After an entire RO32 with barely any surprises, Group B of the RO16 gave us one of the biggest GSL upsets of the year as Dear upended a group full of championship contenders to advance in first place. The remaining three titans were forced to scrap for the second place spot, with Rogue emerging victorious as soO and INnoVation made early exits from GSL Code S.
soO had hand-picked Dear as his first opponent during the group nominations, but Dear proved he was not to be taken lightly by KO'ing soO with a late-game/all-in combination. Meanwhile, Rogue barreled over INnoVation in the other initial match, making good on Maru's assurances that he is the best ZvT player in the world.
An in-form Rogue looked to be the overwhelming favorite to crush Dear and take first place in the group, and game one played out as such on Lost and Found. However, Dear rallied back in a pair of impressive comeback games, where he kept together a powerful core of Immortals and Templars that mowed through Rogue's swarming armies with its sheer firepower.
INnoVation took out soO in the losers' match to set-up a rematch against Rogue with a quarterfinal spot on the line. While INnoVation was able to take a map with solid mech play in game one, he was unable to keep up with Rogue's relentless backdoor attacks in the following two games and GG'd out of the tournament.
GSL Code S continues on Wednesday, May 30 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00) with Group C of the RO16, featuring Dark, Classic, Trap, and TY.
I have not been that much impressed by rogue mu vs bio since : well I don't even remember honestly, maybe life vs taeja or curious vs inno, "the emperor has no clothes" indeed...
On May 27 2018 07:47 DBooN wrote: Why even continue the tournament at this point?!
Cus watching Maru vs Rogue is arguably the best two players in SC2 right now playing arguably the best MU and that's still guaranteed to come?
The way Rogue took apart Innovation in the last game of their first series was some of the best Zerg I've seen since... Rogue last made people look like scrubs a few months ago And Maru appears to be in really good form. This group didn't go as expected, but there's a lot to look forward to.
Pretty disappointing matches so far this ro16. Just doesn't feel like the level is as high as it should be, with the players we have. Maybe Dark and sOs can turn the image around.
If either soO or Rogue rewatch their series with Dear, I imagine they'll spend a lot of time face palming. I can't remember the last time a player got bopped in game 1 then won the series after their opponent threw game 2 then had a bad build on game 3 then did the same thing less than an hour later.
On May 27 2018 09:07 Boggyb wrote: If either soO or Rogue rewatch their series with Dear, I imagine they'll spend a lot of time face palming. I can't remember the last time a player got bopped in game 1 then won the series after their opponent threw game 2 then had a bad build on game 3 then did the same thing less than an hour later.
Maybe that's part of the mind game. It's so bad that they did not expect it from someone like Dear. Rogue and SoO got NA'ed.
On May 27 2018 07:47 DBooN wrote: Why even continue the tournament at this point?!
ByuN finishes last place in that group. His TvP is trash tier and he'll face a TvT GuMiGod in the loser's match. It will be a win for him if he manages to take a game.
On May 27 2018 11:54 Boggyb wrote: ByuN finishes last place in that group. His TvP is trash tier and he'll face a TvT GuMiGod in the loser's match. It will be a win for him if he manages to take a game.
>:O! Rood. Byun is best.... EVEN WHEN HE LOSES....
Dear has the best PvZ win rate offline against Koreans in Bo3+ in LotV at 68% (78% win rate in series), the next best PvZer is Stats at 59%. Under these parameters, Dear hasn't lost a single PvZ series in 2018 and he's only ever lost to Rogue and Solar twice, and Dark and ByuL in LotV.
On May 27 2018 12:39 argonautdice wrote: Dear has the best PvZ win rate offline against Koreans in Bo3+ in LotV at 68% (78% win rate in series), the next best PvZer is Stats at 59%. Under these parameters, Dear hasn't lost a single PvZ series in 2018 and he's only ever lost to Rogue and Solar twice, and Dark and ByuL in LotV.
P.S. his PvP is absolutely garbage tho at 42%.
However he also has much fewer appearances in lotv offline KR tournaments than the likes of Stats or herO, which makes the winrate less legit.
Dear didn't play poorly but SoO clearly gave that game 2 away, he so could have won that.
Rogue kinda felt like he was trying to hard to cheese his practice partner in the first two games and then was just shaken in game 3, why would you otherwise build only roaches to stop 10 immortals XD.
On May 27 2018 08:19 RogerChillingworth wrote: Pretty disappointing matches so far this ro16. Just doesn't feel like the level is as high as it should be, with the players we have. Maybe Dark and sOs can turn the image around.
Dear has been the only real surprise in Ro16 so far. I think it was pretty much universally understood that Maru was gonna take that group. Then I put Zest and Solar on the same level and Zest played him like a fiddle. Nothing shocking about group A and I quite enjoyed watching the 2 Zest v Solar series and watch Zest mindfuck him.
Dear winning group B is definitely odd considering I thought he would finish last. I thought Rogue was going to monster mode the group then a great TvZ between Inno and Soo for second. Didn't happen that way.
On May 27 2018 19:05 Syn Harvest wrote: Dear winning group B is definitely odd considering I thought he would finish last. I thought Rogue was going to monster mode the group then a great TvZ between Inno and Soo for second. Didn't happen that way.
Well soO was never gonna beat Inno anyway so really that would have been a foregone conclusion.
But there's hope for some great matches that could still happen. Group C is ridiculous. All matches sound juicy.
Dears series were so amazing... He starts out with an embarassing loss both times, then follows up with a second game where he proceeds to take heavy losses and then wins the game while the casters are still lamenting his bad position :D
And versus rogue he basically won with superior army control, positioning and constant harrass, the play versus the swarmhosts was very impressive.
On May 27 2018 21:51 Freeborn wrote: Awesome group and great games!
Dears series were so amazing... He starts out with an embarassing loss both times, then follows up with a second game where he proceeds to take heavy losses and then wins the game while the casters are still lamenting his bad position :D
And versus rogue he basically won with superior army control, positioning and constant harrass, the play versus the swarmhosts was very impressive.
First game vs rogue wasn't that embarrassing, Protoss is just soooo fragile if you dont see that coming nothing you can do really. But was really happy for Dear after all the experts proclaiming him to be in last place.
People here are not giving Dear enough respect. He outplayed soO and Rogue. His timings were perfect and his micro was unstoppable. Also Dear (unlike soO and Rogue -who both made mistakes in army composition and pressing advantages) kept calm under pressure.
Yeah Dear just played the best that day. To be honest, after the first game I thought it would be another traditional "everything goes to plan" kind of group, but fine play from Dear and Rogue put the would be winners out of this season. It was pretty sad to see soO again lose to his vT demons, and to see INnoVation not managing to win this season either. The terran fanboy in me wanted another god to manage to get to the knockout stages, but not to be I guess.
Rogue looked pretty good. Even vs Innovation he had so much stuff. Surprised it was Dear to make it out, and first at that, but it is Ro16 and if you win two matches your are through.
Still not gonna be hyped for Dear. He's super solid, but his micro is just not at the level of the other top Protosses. He also has a lot of "oh dear" moments, pun intended. SoO historically has been terrible against turtling players, but even then it was a disappointing showing, I thought he would get out 1st with Rogue 2nd.
Dear never disappoints in these group elimination matches. Honestly him and Trap are some of the most underrated Protoss players. Still waiting to see Dear hopefully break into a Finals. Feels like long BoX matches are not his strong suit.
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/GSL/2018/RO16BBANNER.jpg)
Dear upended a group full of championship contenders to advance in first place. The remaining three titans were forced to scrap for the second place spot, with 
And Maru appears to be in really good form. This group didn't go as expected, but there's a lot to look forward to. 
))![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/vHRk96r.png)
