Canata edges past HoGiL and UpMaGiC to reach Ro16

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Canata after winning against UpMaGiC. Photo by: Fomos.kr

Qualified for Round of 16

Group A: Leta (Terran, Hite SPARKYZ)
Group B: ZerO (Zerg, Woongjin Stars)
Group C: BackHo (Protoss, Hwaseung Oz)
Group D: go.go (Terran, Hite SPARKYZ)
Group E: Hwasin (Terran, STX SouL)
Group F: EffOrt (Zerg, CJ Entus)
Group G: YellOw (Zerg, Hite SPARKYZ)
Group H: Kwanro (Zerg, CJ Entus)
Grou I: Canata (Terran, SK Telecom T1)

Last season seeds

Jaedong (Zerg, Hwaseung Oz)
fantasy (Terran, SK Telecom T1)
Bisu (Protoss, SK Telecom T1)
hero (Zerg, STX SouL)

22-year-old Terran player Ko In "Canata" Kyu reached the Round of 16 in Bacchus OnGameNet Starleague after defeating Kim Sang "HoGiL" Wook and Shin Hee "UpMaGiC" Seung in yesterday's Group I.

But it took six games for Canata to end the day with a ticket to the Round of 16. While winning on the first game on HolyWorld against HoGiL, he lost the following game on Outsider. But a win on Return of the King secured advancement to play seeded UpMaGiC in a direct elimination match.

In an interview with Fomos, Canata reveals his practice was concentrated on HolyWorld.

- I actually prepared a different strategy. I wanted to show a fun strategy but my opponent [HoGiL] went for an all-in, which I defended easily and won. I think I won easily compared to how much effort I put in to prepare for today's match, said Canata.

- Holy World is a zerg-favored map so there was too much to prepare. The main is shaped like a donut so it's hard to go both mechanic and bionic. Also, there are many expos, so the map favors the zerg a lot, said Canata.

Going from playing Zerg to his own Terran, Canata started with a loss on HolyWorld against UpMaGiC. The SK Telecom T1 player has had a tough run so far in the mirror matchups during 2009, winning only one game (RuBy in MSL on January 22) out of eight coming into the match.

After seeing some matches on Outsider with UpMaGiC, Canata came up with a good build to use and in the third and last game he dominated the air with versatile use of wraiths.

- I was confident in my wraith micro, and my opponent went all-in, so I knew he was trying to destroy my nat. When I lost all my army I was at a very dangerous moment, but my opponent didn't attack and camped instead, so I was able to overcome that dangerous moment.

Canata is now the third SK Telecom T1 player set for the Round of 16, as Jung Myung "fantasy" Hoon and Kim Taek "Bisu" Yong are automatically seeded from last season's successes.