[SPL] STX SouL vs. Woongjin Stars

2 fans, 10 questions:
Questions by Mustaju, and the fans today are swanized for Woongjin and Carnivorous Sheep for STX! Let's begin!

1. Seeing as this is the last game of the round for both teams, are you pumped?

swanized: Of course I am! Stars has been playing phenomenal starcraft since the start of this season, STX... have not been looking that good imo but are still somehow winning their games. I am extremely pumped to watch woongjin demolish STX.

Carnivorous Sheep: Hell yeah! Especially since it's the face-off of my number 1 and 2 favorite teams, I am super excited! While I love Stars, STX needs this win, so sorry guys, I still think you're cute! <3

2. How would you sum up the season thus far for your respective teams (and possibly the opposing team as well?

swanized: Woongjin is a team whose depth was really limited because of the old bo5 format, now that they bought bo7 to the regular season they have been looking incredible this season. Neo.G_soulkey is ripping terrans apart while zero is playing the starcraft we all know he's capable of playing. Really is starting to look like the player we saw last season with Estro back in early 2010 and free is also playing very well. Frankly I am not surprised at all by woongjin's terrific start.

STX... well STX is also a pretty good team but I have not found them to be that impressive so far. Nevertheless they manage to win their games and I guess that's about the only thing you can ask them to do...

Carnivorous Sheep: STX got off to a promising start with an easy 2-0, and then faltered into a 2-2 that definitely should've been a 4-0. I firmly believe that STX is a favorite against any team, but as a longtime STX fan, I also realize that we are prone to stumbling when we shouldn't. I still think it's irrelevant in the long run, since we've had good momentum, and the loss to SKT was not in anyways a poor loss. STX often has trouble in R1 for some reason, but get ready for us to demolish the later rounds =)

3. How will your team challenge the current leader, SKT, in the rounds to come?

swanized: SKT is a team that is playing out of their mind at the moment, I can't believe SoO will go on playing so well in R2, or that Bisu will go on being undefeated in proleague either. R2 is going to be a difficult hangover for SKT fanboys and woongjin will take no time to grab the first position.

Carnivorous Sheep: We had a 2-4 loss that was, while unfortunate, no way indicative of future performance. Shuttle and Calm both had a good advantage, but the beauty of Starcraft is that advantage can dissipate in an instant. Unfortunately this turned out poorly for us, but I'm overall satisfied with our performance, with the exception of a rather uncharacteristic careless error from Bogus vs. DTs. The games were overall pretty close, and I honestly think STX vs. SKT will end up with a pretty close record by the end of the season, with each team taking ~50% of the wins. It really comes down to which team happens to perform better on that day, and unfortunatley it was SKT for R1. The season's still young though.

4.The map missing from today’s selection is Grand Line SE. How do you feel about that?

swanized: I must state that I love GrandLine and that it leads to such epic games that I am really sad to not see it on the map pool, especially considering how beastly Soulkey has been on this map. Woongjin should nevertheless have no problem defeating STX.

Carnivorous Sheep: As TL's number one Terran hater, this pleases me. STX has taken to fielding Last on this map, and while I'm all for exercising new players, I'm sad that Last has been unable to produce results, and would often choke under pressure after obtaining a sizable advantage. I'm glad Grand Line won't be playing - Last needs practice, but it's probably more important to end the season on a reassuring note. There'll be plenty of chance for STX's upcoming Terrans to shine later.

5. Lets assume the game gets to Ace match . Will Stars be able to overcome their Ace curse once again today on Benzene? Who should STX send to try to prevent it?

swanized: Ace match curse is a relic of the past for woongjin. and seriously... who's going to ace for STX? Calm? Zero just defeated JAEDONG in a ZvZ. Kal? Kal is 0-9 against soulkey/zero/really.


Carnivorous Sheep: Benzene is a curious map as the ace map for these two teams, both fairly Zerg-Protoss heavy and lacking in Terrans. On a decidedly Terran map with no Terrans for either team to field, I would personally hope to see a ZvP. Another complicating factor is the fact that both STX and Stars are lacking of a S-class ace, so the possibilities for this ace match are endless - Kal vs. Zero, Calm vs. Zero, Kal vs. free, hero vs. free, etc. This might just come down to which team gets the luckier draw, and which player performs better. I think Kal would be a favorite against anyone Stars can field, but it'd be close, and honestly, it could go either way, but I just want to see an epic game.

6. STX zergs have accumulated 50% of the teams losses. The Stars Zergs have brought about 50% of their wins. How would you comment on that?

swanized: I think it's no secret woongjin's zerg line is the strongest of all the pro-teams, zero is incredibly good, soulkey is incredibly good, Crazy-hydra shows good promise.

STX's zerg line on the other side... Calm is slumping, hero is bad with a decent ZvP, modesty is a one-matchup wonder with a fluky OSL streak.

Carnivorous Sheep: hero's performing okay, and I'll admit Calm's been performing substandardly. However, that seems to be remedying, as he finally won a ZvZ in SPL, and combined with his momentum in the individual leagues, he seems to be making a come back. The game against Bisu showcased a brilliant strategy, and I really think Calm's recently slump took its toll as he was unable to capitalize on his advantage - something that I'm sure can be fixed with time. Look forward to more of the Brain Zerg!

7. Both teams Terran lineups were considered weak (even more so after Hwasin got involved in the match-fixing scandal and MVP jumped ship to SC2). Has that changed? We’ve seen STX play up to 4 Terrans with varying results, and Piano gets a lot of playtime.

swanized: Adding really to woongjin's terran line seriously boosted woongjin's depth a lot. Really is currently starting to look like the player he was earlier this year (with an improved TvZ) and PianO has been doing okay, overall woongjin's terran line is not very deep but at least has really to try and erase the "woongjin terran nickname"

ok I guess STX's terran line is somehow doing okay but seriously has not been looking impressive AT ALL. Bogus despite winning a bit is really shaky. Classic is an unspectacular and overall mediocre terran player.

Carnivorous Sheep: I think STX's Terrans are OK. Probably will never be S-class, but can be counted on deliver a few points here and there. Not much else for me to say.

8. A teams success is highly dependent on its coach. Who will outthink the opponent today and why?

swanized: Both coaches know their player's strength and weaknesses very well but are not incredible snipers. I think the coaching is a draw between both teams.

Carnivorous Sheep: STX's coach tends to play fairly standard with the line-ups, so I don't think there's going to be much variation on the usual line-ups. Stars, too, I think are fairly static, so I don't think there will be a huge line-up factor, and it'll come down more to who plays better. Of course this is Starcraft, and anything is possible, so who knows?

9. What will be the deciding part of todays success for your team?

swanized: Honestly as long as woongjin is careful not to lose any games in a really silly fashion I can't see STX winning this

Carnivorous Sheep: As I said before, whose players perform better. Momentum definitely helps, so taking an early lead is important. If a team gets to a 2-0 lead, I'd be willing to wager they'd end up winning the series.

10. Tell me, what do you like most about the opposing team?

swanized: I like calm a lot, he's a really calm (dat pun), smart and solid player and I really hope he gets out of his slump soon.

Carnivorous Sheep: They're so cute <3

Finally, any last words?

swanized: Look forward to Woongjin's performance in R2 and also please tune in to watch Soulkey demolish snow on the 17 th

Woongjin fighting

Carnivorous Sheep: STX fighting ^_^

Not bad. Not really great either.

Rather tense, and good moments from both. Yes from me.

Average ZvZ. No.

Excellent harassment, great break. Yes.

Boring PvP. Over quickly, but not enjoyable at all.

ZvZ at its worst. Single badly executed attack into gg.

Great PvZ. possibly the best game this round.

This is going to be awesome.