After suffering heavy defeat at IEM Gamescom, the protoss race got its revenge in today's WCS Korea matches, winning all of the five matches and painting an all-toss WB semi finals picture.
Many viewers will frown upon the entertainment value of Polt against Seed and with somewhat good reasons, as Polt's stellar TvP in combination with Seed's recent rise to fame would normally be a precondition for a series if not as good as MC vs Kas from the recent IEM, but at least somewhere around that level. Instead, we saw an under-upgraded Polt losing four full medivacs during a drop to a single high templar and a BitByBit-y Polt, doing an all-in against the GSL champion. In both cases, Seed either simply a-moved or defended to qualify for the continentals.
When Creator plays PvP it's always like observing one of those cheesy ancient evils in fantasy novels that would wait for a thousand years before taking their revenge. In the same context, Puzzle was in the role of the hero who thought he can vanquish the antagonist by being constantly on the attack. But evil prevailed today (the metaphorical evil, of course) as Creator's defensive immortal style twice destroyed Puzzle's blink openings - once in the mid-game by sniping the observer and again in the next game by weighing every late-game engagement patiently and methodically before committing to a move.
Another quick, painful and one-sided series as Parting sent his teammate Curious to the losers bracket. A textbook immortal push steamrolled unopposed for the 1-0 and a 2-base gateway timing with a warp in on the high ground hit Curious just before his infestors would pop out. Seed advanced as the third protoss for today after a not-much-to-write-about match-up.
The only KeSPA player left in the winners bracket RorO had the ill luck of meeting IPL and GSL finalist Squirtle and many burden's lay on his shoulders: he had to fight for KeSPA, he had to fight for his team and, in view of today's events, he had to fight to be the only non-protoss to make the semi finals. The first game was quick and dirty - Squirtle did a 2-base immortal timing, catching Roro in the middle of a muta tech to pull ahead, but the zerg recovered on Daybreak as his micro and flanks put an end to Squirtle's 2-base void ray/gateway push. The rubber game was played on Shakuras and Squirtle knew exactly what he has to do on this map: turtle to three bases, get +3, and end the zerg with a blink/colossus ball.
In the first all-KeSPA match-up for the tournament Jaedong tasted elimination at the hands of SKT's Rain by being demolished in the first game on Ohana and then losing on Valley despite his convincing early game presence. In said game, Rain opened DTs but JD's map awareness shut them all down, giving up just six drones. More hatcheries started sprouting all over the place for the Tyrant, hive tech also initiated, but he could never get a big, decisive engagement. And even the best larvae inject mechanics cannot save you if the brood lords are too few, the ground support is too weak, the lings get fried and the corruptors are more than they should be.
| WCS Korea Losers Round 2 | ||
  Seed[join] | 2-0 |  Polt |
| Creator | 2-0 | Puzzle |
| Parting | 2-0 |  Curious |
| Squirtle | 2-1 | Roro |
| Rain | 2-0 | Jaedong |
Scheduled for tomorrow are the remaining three matches from Losers Round 3. Reality will meet HerO in a TvP for who is to face Polt in the next round, Effort and hero[join] will engage in a CJ team kill and Alive is going against tournament underdog Miya, the winner to face RorO next.
