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4 Posts
With the 2017 WCS Season all but wrapped up, seven Koreans and one foreigner met on day one of the second GSL Super Tournament for a final chance at WCS Points and for  Maru,  Rogue,  Classic and aLive, a spot at BlizzCon.
TIME hindered INnoVation’s development with a small siege on Abyssal Reef, but INnoVation caught two full medivacs mid map to seize control. Up four bases to three, he forced TIME to attack into sieged tanks with grisly results. INnoVation reinforced with liberators to go ahead 1-0.
TIME contained INnoVation on two bases while taking a third and, while he eventually lost his tanks, he repulsed INnoVation’s counterattack. He pushed back with liberators while holding air control, taking a 50 supply lead before sieging INnoVation's third, evening the series.
TIME proxied a starport on Odyssey, but INnoVation caught the SCV with a reaper. The liberator eventually got out, but INnoVation defended and killed the starport. Having taken a lead, INnoVation sieged TIME's natural, segmenting the Chinese Terran's army to take a 2-1 lead.
INnoVation gained a slight advantage in game four with auto turrets and kept it with a strong defensive posture. TIME moved out, but INnoVation charged into TIME’s third with marines at that very moment. TIME lost his army soon after, seeing INnoVation through to the next round.
Classic took a quick third base while going adept/phoenix in game one. He and aLive traded worker kills, but Classic steadily built a supply lead while researching blink. He won the first big fight against bio/mine/lib before wrapping things up as he added on colossus.
Classic killed fourteen SCVs with dark templar on Ascension to Aiur before shutting down aLive's counter aggression. The game seesawed back and forth, with both players donating their armies, but Classic's colossus and high templar eventually put him over the top.
aLive and Classic skipped straight to the late game on Acolyte. When aLive’s ranged liberators and vikings finally got around to fighting Classic’s tempests, colossus and high templar, aLive won out. He quickly countered, further crippling Classic and earning a concession.
aLive opened game four with a proxy factory. He pumped out cyclones two by two, forcing Classic into a desperate situation. Classic defended with stalkers, probes and zealots, but aLive's production overwhelmed him.
Classic’s oracles killed 13 workers early in game five. aLive applied constant pressure, but Classic refused to give up the lead. In the end, it was a stasis ward on the meat of aLive’s army that saw him suffer fatal losses and leave the game soon after. The result removed aLive from the BlizzCon picture, while keeping Classic in contention going into his Round of 8 match against INnoVation.
Dear's dark templar opening fell flat on its face, setting up a lethal counterattack from GuMiho, whose two medivacs full of marines put him ahead 1-0.
Dear’s oracle killed six SCVs in game two, but he lost his third base in exchange. Things swung in Dear's favor, though, as his adepts and phoenixes routed GuMiho's bio before catching a pair of banshees. GuMiho hung around, but he was always behind and eventually left the game.
Dear's early oracle pressure bought him space for his phoenixes to scout GuMiho's strange mech transition. Dear slapped back GuMiho's initial forays onto the map with charge zealots, immortals and storm, before wrapping things up with an attack on GuMiho's third to go up 2-1.
GuMiho opened game four with a proxy factory and a cyclone/marine push, but all it did was leave him wide open to an oracle which killed sixteen workers. GuMiho shoved into Dear's natural, but his push fizzled, sending Dear to the quarterfinals.
Rogue lost 12 drones to hellions in game one, but macroed up from there to combat Maru’s mech. Rogue’s choice of swarm hosts and hydra/bane kept Maru on the back foot while limiting his economy and eventually forced an ill fated attack that put Rogue ahead in the series.
Maru's early marine/tank pressure did little to impede Rogue on Odyssey. Rogue went into ling/bane/hydra, controlling the game with frontal attacks and run bys as he added in vipers and ultralisks. Maru fought back with ghosts, but to no avail, as Rogue took a 2-0 lead.
Maru and Rogue nearly mined out Acolyte in game three, with Maru’s mech fighting to an impasse against the Zerg swarm. Maru won the air war with ravens and vikings, but was overrun by hydralisks as Rogue completed the 3-0 sweep. The win keeps his BlizzCon hopes alive, while simultaneously eliminating Maru from contention.
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your Country52797 Posts
I'm pleasantly surprised that TIME won a game. Good for him.
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Obligatory spoiler comment
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TIME played really well against Inno
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aLive was really close of a little hold up
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If sOs doesn't win tomorrow, either Classic or Rogue can qualify for Blizzcon by getting at least second place.
If sOs makes it to the quarterfinals but loses, Rogue or Classic will have to win ST2 to qualify.
If sOs makes it to the semis, Rogue is out but Classic can still make it by winning the tournament.
If sOs makes it to the finals, he's in.
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Canada8989 Posts
On September 29 2017 00:38 Sakat wrote:
Obligatory spoiler comment
Obligatory no spoiler button comment
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On September 29 2017 01:30 beepbeeeeeeep wrote:
If sOs doesn't win tomorrow, either Classic or Rogue can qualify for Blizzcon by getting at least second place.
If sOs makes it to the quarterfinals but loses, Rogue or Classic will have to win ST2 to qualify.
If sOs makes it to the semis, Rogue is out but Classic can still make it by winning the tournament.
If sOs makes it to the finals, he's in.
Problem is : Classic will face the GOAT
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On September 29 2017 01:52 DieuCure wrote:Show nested quote +On September 29 2017 01:30 beepbeeeeeeep wrote:
If sOs doesn't win tomorrow, either Classic or Rogue can qualify for Blizzcon by getting at least second place.
If sOs makes it to the quarterfinals but loses, Rogue or Classic will have to win ST2 to qualify.
If sOs makes it to the semis, Rogue is out but Classic can still make it by winning the tournament.
If sOs makes it to the finals, he's in. Problem is : Classic will face the GOAT
Inno is on record as saying he doesn't give a fuck about the Super Tournament, which is supported by him dropping a map to Time of all people. TvP is also his worst MU.
Classic on the other hand really really wants to win because Blizzcon. He looked good against aLive, though he did make some stupid mistakes too.
Inno is still the favorite because, well, he's INnoVation. But I wouldn't be shocked if Classic won either.
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Which is always convenient cause then you can lose and people will say it's okay cause you didn't give a fuck, or win and people can be amazed that you won without even giving a fuck.
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On September 29 2017 02:23 Nebuchad wrote:
Which is always convenient cause then you can lose and people will say it's okay cause you didn't give a fuck, or win and people can be amazed that you won without even giving a fuck.
Machine is smart 
Can't always do it though. Lilbow tried to pull something like that at Blizzcon ("didn't even practice for this") and became a laughingstock.
Personally I don't think it requires a tremendous leap of faith to believe the GSL champion who is guaranteed 2nd in the standings (and Blizzcon) even if he lost every game, really doesn't care very much about a weekender with a relatively small prize pool.
And Classic, a guy on record as really really wanting to go to Blizzcon (remember S3 group nominations?) is his oldest friend. I can totally see Inno going easy on him, under the circumstances.
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He is still a tough competitor, i'm sure he cares about this tournament considering he will/can face his blizzcon opponents, but sure, not a lot of pressure on his shoulders since he has won SSL GSLvsWorld and GSL within 3 months 
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I should say I'm surprised Dear 3 - 1'ed Gumigod, but I honestly am not. Dear has been top form lately, like "2013 Dear" form.
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And Gumiho isnt that good if you compare with top 3 terrans
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On September 29 2017 03:30 Snarosc wrote:
I should say I'm surprised Dear 3 - 1'ed Gumigod, but I honestly am not. Dear has been top form lately, like "2013 Dear" form.
Sometimes he looks that way, but he is very inconsistent.
2013 Dear won GSL. 2017 Dear got knocked out of GSL in the Ro16, then got manhandled by Dark in SSL playoffs.
Not quite the same as 2013.
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Rogue should have been the GSL champion in season 2!
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France12908 Posts
On September 29 2017 02:23 Nebuchad wrote:
Which is always convenient cause then you can lose and people will say it's okay cause you didn't give a fuck, or win and people can be amazed that you won without even giving a fuck.
Doesn't giving a fuck in sc2 is pretty fallacious, because if you don't practice you look really bad really quickly, no matter who you are.
INno looked like utter trash a couple of times in LotV already.
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It would be great to see Inno vs Rogue in the semis, though I kind of doubt it.
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Feel like Maru plays mech when he knows he cant win with bio. He doesn’t really know what to do even though he got fantastic mechanic, i would say pair with Inno. The real mech players like Gumiho, Inno know when to turtle and when to timing push as well as which combo to transition in each stage of the game. And they would have easily won game 3 versus Rogue after that early advantage.
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On September 29 2017 11:30 ParksonVN wrote:
Feel like Maru plays mech when he knows he cant win with bio. He doesn’t really know what to do even though he got fantastic mechanic, i would say pair with Inno. The real mech players like Gumiho, Inno know when to turtle and when to timing push as well as which combo to transition in each stage of the game. And they would have easily won game 3 versus Rogue after that early advantage.
Maru is not terrible with mech by any means, but he is significantly worse with it than he is with bio. This is pretty common with Terrans in general and Korean Terrans in particular, bio TvZ is their way of life and the radically different playstyle that is mech throws them for a loop–and it shows. Some of them don't even bother to try; I don't think ByuN has ever gone mech in an offline game, for instance, that guy is locked on 100% bio. aLive, Bunny, are also pure bio. TY on the other hand has used mech with moderate success, even though he mostly sticks to bio.
Gumiho, as always, is the odd man out, stubbornly trying to make mech work all the time, even when it is completely out of the meta. And to his credit, he makes it work pretty well (well enough to beat soO in the GSL finals, at least). Ironically, it is now that mech has crept back into the meta that Gumiho is struggling. In any case, Gumiho goes mech so much as a direct result of his bio TvZ being shit, relatively speaking.
And Inno of course is the best TvZ player in the world with a storied past in that particular matchup. He's the only Terran that has the ability to play top-tier bio and top-tier mech, so when he switches it up, everyone knows which way the winds are blowing in the TvZ meta. As demonstrated by mech's recent upsurge after Inno defeated Dark.
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EPT
2017 AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 2
