Trap defeated Maru 4-1 to advance to the Code S Season 3 grand finals, avenging his painful 0-4 loss back in Code S Season 1. Trap is now set to face teammate Rogue in the September 28th grand finals, looking to become champion after finishing top four and runner-up in the previous Code S seasons of 2019.
Maru's game plan for the series centered around +1 attack & stim timings in the early game, with enough flexibility to transition into a longer macro-game after. This worked out perfectly in game one on Cobalt, with Maru's early attack dealing crippling damage after eluding Trap's miss-positioned defenders.
However, Trap would not repeat the same mistake again. Games two and three saw him stay on top of the early game threat, safely putting together deadly mid-game armies to smash through Maru's front line (once with double-robo Disruptors, another time with 'traditional' double-forge upgraded gateway troops).
With Maru down 1-2, it seemed like it might be time for one of his signature cheese builds. Instead, it was Trap who used deception for an easy win, catching Maru completely off guard with proxy-gate Adepts into fast Dark Templars.
With game five going to Thunderbird—the designated macro map of the season—viewers finally got to see an entertaining macro game between the two contenders. While Maru was able to battle Trap evenly for decent portion of the game, much of the action occurred on the Terran side of the map. Unable to keep the Protoss economy in check, and having barely enough breathing room to squeeze out high-tech units on his end, Maru was eventually forced to tap out against Trap's triple-splash composition of Disruptor-Templar-Colossus.
The Code S finals between Rogue and Trap will take place on Saturday, Sep 28 8:00am GMT (GMT+00:00), with both players looking to win their first Code S championship.
I want to criticize Maru for losing again to another teammate, but instead we should give him major props for once again being the one Terran who can push the race to the limit. This series aside, he really stepped up.
solid series, was interesting to see the high level of prep that clearly went into the games. Big fan of disruptors lategame, they're a really solid answer to the new ghost power it seems
Really solid play by Trap this whole series and looking unstoppable in standard PvT and also able to mix in some aggressive / cheeky builds. His micro wasn't the best we've ever seen, but his unit positioning and knowledge of when he could get away with expansions and how to harass was amazing.
I feel like this series really proves / shows just how much Maru benefits from his team helping with his build prep. Maru did basically the same safe, standard and predictable build every game even on drastically different sized maps. It probably doesn't help that Trap probably has helped Maru develop a lot of his other, more gimmicky strategies and so Maru wouldn't feel comfortable using them.
Biggest Maru fan here but gotta give it up for Trap. The lad's been on fire this year. Even if he wins GSL I feel like some will still treat him as an underdog or fluke, but the reality is he's positioned himself as arguably the preeminent Protoss right now.
Truth be told I wasn't totally convinced about his performance for the first three wins (that DT build worked out particularly lucky for him IMO), but the way he stood up to Maru in the final macro game was quite convincing. I also still can't get over a particular big engagement he won over Classic last season that showed his truly world-class micro.
Rogue's won BlizzCon while Trap is still chasing a level of respect he truly deserves, so I'mma rootin' for Trap to take his first GSL next Sat.
Usually we see Maru holding up the trophy while the camera pans to Rogue, Trap et al looking on from the Afreeca Studios crowd--this time it'll be the other way round.
On September 22 2019 11:09 StarcraftSquall wrote: At the risk of starting a hot debate: is Trap our best Protoss this year? 🤔
Terran and Zerg have their champions in Maru and Serral. Could Trap be the Protoss answer when we ask who is the best at their race? 👀
There's still a decent amount of SC2 to be played this year (well, the most important part anyway), so who knows? I think Stats, Classic, and Trap all have a good case at the moment.
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![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/GSL/2019/codes3/roguetrapfinal.jpg)
Trap defeated ![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/GSL/2019/codes3/gslbracket5.png)
