After another day of one-sided Code S matches, the previous champions of WCS Korea face elimination at the hands of Dear and soO. While this is the fifth time a Zerg player reaches the Code S finals, it's the first one for Protoss since the Seed/MC grand final in July 2012.
It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say the quarterfinals of this WCS Korea season left a sour taste in viewers’ mouths. Despite the great line-up and the usual hype surrounding the best eight in South Korea, the first round of playoffs simply did not deliver the expected level of entertainment. Even highlight matches such as Soulkey-Rain ended up one-sided stomps, Maru-Jjakji being the only series to provide at least a sliver of a thrill.
With the tournament down to its last four players, the buzz of the excitement reappeared, especially with the possibility of the two previous WCS Korea champions meeting in the third and final season. The mix of seasoned veterans and semi-final “greenhorns” added a nice “clash of generations” aroma, at least in the microclimate of the WCS.
Seven games later all that was gone as the GomTV audience sat through another day of quick stomps.
The series started on Whirlwind and saw very passive first few minutes as both players opted to saturate their three base economies. It was only after the 10th minute mark did the game pick up pace as Maru’s fully loaded medivacs began cracking holes in Dear’s shell. Despite not suffering too heavy economic or supply damage, Dear still had to say goodbye to one of his researching forges and spend a few minutes dealing with the Terran nuisance.
Dear’s retort was in the form of zealot drops which, unlike Maru’s bio drops, proved a lot more impactful. 25 SCVs lay dead by the time the second warp-in was cleared and a silver lining could be seen in the cloudy Protoss sky.
The SCV culling slowed Maru only a little bit, however, and he enjoyed the supply and upgrade lead still. Seemingly in unwinnable position, Dear initiated one finel push and at the 18th minute he met the Terran army in a direct battle. Surrounded from all sides by Maru’s units, Dear managed to nonetheless keep his cool. By pouring psi storm hell over the Terran and using his robo units to maximize DPS output, Dear saw Maru evaporate into thin air as if he was never in the commanding position. The score was up to a 1-0 for the Protoss. ?
Game two on Polar Night started well for Dear as his oracle took twelve yearly kills and his phoenixes came in later to increase the economic damage suffered. Come the mid game, however, the tables turned into Maru's favor as he was once again everywhere and this time there were no zealot drops to ruin his fun. Using small packs of units to apply pressure and bait storms, Maru set the scene perfectly for his unrelenting drop play and soon every inch of Dear’s base was under attack. Powerless to fight the Terran pressure, Dear tapped out for the tie.
Games three and four brought along the anticlimactic ending to the series. On Yeonsu, Maru opened quad-reaper only to see his harass yielding less than nothing. Upon deflecting the attack and killing two reapers in the process, Dear threw down a twilight council and a 2-base 4-gate blink rush was soon underway. Although Maru eventually scouted his enemy’s plan and threw down a handful of bunkers in response, a misclick on his part resulted in a perfect time warp catching his entire army and an uncontested win for the Protoss.
Down by one and on the brink of elimination, Maru consulted the audacity in him and a double proxy rax bunker rush was given start. SCVs were pulled to supplement the marines and 13 probes fell during the first attack. It was the nexus cannon that shut out any further plans for aggression from Maru's part and safe behind the overcharge firepower, Dear got all the time he needed. The stalker count went up, the second SCV pull was stopped and Maru was shown the door out of Code S. Final score: Dear 3-1 Maru.
The Zerg mirror between reigning Code S Woongjin’s ace Soulkey and SKT’s soO ended up an even shorter one. Confident he can crush his less accomplished opponent quickly and easily, the reigning Code S champion took a roach/baneling barrage to soO only to see it flawlessly defended. Building upon his already favorable position, soO played the rest of the game by the book, immediately countering with a roach pressure of his own and putting the Zerg Goliath a game down.
Game two on Frost ended up being a classic roach tug of war in which soO was once again the player who’s always a step ahead. From the opening minutes which had soO secure his third faster to the mid-game decision making which put him in the lead upgrade-wise, the SKT player was doing everything right. The actual engagements were carried out with similar meticulousness and saw soO carefully escaping concaves or setting better ones himself. Timely utilizations of transfusions were the last pebbles in the avalanche of small advantages and shortly after minute 20, Soulkey was down by a pair.
Confident in his lead, soO strayed away from the roach warren tech and game three Whirlwind began with a gas-hatch-pool opening by the SKT Zerg against the standard pool first into hatch from Soulkey. Ling speed was started before the Soulkey though to even get his first geyser up and soon after a baneling nest was also on the way. Massive zergling production commenced and viewers knew the game would end soon one way or another.
Indeed it did, though in an anticlimactic fashion once again. As it stormed Soulkey’s front door, the ling/baneling torrent found a crack in the wall and broke in to surround and kill everything. His base flooded by enemy units, Soulkey GG’ed instantly, putting an end to another day of one-sided series.
Rotator photos: Kevin Chang / Team Liquid