Road to BlizzCon #16 - CJ.ByuL - WCS 2015 Text by TL.net ESPORTS Graphics by shiroiusagi, dravernor Story

Player Spotlight

Analysis The Road to Blizzcon - Ch XVI - ByuL







Chapter XVI Only Ashes Remain by TripleM







That wasn't the worst part, however. The feeling of loneliness—he was all by himself in a sea of fire—hurt him most of all. As a zerg, ByuL had never been so alone in all his life. He had always had companions around him, and for the first time in a very long time, his mind found nothing. His natural gifts had elevated him to become one of the most powerful zergs in their history, yet he was alone. Even his ruptured mind seemed to abandon him as he struggled to remember.



With each step, his mind sobered. Slowly, more and more of his memories started to come back to him in glimpses: The day the CJ spies found out about Life's defeat and the Scepter of Power being lost; his smile when the Zerg Council elected him leader; the pain and disappointment of betrayal, first by his clan and then by his friend herO. He had given everything for his family, had always done his duty and had sacrificed his own glory for the good of CJ. And what did he receive for his amble service? At best, humiliation; at worst, nothing. He was never chosen to be part of those grand expeditions to Oegugin for fame and fortune. Instead he stayed home to defend Entus Castle, forever its babysitter. Always left behind.



Then something—anything—changed, tearing ByuL out of his memories. His body still hurt, but the flames had abated. He felt bones cracking and joints moving into position, blood beginning to fill his veins. And it was cold all of a sudden. So very cold. The white had descended into his chest only to begin pulsating, changing colors as his heart resumed beating. A hot orange, an intense red, a deep blue—and then, a darkness. He didn't know how long the process had taken as the sense of time had long since fled from ByuL. For some, respawning took mere minutes. For some, hours. For others still, they were tortured for days and weeks before surfacing to the world of the living.



ByuL opened his eyes and saw the stars. His body resisted his commands, and he laid there on the floor for another few minutes, right where he had awoken. As he turned his sight away from the night sky, he began to realize that he was in the throne room of Glostalea, the proud capital of Metzennala, and he could only see the stars because the roof had collapsed. But it wasn't the throne room he had known, richly decorated and filled with the boisterous royal court. This room was empty and quiet. The ornate throne wasn't where it was supposed to be, either. It had shared ByuL's fate, lying sideways on the cold floor, proclaimed dead without ceremony. Behind it, golden adornments blistered in the heat. When he had gathered enough strength to push himself to his feet, he inhaled the air that had swirled up around him, thick and dark with a year's worth of dust. Hearing a crackling noise from beyond the blackened walls, he decided to circumvent the fallen pillars in the hall, searching for answers.



He still didn’t know what had happened here, but as he found an opening in the facade to take a look upon the city, he discovered the source of the strange sounds: the verdant capital of Glostalea was in ruins. From the top of Mount Mvp, where the summer palace had been built, he witnessed the firestorm that consumed the eastern part of the city. It was the ash from this dying world that covered the mountain and the palace in soot. Of Fruitdealer Market, only a crater was left. Of NesTea's Stronghold, once the center of the world, only rubble. With tears in his eyes, caused by the destruction and smog, ByuL scanned his surroundings for life. Nothing. He felt nothing. He expanded his search radius, but for kilometers no sign of life could be found. The capital was dead. ByuL had hoped that his loneliness would end after his time in purgatory, but no one answered. There was nothing left, and the longer ByuL thought about this, the more his anger darkened his heart.



Determined to find and punish the ones responsible for this tragedy, he searched for a way down the mountain. Before he could reach the main gate of the stronghold however, he was overwhelmed by more memories: Ruling with an iron fist as the most powerful being in the city; persecuting Terrans who had abused the power of technology; balancing the influence of each race in the capital. He busied himself with the minutiae of government when an unexpected foe proved himself a greater threat than any Terran: the Protoss exile Rain. He wasn't supposed to be on this continent, much less so close to the capital with his forces. Even if he had had the impudence to return uninvited, the Gatekeeper should have been able to stop him. Yet Rain defeated Curious and forced the gate open with ByuL unprepared. Rain had planned a perfect invasion. While ByuL was busy managing his forces, the Protoss general had snuck into the throne room. A tremendous psionic storm ravaged his army, and Rain cut ByuL down inside his command post, a psi blade through his heart.



Regaining his consciousness again, ByuL fell to his knees, staring at his hands. His tears slammed to the floor, watering the ashes before mixing with blood from dead hydralisks. Someday, he thought, they would respawn as free Zerg. In the red puddle he saw the face of the one he had vowed to find. It was him. He had failed. He returned to Glostalea after he had lost to Rain, but he could not raise the city to its former glory. The exile had sacked the city and had left little for it to recover, and ByuL tried in vain to revive its withered veins. He hit the floor with his fists, splattering mud on his face. Despite feelings of helplessness, he got up again, and continued his descent. He looked back to realize that even the hallowed mountain had not been spared—a ragged cowl more than a brilliant crown.



On his way to the base of the mountain, ByuL stumbled over the wreck of a vehicle; it was nothing a Protoss would have used in battle. As he wiped his eyes clean, he had a closer look: the shell of a mine? Another string of memories hit ByuL like lightning: Wandering through the burning districts; trying to put out fires and remove debris; burning with the guilt of his mistakes. Then, INnoVation came. At first ByuL thought he was a friend who would help him save the capital from even more damage, but he was wrong once more. The Terran had come to punish him for his sins against mech. Still broken from his first defeat, ByuL did his best to resist. His orchestra of destruction raided supply lines, cut off passes and struck weak positions, but it wasn't enough. ByuL was crushed under the weight of his own ultralisk even after retreating amidst his shame. Even still, ByuL had stumbled back to the throne room before passing out. INnoVation left him there to die, caring nothing for the annihilation of the Zerg cultural center, their civilization's heart. He was determined to claim the scepter.



Leaning against the side of the crashed tank, ByuL again resumed control of his conscious self. His eyes were boiled as he tried to see through the mist: there was only death here, and everything reminded him of his failure to do his duty. Every Zerg carcass, every shattered building, every charred meter of earth. The sadness of losing the city he once loved, with its magnificent castles, its racial districts and many wonders, evolved into something different. His love turned into disgust, his sadness into a twisted satisfaction. What good had it ever done him to carry out his duties? Everyone spat on him when they had the chance. Everything he had fought for was now crushed—his city, his bonds to his family, his power. Hate filled ByuL’s heart, anger and frustration from his recent defeats flowed through his body, overwhelming his spirit. He would take no more.



Fragments of memories hit him again, but this time ByuL did not succumb to their power and stayed awake, too furious to drift wholly into the past: He saw the first zergling he had ever tamed, back when he was young. It was his closest companion for long periods of his life and they shared a lot of happy moments… and he remembered how hard it had hit him when it was killed by sOs. How hot his tears had burnt while mourning his loss. He saw his old clan fall apart, despite his best efforts to save them and hold them together in those dire times. How helpless he had felt. And how the void in his heart had threatened to consume him. Everything he had done for others always led to more pain for himself…



Enraged, ByuL got up and looked up at the sky, which was hidden behind a curtain of black clouds and smoke. For him, it didn’t matter. He saw the world through a red fog. His fist hit the wreck behind him, splitting it apart. ByuL didn’t care about the cuts on his fingers. Pain no longer scared him. Now it nourished him. He put all of his emotions, all of his successes and failures, his entire past life into one terrible scream. For hundreds of kilometers the noise was heard. However it wasn’t just a wave of sound ByuL had sent out into the world: his mind followed, bound to connect itself to every zerg creature on the way. His emotions became theirs. Raging howls soon came back over woods and fields, pushing through the dome of smog around the self-consuming ruins. A terrifying half-smile, showing his bared teeth, revealed itself on ByuL’s cracked lips. His eyes glowed like rubies. The crackling of hellfire began to fade in his ears, as a thunderstorm seemed to descend on Glostalea. Thousands of claws and wings drew closer. ByuL had called upon them to come, and so they did.



Waiting in the chaos amongst the smoking remnants of what once had been his home felt pure. Just. His days as a mere servant were over. He was indebted to no one and his loyalty would only be with himself. He would raze every city in the country and kill every living being standing between him and the king's scepter. Crossing off his personal grudges was merely a bonus. As the sun lit the world ablaze, as if it would share the capital’s fate, the horizon was filled by his army. Seated on a viper, still covered in a hardened crust of mud, blood and ashes, he leapt above the oily clouds and turned towards the West.



He recalled what the Scepter looked like and pushed the picture into the minds of his followers with all the rage he had behind it.



He attached only a simple command: BRING IT TO ME. NO MATTER THE COST.







A constant, burning pain, as if flames were consuming his body, was the first thing ByuL felt when he was able to feel again. Before he had gone through the savage process of respawning, he had always expected it to be peaceful, quiet and somehow philosophical. As if it would be some happy voyage to explore his inner self. In reality, it was neither of those things. Despite shutting his eyes, a merciless specter haunted his vision—a white fire burned into his eyelids. The torment never left him even as he shook his head to flee from its gaze. While his physical body melted from the flames he was imprisoned in, the white's only purpose was to attack his mind. It gnawed at his spirit like tides of lava stripping a volcano layer by layer, stone by stone. Never enough to reduce the mountain to ashes, but just enough to strip its surface of history. With every wave, parts of his mental discipline caved in.That wasn't the worst part, however. The feeling of loneliness—he was all by himself in a sea of fire—hurt him most of all. As a zerg, ByuL had never been so alone in all his life. He had always had companions around him, and for the first time in a very long time, his mind found nothing. His natural gifts had elevated him to become one of the most powerful zergs in their history, yet he was alone. Even his ruptured mind seemed to abandon him as he struggled to remember.With each step, his mind sobered. Slowly, more and more of his memories started to come back to him in glimpses:Then something——changed, tearing ByuL out of his memories. His body still hurt, but the flames had abated. He felt bones cracking and joints moving into position, blood beginning to fill his veins. And it was cold all of a sudden. So very cold. The white had descended into his chest only to begin pulsating, changing colors as his heart resumed beating. A hot orange, an intense red, a deep blue—and then, a darkness. He didn't know how long the process had taken as the sense of time had long since fled from ByuL. For some, respawning took mere minutes. For some, hours. For others still, they were tortured for days and weeks before surfacing to the world of the living.ByuL opened his eyes and saw the stars. His body resisted his commands, and he laid there on the floor for another few minutes, right where he had awoken. As he turned his sight away from the night sky, he began to realize that he was in the throne room of Glostalea, the proud capital of Metzennala, and he could only see the stars because the roof had collapsed. But it wasn't the throne room he had known, richly decorated and filled with the boisterous royal court. This room was empty and quiet. The ornate throne wasn't where it was supposed to be, either. It had shared ByuL's fate, lying sideways on the cold floor, proclaimed dead without ceremony. Behind it, golden adornments blistered in the heat. When he had gathered enough strength to push himself to his feet, he inhaled the air that had swirled up around him, thick and dark with a year's worth of dust. Hearing a crackling noise from beyond the blackened walls, he decided to circumvent the fallen pillars in the hall, searching for answers.He still didn’t know what had happened here, but as he found an opening in the facade to take a look upon the city, he discovered the source of the strange sounds: the verdant capital of Glostalea was in ruins. From the top of Mount Mvp, where the summer palace had been built, he witnessed the firestorm that consumed the eastern part of the city. It was the ash from this dying world that covered the mountain and the palace in soot. Of Fruitdealer Market, only a crater was left. Of NesTea's Stronghold, once the center of the world, only rubble. With tears in his eyes, caused by the destruction and smog, ByuL scanned his surroundings for life. Nothing. He felt nothing. He expanded his search radius, but for kilometers no sign of life could be found. The capital was dead. ByuL had hoped that his loneliness would end after his time in purgatory, but no one answered. There was nothing left, and the longer ByuL thought about this, the more his anger darkened his heart.Determined to find and punish the ones responsible for this tragedy, he searched for a way down the mountain. Before he could reach the main gate of the stronghold however, he was overwhelmed by more memories:Regaining his consciousness again, ByuL fell to his knees, staring at his hands. His tears slammed to the floor, watering the ashes before mixing with blood from dead hydralisks. Someday, he thought, they would respawn as free Zerg. In the red puddle he saw the face of the one he had vowed to find. It was him. He had failed. He returned to Glostalea after he had lost to Rain, but he could not raise the city to its former glory. The exile had sacked the city and had left little for it to recover, and ByuL tried in vain to revive its withered veins. He hit the floor with his fists, splattering mud on his face. Despite feelings of helplessness, he got up again, and continued his descent. He looked back to realize that even the hallowed mountain had not been spared—a ragged cowl more than a brilliant crown.On his way to the base of the mountain, ByuL stumbled over the wreck of a vehicle; it was nothing a Protoss would have used in battle. As he wiped his eyes clean, he had a closer look: the shell of a mine? Another string of memories hit ByuL like lightning:Leaning against the side of the crashed tank, ByuL again resumed control of his conscious self. His eyes were boiled as he tried to see through the mist: there was only death here, and everything reminded him of his failure to do his duty. Every Zerg carcass, every shattered building, every charred meter of earth. The sadness of losing the city he once loved, with its magnificent castles, its racial districts and many wonders, evolved into something different. His love turned into disgust, his sadness into a twisted satisfaction. What good had it ever done him to carry out his duties? Everyone spat on him when they had the chance. Everything he had fought for was now crushed—his city, his bonds to his family, his power. Hate filled ByuL’s heart, anger and frustration from his recent defeats flowed through his body, overwhelming his spirit. He would take no more.Fragments of memories hit him again, but this time ByuL did not succumb to their power and stayed awake, too furious to drift wholly into the past:Enraged, ByuL got up and looked up at the sky, which was hidden behind a curtain of black clouds and smoke. For him, it didn’t matter. He saw the world through a red fog. His fist hit the wreck behind him, splitting it apart. ByuL didn’t care about the cuts on his fingers. Pain no longer scared him. Now it nourished him. He put all of his emotions, all of his successes and failures, his entire past life into one terrible scream. For hundreds of kilometers the noise was heard. However it wasn’t just a wave of sound ByuL had sent out into the world: his mind followed, bound to connect itself to every zerg creature on the way. His emotions became theirs. Raging howls soon came back over woods and fields, pushing through the dome of smog around the self-consuming ruins. A terrifying half-smile, showing his bared teeth, revealed itself on ByuL’s cracked lips. His eyes glowed like rubies. The crackling of hellfire began to fade in his ears, as a thunderstorm seemed to descend on Glostalea. Thousands of claws and wings drew closer. ByuL had called upon them to come, and so they did.Waiting in the chaos amongst the smoking remnants of what once had been his home felt pure. Just. His days as a mere servant were over. He was indebted to no one and his loyalty would only be with himself. He would raze every city in the country and kill every living being standing between him and the king's scepter. Crossing off his personal grudges was merely a bonus. As the sun lit the world ablaze, as if it would share the capital’s fate, the horizon was filled by his army. Seated on a viper, still covered in a hardened crust of mud, blood and ashes, he leapt above the oily clouds and turned towards the West.He recalled what the Scepter looked like and pushed the picture into the minds of his followers with all the rage he had behind it.He attached only a simple command:





Stats are from Aligulac.com







The similarities between soO and ByuL are too striking to ignore. Where one left off, dipping in form after his record breaking 2014, the other has picked up the slack. While ByuL is yet to display the consistent longevity of soO, who locked down a GSL finals spot for over one and a half years, his trio of starleague silvers in quick succession is just as unfortunate an achievement. That’s the headline which inevitably dominates any conversation on the CJ Entus zerg—losing more finals in a couple of months than the vast majority of players will play in for their entire careers. It’s crazy that, in such a results driven scene, we almost view finishing second as a negative—that for many players, the endless practice drives them to go for all or nothing. soO famously tweeted after another crushing GSL finals defeat that ‘failure is better than second’. To come so far, only to fall at the last hurdle is a punishment that few in the scene can repeatedly endure.



We’ve learnt a lot about ByuL this year, as he stepped out of the sad wreckage of the famed IM team. That his dominant ZvT is truly world class, both against bio and mech; that his flexibility in switching up styles on the fly is one of his strongest suits; that he’s one of the most resilient players we’ve ever seen—grinding his way to final after final. However, there’s only one question that deserves thought at this time. Has he broken yet? If not, then ByuL is certainly a championship contender—as you’d expect from the only triple starleague finalist in Korea this year. But, as with soO this time last year, there’s a sad sense that it’s only a matter of time until the battle between his indomitable spirit and the pressure of mounting defeats reaches an inevitable conclusion. Hopefully he’ll prove everyone wrong.



WCS Points:





Top 5 Games







1. ByuL vs Life SSL Season 2 – Overgrowth

While ZvZ was hardly anyone’s favourite matchup in times gone past, it’s actually been (whisper it) rather good this year. The return of mutalisk builds in the second half of the year returned some much needed asymmetry, but even when the games reverted to good old roach vs roach, there were plenty of games that showed the depth in the matchup, rather than simply the ‘engage and pray’ method that certainly used to be somewhat prevalent. This was one of those. After an early pool failed to kill Life, ByuL was considerably behind in this game on Overgrowth—down on tech, army and upgrades. However, great defensive concaves from ByuL allowed him to hold narrowly time and time again despite the upgrade discrepancy, building a bigger and bigger bank as the KT zerg overcommitted to the kill move. However, Life followed up with a great tactic—maneuvering past ByuL’s army on the map and diving in to take out the roach warren. Suddenly, ByuL’s 3k / 1k bank counted for nothing; without the ability to remax, he found himself 60 supply down. The game quickly turned into a desperate game of hide and seek because Life had to find the building roach warren before it finished...









2. ByuL vs sOs, GSL Season 2 - Merry Go Round

Every time you watch an sOs game, you’re almost certain to see something different from ‘standard’ protoss, and we weren’t disappointed here—after first becoming known in PvZ for his void ray use in 2013, he brought it back here on Merry Go Round. Skipping warpgate to go for double stargate production, sOs’ first attack was a great success—phoenixes lifting ByuL’s defences while the void rays lasered everything in sight. Seeing sOs tech into mass chargelot archon below his skytoss, ByuL’s answer was a pure hydra army. Engaging in range of his defensive sporecrawlers, the CJ zerg turned the tables completely on his opponent, shredding the protoss forces once the phoenix flock dipped below a viable mass. ByuL followed up with a fast roach/hydra deathball, and sOs retreated to his third, relying wholly on landing good storms to hold. Back and forth trades erupted constantly over the next few minutes, but a crucial deny on sOs’ building fourth base, combined with a snipe on the third, left him struggling economically on long distance money. Up 70 supply, ByuL moved in to wipe out the remaining protoss army and take the game.









3. ByuL vs INnoVation, SSL Season 3 – Terraform

While it’s undeniable that the meta switch in TvZ from bio compositions to mech for the terran has resulted in more than a few mindnumbingly dull series, there have been a couple that have stood out from the pack. Of those, the first mech meeting of ByuL and INnoVation in the SSL has probably been the highlight. Sure, we might not have seen the dreamy micro displays from bio compositions of old, or even the tactical, positional battles of mech vs swarm hosts, but if there’s a series which sums up ByuL as a player more emphatically, it’s one we haven’t seen yet. Down 2-1, ByuL puts in a mammoth effort to drag himself from a match point down to eventually take the win on Terraform 3-2. You can talk about INnoVation throwing the game with his lack of upgrades, but most of the credit should rightfully go to a player who never backed down when confronted by a brick wall of an opponent.









4. ByuL vs TY, SSL Season 3 - Vaani Research Station

When we say that Byul’s ZvT has been the best of 2015 (in both anti-bio and anti-mech games), it’s because of his sheer obduracy in hanging in, rolling with the punches, before scrapping his way to a win. This is a prime example justifying our faith. After repelling a strong mid-game push from TY, ByuL quickly transitioned into his preferred anti-mech build: an infestor-ultralisk core with heavy queen support. TY’s max out caught him by surprise though—a pure thor ground army, with an enormous banshee count and a handful of ravens providing support from the sky.



With ByuL’s limited anti-air, TY’s gambit worked perfectly, shredding the army and forcing a more hydra-focussed remax, putting a dent in ByuL’s rapidly growing bank account. It was the following engagement though which would have dashed the hopes of many other zergs in the business. Overmaxed on 220 supply, ByuL took an awful engagement straight into a terran concave with PDD’s blocking any damage . ByuL lost 120 supply worth of army; TY lost 6. For ByuL though, it was just another day at the office as he remaxed on corruptor / brood lord before carrying on with his game plan. From there on it was simple from the zerg—with both banks depleted, all he had to do was chip away at the terran mech composition, down to 100 supply, before one final push grabbed him a well deserved victory after nearly an hour of play.









5. ByuL vs herO, SSL Season 3 – Vaani Research Station

While ByuL’s infamous under-performances in finals has been the headline of his year, this game on Vaani Research Station against herO was perfect in its inception and execution. Mirroring Rogue’s similarly successful build from Proleague, ByuL went straight for swarm hosts. Mass spine crawlers did enough to prevent herO from doing too much damage with his ball of blink stalkers, while a nydus network gave his swarm hosts the mobility they previously lacked. An instant snipe on the natural nexus left herO broke, and constant follow up harass with the addition of a mutalisk flock ensured the minerals there stayed unharvested. Attempted nydus harass kept herO in constant fear, before a huge ling run-by forced herO to go for one last ditch attack. By then, though, ByuL’s unchecked economy had allowed him to tech to ultralisks and infestors, which easily dealt with herO’s gateway army.



For the second time in two years, the best zerg in the world comes to BlizzCon without a championship win to his name. For the second time in two years, the best zerg in the world comes to BlizzCon a seemingly broken man.The similarities between soO and ByuL are too striking to ignore. Where one left off, dipping in form after his record breaking 2014, the other has picked up the slack. While ByuL is yet to display the consistent longevity of soO, who locked down a GSL finals spot for over one and a half years, his trio of starleague silvers in quick succession is just as unfortunate an achievement. That’s the headline which inevitably dominates any conversation on the CJ Entus zerg—losing more finals in a couple of months than the vast majority of players will play in for their entire careers. It’s crazy that, in such a results driven scene, we almost view finishing second as a negative—that for many players, the endless practice drives them to go for all or nothing. soO famously tweeted after another crushing GSL finals defeat that ‘failure is better than second’. To come so far, only to fall at the last hurdle is a punishment that few in the scene can repeatedly endure.We’ve learnt a lot about ByuL this year, as he stepped out of the sad wreckage of the famed IM team. That his dominant ZvT is truly world class, both against bio and mech; that his flexibility in switching up styles on the fly is one of his strongest suits; that he’s one of the most resilient players we’ve ever seen—grinding his way to final after final. However, there’s only one question that deserves thought at this time. Has he broken yet? If not, then ByuL is certainly a championship contender—as you’d expect from the only triple starleague finalist in Korea this year. But, as with soO this time last year, there’s a sad sense that it’s only a matter of time until the battle between his indomitable spirit and the pressure of mounting defeats reaches an inevitable conclusion. Hopefully he’ll prove everyone wrong.While ZvZ was hardly anyone’s favourite matchup in times gone past, it’s actually been (whisper it) rather good this year. The return of mutalisk builds in the second half of the year returned some much needed asymmetry, but even when the games reverted to good old roach vs roach, there were plenty of games that showed the depth in the matchup, rather than simply the ‘engage and pray’ method that certainly used to be somewhat prevalent. This was one of those. After an early pool failed to kill Life, ByuL was considerably behind in this game on Overgrowth—down on tech, army and upgrades. However, great defensive concaves from ByuL allowed him to hold narrowly time and time again despite the upgrade discrepancy, building a bigger and bigger bank as the KT zerg overcommitted to the kill move. However, Life followed up with a great tactic—maneuvering past ByuL’s army on the map and diving in to take out the roach warren. Suddenly, ByuL’s 3k / 1k bank counted for nothing; without the ability to remax, he found himself 60 supply down. The game quickly turned into a desperate game of hide and seek because Life had to find the building roach warren before it finished...Every time you watch an sOs game, you’re almost certain to see something different from ‘standard’ protoss, and we weren’t disappointed here—after first becoming known in PvZ for his void ray use in 2013, he brought it back here on Merry Go Round. Skipping warpgate to go for double stargate production, sOs’ first attack was a great success—phoenixes lifting ByuL’s defences while the void rays lasered everything in sight. Seeing sOs tech into mass chargelot archon below his skytoss, ByuL’s answer was a pure hydra army. Engaging in range of his defensive sporecrawlers, the CJ zerg turned the tables completely on his opponent, shredding the protoss forces once the phoenix flock dipped below a viable mass. ByuL followed up with a fast roach/hydra deathball, and sOs retreated to his third, relying wholly on landing good storms to hold. Back and forth trades erupted constantly over the next few minutes, but a crucial deny on sOs’ building fourth base, combined with a snipe on the third, left him struggling economically on long distance money. Up 70 supply, ByuL moved in to wipe out the remaining protoss army and take the game.While it’s undeniable that the meta switch in TvZ from bio compositions to mech for the terran has resulted in more than a few mindnumbingly dull series, there have been a couple that have stood out from the pack. Of those, the first mech meeting of ByuL and INnoVation in the SSL has probably been the highlight. Sure, we might not have seen the dreamy micro displays from bio compositions of old, or even the tactical, positional battles of mech vs swarm hosts, but if there’s a series which sums up ByuL as a player more emphatically, it’s one we haven’t seen yet. Down 2-1, ByuL puts in a mammoth effort to drag himself from a match point down to eventually take the win on Terraform 3-2. You can talk about INnoVation throwing the game with his lack of upgrades, but most of the credit should rightfully go to a player who never backed down when confronted by a brick wall of an opponent.When we say that Byul’s ZvT has been the best of 2015 (in both anti-bio and anti-mech games), it’s because of his sheer obduracy in hanging in, rolling with the punches, before scrapping his way to a win. This is a prime example justifying our faith. After repelling a strong mid-game push from TY, ByuL quickly transitioned into his preferred anti-mech build: an infestor-ultralisk core with heavy queen support. TY’s max out caught him by surprise though—a pure thor ground army, with an enormous banshee count and a handful of ravens providing support from the sky.With ByuL’s limited anti-air, TY’s gambit worked perfectly, shredding the army and forcing a more hydra-focussed remax, putting a dent in ByuL’s rapidly growing bank account. It was the following engagement though which would have dashed the hopes of many other zergs in the business. Overmaxed on 220 supply, ByuL took an awful engagement straight into a terran concave with PDD’s blocking any damage . ByuL lost 120 supply worth of army; TY lost 6. For ByuL though, it was just another day at the office as he remaxed on corruptor / brood lord before carrying on with his game plan. From there on it was simple from the zerg—with both banks depleted, all he had to do was chip away at the terran mech composition, down to 100 supply, before one final push grabbed him a well deserved victory after nearly an hour of play.While ByuL’s infamous under-performances in finals has been the headline of his year, this game on Vaani Research Station against herO was perfect in its inception and execution. Mirroring Rogue’s similarly successful build from Proleague, ByuL went straight for swarm hosts. Mass spine crawlers did enough to prevent herO from doing too much damage with his ball of blink stalkers, while a nydus network gave his swarm hosts the mobility they previously lacked. An instant snipe on the natural nexus left herO broke, and constant follow up harass with the addition of a mutalisk flock ensured the minerals there stayed unharvested. Attempted nydus harass kept herO in constant fear, before a huge ling run-by forced herO to go for one last ditch attack. By then, though, ByuL’s unchecked economy had allowed him to tech to ultralisks and infestors, which easily dealt with herO’s gateway army.

ByuL vs INnoVation

S2SL 2015 Season 3 Ro8 - Expedition Lost

by: GEOistheONE



With the series at match point, and both players feeling the pressure of an intense Bo5, ByuL had one sleek trick left up his sleeve for INnoVation on Expedition Lost. As soon as ByuL performed the gas supply trick, his drone was quickly on his way for the infamous proxy hatchery outside of INnoVation’s back rocks. With INnoVation opening reaper expand, his scout did not cross paths of the hatchery, making it the perfect surprise attack. Opting for gas immediately after the hatchery, ByuL was not messing around at all; he was in it for the kill.











With INnoVation scouting no natural for ByuL, he immediately rerouted his reaper back to his base only to find three spine crawlers and a queen at the back rocks, but by this time it was far too late to seal off at the back rocks. With perfect spine and overlord placement, ByuL was able to easily snipe the SCVs and bunkers being built, and INnoVation was forced to give up the rear position. With creep spreading into INnoVation’s main, ByuL’s zergling speed timed perfectly with the back rocks breaking down and catching the siege tank popping out of the factory. This tank was especially crucial for INnoVation as it would give him the range and leverage necessary to stop the creep spread, and push back the spine crawlers.







ByuL moved his spines in position to attack INnoVation’s production, and he destroyed INnoVation’s tech lab and reactor, causing the terran to lift and retreat further back into his base. INnoVation luckily got his second siege tank out, which allowed him to slowly start a siege against the spines. He felt comfortable enough to build a third command center, but ByuL spotted INnoVation's risky greed and built nothing but speedlings as a response. When INnoVation managed to kill a spine and a queen, he pushed further onto the creep in his main, but ByuL was waiting for that exact moment. With mass speedling hiding behind the proxy hatchery, ByuL caught INnoVation with a complete surround of speedlings, queens, and spines.







With nothing but SCVs left to defend, INnoVation was forced to call GG and surrender, leaving ByuL a very happy zerg for a great finish to the series. It was an incredible build that only a handful of players could pull off, but ByuL made it happen.







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With the series at match point, and both players feeling the pressure of an intense Bo5, ByuL had one sleek trick left up his sleeve for INnoVation on Expedition Lost. As soon as ByuL performed the gas supply trick, his drone was quickly on his way for the infamous proxy hatchery outside of INnoVation’s back rocks. With INnoVation opening reaper expand, his scout did not cross paths of the hatchery, making it the perfect surprise attack. Opting for gas immediately after the hatchery, ByuL was not messing around at all; he was in it for the kill.With INnoVation scouting no natural for ByuL, he immediately rerouted his reaper back to his base only to find three spine crawlers and a queen at the back rocks, but by this time it was far too late to seal off at the back rocks. With perfect spine and overlord placement, ByuL was able to easily snipe the SCVs and bunkers being built, and INnoVation was forced to give up the rear position. With creep spreading into INnoVation’s main, ByuL’s zergling speed timed perfectly with the back rocks breaking down and catching the siege tank popping out of the factory. This tank was especially crucial for INnoVation as it would give him the range and leverage necessary to stop the creep spread, and push back the spine crawlers.ByuL moved his spines in position to attack INnoVation’s production, and he destroyed INnoVation’s tech lab and reactor, causing the terran to lift and retreat further back into his base. INnoVation luckily got his second siege tank out, which allowed him to slowly start a siege against the spines. He felt comfortable enough to build a third command center, but ByuL spotted INnoVation's risky greed and built nothing but speedlings as a response. When INnoVation managed to kill a spine and a queen, he pushed further onto the creep in his main, but ByuL was waiting for that exact moment. With mass speedling hiding behind the proxy hatchery, ByuL caught INnoVation with a complete surround of speedlings, queens, and spines.With nothing but SCVs left to defend, INnoVation was forced to call GG and surrender, leaving ByuL a very happy zerg for a great finish to the series. It was an incredible build that only a handful of players could pull off, but ByuL made it happen.













