EPT
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The Code S RO20 came to a close with Group E, with RagnaroK coming out in first place thanks to heavy offensive-hatchery play that would have made Bly proud. Second place went to herO, who was playing in his first Code S tournament ever since his return from military service. His early game prowess was key in upsetting defending Code S champion Cure in two series to reach the RO10.
Last place finisher Bunny was eliminated without a single map win, but it was under very forgivable circumstances. While he did not have to play in a cast as originally feared due to a broken wrist, he had only been out of a cast and practicing for three days prior to the match according to the Korean commentators.
Ultimately, despite all the ruckus over the state of balance after the latest competitive patch in StarCraft II, the Code S RO20 concluded with a 'golden ratio' of four Zergs, three Terrans, and three Protoss headed to the next round.
The first ever Code S round-robin stage will begin on Monday, Apr 11 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00) with the first half of Group A, featuring Rogue, RagnaroK, Trap, ByuN, and Ryung.
Match Recaps
Group E
Initial Match #1: Cure [1 - 2] herO
Game 1 - Hardwire: Game one started off with some effective proxy-Reaper and Bunker harass from Cure, but herO got him back with a backdoor Reaper to delay the Terran expansion. Cure followed with a Mine-drop attempt, but decided not to force it against herO's well-positioned Stalkers.
Both players were slow to take their third bases, building up big armies off of two bases. herO's force centered on mass Zealots and Stalkers, looking to go for a frontal attack once he had two Templars with storm. Unfortunately, his poor micro meant he didn't even get a single storm off, and the attack turned into massacre as the Protoss army broke on the well-set Terran defenses. Even worse, Cure countered by Mine-dropping the undefended Protoss expansions, devastating herO's economy.
In typical herO fashion, he decided to play even MORE aggressively despite being behind, and placed his army in advanced positions on the map. Cure was just content to sit back and kill even more Probes with a backdoor Raven, prompting herO to go for a doomed last-ditch attack and GG out.
Game 2 - Glittering Ashes: A funny early game sequence saw Cure open with an Engineering Bay-block without any further scouting, while herO was actually going for a fast proxy-Stargate off one base. It didn't take long for Cure to notice something was awry, but he decided to forge ahead with his own proxy-strategy in a Hellion drop. As for herO, he started cranking out Oracles while clearing his natural for an expansion.
Cure was prepared for the first Oracle that came in and fended it off, soon after which he dropped 3 Hellions in herO's main to get a good catch of 7 Probes. However, herO's next attack of 3 Oracles hit back even harder, killing 11 SCVs (arguably herO could have just ended the game by directly attacking Cure's Marines, but he seemed to fear a hidden Mine in the mineral line). The action didn't end there, however, as Cure followed with a 3-Mine-Drop that killed 12 more Probes. Despite getting more kills, Cure still ended up being quite behind as herO had been playing a more economy-oriented build all along, while Cure had focused heavily on tech while delaying his expansion.
The action continued as Cure went for a 2-Medivac drop once he had stim, but it turned into a semi-base trade as herO went for a Blink Stalker + Oracle attack at around the same time. Again, herO lost more Probes than Cure, but his initial economic advantage still made it a worthwhile trade for him. Not long after, herO was able to mass a Zealot-Stalker army that Cure had no chance of stopping to collect his first victory.
Game 3 - Berlingrad: herO went for a quirky 2-Gate before expansion build for Adept harassment, but Cure's decision to play it safe and build his expansion Command Center in his main meant all herO could manage was some light pressure against the Terran wall.
In the meanwhile, herO expanded and transitioned to Stargate play, and then got in some excellent harassment with a small number of Adepts and Oracles before Cure had Medivacs and Stim. Whether it was always his plan or because he took early damage, Cure decided to stay on two bases and go for an SCV-pull all-in.
herO had opted to transition directly into mass Gateway units and skip Colossus tech, which meant he was caught at an awkward moment without any splash damage when Cure came knocking with his all-in army. herO took what seemed like the worst defensive battle ever, fighting just outside of Battery Overcharge range while most of his Zealots were armor-shredded by a Raven. Despite this awful initial engagement, herO still managed to barely survive with continued rounds of reinforcements. Cure had no choice but to try another all-in with the remaining half of his SCV's, but was again repulsed and had to GG.
Initial Match #2 RagnaroK [2 -0] Bunny:
Game 1 - Glittering Ashes: RagnaroK started off with a big build order advantage, plopping down an offensive Hatchery at Bunny's natural just seconds before Bunny sent his SCV down to try and build a Command Center (punishing his decision not to SCV scout). This ruined Bunny's CC-before-Barracks build, forcing him to pivot into a late Barracks-CC build and even pull six SCVs to hit the building Hatchery. RagnaroK just went for three base macro play behind this while canceling his offensive Hatchery at the last second.
Playing from behind, Bunny decided to go for an early Hellbat attack to try and get back in the game. RagnaroK actually looked like he might be in a little danger because he had Droned very heavily after his successful opener, but his greed paid off as he successfully defended the attack without taking economic damage. After that, it was just an easy clean-up job for RagnaroK, and he used his superior economy to Muta-Ling-Bane swarm his way to a victory.
Game 2 - Hardwire: Bunny scouted for an offensive Hatchery this time, and seeing nothing at his natural, went for a CC-first build again. However, RagnaroK was still going for another offensive Hatchery build—just a few screens away near the Terran third base. This mind-game worked beautifully for RagnaroK, and he was able to end the game easily with Ravagers from his offensive Hatchery.
Winners' Match: RagnaroK [2 - 0] herO
Game 1 - Blackburn: The offensive Hatcheries kept coming from RagnaroK as he opened with one directly at his opponent's gold base. herO played without Probe scouting, obliviously playing expansion into Stargate tech. herO was completely unprepared to handle a motley squad of 1 Queen, 1 Ravager, 2 Roaches, and a handful of Zerglings, and he GG'd out to the all-in attack.
Game 2 - Glittering Ashes: RagnaroK played an offensive Hatchery build for the fourth straight game, this time placing it directly at his opponent's natural while going for macro play back at home. herO responded by trying to make things weird, proxying his second Gateway near RagnaroK and then making a proxy-Battery directly next to the natural Hatchery. However, herO completely botched his counter-harassment by losing his very first Adept to a Drone-Ling surround, forcing him to give up on his attack and play macro with a very delayed expansion.
While herO made a desperate play by going for 2-Stargate Phoenixes, RagnaroK looked to use his advantage to end the game quickly with Nydus Worms. However, herO's patrolling units were able to detect two consecutive Nydus attempts before they could completely unload, and thwarting the attacks gave herO a lifeline back into the game.
Unfortunately for herO, his aggressive tendencies got the better of him as he soon went back on the offensive with an unusual composition of Phoenix-Stalker-Disruptor. His army was too small to be challenging Zerg expansions, and RagnaroK's Roach-Ravager-Corruptor made a big dent in the Protoss forces. Pivotally, herO lost most of his Phoenixes in that failed attack, which triggered a big Mutalisk transition from RagnaroK.
While herO's desire to be aggressive and out on the map caused some chaos for RagnaroK, he also couldn't really deal with the mobility of Mutalisks on his own end of the map. Mutalisks slowly picked herO apart until he was forced to GG.
Losers' Match: Cure [2 - 0] Bunny
Game 1 - Hardwire: Both sides opened with Factory expansions, but plans diverged as Cure went for a fast Reactor to crank out a lot of early Reapers and Hellions, while Bunny played a more defensive build. However, Bunny still wasn't totally ready for a strong early strike from Cure, with Reapers jet-packing up into the main while Hellions followed in a Medivac. Cure inflicted significant damage to both Bunny's economy and army, putting himself in a very good situation. Cure was able to roll to victory from there, smashing Bunny in the first and last main army fight of the game.
Game 2 - Pride of Altaris: Cure opened with a proxy-Barracks in Bunny's natural for Marauder play, but Bunny scouted it in time to just expand inside his main and defend his wall. While there were some cute Mag-field upgraded Cyclone plays from Cure after that, but there wasn't much truly significant action as the two players went into the typical Pride of Altaris late-game buildup.
Cure was the first player to attack after a lengthy lull, sending his near-max army to lay siege to the enemy fourth. However, he couldn't get in range to force a CC lift, and he pulled back to play for an even slower, half-map split game. Bunny was happy to follow along, and both players started transitioning out of Bio and Tanks and more into Ravens and Vikings.
After a continued standoff, Bunny finally tried to force his way through the center of the map but failed to break through Cure's Tank line. Then, Bunny committed the brutal error of sending most of his air units to deal with a single Medivac drop, which Cure mercilessly punished by pushing through the middle himself. Cure then started to really push forward using his Raven-Viking advantage, laying siege to key expansions. He continued to choke Bunny out clinically from there, using his snowballing air advantage to finish him off.
Decider Match: Cure [0 - 2] herO
Game 1 - Hardwire: herO opened up with Stargate, while Cure looked to expand with some Marines and Mines on defense. However, he got a bit greedy and skipped a Bunker, which herO severely punished with great micro using a single Stalker and Oracle.
Playing from behind, Cure tried to change his fortunes with a big attack once he had stim and Medivacs, but herO's mass Blink-Stalkers + Guardian Shield allowed him to repel the attack and even take a great trade. herO gave back a bit of his lead in some reckless counter-attacks with his Stalkers, but it didn't slow him down too much as he added Colossus from 2 Robotics Facilities to his army.
Despite going up against a very Marauder-heavy army with Stalker-Colossus, herO's economy advantage let him overpower Cure by sheer strength of numbers and force a crucial liftoff on the Terran third. Disruptors were added to the Protoss army after that, allowing herO to put the final nail in the coffin.
Game 2 - Berlingrad: herO got his biggest early-game advantage yet as his defensive Phoenix build perfectly countered Cure's Mine-drop and destroyed every unit involved. Follow-up Phoenix harassment only put Cure further behind, and Cure was forced to go for a desperate 2-base all-in with SCV's in tow. As in the previous series, herO seemed like he might be in a dicey situation due to his late splash, but the numbers advantage of his Gateway units allowed him to stuff the all-in and stamp his ticket to the RO10.
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