2026 GSL Code S Season 2

RO8 Preview

by Wax

The competition ratchets up to another level in the RO8, as the four RO12 survivors are joined by top-seeded players from the qualifiers. Not only will reigning champion herO and GSL GOAT Maru enter the fray, but top European Terran Clem will make his much-hyped GSL debut as well.

Group A: herO, Classic, Cure, Clem

Start time: Wednesday, May 27 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00)

Clem's GSL Code S debut has to rank among the most anticipated in tournament history, right up there with the likes of IdrA, Flash, and Reynor. It's not every day that a new, A1 championship contender joins your roster out of nowhere, and the 2024 world champion is exactly that caliber of player.

Of course, it's not just the tremendous talent infusion that's being anticipated—after all, you can see Clem vs herO basically every week in online cups. No, what fans are really looking forward to is seeing how the prestige of the GSL holds up in another deadly test. Code S' stature in StarCraft II has eroded over time, due to constant downsizing, the slow depletion of the Korean scene, and the rise of 'foreign' competitors. Yet, through it all, the tournament has somehow managed to cling on to a certain reputation—if not as the most difficult tournament in the world, but at least as the most unique test of skill in the SC2 scene.

Clem's frenemy and fellow world champion Reynor has greatly contributed to this protection of the GSL's image, failing to conquer Code S in multiple attempts. Players like Bunny, DRG, and GuMiho—who would probably have been crushed by Reynor in any other venue—showed the Italian Zerg the door once they were armed with the vaunted 'GSL preparation.' The preparation factor can sometimes feel like a meme cited by the staunchest Korean elitists, but Reynor's poor GSL performances—alongside other running GSL storylines such as ByuN choking, Cure overperforming, and Rogue roguing—make it clear that there's just something different about this particular tournament.

GSL purists hoping for a hasty chastening of the visiting Frenchman should be pleased with this group draw, as there are no easy outs. The balance of power in the herO vs Clem rivalry has swung back and forth several times over the years, and we're currently in a period where herO is favored with a 14-8 in record against Clem on the year—and that's excluding matches where herO's PvT dominance pushed Clem to make a desperate switch to off-race Protoss! On the flipside, Clem has a narrow 6-4 edge against Classic in 2026, and is currently on a five match winning streak against him. However, it wasn't so long ago that Classic was Clem's greatest natural predator, eliminating him from tournament after tournament in 2025. With the homefield advantage, Classic has every chance of booting Clem from yet another major event. An off-race match against Cure does feel like an easy win for Clem on paper, with Clem's world class PvT earning him a 12-2 head-to-head record this year (to the best of our knowledge, match-specific off-racing will be permitted in GSL). However, Cure is one of the GSL's most adept TvP-cheesers, and there's a chance he'll catch Clem off-guard with strategies he's never seen in their many online cup clashes.

With apologies to the other players, we'll just give them a quick overview after focusing so hard on Clem—after all, we may never see such an intriguing debutant in the GSL ever again.

Reigning champion herO is the title favorite by default, though his last tournament run wasn't the most convincing ever. The shaky, error-prone version of herO showed up in several games during season one—even during his 4-2 victory over SHIN in the grand finals. But, from a more optimistic point of view, it's a testament to just how good herO has been in 2026 that he was able to win Code S without even putting in an A+ performance by his usual standards. Barring the worst of the worst herO brainfart days, he should advance from this group.

Classic has been tough to rate ever since his summer 2025 run, where he achieved a second career peak on his way to a runner-up finish at the world championship. His RO12 performance wasn't reassuring at all, getting upset by Zoun and even struggling to defeat notoriously poor TvP player GuMiho in the decider match. The one major advantage he has in his group is that his matches against herO—the favorite against anyone else in the tournament—typically devolve into a PvP coinflip cheesefests, and he could advance if luck is on his side.

For the second season in a row, I'm going to count Cure out at my own peril. Despite all of my recent Cure previews containing praise for his ability to play exceptionally well in the GSL format, I still find it hard to pick him to actually advance over multiple title contenders—nevermind that he beat both Maru and Classic to advance from last season's RO8. Despite some recent improvement in the TvP department, a three-Protoss group is just too high a hurdle for Cure to clear.

herO 2 - 1 Classic
Clem 2 - 0 Cure
herO 2 - 1 Clem
Cure 2 - 1 Classic
Clem 2 - 1 Cure

herO and Clem to advance

Group B: Maru, SHIN, Zoun, Rogue

Start time: Thursday, May 28 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00)

This will be two seasons now where we don't have any group that's worthy of "group of death" designation, but I think Group B is at least worthy of being dubbed the "group of chaos."

I mean, how does one even rate Maru at this point? The greatest GSL player ever has been subjecting his fans to cruel cycles of hype and despair for a couple of years now, and he recently hit one of his lowest lows after losing to former punching bag SHIN in the Code S semifinals. However, you never know when he'll randomly decide to take you on a euphoric ride to the peak of SC2, as he did at DreamHack Dallas 2025 or during last February's LiuLi Cup (say what you will about the stature of this $10,000 online event—he actually beat Serral in a grand final). This is definitely the easier of the RO8 groups, and even a mediocre version of Maru should make it out. However, "should" doesn't really carry much weight anymore when it comes to Maru matches, so it's anyone's guess as to how he'll perform on Wednesday night.

Even a runner-up finish in GSL Season 1 doesn't put SHIN in clear favorite territory. While he has been playing very solid StarCraft II in 2026, you couldn't really say he has reached a consistent finalist level. The fact that his qualifier performance forced him to start this season in the RO12, after which he only advanced in second place, is indicative of that fact. Rather, his Code S Season 1 run was a heater where the best version of SHIN showed up to play in nearly every match, peaking with a tremendous 3-2 upset over Maru in the semifinals. As the aforementioned landmark win revealed, SHIN's ZvT does seem to have reached an elite level. However, his ZvP still hinges on the success of his various all-ins, while ZvZ remains subject to its inherent variance. Still, out of respect for SHIN's runner-up status in the previous tournament, I'll pick him to reach the playoffs once more.

TL.net readers will be familiar with how I rate Zoun as the epitome of low-floor, high-ceiling player. An awesome version of Zoun showed up to play in the RO12, getting a routine 2-0 over GuMiho in the opener before upsetting Classic in the winners match by completely countering his opponent's cheesy builds (Trigger received a shoutout for his scouting). Good Zoun might actually be the favorite to take first place in this group, but I could just as easily see him getting eliminated after showing disastrous defense against likely all-ins from the two Zergs.

Somehow, we have two of the most successful Code S players of all time in the same group, but neither feels like a lock to advance. Rogue's four Code S titles make him an absolute legend of the tournament, but he hasn't shown that kind of championship form in quite a while. His recovery since returning from military service is still very much a work in progress, with 'pretty good' play interlaced with bouts of excellence. We saw a few glimmers of brilliance from Rogue in last season's RO12 where he barrelled through his opponents with signature all-ins, but he completely ran out of steam in the RO8. Everyone in this group is absolutely beatable for Rogue, but all of his opponents could say the same of him.

Predictions

Maru 2 - 1 SHIN
Zoun 2 - 1 Rogue
Maru 2 - 1 Zoun
SHIN 2 - 1 Rogue
SHIN 2 - 1 Zoun

Maru and SHIN to advance