[GSL] Code S Ro32 Week 1 Recap

Spoilers ahead.

Starcraft 2 fans rejoice! The new year has come, and with it comes more games and more of Tastosis. Overall, GOM has done a really good job with the new season, as not only does the new format work (no more ridiculous tie-breakers or pointless games), but they also stuffed more production value and statistics into the games as well. While the intro video for the new season is a far cry from the Brood War Starleague intros, much of what GOM has done so far are steps in the right direction.

With the first week of Ro32 group play over, it seems that most predictions got thrown out the window. Leenock, ForGG, and Bomber now will have to terrorize the poor Code A players in their path back to Code S, and Supernova and GanZi have shown us that there are terrans worth talking about other than MVP and MMA. It has also been a good week for protosses, as Oz and fan-favorite MC will be play again in the Ro16.

The level of play from each group has been somewhat disappointing however, given how many notable names have played in the past week. Most of the players that advanced were the ones who made the fewest mistakes, not necessarily the ones who showed innovative or smart play, so many of the games were rife with mistakes and/or questionable decisions. Nevertheless, in terms of sheer entertainment value the games were great, and I’m not just saying this because of the lack of GSL games during the new year holiday.

Group A – Fall of the Emperor

(T)

Ns_HS.Jjakji - (T)

SlayerS_BoxeR - (T)

SlayerS_GanZi - (Z)

GammaniaSen

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Need to bait your opponent out of an entrenched position? Be like Ganzi and send three thors and three tanks to knock on their front door.

I admit I was just a little biased when I predicted Boxer would make it out. He almost did make it to the Ro16, but Ganzi and Jjakji kept their minds clear in all of the chaos that Boxer tried to start and swept him aside, proving that even though Boxer has shown great improvement in the past couple of months, most of the other players in Code S have simply jumped up another level.

While Boxer was able to take Jjakji to three games in the last series to decide the final Ro16 spot, much of the reason why Boxer had a fighting chance was that Jjakji looked very mediocre in his games versus the SlayerS terrans. Ganzi’s dominance over Jjakji proved that Jjakji will need either a miraculous crash-course in TvT or another GSL season to mature in the matchup. While he has made it to the Ro16, it is unlikely that Jjakji will make another deep run in the tournament with his performance so far.

As expected, Sen wasn’t really able to match the other players in the group, and fell out of his group after showing some rather poor end-game management in both games versus Boxer. With the other players in the group making critical mistakes, Ganzi showed off why has been so consistent in past GSL seasons by out-thinking, out-positioning, and out-macroing Jjakji and Boxer. His performance in the group is not evidence that this season will be his to take, but if he gets placed in a group with more terrans (and hopefully no protosses) in the Ro16, he’ll have very good chances to make it again to the Ro8.

Boxer is still a force to be reckoned with as he drops to Code A, but his performance in the group showed that he just isn’t competitive in the newer longer-format GSL. There are too many games to prepare for, and too many variables to plan against with Boxer’s preference for highly specialized build orders. The new GSL format is a endurance run that favors consistent decision making and well-rounded play styles, and Boxer is weak in those departments. Boxer should do well in Code A and might return to Code S next season, but as much as I don’t want to admit it, it looks like he will never be a serious contender for the Code S championship.

Recommended Games
+ Show Spoiler +

Set 3 – Jjakji vs Ganzi - Game 2 – A solid TvT that shows off how mech vs. mech does not need to be a boring tank vs. tank map crawl.

Group B – Hype and Hyperbole Exposed

(T)

oGsFin -

oGsSuperNoVa - (P)

oGsMC -

FXOLeenock

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I thought this battle between ForGG and Leenock would be the most epic one all week. Oh how wrong I was.

As expected with a group that had three champions of major competitions (MLG Providence, 2008 Starleague, and GSL March Code S 2011/GSL Season 3 2010), this group was highly contested with each series going to a tense third game. Ironically though, the first player to clear the group was Supernova, the only player who hasn’t won a championship yet.

Supernova sure showed off why Artosis and a certain TL writer named Fionn have had so much faith in him, making Leenock look foolish with calculated and patient play and shamelessly using the 1/1/1 against MC to secure the Ro16 spot. Supernova looked solid in his victories versus Leenock, intelligently adjusting his strategies to Leenock’s army composition, and always using drops to punish Leenock’s economy and secure victories. When still-scary Leenock was on the ropes in Game 3 of their series, Supernova patiently sieged his army up and played the game out instead of rushing to close the game out, denying Leenock of any hopes for a comeback and securing a well-earned spot in the next round.

In contrast to his oGs teammate, ForGG never looked comfortable in his games versus Leenock and MC. Apart from the first game in each series, ForGG went for predictable aggressive timings that his opponents exploited. It was clear from his defeats that ForGG was playing the match up instead coming up with specific strategies for the players, and Leenock and MC punished him for not preparing more thorough strategies beforehand.

While Leenock and ForGG were knocked into Code A, they did prove that they still have the skills to back up the hype behind them. After floundering in the King of Kong tournament, Leenock has went back to his familiar and powerful two-base muta-ling-bling style in ZvT and made Supernova work for his Ro16 spot. ForGG’s defeats showed that he needs more experience to adjust to the GSL metagame, but in the first games of each series versus Leenock and MC he showed the world a glimpse of the terran monster that has torn through the Korean ladder with highly technical builds and impeccable mechanics.

As for MC, he narrowly got to the Ro16 with a bit of luck as he faced Leenock in the one matchup Leenock has never fully been comfortable in. Some metagaming also helped as well, as iamke55’s excellent blog explains, but overall MC’s performance still has not convinced me that he is capable of another deep tournament run. Credit goes to him for pulling through his tough group after almost literally hopping off a plane from a victory in the Homestory Cup, but in his group he was painfully predictable. Going consistently for three gateways with a robotics facility into blink versus terran and forge fast-expanding versus zergs worked for him so far, but I doubt his opponents will let him get away with the same predictability in the Ro16.

Recommended Games
+ Show Spoiler +

Set 1 – Leenock vs ForGG - Game 1 – A great back-and-forth game of TvZ that has some great positioning engagements and solid builds by both players.

Set 4 – Leenock vs Supernova – Game 3 – Another tense TvZ on Daybreak that shows how patience, multi-tasking, and expanding can be seamlessly combined to guarantee a victory.

Group C – MVP vs Everyone Else

(T)

IMMVP -

IMNestea - (Z)

FXOLucky - (Z)

EGIdrA

What happens when MVP uses over 20 cloaked ghosts take on a maxed hive-tech zerg army? Take a wild guess.

Hey, MVP and Nestea are pretty good. Did you know that?

Sarcasm aside, the group was interesting as MVP showed some rare glimpses of mortality, actually dropping more than one game. While nobody should read too much into MVP’s series with Nestea (two teammates trying to out-metagame each other), it is notable that Lucky did give MVP a bit of trouble. While MVP did make the final two games of the final series versus Lucky into a workshop on how to play TvZ, credit goes to Lucky for playing some very solid ZvT and finally showing the world what a well-planned end-game zerg army looks like.

MVP to Lucky: I’m in your base nuking your dudes. No really, I am.

If Lucky was a bit more careful in spreading out his infestors to make it harder for them to get EMP’d in the deciding game of his series versus MVP, we might be talking about how awesome Lucky is and gossiping about how MVP might be starting to slump. Unfortunately for Lucky, MVP is really good at using his ghosts. With Lucky’s heroic efforts in his second series against MVP, it is also easy to forget his first series against MVP, where Lucky just could not properly deal with bunker pressure. Lucky has proven he is a solid player, but his weakness to early pressure and potential weakness versus highly technical pressure builds is something that will haunt him in Code A.

Things also worked well for MVP’s teammate Nestea, as he played at the level that everyone expected him to. Idra was never a threat for him, and after some smart aggressive builds against MVP’s overconfidence, he advanced relatively unscathed to the Ro16. He didn’t show completely dominating play in the group, but there’s little question that he’s no longer in a slump, if he was really in one to begin with.

Idra predictably did not do very well in this stacked group, despite his single convincing victory against Lucky. It was clear from his games that Nestea and Lucky just had more experience in the match up as their builds were more refined and attack timings were generally more technical than Idra’s. There is no question that Idra can play at the Code S level if he stays for another GSL season, but question is whether Idra has the willpower to stay in Korea long enough to flourish in the increasingly competitive GSL.

Recommended Games
+ Show Spoiler +

Set 4 – Game 1 – MVP vs Lucky – The first of two epic TvZ games that show off some great outside-of-the box thinking by both players.

Set 4 – Game 3 – MVP vs Lucky – The second of two epic TvZ games in which MVP shows how terrans can effectively deal with a seemingly unstoppable end-game zerg.

Group D – Disappointment

(Z)

ST_Curious - (T)

ST_Bomber - (P)

oGsInCa -

FXOz

Really Bomber? You didn’t expect Inca to use DTs?

Oz performed some magic and proved history and statistics wrong by not only taking out Curious, who was previously undefeated versus Oz, but also slaying PvP sniper Inca. While he looked very shaky versus Curious, all of his confidence returned in his series versus Inca and he made all the correct decisions to take the Ro16 Code S spot. Oz did not look as dominating as he did in GSL November when he made it to the semi-finals, but if he can calm his nerves down he can definitely repeat his performance.

On the other hand Curious narrowly made it into the Ro16 almost in spite of himself. He made too many crucial mistakes against Oz, having his roaches out in the middle of the map for no reason in game one and failing to prepare adequately for Oz’s push in the second game. He also almost threw away his economic leads versus Bomber and Inca, both times committing to questionable attacks into his opponent’s bases, allowing Bomber and Inca to come close to taking those games. Fortunately for Curious he was able to move on to the next round as Bomber was mentally absent and Inca continued his personal trend of being terrible versus zergs.

Speaking of Bomber; Goddamn it man. Get you act together.

Things are looking grim for the Startale team in Code S this season. Curious is looking very weak at this time, and Bomber has once again underperformed. Bomber, who many people (including me) predicted to at least make it to the Ro16, played some very lackluster games in the group. Some may think that Bomber simply has a bad case of nerves, but looking at his play in his group it looked like he just stopped thinking and was going through the motions. Like ForGG, in all his losses he was overconfident, pushing out at the wrong times and allowing his opponents to do whatever they wanted to do. There was no spark or intelligence in his play, just failed attempts to bludgeon his opponents to death with his macro.

As Waxangel pointed out in Team Liquid’s GSL Group D review, Bomber is no longer one of the premier terrans. It is no longer possible for him just to get by with his strong mechanics, and if Bomber wishes to stay competitive in Code S, he’ll need to kick himself into gear and play every game with a burning desire to win.

On the other end of the spectrum, Inca has shown us that he’s not a one trick pony, showing us interesting and varied builds while only using dark templars only once in group play. I’ve said before that Inca’s intelligent PvP and PvT should not be underestimated, and he proved it in this group by taking down Bomber with well-planned risks against Bomber’s predictable play and narrowly losing versus Oz. Inca will do well in Code A, and if he commit some time to building a solid PvZ playstyle, he’ll definitely be a force to be reckoned with.

Recommended Games
+ Show Spoiler +

Set 3 – Game 3 - Oz vs Inca – It’s sad the only recommended game from the group in my opinion is a PvP in which one player proxies the other. Still, it is a good example of how to deal with two proxy gates as protoss, and a nice show of crisis management and micro by Oz.

Image credit to GOMTV. Thanks for the support and feedback!

[GSL] Code S Ro32 Week 1 Recap - Eating Humble Pie

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