Afreeca Freecs' Jo "Patience" Ji Hyun took home the 14th HomeStory Cup over KT Rolster's Joo "Zest" Sung Wook for the first-place prize of $10,000. In an intense best-of-seven series that went the distance, Patience lived up to the moniker and outlasted his challenger. The underdog Protoss player surprised many and took down a very difficult tournament cup over the likes of some of StarCraft II's strongest players in 2016.
The HomeStory Cup has long been a fixture in the competitive StarCraft landscape since its inception in 2010. It was one of the first tournaments that humanized the professionals that commanded the units in the StarCraft universe with the use of player cameras, commentary, and interviews after the games. This year's HomeStory Cup XIV was significant because of the uncertainty of the event's future. With only one large sponsorship in MIFcom, the large-scale tournament struggled to maintain its signature quality.
The news, delivered by organizer Dennis "TaKe" Gehlen, was that the future of the cup would match the landscape of professional StarCraft II. Translation: This year's iteration was the last HomeStory Cup of this size and reach. Gehlen said that it was not the end of the tournament series, but it would be scaling back.
The HomeStory Cup XIV played out via a group stage that was broken down in two stages. The initial group stage was largely devoid of surprises and upsets and many sets were one-sided. There were great showings from westerners, such as Team Liquid's Jens "Snute" Aasgaard and True eSport's Mikolaj "Elazer" Ogonowski, but it was the South Korean powerhouses like Kang "Solar" Min Soo and Kim "Stats" Dae Yeob that absolutely dominated the field.
Overall, the tournament was a blow against the revival of a western hope against the Korean overlords.
In the finals, Zest took control of the game with early aggression, taking full advantage of the map choices. Whether it was a map without a ramp to play better defense or timing pushes, the set looked like a wipe-out. Zest's ability to out-tech his opponent -- in addition to his control over warp prisms and walling out Patience's Stalker defense -- boosted him to a very quick 2-0 lead in the grand finals.
Patience tied the set after the early mishaps with a consistent approach. Patience took advantage of Zest's macro struggles and over-extensions for his first win in the set. He overwhelmed with his larger Stalker army against the enemy defenses and with better supply and the ability to refill his push over and over, Zest's momentum was stalled out. Patience's superior micro and constant aggression took full advantage of Zest's poor unit positioning for the stalemate.
Both players traded wins with traits unique to their style, Zest with initial aggression and map control and Patience with stronger positioning and patience, until the final game where it was almost a complete mirror-match. Zest started the game with a fast expansion cheese, but Patience answered back with faster technology and stronger aggression. Despite Zest's strong defense and pincer movements, Patience's supply lead and overall positioning in fights was too difficult to overcome and he closed out the set in a battle of supply.