:04 KingofdaHipHop wrote: if Maru wins he becomes the third player to make two Korean Starleague finals this year (joining Dream and ByuL) !!
5th*, Dark got to the finals of 2 Kespa Cups. herO got to Kespa Cup and SSL.
As much as I love KeSPA Cup, I have to admit it is only a tier 2 tournament. Pretty sure he talking about tier 1 tournaments (GSL / SSL).
While it's not a league, it's pretty absurd to diminish Dark / herO's achievements in KeSPA Cup due to a technicality like that. The player pools in both so far are pretty clearly the best of Korea (for the most part), not to mention the qualifiers that most players have to go to.
These two have been trading the Terran throne throughout HotS. Even now the battle for #1 Terran of this expansion is hotly contested imo.
I agree with the prediction and hope Bogus wins. ByuL vs Maru has failed to realize the hype one time too many.
On September 25 2015 14:24 thantritue wrote: If Inno wins here, it could be the GSL when Inno overcomes his biggest fears (Zest, Maru and Byul) to claim his throne. Sad that Taeja is not around anymore...
On September 25 2015 14:04 KingofdaHipHop wrote: if Maru wins he becomes the third player to make two Korean Starleague finals this year (joining Dream and ByuL) !!
5th*, Dark got to the finals of 2 Kespa Cups. herO got to Kespa Cup and SSL.
As much as I love KeSPA Cup, I have to admit it is only a tier 2 tournament. Pretty sure he talking about tier 1 tournaments (GSL / SSL).
While it's not a league, it's pretty absurd to diminish Dark / herO's achievements in KeSPA Cup due to a technicality like that. The player pools in both so far are pretty clearly the best of Korea (for the most part), not to mention the qualifiers that most players have to go to.
Tier level =/= quality
I was referring to just SSL and GSL, just as to show that they have consistency in the league format I suppose. But yeah herO and Dark also are impressive.
On September 25 2015 12:35 CometNine wrote: It's a bit uncanny but last year's GSL Season 3 INnoVation played a TvT Semi and TvZ final which he won. If he beats Maru this time around, I reckon he'll repeat it again this year and win the TvZ Finals. Another interesting thing - If he wins this GSL he'd have beaten a Protoss, a Terran and a Zerg on the way to the title.
However, I'd like to see Maru win this so we can have our first Triple Starleague winner or ByuL win his first tournament.
Whats more interesting is that Innovation, if he beats Maru and Byul, will have beaten 3 of the players who have the best winning record against him. Actually Taeja is the only player with a better record than those 3.
On September 25 2015 14:04 KingofdaHipHop wrote: if Maru wins he becomes the third player to make two Korean Starleague finals this year (joining Dream and ByuL) !!
5th*, Dark got to the finals of 2 Kespa Cups. herO got to Kespa Cup and SSL.
As much as I love KeSPA Cup, I have to admit it is only a tier 2 tournament. Pretty sure he talking about tier 1 tournaments (GSL / SSL).
While it's not a league, it's pretty absurd to diminish Dark / herO's achievements in KeSPA Cup due to a technicality like that. The player pools in both so far are pretty clearly the best of Korea (for the most part), not to mention the qualifiers that most players have to go to.
Tier level =/= quality
Actually no one is diminishing their achivements and I for once think its absurd to say people have gotten to the finals of a korean starleauge when they actually haven't. Everyone is free to rank the players achivements differently this however does not change facts. A player can have an insane easy run into the finals of the GSL with crazy bracket luck where they dodge every hard-hitting player until the finals. Would you say that player didn't get to a starleague finals because his path there was too easy for it to count? Of course not, equally you cannot claim someone has reached a korean starleague finals because "he has reached a finals in a tournament with an equally stacked bracket". Additionally the format of the tournaments are too different to compare, a "weekend" tournament is not superior or inferior to WCS/GSL/SSL but they are different and therefore cannot be lumped together.
On the topic of Maru vs Inno, my dream finals of Dear vs Maru has been shattered, all thats left for me to do is to pray. For Maru to take his triple crown, so hyped for this match and even more if he goes on to face ByuL.