• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 18:32
CEST 00:32
KST 07:32
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall10HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview18Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)16Code S RO4 & Finals Preview: herO, Rogue, Classic, GuMiho0TL Team Map Contest #5: Presented by Monster Energy6
Community News
Firefly given lifetime ban by ESIC following match-fixing investigation11$25,000 Streamerzone StarCraft Pro Series announced6Weekly Cups (June 30 - July 6): Classic Doubles6[BSL20] Non-Korean Championship 4x BSL + 4x China9Flash Announces Hiatus From ASL66
StarCraft 2
General
The SCII GOAT: A statistical Evaluation Firefly given lifetime ban by ESIC following match-fixing investigation TL Team Map Contest #4: Winners Weekly Cups (June 30 - July 6): Classic Doubles The GOAT ranking of GOAT rankings
Tourneys
$25,000 Streamerzone StarCraft Pro Series announced FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series WardiTV Mondays
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 481 Fear and Lava Mutation # 480 Moths to the Flame Mutation # 479 Worn Out Welcome Mutation # 478 Instant Karma
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ ASL20 Preliminary Maps [G] Progamer Settings [ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall SC uni coach streams logging into betting site
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL20] Non-Korean Championship 4x BSL + 4x China [BSL20] Grand Finals - Sunday 20:00 CET CSL Xiamen International Invitational
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers I am doing this better than progamers do.
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile What do you want from future RTS games? Beyond All Reason
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Positive Thoughts on Setting Up a Dual-Caliber FX
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Summer Games Done Quick 2025! Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club! Maru Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
Formula 1 Discussion 2024 - 2025 Football Thread NBA General Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NHL Playoffs 2024
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
momentary artworks from des…
tankgirl
Culture Clash in Video Games…
TrAiDoS
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 605 users

GSL Code A Season 1 - Day 1 Preview (2021)

Forum Index > SC2 General
15 CommentsPost a Reply

GSL Code A Season 1 - Day 1 Preview (2021)

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
March 21st, 2021 02:04 GMT

2021 GSL Code A Season 1 - Day 1 Preview

by Seracis

The 2021/22 ESL Pro Tour is set to begin in earnest with Global Starcraft II League Season 1. This year, the GSL format has changed considerably in the lower rounds of the competition, with the return of Code A being the most notable difference (GSL preliminaries have been called Code A in the past, but they didn't carry the weight of a 'true' Code A).

More info: GSL Code A Season 1 on Liquipedia

This new version of Code A is effectively a replacement for the first group stage of Code S (RO24/32), with 16 players facing off in a series of BO5 matches to determine who moves on to Code S. The eight Code A winners will join four Super Tournament seeds, alongside four first place finishers from the qualifiers to form the 16-player Code S roster. From there on out GSL follows its familiar old format, with GSL-style group play in the RO16 followed by single elimination playoffs.

Day 1: The PvT Fiesta

Start time: Monday, Mar 22 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00)

Code A players were seeded based on their performance in the double-elimination qualifiers, which also included extra matches for seeding purposes. This has led to some interesting pairings on later playdays, but the first slate of matches looks rather predictable to say the least.

We have three PvT’s with three legends of the Starcraft II scene facing three complete underdogs: TY, sOs and Maru will play against Prince, Percival and Creator respectively. Though Creator had a taste of glory in 2012, those days are far in the past. Meanwhile, Prince and Percival have barely any experience in the GSL (none, in the case of Percival).

But viewers should resist the urge to skip the opening matches, because the PvT meta is arguably in one of the most diverse states it has ever been in. At IEM Katowice we saw a wide range of builds from the Terran side. Fast 3CC and 4 Hellion drop builds are a flavor from last year, but they're still finding success in 2021. Even almost ancient ideas like 3-Rax timings have made a return over the past few months to catch greedy Protoss players off guard. From the Protoss perspective there is a wide range of options as well. While the established builds like defensive-Phoenix into Colossus or Blink with a fast third base still are solid choices, PvT experts Zest and PartinG also showed that more aggressive builds like 4 Gate Blink, DT drops, Phoenix into Chargelots, or PartinG’s new 17 Nexus 3 Gate might be even more effective than defensive approaches.

In particular, the PartinG build and Terran responses to it will be something to look out for, as PartinG piloted it to convincing victories against both INnoVation and TY at IEM Katowice. I expect this build to appear a few times, but it's hard to say for certain where the meta has settled since IEM. So, let’s take a look at the lineup for Code A day 1.

Match #1: TY vs Prince

TY barely needs any introduction as he finished the 2020/21 EPT Season in first place in the Korea standings, winning two out of three Code S championships on the year. Even though he lost to PartinG’s 17 Nexus trickery in the quarterfinals of IEM Katowice, he is still one of the strongest Terrans at the moment. The biggest surprise is how he failed to qualify directly for Code S on the first day of the qualifiers, giving up upsets to both Ragnarok and Creator.

The rather unheralded Prince is a Korean Protoss who made some waves by qualifying for Code S Season 2 last year. He may have lost the first match to Maru, but he managed to steal a map with a weird 6 Gate Chargelot timing. Prince ended up being eliminated in last place, but not before also taking a map off Scarlett with a cheeky cannon/ battery contain. It was a very Protoss-y showing from Prince, but interestingly enough, fans seemed to give him more appreciation than scorn for his creativity.

TY seems to struggle a bit versus aggressive Protoss styles and so far Prince has shown that he fits into that category quite well. If there is a potential for a close series on the first day of Code A, I would definitely predict this one out of the three matches. It’s going to be interesting to see what Prince may come up with. With some Protoss trickery there is definitely a chance that he may take a map or two.

...Or TY just roasts 20 Probes with a 4 Hellion drop at the 4minute mark three times in a row and ruins all hope of a close series.

Prediction: TY 3-0 Prince

Match #2: sOs vs Percival

sOs to me is still an eternal enigma. The only two-time BlizzCon champion has been a shadow of his former self with his best result last year being reaching the RO8 of IEM Katowice 2020. He didn’t even reach the Code S RO16 a single time in last year’s GSL, and he also failed to reach the main event of IEM Katowice 2021 after losing to both Dream and ByuN in the play-in stages. But he also got a higher Code A seed by beating Dark 2-0 in a seeding match, so there is that.

The interesting part about sOs’ PvT is that he has been opting to go for super standard Blink/Colossus builds in almost every single game, which is surprising, considering that the current state of PvT meta allows for a diverse range of strategies. While other Protosses are showcasing how effective aggressive and cheesy play can be, the most infamous Protoss trickster is playing mostly macro games. It's kind of ironic for someone who won a game by building a Nexus in his opponent's base and producing probes from it.

sOs' opponent is probably the most unknown and also one of the weakest players in the entirety Code A. The Korean Terran Percival is on a quest for his personal holy grail, the grail in this case being reaching Code S for the first time ever. He hasn't even come close to qualifying before, never reaching a qualifying match in previous preliminaries. This time around, he took out Patience 2-0 to arrive in Code A, already making it the best achievement in his SC2 career (the other contender for his best result would be second place in Olimoleague #219 where he got absolutely obliterated by Zest 3-0).

So, even though sOs isn’t in good shape and he seems to put himself behind every single game due to his rather weak mechanics, it still should be more than enough to handle his inexperienced Team NV teammate. Even though his recent games suggest otherwise, I feel like sOs will bring some refined cheddar again even if it only comes in the form of a fast proxy Void Ray build.

Prediction: sOs 3-0 Percival

Match #3: Maru vs Creator

2020/21 wasn't Maru's best campaign, but he still managed to win two tournaments, reach a Code S finals, and enter IEM Katowice 2021 as the #3 seed from Korea. At IEM, Maru just barely lost to Reynor 2-3 in a nail-biting semifinal series, and looked very much like a strong title contender.

Since Maru rarely participates in online cups, it’s hard to find up-to-date data for his PvT other than his really convincing performance against ShoWTimE at Katowice. He is 9-2 in PvT matches since November, only losing to Trap and Stats, which suggests that he should not have much trouble against a player like Creator.

That being said, Maru didn’t have the cleanest path to Code A, losing to Armani 0-2 in the final match of day 1 which cost him a direct Code S seed..

Creator's 2020 was quite miserable, at least compared to his time in the sun all the way back in 2012. Since then he has shown a spark of hope several times but still failed to qualify for a single Code S RO16 since his glory days. Last year, he qualified for two seasons of Code S, and even got close to reaching the RO16 in Season 3. However, the pressure overcame him in the crucial deciding series against Zest.

Creator defeated TY and sOs on day 1 of the Code A qualifiers, but couldn't pursue a direct Code S seed after losing to INnoVation. He earned his Code A spot on day 2, defeating a soft slate of opponents including NaTuRal and Billowy. Overall, it was a mixed qualifier performance, and not the most convincing one.

Maru’s recent performances don’t leave any doubts that he is the overwhelming favorite here. Creator is one of those players who doesn’t avoid long, drawn out games, a field in which Maru excels at. If Creator was facing a more inconsistent player who didn't want to play the late game like ByuN, I would give him some chance for a potential upset. But since it’s Maru, I have to go with the favorite here.

Prediction: Maru 3-0 Creator




Credits and acknowledgements

Writer: Seracis
Editor: Wax
Images: AfreecaTV
Records and Statistics: Aligulac.com and Liquipedia

Facebook Twitter Reddit
TL+ Member
atchosvk
Profile Joined April 2018
55 Posts
March 21 2021 06:06 GMT
#2
Those predictions seem legit
Crocolisk Dundee
Profile Blog Joined October 2015
870 Posts
March 21 2021 07:44 GMT
#3
Head: TY, sOs, Maru
Heart: Prince, Percival, Creator
Stopped watching ESL content in 2022 when the company was acquired by Savvy Gaming Group. Also object to sponsorships by the U.S. Air Force. Thanks for the lively discussions about sportswashing. StarCraft II is not for me anymore.
gpanda
Profile Joined December 2017
36 Posts
March 21 2021 08:00 GMT
#4
Cannot believe 3:0 in TvP, esp. the match between Maru and Creator.
JustPassingBy
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
10776 Posts
Last Edited: 2021-03-21 10:09:33
March 21 2021 10:08 GMT
#5
I agree with the predictions, but I'm hoping against reason that not all series will be one-sided sweeps.

A shame that players are not given more time to prepare for their matches, I was hoping to see the lesser known players trying punch above their weight class with some special tactics.
Elentos
Profile Blog Joined February 2015
55510 Posts
March 21 2021 12:04 GMT
#6
On March 21 2021 19:08 JustPassingBy wrote:
I agree with the predictions, but I'm hoping against reason that not all series will be one-sided sweeps.

A shame that players are not given more time to prepare for their matches, I was hoping to see the lesser known players trying punch above their weight class with some special tactics.

These players had 8 full days to prepare and for later matchdays even more. That's enough time to prepare for GSL finals. If anything is gonna stop them from punching above their weight class it's who their opponents are.
Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes.
swarminfestor
Profile Joined September 2017
Malaysia2449 Posts
March 21 2021 12:37 GMT
#7
I hope Prince can get through TY.
Rogue & Maru fan boy. ^^
ZAWGURN
Profile Joined July 2018
96 Posts
March 21 2021 15:52 GMT
#8
They decided to put all the Team NV players on one day lol
CJ herO #1 fan.
blind429
Profile Joined September 2010
37 Posts
March 21 2021 17:55 GMT
#9
Is that a Korean with a mullet? I'm rooting for him.
Nakajin
Profile Blog Joined September 2014
Canada8989 Posts
March 21 2021 20:35 GMT
#10
You know it's a one sided day when Maru-Creator is the closest matchup
Writerhttp://i.imgur.com/9p6ufcB.jpg
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12129 Posts
March 21 2021 20:37 GMT
#11
JAGW team kill, directed by the team NV. Classic.
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
Vindicare605
Profile Blog Joined August 2011
United States16056 Posts
March 22 2021 04:37 GMT
#12
Really unlucky draw for Prince. I was hoping to see him make an appearance in Code S again. Oh well, at least I'll get to see him once this season.

Should be an easy 3-0 for Liquibets today.
aka: KTVindicare the Geeky Bartender
Edpayasugo
Profile Joined April 2013
United Kingdom2214 Posts
March 22 2021 09:18 GMT
#13
Hard to argue with these predictions!
FlaSh MMA INnoVation FanTaSy MKP TY Ryung | soO Dark Rogue | HuK PartinG Stork State
Poopi
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
France12790 Posts
March 22 2021 12:32 GMT
#14
Solid predictions only proved wrong on one instance by chad void rays
WriterMaru
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12129 Posts
March 22 2021 13:20 GMT
#15
On March 22 2021 21:32 Poopi wrote:
Solid predictions only proved wrong on one instance by chad void rays

Also not enough probe bbq
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
bulldozer06701
Profile Joined July 2019
123 Posts
March 22 2021 17:31 GMT
#16
I like the new guy - Percival. Looking forward to this terran's journey
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 1h 28m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
ZombieGrub160
JuggernautJason110
ProTech82
StarCraft: Brood War
Artosis 575
NaDa 51
LuMiX 2
League of Legends
Grubby3330
Counter-Strike
Fnx 1624
fl0m1318
taco 1293
Stewie2K842
sgares86
Super Smash Bros
Liquid`Ken61
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor183
Other Games
summit1g9339
C9.Mang0295
Maynarde88
Sick66
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick50614
BasetradeTV97
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 20 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• HeavenSC 40
• davetesta31
• RyuSc2 9
• Kozan
• sooper7s
• Migwel
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• intothetv
• IndyKCrew
StarCraft: Brood War
• Eskiya23 26
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota22555
League of Legends
• Jankos2220
• TFBlade847
Other Games
• imaqtpie1917
• Scarra554
• Shiphtur488
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
1h 28m
RSL Revival
11h 28m
ByuN vs SHIN
Clem vs Reynor
OSC
14h 28m
Replay Cast
1d 1h
RSL Revival
1d 11h
Classic vs Cure
FEL
1d 17h
OSC
1d 21h
RSL Revival
2 days
FEL
2 days
FEL
2 days
[ Show More ]
CSO Cup
2 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
2 days
Bonyth vs QiaoGege
Dewalt vs Fengzi
Hawk vs Zhanhun
Sziky vs Mihu
Mihu vs QiaoGege
Zhanhun vs Sziky
Fengzi vs Hawk
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
RSL Revival
3 days
FEL
3 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
3 days
Bonyth vs Dewalt
QiaoGege vs Dewalt
Hawk vs Bonyth
Sziky vs Fengzi
Mihu vs Zhanhun
QiaoGege vs Zhanhun
Fengzi vs Mihu
Replay Cast
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-07-07
HSC XXVII
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
Acropolis #3
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
Championship of Russia 2025
RSL Revival: Season 1
Murky Cup #2
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025

Upcoming

2025 ACS Season 2: Qualifier
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSL Xiamen Invitational
CSL Xiamen Invitational: ShowMatche
2025 ACS Season 2
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
SEL Season 2 Championship
FEL Cracov 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
Underdog Cup #2
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.