EPT
![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/GSL/2024/codes2/ro16groupdresults.jpg)
by Wax
Season 2 truly seems to be the season of surprises, as another RO16 group concluded with an underdog advancing at a championship contender's expense. In Group D, it was
Solar who felt the bitter taste of early elimination, while DongRaeGu unexpectedly took first place with a 4-0 map record. Both initial matches started off with upsets, as DRG took a 2-0 over Solar and a much improved
NightMare defeated ByuN by the same score. DongRaeGu capitalized on the rare opportunity by taking down NightMare 2-0 in the winners' match, earning a theoretically advantageous #1 seed headed into the RO8.After ByuN narrowly triumphed 2-1 over Solar in the loser's match, he faced off once more against NightMare with the second RO8 ticket on the line. Using trickier build orders—as well as being more composed in the clutch—made the difference for ByuN in the rematch, and he won 2-0 to survive and play another round.
Code S will resume on Thursday, May 23 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00) with Cure, Rogue, Stats, Dark playing in Group C of the RO16 (Group C and D had their order switched).
Recommended Games
ByuN vs NightMare - Initial Match (VOD): None of the Group D games were particularly notable in terms of entertainment value, but some viewers might be interesting in checking out NightMare's initial 2-0 over ByuN to see the significant improvements he has made in recent months.
Match Recaps
Initial Match #1: DongRaeGu 2 - 0 Solar
Game 1 - Crimson Court (DRG win): Solar started with a regular fast expansion, while DRG opened Gas-Pool for a quick Speedling-Baneling strike off of one base. Upon seeing the enemy Zerglings, Solar sacrificed his natural and defended from his main base, while DRG decided not to commit much further to his attack. The two Zergs ended up progressing to a fairly normal macro game from the cheesy start, going up to three bases and amassing Roach-Ravager armies.
However, the Roach-Ravager phase didn't go on for very long, as the game was decided in the first clash between armies. While the Zerg two forces were similar in supply, DRG's higher Ravager count let him bring more firepower to bear, and he forced a GG out of Solar after taking a decisive victory.
Game 2 - Oceanborn (DRG win): Both players went for conventional 3-Hatch openers in game two, setting up a typical ZvZ tug-of-war on Oceanborn.
DRG got aggressive first with his Ling-Bane, picking off a handful of Drones and getting some high-value detonates on Solar's Zerglings. Solar briefly ceased Drone production to counterattack with Roach-Baneling, but DRG had more than enough Spines and Roaches to defend. The initiative went back to DRG, who sent his own Roaches forward for a counter-counterattack. Unfortunately for Solar, he had Droned too hard after his failed attack, and was crushed by DRG's counter.
Initial Match #2: NightMare 2 - 0 ByuN
Game 1 - Alcyone (NightMare win): Neither player looked to be aggressive in the early stages of the game, and they built up to three-base macro after some token harassment. NightMare delayed his Forges and tried to find a window to attack with mass Stalker-Zealot-Templar, but had to settle for some okay Storm drops before switching to a more long-term outlook.
The fighting began in earnest once the two players had their first maxed out armies, with NightMare fighting with Gateway units supported by Templars and Colossus while ByuN brought a Marine-Marauder core backed by Vikings and Ghosts. The two forces collided in a messy battle in the center of the map, as NightMare tried to execute a flanking maneuver that wasn't quite correctly timed. NightMare's splintered army, combined with some solid EMP's from ByuN, allowed the Terran army to win the battle and put NightMare on the back foot.
Having seized the initiative, ByuN got his signature multi-prong attacks to try and crack the Protoss defense. It initially seemed like NightMare would be picked apart like so many other Protoss players before him, but he proved to be surprisingly tenacious. Even with a few errors, he managed to survive several waves of attacks, and eventually came out with an economic lead. Once NightMare fully stabilized, he turned defensive into offense in an instant, taking advantage of ByuN's overaggressive positioning by taking out a key Terran expansion and dozens of SCV's with it.
This turned ByuN's bad economic situation into a catastrophic one, leaving him needing to get something done with his standing army. And, while NightMare did oblige ByuN by taking a handful of iffy fights, he had more than enough money to keep reinforcing and triumph over ByuN through strength of numbers.
Game 2 - Oceanborn (NightMare win): Game two started very similarly to game one, with both players building up to three bases without any serious early aggression. NightMare's follow-up was similar as well, delaying his upgrades briefly to build a big Stalker-Zealot-Templar force.
There was a little more action this time around, as NightMare attempted and quickly aborted a frontal attack, while in turn ByuN threatened and also gave up on a counterattack. Still, we had to wait until the two players assembled their near-max armies for the truly consequential fighting to begin.
This time, the first major action went hugely in NightMare's favor. ByuN split his army in half to try and get some multi-directional attacks going, but NightMare seized the opportunity and pounced on one half with his consolidated army. ByuN retreated and tried to regroup, giving NightMare an opening to force a lift-off at ByuN's crucial fourth base while killing a ton of SCV's. Feeling that ByuN was on the ropes, NightMare decided to keep reinforcing at the front and continued to dive into the Terran defensive lines. While it momentarily seemed like NightMare was overextending, in the end, ByuN could never stabilize his defenses and had to GG out.
Winners' Match: DongRaeGu 2 - 0 NightMare
Game 1 - Ghost River (DRG win): NightMare brought out an unusual strategy to start the series, opening 3-gate Glaive-Adepts, taking his third quickly, and then transitioning into mass Glaive-Adept + Stalkers. His intent seemed to be to fake out DRG with the threat of a typical Glaive-Adept harass into Adept-Immortal all-in pattern, but DRG stayed on top of all of NightMare's movements while balancing his Drone/army ratio appropriately.
When NightMare finally committed to attacking with his Stalker-Adept force, it was hard to see how it was supposed to have worked in theory. Even with DRG forgetting Baneling Speed, he easily defended with Roach-Bane at home while having enough troops to spare for a devastating backdoor attack on NightMare's third base. From there, it was all too easy for DRG to finish off the low-tech, low-econ Protoss with mass Roach-Ravager.
Game 2 - Oceanborn (DRG win): NightMare went for a more conventional Oracle 3-Base opener in game two, but quickly transitioned into another unusual strategy by plopping down two Robotics Facilities for a Stalker-Colossus timing.
Unfortunately for NightMare, disaster struck before he even finished producing his first Colossus. DRG found a gap in the Protoss wall and slipped Speedlings into the main, causing a distraction that made NightMare's Blink-Stalker feint attack completely fall apart. That gave DRG an opening to attack NightMare's third with Roach-Ling, which inflicted serious Probe and unit damage. When NightMare's Colossus finally came out, he had to use it to defend and stabilize, rather than go for an attack.
Severely set back in every way, NightMare had no choice but to pivot into a delayed all-in attack with Stalkers, Colossus, and Disruptors. However, DRG had already run away with the game by then, and simply brute-forced the Protoss army down with mass Roach-Ravager-Zergling.
Losers' Match: ByuN 2 - 1 Solar
Game 1 - Alcyone ( win): ByuN went for his signature 2-Barracks Reaper start, following it up into a greedy 3-base macro setup with fast double upgrades. Solar played a textbook macro style, defending with Hydra-Ling-Bane while eyeing an eventual transition to Lurker tech.
Solar's early game defense was on point, and he went up to five bases without much trouble. However, ByuN's fast upgrades gave him a very long window where he had a 2/2 upgrade advantage against the 1/0/1 Zerg, which he exploited to launch a deadly Marine-Tank push up the middle of the map. Solar opted not to fight the army head on, instead giving up two of his expansions while launching a big Ling-Bane counter that put a serious dent in ByuN's SCV count. When Solar finally hit 2/0/2 and cleared out the Terran force, the situation seemed to favor him slightly: he had managed to take a hidden expansion to make up for his losses, and he was very close to Lurker tech.
Still, ByuN had enough left in the tank for at least one more big attack, and would soon hit another extended upgrade advantage window of 3/3 vs 2/0/2. ByuN exploited this crucial window expertly, going all-out with both drops and frontal attacks. The heavy pressure made it so Solar could only afford to get a couple of Lurkers out, and ByuN's relentless pressure eventually caused a game-ending defensive collapse.
Game 2 - Crimson Court (Solar win): ByuN opened 2-Barracks Reapers again, following it with another 3-base setup. However, this time ByuN decided not to go for heavy 3-Base Marine-Medivac-Tank pressure, instead looking to play out a longer game. Solar changed up his strategy as well, teching quickly to Hive on Ling-Bane and getting both Ultralisk and Brood Lord tech.
All the timings worked out in Solar's favor, with his Brood Lords coming out before ByuN expected. Solar dealt ByuN a huge blow with Brood Lord-Baneling-Zergling before ByuN was fully entrenched on four bases, and then executed an Ultralisk tech switch to end the game.
Game 3 - Post-Youth (ByuN win): Both players got off to economy-centric starts on Post-Youth, rushing to take expansions and crank out workers. However, Solar was unprepared for ByuN's subsequent rush to Stim and Medivacs, and was caught off-guard by his first big move-out with Marines. The small Marine-Medivac force killed several transiting Drones and forced a cancel on the Zerg gold base, forcing Solar back into a defensive posture.
ByuN's early advantage let him set up a textbook two-prong attack, drawing all the Zerg attention to his main Marine-Tank force while another group of Marines struck at an undefended based. This caused a collapse on both fronts, forcing Solar to concede defeat.
Decider Match: ByuN 2 - 0 NightMare
Game 1 - Site Delta ( win): ByuN changed his opener drastically to begin the rematch, going for a greedy 3-CC before factory build. Meanwhile, NightMare stayed the course with his previously successful strategies, going up to 3 bases and rushing to Templars and Storm.
ByuN's greed helped him get a strong Marine-Medivac-Marauder force out quickly, and he moved out to pressure NightMare. NightMare attempted a few awkward maneuvers to delay Byun from crossing the map, but only ended up donating units needlessly. This gave ByuN the chance to play some signature ByuN TvP, dropping and attacking from multiple directions. ByuN sliced through the solid defense that had thwarted him in the previous series and took the 1-0 lead.
Game 2 - Oceanborn (ByuN win): Both players decided to change up their approaches wildly, as ByuN went for a fast 1/1/1 Marine-Cyclone-Tank timing while NightMare went for 4-Gate Blink-Stalkers. Neither player was aware of each other's strategy until the two forces met in the middle of the map, prompting NightMare to retreat and hastily prepare a defense.
NightMare decided to stall at his natural while teching to DT's, with a couple of Blink-Stalkers also backdooring in ByuN's main. As it turned out, NightMare didn't need DT's to stop ByuN's Tank push, as he managed to use Stalkers and an Immortal to clear out the encroaching force, though his Nexus HP dropped dangerously low in the process.
With his natural saved and DT tech complete, it seemed like NightMare was well on his way to victory. While keeping some DT's at home to defend against a follow-up push from ByuN, NightMare sent a Warp Prism with 3 DT's to ByuN's main to inflict the coup de grace.
However, ByuN's crisis management proved to be superb in this situation, while NightMare's multitasking just wasn't up to the task. ByuN carefully managed his Orbital energy so he had enough just enough Scans to cross the map with a new Marine-Tank force and set up a new siege position, adding a Missile Turret to provide permanent detection. Meanwhile, NightMare diverted his attention from his DT drop at the absolute wrong moment, with only a single DT able to land while the remaining two DTs and Warp Prim were intercepted mid-air. A single, Prism-less DT was hardly capable of wreaking havoc in ByuN's main, while ByuN's Marine-Tank force tore down the Protoss natural with impunity.
Playing one base versus two, NightMare had no choice but to attempt a doomed, last ditch attack and GG out.
I wonder what ByuN's ceiling is this season. He's so weird as he could beat anyone on his day, but with one needing to play well on multiple days of GSL, he always seems to implode sooner or later. Wonder if it's always his wrists... don't know how badly it affects him for just one Bo5 series
