The first two groups of GSL Code S were marked by major upsets, with IEM Katowice champion Rogue and quarterfinalist sOs suffering elimination in the first round.
Group A seemed cut and dry at first glance, with soO and sOs heavily favored to advance. And while TRUE barely presented a threat with his 0-4 performance, Bunny provided the first surprise of the season by advancing ahead of sOs in the group decider match.
The result was especially surprising because sOs figurative stole Bunny's soul in their initial group match: He defeated him by using a baffling proxy-Nexus strategy. Bunny actually defended well against the the initial 2-Adept recall—a bizarrely low payoff for the cost of a Nexus—but failed to notice a Probe being built out of the Nexus as well. The sneaky Probe proceeded to build a Pylon in the corner of Bunny's main, enabling a lethal Dark Templar follow-up.
However, Bunny ended up returning the favor with equal brutality, if not quite equal flair. In the decider match of the group (sOs' trickery didn't get the job done against soO in the winners match), Bunny went for a pair of two-base tank pushes in the row, pulling the boys and challenging sOs to stop him. Unfortunately for sOs, his sturdiness on defense didn't match his creativity on offense, and he gave up two GG's to send Bunny to the RO16.
Group B featured an even greater upset, with IEM champion Rogue being eliminated in the first round of the GSL. It was the second time in Rogue's career that he had the mixed distinction of contemporaneously being both the IEM Katowice champion and Code S first-round fodder—the last time it happened was in early 2018. In a bit of quaint deja vu, his Code S elimination came at the hands of the same player both times: Scarlett.
Rogue had a chance to advance in first place, as he went up against INnoVation in the group winners match after dispatching the hugely outmatched Kiwian (aka TOP) in his initial series. INnoVation, however, decided to heed the international mantra of "just play like Maru," and proxy-rax Bunker-rushed out Rogue in two short games.
Unfortunately for Rogue, he faced yet more cheese in his decider match against Scarlett. In game one, the Canadian Zerg slyly hid a group of speedlings in the early game, springing them on the unsuspecting Rogue for an easy win. She followed it up with the classic 12-pool into offensive Spine Crawler rush—a build that's becoming a strangely familiar fixture in her matches—against which Rogue couldn't muster the proper defense.
Recommended games: Groups A & B didn't feature great games in the traditional sense, but sOs' proxy-Nexus into DT against Bunny is a must-watch for sheer weirdness' sake.
Coming up: GSL Code S will resume on Saturday, Apr 18 4:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) with Group C of the RO24, featuring Zest, DongRaeGu, Impact, and Cure.
Rogue and Code S first rounds. And of course in season 2 last year he got cheesed out by Leenock with a spine rush (out of vision at the edge of his main base's creep) and very fast banelings.
Even though Scarlett's wins were... cheezy... I think it's really great to see her still dedicated to Korea, and able to get real results. I know the Korean field has dwindled quite a bit, with very few Korean pros not able to reach Code S now, but it's refreshing regardless!
Hey, nothing's off the table. If you spend all your time practicing larva injects, drone allocation, and creep spread up to the 30 minute mark and you have a weakness against cleverly hidden creative aggression, you deserve to lose to a savvy opponent who has prepared appropriately.
In my mind the GSL format is the purest format, most indicative of true skill. The prize pools don't reflect that exactly when compared to the marathon ladder events like the big IEM leagues, but this... This is what competitive Starcraft has always really been about.
Getting weeks to prepare builds for a single match against a specific player on maps you both see coming a mile away... Predicting what direction they'll take it against you, and going out of your way to counter that. It results in the very sharpest dynamic timings custom tailored to the enemy's destruction. Bespoke strategy. It's truly beautiful.
On April 16 2020 12:32 ThunderJunk wrote: Hey, nothing's off the table. If you spend all your time practicing larva injects, drone allocation, and creep spread up to the 30 minute mark and you have a weakness against cleverly hidden creative aggression, you deserve to lose to a savvy opponent who has prepared appropriately.
In my mind the GSL format is the purest format, most indicative of true skill. The prize pools don't reflect that exactly when compared to the marathon ladder events like the big IEM leagues, but this... This is what competitive Starcraft has always really been about.
Getting weeks to prepare builds for a single match against a specific player on maps you both see coming a mile away... Predicting what direction they'll take it against you, and going out of your way to counter that. It results in the very sharpest dynamic timings custom tailored to the enemy's destruction. Bespoke strategy. It's truly beautiful.
While I agree wholeheartedly with what you said, I don't think Scarlett should be forced to give up her ro16 place to NoRegret.
Protoss running out of "suprise" builds and when that happens you will see how weak Protoss is in both PVZ and PVT. If the remaining protosses do not manage to do some crazy all inns that end the game or do heavy economic damage I don't see any Protoss making it to the next round. Protoss is weakest in all 3 stages of the game early mid and late.
On April 16 2020 17:48 Fango wrote: Does Maru get first pick in the group selections? Because he is 100% picking Scarlett if so
Isn't getting into the first pick's group usually a good thing? Because of their swap power they usually end up with a pretty weak competition for second place. (And the first pick still gets knocked out with surprising regularity.)
On April 16 2020 17:48 Fango wrote: Does Maru get first pick in the group selections? Because he is 100% picking Scarlett if so
Isn't getting into the first pick's group usually a good thing? Because of their swap power they usually end up with a pretty weak competition for second place. (And the first pick still gets knocked out with surprising regularity.)
That depends. Let's say you are a god in TvP. You pick 2P and 1Z. You pick the Z because the other P are too strong. Sure the 2P chosen may be weak. But if the Z have his worst match up in ZvP... Then you are bonned.
And this sentence would be really funny if it was said before someone who doesn't know starcraft :=)
On April 17 2020 00:22 DinosaurJones wrote: Rogue looked really pissed after his matches. Can't blame him honestly. Meanwhile, TOP looked appropriately bemused.
Those matches reminded me why I gave up playing Random. I can't fucking stand ZvZ and those two games are what I'm gonna point to everyone now and say "SEE THIS IS WHY!"
I can't stand PvP either, but one ladder session in particular as a Random player yielded me NINE fucking ZvZs in a row. NINE! I won like 2 of them.
On April 17 2020 00:22 DinosaurJones wrote: Rogue looked really pissed after his matches. Can't blame him honestly. Meanwhile, TOP looked appropriately bemused.
Those matches reminded me why I gave up playing Random. I can't fucking stand ZvZ and those two games are what I'm gonna point to everyone now and say "SEE THIS IS WHY!"
I can't stand PvP either, but one ladder session in particular as a Random player yielded me NINE fucking ZvZs in a row. NINE! I won like 2 of them.
On April 17 2020 00:22 DinosaurJones wrote: Rogue looked really pissed after his matches. Can't blame him honestly. Meanwhile, TOP looked appropriately bemused.
Those matches reminded me why I gave up playing Random. I can't fucking stand ZvZ and those two games are what I'm gonna point to everyone now and say "SEE THIS IS WHY!"
I can't stand PvP either, but one ladder session in particular as a Random player yielded me NINE fucking ZvZs in a row. NINE! I won like 2 of them.
Gave up playing Random after that.
TvT is the only mirror matchup worth a damn.
You guys are doing unjustice to ZvZ. There are so many great series out there to watch. This was just Rogue utterly unprepared. The 2nd map is known for spine crawler rushes and Scarlett for All ins. And he went for Hatch Gas Pool, while Hatch Pool would have saved him allready.
EPT
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