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The Code S round-of-6 saw two Terrans move on to the semifinals, but perhaps not in the order many fans expected. Bunny was the first player to secure his RO4 spot, winning in an enormous upset against TvT titan Maru. The victory ended Maru's streak of fifteen straight victories in BO5+ TvT matches that had persisted for over a year—poetically, it was actually Bunny who had handed him the previous loss.
Bunny's victory was especially impressive because he didn't have to employ any cheeses or unorthodox tactics, defeating Maru in relatively straight-forward games. In his winners' interview, Bunny mentioned that getting impatient and trying to kill Maru early often results in disaster, so he opted for a more measured, macro-based approach. In fact, Bunny said he prepared for the late-game as if he was Maru, unwittingly invoking the 'just play like Maru' meme from the foreign SC2 scene. TIME and GuMiho got special shoutouts for helping Bunny prepare, with Bunny dropping a rather amusing comment that he only went 50/50 in practice.
The 3rd seed match between DongRaeGu vs RagnaroK was an exact rematch from last season, where RagnaroK had won 3-1 in a cheese-laden series. However, this time around, DRG was able to prevail by the same scoreline, surviving multiple early-game gambits from his opponent.
The final showdown between DRG and Maru seemed like it might be a tight match at first, with DRG having defeated Maru 2-0 in the Round-of-10 and even having gone 2-1 against TvZ maven Clem in a recent World Team League match. However, the series was actually extremely one-sided in Maru's favor, as his plan of going for heavy 2-base play worked wonders. DRG basically spent all of his time defending as he lost in a 0-3 sweep.
With the RO6 concluded, the two semifinal matches of herO vs Bunny and Dark vs Maru have been set. Both matches will be played on Thursday, Jul 21 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00). Also, AfreecaTV announced that the Code S grand finals will be held on Friday, Jul 29 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00), with the Sangam Afreeca Colosseum (the site of the previous finals) as the venue.
Match Recaps
RO6 - #2 Seed Match: Maru [1 - 3] Bunny
Game 1 - Hardwire (Maru win): Bunny's initial harassment with a Tank and Medivac didn't get much done, but he soon gained an advantage with his first Raven by using it to pick off a couple of Tanks. However, this turned into a self-bait, with Bunny committing hard to a push that Maru cleaned up handily with the help of SCVs. Maru was left with enough of an army advantage to counterattack and force Bunny to GG.
Game 2 - Cosmic Sapphire (Bunny win): Maru tried to take advantage of the large map with a greedy opener that saw him get three Command Centers very quickly while Bunny opened with more conventional Factory-CC play. Despite the size of the map, Bunny was able to make Maru pay for his greed, using a low-ground siege and then a frontal attack to deal considerable SCV damage to Maru.
Maru tried to play defensively and drag the game out, but Bunny did a fantastic job of using continued drops and frontal attacks to prevent Maru from digging in. Maru eventually caved to Bunny's attacks and surrendered the map.
Game 3 - 2000 Atmospheres (Bunny win): Maru pulled out a peculiar 2-Starport Raven build in this game, getting to a Raven count of 7 very quickly. However, he didn't really use their energy in meaningful ways, with Bunny able to walk away from potentially dangerous skirmishes. That gave Bunny a window of opportunity where he had combat units against Maru's empty Ravens, and he took advantage of it with a couple of drops and frontal attacks that put Maru behind.
Maru was forced to play passive again, turtling up and trying to mass up Ravens for a late-game fight. He even added Ghosts and Nukes, though they didn't end up being that effective in this game (Maru later said he regretted not being able to show off his Ghost-style properly, as he had practiced using them as a counter in late-game Raven wars). Similarly to the previous game, Bunny was great at keeping his foot on the gas with constant attacks and drops, preventing Maru from achieving full defensive posture. After 23-minutes of trying to weather the storm, Maru had to GG out.
Game 4 - Curious Minds (Bunny win): Maru decided to play mech in game four, while Bunny went for more conventional bio play to start. Yet again, Maru found himself in an early/mid-game disadvantage, losing SCVs to Raven harassment and then losing a ton of SCVs and both of his Armories to a bio drop.
However, Maru actually managed to turtle successfully this time, fully recovering to split the map in half. Bunny responded by focusing on an air heavy composition with Vikings and Liberators, aided by a mid-size force of bio on the ground.
Maru seemed to be on his way to victory after winning a key battle and taking down a couple of key expansions for Bunny, but Bunny still had enough left in the bank to rebuild a max-supply army. Air control ended up being key for Bunny when he forced another major battle, this time establishing superior positioning against Maru's largely Thor-based anti-air. Bunny won this battle convincingly, and marched all the way to Maru's main to collect the final GG
RO6 - #3 Seed Match: DongRaeGu [3 - 1] RagnaroK
Game 1 - Hardwire (DRG win): The game opened with both players taking fast expansions, but RagnaroK quickly turned up the cheese quotient by building a fake Evolution Chamber before attempting a Zergling-flood off 17 workers. DongRaeGu's Overlord was able to detect this attack and give him just enough time to wall off and hold off the attack (getting a safety Baneling Nest early played a big part), leaving him with a huge economic advantage. All RagnaroK could do was launch a follow-up Ling-Bane all-in, and he GG'd out after it was inevitably stopped.
Game 2 - Curious Minds (DRG win): This game was an example of how little differences can snowball quickly in a mirror match. Both players went for typical 3-Hatch openers, but DongRaeGu managed to get away with greeding out a few more Drones while skirmishing slightly better with Ling-Bane-Roach. This led to 14-supply advantage at the 6:40 mark, which he used to launch an all-out attack and take the game.
Game 3 - Cosmic Sapphire (RagnaroK win): Despite the long distances on the map, the two players engaged in quite a bit of Ling-Bane skirmishing in the early game. RagnaroK came out with a big advantage in the process, as he exploited gaps in DRG's defense to cancel his third Hatchery twice. This led to RagnaroK taking a huge Roach advantage, and he finished DRG with one big attack.
Game 4 - Berlingrad (DRG win): RagnaroK opened Pool-Gas for a fast Zergling-Baneling attack, while DRG went for a Hatch-first build. Though RagnaroK was able to kill a whopping 12 Drones, this actually left the two players on fairly even footing once RagnaroK belatedly transitioned into a macro game.
After establishing their third bases, the two players diverged in army composition with DRG going for Ling-Ravager-Roach while RagnaroK went for almost purely Roaches. This seemed to favor RagnaroK at first, but DRG eventually found the combat angle he needed to overpower his opponent and force the last GG.
RO6 - Decider Match: Maru [3 - 0] DongRaeGu
Game 1 - Hardwire (Maru win): DongRaeGu opened pool-first for fast speedlings, taking advantage of Maru's tendency not to scout. While DRG might have done a lot of damage if he attacked immediately with his Zerglings, his decision to wait for speed actually gave Maru time to complete his wall and nullify the attack.
With the economy advantage in hand, Maru held off on making a third CC and simply massed Marine-Tank off two bases for a big attack. He was able to hit a great timing before DRG was anywhere close to having Baneling speed, and he smashed the Queen-Ling based defense to take the first win of the series.
Game 2 - Curious Minds (Maru win): DRG opened more conventionally this time while Maru went for some Hellion-Raven harassment before preparing another 2-base Marine-Tank timing. Despite getting off to a better start, DongRaeGu was only able to barely stop Maru's first attack. Maru continued to pile on the pressure, preventing DRG from stabilizing on defense. The addition of Liberators to the Marine-Tank force was what pushed DRG over the edge, forcing him to GG out.
Game 3 - 2000 Atmospheres (Maru win): Maru opened with a 2-1-1 style build this time, again committing to heavy 2-base aggression. In a similar pattern to game one, DRG was able to barely hold off the first Marine-Tank attack but was still vulnerable to later attacks. His decision to eschew upgrades for a Spire ended up hurting him as continued attacks from 1/1 infantry ended the game.
