[Up/Down] Group C/E Recaps

Results from Live report thread by Probe1.
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Spontaneous Acts of viOLet
– With viOLet missing, SlayerS_Ryung and ST_Life advance from the four man Group E

The Up/Downs are known as a place where anything can happen. That was most certainly the case with Group E, but little did anyone suspect that the surprises would begin before a single game was played. With ThorZaIN already forfeiting Group B games earlier in the week due to illness, Group E favorite AZUBU.viOLet also went missing. Unlike ThorZaIN's announced withdrawal, viOLet was almost a game day no-show, with many fans learning of his absence from GSL casters Khaldor and Wolf as the broadcast began.

The first player to come out of this 50/50 group turned out to be SlayerS_Ryung, a fixture in Code S. Perhaps not the more glamorous fixture in the apartment, or one most fans really think that much about, but definitely a fixture that would be strange not to have there.

While Ryung has always been commended for his macro, his positioning and his methodical type of play, none of those qualities really mattered much in his first game of the group against Life. In what can only be described as a peculiar game, Ryung went 11/11. While we are accustomed to seeing a fair amount of 11/11 openings in TvZ, Life’s reaction was not the most common. Pulling all but a handful of Drones, Life went to take out the unprotected SCVs of Ryung. It almost worked out for the Startale Zerg, but Ryung was able to squeeze out just enough Marines to make it a failed gambit for his Zerg opponent, giving him a valuable first win.

The tables were turned against Ryung in the following game, Oz opened with a two gate - one of them proxied. I would have put solid money on the following happening six months ago: Ryung would have expanded in his natural, he would have been flustered by the double Zealot plus Stalker pressure coming in at a peculiar timing and made his bunker on the high ground a little too late to stave off the pressure, perhaps even trying to initially fend off the initial Zealots on the low ground with Marines.

In September 2012, Ryung simply built his Command Center on the high ground, responded to the attack with a bunker, continuously produced Marines and teched to Stim while repairing his depots. He ended up holding with relative ease, took map control and simply crushed Oz while he was trying to take his third to make up for his poor start.

Finally, already being qualified for Code S Season 4 (the other players' games worked out so that 2 - 0 was sufficient for Ryung), our intrepid hero went against his reputation as a stellar macro TvT player, one basing an unsuspecting TheStC to ensure a sweep of the group. Teching up to Siege Tanks, he pretty much rolled over the Quantic player who had greedily gone for triple Orbitals and double Engineering Bay before really bolstering his production.

– Fifteen year old ST_Life qualifies for his first Code S ever

We have long heard of the young, talented Korean trio of Taeja, Creator and Life. One Terran, one Protoss, one Zerg. All seemingly unbeatable online, all with immense potential, all heralded as bringers of the new generation of StarCraft II. Well, the first two in the group have quite recently come to blossom. Taeja is on one of the most dominant streaks we have seen. Creator just won WCS Korea.

Now it is Life’s turn.

While he lost his first game to Ryung, he would not let that stand in his way of the holy grail of StarCraft II known as Code S status. Life started his game against TheStC as he did against Ryung. However, instead of facing 11/11 he faced Command Center first into gas into Barracks. The early midgame looked strangely bleak for Life when he faced Hellion pressure and a Banshee at his third.

Instead of doing what we see a lot of Zergs do, he sent out speedlings to attack TheStC’s third while defending with Queens. In a complete reversal of how this is supposed to go, it was the Terran who lost a lot of economy while Life stabilized and went for his Infestors. Having seized the initiative, Life never let go. He simply out-harassed the former oGs player, constantly going for his exposed third on Daybreak with Ling run-bys. His Infestor attack on the natural was a lot less successful, but the fact of the matter was that TheStC was never able to stabilize, forced to constantly put out fires while Life macroed behind his aggression for a landslide win.

Life's final game versus Oz looked similar to his second. An early ling runby saw the game start to spiral out of control for Oz from the get go. He left his wall undefended with no Probe or Zealot plugging the gap (a recurring trend in recent ZvP) while Zerglings happily entering his natural. While he actually cleaned that raid up without losing too much, the wizard’s follow up of Sentry donations to speedlings let Life have an enormous advantage. When Oz tried to secure a late third with no real army to defend himself from Lings, Life took the game and ensured no tiebreakers would be played in an incredibly short Up and Down group.

So Life has clinched his Code S spot as the last of the young online trio. He did it in his own fashion, looking bizarre and unreadable vs. Ryung, fluid and dominant vs. TheStC and Oz. Time will tell whether anything will come of this fanciful tale, but it seems almost more sad that Creator was eliminated in tiebreakers from Group D now; it would have been very interesting to see how the three would develop side by side when GSL Season 4 started in earnest.

Results from Live report thread by Probe1.
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The HerO Gom Needs
– Liquid`HerO advances from group C with a perfect 4 - 0 record.

Group C was similar in a way to Group D; it contained two favorites and then the rest. Clearly HerO and aLive were the most decorated players in the group, as they went up against an unpredictable bunch of challengers including a young Terran whose skill level has yet to be figured out completely (MaruPrime), a TSL Zerg with more promise than results (TSL_Shine), and a part-timer notorious for his preference for cheese (ST_SuHoSin).

Only one of the favorites made good on his reputation, as HerO came out as the clear winner of the group with a 4 – 0 record. His play was crisp, and he looked like the Code S player who was merely unlucky to be in this situation in the first place.

It has to be stressed that this has not been the case in the past. HerO has always looked like a brilliant player, but a brilliant player whose consistency was lacking, a brilliant player who was by no means a lock for Code S status. He had only been in Up and Downs once before, back then failing to make it out after losing to JYP and July. And while 2012 Code S Season Two showcased what he could do, it was not necessarily representative of what can be expected on a consistent basis.

HerO's wins came in all sorts of ways. Against Maru, he went for one base Blink Stalkers with Robo not really knowing whether Maru had expanded in base or teched up. As it turned out, the Prime Terran had opted for the latter, going for a hellion drop. HerO deflected the drop harass without much trouble, and then killed Maru directly when he dared to follow with banshees.

Against aLive and Suhosin, HerO was also able to win in the early game. aLive went for a similar route as Maru, trying for hellion drops to begin. However, HerO was wise to it all, defending with ease even as he took a fast expand. He then used a forward pylon to go on the attack – leaving a few Stalkers at home to defend against further Hellion aggression – and took advantage of aLive’s very limited defenses. With trademark Stalker micro, he was not only able to secure an unassailable lead in economy, but broke through aLive’s defenses altogether to end the game quickly.

HerO continued to be an early rush magnet against Suhosin, who went for an extremely fast nydus rush against HerO's forge-FE. However, HerO's good reaction time allowed him to shut off the biological backdoors before they could unload too many Zerglings, and Suhosin GG'd out once he knew his all-in was thwarted.

The only real macro game came versus Shine. While we got to see a lot of the things that make HerO a fan favorite, we also got to see glimpses of the things that has made him state he is not happy about his current PvZ. While his Warp Prism harass was effective, Shine was still able to get up to Hive tech with an ample amount of economy. Trying to attack before Brood Lords were ready, HerO walked into a wall of Spines at Shine’s forward fourth on Daybreak and lost the first large scale engagement of the game.

However, HerO had a strong economy of his own and was able to stabilize. While Shine tried to Spinecrawler push his way towards HerO’s fourth, the Liquid player confidently got his Mothership, teched up to Storm while harassing with Speedprisms. The TSL Zerg was never really able to break the deadlock, while he traded favorably in his push, he failed to make significant ground and HerO’s multitasking and macro started to let him pull ahead. With 200 energy on his mothership, HerO was able to win the decisive battle of the game, pushing through the middle to force the GG.

– Underdog ST_SuHoSin forces his way to another Code S berth

Group C completed an ignominious sweep for TL writers, with every single progamer predicted to finish last actually finding a way into Code S. Suhosin (the artist formerly known as Line) capped off this all-kill, squeezing into Code S despite his underdog status.

To just call Suhosin a cheeser and be done with it seems to be somewhat unfair, as he used to be known as a rising Zerg prospect. But on the night, he didn't do much to dispel his more recent reputation. With that being said, Suhosin proved that he is adept at what he does. While he failed to beat aLive in a game where his 10 Pool should definitely have done more against the 11/11 of the Fnatic player, he was able to use a rarely seen one base Ling/Bling/Roach build to perfection against Shine.

Then came a game that showed why we should not dismiss Suhosin as one dimensional. He went for the most unconventional of Suho-builds against Maru, displaying a beautifully played out midgame with Speedlings and Banelings to tear the young Terran apart. It was a really nice game to spectate, not only because it is admittedly quite rare to get to see how Suhosin executes completely normal things things, but because he did it with an unmistakable Suhosin touch.

It is very difficult not to have a soft spot for players that have an identifiable, iconic style. For Suhosin, that is a double edged sword. It means that he will probably always be known to be the cheeser that could. But it also means that when he expands his repertoire, when he surprises us he is a compelling player to watch. To be fair, one could easily argue that even when he does one base all-ins, two-base all-ins or whatever new cheese he can think of, he is a compelling player because he stands out.

One can't deny that luck played a considerable part in Suhosin's Code S qualification. Shine was down 1 - 2 with no hope of Code S going into his last game, yet he played 100%, crushing aLive to kill off Suhosin's competition for second place in the group. But then again, he's not alone in being fortunate. Both MaNa and Gumiho faced the threat of re-games, but their fellow-group mates gave them a helping hand to make their paths easier.

At the very least, it is quite comforting to know that we have players that will always be ready to crush overly greedy, over confident players who think that there is some kind of magical ‘no attacks before 15 thx’ rule in this game. We need certain gatekeepers, sometimes to ensure quality when Yugioh removes the chaff from the wheat in Code A, sometimes when Suhosin punishes the overconfident, the ones who refuse to scout diligently and the ones whose builds have flaws begging to be exposed.