The Tyrant

Introduction

Jaedong vs. Last

The Last Survivor

Playstyle:

Map Breakdown:

Final notes:

Jaedong's come a long way in his journey since making his Afreeca debut on November 12, 2016. As his sc2 career petered out and his contract with Evil Geniuses was nearing its end, people wondered what his next destination would be. Of course, many could easily predict Jaedong would come back to brood war. Jaedong was already playing under the smurfs jiko and 424, and his infamous 42 game session vs. Last was the talk of the town. No one could be certain though, as Jaedong himself said he was put off that people so readily assumed he was going to play Brood War competitively. Then, all speculation was put to rest by the announcement of his first stream date. Jaedong was back.He came back to the calling where he first made a name for himself as The Tyrant, God of Destruction, and Legend Killer. Not tired yet from his long sc2 career, it was as if the Tyrant was rejuvenated and back in his element. His debut tournament run was the ASL 2 where he performed averagely, defeating medium weights Mong and Stork. Then in a revival of a classic rivalry, he met Flash. He lost 2-3, but the games were incredibly close.Fans held high hopes for Jaedong to rise again as a dominating player. However, his ASL 2 run would be the last time Jaedong ever reached an offline ro8. He just wasn't the same player, a tired veteran past his prime. Despite that, he still held a large following, fans loving him for who he was. Here, in the only other major offline tourney besides the ASL, Jaedong has not only outdone himself, but has reached the finals.To quickly recap, to get to the finals, he exited his ro16 group in a close 3-2 vs. Light. He then beat Snow, and unexpectedly, 4-0'd Rain. Finally, after a long 1 year and 10 months, Jaedong is the closest to his "moment" that his fans could want. Although, his achievement goes further than what his legacy expects or what his fans merely want. 11 years since his first championship win of the 2007 OSL at age 17, Jaedong is still kicking in an industry where pros retire in their mid twenties. Jaedong has the heart of a champion, tenacity of a beast, and a fire of competition that never dies out. There's little else explaining how Jaedong, like many other ex-pros, continue playing the game, but like few others, still rise to the top. Arriving to his first offline finals after getting beaten down so many times before since his return to BW is testament to that.In all of his years, Jaedong still stays true to his style of intense micro, tempo based plays, and aggression. However, taking a closer look, he's not as ahead of the curve or perfect in his mechanics as he once was. In that same vein, Last would most likely defeat Jaedong in straight forward games online. However, that's not the game Jaedong plays in the KSL. Jaedong's offline competitive and series play, mind games, and preparation rises to prominence in the KSL's longer best of formats. His average games online just aren't perfect, but when he does get his chance on stage, he shines.Last, known for his flowchart like play, may fall victim to such dissection by Jaedong. However, for the KSL I've seen Last come to make more proactive, and less conservative plays. Last's major fault was his lack of sense in series and offline competition, but that's been lessened by Last's achievement in coming to the finals. He's not a robot, he's a player that will take risks, like his 14 CC vs. Soulkey. He was even inventive himself, using for the first time offline the 1-1-2 strategy, getting two starports. With such confident play, he bested Soulkey, a Zerg who has been considered to be better than Jaedong.But Jaedong isn't Soulkey, and better off in some ways. Comparing the two is only natural as both are top Zergs, and one has fallen to Last. Exactly where they differ is where Jaedong may succeed.Compared to Soulkey, Jaedong strategically will be more open. Jaedong as seen in his games vs. Snow and Rain emphasized mostly subtle adjustments and not drastic risk taking. Soulkey's premature attacks were flawlessly scouted by the map control play of 1-1-1. However, we saw Soulkey have great success with the 2.5 hatch muta plays, starting with two hatch lair, but adding the third hatch on later. That way he could put on some aggression a bit later, but still have a great economy to fall back on. Some of Soulkey's mixed results came from mixing both hydras and mutas when other plays emphasize more one or the other. He also went for much riskier 2 hatch all-in strats instead of the less riskier 2.5 hatch. Soulkey's hyper aggression may have been a drastic adaptation to Last's 2 starport variation of 1-1-1. However, already seeing Soulkey's results, Jaedong won't make the same mistake Instead, he'll do the far more nuanced 2.5 hatch plays.Additionally, Jaedong won't choke as easily. He's already shown us the cleanest series vs. Rain that felt more like Rain forced into making mistakes rather than Rain simply messing up. In fact, Last and Soulkey both had their mistakes. What comes to mind is Soulkey's disastrous trade of 6 mutas and a scourge for 1 SCV and marine on Fighting Spirit. That happened only for Last to lose his advantage to a followup ling attack due to making siege tanks from misreading hydras. In another game, Soulkey almost lost a practically won game on Gladiator after a failed hydra bust. And again, Soulkey did an overly ambitious hydra bust on Polaris Rhapsody. You get the point.On a mind game level, Jaedong will be better than Soulkey's repeated aggression. Soulkey's play was very one dimensional and not a good read on Last's mindset. Jaedong will have greater knowledge and vary his plays more according to his reads. Noticing Last's habit of bunkering no matter what, Jaedong will most likely do a play that abuses Last's safety. He may even think heavily on how to abuse the 1-1-2, or even consider Last tricking him into thinking it's 1-1-2. Like vs. Rain, he'll do more deceptive plays that will play for the longer game rather than hasten to a quick end. Moreover, 1-1-1 and 2.5 hatch is the mind game central of builds where Jaedong will flourish. In that regard, the builds emphasize Jaedong's strengths all the more. Will there be hydras, mutas, a ling bust, or something else entirely?Ultimately, Jaedong will scale back the blunders, make the right calls, perfect the micro, and go for more nuanced strategies than Soulkey's. Most importantly, he's going to read Last like a book. Jaedong's close to the gold, and I already feel he's wearing it around his neck. Jaedong's play now is a far cry from yesteryear's poor decision making and unit control slip-ups. Here he's finally playing the best he ever has like his old kespa days. The Tyrantback.Prediction: Jaedong 4-0 LastAfter looking through Last’s history in the past 2 years, perhaps too many of us were sleeping on him. We all said that his days where he bore the nickname, “AlphaGo,” were all but over. We counted him out time and time again. Yet in the past year, Last has quietly secured very respectable placements. In the DanJJING Starleague 1 at the end of 2017, he ended up winning the entire tournament through all 3 matchups, beating Soulkey and MIsO in TvZ, Skyhigh and Mong for TvT, and BeSt in TvP. In the DanJJING Starleague 2 at the beginning of 2018, he placed second to Larva in a tight 5 game series, dodging TvP, but still showing that his TvZ and TvT were very respectable by defeating Mong and Soulkey in the bracket stage.So why did we all suddenly start talking like Last was some low-tier player? Was it his embarrassing exit from the ASL5, where he lost his opener to MIsO, someone who no one expected would be a threat? Did his opening series against Mini in the Ro24 for this KSL leave a sour taste in everyone’s mouth? To be fair, his Ro24 did not look impressive at all, advancing only with total 6-6 record against Protoss. Furthermore, his overall KSL win-rate is sitting at a mediocre 13-10 record (56.5%) compared to that of Jaedong who is boasting a more respectable 14-7 record (66.7%). But perhaps two poor series, in the hardest matchup for Terran, shouldn’t be how we view his overall successful this past year. He might not be winning the big tournaments, but he sure has put himself in position to do it this weekend.His series against Soulkey is really the matchup I care about to analyze his gameplay. However, a quick note from his series against both Mini and Horang2 give us some indication of Last’s playstyle. His scrappy playstyle has been what has propelled him through this tournament, grinding his way out through groups and the bracket. His slow, methodical tank pushes against Protoss show both patience and calm decision-making in ensuring the highest possible outcome as he engages the enemy forces. But how does this apply to his TvZ, which he so brilliantly displayed against Soulkey? In 5/6 games, Last used the 1-1-1 build to induce a more micro-intensive, scrappy front of the game. While Soulkey did opt to play into this scrappy style, attempting all-in and aggressive builds, it must be said that Last expertly defended them during the series, aside from one slip-up in Game 3 where he didn’t wall the natural better for the mass zergling attack.That being said, with the various forms of 1-1-1 that he showed against Soulkey, such as the 2 port wraith follow up, fast vessels, fast tanks, etc.. Last should know that Jaedong will be more than ready for these variants and should deviate from them slightly. This is not to say Last must throw his entire approach against Soulkey out the window as he prepares for Jaedong, but he must understand that whatever he has shown against Soulkey will be better defended. We have seen his tendency to go for the classic bio-tank-vessel composition, opting not to go for the more popular SK style even after a fast +1 5 rax in Game 5 on Roadkill. For someone with as good of micro as he’s had, I’m a little surprised. But with how well Jaedong’s micro has been looking this tournament, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Last take a more macro approach to this series. After all, the strength of the 1-1-1 comes through its mind-game capabilities and forcing Zergs to pick uncomfortable options. Jaedong will be much less prone to getting flustered by this build compared to weaker Zergs, not saying Soulkey is weak by any means.Fighting Spirit, Circuit Breaker, and Roadkill all seem like good choices for a more macro-centric style with +1 5 rax being able to control the map well in the mid-game. We saw Last have success with the build on Roadkill, and expect him to still go for the tank-style on Roadkill especially to break down those lower ramps. Of course, 1-1-1 still is a valid option on all of these maps especially on Roadkill and Fighting Spirit with a more exposed and harassable natural mineral line for wraith play.Gladiator, while similar to Roadkill in that it has the reverse ramps, will play much different with the high ground ridges that will aid in mutalisk harassment, so 1-1-1 is probably a better option here as to not get caught walking around the map getting picked off by mutas. Not the best wraith map with relatively protected natural mineral lines and only the top left/bottom right mains being exposed in the back, so we’ll probably see him opt for a more traditional fast tech play.Fortress is the weird map because of how the corner bases operate, so expect 2 port cloaked wraith to punish any island bases. That being said, Jaedong might expect it and opt for a very anti-wraith build. This is the map, if anything, for Last to pull some cheese out of his bag. SK Terran not a bad choice especially with the battlecruiser option becoming more and more popular to attack the corner bases.On Blue Storm and Polaris Rhapsody, I expect 1-1-1 with good wraith play, with very exposed natural mineral lines and lots of ground to cover on the map to attack any Zerg 3rd. We saw in Game 2 vs Soulkey how wraiths are used throughout the course of the game, first scouting the Zerg, harassing, defending against overlord drops or aggressive natural breaks, and after the dust has settled, he can go ahead and sneak them into the back of a base to kill off drones while Zerg is out on the map. With how aggressive Jaedong has been with zerglings, I don’t expect anything outside of safe 1 rax play, as 8 rax and 14CC will get punished on both maps. However, don’t rule out mech on Polaris Rhapsody, as Last will want to think of something new to throw Jaedong off.Last played a great series against Soulkey and should be ready to go and warmed up for this series against Jaedong. But his go-to 2 port wraith strategy will be something he can’t use as much against Jaedong. Some options he hasn’t shown as much which I do expect in the series will be a potential mixup in the 1-1-1 to dropships and vultures, mech, and more aggressive barracks openers. If Last can continue to dictate the pace of these games as he’s done for the last 3 series against Mini, Horang2, and Soulkey, he will have excellent chances to take down the Tyrant.