The Code S RO16 began with top seed TY advancing in first place from the group of his own creation, but it was no cake-walk as he barely defeated Zoun 2-1 in the winners' match.
First-time RO16 player Zoun had one more chance of advancing to the playoffs in the group decider match against Armani, with Zoun having already bested the Afreeca Freecs Zerg in an earlier clash in the group (featuring an incredible clown-fiesta on Deathaura). However, Armani managed to win when it mattered most, eking out a 2-1 win in the decider match to qualify for the first Code S playoffs of his career. All in all, it was night of tough, hard-fought games for Armani, who advanced with the rare .500 map score of 4-4. Dream, who had finished in the quarterfinals of the previous season, failed to repeat the feat and was eliminated in last place.
Recommended games:Armani vs Zoun on Deathaura achieved the rare "so bad it's good" status. Fans who want to see a more conventionally good game should check out TY vs Dream on Pillars of Gold.
Coming up: Code S will resume with Group B of the RO16 on Saturday, Sep 26 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00) with Cure, DongRaeGu, Solar, and Zest.
Initial Match #1: TY 2 - 0 Dream
Game 1 - Pillars of Gold: TY and Dream played out the 'good' kind of map-split macro game, arriving there after parrying each other's aggressive early/mid-game moves. Dream seemed to be in a good spot at first in this bio-vs-bio war, with more control of the map and a bigger bank. However, TY demonstrated his TvT prowess by taking back the lead with moves like dropping into the main, or catching unsieged tanks in transit. TY consolidated his advantage with a timely transition into Battlecruisers, taking out expansions and forcing Dream to scramble to get anti-air units. TY simply transitioned back into a more ground-centric army to seal his victory.
Game 2 - Eternal Empire: TY looked to apply some early pressure with 2-Barracks Reapers but was thwarted by Dream's calm defense. TY double-expanded in order to catch up in economy, but only opened himself up to a devastating Marine-Cyclone-Hellion counterattack from Dream. Having killed of several of TY's SCVs, Dream made a comfortable transition to mech while TY went bio with a severe resource disadvantage.
Dream looked like he might easily end the game with a strong mid-game push with mech units, but TY made the decisive move of sacrificing his third base while committing the majority of his forces to a doom drop in Dream's main. The maneuver paid off for TY (thanks to some sloppy defense from Dream), and he was able to camp the Factories and halt production. On the other end of the map, TY squeezed out just enough reinforcements to halt the mech push, forcing Dream to concede the 0-2 defeat.
Initial Match #2: Zoun 2 - 0 Armani
Game 1 - Deathaura: Zoun opened up with a disaster of a Cannon rush, losing his key Probe and failing to cancel a warping Cannon that was getting focused down by Drones. Yet, Armani's defense wasn't all that clean either, which let Zoun send another Probe to keep building Cannons and take down the natural Hatchery. Given how much money Zoun committed to the cannon rush, it wasn't exactly an advantageous situation for the Protoss. Once Armani cleared out the cannons and retook his natural, the game was strangely even.
A normal-ish game ensued until Zoun decided to commit to an ad-hoc timing attack with one Void Ray, one Immortal, and whatever Gateway units he could scrap together. Armani had Droned a little too hard in the meanwhile, and ended up taking what should have been game-ending Drone damage. However, Zoun proved to be absolutely awful at closing the game out, and despite leading in army supply, worker supply, and number of bases, he failed to actually kill Armani.
Once Armani got up to Lurker and Viper tech, it seemed like he had turned the corner and was actually favored to win. However, Armani blew all of his previous efforts toward a comeback by taking some disastrous fights, conveniently clumping up his army for Psionic Storm and Colossus beams to disintegrate. Zoun was finally able to close the game out, bringing an end to a hilariously weird game.
Game 2 - Ever Dream: Zoun opened with a Void Ray and looked to clear out as much Zerg scouting as possible, which made Armani very suspicious. Unfortunately for Armani, his scouting Zerglings just barely missed crossing paths with the 5:30 Chargelot all-in marching toward his base, and he once again took crippling economic damage. This time around, Zoun successfully finished Armani off without wasting 15 minutes by almost throwing the game.
Winners' Match: TY 2 - 1 Zoun
Game 1 - Submarine: TY went for 2-Barracks Reaper harassment early on, trying to get a Bunker down in Zoun's natural. Zoun pulled off a fairly clean defense with Adepts, and started making Void Rays from a Stargate in the meanwhile. However, TY's Reapers managed to scout out the Void Ray tech, which seemed to force Zoun to stop whatever his original plan was and transition to Colossus tech instead. In any case, TY transitioned into standard macro play, while also getting a ton of Probe kills with Widow Mines drops. Zoun simply didn't have much of an army when TY decided to get aggressive (and also had a handful of Void Rays which really didn't do anything), and GG'd out after losing straight up fights.
Game 2 - Eternal Empire. TY played something reminiscent of a TvZ opener with Hellions into Cloaked Banshee into 3 CC, while Zoun just played a defensive stargate build. After a bit of a build-up, TY was the first player to get aggressive in a meaningful way, moving out with a big army of 2/2 bio. Zoun narrowly survived this attack, thanks to a huge Disruptor shot in the center of a pack of Marines.
TY kept up the pressure by comboing drops with ground attacks, but Zoun continued to hold the line and entered the late-game on his own terms. While TY did a decent job of picking off expansions here and there, and even got in some solid Nukes on Zoun's Prboes, he couldn't stop Zoun from assembling his ultimate deathball of Carriers, Colossi, and Disruptors. TY looked to counter with an army of bio + Thors in support, but was forced to GG out after being overpowered in the game-deciding fight.
Game 3 - Pillars of Gold: TY got off to a poor start, going for an Engineering Bay block in Zoun's natural but missing the cancel and losing 125 minerals. TY put himself in a worse position by also building a useless Bunker back at home (TY later said he thought Zoun was going for a proxy-Gate). Ty decided drastic measures were needed to pull himself out of this early game hole, so he decided to play a true, one-base 1/1/1 all-in.
While TY's initial Marine-Mine drop fared poorly against Zoun's defensive Stargate opener, his follow-up attack of Marines, Tanks, and Vikings had just barely enough firepower to beat the Protoss defenders and destroy the natural. While TY didn't have enough troops left over to push up the ramp and end the game outright, he had left Zoun worse for wear. TY backed off and took his own natural, while Zoun re-took his expansion. TY soon returned with even more troops to finish Zoun off, even using some cute Medivac-lift micro to nullify the defending Disruptors.
Losers' Match: Armani 2 - 1 Dream
Game 1 - Pillars of Gold: Dream opened up with a greedy 3 CC opener, and Armani seemed happy to follow him into a macro game. However, Armani was a bit slow in transitioning to army production, and was forced to give up his fourth base when Dream moved out with 1/1 Marines and Tanks. Dream never really let go of the reins from that point, slowly wearing Armani down with continued pressure and attacks.
Game 2 - Deathaura: Dream went for Battlecruisers into mech, which Armani responded to by going Swarm Host-Nydus alongside Roach-Ravager—the same composition he used to beat Cure's mech in the RO24. While Dream was going for battlemech in contrast to Cure's Thor-Tank, it didn't make much of a difference in the end. Cyclones never got to do their Cyclone-kitey things, as Armani just brute forced his way through the mech forces with his swarming army.
Game 3 - Golden Wall: Whether it was due to sheer luck or a brilliant read, Armani ended up hard-countering Dream's early Marine-Hellbat timing by opening with fast Roaches.
Dream played well to try and shore up this early deficit, getting several Drone kills with a combination of Hellion drops and Liberators. Dream continued to claw his way back into the game, pressuring with his bio and trying to keep the Zerg economy from getting out of control. After a few efficient trades against Muta-Ling-Bane, it seemed like Dream had fought his way all the way back to even. However, Armani's advantage ended up manifesting in how comfortably he was able to get Ultralisks, which ended up being the death knell for for Dream.
Decider Match: Armani 2 - 1 Zoun
Game 1 - Eternal Empire: Zoun opened up with the Glaive-Adepts into Disruptor-Drop build that Trap had used to defeat Reynor in the DH Summer Season finals. While Armani held off the Glaive Adepts reasonably well, he couldn't avoid the Disruptor shots well enough on the follow-up Stalker-Disruptor attack and had to GG out.
Game 2 - Ever Dream: The two players formed an unspoken pact to play out a macro game, leading into the Lurker-Viper versus Disruptor-Stalker scenario we've been seeing quite frequently these days. The situation went south for Zoun on his first major attack, where he made zero headway at getting through the defending line of Lurkers and Vipers, while Armani diverted some of his Hydras to destroy Zoun's fourth and kill off a ton of Probes. Armani proceeded to close the game out at his leisure, abducting Disruptors and smashing the Protoss army.
Game 3 - Deathaura: Zoun went for the same Cannon rush from the earlier series, but without the micro mistakes this time around. Even so, the amount of minerals committed to the Cannon rush meant that once Armani cleared it out with a Spine Crawler from the high ground, the two players were left in a roughly even situation. Yet again, Zoun tried to cobble together a motley array of units for a follow-up attack. This time around, Armani had not Droned up quite as hard, and parried the attack easily while also cancelling Zoun's third base with a speedling runby. This gave Armani a commanding lead in terms of economy, and he used Mutalisks to close the game out without any major complications.
On September 24 2020 15:19 ShowTheLights wrote: Fuuuuuuuuckkkkk
I, along with the entire world wanted Zoun to win. PvZ was actually exciting with him..
Armani is a waste of a RO8 spot and will get washed by literally any player from Group B
dont think Armani has a single fan, nothing special in his play but i will respect his adaptability in that last series
if this were reddit id be downvoted obviously but just speaking the truth
Any of the other two players in the group would get washed in the ro8 so I don't think thats a valid arguement against Armani. Hes worked hard and pushed through a ceiling maybe he will have some more fans now.
On September 24 2020 15:19 ShowTheLights wrote: Fuuuuuuuuckkkkk
I, along with the entire world wanted Zoun to win. PvZ was actually exciting with him..
Armani is a waste of a RO8 spot and will get washed by literally any player from Group B
dont think Armani has a single fan, nothing special in his play but i will respect his adaptability in that last series
if this were reddit id be downvoted obviously but just speaking the truth
C'mon, anyone except TY is a walkover for B1. OK, maybe not Dream if the B1 will be Cure, MAYBE. So while I hate that Zoun didn't advance, I'm not gonna be negative towards Armani, he won it in a fair fight.
On September 24 2020 15:19 ShowTheLights wrote: Fuuuuuuuuckkkkk
I, along with the entire world wanted Zoun to win. PvZ was actually exciting with him..
Armani is a waste of a RO8 spot and will get washed by literally any player from Group B
dont think Armani has a single fan, nothing special in his play but i will respect his adaptability in that last series
if this were reddit id be downvoted obviously but just speaking the truth
He's played some pretty fun to watch decent macro games and has shown a fair amount of tenacity. Besides, while I wanted Zoun to win, he'd probably also get rekt by whoever he faced in RO8.
Everyone was hyping Dream last time he made RO8. The `fan favorite' won the day and no-one would call that a wasted spot, yet look where that got us. I don't think Zoun would be different, and it's pretty rough to put that on Armani specifically over any other newcomer the brackets.
Armani absolutely deserves his spot and I'm so glad he made it. He's been putting in the hard work for a really long time now and this could be career changing for him (or at least give him the confidence to keep going, he was supposedly close to giving up). Zoun isn't going anywhere and had a good showing for one of his first few GSLs.
On September 24 2020 15:50 Xophy wrote: Armani's sub-.500 score of 4-5 is so rare, it actually never happened before ... and, upon further investigation, didn't this time and never will
On September 24 2020 15:19 ShowTheLights wrote: Fuuuuuuuuckkkkk
I, along with the entire world wanted Zoun to win. PvZ was actually exciting with him..
Armani is a waste of a RO8 spot and will get washed by literally any player from Group B
dont think Armani has a single fan, nothing special in his play but i will respect his adaptability in that last series
if this were reddit id be downvoted obviously but just speaking the truth
You're not speaking the truth at all. Also you're implying that Zoun wouldn't get beat in the ro8? Zoun has a strong playstyle, but he relied heavily on disrupter tech and didn't switch it up at all while Armani did. Your statement about Armani not having any fans is blatantly false.
I find myself wanting more and more to see Armani win a GSL. Crushing Zoun back into underdog status seems like a thematically cool middle of the story for him this season. Upon reflection, these feel like high hopes.
On September 24 2020 21:07 DarkGamer wrote: I wanted Dream to get out of the group, cuz i think he has a solid and cool macro style of play.
But Armani played very "Serral-ish" and deserved the outcome.
I have no idea how Armani played "serral-ish" :D
I think against Dream he played macro games what looked similiar to serral (macro like creep spread, mineral/ gas always low, runbys etc.) the micro was also Good.
Why dont you think so Luolis? As ur a GM Terra i really like to know
On September 24 2020 21:07 DarkGamer wrote: I wanted Dream to get out of the group, cuz i think he has a solid and cool macro style of play.
But Armani played very "Serral-ish" and deserved the outcome.
I have no idea how Armani played "serral-ish" :D
I think against Dream he played macro games what looked similiar to serral (macro like creep spread, mineral/ gas always low, runbys etc.) the micro was also Good.
Why dont you think so Luolis? As ur a GM Terra i really like to know
I don't think he went for that heavy of an economic focus and his trading was quite poor (especially vs dream).
On September 25 2020 14:26 elluel wrote: I hate posts like this... they completely spoil the group stage results. I will no longer be checking this shitty website.
lol get over yourself, first you can hide spoilers on TL and TL always has these kind of posts so idk how your are surprised by this
On September 24 2020 21:07 DarkGamer wrote: I wanted Dream to get out of the group, cuz i think he has a solid and cool macro style of play.
But Armani played very "Serral-ish" and deserved the outcome.
I have no idea how Armani played "serral-ish" :D
I think against Dream he played macro games what looked similiar to serral (macro like creep spread, mineral/ gas always low, runbys etc.) the micro was also Good.
Why dont you think so Luolis? As ur a GM Terra i really like to know
I don't think he went for that heavy of an economic focus and his trading was quite poor (especially vs dream).
Interesting. What should Armani have done, so his gameplay would have been economic focused? The trading was good enough to beat Dream, so it cant be too poor / bad.
On September 25 2020 14:26 elluel wrote: I hate posts like this... they completely spoil the group stage results. I will no longer be checking this shitty website.
Oh noez, I just checked the hockey section of news and it spoiled the results of NHL! DAMN THE SITE!!!
Like, on the other hand... uh... you know about the spoiler settings and the fact, that TL is reporting over the recent resutls regularily?
On September 24 2020 21:07 DarkGamer wrote: I wanted Dream to get out of the group, cuz i think he has a solid and cool macro style of play.
But Armani played very "Serral-ish" and deserved the outcome.
I have no idea how Armani played "serral-ish" :D
I think against Dream he played macro games what looked similiar to serral (macro like creep spread, mineral/ gas always low, runbys etc.) the micro was also Good.
Why dont you think so Luolis? As ur a GM Terra i really like to know
I don't think he went for that heavy of an economic focus and his trading was quite poor (especially vs dream).
Interesting. What should Armani have done, so his gameplay would have been economic focused? The trading was good enough to beat Dream, so it cant be too poor / bad.
Armani in game 3 was incredibly far ahead from the early game where he blind countered Dream's build order. He was ahead in upgrades and economy all game. But he let Dream get back into the game by taking several absolutely atrocious fights (e. g. trying to A-move up a ramp through a choke into the gold base) that you would never ever see from Serral.
Also stylistically I don't think Serral would play out the ZvMech game the way Armani did but it's been a while since I've seen Serral vs mech really.
EPT
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