EPT
soO and 
Stats faced off in the first GSL Code S Final of 2017. The series started off with soO's map pick. Despite not having won a game on Whirlwind against Protoss all season, he chose it as the site of the first game, and he showed why as he opened with a gasless 12 pool for 8 lings and expand. Stats scouted soO’s location and build first, but so did soO. soO's lings danced around, logging four probe kills with the last ling scouting Stats' twilight and robo. Stats pressured with two adepts, also killing four workers, before soO then identified Stats' follow up dark shrine while taking his third. soO lost only two workers to dark templars and none to the subsequent archons, and took his fourth with mutalisks in production, but Stats was already moving out with an immortal/archon army. soO was unable to hold the attack at his third, giving Stats the first game.Game two took place on Proxima Station. Stats opened with a nexus first on the outside base, while soO went for hatch/gas/pool in his in-base expansion. soO was prepared for Stats’ tech as he blindly spored up without scouting Stats' stargate. He then spied Stats' oracle as it left Stats' base, making him fully aware of what was coming. Stats didn't kill any drones, but the subsequent gateway explosion led to a large adept attack on two fronts. Adepts weaved their way between soO's bases, massacring whole drone lines before the follow-up forced a GG.
soO went for a standard third timing with less-standard overlord speed on Abyssal Reef, while Stats opened with an oracle then void ray. soO's ling drop killed four probes, but Stats' constant stasis wards slowed soO's economy, which was further stunted by adepts, but he didn’t lose as step as he took a fourth and moved into hydra/bane speed and melee upgrades. Meanwhile Stats was building immortals and researching glaives on three bases. Baneling drops in Stats' third led to a large worker lead for the zerg, but Stats caught him at his third. soO appeared to have held for a moment, but a second wave of adepts was enough to wipe out soO's hydras and put Stats one game away from victory.
Echo was Stats' second map pick of the series. soO went for the same third timing as the last game, while Stats opted for a funky double stargate build, one at home and one hidden in the bottom left corner. He built oracles with both while soO teched into roaches and lair. With four oracles and two void rays in production, Stats dived into soO's third. soO defended with minimal losses, but fell victim to a number of stasis wards. Even with all that harassment, he was ahead on workers, with a hydra den and +1 ranged on the way. Stats had already established his third, though, and was continuing to make void rays as well as charge and +1 attack for ground and air. Ahead 40 supply, soO gambled his tournament life on a hydra / queen / roach all-in. Stats had eight void rays, but it appeared to be a matter of numbers. Somehow Stats managed to repel the first wave and kill all of soO's queens. soO was relentless, though. He kept pushing in with tides of roaches and hydras, pushing into Stats' third until Stats had nothing else.
Trying to build on his first win, soO once more went hatch/gas/pool and normal third timing on Cactus Valley. Having spawned vertically, Stats opted for resonating glaives with a warp prism and an additional two gates. Stats killed 11 drones with his first attack, while taking a third and advancing with a second prism, and he kept the pressure on while increasing his gateway count and sculpting an immortal/sentry composition. Despite taking so much harassment damage, soO was still ahead on workers and army as Stats attacked. Stats pounded away at soO’s forces while segmenting them with forcefields, but a delayed attack meant that soO's ravagers popped in time, and the zerg stood firm. Having reset Stats' army, soO dove into Stats' natural, once more wiping Stats out to take his second game in a row.
With Stats still on match point, the series turned to Daybreak. A nexus first and stargate was met by the same quick third and ling speed build soO had used throughout most of the series. An oracle only killed two drones, but Stats followed it up with a robo, third base and void ray. Meanwhile soO went into lair and roach speed. Stats postured with an adept drop that killed seven workers while researching charge and storm. At the same time, soO was establishing his fourth while moving into a ling/bane/hydra with a smattering of remaining roaches. Stats' fourth was a little behind, but his powerful army stationed there kept soO from committing.
soO went into ranged and armor upgrades as his lurker den drew closer to completion. He shut down Stats' double pronged attack, while barely avoiding having his morphing lurkers sniped by Stats' army. With soO out on the map, Stats finally sniped soO's building fifth base as his own completed. As the game stalled out into end game compositions, soO teched towards ultralisks and built a spire, while Stats transitioned into carriers. The armies postured for a time, but after a battle outside soO’s fourth that swung in both directions, Stats was forced to back up 40 supply ahead. In a move that did little damage, but bought soO crucial time to develop his composition, soO went for a ling/hydra doom drop into Stats' main. Behind on base count and army supply, soO was bleeding out, and a suicidal charge into Stats' heavily-cannoned fresh mining base just sped up the process. Down 80 supply against a maxed-out skytoss force, soO was forced to concede his fifth GSL Finals as storm rained down on the remnants of his army.
Congratulations to Stats who becomes the first GSL Champion of 2017. He joins
TY as the second player to qualify for the 2017 WCS Global Finals.
![[image loading]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A5obzmtCEAANZIh.jpg)
