Cure enjoyed his biggest success of his recent hot streak, beating out Maru to take first place in his GSL round-of-8 group. While Maru had no trouble securing the second place spot in the group, his loss added to growing concerns about his TvT. The two Terrans move on to compete in the same-day semifinals & grand finals in the Code S studio, played on Thursday, May 18 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00).
The GSL's last Protoss hope Classic couldn't overcome an unlucky group draw against arguably the two best TvP players in the world (Cure and Maru) and was eliminated in third place. However, for his 5th-6th place finish in Code S, he earned a seeded spot at ESL Masters Summer in Sweden. Finally, GuMiho finished in last place, unable to get a map win.
The Code S RO8 will continue Group B on Thursday, May 11 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00), with Bunny, Solar, Dark, and ByuN competing for the final two RO4 spots.
The group began with Maru taking a 2-0 over GuMiho in a one-sided match. GuMiho's fast Marauder drop build didn't achieve much of anything in game one, and Maru rode his early advantage to a straightforward win. Game two saw GuMiho set up for a low-ground siege of Maru's main, only to have Maru somehow sneak his own army across the entire map for a game-ending backdoor attack.
The other opening match also ended in a 2-0, where Cure punished Classic with strong early-game play. Cure played an aggressive Marine drop + Hellion opener in game one, executing a two-prong attack to put the hurt on Classic's economy. Classic Blink-Stalker counter attack failed to even up the situation, and he was forced to GG out against a superior Terran army. Cure proceeded to go for all-out cheese in game two, proxying every single one of his production buildings for a proxy Hellion-into-armory-Mine-drop-into-Thor-all-in. This unusual strategy worked perfectly, giving Cure a quick victory.
Despite having struggled historically against Maru, Cure played fantastically on the night to take a 2-1 victory in the winners' match. Maru went with proxy 2-Barracks Reapers to start the series, but was thwarted by Cure's capable defense. Maru followed up by sacrificing his units to harass Cure's economy, which seemed to put him in a precarious position against a counterattack. But, as is often the case in TvT, Maru had things under control, and he held off Cure's low-econ all-in to win the game.
Maru went for proxy Reapers again in game two, but this time Cure had a carefully planned counter. Once his scouting SCV saw the empty main of his opponent, he built a proxy Factory inside the opponent's main, in addition to the typical Rax-Factory defense at home. Cure held off Maru's Reapers once more, and then surprised him with hidden Hellions for a quick victory. In the post-match interview, Cure said he had been waiting for over a year to use this counter.
The final game on Altitude started with a quiet build-up, as both players established three bases without much fuss. However, the expansive nature of the map caused the two players to miss each other's initial move-outs with Marine-Medivac, leading to a hectic semi-basetrade. Maru handled the situation better, destroying Cure's third base to take a 3-to-2 Orbital advantage.
Cure went all-out on offense to try and turn the game around, and it paid off in spectacular fashion. Having three bases ended up being a disadvantage for Maru against Cure's multi-directional attacks, as he was too stretched out to properly defend every base. Cure ran Maru ragged with a rapid-fire series of attacks, and the dazzling display of multitasking eventually forced the GG out of Maru.
Down in the losers' match, Classic took a fairly comfortable 2-0 over GuMiho to temporarily keep himself in the RO4 running. GuMiho couldn't find a way to pierce Classic's Phoenix-Colossus opener in either game, and ended up tapping out to a superior Protoss army/economy both times.
Unfortunately for Classic, Maru proved to be far more adept at early-game aggression when they met in the decider match. Game one saw Maru go for a fast 3-Reaper 2-Hellion strike, which killed 9 Probes and set Maru up to win with a 2-base push.
Classic tried to turn the tables on Maru with some fast 2-Gate Adept pressure in game two, but he couldn't achieve anything against Maru's safe play. Considering that playing against Maru on even economy is already a hard enough task, it was no surprise that Classic got steamrolled after his disadvantageous start.
Could someone tell me how to get studio tickets for the finals? I am currently in Korea and would love to see them live. I may not make it for the 1st semi finals though and am worried to not get into the studio because it's already full.
Now I am watching the guys on group B trying to avoid that 1st place like plague. Not saying Cure is bad or anything, but Dark and especially Solar would love to have that 2nd place. Maybe Byun can take it because he has beaten Maru a couple times already.
On May 10 2023 11:40 Vindicare605 wrote: Damn it Maru. Why are you so predictable, donating a game in a series you should win because you want to be cute and do the same proxy twice in a row?
Considering he gave up 3 games in a row in the World Championship Final for doing the same stupid tank push, or gave up 3 games doing 2 racks proxy against Protoss in another Final, thats becoming his trademark at this point. Take a good game then lost them all in predictable build, Maru style.
Maru Cure g3 was crazy, i was thinking "literally the only way for Cure to win this is for him to go for a drop while Maru starts to move out". Then I see him get in and kill some SCVs and snipe an OC. Then i thought, oh Maru cleaned up Cure's drop, he's going to want to push to punish Cure for sac'ing his army supply like that. Then i was like... Cure is still behind and the only way to come back is to drop him again while Maru is trying to move out. And holy crap he did and it actually worked, he waited just the right amount of seconds both times for Maru to be out of position enough for the drops to do damage, and for Maru to feel like Cure wasn't going to drop.
Cure really made the only play he could to give him a chance, and that chance was sniping the OC to spur Maru into counter pushing, and then made the only play he could to use that chance to turn into a real comeback, and Maru actually just let it happen lol.
It was really sick watching in person, props to Cure. RIP Gumiho and Classic, it's kind of crazy seeing how hard they were outclassed vs Maru... is Maru really THAT good? Remember that Gumiho was one of those GomTvTers back then who was able to hold his own vs MVP, Ryung, the rest of SlayerS, etc.
Those stat lines for MUs with Protoss involvement read horrible Just about 25% / 33% wins for Toss in either MU. Sad to not have any1 left to cheer for.
On May 10 2023 14:19 Yoshi Kirishima wrote: It was really sick watching in person, props to Cure. RIP Gumiho and Classic, it's kind of crazy seeing how hard they were outclassed vs Maru... is Maru really THAT good? Remember that Gumiho was one of those GomTvTers back then who was able to hold his own vs MVP, Ryung, the rest of SlayerS, etc.
Well...yes and no. Of course Maru is good, most likely (certainly) the best terran of all time. But while GuMiho is good, he isn't that good to be fair. And you can't really compare his TvT with something two addons and like a decade ago. And while I love Classic, he cleary isn't as good as he was before his military service, when I think Artosis called him the Gatekeeper, that player you had to take out if you wanted to go far in a tournament.
On May 11 2023 06:32 CaRn1FeX wrote: Those stat lines for MUs with Protoss involvement read horrible Just about 25% / 33% wins for Toss in either MU. Sad to not have any1 left to cheer for.
But hey, good thing they buffed observer speed, right? It's been a really meaningful change to the game.
And to think this is the last sc2 patch. After Blizzard pulled out of supporting sc2 I don't think we'll get another.
On May 11 2023 06:32 CaRn1FeX wrote: Those stat lines for MUs with Protoss involvement read horrible Just about 25% / 33% wins for Toss in either MU. Sad to not have any1 left to cheer for.
But hey, good thing they buffed observer speed, right? It's been a really meaningful change to the game.
And to think this is the last sc2 patch. After Blizzard pulled out of supporting sc2 I don't think we'll get another.
I'll switch to obs only armies, maybe that's how it's now supposed to be played Seriously, I'm really afraid of Protoss doing even worse going forward. Hopefully the pros prove me wrong, though. GSL 1 wasn't a good start for Protoss for sure.
On May 12 2023 04:43 Woosixion wrote: are we ready to admit that terran is OP
You could flip literally 2 games and you'd likely have equal T/Z representation (1 game from DRG vs Byun and 1 from Dark vs Bunny).
The only thing that's clear is that P is the weakest race which makes sense since they were already the weakest race and then got a pretty terrible patch. Zerg is completely fine in both matchups and is favored vs P. Z losing at IEM and here was just variance.
EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/GSL/2023/codes1/ro8grouparesults.jpg)
Cure enjoyed his biggest success of his recent hot streak, beating out Maru to take first place in his GSL round-of-8 group. While 
Just about 25% / 33% wins for Toss in either MU. Sad to not have any1 left to cheer for.
