The GSI comes to a close soon, with only two players remaining. Their paths to this match were long and hard-fought against other invitees. Proxy builds, cheese plays, and guerilla drops all played their role in bringing us to this final moment.
Catch up on the VoDs, player bios, and schedule at the GSI website!
Flash’s path:
Flash > Savior, AnyTime, Mind in group play
Jaedong, AnyTime in elimination stage
Flash is on fire now, playing with unparalleled poise. He rose out of his group 3-0, then pushed out two favorites for event. His play against AnyTime in the semi-finals match on Blue Storm was incredible in both games. He managed to spot proxy gateways and adapted to AnyTime’s strategies each game. Though he took a loss on Katrina, a quick game on Baekmagoji tallied one more point in his favor. At a critical juncture in the match, Flash subtly moved a barracks and landed it to trap AnyTime’s units, changing their pathing into Flash’s favor. Unable to quickly finish the game on the second Blue Storm game, AnyTime bowed out after an all-in attack.
Stork’s path
*Loss to Iris in group play
Stork > Hwasin, Free in group play,
Sea, Iris in elimination stage
Stork comes from the other side of the bracket, conquering Terran after Terran. He has played no Zergs and only one other Protoss player throughout the whole event. Stork demolished both Sea and Iris with no problem. He plays consistently each game, with calculated form. When his proxy strategy on Blue Storm became a drawn out battle, Stork immediately transitioned from an aggressive quick-win form into a more economically stable position. He showed mastery over Katrina, coming back to win after losing his main Nexus.
Predictions
Blue Storm: Stork > Flash
Blue Storm PvT is a map-wide game of hide/seek. One player will set up a proxy at some point in the game, be it early or mid, and the other player needs to find it before they get overwhelmed. The Protoss here has the advantage, since they can set up more gates or have the option of shuttle-drops. Stork has been known to exploit this multiple times, while Flash is often on the defending end. Stork’s solid gameplay will win out.
Katrina: Stork > Flash
Carriers. Carriers. Carriers. Thats the Katrina special. If Flash can muster up a Wraith/ComSat strategy or out-pressure Stork, he’ll take this map. I just don’t see that happening with Stork being the monster he is. Terran land-based armies have a lot of strength if they can set up properly. Katrina just doesn’t offer that anywhere. Turrets and Goliath masses alike have fallen to Stork’s Carriers. If anyone can upset Stork on this map though, it’d be Flash.
Baekmagoji: Flash > Stork
Flash stands like a Rock on this map. He’s fended off early cheese strategies from JaeDong and AnyTime with little trouble, and continued in basic Terran fashion to outplay his opponents. Baekmagoji offers a better chance for Terran to create a good position and advance. The largest problem for Flash will come from the main base choke points. These narrow areas bottle neck and open so drastically it’s hard to really do much at all from a Terran perspective.
The map list repeats Blue Storm and Katrina for game 4/5 respectively. I don’t think either player will use the same strategy, but my predictions won’t change.
