[Code S] Finals Preview - TY vs Zest - S1 2016 Text by TL.net ESPORTS Graphics by shiroiusagi GSL Code S Grand Finals By: Zealously & Olli GSL Code S Season 1 2016 Man of Chemos



Man of Chemos The Ten-Year Journey

The Ten-Year Journey Predictions

Predictions

BRACKETS AND STANDINGS ON Liquipedia



Man of Chemos

Zest has built his career on indomitability, a lack of flaws over dramatic flair. If such a description fools you into considering Zest a bland or robotic player, think again. His thing is refining, and fine improvements do not always attract the same attention as spectacular, fireworks-style innovations. But Zest has a deep-enough bag of tricks and strategies that his philosophy of solid becomes a style to itself. What Zest does is very clear - although the very fine points of his plans might escape viewers at a glance - and even simple to an extent. But be that as it may, the KT Protoss has proven that he is almost impossible to stop. Save a single (jaw-dropping in retrospect) game lost to Journey this year, Zest is undefeated in televised PvT. Accruing a win rate that reaches beyond 90% over four months in different tournaments, against different opponents? Frankly, it seems that Zest is the only player currently capable of achieving such a feat.



A near-perfect run is far from all that characterizes the Kingslayer. Though unremarkable in Brood War, his rise in Starcraft II was rapid once the ascent began, revealing volumes of untapped abilities best suited to Heart of the Swarm. In 2014, he became known as the player that even SKT's dream team could not put a stop to. As Brendan Valdes adequately put it some time later:



You know, when KT sent out Zest against SKT we were like "Who is this guy, why is he going to play KT?" Then he all-killed and won GSL and I thought "Oh, that's why."



Zest has always been vocal about the nature of his ambitions. Since the first great success, each one piled on top of it has been deemed insignificant. Striving to equal his friend and former teammate Flash, considered by many to be the epitome of all things Starcraft, "at least somewhere around six championships" is the target he has set for himself. And let me assure you, when he says championships, he does not mean Dreamhacks. Brood War, in the rearview window, is frequently divided into eras dominated by bonjwas, and Starcraft II has no real counterpart. Zest wants more from this finals than just a victory, he wants dominance. Through dominance, staved off once but now resumed, he wants to become that counterpart.



So it is fitting, then, that the player striving to equal and surpass Brood War's most perfect player has come to master a style of play that mirrors this desire. The elimination of flaws and slow construction of game plans that have no clear weaknesses make Zest what he is. Rarely is a pylon misplaced or a move ill-considered, and when these mistakes happen they represent cracks that appear only under immense pressure. It is testament to Zest's level of play that we should expect no mistakes at all, unless they are forced. And if such mistakes are forced, then that is testament to his opponent.



The process of finding the best possible solution to a problem usually comes with eliminating a number of alternate choices in favor of the optimal one. Zest has throughout his career reflected that line of thought like none other. Not only does he find optimal ways to play on certain maps, he rigorously refines them and will, simply put, not use anything else. This has held remarkably true in his highly successful approach to PvT. On paper, Zest's build choices may appear predictable and exploitable even, but it's his planning and accounting for all possibilities that lets him take such a firm grip on the matchup from the very start.



Zest's PvT revolves largely around two openings. Both are gateway expand builds with a mothership core and a chronoboosted adept to deny reaper scouts or, in case of no reaper expand, to gather his own scouting information. In both cases, he follows up with a robotics and twilight council. This is where he branches out. One of his openings opts for Blink , the other for a Dark Shrine and warp prism. Both allow him to defend factory-based aggression easily through well placed pylons and warpins, as well as giving him enough scouting information to identify and defend any sort of barracks pressure.



and Zest's games on Dusk Towers in general are perfect to study him and learn what kind of player he is. Across nine different PvTs in GSL, KungFu Cup and Proleague, Zest has done only these two builds on that map. His games all look remarkably similar, down to his pylon placement and unit movement.



Zest on Dusk Towers: a case study



Zest deals with widow mine aggression the exact same way each game. 4 stalkers and an observer in position at the natural to stop a medivac flying in; two pylons at the edges of his base near the main mineral line and the mothership core in position to defend that area. That defense is completely aggression-proof. Detection and enough DPS to gun down anything that comes in let Zest build up with barely any possibility to interrupt him. This is a trademark of his play throughout all stages of the game.





His DT drop build always warps in DTs in the exact same location (at the edge of the third base) and he always splits them the same way. One DT to slash away at depots or add-on at the main ramp, two dropped in the back natural. This allows him to stretch the Terran out and, with his prism never far away, bait scans and possibly avoid them with pickups. Behind this he researches blink and warps in a large amount of blink stalkers to keep Terran from moving out right after the DT defense, whether it be to counterattack or to take a third base. This allows him to gain an upper hand in economy or even kill the occasional greedy Terran.

See his game vs TaeJa for instance.





Once his third base is secure, Zest kicks into higher gear. Capitalizing on his grand economy, Zest almost always follows up with double forge and Resonating Glaives (Adept attack speed) to bolster his gateway-centric army. This allows him to deflect any potential midgame timing, but also makes his own attacks possible. Zest is very aggressive on the map with his mobile army, usually accompanied by a warp prism. The prism allows him to immediately seize an opportunity to attack in case Terran ever oversteps his mark.





To balance out his defense, since his army is not at home, Zest places pylons and observers all across the map to spot incoming drops or army movements. By the time anything gets to his base, he's ready to defend it.





Zest expands very rapidly. This is the case not only on Dusk Towers, but on every map and in general serves two main purposes. One , he strengthens his own economy and thereby finances his aggressive tech and gives him an ability to trade whenever he wants. Second , he puts a timer on his Terran opponent to stop his growing economy, or expand faster themselves to keep up. In his Proleague match against aLive , this is what ultimately leads to aLive's downfall who had barely been touched all game. Zest's economic explosion caused aLive to take his fourth base before he was able to take a fight in the open against Zest's mobile, heavily upgraded army with storm support. Zest immediately jumped on the opportunity and cut aLive's head off in one clean swing. The other option however is to sit back and allow him the economic freedom he wants, while he's already teching to Tempests and splitting the map. His fast-paced expanding is what a lot of Terrans have trouble dealing with, and for good reason.







Dusk Towers serves as a fantastic example to examine Zest as a player. His builds branch out a bit more on other maps - we've seen a proxy stargate and an adept drop on Orbital Shipyard, or a blink/robo opening turned into a 7gate with sentry drop - but will all generally follow the same rules. If there is a possibility for catch-all builds and strategies, he will find them through timing out his unit movement, placing his buildings correctly, having detection in the right places at the right time and mapping out all possible scenarios. That's the trademark of a player leaving nothing to chance and definitely a sign of a personality seeking perfection and domination.



It is always difficult to know when you stand on the precipice of greatness. You might know, in a vague sense, that you are getting closer to your goals. One more game. One more match. One more championship. So forth. Many things can come in the way and diminish both what you have achieved, and seek to achieve, meaning that each victory - even the resounding and impressive ones - can be fleeting. A few months of invincibility may not be enough for Zest to take the throne he has shown he desperately wants, but every reign has its beginning.





The Ten-Year Journey

Success takes time. In competition, this is something every player worth his salt is well aware of. It just so happens that sometimes, for some, the time it takes seems magnified, the challenges oversize and countless.



Considering his past, it is plainly absurd that Jun Tae Yang has never before stood on the finals stage. If you ever want to talk about potential, about talent, look no further than the player once called BaBy. Child prodigies are numerous in Starcraft, where lightning-fast reflexes and the ability to dedicate ample time to practice decides your future. He was so young when he first surfaced that his most important stepping stone was finishing middle school.





-TY, after all-killing AirForce ACE in 2010 When I go to school, I’m usually too tired to even practice a lot and my focus went down. I think now that I graduated middle school, I’m playing better (laughs).



Today, we cannot define TY by his young age. By the Starcraft standard, he is middle age, a notion that might seem slightly bizarre. Just look:







But despite all the years that have passed since his first awakening, the string of matches that brought him to the forefront of Korean Starcraft and pegged him as a sure contender for future championships, no such successes have come to pass. BaBy became TY, the change of ID paired with the switch from Brood War to Starcraft II, but the long-awaited revolution, the rightful ascension to the throne that seemed fated for him ten years ago? These did not become reality. Heart of the Swarm proved difficult, and 2013 was a notoriously quiet year for TY, absent GSL apperances. When he signed with KT Rolster following the expiration of his contract with Jin Air Green Wings, things could only get better. Flash and TY, now teammates, would both benefit greatly from a practice partner worthy of the name. And while 2014 did start well for TY, a 7-0 round record in Proleague earning him a ticket to Dreamhack Bucharest, he lacked the it, separated by a degree from the champions and title contenders that blitzed Korea. While Zest dominated in a way we have rarely seen, TY was torn between promising advancements and bland 0-3 defeats. But compared to years of more numerous failures and much fewer comparable successes, it wasn't just a start - it was a sign. With so many years dedicated to this walk of life, TY made it clear he would neither falter nor surrender.



Compared to the year before, 2015 brought the Terran ever closer to the spotlight. Qualifier eliminations became contested group stages, and failed Homestory Cup quarterfinals became nail-biting Code S semifinals, showdowns so hotly contested that there could no longer be a question. He could have reached the finals stage then and there, and probably would - had he not encountered the only player more resilient and determined. His semifinals against ByuL, arguably, ranked among the highlights of his career, not just because it was a semifinals match but because it demonstrated his depth. It feels strange to only fully realize what a player after so long, but I cannot think of a player that has worked with the same purposefulness for as long as TY has. When 2015 came to a close, it seemed that 2016 would have to be his year. Anything else, impossible.



In many ways, TY is the polar opposite of the most successful KeSPA Terran: INnoVation. Where the latter is meticulous to a fault, generally reluctant to diverge from premeditated builds and tactics, and slow to change his approach, TY does all of this essentially in reverse. TY is often more than content to defend, and he does this better than any other Terran, in part because of his malleability. He is the kind of player that would bring a tailored build to take a map, no matter how absurd the same build would be on any other map. He is adaptable, not only on the aggressive, but when he has to buckle down and hold the fort.



Much of it comes down to a fine-tuned sense of timing. He knows when and where the opponent will attack, and usually also where the opponent won't be. "Poking" sounds endearing and mostly harmless, and TY's pokes tend to be neither. Perhaps the greatest boon to TY's play has proven to be the liberator, a unit he will use with unerring efficiency. Liberators serve dual purposes when he is at the wheel, acting both as potent defensive measures and as key components in the small attacks that tear opponents apart at the seams.



If TY has thought of ways to counter this specific opponent, and that is an assumption I feel very comfortable making, I believe his best opportunities lie in finding the optimal middle ground between perfect defense and ruthless aggression. Half-measures do not cut it, rarely in the match-up and never against the caliber of opponent he now faces, but they are not his style. By denying diligently denying vision and maintaining his own, TY can fight on even footing with anyone. The challenge lies in managing to do that when pressure comes from different directions and keeping an eye out on the map becomes more difficult. His opponent, poised to become the most successful Protoss player of all time, is an ideal test of mettle.



The existence of this article speaks for itself. Whatever the obstacles that delayed his first appearance on the Starleague finals stage, he is here now. Ups and downs have not only lined TY's road, they have been the road, but he is doubtlessly better off for it. "Tooth and nail" is more than a tagline for a set of his games, it is the essence of his career. With almost ten years of Starcraft in the bag, how could it be anything else?



Against his more celebrated, much more successful teammate and opponent, he will need that essence.





Final Thoughts and Predictions



Twist and turn facts as you might, the finals will still come down to a clash between two excellent players that are, perhaps before anything else, teammates. Strange things are known to happen in such scenarios, and the players in question are far from mad deviations. Whoever is most proficient, most well-versed in playing beyond the standard rules, will have an advantage.



Teammates or not, however, Zest walks onto the stage with all of the initiative. He is more experienced, acquainted with the unique pressure of a finals match, and arguably a better, more complete player. But being better in general means nothing unless it can be translated to the match at hand, and there are few players better suited to put up a fight against Zest than TY himself. Engaging in a fight of brawn, a contest of pure force, seems like a Terran's sure path to defeat, but TY is neither one-dimensional nor without depth, and it would be silly to assume that he would fight with the biceps rather than the brain.



If Zest takes that initiative in the game, it's not hard to see a one-sided victory for the player responsible for some of the most one-sided series played this year. TY's saving grace is his incredible and well-measured reactions to what he can glean about his opponent, so keeping the Terran in the dark will enable Zest not only to win, but likely to sweep. Conversely, if TY can keep eyes on the map and straighten out what his Protoss opponent is doing, I think his chances of winning outweigh his opponent's. Early aggression has not been Zest's thing in the match-up this year, and surprises seem to be few. Between teammates, of course, it is impossible to say for certain what will happen, but if there is a Terran to plant his feet in the ground and say "No." to the seemingly unbeatable Protoss, it has to be TY.



Zest 4 - 2 TY



Zest has built his career on indomitability, a lack of flaws over dramatic flair. If such a description fools you into considering Zest a bland or robotic player, think again. His thing is refining, and fine improvements do not always attract the same attention as spectacular, fireworks-style innovations. But Zest has a deep-enough bag of tricks and strategies that his philosophy ofbecomes a style to itself. What Zest does is very clear - although the very fine points of his plans might escape viewers at a glance - and even simple to an extent. But be that as it may, the KT Protoss has proven that he is almost impossible to stop. Save a single (jaw-dropping in retrospect) game lost to Journey this year, Zest is undefeated in televised PvT. Accruing a win rate that reaches beyond 90% over four months in different tournaments, against different opponents? Frankly, it seems that Zest is the only player currently capable of achieving such a feat.A near-perfect run is far from all that characterizes the Kingslayer. Though unremarkable in Brood War, his rise in Starcraft II was rapid once the ascent began, revealing volumes of untapped abilities best suited to Heart of the Swarm. In 2014, he became known as the player that even SKT's dream team could not put a stop to. As Brendan Valdes adequately put it some time later:Zest has always been vocal about the nature of his ambitions. Since the first great success, each one piled on top of it has been deemed insignificant. Striving to equal his friend and former teammate Flash, considered by many to be the epitome of all things Starcraft, "at least somewhere around six championships" is the target he has set for himself. And let me assure you, when he says, he does not mean Dreamhacks. Brood War, in the rearview window, is frequently divided into eras dominated by bonjwas, and Starcraft II has no real counterpart. Zest wants more from this finals than just a victory, he wants dominance. Through dominance, staved off once but now resumed, he wants to become that counterpart.So it is fitting, then, that the player striving to equal and surpass Brood War's most perfect player has come to master a style of play that mirrors this desire. The elimination of flaws and slow construction of game plans that have noweaknesses make Zest what he is. Rarely is a pylon misplaced or a move ill-considered, and when these mistakes happen they represent cracks that appear only under immense pressure. It is testament to Zest's level of play that we should expect no mistakes at all, unless they are forced. And if such mistakes are forced, thenis testament to his opponent.The process of finding the best possible solution to a problem usually comes with eliminating a number of alternate choices in favor of the optimal one. Zest has throughout his career reflected that line of thought like none other. Not only does he find optimal ways to play on certain maps, he rigorously refines them and will, simply put, not use anything else. This has held remarkably true in his highly successful approach to PvT. On paper, Zest's build choices may appear predictable and exploitable even, but it's his planning and accounting for all possibilities that lets him take such a firm grip on the matchup from the very start.Zest's PvT revolves largely around two openings. Both are gateway expand builds with a mothership core and a chronoboosted adept to deny reaper scouts or, in case of no reaper expand, to gather his own scouting information. In both cases, he follows up with a robotics and twilight council. This is where he branches out. One of his openings opts for, the other for aand warp prism. Both allow him to defend factory-based aggression easily through well placed pylons and warpins, as well as giving him enough scouting information to identify and defend any sort of barracks pressure. This game against Cure and Zest's games on Dusk Towers in general are perfect to study him and learn what kind of player he is. Across nine different PvTs in GSL, KungFu Cup and Proleague, Zest has done only these two builds on that map. His games all look remarkably similar, down to his pylon placement and unit movement.Dusk Towers serves as a fantastic example to examine Zest as a player. His builds branch out a bit more on other maps - we've seen a proxy stargate and an adept drop on Orbital Shipyard, or a blink/robo opening turned into a 7gate with sentry drop - but will all generally follow the same rules. If there is a possibility for catch-all builds and strategies, he will find them through timing out his unit movement, placing his buildings correctly, having detection in the right places at the right time and mapping out all possible scenarios. That's the trademark of a player leaving nothing to chance and definitely a sign of a personality seeking perfection and domination.It is always difficult towhen you stand on the precipice of greatness. You might know, in a vague sense, that you are getting closer to your goals. One more game. One more match. One more championship. So forth. Many things can come in the way and diminish both what you have achieved, and seek to achieve, meaning that each victory - even the resounding and impressive ones - can be fleeting. A few months of invincibility may not be enough for Zest to take the throne he has shown he desperately wants, but every reign has its beginning.Success takes time. In competition, this is something every player worth his salt is well aware of. It just so happens that sometimes, for some, the time it takes seems magnified, the challenges oversize and countless.Considering his past, it is plainly absurd that Jun Tae Yang has never before stood on the finals stage. If you ever want to talk about potential, about, look no further than the player once called BaBy. Child prodigies are numerous in Starcraft, where lightning-fast reflexes and the ability to dedicate ample time to practice decides your future. He was so young when he first surfaced that his most important stepping stone wasToday, we cannot define TY by his young age. By the Starcraft standard, he is, a notion that might seem slightly bizarre. Just look:But despite all the years that have passed since his first awakening, the string of matches that brought him to the forefront of Korean Starcraft and pegged him as a sure contender for future championships, no such successes have come to pass. BaBy became TY, the change of ID paired with the switch from Brood War to Starcraft II, but the long-awaited revolution, the rightful ascension to the throne that seemed fated for him? These did not become reality. Heart of the Swarm proved difficult, and 2013 was a notoriously quiet year for TY, absent GSL apperances. When he signed with KT Rolster following the expiration of his contract with Jin Air Green Wings, things could only get better. Flash and TY, now teammates, would both benefit greatly from a practice partner worthy of the name. And while 2014start well for TY, a 7-0 round record in Proleague earning him a ticket to Dreamhack Bucharest, he lacked the, separated by a degree from the champions and title contenders that blitzed Korea. While Zest dominated in a way we have rarely seen, TY was torn between promising advancements and bland 0-3 defeats. But compared toof more numerous failures and much fewer comparable successes, it wasn't just a start - it was a sign. With so many years dedicated to this walk of life, TY made it clear he would neither falter nor surrender.Compared to the year before, 2015 brought the Terran ever closer to the spotlight. Qualifier eliminations became contested group stages, and failed Homestory Cup quarterfinals became nail-biting Code S semifinals, showdowns so hotly contested that there could no longer be a question. He could have reached the finals stage then and there, and probably would - had he not encountered the only player more resilient and determined. His semifinals against ByuL, arguably, ranked among the highlights of his career, not just because it was a semifinals match but because it demonstrated his depth. It feels strange to only fully realize what a player after so long, but I cannot think of a player that has worked with the same purposefulness for as long as TY has. When 2015 came to a close, it seemed that 2016 would have to beyear. Anything else, impossible.In many ways, TY is the polar opposite of the most successful KeSPA Terran: INnoVation. Where the latter is meticulous to a fault, generally reluctant to diverge from premeditated builds and tactics, and slow to change his approach, TY does all of this essentially in reverse. TY is often more than content to defend, and he does this better than any other Terran, in part because of his malleability. He is the kind of player thatbring a tailored build to take a map, no matter how absurd the same build would be on any other map. He is adaptable, not only on the aggressive, but when he has to buckle down and hold the fort.Much of it comes down to a fine-tuned sense of timing. Hewhen and where the opponent will attack, and usually also where the opponent won't be. "Poking" sounds endearing and mostly harmless, and TY's pokes tend to be neither. Perhaps the greatest boon to TY's play has proven to be the liberator, a unit he will use with unerring efficiency. Liberators serve dual purposes when he is at the wheel, acting both as potent defensive measures and as key components in the small attacks that tear opponents apart at the seams.If TY has thought of ways to counter this specific opponent, and that is an assumption I feel very comfortable making, I believe his best opportunities lie in finding the optimal middle ground between perfect defense and ruthless aggression. Half-measures do not cut it, rarely in the match-up and never against the caliber of opponent he now faces, but they are not his style. By denying diligently denying vision and maintaining his own, TY can fight on even footing with anyone. The challenge lies in managing to do that when pressure comes from different directions and keeping an eye out on the map becomes more difficult. His opponent, poised to become the most successful Protoss player of all time, is an ideal test of mettle.The existence of this article speaks for itself. Whatever the obstacles that delayed his first appearance on the Starleague finals stage, he is here now. Ups and downs have not only lined TY's road, they havethe road, but he is doubtlessly better off for it. "Tooth and nail" is more than a tagline for a set of his games, it is the essence of his career. With almost ten years of Starcraft in the bag, how could it be anything else?Against his more celebrated, much more successful teammate and opponent, he will need that essence.Twist and turn facts as you might, the finals will still come down to a clash between two excellent players that are, perhaps before anything else, teammates. Strange things are known to happen in such scenarios, and the players in question are far from mad deviations. Whoever is most proficient, most well-versed in playing beyond the standard rules, will have an advantage.Teammates or not, however, Zest walks onto the stage with all of the initiative. He is more experienced, acquainted with the unique pressure of a finals match, and arguably a better, more complete player. But beingin general means nothing unless it can be translated to the match at hand, and there are few players better suited to put up a fight against Zest than TY himself. Engaging in a fight of brawn, a contest of pure force, seems like a Terran's sure path to defeat, but TY is neither one-dimensional nor without depth, and it would be silly to assume that he would fight with the biceps rather than the brain.If Zest takes that initiative in the game, it's not hard to see a one-sided victory for the player responsible for some of the most one-sided series played this year. TY's saving grace is his incredible and well-measured reactions to what he can glean about his opponent, so keeping the Terran in the dark will enable Zest not only to win, but likely to. Conversely, if TY can keep eyes on the map and straighten out what his Protoss opponent is doing, I think his chances of winning outweigh his opponent's. Early aggression has not been Zest's thing in the match-up this year, and surprises seem to be few. Between teammates, of course, it is impossible to say for certain what will happen, but if there is a Terran to plant his feet in the ground and say "No." to the seemingly unbeatable Protoss, it has to be TY.2 TY

