Road to BlizzCon #12 - JinAir_Rogue - WCS 2015 Text by TL.net ESPORTS Graphics by shiroiusagi, dravernor Story

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Analysis The Road to Blizzcon - Ch XII - Rogue







Chapter XII The Strangest of All by lichter







"Yes, m'lord."



"Notes."



A pudgy man in a tunic grabbed a pen and an old, crusty notebook.



"Wool-cashmere blend, uncheck. Too itchy. Not absorbent enough."



The assistant was mid sentence when a bath robe flew overhead and treated him like a coat rack.



"I guess I'm stuck with Egyptian cotton for now."



Rogue, once again, was naked in his lab.



"Assistant, new robe please."



His aide yanked off the garment that was draped over him and ran out of the room. Rogue stood there in his sexyboy splendor, pondering what to do with his day. He had just returned from another failed experiment in Spostalea, and though he appeared unfazed, the distress from his repeated implosions was clearly affecting his work. He was surprisingly neat for a mad genius, but the growing disarray in his workplace showed his dislocated state of mind. He trotted back to his table and opened to a recent page in his "To Do List" tome. On top, the word "Lingducken".



The pudgy man returned with a robe of unidentifiable color. It had probably started out as white when it was new, but now looked like it had survived several rounds of paintball. Rogue shut the book and stood, put on the robe as it was handed to him, and sat back down. He opened his tome again, and this time, the page read "Ideal Permutations for Extended Battle Strategies Against Recognized Fighter Archetypes". The words baffled him.



"ASSISTANT~! When did I write this down?"



"Uhm, when you got back from Spostalea, sir. You said you wanted to figure out better strategies and ploys for longer campaigns. You lost a long fight again so you wanted to—"



Lost. Again. Rogue snapped into a silent tantrum. The Zerg commander left his table and stomped his way to a counter filled with beakers of every shade and viscosity. His apprentice knew what was coming, so he strolled to a back room covered by a blast door. The little man picked up a magazine on one of the shelves and opened it to a bookmarked section and began reading, though he lost his progress whenever the room shook with each blast. The small explosions, of course, came from inside Rogue's madhouse, where he had begun mixing cocktails to hurl in his attendant's direction.



"I'll show you lost again," Rogue squeezed out of his gnashing teeth.



Rogue moved over to a refrigerated locker and carefully opened the door. He pushed aside other containers as if he were looking for something in particular, even bypassing the ominous test tubes marked with skulls. There, at the back and covered in sleet, was an unmarked mason jar. It looked like a smoothie abandoned for years or his high school science project before he had really known better. Rogue unearthed it and juggled it in his hands. He actually appeared excited.



He walked over to a few meters in front of the blast door and began stretching. He had gotten a lot of practice pitching from all those midnight baseball sessions with sOs, so there was no way he was going to miss. He wound up his arm with the canister in hand, and drove it into the door. The frozen bottle pinged off the plating and sprang out the window, falling 2 stories down onto the hangar roof. It bounced three times, Rogue cursing each time it hit the ceiling of the building below. The jar spun in place and beamed a distress signal back to the mound as it reflected the harsh noon sun.



"Huh. Did I forget somethi—"



Boom. He forgot to add enough heat. The blast collapsed a portion of the roof, though the structure continued to stand.



"Eh, that wasn't so bad," he reasoned, as he hid from the view of the scuttling fire department.



He turned around and spotted his assistant spying from the door. It was obvious he had heard the bang coming from outside the lab. "You can come out now. We're going to need damage control."



Rogue's secretary-cum-lawyer peered out the window and heard a man screaming from below. It was sOs. While it took approximately four minutes to get up there from the courtyard, sOs reached it in two. He stormed the lab, baseball bat in hand.



"ROGUE YOU BASTARD. YOU WRECKED MY PLANE. IT WAS ALMOST DONE!"



The assistant approached and raised his hand slowly, ensuring he was at least two bat-lengths away. "Uhm, sir.. it was an accident."



"An accident? AGAIN? This is the third time this month you've destroyed something outside your lab. We know you love your experiments, but we agreed that you'd keep them contained in here. We gave you an entire floor for a reason." sOs was inconsolable. He'd been working sleepless nights aplenty over that plane, and it was to be his prized possession.



Rogue didn't appear remorseful, and had little to add as sOs continued his scolding.



"You don't take this war seriously enough. I know you love your toys and ploys, and honestly, they can be really useful. But you've got to learn to be more responsible. Sometimes I think you care more about your contraptions working than you do about winning." sOs glared at Rogue, who didn't feel like answering or apologizing. The Protoss commander was used to this, however, and gave up trying to talk some sense into the unusually bashful scientist. He marched out to attend to the repairs.



"It wasn't even a cool plane."



Rogue sealed the door to his lab and grabbed his vacuum cleaner, and proceeded to tidy up.









It took a few hours but everything looked good as new. The hole in the ceiling had been patched, and the damage to the hull of sOs' plane had been mended. sOs had spent the entire afternoon with his crew to make sure it could still be saved, and the sweat sogging the shirt on his back provided evidence of the hard work. He dismissed everyone as the sun set and let out his relief in a long exhale.



Rogue had been spying on the repairs from a distance, affected by curiosity more than conscience. As sOs stood there admiring his likeness on the plane, Rogue approached one of the mechanics on standby.



"Did they make sure the stabilizers are aligned," he interrogated.



"Yes, of course."



"Did they calibrate the servos and controls?"



"Yes, standard procedure."



"Did they remember to pressure test all the seals and welding?"



"That's scheduled for tomorrow."



"Are you sure they reme—"



Rogue spotted sOs finish his inspection from the corner of his eye, compelling him to make his exit mid sentence. He skirted back towards his workshop muttering, "No, no, this just won't do." He locked himself inside his quarters, resuming his work. He labored well into the night, as per usual, and the lights from his lab bothered his neighbors, until a quarter past midnight when the windows were finally shut. A good night's sleep at last.



Yet the calm of night would not last long. Down in the hangar, the sudden pop of metal striking metal alarmed the apartments facing the courtyard. Saws buzzed, meters rang, and hammers belled a morning's tune. sOs woke in a cold sweat realizing what was happening. He put on his Jin Air jacket and galloped down the halls to investigate. "Not again," he agonized.



He reached the hangar door as the first responder and resisted the urge to barge right in. He shrouded himself in a psionic cloak and entered through a half opened side door, intent on finding out what was happening. Screws drilled, wires buzzed, plates clanged to the floor; every sound unnerving the invisible Protoss more and more. sOs drew his psi blades as he neared and prepared to seize the intruder or strike him down, if necessary.



The sparks from the meddler's welder illuminated his face. It was Rogue tampering with sOs' plane again.



"WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING," sOs screamed.



Rogue turned around, seeing no one. He wondered, unperturbed, "Who said that?" sOs had forgotten to turn himself visible, and he stepped in front of Rogue before reappearing. He had hoped to jolt the irritant into a fright, but that didn't bother him either.



"Stop tampering with my plane!!!"



"Oh. Good. You're here," he responded without stopping his work. Rogue switched on the hangar lights and wiped his hands with an oily rag.



"Your crew didn't do a good job. So I improved it."



sOs was still breathing heavily with his brows slanted to meet by the bridge of his nose. He looked dejected, and he didn't understand what Rogue was yammering on about. It took several seconds for him to realize what Rogue had actually done. sOs trudged over to the engineer's desk and audited the blueprints spread out on the table. Apparently, Rogue was installing upgrades.



"You should have told me you were going to do this," sOs groaned, his expression finally softening. Even though Rogue's methods were often opaque, sOs understood that he often had good intentions.



"You never would have let me."



"Well, you're right. But could you blame me?"



"Yes."



"I almost stabbed you, you know."



"I wanted it to be a surprise. Don't think this thing will be ready anytime soon though."



sOs gave Rogue a good look. He had been working clad in his pajamas again, which were now splattered with grease and soot. sOs had run down to the hangar barefoot, and his unwinding nerves felt a sudden chill.



"Geez it's 15 degrees out here. Why the hell are you in a silk robe?"



"It's stealthier than cotton."



"... just explain to me how this works."









The next morning, Rogue resumed his research into whatever his page flips dictated. Though his assistant once again reminded him about Project IPEBSARFA ("Ideal Permutations for Extended Battle Strategies Against Recognized Fighter Archetypes"), Rogue simply shrugged off the suggestion. He enjoyed hearing his apprentice struggle to pronounce insufferable acronyms, but it did contribute to his absentmindedness.



While Rogue paced around his sanctuary, another visitor paid him a visit. This time, it was Maru.



"We've received interesting news. Life's reign is over. The scepter is up for grabs. SKT's deployed all their best generals. I know you still want revenge for the war of clans," Maru announced directly. He left no time for small talk, as usual.



"Wow. If you become king you're going to give me a bigger budget for my toys, right," Rogue asked. He didn't seem very interested.



"What do you mean? You're coming with us."



"Oh? I don't like those bullies either but I don't know..."



Rogue felt indecisive. On the one hand, he wanted more than anything else to prove himself once and for all. On the other hand, his defeat in every long campaign this year had left him shorn of confidence. Their defeat against SKT weighed on his mind as well.



"sOs and I are going. We can't let SKT rule this continent. They're already the richest clan. Imagine if they become the most powerful too," Maru tried to convince his friend.



"I could just stay home and continue my experiments. Send you some stuff to help out. I bet I'd be more useful that way," Rogue argued.



"You know, we were like that once too. Everyone doubted our abilities and criticized our unconventional tactics. People thought we were just novelties," Maru explained, "Yet all it took was a career defining victory. For me it was the second battle of Ognalea, and I justified my place this year as the head of the Terran Council. For sOs, it was his successful reign as king two years ago."



Rogue remembered what it was like back then. He was just another nameless captain at the time, while sOs and Maru had just gained promotion to the ranks of general with their string of victorious crusades. Maru belonged to one of the lower clans when he prevailed in Ognalea, and he had never come close to success before then. sOs was the jester who became king. Rogue understood what he had to do, but his unease grew.



"Jin Air need a Zerg," Maru declared before leaving the lab to prepare for war. He had given a good speech, he felt, though it was out of character for him to untie so many words. Rogue still didn't seem very convinced, he thought.



Maru was already halfway down the building when the stairwell shook with a dampened thud. The little prince slipped on a step and fell on his bottom which squeezed an unexpected curse from his lips. He staggered to the window and saw that there was another eruption at the volcano that was Rogue's laboratory. Maru dusted himself off and clambered back up, only to be greeted by flames. Rogue's entire office had been destroyed.



His eyes widened in a panic. The castle firefighters were already rushing to the scene, but their dry chemical extinguishers were having trouble with Rogue's various concoctions. "Has anyone seen Rogue~?!" Maru shouted, his voice cracking back into teenhood. He inquired with everyone at the scene but no one had seen a trace of the scientist. When the blaze expired, only the blast door survived.



Maru sunk to his knees and prepared to let out a loud cry, when his theatrics were interrupted by a pat on his shoulders.



"Uhm, sir.. it wasn't an accident." It was Rogue's assistant, spotless and unharmed. He pointed to the staircase, and motioned for Maru to follow him. The Terran general wasn't sure whether to be distraught or confused, but followed anyway. They reached the kitchen on the first floor, where Rogue was busy shuffling jars and mixing ingredients. He looked right at home.



"ROGUE! What happened?! You can't imagine the chaos you just caused," Maru reproached.



"I didn't need my lab anymore."



"What?? I'm really never going to understand you. What are you doing in the kitchen, of all places? We looked everywhere for you," Maru exclaimed.



"I can't go to war without a packed lunch. Foreign food is gross."



Maru shook his head and massaged his distended nape. He was going to have to explain this to everyone. At the very least, Jin Air had its Zerg.







"ASSISTANT~!""Yes, m'lord.""Notes."A pudgy man in a tunic grabbed a pen and an old, crusty notebook."Wool-cashmere blend, uncheck. Too itchy. Not absorbent enough."The assistant was mid sentence when a bath robe flew overhead and treated him like a coat rack."I guess I'm stuck with Egyptian cotton for now."Rogue, once again, was naked in his lab."Assistant, new robe please."His aide yanked off the garment that was draped over him and ran out of the room. Rogue stood there in his sexyboy splendor, pondering what to do with his day. He had just returned from another failed experiment in Spostalea, and though he appeared unfazed, the distress from his repeated implosions was clearly affecting his work. He was surprisingly neat for a mad genius, but the growing disarray in his workplace showed his dislocated state of mind. He trotted back to his table and opened to a recent page in his "To Do List" tome. On top, the word "Lingducken".The pudgy man returned with a robe of unidentifiable color. It had probably started out as white when it was new, but now looked like it had survived several rounds of paintball. Rogue shut the book and stood, put on the robe as it was handed to him, and sat back down. He opened his tome again, and this time, the page read "Ideal Permutations for Extended Battle Strategies Against Recognized Fighter Archetypes". The words baffled him."ASSISTANT~! When did I write this down?""Uhm, when you got back from Spostalea, sir. You said you wanted to figure out better strategies and ploys for longer campaigns. You lost a long fight again so you wanted to—"Lost. Again. Rogue snapped into a silent tantrum. The Zerg commander left his table and stomped his way to a counter filled with beakers of every shade and viscosity. His apprentice knew what was coming, so he strolled to a back room covered by a blast door. The little man picked up a magazine on one of the shelves and opened it to a bookmarked section and began reading, though he lost his progress whenever the room shook with each blast. The small explosions, of course, came from inside Rogue's madhouse, where he had begun mixing cocktails to hurl in his attendant's direction."I'll show you lost again," Rogue squeezed out of his gnashing teeth.Rogue moved over to a refrigerated locker and carefully opened the door. He pushed aside other containers as if he were looking for something in particular, even bypassing the ominous test tubes marked with skulls. There, at the back and covered in sleet, was an unmarked mason jar. It looked like a smoothie abandoned for years or his high school science project before he had really known better. Rogue unearthed it and juggled it in his hands. He actually appeared excited.He walked over to a few meters in front of the blast door and began stretching. He had gotten a lot of practice pitching from all those midnight baseball sessions with sOs, so there was no way he was going to miss. He wound up his arm with the canister in hand, and drove it into the door. The frozen bottle pinged off the plating and sprang out the window, falling 2 stories down onto the hangar roof. It bounced three times, Rogue cursing each time it hit the ceiling of the building below. The jar spun in place and beamed a distress signal back to the mound as it reflected the harsh noon sun."Huh. Did I forget somethi—"Boom. He forgot to add enough heat. The blast collapsed a portion of the roof, though the structure continued to stand."Eh, that wasn't so bad," he reasoned, as he hid from the view of the scuttling fire department.He turned around and spotted his assistant spying from the door. It was obvious he had heard the bang coming from outside the lab. "You can come out now. We're going to need damage control."Rogue's secretary-cum-lawyer peered out the window and heard a man screaming from below. It was sOs. While it took approximately four minutes to get up there from the courtyard, sOs reached it in two. He stormed the lab, baseball bat in hand."ROGUE YOU BASTARD. YOU WRECKED MY PLANE. IT WAS ALMOST DONE!"The assistant approached and raised his hand slowly, ensuring he was at least two bat-lengths away. "Uhm, sir.. it was an accident.""An accident? AGAIN? This is the third time this month you've destroyed something outside your lab. We know you love your experiments, but we agreed that you'd keep them contained in here. We gave you an entire floor for a reason." sOs was inconsolable. He'd been working sleepless nights aplenty over that plane, and it was to be his prized possession.Rogue didn't appear remorseful, and had little to add as sOs continued his scolding."You don't take this war seriously enough. I know you love your toys and ploys, and honestly, they can be really useful. But you've got to learn to be more responsible. Sometimes I think you care more about your contraptions working than you do about winning." sOs glared at Rogue, who didn't feel like answering or apologizing. The Protoss commander was used to this, however, and gave up trying to talk some sense into the unusually bashful scientist. He marched out to attend to the repairs."It wasn't even a cool plane."Rogue sealed the door to his lab and grabbed his vacuum cleaner, and proceeded to tidy up.It took a few hours but everything looked good as new. The hole in the ceiling had been patched, and the damage to the hull of sOs' plane had been mended. sOs had spent the entire afternoon with his crew to make sure it could still be saved, and the sweat sogging the shirt on his back provided evidence of the hard work. He dismissed everyone as the sun set and let out his relief in a long exhale.Rogue had been spying on the repairs from a distance, affected by curiosity more than conscience. As sOs stood there admiring his likeness on the plane, Rogue approached one of the mechanics on standby."Did they make sure the stabilizers are aligned," he interrogated."Yes, of course.""Did they calibrate the servos and controls?""Yes, standard procedure.""Did they remember to pressure test all the seals and welding?""That's scheduled for tomorrow.""Are you sure they reme—"Rogue spotted sOs finish his inspection from the corner of his eye, compelling him to make his exit mid sentence. He skirted back towards his workshop muttering, "No, no, this just won't do." He locked himself inside his quarters, resuming his work. He labored well into the night, as per usual, and the lights from his lab bothered his neighbors, until a quarter past midnight when the windows were finally shut. A good night's sleep at last.Yet the calm of night would not last long. Down in the hangar, the sudden pop of metal striking metal alarmed the apartments facing the courtyard. Saws buzzed, meters rang, and hammers belled a morning's tune. sOs woke in a cold sweat realizing what was happening. He put on his Jin Air jacket and galloped down the halls to investigate. "Not again," he agonized.He reached the hangar door as the first responder and resisted the urge to barge right in. He shrouded himself in a psionic cloak and entered through a half opened side door, intent on finding out what was happening. Screws drilled, wires buzzed, plates clanged to the floor; every sound unnerving the invisible Protoss more and more. sOs drew his psi blades as he neared and prepared to seize the intruder or strike him down, if necessary.The sparks from the meddler's welder illuminated his face. It was Rogue tampering with sOs' plane again."WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING," sOs screamed.Rogue turned around, seeing no one. He wondered, unperturbed, "Who said that?" sOs had forgotten to turn himself visible, and he stepped in front of Rogue before reappearing. He had hoped to jolt the irritant into a fright, but that didn't bother him either."Stop tampering with my plane!!!""Oh. Good. You're here," he responded without stopping his work. Rogue switched on the hangar lights and wiped his hands with an oily rag."Your crew didn't do a good job. So I improved it."sOs was still breathing heavily with his brows slanted to meet by the bridge of his nose. He looked dejected, and he didn't understand what Rogue was yammering on about. It took several seconds for him to realize what Rogue had actually done. sOs trudged over to the engineer's desk and audited the blueprints spread out on the table. Apparently, Rogue was installing upgrades."You should have told me you were going to do this," sOs groaned, his expression finally softening. Even though Rogue's methods were often opaque, sOs understood that he often had good intentions."You never would have let me.""Well, you're right. But could you blame me?""Yes.""I almost stabbed you, you know.""I wanted it to be a surprise. Don't think this thing will be ready anytime soon though."sOs gave Rogue a good look. He had been working clad in his pajamas again, which were now splattered with grease and soot. sOs had run down to the hangar barefoot, and his unwinding nerves felt a sudden chill."Geez it's 15 degrees out here. Why the hell are you in a silk robe?""It's stealthier than cotton.""... just explain to me how this works."The next morning, Rogue resumed his research into whatever his page flips dictated. Though his assistant once again reminded him about Project IPEBSARFA ("Ideal Permutations for Extended Battle Strategies Against Recognized Fighter Archetypes"), Rogue simply shrugged off the suggestion. He enjoyed hearing his apprentice struggle to pronounce insufferable acronyms, but it did contribute to his absentmindedness.While Rogue paced around his sanctuary, another visitor paid him a visit. This time, it was Maru."We've received interesting news. Life's reign is over. The scepter is up for grabs. SKT's deployed all their best generals. I know you still want revenge for the war of clans," Maru announced directly. He left no time for small talk, as usual."Wow. If you become king you're going to give me a bigger budget for my toys, right," Rogue asked. He didn't seem very interested."What do you mean? You're coming with us.""Oh? I don't like those bullies either but I don't know..."Rogue felt indecisive. On the one hand, he wanted more than anything else to prove himself once and for all. On the other hand, his defeat in every long campaign this year had left him shorn of confidence. Their defeat against SKT weighed on his mind as well."sOs and I are going. We can't let SKT rule this continent. They're already the richest clan. Imagine if they become the most powerful too," Maru tried to convince his friend."I could just stay home and continue my experiments. Send you some stuff to help out. I bet I'd be more useful that way," Rogue argued."You know, we were like that once too. Everyone doubted our abilities and criticized our unconventional tactics. People thought we were just novelties," Maru explained, "Yet all it took was a career defining victory. For me it was the second battle of Ognalea, and I justified my place this year as the head of the Terran Council. For sOs, it was his successful reign as king two years ago."Rogue remembered what it was like back then. He was just another nameless captain at the time, while sOs and Maru had just gained promotion to the ranks of general with their string of victorious crusades. Maru belonged to one of the lower clans when he prevailed in Ognalea, and he had never come close to success before then. sOs was the jester who became king. Rogue understood what he had to do, but his unease grew."Jin Air need a Zerg," Maru declared before leaving the lab to prepare for war. He had given a good speech, he felt, though it was out of character for him to untie so many words. Rogue still didn't seem very convinced, he thought.Maru was already halfway down the building when the stairwell shook with a dampened thud. The little prince slipped on a step and fell on his bottom which squeezed an unexpected curse from his lips. He staggered to the window and saw that there was another eruption at the volcano that was Rogue's laboratory. Maru dusted himself off and clambered back up, only to be greeted by flames. Rogue's entire office had been destroyed.His eyes widened in a panic. The castle firefighters were already rushing to the scene, but their dry chemical extinguishers were having trouble with Rogue's various concoctions. "Has anyone seen Rogue~?!" Maru shouted, his voice cracking back into teenhood. He inquired with everyone at the scene but no one had seen a trace of the scientist. When the blaze expired, only the blast door survived.Maru sunk to his knees and prepared to let out a loud cry, when his theatrics were interrupted by a pat on his shoulders."Uhm, sir.. it wasn't an accident." It was Rogue's assistant, spotless and unharmed. He pointed to the staircase, and motioned for Maru to follow him. The Terran general wasn't sure whether to be distraught or confused, but followed anyway. They reached the kitchen on the first floor, where Rogue was busy shuffling jars and mixing ingredients. He looked right at home."ROGUE! What happened?! You can't imagine the chaos you just caused," Maru reproached."I didn't need my lab anymore.""What?? I'm really never going to understand you. What are you doing in the kitchen, of all places? We looked everywhere for you," Maru exclaimed."I can't go to war without a packed lunch. Foreign food is gross."Maru shook his head and massaged his distended nape. He was going to have to explain this to everyone. At the very least, Jin Air had its Zerg.





Stats are from Aligulac.com







Throughout his career in Starcraft 2, Rogue has improved year on year. 1 Premier appearance in 2013 (exit in the first group stage), and 2 Premier appearances in 2014 (exits in the first group stage again), combined with much improved results in Proleague, gave him the springboard for an excellent 2015. Consistent performances in both the individual leagues and in Proleague (22-12 record) have led to yet another step up in quality for the crazy zerg of Jin Air.



There are also very few holes in Rogue’s play. His ZvMech has been especially good in the past months, while his mirror matchup is competitive with the best that Korea has to offer. His ZvP win rate looks poor at 48%, but the variety of builds that he’s displayed means that his opponents will still enter without having a clue about what he’ll turn to. He’s taken key wins off many of the best protosses in Proleague, and seemingly used herO as his personal testing ground for crazy builds—the swarm host nexus snipe game on Deadwing, for example, or the overlord drops during their ace clash in the closing weeks of Proleague.





However, as soO would no doubt tell Rogue, consistency is a double edged sword. Compared to the majority of players in the world, his year has been one to be envied—an unbelievable record of five quarterfinals out of a possible six in the Korean league system. However, at Blizzcon he won’t be competing against ‘the majority of players in the world’—he’ll be going up against fifteen of the highest achievers of the year. While consistency implies that he rarely struggles to play at his best, that glass ceiling suggests that that he might not be able to go that extra step beyond, be it through a lack of cutting edge against the best or from a degree of mental weakness once the pressure cooker atmosphere truly kicks in. Whether he’ll be stumped again in perpetual stasis, or whether he can smash his way through will be one of the storylines to watch over the weekend.



WCS Points:





Top 5 Games







1. Rogue vs Classic SPL 2015 R1 - Deadwing

Whether it’s a possible timing opening up, an excessively greedy play that’s begging to be punished, or a player teching to the wrong composition, you can spot a victory coming on most occasions in Starcraft 2. Five minutes in though, no one watching this match could have possibly foreseen a quick Rogue win. Classic’s opener was as successful a cannon rush as you could ask for—forcing cancels on both attempted expansions to the natural and third, while the follow up effectively walled the zerg in on a one base contain. Instead of trying to set up some semblance of an economy at the fourth, Rogue decided to go straight for the jugular, with a proxy hatch in Classic’s main. Queens and roaches popped out, while a nydus network successfully put the last nail in Classic’s coffin.









2. Rogue vs Shine SPL 2015 R2 - Expedition Lost

The central tenet linking the Kongs throughout the ages is their mental fragility once it really starts to count. However, the truly odd thing is that to a man, they’ve demonstrated time after time their ability to mount comebacks in games in the past. From MarineKing to soO to ByuL, it’s simply not possible to consistently hit the late stages of premier competitions without some degree of resilience—it’s just that final step which is lacking. While his achievements are a good couple of tiers lower, Rogue’s also displayed his strength in finding solutions to turn games on their head outside of the Round of 8. This game against Shine is a perfect example. Shine was on the front foot right from the start, successfully taking the central gold base, and using his economic and army advantage to take full control of the map. After losing his third base, Rogue went straight for the counter, forcing a basetrade, before clever maneuvering over the map left him with just a single target left to hit...









3. Rogue vs herO GSL 2015 Season 1 – King Sejong Station

While this year’s been by far Rogue’s most successful as a progamer, it’s undeniable that his infamous Round of 8 barrier must weigh heavily on his mind. A 4-15 record in the quarterfinals for Korean individual leagues over the year clearly indicates how disappointing he’s been time after time when the pressure’s on. However, while his performances have generally been poor in those defeats, there was one exception—his close 2-3 loss to herO in GSL Season 1. The pick of those games was the second set on King Sejong Station, featuring a heavy tech opening from Rogue. Seemingly tailored to beat herO’s strong anti-swarm host play, Rogue mixed in both ultralisks to counter herO’s large sentry count and mutalisks to counter his traditional warp prism harass. Infestors and corruptors turned up as well, in what Artosis described as SC2 box art made reality. Rogue went on to lose, but his imagination was what made this game special.









4. Rogue vs soO, GSL 2015 Season 3 – Coda

For much of the year, soO was considered all but unbeatable in the mirror matchup. Dominant performances in Proleague (10-1) contributed to an overall win rate of 78%. From May to August, he strung together a 16 series winning streak, dropping only three games in the process. He wasn’t just the best; he was the best by an absolute mile.



In this game, Rogue took him apart. Inferior trades left him behind going into the midgame, with both players going for mutalisks, but going for infestor / hydralisk to reinforce brought him back into the game. Heavy ling harass for Rogue chipped away at soO’s economy, while infestors zoned out soO’s large mutalisk flock from retaliating. Locked into his composition, it became a question of when soO would make his mistake. One blunder left half his army locked down by fungal growth, and down to half Rogue’s supply, soO had no choice but to tap out.









5. Rogue vs herO, SPL Postseason - Echo

Has there ever been a Starcraft 2 team who revel in the unorthodox more than Jin Air? sOs, Maru and Rogue are all core members of the roster, not to mention Pigbaby’s comically intricate all-ins or Terminator’s carrier proclivities. Chosen as the team’s ace player in the first match of their clash with CJ Entus in the Proleague postseason, Rogue invoked the spirit of his team and gambled it all in game 7. Banelings rained down from the sky, while herO’s protoss deathball simply melted instantly. There were few more beautiful sights this year.



Throughout his career in Starcraft 2, Rogue has improved year on year. 1 Premier appearance in 2013 (exit in the first group stage), and 2 Premier appearances in 2014 (exits in the first group stage again), combined with much improved results in Proleague, gave him the springboard for an excellent 2015. Consistent performances in both the individual leagues and in Proleague (22-12 record) have led to yet another step up in quality for the crazy zerg of Jin Air.There are also very few holes in Rogue’s play. His ZvMech has been especially good in the past months, while his mirror matchup is competitive with the best that Korea has to offer. His ZvP win rate looks poor at 48%, but the variety of builds that he’s displayed means that his opponents will still enter without having a clue about what he’ll turn to. He’s taken key wins off many of the best protosses in Proleague, and seemingly used herO as his personal testing ground for crazy builds—the swarm host nexus snipe game on Deadwing, for example, or the overlord drops during their ace clash in the closing weeks of Proleague.However, as soO would no doubt tell Rogue, consistency is a double edged sword. Compared to the majority of players in the world, his year has been one to be envied—an unbelievable record of five quarterfinals out of a possible six in the Korean league system. However, at Blizzcon he won’t be competing against ‘the majority of players in the world’—he’ll be going up against fifteen of the highest achievers of the year. While consistency implies that he rarely struggles to play at his best, that glass ceiling suggests that that he might not be able to go that extra step beyond, be it through a lack of cutting edge against the best or from a degree of mental weakness once the pressure cooker atmosphere truly kicks in. Whether he’ll be stumped again in perpetual stasis, or whether he can smash his way through will be one of the storylines to watch over the weekend.Whether it’s a possible timing opening up, an excessively greedy play that’s begging to be punished, or a player teching to the wrong composition, you can spot a victory coming on most occasions in Starcraft 2. Five minutes in though, no one watching this match could have possibly foreseen a quick Rogue win. Classic’s opener was as successful a cannon rush as you could ask for—forcing cancels on both attempted expansions to the natural and third, while the follow up effectively walled the zerg in on a one base contain. Instead of trying to set up some semblance of an economy at the fourth, Rogue decided to go straight for the jugular, with a proxy hatch in Classic’s main. Queens and roaches popped out, while a nydus network successfully put the last nail in Classic’s coffin.The central tenet linking the Kongs throughout the ages is their mental fragility once it really starts to count. However, the truly odd thing is that to a man, they’ve demonstrated time after time their ability to mount comebacks in games in the past. From MarineKing to soO to ByuL, it’s simply not possible to consistently hit the late stages of premier competitions without some degree of resilience—it’s just that final step which is lacking. While his achievements are a good couple of tiers lower, Rogue’s also displayed his strength in finding solutions to turn games on their head outside of the Round of 8. This game against Shine is a perfect example. Shine was on the front foot right from the start, successfully taking the central gold base, and using his economic and army advantage to take full control of the map. After losing his third base, Rogue went straight for the counter, forcing a basetrade, before clever maneuvering over the map left him with just a single target left to hit...While this year’s been by far Rogue’s most successful as a progamer, it’s undeniable that his infamous Round of 8 barrier must weigh heavily on his mind. A 4-15 record in the quarterfinals for Korean individual leagues over the year clearly indicates how disappointing he’s been time after time when the pressure’s on. However, while his performances have generally been poor in those defeats, there was one exception—his close 2-3 loss to herO in GSL Season 1. The pick of those games was the second set on King Sejong Station, featuring a heavy tech opening from Rogue. Seemingly tailored to beat herO’s strong anti-swarm host play, Rogue mixed in both ultralisks to counter herO’s large sentry count and mutalisks to counter his traditional warp prism harass. Infestors and corruptors turned up as well, in what Artosis described as SC2 box art made reality. Rogue went on to lose, but his imagination was what made this game special.For much of the year, soO was considered all but unbeatable in the mirror matchup. Dominant performances in Proleague (10-1) contributed to an overall win rate of 78%. From May to August, he strung together a 16 series winning streak, dropping only three games in the process. He wasn’t just the best; he was the best by an absolute mile.In this game, Rogue took him apart. Inferior trades left him behind going into the midgame, with both players going for mutalisks, but going for infestor / hydralisk to reinforce brought him back into the game. Heavy ling harass for Rogue chipped away at soO’s economy, while infestors zoned out soO’s large mutalisk flock from retaliating. Locked into his composition, it became a question of when soO would make his mistake. One blunder left half his army locked down by fungal growth, and down to half Rogue’s supply, soO had no choice but to tap out.Has there ever been a Starcraft 2 team who revel in the unorthodox more than Jin Air? sOs, Maru and Rogue are all core members of the roster, not to mention Pigbaby’s comically intricate all-ins or Terminator’s carrier proclivities. Chosen as the team’s ace player in the first match of their clash with CJ Entus in the Proleague postseason, Rogue invoked the spirit of his team and gambled it all in game 7. Banelings rained down from the sky, while herO’s protoss deathball simply melted instantly. There were few more beautiful sights this year.

Rogue vs herO

SPL 2015 Post Season - Echo LE

by: Jer



Going into this game, both players had won their respective matches. Rogue already won on Echo in a ZvT, while herO claimed a win on Terraform in a PvZ. This was not the only thing they shared in common, as they were both selected by their teams for the ace match in the first semi-final match of the 2015 Proleague Grand Finals. Jin Air was red hot coming off of a 2-0 sweep of KT Rolster, but could they continue this undefeated streak in the finals? The spotlight was on. The stage was set. Who would prevail?



It was clear out of the gates that both of these players had prepared builds for this specific matchup. Curiously enough, they both chose a heavy macro build on one of the smallest maps in the pool. It’s almost as if both players expected each other to do exactly what they did; herO went for the greediest possible nexus into gateway, and Rogue for a three hatch and scouting only for a proxy gateway. The first overlord confirmed the nexus first into gateway build, and this gave Rogue the freedom to focus on drone production over everything else.



The second overlord that Rogue made was parked over the third base of herO, and this would give Rogue the information of the third nexus timing. As predicted, herO dropped an early third nexus, and seeing this, Rogue continued to drone as heavily as possible. He was droning so hard, that the only zerglings that were made were the first four for initial map scouting, and then droned straight to three base saturation. In an odd turn of events, Rogue had started +1 melee and +1 ranged attack, rather than a carapace upgrade. This signified that Rogue was gearing up for a heavy attack. Following this came the hydralisk den, and this would complete his trifecta set of ground unit structures. Rogue continued to maintain vision of the third base of herO, monitoring the probe count, and continued to poke and prod the map with lings. Rogue had full map control, the freedom to expand as he willed, and the availability for endless creep spread.





Rogue knew what was coming his way: a blink timing. After all, this was herO he was playing, and there was no way it could be anything else. An overseer zeppelin’d the entire base of herO, seeing the extra gateways being dropped and the blink timing, and knew when the push was going to hit. A Rogue ling was also spotting which way herO’s army would attack from, and this gave Rogue the opportunity to reposition his army in response to the move out. Rogue had already established a big force of ling/hydra off his unhindered three base economy, and with perfect army splitting, engaged herO’s move out when his +1/+1 finished, and forced herO to recall before he could get into a good position. Rogue’s first timing worked out exactly as he had hoped; he deflected herO without any losses and could proceed to part two of his plan.









Immediately after fending off the first attack of herO, Rogue put into motion his second plan. This was to research baneling speed and overlord speed/drop, and he would use these to drop over the army and mineral lines of herO should everything work out. The problem is the research time for these upgrades is exceptionally long, and Rogue would have to deflect yet another attack before these upgrades would finish. This attack came in the form of another stalker/sentry ball, similar to the first push out. herO again tried to push the same location as last time, and Rogue was ready for it in the exact same manner. Déja vu happened, as herO recalled once again to safety and Rogue pushed back the attack with ease, inching closer to his ultimate upgrade goal.





herO had had enough. Rather than contest the fourth base of Rogue, he would build up a critical mass of blink stalkers, complimented with sentries and immortals, and go for a head on fight. Behind this, he dropped his fourth base in preparation for a late game transition. What he was absolutely unaware of was the impending drop of doom over his army. The two forced recalls earlier in the game gave him no escape path through telekinesis, and so the only way out would be back the way he came on foot. herO pushed into Rogues creep, and in doing so set up his downfall. Rogue again had perfectly calculated this timing; ventral sacs finished in the nick of time to load up the banelings and rain them down on herO. Helpless forcefields were cast by herO as he saw his army vaporize in seconds to a cloud of overlords, and hydralisks firing in the back. It was the fastest a protoss deathball had ever died.







Not only did Rogue obliterate the protoss army, but he also sent out baneling drops to clean up herO’s mineral lines. The game was already over at that point, but Rogue wanted to be fancy and tried for some baneling connections on probes. Continuous ling/bling/hydra was made, and overlord after overlord was sent to herO’s mineral lines to try to add gravy to the fries. herO could not take another head on army fight, as the threat of another baneling drop over his army was too high. He couldn’t hold his newly built fourth, he couldn’t transition into anything that could counter overlord drops, and he couldn’t win the game. All he could do was put his head in his hands and utter the fabled words of defeat.







click here to watch the game



Going into this game, both players had won their respective matches. Rogue already won on Echo in a ZvT, while herO claimed a win on Terraform in a PvZ. This was not the only thing they shared in common, as they were both selected by their teams for the ace match in the first semi-final match of the 2015 Proleague Grand Finals. Jin Air was red hot coming off of a 2-0 sweep of KT Rolster, but could they continue this undefeated streak in the finals? The spotlight was on. The stage was set. Who would prevail?It was clear out of the gates that both of these players had prepared builds for this specific matchup. Curiously enough, they both chose a heavy macro build on one of the smallest maps in the pool. It’s almost as if both players expected each other to do exactly what they did; herO went for the greediest possible nexus into gateway, and Rogue for a three hatch and scouting only for a proxy gateway. The first overlord confirmed the nexus first into gateway build, and this gave Rogue the freedom to focus on drone production over everything else.The second overlord that Rogue made was parked over the third base of herO, and this would give Rogue the information of the third nexus timing. As predicted, herO dropped an early third nexus, and seeing this, Rogue continued to drone as heavily as possible. He was droning so hard, that the only zerglings that were made were the first four for initial map scouting, and then droned straight to three base saturation. In an odd turn of events, Rogue had started +1 melee and +1 ranged attack, rather than a carapace upgrade. This signified that Rogue was gearing up for a heavy attack. Following this came the hydralisk den, and this would complete his trifecta set of ground unit structures. Rogue continued to maintain vision of the third base of herO, monitoring the probe count, and continued to poke and prod the map with lings. Rogue had full map control, the freedom to expand as he willed, and the availability for endless creep spread.Rogue knew what was coming his way: a blink timing. After all, this was herO he was playing, and there was no way it could be anything else. An overseer zeppelin’d the entire base of herO, seeing the extra gateways being dropped and the blink timing, and knew when the push was going to hit. A Rogue ling was also spotting which way herO’s army would attack from, and this gave Rogue the opportunity to reposition his army in response to the move out. Rogue had already established a big force of ling/hydra off his unhindered three base economy, and with perfect army splitting, engaged herO’s move out when his +1/+1 finished, and forced herO to recall before he could get into a good position. Rogue’s first timing worked out exactly as he had hoped; he deflected herO without any losses and could proceed to part two of his plan.Immediately after fending off the first attack of herO, Rogue put into motion his second plan. This was to research baneling speed and overlord speed/drop, and he would use these to drop over the army and mineral lines of herO should everything work out. The problem is the research time for these upgrades is exceptionally long, and Rogue would have to deflect yet another attack before these upgrades would finish. This attack came in the form of another stalker/sentry ball, similar to the first push out. herO again tried to push the same location as last time, and Rogue was ready for it in the exact same manner. Déja vu happened, as herO recalled once again to safety and Rogue pushed back the attack with ease, inching closer to his ultimate upgrade goal.herO had had enough. Rather than contest the fourth base of Rogue, he would build up a critical mass of blink stalkers, complimented with sentries and immortals, and go for a head on fight. Behind this, he dropped his fourth base in preparation for a late game transition. What he was absolutely unaware of was the impending drop of doom over his army. The two forced recalls earlier in the game gave him no escape path through telekinesis, and so the only way out would be back the way he came on foot. herO pushed into Rogues creep, and in doing so set up his downfall. Rogue again had perfectly calculated this timing; ventral sacs finished in the nick of time to load up the banelings and rain them down on herO. Helpless forcefields were cast by herO as he saw his army vaporize in seconds to a cloud of overlords, and hydralisks firing in the back. It was the fastest a protoss deathball had ever died.Not only did Rogue obliterate the protoss army, but he also sent out baneling drops to clean up herO’s mineral lines. The game was already over at that point, but Rogue wanted to be fancy and tried for some baneling connections on probes. Continuous ling/bling/hydra was made, and overlord after overlord was sent to herO’s mineral lines to try to add gravy to the fries. herO could not take another head on army fight, as the threat of another baneling drop over his army was too high. He couldn’t hold his newly built fourth, he couldn’t transition into anything that could counter overlord drops, and he couldn’t win the game. All he could do was put his head in his hands and utter the fabled words of defeat.













