• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 15:01
CEST 21:01
KST 04:01
  • 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
[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off6[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway132v2 & SC: Evo Complete: Weekend Double Feature4Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy9uThermal's 2v2 Tour: $15,000 Main Event18
Community News
Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax2Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris30Weekly Cups (Aug 11-17): MaxPax triples again!13Weekly Cups (Aug 4-10): MaxPax wins a triple6SC2's Safe House 2 - October 18 & 195
StarCraft 2
General
Geoff 'iNcontroL' Robinson has passed away Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax What mix of new and old maps do you want in the next 1v1 ladder pool? (SC2) : 2v2 & SC: Evo Complete: Weekend Double Feature The GOAT ranking of GOAT rankings
Tourneys
Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Monday Nights Weeklies Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2)
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 488 What Goes Around Mutation # 487 Think Fast Mutation # 486 Watch the Skies Mutation # 485 Death from Below
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Flash On His 2010 "God" Form, Mind Games, vs JD [ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off BW General Discussion No Rain in ASL20?
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro24 Group D [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL20] Ro24 Group B [ASL20] Ro24 Group C
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting Muta micro map competition
Other Games
General Games
General RTS Discussion Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Dawn of War IV Path of Exile
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
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine The year 2050 European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
INnoVation Fan Club SKT1 Classic Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
High temperatures on bridge(s) Gtx660 graphics card replacement Installation of Windows 10 suck at "just a moment"
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TeamLiquid Team Shirt On Sale
Blogs
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Breaking the Meta: Non-Stand…
TrAiDoS
INDEPENDIENTE LA CTM
XenOsky
[Girl blog} My fema…
artosisisthebest
Sharpening the Filtration…
frozenclaw
ASL S20 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 3935 users

Code S RO16 Preview - herO, Solar, Cure, KeeN

Forum Index > SC2 General
9 CommentsPost a Reply

Code S RO16 Preview - herO, Solar, Cure, KeeN

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
April 26th, 2023 06:22 GMT

2023 GSL Code S Season 1

RO16 Group B Preview: herO, KeeN, Cure, Solar

Start time: Thursday, Apr 27 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00)

by Wax

Group B highlights how Code S contracting from twenty to sixteen players in the first round has heightened the stakes. herO, Cure, and Solar are all candidates to make deep runs this season, but at least one of them will suffer the bitter pain of elimination by the end of the night.

More info: GSL Code S Season 1 on Liquipedia


herO

Maru was the most notable victim of the Oliveira tidal wave at IEM Katowice, but one round before that, herO was also swept aside in the semifinals.

herO seems to have decided that the best way to blow off steam from losing at StarCraft II is to play even more (something he has in common with our readers?), diving headlong into pre-season competition and racking up a whopping 348 tournament games played.

His results were a bit of a mixed bag. On the plus side, he won one of the larger pre-season tournaments in the Wardi Korean Royale, taking out Maru by a 4-3 scoreline in the grand finals. Less encouraging were his struggles in the high-stakes Gamers8 qualifier, where he lost to GuMiho, Maru, and Cure, and only advanced to the lucrative main event on his very last chance (albeit, in a 3-0 over Bunny). herO was a very strong player in the smaller cups of the pre-season, though not quite the hyper-dominant force he was at around this time last year. Put it all together and it feels like herO has lost a small, teeny bit of his shine when compared to the best players of the other factions, but he still remains one of the top contenders to win Code S alongside Maru and Dark.

Pre-season results suggest this could be a tricky group for herO, as he's gone 4-5 in matches vs Cure and 1-3 against Solar. In the old GSL, I would have brushed those numbers off as online nonsense, and picked the steely herO to beat his notoriously inconsistent opponents in the GSL studio. Actually, I'm still going to do that—herO is by far the most trustworthy big match player in this group. However, with the new GSL RO16 taking place entirely online, I have to at least wonder if herO is in danger of getting Oliveira'd once more.

KeeN

In a video package before Group A, DongRaeGu mentioned that KeeN making it to Code S was the biggest surprise of the qualifier. While this was partially a jest between former MVP teammates, there definitely was some substance to this jab. KeeN only managed to qualify for one out of three Code S seasons in 2022, and went out in the RO20 of the one tournament he did play in. When he disappeared from tournament play toward the end of 2022, I had to wonder if he was preparing for retirement.

Instead, KeeN came back in March, and somehow managed to qualify for Code S by beating both Armani and Creator.

Right now, I'm inclined to say it was a lucky run from a player with a solid baseline skill level. Creator's results have been very erratic lately—some might say he's in a slump. KeeN beating a shaky Creator 2-1 isn't the craziest result, even if he hasn't been playing much StarCraft II according to DRG.

While it must have been a pleasant surprise for KeeN to make it to Code S, this is almost certainly where his journey ends. I'll pick a potential match vs Cure as the one place where KeeN might sniff an upset, as TvT has been his most impressive match-up when he's on his game.

Cure

Cure has the unfortunate distinction of being the least memorable member of the "what the f*** Oliveira?" club, getting knocked out of the IEM Katowice group stage on the back of a loss to the Normal Man. But even without the Chinese and international communities memeing him into oblivion, Cure found more than enough internal motivation to have a productive pre-season.

Similar to herO, Cure played over 300 tournament games in the weeks after Katowice. He was somewhat overshadowed by the many online monsters who decided to go hard during the off-season—namely Dark, herO, and MaxPax—but he still came out looking quite strong at #9 in the Aligulac.com standings (if nothing else, a good measure of online prowess). If I had to pick the highlight of Cure's pre-season, it would be his awe-inspiring performance in the WTL Winter grand finals where he crushed both Reynor (3-0) and Oliveira (2-0) to win DPG another championship.

As mentioned in the herO section, the GSL's shift to online play for the group stages could be an enormous boon for Cure. Even if it's only during the online stages, he has a chance to bring back the brilliant play from his Code S championship run in 2021.

Solar

I would have been tempted to lump Cure and Solar into the same preview section in the past, running with the narrative of them being highly skilled players who fall apart in big competitions.

However, Solar has made some serious strides toward shedding that reputation in the past few months. His championship run at Super Tournament 2 in December was an important milestone—even if was just a 'tier 2' major, it still marked Solar's best performance under pressure in years (arguably since he finished runner-up to Stats at Assembly 2019). He followed that up with a very respectable top eight finish at IEM Katowice, losing to Maru in the quarterfinals.

More recently, Solar made another breakthrough, getting a bit of revenge by smashing Maru 3-0 in the Gamers8 Qualifiers. Sure, there were some extenuating circumstances around the match—it was an upper-bracket match where both players knew they had plenty more chances if they lost, which may have been the reason Maru went for unorthodox speed-Banshee and/or mech builds in every game. Even so, the fact that Solar calmly dealt with the trickery from his arch-nemesis to book his ticket to a $400k tournament had to mean something.

Besides that very notable win, Solar hasn't exactly been killing it in the pre-season compared to some of his peers. Yet, due to Solar's big picture progress, I have quite a bit of confidence in him headed into a new year of GSL.

Predictions

Despite herO's losing record against Cure and Solar in the pre-season, I still have to pick him to advance because he has played much better in big tournaments like Code S. In the same vein, I'm picking Solar to claim the other RO8 ticket instead of Cure, due to his superior play in recent major competitions.

Conveniently, my somewhat crude prediction method produces the same result as Aligulac.com. The stats website's formula gives herO a 78.45% chance of advancing, and has Solar narrowly beating out Cure by 60.74% to 55.23% (KeeN lags far behind at 5.58%).

herO > KeeN
Cure > Solar
herO > Cure
Solar > KeeN
Solar > Cure

herO and Solar to advance.



Credits and acknowledgements

Writer: Wax
Images: AfreecaTV
Records and Statistics: Aligulac.com and Liquipedia

Facebook Twitter Reddit
TL+ Member
ssg
Profile Joined July 2011
United States1773 Posts
April 26 2023 13:35 GMT
#2
Damn the computers really hate keen
Evefection
Profile Joined June 2021
8 Posts
April 27 2023 00:48 GMT
#3
On April 26 2023 22:35 ssg wrote:
Damn the computers really hate keen


You mean the computers are not keen on his chances.
tigera6
Profile Joined March 2021
3398 Posts
April 27 2023 03:46 GMT
#4
its not out of the question that Cure and Solar will both beat out herO this time around, seeing how he seems to be a bit shaky with his recent result.
sdgtj
Profile Joined April 2023
1 Post
April 27 2023 15:03 GMT
#5
--- Nuked ---
daveseth
Profile Joined July 2023
1 Post
July 19 2023 10:56 GMT
#6
--- Nuked ---
Creager
Profile Joined February 2011
Germany1895 Posts
Last Edited: 2023-07-19 12:48:30
July 19 2023 12:47 GMT
#7
On April 27 2023 09:48 Evefection wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 26 2023 22:35 ssg wrote:
Damn the computers really hate keen


You mean the computers are not keen on his chances.


Obligatory gif insertion:

+ Show Spoiler +

[image loading]
... einmal mit Profis spielen!
makus
Profile Joined July 2023
1 Post
July 28 2023 20:33 GMT
#8
--- Nuked ---
mudasir5454
Profile Joined September 2023
1 Post
September 10 2023 22:23 GMT
#9
--- Nuked ---
[Phantom]
Profile Blog Joined August 2013
Mexico2170 Posts
September 10 2023 23:09 GMT
#10
So the games are back to being offline?

Did people stop supporting gsl?
WriterTeamLiquid Staff writer since 2014 @Mortal_Phantom
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
RotterdaM Event
15:00
Rotti's All Random Finals
RotterdaM1375
IndyStarCraft 257
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RotterdaM 1375
Reynor 280
IndyStarCraft 257
mouzHeroMarine 222
Hui .114
BRAT_OK 105
ProTech103
UpATreeSC 95
MindelVK 29
StarCraft: Brood War
Mini 493
Larva 383
Dewaltoss 136
firebathero 121
Aegong 45
scan(afreeca) 30
HiyA 12
IntoTheRainbow 10
Beast 2
Dota 2
XaKoH 373
Pyrionflax101
Counter-Strike
fl0m1666
Stewie2K243
kRYSTAL_73
PGG 16
Heroes of the Storm
Liquid`Hasu189
Other Games
Grubby2125
FrodaN1414
C9.Mang0159
KnowMe130
Trikslyr67
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 20 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 51
• LUISG 8
• Kozan
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• intothetv
• IndyKCrew
StarCraft: Brood War
• 80smullet 14
• Pr0nogo 5
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• masondota22114
• WagamamaTV792
League of Legends
• Jankos1503
• TFBlade937
Counter-Strike
• imaqtpie852
Other Games
• Shiphtur164
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
4h 59m
Afreeca Starleague
14h 59m
Rush vs TBD
TBD vs Mong
WardiTV Summer Champion…
15h 59m
Cure vs Classic
ByuN vs TBD
herO vs TBD
TBD vs NightMare
TBD vs MaxPax
OSC
16h 59m
PiGosaur Monday
1d 4h
Afreeca Starleague
1d 14h
herO vs TBD
Royal vs Barracks
Replay Cast
2 days
The PondCast
2 days
WardiTV Summer Champion…
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
[ Show More ]
LiuLi Cup
3 days
MaxPax vs TriGGeR
ByuN vs herO
Cure vs Rogue
Classic vs HeRoMaRinE
Cosmonarchy
3 days
OyAji vs Sziky
Sziky vs WolFix
WolFix vs OyAji
BSL Team Wars
3 days
Team Hawk vs Team Dewalt
BSL Team Wars
3 days
Team Hawk vs Team Bonyth
SC Evo League
4 days
TaeJa vs Cure
Rogue vs threepoint
ByuN vs Creator
MaNa vs Classic
Maestros of the Game
4 days
[BSL 2025] Weekly
4 days
SC Evo League
5 days
Maestros of the Game
5 days
BSL Team Wars
5 days
Team Bonyth vs Team Sziky
BSL Team Wars
5 days
Team Dewalt vs Team Sziky
Monday Night Weeklies
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSLAN 3
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
HCC Europe

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Qualifiers
ASL Season 20
CSL Season 18: Qualifier 1
Acropolis #4 - TS1
SEL Season 2 Championship
WardiTV Summer 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025

Upcoming

CSL Season 18: Qualifier 2
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
BSL Season 21
BSL 21 Team A
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
EC S1
Sisters' Call Cup
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
CS Asia Championships 2025
Roobet Cup 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
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.