
Writers: Destructicon
Complimentary writing: Zealously
Graphics: Meru
Editor: Zealously
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2014_Global_StarCraft_II_League_Season_3/Code_S
It was a good day for fans of


![[image loading]](/staff/Zealously/GSL_2014_Group_H.jpg)
The first game of the day was certainly the strangest with


On Deadwing Avenge decided to go old school with a 3 gate off one base. The Samsung Zerg held well initially but was caught completely off guard by the dark templar transition. Solar counter-attacked but was unable to deal significant damage and had to tap out as DTs were ravaging his main.
Down to the wire, Avenge and Solar went for safer, standard openers on Overgrowth. Avenge chose to put on the heat with a 4 gate off two bases. It looked like Avenge was on the verge of breaking Solar, but when it became clear that the Samsung Zerg had stabilized, he transitioned into macro play with a third base and a forge. Avenge would still commit the fatal mistake of overstaying his welcome, losing half of his army. From there, Avenge would struggle to hold his 3rd for the rest of the game and, despite pulling some slick moves with a void ray snipe of Solar's gold base and a mass DT defense it was simply not enough as



Down but not out Dark picked Overgrowth as his next map. The second time around Dark tried to take the initiative, first by trying to slow down the construction of Flash's CC with a 6 ling runby, and later on by transitioning into a big 1/1 roach attack. But with diligent scouting, Flash was able to preempt Dark by preparing perfectly, getting a siege tank on the back of triple CCs and double engineering bay macro. Dark quickly realized he couldn't break Flash, attempting to secure a late 3rd and transitioning into hydras and 2/2. Both players traded in the middle of the map a couple of times, however as Flash overextends and loses a big chunk of his army, Dark is allowed an opening to counter attack and gut the SCV line at the 3rd base. That is, without actually destroying the CC. With this blunder, Flash was given enough time to finish 3/3 and take a much better fight. Crushing the army of Dark outside his 4th base and then proceeds to destroy the reinforcing army and deny the gold base. Battered and broken Dark GG'd, sending



On Overgrowth Flash opted for another double proxy rax strategy (E/N: returning to the very roots of his success in Brood War with great results). However, his rax placement ended up squarely in the middle of of Solar's overlord scout. The Zerg, despite going for the direct counter, made the grave mistake of overextending with his lings before his speed could finish, allowing Flash to not only deny the nat but even setup a hard contain. Solar realized the situation he was in and GG'd out allowing



Dark picked Overgrowth as the next map. Avenge decided that he wanted to end the game early and loaded up his Soul Train. To his credit, Avenge did his best to sell the idea of him expanding, but Parting's teammate Dark had seen it all and prepared for the push. Avenge postured continuously in Dark's territory, trying to force a mistake out of Dark but to no avail. This prompted Avenge to retreat, get a 3rd base and continue teching while adding more units. Dark, despite being up in tech, maxed out on a useless roach army, against Avenge's perfect anti-roach composition. His hand forced, Dark went for two massive burrowed roach attacks, managing to score several probe kills as well as destroy the 3rd of Avenge, buying himself enough time to transition into a better unit composition, at which point Avenge repaid the favor with harassment of his own. Before Dark's imminent and hidden BL switch could destroy him, Avenge caught on and started his signature DT harassment, sowing chaos in Dark's ranks and buying enough time for himself to barely get out the proper units to defend the ensuing attack. One miraculous hold and a strong counterattack put Avenge in the lead, only for him to squander it by misreading the situation and overpreparing for ultralisks while Dark in fact supplementing them with BLs. Avenge's final defense was valiant but, despite holding on for some time, not enough.
With everything on the line Avenge chose Deadwing to lull Dark into a false sense of security while proxying two gateways to take advantage of it. With composure born of practice a hundred Protoss teammates, Dark reacted perfectly. Hiding the morphing of three defensive spinecrawlers, buying time with his drones while also sending lings across the map to deny the mining in Avenge's main. Without any mining Avenge could only all-in and commit, but with the defense already set up he was unable to break the spine defense and had to tap out.
The final match between


Down again a game once again, Dark took the series to his favorite map, Overgrowth. Despite differing openings, nothing eventful would happen until both players decided to take their 3rds. Solar opted for the gold while Dark went for the regular 3rd. Dark knew that he could hit a powerful timing by skipping some upgrades and striking before the gold could really kick in for Solar. Managing to get a superior concave in the eventual engagement, Dark could easily trash Solar's roaches and tie the series.
Down the the wire, Solar decided to change things up by taking a page out of Dark's book and going for a ling/bane attack on Nimbus. Solar manages to punish the hatch first of Dark by destroying the expansion but was pushed back just before he could end the game. Still far ahead, Solar used his momentum to take his own natural while droning heavily. Sitting firmly in the driver's seat, Solar never once dropped the pressure, constantly staying one step ahead of Dark in economy, tech and map control until he had a large enough lead that his attack simply crushed Dark and allowed him passage into the round of 16.
As far as individual leagues go this past year had not been kind for the man called God, as he had no good results in foreign tournaments and had struggled just to reach Code S up until 2014's final season. However, the month of August bore witness to the resurgence of Flash. He started out his crusade by successfully leading KT to victory over SKT, crushing PartinG and thus getting revenge on his Protoss rival. Afterwards Flash mounted one of the most impressive qualifier runs to date, defeating















Important to note is that the popular GSL Group Selections will be returning for this season's Ro16, to air tomorrow on the normal timeslot.
Players in the Ro16 (16/16):















