EPTSBENU GSL
Season 2 Code S
Opening the Gates
herO, Dream, Curious, ByuL
Brackets and standings on Liquipedia
Opening the Gates
by Destructicon
The first player in the group is the illustrious
CJ_herO. Despite his best results coming in weekend tournaments, herO has made great strides to change his image in Korea and claim the empty protoss throne for himself. He has already got off to a great start by defeating arguably the best Terran in the world, Maru, in a grueling Bo5 series in S2SL, one that took both to their limits. However, it feels as if his last series played vs The Prince of Marines, has left herO winded. He has gone on to lose three Proleague matches in a row, and in extremely surprising fashion. The first was a shocking loss to DeParture, followed by an equally shocking one to YongHwa and topped off by a very odd game against Rogue. What made these losses stand out is the way herO collapsed: thrust into unusual situations he seemed helpless and completely out of his comfort zone. A repeat of those showings is exactly what he needs to avoid now, with plenty of Protoss still left in both S2SL and GSL and multiple hurdles still ahead, herO needs to get it together as soon as possible.Just as his first opponent,
Dream has secured his semifinal spot in the S2SL, but unlike herO, he's only looked better and better since his Starleague match. He not only defeated the best Zerg of our time in another ridiculous long slugfest, but he also defeated every opponent in Proleague since then, including Zest and Life (again) back to back in Proleague. With each opponent slain, Dream keeps building a stronger case for himself as one of today's absolute best players, only missing a big championship to put a stamp on it. Like Maru, Dream is also unique in his approach of all matchups, and while his TvT may be lacking still, his TvP and TvZ are dominant and allow his multitasking-heavy style to shine. So while this group looks like it was made just for Dream, he should still be cautious. herO won't be an easy opponent, ByuL can be tricky and Curious has a weird habit of randomly turning into a god in ZvT.The gatekeeper,
Curious, has struck once again. After first schooling sOs one more time, he deemed Sacsri unworthy and sentenced him to Code A. By all accounts however, this should be the end of the line for Curious. He has been thrust into a group with even stronger and more accomplished opponents, he has to fight off all races and the Ro16 was usually the end of the line for him. Yet despite all common sense and everything stacked against him, Curious is not a player that should be underestimated. He is great at the preparation required to succeed in the GSL, he has good winrates in all matchups and he has some uncanny ability to show up when it matters. INnoVation, sOs, TaeJa and many more players have underestimated him and paid the price for it, and everybody should be weary of him, or Curious may just slam the gates of Code S right in their face.ByuL's most recent results have been very up and down. On one hand he got completely annihilated by Classic in their S2SL RO8 match, on the other hand he did win his last few Proleague matches, including another two clashes against Maru. While his overall winrates and showings clearly indicate that he has improved a lot as a player and become very consistent and capable, he still feels vulnerable when caught off guard and taken off his game: Maru did it in their earlier clashes, Classic did it in the S2SL. And while ByuL seems to have become caught on to Maru's brand of crazy TvZ, he has yet to figure out an answer to Dream (as most other zergs), losing to his rather simple rally push the last time they met. ByuL does have advantages he can leverage though: he can study Rogue and DeParture's builds to come up with a one-two punch to befuddle herO, and his ZvZ is quite impressive. Make no mistakes, this group is full of dangers for ByuL, but if he plays his cards right he definitely has a chance.Prediction
First: I believe Dream is too hot right now and he'll melt through his group like a knife through butter.
Second: I think herO will advance, since PvZ seems quite in favor of protoss and herO should have had enough time to shore up his weakness to weird builds.
Dream > herOCurious < ByuLDream > ByuLherO > CuriousByuL < herODream and herO advance.
