The up-and-down matches are here, just as unforgiving as they were the last seasons. Champions, newcomers and fan-favourites climbing the thorny path to Code S.
I love the up-and-down matches. I even enjoy them more than the Code S games, because the gamble is way too high - will it be climbing/returning to where you belong, or will you drop down, shamefully, to Code A, to the "lesser" tournament. The tension while watching the players that I obey fighting for survival literally sends shivers (more commonly known as "geek chills") down my spine. Why you ask? Well, let me tell you why by going through the first two groups of this phase of the GSL.
Group A
MVP_Keen vs TSL_Trickster
It is as surprising to me as it should be to you to see Trickster here. But hey, Mvp was at the same place last month and was even knocked down, so maybe I should start looking at those occurrences without any shock.
Trickster indeed showed that he wants himself back to Code S, easily winning the first set on Crevasse. But Keen, coming as a Code A top 4 was not to lay down and get trampled by the mighty protoss. The youngster got himself in shape and pulled off two amazing consecutive wins to secure his Code S spot. On Caverns, he executed a perfect 4-rax Stim aggression against Trickster's risky fast Nexus and then sealed the deal in the third set on Metalopolis. Completely denying Trickster's Stalker pressure via his quick Banshees, Keen used his fliers plus some blue flame hellions to deal constant economy damage and keep Trickster's resources limited. The final blow came when the decisive push from Keen caught the protoss ball split in two and managed to crush easily through the defences. Keen was now a Code S player.
TSL_Trickster vs HoSeo_San
San went for really neat Warp Prism with speed harass in the first set on Crossfire, but sadly, his greediness put an end to it after he lost both his Immortals to a Colossus while trying to snipe the robo. Thus, the game entered the phase, more known as "War of the Worlds". Both players were massing Colossi like there was no tomorrow, but Trickster anticipated enemy's unit composition and mixed in some Void Rays for additional damage. Not having anything to snipe the fliers, San lost big engagement and thus the first set.
However, his bag of tricks was not empty and on Crevasse he tricked Trickster (yeah, I don't know how this is possible) by faking a 3-Stalker play and instead going for a standard 4-gate pressure. That caught the TSL protoss and his robo tech completely naked and the score was tied.
Pure luck won Trickster the third game on Caverns. After executing his 4-gate poorly, he was for few moments down one stalker with a Pylon not even close to finish. San's hesitation, however, led to him staying in his base and letting Trickster warp in a full cycle of units and crushing through every defence, thus getting back to Code S.
Up-and-down matches Group A
Trickster1:2 Keen > To Code S
Trickster > To Code S2:1 San > To Code A
Group B
Liquid`Jinro vs ZenexCoca
Jinro had a really bad start against Coca. On Metalopolis he attempted the long forgotten strat of bunker/reaper rush. Untypically of him, however, he mismicroed his reaper awfully and let it be killed. Same happened to his Banshees some minutes later, putting him infinitely behind. Coca then cleverly used speedlings to eat all the SCVs at the Terran natural and seize the set with overwhelming numbers of Mutas.
The Caverns set began a bit more successfully for Jinro and he actually managed to snipe the expo hatch via his bunker rush. Coca, though, managed to stabilize and knowing that he cannot fight the terran army head to head, went for massive carpet bombing, dropping banes and roaches all over Jinro's tank lines and securing a 2:0 victory.
oGs_Zenio vs Liquid`Jinro
Having only one chance left, Jinro was visibly upset and worried. Furthermore, he had to defeat one of the best Zergs in Korea if he was to climb up back to Code S.
Unfortunately, the first set did not end well for Jinro. Zenio kept pealing terran's defences on Dual Sight apart with perfect mutalisk harass, while slowly taking more than half of the map with hatcheries and creep. Finally, Zenio unleashed the full power of Zerg, storming Jinro's front with Broodlords, Ultralisks and Cracklings, laying ultimate waste.
Joyfully for the foreign fans out there, Jinro managed to win the second set on Terminus by executing his first perfect bunker rush of the day. With his hatchery and spine crawler shot to death, Zenio had no choice but to gg out.
Jinro's bunker rushed attempt did not stop even on the final set on Caverns. Zenio, however, had now had enough and although he lost his expo hatch once again, he followed the steps of Coca and stabilized as fast as he can. Zenio used lings to deny Jinro's natural for more than 10 minutes, while simultaneously taking a third. The Zerg kept defending any harass attempts by Jinro with clever Roach placement and suddenly, similar to Coca in the previous game, had way a superior army and just banerolled through Jinro's army, sending him down to Code A.
Up-and-down matches Group B
Jinro0:2 Coca > To Code A
Jinro > To Code A1:2 Zenio > To Code S
The fight for Code S continues tomorrow with Groups C and D, starring two times champion MC among other great players like Alive, Check and Ryung.
Links
GOMtv - VODs
I love the up-and-down matches. I even enjoy them more than the Code S games, because the gamble is way too high - will it be climbing/returning to where you belong, or will you drop down, shamefully, to Code A, to the "lesser" tournament. The tension while watching the players that I obey fighting for survival literally sends shivers (more commonly known as "geek chills") down my spine. Why you ask? Well, let me tell you why by going through the first two groups of this phase of the GSL.
Group A
MVP_Keen vs TSL_Trickster
It is as surprising to me as it should be to you to see Trickster here. But hey, Mvp was at the same place last month and was even knocked down, so maybe I should start looking at those occurrences without any shock.
Trickster indeed showed that he wants himself back to Code S, easily winning the first set on Crevasse. But Keen, coming as a Code A top 4 was not to lay down and get trampled by the mighty protoss. The youngster got himself in shape and pulled off two amazing consecutive wins to secure his Code S spot. On Caverns, he executed a perfect 4-rax Stim aggression against Trickster's risky fast Nexus and then sealed the deal in the third set on Metalopolis. Completely denying Trickster's Stalker pressure via his quick Banshees, Keen used his fliers plus some blue flame hellions to deal constant economy damage and keep Trickster's resources limited. The final blow came when the decisive push from Keen caught the protoss ball split in two and managed to crush easily through the defences. Keen was now a Code S player.
TSL_Trickster vs HoSeo_San
San went for really neat Warp Prism with speed harass in the first set on Crossfire, but sadly, his greediness put an end to it after he lost both his Immortals to a Colossus while trying to snipe the robo. Thus, the game entered the phase, more known as "War of the Worlds". Both players were massing Colossi like there was no tomorrow, but Trickster anticipated enemy's unit composition and mixed in some Void Rays for additional damage. Not having anything to snipe the fliers, San lost big engagement and thus the first set.
However, his bag of tricks was not empty and on Crevasse he tricked Trickster (yeah, I don't know how this is possible) by faking a 3-Stalker play and instead going for a standard 4-gate pressure. That caught the TSL protoss and his robo tech completely naked and the score was tied.
Pure luck won Trickster the third game on Caverns. After executing his 4-gate poorly, he was for few moments down one stalker with a Pylon not even close to finish. San's hesitation, however, led to him staying in his base and letting Trickster warp in a full cycle of units and crushing through every defence, thus getting back to Code S.
Up-and-down matches Group A
Trickster1:2 Keen > To Code S
Trickster > To Code S2:1 San > To Code A
Group B
Liquid`Jinro vs ZenexCoca
Jinro had a really bad start against Coca. On Metalopolis he attempted the long forgotten strat of bunker/reaper rush. Untypically of him, however, he mismicroed his reaper awfully and let it be killed. Same happened to his Banshees some minutes later, putting him infinitely behind. Coca then cleverly used speedlings to eat all the SCVs at the Terran natural and seize the set with overwhelming numbers of Mutas.
The Caverns set began a bit more successfully for Jinro and he actually managed to snipe the expo hatch via his bunker rush. Coca, though, managed to stabilize and knowing that he cannot fight the terran army head to head, went for massive carpet bombing, dropping banes and roaches all over Jinro's tank lines and securing a 2:0 victory.
oGs_Zenio vs Liquid`Jinro
Having only one chance left, Jinro was visibly upset and worried. Furthermore, he had to defeat one of the best Zergs in Korea if he was to climb up back to Code S.
Unfortunately, the first set did not end well for Jinro. Zenio kept pealing terran's defences on Dual Sight apart with perfect mutalisk harass, while slowly taking more than half of the map with hatcheries and creep. Finally, Zenio unleashed the full power of Zerg, storming Jinro's front with Broodlords, Ultralisks and Cracklings, laying ultimate waste.
Joyfully for the foreign fans out there, Jinro managed to win the second set on Terminus by executing his first perfect bunker rush of the day. With his hatchery and spine crawler shot to death, Zenio had no choice but to gg out.
Jinro's bunker rushed attempt did not stop even on the final set on Caverns. Zenio, however, had now had enough and although he lost his expo hatch once again, he followed the steps of Coca and stabilized as fast as he can. Zenio used lings to deny Jinro's natural for more than 10 minutes, while simultaneously taking a third. The Zerg kept defending any harass attempts by Jinro with clever Roach placement and suddenly, similar to Coca in the previous game, had way a superior army and just banerolled through Jinro's army, sending him down to Code A.
Up-and-down matches Group B
Jinro0:2 Coca > To Code A
Jinro > To Code A1:2 Zenio > To Code S
The fight for Code S continues tomorrow with Groups C and D, starring two times champion MC among other great players like Alive, Check and Ryung.
Links
GOMtv - VODs
