EPTExpectations, what are those?
Group C of the NSSL did not play out according to expectations, as
Dear, who had recently shown somewhat poor form in other Korean leagues, comfortably advanced in first place, while an on-form 
GuMiho dropped out in fourth. This series of events left MyuNgSiK and 
Rogue to face each other twice, and although MyuNgSiK initially won 2-0 with surprising ease, he looked lost in the rematch and quickly dropped out.Dear and GuMiho kicked off the group with a relatively normal macro game. Dear perfectly deflected GuMiho’s initial harass and followup tank push and counterattacked. Although he lost all of his AoE upon counterattacking, Dear patiently built up a moderate force of mostly immortals and archons and wore down his opponent.
Game 2
Catallena
GuMiho opened with a sneaky gas first, quickly teching to starport in order to widow mine drop Dear’s main base. Dear, on the other hand started with a quick expansion with an oracle followup, and scouted GuMiho’s extremely late expansion as the drop was headed towards his main base. Although GuMiho grabbed a few probes in addition to a defensive oracle, Dear’s oracle did far more damage, killing nearly half of GuMiho’s workers. GuMiho attempted further drops, but phoenixes served as anti-mine defense and Dear was able to only lose a few more probes. Although GuMiho entered the mid-game at a disadvantage, successive attacks in Dear’s main and third eventually distracted the Samsung Protoss to the point that all of his colossi were found completely out of position and destroyed by six vikings. However, similarly to the previous game, Dear simply shifted his army composition to a more immortal-heavy one, and an eventual attack on Gumiho’s natural sealed the deal.
RATING: Dear showed excellent defense against a drop style that was particularly difficult to defend on the given map and positions. His stargate opener proved to be a perfect choice, as he was able to deal heavy economic damage while GuMiho struggled to grab stray probes. Although he started losing more workers later, Dear’s defense and phoenix control were excellent. However, Dear’s army control later in the game did not shine as much. His attention to drops left his colossi vulnerable, and his game-ending attack sacrificed more than necessary, although it was enough to end the game.
RATING: Gumiho got the short end of the stick, build order-wise, and failed to make the most of his drops. While he had some cute medivac micro, he wasn’t able to make anything meaningful happen and found himself with an insufficient economy and worse tech. However, he stubbornly continued to poke and prod at Dear’s defenses from every angle, allowing Gumiho to eventually outpace his opponent. However, this was not enough to overcome a sizable deficit.
Although most were expecting MyuNgSiK to cheese after his proleague game against Rogue, the Prime Protoss ended up in the driver’s seat of two macro games in their first rematch.
Game 1
King Sejong Station
Both players opened relatively passively, with Rogue opting to get a hydralisk heavy force on three bases against MyuNgSiK’s phoenix opening. Eventually, MyuNgSiK took his third, which Rogue responded to by threatening the backdoor to natural. However, Rogue couldn’t make a dent in MyuNgSiK’s defense despite having hive tech, and a followup attack into the third base, defended by colossi and HTs, was costly. MyuNgSiK’s counterattack looked deadly, so Rogue dodged the death ball and attempted a base trade. MyuNgSiK was reduced to his main but retained the bulk of his army, which led to a victory after he recalled and cleaned up the remainders of Rogue’s attack.
RATING: MyuNgSiK made few mistakes in this game. He displayed solid phoenix control, constantly picking off any drones or overlords not situated near spore crawlers, and didn’t get surprised by Rogue’s attack. After forcing Rogue to halt an attack on his third base, he was perhaps unwise to immediately counterattack, but he correctly made the most of the decision and abandoned his third and natural in order to ultimately defend at home while doing critical damage to Rogue’s economy. He eventually returned home to save his main base, and by that point he had far too much for Rogue to handle.
RATING: Rogue was invested in making something happen with his hydralisk-based army. Wherever he tried attacking, he just ended up running into MyuNgSiK’s more powerful army and killing nothing, even when he added vipers and roaches to the mix. As he was unable to deal with MyuNgSiK’s forces head-on, Rogue base traded, but was held off by just a few stalkers and zealots while everything important he had was destroyed at home. He eventually attempted to return home and lick his wounds while MyuNgSiK did the same, but the Jin Air Zerg was unable to rebuild in time.
Although MyuNgSiK played extremely well against Rogue, making few mistakes, he had a completely different story against Dear. Although both started with similar builds, Dear successfully punished MyuNgSiK’s slightly faster expansion and contained him on one base, and even though MyuNgSiK eventually broke out with immortals and counterattacked, the economic deficit by that point was too great to overcome. Although the Prime player took an economic edge in the second game, Dear’s blink stalkers managed to pick off eleven probes as well as the mothership core, leading his opponent to slowly fall apart. MyuNgSiK tried to tech to tempests off three bases, but Dear prevented MyuNgSiK from keeping his third base for long, and a last ditch attack involving tempests and DTs wasn’t enough to stop Dear from 4-0’ing his group.
GuMiho initially looked to be in a prime position to knock Rogue out of the group. His extremely powerful mech style successfully defended everything Rogue threw at him for 25 minutes, and his eventual move out caught Rogue mid-transition. However, things spiraled out of control in the following game, as Rogue’s early attacks found GuMiho underdefended, and Rogue ended up taking a quick victory with mutalisks against a lack of anti-air. Although he was on the verge of elimination, Gumiho attempted bio in game three, but was unable to out-multitask his Zerg opponent and a bad engagement coupled with vicious mutalisk harass knocked him out of the NSSL.
After a disappointing series against Dear, MyuNgSiK seemed to fall apart in his second rematch against Rogue. Although he had successfully secured a safe third base in both of the previous games, MyuNgSiK attempted to be cute with a zealot drop and a colossus drop, which left his third base insufficiently defended. On the other hand, Rogue sensed weakness and repeatedly punished MyuNgSiK for his third base, wearing down his opponent. The Prime Protoss desperately switched to cheese in the next game, but Rogue had been scouting diligently in all of their games, and his three gateway (two proxied) rush was sniffed out and easily deflected.
