GSL Season Three
Code A

Group E Preview
Shine, TY, Byul, Skyhigh

Group F Preview
Tails, Hush, Flash, Symbol

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by Darkhorse

In a week packed with an utterly absurd amount of Starcraft II action, Group E begins the only two group set of this season's Code A that will be played in a reasonable sequential order. Of course we understand that GSL is bending over backwards to reschedule these groups for players participating in tournaments like IEM and Dreamhack right now, but it does make it hard to follow. Either way, today we have Group E. Group E is notable for being the only Code A group that does not feature a Protoss player and boasts a lineup of interesting players. Trust me, if there is a group that you don't want to miss, it's this one.

CJ.sKyHigh is the first player of the group and is probably the biggest underdog. He currently holds an unenviable position as the fourth best Terran on his team, and also has the dubious honor of being the only CJ Entus player to not be fielded over the entirety of this season's Proleague, a trend that is likely to continue barring the unlikely situation that he has been saved to carry his team through the upcoming Season Playoffs. As far as GSL goes, Skyhigh hasn't had much luck. He has never made it past the first round of Code A/Challenger League in GSL or WCS in the entirety of his Starcraft II career, and this will be his second try this year to overcome his perennial stumbling block.

It's certainly no easy task to get through the Code A qualifiers, but let's just say that the Starcraft II gods smiled on Skyhigh during the qualifiers for this season. Not only was his semifinal opponent KT_Action, who has some notoriously bad ZvT, but the heavy hitter of his bracket Samsung_RorO inexplicably lost to an unknown named TANGTANG on the opposite side of the bracket, giving Skyhigh a fairly easy TvT for a Code A spot. Unfortunately for the CJ Terran, the groups of Code A contain players made of some sterner stuff than TANGTANG. Skyhigh makes for a fun story, and is another blue name in a time of a fair bit of Terran rarity in GSL, but is likely to be a stepping stone for some of the more accomplished players in the group.

From a story of Proleague absence we go to a story of wild Proleague success. IM.ByuL certainly looked to be on the rise after a second place finish in WCS America in Season 3 of 2013, but suffered an embarrassing defeat in the Ro32 of the following season. With his tail between his legs, Byul returned to Korea and, surprisingly, thrived. Byul rocketed from WCS America dropout to Proleague superstar in seemingly a matter of weeks. He unquestionably became the ace of Incredible Miracle and racked up 14 more lineup appearances than his closest teammate, and took full advantage of his opportunity by going 18-11 overall. This puts him in the top 10 in terms of wins for this season, and puts him in contention for best Proleague Rookie and even best Proleague Zerg.

These results in Proleague haven't necessarily translated to GSL success yet, but he has only had one season since coming back to Korea to prove himself. Last season, he made Code S before being knocked out with back to back losses to Solar and Parting. A Code S Ro32 dropout certainly isn't all Byul aspires to be or is capable of being, but you almost can't fault him for losing to players like those. This group draw both helps and hurts Byul, as he gets two Terrans to play his best matchup against, and one Zerg to face his worst. Byul's record in SPL speaks for itself: a strong 6-2 in ZvT and a disappointing 4-5 in his mirror matchup. Byul has established himself as a player you'd expect to see in Code S, and he should be able to advance back after his so-so performance last season.

Samsung Zerg and senior member of the League of Injustice Samsung_Shine is the third contender in Group E. Shine may fly under the radar except for when he is being evil, but he does come into this group having had the most success in Season 2. While TY and Skyhigh failed to make Code S and Byul bombed out in the Ro32, Shine actually advanced to the Ro16 before falling to Acer.INnoVation and SKT_Soulkey. He does sport a mediocre 7-8 overall record in Proleague, but at least he has shown that he can beat the booth as it were in GSL.

The one key factor working against Shine here is the lack of massive fan favorites and/or recent champions to "upset". In a group full of close competitors and no players with huge fan followings, Shine has trouble tapping into the gleeful malevolence that gives him his power, and his play isn't quite so crisp. In all seriousness, Shine is probably about level with Byul and TY. He went undefeated in ZvZ in SPL this season, and that combined with Byul's matchup struggles should give him confidence there. His ZvT is hit or miss, and whether he hits or misses could easily decide who gets out of this group.

Finally we have KT_TY. TY is the savior of the Terran race, the brick wall that thwarts blink attacks with pure ingenuity, the top Terran in the world... we certainly have come a long way since early 2014. It's true that TY was considered one of the best Terran players around after a dominant round 1 in Proleague in which he was a stunning 7-0 overall. Along the way, he even tried to convince the world that building a sensor tower was all it took to beat the frustrating blink attacks that were hitting Terrans everywhere at the time. All in all, TY was a force to be reckoned with early on this year.

Unfortunately for TY fans his hype train derailed quite quickly. Since Round 1 he has been a sub par 7-10 in SPL, and he has record has gotten progressively worse every round. Perhaps even worse is his disastrous performance in GSL this year. In Season 1, he didn't even make Code A when he lost to YongHwa twice in the qualifiers. He may have at least made Code A in Season 2, but he was eliminated quickly again with losses to Supernova and TRUE. Finally, he barely made the top 16 at his one overseas opportunity, losing to MC in the first round of the bracket stage at Dreamhack Bucharest. TY is going to have to snap this string of disappointments, and soon, if he ever wants to get the hype train back on the rails again.

Overall thoughts and predictions:

Shine < TY
Byul > Skyhigh
TY < Byul
Shine > Skyhigh
TY < Shine

Byul and Shine advance.

by Zealously

TAiLS vs Hush

Over a year ago, MVP_TAiLS was the go-to build order sniper in GSTL and the creator of many a infuriating build that absolutely should not work but did (DT drops earlier than you thought possible? Sure, can do that!). His home turf was the easier to prepare for Bo1-format, where his wacked-out builds netted team MVP more wins than he could ever amass in individual leages. If that enough does not strike your fancy, consider his magnificent taste in hairstyles:



When it comes to style, it's hard to argue against the claim that Tails has it in loads. But for all his funny hairstyles and generally good track record in team leagues, success in individual leagues has always eluded him. At first trying his best to make it in Korea, Tails eventually gave in to the promises of greener pastures overseas and tried his hand at the WCS EU qualifiers. Falling woefully short every time while his teammates finale and Vampire, better known as duckdeok and Super, respectively, rose to fame. Today, he returns to Code A in the hopes of making it further into the gauntlet that is Code S than he did last season. While placing top 32 in GSL is no mean feat in today's competitive landscape (especially considering the fact that he beat soon-to-be GSL champion Classic in Code A), it is neither enough to sustain a player economically nor earn him any significant recognition. Tails has everything to set him apart from his peers outside the game and a history of leading the way as an innovator rather than following others, but all of this is of minor significance if he cannot break into Code S.

With this in mind, it is perhaps only fitting that his opponent be CJ's Hush. A rare sight outside of Proleague, the player formerly known as Bong has actually had a great season in Proleague. Going 7-3 overall with an undefeated 4-0 record against Protoss, he is easy to pin down as one among many ”Proleague Protosses” - the players with ample skill in Proleague, but significant issues displaying that skill elsewhere. For one reason or another, these tend to be Protoss players, and they tend to appear so rarely outside the league that we start to question their existence.

But fear not, I can confirm with utmost certainty that Hush is (the) real (deal). With victories against Zoun (a Prime B-teamer), Kal, Squirtle, HerO and Creator this year, Hush has racked up a fairly impressive collection of scalps for a player with no other real results to speak of. What speaks against him in this particular match-up, however, are his losses. To Dear and, most importantly, TAiLS. Naturally, these matches were played online from the comfort of respective players' team house, which makes extrapolating information from the fact somewhat difficult. Still, pitting two players historically known as team league specialists against each other in PvP is a recipe for unpredictability.

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Flash vs Symbol

To KT_Flash, 2014 GSL Season 3 is special for two reasons.

1) It could be the season that sees him locked out of GSL for an entire year, having missed out on seasons 1 and 2 as well.
2) Logically, it represents his last realistic shot at a Blizzcon spot. Winning this GSL, however unlikely, would put him in contention for top 16 in the Global Rankings and allow for point hunting overseas. While the international circuit has been generally unkind to Flash historically, he would not need an obscene amount of points for the Blizzcon dream to become a reality. Elimination here, however, makes the top 16 an almost unreachable goal.

With these two facts in mind, Flash will be as motivated as can be. With KT not set to play in Proleague for another 9 days, he will have had at least some time to focus on advancement from this group and into Code S, where he will have to make what is essentially his final stand. Without a path into Code S, Flash's goal of becoming the best Starcraft II player will be even further out of reach by the time the next WCS season comes around. Saying that ”Flash has to advance” is beyond overplayed at this point, and there should be no question as to the significance of Code S in the eyes of the Ultimate Weapon, but there is a shred of truth to it. Every season that passes without Flash making his presence known in the most prestigious individual league is another season where the likes of Maru and Bbyong set themselves further apart from the player prophesized to one day conquer Starcraft II.

Speaking from a strict gameplay perspective, Flash has landed a very good group He faces two relatively weak Protoss players in Tails and Hush – players he would have no trouble whatsoever dispatching of in Proleague. Also speaking in Flash's favor are his recent games in the Sandisk Shoutcraft Invitational. Going a combined 4-5 against herO – easily one of the best Protoss players in the world – with almost all of his losses coming from failed SCV pulls rather than macro games is actually a sign of strength, despite the negative record. As always, Flash's is a story of slow but almost constant improvement. Bone-headed stubbornness and unwillingness to adapt? In some areas, certainly, but it's hard to deny that the form Flash has displayed recently is better by far than the form that saw him drop games to YongHwa and MyuNgSiK.

His toughest opponent will be his first opponent, Symbol. Still teamless, the GSL runner-up hasn't had it easy recently. While he was once on the forefront of Zerg play, rising to the top of the Zerg hierarchy through strong aggression and an unparallelled late-game, Symbol has now fallen far from his past heights. Though he is still an almost permanent fixture in Code S, he lies both forgotten and weakened by the wayside. It has been a long time since he was last in the conversation for best Zerg in the world, despite his untiring efforts in various online cups and qualifiers.

But underestimating Symbol is dangerous. Though he might once have been a true paragon of consistency, the former TSL Zerg's match history is no joke. Seemingly weakest by far in ZvZ, he has landed a group where he can avoid the Zerg mirror altogether and focus on the two match-ups where he seems the strongest. Most notably going on a tear in ZvT with consecutive wins against TaeJa (twice), Apocalypse, Ryung and Bomber, it doesn't seem far-fetched for Symbol to beat Flash. If not straight-up then by channeling the malicious spirit of all TSL Zergs that have failed to make a name for themselves in the past. They say that a man with nothing to lose is the most dangerous, and that seems very fitting for a man in Symbol's position. Expect roaches.

Overall thoughts and predictions

Although either Tails or Hush will find themselves in the winners' match, this seems like a group to be heavily dominated by the two stars in the group. Flash has been in the spotlight to a much greater degree than the almost forgotten Symbol, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Symbol be the one advancing to the winners' match. Flash has a tendency to forget that defense exists, and it has cost him important games in the past. If he comes prepared for aggression, which will almost inevitably be everyone's weapon of choice against him, then he will likely advance as first. Otherwise, he might drop to both second place and beyond. But with the recent strength of the KT Terran's TvZ and the fact that aggression seems so obvious, I have to go with Flash finally coming to his senses.

Tails < Hush
Flash > Symbol
Hush < Flash
Symbol > Tails
Symbol > Hush

Flash and Symbol advance to Code S.

Writers: Darkhorse, Zealously
Graphics: GOM eXP.
Editor: Zealously