Written by: Nydra
Today saw the end of Code S's Ro32 with what was branded as "The Group of Death". After the merciless culling was over, Parting and Life emerged as the last survivors of this round and move forward to the Ro16.
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Table of Contents
1. The matches today
1.1. Match 1: Parting vs Last
1.2 Match 2: Life vs Leenock
1.3. Winners match
1.4. Losers match
1.5. Final match
2. Group standings
Today's matches
[Match 1] PartinG vs Last
Facing arguably one of the best PvT players in the entire world was a tough draw for Last and it really showed: the STX Terran was simply not fit to withstand whatever Parting threw at him and received quite the one-sided beating.
Game one saw Parting go for a blink all-in which although scouted by Last’s reaper ended up being fatal anyways. The Protoss used single stalkers to draw out widow mine shots so that he can safely blink behind Terran’s positions and after dodging every single threat, Parting swept up the opening game in a decisive manner.
The world champion completely changed his playstyle around for the Star Station game and went for a very solid, conservative and late-game-oriented macro build. PartinG chose to forgo psi storm completely and instead relied on archons and colossi for AoE damage – a composition more than enough to deal with Last’s bio.
The first and only engagement ensued in front of Parting’s natural with both armies maxed. Last had brought along a healthy number of vikings but ultimately there wasn’t enough firepower coming from the ground army. Guardian shields and time warps were popped instantaneously, greatly reducing the DPS output and mobility of the Terran army while the archons and colossi vaporized everything in their way.
Last collapses onto PartinG's immovable ball. Loss for the Terran coming in 3, 2, 1...
[Match 2] Life vs Leenock
With one Zerg prodigy against another (and with history between them at that), the ZvZ of the day promised to be of high octane. In game one, both Life and Leenock went for expansion into baneling nest but it was Leenock who took it to himself to apply constant pressure to StarTale’s ace.
For minutes, endless stream of lings and banelings was paraded into Life’s natural and main bases and although no significant damage was dealt in a single blow, the chipping away at Life’s queens and drones gave Leenock enough of an advantage. The FXO Zerg slowly took the worker lead and when lair tech came, he simply had more lings and more mutas than his opponent. The first air engagement forced Life to tap out.
Game two saw an exact same repeat of the early-game scenario but as the initial trades did not go well for Leenock he decided on a quick lair transition and the game was soon airborne with Leenock choosing to go for +1 air attack as opposed to Life’s +1 carapace.
Because of the latter, Leenock ended up losing the first few muta encounters but it didn’t matter one bit. In those mutalisk-colored moments, it was the perfect symbiosis between Leenock’s mutalisks and zerglings that stole the show. With jaw-dropping coordination, Leenock used speedings to apply pressure onto Life’s expansions while keeping Life’s mutalisk busy by either forcing them into muta wars or harassing the main base geysers. The ST youngster had nowhere to go and was once again on the receiving end of Leenock’s aggression. Eventually, the Leenock flock flew in with overwhelming numbers and Life GG-ed for the 0-2.
Life finally crumbles and falls short of mutalisks
[Winners match] Leenock vs PartinG
While playing phenomenally in the previous set, Leenock couldn’t get the same tempo going against Parting. The Zerg chose to delay his third a while but did nothing to make use of that and as a result entered the mid-game severely weaker. By the time Leenock mustered enough courage to walk out on the map, he was promptly greeted with time warp bubbles and colossus lasers which a minute later brought on Zerg’s end.
A lot of screw-ups of Parting's made for a very one-sided and unentertaining game two. After opening with a 1-gateway expand into light phoenix harass, Parting stumbled from one flaw to another. Miss-rallying a colossus and building a second templar archive while neither researching psi storm nor building any high templars (and thus having zero AoE damage) allowed Leenock to just A-move through the Protoss army.
The closing game turned a bit weird right from the start. An early pool by Leenock cost Parting six workers and precious amount of mining time. As a result, once Parting finally occupied his natural, he discarded the illusion that he can catch up with Zerg’s economy and moved out for a 5-gate timing attack.
This caught Leenock a bit unprepared and he had to cancel his third and invest a lot in roaches but overall there was no severe damage done to the Zerg at least from the looks of it. Just as everybody expected the game to normalize and the two players to (re)take their thirds, Parting moved out once again in a most surprising fashion. Having blink this time around made it exceptionally hard for Leenock to defend and although he had burrow and roach speed researched, his economy was insufficient to support an army sizeable enough to overcome Parting’s stalkers.
[Losers match] Life vs Last
Things were not getting easier for Last and push came to shove for him in the losers match as he faced none other than the ultimate champion of 2012, StarTale’s Life. As no visible improvements came to Last’s performance, the Terran suffered two quick, one sided losses, reminiscent of his series against Parting.
The opener on Daybreak saw Last attempting a hellbat drop which was immediately intercepted and shut down. A roach counter attack followed to give Life a quick lead and getting a grip of Last’s mortality, Life did not let him live long on Whirlwind either. Last opened safely with a light hellion pressure into triple orbital command but right as he prepared to take his third, a baneling all-in hit him lethally.
[Final match] Life vs Leenock
Having already faced each other earlier, Leenock and Life trod very carefully in the opening moments of the revenge match. Life opted for a pool-hatchery build while Leenock chose a more economy oriented hatch/gas into late pool but after the fourth minute the situation on both sides was virtually the same. Baneling nests and defensive banelings followed, no party willing to go on the aggressive, knowing the stakes are so high.
As spire tech kicked in, Leenock rushed for +1 carapace while Life preferred to get a couple more mutalisks out and delay his own upgrades. Knowing he has the army advantage for now, Life assaulted Leenock’s third and won the initial battle but immediately backed away afterwards seeing Leenock’s air carapace upgrade finish.
Knowing patience would be his best friend during the window of upgrade disadvantage, Life avoided mutalisk engagements like the plague and only used speedlings to maintain his presence on the map. Once +1 carapace finally finished for him as well, Life brought his air numbers superiority to Leenock and extorted the precious GG.
With one victory away from advancing, Life took the opportunity to go on the aggression himself. An early pool by him killed the enemy hatchery and Life took it as a signal that he must keep the pressure going. Mimicking Leenock's behavior in the first series, Life rallied a river of lings and banelings while teching to roaches at the same time. While Leenock's defense was good enough to mitigate the baneling threat, there was no answer against Life's follow-up. A last and final GG came from the FXO Zerg, allowing Life to go through to the Ro16.
"Well, shit!"
- Leenock, April 2013
Final standings
Click on image for match details
Today saw the end of Code S's Ro32 with what was branded as "The Group of Death". After the merciless culling was over, Parting and Life emerged as the last survivors of this round and move forward to the Ro16.
More WCS Korea coverage
Check link for VODs, news and match info
Table of Contents
1. The matches today
1.1. Match 1: Parting vs Last
1.2 Match 2: Life vs Leenock
1.3. Winners match
1.4. Losers match
1.5. Final match
2. Group standings
Today's matches
[Match 1] PartinG vs Last
Facing arguably one of the best PvT players in the entire world was a tough draw for Last and it really showed: the STX Terran was simply not fit to withstand whatever Parting threw at him and received quite the one-sided beating.
Game one saw Parting go for a blink all-in which although scouted by Last’s reaper ended up being fatal anyways. The Protoss used single stalkers to draw out widow mine shots so that he can safely blink behind Terran’s positions and after dodging every single threat, Parting swept up the opening game in a decisive manner.
The world champion completely changed his playstyle around for the Star Station game and went for a very solid, conservative and late-game-oriented macro build. PartinG chose to forgo psi storm completely and instead relied on archons and colossi for AoE damage – a composition more than enough to deal with Last’s bio.
The first and only engagement ensued in front of Parting’s natural with both armies maxed. Last had brought along a healthy number of vikings but ultimately there wasn’t enough firepower coming from the ground army. Guardian shields and time warps were popped instantaneously, greatly reducing the DPS output and mobility of the Terran army while the archons and colossi vaporized everything in their way.
Last collapses onto PartinG's immovable ball. Loss for the Terran coming in 3, 2, 1...
[Match 2] Life vs Leenock
With one Zerg prodigy against another (and with history between them at that), the ZvZ of the day promised to be of high octane. In game one, both Life and Leenock went for expansion into baneling nest but it was Leenock who took it to himself to apply constant pressure to StarTale’s ace.
For minutes, endless stream of lings and banelings was paraded into Life’s natural and main bases and although no significant damage was dealt in a single blow, the chipping away at Life’s queens and drones gave Leenock enough of an advantage. The FXO Zerg slowly took the worker lead and when lair tech came, he simply had more lings and more mutas than his opponent. The first air engagement forced Life to tap out.
Game two saw an exact same repeat of the early-game scenario but as the initial trades did not go well for Leenock he decided on a quick lair transition and the game was soon airborne with Leenock choosing to go for +1 air attack as opposed to Life’s +1 carapace.
Because of the latter, Leenock ended up losing the first few muta encounters but it didn’t matter one bit. In those mutalisk-colored moments, it was the perfect symbiosis between Leenock’s mutalisks and zerglings that stole the show. With jaw-dropping coordination, Leenock used speedings to apply pressure onto Life’s expansions while keeping Life’s mutalisk busy by either forcing them into muta wars or harassing the main base geysers. The ST youngster had nowhere to go and was once again on the receiving end of Leenock’s aggression. Eventually, the Leenock flock flew in with overwhelming numbers and Life GG-ed for the 0-2.
Life finally crumbles and falls short of mutalisks
[Winners match] Leenock vs PartinG
While playing phenomenally in the previous set, Leenock couldn’t get the same tempo going against Parting. The Zerg chose to delay his third a while but did nothing to make use of that and as a result entered the mid-game severely weaker. By the time Leenock mustered enough courage to walk out on the map, he was promptly greeted with time warp bubbles and colossus lasers which a minute later brought on Zerg’s end.
A lot of screw-ups of Parting's made for a very one-sided and unentertaining game two. After opening with a 1-gateway expand into light phoenix harass, Parting stumbled from one flaw to another. Miss-rallying a colossus and building a second templar archive while neither researching psi storm nor building any high templars (and thus having zero AoE damage) allowed Leenock to just A-move through the Protoss army.
The closing game turned a bit weird right from the start. An early pool by Leenock cost Parting six workers and precious amount of mining time. As a result, once Parting finally occupied his natural, he discarded the illusion that he can catch up with Zerg’s economy and moved out for a 5-gate timing attack.
This caught Leenock a bit unprepared and he had to cancel his third and invest a lot in roaches but overall there was no severe damage done to the Zerg at least from the looks of it. Just as everybody expected the game to normalize and the two players to (re)take their thirds, Parting moved out once again in a most surprising fashion. Having blink this time around made it exceptionally hard for Leenock to defend and although he had burrow and roach speed researched, his economy was insufficient to support an army sizeable enough to overcome Parting’s stalkers.
[Losers match] Life vs Last
Things were not getting easier for Last and push came to shove for him in the losers match as he faced none other than the ultimate champion of 2012, StarTale’s Life. As no visible improvements came to Last’s performance, the Terran suffered two quick, one sided losses, reminiscent of his series against Parting.
The opener on Daybreak saw Last attempting a hellbat drop which was immediately intercepted and shut down. A roach counter attack followed to give Life a quick lead and getting a grip of Last’s mortality, Life did not let him live long on Whirlwind either. Last opened safely with a light hellion pressure into triple orbital command but right as he prepared to take his third, a baneling all-in hit him lethally.
[Final match] Life vs Leenock
Having already faced each other earlier, Leenock and Life trod very carefully in the opening moments of the revenge match. Life opted for a pool-hatchery build while Leenock chose a more economy oriented hatch/gas into late pool but after the fourth minute the situation on both sides was virtually the same. Baneling nests and defensive banelings followed, no party willing to go on the aggressive, knowing the stakes are so high.
As spire tech kicked in, Leenock rushed for +1 carapace while Life preferred to get a couple more mutalisks out and delay his own upgrades. Knowing he has the army advantage for now, Life assaulted Leenock’s third and won the initial battle but immediately backed away afterwards seeing Leenock’s air carapace upgrade finish.
Knowing patience would be his best friend during the window of upgrade disadvantage, Life avoided mutalisk engagements like the plague and only used speedlings to maintain his presence on the map. Once +1 carapace finally finished for him as well, Life brought his air numbers superiority to Leenock and extorted the precious GG.
With one victory away from advancing, Life took the opportunity to go on the aggression himself. An early pool by him killed the enemy hatchery and Life took it as a signal that he must keep the pressure going. Mimicking Leenock's behavior in the first series, Life rallied a river of lings and banelings while teching to roaches at the same time. While Leenock's defense was good enough to mitigate the baneling threat, there was no answer against Life's follow-up. A last and final GG came from the FXO Zerg, allowing Life to go through to the Ro16.
"Well, shit!"
- Leenock, April 2013
Final standings
Click on image for match details
