The GSL Code S Season 2 continued to be a tournament of no upsets in week two, with favorites sOs, Solar, Trap and Zest advancing from Groups C and D. Though underdogs such as Keen and SortOf put in some feisty performances—taking series off established GSL veterans—they were unable to shake up the GSL's established order in the end.
Despite recent struggles in playoff matches, sOs showed that group stages are still (mostly) a walk in the park for a player of his caliber. Keen offered solid resistance in the winners' match—taking a map off sOs in a solid macro game—but sOs was able to dispatch him with typical flourish in the deciding game, using an unorthodox Shadow Stride-upgraded Dark Templar strategy to secure a victory.
Solar looked like he might repeat his season-one whoopsie of dropping out in the RO32 when he lost 0-2 to Keen in his initial match. However, he pulled himself together from that point, and took straight 2-0 victories off TRUE and Keen to win his return to the RO16.
In Group D, Trap continued his run of solid form, going a perfect 4-0 in maps to advance in first place. After displaying some clutch defensive skills against aLive's aggressive TvP style, Trap finished Zest off in two clinical PvP matches to earn his RO16 spot.
Zest squeaked by in second place in the group, but was unable to dispel questions about his wavering form. His initial series against SortOf could very well have ended in a loss, with the Swedish Zerg taking a convincing win in a late-game standoff, and coming close to extracting a GG after holding a Zealot-Archon timing in the deciding set. SortOf made short work of aLive in the losers' match to get a second chance at taking Zest down. Again, SortOf was able to take a map off the former GSL champion, but was unable to close the series out in the end. With the defeat, SortOf became the third foreigner in this GSL tournament to be eliminated from the RO32 after coming within a single map of reaching the RO16.
GSL Code S continues on Wednesday, May 02 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00) with Group E of the RO32, featuring Stats, Emotion, ByuL, and Rogue.