The pool of contenders has been narrowed down to four as the GSL looks to crown its first champion of 2020. The semifinals and grand final of the Super Tournament will be played on Saturday, Mar 28 8:00am GMT (GMT+00:00), with the champion winning $10,000 in prize money. The top four players have also received round-of-sixteen seeds into the upcoming GSL Code S tournament (begins in April), bypassing the offline qualifiers and the first group stage of the tournament.
Darkhorse Trap clinched his semifinal spot with an upset over PvP master Zest, losing to a clever island-style strategy on Golden Wall but looking far more solid and precise in the remaining three games.
Despite eliminating IEM champion Rogue last week, sOs couldn't conjure another miracle against Dark. Clever abuse of the the mineral walls on Golden Wall almost saw sOs take game one, but Dark patiently defended until he was able to steal the victory in one brilliant battle. After that, sOs seemed to run out of steam, and Dark was able to easily defend against any early game cheese/harassment before comfortably snowballing to victory.
Maru vs INnoVation started with a series of hype-killing games, with Maru winning the first two maps on the back of crippling early game attacks. However, the games picked up as the series went along. Game three featured some quirky role-reversal as INnoVation picked apart Maru's immobile mech with audacious bio drops, followed by INnoVation tying up the series with a decisive Raven-Tank push in game four. The series concluded with a messy, scrappy, game-of-throws on Ever Dream, where Maru emerged the victor after INnoVation made the biggest and final error of the match while defending against a Marine-Tank drop.
Finally, Solar banished Cure back to online realm for the time being with a 3-1 victory. Cure was impressive in game one, looking INnoVation-esque as he absorbed what seemed like crippling losses as he overpowered Solar with constant waves of Marines and Tanks. However, things fell apart for Cure thereafter. Cure invited to Solar to play a split-map macro game in game two, and things seemed to be going well until a single major Zerg attack started an unending death spiral that saw Cure blow through a 10k bank before GG'ing out. Solar closed out the series with a Roach-Ravager poke in game three, followed by a brute force macro game win in game four.
Assuming Dark vs Maru finals, Dark will beat Maru even though I’m rooting for Maru. Unless Maru bops Solar in an overwhelming fashion, Dark can study Maru’s TvZ while Maru doesn’t have the same advantage.
I don t get how the Number 2 Player from last years WCS ranking, Trap, is the dark horse against the Number 16 in said ranking, Zest. Yes Zest had an amazing run at Katowice, but I wouldn t call Traps win an upset at all. I would even say, that Trap is the better all round Player from the two of them. Obviously Zest had more momentum from recent succes, but I see them as pretty even matched right now. That paired with the volatile meta in PvP at the moment, both had a fair shot for advancing, with neither outcome realy beeing an upset.
On March 26 2020 16:54 dbRic1203 wrote: I don t get how the Number 2 Player from last years WCS ranking, Trap, is the dark horse against the Number 16 in said ranking, Zest. Yes Zest had an amazing run at Katowice, but I wouldn t call Traps win an upset at all. I would even say, that Trap is the better all round Player from the two of them. Obviously Zest had more momentum from recent succes, but I see them as pretty even matched right now. That paired with the volatile meta in PvP at the moment, both had a fair shot for advancing, with neither outcome realy beeing an upset.
I dont think anyone would argue that Trap is the better player. This probably has to do with the fact that Zest is (rightfully) regarded as a PvP GOD + he seems to be in good form, so everyone expected better from him. Trap was really well prepared though and made Zest look like a scrub, well played by him.
On March 26 2020 16:54 dbRic1203 wrote: I don t get how the Number 2 Player from last years WCS ranking, Trap, is the dark horse against the Number 16 in said ranking, Zest. Yes Zest had an amazing run at Katowice, but I wouldn t call Traps win an upset at all. I would even say, that Trap is the better all round Player from the two of them.
Zest looked like the best protoss at katowice, which is pretty much the only event to go off so far. He's also generally favoured in PvP against anyone now than Classic has gone
If it's a Maru vs Dark finals, I fear we have another Zerg victory on our hands boys... Actually looking at the top 4 I think it's a Z winner nonetheless
On March 26 2020 22:34 Akio wrote: If it's a Maru vs Dark finals, I fear we have another Zerg victory on our hands boys... Actually looking at the top 4 I think it's a Z winner nonetheless
That's because no one in any tournament was going to beat Dark except other zerg players
my problem with Maru beating Dark is the match order. Because Maru vs Solar is second semifinal, dark will have much more time to rest the wrists. 2 bo7 in a row can be quite demanding
On March 27 2020 05:02 rasi86 wrote: those map win% per MU are ridiculous... hope Trap can somehow do magic but most likely its another ZvZ finals
Except that's not likely at all. Maru is 33-14 vs. Solar (70.21%). I guess that mindset is expected from someone that has "Zerg OP" on their profile.
WEll, it's not like Terrans or Protoss players are stomping their opposition and winning tournaments left and right The last 2 GSL titles go to Zerg, the last 2 world champion titles go to Zerg. And as it seems after the next ST finals we can say that the last 2 ST titles go to Zerg
Is there a balance issue? Doesn't seem so, it just seems Zergs are better, be it Serral, Reynor, Dark or Rogue. While the best Protoss is notoriously known for bad PvZ and there's no other competitive Terran besides Maru.
So, how much likely is it that MAru will lose to Solar? Well, I say it's 60 - 40 for Maru. And 70-30 for Dark vs whoever advances(+10 for Dark if Solar). I would love to be wrong, but Maru doesn't seem to be in his top form, Trap is bad in PvZ and Solar is nowhere near Dark's current form. (no matter the balance Dark seems on fire while being showered with gasoline)
On March 27 2020 06:17 Argonauta wrote: my problem with Maru beating Dark is the match order. Because Maru vs Solar is second semifinal, dark will have much more time to rest the wrists. 2 bo7 in a row can be quite demanding
Also it's hard to prepare 10 different TvZ games(c'mon, it's Maru, he will use proxies), at the same time Dark will be watching Solar v Maru.
On March 27 2020 05:02 rasi86 wrote: those map win% per MU are ridiculous... hope Trap can somehow do magic but most likely its another ZvZ finals
Except that's not likely at all. Maru is 33-14 vs. Solar (70.21%). I guess that mindset is expected from someone that has "Zerg OP" on their profile.
WEll, it's not like Terrans or Protoss players are stomping their opposition and winning tournaments left and right The last 2 GSL titles go to Zerg, the last 2 world champion titles go to Zerg. And as it seems after the next ST finals we can say that the last 2 ST titles go to Zerg
Is there a balance issue? Doesn't seem so, it just seems Zergs are better, be it Serral, Reynor, Dark or Rogue. While the best Protoss is notoriously known for bad PvZ and there's no other competitive Terran besides Maru.
So, how much likely is it that MAru will lose to Solar? Well, I say it's 60 - 40 for Maru. And 70-30 for Dark vs whoever advances(+10 for Dark if Solar). I would love to be wrong, but Maru doesn't seem to be in his top form, Trap is bad in PvZ and Solar is nowhere near Dark's current form. (no matter the balance Dark seems on fire while being showered with gasoline)
On March 27 2020 06:17 Argonauta wrote: my problem with Maru beating Dark is the match order. Because Maru vs Solar is second semifinal, dark will have much more time to rest the wrists. 2 bo7 in a row can be quite demanding
Also it's hard to prepare 10 different TvZ games(c'mon, it's Maru, he will use proxies), at the same time Dark will be watching Solar v Maru.
Yeah lets cite tournaments that are from before a major balance patch. Remember when Life beat PartinG in the GSL finals? Zerg OP.
Actually, of all the seasons where Solar has a chance against Maru, I think this might be the one. Rogue has been on vacation so who is Maru practicing against, really?
Also, it's really hard to count out Trap. He's been overshadowed... but he's definitely still a champion. I have no idea who he's practicing with though.
This Ro4 can go any direction.
Maybe... Trap 3-2 Dark (Because Trap is Hot right now) And Maru 3-1 Solar (Because he's Maru)
Then I'll finally be able to see Trap put himself over as more than a Dark Horse when goes against Maru.
I'm also biased towards more variety in the top players list though
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/GSL/2020_21/st1/stbracket4.png)
Trap clinched his semifinal spot with an upset over PvP master 
The last 2 GSL titles go to Zerg, the last 2 world champion titles go to Zerg. And as it seems after the next ST finals we can say that the last 2 ST titles go to Zerg 
