Afreeca has announced the match-ups for the return of Code A for 2021 GSL season 1. The season is set to start on Monday, March 22. Indeed the GSL broadcast schedule this year will be different from the past few years, with matches taking place Monday/Thursday at 18:30 KST (as opposed to Wednesday 18:30 KST/Saturday 13:00 KST).

Code A will take place across 3 matchdays, with a total of 8 best of 5 matches to determine the players who advance to Code S. The infamous GSL Ro16 group selection will take place right after the final Code A match.

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Elentos

55562 Posts

March 13 2021 09:45 GMT

Of course with the Code A format it was inevitable for some high end players to have a bad roll of the die. But PartinG vs Dark is extremely high on the side of bad things that could have happened. Also sOs and Percival and Stats and Bunny were in the same qualifier groups so here's my obligatory complaint about them playing immediately.

Poll: Match of death?

PartinG vs Dark (144)

62%

Cure vs ByuN (38)

16%

TY vs Prince (17)

7%

Stats vs Bunny (8)

3%

sOs vs Percival (7)

3%

Maru vs Creator (6)

3%

RagnaroK vs Hurricane (6)

3%

DRG vs SpeCial (5)

2%

231 total votes

Your vote: Match of death?

(Vote): TY vs Prince
(Vote): sOs vs Percival
(Vote): Maru vs Creator
(Vote): DRG vs SpeCial
(Vote): Cure vs ByuN
(Vote): RagnaroK vs Hurricane
(Vote): Stats vs Bunny
(Vote): PartinG vs Dark

sneakyfox

8216 Posts

March 13 2021 11:33 GMT

Ouch, PartinG v Dark and Cure v ByuN are disgusting, as is Stats-Bunny.

Looking forward to the GSL starting again.

Even though it sucks for Americas, I'm happy that they dropped the early broadcast. It had become a bad fit now that progamers have to stay up all night to participate in online tournaments.

Andi_Goldberger

Germany1608 Posts

March 13 2021 13:29 GMT

parting vs dark is brutal for the bigboy wtf

Selfishly I hope they keep the 1830kst schedule for code S, 5 AM GSL always hurt

[PkF] Wire

France24238 Posts

March 13 2021 14:21 GMT

Of course we were bound to get unfortunate match-ups, but damn, PartinG - Dark, Stats - Bunny, ByuN - Cure, those are hard ones !

Looking forward to the tourney

dbRic1203

Germany2655 Posts

March 13 2021 16:32 GMT

Man one of SOS and Percival gets to the Ro16 while one of Dark and Parting is eliminated allready.

rwala

327 Posts

March 13 2021 17:26 GMT

Is this a new format something akin to the OG Code A format? It seems weird to me that 2 out of Cure, Byun, Dark, and PartinG wouldn't be in the group stages

catplanetcatplanet

3830 Posts

March 13 2021 18:03 GMT

i've returned to the opinion that cure is overrated so he'll probably smack byun. Parting vs dark is definitely wild though. I worry that a fair number of these series will be onesided tbh, don't think this format is good for underdogs.

Maru vs creator prime reunion. I dunno if they've played against each other since maru made creator cry in proleague

InvictusRage

United States230 Posts

March 13 2021 20:44 GMT

On March 14 2021 02:26 rwala wrote:
Is this a new format something akin to the OG Code A format? It seems weird to me that 2 out of Cure, Byun, Dark, and PartinG wouldn't be in the group stages

This is basically re-branding what used to be the Code S Round of 24 as 'Code A'. Not entirely sure why; lot more opportunity for major players to be unavoidably eliminated when the format is single-elim Bo5 instead of group stage.

Elentos

55562 Posts

March 13 2021 21:02 GMT

#10

On March 14 2021 01:32 dbRic1203 wrote:
Man one of SOS and Percival gets to the Ro16 while one of Dark and Parting is eliminated allready.

I mean sOs earned the higher seed by 2-0'ing Dark, to be fair.

ZAWGURN

96 Posts

March 14 2021 03:35 GMT

#11

apparently all the Team NV players are playing against each other

neutralrobot

Australia1025 Posts

March 14 2021 05:14 GMT

#12

On March 14 2021 03:03 catplanetcatplanet wrote:
i've returned to the opinion that cure is overrated so he'll probably smack byun. Parting vs dark is definitely wild though. I worry that a fair number of these series will be onesided tbh, don't think this format is good for underdogs.

Maru vs creator prime reunion. I dunno if they've played against each other since maru made creator cry in proleague

Maru vs Creator is the saddest match I can think of. Maybe it's because I see Creator as a really tragic figure in general, but goddamn. Creator should get crushed. And by his former long-time teammate, who totally eclipsed him.