Squirtle evolves to Code S Ro16 Leenock advances to Code S Ro16 MMA falls to Code A Ro32 NaDa falls to Code A Ro48
Out with the old, in with the (kind of) new
MMA has had one of the best careers in the history of Starcraft II, while NaDa can claim without exaggeration to be a true esports legend. However, their reputations meant nothing in Code S' group F, as rising stars Squirtle and Leenock dismantled the veterans. The two Terran stalwarts looked outmatched, losing lopsidedly in several of their games, and the only victory between the two came when MMA defeated Nada.
Evolved and ready for war
Amazing what a little confidence can do for a guy. Or, maybe, after going on a hellish run at IPL4, with forty nine games played, victories over ToD, Byun, SaSe, Ace, PuMa, Creator, MC, Bomber, MKP, MMA, and Nestea, and a 32 – 17 overall record, it's A LOT of confidence. Whatever the case, IPL4 seems to have transformed ST_Squirtle, turning him from a talented but extremely streaky player into one that can play championship level Starcraft at will.
Squirtle continued his roll in Code S, taking down superstars MMA and Leenock in some remarkably one-sided series. Though it was well-known beforehand that MMA and Leenock suffered against Protoss, it didn't take away from the fact that Squirtle played very well, showing that the clock had not yet struck midnight on his Cinderella story.
Squirtle seemed to have some jitters in his first match, losing an ugly game to MMA after some fatal mismanagement of high templars. However, he came back with cool, collected play in games two and three, expertly deflecting a bunker rush and deftly executing a non-all in version of a one-base blink stalker rush respectively, to take the lead in the games. From his advantageous position, Squirtle switched into the two base colossus play that allowed him to defeat MMA at IPL4, and once again, the SlayerS ace had no answer.
In the winners' match, Squirtle used a +1 gateway all-in to make short work of an unwisely zergling heavy Leenock in the first game, and seemed to be on his way to an easy second win when another two-base timing attack took out Leenock's third base in game two. However, Leenock recovered well enough to switch into both burrowed roaches and mutalisks, and used multi-prong, backdoor tactics to the fullest to claw his way back into the game. Squirtle looked like he was having a hard time staying on top of things at times, but he managed to stabilize and build up an army while never falling to the temptation of rolling the dice on a base trade. Leenock eventually wore himself out with his guerilla tactics, and Squirtle was able to take a well-deserved spot in the Ro16.
Terran Terror
FXOLeenock was outmatched by Squirtle, but in turn, he completely dominated his group's two Terrans to take the second spot in Code S. Against Nada, he saw straight through the Tornado Terran's creative mech into bio build, and rushed to hive to tear apart a nearly defenseless Terran army with Brood Lords.
There was a little more variety in his games against MMA, but the dominance was all the same. MMA attempted an old school, 4-rax marine + SCV all-in in game one, a tactic that very nearly worked. However, MMA couldn't micro his marines and SCVs well enough against Leenock's banelings and was held off without inflicting enough damage. It was a simple matter for Leenock to then repay MMA with an old school strategy of his own, counter-attacking and finishing MMA with a massive, slow baneling bust.
Game two saw MMA try to go for his signature Antiga Shipyard TvZ, applying constant, annoying pressure while building up a strong three-base foundation. Leenock decided he would have none of it, and charged in with an uppercut straight to the liver. With three bases, 2/2 speedlings, and a ton of infestors, Leenock broke right through MMA's front door. MMA showed Boxer-like resiliency to stay in the game, but Leenock's initial barrage had already done him in. A deadly hive medley soon followed from Leenock, and MMA GG'd out as ultralisks danced.
Disappointment for Terran stars
It was an ugly day for two of the most popular Terrans in the world, as they were shown up by two rising contenders. After making it seem like Code A was beneath him, taking down Creator and Maru to reach Code S, coL.NaDa himself looked out of his depth in the GSL's premiere competition. His creative mech-bio build was cut apart about Leenock, while his mech TvT was similarly dismantled by MMA.
Despite beating up on last place Nada, SlayerS_MMA looked no better on the night. Unable to escape from his reputation as a weak TvP player, MMA was outmatched even in his vaunted TvZ. Leenock vs MMA was supposed to be the highlight of the night, but it turned out to be nothing but a campaign advertisement for Leenock's ZvT presidency.
Squirtle used a two-base timing to take down Leenock's third base early, but the game was far from over at that point. Leenock used all of Zerg's mobility and abused Dual Sight's unique terrain to keep Squirtle off balance and try to force a fatal mistake. However, Squirtle showed great composure, prioritizing correctly and positioning his army well enough to put out most of the fires. Squirtle then did a fantastic job of corralling Zerg units on the notoriously open, backstabby map to finish off Leenock.
The day has finally come. Fourteen IEM penalty points, ten GSL losses, eight teams, seven probes, six GSL championships' worth defeated, one blown TSL3 final, one MLG Dallas Championship and one seed-worthy MLG Providence later, Quantic.NaNiwa will finally play in the world's most prestigious tournament. It's been a long journey for one of the few foreigners with the combination of determination and skill to try and make it in Korea, and in NaNiwa's reckoning, the journey won't be over until he wins Code S. But this is an important milestone nonetheless, and hopefully, for fans of foreigners everywhere, it will be the first step, but not the last.
NaNiwa's more recent victories over Koreans have come mostly against Zerg and Protoss opponents, while he's had only a few chances to face off against Korean Terrans. In general, there haven't been too many NaNiwa PvTs to watch in the last few months, which makes this two Terran group an intriguing prospect. Interestingly enough, NaNiwa mentioned in a recent TL interview that he actually feels more confident against Terran than Zerg – which will lighten the hearts of NaNiwa fans considering that he beat Leenock and Nestea in February. Additionally, living in the Startale house with PvT imba-master PartinG surely hasn't hurt NaNiwa's PvT game, and perhaps some of the know-how will have rubbed off.
At least, he'll go into the group with the knowledge that he can beat the scariest opponent in his group, the three time champion IMMvp. Alongside NaNiwa, Mvp might be the player who has the most to prove. NaNiwa said he doesn't feel like he deserves the Code S seed, but he'll sure as hell be trying to prove that he does. On the other hand, Code S' most accomplished player is facing an entirely different struggle, trying to prove that he's still a championship contender.
Mvp has been a fairly ordinary Code S player in 2012, which by his golden standard, is about equivalent to being high masters on NA. Somewhere between Sniper and IdrA, players who beat Mvp stopped looking better for winning, and it became just Mvp looking worse for losing. Going into this group, the scariest thing about Mvp's 2012 play is that he slumped while playing his previously invincible match-ups of TvT and TvZ. If that's the case, then how will he fair in a group with two Protoss, the race that was considered his weakness even when he was on top of the world?
Still, if we've learned anything from over a decade of Korean esports, it's that you can never count out a champion. The game is always changing and evolving, and by that very nature, no one can stay on top forever. However, players who had the skill to dominate in one age usually find a way to bounce back and stay relevant in another, adapting their games to fit the times. In Starcraft II, both Nestea and MC had their minor stumbles, but came back as still dangerous players. It might be hard for Mvp to rise to the absolute summit of Starcraft II once more, but we should have the faith in him that his eternal fate is not as an Code S RO32 player.
...and to completely shift gears, how about a final bit of bad news for Mvp? His first opponent is SlayerS_Ryung, who happens to be a MSPaint TvT specialist, and also happens to be the main guy who helped MMA practice each time he crushed Mvp in an important finals. Despite being two of the biggest beneficiaries of Terran's heyday in 2011 and the ensuing TvT extravaganza, the two never ended up facing each other, making this their first relevant meeting in a very long time. It's probably just as bad news for Ryung as it is for Mvp, because 1 – 4 to Gumiho or not, Mvp is still f***ng Mvp, and no one wants to face him when he's had weeks to prepare for you in his first match.
On the TvP side of the story, Ryung is in even more trouble than Mvp, as he had a hard time beating Protoss players even in the days when the imba cries were reversed. His recent record isn't any better, so Ryung really will need to have made the best of his preparation period and brought some sweet strategies to prevail in this group.
Rounding out the group is Puzzle, who is... Puzzle. Yeah, SlayerS_Puzzle is pretty good, I guess. Of the players leading the Protoss revival in Code S, Puzzle is one of the best, but is the most vanilla as well. Is being too plain something you can call a weakness? Puzzle has good mechanics, makes good decisions, and mixes up all-ins and straight up games at a pretty good ratio. At least we know from Brood War, that being plain isn't a fatal flaw, though it's worked out so far that we've had almost entirely interesting champions in SC II. Watch out, Starcraft II, you're due your Mind one day.
Puzzle feasted on the mid-tier TvP players last GSL, with his quarter-final run built entirely upon TvP wins against Nada, Keen, MMA, and SuperNova. However, he got his clock cleaned by Gumiho in the quarter-finals, in a series oddly reminiscent of his quarter-final elimination against Jjakji in Code S November. Both times, he looked like he was evenly matched up against his opponent on paper, but while Jjakji and Gumiho rose to the occasion, Puzzle seemed to stay on the same level. Against Ryung, this shouldn't be much of a problem, but Mvp could be trouble.
Predictions and overall outlook
Mvp is the #1 pick to make it out, though it's definitely possible that he hasn't bottomed out yet, and will slip even further before starting to recover (barring retirement from wrist injury, I'm confident that he'll eventually regain some of his past form at some point). However, considering we had the faith in him and Nestea to place them at #7 and #8 in the IPL4 power rank, I'm gonna stick to my guns. Nestea repaid that faith with a good showing at IPL4, and I think Mvp can do the same in the GSL.
While I think Mvp will make it out someway, somehow, the rest of the group is up in the air. Predicting NaNiwa vs Puzzle is nearly impossible. Even going by recent PvP records, there's not much between them, not that a short winning/losing streak for either of them would have meant anything anyway. There are a number of match-up combinations I can see where either NaNi or Puzzle get through, through a mix of skill and luck. Any combination of Win PvP + Beat Ryung seems the most likely, but we've also seen players get through on PvP-PvT-PvP sandwiches in the past.
There's definitely less scenarios where I see Ryung getting through, due to his weakness in TvP. But it would be wrong to leave him for dead, especially considering he has a very decent chance of beating Mvp in the first match. He's not likely to beat two Protoss players in the same day, but if he can get past Mvp, he only needs two clever all-ins, or two inspired games to make it through.
I don't feel MVP's wrists can allow him to perform well enough, at least until he gets them treated. Gonna go with both protoss players advancing actually.
On April 13 2012 03:09 QCD.GRudge wrote: Hope naniwa can pull to the RO4 at least. From what I can remember Jinro was the last non-korean to get that far.
Holy Mackanaw intense group I'm so excited pulling an all-nighter tonight. Exam review and NANIWER FIGHTING! He seriously looks demented in the front-page collage though, I hope he can harness that inner 7 probe rush tonight, Puzzle is no joke. I'm hoping MVP and Ryung have off days or something.
Hopefully if the worst case scenario happens with Naniwa losing, he doesn't go on a blame rampage, however much it may be justified.*
* Referring to his latest thread on TL in which he blamed his practice partners for leaking his strategies to his opponents in this group, subsequently Naniwa got temped on TL as tensions grew high.
So exited for Naniwa, this is probably the match I've been the most exited for in Starcraft 2 yet. But I'll be unable to watch most of it probably because I've got to take a train that leaves aproximately in the middle of the matches, and I have to travel to the train and then on the train in the start there is tunnels that kills my mobile interwebs .
On April 13 2012 03:09 QCD.GRudge wrote: Hope naniwa can pull to the RO4 at least. From what I can remember Jinro was the last non-korean to get that far.
That's incredibly optimistic...
Yah, imo, as long as he doesn't get knocked out of GSL, I'll be really happy. And if he makes it so he's code S next season that would be insanely awesome.
On April 13 2012 03:09 QCD.GRudge wrote: Hope naniwa can pull to the RO4 at least. From what I can remember Jinro was the last non-korean to get that far.
That's incredibly optimistic...
Yeah, being the first code s sponsor seed not ending 4th in his group would already be quite good...
I wonder in what shape are mvp wrists, if it's as bad as it seemed, I don't think he can win here :/
Naniwa takes this in a big shock to the haters. Nani takes out Puzzle and then pulls an interesting cheese in the first game into a macro win in game 3 against Ryung.
Puzzle deflates and Ryung shocks all to come second in the group.
Puzzle and Naniwa will EZ through the group. MVP would struggle against worse protoss than those and Ryung wouldn't be able to take down decent foreign protoss players in a BO3.
I really regret buying a yearly ticket from Gom, I can't manage to enjoy any game with a protoss in it TT.
On April 13 2012 02:42 Verator wrote: I don't feel MVP's wrists can allow him to perform well enough, at least until he gets them treated. Gonna go with both protoss players advancing actually.
pretty much that. and considering recent dismantlement of T by P...
Incoming 0-2 Nani loss, would like to see him prove me wrong but given he couldn't even handle code A with all the chances he was given I'm not optimistic.
I so very much want Naniwa to roflstomp and to advance but at the same time it's almost scary how much pressure he must be under going into this. Not participating in any of the recent big tournaments but just focusing on good practice in Korea means that all eyes are on him now and people are really expecting him to show his worth. That might be a very difficult position. Hopefully he hasn't paid too much attention to all the hype and threads like this (the first paragraph of the this RO32 group G preview is pure awesomeness and I know if I was Naniwa my hands would be shaking after reading that).
This might be the easiest group Naniwa could ask for. Starts out with a PvP that he can obviously take since he shown at MLG that he could beat JYP and MC. It then depends on how Ryung does against MVP which I think Ryung can win since MVP's condition is still unknown and Ryung has always been good at TvT.. Ryung is, however, not so spectacular in his TvP and if Naniwa could reach a long macro game, I think he could take it. Regardless, this group really depends on MVP's condition.
I'm a big NaNiwa supporter, but I think saying that he'll advance is a little audacious. I don't think he'll absolutely bomb, but I think his record will look something like: Loss versus Puzzle, win versus Ryung, loss versus Puzzle. Getting a win in the rematch is how I see him advancing in the group. Maybe today will be one of MVP's off days and we'll see NaNiwa paired off with him instead of Ryung, but I'm pretty confident that NaNiwa can handle either Terran in the group. It's PvP that I'm concerned with.
Really hope that Naniwa can pull through this group. This seems to be one of the easier groups and if Mvp's wrists are still affecting his play, it's possible to seem him in the bottom two. Go Naniwa/Mvp!
Mvp is coming back! Still I don't see why people are putting so much doubt on Mvp's TvP. Given the small enough samplesize the only TvP sets he has lost in 2011 is against MC at MLG providence which he came back to 3:0 MC from the loser bracket. Prior to that a 2:1 loss to NaNiWa. Those two along with Genius/Alicia adds up to a total of 4 sets lost to protoss in the entire 2011 year. Very far from being 'weak'.
Nani should be able to beat Puzzle, his PvP is pretty good, be beat MC before so no problem. Also MVP and Ruynh isn't really in a good form right now, so he has a decent chance to prove himself tho.
most likely two tosses advance, theyve finally figured out how to effectively go both colossi and high templars, and i dont think terrans have found a good counter yet, other than through brute force/even sicker micro
I'd love to see Naniwa take it and I think he has the skills to pull through, but I worry that he'll defeat himself with the pressure to do well on the GSL stage. Just because Puzzle is boring doesn't mean he can't come out and knock out everyone on the way to proving he's no joke.
Given that MVP skipped IPL partly on the basis of his wrist injuries, and TvP has been his achilles heel anyway, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he divebombs out of this group. Ryung could go either way, but if BoxeR's Forgotten Son feels like he has something to prove, he could definitely show up and destroy anyone in the group to win.
Predicting Ryung & Puzzle to advance. Hoping I'm wrong.
Same prediction same reason. Just can't count out MVP, especially considering we haven't seen much of him lately to really know his condition. Just like with Nestea before IPL4. IM seems to think he's going to do fine according to their twitter.
As for Naniwa, he has a PvP, and a terran aside from MVP with a rep for bad TvP. I think he can make it.
Given the state of MVP's arms, I think Nani actually has a shot at this. Additionally, I would consider favoring Puzzle over MVP when it comes down to the swing match to see who makes it with Nani.
Hope that Nani can make it and move on. But it will be difficult, and perhaps it is him himself that is the largest hurdle. He has put sooooo much pressure on himself for these games.
On April 13 2012 04:37 Acidosis wrote: This might be the easiest group Naniwa could ask for. Starts out with a PvP that he can obviously take since he shown at MLG that he could beat JYP and MC. It then depends on how Ryung does against MVP which I think Ryung can win since MVP's condition is still unknown and Ryung has always been good at TvT.. Ryung is, however, not so spectacular in his TvP and if Naniwa could reach a long macro game, I think he could take it. Regardless, this group really depends on MVP's condition.
On April 13 2012 04:20 Hamdemon wrote: Incoming 0-2 Nani loss, would like to see him prove me wrong but given he couldn't even handle code A with all the chances he was given I'm not optimistic.
Yeah, only take Nanis 6 Code A PvZ games from months ago into account and not what he showed at all other tourneys.
I have hardly ever wanted someone to advance so badly as I do with MVP now.
Nani making it would be awesome, too, but I will never bet on a foreigner winning his GSL matches, because judging from past experiences, it would be very, very unwise.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Naniwa and Puzzle advance, mainly due to Ryung's presence in the group: A TvT specialist with a pretty bad record in TvP. If MVP's condition hasn't improved (dem wrists T_T), Ryung could very well take him out with his impeccable TvT, and that leaves MVP down 0-1. In short,
Puzzle > Naniwa (or vice versa, doesn't really matter) Ryung > MVP Winner of Puzzle vs Naniwa > Ryung Loser of Puzzle vs Naniwa > MVP Loser of Puzzle vs Naniwa > Ryung
I've never been a huge MVP fan, but I think the scene is missing something, and something about MVP was always very special. It would be such a shame for a player who is obviously so talented and hard-working to be forced out due to injury.
So, I don't care if MVP advances or not, I just hope that he shows some great play tomorrow.
Also, although I think Puzzle is pretty special, another Terran stomping may really turn some heads.
PvP is PvP and Ryung has terrible TvP so I think that Naniwa has a pretty good chance. If Mvp plays anything like he used to then he will go through and Puzzle is pretty damn good so it will be difficult but I believe in the Dragonslayer.
I see it mostly Naniwa making it through, and possibly Puzzle. MVP and Ryung's TvP isn't all that great, and both Toss players should be able to beat them. Another night of Code S Terrans getting eliminated sadly
I am really praying that Naniwa makes it. I'm not a Naniwa fanboy or anything, but I do like the seed bonus system since it can throw unpredictable elements into Code S, such as an outsider surprising people and winning.
I just hope MVP wins and Nani is eliminated. Between Puzzle and Ryung I don't really care, but I'd prefer Ryung to qualify, so there won't be so many terran tears this day.
On April 13 2012 08:56 fishjie wrote: Isn't the only reason for MVP "slump" his wrist injury which has gotten worse? Its not really a slump if you're badly injured.
Also how did Naniwa get into code S? Where'd he get seeded from? I missed that.
The ways players get into Code S:
- 8 from last seasons Round of 8 - 12 from Code A Round 3 - 10 from the Up and Down matches - the last 2 spots are given out by GOM, they call it seeds for really good performance in (foreign) tournaments. Naniwa got his for his performance at MLG Winter Arena.
I was just about ready to throw Naniwa under the bus and say he had no chance to advance in the great foreigner tradition but... Startale is playing extremely well this season and startale protoss (Parting and Squirtle) seem especially on fire, this should be a really interesting group.
I am pulling for MVP to overcome his ailments as well. I do see a lot of people saying that MVP and Ryung have suspect TvP, but my response to that is.... are there Terran's out there that DON'T have suspect TvP at this time? Even MKP is getting picked apart in standard games.
I have some hope for NANI ... but with the way things have been going with the foreign seeds... As far as MVP goes, I fear he is a part of the generation of sc2 players who were really good because no one was very good at the game. With the game making leaps and bounds.... and the young bloods {who I feel would have eventually been big time brood war pros( though it may have taken them longer to get good because the game is more figured out) if Sc2 never was created}Playing this game on an entire new level... Mvp's days may be numbered as a contender.
I'll stay up until 6am to watch you, Naniwa. Do your best, that's all I ask as a fan. Don't give up before it's time and do all in your power and I'll cheer for you even if you don't win.
On April 13 2012 10:05 Surgical_Strike wrote: I have some hope for NANI ... but with the way things have been going with the foreign seeds... As far as MVP goes, I fear he is a part of the generation of sc2 players who were really good because no one was very good at the game. With the game making leaps and bounds.... and the young bloods {who I feel would have eventually been big time brood war pros( though it may have taken them longer to get good because the game is more figured out) if Sc2 never was created}Playing this game on an entire new level... Mvp's days may be numbered as a contender.
Ill say puzzle and ryung advance.
though ill be hoping for mvp and naniwa
Do you really believe Mvp was successful only because the game was younger? Did you watch his games? Do you not know about his wrists?
There is only one true god in SC2 and his name is MVP. God might be on a bit of a hiatus these days because of wrist issues, but when he returns (which hopefully will be now) watching him bend everyone over and murder his way to another GSL championship.
On April 13 2012 10:05 Surgical_Strike wrote: I have some hope for NANI ... but with the way things have been going with the foreign seeds... As far as MVP goes, I fear he is a part of the generation of sc2 players who were really good because no one was very good at the game. With the game making leaps and bounds.... and the young bloods {who I feel would have eventually been big time brood war pros( though it may have taken them longer to get good because the game is more figured out) if Sc2 never was created}Playing this game on an entire new level... Mvp's days may be numbered as a contender.
Ill say puzzle and ryung advance.
though ill be hoping for mvp and naniwa
no his wrists are badly injured dude. break the young blood wrists and they wouldn't be doing well either
I am not that confident in any of the two terrans TvP, i think Nani and Puzzle have this...hopefully terrans figure out how to deal with protoss soon :'(
On April 13 2012 10:05 Surgical_Strike wrote: I have some hope for NANI ... but with the way things have been going with the foreign seeds... As far as MVP goes, I fear he is a part of the generation of sc2 players who were really good because no one was very good at the game. With the game making leaps and bounds.... and the young bloods {who I feel would have eventually been big time brood war pros( though it may have taken them longer to get good because the game is more figured out) if Sc2 never was created}Playing this game on an entire new level... Mvp's days may be numbered as a contender.
Ill say puzzle and ryung advance.
though ill be hoping for mvp and naniwa
Do you really believe Mvp was successful only because the game was younger? Did you watch his games? Do you not know about his wrists?
I dont beleive....
I fear
...... There are clearly players that fall in this category, i hope that he does not but we shall find out with how he does in the coming months and tonight
I hope Mvp can make it out of the group, I really enjoyed his stable mech playstyle and I don't want to accept the fact that his glory has gone...
For the other person that will make it out, I think Naniwa has a shot, but only if he wins his first match. In PvP anything can happen and it seems he has done a lot of training. Against Ryung/Mvp it's going to be hard but this group isn't easy for anyone.
My prodiction: Naniwa > Puzzle (Foreigner's hope I) Mvp > Ryung Mvp > Naniwa Ryung > Puzzle (Ro8 previous season means nothing this GSL) Naniwa > Ryung (Foreigner's hope II)
I really think Nani can come through this group and I hope he does but I can't help but see him just losing to Puzzle and then just getting barely shut out by one of the terrans.
On April 13 2012 18:25 sc_hell wrote: He got no chance - prepare for Proberush.
You have no idea how happy i am to see NaNiWa to advance after seeing comments like this. <3
I prefer the ones in the LR that say it was an easy group and his opponents just played bad; like it matters at all even if it's true Naniwa Code S material. End of discussion. <3
There was no way for Naniwa not going through this group as there are no zergs in it, I did say earlier in this thread that Naniwa would go through EZ not dropping a map, disappointing to see him drop a map to puzzle who honestly is not close to Naniwa in PvP.