[TSL] Ro8 Day 1 Preview

LG-IM_First < Cloud Kingdom > Sting
LG-IM_First < Daybreak > Sting
LG-IM_First < Ohana > Sting
LG-IM_First < Antiga Shipyard > Sting
LG-IM_First < Metropolis > Sting
LG-IM_First < Entombed Valley > Sting
LG-IM_First < Cloud Kingdom > Sting
Last week we got to watch First cap off a great weekend for LG-IM after he defeated the IPL TAC MVP, Taeja. In doing so he proved Taeja was human and put himself on the radar as one of the remaining heavyweights in the TSL. What is really important to note about this series is that First changed up his normal style of templar first with upgrades into a colossus heavy style specifically tailored to counter Taeja. What this shows is that if First is able to prepare for an opponent he could take down any player in the world, including any player left in the TSL.

While First has made himself ‘the man to beat’, Sting probably couldn’t be any further from this. The former NSHoSeo player has cruised through his two previous opponents – Beastyqt and Darkforce – without any real difficulty. So little difficulty, in fact, that he isn’t on anyone’s radar. Indeed Sting has no other tournament commitments at the moment and consequently very few people have bothered to study his playstyle, and well, there isn’t much information out there about him anyway. To give you an idea about how under the radar he is, his only recent tournament participation has been ESV Grand Prix and the TSL Qualifiers.

So what can we expect from this series? First traditionally prefers his templar play, as alluded to earlier, typically with fast +1 armor and adding a second forge when that is done. What is clear about First's play is that once he’s in a position he is comfortable with then he truly excels. He very rarely loses a game once he gets to that point. His series against Taeja isn’t really representative of that; traditionally First only really used colossus as a two base all in rather than a playstyle. So the longer games didn’t really play out in a way that screams ‘LG-IM.First played this game’ and didn't showcase his ability to control the game when he is playing in his element.

Sting could be a big problem for First because there isn’t much information out there about him. There are some things, however, that we do know. Sting is more aggressive than your average Terran, in fact, I would go so far as to say he plays a dirty style of TvP. What does that mean? It means he is willing to do whatever it takes to win the game getting ‘down and dirty’ if he needs to – more often than not with some kind of cheese or timing attack. Some of his favorite builds include the hellion/marauder timing attack and the 5 rax marauder/marine timing attack.

Incidentally, First and Sting met in the finals of a TSL qualifier and this might give us some indication about how the series is going to play out. Sting defeated First 3-0 in this final. The games played out as you might expect from this preview; Sting got right into Firsts face with proxy marauder, hellion/marauder and a 5 rax timing and won decisively. Sting never let First get into his rhythm, and that is why the series looked so one sided. If Sting had let First get into his rhythm the score might have looked very different. The sticking point of the upcoming series will be if the game goes into a ‘normal’ game or not. A normal game would favor First, but anything else would work to Sting's advantage.

Ro16 in Pictures





CreatorPrime < Cloud Kingdom > Startale_Hack
CreatorPrime < Ohana > Startale_Hack
CreatorPrime < Antiga Shipyard > Startale_Hack
CreatorPrime < Daybreak > Startale_Hack
CreatorPrime < Entombed Valley > Startale_Hack
CreatorPrime < Metropolis > Startale_Hack
CreatorPrime < Cloud Kingdom > Startale_Hack

Although Creator now claims that PvZ is his best match-up and PvP is statistically his best match-up, it was Creator's PvT that first brought widespread attention to the 15 year old prodigy. Creator made his first big splash onto the Starcraft 2 scene when Prime was down 4-1 in the semifinals of GSTL against TSL. No one thought this newbie could do it, but amazingly he took out the entirety of TSL's then Terran-dominated lineup, including Clide, Heart, Alive, and Revival. Perhaps even more impressively, however, Creator used the same exact build against each Terran opponent, and even when these Terrans knew exactly what Creator was going to do to the tee, they could do nothing to stop the avalanche of skill. And so, both Creator and the CreatorPrime build were forever immortalized. The very next day, Genius copied the build and used it to take two wins off of NSH's best Terrans. And after that, almost every top Protoss player including Hero, Brown, Squirtle, Alicia, Vines, MacSed, Vines, Puzzle, Sage, and most recently, even GSL champion Seed has used the build to great success.

Still, none do it better than Creator, as he has currently at least a 10-3 record with the build. And while he does not use the exact build nearly as much anymore, he'll almost always default to some version of it after he's stabilized into a macro game. For example, in two of his three games versus Select in the round of 32, we saw some unique opening into some iteration of robo into 2 forge into twilight into blink into robo bay into archons, just standard Creator.

And Hack, while he is probably not as successful as Creator, seems to just be omnipresent in the scene. He is that guy who qualifies for and plays in just about everything, but never really gets too far in anything big. He first burst onto the scene by winning TLOpen after TLOpen, and then managed to all-kill an inexperienced and fledgling FXO. He has since played in many ESV tournaments, but only made the finals once where he lost 0-4. He plays for Startale in many team leagues, but never really takes more than small number of kills we expect from him. He is regularly in Code A or on the cusp of Code A, but never makes it too far, and even lost to JYP's PvT last season. Impressively though, he took a prestigious round of 32 WCS Korea qualifier spot. But then again, he quickly exited the tournament by taking a forfeit win off of MC and losing to both Roro and Miya. And he did not even win a TSL4 qualifier, but rather, true to his nature, qualified to the TSL with points instead.

While Hack has beaten two rather passive European Protosses in Mana and Hasuobs on his way to the round of 8 , he now faces the king of solid passive play in Creator. Against these previous two Protosses, Hack employed strange early game timings to obtain substantial early game advantages, riding these advantages to easy wins, and going a combined 6-1 against the Mouz players. The one time these early aggressive moves did not work, against Hasuobs on Metropolis, Hack just fell apart, demonstrating on how much he depends on crippling a Protoss opponent early on. Against Creator, however, the Protoss king of ladder who once held ranks 1, 2, 3, AND 66 on the Korean ladder at the very same time, it will be hard to pull off any new and surprising tactics.

Strangely, these two actually met on their way to the TSL. In the third Korean TSL qualifier, Creator and Hack clashed in the finals, producing both some of the most epic and the most lackluster PvTs we've ever seen. Most interesting was Hack's mech play he employed in a few games, something that gave even Creator a bit of trouble. But since then, Hack has not shown any hint of mech play and Creator implied in his last TSL interview that he hasn't seen mech from anyone else recently and does not expect it form Hack this time. Unless Hack has been saving strategies in anticipation of meeting Creator in the quarterfinals, these games should go rather predictably: funky early aggression into standard bio play from Hack, and passive play, mixed with some gateway pressure from Creator. Rather than a battle of wits, this will be a battle of execution.

CreatorPrime and Startale_Hack now meet, each player at a different point in his career. With Hack seems to continually struggle to separate himself from the pack of middling Korean Terrans, Creator has been slowly, but steadily making a rise to the very top. With the tournament drawing out to a close, and top competitors, Squirtle and Taeja, already eliminated, one can't help but wonder if Hack is just a mere stepping stone for Creator. Will TSL4 be for Creator as TSL3 was for Thorzain? That is, will we look back someday, and remember TSL as tournament where Creator finally broke out and became widely regarded as a top player? Or will he continue to under-perform and only have the very hipster-iest of fans, those who truly and deeply follow the scene.

Ro16 in Pictures

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