BEWARE OF SPOILERS
Group B in Code S round of 32 was played today, and it was another sick group. It consisted of Symbol, Yoda, Ryung and Hero. Based on their current form Symbol and Hero were probably favorites (and also two of the Starcraft Stalkers absolute favorite players atm), but Yoda and especially Ryung can show some really scary terran skill and beat most players on a good day.
First series was Symbol vs. Yoda.
Symbol took the first game on Daybreak. It was a macro game in which Symbol got to choose the exact late unit combination that he wanted. And in the final engagement around the 25 minute mark Symbol's typical heavy Ultra focused army supported by a billion banelings crushed Yoda's forces.
In the beginning of the second game, which was on Ohana, Symbol once again looked in control, but Yoda did a small poke that did a lot more damage that he had expected. On top of that Yoda played great in general and showed some really good micro and marine splitting against Symbol's banelings. In the end Yoda even dropped manner mules as he won that game.
The third and deciding match was quite insane to watch. Most of the game Yoda was playing better in the sense that he was successfully attacking a lot of places at once, while symbol didn't show his usual flawless play at all. Like for instance not handling helion harass very good nor dealing properly with Yoda's drop play later on either. On top of them he had a number of burrowed banelings that Yoda's massive marine army kept walking over. But Symbol never noticed and thus missed the opportunity to gain a massive lead in an instant.
Yet in the end Symbol was just so good at handling his economy. He never spend any resources on things that might not be needed. Like too many spines or spores. And then when they finally had an engagement it was a massive ultralisk/infestor/baneling/zergling vs tank/marine fight at the 20 minute mark in which Symbol just engaged perfectly and crushed Yodas army.
And that was it, and symbol took the series, which was fair considering he generally looked like the better player, especially in all the big engagements.
Symbol vs. Yoda = 2-1
Second series was Ryung vs. Hero.
In the first game on antiga shipyard Hero showed some of the masterful sneaky strategy that he is so well known for. First of all he hid his second pylon in the beginning so that when Ryung scouted he noticed it missing and starting scouting everywhere on the map for proxy something. Instead Hero just expanded and then after a while he followed up with a fake two base all in with a few colossi. And although it wasn't actually an all in he still managed to do a lot of damage and deny Ryung's third and kill a lot of his SCVs. Meanwhile Hero took his third and then he pretty boldly decided just to stay on colossus tech even though Ryung had already seen them and had therefore started his viking production.
Hero however knew he was ahead and was thus confident he could stay ahead. So when he finally attacked he was at max supply and Ryung was only at 170/200. At the same time Hero had so many colossi that he just tore Ryung's bio army apart while killing his vikings with stalkers. So hero took the game.
The second game on Ohana was weird. Ryung took an early hidden third base that Hero never scouted. Hero pushed at Ryungs natural with speed zealots and storm, while taking his own third. Ryung managed to drop Heros third at the same time and deny it for a little while. However Heros push at Ryungs natural did massive damage mostly because Ryung didn't raise his supply depots in front of the natural. So Hero got in there with all his zealots and also landed great storms.
At this point Hero felt he was way in front because he thought Ryung had only been on two bases. So Hero did some pushes that were a bit too risky and threw some units away he thought he could afford to lose. But since Ryung had had a hidden base all the time where he had dropped all his mules he ended up overrunning Hero with too many stimmed biounits and some really good ghost play.
The third game was on cloud kingdom and very back and forth game. Most interesting thing was that Hero infested heavily on DTs throughout the entire game. And there was never a moment where he actually did significant damage with them. But he kept forcing Ryung to use scans instead of mules, and he kept putting DTs at expansions and delaying them. In the end what actually won Hero the game was some epic money storms on Ryung's vikings. Since Ryung didn't have two starports he couldn't reproduce vikings fast enough, And in the final engagement Heros collusi simply melted Ryung's army.
Hero vs. Ryung = 2-1
Third series was the winners Symbol and Hero facing of for the first spot in the round of 16.
First game was on Ohana. Hero did a FFE, while at the same time managing to cannon rush and kill Symbol's third base. That gave Hero a massive lead. The rest of the game was basically Symbol on the defense. Hero did a sentry drop in Symbols main that did a lot of damage and some other pretty successful pokes. For a while symbol held on but in the end Hero overpowered him.
The second game was on antiga shipyard. In this game Hero did a two base immortal/sentry push. Once again he tried to be sneaky and pretended to take a third base. Symbol however did scout it so he knew the attack was coming on his own third base. Symbol realised that he wouldnt be able to stop the sentries and immortals from killing his third so he decided to do a counter push with a huge number of zerglings. Hero on the other hand had prepared perfectly for this.
He had expected Symbol to do that and had placed 4 perfect cannons at his natural so Symbols zerglings could do nothing and they had to turn around.
So hero managed to kill Symbols third, and then he went home and expanded. A while later a similar situation happened again. Hero went for Symbols third, that he had rebuilt. Symbol decided to counter push on Heroes third, but this as well was perfectly defended. So hero took out Symbols third but Symbol couldn't take out Hero's. So Hero's economy was simply better.
Eventually Symbol secured his third with infestors and spinecrawlers. This mean symbol got the economy he needed so he could go into broodlords.
At the 30 minute mark Symbol was on 3 bases and Hero was on 5 bases. They were both maxed and Symbol engaged with infestors and broodlords against a mothership supported army. Symbol got ahead in supply during the engagement, but in the end Symbol didnt have the economy to build up a new army. And Hero crushed him in the next engagement with good storms and a bigger army.
So Hero took the series and qualified for the round of 16 by showing play that just seemed more well prepared than that of Symbol.
Hero vs. Symbol = 2-0
The fourth series was a TvT between the losers of the first two games, Ryung and Yoda.
First game was a very long and classic macro TvT game on ohana. It was a back and forth game in which Yoda ended up with quite a lot of battlecruisers.
At the 40 minute game Yoda finally outlasted Ryung and Yoda thus took the first game.
The second game was on entombed valley a bit shorter but as it was still a TvT it still ended up being about 28 min. long. Ryung won it even though he was behind in most of the game. His fantastic comeback however was mainly due to very good engagements and efficient drops on Ryung's part.
The third and final game was on cloud kingdom, and it was another macro game but this time a mere 24 min. TvT game.
In this game Ryung went mech and Yoda went bio. And although Artosis as usual made fun through the entire game about all the bio supporters out there, it was the bio player that eventually won because of the infamous advantage in mobility that bio always provides in this matchup. So Yoda won the game and the series, once again proving that the SC2 players are still not so flawless in their play that mech beats bio every time. Which is essentially what Artosis and many others argue it eventually will since the bio player usually only comes out on top because he can effectively punish the mech player's mistakes.
Yoda vs. Ryung = 2-1
So the final series of the night ended up being the same as the first as Symbol had to battle Yoda again to see who could claim the final spot in the round of 16.
The first game was on cloud kingdom and Symbol did a 2 base roach, baneling cheese. Yoda had expanded, while going helion and building a third expansion in his main. And although he managed to get a few banshees out Symbol killed around 35 SCVs with the attack and Yoda had to GG thus providing a very quick win to Symbol in the first game.
The second game was on ohana. This turned out to be a pretty long and weird game. They both pretty much got the 3 base economy that they wanted without getting disturbed much except for some minor drops by Yoda. It was Symbol however that seemed to take control of the map and it looked like he was simply aware of everything. At some point Yoda went for a big push, and Symbol decided to counter push. Yoda's push did massive damage and he killed Symbols natural and a lot of important tech in his main. A the same time Symbol's counter push failed miserably mainly because he attacked into a lot of wellplaced defensive tanks. At this point Tastelesss declared the game to be over, but Symbol had another opinion on that matter. And since he was still fully saturated on his third and fourth he tried to fight back with all his might, and he did so with brilliant infestor play. And eventually he managed to overwhelm Yoda with perfect fungals, leaving Yoda's bioarmy as sitting ducks for Symbol's ultralisks.
So Symbol took the final series of the night and in the end it was the two favorites Hero and Symbol that took the two spots for a round of 16. This season's round of 16 is already looking to be absolutely insane and we can't wait for it.
Symbol vs. Yoda = 2-0
All in all an awesome day with many great and long games that ended up lasting something like 6 hours in total. A lot of work for poor old Tasteless and Artosis :)
Group B in Code S round of 32 was played today, and it was another sick group. It consisted of Symbol, Yoda, Ryung and Hero. Based on their current form Symbol and Hero were probably favorites (and also two of the Starcraft Stalkers absolute favorite players atm), but Yoda and especially Ryung can show some really scary terran skill and beat most players on a good day.
First series was Symbol vs. Yoda.
Symbol took the first game on Daybreak. It was a macro game in which Symbol got to choose the exact late unit combination that he wanted. And in the final engagement around the 25 minute mark Symbol's typical heavy Ultra focused army supported by a billion banelings crushed Yoda's forces.
In the beginning of the second game, which was on Ohana, Symbol once again looked in control, but Yoda did a small poke that did a lot more damage that he had expected. On top of that Yoda played great in general and showed some really good micro and marine splitting against Symbol's banelings. In the end Yoda even dropped manner mules as he won that game.
The third and deciding match was quite insane to watch. Most of the game Yoda was playing better in the sense that he was successfully attacking a lot of places at once, while symbol didn't show his usual flawless play at all. Like for instance not handling helion harass very good nor dealing properly with Yoda's drop play later on either. On top of them he had a number of burrowed banelings that Yoda's massive marine army kept walking over. But Symbol never noticed and thus missed the opportunity to gain a massive lead in an instant.
Yet in the end Symbol was just so good at handling his economy. He never spend any resources on things that might not be needed. Like too many spines or spores. And then when they finally had an engagement it was a massive ultralisk/infestor/baneling/zergling vs tank/marine fight at the 20 minute mark in which Symbol just engaged perfectly and crushed Yodas army.
And that was it, and symbol took the series, which was fair considering he generally looked like the better player, especially in all the big engagements.
Symbol vs. Yoda = 2-1
Second series was Ryung vs. Hero.
In the first game on antiga shipyard Hero showed some of the masterful sneaky strategy that he is so well known for. First of all he hid his second pylon in the beginning so that when Ryung scouted he noticed it missing and starting scouting everywhere on the map for proxy something. Instead Hero just expanded and then after a while he followed up with a fake two base all in with a few colossi. And although it wasn't actually an all in he still managed to do a lot of damage and deny Ryung's third and kill a lot of his SCVs. Meanwhile Hero took his third and then he pretty boldly decided just to stay on colossus tech even though Ryung had already seen them and had therefore started his viking production.
Hero however knew he was ahead and was thus confident he could stay ahead. So when he finally attacked he was at max supply and Ryung was only at 170/200. At the same time Hero had so many colossi that he just tore Ryung's bio army apart while killing his vikings with stalkers. So hero took the game.
The second game on Ohana was weird. Ryung took an early hidden third base that Hero never scouted. Hero pushed at Ryungs natural with speed zealots and storm, while taking his own third. Ryung managed to drop Heros third at the same time and deny it for a little while. However Heros push at Ryungs natural did massive damage mostly because Ryung didn't raise his supply depots in front of the natural. So Hero got in there with all his zealots and also landed great storms.
At this point Hero felt he was way in front because he thought Ryung had only been on two bases. So Hero did some pushes that were a bit too risky and threw some units away he thought he could afford to lose. But since Ryung had had a hidden base all the time where he had dropped all his mules he ended up overrunning Hero with too many stimmed biounits and some really good ghost play.
The third game was on cloud kingdom and very back and forth game. Most interesting thing was that Hero infested heavily on DTs throughout the entire game. And there was never a moment where he actually did significant damage with them. But he kept forcing Ryung to use scans instead of mules, and he kept putting DTs at expansions and delaying them. In the end what actually won Hero the game was some epic money storms on Ryung's vikings. Since Ryung didn't have two starports he couldn't reproduce vikings fast enough, And in the final engagement Heros collusi simply melted Ryung's army.
Hero vs. Ryung = 2-1
Third series was the winners Symbol and Hero facing of for the first spot in the round of 16.
First game was on Ohana. Hero did a FFE, while at the same time managing to cannon rush and kill Symbol's third base. That gave Hero a massive lead. The rest of the game was basically Symbol on the defense. Hero did a sentry drop in Symbols main that did a lot of damage and some other pretty successful pokes. For a while symbol held on but in the end Hero overpowered him.
The second game was on antiga shipyard. In this game Hero did a two base immortal/sentry push. Once again he tried to be sneaky and pretended to take a third base. Symbol however did scout it so he knew the attack was coming on his own third base. Symbol realised that he wouldnt be able to stop the sentries and immortals from killing his third so he decided to do a counter push with a huge number of zerglings. Hero on the other hand had prepared perfectly for this.
He had expected Symbol to do that and had placed 4 perfect cannons at his natural so Symbols zerglings could do nothing and they had to turn around.
So hero managed to kill Symbols third, and then he went home and expanded. A while later a similar situation happened again. Hero went for Symbols third, that he had rebuilt. Symbol decided to counter push on Heroes third, but this as well was perfectly defended. So hero took out Symbols third but Symbol couldn't take out Hero's. So Hero's economy was simply better.
Eventually Symbol secured his third with infestors and spinecrawlers. This mean symbol got the economy he needed so he could go into broodlords.
At the 30 minute mark Symbol was on 3 bases and Hero was on 5 bases. They were both maxed and Symbol engaged with infestors and broodlords against a mothership supported army. Symbol got ahead in supply during the engagement, but in the end Symbol didnt have the economy to build up a new army. And Hero crushed him in the next engagement with good storms and a bigger army.
So Hero took the series and qualified for the round of 16 by showing play that just seemed more well prepared than that of Symbol.
Hero vs. Symbol = 2-0
The fourth series was a TvT between the losers of the first two games, Ryung and Yoda.
First game was a very long and classic macro TvT game on ohana. It was a back and forth game in which Yoda ended up with quite a lot of battlecruisers.
At the 40 minute game Yoda finally outlasted Ryung and Yoda thus took the first game.
The second game was on entombed valley a bit shorter but as it was still a TvT it still ended up being about 28 min. long. Ryung won it even though he was behind in most of the game. His fantastic comeback however was mainly due to very good engagements and efficient drops on Ryung's part.
The third and final game was on cloud kingdom, and it was another macro game but this time a mere 24 min. TvT game.
In this game Ryung went mech and Yoda went bio. And although Artosis as usual made fun through the entire game about all the bio supporters out there, it was the bio player that eventually won because of the infamous advantage in mobility that bio always provides in this matchup. So Yoda won the game and the series, once again proving that the SC2 players are still not so flawless in their play that mech beats bio every time. Which is essentially what Artosis and many others argue it eventually will since the bio player usually only comes out on top because he can effectively punish the mech player's mistakes.
Yoda vs. Ryung = 2-1
So the final series of the night ended up being the same as the first as Symbol had to battle Yoda again to see who could claim the final spot in the round of 16.
The first game was on cloud kingdom and Symbol did a 2 base roach, baneling cheese. Yoda had expanded, while going helion and building a third expansion in his main. And although he managed to get a few banshees out Symbol killed around 35 SCVs with the attack and Yoda had to GG thus providing a very quick win to Symbol in the first game.
The second game was on ohana. This turned out to be a pretty long and weird game. They both pretty much got the 3 base economy that they wanted without getting disturbed much except for some minor drops by Yoda. It was Symbol however that seemed to take control of the map and it looked like he was simply aware of everything. At some point Yoda went for a big push, and Symbol decided to counter push. Yoda's push did massive damage and he killed Symbols natural and a lot of important tech in his main. A the same time Symbol's counter push failed miserably mainly because he attacked into a lot of wellplaced defensive tanks. At this point Tastelesss declared the game to be over, but Symbol had another opinion on that matter. And since he was still fully saturated on his third and fourth he tried to fight back with all his might, and he did so with brilliant infestor play. And eventually he managed to overwhelm Yoda with perfect fungals, leaving Yoda's bioarmy as sitting ducks for Symbol's ultralisks.
So Symbol took the final series of the night and in the end it was the two favorites Hero and Symbol that took the two spots for a round of 16. This season's round of 16 is already looking to be absolutely insane and we can't wait for it.
Symbol vs. Yoda = 2-0
All in all an awesome day with many great and long games that ended up lasting something like 6 hours in total. A lot of work for poor old Tasteless and Artosis :)
