• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 03:34
CEST 09:34
KST 16:34
  • 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 Tall6HomeStory 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
Flash Announces Hiatus From ASL41Weekly Cups (June 23-29): Reynor in world title form?12FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event16Esports World Cup 2025 - Final Player Roster15Weekly Cups (June 16-22): Clem strikes back1
StarCraft 2
General
The SCII GOAT: A statistical Evaluation Esports World Cup 2025 - Final Player Roster How does the number of casters affect your enjoyment of esports? Statistics for vetoed/disliked maps Weekly Cups (June 23-29): Reynor in world title form?
Tourneys
RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series [GSL 2025] Code S: Season 2 - Semi Finals & Finals $5,100+ SEL Season 2 Championship (SC: Evo) FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event HomeStory Cup 27 (June 27-29)
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 480 Moths to the Flame Mutation # 479 Worn Out Welcome Mutation # 478 Instant Karma Mutation # 477 Slow and Steady
Brood War
General
Player “Jedi” cheat on CSL Help: rep cant save Flash Announces Hiatus From ASL [ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL20] GosuLeague RO16 - Tue & Wed 20:00+CET The Casual Games of the Week Thread [BSL20] ProLeague LB Final - Saturday 20:00 CET
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers I am doing this better than progamers do.
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread 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
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
Trading/Investing Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine US Politics Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI 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 Korean Music Discussion
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread NBA General Discussion Formula 1 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
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
Blog #2
tankgirl
Game Sound vs. Music: The Im…
TrAiDoS
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Heero Yuy & the Tax…
KrillinFromwales
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 494 users

GSL Super Tournament #1 - RO4 Preview (2022)

Forum Index > SC2 General
5 CommentsPost a Reply

GSL Super Tournament #1 - RO4 Preview (2022)

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
January 26th, 2022 19:58 GMT

2022 GSL Super Tournament 1 - RO4 Preview

Start time: Thursday, Jan 27 8:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)

Headed into the last day of the Super Tournament, a grand finals clash between #1 and 2 ranked Korean players Maru and Dark seems to be the likely outcome. However, the Protoss challengers can't be counted out—Zest is rounding into championship form ahead of IEM Katowice, while Zoun has a history of pulling off upsets in the Super Tournament.

(Wiki)2022 GSL: Super Tournament 1
[image loading]


Round of 4 - Match #1: Zest vs Maru

by Poopi

This is a clash at the pinnacle of the PvT match-up, with the two players holding the #1 spot in Aligulac's PvT and TvP rankings. Despite this, this match-up feels like a tough draw for Zest, which really goes to show how dominant Maru has been over the last few months. After a late 2021 triple at ASUS ROG Fall, King of Battles #2, and DHM: Winter where Maru beat virtually all the top players in the world, his momentum was briefly halted by Rogue in Super Tournament 3. However, he had another title run at DHM: Last Chance to start 2022 (albeit without Protoss opponents), making him look like one of the scariest title contenders ahead of IEM Katowice.

In terms of relative rating, Maru's TvP isn't quite as dominant as other #1 match-ups such as Serral's ZvP or his own TvT. But he still gaps Zest by nearly 200 points on Aligulac.com, which gives him a 65.66% chance of winning this BO5 series. In general, Maru does not really lose to Protoss nowadays. Ever since his painful quarterfinal loss 1-3 to Trap in Code S Season 3 of 2021, Maru is 20-2 in TvP matches (plus 2 draws in WTL). His only losses were to Prince's clever cheese in a WTL ace match (part of the Team GP miracle run that felled the likes of Dark and Rogue as well), and a 1-3 loss to Harstem playing cross-server on Europe during the TSL8 qualifiers. As for his wins, he's defeated plenty of mid-to-high tier opponents, including the likes of Neeb, MaxPax and ShoWTimE among foreigners and Trap, Classic, herO, Creator and Zest from the Korean contingent.

Zest is playing very well against Terran as well (he is the #1 rated PvT player after all), holding a 70%+ match win-rate at nearly all points during the last six months. The huge number of games he plays in online tournaments makes it hard to list every single notable win and loss, so it will suffice to say he's gone back and forth with all the top Terrans… except Maru (more on that in a bit). There's reason to be optimistic about Zest in the general, as he seems to be holding on to the chance of being able to play at IEM Katowice—though he won't 100% confirm it—and practicing hard for the opportunity. He previously admitted to taking things easy around November-December, but he seems to be returning to the impressive form that saw him become the only player to ever beat Rogue in an offline BO7 match in Code S Season 3.

Another ray of hope for Zest is that herO made Maru bleed in their RO8 match, narrowly losing the series 2-3. I however do not think that it is a good indicator for how this Zest vs Maru match will go, as herO leaned on cheesy tactics to get his wins—something Zest has been hit or miss with in the past. Still, herO isn't the worst proxy for Zest against Maru—I think he's one of the best PvT players at the moment, and he mows through plenty of non-Maru Terrans on his way to winning ESL Open Cups.

While I expect Zest to play well against Maru, I think predicting an outright victory is too much of a stretch. His long term head-to-head record against Maru paints a pretty grim picture: their overall match record is 20 wins, 12 losses, and 1 draw in Maru's favor, with Maru having won their last seven meetings. Not only that, but Maru won their last two GSL meetings in extremely one-sided fashion (albeit, they occurred long ago during Maru's dominant 2018 run), smashing him 4-0 in the Code S finals and 4-1 in the Code S RO4.

Also, as impressive as Zest's PvT record is, it's concerning how poor he can look when he's off his game. His Code S finals against Cure was particularly painful to watch in that regard, with Zest taking good leads and containing his opponent to an inferior economy, but throwing his entire army in doubtful trades to achieve very little. He gave Cure opportunities to claw his way back into the game, and like elite players often do, Cure capitalized and won the championship.

More recently, in his Super Tournament RO8 match against Bunny, Zest was nearly reverse-swept by Maru's teammate. His game on Glittering Ashes had him in a good spot with his Void-ray / Battery cheese, but committing too hard without a viable escape route cost him the game. He did not really throw the game on 2000 Atmospheres, but he went for the overzealous attacks that cost him once or twice per series, and he definitely can’t afford to do that against Maru in his current form. At least Zest seemed aware of this problem in an earlier Super Tournament interview, and he should be working on cleaning up his mistakes.

With Zest performing well nowadays, I expect him to take a game. However, he probably won't snap his losing streak to Maru just yet, Maru should qualify for the Super Tournament finals once more.

Prediction: Zest 1 - 3 Maru


Round of 4 - Match #2: Dark vs Zoun

by Wax

While perhaps not a 'rivalry' in a strict sense, Dark and Zoun had one of the more peculiar StarCraft II relationships of 2021. After establishing himself as a Code S regular in 2020, Zoun showed even further improvement to start off 2021, finishing second place in the first Super Tournament of the year. Despite this, few would have predicted him to become a huge thorn in Dark's side midway through the year, not only eliminating him from Super Tournament #2 in a massive 3-2 upset, but also dealing him two BO3 defeats in NeXT Masters to cause a surprising group stage elimination.

Dark briefly set things straight by earning a close 3-2 victory over Zoun in TSL7, but Zoun got Dark back later in the World Team League by taking a 2-0 victory to lift underdogs Alpha X over Dark's super-team of Dragon Phoenix Gaming. Despite being an extremely strong ZvP player otherwise, it really felt like Dark was snake-bitten by Zoun in particular. It was as if Serral had an explicable weakness against Spirit, or Maru constantly found himself getting constantly tripped up by Solar—those kinds of things almost never happen in StarCraft II.

Since then, Dark has corrected course once more, winning his last three matches against Zoun—albeit in smaller events and qualifiers. Dark fans will want to believe he's put the 'Zoun problem' to bed: the plucky Protoss got lucky for a few months, but Dark is never going to underestimate him ever again. Personally, I'm not so sure, as a major tournament match differs greatly from any other setting.

Interestingly enough, Zoun hasn't needed to be particularly cheesy in order to defeat Dark—he's pulled off the upsets in fairly straight-up games. This is a bit of a surprise because we've seen him get utterly demolished by the likes of Rogue and Serral when playing his predictable Glaive-Adept into Disruptor builds, but he seems to have a little bit more success going for the ground-game against Dark. Also, it's often been defense that clinches the victory for Zoun, holding off the occasional Nydus or Queen-walk from Dark. Skytoss is also a strength for Zoun, but one might say that of most Code S-tier Protoss players these days if they're allowed to put their composition together.

Their quirky individual relationship notwithstanding, Dark is clearly the huge favorite on paper with a 73.44% chance of winning according to Aligulac.com. He stands as the #2 ZvP player at the time of writing, compared to Zoun who trails quite a bit at #7 in PvZ (he's recently been surpassed by herO and Creator, and even SKillous is right behind him). Yet, there are enough extenuating circumstances to make a case for Zoun. Not only does he have a history of success against Dark, but he's been exceptional in the Super Tournament as well. He's taken out the likes of Dark, Rogue, and Zest in previous tournaments, and in the current competition, he has already scored a massive 3-0 upset against one of the best TvP players in Cure.

When I add it all up, I still have to take Dark to win here—it's really only Rogue and Maru who have been able to challenge him in Korea in the last few months. Even though Zoun is looking red hot in this tournament with a 6-0 record so far, Dark has the same record and is looking even more dominant.

Prediction: Dark 3 - 2 Zoun





Writers: Poopi and Wax
Images: AfreecaTV
Statistics and records: Liquipedia and Aligulac.com

Facebook Twitter Reddit
TL+ Member
Die4Ever
Profile Joined August 2010
United States17665 Posts
January 26 2022 20:56 GMT
#2
Maru vs Dark plz
"Expert" mods4ever.com
Fango
Profile Joined July 2016
United Kingdom8987 Posts
January 27 2022 01:37 GMT
#3
Any of these four winning would be great. It's always nice seeing Maru or Dark in top form. They're both so unique in their races that you can't take your eyes of them.

Alternatively Zoun winning a championship would be great for both the scene and protoss. And Zest winning a final trophy before military would be fantastic.
Zest, sOs, PartinG, Dark, and Maru are the real champs. ROOT_herO is overrated. Snute, Serral, and Scarlett are the foreigner GOATs
Nakajin
Profile Blog Joined September 2014
Canada8989 Posts
January 27 2022 01:44 GMT
#4
This feels like Maru tournament to lose, but let's see if Zest of (probably) Dark have some magic up their sleeves.
Writerhttp://i.imgur.com/9p6ufcB.jpg
Argonauta
Profile Joined July 2016
Spain4906 Posts
January 27 2022 08:02 GMT
#5
Im secretly hoping for protoss upsets.
Rogue | Maru | Scarlett | Trap
TL+ Member
deacon.frost
Profile Joined February 2013
Czech Republic12129 Posts
January 27 2022 08:57 GMT
#6
These predictions
I imagine France should be able to take this unless Lilbow is busy practicing for Starcraft III. | KadaverBB is my fairy ban mother.
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 2h 26m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
trigger 30
StarCraft: Brood War
actioN 473
Nal_rA 205
JulyZerg 87
Rock 39
ajuk12(nOOB) 26
Noble 26
Bale 8
Dota 2
BananaSlamJamma228
XcaliburYe174
NeuroSwarm68
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K1379
shoxiejesuss346
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King237
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor163
Other Games
summit1g6994
shahzam1217
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick871
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 17 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH299
• OhrlRock 100
• Migwel
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• ZZZeroYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota287
League of Legends
• Rush1288
• Lourlo950
• Stunt460
• HappyZerGling109
Upcoming Events
The PondCast
2h 26m
RSL Revival
2h 26m
ByuN vs Classic
Clem vs Cham
WardiTV European League
8h 26m
Replay Cast
16h 26m
RSL Revival
1d 2h
herO vs SHIN
Reynor vs Cure
WardiTV European League
1d 8h
FEL
1d 8h
Korean StarCraft League
1d 19h
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
[ Show More ]
FEL
2 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
RSL Revival
3 days
FEL
3 days
BSL: ProLeague
3 days
Dewalt vs Bonyth
Replay Cast
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-06-28
HSC XXVII
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
BSL Season 20
Acropolis #3
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
Copa Latinoamericana 4
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
YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025

Upcoming

CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
SEL Season 2 Championship
FEL Cracov 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
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.