The second day of the round of 8 kicked off with a titillating matchup between rivals herO and sOs, the first of two mirror matchups on the day.
Game 1 started with a 2 gate from sOs and an off the wall cannon rush from herO. herO killed a gateway, but failed to do much else while sOs expanded to his third. With herO’s tech delayed, sOs powered into a lead, converting it into a 1-0 advantage.
Both players opened with phoenix expands in game 2. While herO transitioned into blink, sOs kept at making phoenixes, eventually completely wiping out herO’s sky force. Constant harass gave sOs the room to sculpt a charge/archon/immortal army that put herO in a 2-0 hole.
Needing to make magic happen, herO opted for a risky nexus first in game 3. sOs went for an entirely different approach with 2 gates and a stargate before expanding. His double oracle harass put herO at a work deficit, but herO’s follow up all in gave him his first win.
Game 4 saw herO get the better end of early harassment for the first time in the series. Oracle/phoenix play did significant damage, pinning sOs at home. After building a lead, constant scouting by the ROOT Protoss meant that sOs’ proxied dark shrine was killed before being put to use. After a number of closely contested engagements, herO’s superior economy finally put him ahead for good, evening the series at 2 apiece.
Looking for the third reverse all kill of the quarterfinals, herO delayed his unit production in game 5 to take a faster expansion. sOs applied adept pressure while researching glaives and building a nexus of his own, but did not do any real damage. After a brief cease fire, the two armies passed each other in the middle of the map, leading to a critical basetrade. Despite a few suspect moves, sOs proved to be the more decisive player. With herO’s army and worker count devastated, sOs marched to victory and an appearance in the semifinals where soO awaits.
With one Jin Air Green Wing through to the next round, Maru sought to duplicate the feat against his supposedly outmatched opponent, Ryung.
Echo proved to be a cautious start, with both players mirrored in supply and composition. Ryung broke the deadlock with a doom drop that gave him the lead, and leveraged his advantage into a 1-0 to draw first blood.
Although Ryung killed 2 of Maru’s early reapers on Whirlwind, it was Maru who dictated the pace in game 2, twice supply blocking Ryung with cyclone drops. Maru deflected a Ryung push, prompting the players to macro. After Ryung canceled Maru’s upgrades, the players traded blows at their fourths. Chaos ensued from there, but it was Ryung who prevailed.
Game 3 marked the start of a potential comeback. After doing early damage with auto-turrets, Maru leveraged a slight lead into a doom drop that gutted Ryung’s army. Maru’s follow up attack on Ryung’s third was all it took to put a quick end to things.
Game 4 opened up standard once more, but Maru picked off a drop, prompting an attack on his part. He kept up the pressure with auto-turret harassment, furthering his army advantage and seemingly poised to take us to yet another potential reverse kill match. An inexplicable blunder on his part though saw Ryung crush his army, and the follow up doom drop all but sealed the deal. Maru hung in the game, but even he knew it was over, and after one final attack, Ryung took the game and the match.
Join us on Wednesday 15 March after a lengthy break for the first of our GSL Semifinals between soO and sOs.
Although I like Tastosis, it was very refreshing having a change in Valdes + Rapid. Such a pity, we don't have anymore Tastosis on some casts during the week and Valdes + Moonglade / Rapid on another one.
On February 26 2017 00:05 Fango wrote: Maru would be the guy to unseige all of his tanks at once wouldn't he.
This.
I will never know if Maru after he unsieged his 8 tanks in front of ryung s base for the final blow, knew about the 60 marines at the north which caught him off guard. This mistake has cost him the tournament. #TvTheadache #Feelsterranman
sOs has been carried this JA team for such a long time in both Proleague and individual tournaments achievement, from bottom to champion and now he is in GSL semi for four years.
Maru, you really need to step up in individual tournaments to carry JA, otherwise sOs cannot retire and pass this great team to you, future is not belonging to you yet.
On February 26 2017 00:07 Diabolique wrote: Although I like Tastosis, it was very refreshing having a change in Valdes + Rapid. Such a pity, we don't have anymore Tastosis on some casts during the week and Valdes + Moonglade / Rapid on another one.
I miss Wolf + Valdes. I really enjoyed that combination.
I do hope Ryung wins it all but wouldn't mind seeing Stats or soO win either!
WHERE DID THOSE MARINES COME FROM!? Explicating MAGIC man. Beautiful games by Ryung. And then he KILLED it in the post-match interview. Hilarious. I love that guy. I've wanted this forever. I fell complete.
Not gonna lie. I got every round of four prediction wrong. Anyway, this is the best chance soO had ever had to win a gsl. Just practice zvp from now until the end. Maybe Classic can help?
sOs has been carried this JA team for such a long time in both Proleague and individual tournaments achievement, from bottom to champion and now he is in GSL semi for four years.
Maru, you really need to step up in individual tournaments to carry JA, otherwise sOs cannot retire and pass this great team to you, future is not belonging to you yet.
Well, Maru really has done a lot of work in PL. sOs is not alone there; I'd even say that Maru is a bigger PL player than sOs
On February 26 2017 00:40 Alarak89 wrote: sOs has been carried this JA team for such a long time in both Proleague and individual tournaments achievement, from bottom to champion and now he is in GSL semi for four years.
Maru, you really need to step up in individual tournaments to carry JA, otherwise sOs cannot retire and pass this great team to you, future is not belonging to you yet.
On February 26 2017 00:40 Alarak89 wrote: sOs has been carried this JA team for such a long time in both Proleague and individual tournaments achievement, from bottom to champion and now he is in GSL semi for four years.
Maru, you really need to step up in individual tournaments to carry JA, otherwise sOs cannot retire and pass this great team to you, future is not belonging to you yet.
they both carried JA in proleague.
In fact, over the past 2 years Maru was far better in Proleague then sOs (barring the playoffs).
On February 26 2017 00:40 Alarak89 wrote: sOs has been carried this JA team for such a long time in both Proleague and individual tournaments achievement, from bottom to champion and now he is in GSL semi for four years.
Maru, you really need to step up in individual tournaments to carry JA, otherwise sOs cannot retire and pass this great team to you, future is not belonging to you yet.
they both carried JA in proleague.
I am mainly referring to Maru's individual tournament achievements. He really need to step up to represent JA more often, I'm not asking him to get a offline champion every year like sOs did, but he should at least go to semis in GSL for example.
On February 26 2017 00:07 Diabolique wrote: Although I like Tastosis, it was very refreshing having a change in Valdes + Rapid. Such a pity, we don't have anymore Tastosis on some casts during the week and Valdes + Moonglade / Rapid on another one.
I miss Wolf + Valdes. I really enjoyed that combination.
I do hope Ryung wins it all but wouldn't mind seeing Stats or soO win either!
sOs has been carried this JA team for such a long time in both Proleague and individual tournaments achievement, from bottom to champion and now he is in GSL semi for four years.
Maru, you really need to step up in individual tournaments to carry JA, otherwise sOs cannot retire and pass this great team to you, future is not belonging to you yet.
Well, Maru really has done a lot of work in PL. sOs is not alone there; I'd even say that Maru is a bigger PL player than sOs
I'm sure Maru won a lot of games during regular season, but sOs not only win games for JA but also contributed as a coach, in other words, he can help those "weaker" JA players become stronger and smarter (I have read a lot of post-game interviews talking about how sOs taught them to play against Protoss or a specific player from Trap, Cure, Rogue).
Maru is a great player, but he is not a great leader as sOs. Of course this has something to do with age, but I think it's more about responsibility. From this match vs Ryung, I still don't see his mental toughness is reaching sOs' level to be responsible enough to lead this JA team in the near future if sOs retired.
In the pre-game interview Maru said he was envied by sOs after seeing him in the final last season and he will prepare hard for this match vs Ryung, but the result is certainly not as he or a lot of people expected. I really think Maru's skill should bring him much more offline champions than sOs, but the situation is exactly opposite, he seriously needs to make some adjustments mentally.
When are people going to quit overhyping Maru? He's average at best, people get so upset and put down other players just because their favorite loses a game he clearly deserved to lose.
People "Overhype" Maru because when he plays to his potential he is neigh untouchable. Personally I don't understand the recent malice towards Maru and his fans. There is a reason the JAGW coaches would indicate Maru's skill at a maximum possible rating in PL when the visual ratings were displayed before matches. sOs was the only other player on JAGW to get the max skill rating from the coaches - and rightfully so. I have only seen Maru streaming live once, and honestly as a Terran fan, I was much more impressed with Maru's surgical speed and precision when compared to the likes of ByuN or INnoVation. I'm obviously not saying he is clearly better than the above mentioned, but when he's on point I would still consider him a contender as the best Terran out there.
Maru's abundance of mistakes cost him the series vs Ryung, not superior play from Ryung. The game on Whirlwind for example. Poor sensor tower placement is what cost Maru the game. I will give credit where credit is due - Ryung took advantage of Maru never sufficiently fixing the issue, and Maru was punished over and over again, eventually losing his production as a result of simply not having a few turrets/adding another sensor tower to compensate for the misplaced original one.
Again, I'm not trying to imply in any way at all that Ryung didn't deserve to beat Maru, although the amount of control mistakes and poor decisions Maru made throughout the series was completely out of character. Any sensible person that has watched his GSL run up until last night would have to agree that his wins looked almost effortless at the level he had been playing recently.
Maru overhyped some say? I simply respond "No" - he just tends to underperform when it counts most, and this is why it hurts his fans so much knowing what he's truly capable of.
I will end here by saying this. INnoVation, TY, and ByuN have also failed to make it to the Ro4 this season of GSL, so why the intense distaste and slander towards Maru and his supporters?
On February 26 2017 10:44 Togekiss wrote: People "Overhype" Maru because when he plays to his potential he is neigh untouchable. Personally I don't understand the recent malice towards Maru and his fans. There is a reason the JAGW coaches would indicate Maru's skill at a maximum possible rating in PL when the visual ratings were displayed before matches. sOs was the only other player on JAGW to get the max skill rating from the coaches - and rightfully so. I have only seen Maru streaming live once, and honestly as a Terran fan, I was much more impressed with Maru's surgical speed and precision when compared to the likes of ByuN or INnoVation. I'm obviously not saying he is clearly better than the above mentioned, but when he's on point I would still consider him a contender as the best Terran out there.
Maru's abundance of mistakes cost him the series vs Ryung, not superior play from Ryung. The game on Whirlwind for example. Poor sensor tower placement is what cost Maru the game. I will give credit where credit is due - Ryung took advantage of Maru never sufficiently fixing the issue, and Maru was punished over and over again, eventually losing his production as a result of simply not having a few turrets/adding another sensor tower to compensate for the misplaced original one.
Again, I'm not trying to imply in any way at all that Ryung didn't deserve to beat Maru, although the amount of control mistakes and poor decisions Maru made throughout the series was completely out of character. Any sensible person that has watched his GSL run up until last night would have to agree that his wins looked almost effortless at the level he had been playing recently.
Maru overhyped some say? I simply respond "No" - he just tends to underperform when it counts most, and this is why it hurts his fans so much knowing what he's truly capable of.
I will end here by saying this. INnoVation, TY, and ByuN have also failed to make it to the Ro4 this season of GSL, so why the intense distaste and slander towards Maru and his supporters?
Because Maru hasn't done anything in individual tournaments for over 2 years probably.
On February 26 2017 00:40 Alarak89 wrote: sOs has been carried this JA team for such a long time in both Proleague and individual tournaments achievement, from bottom to champion and now he is in GSL semi for four years.
Maru, you really need to step up in individual tournaments to carry JA, otherwise sOs cannot retire and pass this great team to you, future is not belonging to you yet.
I would not say Maru is bad in individual league. Remember he won 2 Starleague, which SOS has none. And more than that, he was one of very few Terran could perfom well in the Blink era, i remember he almost cried when eliminated by a Protoss at ro8 GSL (he the last Terran left in the tournament).
On February 26 2017 00:40 Alarak89 wrote: sOs has been carried this JA team for such a long time in both Proleague and individual tournaments achievement, from bottom to champion and now he is in GSL semi for four years.
Maru, you really need to step up in individual tournaments to carry JA, otherwise sOs cannot retire and pass this great team to you, future is not belonging to you yet.
I would not say Maru is bad in individual league. Remember he won 2 Starleague, which SOS has none. And more than that, he was one of very few Terran could perfom well in the Blink era, i remember he almost cried when eliminated by a Protoss at ro8 GSL (he the last Terran left in the tournament).
First of all, I didn't say Maru is bad in individual tournaments either, I said he should perform better according to his skills.
Second of all, we are talking about "individual tournaments", not "starleague tournaments" here. Yes, Maru had two and only two individual (starleague) tournament titles, but I don't think I need to list how many premier and major titles sOs had before, right? By saying Maru has starleague tilte and sOs has none doesn't set up an excuse to ignore Maru's individual tournaments performance is still under expectation.
Third of all, by saying "perform well", you need to quantify your words either by offline titles, offline win rates or something else that is more straightforward and intuitive for us to see, otherwise I can say every SC2 player "performs well" during his career IMO.
Lastly, the purpose of my words is not comparing sOs and Maru, it is about white wishes and advises for Maru to be better in the future individual tournaments since he is still young. If you are a true Maru fan, I consider it's more important to reflect on the fault he made in individual league for him instead of keep saying he is still good. I mean, it's just not persuasive at all.
On February 26 2017 15:49 KaijuHK wrote: sOs won the global finals in 2013 and 2015, perhaps he just likes taking a year off to spend his 100k!
He definitely has the motivation this year, can see him doing the triple and beating MC and Life as the highest earning SC2 player of all time.
He will be the highest earning SC player of all time if he wins Blizzcon this year, means he will pass Flash and JD as well.
But let's pay attention to this season's GSL first, although he is already in a good spot in terms of points atm, I still want him to take this GSL title to guarantee a Blizzcon spot.
Like he always says in the interview, don't look too far beyond, concentrate on what you have in hands right now.
On February 26 2017 10:44 Togekiss wrote: People "Overhype" Maru because when he plays to his potential he is neigh untouchable. Personally I don't understand the recent malice towards Maru and his fans. There is a reason the JAGW coaches would indicate Maru's skill at a maximum possible rating in PL when the visual ratings were displayed before matches. sOs was the only other player on JAGW to get the max skill rating from the coaches - and rightfully so. I have only seen Maru streaming live once, and honestly as a Terran fan, I was much more impressed with Maru's surgical speed and precision when compared to the likes of ByuN or INnoVation. I'm obviously not saying he is clearly better than the above mentioned, but when he's on point I would still consider him a contender as the best Terran out there.
Maru's abundance of mistakes cost him the series vs Ryung, not superior play from Ryung. The game on Whirlwind for example. Poor sensor tower placement is what cost Maru the game. I will give credit where credit is due - Ryung took advantage of Maru never sufficiently fixing the issue, and Maru was punished over and over again, eventually losing his production as a result of simply not having a few turrets/adding another sensor tower to compensate for the misplaced original one.
Again, I'm not trying to imply in any way at all that Ryung didn't deserve to beat Maru, although the amount of control mistakes and poor decisions Maru made throughout the series was completely out of character. Any sensible person that has watched his GSL run up until last night would have to agree that his wins looked almost effortless at the level he had been playing recently.
Maru overhyped some say? I simply respond "No" - he just tends to underperform when it counts most, and this is why it hurts his fans so much knowing what he's truly capable of.
I will end here by saying this. INnoVation, TY, and ByuN have also failed to make it to the Ro4 this season of GSL, so why the intense distaste and slander towards Maru and his supporters?
Maru made more mistakes, so Ryung had superior play.
stop using spoiled thread names!!! why when I want to rewatch the games I always get to see "xxx and xxx advanced to.."! so many complains but the site owners don't care.
On February 26 2017 19:07 RandomPlayer wrote: stop using spoiled thread names!!! why when I want to rewatch the games I always get to see "xxx and xxx advanced to.."! so many complains but the site owners don't care.
If it's really an issue for you, you can check the spoiler option and then hide the general sc2 forum until you watch the games. It's not like you're really going to miss out on anything during that period.
On February 26 2017 19:19 kajtarp wrote: yeah it would be so much better if they just used "Code S Ro8 Round 2 Results" or something similar.
Why is this even an issue? Don't we have antispoiler technology now?
We do indeed. I could understand if they were complaining about how it only lasts 24 hours, but it hasn't even been that long yet.
It had already been over 24 hours at the time of RandomPlayer's post. The 24 hours is from the time of the games, not the time of the post. The post was made at February 25 2017 06:23 PST but the games had started over ten hours before that and had been done for over seven hours.
I'm still suspicious of the complaints. They seem like a personal lack of organization or foresight. If the live broadcast isn't at a good time of day for you, then pick the best time for you and start the vod then. The 24 hour no-spoiler period covers every possible time of day. If you're too busy to watch within the day but you really care about the games and the results, then what are you doing browsing forums when you could be watching the games? It's rare for someone to be screwed by this system unless they're screwing themselves. It's not impossible that the system causes issues for someone even when they're doing everything they can to help themselves, but when the people complaining can't even figure out how long 24 hours is... I have to think there's some personal room for improvement.
On February 26 2017 19:19 kajtarp wrote: yeah it would be so much better if they just used "Code S Ro8 Round 2 Results" or something similar.
Why is this even an issue? Don't we have antispoiler technology now?
We do indeed. I could understand if they were complaining about how it only lasts 24 hours, but it hasn't even been that long yet.
It had already been over 24 hours at the time of RandomPlayer's post. The 24 hours is from the time of the games, not the time of the post. The post was made at February 25 2017 06:23 PST but the games had started over ten hours before that and had been done for over seven hours.
I'm still suspicious of the complaints. They seem like a personal lack of organization or foresight. If the live broadcast isn't at a good time of day for you, then pick the best time for you and start the vod then. The 24 hour no-spoiler period covers every possible time of day. If you're too busy to watch within the day but you really care about the games and the results, then what are you doing browsing forums when you could be watching the games? It's rare for someone to be screwed by this system unless they're screwing themselves. It's not impossible that the system causes issues for someone even when they're doing everything they can to help themselves, but when the people complaining can't even figure out how long 24 hours is... I have to think there's some personal room for improvement.
Actually I believe the no spoiler function should extend all the way to the next round. So no spoiler of the ro8 until the r04 1st playday. It used to be that way for previews as well. There was always a delay between the end of the last RO8 match and the RO4 preview.
While your point is valid regarding the forum, I sometimes come to TL to look for the VODs and it s difficult to avoid the front page altogether. Especially since I am also looking for BW content. While it s not a problem for me (i dont really care about being spoiled, I watch the recommended games only), I can understand how some people could be frustrated.
On February 27 2017 01:50 NonY wrote: It's not impossible that the system causes issues for someone even when they're doing everything they can to help themselves, but when the people complaining can't even figure out how long 24 hours is... I have to think there's some personal room for improvement.
You're absolutely right, whenever I get spoiled I blame myself first, and usually it's not an issue. I think the frustration comes from the fact that when I do fuck up and spoil myself, I wonder why even bothering with a spoiler system that has a time limit. I don't see who benefits from it because it's a feature that users have to opt into. So if I've logged into my account and chosen to take advantage of this wonderful system that TL offers, why does TL care if I want to wait a week before reading the spoilers?
I feel a bit annoying myself, I think this is the third time I've chimed in on this discussion. Eventually people just have to accept what they're given and appreciate the 24 hours we get in the first place haha. I'm still thankful for any spoiler system.
I think they could simply use different titles. Like "Code S Round of 8 Day2 Results" instead of "x and z is going to round of 4". It would be quite an easy solution and nothing would be spoiled. Edit, i just realized i already wrote that few days earlier.
i don't care about spoilers, but i don't understand why its so hard for the thread creators to just use a non spoiler title as was suggested a few posts above (GSL Season x ROy RESULTS). its seriously not that hard, takes half a second of effort, and then there's no complaining. like seriously, no need to even implement the spoiler free TL (which sounds like its buggy and not working correctly anyway). low tech solution - no need for any code to be written but would require minimal effort on thread creator (and actually implementing spoiler free TL in code would also require minimal effort on thread creator to tag some metadata that this thread is a spoiler)
I think they could simply use different titles. Like "Code S Round of 8 Day2 Results" instead of "x and z is going to round of 4"
That's how I get a link to twitch - using the Code S thread
If you're too busy to watch within the day but you really care about the games and the results, then what are you doing browsing forums when you could be watching the games?
EPT
herO and 
Maru sought to duplicate the feat against his supposedly outmatched opponent, 
soO and 
