EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/GSL/2024/codes2/ro16grouparesults.jpg)
by Wax
Code S Season 2 began in eerily similar fashion as Season 1, with
Maru advancing in first place from his group after surviving some unexpected scares. While soO and SHIN were the ones to catch Maru off guard last season, this time it was TY who took an unexpected map off Maru. While Maru easily took games one and three in their initial series, the middle game featured a late-game masterclass from TY (VOD) that reminded us of exactly why he was the only player to be Maru's equal in TvT over the last six years.While TY had a worthy last dance with Maru, he was unable to overcome Creator in the losers' match and bowed out of the tournament. Unfortunately for TY fans, this would also be his final match in the GSL. TY had previously announced on his stream that this season of GSL would be his final farewell in StarCraft 2, and he would be switching his focus to Brood War afterward.
Unlike the previous season, Maru had no trouble taking down SHIN in the winners' match, leaving
SHIN and Creator to fight for the final second place spot in the group. SHIN had taken a pretty straight forward 2-0 against Creator in their initial match, but their return bout in the decider match ended up being much more chaotic. Perhaps due to nervousness in a do-or-die situation, both players ended up making unusual decisions and errors that turned all three games into scrappy but entertaining brawls. Ultimately, Creator navigated the tense situation with slightly more composure, and took the 2-1 victory to advance ot the RO8.Code S will resume on Thursday, May 09 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00) with herO, Reynor, soO, and GuMiho playing in Group B of the RO16.
Recommended Games
Maru vs TY - Game 2 (VOD): A precious farewell present from TY, reminding us of all his strategic and tactical brilliance.
Creator vs SHIN - All of the decider match (VOD): While this wasn't the cleanest match you'll see in the GSL, this series was definitely very entertaining. The desperation of both players was palpable in this series, as they refused to give up in tough situations and took wild swings to try and turn games around.
Match Recaps
Initial Match #1: Maru 2 - 1 TY
Game 1 - Oceanborn (Maru win): Following Reaper expansions from both players, Maru gained an edge in an early Reaper skirmish and leveraged it into a fast third Command Center. TY went for mech and attempted an early push with Tanks, Vikings, and Ravens, but Maru's economy and production had already come online by the time TY struck. Maru easily put down TY's push and counterattacked for a quick victory.
Game 2 - Alcyone(TY win): In stark contrast to his listless game 1 performance, TY turned back the clock in game 2 and defeated Maru in a thrilling late-game duel.
The early game went much better for TY this time around, with his Hellion-Reaper harass followed by Cloaked Banshees allowing him to macro up on even footing with Maru. Befitting two past and present masters of the TvT late-game, TY and Maru agreed to a figurative 10-minute no-rush pact and rushed straight ahead to their Sky/Mech compositions.
The first inflection point came when Maru decided to tech up even further to Battlecruisers while TY stayed on Viking-Tank for a while longer. TY noticed and exploited Maru's temporary weakness, securing the center of the map with BW-esque Tank-Turret lines and knocking out Maru's outermost expansions.
While the situation initially looked good for TY, it turned out to be a familiar scenario where Maru was just temporarily ceding ground before busting out with a fully assembled army. While TY had been belatedly catching up on BC tech, he was still outgunned by when Maru moved out with his 200/200 BC-Viking armada (much of this had to do with TY's tendency of overmaking SCV's and Maru having lost SCV's to TY's harassment). Maru's forces carved a line of destruction through the center of the map, defeated TY's forces in a key battle, and were on the verge of camping TY's production and ending the game. Only the timely arrival of Thors allowed TY to hold the line, but Maru still retreated with a solid lead.
The game seemed headed for a typical Maru snowball win, but he committed a rare error of judgment. He gathered another BC-Viking force and struck again, but vastly underestimated the firepower of the Thor-Viking army TY had gathered in the meanwhile. TY got in a couple of huge AOE missile volleys before the battle, which helped him take a decisive victory and force Maru's retreat (Maru later said in his interview that he previously thought Thors were weak, and he learned something that day). TY's counterattack nearly brought Maru to his knees, with only hastily produced Cyclones and Tanks allowing him to survive.
However, the game had flipped back in TY's favor, and he had a clever finishing move in store. With all of his Thors destroyed, TY switched back into BC-Viking—but this time with the army and resource advantage. Rather than face Maru in any head on fights, TY made the most of his mobility and forced Maru into a series of semi-basetrades around the remaining expansions. Maru had no chance of keeping up with TY in this situation, and eventually GG'd out after being picked apart.
Game 3 - Ghost River (Maru win): Maru went for quick revenge in the deciding game, going for a 2-Barracks Reaper build (1 proxied). The unscouted cheese forced a cancel on TY's low-ground expansion, and Maru was content to pocket the advantage and expand behind it. However, the game didn't end up going on for much longer, as TY gambled on going for 3-CC inside his main to try and catch up. TY was left with too few units (and some out of position) against Maru's 6-Reaper follow-up attack and took enormous economic damage. There was no need for Maru to play out his advantage slowly as he quickly finished TY off with some additional units.
Initial Match #2: SHIN 2 - Creator
Game 1 - Site Delta (SHIN win): Creator started off the series with an Oracle-Blink macro build, following up with 2-Robo Disruptors as his first tech option. On the other hand, SHIN stopped macroing up at 66 Drones, after which he committed fully to a Roach-Ravager timing with Drop-Overlord Queens in tow. SHIN hit the perfect window around 20 seconds before the first pair of Disruptors were ready and ended the game directly with his attack.
Game 2 - Oceanborn ( win): Creator changed up his approach in game two by going for 2 Stargate Phoenixes. However, a sacrifice Overlord scout quickly revealed his plan to SHIN, while his decision to skip Oracle (and late Stargates) allowed a light Zergling poke to prevent him from taking a third base.
Creator did his best to claw his way back from that bad position, harassing with a handful of Phoenixes and hastily transitioning to a ground force. As for SHIN, he prepared to end the game quickly with a Hydra-Baneling attack. In the end, SHIN had just a little too many units for Creator to defend against and he took another quick victory.
Winners' Match: Maru 2 - 0 SHIN
Game 1 - Site Delta (Maru win): Maru started off with a 2-Barracks Reaper expansion, applying some moderate pressure to SHIN's third base before transitioning into Hellion-Banshee. Overall, Maru's early game pressure slowed down SHIN enough that he could start his mid-game Marine-Tank pushes from an advantageous position.
Maru set up a tank position on one of the high ground ridges overlooking SHIN's expansions, and went about executing a series of careful but effective attacks. Without ever overextending himself, Maru continued to keep SHIN's economy and tech in check, and it took SHIN's best effort to survive until he could get Ultralisks out.
While SHIN did manage to take one strong engagement with Ultra-Hydra-Baneling, it wasn't enough to swing the momentum of the game. Maru's continued focus on taking down Zerg expansions paid off, and he eventually ground down SHIN on the strength of his economy.
Game 2 - Alcyone (Maru win): Maru tested SHIN with another 2-Barracks Reaper opener, but this time SHIN guessed correctly and delayed his third Hatchery appropriately. While evading early pressure helped SHIN get into the mid-game in better shape than in game one, it still came down to a difficult Hydra-Bane defense against Maru's Marine-Tank pressure.
Initially, the situation seemed to break in SHIN's favor, as he successfully delayed Maru and eventually achieved a full clean-up thanks to a well-executed flank. However, Maru had already built up a strong macro foundation back at home, and was soon knocking at SHIN's door once more with a stronger, better upgraded force. Round 2 didn't go nearly as well for SHIN, and Maru broke through the defensive line to take the victory.
Losers' Match: Creator 2 - 0 TY
Game 1 - Site Delta (Creator win): Creator went for a 3-Gate Blink opener to start, while TY prepared a 1/1/1 push after his expansion. TY aimed to strike up the center with a Marine-Tank force, while a Liberator and Viking hit two Probe lines at once. However, the attack wasn't coordinated perfectly, and Creator managed to take care of all three threats separately without taking too much Probe damage. However, the situation went awry when Creator looked to counterattack with his Stalkers, and he ended up giving up the lead to TY after losing too many units.
TY ramped up for a big infantry attack in the mid-game, while Creator macroed up and prepared to defend with Psi Storm. For a brief moment, it seemed like TY had an opportunity to crack open Creator's defense, but well-placed Storms ended up crushing the attack. From then on, TY couldn't take any straight up fights against Creator, and he was eventually snowballed into defeat.
Game 2 - Oceanborn (Creator win): Creator went for another 3-Gate Blink start, while TY changed his plan to go for a 3-Rax infantry pressure after expanding. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to apply any pressure at all, and Creator was able to macro up largely undisturbed. Once Creator put together his splash-damage deathball, TY had no choice but to surrender to the Protoss force's superior firepower.
Decider Match: Creator 2 - 1 SHIN
Game 1 - Alcyone (SHIN win): SHIN tried to disrupt Creator right from the start, delaying his opponent's expansion with an offensive Hatchery and following up with an offensive Extractor. Creator tried to flow into a normal macro game from there, but SHIN had more tricks in store as he tried to sneak in a Spire. While Creator's Oracles managed to scout the Spire rather quickly, it still ended up throwing a wrench in Creator's plans as he was forced to make 6 safety Phoenixes while SHIN didn't make a single Mutalisk.
This put Creator in a dicey spot in the mid-game when SHIN came to attack with his real army of Hydra-Lurker-Viper. It seemed like Creator just didn't have enough units to bridge his transition to Carriers, but the timely arrival of a Mothership (and the fact that SHIN only had one easily sniped Overseer) allowed Creator to hold.
However, Creator invited another crisis upon himself by counterattacking too quickly, leading to heavy losses against a reconstituted Zerg army. SHIN seized the opportunity to counter-counterattack, upon which Creator decided his only choice was to go for a desperation basetrade with his nascentCarrier task force.
Usually, desperation basetrades are a pointless last gasp effort, but somehow Creator was able to temporarily extend his life by getting the better of the exchange. Once the two players were done razing each other's bases and took a breather to collect themselves, Creator was left with a slightly better economy and arguably a stronger army.
It was an unusual scenario that could have gone either way, but Creator blew his hard-earned reprieve due to his poor reading of the situation and a series of mistakes (losing all his detection and refusing to make any more being key among them). SHIN stayed composed and capitalized on Creator's errors, leading to Creator's eventual surrender.
Game 2 - Oceanborn (Creator win): SHIN reverted back to normal-ish openers this time around, while Creator was the one to try something slightly unusual by bringing out the old school DT/Archon drop opener. However, SHIN's scouting Overlord detected the build in time, which left the two players to macro up fairly peacefully in the early stages of the game.
SHIN decided to go for a surprise Spire once more, and due to the lack of Stargate from Creator, this attempt went undetected. SHIN got out just a handful of Mutalisks, but they were sufficient to tie up Creator while SHIN grew his economy and teched to Hive. Still, it didn't seem like Creator was terribly bothered by being forced to stay at home, as his ultimate plan was an unusual maxout attack with mass Archons and Immortals as the core of his force.
This attack proved to be more interesting than effective, as SHIN smashed into it with a huge swarm of Banelings and cleaned it up with freshly hatched Ultralisks. However, Creator managed to divert some Zealots in the chaos, and his pickoff of a Hatchery and 20+ Drones prevented SHIN from taking an insurmountable lead.
Even so, SHIN was in the driver's seat after shutting down Creator's attack, and he planned to finish the game with BL-Infestor. As for Creator, he didn't have the resources or time to tech switch, and was committed to massing one more Archon-Immortal-Stalker army and attacking again.
This all seemed futile for Creator, but he managed to seize the one opportunity given to him. When SHIN threw some units away to free up supply for Corruptors, Creator immediately launched his attack. SHIN returned the favor from game one by suffering an all-around collapse of his own, wasting most of his Infestor mana on ineffective neural parasites, fighting with his ground forces before his Brood Lords were hatched, and then fighting with his Brood Lords before his new ground forces were hatched. This sequence of errors turned the game into a complete disaster for SHIN, he GG'd out with a bitter smile on his face.
Game 3 - Amphion (Creator win): Both players declined to take advantage of the unorthodox features of Amphion, expanding along the right side and playing it like a standard map. While Creator went for Oracles into Chargelots and Immortals, SHIN cut Drones at around 55 to go for a big Roach-Ravager-Zergling timing with dropped Queens.
The attack looked like it had the potential to end the game outright, but some well-placed force fields + a nearly full value Battery Overcharge helped Creator barely survive. However, the danger wasn't over just yet, as SHIN had built a Spire during the attack to prepare an abrupt Mutalisk follow-up attack. Creator looked to be in serious trouble when 10 Mutalisks arrived, but instead of striking the undefended Probe lines, SHIN went for the greedy play of trying to eliminate all of Creator's anti-air defenses first. Unfortunately for SHIN, he grossly underestimated his firepower and was easily fought off by reinforcing Phoenixes and Stalkers. To make matters worse, Creator snuck his remaining two Oracles across the map in the aftermath, surprising SHIN and picking off several Drones.
This left the two players with similar economies, but SHIN was stuck on Lair tech while Creator was slowly adding more Templars, Archons, and Immortals to his force. SHIN decided he had no choice but to go for broke and end the game on Lair tech, and assembled a large Roach-Ravager-Baneling force to smash into the Protoss defenses.
The first strike ended in somewhat of a draw, with the entire Zerg force getting wiped out but resetting the Protoss tech unit count. However, Creator got the decisive hold he needed during the second attack, hitting juicy storms and crushing the Zerg force. SHIN knew that there was no hope after that (and saw some Zealots warping into his main) and surrendered the series.
