[Code A] Ro24 D2 Preview/D1 Recap (S5)

Zergs Can't Hack It
- Noblesse and Hack upset DongRaeGu and Jaedong to advance to Code S

Even fans of MVP.DongRaeGu and EG.Jaedong.RC have to admit that in retrospect, they saw this coming. Yet, it's one thing to know that stars who don't live up to their reputations are in danger of falling to hungrier up and comers - it's another thing to see it demonstrated so viscerally.

DongRaeGu was the first to fall, and you could say his fall was harder. Though Jaedong has few impressive ZvT wins to his name in his short SC2 career, a declined DongRaeGu was still batting around .500 against Code S class Terrans. On paper, his recently resurgent teammate Noblesse shouldn't have been a big problem, and in the first 1.5 games, it looked like things would go as predicted by most. In game one, DongRaeGu deflected Noblesse's harassment and overran him in the late game with ultralisks and infestors. In game two, DongRaeGu seized control of the game with muta-ling-bane, and looked to be coasting to victory with a late game army.

However, things somehow went horribly wrong for DongRaeGu, as Noblesse shrugged off repeated massacres of his armies by continuing to produce off multiple orbitals and a hidden base. Ultimately, it was DongRaeGu's failure to hurt Noblesse's infrastructure that cost him the game. After expending his bank to defeat four armies, there wasn't enough left in DRG's tank for him to take on the fifth. The series ended anticlimactically for DRG, as he was caught off guard by a simple-marine hellion timing in the third set.

In Jaedong's case, he played yet another series where he looked shockingly off-kilter for a player who was legendary for his mechanics in Brood War. In the first game, he was caught defenseless against Hack's hellion-marauder timing attack. In the second, good muta-ling-bane play allowed him to take a massive lead, but he almost threw it away with sloppy infestor micro that saw them gibbed by Hack's tanks. Fortunately for Jaedong, he had enough of a lead to close out the game with brood lords. The last game might have been the worst of all for Jaedong, as he couldn't capitalize on an early zergling runby that revealed Hack's two-fact hellion strategy. As if nothing had happened, Hack managed to stave off Jaedong's mutalisk harass, transition into a three-base marine-tank push, and crush Jaedong as he frantically rushed out brood lords.

Fortunately for the two Zergs, there's over a week of time between the final week of Code A and the Up/Down matches, where they will get their last chance at tickets into the final Wings of Liberty Code S. For DRG, it looks like just a little improvement will see him into Code S. For Jaedong, it might depend on how many Zergs he can draw in his Up/Down group.

The stuff that went as expected.
- PartinG defeats Center and BBoongBBoong defeats YoDa.

The two 'underdog' Terrans Noblesse and Hack found their way into Code S, but TSL's Center saw his hot streak ended by WCS and WCG Champion ST_PartinG. Yet, it wasn't the kind of macro-roll you would expect from PartinG over a far less-known player, and there was a distinct lack of storms covering the battlefield. Instead, PartinG went for two all-in builds in a row, 7-gating in game one and doing a 1-base immortal all-in in game two. Interestingly enough, PartinG would mention in his post-match interview that he wasn't confident in his PvT recently, having done poorly in practice against Startale teammates Harrier, Sparta, and Sound.

In the less heralded match of the night, the oft overlooked MJ_BBoongBBoong made his return to Code S, taking out LG-IM's YoDa 2 - 1. YoDa played a heavy macro style off three bases, attempting to finish B4 or at least severely damage him while he was still on lair. However, B4 proved to be a more than capable user of muta-ling-bane, using them to hold off Terran pushes and secure bases while he transitioned to hive. Playing on a timer, YoDa found himself out of time, and was forced to GG.

B4's past GSL campaigns were ruined by his poor ZvP, but he seemed to have turned a new leaf at IPL5, defeating both Seed and Crank during his run. If his ZvP has truly improved to match his strong ZvT, then B4 could do a lot of damage in the upcoming Code S season.

CJ_Bbyong vs. TSL_Polt

Bbyong remains a bit of a mystery in terms of GSL competition. He breezed through his Code A bracket last season, looked lost and outplayed but against formidable opposition in Code S, and is now back to cruising in Code A. If this had been an eSF player, the Curious siren would have been ringing ages ago, but seeing that his professional StarCraft II career has been so short, it might not yet be time to draw solid conclusions.

So, with doubts as to whether Bbyong is truly Code S, Code A, in-between or somewhere else entirely in terms of potential, it is good to see that his gameplay at least lets us draw some better conclusions. His builds and approach to the game seem almost austere; in more than one way has he looked rather a lot like Innovation prior to the STX players’ run to the semi-finals. He plays to his strengths, has deadly timings, has a keen grasp on what is needed to win and will punish mistakes or greed with precision. The problem, at least so far, is that he has not looked to truly solid in the late game, especially against Terran and Zerg.

These are rather general problems and specific strengths of a lot of KeSPA players it seems. This still feels like a transitional period for most KeSPA players, with only a few having found what looks to be their true self in SC2. With Bbyong, one wonders whether there is a butterfly that will fly soon, or whether timings and having a narrow game in general is what he will always be known for.

On the opposite side we find Polt. After what was at some point looking to be a mediocre year, Polt has seemed to find new form in the latter stages. Not only has he had some very nice runs in foreign tournaments, but his general gameplay has come together and progressed. While he still refuses to go mech in TvT, his marine tank play has returned to its former glory, and his marauder based anti-mech strategies are also looking as good as ever. In general, Polt has gone from being an interesting but solid player to a fundamentally exciting one. All his matchups have started to have very Polt’esque traits, which not only makes for watchable games but makes for unique ones in Polt’s case.

But as much as he has seen some foreign success, as much as his game looks new and improved and as much as he looks to be one of the more exciting players to watch on any given day, success in the GSL still remains just outside the TSL Terran’s grasp. He has had several seasons now where just a little bit of luck would probably have pushed him into the round of eight, but no such thing has happened. With 2013 being just around the corner, both players will be looking to ensure that they can start off with another shot at Code S glory. In general, Polt should be favored on most counts; while KeSPA players in general have stellar mirror stats against eSF players, against the best of the best the match scores look very different. Whether Polt belongs in that category may not be conclusively confirmed, but he should still go into the round of 24 a favorite.

Polt 2 - 1 Bbyong


TSL_Symbol vs. 8th_BaBy

After several seasons of consistent Code S success, Symbol fell out of his round of sixteen group with a rather heavy thump this time around. Finding himself in the all Zerg group, the expectation was for him to at the very least stay competitive if not easily make it through, but as it stood he was the first one eliminated and looked like the only player who had no real chance.

It is the first time since his tremendous debut season that Symbol has looked outclassed. Now it is time to see whether this has been a permanent knock or whether he will come back as he did after his bitter defeat to Seed. His play has not looked quite as good as it did back then, but he has so far been listing impressive results almost independently of how good he looks in terms of gameplay.

That trait can either be the mark of a top class player or of a player who has had a fair amount of luck and made it more on momentum and confidence rather than pure skill. There is no doubt that Symbol is a great player, but he still needs to prove he can perform when momentum is not on his side.

Baby on the other hand is almost a polar opposite. While Symbol has been the hallmark of GSL consistency, Baby has been the most inconsistent KeSPA player, perhaps by a wide margin. There is a huge divide between the hype he created for himself in defeating players like Mvp and Flash and in being casually swatted aside in his first Code S group.

With such variance in play, Baby remains an opponent not to be underestimated, but is also the kind of player likely to simply not put up a fight on a bad day. He has shown he has impressive play on the good days, but the ease of which he has been defeated by middling players reveal an immaturity in his general play surprising even for a player so new to SC2.

It comes down to Symbol’s impressive consistency against the apparent lack of any consistency at all from Baby. At their best, it is possible that Baby might have an edge, and it still remains to be seen whether the patch and the recent harsh elimination from Code S have had any effect on Symbol.

Symbol 2 - 0 Baby


LG-IM_Mvp vs. Woongjin_sOs

How quaint! For the second time in two days, the King will be going up against an Woongjin Protoss. Back on Monday, Mvp shrugged off a challenge from Woongjin's Flying, stuffing his all-ins for an easy-peasy 2 - 0 victory. Now, with a Code S spot on the line, he faces Flying's more accomplished teammate in sOs.

From the look of it, this could play out very similarly to the previous Mvp vs. Flying match. Like his teammate, sOs loves to play aggressively in PvT, and has used blink-stalker rushes, 1-base 3-gates, and immortal-pushes in his short but colorful GSL career. It's netted him some mixed results, as he was able to defeat Jjakji and Sparta down in Code A, but also lost to MKP in a Code S series where his cheese went hilariously bad.

sOs execution isn't at the level where Terrans can't stop his cheeses even when they know it's coming, so a well-prepared Mvp should be able to win easily against such strategies. The question is, will sOs change things up and try to play macro games instead? With himself and his teammate already having established themselves as cheesy players to Mvp, it would make sense to change things up. On top of that, the maps Antiga, Abyssal, and Cloud - the big blink-stalker rush maps of the GSL - weren't drawn for this series. So this could very well be where we see sOs's macro PvT tested for real.

Mvp 2 - 1 sOs


LG-IM_YongHwa vs ST_Life

For information gathering purposes, this is one of the best matches you could have hoped for. Yonghwa, LG-IM's hidden ace, and the master of Code B, has finally risen out of the shadows to try and make a name for himself in the GSL. His GSTL all-kills over the short-handed Fnatic and SlayerS teams caused him to become a bit overrated, but even at worst, he's shown Code S level play. A pair of PvP wins against Mini and Squirtle sees him into the final round of Code A, where he will face a former GSL champion in Life.

The Life hype has settled a tiny bit since he won Code S Season Four and MLG Dallas back to back, but he's still one of the hottest players in the world right now. While he seems like a strong favorite to win, there's one caveat about his late-autumn run that's worth pointing out: he barely played any good Protoss players. Life faced ZERO Protoss players to win MLG Dallas, and in GSL, he only faced JYP and Seed. While he did beat the latter two, it still left a lot of people wondering how he would fare against players like PartinG, Creator, or Rain (and in fact, he went 0 - 3 against PartinG in MLG's recent online Tournament of Champions).

With all of that in consideration, Life is still favored (it's not like JYP and Seed are chumps in PvZ). However, Yonghwa is a Code S class player, and Life hasn't shown the same level of dominating play in ZvP as he has in ZvT. There have been plenty of upsets already in Code A, and this match is showing the signs of one as well.

Life 2 - 1 Yonghwa