WCS Korea Season 3
GSL Code S
Ro16 - Group B Recap
Rain and Trap advance
Ro16 - Group C Preview
INnoVation, Super, Jjakji, soO
Brackets and standings on Liquipedia
Ro16 Group B Recap
by Waxangel
Last season's second place finisher SKT_Rain continued to march on down the road to redemption, following his strong Ro32 performance by topping his Ro16 group as well. Wins over KeeN and Trap saw Rain take first place in the group, setting up a blockbuster quarter-final match against Woongjin's Soulkey.
The race for second place was close, and easily could have gone to any one of MVP.KeeN, Soul_Trap, or Woongjin_sOs given a few different twists or turns. It ended up being Soul's Trap who was triumphant on the night, using a combination of all-in and standard play to overcome sOs twice to advance in second place.
Ro16 - Group B | ||
---|---|---|
1. | SKT_Rain | 2 - 0 |
2. | Soul_Trap | 2 - 1 |
3. | Woongjin_sOs | 1 - 2 |
4. | MVP.KeeN | 0 - 2 |
Detailed results from Live Report Thread by Pandemona.
+ Show Spoiler [Click for Detailed Results] +
Rain vs KeeN
Rain <Yeonsu> KeeN
Rain <Polar Night> KeeN
Rain <Akilon Wastes> KeeN
Rain wins 2-1!
sOs vs Trap
sOs <Bel'Shir Vestige> Trap
sOs <Polar Night> Trap
sOs <> Trap
Trap wins 2-0!
Winners' Match
Rain <Frost> Trap
Rain <Yeonsu> Trap
Rain <> Trap
Rain wins 2-0!
Losers' Match
KeeN <Frost> sOs
KeeN <Polar Night> sOs
KeeN <> sOs
sOs wins 2-0!
Final Match
Trap <Polar Night> sOs
Trap <Bel'Shir Vestige> sOs
Trap <Whirlwind> sOs
Trap wins 2-1!
Rain and Trap advance to WCS KR GSL Ro8!
Rain <Yeonsu> KeeN
Rain <Polar Night> KeeN
Rain <Akilon Wastes> KeeN
Rain wins 2-1!
sOs vs Trap
sOs <Bel'Shir Vestige> Trap
sOs <Polar Night> Trap
Trap wins 2-0!
Winners' Match
Rain <Frost> Trap
Rain <Yeonsu> Trap
Rain wins 2-0!
Losers' Match
KeeN <Frost> sOs
KeeN <Polar Night> sOs
sOs wins 2-0!
Final Match
Trap <Polar Night> sOs
Trap <Bel'Shir Vestige> sOs
Trap <Whirlwind> sOs
Trap wins 2-1!
Rain and Trap advance to WCS KR GSL Ro8!
As right as Rain
Rain started off the night with a series against KeeN, a perennial poster-boy for untapped potential. Continuing a trend that started in the previous season, Rain made conscious attempts to play against his type. He ended up getting mixed results, with his colossus-blink stalker timing in game one netting him a win, while his two-base zealot-archon-immortal attack in game two ended in disaster. It was Rain's familiar safety-first style that saw him close the series out 2 - 1, frying an SCV-pull timing from Keen (performed on the back of an interesting 5-reaper into double expand build) with storms.
The winner's match put Rain in a dangerous duel with Soul_Trap, who had come up after defeating sOs with two consecutive proxy-building all-ins. Fortunately for Rain, he did not have to contend with such risky strategies from Trap, who seemed unwilling to take such risks in another series. Rain took the series by a 2 - 0 scoreline, hacking his way to victory with DTs in game one and winning in a retro-colossus laser show in game two.
It's a Trap!
Down in the loser's match, sOs triumphed against KeeN in two wonky games, both of which involved base-trading and plenty of all-around chaos. With that, sOs moved on to face Trap once more in the final match.
sOs tried to give Trap a taste of his own cheesy medicine in game one, hiding away a dark shrine after scouting Trap's blink opener. However, this backfired terribly on sOs as Trap already had robo tech and observers ready, handing him an easy victory.
After his success in game one, Trap decided to once again go for a blink + robo build in game two. Unfortuantely for Trap, things wouldn't work as well the second time around, with sOs able to scout it out with his stargate opener and prepare more appropriately. Void rays and immortals were able to easily keep Trap's stalkers at bay—even as sOs took an expansion!—and Trap was forced to GG once it was clear he could not break through the defenses.
For the third and final game, Trap and sOs ended up actually playing a longer game for once. Neither player was willing to commit to aggression early on, and both were able to take three bases and build up a late game army of choice. While zealots, immortals, and archons formed the backbone of both players' armies, sOs decided to finish his composition with tempests while Trap went for colossi instead. sOs appeared to have made the correct choice when he narrowly defeated Trap in the first major engagement of the game, but suffered an almost immediate turnaround when Trap sent in his second wave of troops. Caught horrendously out of position and with templars still merging into archons, sOs was crushed despite having more supply and gifted Trap a spot in the Ro16.
PartinG Notes
Rain: Rain's continued attempts to mix in more two-base play in PvT was an interesting continuation from last season where it served him well up to the finals (ironically enough, he lost to Maru in the most 'standard' game of that series). However, we're not going to see any more of his PvT unless he reaches the finals, as he's set to face Soulkey next, and then a Protoss player if he wins.
Trap: It's funny to see Trap, a master of the PvZ match-up, make it out of the Ro32 on the back of only PvT and out of the Ro16 playing just PvP's. Is he overrated? Is he underrated? Find out on the next episode of Code S.
sOs: Once more, sOs brought his funky gas-steal builds in PvP, with the added wrinkle that he seemed totally okay with stealing just one gas. You can read a lot more about that here, in SC2John's blog.
KeeN: It was yet another season where Keen looked good, but just not quite good enough.
Ro16: Group C Preview
by CosmicSpiral
Acer.INnoVation’s reign of terror could not last forever. Despite the praise over his precise play and ability to make the top players in the world look like chumps, Innovation’s best qualities were closely tied to his greatest weaknesses. As a player, he was uniquely able to take advantage of an overall stagnant metagame where his clean playstyle emphasizing strategic execution could shine. He became famous for his relentless TvZ, a matchup where Zerg is pigeonholed into going muta/ling/bane if they want to contend in the lategame; in TvP he could overpower almost anyone with his brutal SCV pull timings backed by his phenomenal macro; he was all but unstoppable during the hellbat wars in TvT.
Yet he has looked increasingly mortal in the post-hellbat TvT era and suffered several humiliating defeats on the biggest stages. Bomber, Maru, Taeja and Supernova all have decisive victories over him within the last two months while MMA, Heart, Ryung, sC, and even Startale's Panic (who?) have made him look like the inferior opponent at various points. Throw in failures against Zest and Curious in the IEM qualifier and it appears like Innovation is in a slight slump.
Emphasis on “appears”. As it stands, he is still the overwhelming favorite in the group. Despite recent disappointments Innovation remains a top 3 Terran with some very specific issues in the mirror matchup. No one has truly forced him to play a different style in his TvZ or TvP so expect to see more of the same if he manages to avoid jjakji. Instead he should take care to not be too predictable in his strategies. His TvP approach may have worked effectively against foreigners at Dreamhack, but Korean Protosses have caught onto it and devised several possible responses. Whether it’s fast HTs or continuous colossus production with preemptive engagements, Terrans who rely on SCV pulls are being rudely rebuffed. Innovation himself has experienced it in his GSTL game against Panic and will look to put on his poker face in his first match. Additionally the lone Zerg representative soO has gone for his fair share of baneling and roach busts in the past. This could work against someone like Innovation, who engineers his TvZ gameplan towards denying the fourth base and choking the Zerg into submission.
Is MVP.Super a fluke or the real deal? Getting first in his RO32 group was slightly surprising, but the intelligent way he tackled his matches suggests he can replicate that feat if necessary. Unlike most players coming into Code S after a long break, he didn't approach his matches as if he was the inferior player. Instead he relied on typical macro Protoss play combined with some adjustments to his tech transitions, and it resulted in some convincing victories against Bomber and soO. Admittedly Super had the advantage of facing very predictable opponents and it’s not likely that he’ll be faced with only SCV pulls or roach/hydra timings tonight. However, there’s a great chance that he will face similar strategies against most of the players in his group. Innovation rarely tackles TvP lategame without consolidating some type of huge advantage in the midgame while soO’s roach/hydra attacks seem to be a staple of his ZvP style. jjakji is the only one who showcases a lot of variety and if Super has to play him, he may crumble against jjakji’s wide range of early timing attacks.
Speaking of SKT_soO, welcome back to the Ro16! Despite lacking notable achievements in HotS, our everyman Zerg continues to bring consistency to a SKT squad that really needs it (something something Parting PvZ). To make it into the Ro8 would be a great achievement for this overshadowed player and the stars could align if he gets the right matchups. soO’s ZvP was uncharacteristically rigid last round and didn’t reflect his command over both swarm host attrition style and muta/ling harassment. The biggest question is whether he can get out of the group while relying on his ZvT. He has only played six games of it since MLG Anaheim and the available information suggests he likes roach all-ins. Zerg all-ins in the matchups can have pretty variable results based on how the terran proceeds after factory, and their success rate largely depends on how greedy the Terran player gets with the timing of his third CC. It may work against Innovation, a player who likes his 3 base play, or jjakji depending on the map choice.
When I shook my magic 8 ball and asked whether mYi.jjakji would make it out of his group, the answer was “outlook not so good”. As it turns out magic 8 balls are garbage and I need to stop using them to
Predictions:
Innovation < Super
jjakji > soO
jjakji < Super
Innovation > soO
Innovation > jjakji
Innovation and Super advance.