You know $o$? He had only one goal last night: Prove to everyone that he doesn’t belong in Code A. Not that we necessarily needed to be reminded of it. With five Jin Air players already in Code S, the pressure on sOs’ shoulders was probably still huge. However, his performance last night didn’t indicate any nervousness. sOs started the night by taking out Reality in two easy games. Although Terrans have been doing better in Code A this season, sOs made it look dire for them right away. Taking out Super with a 2-1 score afterwards, he advanced straight into Code S quite easily. sOs only really looked challenged when Super won game two with a warp gate rush, brought the pace back into his favor for game three and advanced out of Group I in first place. GSL may not have a $100,000 waiting for him at the finish line, but that doesn’t mean sOs can’t dominate all the same.
herO and Super subsequently had to face a tough Reality: SCV pulls are still going strong. The Samsung terran was either entirely confident in that strategy or really didn’t feel like going into long lategame macro games. In the end, he took out both protoss players with a 2-1 score and became the second player to advance out of his group. There’s something about Reality that no one can quite put a finger on. He certainly showed that he can compete with top class protoss players, but he also showed a certain vulnerability. But luckily for him, he will have ample opportunity to prove himself in Code S.
Group J was contested even harder, even though the first series was rather one sided as Rogue took out Bunny with little trouble. An impressive display of multitasking with ling runbies and muta harass did the job in the first game, while Bunny made a critical error in game two, picking up units to drop while dying to a second wave of Rogue's roach/baneling all in.
Stats also found himself in the Winners' Match, but Life made him work for it a lot harder. A chaotic first game saw Stats succeed in defending against Life's constant zergling counters while keeping the zerg from establishing a swarmhost deathball with a good economy behind it. Game two went to Life after a mass queen/infestor/nydus bust broke Stats' army and third base. A failed roach/ling attack however put Life on the back foot in game three and Stats made no mistake, capitalizing on his lead with a simple 3base timing attack.
The Winners' Match turned out to be a rather easy task for Stats, hitting a big timing against Rogue's mass zergling/mutalisk army, ravaging economy and army at the same time. Game two ended quickly as Stats defended Rogue's 9pool without taking any probe losses and simply finished the game with a 3gateway push while re-expanding.
Bunny, who had been disappointing in his first series, rose to the occasion and eliminated Life from the tournament. His aggressive marine/hellion opening was shut down easily in their first game, but did significantly better in the second and third. Life seemed off all day, lining up drones to lose a total of 19 in game two, then building four evolution chambers (dubiously positioned as well) in game three. A final all in attack ran into enough terran reinforcements to force him out of the final game and the GSL entirely.
Bunny kept up his hyperaggressive TvZ style against Rogue in the deciding series but it ultimately ended up costing him, as he perhaps dropped himself to death in the final game. Bunny had a clear advantage after Rogue's early roach aggression was held easily, but Bunny kept throwing units away with drops which limited Rogue's economy but never his army. A huge roach/muta/baneling attack smashed Bunny's scattered army and even his stronger economy wasn't enough to keep him in the game. Rogue made sure to eliminate it as well and secured a hard fought spot in Code S.
Hot6ix Code S Season 3 Players
Seeded from Season 1 (8):
Classic, ParalyzE, Zest
Maru
soO, TRUE, Solar, Soulkey
Code A Winners (20/24):
Avenge, PartinG, MyuNgSiK, Dear, Rain, Hush, Hurricane, Terminator, sOs, Stats
DongRaeGu, Dark, Shine, EffOrt, Rogue
Cure, TY, Flash, INnoVation, Reality