The Sound of Silence

The end of the Round of 32 already looms near, even though it feels like that the season only started yesterday. It’s been an exciting round, and despite reservations earlier in the year, Code S has been a fun and entertaining experience. Four more players are still to advance until we move on to the next stage of the tournament. This week, Group G will see the classic TvZ matchup pushed into the spotlight again. It’s been a staple of the franchise ever since the Terran campaign in the original game, all the way back in 1998. Even though we’ve moved far away from the WoL heydays of cheap infantry units maneuvering against each other on and off creep, there should be plenty to watch out for.

The group is split evenly between Zergs and Terrans, and since Dark seems to eat humans for breakfast, he should be the obvious top pick to advance. His win rate against Terran is a scary 68 %, and he’s been a mainstay in SKT's undefeated lineup in Proleague and also in SSL this year. With a breakout performance in 2015 and strong start to 2016, this Zerg should be the clear favorite of the group.

The other Terran, aLive, is the go-to pick when looking for a standard player. There’s nothing flashy about his style, just solid, good decision making. Recent results have been somewhat disappointing, but his losses have arguably come against better players than Losira and Bbyong. In a surprise twist, he was knocked out of the SSL, but a hiccup is not enough for me to doubt him yet and aLive's chances at a GSL Round of 16 are still very much intact.

Losira has not fared all that well in 2016. The move to KT Rolster has not been as fruitful as he may have hoped: Proleague performances have been lacking in both quality and quantity, and he failed to qualify for SSL. Hopefully he's been able to channel these disappointments into his practice regimen, because this group will be his last opportunity to shine for months. The stakes here are especially high for him. He’s been around for years, and he will need to draw on every bit of focus and experience he can muster to overcome a group of players all in seemingly better shape than he is.

Similarly, Bbyong is another player who has been around for ages, but who most of that time has somewhat stayed under the radar. He occasionally surfaces out of the blue to remind us that Terran too can be played in absurd ways, however. Interestingly, aLive’s performance against Terran hasn’t been exactly stellar lately, so Bbyong's eyes could be set on making it through that way. Against the two Zergs he'll likely face an uphill battle though. Bbyong will need to pull off something amazing to make it into the Round of 16, but out of all the players in Code S, the CJ Terran might be the perfect dark horse to bet on - as usual.


Predictions

One player stands above the rest. Dark faces against two Terrans - traditionally his strongest matchup - and seeing him drop out would be the biggest upset of the group. aLive secures the spot of second favorite, while Losira and Bbyong are clear underdogs. They will need to pull out all the stops or they will be stopped.

Dark > aLive
Losira < Bbyong
Dark > Bbyong
aLive > Losira
aLive > Bbyong


Dark and aLive advance to the Round of 16.

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Writers' Draft

Week 3 Report Card

Time for our weekly report on our Writers’ Draft standings! For an overview of the initial drafting process, click here. Here’s a quick reminder of the teams:
+ Show Spoiler +

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Destructicon - 5 points - B
Trap +5
Creator +0

5 points for your 7th and 8th picks is a very good deal indeed, especially considering that Trap actually looked pretty good in his group. Creator not picking up penalty points is a bonus.

Soularion - 21 points - A
TY +15
Super +1
SpeeD +5

TY advancing was necessary, but picking up the +5 was a nice bonus. Super not advancing (6th pick) is hardly the worst result, while SpeeD shocking Classic was one of the upsets of the round so far.

TheOneAboveU - -4 points - F
DeParture -5
Classic +1

Eesh. DeParture really did not play to his capabilities, going 0-4 in his group. He was perhaps a little unlucky—a couple of gambly builds were hard countered by his opponents, but it was still a very poor performance on the night. Meanwhile, Classic should have been free points for TheOneAboveU considering his consistency last year, but he bungled his last match against SpeeD. This is possibly the worst week for a writer so far.

hexhaven - 10 points - B
Solar +10

With this 10 point haul, hexhaven finally breaks out of the single digits. Solar was expected to qualify from his group, and he eventually came out in 1st. Job done.



Current standings

Soularion - 33 points (Dear to play this round)
Destructicon - 25 points (Dark, Bbyong)
TheOneAboveU - 22 points (aLive, DongRaeGu)
hexhaven - 11 points (soO, Losira, HerO)