Code S RO16 Concludes, RO8 Groups Set

Republished By Plato

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by Wax

The round-of-16 concluded with the deadly Group C, which saw Cure and Dark advance at the expense of Stats and Rogue.

There was significant intrigue around what level Rogue had reached after returning from the military in late March, and it briefly looked like he had made a full recovery after he trounced Cure in a straight-up game to open the group. However, Cure quickly tied the score with a proxy-Barracks Bunker rush that revealed some of the rust in Rogue’s play, and then rolled out with a 3-base Marine-Tank all-in to take the 2-1 victory.

Rogue’s losers’ match against Dark went even worse as he suffered a 0-2 loss. While Rogue often got the better of Dark in their previous GSL bouts, this time around Dark was thoroughly ahead in the mind games.

The reason Dark had to play Rogue in the losers’ match was due to his 0-2 loss to Stats to start the night, with the Shield of Aiur repeating his upset from the previous season by holding off consecutive Nydus-Queen-Zergling attacks. However, Dark composed himself for the rematch, and took a decisive 2-0 victory—including a game where he stubbornly got the Nydus all-in to work—to avoid suffering RO16 elimination for the second straight season.

After a two week break for ESL Masters Summer/Dallas, Code S will resume on Thursday, Jun 13 9:30am GMT (GMT+00:00) with Maru, soO, Cure, and ByuN playing in Group A of the RO8.

Recommended Games

Stats vs Cure – Winners’ Match (VOD): Game one on Oceanborn featured a lot of non-nonsense macro fighting, with big armies bashing their heads against each other multiple times. While it wasn’t the most sophisticated game, it was a lot of fun for anyone who enjoys lots of units blowing up and floating to the top of the screen.

While game two was quite forgettable, the series concluded with an exciting comeback from Cure in game three. While Stats did make some big mistakes, the process of Cure’s comeback was still quite entertaining to watch. The game also left viewers with an interesting question to ponder—did Stats GG too quickly?

Match Recaps

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Initial Match #1: Cure 2 – 1 Rogue

Game 1 – Oceanborn (Rogue win): Cure looked to give Rogue a nasty welcoming back to the GSL, opening with 2-Barracks Reapers and forcing a cancel on the Zerg’s third Hatchery. Perhaps thinking Rogue’s initial defense hadn’t been up to par, Cure looked to keep up the pressure. After a typical 3-CC follow-up, Cure delayed his upgrades to focus on unit production, sending Hellion-Reaper and Marine drops across the map to exploit any weaknesses in Rogue’s defense.

However, this proved to be an overextension from Cure as Rogue parried these attacks while taking minimal damage, and found the breathing room to launch some damaging backdoor Ling-Bane attacks of his own. Making things even worse for Cure, Rogue defended while sacrificing little in terms of economy, tech, or upgrades, putting him on track to reach Lurker tech while having an upgrade advantage over the Terran infantry.

This left Cure desperately needing to get something done with a 3-base Marine-Tank ‘all-in,’ but one that was much weaker than he had planned due to his damaged economy and poor upgrades. Unsurprisingly, Rogue was able to mop up several waves of Infantry with Hydra-Bane (he even styled on Cure with a burrowed Baneling trap), and the arrival of Lurkers helped him finish the game.

Game 2 – Site Delta (Cure win): Cure showed us that his recent fondness for proxy cheesing extends to TvZ, as he sent two SCVs out early for a proxy 2-Barracks Bunker rush. Cure’s variation of the Bunker rush stayed on just 2-Barracks, but went for a quick 3-Bunker wall at the top of his opponent’s natural ramp.

Rogue’s scouting Overlord gave him some advance notice of the cheese, but he didn’t have the optimized, scripted response necessary to defend against pro-level execution. He brought his Drones down to his natural initially, but they were too late to stop the Bunkers from going up in a wall formation. Then, instead of sacrificing the natural, Rogue tried to defend it with some Spine Crawlers, but it was a hopeless effort against Bunkers that had been built faster and had SCVs to repair them. Cure was able to kill Rogue’s Hatchery and Spines at the cost of just a few Marines and Bunker repair bills, and Rogue GG’d out knowing it was irrecoverable damage.

Game 3 – Alcyone (Cure win): Cure went back to 2-Barracks Reapers in game three, but this time he played a 3-Reaper version that let Rogue’s third Hatchery complete. Nonetheless, he went for another aggressive follow-up that was similar to game one, and this time his early Marine drops dealt just enough damage to put Rogue on the back foot.

With his upgrades on-time and with his economy undamaged by any Zerg runbys, Cure was able to start his 3-base Marine-Tank assault on much better footing than in game one. While Rogue was able to fend off the first wave of attackers with a good Ling-Bane flank, it wasn’t long before Cure had another powerful army knocking at his door. The addition of Liberator support made the difference in Cure’s second big push, as he broke through Rogue’s defenses and forced the surrender.

Initial Match #2: Stats 2 – 0 Dark

Game 1 – Site Delta (Stats win): Dark continued the night’s trend of early-game shenanigans, going for a proxy-Hatch in Stats’ natural to delay his expansion a bit. After what seemed like a normal 3-Hatch opener, he continued to stay on the offensive by keeping his Drone count in the 40’s while going for a Nydus-Queen-Zergling assault at Stats’ third base.

Stats was going for a Stargate macro build with mass Gateways and late Robo, and decided to give up his third base and defend at his natural. Once Dark decided to cease his attack and start macroing up, the situation actually ended up being pretty playable for Stats due to Dark’s low-econ start.

Dark made a peculiar tech choice from there, investing heavily in Hydralisks and Lurkers without their key Hive upgrades. While the no-upgrade Lurkers prevented Stats from any aggressive Blink Stalker tactics, they proved to be far less useful on offense when Dark brought them to lay siege to Stats’ third base. A wide arc of units and liberal use of Psi Storm let Stats clean up the Zerg troops without much trouble, leaving him free to continue assembling a powerful ground army with plenty of Immortals, Archons, and Templars.

While Dark belatedly tried to tech up to Hive, he couldn’t recover from his failed mid-game Lurkes. Stats’ army came knocking while Hydralisks still made up the brunt of Dark’s force, and he handily defeated the weak Zerg army to seize victory.

Game 2 – Oceanborn (Stats win): Game two followed a similar pattern as game one, with Stats playing Stargate against Dark’s fast Nydus-Queen-Zergling attack. However, this time Stats got in some especially damaging Adept-Oracle harassment to start (thanks to a slick shade-in behind the natural mineral line), hamstringing Dark before his attack even began. Once again, Stats gave up his third base to defend at his natural, but rather than macro-up afterwards, he decided he would counterattack with a big Blink-Stalker attack off of two bases. This caught Dark off-guard as he was trying to catch up in economy, and he GG’d out against an overwhelming number of Stalkers.

Winners’ Match: Cure 2 – 1 Stats

Game 1 – Oceanborn (Stats win): The winners’ match started with a saltwater bloodbath, as huge armies collided over and over on the depths of Oceanborn.

The game began with Cure going for a 3-Mine drop, while Stats played Blink-Robo for a passive macro build-up. Cure’s early Mine-drop and follow-up push failed to do much direct damage, but he was still able to follow Stats into a macro game without too much of a disadvantage.

While Cure focused on assembling a typical mid-game bio army, Stats went for a mass Zealot-Stalker-Disruptor composition. This resulted in fights with huge momentum swings, with Purification Novas blowing up a chunk of the Terran army, only for the surviving infantry to run in and mop up the outgunned Gateway units.

Ultimately, Stats’ first strike advantage while Purification Novas were off cooldown was the key to winning the game, as he was able to tear down one of Cure’s key expansions with impunity. While Cure immediately charged in and exacted retribution on the Nova-less Protoss force, Stats had already taken the big picture win in terms of economy. From there, he was able to gradually outspend Cure in a series of bloody fights, forcing the eventual GG.

Game 2 – Site Delta (Cure win): Stats looked to play his signature defensive Blink-Robo style again, while Cure opened with a Mine-drop and Hellion combo looking to exploit any slow reactions from Stats. As in game one, Stats’ initial defense was pretty solid, but he faltered when Cure went in for another round of harass with a Raven and a re-drop of his Mines.

Cure did just enough damage to leave Stats vulnerable to a follow-up push or drop, and he marched his main army to the edge of Stats’ territory as he mulled his options. Stats, perhaps thinking it was only a splinter force sent as a diversion, charged forward to initiate combat, only to get beaten back by a much stronger army than he expected. Cure capitalized on this mistake by loading up his remaining troops and dropping into the empty Protoss main, forcing Stats to surrender.

Game 3 – Alcyone (Cure win): Both players switched up their openers in game three, as Stats began with Phoenixes while Cure went for a fast 1/1/1 attack with Marines and Cyclones as his core units. Stats looked like the Shield of old as he pulled off a solid defensive hold, and he decided to go for a Classic-esque follow-up by teching quickly to Fleet Beacon off of a bare bones Colossus-Phoenix defense.

Cure still had a fighting chance after his failed early attack, and kept poking around looking for a chance to strike again. However, Stats’ defense was steadfast at every turn, and his Skytoss force came closer and closer to completion. Cure finally pulled the trigger on a big Infantry + Vikings attack before Stats could hit a critical mass of both Carriers and Templars, but Stats prevailed in the defensive battle thanks to a well-placed Time Warp.

It soon became Stats’ turn to counterattack, floating his Carriers over to Cure’s territory with plenty of support on the ground. Cure was victorious again once more at a key battle at Cure’s third base, with only a huge EMP hit preventing it from being an utter rout. The game was nearly won for Stats at this point, but he seemed to lose track of Cure’s expansion count at the worst possible time. In a situation where he could easily have easily cemented his lead by moving a few screens over and taking out another one of Cure’s remaining expansions, Stats instead attacked into the Terran natural in an attempt to end the game outright.

Stats proceeded to repeatedly headbutt his army into Cure’s defensive position, bleeding away units until his army’s critical mass was broken. Eventually, the game reached the point where Stats’ small numbers of Gateway units and Carriers were getting chewed up by Vikings and Bio, and he surrendered a somewhat dubiously early GG once Cure began his counterattack.

Losers’ Match: Dark 2 – 0 Rogue

Game 1 – Post-Youth (Dark win): Both players decided to bypass early aggression, teching up quickly to Mutalisks instead. In the process, Dark got a leg up against Rogue in the mind-games, daring to go for a fast three base start while Rogue stayed on two bases. Rogue felt pressured to punish the exposed third base and made a large round of Speedlings, which Dark responded to by calmly giving up his third and walling off his ramp—taking a 10+ Drone lead in the process.

Playing with a Drone disadvantage, Rogue was hard pressed to deal some damage and he decided to go full BW with a +1 air attack Muta-Ling all-in. However, unlike Brood War, Queens exist in StarCraft II, and they made all the difference as Dark handily won the deciding fight and forced the GG.

Game 2 – Goldenaura (Dark win): The two Zergs both went for standard 3-base starts on Goldenaura and built up nearly identically until around 40 Drones. From there, Dark added a Lair and Evolution Chamber in preparation for a longer game, while Rogue cut Drone production for a Roach-Baneling all-in off of Hatchery tech. Unfortunately for Rogue, Dark made sure to not to get too greedy, and had more than enough Roaches ready in time to defend. Once his all-in attack fell short, Rogue conceded his RO16 exit.

Decider Match: Dark 2 – 0 Stats

Game 1 – Amphion (Dark win): Stats made things very weird to start, going for Pylon blocks on both Dark’s natural and third base. Dark responded with a Hatch block of his own, while also mining out the left side mineral wall to open up an alternate third base location. Ultimately, Dark was the one set back further by these early game delays, and he looked to rectify the situation with a round of Speedlings. He lucked out as Stats had sent out most of his initial Gateway units to harass, leaving just a single Adept to mind his wall. Stats erred by not Pylon-walling the gap before the single Adept went down, giving Zerglings near free reign to hunt down Probes as newly produced Oracles vainly tried to take them down.

Dark’s low-Drone start meant Stats still came out in a reasonable position once he finally cleaned up the invading Zerglings, but he put himself painfully behind by bungling his micro on his follow-up Oracle and Adept harass. Losing key units severely delayed his own third base, while giving Dark all the time to Drone and tech up.

Having opened up the left side path early on, Dark continued to expand along the left side of the map and decided to improvise with a map-specific strategy: mass Swarm Hosts. Stats had completely neglected the left side of the map after his rough start, and was blindsided by waves of Locusts flying in. Stats had no answer for the repeated Locust strikes combined with ground attacks from other directions and GG’d out.

Game 2 – Alcyone (Dark win): Despite having lost with Nydus-Queen-Zergling twice in his earlier series, Dark brought out the strategy once more in the Decider match. This time, Dark adjusted by planting his Nydus in position to attack the Protoss natural (partially due to the map layout forcing this placement), which would deny Stats his previous response of simply sacrificing his third. Dark’s decision to force the action worked out beautifully, and he quickly started fires at all three Protoss bases. Stats just didn’t have the units to respond everywhere at once, and he took major Probe damage and lost his third base before he finally stabilized.

From there, Stats had to go for broke with a risky Blink Stalker counterattack, but was ripped apart by Speedlings on Creep. Seeing no chance at recovering from the situation, Stats GG’d for the last time.