GSL Season One
Code S

Group F Recap
Classic and Maru advance

Group G Preview
Dear, Dark, Life, Yonghwa

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

VODs on Twitch

by Waxangel

Former royal roaders ST_Life and mouz.Dear put aside their shaky form for a day and claimed their spots in the Code S round of sixteen. Bouncing back from a disappointing loss in his first Proleague match, Life went 4-1 as he beat Yonghwa and Dark to take first place in the group. Against Yonghwa, Life showed strong all-in defense, while against Dark he showed off his solid, all-around ZvZ skills.


After looking much diminished at ASUS ROG and IEM, Dear played much closer to his championship form in Code S. Though he lost his first series to Dark after being caught off guard by early attacks, Dear came back from the loser's match to claim the second place spot. He made short work of Yonghwa with superior micro in the early game, while a combination of solid macro play and a blink all-in gave him victory over Dark in their rematch.

Ro32 Group H: RorO, Stats, ParalyzE, Curious

Countdown:

by Waxangel

Only two spots remain open in the Code S Ro16 as we head into the final group of the Ro32. The fourteen players qualified so far are:

Protoss (9): herO, Rain, Zest, Trap, sOs, Squirtle, PartinG, Classic, Dear
Zerg (3): soO, Soulkey, Life
Terran (2): Bbyong, Maru

Tonight's group won't just decide the last two players, but it will also determine whether or not we will see the most single-race dominated Ro16 in GSL history. 2011's Code S October holds the record with ten Terran players in the Ro16, but that record could be broken if two Protosses advance. Let's meet the players.

Samsung_RorO has been on a roller coaster ride over the last year. He ended the WoL era as the best player in the world, winning the final Code S championship of that era. His form rapidly deteriorated after he failed to adjust to the new HotS expansion, leaving him looking completely washed up as 2013 came to close a close. However, RorO came surging back in the new Proleague season, having reinvented himself as a master of the swarm host turtling style. With a 7-2 record in Proleague and wins over players like Classic, Rain, Stats, and Sora, RorO looks like a player who could rise above the Protoss hegemon and claim a championship for Zerg.

While RorO's return to relevance came out of left field, it's not all that surprising if you think about it. RorO was a championship class player in WoL due to his skill at using the slow, methodical, and utterly infuriating brood lord infestor style. Though that combination was made obsolete in HotS, swarm hosts can be used in a similarly sinister way. RorO is presently undefeated in long PvZs in Proleague, and is unmatched at grinding people down in long games. We don't have much information on RorO's recent ZvT form (except a 2-0 over Cure in Code A), but who cares? The race composition of this season makes RorO is a title contender just because of his ZvP.

KT_Stats has the misfortune of facing RorO in his first match. Known for years as the most reliable right-hand man in Proleague, Stats has never been able to shine in individual tournaments. That's generally been the case for all KT players besides Flash, with their best play only coming out when they are playing for their team. However, SC2 has seen plenty of players break their Brood War jinxes, and Stats is definitely a player long overdue for some solo competition glory.

Stats has generally been an orthodox, textbook player, but he brings creative strategies from time to time. Notably, he outfoxed SuperNoVa in Code A by defeating his unusual mech vs. Protoss strategy with an even more unusual carrier rush counter. If Stats want to play tricks on RorO as well, he should probably focus on the early game rather than the late game. Classic used a cannon rush to take a big advantage against RorO in the Proleague playoffs, and even then he almost let RorO come back with swarm hosts when he dragged things out. Finishing RorO off early seems like the wisest course of action.

In the next match we have SKT_ParalyzE, the player who had to work the hardest to make it into Code S. After getting booted from Code A by Life, Paralyze earned a rare second chance in the Wild Card Tournament for the one Code S spot left vacant by jjakji. After fifteen hours, thirteen games, and four sets of tie-breakers, Paralyze beat Dream and Cure to make it to Code S.

There will be no reprieve for Paralyze after that grueling qualifying run. After beating only Terrans and Protosses in Code A, he faces a group with two Zergs in Code S. Paralyze was hardly convincing against Life in Code A, and outside that match we've barely seen him play against Zergs at all. Sure, he MIGHT be a secret PvZ killer who's just been buried behind PartinG, Rain, and Classic in the Proleague, but we seriously doubt the likelihood of that.

Paralyze's opponent might be the scariest one possible for a Code S newcomer: the Ro16 gatekeeper ST_Curious. For years, Curious has passed judgment down on aspiring Code S players, testing their worthiness to reach the round of sixteen. There's a big difference between being good enough to make it to Code S and being able to STAY in Code S, and there has been no better judge than Curious.

Although we haven't had a chance to see many Curious games lately, I suspect he might benefit from the new swarm host meta in a way similar to RorO. Curious has never been a particularly fast or active player, and his best games have been the ones where he's been able to play slower paced and longer games. Though the gatekeeper will have to confront his own demons in the Ro16, he's the devil Paralyze has to fear in the Ro32.

Overall thoughts and predictions:

Predicting RorO to do well is always risky as many Fantasy Proleague owners have learned in the past. As someone who has followed him since the BW days, his present aura of invincibility in the ZvP late game seems suspiciously like a set-up to earn everyone's liquibet votes before proceeding to get all-in'd out of the tournament. However, against all my doubting instincts, I'm predicting him to make it to the Ro16.

As for the other spot... Stats is the best out of the remaining three players, but he suffers from an individual leagues jinx. Curious is good enough to reach the Ro16, but rarely does more than that. Paralyze is the wild card, with few past achievements or recent games to go on.

RorO > Stats
Curious > Paralyze
RorO > Curious
Stats > Paralyze
Stats > Curious

RorO and Stats advance.

Writers: Waxangel.
Graphics: GOM eXP
Editor: Waxangel.