Joo “Zest” Sung-wook’s never-ending farewell tour continues on Thursday when he enters the semi-finals of 2022 AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 1, following two close calls against Kim “Classic” Doh-woo (3-2) and Lee “Bunny” Jae-seon (3-2).

For the past few months, Zest’s matches hinged on what version of Zest shows up – going from reaching the finals of IEM Katowice 2021 to getting eliminated from Code-A. Although Zest has been stabilising in recent weeks, it’s fair to feel scared for him for this match.

Cho “Maru” Seong-ju, who has historically struggled against Protoss, has improved his TvP matchup numbers to an impressive 82.14% win rate across the last 28 outings (23-5). However, Maru wasn’t convincing on Monday and had to dig deep to defeat Kim “herO” Joon-ho (3-2).

So while Maru has looked much better this tournament and should win, we have to take a shot with Zest to keep it close and force another five-map series.

Park “Dark” Ryung-woo proved just how efficient he is in Zerg vs Terran matchups on Monday when he swept Byun “ByuN” Hyun-woo and improved his ZvT record to a 75% win rate (48-16). Now, he’s set to clash with a Protoss player in Park “Zoun” Han-sol, for the first time since December, when Dark won 3-1.

It marked Dark’s fourth consecutive win against the 24-year-old, and according to the latest StarCraft II betting odds, the current no.4 in the Korean ESL Pro Tour standings should add another win to his tally. Priced at $1.23, Dark’s implied probability of winning this match is at 81.3%, which seems a bit low, but it’s a fair figure.

Zoun has looked good across the first two tournament rounds, but he’s terrible against Terran (10-15). So even though Zoun has been consistently a clutch player in important games, he is a clear outsider to defeat Dark on Thursday.

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The tournament was a star-studded affair, with most of the top SC 2 players present, with the noted exception of TY. The format was a single-elimination series of best of fives (going from Ro16 to Ro8, to Ro4, and then finally the grand finals) and the tournament was spread over four days.

Innovation showed that the rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated, as he easily took out reigning world champion Rogue in the Ro16.

Maru continued to show up in top form, eliminating perennial second-place finisher soO in the Ro16, but he, in turn, was beaten by Classic in the Ro8.

Stats and Solar had a great, closely contested Ro8 match, with an exciting game 1 where Solar managed to equalize despite losing a good fifty drones in the early/middle game, but Stats did eventually get the better of him, advancing to the Ro4.

herO managed to beat Innovation in the Ro8, before being defeated handily by Stats in the quarterfinals. For his part, Dark beat True and Classic to advance to the finals, with a 3-2 and 3-1 score respectively.

Grand final recap: Dark vs Stats

The finals came down to Dark vs Stats. The ultimate late game zerg vs the perfect defensive protoss.

Stats took game one proving that mass high templars do, in fact, trump roach ravager play.

In game two Dark opened up with a ton of zerglings, sacrificing economy in the hopes of catching his opponent off guard with a very early attack. While taking a circuitous route around the map in order to avoid Stats’ scouting adept, Dark discovered Stats’ proxied stargate.

The zerg player destroyed it before any air units could be made, but in doing so tipped his hand about the early aggression, enabling his opponent to erect a complete sim city defense. With both players’ early games plans thwarted they entered the middle game in a roughly even position. Stats tried some archon drop harass which failed to get any real damage done, and when Dark’s roaches moved across the map for a counterattack the Protoss was forced to tap out.

Game three was an incredibly exciting game. Dark proxied his third hatchery for an early queen/spore/ravager push on Stats’ natural. Stats managed to sneak out two oracles to eliminate Dark’s entire economy, but at the same time, Dark managed to eliminate the protoss natural and moved into his opponent’s main base. After a final climactic battle, a single ravager was all that remained, and Dark took a 2-1 lead.

Game four was a lopsided affair, with Dark’s +1 lings dealing game-ending damage early on, and suddenly the zerg player was on match point. Down two games, Stats began to rally, winning game five and six in the late game with carrier tech.

Tied up at 3-3 there was only one game left. Game seven came down to a massive chargelot / archon attack from Stats. Dark managed to hold off the attack, and with heavy losses on both sides the players had equalized and began to macro up.

Dark maxed out first, but his fourth base got taken out by a large attack, and while his burrowed roach harass kept Stats busy, Stats’ high tech immortal / archon/templar composition directly countered Dark’s roaches. Despite Dark’s excellent use of accelerated healing from burrow, eventually, Stats was able to power through and win the series.

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But now the season is over and it’s coming down to the business end with just four players left fighting it out for the title of GSL Champion.

Who will it be? Could it be SoO, the champion South Korean, who has played in seven GSL finals without ever winning one, or will it be Stats, Dark or Maru?

EsportBet StarCraft II expert Zak Y gives his take and betting predictions on the semi finals.

soO vs Stats

March 21st, 2018 : 20:30 KST

Stats may be the perfect defensive Protoss, but soO loses only in the finals, not the semi-finals. All jokes aside, soO has consistently demonstrated himself to be one of the absolute top SC2 players over the years by making so many deep runs in very important tournaments, including last year’s Blizzcon. While Stats is an incredible player with a great depth of skill, soO is a 3:2 favourite to win this best of five. In terms of match history, soO is 29-22 against Stats, and while this should be an exciting and interesting match to watch, you can expect soO to be victorious.

Best bet: Back SoO at -175.44 at BetOnline

Dark vs Maru

March 24th, 2018 – 13:00 KST

Dark and Maru recently played in the grand finals of the WESG, one of the largest tournaments of the year. Despite Dark taking a 3-2 lead in that best of seven match, Maru managed to take the last two games with the same aggressive proxy two rax build. This is definitely going to be an incredible series and one that is too close to call because neither side really has the advantage here. This match will be a statistical dead heat. Historically Dark is 25-22 in matches against Maru, but both players have been playing absolutely phenomenal lately and this will be anyone’s game.

Best bet: Back Dark at -102.04 at BetOnline

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How to watch GSL Semi Finals – AfreecaTV live channel

You can watch all the GSL semi finals action on the AfreecaTV live channel or read our guide to watching Starcraft.

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