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Code S RO12 Preview: Cure, sOs, Reynor, Solar

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15 CommentsPost a Reply

Code S RO12 Preview: Cure, sOs, Reynor, Solar

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
May 6th, 2025 00:22 GMT

2025 GSL Code S Season 1

RO12 Group A Preview: Cure, sOs, Solar, Reynor

Wednesday, May 07 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00)

by Wax

All aboard! The GSL's neverending last ride has been given another last minute extension, with two truncated seasons to be held before July's Esports World Cup. This version of GSL Code S will be the smallest ever, cut down to a duration of two weeks and played with a roster of only twelve players per season.

Yet, in the current StarCraft II environment, even a heavily downsized live competition is an oasis in the middle of the desert. Code S Season 1 will be the first major offline tournament since last December's HomeStory Cup 26, bringing back some vital live tournament energy to the venerable esport.

With the four top players from the qualifiers already seeded into the RO8, the tournament begins with RO12 competition. The two RO12 groups feature a curious mix of players, including all-time greats, the last few youngsters of the scene, and a player making a most unexpected comeback…

2025 Global StarCraft II League - Season 1


The main character of Group A is most definitely sOs, regardless of what his realistic chances of advancement may be. The three-time world champion is a legendary figure in StarCraft II history, earning both infamy and admiration for pulling out audacious strategies in the biggest matches.

The unorthodox Protoss player has been a perplexing figure since his official retirement in 2021, neither serving his military service (to the best of our knowledge) nor completely departing from the StarCraft II scene. He embarked on an unexplained semi-comeback run in late 2023 where he played in a handful of online cups and made two failed attempts to get through the GSL qualifiers, only to fade back into obscurity in early 2024.

Then, two weeks ago, sOs reappeared on the scene like a rider of apocalypse heralding the end times of StarCraft II ("And I looked, and beheld a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was sOs, and cheese followed with him. And power was given unto him over the fourth part of the earth, to rush with the Cannon, the proxy-Gate, and with the Oracle, and with the units of the Stargate"). Initially, it seemed like it might be another random qualifier appearance, with the difference being that he just so happened to make it through this time. However, the recent news that he has joined esport team Streamerzone—and the announcement's implication that he will be competing at DreamHack Dallas—suggests that he's ready for a sustained comeback run.

Well, at least sustained for this current Esports World Cup cycle. Historically, nothing has brought out the best in sOs quite like a big payday, with the cold-blooded gambler saving his most ruthless reads and calculated risks for the richest jackpots. If anything was going to bring sOs fully out of retirement, it was a cut of a $700k prize purse. Still, that doesn't explain why he decided to sit out the last EWC cycle and what he's been up to these last few years. Almost as much as his games, any GSL interviews or video content about sOs' whereabouts will be highly anticipated.

Anyway, let's get to the important part—how good is sOs right now? Unfortunately for hopeful fans of the Cheesy One, the limited public games we've seen from GSL qualifier replays and last week's PiGosaur Cup suggest he's a decent-but-unremarkable macro Protoss. His match record in qualifiers was a solid 4-2, with wins against Ryung, Khala, NightMare, and Bunny, but with losses to stronger players in SHIN and herO. From sOs's limited sample of games played—which includes an unimpressive 0-2 loss to initial opponent Cure in the PiGosaur Cup—a last place finish seems like a prudent prediction.

However, sOs has never been prudent in his play, and maybe he requires us to take up a more bold point of view. It's true that it has been extremely difficult for older players to live up to the mythos they've wrought, whether it's TaeJa, INnoVation, or Rogue right now. Yet, sOs feels like he could be an outlier, as the key to his success was never blazingly fast hands or hyper-efficient mechanics. No, sOs was a player who thrived due to his guts and guile, and those are qualities that shouldn't have eroded with time. Furthermore, 15 years of SC2 history have demonstrated that those qualities are only amplified in the GSL studio. At least, that's what fans of old school StarCraft would love to believe.

In a curious coincidence, Group A also features this season's second most interesting comeback player in Reynor. The former world champion took an extended break from SC2 in early 2025, but has returned as promised following the announcement of the EWC 2025 tournament cycle.

Reynor's career track record suggests he should have no problem getting back into peak shape in time for the world championship in July, and it seems likely that he'll be part of the title picture. However, there's still plenty of reason to doubt his abilities in early May. While he did beat Code S caliber players in Zoun and Cure during the GSL qualifiers, he showed some rust in the recent PiG Sty #6 tournament where he was eliminated from the RO16 by Dark and Bunny.

Furthermore, there's that whole problem with the GSL jinx. The Italian Zerg has been lauded by fans for being the only top 'foreigner' of the modern era to take on the challenge of GSL Code S, but all three of his previous campaigns have ended in the group stage. Granted, his first attempt in 2018 was when he was still a rising star, and it was a huge success for him to reach the RO16 as a sixteen-year-old. However, Reynor's first round eliminations in 2022 and 2024—when he had a world championship under his belt and was considered one of the top players in the world—were serious disappointments. Reynor's shortcomings in Code S are a major factor in keeping the mystique of the GSL alive, supporting the notion that games in the FreecUP studio are just different from anywhere else in the StarCraft II world. Will this be the season where Reynor dispels that aura, and shows that the GSL is just another league to be swept over by the European tide? Or will the Code S remain unconquered forever more?

That brings us to the two players I see as the on-paper favorites to advance from group A. Cure and Solar have been much more active than their counterparts throughout the off-season, regularly competing in weekly cups and other mid-size events.

Considering Cure's 5th place finish at EWC 2024, he's been somewhat disappointing. He's barely been an impediment to the herO-MaxPax-Clem trinity's domination of online competition, which is a shame considering he was once a powerhouse in online cups. Still, you get the feeling that Cure wasn't going 100% until more recently, and his play looks to be slowly improving. One of his biggest off-season wins came in March's TLMC tournament, where he foiled Clem's off-race PvT experiment with a 4-1 victory in the finals.

To me, what's most encouraging about Cure's recent play is that he seems to be getting into big tournament mode. If he had been defaulting to boring, standard play for a while, he's starting to bring the map-specific builds and cheeses that have been critical to his past success. One such example was an unusual Reactor-Liberator push against Serral in PiG Sty #6. Even though it failed against Serral's ironclad defense, it was a good example of the strategic thinking and series planning he can bring to a big tournament. While I'm skeptical about what Cure's chances are against a true A1 title contender, he may not have to confront that problem until many rounds later in this season.

Solar is in a similar situation as Cure, coming off of an unremarkable off-season where he wasn't particularly poor, but didn't really distinguish himself either. In fact, the two are right next to each other in the Aligualc.comAligulac.com standings[/url], with Solar at #9 and Cure at #8 (while this isn't a totally accurate way to interpret Aligulac, the ratings gap between the two can be explained by the fact that Cure actually DID win one of the bigger off-season events in the WardiTV TLMC tournament).

As mentioned above, I can see some unrealized upside for Cure, but I'm not quite as sanguine about Solar's chances at upward mobility. Cure can elevate himself with crafty builds and meticulous series planning, but that's never been a big part of Solar's game. His best runs have come when he's been a great all-around standard player, approaching the level of a Serral or Reynor. That's the level Solar was playing at in the second half of 2023, when he finished top 4 at Gamers8 and won his first Code S.

I've hyped up the idea of a Korean scene reawakening since the announcement of EWC 2025, but if I'm being honest, it's unclear as to how much ground players like Solar can realistically make up. Between 2023 and 2024, the scene underwent heavy stratification, and the trend only seems to be accelerating in 2025. While I certainly hope Solar and his peers can rapidly improve over the next two months, I'm not crossing my fingers.

Anyway, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now, in these lower rounds of Code S, the ever-solid Solar has to be favored to get through.

Predictions

Cure 2 - 0 sOs
Solar 2 - 1 Reynor
Cure 2 - 1 Solar
Reynor 2 - 1 sOs
Solar 2 - 1 Reynor

Cure and Solar to advance

Credits and acknowledgements

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

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TL+ Member
CicadaSC
Profile Joined January 2018
United States1472 Posts
Last Edited: 2025-05-06 00:28:45
May 06 2025 00:26 GMT
#2
i dont see how reynor loses even a map to any of these guys. he may even play protoss vs solar if he has been practicing it i think the maps can favor him. i remember him beating solar in the past with his toss in tournaments. aside from reynor i am also cheering for sOs. i want him to be at EWC as he is a high stakes player.
Remember that we all come from a place of passion!!
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33222 Posts
Last Edited: 2025-05-06 00:35:34
May 06 2025 00:34 GMT
#3
On May 06 2025 09:26 CicadaSC wrote:
i dont see how reynor loses even a map to any of these guys. he may even play protoss vs solar if he has been practicing it i think the maps can favor him. i remember him beating solar in the past with his toss in tournaments. aside from reynor i am also cheering for sOs. i want him to be at EWC as he is a high stakes player.

might want to actually read the article and check up on his recent results since coming back
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
Blitzball04
Profile Joined June 2024
156 Posts
May 06 2025 03:10 GMT
#4
we need sos and reynor to advance for pure entertainment
SharkStarcraft
Profile Joined April 2011
Austria2197 Posts
May 06 2025 06:15 GMT
#5
On May 06 2025 09:26 CicadaSC wrote:
i dont see how reynor loses even a map to any of these guys. he may even play protoss vs solar if he has been practicing it i think the maps can favor him. i remember him beating solar in the past with his toss in tournaments. aside from reynor i am also cheering for sOs. i want him to be at EWC as he is a high stakes player.


That's oddly optimistic, considering Reynor couldn't even make it out of GSL groups when he was at his absolute peak - he's been all over the place in terms of results for a while now.

Also, I will not be tolerating sOs slander when there's a boatload of money on the line. He will advance in 1st place and y'all know it. 4-0. Cure will clinch 2nd.
Cogito, ergo Toss
MJG
Profile Joined May 2018
United Kingdom853 Posts
Last Edited: 2025-05-06 09:16:46
May 06 2025 09:16 GMT
#6
As much as I would love to see sOs advancing, I just can't see it happening. Predicting that Reynor will drop out in the group stage as he has done before seems a fairly safe option, but it depends how quickly he is reaching his peak.
"I don't like Starcraft 2. I play because it's something I'm good at, it's something I've been involved in for a lot of time, and I like the competition. But I think the game is shit. I don't love it at all." - IdrA
t5Fab
Profile Joined July 2018
182 Posts
May 06 2025 17:44 GMT
#7
Cure > sOs
Solar > Reynor
Cure > Solar
sOs > Reynor
sOs > Cure (let me dream, ok!!!)
Die4Ever
Profile Joined August 2010
United States17623 Posts
May 06 2025 20:56 GMT
#8
hoping for sOs and Solar
"Expert" mods4ever.com
Xamo
Profile Joined April 2012
Spain877 Posts
May 06 2025 21:20 GMT
#9
If only sOs would have landed in a gruop with less Zergs...
My life for Aiur. You got a piece of me, baby. IIIIIIiiiiiii.
CicadaSC
Profile Joined January 2018
United States1472 Posts
May 06 2025 22:16 GMT
#10
On May 07 2025 06:20 Xamo wrote:
If only sOs would have landed in a gruop with less Zergs...

I think Zerg is the race u can be most tricky against. Do adepts? Kill em with dts. Random 2 Stargate Phoenix after glaives also used to be a thing. Fast skytoss rushes. Powerful 2-4 base all ins of many variety.
Remember that we all come from a place of passion!!
Topin
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Peru10045 Posts
May 06 2025 23:12 GMT
#11
thanks for the recap! i see Cure taking 1st and Solar 2nd with a close match against Reynor.
i would define my style between a mix of ByuN, Maru and MKP
Alarak89
Profile Joined January 2016
United States882 Posts
May 06 2025 23:28 GMT
#12
Swapping any player in group B with sOs, I will give sOs a higher chance to advance.
sOs is THE ONLY player I pay attention to
CicadaSC
Profile Joined January 2018
United States1472 Posts
May 07 2025 00:13 GMT
#13
On May 07 2025 08:12 Topin wrote:
thanks for the recap! i see Cure taking 1st and Solar 2nd with a close match against Reynor.

I just gave many examples of how sOs can get out...
Remember that we all come from a place of passion!!
Yoshi Kirishima
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States10317 Posts
May 07 2025 01:26 GMT
#14
Really nice read about sOs. LOL I loved the biblical passage hahaha

Yes it really IS a mystery what he's been up to the last few years
I thought he served his military and returned ?! I guess not...?
Wow DH Dallas. I want to see him play, but there's also Anime North convention...decisions decisions

I'm in KR to see GSL this week too for the first time ever, but deciding whether to stay next week to watch the finals, if i do watch the finals and fly home the next day then i could still attend Anime Central for Sat and Sun but it'd be tiring... ultimately i want the most memorable life experience though so maybe i'd just do it with the rare opportunity to be in KR and attend a GSL without having to stay months to watch a full season

Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."
Edpayasugo
Profile Joined April 2013
United Kingdom2212 Posts
May 07 2025 08:00 GMT
#15
LFG
FlaSh MMA INnoVation FanTaSy MKP TY Ryung | soO Dark Rogue | HuK PartinG Stork State
EricBarrett
Profile Joined April 2025
1 Post
May 07 2025 13:12 GMT
#16
Exciting! sOs’ return adds intrigue, let’s see how he performs!
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