Monday's one-sided sweeps gave way to a pair of explosive quarterfinal series on Thursday, as Dark and PartinG barely advanced past opponents and into the semifinals.
Dark's quarterfinal match against Rogue got off to an extremely strange and equally exhilarating start, with Dark's 12-pool Spine Crawler all-in resulting in draw. Neither player even agreed to a draw as is customary in such cases—StarCraft II's automatic stalemate detection kicked in and declared the game to be a tie. Then, Dark pulled out the exact same strategy in the rematch, this time narrowly winning after some hectic early game combat. While fan-favorite games tend to be ones that extend beyond fifteen minutes, the initial pair of the games from this series (the tie and the rematch) were some of the most entertaining 'fast' games to be had in StarCraft II.
Not to be outdone, Rogue brought out his own extreme early-game all-ins in the next two games, taking both Blackburn and Lightshade rather easily to go up 2-1 in the series. Things finally settled down once the two players headed to macro-map Romanticide for game four, with both of them establishing three bases for more standard play. Dark's Muta-Line-Baneling composition ended up prevailing against Rogue's ground-based army, as Dark's torrential attacks gradually wore Rogue down before a Lurker-based defense could become fully entrenched.
The two players reversed roles once again for the final showdown on Oblivion, with Rogue going for fast Mutalisks against Dark's Lair-less Roach-Baneling-Zerg aggression. This game was full of twists and turns, with Dark going for multiple busts but not quite succeeding at finishing Rogue off. At the same time, Rogue couldn't use his Mutalisks to gain a serious advantage, as he had to play in constant fear of damaging backdoor attacks from Dark. In the end, Dark's Spores and Queens were enough to establish a superior economy, which he used to overrun Rogue after a protracted game.
After the series, Dark said he was happier than if he had won a championship, referencing the many times Rogue had eliminated him in major tournaments. Along those lines, Dark seemed to think that the hardest part of the playoffs might be over, with Rogue having been the biggest threat to his championship aspirations.
The last quarterfinal match saw Zoun come close to pulling off a dramatic reverse-sweep against PartinG, but he ultimately threw away his chance at victory with a questionable engagement on the final map.
PartinG took the first two maps of Oblivion and Blackburn due to his cunning, exploiting the trend of 1-Gate-Stargate builds on maps with high-ground expansions. On Oblivion, he showed his opponent the 'standard' Stargate before cancelling it and going for a hidden Dark Templar drop, which forced a quick GG out of Zoun who had been preparing for a Phoenix war. Zoun then tried to go Stargate expand again on Blackburn, but ended up giving up another fast GG—this time to PartinG's proxy-Void Rays + 3-Gate Stalkers + Batteries.
In a move that was either born of sheer stubbornness or a multi-layered mind-game, Zoun went for Stargate expand yet again in game three on Oxide, which PartinG responded to by going for the same Void Ray + Stalker all-in. However, this time around, Zoun made an Oracle as the first unit out of his Stargate, killing off the enemy Probe that was supposed to start laying down a field of Shield Batteries. This, combined with some better micro from Zoun on the whole, allowed him stave off the attack and recover a point.
Game four on Romanticide seemed like it might deliver the first standard game of the series, but PartinG had another trick up his sleeve in the form of a hidden Dark Shrine. However, Zoun wasn't duped this time, sensing something was awry and setting up his defenses in time. A mostly standard game did play on out from that point, with Zoun having the advantage due to his less risky start. There weren't any further twists—Zoun was able to assemble a powerful army with more Immortals and Archons, which he used to end the game and tie the series.
PartinG's proxy tactics were growing less and less effective with every game of the series, and in game five, they almost backfired on him in a fatal way. His attempt to go for a hidden Dark Shrine was discovered extremely early, with Zoun able to pick off a Pylon and two Probes as a bonus. The game seemed like it was headed toward a similar ending as in game four, where Zoun would calmly snowball his early-game advantage into a more powerful mid-game army. PartinG himself later admitted he had almost given up once his proxy failed.
However, PartinG would end up being bailed out by his opponent's impatience. As the two players massed mid-game armies of Zealot-Archon-Immortal, Zoun decided to take an incredibly unwise fight. Despite having won the previous game due to having more Archons, this time Zoun charged headlong into PartinG's army despite seeing that he was clearly outnumbered on the Archon front. The fight ended in complete disaster for Zoun, allowing PartinG to survive a near reverse-sweep and book his ticket to the semifinals.
After the matches, an emotional PartinG talked about the intense practice regimen he had been putting himself through, and revealed his intent to get a notable result before beginning his military service.
Code S will resume on Monday, Jul 19 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00) with semifinal match #1: Bunny vs Trap.
"Neither player even agreed to a draw as is customary in such cases—StarCraft II's automatic stalemate detection kicked in and declared the game to be a tie." honestly that might've been the first time I've seen that happen in a pro game? can't think of any other games
On July 17 2021 07:47 Die4Ever wrote: "Neither player even agreed to a draw as is customary in such cases—StarCraft II's automatic stalemate detection kicked in and declared the game to be a tie." honestly that might've been the first time I've seen that happen in a pro game? can't think of any other games
Polt managed to get a draw against Strange in a game he was probably losing:
Tastosis are failing in their analysis a bit, talking Trap up as the biggest threat even as Parting beat Trap in the round of 16. Trap is too orthodox and will be beaten through strategy and preparation. Tasteless thinks Bunny/Dark as the least likely finalists, but I think it's the most likely.
Bunny's preparation is god like at the moment. Bunny beats Trap. Dark is overall much more skilled and consistent than Parting, in a beat of 7, Dark beats Parting.
Bunny/Dark is much harder to predict. On paper, Bunny's preparation should mean he wins. But finals day nerves might factor in.
Really nail-biting series for both. I'm glad both Dark and PartinG made to the semis.
Trap has a better chance of beating Bunny as most of the offline matches he lost to a Terran as of late has been none other than Maru. While Trap lost to Bunny in some of the GSL tournaments, he beat Bunny in a recent ST. My only concerns are that Trap is really predictable here, like Stats AND Bunny has the Terran who beat Trap a couple of times (MARU). If he can take notes from Maru, then Bunny can also take the series win. But since Trap has made it to a couple of finals, including GSL, I'll give him an edge here.
Parting vs Dark is gonna hard to determine. He barely lost a 3-2 to Dark in the previous season's qualifiers and I'm pretty sure he's gonna prepare a lot here, especially those crazy builds he's gonna do. Still gonna support PartinG the big boy here.
Trap has a better chance of beating Bunny as most of the offline matches he lost to a Terran as of late has been none other than Maru. While Trap lost to Bunny in some of the GSL tournaments, he beat Bunny in a recent ST. My only concerns are that Trap is really predictable here, like Stats AND Bunny has the Terran who beat Trap a couple of times (MARU). If he can take notes from Maru, then Bunny can also take the series win. But since Trap has made it to a couple of finals, including GSL, I'll give him an edge
Bunny has Maru on his team, and his prep game has been immaculate this season. No way he loses to Trap this time unless he just decides to give up on prepping for some reason.
On July 17 2021 12:46 Garbo1 wrote: Great, nail-biting series.
Tastosis are failing in their analysis a bit, talking Trap up as the biggest threat even as Parting beat Trap in the round of 16. Trap is too orthodox and will be beaten through strategy and preparation. Tasteless thinks Bunny/Dark as the least likely finalists, but I think it's the most likely.
Bunny's preparation is god like at the moment. Bunny beats Trap. Dark is overall much more skilled and consistent than Parting, in a beat of 7, Dark beats Parting.
Bunny/Dark is much harder to predict. On paper, Bunny's preparation should mean he wins. But finals day nerves might factor in.
trap will be the favorite against bunny for sure. i very much disagree with you and think he will pick bunny apart 4-1 or 4-0.
I also think dark beats parting. no idea about trap vs dark
Trap has a better chance of beating Bunny as most of the offline matches he lost to a Terran as of late has been none other than Maru. While Trap lost to Bunny in some of the GSL tournaments, he beat Bunny in a recent ST. My only concerns are that Trap is really predictable here, like Stats AND Bunny has the Terran who beat Trap a couple of times (MARU). If he can take notes from Maru, then Bunny can also take the series win. But since Trap has made it to a couple of finals, including GSL, I'll give him an edge
Bunny has Maru on his team, and his prep game has been immaculate this season. No way he loses to Trap this time unless he just decides to give up on prepping for some reason.
Preparation helps but it’s no magic, beating Trap in bo7 during GSL would be a huge upset for Bunny
We'll see. Trap is nowhere near unbeatable in his current form. His builds are stale and he relies on good reactive play, and even then he's not shown that he's 100% on top of it this season. I'm certain Bunny is going to out prep him.
Trap has a better chance of beating Bunny as most of the offline matches he lost to a Terran as of late has been none other than Maru. While Trap lost to Bunny in some of the GSL tournaments, he beat Bunny in a recent ST. My only concerns are that Trap is really predictable here, like Stats AND Bunny has the Terran who beat Trap a couple of times (MARU). If he can take notes from Maru, then Bunny can also take the series win. But since Trap has made it to a couple of finals, including GSL, I'll give him an edge
Bunny has Maru on his team, and his prep game has been immaculate this season. No way he loses to Trap this time unless he just decides to give up on prepping for some reason.
Preparation helps but it’s no magic, beating Trap in bo7 during GSL would be a huge upset for Bunny
I still see Trap as a favorite, but I tend to agree with Garbo that Bunny has had pristine prep so far (while playing really well overall) and that that could prove a huge asset especially against Trap. I think this is a far more open match than what meets the eye.
Ok guys, Trap is literally the hardest opponent for bunny to beat.
Trap is so good if he is at his best, that I think that bunny needs to be extremely lucky or sneaky to beat Trap in more than one or two games.
Dark vs parting clearly favors dark, but if parting can come up with one or two sneaky wins he can probably win the rest in makro games too. He just seems to not trust his own makro games enough.
PvP finals Trap vs Parting! Let's gooooo!
Any combination will be great though at this point, they all deserve it.
On July 18 2021 05:56 Garbo1 wrote: I don't know if I have a bias against Trap, I just don't see the skill that you guys are championing.
The guy may have been having a bad day but he still lost 4 out of 5 series' in his group at iem. Lost to Astrea man. Lost to Astrea.
You're underselling Trap though. He's the undisputed best Protoss at the moment. He had a horrible day in IEM, but for any tournament outside of IEM (before and after), he's been in ridiculously good form.
The thing about Trap is that he's not "flashy". He is just solid all round, excels at basic macro and micro, and I think has tremendous game sense at this point in time. He reads the game really well, and it's hard to surprise him. If you look at his wins against all the top opponents, like Maru/Reynor etc, there's nothing flashy, but he just has this sense of knowing when to go on the offensive, when to pull back, and has the killer instinct to go for the blow with just the right army composition. His army positioning is top-notch (an underrated and un"flashy" skill) as I think army positioning is so so so important for Protoss.
Having said all of that, this is the GSL where prep is paramount and anything can happen. That's why winning GSL is held in such high esteem, and such a hard tournament to win. It is also why we tend to see crazy games, with crazy strats, and sometimes clown fiestas.
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/GSL/2021/season2/bracket3.png)
