[GSTL] Round One - Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Preview Text by TL.net ESPORTS Graphics by Pathy

Table of Contents









Group A, Day Two

Intro







SlayerS-EG vs NS HoSeo

Recap







Team Liquid vs ZeNEX

Preview







Check out the GSTL on







IntroRecapPreviewCheck out the GSTL on Liquipedia Foreigners in Foreign Lands



SlayerS began their road to redemption last night by taking down NS HoSeo by a score of 5 - 3. Tonight, we will see the first foreign team compete in the GSTL since FXO played in 2011's GSTL Season One: Team Liquid will go up against ZeNEX.



GSTL kicks off tonight at 09:10 GMT (+00:00) .



*Our apologies for the outdated news-post graphics. They will be updated in the near future.



SlayerS began their road to redemption last night by taking down NS HoSeo by a score of 5 - 3. Tonight, we will see the first foreign team compete in the GSTL since FXO played in 2011's GSTL Season One: Team Liquid will go up against ZeNEX. May the spirit of qxc be with them. GSTL kicks off tonight at Recap: SlayerS-EG vs NS HoSeo



Puzzle wins four straight in SlayerS-EG's 5 – 3 victory over NS HoSeo



Already one of the SlayerS' most productive players, Puzzle added four more wins in his best GSTL performance yet, leading his team to a 5 – 3 victory against New Star HoSeo. Puzzle made his appearance as SlayerS-EG trailed by a score of 1 to 3, coming out to take on NSH's ace Jjakji, who had been deployed early in the line-up. After Jjakji went down at the end of a heated game on Cloud Kingdom, NSH fielded three more players to take on SlayerS' Protoss ace, but were unable to find a solution in the end.



SlayerS-EG moves on to the winner's match of the group, where they await the victor of tonight's match between ZeNEX and Team Liquid. Meanwhile, NS HoSeo will face the losing team in an elimination match.





Match recap



The series began with conservative roster choices from both teams, as NSH's and SlayerS' faced off on Daybreak. NSH's lesser known lead-off man managed to impress in his first game, using a unique mass infestor harassment style to take out Miya and give NSH the lead.



Freaky continued to entertain in the second game, sticking to his mass infestor style in ZvP as well as he went up against . However, it was Crank who stole the show at the end of the game, somehow managing to hide a giant 3/3/3 upgraded carrier fleet before springing it on his unsuspecting opponent. Freaky was able to hold out briefly with a huge number of infested terrans from his mass infestors, but was left helpless once their energy was depleted.



With the score tied 1 – 1, NSH made the surprising move to send out their ace, , to take down Crank. The decision appeared to pay off at first, as Jjakji took out Crank with a well timed two-base attack on Antiga Shipyard, and then outplayed EG's PuMa in a macro game on Atlantis Spaceship to give his team a solid 3 – 1 lead.



Faced with the task of halting Jjakji's growing momentum, SlayerS made a daring move of their own by sending out to take on the NSH Ace in his specialty match-up, TvP. There were no gimmicks from Puzzle, was eager to take on Jjakji in a contest of pure strength on Cloud Kingdom. The two players traded blows in a close match, but ultimately Jjakji was unable to stop Puzzle from slowly assembling the dreaded Protoss-deathball. After a certain point, Jjakji stopped trading evenly with the Protoss army, and a little further down the line, saw his armies get crushed outright. Unable to continue, Jjakji GG'd out and passed the baton.



was the next runner for NSH, coming out with an interesting fast expansion into phoenix strategy on new GSTL map Muspelheim. However, Puzzle was just getting started in the series, and he took out San's sniper strategy with a well timed, well microed immortal + gateway unit attack that forced San to surrender before he could really get his strategy going.



Next up was to try and break the 3 – 3 tie, but he met a similar fate as Jjakji with his infantry withering under colossus fire. That left NSH facing defeat with just one last card to play, which turned out to be the incredibly talented but very inconsistent Seal.



NSH's fate was decided in a short, intense sequence. Puzzle played standard for the fourth game in a row, forge fast-expanding and continuing into a fast third base. Seal accepted Puzzle's invitation to be aggressive, and committed to attacking with roaches and lings before Puzzle's defenses became too hardened to pierce. With the terrain of Whirlwind working against him and his sentry count dangerously low, Puzzle looked to be on the very verge of defeat. However, he was able to just barely hold out until his first colossus completed, which was just enough to repel the Zerg attacks for good. Having expended so much time and money in fruitless attacks against the Protoss third, Seal was left with little in the tank. After adding a few more colossi to his army, Puzzle was able to move out, clean up Seal's army, and complete the 5 – 3 victory for SlayerS.





Player of the match: SlayerS_Puzzle



Puzzle has been one of SlayerS' most reliable team league players in recent months, capable of putting in win or two each time he's been deployed. He's never been a momentum-rider, with three consecutive wins being his best previous record – but he finally gotten over that with this performance.



Standard play is where Puzzle excels, and NSH played straight into his hands by playing him relatively straight-up in every single game. Not a single cheese, tech rush, or otherwise unpredictable strategy was used against him, and Puzzle responded by overpowering each of his opponents.





Games of the night: Game One – Freaky vs Miya, Game Two – Freaky vs Crank



NSH is already known for Seal and his love of creep tumors, but it seems like they have another Zerg player with a peculiar fixation. Freaky went for mass infestors in both of his games on the night, and as a result, they were both highly entertaining. His mass ling-festor style with range upgrades for infested terrans was a real breath of fresh air in ZvZ, while the composition provided some amusing moments when it went up against Crank's mass carriers.



Already one of the SlayerS' most productive players, Puzzle added four more wins in his best GSTL performance yet, leading his team to a 5 – 3 victory against New Star HoSeo. Puzzle made his appearance as SlayerS-EG trailed by a score of 1 to 3, coming out to take on NSH's ace Jjakji, who had been deployed early in the line-up. After Jjakji went down at the end of a heated game on Cloud Kingdom, NSH fielded three more players to take on SlayerS' Protoss ace, but were unable to find a solution in the end.SlayerS-EG moves on to the winner's match of the group, where they await the victor of tonight's match between ZeNEX and Team Liquid. Meanwhile, NS HoSeo will face the losing team in an elimination match.The series began with conservative roster choices from both teams, as NSH's Freaky and SlayerS' Miya faced off on Daybreak. NSH's lesser known lead-off man managed to impress in his first game, using a unique mass infestor harassment style to take out Miya and give NSH the lead.Freaky continued to entertain in the second game, sticking to his mass infestor style in ZvP as well as he went up against SlayerS_Crank . However, it was Crank who stole the show at the end of the game, somehow managing to hide a giant 3/3/3 upgraded carrier fleet before springing it on his unsuspecting opponent. Freaky was able to hold out briefly with a huge number of infested terrans from his mass infestors, but was left helpless once their energy was depleted.With the score tied 1 – 1, NSH made the surprising move to send out their ace, Jjakji , to take down Crank. The decision appeared to pay off at first, as Jjakji took out Crank with a well timed two-base attack on Antiga Shipyard, and then outplayed EG's PuMa in a macro game on Atlantis Spaceship to give his team a solid 3 – 1 lead.Faced with the task of halting Jjakji's growing momentum, SlayerS made a daring move of their own by sending out Puzzle to take on the NSH Ace in his specialty match-up, TvP. There were no gimmicks from Puzzle, was eager to take on Jjakji in a contest of pure strength on Cloud Kingdom. The two players traded blows in a close match, but ultimately Jjakji was unable to stop Puzzle from slowly assembling the dreaded Protoss-deathball. After a certain point, Jjakji stopped trading evenly with the Protoss army, and a little further down the line, saw his armies get crushed outright. Unable to continue, Jjakji GG'd out and passed the baton. San was the next runner for NSH, coming out with an interesting fast expansion into phoenix strategy on new GSTL map Muspelheim. However, Puzzle was just getting started in the series, and he took out San's sniper strategy with a well timed, well microed immortal + gateway unit attack that forced San to surrender before he could really get his strategy going.Next up was Sting to try and break the 3 – 3 tie, but he met a similar fate as Jjakji with his infantry withering under colossus fire. That left NSH facing defeat with just one last card to play, which turned out to be the incredibly talented but very inconsistentNSH's fate was decided in a short, intense sequence. Puzzle played standard for the fourth game in a row, forge fast-expanding and continuing into a fast third base. Seal accepted Puzzle's invitation to be aggressive, and committed to attacking with roaches and lings before Puzzle's defenses became too hardened to pierce. With the terrain of Whirlwind working against him and his sentry count dangerously low, Puzzle looked to be on the very verge of defeat. However, he was able to just barely hold out until his first colossus completed, which was just enough to repel the Zerg attacks for good. Having expended so much time and money in fruitless attacks against the Protoss third, Seal was left with little in the tank. After adding a few more colossi to his army, Puzzle was able to move out, clean up Seal's army, and complete the 5 – 3 victory for SlayerS.Puzzle has been one of SlayerS' most reliable team league players in recent months, capable of putting in win or two each time he's been deployed. He's never been a momentum-rider, with three consecutive wins being his best previous record – but he finally gotten over that with this performance.Standard play is where Puzzle excels, and NSH played straight into his hands by playing him relatively straight-up in every single game. Not a single cheese, tech rush, or otherwise unpredictable strategy was used against him, and Puzzle responded by overpowering each of his opponents.Game One – Freaky vs Miya, Game Two – Freaky vs CrankNSH is already known for Seal and his love of creep tumors, but it seems like they have another Zerg player with a peculiar fixation. Freaky went for mass infestors in both of his games on the night, and as a result, they were both highly entertaining. His mass ling-festor style with range upgrades for infested terrans was a real breath of fresh air in ZvZ, while the composition provided some amusing moments when it went up against Crank's mass carriers. Team Liquid ZeNEX



Where They Stand



After competing together with Old Generations for two seasons, Team Liquid is finally participating in the GSTL as an independent team. TLO's arrival in Korea gave Liquid the bare minimum depth needed to compete in the best of nine league, and Liquid decided to make the gamble of playing with their skeleton squad.



It's an intriguing decision. On the face of it, it seems like Liquid is competing for the sake of competing, even if victory is just a remote possibility. That's a concept every foreigner team and player is familiar with in this increasingly Korean world. However, while individual players can move on from getting 2 – 0'd by a Korean player in the fourth round of Code A qualifiers, could Liquid the team, really live down getting 0 – 2'd from the tournament?



Let's put it this way, when F.United and the old FXO went into the GSTL, they went in with zero expectations. When they ended up achieving something, they couldn't help but be winners. Liquid is not like either of those teams. For better or for worse, it's a team with popularity, a team with a reputation, and a team with expectations. Crushing disappointment is a possibility.



Of course, Liquid knew all this as they decided whether or not to play in the GSTL. Their decision to go forth means that they must have had a fair amount of confidence. We'll see if it was well founded.





*****



Speaking of expectations and the lack thereof, we have ZeNEX. ZeNEX has rapidly become the Air Force ACE of Starcraft II, the lovable losers who are endearing precisely because of their inability to win. It's a veritable miracle that they've outlasted oGs, and we like to believe that it's a testament to someTHING – even if we're not quite sure what it is.



Once upon a time, ZeNEX used to be a good team. In fact, if they had kept all the members they lost since their foundation, they would probably be one of the best teams in Korea. Puzzle, TaeJa, Hack, CoCa, Genius, GhostKing are all former ZeNEX players, yet they managed to drop them one by one following each beating, like some kind of pro-gamer pinata.



The constant hemorrhaging of players has made them literally the worst Korean team. They've won exactly two series in the history of the GSTL: A 4 – 3 victory against SlayerS in their very first match in the GSTL, and a freebie 4 – 0 win over the old, foreigners + Oz (then twilight) FXO team. Somehow, everyone who left ZeNEX did so just before they achieved their success (although, that could say something about ZeNEX's ability to develop players), leaving Line's RO4 finish in the Super Tournament as their best individual league achievement.



I would like to say there's nothing to lose for ZeNEX in this tournament, but it's easy to envision a scenario where their best player is immediately snapped up by a foreign team should they make an improbable run.





Key Players



TeamLiquid: TaeJa, TLO



TaeJa is the single most important player in this entire match, but for an unusual reason: He probably won't be there. Unfortunately for Liquid, his flight back from Red Bull Battlegrounds doesn't have him back quite in time for GSTL, and he is likely to be missing from the roster. Any team in the world would be hurt by having their second best player unavailable for duty, but for Liquid's threadbare, six-man team, it's a particularly mortal wound. TaeJa is a player who's shown he's very well suited to the GSTL stage, scoring two all-kills as a member of SlayerS (in fact, he all-killed ZeNEX once). It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he makes up for more than 25% of Liquid's strength in this tournament, and that without him, it will be very hard to win a single match.



After getting over his wrist injury and switching to Zerg, TLO has experienced a pleasant revival in his career. TLO has always been very popular, but now he's finally started showing the high level play to back it up. He's performed quite well against other top foreigners in recent tournaments, while his three kill against Prime in IPL TAC (including MarineKing) would have been an impressive haul for even a Code S player.



The problem with TLO is that he's only really been good online, and at the lower stages of live tournaments thus far. He hasn't been able to get it done in live tournaments or pressure situations, and this GSTL will be an extreme combination of both. Zenio, Haypro, and Jinro haven't really changed much in the past six months, so if someone is to be a surprise boost for Liquid, TLO will have to break out in this tournament.



ZeNEX: Life, Extreme



Life is a player you frequently hear people thanking in post match interviews for helping them practice, and he always seems to pop up on some famous player's stream as a ladder opponent and shows off some serious skills. At the age of sixteen, this makes Life a kind of Zerg counterpart to TaeJa in the past – an young, online monster with a lot of potential who has yet to achieve anything in a live tournament. However, while TaeJa has gotten over his live tournament nerves, Life's skill suffers greatly when he enters the GSL booth. ZeNEX's success will depend on how much progress Life has made in overcoming those jitters.



We got to see a little bit of Extreme's potential in the previous GSTL, where he scored a three-kill against TheStC, Nada, and fOrGG to bring oGs dangerously close to defeat. He's built on that strong performance in the KSL team league since then, four killing IM (sans Nestea and Mvp) and NSH, and he played well against FXO and Startale as well. For ZeNEX, Extreme is the closest thing they have to a real 'rising prospect,' and it will be interesting to see which foreign team snaps him up if he can continue to build his reputation in the GSTL.





Aces



Liquid`HerO



HerO is the biggest advantage Team Liquid have going into the GSTL. He's always been called one of the most talented players in the world by his peers and pundits alike, and he made good on some of those expectations last Code S by reaching the top four. He is one of the best PvZ players in the world, which will be very valuable against a ZeNEX team that will rely heavily on Line and Life.



The pressure of being the Ace for a team will certainly weigh heavily on HerO's shoulders, but his Code S semi-final run shows he's come a long way towards overcoming his nerve issues. In fact, can't we say he's actually better than average in that department now? Still, being an average ace isn't going to cut it given TL's thin roster, so it will be important for HerO to make the next step by becoming a player who is even better under pressure.





ZeNEXLine:



Most people would probably say Life is a 'better' player, at least in the IdrA sense of the word. Line looked very mediocre in his last two Code A outings, and he only progressed to the Up/Downs this season because he received an extremely lucky walkover against Boxer in the first round. However, once he reached the Up/Downs, it was an entirely different story. I wouldn't say he so much "turned it on" as much as he simply found ways to win, ala Virus, Heart, and players of that sort.



In the aftermath of Mvp's Code S victory, we can't help but strongly rate players who can manufacture wins when it matters. Line might have been virtually anonymous for nearly a year, and he might have several teammates who are overshadowing him in terms of talent, but Line is still indisputably the ace of the team.





Prediction



If TaeJa were available, Liquid would be favored to win this match by a narrow margin. However, without TaeJa, the burden on HerO and Zenio has become a bit excessive. I can imagine the Liquid huddle now: "Hey, HerO, you kinda need to go out there and win three or more games." Besides DongRaeGu, has any other player in the GSTL had that seriously expected from him? For any other top-loaded team, you can still reasonably expect the supporting cast to squeeze out a win or two between them. For TLO, Jinro, and HayprO? I'm tempted to see what odds I would get if I wanted to bet on zero wins between the three.



The mitigating factor here is that they're facing ZeNEX, literally the worst Korean pro-team. They're basically a collection of unproven talent, and Puzzle showed us yesterday what a solid, Code S player can do to a collection of unproven talent. Against a team like SlayerS, HerO would have the right to reply to the aforementioned request with "Are you f***ing kidding me?" but against ZeNEX, he might just nod his head and say "Okay."



ZeNEX 5 – 4 Liquid









After competing together with Old Generations for two seasons,is finally participating in the GSTL as an independent team. TLO's arrival in Korea gave Liquid the bare minimum depth needed to compete in the best of nine league, and Liquid decided to make the gamble of playing with their skeleton squad.It's an intriguing decision. On the face of it, it seems like Liquid is competing for the sake of competing, even if victory is just a remote possibility. That's a concept every foreigner team and player is familiar with in this increasingly Korean world. However, while individual players can move on from getting 2 – 0'd by a Korean player in the fourth round of Code A qualifiers, could Liquid the, really live down getting 0 – 2'd from the tournament?Let's put it this way, when F.United and the old FXO went into the GSTL, they went in withWhen they ended up achievingthey couldn't help but be winners. Liquid is not like either of those teams. For better or for worse, it's a team with popularity, a team with a reputation, and a team with expectations. Crushing disappointment is a possibility.Of course, Liquid knew all this as they decided whether or not to play in the GSTL. Their decision to go forth means that they must have had a fair amount of confidence. We'll see if it was well founded.Speaking of expectations and the lack thereof, we have. ZeNEX has rapidly become the Air Force ACE of Starcraft II, the lovable losers who are endearing precisely because of their inability to win. It's a veritable miracle that they've outlasted oGs, and we like to believe that it's a testament to someTHING – even if we're not quite sure what it is.Once upon a time, ZeNEX used to be a good team. In fact, if they had kept all the members they lost since their foundation, they would probably be one of the best teams in Korea. Puzzle, TaeJa, Hack, CoCa, Genius, GhostKing are all former ZeNEX players, yet they managed to drop them one by one following each beating, like some kind of pro-gamer pinata.The constant hemorrhaging of players has made them literally the worst Korean team. They've won exactly two series in the history of the GSTL: A 4 – 3 victory against SlayerS in their very first match in the GSTL, and a freebie 4 – 0 win over the old, foreigners + Oz (then twilight) FXO team. Somehow, everyone who left ZeNEX did so just before they achieved their success (although, that could say something about ZeNEX's ability to develop players), leaving Line's RO4 finish in the Super Tournament as their best individual league achievement.I would like to say there's nothing to lose for ZeNEX in this tournament, but it's easy to envision a scenario where their best player is immediately snapped up by a foreign team should they make an improbable run.TaeJa is the single most important player in this entire match, but for an unusual reason: He probably won't be there. Unfortunately for Liquid, his flight back from Red Bull Battlegrounds doesn't have him back quite in time for GSTL, and he is likely to be missing from the roster. Any team in the world would be hurt by having their second best player unavailable for duty, but for Liquid's threadbare, six-man team, it's a particularly mortal wound. TaeJa is a player who's shown he's very well suited to the GSTL stage, scoring two all-kills as a member of SlayerS (in fact, he all-killed ZeNEX once). It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he makes up for more than 25% of Liquid's strength in this tournament, and that without him, it will be very hard to win a single match.After getting over his wrist injury and switching to Zerg, TLO has experienced a pleasant revival in his career. TLO has always been very popular, but now he's finally started showing the high level play to back it up. He's performed quite well against other top foreigners in recent tournaments, while his three kill against Prime in IPL TAC (including MarineKing) would have been an impressive haul for even a Code S player.The problem with TLO is that he's only really been good online, and at the lower stages of live tournaments thus far. He hasn't been able to get it done in live tournaments or pressure situations, and this GSTL will be an extreme combination of both. Zenio, Haypro, and Jinro haven't really changed much in the past six months, so if someone is to be a surprise boost for Liquid, TLO will have to break out in this tournament.Life is a player you frequently hear people thanking in post match interviews for helping them practice, and he always seems to pop up on some famous player's stream as a ladder opponent and shows off some serious skills. At the age of sixteen, this makes Life a kind of Zerg counterpart to TaeJa in the past – an young, online monster with a lot of potential who has yet to achieve anything in a live tournament. However, while TaeJa has gotten over his live tournament nerves, Life's skill suffers greatly when he enters the GSL booth. ZeNEX's success will depend on how much progress Life has made in overcoming those jitters.We got to see a little bit of Extreme's potential in the previous GSTL, where he scored a three-kill against TheStC, Nada, and fOrGG to bring oGs dangerously close to defeat. He's built on that strong performance in the KSL team league since then, four killing IM (sans Nestea and Mvp) and NSH, and he played well against FXO and Startale as well. For ZeNEX, Extreme is the closest thing they have to a real 'rising prospect,' and it will be interesting to seeif he can continue to build his reputation in the GSTL.HerO is the biggest advantage Team Liquid have going into the GSTL. He's always been called one of the most talented players in the world by his peers and pundits alike, and he made good on some of those expectations last Code S by reaching the top four. He is one of the best PvZ players in the world, which will be very valuable against a ZeNEX team that will rely heavily on Line and Life.The pressure of being the Ace for a team will certainly weigh heavily on HerO's shoulders, but his Code S semi-final run shows he's come a long way towards overcoming his nerve issues. In fact, can't we say he's actually better than average in that department now? Still, being an average ace isn't going to cut it given TL's thin roster, so it will be important for HerO to make the next step by becoming a player who is even better under pressure.Most people would probably say Life is a 'better' player, at least in the IdrA sense of the word. Line looked very mediocre in his last two Code A outings, and he only progressed to the Up/Downs this season because he received an extremely lucky walkover against Boxer in the first round. However, once he reached the Up/Downs, it was an entirely different story. I wouldn't say he so much "turned it on" as much as he simply found ways to win, ala Virus, Heart, and players of that sort.In the aftermath of Mvp's Code S victory, we can't help but strongly rate players who can manufacture wins when it matters. Line might have been virtually anonymous for nearly a year, and he might have several teammates who are overshadowing him in terms of talent, but Line is still indisputably the ace of the team.If TaeJa were available, Liquid would be favored to win this match by a narrow margin. However, without TaeJa, the burden on HerO and Zenio has become a bit excessive. I can imagine the Liquid huddle now: "Hey, HerO, you kinda need to go out there and win three or more games." Besides DongRaeGu, has any other player in the GSTL had that seriously expected from him? For any other top-loaded team, you can still reasonably expect the supporting cast to squeeze out a win or two between them. For TLO, Jinro, and HayprO? I'm tempted to see what odds I would get if I wanted to bet on zero wins between the three.The mitigating factor here is that they're facing ZeNEX, literally the worst Korean pro-team. They're basically a collection of unproven talent, and Puzzle showed us yesterday what a solid, Code S player can do to a collection of unproven talent. Against a team like SlayerS, HerO would have the right to reply to the aforementioned request with "Are you f***ing kidding me?" but against ZeNEX, he might just nod his head and say "Okay."– 4 Liquid









Writer: Waxangel.

Graphics: Pathy.

Editors: Antoine, Waxangel.