At last, the series we’ve been waiting for has arrived: Eo “Soo” Yun Su vs Kim “sOs” Yoo Jin. A thunderous clash of style, smarts, and story. What a treat it was.

In one corner, we have Soo. This man has fought and clawed his way to the GSL finals for the fifth time, a feat that only the great Jung “Mvp” Jong Hyun has done. Despite this fact, he has never won. Will this legendary Zerg confirm his cursed career as an eternal silver medalist, or stand as a shining beacon of perseverance?

Against him we have sOs, one of the most feared players of all time, and last season’s grand finalist. A man that has won everything under the sun but a GSL championship. Tastless called sOs the “definition of a winner.”

On top of their successes and history, we have a clashing of brilliant minds. Soo is a stone wall of Zerg. His macro is perfect and his speed and intuition are remarkable. He completely embodies Zerg. He sees everything, he has units everywhere, and when you try to attack him, his numbers are simply overwhelming. Soo has a keen sense of when and how to take fights, and has some of the best Zerg mechanics in the world.

On the other side of the spectrum is the scariest player a solid Zerg like Soo can imagine. sOs is most likely the smartest player in the world, and because of that, no one wants to play him. He has a thousand different builds and he may never do the same one twice. He has a seemingly endless bag of tricks, and he always knows which one will hurt the most. He’s thinking what you’re thinking he’s thinking YOU’RE thinking, then he’s doing the opposite. He’s throwing mind games and fake-outs around like other Protoss research Warpgate.

Game 1

Game 1 was like watching someone punch a brick wall. sOs came in with his “Harlem Globetrotters” moves, full of finesse and multitasking, juggling around his adepts and warp ins.

…But almost no drones died. An attack designed to kill at least twenty workers was crushed almost perfectly. Artosis rightly pointed out that Soo would probably just roll him over in a few minutes, and he did.

Game 2

In Game 2 sOs appeared to be going with the exact same build. Fast expand, one Oracle, one Phoenix, some Gateways. sOs came in with yet another Adept attack with the intent to cripple, but this time it worked. He used Soo’s memory of the first game against him, canceling shades he would have previously completed and vice versa. This attack killed 20 drones as intended, in addition to a few from his surviving Oracle.

By the time Soo launched his signature Hydralisk/Baneling sledge hammer of a push, sOs had some juicy Storms waiting. Constant Warp Prism harassment would keep Soo at home while sOs began a full air transition. With an economy too weak to build anything but Hydras, Soo’s final attack would get absolutely crushed by Storms and Interceptors.

Game 3

Game 3 began with a double Pylon block from sOs and evolved into the standard double Archon drop.

Soo’s kiting would prove too strong, and handily pushed back sOs’s multi-pronged Warp Prism pressure.

After sOs botched a retreat and loses critical units, Soo poured all his money into Ravagers. Some well placed Currosive Biles would separate the Protoss’s Immortals from their support units and close out the game.

Game 4

Game 4 was the best of the whole series. Both players finally had the chance to showcase their incredible improvisational skills and strategic wit. sOs took an early lead with a Sentry/Immortal/Adept attack. With some clever Adept shades and Force Fields, sOs killed the third hatchery and even a few drones while his own third finished up.

Artosis made a great point here; the old Soo would likely find his position irrecoverable and launch a complete all in. But this is the new Soo, a more confident Soo. He’d try for the catch-up game. Soo would stabilize with Lurkers, forfeiting map control to the Protoss. In response, sOs would pump out a high count of Immortals and Storm tech, the perfect composition to surround and flatten Soo’s impatient Lurker push.

aOs would have an untouchable ground army for the next few minutes, but played hesitantly and patiently. Little did he know that a greater spire was on its way to make his Immortal ball obsolete.

The real chess match began when Soo’s Broodlords came into play. Confronted with six Broodlords and enough lurkers to rule out a forward blink, sOs knew a fight was out of the question.

With no chance of an air transition or sufficient anti air force, sOs had to get creative. He spent the rest of the game putting on a master class on how to play against Broodlords.

Repeatedly, Soo set up his unstoppable army on sOs’s side of the map, and repeatedly sOs counter attacked. More so he coaxed Soo to follow with tempting pokes. SOs would kill a base, bring the Broodlords all the way back, and recall to a newly finished Nexus. Then he’d wait, rinse, and repeat. It worked remarkably the first three times, killing Hatcheries and running the Broodlords all around.

Soo wasn’t falling for it any longer. He cut down the Protoss economy with lone Lurkers and packs of lings. By the time sOs had finished his fourth bait-and-switch, sOs had no economy to jump back to, and had not even enough firepower to finish off the newest hatchery. GG.

Game 5

In Game 5 Soo got the sOs special with extra cheese. When you think of a StarCraft player that can whip out a never-before seen strategy in a crucial match, sOs is your man. The most standard opener in the PvZ matchup has been DT Archon Drops for months now. Sos was playing perfectly standard, right? Wrong.

Soo had fallen comfortably into thinking he was facing a build he’d dealt with countless times in practice. The DTs drop off in my main. No worries, I have a Spore Crawler. But this is SOS! Another Prism came in with another hit squad of DTs.

Before long, there were Archons and Chargelots killing the Lair while another force hit the third. The beating would not end there.





Grouping up at Soo’s new fourth, sOs would charge onto Zerg’s creep like a wrecking ball, boxing the Zerg into the corner and flooding with Speed Zealots.

Game 6

This was the most one-sided game of the series, even more than Game 1. A Pylon rush failed completely, largely due to a lack of focus fire on the Hatchery.

After the attempts to damage from sOs’s Adepts and Oracles were mostly wiped out, Soo would once again launch a deadly Hydra/Baneling attack. Once again, he would wipe sOs off the map.

This series puts Soo at one of (if not the) best Zerg in the world. Equal to Dark and maybe better, Soo showed some of the highest level Zerg vs Protoss we’ve ever seen. It was his minimalist defense against sOs’s warp prism play – the quality of his engagements. Soo showed how to out-maneuver a quicker army and how to retain a high drone count in the face of blistering aggression. The question that remains is, does he have what it takes to go one step further?

Tasteless: He is the perfect range of Zerg, there’s really nothing he can’t do.

Artosis: Win a GSL?

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF AFREECA.TV