• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 10:37
CEST 16:37
KST 23:37
  • 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 Tall10HomeStory 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
Weekly Cups (June 30 - July 6): Classic Doubles5[BSL20] Non-Korean Championship 4x BSL + 4x China9Flash Announces Hiatus From ASL66Weekly Cups (June 23-29): Reynor in world title form?14FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event23
StarCraft 2
General
The GOAT ranking of GOAT rankings Weekly Cups (June 30 - July 6): Classic Doubles Jim claims he and Firefly were involved in match-fixing Esports World Cup 2025 - Final Player Roster Statistics for vetoed/disliked maps
Tourneys
FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series WardiTV Mondays Korean Starcraft League Week 77
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 481 Fear and Lava Mutation # 480 Moths to the Flame Mutation # 479 Worn Out Welcome Mutation # 478 Instant Karma
Brood War
General
ASL20 Preliminary Maps i aint gon lie to u bruh... BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ [ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall SC uni coach streams logging into betting site
Tourneys
[BSL20] Non-Korean Championship 4x BSL + 4x China [BSL20] Grand Finals - Sunday 20:00 CET CSL Xiamen International Invitational The Casual Games of the Week Thread
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers I am doing this better than progamers do.
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread 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
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative Summer Games Done Quick 2025! Summer Games Done Quick 2024!
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club! Maru Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion NBA General 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
momentary artworks from des…
tankgirl
Culture Clash in Video Games…
TrAiDoS
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 612 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 States1770 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
3347 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
Germany1891 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
Next event in 1h 23m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Creator 104
StarCraft: Brood War
Bisu 1991
Shuttle 1513
firebathero 1240
EffOrt 975
Mini 650
Hyuk 616
GuemChi 530
Larva 509
Soulkey 408
PianO 334
[ Show more ]
Snow 263
Mind 174
Soma 154
ToSsGirL 148
Rush 135
Pusan 96
Barracks 77
Sharp 69
Hyun 69
JYJ37
Aegong 35
Movie 29
soO 24
yabsab 22
Sacsri 20
HiyA 18
JulyZerg 18
GoRush 17
Terrorterran 15
Free 15
IntoTheRainbow 13
Bale 11
ivOry 3
Dota 2
Gorgc11488
qojqva2691
XcaliburYe222
syndereN220
League of Legends
singsing2300
Dendi1260
Counter-Strike
fl0m386
flusha335
kRYSTAL_187
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King65
Other Games
tarik_tv26011
gofns20466
B2W.Neo1317
hiko906
DeMusliM474
FrodaN430
crisheroes380
Lowko354
Pyrionflax125
ArmadaUGS97
QueenE58
Rex22
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick38680
StarCraft 2
angryscii 52
StarCraft: Brood War
Kim Chul Min (afreeca) 10
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• poizon28 8
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Nemesis6247
• TFBlade683
Upcoming Events
WardiTV European League
1h 23m
MaNa vs sebesdes
Mixu vs Fjant
ByuN vs HeRoMaRinE
ShoWTimE vs goblin
Gerald vs Babymarine
Krystianer vs YoungYakov
PiGosaur Monday
9h 23m
The PondCast
19h 23m
WardiTV European League
21h 23m
Jumy vs NightPhoenix
Percival vs Nicoract
ArT vs HiGhDrA
MaxPax vs Harstem
Scarlett vs Shameless
SKillous vs uThermal
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
1d 1h
Replay Cast
1d 9h
RSL Revival
1d 19h
ByuN vs SHIN
Clem vs Reynor
Replay Cast
2 days
RSL Revival
2 days
Classic vs Cure
FEL
3 days
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
3 days
FEL
3 days
FEL
4 days
CSO Cup
4 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
4 days
Bonyth vs QiaoGege
Dewalt vs Fengzi
Hawk vs Zhanhun
Sziky vs Mihu
Mihu vs QiaoGege
Zhanhun vs Sziky
Fengzi vs Hawk
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
RSL Revival
4 days
FEL
5 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
5 days
Bonyth vs Dewalt
QiaoGege vs Dewalt
Hawk vs Bonyth
Sziky vs Fengzi
Mihu vs Zhanhun
QiaoGege vs Zhanhun
Fengzi vs Mihu
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

BSL Season 20
HSC XXVII
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
Acropolis #3
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
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

Upcoming

2025 ACS Season 2: Qualifier
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSL Xiamen Invitational
2025 ACS Season 2
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
SEL Season 2 Championship
FEL Cracov 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
Underdog Cup #2
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.