[Code A] Ro24 D2 Preview/D1 Recap (S4)

Match results from Live Report Thread by walitgon.
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– CJ_Bbyong becomes the first KeSPA player to qualify for Code S without a seed.

It's been a month of landmark moments for KeSPA players in StarCraft II, and yesterday night provided another important first for the forerunners. Bbyong became the first KeSPA gamer to make it into Code S after having started all the way down in Code B, making it through the system without any advantages bestowed upon him.

Alas, with Rain having taken on and defeated most of the eSF's elite in the last month, Bbyong's victory over coL.Heart couldn't help but seem a bit minor in comparison. Heart, despite being a skilled and underrated, is not a player you'd say is a Code S championship contender.

In any case, Heart put up a fight, looking just as good at Genius and First before him, going down by the same 1 – 2 scoreline. There were none of his famous all-in shenanigans, just straight up Terran vs. Terran play. He lost game one after losing the decisive marine vs. marine battle, then took game two after taking an economic build-order advantage and holding off a desperate attack from Bbyong. In the final game, Heart was unable to hold off Bbyong's two base mech-timing and conceded the Code S spot to Bbyong.

On the back of Bbyong's run through Code A, he looks like a capable Code S player, worthy of replacing a Ro16 player like Heart. Strangely, his round one victory against an elite PvT player in First still seems to be his most impressive victory so far, and he is yet to be tested by Code S class Zergs. As with many KeSPA players, we advise at most, cautious optimism at this time, until we see more of his games.

In Heart's case, he continued his trend of playing close series and losing, as well as playing better in standard matches than his cheesy reputation would suggest (albeit, we can't say he doesn't deserve that reputation). The Up/Down matches will be tougher than ever, but with a manageable group, we wouldn't be surprised to see Heart back in Code S next season.


– Disappointing TSL_HyuN faces Up/Downs after losing 1 – 2 to MVP.Vampire

A ten week winning streak in IPL's Fight Club didn't mean much for HyuN as he dropped the ball once more in the GSL. Coming in as a massive favorite, HyuN lost 1 – 2 to MVP's Vampire after collapsing with a gigantic lead in the final set.

The first few minutes of game one made it look like HyuN was destined to stroll into Code S, with his speedlings surrounding Vampire's sentries when he was late to pull the trigger on his force-fields. While a few sloppy mistakes from HyuN allowed Vampire to pull back somewhat, HyuN overran him with superior numbers in the end.

Game two saw HyuN and Vampire play out a fairly standard three-base vs. three-base macro game scenario on Daybreak. However, HyuN was late to tech to hive, and chose poor engagements against Vampire's deathball with his lair army, allowing Vampire to easily cut a path through Zerg troops to take the game.

After two lackluster games, HyuN put in a performance in game three that fully lived up to his GSL choker reputation. HyuN took the initiative with mass mutalisks, pinning Vampire in his base while he proceeded to take nearly every base on the map. With over ten geysers of gas income and thirty-plus mutalisks, HyuN could have closed the game out any way he wanted, but instead he chose to throw it away.

The only area HyuN was lacking behind in was upgrades on his mutalisks, and he let Vampire take full advantage of that fact by engaging well-upgraded, guardian-shielded stalkers in a head on battle without any zergling support. Vampire's force tore through the mutalisks, and immediately went on the counter-attack for an improbable comeback victory.

Now Vampire will advance to Code S, where he will be a prime candidate to be picked by Life as his first opponent next season. His victories over sSak and HyuN owned as much to his opponent's mistakes as to his own prowess, and he will have to go about proving that he truly belongs.

HyuN's in the same place as he was before, remaining one of the best online players who can't get anything done in live games. He will get a second chance in the Up/Down matches, but he needs to figure out what's jinxing him in the GomTV booth if he's to have a chance of advancing to Code S.


– No 'surprises' for ST_Squirtle and CreatorPrime as they advance to Code S

Squirtle and Creator rebounded from their disappointing performances at WCS Asia, crushing ST_Hack and FnaticRC aLive 2 – 0 to advance into Code S. While they were upstaged by some of their Protoss brethren in Shanghai, they looked recovered as they announced their season five Code S campaigns.

In Squirtle's case, he was forced to face the demons of his past as his teammate Hack decided to go for consecutive proxy-barracks all-ins. It seemed like Hack could have a mental edge as Squirtle was 0 – 3 against the strategy in the past, including a heartbreaking loss in game seven of the Code S Season Two finals. However, Squirtle showed he had learned his lesson, and held on to take a 2 – 0 series win.

A micro error in the first game almost caused Squirtle to repeat his fate for the fourth time, but he recovered to win by a slim margin. Facing the strategy again in game two, Squirtle showed much better micro and held against the all-in easily, clinching his spot in Code S.

As for Creator, there weren't many complications as he lived up to expectations and defeated aLive 2 – 0 in standard games. In the first game, he fended off a two base, SCV-pull timing, while in the second game, he defeated aLive with his signature brand of safe, solid macro play. Having come up with TaeJa and Life as one of the hottest young players in in 2012, Creator will look to get his Code S career back on track in season five.

Four more Code S spots are on the line in tonight's games. While there's a second chance left for the losers in the Up/Downs, that place is a volatile nightmare where a player often needs to rely on others to advance.


MaruPrime vs EG.JYP.RC

It's hard to say any of the players in the final round have more on the line than the others, but somehow it this meeting between JYP and Maru seems more tragic than the rest. Maru is trying to establish himself as a legit Code S Terran after rising too high, too early in previous seasons, only to have his cheesy side overexposed. In JYP's case, he's one of the old Brood War veterans who switched over to produce some decent results in the scene, but has yet to really distinguish himself. They've both set some good foundations in Code S while they were there; Maru making a strong Ro16 run at the age of 14 while JYP partially overcame his PvT curse. But those are things that will be have crumbled away after one season mired in Code A, and they desperately need to get back into Code S they avoid being sucked backed into anonymity.

Maru's straight up TvP is good but not great, which is a relief for JYP who has recently graduated his PvT from 'really bad' to 'decent.' The complication here is that Maru is a fearless cheeser, which is a blade that cuts both ways. In the past, JYP's PvT block was mostly mental, and he just played unusually poorly when he had to play that match-up in a live setting. You could have expected the old JYP to respond poorly to cheese and choke. However, the new, possibly cured JYP might actually welcome a cheese rush as a strategy that's easily stopped with proper execution.

Overall, we think JYP has a fair chance, but yet it still feels a little too early to predict him to win a PvT against a player like Maru. In time, JYP, in time.

Prediction: Maru 2 - 1 JYP


STX_Mini vs ST_Curious

By defeating NaNiwa and Flash in the same tournament, Mini already has a great claim to "most hated KeSPA player." He came in with a poor, 2 - 4 record in Proleague before making it into Code A, but already he's looking like one of the stronger elephants and a Code S candidate. Besides his impressive wins (though NaNiwa has been playing poorly as of late, he's always been a great tournament PvP player), the kid has shown he has some verve on the mic and in the booth. He wasn't afraid to taunt NaNiwa after his wins, and used a very unorthodox phoenix heavy style to defeat Flash.

However, all of that doesn't mean much as he goes up against Curious, the fan-dubbed "Code S detector." Mini doesn't have any recent games against Zerg, his last two being losses against CrazyHydra and Hoejja during the early transition period for KeSPA. Basically, this is the first time we'll see Mini play a PvZ at this level of play, and there's no telling how it could go. If you think about it, Curious the Gatekeeper is quite the apt opponent for Mini. He's already passed his PvP and PvT tests, and now all he has to do is pass his PvZ examination to show he completely deserves his spot in Code S.

As for Curious, this match doesn't do very much for him, and it will re-affirm his gatekeeper reputation whether he wins or loses. Last season seemed like it could be a break-out season for Curious, but he faltered again at the Ro16. WCS Asia was as 'typical' a Curious result as you could expect, with him barely qualifying for WCS Worlds before getting knocked out.

With the lack of information on Mini in PvZ, we'll go with the conservative pick and take the veteran Curious to win. But if Mini should win, we'll welcome him to Code S with arms wide open.

Prediction: Curious 2 - 1 Mini


T8_Terminator vs TSL_Polt

By the virtue of his ID, we find ourselves rooting for Terminator more than we would for other KeSPA players. So far he's lived up to his name, going 4 - 0 as he knocked Shine and Suhosin from the tournament. He's about one sunglasses ceremony away from becoming our undisputed favorite.

In terms of the actual game, he's a mystery box just like so many of the KeSPA players to rise up through Code A this season. He played two Zergs to come this far, but we haven't seen him play against a Terran player since July. Protoss is still KeSPA's strongest race, and PvT is probably KeSPA's strongest match-up as well, but that doesn't mean much against a Terran at Polt's level.

If you recall, Polt fought Rain (everyone's new lord and savior) very closely, losing in a close 1 - 2 series last season. We're not ruling out the possibility that Terminator could be better than Rain - the possibilities being endless with KeSPA pro-gamers - but it's likely that he won't be able to stand up to Polt.

Prediction: Polt 2 - 1 Terminator


SAMSUNG_RorO vs MVP.DongRaeGu

Obviously, we don't have much relevant match-up info for the KeSPA players who only have a few games played. Who knew we also wouldn't have much info on the player who's played some of the MOST games?

Through his Code A, WCS Korea, and WCS Asia runs, we've learned that RorO is a beastly ZvP player, and that his opponents are advised to two-base all-in him and pray. However, the WCS tournaments were so Protoss heavy that we didn't get to see much of his skills against the other races at all, save a fairly limited sample. So for Roro's ZvZ, we have some fairly meaningless wins over non-Korean Zergs at WCS Asia, a win over serial choker Miya at WCS Korea, and a win over Leenock, which happens to be 2 months old at this point. We'll say that's enough to say that he's pretty good.

The problem is that DongRaeGu also hasn't given us much to go on lately. Undoubtedly, he was the best ZvZ player when he was at the top of his game, but he played very poorly for most of July through October (by his championship standards). During that stretch, he lost to Effort and Leenock, which might be enough for us to say RorO is favored. However, DongRaeGu made things even more complicated by coming out and destroying MC in the OSL semi-finals last night, looking better than he has been for months. Obviously, ZvP form can only say so much about ZvZ form, but if we're to believe that the old DRG is back, then he's the favorite yet again.

It's all very confusing, indeed. After considering all the factors, we decided that one series win doesn't mean a full recovery for DongRaeGu, and gave RorO the advantage.

Prediction: RorO 2 - 1 DRG