Final Thoughts on IEM Katowice

IEM's $100,000 winner-take-all season final has come and gone and, for the most part, featured fantastic matches.  There was the drama of NaNiwa quitting (I wanted to hear this music play as he walked off stage) along with the anti-climatic cheese-filled finals (which included a lot of odd decision-making from herO), but it was a success.  I do agree with TotalBiscuit that this should be the last winner-takes-all IEM.  All the VODs have been posted and I encourage you to watch them (I've highlighted some favourite games below):

 

HyuN/herO

It was truly puzzling that herO refused to punish HyuN's greed until the final game; he was very lucky to win the series (particularly in the base trading fourth game, which is worth a look)

jjakji/Revival

For a Code S player, it was astonishing how many times Revival allowed his mutas to get caught by seeker missiles in game four--he also didn't make the most of his swarm host positioning; Revival showed some more clumsiness in game five, losing his entire muta flock to a group widow mines--while the series didn't feature the most polished play, it was one of the most entertaining

herO/San

Game three's base trade was epic; despite beginning with a 40 supply lead San neglected to defend his last pylon and lost

 

sOs/jjakji

Carriers are a terrible unit in SC2--expensive, slow to make, and pretty easy to kill--but somehow sOs made it work, transitioning from phoenix/colossus into mass carriers

 

Polt/herO

Although I didn't think he was in top form during the tournament, Polt pulled off a fantastic win via base trade in game two despite being well behind in supply (herO abandoning his only pylon ala San above)

 

Taeja/Life

Game one was fantastic as Life continued with the muta/ling style that hasn't really changed throughout HOTS; at one point neither player was mining (Taeja was eventually able to win out)--the game also illustrated that Ret does better commentating if he's with an excitable co-caster (Apollo)

In terms of racial performance from the R16 onwards: PvT - 3-3, PvZ - 1-0, TvZ - 2-0

 

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)