On the 13th of July, the WCS Circuit makes its third out of four stops at Valencia. With 100 000 USD, a BlizzCon seed and 11 000 WCS points up for grab, it’s going to be another intense weekend of StarCraft.
At this Dreamhack event, we have four players participating, Strange, Zanster, JonSnow and TRUE.
Strange and Zanster were unable to make it through the Online qualifiers and have signed up into the Open Bracket. Somehow, among the 64 players in the first group stage, they ended up in the same group. Zanster finds himself as the only Zerg with Strange and the two Protoss players Indy and ReiGn. Although a teamkill series is very likely, we think it should be an easy 1st and 2nd finish for both our players.
TRUE and JonSnow were able to qualify through the NA Online qualifiers, where they were able to take 3rd and 4th respectively. They will wait in Group Stage 3 for the rest of the competitors to play out the first two Group Stages.
We eagerly await the event to take place and can’t wait to see what our boys can do! #GoPSISTORM
Starting April 28, Dreamhack Austin begins! Part of the WCS circuit, this event sports a $100k prize pool, a 64 player open bracket and a BlizzCon seed to first place. We are tied with ROOT Gaming in being the most represented team with 8 players. We have 2 players seeded into the third bracket stage and 6 fighting it out in the first group stage.
PiLiPiLi and JonSnow had an amazing performance in the NA qualifier, placing 2nd and 4th respectively. Defeating such opponents as TRUE, Semper, puCK and Scarlett, they both were able to make it out of the Losers’ bracket and make the top 4. Even while knocking out teammates TRUE and Silky on their way, they simply proved they were the best then and there. They will wait for the competition on Saturday while the first bracket stage is played out.
In this bracket, we have TRUE, PengWin, WarreN, Silky and jheffe, battling it out for a top finish in their groups. Somehow, even with 16 groups, we found a way to make a teamkill situation with WarreN and Silky in Group K. They will have to find a way to beat Bly, Fear or even each other to advance into the second Group Stage. All the way back in Group C, our player manager Pengwin, has to best xKawaiian, the Protoss TheorY and Blast to advance. In another potential teamkill situation, TRUE and academy player jheffe have to find a way through Bails and Jjajan to continue on. All by his lonesome, academy player sLeet is in Group O with the Swedish Zanster, Dolan and mLty.
Overall, we believe each player has the potential to make it out of the first group stage. We have been preparing for this event since it was announced and progress has shown.
Make sure to tune in and cheer on our players throughout the event!
The 6th of April, Gumiho played vs. the GSL Season 1 Champ, Stats in the Ro16. They faced off where our Terran player was the clear underdog. Stats was hot off his win, where Gumiho couldn’t even get past the Ro32. Even before that, he finished second in the incredibly stacked IEM Gyeonggi where Gumiho wasn’t even able to qualify. Despite the odds stacked against him, the GumiGod played his own way and it worked. Here’s how he did it.
The first game was played on Cactus Valley, a big four player map, PvT’s on this map either end really quickly or they go for awhile. This was an example of the latter. It started off as any other game, Gumiho tried some drop pressure, Stats was able to defend it. He quickly teched up to colossi while getting a third, Gumiho build up his bioball with a third and started to position aggressively with an army composed of MMM, widow mines and vikings to snipe the colossi. With some patience and some back and forth, Stats was able to defend his expansion, making both players to play the basics; macro. Gumiho pumped out a fleet of liberators with range while dropping every which way. In the climax moment, Stats moved his army to threaten Gumi’s fourth. Defending his fourth from afar with liberators, the terran found himself in an advantageous position when he beelined for the protoss’ main and sniped the natural nexus. Forced to walk across the map to defend, Stats was zoned out by the liberators and forced to take a poor engagement which earned Gumiho the win.
The second game was played on Newkirk Precinct, with a base-to-base distance quickly covered by flying units, air unit openers are quite common. That’s exactly what happened here, but game 2 was a series of unfortunate plays. Gumi opened with a widow mine drop harass, but Stats opened phoenix/adept. Losing the drop without doing much, he was in a poor position when Stats came flying into the main with a prism and 8 phoenix. After having caused massive damage to his army and economy, Gumi tried to muster up a force and doom drop Stats’ main, but he defended it with a massive colossus based army, did a counter push and forced out the GG.
Echo LE, one of the golden maps from HotS repurposed for this expansion, composed by many low-ground and high-ground areas, the third is also easily secured with collapsible rocks making it easier to defend. Despite this, game 3 started cheesy with a hint of non-standard. Stats went for a proxy stargate, pumped out two oracles, harassed with them while making a void ray and marched into Gumiho’s delayed natural with the intent to end the game then and now. Losing over 20 SCV’s and with his front door knocked down, Gumi was able to defend with the skin of his teeth. Retaking his natural while pumping out units, he was able to counter push to the win with marines, medivacs and 2 tanks. He even constructed a bunker at the bottom of the protoss’ natural expansions ramp, with the firm intent to hold his ground or die trying.
Watch Gumiho’s amazing comeback here!
One of the good maps that came out of LotV, Proxima station has an inbase natural and a potential gold base 4th. Needless to say, standard macro is the norm here. This game was slightly more straightforward, Stats went for stargate opener with oracle harass with the goal to go phoenix/adept. Meanwhile, Gumiho went for cloaked banshee. Without a proper way to detect the cloak tech, Stats lost exactly 23 SCV’s and found himself in the economic gutter. By simply pumping out units, our Terran player was able to push his lead and force his way into his opponent’s third after the second try. Without a proper way to defend his third and without an army, Stats GG’ed out. Granting Gumiho the win 3-1.
Watch the full VOD here!
Having played his own aggressive style and triumphed over the GSL Champ, Gumiho surprised many, but we always believed…
Two days later, Gumiho now had to face the smiling assassin herO. Once again, Gumiho was the underdog, despite an amazing performance vs Stats, his opponent has always been a consistently good player, despite the fact that his last major win was in 2015 with SSL Season 3.
The first game was played on Abyssal Reef. With the interesting setting of being an underwater map causing expired units to simply float up. This map has many paths and many potential flank routes. herO started off with the now common stargate opener, building double oracle, then transitioned into blink stalkers. Gumiho was able to scout it with a reaper and set himself up into a defensive position, widow mines covering the mineral line, a viking flying around and a squad of marines roaming in between his natural and his main base kept him safe. Gumiho decided to go for a very powerful 3 siege tank/marine +1 timing attack. With a cleverly placed stasis ward, herO was able to catch more than half of Gumi’s marines and jumped on the weakened army, destroying it while taking little losses. With his timing broken, our Terran tried to transition into a macro game, but herO kept harassing and engaging until he lost his third and then the game.
The second game was played on Newkirk Precinct, the map with a short air distance, an oldie but a goodie. Opting for the same opener as game 1, herO went oracle opener, but this time transitioned it into phoenix/adept. Once again, Gumiho decided not to take a third and went for a 4 liberator/widow mine timing. The Protoss player was able to defend with an overwhelming number of adepts and phoenix. While defending Gumi’s attempts at drops with phoenix, taking a fourth and continuing to produce adepts, herO was able to brute force his way into a victory, pushing Gumiho out of his third base and into his natural.
Played on the shining map of Echo LE, the third game started off the same from herO’s side. Oracles scouted and harassed while adepts and phoenix were being massed back home. Yet this time Gumiho played differently. He actually went for a third while pressuring herO’s third with some marines and widow mines. After getting pushed back, he defended wave after wave of phoenix adepts, while producing a massive amount of MMM with liberators. With no AOE and losing his fourth, herO was forced out of the game by Gumiho’s overwhelming bio army.
In game four, played on the four player map Cactus Valley, herO actually didn’t go for phoenix/adepts. He went nexus first and then went for a colossus based army. Gumiho went for a pressure build with tanks resembling the build in game 1. herO was able to defend it and slowly transitioned to making disruptors. After successfully defending his third, Gumi pushed back with liberators and marine/marauders. Slowly but surely, Gumiho was able to take advantageous positions and force herO to take unfavorable fights, eking out the win.
Tied up with 2 wins and 2 losses, the last game was played on Proxima Station.
In the same flavor as the first couple of games, herO, starting in the north, went for a stargate opener making oracles to harass his opponents worker line. Gumiho was able to defend it quite easily while he went for another pressure build. Pumping out marines like there was no tomorrow, he walked across the map and sat in front of herO’s third, waiting for his reinforcing medivacs. The Protoss was able to sniff out the pressure build, since he opted to build void rays instead of phoenix. Just as the medivacs arrived, Gumiho stimmed in, but herO pushed it back with force fields, photon overcharges, and the void rays sniping a full medivac. Gumiho fell back and went into macro mode. Building up a fleet of liberators while herO built colossi, they battled back and forth trading units and map control. Despite getting slowly pushed back by liberator zones, herO was able to tech up to tempest and pick them off one by one with oracle revelation. Even with a wonderful arc around herO’s fourth, the protoss death fleet was too much for Gumiho who lost all his liberators and about half of his ground army. Trying to stall with drops at his opponents 5th and main, his efforts were not enough. The ROOT Protoss defended enough that he was able to walk into the Terran’s territory and kill everything. Forcing the GG and taking the series 3-2.
Watch the full VOD right here!
With his run ending in the quarterfinals, Gumiho took home ₩ 1,000,000 and 450 WCS points. Even with a loss relatively soon, we are still impressed with his performance. So far, he has had his busiest year since 2015 with the amount of tournaments played in and results. He currently stands at #14 with 1750 WCS Points. At his current rate, he has a decent chance to make it to BlizzCon. With 3 KR tournaments and 1 Global event left to gather up points, we hope he is able to hammer out wins and qualify to the most important event of the year. We continue to support him and we hope you will too!
Some of you may remember our previous announcement about the 5th iteration of our tournament, it was going to be our biggest and most impressive event yet. Fusing KJ’s love for StarCraft and cars, sponsorship by Dell and Alienware, topped off with an amazing venue, it was set to be an amazing event.
Unfortunately, we had some problems. As some of you might have read, it was unexpectedly cancelled when general manager of the mall vetoe’d the event. Even with prior approval from her boss and all parties involved in the planning of the event.
We quickly scrambled to find another venue, and our friends at The Cave were accommodating enough to host us once again for another tournament!
So here we are with all the details you need to know:
Date: 22 April 2017 Time: Starts at 11am EST Venue: The Cave Fairfax, 10621 Braddock Rd, Ste B, Fairfax, Virginia Format: Group Stage in Swiss style bo3, Top 8 advance to the single-elimination playoffs bracket, finals are Bo5 Entry: $20 sign up, $30 at the door, $10 spectator pass. PrizePool: $1,000+ USD (500+$ 1st, 300+$ 2nd, 100+$ 3rd-4th)
The games will be streamed on the GauntletSC2 twitch, make sure to catch it then! https://www.twitch.tv/gauntletsc2
We did end up losing sponsors with the lost of the big venue, so the prize-pool has been reduced to 1,000$ USD. Depending on sign-ups and other things, it is possible that it will increase, thank you for our understanding.
As with all of our Cups, the event will be casted by none other than our PSISTORM pro-team with appearances by some of the signed up players, members of the StarCraft Community and more!
Now here is a little added bonus, it is possible we will be adding SSBM to the gamelist! That means a play area for SSBM possibly complimented with a prizepool! Details are to come, but we are excited about what this will entail…
[show_posts filter=”news”]A couple moments ago, GuMiho was able to advance to Round 2 of the StarCraft II StarLeague Season 1: Qualifier aka the SSL. He started by beating a Protoss named 젤리젤리 2-0, then Forte (or SalvatioN) 2-0, but lost against Stats 0-2 in the finals. Knocked down to the losers round, he faced Rogue who he was able to beat in a close 2-1 victory.
Next up, he will play in another tough group in round 2 the 8th of March. This group features herO, Zest and Dark and he will face off against herO in the first match. It will be tough, but GuMiho has triumph in tough groups before. Just like at IEM Katowice, we hope he can top his group and advance in first place!
On the second day of the group stage, all of our members were set to play. TRUE and PiLiPiLi played in Group C, the so-called easiest group, while the towel-terran Gumiho played in Group D, the group of Death.
In the wee hours of the morning in North America, PiLiPiLi played against his fellow teammate TRUE. Knowing him well, he was able to fend off his aggressive style and won the series 2-1. With the teamkill out of the way, he played Zest, quickly getting dispatched 0-2. In perhaps the most heartbreaking series of the group stage, he found himself in a tie-breaking situation being 1-1 against HomeStoryCup champion Patience. Trying to end the game quickly with an immortal sentry based push, he ended up losing his entire army, yet was able to force his opponent to lose workers in the defense. Sensing no way to win, he left the game, despite his economic advantage. This decision was considered highly controversial and not the best move, you can judge for yourself in this video. Despite a clean 2-0 versus the Polish Zerg Nerchio, PiLi couldn’t recreate his success against Serral losing 0-2. With those games done, he finished 2-3 in series and just short of advancing, finishing in 5th place.
TRUE’s was even more heartbreaking. The WCS Circuit Champion started off by losing to PiLi, but brought it back with a solid 2-0 against another Protoss Patience. Next up against Nerchio, it started out with a 1-0 lead on Belshir, but he couldn’t eek out a win on the next two maps, losing the series 1-2. Everything went downhill after that series. Playing versus Serral, he looked outclassed losing 0-2 followed by a quick 0-2 against the one and only Zest. This meant he was eliminated from advancing going 1-4 in series and 4-8 in maps.
With Group C concluded, neither of our players were able to advance.
Right after, Gumiho played in the famous Group of D of Death. The Towel Terran first started off with a close series versus the BlizzCon finalist Dark. Despite winning game 1 and a very close game 2, the surprising bio style didn’t work against the Zerg in game, losing him the series 1-2. Not wanting to just roll over and die, Gumiho seemed to peak in performance, quickly beating the dutch Terran Uthermal 2-0, dispatching the german Protoss Showtime in a close 2-1-1, forcing a draw on the second map and defeating the IEM gyeonggi champion Innovation 2-1. His final obstacle in the group was the polish Protoss MaNa. He ended up losing the first game on Abyssal Reef, on the following map, Gumiho redoubled his efforts and knocked over his opponent, which he did once again on the next map. Having won all but one of his matches, GumiGod stood at the top of his group with a 9-5 map record.
Not only does first place in the group of death grant a newfound respect, but it also seeds him directly into the quarterfinals of the bracket stage. With the draw completed, he will have to defeat the winner of Zest and TY to advance further into the bracket.
Cheer on our players at Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in Katowice, Poland! We are tied with TeamLiquid with the most players getting into the round of 24, with PiLiPiLi, Gumiho and TRUE.
On the 27th, PiLiPiLi was able to qualify through his bracket despite many European powerhouses like Elazer, SortOf and Dayshi. He was able to get to the winners brackets qualifying series against Uthermal, but lost decisively 0-2. In the loser’s bracket, he was able to make it back to the qualifying series by beating Dayshi 2-1. His last obstacle was the BlizzCon semi-finalist Elazer. Thanks to some well planned carriers and a perfectly executed immortal sentry all-in, he won 2-0, securing his spot and pulling the upset.
As for Gumiho, on the 28th he played out his games in Bracket 3 heavily stacked with tough Korean opponents such as Bunny, jjakji, Impact and Losira. His first and only challenge came in the qualifying match vs. jjakji. He pulled off the win on Proxima Station in long macro game with plenty of back and forth battles. In the second game on Newkirk Precinct TE, Gumiho lost slowly, but surely to his opponents aggression, finally losing to a massive doomdrop on his production, causing him to GG out. In the last game, Gumiho started out with a successful reaper rush which caused his Terran opponent to do an all or nothing counter attack which he held steadily until the victory screen popped up.
At the conclusion of the games, the groups for the Ro24 were released. As luck would have it, we will have to suffer a team-kill situation in Group C ; PiLiPiLi and TRUE will be forced to play each other. On the upside, since it is a round robin format, the top 3 players of each group will advance, so both our players have the chance to make it to the bracket stage. In group D, Gumiho will have to play his heart out being in a group with Innovation, Dark and Showtime. It is no surprise this group is the group of Death.
Group C and D will both be played out on the 3rd of March. Our players have already played very well and we look forward to their performance on that day. Don’t forget to tune in!
Earlier today, the final qualifier for IEM Season XI – World Championship took place. Among many other players, our very own TRUE fought for a chance for a seed in the group stage.
His first opponent was none other that Zest. Sadly TRUE lost in a quick 0-2 series, but his hope was not dead; he still could qualify by going through the losers bracket.
And that he did. 2-0 vs Dear, another 2-0 vs Stats, a hard fought 2-1 vs Scarlett, followed by a 2-0 vs Losira brought him to the best of 5 qualifying match vs none other than Zest, the one who nearly killed the dream.
This time around, TRUE played his heart out. His opponent was able to eek out a victory in game 1 thanks to DT’s and archons, yet TRUE stayed strong and fought back. Mass mutas won him game 2, mass roach/ravager got him game 3.
On potentially the final map Newkirk Precinct, a cheeky hatch block into evolution chamber block bought him enough time to macro up and build up a sizable force of roach/ravager/hydra to counter Zest’s early Phoenix harass. With his bases secure and a 4th almost completed, TRUE marched towards Zest’s third and slowly but surely chipped it away until it stood no more. With no pylons for overcharge and his economy potentially in shambles, Zest was forced into the final battle where TRUE won decisively.
PSISTORM Gaming is excited to announce the third iteration of the PSISTORM Cup, and better yet, is boasting another $1000 prize pool. The tournament will be held at The Cave Gaming Center in Fairfax, home of the PSISTORM Cup I & II. Like the last cup we will be conducting the tournament in swiss styled format. Below you can find all the information you need to know whether you decided to compete or enjoy the day spectating some great matches casted by Temp0 and some of our competing players, while enjoying food with friends in the local SC2 community!
The event will start at 11AM, but players are welcome to come down at 10 AM to begin warming up. The event will be live streamed and casted will full coverage of our top matches
Bang Tae Soo (방태수) or TRUE as most will know him has finally achieved his dream of becoming a StarCraft Champion. After winning WCS Circuit Summer in Montreal in dominating fashion. TRUE dropped 2 maps across the whole tournament en route to his first ever championship.
TRUE finally received his visa meaning his only chance to make it to Blizzcon for the WCS Global playoffs was to win the remaining WCS Circuit event which gave a direct seed to the WCS finals.
TRUE had already qualified for the hardest tournament in SCII, GSL Code S after defeating CJ Entus Bunny 3-2 in Code A. Upon receiving his visa TRUE dropped out of the tournament to participate in the global circuit.
WCS Summer
Heading into the tournament I thought TRUE had a good shot at winning and completing the Cinderella story, however he was by no means a favourite by the public or experts. The Korean Zerg also had the misfortune of drawing Snute. The Norwegian had just recently taken the top spot has the highest earning SC2 foreigner and was seen as one of the best players in the global circuit.
As it turned out Snute had the misfortune of drawing TRUE as the Korean triumphed 3-0 in a relatively easy and quick series. Eliminating Snute from the tournament. This result caught the attention of spectators and analysts alike. This was a show of strength from TRUE not many saw coming.
Following his defeat of Snute he drew Harstem. The Dutch Protoss player who had recently won Homestory cup early this year, a tournament where TRUE was eliminated in the RO8 by Scarlett. Another hard draw for TRUE with predictions being split by the analysts before the game. TRUE dispatched with Harstem in another easy series 3-0. This result in isolation is impressive but when preceded by his victory against Snute is hard to believe. This started the narrative that maybe TRUE was going to roll straight through the tournament.
TRUE’s next opponent was Welmu who knocked out ROOT’s Hydra, a former WCS champion to reach the RO8. The Fin had already reached expectations by reaching this stage, but with a victory over a Korean Zerg in the round before he showed some promise for this matchup. However, that was cut very short as he was defeated 3-0. Granting TRUE had a 9-0 record on route to the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals TRUE ran into his first Terran, HeRoMaRinE who had powered his way to the finals despite being a heavy underdog, beating Showtime and Major and MarineLorD previously. The German was the first player to take a game away from TRUE before falling 3-1 again winning in convincing fashion with his signature mass queen ling bane style.
Polt awaited TRUE in the finals after beating the North American hope Alex “Neeb” Sunderhaft 3-1. ZvT is TRUE’s worst matchup and Polt is an incredibly skilled player so heading into the final it seemed likely that we would see TRUE finally be tested by his fellow Korean. Polt played well throughout the series and was able to beat TRUE on Dasan Station after losing the opening map, Apotheosis. This series was a strong example of just how incredible TRUE’s multitasking is, with run byes being split from widow mines regularly. As well as constant drops and run byes, while macroing near perfect. After Dasan Station TRUE took the following 3 maps in strong fashion to complete the Cinderella story.
TRUE’s Style
The most powerful part of TRUE’s play is his unique style, massing lings and banelings. Predominantly using Queens as his only anti-air. His use of ling counter attacks reminds viewers of the glory days of Lee “Life” Seung Hyun. TRUE’s often uses banelings with his run byes against terran as well as using overlords to drop banelings. TRUE’s ability to buy time with run byes and counter attacks is a key part of his play and allows him to produce new forces to defend a push. Often forcing players to commit more to the attack than they were planning as the counter attack deals crippling damage. This has potential to be a trap for TRUE, as we saw on Dasan Station, Polt’s only victory in the finals came off a two base all in. As TRUE was trying to counter attack he did not have enough defense to deal with the all in. If TRUE was aware the attack was all in, he could have mounted a stronger defense and not needed to counter attack. TRUE’s goal was to force the push to turn around or have to commit as TRUE deals damage at home, but the Polt’s intentions where to end the game with that push, which he did.
The competition outside of Korea are not fully acclimatised to TRUE’s different play style, and combined with his strong mechanics and multitasking he was able to dominate the foreigners. As time progresses and TRUE attends more tournaments his style will be more familiar to competitors and possibly less successful.
The Next Step
TRUE has secured himself a last minute trip to BlizzCon and should be looking to avoid the Korean Terrans for the best chance at progressing. The likes of TY and Byun would be favoured against TRUE. TRUE’s best shot is hoping for a weaker Protoss such as Patience or Dear as his opponent. Especially Patience, I see patience as a good matchup for TRUE, with his sloppy multitasking being compensated by strong macro. TRUE may be able to overwhelm the Afreeca Protoss with his powerful multitasking and strong style. However, Patience isn’t a shoe in for BlizzCon. Dark and Potentially Solar who will represent the Zergs from Korea would also be a good draw for TRUE, as he has strong ZvZ as we saw against Snute, as well as the matchups notoriously volatile nature.
I think its unlikely TRUE will be challenging to Zest, TY and Dark for the $200,000 1st prize, but he is certainly capable of pushing past the first round and with a kind draw could make a strong run.
Regardless of your feelings about the WCS system this year you should be grateful to have TRUE, an incredibly likable and fun character with the skill to challenge the top for our scene. TRUE streams regularly on www.twitch.tv/truesc2 if you want to learn his style or watch an entertaining high level Zerg you should check it out.
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