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Zest
From Liquipedia StarCraft 2 Wiki
Zest
Player Information
Name:
주성욱
Romanized Name:
Joo Sung-wook
Nationality:
Born:
July 11, 1992 (age 32)
Race:
Alternate IDs:
Wooki, Sea.Wuk, P7GAB
Nickname(s):
The Kingslayer
Approx. Total Winnings:
$688,038
Military Service:
Ongoing
Years Active:
2012 - 2022
Links
Achievements
History
2010-10-?? — 2011-11-04 | WeMade FOX |
2011-11-04 — 2016-10-18 | KT Rolster |
2018-08-22 — 2019-01-04 | Scythe Esports |
2019-01-20 — 2019-11-12 | Ocean Gaming |
2020-01-28 — 2021-02-02 | RYE Gaming |
2021-02-08 — 2022-06-19 | DPG |
Retired:
2022-06-19
Joo "Zest" Sung-wook (born July 11, 1992) is a retired Korean Protoss player who last played for Dragon Phoenix Gaming.
He played in Brood War with the ID "P7GAB".
Wings of Liberty[edit]
Zest played his first official StarCraft II match during the hybrid 2011-2012 Proleague Season 2, garnering a total of 5 wins and 4 loses.
Heart of the Swarm[edit]
2013[edit]
Zest participated in the 2012-2013 Proleague Season 1 going a total of 29-17.
IEM Season VIII: New York[edit]
One of his first appearances in the foreign scene was at the IEM Season VIII New York.
First, he qualified through the Korean and Taiwan Qualifier. In the first stage of the qualifier, he defeated MC, ByuL, SuperNova and Savage, only dropping one map to ByuL. In the second stage of the qualifier, Squirtle knocked him down to the losers' bracket with the score of 2-0. However, he qualified through the losers' bracket by defeating Check, HerO and Pigbaby.
With this qualification, he was eligible to play in the Asia Final Qualifier. He defeated Ash, INnoVation, and Curious, in the upper bracket to qualify directly into the IEM Season VIII New York group stage.
In Stage 2 of IEM New York, he fell in group A, placing third with a map record of 4-5. He lost to Life twice with the score of 2-1, and won against TLO 2-1. He placed 9th-12th, won $400 and 150 WCS points.
2014[edit]
The GSL Royal Road[edit]
Zest's run in the GSL 2014 Season 1 marked the start of a successful year. He qualified into Code A by defeating Creator with the score of 2-1 in the lower bracket final of their qualifier group. Then he breezed through his Code A group with wins over INnoVation and Stork without losing a single map.
About two weeks later, he delivered with another strong performance in his group in the round of 32. He topped his group with the overall map score of 4-1, defeating Leenock and only dropping one map against Trap.
A little less than a month after his round of 32 matches, Zest played in one of most difficult groups in the round of 16. First, he lost against Maru with the score of 2-1, then proceeded to defeat Soulkey 2-1 in the losers' match. In the decider match, he had to play the Protoss player Dear. He lost the first map but outplayed Dear in the following two. With the map score of 5-4, he finished second in his group behind Maru.
In the quarterfinals, he handedly defeated sOs with the score of 3-0. A week later, he would face another strong Protoss player, SK Telecom T1's Rain. Both players displayed their prowess in the Protoss vs Protoss match up, but Zest managed to emerge on top with the score of 4-2 to reach the finals.
In the final he went on against another SK Telecom T1 player in the form of the Zerg player, soO. Both players displayed their strengths in the Protoss vs Zerg match up, making this series a back and forth slugfest that was decided in game 7. The ace match was played on Daedalus Point. soO decided to go for a large, maxed out army, mid-game push. Zest defended the push and his counter-attack was enough to defeat the Zerg. He took the series 4-3 and was crowned the GSL 2014 Season 1 champion, taking home ₩70,000,000 (or $66,612) and 2000 WCS points.
More Domestic Success[edit]
In April 2014, Zest was amongst the players (finalists from 2014 WCS Season 1 America and 2014 WCS Season 1 Europe) that were invited to play in the 2014 GSL Global Championship. As he was a finalist in GSL 2014 Season 1, he was directly seeded into group stage 2. He topped his group that included the likes of PartinG and Revival by winning 2-0 over PartinG and 2-1 over MMA.
In his semifinal match, he had to face soO again. Just like the finals that they fought in, it was another close match up, but Zest managed to defeat the SK Telecom Zerg again, this time with the score of 3-2.
In the final against PartinG, he initially went down 3-1 but managed to win 3 consecutive maps in a row to clinch the championship with the score of 4-3. He took home a total prize of $7400 and 300 WCS points.
He was directly seeded into the Round of 32 of GSL 2014 Season 2. Zest breezed through his group with the total maps score of 4-0 from two, 2-0 wins over Dark and TaiLS.
Zest was drawn into Group D alongside INnoVation, Soulkey and Shine for the Ro16. The group was played on the 6th of June. Zest topped his group by defeating INnoVation 2-0 and Soulkey 2-1. In the quarterfinals, he was knocked out of the tournament by TRUE, 3-1.
Continued Domestic Success and International Tournaments[edit]
Finishing 5th-8th in the GSL 2014 Season 2 meant that he was once again seeded into the Round of 32 for GSL 2014 Season 3 Code S. Zest was drawn into Group E with Rogue, Rain and Hurricane. He defeated Hurricane 2-0 in his first match, then proceeded to lose against Rain 1-2 on his second match. In the decider match, he defeated Rogue 2-0, thus finishing second in his group and advancing to the Ro16.
He was placed in Group A alongside Cure, Soulkey and Reality for the Ro16. Again, he advance in second place; winning 2-0 against Soulkey, then losing 1-2 to Cure then defeating Soulkey, this time, with the score of 2-1.
About three weeks later, Zest would sweep SK Telecom T1's Rain 3-0 to advance into the semifinals to face soO. It would be their third meeting in the playoffs of a premier tournament. The match was another slugfest, similar to the GSL 2014 Season 1 final but this time, Zest lost with the score of 4-3.
During Season 3 (July to October 2014), he travelled abroad to compete in two international tournaments.
First, Zest was invited to play in the Asian Final Qualifier for a chance to play in the main event of IEM Season IX Shenzhen. As he was one of the 8 invited players, he did not need to go through the initial qualifiers to get into the Asia Final Qualifier. He would then beat DemiLove, Trap and Hurricane in the upper bracket, directly seeding him into stage 2 of IEM Shenzhen.
At Shenzhen, he was placed in Group A with San, jjakji and Illusion. He finished top of his group by defeating jjakji 2-1 and San 2-0. Zest was then swept 3-0 by the tournament favourite, TaeJa in the quarterfinals. He earned 250 WCS points and $1000.
Zest then attended another IEM tournament: IEM Season IX Toronto. Once again, he was invited into and qualified through Asian Final Qualifier, beating the likes of Pigbaby and his own teammate, Flash.
At the main event, he was placed into Group A alongside three Terran players; TaeJa, Bunny and Polt. Zest advanced from Group A in second place with a 5-3 record. First, he lost to 1-2 to TaeJa on his opening match, most notably not being able to stop TaeJa's comeback after a basetrade on Foxtrot Labs. Zest knocked out Polt 2-1 before crushing the Danish Terran Bunny with the score of 2-0 in the decider match.
He then comfortably dispatched YoDa, 3-0 in the quarterfinals and Life, 3-1 in the semifinals. In the finals, he faced Flash. Zest ended up losing to his KT Rolster teammate with the score of 1-4. He went home with $4000 and 500 WCS points. Also, finishing second meant that he qualified for the IEM Season IX World Championship in Katowice, Poland.
A little less than two weeks later, Zest qualified for the 2014 KeSPA Cup. In the Ro16, he crushingly defeated Pigbaby 3-0. He then reverse swept sOs, 3-2 in the quarterfinals. The SK Telecom T1 Protoss Classic was his next opponent whom he defeated 3-1, most notably winning game 4 on Catallena by putting Classic behind through Dark Templar play. In the finals, he faced another formidable player, CJ Entus's herO. He lost the first game on King Sejong Station, but won 4 maps in a row. Zest clinched the title with the score of 4-1 and by only playing Protoss vs Protoss during the playoffs. He took home ₩ 30,000,000 ($29,370) and 1500 WCS Points.
Shock Exit[edit]
Zest was able to accumulate 5800 WCS Points by the end of the three seasons of the World Championship Series. He was third in the overall WCS Standings making him eligible to play in the 2014 WCS Global Finals, which was going to be played at BlizzCon. In the Ro16 he was matched against the 14th seed and eventual World Champion Life. Life won the first 2 games convincingly thus putting Zest on the verge of elimination. However, Zest was able to win the next two games, most notably, a long Swarmhost game on Nimbus. This forced a fifth and final map to decide the series. Zest started the deciding game on Catallena with a failed cannon rush. Having fallen behind, he was not able to build a wall on his natural to prevent the Zergling counter-attack by Life, thus losing a considerable number of probes and falling even further behind. Zest opted for airplay with Phoenixes and an Oracle to inflict drone damage to Life as an attempt to get back into the game. However, Life's Hydralisks were able to alleviate the pressure and forced Zest to rush into Colossi to defend the impending, Hydra-Ling push. When the attack arrived, Zest was almost 60 supply behind and was not able to muster an army to fight Life's overwhelming flood of units. The KT Rolster Protoss was forced to tap out, losing 3-2 and finishing 9th-16th. A disappointing exit for a player that many considered as one of the tournament favourites.
2014 Hot6ix Cup[edit]
Zest then participated in the 2014 Hot6ix Cup, being invited for his first-place finish in the GSL 2014 Season 1. In group D with Bbyong, PartinG and Terminator, Zest advanced through in second place, winning 2-0 over Terminator then losing 0-2 to Bbyong but defeating PartinG 2-0 in the decider match. In the playoffs, he was matched up against Soulkey and was able to soundly beat him 3-1. In the semifinals, he played against MarineKing. Zest was knocked out by the resurgent MVP Terran and eventual runner-up with the score of 3-2.
A Short-lived Slump?[edit]
Zest's absence in the first season of the two leading Korean individual leagues, the GOMTV Global Starcraft II League and Naver Starcraft II Starleague became a talking point in the community.
He failed to qualify for the 2015 GSL Season 1, losing to two, arguably weaker players: MVP's DeParture and SKT1's Dream. Zest came close to qualifying for Naver Starcraft II Starleague but was defeated by Rogue then Leenock in their group. He was placed into a wildcard tournament for a chance to clinch a place for Challenge but was defeated 2-0 by Symbol. Another shocking result was his 2-1 defeat in the hands of the Prime Terran TANGTANG during the 2015 GSL Season 2 Qualifiers.
His weakened form was also visible in his matches during Round 1 of 2015 Proleague. He lost to Creator twice during Prime's 3-2 victory over KT (the latter being an ace match) and again was defeated by YongHwa in another ace match. Despite his form, he was still an instrumental figure (being the most fielded player with a record of 6-5), for KT Rolster during this round. Zest won vital ace matches against the likes of Dark and Solar to keep KT Rolster from slipping down the standings.
2015[edit]
A World Champion[edit]
Finally, it was time for the IEM Season IX World Championship in Katowice. Having secured a spot with his IEM Toronto run, Zest was set to play against ROOT Gaming’s Hydra. Zest was considered as the underdog in the match up by the analyst desk,[1] but he won with a close score of 3-2 after a reverse sweep that included a lengthy defence in Game 5 against a Roach-Hydra composition.
Then in the quarterfinals, he faced INnoVation who had just beaten Life (the BlizzCon champion) in a close series. This time in a back and forth series, with each player never winning more than one game in a row, Zest was able to narrowly win with the score of 3-2 by defending INnoVation’s SCV pull on Expedition Lost. In the semifinals, he had to play against another Terran in the form of CJ Entus’s Bbyong. After a couple of mildly cheesy games that included a two-base blink all-in and heavy Dark Templar play, Zest was able to win the series 3-1 by holding Bbyong’s botched SCV pull on Catallena in Game 4.
On the next evening, in the finals, Zest was pitted against Trap whom he has a winning record against. It would also be the only Protoss vs Protoss series of the tournament. The series was littered with macro oriented games and Stargate based strategies, most notably Game 4 on Deadwing in which each player made a Mothership and air-based armies. Zest won the title with the score of 4-1, taking home the $68,707 (₩77,584,600) purse and 1500 WCS Points.
Zest gave his thoughts about his win and addressed his speculated ‘slump’ in an interview during the aftermath of IEM Season IX World Championship.[2]
Another BlizzCon Apperance[edit]
Despite not winning any tournaments afterward, Zest finished at quarterfinals for every StarLeague (two SSL and a GSL) he qualified for. This gave him enough points to attend the WCS Global Finals for the second time, as the 12th seed in the WCS Standings. His opponent was INnoVation from SKT who had just won 3-1 against him in GSL Season 3 Code S a few months before, and later became the champion. Zest, however, was not able to advance as he lost 0-3 in a one-sided series.
Legacy of the Void[edit]
Disappointing Entrance[edit]
Zest qualified for the GSL PreSeason Week 1 and he was scheduled to play against Hurricane on the second day of the event. With PvP being his strongest match up, Zest easily defeated Hurricane with the score of 2-0. In the SSL Qualifiers, he lost 2-0 to aLive (who later qualified for the main event itself) and thus was unable to qualify for SSL. Later that day, he played the GSL Pre-Season Ro8 against Reality. He quickly won the first game with a drop DT play. However, Reality took back game 2 with a proxy Barrack into proxy Starport build and evened up the score. Game 3 was a more standard game with more harass and drop-heavy plays from both sides. Zest won the game after defending Reality’s first push and successfully counter attacking. Zest moved on to face his teammate Life in the semi-finals. Zest quickly won the first game on Dusk Towers with Colossi, however Life then took back three games in a row and advanced to the finals.
The week after, Zest was able to qualify for GSL PreSeason Week 2. He was scheduled to play with MyuNgSiK on the second day of the event. Despite PvP being his strongest match up, he lost 2-0 to the eventual champion MyuNgSiK.
2016[edit]
Rising to the Top[edit]
Zest's first game in 2016 was against Dear in Proleague. He lost in a very close game, and was later called out to play the Ace Match for KT against BrAvO. This time he was able to win the game and brought victory to his team.
He also qualified for GSL Code A and was set to play against Maru whom he had a losing record against a few days before.[3] However, he was able to win 3-0 against Maru, but the games were much closer than the score suggests. The first game was a long macro game on Dusk Towers featured Zest open with Dark Templars in the early game and Maru using mass Nukes against him in the late game.[4] Zest moved on to Code S and was placed in Group A with Jin Air's Rogue, Samsung's Journey, and Liquid’s TaeJa. He grabbed an easy 2-0 victory against TaeJa and advanced to play Journey in the Winner's Match. Journey won the first map but Zest was able to take the next two maps and was the first player to advance to the Ro16.
In GSL Code S Ro16 Group Selection, Zest was put in group B, together with Solar, Cure and soO which was referred to as the group of death.[5]
In the entire Proleague Round 1, Zest was the player with the highest record, a map score of 6-2, only losing against Dear and DeParture, and winning his two Ace Matches. In the playoffs against Jin Air, Zest came out as the last player for KT (down 3-1) after Maru defeated Stats, TY and Leenock. Zest was able to win against Maru, ending his winning streak. (Maru was undefeated in Proleague before that point.) He won against Trap afterwards, bringing KT to the Ace Match. Jin Air's choice was Rogue on Dusk Towers. Rogue pulled out an unorthodox strategy with Banelings Drop into Nydus Rush and defeated Zest, thus ending KT's run.[6]
On April 2, 2016, Zest played his GSL Code S group, starting against Cure in a PvT match. After winning with a score of 2-0, he faced multiple GSL runner-up soO from SK Telecom T1 in the Winners' Match, beating him with a score of 2-0 as well.
Almost a fortnight later, on April 15, he was matched-up against Team Liquid's Terran TaeJa in the quarterfinals of 2016 GSL Season 1: Code S. Without dropping a single map, he advanced to the semifinals with a score of 3-0 to face Samsung Galaxy's Dear in a PvP match on April 22, 2016. Once again, he swiftly moved on to Grand Finals with a clean score of 4-0.
Facing his fellow team comerade TY, formerly known as "BaBy", in the Grand Finals of 2016 GSL Season 1: Code S on May 1, 2016, many expected an one-sided march-through by Zest as he had only lost a single map this season. Despite being the favourite, the Protoss lost the first map on Dusk Towers, but he was able to grab control of the series as he won the following two maps, Orbital Shipyard and Prion Terraces. Being down 1-2, TY was forced to change his play: He started the third map, Sky Shield, with two proxy-Engineering Bays to prevent the Protoss from quick expansion. Despite being in a disadvantageous position, Zest was anything but out of the game and was able to draw out the game into a base trade, although he eventually lost it. On the fifth map, Rak'Shir, Zest was able to win and have a championship point map on Lerilak Crest: After a mis-click and the unwanted construction of a second factory, TY tried to attack the Protoss. Zest, however, had a bigger army and was able to defend and counter-push. Despite losing part of his economy to a marine drop, Zest was able to overcome TY's defenses in the Terran's natural expansion. With the shutdown of his opponent's drop, the Protoss decided to finally kill the remaining forces of his team comrade, who then was forced to surrender and leave the GSL championship to Zest. The 4-2 victory in the finals was his second GSL Code S championship.
Trivia[edit]
- Is the first player to win a Premier Tournament (KeSPA Cup) playing only one matchup (PvP).
- Defeated by GuemChi on his first official SC2 match.
- In Korean, P7GAB is pronounced as Pchilgab, since 7=chil in Korean. Pchilgab means "To cover yourself or others entirely with blood".
- Zest won GSL in his first Code S (and Code A) appearance, thus making him a Royal Roader
- Won IeSF 2014 World Championship without dropping a map.
- In April 2015, was listed 8th on the Greatest Players of All Time list on TL.net.
- Was featured on the front of the League of Legends launch client during IEM Cologne 2015.[7]
- In March 2016, was listed 4th on the Greatest HotS Players of All Time list on TL.net.
- His GSL final against TY was the first one since 2012 that did not feature a Zerg player.
- He has won at least one Premier Tournament each year since 2014 with a peak of 3 wins in 2014 (1 in 2015, 2016 and 2017).
- He is the only player to have reached an IEM Katowice Finals for three times and also the only player achieving this (once) two years in a row.
- He is the first player to defeat Rogue in an offline Bo7, thus ending his 11-0 streak during the 2021 GSL S3 first semi-final.
Achievements[edit]
Interviews and Spotlights[edit]
DPG's manager, EnChant, interviewed Zest
Gallery[edit]
External links[edit]
First Person View Match VODS[edit]
Statistics[edit]
Matchup Statistics
vs | vs | vs | vs | Total | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Record | Win% | Record | Win% | Record | Win% | Record | Win% | Record | Win% | |
as | 1642 - 734 | 69.1 % | 1763 - 1142 | 60.7 % | 1472 - 1012 | 59.3 % | 18 - 1 | 94.7 % | 4895 - 2889 | 62.9 % |
as | 0 - 0 | - | 0 - 2 | 0 % | 0 - 0 | - | 0 - 0 | - | 0 - 2 | 0 % |
Σ | 1642 - 734 | 69.1 % | 1763 - 1144 | 60.6 % | 1472 - 1012 | 59.3 % | 18 - 1 | 94.7 % | 4895 - 2891 | 62.9 % |
Earnings Statistics
{"xAxis":{"type":"category","name":"Year","axisLabel":{"rotate":0},"axisTick":{"alignWithLabel":true},"data":["2013","2014","2015","2016","2017","2018","2019","2020","2021","2022"]},"yAxis":{"type":"value","name":"Earnings ($USD)"},"series":[{"emphasis":{"focus":"series"},"stack":"total","type":"bar","name":"1v1 Earnings","data":["400","133544","84345","68056","37912","70865","39170","100241","95591","29416"]},{"emphasis":{"focus":"series"},"stack":"total","type":"bar","name":"Team Event Earnings","data":["1270","0","0","0","4193","1188","3269","4845","2415","9174"]},{"emphasis":{"focus":"series"},"stack":"total","type":"bar","name":"Other Earnings","data":["0","0","0","2145","0","0","0","0","0","0"]}],"size":{"width":1400,"height":400},"grid":{"top":"15%","left":"15%","right":"12%","bottom":"10%"},"tooltip":{"trigger":"axis"},"legend":{"1":"1v1 Earnings","2":"Team Event Earnings","3":"Other Earnings"},"div":"chart-area-0"}1v1 Medal Statistics
Tier | Total | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Premier | 7 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 24 |
Major | 11 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 18 |
Minor | 155 | 103 | 3 | 110 | 6 | 377 |
Basic | 17 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 30 |
Total | 190 | 122 | 9 | 119 | 9 | 449 |
References[edit]
- ↑ https://www.twitch.tv/esl_sc2/b/635905585?t=3h28m23s
- ↑ 2015-03-15 | Zest talks about winning IEM Katowice, mental toughness and Protoss mirror matches by Matt Demers of theScore Esports (trans. by Susie "LilSusie" Kim)
- ↑ http://aligulac.com/inference/match/?bo=3&ps=1658%2C49&s1=0&s2=0
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcBKRK2vmSA
- ↑ "GSL Code S Round of 16 Groups (polls)". TL.net. 2016-03-16.
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqo-aYIKMog
- ↑ Screenshot of League of Legends launcher during IEM Cologne 2015