[SSL] Round of 16 Preview - Where It All Began Text by kjwcj Graphics by HawaiianPig





“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Brood War, 2012



From the dedication of Sonic and his sponsors, the hard work of players, ex-pro and amateur, and the loyalty of fans, both in Korea and abroad, comes the 7th Sonic Starleague. An offline tournament, played in front of a live audience in Seoul, Korea with 10 million won on the line.



Join us as we









Most of us weren’t around to see it start. In PC Bangs and tiny makeshift studios, players with nothing but ambition and meager personal sponsorships competed for whatever prize money was available, in the hope of making Starcraft their career. It was these players and the small, now forgotten tournaments they competed in that laid the groundwork for the phenomenon that was the Korean professional Brood War scene. When the doors closed at the MBC Game studio and the lights went down at Jamsil Student Gymnasium, Brood War progaming was supposedly over.“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”From the dedication of Sonic and his sponsors, the hard work of players, ex-pro and amateur, and the loyalty of fans, both in Korea and abroad, comes the 7th Sonic Starleague. An offline tournament, played in front of a live audience in Seoul, Korea with 10 million won on the line.Join us as we review the lessons from the Ro32 , take a chance to enjoy a selection of the VODs ArvickHero has worked so hard to organise and revel in the brilliance and the terror that lurks in the mind of Sky[kaL]. Finally, when you are fully up to speed with what has taken place in the online portion of the tournament, join us as we look ahead to the Ro16 groups , played at Sonic’s studio in Jeungmi, Seoul. Table of Contents



Five Things We Learned

From the Round of 32



10 Recommended Games



Battle Report



Round of 16 Previews





By kjwcj Five Things We Learned From the Round of 32





The Hwaseung Dynasty Continues







No.



The most challenging thing about covering an Afreeca league is finding new ways to say “Former Hwaseung Oz progamer”. Ex-Oz, Ex-Hwaseung, Former Oz, Former Hwaseung, Former Jaedong Teammate, SPL 2007 Champion. I like to think I’m a relatively creative person but there is not enough creativity in the mind of every painter, poet, author and musician on the planet to come up with a sufficient number of ways to say “Yep, this dude was on Hwaseung too”.





Hide yo drones, hide yo probes.



Since the disbandment of Hwaseung OZ in 2011, Afreeca has been struck by an



The unfortunate loss of Anytime and BackHo to real life duties saw the ex-Hwaseung ranks take a hit in recent months. However, the arrival of Killer and Perfectman quickly did away with any idea that perhaps former CJ, KT or MBC players might get a chance to win something for once. Of the seven retired OZ players participating in the SSL, five made it to the Ro16 with their big three of HiyA, Killer and Sky appearing as heavy favourites to advance. The most challenging thing about covering an Afreeca league is not finding information about unknown amateur players, deciphering Google-translated information from terribly organised Afreeca bulletin boards or even catching up on the massive number of games that have been so carefully collated by TL legend ArvickHero.No.The most challenging thing about covering an Afreeca league is finding new ways to say “Former Hwaseung Oz progamer”. Ex-Oz, Ex-Hwaseung, Former Oz, Former Hwaseung, Former Jaedong Teammate, SPL 2007 Champion. I like to think I’m a relatively creative person but there is not enough creativity in the mind of every painter, poet, author and musician on the planet to come up with a sufficient number of ways to say “Yep, this dude was on Hwaseung too”.Since the disbandment of Hwaseung OZ in 2011, Afreeca has been struck by an all singing all dancing tsunami of talent from the team that Cho Jeong Woong built. Five of the eight players in the Terror BJ Starleague quarter-final, four of the Hodduk Starleague Ro8 and both players in the final of the last Sonic Starleague. Honestly, if OZ players were this good when they were still competing in Proleague, Jaedong’s back muscles would have atrophied.The unfortunate loss of Anytime and BackHo to real life duties saw the ex-Hwaseung ranks take a hit in recent months. However, the arrival of Killer and Perfectman quickly did away with any idea that perhaps former CJ, KT or MBC players might get a chance to win something for once. Of the seven retired OZ players participating in the SSL, five made it to the Ro16 with their big three of HiyA, Killer and Sky appearing as heavy favourites to advance.





The Cavalry Has Arrived



It seems like every new Afreeca Starleague in the past year has seen the debut of a set of new ex-progamers, fresh from KeSPA retirement and unable or unwilling to suppress their need for competition. The latest crop of Afreeca debutants is one of the strongest ever and the new kids on the block wasted no time in making their presence felt.



The most notable of the bunch is obviously ex-Hwaseung and T8 Zerg, Killer, who has looked a level above most of the players on Fish since he begun streaming a few months ago. Although he was placed in the relatively weak Group B, Killer was imperious in the Ro32, advancing with perfect play and a perfect score. Elsewhere, recent retiree and former Hwaseung player, Perfectman, looked relatively assured as he advanced to the Ro16, dismissing beast 3-0 in the Group B final match.



Yet another former ex-OZ progamer, Saber_Lt, made a strong impression as he topped Group E. Saber’s good form is a pleasant surprise given the amount of time that has passed since his retirement and his relatively recent arrival to the BJ scene. His performance against Sexy was especially impressive, taking two solid late-game wins over a Terran player who has previously taken wins off the likes of Minho and Luxury.





Amateurism Fading







However, not all is lost for the semi-pros. Lead by IcaruS[ScM] and Shinee, two players who have been competing at the highest level on Fish and West for a number of years now, a small number of hard-working and well-prepared semi-pros have made it to the Ro16 and stand a decent chance of making it further if things work out their way.





Shinee, the Hulk Terran. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.



Whether it’s a case of the better players from the pro scene displacing those who were never quite good enough to make it or just disenchantment for long time BJs who have lost their audience to famous ex-pro streamers, it is sad to see the guys who competed so valiantly in the past drift away from the scene. With the SOSPA Proleague due to begin soon, there should be an opportunity for the players who for a long time formed the core of this scene to again have a reason to practice and a chance to compete. While technically the SSL is an amateur league, the huge influx of A team progamers into the scene in the last year has slowly begun to marginalise the old guard of semi-pro and amateur players who were for a long time the lifeblood of the Afreeca scene. Swift eliminations for the likes of force[name], Minus)mahell and AsiaSin[ScM] paint a bleak picture for the future of those players not lucky or talented enough to have spent time as part of a professional team.However, not all is lost for the semi-pros. Lead by IcaruS[ScM] and Shinee, two players who have been competing at the highest level on Fish and West for a number of years now, a small number of hard-working and well-prepared semi-pros have made it to the Ro16 and stand a decent chance of making it further if things work out their way.Whether it’s a case of the better players from the pro scene displacing those who were never quite good enough to make it or just disenchantment for long time BJs who have lost their audience to famous ex-pro streamers, it is sad to see the guys who competed so valiantly in the past drift away from the scene. With the SOSPA Proleague due to begin soon, there should be an opportunity for the players who for a long time formed the core of this scene to again have a reason to practice and a chance to compete.





The King is Dead, Long Live the King(s?)



Anyone who watched Afreeca streams regularly during the first half of 2012 will remember Minho_Lt. When he was at his peak and playing a lot, Minho was one of the best players to ever compete in any Afreeca tournament. His management was as good as sAviOr’s, his mutalisk aggression as good as Luxury’s and his speed and mechanics as good as HiyA’s. He was both the most entertaining and the most dominating player that you could ever hope to watch. Unfortunately for Minho, his best play came at a time when there weren’t many leagues to play in and he began streaming less and less before getting temporarily banned from Afreeca for some Terror-esque antics.



Minho still entered this tournament as a player most would have expected to at least reach the bracket stages but in his series versus Sexy he looked like a shadow of the player that he was a few months back. Conveniently, however, a group of new Zerg players have appeared to fill the void that Minho had left.



The first is Killer, who, while not quite as fast or as aggressive as Minho, comes to us with OSL Ro8 pedigree and teachings from the mouth of The Dong. There’s little doubt that Killer is an objectively better player than Minho and his performances so far in showmatches and on Fish ladder make him look like a clear favourite to win this league and any other he may choose to participate in.



Another player who has shown sufficient potential to fill the void that Minho left is former CJ Entus progamer Cola. While he was actually active on Afreeca at the same time as Minho, competing in HSL and SSL6, Cola never showed much in the way of form, being eliminated in the Ro32 of both tournaments. Since he began streaming his FPV on Afreeca, Cola’s play has improved significantly and his performance in the Ro32 of this SSL gave viewers an inkling of why CJ chose to draft him back in 2010. He is fast, very fast, and his management-oriented style of play is a lot of fun to watch when he gets up and running. While he doesn’t have the experience of Killer or the flair of Minho, Cola brings something unique to the table that we hope to see more of in the future.



Finally there is Saber_Lt, a player who we knew little about prior to this tournament. He is one of the seemingly ever expanding ex-Hwaseung crew and his play in the Ro32 was genuinely impressive. One to watch out for.





Sky Rockets in Flight









Evil has a face.



At the start of 2011, when there was a huge rush of individual tournaments taking advantage of the newfound wealth of ex-progamer fame and viewer numbers, the main question was when HiyA would finally win something. In Terror and Hodduk’s Starleagues, HiyA was undone by his former teammates, losing to Sexy in the TerSL Ro8 and Anytime in the HSL Ro4. In SSL6, everything seemed to fall into place for HiyA. He was drawn on the opposite side of the bracket to all three of his former teammate Protoss and crushed his Ro8 and Ro4 opponents easily. In the final, he met Sky, a player who conventional wisdom said had the weakest PvT of the three ex-OZ Protoss.



Unfortunately for HiyA, it wasn’t to be. Sky won the final, claimed the 1.5 million won prize and then proceeded to go on an absolute tear. He topped the Fish ladder for the first time and in doing so became one of a select few to ever exceed 2000 points, he won numerous showmatches and was for an extended period of time the player to beat in any Afreeca tournament. After a while it seemed like Sky got bored, he was less active on Afreeca and Fish and he fell in showmatches to players like Pusan and Sexy, players that he never would have lost to when at his best.



Fortunately for us, it looks like Sky is trying again. His performance in the Ro32 was vintage Sky; weird, slow and damn effective. His wins over Shinee and Zergman, two very strong players who have been at or around the top of Fish ladder for some time, were exactly what you would expect from Sky when he is on his game. Sky is one of the most unique and intriguing characters in the Afreeca scene and his ability to produce interesting, if imperfect games, is unparalleled as evidenced by his Sky is a hard player, or indeed person, to get a measure of. His APM is low, often sitting at well below 100 in the early-game, his play is often unorthodox and his manners are not always very good. In spite of this, he is very, very good at Starcraft.At the start of 2011, when there was a huge rush of individual tournaments taking advantage of the newfound wealth of ex-progamer fame and viewer numbers, the main question was when HiyA would finally win something. In Terror and Hodduk’s Starleagues, HiyA was undone by his former teammates, losing to Sexy in the TerSL Ro8 and Anytime in the HSL Ro4. In SSL6, everything seemed to fall into place for HiyA. He was drawn on the opposite side of the bracket to all three of his former teammate Protoss and crushed his Ro8 and Ro4 opponents easily. In the final, he met Sky, a player who conventional wisdom said had the weakest PvT of the three ex-OZ Protoss.Unfortunately for HiyA, it wasn’t to be. Sky won the final, claimed the 1.5 million won prize and then proceeded to go on an absolute tear. He topped the Fish ladder for the first time and in doing so became one of a select few to ever exceed 2000 points, he won numerous showmatches and was for an extended period of timeplayer to beat in any Afreeca tournament. After a while it seemed like Sky got bored, he was less active on Afreeca and Fish and he fell in showmatches to players like Pusan and Sexy, players that he never would have lost to when at his best.Fortunately for us, it looks like Sky is trying again. His performance in the Ro32 was vintage Sky; weird, slow and damn effective. His wins over Shinee and Zergman, two very strong players who have been at or around the top of Fish ladder for some time, were exactly what you would expect from Sky when he is on his game. Sky is one of the most unique and intriguing characters in the Afreeca scene and his ability to produce interesting, if imperfect games, is unparalleled as evidenced by his Ro32 game against Shinee . With Killer on the scene now and HiyA looking as strong as ever, the likelihood of Sky taking back to back SSL victories seems slim, but viewers should look forward to Sky’s games for as long as he’s able to stick around.









By ArvickHero 10 Recommended Games



10 Mong vs Force[Name] on Neo Jade





+ Show Spoiler +





From the ground-breaking studio AfreecaTV and visionary director Sonic. Force[Name] and Mong, starring in "Crazy Zerg"





9 Mong vs Pusan on Neo Electric Circuit





+ Show Spoiler +





The Spirit is unaffected by Age.

8 Shinee vs Sky on Neo Jade





+ Show Spoiler +





Shinee and Sky, mud wrestling. Action-packed, scrappy, and dirty.

7 ZergMaN vs Sky on Neo Jade





+ Show Spoiler +





Scrappy, low-econ PvZ game. And then suddenly. Corsair/Scout.

6 KangTaeWan vs Terror on Fighting Spirit





+ Show Spoiler +





Terror, the king of ceremonies. But something goes awry this game.

5 Hint vs Saber on Neo Electric Circuit





+ Show Spoiler +





Sick strategy, but will it work?

4 Mong vs Minus)ZeLoT on Neo Jade





+ Show Spoiler +





Never a dull moment.

3 Sexy vs Hint on Neo Jade





+ Show Spoiler +





The game isn't over until it's over.

2 KangTaeWan vs Ondol on Neo Electric Circuit





+ Show Spoiler +





There are no such thing as hard-counter units in this game.

1 LYH vs Soma on Fighting Spirit





+ Show Spoiler +





Great back-and-forth PvZ.









By Simplistik Shinee vs Sky[kaL] Battle Report



It's the Ro32 of the SSL. The map is , a semi-pro Terran player who once participated in the ill-fated MyStarleague. He goes up against the reigning SSL champion, Protoss player , a former Hwaseung Oz pro and Dream League powerhouse(?!). This is Sky's first game on the road to defending his title. Last season he saw off Anytime, and to clinch the gold. Can he do it again?



Shinee lands in the top left as the yellow Terran. Sky, in red, warps in at the bottom left. Both players open standard with a supply building. The map is fairly balanced for PvT, so Sky starts his nexus after making twelve probes. By that time Shinee is already half-way through building a barracks as well as a very fast refinery.



One can clearly sense early game shenanigans. Sky continues by warping in a gateway, getting his gas and making a second gateway as well as a cybernetics core. Shinee starts a factory as soon as he has collected enough gas. He also sends out two Marines and a huddle of approximately six SCVs.



The first zealot kills the two marines, but gets taken down by a vulture. Meanwhile probes have prevented the first bunker attempt. The second attempt is thwarted by Sky's first two dragoons.





Denied. For now...



Shinee stays on one base, continues to produce vultures and starts siege tank production, while upgrading from his single machine shop. Sky is researching dragoon range, while starting down the robotics tech path. A few dragoons scamper around the map, but don't find anything. With spider mines available Shinee inches his way towards the Protoss natural expansion. When siege tech finishes the shelling begins in earnest.





The sound of siege tanks makes me shiver.



A few vultures find their way into the Protoss main and manage to kill a few probes. At the same time Sky uses a shuttle loaded with two dragoons to pick off a reinforcing siege tank. Shinee is still on one base when that shuttle arrives in his main base. However, missile turrets, spider mines and vultures convince the lone dark templar passenger to stay on board.



The Siege Tanks have finally gotten in range of the Nexus. Shinee has also re-positioned his Barracks to solidify his position. But Sky has also been busy at home, researching Leg Enhancement, adding a number Gateways and making a round of Zealots. He uses them to great effect by destroying every single Siege Tank.





Where have all the siege tanks gone? Zealots killed them every one.



With his early push nearly in ruins, Shinee realises that there are only very few Protoss units left in the field. He orders his remaining marines and vultures forward, killing a number of dragoons and forcing the probes to evacuate to the safety of the main base.





Attack!



At the same time the Terran commander has realised that he can't stay on one base any longer. He starts his second command center approximately eleven and a half minutes into the game. Sky finds himself in a little bit of trouble, having no observers to help him get up his own ramp. And what does a self-respecting Protoss do in such a situation? He uses his previously ineffective dark templar shuttle to kill several reinforcing units including at least two siege tanks.



An observer finally arrives, allowing the dragoons to break into the natural. The nexus barely survives. Due to the different state of the players' respective economies Sky is able to overpower the contain with pure dragoons. He celebrates this achievement by taunting his opponent in the chat.





"Ki Ki"



After that mad moment the game calms down a bit. Shinee tries to get his two base economy going and adds a few factories. Sky replinishes his probes and continues to warp in dragoons. He fakes a storm drop, wasting some SCV mining time, and takes his third base. The Terran responds in kind by building a third command centre.



Both players continue to macro up. Shinee is evidently concerned about arbiters, so he starts construction of a science facility and assembles some goliaths. Sky has a few high templars charging up their energies. The first weapon upgrade research starts.



The game seems to be progressing normally. The Terran player fortifies the ridge connecting his natural expansion to his third base, while the Protoss takes a fourth base in the bottom right empty main. The end comes so suddenly that the observer nearly misses it. A great storm drop wipes out nearly all the SCVs at the natural. Shinee realises that he only has a handful of SCVs left and is also behind in tech and army size, so he taps out.





GG.



The previous six seasons of the SSL passed me by. So this was actually one of the first SSL games I ever watched. It was packed with action, had some tense and some funny moments and was overall of fairly high quality. But most importantly it reminded me of two games I really like:









By kjwcj Round of 16 Previews







Group A Group B Group C Group D Pusan Mong Killer Cola IcaruS Perfectman HiyA Sky Larva Shinee Hint Ample Soma Saber KangTaeWan Koala



Group A



Through an oddity of the group drawing procedure used by Sonic, Group A finds itself with three players who won their Ro32 groups. In spite of this, it doesn’t seem like a particularly strong group, with none of the players in it being considered strong favourites to win the tournament or even reach the final. Group A can best be characterised as a group of underdogs, with Pusan, IcaruS and Larva all having shown, both in the Ro32 and in other tournaments, that they have the potential to upset the very best but not quite the level of skill to consistently be a factor.





This is the most normal Pusan's face has ever looked.



Pusan and IcaruS look to be the two clear favourites to progress, with the winner of their meeting likely deciding who advances first in the group. These two have some history in the SSL, with Pusan eliminating IcaruS 3-1 in the Ro8 of SSL6. IcaruS’s TvZ looked strong in the Ro32 and with both Larva and Soma having exhibited little proficiency outside of ZvP so far, he looks in good shape to make it to the Ro8. Pusan ought to be a little more worried, his PvZ often relies on gimmicky play and up against Larva, his clanmate and regular practice partner, he’s unlikely to have any new tricks to pull. In the past, Pusan has been able to pull of a decent macro game when the occasion calls for it, his ability to do so here will likely be the difference between the Ro8 and elimination.



Pusan and IcaruS to advance.



Group B



In congruence with the strange circumstances of Group A, Group B finds itself with three second place getters from the Ro32 but has ended up looking like a much stronger group. All four players have shown enough to suggest they’re good enough to reach the Ro8 and who advances will likely be decided by how the match-ups shake out and the form of the players on the day.



As the current leader of the SOSPA BJ rankings, a lot is expected of Mong in this tournament. He is probably the best equipped player in the entire tournament to take down Killer, with TvZ having been his specialty since his days as a CJ progamer. However in the Ro32, Mong looked like he’d be lucky to even making to the Ro16, needing five games to defeat relatively unknown semi-pro Minus)ZeloT in the Group A final. Having looked that vulnerable in what has always been his strongest match-up, it will be one hell of a revival if Mong gets it together and advances from this group.



Elsewhere, past SSL champion Shinee only just scraped through Group D after winning 3-2 versus ZergMaN and Perfectman advanced easily over relatively weak opposition in the form of beast[kaL]. As the only player in this group to have advanced to the Ro16 in first place, Saber looks to be in an excellent position to continue his impressive debut run into the Ro8. With a solid victory over strong TvZ player Sexy in the Ro32, Saber should be favoured against both Shinee and Mong based on the form they’ve shown so far in the tournament. Saber’s other Ro32 series, a ZvP against Hint was a good clean win but doesn’t prove anything conclusive about his ability to take out a player of Perfectman’s experience. This group may come down to Perfectman’s ability to win a PvT, a match-up in which he has not been tested so far in this tournament but one in which he was probably least awful during his career as a progamer.



Saber and Perfectman to advance.



Group C



Group C features two of the favourites to win the whole tournament facing off against two players who needed needed all five games to advance from their Ro32 groups. Hint played some neat PvT as he reverse swept Sexy in Group E and has a slim but definitely real chance of taking down HiyA, whose TvP has been his Achilles’ heel in past Afreeca leagues. KangTaeWan won a lot of TvZs as he advanced from Group F but will likely pose little threat to either Killer or HiyA.





Two out of three ain't bad.



This group, then, is essentially about one Bo3 between HiyA and Killer to decide who gets the better seed into the the Ro8. Past meetings between the two have generally swung in favour of Killer, with the ex-T8 Zerg’s more recent exit from the progamer lifestyle likely playing a big role. HiyA’s standard TvZ is excellent and he also has the ability to mix in some builds which could take his old teammate by surprise. Although, HiyA’s ability to execute standard play is about as good any other Terran in the tournament, it probably isn’t good enough to beat Killer in a long game. Preparation or invention could be key for HiyA here but even then it’s hard to say whether or not it will be enough to overcome the best player in the tournament. Either way, this is the most high profile match-up of this round and the victor will likely be favourite to win it all.



Killer and HiyA to advance.



Group D



While Group B is difficult to predict because of the strange form of its competitors, Group D has the same issue simply because all the players involved are so good. Sky and Koala demolished their groups with consummate ease, Sky having appeared to regain some of his past form and Koala setting a record for the quickest 4-0 in history, taking a little over 30 minutes of gametime to win a weak Group H. Their good performances in the Ro32 should have given them confidence about reaching the Ro8 and if the groups were drawn differently they may have been favourites. The two second place getters have potential to upset things however.



Cola’s only real mistake so far in this tournament has been to get drawn in a group with HiyA. While his ZvT didn’t look objectively bad in his Group C match against the ex-OZ Terran, it wasn’t anything close to being enough to win him the group. After being quickly dismissed by HiyA, Cola rallied and was a level above his two remaining opponents, StarCue and Minus)eagle. Having reached the Ro4 of the last SSL, it was a bit of a surprise that Ample just barely scraped through to the Ro16 and based on his showings against both Perry and He)Jy, he should be desperate to avoid playing Sky in any meaningful scenario.



Although it is closely matched, based on his past form and current level of activity Sky should have enough to advance from this group in first place. The real fight should be for the second spot and as in Group B, it will likely come down to which match-ups are played and the individual form of the players on the day. Although he struggled in the Ro32, Ample’s past experience in these tournaments and his strong TvT showings give him enough of an edge to be the favourite for that second slot but the group remains finely poised.



Sky and Ample to advance.







WRITERS: kjwcj, Simplistik, ArvickHero

GRAPHICS: HawaiianPig

EDITORS: SirJolt, 2Pacalypse- It's the Ro32 of the SSL. The map is Neo Jade . The challenger is Shinee , a semi-pro Terran player who once participated in the ill-fated MyStarleague. He goes up against the reigning SSL champion, Protoss player Sky[kaL] , a former Hwaseung Oz pro and Dream League powerhouse(?!). This is Sky's first game on the road to defending his title. Last season he saw off Pusan and HiyA to clinch the gold. Can he do it again?Shinee lands in the top left as the yellow Terran. Sky, in red, warps in at the bottom left. Both players open standard with a supply building. The map is fairly balanced for PvT, so Sky starts his nexus after making twelve probes. By that time Shinee is already half-way through building a barracks as well as a very fast refinery.One can clearly sense early game shenanigans. Sky continues by warping in a gateway, getting his gas and making a second gateway as well as a cybernetics core. Shinee starts a factory as soon as he has collected enough gas. He also sends out two Marines and a huddle of approximately six SCVs.The first zealot kills the two marines, but gets taken down by a vulture. Meanwhile probes have prevented the first bunker attempt. The second attempt is thwarted by Sky's first two dragoons.Shinee stays on one base, continues to produce vultures and starts siege tank production, while upgrading from his single machine shop. Sky is researching dragoon range, while starting down the robotics tech path. A few dragoons scamper around the map, but don't find anything. With spider mines available Shinee inches his way towards the Protoss natural expansion. When siege tech finishes the shelling begins in earnest.A few vultures find their way into the Protoss main and manage to kill a few probes. At the same time Sky uses a shuttle loaded with two dragoons to pick off a reinforcing siege tank. Shinee is still on one base when that shuttle arrives in his main base. However, missile turrets, spider mines and vultures convince the lone dark templar passenger to stay on board.The Siege Tanks have finally gotten in range of the Nexus. Shinee has also re-positioned his Barracks to solidify his position. But Sky has also been busy at home, researching Leg Enhancement, adding a number Gateways and making a round of Zealots. He uses them to great effect by destroying every single Siege Tank.With his early push nearly in ruins, Shinee realises that there are only very few Protoss units left in the field. He orders his remaining marines and vultures forward, killing a number of dragoons and forcing the probes to evacuate to the safety of the main base.At the same time the Terran commander has realised that he can't stay on one base any longer. He starts his second command center approximately eleven and a half minutes into the game. Sky finds himself in a little bit of trouble, having no observers to help him get up his own ramp. And what does a self-respecting Protoss do in such a situation? He uses his previously ineffective dark templar shuttle to kill several reinforcing units including at least two siege tanks.An observer finally arrives, allowing the dragoons to break into the natural. The nexus barely survives. Due to the different state of the players' respective economies Sky is able to overpower the contain with pure dragoons. He celebrates this achievement by taunting his opponent in the chat.After that mad moment the game calms down a bit. Shinee tries to get his two base economy going and adds a few factories. Sky replinishes his probes and continues to warp in dragoons. He fakes a storm drop, wasting some SCV mining time, and takes his third base. The Terran responds in kind by building a third command centre.Both players continue to macro up. Shinee is evidently concerned about arbiters, so he starts construction of a science facility and assembles some goliaths. Sky has a few high templars charging up their energies. The first weapon upgrade research starts.The game seems to be progressing normally. The Terran player fortifies the ridge connecting his natural expansion to his third base, while the Protoss takes a fourth base in the bottom right empty main. The end comes so suddenly that the observer nearly misses it. A great storm drop wipes out nearly all the SCVs at the natural. Shinee realises that he only has a handful of SCVs left and is also behind in tech and army size, so he taps out.The previous six seasons of the SSL passed me by. So this was actually one of the first SSL games I ever watched. It was packed with action, had some tense and some funny moments and was overall of fairly high quality. But most importantly it reminded me of two games I really like: fantasy vs Stork and Bisu vs Hwasin . And so I got hooked (again)!Through an oddity of the group drawing procedure used by Sonic, Group A finds itself with three players who won their Ro32 groups. In spite of this, it doesn’t seem like a particularly strong group, with none of the players in it being considered strong favourites to win the tournament or even reach the final. Group A can best be characterised as a group of underdogs, with Pusan, IcaruS and Larva all having shown, both in the Ro32 and in other tournaments, that they have the potential to upset the very best but not quite the level of skill to consistently be a factor.Pusan and IcaruS look to be the two clear favourites to progress, with the winner of their meeting likely deciding who advances first in the group. These two have some history in the SSL, with Pusan eliminating IcaruS 3-1 in the Ro8 of SSL6. IcaruS’s TvZ looked strong in the Ro32 and with both Larva and Soma having exhibited little proficiency outside of ZvP so far, he looks in good shape to make it to the Ro8. Pusan ought to be a little more worried, his PvZ often relies on gimmicky play and up against Larva, his clanmate and regular practice partner, he’s unlikely to have any new tricks to pull. In the past, Pusan has been able to pull of a decent macro game when the occasion calls for it, his ability to do so here will likely be the difference between the Ro8 and elimination.Pusan and IcaruS to advance.In congruence with the strange circumstances of Group A, Group B finds itself with three second place getters from the Ro32 but has ended up looking like a much stronger group. All four players have shown enough to suggest they’re good enough to reach the Ro8 and who advances will likely be decided by how the match-ups shake out and the form of the players on the day.As the current leader of the SOSPA BJ rankings, a lot is expected of Mong in this tournament. He is probably the best equipped player in the entire tournament to take down Killer, with TvZ having been his specialty since his days as a CJ progamer. However in the Ro32, Mong looked like he’d be lucky to even making to the Ro16, needing five games to defeat relatively unknown semi-pro Minus)ZeloT in the Group A final. Having looked that vulnerable in what has always been his strongest match-up, it will be one hell of a revival if Mong gets it together and advances from this group.Elsewhere, past SSL champion Shinee only just scraped through Group D after winning 3-2 versus ZergMaN and Perfectman advanced easily over relatively weak opposition in the form of beast[kaL]. As the only player in this group to have advanced to the Ro16 in first place, Saber looks to be in an excellent position to continue his impressive debut run into the Ro8. With a solid victory over strong TvZ player Sexy in the Ro32, Saber should be favoured against both Shinee and Mong based on the form they’ve shown so far in the tournament. Saber’s other Ro32 series, a ZvP against Hint was a good clean win but doesn’t prove anything conclusive about his ability to take out a player of Perfectman’s experience. This group may come down to Perfectman’s ability to win a PvT, a match-up in which he has not been tested so far in this tournament but one in which he was probably least awful during his career as a progamer.Saber and Perfectman to advance.Group C features two of the favourites to win the whole tournament facing off against two players who needed needed all five games to advance from their Ro32 groups. Hint played some neat PvT as he reverse swept Sexy in Group E and has a slim but definitely real chance of taking down HiyA, whose TvP has been his Achilles’ heel in past Afreeca leagues. KangTaeWan won a lot of TvZs as he advanced from Group F but will likely pose little threat to either Killer or HiyA.This group, then, is essentially about one Bo3 between HiyA and Killer to decide who gets the better seed into the the Ro8. Past meetings between the two have generally swung in favour of Killer, with the ex-T8 Zerg’s more recent exit from the progamer lifestyle likely playing a big role. HiyA’s standard TvZ is excellent and he also has the ability to mix in some builds which could take his old teammate by surprise. Although, HiyA’s ability to execute standard play is about as good any other Terran in the tournament, it probably isn’t good enough to beat Killer in a long game. Preparation or invention could be key for HiyA here but even then it’s hard to say whether or not it will be enough to overcome the best player in the tournament. Either way, this is the most high profile match-up of this round and the victor will likely be favourite to win it all.Killer and HiyA to advance.While Group B is difficult to predict because of the strange form of its competitors, Group D has the same issue simply because all the players involved are so good. Sky and Koala demolished their groups with consummate ease, Sky having appeared to regain some of his past form and Koala setting a record for the quickest 4-0 in history, taking a little over 30 minutes of gametime to win a weak Group H. Their good performances in the Ro32 should have given them confidence about reaching the Ro8 and if the groups were drawn differently they may have been favourites. The two second place getters have potential to upset things however.Cola’s only real mistake so far in this tournament has been to get drawn in a group with HiyA. While his ZvT didn’t look objectively bad in his Group C match against the ex-OZ Terran, it wasn’t anything close to being enough to win him the group. After being quickly dismissed by HiyA, Cola rallied and was a level above his two remaining opponents, StarCue and Minus)eagle. Having reached the Ro4 of the last SSL, it was a bit of a surprise that Ample just barely scraped through to the Ro16 and based on his showings against both Perry and He)Jy, he should be desperate to avoid playing Sky in any meaningful scenario.Although it is closely matched, based on his past form and current level of activity Sky should have enough to advance from this group in first place. The real fight should be for the second spot and as in Group B, it will likely come down to which match-ups are played and the individual form of the players on the day. Although he struggled in the Ro32, Ample’s past experience in these tournaments and his strong TvT showings give him enough of an edge to be the favourite for that second slot but the group remains finely poised.Sky and Ample to advance.kjwcj, Simplistik, ArvickHeroHawaiianPigSirJolt, 2Pacalypse- Writer