GSL Season One
Code A

Group E Preview
Solar, Journey, Dear, ByuL

Group F Preview
Ruin, Reality, Soulkey, hyvaa

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

Partial VODs on YouTube

Day one of Code A brought in some fresh faces, with the challengers from the qualifiers replacing three of defending Code S players. Day two couldn't have been any more different, with all Code S players successfully preserving their spots in Code S. How will things play out on day 3?

Group E: Solar, Journey, Dear, ByuL

Countdown:

by lichter

Deep down inside, mouz.Dear must fear that his monumental double championships in WCS KR Season 3 and the WCS Season 3 Finals will be forgotten. Here at TL, we're still convinced it was one of the greatest tournament feats in all of professional StarCraft. However, we have to admit that Dear has done little keep to himself in the consciousness of fans. After all, pro-StarCraft, as with many things, is all about "what have you done for me lately?"

He'd only have a month to reign as the de facto best player in the world until sOs earned his giant check at Blizzcon and became the biggest story of the year. Dear's move to mouseports seemed to set him up for the spotlight once again, but instead he flubbed his lines with early eliminations from IEM Cologne and the IEM World Championship. His best finish for mouz, second place at ASUS ROG Winter, was largely overshadowed by Protoss balance whine. Dear is now in the same position as Seed was two days ago: two losses away from becoming a GSL winner in Code B.

Despite these disappointments, there's no conclusive proof that Dear's skills have significantly deteriorated since October of 2013. He made it to the Ro16 in Code S last season, losing narrowly to Maru and eventual champion Zest while beating Soulkey. Had Dear drawn any other group in the Ro16 other than the group of death, there was a good chance that he would have made it to the elimination bracket.

Dear's first opponent will be IM_ByuL, who has returned to Code A after a successful stint in WCS America. He managed to reach the finals of the Premier League, taking second place to Polt in an epic TvZ finals that concluded the 2013 season of WCS America. Many believed that ByuL would become a perennial title contender in WCS America, but he suffered a shock elimination in the online Ro32 (he threw what seemed like an unlosable game to Revival).

Though ByuL had a very good chance of defeating whatever player came up from the Challenger League qualifiers, he decided to forfeit out of WCS America and switch back to the Korean region. His stated reason was to help out IM in Proleague, where thus far he's been a mixed bag. He served as IM's de facto ace in Round 1, almost powering them to the playoffs. However, he regressed in Round 2 with a 3-4 record.

For most players, we'd say giving up WCS America's easy money was a poor decision. However, ByuL's strong performances in Proleague Round 1 and the ease with which he broke through the Code A qualifiers (he even beat INnoVation!) lead us to think he might have made the correct choice.

Another surprise performer in Proleague Round 1 that has been experiencing difficulties lately is Samsung's Solar. He was by far the biggest breakout star during the first few weeks of Proleague, but he has slumped hard since then, failing to record even a single win in Round 2 (0-5). It was a brutal fall back down to earth for Solar, who some had tipped as Samsung's new ace ahead of RorO. While he's still slaughtering foreigners in online cups, his poor performances domestically make things look grim for Solar ahead of this group.

At least Solar has the fortune of facing the virtually unknown Terran SKT_Journey as his first opponent. He's a player we have very little information about outside the fact that he made it to Code A once before, only to get immediately eliminated.

Predictions: Dear will likely face two Zergs tonight, which is fortunate since PvZ has been his best match-up as of late. Sure, some people might say he's been losing a bit of steam, but he's still the best player in a group full of people in a rut. ByuL and Solar will likely be fighting for second place by the end of the evening.

Solar > Journey
Dear > ByuL
Dear > Solar
Journey < ByuL
Solar < ByuL

Dear and ByuL advance.

Group F: Ruin, Reality, Soulkey, hyvaa

Countdown:

by Waxangel

Looking at the entire, forty-eight man Code A roster, there's one name that really sticks out like a sore thumb. That of course, is SKT_Soulkey, the previous holder of an incredible five tournament streak where he placed in the top eight or better of the GSL/OSL. That kind of consistency can't be lauded enough, especially when a meager three is the second longest streak.

However, that legacy of consistent excellence all came to an end last season as Soulkey was eliminated in the Ro16. Drawn into the group of death, Soulkey could not survive the combined onslaught from Dear and Zest and was forced to tap out. Now, Soulkey is in the unfamiliar position of having to join the peasants down in Code A as they scrap for tickets to Code S.

There's a slight feeling of unease around Soulkey. It's not just because his individual league streak has ended – he's also been rather mediocre in Proleague as well, going 3-3 in Round 2. Of course, it could just be a momentary blip. If any other player experienced the same "slump" as Soulkey, we'd just say it's a slight dip in form that he'll get over eventually. It's a testament to Soulkey's extraordinary consistency over the last 16 months that we're starting to sweat over one, not even particularly bad month.

Soulkey's first opponent will be the recently returned MVP.hyvaa, who is probably wondering what he did to deserve facing the best GSL player of the last six seasons in his re-debut. Well, no, he probably knows exactly what he did. Before he "retired" from StarCraft 2 in 2013, hyvaa became infamous as both the most shameless cheeser in the scene. He was damn good at it, too, and he broke plenty of hearts by eliminating fan favorites from tournaments.

Hyvaa talked up being rusty and having difficulty practicing in his post-qualifier interview, but we're not fooled. This is hyvaa, the sly devil who lulls you into a false sense of security before kicking your door down with banelings, or crushes you in a macro game (which he's surprisingly good at) after you've already wasted your resources on playing extra safe. He's coming into this group with plenty of tricks up his sleeve.

On the other side of the bracket is the one opponent we hope will never play Soulkey ever again. Whatever else Samsung_Reality did in his career, it's all overshadowed by the two hour TvZ he played against Soulkey in Proleague. Not many other players can say they played in a way that was SO BORING it got a map removed from the pool. Unfortunately for everyone watching at home, the season 2 map pool contains a fair number of maps where mech is a decent choice.

Rounding out the group is IM_Ruin, another player we remember mostly for one game. Going up against Sleep on the pre-adjustment Daedalus Point, Ruin unveiled a creative strategy to overcome the unbalanced map, executing an offensive wall-in at the bottom of the Zerg ramp. The one-time-only strategy did its job perfectly, propelling Ruin into his first Code S where he was promptly defeated 0-4 by sOs and Panic.

Overall thoughts and predictions: Soulkey is the obvious favorite here, and it would blow our minds if he got sent down to Code B (it would also confirm the SKT Zerg curse as the strongest supernatural jinx in StarCraft).

The battle for second place is a toss-up. Hyvaa just returned from retirement. Reality has played just two Proleague games since he bored us to death on Star Station. We haven't seen Ruin since he was eliminated from Code S. Of the three, Ruin did happen to do the best in the recent GSL Global Tournament qualifiers, where he beat Bbyong, Splendid, Miso, and came within one map of eliminating PartinG and claiming a spot in the main tournament. There's not much other data to go on, so that will be enough for us to give Ruin the slight edge.

Ruin > Reality
Soulkey > hyvaa
Soulkey > Ruin (we're not so much predicting that Soulkey won't face Reality as we are just wishing it away)
hyvaa > Reality
Ruin > hyvaa

Soulkey and Ruin advance.

Writers: lichter and Waxangel.
Graphics: GomTV, shiroiusagi.
Editor: Waxangel.