In the final day of HomeStory Cup, the best eight players in the tournament will shake off the crumbs from their lap, finish their barbecue meals and walk on to fight for the $15,000. "Fans set their eyes towards the final day of HSC 4 and ask themselves the question “Can the foreigners fight off the Korean oppression?”
Koreans did it again. They are on the way to conquering yet another foreign event. The first foreign event for 2012 actually. In the first two days of HomeStory CUp 4. the warriors of the east were impeccable, taking all first places available (Violet was the exception only because he was paired with MarineKing). In day three - the second group stage - history repeated itself although minor differences could be spotted: some players performed better, other walked a thornier path and third were actually eliminated.
Thus finally HSC 4 arrived at the much anticipated playoffs which, despite having very equal race distribution, see a vista peppered with Korean flags. Of all the 25 foreigners in the tournament only Nerchio and Dimaga made it to the Ro16, while South Korea scored a 6-out-of-7 success rate. So fans set their eyes towards the final day of HSC 4 and ask themselves the question “Can the foreigners fight off the Korean oppression?”
| HomeStory Cup 4 playoffs | ||
  ReaL | VS |  Sound |
| MarineKing | VS |  Violet |
| MC | VS |  Nerchio |
 Dimaga | VS | JYP |
The playoffs day will open with a PvT between ReaL and Sound - two of the only three players to go 6-0 in the first group stage. Both entered the tournament by being lower profile players compared to their more accomplished compatriots or the strength of the foreign contingent yet they are now looking forward to make a major impression upon the eSports world. In the course of the event we saw them defeat Dimaga, Stephano, NightEnd, Grubby, Cloud and many more to end up where they are now. Yet their overall data is insufficient to pinpoint a clear winner but if I am forced to place a bet I would go with Sound mainly for the reason of him being a Korean-trained terran. A low-brow approach to the problem, I know, yet such that stands as the safer one.
The second match is another Korean face-off between MarineKing and Violet and will be a revenge series from day one when MKP obliterated the Zerg 2-0 to get the top spot in the group, not to mention Violet has lost to MKP before in the GSL up-and-downs. It should be taken into account that Violet did play a risky all-in style against MKP in the group stage so if he ups his performance a bit he will have a better shot at the top 4. Of course, MKP is still regarded as one of the top TvZ specialist on the scene with 67% win rate in Korea and 77% in foreign tournaments so everything points to him crushing this series.
There is a strong chance that MarineKing and ReaL will face each other for the grand final spot.
Photo by: GosuGamers.net
The lower part of the bracket sees the two foreigners going against one of the most prominent Korean protoss players. It will be a ZvP fiesta starting with Nerchio against MC. The Polish protoss have been counted among the best European Zergs since the beginning of time (or at least since the boom of the SC2 pro-scene) and he has been doing extremely well in Krefeld. When we talked to Nerchio at DreamHack Winter 2011 he said that he would very much love to play Hero, confessing that he knows how to beat his style and that it will be an interesting match. At HSC 4 he proved his words to be true, casting the DHW champion out of the tournament. Now he is facing MC at a match-up at which both players display an incredible prowess. All in all, my heart screams Nerchio while my mind whispers MC and, ironically enough, there is never a clear victor in such a quarrel.
Nerchio has possibly the best chances to overthrow the Korean presence at HSC
Photo by: GosuGamers.net
I’d like to say that the Ro8 game will be a tense and a back-and-forth one but I just can’t find the strength to spin the words in that direction. Dimaga has had a rough tournament, finishing second to Koreans in both group stages. Furthermore, Dimaga’s ZvP is arguably his weakest match-up and adding to that the fact that JYP has been on the high roll the entire tournament (one of only two players to drop a total of two maps) that will be one tough bite for the Zerg. It smells like 3-1 for the Korean.
The cup, the story and the fun in Krefeld are nigh their end. Today, someone walks out with a winners check in his hands and $7,500 richer.
