After the SlayerS dominated Group A we move to Group B which has two IM players, who are, not entirely incidentally, two of the best zergs in the world. And when you have high octane ZvT matches ahead of you, you know that the day ain't gonna be boring.
NesTea vs sC @ Belshir Beach
sC and NesTea definitely have a history between themselves so I clicked on the PLAY button with high hopes. And only to see that sC had no intentions at all to go into a long game and opened with 2-rax and one of them proxied at the top right expansion. NesTea smelled that in time, however, and sC had to run back with his tail between his legs having dealt no damage at all.
Knowing that he is, in analysts' terms, screwed, sC transitioned into a 2-port banshee all-in and waited till four fliers before moving out. That got spotted by an overlord as well so NesTea immediately threw a ton of spores and additional queens, ready to slap down the bold terran.
sC, though, had one of those "Nope, Chuck Testa" moments as he found crack after crack in NesTea's spore positioning, killing off his natural, his macro hatch, all his queens, a ton of spores and his spire. He only needed to follow it up with his ground forces to stamp the seal of defeat onto NesTea and pull off an important victory.
sC is victoriously marching into ravished zerg territory
Losira vs asd @ Tal'Darim Altar
asd bravely opened with a CC first but zerg of the caliber of Losira would not allow that to go through. Losira immediately threw down a roach warren and started pressuring the front door while going up to three bases plus a macro hatch back home.
When eventually he had to abandon this roach torment, Losira executed step two in his plan for victory. 18 banelings stormed asd's depot wall, causing havoc and destruction all over the place. Tides of speedlings flooded asd's base and the FXO terran had to leave the game.
The slimy ramifications of the baneling bust
Losira vs sC @ Calm Before the Storm
The structure of CbtS tempted Losira into opening double hatch and gas before pool, powering up to an insane economy. sC, on the other hand, stuck to the standard CC first into reactor hellion, but his initial units found no gap in Losira's defense. It was not until some time later that sC caught a spine crawler repositioning and rushed inside with a ton of hellions, killing a queen and a lot of speedlings but, to his disappointment - not a single drone.
With his economy still flourishing, Losira used his excessive gas to tech to spire, burrow and baneling speed at the same time but his inexperience on CbtS was revealed when he lost many of his mutas during a retreat; apparently there is no space around the inner expansion where you can hide your units. That triggered one of sC's deadly pushes which bit into Losira's Adam's apple and ripped it out with a single motion.
NesTea vs asd @ Crossfire
NesTea was quick to send goosebumps down his fans' spines as he could not react 100% adequately to asd's double reactor hellion. Somehow, no game-breaking drone damage was suffered (although he did lose more than he would've liked this early in the game).
But a recovery present was soon gifted to him as NesTea caught the whole of asd's army unsieged and out of position in the middle of the map. He baned through it to equalize the supply and a couple more engagements like that kept NesTea's Code S hopes alive for a little bit longer.
Blizzard tip: Your tanks deal 0 damage while dead. Engage zerg with extreme caution
NesTea vs Losira @ Daybreak
Everyone is familiar with NesTea's prowess in ZvZ and he gladly gave us more material to marvel at. For his deciding group stage match, NesTea chose to go for spire tech and was not at all tilted by the fact that Losira scouted the lair in the making.
The young zerg apprentice answered with a burrow roach/bane timing attack but NesTea's own mutalisk timing was inhuman - just as Losira's forces arrived at NesTea's natural, twelve mutas popped out to clean everything and win the game straight on.
Don't you just hate when that happens...
Code S November Group B Standings
sC20To Code S Ro16
NesTea21To Code S Ro16
Losira12To Code S Ro32
asd02To Code S Ro48
Editorial Verbiage
Why, NesTea, oh why? Why do you make Artosis look so bad? One moment our dear Dan is screaming about your genius and indestructible diamond glasses and in the other a bad spore positioning costs you the game against sC. A game that should have been won easily. Even the match with asd did not got as smoothly as your fans expected and you were even on the edge during those early game moments. For your sake, I hope we see you swarming down opponents from that point on as the Ro16 ain't gonna be easy.
As far as the group winner is concerned, sC showed once again why he is among the top TvZ specialist in Korea, right next to MMA and Mvp. Don't be fooled by the early game insecurity he showed today - the fact that sC could defeat both NesTea and Losira after being behind in economy (much behind to be more exact) speaks for itself.
So what lies ahead? Well, NesTea gets to meet MMA once again in the Ro16 and there is a lot of grudge between those two. In this round NesTea was not the fascinating powerhouse we are used to seeing so this revenge match might be a bit difficult for him if he does not immediately get back in his best shape.
sC on the other hand will share a group with MC and that will be a big test for either of them. MC has been in a GSL slump for too long now and PvT is still a hard match-up for his race but the God Protoss has been showing signs of a personal renaissance. In short, he is not to be counted out yet!
