SSL Losers' Round 3

We've seen zergs fall group by group in the GSL; now, it's time for terran extermination in the SSL. aLive and ByuN are the only two terrans left in the competition, but tonight they'll fight for the chance to face Stats in the next round. We've also got a match between one of the great modern protosses in Classic and a streaky unpredictable upstart in Patience. From here on in, we've left the Best of 3 stage behind; it's all Best of 5s from here until we reach Losers Round 5 in two weeks time.



With only two terrans left in the SSL, it was almost inevitable that we’d get a TvT to send one of them tumbling out of the competition. ByuN has been one of the most hyped players in Legacy so far—his stratospheric achievements in Olimoleague, Leifeng Cup, and pretty much every online tournament he could get an invite to catapulting him to the top of the Aligulac rankings ever since the beta. As the season has progressed, we’ve seen KeSPA players slowly coming out of their shells; revealing their builds and Legacy styles at glacial speed. Some players haven’t played a single competitive game outside of their GSL / SSL / Proleague commitments. ByuN though, is different. with nearly 550 games of Legacy played at a near 75% win rate. Some statistics are misleading, and indeed filtering out games against non-Koreans gives a win rate of ‘merely’ 68% (and a daunting TvT win rate of 76%). At some point, the sheer weight of numbers begins to become inarguable—ByuN is definitely pretty damn good at Starcraft.

Unfortunately, winning a match in a Korean starleague isn’t just about being the best—it’s about being the best on the day. We’ve seen so many players come and go who gave glimpses of their talent, bringing fearsome reputations as the dominant player in the teamhouse and on ladder, yet meekly fall when push comes to shove in the booth. Hell, it happened to ByuN himself—in GSL Season 3 2012, he was looking in superb form. Unbeaten all the way through the competition, and up 2-0 in the semifinal up against Seed, he crumbled horribly in a 2-3 reverse sweep. He hasn’t made it beyond the Round of 32 of Code S since. We’ve seen enough from ByuN to say that his quality, especially in the mirror matchup, shouldn’t be questioned, but being good at Starcraft and knowing how to win are two different things. For a lesson on the latter, he could do with a chat with his opponent tonight.

Say what you want about aLive, but winning is exactly what he does. Most players in Starcraft separate themselves by some stylistic tweak, or some personality quirk. Be it Maru’s incessant aggressive drop style, Life’s ling run-bys, or the vast variety of differences in style between the top tier protosses in Korea, pretty much every great player has made some corner of the scene their own. The problem with aLive, then, is that he simply isn’t as memorable as any of them. From his plain face, to his ultra-standard terran play during his WoL heyday, to the impossible blandness of the uber-Korean interviews he does, nothing stands out. Don’t get me wrong—his standard terran play was pretty damn good, but at the time we already had one god-tier terran defining the race in Mvp, and frankly, when you’re up against that, no one’s going to remember the runner up.

aLive probably has more achievements that people have forgotten about than most other players have actually accomplished, from his win at IPL4, to his top 4 finishes at Iron Squid, GSL and WCS NA, to his spot at BlizzCon 2013, but the one thing he hasn’t managed to win is the respect of the Starcraft scene. On that, though, it’s wise to look back at Mvp once more. When he emerged in 2011, it’s important to remember that he was criticised at first. Too boring; too slow; too standard. It was only when the sheer bulk of his results reached a critical mass that he began to be loved (and, of course, after the miracle comeback that was his 2012). It’s time I think for us to remember how good aLive was and is, and how great it is that he’s been able to return to the top of the scene four years after his first peak. He sure as hell isn’t Mvp, but let’s be honest, if we judged everybody on that, everybody in the scene would be found lacking.

Much like ByuN, it’s been years since aLive’s previous highwater mark of a GSL Ro4; much like ByuN, this season marks his progress into the top 16 for the first time since. Both players have fought the years of decay to return to competitive status at the top level, but only one will continue to dream the dream.

Predictions

Simply put, ByuN should win this. He smashed aLive 3-0 the only time they met previously in Legacy (Basetrade TvT last November), and has a stunning 76% win rate against Korean terrans to aLive’s mediocre 52%. If ByuN plays to his capacity, he should win, but aLive’s a particularly tricky customer in offline series. He’s so multi-talented (competent with bio and mech in the past, while mixing in cheese liberally) that it’s difficult to count him out fully, and if it gets to an ace match, his superior clutch ability could win the day for him against a player who openly admits to nerves in the booth.

aLive 3 - 2 ByuN



Stats against fellow Koreans in Legacy of the Void:
Patience vP 19-18 (51%) in maps & 8-7 (53%) in matches; last PvP match: 2-0 vs Trap
Classic vP 4-4 (50%) in maps & 1-2 (33%) in matches; last PvP match: 2-0 vs SGW

A truly curious protoss pairing presents itself in the second Losers’ Bracket match of the day. Curious, because it’s not as one-sided as it may seem at first glance. Of course, when the average viewer hears of a match between Patience and two-time Korean champion Classic, then yes, Classic will be the heavy favourite to win this duel.

And yet our underdog has a habit of not giving in to disadvantageous odds, as we have already seen in this very tournament. Patience shocked everyone by defeating herO in the first round—but that was still explainable: herO’s PvP is all over the place and it also was a mere Bo3. Upsets like that can happen. This opinion was then strengthened by Stats’ victory over Patience, leaving the Dead Pixels player up against soO in an elimination match. Surely this should have been the end for the protoss? Once again though, he decided to make a joke out of everyone underestimating his abilities. He went on to kick the SKT zerg out of the tournament, eliminating another titan of StarCraft 2. Surprising runs just seem to be what Patience does best.

The question is; when will it end this time? Because for all the fuss the protoss has been making in his career—this is indeed not his first amazing tournament appearance—Patience does lack the one thing that lets players enter the history books—results. He’s quick, he’s smart, but he seems to miss that extra edge you need, if you want to become a champion.

His opponent has proven repeatedly that he possesses all the necessary qualities it takes to be a champion. He’s everything Patience isn’t: A crowned StarLeague winner; one of the most solid and strongest protoss players to ever grace StarCraft 2 with their presence; mentally strong and part of the best team of the world. Classic is very efficient in the way he does business—and business in this case means murdering his opponents. In this regard he and Patience might actually be quite similar: They try to get the win no matter the cost, no matter how they achieve it. To them it doesn’t matter if their games are entertaining or of the highest level. They just want to win.

PvP of course hasn’t settled down at all yet, even a few months into Legacy of the Void. Disruptor wars are quite common and require a high amount of attention and control, which should favour Classic, as he’s the more solid player of the too. With protoss still being protoss however many wacky options exist to decide a game. With both of them being devious geniuses of destruction and having the general attitude of not giving a fuck about playing the honest kind of game we might see a fair few tricks in this series.

Predictions

Classic hasn’t even played a PvP match this year, so there is no way of telling how he’s going to approach this match. Since he probably thinks of himself as the superior player he might seek to play safer than his opponent, giving Patience the chance to cut edges or try something crazy. Really though, making accurate predictions of how this is going to look like is futile. Classic certainly is a greater name than Patience and probably the better StarCraft player, but we've already seen so many times this season that that's not a guarantee of success in this new expansion.

Patience 1 – 3 Classic