The final day of Super Tournament 3 looks to be a Terran vs Zerg extravaganza, with Cure vs Rogue and Solar vs Maru being set as our semifinal matches.
The Super Tournament will conclude on Thursday, Dec 02 8:00am GMT (GMT+00:00) with the semifinals and grand finals, bringing an end to the 2021 GSL season.
The quarterfinal matches came up on the cheesy side, starting with Rogue and his 3-1 victory over Dark. The first map on Blackburn was quite the spectacle, with Rogue no-scout countering Dark's fast gold expansion with his own gold expansion... directly behind Dark's own gold minerals! Yet, despite destroying Dark's fast gold base with Spine Crawlers from his proxy-hatch/expansion, it took Rogue quite a while to close the game out. Dark somehow forced Rogue into a 20+ minute macro game before finally tapping out due to the resource disadvantage. The rest of the games in the series were rather quick and one-sided, with the success or failure of all-ins determining the victor.
Cure vs Trap picked up where their GSL semifinals series left off, with proxy-tactics figuring heavily on both sides. Still, not all the games were directly decided by who got a leg up in the early mind-games, and Cure took his 3-1 victory with all-around superior play. All-in-all, it was a series that once again reminded us of how different GSL matches and all other tournament matches can look.
Is the wife-buff for real? With his wife in attendance for his second straight match (the AfreecaTV studio recently opened back up), Solar took his second 3-0 sweep of the tournament against Zoun. No Queen-walks were required to defeat the 2-Stargate style, as Solar overpowered Zoun with great control of his Viper-Brood Lord-Hydra swarm in one game, and with Muta-Corruptor in another. Zoun tried to throw in one of his oft-used strategies in [Disruptor-drop -> Colossus all-in], but Solar was perfect on defense as well.
Finally, Maru took his expected 3-0 sweep over herO, but the DPG Protoss did manage to keep Maru on his toes with a variety of unorthodox openers. Despite herO's intent to flummox Maru early, the most memorable game of the series was a 30+ minute split-map war. Having given up the smallest of early leads to herO on Glittering Ashes, Maru seemed to think 'f*** it' and switched to all-out turtle mode. As is most often the case when Maru turtles, his opponent couldn't find a way to unlock the Terran defenses and was eventually worn down.
When did Solar get married?! Congrats to Kang Min-Soo on tying the knot with his forever love. That could be why his play has been phenomenal so far in this tournament. Wonder if he can pull off the upset vs. The Fourth Race.
Was expecting Trap to at least make it to the semis, but he's been in a bit of a slump the past two months.
Trap is a shaky player even when he's winning, and did anyone ACTUALLY think that herO had a chance in hell vs Maru? I mean seriously? He barely came back from the military and Maru is on one of the most dominant streaks he's ever had.
Zoun vs Solar was unexpected to be a 3-0 IMO, but Solar is a really good player and Zoun isn't that great vs Zerg in the first place.
It's not game balance that's causing these outcomes. It's a lack of actually good Protoss players, especially in Korea, especially with Parting leaving.
The well of talent in Korea is not very strong right now since most of the most skilled upcoming players are playing other games. So if we want to see a resurgence of new talent playing Protoss it has to come from Europe or North America. Either that, or we wait for the players that just came back like Classic and herO to get their skill back.
Man, protoss is really struggling right now. Looks like this is Maru's tournament to lose. I think we see him 3-0 Solar. Cure v Rogue should be a wild Bo5
On December 01 2021 05:28 Vindicare605 wrote: Trap is a shaky player even when he's winning, and did anyone ACTUALLY think that herO had a chance in hell vs Maru? I mean seriously? He barely came back from the military and Maru is on one of the most dominant streaks he's ever had.
Zoun vs Solar was unexpected to be a 3-0 IMO, but Solar is a really good player and Zoun isn't that great vs Zerg in the first place.
It's not game balance that's causing these outcomes. It's a lack of actually good Protoss players, especially in Korea, especially with Parting leaving.
The well of talent in Korea is not very strong right now since most of the most skilled upcoming players are playing other games. So if we want to see a resurgence of new talent playing Protoss it has to come from Europe or North America. Either that, or we wait for the players that just came back like Classic and herO to get their skill back.
I think Zoun's PvZ is very strong still. But to be very strong, that doesn't mean he will always win in every match against top KR Zerg because everyone would keep playing with each other and be able to read their playstyles. Zoun vs Solar was actually super close in head-to-head record too. Last time before Super Tournament, Zoun dismantled Solar 0-2 in NEXT, but then got avenged in Super Tournament. While Zoun is at the top, everyone else is also at the top as well. It's never an easy fight.
On December 01 2021 15:16 FataLe wrote: The toss golden years continue. Maru looking dominant as ever.
You do realize that after 2020 this year is actually a great year for Protoss? Did you miss the first half?
You say protoss but it's actually just Trap.
Ah, we count only victories and not 2nd places(e.g.). That makes sense, because why bother to the finals if you lose them, damn losers. (FYI Zoun didn't have a bad year either)
I agree that Protoss actually had a great first half of the year (and it wasn't just Trap) but if you just look at the last 5-6 major international events there's no denying they are doing terrible across the board right now. Code S season 3 was the only good event for Protoss since like July or August and they still lost. This is definitely the worst any race has done in a string of events since Terran in 2019. It could just be a blip but I doubt it. It seems like Zerg has just figured the matchup out.
On December 02 2021 04:23 JJH777 wrote: I agree that Protoss actually had a great first half of the year (and it wasn't just Trap) but if you just look at the last 5-6 major international events there's no denying they are doing terrible across the board right now. Code S season 3 was the only good event for Protoss since like July or August and they still lost. This is definitely the worst any race has done in a string of events since Terran in 2019. It could just be a blip but I doubt it. It seems like Zerg has just figured the matchup out.
It could also be a maps issue. That's the thing that always gets forgotten in the SC2 community.
On December 01 2021 05:28 Vindicare605 wrote: Trap is a shaky player even when he's winning, and did anyone ACTUALLY think that herO had a chance in hell vs Maru? I mean seriously? He barely came back from the military and Maru is on one of the most dominant streaks he's ever had.
Zoun vs Solar was unexpected to be a 3-0 IMO, but Solar is a really good player and Zoun isn't that great vs Zerg in the first place.
Rogue vs Dark was pretty cool too. Blackburn was a sick surprise in how it went thanks to Rogue. And Cure TvP was great.
On December 01 2021 15:16 FataLe wrote: The toss golden years continue. Maru looking dominant as ever.
You do realize that after 2020 this year is actually a great year for Protoss? Did you miss the first half?
Emphasis on years deacon, years. As in multiple.
if you insist on YEARS, MUTLIPLE, then do your research.
Between Rogues Blizzcon and november 2020(that's when I stopped updating my sheet according to windows) Zerg won 32 premiers, Protoss 8, Terran 13. Protoss is the weakest, right? Well, let's check 2nd places, Zerg 19, Terran 11, Protoss 23.
So, in that time slot, MULTIPLE YEARS, Zerg has 51 representatives in the finals, Terran 24, Protoss 31. But somehow PROTOSS HAS THE WORST!!!#!!!
Let's check personal statistics, if you remove the most winning Zerg of that phase(Serral, 13 titles), Zerg still has the most titles - 19 and with 38 they still have the biggest representation in the finals. While If you remove Maru(7) suddenly you get 6 Terran titles(oh noez) and 18 Terrans in the finals.
Compare that to Protoss from those MULTIPLE YEARS who don't have anyone who you could call a statistic outlier like Maru or Serral.
So yes, 2020 was a bad year for Protoss, yes, singular, yes Protoss didn't had such bad representation in the finals.
I wonder if I added up the missing tourneys how bad it would look for Terran, especially without Maru.
Edit> And yes, as long as everybody insists that NA is a premier tournaments number wise it will be skewed and I am really lazy to remove Astrea and Neeb from the equation, especially since Scarlett has good runs there too.
On December 01 2021 15:16 FataLe wrote: The toss golden years continue. Maru looking dominant as ever.
You do realize that after 2020 this year is actually a great year for Protoss? Did you miss the first half?
Emphasis on years deacon, years. As in multiple.
if you insist on YEARS, MUTLIPLE, then do your research.
Between Rogues Blizzcon and november 2020(that's when I stopped updating my sheet according to windows) Zerg won 32 premiers, Protoss 8, Terran 13. Protoss is the weakest, right? Well, let's check 2nd places, Zerg 19, Terran 11, Protoss 23.
So, in that time slot, MULTIPLE YEARS, Zerg has 51 representatives in the finals, Terran 24, Protoss 31. But somehow PROTOSS HAS THE WORST!!!#!!!
Let's check personal statistics, if you remove the most winning Zerg of that phase(Serral, 13 titles), Zerg still has the most titles - 19 and with 38 they still have the biggest representation in the finals. While If you remove Maru(7) suddenly you get 6 Terran titles(oh noez) and 18 Terrans in the finals.
Compare that to Protoss from those MULTIPLE YEARS who don't have anyone who you could call a statistic outlier like Maru or Serral.
So yes, 2020 was a bad year for Protoss, yes, singular, yes Protoss didn't had such bad representation in the finals.
I wonder if I added up the missing tourneys how bad it would look for Terran, especially without Maru.
Edit> And yes, as long as everybody insists that NA is a premier tournaments number wise it will be skewed and I am really lazy to remove Astrea and Neeb from the equation, especially since Scarlett has good runs there too.
I think you made my point for me. I'm more of a wins matter most type of guy. So I'll happily say it for you again, the Toss golden years continue.
EPT
Cure vs ![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/GSL/2021/st3/st3bracket_4.png)
