[GSL 2019] Code S Season 2 - RO16 Group C

On May 29 2019 08:12 RampancyTW wrote:
This is wierdly the best-case GSL scenario for Special, where his relative excellency in TvP may allow him to advance further than he otherwise could. Could see him winning 2 TvPs to advance in 2nd place.

On May 29 2019 11:29 pdd wrote:

Estimated by Aligulac. Modify.

The Protosses seem heavily favored in this group by Aligulac.

Things I hope we'll see today:
- Maxpax build
- More than 3 bases in the PvP
- More than 1 game on Cobalt
- Mech builds vs Protoss
- Great games and new builds!

On May 29 2019 18:56 starkiller123 wrote:
sick game 1

On May 29 2019 11:29 pdd wrote:
Things I hope we'll see today:
- Maxpax build
- More than 3 bases in the PvP
- More than 1 game on Cobalt
- Mech builds vs Protoss
- Great games and new builds!

On May 29 2019 19:17 Penev wrote:
disgust me herO, you know you can

On May 29 2019 19:31 darklycid wrote:
I love how impact plays the right all ins in theory but then botches them so badly.

On May 29 2019 19:58 deacon.frost wrote:
Arty curse at work?

On May 29 2019 20:00 Penev wrote:

And rematch. We need to know the tilt level to be sure.

Wolf pls

also F?

On May 29 2019 20:02 Heartland wrote:


And new nicknames!

On May 29 2019 20:04 Heartland wrote:


Was it? I mainly remember Scan Demon. The best nickname ever.

On May 29 2019 20:04 deacon.frost wrote:
I actually miss Wolf, I liked him.

On May 29 2019 20:04 starkiller123 wrote:

I think the name came from some iem in 2014 so probably not Wold

On May 29 2019 20:17 Penev wrote:
for ppl lagging on Twitch and are not aware:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGSO7pnRdmE

On May 29 2019 20:18 deacon.frost wrote:

The irony is, that the last stream the Youtube one died

On May 29 2019 20:17 Penev wrote:
for ppl lagging on Twitch and are not aware:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGSO7pnRdmE

On May 29 2019 20:34 Harris1st wrote:
twitch lagging for someone else?

On May 29 2019 20:45 ByuuN wrote:
Accidentally clicked herO.

On May 29 2019 20:50 ByuuN wrote:

Protoss mind control?

On May 29 2019 21:07 sneakyfox wrote:
great disruptor play

On May 29 2019 21:12 yht9657 wrote:
Special: since I can't micro my units I will just make more units

On May 29 2019 21:13 sneakyfox wrote:
Suspect herO just goes adepts from here. Macro games are definitely not his strong suit these days, yikes

On May 29 2019 21:15 sneakyfox wrote:


SpeCial sealed the deal when he got libs, but I'd say the point of the loss was herO playing very badly

On May 29 2019 21:24 starkiller123 wrote:
I don't understand how herO can both look terrible and quite good in every series he plays

On May 29 2019 21:24 starkiller123 wrote:
I don't understand how herO can both look terrible and quite good in every series he plays

On May 29 2019 21:33 starkiller123 wrote:
finals of wcs = gsl ro16

On May 29 2019 21:33 deacon.frost wrote:
Am I the only who didn't like Special's play in the last two games? It somehow... I don't know.

On May 29 2019 21:37 Koatique wrote:
Tastosis have been saying that players are getting better and better for years but this season has been nothing but a clown fiesta so far and Protoss are the best at that.

On May 29 2019 21:50 CraigWT wrote:
I am just wondering if the entire balance team are fired, since there is no community update for like a quarter.

On May 29 2019 21:58 showstealer1829 wrote:
Yet another flawless group for Glorious Protoss Master Race

On May 29 2019 22:26 JoeCool wrote:


Is this really because they are protoss or were they the better players? Unfortunately I can't watch GSl this season but so far the results kinda line up with my expectations.

On May 29 2019 22:48 Need wrote:


Really? How many of the current RO8 Protoss players are in their first RO8 for a long time/ever? Did they all simultaneously improve on the most recent patch? The results line up with my expectations only because I've adjusted my expectations to expect lots of green

On May 29 2019 23:32 Shuffleblade wrote:

Well RO32 had Patience taking out Maru and Inno to top his group.

You make it sound like all we have seen are expected results, you know Trap has been playing GSL since 2012 and he has NEVER made ro8 until this year. Yeah sure, Trap was obvious pick for first in his group into ro8.....

herO recently came back to sc2 and is rusty, expecting him to easily win as if its exptected is not for sure either. Sure he's posted good results so its not surprising but if he wasn't protoss he wouldn't really be especially favored in the group. Just to be clear, I hope you consider that Impact topped his group against Zest, Gumiho and Trust, its not like he got out of an easy group. And that both Special and Ragnarok got here knocking out TY and sOs, not easy opponents either, you make it sound like Ragnarok, SpeCial and Fantasy lucked out by beating Armani or something to get to RO16. Fantasy moved on by defeating Leenock and Rogue.......

So to summarize we have multiple up and coming (back and coming) zerg/terran players that are seriously posting good results, like defeating TY, sOs, Zest and Gumiho. The same can be said for the protoss players, Hurricane defeated Solar to move on and Parting took down Cure. But for some reason its seems its always the protoss players that win out, over and over again multiple tournaments in a row. AfreecaPvP should be a thing.

On May 30 2019 00:06 NbaLover wrote:



Lol based on this argument against Trap. I guess Maru is a scrub as well. The kid has won nothing in GSL until last year and all a sudden he wins 4 straight GSL. But the terran fan army will say "Maru GOAT". That is why majority of fans/players don't take Terrna fanboys opinion seriously.

On May 30 2019 00:09 Xain0n wrote:
Certain players just became better in 2019: Trap is finally looking like top tier, Patience is back to his 2016 levels and Ragnarok totally stepped up his play, I doubt he still wants to go to the Circuit considering he seems ready to win korean titles(he just has to improve his ZvP but it's not a problem he, alone, is experimenting); Bunny seemed to have a similar evolution but he has recently regressed, Fantasy is slowly improving.
On the other hand, Zest has been subpar in offline tournaments this year while TY and Rogue disappeared in the last two months.

From Super Tournament onwards, however, Protoss have been overperforming in GSL(at the very least, they jumped ahead of the meta in PvZ); that's mostly due to PartinG's resurgence and Hurricane's rise; the latter might be suspicious considering Hurrican's absymal winrate in PvP.
Expecting four Protoss in ro8 this season was not unreasonable the moment Maru lost against Patience(after one year and half, I would say he's allowed to), we may very well have five after all, Dark and Inno are not weaklings.

Warp Prism's range pickup most likely needs to be tweaked but at worst this would be the second consecutive GSL tournament with an overabundance of Protoss in the final bracket(and maybe a Protoss victory), we have seen worse situations in the past.
This mass hysteria is partly due to fact people love to hate Protoss in general: "balance is temporary, whining is eternal".

On May 30 2019 00:14 Need wrote:


What.. Maru made it to ro4 and ro8 in 2017

On May 30 2019 00:17 NbaLover wrote:


So? Neeb went to RO4, and people on TL try to dismiss that accomplishment. So when Maru does it, it's great?

On May 30 2019 00:09 Xain0n wrote:
we have seen worse situations in the past.

On May 30 2019 00:18 Shuffleblade wrote:

What o_o

I never said Trap is a scrub, I'm a fan of Trap, his play recently has been great, that doesn't mean him topping his group is an obvious expected result.

Do you even read the comment i replied to? He was saying all the protoss were exptected to move on because they are superior players than the zergs and terrans in their group. I simply disagree with that, Trap, Hurricane and herO were not clear favorites to move on. That was all I said, that a player isn't a favorite to move on from a group doesn't equal me calling them a scrub...... Please elaborate your agument.

Also the kid had actually already gotten a double crown before 2018, both an OSL and SSL championship as well as (unlike Trap whom never made RO8 and still isn't a scrub) three GSL seminfinals appearences.

On May 30 2019 01:17 Moonerz wrote:


So just to be clear, you're saying the Protoss players improved and are just better players but Maru, who joined the scene at a young age, is only good because people are declining? It couldn't possibly be that a young player improves over time especially when most of the Koreans at that time were mostly veterans from BW.

I wonder what your previous account was and when it got banned.

On May 30 2019 01:31 Xain0n wrote:


Yes, it's the worse ro8 distribution(and yet, Gumiho reached the finals…) but there were worse ro32(17, 20 and 19 Terran in three consecutive seasons of GoMTvT), worse ro16 and worse ro4(respectively 10/16 and 4/4 Terran, Code S October 2011 says hello).

There is indeed a strong chanche we are in one uncommon balance situation at the moment; it has to be noted tho that Blink Stalker Protossfest in 2014, and GoMTvT in 2011 lasted for months, and while in the BL Infestor era Zerg weren't overwhelming in numbers in the brackets(four at best), there were three consecutive Zerg Champions.

The current perceived ""Super opness" of Protoss may just result in a single Super Tournament champion(no variation from 2018) or it might make them win a Code S after two years and half for a total of two consecutive GSL tournaments(Protoss in WCS aren't looking that scary, on the other hand); overall winrates aren't especially alarming so that maybe other races not finding solutions and notable players slumping are making a small imbalance look like enormous and impassable(or maybe they are truly op and the current trend won't stop), I am quite sure if Terran were in Protoss' place everyone would be happier. Thus said, reducing Warp Prism-Immortals strenght while making Carriers viable again seems appropriate to me and could help.

On Maru against Trap, Maru's career before 2018 was definitely better than Trap's before 2019;I just want to point out Maru won Code S S3 against TY(a Terran) and that at the moment, Protoss are not winning left and right: there is a lot of them around having good results but in the end they are winning as many tournaments as the other races in 2019.

On May 30 2019 01:31 NbaLover wrote:



Na it's my only account. Been lurkering for years but finally decide to make an account since the whining and complaining about balance is getting way out of hand.

Where did say Protoss players improved? I said they are "better", doesn't mean they improved. Skill wise almost everyone in the korean scene is declining. It's quite of obvious if you compare the same player now and what they were a few years ago. Best example is herO, zest, innovation, etc.

Maru is still in his prime whereas the other koreans are slowly exiting. Not rocket science.

But if we are to compare prime vs prime. I'm pretty sure majority of the people would say innovation or even TY > Maru prime

On May 30 2019 04:17 Wombat_NI wrote:

I had Trap as my pick for a deep run this GSL on form and his trend in a thread here, he looked good here. herO/Special/Impact were all players I felt could advance, depending which one showed up on the day. Impact decided to channel his inner Dear and not show up at all.

I haven’t seen too much egregious at all and after my relatively long hiatus I consume a ton of SC content these days, including every GSL series this time around,

Perhaps the break makes me more sanguine, outside of other design concerns I have if anything Protoss is the best race in a certain abstract RTS sense.

If Terran kind of have to be aggressive, and Zerg have to be defensive, Protoss can kind of do both. Protoss have a lot of technical units that good players can get more use of, or actively prefer to use. Protoss don’t really have a (borderline) unkillable super composition in the super late game too, which I think is a good thing.

We have a lot of Protoss players with completely different styles and strengths and weaknesses too. As a player and a theorycrafter I’m way towards the Stats end of the scale, but I can appreciate the risk taking and the balls of a Parting or a herO too.

Stripped away from balance as per the other races, Protoss is actually in a pretty good spot IMO. Lots of tools that are viable, lots of compositions that are viable and you can apply them in a range of different ways.

I’ve enjoyed this GSL a lot, a few matches go different ways and the distribution is very different. WCS just had a great distribution the whole way through the tournament, and while not GSL level it’s still a very high level that shouldn’t be discounted out of hand.

I’m not really rooting for Protoss this season outside of wanting Classic to win before military, and I dislike too many mirrors late in a tournament, I’m not actively rooting against them either.

On May 30 2019 05:33 Akio wrote:
Sad for Juanito, now Patience and Stats advance from the last group, leaving soO alone in a ZvP hell.

In before not even all these protosses can stop Terran from winning Code S and INno takes it all

On May 30 2019 07:21 seemsgood wrote:

viable compositions but only somes of the strongest will be used and many viable tools but most of them are used in the early game help nothing but creating a moar volatile matchup.from designing point that is a 'nay'

On May 30 2019 04:00 Shuffleblade wrote:

Please do your research before being so needlessly aggressive. We now live in the time when we have Afreeca GSL, before that until 2015 we hade GOMTV GSL, we have also had ongamenets OSL and SPOTVs SSL.

So you could say that we in SC2 have had four different organizers doing GSL style tournaments in korea, either way all four of these leagues shared the same (or similar) structure and the same players. SSL and OSL have a different name from Afreecas or GOMTVs GSL but they are essentially the exact same tournament that are equally hard and equally competetive as their counterpart. Therefore OSL and SSL results are equal to GSL results while on the other hand Serral winning WCS tournaments is indeed worth a lot lot lot less (in my opinion). (why are we even discussing this in a thread about todays results?)


Interesting, do you have any source on this "belief" of yours, TLs article on the topic had Trap and Impact predicted to advance. You see Impact defeated both Zest and Trust to advance to the RO16. Trap defeated Scarlett and herO and herO defeated Keen twice. SpeCial got there by beating sOs twice. Both Impact and SpeCial won vs decent P to get into RO16 Trap and herOs results of Scarlett and Keen pale in comparison to the opposition Impact and SpeCial went through to get there. The group was super close, no one was particularly favored, you could argue Trap because of his result the last couple of month but its not as cut and dry as you and others make it out to be. Logically by recent result in this GSL both SpeCial and Impact could be argued for having a better chance than the protoss since they defeated strong protosses to get into a group of two more protosses.

I'll ask again, do you have any basis for said "belief", I just explained my basis for why its close. In general though it could be said that the result was predictable since this year, all you've had to do to predict result with 60-70% success rate you would just need to bet on the protoss.


Do you have any basis for any of these personal opinions? Your personal opinions doesn't become subjective facts just because you state them confidently. Fantasy actually defeated both Leenock and Rogue to get into the RO 16, he definitely deserved his place and is no pushover. Fantasy even defeated SpeCial, Solar and Ragnarok just to qualify for GSL. He defeated Ragnarok to get into GSL and then random TL poster boldly claims he has no business being in the same group as the guy he defeated because he is obviously far inferior? The irony is too strong.


Protoss fanbois really makes no sense, when terran is doing well in tournaments its all because terrans are OP. Terran dominates GSL and protoss havent won in x seasons, its so badly balanced. Of course it cant be because the terran champions are actually better than the players of other races

When all of a sudden all protoss players are destroying the other races, its all because


Actually since 2012 all starcraft 2 players have actually declined, MVP is the best player there ever was and nowadays its more a question of who is the least bad will win the championships.