Code S - Flash and Solar last players to the Ro16

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 (T)

Flash as he advanced to the round of 16 for the first time in nearly a year. (Z)

Solar was the second man to advance, and despite having a rocky road there, dropping maps to both Dark and Avenge, in the end he proved himself the better player and joined Flash as the last player in one of the most stacked Ro16's the GSL has ever seen.

The first game of the day was certainly the strangest with (Z)

Solar facing off against (P)

Avenge on Catallena. Avenge opted for a 7 gate phoenix attack that Solar held effortlessly with a force of roach hydra. With his back against the wall, Avenge decided to hide a 3rd while teching to colossus void ray. It looked good initially as he was able to break the contain holding him back and also harass Solar's economy with DT's. Solar's counter, a switch into muta corruptor and basetrade mode, caught Avenge off-guard and seemed to tilt him somewhat. Avenge decided to play along and went for a counter-attack, however he lost too much of his army by having it split off, and was unable to knock down extractors as fast as Solar was putting them up.
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 (Z)

Solar took both the game and the series.

(T)

Flash and

Dark faced off on King Sejong in the second series of the day. Flash decided to cash in on his reputation as a compulsive macro player by going for cheese in the first game. While his double proxy rax wasn't scouted initially, good overlord placement spotted one of the building bunkers and allowed the SKT Zerg some reaction time. Dark canceled his gas and tried to overwhelm the rush with masses of lings, but he wasn't able to get a single bunker and tapped out immediately afterwards.
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 (T)

Flash into the winner's match.

(Z)

Solar and

Flash kicked off the winner's match first game on Nimbus. Flash once again opened the series with aggression, mounting a scary marine/hellion attack backed by a medivac. To his credit, Solar did manage to hold the attack well enough to take a small lead due to Flash delaying his 3rd to make the attack work. However, the true capitalization on this advantage never really came, as both players were allowed to power up in peace, with Flash getting his 3rd and Solar his 4th. Soon enough, the players began trading in the middle of the map, where Flash's greater cost efficiency and unit retention trumped the 86 drone economy of Solar and allowed him to break the 4th of the Samsung Zerg. Solar tried to counter-attack with his mutalisks to force Flash back and allow his 5th to get up safely, but it was not to be. Flash once again traded brilliantly while slowly whittling down the muta count. Once the mutalisks were gone, he simply pushed to force the GG.
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 (T)

Flash to advance to the round of 16 in first place.

(P)

Avenge went up against (Z)

Dark in the loser's match, with the first game being on Nimbus. Dark decided to gamble and went for a early pool, however Avenge went forge expand and had a wall off in time, denying any damage. Realizing how behind he had fallen, Dark opted to go for swarm hosts and win the war of attrition via cost efficiency. This prompted Avenge to turn up the heat and he struck down Dark with a relentless flurry of zealot and dark templar runbys. After crippling the economy of his opponent Avenge simply weathered the storm as he maxed out and went for the finishing blow.
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 (Z)

Solar vs

Dark started in explosive fashion on Deadwing, with Dark opting for a speedling bane attack against Solar's hatch first. Despite scouting it late Solar mounted the perfect defense, building two spines and 5 queens to hold off the flood of lings. Realizing how far behind he was, Dark feigned a transition into a macro game while pooling lings and preparing to go for a bigger bust. Solar caught wind of this attack just in time for him to reatreat to his newly built defensive wall. With all his banes detonated on the wall and roaches pouring out Dark's attack fell flat.
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 (T)

Reality,

GuMiho,

Dear and

Maru in the Korean qualifier of IEM Toronto and slaying (Z)

soO,

Sorry,

Classic,

herO and

Pigbaby, only dropping a series to his teammate, (P)

Zest in the final Asian qualifier. Flash continued his crusade for glory in the KeSPA Cup qualifiers, defeating (T)

Dream,

Zoun and

EffOrt without dropping a single map before also slaying his old rival (Z)

Soulkey. As he headed into this GSL group fans were eager, but cautious. Would (T)

Flash's recent online success translate successfully to the offline stage? The answer was, perhaps long overdue, a resounding yes.

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):
(P)

sOs,

Stats,

Rain,

Zest,

PartinG

EffOrt,

Soulkey,

soO,

DongRaeGu, (Z)

TRUE,

Solar