A Terran-heavy season of Code S came to a fitting end, as TY—one of the finest TvT players of Legacy of the Void—routed Cure in a 4-0 sweep to win his first GSL Code S championship. Having lost in two previous Code S finals in 2016 and 2018, TY seemed far more prepared for the occasion than his first-time finalist foe. Cure, who had seemed to be TY's equal in earlier competitions in 2020, looked indecisive and out of his depth at pivotal moments on the finals stage.
While TY's greatness had long ago been confirmed when he won $300,000 over the span of two months in 2017, the Code S victory checked off the ever-important domestic title box on his resume. In the post-finals interview, TY said that he felt he had been supplanted by INnoVation and Maru in terms of players that came to mind when fans thought of "top Terrans," and that he would do his best to stay in the conversation going forward. TY certainly distinguished himself in a way that Maru, INnoVation, or any other player is unlikely to ever do: he became the first player to both commentate and win the championship in the same season of Code S.
TY won $25,000 and 900 EPT points for his first place finish, as well as a seed in the 2021 Masters Championship at IEM Katowice.
As for Cure, his dream-like breakout season came to a cruel end, much like it did for his former teammate Trap in 2019. Still, Cure's performance in the finals is somewhat undersold by the 4-0 scoreline, even if he did falter in the decisive moments. Considering how well Cure played in the previous rounds, it wouldn't be a surprise to see him earn a return to the finals stage later this year. If he learns from this painful experience, a redemptive championship may be in his future.
Game 1 - Obsdian: With no map bans in GSL best-of-sevens, Cure picked the sprawling, four-player map Obsidian to begin the finals. Cure went for the speed-upgraded Banshees into battle-mech strategy that he had used against INnoVation in the semifinals, while TY went for an even more peculiar strategy in fast Battlecruisers. The initial exchange of strategies worked out in Cure's favor, as he sacrificed his Banshees to net a significant number of SCV-kills while TY's initial BC achieved little in terms of meaningful harassment.
However, TY's plan for his Battlecruisers wasn't so much about harassment as it was about making them the backbone of a frontal attack. At around the eight-minute mark, TY moved out with three Battlecruisers, three Tanks, and a handful of Marines in support. This unusual "timing" really seemed to discombobulate Cure, who couldn't put together a cohesive response on defense. He bled Cyclones away trying to stall, without actually killing any of the Battlecruisers. His infrastructure was set up to make mass Cyclones and Hellions, the latter of which was largely useless against TY's force. Cure eventually decided to pull his SCVs and throw all his troops against TY encroaching army. While he was able to repel TY's encroaching force, it came at the cost of completely crippling SCV casualies—and he still failed to kill a single Battlecruiser. From there on out, it was all too easy for TY to consolidate his economic lead and crush Cure in the following minutes.
Game 2 - Ever Dream: TY considered a proxy-Barracks opener to start, but was instead forced into a standard Reaper expand after Cure's scouting SCV met TY's SCV on the map. As for Cure, he applied some very light Reaper pressure to TY with a 2-Rax expansion opener, but stopped at three Reapers and prepared himself for a normal game.
Unfortunately for Cure, TY wasn't having any of that. As soon as TY had his first Siege Tank and Medivac, he gathered them together with all his Marines for a fast push. Such an attack was completely outside the range of possibilities Cure was considering, and the force was able to march straight across the map and siege up in front of Cure's natural (Cure's Reapers had been back at home in anticipation of some form of drop). Cure's decision to go for a defensive Cyclone as his first Factory unit did him no favors against this Tank-centric push, nor did a few instances of sloppy micro that saw him lose precious units. A desperate defensive charge with SCV's as meat-shields wasn't enough to dislodge TY's force, and Cure gave up his second GG of the series.
Game 3 - Simulacrum: Both TY and Cure opened up blindly with Factory-before-CC builds, trying to take a more aggressive posture to start. Neither player was able to make much headway in that regard—Cure's early Hellion-Reaper poke was easily deflected, as was TY's later two-prong harassment with Hellions at the front and a Mine drop in the main. This left the two players on relatively even footing as they contemplated their next moves.
While TY transitioned into a fairly normal Marine-Tank-Medivac build up, Cure decided it was his turn to take an unusual detour by massing Ravens off of two Starports. Once Cure had six Ravens, he launched a two prong attack with Ravens dropping auto-turrets in TY's main while Hellions dove into the natural to hunt down SCV's. While this unorthodox raid netted Cure sixteen SCV kills, it also left him wide open to retaliation as much of his supply was locked up in low-energy Ravens. TY realized this and launched a direct counter-attack on Cure's third base with his main army, killing SCV's and forcing a lift & relocate. However, Cure wasn't about to let TY make this a tit-for-tat trade—with a huge chunk of TY's army loitering at his third, Cure launched a counter-counter-attack into TY's third base with his Ravens and two Medivacs full of Marines.
All this attacking and counter-attacking somehow left both players in a somewhat even state, with both of them churning out Marine-Tank armies off of three bases. The action would resume almost immediately, as TY's slight army size advantage let him move his main force out onto the map. Cure, despite keeping tabs on TY's movements with scans, let his guard down for just long enough for TY to pull the trigger on a doom drop into the enemy main. This seemed like a disaster for Cure at first, but it quickly turned into an opportunity. He was able to fend off the drop with surprising ease, and at the same time launched a backdoor attacks on TY's unguarded bases that killed thirty SCVs. While Cure still trailed in army size, victory was sure to be his if he could just buy a little time to convert his economy advantage into units.
It was in this dire moment for TY that the championship may have been decided. As TY rallied his forces for a desperate attack on Cure's fourth base, Cure was caught ever so slightly out of position. Combined with slow reaction speed at the worst possible time, Cure ended up losing his Orbital Command Center for free. TY then marched on to try and take down Cure's third base, adding in Liberators to leverage his Viking count advantage. Though Cure was able to respond much better to this attack and defend his expansion, it opened up an angle for TY pick-up his troops and go for another drop in the main. In one of those razor's edge TvT moments, a tiny difference in positioning allowed TY's Marines to completely crush a similar sized force of Cure's Marines on defense. This attack finally broke the backbone of Cure's defenses, and with enemy Marines camping his production, he surrendered once more.
Game 4 - Golden Wall: After a three games of build-order shenanigans, game four was the first to feature a largely symmetrical build up. Both players opened with a Reaper-expansion and proceed to tech up to Starport. While there was a slight difference in harassment choices—with TY going for a single Mine drop while Cure went for with Ravens and Auto Turrets—the overall supply counts, number of buildings, and upgrades stayed nearly identical as Marine-Tank armies were massed on both sides of the map. The main difference was that TY opted to take his third base at the 'normal' north side position, while Cure opted to mine out his backdoor minerals and claim his south side base. TY and Cure even mirrored each other in when to move out onto the map, with their two armies skirmishing near the center point of the map with neither side coming out ahead.
At this point TY made the astute tactical move of mining through the mineral wall at the center point, creating a fork from which his army could threaten either Cure's natural or backdoor third base. After using a drop to divert Cure's attention to his expansions, TY moved his forces to reestablish control of the center. Recognizing the threat, Cure hastily tried to meet TY's forces in the center, but ended up taking serious damage against TY's consolidated force. Having taken a significant army supply lead, TY proceeded to take his fourth base and opted to play his lead out slowly. He put scouting supply depots all over the map, in anticipation of the backdoor attacks which had hurt him so badly in the previous game. This move soon paid off when TY went for tank push into Cure's natural. Cure dispatched a group of Marines to try and raid TY's expansions, but getting caught by a scouting depot plunged Cure into indecision. He left his Marines dawdling on the map before eventually bringing them back home to fight off the force laying siege.
These movements just bought TY even more time to secure expansions on the northern side of the map, while Cure was only belatedly able to take his fourth base on the south side. Knowing the situation was only going to get worse if he played passive, Cure went for ever riskier moves. He went for a large Marine-Medivac backdoor attack to try and take down a base, but TY stayed on top of Cure's movements and shut the attack down. Undeterred, Cure followed up with yet another attack, this time sieging up outside Cure's main from the south side. However, with TY having left his mineral wall untouched, and Cure having lost all his Medivacs in his prior Marine maneuver, Cure was unable actually get into the main to do any real damage. Instead, it was TY who was able to strike a blow while Cure's forces were occupied, marching into Cure's natural and destroying it with little resistance.
It seemed like the game should have tilted irrevocably in TY's favor by this point, but Cure still had just enough income to keep cranking out troops to replace his losses. A couple of factors actually started to go in his favor: TY seemed to crack a little bit under the pressure, forgetting to research his 3/3 infantry upgrades and giving Cure a considerable head start (though Cure had no way of knowing this). Moreover, Cure got one of his backdoor drops to succeed, with a single Marine killing off 22 SCV's due to inattentiveness from TY. Had Cure waited for his 3/3 to complete before launching one more large attack, he might have been able to steal the lead. Unfortunately, Cure committed to a big battle on TY's side of the map some 15 odd seconds before his upgrades were complete, resulting in an even trade—not something he could live with given the difference in economies.
With Cure's production finally starting to run out of steam, it was TY's turn to go for a daring, behind-enemy-lines attack. After drawing Cure out of position, TY loaded up his Marines and Tanks for a massive drop on Cure's two remaining bases on the South Side. This turned out to be decisive, game-ending blow, with Cure admitting final defeat after finding no way to protect his last source of income.
On June 07 2020 22:53 TL.net ESPORTS wrote: TY considered a proxy-Barracks opener to start, but was instead forced into a standard Reaper expand after Cure's scouting SCV met TY's SCV on the map.
That wasn't a scouting SCV, they were both going to proxy. Same as in game 4.
So happy to see TY become the GSL Code S champion! He looked unstoppable these entire playoffs, and he made the three expensive top boys from DPG look like they were playing in the wrong league.
Dark 3-0 PartinG 4-2 Cure 4-0 TY bulldozed three Dragon Phoenix Gaming pros to clinch the title lol.
For those who thought Cure didn't deserve the Finals stage, TY just beat INnoVation 3-1 a couple of hours ago (and then Solar) to clinch the IntoTheAlphaX Pro Circuit 2 title, which has been running since May and has a similar format to GSL. INno was TY's practice partner for the GSL Finals so you can't say INno's been out of practice either--he would have known TY's bag of tricks better than Cure.
TY's super hot right now. He smashed Cure and given the above, I'd say he probably would have beat INno too. I was also really impressed with the way he dismantled Dark.
Here's to hoping Cure makes a comeback. He's been riding on a real high but ultimately couldn't conquer the TaeYang tsunami.
On June 07 2020 23:40 col_jung wrote: For those who thought Cure didn't deserve the Finals stage, TY just beat INnoVation 3-1 a couple of hours ago (and then Solar) to clinch the IntoTheAlphaX Pro Circuit 2 title, which has been running since May and has a similar format to GSL. INno was TY's practice partner for the GSL Finals so you can't say INno's been out of practice either--he would have known TY's bag of tricks better than Cure.
Online tournaments mean nothing compared to GSL matches. Just ask Inno, who beat Cure 3-1 online but lost in GSL.
On the Pylon Show, Artosis and ZG agreed in no uncertain terms that Inno played better than Cure and should've been in the finals. Incidentally, Maynarde also predicted that Cure's losses would snowball because emotions would be his downfall.
For those who thought Cure didn't deserve the Finals stage, TY just beat INnoVation 3-1 a couple of hours ago (and then Solar) to clinch the IntoTheAlphaX Pro Circuit 2 title, which has been running since May and has a similar format to GSL. INno was TY's practice partner for the GSL Finals so you can't say INno's been out of practice either--he would have known TY's bag of tricks better than Cure.
Online tournaments mean nothing compared to GSL matches. Just ask Inno, who beat Cure 3-1 in TSL yet lost in GSL.
True, and that goes for both players.
The point I'm making is INno would have probably faired better than Cure, but perhaps not by much.
INno vs Cure in TSL was over two weeks ago. Cure also beat TY in the GSL group stages not long before that--an offline series. Tonight's series between TY and INno was barely 24 hours after they spent a whole week refining TvT strategies together. In that respect INno already had an advantage over Cure--something TY remarked about on his Afreeca account tonight as he streamed his tournament games against INno live.
On June 07 2020 23:58 pvsnp wrote: On the Pylon Show, Artosis and ZG agreed that Inno played better than Cure and should've been in the finals.
I don't think anyone would ever say that if Cure didn't have the throw of the year on Ever Dream. Inno looked questionable enough that the series was supposed to be over after 5 games and never even reach 7. I think to say that the right player didn't win is grossly unfair and really overselling Inno's play.
Gumiho has won it, Byun has won it. Maru and Innovation have won it over and over again. But TY was still waiting. He's had many chances, Dark, Rouge, Maru and Soo have destroyed him in the Ro8 or the Ro4. Twice he made it to this hallowed stage and twice he had to leave empty handed.
He became a caster, the dream was more distant than it ever had been before. His protege Special qualified for Blizzcon last year but the Maestro could not make it. He's had enough and he's taking no prisoners.
This GSL watch as a caster develops an infamous reputation for bad predictions and stubbornly continuing to play Mech and protoss comes up with crazy early game rushes to quell a Dark force and destroy the Cure that came through after much Innovation.
It was relieving to see TY win after disappointing second place finishes. He really showed his experience in the finals. Happy for Cure though, he is definitely top 4 T in the world at LEAST.
I'm only just getting back into SC2, so sorry for the stupid question: Do battlecruisers not have energy any more? Was that changed in order to make them stronger vs. high templars?
It's hard to keep track of their cooldowns now as an observer.
For those who thought Cure didn't deserve the Finals stage, TY just beat INnoVation 3-1 a couple of hours ago (and then Solar) to clinch the IntoTheAlphaX Pro Circuit 2 title, which has been running since May and has a similar format to GSL. INno was TY's practice partner for the GSL Finals so you can't say INno's been out of practice either--he would have known TY's bag of tricks better than Cure.
Online tournaments mean nothing compared to GSL matches. Just ask Inno, who beat Cure 3-1 in TSL yet lost in GSL.
True, and that goes for both players.
The point I'm making is INno would have probably faired better than Cure, but perhaps not by much.
INno vs Cure in TSL was over two weeks ago. Cure also beat TY in the GSL group stages not long before that--an offline series. Tonight's series between TY and INno was barely 24 hours after they spent a whole week refining TvT strategies together. In that respect INno already had an advantage over Cure--something TY remarked about on his Afreeca account tonight as he streamed his tournament games against INno live.
I'm not saying TY would have lost the finals, I'm saying that a random online tournament is not very good evidence that he would have won.
GSL finals are extensively prepared for. I very much doubt either TY or Inno spent longer than the loading screen timer preparing for their online match.
On June 07 2020 23:58 pvsnp wrote: On the Pylon Show, Artosis and ZG agreed that Inno played better than Cure and should've been in the finals.
I don't think anyone would ever say that if Cure didn't have the throw of the year on Ever Dream. Inno looked questionable enough that the series was supposed to be over after 5 games and never even reach 7. I think to say that the right player didn't win is grossly unfair and really overselling Inno's play.
Cure threw on Ever Dream, but he made a conscious decision to do that based on the information he had. What information did Inno have when he went for a slower and weaker mirror attack because he put down his natural? When he went for 3CC against 1 base?
On June 07 2020 23:58 pvsnp wrote: On the Pylon Show, Artosis and ZG agreed that Inno played better than Cure and should've been in the finals.
I don't think anyone would ever say that if Cure didn't have the throw of the year on Ever Dream. Inno looked questionable enough that the series was supposed to be over after 5 games and never even reach 7. I think to say that the right player didn't win is grossly unfair and really overselling Inno's play.
Cure threw on Ever Dream, but he made a conscious decision to do that based on the information he had. What information did Inno have when he went for a slower and weaker mirror attack because he put down his natural? When he went for 3CC against 1 base?
Inno made the conscious decision to not gather any information and was punished for his extreme greed on Nightshade, that happens sometimes obviously. If Cure played normal and Inno is super far ahead it's something Inno gets credit for in terms of his series planning.
Inno's attack on Simulacrum wasn't slower and weaker because he put down his natural a few seconds earlier than Cure, it was because he seemingly changed his build on the fly (the alternative being that Cure just executed it cleanly while Inno made a mistake). He started a 2nd reaper at first, then cancelled it and then started a reactor. Cure made the reactor immediately so his barracks production was ~10 seconds faster.
There's no question for me that Inno is the better player overall, but he didn't have a good day in the semis. On a good day, he definitely doesn't just lose track of the army and die to Cure's push in game 7 either. Or walk into Cure's sieged army for no reason on Golden Wall. I think Cure without a doubt deserved to advance more than Inno did on that day.
imo INnoVation was pretty unlucky in his series against Cure. Often got the bad end of build orders and wasn't paying attention in crucial moments. I think Cure definitely earned his finals spot though but I'm just saying the stronger player doesn't always win; they just have a higher chance of winning. I'd compare it to soO vs Rogue in Blizzcon in terms of bad luck.
But TY looked so convincing this GSl season that I think InnoVation would've had a hard time beating him if he were in the finals.
Why are you guys deeply convinced that, in 2020, Inno is a stronger player than Cure? Career wise there is no comparison, right now I couldn't really say.
Inno has risen(again) to the top recently but Cure has been dominating online tournaments and having actual results in offline tournaments this year, it's only Inno's name and fame that make you think he's clearly better right now.
I also think that TY vs Inno may have been closer but because both historically are Cure's nemesis while well matched against each other; TY's TvT, however, is the best and I don't think Inno could have stopped him. He eventually won a Code S and I'm glad that he avoided to turn himself into a KonGSL.
Playing at this level, Cure will surely have other opportunities to win his first big title and I hope he will.
On June 08 2020 05:44 Xain0n wrote: Why are you guys deeply convinced that, in 2020, Inno is a stronger player than Cure? Career wise there is no comparison, right now I couldn't really say.
Their overall winrates are pretty comparable. Inno is similarly dominant online as Cure with for instance 7 Kung Fu Cup weekly wins this year. If we take Katowice, ST1, StayAtHSC, Code S and TSL as the 5 biggest events of the year so far, Inno has outperformed Cure in 3 of those, they finished in the same round in ST1 and Cure outperformed Inno in Code S. Also, despite competition being mostly online - which should be better for Cure than offline play - Inno has a solid lead in the head to head as well.
Gap between the two players seems smaller than ever, but I'm still inclined to give an edge to Inno.
On June 08 2020 05:44 Xain0n wrote: Why are you guys deeply convinced that, in 2020, Inno is a stronger player than Cure? Career wise there is no comparison, right now I couldn't really say.
Their overall winrates are pretty comparable. Inno is similarly dominant online as Cure with for instance 7 Kung Fu Cup weekly wins this year. If we take Katowice, ST1, StayAtHSC, Code S and TSL as the 5 biggest events of the year so far, Inno has outperformed Cure in 3 of those, they finished in the same round in ST1 and Cure outperformed Inno in Code S. Also, despite competition being mostly online - which should be better for Cure than offline play - Inno has a solid lead in the head to head as well.
Gap between the two players seems smaller than ever, but I'm still inclined to give an edge to Inno.
Cure has a better overall wr and he won the OSC event(Inno was not there); also, as I mentioned, Inno is one of the players Cure struggles the most against. Giving a slight edge to Inno is legit(I'm not sure I would), giving for granted that Inno is just better is not appropriate anymore.
On June 07 2020 23:58 pvsnp wrote: On the Pylon Show, Artosis and ZG agreed that Inno played better than Cure and should've been in the finals.
I don't think anyone would ever say that if Cure didn't have the throw of the year on Ever Dream. Inno looked questionable enough that the series was supposed to be over after 5 games and never even reach 7. I think to say that the right player didn't win is grossly unfair and really overselling Inno's play.
Cure threw on Ever Dream, but he made a conscious decision to do that based on the information he had. What information did Inno have when he went for a slower and weaker mirror attack because he put down his natural? When he went for 3CC against 1 base?
Inno made the conscious decision to not gather any information and was punished for his extreme greed on Nightshade, that happens sometimes obviously. If Cure played normal and Inno is super far ahead it's something Inno gets credit for in terms of his series planning.
Inno's attack on Simulacrum wasn't slower and weaker because he put down his natural a few seconds earlier than Cure, it was because he seemingly changed his build on the fly (the alternative being that Cure just executed it cleanly while Inno made a mistake). He started a 2nd reaper at first, then cancelled it and then started a reactor. Cure made the reactor immediately so his barracks production was ~10 seconds faster.
There's no question for me that Inno is the better player overall, but he didn't have a good day in the semis. On a good day, he definitely doesn't just lose track of the army and die to Cure's push in game 7 either. Or walk into Cure's sieged army for no reason on Golden Wall. I think Cure without a doubt deserved to advance more than Inno did on that day.
On Nightshade, Inno scv scouted but was blocked by Cure's early depot. He had zero information when he started his third, and zero ways of getting information unless you think burning a scan at 2:25 is a reasonable thing to do. His reaper scout was stopped by a few marines. He did see the push coming, but by then it was obviously too late. It's also worth noting that Cure did not scout at all, but committed to a blind 1-base attack. Not sure how you can chalk that win down to anything except pure BO luck.
On Simulacrum, there may have been slight differences due to CC or reactor timing, but their armies were exactly the same (1 medivac, 3 hellions, 5 reapers). Cure was also building a cyclone instead of a tank, and his attack hit ~5 seconds earlier. Everything snowballed from there, with Cure's cyclone and 4 marines coming out and pushing back the attack whereas Inno's 2 marines were killed at the start and his tank and next 2 marines never finished. Again, a perfect example of BO luck. Inno even scv scouted while Cure attacked completely blind.
Cure gambled with 2 blind attacks, and the coin came up heads both times. A win is a win, and Cure got his, but getting lucky is hardly the mark of superior skill. RNGesus smiled on Cure during the semis, and he won 2 games because of it. That's not to say Inno played perfectly, but there are mistakes of skill and then there are mistakes of chance. I mean, Tastosis even said as much during the cast. And of course Artosis, ZG, etc followed up during the Pylon Show that I already mentioned. Inno was the better player that day, but Cure was the luckier player. And sometimes that's all you need.
EPT
