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ROGUE has shown he was studying his grand final opponent Classic, exploiting a weakness that had been found earlier in the IEM Katowice 2018, StarCraft II event.
Classic was exposed by Elazer’s use of roach/queen nydus all in in his loss earlier in the tournament, and Rogue used the exact same tactic to win Game 1 of the grand final, that he was to go on and win 4-0 and pocket USD $150,000.
The South Korean, real name Lee Byung Ryul, who used to be known as Savage, is a zerg player representing Jin Air Green Wings.
In game 2, Rogue then used a more standard game on Blackpink, as he thwarted Classic’s archon drops through the use of zerglings and queens. Classic held and held but eventually went out hard when mutalisks arrived at his home base. Classic lost a significant portion of his army and a mineral line, allowing Rogue to attack with hydralisks and banelings and finish the game.
In game 3 Classic opened by hindering Rogue’s economy on Neon Violet square, with a three base chargelot/archon pressure, but it had little impact on the eventualy result. Classic continued to try and hurt Rogue but he was able to defend stoutly. Rogue lost his gold base which sent the base count to four all, with Rogue going into brood lords and classic producing tempests. With the map split Rogue amassed a huge army of brood lords, corruptors and vipers which simply made it impossible for Classic, eventually taking a 3-0 lead.
While Classic did everything in hiis power to get back into the contest, Rogue just had too much class and tactical nous. Winning the fourth game to become the IEM World Champion.
Rogue, who is 25, has previously won tournaments including the 2017 IEM Shanghai and GSL Super Tournament II, which bagged him an entry into the WCS Global Finals. He then went on to win the BlizzCon trophy in a tightly fought 4-2 series win over SoO.
IEM Katowice StarCraft II Round of 12 recap
Dark vs Trap
Trap and Dark had a very close series, despite Trap going up 2-0 quickly. For a moment it looked like Dark was poised for a reverse sweep as he won game three and four, and established a pretty strong position in game five with a heavy economic advantage. Near the end of the last game in their series Dark managed to get lings into Trap’s main and thirty probes went down. With no economy Trap had only one option, a desperate all out push towards the Zerg’s main. Dark zoned him back for a while with corrosive biles, but ultimately Trap’s immortal/archon/templar composition was too efficient against Dark’s roach/ravager/bane and Trap managed to push through and win.
Result: Trap 3-2 Dark
Impact vs Dear
After Dear’s strong showing in the group stage there was a lot of anticipation for how well he would do in the round of twelve, especially facing Impact who is one of the weaker players remaining in the tournament. After holding off an early roach/ravager/ling all in complete with proxy hatchery Dear was up 2-1. In game four Dear not only got no damage done with his archon drop, he even lost his warp prism and archons and Impact grew out of control. Suddenly they were tied 2-2. In game five Impact took a gold base early on to try and get an early economic advantage, but a massive zealot all in from Dear did game ending damage.
Result: Dear 3-2 Impact
Hurricane vs Rogue
Rogue, the reigning world champion, came into this match as a heavy favourite, and easily dispatched his protoss opponent in the most one-sided match of the round of twelve.
Rogue 3-0 Hurricane.
sOs vs Maru
This was easily the most anticipated match of the round of twelve. Both sOs and Maru are masters of their respective races who employ very active/dynamic styles. After two games the score was one win a piece. sOs look poised to take game three way ahead in economy after repeated successful dark templar raids and up in army supply as well. Forced into a corner Maru decided for one last all out push, even pulling his SCVs to contribute to the fight. With absolute precision micro and more than a little bit of luck, Maru was somehow able to win the fight and steamroll into sOs’ main, and suddenly Maru was up 2-1, but a proxy stargate / shield battery rush in game four tied things up. Game five started with early game aggression on both sides, but into the middle game sOs just could not keep up with Maru’s non-stop multipronged harass. Maru grew ahead in economy, which in turn translated into superior army strength, and eventually he pushed out and sOs could not hold.
Result: Maru 3-2 sOs
