Back in October of 2018, when Maru won his third consecutive Code S title, we said he had achieved the impossible. Now, it's looking like we should just stop using that word around him at all.
With a 4-2 victory over Classic in the finals, Maru won his fourth consecutive GSL Code S championship, singling him out as the greatest winner in the history of Korea's most prestigious tournament. Maru tied the legendary Mvp's mark of four total GSL titles, while surpassing Mvp's tally of three Code S championships (Mvp's fourth title came in the GSL World Championship, a slightly lesser event).
In line with his post-game interviews ever since he won his first Code S title, Maru once again credited his Jin Air teammates for being the keys to his success. Classic, who had held back tears after winning his semifinal match, stoically stated he would do better in upcoming tournaments.
While Classic wasn't playing for a chance to make GSL history, there were still considerable personal stakes on the line for the 27-year-old veteran who looked to win a final championship in the last year of his career. After seeing Classic outsmart Dark and Rogue with a deluge of cheeses and timing-attacks in previous playoff matches, it was no surprise when he opened the series up with a proxy-Gateway for an early Stalker attack. Though the tactic failed in game one, Classic went right back at Maru with another proxy-gate attack in game two to tie up the series after gaining an early lead. The tone had been set: Classic was willing to do anything to win the title.
Game three served as a demonstration of why Classic had prioritized doing damage early (or ending the game outright), as Maru absolutely crushed him with a two base tank-push in the first 'normal' game of the series. Classic responded by blindsiding Maru with a Tempest rush in game four, with proxied Shield Batteries allowing him to chip away at Maru's defenses until he was forced to GG out.
Classic went back to proxy-Gating in game five on King's Cove, but by this point, Maru had adapted by going for a blind Bunker early on. Maru was in no hurry to end the macro game he had set up, and dragged Classic down into a split-map slog. Classic tried to pull his best Dear impression from the semifinals, but Maru seemed to have learned from his previous late-game defeat. After deflecting all attempts to breach his defenses, Maru transitioned into a Battlecruiser-centric force to seal the game.
Down at match point, Classic went for his most desperate ploy of the series with yet another proxy-Gateway—but this time with Dark Templars. Unfortunately for Classic, Maru was able to make a perfect read based on his scouting information, rendering the DTs useless while succeeding with a Widow Mine drop of his own. Classic was effectively doomed after giving up such a significant early game lead to Maru, and was soon forced to GG out when Maru's armies marched across the map.
Felt bad for Classic. Considering he wasn't able to play in IEM or WeSG like last year, he really did bring it in Code S. Beating TRUE, Trap (twice), sOs, Rogue, and Dark is sick.
Maru is just unbeatable in most circumstances when he's on form. He only lost two macro games this whole season (one to Impact, one to Dear).
It's impressive, It just feels less special than other champions to me because of how GSL is now.. the way he picks the groups to me means that he gets a pass to RO8 basically. I checked sc2 Aligulac and his average opponent rank was 15.25 (Koreans only). I just think he had an easy run but then you can only beat whats put in front of you
The only real late game map (game 5) felt more like Classic crumbling than Maru playing really well. I don't know: he seemed really lost on what to do and was really out of position, but maybe I just didn't understand that game.
I feel like Maru was already destined to be the champion since Trap (luckily considering game 1?) beat TY 3:2 in ro8. As he said himself at WESG, he was extremely confident on all matchups except TvT. He lost to Inno afterwards. Congrats to Maru! I'm a Terran since Broodwar era so my dream since 2010 has always been an epic game where Terran beat Protoss in a 30 minutes super late game with a decisive battle. I've never beaten any toss on ladder if they got triple AoE or golden armada.
Finally ready to call Maru the best player in the world at this moment. I am mildly sad we didn't get to see him go up against a zerg or terran titan in this run - the only non-protoss he faced were Ragnarok and Bunny. Even still, series vs Dear and Classic were super impressive.
i'm so bloody happy Mary won. I was literally going to stop playing and watching sc2 after game 4 tempest rush. Those are the sort of cancer builds I come across with in ladder. OMFG.
Gotta say while there aren't too many builds to take away from this series you can learn a lot on just how to hold protoss cheeses minus proxy tempest of course. But man was that game on kings cove intense.
On April 15 2019 06:38 DSh1 wrote: The only real late game map (game 5) felt more like Classic crumbling than Maru playing really well. I don't know: he seemed really lost on what to do and was really out of position, but maybe I just didn't understand that game.
I agree. Classic's play was almost unworthy of a GSL finals. For some reason classic just stopped using revelation to tag maru's army and stopped poking with Tempest completely. He was bleeding tons of units for free while not getting anything done himself. Maru was getting free unattended warp prisms, unmicroed dts/zealots and tons of damage with small groups of bio, while Classic was just sitting there falling apart. Classic threw that game before BCs could win it.
I think this is bittersweet because while Maru winning is great and all, Classic losing in the finals of his last year is pretty sad.. I guess he has 2 more shots
Still so much bad vibes in here... it was a great final. Maru again just made the right decisions and instead of Dark, who was never able to find the proxies, he made the right decisions regarding scouting and above all, read his opponent and build defense blindly - thats definitely a skill not that impressive when you see it as a spectator but whe you think about it - just awesome. Maru just plays on another level, he's just so solid!!
EPT
