EPT
The G5L trophy is headed back into storage, as four-time Code S champion Maru suffered his first ever Code S finals loss at the hands of TY in the Season 3 finals. But if the match ended in disappointment for Maru, the fans would certainly have left pleased as the two top Terrans delivered an all-time classic match—a fitting 10th anniversary gift for a tournament series that had garnered an unfortunate reputation for boring finals.
The recent advent of raven-centric late-game play in TvT did nothing to bog down the series, as two of the best multi-tasking Terrans of all time looked to be active through all stages of the game. When we did get to see a super-late game battle between battlecruisers, there was no wearisome staring contest involved—instead, the game spiraled into a chaotic ending sequence when TY tried to pull off an audacious charge into Maru's main.
The highlight of the series was an incredible send-off match for the popular map Golden Wall, which saw TY forced to relocate his main base twice before pulling out a come-from-behind victory.
With two Code S championships in 2020 (and a semifinal finish to boot), TY has locked down his place as the best GSL player of the year. It's a late-career surge that comes a full thirteen years after TY's television debut in Brood War, an accomplishment that defies comparison. Only Maru's delayed peak in 2018, eight years after his debut, comes close. TY's victory also extended another, perhaps even more unmatchable record he holds: Most Code S titles won as active GSL commentator. The score is TY: 2, everyone else: 0.
Interestingly enough, TY made casting the focus in his post-match interview. When asked if he'd continue to prove that he's the best StarCraft II player at the upcoming Super Tournament 2 (scheduled to begin on December 2nd), TY slyly dodged the question and said that he'd try to become a better commentator for the viewers. Considering that TY has Korea's #1 seed at IEM Katowice 2021 nearly locked down, could you really blame him for shifting his focus for a while?
Finals: TY 4 - 2 Maru
Game 1 - Eternal Empire: Maru opened up with double-barracks proxy-reapers, which TY managed to discover by cautiously SCV scouting through the likely proxy locations. TY immediately cancelled his building command center after discovering the proxy, and pivoted to 1-base tech while placing bunkers for defense. Despite these preparations from TY, Maru still managed to force 4 reapers into TY's main and got a great trade by sacrificing the reapers for 3 SCVs and most of TY's early army.
Maru went for fast double-expansions behind his reapers, which meant TY's only advantage was his faster tech. Unfortunately for TY, his attempt to go for cloaked banshees was scouted by a floating barracks from the prior proxy strategy, forcing TY to cancel his plans and follow Maru into a macro game with a slight disadvantage.
In an unusual twist, Maru opted to go for a Mech army, whereas TY went for the standard Marine-Tank-Viking armies of TvT. Then, in an even more unusual twist, Maru made an abrupt change back into a standard bio army, while still getting mech upgrades from double armories. In any case, both players were content to stay withdrawn until they established four bases, minus a couple of harassing excursions here and there.
In his recent TvT matches, Maru had looked to make a fast transition to mass ravens whenever he saw an opportunity. However, it was TY who took that approach in this match, halting his tank production early and going for 3-starport ravens. Maru eyed a raven transition as well, but made his shift considerably slower than TY, stopping to build some vikings and liberators in a more orthodox style.
However, TY's forward-looking strategy wouldn't pay off. As the two players went up to five bases, both looked to establish some map control with their now sizable armies. Maru had a big advantage in terms of both viking and tank count, so TY split up his marine-marauder based army in two for what seemed to be a delaying action. But this decision only saw the two halves of TY's army get brutalized by Maru's full-strength force in two separate skirmishes, giving Maru a significant lead in army supply. Maru pounced on the opportunity and continued to push forward, with his combination of Tanks, Vikings, and Liberators able to advance freely against the tank-light TY. TY's ravens arrived on the battlefield too late to slow Maru down, leaving TY no choice but to surrender against Maru's unstoppable push.
Game 2 - Ice and Chrome: Maru opened with 2-barracks reapers once more, but this time built both barracks in his main. As for TY, he went for one base tech again.
While TY held off Maru's initial Reaper harassment much more handily than in game one, he was still put into an unfavorable early-game position when he threw away his first two cyclones (TY's cyclones ran into the alluring trap of Maru's empty natural, and were subsequently ambushed by Maru's hiding troops). However, the situation quickly swung back into TY's favor, as his cloaked banshee tech went unscouted this time around. Waiting to hit with two Banshees at once, TY killed enough of Maru's SCVs to gain a significant economic lead.
Maru was forced to chase TY into a macro game from behind, and TY's advantage would eventually manifest in a superior viking-tank count in the mid-game. When TY rolled out with his army, Maru was forced to concede the designated siege-nook at his fourth base (you all know where) to TY's tanks. Tanks whaled away at the planetary fortress for several minutes, with Maru desperately keeping it alive with mass SCV repairs. But with Maru so occupied at his fourth, TY was free to do anything and everything else. He took to striking at Maru's other bases, all while expanding wildly over his own side of the map.
Maru's defensive prowess allowed him to semi-stabilize on five bases and follow TY into the raven phase of the game, but he faced a massive uphill battle in terms of economy and map control. When Maru used his ravens to finally lift the prolonged siege on his fourth base, TY simply sent the rest of his army to destroy one of Maru's expansions on the other end of the map. It looked like TY could just bounce back and forth between Maru's expansions until Maru ran out of steam.
But losing expansion and SCVs freed up more of Maru's supply for troops, and he eventually gathered about 150 supply worth of Marine-Raven-Viking for a desperation attack. TY had stayed on over 80 SCVs throughout the game, and seemed initially disoriented when he had to confront this huge army charging down the center of the map. However, TY assessed the expansion situation correctly and made a shrewd move, letting Maru's force slowly mow through his bases while he sent his own forces to counter attack Maru's remaining expansions. Since TY had taken nearly every other expansion on the map, and had plenty of MULEs to mine with, he could afford to trade three of his expansions for two of Maru's and still be in a better spot.
Things played out as expected when one player has income and the other does not, with TY able to wear down Maru's last army and force a GG.
Game 3 - Submarine: Maru put his 2-rax reapers aside and went for fast tech, while TY opened with a fast expansion. While TY held off early hellion-reaper harassment without incident, the true threat from Maru would come later in the form of quick attack with two tanks, two vikings, and two ravens. Maru set up a low-ground siege outside of TY's main, close enough to kill off a single Barracks (an error from TY).
TY contemplated committing to dislodging this force, even sending some ravens to plant auto-turrets (completely ineffectual), but quickly changed course and decided to counterattack before Maru could reinforce his sieging force or simply retreat home. The counterattack worked out beautifully for TY, as he was able to kill a tank at Maru's third base and force a lift-relocate on the command center. He was also able to kill off Maru's intruding tanks for free when their viking-raven escort absconded in response to the counterattack.
Picking up three easy tank kills gave TY a big advantage at that stage of the game, and he looked to capitalize. It's hard to tell if the following move was premeditated or opportunistic, but TY flew his two ravens into Maru's main for some auto-turret harass, and then led Maru's vikings on a merry chase. The distraction gave TY the space he needed to walk his tanks and vikings right up to Maru's main and start a low ground siege (Maru actually scanned twice in fear of such a move, but TY waited until the scans ended and charged right in). TY's well-placed tanks smashed Maru's forces that came hastily running back to defend, opening up the floodgates for TY's reinforcements to start streaming across the map. Maru couldn't hold out for very long, and conceded the 2-1 lead to TY.
Game 4 - Deathaura: The two players' opening diverged slightly once again, with Maru opting for faster tech while TY went for quicker expansion. Neither Maru's early hellion-reaper harass nor follow-up marine-mine drop did much to slow TY down, giving TY a bit of an economic advantage as the two players built up on three bases.
That early advantage let TY make the first major mid-game move, launching an ambitious three-prong attack with a marine drop into Maru's main, a raven/auto-turret attack at the natural, and a tank siege at the third. The attack netted TY a decent number of SCV kills, but was costly in terms of army casualties. However, it all worked out fine for TY as Maru's counter-drop ended up being just as costly, but without the benefit of getting any economic damage done.
TY decided this was his chance to make another rapid transition into the late game, stopping tank production entirely in order to start mass raven production. When Maru belatedly followed TY's late-game transition, TY looked even further ahead hastily teched up to battlecruisers as well. As the two players rushed to secure the remaining bases on their respective sides of the map, hit and run tactics with battlecruisers proved to be a thorn in Maru's side. But paradoxically, Maru's marines were more fleet-footed than TY's air-based armada, and Maru stayed even with TY in the skirmishes around the corner expansions.
Tired of rudimentary hit and run tactics with his battlecruisers, TY went for a much riskier move. Sending his BC's to attack Maru's corner base as they had done many times, TY waited for Maru's vikings and ravens to arrive on defense. When they did, TY teleported out—but not back to his own bases. Instead, the BCs jumped deep into Maru's territory, joining up with TY's remaining contingent of marines and medivacs to try and capture Maru's main. However, this move turned out to be catastrophic for TY. The combination of anti-armor missile and auto-turrets shredded TY's marines, leaving the battlecruisers to be wiped out by Maru's vikings (it certainly didn't help that TY had stopped air attack upgrades at 1/3, while Maru had gone up to full 3/3).
This led to instantaneous role-reversal, with TY emptying his bank to try and remax on viking-raven-marine, while Maru saw his first battlecruisers come online. Maru used his momentary army lead to shatter the equal-expansion equilibrium, tearing down both of TY's corner bases. TY desperately tried to retake those vital expansions before his other bases ran dry, but found it too daunting to try and directly fight Maru's growing battlecruiser fleet. Thus, TY made the only move left to him, and gathered his maxed out marine-viking-raven force for another attack on Maru's main.
Maru made a savvy decision similar to the one TY had made on Ice and Chrome, and simply accepted the base trade. He still had corner bases with plenty of harvestable resources left, as well as a considerable bank. Once the two players were done razing each other's territory unopposed, Maru was still left with his BCs and supporting units, two mining bases, and newly constructed production facilities, while TY was left with nothing but his standing army. TY had no choice but to take on Maru's BC fleet in a final, doomed engagement, after which he GG'd out.
Game 5 - Golden Wall: TY brought out his first dedicated early game attack of the series, skipping his reaper and going for a very fast marine drop. Maru played a more economy oriented build, going for a fast expansion at his backdoor base. While TY killed off some SCVs with focus fire, he didn't quite get the damage he needed with his drop. After holding off the early attack, Maru moved out with his tanks and started laying siege to TY's main from the south side of Golden Wall (TY had expanded to the northern side and kept his backdoor minerals closed). However, Maru was a bit too eager with this counterattack, as he left his main wide open to yet another cloaked banshee follow-up from TY. Two cloaked banshees did severe damage to Maru's economy once more (a total of 25 SCVs lost since the start of the game), putting Maru in a difficult position.
For a while, it looked like Maru might be forced to play out the 3-base vs 3-base macro game from a disadvantage, with him claiming the south side of the map while TY dominated the north. However, it soon became TY's turn to be overaggressive with an advantage, giving Maru a way back into the game. TY marched his main marine-tank army across the north side of the map, around the same time that Maru had gathered his forces for another push through the southern pass. Rather than pull his troops back to defend, TY decided he would have to base trade, sending his troops to attack Maru's backdoor expansion (the central mineral wall had been mined out, connecting north and south). While TY had a slightly bigger army, Maru had a 20~30 second head start. And, more importantly, the two players' decisions on where to take their naturals meant Maru was starting the base trade from inside TY's main (ferrying his troops across the backdoor mineral wall), while TY started the basetrade at Maru's natural.
TY lifted his buildings to reestablish a new 'main' base at his natural, but soon found his relocated home under siege tank fire from the high ground. That forcedTY to float his buildings and relocate all his bases yet again, with his usual 'third' becoming his new 'main,' while his gold mineral base became his 'natural' expansion. Meanwhile, on the other side of the map, TY was stopped after clearing out Maru's backdoor expansion, as he was unable to push through Maru's high ground tanks and into the main. TY pulled his troops back to defend his newly established bases, ceding back control of Maru's backdoor expansion and resetting the game at a bizarrely even two-base vs two-base state.
This highly unusual situation must have been extremely difficult to assess, and Maru ended up erring on the side of even more offense. Noticing the wide gap between TY's two bases, Maru made a feint to draw TY's troops north toward the new 'main' before making a quick U-turn for an attack on the 'natural' at the gold base. Unfortunately for Maru, going in blind into the gold base cost him dearly, as some well-positioned tanks blasted apart the marines coming up the ramp.
There would be little time for anyone to take a breather, as TY soon gathered his marines for an attack through the northern pass. Given how the series had gone thus far, it was no surprise to see Maru respond by mobilizing his troops for a simultaneous counterattack from the south. But unlike the first base trade, the terrain features of Golden Wall now worked in TY's favor. TY had already relocated all of his important buildings, and had no need to hold his old main and natural. On the other hand, Maru's main had mined out, and its high ground advantage no longer held any meaning. TY's forces razed all of Maru's mining bases, while Maru's forces were halted outside TY's mineral-laden new main. Left without any income, Maru GG'd out.
Game 6 - Pillars of Gold: Both players went for factory-before-CC builds to start, with TY teching up to a Marine drop while Maru went for the more defensive play by starting tank production earlier. In any case, both players played passively for the time being, going up three bases and macroing up.
TY made the first major move, pushing forward as if to start a siege, but loading up three medivacs with marines for a drop in the main when he perceived an opening. However, defensive auto-turrets and a well-placed tank shut down the attack with ease, giving Maru a brief window to be aggressive. Maru rolled out with his main ground army, starting a low-ground siege just outside of TY's natural.
Following the theme of the series, TY decided the best move here was to counterattack. While Maru's tanks could only pick off some outlying buildings and units while struggling to advance further, TY's drop into Maru's main hit a sweet spot and killed off several SCVs. This decisive move swung the momentum of the match in TY's favor, and Maru was forced to pull back his tanks and adopt a more defensive posture.
However, by that point, TY had established air control with a higher viking and liberator count, and was ready to mount a serious offensive. While Maru proved to be a tenacious defender, his inability to take back air control meant he could not directly challenge TY's main army. Though TY made a few sloppy plays that allowed Maru to take favorable trades, ultimately he snowballed his advantage into a fourth and final victory.
