WCS Korea Season 3
GSL Code S
Ro32 - Group A Recap
Soulkey and PartinG advance
Ro32 - Group B Preview
Symbol, Reality, Trap, KeeN
Brackets and standings on Liquipedia
Kindred Souls
by Waxangel
After a tumultuous period of StarCraft II that produced upset upon upset, the new season of Code S brought what seemed like the first predictable result in weeks. Woongjin_Soulkey and SKT_PartinG, by far the more well-known and well-regarded players in Group A, took care of business against their peers JinAir_Pigbaby and MVP.Swagger and advanced onto the Ro16.
Ro32 - Group A | ||
---|---|---|
1. | Woongjin_Soulkey | 2 - 0 |
2. | SKT_PartinG | 2 - 1 |
3. | JinAir_Pigbaby | 1 - 2 |
4. | MVP.Swagger | 0 - 2 |
Detailed results from Live Report Thread by LockeTazeline.
+ Show Spoiler [Click for Detailed Results] +
Soulkey vs Pigbaby
Soulkey <Derelict Watcher> Pigbaby
Soulkey Pigbaby
Soulkey <Whirlwind> Pigbaby
Soulkey wins 2-1!
Swagger vs PartinG
Swagger <Bel'Shir Vestige> PartinG
Swagger <Akilon Wastes> PartinG
Swagger PartinG
PartinG wins 2-1!
Winners' Match
Soulkey <Whirlwind> PartinG
Soulkey <Akilon Wastes> PartinG
Soulkey <> PartinG
Soulkey wins 2-0!
Losers' Match
Pigbaby <Whirlwind> Swagger
Pigbaby Swagger
Pigbaby <Bel'Shir Vestige> Swagger
Pigbaby wins 2-1!
Final Match
Pigbaby PartinG
Pigbaby <Whirlwind> PartinG
Pigbaby <Akilon Wastes> PartinG
PartinG wins 2-1!
Soulkey and PartinG advance to WCS KR GSL Ro16!
Soulkey <Derelict Watcher> Pigbaby
Soulkey
Soulkey <Whirlwind> Pigbaby
Soulkey wins 2-1!
Swagger vs PartinG
Swagger <Bel'Shir Vestige> PartinG
Swagger <Akilon Wastes> PartinG
Swagger
PartinG wins 2-1!
Winners' Match
Soulkey <Whirlwind> PartinG
Soulkey <Akilon Wastes> PartinG
Soulkey wins 2-0!
Losers' Match
Pigbaby <Whirlwind> Swagger
Pigbaby
Pigbaby <Bel'Shir Vestige> Swagger
Pigbaby wins 2-1!
Final Match
Pigbaby
Pigbaby <Whirlwind> PartinG
Pigbaby <Akilon Wastes> PartinG
PartinG wins 2-1!
Soulkey and PartinG advance to WCS KR GSL Ro16!
That's not to say that it was smooth sailing for the two soulful stars. PartinG dropped his very first map against Swagger, losing in a surprisingly straight up game where Swagger simply put together a superior combination of mixed ground units to overpower PartinG with brute force. However, Swagger's switch to more early game oriented tactics saw him fail to close the series out, as PartinG easily held his fast expansions against a variety of rushes to take the series 2 - 1.
Meanwhile, Soulkey also had a close call at the hands of the upstart Pigbaby. Game one was business as usual with Soulkey's hydra-roach overpowering Pigbaby before he could gather his templar-void ray army, but game two saw PigBaby cheekily tie up the series with a cannon rush and a very solid macro game to follow it up. PigBaby even looked like he might score a huge upset when he pulled off an immensely greedy opener in the final game, transitioning into the deadly zealot-templar-void ray composition. However, Soulkey showed his class by narrowly holding out against PigBaby's timing with pure roach-hydra, and then finishing the game with a counter-attack before PigBaby could gather himself again.
Great roach-hydra use continued to be the key to Soulkey's success as he advanced past PartinG in the winners' match. Despite allowing yet another greedy opener for his Protoss opponent in game one, Soulkey was able to once again hold off his opponent's timing and hit a perfect counter-attack with roach-hydra-viper that ended the game. When Parting went for the zealot-templar-void ray style in game two, Soulkey was again able to crush his opponent with roach-hydra attacks before critical mass was reached.
With a 2 - 1 win over Swagger in the losers' match, Pigbaby would set up a final match of the night against PartinG for the last Ro16 spot. It ended up being the most hilarious series of the night, as two failed proxies from PigBaby gave PartinG the two wins he needed to advance. Both proxy cannons and proxy gates were spotted by PartinG, who sent his demolishing probes to tear down the buildings and PigBaby's hopes of advancing in Code S.
Ro32: Group B Preview
by CosmicSpiral
Predictions for tonight’s group are trickier than they appear. While Symbol would have been the overwhelming favorite back in Season 1, he is currently stuck in a deep rut that threatens to send him down to Challenger League. Reality might dispel illusions of being less than Code S material as he comes in off a couple months of strong play. Trap is overshadowed by disturbing rumors about his team, but he has a chance to leave that behind and form his own identity outside of SPL. And then there’s Keen, the meddling kid that always manages to ruin someone else’s good time. He’s good enough to give the rest a scare but will that translate into his first Ro16 showing in over a year?
There’s no question that the Zerg hierarchy is in turmoil right now. Just look at the Zerg lineup this season to see how Heart of the Swarm has turned expectations upside. You’ll see familiar names like Soulkey and Dongraegu but more likely you’ll notice a lack of names that you implicitly associated with the best players in the world. Life, Leenock, Curious and Roro are sweating it out in Challenger League; Jaedong, Nestea and Hyun decided that it was easier to snag foreigner money than battle their comrades. Instead they are replaced by newcomers with wilder gameplay and sometimes flimsy results. TRUE and Songduri got here on the back of enemy mistakes and liberal amounts of all-ins. soO has been a regular but unimpressive fixture of the Premier League. Hyvaa will definitely put on a show and break some hearts, but his chances at cracking the Ro8 remain slim. KangHo still suffers from some debilitating flaws in his playstyle and Sleep has only shown himself to be great in the mirror matchup. There is little hope (with the exception of hyvaa) that they will be able to outfox the veterans.
Azubu.Symbol is one of the few remaining old-timers, proud but struggling to find his rhythm in the current metagame. Like many other Zergs he has seemed to hit a wall when confronted with Protoss ingenuity and the death march of the Terran megapush. Over the last few weeks he has looked distressingly mortal in any series outside WCS Korea, particularly against Protoss. He has also lost to all three of his groupsmates at some point in the last two months: Reality in the IEM Shanghai qualifiers, Trap in OSL, and Keen in GSTL. Now that’s not to say Symbol is doomed to meet his ex-TSL friends down in Challenger. He has the benefit of incredible tenacity, great planning, and a remarkable record of consistency that suggests he will meet his doom further in the tournament. Symbol has never fallen out of the Ro32 in his entire career (OSL, GSL, and WCS Korea combined) and that is the greatest comfort he can take into the booth.
Meanwhile MVP.KeeN might be tempted to sacrifice some loved ones to an unholy power if he fails to get out. Keen has been a faithful gatekeeper of Code S since October 2011, which was the first and only time he made it out of the group stages (he promptly lost to some guy called Polt in the Ro8). Ever since then he has been trapped in his personal rendition of Groundhog Day. In pursuit of the same singular goal Keen has dropped the ball in a dazzling number of ways that must court frustration and despair. He knows he’s better than this, we know he’s better than this. His games in Season 2 showed a player who can burn brilliantly but mostly burns out too fast, which has now become the story of his career. It’s a Sisyphean task he undertakes but with every new season comes the hope that he might make his breakthrough.
Samsung_Reality and FanTaSy seem to be opposites in more than name alone. While Fantasy continues to ponder all the ways he can lose a won game, Reality seems equally determined to take every victory he can possibly take. Since June 5th Reality is 33-15 with a 17-6 record in series, quite impressive for someone dismissed as a run of the mill Terran. Many of those games were against relative unknowns, but he has a few notable wins over Creator, Ryung, Trap and Symbol. So it’s all the more remarkable that his games are fairly unremarkable. He’s not catching people off guard with a love of proxy 2 rax or doing wild 2 base hellbat pushes. Reality is the living breathing blueprint of the standard Terran, someone so boring that it circles around into fascination. His ubiquitous nature makes him the dark horse of this group, as unremarkable Terran players have always had a tendency to advance in the GSL.
And with the fate of STX Soul a perpetual cloud over his head, STX_Trap cannot afford to lose focus for a second. If worst comes to worst he cannot rely on other teams to have the wisdom to recognize him, hyvaa, and Dear as the ignored pillars of STX’s success. Every game this season must be an audition—this is the stage where Trap can showcase his considerable potential for anyone willing to invest. We know his PvZ is top-notch and his PvP can alternate between inspired and insipid, but tonight will test the strength of his PvT. It’s not terrible by any stretch of the imagination but Trap has always seemed to shy away from the turtle macro games that Terrans loathe. Instead he preferred tricky builds that would end the game early such as fast Dark Shrine and 2 base sentry-immortal all-in. Neither Keen nor Reality are pushovers in the matchup and Trap will need more than clever proxy strategies if he has to face both of them to advance. His best chance is if he defeats Keen and gets to meet Symbol in the winners match.
Predictions
While Reality and Trap are the two players with the best recent records, statistics often get thrown out the window when it comes to big tournaments. Performance in the Ro32 is largely a matter of planning and composure and newcomers are notorious for losing their composure when it counts. Symbol was always able to make it through no matter how poorly he was performing at that time; likewise Keen never failed to choke no matter how much the odds were stacked in his favor. In a less important setting I would give my nod to Reality but I don’t think he can handle the spotlight at the moment.
Symbol > Reality
Trap > Keen
Symbol < Trap
Keen < Reality
Symbol > Reality
Trap and Symbol advance.
Progamer Pokedex: By Popular Request
by monkThere was a time long ago when hundreds, not thousands of people read TL, and we were pretty certain progamers weren't among them. We could write whatever the f*** we wanted, without any sense of propriety or second guessing. Those days gave birth to the first Progamer Pokedex, an irreverant cult classic. It's time to bring those days back.
Symbol is Dugtrio! Dugtrio was once simply a group of three of the closest Diglet friends that there ever was. They did everything together, sharing innovative digging techniques and supporting each other in their respective times of need. But one day they learned that their families would be moving far away from each other and that they might not ever see each other again. So the lead Diglet came up with a plan to avert this crisis. They found some tape and permanently joined themselves together, selling themselves as a single awesome Pokemon. With their forces combined, Dugtrio became the most power digging machine on the planet, creating holes and secret tunnels all over the map.
Reality is Kabuto! Having been revived from a mysterious fossil, Kabuto arrives into a brand new world set many years in the future. Though he had been somewhat of a formidable predator in the past, the entire landscape of the earth has changed before him. Kabuto quickly adapts to his change in scenery, perhaps faster than most fossils would, but still he is not satisfied with his results. In order to truly dominate his new environment, Kabuto would have to become something more... perhaps a giant sickle wielding rock monster?
Trap is Plusle! Though he can hold his own against weaker opponents, Plusle really shines the most when fighting on a team. This is perhaps because while in the presence of the other electric rodents on his team (and there are lots), Plusle's power increases thanks to his ability, Plus. That being said, Plusle certainly isn't a unique Pokemon and you can't help but think he was created solely for the purposes of making the star of the show, Pikachu, look good when he supports him in their adventures together as a sidekick.
KeeN is Jynx! Jynx has had a unique and odd history in the world of Pokemon. Of the first 151, she is perhaps the one with the most striking and shocking designs, often described as a pastiche of tacky stereotypes. With her seductively wiggling hips, she was always attracting a show, both after and during battles. It eventually got to the point where she became more known for her seductive gyrations than for her battling prowess.
Recently though, Jynx has had to turn it down a few notches in her shock factor. Perhaps she decided she needed to focus on actual battling and that all the showmanship was all just a distraction from her real goal of becoming the very best. So Jynx painted over her skin and recolored her hair. The result is perhaps a more politically correct version of her former self, but also certainly a less interesting one as well.
You can read the Progamer Pokedex for Group A here.