Make no mistake here: there can be little doubt that herO is heavily favoured over Cure. Consistency, peak performance, and overall success in SC2 - herO has had, by far, a much more impressive career. Entering this match, winning the GSL Preseason, boasting a sound 70% series winrate and 66% map winrate in LotV, herO may already have the semifinals in mind. And why shouldn't he exhibit such confidence? He has roundly beaten Cure every time they met offline; Cure has statistically weak TvP at barely 58% in LotV. Thus, Cure is the underdog, and it is his burden to cast that shadow aside and show us something more.
Stylistically, although they play different races, they aren't all too dissimilar. herO, too, relies heavily on his mechanics, and often comes into matches with set in stone strategies. This is where Cure can perhaps find his chance. herO can sometimes be exploited for being predictable and thrown off his game by unorthodox strategies; see for instance his first game against FanTaSy at Blizzcon, where the maverick Terran's counter-intuitive attacks and unique strategy threw him off and forced him into an awkward base trade which he lost despite initially having the upper hand. Still, herO has much more experience in the later stages of tournaments like this one and should feel comfortable and confident enough in his own skill.
To counter this disadvantage, Cure's best bet may be to utilize the X-factor inherent to every prepared tournament series. The same ability with which Mvp, despite being heavily cast as the underdog, defeated Squirtle in GSL Season 2 2012 and clawed his way back to the top against a fundamental imbalance in GSL Season 4 2012. Simply put, Cure needs to prepare unconventional or particularly tailored build orders and strategies to counter herO's specific style, as well as to anticipate how herO will play on certain maps or under certain conditions, and work to preempt his play. Not necessarily cheese - he needs to understand his opponent and his tendencies and play around these. But that is an aspect of play that Cure has not yet shown us, and only time will tell if he possesses that ability.
Predictions:
Cure has always struck me as a standard Terran, but that is the exact opponent herO would want to face. So unless Cure shows something entirely different, which he hasn't yet, herO will be heavily favored against him.
herO 3 - 0 Cure
Dream vs TY
TvT has evolved into a matchup with relatively similar builds, compositions, and styles used frequently in LotV. Previously, there was mech, and there was biomech, and there was pure bio; now, all Terrans must submit to the singular composition that is Marines-Tanks-Medivacs. While this sounds stale and stagnant and, to a certain extent, boring, in-game TvT is still extremely action-packed, in the sense of chaotic. Chaotic because doom drops are more present than ever, and because in an economy where 200 supply is easily reached, and where powerful artillery pieces can be semi-teleported to blow up half an opponent's army, instant death can occur at any point in time. Whether this represents a forwards or backwards evolution, we cannot yet say; but the fate of two Terrans will be determined in this highly mercurial, appropriately-named mirror matchup.
Dream is almost synonymous with impeccable control and infantry management, but that skill has not carried over into his TvT as much as it has affected his other two matchups. He has lost the matchup more often than he has won in his entire career, and he has only won 2 out of 7 sets in LotV thus far. Advancing into Code S off the back of a TvZ victory, into the Round of 16 off of a TvP and TvZ, and into the Round of 8 off his TvZ alone, he has had little opportunity to showcase any of his TvT skills. We simply do not know enough about Dream's TvT to make a value judgment about it, but we do know his opponent.
TY's TvT prowess is interesting - while, theoretically speaking, it is his best matchup both historically and in LotV, it is also often the same matchup he was knocked out through. See for instance his series against SuperNova in Code A 2014 and against MMA in the GSL 2015 Round of 8, whereby in the former his style was deconstructed and he was torn to shreds by SuperNova's multitasking and simply outplayed in the latter. He has displayed a certain intelligence about the matchup, and really, in all his other matchups - in the case of TvT, he has shown himself to be capable of abusing unique map features, such as King Sejong Station's positioning of the natural expansion, with early siege tank attacks. However, as of late, he seems to have lost a bit of his initial oomph, losing 4 Proleague matches in a row, including 2 TvTs to Maru and Bunny. There is little to comment on in terms of style, since that has been drastically compressed into one by LotV, but it will certainly be intriguing to see whether TY can impress his own signature onto the matchup.
Predictions
Dream's TvT is largely unknown, so this match is entirely up in the air. TY however has shown that he can play the matchup at a very high level, so we'll trust in what we've seen.
Well to see if TY can live up to his reputation, cause these last weeks have been bad for him compared to what he showed at the beginning of the year, and Dream will prolly be at his top.
On April 13 2016 11:04 lichter wrote: I can never figure out whether Dream is horrible at TvT or whether he is just unlucky
I mean he kills Maru last year in group stages, then gets crushed by Maru again in finals, then proceeds to beat Maru in Proleague finals... Dream's TvT is just so unpredictable...
But I'm going for Dream and HerO to get through.... Wanna see this matchup again >
On April 13 2016 11:04 lichter wrote: I can never figure out whether Dream is horrible at TvT or whether he is just unlucky
I mean he kills Maru last year in group stages, then gets crushed by Maru again in finals, then proceeds to beat Maru in Proleague finals... Dream's TvT is just so unpredictable...
Dream can beat Maru in Bo1 and Bo3 but anything more than that (Bo5, Bo7), then Dream is ded
On April 13 2016 11:04 lichter wrote: I can never figure out whether Dream is horrible at TvT or whether he is just unlucky
I mean he kills Maru last year in group stages, then gets crushed by Maru again in finals, then proceeds to beat Maru in Proleague finals... Dream's TvT is just so unpredictable...
Dream can beat Maru in Bo1 and Bo3 but anything more than that (Bo5, Bo7), then Dream is ded
On April 13 2016 13:02 Ja.Y. wrote: Cure vs. herO is a tossup for me but hoping for a 3-1 from Cure!
I'm a Dream fan. Hoping Dream beats TY 3-1 or 3-2~
On April 13 2016 13:02 ryfyr wrote:
On April 13 2016 11:04 lichter wrote: I can never figure out whether Dream is horrible at TvT or whether he is just unlucky
I mean he kills Maru last year in group stages, then gets crushed by Maru again in finals, then proceeds to beat Maru in Proleague finals... Dream's TvT is just so unpredictable...
Dream can beat Maru in Bo1 and Bo3 but anything more than that (Bo5, Bo7), then Dream is ded
But he did beat Maru in a Bo5 in GSL last year
in KeSPA Cup, not in GSL in the group stage of SSL season 1 Dream also beat Maru 2-1, even though he lost to Maru 4-1 in the finals
On April 13 2016 18:23 RKC wrote: "Fundamental imbalance" - what's that?
As opposed to temporal imbalances (like map imbalance, patch imbalance, etc.)?
Sorry for being pedantic, but I really want to know.
I think he was referring to Broodlord Infestor being so fundamentally imbalanced that zergs always won. or maybe it was the fundamental imbalance of having carpal tunnel lol
Not necessarily cheese - he needs to understand his opponent and his tendencies and play around these. But that is an aspect of play that Cure has not yet shown us, and only time will tell if he possesses that ability.
Is teamliquid esports actually watching the games of the players?if they did they would be aware that Hero has gotten most of his TvP wins by pylon cheesing which isn't viable anymore.
All cure actually needed to do was to survive Hero's cheese and he should be okay going into the midgame. He has showned in the ro16 that his mechanics looks very strong.
Cure has statistically weak TvP at barely 58% in LotV. Thus, Cure is the underdog, and it is his burden to cast that shadow aside and show us something more.
Stop using statistics when you have no idea how to interpret them.
First of, get rid of any numbers from 2015. Useless in assesing current matchup form.
Secondly, 4 of his losses are vs Zest. And when data size is so low. Just watch the goddamn games instead of making random assumptions.
I am impressed if more than one person was behind this article because it really demonstrated a lack of research. This would be understandable if it was just one person, but when it says "Team Liquid esports" I expect that multiple people are giving their input/doing research.
On April 14 2016 04:03 Hider wrote: I am impressed if more than one person was behind this article because it really demonstrated a lack of research. This would be understandable if it was just one person, but when it says "Team Liquid esports" I expect that multiple people are giving their input/doing research.