2025 GSL Code S Season 1

RO12 Group B Preview: Maru, Trigger, NightMare, Rogue

Thursday, May 08 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00)

Wax

Group B features two GSL legends who have ignominiously started this season in the RO12, as they were unable to clinch direct RO8 seeds through the qualifiers. If Maru and Rogue's poor qualifier performances were actually indicative of their current form, then the upstart Protoss duo of Trigger and NightMare may have a chance to cause some early round chaos.



As we look ahead to Group B, we're forced to ask ourselves a once blasphemous question: is Maru washed?

No, really, hear me out for a second.

There's no way to dance around the fact that the greatest player in GSL history has looked rough during the post-EWC off-season. While he limited his participation to just three singles events during the nine month span, he looked increasingly hapless in each one.

He last looked like a legitimate title contender in the group stage of HomeStory Cup 26 in December, where he breezed through Europe's rank-and-file with a perfect 10-0 map record. But after that, things went horribly awry. GuMiho dealt Maru a 2-3 upset loss in the HSC playoffs, which sent him down to the lower bracket where Serral applied the coup de gras with a 3-0 sweep.

In the all-online Master's Coliseum #8 tournament that came shortly after, Maru face-planted right out of the gates. He was eliminated in the group stage without winning a single series, falling to herO, GuMiho, and even heavy underdog Lancer (aka Cyan). Maru's woes only deepened in March's PiG Sty Festival #5, where he suffered another group stage elimination with 0-2 losses to Classic and Dark.

Maruologists would rightfully note that the Terran great has a history of dropping the occasional stinker in the middle of otherwise great runs. His RO32 elimination right after winning four Code S titles in a row comes readily to mind (Season 2 of 2019), but there have been a handful of other GSL seasons where he inexplicably dropped the ball in the first round. Each of those occurrences was proven out to be nothing more than a blip, with Maru quickly recovering to top-tier form.

However, while one poor event is excusable for any player, two in a row is definitely cause for more concern. Actually, let's say it's two-and-a-half events in a row, as Maru did himself no favors in the GSL qualifiers. While he did earn RO12 qualification with wins over Aria, NightMare, and Classic, that was the very lowest bar he had to clear. Given a chance to earn a direct seed to the RO8 in the next round of qualifiers, he blew it with losses to ByuN and GuMiho (of course, he did defeat Solar as that appears to be a guaranteed win for the rest of his life).

It's clear that the Korean scene wasn't fully engaged until the announcement of EWC 2025 and another huge payday to play for, but is that a valid excuse for all of Maru's poor play? StarCraft II fans will be hoping it is, for the sake of having an interesting EWC season with good games to watch. Maru from one year ago would have stomped this group easily—we'll be watching to see if he plays at that level.

The other struggling legend of the group is Rogue, though his troubles have been more sustained. The ability to recover from military service is one of the great mysteries of StarCraft (and esports in general), which can't be predicted at all by how good a player was in their prime. We've seen former champions like TaeJa flop, and we've also seen players like herO become even stronger during the second chapter of their careers.

Rogue has fallen somewhere in the middle, staying mired in the good-but-not-great zone since his return in the spring of 2024. After playing just over 210 tournament matches since his comeback, he currently stands at #12 in the Aligulac.com rankings with just a handful of weekly cup and showmatch wins as his notable accomplishments. Even qualification for this season of GSL was a bit tight, as he was eliminated by Classic (two losses) on day one and had to beat SHIN for a spot in day two.

There have been a few tantalizing glimpses of his past brilliance, and Rogue has even picked up BO5 wins against the likes of Clem (one as recently as two weeks ago). But rather than a foundation for something greater, those wins have felt like the occasional upsets all of the tier-2 players can achieve now and then in the weeklies, whether it's your SHIN's or ShoWTimE's or ByuN's. Rogue doesn't have to be in 3x world championship form to survive this group, but it will be tough to advance any further than the RO8 if he doesn't reach a new phase of his recovery.

For all the concerns about how high Maru and Rogue can top out, surely their floor is high enough so that two Protoss upstarts in Trigger and NightMare can't trouble them, right? RIGHT?

A combination of steady improvement and the thinning out of the Korean scene has seen NightMare finally earn 'Code S regular' status, and I have to laud him for qualifying again after this year's GSL contraction made it much more difficult (NightMare qualified whereas players like SHIN, Bunny, and Zoun did not). However, he still hasn't been able to advance a single round in his Code S career, no matter the all-in's he's attempted or the semi-throws he's gifted. Given that NightMare hasn't even been particularly active during the off-season, I just can't find a reason to say he'll leapfrog his more illustrious peers.

Trigger has more wildcard potential, as his continuous off-season grinding has paid off with a steady rise. He's entering that aforementioned SHIN/ShoWTimE/ByuN category of players, able to take BO5's off of the likes of Clem and MaxPax when everything is clicking. While he only managed to qualify for GSL at the last possible chance on day two, he did manage to take down a much more established player in SHIN to do so.

Trigger vs Rogue is the match I see as being the potential scene of an upset. Without diving headlong into balance controversy, I'll mention that ZvP has definitely been… …rough for non-Serral Zergs since the 5.0.14 patch. Rogue has definitely felt the pain as well—he hasn't recovered the best-in-world spellcaster + Hive army control from his prime, which puts him on a timer once Protoss assembles their late-game composition. Trigger is quite capable of dragging PvZ games out, so if Rogue can't finish the games quickly with aggressive strategies, we may see Trigger follow in HuK and Scarlett's footsteps to become the third Canadian to reach the GSL RO8.

Predictions

Maru 2 - 0 Trigger
Rogue 2 - 1 NightMare
Maru 2 - 1 Rogue
Trigger 2 - 1 NightMare
Trigger 2 - 1 Rogue

Maru and Trigger to advance