[Code S] Ro32 Group D Recap

Results from Live report thread by Dodgin.
Code S Group D Recap

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Only Happy When it Rains
- LG-IM_Happy and KeSPA player SKT_Rain advance to the Ro16.

The landscape of the GSL has changed a lot since Happy’s heyday. He started out in a Protoss light environment, propelling himself to a status as one of the league’s premier Terrans largely without being exposed too much to his weakest matchup. But times, doing as they please, are a-changing. With the influx of strong Protoss into the upper echelons of the GSL, Happy certainly chose a fortuitous time to unveil his new Protoss killing powers.

His start was not quite the unveiling Happy would have hoped for. Facing SlayerS_Genius, his play was shaky. He held off early four gate pressure after expand from the Protoss, but overextended on the attack, trying to drop. As that was denied, his army was too segmented to put up much of a resistance to Genius' zealot charge, storm, and plus two armor timing.

As he did in his Up and Down group, Happy was able to turn it around. In game two, he looked in control all the way through, applying pressure while not overextending. His drop play proved considerably more difficult to fend off with Genius squarely on Colossus tech, and Happy was able to both drop and deny the SlayerS player’s third while using the small pathways on Entombed Valley to his advantage and rode the economy advantages he amassed to even the match score.

Game three on saw Happy take an early advantage, but again he overextended and fell behind. However, this time the direct follow up did not kill him, and Happy was able to defend his third base, despite ending up forty supply down. The momentum of the game continued to shift around until Genius decided to take out Happy’s fourth. The IM Terran was able to position himself behind the enemy forces, make sure that there was no detection, and annihilate the opposing army with cloaked ghosts. It was a crushing victory, and enough to see Happy through to the winners match.

There he faced KeSPA player Rain. Again, Happy found himself at a deficit after the first game. He went for a bunker rush with pulled SCVs, but failed to really capitalize on a promising situation when he was indecisive, allowing Rain the time to warp in a Sentry that denied Happy access to the Protoss main. Rain counterattacked via Zealot warped in by a proxy pylon, and although Happy came agonizingly close to securing a draw by destroying the Nexus, he fell 100 HP short and went down 0 - 1 in the series.

Game two produced yet more non-standard game states. Once again, it was full of action and the momentum switched almost continuously. As one player was ahead on economy, he would invariably fall behind in army and vice versa. However, Happy was able to consistently deny Rain’s third while getting up to three bases himself, but was precariously low on SCVs. In Rain’s final push, he was barely repelled, but breaking it was enough as the Protoss found his attack broken and had no minerals left to mine.

The final game was the highlight game of the night, with Happy coming back from what seemed like an unwinnable position. Happy opened up with a fast third orbital Command while Rain tried to punish the greedy play with a fast Colossus build reminiscent of Squirtle. Happy was barely able to hold on to his main, massing up on Vikings while having his natural broken and taking heavy losses. It was unclear if Rain could really push any further, but decided that retreat was the better part of valor. As Happy was able to reclaim mining from his natural while drop harassing, he leveraged the only advantage he had in superior upgrades, scrapped together enough vikings to punish Rain at his third base. Happy stomped Rain’s army, took the game and tasted the sweetness of advancing as the underdog.

- Rain re-affirms his position as KeSPA’s premier SC2 player

After playing just a handful of PvT games in Proleague and the OSL, Rain was tested exhaustively in Group D. While he did defeat MarineKingPrime in the first round of OSL, he did looked somewhat suspect and the suspicion that it might not be his best matchup was echoed in his interviews. It wasn't surprising to hear him state that he was the most confident against Zerg and feared Terran.

ByuNPrime should have been a tricky opponent for a Protoss with that disposition. And in game one of the first match of the group, the fears as to Rain’s chances started to take form. Byun was able to pick apart the KeSPA representative’s defenses with good drop play, amassing a sizable lead in the midgame. However, Rain fought back, employing a PvT style very similar to that of Seed when falling behind. He shored up his defenses while counterattacking with zealot warp ins and warp prism play. As the game went on, Byun found himself unable to control the game, as he was getting stretched too thin on defense and not able to contain Rain to three bases. Rain won the game as he in quick succession was able to deny Byun’s fourth, defend his own while taking out probes at a rate the Terran could not keep up with.

The second game was a much shorter story. Byun chose Antiga, but instead of going for a macro game like most Terrans favoring the map in TvP, he snuck an SCV into the Protoss base and went for an in-base Barracks with tech lab, intending to surprise and overwhelm with marauders. However, just before the first marauder was produced, Rain was able to scout the proxy. With a Stalker just about to come out and with concussive shell too far away to matter, Byun chose to retreat, regroup and go for a delayed 1/1/1. In the end, while Rain’s defense was not flawless, he had more than enough of an early advantage to overwhelm his opponent.

Losing to Happy in the winners match meant that Rain had to wait and see who came up from the losers match for the final Code S spot. As it turned out, his opponent was Byun once more, who took his sweet time coming out of the losers matches with a narrow 2 - 1 victory over Genius.

The first game took place on Whirlwind, where the two players played a macro game to eclipse all macro games. Both players expanded freely, each having small victories. While Byun would successfully harass and snipe tech, Rain was the one hampering the opponent’s economy. While Byun built up a ridiculous amount of Ghosts, Rain’s persistence on taking out bases and killing SCVs meant that if he could defeat the army, he would inevitably triumph. In the end, he was able to pick away at Byun’s army long enough to severely diminish its numbers and used his superior economy to secure his spot in group nominations.

- Fun facts from the first week of Code S Season 4.

1. No group winner has been able to go 4-0.
   
2. Every group winner has lost a game in their first match of the group.
   
3. Zerg qualified three out of five for round of sixteen, Protoss three out of six, Terran two out of five.
   
4. Terran had an overall map score of 16-20, Protoss 21-18, and Zerg 15-14.
   
5. The overall matchups ended up with TvP at 9-10, TvZ at 3-7 and PvZ at 8-6.
   
6. Cloud Kingdom was the favorite map to choose, being selected seven times.
   
7. Abyssal City was only selected once. Suhosin picked it and won his only map in the group on it.
   
8. Entombed Valley was the best pick of the lot. All five players choosing it won their games on the map.
   
9. Antiga Shipyard inflicted the most losses on its pickers. Only two out of five players choosing to play on the map won their game.
   
10. The win/loss record of players winning the first game of a match ended at 14-6, a win rate of 70%.