EPT
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Meru/2014/GSL/GSL_CodeS.jpg)
The SPL Finalists continued their strong form as two of their players advanced ahead of their Jin Air and CJ counterparts. It was a close set of games and the 3 players looked good value to advance, but the evening closed with
Stats and 
Soulkey moving on to the Ro16. Bbyong fascinated and frustrated in equal measure as his hype train derailed for yet another season.![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/lichter/code_s/2014/season3/codesr32grpd.jpg)
Soulkey and Terminator kicked off the first game of the day on Foxtrot Labs. Soulkey opted for a hatch first followed by a quick pool and gas, while Terminator's choice was a gateway expand. Seeking to abuse the architecture of the map Soulkey researched a quick zergling speed and started massing up. He sent his initial 8 lings into the base of Terminator, disrupting mining time and keeping him busy just as his speed was finishing and the rest of his army was flooding in. Terminator was unable to finish his wall in time and he was overwhelmed by endless tides of zerglings, forcing him to tap out. On Deadwing, both players opened with the same builds as game 1. This time however, Terminator was able to sniff it out and completed his wall in time. The game dragged on late, but Soulkey was able to defend with swarmhosts and roach hydra viper. Terminator did manage to take out the zerg fourth, but he had to sacrifice his entire army and his 3rd and 4th bases. With no economy and no units left, he had no choice but to send Soulkey to the winners' match. There he would face the winner of
Stats vs 
Bbyong, and after his collapse in the SPL finals, he must have wished for it to be the latter. Unfortunately for the SKT T1 zerg, Stats prevailed 2-1 in a close series. The most intriguing game of their face off was game 1 on Nimbus, where Bbyong debuted a peculiar bio-thor-ghost late game composition. He sacrificed early bio upgrades in order to get 2 armories for both attack and armor upgrades for his mech as a response to Stats' decision to use phoenix colossus. With well upgraded vikings and the new air-priority thor, Bbyong was able to take engagements that would have looked dire without the new thors. It was a brilliant adjustment by the CJ terran, and it pushed him into the lead. Unfortunately for him, he'd fail in the next two games as he resorted to SCV pulls. Stats' force fields and patience in engaging the boys allowed him to get crucial warp ins and canons to defend, and he smashed the peasant revolt twice to reach the winners' match.Eager to exact his vengeance on
Stats, Soulkey roared out of the gates swinging with a 6 pool on Merry go Round where he even pulled drones, but excellent micro from Stats allowed him to hold and take a easy first game. His calculated risk falling short, Soulkey chose Catallena as the next map. Though an early pool was off the table, Soulkey was still feeling aggressive. After reaching 3 comfortable bases, he attempted an assault on Stats' third with roaches, hydras and a few vipers. With well placed forcefields, Stats was able to fend off the attack without suffering key losses, but Soulkey was already transitioning behind this. His first choice was swarm hosts, but he was once again unable to break the protoss. While upgrading to greater spire, Soulkey began to amass corruptors in hopes of reducing the colossus count, but Stats noticed his opponent's lack of mobility. With warp prisms and proxy pylons, Stats began systematically eliminating Soulkey's expansion, even taking down the hive. A desperate muta switch was Soulkey's last gamble, but despite camping the stargates for a few seconds, he was unable to stop the protoss from building an unbeatable force. Soulkey had no choice but to base trade, but Stats was already prepared with over 15 cannons and some archons, and the match was his. Soulkey's hoodoo against Stats continued, but his night was not over yet.His opponent for the final match was determined with little trouble as Bbyong thoroughly dismantled the hapless Jin Air protoss. The CJ terran opened each map with aggressive attacks; his marine hellion elevator drop on Merry Go Round managed to kill a whopping 18 probes. Though Terminator would survive the early game, Bbyong only ramped up the pressure from there with drops, runbys, and clever posturing tearing the protoss to pieces.
Bbyong attacked from every direction and Terminator could only look on as his defenses crumbled. The winner looked like a different player compared to his series against Stats, but a TvZ awaited him in the final match of the evening.Soulkey had shown a tendency to attack early in his series against the two protoss, and Bbyong should have been weary to the possibility of all ins. That's exactly what happened on Deadwing where Soulkey chose to break the terran with roaches and banelings. Bbyong was slow to react and began building bunkers too late. Despite having four marauders, he was unable to hold and had to surrender as the river of lings streamed into his base. His back against the wall, Bbyong struck back on Nimbus to tie the series one apiece. This time, there were no early game hijinks and both players entered the mid game in a comfortable position. Things came to a head when Soulkey sent his first 8 mutas to Bbyong's base just as the CJ terran had sent a drop and hellions for a runby. It looked grim for Soulkey as he lost a large number of drones along with his natural, but he slowly clawed his way back with excellent engagements in the middle of the map. His steam would run out as Bbyong continued to hack away at his economy with drops, and Bbyong's back was never broken by Soulkey's main forces. When
Bbyong's 3/3 kicked in, engagements began swinging harder in his favor, and Soulkey was forced to gg following the elimination of his last army. Just as he had opened the day, Bbyong decided to go mech with his life on the line. Soulkey had chosen Overgrowth as the scene of his survival, and it would take all of his skill to survive an early marine hellion banshee attack. Bbyong was able to do a lot of damage, but he was unable to land the killing blow. Despite killing a good amount of drones, the two players entered the mid game with caution. Noticing that Bbyong was transitioning into a mech composition, Soulkey hit an excellent attack with roaches hydras and vipers before the terran had a critical mass of tanks. Soulkey traded his entire army for Bbyong's, resetting the mech clock back to zero. Soulkey then spent the next couple of minutes consuming the map with expansions and systematically picking apart Bbyong with a flurry of attacks and tech switches. Bbyong held on valiantly and even managed to secure his gold base, but he slowly crumbled under the endless waves of
Soulkey's locusts and mutalisks finally conceding after falling bellow 50 supply.It was a disappointing day for the CJ terran who continues to struggle in Code S. Though he has become a staple of the league, he has yet to even reach the knockout rounds of the competition. He had looked like the player with the most momentum heading into last night, but it wasn't enough to overcome the ever-reliable Stats or the consistency of Soulkey. For the two advancing players, a budding rivalry is beginning to be brewed, but Soulkey will have to do better for it not to become a one sided affair. Stats leads 4-0, but Soulkey will be content with a place in the Ro16.
Players in the Ro16 (8/16):
sOs, StatsEffOrt, SoulkeyCure, INnoVation, Maru, RealityNext: Code S Group E
Zest vs HurricaneRogue vs Rain
, sad for Bbyong 
