EPT
Rogue improved his perfect record in grand finals to seven-for-seven, crushing Stats in the Code S Season 2 finals by a 4-1 scoreline. Rogue's aggressive and creative side had shined in his recent matches, but playing a predictable and orthodox opponent like Stats gave him a golden opportunity to remind everyone about his skills in more standard games. Stats didn't have any strategies planned to take Rogue out of his comfort zone, which let Rogue beat him convincingly in several macro games to begin the series. Of course, it wouldn't be a Rogue series without at least a few all-ins. While Rogue's failed Roach-Ravager-Zergling attack Stats to put a point on the board in game four, Rogue's Speedling all-in (with the help from an open wall) finished the series on the fifth map.
With the victory, Rogue clinched his second career Code S title, having won his first back in Season 3 of 2019. The victory also marked Rogue's third time repeating his pattern of suffering group stage elimination in Code S and following-up with a championship run in a subsequent tournament. This trend of inconsistency seems like it will continue—when asked if he'd be aiming to break Maru's streak of winning four Code S titles in a row, Rogue admittedly he'd rather take it easy next season. For his fellow Code S players, and for the international players in DreamHack Fall Season Finals (Sept 17-20), that will probably come as a relief.
For Stats, Rogue was an unfortunate opponent to draw in the finals. The Shield of Aiur had expressed his desire to have one last blaze of glory before departing to fulfill his mandatory military service, which had inspired his recent run of good form. But while Stats' PvT and PvP statistics had been monstrous, his PvZ had trailed far behind. With the benefit of hindsight, this one-sided finals result almost seems inevitable. Still, as Stats does not yet have a set date for his military service, fans might hope to see him make a true final run in Code S Season 3. And, alongside Rogue and the other top six GSL players, he'll also have a chance to win some online glory in the DreamHack Fall Season Finals.
Coming up: The qualifiers for Code S Season 3are set to take place on August 18-19.
Grand Finals: Rogue 4 - 1 Stats
Game 1 - Deathaura: Stats started things off with an Oracle opener, a trusty strategy that he'd used to cripple the economies of many a Zerg in the past. This time around, he didn't deal nearly as much damage as he would have hoped, sacrificing two Adepts and an Oracle to kill eight Drones (on top of a heavy investment of making three total Oracles). With the early game harassment phase over, Rogue and Stats played as if they had reached a gentlemen's agreement, taking additional bases and building up armies on their respective sides of the map.
The build-up phase saw Rogue gain a few little advantages, such as blowing up a Warp Prism that tried to sneak a few Zealots into his main, or delaying Stats' fourth base with a Zergling run-by. Rogue's big picture plan was to make an army of Hydralisks and Banelings, and then make a sly tech-switch to Mutalisks. Stats was aware of this possibility and started warping in Stargates and a Fleet Beacon just to stay safe, but unfortunately for him, Rogue's thought process was just a few cycles faster. The Mutalisks arrived at an earlier timing than Stats expected, killing off Probes in the Protoss main and taking down the Pylons powering the Stargates.
Rather than just accept this damage and try to recover, Stats pulled the trigger on a counter-attack with his Zealot-Archon-Templar force. However, the maneuver only put Stats further behind, as he took huge army losses while only killing a moderate amount of Drones. Soon after, Rogue gathered a force of a Mutalisks and Hydralisks and finished off his depleted opponent.
Game 2 - Golden Wall: Stats opted to use another Stargate opener, this time making a Phoenix as his first first unit to clear out scouting Overlords and lay the foundation for a two-Stargate strategy. Curious as to what his opponent might be hiding, Rogue quickly started his Overlord speed upgrade and uncovered Stats' plan before he had massed too many Phoenixes. Rogue was content to cede map and vision control to Stats for the time being, hunkering down with anti-air defenses on four bases on the north side of Golden Wall. Meanwhile, Stats mined out his backdoor mineral wall and took his backdoor expansion, planning to play around the south side of the map.
After using a speed-upgraded Overseer to elude Stats' Phoenixes and get some solid reconnaissance in, Rogue decided he could move out with his Hydra-Baneling army and attack Stats' natural. While Stats was caught at an awkward timing where he was transitioning from Phoenixes to Zealot-Templar, it seemed like he might make a tight hold. He had Sentries to delay at his narrow natural choke, and Storm research was nearing completion.
However, things ended up going just about as poorly as possible for Stats. He lost one of his Sentries due a micro mistake, and was slow to reposition his Sentries that were defending his south side bases. Meanwhile, Rogue's Overseer contaminated the Templar Archives, delaying Storm research by an agonizing twenty-one seconds. What ended up happening was Rogue's Hydralisks tore down the building wall, slithered straight up into the natural, and set themselves up into a deadly concave formation. Even when Storm finally completed, the Hydralisks proved to be an unbeatable force, and Stats was forced to GG out.
Game 3 - Eternal Empire: With Stats' Stargate openers failing to achieve much in the first two games, Stats switched it up in game three by going for new Protoss standard in Glaive-upgraded Adepts. Rogue wasn't fazed by this common strategy, and executed the standard Speedling-Roach defense. Stats played conservative and declined to gamble on massive Adept dive, but he did manage to sneak in a few Drone kills by shading in a couple of Adepts at a time. This early exchange didn't leave any player looking worse for wear, and Stats simply took his third base and began a transition to Colossus and Blink-Stalker tech. Meanwhile, Rogue built up a mid-game army of Roaches and Ravagers, made an opportunistic poke into Stats's third base, and then retreated to secure his fourth and fifth bases.
Rogue continued to climb the tech tree toward Vipers and Lurkers, but Stats wasn't just going to leave him to be. Once he had two Colossi, several Blink Stalkers, and Sentries with a decent amount of energy banked up, he decided to strike before high-tech units could enter the battlefield. This timing seemed advantageous for Stats, as the army supplies were near even (or Protoss-favored considering the supply-ballast effect of Roaches). However, Rogue wriggled his way out of this tricky situation by executing a beautiful flanking maneuver against the Protoss force, allowing him to battle Stats to a standstill and force a retreat.
This let Rogue comfortably add Vipers and Talon/Spine-upgraded Lurkers to his force, at which point he was ready to deal the killing blow. Yet again, Rogue managed to get a flanking engagement on the Protoss force, this time drawing it out of position with a backdoor Zergling attack on an undefended expansion. Rogue's Hydra-Roach-Lurker swarm easily trampled over Stats' Protoss force, with Viper Abducts on Colossi only serving to increase the margin of Zerg victory.
Game 4 - Submarine: Stats had been quite dedicated to harassing with his first two Adepts in the series, and in game four, he got his best result yet by trading the Adepts for five Drone kills. In the meanwhile, he had gone for a fast Robotics Facility, which lined up nicely against the two-base Roach-Ravager-Zergling all-in Rogue was planning. Cranking out troops on two bases, Stats was able to hold against Rogue's attack without too much difficulty, leaving him with a massive tech and economy advantage. Stats decided to play his lead out slowly by securing a third base, which forced Rogue to create his own GG timing by going for a second, even more futile all-in attack.
Game 5 - Ever Dream: Stargate openers were back for Stats in game five, but the game ended before we could see a single Protoss air unit. Rogue made a show of going up to three bases, while actually planning a low-econ Speedling all-in. While this strategy can sometimes batter down a Protoss wall by sheer strength of numbers, Rogue made it even easier for himself by taking advantage of Stats' constant two-Adept pokes throughout the series.
He slipped eight lings around a side path on the map, timing them to arrive just as the two Adepts were starting to begin their own harassment. While Stats did have a Probe in position to make a blocking Pylon, he was microing his Adepts at the exact instant the Zerglings were streaming through the gap in his wall (watching the first person view, Rogue may have semi-intentionally sent his defending lings to fight the Adepts as a well-timed distraction). This happened to be a Gateway-Core-Stargate wall, which meant Rogue shut down the entirety of Stats' army production by razing a single Pylon. With Zerglings already inside his base and unable to build any units but Probes, Stats GG'd out.
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