[GSL] Code S Ro32 Week 2 Review

Group E – Nerve Issues

Players Advancing to Ro16
(T)

SlayerS_MMA - (T)

FXOGuMiho

Players Falling to Code A
(Z)

SlayerS_YugiOh - (Z)

Liquid’Zenio

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Yugioh’s mutas have seen better days.

The level of play in the groups so far has been decent, but unfortunately Group E is the lone exception to this. Some of the games were so bat that there were times where I thought I was watching Code A VODs from early last year. It also didn’t help that all of MMA’s games were one-sided as he crushed his way through his opponents. Unless you really love watching MMA style over his opponents, none of the games in Group E are really worth watching.

To be fair Zenio, Gumiho, and Yugioh were all too nervous to play at their full potential. However, specifically giving Yugioh and Gumiho the benefit of the doubt does not change the fact that they clearly aren’t fit for Code S. Yugioh in particular was severely outclassed by everyone in the group, always having his units caught out of position, forgetting key upgrades (zergling speed Yugioh, it’s pretty important), or making poor decisions which were always exploited.

Words cannot begin describe Yugioh’s poor play in this group. While his poor play versus Zenio is understandable as Zenio showed why he’s still very good at ZvZ, he must have had a complete mental breakdown versus Gumiho as Gumiho wasn’t playing especially well himself. Go watch his second game versus Gumiho if you’re really curious, but be warned that you’ll want those minutes of your life back.

As for Gumiho, did better than Yugioh, but not by much. Before he gathered his nerves in his last set versus Zenio, he played greedily and sloppily. Greed cost Gumiho as MMA took advantage of his predictable play by with proxy siege tanks and marines in their first match, and his sloppiness showed in his second game versus Yugioh as he refused to take advantage of Yugioh’s mistakes for most of the game. Gumiho will definitely need to calm his nerves if he stands a chance to advance further in the GSL, but even then it is hard to see him making it past the much tougher Ro16 group stage.

Sadly, Zenio was unable to capitalize on Gumiho’s poor mental condition and take the second Ro16 spot. I believe all of the hype that have been coming from the Starcraft 2 pros living in Korea about Zenio’s skill, but even taking into account his stage fright (which at least seems to be better than Gumiho’s and Yugioh’s), he will need to improve his ZvT. Zenio will most likely be back in Code S next season, but he won’t be advancing past Code S Ro32 with the new format unless he gets really lucky and lands in a group with no other solid terrans.

Recommended Games
+ Show Spoiler +

None. Only watch the sets 1 and 3 if you want to see how scary MMA’s TvZ is at this time.

Group F – Living Up to the MVP Team Name

Players Advancing to the Ro16
(P)

MVPGenius - (Z)

MVPDongRaeGu

Players Falling to Code A
(T)

MVPsC -

EGJYP

Nukes? Genius’ deathball is not afraid of mere nukes.

Genius has been resurging lately, going undefeated in his Up-Down group, but nobody expected him to storm through DRG and SC to go undefeated in the Ro32. I’m sure he got sick of all the hype around the other young protosses and decided to lay down the law on the protoss pecking order in the GSL. He isn’t as flashy as MC, he isn’t as fast as Puzzle, nor is he as beloved as Sage, but he’ll play the most solid protoss style you’ll see in the GSL regardless of what you think of him. And so far, it’s paid off for the GSL veteran as he has succeeded where most of the other hyped protosses have failed.

Overall, the team MVP is the real winner of this group despite SC not being able to make it to the Ro16. In the last GSTL they were lambasted for relying on DRG as a crutch to get to the championship, but now MVP’s top three showed off that they are deserving of the same praise and attention that other team aces have gotten. DRG was DRG, showing off why he is such a monster in Starcraft 2 by refusing to die even in games that were decided and by making JYP’s much vaunted PvZ look downright silly. Despite being defeated, SC showed that he is still undeniably a well-rounded and dangerous terran that is still a threat to make it deep in the next GSL.

Speaking of SC, if there was one person to watch in the next Code A and Up-Down matches, he is the one. Versus DRG and Genius, he showed the aggressive and highly technical rushes that many expected from ForGG, but with much better grasp on the subtle details of the matchups. Whether it was hitting JYP before blink and charge were completed in Game 2 of the series or taking advantage of his familiarity with DRG’s play by using hellion-maurder pressure builds against DRG, he executed those highly aggressive builds with comfort and ease.

SC didn’t succeed in with all of his aggression, but when they did succeed he didn’t rely on his aggression to completely take the game, instead falling back on rock-solid macro and expanding to secure his lead. Such solid and well-rounded play isn’t as common as one would expect in the GSL, and there’s no doubt that if his health improves he will become a force to be reckoned with in the future.

Ironically, this was the safest place for JYP’s army since most of DRG’s zerglings were rampaging in his base.

Unfortunately for JYP, he was overshadowed in his group even before the games, and his winless record in the group shows that he still needs more experience to grow. Having an almost deadly weakness to terrans in a terran-dominated tournament is one thing, but consistently being picked apart by multi-pronged harass and attacks is another. One common theme that seemed to run through JYP’s most embarrassing defeats was his inability to deal with SC’s and DRG’s constant drops and diversions, with his main army always woefully out of position his opponent’s main attacks. Perhaps JYP was on tilt that day, but even then his weak PvT means that it is hard to count on him making it back to Code S next season.

Going into the new GSTL, there is undoubtedly going to be more hype behind the team MVP this time around. While they might not yet have the number of individual GSL championships that the other teams may have, the team MVP does have three elite players of their respective races in SC, Genius, and DRG. This is something that will make them hard to take down in the GSTL, and with DRG and Genius advancing to the Ro16 perhaps the team will actually add some individual GSL championships to their roster in the near future.

Recommended Games
+ Show Spoiler +

Set 3 – Game 1 – SC vs Genius – This is what Code S level PvT should look like. Genius and SC show off what high-level safe but aggressive play currently looks like in the matchup.

Set 4 – Game 1 – DRG vs JYP – If you want to see why protosses hate mutas so much, watch DRG pick JYP apart in this game.

Group G – GomTvT Doesn’t Make You Feel Alive or Happy

Players Advancing to the Ro16
(T)

MarineKingPrime - (T)

TSLaLive

Players Falling to Code A
(P)

SlayerS_Brown - (T)

IMHappy

Guess how many vikings are in this single screenshot! Answer: 79. Now guess how long it took to get to this point in the game! Answer: Too long.

Let’s not spend too much time talking about Brown. He is a talented young protoss that to learn not to attack into entrenched positions or trade his expensive army for nothing. He’ll do fine in Code A, as long as he learns from his games in this group.

With that out of the way, let’s talk TvT! Everyone loves TvT!

Sorry about that, I was trying to inject some excitement into this group. Apart from Brown’s occasional intermissions where he showed up and made a fool of himself, this group showcased why TvT has such a bad reputation, especially with Happy’s tendency to drag out his games. TvT is a highly positional matchup that punishes players for being recklessly aggressive, so matches are either long and very methodical or short and completely dumb. Unfortunately, we mostly got the latter in this group.

Thanks to Alive’s nervousness in his games versus MarineKing, a third of the TvT matches in this group were completely mind-numbing as he committed newbie mistake after newbie mistake. Not sieging his tanks and allowing MarineKing’s marines in to dance in his base? That was game one. Not looking at the minimap and letting MarineKing’s army casually stroll into his third? That was game two. Alive did calm his nerves down enough to secure the second spot in the Ro16, but it’s hard to say for certain if he advanced because of his own intelligent play or Happy’s failures.

Oh Happy. I did predict that Alive would advance over Happy, but I never foresaw how badly Happy would play in the group. Happy showed off exactly what I saw from his previous games in the GSL; a mechanically great macro terran who tends to be fairly one-dimensional outside of TvZ. I know I’m a bit harsh here, but his defeats (against players not named Brown) were mostly because his opponents exploited his passiveness and complacency.

In general mech play does require one to play relatively passively until a sizeable force is built, but even the sheer power of mech cannot surmount poor positioning or poor map awareness. In the three games Happy went mech, he was handed three defeats. MarineKing maneuvered circles (both metaphorically and literally in Game 2 of their series) around Happy’s army in two games, constantly moving his army and smartly trading his troops to gain advantages. In his second game versus Alive where the match ended in an epic air to air battle, Happy was caught with his pants down and most of his air army on the other side of the map, giving Alive a relatively easy win to secure the second Ro16 spot.

Credit goes to MarineKing and Alive for doing what they needed to do versus mech, but it’s hard for me to shake the impression that Happy was complacently expecting his theoretically superior mechanics and army compositions to do all the work for him. Happy rarely sent his hellions out to harass expansions, nor did he make consistent attempts to mitigate his immobility by positioning units around the map to improve his map awareness. I’m spending a lot of time nitpicking on Happy’s mistakes, but only because there’s so much potential hidden behind his rather uninspired play.

While we can critically look at Happy’s play, we won’t be learning too much about MarineKing’s current mindset looking at his games in the group. Alive gave him two free games thanks to nerve issues, and Happy’s TvT definitely is not Code S material. MarineKing did look very comfortable in TvT in his matches versus Happy, as he checked all the right boxes in his bio vs mech play, but we can safely expect that coming from someone who has challenged MVP in two finals. MarineKing’s played his fair share of TvTs in the GSL and in practice, and it showed in the group.

Recommended Games
+ Show Spoiler +

Set 2 – Game 1 – Happy vs MarineKing – For those curious to see one of the world’s best bio players run circles around a mech army.

Set 5 – Game 3 – Happy vs Alive – Only for those who enjoy really long TvTs that end in ridiculous viking vs viking air battles. Oh, and there’s a nuke push and hunter-seeker-missiles in the game too.

Group H – Protoss Uprising

Players Advancing to the Ro16
(P)

ST_Parting - (P)

SlayerS_Puzzle

Players Falling to Code A
(T)

oGsNaDa -

MVPKeen

Keen learns the hard way that two battlecruisers aren’t a substitute for ghosts versus nine archons

If any of you picked Puzzle and Parting to advance in this group, I want to shake your hand because you are either the luckiest person alive or a Starcraft 2 god.

I honestly didn’t think that Puzzle would advance out of the group. I love his risky and innovative play, but his playstyle means he sometimes takes unnecessary risks and makes poor decisions as a result. In his matches versus Keen and Nada though, Puzzle waltzed his way past two solid TvP players without breaking much of a sweat.

Puzzle did show a preference for aggressive builds in the group, but game two versus Keen on Metropolis he decided to play a more macro-oriented and positional game. Keen didn’t commit any critical mistakes, but instead Puzzle forced a victory with some cunning and great multi-tasking. Puzzle used his constant warp-prism harass and an aggressively active army to make Keen too paranoid to confront Puzzle’s army head-on. With Keen paralyzed with paranoia, Puzzle then bullied his way into a favorable engagement that decided the game. Puzzle’s play wasn’t without imperfection in this game and in other games in the group, but I think there’s a good chance he’ll carry the SlayerS flag deep in GSL again this season.

As the only new Code S player to make it out of the Ro32 this season, Parting does have a lot of expectations to live up to. He made it out of the group first, and took down two Code S veterans Nada and Puzzle to do so. Thanks to the caliber of his opponents, he wasn’t able to do so easily, but he did show great understanding of the matchups and calm nerves in his victories.

When Nada showed the very powerful two-base thor-marine-banshee build in the third game on Entombed Valley, Parting smartly pinned Nada in his main with blink stalkers just long enough to get enough immortals to fight Nada’s army head-on. Afterwards, Parting used his army and the terrain to buy time and force Nada’s thors to fight in disadvantageous chokepoints to take the series and secure his Ro16 spot.

With what he showed against Nada and the SlayerS PvP ace Puzzle, it’s easy to root for him in the Ro16. But I would advise caution in starting up the hype train as he faces an even steeper uphill battle in the GSL. Keep in mind that he did get lucky as his opponents made unforced mistakes in critical games. If Puzzle had decided to save his phoenix energy to lift the immortals instead of lifting Parting’s probes in game one of their series, or if Nada had used the thor strike cannons on Parting’s immortals instead of the rocks in game three of their series, Parting’s story might have been drastically different. Parting is definitely worth keeping an eye on as the GSL progresses, but he isn’t the strongest protoss in the Ro16.

It’s funny that Nada and Keen have fallen to Code A, which means there will be another chance to write another chapter in their seemingly arbitrary rivalry if they face each other again in Code A. Nada and Keen both played well in their group, with Nada coming fairly close to making it out, but they were outclassed this time around. Keen in particular is worth watching as it is easy to forget that he’s a very young and talented terran who has the drive to succeed. Both Nada and Keen have fallen to Code A, but I don’t expect them to be there for long.

Recommended Games
+ Show Spoiler +

Set 1 – Game 1 – Keen vs Nada – A back-and-forth game between Keen’s bio army and Nada’s mobile mech play prompts Artosis reminisce about Nada’s Starcraft 1 days.

Set 4 - Game 2 - Puzzle vs Keen - A solid PvT. A stellar example of map awareness, multi-tasking, and army positioning.

Images credit to GomTV. Thanks for the support and feedback!

[GSL] Code S Ro32 Week 2 Review - Protoss!

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